It was a cold, blustery day in Tokyo's 24th ward. The air had a metallic bite to it as it wound its way through the towering skyscrapers, past the pedestrians, and straight into
Katsumi Mado's face. Scrunching her nose, she pulled up a scarf and pressed on. Her hands were adorned with fitted black leather gloves and clutched a cold, steel briefcase.
Face set in a determined expression she made her way home. Getting home to see her son was priority and no amount of wind was going to slow her down. Her job as a CCG
investigator consumed, on average, nine hours of her day. Nine hours she could be spending with her precious son.
Looking around to ensure that no one was tailing her, she walked into the apartment complex. Black heels clicked across a polished marble floor as she made her way to the
elevator. Katsumi proceeded to press the button that would open the doors and lead her to the eighth floor. The floor where her baby boy was anxiously awaiting her return.
She paused, examining her long slender fingers, riddled with callouses and scars from years of w
ielding quinques. Not to mention that her fingernails were unceremoniously nibbled into nonexistence. However, none of this, despite what her sister Kasuka said, mattered.
The elevator 'dinged' signifying her arrival. Sliding her key into the wooden door she gave a gentle shove. The door clicked open and she made her way inside, dropping her
briefcase and taking off her long white coat. Instantly two tiny, strong arms wrapped themselves around her knees. "Agh! Ken-kun not so hard!" she reprimanded, albeit with
a smile, as she picked up the small four year old, releasing herself from his death grip, and whirled him around. "Okaa-san!" Katsumi giggled as his little face lit up in
excitement.
Setting the boy down she carefully tied up her long blonde hair and took her heels off. It had been a long day and she needed some down time. Unfortunately, down time isn't
that easy to come by, especially when you're a single mother of a four year old half-ghoul. Wearily she padded over to the small kitchen and grabbed a glass. Pausing for a
moment, she opened the refrigerator and poured herself some milk and plopped a small cube of salted carmel in her mouth. Ever since she was little the strange, white,
frothy stuff appealed to her and adding the sweet and salty flavor of the caramel only made it better. Katsumi soon found herself on the couch in the living room, lolling the
candy around with her tongue and sipping the ice cold milk. Ken was sitting there as well, wrapped in a tiny red blanket decorated with little snowflakes. His knees were
tucked up to his chest with his hands clasped around them. They sat there in silence for a while, appreciating each others company. Music from an old record player that
Katsumi had picked up on a whim played softly in the background. Lilting, classical melodies caressed their tired minds. Then, without warning, Ken started to scoot closer to
Katsumi. Little by little until she found herself with a pair of round, quizzical eyes looking up at her. "What is it?" she asked "Ummm…" Ken replied "Continue", she prodded
"Well...I...waswonderingwhatthattasteslike" he rushed, knowing that, for some strange reason, the stuff that mommy ate made him extremely sick and tasted icky too.
Katsumi froze, wide eyed and unsure of what to say in response, then her expression softened, until finally, lavender
eyes crinkling in amusement, she burst out laughing, breaking the silence that had surrounded the two. "Well, how should I explain this? Oh! Ken-kun you know how
something tastes similar to how it smells?" "Yeah, I think so" he replied, crinkling his brow in thought, "Imagine this. An azure sea sparkles in the hazy summer air. A clean,
cool breeze caresses your face as you stand on a white sand beach. With this breeze comes the smell of the sea as its fine, salty mist crashes against your lips.." "Okaa-san"
he interrupted "You should write stories, just like you said dad did." "Hmmm? Is that so...I already have a job, but you", she teased, poking him on the arm, "can grow up
and write stories of your very own...but not unless the scaaarrry monsters get to you first!" Ken burst out laughing as she picked him up and tossed him in the air, catching
him, and chasing him around the house.
This always happened. Every night, ever since he could remember, his Kaa-san would pretend to be the big scary monster while he would have to avoid her 'terrifying'
clutches. Sometimes they would switch roles, but Ken found that he never enjoyed that as much. (Why did Kaa-chan have to be so fast?!) His little legs whirred as he ran up
the stairs. Soon he was cornered in his room. But he had a plan. Little did his mother know that Ken discovered that he possessed a 'super power'. If he concentrated really
hard he found that he could make four, red glowing tail-like tentacles come from his back.
He crouched in the corner as he heard his Kaa-chan make her way up the stairs, her footsteps got louder as she made her way to his bedroom door. Ken made up his mind
that he was going to be the one to pop out and scare her, the hero in this game of man vs. monster. "Ken-kun, I know you're in here" Katsumi walked into the room, a smirk
on her face as she imagined where the little guy was attempting to hide. "Aaaaaahhhh" he cried, hands up in the air attempting to make himself bigger. "Ken-ku…"
Katsumi froze, a glistening kagune was protruding from her son's back accompanied by a glowing kakugan in his left eye. Ken didn't notice his mother's pause and continued
running forward. However, something felt different, his mother was secreting a strange scent, Ken didn't know how he knew, but he identified this unique odour as fear.
Strangely he liked it. He sped forward, and then, driven by some instinctual urge, bit into his Kaa-chan's leg. A warm liquid filled his mouth, its sweet flavor penetrated his
senses as he ripped a small chunk of meat off with his kagune. Plucking it off the tip of the appendage he shoved it in his mouth, chewing experimentally before swallowing.
Suddenly, ripped out of his fervor he looked up at his Kaa-chan. Katsumi was still frozen in place looking at her son in horror as a tears leaked out of her eyes. They stared at
each other for half-a minute until Ken started to cry, his small, chubby hands clawing at his mouth. The sobbing increased to a persistent wail as he sat there staring at his
mother. Katsumi snapped out of her daze and ran to her child. Scooping him up in her arms she held him tight and rocked him back and forth until he calmed down. His tiny
fists clutched the back of her shirt as he cried himself to sleep.
Soon his kagune was gone and his kakugan faded away, but he still had tears leaking out of his eyes. Looking down at her leg Katsumi could see that he hadn't really inflicted
much damage. The bite was small and blood loss was minor. She'd seen worse. However, that didn't negate the fact that, in her mind, she let it happen. After carefully
setting her son in his bed and tucking him in she padded over to the bathroom and began to disinfect her wound.
Carefully dabbing it she raised her head and looked into the mirror. Her eyes were red, her face ragged, both from her hard day at work and the stresses of being a mother.
Body sagging against the wall Katsumi finally broke down. Quietly sobbing, she dropped the cloth she was holding and put her head in her hands. 'It wasn't Ken's fault', she
thought, 'It was mine. All mine. I'm a failure of a mother. I can't even recognize when my own child is hungry. I should have seen the signs. But how am I supposed to know
how to raise a half ghoul when I'm only human?', she argued with herself, grasping her head in her hands she quietly whispered, 'Where's his father when I need him most...'
However, Katsumi already knew the answer to that question. Steeling her emotions she stood up, brushed herself off and made her way to her room.
AN: Katsumi is the only OC in this story...well except for Kaneki's father (as far as you know ;p). Also, just for clarification Kasuka is in fact the name of Akira's mother and Kureo's wife. Mado was Kasuka's family name and Kureo took it when they were married. (That's if anyone was wondering why Katsumi's last name was Mado.) I did my research when writing this, but please give me constructive criticism!