A keycard was slotted through the electronic lock before making a few beeps and offering him entrance into the flat. Makishima stepped inside, and neatly placed his shoes on the rack in the hallway. As he shrugged off his coat, a familiar Avatar AI materialized in front of him.

"Good evening!" the pink octopus-holo sang. "How was work today?"

"It was fun."

He found himself a new toy today, one who looked as if he had a lot of promise. A quiet, middle-school teacher with an easy smile; Kouzoburou Touma. From the numerous conversations they had together, Makishima was looking forward to see what the supposedly mild-mannered gentleman could do.

Well, not as much as he was looking forward to the weekend of course. His flatmate Akane-chan had promised to have dinner with him and he was allowed to pick the place.

Nothing was more interesting in the world than talking to Tsunemori Akane; no matter what the subject, and how clueless she was to begin with, she would always manage to maintain an active conversation without being pretentious, patronizing or falling into boredom. Makishima felt he could discuss a book she had never read before for hours. It was quite amazing, really.

Though recently, he had been encouraging her to pick up Shakespeare.

Makishima began leafing through a magazine. He enjoyed advertisements since people underestimated all the semantic choices people had made to make it look 'persuasive.' He had folded a page displaying a traditional Japanese restaurant. So far, that was his most likely choice for their date.

"Tsunemori Akane has returned home!" Candy abruptly cut him off from his thoughts. "But she left her keycard here this morning. What will she do? What will she do?"

The magazine was put back on the sofa, and he retraced his steps back to the door. With a warm smile pinned up on his face, he opened it.

"Forgot your key again, Akane-chan?"

The smile then almost fell.

Akane was standing there almost nervously with an unfamiliar man standing closely behind her. They both stank of blood.

"H-Hello, Shogo-san," she said with an awkward smile.

She seemed psychologically sound. That was a start.

Before Akane could even say any more, Makishima had stepped out of the apartment and almost flung himself at her. He picked up her hands which still had dried blood caked around the nails, checked them over thoroughly before scanning the rest of her body. His face was absolutely expressionless as his eyes moved up and down.

Akane was quite taken back not at Makishima reaction, but simply at his empty face- because for the first time since Day Three, she had no idea what he was thinking.

He took a step back and took one more check-over her body. It began to unnerve Akane.

"Shogo-san!" she cut him off. "I'm fine. I'm not hurt at all, and none of the blood is mine."

"We did our best having her cleaned up," the stranger said apologetically behind her. He himself, pretty much half his face, clothes and hair damp with the metallic stench.

It was only then did Makishima finally acknowledge there was another person with them. Honeyed eyes met slate-gray. Within that split second, Akane saw an angry -no, enraged- twist in his smooth face. She almost thought he was going to send the stranger flying down the emergency staircase.

The blood-stained man seemed to have felt it as well because he instinctively took one step back, Akane moved in his spot with her arms held out to protect him and Makishima almost ran right into her.

His face smoothed over again. He stared rather vacantly at her.

"Inspector Kougami protected me when I was trouble," Akane explained. "He came here to escort me home."

"So what happened?" Makishima asked, trying to keep his voice even. Depending on how she answered, 'Inspector Kougami' was going to find himself being thrown off the balcony and 'accidentally' run over by six cars.

Akane cleared her throat a little. "Well, I went to a music concert with a friend. It was all very last minute since someone bailed out on her. And, well, um-"

"There was trouble in the nightclub she visited," Kougami concluded. "Don't worry, she isn't hurt."

Akane's eyes blinked up at him, it had an odd shine to them.

"Oh, thank-you again for saving my life and bringing me home," she said with a short bow of her head. "I'm also sorry that I got your clothes ruined."

Kougami's lips quirked into a ghost of a smile and he waved his hand up in a sweeping motion, as if to brush the apology away.

"Don't worry about it, happens on the job."

He then glanced down at his watch.

"Well, I should get going, can't keep Sasayama waiting on his own for too long," he muttered before meeting Akane's gaze. "You should take a few days off. The phone number I gave you is a therapist who'd see to your recovery. No fees are necessary. What you saw today isn't meant for kids your age."

Makishima felt a sour taste in his mouth when Akane returned Inspector Kougami a beaming grin.

"Don't worry, my Hue rarely gets cloudy, I'll be fine," she chirped. "Isn't that right, Shogo-san?"

"Of course. Akane-chan is a strong person," he informed, the smile on his face natural and unwavering.

The police Inspector nodded and began to walk away.

"Good night then."

Akane waved back. "Good bye, Inspector Kougami."

Kougami had his back to them but still held up his hand into a short, casual wave before placing it into his pocket. Akane's gaze lingered at the direction he left in before facing her flatmate again.

Though he let her indoors and began fussing over the blood on her clothes, there was a slight cold edge in his eyes which Akane could not ignore, but didn't think he would explain it if she brought it up.

He was rather good at avoiding subjects about himself. (Apparently "Akane-chan is far more interesting.")

"Where did you go?" he abruptly asked as he handed her a cup of hot chocolate.

She blinked. "Oh, it was called... 27. There were a non-licensed band my friend really liked there."

27. If Makishima remembered correctly, there was a drug trade going on behind all the music and garish lights.

"Candy, can you get some hot water ready, I'm going to take a shower soon," Akane called out, nursing the cup in her hands. "And erm, Shogo-san, please don't look so upset. Nothing bad really happened."

"You're covered in blood," he pointed out.

"And like I said before, none of it is mine," she reminded. "Inspector Kougami shielded me from most of it. It was quite disgusting, it went everywhere and-" she slapped a hand over her mouth. "Oh, I'm sorry, I shouldn't be talking about things like this with other people."

Makishima found the caring aspect of her rather cute. Especially when it was directed at him, because it was times like then could he appreciate that he had her attention.

Despite the situation, despite the bitter feeling he had towards the Inspector his flatmate had taken a shine to, despite the blood still not completely clean from her fingers, he knelt down next to her and briefly touched her hand.

Akane was getting use to that. He had been doing so since Day One afterall.

"I have a pure white Psycho Pass," he assured her gently. "If it makes you feel better, we can talk about it. It won't affect me at all."

She shook her head. "Thank-you for the offer, but... I think I'll be okay like this. Inspector Kougami did enough fretting over me, it was actually rather sweet, since it reminded me of my parents. I'll go take a shower."

A half-empty cup was handed back to Makishima, and she set off into the bathroom.

It wasn't as if he minded if Akane was a little macabre, he wasn't going to be fazed by it. Still, if it meant she was going to constantly bring up her hero Inspector Kougami, then something had to be done. It had taken him nine months to become her official flatmate, friend and dinner-date, whilst it took the detective one night to become Akane-chan's favourite topic.

Hell no.

"Why are you glaring at me?"

"I told you to get Tsunemori-chan's number!"

"For God's sake, Sasayama, she's not even out of training school yet!"

"Not for me, idiot. For you!"

"What, why?"

"...are you seriously asking that question?"

THE END.

Thanks for all the support and sticking to the final epilogue.

Pie.