Author's Note:
Hello everyone! I know it's being awhile but life has been kinda sucky with exams and uni and fires (I live in Australia) and now the world going into quarantine. JOY! But in all seriousness, I come back to you all now.
I would like to thank all that have favorited and followed this story and I would expessially love to thank bbymoji and XxAwkwardAlienxX for their reviews. For some weird reason I wasn't getting emails from for a bit so I only saw them about a week ago.
Onto the story~
Morie found herself staring out of a tinted car window down at the forest of trees bellow. Even though time was heading into the late hours of the night, their silhouettes still intrigued her. It wasn't often that Morie was able to leave the city of Tokyo.
Next to her sat Kaneki who was looking down at his smooth hands. He had told her that earlier that day the woman who exited Nishiki's room visited him and Hide to deliver the CD. She'd inquired if they knew which hospital the ghoul had been sent into. Morie guessed that the boy was still thinking about their encounter with him and after he mentioned it to her, neither could she.
They were on their way to assist Yomo in collecting food for some of Anteiku's ghoul customers. Said silver-haired person was driving the black vehicle along a narrow cliffside road.
When Yomo spied a white car, he pulled to the side and parked the car. He opened the car door and silently stepped out. Both of his passengers followed him out and closed the doors behind him.
Kaneki immediately started looking around and inspecting his surroundings which consisted of a road, rocky cliffside and forest below them. A smile appeared on his face as his nose picked up a sweet smell coming from the shadowy trees. Taken over by excitement, he eagerly made his way over to the railings not accounting for the heavy amount of rusting covering the metal. Noticing Kaneki's action's Yomo turned his head and said, "That part's broken" just as Kaneki began his descent with a screech of panic.
Morie also started to panic seeing her friend suddenly slip off the cliff and ran over to the gaping gap in the rails. She fell to her knees and leaned forward. "Alas I did not know you well, but you were a good friend…" Morie mumbled closing her eyes in remembrance not noticing Kaneki managing to slow his fall by grabbing a rock on the side of the cliff.
Yomo tapped her on the shoulder and Morie snapped her head up. Her nose twitched and her eyes darted around until she found a speck of tan standing in a small clearing. That being said, because it was so dark she wasn't sure if her eyes were playing tricks on her but due to Yomo's lack of concern, she though it was a sign that Kaneki was still alive.
After Morie picked herself off the ground, Yomo turned around and directed her to climb onto his back. Awkwardly she placed her hands on his sturdy shoulders and wrapper legs around his waist. The man was talker than her by around twenty centimetres but Morie still couldn't shake the strangeness of the situation. She didn't have long to think about it before the man jumped off the cliff and landed near where Kaneki was standing. Morie's grip had tightened as air rushed past her face and tangled her hair so when it was time to get off of the man's back, her arms and legs just wouldn't move until a few more seconds had passed.
As soon has her sneakers touched the dirt, her eyes darted, scanning every inch of the forest for Kaneki. It was only when she found him kneeling down underneath a tree, gripping tightly at long blades of grass that the sickly-sweet scent of a corpse made it to her nose. The twisted, mangled limbs of a man lay on the ground next to him.
Morie slowly walked over to Kaneki and examined the body the boy was trying so hard not to look at. "I see," she pondered out loud as she pieced together how Anteiku got their food. A smile creeped onto her lips and an idea formed in her mind. Now if she could only convince the CCG to take her idea seriously.
Taking out her scalpel, she knelt down next to him. "Yomo said you were to hold the lantern. Leave the disembowelment to me and him," she told Kaneki who proceeded to slowly rise and scramble towards the lantern he dropped earlier.
Once he retrieved it, Kaneki pointed it at the corpse as Morie spun around her scalpel ready to dig it into the decaying flesh. She was halted however by Yomo who placed a hand on her shoulder and pulled her back, away from the body. He knelt down beside it and clasped his hands together. Morie squinted her eyes in confusion before hearing the soft mumbling drifting from his pursed lips. It was a simple prayer. Hearing it, she let the scalpel drop from her grasp as she examined the corpse. At that moment the dead body felt almost alive. Sure, the flesh was beginning to decay but the corpse, a man's, was still clothed in a suit and tie with his hands resting by his sides. He looked at peace. Kaneki noticed the little things too like the thickness of his hair and the length of the man's nails. The ground was this man's casket and the dark grass underneath him served as his funeral flowers.
Yomo finished his prayer, stretched an arm out to Morie and silently asked for her scalpel. She complied and handed the tool over. The man grabbed an arm and shifted it so it lay on one of his legs. With a sickening crunch the arm's humerus was snapped in half. Using the scalpel, Yomo cut the skin and muscle around the break with caution and care. Once he was done, he handed the blooded blade back to Morie. "Cutting is your task."
He threw a folded black bag towards Kaneki. The boy in question felt the impact of it on his torso as he did not see the object being thrown. As soon as Yomo had snapped the bone, Kaneki turned his head to look the other way. Placing the lantern on the ground, Kaneki fumbled around for the bag and unfolded it.
"Your job, Kaneki, is to place the parts inside the back in addition to holding the lantern." Another snap was heard and Morie soon began to cut away at the body. Occasionally, Yomo directed her to cut an area where the bone was already broken. With the severed limbs, Morie moved them to the side where Kaneki squeamishly picked them up and placed them into the bag. As well as breaking bones for Morie, Yomo grabbed organs and also placed them into the back.
When the body was fully packaged away Yomo leapt from the ground back to the car with the bag slung under one of his arms. As Morie and Kaneki watched him disappear Morie began to speak whilst wiping her bloodied hands on a fallen leaf. "You know nearly 800,000 people commit suicide every year. If a body can sustain a single ghoul for one to two months then that means that if all the bodies were collected the roughly 45,000 ghouls would no have to hunt live humans. It makes me think why the CCG doesn't listen to me and my ideas somewhere. Thousands of lives could be saved."
Kaneki's eyes started to water and only stopped when Yomo returned with two bottles of water and a handtowel. He gave a bottle Morie and Kaneki. "Clean your hands with this."
Morie tossed the leaf away and began to slowly tip the water into her hands letting the liquid clean her hands of red. She dried her hands on the handtowel before passing it to Kaneki who followed suit.
Once both of their hands were clean Yomo carried each individual back to the car as both Morie and Kaneki lacked the ability to scale the cliff by themselves. When they arrived, they got back inside the slick car and continued down the road, monitoring for any signs of suicide victims. For the most part the trip was spent in silence.
Upon exiting the mountainous road, Yomo directed the car to return to Tokyo choosing to drive through the outskirts of the city. As the streetlights shone by the driver spied a woman walking down the street and decelerated the car. "Stay here," he simply stated as the car came to a rolling stop.
A few moments later Morie and Kaneki got their first look of the woman. Yomo had exited the car and briefly talked with her before directing her to the car. Her round face shone with the warm eyes not unlike those of a doe and her brown hair was tied in a low ponytail resting upon a shoulder. This woman was introduced as Ryouko Fueguchi.
With a curt nod she entered the front of the car along with Yomo who began to drive again.
A warm voice met the ears of Morie and Kaneki as Ryouko smiled. "I'm surprised Yomo. You usually do this is Touka."
Yomo shifted gears. "Touka took the day off today so these two are her replacement for tonight."
"It is lovely that both of you are assisting. I know how hard it can be so I thank you from the very bottom of my heart."
Both Morie and Kaneki opened their mouths to speak but Morie shut hers quickly as Kaneki's voice drifted away with mutterings of "Ah, I just…"
Yomo once again entered the conversation cutting off Kaneki's last few drabbles. "We don't do this just for your family. You don't need to thank us."
There was silence in the car once more until Ryouko tilted her head to focus on her lap. "You must be angry at me because I visited my husband's grave…"
At this comment Kaneki's eyes widened and he glanced at the back of the woman's head. Morie on the other hand closed her eyes and listened to the hum of the car as it whooshed past houses. She knew of the buried masks that acted as a poor man's grave. So many stories were past from CCG investigator to CCG investigator about how they cornered a grieving ghoul.
"I don't know about your situation but I know many things about the Doves and I know that when an individual is at their weakest, they leave themselves open," Morie mumbled whilst leaning against the cold window. "No one should be angry that you are grieving but people are going to worry about your reckless actions."
Yomo slowly nodded, his eyes focused on the road. "Masuda is correct. When going out you need to not be alone."
"I know I can't keep mourning him." The woman tilted her head down and closed her eyes to stop tears from forming. "I need to be strong for Hinami's sake."
The car was once again silent during the drive. Even after Yomo dropped Ryouko off at her home, the car remained silent until Yomo parked near Kami University's student housing and let both Kaneki and Morie out.
Before the two went their own way, they watched the black car fade into the night.
Morie turned towards Kaneki. "Be careful just like Mrs Fueguchi needs to be. I know what happens to those who aren't." With a wave of her hand, she turned her back toward him and started walking home in the dead of night.
Kaneki was left standing there pondering about the woman in the car, her words and the words of Morie. This is their life, he thought as he too started to walk to his apartment.
Anteiku was usually a lively place in the mornings and today was no different. People walked in and out at the chime of a bell to order their morning coffee. The only difference was the lack of any students due to it being a weekend.
Morie had set up her work station for the day on the table in the far corner like always. She bit her thumbnail in slight annoyance, her eyes focused on her laptop screen showcasing a detailed PowerPoint presentation. Upon her black paged framed with a swirling rainbow patter lay a blank slot for an image. Text next to it detailed findings on the cell structures of different kagune types from the flexible rinkaku to the sturdy kokako. She just needed a diagram, a diagram that she needed to draw herself.
A sigh passed through her lips as she begrudgingly opened the only drawing software on her laptop, MS Paint. As the lacklustre software opened, Morie grabbed out her stylus and drew a few blocky test lines just to familiarise herself with the program. Satisfied she started to draw curved lines resembling the cellular structures. Occasionally, she would draw a lone she didn't like so she navigated the top menu bar to find the undo command.
It was only when she saw a familiar figure step inside the café with a curt nod that she put her stylus down. Ryouko Fueguchi made her way to the counter as Anteiku's staff greeted her. Walking besides her mother was a lone girl clutching the fabric of her floral dress.
"I hate to ask this of you, but do you mind letting Hinami stay here for the day?" Ryouko politely asked Yoshimura as he reached bellow the counter to retrieve a carefully wrapped package.
Handing the package to the woman the manager smiled. "We offer our services to everyone." He leant down slightly to stare into Hinami's kind eyes. "Hinami will be a welcomed guest like always."
Ryouko returned Yoshimura's smile, retrieved the package and placed it into a bag she had resting on her shoulder. Addressing her daughter, she said the following, "Be a good girl, Hinami, like I know you always are. I will return in the evening." The mother once again gave a curt nod before leaving the store.
Koma stopped polishing a freshly washed glass, having seen the interaction and walk around the counter to great Hinami. "If it isn't our sweet little flower princess. "He winked and extended a hand. "I'll escort you to your castle." The girl nodded at took the waiter's hand as the manager picked up the glass Koma was in the middle of polishing.
As the waiter and the child made their way in-between tables and chairs, Morie eyed them out of curiosity. When they passed her table, Hinami stopped and stared at the laptop in front of her, having never seen one so close before. Morie nudged the laptop closer to the girl, showcasing the squiggles she made on MS Paint. Hinami's eyes widened at the sight of the technology.
Koma's usual smile widened. "Hinami this is Morie. She's a new member here at Anteiku."
The girl's eyes moved from the screen to Morie as she scooted closer to Koma. "It is nice to meet you."
"Likewise," Morie stated. "If you give me half an hour, I'll let you borrow the laptop with my supervision."
"I-I'd like that," Hinami smiled.
"Come on Hinami. Let's get you settled upstairs," Koma urged as he warmly gazed at Hinami. The two soon made their way up the stairs and into the meeting room.
Koma returned to the counter and started brewing a coffee. He poured the coffee into a white cup and made his way to Morie who had just finished the last touches on her pixelated diagram. With a quiet clink, the waiter placed the cup down on the table. Morie looked up at him. "On the house. Think of it as a thank you. She's in the meeting room when you are ready." With a grin and a wink, he strode away back to the counter.
Morie took a sip of the coffee and appreciated the acidic taste that danced on her tongue. Any flavour at this point was welcoming. As she drank the coffee Morie placed the diagram into the PowerPoint, saved it and closed the presentation as well as a word documents and PDFs containing her research reports. Before she closed the lid, Morie opened Google Chrome and cleared her search history to ready for Hinami's use.
Once the cup was empty, she grabbed her bags and marched up the stairs. With a rapt of her knuckles, Morie announced her entry into the meeting room. Hinami sat on the floor, leaning over the coffee table to draw on sheets of white paper provided to her. Upon Morie's entry she looked up.
"Drawing, huh?" Morie spoke as she took a seat on the couch next to Hinami and opened the laptop. Looking down at the drawing, she noted the girl's crayon drawing depicting pink flowers with 10 petals mixed in with some smaller drawings done in green depicting leaves. "So, you like flowers? I should have gathered. Your dress and headband are quite pretty."
At this comment Hinami put down the crayon she was holding and blushed slightly. "I think so too…"
"What type of flower are you drawing?"
"They are anemones. I read about them in this." Hinami shifted to her stitched satchel that was placed at an end of the table and retrieved a black book from within it titled 'Monochrome Rainbow'. She opened to the page marked with a thin wooden bookmark and pointed to a passage. "The flowers in here sounded so pretty so I decided to draw from their description."
Morie's eyes glanced over the passage that read:
Sunlight softly highlighted a ceramic pot casually placed upon the balcony. A mixture of white, pinks, amethysts and red made the bleak cityscape pop with bursts of colour. Their centres were deep in colour and their stems long decorated with branching leaves that almost seemed like individual grass blades. As the onlooker gazed upon them, time passed until they entered back into the depth of their abode.
The anemone's ten petals were slowly closing.
As she finished the passage, Morie sighed. "I always thought anemones were things Nemo lived in."
"What's a Nemo?"
Another sigh was audible as Morie typed 'clownfish' into the search bar. Results popped up but Morie ignored clicking on any of the weblinks, instead opting to click on the images tab. Soon after they loaded, the screen was full of small orange fish striped with black and white resting the tendrils of sea anemones. "Those are Nemos," she stated as she enlarged one of the many images. "They are actually called clownfish but as far as I can tell many people call them Nemos due to a movie."
Hinami grinned. "They are so colourful and pretty!"
"They are," Morie continued. "Right, let's see how your drawing compares to the real thing, shall we?"
A minute later the two of them were gazing at the myriad of photos showcasing said flower. Hinami frowned slightly at them. "My petals are too rounded. They aren't pointed like the ones in real life…"
Morie shrugged her shoulders and leaned back. "I say artist interpretation. Draw and do what you want."
At that comment, Hinami's good mood returned and she continued to work on her drawing with Morie occasionally directing her attention to a photo or video she found whilst surfing the web. Most of them were of videos featuring animals such as cats which both girls found highly enjoyable but every half hour or so Morie would make a reference to something Hinami had no knowledge of and thus the journey began to explain the topic of conversation. At the end of it all, Morie decided that she needed to have a movie marathon with the kid. Specifically, a Disney movie marathon like she once used to have with her father.
Around 11:50 Morie started to grow hungry so she excused herself from the girl for the day and grabbed her belongings. It was lunchtime anyway and as a poor university student, she couldn't afford to have a sandwich from the café everyday so she walked home to cook herself a cup of instant ramen.
Shirozumi in its cage looked at her with its beady eyes as she ate. As the broth in the Styrofoam cup cooled, Morie unscrewed the cap of a white bottle and dropped a singular red pellet into the mouse's cage. Greedily, the creature picked it up in its paws and started to gnaw on it. Morie watched briefly before grabbing a fork and blowing on the noodles she picked up with it.
Once she had her flavourless meal, Morie returned to Anteiku and was greeted by an interesting sight. During the time she was gone, Kaneki had arrived to work a shift and was standing near Koma as he brewed one of his many coffees. A red branded coffee bag sat on the counter. He looked like he was about to faint but had somehow steadied himself.
Morie walked over and leant on the counter. "What happened?" she inquired just as Koma started pouring the coffee into a cup similar to the one she drank from earlier that day.
The waiter nonchalantly replied, "He walked in on Hinami."
Morie narrowed her eyes. "That's not ba-"She cut herself when Kaneki turned to face her with a neutral expression. Koma raised an eyebrow and made a face to say 'are you serious?'. Morie then frowned. "Right, I see."
As the last few drops of coffee dripped into the cup, Koma handed it to Kaneki. "Give this to the little lady, will you? Oh, and go tell her you're sorry."
Kaneki clutched the saucer the cup sat upon and started making his way around the counter. Morie stopped him by tapping his shoulder. He turned around.
"Just to let you know, she's reading Takatsuki right now," Morie smirked as she walked back to her table which luckily hadn't been taken by anyone yet.
She watched as Kaneki carefully climbed the staircase and vanished from her view. With a huff, she sunk into the chair before snapping upright and interlocking her fingers in a stretch.
She was really craving another coffee right now…
Author's Note:
Anemone: A flower that has many meanings I thought fit with not only Hinami but the story as well. It symbolises protection against evil and ill wishes, the death of a loved one and the approach of a rainstorm.