A burst of gunfire rumbled through the building as they ran down the stairs. The group had been cornered by Division 3 and was firing semi-automatic pistols at them. They were trapped at the entrance of the building, taking cover with the reception desk. Yashiro tried to aim her dominator at one of the men, but another began firing in her direction to force her to take cover with the hallway wall. The bullet passed very close to her arm and shook her.
All of a sudden, the man who was with her started running towards the other enforcers. Yashiro mouthed something, but the group focused on him and as soon as one of them separated a little, another enforcer managed to eliminate him from the other hallway. The hostage screamed, looking at her dead captor beside her. The others had forgotten they had a hostage, as they were too busy and moving so fast, they did not seem to think about what they were doing.
Finally, the woman managed to escape bathed in blood, at first staggering and falling to the white floor. She ran into the hallway where Yashiro was, as she had not seen her yet. Yashiro waited a few seconds behind the wall, then grabbed the hostage's forearm and pulled in her direction, shielding her from the next shots that focused on her. She caught a glimpse of Aoyanagi's black hair in the other hallway pulling the trigger. With the hostage gone, both inspectors and enforcers began to use their dominators and started firing at the rest of the group.
The woman broke free from her grip and fell backwards to the floor, staining it with the blood from her hands. Yashiro pulled the dominator away, reaching a hand forward. There was a warm expression on her face, indifferent to the death around her, which did not stop the woman from shuddering and crawling away. Her black and white striped shirt was stained with blood, and her blue pants were a little worn at the knees. Yashiro could tell she was in her thirties.
"Get off me!" she cried with a flinch. "I need to get upstairs, my son is alone, my son…"
"Your son is safe. You are safe. Everything is going to be okay," Yashiro assured, raising her voice without reaching a shout, so that she would not hear the screams. "Tell me, what is his name?"
"His name… his name… his name is Yuichiro," she stammered, but her voice cleared.
The woman was in shock. She was no longer screaming, but she was still shaking from head to toe and her eyes were staring nowhere, wide open. Her breathing was fast, but Yashiro's presence seemed to take her away from that place.
"Yuichiro. What room are you staying in? I will get you there," Yashiro kept talking.
"Inspector… have you checked her hue?" a male, rough voice echoed behind them.
Yashiro instantly stood up and turned around. Akiyama Katashi, the enforcer who had run as a diversion, was pointing his dominator at the woman who did not even notice his presence. Her eyes were fixed on the floor. Yashiro took a quick step towards him, and pushed him away by placing her hand on his chest.
"What the fuck," he mumbled and sent her a glare.
When she came within sight of the dominator, the muzzle closed and a safety device was activated to prevent him from pulling the trigger.
"That's enough," Yashiro sentenced in a slightly deeper voice.
"Drop it," a louder, clearer voice caught both of their attention.
Aoyanagi Risa squinted at the enforcer, causing him to lower his gun. Katashi took a step back, about to walk away, but not without turning back to Yashiro with his raging dark brown eyes.
"Want to play hero? Fine," he pursed his lips. "But stay away from me."
Aoyanagi looked at her, then raised her dominator towards the woman on the floor. The muzzle opened, revealing a complicated mechanism within, part of which was used to read the suspect's criminality, and switched to Non-Lethal Paralyzer mode. When she pulled the trigger, the woman fell backwards and was knocked unconscious. Yashiro did not even turn around, as if she expected the dominator to choose that mode. She kept watching the enforcer walk away. Aoyanagi turned on her scanner and aimed at her. Her crime coefficient was 38.
"Inspector Takahashi," she stated in a cool measured voice, her brown eyes still narrowed at the number. "What part did you not understand… that we were on our way?"
Only then did Yashiro turn to her, and blinked as though realizing who the speaker was. Her heart beat normally again and she frowned, touching one cheek. Looking at her finger, she saw a drop of blood that was not her own. Yashiro then remembered the man she had shot, but it was a fleeting thought, like a memory from years ago. Her eyes remained strangely narrowed as if she were falling asleep on her feet.
"There was a hostage, and…"
"You were outnumbered," Aoyanagi blurted out, putting a hand on her hip. "You just had to wait for us. What were you thinking going on your own against these people?"
Yashiro sighed and replied in a quieter voice, "It was either wait to be cornered or try to survive in the corridors, keeping an eye on the hostage and the group…"
"You could have gotten yourself killed," Aoyanagi cut her short. "This is not the way an inspector should behave. Cases are solved by teamwork. This isn't… a game. It's our job. Enforcers are the ones meant to put their lives on the line."
"Aren't you a bit hard on her?" a softer male voice made her turn around.
Kozuki Ryogo stood with folded arms, his blue eyes focused on her. He had a warm, visible smile on his face and his dark short hair was quite tousled. As an enforcer, he wore a black suit, white dress shirt and black tie.
"No, I understand," Yashiro spoke in a louder, clearer voice. "I take full responsibility."
Finally, Aoyanagi sighed and closed her eyes for a moment.
"This case was hard for everyone. I am amazed that your hue did not worsen, after all you have been through. But you should be more careful, and think before you act… because you put your life at risk in vain. You already knew that the other division had arrived and would stop them. Therefore, the only thing you had to do was to wait, and make sure Enforcer Akiyama Daiki did not wake up and try to escape."
"Akiyama… Daiki," Yashiro replied in a mumble.
She frowned for a second, looking Aoyanagi in the eye, then at the enforcers gathered around the bodies. They realized she had completely forgotten about the man she had left behind.
"He is lucky we made it in time," Aoyanagi furrowed her eyebrows. "He is being taken to the nearest hospital in the area. I look forward to a full report from you, Inspector Takahashi."
Kozuki looked at both of them, until he coughed and commented, "Okay, the case was solved. The bad guys are gone and everybody's happy again. Can we go now? I'm starving."
"You were eating in the car," Aoyanagi rolled her eyes.
"Relieves stress, among other things," he winked at her.
Yashiro smirked for a moment at the awkward silence, and suddenly turned on her wristcom. A special warning of elevated stress level was issued in the area.
"What is it?" Kozuki craned his neck to look at the hologram.
"It means that people cannot leave with a clear hue from this area," explained Aoyanagi.
Yashiro clicked her tongue and looked forward again. Her eyes narrowed and glowed strangely shifting to a pale, cold blue.
"Even after you killed that man, a legend in the underground, and we stopped those people from threatening not only the neighborhood, but society's order, their ideas prevail as a psycho hazard. Maybe that's what they were looking for."
"What do you mean?" Kozuki shook his head and frowned.
"They wanted to form a rebellion—against Sibyl. They did not really care about people. Men die, ideas remain. That was their goal. To leave a message. After all, ideas don't disappoint like men."
"Shiro-san… uh, is it okay to call you Shiro-san?" Kozuki scratched his nape. She blinked a couple of times, then smiled and nodded. "You'd better stop thinking about it… or your hue will get clouded."
Aoyanagi turned to the enforcer and sighed, "All right, let's go."
When Yashiro came back home, the first thing she did was to throw her blue jacket on the bed and go to the bathroom for a shower. As she was about to peel long brown locks from her face, she noticed the blood on her fingers, and three gunshots echoed through her apartment. Her eyes opened wide, but it was just a memory. The Chinese man dying in front of her, the other young man falling down the stairs, and breaking his neck against the wall. Yashiro used hot water at first, but then gradually cooled it down. She stood too long with her shoulders slumped and her eyes closed.
When she finished, the entire bathroom got steamy and she left the door open. In her own apartment, it was usual to see her walking around in slippers, pants that reached above her ankles and plain oversized dress shirts. Only the balcony light was on, illuminating the living room. Yashiro walked to the kitchen and bent down to open the fridge. She peered inside for a few seconds, though there was no food, before pulling out a bottle and grabbing a glass. She walked slowly and nonchalantly to the balcony followed by her cat.
The night grew colder as Yashiro dropped into the chair, one leg over the other, as if her own body was weighing her down, and poured herself a glass of whisky, settling the bottle down on a small round table. Her cat jumped onto her thighs and curled up on them. She widened her eyes with a smile, and stroked his white fur tenderly. When her expression relaxed, she felt her eyes slightly moist.
Yashiro blinked a couple of times and raised her head, the glass near her mouth. She squinted at the buildings and skyscrapers ahead of her. A fly fluttered noisily around a green neon sign. There was a couple in the distance, holding hands and leaning on their own balcony. Then suddenly she let out a long, deep, quiet laugh, slowly shaking her head, and finished her drink.
Bringing a megaminx up and down with her slender fingers, Kasei Joushuu, head of the Public Safety Bureau, was sitting in her chair with the back of her neck wired. Her steely gray eyes were narrowed, determined to solve the complex puzzle.
"I must admit," her cold, powerful voice echoed through the empty room. "I did not expect her psycho pass to remain stable after she met Saiga Jouji three years ago. It only went up to 55, according to our records. And he has a reputation for jeopardizing hues."
"The girl almost got herself killed and still remains," another mind quickly responded. "How much pressure do we need to break her then?"
"We shall give her a case she will dive in," Kasei suggested in an indifferent bored voice. "That way, we can study her psycho pass. Inspector Aoyanagi will handle her for now."
"I was wondering… what if she learns to control her crime coefficient at will?"
"Yashiro doesn't meet the criteria," someone answered with a snap. "Back then, we witnessed that her psycho pass dropped to 15. If she knew how to control it at will, she wouldn't expose herself that way. She would keep it higher. Moreover, she wouldn't have turned herself in for starters."
"By saying that she would not expose herself to us, you are implying that she has gotten an idea of the true form of the Sibyl System," a woman stated.
"And that she has discovered the existence of criminally asymptomatic people," another man remarked.
For half a minute, everyone fell silent.
"She hasn't. But she doesn't believe I just… disappeared."
"All the more reason to get rid of her. She might threaten our very existence."
"There's no need for us to go that far. Yashiro still believes what any other citizen thinks about Sibyl—that it's a complex computer that analyzes the criminal tendencies of the entire country's population. And even if she knew about us, she wouldn't expose us to the public. Besides, she has proven how committed and valuable she is to her job."
"You back her up because of your personal relationship with her," Kasei pointed out, raising the megaminx with one hand in a graceful manner.
"And because of it, I can predict she won't expose the true form of the system. I know—I understand her mindset better than you do. She developed a deep-rooted sense of hatred towards Sibyl, but even more towards society for accepting it."
"How touching," a man sissed. "The way you toy around as her attorney."
"It is natural for you to be concerned about Inspector Takahashi," Kasei smirked, then rested her cheek on her fist, hardening her expression. "She seems to be all about emotions, just like you. Her mental patterns might be similar to yours, to some extent."
"I'm not trying to defend her. Understanding her doesn't mean that I agree with her."
"And what makes you think she won't jeopardize our secret?" Kasei asked with narrowed, piercing eyes.
"Yashiro knows the current society can't hold without Sibyl. And she believes in the idea… that people themselves must break their chains."
Kasei closed her eyes for a moment. There was a long, audible, even powerful laugh that echoed between them.