Bound by Fate *Psycho-Pass*(Kogami x OC)

Ghosts

"They call us Ghosts," Shinya said, taking a sip of his wine. "I don't know the real name, I don't even know if we have one." He paused to swallow. "I doubt it, to be honest.

"I guess you could consider us almost like an underground network. We travel around the world doing the bloody work for governments that don't want to get their hands dirty. It's not just the Sybil System, either. I've worked under MI6, the CIA, even the KGB. As much as the Sybil System would like to pretend that we've been isolated from the rest of the world, the truth is Japan is still a big part of international communication; we're just better at hiding it.

"I was recruited a few days after I shot Makishima." He paused, studying my reaction carefully. "I had bribed a ferryman I knew to help me get out of Japan. The day I was supposed to leave, I was caught by a Ghost who had been assigned to bring me in."

"So Ghosts are basically an international secret service?" I tried to clarify. Shinya nodded. "Does this mean I'm dating James Bond?"

He smirked at my reference to the old movie series, blue eyes full of mischief. "Sweetheart," he said. His tone was arrogant, yet joking. "James Bond's got nothing on me." I shook my head at his hubris and motioned for him to continue the story.

"Anyway," he continued. "After I was recruited, it was like I had disappeared. All records of my existence had vanished. Drones didn't flag me; in fact, it was like they didn't even register my presence. Later on, I learned that all traces of Ghosts are erased from government records to protect us. It was like Shinya Kogami had died, and all that was left in his place was a Ghost."

"But what about the Ghosts' families?" I asked. "Weren't they afraid that someone would recognize them in their own country?"

Shinya's expression turned grim. "You've got to understand, Mariko. The types of people who become Ghosts usually don't have a family to recognize them. We're criminals, most of us had killed at least once before being recruited. And the kind of work we do doesn't exactly lead us to an urban setting." In that moment, I knew that Shinya was recalling all of it. Every warzone, every gunfight was running through his mind in that moment. I wondered if the day would ever come that Shinya Kogami could look back on his past without the look of pain and horror which he now wore.

"So, that's it, I suppose," he finally said, finishing off his glass. I stood to pour him another one. "I guess it's your turn now."

"I don't even know where to start," I said as I handed Shinya a new glass of wine. I sat so that my feet were curled up on the sofa and I was leaning on one of armrests.

"The beginning would be nice," he told me, a half-smirk on his face. I narrowed my eyes at him but ignored the comment, choosing instead to begin my story.

"Before my 'disappearance', I was rich, popular, and in love." At my last phrase, Shinya raised an eyebrow but said nothing. "Life was great, or so I thought. My mom died when we were younger, my dad was never around because of work, and my brother was a compulsive gambler. Looking back on it now, I'm pretty sure my boyfriend and my best friend were sleeping together behind my back as well, but that's not important."

"I knew that guy was an ass," Shinya muttered to himself.

I chuckled and rolled my eyes. "I'm pretty sure that was just you being jealous. Anyway," I added, taking a sip of my wine. "I had everything, but in reality, I was all alone. Eventually, my brother's addiction got worse and worse. Soon his addiction turned from gambling to alcohol to drugs. My father, ever wary of the public eye, refused to send him to rehab.

"One day, Rin came home terrified. He said that he'd gotten into some trouble, that there were people who knew who he was and if he didn't give them what they wanted, they would tell the world that Rintaro Otori, the son of the chief of the Ministry of Welfare, was a drug addict. Naturally, my father agreed that we needed to give these horrible people everything they asked for." I scoffed at the memory.