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Ushio Tetsu had thought he’d been doing an admirable job of pretending like he wasn’t currently questioning every single major choice he’d made over the course of his forty-eight years of existence. It had all started at that damn meeting when Officer Hirano had mentioned pressing charges on Aki and Ushio had flipped out on him. It had gotten him thinking: Aki was sixteen. What made her different from the youth in Satellite that he arrested almost on a daily basis, often for a lot less than what Aki had done? Many of them were Aki’s age, and many more even younger. He’d brought eleven and twelve-year-olds in before. What made it so that she was a child and they weren’t?
He'd always taken great pride in his almost three decades of work in Satellite Security. Why wouldn’t he? He’d made a career out of doing what was right, a kind of take-that to the medical professionals who had diagnosed him with conduct disorders in his childhood. Over the years, he’d risen through the ranks all the way up to Commissioner. There were times that he didn’t bother going back to his apartment for days at a stretch. It was the one thing he was good at, he was keeping the streets a little safer, it put food on the table, and paid well enough that he could send money to his elderly mother. He was fortunate to have found such a good job and he knew it.
He had no memory of either the incident that had sent him into a tailspin at age sixteen, or the two days prior. The last thing he recalled was a normal and somewhat boring day at school. Lunch break had just started, some boys had been talking about starting a pickup game in the gym, and Ushio had been considering joining them because he always kicked everyone’s ass in basketball. Then everything had gone blank.
He had analyzed the morning of that day over and over in his head, second by second, trying to find any hint of what may have happened, to no avail. The only possible clue was some nightmares he’d had of the schoolyard in the middle of the night. However, he could never remember those well in the morning and he still didn’t understand why he’d be there at that hour.
So anyway, he’d done something stupid, no doubt, and his next memories were of the psych ward. The less he thought about that, the better.
“Young man, you are being delusional. There is no money in this room…”
“Our patient is being uncooperative and violent. Restraints and sedation are necessary.”
“I am sorry that you’re experiencing side effects from this medication. Unfortunately, you have been court-ordered to take it.”
Ushio had been in and out of there for over a year. They’d tried medicine after medicine; all of which had done nasty things like making him sleep all day or causing him to gain weight or creating uncontrollable twitching, and none of which did anything about the hallucinations. And then, one day, these hallucinations had stopped as abruptly as they had started, leaving him to gather the pieces of his shattered life and try to stick them back together. However, some remnants of the experience stuck around. To this day, he had a strong aversion to paper money; he had to pay for everything with a credit card or else feel sick to his stomach at the mere sight of yen notes.
It still angered him, how everything he knew had been upended, whenever he thought about it. Some people might have been able to come to terms with it and move on. Not him.
He hadn’t managed to graduate high school until he was nineteen, and even then it was only by a couple of points. Of course, college had been out of the question. Even if he had been able to pass those killer entrance exams, he couldn’t have afforded either the money or the time required for a degree. When he was twelve, his father had jumped in front of a train, and ever since then Ushio had felt responsibility for providing for his mother and younger sister in any way he could.
What might have happened to them, if the police department hadn’t been severely understaffed and decided to waive some of the hiring requirements?
This career had been his life, as well as a productive outlet for his anger problem. However, there was a dark side to it; one he could no longer ignore. Roughing prisoners up a bit, to get them to confess or just because the officer felt like it was one thing; no one ever considered that to be a big deal. On the other hand, everyone knew what had happened to Kiryu Kyosuke the night they’d brought him in.
Ushio had been on-duty in a different sector that night and thus hadn’t witnessed it, but he’d heard the shocked whispers the next day. The boy had injured an officer and put him into a coma for a week, causing permanent brain damage. (Personally, Ushio had always detested that officer and thought he’d kind of deserved it, but even he had enough self-control to never say this out loud.) In their rage and grief, the man’s colleagues had beaten Kiryu to a pulp and then violated him. The boy, already ailing, had died in prison less than three months later.
This had been completely unacceptable behavior, even by the quite low Satellite Security standards. Even so, only one of them had been fired, and he’d gotten re-hired a couple of months later once the furor died down. The rest had gotten off with mere reprimands.
Would Ushio have tried to put a stop to it, had he been there? As much as he hated to admit it, probably not. He’d been flattered when that little boy had voiced his admiration for Security–they didn’t enjoy nearly as much of the popularity among the younger generations that they’d had when he first joined the force. But the truth of the matter was, Security would never in a million years accept the application of anyone from Satellite, no matter how enthusiastic the applicant was.
And as if grappling with the idea that his entire life’s work might have been one big mistake wasn’t enough on his plate already, there was Sagiri Mikage.
They’d had a passing acquaintance with each other previously. However, they’d worked in different branches of Security and he’d never given much thought to her either way. Then, circumstance had made them an unlikely pair at the amusement park. Petite and physically frail as she may have been, she was as devoted to her job as he was to his. That had been what had attracted him to her above all else.
He’d never been in a romantic relationship before. The long hours he worked would have prohibited it. Nor had it been something he’d been pining for; it was hard enough taking care of himself, let alone another person, and no one had ever appealed to him to that extent. Until now.
If it had been merely some shallow infatuation because she was young and pretty–and don’t get him wrong, she was those things–then he thought he could have handled it. He’d have done what he always did when he had a fancy for a colleague: ignore it and bury himself even deeper into his work until it subsided. That had always done the trick before. But this proved to be more than that…something with which he had no experience.
He'd considered whether it would be better to simply keep quiet. Workplace romances could be dicey, plus there was the little fact that he was old enough to be her father. But tonight, after their near-death experience in the helicopter, he had decided that he could hide it no longer. He was going to confess, and even if it didn’t go the way he wanted, at least the air would be cleared.
He’d tried to prepare himself for some scenarios in which she might turn him down. Maybe the age gap would weird her out, or she’d be too busy with work, or maybe not even like men. However, one thing he had not considered was that she was already in love with Jack Atlas. Although she hadn’t said as much, it was clear from her body language as she desperately tried to get the former King to notice her.
He would try to be mature about it, he resolved. He wasn’t going to do anything stupid such as believe he was entitled to her. But he’d be damned if it didn’t sting like a hornet anyway.
All of this, though, had been forced to the back burner for now. Things had deteriorated more quickly than he ever could have imagined. One minute, they’d been more or less peacefully eating dinner, and the next that “Dark Signer” guy had attacked them. It had been kind of difficult to dwell on his personal angst when there was a screaming baby to take care of, and kids to rescue, and mortal peril looming over their heads.
He'd managed to rescue the boy, Takuya...but he hadn’t been able to save Martha. Although he had only known the woman for a few hours, she’d left an indelible impression on him. She was unflinching in both courage and loyalty. He’d thought about something he’d heard her say to one of the children, “Now don’t worry. I’ve already survived two city-leveling disasters in my life; we can get through this one too. Yusei is going to take care of things, and in the meantime I’ll do whatever it takes to keep all of you safe.”
Whatever it takes. Ushio wondered if she might have ever resorted to illegal methods to protect the children in her care. He knew, that had he ever caught her at it, he would have arrested her and sent her to the Facility without a second thought. And he would have seen these actions as right; as keeping another annoying Satellite criminal off the streets.
Maybe, he thought, it was time for him to stop doing what he thought was right, and start doing what was objectively good.