And soon she was driving over the speed limit, with rotating lights and sirens on. It was unusual for an inspector to drive manually, but she preferred to do it herself. She avoided other vehicles, trying to reach the house as quickly as possible. Suddenly she heard a beep and the young man sitting next to her pressed the answer button, enabling only audio so that she would not be distracted while driving.
"You were right, inspector," Karanomori's voice echoed inside the car. "The suspect probably went to his house. He used a false identity and was not found at the hospital. He left half an hour ago."
"What a coincidence," Daiki muttered, looking straight ahead and grabbing his seat belt.
"How did you know? And why are you so sure he's going to kill his mother?"
"He kills abusers" —Yashiro turned the steering wheel to avoid hitting a security drone—"because he himself was abused as a child. He knows... he is going to get caught. He has to end it himself before the bureau gets there. I mean, that's what I would do. Wouldn't you?"
In the lab, Karanomori raised an eyebrow, startled by the way Yashiro mentioned the Public Safety Bureau, as something she was not part of, despite being an inspector herself. The holographic device displayed another call, and Daiki pressed the answer button again. Yashiro knew the moment she took the vehicle without previously consulting Aoyanagi, she would get into trouble.
"I told you not to rush in," her words seemed like knives by then. "You were supposed to wait for us. Your behavior is not that of an inspector. Just park the car near his house, and wait for reinforcement. Are you even listening to what I'm saying?"
"Someone tipped him off that you were coming for him. He must have gone home by now."
"Division 1 is on its way," Aoyanagi informed them.
Yashiro glanced at the screen and could not help but blurt out, "Division 1?"
"They found a victim who fits the profile the killer is looking for. Three years ago, they had been part of our investigation. At least wait for them," Aoyanagi warned her for the last time.
Yashiro knew she was being tracked by GPS and that they were heading to her location. She turned the device off as she stopped the car in front of the house. Holding the dominator with both hands, Daiki walked beside her to the door of the house and was about to knock, when they realized it was already open a few inches. There was no one inside, but they entered quietly.
Daiki opened the door to the basement of the house, which was next to the stairs, and looked at her raising his dominator with both hands. Yashiro nodded and continued into the other room. Daiki went down the stairs very slowly, and manipulated a touch screen on the wall to turn the lights on. Instead of discovering old tools and dust, he found himself in an operating room. There was an empty, clean surgical table in the center, illuminated by a white ceiling-mounted light that resembled a hanging eye watching a prospective patient.
Daiki was drawn to the far end of the room, where there was a desk with a large screen hanging on the wall and a computer. His eyes grew wider and wider as he got closer. It was a list of people living in Japan. They were women in their forties, with brown hair and brown eyes. All had been filtered according to the profile the killer was looking for, and they were the mothers of a child who had been hospitalized. Slowly, he raised his forearm towards his face.
"Inspector, uh, you'd better take a look at this," he mumbled, then turned his wristcom off.
Yashiro cautiously walked into the living room. There were two brown couches and an armchair with a small table in the middle, but she approached the fireplace and turned a wheelchair that was nearby. A woman with long brown hair suddenly opened her eyes and looked at her with bated breath. Yashiro tilted her head with the same relaxed expression, studying her features. She was wearing a white kimono with very wide sleeves, which covered her entire body and was fastened in front with a belt.
"You must be Ikeda Sara," Yashiro looked at the cover of her book and let out a short, sudden laugh. "Ah, Danielle Steel. There was this story about a woman who abused her daughter in her childhood. The father took no responsibility for his wife's cruelty and prided himself on never having hit his daughter. However, he had never done anything to protect her," she leaned forward placing her hands on the armrests of the wheelchair, her voice strangely calm. "You can't change the past… by reading happy endings. Now, where is your son?"
The woman froze, but Yashiro did not take her piercing, silver eyes from hers, nor did she turn away. Until Ikeda dared to shake her head open-mouthed, unable to utter a single word.
"I see," Yashiro slowly stood up, disappointment written all over her face. "You are…"
Ikeda's gaze drifted to something behind the inspector, and her lips twitched as if she wanted to scream. When Yashiro turned around, she managed to dodge a kitchen knife just in time and stepped back towards the tall living room window. It was the man she had seen on the screen. About thirty years old, with the same hair color as his mother. The eyes, on the other hand, were almost black and wide open, like those of a predator. He was dressed in his surgeon's clothes.
"Put the knife down!" she demanded in a louder, clearer voice.
Endo Seiji turned around in one swift movement, staring at her. Yashiro pulled her dominator out and pointed it at him. She could hear hurried footsteps in the distance and soon Daiki ran into the living room, pointing his own dominator at the man and keeping some distance, his right foot more forward than the other. The numerical value was static and the female voice echoed in their heads, making their eyes glow light blue at the same time. The muzzle of the gun barrels opened, reading the suspect's criminality.
Crime coefficient is 302. Enforcement mode is Lethal Eliminator. Please aim carefully and eliminate the target.
When the man took a step towards Yashiro, she did not move and motioned with her other hand to Daiki, indicating him to lower the gun. Endo was already a latent criminal who could not recover and rejoin society, but neither of them pulled the trigger. The enforcer obeyed and slowly lowered his arms, pointing the gun at the floor.
"Why?" he blurted out in a spontaneous, monotone voice.
"Because if you kill her, this gun will kill you," Yashiro tried to reason with him.
"We both know how this ends. She was supposed to protect me—guide me. That's what you expect from a mother. But she turned me into this instead!" he moved the knife forward, pointing it at her.
"No—we choose what we become. You had the chance to be better than your creator. But you chose to be just like her," she replied in a low, bitter tone.
"Most of them get away with it and you know it. There is no justice. Fujimoto-san… a woman so ugly inside and out that one of her children almost committed suicide. Most of those children end up at the very least with depression that affects their lives forever, and clouds their hues—"
"Oh, shut the fuck up," Daiki growled at him, shaking his head. "You're nothing but a crazy old man trying to justify his murders."
Endo glanced at the old woman with a raised upper lip and then turned to Yashiro.
"But these people still walk around just fine. They can't be judged because in their twisted minds, that's called education. I tried to ease these children's pain. But sometimes there is no healing. The only way to stop abusers… is to make them feel the same. Don't you think it serves them right?"
"Yes," Yashiro uttered in a deeper voice, leaving the enforcer dumbfounded. "But that doesn't mean you have the right to act like a messiah."
"And who does?" he gritted his teeth. "The Sibyl System? Why?"
Yashiro blinked and frowned.
"You locked her up here all this time… as a way of showing her what you've become?" Yashiro asked, slowly shaking her head.
"Well, not anymore," he shrugged his shoulders.
"Revenge" —Yashiro took a step forward—"won't make you feel better."
"Nothing can," he shook his head.
"Drop it!"
Crime coefficient is 322. Enforcement mode is Lethal Eliminator. Please aim carefully and eliminate the target.
The number was growing faster and faster, despite the fact that at that moment the man looked much calmer than before. He was no longer pointing the knife at her as he had been doing all that time.
"You won't stop me," Endo narrowed his eyes almost tenderly.
"Inspector?" Daiki frowned, raising his own dominator.
"Stand down," Yashiro sent him a glare, and turned to the other man. "Endo Seiji…"
He watched her for a few seconds and then slowly curved his lips. It was not a savage, sadistic smile, but a soft, more relaxed one. When he turned around and took a step forward, he raised his right arm ready to plunge the knife into his mother, who closed her eyes tightly and covered her head with her forearms. Daiki was about to shoot him, but focused on Yashiro and widened his eyes.
"Watch out!" he ran towards her all of a sudden.
Daiki grabbed her shoulder and pushed her to the side just before a blue shot lit up the entire living room, passing by them. They both fell to the floor and watched the man's back split wide open as he staggered over his mother, overturning the wheelchair and causing her body to fall. As his upper body exploded, his arms flew through the air and the woman lay paralyzed on the floor. Her face and clothes were completely covered in blood.
"You figured it out too—she was his last victim," a deep, hoarse voice echoed in the room.
Yashiro wrinkled her nose as she smelled the distinctive cigarette odor, and Daiki instantly stood up.
"Kougami Shinya," she uttered slowly, closing her eyes for a moment. "It's been a while."
He lifted one leg and entered through the window, which had been completely broken.
"You have to remember whose side you're on, Takahashi."
Only then did she slowly stood up, placing one hand on the floor, and turned around. His gray eyes were narrowed and focused on hers. He had a cigarette in his mouth and his dark brown hair was a little more disheveled than it had been three years ago. Looking down, she noticed that he was wearing an open gray coat over a black suit and a white shirt, which was all wrinkled and tucked into his black pants. The tie was ill-fitting and fell to his waist. While his right hand held the dominator next to his body, the other was in his pants pocket.
"The one with the truth," she raised her head a little.
"What was that?" Daiki tried to measure his voice. "You almost shot her too."
Kougami blinked and looked at the shorter man in front of him. Slowly, Yashiro picked up her dominator from the floor and walked away.
"I wouldn't have needed to take that risk if you had eliminated him first. What were you two waiting for?"
Daiki shook his head and looked down for a moment, then turned in search of Yashiro, and Kougami shot her a glance. She was standing two meters away from the woman, who tried to crawl awkwardly backwards to get away from her and the gun next to her body.
"Takahashi-san?" Daiki called out to her in a quieter voice, as if he did not recognize her.
Yashiro pointed her dominator at Ikeda Sara. Her silver eyes glowed melting into a pale, cold blue as the weapon read and sent psychological data to the Sibyl System for calculation of her crime coefficient.
"Wait!" a high-pitched female voice resounded in the distance.
Crime coefficient is 295. Enforcement mode is Non-Lethal Paralyzer. Please aim carefully and subdue the target.
"This is the only thing I like about this gun," Yashiro sentenced with a dark look, lowering her head. "The fact that it has a trigger."
She waited for the dominator to transform into lethal eliminator mode, classifying the target as a serious threat to society. The same voice came in a whisper, "Inspector, please don't do this. She's the victim."
They heard a beep and suddenly the muzzle of Yashiro's dominator opened with blue lines. Her index finger was poised over the trigger.
Target's Threat Judgment has been updated. Enforcement mode is Lethal Eliminator. Aim carefully and eliminate the target.
The new shorter woman entered through the window and raised her own dominator to aim at Yashiro, causing the two enforcers to turn around. Her eyes instantly widened, and she gritted her teeth as the monotone voice echoed in her head.
Crime coefficient is 25. Inspector registered at the Criminal Investigation Department. The trigger will be blocked.
"Dying must feel so…" Yashiro's voice trailed off and she slowly shook her head. "But staying alive, remembering what your son has become..."
There was nothing left in those brown eyes. Her mouth was ajar and her lips were trembling, as if crying out for death, but Yashiro denied her and lowered the gun. After half a minute, another dominator fired a burst of energy as soon as her crime coefficient dropped a little, letting out a blue bullet that paralyzed her and knocked her unconscious on the floor. Then, slow footsteps echoed behind her.
"We must take her into protective custody right away," a woman stated in a softer voice than her own.
Yashiro raised her head and turned around with the same relaxed, detached expression on her face. There was a young woman in her early twenties, with a slender but fit build, staring back at her. She had brown eyes, short brown hair with straight bangs to her eyebrows, and a pale complexion. She pointed the dominator at her again, and only after a few seconds pulled it away. Her eyebrows were completely furrowed and she pursed her lips.
"That's not what the Sibyl System wanted, is it? She became a serious threat to this society, therefore a target for enforcement action," Yashiro responded somewhat defiantly, lifting her chin a bit. "Why would you wait for Sibyl to denounce her as a latent criminal, and use paralyzer mode?"
The other inspector came closer and glared at her. Yashiro could not help the urge to smile at those stiff, determined eyes of hers. They must have been the same age, although she looked much younger than Yashiro in appearance. She wore the standard blue CID jacket over a white blouse, thigh-length skirt and brown loafers.
"Because she was a victim!" the young woman raised her voice, then gulped and clenched her fists on either side of her body. "She hasn't committed a crime yet. Her psycho pass was elevated because she was under a lot of stress."
A young orange-haired man came into the living room through the broken window. His right hand was raised next to his head holding the dominator, while the other rested on one of his two white belts. When he spotted Yashiro, his face turned serious, though his eyes slowly widened. Daiki was the only one who noticed his presence and lifted his palm to greet him. He had sat on the couch as if oblivious to everything around him.
"She fits the profile of the other women because she was an abuser herself," Yashiro explained in a soft yet cold tone.
"Is that why you were waiting to use lethal eliminator mode?" the other inspector frowned.
Yashiro slowly broadened her smile. Her teeth were white, but then she closed her lips again. Kougami narrowed his eyes and took the cigarette out of his mouth in one swift movement.
"Do we know each other?" Yashiro asked, squinting for a second.
The woman blinked, completely stunned by the question. Kougami threw the cigarette on the floor and stepped on it with the sole of his black shoe. Daiki cast a glance at the other enforcer, then looked back at them.
"I don't think so. Should I know you?"
"Oh no, of course not," Yashiro let out a short, deep chuckle. "I was just curious if we ever met."
"Inspector Takahashi," a louder male voice darkened her features all of a sudden. "We meet again."
A tall man entered the living room, holding the dominator to the side of his body with one hand. A few strands of black hair fell over his corrective lenses. He wore a black suit, white dress shirt and black tie. When he saw the killer's blood smeared on the wheelchair and the woman's unconscious body, he put his gun away and walked towards them.
"Inspector Ginoza," Yashiro greeted him in a slightly deeper voice and nodded her head. "I was beginning to believe you would not come."
He stopped some distance away and quickly looked her up and down with piercing, narrowed eyes.
"This is the situation in which the more you talk, the more trouble you end up in… but I see you still don't know how to measure your words."
"Some things never change," she shrugged her shoulders and shook her head.
"And you certainly kept the bad habit of talking back when you shouldn't."
Yashiro smiled for a few seconds. The other woman watched them with parted lips. Ginoza frowned and adjusted his glasses.
"This is not the way an inspector should behave. What example are you trying to set? Using a vehicle without automation, causing an accident? What were you thinking?" his voice was louder and harsher, not quite a shout. "I heard it's not the first time you have taken reckless actions. You not only put yourself at risk, but the rest of your division. Inspector Aoyanagi herself. How would you feel if she died because of you?"
"Okay, that was creepy enough," Daiki folded his arms.
Ginoza sent him a glare and curled his lip for a moment, "Mind your position, enforcer."
Yashiro exchanged a glance with Daiki and shook her head softly. He sighed and leaned an elbow on the back of the couch.
"I will take full responsibility," she stated in a clearer voice.
Ginoza turned to her again.
"Not only you—but Inspector Aoyanagi as well. Have you ever stopped to think that you are making things difficult for her? She is your partner. And now she is guilty as much as you are, for not being able to control you, nor stop you."
"Oh boy," the orange-haired man rolled his eyes. "You're just being a drama queen, Gino-san."
Daiki burst out laughing, but turned serious and looked away when Ginoza shot him a glance. Even Kougami himself had smiled at the remark.
"You speak as if I am already a latent criminal, which I am not. I am well aware that every act has consequences," Yashiro frowned, shaking her head.
Ginoza turned to her and seemed to open his eyes wider.
"Every action affects the entire division—not just you. A case is solved based on teamwork. If you can't follow that simple rule, how can you expect others to trust you? What strikes me… is that you seem not to realize what your fault is, or you don't care. And certainly, you have no regrets."
"I guess not," she replied in a natural, almost innocent voice, walking towards the fireplace. "There was no time. Ikeda Sara could die any second."
"But you didn't care about her, did you?" Kougami lifted his chin in her direction. "Why did you come here exactly?"
Her eyes narrowed, and for a moment all they heard was the fire slowly consuming the wood in the fireplace in front of her.
"Someone tipped him off that we were coming. I wanted to find out who. My guess is that you did, too."
"About that," Daiki ran his hand through his hair and stood up from the couch. "There's something you have to see."
The enforcer led them to the basement of the house, which was an operating room instead, and whose light he had left on. For a long time, they all stared at the materials around them.
"This guy definitely had help. There's no way he could have done this alone," Daiki commented, pointing his thumb at the computer.
"A skilled hacker must have helped him cover his tracks," Ginoza examined the stretcher in the center of the room. "We have no leads on him."
"Moreover," Kougami studied the screen full of names. "That would explain how he got all this information."
"He couldn't have done this complex filtering by himself," Yashiro stood beside him, hands inside her black coat pockets.
Only then did Ginoza turn, and his eyes widened a bit as he saw them studying the screen, oblivious to the stares around. Kougami pulled out a pack of cigarettes that already had a small hole in the lid, then tapped the pack to get a cigarette out. He looked at her for a moment, but decided not to offer her one and lit it for himself. After a few seconds, the young man in white belts went to the desk and searched for a specific woman on the list, until an image popped up on the screen.
"She's in the list!" he grinned and looked up.
"That's the latest victim, Nakamura Ichika," Ginoza informed them. "Recently reported by a group of joggers in a park. She had been missing for a week."
"He abandoned her in a park?" Yashiro raised an eyebrow and turned around, exchanging a glance with Daiki. "Did you receive an elevated stress warning in the area?"
"No. It is a bit remote and the news did not spread," Ginoza frowned for a moment and looked down at her.
"Fits our guy," Daiki commented, pursing his lips in affirmation. "He would never provoke a psycho hazard."
Kougami turned to look directly at Yashiro, "The body was clutched in such a way that it appeared to be standing inside a tree."
Daiki grimaced in disgust, but she only widened her eyes and took several seconds to respond.
"Maybe it's not the same man," she blurted out.
"That's what I thought," Kougami nodded and put his left hand in his pants pocket.
"What do you mean, it was the work of a copycat?" Ginoza asked, shooting glances at both of them. "Same hair and eye color. We ran a background check on her. She was the mother of a child who has also been in the hospital."
"Not only that, but her name is on the killer's list," the other enforcer sighed and rested his hands on his white belts.
Yashiro leaned over the holographic keyboard and displayed all the names again.
"Endo Seiji thought these women deserved to die," she spoke in a more determined voice, raising her head to the screen. "But he was not much of an artist. He did not look for recognition from society—he looked for society to recognize."
"R-recognize? Recognize what?" the other woman asked in a lower voice.
Yashiro opened her mouth, but Daiki—who had been leaning against the surgical table all along—came forward to get their attention.
"Great, now we have another killer with his own fingerprint?" he sighed and suddenly both his wristcom and Yashiro's beeped, and he widened his eyes. "Uh-oh. It's Aoyanagi-san."
"Leave the red tape to me," Yashiro assured, unaware of the stares that were suddenly on her.
"Good luck with that. In the meantime, I'll see if I can find out more about this Nakamura Ichika," Daiki promised with a deep nod.
Yashiro turned one last time to look at each of the members of Division 1, holding her gaze for the longest time with the brown-haired woman. Division 2 had arrived and was already inspecting the living room. Then the basement of the house was filled with small spider drones, and outside were others setting up holographic barricades to keep civilians away. Aoyanagi made her way towards Yashiro, she was dressed in the blue CID jacket, with a white shirt underneath and black dress pants. Her eyes were fixed solely on none other than Yashiro, who was standing with her hands tucked into her coat pockets, waiting for her with a relaxed and cordial expression.