A mother is 21 years older than her child. In exactly 6 years from now, the mother will be exactly 5 times as old as the child.

Where's the father?

Psycho Pass

A psychological anime set in a dystopian society designed to in fact be a utopia where crimes are stopped before they can even take place by taking those with high crime coefficients out of society and isolating them in rehabilitation centers or executing them.

I wanted to scream.

I settled upon crying my eyes out instead, albeit silently, too horrified to make any loud sound.

Imagine, being trapped in a universe where your own thoughts can make you be deemed a criminal. Where your biology can contribute to the likelihood of you being a liability to the 'perfect' society. Where you can be shipped off to a rehabilitation center and live the rest of your life in isolation before natural death or execution, agree to be an enforcer and treated like an animal instead of a human or just be killed on the spot in the most brutal, horrific way imaginable.

Trapped there. Indefinitely. With no way out ever making itself apparent to you.

My parents were still screaming at Arata and hadn't even noticed my crying and how my body was shaking violently.

I'd seen dominators. I'd seen what they did to people.

I'd seen what ran this society too. A collective entity made up of the brains of those whom cannot be judged like normal people and definitely have at least two psychopaths in there-or at least will have around eight years from now.

I'd seen how desperate people were to maintain a healthy mental state and how their desperation turned to hopelessness and murder. I'd seen what had happened when they were placed in the right situation, which enabled them to act however they wanted and how everyone had almost immediately resorted to killing others and other crimes.

I'd seen how ugly the society the Sibyl System had created already was.

Get me out.

Please, get me out.

God, no, this can't be happening and my age-no, god no, I'm going to be only in my twenties when everything gets worse and Makishima is coming, get me out, so many people are going to die no, please no-Kirito Kamui will get me if Makishima doesn't and I'm going to die, oh my god I'm going to die and up till then all I'll be doing is crying over how my own thoughts could get me killed-please no, no, no.

My breathing was getting erratic and I focused my vision on my parents again. My father was still shouting and my mother was repeating over and over that Arata was never going to think such thoughts again whilst his sobs got louder and something inside of me broke.

They were more worried about his crime coefficient than his happiness.

The Sibyl System comprises happiness in order to achieve a perfect society where no crime is ever committed and all talents are utilized to the fullest.

And everyone follows Sibyl's judgements on how their life should be led.

In that moment, I'd never sympathized with Makishima's ideas about the Sibyl System more.

Arata and I never did play the riddle game again.

Our father took the game away so that no thoughts that could cloud our hues and raise our crime coefficient would arise in our minds. Arata's lower lip had wobbled when it had been taken away since he and I had both been fond of that game even if I was almost always the one to win at it. But then he remembered how the adults had screamed at him and didn't say a word.

When I'd later seen our parents' psycho passes that they'd left on the kitchen table still on whilst in a hurry to catch a programme on the TV of the future, I'd felt a sense of morbid satisfaction when I'd seen their hues getting murkier and crime coefficient get higher after the incident.

Logically, I knew it wasn't their fault, that it was this stupid society's fault for pushing so hard for everyone to have stable mental states that people got distressed because of it and wanted desperately to ensure their children wouldn't have the same problem. But, at the same time, there was the issue that my parents didn't seem to have the idea ingrained into their minds from the very start of their lives that screaming at a child who didn't know the difference between good and bad was wrong.

It was difficult not to feel therefore a little pleased when they were punished for something I knew to be so morally wrong.

I also caught sight of my own psycho pass. My crime coefficient had gone up to 25.4.

When Arata started school a few months after the incident, I was all but left alone at home with a holo-servant in the shape of a bear to take care of me.

My parents couldn't stay off work any longer as it was 'recommended' by Sibyl to get back to work as soon as possible after having children as making use of your talents would make you feel less stressed out. Not that they said this to my face but Arata heard about it from other children who were less protected from the world by their parents.

Being alone in the house sometimes made me almost forget I was in a horrific universe where the society had gone to hell and you couldn't really be happy when you were too absorbed in protecting your mental state. I read books I'd steal from the bookshelf in the sitting room that no one touched for years ("Who even reads real books anymore? We should just get rid of it." My father once said to my mother who argued that she had grown up with such books and was not willing to part with them even if she didn't read them), watch silly cartoons and anime, draw and paint.

Art at first had been a reminder of my situation as my chubby fingers had had difficulty holding a pencil or paintbrush and the control I had over my body wasn't the same as it was in my old eighteen year old body. But after practicing and practicing, I could finally do practically everything I had before, almost making me feel like I was sitting back at home, my real home, and safe.

I was aged five and just about to enter school when one morning I was whisked off by my parents to a huge hall filled with several other children of my age. My parents almost immediately disappeared and I stood there, looking around and trying to figure out what was going on.

My parents rarely took me outside. It was obvious that this was in order to protect me from the world that was geared almost entirely towards keeping a healthy mental state. Therefore, I would not become worried like they had-not that this worked in the slightest considering I knew probably more about this society than they did.

But now I was in a room filled with other children they were all chattering amongst themselves loudly. My first thought was that this was some sort of 'getting to know your future schoolmates' thing but I immediately discarded the idea. There seemed to be too few adults around for this to be a possibility and this didn't seem like a school we'd all been crammed into.

A toddler ran into me before I could think up a second idea as to why we were there and the child immediately apologized before chattering loudly and quickly to me about how they'd seen Hanako-chan earlier and how they were super cute and how they said they were friends and isn't that awesome and they are some awesome now they're friends with Hanako-chan and-

I'd stopped listening by that point. Instead I was solely focused on the name Hanako and how it was familiar. I didn't get the sense that it was very important what I was missing but the niggling sensation in the back of my head annoyed me slightly and I frowned in concentration.

Hanako...Hanako...

A sudden memory hit me of sitting in front of the hologram TV with Arata and two cutesy cartoons popping up. "Hi, I'm Taro-kun..."

"And I'm Hanako-chan!"

"Together we are..."

Komissa-chan.

The mascots for the Criminal Investigation Department.

My eyes widened slightly. What on earth were they doing here? For god's sake, this was a gathering of small children! What part of this gathering would warrant the attention of the CID-

"Attention." My thoughts and the stream of chatter coming from the toddler opposite me were broken by a loud voice coming from the speakers situated all around us. It was somewhat unnerving to see all the children in the hall fall silent all at once and act this insanely behaved save some quiet whispering. "The Medical Examination will begin soon. Please follow the instructions of the doctors and holos around you."

It was then the doors to the hall all swung open at once and a swarm of holograms flew in, all seeming to be targeting one person each. They all had the designs of small animals with medic-like clothing and accessories, clearly made in such a fashion to be appealing to us as young children. "Kawabata Natsuyo?" A cat hovered right in front of my face, a cap with a red cross adoring its head.

I nodded in confirmation, bemused by the whole thing. The hologram acknowledged this and twirled in mid air, indicating for me to follow. I saw the toddler who I'd been speaking to engage in conversation with their hologram, gushing about Hanako-chan to them also as a bright smile stretched across their features.

I wasn't quite sure why I found it so strange that all the children were obediently following the orders they'd given. After all, even if this universe wasn't meant to be insanely safe and one could leave their doors unlocked without fear of theft, none of them seemed of the age to be very questioning. But I couldn't help but think back to when I was truly younger and constantly hammered with the idea of not blindly trusting everyone I met and, if I had even the slightest sliver of doubt, I should question and refuse to do as what I was told.

Lessons like that clearly aren't taught here.

My hologram led me through a series of corridors and, slowly yet surely, the crowds of children I was walking with got thinner and thinner. Eventually, I reached an automatic door with a large 'K' printed on the glass, it opening to reveal a large room with toys and beanbags littering the place. Two boys-obviously twins-both made a dash for the robot figures and began whooping with laughter, other toddlers also scampering inside to make a bid for their own desired toys to play with.

The holograms followed each child, hovering just above their heads. The permanent smiles on their faces now seemed to take on a more sinister side and I found myself being a little creeped out by them. Deciding I didn't want to get into a fight with a toddler over a toy I wouldn't exactly be fascinated by, I chose to sit on a beanbag and think instead.

Something else was niggling in the back of my head now, it having done so ever since I'd been informed of this being all for the sake of a medical examination. This time it seemed far more important than the whole Hanako-chan affair, although I tried to reason with myself that if it really were such a significant thing, I wouldn't have let it slip to the back of my mind. It was at that moment I spied a shock of orange from across the room and my eyes with instinctively drawn to the burst of colour-

Oh.

Oh shit.

My head spun and suddenly I couldn't grasp onto my thoughts properly, only able to repeat my internal exclamation of surprise and horror again and again and again.

Then, the first stage came.

It isn't them. I'm seeing wrong. My mind's playing tricks on me. I'm jumping to conclusions.

Denial.

Red hot denial that pulsed through me angrily, screaming defiantly at the part of my brain that dared to think otherwise. My eyes squeezed shut and I ignored the hologram that then started chirping my name with infuriating repetition. The lack of vision of my environment only served to make my furious denial worse. I started denying the reality of the situation I was in, started denying my existence in this disgusting, disgusting world. My chubby fingers (and I wanted them slender, wanted them like I remembered so bad right now) started pressing themselves over my ears, attempting to block out the calling of my name.

That isn't my name, I am not Kawabata Natsuyo, I am not here, they are not here-

"Hey, are you alright?"

A young voice, so young, so painfully young, made me open my eyes and remove my hands from my ears.

The second stage had come.

Oh god, it's them. No, they're so young, no, no, no-

Despair.

I despaired as large brown eyes examined my form, watching how I curled in on myself as waves upon waves of horror hit me again and again. It was despair greater than what I'd faced as a result of the incident with my parents and Arata.

"Whaaaat, cat got your tongue?"

Their voice was laced with childish amusement and I lifted my head a little to see their gaze flicking between the cat hologram and me, clearly proud of their little joke. My mouth opened to reply but my voice got stuck in my throat. Their face was filled with untouched joy and pure happiness with the world around us.

The third stage.

How dare they. How dare they do this. How dare they rip away everything starting with his childhood and ending with his life.

Anger.

"Kawabata Natsuyo, are you alright?" The infernal cat hologram asked for the billionth time and I regained my voice, turning to face them.

"I'm fine. Just a little sleepy." To emphasise my point, I rubbed my eyes clumsily, the hologram seeming satisfied with my response.

The boy in front of me grinned toothily. "So you can speak!" He flung himself into the beanbag next to me, looking the perfect picture of a five-year-old mischievous boy.

Because he is.

"Your one is really boring!" He announced, pointing at the hologram floating above my head.

Trying to not break apart, I mustered a small smile back. "Your one is cool."

His eyes lit up. "I know right! Foxes are super, duper cool!" The boy puffed out his chest proudly, his hologram hovering just above him.

"Yeah-" A thought hit me.

Help him.

You can help him.

A billion and one things crammed themselves into the forefront of my mind, all demanding that they be voiced immediately.

Tell him about the helmets.

Tell him about Makishima.

Tell him about the Sibyl System.

Tell him about Kasei and to not let Choe Gu-sung get in and see the truth.

Tell him the rest of his short, short life is going to be hell.

I looked up at the holograms floating above us both. The smiles were not longer simply creepy and sinister now. They were terrifying.

Because how on earth could I possibly begin to give someone information that could save their life when we were being watched like this? It was already difficult enough trying to find the words to convey the seriousness of the situation and to be constantly listened to, constantly scrutinised, just made it...impossible.

The fox hologram suddenly flew down so it was in front of the boy's face. "Kagari Shusei, follow me."

He let out a whine. "But I only just got here!" Puffing out his cheeks, he got to his feet.

Oh god, say something! Say anything! You're going to let him die! It's going to be your fault if he dies now!

Say something!

"Bye!" He waggled his fingers at me as he grinned, eyes shut as he did so.

My mouth opened as his eyes did and I formed words with my lips, but my voice was so starved of breath I could hardly hear it myself.

Somehow he managed to make it out though and cocked his head to the side, still smiling. "Well, yeah, of course!" He spoke as though what I'd said was ridiculous and it was.

It was so ridiculous that, as he walked through the doors after his hologram, I put my head in my hands and resisted the urge to weep.

It was only as I sat in a chair, the doctors running through their final few bits of their examination, that I realized what I'd been going through after my meeting with the boy.

The four stages of grief, which usually happened as a result of the emotional pain of loss.

The first stage: Denial.

The second stage: Despair.

The third stage: Anger.

I'd yet to reach the fourth. I felt somewhat disgusted with myself for not being able to. After all, it wasn't as though I was going to do anything now to try and prevent what would happen to him in the future. I didn't want to die. I wanted to be selfish and only care about whether I made it through this life even though I was someone who could change everything.

I didn't want this responsibility, I didn't want to have it be on my head if I didn't give people the information they needed to be able to cheat death.

The fourth stage: Acceptance.

"Crime coefficient: 33.8."

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He is with the mother. The child is set to be born 9 months from now.

I'M ALIVE YAAAAAY

Started writing this months back and didn't finish it oOPS. So if you see a slight change in how things are being written its because I left it for a while before coming back to it.

Really want to get through child years quickly but stuff be happening and ugh.

Also shhh no I totally didn't get the idea about running parallels with the four stages of grief from Comical Psychosomatic Medicine idk what you're on about…

I know she didn't really go through the stages properly (the subjects of her denial, despair and anger are kinda off…) but it's just tying in with Kagari's death and stuff.

But yeah, be hyped for future chapters it's gonna be fUN I SWEAR.