Akira tells Touka her address. This is a huge mistake.

The next day, Arima summoned her to his office.

"Good work yesterday. I know it was almost an insult to put you on such an easy case, but the leadership didn't want to trust a rookie with a delicate investigation."

Akira shrugged. She wasn't offended. "It was only delicate due to the amount of money at stake."

Arima folded his hands and rested his chin upon them. "How is Haise doing?"

Behind his desk, on the other side of the room, Akira thought he looked so distant. More so than usual.

"He seemed well, last I spoke to him."

"Is he still dating that waitress?"

She didn't have to fake her exasperated expression. "They're going strong. I suppose we should brace ourselves for wedding bells sometime soon." She urgently needed to feel out how Arima would react to that little development.

That surprised him. "Really? What do you think of her?"

It took her a minute to pinpoint something to safe to say that wouldn't be too much of a lie. "She's…down-to-earth. And nice. She's good for Haise. I don't hate her."

"Hmm. I might want to meet her before we walk Haise down the aisle."

Akira forced herself to smile at one of Arima's rare jokes while internally screaming. "Maybe you should, one of these days."

There was a beat of silence before her superior took a breath and changed the subject. "I want you to continue your work with Haise, but since he's grown into more of a leadership role with the Quinx squad I'd like to start pulling you away from them and put you on another project."

Interesting. She had found herself with a bit more free time due to Haise's increasing competence, but she was surprised that the leadership was comfortable with giving Haise more trust and less supervision.

Oh, well. She didn't make those decisions. From turning Haise into an asset rather than a quinque, to developing the Quinx project, up through what Arima had just told her, none of her higher-ups' decisions surrounding artificial ghouls made sense to her.

"Of course, sir."

"Hirako is developing a very green squad of new recruits from the Garden. I'd like you to work with him on that front for a while."

An odd request, but it wasn't her place to question whether Arima was allocating his subordinates efficiently. "Sounds intriguing. I'll set up a meeting with Take as soon as possible."

"Excellent. That's all for today, Akira."

She inclined her head and left.

Akira was about to clean up her dishes from dinner when her phone rang.

She set down the plate in her hand and answered. "Mado speaking."

"Akira? It's Touka. I have a cat for you."

Almost against her will, Akira's heart leapt. "You found the cat."

"Yeah. Didn't even have to go to Itori. She's hungry and angry, but she's fine. Um…what should I do with her?" An outraged yowl sounded in the background.

After everything else, what could it hurt? "I'll text you my address. Bring over the cat, I have food for her."

A hiss and a crash emitted from the speaker. "Yeah, I'll be there soon."

"You might want to get the cat into a carrier, by the way."

All she heard on the other end was a hiss and Touka's surprised shriek before the call cut off.

Within the hour, there was a knock on her door. Akira threw it open to reveal an exhausted-looking Touka holding a cheap carrier.

Touka shoved it into her arms. "Here's your damn cat. Good riddance."

Akira laughed. "Not a cat person, I take it."

Touka held out her now-empty arms. They were covered in slow-healing scratches, some of which were still oozing blood. "Not anymore, I'm not."

The investigator sighed and stepped aside to invite the ghoul in. "Get cleaned up before you go. There's a first aid kit in the bathroom."

Akira grabbed Maris Stella off the couch and tossed her in the bedroom before letting the new cat out of her carrier.

The gray tabby quickly darted behind the couch. She probably wouldn't emerge without a fight, so Akira just set out a small bowl of water and food in a nearby corner. The cat would be headed to an animal shelter first thing tomorrow morning.

Touka emerged from the bathroom, hands and arms bandaged up. "Thanks. Eating human food really slows down my healing, but I should be fine in an hour or two."

Thinking back on all of her various injuries and the long recoveries involved, Akira grumbled to herself, "Must be nice."

The ghoul suddenly remembered something and pulled a small mouse toy out of her pocket. "Here. I thought the cat would want something from home"

She tossed the tiny stuffed animal to Akira, who caught it easily.

Akira turned it over in her hands. Maris Stella had many similar toys. "I'm still fascinated by the idea of a ghoul keeping a pet."

"Why? Animals are cute, and they're good company. Hell, when I was a kid, my father helped me and my brother rehabilitate this little wounded bird." She sighed. "Those were good times."

I don't want this. I don't want these glimpses of her childhood with the Corpse Collector. Akira set the toy mouse down by the food and water dishes. "I just never thought too hard about it, that's all."

A long moment of awkward silence followed.

Akira considered her guest. Without the apron on, it was beginning to become apparent that Touka was, indeed, pregnant. She could hide it with loose clothing for maybe another month at best, and that would be pushing it.

"Don't laugh at me for being barely literate, but what's that say?" Touka gestured to a framed bit of calligraphy on the wall across from her couch.

Her breath caught in her throat. "Tsujigiri. A crossroads killing with a new sword." A gift from her father when she enrolled in the Academy, actually.

The ghoul looked at her askance. "Kind of dark for décor, don't you think?"

"It was a dirty trick—cutting down innocent wayfarers. Samurai did it in lawless times to make sure their swords were deadly and strong enough for battle, rather than risk going in to that first fight with an inferior weapon. It was given to me as…a reminder." A reminder to fight dirty and do whatever you have to in order to win.

"And you sit and stare at that every night? That can't be healthy."

Akira stared back at her with a blank expression. "You eat people."

"Eating people isn't that great for your mental health, either." Touka rolled her sleeves down, covering the worst of her battle wounds. "I had lunch with Yoriko today. If you hadn't brought me there, I may never have seen her again. Thanks for that, Akira. I mean it."

"Good. That shop is popular with investigators and Takeomi likes her. I suspect they'll start dating soon. It'll benefit you to stay close to her. Hide in plain sight."

Touka looked at the blonde, a flash of pity in her eyes. "I got lunch with her because she's my best friend, not a pawn."

Akira walked her guest to the door. "She can be both."

"One more thing, about Haise. He's starting to talk about moving in together soon. Unless you want him to notice how rarely I eat…"

Akira thought for a moment. "I'll make sure he knows he has to stay in residence at the Chateau as long as he's the Quinx's mentor, and that he can't bring civilians in there. That'll buy time."

The ghoul dawdled by the door, arms crossed defensively. "You still…don't have a plan yet?"

She's anxious to know what'll happen next. "I've been thinking about what you said, how you could use Itori to stay in control of the release of information. We'll think of some valuable information we can get in exchange for telling her you're with Haise. Let's see how the pieces fall on the ghoul side of the equation."

The ghoul looked down at her feet. "Just…put it out there?"

"Either you go on the attack or wait to be attacked. That information should stay quarantined on the ghoul side of things, so let's figure out that side of the equation first."

"Ok…what kind of information were you thinking of getting?"

"That part is just us trying to take as much advantage of the situation as possible. Why let it go to waste? As for the content…" Akira hesitated, but decided to go for it. "I know Aogiri is still making artificial ghouls. I want to know about that. Can you live with selling out Aogiri Tree?"

Touka froze.

In a moment of honest desperation, Akira blurted out, "The artificial ghoul I saw with Aogiri. I think he was an investigator. Someone I used to know. Everything, anything you can find out…"

It was that earnest appeal to the ghoul's compassionate side—and that was a thought she never expected to have—that finally swayed Touka.

"Yeah, okay, I'll ask Itori about that." She adjusted her cardigan. "Well, I need to go. There was an abandoned car spotted in one of the areas we usually find…you know."

Akira grimaced. "Ugh. Don't say any more. Go." Almost as an afterthought, she tossed in, "And thanks again for the cat."

With that, her inhuman guest left.

Hmm, not much action but a couple of interesting developments...