June 22, 7:30am

It had been a week since Cochlea had been attacked by Aogiri and Toshio's brother, Isao, had been admitted to hospital. One week since Emily had found out Kaneki Ken had overpowered his captors and fought with Ayato, possibly killing him. Over the past six days she had been trying everything she could to track down Tsukiyama Shuu in hopes that he would know where Kaneki was. She'd gone to Uta, Itori and even Nishiki for help. No one had gotten back to her with information and she felt as though she was never going to find the answer she was looking for. The only time she wasn't thinking about Ayato was when she was with Isao. He'd been in and out of surgery but he was slowly getting his strength back. He had bad days though, days where he didn't want to see anyone. The doctor said those were normal considering the stress he'd been through.

There'd still been no word on Akihiro or Mr. Hamada but no bodies had been found which gave Toshio and his mother hope that they were still alive. The CCG worked quickly with the clean up and after four days, people were going back to work. There were also teams out searching for the missing Ghouls so that meant, along with the Investigators hanging around the 20th Ward already, things were getting heavy. Emily was rarely ever home between school, work, being at the hospital and annoying Uta and Renji but being out as much as she was was also dangerous for her.

She'd just gotten to her school when she was stopped by two Investigators. The elder looked to be in his mid to late 30s with a bulky build and a rather large nose and wide chin. He smiled down at her and appeared to be a genuinely nice guy. The other was substantially younger, looking to be around his teens or early 20s with snow white hair, large eerie eyes and stitches on his skin. He was cute in a kind of creepy way.

"Morning young miss." the elder greeted her, "My name is Shinohara Yukinori and this is my partner Suzuya Juuzou."

"Um...good morning." she replied sheepishly although inside she was a raging mess of worry and fear. Shinohara smiled easily again,

"I'm really sorry to be bothering you while you're at school but..." he said and then rubbed the back of his head chuckling lightly, "We're a little lost."

Emily's eyes widened at him. Lost? Investigators don't get lost. "Where are you trying to go Shinohara-san?" she asked shifting her bag to her other shoulder and returning his smile. Shinohara opened his mouth to reply but before any sound could come out his partner, Suzuya, had produced what looked like a flyer although it had been folded several times and the sides and corners were torn and tattered.

"We're going here." he said holding the flyer up and pointing to the building on it, "Can you tell us where it is?" Emily leaned forward to examine the picture. It was a building she'd seen many times; all brick and rundown looking. It was a few blocks from her house but she'd never seen any signs of activity at all from it. In fact, the building itself was pretty unremarkable.

"The old factory?" she asked peering up at Suzuya curiously for confirmation. He turned the paper back towards him and cocked his head to the side.

"Is that what it is?" he asked no one.

"Uh, yeah. Can you give us some directions at all?" Shinohara asked taking Suzuya's distraction as an opportunity to talk some more. Emily nodded and pointed down the street she'd just walked,

"You'll have to take the train to the 20th Ward unless you drove. Here, I'll draw you a map." she said pulling a page free from her work book and a pen out of her bag.

"Tell us your name and I'll make sure your teacher knows you were helping us so you don't get in trouble for being late to class." Shinohara told her as she drew a rough mud map.

"Ishihara Emily." she replied handing Suzuya the piece of paper and shoving her pen back into her bag.

"Thanks for your help, Emily-chan." Shinohara said turning back to the blue-black sedan parked nearby. Suzuya, however, didn't move. He gazed at Emily with large, blinking eyes. It made her feel a little uncomfortable so she shifted her weight.

"I've seen you before." he said pursing his lips thoughtfully as he leaned towards her, inspecting her face closely. Emily leaned back automatically and clutched her bag closer to her.

"Juuzou, let's go." Shinohara called trying to get the boy's attention. Suddenly his eyes lit up and a huge smile appeared on his face.

"Ah! I know! The train - you were on the train! I saw you! Ha ha!" he exclaimed joyfully, then just as quickly as his grin appeared, he pouted and pointed a slender finger at her, "You didn't wave back."

"Juuzou!" Shinohara yelled again this time successfully catching the boy's attention. Forgetting Emily, Suzuya skipped over to the passenger side of the car and climbed in. Emily caught a look of relief on Shinohara's face as he too got into the car. Did she just dodge some kind of bullet? Shrugging, she turned and started walking into the school grounds when a voice made her turn back.

"Emily-chan~!" Suzuya was leaning half his body out of the open window, a hand outstretched towards her, "See you next time!" He waved at her and Emily remembered to wave back this time. When she was staring at the car's tail lights she shook her head and continued into her school. Suzuya Juuzou was a weird kid. Cute, but weird, and probably someone Emily didn't want to get too familiar with.

12:30pm

"How's your brother doing?" Chloe asked as she, Emily and Toshio ate their lunch together. Toshio shrugged as he chewed a cherry tomato,

"He's doing okay. It's only been a week though." he replied once he'd finished. Chloe nodded,

"Still no word on your dad and older brother?" Toshio shook his head and stared down at the purchased salad not really seeing it. Emily glanced between her two friends; Chloe who had lost her father to Ghouls just one month ago was still dealing with the loss of him, and now Toshio was faced with that same reality only there had been no confirmation which meant there was still hope, making it crueler than actually knowing. She wished she could do more for them both but there really was nothing except being a shoulder to cry on. She wondered if Uta and Renji had felt like that when her own parents had died. Helpless.

Chloe reached for Toshio's hand, a sympathetic gesture that he returned with a smile. How sad - the three of them had lost parts of their family. They shared their pain with each other and yet Emily was the only still keeping secrets about the death of her father.

"By the way," Toshio said changing the subject, "What did those two Investigators want this morning?"

Emily blinked at him; how did he know about that? "They just wanted directions."

Toshio made a face of something akin to disbelief and surprise, "Shinohara-san lost? That's unusual."

"I thought so too - wait, you know them?" Emily asked him. Toshio nodded and separated his lettuce from the cheese, tomato, cucumber and chicken,

"Yeah, I met them at the main office a few times. Shinohara was good friends with my dad and Juuzou is...well he's pretty well known around there."

"They seem nice." Emily replied and though it was true, she was still unsure about Suzuya. Toshio leaned back on his hands and gazed skyward, "They are. Juuzou gets a bit...difficult sometimes, but he's usually pretty cheerful. And Shinohara-san is a good man. I just don't get why those two were looking for directions."

Emily shrugged and finished her juice box, "Who knows." she replied although in the back of her mind she had doubts on how truthful they had actually been. She also had thought it strange that Investigators would need directions to an old factory that hadn't been used for anything in years and had chosen to ask teenagers, but she'd figured they were just desperate. But now Toshio had also voiced how odd it is, perhaps they'd been there for a whole other reason. Almost as if it were fate, Emily glanced up to see Touka walking across the grounds with her friend in tow. Were they really here for her?

5:55pm

"Don't you have somewhere better to be?"

Emily turned at his voice and smiled. Isao groaned as he struggled to sit up properly, Emily moved to help him right away but he gently shrugged her off, "Thanks, but I gotta work to get my strength back."

"I see now where Toshi gets his stubbornness." she commented pouring him a glass of water and handing it to him.

"Runs in the family." Isao replied with a wink and took the offered glass. He sipped gingerly, water spilled from the corner of his mouth and trickled down to his chin. He wiped at it with a bandaged hand, "Really though, you don't have to keep me company when you could be out doing teenage things."

"Teenage things?" Emily laughed, "What would they be?"

"Well I think my version of teenage things differs from yours." he replied also laughing. Emily took his hand, "I really don't mind though." she said seriously, "You need someone here every now and then and since your mother went back to work and Toshi has exams, that falls to me. How's your eye?"

Isao absently ran a finger over his bandaged eye, "I don't know. It feels fine to me but the Doc says I have to keep this on for a while just in case they missed something. I can't remember what he said, it was some kind of medical mumbo jumbo."

"It's probably for the best. Dr. Kanou knows what he's doing." Emily replied as a nurse walked in with a tray of food. She set it down in front of Isao,

"Dinner time." she said cheerily, "Today we have salmon and rice." Isao looked at the food like it was visually offensive to him and worked hard not to screw up his face,

"Um, I'm not really hungry right now." he said forcing a smile to the nurse. She just smiled back,

"Hamada-kun, you said that this morning at breakfast and at lunch. You should eat something." she told him in that mother-tone all nurses get when dealing with difficult patients, "If you don't want this, we can prepare you something else."

"No, no." Isao said giving up, "It's fine." He let Emily's hand go and reached for the utensils provided, gingerly digging into the pink fish and taking a small bite. Emily watched him; watched the way he hesitantly took the smallest piece of fish, subtly grimaced before putting it in his mouth and the look of absolute disgust that flashed on his features before he quickly recovered as he chewed.

"Is it to your liking?" the nurse asked him also catching his brief expression. Isao passed the chop sticks to Emily,

"Can you try the fish for me?" he asked. She took the metallic sticks and did as he asked. It was cooked perfectly and melted in her mouth. Who said hospital food was trash?

"It's perfect." she replied earning a disappointed look from Isao, almost like he was hoping she would say it tasted terrible.

"Must just be me then." he muttered, "Um, I think the medication is messing with my sense of taste."

"That's not uncommon, Hamada-kun. Tell you what, I'll keep this for later and you just tell me when you're hungry, okay?" she said picking up the tray.

"Thank you." he replied gratefully. The nurse nodded once more before she left. Isao closed his eye and leaned into his pillows while Emily watched him like a hawk. She knew that there were certain medications that affected someone's taste and that with the amount of painkillers and antibiotics Isao was on, it wasn't unlikely that he'd been prescribed some of those medicines. But it could also mean one other thing...

"Hey, Emily?" Isao asked without opening his eye, "Did that fish really taste good?"

"Yeah, it did." she replied honestly.

"Huh..." he hummed thoughtfully but didn't say anymore. Emily wasn't sure whether she should question him or not, but she figured that he was probably just as wary as she was.

"What did it taste like to you?" she asked him. Isao opened his eye again and stared at the ceiling,

"Sweaty gym socks and wet dog." he replied stoically. Emily forced a small chuckle and arched an eyebrow at him,

"Eaten a lot of sweaty gym socks, have you?" she asked bending to pick up her bag. Isao half smiled, his dark eye sliding to her face,

"Didn't you know? Protein of the Gods." he replied sounding like normal. Emily smiled at him again and squeezed his shoulder one more time before crossing the room to the door, but as her hand clasped the handle she paused. She was sure she was just being paranoid but what harm could one suggestion do;

"Try drinking coffee." she told Isao before sliding open the door, "See you later." As she walked through the near empty hallways, her heart pounded loudly in her chest. Like sweaty gym socks and wet dog. Isao could have just been acting overly dramatic or being a smart ass like normal, but the way he said it had seemed so honest. Like he didn't want to believe it either. But what he'd said, that kind of description sounded exactly like one someone else had said...

...Something a Ghoul had said...

Emily ran into something that made her fall backwards onto the ground. Rubbing her head she looked up to apologize only to be beaten to it by a grey haired old man with kind eyes,

"Oh, I'm terribly sorry, young miss." he said holding his hand out to help her up. Emily took it and he pulled her to her feet.

"It's my fault. I wasn't paying attention to where I was going." she replied smoothing her uniform, "Um, Dr. Kanou can I ask you a question?"

"Of course you can." he replied with a kind smile.

"It's about Hamada Isao's medication. Is it possible that he's on medication that warps his sense of taste at all?" she asked. The doctor held his finger to his chin and thought for a moment,

"It's entirely possible. Why, has he had problems eating?" he asked her. Emily shook her head,

"I was just curious, that's all." she lied. Saying goodbye to Isao's doctor and the head of the hospital, Emily quickly made her way home where someone was waiting for her.

Uta, dressed in tight grey jeans with rips on the knees and chains on the side, a sleeveless pinstriped shirt and his usual black sweater wrap, was leaning against the wall next to her door. He looked up at her over the top of his sunglasses when he heard her approaching.

"Where have you been?" he asked slightly annoyed, "I've been calling you all afternoon." Emily slid her key into her door and turned it, the tumblers clicked into place and in half a second, she was opening her door.

"Sorry, I've had my phone turned off. I was at the hospital." she told him apologetically, flipping on the light switch and taking her shoes off. Uta followed her in, sliding his sunglasses up onto the top of his head and sliding off his own sandals. Emily tossed her bag on the couch and dug her phone out of her pocket. Leaning against the arm of the couch she waited for it to turn on while Uta flopped down in the armchair, swinging his legs over the side casually. Sure enough near fifty missed calls from Uta and over a dozen text messages demanding where she was and to answer her phone.

"I take it whatever you had to tell me was important." she stated holding up her phone for him to check. He nodded,

"Is important." he corrected, "Itori got a lead on the Gourmet. We know where he is." Emily almost dropped her phone from the shock of this new information. Itori had found Tsukiyama.

"Where?" she asked getting to her feet. Uta sat up with his legs still over the arm of the chair, the shoulder of his wrap fell down to his elbow,

"I'll take you there."

8:45pm

Uta and Emily arrived at the supposed place where Tsukiyama was holed up. She knew from both Renji and Uta that he'd left with Kaneki after the Aogiri incident, but Itori's informant had said that though he was with Kaneki, he wasn't always there. It seemed as though he wasn't quite as accepted as the others that joined Kaneki. Emily didn't blame him; after all, Tsukiyama had tried to kill and eat him twice.

"This is it?" she asked Uta while gazing up at the old complex. Uta nodded and pointed to the top floor,

"He's in the loft." he replied as a light flicked on, "Look, someone's home." Emily walked into the building with Uta trailing behind. The two took the elevator all the way to the top floor and soon they found themselves at the only door available. Taking a deep breath Emily knocked once, twice, three times.

A tense few seconds passed and Emily thought that perhaps whoever was home had orders not to open the door. But just as she was about to tell Uta that they should just leave, the door opened and Emily was faced with bright purple and pink striped suit and tie.

"My, my, what unexpected visitors." Tsukiyama commented as he regarded Emily and Uta, "Can I help you?"

"Where's Kaneki?" Emily asked immediately. Tsukiyama arched an eyebrow and crossed his arms,

"You get right to the point, don't you Emily-chan?" he said before leaning down and inhaling deeply, "You smell absolutely delectable tonight...Positively mouth-watering." Emily glared at him, something she never would have done if Uta hadn't been by her side,

"Answer the question, Tsukiyama. It's important." she demanded harshly. He smiled slyly at her,

"I'll tell you if you let me have a taste of your flesh. I've been saving myself for when I devour Kaneki-kun, but you've always intrigued me, Emily-chan. I believe your taste would be bordering on divine. So, what do you say? Just a cheek, or maybe a kidney..."

"You're not eating any part of her." Uta stated flatly earning a sharp look from Tsukiyama. The two men stared at each other for a while until Tsukiyama gave up and gestured to nothing,

"Well then I guess you won't find out where Kaneki-kun is. Au revoir." with that, he closed the door in their faces. Emily stared at it. She knew where Kaneki was living, but she had no idea when he would be there or what he was doing. She couldn't just visit every day in hopes he'd be there, someone would end up killing her and it would probably be the Gourmet. What could she do?

"We'll figure something else out, Em. Let's go." Uta said taking her elbow and leading her away from the door. Damn it. Damn it, damn it! She'd been so close to finding Kaneki and just like that her chance had been taken away from her. Why couldn't things just go to plan for once?

The air was cool back outside the building, but Emily didn't feel it. She was too busy trying to plan the next step that she didn't notice the shadowy figures approaching until they were right in front of her. She looked up at the boy in black with hair as white as snow. He looked vaguely familiar yet different somehow.

"Uta-san," he said in a soft voice, his gaze shifted to Emily, "How did you find this place?"

"I had Itori look into it." Uta replied sounding uninterested with the whole conversation. The boy lowered his gaze as though he'd already known Uta's answer,

"Ah." he said simply before looking up and smiling at Emily, "It's nice to see you again, Emily-chan." Emily froze finally understanding who this boy was in front of her. They'd told her he'd changed, that awful things had happened to him while he was at Aogiri, but she hadn't imagined a change so drastic. She could barely even recognize him now. Kaneki Ken stepped around the two and continued leading his group back towards the building. This was it, this was her chance and she wasn't going to get another one.

"Kaneki!" Emily cried as he walked away from her. She had been waiting for this moment for a week. Waiting to confront him and destroy the secret that only she and three others knew, and the answer she was seeking was walking away from her.

He stopped but didn't turn around, signalling to the others to keep going. That was good enough for her, at least he was taking her seriously. "Please..." she said trying to find the voice that had abandoned her the moment she realized who he was.

"I'm not going back to Anteiku." he told her seriously, "There's things I need to do."

"I don't care about that!" she yelled getting frustrated with herself for being unable to just ask him one question. Kaneki faced her, surprised at her outburst and that she wasn't actually there to try and talk him into going back to Anteiku. Why was this one question so hard for her to ask? Was she really that afraid of the answer?

"Then why are you here?" he asked stoically. Renji was right; he had changed and it wasn't just his appearance. She stared at him trying to see the shy boy with the awkward smile who'd almost run into her at the cafe a few months ago, the boy who asked her questions about living in two worlds...Where had he gone? What did this snow-haired creature done with him. She took a deep breath and tried again;

"I want to know..." she began but the words became stuck in her throat. This time Kaneki was patient and waited for her to find the words she wanted to say. She swallowed and closed her eyes hoping that not looking at him would let her say what she needed to.

"Nishio-san said you fought with him...Please," she said as she felt the hot tears sting her eyes, "Please tell me what happened to Ayato?"

"Ayato?" Kaneki asked in surprise, "How do you know Ayato?"

"Just answer the question!" She begged looking up at him again, unruly tears cascaded down her cheeks. Kaneki's features softened and he resembled the boy he'd once been. He closed the distance between them, obviously understanding that this was very serious to Emily. He rested a hand on her shoulder,

"We fought but I didn't kill him." he told her gently, "He's still alive." Emily didn't believe him at first, all she'd heard was we fought, I killed him, and it took her a moment to register what he'd just told her. Emily choked out a sob and covered her mouth with her hand. Ayato was alive! He was alive! She dropped to her knees overcome with so much emotion she couldn't stand. Kaneki crouched before her,

"Emily? Are you okay?" he asked. Emily flung her arms around him unable to contain the joy she felt,

"He's alive..." she cried clutching his black shirt tightly and burying her face in his shoulder, "Thank you...Thank you..."

June 25, 4:23pm

Emily skipped down the hospital hallway joyfully. She'd felt like she was floating on air for the past three days, like sunlight was beginning to glow in her grey world once again. Ayato was alive, he was hurt but alive! And that meant that he hadn't taken part in the Cochlea attack so there was no way he could have killed anyone she knew. It was selfish but that made her happy. Right now she didn't have to face that choice that had been dangling over her head since the day her parents adopted her. She could put of choosing a side until another day.

Mrs. Hamada was just leaving when Emily reached Isao's room.

"Oh, Emily-chan...You seem brighter than usual, did you get good test results?" she asked curiously. Emily nodded; it wasn't a total lie. She'd scored a 94% on her biology exam, the second highest score in her class. But good exam results weren't the reason for her mood, however telling anyone the real reason would be suicide.

"Congratulations." Mrs. Hamada said earnestly, "Actually, I'm glad you're here. I've just been called into work, apparently there's a new kid Marude wants me to check into, so I was hoping you could just sit in with Isao until I get back."

"I'm not a baby, you know." Isao called from his bed inside. Mrs. Hamada faced her son, "You'll always be my baby, now shut up and do as I say." she told him sternly. Isao muttered something Emily couldn't make out.

"Of course I will." she told the older woman, she was there to visit Isao anyway. And to check to see if her theory was wrong.

"Excellent. I should only be gone and hour or so." she said before waving goodbye to her son and leaving. Emily dropped her bag beside the door and wandered over the chair beside Isao's bed.

"So what's this test you did well on, then?" he asked curiously.

"Just a biology exam." she replied, "A few more years and hopefully I'll be good enough to go to medical school." Isao hummed thoughtfully,

"That's right, you want to be a doctor." he said, "I suppose you'd be able to fix my brother up when he gets his ass beaten." Although he was trying to be light-hearted, there was something wrong with Isao. Almost like he'd given up on something. His joking was empty and the laughter in his eye was all but diminished. Emily made a vague comment in agreement and then the room fell silent. It hung heavy between then like humidity after a cyclone. Hot, heavy and sticky. It was uncomfortable, but Emily didn't want to be the one to ask.

Finally, Isao broke the silence after almost half an hour of unbearable torture, "Can I ask you something? I want you to be as honest as you can be."

"Of course." Emily replied too quickly, although she knew whatever his question might be there was no way she could answer it one hundred percent honestly.

"How did you know about the coffee?" he asked her straight up. Emily looked away, anywhere but Isao's face. She didn't want him to see the absolute desolation she felt. Her happiness had just been shattered, burned to ashes and then obliterated.

"It tasted really good. Actually it's the only thing I can stomach these days, so I was just wondering how you knew I'd be able to drink coffee." he clarified when she didn't answer, "Please tell me Emily."

"I can't." she sighed softly. Isao reached for her hand,

"Please, Emily. I'm begging you..." he pleaded so pitifully it physically hurt her to hear it. She looked up at him, he looked scared and lost like all his hope lay with her next words, hope she was about to crush.

She swallowed, "Ghouls..." she whispered, "They can't eat normal food. Their taste buds are wrong for it so it's repulsive to them which is why they eat human flesh to survive. It's the only thing they can eat."

She paused.

"That and..." taking another breath she destroyed Isao completely, "...And coffee."

He closed his eye and inhaled, the breath he exhaled was shaky and broken as if he were holding back tears. Emily imagined he would be. He'd spent years training to eradicate Ghouls, he'd made it to Rank 1 three months after Akihiro and now he was facing the possibility that somehow he'd become the thing he'd been hunting.

"It could still just be the medication though." Emily said quickly trying to stay optimistic. Isao opened his eye but didn't look at her, he knew she was clutching at straws for his sake.

"There's only one way to be sure." he said sitting up properly and reaching up to unwrap the bandage that was around half of his head. Emily's dread became heavier as each layer of white cloth was removed; how in the world was this kind of this possible? Was Aogiri trying to create half-breeds like Kaneki and if they were, why? What purpose to test-tube Ghouls serve in the scheme of things?

Emily thought back to her meeting with Kaneki a few days ago. He had changed drastically both physically and mentally. He'd managed to escape Yamori and beat Ayato in a fight. Now he was taking on both the CCG and Aogiri. Were half-breeds stronger than full blooded Ghouls? Was that why Aogiri were creating them?

The last few bandages fell away from Isao's handsome face, he'd closed his eyes again as if he didn't want to know the answer either. But as soon as he dropped his hands he opened them again. Emily stared into his eyes, both the colour of burnt wood. She sighed a sigh of relief and let her shoulders drop,

"Thank god..." she whispered standing up and moving to hug Isao. But as she leaned down, he blinked and just like that she froze. A single kakugan gazed back at her. She stepped back without thinking, the action only serving to make Isao feel worse.

"So it is true then? I'm a monster." he whispered covering his right eye with his hand. This was it. Emily could no longer shy away from the truth, Isao needed her help. He was like Kaneki, a one-eyed Ghoul. His days at the CCG were over.

Emily walked over the window and thought about how she was going to word what she needed to tell him.

"You asked before how I knew that you'd be able to drink coffee," she said gazing down at the cars and people going past, "I didn't answer you. What I'm about to tell you is something very few people know, something Toshio doesn't know and I'd appreciate it if you would keep it quiet. In exchange, I'll do everything in my power to help you adjust to this new stage in your life."

"What are you talking about?" Isao asked, "What secret are you keeping from Toshi?"

"The secret I can never tell him." she replied, "My father, Ishihara Ryota, was a Ghoul."

5:10pm

"You can't be serious?" Isao said in disbelief, "I knew you were adopted but...a Ghoul? Your father was a Ghoul?"

Emily faced Isao again and smiled helplessly, "Yep. But he wasn't like how you picture them. I'm sure in your time you've ran into some less than nice Ghouls, Ghouls who love eating humans, right? My dad...he would never kill another living soul even if it meant his own life. I know what you're thinking, how could a Ghoul survive without killing, right?"

"Well, yeah actually."

"He fed on people already dead." she replied simply, "Not all Ghouls are evil, not all enjoy killing humans. In fact some of them don't, but the starvation is enough to drive you insane. It's literally hell. I've seen it before."

"How?" Isao asked taking everything Emily was telling him strangely well.

"My parents ran a kind of safe house for Ghouls. They took care of the injured and the weak." she told him, "I kind of inherited it when they died..."

"Wait, so all this time you've been living with Ghouls? You realize you're dating a guy who's entire family is dedicated to killing them by any means necessary, right?" Isao said astounded that this kind of thing had been happening.

"That's kinda why it's been a secret." Emily replied, "You should know what would happen to me if the CCG found out about it."

"They'd kill you." he said instantly and then frowned, "Jeez, I'm already saying they." Emily walked back over to him and poured him a cup of water,

"You're not alone, you know. There's another one like you, he was once human too and we helped him." she said gently. Isao took the cup and drank its contents in three gulps.

"We?"

"Yeah. There's probably already speculation about this going around the CCG, but there's an organization in the 20th that mediates the goings on. Don't worry, they're nothing like Aogiri." she said, "When you're discharged I'll take you to them. They'll help you out more than I can. And if you want, I can try and set up a meeting with you and the other one."

"You said he was human too?" he asked staring into the empty cup in his lap. Emily nodded,

"You know about the accident a few months involving those two kids?"

"The beam thing?" he asked curiously. Emily nodded again,

"The boy injured in the accident and the other one-eyed Ghoul are the same person." she replied. Isao's eyebrows shot up curiously,

"I think I'd like to meet him." he said sheepishly. Emily squeezed his forearm gently, still amazed at how well he was taking the whole thing. Perhaps he'd known all along and had been convincing himself that it was true and that was why he wasn't freaking out?

"Listen, I have to go make a call. Will you be alright for a moment?" she asked him.

"Yeah, it's not like I can go anywhere." he grinned looking and sounding like the old Isao again.

"Alright, I'll be back in a sec." she said and left Isao to his thoughts. It was just starting to get dark outside, an ambulance was rolling out of the driveway ready to go on rounds throughout the city, patents being discharged were waiting for their family, friends or a taxi to take them home. One old woman was smoking a cigarette and ignoring the nurse telling her she had to be a certain distance from the doors to be able to do it. Emily decided to move to a more secluded space where she could talk without people over hearing her conversation. She found a little unused corner off the main road that led into a narrow street. The street light flickered on and instantly thousands of bug were flying into the light.

Emily switched her phone back on and waited for it to load, then she dialed one of the three numbers unnamed in her phone. It rang through once. She dialed again and waited. The line picked up on the fourth ring,

"Re-" Emily was cut off by a strong, calloused cold hand covering her mouth. She tried to scream and flail as more hands grabbed at her roughly but it was useless. The hands started dragging her away. A strong chemical smell seeped from the hand around her mouth and she felt herself become substantially heavier and tired. The hand disappeared from her mouth as a black thing dropped around her head, blinding her to the world, and the phone she'd been clutching tightly onto was flung out of her hand in the commotion. With darkness being all she could see, she was powerless to fight against the sleep.

Plot Twist.

Reading all of your reviews makes my day 1000x better. Thank you.