When the High Wears Off (Patty & Raidou Kuzunoha)

The next day felt like a dream compared to last night's nightmare. It was almost like it didn't happen in the first place. Especially after taking the pills that she did, they were still wearing off. She wasn't fucked up like last night but it took a while to come down off of them for how many she took. Xanax was special, it wasn't like the other pills. You didn't act crazy on Xax, you didn't see things that weren't there, you didn't have any weird thoughts or anything like that. You just stopped caring. It was like novacaine for the soul but it didn't make you dead inside. Just numb. There were tugs, there were pulls but it leveled you out and nothing could phase you. Didn't wanna laugh, didn't wanna cry because you couldn't. You felt everything but that's what it was, it was novacaine. Everything was blunt and life felt like it wasn't there. Just like a dream. But she knew it wasn't, Patricia knew she didn't dream last night. There was muddy converse in her room she had to clean up when she finally came to, had to scrub the green out of the shower... all of it happened. She killed someone. And she could of killed someone else.

Patricia faded down the sidewalk to the sound of everything that didn't matter. Cars went by. The wind blew. The drizzle kept pecking at her cheeks like needles. But she kept on going with her hands in the pockets of Albrecht's way-too-big-for-her-coat, a cigarette hanging out of her mouth, and a lifeless expression. She looked a lot different from the night before, it would be easy to miss her on the street even if you knew her already. Her hair was its natural rust color, having taken out the purple with the green and it frayed with split ends. Freckles dotted skin that she didn't give a shit enough about to hide with makeup. And the dark circles under her eyes and lack of vibrancy. Even when she was pissed off and anxious she had more life in her than she did now. But right now Patty didn't care. Some vague notion kept her feet moving where they were going. Maybe it was answers or closure or something. Maybe she just didn't wanna be alone and had no one else to talk to. Patricia flicked her cigarette into the street and turned the knob to the detective agency.

"......hey."

Was the automatic greeting the Kuzunoha gave as she kept sweeping past each manila folder and paperwork the moment when she heard the doorbell heralding a new customer. But even as she was working through each case file, Raidou took a glance to look at the newcomer who arrived. At first, she seemed confused who this obviously disheveled individual was. But, it was slowly beginning to piece together. "...It's you. Come sit down, make yourself at home. How can I help you? Do you want some coffee?"

She gestured her towards the couch while getting up to start the coffee machine while rummaging through the cupboards for filters and grounds.

She recognized her right away just like Patty thought she was. She was a detective and her face was covered more than most and she guessed she could've lied and acted much different than she actually was but she didn't. Well, didn't and did. The lanky girl didn't wanna think about how she was last night, just like how she was before in the bad spots back home. It was a time where you had to be tough or wound up dead and if you showed any weakness people would eat you alive. There was no doubt in her mind she would've killed again if she thought it would put her in a better spot and let her more easily survive, without anyone else there things might have turned out different. But Raidou would handle it, so she did the selfish thing and let it be someone else's problem. Patricia didn't even think she'd do something about the body, she'd leave it and flee. Just some punkass that got torn up by demons. In a way that's exactly what happened.

"Yeah... yeah, that'd be great..." she spoke emptily. Patty didn't wanna be here or deal with any of it. But Raidou knew what happened and she still had work to do. Giddy was gonna be her problem no matter what and Patty had something to scratch her back with. Both of them were in this mess. She walked in to sit down, tossing the soggy coat on the back of the couch haphazardly looking like someone hit her dog with a car. Raidou wanted to see what she wanted but Patty wasn't sure and didn't wanna answer the question right away. The skinny girl took a sharp breath and smacked her hands on her legs.
"So what's up? How's things?" she crooned in her usually cheerful tones and normal grin, leaning forward slightly. But the smile wasn't in her eyes, they darted and spoke of how much last night hurt.

The coffee machine would quietly hum as it began to do its job. As it did, Raidou leaned against the counter as she waited and quietly observed her guest's behavior down to every little nuance she could see. Nevertheless, it was obvious to her that the girl was just as distraught about last night's events, but didn't want to confront it right away. Instead, she just played along. The detective sighed and grumbled. "Oh, it's the same old-same old. Cases have been piling up and I've been filing around old ones back to the cabinet. But well, I've been neglecting to do that since... I'm an actual slob, have mercy on me. And I'm paying for that right now as you can see with the mad stacks on my desk."

She gestured towards her desk where the piles could be seen. Stacks of folders up to possibly several feet tall were towering over her paper weights and even her plastic dividers and trays couldn't even compare to them. At this point, she was getting overworked since this morning. Really, it was a good thing she came in here and gave her that necessary break for coffee. "But I can't say it's all bad, helps me to review and gives me something to do even if it's boring. I guess it could get Zen-like over time here. You want to lend me a hand and give it a go? I'd use my demons like I usually do to clean my house while watching soap operas, but they've all got things to do. How about it?"

Of course, she was mostly joking. Why would anyone give a damn about filing papers? It was easily the most boring thing of the job having to go through outdated files that really didn't matter anymore. She wished Gotou didn't have to be a cat, then maybe the work would be faster this way. Though it was doubtful he would've helped anyway. When the coffee machine stopped humming into the pot, Raidou smoothly poured its contents evenly into two teacups before handing one over to Patty.

Patricia hadn't expected that to work as well as it did but it looked like no one really wanted to talk about it. That was fine, it was some pretty heavy shit. Even if Raidou might be the only one she could talk to who knew what she was going through that didn't mean that the druggie girl wanted to pour salt in a fresh wound. Nnnnnope. That haunted house was getting boarded up and the key buried. Maybe she'd need to talk about it one day but... Patty couldn't stop. She had to keep going. And the less you thought about it the easier it was to do that. Just push through the hurt and you'll come out on the other side. Then you can break down.

She listened as her smile faded into a neutral frown as she looked over the office. Yeah it was pretty trashed even by her standards and she could be messy when she wanted to be. Can't say she'd do the same unless she wanted to get something done though, Patty hated to read. Reading meant sitting still and she had problems in that area. Using demons to clean her room sounded exactly like something she would do too, Patricia would of been more stoked about it if it wasn't for... y'know. She could only fake so much happy right now, she didn't really feel up to being super excited like she normally would be. It kinda felt insulting to that guy, to murder him and then walk around with a smile like everything was made of clouds and cotton candy.
"...yeah okay. Sure." It didn't sound nearly as morose as when she walked in but still missing some beats to her cheer. Honestly she could use anything to distract herself and stay busy, if she was at home she'd be chain-smoking and popping pills or drinking. That's why she wasn't home.

The thin girl stood up and surveyed the junk around her. Geez what a freakin' mess. But where was she gonna start? ...loose shit on the floor, that's where she was gonna start. The stuff that was just lying on the ground. Then she'd move to the stacks in boxes since they were probably older and leave the desk for last if she got that far. Patricia took the coffee with an absent Thanks as she continued to look over the papers and where she was gonna start. Keeping busy would keep her from thinking about the shit she didn't wanna think about. She lifted the cup to drink it before recoiling.
"Tssssss! Fuck." It burned her tongue, she wasn't really paying attention to it. She shook her hair and set the cup down on the table as she drifted around and settled on a stack, crouching down to flip through things with staples.


It was dates or names, Patty preferred dates since it was easier. Oh shit, they had case numbers. Okay, she was doing case numbers now. She made her decision and started moving files without saying anything right away, approaching her work in a surprisingly quiet and practical manner, using the couch and the table to put things into piles to organize later. Once everything in a stack was laid out in its own case and put in some kinda order she could stack'em and have them all in order by case file all at once. Just gotta do the work in pieces. But Patty couldn't work in silence forever. Raidou was right, it was boring as hell. She'd find herself nosing through some of the case files, flipping a few open to "see if it was all there and ordered" but really to see what kind of stuff Raidou did. And it was more interesting than putting papers on other papers for like an hour or two. But that got her thinking.
"Hey Raidou, whatever happened to that pickpocket? Didja catch'im?" she asked as she scanned through more case files before putting them were they were supposed to go. Some of them were pretty gnarly, like how some guy got all his blood siphoned out somewhere in the Backlight. Crazy shit. But she was sorta interested in what happened when she was supposed to find the pickpocket and failed. Close the loop and stuff.

Raidou smiled widened as her guest accepted her plea for help. Though, she was admittedly pleasantly surprised anyone would even give it a go. Looking at Patricia, in general, she expected her to even make some flaccid excuse and run off elsewhere. Though as they were about to get to work, the Kuzunoha giggled a little before gently chastising her. "Careful. I wouldn't want all that hot stuff all over you and the papers. Ha ha... Yes, technically I do. But you see the case numbers? Ignore the first five digits and the two letters, they all have that. They're the city number and initials for the district. The four numbers next are the date when I accepted them. First two of those four are the year and last two the month. The remaining digits aren't too important. They're just there to number each relevant person to the case."

Work would go smoothly after she gave the heads up. It was mind-numblingly boring, predictably so. The detective rather would sink into her beanbag of a chair and marathon the latest soap dramas while chewing on popcorn. Frankly, she had to admit that Patricia was doing remarkably well herself for keeping on this kind of task for so long. Though there was no doubt she was reading what those files were all about to keep themselves sane, not that she could blame her.  

As if to finally kill the dull silence for once, the detective responded dully while looking up from the files. An annoyed look was apparent on her features as she went through the memory lane. But it was clear it wasn't at Patty. It was as if the whole affair was unpleasant. "Oh, I managed to find her in the Backlight. Unfortunately for Sylph, she decided to try hoodwinking a demon. Didn't work out and he was understandably mad about the whole thing. It didn't help when she kept calling him fat and kept deriding it to go on a diet and use his money to get a gym membership. It was getting violent, so I had to step in... and knocked him out. I can't say I'm proud of the whole thing. But I'm glad it ended without anyone dying and without anyone getting caught."

It really wasn't a proud moment for Raidou. It made her wonder how and why did her Master choose her? Sure, she was an useful demon. But, was it even worth putting up with her behavior? Only time can tell, at least. The detective took a glance at the clock and thoughtfully tapped on the desk in thought before calling out to Patty. "Did you have lunch? I didn't, so I'm thinking of calling some Chinese takeout. Let me know what you want, my treat. It's the least I can do for helping me. The menu's in the first drawer. Red paper with fake gold glitter."

The tall girl stared at the detective slack-jawed. Yeah soooo... Patty
wasn't good at numbers. Or notations. Or like... school or smart people
things in general. Or organizing. But she could put stuff away and break up
the task in a practical method, it was just cleaning. Cleaning didn't have
so many freakin' digits in it so she could handle that. It took her brain a
few times to wrap itself around exactly what she was saying.
"Okay so liiiike... I'm gonna put'em in number order,
'kay?"

And so she did, gleaning what she could from all the confusing accountant
crap Raidou just said and only looking towards the last few numbers since
they're the only ones that mattered. Gotta say the mindless task did its job
well enough of distracting her from being sad, now she was just bored out of
her skull until the sad came back. It was starting to look neater. Neater
and messier at the same time. The loose piles were now organized piles and
there was more of them, but all that would need to be done with those is to
chuck them in filing cabinets and call it a day. That'd be like... a good
fifth of it. Maybe. Christ there was a lot of useless paperwork trash here.
She was pretty thankful that Raidou spoke up, but she sounded done with the
whole thing. Patty thought the opposite, breaking up a demonic domestic
dispute sounded like it'd be pretty damn entertaining. She laughed to
herself at what Sylph said, Patty'd probably say the same stuff but she
wasn't there.
"Hahahahaa okay so that was her! I gotta say I was on
the lookout for something like... rat-like and evil when you said demon
pickpocket. She seems pretty fun! Wait, so like she's working
with you now?" Guess they took on all shapes and sizes, she
should've figured that by now. Sucks she didn't get to see it herself, Patty
would just have to pay better attention next time if she wanted to catch the
action.

She was called out for food which reminded her of less happy thoughts. Patty
could eat. But she didn't want to. Xanax really killed her appetite and even
when she did feel like it the pills messed with her stomach and gave her
cramps. But whatever, she'd eat a little bit and get over it, it'd be hella
rude to turn it down and she wasn't made of money.
"Naaaah. I woke up late so I didn't eat since
yesterday. Thanks though, I'll take you up on that," she admitted,
standing with a hand on her hip. Patricia might have initially taken up the
offer to organize the files but she knew an excuse for a break when she saw
one and holy freakin' shit this was so duuuuuuuuull. The skinny girl
manuevered around to reach into the drawer to grab the menu before flopping
on the couch with her legs over the arm rest. She took what was left in the
tea cup to drain the rest of it, making a face. It was ice cold. But she
could get hot stuff from the takeout place. Her appetite returned as she
scanned the menu, thinking about what she wanted.
"Think I'm gonna geeeeeeeet..." Eggrolls.
Yeah, that was it. Patty wasn't hungry anymore. She didn't need to get
reminded of anything from yesterday. The temptation was pretty strong to go
back just for that X after what she'd been through. Molly was a happy drug,
powdered joy. If she had that then she wouldn't have to worry or deal with
the aftermath of this fucked up situation. The only thing that stopped her
was what happened when the high wore off and shit got worse than before.

"...whatever you're gonna get, I guess," she
dismissed, a little more disregard in her tone for just a sec,
"You can just grab a little more appetizers than you usually
get and we'll split it, m'kay? I like surprises and I don't really eat a lot
anyway." As she spoke Patty lazily folded the menu into a
wide-winged paper airplane and gently tossed it back to Raidou so she
wouldn't need to get back up to give it back. Patricia put her hands behind
her head and bounced her foot up and down over the side of the couch,
staring at some indeterminate point in the ceiling. She wanted to talk more
so she didn't have to think but all the things she could think to talk about
were about what happened. But she had to deal with it anyway. No time like
the present.
"Hey," she spoke up, her back to Raidou. But the
seriousness and implicative frown could be heard in her voice,
"...you know about that kid... right? The one in red that
freaked out and went crazy? ...d'ya know what he could do...?" Not a
lot really worried Patty, she wasn't someone to get caught up in something
she couldn't control. Not even Giddy, she wasn't worried about it all.
Raidou would track the lead and they'd take'em down, just a matter of when.
But this worried her. This could be bad for anyone involved.
Especially if that footage got out.

Despite appreciating the help, Raidou didn't exactly feel too confident the girl would be able to handle it. But if it was by numbers, then that was at least close enough and had some kind of order that it was based on and not on some chaotic mishmash. She grimly smiled as Patty expressed her amusement, at least it was beginning to cheer her up aside from this whole overwhelming mass of paper. "Fun. I wish it were that simple... She was my Master's demon a while back and I wanted to meet her. My enthusiasm didn't live for long as you can tell. For better or worse, Sylph accepted to join me. But, she does good work for what she does... And you just reminded me I might have to go back to a diet of instant ramen for weeks. Sylph's going to demand compensation for her work."

The Kuzunoha fell even deeper in her grimace as she sighed morosely. How did her Master manage to handle a grubby magpie like Sylph? It boggled her mind how workplace unfriendly the demon could be. Was this one of those types that knew they were "hot shit" and could get away with things as long as they did good work? This was something for much deeper consideration with Gotou in the future.

"Adventurous, aren't you? Sadly, this restaurant in particular likes to over-pack its takeout boxes. Feel free to take some home if you want." The Kuzunoha wryly remarked as Patty flopped herself on the couch. She vaguely reminded her of Gotou, in a feline-like manner. But somehow she came off more of a cat than him. The Kuzunoha easily caught the menu with two fingers before unfolding it and scanning through the contents and making some considerations. "Now, let's see what I'm peckish for..."

"Hmm?" Before she could even press a number on her phone, Raidou still had her eyes glued on the menu. Though she quickly noticed that her guest seemed awfully serious, but the detective would know why. The phone was set back down on the wooden surface of her desk before answering her just as gravely. "Yes. But I don't believe you need to worry about him. Not for a long while anyway."

The detective noticed her coffee was cold when she tried to take a sip and frowned in displeasure and disappointment into the cup. Time really did pass quickly here. It was just hot a while ago and it cooled off. Perhaps tea would be good this time around, jasmine would be awfully nice right now. "Last night a pair of Psyche-Terrorists fought against a Cadet duo in the sewers. One was caught and the other got away. I believe our acquaintance will be going through the process of incarceration. I went to the site of the battle just this morning and asked around demons and officers while doing a little of investigating on my own. The battle was so violent that an entire sewer system collapsed. I'm pretty sure his phone is unusable now, especially when lightning exploded inside. He actually had to be dragged out of there unconscious, no doubt by the force of the attacks. I believe with certainty that we'll be fine. Or otherwise, this establishment would've been closed down by now."

She found herself shuddering at a disturbing thought of the Royal Guard. That woman was power and cruelty incarnate. Though the detective maybe a Kuzunoha and the newest Raidou Kuzunoha at that, Nameless was someone who made for a fearsome opponent all the same. There was a good reason why this City was under Isla's control. But she didn't sit on these possibilities for much longer. Patricia was still here to have her concerns addressed.

Patricia turned around on the couch, propping her elbows up and resting her head in her hands. Even when she was being chill she didn't stay still for long.


It also took absolutely no effort which was pretty appealing, and with no outside cities to draw from and a lot of violent crime and injuries the blood bank was always running low so they literally turned no one away. Also a low-key way to technically blood dope but Patty didn't talk about that to anyone.
"Wait, Master? So like... this is some kinda weird dojo thing huh?" Patty wouldn't be shocked. Well, she kinda was kinda wasn't. Raidou was pretty good with a sword but like, she didn't know any place you could learn to summon demons from. Except maybe like a cult. Or law school. It actually sounded kinda cool, like a kung fu movie. It'd be pretty bitchin' if she could summon badass demons to like clean her room for her like Raidou did. But she wasn't here to ask too many personal questions. She cared more about what was going on with stuff for like, once in her life. It was cool hanging out though. It distracted her from her real problems. Patty smiled back.
"Yeah that's a pretty big shame, huh? Sure, I'll do you a favor and keep the fridge from getting crowded, aheh," she joked before turning back over.

Asking her question her eyes were up and to the right and she became still as she awaited the response. Raidou seemed pretty relaxed about the whole thing but listening to it got the hair on the back of her neck to stand on end. He got picked up. He got freakin' picked up on his first night out, the hell was that about? Did he think he could go hard or was he just stupid? Patty didn't care which. She didn't care what happened to the kid, he could do whatever he wanted to do but to risk everyone else like that? It could've gone sideways real quick. Patty was glad he got punked by the cops, it saved her from having to knock his teeth out herself. And she'd hit him so hard he'd never get back up again.
"Kkhhhnnnssshhh... did he seriously get picked up on his first night out? Homeboy comes out to play without any powers and then he gets himself tagged right after with stuff that can screw us over." The skinny girl noticeably prickled and tensed. She could've said a lot worse things but she didn't. She didn't wanna think about it. He wasn't gonna be her problem. Yet. But if the Playhouse was right he'd come back with his video skill and if that seriously happened she'd have a hard call to make. He might not walk away from that one.

But Patricia wasn't worried about herself. Was and really wasn't. She wasn't new to this. Yeah so the powers and stuff she wasn't the most familiar with but everything else was a daily grind, might as well be. She was a lot more familiar with dodging assholes that wanted to kill you and crooked cops than the next guy, it was her way of life and especially in Endymion it wasn't going to change. She knew just what she had to do to avoid getting hauled away in cuffs. Or killed. And just how far she would go to avoid it. Patty turned toward the detective with a sort of harsher look.
"Raidou, I don't give a fuck about me. Or us. We'll be fine, our faces were covered, yours wasn't. We're used to this. Worst thing that would happen to us is the cops put a sting on the farmhouse and try to tag us on our way out, even then we can just wait'em out and Infinite Jest are terrorists just like we are, they won't wait forever. If anything they'll do all the work for us and a lead'll get lost, you are the one with something to lose here."

Patricia wasn't smart, at least not book smart, and she sucked at planning ahead. But she was smart enough to understand a situation and exactly what went into it. Especially when it involved her own survival. The reality of it all wasn't lost on her. She turned her back once more and resumed swinging her foot moodily. NOW she had more shit to think about, like who the other guy helping out the punkass kid was. He came to his power while they were all there so it HAD to be someone he didn't know already. Jesus Christ it better not be Rusty, if it was she was gonna kick'im in the codpiece next time she saw him. Patty picked up a case file from one of the piles on the table she lined out to flip through it, barely looking at it. She needed something to distract her from how freakin' pissed off she was. Raidou had a point. They didn't get caught and they weren't gonna. But that didn't stop her from getting mad at how one fuck up could put someone in danger like that. She made an aggraveted sigh as she tossed the file back where she took it from. Might as well change the subject.
"Thanks. For the other night," she spoke a little testily. She was more agitated at the situation than Raidou herself, she was just doing her job, "You really hooked me up, if you hadn't of put something out I would of tried to take care of this by myself and it would of gone worse than it did. Like that would even be possible. I'm... not really like that a lot of the time, this is kinda personal." Patricia sounded unsure. Probably trying to convince herself just as much as she was Raidou. She knew just how far that would've gone if Raidou hadn't stepped in. It would've been a triple-homocide.

"...That might not be a bad idea. But I don't trust it in Endymion. There's too many tech companies out here. Though, I guess you could look into their backgrounds before you donate." The detective admitted uneasily, though she tried to keep it nonchalant as possible. It's like Patricia said, there really was no downside. Though she was somewhat a little guarded on the subject. But she didn't quite trust these blood drives in this city. You never knew which ones had underground connections with companies that wanted such blood for their research and they could take it without any permission either. Who knows what said companies would do with it?

"You could say it's something like that. He taught me everything I knew in this job." She replied with a strained smile. Patricia wasn't necessarily wrong on this. It was a similar kind of relationship, but it was a little more of an internship, kind of. It was a phase in her life that she truly cherished with her teacher and her friend. She wondered where he was right now after disappearing on the night of the Divide for five years. All these leads she kept getting led to a dead end and it bothered her immensely as if it was a foreboding call that she would never find him. And yet, she persevered.

While as much as the detective appreciated Patricia taking one for the team as far as lunch went, the conversation turned serious. She smiled grimly at her, but began to become increasingly concerned for her guest. "I appreciate the concern, But don't you worry about me. This is my problem, it doesn't have to be yours. This isn't my first rodeo. I admit, I was incensed about the whole matter. But I'm sure we won't face any consequences because of his blunder. He's the one who walked off the plank and straight into the shark's mouth. Not us, even with the potential of taking us down with him, not that he can now. And besides, I would've been told if the case was out of our hands. So our lead isn't dead yet. But we do need to hurry."

Honestly. How could someone get caught like that? It wasn't anything like esoteric or rare knowledge that you walked around in ridiculous clothing for the law enforcement to suspiciously regard you. Was Marta a newcomer here? The Kuzunoha doubted it. And yet the whole matter made her even more annoyed at best, but she decided to shelve it away in her mind. This wasn't their problem anymore, it was the Cadets and the Kuzunoha would wash her hands on the matter.

She blinked at the thanks? For what? Ah, she saw. Something clicked in, not entirely, but something did. The entire last night's excursion into the woods and her lack of an appetite were remarkably peculiar. "Don't mention it. It's easy to get ahead of yourself when you're invested and you never had to deal with any of this before. It's been... scary. I don't blame you for it, but I'm glad it didn't get to the point we couldn't undo a horrible mistake."

The detective appreciated the help. Had it not for Patricia, they would never be able to save that life and get their hands on a lead. Even when the combat started, everyone remained cohesive as a whole team as they could given the circumstances. They weren't professionals, no. But they were the next best thing to one, at least. Which it was why Raidou wanted to give them a heads up on and a choice right now.

Patricia's eyebrows raised a bit at what Raidou spoke about with the blood before grimacing. Fucking shit! She'd never even thought about what someone having her blood could do. Well there went that easy as hell job. But it got worse. Her blood was on record now, and when she was suffering backlash from her Persona... Well, she was pretty glad she gave them fake creds so she didn't have to have her background looked at, they'd take anyone who walked in and she originally did it so she could give more and make more money if she couldn't get limited with donations per week but there was a false name to that blood. Still didn't mean she couldn't get tracked but it wouldn't be easy. She had to live her life carefully now. What a freakin' mess. She was eager to change the topic before she started thinking about knocking over a blood bank to wipe her records.

"Oh m'kay, so you were like an apprentice or something? Hah, I thought it was literally like Way of the Blade, Cobra Kai Strike or something with how you use that sword but I guess swords are pretty common weapons to fight demons with huh? Pays to be good at it, right?" Patty wasn't as good with her staff as she could be but she never really needed to be. She could swing a stick like any hoodlum could and it was as close to a pipe as she was gonna get but when it came down to it she preferred something she could point and shoot and her magic did more than enough for her on that front. Still, summoning demons was pretty badass. Patricia wished she could do that, it'd make life so much easier. Raidou reassured her that there was nothing to worry about and how what's-his-face went down alone so he wasn't their problem anymore and he wasn't but that didn't stop Patricia from being angry about it. She scoffed and stood up from the couch to start organizing things again so she wouldn't snap and say something about him. If he wanted to go out and get himself tagged that was his choice but getting reckless with someone else's life was pretty damn deplorable. None of them asked for that and he didn't have the right. Stupid motherfucker.

The detective continued to reassure the delinquent and Patty was usually difficult about that, wanting to stand on her own two feet against the tide but she didn't patronize her or anything. She even invited her back. The lanky girl continued to sort piles of documents and lift them to go into the filing cabinet all while remaining silent with a frown on her face. She could dive back into it and she would have to, Raidou was wrong. This was her problem and she had done this before. Back on the block. The drug trade wasn't anything new to her, maybe even human trafficking if the cults and Mica counted. She was just glad it didn't get as horrible as she could of made it. Patricia stopped what she was doing to look up with a more serious expression.


Patricia ran a hand across her face and leaned with her back to the filing cabinet. She didn't wanna say why or how serious it was unless she had to... but this was a matter of life and death along with how she personally felt about it. If she wasn't careful or lucky everything could be over. So she wouldn't be afraid to face the drug lords, she was finished if she didn't. Patty got lucky that someone else wanted this too. When her hand removed itself her usual amused smirk was back.


Patricia couldn't speak for anyone else, it was their call. None of them had to take drugs like she did, they didn't show the same abilities she did. So it was on them how deep they wanted to get into it but for her? She had to do this. Patty didn't have a choice.
"Just post up the notice and I'll be there. Can't really say for anyone else but hopefully we'll get less snitches or dumbasses this time huh?"

"Heh, yes. Something of the sort. An internship is probably what others might call it, but an apprenticeship fits the bill more. Swords just happened to be a common weapon to use back then even when the samurai were around. Still not a bad choice even today, I know Cadets still find common use with it aside from firearms. Though it's expected of me to be good at using it." Raidou was beginning to feel rather nostalgic about her time with her teacher. Those were good times, honestly. Learning from the best and getting their praise and care. It was a moment in time when she felt everything was fun and fulfilled. There was so much to look forward to in the future. Looking back, it was a mistake to have left him alone on his own. If only she knew what would've happened at that time, then maybe it wouldn't have to be this way...

She wasn't too surprised when Patricia mentioned it was her problem. As a detective, it made her curious what connection the Psyche-Terrorist had, if she had any at all. But, her mouth remained shut on the matter. She was uncomfortable on the subject and it was best to keep it that way for the time being. After all, even despite all these dangers, she was willing to continue helping her. Such help weren't a dime a dozen. The detective smirked and tipped down her hat, as if amused and glad at the same time. "Thank you. I could really use some good muscle. Having you take part is going to ensure our success."


Raidou joked, but it was a rather common careless mistake she ended up making ever since she started to call in take-out. It was always such a mess having to clean up after herself and a pain in the ass having to type up all that information again. After she began calling for their order, both women would return back to work and even partake in their prized meal for their effort before calling it a day.

SQ Gained: