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Togane did not look behind himself as he pushed the door open and walked down the concrete stairs. His hands were in his pockets, and his face was composed. He tried not too look too inaccessible and austere as he reached the underground room, all the while maintaining a semblance of distance with the rest of the patrons. His main objective was to blend in with the crowd and go unnoticed.
He was on site for an undercover investigation, and more precisely to collect information on a man coordinating a supplying network of weapons in Tokyo. It should have fallen under the jurisdiction of the Foreign Affairs Operations Department, but the man was operating mainly in Tokyo, and had no physical contact with the arms smuggler. So, it had been decided that the Public Safety Bureau would be conducting the investigation until it could trace back to the smugglers, and then transfer the case to the Foreign Department.
Through different investigations, the MWPSB had traced the network’s branches and had flushed out what they believed to be the Brains behind most of the operations. A man in his forties, working in a public ministry, but with a small position. This man could have easily fled under the radars if not for his weekly visits to the same underground bar. It had allowed the MWPSB to quickly establish a link with their affair, and draw their own conclusion.
The bar was located in the lower city, hosting various illegal activities and operating similarly to a speakeasy. It was usually ignored by Sybil's watchful eye, but the weapons trafficked had already caused a skirmish in a supposedly calm neighbourhood of Tokyo, and Sybil had decided that it was time for the man to be withdrawn from the public.
Since most people in the speakeasy would be familiar with one another and feel threatened by too many new faces at once, it was decided that it would be a solo mission. Obviously, due to potential risks, the inspectors had decided to send in an enforcer alone, and Togane had been designated. He was sent in with no disguise, as his face was not yet known amongst criminals groups. He was still new to this division. He didn't wear a holo-costume either, for this place, and the other few of the same style, operated on a trust-basis, and were extremely suspicious of modern technologies and devices. It was riskier for Togane to walk inside the place in a holo-costume than with his face bare.
But Togane didn't care much, as he adapted to most situations. When he wanted to, though.
He liked to make his inspectors uneasy, and drive them to the limit of their hue. He was already building himself a pretty negative reputation inside the MWPSB, and it was far from displeasing him. He followed his mother's directives, all the while giving in to his own destructive and manipulative proclivities with no consequences. Really, he was pretty content with the situation.
Togane walked to the bar and ordered a drink with a flick of the wrist, something he'd been briefed about. The owner barely glanced his way before he prepared the drink, and Togane barely got time to get his money out before his glass was ready. He slid the note on the table, and grabbed his drink.
About to move to a better seat to have an overview of the bar, Togane froze as his eyes landed on a man sitting on his own at a table. It wasn't a particularly hidden seat, and the table was even partially bathed in the orangey rays of the stage's lanterns. It briefly misled Togane into thinking that the stranger had red hair, but upon further inspection, he seemed to have oddly white hair despite his young age.
The man wore a pastel brown jacket on top of his white shirt, and dress pants in the same hue as his jacket. Togane couldn't really make out his shoes in the dark, but they looked black. He stopped himself before he could itemise him fully. The man surely was worth keeping an eye on, but Togane had better things to do than focusing on his clothes.
Maybe he should worry more about the way the man was actually looking at him, as if he'd noticed him the way Togane had with him. It might have been the case. Togane could sense there was something odd with the stranger, but he was too far to really focus on his face, or even identify him.
Makishima spotted the enforcer the moment he entered the bar. His demeanour was clear, his shoulders straight.
Makishima could recognise the behaviour of a Public Safety Bureau agent anywhere, that of someone walking inside an underground establishment as if they had all the rights to, and as if consequences were beyond them. He also recognised the demeanour of a captive working for its jailers. Though, surprisingly, there was nothing resigned about this man.
Their eyes met briefly, and Makishima watched as the enforcer assessed him. Makishima did not suppress the self-confident smile slowly spreading on his lips, and continued watching him even after the man looked away.
Makishima knew this man was not here for him. He knew that, though their eyes met only briefly, he was not in danger.
Togane continued feeling the weight of the stranger's gaze on him, but relegated it to the back of his mind, deciding he'd better find his target and approach him if he wanted to gain the trust of his new inspector.
It didn't take him long to spot the trafficker sitting down at a VIP table in the back corner of the room, carelessly ignoring his surroundings. Togane wanted to get closer, but he held himself back from prowling across the room like he so often did when he focused on a task. The last thing he wanted was for the trafficker to notice him because Togane had been too busy watching him to remember to remain hidden and discreet. Togane could be.. intense, if he didn't watch himself.
Instead, Togane ordered another glass at the bar. He nursed it for a little while, taking a few sips and ordering a third one, spending enough time alone to not make it seem too obvious that he was here on a mission. He didn't wait to finish his glass before he got down from the stool, glass in hand.
There, he lazily walked to a part of the room where people waited, standing, in front of the stage, watching as a musician walked onstage and sat down at the piano.
The woman started playing, and Togane waited for a song to have finished before he chanced a glance towards the stranger he'd noticed earlier.
He did not startle as he met the stranger's eyes, already watching him from the seat he had not deserted yet. Togane did not smile to him, did not try to pretend that he was looking at anything else in the room.
Now that he was closer, Togane could see that his eyes were yellow, and that there was an unmistakable glint there.
He observed him more, trying to understand what could have possibly drawn him to the man in the first place. It was not like him to linger on someone for so long, especially during a mission.
His eyes met the stranger's again, and it hit Togane just then. The chilling demeanour, the utter self-assurance, the stranger's shameless eyeing. Togane had the feeling of seeing a mirror of himself, and for good reason: This stranger was criminally asymptomatic. Togane was now certain of it.
And if Togane had noticed it in the other man, there was a chance the stranger had noticed it too in him.
Makishima quirked an eyebrow as he watched the man lurk in the room and slowly inch towards a table of notorious traffickers. Makishima wondered how all these people could be so unaware of the image they conveyed. When you engaged in illicit activities under Sybil's rule, the least you could do was to at least worry about your own safety and discretion.
But, well. Not everyone could blend in with the crowd as well as Makishima.
Swirling the white wine in his glass, Makishima observed the enforcer's actions. A thought crossed his mind as he thought about the reasons that could push the stranger to be so self-assured. Of course, Makishima had been right about his assumptions of him being an enforcer, but there was something more, he could see that now.
Makishima was good at reading people, and this man looked nothing like the other enforcers Makishima had seen. Some were pitiful, broken down due to their circumstances as pariah from the Sybil system, and some looked like guard dogs, so adamant on pursuing their mission the old-fashioned ways, rejecting society's acceptance and their freedom at the same time.
But this one looked nothing like that. Everything indicated something, but it didn't add up with what Makishima knew about the Sybil system. He was a proof of it himself.
According to Makishima, there was every reason to believe that this man was criminally asymptomatic.
He looked like a complete psychopath, too, which shouldn't surprise Makishima too much, if he thought about the other asymptomatic he had previously met. Still, there was something with this one that made Makishima particularly uneasy.
Plus, to his knowledge, Sybil had never considered sociopathy as a threat in itself, so it was intriguing to see it deem psychopathy as one. There were probably other parameters to consider, but Makishima wasn't privy to those.
Makishima didn't think psychopathy was the reason that had led this man to captivity.
There was something odd with this man, almost artificial, as if someone had selected an array of similar traits and injected it inside a baby. From what Makishima knew, there was no such thing as a lab-induced criminally asymptomatic baby, but he wouldn't put it past Sybil to conduct such experiments, or at least let it slide.
He especially wouldn't put it past Sybil to reject its own flawed creation and chain it once it'd served his purpose. A wolf could still be useful as a guard dog if it was de-fanged and declawed.
Makishima decided that he would put in a little effort to make some research on this newbie. He knew he could find something particularly interesting if he dug deep enough.
Togane never stopped sensing the stranger's eyes on him.
He itched to aim his dominator at the man, but he hadn't been allowed to bring the weapon in such a context, stealth-wise and all that. Still, Togane didn't need Sybil's words to confirm it. He could feel it in his bones, recognise this air of self-confidence anywhere.
He'd spent so much time hearing about the main features found in asymptomatic criminals, each and every traits being drilled into his mind from as far as he could remember. Of course he'd recognise one when he'd see one.
He simply wasn't expecting to meet one in an undercover mission, investigating something that probably had nothing to do with the man.
Togane could see it in the way he carried himself. The man drank leisurely, listened to the music, and took the time to observe Togane as if it was his prime entertainment. Had Togane been a little bit more paranoid, he would have feared that the man was here for him.
Togane usually did not like to not know things. To not know someone's identity, to not have access to their personal information, or their more private thoughts. He had, of course, a prime access to his mother's intel and input.
But, for once, he found that he didn't mind not automatically knowing everything about this man. He liked the invisible connexion binding them together due to them both being criminally asymptomatic, and he liked the fact that they both found themselves here and there, in this shady bar in Tokyo, amongst dozens of normal men.
Voices got louder to his left, and Togane had to refocus his attention on the mission. Belatedly, he realised that his inspector had been calling his name in his earpiece, asking for an update.
Togane apologised through the comms and walked closer to the commotion as he described the situation and tried to get an understand of what was going on.
He recognised his target in the middle of a group tackled by two drunkards. He approached the scene, weaving his way through the crowd.
His target was at the back of his own group, all of the men around him focused on the drunkards, not paying attention to the trafficker.
An opening was presenting itself to him, and Togane wondered if he should seize it.
He had to think quickly. He wasn't necessarily here tonight to arrest him, but the opportunity was too good to pass up, and there was always the possibility that the trafficker would slip away for good if they let him go.
Togane weighted the pro and cons. He had no idea of knowing if him taking such a bold decision would lead him to be in his inspector's good graces, or the opposite.
This evening had been useless intel-wise. He'd learned nothing from his observation of the trafficker, and it was clear that those surrounding him were only small fry. But maybe it was all they needed to know? That this trafficker didn't have a good network, and would probably be easily caught out in a proper intervention?
Finally choosing not to act alone, he stepped closer to the quarrel and decided that, if he couldn't collect information just from observing the target, maybe he could collect some by interacting with him directly.
Deciding that he’d seen enough, Makishima got up, leaving on the table a ¥1000 note and coins.
He had been informed of the presence of a new enforcer in the MWPSB, and after observation, he was not disappointed. This man did look promising.
Makishima left the bar undetected, his steps light as he thought about what plan he could put together to put this man to the test.
It took longer than expected for Togane to diffuse the situation, and he realised once he was done, disappointed but unsurprised, that the stranger was long gone.
The disappointment passed quickly, though. Togane was sure he'd see him again in the future. After all, they were of the same kind, he and the stranger. If birds of a feather flock together, Togane was sure criminally asymptomatic were the same.
And maybe he could turn this encounter into something else. If he mentioned this meeting to his mother, maybe she'd want to see the stranger for herself. Maybe Togane would then be able to turn this into a proper mission, and trigger another meeting with the white-haired stranger.
Togane nodded to himself. Yes, to meet him again, Togane could present this stranger as a treat for his mother.