PSYCHO-PASS : Paradigm Shift

Chapter 3 : Human Factor

PART 3 – Human Factor

It was around two am when he called.

"What?" she growled, displeased by his timing. If she had any time to think, she wouldn't have taken that call. Still, she took it, as per reflex, and listened.

"Still awake?" he asked, and she felt the tension arise merely from hearing his voice. This won't be pleasant.

"What the Hell do you want, Gino?"

She hoped she sounded calm. But, she was far from it.

"A promotion. You to get back to Division One. You to break up with him. You to get over here and make love to me. Not necessarily in that order."

"Did you wake me up just to throw witty remarks at me?"

That remark... about making love... caused her to blush in the darkness. She had to act as calm as she could in the given moment.

"I woke you up because I wanted to hear your voice," he simply stated.

"Whatever for?"

She sighed, rising a bit in her bed.

"Because I wanted to apologize... for how I treated you the last time. That was selfish... and immature," he said.

"Damn, Nobuchika... you are picking the worst time for dealing with the guilty conscience."

"Sorry," his retort surprised her.

"Hey... is your hue all right?" she asked, now beginning to get worried. Was he calling because he was down-spiraling or something?

"It's fine," he simply stated.

"Listen..." she started, only to get interrupted.

"Are you getting back with him?" he wanted to know. He must have heard that she went to visit Kogami in the hospital wing. Some part of him hoped that... after recent events... Kogami decided to let her go, and this time, for good.

"We never broke up to begin with," she informed him, biting into her lip. His sigh, coming from his side of the line, wasn't all that surprising.

"Does he even know..."

"... that we had sex? Yes. He does."

She was too embarrassed to think about it. Even more to speak about it out loud. But, she won't omit to call it the right way just to make them both feel less guilty about it.

"He must be out of his mind," Gino mumbled to himself. "And you must be too."

"Weren't you the one who said that if he loved me, he wouldn't care how many times you and I slept together?"

He did. Of course he did... but he also thought Kou would break up with Shizuka once he learns that she slept with him more than once.

She could almost feel how uneasy Gino felt. Despite his recent behavior... Gino wasn't all that comfortable with the triangle they've found themselves captured in.

"How's your hue?" she asked once more. He didn't respond immediately.

"How's yours?" he asked back. She lied back on the pillow, covering her eyes with her hand.

"Powder blue," she whispered. She heard his relief from the other side of the line. "And yours?"

"Turquoise," he said. "Within the pale parameter of the specter."

She gasped, relieved to hear it too.

"You are aware what that means... aren't you?" he asked.

She inhaled a few times.