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As it turns out, stake outs are really boring when you don't have anyone to talk to. Sebastian had invited Justine, of course, but she'd made some excuse about paperwork and wanting to prepare for a hearing and other stuff she could totally have done here. The office is quiet enough for it.
But it's fine. Sebastian will probably do better without anyone to distract him anyway, and won't Justine be impressed when he brings her the Yatagarasu?
...It’s also possible that Sebastian should have gotten more sleep ahead of time. As it turned out, sitting still and quiet in a darkened room (he isn't going to leave the light on and alert anyone that he’s there, that would just be stupid) is a recipe for drowsiness.
He jolts back to awareness sometime around 3:00. It takes him a second to figure out what woke him up: there's someone in the hall, their steps all but inaudible on the plush carpet. Unfortunately for this so-called Great Thief, Sebastian's got years of practice listening for footsteps in the middle of the night. He's probably the best stake-out-er in the entire Prosecutor's Office.
He slides his chair by the light switch. When the office door opens, he turns the lights on, springing dramatically to his feet. "I've got you now, Yatagarasu!"
The Yatagarasu, as it turns out, is a teenage girl with confusing hair. She squints against the sudden light. "What?" she asks.
"Your reign of terror is at an end," Sebastian explains. "You made one fated mistake: you made an enemy of The Best!" It occurs to him that this is their first meeting, so he clarifies, "That would be me. Sebastian Debeste. They call me 'The Best'. Because I am."
"That's..." The Yatagarasu shakes her head. "Okay. More importantly, though, how did you know I would be here?"
"Oh, that's easy," Sebastian says. "Did you really think nobody would notice you were targeting corporations whose initials spelled out notes on a scale?"
The Yatagarasu opened her mouth, then closed it again. "I am?" She frowned. "Are you sure?"
"It's too late to deny it! Your presence at the scene of the crime proves it." Sebastian flourishes his baton. "And now it will be your undoing."
"Okay, first of all, that's a weird coincidence, but it's not the point. I'm targeting corporations that have done evil things." She squints. "Have you guys at the Prosecutors' Office not been getting my packages?"
"A likely story," Sebastian says. He hasn't heard anything about these so-called packages.
"And more importantly," the Yatagarasu continues, "now that you've found me, what do you intend to do about it?"
Sebastian frowns. Is this a trick question? "I'm going to arrest you, obviously."
"Really? How?" Before Sebastian can respond, the Yatagarasu sprints out the door. The sound of her footsteps echoes down the hall.
Sebastian chases after her, of course, but by the time he makes it into the hallway she's nowhere to be seen. If he weren't The Best, he could almost believe he'd imagined the whole thing.
But he is; The Best, that is. And clearly the Yatagarasu could tell, or why would she be so afraid to face him? She must understand how hopeless it is to try to challenge him! Running won't do her any good, though. Sebastian tracked her down once, and he can easily do it again.
Not right away, though. Without the adrenaline of confronting a criminal, he's quickly remembering how late it is. Surely whoever's office this is won't mind if Sebastian takes a quick nap...
He ended up dragging himself home after all; he wanted to tell Pops that they won't have to worry about the Yatagarasu for much longer. It didn't do him any good. Pops had laughed in his face and told him he'd probably just scared the night janitor.
But that's fine! Sebastian doesn't actually have evidence yet, so Pops is probably just telling him to get some. He can do that, easy. He just needs to figure out where she's going to show up next.
He's in his office, poring over his files, when he gets his answer: she knocks on his office door, then walks in without waiting for an answer.
Sebastian slams his hands on his desk in his haste to stand. (His papers go everywhere. He's going to have to get one of the detectives to clean those up.) "You!"
"Me!" the Yatagarasu agrees. "Hi."
"How did you..." No, that's the wrong question. The Prosecutors' Office is technically open to the public; most people just don't bother. "Why are you here? You're a criminal, you should be trying to stay as far away from prosecutors as you can."
"I don't know what you're talking about," the Yatagarasu says cheerfully. "I'm just a normal teenager here to visit a friend. And since I'm here anyway, I figured I'd come say hi."
"Say hi?" Sebastian straightens, makes himself more intimidating. "You know I could have you arrested right now, don't you?"
The Yatagarasu looks distinctly un-intimidated. "On what grounds? You don't have any evidence."
Evidently she's not as close to that other prosecutor as she thinks, if she doesn't know how easy it is to get evidence once you have a suspect. Pops could probably find five incriminating pieces of evidence at her house before even going inside.
But Sebastian doesn't want to ask for help. Pops basically told him to prove himself, right? How can he do that, if he has Pops do all the work? No, he'll find the evidence himself, and then when he arrests the Yatagarasu everyone will see what it means to be The Best.
He's been quiet too long; the Yatagarasu is looking at him weird. He needs to change the subject so she doesn't get suspicious. He clears his throat. "...Why does a thief have friends in the Prosecutors' Office, anyway?"
She accepts the change of subject without question, no doubt because of Sebastian's stuperb acting skills. "My dad used to work here, actually."
Sebastian cocks his head. "Used to?"
"Yeah." She doesn't elaborate.
Sebastian observes the evidence and concludes that she doesn't want to talk about it. He supposes it's not likely to be relevant to the investigation anyway. (He will, however, add the things she's said so far to his Yatagarasu files. Maybe it will matter that she's a disappointment to her father's legacy.) In fact...
"I don't understand," he says. "Your father made the decision to enforce the law. Why would you turn around and break it?"
"I wouldn't know," she says. "It's never come up."
Sebastian can definitely see where she was raised by a lawyer. It's annoying, but he can't let it show, or she'll catch on to his incredible plan of making her incriminate herself.
"If I did, though," she continues, and Sebastian perks up. "It would probably be because there were people the law couldn't reach. Maybe even people it refused to reach. And if there were, the only way to do anything about it would be to go outside the law, right?"
"There's no one the law can't reach." Sebastian's seen what happens when people think they're too important for Pops to do anything to. Or, well, mostly he hasn't seen it, because they disappear. In jail forever, he assumes.
"Spoken like a prosecutor," the Yatagarasu says.
"Yes? I am one?" Sebastian doesn't understand her mind games, but they won't work on him.
"But enough about me." There's a worrying glint in the Yatagarasu's eye. "How are you doing? Have you got any exciting cases? For example, chasing a dashing and noble Great Thief?"
"No." Anyone who believes in a noble criminal is a real oxymoron.
"I don't believe you," the Yatagarasu says cheerfully. "But that's okay. There has to be some kind of interesting investigation going on. That's what you do, right?"
"Of course." Maybe she isn't stupid after all, if she can see how impressive Sebastian is. "They assign me all the most important cases, because they know I'm The Best at solving them." He catches himself. "Not that I'm going to tell you about them. You'll probably just pass the information along to your little criminal friends."
"I really don't think you understand the point of a Great Thief," the Yatagarasu says. "And that's a general statement, not a confession. But fine, if you don't trust me, how about your older cases? I can't warn anyone if they've already been arrested."
She has a point, Sebastian admits to himself. Besides, she deserves to know what she's up against if she's committed to this pointless charade. She'll probably be so scared she'll turn herself in on the spot.
(And even if she doesn't, it's nice to have someone show interest. Everyone in Forensics loves hearing Sebastian's stories, obviously, but they're so busy it never occurs to them to ask. Justine was there when most of them happened, and Pops... he has his big important work with the PIC, and that comes first.)
"Fine," Sebastian says, making it clear that he's doing this as a favor to her. "There was this one time I caught an arsonist while the building was still on fire..."
He walks her through the twists in the case, all the inductions he made that astonished even Justine and the evidence so well hidden that he had to direct Forensics where to look. It's a very good story, if he does say so himself.
The Yatagarasu makes a good audience, too, nodding along and gasping at all the right moments. It's... nice. Or it would be if she wasn't a criminal, of course.
Sebastian finishes with a final flourish of his baton. There's a moment of silence, and then the Yatagarasu claps. "Okay, yeah, that was really cool."
"I am," Sebastian agrees.
"Sure." The Yatagarasu makes a show of looking at her bare wrist. "Aw, man, look at the time. I've got to get going. This was fun, though! We should do it again sometime."
"We should," Sebastian agrees. He pauses. "Wait, no. You're still a thief, and I'm still going to catch you."
"Seeya!" The Yatagarasu waves, and then she's gone.
Sebastian crosses his arms. Oh, she'll see him, alright. She'll see him when he arrests her!
It is kind of a shame, though. Sure, she's a criminal, but she's nothing like the ones he usually brings in. She's not trying to hurt anyone. She claims she's even trying to help. He checked, and she really is delivering things to the Prosecutors' Office, though no one will tell him what. Probably they know that he won't need it to solve the case.
And he is going to officially solve it, even if that does mean arresting someone who's only been nice to him. He has to remember that she's a criminal. Criminals deserve punishment: Pops is always saying it, and Justine, and all his teachers at Themis. What kind of prosecutor would he be if he didn't know that much?
Despite his renewed commitment to the task, he doesn't run into the Yatagarasu again, no matter how many offices he stakes out.
Kay Faraday, on the other hand, doesn't leave him alone. She's stopping by his office at least once a week, once even coming by for four days in a row. Weirder, she isn't asking about the Yatagarasu investigation. She talks about her day, about her favorite tv shows, about nonsense what-ifs that no one else would ever think of.
Once, she tells a joke, an off-hand comment that barely has to do with the conversation. At the time, it seems like just another of her tangents. Sebastian doesn't get it until he's brushing his teeth that night.
When he brings it up (leaving out, of course, the part where he choked on his toothbrush), Kay smiles, satisfied. She doesn't say anything about how long it took him. She hasn't called him stupid even once, he realizes. Not that she has reason to - he is, after all, The Best - but he thinks about it anyway.
Slowly, he lets his guard down. He doesn't realize his mistake until it's too late.
Kay spins in an office chair, staring at the ceiling. "I don't think I ever asked," she says. "Why are you a prosecutor, anyway? Aren't you like seventeen?"
"Why are you a thief?" Sebastian counters. "You're literally also seventeen."
"To be fair," she says," thieving is a young person's game. You have to be limber enough to outrun the cops. Hypothetically speaking, of course."
"I'll show you hypocritical speaking," Sebastian mutters.
"But prosecutors are supposed to be old, right? Or at least grey haired and wrinkled." She grins to herself.
"What?"
Kay waves the question away. "Never mind, it's mostly an inside joke."
"Okay." Sebastian has those too, after all. He can't remember them at the moment, but surely Justine will.
Kay leans forward. "But seriously: why be a prosecutor? Don't you have better things to do than sit in this stuffy building all day?"
Sebastian flourishes his baton, back on more stable ground. "How could I do that? They need me here."
"Sure," Kay says. "But why is that your problem? There have to be adults who could do at least some of your job."
"Maybe, but I'm better at it, so why make them?" Sebastian smirks.
Kay doesn't respond, just waits.
Sebastian groans. "Okay, fine, and also I want to make my Pops proud. He was a prosecutor too, you know."
Kay's face does something complicated. Sebastian doesn't know what it means, but it doesn't look good. "Ah," she says.
It's clear she's got the wrong idea, so Sebastian rushes to explain. "Like you said, they need me here, so it has to be working. I mean sure, he never says it, or pays attention to any of my cases, but he didn't do that before, either." He frowns. "I guess they weren't cases before. Those were just classes, and I was amazing at them, so it didn't matter. But now I'm solving cases, just like he did, so he must be proud, right?" The evidence is all there.
Kay's eyes are soft. Sebastian can't stand to meet them. "I hate to break it to you," she says slowly, "but I think maybe your dad just sucks."
"That's stupid," Sebastian says instantly. "You don't know anything about him."
"Maybe," Kay says. It doesn't sound like she's agreeing. "I do know how dads are supposed to treat their kids, though."
"He's just really busy." Sebastian puffs up. "He's the head of the PIC, you know. He's really important."
"So? My dad was a prosecutor too, not to mention-" She cuts herself off. "He was really busy, but he still had time to tell me he loved me."
There's something coiling in Sebastian's gut now, thick and ugly. He can't- she doesn't understand. He needs to make her understand. The smirk from before is back, larger, almost like Pops'. "Maybe when you were a kid," he says. "But the expectations are higher when you're an adult. Not that you'd know, I guess."
Kay reels back as if struck. It's- it's what Sebastian wanted, he reminds himself. "Okay," she says, voice dark. "You can have your family drama, fine, whatever. But don't drag my father into it."
"Spoken like someone who can't admit that I'm right." Sebastian's face aches, but he forces his sneer wider.
"Right." Kay slams her hands on the desk, pushing herself to her feet.
Sebastian catches himself halfway through his flinch.
Thankfully, Kay doesn't seem to notice. "I don't need to take this," she continues. "I'm leaving."
"Enjoy it while you can," Sebastian says. "Because you won't be able to for long!" He pauses. "Because I'm going to arrest you."
Kay scoffs. "No, yeah, I got that. You really aren't as smart as you think you are."
"And yet I foiled your plans," Sebastian points out.
"Yeah, sure, great job with that." Kay's facing the door, but her tone carries the distinct impression she's rolling her eyes. "No wonder-"
Sebastian waits, but she doesn't finish the thought. "What?"
"Never mind." Her shoulders slump. "Bye."
She doesn't bother closing the door as she goes. It's worse than if she'd just slammed it; the silence gives Sebastian space to think about what she was going to say.
It doesn't matter. If anything, he should be grateful to her. This is an important reminder of what Sebastian should already have known: he can't trust her. She's a criminal, and she's never forgotten it. Sebastian needs to remember his own purpose.
Kay's back in his office a week later, acting like nothing has happened. Sebastian is happy to follow her lead. It will make his own life much easier.
There's no need to play fair with a criminal, after all. It barely even counts as cheating.
He waits for a lull in the conversation, then brings up the case being prepared using the evidence the Yatagarasu had delivered. As it happens, Kay is eager to talk about injustice as long as corporations are the ones doing it. Sebastian makes note of what corporations she names and tries not to hate himself when she smiles at him, wide and bright and not at all like he'd tried to hurt her.
She trusts him. She shouldn't; she knows what he is. But she does, and he's going to abuse that, and then he'll never see her again.
But that's what it means to be a prosecutor. He squares his shoulders and chooses an office for the stakeout.
It's almost anticlimactic, in the end. He waits - no risk of falling asleep, this time, not when he's feeling sick to his stomach - and then she appears. She looks exactly like she did in his office, no mask or anything. Nothing to hide what either of them are doing.
It's too late now. Sebastian flicks on the light, careful to put himself between Kay and the door. "Aha," he says, though it comes out flat. "I've got you now, Yatagarasu."
Kay blinks in the sudden light. "Huh," she says. There's a note to her voice that Sebastian's never heard. "It looks like you actually have me cornered this time."
"Of course." No, this is a victory, he has to do better than this. He forces a smile. "I am, after all, The Best. You never stood a chance."
"Mm-hmm," Kay says. "Totally." She scratches the floor with her toe. "So, uh. Now what?"
"What do you mean, 'now what'?" Sebastian looks around, but it doesn't seem to be a trap. It's just him and Kay. "This is where I arrest you."
"I mean, yeah." There's a hint of laughter in her voice. It hurts to hear. "But then what?"
Sebastian stares, willing her to make sense.
Kay sighs. "Okay, like. You arrest me. Then I go to trial, presumably. Someone has to prosecute me - I hope it's you, you've earned a chance to show off." She tosses her hair, not quite managing to look nonchalant. "And I'll probably be tried as an adult, right? I made you guys look bad, you're going to want me locked up as long as possible. Which you'll probably manage, since you did catch me red-handed. And then what? I'm in jail, but what happens to you?"
It's not fair. Sebastian's been trying not to think about that all week, and here Kay is, shoving it in his face.
When he doesn't respond, Kay continues, "What do you get out of all this? You already said it, your father isn't paying attention to your cases, so it's not like he's going to notice. What does anyone get from me being in jail?"
"Justice," Sebastian says, trying to summon Justine's certainty.
It doesn't work, and Kay can see it. She narrows her eyes. "Really? Because letting all these corporate creeps go free because they have money doesn't seem like justice to me."
It's really not fair. Sebastian sniffs. "I don't want you to go to jail," he admits.
Kay grins. "Thanks! I don't want to go to jail either."
"You're the one who's committing crimes, though." Sebastian flexes his baton. "I'm just trying to do my job as a prosecutor."
"You know," Kay says, "my dad told me something, once. He said it was a prosecutor's job to make sure people got what they deserved. The law can be a way to get there, but it's not perfect, and it's not the only way. I didn't really get it, then, but I think I do now." She looks at him expectingly.
"Stop trying to confuse me!" Sebastian is fully crying now. He needs to stop. It's not helping.
"If that's what I was trying to do, I promise I would find a more fun way to do it." Kay pauses, weighing her words. "I'm just trying to make sure that whatever you decide, you don't end up regretting it."
"You mean you don't end up regretting it," Sebastian mutters.
"I wouldn't be sad not to get arrested," Kay agrees. "But you've already tracked me down twice now. If you really wanted me to go to jail, what am I going to do about it?"
Sebastian chokes back a sob. She doesn't even know that he betrayed her trust.
Kay leans in his direction, then stops. "Hey, no, it's okay. I'll be okay no matter what happens, I promise."
It's too much. Even now, she's trying to comfort him, and he's thinking about hurting her again? He can't do it.
He steps out of the doorway. "I won't do this again," he says, trying to sound stern. It would be more effective if he could keep his voice from wavering. "Stop stealing from people."
Kay's smile is like... Sebastian doesn't have anything to compare it to. It's a relief he's never known. "I clearly need more training anyway."
"That doesn't sound like stopping!" Sebastian will actually have a heart attack if he has to deal with another situation like this one. At the very least, he'll snap his baton in half.
Kay grins, but the expression soon becomes something gentler, warmer. "Seriously," she says, voice soft. "Thank you. I really do appreciate it. And, for what it's worth? I'm proud of you. I think you're making the right choice."
Sebastian is already tearing up again, which means he's entirely unprepared for Kay to run up and hug him. He freezes. They're close enough that he can smell the chemical apple scent of her shampoo.
He hasn't figured out how to react before she lets go. "Alright," she says, a little too loud. "See you tomorrow, buddy!"
She turns on her heel and runs out the door. When Sebastian looks out, she's halfway down the hallway, waving as she runs.
He takes a deep breath. This is fine. He's just let a criminal go, which means that now he's a criminal too, and the Yatagarasu is going to visit his office again tomorrow, and also she uses apple shampoo, and maybe he's not a good person but he really is happy that she's getting away. They're friends, apparently. She even said as much. He's never had a friend like her. Maybe there isn't one anywhere on the planet, just Kay.
There are exactly two things he can be certain of, he thinks. The first is that he desperately needs to go to bed. He's not going to sort through any of his feelings like this, and the longer he stays out, the more likely Pops is to want an explanation.
The second is that he can't wait to see Kay again.