Psycho Pass: All Alone With You

Drift! Chapter 6

 Leaning against a cinderblock wall with one arm crossed over his chest, Kogami rubbed the weariness from his eyes. A long, sleepless night with drunks and petty criminals in the LAPD holding tank had left him irritable, stiff-jawed, and on the verge of losing his temper. As of that morning, Kogami had been on the job for a straight 30 hours and under extreme pressure to perform beyond expectation. Even Enforcers were given time off the job to avoid further clouding their psycho passes.

A night of worrying about Akane had not helped matters. He stood restlessly in the jail's waiting room just outside of the booking area. There was no where to sit inside the facility. The drab interior colors and the antiseptic smell in the corridors and rooms were purposeful and meant as deterrent to keep the public at a distance.

It was just after 8:30am when the judge had seen him, via video camera, and accepted a No Contest plea to a laundry list of charges. His bail, set at $60,000, was promptly paid, but not out of his pocket, and the bondsman would not reveal the donor.

Two hours after his release, Akane was arraigned before the same judge and set free on her own recognizance. It was hard to miss her as she made her way down the hallway from the holding cells. The pink, four-foot panda clasped in her arms was a dead give away. She was exhausted, and there were faint gray rings beneath her eyes.

Kogami pushed himself from the wall. "Hey."

"Hey," she whispered.

"You alright?" He ran his hand through her hair and brought her close to him.

Her face was pale and lined with exhaustion. The makeup, while mostly intact, was beginning to smudge. Like him, she had been through a very long night and needed some sleep. Akane took a deep breath and laid her head against his chest and her panda bear. "That's as close to an isolation cell as I ever want to get."

"It's not so terrible," he replied. "If you're alone." He looked at the panda and chuckled at how she clung possessively to the stuffed toy. "Couldn't let go of this, could you?"

"After last night, I earned my panda." She fell in step beside him to the main exit.

"I think we both earned some sleep. But first we have to catch a ride."

"Where's BabyGirl?"

"Impounded. Rodriguez is making the red tape as real as possible. He suspects McNeill will reach out to make contact."

"How can he be so sure?"

"Who do you think paid $65,000 for my bail? Or the $15,000 for your bail? I didn't."

"McNeill?"

"I'd bet my meager paycheck on it." Kogami opened the glass door in the front entrance of the building and let her step outside onto the sidewalk ahead of him. Stunned by the brilliant morning sunlight, they were momentarily blinded. "I'll hail a cab."

"Mr. Kogami? Miss Tsunemori?"

The unfamiliar voice caught Kogami off guard. Though the Enforcer refrained from reacting defensively, he moved quickly enough to put himself between the stranger and Akane as a safeguard until his eyes adjusted.

Graying and bald at the crown of his head, the speaker was a man in his late fifties. Clean shaven with a manicured handlebar mustache, he smiled, but Kogami as not disarmed by his charm. It was a practiced gesture that betrayed the man's occupation as some sort of negotiator.

Dressed in a gray suit and matching shoes, he held a pair of orange bail tickets, tapping them quietly against his hand. A black, stretch limousine was parked at the curb with the motor running. The stranger stepped back toward the vehicle and opened the door in an evident invitation to them.