"I think that for today's session, we should go out," offered Emiko to Juuzou, who immediately got excited. They had met up a couple of times in the same room for the past month now, and the young therapist thought it was about time for a little change of scenery.
"You can just stay here and wait for us," she said to Shinohara, waving him off as she and the excited boy walked passed him down the hallway to her car. Alright it wasn't her car, as the car belonged to the department, but she had free reign over it and was one of the only Bureau workers who used it.
"Where are we going?" Juuzou asked, rummaging around in his seat aboard the official-looking car, peaking in all the nooks and crannys, compartments and folds.
"When's the last time you've been to a park?"
"Park?" echoed the boy, crouching in his seat and playing with the automatic windows as Emiko started the car. "There's a few parks Shinohara and I see on the train ride here, but I've never been to one."
Emiko had to stop herself from making a face. Of course ghouls would have never taken the boy to a park. And although Juuzou has been making progress, it would be a little shady to bring him into such a public place filled with civilians without heavy supervision. But she had a strict policy against such interference, and it proved to be especially apparent in the boy's case. He seemed more like himself when he wasn't being watched by people who thought he was a menace to society, looming over him and waiting for him to mess up.
"You have to sit properly in your chair, like how I am," she said, although it was more of a suggestion. If they got pulled over, she had special immunity. She only figured he should learn how to assimilate into human society sooner rather than later.
Juuzou chose to not listen to her advice, but only sat mesmerized by the city passing before his eyes from the car window.
The boy didn't talk much ever, and Emiko attributed that to his situation, not thinking too much of it. He talked a bunch with Shinohara, and as long as the boy had somebody, she wasn't that worried. With time, there would be healing, she was sure of it.
"What have you seen people do in the park?" she asked.
"I see them talking," he responded after a few moments. "People like to talk."
Emiko raised her eyebrow. "Sometimes that's true. Is that true for you?"
"I don't know," he answered, as if he was still contemplating it.
"Is it something that you're used to?" she asked. Juuzou didn't like talking much about his past, and so it has been a long road so far for the two of them. As expected, he didn't respond.
When the two arrived at the park, she warned him to stay by her side the entire time. She wasn't entirely sure how he was around other people, but if his reaction to Igarashi was any testament, she would have to be really cautious with him. Luckily he obliged, not seeming to know what to do anyway. She decided to take him on a nature trail. There were only a few other couples walking around, but otherwise, relatively safe.
"It's a nice day, isn't it?" she asked, making small talk.
Suzuya only shrugged, eyes darting about.
Today would be tough getting him to talk, she could sense it. Like all clients, he had his good days and his bad days.
They weren't walking for too long after, when a couple sitting down on a small incline, accidentally let their dog loose. The yipping pup clumsily ran up towards them, tripping over its ears and wagging it's tail happily.
Emiko was very upset at the careless couple, and was about to shield the dog away from the boy, when he did the most curious thing; he crouched down and started petting it as it lapped up at his fingers.
Strange.
She would have to remember that he was good with animals.
"Have you ever seen a dog before?"
He didn't respond.
"He's cute isn't he?"
Juuzou nodded his head as a smile escaped from his lips.
"Oh my goodness, I'm so sorry!" said the woman who was the owner of the dog. She wagged her finger at her small pet as she frantically put his leash back on. The woman had a nervous expression, and quickly shuffled away. It must have been Suzuya's gruff and pale look. He indeed looked frightening, and the woman's reaction was indeed justified.
"You're pretty good with animals. You know, I have a friend who owns some cats, I'll have to introduce you two."
To her amazement, the boy looked delighted, and stared at her, engaged and making eye contact.
"Cats? I'd like that a lot Emi-chan!"
Emiko smiled. He was copying the way Shinohara said her name, although she didn't really seem to mind it when Suzuya said it.
"Have you ever had a melon bun? I'd like to buy you one, if that's all right."
The boy tilted his head to the side, indicating his curiosity, and so she led him across the street to the nearby convenience store.
The bell rang in the market as the door swung open. Emiko turned her head towards the boy to explain to him some proper shopping store edicate, when Juuzou ran off down an isle so suddenly, it made Emiko panic a little. She immediately took off after him, only to see him crouched down, looking at some candy.
She sighed in relief. "I'll buy you some pocky sticks too, if you are good," she said, patting the boy on his shoulder like she had seen Shinohara do so many times before. "In store's, people usually don't run."
He immediately ripped his shoulder away from her grasp and took off running back down the aisle.
"Juuzou!" she called to him, frustrated and running after him once more. After a few minutes of no luck, she cursed herself as she pulled out her phone. Did he leave the store? What would people do if they found him? What would he do if he encountered people? A million questions flooded her mind as she shakily punched in Shinohara's number. Before she could hit the call button however, she spotted him down an aisle, captivated by something shiny on one of the shelves. They appeared to be sewing needles.
"Do you know how to sew Juuzou?" she asked, trying not to sound so worried as she caught up to him crouched on the ground. As she steadied her breathing, she took special note not to touch him.
No response.
Instead, Juuzou quickly reached out and grasped a package of one of the needles. He greedily tore it open with his mouth and began to stick his arm all up and down with them, laughing like a mad man.
"Juuzou, stop it!" she whispered frantically to him, trying at the same time to shield the boy from the curious gazes of the other customers who were now crowding around them. "I said stop it!" she said as blood began to pour out from his arm and splatter across the linoleum floor. Not knowing what else to do, she reached out to stop his arm. It was at that moment that she realized all her years in Judo were for naught.
He quickly jumped back, grabbing her arm instead and pulling her down, and threw the open plastic container of needles at her, showering her face with them. Most of them fell to the floor or got caught in her hair, but a few scraped her cheeks, and one got lodged directly into her left eye.
She quickly let out a yelp of pain before reaching up and yanking it straight out of her eye. It was a knee jerk reaction, although the pain only increased.
"Hey, is this guy bothering you?" asked one man stepping out from the crowd and taking aggressive steps towards Juuzou.
"No! Everyone stop!" she yelled, one hand clutching her left eye, the other fishing her pockets for her CCG badge. She placed herself directly in front of Juuzou, attempting to shield him from any attacks the man might give.
The boy even stopped cutting himself to look up and see Emiko's actions, puzzled by what she was doing.
Finally finding her badge, she pulled it out. "Everyone please step away! I'm a CCG officer."
Luckily everyone in the convenience store was more obedient than her client. She pulled the stunned Juuzou up by the collar, beckoning her to follow him, tossed a wad of money at the cashier, and the two quickly left.
…..
"I suppose now I don't get to have any pocky sticks," said the boy, sighing as they got into the car. He glanced over at Emiko, tears pouring out uncontrollably from her injured eye.
His casual response to the grave situation he had just caused told Emiko that the boy had absolutely no regard for other's, virtually zero capacity for empathy or regret or judging other's emotions.
She was still clutching her eye as she handed the box towards him. "It's ok, you can still have it." She had picked it up as they were leaving the store.
For some reason, these words shook Juuzou to the core.
"What do you mean?" he asked quietly. Instead of reaching for the box, he brought a bloodied hand up to his chest, knotting up the fabrics and materials from his shirt there. "What do you mean I can still have it? You told me I could only have it if I was good, but I wasn't. I was bad. I was bad."
Emiko turned in her seat to face him, trying to keep up the calm atmosphere in the car. "No Juuzou. You are a good kid."
"No I'm not! Why are you so nice to me!" he yelled at her. Emiko almost felt afraid.
She thought about it for a moment. "Because I'm a human. Human's are kind to each other. They care about each other and have a sense of comradery. Ghoul's don't have that. You weren't shown any kindness before, because you were with ghouls. Now here at the CCG, with Shinohara and me, you're safe. You're with human's now."
Luckily, her words seemed to have a calming effect. "Humans," he mouthed back, turning his face away towards the window. The sun was beginning to set.
"I've killed humans, I think," he continued softly, reminiscing.
It was Emiko's turn for silence. He had never, ever brought up his past before, and she wanted him to feel comfortable telling her all he wanted to.
"Why did you kill humans Juuzou?" she prompted when he was silent for more than a few minutes.
"The ghouls hurt me," he explained, and Emiko held her breath.
"They used to do this to me," he said, lifting up his bloodied arms for her to see, before reaching to his lap and ripping open the box of pocky sticks.
"Ghouls do a lot of terrible things," she affirmed, nodding her head.
"They never gave me sweets. They're really tasty, though." He grabbed a few sticks and proceeded to munch on them.
This made Emiko smile.
Of course.
She fumbled in her purse and pulled out her keys to start the engine.
"Ghoul's did terrible things to me too," she said as she pulled out of the parking lot. She normally didn't give away personal information to clients, but Juuzou was a special case after all.
He looked intrigued.
"They killed my family," she explained.
"What's a family?"
Emiko looked over at him with sadness glinting in her good eye. She temporarily forgot about the pain. "It's something only humans have. It is people who are really close and like to be together and share things with each other."
Juuzou seemed pensive for a moment. "I don't have a family then."
"What are you talking about?" she asked, smiling a little, trying to concentrate on the road with her limited vision. "The CCG is your family now."
He smiled back, excited about this new revelation - and then pensive once more, although silent this time, as if contemplating the meaning of these words.
When the two arrived back at the department, a fussy Shinohara met them with a stern glare, obviously not impressed by their bloody and disheveled appearances. After a long and stern talking-to, the two were finally off the hook and were allowed to move out of the hallway and back into the office to acquire their belongings. Not only were they both a mess, they were twenty minutes late, meaning Emiko's next appointment would start in ten.
Before she could rush the two out the door however, Juuzou turned to face her.
"Emi-chan?"
"Hmm?"
"Th… Thank you."
"Aww, for what Juuzou?"
"I feel nice inside. I don't know what this is, or how, but it's….. nice."
Emiko had to hold back the lump in her throat. The kid has certainly made a lot of progress.
"And," he continued, " I know what I want to do now."
"Oh? What's that?"
"I want to be like Shinohara-san!"
Emiko frowned playfully. "Well, as long as you don't go around asking friend's who are already busy for more favors."
Juuzou cocked his head to the side. "No, nothing like that. I want to kill ghouls, Emi-chan!"
She smiled at the kid's resolve. Goals were one of the first things she might ask a regular patient.
"I'm going to get revenge on what happened to me. And you too."
"Haha, alright Juuzou, but first you have to go through the CCG Academy, and to do that, you have to be good for me, ok?"
"Right!" he yelled excitedly, charging down the hallway at full speed, as if intent on starting now.
"Well, I guess even though you two got in a lot of trouble today, you must have done something right!" Shinohara said to Emiko sheepishly as he carried on down the hallway after him.
Emiko couldn't believe the day she had so far. She turned back into her office and looked down at her next appointment file, when blood and some other liquid poured out from her eye.
"Damnit," she muttered, clutching her left eye once more, running into the bathroom to get a towel, as her vision began to grow blurry.
…..
A few weeks after the incident at the convenience store, Emiko and two other senior therapists cleared Juuzou to attend the CCG Junior Academy. Everyone was relieved.
Although, the boy was still not completely normal. He still had next to zero concept of morality, and still exhibited violent and self harming behaviors.
Despite all of this however, he was still cleared after much pressure and form waving from the higher ups. Emiko was forced to comply.
