Because of the night before, Akane, Kogami and Hiro all slept the day away in Akane's bed. It wasn't until Akane's communicator went off that she and Kogami were woken. Having curled up against Akane while they slept, Hiro had restricted her movements, so she was unable to reach the small device. Kogami reached over the two and picked it up for her.
"Yo." He answered, the holo-screen flickering on.
"Where is Tsunemori?" Gino's voice came over the connection.
"Hiro has her restrained at the moment. What's up?"
"We've got the grandfather in for questioning. We need you two in right away."
"Alright, alright." Kogami said. "We'll be there as soon as we can."
Once they had woken Hiro and got to the Bureau, Akane and Kogami were taken to the interrogation room right away. When they walked in, there was a white-haired man in a wheelchair next to a nurse who had a tablet and was monitoring his vital signs.
"Good evening, detectives." The old man greeted with a smile. "I suppose that you are who we have been waiting for, yes?"
"I take it that you are Fugaku Shosuke." Akane said, taking her seat next to Ginoza.
"This is Inspector Tsunemori Akane and Enforcer Kogami Shinya." Ginoza introduced the two of them. "They are the ones that have been caring for your grandson."
"And I thank you for that." The old man said. "But surely we aren't here to just talk about my grandson."
"Not at all." Ginoza said, standing up and tapping on the monitor next to the table and pulling up pictures of Konizuka Tatsuki's murder scene. "We're here to talk about this woman. Your late son's wife."
"I don't see why." The old man leaned back in his chair. "My family has had nothing to do with her for five years now."
"That's why we didn't consider you to be responsible." Ginoza told him. "At first."
"At first?"
"We learned intriguing information about your family. For generations, your company has always had one of your blood family members at the head." Akane said, pulling up her own information on her tablet. "Your oldest son and his wife are unable to have Children. Once your youngest son found out this information, he said for you to pass the company on to him or he was going to cut ties with your family. You didn't take him seriously. Once you handed off the company to Renjiro, you realized how futile it would be to wait on a blood grandchild, so you took matters in to your own hands."
"Are you suggesting that I killed her?" The old man laughed. "As you can see, it is impossible. I can't stand up for more than two minutes, let alone stab a woman to death."
"That may be true, but you have a greater power than physical strength." Ginoza said, leaning over the table. "You have full access to your accounts, and plenty of contacts to get rid of people in your way."
"In fact, we pulled up one of those accounts and saw that you had taken out quite a large sum of money a few weeks ago." Akane turned her tablet for the man to see. "Now, my question is: What could an old man living in assisted living need that kind of money for?"
"Tsunemori, you haven't even brought up the phone records yet." Ginoza smirked. "Tell us about the call he received the night before Konuzuka's murder."
"You got a call around 8 PM on the 15th." Akane read from her tablet. "Thanks to technology, we got that whole conversation. Were you aware that the police could do that now?"
The old man wiped his forehead with a rag.
"Maybe we should play it." Akane suggested to her partner.
Kogami watched with interest as the two Inspectors interrogated the man. Akane was not going easy on him at all. She was truly upset with him for leaving Hiro as an orphan for his own selfish purposes. He had never seen her play bad cop before.
"Inspectors, please." The man scoffed. "You're being ridiculous."
Ginoza tapped on a sound file and voices began to sound over the speakers.
'I've got their schedule down.' A man's gruff voice said. 'Did you wire me my last payment?'
'I'm not a fool. You will get the remainder of your money once the job is done.'
'What about the police? Do you have the drug that will stable my psycho pass so that I'm not detected?'
'The delivery will be made tomorrow morning.'
'It better arrive this time, old man. If not, I'm killing the kid as well.'
'It will be there.'
The recording ended, and the two Inspectors looked across the table at the suspect.
"Our lab analyst has confirmed that your voice matches the one calling the shots on the phone call." Ginoza said. "Are you going to try denying it, now?"
"I-I…" The old man gave them a panicked look. "Just take a look at my psycho pass, if you don't believe me. Sibyl is judgment after all. Let the System judge me."
"The drug inhibitors automatically keep us from getting a clear psycho pass reading." Akane said. "We will be forced to detain you to make sure that the drugs are out of your system if you're not going to talk."
"I strongly advise against that." The nurse spoke up. "Mister Fugaku is in terrible health."
"We won't have to take those measures if he gives us the location of the hit man."
"Well, Mister Fugaku?" Akane crossed her arms over her chest. "What is your choice?"
"We have a nice cell waiting if that is what you choose."
The old man glared at them. "Fine."
Akane walked in to her empty apartment.
Fugaku Shosuke had given up the name and location of the hit man. Ginoza and his team had gone to go and bring him in, but ended up having to use the Eliminator on him.
Hiro was now safe, and things were being put in order for his adoption to his aunt and uncle. It was the first time in a while that she was alone.
She didn't really like it.
As the night went on, she decided that she missed the little boy running around with Kogami. It made her little apartment feel like a real home.
She walked in to her room after she got out of the shower and flopped on to her bed. She felt something hard underneath her, so she sat up and moved her sheets around.
Hiro had left his toy robot.
She looked around her room and saw just how much stuff in there wasn't hers anymore. She really needed to return Kogami and Hiro's things to them. She would be telling Hiro goodbye tomorrow when his uncle and aunt came to get the last of Konizuka Tatsuki's things that were left behind in her apartment.
She got up and dug in her closet to retrieve a bag to put things in. Her heart ached every time that she passed by the blue book in the living area. Kogami never finished reading it.
She sat down and opened it to the last spot where they left off. It was the final chapter.
Akane couldn't help but to identify with the feelings that Max had towards Fang. There was always this unspoken feeling—this clenching in her chest every time that she was around the Enforcer she had gotten to know so well over the last few days. She wasn't sure what it was, but like Max, she knew that she was going to have to address it at some point. Probably after this stuff with Hiro was over with.
It could have been only because she was so charmed by watching the way he interacted with the boy, after all.
It made her consider marriage and children for her own.
Sometimes with the Enforcer, which she knew was impossible because of his status. Also because there was no way that he could ever feel the same for her.
She shook her head and placed the book in the bag she had put Kogami and Hiro's things in. She would give this book to the little boy to remind him of how great of a caregiver Kogami was to him.
Akane sighed and leaned back on her couch.
She didn't even realize that tears were falling down her cheeks.
For the first time in a long while, the Inspector was feeling an emotion she wasn't all too familiar with.
Loneliness.
The next morning, Akane and Kogami were standing outside of the storage room that Konizuka Tatsuki's things were being kept. They were waiting on Hiro and his aunt and uncle to arrive so that they could move it out of the Bureau.
"I brought this stuff for you." Akane said, holding the bag up.
"Oh, thanks." The Enforcer took the bag and dug through it and brought out Hiro's robot.
"I don't think this is mine." He chuckled.
"Oh! Sorry. I mixed in his things in there as well by mistake."
"Don't worry about it, I can just carry my stuff." He started taking his things out of the bag.
"It's been really quiet without you two at my apartment." Akane admitted.
"I know what you mean. It was weird being back here last night."
There was a long silence.
"Tsunemori, I'm really sorry that you had to get emotionally involved in a case like this."
"No, I'm glad I did. Really." The Inspector forced a smile. "Hiro is going to a home that will love him. A place where he belongs. I am strong enough to admit that his place wasn't with us. I knew it was only a temporary thing until we got the information we needed and knew that he was going to be safe in the end."
"Yeah." Kogami nodded. "And besides. It won't be long until we get a new case so we can forget that this all happened."
She knew that he was joking, but Akane couldn't help but feel the sting in her chest at his words.
"O-oi. You don't need to make that face." He looked at her concerned.
"I can't help it. I'm soft." She said, looking down.
"No, you have a big heart, Inspector. There's a difference."
"What do you mean?"
"I learned a lot about you through this." He said, putting his hand on her shoulder. "You are an amazing woman, Tsunemori."
Her cheeks heated up at his words. "Kogami…"
"I mean it." He looked at her with a serious face. "Don't let this get you down. The last thing that I wanted was to see you cry at the end of all of this. I wish that I could have protected you from this pain, but I can't."
Akane began to break down again. She wanted to kick herself. She was supposed to be done with the tears after she left her apartment that morning.
She was caught off guard when she felt lips press against her lips.
The Inspector opened her eyes wide, shocked by the Enforcer's sudden movements.
She dropped the bag that had Hiro's things in them and wrapped her arms around his neck and returned the kiss.
When they pulled back, they looked at each other with confusion, not knowing where these feelings had come from.
"Big brother Ko!" A little voice called from the end of the hallway.
Hiro ran over to the two detectives, causing them to push each other away.
The little boy wrinkled his nose. "What were you two doing?"
"Ah—nothing." Kogami quickly answered, rubbing the back of his neck and looking away from Akane. "Oh, look at what Inspector Tsunemori brought from her place."
He distracted the boy with the bag of things.
"Oh!" He grinned up at Akane and gave her a hug.
Akane's eyes widened in shook and she looked at Kogami. This was the first time that Hiro had ever shown affection towards her.
"Guess what! Uncle says that Tadashi gets to come and live with us, too!" The little boy squealed when he pulled back from Akane.
"Really? That's great, buddy." Kogami smiled down at him and ruffled his hair.
"And there's a big pool on the inside of my house! AND AN ELEVATOR!" He grinned. "Just like you, big brother Ko!"
Kogami chuckled. "But you're even luckier than I am, Hiro. We don't have a pool."
"That's okay." The boy said. "Maybe you can come and swim sometime."
"Maybe one of these days." The Enforcer nodded.
"So." Company President Fugaku cleared his throat. "Everything is in order, and the drones will be moving the rest of Hiro's things out to the truck outside."
"Good." Akane smiled down at the boy. "I'm so happy for you, Hiro."
He waved her down for her to get on his level.
"What is it, Hiro?"
He gave her another big hug. "Thank you for taking care of Baymax for me, big sister."
The Inspector smiled. "It was an honor, Hiro."
"Now I need you to take care of big brother Ko for me, okay?" He leaned in and whispered in her ear. "I think he likes you."
Akane's cheeks turned pink as she caught eyes with the curious Enforcer when she stood back up after giving the little boy one last hug.
"Okay, Hiro. It's time to go." Hiro's aunt called for him.
"Coming!" He grinned and ran to her and his uncle.
"You two are more than welcome to visit whenever you like." The man said to them. "Thank you for everything."
"No thanks necessary." Akane said.
"Yeah, it's all in our job description."
The two detectives watched as Hiro walked away hand in hand with his new family, feeling that they had made the boy's world a better place.
"Happy birthday, kid." Kogami said under his breath. "Be a good boy."