"It was good to see you again Kohaku! Make sure you come back to visit us soon!" Mrs. Genji called as her son walked out of the house and towards a taxi that was waiting for him.
"I'll come back as soon as I get another day off!" Kohaku shouted in farewell back towards his old home.
Riaru stuck her head out of the door frame to wave goodbye to her brother's retreating form. "Bye Onii-chan!"
"Bye Onii-chan!" Yū mocked in a high pitched voice.
Riaru gritted her teeth, Yū was the only one who was able seriously piss her off. The two turned back and headed into the house again, both personalities were exhausted from today's events.
Yū yawned in their mind, "Alright, I'm checking out, catch you later."
"Alright, goodnight," Riaru told her split in farewell.
But in the back of their shared mind Riaru could almost hear someone laugh ,"That rhymed."
The next day dawned with the screeches of birds outside of Riaru's window and the curtains leaking in an ungodly amount of light. A moan of discontent escaped from the nineteen year old's lips as her body slowly sat up. Their body ached with every small movement. "Come to think of it now..." Riaru mumbled through a sleepy haze, "Why didn't we call for a taxi?"
Yū groaned out loud in response, "Because we were being stupid." Yū stretched out their body before Riaru took over again. Birds continued to screech outside their window, a breeze coming with it. "Did you leave the window open last night?"
Slowly the girl's body stumbled towards the window. "I don't remember opening it," Riaru mumbled. She pushed her curtains the rest of the way to the side. Everything looked relatively normal at first, until you looked in their yard. Dead birds lay scattered across the lawn in small pools of their own blood, necks broken, feathers ripped out, wings torn clean off. Riaru's hand clamped over her mouth to keep from screaming and possibly throwing up.
Yū took sudden control and quickly turned their body away from the window. "Go back to sleep, I'll take care of everything," Yū said calmly to the frightened split. Riaru nodded mentally before retreating into the darkness of their mind.
Once Yū was sure Riaru wasn't watching she turned back to look at the devastation before them. Yū sighed before walking to their closet to change into old and ratty clothes with a pair of worn out tennis shoes that were getting too small for the girl's feet. Yū grabbed a scarf and wrapped it around their nose and mouth before setting off to find a pair of work gloves and a trash bag.
The process of picking up all the birds' remains and spraying down the lawn with a water hose to get rid of the blood stains before Riaru's mother woke up, and before any of the neighbors saw ,was quiet a daunting task but somehow Yū managed to do so. Shirt and jeans stained with blood she walked back into their house.
She walked into the house barefoot, the shoes she had been wearing now sat splattered with blood in the trash next to the 26 bird corpses. Tip toeing her way through the house she tried to make it to the bathroom without being seen. Yū was just about to open the bathroom door when Mrs. Genji opened her bedroom door yawning.
Yū eyes widened before quickly opening the door and slamming shut behind her. Riaru's mother let out a small scream. The split stood with her back to the door, their eyes closed tightly while she panted.
"Riaru?" Mrs. Genji asked from the other side of the door. "Are you alright sweetie?"
Yū let out a breath, "Yeah, just really had to use the bathroom."
"All right," Riaru's mother said still sounding slightly unsure but the sound of her footsteps leaving set Yū back into motion. She stripped-down out of Riaru's blood stained clothing before jumping in the shower. The second split watched in silence as blood tinted the water red.
When the water was back to being it's normal clear color Yū called upon Riaru. Yū ignored the bloody event from before hand and started on a safer topic, "Do you want to go back to that coffee shop today? We never did get to finish our drink. Plus it'll be your turn to pick out what we get."
"That sounds good," Riaru whispered.
Twenty minutes later Yū had gotten them dressed, this time in a plain black hooded jacket, jeans, and tennis shoes. "We're going to go grab some coffee! See you later mom!" Yū shouted as they headed out to meet the taxi that was waiting for them.
She closed the door before Riaru's mother could reply.
Yū felt Riaru's sudden change in mood as she turned around to face the yard, but there was nothing to be seen. Yū headed out to the taxi without a word. Entering the taxi she told the driver, "Anteiku Coffee shop please."
"You want to take over? I'm feeling a bit tired," Yū asked Riaru as she moved back a bit to let the girl take over.
"So what business do you have at Anteiku?" The taxi driver asked as he pulled off their street.
"We didn't get to finish our coffee yesterday, so we thought would come back today and finish it," Riaru's voice was softer than Yū's which seem to slightly confuse the driver.
"I can't say I've ever been there, how's the coffee?" The driver asked as he pulled down another street.
Riaru smiled slightly, "I can't really tell you to be honest we only had a few sips of ours before we had to rush home."
"Oh, were you with a friend?" The man asked.
"Dang it Yū! I've caught onto your bad habits," Riaru thought bitterly towards her split.
Yū chuckled in the background.
The two strangers went on talking about this and that as they approached their destination.
"Well it was nice meeting you Mr. Karao!" Riaru called out as she waved farewell to the man.
"It was my pleasure Mrs. Riaru!" He called back before driving off back down the street.
"That guy kind of gives me the creeps," Yū said shivering mentally.
"I think he was a rather nice man," Riaru answered with a soft smile as the headed for Anteiku's doors, "quite the talker though."
"She's back," the old manager called out to the staff, and the returning customers from yesterday. Yoshimaru couldn't help thinking that the girl seemed different somehow as she exited her taxi, she seemed lighter.
"Really?" Touka asked before rushing towards the window. And sure enough she watched the same strange girl from yesterday walk into the doors of Anteiku. "Hey, where's Kaneki? I wanna see what he thinks of this girl."
Yoshimaru smiled, this girl had become quite a big topic at Anteiku. "I think he's in the back teaching Hinami how to read again," the old manager replied.
"I'll be right back!" Touka called over her shoulder as she ran for the back door.
Riaru walked up the steps of the coffee house, the smell of freshly brewed coffee once again wrapped around them. "Feels good to be back," Riaru said as she pushed open the door at the top of the stairs. The quiet atmosphere of Anteiku seemed to almost lull Riaru to sleep.
"Hey, don't be getting tired on me now," Yū said laughingly.
Riaru let out a light chuckle, "I just need some coffee." the two walked over to the table they sat at yesterday and took a seat. Riaru let out a sigh of content.
Crashing was heard in the back.
Everyone jolted at the sound and stared confuse the door that led to the back.
"What are you doing?" Kaneki asked as Touka pulled him away from the room he had just been in with Hinami.
"There's this girl I want you to see she's really weird," Touka replied as she continued to drag the black haired boy down the hall.
"This is really unlike you," Kaneki said surprised by her response.
Touka frowned, "Just shut up and followed me..." there was a pause, "asshole."
"Never mind," Kaneki snickered. "So... What's so weird about this girl?"
Touka was silent for a few seconds, "I don't really know... She ordered a black coffee yesterday," she continued on quickly, "but Manager said she wasn't a ghoul. She talks to herself, and uses words like we when she's alone. It's like she has invisible person with her or something!" When they were almost at the door Touka stopped. "And do you know what she said yesterday? She started talking about how humans were just lumps of flesh that could be eaten, and that..." She paused, "and that even ghouls could be consumed..."
There was silence.
"Well.." Kaneki paused, "she's not wrong." With that he pushed past the purple haired waitress and into the coffee shop beyond.
Riaru yawned and stretched as Kaneki entered the room. "Why'd you have to wear so much black today?"
"Because it's black, and black is good. Especially at getting unwanted people to steer clear of you," Yū replied mockingly.
Riaru sighed, "We'll never be able to make any friends that way."
"If they really want to be our friends then they'll approach us no matter how we look," The split told the girl in all seriousness.
Kaneki watched from behind the bar next to Yoshimaru. All the faces in Anteiku that day were familiar to the eye patch wearing nineteen year old, all except for one. He assumed this was the girl Touka had found so weird. She didn't look all that weird, but he could see where Touka came from when she said how she talked to herself.
"Someone needs to take her order," Yoshimaru spoke quietly. "I assume either you or Touka will want to do it."
Kaneki nodded before walking over to the girls table. "Hi, what can I get for you?"
Riaru looked up surprised to see a black haired, eye patch wearing, young man in an Anteiku uniform. "Oh!" Riaru replied, "Hello, hmm... I think I'll have a coffee with..."
"Please say black. Please say black," Yū chanted from their mind.
Riaru scowled before letting out a sigh, "I guess I'll just take a black coffee please."
"You're going to have to switch with me when we drink it though," Riaru added silently.
"Woah! Really?!" Yū shouted from their mind, "Yes! Thank you Ri!"
"One black coffee coming right up," Kaneki smiled before walking back to make the order.
"Well, I do owe you one from this morning," there was silence between the two, "thank you," Riaru told the split softly.
Yū only nodded mentally in understanding.
