Psycho Pass: All Alone With You

Sleepover, Pt. 2

Kogami slowly rubbed at his weary eyes, momentarily resting his forehead on his folded hands. A quick check of his wristcom showed that he had worked well into the dawn. Forty hours with no sleep. Unfortunately, it was looking like Ginoza might have been right about Akane's paranoia. Despite the death threats, no bad guys arrived in the night. No intruders stole into her apartment while she slept. The night had passed uneventfully with the exception of one unsettling nightmare. A few sips of hot tea and a bedside vigil had sent the young Inspector back into a peaceful slumber among pastel pillows and stuffed animals.

The case files to cover their sleepover story were complete and awaiting her review. He had taken the time to password protect all of them. If Ginoza wanted to see his work, he would have to wait until Akane had signed off on each one. It was a ploy to redirect is old friend's anger where it belonged, squarely on Kogami's shoulders.

He toyed with the idea of a quick power nap while Akane was in the bathroom getting ready for work. Breakfast was almost ready. Everything he needed was laid out on the counter: pancake batter, eggs, and chocolate chips, just as she had asked. That's when he heard a noise from the front door. The familiar grating sound of an umbrella stand sliding across unpolished wood.

Rolling the toothpick from one corner of his mouth to the other, Kogami glanced at the bathroom door. There were no immediate shadows on the floor at the threshold. Akane was still getting dressed. He snatched the tie from his neck and tied it around the handles to prevent them from being easily opened. Taking the stun baton from his pocket, he deftly slipped around the corner and into the open closet in the hallway. Pressed against the wall, he snapped the baton to extend it and waited for the intruder to come farther inside. His intuition had proved correct and his simple trap effective.

The intruder was quiet and cautious. Kogami risked a quick peek and saw a gloved hand moving the umbrella stand away from the door to avoid knocking it onto the floor. From the front door to the living room, the interloper moved with a deliberate measure of stealth. There was nothing for him to truly fear at that time in the morning, especially when he was only expecting to encounter a young woman, alone, in the apartment.

That thought only infuriated Kogami. Patiently, he waited until the perp had moved passed the closet and just beyond him. He wanted to strike quietly and effectively, taking the guy down before Akane even knew something was amiss. Bringing up the stun baton, he hyper-focused on the base of the man's neck.

"She's in the shower."

"Then this'll be easy."

There were two of them!

Kogami stifled a gasp of surprise in the back of his throat. Advantage now was more important than ever. He could not know the level of their training until he engaged them, which made it imperative that he take down and incapacitate one of them while he fought with the other man. His advantage of surprise was nearly lost when the first perpetrator turned to face his compatriot and saw Kogami in the corner of the closet.

Springing from the shadows, the Enforcer landed a crippling blow to the back of the second man's skull. There was a satisfying numbness that went through his fingers and into his wrist as the baton fractured bone under the force of the impact. On the mark, the baton delivered a sobering shock to the spinal cord. The man convulsed erratically and dropped to the floor, still quivering in the throes of the stun baton's effects. He dropped a small metallic object from his hand. The partially opened parcel cutter, meant for slicing open heavy cardboard boxes, slid across the hardwood floor and vanished under the couch.

The first man, glancing at his companion on the floor, was quick to react. He slashed at Kogami with his cutter and scored a lucky shot, dragging the razor across the Enforcer's right hand. Kogami dropped the stun baton, which the intruder kicked back into the corridor near the front door. Completing the offensive maneuver, he brought the razor back up across Kogami's face, slicing the skin above his right eyebrow.