"Hello Suzuya, it's nice to see you again," Emiko said, greeting Shinohara and the boy as they walked into the 'CCG's Children's Therapist's Office'. The 'office' in fact, was actually just a place for children to wait and play while parents came in for an appointment, but it would do the job just the same. According to Emiko, it was a much more fitting place for a boy like Rei than an interrogation room.
She watched Rei as he walked around, familiarizing himself with his surroundings, and Shinohara stepped outside into the hallway, just as they had agreed upon.
The ceiling of the room was blue with painted clouds and a bright yellow sun on it, and the floor was a green shag. There were kid's books, beanbag chairs, and some stuffed animals and assorted toys in a corner.
"Have you thought more about a nickname that I could call you yet?" Emiko asked after a while. She realized she didn't want to address him as Rei, especially if the boy didn't like it.
He was poking around the children's books section, holding one of them in his hands rather awkwardly when he turned to looked to her. "Yes. I was talking about it with Shinohara-san. I want you to call me Juuzou Suzuya."
Emiko wondered if he knew he was jumping from one odd name to another with that one. But of course, that was none of her business. After coming out of a situation like the boy was in, he needed to establish some sort of control over his own life.
"Do you know how to write your new nickname?" she decided to ask instead, seeing him hold a book upside down. She wondered if he even knew how to read or write.
Juuzou looked curious.
"If you come over to this white board, I can teach you the kanji if you'd like."
"Kanji?"
"Yeah, like what's in that book you're holding."
Juuzou looked surprised for a second, then ran up to her, eager to learn what she was talking about.
When Emiko was done giving her short lesson, she allowed him practice on his own, and while he reached his arm upwards to make his first line, his shirt - still not properly fitting - slid down his arm, revealing multiple scars all along his neck and shoulder area, both old and fresh.
Ghouls sure were terrible.
"Alright Juuzou, time's almost up," Emiko announced after an hour and a half of their session went by.
The boy cocked his head to the side as she let Shinohara in from the hallway.
"But I don't want to leave," he said. She gave him a sad smile.
"I promise we'll see each other again soon, don't worry."
Making his way across the green grass-like carpet, Shinohara placed a hand on the boy's shoulder and gave a look of surprise over towards Emiko. "Wow Emi-chan," he started, amazed. "You're the first person I think that Juuzou hasn't lashed out at."
He would never let Emiko know, but he was standing close to the door the whole time, listening in to make sure nothing horrible happened. Not that he didn't trust in Emiko's abilities, it was just that he learned to always expect the worst of behaviors from Rei.
Emiko looked down at her makeshift desk in the children's play room, sifting through her notes and papers, trying to hide her pride. "Of course. All the kid needs is to be treated like a real boy, and not some monster." As she gathered her things and they continued their conversation, Juuzou ran off to the whiteboard to practice writing his name again.
"Look Shinohara-san!' he called proudly when he was through. Both adults looked at the elementary-like scribbles that were written big on the board.
"Haha, you'll be reading novels in no time!" Shinohara responded warmly.
Emiko smiled.
"I'll be by your place to deliver some things within the next few days," she said to Shinohara in a lower voice. "I honestly don't think he needs to be on all the medications he's on. I know a doctor so I'll write up a referral to him. I also want him to visit a doctor about his… scars. So I'll write up a note for that as well. Also, I'll deliver some writing books to your apartment so he can get a head start in school. He's not prepared socially or mentally to enter the Academy yet, so anything to help him get ahead at home is best."
She probably had about a billion other things to cover, including getting the boy some normal-fitting clothes (not just Shinohara's old t-shirts), but they could wait till she saw them again.
As for her advice, Shinohara nodded, taking in all that she told him. "And while you're over, maybe we can grab some dinner or something?" he suggested.
Emiko frowned.
Because of her personality she was always someone who could never say no to anybody's requests - except - for when men hit on her. Maybe it was because she was so used to slimy Ghoul Investigators and Bureau men trying to hit on her all through her career, or stupid frat boys trying to get with her all through college. Whatever it was, she was capable of being a hard-ass when it came to dates.
"No thank you. I make it a point to never go out with Ghoul Investigators," she said cheekily to Shinohara's offer for dinner.
And with that, Emiko packed up the last of her things and left Shinohara alone in the room, wondering if he should tell her that he didn't really mean it that way.
….
In the hallway, Emiko helped send Juuzou off with more promises of seeing each other again soon.
Although at first, Emiko didn't think the boy was going to be that much of a problem, during their session that day she couldn't help but notice that the boy was definitely disturbed.
It started off innocent enough - while they were writing on the whiteboard together, she quickly found out that he was a good drawer, but when she let him draw whatever he wanted on the board, she quickly regretted her decision. If a picture was worth a thousand words...
In less than twenty minutes, the board was covered in gruesome pictures - some Emiko not even knowing what they might be depicting - not because he was a bad drawer, but because some of the scenes were purely unimaginable.
A common theme in each scene were two women - one an older, fat lady, and the other a little girl. When he first began his drawings of them, it seemed as though the two were doing innocent things together - both with large smiles on their faces, until he began to draw the blood that splattered nearly every other inch of the whiteboard.
Emiko had seen some pretty disturbing stuff as a Ghoul Investigator Therapist, but those images shook her to her core. What was more, Juuzou didn't really seem to find his own pictures disturbing or out of the ordinary at all. She didn't even want to imagine what that boy had been through to make him draw things the way he did.
Regardless, he had a gift for art, and she made a note to use that in future sessions.
In the hallway, she waved at the pair as they took off down to the elevators (Shinohara deciding not to tell her his offer for dinner was purely friendly, and not a date).
This boy that Emiko's old friend brought to her would definitely be a handful, but if Shinohara, the most patient man in the world, believed in Juuzou Suzuya, then so would she.
