it was black ◎ psycho pass

~Chapter 35~

thanks for reading this far, you're a star ~~ hey that rhymed ~~

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I sat in the bath, gingerly touching the bruise I had just got from my new enemy. The door's lucky it's not a human or else I would've hit it by now.

Akane suggested I should take a bath and while I was washing/playing with bubbles she would clean my clothes. I agreed because I looked like a scruffy dog... and Akane would've kicked me out otherwise.

I'm not particularly inclined to baths because I don't cope well with high temperatures. But I could see the dust pollute the bath water when I got in, which was slightly discouraging and definitely highlighted the need for one. The warm water had come up to my shoulders, steam rising up like something in a sauna. Japanese style baths were different to British ones, so it was a different experience. Especially seeing as this was Akane's apartment.

"Are you alright, Zara?" Akane knocked the door.

"Yes!" I jumped, scrubbing the dirt off my arms quickly.

"You can eat when you get out, your clothes are in my room!"

eat eat eat

"Okay!" I tentatively slipped underneath the surface. The water was hot against my skin and the bubble bath made it slippery on my face. For a second I stopped and admired the oppressing silence. Holding my breath, I stayed under as long as possible before I had to gasp for air.

It was still quiet, but I could hear the drip drip of the water and Akane moving around. Akane was nice. At first she was as scared as everyone else, but that's what everyone was like at first. I don't blame them.

~TIME SKIP~

I slurped the mound of spaghetti slowly, taking in mother's face from the TV. Ms. Evergreen, the mayor, delivering some speech about latent criminals, and not any sightings of me. My mother was controlling the reporters and using me as her advantage- because there was a new candidate in town.

I think I met him first when I was in hospital, and I was trying to recover from another Crime Coefficient spike. It probably wasn't the best way for us to visit. I may or may not have tried to head butt him- but that's all in the past! Mr. Reece might have a grudge against me, but I haven't been allowed to get that close with him to find out.

"We have many new advancements to help latent criminals get their life back and be in control." Ms. Evergreen spoke on the screen. Advancements? Oh yeah, I remember them. The journalist across her nodded and gestured for her to go on, facing her in his chair.

"Go on?" He asked, teeth shining in the light.

"An example would be the drug called LX-01, a new type of drug." She smiled.

Another?

"Instead of the traditional administration of injecting it into the skin, we are trying to develop easier methods."

What... other administration?

"Like?"

"One idea we had was inserting a chip into the patient that would regulate Crime Coefficient by the drug and would only require putting in once."

"Hey Zara, how's the spaghetti- woah! Why's it on the floor?!"

~END~