They still had to find a house. Touka exited the bus and counted off in her head all the things they needed to do. Get a small house, maybe somewhere quieter? Crib, baby clothes, stock up on diapers…
She walked briskly towards her destination, still a little lost in her head. Kaneki didn't like when she went out on her own, citing tense ghoul-human relations. She understood his fears, especially the slower and rounder she got.
But—this was important to do alone. It wasn't the sort of thing where you brought your husband along.
No one could tell at a glance that she was a ghoul, unless they'd been at the CCG's main office during the crisis with the Dragon. The few times she'd run into an off-duty investigator who recognized her face, they exchanged polite nods and went their separate ways. No one was sure how to behave, yet.
"Touka! You dummy!"
She snapped out of it and spun around. Touka had breezed right past Yoriko.
For a moment, she stood there slack-jawed. After all this time, there was her best friend. She took a half-step forward, before stopping herself. Maybe Yorika would want to keep her distance until she was sure that Touka was safe to be around…
Yoriko was having none of that. She raced up and threw her arms around the ghoul's shoulders.
"I can't believe it's you!" Yoriko took a step back. "And you're wearing the dress!"
In the hubbub of the weeks following Tokyo's partial destruction, the two had a difficult time finding free time at the same time and in the same place. Touka was busy trying to create a life for her and Kaneki in the human world—a difficult feat when the remnants of the CCG insisted on endless bureaucracy for ghouls that were trying to openly integrate into human life.
Yoriko was similarly trying to set up a home for herself and her new husband who was, of course, stuck working endless overtime. She was also helping to rebuild the bakery she worked at—arguing nonstop with insurance adjusters that the Dragon that destroyed it did not count as an act of God.
Frustrated with the task of carving out time to meet up, Yoriko had managed to mail Touka a sky blue maternity sundress and a gift card to a children's clothing store with a note: We'll be able to hang out soon, I know it!
Within two weeks, a free Saturday had revealed itself to both of them.
"Yeah, it was a very thoughtful gift. Thanks. The fit is very forgiving," Touka laughed.
"You're welcome!"
They stood there smiling at each other, until they both broke out in laughter.
"I already got tickets," Yoriko said, holding them up.
"Let's go then."
Side by side, the two finally walked into the zoo.
They were staring at the lemur exhibit, catching up on the mundane details of each other's lives.
"We're in a small one-bedroom apartment for now. It's housing for people whose homes got destroyed, so things are weird with neighbors. I keep thinking that we should find a new place. Maybe a house a little farther from the city."
"That does sound like a weird situation. Are you the only…" She looked around. The exhibit wasn't very crowded, but there were a handful of other people in the area.
"Don't be weird," Touka sighed. "One of many reasons I never told you in high school is that it would make things weird."
Yoriko nodded. "Yeah. You're right. So…are you guys the only ghouls in your building?"
It still made Touka so uncomfortable to talk about these things with Yoriko, but there wasn't anything wrong with her friendly inquiries. "No. It's like some badly thought-out social experiment. Some genius in charge of emergency housing put a bunch of ghouls who've never had stable homes with a bunch of humans who just lost all their belongings. But knowing that Kaneki is in the neighborhood keeps everyone on their best behavior."
A young couple on a date started shooting wary glances as Touka spoke. They quickly wandered off, clearly uneasy at all the ghoul talk.
Yoriko thought for a moment as she watched one of the lemurs napping on a tree branch. "What if Takeomi and I came over for a game night or something? I wonder if it would do anything to be seen hanging out with a human couple? Plus I'd love something like that to look forward to."
Her friend shrugged. "Sure. It could be fun. Kaneki still feels weird about spending time with anyone from the CCG, but I like your husband. If we can get both of them away from work at the same time…"
"Hah. Tell me about it. But Takeomi doesn't hold grudges. He still has a lot of respect for his former colleague."
The lemurs weren't up to anything spectacular, so they turned around and walked off.
At a nearby food stand, they both ordered small coffees.
"Can you pick me out something healthy and simple," Touka told Yoriko. She still needed to eat human food, but she was a bit lost when it came to big menus.
Yoriko got herself a banh mi, and a small fruit cup for Touka.
They found a bench and sipped their coffee. Yoriko enjoyed her sandwich while Touka tried to maintain a straight face as she ate her fruit.
"So, what do you think you're going to do next? Aside from parenthood."
Her friend fought back a dry heave before she responded. "Well, the last two cafés I worked at turned into piles of rubble…I think I'm a little burned out on that line of work. Maybe I'll be a housewife, and get an online degree just to prove to myself that I can. I want a really, really boring life."
"Mmm, me too. I've had enough excitement. I like working at the bakery, but I don't want to be there forever. My boss is a good guy so I feel like I owe it to him to stick around until the place is rebuilt and we have some decent savings, but after that I'll have to do some serious thinking about the future." She frowned. "It's strange…trying to figure life out after a near-death experience."
She looked at Touka, perhaps expecting commiseration, but all she got was an absentminded "Yeah," as the ghoul stared down a chunk of melon on her fork, before taking a decisive bite.
As she swallowed the offensive fruit, Touka realized that Yoriko was staring at her with an intense look on her face. "What is it?"
"I'm just realizing that you've lived a really different life than I have. The Dragon, and everything around it…that wasn't your first brush with death, was it?"
Touka looked down at her lap, red in the face. "No, but those aren't very pleasant stories to tell."
"You've kept enough secrets. If you ever want to talk about it…I'm here to listen."
"I know. You're too kind. Some things you can't unhear, and I don't want to do that to you."
Yoriko looked at her sadly. There had always been a certain gulf between the two girls in spite of their friendship. Back in high school, it was easy to attribute to Touka's personality: she was a private person, she didn't like attention, she tended to keep to herself.
Now that things were more out in the open, it was obvious to Yoriko that Touka wanted to keep her life as a ghoul contained. It was her way of protecting Yoriko from the worst parts of that world.
"Don't look at me like that," laughed Touka in an attempt to break the awkward silence. "And don't feel bad for me. I have Kaneki—he understands."
"Is that why you ended up with him?"
"Maybe it's one reason. A lot of ghouls don't get wanting to be around humans as much as I do, and a lot of humans are freaked out at the idea of being around ghouls. Kaneki's lived through both sides, so I think he's more empathetic to both sides than I could ever be." She smiled. "Sometimes I think I would have steamrolled over any human and fought with any ghoul I might have had a chance with, so it's a good thing I found him." She took another bite of fruit. "Why did you say yes to marrying Takeomi? From what I hear, it was a whirlwind engagement."
Yoriko plastered a happy look on her face, but she clearly wasn't fooled by Touka's obvious redirection. "Because I always liked him…he's direct and honest and a hard worker. It makes him easy to love. They don't make men like that anymore, so when he asked, I said yes."
Touka leaned against the back of the bench and crossed her arms. "Wow, shockingly sensible. I half-expected some 'prince charming swept me off my feet' story."
Yoriko crooked a finger to get Touka to lean in, then quickly flicked her forehead.
"Hey! What was that for?!"
"Payback! And who are you to make fun of fairy tale romances? You're the one who went and married the One-Eyed King! Doesn't that make you, like, queen of the ghouls?"
Touka thought for a minute, then chuckled. "Nah, it has a ring to it, but I don't want the title. Managing one coffee shop was stressful enough."
They finished up their lunch, then looked at a map posted on the wall to figure out where to go next.
As they were taking a meandering walk past the ostrich enclosure, Touka spotted someone familiar.
Standing in a small crowd of uncomfortable-looking people in matching baseball caps and T-shirts was Hinami.
She signaled for Yoriko to wait where she was, then quietly snuck up behind the younger ghoul and tapped her on the shoulder.
Hinami spun around "Touka!"
Hinami's hug nearly knocked them both over. "What are you doing here today?"
Touka looked back to Yoriko and waved her over. "I'm catching up with my friend Yoriko. I think you ran into her a few times when I was in high school."
"Yeah, I think I do remember you. Nice to see you again."
"Nice to see you too." Yoriko stopped herself for a moment, then asked what was on everyone's mind. "Are you…here with a baseball team?"
Hinami blinked and the broke out in laughter. "A base…oh my gosh a baseball team. They do look like that. A baseball team!"
The not-a-baseball-team members mumbled to each other and shuffled awkwardly. None of them wanted to step forward and explain, or even make eye contact.
It was an interesting group, in that it was a mix of ordinary-looking men and women in their twenties and thirties. They appeared to have nothing significant in common, aside from all looking like they didn't want to be there. Their determined misery in the face of Hinami's sunny attitude was quite amusing.
She continued. "No, some of the investigators remembered me from when we were making them all coffee. They thought I was nice, so they tracked me down and asked if I wanted a job as a…kind of a teacher or chaperon. These are some of the people from the CCG who were exposed to spores from the Dragon and turned into ghouls."
"Ah," exclaimed Touka. "You're helping them reintegrate into society?"
"Yep, kind of like what you did with Kaneki." She thought for a moment. "But maybe a little more gently. I'm more patient than you," she said without an ounce of malice.
Touka laughed. "You are."
"The CCG was giving out free zoo tickets to employees for this weekend. Today we're just taking a fun little field trip to get used to being in public. I thought the matching hats and shirts would be nice for team building and not getting separated."
Touka finally saw that the hats and T-shirts all had the same cutesy bunnies that Hinami used to doodle silk screened on to them, with the words Fueguchi Squad Zoo Trip!
Hinami turned around to address her ducklings. "Everyone, this is my friend Touka, who's a ghoul, and her friend Yoriko, who's human."
The two young women waved at the suddenly attentive crowd.
Someone in the back piped up. "You're friends? Even though…"
Yoriko took to lead on answering. "Yeah. We've been friends for years. When I found out she was a ghoul, I was mostly sad about all the times I badgered her into eating lunch with me."
The newly minted ghouls all got a sick look on their faces at the thought of eating human food.
Hinami smiled and faced her group. "See? I told you guys you can still spend time with humans. There's no need to be so gloomy all the time."
The non-baseball team didn't look so convinced, but they were throwing surreptitious glances at the fairly normal-looking pregnant ghoul and her normal, approachable human friend—maybe some semblance of a good life with friends and family wasn't such an impossible hope.
The younger ghoul smiled brightly at the pair of friends. "Thanks for taking the time to say hi…I'll let you guys go now."
"Bye, Hinami! Keep in touch more. I know you're still hanging out with Ayato all the time. Don't forget about me."
Hinami blushed. "Yes Touka, thanks, bye!" She turned around to hustle her ducklings off. "Come on, you guys, let's go look for the elephants!"
As the group walked off, Touka heard one of them ask, "Who's Ayato?"
"No one! Don't worry about it!"
As they walked, Touka began to notice more and more investigators. She still reflexively clocked anyone who seemed like they might be a CCG employee. "Of course, we would choose to come here on CCG day at the zoo."
"Is that a problem? Should we leave?"
Touka shook her head. "No. I'd be surprised if anyone even recognized me."
"It was nice to run into Hinami, though."
"Yeah! I'm surprised she landed a job like that, but she seems happy. She's so sweet and friendly, I think she'll be really good at that type of—"
"Hey, you! Ghoul lady!" A piercing shout cut her off.
I think this chapter and the next one aren't terribly exciting, but I like a good loooong denouement (as opposed to the single chapter I got from TG:re) and I wanted to do something with the immediate aftermath of all those things that happened and how weird it would be to just retool society. As always, I hope it's at least amusing to the five people reading this :)