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He wakes up with his eyelids stuck together. Furuta rolls over, staring blankly at the ceiling.
He doubts anyone will come to interrogate him today. They'll have too much drama to deal with. Those kids weren't okay when Furuta told them.
This is what you get for concealing the truth.
Yuki burst into tears when Furuta told him what his parents had done. So did Chiasa, and Nashiro, and Seidou and Isamu, and a damp feeling settled in Furuta's abdomen that he couldn't shake off. He wanted them to cry, wanted to stab their parents in any way he could, but the way Yuki's face dissolved and he still tried to muffle the sound of his sobs so Furuta wouldn't get killed left him feeling strange, peeled back like he hadn't felt since h realizes Rize trampled on the freedom he gave her.
He remembers Ryouko's dumb question. Did someone hurt you?
Everyone. Your parents most of all.
He curls his fist.
When Ryouko urged them all to leave and Furuta helped them climb out through the air vent, Ryouko passed him the RC suppressant even though her complexion looked gray. It sits under his pillow now.
No one in this world is innocent. Your attempts to keep them that way is what hurt them, Furuta thinks bitterly. Stupid Kaneki. Ui, Urie, Suzuya, all of you—
He hears voices outside the cell and stiffens. His fingers clench around the bottle.
Not now. Maybe he'll get to see what's happened—the kids surely won't keep quiet about it. Maybe they'll kill him and—
Naki swings the door open, glowering at Furuta.
"Come to kill me?" he asks.
"Not yet, unfortunately," Naki snaps. "Here's your food." He drops a plate on the floor.
I'm guessing you aren't thrilled with what Joji knows? Furuta's hand roves behind him for the bottle again. He needs Miza to show up—
And there she is.
"Any new threats?" Furuta asks. He needs them to come closer. He needs to lock them in this cell. See how you like it. "V-Reformed killing anyone else?"
Miza pales.
"No one's dead? Or just threats?" Furuta chuckles. "Kaneki better invest in some good guards—shame he's wasting the two of you—"
"He has Arima," Naki snarls. "Don't you dare insult him!" He takes several steps forward, teeth out.
Got you. Come a little closer. For whatever reason, when his heart hammers inside his chest, it feels as if it's sticking to his ribs and ripping little pieces off. He clutches his chest.
"You're not sick, so don't even feign that," Miza snaps.
He glares at her. I could be dying and you wouldn't believe me. "It'd make a lot more sense for V to go after their kids, wouldn't it? That would be even worse for Touka and Kaneki, can you imagine—"
Naki snaps, charging towards Furuta. He whips out the suppressant and sprays.
Naki howls. Miza lunges, but Furuta dodges her and hits her in the face. He scrambles out of the room, slamming the door behind him.
At least they aren't stupid enough to think that V won't try to go after their kids.
He skids to a stop outside the house, the sun scalding his hair, his skin, his eyes. It's been years. Freedom.
I'll use it better than you did, Rize.
"What the hell?" screams Nakarai into his phone. "Suzuya! Abara!"
Juuzou's been slumped over his desk, mind still replaying Nashiro's accusation from the day before. Most of Goat—well, most of the parents—took the day off. Hiroto went to bed without protest the night before, and instead of feeling relieved, Juuzou found himself sitting outside his son's room in agony. Don't hate me, please.
"It'll work out," Shinohara assured him, showing up because he knew Juuzou shouldn't be left alone. Hanbee held Juuzou's hand, silent but still with him.
Juuzou shook his head. "They'll be—"
"They'll accept it in good time," Shinohara told him. "And move on from there. And no matter what kind of things the kids say to their parents, they'll love them."
You love me no matter what I've done, Juuzou knows. And he loves Hiroto no matter what. Hiroto didn't speak in the morning, and Hanbee gave Hiroto breakfast while Juuzou watched from the corner, stomach rejecting the notion of food and brain scrambling to come up with words to offer Hiroto, but he had none.
"What now?" ekes out Hanbee.
"Furuta's escaped!"
Juuzou levitates out of his chair. I can't deal with this right now! "What the—"
"Miza's on the phone and she says he sprayed an RC suppressant at them and locked them in his cell!"
"Are they hurt?" shouts Hanbee. "How long ago?"
"Twenty minutes! Are you okay?" Nakarai bellows into the phone. "They're fine."
"Go get them!" shouts Juuzou. "Tamaki, Mikage, go to the house—Nakarai and 0 Squad, Aura and Higemaru, Nagachika and Hirako, Koma and Irimi, we all split into groups of search the area. Hori, start gathering security camera footage. Yomo and Marude, call the prime minister. Hanbee, you're with me." He barks out orders for which area they'll be searching. "Shinohara—"
"I'll stay with you," he confirms.
"Do we need our quinques?" asks Hanbee.
"Yes." Though he's not thrilled with having to use them again. But Furuta's too dangerous. He sends a text to the group. Miza & Naki are fine but Furuta escaped. And then he silences that group chat because he doesn't want to have to deal with the panic. He thinks of Hiroto, over Shinohara's house being cared for by Shinohara's wife, and his heart pains him. He wants nothing more than to go home and hold Hiroto like the day he found him, when he just knew that Hiroto was meant to be his son.
But I have to work. I have to protect him. He's not losing another set of parents.
Combing the streets produces nothing. Nakarai gets access to the security cameras of local businesses and shops. Juuzou returns to Goat with Hanbee to comb through the dozens of cameras inside the house.
"But how did he even get suppressant?" shouts Mikage. "Someone would have to have given it to him—"
"Are you suggesting we have a traitor here?" snaps Shio.
Everyone's gaze turns to Uta, who's arrived to help comb through hours and hours of camera footage.
"I've never been in that house," Uta snaps, folding his arms. He turns to Yomo. "You don't—"
"I know you didn't," Yomo replies. Uta's face relaxes.
"I can't imagine how he got it," Miza moans. "We never kept any canisters around him."
"Amon says the government's orders are to shoot on sight," reports Tamaki. He swallows. "And he's giving us twenty-four hours before informing the media, and he says not to let him down."
Juuzou groans. "We need more eyes."
"I'll ask them," Hanbee says quickly. "Maybe Mirumo and his servants can come and watch the kids in the day-care room."
"Ask Tsukiyama," Juuzou instructs. His heart pounds. Last time Furuta was free…
I am not letting him kidnap any of these kids.
He glares at his quinque. I am not his puppet. I will catch him.
"Can I be of assistance?" asks Itori, flitting into the room.
"Yes," says Juuzou. "Watch security cameras at train stations." He heads back over to the house with Hanbee and the rest of his squad, where they pull up some of the imagery on their computer screens. Combing through footage for evidence is never even remotely exciting. It's tedious and dull. But if it can save Goat…
We've worked so hard.
I don't want it to all come crashing down.
Hanbee works through that day's footage while Juuzou takes yesterday's. Nakarai takes the day before that's, and so on. After an hour or so, Juuzou feels as if his eyeballs are melting and dribbling out of his skull. Help.
Bring coffee, he texts Touka.
"Um, Juuzou?" Hanbee says, peering over his shoulder. He wrings his hands.
Juuzou frowns. "Are you okay?"
"I think I—I think I found out how—how Furuta got the RC suppressant," Hanbee stammers. "But—"
"But what?" Juuzou demands, leaping to his feet. Nakarai stands too, dropping his headphones. Tamaki and Mikage follow. Shinohara frowns.
"It's not—good," Hanbee says, swallowing.
"Well, of course it's not," snaps Nakarai. "We—"
"No—I mean—it's really not good," Hanbee insists. Is that sweat shining on his forehead?
"What happened, Hanbee?" asks Shinohara.
Juuzou marches over to the computer. "Show us."
Hanbee gulps and presses play. He covers his face.
"You should be looking!" snaps Nakarai.
Juuzou's jaw drops. Someone falls from the air vent. Two—three—how many?
Yuki?
"Oh shit," says Tamaki.
Shinohara gapes. "This can't be—"
"Well," says Mikage. "Now we know that it probably wasn't a classmate of Ryouko's who told them all of our dirty secrets."
Furuta—told them? And hurt my son? At least Hiroto isn't on the screen.
"How did no one notice?" screeches Nakarai, clutching his face. "This is—really fucking bad!"
"Yup, they handed over the suppressant," confirms Tamaki with a shudder as he watches the tape.
"What days did they do treasure hunts?" Juuzou demands. "And what times? We need to find the rest of that footage." How many times did they go to see him? And why?
Hiroto, did you know?
"He must have manipulated them like hell," whispers Mikage.
"Who knows what else they told him?" laments Tamaki. "God."
"No one breathes a word!" Juuzou barks. "Not until we've at least seen footage of all their visits, okay?"
"They're just kids," Hanbee says. "They wouldn't have known what they were doing."
"No matter what kind of things the kids say to their parents, they'll love them."
Even this. Juuzou's heart aches. He still loves these kids.
Shinohara places his hand on Juuzou's shoulder. He watches as Yuki and Isamu start to cry in the footage. Clearly Furuta just told them something upsetting. You bastard.
"We have to kill him," vows Nakarai, slamming his fist into the chair.
Nozomi shakes her head wildly in the footage, pointing a finger and yelling.
"Their parents are going to be so angry," Hanbee says unhappily. He glances back at Juuzou as Nakarai's lips curl, as if afraid that Juuzou will think him too soft.
Juuzou remembers a knife in his hand, and blood.
They're just kids.
Is that how you felt when you saw me, Shinohara?
"They'll still love them," Juuzou says at last, biting his lip. Shinohara exhales and nods.
"If we tell, their parents are not going to be able to help comb through footage anymore," warns Nakarai.
"This is kind of important, Keijin!" Hanbee cries out. He looks at Juuzou, desperate. "Even if I don't want them to get in trouble, their parents need to know—they might know something—they're just kids."
You really care about them, don't you? Even if they've apparently screwed up everything we've been working towards.
Juuzou cares, too. He nods at Hanbee and puts his hand on his shoulder. "We need to tell everyone," Juuzou says, heaving a sigh. "But we should give the kids a chance to confess first."
Kimi gets Nishiki's text as she crams her lunch into her mouth. What?
He escaped?
How?
She spits out her mouth of rice and vegetables. Her heart pounds. Mie—
It's already been a tense past day for their family. When Nishiki and Mie arrived home yesterday, both of them had tear tracks running down their faces, and Mie accused her of cruel experimentation on humans and ghouls. "You worked with that evil doctor man!"
"I don't know how they found out," Nishiki told her, shoulders slumping in shame. "Some brat from school must have—everyone's distraught."
Kimi pulled out her phone to check the group chat. "How are other people handling this?" Her throat closed.
My daughter thinks I'm a monster.
The thought scalded her.
"I don't think any of us have ever been so ashamed in our whole lives," Nishiki admitted. "Tooru was devastated."
"Mie," Kimi called, her heart aching for people like Tooru and Ayato and Takizawa, who undoubtedly have darker histories to explain. "Mie, open your door, please."
I can't force her to do it.
But please, baby, open your door.
Her daughter left it shut.
A knock resounded on their apartment door, and Nishiki swung it open to reveal a grim-faced Hide. "I thought you might need the help."
Nishiki gaped at him. "You actually came?"
"Why not? I love Mie. And you guys aren't half-bad either." Hide blew out his breath. "What a fucking mess."
Kimi nodded.
Hide went and knocked on Mie's door, and she finally opened it. It took all of Kimi's self-control not to run in herself, explain things, listen to what Hide was saying. Nishiki pressed his fists against his eye sockets, chest shuddering.
Seidou's talking to Shiro, Kurona texted. Juuzou, it might be good if she can talk to you too later. Not tonight though.
He's pretty upset, Hanbee responded. So is Hiroto. Not with Shiro though.
Buy them ice cream? suggested Shio.
Ice cream isn't going to fix this, Juuzou finally responded.
Nothing can, Kimi thought. The dead are dead, the wounds are already inflicted. We can't change that.
But we've moved past it.
Neither of them ever planned not to tell Mie. No one in Goat planned to keep everything a secret, but they planned to give them age-appropriate information. Until this schoolgirl ruined everything.
Hide finally emerged from Mie's room. He offered them a sad smile. "She said it's okay if you go and talk to her now."
"What did you say to her?" asked Nishiki, getting to his feet.
"Just that I chose to forgive you, and now we're buds." Hide rolled his eyes. "Bad people don't have to stay bad if they don't want to."
Kimi and Nishiki both entered Mie's room, and instead of saying anything, they just held her. And then they apologized, both of them, because the hurts they inflicted are still out there, still cutting and bruising.
I never thought it would affect my child.
And now it's not over, Kimi thinks. He's out there. Free. Again.
Freedom for him means a prison for Kimi.
Can you come to Goat? Nishiki requests.
On my way, she replies. She claims a family emergency and rushes off to Goat, biting her tongue to keep from yelling at the bus driver to drive faster. The sun warms the windows, and Kimi presses her forehead against it. The smell of exhaust chokes her.
She remembers losing her family in that awful car accident.
I'm not going to lose Mie. I'm not going to lose anyone anymore.
Please.
When she arrives, Nishiki rushes towards her, kissing her.
"Where's Mie?"
"Mirumo and some of the servants are watching the kids." Nishiki bites his lip. "We didn't tell them what's going on, but we're going to have to."
"Unless we find him within the next few hours," grumbles Urie as he rushes by.
"Can you help look at video cameras?" Nishiki asks. "We spotted him heading towards a bus stop, and we've tracked the bus and are looking at footage from the 24th ward now."
Kimi nods. The door opens, and Juuzou and his squad appear. Shinohara's wife appears behind them, and Juuzou turns towards his son, eyes hopeful. Hiroto hesitates, and then runs towards Juuzou, whose face breaks as he scoops him up. Juuzou's fingers dig into his son's hair, pressing him close.
"Anything?" Nishiki asks as Hanbee locks the door behind him. His head hangs, long hair covering his face as he studies his shoes. Shinohara exhales, crossing his arms.
"Um," says Juuzou as Mikage gulps. "Yes. We found—some things."
"Like how the hell he got the RC suppressant?" demands Urie.
"Yes. Like how the hell he got the RC suppressant," Juuzou says dully. "I'll tell you all in a few minutes."
"Have you told the kids what's going on yet?" asks Nakarai. The dim lighting of the stairwell obscures his face.
Nishiki shakes his head. "We probably should, but we—don't want to worry them. Especially after yesterday."
"Telling the truth is probably the best bet, though," mumbles Urie.
"I agree," says Juuzou. "Why don't you—all of Goat—have a meeting with the kids?"
"To tell them what happened?" asks Kimi.
Juuzou nods. Hiroto squirms down and Juuzou tugs at his hair. "That way…"
"They can ask questions," Nakarai supplies. Tamaki glares at him.
"I'll get the kids," Urie says. "Nishiki, you coming?"
"My eyes need a break," Nishiki admits. "Kimi, you should go upstairs—Yomo or Amon can give you instructions for after our meeting."
Kimi nods and jogs up the stairs. Amon quickly hands her a laptop with access to two security cameras, one for a small shop and one for a coffee store.
"Attention everybody!" bellows Juuzou, leaping up on his desk and sending papers scattering. Hanbee scrambles to gather them. "We're having a meeting in fifteen minutes. With your kids. They need to be told that Furuta escaped, and I'm not taking ifs or ands or buts about it."
"It might be good to tell some of them privately!" Hairu hollers.
Juuzou doesn't respond. Hanbee hurries after him, into the conference room. Weird. Kimi clenches her fists. Within fifteen minutes, Urie, Nishiki, and Mirumo usher all the kids up and into the conference room, which is crowded with people. Mie rushes over to Kimi, but Mie refuses to hug her. Kimi sighs.
"Do we have news?" calls Naki, his face red with fury that Furuta escaped on his watch.
"Did something bad happen?" whispers Rose.
"Yeah, something pretty terrible happened," says Nakarai. Shinohara swallows. Hiroto rushes over and grabs Shinohara's leg.
"Nakarai!" warns Juuzou. Hanbee hangs his head. "Furuta, the evil clown, escaped by using an RC suppressant to knock out Miza and Naki, though as you can see, thankfully, they're okay and weren't killed."
"No!" shrieks Joji. Yuki's jaw drops and he looks up at Kaneki and Touka as if they'll assure him it's not true. Rose claps her hands to her face. Nashiro shrinks behind Takizawa's legs. Ryouko shakes her head in terror. Isamu and Chiasa reach for each other's hands, and Masanori stiffens. Seidou wraps his arms around himself, his head dropping to his chest. Mie starts to cry. Nozomi's jaw hangs open in shock. Her eyes slide to her parents.
"You'll catch him, right?" yells Bing.
"Of course they will," mumbles Fuyumi, safe in Takeomi's arms.
"It's okay, Mie," Kimi tries to reassure her, kneeling and putting her arms around her daughter. Mie collapses against her.
"Okay, kids," says Juuzou. "Excluding Bing, Akito, Fuyumi, Tsukuru, Ruri, Shiono, of course Emma, and thankfully Hiroto." He steps to the center of the room and looks each one of them in the eyes.
A chill runs through Kimi.
"Do you want to tell your parents what you did?" prompts Juuzou.
Up next: any predictions on what the parents' reactions will be?