She was so bewildered at Hide's chipper demeanor that she backed up as he stepped into the room and kicked the door shut.
The boy marched over to the table and set down a tray of to-go coffee cups and a tote bag. He seemed completely oblivious to the tension in the room.
Amon tried to place himself between the human boy and the ghoul. "Nagachika, what are you doing here?!"
"Oh, Touka texted me! I figured I'd swing by here before I went off on that errand you gave me." Hide pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and showed Amon the message.
Touka K:
Hey delivery boy, can you grab the biology notebook I left at Anteiku and bring it to the library? I'll be in a study room. It's urgent, I'll pay you like 2000 yen.
"You double-crossing ass! We all know you spend way too much time fixing your hair. No one buys that you woke up like that."
"You can be really hurtful sometimes, you know that Touka?" He grinned at Amon and set the coffee down on the table. "Of course, I happen to know that if a girl is in a bad mood, ninety percent of the time she's hungry or tired. And I came armed."
He grabbed one of the cups and held it out to her. "Still piping hot and just the way you like it. No need to thank me."
She huffed at him in outrage, but grabbed the coffee and took a few sips. "I'm still gonna kill you, but this is good. Thanks."
Amon was practically slack-jawed watching the college student defuse an enraged she-ghoul like he was an old pro at it. Then again, looking back on how he'd wormed his way into the CCG, was it that surprising? This was someone who knew how to use his charisma as a weapon.
Hide turned to Amon and laughed at his disapproving expression. "Oh, don't look so serious. She once threatened to kill me because I sat in Anteiku studying for two hours without buying any drinks, and I'm still here."
The blonde boy smirked and took a sip of his own coffee. "See, Touka here has a secret she doesn't want anyone to know. She is actually…" He leaned close to Amon and stage whispered, "…a good person."
The girl in question was still glaring at him, looking as displeased as ever, but now with an embarrassed flush on her cheeks.
"I heard about that cockatiel you helped rescue even though he hated you. Not a lot of people would have put up with getting bitten that much." He clapped his hand to his forehead. "Oh! And there was that time a certain jerk we both know and love beat the crap out of me. Kaneki saved me, but then he went a little off the deep end and almost tried to eat me, didn't he? But you stopped him, and brought me back to the café to get patched up."
Touka just slouched down in her chair, looking a bit defeated. "Definitely killing you. I told him I'd kill you that day if you ever found out."
Hide glanced at Amon. "Before you arrest me for harboring a ghoul or anything, I was concussed and I wasn't sure of what I heard until now. I almost forgot! I know you have a sweet tooth, so I grabbed you a muffin too. The food at Anteiku's pretty good, even if it might be made by ghouls." The boy grabbed a package from his tote bag and held it out.
Amon cleared his throat as he grabbed the muffin wrapped in wax paper. If he'd ever had any control of the room, it seemed to be long gone. But…the feeling of walking on eggshells to avoid an explosive confrontation was also gone. "So you're not only friends with Ken Kaneki, who is currently known as Eyepatch and Centipede, but you are also friends with Rabbit?"
Hide blinked at Amon. "I guessed she was probably a ghoul, but Rabbit?" He thought for a moment, grabbing a drink of his coffee as he mulled this new information. "That actually makes a lot of sense—the white rabbit that avenged the mother for the little girl. Oh! Then the girl must be—"
"If you tell him her name I'll kill you all for real. Right here and now. She's innocent and she deserves a shot at life."
"Yeah, I could totally see you blowing a gasket over her. Crazy." Hide laughed and shook his head. Totally unfazed by her outrage. "As for me and Touka being friends, she'd probably disagree on that point, but she makes an amazing cappuccino so she's someone to keep around in my book."
He sighed and rested his elbow on the table, chin in hand, and turned to his favorite barista. "But, Touka…you were going to use me as a human shield tonight, weren't you?"
"Hide, buddy, I was absolutely going to use you as a human shield."
"Bummer. I used to have the hugest crush on you before I realized you would never go out with me. You only ever paid attention to Kaneki. Even when I ran into you at Kamii a couple of weeks ago, he was all you talked about. You guys would make a cute couple, you know?" Hide sipped his coffee and smirked at her.
She was now bright red in the face. "Yeah, well, that'll never happen because when I saw him a week ago I punched him in the face and told him to never come back."
"What?! Why?!"
"I'm just so…mad at him for showing up and making me like him, and then leaving! For months! He thinks he's protecting us but all he's doing is making me mad!"
"You know, he really likes you. He told me he likes you because you're so assertive, even though that scares him…I honestly don't think punching him in the face is the end of the world. That weirdo was probably into it."
Amon was sitting, mouth agape, absolutely stunned that he was stuck in a room with an investigator-murdering she-ghoul and his promising young assistant investigator, and they were heatedly discussing who had a crush on whom. Over coffee. Of all the paths he'd envisioned this encounter going down, this was not one.
"I hate to interrupt the high school gossip, but you saw Eyepatch recently? When? Where?"
Hide set down his coffee and folded his hands. "Ah, we finally arrive at the real reason I've gathered you both here today."
There was a beat of stunned silence. Then—
"Hide, you didn't plan shit about what's going on right now! This is a dumpster fire you wandered into."
"Well, yeah, but while I'm here I have some questions I need to ask. Kaneki's been pretty much alone in the world since he was a kid, so I've always tried to look out for him. He doesn't have family waiting for him to come home, but he has friends." He leveled an unusually serious gaze at Touka. "You're in that club too, now, aren't you?"
Touka glanced at Amon, who was still riveted to the conversation. She had been very cautious not to speak too much about other ghouls. She didn't want to give him too much information he could use against them.
"Well, if you want my opinion, his life was pretty much ruined forever last fall. It sucks enough being born a ghoul, even if you have your whole life to get used to it. He was just thrown in as an adult. I was kind of a bitch to him at first because I resented the fact that he got eighteen years of peace. But…it might almost be worse to have your life turned upside down and lose everything like that. To actually know what you're missing. I think he's trying to find that doctor…to figure out why this happened to him."
Hide frowned. "Do you think there's any chance he'll just come back on his own, once he's done with the doctor?"
They both glanced at Amon. Amon sighed. "If he's trying to find Dr. Kano and understand why he was the one experimented on, it looks like he's hit a dead end. The doctor has disappeared. He's likely gone into hiding with Aogiri."
Touka looked up at the ceiling, hands wrapped around her coffee. "And he's been mistreated plenty by ghouls and humans in the last few months. This is a cutthroat world to begin with. He's had it worse than most. I wouldn't be surprised if he just wants to stay holed up with…the friends he's with now."
"Who is he with, anyways?"
She stared through her bangs at Amon, across the table. "I think before I talk more, I want to know what you're going to do with the information. Considering you're part of the problem. Do I get to go home and feed that stupid cockatiel, or am I going to be fighting my way out of this building and disappearing into the 24th ward?"
Amon leveled a serious look at Hide. "You know if we let her go, we're in direct violation of the countermeasure law. That's the biggest problem. The second biggest problem is that she's a known murderer."
Hide frowned. "What's legal and what's right aren't always the same thing. She saved my life once. I'm pretty sure my best friend would've died a hundred times over if she hadn't been there for him. I'd feel like a bad person if I turned around and got her killed, even if the law demanded it."
"I only saved you because I'd never hear the end of Kaneki's whining if I let him eat you. I should've let you die."
"See, Amon? She can't stand the thought of anyone knowing she's a do-gooder. It's hilarious."
Amon crossed his arms and looked down at the table. "This is crossing a line. It can't be undone. Good intentions aren't a valid excuse."
Hide pulled a manilla envelope out of his tote and slapped it on the table. "Who's ever gonna know? The only people who know are in this room, right? I'm pretty sure I know what's in this envelope and why you wanted it delivered to Akira tonight. All you have to do is throw it in that shredder over by the printers. Besides, Marude loves me. I could talk my way out of it if he caught wind of this."
Amon frowned at him. "Just whose side are you on, Nagachika?"
"Yeah, Nagachika, whose side are you on?" Touka set her cup on the table and crossed her arms. As she waited for an answer, she almost unconsciously tilted her chair back and stared the college student down while balancing effortlessly on two chair legs. Just a subtle reminder that she wasn't human at all.
Hide smiled, a quiet smile unlike his normal knowing smirk. "I think…I'm on the side of good people who got dealt a bad hand in life."
