I sat in the emergency room after Arima drove me here, all alone, getting bandaged up.
"Is it done?" I asked jumping off the table.
"Just take it easy, it was a pretty bad break."
"Thanks." I smiled and walked out of the hospital.
"Arima said he'd have someone to pick me up?" I looked around at the empty entrance.
"Ai?" Someone asked.
"Oh fuck." I whispered.
"You idiot!"
"Hello Akira." I smiled and walked over to her.
"Arima told me everything. You were ambushed?!"
I got in the car and put my belt on.
"We were ambushed by ghouls that didn't want to eat us."
"What? How'd you know they don't want to eat you?"
"They tried blowing us up, instead of a straight up attack? They can't eat the remains after blowing us up can they?"
"You're right."
"The fact that they're using explosives makes them more of a threat now too."
"Well, I'll get you home and you can work out what's been happening."
"No." I shook my head. "I'll have tomorrow off but I'm going to talk to the ghouls I brought in."
"Ai..."
"I know I know. Just let me do this."
She sighed. "Fine. Go ahead."
We arrived at the detention centre and I ran in angrily, ignoring every 'hello ai' or 'are you okay ma'am'. I knew that soji knew I was in for a trap. One arm in a sling, I used my other arm to enter the code for the locked door, and ripped it open.
"You knew i was fucked didn't you? You knew there was a slim chance you could both be captured so you had a plan b. Set me up, get me and all my team killed and then they can break in and get you both out."
"Wow. I underestimated you." He said smiling. "Ill make sure it never happens again."
"You have a call again." The Secretary said.
I grabbed the phone and took my sling off.
"I'm not up for deliberation over the lives of your friends! They're both dead now. I caught on. Maybe the plan is to distract me with a phone call and bust them out, but not anymore. The ball is in my court now." I hung up and gave the phone back. "Any other calls, screen them."
I walked away, locking the door. I ran to my office and tied my hair up. I threw my sling on the ground and picked up the walkie talkie.
"I need Arima up here right now." I said angrily.
"Copy that ma'am."
I slammed the walkie talkie down and walked out.
"This better be good." He said angrily.
"I want both of these moved to the 12th ward please."
"Why?"
"Their group knows they're here and they're planning an attack. It seems these two are very important to the group we need to get them away from here. Hide them."
"Get suited up then. You're coming with me. I want both of them dosed up on high amounts of rc suppressant for transportation."
"Okay sir." I nodded and walked into my office.
"I need several doses of rc suppressant please. The syringe and needle kind brought to interrogation room seven." I walked out and back to the interrogation room.
Soji smiled and I remember the stunt with the tracker.
"Arima!" I screamed running out.
"What now?" He asked holding the elevator doors.
"I think they've both swallowed trackers. We need to get them out of them without destroying them so their group thinks they're still here."
He smiled at me and I started worrying. He doesn't smile... like ever.
"Good thinking. That promotion is getting closer to you. I'll set up a team. You just relax in your office. I'll have them alert you when they're both out of surgery."
I nodded and smiled. He let the elevator doors close and I walked back into the interrogation room.
"How did you know?" Soji asked, not cocky in the slightest, he seemed worried.
"Like I said, I didn't get this job for nothing." I sat down and watched as both of them begin to panic. "I'm alert and a very skilled worker. Don't underestimate me ever again."
A group of people walked in so I walked out. Did I feel guilty? Yeah. But they're lucky they haven't been killed yet. I'll keep them alive and everyone else. I promise.
"Miss?" Someone said. I flinched up after falling asleep.
"Yeah?"
"They're both unconcious and the trackers are out. We've made sure to keep them separate so we know which tracker belongs to who."
"Great. Put them in my office and lock it up."
I walked to the elevator and took it to the roof. I got out and saw the helicopter. Arima waved me over so I ran over to him.
"You're flying this thing?"
"Put this on." He said giving me a headset.
I took it off him and put it on. I turned around and soji and yasuna were unconcious. I discreetly held yasuna's hand and sighed.
"Sit back Ai!" He said through the headset. I closed the door and sat back. I put my seat belt on and began clapping.
"This is so cool! two helicopter rides in one day."
"Good work Ai."
"Two compliments off Arima too? Today's shaping up to be a pretty good day, even despite the broken arm." He laughed and we took off. I was staring at the scenery. The most beautiful thing in the world, is the world itself and I've never really seen everything from this point of view. Last time I was in a helicopter I was too concerned with my broken arm to take in my surroundings. I shook my head in utter disbelief at how amazing tokyo was from this height at sundown.
"Ai, prepare for landing, it can be a bit bumpy!" He shouted.
"You got it." I smiled and hung on to a handle.
The landing was bumpy but it wasn't too bad. I took the headset off and took my seat belt off. I stood up and unhooked the chains keeping soji and yasuna secure. Arima pulled soji's gurney out and I pulled yasuna's out. We were greeted by two investigators that Arima knew and we're escorted inside.
"They will be in solitary confinement as you requested and they will be very secure." The man assured us.
He opened a door and I put yasuna in. I walked out and he locked the door.
We did the same for soji and we're escorted downstairs.
"Are we not going home?" I asked.
"I'm treating you to some food. I want to talk."
"Wow. Really?" I asked smiling.
"Yeah, really."
"Come on before I change my mind."
I smiled and followed him.
Flashback
I ran down the alley way a fast as my legs could carry me. "Arima!" I shouted with my flame coloured hair trailing behind.
"Are you okay?" He asked pulling out his quinque.
"Ghouls!" I screamed.
He stood in front of me. "It's okay! You're safe!"
This was all before I met Rize. Arima found me on the verge of death and nursed me to health. He then fell in love with me... not in they way you'd think... he loved me because I reminded him of someone he lost a long time ago.
"Arima?" I said on his back.
"Yes?" He asked smiling.
"I'm sorry I got you in trouble today. Thank you for helping me again."
"Its fine. I'm glad I was there, just stop putting yourself in danger so often! You need to be more careful."
"Why do you protect me so much?"
He laughed.
"You remind me of my sister. She always put herself in dangerous decisions and it got her killed. I wouldn't want that to happen to you."
Back to reality.
We sat in the restaurant and we were served food almost straight away. I went to dig in but Arima stopped me.
"What is it?" I asked.
"Look, I wanted to take you out to talk about what happened today?"
"It's been a hectic day."
"You got yourself in trouble again, and your clumsiness nearly pushed you to an early death, but you evaded it again. You need to be quicker in your head, not just on your feet."
"It's think there's a compliment in there somewhere."
"There is. What I'm saying is congratulations Ai."
"On what? Breaking my arm or getting three people killed?"
"On becoming rank one."
"What?" My draw dropped.
"You deserve it. I'm proud of you. You're reckless and hot headed and sometimes clumsy and stupid, but you've impressed all of your superiors. You've done the quinx squad proud. After the nutcracker incident, the clean up, the quinx squad were liked a bit more so you never saw what it was like for them before you got here. They were judged and discriminated and I was nervous about adding such a reckless girl to their ranks but you've proven me wrong. You have Akira to thank though. She saw something in you. She said you had a passion most investigators lacked, and the drive you had was a rare commodity that we needed. That girl has a knack for going against things I say, but I'm thankful she did. I'm thankful juuzou came to us telling us after you were nearly auctioned off at the auction, and that you managed to help him. It must have taken a lot of energy to do what you did."
"Well, after I helped him, the many faced binge eater tried to kill some investigators so I killed her."
"I couldn't even kill her, so I see why Akira took a liking to you."
I smiled and dug in.
