Juuzou had told Eto that they needed to talk in private, shooting Naki glares as he had talked. The children had informed the blond ghoul that they were hungry, and he had taken them into the kitchen. Juuzou and Eto had gone into the den to talk in private. Naki found himself watching the children in the dining room.

Kaito dined elegantly on the coiled intestines on his plate, using his fork and knife and using a napkin to dab at his mouth when it became bloodied. Hitomi, on the other hand, who was indulging in a liver, ate like an animal. She had not touched her utensils, using her hands to rip off pieces of the flesh. She stuffed them down her throat, and blood smeared all over her face. It disgusted Naki.

"Hitomi," he said uncomfortably. "Why don't you use your fork and knife?"

Hitomi blinked, and her singular ghoul eye seemed to glow. "Why would I? My hands work good."

"It's less messy," Naki pointed out,

Hitomi shrugged. "I don't mind."

Naki grimaced.

"Can we go outside in your garden?' Kaito asked quietly when they had finished.

"Of course," Naki said, and then remembered Suzuya's words. "Just please don't touch… Everything. Or break anything."

"We wouldn't," Hitomi said, giving the man an angelic smile maimed by the blood smeared all over her face.

"Wash your face though first," Naki told Hitomi.

"Where's the bathroom?" the white haired girl asked.

"Kyu!" Naki called out to his servant that was working in the kitchen. "Direct this young lady to the bathroom."

Naki found himself alone, and he retreated to his study. He called it his study, but honestly, it was just a fancier den. It consisted of a writing desk on the left that he hadn't touched in all his time in the mansion, a fireplace, a coffee table, and three comfy chairs.

He flopped down in the chair closest to the fire and picked up a men's clothing magazine off the coffee table. He lazily flipped through until he found the suits. He stared at the pictures, and tried to read a few of the words on the paper. Naki's thoughts strayed to the children. They seemed nice enough; innocent as far as ghouls went. Hitomi had a sweetness her twin was lacking, but her brother made up for it in the manners that had not been blessed upon his sister. What bother Naki was how the young boy had flinched at his mother's touch.

Naki hated to admit it to himself, but he was glad Suzuya had found the children first. Now, the blond ghoul had no love for the investigator. He simply did not want to raise the twins. He felt bad for thinking it, but it was the truth. It wasn't that he didn't like kids. As a matter of fact, Naki figured that he did actually want to have children of his own. But he wanted them to be his, and he wanted the mother to be his Ju San.

He scowled down at the magazine he was holding. He knew having children with Ju San was not something that was going to be happening. Their relationship would be exposed, and it would just go bad. A pregnancy would be disastrous, so he had to make sure to be careful.

"Hi Mister Naki." Hitomi stood in the doorway, smiling at the ghoul She held a book in her hand. "Are you busy?"

"No," Naki said, placing his magazine on the coffee table.

"Yay!" Hitomi said, bounding over to Naki. She plopped down in his lap hard enough to draw an 'oomph' from the man, and she situated herself comfortably and handed him the book.

"Will you read this to me?" Hitomi asked, leaning against the man and handing him the book. "I found it at my Dad's place. I don't know what it's about."

Naki stared at the cover. The writing on it were just random lines to him; he didn't recognize a single character. The cover was mostly off white with a thick red strip at the bottom, and the title was in a rectangle in the center of the page. Naki swallowed hard.

"I can't," he said sadly.

Hitomi scowled at the man. "My Daddy does that too. Says he can't, that he's busy, and then watches tv or somethin' like that."

"No no," Naki said, now embarrassed. "It's not that I don't want to, it's that I don't know how to."

Hitomi stared at Naki in shock. "You can't read?"

The blond ghoul sighed. "I never went to school."

"Oh," Hitomi said. "I'm sorry."

Suddenly, her face brightened. "Mister Naki!" she said, jumping out of his lap. "I have an idea!"

"And what's that?"

"You'll see." she then thrusted her hands out, like how someone would make a dog stay. "Wait!"

With that, she dashed out of the room, leaving Naki alone with the book in confusion. A minute later, she returned. She was holding something, and she shoved it in Naki's face.

"Mister Naki, I am going to teach you to read," she said confidently.

Hitomi was holding out a worn book. On the cover was an elaborately drawn eye.

"What is that?" Naki asked as Hitomi crawled back into his lap.

"My kanji book," Hitomi said, opening it.

The pages were covered in smudgy fingerprints and smears of god knows what. On every page was a character, the the meaning drawn out as a picture next to it.

"Why is there an eye on the front?" Naki asked.

"My name means middle of the eye or something like that," Hitomi said. "Okay, so I'm going to teach you 'cat'."

The white haired girl flipped through the pages until she found one with a cat drawn on it. She pointed to the cat, and then at two characters above it. "This says 'cat'," Hitomi informed Naki. "This was the first one I learned

"How you remember?" Naki asked.

"Well, I would draw little cats to make the shapes of the characters in the dirt," Hitomi said. "And I would do it till I remembered."

Naki blinked. "That's really smart."

"Hey there," Ju San said as she entered the room, carrying a tray. "Master Naki, I brought you some coffee."

"Thank you Ju San," Naki said, smiling at his girlfriend.

"And who's this lovely young lady?" Ju San asked as she set the tray down.

"I'm Hitomi!"

"Hello, Hitomi."

"Ju San, come close to me," Hitomi ordered.

Both the servant and Naki were confused over the little girl's change of tone, but Ju San brought her face close to Hitomi anyway.

Hitomi touched Ju San's face the way she had touched Naki's and Eto's.

"You have pretty eyes," Hitomi said, letting her tiny hands wander all over the servant's face. "Like a deer. And pretty hair." Hitomi pet Ju San's hair. "It's very long. And your shirt." Hitomi adjusted the collar of the doe eyed woman's shirt. "Is very nice. You are beautiful."

Ju San stared blankly at the young girl. "T—thank you."

"I'm done," Hitomi said, releasing Ju San's face. "You can go now."

Ju San stood up and nodded awkwardly, and then left the room.

"You're Daddy was right," Naki said when Ju San was gone. "You really do like touching things."

Hitomi shook her head and continued flipping through her book. "Just people."

"Why's that?" Naki asked.

"I'm teaching them," Hitomi replied, not taking her eyes off her book.

"What are you teaching them?" Naki asked, staring at the girl in his lap with confusion.

"The right way," she said, still not meeting his eyes.

"To do what?"

Hitomi finally met Naki's eyes. She was expressionless. "To touch."

"To touch?" Naki had uneasy feeling about the conversation.

"Yes," Hitomi said, turning her eyes back to the Kanji on the page. "I'm teaching them how to touch people. I just taught Miss Ju San."

"Can you explain to me how you taught Miss Ju San?" Naki asked. He was feeling more and more uneasy by the second, and Hitomi's apathetic tone was not helping. Never had he heard a child so… emotionless.

"Yes," Hitomi said flatly. "I touched her face soft so she knows to touch faces soft, instead of hard hits. And I pet her hair gentle, so she knows to be gentle instead of pulling hard. And I touched her shirt in nice way so that she knows to touch clothes gentle, instead of yanking and pull around and throw by. And I used kind words, so she knows to talk nice instead of calling people ugly fucking animals."

Naki stared at the child sitting in his lap in horror. She had said all that without even a hint of emotion. She had not even looked up from her book. It all clicked in the blond ghoul's head. He understood now. There was now a question in his head. He didn't want to ask it, but Naki knew it needed to be asked.

"What happened to you at that orphanage?" Naki asked, voice shaking.

"Bad things," Hitomi said, turning the page.

"Does your Daddy know?"

"No."

"What exactly went on?"

"Not important."

Naki snatched the book away from Hitomi.

"Hey!" she said. "Give that back!"

"You listen to me," Naki said. His soft tone had been replaced by a stern one. "You tell me exactly what happened at the orphanage."

"I don't wanna talk about it," Hitomi said. Her emotionless tone was gone, and she now sounded upset and ready to cry. She got out of Naki's lap and walked toward the door.

"I got hit when I was a kid," Naki said softly.

Hitomi stood in the doorway, hand on the doorframe. "You did?" she asked quietly, not turning around to look at him.

"All the time," Naki said.

"Really?" the little girl asked, turning around to face him.

Naki nodded. "Come back."

Hitomi took a step toward the blond ghoul. He patted his lap, and after a moment of hesitation, the white haired girl scampered over to him and curled up in his lap. Her eyes were teary, and she buried her face in his chest.

"So what happened to you?" Naki asked cautiously.

"I'll tell you if you tell me what happened to you," she said softly.

"Okay," Naki said, glancing outside. The sun was beginning to go down. "Well, my story is a tiny bit like yours I think."

"Really?" Hitomi asked, looking up at the man. Her face was now stained with tears.

"Yes," Naki said, stroking her silky white hair to comfort her. "My Daddy didn't know I was born."

"Why?"

"He died. And my Mommy had me, but she died having me."

"I'm sorry," Hitomi said, cuddling closer against the ghoul.

"It's okay. But I wasn't all alone."

"You weren't?"

Naki shook his head. "I had my brother."

"Like how I have Kaito."

Naki nodded. "He wasn't my twin though. He was 13 when I was born."

"What was his name?"

"Takeo."

"What did he look like?"

"A lot like me. He had red eyes like me. Not to tall, not to short. His hair was dark blond."

"Was he nice?" Hitomi asked.

"Oh yes," Naki said, smiling a bit. He felt his eyes begin to burn with unshed tears. "He didn't care for glory or fame. Takeo just wanted to keep me safe. He mainly liked to keep to himself, or be around his good friends. He wasn't very talky. But he would speak up if it meant protecting me. Very patient. Always shared food with me, even if that meant him getting not enough."

"He sounds like a good brother," Hitomi said. "What happened to him?"

"Well," Naki said, a tear dripping down his face. "We didn't have a home. And I was growing so I needed clothes and stuff. So he joined this group of dangerous ghouls and did jobs for them to make money. To take care of me."

"That was brave," Hitomi said.

"He was so brave," Naki said, more tears falling. "But that group of ghouls started attacking the doves."

"Doves?"

"CCG people."

"Like my Daddy?"

Naki's heart twisted. "Yeah. Like that. Well they chased him down and hurt him real bad. And as he was dying, he made them promise to look after me."

"You don't think it was my Daddy who did that, right?" Hitomi asked. Her eyes were wide and she gripped Naki's shirt.

"I don't think your Daddy was even born yet," Naki said thoughtfully.

"Okay good. How old were you?"

"I was five. Well anyway, the people that promised to take care of me locked me in a warehouse. They would toss me tiny bits of meat when there was any leftover. And when they came to visit me, they would hit me and kick me and I was so scared. All I wanted to do was run away. Is that how you felt?"

Hitomi nodded.

"Well, one day, they didn't lock the door all the way. And I ran away."

"How old were you?"

"Twelve. And I lived all alone for a very long time. I eventually found my Boss and everything, but I was all by myself for six years. And I was so alone and afraid. I had nobody to protect me."

"I'm sorry Mister Naki," Hitomi said. "Loneliness is badder than getting hurt I think."

Naki sighed. "I think that too. And that's why I never want you to feel like that. So I am here if you need me. And if anyway ever tries to hurt you, I will protect you. Okay?"

"Okay," Hitomi said. "You never told me. What was your Mommy and Daddy's names?"

"My Mommy was Akina, and my Daddy was Shota."

"You cried when you were telling me the story," Hitomi said.

"Yes I did," Naki said. "It's okay to cry."

"My Daddy doesn't like it when I cry," Hitomi said sadly. "He says I have to be strong. He calls me weak when I cry."

"Well, if you ever need to cry, you know where I live," Naki said.

"Do you still want me to tell you what happened to me?" Hitomi asked.

"Yes," Naki said. "But I get it if you don't wanna right now."

"It's okay," Hitomi said. "I'll tell you."

"Thank you."

"So it's not a story story. But Miss Akashinshi—."

"Who's that?"

"Lady who ran orphanage. She drank a lot of this weird stuff. All the time. It smelled bad. It would make her angry and sometimes she would fall down."

"That's called alcohol," Naki told her.

"Kaito said it was something called 'whiskey'."

"That's a type of alcohol."

"Oh. Well she drank it all the time. And she hated us. Whenever she saw us she would pull our hair and kick us and hit us and tell us to die. We were afraid to come inside sometimes so me and Kaito would sleep in the woods. We didn't really have anything. It was bad. There were bugs. But the other kids were mean too. They would kick us and hit us and call us freaks because we couldn't eat a lot."

Hitomi began to cry, and Naki cradled the young girl in his arms. He pet her hair and let her cry.

"I'm glad you told me," Naki said.

"There's one more thing," Hitomi said. "First person we ate was Nenyoti. He was bigger kid. Kaito didn't try to kill him, he was just protecting me. Nenyoti had a knife."

"That was brave of Kaito," Naki said.

"Yeah," Hitomi said, yawning. It was now dark outside, and Hitomi's eyes were closing.

"Going to sleep?" Naki asked.

"Goodnight, Mr. Naki," the white haired girl said, closing her eyes.

Naki glanced at the clock, and discovered it was later than he thought. Hitomi was now sound asleep in his arms. He sat there alone with her like that for twenty minutes. Ju San finally poked her head it.

"Master Naki?" she whispered.

"She's asleep. Other than that, we're alone," Naki said.

Ju San smiled and quietly approached.

"That's so adorable," Ju San said softly, looking at the sleeping Hitomi.

"I'm glad they were found when they were," Naki said grimly.

"What do you mean?"

"Orphanage lady was always drunk. Beatin' the living hell out of the kids. One of the other kids tried to stab Hitomi. That place was shit."

"Oh my god," Ju San said, putting her hand up to her mouth.

"It's awful. And both parents don't know."

"That's terrible," Ju San said.

The couple was silent for a moment.

"Eto and Juuzou finally stopped arguing," Ju San said, finally breaking the silence. "Juuzou is heading home for the night, but the kids are staying here. Kaito's already asleep in the downstairs guest room. The rest of the servants have had lights out. I'm the last one up."

"Alright," Naki said. He gently scooped Hitomi up in his arms. She stirred in her sleep but did not wake. Followed closely by Ju San, he carried the sleeping girl through the dark mansion to the guest room. He laid her down next to her brother and tucked her under the blankets.

"You know," Ju San said from where she stood in the doorway. "You would be an amazing father."

Naki chuckled. "You think so?"

"Yeah," Ju San said, walking over and leaned her head on her lover's shoulder. "I do."

"Hopefully someday, when the time is right," he said, wrapping his arm around her. "I will be."

Ju San smiled, and then frowned. "Shit. Overseer probably already locked up for the night."

"In that case, you can sleep in the upstairs guest bedroom," Naki said. "I'll join you when Eto's fast asleep."

Ju San smiled and gave the ghoul a quick kiss before turning to leave.

"Love you," Naki whispered.

"Love you too."

Now alone, Naki looked down at Hitomi and Kaito. Those poor poor children. And they weren't even allowed to cry. How dare that dove deprive them of that? He shook his head and left the room, and he began to walk down the hallway to turn off the light he'd left on in the study.

A figure was also coming down the hallway, but in the opposite direction as him. It was Suzuya.

"Going home?" Naki said sourly when Juuzou stood in front of him.

"Yeah," Suzuya scowled.

Naki suddenly felt a rush of anger go through him. Not only was this man the person responsible for the scar that ran across his chest, but the children… He would not let them cry. Why would he not let them cry? They had been through hell!

Unable to control himself, Naki uncontrollably grabbed Juuzou by the collar, picking him up off the ground and slamming him against the wall.

"Listen here, you little shit," Naki growled, getting up in Suzuya's face. "You will allow Eto and I to see the kids when we want, got it? And lay off on them. They've been through hell!" Naki's eyes darkened. "There's a lot you don't know about them."

Suzuya was struggling to breath, and Naki dropped the smaller man. He took in a grateful gasp of air.

"Now get out of my house," Naki ordered. "Or I'll kill you and eat you."