Warning: This story contains graphic violence, mature content, and psychological manipulation. Before reading, please keep in mind that the plot and characters of this story should not be taken as ideals for relationships or lifestyles.

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"The school building was to be a mechanism for training… The school became a sort of apparatus of uninterrupted examination that duplicated along its entire length the operation of teaching. It became less and less a question of jousts in which pupils pitched their forces against one another and increasingly a perpetual comparison of each and all that made it possible both to measure and to judge" (Foucault & Sheridan, 2012, pg. 172-173).

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Ch. 1: The Means of Correct Training

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Spring 2113.

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On the outskirts of Tokyo stood an all-girls school - one of the last of its kind in Japan. In the green pastures of outer Tokyo, pristine white brick emerged, clad with pale red shingles and glistening windows. Along the sculpted paths grew flickering cherry trees. Their pink and white blossoms floated in the wind like the setting of a romantic film. Girls in clean uniforms dotted the paths and filled the spring afternoon with laughter and gossip.

This school was called Sakurashimo Gakuen, or - as the students affectionately called it - "Oso Academy." It was the sort of place where young girls lived out the virtues of chastity and grace - a place where girls were groomed and polished into what was called a "lady." It was a place that should have attracted teachers with pure intentions, which is exactly why Makishima Shogo decided to take up residence at this school.

Makishima Shogo - "Shibata Yukimori" - thought all of this to himself as he walked through the large hallways. The windows glowed with the warm spring light, glinting off of the tiles and the bright faces of his pupils. A soft breeze rustled in through the windows, bringing a few blossoms into the hallway. Makishima caught one between his fingers and crushed into his fist.

He smiled as a pair of girls walked by, beaming.

"Good afternoon, Shibata-sensei," one greeted with a slight blush. He bowed his head slightly to them.

"Ladies," he greeted. He heard them giggle to themselves as he walked away. It was an innocent sound.

If he had been just a slightly more selfish man, he thought to himself, he'd have ruined every piece of them he could grab.

'Shibata-sensei' had been the art teacher at Oso Academy for nearly five years now. It was a rather long tenure for most young instructors and for a man of his recreational activities, but he'd fallen into the rhythm here easily. The greenery here almost seemed to be natural compared to the artificial nature in Tokyo proper, and the breeze was unhindered. Sometimes Makishima thought to himself that he might stay at Oso Academy forever as a genuine art teacher. It was a rather romantic thought.

Walking down the immaculate stairs, Makishima breathed in the light that the stained glass painted red, blue, and green. It really was a beautiful day - the perfect day for painting. He thought of his student Rikako's new art piece and suddenly had the feeling that something exciting was about to happen.

Makishima stopped as he got to the ground floor. Outside was parked a sleek black car that looked out of place among the young women and the floating flowers. Two people emerged from the car, earning looks from the various students and teachers. Makishima pulled himself around the corner to hide his face.

A man in his late 20s with glasses and a tall young woman with sleek black hair pulled back emerged like ink against pristine paper. The man led with the woman following. Her eyes were focused but shuttered. He knew without asking that she was an Enforcer from the Ministry of Welfare's Public Safety Bureau, which meant the man must be an Inspector. One of the history teachers - Chiba-sensei - appeared next to him with a worried expression. He braced himself for the nagging she inevitably always brought.

"The police?" murmured Chiba. "Do you know what's going on?"

"I'm not sure," said 'Shibata.' "Perhaps the principal would know."

"Why isn't that woman wearing a MWPSB uniform? Is she not an officer?" asked Chiba.

"She's an Enforcer," said Shibata. Chiba looked at him with confusion, and he elaborated, "Enforcers are latent criminals whose skills are in tracking down and apprehending active criminals. They typically work in the field under the direct authority of the Inspectors. The reason she isn't wearing a uniform is probably to delineate the difference."

To his delight, Chiba looked horrified.

"Latent criminals!" she cried. "But- Shouldn't they- how can they be allowed to walk in the open?" Makishima smiled blandly.

"They always have the Inspector with them, and really, even if they did run off, where would they go?" he reasoned.

This seemed to calm Chiba down slightly so that she had the energy to now be indignant. She clicked her tongue.

"I don't like having them here. They're just going to raise our students' coefficients!" sniffed Chiba. Makishima smiled coolly and thought to himself that would be an unexpected bit of luck. It seemed his feeling from before was spot-on. An older man emerged from his office frowning to see the Vice Principal already talking to the officers.

"Principal!" cried Chiba. Shibata winced at her shrieking voice. He wondered if he could convince Rikako to make the nagging teacher her next project.

"Yes, Chiba-sensei?" asked the principal in a calming voice.

"Principal, what is happening? Why are the police here?" she asked quickly.

"There has been an unfortunate crime downtown," said the principal in a grave voice. "It has some similarities to the tragic case from a few years ago, so they came to ask some questions regarding that individual who will not be named."

"You don't mean... Is Touma-sensei...?" she gasped.

"No. This is probably the work of a copycat. The police will ask some questions and then be on their way. Rest assured there will be no police running around the school and contaminating our students' Hues!"

The two continued to gossip in a way that reminded 'Shibata' of clucking hens. He waited another moment and then quietly excused himself from their insipid conversation to return to his classroom. With a great sigh of relief as he closed the door behind him, Shibata dropped the bland expression from his face. A tall girl with short dark hair sat on the desk directly in front of his at the front of the room.

"Can't get enough of the police, can they?" asked the girl casually. Shibata smiled wryly and walked over his desk.

"Fools are always drawn to fools," said Shibata, straightening a stack of papers. "You're being awfully risky today, coming out like that."

The girl grinned and sat back in her chair in a very unladylike posture. She lifted her chin as Shibata came around to the front of his desk and sat on the edge.

"I wanted to see all the fuss," came a deep, masculine voice from the girl. Her face glitched for a moment to reveal short dark hair and a sharp jaw, but then the girl's face settled again.

"Fools are always drawn to fools," repeated Shibata. The 'girl' grinned even wider.

"I guess that's why you choose to stay here, eh, Makishima-san?" she drawled.

This time, the white-haired man smirked. He lean ed casually back onto his hands. Makishima breathed in the orange sun.

"I get the feeling I'll move on soon enough," said Makishima. "Really though, why are you here?"

The girl smiled and then stood. Pulling a tablet from her bag, she handed it to Makishima and clicked a button. It lit up to show a live feed. From the position, it looked to be from a police drone. Officers milled about the scene - a public park.

Like the Oso Academy grounds, the park was in full bloom. Blossoms fluttered in the breeze before being crush underfoot by people rushing by. The footage was silent, but he could hear the shouting commands clearly in his mind. Makishima smiled as he saw the focal point of this scene - a dry fountain. At the bottom stood a tall sculpture.

Shibata smiled as he saw the work of art. Atop the fountain was a cross of recycled steel bars. Suspended from it was the naked form of a slender young woman, though her head rested inside a cavity carved into her stomach. A large wreath of flowers encircled her. She stared out blankly, unseeing, into the park.

As art was wont to do, it clearly left a strong impression on everyone around. Police either hurried frantically or stood awestruck. Makishima's eyes narrowed in on the pair of officers in the fountain analyzing the sculpture.

They were a tall man with black hair and dark suit and a young woman with short brown hair and a MWPSB jacket. Makishima zoomed in on these two. Another Enforcer - the man definitely had the look of a latent criminal. There was always an unnameable quality in a criminal's expressions that Makishima could spot from miles away.

"They finally found it," said the girl. "About time," she added with a wry smile. Makishima nodded.

"What do you think of this one?" asked Makishima.

"The sculpture? I don't know. I honestly don't have much of an eye for this sort of stuff," admitted the girl.

"Have you seen her father's work?"

"Oryo's? No, I'm not familiar."

"He was a great artist - one of the best of the past twenty years in my opinion. He is now in a therapy-induced coma in a hospice nearby," explained Makishima. "His work was similar in style, but Oryo-kun hasn't quite grasped the depth of her fatner's work yet."

"Why is he in a coma?"

"Complacency," said Makishima. The girl raised an eyebrow. "With the rise of the Sibyl System, he saw the end of human suffering. He bought into the artificial comfort the new technology provided, but the human brain needs stress to function. Without it, it becomes a vegetable - alive but just barely. That's the state he's in now."

The girl nodded thoughtfully, thinking over this. Makishima's eyes narrowed as he continued watching the park scene. His focus remained on the Enforcer in the fountain.

"Who is that man over there - the Enforcer?" he asked, pointing at the dark-haired man by the statue. His gaze was focused and hard on the dismembered girl. Makishima felt a thrum of excitement in his gut.

"I can find out," said the girl, once again in the masculine voice. "Why do you ask?"

"He looks familiar. I believe I've crossed paths with him before," said Makishima.

"Oh? What a rarity," said the girl with a grin.

"Indeed," said Makishima, smiling. "Let's see if he's worth playing with."

"Are you interested in the woman, too?" asked the girl.

"Hmm… pull up her information as well, I suppose. Couldn't hurt. She looks new," said Makishima. He watched with an amused smile as the police began pulling the sculpture down from the fountain. In the evening sun, the brown hair of the mutilated girl glinted gold and red. Her eyes - now empty - seemed to absorb the dying day.

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Somewhere in Tokyo the same video played in a dark apartment. A pair of eyes watched the two officers discuss the crime scene, though their voices could not be heard. The man's eyes lingered on the sculpture and spoke in a quiet way to his partner. Something about him seemed familiar.

The video was paused and then rewound. The same scene played again.

There was a click. The video zoomed in, blurry but sufficient. The cursor focused on the image of the young officers. Eyes scanned over the young woman's face. A still was taken of both faces and then put into the database search engine.

Two files popped up. One was the young woman:

Name: Tsunemori Akane

Rank: Inspector

Sex: Female

Date of Birth: April 1, 2092

Height: 163 cm

Weight: 54 kg

Employed: November 2112

Cool eyes narrowed and traced over the young woman's face. Her hair was short and brown. Her eyes were also brown. She was attractive in a generic way perhaps. The cursor lost interest and then slid to the next file. They moved quickly and maximize the information with eagerness.

Kogami Shinya was typed beneath the photo of the young man with black hair. The data was memorized quickly: male, 28 years old, 180 cm, 77 kg…

A smile appeared.

Enforcer.

Tsunemori was forgotten as files regarding Enforcer Kogami opened one after the other. His cool expression filled the screen again and again.

A/N: If you're a new reader, welcome. If you've been following me for a while, thank you for coming back. I'm writing this and Fish Who Swim Upstream simultaneously, so my updates won't be as regular as my previous stories. If you're looking for something happy, that'd be the better choice. This is gonna get dark.

Disclaimer: I own no rights to Psycho-Pass. This story is written as a piece of fanwork without profit or claims.

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Notes:

For those of you who aren't familiar with the source material (I'm looking at you, missalex3030), in this future, every person has a Crime Coefficient, which is also represented by a color. This coefficient predicts how likely one is to commit a crime. People's natural abilities and tendencies are judged by what's called the Sibyl System, which now governs Japan and has nearly eradicated crime. People whose coefficients rise too high are either subjected to therapy or imprisonment, depending on how high it goes. Those who are imprisoned are called "latent criminals," and some, depending on their abilities, are given the opportunity to work as Enforcers to help apprehend other criminals. Kunizuka Yayoi from this chapter is one of those.

I use the traditional way of naming which is [Last Name, First Name].

"-san": like "sir" or "ma'am," though this is a lacking translation. It is the default honorific, even for people who are close, showing a sign of respect. Even spouses refer to each other with this honorific. Not using an honorific at all signifies very close familiarity.

The school "Sakurashimo Gakuen" (桜霜学園) can also be read as おうそうがくえん, meaning "Oso Gakuen."

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Sources:

Foucault, M., & Sheridan, A. (2012). Discipline and punish: The birth of the prison. New York, NY: Vintage.

Funimation. (2016, September 15). PSYCHO-PASS Episode 6: Return of the Psychotic Prince [Video file]. Retrieved from psycho-pass/episode-6-return-of-the-psychotic-prince-719845

Funimation. (2016, September 15). PSYCHO-PASS Episode 7: Symbolism of Bletilla Striata [Video file]. Retrieved from psycho-pass/episode-7-symbolism-of-bletilla-striata-719849