A/N: This takes place many years after Reaching Out finishes. At this point, I may not have finished Reaching Out yet, but I decided to add in a good little bit of stuff that I needed to get out of my head regarding the story.
Hikari
"That pretty much covers everything there is about the effects of organ transplants on the human body. If you have any questions, you can talk to me during your lunch period or right after your school gets out." Our guest speaker for our biology class concluded.
With that, we made our way to lunch.
"Wow. That was easily one of the coolest guest speakers ever. All that stuff about organ transplants was amazing!"
"Did you know that he's actually a ghoul?"
"Wait, really?"
"No joke. I heard he was the one who developed the enzyme pills and synthesized meat so that ghouls and humans could coexist."
"That's amazing! We should ask him more about it after we get food."
"Come on! Let's go grab lunch quickly and then go back to the classroom."
I shook my head in amusement as I watched the two biology enthusiasts run off to the cafeteria to grab their food before going back to the classroom.
Alright, maybe I should explain a bit of what happened. Our biology teacher managed to get her hands on a guest speaker, a highly renowned biology professor at MIT that won the Nobel Prize for Medicine. The biology professor's name is Sora Chao. He's a one-eye ghoul with two kagune. He was also responsible for bridging the divide between ghoul and humans through developing synthesized meat and enzyme pills in order to solve the problems of ghouls feeding on humans. But a lot of that is public information. What most people don't know about him is that he used to be human but was turned into a ghoul through an organ transplant, he married Mika Shiraishi almost twenty years ago, he used to work at a coffee shop called Anteiku, and he founded a company in order start mass producing the synthesized meat and enzyme pills before eventually closing down the company and letting the government handle all the production stuff. He also has the ability to access a kakuja. Eventually, he found himself at a job as a biology professor at MIT.
You may be wondering right now, how do I know all this? Well, there's only one reason. Sora Chao and Mika Shiraishi had a daughter about a year after they married. I'm that daughter.
I guess I should introduce myself first. My name is Hikari Chao. I'm a high school student in my sophomore year, I'm also one of the top students in my class. Go figure. My parents were top students back when they were in school. I guess it passed down through generations. My dad even gave me a guide to studying in case I ever needed it.
People often aren't sure whether I resemble my mother or father. I mean, I have the same dark blue highlight going down the front of my hair that my mother has, as well as her face shape, but I have my father's mismatched eyes as well, which makes me look kinda funny. I have a red right eye and a blue highlight in my hair. I'm not quite sure how much more my face could contrast itself. Probably not that much more.
I don't really talk about my parents' achievements that much. Mom and Dad have a ton of things that make people respect them, but it's not like they hang up these achievements for everyone to see. Literally the only decoration in that regard around the house is the Nobel Prize that dad won and mom's acceptance letter to Kamii University. The only reason Dad even hangs up the Nobel Prize is because "the committee would be mad if I left it in the corner gathering dust." Mom's on the other hand, is a lot more personal for her. I asked her why she would frame the acceptance letter of all things. According to her, "I would never have met your father had I not gone to Kamii."
"Hey, Hikari! Wait up!" A voice called out.
I turned to see one of my ghoul friends, Rin, running to catch up with me. Even if I didn't recognize the voice, I could always recognize Rin by her red hair that she always had up in a ponytail.
"So what are you getting for lunch?" Rin asked.
I frowned. "I'm not sure. I'm still trying to decide between a regular lunch and synthesized meat."
"Lucky!" Rin whined. "I can't eat the regular human food without my enzyme pills. And I forgot them today!"
I guess I could be considered an anomaly among ghouls (as if my heritage wasn't enough). For some reason that my father is still trying to figure out, I could eat/digest human food as easily as I could ghoul food. It's really weird because I don't even need enzyme pills to eat human food. The only thing that my father managed to figure out was that for some reason, my taste buds have the ability to switch between ghoul mode and human mode. He and I both agreed that it didn't make sense. After all, I'm practically 3/4th ghoul. You'd think I would be more adverse to eating human food than my dad is.
I sighed before rummaging through my pocket and giving Rin a pill. "Here. My dad always tells me to keep a box on me just in case someone needs it."
"Your dad is a lifesaver." Rin breathed a sigh of relief.
We eventually decided on getting chicken sandwiches from the cafeteria before sitting down to eat the food.
"So I heard all the biology classes have a guest speaker today from MIT and I know that you just had yours. So who's the speaker? Is he hot?"
My eyes bugged out for a second before my thoughts tried to unjumble themselves. My dad? Hot? Is Rin saying that she wants to check out my dad?
"I thought you had that thing with James or something."
"We broke it off about a week ago. And besides, a speaker from MIT? This could be my chance to get in good with the biology department. And besides, I hear that jobs at MIT pay well. I could get away with not needing a job." Rin said.
I rolled my eyes. "Leave it to you to think that unrealistically."
There are some very disturbing images going through my mind right now. I know my father would never let anyone near him in that manner besides mom, but there is something very strange about hearing your best friend go on about how she might get hitched with your dad. Even if said best friend doesn't know that it's your dad.
"Hey, a girl can hope, right?"
…Does anyone have brain bleach that I could apply in excess on my brain?
"Don't you have biology right after lunch?" I asked. Rin was making me a slight bit uncomfortable. I know for a fact that Rin is always scouting out for hot guys, but to think that my dad might be on that list is somewhat… creepy.
"You know what, I can wait until my class then. It's not like the speaker is going to leave before school gets out." Rin said, finishing up her lunch. "I'll see you later!"
My best friend freaks me out. Go figure.
"You could have just told me that the speaker was your dad."
"You try making your brain work when there's a possibility that your best friend is about to hit on your dad."
"Hey, I did nothing. Besides, can you blame me for hoping?"
"Yes, I can."
No, I really can't. Especially since Rin has been doing stuff like this for years. Sometimes I wonder how we became best friends.
Classes had finished and Rin and I were walking out to the pickup zone, where we were supposed to wait for my dad. We were giving Rin a ride home, seeing as we didn't live that far away from each other. A few moments later, my dad pulled up in his car.
As Dad drove us home, Rin pegged him with more questions about the effects about organ transplants and the like. Which then prompted me to remember that Rin and I became best friends because we both really got into studying biology. Although Rin's focus was more… coitus-related once we started hitting that age. Don't get the wrong idea, she doesn't get around like what you think. She just… dreams a lot. I think she did it with someone once. Not sure who. I lost track of the relationships she was in after a while.
On the other hand, relationships and I don't mix. I mean, the only people my parents ever dated were each other. Mom spent years rejecting guys while Dad was a recluse back before he met Mom. So I'm sticking away from relationships for a while.
After we dropped Rin off at her house, Dad started driving us home. As we were driving home, Dad breathed a sigh of relief.
"Phew. I didn't think your classmates would ask so many questions, Hikari." Dad said.
I shook my head. "I don't know why they found the organ transplant stuff interesting. It's not new information to the scientific realm."
At that, Dad laughed. "And I wonder why your mother says that you take after me. It's only old news for you because you've been asking me those questions since you took that science class in 6th grade. I still remember that time you took my research paper to try and figure out why people have different colored hair. I think you gave up after about an hour of reading it."
I pouted. Leave it to Dad to remember all the embarrassing stuff that I do. "How else was I supposed to figure out how uncle Kaneki had white hair even in his wedding photos?"
"Well, you could have asked a very convenient source of information known as your father." He pointed out.
"You were busy with creating a syllabus for the class you were teaching at MIT!"
"You still could've asked your mother. She knows also."
"Mom told me to go search it up like a proper researcher! She said that she wanted to see if I could put my research brain to use."
Dad laughed. "So that's why you took my research paper. Just for the record, you grabbed the wrong one."
"I figured as much." I replied drily. The research paper in question wasn't even about the genetics of hair. I must have spent that entire hour on it trying to find something on hair when I realized that it was just a paper on the structure of the tongue. How I messed that up I will never know.
When we got home, Mom opened the door for us. According to Dad, the years haven't really made that much change to her. For someone in her late thirties, Mom looked like she was in her late twenties. Dad looked like he was in his mid-thirties, which made a bit more sense than Mom. Although I remember Dad saying something along the lines of Asian people usually aging slower than other races. I guess that applies to ghouls as well as humans.
As we all worked to prepare dinner (one of our family pastimes), Mom popped the question. "How was today?"
"You would not believe the number of students that stopped by to ask me questions after school got out. I was trying to get to my car so I could pick up Hikari and there were people asking questions everywhere. I think more than half of them were ghouls." Dad said as he cut the carrots.
"You should've seen what happened to me." I said. "'Hey Hikari, isn't the guest speaker your dad? Do you think he could help get me admitted into MIT?' The guy didn't talk to me before that. And he was a senior too!"
Dad laughed. "I don't even do anything with the admissions office. How am I supposed to help your classmates?"
"I don't know, Sora. You have a ton of influence in the biology department, they'd probably listen to you if you asked them to consider someone's application." Mom said.
Leave it to Mom to know exactly how much pull Dad has at MIT. While Mom didn't go to MIT, she did go to Kamii University. Which is where she met Dad when he went there as a foreign exchange student. Apparently, it was quite the time in their life.
"What kind of a faculty member would I be if I eased someone's admission process because they asked Hikari to ask me?" Dad asked.
"Sora, we all know that you would never say 'no' if Hikari asked you for something." Mika said.
Dad looked miffed. "That's ridiculous. I have most definitely said 'no' to Hikari before."
"Dad, when was the last time you actually said 'no' to me?" I asked. I'm being serious too. I don't even remember the last time he denied me something that I asked for.
"Thirteen years ago. You asked for a puppy. I told you 'no' because I was allergic." Dad didn't even take a second to think of an answer.
"Wait, seriously?"
"Mhmm. You refused to talk to me for the better part of an hour. I can still remember it. Your mother had to talk to you before you started talking to me again."
"I did that? I don't even remember doing that."
"You were three years old. Three year old children are very liable to forget things. Especially if it's not happy stuff." Dad said.
"Wait, so you haven't refused anything I asked for since I was three years old?" I asked.
"Your father does spoil you, you know. You just take it much better than other children would if they were spoiled." Mom pointed out.
"That's because you're there to help set her right if she misbehaves, Mika." Dad told Mom.
So my dad spoils me and my mom makes sure I learn proper manners. Quite the combo they have going on for them.
"Well, dinner's ready now. Let's eat!"
I was feeling a bit sick after dinner and both Mom and Dad thought it would be better if I went to bed immediately. Dad came up to check on me for a bit before going back down. I stopped him from leaving my room though.
"Hey, Dad?"
"Yeah Hikari?"
"Can you tell me a story?"
Stories were some of our precious bonding moments when I was younger. I asked Dad to tell me stories from time to time, even as I got older and older. The last time I asked him for one was actually just before I turned sixteen.
Dad nodded before sitting down. "What do you want to hear?"
"Tell me how you met mom again?"
Dad only smiled before starting the story. "Well, it all started when I got an offer to be a part of a foreign exchange program in Japan…"
I might make this into an actual story one day, so I wanted a prototype chapter to look at once Reaching Out is finished.
Ghoul reaction to enzyme pills is coming up next. Will take at most a week.
