Maple hummed lightly to herself as she walked to her school. The noise of the busy city around her didn't bother her as she continued on with her head in an advanced computer engineering book. In fact, she was so involved in her book that she didn't even notice when a commotion came from her right. Rather it was only when she felt a soft hit to her head that she raised her eyes all.

"Hmm?" Maple looked up from her book in confusion. Oddly, it had become rather quiet in comparison to all the city noise she had been hearing a moment ago. Looking around, Maple realized that she was next to a construction site where the workers were building a new fast food restaurant. It was still in the early stages and did not yet have any walls set up. Rather, the concrete base and the steel beams for the building's structure were still being set up. Most of the construction workers had stopped what they were doing and were staring at her for some reason though...

Did she have something on her face?

Maple looked about herself and jumped at the presence of a bright red, steel beam lying behind it. The beam appeared to have been dropped from a mishap with the crane. It had crushed the fence beside her and even cracked the concrete behind her.

"Oh wow!" Maple gasped in shock. "Any closer and that would have hit me." Maple said loudly in her shock. She turned to look over at the construction workers and put her hands on her hips. "You should be more careful! You could hurt someone with one of these!" Maple huffed. If anything, several of the construction workers looked like they were about to faint in terror while the rest at least looked as if they were looking death in the face. Good, they really should be more careful about these sorts of things!

And with that, Maple continued onward to school.

Surprisingly, when Maple looked back on it, the school day passed uneventfully. It was when she went home that things went... oddly. Firstly, it seemed oddly quiet on her walk home. Living in the slums, everyone was normally piled on top of eachother and thus knew each very well. Normally, Maple would be greeted several times before she even made it to the Ishigami's apartment complex, never mind her way up the stairs. Yet, it was oddly quiet and Maple wasn't greeted even once on her way to her home. Unfortunately, Maple didn't notice as her head was once again stuck in a book. This time she was studying computer algorithms.

That obliviousness lasted about as long as it took to walk into the apartment and realize no one was home. Someone was always home, be it Mrs Ishigami, one of her older siblings coming to visit, or even her niece and nephew being dropped off for some free babysitting while her brother and sister in law were out.

Regardless, Maple knew something was going on as soon as she entered the home and wasn't greeted by a rousing welcome home. Frowning, Maple took another few steps in and lowered her book. She didn't close the door.

"Hello?" She called. Maple stowed the book in her over-the-shoulder bag. "Kaa-san! Tou-san?"

Maple took another tentative step into the apartment. Abruptly, the door slammed shut behind her and she looked back in shock just in time to see a serrated blade heading for her neck. Maple squeezed her eyes closed in reflex but blinked when she heard a metallic clang.

Above her, (because she was still short, dang it) a man was sent reeling as his blade bounced off her neck. Maple had a moment to be relieved before the man was coming at her again.

This time she took several steps back, but wasn't fast enough to avoid the man's swing. It bounced off again.

"Ano..." Maple murmured confusedly as the man once more attempted to kill her with his blade. This time, he aimed for her face but it didn't seem to matter when the blade continued to be repelled from her person. In this time, Maple took a moment to observe her attacker. The man appeared be around his thirties with straight brown hair to about his chin and a matching goatee. He wore a grey coat and she could see a pristine collar and black tie underneath.

The man tried to strike at her again and he was summarily repelled.

"Um..." Maple began to feel uncomfortable at the amount of effort this man was taking to try and kill her. It reminded her a bit of that first poisonous monster back when she first got into VR gaming. Also, she didn't see any blood in the apartment and while her family wasn't here she didn't think the man had killed them. In fact, it almost looked as if everyone and just packed and left for a bit..

The man tried and failed to kill her again. Now she was really feeling uncomfortable. Here he was, sweating and exerting himself, but with nothing to show for it.

"Uh... you can do it?" Maple offered falteringly. What was she supposed to do? He was trying so hard! How could she not encourage that? "I'm sure you'll get it. Try a little harder." Maple murmured and smiled cheerfully at her aggressor. Abruptly, the man stopped his storm of sword strikes and stared at her. Finally, he said something.

"What?" He asked. Maple found herself blushing but frowned at him in turn.

"You were trying really, really, hard, so I encouraged you. It reminded me of my younger nephew. He's so cute when he tries to help with the groceries." At the thought of her nephew Maple found herself smiling happily. The man stared at her for a few more moments. Then he pulled out a badge.

"I'm Naoto Hayashimura, first class ghoul investigator of the CCG." He introduced himself. She smiled at him.

"I'm Ishigami Suzuha, but I like it best when people call me Maple. One day, I'm going to get a turtle and name it Syrup and then we'll be Maple Syrup together." Maple introduced herself and held out her hand for him to shake. He gave her an unreadable look and then shook her hand slowly, though Maple noticed that he seemed very ready to swing that sword in a moment's notice.

"Would you like some tea?" Maple asked. Originally, Maple had been horrible with dealing with other guild leaders in a political way. Beat them in events, sure! But argue trade agreements and hunting areas? It had taken Lily ages to straighten that one out and to introduce her to a secret, political weapon: tea.

Naoto-san's brow wrinkled and Maple found herself falling back on option number two.

"Then perhaps some coffee? My dad likes his black, but there's sugar and cream too."

If anything he only seemed more confused, but Mable just smiled and hurried to the kitchen. Since he hadn't said he liked coffee or tea more, she hurried to place a kettle of water on the stove, and prep the coffee grounds for the coffee machine. A few moments later, she could hear the sound of Naoto-san's quiet, too-careful footsteps. When she turned around, Naoto had already seated himself at the wooden kitchen table. Humming, Maple placed the coffee and tea pot at the table along with the mugs, sugar, cream, and required spoons.

Finally, she sat. And fixed herself some tea. And sipped her tea with a very generous helping of sugar.

Apparently this was too much for Naoto-san to take.

"What the hell are you doing?" He asked. Maple blinked disarmingly.

"I'm sorry?" She asked. This seemed to infuriate Naoto-san further.

"We already know you're a ghoul, so why are you sitting here drinking tea?" Maple blinked at Naoto-san's statement. So that was why...? The CCG thought she was a ghoul? What could give them that impression?

Maple thought back to her day and recalled her morning walk. She had felt something tap her on the head while she was walking past the construction site and when she had turned she had seen the fallen steel beams. Finally, the two instances clicked together in Maple's mind as a singular occurrence.

"Oh! I got hit this morning! That's why you're here." Maple said aloud as she thumped her palm with her fist in realization. Naoto-san growled and seemed to want to reach for his sword again. Maple hurriedly continued on. "No need to worry though, despite my defense, I'm still quite human. You can go back and pick up a different case. There's no need to waste your time here anymore." Maple waved her hand in a shooing motion before turning back to her drink.

Unfortunately, the CCG operative didn't find her response very amicable to his own plans.

"You..." Natoto-san growled before visibly taking a deep breath. With his eyes closed he grit out, "Just how stupid do you think I am?"

Maple blinked. "Um, actually, I think you're a highly trained and very intelligent officer of the CCG. You have to be to be an investigator. I'm just not anything that you or the CCG have ever encountered before." Naoto opened his eyes and shot her a vicious glare. Maple frowned back.

"I'm not." She stated stubbornly. "I'll even go down to the CCG to prove it." The investigator shot her a disbelieving look before snorting.

"Fine, you want a quick trip to Cochlea, be my guest. I'll laugh when they force you into a cell for study." This seemed agreeable to the CCG investigator and soon Maple found herself being driven towards the first ward and CCG Headquarters. It was a quiet drive as Naoto didn't seem too inclined to talk to her, and the CCG grunts he had with him seemed rather terrified.

Maple did her best not to roll her eyes and sip the remainder of her tea in peace.

The CCG building was tall, imposing, and made primarily of glass and concrete. It was nothing like the Maple Tree Guild's base and certainly didn't give off that feeling of closeness and security.

Still, it was impressive and Maple found herself wondering how many people worked in it or could fit in its interior without being overcrowded.

Maple went to step towards the front doors, but Naoto stepped in front of her.

"We're going in the back so as to not cause a scene when the alarms go off." He growled out. He gestured towards the side of the building where Maple could already see some more CCG special investigators head over with particularly tight grips on their silver cases. These agents were dressed a little differently than Naoto-san though. Instead of the standard investigator gear, they wore a white colored version and seemed quite young. In fact, one of the girls was actually shorter than her!

Maple smiled at them but took care not to wave. Instead she followed Naoto-san towards the side of the building and did her best not to stiffen when the other agents surrounded them as an escort formation.

They couldn't hurt her, but they did stir up old MMORPG instincts. It'd also probably be really bad if she acted out one of her poison attacks on them. She hadn't actually kept any of her offensive techniques so it would really just be a very awkward, nerve wracking moment for everyone.

Truthfully, beyond her ability to eat whatever she wished and her ultimate defense, the only in-game skill she had kept was 'Loving Sacrifice' and even that tied more into her defensive capabilities than anything else. Not that she'd had a chance to truly use it. She only knew she had it due to doing some testing back when she realized she had kept her defensive capabilities. It was a nice surprise.

"In here, Miss Unbreakable Ghoul," One of the surrounding agents murmured. He opened a nondescript back door and gestured her forward with a grin. Maple smiled politely back and returned his grin with a sweet smile of her own. Maple stepped forward and wasn't quite surprised when the door slammed shut behind her and a cell greeted her front. Honestly, if they would just let her be tested this wouldn't be an issue!

Maple settled herself in for a long wait.

It was in fact a long wait. A few hours actually. During that time, Maple had had nothing to do but stare at the gray walls surrounding her. She had tried speaking to the guards outside her inward facing door, but they hadn't even glanced at her. It was just about when she was debating forcing the CCG's hand that she heard the telltale click of heeled boots coming her way.

Thank goodness!

Maple peered out of her door to see several scientists being escorted by the oddly dressed investigators from earlier.

"Suzuka Ishigumo, You are here under heavy suspicion of being a ghoul. At seven forty-five this morning, witnesses placed you at the Kankuro construction company's job site where it is reported that you survived two ton steel beams falling on you without a scratch. Do you have anything to say in your defense?" A white and black haired young man asked. He held a clipboard close to himself and seemed to be reading off of a script. Maple tipped her head to the side and hummed.

"Well, its like I told Hayashimura-san. I'm not a ghoul, I just have a lot of defense. So if something hits me, it just bounces right off. I really am just a human," Maple paused to think that last statement over. "Well, mostly... probably?" She wondered aloud. Did her defense show up in her DNA and cellular structure? What about her ability to eat pretty much anything? Maybe her stomach produced more enzymes?

"So you admit you were hit by and survived the steel beams, but you won't admit to being a ghoul?" The middle investigator from a moment before asked skeptically. He tilted his eyebrow up slightly and frowned.

"Yes, sir." Maple chirped. Irritation flashed through a few of the investigators while the scientists looked absolutely terrified. Maple paid them no mind. Honestly, if they wanted her to act more Suzuha and less Maple-y they shouldn't have kept her in this boring room for so long. The middle investigator (whom Maple was beginning to believe was the leader of the squad) sighed but stepped forward.

"Very well, our scientists will begin testing you. During the testing, my squad and I will be standing guard to protect the science division's personnel. If we believe that you are a danger to anyone in the room at any time, we will act in their defense with lethal measures. Do you understand?" The man's gray eyes bored into her own. He probably meant it to be scary, but Maple paid it no mind. She had seen scarier and she had two lifespans worth of memories to fall back on. He was practically a child in comparison. Or, a least as far as memories go. For a mental state... Maple knew she was extremely childish and preferred it that way. It was a good way to live when it meant you weren't cognizant enough to miss your friends...

"Suzuha Ishigumo, do you understand?" The leader in white asked again, louder and a bit gruffer.

"Oh, er, yes! I understand." Maple hurried to agree. It was fine anyway. Nothing they did could hurt her.

Once she gave her agreement the scientists and investigator squad moved forward. The bars in front of her dropped in a surprisingly smooth motion and then Maple found herself surrounded by fidgeting, frightened scientists and glaring, trigger happy CCG investigators.

The first thing they did was strap her to a chair using what was probably ghoul resistant material. Then they scrubbed her arms and attempted to draw her blood.

Emphasis on attempted.

The syringe bent rather than pierced her skin. The screeching sound it made echoed in the quiet room and several scientists backed off in fear. The one who had been holding the syringe paled and nearly dropped the broken utensil.

"That's the specially made ghoul syringe," He whispered in shock.

Maple nodded.

"I did tell you I have the ultimate defense. Nothing can hurt me, not your syringes or your ghoul weapons." Maple shrugged as much as she was able to in apology. Unfortunately, she ended up ripping one side of her restraints.

"Oops?" She squeaked as several of the remaining scientists threw themselves to the ground to get away from her. She didn't count it against them though, MMORPG players had done much more in attempts to escape her. Maple looked towards the investigators and wasn't surprised to see that several of them had drawn the weapons.

The leader was the only one without a weapon drawn, though he kept a tight grip on his silver case.

"And if none of our syringes can take your blood, then how are we supposed to test your blood?" He asked.

Maple blinked. She hadn't thought of that. The only thing her defense didn't work on was piercing damage and herself. She didn't think piercing damage existed here, so that left... Maple gulped.

"I didn't think about that. How much blood do you need? Maple asked quietly. Even as she asked, the dark haired girl could feel the blood draining from her face. Blood. Ewwwwww...

The white and black haired guy turned to one of the scientists (she didn't know their names but this one seemed to have more fancy colors on his uniform's shoulders than the others) and gave him a questioning look. The doctor gulped but seemed to steady himself.

"For the most concise testing we would need about five vials of blood." The doctor held up a short vial for her to see. Maple took note of it and nodded. She would need more than a pin prick then...

Without another word Maple lifted the arm free of restraints and bit into it. She whimpered and felt her eyes water as she felt the pain, but only removed her mouth from herself when she tasted the salty tang of blood.

Maple tried to blink away her tears as she held her mutilated arm out towards the scientists. It now sported two crescent shaped lines of torn flesh with copious amounts of blood leaking from the wounds.

"Here," she murmured softly. Shakily a few scientists approached her and began harvesting the blood. It was honestly pretty gross, but they were careful to clean her up afterwards. Once they were finished the scientists tried to collect hair and nail samples. In the end, Maple had to collect those as well, but they were at least easy to collect without injury to her person.

In the end, the scientists collected their samples and left as they came, taking all but the singular white haired investigator with them.

He watched her from under his bangs and she smiled unsurely at him in return. His eyes took on a more thoughtful look before he nodded at her and left; leaving Maple alone in the cell.

I might write the next part of this before moving on to the second path (Anteiku, here comes Maple!) or I might not. Also, apologies for the wait. I expected to have this out within days of posting the first chapter. I just underestimated my lack of knowledge regarding anything after season one of tokyo ghoul (I had to research!).

Anywat, you guys will hopefully be getting more on this premise soon, either wrapping up the CCG path or moving on to the anteiku path.