Even through the acid burns across his face, Ginoza could recognize Kogami's look of complete and utter shock. The pipe fell from his hand and rolled across the floor, and Kogami's shoulders bowed inward as he began to shake.

Ginoza assumed that Kogami had been preparing himself to be on the receiving end of a Dominator, whether Lethal Enforcement Mode or simply Nonlethal Paralyzer. He was probably shocked because, against almost every rule in the employee handbook, Ginoza wasn't going to shoot him.

Ginoza was surprised, too. Kogami's crime coefficient spiking to above three hundred, even if only in the heat of the moment, wasn't something that Ginoza wanted to think about. And more to the point, it wasn't something that he could think about. Because he'd already told Kagari his Dominator was malfunctioning, something that he and Kogami (and probably Kagari) knew was a lie. And if he wanted to keep his story straight, he couldn't pull out his own Dominator until he was very, very sure Kogami's crime coefficient had dropped back to its previous levels.

Which was, of course, the only reason behind Ginoza's actions. It wasn't that Kogami looked horribly pathetic, blind and injured and trapped, and that Ginoza didn't want to shoot him with a Paralyzer on top of that. And it couldn't be that Kogami had followed protocol, almost to the letter, and Ginoza didn't want to punish him now for being scared. That would be deeply inappropriate for an Inspector and an Enforcer's relationship, so it couldn't possibly be what was happening.

"Thank you for putting the pipe down, Shinya," Ginoza said as calmingly as he knew how. He tried to ignore how painfully easy it was to slip back into calling Kogami by the name he'd known him by for years. "I'm going to come closer now, alright?"

Kogami didn't say anything. But he wasn't fumbling for the pipe or fighting for escape, so Ginoza figured that was about the best that he could ask for.

Ginoza approached slowly, mindful of both frightening Kogami worse and of the floor, which seemed to be slowly beginning to fail. He didn't want to be the thing that finally caused the plaster to give up for good.

As Ginoza got closer, he saw that Kogami's watch was broken. The face had been smashed in, little shards of glass spidering towards the edges of the band. That must be why Kogami hadn't answered Ginoza's call, and it was very possible it was why he hadn't tried to call for help in the first place.

Embarrassingly, it was only after he'd noticed the watch that Ginoza realized that the arm that it was sitting on was badly injured. Ginoza wasn't a doctor, and he was still at least ten feet away from Kogami, so he couldn't be sure exactly what was wrong with it. But it was so swollen the watch band was cutting into Kogami's skin, and already mottled with purple and red bruising. Ginoza thought there was a good chance that it was broken.

That did something to explain why Kogami seemed to be having a hard time responding. Between his arm, his leg, and the acid burns on his face, he was probably starting to go into shock. Ginoza really needed to get him out of there, and he really needed to do it fast.

Ginoza stumbled forward the last few steps to Kogami, and dropped to his knees. He immediately went for Kogami's thigh, hoping to free him from the wood and plaster. But apparently, Kogami hadn't realized how close Ginoza had gotten. As soon as Ginoza touched him, he was reeling backwards. His good arm went up to defend his face, and his right leg trembled as he tried to get enough leverage to free himself. Blood from the wound on his thigh was mixing with the plaster dust.

"Kogami, stop!" Ginoza said. He'd already damaged himself quite badly - he couldn't really afford to hurt himself any worse. "Kogami…Shinya…it's just me!"

Kogami didn't stop. He didn't even acknowledge that he'd heard Ginoza. He was hyperventilating now, and worse, he'd extended his broken arm too, like he somehow planned to try to defend himself with that. It was pitiful. But also somewhat panic-inducing - Kogami had gotten really pale, and Ginoza knew he needed medical attention as soon as he could get it.

Without really being sure why he did it, Ginoza grabbed Kogami's hand. Kogami almost managed to pull away, but he was too startled, and his reflexes were shot. Ginoza carefully placed Kogami's hand against the side of his face, so he could feel the wire rims of his glasses and the long strands of his bangs.

"Tch," Ginoza said. "Do you understand now? It's always just been me."

Kogami's trembling fingers skated across Ginoza's cheek, curling in his hair for a brief moment before feeling along the edge of his glasses. Ginoza stayed still, wondering why the hell he'd had this ridiculous idea and even more so, why it seemed to be helping Kogami.

Behind them, back the way he'd come, Kagari ever so slowly edged into Ginoza's line of vision. Even from here, Ginoza could make out the look of utter bewilderment on his face. He wished he could yell at him, but that would frighten Kogami, and then this whole mortifying experience would be made futile.

"G-Gino?"

His voice was quiet, so quiet Ginoza barely heard it, but it was definitely Kogami. Ginoza forgot all about Kagari watching in the background and turned back to his injured Enforcer.

"Yes, Shinya. It's me. No one else is here. Well, I suppose that's inaccurate. Kagari is here, but he isn't going to come any closer."

Kogami's hand left the side of Ginoza's face, with a trace of reluctance that Ginoza couldn't quite place. By now, Kogami was shaking badly, and the last of the color was leaving his face. Ginoza wasn't surprised - Kogami sometimes seemed to keep himself going on pure adrenaline alone. This wouldn't be the first time he saw Kogami crash suddenly when the last of it was drained, and his body realized that it had been pushed too far.

"I'm going to try to free your leg," Ginoza told him. "You went through the floor, and there are some pieces of wood cutting into it. Once I can break those off, we can get you out."

Kogami nodded, then swallowed and tried again. "Alright," he whispered.

"You'll have to stay still," Ginoza warned him, a bit apologetically. "I'm sure it will be painful, but if you move too much, we could both go through the floor."

"A-alright."

Ginoza reached down and began working on the smallest of the splinters first, hoping to avoid hurting Kogami too badly. Still, every time he touched the splinters, Kogami twitched away, jostling his now obviously broken arm and turning half a shade paler.

"Calm down," Ginoza ordered, before realizing that probably wasn't very useful in this situation. "I mean…I'm sorry. Why don't you start by telling me what happened?"

In ordinary situations, there was no faster way to get Kogami to recenter himself than by asking him for information. Ginoza hoped that this would still qualify as an ordinary situation, at least closely enough for Kogami to calm down.

Kogami cleared his throat, drawing his broken arm closer to his chest and protecting it with his uninjured one. "I…I was h-hunted. A man…."

Ginoza started on the splinters, and this time, Kogami didn't twitch nearly so badly. "Start at the beginning," Ginoza told him.

Kogami took a deep, shaky breath, and started talking. At first, there were lots of fits and starts, and Kogami was only half-intelligible in places as he struggled to talk through the pain, fear, and shock. But as he continued to describe being blinded, fighting the man Kagari and Ginoza had found for the pipe, trying to call for help, and falling through the floor, his voice started to get steadier and steadier. By the time Ginoza understood how Kogami had ended up trapped inside the floor, he sounded almost normal. He'd stopped flinching away every time Ginoza so much as brushed against him. And most importantly, Ginoza was pretty sure he'd managed to get Kogami's leg free. It was still bleeding pretty heavily - it had been badly scratched by the long splinters of particle board it had fallen through, and Ginoza wasn't sure he was even seeing the full extent of the damage yet. But Ginoza thought he could get him out, at least.

"Alright," Ginoza said. "Thank you…thank you for explaining all that to me."

"I'm not…in trouble?" Kogami asked, sounding almost delirious.

"No, you're not in trouble," Ginoza said distractedly. "Why would you be in trouble? You followed protocol. Now, do you feel anything else in your leg still? I think I've gotten everything. If you agree, I'm going to try to pull you out."

Kogami looked reflective for a second. Honestly, he was so badly hurt in so many places that Ginoza doubted he would be able to identify one more splinter or wound. But eventually, he nodded. "You're going to pull me up?"

"Yes. Sorry, I…this might be a bit of a painful process. There's not much I can do about your arm, and like I said, I'm trying to ensure we're not both sent through the floor…."

Kogami nodded again. Ginoza braced himself on a patch of plaster that looked a little less cracked than the rest. He bent down, and hooked his arms under Kogami's.

"Ready?" Ginoza asked.

"Yeah," Kogami breathed.

Ginoza started tugging. It was difficult work. Kogami was clearly trying to put as much of his weight as possible on his uninjured leg, but he was weak and shaky by this point, and it still wasn't much help. Kogami was a tiny bit shorter than Ginoza was, but he was also broader, and Ginoza knew he wouldn't have been strong enough to lift Kogami's weight entirely by himself.

But after a few pointless seconds of struggle, Kogami seemed to get his leg under him, trembling and all. Ginoza heaved upwards with all of his strength, and Kogami managed to stand upright, pulling his injured leg with him.

"Step forward," Ginoza panted, trying not to pay attention to Kogami's shredded, blood-soaked pant leg, or the torn skin beneath. He could look at that once he was sure Kogami wasn't going to fall through the floor.

Kogami felt for Ginoza's shoulder with his good hand, and Ginoza waited until he seemed to have a solid base. Then, Kogami took one small, shaky step forward before his knees buckled, and he crashed into Ginoza.

Ginoza didn't even have a hope of catching him, and he didn't try. Kogami would just bring Ginoza down with him, and the heavy impact so close to the original hole Kogami had made might well send them both through the floor. Instead, Ginoza tightened his hold underneath Kogami's arms and stepped back, exerting all his remaining strength to guide Kogami's fall.

Kogami choked, his face turning a sickly shade of grey as his good hand went to his broken arm, then to his injured leg. He'd ended up in a sort of half-sitting, half-kneeling position, his bad leg stuck awkwardly out in front of him, and as Ginoza watched he listed sideways over it.

"Are you alright?" Ginoza asked sharply, dropping back to his knees beside Kogami. He watched the enforcer carefully, hoping that he wasn't about to throw up. Ginoza wasn't at all squeamish where blood was concerned, and he could rip splinters out of Kogami's thigh just fine, but if he started throwing up, Ginoza would have to look away if he didn't want to join him. "You look-"

"'M…okay," Kogami sputtered, then bowed his head over his leg. Ginoza heard him struggling to inhale, taking short, choppy breaths instead of the deep ones he needed.

"Not like that," Ginoza told him, taking Kogami's good shoulder and pulling him back upright. He tilted Kogami's chin up, waiting for him to catch his breath, and sighed. Now that he was closer, and Kogami was free, it was impossible to miss the bruises mottling the sides of Kogami's face, or the swelling around his eyes. His leg was still bleeding, badly enough that Ginoza was sure stitches would be involved, and it seemed like he could hardly move the arm. Kogami had been gone hardly an hour, maybe two at the most, and in that time he'd managed to hurt himself so badly that he couldn't even stand.

"Look what you've done to yourself now," Ginoza muttered, hearing the worry in his own voice like a foreign thing. "I can't let you out of my sight for a moment, can I?"

He let go of Kogami, meaning to call Kagari over and hopefully begin the laborious process of guiding Kogami out of the building. But when Ginoza let go of Kogami, Kogami immediately made a small sound. He started looking around for Ginoza, not really in the right direction, and when he wasn't immediately able to locate him, he actually started trying to crawl forward, good arm extending slightly in front of him.

Ginoza immediately put a hand back on Kogami's shoulder. This was more comfort than Ginoza had given Kogami in…the past two years combined, probably. It felt strange, but Ginoza was also surprised by how familiar it felt. How frankly easy it felt.

"I'm right here," Ginoza said. "Stop trying to move so much."

Knowing where Ginoza was seemed to make Kogami feel calmer. As soon as he felt Ginoza's hand, he started to slide sideways again, head ducking to his chest. It occurred to Ginoza that even with Kagari's help, Ginoza wasn't sure they could maneuver Kogami down the stairs and out of the building. And at this point, Ginoza didn't even want to think about what a bad fall might do to him. It was probably better not to risk it.

"Kagari, come here," Ginoza said. "Help me get Kogami away from the unstable part of the floor."

Kagari nodded. Ginoza thought Kagari was still rather shocked about the whole situation - this was an oddly silent version of Kagari and Ginoza honestly wasn't sure how he felt about it. But he scrambled forward.

"Kagari's coming," Ginoza informed Kogami. Probably, Kogami had been able to hear him, but it was definitely better to be safe than sorry when Kogami was like this.

Kogami made a small humming sound, which Ginoza hoped indicated that he had heard.

Kagari got a hand under Kogami's arm, and helped haul Kogami through the doorway and into the other room, where the floor was finished and they wouldn't be at risk of falling through. As soon as that was done, Kogami crumpled sideways, panting for breath.

"Alright," Ginoza said. "We need to call for help. I'm going to look Enforcer Kogami over, and you need to call for backup. Tell them we need paramedics on the scene as soon as possible."

"Yeah," Kagari said, still sounding shell-shocked. "Sure thing, boss."

He moved to the corner of the room, where he could call the PSB without Kogami hearing every word he said. As he was doing that, Ginoza kept a hand on Kogami's shoulder, determined to keep him calm until help arrived.

"Just a little longer," he told Kogami, who looked up at him with sightless eyes. "You're almost home."

Kogami shifted in bed, annoyed at the heavy cast encasing his arm all the way above the elbow. He couldn't really move it, and now that his leg was bandaged from his calf all the way up his thigh, he couldn't really move that either. He knew he was out of the building, safe in the hospital, but he still felt trapped.

Worst of all, he still couldn't see. The doctor that had set his arm didn't seem to know much about eyes, and she'd mostly washed out the acid burns and bandaged them. Now, Kogami wasn't sure if he couldn't see because his eyes were bandaged shut, or if they were permanently damaged, and he wouldn't know that until they got a specialist in to look at him.

He was trying not to think about that too much. If he was blind, really blind, there was no way they'd let him keep being an Enforcer. He would end up back in the rehabilitation facility, forever this time. He wouldn't even be able to read.

Once again, Kogami's thoughts skated carefully away from that possibility. Even for someone like him, who spent most of his time thinking of worst case scenarios, that was too much to imagine.

In a depressing sort of way, it helped that he was starving. Kogami hadn't eaten since before he'd left with Ginoza and Kagari, however long that had been. His watch had been broken in the fight, so he couldn't even use the voice feature to determine the time. He couldn't really do anything, except lie still and think about how bored, hungry, and scared he was. "Bored" and "scared" had been winning for a while, but now his stomach was growling every few minutes, and Kogami was wondering if he should just start shouting for a doctor.

He was getting close to it when he heard the door open, and turned his head towards where he thought the sound was coming from.

"Doctor-?"

"It's me," Ginoza's voice replied. "Ginoza, I mean."

Kogami felt the corner of his mouth twitch into a smile. "I know, Gino." Even if he hadn't recognized Ginoza's voice, there was only one person who would announce himself simply as "me."

"How are you doing?" Ginoza asked, trying to sound professional and mostly failing.

"I can't see, Gino. So not great." Kogami could hear that he was doing just as bad a job as Ginoza at schooling his voice. He still sounded scared.

"Well, I have good news. I have called every ocular specialist currently operating out of Tokyo, and I've finally found one with some semblance of work ethic. She'll be coming in to see you. She probably won't be here for…maybe another hour or two, so I apologize for that. But I thought it would be better than waiting…."

This was truly the best news that Kogami had received all day. The PSB didn't employ any doctors who specialized in the delicate systems of the eye, so Kogami had had truly no idea when someone would finally be able to examine him. An hour or two was a while to wait to find out if he was blind, but at least he knew someone was coming, and at least he more or less knew when.

"Thanks, Gino," Ko said hoarsely. He hadn't had to talk this much since they'd brought him in. Even though he'd barely said two sentences, his throat was already starting to hurt - he was pretty sure some acid had splashed back there.

"I've also brought you something to eat. It's a rice bowl. I didn't know what medications you would be on, and I thought it would be easy on your stomach. Also, I know you like them."

Something in the center of Kogami's chest twitched with an emotion that he didn't know how to put a name to. He swallowed hard. "Thank you," he said. He knew he still sounded kind of weak, so he hoped that Ginoza could tell he was being very sincere.

"There's a table with a tray here," Ginoza said. "I'm wheeling it over to you. Move your arm. Your right arm, I mean. Alright, it's in place now."

There was the small click of a plastic bowl being set down on a plastic tray. Kogami used the sound to orient himself. He was able to find first the tray, then the bowl. He nearly put his hand directly into his dinner.

"How am I supposed to…?"

"Chopsticks. Here."

A pair of the cheap wooden chopsticks you could get at the dining hall were pressed into Kogami's hand. They were stuck together at the end. Kogami spent a second trying to figure out what to do, and then started trying to pry them apart one-handed. It didn't go particularly well - he couldn't get enough leverage.

"Give those back to me," Ginoza said, sounding displeased. The chopsticks were removed from Kogami's grip, and there was the faint sound of wood snapping. Kogami kept his hand still until they were pressed back into his grasp, and he fumbled them into place.

It was harder than he'd expected without being able to see, and he ended up tapping them into position on the table, at least to make sure he was holding them at about the same place. That was all well and good, but when he went for the bowl, he'd somehow gotten turned around and he couldn't find it. His left arm was useless, and if he wanted to feel around for it he'd have to put down the chopsticks, and the whole thing was so frustrating that Kogami could feel his hand starting to shake.

He made one last mortifying attempt to find the bowl, and this time there was an almost inaudible sliding sound as it appeared magically in front of him, just where his chopsticks had been a few seconds before. Ginoza didn't say anything, but Kogami could feel him watching.

Kogami stabbed his chopsticks towards the bowl and got what he hoped was a chunk of rice and meat, although by the time he got it to his mouth, it turned out to be a chunk of thin air instead. Chopsticks and a rice bowl, it seemed, was not the best combination for a one-handed blind man. The second attempt went about the same as the first, except this time Kogami could feel the rice and (meat? tofu?) fall onto his lap.

If he wasn't so hungry, Kogami would have given up already. He could feel the heat rising in his cheeks, and with his skin as damaged as it was, a blush was probably even more obvious than usual. But he was starving, and he didn't have another way to acquire food, and even one mouthful would be better than none. Grimly, he readjusted the chopsticks and went to try again.

He was stopped by a hand on his wrist, and then the sound of Ginoza muttering unhappily to himself.

"Perhaps chopsticks were a mistake," Ginoza admitted. "I'm…sorry. I wasn't thinking. Would it help if I held the bowl?"

Kogami paused for a second, but hunger won out over pride and he gave a small nod in what he hoped was Ginoza's direction. There was a small click as the bowl left the tray, and then Ginoza's hand was guiding Kogami's towards the food.

"Thanks," Kogami mumbled. He sounded awkward, even to himself, but hopefully it was partially hidden by how quiet he still was. Before Ginoza could answer, Kogami finally managed his first bite, relieved both to be eating and not to have to talk anymore.

Ginoza didn't say anything, but Kogami had learned to recognize the half-annoyed, half-embarrassed sound he'd made years ago, when no thanks was necessary and he didn't want to discuss the matter any further.

Kogami ate the rest of the rice bowl in silence, as quickly as he could manage. He was pretty sure he was only getting about half the rice into his mouth, and dropping the rest directly onto his lap. He wondered if this was what his life would be like if it turned out his vision really was never coming back. And then he tried not to think about that too hard.

His eyes would be fine. Probably. He hoped.

Ginoza never would have admitted it, but it turned out that Kogami did quite a lot of work around the office. Ginoza didn't think he'd ever been gone this long - Kogami didn't seem to like work very much, but he hated being cooped up in the hospital even more, so even after his most serious and gruesome injuries, he usually wasn't out of work for more than a couple of days. After that, he would be begging for Ginoza to bring him a case to work on in his hospital bed, if not outright just dragging himself back to the office.

That was all different when he was blind, of course. The specialist had finally come to look at Kogami in the early hours of the morning, and she had determined that, while his eyes were swollen, irritated, and abraded, there shouldn't be any permanent damage. But she had also confirmed that even though Kogami's vision would fully come back in time, there wasn't much she could do to speed up the process. She'd given him some medicated eye drops to help with the pain, and that was pretty much that.

That had been a week ago. He'd spent the first few days mostly sleeping, waiting for his arm and leg to heal up well enough that he could get around some. He'd spent the past few days bothering Ginoza to start working on cases again, but Ginoza, who didn't have time to describe grainy images and read crime scene details aloud, had made him take a few more days off. Ginoza did feel bad - he knew that Kogami couldn't even read, and must be excruciatingly bored. But Ginoza couldn't fix his eyes - in this case, there was truly nothing that he could do.

But finally, the day before yesterday, the swelling around Kogami's eyes had gone down, and his vision had started to come back. It was still, by Kogami's own admission, pretty dim and blurry. He had to hold himself inches from a computer screen in order to actually read anything, and it was too painful for him to look at small details for more than about ten minutes or so. But he had been released from the hospital, and so yesterday, Ginoza had allowed him to come back to work.

He hadn't been able to do much, of course, and Ginoza hadn't assigned him a new case yet. But apparently, Kogami was so bored that he was willing to dictate portions of his old, abandoned paperwork that had been piling up for months, at least, but very possibly years. Ginoza did not want to question this too closely, for fear of it stopping, so he decided to leave Kogami to his own devices. At least until the paperwork was completed, or until he could see again. Whichever came first.

And if Ginoza was being honest, he was…a little hesitant to engage with Kogami too much, at least for the time being. He didn't know how much Kogami remembered about the case, and how much was lost due to panic and shock. It was possible that Kogami hadn't really registered anything when Kagari drew his Dominator, and he didn't know how close he'd come to death. It was also possible that he definitely remembered, which was an option that Ginoza was much less enthused by.

He couldn't check, of course, because Kogami hadn't been able to submit a report yet. Ordinarily, after a week's time had elapsed without paperwork being properly filed, Ginoza would have been beginning to work himself into a frenzy. As it was, when he wasn't even sure what information Kogami's report would contain, he'd entered a frenzy about three days prior and was expecting it to continue until the case was finally, finally over.

Ginoza's report was obviously already complete, and had been as soon as Kogami had been seen by the specialist. Ginoza had decided that it was…inadvisable…to include the incident of the "malfunctioning" Dominator, largely because he would then have to submit a maintenance request for a weapon that he very much doubted was still "malfunctioning."

It was, however, bad form to include too much detail in one's report. Chief Kasei was a busy woman, and Ginoza hardly wanted to waste her time with unimportant trivia regarding a very firmly closed case. Hopefully, Kogami would be thinking along the same lines.

Ginoza sighed, wishing for what had to be an infinite amount of times that Kogami was slightly more predictable. It would be in his own best interest to leave out the Dominator incident entirely, but Ginoza was never sure if that was sufficient motivation for Kogami, these days. Still, maybe he wouldn't remember at all, or maybe-

Ginoza cut himself off with a jerk. He was thinking in circles, and deepening his own anxiety wasn't going to help anyone.

His watch chimed, informing him that he'd received a file from Kagari.

"I finished," Kagari said from his desk, eying Ginoza worriedly. "Um, I think."

Kagari had attempted to submit his report no less than three times, and Ginoza had been forced to remind Kagari of the same conclusion he'd reached. After a few increasingly blatant hints, Kagari had duly removed any mention of a Dominator, and after that, his issues had mainly been grammatical in nature.

"Thank you," Ginoza said. Honestly, at this point, Ginoza didn't intend to go over the report with Kagari any further - if there were any small errors that still needed to be corrected, Ginoza planned to do it himself.

"Is he talking about the incident report?" Kogami asked. He swiveled around in his chair and stared in a direction that was vaguely close to Ginoza.

"Yes," Ginoza said cautiously.

"About the…?"

"The incident at the construction site, yes." Ginoza hesitated. His sympathy for Kogami's current state warred with his desire to turn in prompt paperwork. "You don't need to worry about having your report done. I know it's been…a trying week for you. If you would like me to assist you with it, I believe I have some time this afternoon, and if you'd like to dictate to me I would be happy to type it up for you. I wouldn't want your paperwork to suffer because the incident wasn't…fresh."

Privately, Ginoza wondered how many edits he could get away with making to Kogami's report. It would be more work for him, of course, and it also went against everything he believed in regarding the integrity of paperwork. But it was better than making Kogami suffer through multiple rounds of edits while he was blind, and it was certainly better than getting all three of them in hot water over the trouble with the Dominator.

"Actually, it's already done."

"If I need to delay my final report, that would be…." Ginoza paused. "It's…what?"

"It was the first thing I finished. I wanted to look it over again today, when I could…see a little better, but it's done. I can send it to you now." Kogami paused. "I didn't think you'd be able to relax until I'd submitted it, and I…felt…just…I wanted to make this easier on you."

From someone else, Ginoza probably wouldn't have been able to read between the lines to understand the explicit thanks in the gesture. But Ginoza knew Kogami…if not well, then better than anyone else knew Kogami, certainly. In that instant, Ginoza was sure that Kogami remembered the Dominator malfunction, and the timely report was his way of trying to thank Ginoza for what had happened.

"Well, I appreciate it, Kogami." Kogami just nodded, and Ginoza heard his watch chime again with the sound of another incoming email.

"Please look it over and let me know if it's not…consistent with yours," Kogami said.

"I understand," Ginoza said.

"I can do a second draft if I need to."

Ginoza's eyebrows raised as he tapped the report and began looking it over. He didn't think he'd ever heard Kogami offer to do a second draft of anything he'd ever submitted once in his entire life. Perhaps Ginoza should do Kogami favors more often, if this was the thanks he received.

But the report was flawless anyways - it was as if Kogami had read Ginoza's mind in regard to what details to highlight and exclude. Even at a quick glance, Ginoza could tell that Kogami wouldn't need to complete a second draft. "This won't need to be edited," Ginoza said.

"Awww, come on," Kagari complained. "Is Ko getting special treatment because he's blind? How come I had to submit mine so many times?"

"Kogami is getting special treatment because he knows how to spell," Ginoza said firmly. "Stop complaining."

"Thanks, Gino," Kogami said. There was more emotion in Kogami's voice than Ginoza had heard from him in a long time, and once again, he was sure that this wasn't just related to paperwork.

"Don't mention it," Ginoza said. Privately, he thought to himself that he would probably do everything he'd done exactly the same if it came down to it. But he didn't mention that to Kogami.

Hopefully, Kogami knew.