Chapter Text
Now.
Shinja Kogami regained consciousness slowly. The first thing he felt was the bed he was lying in, a faint whiff of cigarette smoke tickled his nostrils. He opened his eyes and frowned at the unfamiliar ceiling. "Where am I...?" He croaked, his mouth feeling dry.
"Hospital." Came the dry answer from next to the bed.
Kogami jerked up as far as he could with his wrists restrained, there was an armchair in the corner of the room opposite the bed, next to a small table. Bright green eyes met his look over the rim of thin framed glasses. The man was clad in a black and grey uniform, the jacket of which hung on a coat hook next to the door. The bed started vibrating and the headrest raised until he was sitting up without having to strain himself. He tried to put on an intimidating growl, but it came out course and scratchy. "Where is Inspector Tsunemori?"
The man didn't even bother looking up from his book as he answered. "Being detained for questioning until further notice. There's a glass of water on your bedside table, you sound like you gurgled nails for an hour."
Kogami was about to answer with a snide remark when the manacles clicked and opened, he pulled his hands free immediately.
"Oh, before you get any ideas, you are unarmed. If you try anything I will put you back in that bed and needing medical attention much more urgently than you do now."
Kogami looked at the man, his eyes were twitching ever so slightly as they traced the words on the page, he looked like he was paying Kogami barely any attention at all. He looked for the cup of water and found it exactly where the man had said. It was made of plastic and extremely light. Clearly, he was more prisoner than patient. He eyed the water but figured that his captors could have dosed him with whatever they wanted while he was unconscious. He drank the water; it was cool and fresh. "What are you charging us with?"
His interrogator looked up for the first time and smirked, the cigarette in the corner of his mouth twitched. "Attempting to vaporize an officer of the peace."
Kogami started, he hadn't made the connection at first, "It was you."
His captor smirked, "Indeed."
Then.
Kogami and the Inspector were on the trail of Makishima and his men. It was late and while tokyo never got truly dark anymore it was raining buckets. They were running, Left, Right, left again, trough the warren that was Tokyo's back streets. On an intersection they caught up to their quarry, the Inspector raised her Dominator just as one off the helmeted goons threw something round and metallic. The shot from the paralyser hit the object and the night exploded into noise and light.
Kogami lost all orientation, he felt like he was falling, but all he could see was a nauseating swirl of colours in his vision. But suddenly he was standing back on his feet, there were four civilians in the intersection all of a sudden and one of Makishima's men raised a modified Nail gun. "On the ground!" He yelled at the civilians, only marginally slower than one of them yelled, "DOWN!" At the others.
The one who yelled at the others bent his knees and catapulted forwards, his boot connected with the Goons hand and there was a loud crack, the goon screamed under his helmet and the Nail gun flew away into the rain. Kogami raised his weapon and the reticule slid over the civilian, the gun morphed into its eliminator configuration.
Kogami stared, shocked, the civilians crime coefficient came in just shy of eight hundred. How could someone with a Psycho-Pass that dark even walk out on the streets? And yet the man, because no one that clouded could be a civilian, was laying waste to Makishimas's men. He must have had some sort of taser because the men he struck down didn't get back up.
Like always Makishima cheated, he drew an extendable baton and swung at the man, but the man dodged like he saw it coming from a mile away. He caught Makishima with an uppercut like a lightning strike, and he felled him like a tree.
Kogami twitched, he had wanted to do that. He kept his weapon trained on the man, next to him the Inspector gasped, "Kogami! They are all latent criminals." He took a second to realise her meaning. She must have checked the other civilians. The man that took down Makishima turned around and saw the inspector aim at his companions on the ground. His eyes flashed, "Stop that." he ordered.
The Inspector raised her weapon away from the men on the ground and pointed it at him. Without looking away from them he said, "Guys, get up." they did, looking at him uncertainly, "I've got this. Go."
The Inspector clearly wasn't going to let that happen, "Now wait a minute..." She had pointed her weapon at the now standing men but swivelled back when the Crime coefficient of the lead guy spiked sharply.
"Do Not Point That Weapon At my Friends. You will not like the consequences." The three others ran for one of the buildings on the square, "Now, will you come quietly or will you need some persuasion like your friends?"
Kogami started, friends? Oh.. oh Shit. The Inspector was wearing a helmet. For all the guy knew they belonged with Makishima, who had attacked him. And he had taken that Very badly, none of Makishima’s guys looked dead… but that uppercut probably left the bastard eating through a straw for the rest of his life.
The man took a step forward and the Inspector fired, and then all hell broke loose, the blue trace of light that issued from the Dominator raced towards the soon to be Stain on the pavement. And then it hit a wave of water. A wave of Water rose from the street and exploded into steam as it was instantly vaporised.
The torrential downpour mixed with the steam and obscured everything from view. He turned following the staccato of footsteps and suddenly his Dominator reverted to paralyser mode, he was scanning his own Psycho-Pass. Which meant that he was aiming at the Inspector. There was a muted thump, someone crumpled to the ground and then stars exploded in his vision. He tried to get his Dominator into a firing position but something impacted his temple and everything turned black.
Now.
“I had to rough you up a little, sorry about that. Didn’t think you would stay down otherwise.”
Kogami groaned, “I guess that really didn’t look good… who are you anyways? I don’t recognize the uniform.”
There was a dry chuckle, “You wouldn’t. You’re not exactly in Japan anymore.”
Kogami choked, “What? No where outside of Japan has this kind of technology.”
He grinned, “Welcome to the other side of the looking glass Shinja Kogami.” The wall left of the bed shimmered and turned transparent. The outside was dark, and hanging there, no bigger than a football, was earth.
“We... we’re in space.” Kogami breathed, he couldn’t even make out Japan from this distance.
“Correct, to be a little more precise, we are in geostationary orbit. On a space station designated OS1, stationed over Europe. We picked you up in Germany, where you and those helmeted hooligans appeared from thin air. On my first free Saturday night in ages, no less.”
“The EU is a wartorn anarchic wasteland. There’s no way anyone from there has this kind of tech.”
He tilted his head. “Kogami, whats the date?”
Kogami started, “Depends on how long I was knocked out. We were hunting Makishima on the fifth of April, twenty-one-thirteen.”
“Yeah, well, you’re off by about eighty-seven years, give or take a month.” He said it deadpan, like it barely even mattered.
Kogami was in Shock, “You’re saying... we time travelled?” How could this guy be so blase about something like that. He was so occupied with his own thoughts that he barely heard what his erstwhile opponent said next.
“You didn’t travel through time. Not in your Universe at least.”
“You’re kidding me. This must be some kind of Joke. Some sick Joke.”
“Trust me, this stuff sounded just as crazy to me as it does to you now. I just had a lot more time to get used to people and things showing up from all over the multiverse. I guess I should introduce myself. My Name is Nexus Promanthia, welcome to the multiverse.”