Rrrring….

"Whose phone is this? I specifically instructed to turn all phones off at the start!" an middle aged, stern looking man asked accusingly.

The lab coat clad students in the chemistry lab looked around themselves and to their cellphones, in search for the one that was ringing.

Nishiki glanced at his own, and saw his device was the one, what's more, the caller was Kimi.

"Sorry, Sensei, It's a family emergency."

"This is a rare chance we have here, and you cost the class valuable time with your irresponsibility here. Well… go outside if you must take this call!"

Outside the lab, he called her back, but to no avail.

Nishiki received text massage to hurry home at that point.

He tried calling again, multiple times, but it didn't connect. Something about being out of reach.

'Ridiculous! We don't live that far! How could the house be out of reach?!' Besides, never before did he have that particular issue calling her.

The University Student Nishiki returned to the lab and approached the sensei. "I'm very sorry, sensei, but I must depart home now, without delay. " Reluctantly the lecturer allowed his leave.


The Ghoul Nishiki was alarmed to find a couple of unknown cars parked at the place where he and Kimi lived.

Near them were two men, clearly agents of some sort, wearing black suits, as well as sunglasses. The Ghoul didn't see any large suitcases with them, but as the recent raid on Aogiri showed, the Doves had anti ghoul guns as well, and these guys definitely could hide those.

"This day just keeps getting better-first the Lab session rescheduled for today, forcing me to stay longer, then when I call the café to cancel today's shift, its shitty Touka that answers, and then Kimi calls there is an emergency, and now Doves, here!"

'There wouldn't be two cars for just those two, most of them are probably inside, probably the real ones, with the Quinques-is this an ambush? How did the Doves figured- calm down, maybe they don't know! Don't blow it if they still have some doubts!'

Taking a deep breath, the young man forced himself to calm, and hurried home.

He was somewhat surprised he wasn't stopped for inspection or questioning or something by the men that stood guard. As he fetched the key swiftly and unlocked the door (was it a good sign that it was still locked?), he hardly noticed that he almost broke the door upon entering. 'Kimi better be unharmed, or I will kill you all, you little shits.'"Kimi? Are you here?"

"Nishiki?" She called him and entered from the kitchen, her face weary… and … excited?

She looked unharmed, but strange emotions were radiating from her, as well as …He rushed to grab and hold her, huggin her form and holding it tightly to himself, sniffing her hair, confirming she was here and unharmed, noticing… strange scents, some of which he couldn't identify and never scented before.

"Hm hm…"

Startled by the unfamiliar voice, Nishio remembered that there were supposed to be Doves about and turned to face them, and see just what they thought they were doing, what they wanted. Only to stop short as he fully took in his audience.

Instead of the suspected White uniform of the CCG, he was met with a nondescript black suit, and a Gaijin on top of that.

He didn't know of any foreigners among the Doves, though, admittedly he did not keep track of the CCG enough to know for sure.

The third clue was a lack of large enough containers among any of the people inside- they didn't have the Dove weapons with them.

"Mister Nishio, I presume. As you can see, miss Nishino is unharmed, and actually has news to share with you."

The man spoke American English. Not a hint of any other accent. This was certainly not the CCG.

"Wakaranai." He replied in Japanese.

"Sorry, Mister Nishio, but we know you do speak English- it was one of the required courses at your university, and one you had high grade in.

That unnerved him, but he tried to not let it show.

"What is this all about?" The ghoul asked in english.

The man turned to Kimi and gestured at him.

She took a deep breath, and hesitated a little, before answering.

Face full of wonder and excitement she explained. "I, i just got a job offer. I … I want to accept it Nishiki, so much. This is… there are no words to describe how great it is, but…" and at that point she turned weary, almost fearful, and averted her eyes, "There is a catch…"

"Uncle Sam just offered your girlfriend a wonderful new job, in a secret cooperative American—Japanese project, and she needs your permission for it!"