Here is the next chapter. And again its filled with a ton of exposition. I Hope it looks good for you guys though. And at least it has more dialogue this time. I would say more but Im not really sure what to say other than I should have probably figured out something else to reference Shinohara by other than his name over and over again. I think it shows up more than any other word in this chapter.
So enjoy.
Shinohara looked over the file for the newly acquired inhabitants of the twenty-fifth ward. Two rinkaku types. Both in perfect health despite living off of scavenging. And thankfully neither had shown any serious aggression when approached or during processing. Putting them at an E rank threat level. However this didn't mean they were weak. Tamed ghouls all had low ranks on the original scale due to them being genial to some degree with humans. Instead their strength was rated on a secondary rank based solely on capability. Officially it had the same ranks as the threat scale but many jokingly added a negative to the rank. The child ghoul, half-ghoul Shinohara reminded himself, was still too young to properly test but his pedigree hinted at being highly capable in the future. Meanwhile the father ghoul had tested into the high (-) S to possibly the low to mid (-) SS rank.
This made Shinohara very grateful that the family had surrendered peacefully. A ghoul that powerful, especially of the offensive oriented rinkaku type, could have caused massive amounts of collateral damage and casualties. Shinohara was glad that these Rinkaku appeared to be calm and would be able to integrate safely and without incident. Their species was the one most likely to act out violently or against the rules during the integration phase. Thanks to this, there were many investigators who refused to work with them; seeing them as unstable or untrainable. It also didn't help that they had been the least likely of the four species to join the new ward in the beginning. Most of them now part of the program had been captured afterwards instead or were the children of such ghouls.
Personally though, Shinohara liked rinkakus. He thought of the rinkakus as being similar to dogs or wolves and Shinohara had always been a dog person. It was true that when they first arrived, they were the most likely to act out. But after a little work they turned out to be quite great companions. They were also loyal almost to a fault. One time when he had been injured badly in a raid gone wrong, practically every rinkaku that he was in charge of had come to his hospital room to visit him. Many of them had even been allowed to stay with him and slept in the room with him; guarding their wounded pact member. Shinohara even liked how frank they usually were. Even if it had once or twice led to rather heated sparing matches to air work out the irritation at some of the more choice comments.
Shinohara looked over the picture of the child again. One Ken Kaneki. The only half-ghoul currently in the CCG custody and the second documented occurrence of one to have been verified. All his tests had been good and he seemed well suited to taming. The medical and scientific staff in particular were extremely excited about this. Even if it was inconsequential to the situation in Tokyo at large, the chance to study something as rare and spectacular as a living half ghoul had the researchers already arguing over who would get a spot on his observation team. Apparently command thought there was some importance to this since Shinohara had been put in charge of this case by direct orders from the CCG head. Shinohara just hoped that this worked out for the young boy in the end. Despite his species, he felt he deserved a happy life and Shinohara planned to give it to him.
The first step though, would be establishing dominance in the mind of the young boy. That way the boy would listen to him and would be less likely to defy the CCG. A researcher appeared and handed him a spray bottle. He took and sprayed it over himself. The spray didn't smell much to him at least. However the pheromones in it, which had been humanely harvested from the father, should help the child relax. He handed the bottle back to the researcher and joked, "Let's hope that this one isn't a nipper."
He stepped in the room and noticed that the boy had been reading a book. 'Impressive for such a young one,' he thought; seeing the rather large and difficult book the boy had chosen. That was good. Smarter ones are usually more adaptive to integration. Shinohara noticed the boy's nervous reaction to his entrance and how his eyes shot to his quinque. So he placed it down and covered it with his coat to help him calm down. He then approached with the warmest smile he could and raised his hand out for Ken and said, "Good evening Ken. My name is Shinohara Yukinori. I'll be your CCG liaison and caretaker for the foreseeable future. A pleasure to meet you." He noticed Kaneki's nostrils flair a bit before the boy calmed down; shown by a subtle shift in his body language. 'Good. The pheromones seemed to have worked,' Shinohara thought.
Ken shook his hand and replied, "Ken Kaneki." He could tell that his new ward still appeared uncomfortable but that was to be expected. Shinohara motioned to the small table with two chairs. "Please have seat Ken. I'll make us some coffee." Ken sat down and Shinohara soon followed with two cups of fresh coffee. "I hope it's good. Sorry to say, but my skills pale in comparison to some of the ghouls who live here. I honestly don't think I could live without Coffee Avenue anymore." He laughed at his little remark but Ken just tilted his head in confusion before taking a sip. He smiled back at the man and replied, "No it's good. Though not as good as my fathers." He visibly sulked at the mention of his now missing parent. Shinohara took a sip as well. "Sounds like you respect him a lot." The boy nodded before looking Shinohara in the eyes. He could have sworn Ken was trying to do his best puppy dog eyes as he asked, "Where is he? Is he ok? You didn't hurt him did you? Can I see him? And what about mom?"
Shinohara put his coffee down and sighed. He answered, "Ken. I can assure that your father is fine. He will be treated humanely and fairly. But he still broke the law by going rogue. Technically you did too, but you're young and were just following your father's decision so you're not at fault. But your father has to be punished. So he has been sent to Cochlea for breaking the law." He saw the crushed look in the boy's eyes and he honestly felt bad for him. But this was a crucial step in the integration program. He placed a hand on the young man's shoulder and told him, "But I promise you, I'll help. I can see what I can do to free your father. I promise you, I'll protect both of you." Ken looked relieved.
Though he didn't know the truth. That the sentence for this crime was only about a year. Investigators used this trick to further gain the trust of the youngster and reinforce the idea that he was higher in the pack. They made the youngster infer that the actual length of the sentence was much longer and that it was through their help that the parent was freed sooner. This allowed them to appear to be the good guy here and that they had some useful abilities to guard the child's family. Despite them eventually learning the truth, the positive image still remained in their minds and allowed the investigator to better influence the child and through them the family at large. Shinohara was pretty certain that this would also lead the father to be more willing to be cooperative in order to appease his son.
Shinohara began to ask Ken some questions to get a feel for the boy. "Ken could you tell me why your dad didn't want to register with the CCG?" Ken fretted a bit before answering, "He said the CCG wasn't trustworthy. That they… that you hunted our kind. So he'd protect me and mom just like his father had done before for him." Shinohara took another sip of his coffee. "I see. So tell me Ken. How do you feel about humans?" He watched as the boy looked conflicted. "I don't know," he answered. "Are you scared of them?" The boy looked at him a bit surprised at his prompt. "A little. They hate us after all. One of my dad's friends once told me that they would kill us all if they could get away with it. Even me since I'm still half ghoul." He suddenly looked very scared of Shinohara and asked, "Do you hate me, Mr. Investigator?"
Shinohara smiled at Ken and rubbed his head. "I don't hate you," he assured him. "In fact it's my job to take care of you and your father and help both of you live happily here. But you have to understand that you are different and therefore you have to remain here and follow the orders of the CCG understand?" Ken nodded again before asking the one thing Shinohara didn't want him to ask. "And what about mom?"
Shinohara sighed again and closed his eyes as he tried to think of an answer. This was not something he had had to deal with before. Having to talk to the ghoul child about their human parent. He decided to be honest about it. Feeling that it would be worse if he tried to cover it up or make it sound nice. "I'm sorry to tell you that it's out of my hands. Being a human, your mother is not under the jurisdiction of the CCG, but the Japanese police force. And they still have pretty tough laws about protecting rogue ghouls on the books. I'm sure we could get the CCG to provide her with a good lawyer but that's about it. Sorry." He actually felt quite depressed when he heard Ken start to sniffle and tear up. "But she didn't do anything wrong." Shinohara found himself agreeing with him. But this was a matter for the Japanese court system to handle now.
Shinohara asked him a few more questions, like what his favorite books were or what he liked to play, to better understand Ken. About three hours went by before he was finished. Ken was barely staying awake so Shinohara decided to show him to where he would be staying for the near future. "For now, we want to keep a close watch on you. So you're going to have to stay in the CCG's child dorms for the next few months. Until we deem it safe enough for you to mingle with the rest of the ward's population. Don't want you getting hurt out or lost out there." He led Ken through the CCG medical instillation till they reached a hallway lined with doors; each one with name plates. He opened one on the left with a blank nameplate and led Ken in.
It was a rather decent sized room with a separate bathroom and bath, a bed, desk, a small table, tv, a simple laptop, and some empty dressers and bookcases. "I know it's not much but make yourself at home. We'll bring you some sets of clothes for you and you will get an allowance that you can spend however you like while you live here." Shinohara then went to a small button next to the door. "Just press this if you need anything. Goodnight Ken." And with that he left and closed the door. Ken investigated the room before his fatigue got the best of him and he curled up in the bed and fell asleep.
Well I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Next one I plan to introduce Hide.
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