Early morning.
After days of torrential rain, Chicago finally welcomed a fine, sunny day.
Inside the central precinct, Ginny walked briskly out of the captain's office, holding a thick file in her hands and greeting every colleague she met along the way with enthusiasm.
That youthful, vibrant figure made the old hands in the station light up, and they all cast friendly looks her way.
But once Ginny's figure disappeared out the door, this bunch of guys, usually fond of cracking jokes, could not help gossiping.
"Have you heard? This rookie got assigned to Rorschach!"
"Rorschach? You mean that Rorschach Butcher?"
"That's right, that Rorschach motherf*cking Butcher!"
"Oh ho, looks like there's going to be a good show again."
Ginny naturally could not hear the whispers of these veterans, and even if she did, she would not have cared, because at this moment she had only one thought.
She had finally fulfilled her childhood dream and become a patrol officer!
Holding the file, she found the squad car assigned to her in the precinct parking lot, opened the door, and consciously sat in the front passenger seat.
As a newly hired patrol officer, by convention each newcomer would be assigned a seasoned officer as a partner.
First, to help the rookie quickly get up to speed in an unfamiliar area, and second, to conduct a full assessment of the rookie's abilities—if the score was too low, they would face elimination from the force.
Nervous and excited, Ginny flipped through the information on her partner in her hands.
Name: Rorschach Butcher
Age: 26
Place of birth: South Side, Chicago
As soon as she opened the file, her eyes were quickly and deeply drawn to the portrait in the upper right corner of the page.
In the photo, the man wore his black hair in an undercut, with deep eyes, a straight nose, a jawline that was smooth yet powerful, and thin, sharply defined lips that unconsciously exuded a hard-to-describe air of cold indifference.
Ginny's first reaction was that this was definitely a young, cool guy with sharp features and a cold, hard aura!
She instinctively covered her mouth in delighted surprise. The captain had only told her that the one in charge of her patrol test was an elite in the department, but had never said he would be this handsome.
"Yes!"
Ginny pumped her fist in excitement. Partnering with a cool guy was definitely better than being stuck with one of those potbellied old-timers who never let go of their donuts.
She continued reading the information below. Aside from some deliberately redacted parts, the rest covered the service record of this officer named Rorschach.
1: Enlisted at eighteen. Due to an extremely outstanding performance in the army, he was selected for the 101st Airborne Division and had received two Distinguished Service Crosses.
2: After discharge, he attended the Federal Police Academy. Upon graduating top of his class, he turned down offers from the FBI, the DEA, and intelligence agencies, returned to his hometown Chicago Police Department, and became a regular detective in the Robbery-Homicide Division.
3: Performed outstandingly while on duty. His case closure rate ranked first in the state for three consecutive years. He received a Medal of Valor and a Medal of Heroism, and was exceptionally promoted to the youngest sergeant in Homicide.
Note: 1. Demoted to regular patrol officer for publicly beating a Black protest group in a public place and using his knee to force their leader to say "Black lives are sh*t." One year later, he was promoted to detective again due to excellent performance.
Two weeks ago, during an LGBT rally, he used a baton to beat several transgender people, resulting in multiple hospitalizations, and was demoted again!
"."
As if she had not seen clearly, Ginny rubbed her eyes and reread the file. After she finished, she fell silent.
What kind of superhero cop is this supposed to be?!
After the shock passed, Ginny was left only with confusion.
Based on his military and academy record, Rorschach was definitely the kind of talent the federal government would be fighting over. How had he ended up as a lowly local cop?
And why was it that after beating a Black protest group and then thrashing trans people, he not only wasn't fired and thrown in jail, but still kept working as a cop? He had even been promoted to detective after beating the Black protesters?!
Ginny scratched her head in distress. She was happy the department had assigned her such a handsome and capable partner, but also afraid that if he lost his temper, he might beat her up too.
This guy obviously looked like a difficult, prickly type to get along with. She suddenly understood why the people in the station had given her such strange looks earlier.
Maybe she should ask the captain to assign her a different partner?
Just as Ginny was thinking this, a low, powerful voice suddenly sounded outside. Even through the car window, it was like an explosion in her ears.
"Who the f*ck are you?!"
Ginny jolted, shuddering, and quickly turned her head to look.
In her line of sight stood a tall, burly man in a brown leather jacket, a donut in his left hand and a lit cigarette dangling from his mouth, his face covered in a full beard, glaring at her with a sharp, probing gaze.
"You…"
After catching sight of him, Ginny unconsciously lowered her head to compare him with the photo in her file and froze.
Although he looked exactly the same as in the photo once the beard was removed, the difference in aura between the two was worlds apart!
But remembering that this man would be leading her patrol test, Ginny, after a brief moment of daze, quickly opened the car door, stood up straight, and saluted him.
"Badge number 43627, Ginny Bauer, reporting, sir! I'm the patrol officer assigned to you today."
Rorschach looked at the girl in front of him who was trying hard to act composed, her features as delicate as a Barbie doll. He pointed a finger at her, his tone tinged with displeasure. "You're the rookie they stuck me with this time?"
"Uh…" Ginny did not know how to answer and could only nod blankly.
Rorschach took a deep breath and glanced irritably back at the precinct behind him, already cursing the captain to hell in his mind.
They had actually assigned him a woman, and the kind of pretty woman who looked like nothing but trouble!
He gave the rookie a quick once-over and snorted coldly. "Get in the car."
"Huh?" Ginny widened her eyes, as if she had not heard clearly.
"Do I need to repeat myself? Get in the car. Now!"
"O-okay!"
Ginny hurriedly fumbled with the door, scrambled into her seat, and sat obediently, not daring to make eye contact with Rorschach.
"That old man really dumps every crap detail on me."
Rorschach helplessly shook his head, then put on his cold mask again and yanked the door open.
He glanced at the young officer sitting ramrod straight beside him, then held up two fingers and said in a deep voice:
"First, I'm not used to training rookies like you. But orders are orders, so I follow them."
"Second, you do whatever I tell you to do. Don't touch the steering wheel, and don't touch the radio, OK?"
"Understood!" Ginny nodded quickly, then cautiously asked, "So which area are we responsible for patrolling?"
Rorschach chuckled and gave the girl a wink. "The South Side of Chicago."
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As the third-largest metro area in the United States, most people's impression of Chicago stays at the Bulls, Michael Jordan, Al Capone, or even A Plus.
But only when you delve into the city do you discover that beneath the countless skyscrapers hides one of the top three highest murder rates in North America.
In the past three years, there had been 2,500 fatal shootings in Chicago, with 12,000 victims of gun violence, ranking first in the nation.
And in this city of sin, the South Side was particularly eye-catching.
This was not only the area with the highest concentration of people of color and undocumented immigrants in Chicago, but also the darkest and most vicious corner of this killing ground.
As the squad car slowly drove into the South Side, Ginny watched through the window as the street scene shifted abruptly from clean and bright to run-down and desolate.
The citizens in business attire or carrying yoga mats were replaced by clusters of dark-skinned Black men in baggy clothes, loitering idly on the sidewalks.
Compared with the people in downtown and the North Side, the residents here looked at the squad car with pure hatred. Some children even mimed firing guns to provoke them.
Ginny took a deep breath and stared back at the crowd outside without fear.
Suddenly, the squad car braked hard and came to an abrupt stop.
Ginny looked up and saw a group of heavily tattooed Black men blocking the entrance of a restaurant. They had taken over the tables out front, puffing on joints and hurling abuse at anyone trying to enter, behaving outrageously.
"Get out and make them all clear off. Don't block people from doing business," Rorschach said coldly and abruptly.
Ginny froze, then asked for confirmation, "By myself?"
Rorschach stared at the rookie and shot back, "You want me to call in a SWAT team for you?"
"."
Ginny had no response. She pursed her lips lightly, then gripped the Taser at her waist, decisively pushed the door open, and strode toward the group of Black men.
Watching the girl's back, Rorschach took out the donut he had not yet eaten. He had finally found the perfect scene to enjoy it with.
Before Ginny even reached them, she shouted loudly, "Gentlemen, if you've finished your meal, please leave immediately and do not interfere with other customers."
Rorschach, chewing on his donut in the car, could not help but shake his head when he heard this. "That's not how you enforce the law in the South Side."
Events unfolded exactly as he expected. These street punks showed no fear of Ginny's uniform and even picked up on her inexperience from her slightly nervous expression. Instead of backing down, they mocked her.
One of them, a burly Black man with a chest full of thick hair, brazenly planted himself in front of Ginny, as if completely unconcerned that she might draw her gun.
"This is my last warning. Leave here immediately!" Ginny widened her eyes, staring hard at the group, her hand on the grip of her sidearm as she shouted repeated warnings.
The Black man in the lead showed no fear at all. He shook his head smugly and replied, "This is a free country. You have no right to tell us where we can or cannot be."
His tone was tough, but he was smart enough to keep both hands in front of him, right where the body cam could see them.
The other punks burst out laughing. Some even shoved Ginny and spewed filthy insults.
"You…"
Just as Ginny was about to lose control and draw her gun, a heavy car door slammed shut behind her.
The Black men who had been taunting her mercilessly suddenly went rigid, as if they had seen something terrifying. The curses on their lips were swallowed back down, and they stared in panic at the space behind her.
Rorschach walked over unhurriedly, stepped past Ginny, and stared straight at the Black punks in front of him.
"Go on."
Rorschach fixed his expressionless gaze on the Black man in the lead and said seriously, "Didn't you hear me? I said, keep going."
"Butcher, we didn't know she was with you."
The punk leader, arrogant a moment ago, instinctively backed away, even raising his hands in a gesture of surrender. "We'll leave right now, OK?"
Rorschach raised a hand and lightly patted the man's cheek, pretending to be troubled. "So you stay when you feel like it and leave when you feel like it? Where does that leave my face?"
Humiliated by the repeated slaps in front of his crew, the Black man hesitated for a moment, then gritted his teeth and said, "We haven't broken any laws. You have no right to act against us."
"Is that so?"
Rorschach gave a thin smile, then suddenly lunged forward, slamming his chest into the other man's. Like a magic trick, the service pistol that had been on his hip suddenly appeared in the Black man's hand.
"Hey, what's that you've got there?"
"I…"
The man stared dumbly at the gun in his hand. How the hell had this thing ended up with him?!
But before he could explain, a vicious headbutt smashed into the bridge of his nose.
Crack!
Rorschach snatched the gun back in a flash, smoothly reholstered it, then seized the Black man by the hair and drove his head down onto the nearby stainless steel table.
"Motherf*cker! Assaulting an officer, grabbing my gun? I could shoot you dead right now!"
Rorschach slammed the man's head into the tabletop more than a dozen times. Only when his anger had cooled a little did he toss the man aside like trash.
He swept a cold gaze over the wide-eyed Black onlookers, pulled a handkerchief from his pocket, and carefully wiped the blood from his hands. Then he said in a low voice:
"I don't care if you're law-abiding citizens or gangbangers. I don't care if your gender is a helicopter or a plastic bag. Look down at your skin. As long as it's Black, then when you see me in the future, you'd better damn well keep your head down."
With that, Rorschach turned to the stunned Ginny, held up one finger, and said sternly, "Lesson one of being a good cop: when you're dealing with Black people, raise your standards of enforcement."
Ginny nodded blankly. She still could not understand what she had just seen, or how Rorschach's gun had suddenly ended up in the other guy's hand.
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A short while later.
The squad car continued to cruise slowly through the streets of the South Side.
Ginny looked at Rorschach beside her, one hand on the wheel, a cigar in his mouth, dressed in plain clothes and looking nothing like a cop. After hesitating for a long time, she finally said, "Um… everything you did just now was recorded on the body cam."
"Mm-hmm."
Rorschach replied casually, "That guy tried to grab my gun first. Everything I did was to protect the neighborhood. Got a problem with that?"
Watching how unconcerned he looked, Ginny frowned tightly and said seriously, "That Black guy was just interfering with a business. You could've just dispersed them. Didn't you go a bit too far?"
Rorschach only chuckled at that. He turned and looked at the rookie and asked in return, "Do you know why I became a cop in the first place?"
"To… protect innocent civilians?" Ginny thought for a moment and answered. To be honest, after what she had just seen from Rorschach, even she didn't really believe her own words.
Sure enough, Rorschach immediately shook his head, shrugged, and said with a grin, "I just think being a cop is cool. You get to wear a badge, carry a gun, and find excuses to smack around those Black bastards whenever you feel like it."
"…You are seriously hopeless."
Ginny muttered helplessly, then simply turned her head away and ignored Rorschach.
She had made up her mind: once today was over, she would ask the captain to give her a new partner. If he refused, she would transfer to another precinct.
Rorschach, as if seeing right through her thoughts, looked utterly unconcerned.
If this girl had gone through what he had, she would probably hate the Blacks in the South Side even more than he did.
But whatever. From the looks of it, at least he had already fulfilled the assignment the captain had given him.
Just as he was debating whether to grab a few drinks at the Elibel Bar first or find something to eat, the radio in the car suddenly crackled to life:
"Attention units in the South Side, Amber Alert! Anonymous call reporting a child abduction at 7310 Madeira Avenue. Any nearby officers, respond immediately!"
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