Reina=27

Sasaki=22

Reina hadn't shown up to work in a few days, and that really made things difficult for Urie. He had to make sure he caught her when she was at the CCG. That way, all of the arrogant fools he worked with could see what he had accomplished that they'd utterly failed to notice. It would do him absolutely no good to catch her when no one could see him.

The test results on the mysterious liquid had come back. It was indeed an RC suppressant but it was amplified enough so that it suppressed all RC cell activity for about forty-five minutes after it was injected into the bloodstream. That explained how she got through the RC gates in the morning. How she got her hands on something like that, he still didn't know, but that didn't matter. The fact that it was a suppressant of that intensity was enough to incriminate her.

The young investigator walked inside the administrative department, even though he knew Reina wasn't in today.

"Excuse me, I'm looking for Reina Furukawa's supervisor," he said to the woman sitting at the front desk.

"All right, let me call her. Can I have your name?"

"Kuki Urie, Rank 2 Investigator."

The woman picked up her phone and dialed a number. "Hi, I have an investigator here who says he needs to speak with you. Okay." She hung up the phone and smiled up at him politely. "She'll be here in just a few minutes."

"Great."

Soon, a woman with her black hair tied up in a bun came out to greet him. "Hello, my name is Erika Takada." She gave him a polite bow. "How can I help you today?"

"I need to talk to you about one your workers, Reina Furukawa. Can you tell me about her?"

"Miss Furukawa? Well, she's a very hard worker and everything she does is always concise and complete. Sometimes, she tends to disappear from her desk for a little while, but she always gets her work done on time so I don't really have any complaints."

"Have you ever noticed anything unusual about her?"

"Not really. It may be rude for me to say this, but there's nothing really that memorable about her. She's quiet and reserved and I know she doesn't really spend time with any of her coworkers whether it be on breaks or days off. To be honest, I'm not sure half of my workers even know her name."

Reina was smarter than he gave her credit for. By becoming a faceless person in the crowd, she made it so no one would remember her if questioned about her and it would make it harder to suspect anything might be different about her. Surely she understood how stupid it was to begin training them if she wanted to maintain her cover.

"The only thing truly unusual about her is the amount of coffee she drinks. The days can get long especially when you're only staring at pages and a computer screen for eight hours, but I think she drinks more coffee than a ghoul!"

"And she comes to work every single day?"

"Every now and again, she'll call in sick and take off for about a week at a time, but it happens very sparingly, and again, her work is always finished in time. I don't understand, is she in trouble?"

"Right now, we're just getting some information, that's all."

"I see. Well, let me know if there's anything else I can do to help. She isn't here today, but I can notify you when she comes back."

"That would be perfect, thank you."

Taking a deep breath, Reina walked into the CCG front entrance. When she wasn't immediately assaulted by multiple investigators, she continued walking to her department. Like usual, she passed through the RC gates with no problem, and still no one did anything.

Maybe…Sasaki actually didn't know who she was. Well, she had used something of a different voice when she had tried to talk him down considering she was usually very soft-spoken around him. Still, while she would be relieved if he hadn't made the connection, it kind of said something about him as an investigator if he didn't.

She kept her guard up for the remainder of the day, but still nothing.

Maybe her cover actually hadn't been blown yet. Maybe she was still in the clear.

What she didn't know was that her supervisor, Mrs. Takada, had made a phone call to Urie telling him that she had shown up that day.

When her workday concluded, she headed for the exit.

And that's when everything started to go wrong.

Two men in formal suits whom she didn't recognize approached her and blocked her path.

"Miss Furukawa, we would like to speak with you privately please."

Reina's heart skipped several beats, but she kept a calm composure. "What is this about?"

"We would prefer to speak about the matter alone."

"Is there something wrong?"

"We have it on good authority that you may not be who you really say you are. If you come with us, no one has to get hurt. Please hand us your bag."

Reina quickly tried to consider her options. She could pull out her kagune right here and now, but she wasn't feeling too great at the moment and with this many quinques surrounding her, that probably wouldn't end well for her. Even in peak condition, she wouldn't have been able to fight all of these investigators at once. She could run and find some means of escape. What she would do after that was the real question.

But the one thing she knew was that she couldn't go with these men. Not when her identity had been exposed.

So she went with the second option.

She turned and bolted.

"Hey, stop!" one of the men shouted after her.

Reina didn't know where exactly she was running to, but anywhere was better than the lobby.

Unfortunately, Urie appeared out of nowhere with his sharp kagune at the ready and easily disabled her.

The two men in suits caught up to her and knocked her down onto the floor. One of them pinned her arms behind her back as he handcuffed her. By now, a large crowd had gathered around her, staring at the confrontation with confusion and interest.

Come on! she silently pleaded. Come on, you stupid kagune!

It was no use. Her kagune refused to come out as a result of the hefty amount of RC suppressants she'd forced herself to take.

While one man kept her pinned down, the other grabbed her bag and started rifling through it.

"Stop!" she pleaded.

He pulled out her infamous blue lightning mask.

"Care to explain why you have this…Lightning?"

Multiple gasps sounded from the crowd of people.

Reina looked at the mask helplessly.

And then she met eyes with someone in the crowd.

Sasaki.

He stared back at her, a wounded expression on his face. She didn't blame him for feeling hurt and angry. But she saw something else. Was it…regret?

"Well done, Investigator Urie," one of the men congratulated. "We'll be sure the director hears about this."

Reina looked up at Urie who smirked down at her.

He knew. He had known for weeks.

One of the investigators picked up a small rifle. "This is to make sure you don't access your kagune while we take you into custody."

Reina winced when she felt a sharp sting on her backside before her vision started to go foggy.

"Ka…neki…"

Her world turned black as she lost consciousness.

Reina slowly opened her eyes and took in her new surroundings. She was in a small pale gray room. The only items inside were a bed and a chair. There was a funny odor in the air, but she couldn't place what it was. One of the walls had a large mirror on it. It didn't seem to make much sense to her for them to put it there. Why would a prisoner need a mirror?

When she looked at her reflection, she noticed that her wig was gone along with her glasses and colored contacts. Her blue eyes seemed to have dulled in color, and her dark blonde hair seemed a bit more lifeless than usual.

She looked down and saw that she had been changed into dark green clothing resembling scrubs. She preferred not to think about the idea of someone changing her and just prayed it had been a woman.

"Hello, Miss Reina Furukawa," an unfamiliar voice announced over a sound system. "Oh, but that isn't your real name, is it? No, your true name is Corie Masataka."

"Where am I?" she asked.

The mirror disappeared to reveal that it was a one-way mirror and while she couldn't always see who was on the other side, someone could always see her. A middle-aged man smiled at her with an unnerving amount of pleasure.

"Inside a special room at Cochlea. My name is Jiro Kimura, and I'm the one who's been put in charge of you."

"Why didn't they kill me?"

"A ghoul infiltrating the CCG is no small task. We can't let you die without knowing why you did what you did. This room has been specially built for interrogating ghouls, and lucky for me, you're the first one I get to try it out on. Right now, a steady aerosoled form of RC suppressant is being pumped into the room to keep you compliant. You will be fed once every two weeks. The rest of the time is devoted to learning your secrets."

"I'll tell you what you want to know."

"Very well. We'll talk soon, Miss Masataka."

Corie waited impatiently for that Jiro or whatever guy to return. She knew that once she explained everything, they would most likely kill her. It was possible they would keep her for information purposes later on, but the chances of that were slim.

In the meantime, Corie had to not think too much about her current situation. If she thought about the tiny room she would never be able to leave or how she would never walk outside again or how many people were watching her…well, she just couldn't think about it.

After what felt like six hours, the door finally opened and Jiro walked in. He brought in another chair with him and sat himself down across from her.

"All right, Miss Masataka. Let's get started, shall we?"

"I want to talk to Haise Sasaki."

"Tell me what I need to know, and we'll see. Why did you break into the CCG?"

Corie sighed and began her story. "I started working at the CCG about a year ago. The reason is that I wanted to protect the investigator known as Haise Sasaki. He lost all of his memories two years. I knew him in his previous life, and while he did not remember me, I still wanted to ensure his survival. So I became the ghoul known as Lightning and I stepped in during his battles against other ghouls when it looked like he was in trouble. Sometimes, I would just take care of other ghouls who were getting ready to join the fight and take them out of commission so he wouldn't have to fight them too."

Jiro drummed his fingers against his knee. "Now see, this story doesn't quite add up, Miss Masataka. Why would a ghoul actively fight to protect an investigator? They kill people like you every day. Who's to say Sasaki wouldn't have killed you?"

"I told you, I knew him previously."

"No one else who knew him before seems to have come after him."

"I can't control their actions."

"That or you actually didn't know him at all and you don't want to help him. I'm afraid you'll have to come up with something better if you want to be let out of here."

"But-But I'm telling you the truth!"

"That's what they all say." He got up from the chair and started towards the door. "To be honest, I'm kind of glad you didn't come clean right away. That's going to make it a lot more fun for me."

"What are you talking about?"

Jiro smirked cruelly as he left the room and shut the door.

Corie sank against the bed in defeat. She couldn't believe he thought she was lying.

No, she could. A ghoul infiltrating the CCG only to attempt to save an investigator did sound pretty unrealistic.

But it was the truth as strange as it seemed.

And since Jiro didn't believe her, what exactly was he going to do to her to get the supposed truth from her?

While Corie waited for Jiro to return, the mirror disappeared and revealed a familiar face on the other side.

She slowly got up from the bed and walked over to it. "I wanted to tell you," she said softly. "Every time I saw you, I wanted to tell you who I really was."

Sasaki looked back at her with that same horrible betrayed look. She wasn't sure she had ever seen him look so angry and it hurt her to know that she was partially the cause.

"Is it true?" he asked coldly. "Did you know me before?"

"Yeah."

"You lied to me."

"I'm sorry. I…"

"This entire time, all you've done is lie to all of us. The person that I came to respect and admire…she doesn't even exist."

"No, that's not true. Maybe I acted a lot more introverted than I really am, but it was still me."

"So at the Christmas party, you weren't nervous because you were around so many new people. You were nervous because they were all investigators."

Corie shamefully nodded. "Yeah."

"I don't understand. Why did you help me train the Quinx if you knew you were training them to kill ghouls?"

"…Because you asked me to."

Sasaki's brow furrowed.

"You cared about them, so that made me care about them too."

"If you really knew me before, why didn't you say anything?"

"…I can trust Kaneki…but I couldn't trust Sasaki yet."

"So instead you played this sick ruse to get close to me."

"What would you have done if I told you?"

Sasaki looked away from her. To be honest, he didn't really know what he would've done and he hated that. "You're a pretty sorry excuse for a ghoul."

Corie scoffed. "Okay, if you wanna go there, you're a pathetic excuse for an investigator."

"Excuse me?"

"I'm Lightning. I've watched almost all of your fights for the last year. I have seen you let ghouls escape, capture them when you should've killed them, and insist that some of them be kept for interrogation when they were about to be slaughtered by your comrades. You defend ghouls more than any other investigator. Because there is a part of you that remembers how hard you used to fight to protect them."

Sasaki glared at her and unconsciously put his hand to his chin. "I like my life now."

Corie noticed the motion and furrowed her brow a little.

"I don't care about my past. I care about where I am right now. I don't want to lose what I have or the people in my life."

"What about all of the people you left behind?"

"Like you?"

"Yes."

"This was all your decision. You can't blame me for you being in here."

"I don't. Look, do you think all of this was easy for me? You think it's easy to look at you every day and you don't know who I am to you?"

"I'm not that person anymore. And I never will be."

"That's not true. You're still Ken Kaneki and that won't change."

"My name is Haise Sasaki."

"Your name is Kaneki. Don't you understand? Kaneki is who you are. Sasaki is who they want you to be. Think about it. You were a half-ghoul with no memories of who you were. It is the perfect opportunity for the CCG to mold you to their way of thinking and turn you into their ultimate weapon against ghouls."

"You don't know what you're talking about."

"Oh, I don't?"

"No. You're partial to ghouls and it clouds your judgment."

"And you're not partial to the CCG?"

"Arima and Akira have become like the parents I never knew. They have been there for me more than anyone."

Corie gritted her teeth. She could put up with a lot, but that statement was crossing a line. No one had been there for him or cared about him more than her, and most certainly not the people who were only using him.

"Let me tell you something. Yes, I knew you as Ken Kaneki. And we were so close that we were like siblings. You put your trust in me almost from the moment you met me. And the more I learned about you and taught you, the stronger my desire to protect you became." Angry tears formed in her eyes that she tried to push back so as not to appear weak in front of him. "I was there the night you supposedly died. I held you in my arms, thinking that I was never going to see you again and hating myself for not getting there in time to stop what had happened. That night destroyed me. I didn't think I was ever going to be able to really live again. So when I found out you were alive, I thought things would go back to how they were if only a little. I put myself right in your line of sight as you were walking down the sidewalk. You looked right at me…and you had no idea who I was. That hurt worse than anything an investigator or another ghoul could do to me."

Sasaki's face softened a bit.

"You know…you were so ready to let go of all of us. But you didn't consider that we weren't ready to let go of you." She put her hand to the glass. "Come on, Kaneki. Don't you know me?"

Sasaki stared back at her earnest face, watching the tears slowly run down her cheeks.

"Isn't there any part of you that at least thinks I'm familiar?"

He didn't want to admit to her that there was indeed a small part of him that felt he knew her from before. As petty as it may be of him, he was still angry at her for lying to him so he didn't really feel like trying to make her feel better.

"Reina…" He let out a strained laugh. "No. Corie, I'm sorry, but I'm not Kaneki. No matter what you say, he's gone. I'm sorry that you're in here, but that was your own choice. I can't help you now. And frankly, I'm not sure I want to help you. You're on your own."

He started to reach for a button on the console.

"No, wait, Kaneki, please don't go!"

The mirror flipped back and she could only stare at her own tear-stained face.

"I'm sorry," she whispered, her hand slowly sliding down the glass. "I'm sorry I failed to protect you again."