Seraphina Jaeger was late yet again.

Chiming reports of peril echoed through the precinct halls, as officers came and went. Civilians sat by a series of benches located in the civilians hall, isolated from the rest of the precinct, as to not to disturb the on-working officers. Summer, the season officers had longed for the most, was on the horizon. Funny enough, it was around that time that the precinct would calm down, as citizens from all over the city would start to plan their vacations, granting the police (and thereby the natural officers) the rest they could only wish for — the same could not be said about the FPASB operatives though. The FPASB (Federal Police Agency Safety Bureau, the Social Security Division from the Public Safety Union advised by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare of Nihon) were at their own rush hour, with the Terminus Fujiwara department taking the top mantle of having their hands full with city affairs from all kinds. It had been a year since the now infamous technorunner incident that dealt a great blow to the entirety of society. However, the Bureau was able to prevent the incident from faltering them, despite what has been said and done to the outside, aiming to maximize their security, and thus the security of the city, to the fullest to prevent any upcoming similar incidents.

The new twenty-five year old (self-proclaimed) operative, Seraphina Jaeger, rushed hectically, along with everyone, in the middle of the precinct lobby, gravelling whoever passed her to solve her lost bearings. About four months ago, she was scouted as the first and only student for the FPASB special internship program, a program which was just initiated a few months prior. Apparently, she had achieved a near perfect score that not only was the FPASB willing to scout her, but various other firms, away from law enforcement, as well, which was a rarity in these days, an age where people are able to achieve minimal effort and still get outstanding results regardless. Seraphina was in doubt at first glance on her scores, even her aptitude test score was in the high ranks. Her friends would even tell her at the time that she shouldn’t often think poorly of herself, she, as they described her, was a natural high achiever, dedicating herself to studying to reach an almost impossible score, thinking she can land a good job, whereas she could have done almost nothing and still get a good job.

Not a few inches from the perilling Seraphina, stood Kotarou Yagira, a thirty-four year old FPASB operative detective, and, despite still being young for it, he was a veteran in his line of work. He had been in the force ever since he was still a freshman at the academy. Kotarou was being bombarded by his, still ongoing, cases. Just a few minutes ago, he was scolded upon by the chief inspector for “slacking” off, if the chief inspector had met Kotarou ten years ago, he would have probably fired him then, for he was a far cry from what he was in the current time. Kotarou groaned as soon as he thought of the chief inspector’s scolding, he was only facing a minor “slump” that he had no control over, but he wouldn’t blame the foreign chief inspector for getting mad, for the captain was still new to the precinct, still new to his position, so it was only natural he was strict.

He placed his afternoon coffee, his fifteenth coffee that day to be exact, on the reception counter, as he was discussing the matter of a missing arrest warrant file, concerning a narcotic case belonging to one of his partners, to the secretary, who was lurching through some files she had brought from the property room. She had said earlier, that someone must have taken the warrant with the evidence files when the files were brought to the property room by accident. All the meanwhile, a police officer approached Kotarou about what he assumed was a new case (but in reality, the officer was informing him of a new recruit). Kotarou, being busy with the task at hand, told the officer to tend to that “case”.

He went back and entered his office, and immediately lied down on the chair. He groaned while he sorted the files on his desk, which were his ongoing cases, but before Kotarou returned the files back in the drawer, he noticed a very distinctive looking file amidst all the other files, it was the arrest warrant he had been looking all over for. Kotarou slammed the grip of his palm on his face when he came to the realization that the warrant had been in his desk drawer all along, it had seemed that the slump affected him in more ways than he had originally thought.

A knock on the office door shattered Kotarou’s trance, he rubbed his forehead in frustration, he did not want disturbance, nevertheless, he reached for the door switch on the desk. The door slid like a curtain, and a young woman, unrecognizable to Kotarou’s knowledge, stepped through. In the few seconds that passed in her entrance, Kotarou carefully analyzed her like a recognition machine. She was a girl of average height, probably between the age of twenty-five to twenty-nine, with short, but messy and around chin length, reddish brown hair. A black blazer coated her plain buttoned shirt, with a black skirt and flat black shoes at her legs. A formal attire. The young woman had a firm expression on her face; the face of naive amateur having complete faith and devotion to the city’s system, but also the face of a delusional foreigner obsessed with peace, Kotarou thought, for she was, in fact, a foreigner.

‘Seraphina Jaeger! I am from Kamui Academy. It is a pleasure to meet your acquaintance, sir!’ Seraphina spoke with fluent japanese, like she was a native in the language. She stood firmly, as she was set on a salute. A small name tag lied at her chest, with the words ‘SPECIAL INTERN’ smothering the white template instead of her name. Finally found the office, a thought of relief seemed into her.

Memories flooded Kotarou’s mind in the matter of seconds, searching effortlessly for any recollection of a mention for such a girl. Then it came... a while back in March, he remembered the talk with the chief inspector of the possibility of a new student being scouted for the special internship program. Kotarou’s first impression of Seraphina was a mere pity for her, due to the same case that her friends had stated when they heard about her scores. Someone else, who appreciated hard-working individuals like her — probably the chief inspector, Kotarou would think — would have thought the girl as a stellar choice for the FPASB, like gold dust.

The precinct was currently running few on superior officers and operatives, due to the rush hour, that Kotarou was considered being one of the remaining superior operatives, despite being a level three operative detective, since usually superior management and tasks were often handed to level five operatives, detective or not, and seldom to level four operatives. The conclusion was: Seraphina was to be his responsibility for the time being, no other officer would have bothered with her in the state the precinct was in and would have just sent her home. He rubbed the back of his neck due to fatigue and reached for his hanged jacket pocket, pulling out a lighter before lighting the tip of his cigarette, he deeply inhaled the cigarette and exhaled with ease, he then gestured for Seraphina to sit down without muttering a word. She gave up her salute and obliged, trying to contain her worry, her firm appearance was merely a facade, which was natural for a newbie. Kotarou contacted the secretary to send the files concerning Seraphina.

Regardless of the tight affairs the rest of the precinct was busy with, an officer entered the office after a knock, not too long after the call was made, and quickly placed a file before excusing themselves. Kotarou slid through the file pages on the digital tab with diligence, constantly laying his eyes on both the information coating the pages and Seraphina sitting on the other side of the desk. Her name was correct, actual age of twenty-four years and she was to turn one up in the coming days, she was educated at Koeski University, with four months of training at Kamui Academy for the internship at the FPASB. For police work, she displayed cases of possessing high deductive and communication skills. Kotarou felt a rush of mixed emotions as he read through the file, his pity for her increased, but so did the admiration, he was amazed on how someone like her was still present in society, perhaps the new generation was less sybaritic than the one before, he thought.

‘I see…,’ Kotarou placed his arms on the desk and lightly tapped the tips of his fingers together, pulling a smile afterwards, ‘You scored perfectly on the aptitude tests and your training records from Kamui Academy are surprising.’

Seraphina let out a brief sigh of relief.

‘But…,’ Kotarou quickly cut the relaxation off the girl, ‘You still need more physical training, your scores in that category are exceptional.’

‘O-Of course, sir!’ Seraphina spoke with slight hesitation though her body spoke otherwise, her face was full of enthusiasm and she even gripped her hand tightly in joy — a clear indication of excitement.

'Very well then,’ Kotarou placed the tab in the air, only for it to be placed in his folder shelf on its own, ‘You will be applied to a five week internship plan. Enough time for you to be able to at least grasp everything concerning the FPASB.’

‘But I have already—’

‘Academy books are nothing but fairy tales, and four months is simply not enough— heck, even five more months might be a stretch,’ Kotarou had hoped that his words would reach Seraphina correctly, to be able to make her think about what she was applying to, so that she would not waste more time in her life for a job she might not see fit, but if she went through with it and the system officially deemed her as fit, there might be no turning back for her, ‘After the internship, we’ll see if the system approves of you officially or not.’

‘Officially?!’ Seraphina raised an eyebrow.

‘You think just the aptitude test is enough for the FPASB?’

‘No, sir!’

'Fine! During that time after the internship, you have the freedom of choosing whether or not you want to go on before the system is set,’ Kotarou extinguished his cigarette before straightening up out of the blue, ‘Follow me!’

Seraphina followed behind Kotarou as she was led outside the office, they passed by the lobby and onto a long plain corridor, seemingly looking like a hospital corridor rather than a dark police department one. At the end of the corridor stood a large and wide metallic door, Seraphina never could have guessed that it was shielding a special elevator leading to the special sector that made the gist of the FPASB. Kotarou summoned the elevator through an eye recognition software. The elevator emitted barely any motion or vibration as it went down, telling no one whether it was going upwards or downwards, or if it was ever moving at all.

The familiar arrival ring echoed in the elevator as it shed its doors open. Seraphina followed Kotarou again as they entered what seemed like a huge surveillance room, almost on a global level, she felt as if she has entered the base of the national air force. It was filled with staff running amok, most were situated in their respective stations watching and rewinding footage scenes on small screens. Those were all people’s memories, private footage of their lives, yet they all seemed like random video blogs you would find on the cyberspace. Seraphina thought it was strange for her to be present within such a room, they were supposed to be confidential and restricted from civilians, she wasn’t technically an average civilian, but is it even allowed for interns? She thought. Kotarou led Seraphina down even further into the large room until they were steps away from the center of attention in the room, a huge range of screens stood together sharply, forming a wide screen almost covering the front of the entire room, like a screen monitoring bases all around the world. But instead of displaying a map, the screens projected multiple footages of what seemed to be police squadrons.

‘I’m sure you’re familiar with the CCU, am I correct?’ Kotarou sighed.

‘Yes, sir!’ Seraphina replied with an almost sharp tone like a soldier, but the femininity and lightness of her voice lessened its sharpness.

The CCU, Cerebrum Cache Unit, were chips that were installed in the brain when it was fully developed, and with the help of the Synthetic Lens, it made the everyday life easier. But that was just an overstatement. The CCU recorded all what one would have seen daily, without one’s consent, but everyone pretended like they did not have a portable camera attached to their brain. It was too convenient, too important, too significant to live without, so most people just left it on and tried to forget. They would joke about being constantly watched by the government without realizing the truth that lied. It used to be an option that could have been added onto the SYNTHS to encourage the masses to switch their organic bodies (abandon their humanity) to the Syndroids — the advanced “species” in the new world order. Unlike the smartphones, the CCU wasn’t a subject of replacement by upgrades, it was the physical bodies of SYNTHS that would need upgrades. Seraphina had always believed that everyone was monitored daily for their routines and safety to some extent, but she could have never imagined it was on this level — and that was just one FPASB Department, imagine how the rest monitored, or even how the main headquarters of the FPASB did.

'At nineteen-hundred today, a nettracer went haywire at the Borderline bridge near Sector Three,’ Kotarou began his debriefing of the mission that Seraphina was to be assigned to as he escorted her even further down the room, ‘After we identified the nettracer, we discovered that his CCU ID was a mere fake, his true identity belonged to an ex-corporate official.’

‘Ex-corporate?!’ Seraphina paused with astonishment, trying to momentarily hide her amatuer attitude. Corporate officials were considered individuals of high standards, standing next to those of politicians and corporate executives. Nettracer, on the other hand, were in the ranks of criminals, mostly specializing in cyber crimes. For an ex-corporate official to descend into an unusual thing such as the nettracer, it definitely struck not only Seraphina, but everyone as an oddity. He could have transplanted a tech memory into his CCU, Seraphina would think.

Kotarou glared at Seraphina with her pause, before continuing on with their march, ‘Right now, our sector department in the city is on his tail, along with the assistance of the new FPASB special division,’ the nettracer happened to be one of Kotarou’s open cases that he failed to solve a while ago. Apparently, the nettracer, when he was a corporate official, disappeared and went missing for an entire year before he was finally deemed as either dead or exiled, removing his position to an ex-corporate. That only ticked off the bomb, as not long after, he resurfaced as a nettracer. How and why? Nobody knows, ‘Tonight might be the night we finally capture that bastard.’

‘Woah, tone down with the toughness, Marlowe!’ a playful feminine voice caught both Kotarou’s and Seraphina’s attention.

At the bottom of the room, away from all the unified workstations at every layer of stairs, a lone wide desk was situated directly in the middle of the huge screen collection. A woman was sitting between all of that, her face was fixated at the multiple monitors that laid in front of her, she had wavy hair of a bleached color and grey colored eyes, a dark blouse stood as her attire with what appeared to be, oddly, a lab coat covering it.

‘Not in the mood, Tachibana!’ Kotarou sighed before both him and Seraphina made a stop at the woman’s desk, ‘Jaeger! This is Daiya Tachibana, leader of the CCTF, Cybernetics Crimes Task Force. She’ll be operating for you in tonight’s case.’

'Uh… a pleasure to meet you, ma’am,’ Seraphina bowed down as she greeted the operator.

‘Ma’am?! Honey, I’m only twenty-seven,’ Daiya laughed, and Seraphina paused in confusion, the operator and leader of such a big team is only two years older than me?! Seraphina thought. After closer inspection, Seraphina noticed Daiya’s extremely young looks, she looked younger than anyone that was present in the room, even Seraphina herself, ‘Here, you’ll love it!’ Seraphina was taken aback as Daiya hopped onto her desk, and handed her a mint-flavored lollipop with a winking smile.

Seraphina tried denying the lollipop, as not anger Kotarou, he was not old, certainly his anger made him be so. Nevertheless, Daiya shoved the lollipop into Seraphina’s mouth before sitting back to her desk.

'This is no time for games, Daiya,’ Kotarou cleared his throat, trying to hide his anger and frustration the best he could, ‘Seraphina Jaeger here is the new special intern — ’

Kotarou was cut off mid-sentence as Daiya continued her playfulness, ‘Oh quit the act, old geezer. You were gonna bring her to me anyways, now skedaddle outta here, will ya?’

This was supposed to be my day off, sheesh, Kotarou muttered silently as he placed his hand on his forehead. Seraphina was originally to be assigned onto field cases first as a part of the internship program, but due to physical work being her weakest point and her observation skills being the strongest, Kotarou decided it was best to start with CCU Monitoring, what everyone was currently doing in the underground room — it didn’t require much computer skills than it did in observation. The only worry, and the thing that comforted him at the same time, was Daiya, she was to be taken responsibility after Seraphina, her close age with Seraphina would help them get along and ease the tension off Seraphina, but Daiya’s playfulness might soften Seraphina too much and make her lack the will for actual work.

Daiya hopped onto her desk once more and grabbed Seraphina’s hand to bring her on the other side of the desk. Seraphina was amazed on how Daiya worked so fast on multiple monitors all at once, all the while she seemed to be having the time of her life.

‘Check this out!’ Daiya turned on one of her monitors to a scene of the Sector Three, showing off a crowd covering the street and holographic barricade tape displayed on the sidewalk, preventing any civilian from passing through. The nettracer’s last known location was in the alleyways of a block in Sector Three, these alleyways were mostly made for the homeless and slums. Daiya was trying to showcase Seraphina the urban streets and wrecks she would be approaching soon.

Kotarou moved over to join the two women, ‘If you’re done admiring this wreck, could please update me and brief Jaeger on the situation?’

‘Well, this block of alleys right here is where he was last sighted, some say that he headed downtown but to where exactly, I don’t know…’

‘Couldn’t you just monitor his CCU instead of doing all this?’ Seraphina laid a question out in the open. She was weirded out by the fact that the task force was monitoring the officers and soldiers on the arrest squad, instead of monitoring Ace himself.

Kotarou and Daiya exchanged glances for a moment.

‘He… he is cognitionally deficient,’ Daiya explained quietly.

Cognitionally Deficient was a rare deficiency that was often aligned with criminals. People who were cognitonally deficient were erased from the CCU’s public database completely, any memory of them belonging in anyone’s mind was either altered or erased altogether, deeming them ghosts and outsiders. But that deficiency wasn’t something caused by the will of its victims, but it was rather an unknown error caused in the CCU’s system that hasn’t been fixed as of that time, some criminals were able to work around that error and tweak it to their benefit, which was why criminals were most likely to be affected by it, yet they couldn’t decipher it completely. There were, however, rare cases of civilians being affected by the definicey, in which case, they were treated to “rehabilitation”, they eventually recover but the damage done about them to others cannot be fixed, meaning if they were to be forgotten by their family or friends, there was a huge possibility that their family or friends won’t recognize them at all, even with the recovery.

Up until that day, Seraphina had always believed that cognitionally deficient people didn’t exist, and that it was simply a myth like many others on the cyberspace. Her eyes widened upon the discovery that it was real. Seraphina was starting to doubt seeing herself in this job, her first day as an intern and she was already being bombarded with huge discoveries that she simply cannot comprehend or dismiss at the same time.

‘So… you really… you really have no way of tracing him?’ Seraphina tried to mouth her question correctly, her mind was spiraling.

‘No! Only his past records, which we recovered earlier today, is what we have of him that could be traceable,’ Daiya answered with a serious tone, a bit different than the initial character she was interpreted as, ‘But it wouldn’t work in any case with how things are now.’

‘He created a new alias and attached it to himself, thus putting himself back on the system records, and started his crimes upon it,’ Kotarou said as he lied beside the desk, with his arms crossed.

But what if he wasn’t the one who created the alias? The question passed by Seraphina’s mind, she wanted to utter it, but the words wouldn’t come out, like she had lost her voice. She muttered another a word and found herself speaking with ease, she tried to ask the question again, but it wouldn’t come out.

‘Enough with all the gloominess! You said it Scudder, tonight’s the night we capture this bastard,’ Daiya straightened her seat before placing one leg on the other, ‘Come on, Sera— er, can I call you that? Oh, what the heck, I will. Can you start working now, Sera?’ But Daiya wouldn’t give Seraphina a chance to reply back, ‘You’ll need to head to Sector Three now, the special division should arrive their within the next few minutes,’ Daiya continued on with what seemed like information overload to Seraphina, but she tried to take it all in as best as she could, ‘One final thing, if you see my sister, please tell her I say hi, you’ll know her when you see her,’ Before Seraphina could even question Daiya’s odd request, Daiya placed another lollipop in Seraphina’s jacket and sent her off to the mission, without Kotarou’s assistance or an escort to help her.

Daiya, ignoring Kotarou’s intense and gloomy glare, gestured good-bye to Seraphina and continued back, almost immediately, to her work. Kotarou simply sighed in frustration as he stood in front of Daiya’s desk, and watched the multiple screens that shaped the center attention of the room. A few other superiors and detectives monitored the screens alongside Kotarou, some were helping out the officers at their workstations, and others were directly in contact with officers and soldiers who were, currently at that time, on the field.

Time progressed like the wind was pushing it back, the search went on and on, and with the newbie on the case along with others, luck wasn’t going to be the FPASB’s side. Their only remaining hope was the Public Safety Union’s new special division that was to aid the FPASB, the APS.