Kiniko stared at his partner. The white haired man was working diligently at his desk, which was very out of the ordinary. The brunette played with the Kagune Secretion Detector on his desk, not wanting Suzuya to find out what he was really doing.
He turned the machine on and stuffed it in his pocket. Kiniko stood up and fumbled to find the button on the detector, and held it down when he did.
"I'm just running to the restroom," Kiniko said loudly over the steady beeps the machine was emitting.
He walked past Suzuya, coughing to cover up the noise the detector made. When Kiniko was out of sight, he checked the readings. A lump formed in his throat. The level had shot up when he was close to Suzuya.
Now, Kiniko knew that his partner was human. It was a miracle to be able to get the man to stop eating, and Juuzou had passed through the RC scan gate countless times. What these readings meant was that the red eyed man was spending a lot of time with ghouls. Perhaps intimate contact.
The brunette took in a shaky breath. He had to find out what was going on. Loyalty to your partner was important, but if your partner is siding with the enemy… What choice did he really have? He had to do the right thing.
Kiniko shoved the device back into his pocket and strolled back to his desk. Nanami had seated herself on Juuzou's desk, and Kiniko was surprised to see her at the office.
"Don't you have school?" he asked her.
"It's Saturday," Nanami said, twirling a long strand of ebony hair. "Don't have school today."
"Get off my desk," Juuzou mumbled at the child.
She jumped off and toddled over to Kiniko.
"Mister," she said, giving the man puppy eyes. "Can I have some money to buy somethin' from the vending machine?"
Kiniko sighed and pulled out his wallet, handing the kindergartener a few yen. She beamed and ran into the hallway, leaving Kiniko staring at two pictures in his wallet.
The first picture was of a beautiful woman with long, curled strawberry blond hair and deep brown eyes. She was smiling and was wearing a beautiful, knee length white lacy dress. She looked so, so happy.
The other picture was of a ten year old boy. It was a school picture, and the boy was smiling at the camera. He had on a collared pale blue shirt, but his light brown hair was a mess. There was a sweet childlike glow to his brown eyes.
There was a lot people did not know about Special Class Investigator Kiniko Daichi.
His fingers ghosted over the picture of the woman. Her name had been Hitashi Mori. And from the first day of kindergarten when the strawberry blond girl had sat next to him at lunch, Daichi had been determined to make sure that one day she would become Hitashi Kiniko. They were best friends all through elementary school and middle school, and in high school, they had begun to date. They had gone to prom and every other school dance together. It was young love.
They graduated and were headed to college. Everything was perfect. Until Daichi got his high school sweetheart pregnant at a whopping age of nineteen. To most, the situation would've seemed awful. But Hitashi saw the good in it, as she usually did.
The couple decided to get married after the baby was born. Kiniko stayed faithful and loyal next to his love's side. He waited for the baby to come, and then rushed her to the hospital when it was. He waited for the labor to begin. He waited for the doctor to rush in. And he sat in the hallway, waiting to see his beautiful Hitashi and their baby. He waited. And waited. And waited. Hitashi never came.
The doctor came to Kiniko with the baby, a beautiful baby boy. He explained to Kiniko that thousands of woman die during childbirth each year. But it didn't take any of the pain away.
Being a single father was hard. The son, whom Kiniko had named Ake, often asked about his Mommy. Kiniko had sworn to himself that he would love Ake twice as much so that his son wouldn't feel any emptiness in his heart. But deep down, he knew it was impossible.
Kiniko slept around. A lot. There was no denying that. But no matter how many gorgeous woman the investigator slept with, there was never a Hitashi. For the time him and his partner were in bed, his mind was off of the beautiful strawberry blond. But the second he wasn't alone, that he wan't flirting, he would fall into the memories of his lover's sweet lips.
Kiniko sighed and closed his wallet. He glanced at the clock. It was going to be time to take his break now; he had Ake to pick up from school.