A man with short blond hair in his fifties was reading a book, laying on the bed in the gray pants and shirt characteristic of latent criminals. He turned the page leisurely, completely engrossed. There were five more books in the cell, stacked neatly.

"Are you Meyer Kane?" Yashiro's voice echoed in the clean, white hallway.

The man rose from the bed in one quiet movement, sitting down on it, barefoot, and raised an eyebrow as he looked at her. His eyes were light blue. She assumed he was of northern European descent.

"It's strictly restricted for a PSB inspector to visit me," he paused, studying her calm demeanor. "You are not here exactly by the book."

"I have some questions about your last case. I am here because I need your help. A former patient of the man you captured is on the run."

When Aoyanagi entered the Division 2 office, she heard shouting and people screaming. One of the screens was on, showing images of a protest in the city of Tokyo. There were not many people, but she stood for a moment watching as if she could not believe it. Then she walked over to the desk and used the keyboard to close that tab, silencing the office. Only then was she able to catch the attention of the enforcers.

"Did you put the Hime girl in a detention room?" Aoyanagi questioned, turning around.

"Yes, ma'am," Katashi responded quickly, in a deep voice. "The internal hard drive taken out of the computer was smashed with a hammer, and a flash drive was thrown into the toilet at home. Data is unrecoverable. We believe she has attempted to destroy vital evidence. It might be necessary to conduct a strip search."

"I'd like you to lead the interview with her," she addressed Kozuki.

"She's a juvenile," he pointed out.

"It shouldn't matter, since sex isn't the issue," Daiki said with a shrug.

"How can you be sure if there's still no proof?" Katashi shook his head.

"He kills his victims—not rape them. He must be using her the same way he used Miyake."

"Anyway, wouldn't it be more appropriate for her to talk to a person of the same gender?" Kozuki opened his palm, while resting the other on his hip.

"You're probably right. Easier for her, too. That's why I want you to go in first instead of me. I'd like to see how she deals with a man of similar looks," Aoyanagi nodded, glancing at Kozuki's tousled dark hair, then around, scanning the office. "Have you seen Inspector Takahashi? She has an appointment."

Daiki lifted an eyebrow and exchanged a glance with Kozuki. Aoyanagi looked at them all with a serious face, until she raised her arm manipulating a hologram over her wrist, to call the other inspector.

Yashiro's wristcom beeped, displaying an icon with Aoyanagi's face, but she ignored it to open a profile on a hologram in front of the cell. The man walked towards it, leaning forward to study the image of a young man with short black hair.

"I know him. He was one of the patients I interviewed. Last time I saw him, he was rushing out of Uchida's house the day he was captured. The wife's hue was clouded and she ran away with that man. But she was killed by a dominator. I have read the news. I know the bureau is after him. You are lucky he showed himself."

"You believe it was his choice and not a mistake? Why would he risk it all?"

"Maybe he wants to expose someone the same way he exposed Uchida."

"Tell me about Uchida."

"He was the one who taught his patients to gouge out eyes with precision, to hide bodies, but not to kill. That was already part of their DNA. He inspired them. Let them know that what they felt was not wrong and that they were not alone. He tested his followers with acts of murder in order to prove their devotion. But he had only one rule. His patients were not to know each other, so that if one was caught, the others would not be compromised. We know how his experiments ended. The man you are looking for may not even have been his best student."

"Experiments? That wasn't in the case file. What kind of experiments?"

"He was interested in the measurement of a crime coefficient. He studied ways to influence it based on the mental state of his patients."

"Kane, good to see you. Please, come in. It's only you and me tonight, my wife visited her parents. May I offer you a drink?" Uchida smiled, bringing a bottle of wine and two glasses.

"Sure, thank you," he smiled, sitting in a chair in front of him.

"Tell me about this case you are working on. What makes you think he did not kill his brother?"

"There is a certain sophistication to this murder. The way the body was handled. I think a different killer staged the scene to make it look like the crime was committed by him. Someone who knew we would link him to his death. He was not interested in displaying the body to society."

"Most serial killers demonstrate antisocial tendencies—including a lack of empathy, disregard for laws and the rights of others, and a lack of remorse. They have different motivations and ways of killing. Many of them share a need for attention. Others see a greater accomplishment in killing quietly, unnoticed."

Yashiro was leaning against the wall next to the cell, listening with folded arms.

"He was a mysterious man. He could talk about human nature and all kinds of things while keeping a pure hue."

"You speak of innocents and murderers, of good and evil, but the world is rarely so simple. It's not easy to define a man. Neither words nor actions can anymore. Once a man achieves this for himself, no laws or morality will stop him, and he will be free to do as he wills."

Yashiro turned her head towards the cell, not looking him in the eye.

"I've been working on this case for months. Sometimes I just forget to stop and turn my mind off."

"I couldn't for a second if I were you. You don't always get the chance to help an inspector on a murder case. I'm grateful for that. I do admire you inspectors. It must be hard to keep chasing down a criminal with friends and family. I imagine it gets a bit lonely, too. But you help people. You save lives. You know that, don't you?"

"Uchida fooled me. I should've known the first time I met him that he was the man we were looking for. He had that particular charm and seduce, knowing exactly what to say in order to get under someone's skin. Within a matter of a few minutes, he figured out what is best to say about people that would point out their biggest weakness. I understand what his students felt. He knew how to give them a little piece of what they missed. I fell for it. And more people were killed."

Yashiro looked down with a raised eyebrow. Meyer turned to her after several seconds, and the gentle movement of his head made her blink and lift her head, staring at the wall.

"What happened after his capture?" she asked. "He escaped?"

"The chief decided that the case Uchida was involved in was to be investigated by a special team formed by the Ministry of Welfare."

"A special team…?" her voice trailed off.

"The MWPSB lost the authority to investigate that matter. I was told that he would serve as a research sample. On his way to the Ministry of Welfare, medical staff were to be on the transport aircraft he was on when questioned. The top priority was Uchida's safety. I was not allowed to question him. However, everything was confidential and I had no access to that information. Officially, he was disposed of. The reason it remains an unsolved case is that some of his fugitive students were not found, and although there was reason to believe that it was very likely that he had more accomplices throughout the country, their identities were not discovered and thus many crimes remained unsolved."

"The order was to take him to the Ministry of Welfare?" Yashiro stepped away from the wall, opening her eyes wider for a couple of seconds. "You've read his crime coefficient, haven't you?"

When Yashiro looked at him, he frowned for a moment and turned around. She noticed that his lips curled inwards and his jaw tightened.

"The dominator did not react to him. Later it turned out that it functioned perfectly and that it was all part of… my obsession with Uchida's experiments and how he screwed up my head. I was taken off the case after that. They said I was unstable and a threat to others and myself. Nevertheless, how can a man like him kill with impunity and teach serial killers while living a normal life for so many years, married, in a city like Tokyo, right in front of the Public Safety Bureau and the Sibyl System? Why were they so desperate to isolate him from all inspectors, and treated him as a guest rather than one of the worst criminals so far?"

"I can see why your hue clouded," her eyebrows lowered and pulled closer together. "They made you quit afterwards."

"No one made me quit. I did. I would have even refused to become an enforcer if given the chance."

"That job was your life. Why abandon it?"

"Abandon it? I didn't abandon it. It's the world who did. I've been investigating cold cases these past years in this cell. I'm writing a book on criminal psychology. I've advised inspectors. But I never made any of my research public. Not a word will be heard outside and my book will never be published."

"A mind like yours could have helped the PSB solve complex cases, either as an inspector or an enforcer. You could have saved lives. The Sibyl System can't force you to use a dominator. It's the will of men that makes them pull the trigger. You can always choose to amend the law and protect it."

"What law? I haven't abandoned the law; it has ceased to exist here. But I still work in my profession, which is to serve justice. Men may abandon their vision of what justice stands for, and then it's justice that destroys them, but it hasn't and can't cease to exist."

Yashiro stood in front of the door, silent for several seconds.

"You are one of those men of mind... who after the Sibyl System was implemented, were called deserters and crazy for leaving the country illegally, if they ran the risk of becoming latent criminals, or abandoned their professions and went to jobs in which they did not apply their talents. Engineers who started working in restaurants when they could have invented great things, writers who became factory workers, musicians who never again composed music, even without being censored as they are now. Men who left and never came back, even though they teach us from an early age that the world outside is a decadent and hostile place, that the only civilized country is ours. You are one of them, though you were arrested before you could leave."

"None of us have abandoned our professions. It's your world that will never see our inventions, our art, our science. Your world has forsaken the intellect. We have given up working to sustain that world, and feeling guilty about it. In the history of humanity, it's the victims who made injustice possible. It's the men of mind and reason who allowed rule by force to function, and now the Sibyl System. They know it while you don't, and that's what they're counting on. They're counting on you to keep working for them until your mind explodes, and they have to find another victim. But this time, many have had enough. They didn't impose their own moral code on others, they let them be free to believe as they please. But they will have to do it for themselves and decide if this is how they want to live their lives."

"You quit because of that case."

"In my time, when the Sibyl System was first being implemented and detectives were stripped of their guns to be given dominators, many of my colleagues and friends became latent criminals simply because they couldn't accept a voice in their head telling them when and whom to shoot. I never acted according to Sibyl's criteria and was one of those who opposed its implementation from the beginning. However, I made the mistake of accepting it, of adhering to that moral code that people uphold today. Uchida's case put words to what I had been feeling for years. I chose my profession to be a guardian of justice. But the subjective laws I was ordered to abide by and enforce turned me into the executor of all kinds of injustices. I was asked to use force against unarmed men who came to me seeking protection. Back then, there were no legal drugs as there are now, so people used different methods to reduce stress. I witnessed the first cases of death by overdose in people fixated on achieving a radiant hue. I resigned when I realized there was no longer an objective code of conduct that everyone embraced, when it no longer mattered which crimes had been committed and what rights had been violated, and I saw that one man was held to these rules while another was not, that one had to obey while another could assert a desire or a need, and that the law would favor desire. In the past, Uchida would have faced the death penalty or life imprisonment with people clamoring for it, yet he was treated like royalty. I was not even allowed to interrogate him. I was reported for mistreatment, after beating him nearly unconscious. You know your country is doomed when the law protects criminals or the government from you, when doing the right thing means breaking the law, or when there isn't even an objective criterion to define crime. Justice became a matter of defending the indefensible. But no one cared when he disappeared without a trace. Bread and circuses. I resigned because I didn't want to continue being a symbol of that system or part of a complicit society, and because I could no longer bear that honest men were afraid of me when they discovered I was an inspector. What I feel for your world now is indifference, pure emptiness. Precisely what you'll have to come to terms with in the future, if you keep pondering the same questions I asked myself in the past."

"Don't ask me that right now."

Meyer parted his thin lips and smiled for the first time, just for a few seconds.

"I know that learning to let go of this world is the hardest part."

"You see that scanner up there? It's to indicate that the interview's being monitored and our crime coefficients are being measured," Kozuki spoke.

"Okay."

She responded casually, as if unaware that she was in an interrogation room. It was a young woman with long black hair, brown eyes, whose expression, Kozuki thought, gave her a false illusion of maturity. Her crime coefficient was over 90, but not high enough to turn her into a latent criminal.

"Tell me how you first came to meet Agawa."

"I was 16. He gave me piano lessons."

"How did the relationship develop?"

"Some days we would just talk about famous paintings. He's read many books. He knows a lot about art and literature. I write songs. We started talking about music. He listens mostly to classical music."

Kozuki frowned and pursed his lips, "You know he could be locked up in a cell, for the things you're saying?"

"We care for each other," she shrugged her shoulders.

"Why did you break into Agawa's home?"

"I was looking for him."

"Why did you break a hard drive, and threw a flash drive into your toilet?"

She looked down.

"Why were you in his house?" Kozuki shook his head.

"I told you."

"Did he ask you to go there?"

"Yes."

"To destroy evidence?"

The young woman narrowed her eyes and tilted her head a bit, "Evidence of what?"

"Before you go, can I give you an advice?" Meyer approached the grille of his cell.

Yashiro raised her head towards him, "Of course."

"The MWPSB will steal your soul. Quit while you can."

"Did he help you find the answers you were looking for?" a voice rumbled down the wide hallway, making her suddenly turn to the side. A man was walking towards her. "I just had a very interesting conversation with Chief Kasei Joushuu. Perhaps you should discuss that later in her office."

"I have not finished," Yashiro glared at him.

"You are not authorized to be here. Come with me," ordered the man.

Yashiro observed the former inspector for the last time with narrowed and tired eyes, while his were completely relaxed, his face expressing pure awareness. As Yashiro followed the worker towards the exit, she glanced at a man in one of the cells, who was sitting on the floor surrounded by books. Round scanners that looked like red eyes watched from the corners of the white ceiling, but did not move in her presence.

The only security in that building were bars that blocked the passage and whose door could only be opened with her wristcom. She had heard that patients, who were isolated because their crime coefficients were over 300, could be eliminated if necessary, and those cells would turn into gas chambers in seconds.

Tokorozawa Correction and Rehabilitation Center was written on a small white wall outside the building. Her black police car was still parked in the driveway. Yashiro turned around and raised her head towards the huge building. Grabbing the collar of her black coat with one hand to adjust it, she walked towards the car.

"Why continue to insist that he has nothing to do with this when all the evidence proves otherwise?" Kozuki questioned with a frown.

"Sibyl doesn't always tell the true," she stared at the table.

"Hime-san, a great deal of evidence already links Agawa to the crimes he is accused of. Your lies are useless. Why ruin your life? You can go to prison for what you're doing—aiding and abetting a murderer. You're 18. It's right you kick against authority, your parents, your teachers, me. But there are better ways to express your dissatisfaction. I've read your songs. You're very talented. If you want to go into music later in life, a criminal record might keep you from being on stage. Many other professions would be closed to you. At worst, you could become a latent criminal and spend the rest of your life in a cell."

"He is my friend."

Kozuki raised his arm, turning on a hologram over his wrist, and looking for a file.

"I'm not supposed to show you the crime scene images I have here, but… you should get an idea of the kind of man you consider your friend… that you're protecting," he showed Abe Asuka's profile, with a picture of her after she was shot, and Nakamura Ichika, whose death made the young woman frown and look away. "Imagine that. The anger and hatred that would allow someone to do something like that. It'll be a matter of routine police work to go through your phone, your internet records, witness statements to destroy the alibis you're trying to create. Now all that's left is for your hue to be clouded. So… before we end the interview, is there anything you want to add, or… explain?"

"You wouldn't understand."

As soon as Yashiro entered the Comprehensive Analysis Office, Aoyanagi turned around and headed towards her.

"Unless you're suspending me, I'm staying," Yashiro stated.

"Don't think I didn't try. Chief blocked me. She thinks you're our best hope at finding this guy."

"Then you're stuck with me."

Aoyanagi stopped short in front of her, with the most dangerous face she had ever seen on her before, "I heard you visited Mad Shepherd."

"I wanted to continue investigating on my own while you were interrogating the girl."

"What were you thinking? Why didn't you tell me? Because you knew I would refuse, is that it? I need you to remember the nature of splitting divisions into inspectors and enforcers, and what it means to be an inspector."

"No. I won't hear this again," Yashiro walked past her senior.

"Yes, you will!" Aoyanagi turned on her heels, looking down for a moment with a sharp glare. "Do you want your healthy psycho pass get clouded and never have a chance to return to society, like latent criminals?! When inspectors get deeply involved in an investigation, the Sibyl System keeps an eye on them just like criminals. We're under microscope ever since you got here. And now Sibyl's eyes are on you more than ever. This isn't a game. Do you want to lose your job? Do you want to sacrifice it all? Even your career?"

Yashiro opened her eyes wider and turned her body to the side, staring at her.

"I am well aware of the consequences of becoming a latent criminal," she raised her voice, making the enforcers lay eyes on her. Karanomori turned to them, a cigarette in her mouth, resting one arm on the back of her chair. "Like all inspectors, I joined the CID knowing exactly how dangerous this job is. My psycho pass is my own responsibility. If it gets clouded, it will be the result of my will, my thoughts, my actions. Not yours or anyone else's. I am more than capable of handling it, so stop questioning it the same way I never question yours!" she yelled at Aoyanagi taking two steps towards her.

"I'm sorry," Aoyanagi blurted out in a softer voice, looking her in the eye. "I didn't mean to offend you."

"You didn't," Yashiro's features relaxed again, as if she had never raised her voice, and she averted her gaze. "I know you mean well. Thank you."

"For what?"

"For being honest. I don't encounter that frequently," Yashiro moved to the screens at the end of the room.

Miyake Ren's profile was on one of them, while the other showed a young woman. Karanomori typed on the keyboard, enlarging the image of the woman and rolling back the camera feed so they could hear the interrogation.

"Sibyl doesn't always tell the true."

"She's obsessed with Agawa," Yashiro shook her head and lowered her gaze. "He used this man to start some kind of a story. The girl destroyed evidence to help him, but she thinks it's a joke. It's like a cult."

"Let's not refer to it that way," Aoyanagi raised an eyebrow and curled her lip.

"No matter what term we use, people do his bidding. Gets anyone to do anything."

"Miyake mentioned a signature?" the senior inspector asked curiously, frowning for a moment.

Yashiro suddenly looked at her, but then averted her gaze.

"Did you find anything else in his apartment that I didn't know about?" Aoyanagi continued. "If I find out that you took evidence from the crime scene—"

"It must be just a coincidence," Yashiro explained in a soft voice, shaking her head very gently and looking at the small table thoughtfully. "After Abe Asuka's murder, I found a notebook on my nightstand… with a signature I was unaware of and had never written."

Aoyanagi opened her eyes wider and blinked.

"You found the signature of a serial killer in your own home and never told us?" she exchanged a glance with the rest of the team, as if reassuring herself that what she had heard was real.

"How could I possibly know it was him? There was no message," Yashiro shrugged her shoulders. "I forgot about it the next day."

"We had him in front of us from the beginning. We could have analyzed that paper for fingerprints. Instead, it took the death of a woman for his identity to finally come to light," Katashi folded his arms, looking directly at the inspector.

"There's no way he would do that. Is he daring or just stupid?" Daiki added. "It doesn't make any sense."

"It's not supposed to make sense," Kozuki stretched out on the black couch, elbows resting on the backrest.

"He's not finished."

"No, I think he's just pissing in our faces."

"He wouldn't have done it if he knew he could be identified. Why did he target you in the first place?"

Yashiro blinked a couple of times as the voices quieted and turned to Katashi, author of said question, only to realize that all eyes were now on her.

"He is targeting the Public Safety Bureau and the Sibyl System," she turned to the screens.

"You wanted to see me."

Unlike other inspectors, Yashiro stood before her as a woman stands with the most genuine innocence and a clear conscience. But she stood thus before a hostile presence, and Kasei Joushuu suddenly knew that no hatred could dwarf her.

"Yes, have a seat," Kasei ordered.

"I'd rather stand, if you don't mind," she said in a calm, cordial tone.

"Please, I insist," Kasei rose from her seat, making her way to one of the couches. "I have some matters to discuss with you, Inspector Takahashi. But first…"

As they sat on the black couches, facing each other, Kasei raised her right hand, pointing her wrist at her to determine Yashiro's crime coefficient. She narrowed her gray eyes, peering at her over the frame of her glasses. It was 33. Yashiro's reaction was a brief eyebrow waggle, but not because the chief disliked her low psycho pass, but because they had gone back to formalities. Both were sitting with one leg over the other, pointing in opposite directions, though Yashiro had her hands clasped together on her knee. Neither of them began to speak for a minute. As Kasei's eyes studied her, Yashiro surveyed the large room, wondering who had been the architect who designed it.

"You went to see a former inspector," Kasei spoke.

"Is it prohibited?"

"It's unadvised."

"I required his professional expertise."

"And you would travel miles to see him when he can be easily replaced."

"There is no substitute for competence."

"I think I made myself clear saying that you would have to bring at least one enforcer with you."

"When investigating a crime scene," Yashiro lowered her head a bit. "Which is why I concluded that an enforcer was not necessary this time."

"You came to that decision yourself without consulting your superior, hardly surprising since that's what you always do. You have successfully closed cold cases since joining Division 2. However, the Public Safety Bureau is displeased with your methods. You make deliberate decisions on your own over and over again. Criminal profilers are rare these days. Whilst you are fully aware of the consequences of studying the psychology behind why certain serial killers, kidnappers and other violent offenders commit crimes, and what goes through their minds as they commit them, I need to know how you are holding up."

"Good."

"Your evaluations paint a different picture. Reckless, insubordinate—"

"I did not have time to ask for permission. Inspector Aoyanagi was not available at that time."

"She was not available because we were just talking about you. Apparently, she put an inspector in a detention room with a suspect, letting her break two of his fingers and trigger a stress level warning in the building."

"Two, huh?" Yashiro raised an eyebrow.

"Inspector Aoyanagi thinks I should sideline you before you crack."

"I won't. I have a personal stake in bringing Agawa in, but I won't let it interfere with the job."

"I hope so... because you've become a key player for him, so I can't just kick you to the curb. I am sure you don't want your actions to be... misinterpreted. Some have begun to wonder if we use discarded methods such as violence and torture when interrogating criminals. They are going to ask me if there is truth to it."

"You'll tell them no."

"Will I be lying?" Kasei tilted her head, raising an eyebrow.

Yashiro sighed and looked up for a moment, then to the side, without moving her head.

"I will tell you anything you want to know, but there are certain disadvantages to that."

"You willingly raised his crime coefficient to make him a target for enforcement action. Had the enforcer not stopped you, you would have succeeded. Either that, or you broke his hand as revenge so he can't enjoy his stay in prison. However, even though he is a latent criminal, Sibyl did not consider him a serious threat at the time. You would have made an attempt on his life by raising his psycho pass, which is considered a crime as much as murder. Have you ever stopped to think about that?"

"I don't recognize my action as a crime."

"Is it necessary for me to point out that your recognition was not required?" Kasei's voice echoed.

"I am fully aware of it, so I act accordingly."

"This is unprecedented. Do you realize the possible consequences of your attitude?"

"Completely."

"The punishment we have the power to impose upon you is extremely severe," Kasei warned.

"Go ahead."

"Excuse me?"

"Impose it."

"You fool. What are you talking about?"

"I'm just so tired of the double standard," Yashiro sighed.

"What double standard?" Kasei raised her voice. Narrowed, silver eyes looked at her impassively. "Watch it, girl. You may thank your biological structure and the high esteem in which certain people hold you, for having a chance to speak to us in the first place. Don't overplay the hand that was dealt to you. Fortunes can quickly turn."

There was no response.

"Now, the fact that you mentioned it clears up your doubts for me. Your overall rejection towards authority and the Sibyl System must go back to your childhood. You cared deeply about your father… no, your mother. When you read his crime coefficient, you expected it to be higher. After all, your mother did not get a second chance once she became a latent criminal herself," Kasei paused for a long moment, studying her features and body language. "Given the chance to enjoy time alone with him in a room without scanners, wouldn't you torture him with impunity?"

"No."

"Because you know there are consequences."

"I'm not like them," Yashiro frowned, raising her voice a bit.

Kasei's lips curved further up.

"Meyer Kane thought the same thing once. It was foretold that you would meet. He was a criminal profiler after all. I really hope… you don't make the same mistakes he did."

Yashiro did not answer.

"You were again driven by a moral authorization of your own… and you acted out with force," she continued in a soft, clear voice, like a college professor lecturing, making her look away. "Why do criminals like Endo Seiji get the benefit of the doubt in your world… while others like Miyake Ren or Agawa Hajime don't? Is it because of your connection to their childhood, their tales of solitude and manipulation, or is it because of their own motivations for killing? What criteria do you use to judge their crimes?"

"Endo Seiji did not kill innocent people."

"None of them killed innocent people," Kasei corrected her slowly, blinking and squinting her eyes as if giving her a closer look.

Yashiro's eyes were much darker and dilated than before, with eyebrows drawn together.

"Where does your selective, sentimental view on crime come from?"

Yashiro's lips parted for a few seconds and then closed tightly again.

"How is that related to the truth of your own? And how is that being rational and ethical, given you can't practice what you preach?"

Yashiro looked absently at her fingers, which were still on her knee.

"Where does your hatred of society come from?"

"I don't hate society," Yashiro blinked and stared at her. "I hate everyone, including myself."

"Your mother?" Kasei raised her chin a bit.

Yashiro barely turned her head to the side, pursing her lips, then slowly looked away.

"She must have meant so much to you," observed Kasei.

"Everyone's mother means a great deal to them."

"Not everyone's mother dies while her only daughter survives," Kasei blurted out in a calm tone.

Yashiro looked at her, then fixed her gaze on the small table between them, her eyes slightly widened.

"That must have left you very angry… abandoned, alone. Anger is one of the most powerful emotions a person can experience, a natural defense against pain, and also part of human nature," Kasei paused as she spoke, waiting for a response or a facial change on Yashiro's face. "Were you a lonely child?"

"And you weren't?" Yashiro raised an eyebrow with a thin smile. "Psychologically analyzing others is a lonely pastime."

Kasei observed her for several seconds, with the same precise and curious eyes of someone examining an insect through a microscope.

"Tell me, how did it feel afterwards?" she continued, slowly and gently, giving her time to answer. "Guilt? Shame? Remorse? Fear? You must have felt guilt."

"Why do we talk to the dead? They're gone. After my sister died, I used to see her in my apartment. Kept talking to her for a while. People always try to make you feel better by saying they're resting in peace, that they're not gone. As long as we're here, they're here with us. But they're wrong. They're not resting nor at peace. They're dead. They can't be disturbed because they don't exist. We exist. We live. And we will eventually die. Such is the fate of all living things."

Yashiro's head was turned slightly to the side, with the memory of Touma Kouzaburou in her mind. She opened her eyes wider for a second, until she looked at the older woman again. Her eyebrows were slightly raised, her eyes very relaxed, and she had a thin smile.

"It doesn't matter because she doesn't exist anymore. If you think you can cloud my hue triggering that memory, you've miscalculated."

"Is there a point in trying to cloud the psycho pass of someone who can keep it low all the time?" Kasei bluffed, but her gaze could not hide that she was serious. "While it has not yet been scientifically proven that crime coefficients are genetically inherited, it has not been disproved. You are a valuable exception."

Yashiro's smile faded and her left eye narrowed slightly for a second, before she looked away. Kasei got up from the couch and walked to her desk at the end of the room.

"You were due for an appointment with your therapist. This will no longer be necessary. You're free to go."

"Would you like a drink?" asked the orange-haired young man in a white shirt who was part of Division 1. "This is real alcohol."

"Sure, whatever you're drinking," Yashiro smiled, shifting one of the cards from Daiki, who was sitting near her.

"Hey, that's not fair," Kagari poured her a glass. "I should warn you that I get drunk easily and laugh a lot afterwards."

Yashiro grabbed his bottle, "No wonder why. Alcohol is absorbed rapidly into the blood with sugar."

"Sure thing. You're not like the other inspectors, who are afraid of getting addicted. People avoid alcoholic drinks because they fear it will cloud their hues."

"Well, they're missing out on all the fun," Kozuki laughed, standing by the bar and leaning his back against it, arms raised in front of him and cards in his hands. "You're leaving? This is just getting started, huh."

Yashiro had drunk the glass of sweet white wine, smooth and intense in flavor, and was standing in front of the bar.

"I'll go to sleep. But thanks," she turned around and smiled, waving her hand at them.

Yashiro made her way to the gym where enforcers and inspectors used the exercise machines or practiced martial arts, then passed the empty office of Division 1. Finally, with quick steps, she headed for the enforcers' quarters. One of the doors slid open, revealing the tall, imposing figure of Ginoza Nobuchika. He frowned and lowered his head to look at her, green eyes glinting under glasses.

"Inspector Takahashi. I heard you have successfully closed the Saitama Disappearances case and caught another criminal."

"That criminal was the one who closed the case. We just found the evidence."

"You helped your division identify the culprit. However, your methods remain… questionable. You must be off duty by now."

"Yes, but I needed to talk to him," she lifted her chin towards the door.

"Have you heard the saying that if you lie down with dogs, you get up with fleas?"

Yashiro sighed and walked past him, standing in front of the door next to him, "You worry too much about other people's hue. How about you start worrying about yours?"

"I wasn't talking about your hue," Ginoza turned his head to look her in the eye, before walking away down the hallway.

Yashiro stared at the door for a few seconds, until it slid open and she stepped inside. There was a man standing at the end of the small room, his hands on a desk as he looked at different photographs hanging on the wall in front of him. Next to the door was a white board with photographs taped to it and red arrows written on it, but she did not know which case it was.

"I'm telling you this is the same guy, Gino."

Yashiro walked over to the small glass table in the center of the room, reading a blue file folder that was open with a blurred photo. She picked up that folder, turning the page to continue reading.

"I heard you're still investigating the Specimen Case."

Kougami Shinya turned around, looking her up and down with narrowed, blank eyes. He pulled a small, light blue packet marked Spinel out of his pants pocket and took out a cigarette, leaning on the desk.

"People usually knock before they enter. Or was it different where you grew up?"

Kougami was dressed in black pants and a wrinkled white shirt, which had a loose black tie. Putting the cigarette in his mouth, he opened a gray lighter and brought it to the tip of the cigarette, taking a couple of short, steady draws to get the tobacco lit.

"Ginoza-san had just left," Yashiro shrugged and glanced at him. "We may have our own motivations for investigating this further, but we want the same thing."

"What is it?"

"The truth. May come differently for both of us," she sat gently on the dark blue couch, one leg over the other, studying him for several seconds. "Is revenge what you really want? But revenge won't bring him back or change the past."

"What do you want?" he blew out a puff of smoke.

Yashiro looked at the small picture of Touma Kouzaburou on a page, wearing a light red shirt and a black tie under a dark brown vest. She turned the page and read.

"I need to ask you something about the murders three years ago. I know you were taken off that case, but you must have been informed just like Aoyanagi. Do you know where Touma Kouzaburou was to be taken after his capture? That information is not available to the public. Only inspectors who were assigned to that case have access to it."

"Division 2 captured Touma Kouzaburou. Why don't you ask Aoyanagi Risa… or Chief Kasei herself?"

"Because I want to hear it from you," her voice was clear and direct.

Kougami was still looking at her, but did not respond. Yashiro wrinkled her nose at the smell of smoke and sighed, "You've accessed our case file."

"My gut tells me the hacker who sent Kanehara the floppy disk is the same one who backed the guy you arrested."

"Have you read Johnny Mnemonic?" she closed the file folder and laid it on the table.

Kougami frowned and took the cigarette from his lips, "That was written on Kanehara's disk. You've been sneaking into our case too. The Hachioji Drone incident."

"It's a William Gibson story. Johnny's brain was altered to store sensitive information like a living hard drive or flash memory device. Turns out he becomes a target for it."

"You being sarcastic?" he raised his eyebrows.

Yashiro smirked, "No. The man who wrote it on that disk is."

"There's someone who brings together those who have not yet turned into killers and those who create the means they need to do it. That's the mastermind. He predicted Kanehara would kill because of the staff's periodic checkups and gave him the means to do it," his gray eyes narrowed, staring at the floor.

"Why would someone help him commit a crime?"

"Kanehara had the motive. That was reason enough."

"His grudge against the people he worked with in that factory," Yashiro raised an eyebrow, eyes on the table.

"I just don't get why he would do this."

"There's always a purpose in absurdity. Don't waste time trying to understand a folly, just ask yourself what it accomplishes, what is gained by it," her voice was quiet and strangely distant, until she blinked, looking at him. "Too soon to draw that conclusion, anyway. In your case, it was a tool for cracking programs. In ours, hacked cameras. We don't know for sure it's the same man. And no one is pulling the strings behind Agawa Hajime. Killing was part of him from long ago. The man we questioned would die for him. But Agawa isn't interested in turning people into killers. He would laugh at Kanehara before killing him."

Kougami stubbed out the cigarette in the ashtray on the desk behind his back, without taking his eyes off her. Yashiro closed hers for a moment and sighed, getting up from the couch after half a minute. She took one last look at the blue file folder on the table, before turning towards the door.

"The Ministry of Welfare," his voice stopped her in her tracks. "That's where Touma Kouzaburou was supposed to be taken."

Kougami saw her eyes widen, fixing on the wall, before glancing at him and leaving the room.