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The following is a fan-based

FICTION

Tokyo Ghoul, Tokyo Ghoul Root A and Tokyo Ghoul:re and other products related to the TG Series are all owned by Sui Ishida, Shin Towada and Shueisha.

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Case 3: Lying Soul (2)

While I was already experienced with night shifts thanks to the cases from last month, I was truly irritated by how things had turned out to be for that night at Takatsuki's flat.

Once it was dinner time, Kuroiwa took his leave to reach back home to his wife and son, giving the leading role for the shift to me.

It was right by the time we all heard the sound of the door clicking close that I found myself dealing with the most annoying individual I had ever met, something quite shocking for someone that had faced no little issue with women in the past but sadly true as the author was quick to try and pester Hairu with questions ranging from overly-personal to outright embarrassing on themselves.

The pinkette was polite enough to not stop the older female from storming her with words, her cheeks flushing once or twice at the carefree attitude of the writer.

Obviously I was more than happy to burst whatever bubble the green-haired woman had tried to create with the younger Investigator, interceding mostly in the chat or going to truly steamroll her own voice with serious queries regarding her house.

As much as I wanted to interact with the clearly insane woman the least possible, we were there for a serious task and every, single detail regarding Takatsuki's home was another edge to consider during our stay.

If Aogiri Tree was truly interested in the woman, which I am sure she would be more than able to harass the Ghoul organization with a cheeky smile plastered on her visage, then planning escape routes was a must, especially with how little space the place had.

Fighting here wouldn't be optimal for someone with my fighting style and being cramped with Hairu in a brawl there would hinder the mission even more.

Yet the more I tried to not focus on the dorky woman, to try and not get irked in the process of doing my job, the more I would get irked by her easygoing behavior. For someone that was meant to appear scared for her life, she was doing an awfully good job in proving that this was easily a fake call for help.

While I have never read anything written by her, the context she would bring up while trying to get Hairu's attention were evident.

Kafka is famous for writing modern, relatable tragedies. His inspiration was his harsh childhood and adult life, bringing to the world's attention how messed up humanity was in that period.

And yet the world didn't care as it spiraled down even more than before, so numb and silly.

Drowning those gloomy thoughts to focus onto the umpteenth attempt from Takatsuki as she went to embarrass Hairu once more, I started to think about my new subordinate.

Part of me wondered if she had any family left as she sounded far too trusting to be a fellow orphan. The girl was eager to learn how to improve, how to do this job properly and… she knew Arima.

That small development was brought up thanks to the chatty Takatsuki's inquisition when the pinkette was asked about what motivated her choice to join the CCG.

She had almost blurted out Arima's given name, Kishou, but had paused just in time to change the reason with something less… strange. Sure, I could be confusing the Reaper's with someone else with just that clue, but Hairu had glanced my direction when she was talking and she had appeared quite uneasy when I noticed her staring at me.

"Ne Dull-kun, what is your relationship with Hairu-chan?" The green-haired woman asked out of nowhere, a chesire smile plastered on her face. "She is not telling me and I suspect she is wasting herself on someone this dull as Dull-kun."

I bit down a tired groan and merely sighed back at her, glancing at the confused Hairu before talking. "We are partner by work, Takatsuki-san."

She whistled at that, turning at the fellow girl. "That is good, Hairu-chan. It means that you wouldn't have to deal with Dull-kun after this mission is over, eheh!"

I think I failed to say until that I wasn't enjoying the nickname the woman had been so keen to attach to me. It didn't help much with the fact that I was the only one forced to keep a civil behavior to the other as I had to leave a good impression to Hairu on her first mission. Knowing how easily she was to get influenced by minor actions, I decided to limit myself from retaliating but…

Man, I hope this mission is indeed a fake!

While I wouldn't generally wish bad things for people, especially those as annoying as the author, I was hopeful that the possible legal backlash would be good enough to bring her down to the ground and out from her childish attitude.

But maybe I need to explain myself about the reason I find her insane optimism so much infuriating: When you are a writer known for Tragedy and you have a grand perception of the world, this kind of behavior was just utterly unacceptable. To be this overly-cheerful about life but also this painfully knowing of the harsh reality was just asking for people to be angry at her.

I was glad to have brought a bento with me as when it was time for dinner, I realized that the supposed meal of the author was a small cup of instant ramen and while I wasn't someone that disliked the quick dish, I was also disgusted by the fact this has been her dinner for weeks now.

Hairu was not as prepared as I was and I decided to offer her half of the content within the small box of various seafood I had on me.

After 'cleaning up' the small trash tower of empty cups of ramen, me and my partner bid a goodnight to the eccentric author before settling in the living room.

There were two couches and so we decided to use them as our temporary beds during this stay. The night was pleasantly warm, just enough to find comfort out of it as I slowly closed my eyelids and prepared myself to fall asleep- "S-Senpai?"

I blinked and glanced tiredly at Hairu, the girl tuckered in her own makeshift bed as she gave me an inquisitive look. "I-I don't think I should ask... but why do you dislike Takatsuki-san?"

Now that was an interesting situation that I had not pictured. I nodded her direction, to let her know that I didn't mind her query and decided to speak up about it.

"Takatsuki-san is possibly lying about the situation about Aogiri, Hairu." I stated quietly. "If she had been truthful, then she wouldn't be behaving this much easygoing and-" "B-But she wasn't." She flushed as she interrupting me and I frowned at this call.

"What do you mean?" Whatever attempt to build up an explanation for her sudden outburst was replaced by embarrassment as she explained her logic.

"T-Takatsuki-san's hands were trembling a little as she handled her cup of coffee and she looked a little paler compared to the photos she had around her house.

...What?

Actually, now that I was thinking about it, she didn't look a little forced in her tone as she was speaking with Hairu but… "What if it's just a cold? We are close to winter and-"

"S-She was also behaving more erratic as Shiono-san had said few hours ago. H-He said that she could be-" " A coping mechanism?" She nodded at my interruption and I found myself even more confused. "Do you think this theory could be truly a tangible possibility, Hairu?"

The pinkette blinked, her face scrunching in a little thinking expression and then she nodded. "It is possible."

I nodded and smiled at the fact she hadn't stuttered there. Small steps, I repeated in my mind, small steps.

"Good to see that you got an acute perception of things, Kohai. It shows that you have quite the potential."

She blushed and nodded at me, flattered by my compliments.

As silence returned on the living room, I used this opportunity to indeed think about the woman that was Takatsuki Sen and, as much as it pained me to say, I did found Hairu's theory genuinely fitting with her overall attitude.

Her overbearing cheerfulness could be a product of whatever personal issue had been afflicting her and, frankly, I could see her trying to use insanity to cover up her own falling pieces.

Tomorrow will surely shed some light about my confusion. Hopefully.

If there was something that Tatara despise the most, it was being forced by Eto in some of her whims.

Aogiri Tree was supposed to keep quiet for still few more weeks after what had happened few months earlier, to recover and avoid attention on it, but the Owl had other plans.

Curiosity trumped logic, that was something that represented best the one-eyed ghoul and this was by far not the worst thing she had pulled because of her quirky needs of knowing everyone and everything.

Maybe it was a general obsession about knowing the world around her, or maybe she was showing paranoia with her eccentric way.

Sighing to myself, his mind reminded him about the plan the ghoulette had prepared for the Doves. Tomorrow afternoon the 'author' was supposed to go out for some quick groceries and bring with her the two investigators on that shift right into an ambush.

Noro had wanted to be the only individual on the spot but both Eto and Tatara had dismissed the semi-mindless Ghoul from that peculiar role. They needed to forge out some skirmish, a brief one that would see 'Aogiri repelled by the CCG' and prove to the Investigators that the organization was truly trying to 'kill' Sen Takatsuki.

The high coordinator was going to be the one responsible of keeping both investigators busy, to gauge their strength and properly dispatch of them if they were far too strong to be kept alive.

The plan was easy, flawless in its simplicity and yet the tall Ghoul had some doubts about the human that was going to be the big threat in the fight.

Ryouga Kaizo had grown by leaps and bounds ever since their first encounter and if Tatara had to study the young man from the most recent known fight he had with Ayato, then he was genuinely perplexed about the youngster's capacity to survive against him.

There was no inclination shown from the investigator that he would once more foolishly ditch one of his Quinques as a respectful attempt on his person and his close-range Quinque had proved to be far stronger than the chinese Ghoul had expected it to become.

Hopefully his doubts will be soothed by the time he had finished off the rising human from ever achieving a superior level of threat.

Maybe he was paranoid, maybe he was overestimating the human because of still unknown reasons.

Something was missing, Tatara mused as he finished signing another document from his paperwork, and tomorrow will be more than enough to shed some light over his confusion. Hopefully.

AN

Next chapter is already being written as you are reading this!

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