Consciousness returned all at once like a tsunami of glass slivers being driven into his skull. Kogami winced in excruciating pain and pressed his soot-covered palms against his eyes as they burned from a chemical sting. He could not tell what was more painful, the dull daylight or the piercing, unrelenting sound that boomed unmercifully in his ears. Seeing blood on his collar, he held a hand against his right ear and confirmed that he was bleeding from there.

"Lie still, you fool!" Ginoza growled, trying to keep him quiet. "The blast probably perforated your eardrums. Your equilibrium will be off."

"Akane?" Kogami managed to cough. When Ginoza did not answer, Kogami threw himself to one side in an attempt to get up. The entire world fought him, spinning and hovering before him like a malfunctioning holography program. He stumbled over smoldering debris from the bomb blast and collapsed to the ground where he vomited violently into the rubble.

"Kogami, be reasonable. You need to lie still," Ginoza said. "There's nothing you can do right now—"

It was as if Ginoza had declared her dead. Kogami shoved him back with a hard, open palm strike to the chest and glared at the Inspector through hard, narrowed eyes. The force was enough to send Ginoza flailing backwards to the ground. Blundering over his own legs, Kogami stumbled toward the wreckage of the building and left his former friend sitting on the ground.

"Kagari?" Kogami found the Enforcer lying in a heap of broken concrete and rebar. "Kagari!"

"Still breathing," Kagari whispered. "But don't ask me if that's a good thing right now." He abruptly sucked in his breath as he tried to move his left leg from beneath a piece of heavy concrete.

Blood pooled underneath the ruined concrete girder. "Don't move," Kogami said. He slipped the knot of his tie and quickly made it a tourniquet by wrapping it around Kagari's thigh.

"Akane—"

"I know."

"I'm sorry, Ko. One minute she was there, and the next...she was gone."

"I'm going to need your help to find her."

"Is that a question?" Kagari winced in pain as Kogami tightened the tourniquet into a knot.

Kogami sat back on his haunches. He struggled to gather his wits as the world spun in and out of focus, making him nauseous. "You ready?"

Kagari nodded. "Yeah. Get this thing off my leg."

Bracing his shoulder against the concrete slab, Kogami grit his teeth and used his legs to push against it. He raised the massive stone up just enough for Kagari to free his leg from the crushing weight.

"Son of a bitch!" Kagari cried out in pain. "If the guy who did this is still breathing, I intend to kill him. Slowly. I don't care what judgment Sybil gives him."

"He's breathing."

"Not for long."

"You good?"

Kagari gave him a thumbs up. "Let's find Akane."

Kogami turned his attention to a collapsed section of wall. Heavy smoke was trailing from beneath it. Though the initial blast had brought a fiery wave in the detonation, most of the flames had been snuffed out in the resulting shockwave. Getting on the ground, he stared beneath a collapsed section of wall. "Akane!" Her name echoed away from him into a void beneath the rubble. He used his flashlight to look down inside and saw a darkened recess that had somehow survived the blast.

"Do you see her?"

"No, but I see where she might be." Kogami got his fingers beneath the crumbling foundation and struggled to lift it. Tendons strained and popped in protest against the weight. He barely managed to raise it more than an inch from the ground. But suddenly the weight got lighter as Kagari, straining on his wounded leg, joined him. Still, with their combined strength, they only managed to raise the collapsed wall to their ankles.

They trembled uncontrollably, strength giving away to the impossible weight until Masaoka joined them. The veteran Enforcer got his hands underneath the wall and, using the enhanced strength of his cybernetic arm, raised it up to knee level. Grunting with the effort, Masaoka set his jaw with determination and held the weight steadily.

"Well, what are you waiting for, Ko?" he said, straining beneath the load. "Get down there and find her."

Kogami dropped to his chest and stomach. His eyes stung from the black smoke and chemical taint rising from the rubble below him. Ignoring his discomfort, he arm crawled through the opening they had created.

"When you find her, call it in," Masaoka said. "Whatever was jamming our communications must have gone up in the blast."

Flashlight in his mouth, Kogami crawled down into the vacuum left in the wake of the explosion. From the look of the damage, the bomb had been placed in a subsection beneath the building's main-floor atrium. Most of the floor was blown out or had collapsed, bringing the main level down into what remained of the second.

"Akane!" Kogami shouted.

He worked his way through the rubble in the immediate vicinity near the ruined entrance of the building. A rear staircase had fallen into the sub levels. It dangled precariously over his head from splintered cables and twisted rebar. Smoke trailed from a ring of debris, choking him, but he pulled himself through the small opening and crawled onto a pile of smoldering bricks. It was difficult maneuvering, and he singed his palms on the hot ashes, which maintained some heat from the blast.

Squeezing through another unstable section of ruined concrete, he gasped angrily when a warped nail cut across his cheek. He was less annoyed by the injury and more bothered by his inability to find Akane. Ignoring the blood flowing from the wound, he continued to push his way through the debris, searching for her.

"Akane!"

She wasn't answering him, and Kogami was getting fearful that the blast might have killed her. No, no! Don't even think it!

He replayed the last image of her in his head, where she had reached out to him and then been taken by the aftermath of the blast. She had been moving along the center of the sidewalk just behind Kagari. When Kagari stepped off the walkway, she was about to follow him into the hedges beside the main doors. That's where she stopped, when she heard Kogami screaming her name.

Staring up at the rubble, he tried to imagine the building as it was before the bomb went off. Kogami closed his eyes and extended his hands out to the side in order to get his bearings in the wreckage. He put himself where he thought she might have been standing at that fateful moment and then opened his eyes. Some 20 feet above him, jutting from the rubble, there was a ledge created from a wall collapse. Kogami could see the back of her hand laying on the edge.

"This is Hound 3 requesting immediate medical assistance," he said into his wristcom. "Inspector Tsunemori is down. I repeated Inspector down. Requesting immediate emergency medical assistance at my coordinates."

Kogami leaped up to an exposed water pipe, not realizing that it had been sheared in the blast. The sharp metal cut deep into his fingers. Caught off guard by the heat, the pain, and the sudden slipperiness of blood, he lost his grip and fell back into the rubble. He landed hard on the jagged rocks behind him. Undeterred, the Enforcer got back to his feet. Reaching with caution for sturdy handholds and avoiding any metal, he crawled his way to the top of the ruined section and found Akane lying on her back.

"Akane!" Though he called to her, she laid unresponsive even to his touch. Shrugging out of his gray jacket, Kogami wrapped it around her and held her in his arms. "Akane?"

Bending an ear to her nostrils, he listened intently. She wasn't breathing. Hands shaking in fear, he struggled to find a pulse. Kogami laid her out flat on the rubble-strewn slab and clasped his hands together over her chest. He hovered there above her sternum, too afraid to offer any more harm to her shell-shocked body. Gritting his teeth, he swallowed that fear and began the chest compressions, forcefully and with purpose. He paused after the prescribed number and listened for breath sounds. There were none, and he felt no warmth against his skin.

A trickle of blood ran from her forehead. More blood came from her ears. Tilting her head back, he gently put his lips over hers and breathed into her mouth, watching as her chest rose and fell with his efforts. His eyes burned with tears, thinking how only a few hours ago, these same lips had responded so passionately to his touch. Now they were growing blue and lifeless.

Kogami clenched his eyes shut and struggled to control himself as he faced an inevitable truth. "Akane, don't—don't do this," he whispered. His lips brushed against hers, but she remained unresponsive. In despair, he pressed his forehead against hers. "Akane, please."

"Kogami?" Feebly, she grasped at his sleeve. Her eyes fluttered open, tears spilling from the corners when she saw him. "You're hurt." She tried to reach for the cut on his cheek, but was too weak to extend her hand.

"It's nothing." Kogami took her hand and held it against his mouth, pressing her cold fingers against his lips to warm them. "Help's on the way."

"I'm afraid."

"Don't be," he said. Supporting her neck, Kogami cradled her head against his shoulder. "I'm here. I'll always be right here."

"I don't ever want to hurt you," she mumbled deliriously.

"Hurt me? I'm a cyborg, remember?"

"Kogami? What does love feel like?"

Biting his lips to fight back his emotions, Kogami embraced her tightly. He knew the answer to her question about love, at least his definition, but was too afraid to tell her, even while they were alone in the shadows. Even with her at death's door. "It feels like fireworks going off in your chest."

"Fireworks?" Akane smiled at him. Her voice trailed off with that final word.

"Akane?" He shook her gently, staring into her face. "Akane!" His desperate voice echoed in the void of the ruined recess. "Akane!"

Kogami stood rigidly by the door of the medical observation room. Unless someone was willing to risk bodily injury, he would not be moved. Having refused any medical treatment, he stared into the examination area as a team of doctors and nurses fought to stabilize Akane. While initially uninjured in the blast, she had suffered a severe head injury. Trauma suffered as a result of being caught in the falling debris.

Only moments after being rescued from the rubble, she began to seize, experiencing violent convulsions. Despite heavy dosages of sedatives and muscle relaxants, her body twitched and drew itself into unnatural contortions so severe that it made Kogami cringe. For her safety and their own, the trauma team had her strapped down to the bed by her wrists and ankles. But even in restraints, her body, twisting erratically, fought to be free of them.

It was difficult to observe from a distance, and Kogami grit his teeth until his jaw ached. At first, pacing the line of windows and watching as they worked on her, had helped him, but soon this only served to heighten his agitation and sense of helplessness. So he stood stiffly at the door, glaring at anyone who came near it or through it, with his hands shoved in his pockets.

"There's nothing we can do for her now," Ginoza said. "We should returned to the CID floor and sort through the information that we have."

"I'm not leaving," Kogami said.

"What did you say?"

"I'm not leaving."

"Kogami, I understand that you're upset about what happened to Inspector Tsunemori. We all are. But we can't help Akane standing here. Justice can be had by putting together the pieces of this case and solving it."

"What's to solve? The perp's in custody. He even confessed," Kagari said. "As to why, he's not really saying. And you won't let me have a crack at him. So for the time being: case closed—pending a motive."

"Leave, if you want," Kogami whispered. "I'll be right here when she wakes up."

"You're out of line, Enforcer." Ginoza reached for Kogami's sleeve.

"I wouldn't do that, if you want to keep that hand, Inspector."

"Simmer down—both of you," Masaoka said, getting between them.

Ginoza shoved his glasses up the bridge of his nose and glared at Kogami over the rims. "You've got three minutes to make your peace with the situation. Don't force me to take corrective action." He took the lack of a response from Kogami as compliance. "Three minutes and then we're leaving."

"He means it, Ko." Masaoka put a hand on Kogami's shoulder and, with a reassuring squeeze, tried to calm him. "Can I get you something? A coffee? Water? A cigarette? You look like hell."

It was becoming increasingly more difficult to breathe. Desperate to keep control of himself, Kogami fought to remain calm. He was fearless in a fight, taking blows or delivering them, experiencing pain, and suppressing it with an iron strength of will. But at the moment, he was on the verge of a mental breakdown with one foot squarely over the line of sanity.

Inside the observation room, Akane's body bucked and flailed violently. Caught unawares in the fury of the convulsion, one of the nurses was knocked down to the floor. Kogami threw himself at the glass, but restrained him from going inside the room. Remaining in the waiting area, he could think of nothing but being at her side.

The chief physician rushed to the door. His face lined with worry, he pulled down the surgical mask. "Inspector Ginoza?"

"Dr. Iseya, what's the prognosis?"

"Is their next of kin?"

Kogami slammed his head against the glass wall and rested his forehead against the cold glass. Loosening his tie, he felt faint, unable to breathe as his mind violently grasped for the adrenalin of fight-or-flight mode. "What—what exactly does that mean?"

"Easy, Ko," Masaoka whispered at his side. "This isn't helping matters."

"There are," Ginoza said slowly. "Her parents and a grandmother."

"Contact them. We've done everything we can," Dr. Iseya said. "Her head injury is severe. How severe we can't be certain yet because we can't get her quiet enough to thoroughly examine her. We're going to try another round of medications."

"The sedatives aren't working, and you want to give her more? What will that accomplish?" Kogami demanded.

"We need to assess if there is any swelling on the brain." Clearly intimidated by the contentious Enforcer, Iseya bowed his head in concern. "Another round of sedatives should work."

"Or kill her," Kogami growled. "That's why you want to contact her family, isn't it?" Shrugging out of his gray jacket, Kogami pushed his way passed the wary doctor and into the observation room.

Knowing Kogami from frequent treatments in the medical bay, Iseya knew the Enforcer's volatile moods as well as his lack of patience for authority. He stepped back and looked at Ginoza to control his temperamental subordinate.

"Enforcer Kogami!" Ginoza shouted. "What do you think you're doing?"

"What I'm meant to do. Protect her." He paused only a moment to toss the jacket over a monitor and take off his shoes. Trailing after him, Ginoza was met at the door and detained by Masaoka.

"Let him try," Masaoka pleaded. "We can't just stand here and watch them pump her full of meds that might kill her." His appeal did little to appease Ginoza who continued to push his way into the room after Kogami.

Limping on a badly lacerated ankle, Kagari joined in by laying his crutch across the doorway to prevent Ginoza from entering the observation room. "Sorry, Inspector, but this isn't your call."

Kogami undid the restraints tying Akane down. She continued to flail and convulse, and he struggled to keep her body on the bed and himself from injury. Suffering a fist to the face, the Enforcer held her slender wrists in one hand and crawled into the bed, positioning himself directly behind her. As if recognizing his presence, she struggled less, and he took some comfort in that. Careful to avoid the bandaged crown of her head, Kogami held her against his chest and caressed her face and hair.

"Remember when you asked me what love feels like?" he whispered in her ear. "I didn't tell you the truth. Not entirely. It does feel like fireworks going off in your chest, but it's so much more." Kogami carefully removed the neck brace and stabilized her head as he settled back into the bed and laid her against him. He rested his head against hers and took a deep breath, exhaling his fear. "Love is when you find someone and discover that you can't live without with them."

Though the convulsions continued, the movement of her legs and arms grew less erratic. Closing his eyes, he wrapped his long arms about her and held her hands. "I can't live without you." With a final spasm, Akane was still. She sighed, long and deeply, and then her body relaxed against him. Slowly, she turned her face toward his and cradled her head in the warmth of his neck and shoulder.

"What did you do?" Dr. Iseya asked in disbelief.

"I held her like this while we were buried under the rubble."

"Was she convulsing?"

"Not at first. It started when the medical crew took her away from me. She stopped when they let me ride along in the ambulance."

"He's right," a nurse whispered over Iseya's shoulder. "She started seizing again the moment she arrived in the medical bay."

Turning to Ginoza, Iseya said, "We're going to need this Enforcer here until Inspector Tsunemori stabilizes."

Unable to argue with the authority of the MWPSB's chief physician, Ginoza shook free of Masaoka's grip. He glared at him and then at Kagari. "We're down one Enforcer for the moment. Get back to the CID. I want answers, and I don't care if you have to work through the dawn." He cast his steely gaze back at Kogami before turning away from the door. "Kagari, you want a shot at the bomber? You'll get five minutes. No more."

"All I need is three," Kagari replied. "The rest is payback."

"Take care of the little lady, Ko," Masaoka said.

"You can bet solid on that, pops."

Dr. Iseya tossed a thermal blanket over Akane and tucked it under her legs. He put another one over her arms and torso, partially covering Kogami up as well. "We have a few tests to run, if you don't mind, Mr. Kogami. But Inspector Tsunemori will be staying with you. While the nurse sets up the equipment, let's have a look at those injuries, shall we?"

Unwilling to comply, Kogami fiercely glared at him. Then nodding politely, he stared down at Akane's peaceful face. "Alright." He closed his eyes and took comfort in her warmth. "Thank you."

A warm blue-white lamp cast a single, obtrusive beam of illumination from a simulated skylight that penetrated the darkness of the medical observation room. Kogami stared into the shadows beyond the room. There was no danger here, not any that was visible, but he remained ever vigilant and alert as he watched over Akane. His head was heavy and weariness hung about his shoulders like a python, but he was determined to remain awake in case she opened her eyes.

She shouldn't be alone.

After a battery of tests that put him in the most awkward positions to accommodate the lab equipment and the trauma team, Kogami and Akane were together in a hospital bed. He was in a semi-reclined position behind her as Akane slept soundly on top of him. She snored softly in the dimness, and it took everything he had not to laugh and possibly disturb her from slumber.

She awoke briefly to shift to a more restful position. Dissatisfied with her body pillow, she pressed her fingers into his chest muscles to get more comfortable before settling back into the warmth between his arms and his legs. Her tiny fingers tickled, and though he tried to remain still, Kogami tensed his muscles making himself a much less comfortable cushion. So she pressed harder, and he flinched, waking her up.

"Hey, keep that up and you'll ruin the merchandise."

"Mr. Kogami?" Eyes half closed with sleep, she looked up at him. "What are you doing in my bed?"

"There are a lot of things I'd like to be doing," he said with a mischievous grin. "But I'm not sure you're up to it."

"How did you get into my apartment?"

"You're in the medical bay back at MWPSB headquarters. Don't you remember?"

Akane pushed herself upright on her arms. "The explosion! You were calling my name. But I—I got caught in the blast—we were caught in the blast! Kagari?"

"He's fine," Kogami assured. "He was released earlier this evening."

"How long have I been here?"

"Twelve hours judging from the rigor mortis in my legs. And despite not having a smoke in all that time, the hands are still steady." Kogami held his hands out flat in front of her to show their steadiness.

"You've been here the whole time."

"Yep, much to Ginoza's displeasure."

"Why?"

"You took a pretty good hit to the head, Inspector. Docs tried to stabilize you but couldn't. They kept pumping you full of drugs and that wasn't working. I had to protect you. From them."

"Kogami," she growled. "What did you do?"

"Showed my teeth, but only a little. Dr. Iseya didn't know what to do, but I did. It worked, so here I am."

"And they let you stay."

"Unless Ginoza paralyzed me with a Dominator, I wasn't leaving. You owe me, again."

"Were you hurt? I remember you running back to the building."

"At least some of your memory is intact. How much do you remember?" With a hint of embarrassment, he wondered if she had heard his impassioned pleas.

Akane concentrated for a moment before shrugging her shoulders. "Not much. Just waking up here. With you."

"Good to know."

She ran her fingers across the bruise under his eye and the bandaged cut on his cheek. Taking his bandaged hand in hers, she whispered, "You were hurt."

"Couple of scrapes. A minor concussion from the blast. Thanks to a hard head." He rubbed his thumb across her face to wipe away a tear. "What's that say about your head? A whole building landed on you."

She slapped his thigh, but remained nestled against his lower chest. "I think I'm going to be alright," Akane said. "You should go and get some rest."

"I'm not leaving."

Akane sat up again and glared at him. "Kogami, you've been here for 12 hours."

"And I'll be here another 12 if that's what it takes."

"I could always order you back to your dormitory."

"You could try."

She frowned at his insubordinate challenge to her rank and authority. "Mr. Kogami, I order you to leave this room and return to your dormitory to get some rest."

There was a genuine bite to her tone. She was serious, but Kogami recognized that the last thing she wanted was for him to leave. "Unless you have a Dominator under those covers, I'm not leaving. And even if you shot me, I'd just end up in a bed right next to you." He yawned mightily and stretched his stiff legs. "So get used to it."

"Ginoza is right. You are incorrigible."

"And that's why you love me."

Her eyes suddenly filled with tears, and her lips quivered.

"What's wrong!" Kogami sat up and held her shoulders. He reached for the nurse's call button.

Akane gently pulled his hand away from the panic button. "It's just...I think...I think I do love you, Shinya Kogami. And that frightens me."

Averting his eyes, he sighed sadly. "I knew this was a bad idea."

"Not if you really meant what you said in the park." She raised his chin to meet her eyes. "Did you?"

"One hundred percent."

"Then it's settled." Akane tenderly caressed his face and pulled him down to her for a kiss.

There was passion in her, but this was not the time to act on it. So before things could go too far, he pulled away. "I have something for you."

"You do?" Pulling the blankets up to her chin, she laid her head on his chest. "I hope it's food. I'm starving."

Kogami laughed. "Well, I can arrange to get you something to eat, but this is different." He tapped a control button on his wristcom. "Hey, Shion, you ready?"

"Is she awake? Is she okay?"

"She'll be back on the CID floor annoying me in no time," he replied.

"Hi, Akane, glad you're okay," Shion said.

"Thanks, Shion," Akane replied to the system analyst.

"You had us really worried there, especially Shinya. Can't think of a better way to celebrate your recovery. Give me one moment. There. Is it working?"

Through the manipulation of the ceiling projector, the hospital room was transformed via holography into a grassy hillside at night time. Stars were shining brightly overhead, but they were soon dimmed and cast away as a flurry of fireworks erupted across the skies. The displays came in multiple bursts of three and five, which scattered remnants of color across Akane's blanket.

"I made a few tweaks to my original program and added sound. How's it look, Shinya?" Shion asked.

"Perfect," Kogami reported. He gazed up at the display of color with a smile and listened to the subdued sounds of the shells bursting in midair.

"I can turn up the sound, but after what you two have recently experienced, that might be a bad idea."

"Crank it up, Shion. We can take it."

"Alright, but when Ginoza gets the noise complaint, I'm blaming you."

"Fair enough."

"Night, night, kids. Please do everything and anything that I would do. Ta-ta for now!" The signal went dead as the systems analyst signed off.

Snuggling up beneath the blankets, Akane leaned against him. "Kogami, you're right, you know. Love does feel like fireworks going off in your chest. But all the fireworks in the world could never make my heart beat as fast as it does whenever I'm with you."

Kogami gasped, "You heard me? But you were unconscious—"

"Hush." Akane tenderly pinched his lips together and silenced his fretting with a kiss. Twirling her fingers in the loose folds of his shirt, she made herself comfortable on his chest and laid her head against his shoulder. "Now get some sleep, Enforcer."

Kogami embraced her, wrapping his muscular arms around her shoulders. "Is that an order, Inspector?"

"If it needs to be...yes." Intertwining her fingers with his, Akane took his hand and pulled his arm about her waist. "Do I need a Dominator for that order?"

"No," he sighed, resting his chin on the crown of her head.

Akane shifted position to get more comfortable and embraced him as if he were a giant, stuffed panda. "Does this mean I might get you to be nicer to Ginoza?"

"Maybe," he relented.

"What's that going to cost me?"

Her question brought a wicked grin to Kogami's face. "I have a few ideas."

"Seriously?"

As the holographic fireworks display imploded with lights, colors, and sound above them, Kogami laid his head back against the pillow and closed his eyes. "That's a tall order, Inspector. Don't push your luck."