Work Text:
Mika Shimotsuki looked around the room quietly before returning her eyes back to her own desk. The desk itself was vacant of any personal items, devoid of personality and showed no signs of its previous occupant – but she had heard rumors of him and briefly remembered his involvement at Oso Academy. Shinya Kougami. The sound of tape being ripped quickly from a box pulled her from her thoughts, Akane Tsunemori stood at her own desk quickly sorting through the new equipment she would later assign to Mika.
“I'm sorry we weren't able to give you your own keyboard earlier,” Akane began. “The last one got destroyed.” She smiled, offering no further explanation and quickly handing a keyboard over to Mika. She accepted it carefully and set it down in front of her monitor. “If you could, I would like you to continue writing your review of yesterday's case.”
The younger Inspector nodded, sitting back down and quickly booting up her PC. Akane watched her from her own desk for a few moments before smiling faintly and absently feeling for the worn and folded paper hidden beneath her own keyboard. She missed him, although she would never admit it openly. The book that Professor Saiga had given her after teaching her, per Kougami's request, was snug between her monitor and the neatly-kept potted plant Ginoza himself had presented her with as a thank you. Yayoi's nailpolish bottle lay on its side just in front of the pot, keeping the photograph of Yuki and herself from falling down. Akane glanced to her left and smiled at Kagari's jar of jellybeans – the office had slowly been skimming off the top and she knew it would need refilled soon.
It was Masoka's shotglass that caught her eye that day, however. Simple, plain, and full of decisions that it had helped the old hound make. “I guess I miss a lot of people, these days,” she relented.
"I'm sorry, Inspector?" Mika questioned, looking over the top of her monitor. "I couldn't hear you." Truth be told, she had been fidgeting with a photograph of her late classmates, smiling at the camera.
"Ah! Nothing to worry about. Although, you're allowed to have pictures at your desk, you know?" Akane smiled knowingly – ironically it was the painful reminders that kept your own Psycho Pass from becoming cloudy.