Remnants in smouldered ashes

Chapter 9

It was 6:00 in the morning. Ginoza reclined against the railings of the balcony, staring out into the endless sky. In his wake he was overwhelmed by a wave of an unending solitude, his heart gripped with anxiety over the fact that he wasn't able to be there by her side. The world had grown colorless in his eyes despite the joyous breeze and the early morning sunrise.

Tsunemori's absence made him realize how much she had been a big part of his life. With her deployed overseas, he could only pray for her safety. An ingrained logic told him that if she were to be reunited with Kougami, there was a chance that he would either keep her safe or endanger her with his own actions.

He sighed despairingly as he watched the city move below him.

She might have arrived there by now, he thought.

"Tsunemori-sempai left Japan."

Ginoza turned to his side and found Shimotsuki a few paces away from him. It was rare to see Division 1's second in command to approach him.

He lowered his chin briefly, then said;

"Are you okay with that? Not going abroad to investigate with her?"

His words were met with a sour frown.

"There are other matters I have to attend to," she retorted, "after that, we make our move when the time comes."

"Is that so?"

He admitted, at least to himself how impressed he was at her ability to adapt with the situation despite the fact that the investigation was going nowhere.

A momentary silence followed, the balcony bathed by the warmth of the summer sun.

"As I thought," she flicked the spite off her tongue, "I said too much. This is why I hate enforcers."

He was prepared for such an attitude since the day he became an enforcer.

"No," she corrected herself grimly, "All latent criminals. I cannot forgive the lot of them. If all latent criminals were all annihilated, everyone would be living in peace."

"Would that include Kunizuka then?"

The young inspector jerked.

Normally, he was able to put up with that kind of attitude. However, at this point he wasn't in the mood of tolerating anything. The last thing he really wanted was to put up with someone else's problems. Without giving her a chance to say her piece, he continued;

"Masaoka, Kougami, Kagari, Kunizuka, Sugo, Hinakawa; we all became latent criminals not by a matter of choice. Everyone had their circumstances. It's true that there have been opportunities to recover, however, not everyone has that luxury even if they took the chance."

"... Kunizuka holds up a high respect for Tsunemori-sempai," she said, somehow hinting a twinge of jealousy, "I can't see just what it is in sempai that makes her so special."

For a moment, he saw a reflection of his past self in the young inspector. How he used to envy Kougami when he was able to work with his father. How at some point, he envied Tsunemori when she was able to keep a clear hue in the midst of the chaos. At the time, he often questioned why he couldn't do things as well as they did.

"When I was still in Oso Academy, my friend was killed by that latent criminal," she continued, her brows furrowed as she clenched at the balcony railings. "I read the report on Makishima's case. How he used people like Oryo Rikako as pawns for his own amusement. I don't care if she was nothing more than a pawn, its inexcusable. Its unforgivable that people like her are able to carry on with their lives, treating everything like its some sort of game. Living and breathing the same air as me."