RealityfromFiction: AWW Thank you!
Insanity Under the Moonlight: I know! When I first started putting the chapter together, it was originally going to be called "Minus 7" and be of a scene where Haise would be in so much pain he'd start his counting thing. However, I realized a person on AO3 (fineinthemorning who has a REALLY wonderful Haise fic called "A Poem of Transition" with a sequel) has that idea used for like 2 chapters, and I didn't want to do something so similar to them. So, I flipped the table. Instead of Haise doing our favorite math problem, it's the other person.
levi9700: Thank you! And he's 15. How he managed to travel through two states, none of us know. I mean, where I live it's not like we have a subway or trains or even small states to travel through. But luckily, he's fine! Thank you for caring!
Amnesiac
Coffee (Final of Copy Cat)
They sat there for what only felt like seconds to Haise, but if the growing crowd was anything to go by, likely minutes to even an hour could have passed. Blood still dripped from his eye, spilling onto the man's suit below him. He should probably get up, but Akira's weight on his back held him in place. Her heart thumped like a calming melody. Haise didn't realize just how tired he was until then. "Looks like I'll be needing a new pair of glasses."
"Just hush. You don't have to put up an act around me."
". . . Thank you, Akira."
"Let's get you out of here." She held his arm as he stood, noting the weight on his legs caused them to shake. Based on the condition of the auditorium, Chopper and Centipede went all out. But now, Haise was back, breathing steadily once more, most likely falling too much into himself, replaying things again and finding every flaw and every danger he could have put the Quinx in. Yah, that's Haise. "They're all fine."
"Mutsuki-"
"Receiving care right now." They stepped off the stage, keeping their heads down and voices hushed as they passed the Mado squad and other back up - late as always. "He's a quick healer anyways." The two took there time leaving the stage area, then coming to a halt by the main doors leading to his squad. Through the open doors sat the Quinx, silent, observing Mutsuki whose eyes remained closed. Even with one kakugan eye, Haise watched the uneven rise and fall of the boy's breaths. "I know you didn't hurt him yourself."
"What are my consequences? For losing control?"
"Hush."
And so he did.
A deafening silence hung over the chateau.
Chopper was shipped off to Coachlea, and the Quinx went home without Haise. Urie expected it, figured they may even assign a new mentor, for temporary or permanent - he didn't care. His mind focused elsewhere as he replayed the events of the night in his room. He couldn't sleep - not with blood from the half-ghoul's eye spilling onto the man sputtering numbers beneath the other. The image imprinted itself into his mind. That power, that aura, like a snake towering over his prey and glaring with his one demon eye as the other begged for mercy. It's so animalistic, so inhuman - it's sickening.
The night moved far too slow.
Finding no comfort in his room, Urie left for the kitchen, taking each step slowly so as to not wake the others. Mutsuki especially needed sleep. Apparently, he wasn't the only one not finding sleep for there sat Saiko, sipping on a cup of coffee that smelt burnt at the table. The digital clock of the microwave read 4:17. What an ungodly hour.
Before he could say anything, Saiko spotted him. "Feeling guilty much?"
He sputtered, but Saiko cut him off.
"Shirazu told me. He's in the garage right now."
Oh. Not a good sign. When Shirazu went to the garage to work on the bike, that was a strong sign he was more than just agitated or blowing off steam. He thought too much down there.
"You realize what this might mean for Maman, right, Kuki?"
First names. Definitely not a good sign. "Of course, but if I didn't do what I did, Chopper would not be in our custody." Even from the distance he stood between himself and Saiko, a whiff of that god awful dirt in her cup nearly made him choke. Seeing the pot still half full on the kitchen counter, he proceeded to pour every drop down the drain. "I don't regret it."
"I don't believe you."
He didn't even believe himself. Nonetheless, he went to making a cup of coffee in spite of the hour. However, Saiko wasn't done. "Some of the backup squadron said they might put him in Cochlea. Because he felt so overwhelmed that he snapped."
He prayed she didn't see him halt in pouring the boiling water over the coffee grounds, didn't see him clenching and unclenching the glass handle. Of course, she once more didn't see her dear mentor when his mind slipped from human to something to an animal with no care for anything around, like everything was either a bother or prey. "He got lazy while fighting. His movements were sluggish compared to even Mutsuki. If he didn't act up, he likely would have been another red puddle on the floor."
"Probably because he just watched his subordinate be flung out of the building through the roof?"
What an arm. "Ah, yes. What even took you so long? You did, what, swing at Chopper once?"
"And you had your hand chopped off. Mutsuki laid in his own blood. I could hear the cracks from all the way outside. Don't you get just how disturbing that is? That we couldn't do anything?"
Does she even know what she signed up for? "Who cares if we're injured? Our job is to kill ghouls. Even if we fall, we get back up. If our legs break, use your arms. We took an oath to fight, and I fought to take another dangerous ghoul off the street. Besides, if you were to actually focus on getting stronger, you wouldn't be watching from the sidelines."
"We were in that predicament because of your insistence to go up against a ghoul that hadn't even been officially ranked." She sighed, keeping her gaze on the murk she called coffee between her hands. "I don't get you."
"Feelings' mutual."
Silence. Urie lent against the counter as he drank his coffee, refusing to look at the other quinx and vice versa. The coffee was bitter enough without needing this stuffy air. Then again, that's what happens when you burn your coffee.
He did what the others wouldn't do, Urie knew, in spite of it being the right thing to do. Chopper was stopped at the consequence of Haise's mind. Then again, the guy seemed like he could have cracked any day-
"Urie."
The said boy rolled his eyes, glaring at Shirazu as he wiped his hands on a towel. Before Shirazu could say anything else, Urie headed towards his room.
Mutsuki woke some time in the late afternoon to someone gentle shaking his shoulder. The orange tinted sky as evening drew nearer lit his room in a soft glow. Of all the people he assumed would wake him, he hadn't expected a smiling Haise Sasaki, though weakly. He'd take it though. At least he seemed better than last, where his shoulders had sagged too low and head held in defeat as if walking to his own execution.
"Morning, sleepyhead."
The boy groaned yet began to shift in bed. "Wha' time is it?"
"Around four on a Thursday. Don't worry- no work tomorrow or this weekend. You hungry?"
With a muffled rumble of Mutsuki's stomach on the thought of food, Haise already was helping the younger man sit up in spite him not needing it. Everything healed as it should. Now to get some food and head back to bed.
While still under the fog of sleep, even Mutsuki felt the tension in the air before hearing the harsh words spat and hissed then roared from the kitchen. Surprisingly, Saiko wasn't in her room and neither was Urie. However, the two refused to look at the other as Shirazu stood rather close to the other male with something a bit different hate. Disgust.
"You're kidding me, right? After everything we've done for y-"
"You haven't done shit."
Shirazu pinched the bridge of his nose. "God, why do I even try to reason with you? It's because of your blatant sociopathy that Mutsuki was hurt and Haise had lost control-"
"He was going to lose control whether I-"
"Boys."
All eyes turned astonished to their mentor. His words were thick with something Urie could only call authority, that disobeying would be death. This was the half-ghoul he saw on that stage only the night before. However, his eyes remained the same: empathetic. He moved to the coffee pot once setting Mutsuki a dining table chair
That level of authority dropped from his voice once he continued. "I get it. Our case wasn't something . . .-" he set the kettle filled with water onto the stove "- normal for any team to face - not at that level and especially so early in your careers. I'm sorry for putting you through that, for not speaking up when I should have."
"Sasan-"
"I know: don't blame yourself." Urie watched with arms folded as the man began scooping grounds of coffee ready to be steeped yet knowing there's little the man could do to make those grounds taste good. Neither Saiko nor himself could make a decent batch. "However, I understood to a point this guy was more than we initially thought. I know his character - the one torn down only to be rebuilt into something unrecognizable, the kind with no care except for their sadistic pleasure, the men too far gone from salvation. You shouldn't have had to seen that."
As though it's any different than you, Urie thought. As if being intuned to Urie's inner comments, Shirazu glared at him.
The teapot whistled to the group, pulling their attention away from the pained eyes of Haise. Swiftly, their mentor delicately poured the steaming water over the coffee grounds, taking his time. He moved the pot in a circle so as to soak every ground evenly. "But even with that in mind, I'm proud of all of you."
Three of the Quinx looked to each other in confusion.
"You've been through so much even before joining the CCG. Instead of taking the easy route, you threw yourselves into one of the most stressful jobs on the market. And to top it off, you chose to bear a kagune." The sweet aroma of coffee filled their senses. Sometimes, Urie found it difficult to concentrate when it was Haise that made the coffee. "You've seen the true dark side of ghouls, had bedtime stories brought to life in a much more gruesome, not so fairytale like way." After steeping and finding cups from the cupboard, he poured the fresh brew then passed them around the dining table. No one declined his silent invitation to sit down, and they waited for Haise to take the first sip, watching the steam roll off the cups filled to the brim, yet not a single drop spilt. "In a sense, you've done more for me than the other way around. So, after all my rambling," he joked before smiling to each individual, "I just want to say thank you."
He took his sip and so did the others. Even just bringing it to their lips, Urie felt a sense of calmness as the tension finally dimmed from the air. He didn't get it. The coffee, though from the same shitty bag of grounds, was a perfect blend of bitter and sweet, not too strong, calming. Even the others began to relax, most noticeable with Shirazu's glare softening.
"But on a more of a business note, I've been talking with Akira, Arima, and Doctor Shiba involving whether to open another 'frame' in your kagunes." And there went Shirazu's glare again, but this time not towards Urie. "Easy Ginshi. My fear was after you all seeing the power of ghouls that you'd seek power of your own. Whether you seek it to protect something or to reach a goal, the three of us agreed to deny in enhancing your kagunes for the sake of your own humanity."
Humanity. Right, ghoul. You know what humanity is.
The night drew to a close with all members but Urie doting over Mutsuki as though he were a kicked puppy. Honestly, they wouldn't have been in such a train wreck if the others just tried to become stronger. Whatever they were doing had showed no progress when fighting Chopper. They needed to get get a better grip on the situation they couldn't escape to fight, to end this losing steak . . .
"Do you even remember what it is that drove you to become stronger, to rise in ranks?" Arima's words rang in his mind. Yes, Urie remembers his goal, and that's why he wouldn't succumb to the same fate as Haise or Arima.
The scene of the auditorium replayed in his mind like a cassette tape, always rewinding, always restarting the same sequence of numbers. The guy was subtracting by sevens through his sobbing. And there was that half-ghoul with blood oozing from his eye and one good kakugan seeing nothing, his gaze somewhere far more distant, lacking so much emotion-
"He's afraid one day you'll be as mindless as he once was. If you don't watch you step, you'll end up just like centipede: desperate. He's actually not that far off."
No. He wouldn't let himself end like that.
Whether he has to do it himself or with the doctor's consent, he'd become stronger than Haise without losing his humanity.
Arima's words are from chapter "Movie Night"
The fact I hadn't done a coffee chapter when I'm absolutely obsessed with it is beyond me. (to drink a Kopi Luwak cup of coffee is on my bucket list for god's sake)
My Tokyo Ghoul theme song is "Dream" by Imagine Dragons. Just wanted to share that because I HAVE JUST TOO MANY FEELS ALL THE FREAKING TIME.
Coffee is such an important detail in Tokyo Ghoul that seems so bizarre yet so fitting. I mean, coffee. Why can ghouls drink coffee but not eat anything else? And at the same time, coffee houses are places of socializing and gathering. So while we know ghouls tend to be not a part of the social scene, places like Anteiku mean so so SO much in the TG universe. It's a way to connect ghouls to one another, to meet under the same roof and share a cup with someone that share something in common yet are all rather unique. If you start to think about it too much (like me), it's really beautifully put into this manga.
Anyways, thank you so much for reading and please leave a comment! Expect an update by May 29th (I'll be camping this weekend and with no access to electronics (people really still do that?) so it will take longer to put together)