Author's Note: The series PSYCHO PASS, and this fanfic about the series, features some touchy/gritty subjects and questions/depicts the justice spectrum of human actions, how justice is relayed, etc. This fic talks about the psychology of death penalty, sympathy for criminals, cruel police actions, child crimes, etc.
Also, while stories for Fan Trilogy are usually planned to be single chapter, OoBP will have two parts.
Oracle of Bloody Prosecution
"The law doesn't protect people. People protect the law."
「法が人を守るんじゃない。人が法を守るんです」
"Kogoro Hashimura (橋村 小五郎) has been turned to shit," Division 1 Enforcer Mitsuru Sasayama said in a jovial manner, his feet crossed atop his work desk as he stretched back against his chair. All he needed was a drink. "Human rights have been protected, right buddy?" He smiled. Behind him were two Inspectors: his best friend and a green recruit, male and female respectfully.
"Do you think what we did was right, Mr. Kougami?" asked the new Inspector, a nice-looking young girl who looked ripe after college. "I mean-"
Sasayama interjected with tongue-in-cheek. "Lady, you'll bite it early if you think too soft. Seriously Kou, how come you get to pick this cutie up?"
In a country where a civil procedural system was an anachronistic concept, where your life, your fate, and your unfitness to perceive what you might do next, all was determined by a computer like system. In a worst case scenario, you'd get whacked before someone died. Even so, an inexperienced Inspector was asking the question of what's right and wrong.
The case ended suspiciously: The woman Shizuka Hashimura (橋村 静香) was guarding her husband, the now deceased Kogoro, in a panic to prevent the bureau from shooting him all due to a domestic dispute. But, her color dulled during the panic and she was sent to the institution for "forced therapy".
"It almost sounds like we're back before the modern age," said Akane Tsunemori, the new Inspector of the 1st Division.
"A naïve way of seeing it." The other Inspector was also a young man, but his dark eyes and hair made him look like he had a thick conscious and a no-nonsense sense of duty. When he spoke, he had a quiet, alluring tone that made any words bare importance.
The girl looked at him. "Mr. Kougami?"Akane's first impression on 1st Division Inspector Shinya Kougami was plain and simple: maturity and respect. She wondered if Kougami had been a First Responder at one point in his professional career, because he was mostly calm under pressure and knew how to address stress – in both ways.
"Few years ago, Kogoro's ex-girlfriend, Miyu Yoshida (吉田 美侑), age twenty four, was found strangled to death in her bedroom closet," Kougami explained. "He stated that he went out on the night of the murder. When he was questioned, he claimed 'harassment of significant other' as a crime. He didn't kill her, but while questioned, his Psycho Pass increased when explaining their relationship."
A hit? That was Tsunemori's first thought, realizing that Kougami was familiar with Kogoro, and there might've been a connection with today's case. No, what happened in the past might've influenced what happened today, resulting in Kogoro's death.
Kougami continued. "Despite Kogoro's possibly turbulent previous relationship, his wife said that 'he changed' when they met. Still, that doesn't hold back anger tendencies, and Mrs. Hashimura and her child were attacked."
"What can be done about it?" Akane asked, feeling sorrow well up inside.
"About anger? A previous relationship? Yeah, what can be done? Some reciprocal faith? Just like his wife had. Akane, you can't let these things get to you," said Kougami.
But it did. Akane remembered the girl Shizuka Hashimura and her pleading eyes, begging for mercy as she saw the muzzles of the Dominators being pointed at her like a rabid animal.
"Oh God! God, please don't! Stop!" She remembered. She also remembered Kougami's cutting words: "The sight of an Enforcer can raise a person's Psycho Pass." When he said that, she felt like an enemy. The idea was further augmented by her black suit; the bureau members looked no less different than life reapers attending a funeral.
Sitting next to her counter, Akane deliberated that fateful night. Mrs. Hashimura did not have the martyring spirit of a murderer or ran away from the law. She stood, and had the face of someone who wanted understanding. However, her panic deepened her hue color, and the oracle goddess known as Sybil had the reigns. On the other hand, the schematics of a "psychopath", one of high Psycho pass, usually inferred Conversion Disorder or Intermittent Explosive Disorder. She began to wonder if Mr. Kogoro Hashimura were on his knees, would he had survived?
She asked both Kougami and Sasayama if they would have shown mercy.
"What the hell for?!" retorted Sasayama, giving Akane a look of disbelief. "That rabid mother is dead. Therefore, the case is closed. He was of adult age, he had an abusive history, and didn't fix his shit."
What bothered Akane's mind today was fairness; she had both a strength and weakness from her tenderness. She said "it was like before modern days". Long before Sybil was created, way back when World War II met its exit, the jury trial was abolished as it was deemed unsubstantial when it came to sensitive cases. The law, through further reform, ended up within the comforts of secrecy; it was due to that lack of interest in citizen participation. "We cannot sway a sentencing," some people would say. Not to mention it was exhaustive to those who were inexperienced and lacked competent endowment.
Why stay with Kogoro? Why protect him? Those questions entered Akane Tsunemori's mind.
"This above all - to thine own self be true. And it must follow, as the night the day. Thou canst not then be false to any man." Kougami's voice flowed smoothly through a recital. Tsunemori and Sasayama looked at him, and in the male Inspector's hand was a hardcover book.
"Kou, the hell? You're reading Othello again?" Sasayama asked, lifting an eyebrow.
"It's Macbeth." Kougami gave his friend a quick glance before looking back into the book's pages. "While thinking about the disingenuous Counselor Polonius and his noble son Laertes, I was just thinking about the wife. In a nutshell, Laertes, before leaving for Paris, was advised to remain true and avoid reckless thoughts. Just like father and son. That way, he'll become a fine counsel to others. However, while that's sweet as honey and all, preaching purity may act as a barrier. Shakesphere had a tragic soul inside his pen."
"A barrier?" Despite being with Division 1 for a short time, Tsunemori was easily engaged by Kougami when he spoke – in the way of an analyst while working on a case. Rather, it did not feel that it was over, even after Kogoro Hashimura was executed as a criminal and after the streets cleaned up after his blood. The gears were still grinding, and the beast within still didn't rest.
"I'm rambling again. According to her data, Miss Hashimura was an aspiring psychotherapist." Kougami closed the book and looked at his peers. "They had a close relationship. Maybe this situation fits 'The Gentlemen of Verona' better. 'I doeth forgive' if I recall?"
"Hey Kou, I don't think Shakesphere is going to help you crack this," frowned Sasayama. Akane was a bit confused at first, being more of a Science techie, and she couldn't connect this case with theatrical poetry.
"His data stated that Kogoro suffered from BDP," said Kougami, putting down his book. "Borderline Personality Disorder."
"Maybe it's that Stockholm shit in her case," Sasayama referred to the wife.
"A popular subject in Psychology."
"Mr. Sasayama, Mr. Kougami!" Tsunemori felt both an aura of resent and coldness from her two seniors. Then, it completely hit the Inspector that this was not a new case to them.
"It's said that Stockholm is a defense mechanism for both victim and offender. In other words, it is control," Kougami explained. He leaned back in his chair. "The former often protects the latter. However, this would make Kogoro Hashimura look very cruel in image. With that, it's simple to imagine his wife being a part of an indirect murder."
Tsunemori's radical idea of a 'hit' seemed correct, and she became intrigued, devoting all her hearing to Kougami while he spoke. Still, she still had her concerns.
"Hey Miss Tsunemori, what can we do? There's no point in encumbering prison," Sasayama looked at the new Inspector. Listening to her talk, and watching her expressions, her eyes wavering, he noticed that she was troubled in some way. "Why keep someone alive if, say, were a given life sentence? No different. If you're willing to kill intentionally, you'd do it again."
"Mr. Sasayama, did you think killing him so brutally was worth it?" Tsunemori asked. Then, her heart felt chilled. Boring down on her was Sasayama's gleam, sharp and violent like a cold-blooded killer targeting his next victim.
"Of course!" he replied, his voice boiling under a low rasp. "I'm glad I pulled the trigger on that motherfucker. What loving father would dare harm his child?" Suddenly, Sasayama looked back, seeing Kougami touch his shoulder. Kou looked back with his cold eyes, and the Enforcer sighed to calm himself.
"Looks like you don't want to feel the burden of killing another unless it was right," said Kougami, looking at Akane. "You should feel what's right. That is justice. It doesn't make you evil." Now Kougami sensed that his junior was bothered. Akane felt her heart back again. The feeling of tearing up faded. Breaking the tense atmosphere was a sudden beeping sound. Both Tsunemori and Kougami raised their arms, looking down at their wrist watches. Displayed on the watches' faces was a word in bold yellow: "ASSESSOR."
"What?" It was expected for Tsunemori to be surprised. She had only known for the watch, outside of telling her the time, to relay that she was on call.
"I see," Kougami looked at his junior. "Akane, do you want to check out Sybil in Magistrate Hall mode?"
"Magistrate Hall mode?" Akane sounded genuinely confused. Wasn't Sybil a true judge?
Kougami nodded his head. "It's where Sybil, deliberating for four hours, analyzes the evidence from the crime, the suspect, the data, a fair trial. With a jury absent, it should be a cinch. There is no threat of imprisonment or harassment, mistake in divulging secrets or jeopardizing a trial. It's as swift as our deployments. It's been decided that Shizuka Hashimura will be put in the hot seat. There is also a lie detector screening."
"I've never heard of that before." Even so, Akane felt a bit nervous, especially with a term "hot seat".
"There's a reason why," said Kougami. "It's because the results of acquittal is 10%."
"Huh?!"
While standing inside an elevator, moving floors below the MWPSB HQ, Tsunemori remembered a proposal thesis that she made, spending nights thinking about "being in law", and her interest in the new Sybil System. She wondered of the significance. Inside her mind, she wondered if there was truly utopia. Could evil kill itself? She remembered stating in said thesis that there "should be a fair trial". As Kougami said, it was "a naïve way of seeing it". Was fairness also calculated with mortality?
She also remembered a couple past trials. Her first case as an Inspector was a high-speed police chase. A motorcycle gang rebelling against the new system as revenge for arresting one of their guys, who went on a drunk tirade in front of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. The gang fought back the police; a few riders were killed, while the rest surrendered. Afterward, she read different cases of pre-Sybil.
Cannibalism against Prisoners of War of World War II, particularly by the Japanese and how they were prosecuted for murder; children, typically said to be nihilistic pariahs ready to prepare for a mass shooting after killing their parents, being tried as adults. Children even mutilating other children as "fun". At one time, Akane shared with Kougami about cannibals.
"The vampire and zombie fetish," he said dryly. "The German Butcher made that famous. Also, there were cases in the United States."
To which, Sasayama laughed. "That's probably at the top of crazy. If someone eats Akane, I'll kill them." He gave the newbie Inspector a confident smirk. She smiled back, wryly. There were too many details, and Akane wondered if she indeed was thinking too much on it. Maybe she feared being condemned by the public or she worried that her heart would ache.
Moments after, Shinya Kougami, Mitsuru Sasayama, and Akane Tsunemori stepped off the elevator leading into the Public Safety Bureau underground, they entered and sat inside an unidentified room. Before them was a microphone, a computer with Shizuka's current status and information, and a glass pane looking through a round, enclosed space about fifteen meters in diameter. Its steel infrastructure made it look cold and hollow. The only thing that stuck out was a chair, where Shizuka Hashimura sat in and Sybil. Sybil was a pillar fitted with a gigantic pivoting red eye. Underneath that eye was an electronic transmitter display with a needle. The room boomed with a loud, intermittent air conditioner like she was breathing. Amidst this hallow steel room, Hashimura felt that death would slowly creep onto her if she dare moved. Connected to her hands were touchpads, and all over her body, head to foot, were EDA adhesive pads. An array of black wires spread across the floor were attached to said pads.
"Kogoro Hashimura was drunk?" asked Tsunemori.
"Yeah," Kougami replied. "The wife said that he gets violent when he drinks too much."
"Mm." Akane felt tension. Aside from criminals, even Sybil knew how to assess potential members of the Bureau through exam grades. The Magistrate method didn't seem out of the ordinary or so she thought. It was magnificent, but it made her heart pound. Technology had excelled, but Akane felt a cold murderous atmosphere as she peered into the room. Shizuka still looked like a prisoner. Akane could not see it, but the arraigned woman was trembling.
"By the way Akane, not sure if you have noticed. The 'court room' where the Lay happens is fitted with steel floors and slotted drains."
"Why?" Akane continued to look into the room. She also noticed that Shizuka wasn't handcuffed.
"Aside from building life, the steel helps with the bouncing of sound, such as a person's voice and the AC. It prevents escape. There's also the psychological effect of feeling discomfort and alone. Also..."
"Also..."
"Also, when the Lay reaches a guilty sentence, the floor is stained red with blood. Thus, the slotted drains. Decomposition specialists come to clean it up later." Akane felt her heart quiver, and the image of a floor, blotched with blood from various criminals, flashed through her mind. She had watched the Dominator in action, and it was indiscriminately gory. No different than seeing the fallen bodies after any American massacre. Akane brought up the motorcycle gang incident with Sasayama, who was with her at the time.
"Doesn't bother me," replied the Enforcer. From that, she also remembered Sasayama's blatant comment about said incident:
"Stupid ass was showing off speeding without a helmet, and killed himself while falling off. Talk about karma."
The Magistrate Mode began. "Suspect Shizuka Hashimura. Welcome."
Akane heard the frigid robotic voice of Sybil, the same as the Dominator's. Then, she recalled Kougami's words through her mind: "The results of acquittal is 10%."
The new Inspector was now terrified. Hours in, Sybil was accounting data from the case when Kogoro was killed, and when Kogoro's girlfriend was killed. Surveillance footage, hue scanner checks, reports from questioning, witnesses, and words from both family and friends, historical records, etc. Was it difficult to not go to sleep? Even Akane was nodding off, a few times slapping herself awake to check on Shizuka. With such a long-drawn-out process, a scale weighed on whether one lived or died in order to dig up the truth.
In the last hour, Kougami uttered in a whisper. "The arm is tilting far to the left."
Akane's heart jumped, and she shot up from her seat. She looked up at the transmitter; the needle was gradually moving towards one end, the far left. On each side there was as a single Kanji: On the left was zai (罪) and the right was baku (白). Zai meant "sin". The 10% was too low after all.
"Wait, is this really going to happen?" Akane watched the woman shaking her head frantically while being pinned in her chair. Stretching from Sybil's eye was a red beam, across the Lay room to Shizuka's forehead. She looked at the computer and data appeared on the screen. It said that Mrs. Hashimura was suspected of Aiding and Abetting. Also, Shizuka's Psycho Pass was starting to increase.
You must be joking!
"Mister Kougami!" Akane's concern climbed out from the shadows as she showed her panic.
The arraigned "prisoner" began to plead loudly. "Please no! Spare me! WHY?!"
10% was too unfair for a wife.