So, this is where I think people will either love it or hate it…but believe me when I say the shenanigans I have lined up had me cackling like a mad scientist while writing them.

Another more outrageous dramatic reveal occurs.

"Well, tactically speaking, the only real option for you appears to be killing me."

Touka turned to glare at her. "That's not even close to what I meant. Ugh, you don't even know the half of it. I…made some risky decisions, and I was convinced that I had everything under control, and now I've backed myself into one hell of a corner."

The younger woman—ghoul—started laughing sardonically. "Maybe you could give me some advice, Akira! Tell me how much of an idiot I am, and what to do now."

Not willing to sit, Akira leaned against the rock face. "First I'd have to understand what the hell you're talking about. Now, I make it a habit not to talk to ghouls, but I suppose I can make an exception just this once."

Touka snorted. "Were you just born like that, or what? I'm sure you've never let a man tie you up in knots."

You'd be surprised, Akira thought. First Amon, then more recently and for different reasons, Takizawa. "Are you talking about Haise? Does he know?" She felt a stab of disappointment at that thought. She'd always half-expected him to turn ghoul sympathizer, but it wasn't until now that she reckoned with how much hope and trust she'd placed in him, and how bitter it was to throw that away.

The she-ghoul sighed and pulled her legs up to her chest, wrapped her arms around her knees. "He doesn't. That's part of the problem. He used to…"

"Oh. You're from his forgotten past. Interesting."

Touka glared at the blonde from the corner of her eye. "Yeah. I don't know what you did to him to make him forget everything, but knowing you doves it wasn't very nice. I wrote him off as most likely dead, and he waltzed back into my coffee shop like it was nothing, and it seemed like a miracle. A second chance I didn't deserve, you know?"

"Mmhmm." A part of Akira was sick of prolonging the inevitable—was this ghoul just toying with her food?—but the investigator in her was intrigued that Touka just seemed to be speaking freely.

"So when he asked me out, I thought to myself, why not, it's just this once, just to see where this second chance goes…and then we went on a second date, and I kept lying to him and everyone else, and it seemed like everything was fine and I had it all under control and for once life was giving me something nice instead of taking everything away…"

The blonde rolled her eyes. "Get to the point."

"I am! Looking back it seems like everyone but me knew I was walking a tightrope and it wouldn't end well." Touka looked at Akira with a sad, pleading look on her face. "Haise's a good investigator. He doesn't let things slip about CCG operations. I only know a lot of stuff because I have alternative sources. But I know a couple of months ago he came by as I was closing the café. It was right after some big operation where he nearly died…the one that pissed off Aogiri Tree and the ghoul restaurant people."

Akira nodded. "The Auction raid." When Haise changed.

"I don't hang out with that crowd, by the way. Never have and never will. But he came in while I was closing and hugged me so tight it probably would have hurt if I was human, and he said he was afraid he'd never see me again…and it hit me how much I really, really love him…"

Akira had never been an openly sentimental woman, so she had to suppress a sneer at how saccharine and confessional the ghoul had suddenly become.

Touka's next words came out in one big rush. "Anyways, he knocked me up that night, and the idiot finally figured it out last week and somehow convinced me to elope with him over the weekend, and I'm starting to realize how absolutely screwed I am, and not in the fun way this time. Oh, yeah, I accidentally took his boss hostage, too, which is just perfect, but you were there for that part."

Akira blinked rapidly several times and finally sat on a nearby fallen tree trunk. "What?"

"Exactly."

"What?!"

Touka laughed. "I warned you, didn't I? Haise thinks I'm a human who has no idea what he is, and he's probably scared out of his wits that I have no idea I might be carrying his half-ghoul baby. I could tell him I'm a ghoul and force him to choose between me and the CCG, but you guys have brainwashed him good, and besides, that would be a cruel thing to do to such a kindhearted man. He cares about you all. Or I could run away, but it would also be cruel for his wife and child to just disappear with no explanation. And he'll be such a good father, Akira. It would be wrong to keep his child from him."

"What a mess," Akira muttered to herself. She stared sightlessly into the night. "Well, my first thought is that I really wish I could rewind to about two hours ago."

"It is a mess. I can't depend on any humans, because of obvious reasons, and as soon as word gets around, I'll be on the outs with most ghouls because I went and married a dove." Touka unfolded from her spot on the rock and stood up. "I never paid attention in literature class—those Romeo and Juliet stories usually end well, right?"

"Uh, no."

"Dammit." Touka wandered over to a large blocky shape at the foot of the cliff.

Akira thought it was a very square rock at first, until the ghoul unzipped it. It was a…duffel bag? No, it was a large soft-sided cooler. She glanced back over at the dark shape on the ground, the one that Touka had distracted her with.

Could it actually be—

"I hope you have a strong stomach, because I actually have a job to do here." The girl went to that ominous dark shape, and hoisted it up with ease. So it was a man, a man twice as large as the girl who was carting him over to the cooler.

The investigator watched in dark fascination as the body was tossed in the cooler, then cringed as Touka cracked what sounded like every joint in his arms and legs to fold him in. "Disgusting."

"It's just a little bit of rigor mortis." Touka tossed a small object Akira's way. Her reflexes were still good, even in the near darkness, and she caught it with ease.

"His wallet. I like to leave them up by the road, in case they have anyone who'll come looking for them."

Akira quickly flipped through the contents. No money, lots of cards. She couldn't make out much writing, but she could see the company logo on one of the ID cards. "Looks like he worked at that biotech startup that was just caught falsifying its clinical research."

"So that's his story. I always wonder."

"Do you do this often?"

Touka zipped up the cooler with a flourish and wiped her hands off on the dark pants she was wearing. "Yeah. If he's going to throw away his life, I'll put it to good use. There's a lot of us who'd prefer not to be murderers."

Akira raised one dubious, perfect eyebrow at that.

"Don't make that face at me. But you know what? I don't really care about the CCG's opinion of me. I know I'm not perfect, but I also know I'm not a monster. And I'm sure that I deserve to live, and so does my baby, no matter what you say."

There was an electric pause.

"You said earlier that my only option is to kill you. Does it really have to be that way?"

Akira shrugged. She was above pleading and wheedling, so she answered honestly. "It's what I would do."

For the first time that night, Touka's human façade truly fell. She stood before Akira with clenched fists and blazing red eyes, looking like any other ghoul about to go in for the kill. The younger woman shrieked, "Well, I'm not you! I'm not a heartless killer like you!"

Akira tensed up, sure that the ghoul was about to snap and finally kill her. Instead, her red-eyed accuser growled and stomped away. Touka grabbed the handle of the loaded cooler and leapt up into the darkness.

That was anticlimactic. Now what? The blonde investigator stared at the cliff face, then out at the immense black forest. She crossed her arms and tapped her toe. Climb or hike…

Before she had much time to weigh the pros and cons of either option for getting back to her car, though, a dark shape torpedoed to the ground before her.

Touka landed in a deep crouch, sans cooler. She straightened up and dusted herself off.

"I'm sorry. Sometimes I get mad and say things I shouldn't. You're not heartless, Akira. Even if you try to act like it. You thought you were going to save me from killing myself tonight."

Akira frowned. Under the best of circumstances, she wasn't a fan of this kind of talk—apologies and compliments. Certainly not from a ghoul.

"You're important to Haise, too, and I don't want the heat that would come down on him—and me—if you ended up dead or missing. Besides—" She opened her mouth to say something else, then thought better of it and shook her head. "No, nevermind."

The blonde sighed, crossed her arms again, and looked down at the young ghoul. "You and Haise have created a fine mess. Quit blaming yourself, by the way. Last I checked, the man plays a somewhat crucial role in procreation."

Touka smirked and looked away, embarrassed. She grew serious again. "Tell me I don't have to kill you. I'm already drowning in secrets. I don't want any more."

What a strange turn of events. The ghoul was offering her a golden bridge to retreat across, and she would be stupid to turn it down. "You're right. You are hobbled by circumstances." She sighed. "And it's not like I could make his pregnant wife disappear, or kill her and blindside him with the news that it's alright, since she was a ghoul. Every option will jeopardize the performance of our most promising weapon."

The ghoul scoffed. "He's more than a weapon to you and we both know it."

Akira remained impassive. There were only bad outcomes for any scenario she played out in her mind—she could tell Touka to just kill her and get it over with, which was probably the least ideal route. She could lie her way out and turn on the ghoul, either by killing her or sending her to Cochlea until the child was born, but then what would happen to the two of them?

There was no clear best choice: The obvious fallout, coupled with a big potential for nasty unforeseen consequences, made every idea that occurred to her undesirable.

The truly difficult part, thought Akira, is that their relationship is the problem. Whatever happens next will have ripple effects on everyone that either of them have any sort of relationship with, ghouls and investigators alike.

The fact that she didn't appear to be actively hunting and instead subsisting on suicides made the thought of walking away easier, too…

"We're in a deadlock. I don't have any good moves to make, and neither to you. So no, I guess you don't have to kill me."

Touka looked up at the cliff. "How long can that stalemate last, though?"

"That part, I don't know. You're right that it can't last forever."

The ghoul frowned. "Can it at least last about four or five more months?"

"Maybe. Disaster is coming for you, one way or another. This will all still blow up in your face one day. And if I'm complicit, it'll take me down too."

"I honestly have no idea what I'm doing anymore, so I guess I'll cross that bridge when I come to it." She walked up next to Akira and put one strong arm around her waist.

Akira wanted to cringe away, but it was better than climbing or hiking. At the last moment, on instinct mostly, Akira put one arm around Touka's shoulders in case the ghoul decided to just drop her on the way up.

Huh. She thought she had accepted her inevitable death calmly, but it seemed her subconscious wouldn't let her die so easily.

It wasn't the smoothest ride, but the ghoul hoisted her back up to the road with one solid leap.

Akira stumbled a bit on the asphalt before her balance returned.

Touka fished a set of car keys out of a pocket and walked slowly to her car. She paused and turned around. "Remember, when you get home and you're questioning everything, that I could've killed you and I didn't. I didn't want to."

Akira was already questioning everything. She was correct, though, in the sense that she was pinned in place for the moment. The ghoul was a neutralized threat. Touka had bought time for herself, true, but also time for Akira to figure out what to do next.

She watched the ghoul's taillights disappear around the bend and sighed. With slow steps, she began to walk to her own vehicle.

Suddenly, she remembered the wallet that had been in her hand this whole time. She wiped it off on her jacket just in case anyone dusted it for prints and left it on the side of the road.

It was a lovely cool spring night, and the stars were out as much as they ever were this close to civilization. On any other night, she might have stopped to enjoy the setting. Not tonight, though.

Stalemates didn't last forever, and she wouldn't be left unprepared when this one broke.

When I first started toying with this idea, I had a beginning that interested me, but I couldn't figure out how to get beyond a fast, violent, depressing resolution in any way that made sense. As soon as the twisty twist occurred to me (and I gotta credit Red Child by pseudocitrus on AO3 for inspiration, I read it, loved all the dramatic irony, and had a lingering desire to see that idea explored more) the possibilities unfolded.

I don't think Touka or Akira would be satisfied with having a nice chat and going on their merry way—this way, Akira is really thrown for a loop and needs to step back and properly figure things out, because she's suddenly in a strange, confusing position. I don't think she'd pull the trigger on anything unless she knew how it would play out. Besides, can't you just feeeeeel how much this setup is ripe for shenanigans?