Author's notes are at the bottom, not much to say right now lol.

Please enjoy this chapter!

Before choosing where they would be eating lunch, Haise had the idea to take Rize to Takeshita Street near the Harajuku train station, located at the 13th Ward. Renowned even before the dragon crisis as being one of Tokyo's more popular fashion districts that sold quirky vintage and stylish clothing to the youth of the city, Rize was pleasantly surprised to see Haise already proving himself to be an ideal partner for her.

However, due to him being buzzed, Haise had to let Rize drive his expensive sports car, and he had to sit down and give her directions on where to go, all without actually telling her where they were heading. It was a surprise after all, and as much as Rize didn't care for them, she figured that he could play along for his sake.

Taking his sports car in the nearest parking garage, Haise made sure to get out first so he could open the butterfly door for Rize, before lending his arm down to help her out of her seat. Without hesitation or the need to put on a show, like how she did with Kaneki three months ago, Rize casually slid her hand down the sleeve of Haise's to intertwine her fingers between his.

"It's what I love about you, Sasaki; you know what a girl wants, and you ALWAYS deliver," Rize complimented with a pleased grin across her lips, as she tightened her grip on his hand. Seeing Haise smiling sarcastically and chuckling at her remark, Rize turned to face him so she could use her free hand to fix the collar of his trench coat. "What? I thought you wanted me to be a good girl for you? Nothing wrong with a woman wanting to compliment her man, is there?"

"I… I guess there isn't no," Haise said hesitantly, after almost giving the young ghoul a passive aggressive comment. 'She's trying, so… Might as well try too…' Haise thought to himself, as he reached up one hand to carefully brush a few rogue strands of purple hair out of Rize's face. "You look… Beautiful," Haise said uneasily, as he tried his hardest to look past the traumatic memories he felt stirring in his head.

Although Rize had heard several lifetimes worth of compliments from men and women alike, none of it meant anything compared to when Haise said it— she knew why he avoided her, and wasn't blind to how much pain he had in his heart either. Smiling sweetly back at Haise while reaching up to nuzzle her cheek against his hand, Rize's pale cheeks became a shade of pink as she felt his fingers combing through her hair.

"Thank you, Sasaki, that… That means a lot coming from you," Rize admitted with a hint of vulnerability in her voice, as she gazed through her scratched eyeglasses at Haise. "You're… You're really handsome, Sasaki. I, uh… I-I really like saying your name a lot… It's always made me happy saying it out loud… I've missed you, you know that right?" Rize asked in a quieter voice, as she took a step forward to rest her face against Haise's chest.

Feeling her arms wrapping around his back, Haise instantly became tense. Swallowing back the lump in his throat, Haise let out a trembling breath as he slowly raised his arms up to return the hug. "… Y-Yeah… Yeah, I've uh… I've had a feeling about that for a long time… I'm happy to know at least that my name alone was, uh… Was able to make you smile, when… When I couldn't," Haise said nervously, as he slowly reached up with one arm to gently stroke his hand down the back of Rize's long hair.

"… You, holding close to you… It scares you, doesn't it?" Rize asked aloud while already knowing the question, as she listened to Haise's heart beating fast in his chest. Gently scratching the back of his back to soothe his anxiety, Rize took in a deep breath and sighed.

Letting out a trembling breath himself, Haise licked his dry lips as the two of them stood beside his car— Haise taking a moment to look around at all the other cars in the shaded area, while trying to collect his thoughts. "Ah… Y-Yeah, I'm not going to lie to you, you've… No. No, you're not the one who hurt me, and, uh… I-I don't blame Arima either," Haise said quietly into the top of Rize's head, as he couldn't help but to find her perfume to be sweet and pleasant to his senses.

"That's right Sasaki… We shouldn't blame each other for the trauma we've accumulated in our time at Sunlit Gardens…" Rize added, as she continued to scratch and massage Haise's back with one hand, while using her other arm to keep herself pressed up against his body. "No, that blame resides in the graves of those who saw us as nothing more than means to further their own goals…"

"… We shouldn't carry that burden with us, Sasaki. They're all gone, let that pain be carried with them to their graves. You and I? We have every right to live happily— we've earned that right with our blood and tears, haven't we?" Rize asked rhetorically, and found herself smiling once again as she felt Haise's arms around her body tighten, and his muscles beginning to relax.

"Yeah… Y-Yeah. You're, uh… You're right," Haise said with a sense of clarity to him, as he let out another elongated sigh through his slightly parted lips. "With the exception of that ONE asshole, none of us ever wanted to hurt one another… We were all in the same boat, weren't we?"

Grimacing before tightening her lips, Rize pressed her head further against Haise's chest as she thought back to her time in Sunlit Gardens as well. "Sasaki, it… It was a living hell for all of us there, especially me… T-They poked and prodded at me, especially down there in my privates— kept pumping me full of crap, and t-they used to pry my back open with these hooks… Those hooks, they used to pull back my muscles and skin with them, just so they could make sure that damn fossil was integrating into my kakuhou…"

"… I-I know you didn't enjoy our time together, b-but seeing you back then was… It was the only time I got to move around— to be free before getting hooked up to all those monitors and pumps again…" Rize admitted, and heard Haise letting out a quiet gasp as she continued on retelling her own experience at the hell on Earth they called their birthplace. "You were nice to me, Sasaki… Even if you didn't want to participate in their sick experiments, y-you were the only source of comfort that I had back then…"

"Kamishiro, I… Oh my God, I-I didn't have any idea that any of that happened to you," Haise said in a hollow voice, as he looked down to be with Rize's saddened gaze. "I used to think that… That they just kept you in one of those cells like the rest of the women they used for breeding… Have you… Have you told someone about this? Your father, maybe?"

Nodding her softly while still staring up into Haise's concerned eyes for comfort, Rize blinked away the tears she was accumulating in her eyelids. "I've… I've told my therapist about it… Never my father though… I think it'd break his heart," Rize admitted, as she took another shaky and long-drawn breath in through her pink lips. "Being in that capsule, it… It made me remember things that I-I'd my whole life repressing. That's why I was so glad to see you, Sasaki— you've always been my hero…"

"… I'm embarrassed to say, but my therapist told me all of that was also the reason why I came off the way I did, back when you rescued me in that vault," Rize explained, while flashing an insecure frown on her face as she watched Haise's eyebrow raise. "Apologies for how I behaved Sasaki… I wasn't all there in the head when you found me— being trapped in a confined space in the dark, with nothing but your own excrement will do that you… Pretty gross, huh?"

With Rize suddenly trying to lighten up the mood after having trauma dumped all over him, Haise couldn't help but find the gesture to be endearing enough to smirk uncomfortably at. "Y-Yeah… Yeah, you were too damn filthy when I found you," Haise said with a slight chuckle, which only intensified the longer he and Rize kept staring at one another while she started busting out laughing.

With what they needed to talk about after all those years of Haise avoiding her, Rize felt immensely better about herself— especially once she started to notice that Haise's guard was lowering as they walked hand-in-hand out of the parking garage and down toward Takeshita Street, to do some shopping before going out for lunch.

Wanting to make up for lost time spent together and to spoil Rize like the princess he thought she was, Haise made sure to look alongside her as they perused each and every shop they could get into. With his wallet full of blood money he had accumulated from the wasteland, and of course his honest-living of being a detective who owned his own agency, Haise made sure that Rize was able to let loose and shop around for anything she wanted— the price tag wasn't an objection for him.

By the time that they had spent an hour going from shop-to-shop, Haise was carrying eight shopping bags filled with new clothes for Rize, while she herself was walking on the sidewalks decked out with a casual outfit composed of Gucci and Louis Vuitton products, and of course a Diamond necklace and seven rings— earning themselves publicity and recognition from those who knew Haise from GOAT. And although she still had to wear an armband to signal to others that she was a ghoul, Rize felt extremely stylish. Feeling pretty and genuinely loved from being spoiled by the man she loved, Rize was radiating with enough confidence to pose with Haise for all the people who wanted to take pictures of them.

It was an expensive one hour date that cost Haise a good chunk of his savings, but it didn't bother him the least. Haise was the one who wanted to spoil Rize, he wanted to surprise her and no matter how many times she tried to talk him out of buying something expensive for her, he didn't hesitate to whip out his black card every time. Haise wanted her to live the life that he saw fit for her, and used him spoiling her as future justification for all the crime lords and dragons in the wasteland who he was going to brutally slaughter to recuperate his financial losses.

After loading up their trunk with Rize's new haul, Haise drove out of the parking lot and down the beaten streets near Harajuku, until he was back on the highway. From there, Haise decided to take Rize to Ramen Ichiraku, due to the photos Kaneki had messaged him earlier, while waiting on his food from within the traditional Japanese-styled restaurant.

Although Haise was disappointed that Kaneki wouldn't be able to join them, nor would Arima, Juuzou, or even Yusa, the half-ghoul figured that it would be for the best, since it looked to him as though the very excited and hungry ghoul beside him didn't seem too interested in sharing Haise with anyone else when he brought the idea up.

Nevertheless, Haise was still having a great time with Rize, who had an elegance to her that he hadn't seen with any other girl he'd ever been with. She was confident, witty, clever, and when she was around him, he didn't really need to do anything talking— Rize preferred to do the talking for both of them, and was content with Haise being at her side like a silent protector.

One thing that Haise did notice before their drive to the noodle house was that Rize really, REALLY, didn't like it when other girls got too close to him. In fact, he even caught Rize giving women who had been staring at him death glares of her own. Haise excused Rize's unhealthy jealousy and hyper possessive tendencies as her merely still trying to work through her own trauma, and left it as that.

Due to the lunch rush having been long since over, Haise and Rize were looking at a relatively short wait time. The restaurant was large for what it was, a noodle house, and the outside was only modestly decorated with traditional japanese architectural pieces— such a garden outside with a koi fish pond, a small arched bridge and one good-sized arch way that led customers to the entrance of Ramen Ichiraku.

Holding the front door open like how Arima taught him to do with women, Haise allowed Rize to walk into the very kitschy restaurant first before closing the door behind him as he walked in behind her. Once they were waiting in line, Rize pressed her back up against Haise before reaching down to grab both of hands to bring them over her chest— making him hold her while the two of them waited to be seated.

Once they were seated, the two were approached by a slender girl with long brown hair and large black eyes— her fair skin almost blended in with the white short-sleeved robe and bandanna she had on over her head. Smiling at Haise and Rize, the waitress pulled out her notepad and pen from her blue apron she had tied around her waist with a ribbon knot. "Good evening folks, my name is Ayame! I'll be your waitress! Is this your first time here by chance?"

"Actually, y-"

"-Why, yes! It's our first time here!" Rize interrupted Haise, as she put on a delightful smile while reaching out to place her hand on top of Haise's. Although Ayame appeared taken aback by Rize's intrusive behavior, she did her best to not judge the two and instead focused on going over the menu with them— or rather, with Rize, who again insisted on doing the talking on behalf of Haise.

Haise didn't admittedly mind too much— he always liked the way Rize's voice sounded, even when they were children. Feeling more comfortable around here, Haise just sat back and closed his eyelids as he listened to the two young women going over the available options they were serving that day.

Being the cheapest option on the menu, due to the ramen shop having just purchased a surplus of Orochi dragon orphans from the meat market, the Orochi Bowl was the special of the day. And as much as the shredded meat described to her sounded, Rize wasn't at all interested in putting the same meat of the mutated red-snake that she still vividly remembered getting attacked by her three months ago— back when she and a group of her fellow classmates went to the ruins of Sunlit Gardens.

Going over exotic options such as the broiled meat of a giant scorpion, the nectar collected from man-eating tarantula-hawks, savory loins of the two headed cow, the buttery legs of a mirelurk, and the hearty tri tip meat of a Deathclaw, Rize eventually found herself drawn to the premium bowl of the day: Lunar Dragon.

"What is it exactly? Is it a kind of dragon orphan, or is it an actual dragon? And if so, which biomass are we talking about here? Oh, and were they human-based or animal-based?" Rize asked inquisitively, while presenting herself to subtly show to the waitress that she was familiar with the subject.

Pursing her lips while thinking, Ayame's black eyes shifted upward toward the ceiling while tapping the end of her pen repeatedly against the edge of her notepad. "You know… I'm not quite sure about all the details too much— we actually got it ourselves today from our usual guy and his three protégés… It's fresh though! They just brought back four whole ice-boxes full of it this morning, and it's really, really good!"

"Ah, I see… And where did they hunt it?" Rize asked curiously, while still trying to squeeze information out of the somewhat oblivious waitress.

Squeezing her eyelids shut while doing her best to recall her conversation with the white-haired ninja earlier that morning, Ayame finally recalled what his blond haired student had said when handing her father his ice box. "Oh, I remember now…! Kakashi and his team tracked it down all the way to the highlands just up northeast… I think they said they finally slayed it when they arrived at Kamikochi… I-Is there an issue with that?" Ayame asked with a worried look coming over her, as she finally noticed that both Haise and Rize appeared to be genuinely shocked after she had given them her answer.

Licking her lips and putting on a smile, Rize took in a deep breath before asking, "I'm sorry if I sound intrusive at all, but I have to know… This Kakashi you mentioned, uh… W-What's his last name?" Rize asked with a nervous look coming over her face, as she looked over to Haise to see a hopeful look coming over his anxious expression.

"Kakashi's last name? I'm pretty sure it's Hatake, why? Do you know him?" Ayame asked curiously, and nearly leapt backwards when she saw Haise bumping the table with excitement as he got up from his stool.

"Really?! He's still around?! No way…?!" Haise asked with an excited grin across his face, and reached into his pocket to pull out his cellphone. "I-I know it's a long shot and you probably don't feel comfortable giving me his number, so… C-Can I give you my number for you to pass it down to him, next time you see him?! I'd really appreciate that…!"

Letting out an annoyed groan, Rize frowned and begrudgingly sat there and watched as Haise gave out his number to Ayame. Even though Ayame didn't give her number to Haise, Rize wasn't very happy to watch her man giving his phone number to another young woman— a young woman who Rize thought was being a little too friendly with Haise.

After Haise had finished chatting it up with Ayame, he sat back down across from a very irked Rize. From there, Rize asked Haise what he wanted, and rather than him telling Ayame what he wanted to order directly, Rize made it a point to cut him off again in order to relay his and her order to the mildly concerned waitress. Having ordered a kettle of green tea to share, Rize waited for Ayame to return with their hot beverages, before finally lowering her guard.

Grabbing the small ceramic cup in her hand, Rize brought the steaming-hot tea up to her lips and blew gently on its surface, before leaning the rim against her bottom lip to take a slow sip of it. "Delicious… You know, for as far as tea-standards go," Rize mused with a relaxed tone in her voice, before setting her cup back down on the table. "Sasaki, can I ask you what you're expecting from Kakashi? Wasn't he always, uh… Prone to accidentally killing those who he sparred with?" Rize asked with an uneasy look in her purple eyes.

Nodding casually, Haise replied, "I think he accidentally killed two other reapers during his training, but that was an uncommon occurrence for us back then. You'd be surprised if I told you how common it was for 'new blood' to end up dying during their first weeks of combat training…" Haise explained with a disapproving look in his eyes— he never did understand why Sunlit Gardens started them so early. "But hey, I'm sure he's doing a lot better! He's got students, soooo… He can't be all that bad, right?"

"I… I suppose so," Rize replied back with a defeated sigh, as she really didn't want to ruin the rest of her time with Haise bringing up the past again. "… Sasaki, I actually had a question I've been meaning to ask you, about that clown you captured three months ago… Whatever happened to her?" Rize asked curiously with narrowed eyes, as the mere thought of Roma being near Haise didn't sit well with her, even in what she considered to be hypothetical.

Pausing, Haise frowned slightly as he thought about how he would answer Rize's question— which seemed more like a trap than an actual inquiry. As if there was only one right answer to give her. Closing his eyelids, Haise thought back to when he had visited Arima earlier that week— when he came seeking his advice about his eventual meeting with Rize.

Due to Haise's popularity and recognition for 'being back in the game', Ruisawa was given prior permission from the chairman and those who were on the board of directors to allow Haise in-and-out of the main office if he needed access into the building. Of course, Ruisawa, the lonely woman who was pushing into her mid-forties, decided to put her own twist on it, for her own benefit.

Under the assumption that Ruisawa was sticking her neck out for him, Haise with his poor understanding of Tokyo's social norms, found it completely reasonable when the taller and older woman asked him to 'show her a good time' in exchange for the pass that he would need to go up into the peacekeepers' private offices.

Following Ruisawa into the supply closet that she had the key to, Haise was told to get on his knees and waited as she watched Ruisawa eagerly unbuttoning his business slacks before pulling her panties and pants down to her knees. Feeling her fingers gripping the back of his fluffy hair tightly while pulling on it, Haise's face was pushed between her wrinkled thighs.

Needing to breathe through Ruisawa's thick bush, Haise's entire face was pressed past her vaginal folds, as he used his tongue to lick up-and-down against the excited woman's throbbing clitoris. Feeling her hips thrusting against his face as she humped his mouth, Haise could feel himself getting lightheaded from the lack of oxygen he was receiving with how little Ruisawa was allowing him to come up for air.

When it came time for her to finish, she made sure Haise's face was buried as deep as it could fit into her womanhood, and Ruisawa had to bite onto a clean towel she took from the shelf behind her, as she came all over the half-ghoul's face. Once she caught her breath, Ruisawa handed Haise the clean towel and told him to go get himself washed up in the restrooms behind her desk, while she went to go check him out with a keycard.

Standing inside the restroom, Haise leaned down to rinse his face and the inside of his mouth out with running water, and avoided looking at his own reflection until he had cleaned his face off. Trying his best to not feel shitty about himself for being used, Haise tossed the dirty towel into the linen bin within the men's restroom, before heading back to Ruisawa's desk to grab the keycard— avoiding having to look at her naturally narrow eyes as he thanked her for 'risking her job for him'.

When he got to Arima's office, he saw Ihei walking out of the door to his private space with her pink hair messily combed, and her sleeve up against her pink lips. Smiling embarrassingly at him, Haise could smell the familiar scent of whip cream and chocolate on her breath as she gave him a quick greeting, before skurring past him to return to her own office.

Upon entering the door, Haise spotted a half-consumed mocha frappe sitting on top of Arima's desk, while the White Reaper himself was finishing adjusting his own black tie. "Ah, Haise… You almost came at a bad time," Arima said in his stoic voice, and ushered for his protege to close the door behind. "Please, take a seat…"

"Aye, Arima— Thank you," Haise said with a formal bow, before making his way to the chair sitting across Arima desk, where his large office recliner was.

Waiting for Haise to take his seat first, Arima stood beside his luxury black-recliner before finally taking his seat upon his 'throne'. Closing the monitor of his laptop down, Arima smiled softly at his troubled protege, and crossed his hands on top of his desk before asking, "So… What's worrying you, Haise?"

Smirking uneasily at the question, Haise chuckled nervously while trying to bring himself to "So, uh… You know… You know how, uh… Mutsuki. You know, Mutsuki, right?" Haise asked with a high-pitched and anxious voice— his smile looking suspicious and guilty as Arima stared back at him with his usual poker face.

"Tooru Mutsuki? That's the young woman who uses male pronouns, correct? The same Mutsuki who was rather fond of you, back when you were the squad leader for 'Quinx-Squad 0'?" Arima asked nonjudgmentally, before adding, "What about him?"

"Well… So… For a while, for like, I don't know… A year now? Yeah, a year now, I think…" Haise muttered to himself, as he tried to jog his memory enough to recall the time where their relationship had transformed into something that it should have never become. "Yeah, well… He's my secretary, so we spend a lot of time together… Alone, in an office space with soundproof walls, and no windows."

"I see… I trust that you were using protection?" Arima asked in a slightly patronizing voice. "Mutsuki… I'm not sure if he's the kind of person who you'd want to… Want to get 'stuck' with, if you understand what I'm implying."

"… Yeah, about that," Haise chuckled with a frown on his face, as he leaned forward to rest his elbow on Arima's desk while resting his forehead down in his palm. "Uh… Sooooo… For a while now, I was just assuming that Mutsuki was just gaining weight from being stuck behind a desk all day— or under it, or on top o- What I'm trying to say is that I didn't think too much of it…"

"… That was until last night," Haise said with dread building up in his gut, as he let out an elongated sigh. "Mutsuki, uh… Showed me the pregnancy test he got from the doctor, and uh… He's due in six months… Almost the same as Roma…" Haise spoke in an exasperated whisper, as he watched Arima slowly raise a hand up to cover his mouth.

Needing to resist the urge to laugh at his protege for screwing up that bad, Arima hid his amused smile behind his palm before slowly lowering it down to show Haise the concerned frown he was forcing across his lips. "… Wow," was all Arima could say without risking losing his composure.

"I know, I know; it's bad! Real bad…!" Haise said with frustration and grief taking a hold of him, as clenched his jaw shut while trying to compose himself in front of his master. "I-I don't know what to do, Arima— they don't teach you how to deal with this kind of crap at Sunlit Gardens…! I-I can't kill the problem away!"

"… I mean, technically speaking, you could if you wanted to," Arima muttered sarcastically under his breath, before finally regaining his bearings on Haise's situation. "Have you tried asking either women to get an abortion?"

"I did."

"And?"

"Well… Mutsuki didn't like the idea one bit— he got really angry and told me that he would tell everyone that I was the father if I ever asked that question again… Along with a lot of other unpleasant things," Haise chuckled humorlessly, as he vividly remembered Mutsuki's emotional breakdown. "As far as Roma, uh… I-I don't think she'd be fine with either. She seems really, really on board with being a mother."

"Ah… Sounds like you're in a sticky situation, Haise," Arima mused with his eyelids closed and relaxed, as he slowly took the straw out of his frappe out of the cup, before tossing it in his trash bin beside his desk. "And on top of all this, you promised Rize that you would try to be back in her life again— as friends, or so you say… That's three, or two if you count Mutsuki's pronouns, very territorial women who you're dealing with Haise; none of them seem like the sharing kind, either."

"I know, Arima… That's why I'm here: I need your help figuring out what I should do!" Haise choked out with desperation in his voice, as he stared pleadingly at the man who he respected the most.

Taking a drink from the rim of his frappe's plastic lid, Arima paid no mind to the whip cream that got on his upper lip, as he set down the iced beverage while formulating an idea that he figured would be the best solution for his misguided student.

"… The way I see Haise, you're going to have to lie to all three of them," Arima said with a heavy heart, and closed his eyelids as Haise's eyes widened. "It'll be a heavy burden for you to carry around, there's no doubt about that— but reapers were always intended to shoulder the burden of others," Arima said with confidence and conviction, all without him or Haise realizing just how terrible his advice actually was.

"L-Lie? Doesn't that… Doesn't that make me look bad?" Haise asked meekly, as he wasn't fond of lying to begin with. "Ugh… It seems wrong, doesn't it? Especially if I'm ever going to actually settle down with Roma when she gets out…"

"But that's the beauty of it, Haise. Technically speaking, you're not spoken for, so you're not cheating," Arima argued, which made sense to someone as cluelessly about healthy relationships as Haise. "Unless there's a ring on your finger, you don't owe them anything. However, even so, you'll still need to lie if you're going to want to make your life easy."

"Well… I guess that makes sense," Haise mumbled to himself, as his brain was quick to accept Arima's advice as indisputable truth. "What, uh… What should I say? What sort of lies should I be telling them?"

"Roma will be easy to lie to— she's secluded, and when you take her out every Sunday or so, try to avoid areas where you know the other women will be," Arima instructed, as he was trying to approach the situation from a tactical angle. "If you visit her less, she'll suspect treachery from you, so avoid changing any patterns you've got going on with her…"

"I see… And what about Mutsuki? He's my secretary, and it's not like I can stay away from my agency forever," Haise asked next, as he mentally took notes of everything that Arima told him.

"Mutsuki is your secretary, he'll have access to your emails and phone lines… Have Juuzou be the one solely responsible for the agency, and focus on working with your brother to help further GOAT's goals within the wasteland," Arima suggested, before adding, "Or at least, use that as an excuse for now, but don't keep Mutsuki waiting too long… From what it sounds like, you're making him keep your relationship hidden from the rest of your employees."

"… I, uh… I don't know, I wouldn't call it a 'relationship'," Haise admitted with an embarrassed smirk forming across his face, as he let out an extremely nervous chuckle beneath his breath. "To me, it was more so just, uh… Just something to do to pass the time— something that helped me, back when I was, uh… D-Dealing with… 'That stuff'," Haise said in a quiet tone, as he nodded his head down toward the direction of his crotch— something that always made Arima uncomfortable talking about.

"I see… Did you ever establish that with him?" Arima asked inquisitively, while already assuming the answer prior to even asking the question.

Haise got real quiet afterward, as he looked away from Arima's piercing grey stare to instead focus on the floor below. "… I mean, I, uh… I assumed that it was a 'unspoken agreement', when we first started messing around. I made it clear to Mutsuki that what we had was just between him and I… Looking back on it now, I think he misunderstood what I said…" Haise muttered, while furrowing his brows, before shaking his head to himself. "Still doesn't make sense though… I always wore a condom before we had sex. I don't understand what went wrong— it never slipped off."

Thinking about what could have gone wrong, it didn't take long for Arima to put two and two together. "… Allow me to show you something, Haise," Arima said in a low voice, before pulling out the drawer from his desk where he kept his stash of unwrapped condoms. Taking two out, Arima took both condoms out of their packages before taking a push-pin out from the small metal tray of office supplies he kept near his laptop.

Poking a hole in one of the condoms, Arima demonstrated the safe practice of ensuring the integrity of a condom by blowing air into each one like a balloon. Once he made it clear to Haise that Mutsuki probably poked a hole in his condom, Arima tossed the condom he thought had a hole in it into the trash, before keeping the other one for later for his 'meeting' with Akira Mado.

"… Oh, damn," Haise whispered in a hoarse tone, as all the pieces of the puzzle fell down before him. It made sense to him, especially since he had stopped having sex with Mutsuki after he came back to Tokyo from Vault 079. The last time he remembered having a quickie with Mutsuki was when he begged him for it 'just one last time', so Mutsuki could get it out of his system and move— or so he claimed.

"I apologize that this is happening to you, Haise, but… You only have yourself to blame," Arima said in a matter-of-fact voice, as he crossed one leg over the other. "You're an easy target for these kinds of women… But what's done is done, all that I can suggest for you to do with Mutsuki is spend time with him, make him feel like a woman, or whatever he identifies as, and, uh… Keep Roma and Rize a secret from him. I… I don't see things playing out in your favor if Mutsuki were to ever find out about either woman."

Sinking in his chair, Haise held his head in his arms as he rested his chin against the top of Arima's desk. "… W-What about Kamishiro? What should I do about her? I… I can't keep avoiding her— not after everything she's been through," Haise asked in a guilty and pitiful voice. "I want to move on, Arima… I-I have to make peace with her, I just have to— If there are such things as 'love' and 'happiness', then I'm going to have to let go of all that bad-mojo if I'm ever actually going to find it for myself, you know?"

While Arima himself understood what Haise was trying to do, and very much was all for the young man who he saw as his own son being able to move on and achieve actual happiness from the world, the truth was that Arima thought that Rize would only make it more complicated for him. Still, that didn't stop Arima from coming up with a quick fix for his beloved protégé.

"If I know anything about Rize, it is that she really, really sees herself as being made for you. Think of it like Adam and Eve— that's how she was raised to see you and herself," Arima explained, as he tried making a connection for Haise to envision, just so he could understand the level of devotion Rize had for him. "… Did you know that she used to attack the staff who worked on her, everytime she figured that you were going to be bred with another woman?"

"She… She did?" Haise asked uncomfortably, while looking up past his forearms to see that he wasn't the only one who was sicken about their past at Sunlit Gardens.

Frowning, Arima let out a frustrated sigh as he recalled all the times he was ordered to neutralize Haise and Rize, along with any other reaper who proved too volatile to be around V's scientists. "Yeah… Yeah, so if you want a good life, and want to fulfill whatever prophecy she has embedded in that head of hers, I… I would honestly just say do it. Do it, give her what she wants, show her how good of a man you are, and then… Er.. I-I don't know… F-For now, I want you to keep all of them in the dark and away from each other for as long as you can, until I can come up with a better solution… Do I make myself clear?"

While Haise wasn't confident in how relationships were supposed to work, he did have the utmost confidence in Arima— a legendary warrior who was unmatched on the battlefield. When Arima told Haise that he'd get something done, he never disappointed him, or anyone who's ever relied on the services from the White Reaper. Being trained to follow Arima's orders like they were the word of God Himself, Haise stood up from the chair and stood at attention before saluting his superior.

"Aye, Arima! Loud and clear!" Haise acknowledged with his body still as a statue.

Smiling from seeing how loyal Haise still was to him, Arima waved a hand at him while saying, "At ease. You're dismissed, Haise— carry on."

"… Hey, Earth to Sasaki— I asked you a question," Rize said with a confused look on her face, as she found it odd that her date had been sitting silently in his chair for the past twenty-five. "Are you… Are you asleep?" Rize finally asked, after hearing the half-ghoul sitting across from her beginning to snore lightly.

Extending her arm past her empty bowl, which had been served to them while she had been waiting for Haise to give her an answer, Rize snapped her fingers near his left ear, and frowned as she watched him jolt awake. "I'm up…! I'm up…!" Haise groaned out through slurred words, as he felt Rize wiping the drool from his chin with a napkin as he blinked away the tiredness from his eyes.

Unamused by Haise's sleepy mannerisms, Rize tried to remain patient as she handed Haise his cup of cold tea before pulling her arm back from over the table. "Do you usually fall asleep in the middle of conversations? Or was I just that boring to listen to?" Rize asked sarcastically with her arms crossed over her large bust, as she waited again for Haise to speak.

Taking a sip from his tea, Haise grimaced from how cold his leaf-juice had gotten. "S-Sorry… I guess those drinks finally caught up to me…" Haise chuckled with a groggy voice, after figuring out why his head was still feeling fuzzy, and the taste in his mouth was coppery.

"I have to admit, Sasaki: I'm not a big fan of you drinking during the day… Or at all, if this is going to be an ongoing issue for you," Rize said with a disapproving and low voice, as she glared back at Haise. "I don't want you drinking unless I say so, do I make myself clear?"

"Y-Yeah, sure— of course…" Haise said with a discomforting feeling radiating from his headache, as he stared down at his bowl of ramen with distaste. "Uhh… W-What was your question again, Kamishiro?"

"I asked you what the situation was between you and Roma. I want to know what happened between you two after we headed back to Tokyo," Rize said in a blunt voice, as she was growing tired of beating around the bush. "From what I remember, she really, and I mean REALLY was walking close to you during the trip back— even remembered her holding you hand, if I'm not mistaken… So… What's your answer, Sasa-"

"-She died," Haise interrupted, as he suddenly remembered what his answer was going to be, before passing out from the effects of his heavy alcohol consumption.

The sudden abruptness of Haise's response caught Rize off guard, and left her wide-eyed as she processed the lie that her crush had just told her. "She… She's dead? I… I thought she was going to live in your apartment, or something of the sort?"

"She did, but then Arima and I got information we needed from her," Haise falsely explained, while reaching up to hold his chin as he kept up the act while playing his nervousness off as just him being under the effects of intoxication. "We brought her to TSC, and then they found her guilty and then, they executed her in Cochlea…"

"… Oh, I… I had no idea," Rize said with a smile involuntarily spreading across her lips, as she let out a sigh of relief. "Well then, that makes things simple, doesn't it? Forget I asked Sasaki, that's all I needed to know," Rize said with her delightful demeanor returning, which only lasted for until she looked down at the smartwatch Haise had purchased for her earlier. "Oh, it's an hour before five… I'll drop you off where you need to be, and then come pick up you're done— how's that sound?"

"You're… You're going to keep my car?" Haise asked with an uncertain look in his eyes, as he wasn't sure about lending his vehicle out to someone who was as intrusive as Rize.

"Why, of course I am, Sasaki! But it'll only be for a day— I'll come drop it off in the morning at your agency, after I drop you off there tonight," Rize explained with a cute look on her face, while Haise was finding himself panicking on the inside.

'That's no good! I can't let her near my agency— not when Mutuski's going to be there…!' Haise thought to himself, while looking unsuspecting on the outside. "We could do that… Or, you could pick me up afterward, and uh… M-Maybe you and I can spend the night at your place? Do a little 'catching up of our own', if you know what I'm saying l~…!" Haise flirted with a seductive look on his face, and watched as Rize's smile intensified as her cheeks instantly became a shade of crimson.

"Oooh…! My, my, Sasaki…! Why, that's an excellent idea…!" Rize said with hearts practically forming in her purple eyes, as she found herself already getting excited for all the activities and positions she had in mind for her man. "You've never been so forthcoming, so accepting of this, Sasaki… Tell me, what's made you change your mind?"

Quickly conjuring a reason as to explain his sudden change of heart, Haise smiled sweetly at Rize while reaching out to hold her hand lovingly. "Because Kamishiro, I've seen how much you've changed for the better, and well… You were right earlier, when you said there's only so much about ourselves that we can change… I don't want there to be any more animosity between us. We were made for each other, and I'm ready… I'm ready to accept you as my better ha-?!"

Before Haise could finish his sentence, his fate had been sealed the moment Rize leapt up to her feet and leaned over the table to press her lips against his. Although it shouldn't have, Haise was shocked by how much Rize wanted him, and he could feel her teeth gently nibbling on his bottom lip as she moaned how much she loved him, and how much he had just made her happy.

Rize kept trying to make out with Haise until the owner of the restaurant and Ayame's father, Teuchi, came storming out of the kitchen to break the two up— scolding Haise and Rize about how they couldn't do that inside his ramen shop, and how they were a family business and no such public intimacy was allowed there. Being threatened to get blacklisted from his restaurant, Haise and Rize giggled and laughed mischievously to one another, while Teuchi ushered them out the front door and off of his property.

And as Haise walked back to his car with Rize's arm wrapped around him while lovingly holding his hand, he couldn't help but begin to feel guilty for lying to her like that. He knew it was wrong to do that, and not only was it not fair for Rize, but it wasn't fair to Roma or Mutsuki either. And even though Arima had told him that he wasn't in the wrong because he technically wasn't married yet, the pit of disgust he had for himself swelling up in his gut made him question his teacher's advice, and as he sat down in the passenger's seat in his car, Haise considered coming clean and absolving himself of all his lies— preparing himself to finally accept the consequences of his own misdoing.

Of course, all of that went out the window the moment Rize unfolded the sunshade for the front windshield, before taking her Gucci sweater and supreme shirt off to showcase her voluptuous DD-sized breasts for the gobsmacked and extremely-easy-to-excite half-ghoul. Any and all qualms he had with his poor decisions went away the moment he watched Rize leaning over from the driver's seat to begin removing his pants.

And by the time he finally felt her luscious pink lips wrapped around the tip of his fully erected cock, Haise had completely forgotten why he had been morally conflicted in the first place. Under the privacy of their sunshade and his tinted windows, Haise laid back in his seat and held Rize's long purple hair back, as she gave him the best head he had ever gotten in his extremely-messy life.

And like that, we get to see how terrible Haise is at relationships, and why Arima is mostly to blame for it due to him being a bad influence on him. I'm going to write a chapter soon about them being back in the wasteland, because I gotta write some more action scenes to separate how cozy and amazing life is within Tokyo, compared to how bleak and cruel life is outside of the city, and outside of Vault 079 to an extent.

Let's go over some stuff.

The Enclave definitely will be the main antagonist group, due to 'America' still being in a war with Ataksuki, which is the only government left in China that they're still enemies with. Both sides want to take all the research and technology from the vaults in Japan to invade the other's countries.

Japan is stuck in the middle, with the only 'good' faction out there being the Brotherhood of Steel, which are a mostly ghoul-oriented faction made up of the all the soldiers and scientists left behind, back when America and their Allies first tried going to war with China while the dragons were destroying Japan. Or rather, they were fighting to get as much data and tech from the vaults and other facilities— neither side cares about Japan, or what happens to it.

Spoiler alert: Furuta knows that he's burned his bridges with Ataksuki, Tokyo, and knows the Brotherhood of Steel won't accept them into his ranks, because of their distrust for reapers and anyone else who's actually from Japan. That leaves him to join the Enclave, which will accept him if they think he's able to benefit their war against 'China'.

Kaneki will end up being with three women who he's devoted to, and will be in a healthy poly relationship with. Haise, uh. You know. Doesn't have that going on for him.

Elizabeth won't be a major character, just because she was only mentioned in the first chapter, and it would kinda be out of nowhere if suddenly she was super OP and had a direct hand in helping the main cast. She will be coming up though in the next major arc, but mostly just her diaries that lead them to the Brotherhood of Steel bunker.

As for the the Naruto characters, they're an addition and they'll have some sort of resemblance to their canon self, as in instead of chakra, their meditation and training allows them to manipulate their kakuhou into doing specific function within their body, all without needing to use their kagune. It's based on whatever 'jitsu styles' they've been taught, and it'll be explained that they all mostly were from Konohagakure, which was up way north, on the large island north of the mainland, Hokkaido.

It'll be revealed that they had rebuilt their own society based on martial arts and strength, and were doing an amazing job at keeping the peace and fighting off any raiders and dragons. They had it good, until the Enclave invaded their island, and used heavy artillery, power armor, nuclear weapons, vertibirds, and their arsenal of plasma weapons to decimate them. Konohagakure was invaded and anyone who didn't evacuate was killed on sight.

The only reason why the Enclave hasn't yet migrated down the coast of Japan and to Tokyo, is because they're fighting a war with the Brotherhood of Steel, who are unable to advance onto the island, but are able to keep the Enclave from reaching the shores due to their own network of defense outposts and technology.

So unable to advance onto Japan due to the Brotherhood of Steel, the Enclave have been battling with the Akatsuki, with the hopes of destroying them and taking Korea in order to do a full invasion of Japan with China's resources at their disposal. Which is why the Enclave would take Furuta as their own in the first place— he would be their spy and be in charge of starting a civil war, or making Kaneki attack the Akatsuki in order to weaken them enough for the Enclave to invade them— forcing them to surrender or be executed.

Of course, the Brotherhood of Steel are also enemies with Ataksuki, due to them wanting to safeguard and keep all of Japan's technology and weapons to themselves. In order to protect the world from itself, in their eyes.

As far as the comic I mentioned, you'll have to find it for yourself. I don't remember where I found it lol.

The next chapter will be going back to Kaneki, when he's closing down Anteiku for the day; and is approached by Naruto, who's interested in getting work from him. Or more specifically, Naruto is hoping that Kaneki will help him eventually to retake his home, and defeat the Enclave. Later on, Naruto and Eren will disagree with each other, because Naruto knows people who are part of the Akatsuki, and think they'll come home once the Enclave leaves Japan, while Eren firmly believes that there won't be any peace until both the Enclave and Akatsuki are annihilated.

Anyways, until next time, have a damn good day!