Madness: DxD

Incident: Borrowed Shadow

I don't knock. Haven't in years. The door's open because it always is, and because he's too lazy to lock it.

He likes that you come uninvited. Makes him feel important. You should remind him you could stop.

The Commissioner looks up from his desk. Same face I've known forever, creased, tired, still stubborn enough to keep this state from eating itself whole.

Commissioner: You're late.

Legend: You're early.

He notices when you're late. That means he was waiting.

He grunts. Closest thing he's got to a smile.

Commissioner: I'll get this out of the way first. I don't think it was you.

Of course he doesn't. You're careful. You're not sloppy like the rest of them.

Legend: Good. Saves us twenty minutes of posturing.

He slides a folder toward me anyway.

Commissioner: But someone wants it to look like you.

I open it. Photos. Empty cases. Locks dismantled, not broken. Clean enough to be insulting.

Imitation is the sincerest form of obsession. I get it.

Legend: He did his homework.

Commissioner: And borrowed your aesthetic.

I stop at a still frame pulled from a guard's body cam. Two points floating in the distance hallway.

Pink. How embarrassing. He wants attention. Yours.

Legend: Yeah, I've seen the news.

Commissioner: Guards reported glowing lights.

Legend: Mine aren't pink.

Yet.

Commissioner: You know how people are these days. They seek attention almost as they do their paycheck.

I look up at him.

Legend: That's humanity for you.

Not you. You're better than them. That's why they copy.

Commissioner: We've been working together for more than ten years for me to think you'd get sloppy. Or theatrical.

Legend: I resent that.

Commissioner: You resent theatrics?

Legend: Only bad ones.

I flip through the rest of the file.

Legend: He only strikes at daytime?

Commissioner: Another reason it can't be you.

I close the folder and stare at the ceiling.

Legend: That's deliberate.

Daylight hurts you. Of course it's deliberate. He wants you uncomfortable.

Commissioner: I figured you'd say that.

Legend: You know my policy.

Commissioner: Nighttime only. I know. You remind me every time I ask you to bend it.

Legend: I'm easier to spot in the sunlight.

Vulnerable. Exposed. I hate when they see you like that.