Short chapter, but wanted to post this because I'm transitioning into the next phase of 'slice of life' arcs.

I read the reviews and absolutely adore them, I just don't have any time for the author's notes. I'll go over them in the next chapter, I promise.

Please enjoy!


It had been almost an entire week since Haise had stepped foot into his office, which left Juuzou being the one in charge of Kafka Agency. Due to the workload that he never had to deal with before being too much for him, Juuzou did what Haise never did before, and distributed the cases that required leaving Tokyo to those who were eager to rise in rank, and to claim their fortunes like how they've heard possible out in the wasteland.

Without needing to worry about actually running a business now that he promoted Mutsuki into Haise and his position as 'Senior Manager of Operations', Juuzou was finally able to go back into his lifestyle of life night partying, and hooking up with women who, more often or not, couldn't tell the difference with his unique genitals.

Having been far more qualified at the position than Juuzou or even Haise were, Mutsuki began implementing different pay grades and would offer more opportunities for 'his' investigators to work alongside TSC, with contracts that used to only be given to Haise and Juuzou. Having actually finished school and working on his degree from Kami University, Mutsuki wasted no time with expanding their 'detective' services, into being more akin to mercenary work— and the rate of contracts and cases they were receiving went up through the roof.

Even going back on what Haise wanted, which was to never involve his brother's faction into their line of work, Mutsuki made contact with Hide, and together they began to merge their two groups together. Within another week's time, and with Halloween only a few days away, 'Kafka Agency' had become partnered with 'GOAT', and those who were associated with Mutsuki became high ranking executives in 'his' newly acquired business.

Had Haise or Juuzou been present or actually been responsible enough to monitor the business they started together, they would have realized that their company was becoming less about finding those who went missing, and more about getting vengeance on those who were responsible for someone's lost family member or loved one.

After nearly two weeks of being absent, Haise returned back to his agency after he and Rize had gotten into a heated argument about her jealousy, which resulted in the two 'taking a break' from one another. Walking into the lobby with a bag of McDonalds in one hand, and a cup of coffee from Anteiku in the other, Haise's smile wavered the moment he saw just how drastically the decor of the front desk area had changed.

Gone was the cozy-home look of a red-carpeted floor and furniture that he and Juuzou had gotten from thrift stores, back when they were struggling. Instead, the floors were sleek metal panels, and the furniture was black and modern, while the 'grandma-aesthetic' wall decor had been replaced with television screens displaying news channels and power points made by Mutsuki— all of which were displaying bulletins and important updates on Tokyo, and with the rest of the world as well.

"Wow… This looks a lot like how CCG used to make their lobbies look, doesn't it?" Haise half-jokingly said aloud, while approaching the brand-new office counter that separated him from Haru behind a reinforced plexy-glass wall.

Surprised to see Haise back, Haru smiled excitedly and stood up from her cozy leather chair to bring her lips closer to the microphone attached to the two-way speaker mounted in the glass wall itself. "Sasaki! You're finally back— I wasn't sure if I'd ever see you again…" Haru admitted with a wide smile on her face, before asking of course, "Where were you, by the way? I thought you lived upstairs?"

"I, uh… I do live upstairs," Haise replied back with a slight bit of uneasiness in his voice, as he really didn't want to get into his own personal love-life with a fourteen year-old girl. "I've just been… On vacation, sort of," Haise said, while manipulating the truth in a way to prevent himself from actually lying to the young dirty-blond headed girl. "So… Do my keys still work on the locks, or did those get changed too?"

Although it was meant to be a jab at the fact that Mutsuki had replaced the office door with an advanced, and very costly, turn style system, Haise was mildly concerned when Haru shook her head at him. "We don't use keys here anymore, Sasaki. Mutsuki had Saiko replace all the traditional locks with RF scanners that react only to a specifically given code!" Haru explained, before opening up her drawer beneath where her laptop was resting on top of the counter space.

"Let's see, let's see… Mutsuki had me make you one, using a picture he picked out," Haru muttered under her breath, to which Haise barely heard behind the nearly sound-proof glass wall. Once she had found the white-badge and company lanyard she was looking for, Haru quickly clipped them together before approaching the counter window to slide Haise's new keycard through the thin slot, through the divot in the counter, beneath the glass wall. "Ah! Also, congratulations— I-I almost forgot to mention that to you!"

Chuckling on how bubbly Haru was, which was one of the many small things in his old life that he missed being around, Haise approached the counter to grab a hold of his keycard. "Congratulations? On what? Coming back home?" Haise asked jokingly, before suddenly narrowing his eyes a bit, as he stared down at the white keycard in his hand.

"No, you ding-dong! Congratulations on the new kid you and Mutsuki have coming on the way! I never knew that you two were a couple this entire time!" Haru said with a playful smirk, while Haise took note of the fact that Mutsuki had made his keycard have a portrait of them together, back when they were younger and in TSC. "Mutsuki wanted to keep the father a secret, and you did such a good job keeping quiet about it…! That's kinda mean, ya know? Leaving us all to make speculation about it— super rude! Especially since you two got engaged without letting any of us know!"

Not wanting to express just how shocked and devastated he was, especially now that it all was beginning to make sense to him why Rize had accused him of cheating in the first place. Thinking back to what Arima warned him about, Haise faked a smile while putting his lanyard over his head and around his neck. 'Mutsuki… He must have been the one to send that message to Rize—I should have never let him talk me into making him the account owner of all of my— Oh. Oh, that's why…'


Once he made his way through all the newly furnished cubicles and office spaces that looked almost identical to the ones at the Main Office, Haise made his way to his old office, and used his keycard to step inside, where he was met with the sight of Mutsuki sitting behind the desk that used to be his. Appearing just as uneasy as Haise was, Mutsuki stared back at the father of his soon-to-be firstborn child, and smiled hesitantly at him.

"… H-Hey," Mutsuki said, while slowly raising a hand up to gesture a lackluster 'hello' at him.

An awkward silence followed suit, and throughout that period of uneasiness, Haise stared back at the boy who he onced considered to be his student, before letting out a humorless laugh. "… Heh… Hehe, haha, ahhh— fucking hell… I should have never said yes to you," Haise mused aloud with his head raised up and a frustrated grin across his face, as he cupped his forehead with one hand. "… It's what I get, I suppose. Karma's a bitch, isn't she?"

Furrowing his brows, Mutsuki frowned slightly while giving Haise a confused look. "… Are you saying that, because you think of me as grotesque? Am I… Am I not good enough for you, Sensei?" Mutsuki asked with a hurt and spiteful voice of his own. "I… I know who you were seeing behind my back, Sensei. Don't worry… They won't be wanting to see you, not after what I sent them."

Walking over to the table and trying to compose himself and not snap at the young boy, who he knew had a problem with people raising their voices to him, Haise tried to remain calm and collected as he slowly opened his eyelids to stare back at Mutsuki's own defensive expression. "… I don't know what you're talking about," Haise quietly muttered, which instantly made Mutsuki scoff.

"You can't lie to me, Sensei— I can see through you," Mutsuki said with a joyless smile spread across his lips, as he slowly stood up from his chair before making his way past Haise, so he could close and lock the door. "I'm not upset at you, Sensei— I know that you were only confused about who you were. I read the emails Hoito was sending you, and read through your messages with Kamishiro… Those stupid bitches manipulated you, it's not your fault that you couldn't see it, Sensei. They took advantage of you, so I fixed it."

"… Fixed it, huh?" Haise asked in a tense voice, while staring down blankly at the desk, while hearing Mutsuki's footsteps as he made his way back to where his chair was. "And pray tell: what does that entail, exactly?"

"… It means that I sent them the truth. I sent them this," Mutsuki said with a calm tone, as he slid his phone across the desk before tapping its screen. Going wide eyed and letting out a gasp, Haise felt his skin growing clammy and his head becoming dizzy, as he watched a recording that Mutsuki secretly took of one of their many 'sessions' they had in the room.

"Ooohhh~! S-Sensei! Ooo, fuck me Daddy! Fuck me hardddd— mmpphh~!" Mutsuki's past self screamed out with his kakugan activated, while he laid down on his back against the top of the very table that Haise was currently using to hold himself on. With Mutsuki's chocolate-creamy legs spread apart and resting against his shoulders, Haise, in the video, was holding onto a leash that was attached to the collar he had purchased for his 'student', and was pulling hard on it while pumping his cock in-and-out of his ebony pussy.

Both were sweaty, and covered in hickies and each other's bodily fluids. And just like how Haise remembered, his past self suddenly pulled Mutsuki's head up by his collar, before leaning down over him to lock lips with his delicious lips that he loved about his student. And while the two passionately made out while pressing their sweaty bodies up against each other, it was then that Haise suddenly realized that he wasn't wearing a condom in the video— throwing his suspicions of Mutsuki poking holes in his condom that he got from Arima out the window.

Watching the video alongside Haise with a lustful smile of pride across those brown lips that his sensei loved so much, Mutsuki made his way around the desk to stand beside the half-ghoul. "Remember when we used to do this several times a day, Sensei? Remember how simple things used to be for us?" Mutsuki asked with a slight bit of drool pouring down from the corner of his curved lips, as he slowly reached down to place his dark-skinned hand on top of Haise's pale hand.

"You helped me stitch myself together, back when we all used to live at the Chateau together…" Mutsuki whispered lovingly into Haise's ear, as he continued to stare at the video of him cumming inside of the very same qunix who stood pregnant beside him— entranced not by his recorded moans and visuals of raw passion, but by the idea of having life becoming simple once again. "You want that with me, don't you? I can give you everything you could ever need to be truly happy, Sensei… We could leave our past behind us, and begin again…"

"… And all it would take, is for you to—" Before Mutsuki could finish his offer, there was a knock at the door. Interrupted, but not inconvenienced by the slightest, Mutsuki took a moment to grab Haise by the chin to forcibly turn his head to lock eyes with him. Smiling confidently and smugly, Mutsuki reached down with one hand to pat Haise's visible erection, before whispering, "I'll get that… We can discuss more about our future together, Sensei. Why don't you take a look around, spend some time doing whatever it is that your little heart desires— I'll be here, keeping an eye on you."

And with that being said, Mutsuki made sure to reach down and squeeze one hand down on Haise's ass, and gave it a playful spank before making his way to unlock his office door. As Haise turned around, he was greeted with the housekeeper and head of sanitation he had hired not long ago, Ryouko Fueguchi. "Ah, Mr. Sasaki! This might be the first time I've seen you in your own office for a while…! I'm used to seeing you at Anteiku though… Must be a busy man, huh?" Ryouko mused playfully, before rolling in her vacuum and cleaning cart.

Swallowing back the anxious lump in his throat, Haise faked another smile as he nodded at Ryouko, who was busy getting her supplies ready to clean up the office room. "Yes ma'am; busy as a bee!" Haise said jokingly, while forcing himself to laugh playfully, while Mutsuki and Ryouko both smiled at him. "Speaking of which, this busy bee's gotta 'buzz' off, so I'll probably see you around at Anteiku sometime later."

Smiling sweetly at the young half-ghoul, Ryouko giggled and waved at him while saying, "Goodbye Mr. Sasaki! Give Kaneki my best if you see him!"

"Will do~!" Haise said with a playful wink, and a two-finger salute, before parting ways with both Ryouko, and Mutsuki.

Once he was gone, Mutsuki closed the office door and looked over at Ryouko, who was still looking out where she last saw Haise depart. "… You like him, don't you?" Mutsuki asked bluntly, and found himself smirking maliciously at the gobsmacked ghoul, whose cheeks had become a shade of cherry-red.

"M-Mutsuki, I-I—"

"-You don't have to excuse yourself or apologize, Ms. Fueguchi— I don't blame you. He's really charming, isn't he?" Mutsuki asked with a domineering tone, as he slowly walked in a circle around the older woman; observing her nervousness and embarrassment, while eyeing her up to see if she would be a good match.

Smiling anxiously like a schoolgirl, while trying to show respect to the young qunix who she was told was Haise's fiancé, Ryouko lowered her slightly as she stared down at the nice pair of shoes she was able to purchase for herself, thanks to the generous salary she was receiving from the very person walking around her.

Ryouko's silence spoke louder than any words could, and had it been one of Haise's 'girls' that Mutsuki found to be immoral and evil, then the green-haired qunix would have seen no reason for getting vengeance. However, Mutsuki grew to absolutely adore Ryouko— her gentle and polite, caring nature reminded Mutsuki of the mom that he never got. Mutsuki didn't see himself as selfish or controlling, he wanted Haise to be happy.

However, Mutsuki knew Haise well enough to understand that he didn't make good decisions on his own, and that he had self-destructive tendencies while hanging around women that the qunix saw as 'filthy whores'. Ryouko was different, and the thought of adding her to a family that Mutsuki always wanted but never had delighted him— it was something he craved just as much as he craved Haise himself.

"… Would it be okay if I were to discuss something… Unorthodox with you, Ms. Fueguchi?" Mutsuki asked with an excited look in his green eyes, while showing warmth across his plush lips, as Ryouko gazed up at him with curious sparkle in her chcolate-brown eyes.