I never expected that so many people would enjoy the first chapter quite this much! Thanks so much for everyone who reviewed and added this to their favorites! Sorry I disappeared for two years without an update, too many personal things got in the way, but I'm back!

I definitely wanted to bring this back before Halloween, especially now that I've finished Tokyo Ghoul. Hopefully I can update at least once a week -once a month again. I realized I never set this during a specific time in the plot, so it will take place just before the end of Tokyo Ghoul and during the three years before Re: starts.

Warning: Includes mention of self harm, abuse, and possibly suicide in later chapters.

I don't own Tokyo Ghoul

"Interesting"

"I-i'm sorry?"

"Your skin... it's interesting."

My face mask, I forgot it. He was referring to my face. I've never had anyone refer to my skin as interesting, at least not in a good way. The uneasy feeling decreased as he leaned away from me, causing me to let out the breath I hadn't realized that I was holding. Before I could take in another, a gentle hand grasped mine, quickly replaced by a piece of material sliding into my palm. Glancing down I looked at the mask he placed back into my hand.

"It's nicely made."

"W-what?" I squeaked out with a jump.

"The mask, It's nicely made. Where did you get it?"

Looking back down at my hand I studied the mask. It was a half mask that was mostly black, with red, and bits of silver throughout it. The overall shape was that of a bat, the edges of wings stretched to frame the sides of chin and extended two inches about the forehead. The majority of the mask and 'wings' was a simple but intricate swirled pattern in a blood red color. Above the holes where the eyes rested there were streaks of red like eye shadow, with small red silver flecks mixed in. Most of the detailed were embroidered and sewn into it. Stretching from the under the eyes to the tips of the wings there were short, thin chains in a swooping pattern. Every few links there a small, teardrop shaped gem alternating in red and silver. Lasting behind the holes for the eyes, there was a black fabric that would hide the wearers eyes from others, but they would still be able to see with little to no problem. You had to admit it was one of your favorites you've ever made.

"I um... I made it. I made all the costumes here. I do all the displays and DIY related things. " I said after studying the mask for a bit. Probably rambling a bit. What can I say? I tend to ramble and stutter when I get nervous.

"I see... do you make them often?"

"Not really n-no... Usually only around this time of year and Christmas. This is usually our busiest time of the year. A-and the occasional fancy party or charity that some come in for. I do get the occasional odd requests here and there for commissions. I-it's a nice hobby, I suppose. W-would you be interested in one?"

Before he could answer, Akemi bursts back into the shop.

"Kukiko, are you still-" she started to call out, before stopping in her tracks at the sight of the stranger in the shop.

"Akemi-san, I was just helping a customer before we closed for the day."

Based on the way she was staring I doubt she even heard what I said. She looked him over once, twice, then a third time. You could practically see the gears turning in her head. After a moment she finally put on her best, fake smile she could muster before sauntering over. It took a lot of willpower not to roll my eyes and groan, she did this with every customer she immediately found attractive. I could never understand her taste in men before, but with him I could see it. She had a thing for he mysterious looking ones, and so far he seemed to meet the bar she set. However I didn't have much time to put any thought into it. The second she made it over to the two of us, she promptly pushed me out of the way before addressing him.

"I see. So what brought you to our lovely shop?" she said batting her eyelashes at him. He seemed to be completely unfazed by her shoving me. At least I think he was unfazed, it was hard to tell with the glasses on.

"I wanted to see if you had a certain type of material I need for a project. Unfortunately it seems like you don't carry what I need though."

"If there's something you need we can order it for you! That's our specialty after all!" she exclaimed with a bit too much enthusiasm. "Why don't you come and fill out an order form with me? Kukiko, be a dear and close up the shop would you?"

She barely spared me a second glance, or him a second to respond, before grabbing his arm and dragging him to our front counter. Her openly flirting was as amusing to watch as were her pour attempts to be a model employee. At least the part about ordering materials for him wasn't a lie. The shop did specialize at ordering special materials for customers. Since we could order materials in bulk we often took requests, and charged less then most places. Even if they didn't need the item in bulk, we could sell them the amount they needed and put the rest in the shop while offering a special type of sale.

While she handled him, I set about sweeping and mopping the the floor. Thankfully the store never really got that disorganized until the holidays got closer, and it was still the two months before Halloween. Granted the store was fairly large, but I moved with a quick pace. Besides, with tomorrow being Monday we would open later then normal and close earlier. Whatever I didn't do today I had plenty of time to do tomorrow. The best part was everyone, even Akemi, had to be here bright and early at 8am to help clean and handle incoming deliveries, before we opened at noon. For now I was only going to do the front half around the registers and fabric counter. Within 30 minutes or so I was mostly done and just had to do the area around the registers and the door.

As I got close I saw Akemi starting to walk him to the door. I focused on my task tuning them out, well mostly her as she chatted away, as I moved to get behind the counter. It wasn't long before I started to feel an uneasy feeling come over me again. Glancing up for a moment My eyes immediately went to the couple at the door. Once I did I was frozen in place almost instantly, as the man was looking right at me. I could feel my breath get caught in my throat as we stared at each other, myself unmoving. After a minute I finally tore my gaze away and continued my work. Even though I wasn't looking at him I could feel his gaze boring into my back, causing my face to heat up. Akemi either didn't notice or was ignoring the whole exchange as she continued to chat away.

Finally the uneasy started to fade away when I heard the door open and close. I let out a long sigh when I noticed he was finally gone. A bit too soon considering Akemi was still here.

"Kukiko, will you come with me for a bit?"

Biting the inside of my cheek I hesitantly left the counter to follow her. I nearly forgot about leaving her to handle the customers earlier, that's probably the only reason she came back to the shop today. Sometimes I hated speaking back to others, it just got me into more trouble that I didn't need. She led me to one of the shelves near the front. The shelf contained multiple jars of glitter all arranged neatly. Without warning she stuck her arm out along the top shelf and swept all the jars into the ground. Several of them broke open on impact, quickly sticking to both of our shoes and all over the floor. Then she did the same with the second shelf, adding to the already large mess.

"I'm going to need you to clean all this up before you go." she said with a smirk on her face "Make sure you log all the damaged jars into inventory before you go too." To add insult to injury, she made sure to purposely walk through the pile, and leave a trail of glittery footsteps leading to the door. The door slammed behind her as she left.

Staring down at the large pile of glitter I slowly started to feel my shoulders to sag. I should have known she'd do something like this. Especially since everyone else knew I would be the one closing up today, I had no choice but to clean it up. Begrudgingly I went to get the broom and a large dustpan, leaving a trail of glittery footprints behind me. This was going to take a while for me to clean. It was times like this I wish we had cameras in the shop.

After spending nearly 45 minutes of nothing but cleaning up the broken jars, and counting them I made my way to the back to log everything into our loss inventory. Several possible excuses already began going through my mind on how to explain what happened to the jars. None of them were good, and I knew Mrs. Kenta wouldn't so easily believe that I tripped and fell. After spending an extra twenty minutes logging everything I finally made it out of the shop. The door locked, and the mess cleaned to the best of my ability.

Cold air chilled me to as I turned the corner to my neighborhood. As peaceful as it seemed living in the 20th ward, I dreaded many things about it. I was late getting home from work and would be in trouble, a fresh beating was all that awaited me. However, even knowing what awaited me my mind was elsewhere. My mind was oddly drifting to the stranger that had come in tonight. I wasn't sure why he made me as nervous as he did. He seemed fairly polite, yet I couldn't shake the uneasy feeling away. I wasn't sure what it was but... something about him screamed dangerous. And for some reason unknown to me I was strangely drawn to it, yet afraid at the same time. I quickened my pace as I was lost in my thoughts until I finally made it to the door.

It was a simple two story house, the yard was nicely tripped and arranged. All the lights on the lower floor were on, only one light was turned on top floor. That light was to my brother's room. It looked as if nothing was amiss, a simple little home in a quite little neighborhood... but I knew better. Inserting my key into the lock I took a deep breath before opening the door and quickly shutting it. Letting my forehead rest against the wood for a moment I tried to still my heart as I prepared to face what awaited me. I didn't have to wait long, because as soon as I turned around I was met with a fist to my face.

The door quietly shut behind me as I entered the shop the next morning. It was 8AM and I was still a bit groggy, the pain stood out though making my body ache. Needless to say my father was less then pleased at me coming home nearly two hours later then I was supposed to. Akemi's little stunt made me late to fix dinner for everyone and only resulted in a beating. After finally cooking for everyone I was still berated at the dinner table by my mother. It didn't end there, as my brother go a few hits in before I went to bed.

I didn't have much time this morning to cover everything up but I made due. However a large bruise stood out on my cheek and my black eye now had a matching twin. Makeup could only do so much, but at least my bangs could cover my eyes with a bit of styling. As for my cheek I had my mask, and a large bandage to cover most of it up. The real trick was acting like I wasn't in pain. I would still have to explain them to Mrs. Kenta, since I knew she would ask. It was the last thing I wanted to do, along with endure with the teasing that would come with Akemi and Ami's teasing.

Mrs. Kenta was already here, thankfully alone I might add. She was in her own personal office and called out a good morning to me when I passed. I mumbled out a good morning as I hurriedly went past the door to my own work area. So far I had gone the morning without incident, I didn't want to have to answer her questions yet. After heading to the bathroom to double check everything I quickly set to work. I began with the floor, which still had remnants of glitter on it, going over that spot again before doing the rest of the floor. I was so engrossed in my work I didn't even notice the girls were here. Their usual jabs at me were ignored as I worked. After that I made my way to the fabric.

I cleaned the counter and reset the ticket machine, then measured out the used bolts from the previous day to see if they could go back on the shelf or be taken off as small batches. The small batches were measured out and given a reduced price. After that the bolts that were left were placed back onto the shelves. The first two hours continued on like this, of cleaning and rearranging things on the shelf. The first hour went by fast as I quickly got into my usual routine. I was finishing up cleaning the glass windows when Mrs. Kenta called us up to the front. As I got there I noticed three people standing on either side of her. I didn't recognize any of them, but they were wearing our standard uniform that consisted of a red shirt, black pants and a white apron with the store's name on the front. Akemi and Ami were slower to come to the front of the store, which gave the new trio plenty of time to stare at what little exposed skin I had. Granted I knew I looked strange with my bangs in my face and a large face mask covering my mouth, but I was used to the stares. When the girls finally got her Mrs. Kenta cleared her throat to begin.

"Now then, you girls know the next few months will be our busy season. Since the renovations to the shop after last years rush the store had been expanded to more than three times it's size. We had to drastically change the store's hours on Mondays to accommodate paperwork and cleaning alone. So I brought on three new employees. I hope everyone will welcome them."

That explained the uniforms at least. I supposed I felt slightly relieved to have more help around. Since the others basically did nothing getting work done by myself was always difficult, and barely manageable. Even with all four of us it was still a lot to take on. Two of the new hires were male and the third was female. The girl was a little taller then average, she had long dark hair and grey eyes. Instead of a basic plain red shirt it was a bit more, dressy. Her shirt was off the shoulders and dipped a little too low in the front. Thankfully her apron came up pretty high on her chest so most of her cleavage was covered. Combined with her makeup, made up nails, and her expensive looking shoes, overall she looked like she was ready for a trip to the mall rather then going to work.

One of the guys looked very average. He had brown eyes and short brown hair that was a bit messy and was shorter then then then other two by a few inches. He wasn't very noticeable, other then the large pair of glasses on his face that he had to push back onto his nose several times. He seemed kind of bookish and quite. Besides his usual uniform he was wearing a few pins on his apron. They looked like characters from an anime, but you couldn't be sure. He was fidgeting a quite a bit, probably more then normal. He seemed really nervous to be here. I didn't however miss the occasional glace he was sneaking Ami's way, and the look of disgust she was giving him.

The third guy had shoulder length black hair with striking blue eyes and a few piercings. There were two under his lip, one in his nose and a couple in each ear. The most striking thing about him was the large tattoo on his neck. It was a geometric and very intricate pattern. It looked as if it extending down to his collarbone, but you couldn't tell with the shirt. It was also long sleeved so I couldn't tell if he had more or not. Now that I was really looking at him I noticed that he wasn't wearing the apron, just the shirt and pants. He was wearing combat boots that his pants were tucked into. Just about everything about him screamed intimidating. He was definitely the tallest of all of them, possibly six and a half feet? I couldn't tell but he was tall. Only the new girl came close to his height. Surprisingly I started to think of the stranger from yesterday. There were still differences but I couldn't help but see similarities. Just like the stranger from yesterday I got that same uneasy feeling... I couldn't explain it but he gave me a bad feeling.

"Now girls, this young lady is Kameko, I know that two of you know her from school and are friends." Mrs. Kenta began. Oh this would just be my luck, another one to mess with me at work. "However just because you all are friends doesn't mean you can all goof off. I expect you all to actually work. Akemi you can show her the ropes, she'll be working the registers."

The girl, Kameko went to stand between Akemi and Ami the three of them giggling with each other. This was definitely not going to be good for me.

"Kouta here," she said gesturing to the shorter of the two men, "will be working with Ami today. I want you to show how to run the fabric counter and arranging the bolts."

Kouta eagerly went to stand next to Ami who gave out a loud groan while the other girls snickered at her apparent misfortune. It was quickly silenced with a look from Mrs. Kenta.

"Lastly Omaro here will be training with you, Kukiko. I know how time consuming making those costumes and pamphlets can be along with the other displays. So he's going to help you in the back. I hear he's quite skilled with a sewing machine already so you won't have to help him too much." she said cheerfully. My heart immediately dropped the thought of working with him.

Raise your hand if you ever tried cleaning up multiple jars of glitter. You know her pain. Thanks for everyone who waited on me. I promise the next chapter will be up VERY soon, since it's mostly done. It was twice as long as this chapter so I cut some of it and added it to this one.

10/25/2018