Chapter 3: Jonquil
The shocking revelation that Kanae finally knew the whereabouts of Kaneki Ken hit her and she didn't quite know what to do. She couldn't tell Shuu, giving him hope like that while she still had no clue how to deal with said Ken would be a recipe for disaster. Kanae dropped his bag in the hallway upon entering back into the Tsukiyama household; she slumped on a sofa in the large lounge and tried to collect her thoughts.
Thinking of Shuu, the blue-haired man was nowhere to be seen; it wasn't that unusual for the taller man to spend all day in his room. Now that he ate next to nothing, the once-gourmet had little energy to spend ambling around. He hadn't a job, or any work to do about the house; since finishing up at university he'd left the house less and less until it was rare to even see him stray into the garden. He was rather sickly in appearance by this stage, but every member of the household still thought of him fondly and treated him no differently because of it.
Kanae wondered whether Chie already knew about the Sas-san situation – perhaps she was finally one step ahead of the 'little mouse'. If she'd finally succeeded in knowing more information than that rat, maybe it would be better to tell Shuu straight away such that she was not beaten to it. If not, Chie might try to extract information from him in an exchange for the Kaneki update. She wouldn't have that happen; Shuu didn't need pestering by Chie. No. If she told him, his condition might just get worse. No, instead she would just have to make sure Chie didn't find out, and if she did already know, she'd have to try and come to some sort of agreement with her.
This wasn't getting her anywhere; Kanae left the comfort of the sofa to once again check on Shuu. She climbed the stairs, those wooden steps that took up more room than most Tokyo apartments, and ascended to the room where she believed Shuu would still be sleeping. She would admit that the number of times she felt the need to check on the man was not appropriate for the relationship they had, but paranoia grew within her just as depression grew within him. As time went by, the atmosphere of the Tsukiyama manor darkened – Mirumo left the house daily, acting as a human and making excuses for the absence of his son while the servants continued their duties, but for Kanae and Shuu, each day faded into the next in an unending misery.
Kanae knocked quietly at the oak frame of the shut-in's room – no reply. Perhaps he was sleeping. She pried open the heavy door and was unsettled to see an empty bed. There was no way that Shuu would dare go outside the manor in his current state, so where was he?
xXx
Matsumae was cleaning out the freezer. It was getting close to midday and Kanae hadn't returned yet. She understood the reason for her frequent outings, but wasn't quite so sure about the motivation. After hunting, the household rarely had use for the industrial-sized walk-in freezer, preferring to eat their catch fresh, however in the days of the ghoul restaurant, Shuu had often taken home 'delicacies' that he had wanted to save for later.
Armed with a mop, water and bleach, the stoic woman began sweeping at the deep red stains across the floor. She had cleaned up messes much worse than this, so the freezer posed no threat to her cleaning abilities - the trick was to use cold water which lifted off the blood with ease before sanitising the area.
After this freezer, Matsumae planned to check the small freezer in the kitchen – this contained human food for the unlikely scenario that a human needed feeding - as such, no one payed much attention to this unit so foods often past its use-by date without anyone noticing. For now, the self-assured woman poured bleach across the freezer floor, eradicating any leftover bacteria or blood cells.
She wiped away the last of the red and as she did she heard a loud thump from upstairs. Without thinking the servant rushed to scene where she quickly found Shuu draped across the floor of his room. The carpet and bed were drenched in a salty solution as tears left the man's eyes. He had obviously fallen out of the four-poster, leaving Matsumae surprised that such a frail body could make such a noisy impact with the ground. His limbs splayed out resembling a starfish as he provided his own saline conditions.
"Don't get Kanae."
"Master Kanae is still out." Why did the man not want to see Kanae?
Matsumae pulled Shuu to his feet and relocated him onto the bed; it's not that he looked miserable, the man just looked conflicted. As she lifted him, the servant noticed something clutched in his hand and a large embossed book on his side table. Now seated, Shuu seemed to relax a little – the tears ceased and his clenched hands loosened. A crumpled piece of paper fell from his hand and rolled across the floor, he watched it disappear under the small table but made no motion to recover it.
Looking closer, Matsumae noted the title of the large tome under the reading lamp. It contained accounts of the members of the Tsukiyama family – family trees and such. She had seen Mirumo scribbling in it the day Kanae had come to the house and hadn't seen it since, assuming that it was buried somewhere deep in the family library. If the scrunched piece of paper was torn out of the book, Matsumae was sure that Mirumo would not be happy about it.
The servant asked if the master needed anything more, he shook this off and so she left him teary-eyed in his bed.
After returning back to the freezer situation, Matsumae wondered what could have caused such a bad reaction; sure, the Tsukiyamas were cruel to their victims and many a family member had be lost to various ghoul exterminators, but they were just family records.
Her thoughts were interrupted as she heard the back door open. Kanae always used the front entrance and Mairo had already tended to the garden, Mirumo wouldn't be back until the evening, so that left only one suspect.
The dark haired woman rushed out into the garden, today was obviously going to be filled with watching the young master – her decision to leave him on his own probably wasn't the best. She found him kneeling in a stark flower patch; Mairo had been clearing away the rotting leaves earlier so the frail man was collecting damp earth on his night clothes. He was pooled over a deep lilac rose and was once again crying. His actions were becoming unpredictable – Matsumae would have to step in and keep a close eye on him from now on.
She approached him slowly, not wanting to startle the already emotional man. He made no move to shoo her away, in fact he barely seemed to notice her. She crouched down next to him and saw red. The man's hands were cut and bleeding, the rose stem too was covered in the scarlet liquid. She placed her hand on his shoulder in a fruitlessly comforting way. He was mumbling into his hands: "maybe I was just too much of a narcissist to notice…."
xXx
Kanae searched the manor frantically, checking upstairs first. There were many places one could hide in the old house; its creaking walls held all sorts of spaces from out of place airing cupboards to whole hidden rooms. She found nothing despite looking everywhere she knew about. Would the next step be to check the attic? Or maybe downstairs was a better call?
She ran down the staircase, calling out for Shuu, for Mairo, for anyone but was left unanswered. She fled into the dining hall and stopped dead still. The leaves, those leaves she had learned to loath over the past day were gone from the back garden – perhaps the rain was enough to boost their decay. Now the rose truly stood alone. More shock crossed the girl's face as she focussed in on the flower.
She burst out the door, not bothering with her shoes. Her white socks were instantly dirtied as she made a dash for the rose. He was right – Shuu was right - the rose was drowning in red and that crimson coating smelt just like him.
She looked around her, grasping for answers, for an explanation until her eyes met those of the collected, loyal servant stood watching out of the kitchen window. Matsumae looked so calm, why did she always seem calm?
Kanae headed for the white tiled room and was relieved to walk in and find Shuu sat at a counter, slumped over what looked like a meal. The dish was comprised of facial features, something Kanae had never enjoyed eating, she hated the way the eyes stared back, the way they burst in her mouth. He seemed to be picking at them, so regardless of the cuisine, she was glad he was eating something. Matsumae crossed the room and started cleaning the small untouched freezing unit as if nothing had happened. She pulled out old mouldy packaging and tossed it into a bin liner that appeared to be filled with small body parts. "Master Kanae, would you like any of the leftovers from the freezer too?"