XI

Mado's Triumph

"Thank you, come again!" Korua waved the towel in her hand to the last customer from rush hour. She rubbed her eyes and wiped the tables of the crumbs resting on their tops. After all of them were clean, she sat at one of the bar chairs, shining her glasses with a spare cloth. The TV was still on, but the volume was too low and she couldn't see anything clearly. Korua reached for the remote, desperately groping for it around her. Finally, she found it on one of the other bar chairs near her and was about to turn up the volume until the familiar jingle of bells alerted her. She quickly put her glasses on and started the routine "Hello how may I help you?" until she saw who they were; Kaneki and Hinami.

He walked in with her, scrunching his shoulders. Well not walked in, more like ran in, scared out of his wits. Hinami had a tear-stained face and Kaneki looked traumatized. Korua bolted up and ran to both of them.

"What happened?" She grabbed Hinami, inspecting her, "Kaneki… " her voice rose to a growl.

"The….the….CCG… they killed Hinami's mother!" His eyes bulged.

"What?! And you didn't stop them?" Korua was filled with rage.

"I… I… had to stop Hinami from jumping in and ending up like her mother… " Kaneki looked disappointed in himself, scared, and furious at the same time.

Korua immediately bent to her knees and brought Hinami towards her. Hinami was sobbing hard into Korua's uniform, but she didn't care.

"It'll be alright… shhh….shh….I understand how you feel….you're not alone." Korua's voice mended with Hinami's now softer sobs, and soon Hinami was just sniffling.

Enji had run down by then and so had Yoshimura. Kaya came out of thin air. As Korua was still comforting Hinami, Kaneki told Yoshimura and the other workers what had happened All of them had dark expressions on their faces. Someone opened the door and everyone jolted up. A man with glasses and messy hazelnut hair. Yoshimura walked up to greet him.

"Nishio, good that you're here. Can you take Hinami upstairs? We'll meet up there later, but for now… " Nishio nodded and took her upstairs while Yoshimura, and Enji went back to listening to Kaneki.

Nishio, Korua thought, I know that name, ah, yes, Orochi, Serpent. Mentioned several times within CCG Officers and Anteiku members. Different shifts from me too… weird. Surprised I never met him until now…

"Those punk ass bastards. They think they're such good people." Korua muttered.

"We need to teach them a listen. Kick their little-." Yoshimura shushed Nishio before he could go on..

"We need to consider everything. Every little detail." Yoshimura said, stopping Korua from thinking of how to return what they did.

"Hinami, can you tell us what the officers looked like? That way we might have an advantage." Yoshimura asked Hinami, who was cowering next to Korua.

"White hair… crazy eyes… wild… just wild… " Hinami paused,"The other one… young… fit and broad… black hair… serious… so serious."

"First Class Officer Mado, and Amon, his partner. I'd bet my money on it." Yoshimura tapped his waist. Thinking, obviously. In the end, he sighed; a sign Korua took as him giving up.

"Can't we just go after them? They can't have gone far." Korua tried not to mention Hinami's mom.

"Of course not. They have the power to do what they did. How will we stand against them?" hazel-mess (her idea of Nishio) was beating around the bush as well.

"We can at least t-try. I mean Nishio brings up a good point but we have numbers and they don't know what some of us do. " Kaneki popped out, getting a cup of coffee for Hinami. Sighing, Kaya plopped into a chair, Yoshimura leaned against the window, and Korua sat against a table. Rubbing her temples, Korua thought of how she felt when all this happened to her five years ago.

"Mom! We need to get back in!" Korua tugged onto her mom's shirt.

"Honey! I can handle this! You don't need to worry! Just blend with the people like I taught you. It'll be alright." Korua's mom was backing out, hiding from the officers.

She looked at her mom with big, scared, eyes. "Don't be scared, you need to be strong when the pressure cracks." Her mom unleashed her kagune, red, long, and deadly; just like Korua's. Korua looked at her mother again. Through a reassuring nod from her mother, Korua ran into the streets of the 22nd Ward, filled with unsuspecting people. Out of the alley, casually, she calmed down, panting and sweaty, but calmed. She turned around, expecting to see her mom running towards her, face lightened up. She didn't see that. She didn't see her mom at all. Korua knew something was wrong. Korua turned and ran back into the alley, pushing into the some people. Looking down, she saw her mom, barely fending off not two, but three officers. Korua ran towards her, with her kagune open as well. As she got closer, she could see her mom's shirt soaking with blood and the officers were getting more cocky.

"Well, well. We finally have caught the Octopus." one of the officers walked up towards Korua's mom.

"And we got the child too. We can stop the legacy." all the officers laughed at that.

"Korua… " her mom looked at her through messy hair and fogged glasses. As her mom's eyes shone slightly, Korua saw the opportunity. She lunged at the officer, going through his stomach with her now bloody rinkaku. He dropped his quinque. The airborne officer looked down at his comrades, but not before he was slammed to the ground. Korua dragged him back up and brought down her teeth into his side, ripping out flesh and chewing it down. She thrust the dead man in front of her mom, insisting her to eat it.

"Ahhh!" the officers attacked Korua's mom, stabbing her. Korua dropped the officer and jumped onto the officers. With three of her rinkaku arms, she pierced an officer, and with another three, the other officer, while protecting her mom with the last two. After they were dead, she both dropped them ungraciously. After they were both dead, Korua fell to her knees, cradling her mom's head.

"You'll be alright," she sobbed, "it'll be… alright… alright."

Her mom reached for her face. Stroking the side of her wet cheek. With soft eyes, Korua's mom looked up towards her daughter. "You're strong. Enough to be without me. Just… promise me… you won't forget me."

"I won't… I won't… " Grabbing her mom's hand as it slipped down. Knowing, that at that very moment, her mom lifted up, towards a place, a better place. But without Korua. And then, she looked up at the cloudy sky, in an alley with four dead bodies, no help and a tear-stained face; Korua screamed.

Opening her eyes, Korua stopped reliving that moment. As she leveled her eyes with everyone else's, she saw that they were still talking. Soon, they stopped, as if they were on an agreement, thinking that Korua was listening to them.

"So, Yoshimura, what do you think we should do about those officers after all?" Kaya asked him, serious and somber.

At a loss for words, Yoshimura said: "I… don't know."