AN: I don't own this awesome series. Let's leave it at that before I start to cry, also I'll be using English titles (Mister, Miss) rather than the Japanese (-san, -kun) because I'm more familiar with those and some of the characters haven't really been introduced to others ie. Ken and Roma and I'd like to keep myself from being confused. If this annoys you my apologize.

Ixa. The swordshield of the Reaper of the CCG, Kishou Arima. Carefully extracting the twice corpse of his weapon he crouched next to the boy "Centipede…Ken Kanike, no, should I now call you Spider? What will you become? I guess it doesn't matter, I cannot let you live, those were my orders." but from his pocket came a frantic voice. "Stop whatever?" and the voice continued and he shut off the radio before wiping the blood of his cheek and pressing it into Kanike's mouth "Show me how far the doctor's experiments can go…" the ghoul's wounds started to regenerate before Arima lifted the boy up and whispered in his ear. The investigator moved the boy to a clear spot before continuing out to join the fight against the single strongest ghoul.

Kurona and Nashiro Yasuhisa stepped out of the shadows and led another figure to the boy. Yomo scooped him up and lead the twins to the one place everyone was hiding. Many ghouls and one human were there. The oldest ghoul laid Ken down on a torn sofa "They say that hearing is the last thing to go. Ken Kanike. Stay alive. We are all waiting for you Kaya and Enji are here, your little band is here, even Tsukiyama. Itori and Uta want to talk to you. Nishiki and Touka are here with his human girlfriend. And Roma's going to cry if she can't meet her role model."

The twins sat beside the couch and stared "Onii-chan. We are here too. We need your help…" the more wounded of the two gently gripped a hand and stared at him before laying her head on his hand. Nobody stopped her. Nor did anyone sleep, their vigil over their own was too intense.

The CCG had lost more than they had expected to with the appearance of the One-Eyed Owl. Many members that had once protected the streets were in the hospital for wounds that would have felled any normal human. Or in the morgue.

Koutarou Amon, his arm reattached with the young attendant staring at him "You won't be able to use that arm normally for awhile, and who knows how long you'll have to be in recovery before you're able to fight with it again…" she bowed and left leaving Amon with Seidou Takizawa, who left because of his own partner calling.

But beside him was Akira Mado. Her silent gaze seemed heavier than the world at the moment. He couldn't lift his own eyes to hers, instead watching his fingers twitch before curling. A subtle creak broke the silence and he looked up only to catch her lips on his own. Her voice was stern "That's for making it too easy, Amon. If you don't get better soon there will be consequences."

With a dry chuckle he finally met her gaze "You sure are treating somebody in the hospital rough…" the faintest tint of red covered her cheeks as she stood and stormed out of the room.

He gripped his fist tightly Shinohara…did you die doing the right thing? Was the X-Owl really evil? What do we do now? I have too many questions…

It was the third day when his hand twitched. Nashiro gasped "He moved!" all the ghouls rushed to stand around him, their friend finally moving.

His eyes still missing he managed to drag himself up from the black mire that he had nearly drowned in "G-guys?" every person laid a hand on him and he found each of their scents a comfort. "What happened?"

Everyone told their bits of the story, their own actions and those they saw. The investigators and their quinque. Yomo spoke last "Yoshimura is dead." those words rattled everyone but his continuation was more unsettling "His son covered for us as I took him to safety…I can't tell if the Owl was trying to help or if he didn't care." he was silent for a long time "Ken and I need to speak alone" Renji's voice carried the weight of the Manager's final wishes and were obeyed without hesitation. "…Yoshimura's last words were for you. Or rather his last letter. I'd let you read it but it will take some time before you can do that again."

At the end Ken only gritted his teeth and felt the eyeless tears fall down his face "I-I can't accept!"

Yomo grabbed Ken's shoulders "You have to. Not now, but soon. These past six months you've become someone that even Tsukiyama trusts. You are the only one.."

Pressing a fist against his empty eye sockets the boy groaned before sighing "I will. But I have to do one thing first. I need to speak-peacefully- with a certain man"

He could feel Yomo's relief "Okay…" then the flash of mischievousness "…Manager"

Ken could only answer with a groan.

Amon woke to the feeling of immense danger nearby and slowly opened one eye to see a man in a bird mask standing over him, a hand suddenly covered his mouth and the call button was too far out of reach. Both hands clapped over the intruder but nothing happened and none of the monitors were hooked up to him as his injuries weren't life threatening at the moment. When the man gave a squeeze one word echoed through Amon's head.

Ghoul.

The masked man leaned close to his ear "If I let you go will you not panic?"

Sensing danger but no immediate threat the investigator nodded and the hand was gone for a moment before his struggle to sit up became apparent and he was helped by the same ghoul "What do you want?" he asked with more calm than he felt.

The bird sat in the chair facing the man "My friend has asked me to come here and extend an offer to talk. Only to talk. He was heavily injured trying to escape from saving our friends. You know him as Eye patch." Renji handed the investigator a slip of paper "As soon as you can go give that number a call and he will meet you at the nearby park at six pm."

The ukaku opened the window to leave when the larger man stopped him "How do I know this isn't a trap?"

The glass closed "Because in his current state he cannot fight at all. I will be there only to help him and you've been invited to bring your partner. He doesn't want to hurt anybody but he doesn't want to hide like a criminal for existing."

Again the man opened the window before being stopped, Amon's words were confident "If he only wants to talk let's do it tonight. Six and in front of the fountain. I will bring an armed partner"

Yomo nodded "Very well. I'll tell him"

Akira came in later finding her partner brooding over a slip of paper in his hands before shredding it and looking at her with the fire that lit her own confidence "We've got a job. Tonight we're going to talk to somebody…just you and me"

She lifted an elegant brow "And what should I bring? A camera? A notebook?"

Totally mistaking her sarcasm he sighed "A camera wouldn't be wise…but a notebook might be good…and your quinque…" her eyes widened before she shook her head.

At the appointed time the investigators were seated on one of the two benches that faced each other, to the left was a fountain that gurgled pleasantly while the right offered a view of the trees. They had already swept the area for anything hidden. Akira Mado tapped her foot with nervous energy while Amon pulled out a recorder and set it beside him. The bushes rustled and the humans stared intently as the bird masked ghoul lead Eye patch out of the bushes, the latter having a grip on the former's shoulder.

Besides his normal attire a black bandana had been tied around his eyes leaving his entire face covered. Yomo helped Ken take a seat on the bench before the half-Kakuja spoke "Mr. Amon, sorry for my near tardiness it's a bit harder than I thought to walk around blind"

Akira's mouth twitched "And why did you think it would be easy?"

Amon put a hand on the standing woman's arm, trying to silently tell her not to interfere when Ken chuckled "I didn't say easy, hard-er. And you are?"

"Akira Mado. His partner…and if my intuition was right you know who killed my father" she growled the last bit and Yomo began to take a defensive stance.

Amon chided his partner " Mado! While that is important we are not here to interrogate him!"

But the thoughts had already been placed as Ken sighed sadly "Yes, I do. But in that moment every party did wrong. Your father was chasing a girl who only wanted to see her parents again. More that you want to see yours. Above all she wants to be with her parents peacefully. Like every ghoul I try to protect we don't want to fight. Kureo Mado may have had his reasons to hate ghouls but I can't tell when his reason went to obsession." motioning Yomo to sit he continued "The ghoul in question did wrong in provoking him into spilling information about who knew of the girl. In the entire debacle the only blameless party is the little girl herself. Even I am not blameless."

Akira deflated as she realized her father may not have been as righteous as she hoped. She slumped down beside her partner and Amon took the moment to divert attention away from her "Am I right in assuming you were injured by Kishou Arima?"

Yomo's eyes widened behind his mask and he turned to face Ken who nodded "How did you know?"

The investigator sucked on his teeth for a moment "He mentioned needed a new quinque, and meeting a 'Centipede' did you destroy Ixa?"

Ken bridged his fingers as his eyeless sockets focused on the investigator in front of him, when he spoke his voice was that of the leader "First-Class Investigator Koutarou Amon. I did not destroy Ixa. That weapon was dead many years ago. Only his skill kept that weapon functioning."

Before she could stop it Mado blurted "That's impossible! He repairs that weapon after every fight!"

Neither group could tell who was more shocked. But much to the investigators' relief the Centipede broke the silence "Mr. Amon. I called you here for one simple reason, a warning. The X-Owl as you called him was a peace broker of the 20th ward. For the foreseeable future you will have to work harder to keep this ward- and every other- out of the hands of hateful ghouls."

Mado was stunned silent but Amon nodded as he rested his hands in his lap "Understood. But I must ask if we could meet again, perhaps not friends but not as enemies."

Ken's voice, the only detector of mood, was almost happy "Of course…although it may be awhile, I would not ask you to meet me while we are not on equal grounds. Ghouls heal so much faster than humans…Whenever you would like to speak call the number you were given." there was quiet moment before the sound of Ken's jaw shifting was heard "I'd like to ask you one final question, and in return I'll answer one of yours"

The senior partner looked at the woman who nodded and both looked intently at the boy "What is it?"

"How did Kishou Arima know my name?"

This news startled both investigators. As Ken waited for a long moment Amon looked at Mado and shrugged bewilderedly, she took a moment "We don't know. But I have a theory. In searching for the 'Binge Eater' we discovered that one Ken Kaneki was the recipient of the organs from the woman killed by the falling material. When this was said Hideyoshi Nagachika was working for us and said that this Ken was his best friend…judging from this you would be 'Ken' are you not?"

With a distraught chuckle the ghoul said "That brilliant idiot…but this doesn't explain how Arima knew my name or where Hide is"

She continued after the unspoken confirmation "Hideyoshi is just fine, after the…Owl raid he was perfectly fine, he only had a scratch on his arm from when he fell down a ladder" she watched the ghoul only to see nothing. But in his head Ken knew he needed to talk to Hide. "But even then the only ones privy to that were us, another pair and Hide himself. As for how Arima knew we have no idea."

Amon glanced at his watch, expecting hours to have gone by. Only about half an hour, he realized why. Tension. This wasn't a game, here was life or death in every word, both sides were armed and the investigator realized that he was far outgunned. The one by Eye-patch's side was an older ghoul and judging from the slight wear and repairs only faintly visible on the mask one of considerable power. Yes, Mado was a fair fighter but if the ghoul attacked he knew that neither human would get out unharmed.

Yomo was thinking much along the same lines, both of these two humans were trained and the one sitting almost calmly was the one that had taken a huge portion of Ken's side in his half kakuja state. The other one he knew was the daughter of the one that had taken Hinami's parents.

Both of them were dragged back when Ken nodded "Thank you. Now as promised what is your two questions…I seem to have asked one more"

For that the younger looked to her senior who mulled it over "First I'd ask what is your goal here?"

Interlaced fingers came to his chin as his index fingers rested against his concealed lips "The most selfish thing. I'm avoiding pain, and to do so I'm protecting my precious people"

Mado cut in harshly "That's a very human answer"

Both ghouls laughed. Something that angered Mado more "Ms. Mado. We do not imitate humans. Every evolutionary scientist researching in the area of ghouls agrees that ghouls and humans are beyond identical. At the present it is impossible to find a separation in an evolutionary tree. We simply don't know. For your purpose we are human. We're born to parents who love us, we fight our own demons, we may or may not fall in love and raise our children to the best of our abilities and we fear being separated from those we love. Yes, there are differences, but in terms of emotions and feelings we are human." and after a chuckle he went on "And I'm a human ghoul so my answer should be more 'human' as you put it than any other ghoul"

For the first time since the meeting started Yomo spoke "Manger, we have one more question then the others will want to hear from you."

Even behind the mask everyone could tell the smile "Thank you. After this question we can be on our way. But let's try to help them" he was answered with a non-committal grunt.

For a moment the humans spoke to each other on what to ask but they ended on "Do you have any connection to the 'One-eyed Owl'?"

The tension spiked in the small clearing and Ken's voice wasn't unpleasant but it held a warning "I can assure you that the ghoul in question is unknown to us. I can tell you that we have no idea on him than you do. Probably less in fact. None of us have seen that ghoul." Ken stood and bowed "This is farewell and until next time. I wish you fast recovery and…no, that's for another time" and Yomo lead the leader away but looked back and shook his head as a message to the investigators.

Yomo reappeared a moment later before speaking quietly "You owe him your life. The first time he spared you, at the lab you spared him. But this last time you meant to kill him. He didn't."

Akira hissed "And how would you know that?"

His finger pointed directly between the man's eyes "His head is still attached. He tried to move you out of the fight without killing you." and he disappeared leaving not a trace.

As they slowly made their way to the hideout Renji asked a question that had plagued him since he met the boy "Is there any human you could eat?"

Ken's shock was so great he lost his hold on the other's sleeve "Wh- No!"

But even he could see there was something hidden "But there is a human you hate"

The boy stopped moving all together "Yes" he whispered "there is"

Slowly the man lead his friend to a small tree that they leaned up against, "How is it that you have a human you would actually hate?"

The half human buried his head in his hands "S-she's so foul I wouldn't eat her if she was my only option. That woman drove her own sister to death…she worked my mother until she died even though mom worked and supported us by herself. My aunt didn't work and just…" telling the story to a true person was harder than talking to the figment of Rize.

Yomo didn't say anything but only slowly lead the boy to the others. They had fallen asleep from the stress of having to wait behind, when the call of their friends safety had come they had nearly blacked out.

But Ken wasn't happy. Tears had started to fall again and this time not stopping as he thought about the last part of his dear friend and mentor's letter. Putting on the bravest face he could manage he looked at the older ghoul "I-I have to do it now."

Renji would never say this aloud but what was going to happen made his stomach turn and threaten him with spilling over. But after that it was going to be something that had never been seen.