Psycho Pass: Way of the Wolf

Day 03

 Having overheard their handlers about an afternoon spent running on the beach, Kogami ate sparingly at lunch, advising Akane and their friends from Los Angeles to do the same. With canteens in hand, they were hurried from the mess hall back to the beachfront for more endurance training. Wearing combat boots, the recruits were ordered to run a half mile up the beach, only then to turn around and run back, only this time running through the ocean water.

Legs heavy from running and panting for air, the recruits were given an hour long break to tour the o-course. The guided tour included an explanation of each obstacle, a modeled execution, and safety expectations. There were well over a dozen formidable challenges meant to test upper body and core strength as well as resilience.

Others tested courage and resolve, such as the cargo net and the nefarious slide for life. Both obstacles required a new set of waivers to be signed, warranting an additional measure of fear and respect among the law enforcement officers. After a second check through the paperwork, the recruits were blown away by whistles and sent in pairs at timed intervals to tackle the course.

Jumping down from a knotted rope, Kogami was taken off guard when Akane smacked him in the back of the head. "Hey, what's gotten into you?"

"You!" she hissed, moving on to the next obstacle. "You don't have a lot of faith in me, do you?"

Kogami denied the accusation with silence. He had been holding back, letting her set the pace. He jumped onto a thick rope, scaling to the top before reaching out to an iron ring and swinging across it with one hand to grasp the other rope on the other side before scaling back down to the ground. Akane beat him back to solid ground.

"Why are you holding back?"

This time he ducked the incoming slap and made a run for the next obstacle. "If you think I'm holding you back, Inspector, there's nothing in the rules saying you can't leave me behind."

Akane used a running start to leap up to the highest rung of the cargo net before she inserted her feet to begin the long climb to the top. She was spider-like and agile, moving from rung to rung with confident speed. Kogami was hard pressed to match her, but his longer frame and upper body strength allowed him to keep pace.

At the top, they paused to look out over the course. There were recruits at every challenge and a handler, if not two, nearby to urge them on or insult them for their weakness. To add insult to injury, one of the SEALs had brought a firehose onto the course and was spraying the ground, the obstacles, and the recruits with seawater as they came within range.

Twice that morning, Tarkinson's bell had been rung. Kogami was certain the course and its demands would claim a few others, not only through fatigue but by injury.

"That doesn't look good." Akane's shoulders slumped in worry. Any activity featuring large amounts of water darkened even her rosy outlook on things.

"You wanted to come here," Kogami said, throwing his long legs over the top. "Like I said, would have been easier for you to visit me in an isolation facility."

Akane joined him for the climb down, nimbly rolling over the side and hanging on with her arms. "But then, Ginoza would be there monitoring every hour of your rehabilitation."

"You have a point. I think I prefer the sand chafing all over my body to his scowling."

"You have a funny way of looking at things, Mr. Kogami," she said. Hands on her head for balance, she climbed a pile of logs and hopped down on the other side.

"Get ready," he warned. A blast of water rained down on them, burning their eyes with salty water.

The next obstacle was a rope climb that required a swinging start to reach a set of seven horizontal bars that were evenly spaced over a tract of muddy water. Beyond the bars, another swing was required to reach the last rope to scale back down for completion.