come out of hiding, i'm right here beside you

[barehands]

[A while after the execution has ended, everyone will find a simple note slipped under their door.]

If you don't want to be alone after everything that's happening, some of us will be in the dining room. Even if you decide not to come, please remember that you aren't alone here.

[The note isn't signed, but the handwriting is feminine and neat.

For anyone who decides to come, there's a good array of food laid out on the table. There are some small and simple cakes, cookies, and pastries, a healthy amount of okonomiyaki, okayu, and other Japanese dishes (with a focus on rice and eggs), along with curry. In addition, there are pancakes, and a large pot of soup. It looks like a few people collaborated to make enough food for everyone here.

Just like the meal they shared together earlier in the week, the candles from the storage room lend a more peaceful light than the fluorescent lights above.]

Comments

[carnivorously]

I enjoy solving crimes. I enjoy tracking down criminals.

[He gives a bit of a self-depreciating smile.]

It's a good job for me back home too. A criminal, a dog on a leash, hunting down strays who need to be captured or put down.

[doctorize]

A latent criminal, you mean.

[Because Danny is not going to let that fact slip past without notice.]

Are you okay with that? Being considered a criminal because other people decided you were one, rather than actually committing a crime?

[Unless there's something you didn't tell him that contradicts that...]

[carnivorously]

[Maybe it's weird to Danny, but it's just something Kogami has accepted.

Is he okay with it...?]

Yes, I am. I could have continued living a normal life if I sought help like I should have. But... I couldn't. I allowed this to happen to me, and this is my punishment.

[There's a resigned look on Kogami's face. Acceptance, too. And a sense of punishment and guilt he's subjecting himself to.]

[doctorize]

Even people who seek help will still grieve or experience anger at a loss sometimes. Therapy is about refraining from acting out on those violent urges that anger and grief tempt one towards.

Which, unless you did kill this person that murdered your subordinate, to me it seems like you're being punished for having human emotions more than anything else.

[carnivorously]

That's the society I live in. We need to have a healthy mind above all. My mindset was not healthy, so society rejected me.

[He's accepted that. People look down on him and treat him like trash, and that's okay.]

All I could think about for weeks was how much I wanted to kill the guy that did it. For a while, I was tracing minor leads and my former partner, now supervisor, thinks I'm insane. Before I got here, I finally found out that this man really exists. That he wasn't just someone made up by my former subordinate.

[However, the way they found out he's real was... far too sad.]

[doctorize]

Really? [...] What do you think you'll do, if you find this man?

[carnivorously]

[...he's quiet for a moment, then...]

I'm going to kill him.

[doctorize]

That would make you an actual criminal if you were to succeed... are you really prepared to cross that line?

[carnivorously]

If it means I can finally exact my revenge, then yes. I am prepared.

[doctorize]

I see.

[...]

What will happen as a result? Will you be sent to prison, or would everything stay the same for you?

[He doesn't know how this system works, so he figures he should probably ask this.]

[carnivorously]

I'll probably be killed.

[His crime coefficient is already extremely high. Killing someone would definitely have it hit above the 300 mark and he'd be executed as a result. There's no doubt about it.]

[doctorize]

And so this goal of yours is essentially a suicide mission.

[Not really asked as a question now, more like stating a fact here.]

[carnivorously]

It may, it may not be. If I can find a means of escape from the country, I'll live.

[If he can, that is. He's not sure.]

[doctorize]

And if you can't? Would you die happy, if it meant that you got your revenge?

[carnivorously]

I probably would.

[At least feels he could be at peace finally.]

[doctorize]

... Is there anything you can think of that would convince you not to do this?

[People that you would leave behind? Or even just an interest or something that you would miss in prison or in death?]

[carnivorously]

Probably not. I've been focused on this goal for about four years.

[Just a sad fact of his life, really. He lost everything thanks to this and he doesn't see any way to get his former life back.]

[doctorize]

That's a long time to think about revenge.

[Not that he can really blame the guy, given the facts here.]

[carnivorously]

Honestly, it's all that's kept me going at this point.

[There's no lie here.]