March 20th, 11:17am

The cafe was buzzing with conversation that particular morning when Emily arrived. Everyone all seemed to be talking about the same thing - the rise in recent deaths. It seemed as though a Ghoul was going on a spree. However, although the comments of concern from both races was high, it was for two different reasons.

"Welcome~" the young girl's voice called brightly, "Oh, hey Emily."

"Hey." Emily greeted the girl with indigo hair and tried to hide how much it hurt to see her face, "Is he here?"

"Upstairs, go on through." Kirishima Touka directed her. Emily thanked her and pushed open the door to the back room. It smelled delicious, roasted coffee beans filled the air and instantly made Emily feel good. She had been going to Anteiku once a week for a year as part of a deal with Uta and Renji. In return for neither of them turning up at her house every day to make sure she was alive after the Goro incident had leaked, she agreed to check up with Yoshimura. In a way, despite still operating by herself, she now reported to Anteiku.

He was waiting for her in the meeting room, two steaming cups of coffee were placed on the table; one in front of him and the other where she was to sit.

"Business seems to be good these days." she said closing the door and walking over to the couch, "Even have some human customers, I see."

"We are doing quite well here." Yoshimura chuckled, "Although I fear that with this problematic woman, that might change."

"The Binge Eater? You know who it is, don't you?" Emily asked as she gazed into the warm liquid brown inside her teacup.

"Kamishiro Rize. She turned up here around the same time." he told her as he sipped from his own cup, "But you're not here to discuss how well Anteiku is doing and recent murders. How are you, Emily-chan?"

"I'm fine. School is normal, my grades a good. Toshio is preparing to join the Academy next year so he's been busy with studying and working out, which is odd for someone like him. He doesn't really put a lot of effort into it but Akihiro told him it'd be a good idea to get a head start anyway." Emily replied easily. Yoshimura hummed thoughtfully,

"Doesn't he have a year of high school left?"

"Oh I didn't tell you? His father got him to take the aptitude test early, apparently he's classed as a genius so they're enrolling him a year early." Emily replied with a shrug, although she was worried that despite his lack of interest in Ghouls as a whole, Toshio would be compelled to do his best. She feared that one day he may even work under him...The CCG'S Reaper.

"Hamada Toshio, the youngest son of Hamada Masanori...I suppose we'll have to keep an eye on him just like the rest of his family." Yoshimura sighed and rubbed his chin in the thoughtful manner.

"I guess, but Toshi isn't really as zealous as his family. If anything, he'll probably just coast through the two years at the Academy and get a desk job. That's how he's talking anyway." Emily replied although the thought of Toshio turning out like his father scared her. Masanori was an excellent First-Class Investigator assigned to the 23rd Ward - Cochlea, a Ghoul prison, along with his two sons Akihiro and Isao both Rank 1 Investigators. Though why Investigators were stationed there, Emily had no clue.

"And what of your recent house guest? Has she behaved herself?" Yoshimura asked steering the conversation away from possible disastrous futures.

"Chou? Oh she's been fine. But I suppose that's expected of someone as young as her. She still hasn't spoken a word yet and she cries at night though." Emily replied, "What are you planning on doing with her?"

"I'm still trying to find somewhere she can live but that's getting rather difficult these days..." the old man said looking as though he was staring at something far away. Emily got the feeling he knew something was coming, something bad.

"Well she's fine to stay with me. It's not like I get many visitors anymore." Emily replied finishing her coffee and standing up, "I should go, Uta's probably terrifying her as we speak."

"Uta's looking after her?" he asked also standing and following Emily to the door. She nodded, "I don't feel right leaving her alone at home, and bringing her here was out of the question. I did try calling Renji but-"

"Ah yes, he's looking into something for me. Sorry about that." the old man interrupted apologetically. Emily shook her head, "Don't apologize, he's your employee. Uta was in the neighbourhood anyway. He's strangely good with kids." Yoshimura chuckled and the dark cloud that had been hanging over his head dissipated. Emily waved goodbye and descended back into the cafe where Touka was just finishing with a customer.

"Hey, can I talk to you for a second?" the older girl asked, pulling Emily aside quickly. Once they were alone, Touka's expression shifted to a cold glare, "I get that you're busy playing Florence Nightingale with us but I know about that guy you're dating. If that compromises our lives here in any way, I will kill him."

Emily held Touka's glare with impassive calmness of her own, "Touka-san, I have as much to fear from the CCG as you."

"Whatever." Touka snapped, "Just keep that in mind." Emily sighed as she watched Touka leave wondering how the rift between them had grown so large. They were friends once, when they were little. It had taken some time but Emily had once thought of her as a best friend. But then her dad stopped bringing her to Anteiku and her world shattered. That was in the past now, it would probably be best if she just forgot all about it. Putting on her invisible mask, Emily made for the shop front door again. As she reached for the handle, it was suddenly pushed open making Emily step back in surprise.

"Ah! Sorry!" before her stood a shy looking boy with dark hair carrying a book under his arm. Emily shook her head and stepped to the side, allowing him to pass by,

"Please don't worry about it." she said politely as the boy smiled awkwardly and touched the back of his head.

11.57am

"I'm home!" Emily called closing her door and taking off her shoes. Chou, the ten year old Ghoul who's father had been killed, looked up from the drawing she was doing, blinked twice and then continued what she was doing.

"Welcome home." Uta called from his stretched out position on the couch. Emily froze for a second, a memory of Ayato lying in the same position mumbling an unenthusiastic greeting to her flashed in her mind. Quickly, she mentally slapped herself and went to sit with Uta and Chou.

"Chou-chan, did you have fun while I was out?" she asked sweetly. Chou nodded and continued her drawing. Emily leaned over to see what the younger girl was working so hard on. She hadn't had much experience in interpreting children's artwork however she assumed it was a drawing of Chou and her parents. She pointed to two tree like figures to the side. "What are these?"

Chou stopped colouring and pointed to Uta on the couch and then to up at Emily. Emily's eyes widened in surprise; Chou had drawn she and Uta on the drawing Chou's left. She watched with curiosity as the girl finished colouring and then began writing something at the bottom of the page where she'd left bare.

"My..." Emily began reading as the little girl wrote, "Family?" Chou had been with her for several weeks now after Uta had found her crying outside his shop one morning and had brought her to Emily. He'd occasionally drop by whenever he was around and the girl seemed to have taken quite the liking to him. Still it must have been hard for her to live without her parents that young...Just like Emily had.

"How did it go at Anteiku?" Uta asked her bringing her attention back to the present. Emily sat down on the armchair behind her,

"The same. Yoshimura asked how I was and how Chou is doing, we talked a little about the Binge Eater and Touka threatened me." Emily replied airily. Uta frowned and sat up, giving Emily his full attention,

"Why?"

"Toshio. She's worried I'm going to tell him about them and this place. I don't really blame her especially after what she went through." she replied with a shrug, "She's worked hard to get where she is now, if I were in her place I would be wary of me too."

"Hmm, I guess." Uta looked like he wanted to say more but remained silent on the subject. Instead their discussion turned to something a bit more relevant, "You mentioned you spoke about the Binge Eater, Yoshimura knows who it is then right?"

"Don't act like you don't either." Emily replied smirking at him, Uta smiled and stretched like a cat, "What are you planning, Onii-san?"

Uta stood up and moved over to Emily's chair, leaned down and poked her nose gently, "Don't you worry, little Emily." he told her before straightening and turning to Chou, "See you later, Chou-chan."

"Oh yeah," Uta said as he slipped on his shoes by the door, "Itori wants you to visit her."

"Is it about that?" Emily asked hopefully. Uta shrugged, "I dunno. But don't go without me, okay?"

"Isn't Helter Skelter your second home anyway?" Emily teased playfully. Uta laughed quietly, "More or less. See you."

Once he was gone, Emily leaned forward on her knees and allowed herself a small moment to feel again. She'd been trying to keep a firm grasp on her reality but it was obvious that her world was spiraling out of her control again. Her two lives were on the verge of crashing together in the most worst way possible. She'd always known that one day she would have to chose between her human life and her life with Ghouls, but she had hoped that it would take longer. She had kept secrets from Yoshimura involving Toshio and his ability to be a great and dangerous Investigator even if he didn't take it seriously now, the possibility of him killing someone she knew and loved in the near future was too real. What would she do if one day she'd discovered her boyfriend had killed one of her friends, or worse Uta or Renji? And that was only the beginning of her problems. There was talk, a rumour floating around the CCG of a Ghoul organization whose sole purpose was to kill humans, mainly the CCG. If that rumour was true and there was a group of Ghoul's targeting members of the CCG it would be terrible for both sides. And if such a thing was true, there was a strong possibility that he would be part of it.

Tugging on her sleeve made Emily look up, Chou was gazing at her worriedly. Emily put on her brightest fake smile for the girl and pointed to her drawing, "Do you want to put that on the fridge?" Holding her hand to her mouth, Chou nodded and half turned to retrieve her artwork. That was the last time Emily let herself think about how dark the future could turn out, she had a responsibility to this little girl and helping her live again.

3.35am

Screaming jolted Emily from her sleep and she was on her feet and running towards it before she was fully awake. Nudging the ajar door open with her shoulder, she snapped on the light and went to the young girl's bedside. Chou was sitting up in her bed crying, the blankets were tossed around carelessly. She'd had another nightmare.

"Chou-chan, it's okay, it was just a dream." Emily repeated the same words she'd been saying for weeks and pulled the girl into her arms, letting her cry until she inevitably got the hiccups. It reminded her of herself at that age, only instead of not talking, Emily chose not to feel.

"Hey, Chou-chan," she said softly as she smoothed the girl's messy dark hair, "I lost my father when I was your age too." She didn't know why she was talking about this now, but she didn't stop, "My mother had died a few years before in a car accident so it was just me and him. Then one day when he was out, he was killed by an Investigator. It was a silly thing too... If he hadn't of been there..."

Chou began her hiccup phase and was sniffling every few seconds, she could have been asleep for all Emily knew, but she kept on talking, "There was a construction team nearby, some scaffolding collapsed, crushing four people underneath. My dad was the first one to try and get them out. That amount of steel and metal is heavy, but he lifted it like it was nothing which caught the attention of an Investigator who happened to be passing by. They didn't even let him finish helping those poor people..."

Both girls were quiet for a while, each thinking about their own families taken away by others. Each letting their own sadness fill them again. Emily missed her father more than anything in the world - she didn't care about her real parents or whether she had any siblings, Ishihara Ryota and Olivia were her world. Now all she had was fuzzy memories, some clothes and old photos.

"A man..."

Emily looked down at the small girl curled up in her arms wondering if what she'd just heard was real. Chou lifted her head and looked up at Emily with her big blue eyes, "A man with a big case...He killed daddy." Tears welled in the girl's eyes again, Emily did the only thing she could and held her tightly. She hadn't been there when her own father was killed, but whatever this girl had seen, she was stronger and braver than Emily could ever hope to be.