Thanks to Lunahras who beta-ed this for me, if you like Tokyo Ghoul or Hitman Reborn you should check her out.
The soft cry of "Daddy" always made him pause and watch his son scurry towards him. Ken was like him, not physically imposing though he was stronger than he looked. By far. His black hair was streaked with white and he knew one day he would have to explain why Ken was so different than normal kids.
It would crush his heart.
Having married Ken's mother after his birth made the boy's last name different than his own. Kaneki instead of Arima like Kishou's own.
The child wrapped his arms around his father who scooped him up "How are you Ken?" he asked with no inflection.
The child said nothing as he buried his face in his dad's neck-too concerned with the familiar smell over all those new ones that made him tremble. "Daddy…they smelled like your briefcase…" and he sniffed.
Silently cursing himself Kishou held his son closer, how couldn't he have seen it? Bringing someone with his amazing sense of smell to the CCG building was asking for trouble. The stench of death permeated everything here.
The CCG was none the wiser when their best investigator took his child out of the building.
Seven years ago Arima would have thought children were problematic and not worth the hassle they seemed to incur. Then he met a woman. Yuki Kaneki.
She had literally walked into his live six years, eleven months, three weeks and six days ago. He was at his favorite bookstore eyeing a shelf when he stepped backwards and into a woman that he didn't know was behind him-that itself was a shock considering he should have noticed her in his blind spot after so much time spent on missions.
She whipped around and hissed "Watch it!"
He was utterly stunned at her ferocity "Sorry." he had thought that would be the end of it.
But she seemed to have other opinions "As well you should be asshole! God you think you work for the government and you're entitled to everything! Jesus, I have to deal with your kind everyday at work, now I find out they're stalking me!"
He glanced around "I have no idea what you're talking about." he said calmly.
She snarled and stomped off leaving him in a lurch. Muttering to himself, a habit as of late "Not like I'll meet her again…"
Sadly he was mistaken. Arima moved out of the CCG dorms thinking that a bit of space would be nicer and a near perfect apartment opened up only a few minutes away from the office so he grabbed it. He knocked on the neighbor's door to give the traditional greeting when he was face to face with the woman.
The ensuing scream garnered attention as far as across the street.
Somehow in the weeks after he that he managed to find out that she lived alone and worked for a company contracted out to the Ministry of the Environment and dealt with the park that was right across the street from the CCG building. But there was still that venom that he couldn't describe.
The next day Ken clung to his dad's neck as he was carried into the building, the briefcase in his other hand did nothing to hinder his ascent into his office, nobody tried to stop him as even then they knew who he was and he had amazing amounts of paperwork to deal with.
Standing in the elevator he was greeted by Kureo Mado, a rather interesting character, but a person he didn't recognize stood beside him "Hello Arima-san." looking at the girl beside him he put a hand on her back "Say hello Akira."
The girl stepped forward completely self-confident "Hello, my name is Akira Mado. My father speaks very highly of you."
He nodded "Hello Mado-san," lifting Ken a bit higher the boy bowed his head, just stopping when his balance was getting precarious "This is my son Ken."
The elder Mado looked at Akira "Would you mind if my daughter stayed at your office for a bit, I have to go give a lecture."
Both of them knew that the Death God only had paperwork that day "I don't mind as long as she doesn't mind Ken."
The girl nodded "I like children."
Ken's quiet voice startled his father, he rarely spoke at all and this was the first time he had done so around strangers "But Mado-san's a child herself…"
Akira's mouth twitched up in a smirk "But I'm older than you."
Ken, still holding onto his father's neck stared at her blankly for a moment and the girl stopped breathing as the lance of those eyes bored through her. As the elevator opened Kureo stepped out "Akira, be good and we'll go out for dinner tonight."
She nodded and ripped her eyes away from the boy with an amazing amount of will power "Yes father."
The office was large and two of the walls were lined with bookshelves, one side was reports, each case in a binder and labeled immaculately before being put in chronological order, the other was books, many of them were ghoul related but that shied in comparison of those that were not. Arima set his son down who quickly walked to the shelf and pulled out a book that no child his age should have even been interested in. Akira was a bit more reserved before Arima nodded "Go ahead if you want, just don't be too loud."
She nodded before turning to Ken "Ken-kun? Would you like to play?"
The five year old looked at the nine year old "I'd rather read…" he said quietly, almost like he was afraid he offended her.
She smiled "Alright." she was flabbergasted. A child, a male child who'd rather read than play? So she plucked a book at random from the bookshelf and started looking at page after page.
She noticed that it only took a few minutes for both father and son to be immersed in what they were doing, from the computer came a soft piano piece and, again, father and son were humming quietly to it without realizing it.
Akira was watching the two of them closely, they had very similar mannerisms, when there was something that either confused them or made them think deeply they would scrunch their brow and rest their chin on their palm while a finger would tap lightly on their cheek.
The similarity between the two was something that she almost envied, until she realized that Arima didn't show any real sort of attachment to Ken other than holding him outside the office. Where other people could see.
While Akira didn't know it she was slowly being sucked into the world of the Shinigami and his son. She didn't notice how in the coming weeks she would often ask to play with Ken and slowly became his first friend.
Yuki was an interesting individual, she liked reading but rarely did so "I have to be in the mood, the setting has to be right. And you can't force it." she said to him once when he asked why she didn't read with him. Ironically she hated the cold, though he thought it made her adorable, her nose would turn a vivid red and she had the habit of pulling her scarf up to just under her mouth.
It had been nearly two months since they had met and the venom still was present when anything related to his work came up. He didn't realize how many people took issue with his work-some of them knew that there was no way for ghouls to coexist with humans yet but they didn't like the mindless killing.
By no stretch could they be called friends, but getting to know all the variables was something Arima always tried to do. Though he was no saint she had something that worried him-not that he was worried about her he told himself. Her job often called on her in the middle of the night-through the walls he could hear her yelling at her boss about it, and though very few ghouls dared hunt that close to the CCG there had been a few notables that did so like the A-ranked Cutting Queen who had a habit of chopping off the first finger joint of all her catches and leaving them behind, not to mention eating two first class investigators.
Though he made no movement to accompany her places he gave her a warning that there were several ghouls in the area. She looked at him with grim determination and took the card he handed her and programmed it immediately into her phone.
By the sixth month he would never go out on a limb and call them friends but she seemed to find him pleasant enough company-provided ghouls weren't brought up except in warning.
She was his mental equal and they often clashed on ideas but those arguments were more banter and even if they got very spirited it was often calmed down with just a few moments away from the subject. Something like this was new for the investigator-few people would talk to him and fewer without a near hero worship amount of respect. Arima knew Yuki was a woman worth his respect and he found himself meeting with her more and more, not even for work but he would glance out of his window across the street and see her ordering about some worker or just looking over things.
Now that the CCG day school was most certainly out of the question Arima had to think of where his son could go to school without being frightened. As he sat at home he searched via his computer for any place where he could have Ken attend with said boy asleep on his lap.
The Mado daughter was right-the father rarely showed open affection, but here with just the two of them he smiled at his sleeping son who curled deeper into his father with a sigh. Running his fingers through the boy's hair with one hand his search continued for several more minutes.
Looking over the description of the school he decided they would go tomorrow to check it out, if it wasn't up to his standards then the search would continue. Breathing a heavy sigh he wished he had someone who he could rely on.
Other than his son.
There were very few that knew his wife was eaten by a ghoul when he thought she would be the safest. In a moment of nostalgia he traced the scar right under his left arm, it was dreadfully deep and a few centimeters forward it would have punctured his lungs and heart, luckily it was a superficial wound. Ken had a matching scar under his own childishly chubby arm.
Glancing at the clock he kissed Ken's head before carrying him to the child's room and getting ready for the next day.
Slumping into his chair more than was necessary Arima sighed silently. The school was not only a no, but a hell no. Ken watched his father with sympathetic eyes, both father and son were trying their hardest to make this thing work but it was hard.
"Tomorrow I think we should try the school that we saw on the way there." came the silence breaker.
Ken nodded and brought out a small bag "Okay Daddy." the small snacks for both of them were brought out and spread on the desk.
If anyone had walked in they would have been shocked to see the duo enjoying their snacks together. But Ken's stomach clench and he gasped holding his gut right after the snacks were gone and the boy went sheet white with fear written on his face before he turned to his dad who looked blankly at him.
Arima's mind was whirling. Here? Why now? Why so long? Why ever? But through all this an idea came to mind. But he only hoped it would work.
Hideyoshi Nagachika stared at the new kid at his school, he was skinny and very quiet. When the teacher asked him to say hello he did so…literally. "Hi…" and that was it. The kindergarten had maybe 12 people and, much to his disappointment, couldn't sit by himself, there were only five tables that could hold four people each. All the other tables had small groups other than the one with the blond kid who smiled at him "Would you mind if I sat here?" Ken asked quietly.
Hide, already socially sharp, replied calmly "I don't mind", and offered a beaming smile. The silence between the two didn't last long and was broken by the blond "My name's Hideyoshi Nagachika, just call me Hide!"
Holding out a hand the black and white haired boy gave a shy smile "Ken." For both of them that handshake would alter their very ideology.
By the time Hide's mom came to pick him up the boys were steadfast friends. Ken was surprised when it was his turn to be picked up, his dad had said that he couldn't pick Ken up because of work but when Akira and Yukinori Shinohara-a man who he had only met a few times but was extremely kind to the small boy "Akira-chan? Shinohara-san?"
The big man smiled "Ken-kun. We're here to take you home. Your dad says that he won't be home until late…" the smile fell a bit "But we'll be with you for awhile."
Arima was walking bravely down the alleys of the ward, not even bothering to walk in the lamp light but making the straight lines that often took him into pitch black places. He was looking for someone. But who would it be was something he didn't know. This was the third night he was looking and hadn't found anyone…yet. Then came the snapping and ripping sound he was so familiar with.
Keeping every ounce of his body in a steady normal rhythm he walked around the corner and saw her. A young girl ghoul, bright violet hair in a dark blue dress that the blood of the businessman she was eating was staining.
In a single movement he had grabbed her by the neck and pinned her to the wall, her bright red eyes filled with fear as she recognized who was holding Ixa to her throat. She could feel tears welling up in her eyes as she stared into his blank face, like a black hole it seemed to swallow her up giving her nothing but taking everything from her. "Girl, do you have anyone?"
She shook her head "N-no! No one!" she yelled in a whisper "I don't even know who my parents are!"
The smile that sat on his face was one she didn't want to see again, he set her on her feet and she fell to the ground in a boneless heap, kneeling he asked "Girl. What's your name?'
"Rize"