Oh wow, this chapter is longer than the rest, and it took a bit for me to come up! Author notes will be at the bottom.
Btw, the next chapter for Tokyo Ghoul Root H will be coming out within less than a week, hopefully. I've already got over two-thousand words written for the Haise x Hinami chapter.
Anyway, onto the chapter!
Due to the afternoon weather in Tokyo being particularly warm, Kaneki had decided to don a black vest and pair of slacks that ended up pairing well with his white dress-shirt and black tie. Freshened up and wanting to avoid falling victim into being sweaty once again, Kaneki made sure to say goodbye to Ichika before leaving his aunt's house early enough, so that he wouldn't stress himself out while traversing through the streets of Tokyo.
By the time that he arrived at the Italian restaurant he and Rize had agreed to meet up at, Kaneki had plenty of leftover time to put his name on the waitlist. Due to how busy the restaurant was, by the time that Kaneki's table had been called, the clock had reached the time that he and Rize had agreed to meet. Just as Kaneki was following behind the restaurant's maître d', Rize came walking through the glass doors of the upscale Italian restaurant.
Turning not only his head, but the heads of several other patrons as well, Rize ignored her various admirers while giving her attention to the gobsmacked young college boy. Dressed in a white dress that had short ruffle sleeves and a short-length skirt that displayed her wide and shaven thighs out for the world to see, Rize made sure to let everyone around her know that she was proud of her voluptuous and curvy body.
Finding himself staring at her exposed silky-black bra that exposed her cleavage underneath the low-cut collar of her white-revealing dress, Kaneki thought back again to the extremely provocative picture of Rize in a scanty swimsuit. From what Kaneki could tell just from admiring her barely covered cleavage, not only were Rize's breasts large enough to be needing a size FF bra, but they were even more perky and immaculate than how he remembered them.
As much as he didn't want to admit it, Ichika's accusations were starting to seem more believable to Kaneki. However, giving credit where it was due, Kaneki did notice that Rize wasn't paying attention to those who were staring at her, but rather all her attention resided on him.
Winking at him, Rize immediately could tell just how shy and anxious Kaneki was as she and him followed the waiter to their quiet circular table that resided in a shaded part of the Italian restaurant; a little oasis that was placed just along the edge of the indoor waterway that emulated a rocky and grassy small river.
Ordering herself a virgin mojito with sprite, and a lime wedge on the side, Rize couldn't help but to giggle when Kaneki appeared embarrassed, after he had ordered a mere glass of Coke. "Take it easy, Kaneki; this is supposed to be fun and relaxing!" Rize encouraged with a comforting smile, as she leaned down on one elbow against the table to rest her slender chin in her palm.
Silently cursing at himself for already working himself up before the waiter even took his order, Kaneki forced a smile on his face and tried to press his back against the cushioned seat, in an attempt to appear 'chill'. "My apologies, it's, uh… It's just that, umm…" Kaneki trailed off, as he tried to explain his situation to Rize, before his fragile ego prevented him from finishing his sentence.
Nodding her head as their waiter came back to hand them their beverages, Rize took a moment to thank the restaurant employee before politely telling him that she wanted to order a charcuterie board. After she had ordered an appetizer, Rize turned her attention back to Kaneki before suddenly finishing his sentence by saying, "… You've never been on a date before?"
Cringing momentarily from hearing Rize stating the truth with a serious look on her face, Kaneki let out a shallow breath before reluctantly nodding. "Uh… N-No, I haven't. You're, umm… Y-You're the first girl who ever gave me a chance, haha, ah… Oh…" Kaneki chuckled humorlessly with a nervous and small smile on his face. "… Sorry."
Shaking her head sympathetically, Rize reached over the table to grab a hold of Kaneki's hand to give it a reassuring squeeze. "Oh don't be sorry, Kaneki! We all have to start somewhere…" Rize said with a warm smile on her face, and continued to stare back at Kaneki's blushing face before an idea suddenly struck her. "Say…! What if I show you how to treat a lady, so that next time you go on a date with a girl, you can show her a good time?!" Rize suggested with an excited twinkle in her purple eyes, meanwhile Kaneki couldn't help but to feel his heart crack a little after hearing what she had just said.
'… Next time, with a different girl?' Kaneki asked with a forced smile on his face, as he felt the hopes and dreams he had developed with the idea of Rize being a part of them suddenly shattered into a million pieces. 'Damn it… I got turned down already!? We haven't even gone to that stupid carnival yet, and I'm already friendzoned! What a load of bullshit…!'
"… You would do that for me?" Kaneki asked with the most believably chipper voice he could muster, as he tried his best to maintain eye contact with the enthusiastic purple-haired woman sitting across from him.
Tightening her grip excitingly, Rize nodded her head with a proud look in her determined gaze, before replying back with, "Of course, that's what friends are for!"
Hearing that said to him only confirmed what he already suspected, and it was right around then did Kaneki feel a little piece of him die.
Taking a sip of his red-velvet cappuccino, Haise collected his thoughts and exhaled any frustrations he had with his future students while closing his eyelids; meditating so that he wouldn't say anything that could jeopardize his literature club's future.
"Alright… Since what I'm hearing is that none of you actually read the whole book through… How far did we get into it?" Haise asked, after mustering you enough patience to force a smile on his face. Waiting for one of his four club members to volunteer, Haise's patience was once again tested after it became apparent that none of them were going to speak up on their own accord.
Letting out another breath quietly, Haise scanned around the booth, looking for the best candidate to speak up. That's when he saw the tallest club member, who had shaggy and slimy blond hair, and wore a black dress shirt and loose white tie, similar to what Haise himself was wearing. "Shirazu, how about you go first?"
Frowning, Shirazu could feel a single sweat drop rolling down his face as the three other students turned their own worries gazes at him. "Ah shit…" Shirazu muttered under his breath, before quickly formulating his answer, all while trying his damn hardest to remember the plot of the first Harry Potter movie that he saw with his younger sister, over ten years ago.
"Well Sassan- can I call you that?" Shirazu cut himself off, after realizing that he had accidentally just told Haise that nickname he had been thinking of calling him since they had first met.
Trying his hardest to think about why Shirazu wanted to call him 'Sassan' without getting off topic, Haise nodded at his club member's request. "Sure, that's fine with me. Now about what you've read so far…" Haise asked with a suspicious look in his eye, as he crossed his arms over his own slender chest while keeping an eye out for any notable mannerisms from Shirazu.
"Ah, yes, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone," Shirazu said aloud while trying to present himself as knowledgeable of the subject, all while secretly trying to quickly remember how the movie started. "… Harry Potter was a baby, and then his dad got ganked by Voldemort, and then his mom put him as a baby into his crib. She casted a protective spell, and then Voldemort came in and killed her and tried killing Harry, but couldn't…"
"… Uh, it then cuts to the future and Harry's a British boy living in a British world," Shirazu said with a wise-cracking grin on his face, which earned him a quiet chuckle from the somewhat heavy set short girl sitting beside him and Haise. "His fat uncle and long-nosed aunt are neglectful and treat him like shit, right? And then there's a fat kid named Pugsly, who-"
"-Pugly's the son from Addam's Family, not Harry Potter," Haise interrupted with a mildly amused, albeit disapproving, look on his face. "Nice try Shirazu, next time try to actually read at least past the first chapter," Haise chuckled out loud humorlessly, before turning his attention to his second choice of who to call on, who was a young man only three years younger than him, who had on a single earphone while staring boredly at the screen of his phone.
"Urie, why don't you-"
"-I didn't read it," Urie interrupted in a deep, monotone voice; not once even bothering to look up at Haise, or even momentarily pause the music that was blaring into his right ear.
Deadpanned and still trying to process just how standoffish and rude his own future student was being to him, Haise was at a loss of words as he continued to stare blankly at Urie before eventually turning his attention to the short-stacked and blue-haired college girl who was sitting a little too closely to him. "Okay then… Saiko, uh… Did you read anything?"
Smiling proudly to herself, Saiko nodded vigorously at her future professor before reaching into her pastel-pink and small backpack to pull out the book in question. "Saiko read the first few chapters of the book, and thought that it was not very exciting in comparison to how she remembers the movie being," Saiko admitted, and before Haise could carry on to the questions he had for her, he suddenly recoiled in his seat as a sudden realization hit him.
"… Saiko, uh," Haise started off, while trying to be delicate with his words, as to not offend the short young woman with anything that might come off as insensitive. "Have you… Have you always spoken like that? As in like, the third-person, or…?" Haise trailed off while raising his hands up, asking Saiko for an explanation as to why she had spoken in third-person.
"Not always, but Saiko has always spoken like this since she was twelve years-old," Saiko replied back with a serious tone in her voice, as she turned her body away from the table so she could turn to face towards Haise. "Saiko feels like it's easier to talk about herself like this; especially when she's feeling a little nervous, hehe…!" She chuckled uncomfortably; subtly informing Haise of how she was feeling that very moment.
"Ah, I see… Well then Saiko, please go on," Haise said encouragingly, after having given her a reassuring smile that made her feel more at ease. Listening to Saiko telling him what she had read from the book, Haise in turn proceeded to ask her questions not about the story itself, but questions in regards to the young woman's English literacy. After asking questions for about five minutes, Haise came to the conclusion that Saiko was struggling the most with grammar, and didn't quite understand conjunctions.
Thanking her for being brave enough to answer his questions, Haise turned his attention to his left side, to where his most nervous student sat down with an anxious look in her exposed green eye. "Mutsuki, how about you? Have you read the book since I assigned it to you last week?"
Shuddering from being put on the spotlight, Mutsuki's dark-skin became nearly as pale as the white eyepatch she wore over her right eye. "Oh, uh… I-I read, ummm… A-All of it… It was okay," Mutsuki replied in a barely audible voice that Haise found hard to hear.
When her quiet words finally processed in his head, Haise gave Mutsuki a confused look while tilting his head at her. "Oh, you did? Why didn't you say something earlier?" Haise asked with a perplexed look in his eyes, to which Mutsuki got real quiet again before averting her one-eyed gaze to the inside of her white ceramic-cup.
"… I-I don't know," Mutsuki said quietly while looking as though she was close to tearing up; prompting Haise to lay off the question and move on to more purposeful questions. From what Haise could tell from what little information he could gather from Mutsuki's mumbled responses, was that Mutsuki actually had a solid grasp of English literacy. She didn't show any signs of struggling to reread whatever paragraph Haise pointed to, other than having the confidence to properly articulate her barely audible words.
Making a mental note of not only Mutsuki's reading capabilities, but the rest of his club members as well, Haise took out his cellphone and opened up his notepad app to jot down his findings. "Well… This first meeting has been quite… Eye opening," Haise said with a bit of caution in his voice; fearing the possibility of accidentally once again saying something that might drive his future students away.
Chuckling sarcastically, Shirazu crossed his hands behind his head before chiming in by saying, "Pfft! Yeah right, Sassan…! You don't have to pretend that we aren't shit at reading English," Shirazu said with a slight bit of frustration and anxiety in his voice, as he closed his eyelids shut while tilting his face up toward the coffee shop's white ceiling.
While Mutsuki was too scared to speak up for herself, Saiko herself had no qualms about defending her own honor. Turning around so that her back was pressed up against Haise's side, Saiko glared angrily at Shirazu before saying, "Hey! Speak for yourself! You didn't even read the first page; it was obvious from the get go that you were trying to remember scenes from the movies!" Saiko called out, before finishing her roast by saying, "Voldemort wasn't even introduced until the end of the first movie, and he wasn't anything more than a face growing out of the back of some guy's head!"
Not at all being particularly fond of being called out for his bullshit, Shirazu instantly lowered his glaring gaze back at Saiko's large and blue eyes. Angered, Shirazu scoffed at the girl before suddenly retorting, "Whatever, fatass. At least I don't talk about myself in the third person, like some cringy chick off tumblr…" Shirazu muttered back with a toothy grin that grew even wider the moment he watched Saiko's face become flushed with anger.
"Don't call Saiko a fatass, you incel! You don't talk like that to ladies; you'd know that if you weren't too far up your own ass to-" Saiko shouted, before suddenly cutting herself off the moment she and Shirazu both noticed that Urie had been recording them arguing with his phone's camera pointed at them. "… Were you recording us, Urie?" Saiko asked with a wide-eyed expression of fear, while backing closer into Haise.
Nodding once, Urie smirked slightly before replying back, "Yeah, it's going on my cringe compilation," he said, before lowering his phone to begin saving it onto his cloud. "You two are fucking idiots, no wonder you two retards are failing English."
Already heated up from being insulted for her weight and the way that she spoke, Saiko began crying angrily as she gritted her teeth at the indifferent young man. Sensing that she was about to snap, Haise was able to quickly stand up and put Saiko in an arm lock the moment he saw her chubby hands reach out for the glass vase in the middle of the table; a decorative object that Saiko saw only as a weapon in that very moment.
Although Haise was able to wrestle with Saiko to avoid her from committing a felony against Urie, Shirazu was able to leap out of his chair to get a good right hook punch into the side of the young man's jaw. "You clout-chasing asshole; I'm gonna kick your ass, Uri-!" Shirazu spat out angrily at the shorter young man, before suddenly receiving a boot to the chin from Urie, that sent him flying out of the booth and landing on the coffee shop floor with a thud.
"Holy shit…!" Haise cursed under his breath in a panic, as he continued to struggle with the squirming short-stacked woman in his arms, who was putting up much more of a fight than he figured she was capable of.
Wiping the blood from his lips, Urie's eyes grew intense as he leapt out of the booth and hopped onto Shirazu's body. "Last fucking mistake you ever made, asshole…!" Urie muttered hatefully, as he straddled his legs against the sides of Shirazu's hips to pin him down, before the two angry young men began to throw punches at one another.
With his face currently buried in Saiko's two long and bushy pigtails, Haise could only hear the two young men beating on one another "Hey, k-knock that crap off, you two!" Haise tried shouting, but was only able to yell through muffled breaths.
Hearing Mutsuki beginning to hyperventilate behind him, Haise did his best to ignore the friction between his crotch and Saiko's very plump bottom while she continued to try and pry herself out of his grip. "H-Hey, it's okay Mutsuki, okay…?!" Haise stuttered out while essentially getting a close lap-dance from Saiko; feeling the short-stacked woman's exposed sweaty thighs rubbing against his legs while trying to keep calm-headed as he turned away from her hair, so that he could look at Mutuski's panicked expression.
Unfortunately, it was too late for Haise. Mutsuki was beyond the point of being reasoned with, and she was trembling violently while gasping for what little air she could get into her lungs. With Eto and her employees rushing in to pull the two young men off of each other, Mutsuki having a panic attack, and Saiko still going berserk as she unknowingly was giving Haise what essentially was a butt-job through the skin-tight black biker shorts she wore underneath her white dress, the world around the young professor started to go spinning out of control as he felt the bulge in his pants rubbing hard in between Saiko's large cheeks.
"A-Ah, no…!" Haise muttered through a quiet whine filled with shame, before turning around to purposefully bury his face into Saiko's bushy blue hair to muffle whatever moans would escape from his throat, after the friction and hot body temperature shared between his covered cock and her plump ass finally caused him to unwillingly pre-ejaculate in his slacks.
In any other circumstance, Kaneki would have considered his first date a major success. The food they both ordered was good, Rize thankfully wasn't one of those girls who were too shy to eat in front of him, and each of them were able to go back-and-forth during their ample conversations involving books and school. Kaneki certainly felt as though there was chemistry between him and Rize, and she only had to give him advice and corrections a few times throughout their nearly two hour long lunch.
The duo spent the afternoon before they needed to be at the Dragon Festival hitting up book shop after book shop, while occasionally rifling through the shelves of thrift stores in hopes of coming across something good. It was while they were in a particularly large bookstore, in between two towering asiles of books, did Kaneki finally spring up the questions he had been too reluctant to ask earlier.
"Kamishiro," Kaneki said out loud, to which made Rize retract her face away from the spines of a particular shelf of books that had caught her interest. "I'd like to ask you some questions, now that you and I are becoming more… Open, and honest with one another."
Although Rize had been nothing but understanding with Kaneki since they first started their day-long date, the mentioning of 'open and honest' instantly made her tense up for a split second, before she quickly corrected herself and forced herself to loosen up. "Ah, of course, of course… What's on your mind, Kaneki?" Rize asked with a still somewhat nervous smile on her face.
Not wanting to say something that he would regret, Kaneki decided to choose his words carefully before speaking out loud. "… My cousin, she showed me some of the content you've posted online… More specifically, on your Instagram," Kaneki said with an uneasy look on his face, and instantly regretted ever bringing the subject up the moment he saw Rize recoil and cringe.
"… What about it?" Rize asked with a defensive tone in her voice, as she crossed her arms underneath her large chest while scowling at Kaneki. "Most of those I was posing for advertisements that my sponsors wanted me to do. Besides, even if I wasn't posting to get paid, what's wrong with being proud to show off what God gave me?"
'Ah… Shit,' Kaneki thought anxiously to himself, as he thought up a way of how he could salvage his 'date' with Rize. Thinking about what Hide would say if he were in the same position he was in, Kaneki thought back to what he felt when saw that revealing picture of Rize sitting on a giant beach ball. Reluctantly, Kaneki quickly had to accept that if there was going to be anything between him and Rize, it wasn't going to be love, but rather just friendship with benefits at best.
"… O-Oh, there's nothing wrong with what you posted! I-I just wanted to ask you, in person, if you had any more, umm… R-Revealing photos that you keep private on your phone," Kaneki asked while silently screaming at himself for making himself look like a creep. The solace Kaneki could take while watching Rize's eyes widen and her stance drop, was that he'd at least go out like a pervert who shot his shot, and not as a judgmental misogynist who was opposed to women showing off their bodies.
Blushing, Rize's lips spread out to a slightly embarrassed smile. "O-Oh?! That's what you were getting at…!" Rize stuttered out with bright red cheeks, while letting out a chuckle as she reached up to play with a few strands of her bright-purple hair. "My apologies, I thought you were trying to shame me for my way of acquiring income… College isn't cheap, ya know?" Rize mused half-jokingly, to which made Kaneki let out an uneasy chuckle.
"Pffft, yeah, no kidding, huh, hehe?" Kaneki replied back agreeingly, which also helped make the conversation between the two less awkward. "I too want to apologize, Kamishiro. I understand that asking you for such things is… Not very gentlemanly, but… Like I said, since we're being open and honest with one another, I might as well tell you that I find you extremely attractive, as well as kind and friendly," Kaneki said, while still within the 'fuck it' mentality; no longer caring whether or not he and Rize even were going to go to the carnival.
Chuckling half-heartedly, Rize smirked smugly while closing her eyelids gently. "Don't even worry about it, Kaneki; you certainly aren't the first person to confess their attraction over my body, and probably won't be the last," Rize said with a bit of an ego, before softly opening her eyelids and smiling back sweetly at the somewhat confused young man. "… But you're, sadly, the first person who's complimented me beyond my looks."
In that very moment, Kaneki couldn't help but to allow himself to drop the facade he had created to protect himself from feeling genuine emotions for Rize, especially after it had become clear to him that she wasn't looking for romance in him. However, upon hearing Rize admitting to him that she was accustomed to being seen as nothing more than a pretty face with an attractive body made Kaneki feel sympathy for her.
"… How horrible," Kaneki said quietly with a saddened look on his half-closed eyes. "I… I feel awful for asking you about seeing your body, I… I don't know, it was uncalled for, so… So again, I'm sorry," Kaneki apologized once again, to which earned him a saddened giggle from Rize, who gazed back at him with an apologetic look of her own.
"You apologize too much, Kaneki… You're a sweetheart, and honestly, you're a very fun and charming guy to be around," Rize complimented honestly, while also trying to reassure Kaneki. Sighing, Rize's half-closed gaze fell to the white floor tiles of the bookstore they were occupying, as she felt a pang of guilt.
"… I'm sure you've figured it out by now, you're a smart boy, but…" Rize trailed off, while trying to think carefully as to how to proceed before finally gathering up the courage to say what she wanted to say. "… I'm not the girl who you think I am; I don't consider myself 'girlfriend material'. I'm not looking for a guy, or a girl, to be steady with. I'm just trying to have fun while I'm still young, and mess around with whichever cute piece of ass wants to hook up with me."
Hearing Rize suddenly speaking with vulgarity and a primal look in her eye made Kaneki instantly see her in a different light, which also made him think back to what Ichika had said about her character. "… Nothing wrong with having fun," Kaneki said as a way to prompt her to continue speaking her mind to him, which he morbidly found to be interesting.
"I completely agree, Kaneki, there's nothing wrong with just wanting to get laid sometimes; no strings attached," Rize spoke with a bit of relief in her voice, as though she were taking comfort in Kaneki's understanding nature. "I'm a party girl, and probably will be for a long time… With that being said, I know the kind of person who you are; you're a hopeless romantic who's too shy to accomplish your goal of having at least one person who's going to love you, and you only."
Although what Rize was saying wasn't meant to be hurtful, Kaneki couldn't help but to flinch upon hearing what he knew to be the truth. Letting out an elongated sigh, as though he had just taken a shot of hard liquor, Kaneki tightened his lips before nodding slowly with a solemn smirk spread across his thin lips. "Y-Yeah… Yeah, you would, uh… Y-You'd be corrected about me, I suppose," Kaneki replied back with a hurt ego, before suddenly tensing up for a split second the moment he felt Rize's hand softly clamping down on his shoulder.
Smiling brightly at Kaneki, Rize looked him dead in the eye before saying, "You and I, we have our own two different faults that make us incompatible, I'm afraid. However… That doesn't mean you and I can still enjoy each other's company, one way or another," Rize said with a bit of a flirtatious tone in her voice, before taking another step closer to wrap her arms around Kaneki. "Besides… I still intend to keep my word about making you the perfect guy," Rize said with a mischievous voice behind her words, as she pulled away from the hug to grin proudly at the embarrassed and excited young man.
"You… You think that's possible?" Kaneki asked meekly with a shy grin on his face, as not even he could hide the fact that the idea of him being able to attract women to him in droves piqued his interest.
Giving Kaneki's shoulder a reassuring pat, Rize pulled her arms away from his body completely before resting her hands on her wide hips. "Trust me, Kaneki, by the time I get through educating you on how to be a literal alpha male, you're gonna have women begging you to take notice of them~!" Rize said humorlessly with anticipation of turning Kaneki from a shy nerdy boy, into an actual chad.
Clearing her throat, Rize crossed her arms underneath her busty chest before taking a professional tone. "Lesson number one, Kaneki: Don't you ever fucking ask for nudes on the first date ever again. Whoever taught you that, or made you believe that was okay to do, is a dumbass; don't ever take dating advice from them, ever again," Rize instructed with a serious tone, which made Kaneki avert his gaze down his shoes as a wave of newfound embarrassment hit him like a head-on collision with a train.
'… Thanks a lot, Hide," Kaneki thought bitterly to himself, as all he could think about while Rize began to scold him about how creepy that made him look for asking that question earlier was a mental image of Hide, smiling at him with his eye-lids closed and his mouth wide open like a cartoon cat.
After the ambulance came to transport Mutsuki to the nearest hospital, and the police had to take Urie and Shirazu to their station to be dealt with accordingly, Haise was left sitting down in his booth beside Saiko in a closed coffee shop. Feeling awkward while sitting beside the same hot-headed girl who had unknowingly made him cum inside of his slacks, Haise buried his face in his palms as he rested both elbows on the table with only Saiko's quiet and regretful sobs to keep him company.
"S-Saiko's sorry, Mr. Sasaki…! S-She didn't mean to help cause this…!" Saiko wailed out from her blubbering tears, before taking a moment to blow her nose into the handkerchief that had been beside her empty cup of coffee.
Unable to look his future student in the eyes after what had secretly happened between them, Haise continued to rest his eyes and forehead in his palms, as he took in a breath to help calm and compose himself. "… It's not your fault, Saiko. You and Shirazu wouldn't have reacted that way, if Urie didn't insult you two like that," Haise said reassuringly as he could sound, all while purposefully choosing to ignore the previous conflict that arose between Saiko and Shirazu.
Still not convinced that she was in the clear, Saiko scooted closer to Haise before quietly muttering, "P-Please don't give up on Saiko, Mr. Sasaki…! T-This is Saiko's only chance of getting an education… I-If Saiko doesn't learn how to read better from you, t-then Saiko won't p-pass your class, and… And then Saiko will get kicked out, and then…" Saiko trailed off after sharing her fear of the future to Haise, which tugged on his heartstrings and made him feel even worse for what he accidentally did.
Sighing once again, Haise took a few moments to mentally brace himself as he lowered his hands down before turning his head around to look down into her bloodshot eyes. "… Don't worry Saiko, I'm not going to give up on you, or the rest of your fellow club members. I'm just… I'm just going to have to figure out a way to make this work with all of you coexisting together," Haise said reassuringly with a faint smile on his face, to which made the crying young women sitting close beside him calm down enough to stare back at him with a look of gratitude on her chubby face.
As if on cue, the front door of Anteiku opened up, and in came Eto wearing her messy uniform, with an even messier bun that she tried making to present herself better, for when the cops and the news channel had come earlier to respond to the fight that broke out. Looking exhausted, frustrated, and overall like she wasn't having a good time, Eto sulked with each step she took as she approached Haise and Saiko's booth.
Yawning, Eto raised a hand up to press her palm against her forehead in an attempt to nurse her migraine, before forcing a gentle smile on her face as her green eyes turned to stare down Saiko. "Ms. Saiko, your mother is outside… I already explained what happened, and that you're safe," Eto said reassuringly so that she could ensure that Saiko could take comfort that she probably wasn't going to be in trouble for what had transpired at the older woman's coffee shop.
"T-Thank you, Ms. Yoshimura," Saiko said with a shaking voice still, and took a calming breath as she scooted out of the booth. Standing up to the point where the top of her head barely reached above the top of the table, Saiko paused for a moment before turning around and taking a step to the side, so that she could have a clear line of view with her club leader. "… Mr. Sasaki, can… Can Saiko call you later tonight before she goes to bed?" The short-stacked young woman asked nervously with a pleading look in her large eyes, to which of course Haise, being the softhearted person who he was, couldn't say no to.
"Of course, Saiko… I'll have my phone on me, and that sound is on, so… Just call me whenever you want to; I'll be sure to answer it if I can," Haise replied back with a soft smile that made Saiko let out a sigh of relief. After the two said their goodbyes, Haise watched as Saiko wiped her face with her dress skirt, before exiting through the front door and out to the sidewalk where her mother was parked.
Once she made sure that it was just her and the young college professor, Eto let out a disgruntled breath before plopping her bottom down within the same circular booth as Haise. "Ugh… You weren't kidding about those kids coming from troubled backgrounds, weren't you?" Eto asked with an exhausted voice, as she crossed her arms over the table top before burying her face in between her forearms.
Feeling embarrassed for himself, and guilty for causing a fight to break out that called for Eto to close her business down early for the day, Haise frowned and found it hard to even look in the green-haired woman's general direction. Gathering his thoughts, Haise let out a sigh of his own before hesitantly speaking. "I… I don't even know how to tell you just how awful I feel for having a hand in all of this. If I wasn't so careless and didn't throw caution to the wind when I had all of them together, maybe-"
"-Don't blame yourself, Sasaki; you don't have anything to apologize for," Eto interrupted him before he could finish apologizing to her. Turning her head while still hunched over her table, Eto smiled tiredly at Haise before continuing to finish her thoughts. "You couldn't have predicted that this was going to happen. This hasn't been the first time that a fight broke out in this establishment, and probably won't be the last time either," Eto mused with a half-sarcastic voice, to which prompted Haise to shake his head at her for trying to excuse the whole situation to nothing more than dumbluck.
"But even so, I've only known these students for less than a week… Knowing that they came from trouble backgrounds, I should have spent more time with each of them in individually, rather than just assuming that they were all going to get along just fine," Haise reasoned more so to himself than Eto, as he still continued to blame himself for practically orchestrating the whole scenario to begin with. "… Only one of them actually read the whole book I assigned to them, and even then, the one who did read it hardly wanted to speak about it… I shouldn't have been so blindly optimistic about thinking that this 'literature club' was going to go as smoothly as I thought it would…"
Nodding slowly to Haise's long-drawn exposition about how he jumped the gun too soon, Eto decided to challenge him rather than coddle him. "So, what? You're going to disband the club, and let the four of them figure it out for themselves?" Eto asked with a serious look in her eyes, and remained stoned face as she watched Haise's facial expression then from that of guilt, to that of shock.
"What?! N-No, I-I didn't say that," Haise said defensively to Eto, who in turn still wasn't about to let up with her provocative words.
"True, you didn't outright state that aloud, but from what I've heard, it sure sounds like you're wanting to give up," Eto pointed out, as she lifted her head out of her arms, before sitting up to press her back against the cushion of the booth's velvet seat. "You can blame yourself if you want to, and let that guilt eat at you until you're nothing more than a self-pitiful shadow of what you used to be… Or, you could see this from a different perspective, and recognize what you're going to need to do from this point on, and how best to accomplish your goals," Eto said as a way to motivate Haise, who in turn couldn't help but to feel at the mercy of whatever the silver-tongued coffee shop owner had to say about his predicament.
"Well… I was planning on visiting my club members before heading home tonight, starting with Mutsuki: the girl who had to be taken away by the ambulance," Haise explained aloud, while Eto nodded while intently listening to him tell his plan to her. "After I've checked up on her, I was going to go down to the police station and see what's going on with those two boys, see what I can do to help them out. You know, if there is anything I can do, that is," Haise clarified, after catching himself being hopelessly optimistic once again.
"I see, I see… And what about Saiko? How do you plan on checking in on her?" Eto asked curiously with an expectant look in her eyes, which stemmed from her believing that Saiko was in need of special attention as well.
Giving Eto a wary look, Haise didn't quite know how to answer her question without looking suspicious himself. Taking in a deep breath, he let out a sigh before telling the truth to her. "Saiko, she… She wanted to call me later tonight, before she goes to bed. I honestly don't know when that'll be, so I'm just going to have my phone on sound, and be expecting to get a phone call from her later on," Haise explained, to which prompted Eto to ask a question.
"And what do you think she's going to talk to you about?" Eto questioned with a poker face, to which Haise shrugged his shoulders, while trying to come up with an answer he could give her.
"I honestly couldn't tell you… My guess, if I had to make one, would be that maybe she doesn't really have anyone aside from family to talk about her problems with?" Haise hypothesized, while trying to back up his proposed assumption. "I mean, when you were outside dealing with the press and the police, she spent nearly the entire time begging me not to give up on her, and even going as far as to tell me that I'm her only chance at a good life…"
"… I don't want to make any more assumptions, because you know what they say about assumptions," Haise said half-jokingly, while finally smiling once again at the still listening woman sitting beside him. "But… Overall, I don't think I'm going to be able to treat this 'literature club' like most professors would. It's going to take patience, and I feel as though I'm going to have to do a lot of one-on-one meetings with these students."
Although she was relieved to hear that Haise had no intention of giving up on the four young adults who she herself could see needed him more than they would actually admit, Eto still wasn't done challenging the young professor's plan quite yet. "… It's not going to be an easy road ahead of you; there's going to be times where your patience runs thin, and the temptation to give up will become almost irresistible. You're aware of that, right?" Eto questioned with a still neutral expression on her face, to which Haise thought about for a moment before slowly nodding.
"Oh don't worry, I understand that, clear as day," Haise replied back with a look of determination creeping up his face. "My life wasn't exactly easy either, and I've had more than a fair share of hardships happen to me… I'm serious when I- No, I'm 'Sasarious' when I say this," Haise interrupted himself, just so he could squeeze in a pun before finishing his declaration to himself, and to Eto. "I'm going to make sure that anyone who joins my club passes any English class they take, regardless of whatever college they want to attend. So long as they don't give up, I won't give up on them either."
Nodding her head softly while Haise appeared to have a newfound sense of determination and confidence about his life's current mission, Eto finally broke the façade by smiling as she got up from the booth. "Well, you've convinced me, Sasaki. I'm going to help by providing you with anything that I can provide; starting with an upstairs room that you can use for your club… Oh, and of course, this as well," Eto said with an eager look in her eye, as she reached into her apron pocket to pull out a ring filled with various metal keys.
Rifling through each key, eventually Eto came across a copy of Anteiku's master key, before handing it to the dumbfounded young man who had the sign of her trust practically shoved in his chest. "Uh… W-What's this key to?" Haise asked with a perplexed gaze in his eyes, as he stared down at the bronze key in his palms.
"It's the keys to the 'kingdom', Mr. Sasaki: that key works for the main entrance, as well as whatever doors are upstairs and even downstairs, where the basement is," Eto answered back with a wide smile on her face, as she saw just how stunned she had made Haise. "Sounds to me like you're going to need a place to hold your meetings, and I don't think most businesses are going to let you host your meet ups at their establishments; especially once news on what happened here hits the public tomorrow morning."
"I… I don't know if I can accept this amount of trust from you, Ms. Yoshimura. This is a huge amount of responsibility that you're trusting me with," Haise admitted with a nervous look in his eye, as though to convey to Eto that he didn't want to upset her for wanting to entrust him with her generous gift.
"… Sasaki, would you please allow me to tell you a little tid-bit about the history of this coffee shop, and what it means to me?" Eto requested with a slightly wavered smile.
Not wanting to offend her, and curious himself about what she wanted to tell him, Haise nodded his head at Eto before telling her, "Please, I'd be honored if you would."
"Thank you," Eto replied back with a glad expression on her face, before taking a moment to sit down at the edge of the booth's curved seating area, so that her back was slightly turned towards Haise. "… So, originally Anteiku was created by my father, who opened this place up was my father: Kuzen Yoshimura," Eto explained, to which Haise nodded his head while intently listening to the story she was telling him.
"My father was fifteen when he opened it, back when child labor laws weren't what they were today, and he was considered a young man," Eto clarified, as to not have her story sound like it was made up. "I digress, though… Originally, he made the coffee shop because it was a dream that he had inherited from his own father. That dream that he carried on was to create a safe space that would assist those in need, so long as it was for a righteous purpose…"
"… That's why my father had all those rooms built upstairs. It wasn't to build a home for us, but rather so that others who needed to seek refuge could come to Anteiku in their time of need; where our doors and hearts would be open for them," Eto said with a sentimental feeling warming her own heart up, while Haise merely stared back with a look of astonishment in his eyes. "… And the way I see it, in the spirit of Anteiku, it's only right that I help you on your noble mission to make a real difference in the lives of those troubled students."
"… So please, Sasaki, allow me to carry on my family's tradition, and do my part to ensure that those who are in need of a helping hand are able to conjugate in a safe environment," Eto stated, as if though she wasn't exactly willing to accept any sort of refusal on Haise's part.
Looking away from her confident gaze, back down to the bronze key in his hands, Haise remained quiet for a few moments before letting out a quiet sigh. "I… I don't even know how I could ever repay you for this, Yoshimura. T-Thank you," Haise said quietly, before needing to use his sleeve to wipe away the tears that had formed in his eyes; tears that had come after a whirlwind of emotions and stress that had experienced, all within a two hour frame.
Smiling and letting loose a bit, Eto scooted close and reached out with one hand to close Haise's fingers around the key she had bestowed upon him. "You're very welcome, Sasaki… Besides, you don't need to worry about thinking of a convoluted way of needing to repay me; I've already told you what I want from you," Eto said smugly with a wide grin on her face, to which made Haise turn his head in confusion at her.
"… You did?" Haise asked curiously, to which Eto excitedly nodded, while turning around on the seat, so that she was facing the college professor.
"That's right: You're going to help me become an actual author, by reading my stories and giving me feedback and criticism, remember?" Eto ordered, more so than trying to remind Haise, as she developed a determined glimmer in her own enigmatic gaze, leaving Haise at a loss of words once again.
'… What the hell is up with this woman?!' Was all Haise could think to himself, as he continued to stare at the cheshire-like grin that was spreading across Eto's slightly deranged face.
So surprise, surprise, I wrote Eto to be weird, confident, mysterious, understanding, and a little unhinged. Rize will still be the catalyst for Kaneki, but in a different way.
Hopefully this chapter was good, and builds more character and the world in which this AU is set up in. I've read the reviews you guys have given me, and thank you very much for taking the time to write to me!
I wanted to not make Rize too one-dimensional, so I avoided her being a villain or the stereotypical e-girl that was only using Kaneki to fulfill her own needs. Ichika is still going to be going to the carnival to keep tabs on Kaneki, and possibly try to split him away from Rize so she could have him spend time with her. Touka will be there too, and don't worry, most women in this story will be bisexual, so expect polygamy and even yuri lemons, for all my lesbian-lovers out there.
I like how the guest wrote how Ichika would eventually try to seduce Kaneki by wearing skimpy clothing around him, and asking him to do activities with her that would cause him to get close to her. They'll eventually hook up and she'll be part of his harem.
I can totally see Touka being romantically interested in Kaneki, Ichika, and even Haise to an extent, but Haise probably would focus on Eto until Eto herself talks Haise into inviting other girls to join their harem. Also, I love the idea of Touka getting mad at Haise, after mistaking him for Kaneki making out with Eto.
Ichika is petite and doesn't really have breasts, for all my petite lovers out there. Wincest.
Ichika is going to be more of a pervert than Kaneki, for sure. And I actually love the idea of Kimiko Kaneki being the name for Kaneki's aunt. I'll probably have her hooking up with someone for sure, maybe Kaneki, Haise, Touka, or all three. Hell, maybe even Ayato too.
Eto and Haise's dating history is that they never dated anyone lol.
And to Kodiak, thank you for liking the way I wrote Eto. The literature club is literally this AU's version of the Qunix Squad.
Anyways, feel free to throw out shipping ideas, smut requests, or whatever! I love communication with you guys, and hope you've enjoyed this chapter!
Like I stated earlier, the new chapter for Root H will be out soon, I hope.
Until then, have a good one!