Speeding through this, so sorry if there are mistakes. The story is coming to a close now.

Why did Akira feel like every day lately she was slowly unravelling?

'We don't have time to linger here,' she called across the dark roof. 'He's long gone.'

The statement was already known by everyone present and thus a redundant thing to say, but she said it anyway. Why did everything feel redundant lately? Like all her motivations and beliefs were slowly crumbling around her, and she'd only just noticed. Was this what Amon had been feeling as he struggled with the world over the last few weeks?

Amon was standing at the edge of the roof, like if he stared intently enough at the night's sky he could summon Kaneki back to them.

'I can't believe he got out,' he said, not looking at Akira or the other two investigators. Shinohara was standing by the door, with his protege Suzuya standing a few paces away, humming under his breath.

Shinohara sighed. 'You shouldn't be up here, Amon. You've lost a lot of blood.'

Amon turned around to face them. Akira couldn't make out any of his features as he stood against the backdrop of the Tokyo skyline, only the uneven shape of his shoulder, where he had had his shoulder bandaged and then slipped his jacket back on over it.

'If you think that's going to stop me fighting in the Anteiku raid, you've got another thing coming, Shinohara.'

The older investigator pursed his lips. 'The higher-ups won't like it.'

Amon laughed humourlessly. 'I think the higher-ups are going to be unhappy about a great number of things.'

Shinohara bowed his head, nodding. A moment passed between the four of them, as the cool night wind whipped through their hair and clothes. Shinohara bent down then and picked something up off the ground. He turned it over in his hand as he straightened, opening the object up and peering inside.

'It's the ghoul's wallet,' Shinohara said bemusedly. 'But how...?' He flicked through the contents.

Akira saw something catch the light from where it was lying on the ground. She picked it up. It was a key card for the outer doors of the facility.

'This is how the ghoul escaped,' Akira stated, holding it up to show Shinohara.

His eyes widened.

'Where did he...?'

'Ah haaa,' Suzuya hummed, coming up to them and plucking the card from Akira's hand, holding it up to look at it in the dim light. 'He found it then.'

'Suzuya, what...?' Shinohara started.

'How did the ghoul get this wallet and key card?' Akira asked the younger ghoul directly.

'Well, Mado-san...' Suzuya started, but Shinohara cut across him.

'Be careful what you say, Juuzou.'

Akira raised an eyebrow.

'What's the point in lying, Shinohara-san?' Suzuya said with a knowing smile.

'Because,' Shinohara said, 'if it gets around that an SS ranked ghoul escaping is because of...' he stopped and closed his eyes, pinching the bridge of his nose.

'I gave it to Kaneki, Mado-san!' Suzuya declared.

Akira had gathered as much.

'Why, Juuzou, why?' Shinohara practically whined.

Suzuya just hummed, grinning at them both.

'One day you're going to go a step too far, Juuzou,' Shinohara said with a sigh, 'and I won't be around to protect you.'

'But you're the one who allowed us to catch Kaneki Ken in the first place,' Akira stated. It didn't make any sense.

Suzuya shrugged. 'I was bored.'

'And you let him escape again because...? Akira asked.

He shrugged and scuffed at the floor with his slipper again.

Akira shot a glance at Amon, and then did a double take when she saw the look on his face. He was staring at Suzuya with a kind of rage she didn't think he was capable of. She had taken a step back before she could even think about it.

'You did this?' Amon hissed, his tone like ice. 'You pathetic excuse of an investigator.'

Juuzou turned slowly to look at Amon and tilted his head to the side, as if he was trying to solve a mildly difficult maths equation.

Amon came striding forwards and grabbed Suzuya by the scruff of his shirt, pulling him onto his tip toes.

'You did this! I can't believe it. It's your fault he gets caught, when he was out of harms way before, and then when he's safe and securely locked up in Cochlea, you give him the one thing he needs to escape.'

Despite Amon's anger and size, Akira knew who she would bet on if the two were to go at each other in a fight. The blades hidden beneath Suzuya's clothes flashed, but he made no move to grab them. He only looking up at Amon with his large round eyes.

'Amon-san, let Suzuya go. He doesn't know what he's done,' Shinohara said, his voice steely.

'He knows exactly what he's done,' Amon let out breathlessly. 'Everyone always lets him off the hook because they say he's not in his right mind, that he doesn't know what he's doing, but he knows.'

'He's different to everybody else,' Suzuya said quietly. 'Kaneki-chan. He doesn't fit in with the ghouls or the humans, so nobody likes him.'

Amon sneered at the younger ghoul. 'Whereas you don't fit in because no one likes you,' he spat. 'Shinohara only puts up with you out of charity.'

Suzuya's fingers twitched at his sides.

'You were raised by ghouls. Surely that's enough to throw you in the cells with them.'

'Amon-san,' Akira decided to interject. 'You were raised by a ghoul, if I remember correctly.'

Suzuya, instead of trying to pull away, leant forwards so his nose was an inch from Amon's. 'Do you feel like you're looking in a mirror, Amon-san?'

Amon let out a growl and flung Suzuya away from him. The young man landed nimbly on his feet, laughing airily, then he turned around to look out across Tokyo, humming under his breath, his fingers still twitching at his sides.

'I'm going to get him fired for this,' Amon vowed, glaring at Suzuya's back.

'You do that,' Akira spoke up immediately, 'and I'll tell the higher ups that you and the Eyepatch ghoul were lovers.'

Amon stared at her, his stance becoming rigid.

Shinohara's eyes were like saucers set into his face.

'You wouldn't... she's lying, Shinohara-san.' Amon's head swivelled between the two of them, his expression desperate. 'She's as bad as he is,' he pointed a finger at Suzuya.

Shinohara seemed to have regained his composure somewhat. He gave Akira a significant look.

'It's interesting that you and the ghoul were alone in the lab room when he managed to escape,' Shinohara mused.

'What... no!' Amon said quickly. 'He ate me,' he said, gesturing wildly at his shoulder with his good arm. 'If we were... what you said we were, would he...?'

'I think you need to calm yourself, Amon,' Shinohara cut in. 'I thought you could control your emotions better than this.'

'I'm sorry, sir, I...' he brought his good arm up to rub at his face, his eyes scrunched up. 'Lately, I'm a mess. I don't know what's happening to me.'

Shinohara was right. This wasn't the man that Akira's father had told her about, or the one she'd been partnered with. He seemed frayed at the edges.

'I'll only say it once,' Shinohara stepped forwards, until he was standing firmly in front of his melting colleague.

'Please, Shinohara-san...' Amon pleaded.

Shinohara held up a hand. 'I think it's best that a lot of the things discussed tonight are never again repeated, but let me make myself very clear. If you threaten Juuzou again, verbally or physically, you will regret it.' He looked Amon dead in the eyes. 'Mark my words, I will see that you suffer for it.'

Amon looked so small, just standing there. Shinohara came forward, took the card from Akira, and put both that and the wallet deep into one of his pockets.

'Come on, Juuzou. It's time we left.'

Juuzou stopped humming, but otherwise ignored Shinohara completely, still facing away from them. Shinohara walked up to him and patted him lightly on the shoulder, but when the younger man still didn't move.

'What happens now?' Amon voiced quietly, as Shinohara put his entire arm around Juuzou's shoulders and ushered him slowly towards the door.

'The Anteiku operation is happening in a matter of hours,' Akira said, even though, again, they both already knew this. 'Kaneki Ken will either be there or he won't. There's nothing we can do about that now.'

'He's incredibly strong,' Amon muttered, 'he could change everything, the entire outcome of the battle.'

'Hopefully there won't be a battle,' Akira said 'We're hoping to catch them unawares.'

Down below in the streets, a police siren went off.

'They mean to exterminate them all, don't they?' Amon asked quietly.

'You know they do, Amon,' Akira said, just as quietly.

'Shinohara-san,' Amon called after the senior investigator as he neared the exit, 'we can't kill Kaneki.'

Shinohara turned slowly, raising an eyebrow. 'Why not, Amon? Because what Akira said is true?'

There was a long pause as the two of them looked at each other.

Amon sniffed, looking away. 'He used to be human, so we can't kill him.'

'It's not that simple, Amon,' Akira said. 'Don't you get it yet? All of this is as far from simple as it gets.'

'He's a human,' Amon carried on determinedly, 'and it's our job to protect humans.'

But Shinohara was shaking his head. 'The raid is starting in less than an hour, Amon. We'll talk about this later, but... I'm afraid that whatever happens tonight will happen, whether we like it or not.'

Shinohara turned to leave, pulling at Suzuya's sleeve to signal for him to follow, leaving Akira and Amon alone on the rooftop.

Amon closed his eyes. 'I can't lose him, Akira,' he said quietly.

'He bit you, Amon,' Akira said. Again, why did she keep having to point out obvious facts to these people.

'I know he did, but for some reason, it doesn't matter. I wasn't treating him well. I... deserved it.' He looked up to meet her eyes. 'I'm sorry, for how I've behaved, for everything I've done...' He had his arms wrapped around his torso, as if he was trying to stop his insides from spilling out. 'I've been so awful to everyone. I just want to disappear...'

His voice trailed off for a moment. Akira couldn't do anything but stare at him. She felt like she had to speak up, to say something that could fix the fact that he was so broken, but her mind was blank.

'I'm sorry,' Akira said at last, and she stepped forwards to put a hand on his arm. 'For what I said about you and Kaneki, for outing you like that. I just...'

Amon was already shaking his head. 'You were right to. I deserved it.'

'That's not why I did it.'

'I know,' Amon continued. 'But look at me, I'm still in denial about it. And...' A sob came from the back of Amon's throat, before he quickly tried to gulp it back down. 'I always lose everyone, Akira. I just wanted someone for once, someone who I could have as my own, but I was so focused on making him mine, I forgot about making him happy. I forgot about letting myself be happy.'

He sniffed again. 'Now I've lost him too,' Amon murmured into the wind, hunched in on himself. 'I've lost everything.'

Akira shook her head.

'No, you haven't lost everything,' she said matter-of-factly. 'You're a person, Amon. That's what Kaneki has taught me. Human or ghoul or something in between, we're all still people, and people make mistakes. You just have to get up and learn from this. Be the man that my father saw in you. That I see in you.'

Amon looked at her through bleary eyes.

'Yes?' she shot at him, like she was a general ordering her troops.

He jumped and quickly nodded.

'And you're still an investigator. You still have a job to do.'

Amon's face fell again. 'But what about tonight... you're calling them people now, but we're being sent off to kill them. This is why it's messing with my head so...'

'Shh.' His voice had been getting more and more raised again, but Akira immediately cut him off. 'I don't know how I feel about tonight,' she said honestly, 'but I know that our friends and colleagues are going out there and are risking their lives, and I'm going to be at their sides, protecting them.' She softened her voice a little, smiling sadly at her colleague. 'There are bigger things at play here than just tonight, and definitely bigger than the two of us.'

Amon nodded. 'I think you're right.'

Akira smiled, properly this time. 'I know I am.'

The ink of night, dissected by the neon signs and shop lights, seemed to fade away as Kaneki ran through the Tokyo streets. He had never felt more determined, more energised. He could do anything he set his mind to, and right now all his thoughts led to one thing: His friends at Anteiku.

Kaneki could see them before his eyes as if they were a dream infecting the conscious world. He could see all of Anteiku lying lifelessly before him on the floor, and him, the only one left, purely because he had arrived too late.

Every second felt like an hour, every blink of his eyes like a rotation of the Earth. Every breath that hitched in his throat as he ran was telling him: they're dead, they're dead, they're dead.

No. No. Kaneki was going to fight for the people he cared about, for all the ghoul friends that he had, who were waiting like sitting ducks as the CCG massed against them. He didn't need to be kept safe. He would keep them safe. Even if he died protecting them, he would make sure there was at least one person who genuinely cared about him, left on this earth to mourn him.