The Interview

Hana Amuro could not sleep. Her eyes traced the cracks in the ceiling for the hundredth time – she was well acquainted with every twist, dip and turn that mapped her bedroom ceiling. She'd be able to draw the intricate fissures from memory at this rate. She raised a sluggish hand from the bed to do just that. Closing her eyes, Hana pointed her index finger skyward to carve out a duplicate pattern into the muted darkness of her room. A deep sigh left her as she dropped her hand and rolled over onto her side, bunching the covers up around her. She knew why she couldn't sleep. Sure it was a stiflingly hot evening – it was the middle of July after all. But something else was playing on her mind, skipping constantly like a broken record. No not something, someone she thought with another deep sigh.

Earlier that afternoon, Hana found herself crammed into a subway carriage on her way to yet another job interview. Bodies swayed in time with the movement of the train as commuters made their way home from their long days in the city. She had doubts about this interview but what choice did she have? This felt like her last chance and she couldn't afford to fail. But really who calls first thing in the morning to reschedule a job interview for 6:00pm on a Friday? A soft feminine voice shocked her out of her slumber to ask if they could reschedule her 1:00pm interview to 6:00pm due to unforeseen circumstances and naturally she had to agree. Hana moaned internally as the man in front of her 'accidently' jostled her for the fourth time since the last stop. She turned away from him with a frown to read the car insurance advertisement opposite but could still feel his gaze burning through her blouse and creeping up her pencil skirt. Arsehole. Rush hour wasn't pleasant at any time – let alone in the middle of the summer when on the way to an interview. Sweat beaded around her hairline and ran down her back. I'll need another shower at this rate she lamented internally as the train finally arrived at her stop.

Walking through the station Hana mentally went over her pre-prepared answers for what she now knew (from far too much experience) to be the most typically asked interview questions. This was more an attempt to distract herself from growing nerves clawing at her chest since she had memorised them down to a tee. She pictured herself in front of a panel under intense scrutiny as she rode the elevator up to the surface. "Oh god" she moaned starting to feel sick. A quick glance at the time on her phone allowed her to relax slightly, she wouldn't have to rush since her destination wasn't far from the station. She noticed a supermarket opposite the station exit and went in to buy another bottle of cold water.

It made sense that the CCG Headquarters was situated in the 1st ward but the fact that she had to travel all the way there in extreme heat when if successful she most likely wouldn't be stationed at headquarters didn't. Well that was dependent on where the investigator she would be working for was based. The job description was very vague – Secretary/ Assistant required for Ghoul Investigator, must have previous experience in a similar role as well as strong communication skills - both written and verbal. There was one requirement that puzzled her so much that she had to read the advertisement three times over to make sure she read it correctly. Must have a high level of patience. Why would someone need a high level of patience in a secretary role? The name of one of the interviewers was familiar to her – Yukinori Shinohara. She was sure she had heard the name mentioned on TV or somewhere before. Juuzou Suzuya however didn't ring any bells whatsoever.

It's not like I'll be working with kids or animalsHana thought as she crossed a busy intersection and rounded a corner to come face to face with the tall imposing tower of glass. She paused and took a deep breath looking up at the Headquarters for the CCG. "I can do this" she said to herself as she forced her shaky legs to walk on down the street and through the imposing entrance of the building.

A blur of friendly smiling faces passed her as the equally smiley receptionist guided her to sit on a plush couch outside the closed door of what appeared to be a separate office. It was awfully quiet after the receptionist left. Hana mused that everyone must have gone home from this side of the building as she drank deeply from her water bottle. After flicking through a newspaper on a table in front of the couch she resorted to playing games on her phone to distract herself from negative thoughts.

After a couple of minutes, she heard what she thought sounded like someone humming a cheery song. She dismissed it at first and continue to play her game but could no longer ignore it as the sound got annoyingly louder. Hana looked up from her phone to see a young man walking over towards the couch. He was one of the strangest people she had ever seen.

"Hello!" the young man greeted in soft sounding voice. "Do you mind if I sit with you for a while?"

Hana had to force herself to not stare. "No, of course not" she said shuffling along to make room.

"Thank you very much!" he chirped plonking himself down on the sofa beside her, shrugging off a rucksack in the process.

Hana attempted to distract herself with her phone but couldn't help herself from sneaking glances at the bizarre young man sitting next to her. His skin was deathly pale and perfectly matched the striking chin length white hair sticking out in random strands around his neck. Red clips held part of his hair back and seemed to have been purposefully arranged in a strange fashion. Speaking of fashion, Hana was unsure how old the man was but judging from his clothes she thought he was either younger than she initially thought or was some kind of eccentric circus performer. He wore a pale pastel pink shirt adorned with multi-coloured buttons accompanied by black trousers held up by bright red polka dot suspenders. These articles of clothing couldn't be outdone however by the pair of red slippers that he wore – whether these were just for indoor use or he wore them everywhere was beyond Hana. Although she probably would have guessed the latter.

This was however not the most unusual aspect of the man's appearance. From her side view point, Hana only had a limited view but she swore the red stiches on his hand extended up his exposed forearm. Who on Earth was this person? Did he work here? No, he must be waiting for someone – or have an interview?

The humming stopped as soon as the man sat down creating a tense, awkward silence that echo loudly down the corridor. This was soon broken by a sudden clap which almost startled Hana out of her skin.

"Oh sorry!" The man said lowering his hands after noticing Hana jump at the sound. "I just remembered that I brought some colouring books with me! Would you like to help me do some?"

Hana – who had been avoiding looking at the man directly in an attempt to not appear rude, finally looked up at the grinning face before her. She couldn't suppress the small gasp that escaped her as she looked into his eyes. Ruby red irises glinted back at her, watching with great intensity. She was captivated. She had never seen such beautiful eyes.

It wasn't until the man said "Hello?" to her in a long drawn out sing-song manner that she realised she had been gaping at him in silence. Staring at him more like – something she hated and was trying to avoid doing in the first place.

Hana cleared her throat and broke eye contact with him to look down at the various colouring books spewing out of the rucksack in his lap. What an odd request. She wondered whether he was just extremely immature for his age or had some kind of mental delay. She glanced at her phone quickly, twenty minutes to go until her interview. She was somewhat distracted from her nerves at the appearance of the strange person before her, what harm was there? He seemed to want to have someone to talk to and strangely enough he reminded her of her younger sister who would often ask her the exact same question when they were kids.

"Sure, I'd love to" she said with a polite smile moving the newspaper and her drink bottle aside to make space on the table.

"Yay! You can have this one then!" the man said placing a thick book in her lap whilst he dug deep in his rucksack and rummaged around for a moment in search of something muttering to himself as he did so. "They must be in here somewhere!" Hana opened the book to see a blank colouring in book full of animals They were very cute, drawn in a cartoon style - typical of what you would expect to find in a child's colouring in book. She turned a few pages before stopping at a page with a page full of cats dressed in school uniforms. Hana couldn't help the small chuckle that escaped her as she looked down at the image causing the man to pause in his search and lean over to look at the picture. "Ahh that's a cute one! You should do that one!" he said before producing a large pack of felt tip pens from his rucksack, placing it on the table between them. "Ok, let's start!" he said excitedly delving through the pages of various books which were now strewn across the sofa and table.

Hana watched the excitement and intensity in which the man carefully selected a picture for himself and reached for the pens. He genuinely seemed to love the idea of colouring in a child's book with a random person he had just met. "Are you ok? Don't you like your picture anymore?" his soft voice broke through her musings. She met the intensity of his red eyes once more before shaking her head with a small smile and reaching for a pen.

Both coloured in relative silence, broken by occasional spurts of humming from the man who seemed engrossed in his own picture. Hana couldn't help but smile as her mind drifted off to a time when her sister would do the very same for hours on end. Proudly displaying her completed work to the whole household when she was finished.

"Are you here for an interview today?" the man's soft voice broke through her ruminations. Hana looked up to see he had paused in his colouring, felt tip pen dangling from the fingers of his left hand as he twisted his body to face her directly. He was smiling at her sweetly, however his gaze was so intense Hana knew he had to be much older than he appeared. No child could have eyes like that, there seemed to be something dark almost hiding behind those crimson depths.

"Yes" Hana said breaking away from his intense gaze once again to look down at her partially coloured in cats. "I don't have much hope though, I've gone to so many interviews lately and haven't been successful" she ended with a dry chuckle.

"Why do you think you won't be successful this time around?" the man probed abandoning his pen and pushing his colouring book aside to give Hana his full attention.

"I don't know" she said grabbing a random pen from the table to colour in a cat who was pushing a friend on a swing. "I've given up hope I guess."

The man remained silent after Hana's response and still didn't seem to be colouring his picture. Hana looked up from her near completed picture to see that the smile had faded from the man's face as his eyes pierced her own.

"You should never give up hope. It's all that we have. If we don't have faith in ourselves, what do we have?"

Hana was astonished. This child-like adult who asked her to colour in with him was now giving her philosophical advice. His tone of voice and body language even seemed more mature as he spoke. What an odd person.

"You're right I suppose, I can be quite a pessimist at times. One of my many weaknesses. Although I probably shouldn't be saying this so loudly near the door of the office just in case the interviewer hears me. That's if they are even in there. What time is it?" Hana checked her phone, 6:08pm.

"Don't worry, I'm sure they will be along soon. I heard that some of the interviews ran a bit later today" the man said as the sweet smile reappeared on his face.

"Oh ok" Hana said putting her phone away in her bag. "Do you work here?"

"Yes I have been working here for some time now" the man said turning back to concentrate on his picture once more. Not elaborating as to what it was he exactly did. Just as Hana was about to ask what it was he actually did there in terms of work he abandoned his colouring once again to ask her a question of his own. "So why did you apply for this job? Why do you want to work here?"

Hana met his crimson stare and put down her pen to rest on the book in her lap. "I want to make a difference, in any way that I can. If I can contribute to the protection and safety of this city that I love, well I can think of no greater job satisfaction than that."

The man rested his elbows on his knees, leaning his chin on his palms as he tilted his head to one side in response to her answer in a quizzical expression. "Have you ever encountered a ghoul before? Or do you know someone who has?"

Hana felt her heart constrict slightly as she broke away from the man's penetrating gaze to look at the colourful kittens before her. "No, not personally but I lost a family member to a ghoul attack a few years ago."

"I see, so your hatred of ghouls is another factor for you applying for this job." The man surmised, cheery smile still in place on his youthful face.

"I never said I hated ghouls" Hana said in a firm voice looking up to meet his crimson stare. "I hate what they did to my family, I hate what they do, but I don't hate them." She couldn't help but feel comfortable around this strange man, to speak openly about how she felt was a rarity she didn't often indulge in the fear of being judged or ostracised. But there was something about this man, she could not stop herself from confessing how she truly felt – something she never did with close family or friends even. Maybe it was because he seemed so different himself?

"I pity them" Hana continued looking at the man's blank expression – he wasn't showing any reaction at all to her words. "I can't imagine anyone would choose a life like that given the choice. We cannot control what we are – humans and ghouls alike. I truly despise what they do don't get me wrong, I just can't help but to feel an amount of pity towards what must be a very sad and painful existence."

The man's intense gaze seemed to increase tenfold as Hana spoke. He had leant forward on the couch slightly and angled his body closer towards her as though he was hanging on to her every word.

"You are a very interesting person Hana-chan" the man said as a smile began to curl at the corners of his mouth. "I have never heard an answer like that before."

Feeling suddenly self-conscious and embarrassed as to how much she had openly said to a stranger, she abruptly turned away from him to shuffle through her bag. Her phone read six-thirty. She sighed and looked down both ends of the corridor. No one was there. It was still just her and the strange man sitting outside an empty office.

The fact that he had called her 'Hana-chan' only then just registered with her as she saw him reach for a new colouring book. "How do you know my name?" she asked warily watching him take his time selecting a shade of yellow from the pack of pens.

The man didn't look at her as he began to colour in a picture of a giraffe, although she could see his smile was beginning to morph into a slightly unnerving full blown grin.

Just as she was about to get up and look for the receptionist, loud, stomping footsteps could be heard echoing down the corridor accompanied by a booming voice. "JUUZOU!" the voice thundered "I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU'VE DONE THIS AGAIN! JUST WAIT UNTIL I FIND YOU!"

Hana shrank back into the couch in alarm. What was going on? That was the first name of one of the interviewers wasn't it?

"Uh oh, he found us!" she heard the man giggle beside her. Hana looked back to see him shaking with laughter. He closed his eyes as he leant back on the couch covering his mouth with both hands in a feeble attempt to smother his seemingly uncontrollable laughter. Hana felt her brow crease into a frown – really who was this man?

It was then she noticed a figure round the corner at the far end of the corridor to stomp over towards them. Hana felt nervous seeing the furious expression on the tall, imposing man's face. As he got closer however, she noticed that his fiery gaze was fixed solely on the laughing man beside her and not herself.

"I was waiting in that room for thirty minutes" he said in a dangerous voice as his large frame shook with every deep breath he took. "You told the receptionist that I had gone home for the day as I was feeling unwell?"

The pale man was still shaking with fits of laughter on the couch as the man stopped directly in front of him. "I'm sorry Shinohara-san, I couldn't help myself!" he gasped out in between spurts of dying laughter. "I wanted to see what Hana-chan was like for myself before you spoke with her." Hana felt something click in her mind – this was Yukinori Shinohara. She recognised his face and tall frame from TV. So if this was Yukinori Shinohara, then the man beside her must be…

"Juuzou" Shinohara sighed almost exhaustedly "We agreed that you wouldn't conduct anymore interviews this way. It's not professional and does not create a good impression. Do you remember how the last candidate reacted?"

"Haha! That was so funny! That old bag was no fun. Not like Hana-chan." The pale man said turning to look at Hana with a beautiful smile on his face. "Pleased to meet you Hana-chan, I am Juuzou Suzuya. I look forward to working with you!"

Hana gaped at the extended hand towards her for a moment before tentatively grasping it with her own. His hand felt as warm and comforting as the smile he continued to grace her with. He gripped her hand gently and gave it a firm shake before letting go and grinning up at Shinohara. "I choose Hana-chan! I won't have anyone else!" Juuzou said in a sing-song manner as the red mist faded slightly from Shinohara's eyes allowing him to finally register Hana's presence.

"I must apologise Amuro-san, this is a highly unorthodox approach to interviews and not one that we endorse here at CCG." Shinohara said looking evidently embarrassed about the whole situation as he extended his hand towards Hana to shake. "If you have the time and are available now I can conduct the interview in my office now."

"I'm in no rush, I'm free now." Hana said feeling bemused by the whole situation rather than nervous. "I really did enjoy speaking with you Juuzou, thank you for the colouring" she said with a small smile as she stood up from the couch not knowing how to feel about what the strange man – Juuzou had just said about 'choosing' her.

"Shinohara-san" Juuzou said also getting up from the couch "I have already decided, I want Hana-chan. She will be working for me – she will be my assistant. As an Investigator I should be able to choose who is working directly for me shouldn't I?" Hana watched the interaction between the two with fascination. They seemed to be having a stand-off of sorts as they stared at each other with such stubborn intensity Hana was surprised how either one could stand it.

Shinohara was the one to eventually back down, shaking his head as he faced Hana. "Amuro-san, would you like to accept the offer to work for Juuzou Suzuya as his assistant?" Looking her dead in the eyes he continued "As you can probably tell, this will prove to be an… interesting and challenging role. You will be properly debriefed and giving full training at the induction if you wish to accept."

Hana was dumbstruck – she was being an offered a job? From that informal chat and colouring in session, the childishly immature Ghoul Investigator Juuzou Suzuya (how he was even an Investigator was beyond Hana) wanted her to work for him? Was this really happening?

Hana tore her eyes away from Shinohara's serious expression to see Juuzou practically bouncing on the spot beside them. He was looking at her with those same worldly, intense eyes that pierced her very soul. She had been captured, a prisoner of his crimson gaze. Which was why she couldn't stop herself when she accepted the offer.

As soon as the word "Yes" left her lips she felt a slim pair of arms wrap around her.

"Yay! I'm so happy Hana-chan! Thank you" Juuzou whispered in her ear whilst Shinohara barked at him to let go. Hana felt her heart skip a beat, he felt so warm. Juuzou released her after Shinohara's chastisements about professionalism increased in volume.

"I'm sorry Shinohara-san! Hana-chan and I are going to be good friends, not just colleagues. I can feel it!" Juuzou said giggling once again at Shinohara's furious expression.

"You should get going Hana-chan" Juuzou said softly pulling Hana's attention away from the beet red shade of red Shinohara was turning. "I'll see you at 9:00am on Monday ok? I'll email you the details" Confused and beyond baffled by the whole series of events, Hana nodded before thanking the two and making her way towards the reception.

The journey back to her apartment was a complete blur as her mind couldn't help replaying the 'interview' over and over again. After a quick meal and a cold shower, she flopped on her bed, exhausted but unable to sleep.

She reached out blindly in search of her phone which she was certain she left on the stack of books beside her bed. The sharp brightness of her phone assaulted her tired eyes, it was just gone three in the morning. With a deep sigh she tossed her phone away to the other side of her bed and rolled onto her back. Staring at the ceiling again once more.

She had lost count as to how many times those crimson eyes and beautiful smile filled her mind that evening. Was this really the right decision? She was becoming captivated by someone who was practically her employer. Hana reasoned with herself, she couldn't stop herself from accepting the position – especially considering how dire her financial circumstances were. Although she knew deep down that she would have accepted regardless of her financial situation.

She would have to be strong, she prided herself on being professional above all else in the workplace and would remain so. Regardless of how the investigator she was now working for conducted himself. Besides, he was immature and childish so he probably though nothing of his behaviour – it seemed as though Shinohara had to keep him in check after all.

Hana felt reassured at this thought. Yes, there was nothing significant about the way he held her or thanked her – who thanks a candidate for accepting the job? She nodded to herself as she closed her eyes, confident in her decision. Those eyes however, would not allow her to rest that night.

Little did she know, miles away in Ward 20, those crimson eyes could also not get any rest that evening as her own emerald gaze haunted his dreams.

AN: Well, I certainly wasn't expecting to get into a new fanfic any time soon. it's been far too long and i feel really rusty - I have an idea where this story is headed but it may take a while to get it out of my head and onto a computer but I am aiming not to give up on this one. I find the character Juuzou fascinating and want to explore how his character could potentially develop as a result of other relationships he forms apart from the one he has with Shinohara. Let's see where this goes eh?