Here's a sort of short chapter, meant to segway the "Helter Skelter" arc, into the new story arc; one that will be showcasing a very underrated character from the Tokyo Ghoul light novels. Please enjoy!
"No way… F-Fired?! You got FIRED after on FIRST day of training, Sasaki?!" Hide blurted out with a shocked expression on his face, which earned him a defensive scowl from the young man sitting across from the booth table they were seated at. "After going through all THAT crap?! Man, that's gotta suck for you…!"
"I didn't get "fired", Hide; Ms. Yoshimura and I ended up mutually agreeing that it would have been too dangerous for her and the others to let me serve customers there… At least for the time being, anyway," Haise argued in a calm voice; his lips curling deeper into an amused frown, as Hide let out a chortle.
"Tch! Yeah, okay; sure man, let's go with THAT reason," Hide quipped sarcastically, as he leaned forward while resting his elbow against the top of the freshly red-painted table. "Since you apparently left on good terms with her, I'd imagine that your personal relationship with the workers hasn't changed then?" Hide inquired with a curious look on his face, all while resting his cheek against the palm of his up-turned hand.
"You'd be correct. Say what you will about my clouded judgment last night, but the fact that I survived going through what I did really did impress them quite a bit; especially when I told them about how I still managed to deliver the coffee creamer to them, in spite of all the chaos," Haise said in a proud voice, as his frown subtly turned into a slightly smug smirk.
Smiling wider while letting out a few chuckles at how satisfied Haise was with himself, Hide took a quick sip through the straw of his plastic cup before setting back down on its coaster. "Hehe… Yeah man, screw brewing coffee; you've got what it takes to be a kick-ass delivery-boy," Hide half-jokingly said, complimenting his best friend's dedication and agility, while they continued to wait for their food to arrive at their booth.
While his disinterest to be employed by a courier service of any kind remained the same, Hide's words were beginning to breathe lift into the underdeveloped idea that had been formulating inside Haise's mind since the night he was told he could no longer work for Anteiku. "You know… I might not have gotten the same amount of customer service experience that I would have gotten if things turned out differently last night, but… It got me thinking, Hide."
Although Hide was playfully dramatic as he feigned appearing worried by Haise's words, a part of him deep down did actually become concerned with what he was about to hear. "Careful Sasaki; your plans haven't had a good track record as of late, heh heh… Ehhh…" Hide trailed off; his optimism wavering as the corner of his lips involuntarily lowered.
Although it wasn't what Haise wanted to hear from his best friend, he was self aware enough to understand why Hide was obviously uneasy with his announcement; even before he actually revealed it. "Fifth time's the charm, Hide; fifth time's the charm," Haise quipped with a soft chuckle coming out of his curled lips. "Anyway, in all seriousness... Lately, I've been thinking about starting my own business. Now that I've got connections to someone who knows the ins and outs of the food industry, I'm thinking about putting my skills to good use… Do you see where I'm going with this?"
"I'm like… Ninety percent sure that I know where this is going, but like… I'm just going to hold off on saying anything until your grand reveal, man," Hide said politely, while still trying to cover up his worried thoughts behind a cheery facade.
Given permission to announce his next ambition, Haise cleared his throat before staring Hide right in the eye, as he paused dramatically before finally speaking. "… Instead of using the money I've got saved up to go toward a car, I'm thinking that I should instead invest that money into something that'll pay for itself… I'm considering opening up my own restaurant. What do you think about that?" Haise asked, while opening the metaphorical up for feedback.
Having been expecting Haise's grand scheme to be far more dangerous and life endangering than opening up his own food joint, Hide needed a moment to collect his thoughts before finally breathing a heavy sigh of relief. "Oh thank God… Heh, uh? Ummm… So like, are you wanting to be the guy behind the desk, or the delivery guy? Because I don't see how you being fast as hell overlaps to being a manager," Hide questioned, to which made Haise smile even more as something humorous clicked inside of his questionably sane mind.
"Pffftt, heh hehe~…! I would have the responsibilities of both positions, Hide. So… In a way, it would be accurate to say that I would be quite literally the one "running" the place— fuehaha…~!" Haise quietly chuckled; feeling happy with himself for his wordplay.
Cringing internally at Haise's attempt at humor, Hide let out a pity laugh as he took another sip from his glass of ice-cold soda. "Heh, yeah man, ha ha; that's cool! But like, uh… How is that realistically going to work? Shouldn't the manager always be on property, just in case he's gotta deal with a disgruntled-ass customer?" Hide asked sincerely, while furrowing his brows slightly from the way Haise seemed unphased by him pointing out the flaw in his logic.
"That's all in the past, Hide. In this day of age, everything can be done from your phone," Haise replied as though it were obvious; taking his own smartphone out, before placing it down in the middle of the table to emphasize his point. "I'll be taking the deliveries and bringing them to the customers once my chef completes their order. If anything were to go awry while I'm out making a delivery, then my assistant manager would be there to handle the issue in my absence, or at least until I return to deal with the problem myself," Haise further explained; finishing his response by calmly intertwining his fingers together over the table, as he smiled back at Hide with an almost malicious look in his eye.
Feeling suddenly under pressure, Hide swallowed back the spit in his throat before letting out an uneasy chuckle. "Oh, uh— heh heh, heh… W-Who's going to be your as-"
"-You. Or at least, you WILL be; as soon as it comes time for me to hire a group of competent employees to help me run my business… Which I hope to be relatively soon," Haise mused, while Hide was too preoccupied gawking at him to notice that none other than his girlfriend was standing beside them in her usual retro-fifties business attire. "Oh? Good afternoon, Oohashi; I wasn't expecting to be given the "VIP" treatment~!" Haise said playfully; nudging Hide to snap out of it by delivering a soft kick to his shins underneath the tables.
"Ow, goddamnit…! Ugh, I swear to God Sasaki; you better stop fucki- Oh?! H-Hey Oohashi, hehe; I-I didn't see you there…!" Hide chuckled awkwardly; smiling from ear-to-ear at his beautiful black-haired girlfriend, while quickly side-eyeing the half-ghoul who was looking back at him with a mischievous expression on his smirking face.
Entertained by the two young men's antics, especially when she already knew of the kind of borderline unstable relationship that Haise and Hide had, Oohashi snickered to herself as she handed them their plates. "Oh, I don't blame you, babe; I must admit, I also got a little too invested in overhearing Sasaki's half-baked plan," Oohashi said playfully, while letting out a soft giggle as she watched Hide's face light up after hearing her jab at his best friend.
"HA!!! See Sasaki, I wasn't the only one who thought your plan sucked ass! Even my girl called your shit "half-baked"; heh haha!" Hide jeered while unapologetically being spiteful, especially as he felt a bruise beginning to swell up where Haise had kicked him. The tables were quickly turned the moment Oohashi decided to reprehend her boyfriend by smacking him in the back of the head. "OW!!! What the HELL is with everyone thinking I'm their freakin' punching bag all of a sudden…?!" Hide muttered to himself while rubbing the back of his head, as Haise cackled under his breath with a certain amount of sadistic pleasure visible on his face that only one could have in their long-lasting friendship.
"Oh lighten up, Hide; she didn't even hit you that hard… Heh, heh ha…" Haise quipped teasingly, which in turn made the actual restaurant owner out of the trio smack him upside the head as well. Despite being durable enough to survive getting shot at by bullets made to put down ghouls, and enduring the point-blank blast radius of an overcharged shot of molten plasma, the back of Oohashi's hand stung when it collided with the side of his head. "Gngh…! That… That actually kind of hurt..." Haise muttered under his breath, as he too began to nurse where the young woman had hit him.
"Thanks, I've been practicing; I gotta keep these women around here in line somehow, right~?" Oohashi joked while raising her hand; earning herself two begrudging chuckles from the two young men, who found her dark humor to be funny enough to immediately forgive her. "Heh haha… B-But in all seriousness Sasaki, I can say without a doubt that you'll have Hide and I supporting you in any way that we REALISTICALLY can," Oohashi said with genuine earnest in her voice, as she knelt down to inspect where she had playfully smacked Hide against the backside of his head. "Oh baby, I was only playing around; I didn't actually hurt you, did I…?"
Had it not been for the fact that Oohashi was surprisingly strong for a young girl of her petite stature, Hide might have been able to walk the hit off. However, with him being teary-eyed and seeing stars from how much force was behind what was supposed to be a harmless tap, Hide wasn't able to lie about his condition even if he wanted to. "N-Nah, that actually really freakin' hurt…! You gotta be more careful with me babe; I'm fragile apparently, heh heh…!" Hide replied while trying things less awkward by laughing about it.
Of course this tugged at the young woman's remorful heart. "Oh baby, I'm so sorry…! I didn't mean to hurt my big-strong handsome man; come here, let me make it all better~," Oohashi cooed in an apologetic and almost over-to-the-top fashion, before standing up to wrap her arms lovingly around Hide; pulling him into her chest, while beginning to pepper the back of his head with kisses.
Grinning ear-from-ear while feeling the woman's breasts smothering the back of his neck, Hide had one hand lovingly giving Oohashi affection and reassurance by holding her hand that was dropped down his chest. Not wanting to leave his other hand out of the action, Hide made a point to quickly flip Haise off while sneering at him with a victorious expression across his blushing face.
Frowning with a deadpan look on his face as Hide rubbed it in his face that he was still the single one out of the two of them, Haise watched somewhat bitterly as Oohashi showered his smug best friend in tender love and breasts. 'Whatever! I've got unspoken rizz too; I just haven't tapped into it yet is all. But when I do— oh ho ho— I'll be surrounded by beautiful girls too, Hide; mark my words!' Haise thought defensively to himself, before letting out a sigh of defeat the moment he saw Hide raising his lips up to cutely kiss Oohashi on the mouth. 'God, I'm so lonely.'
When Oohashi finally left their booth to attend her duties as Big Girl's newest owner, Haise was getting his karmic retribution in the form of Hide teasing him about being "maidenless". Once the bit had gone stale, the conversation shifted over to Hide talking to Haise about his journalism project; giving praise to Nishiki for having practically been the sole reason why their group received a perfect score on their final.
Since he had talked Hide's ear off about his own life, Haise showed his best friend respect now that they were finished joking around with one another, and was very engaging throughout the whole conversation as they ate their lunch together. And even though Hide knew that there wasn't any harsh feelings between them, even after their mischievous and borderline malice antics at the table, the blond man took it upon himself to show his support for Haise's newest dream by paying for both of their meals; claiming that the black-haired young man would have to start saving up everything he could scrounge up, in order to afford the down payment for the loan he would need to take out to open his future restaurant.
Needing to go their separate ways for the remainder of the day, Hide hugged Haise like usual before the blond young man made his way toward the nearest bus stop. Even though he had no reason to suspect that Hide was at risk of getting targeted, Haise made sure to escort the young man to his stop while keeping a close eye for any suspicious figures who might be undercover investigators or ghoul gang members.
Once Hide boarded the bus with a large group of passengers, Haise gave his best friend a mild wave before beginning to walk toward his next destination: the 20th Ward's newest mask tailoring shop, "Tsumugi Studio".
Unlike most of the crowded urban jungle that made up the 20th Ward, the Northwestern area that the aforementioned mask studio was located was within a heavily wooded area; with Tsumugi Studio being amongst the few niche businesses open in the touristy town that were established in the "Shinrin-Yoku". Even though the road leading up to the famous wooden bridge that led into the entrance of the feudalistic Japanese era themed village was paved with asphalt, and received a heavy amount of traffic from visitors seeking to spend their day being close to nature, Haise was able to save time by traveling through the isolated and heavily-floral areas of the forest.
There, standing before the long wooden bridge that was dangling above a serene river used commonly for "forest bathing" was the fourteen year-old ghoul, who had been tasked with escorting Haise to where he needed to be. Upon seeing Haise stepping out of the woods covered in branches, Ayato silently watched as the young man swiftly brushed away any hanging foliage that got caught on his collared t-shirt.
"You chose a bad day to wear white, Sasaki… Maybe you outta take a dip in the river before you meet Asa; she isn't keen on letting people drag dirt into her Godmother's home," Ayato said half-jokingly, while making it obvious that he was serious about the aforementioned young girl being particular about cleanliness.
Picking the last twig off of his dirt and grass stained shirt, Haise furrowed his brows as he stared down at his ruined outfit. "… In all fairness, the last time that I had to run like this was when I was under the circumstance of not needing to give a damn about my appearances. Guess I'm still sort of uh… Adjusting back to normalcy," Haise mused, to which made Ayato smirk slightly.
"Yeah, I fuckin' doubt that, ya weirdo. But don't worry, I've got a few places in mind where you and I can get our hands on some traditional garments; you know, authentic, handcrafted kimonos and shit," Ayato reassured underhandedly; giving Haise an underhanded wink, as the young man made his way over to where he was waiting for him. "Hope you brought enough money to go around, Sasaki; I ain't paying for shit while we're here," Ayato stated, as he and Haise began to make their way over the thirty-meter long wooden bridge; the gentle water of the long river several meter beneath them going downstream, as the sounds of birds in the trees around them could be heard.
Holding onto the rope while doing his best to avoid thinking about the possibility of the rope-bound bridge collapsing under the weight of them and the many other tourists crossing the bridge with them, Haise kept his eyes up and focused on the back of Ayato's head full of indigo hair as they continued to cross. "Guh… I should have just came here by myself then, if that's going to be the case," Haise spoke uneasily to the teenager, hoping that having a conversation would make the time he needed to be suspended over the riverbed go by faster.
Letting out an amused chuckle, Ayato shook his head at Haise's comment while continuing to lead him. "Yeah, like Yoshimura's going to trust you to do this shit by yourself; especially after your little fuckin' misadventure last night," Ayato quipped sarcastically, to which dealt a blow to Haise's confidence that he had developed earlier after getting fired.
"… I was under the assumption that you thought what I did was impressive," Haise pointed out in a cold voice, to which Ayato nodded his head casually.
"I mean… Yeah, don't get me wrong: I personally think that the crazy shit you went through was prettty fuckin' cool. But, Yoshimura, on the other hand… Well, she thinks you're in need of "guidance", as she put VERY lightly this morning," Ayato explained, while thinking back to the prep talk Eto had given him before having him pulled from work to help Haise in obtaining a much needed disguise.
"... R-Really? That's odd… Last night she told me that the point of you tagging along was to facilitate the meeting between Asa and I; Yoshimura never mentioned that you would be having a supervisory role over me," Haise said with slightly narrowed eyes that only grow into a scowl, the moment he heard Ayato letting out another cackle at his expense.
"Ha! Yeah, she was just being nice to you because she felt bad for firing your dumbass… But hey, for what it's worth I actually don't mind hanging out with you Sasaki," Ayato admitted, while sounding sincere as he dropped his mean spirited demeanor. "All bullshiting aside, I've got to say that you actually gave me some pretty sound advice the other day. That, and from the short time that I've known you, never once did I ever get the impression that you were some weak-coward, or some oblivious dipshit like how I thought you were going to be."
Believing that Ayato's words of praise were meant to be taken as a compliment instead of an insult, Haise gave the teenager an uncertain smile as the fourteen year-old momentarily looked over his shoulder to make eye contact with him. "I, uhh… Thanks Kirishima... I guess?" Haise replied, as both he and Ayato reached the end of the wooden bridge that led them directly toward the start of the cobblestone road that would bring them to the entrance of Shinrin-Yoku; a large crimson-painted "Torii" archway that welcomed them into the forest village.
And unbeknownst to either Ayato or Haise, they had indeed been picked out amongst the crowds of tourists by several figures who had been keeping track of the half-ghoul, ever since he first stepped foot into their territory within the heavily wooded area. Once word had gotten around amongst the dominant ghouls of the forest village that the rumored alucard of the "Black Reaper" had entered into their home turf, every undercover gang member within Shinrin-Yoku was advised to await further instruction from the leader of the territory.
