So yeah, I'm not going to bother writing up what happened with the ghoul gang, all you have to know for the moment is that they were taken out. There's some plot development regarding Sora in the whole gang thing, but it's not huge enough that I think writing it is worth it. I like focusing more on the 'bridging the gap' portion of this story.

Also, let me make one thing clear: Reaching Out is solely from Sora's point of view. If you want other people's perspectives on things, you can go look at Reaching Out Sidestories. I'll take in requests for anything you might want to see.

UPDATE: Minor edits made to some errors I noticed. Please PM if you see other errors so I can get to them ASAP

"So this is where you went to school." Mika commented.

"Yep. Welcome to MIT."

About a week after we got back to the States, Mika and I went to MIT so I could show her around. While I was already getting my research degree, Mika still had to do all her undergraduate work. She was actually considering coming here for further education.

I think I'm the youngest person on record to ever get a research degree, which is pretty neat. Although I'm not going to let that get to my head.

"This place is huge! And I thought Kamii was big." Mika was looking around, amazed.

I smiled. Her enthusiasm is really infectious. "Come on, let me go introduce you to some of the faculty."

Mika took my hand. "By the way, Sora, what's the rule on showing affection here?"

I looked at her. "Why?"

Mika pointed out a couple that was kissing very… intimately in the hallway (Get a room!). "That's why. I'm pretty sure they'd get at least five lectures by now from an older person about their behavior if they were in Japan."

I shook my head. "This is one of those 'we get it, you have a girlfriend' moments. People usually don't do anything about it."

"Yeah, but isn't it making someone uncomfortable?" Mika asked.

"Absolutely. It's making me uncomfortable right now."

"And we're not doing anything because…?"

"Because ignoring people was a specialty of mine back when I was a student here. And it's kinda rude to interrupt a moment."

"Ohh. Ok." Mika said, before rubbing her forehead.

We stopped in front of my biology professor's office. I knocked on the door.

"Come in." A voice from inside said.

I walked in, and the professor seemed somewhat surprised to see me. "Sora, how are you? I thought you were still in Japan for the program."

I shrugged. "The term is done, and I'm back here for the graduation ceremony in order to receive my research degree."

"I see. And who is your friend here?" He asked.

Mika introduced herself, albeit somewhat awkwardly because her English isn't quite perfect yet. "H-hello, I'm Mika Shiraishi. I met Sora in Kamii University, and I am interested in going to school here for my graduate degree."

The professor nodded slightly before turning to me. "I see. Do you think Miss Shiraishi is capable of handling the graduate program here?"

"I have no doubts, sir. Mika is a very smart and is a great student. I believe she can handle it." I replied. "She's my first choice for a lab partner for good reason."

He nodded. "I see. Well then, I'll take a look at your application when you send it in."

"I thought professors didn't help with applications." I said.

"We have some say over the application, though not as much as an admissions officer." He admitted. "Students do seek us out for recommendation letters, but they don't realize that we can have some input on how good an application is."

After we left the office, I guided Mika to the final place I wanted to show her.

"So what's this place you wanted to show me?" Mika asked, rubbing her forehead.

"Give it a moment." I said.

A few minutes later, we got to the Koch Building. Where my lab happened to be located. Around this time, Mika sneezed.

"You alright?" I asked.

Mika nodded. "Kind of. I do feel a bit sick though. Not sure why."

I placed my hand on her head to check. Ignoring Mika's blush, I held it there for a couple of seconds, before removing my hand. "I think you have a fever building up. Not sure though. Probably need to take your temperature when we get home. Did this start up just now?"

Mika shook her head. "About a few hours ago. I didn't want to say anything about it because you were showing me around MIT."

I deliberated for a moment. "You know what, we can continue the tour some other time. For now, let's go home. You should get some rest."

"Alright."

"I can't believe you're using me to test the effects of human medicine on ghouls." Mika said from where she was wrapped up on the couch.

"Hey, it's a perfect opportunity. I've never seen a ghoul get sick before. Can you blame me for thinking about it like this?" I said.

"And so instead of comforting your girlfriend and handing her medicine like a regular person, you decide to turn this into an experiment? I know I've probably said this about fifty times or something since we started dating, but you are the strangest boyfriend in existence." Mika said.

"Hey, the only difference between what you described and what I'm doing is that I have a clipboard."

"…Whatever. Just hand me the medicine. My head is killing me."

"One aspirin coming right up. By the way, I'm going to give you some liquid medicine later, just brace yourself. It's going to taste terrible." I said, handing Mika a pill and a mug of warm water.

"And how is that different than how human stuff regularly tastes?" Mika asked, not wanting to focus on anything but the headache.

"Well, seeing as you've never had grape medicine, I can't expect you to know. But trust me, it tastes downright awful."

"…I'll take your word for it. So what now?"

"Well, we could watch a movie or something. It's not like I'm restrained to sitting here taking notes on the effects the medicine is having on your body." I said.

Mika adjusted herself so that her head was on top of my lap. "How about now?"

"…I'm restrained."

"Wait. A 57 kilogram girl like me is restraining you with just my head?"

"Yeah pretty much. Do you mind moving your head so I can go load up a movie?"

"Yeah, go ahead."

About 35 minutes into The Lion King, Mika started crying. I'll admit, I was a tad bit heartless in dealing with this.

"Oh come on, it's just a movie!"

"Are you kidding me? This is so sad!" Mika was almost bawling her eyes out.

So… is this regular Mika, Mika with a fever, or Mika under the influence of aspirin? I doubt that the aspirin has this kind of effect, so probably Mika with a fever. I'll admit, I was not expecting that level of emotion from Mika. I have clearly underestimated the power of Disney movies. I shall not do so again.

After The Lion King finished, Mika snuggled up to me. "How about a different movie?"

I shrugged. "What did you have in mind?"

Mika pulled out Paranormal Activity 3 from the shelf.

I almost let out a groan. Of course Mika would pick something with horror in it. Why we even bought that movie, I will never know.

Unfortunately, I have a very bad history with the horror genre of movies. Especially the ones where you know something's coming but you don't know exactly when.

To make things worse, I knew right away that I wouldn't be able to say no to Mika. And leaving her by herself isn't an option either. It's a lose-lose situation for me.

Suffice to say, a couple hours later I was hiding under a blanket shivering from the scare.

"You're seriously scared of horror movies?" Mika was incredulous.

"I don't like them."

"Let me get this straight Sora. You're a ghoul who has an alternate personality that murders people because he's a sadist and you're ok with that, but you can't handle a cheesy horror movie?"

"Hey, Second still freaks me out when he goes on those killing streaks."

"Yet you let him out when we were taking out that other ghoul gang."

"Well, yeah. He was kinda miffed that he didn't see any action at Aogiri, so I promised to let him do some stuff."

"And somehow that resulted in you developing a fully-fledged kakuja right away despite the fact that most people that have them take forever."

"Yeah… somehow it did."

"I've said it a dozen times before, I'll say it a dozen times more, but you are the strangest boyfriend in existence."

The next few days I decided to get to work figuring out some numbers. While the pills were fine and the synthesized meat was well along the way, the problem still lay in getting the funding for all the stuff. My parents' small fortune wouldn't be enough to sustain the kind of production model I had in mind. After all, this was meant to be for all ghouls on the planet, not just the ones in Japan.

We did have to start in Japan though, seeing as that was where I would be enlisting most of the help that I needed for the operation.

"So any ideas for funding so far?" I asked Mika.

"Well, producing the synthesized meat is going to cost a lot more than the pills, so we either need to do some really good promotion or find ourselves a sponsor."

"We can't do promotions. The chance that the CCG figures things out is too high."

"You're right. As for sponsors, it's going to be tough to find someone who would be will be willing to fund a project that would end the whole ghoul purge. Which means the sponsor in question has to be a ghoul." Mika said.

I nodded. "But the problem is, ghouls don't tend to be that rich. How many ghouls out there are rich?" I asked.

"Well, there's Big Madam, who pretty much runs the ghoul black market. But she's not really a good source for this kind of stuff. She runs a ton of illegal operations that would instantly get her put under arrest and killed by the CCG. And then there's—" Mika cut herself off in that instant.

"Mika?" I was a bit worried.

Mika sighed. "There's also the Tsukiyama family. They originated from during the economic reign of the Zaibatsu."

I recognized that term. The economic elite of the elite during the 19th century. They pretty much ran everything. "And the Tsukiyama family was a part of that?"

Mika nodded. "They'd probably be more than willing to fund us. It's just…"

"That guy." I finished, thinking of a certain person who thought I would be great as a meal.

Mika simply glanced the other way. "Yeah. We need to talk to him if we want to have a chance of meeting with the current head of the Tsukiyama family."

I sighed. "Right. At least it won't be as bad as meeting your parents."

"Oh come on! My parents loved you!" Mika was miffed.

"Meeting them was scary. I had the feeling your dad was going to murder me if I stepped out of line."

"You know, I doubt that he would ever do that you."

"I was freaking out, alright?"

Mika sighed. "Right. So one of the first things on our agenda for when we go back to Japan is to find Tsukiyama so we can talk to his father about funding our research."

I'd say we're making good progress in this department. Hopefully we can make more progress as we go along.

Graduation simply could not come fast enough. Which is why I decided to go directly to MIT's president and ask for my diploma, explaining that I needed my degree right away so I could start up some work that I was planning. He complied. I'd say April was a good time to leave, even if I was home for only a month.

So pretty much, I wasn't going to be at graduation. It irritated the faculty to some degree that the smartest student in all of MIT wasn't going to be at graduation, but I explained to them that I didn't like standing on ceremony, as it wasted time and I didn't need the emotional push.

With that, Andy drove me and Mika to the airport (Lily tagged along also). We were getting our luggage into the check-in when Andy said his goodbye.

"Remember, be careful over there."

"I will. You stay safe too, alright? And try to get working on those enzyme pills if you can. That'd be great."

"I'll make sure to try and get some progress in distributing them."

Lily reached up to me for a hug. "See you later, Sowa?"

I smiled before picking her up and giving her a huge hug. "I'll see you later, alright Lily?"

"Right!"

With that, Mika and I left for Japan.

Mika and I were asleep for pretty much the entire plane ride, so we didn't really do anything until we finally got to Tokyo. First thing we did was drop off our stuff at home. We went over to Anteiku not too long after to have some coffee. As I opened the door, I heard the familiar sound of a plate breaking.

"Roma! That's five plates that you've broken this month!" I could hear Touka scolding who I assumed was the newest employee to Anteiku.

"I-I'm sorry."

Mika decided to make her presence known first. "Well. Nice to see that Anteiku hasn't gotten any less lively since we left."

Nishiki, Touka, and Enji all turned to see me and Mika walking into the shop. Enji was the first to say hi.

"How was America?" Enji asked.

"Hectic." Was Mika's only reply.

"Hectic? What do you mean?" Touka asked.

"Let's see… we took out a gang, visited MIT, did a bunch of financial calculations, grabbed my diploma, and helped set up a potential base for pill production." I counted the points off on my finger.

"That sounds… entertaining." Nishiki commented.

I sighed. "It really wasn't. We figured out a way to get mass production going for the enzyme pills, but I don't like it."

"What? Why not?" Touka asked.

"Because it involves talking to Tsukiyama." Mika said.

"Ohh." Everyone understood. Although Tsukiyama probably doesn't have that much of an interest in eating me (that privilege is reserved for Mika, and Mika alone), it was still creepy being described as a meal.

"Anyway, who's the employee?" I asked, gesturing at the girl currently trying to clean up the broken china on the ground.

"Oh yeah. This is our newest employee, Roma. She's a little bit clumsy, but she's alright." Enji said.

A little bit seems like an understatement if you ask me. There's no way you break that many plates in a month by being only a little bit clumsy.

"Well, it's good to see that you're back, Sora-kun, Mika-kun." Yoshimura said, coming down the stairs.

I nodded. "Manager, could I get your help on something?"

"Of course. Ask me anything you feel you need to ask."

"Do you know any ghouls that would be willing to help deliver boxes of pills to drop-off points once we get production rolling?" I asked.

Yoshimura looked thoughtful for a moment before answering. "I think it would be better if you asked Irimi and Enji about that. They should have contacts."

I turned to Enji. "Any ideas?"

"Well, there's my old gang, the En. And Kaya probably has some contact still with her old gang the Black Dobers. Let me see if we can get some people willing to help you."

That would help a lot. "Thanks Enji."

After we had some coffee (and witnessed Roma breaking another plate), Mika and I went home to see a familiar head of white hair in front of our condo.

"Kaneki? What are you doing here?" I asked.

"Oh, Sora. Where have you been?" He asked.

"In the United States, but what are you doing here?" Mika asked.

Kaneki scratched the back of his head. "Well, we sort of ran out of enzyme pills a couple weeks back. I was hoping I could pick up some more, but you weren't in."

I sighed. "Right. Let me go grab some pills then. But I need you to help me with something."

"Oh? What is it?"

"I need to talk to Tsukiyama."

Kaneki looked at me. "Why?"

"I need to ask him about potential funding. It's important." I said.

"Alright. I'll bring him over."

"Thanks. I'll be making more pills so that you can pick them up when you bring him."

As he left, Mika took my hand. "Are you sure about this, Sora?"

I sighed. "Unfortunately, I am."

I was relieved when Tsukiyama didn't bother to even talk about how good I smelled. It made business a lot easier.

"So, what can I do to help you, Sora-kun? It must be important if you're talking to me directly." Tsukiyama said.

Well, he's still egotistical. "Tsukiyama, how have you enjoyed the enzyme pills that I've made?"

"It's been a divine experience. I've been able to experience so many different foods thanks to them."

"Great. Because I need your help." I said.

"My help? What exactly do you need from me?" He asked.

"I need to talk to your father about funding for the pills and research that I'm doing." I said.

Tsukiyama seemed to ponder this for a moment. "It's true that my father has the financial strength to help you with this, but why would you need my help in this regard? You could arrange for a meeting with him."

I shook my head. "I've seen the paperwork required to talk with him, I do not want to fill all that out for only a potential chance at meeting up with him."

"I see. Very well, I'll talk to my father and try to arrange a meeting between you and him. You should be able to expect it within a week. Be sure to wear something formal."

"Thanks, Tsukiyama."

As promised, a week later, Mika, Nishiki, and I were all dressed up in business wear, ready to do meet up with the head of the Tsukiyama family, who I hoped was less flamboyant than his son.

"Master Mirumo will see you now." A young man guided us to what was clearly a dining room, where an older man wearing glasses was sitting.

"Welcome. I am Mirumo Tsukiyama. Head of the Tsukiyama family. May I ask for your names?"

"Nishiki Nishio."

"Mika Shiraishi."

"Sora Chao." I finished.

"Shuu said that you had something that you wished to talk to me about regarding funding for research. I assume you are here to tell me about it?"

I nodded. "Has your son told you about the enzyme pills that he was introduced to recently?"

"He has mentioned them, yes. I haven't had a chance to try it because apparently his supplier was out of town."

I think I heard a slight snicker from Mika. "Well, he would be right to some degree. After all, Sora here is technically the supplier. And the one who makes them."

Mirumo took a moment to look at me. "Is that so? How did you make them?"

I explained. "I spent hours analyzing the contents of ghoul saliva and stomach acid and compared them to that of a human's saliva and stomach acid. After that, it was a matter of figuring out which enzymes ghouls didn't have that humans did have and adding a sufficient amount for a ghoul to consume a meal that humans eat and absorb the nutrients."

"I see. How did you deal with the taste?" He asked. "I can't imagine that ghouls would be willing to eat human food even if they could absorb the nutrients. After all, the taste still remains."

I shrugged. "When I was first working it out, I used a numbing agent. I did figure out later how to force a ghoul's taste buds to recede through use of Rc suppressants."

"Interesting. I suppose the important question now is why you would bring this up with me?"

At this point, Nishiki explained. "We need funding in order to mass-produce these pills. We thinking that you would be able to help us with this."

Mirumo raised his eyebrows. "Really now? While funding you would certainly be within my ability, why should I help you with this? What is your goal in mass-producing these pills?"

Mika nudged my arm. I guess this is my show, seeing as I'm the one who started us all on this path. "What you need to understand is that we're not doing this to make profit. Our goal, or at least my goal, in the short run, is to reduce the number of cases of ghouls and humans dying."

"I see. And what is your goal in the long run?"

I took a breath. This was the statement that would make or break our cause. "In the long run, I intend to bridge the gap between ghouls and humans. I want to create a world where humans don't have to worry everyday about eaten by ghouls. Where ghouls can walk free without having to worry about being targeted by the CCG simply because they're ghouls. But unless we can eliminate the need to eat humans, that world will never come. That's my end goal."

We stood waiting for Mirumo's response for a while. I was nervous. Did I go too far talking about the end goal of everything?

A chuckle interrupted my thoughts, which turned into a light-hearted laugh. "Well, that certainly was inspiring." Mirumo said after a few seconds of laughing.

"Sorry?" I asked, confused.

"It's nothing. Being around Shuu, you get used to his plethora of fancy words that he uses to get his point across. On the other hand, you are much more straightforward when you speak. I must say, that was a fine speech from you. I certainly hope I can see this world that you envision one day."

He took a seat before continuing. "I will support your cause. Until the day comes where I die or your dream is realized, I will provide any form of assistance that I can for you. Now, what do you require of me?"

After we left, Mika, Nishiki and I were deep in conversation.

"I can't believe he actually agreed. I thought he was going to put up more of a fight." Nishiki said.

"Still, that's a lot off of our shoulders. At least we don't have to worry about funding now." I said with a sigh of relief.

"True. But more importantly, where did you learn to talk like that?" Mika asked me.

My face went somewhat red. "Books."

"Books?" Both Mika and Nishiki were incredulous.

"Books." I confirmed. "What? Some of the writers are really good at what they do. I just copy it."

"Yeah, sure." Nishiki said.

"Still though, that was not was I expecting from the head of the Tsukiyama family." Mika said.

We all nodded in agreement. I'm pretty sure we all thought it was going to be a 'like father, like son' kind of thing. I guess that's not the case.

"Anyway, I'm going to head home now. You two take care." Nishiki said.

After we said goodbye, Mika and I were left to walk by ourselves.

"So, any ideas on what to do next?" Mika asked.

"Honestly, I just want to go home." I said, stretching.

"I think I'd be fine with that." Mika agreed.

As we walked home, Mika started talking again. As the ever attentive boyfriend I was, I listened.

"You know, when I first went to Kamii University, I never thought my life would end up like this. Meeting you, getting caught up in all the research that you did, even falling in love. I never thought I would be caught up in such huge events. I thought my life would be dying at the hands of the CCG or living to an old age in a really uneventful life. But you changed that, Sora. The moment you came into my life, something happened. You brought a change to the life I was living that I couldn't understand. But look where all that change has led us. You've done something huge, Sora. You've brought a chance at peace that could change the ghoul world forever. I could never thank you enough for that."

I shook my head. "Not really. Honestly, I should thank you more."

"Me? Why?" Mika asked.

I looked Mika right in the eye. "You should have seen me before I met you. You were right about one thing. I was a recluse. I wasn't close to anyone, didn't have any friends at all. My family was the only thing I was close to. More than anything else, I was selfish. The whole reason I got into all this research was because of Lily. I wanted to see a world where she could live without fear of being hunted every single day just for being what she was. But you changed that. You helped me realize that the world I wanted to see wasn't just a world for her. It was a world for everyone. You did the impossible and touched my heart. By being here with me, you made my dream a reality. I never would have dared to envision something so grand before. And that's why I can say this without a single doubt in my heart. Mika Shiraishi, I love you."

There. I said it. Months since we started dating, and only now did I finally say it. Saying those words out loud gives it weight.

Mika turned her body to me. "I love you too, Sora Chao."

And for a while, our lips stayed together. And while the general rules of PDA in Japan tell us that we really shouldn't be doing this, it's dark and no one's watching. I think we can afford a little moment for ourselves.

Normally, I would never end on such a mushy note, but I wanted this chapter out. Sorry for taking almost two months on this, but given the progress I've made with the story, I think it's worth it.

Next chapter will dive more into the progress that Sora and co. will be making as they start making more progress.

Also, if you notice some error in this chapter or previous ones, be sure to shoot me a pm and I'll fix it asap.