2025-08-20: Good People
- Log: Good People
- Cast: Myunghon Yeo, Katsuya Suou
- Where: Konan Police Department
- OOC Date: August 20, 2025
- IC Date: June 28, 2012
- Summary: Myunghon has been pulled in by Ishiba again; hearing about this from Junior Officer Hamade, Katsuya goes to investigate. Which will it be, Law or Justice? And, what changes as a result? Warnings for racism, misgendering, police brutality, police harrassment.
<Pose Tracker> Myunghon Yeo has posed.
A regular day at the Sumaru Police Department, Konan Ward. At least... as regular a day as Katsuya Suou can manage, given how topsy-turvy his life has been -- there's a perfectly ordinary number of colleagues and fellow detectives at their desk today. One of them's making a phone call to inquire about bereavement rights for the victim's family; another's talking with a junior officer and asking for hard copies of the SC-23 case since the lead prosecutor's requesting additional information claims. Standard stuff.
It feels good to square things away, doesn't it? The CCTV footage from the bakery led to a positive IDing, which led to Katsuya finding out the murderer in the Takagi building case. An arrest, a confession after an interrogation... t's dotted, i's marked, case shut.
But inevitably, things have to move on, and today--
"Oh-- my apologies, Suou-senpai," calls the familiar voice from behind him. It's Junior Officer Hiori Hamade. She looks a bit rattled. "Sorry, I'm just trying to get back to my desk. Officer Ishiba's at it again with that Korean woman... I feel bad about it..."
A nearby detective overhears. "Ishiba again? He's like a rabid dog. What's his damage with that Zainichi, anyway?"
Hamade looks uncomfortable at this, firming her face up. "It's not right."
The detective clearly looks less interested. "If you stick your craw in all the time, you're not gonna get any time in for any actual policework."
<Pose Tracker> Katsuya Suou has posed.
Solving cases is one of the parts of his job that Katsuya enjoys. It's finding out the truth. It's bringing the guilty to justice. It creates closure for the loved ones of the victim. It's one small notch of 'correction' in a world that seems hell-bent on going mad.
But, alas, satisfaction, if well-earned, is rarely lasting. There are always more cases to review and solve, more piece of paperwork to file or send along. The victim becomes an afterthought, and the world continues on its path unperturbed by this one small act of justice rendered.
"Hamade-kun?"
He turns, having just stood up from his desk in the homicide division. "That's quite alright, I was getting up myself to..." He trails off, looking at her. She does look rattled. "Is everything..."
That Korean woman. He doesn't, at first, say anything.
Then:
"Which... Korean woman?" As if they bring them in here all the time. As if he doesn't already know -- or at least, can guess.
He fidgets for a moment with his glasses. So it's Ishiba again. "..."
"Excuse me," he says the moment after, moving past Hiori for the hallway. He's in a hurry, wherever he's going.
It occurs to him halfway down the hallway that he should have asked where Ishiba was. Well, it's too late for it now, he supposes. He'll have to work this one out the hard way. Surely not in interrogation?
<Pose Tracker> Myunghon Yeo has posed.
CW: Violence, racism
Where is the justice when the guilty go free? Why don't we lock them up and throw away the keys? In a world that's hell-bent on going mad, there is a primal satisfaction in *correcting for maximum velocity, fucko*. But Katsuya is no stranger, either, to how corruptible justice can be and has been, especially so close to home. It's almost frightening, isn't it, the way the victim has to become an afterthought? Being a detective means seeing people in the worst days of their lives, but for you, it's often a Tuesday.
"The... one in the suit. Or are they a man? Sorry, I can't tell. Were they there on the beach that day...?" Hamade looks puzzled and uncertain, memories corrupted from Yumi's anti-Navigator powers as well as some of the powers of the Will of Rebellion.
Katsuya rises from his seat and leaves in due fashion, and while he realises he didn't *ask*, there's only really one place Ishiba loves hanging around when harrassing his 'suspects' -- the questioning rooms, or the holding cells. By the time Katsuya arrives down there, he can already hear the shouting. A pair of police officers on their smoke break are leaning against the wall, shaking their head but finding this, ultimately, more amusing, not horrifying.
"This is the second time in just this week," one of them comments. "Something's gonna blow over... probably her."
Is it... callousness that prompts his colleagues to not act? Perhaps a belief that this is justice? Or some self-preservation instinct? Either way, the door flings open and out comes Myunghon, in cuffs, flinching as they're shoved out into the open.
"If you're going to be a silent bitch, then I'll just lock you up in the cells, see how you like a night in detention!" Ishiba yells. Myunghon is tall, but Ishiba has a solid five centimetres over them -- an older man in the wrong side of 50, with salt and pepper hair, stubble, a history of alcoholism and smoking, and definitely many raps on his police sheet.
He's still here for some reason. It never ends in dishonorable discharge.
Myunghon themself looks like they're pouring all their effort to try to look unperturbed, but Katsuya's interrogated enough people that he knows it's a mask. Especially when Ishiba seizes their arm again with unrestrained force, eliciting a suppressed snarl and a gasp of pain as he starts ragdolling them around. "You're-- hurting me, ow...!"
"Good! You deserve it. Shimizu's not here to cover your ass," Ishiba openly taunts them.
A long drag of the cigarette and a chuckle, from his colleagues nearby. It's like they're trying to cope by finding this all a little bit morbid and funny.
<Pose Tracker> Katsuya Suou has posed.
It sounds good from the outside. Being a police officer means correcting injustices and capturing the guilty so they don't get a chance to commit further crimes. But, that's also not the whole story of it. In this kind of work, it's rare -- even from the view of someone as high-minded as Katsuya -- to find a story without any rough edges to it, where good and evil and black and white are so clearly delineated from one another. A murder might be a crime premediated in cold blood. But more often, it's a crime of passion: 'she left him, so he killed her'. Or 'they were both drunk and a late-night fight went too far'. Wasn't there something wrong in a world where one moment someone could be perfectly law-abiding, but in the next, there is literally blood on your hands? It's in fact rare for him to have to hunt very far for a culprit, certain serial killings aside. Often, even if he wants to look elsewhere, the murderer is right there...
The one in the suit. There's only one person who looks like that: a Korean woman who looks almost as if they could just as easily be a man, to Katsuya's view of things (and in fact, he's not even certain he has that right). He nods at Hiori's additional information before he makes his departure from the room, as if he were pursuing a suspect on foot and not seeking out the current whereabouts of a colleague.
It's not hard to find Ishiba, no, even with Katsuya missing some of the key pieces of intelligence about current events here. He descends: a pair of officers are already here and he can hear shouting. He's in the right place. It's just--
Now what does he do? He stops there in the doorway, as if he could be a ghost rather than a flesh-and-blood person. His gaze turns towards one officer, then the other. Is this... justice?
Everyone he works with is a good person.
That's the reflexive answer Katsuya would give just about anyone else, if he was asked about the brave men and women he works alongside here. It's one thing to talk a big game about what is right and just. It's another thing yet to tell one of his fellow officers -- bound together by something no civilian can understand -- that what they're doing is wrong. That this is unjust. Katsuya stands there, a statue. It's probably why the two of them watch, and laugh as the door opens, as Myunghon is shoved out into the hallway. As Ishiba follows. This is... this isn't right. This isn't how an officer ought to behave, even with an unremorseful suspect who has commited grave crimes. And these protestations turn to ash in his mouth: he knows where his position on the force is of late. The nail that stands up gets pounded down. And if he causes trouble for another officer, he's not so naive to think that he won't catch trouble of his own.
But is this justice? Myunghon appears to be enduring this all in stride, but he knows it's a mask, he's interrogated enough suspects and witnesses alike to get a feeling for the ways people act when they're actually, truly stressed.
And Ishiba grabs their arm and Myunghon gasps in pain and
[IUSTITIA]: Is this Justice, Sergeant Suou?
and against all logic and reason, Katsuya has started forward into the room proper. "Stop," he says, and it's no shout or cry, but a simple statement that instead carries with it all the finality and force he can muster. What is he doing? There could be hell to pay for this.
But he also knows that he could not stand by and watch an officer do this to a woman-- a person, he decides, there and then.
<Pose Tracker> Myunghon Yeo has posed.
It's too easy, to desire justice to be black and white. Wouldn't it be so simple if it was black or white? What do crimes of passion mean? What does it mean when someone goes free because there was reasonable doubt? What about when influences are involved? Katsuya's walked the murkiness of this profession for quite some time now, fuelled by the origin that what happened to Katsuzou Suou was, in fact... murky.
Because when the story gets repeated a thousand times, passed through from person to person... that becomes 'a truth', doesn't it? Filtered five people down, people start just assume disinformation is real.
Everyone you work with is a good person, right...? It's so easy to assume that the coworkers you have at least an amicable relationship with must be a good person. In a high-stress, murky environment like policing, however, the darker shades of other people often start to come to light -- and not in just the obvious, abusive cases like Ishiba. It might be even more difficult to the ones that are just standing to the side -- to have the courage to tell them 'this isn't right'.
Myunghon's eye catches Katsuya for a moment and their masking spills over for a second. Something burns inside of them, something like an enormous amount of shame and embarrassment. So far in their quirky relationship, Myunghon has been the fun-loving, idiosyncratic person, floating upside down in rivers and teasing them about Magic River Teleportation. They can quirkily wear anime masks during Dark Hour sales and effortlessly tip them off to who might have incriminating evidence, something they wouldn't do for any cop, but because they sensed that sense of justice within Katsuya.
That Iustitia lives within Katsuya.
To be forced into this situation against their will, knowing their relationship is about to change, is humiliating. The gasp of pain is a bit sharper, and Katsuya can see that the excess force is probably wounding their arm or shoulder. Ishiba stops, however, when Katsuya speaks up.
It's not loud. It's not a cry or shout. But it carries gravitas with it, and he turns.
"Suou-san," Ishiba says, the disdain just positively simmering underneath. "Do you have a problem with how I'm handling this suspect? This Zainichi bitch's been found with blood on her unexplained multiple times, not to mention multiple counts of public loitering, being uncooperative with my investigations..."
These are pretty flimsy charges. There aren't any actual real charges, is there? Katsuya himself *knows* why there's blood on Myunghon. The Palace. The supernatural battles they've fought together.
But... it was never about the charges, was it? 'Ishiba's at it again,' said the other officers. Katsuya well knows that you can drive someone to a breaking point by just simply not letting up and being a harrassing force in their life. Some of the darkest confessions has probably been made under duress, when the suspect is at breaking point -- even though they might very well be innocent.
As if to accent that point, he yanks on their arm again. He's doing it on purpose. Myunghon's breathing laboriously at this point, and a single tear is rolling down their visible eye -- and they're purposefully turning to Katsuya, the best they can do to hide it from Ishiba.
<Pose Tracker> Katsuya Suou has posed. Isn't that right? Someone can be forced to commit a crime by their circumstances alone. If someone is starving, is the same penalty appropriate if they stole a loaf of bread while another went on to steal someone's wallet? These are both crimes, but are they equivalent crimes? Then, there is the matter of influence. If someone is made to do something by another's will, who is responsible? The one who committed the crime, or the one who compelled the other? He's not so stupid as to think that the one who committed it doesn't shoulder at least some of the blame, yet-- Is this 'right'?
And, does it matter what is actually 'right' in the court of public opinion? Even if something 'is so', by the time the truth gets out, the lie is already twice around the world in this day and age. The media, urban rumors, social networks... it feels like every day reality crumbles further.
And he can't even rely on his colleagues anymore.
That's right. He doesn't want to believe it, but bit by bit, it's becoming harder to ignore. The New World Order, it's said, has its hand in many of what goes on in the darker corners of the city. It's even said that it has its hooks in the city government. Perhaps, even beyond the city government. He doesn't want to believe a 'conspiracy theory', but despite what some people think, he's naive, not stupid. If someone is orchestrating something behind the scenes, then--
But even outside any of that, there's this. Ishiba, an alcoholic, it's said. There have long been rumors about what he does with suspects. He's even been placed on leave once or twice, but has always returned. Even he is a 'good person'? Just because Katsuya can get along with him 'well enough' from time to time, when he can put out of mind what happens behind closed doors?
He shouldn't get involved. Yeo won't get too badly hurt. He can't get involved. He has to think about his career, his family, his half-buried desire to find out the Truth with a capital T, to wash away the murkiness that adheres to the name and deeds of one Katsuzou Suou from one summer night ten years ago. He can't afford to get involved. He doesn't look them in the eye again, his gaze for a long moment away from both of the figures in the room, then directed on Ishiba alone. Yeo is almost certainly a criminal, at that--
A crime against a criminal is still a crime, come the thought again, out of the darkness.
And that's why he speaks up, now of all times.
He doesn't so much as blinking or flinching at the words the other officer uses. It's true that some Zainichi don't fit in. Some -- more than some? what are the statistics? -- commit even felonies. The same could be said for any of the minority groups that have come to Japan and to Sumaru in particular over the last century.
But Masaya Oku was killed by a fellow Japanese citizen, and someone he'd known at that. It's natural to forget the victims of crimes, even violent ones, with the flood of humanity's darkness seemingly neverending at times in their line of work. What is it that makes a criminal like that man's killer any different from someone like Myunghon? Is it... just their nationality? That... can't be right.
"Ishiba-san," says Katsuya says, staring right at Ishiba, "was it her blood or someone else's? If it's her own, she should be at a hospital, not in a holding cell." Loitering's a petty charge, hardly worth it unless someone thinks the suspect is up to something more than that. As for being uncooperative...
Well. That's the whole key to what Ishiba's attempting, isn't it? Batter down the suspect, refuse them any respite until they confess. A confession is worth its weight in gold -- even if under duress.
Does it ever eat Katsuya up at night? Does he ever wonder if a suspect he's interrogated has been innocent? That the real guilty party walks free?
A tear slips from Myunghon's sole eye and Katsuya tries not to focus on it. Right now, what he wants to do would surely get him into more trouble than he can tolerate. Instead, he squares his shoulders and keeps his gaze fixed on Ishiba. Stay calm. Don't escalate. He's treading into dark waters, but there's no reason to make the fallout from this worse-- whether it happens now, or later. "Ishiba-san," he says again, "Tell me what it is that you're investigating that you need her testimony for."
</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Myunghon Yeo has posed.
The way Ishiba exists on a revolving door of seemingly only slaps on the wrist for his misdeeds is definitely something that's become the topic of a rumour amongst the Sumaru PD. He's not someone with special connections -- not associated with a politician or a regional chief of police or anything that would give him obvious pull, so naturally the rumours of something like the New World Order come to light.
And Myunghon was *there*, on Ebisu Beach, having crashed the party with that getaway car. Hiori Hamade was supposed to be killed for asking too many questions. That operation failed. And recently afterwards, Ishiba started going after Myunghon with more and more rapid fervour.
He shouldn't get involved. What's more important: Myunghon's safety right now, or the long and dark journey of the Truth as to what happened behind Katsuzou Suou's sudden dishonourable discharge? He's a security guard in Aoba Park now. He could as well easily join him, if he presses too hard. Are these distractions worth giving up the big prize, Officer Suou?
Is that Justice?
It is also true that many Zainichi end up committing crimes -- because of those same circumstances that disfavour and disenfranchise them. To be identified as Zainichi often excludes you from employment, from residence, from the health system. A lot of them, the ones that don't have any advantages in life, fall into a spiral they can't get out of. It's not a unique story. The Burakumin are another. The Okinawans. The Ainu. The Ryukyu people. Japan's homogeneity myth is just that.
Katsuya makes his inquiry, and Ishiba is even-faced and silent. Myunghon quietly bites their lip as they hear Katsuya speak. They shouldn't feel frustration right now, but they feel it, even as they're stepping up to their defence. They feel small, humiliated, someone who needs to be pitied. They don't want to admit that a non-zero amount of their gender identity is tied around sexual harrassment and abuse, because it doesn't feel like a 'pure' reason to have dysphoria, by whatever measure they've conjured to wound themself that there is such a thing.
"... don't know," Ishiba admits, the grip on their arm loosening a bit. "She seems fine now, doesn't she?" Myunghon doesn't have any visible blood *now*, they've cleaned up, but Katsuya knows they didn't escape from the Palace unscathed. None of them did, when the Joker Killer and Strega were involved.
But what is it that Ishiba is trying to investigate that needs their testimony?
"I'm damn sure she's got ties to Chon crime groups, Suou," Ishiba drops the formality and adds another slur, for Koreans. "She's one slippery bitch, but a respectin' citizen don't turn up at odd hours bleeding out unless you're involved in some real fucked up business, and I'm here to make sure the streets're clean of that, got it?"
Myunghon's eye is losing focus at the odd angle they're still held. Right now, they're devolving to their emotional worst, like feeling like they're trapped between two patriarchial figures and the way they frequently feel belittled and humiliated just because of society's parsing of them 'being a woman'. Sorry, Officer Suou, they do know you've got your heart in the right place, but especially under duress at present, they can't remove Katsuya Suou, the person they can trust with confidential information and secrets of the supernatural, from Officer Suou, a statue-like, frightening arbiter of the law.
<Pose Tracker> Katsuya Suou has posed.
There has to be some reason, now that he thinks about it. It was the sort of thing he didn't have any reason to focus on before: there's a certain degree of mistreatment of suspects that is allowed, even expected, especially from the longtime officers, but his seems to go beyond even that. Yet, it's also not that that he has those close personal connections that some people who 'slip up' can use to avoid serious punishment. ...It couldn't be a connection with the New World Order, could it?
He doesn't want to think that. And yet--
But doesn't that potentially make this even more dangerous? Press too hard, and he could find himself reassigned off homicides altogether. He could end up working vice. Or traffic. Or, it could even be worse than that. It doesn't take much to smear someone's reputation, enough that he loses all chance of progressing in this line of work, let alone the dark and winding road towards the Truth, whatever it might be. Is all that worth giving up? Is it worth it, to see the judgement in everyone else's eyes or the sad quiet look in the eyes of his parents?
However.
Could he sleep at night if he turned away now and walked back upstairs to his desk? As an adult, it's true that one must make compromises. That, bit by bit, you feel your ideals getting tarnished, defiled. Yet, if he can't stand up for his ideals now, who would he even be?
Is it Justice, to pretend not to see so he can perhaps one day right a personal wrong?
"She does not seem to be bleeding now," Katsuya agrees, choosing his words carefully. Myunghon seems anything but fine right now, if he's being honest. "Still, those bandages..." It's a lie of omission: he knows they usually wear bandages on their body.
There it is. He's heard the man and some others on the force throw around that word before. As before, he remains carefully poker-faced. "Do you have direct evidence to support that belief, Ishiba-san...? We have many citizens who work odd hours for legitimate reasons. A nurse may work the night shift, for instance." He continues, gesturing vaguely as if he were conducting a lecture and not convincing someone to stop roughing up a suspect. "I think it is possible someone found in the night bleeding may have been wounded in an accident. Perhaps she was struck by a vehicle, or slipped and fell. Perhaps someone else even attacked her. Do you have a statement from when she was brought in?"
What if he doesn't let Myunghon go, he wonders privately, still trying to keep calm. He'll eventually run out of mitigations he can attempt. If he wants to get them out of trouble, he'll have to get leverage, and he's loathe to go tattle to Chief Togashi about what is ultimately 'a difference of opinion'.
(It's an injustice. He knows that, even if he also conceals it under a metaphorical veil from his sense of logic about the circumstances.)
Being an adult means... that sometimes you find yourself in a situation where you can't win. Where you'll lose something. Where, sometimes, you lose no matter what you do. Is that the shape of things now? He doesn't know.
<Pose Tracker> Myunghon Yeo has posed.
Once you start to see shadows in everything, you're done. Once you start to see the NWO's claws in even your colleagues, the smallest evils start to look more threatening when you suspect something greater behind it, doesn't it? It's an incredibly fine line to walk, and why conspiracy theories often get out of hand, but... given all Katsuya Suou has seen, it does seem suspicious... doesn't it?
But what if he gets reassigned off homicides? His own personal quest for truth, forever denied, at an even earlier stage than when Katsuzou was betrayed. Perhaps the most frightening part of all this is that the quest for Truth is not necessarily a quest for Justice. It's dressed like it at the surface level -- to discover what truly happened to their father -- but one can easily abandon Justice in the pursuit of Truth.
Might that shady rumourmonger, Baofu, not feel that way?
Katsuya starts to claw his way back -- pointing out that they aren't bleeding now. And they are covered in bandages. "Oh, come on! This freak's always covered--" Ishiba pauses, because he just slipped up. He knows that Myunghon always has bandages on their person, but it weakens his stance of pulling them in on suspicion that they're involved in criminal activity even further. By using a lie of omission, Katsuya just outsmarted him, and that clearly gets him riled up. How dare he? This upstart that's only half his age.
But Katsuya doesn't let up on the pressure, and Ishiba's composure is clearly compromised. Does he have any direct evidence to support that belief? People work at odd hours. Nurses, security guards, other graveyard shift workers. It's *possible* someone was in an accident at night because Myunghon was struck by a vehicle, or slipped and fell, or even was attacked. It's possible.
That's all he needs. To get the shadow of a doubt in the form of 'possibility'. As much as Ishiba seems to be a slippery weasel who gets away with too much, he clearly knows he's unable to press his luck here. He lets go, and Myunghon starts breathing harder as they stumble off-balance to one side.
"Don't think I don't know your game, Suou. You're green and haven't seen things the way they're run here," Ishiba's voice is at a simmering level just below a taunt. "Sooner or later you'll see. If someone like you were in charge, this city'd be overrun with immigrant scum like this."
It's not even factually correct, since Katsuya knows Zainichi also are composed of people who've lived in Japan all their life. It doesn't matter to him. It's just them versus the other.
He steps away, unlocking the handcuffs and somewhat forcefully taking them back to his pocket. But out of a sense of defiance, he leans towards Myunghon to say, "Enjoy the rest of your day. Maybe next time I'll see if you're in violation of building safety at the little Hirasaka dump you live out of."
Myunghon visibly shakes at that last part, their eye widening with their pupil dilating. Offier Ishiba doesn't even bother to wait to see that reaction -- he already knows the effect it has. And Katsuya knows too. It's grotesque, stalker behaviour. All they have to say is:
I know where you live.
Officer Ishiba turns the corner, and Myunghon doesn't look like they have the strength to look up and thank Katsuya. They've shrivelled into themself, so much smaller than before, holding that wounded shoulder with their arm -- convenient, because Ishiba's last words have crossed one line they desperately wish had never been crossed, and they're bracing into themself in such a familiar way from some of his cases involving abuse.
If only they had the power to jovially say: 'My Magic Jail Teleportation was a great success!' and play it off.
They can't.
<Pose Tracker> Katsuya Suou has posed.
That's the sort of person he worries about turning into, as a matter of fact. It's an easy thing to start to see a crime in every shadow, especially in this line of work. Where does the line fall? When does something suspicious turn into something that's actually dangerous? It's a question that Katsuya, himself, would love to have an answer for. Once you throw in rumors, the boundary becomes even murkier. Which rumors were exactly that? Which could now be reality? And, if someone was changed by rumor alone...
Is a crime still a crime if you became a criminal due to a rumor? He knows what rumor was spread about that bar in Aoba Ward: now it really does sell firearms, which is extremly illegal in Japan. And yet, when the subject has come up with his fellow officers, their feeling was that it wasn't 'illegal' for them to sell the weapons. It was just illegal for someone to be caught with the weapons. The more Katsuya thinks about it, how that train of thought doesn't even make any sense, the more his head hurts. Is this one of the differences between Law and Justice?
After all, what is Lawful isn't always Just, and what is Just isn't always Lawful. Even he knows that. But at the same time, Justice and Truth aren't the same thing, either. They, too, can be at odds with one another: it's possible that to pursue one thing, he might have to give up another.
Sometimes, that's the way of the world. There's no answer where everyone can go home happy. Someone has to give something up. Someone has to lose, so another can gain. Isn't that the case right now?
No, actually, it isn't.
If he sacrifices Yeo-san for merely the chance of pursuing the Truth, whatever it might be, however he might reach it, if it's even possible to reach it, what does he gain? Isn't he instead choosing to lose twice over? Wouldn't he also be sacrificing 'Justice'?
It's a slow process to argue his way back up from the depths. He has to be careful. He has to be methodical. If it looks at any point like he's doing anything 'shady', then he'll be suspected. Never mind the pains he's taken to cultivate good relationships with his colleagues: Katsuya's position here of late is bad but it can still get worse.
"Is she?" Katsuya says, as if guile were completely out of his reach. As if regarding Ishiba afresh, he frowns and furrows his brow. "Hmm."
He doesn't let up. He keeps the pressure on, using the same logic anyone would know, if they lived in this city. People work later than the trains and buses run, and it can be a rough life to be out and about on the streets in such a situation. It's possible, after all. It's possible that they've been accused for no reason but Ishiba's own animus.
But someone like Ishiba can't let this go easily. Katsuya's green. It's true: he has only had about three years, nearly, on the force. He's been promoted steadily, but the fact remains that he's half again Ishiba's age. It's slight: Katsuya narrows his eyes and his shoulders tense just that much more. It's true, what Ishiba's said about him, but it doesn't mean that it hasn't hit a nerve.
As for the rest of it--
He shouldn't say anything. He can't risk riling the man up. Keep your head down, look the other way. Hasn't the worst been avoided? That's what his survival instincts tell him. Don't become a tall poppy, as they say. If Ishiba is on the take...
But as with so much of late, he can't let it go. He works to keep his expression neutral, his body language plain. He says to Ishiba, as if it were a self-evident fact, "...Wherever they're from, the people who live in this city are citizens." That's what it comes down to in the end, isn't it? Isn't that the oath he'd taken been about? He's not so stupid as to not be aware that there are many people (some whom he works with!) who feel differently. But, isn't that a slap in the face of Justice?
...That's a threat. In the same way that Kaneshiro had implied a similar sentiment, this isn't...
The fingers of his right hand twitch.
Yet-- what can he say? He knows what's meant. Yet the wording is careful, nearly as careful as some of his own had been before. Even if he reports it, it can't...
It's disgusting. He's seen something today he wishes he hadn't.
He'd always known it was there. He just hadn't wanted to see it.
Ishiba's gone, leaving just him and them, and they barely look like they can walk on their own. "Do you need assistance?" he asks them. What was the young woman's number, the one who claimed to be a nun -- actually, he doesn't think that he has it at all. "I can help walk you to the front desk," he offers, because he can't leave them like this.
It's such a sea-change from the strange person he'd seen before. It's left him, too, feeling unmoored.
<Pose Tracker> Myunghon Yeo has posed.
In a way, Rumours are a reflection of just how twisted and human Laws are, are they not? It's perhaps a more digestable version of what tends to happen behind closed doors. Society often has the impression that laws are made fair and just, without bias and agendas -- but even in the most benign and progressive clauses, there is an agenda, because laws ultimately have to have them because they carry a certain representation of what some people would like to *see* upheld in their society.
Some people. Perhaps a shrinkingly small percentage of people. And that's in the best case scenario. In the worse ones, the laws only benefit a small in-group, or have consequences that affect the have-nots, not the haves. If the consequence of a law is a fine, it isn't much to a billionaire, now is it? Such is the case of a Rumour, which is in effect a 'Law' -- a skewing of a certain social line in one manner or another. Kill someone with your cellphone. Suddenly, that's been introduced to Sumaru's social fabric.
But Katsuya says his piece before Ishiba leaves. He affirms that no matter where they're from, the people who live in this city are citizens. Myunghon could easily argue this, given how the status of Zainichi Koreans as only having special residence and not the privilege of citizenry is a historical topic, and they were subject to profiling activities from the government not even all that far back, but ... they understand what Katsuya's saying, at least. The spirit of what he says. Not the letter.
But trying to apply the spirit of justice is where it's truly difficult, now is it?
It's that last line that has them very rattled. 'Maybe next time I'll see if you're in violation of building safety at the little Hirasaka dump you live out of.' The implications are very, very clear to them. Their pupil is shrunk and dilated, and they can't stop their body from trembling. They cup their hand to their mouth slowly, those long, bony fingers of theirs.
"Please," is all they can manage at the moment. The front desk is a terrible place to be, a public place where people can see them fall apart, but it's better than a cold, unwelcoming, concrete interrogation room. They really, really didn't want him to see them like this. This isn't Rumourmonger Merry. This isn't a person that can grant hope. This is vulnerable, and vulnerable is entirely bad... but they can't even remotely grasp the proverbial rope to pull themself up right now.
<Pose Tracker> Katsuya Suou has posed.
Rumor versus Law. In a way, one could even call it more egalitarian: it's the reality that people would like to see happen, in opposition to the reality that they experience. The rules are made by the few to govern the many: and that's the best-case scenario.
It's also a reality, a line of thinking, that Katsuya has yet to wrap his head around fully. Yes, there are times when the law can't capture what's right. He struggles with this himself. And hasn't he just seen what he's in theory known: just because someone is an officer doesn't mean that what they do is just, or even lawful. Meanwhile, there's the distinct possibility that corruption has snaked its way into his very workplace, compromising the very people he works alongside. Trust is essential to be a human being. But how do you maintain trust... like this?
He doesn't know. Is there anyone who does? If so, he would wish for nothing more than to talk to them. But even if he knows it's important to trust, who is out there now that he can trust enough with... all of this? Even his allies in this fight, does he know them well enough for... this?
It galls him, but he might well end up doing what his brother is doing: shouldering his burdens as best he can, alone. How ridiculous...
Ishiba's gone. Were it not for the officers on break, they'd be here alone. Maybe there would be more to say to Myunghon under such circumstances, but...
But things being what they are, even in that situation, he's not sure it would be of much use. Staying here isn't good. Going upstairs perhaps isn't much better. But at least then there will be the door and an escape.
'Please'. It's as good as he'll get. He doesn't touch them. It's more like he waves his hand a distance at their back, as if to usher them upstairs. He can't help but glance once at the officers as he nears the door, holding it for Myunghon. Damn... are they going to spread stories about this? Well, there's nothing he can do about that.
Once the door to questioning closes behind the both of them, he asks them, as low as he can, "...Do you have Kazama-san's number? Are you able to call her?" Short of calling them a taxi, he's not sure what else can be done: he doesn't know anyone else who knows Myunghon who has a car.
The way they're looking now really does have him concerned. Myunghon probably notices. They probably hate it.
<Pose Tracker> Myunghon Yeo has posed.
Those officers have a Look on their face, as Katsuya leads Myunghon out. It's something between bemusement and curiousity; they're completely silent, but their faces have a whole story to them. At this moment, they feel more like the uncaring stares of society, rather than the colleagues that he might have -- must have the most faith in, because what is the alternative to not even being certain that the institution you work with has a solid bedrock?
Perhaps the most cutting part, as it is for Myunghon, is how *pedestrian* this is to them. They're having one of the worst days of their life in recent memory, and to them it is Tuesday. They're going to forget about it two hours later. Some officers do this because they are jaded, traumatised, from all they've seen. Others come to it from a much more malicious place. It's hard to tell where it all comes from, but the look that's presented on the other end is always the same... and it's how the system ends up wounding people, even when it doesn't intend to.
It's going to be gossip. Officers are human beings too. They love a deskside chat. It was already gossip before, wasn't it? Hamade was uncomfortable with it, but the way that other officer was like, 'Ishiba again?' tells a whole story.
"Kazama-san..." Myunghon sounds a little quiet and distant. "I-- he took my phone," they just realised. "I think it's wherever officers confiscate suspect belongings. I hope." They're clearly thinking of all the worst-case scenarios at another flagrant breach of protocol. But it's clear that Katsuya's not able to do much more for them, and their mind is unrelentingly thinking back to how Katsuya clearly views them now.
They try to give him eye contact. "... Thank you, Officer Suou," they manage, with a mostly steady voice. It's Officer Suou now. They can't manage a more comfortable Suou-san. "Um-- I likely can..." They're trying to think of what emergency contacts they still remember. "May I use a public phone...?"
From here, they do end up calling Yua, and that will end up with a car sent for them, because Miho is powerful and has the means, and they'll stay at the Ooshiro penthouse that night. After the short call is finished, to a 'Yuarin', if Katsuya is listening in, they hang up and turn back towards him, trying to put the bravest smile they can manage.
"How... is your other work going?" Perhaps the best they can do is distract themself from their reality right now.
<Pose Tracker> Katsuya Suou has posed.
The worst part is that he's not sure where this will go. It's highly unlikely he'll lose his job over this, but men like Ichiba can run either one of two ways, and he can't say he knows the man well enough to know which way it will cleave. ...Though he does have his suspicions. Either Ichiba will avoid him in the future, so long as they don't end up clashing again, or he'll find some means of getting his revenge. Either he'll make trouble for Katsuya, somehow, or... he'll find another way to get at Myunghon.
The latter case, in both forking branches, is the more likely one.
He still has to come back here for work the following morning. He can't forget that...
He took their phone. "He should release your belongings if you're not being detained," Katsuya says quietly, the strain around his eyes and mouth suggesting that he doesn't think it will be easily managed, even if that should be the way things are done. Damn. What's that man playing at? He might be able to get it released without too much trouble with some time, but there's no way to do that now, let alone quickly. They look him in the eye.
Officer Suou. ...Well, perhaps that's only proper...
He's not sure how he feels about that.
"There's a payphone upstairs. Or I can lend you mine for a call." It's just a fliphone, and outside his own contacts list (which he apparently doesn't think would be of interest to anyone using his phone), there's nothing there of value.
But it's likely a public phone that they opt to use. There are a great deal many reasons for someone like Myunghon to not use a police officer's phone, no matter how friendly they might be. They make their call. All Katsuya manages to overhear (quite by accident) is 'Yuarin'. Another friend? That's good, he considers privately, folding his arms over his chest.
Myunghon asks him a question.
"My... other work? The Hirasaka case? There's nothing to say there anymore-- well, that is to say..." he says, apparently caught off-guard. He fidgets with his sunglasses, briefly. Does that mean that the murder case is now closed? He seems discomfited; perhaps, after what he'd been like downstairs, it might be some small comfort to them. Or, perhaps not.
"There is... a great deal of paperwork now," he says, exhaling a long breath. "I may be a homicide detective, but normally, a murder doesn't occur every week. Even in a city this size." Or it should't.
That's how it was before the Joker Killer murders started up. Now, no longer governed by Law but by Rumor, has this city become the place people have longed it to be? He can't say.
<Pose Tracker> Myunghon Yeo has posed.
Katsuya's likely the type to not pay that much attention to gossip around the station. It's unslightly, after all, to be whispering about one's coworkers. It's the kind of thing that can fester resentments, cliques; police officers aren't immune from this, just because they're adults, after all. They're still human beings, in the end, prone to including one and excluding another. But... 'Ishiba again?' rings back to his mind. This *is* something some of his colleagues have been gossiping about. Something is strange about how persistent he is at times, and...
If retribution comes, it might not come directly from him, too.
"I know. ... if you could have it released, could you please do that for me?" Myunghon requests gently. They've managed to stabilise to something like a very reserved, quiet state now, that genteel language that they usually use on storefront days in play.
In the end, they do use a public phone, because a *cop's number* calling Yua likely will cause alarm bells to ring - out - loud somewhere. Even if Myunghon would, at another time, love to peek at who Katsuya has for his contacts. Distressing Yua would be a greater blunder than getting that little bit of information.
The upstairs is a bit more quiet than the front desk, which Myunghon is grateful for at present. "... it is true. It is a greatly underappreciated part of the job, is it not -- how much the t's have to be crossed and the i's dotted. A very long road between the epiphany of what solves a murder, and having the file be committed to records."
A gentle little sigh. There's a lot more they'd like to discuss with Katsuya, like 'what were they doing in the Palace', but they can't do that in the police station. So they opt to obscure their words gently: "I'd like to thank you for the other day too... when we were browsing Mansions for rent." A Mansion is a type of nicer high-rise apartment, but someone like Katsuya can clearly connect 'Mansion' to 'Palace', both english words that are somewhat synonymous. "Just a little more, and I think we may yet find the right one."
<Pose Tracker> Katsuya Suou has posed.
Everyone gossips, it's true. Or, well, nearly everyone. Katsuya is, in fact, not the sort of person to swap stories around the station. They're adults and colleagues, there's no reason to tell stories about one another while they're meant to be working. But it does happen. He overhears some of it himself, inadvertantly. He's even overheard some gossip, on at least one occasion, about his father.
It's only been ten years. There are colleagues who worked here during his father's time. So, of course...
But if they're gossiping about Ishiba, then they're certainly going to tell stories about what he did to intervene. Damn... he doesn't know who Ishiba's 'allies' might be. Surely he's not a cop without 'friends'. This could be trouble.
Still, if he has to admit it at least to himself, he doesn't regret what he did. If he had ignored Hamade's concerns, or if he'd seen Myunghon like that and turned to walk away upstairs, how could he ever take himself seriously again...? Justice has to be meant at all times. It can't be selective.
He can only hope to weather the fallout, whatever it might be.
"I'll see what I can do," he tells Myunghon, because he's not entirely sure what that might be or look like. He might try using logic, and see where that gets him. Perhaps he can even leverage a favor, if it comes to that. Still, even for him, it's too early to worry about that now.
"Indeed... police work is not as 'flashy' as they make it sound on TV," he expresses, sighing as if leveraging some long-held complaint of his. "It's rare for a case to be solved in days, let alone weeks. By the way..." He pauses, as if to take a look around them both. "I must thank you. That bakery..." He pauses, as if actually having to think about how to phrase what he's trying to say. "I would have walked right past it otherwise," he settles for, with might well be neutral enough for anyone listening in.
They have something they want to thank him for.
Mansion? Palace. That's what they mean.
Was that not the right one? His briefly vaguely confused expression may give the thought away. "You are quite welcome," he tells them. "I was only doing what was right." The right one... And then what?
There's no way to know except to wait and see what happens next.