"Do you remember a month ago, during the Specimen Case?" Inspector Ginoza adjusted his glasses.
"Is that what you call it?" Yashiro lifted her chin to him. "What a twisted name. Of course I remember."
Kougami took the cigarette from his lips, "We know you were with Sasayama."
The room melted into an enigmatic silence. She remained motionless with both hands on the armrests like a painting, as if she had not really heard the comment.
"I see," she turned to Inspector Ginoza without even a blink. "What about it?"
He arched an eyebrow and decided to sit facing her, dragging the chair on the floor with a creaking sound for a second, "You lied to the MWPSB. Do you realize how serious this is?"
"A lie does not make you a killer," she tilted her head to the side with a slight shrug.
"It doesn't make you an innocent either."
Yashiro widened her eyes looking for the owner of those words. Kougami was there watching her while smoking a cigarette, and filling the room with that smell so strong for her. Yashiro wondered if he was doing it on purpose, though she could not help but release a thin smile, as she stopped her gaze on the left corner of the table for a moment. Ginoza raised his voice capturing both of their attention, "Why did you lie?"
Yashiro let out a long and audible breath.
"First of all, I did not lie. I simply hid the truth so that you would not stop Sasayama."
This time Masaoka himself grumbled, "You lied about your relationship with Touma."
"Yes—is that a crime?" her voice echoed in the room as she extended her right hand in the air, with her elbow on the armrest. "I never got to know that shade of him. Maybe I did not even want to admit he had one."
Yashiro put her hand back on the armrest, and fell silent. She had not fully reflected on the mental illness of this vicious killer, but then she closed her eyes for several seconds, and took a deep breath. She should have tried to put a light in the back of his head. That way she could have seen that shade and attempted to change him, even though it was impossible to accomplish. But at least she would have given him the comfort that someone saw and understood that shade.
"Why Sasayama?" Kougami snapped at her.
Yashiro looked up again as if it had been years.
"I did not seem right to take him off the case, so I decided to help him when no one else did. The case was transferred to other agents but you had started the investigation, you were the closest to finding Touma. And Sasayama had personal reasons for looking for Kirino-san—he would have done so with or without my help."
Kougami clenched his fists tightly, "You used him."
"That is a way of looking at it," she squinted at him and tilted her head to the side. "As an inspector, didn't you use him to do your dirty work?"
"That was different."
"In what way? I did not force him to look for Kirino-san. He himself knew there was no turning back. I think even... for the first time as an enforcer, he made a decision on his own free will. You see... it was not me who was going to point a dominator at him if he did not follow my orders—"
All of a sudden, Kougami passed by the table and held her by the collar of her black coat, lifting her slightly in the chair and bringing her close to his face, as if preparing himself to choke the life out of her. With a lit cigarette fixed between the fingers of his free hand, he exhaled deeply into her face.
"How convenient!"
Yashiro's face contorted into a repulsed expression as the smell wafted over her, but she stared at him through disheveled bangs, with her head slightly tilted to the side and her lips parted. He was a little taller than she was and certainly much heavier, for she could tell that he exercised regularly, yet she replied with an almost mocking calmness, "I beg your pardon?"
"He killed your mother. Surely you wanted to leave him there to die, didn't you?"
She curled her lip showing her teeth for a second, and grabbed his forearm with one of her hands squeezing hard, though he did not release the grip.
"I wanted Kirino-san back just like him—"
"But you wouldn't miss the chance to get revenge, would you?"
"Kougami—that's enough!" Ginoza yelled at him.
Yashiro frowned, her tempting narrowed eyes bathing his face until she whispered defiantly, "I understand... wanting to take revenge. I can see it in your eyes. There is nothing wrong with a cop having fun in his work. I will not deny my own personal relief as soon as I heard of his death."
"Kougami!" Masaoka growled right behind him.
"But nothing can take the pain away. Eventually you will learn to live with it. There will be nightmares. Hallucinations. Until one day... you will wake up with a different priority."
"Who do you think you are, manipulating others and talking about whether or not they deserve to be saved?" Kougami questioned almost in a shout.
"Sasayama was an enforcer. He has killed many innocent people himself. Why should it be a sin not to mourn his death, when he did never think of my mother or what I felt? You can take me to church—but I am not praying for him."
"You denounce Sibyl for its justice, but you act on the same basis."
"I act on the basis of my own values," Yashiro declared aloud, without waiting for a response. "You still refuse to see what is fading into you... Kougami. It's hard to be an arbiter of our lives. It's easier to play and delegate that role to someone else. You let go of your emotions in favor of reason. You thought Sasayama was weak for having feelings and being guided by them... but you were weak for hiding from them. Sasayama may never have made a decision of his own free will as an enforcer. But at least he chose to die... as a free man. Now I remember... you were the one who told him to stay off the case... and now you regret... because he is dead."
Kougami released her with a push. His eyes were wide open, still fully focused on her. Ginoza shot him an accusing glance and turned to her, with an authoritative and certainly distrustful tone, "Tell us what happened in the apartment."
Yashiro did not look directly at him, she was still attentive to Kougami's movements, who seemed to want to hit her at that very moment.
"We found out that Kirino-san could be kidnapped there and we went in. She managed to escape and then Touma showed up on the stairs. There was a fight. And then the fire. We had to get out through a window just before... everything caught fire. We thought Touma was dead. There was no way he could escape the flames—"
"But he did," Kougami sneered at her. "What caused the fire?"
"I have no idea. We did not look at the details."
Kougami began pacing the room, letting out a sigh of exasperation. Then he spluttered, more to himself, "Sasayama was right. The whole mastermind thing. Everything makes sense now. I should have listened to him. First—the fire at the academy. And now this. Someone wanted to help him escape."
"What did you do then?" Ginoza inquired, completely ignoring his partner.
"They insisted that there were accomplices. I did not want Kirino-san to get further involved, but I could not change her mind. So I went with them..."
Inspector Ginoza folded his arms and raised his head, "Go on."
"We were ambushed in an alley. Someone knocked me out from behind. The last thing I remember is Sasayama turning around to see me."
"And Kirino-san?"
"When I woke up, I was alone in the same place," Yashiro looked down and shook her head, as if memories suddenly came flooding back. "I never saw them again."
Kougami had his eyes fixed on the wall behind her, but remarked with a certain dangerous intonation, "Why would they let you live?"
Yashiro simply shrugged her shoulders.
"I do not know. They must have thought the fall would have killed me."
"Touma's men. Whoever these people are, they could not let Kirino-san tell the CID everything," Ginoza guessed and then suddenly added, casting a glance at Yashiro. "And if they were the same ones who attacked us, it means they could not let you live either..."
"Not Touma's," Kougami let out a puff of smoke. "He would never do any harm to the girl."
"He kidnapped her," Masaoka reminded him.
"He was obsessed with her—he wanted her to love him. Those were other men."
"If not Touma's men, then whose?" Ginoza questioned.
Kougami did not answer him directly and continued to give shape to his idea, while extending his right hand with the cigarette between his fingers, "The girl must have seen or heard something she shouldn't have, and that's why she was captured. But Touma wasn't part of this—he didn't know they were just playing tricks on him."
"Kougami... you are delusional," the inspector closed his eyes for a moment.
"And I think you were part of it," Kougami looked down, finally focusing on her. "Because you're lying."
Yashiro arched an eyebrow and took several seconds to smirk, letting out a brief sigh, "Why would I do that?"
Kougami was silent for a few moments pondering his own conclusion, and he exhaled some smoke toward her.
"Maybe you were protecting something—or someone."
"Try me."
Kougami pulled out his dominator and pointed it straight at her. Yashiro remained in the same place, as if waiting for death. Ginoza was about to scold him, yet he was silent when he realized that the gun was static.
Crime coefficient is 15. Not a target for enforcement action. The trigger will be locked.
Kougami had his finger next to the trigger as if he wanted to pull it by all means, but finally lowered the gun again. He thought it must be the lowest psycho pass he had ever seen in his life, but a part of him still could not believe that number, and his face withered as if suddenly, life had lost all meaning. Yashiro then knew that she had broken something inside him. He holstered his gun again, but was unable to tear his eyes away from hers.
"No one lives white forever. Someday you will turn black, too."
She looked down and whispered, "I hope so."
Kougami lifted an eyebrow and then left the room. Masaoka turned around calling his name, but shook his head and decided to go after him. Yashiro could not help but smile—he seemed to be the kind of man who took care of his colleagues, whether they were strictly family or not. She really liked that man, even though his eerie, silent intuition could become disturbing at times.
She could glimpse Ginoza's green eyes glowing under his glasses, "I am sorry for all the misunderstanding. Kougami is no longer the same since the death of Sasayama. He is willing to find the culprits. I would not want to be one of them to be honest..."
Yashiro blinked at the way his voice had slightly faded.
"Don't be. You are doing your job. I really hope you can solve the case," she displayed a renewed, fresh smile instead.
"Rest assured we will," he stated with a frown as if she were suddenly someone else, then made a long pause. "There is someone who wants to see you."
Yashiro tilted her head with a smile, but before she could say anything else, the inspector was gone and soon another man she had never seen entered the room. She could tell he was in his fifties, and his brown eyes scrutinized her with calm precision. He looked like an ordinary person, for he was wearing a green sweater and a woolen muffler. But she believed there was something else.
"A professor?" she tried to guess with narrowed eyes.
He arched an eyebrow and adjusted his glasses, then sat in front of her.
"Used to be."
"Specialized in psychology, I suppose."
He released a barely visible smile, "My name is Saiga Jouji."
She stretched out in the chair placidly.
"Did you assist in investigations?"
"I did... as a psychiatric examiner."
She squinted her eyes at him. That man described a professional aura that she had never perceived in anyone else before.
"Why did you quit?" she questioned, then lifted her chin. "Because their crime coefficients rose. They—they made you quit. Is that why you dislike the current society? Because they do not value your work, one that can save so many people?"
He slightly tilted his head and stroked his beard for some time while contemplating her.
"You suffer from an empathy disorder that allows you to put yourself into the mindset of anyone—but it may destroy yourself. You aspire to work for the Public Safety Bureau... as an inspector, am I right?" she nodded her head. "Of all the jobs you could apply for, why would you choose that one?"
"Maybe it is like you psychologists... who seek to know yourselves. May I ask what brings you here? Could this be... some Kougami's move?"
"I looked through the information he brought with him. I can see why he is so conflicted about you."
"What is your assessment?"
"You helped the students of Ousou Academy to safety during a fire. And you came to the defense of many people today by warning them—you were conscious of the danger that loomed over them, and you acted accordingly."
"One of them was shot in the end."
"It does not change the fact that it demonstrates you have a very strong sense of right, wrong, and justice as well."
Yashiro slowly shook her head and sighed, as if listening to a boring old story.
"I would not be so sure of that."
Another smile lit up his face. After all, he was the psychologist in that room.
"You show no signs of depression or social introversion. But you certainly have a psychopathic deviate conflict... as it regards to society's rules."
She suddenly chuckled and looked to the left, before turning back to him, "Is that it?"
He leaned forward with the same solemn expression.
"You are masquerading."
It was precisely her sudden lack of reaction that said it all for the man.
"You are divorced from a side of yourself I cannot see... because you are terrified of letting people see it. I still cannot figure out why... or what it is like."
Looking at the coffee cup on his right hand, Saiga Jouji pondered on the young woman he had met a day ago. Kougami was sitting right in front of him, and he had not ordered anything to eat for he wanted to be fully focused on him. He was off duty but since he was an enforcer, there was nowhere else he could go besides the Criminal Investigation Department floor and his quarter.
"She is a highly intelligent, driven individual with some developed sociopathic tendencies. Maybe it was caused by a post-traumatic stress disorder. She has a hatred for authority and for the country, something going against her morals and ethics. She has a particular charisma—being able to influence others and make people feel what they are looking for. She is like a mirror reflecting their deepest and most suppressed desires, and she is very conscious of that power. I dare say she is even capable of either illuminating or clouding the psycho pass of others."
"I've never seen a hue like hers," Kougami slowly shook his head. "And she must be the best liar I've ever seen. There's something about her—I can't tell."
"I have read about her past. The tragedy. Maybe that was the critical turning point in her life."
"We should ask Takahashi-san herself, but I don't think she'll answer."
The former professor widened his eyes for a second, then took a sip of coffee.
"She would only open up to someone who can see and understand... that side of her she is so terrified of letting others see."