Notes: Is this a bad time for Shogo/Akane? It's probably a bad time for Shogo/Akane. I'm ending up liking this pairing more than I thought I would, oops. Psycho Pass has eaten all my sanity, anyway. This might be a mess because my feelings are a mess since the last episode but I really needed to write something. ;w; (spoilers will follow)

This fic is basically "in which Akane is part of team Makishima (and is a bit of comfort to him when he dies)", which was pretty difficult to do and have the characters still be true to how they canonically are without making them too out of character. Hopefully it's at least somewhat plausible. I tried. ;w;

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let us dance in these—

FIELDS OF GOLD

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She is still in high school when he first meets her—fifteen year old Tsunemori Akane, with innocent amber eyes and long, soft brown hair framing her youthful face. She doesn't interest him, not at first. She walks by the café he is taking refuge in with her friends and he simply dismisses her as a simple sheep of Sybil, turning back to his book.

Six days later, she is standing behind safety drones, drenched to the bone in rain. Shogo shuts his book and observes her from the window of the café, watches her stand there even after the rest of the crowd disperses and goes about their usual business. When he decides that she has proved herself for long enough, he walks out with an umbrella. He doesn't hold it over her, merely stands a decent distance away before speaking.

"Hello," he says, and she turns to look at him with dead eyes. His lips twitch into the barest hint of a smile; she doesn't notice and turns back to the drones. "You will catch a cold if you stay out here too long," he continues, playing the friendly façade.

"A cold is nothing compared to what they did to Yuki," she says, voice almost inaudible over the spattering of the rain.

"I am sorry about your friend."

"Are you?" she says, and her tone is cold. She turns to look at him again and the look in her eyes is—something close to hate. "Are you really?"

He stays silent, and she turns back to the drones once more. "They didn't do anything when she was killed. Nothing. I was supposed to meet her here today to go out and do some shopping. And…and when I get here all they have to say is is that so, what a shame? Is that…" she swallows, clenching her fists, body trembling. "Is that what justice is?"

Shogo smiles. He smooths his expression into an unreadable mask before he speaks again, stepping a little closer. "Maybe Sybil deemed she wasn't necessary."

He expects the slap when it comes, but it still doesn't stop his cheek from stinging. He can see the tears in her amber eyes as he brings the back of his hand up to his face.

"Maybe Sybil is wrong," the girl combats, and this time Shogo does not hide his smile.

"Those are dangerous words, miss," he tells her, and she grits her teeth, facing away from him again.

"I don't care."

"Is that true?"

She turns to him again sharply, and the expression on her face changes from fury to something akin to wonder when she takes in the expression in his eyes.

"Is that really true?" Shogo repeats, and steps closer. She doesn't step back, and the smile on his face widens.

"Who are you?" she questions, and he holds the umbrella over her now, leaning down and speaking in a conspiratorial whisper.

"My name is Makishima Shogo. Do you think you have what it takes to destroy the Sybil System?"

The girl starts, stepping back one step. "That's anarchy," she protests, but her amber eyes do not break contact with his gold ones.

"It can be done," he tells her. "To Sybil, this masquerade we call life is just a game. There is a way to overturn the board. But it requires opponents willing to play."

She stares at him for a long time, weighing the truth in his eyes. Shogo waits patiently, listening to the rain hitting the vinyl of his umbrella as he stares back at her, watching the rivulets of water roll down her face.

Finally, she blinks and the expression in her eyes hardens. He smiles again.

"Do you think you have what it takes to destroy the Sybil System?" he repeats, and this time, her answer is more favorable.

"...I will do anything I can."

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"Do you regret your choice?" he asks her three years later as she stares out at the night sky. Her hair is short now, cut and thrown away along with her blind belief in the Sybil System.

Choe Gu-Sung pours them tea and sets down a plate of madeleines, smiling at Akane before straightening his back to hear her answer.

"No," Akane replies, reaching for her teacup. She hesitates for a moment before retracting her hand, contemplating her answer. "…No," she repeats, a little more quietly.

Shogo and Choe exchange a smile; three years with her have made them familiar with her character. She is perhaps a bit too nice or innocent at times, but her help has nonetheless been invaluable. She does not take part in the actual events herself and tends to stay in the suite a lot of the time, but when they plan, she catches all their oversights, adjusts their plans. Most of the time, she proposes a much less violent alternative—and they actually do try and incorporate her ideas because her ideal vision intrigues them. Shogo and Choe both like her, because despite the naïveté she shows sometimes, she is far from sheep. Her sense of justice is only kinder, possibly more idealistic. However, though her methods are different from theirs, she has still volunteered to be a hand that will break the world and cannot escape the underlying cruelty of her actions.

"I won't ever forgive the Sybil System," Akane says after a while and dips a cookie into her tea, watching the liquid soak the dessert. She recalls a day three years ago, when she stood for hours in the rain because her friend died without justice to help her. "And my intent from then hasn't changed, Makishima-san."

Shogo smirks as he opens his book and they do not press the question of her loyalty any further, though neither man truly doubted it.

"Do you regret taking me in?" she asks as she bites into her cookie, and he glances up at her as he picks up his own teacup.

"No," he replies with certainty, and she smiles.

Choe hides an amused expression and takes the liberty to slip out of the room, opting for his computer for company as he thinks about the two.

Miss Tsunemori is a very, very strange addition to their group of outlaws—but curiously, she fits. These past three years, Choe has recognized that she does more than just being a secretary to their plans. Her most important role is something that isn't easily recognized by others because it is a subtle thing. However, Choe has had the honor of being Shogo's right hand man, and thus privy to more keen observation.

The most impressive thing is that Tsunemori Akane keeps Makishima Shogo sane. Human.

Sometimes, Choe watches the man lose himself to the discord that he causes. He values elegance and artistry above all things, but violence can really be neither elegant nor artful, and so without rationalization it is easy to fall into the abyss of mere repulsiveness. Shogo has found a strange sense of elegance and or beauty in Touma's grotesque reworkings, Rikako's nightmarish sculptures, and Senguji's games of hunting, yet in dealing with these things that border on tasteful and unsightly, Choe often watches the gold-eyed man descend into something deeper than shadow. Every once in a while, he wonders if the man were not criminally asymptotic, what his Hue would be as determined by Sybil.

However, once Akane speaks or even looks at him with those large amber eyes of hers, something shifts in his manner—returns him to the levelheaded and sophisticated anarchist he is. In a sense she purifies him, because she is so separate from these things that require delving into the dark sinews of human nature; she is simple and clean and honest.

A long time ago, Shogo said that books were more than just an object for reading—they were also a tool to adjust the senses.

Tsunemori Akane pulls him out of his fascination with murder and orients him, re-adjusts his senses, reminds him of the goal that he is trying to complete. She does not allow him to get stuck in the very ordinary role of a mere killer.

She is an antique book whose story cannot be predicted, whose every page engages the reader more and more. Though Choe and Shogo deem her kind, there are occasions where she is much more harshly realistic than they would ever expect her to be. Yet, she never loses sight of her goal; when she overlooks their plans, she tests all of their convictions by asking them why. Why is this necessary? How does this impact that people, and what will that impact lead to? Is this truly the best way to go about this?

It's—enlightening, to be able to see their own anarchist values from the point of view from someone who is purer than they. The ironic thing is that despite that, she does not allow them to be ordinary criminals because she questions their motives so much. In addition, the girl is a constant reminder of memento mori: remember that you a mortal, remember that you will die. So despite their unprecedented crimes, despite their abnormal Hues…they have never felt more normal and human in her presence.

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She volunteers to go, because she has hardly ever left their suite and it would be easiest for her to sneak into the building to retrieve the needed information.

Shogo rejects her idea immediately. "Breaking into the Nona Tower is far too dangerous for you. You're inexperienced. This plan can wait until later, when we do not have to take any unnecessary risks."

Akane shakes her head. "I know that the plan can't wait. The rest of it has already been set into motion, and if we don't take this chance when the MWPSB is out dealing with riots, we won't get another."

He narrows his eyes. "Choe and I are more than enough for this operation. They MWPSB have their focus on me."

"That's exactly it. They know about both you and Choe, and they'll be sending two groups for sure. I'll be able to buy you guys more time since they don't know about me, and you need all the time you can get for this operation. We can't afford to have either of you injured and out of commission."

Shogo stares at her with his eyes still slightly narrowed; he's more displeased than he looks, but Akane stares back at him unwaveringly.

"This is something I can do," she tells him. "And I've already said that I will do anything I can to bring down the Sybil System."

It takes a lot of debate, complete with the rare raising of voices and icy cold glares. In the end he does let her go because he knows she will attempt some reckless endeavor instead, and he would rather plan her escapade than throw her out to the hunting dogs, some of which admittedly have a sharp bite.

So she goes.

And she doesn't make it back.

Choe watches Shogo's expression harden when the news reaches them in the form of a video recording on a cracked phone displaying the murder of their Helen of Troy—it is an expression stiffer and blanker than anyone's ever seen him. He did not look this devoid of emotion when Kouzaburou Touma disappeared, when Oryo Rikako disappointed him, or even when Toyohisa Senguji died.

"…Did you love her?" Choe ventures to ask, hours later, when the gold-eyed man refuses to move away from the window with a view of the Nona Tower.

"…No," Shogo replies after a moment, and Choe's lips twitch into a smile because he still refuses to turn away from the window, even though he has always faced the person he is conversing with.

The day that Tsunemori Akane dies is the day that Makishima Shogo stops being human. That day, Choe witnesses the birth of a true napoleon of crime.

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In the end, Shogo spreads out his arms and talks to the sky. He knows Kougami Shinya is behind him, waiting with a revolver loaded with bullets.

He's already lost enough blood. He's already done enough. He will consent to death if it is by the hands of a man that he's deemed worthy, a man who has broken from the laws of Sybil.

Makishima Shogo is the last one; he is tired of the world and its automatons that are created by Sybil where every talent, every relationship, can be replaced with a replica.

"Say…after this, will you be able to find a replacement for me?"

"…I sure hope not," Kogami replies.

And he smiles, knowing that aside from him, there are others that the System cannot replicate, though they are gone, now.

Yet he cannot help but feel a sense of solitude out in this wide field with his arms outstretched at the brink of death as the orange sky washes over with navy blue.

You're not alone, Shogo, Akane's voice says, and he chuckles to himself for being delusional. He can almost see her in the field of wheat, white dress unstained and short hair ruffled by the wind as she holds out her hand, part of her still suffused in warm light as the sun sets.

"Akane," he breathes.

There is the sound of a gunshot, and all the world falls silent.

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(we shall meet in the land of darkness.)

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[Afterward]

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"Good work," Ginoza says when Kogami returns to the office, blood still on his clothes. The atmosphere is still rather tense, but there is a sense of relief present. Kagari, Yayoi, Masaoka, and even Shion are all in the office and greet him as well. Kogami lights a cigarette as he sits down at his desk, leaning back in his seat, exhausted.

They all go over the case before putting together the file; it's an unpleasant task, but a necessary one. The folder is fairly thick, containing information on the other deceased members of his anarchist group as well. Ginoza flips through them, silently reading though the names and skimming their backgrounds. Kouzaburou Touma. Oryo Rikako. Toyohisa Senguji. Choe Gu-Sung. All criminals unique in their methods and skills.

"Did…did Makishima Shogo say any last words?" he finally asks, pausing what he is doing and looking up at the Enforcer. The rest of their team turn to look at him as well, waiting as Kogami takes a drag of his cigarette and breathes out a plume of smoke.

"Just one," he says flatly. "…'Akane'."

Ginoza's lips tighten as he flips to the next page in the file, where the innocent looking face of a young woman stares up at him with large amber eyes. There really isn't much on her sheet. Besides the basic profiling information, her biography doesn't reveal anything particularly criminal. She was—normal, perhaps excepting the fact that her Hue was almost perpetually powder blue, and that her aptitude tests were astounding. Had she not been affiliated with Makishima Shogo, she would have been a very valuable addition to society.

"What's wrong?" Masaoka asks, and Ginoza merely holds out the sheet which is then passed around the Enforcers.

"That's weird," Kagari comments, handing the sheet to Yayoi, "I wonder why he kept her around? She didn't seem all that special. Though smart, I guess."

Yayoi carefully reads over the sheet, staring at the picture of the young woman with the pure amber eyes. Shion notices, and she thinks that perhaps her partner is coming to the same conclusion as her. When the rest of the team begins to notice how long she's had the paper for, they ask her what she's thinking.

"Maybe…" Yayoi begins, handing the sheet back to Ginoza, "…maybe he loved her."

There is a silence. The men all gape at her while Shion merely smiles and lights up her own cigarette.

"Is…is your Hue alright?" Kagari asks, and he gets a book to the head for that.

"My Hue is as fine as any Enforcer's," she says, before turning back to her work.

There is another silence before Shion finally speaks.

"What do you think, Ko-chan? You knew him best, didn't you?" she says in an amused tone as she taps her cigarette on one of his overly full ashtrays. "Did Makishima Shogo love this Tsunemori Akane girl?"

He takes the sheet from Ginoza again, stares at the girl in the picture. Imagines why on earth he might keep her around. Contemplates on Makishima Shogo. Remembers how her name was the last thing he breathed during his final moment, his smile as he did so.

It takes a long time for him to respond to Shion's question, and although everyone has turned back to their work during his pondering (minus Shion), the room is still incredibly silent so he knows that they are all waiting for the answer.

"…Yeah," he finally says, and everyone goes still. "Yeah, I think he did."

He certainly doesn't believe it was the conventional kind of love, but the change in Makishima's attitude after she was killed in the Nona Tower…Kogami knows that regardless of Makishima's psychopathic nature he was still human and all humans are capable of love, though his was likely in a way none of them could ever quite want to understand.

Shion smiles, and Yayoi glances at Kogami from the corner of her eye before returning to what she is doing. Masaoka and Kagari simply blink and do not say anything more. Ginoza's lips forms a tight line again as he takes back the sheet.

"Well that's that," Shion says as she walks out the door to return to her lab.

Ginoza returns Tsunemori Akane's information to the folder, placing it on the empty inspector's desk for later revision and addition of information.

Once everything is filed, the case is not spoken of again.

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End Notes: If you squint and tilt your head, there's some super minor Shinya/Akane. Since Makishima and Kogami think/can think alike, Akane would've been someone he could've fallen in love with too. (I use the term "fall in love" loosely with Shogo/Akane, since I imagine any love of Shogo's is rather twisted, or at least, far from conventional. )