'Maybe I'm on to something here, after all…'

After having a gang thug question her about Nagachika, and subtly asking the likeliness of the boy being alive, hidden somewhere, Mado Akira found herself wondering, could the blonde actually be alive? They never did find his body. And just why would a yakuza be interested in him?

Those thoughts left her restless an entire day, distracting her from her work, so come evening, having it free, she had no choice but to put these niggling questions to rest, by doing what she did best-investigating.

Going on a hunch, she researched the background of the young man.

'His family history was quite the surprise… and I never even suspected that he was related to…'

There were a number of revelations in his family background, both the close relations and the extended ones, as well as a surprise that was hinted only, which she had to dig deep and use her authority with excuse involving ghouls to get to some of the files.

But, while enlightening, her instinct told her it was hardly relevant.

So she followed her gut feeling and focused on an older cousin, which, as she learned from contacting Tokyo police, apparently was recently released from prison, after being convicted for robbery.

The money was not found, though some of his suspected accomplices were, usually dead.

Apparently he angered quite a few criminals just before his incarceration.

'So we have a motive for the interest from criminals, but is that all there is to it? Asking about relatives of his, or is there more to it?'

Her instincts, the Mado Instincts, which served her father so well, told her there was.

Her investigation has just began.

"And they said nothing else?"

"No, Yomo-san. Maybe this is for the best?"

He didn't show it in any obvious way, but Touka knew that Yomo was angry. She wondered if he wanted to come and kill Hide's thug of a cousin, himself now.

"I think, that if that man leaves, it will strengthen our cover –after all if he spend days there without realizing what Kaneki is, it might make the neighbors, and any investigator who might be nearby, less suspicious.

"The neighbors are likely to be MORE suspicious." He countered in short statement.

"But not of ghouls, not for the right reasons. And should he try something, or something go wrong, ghouls will be a surprise nobody will expect, with the obvious criminal presence."

After some moments of silent consideration, the older ghoul finally relented. "You better be right."

'I hope I am', Touka thought , I hope that man is not knowledgeable about ghouls and as smart as he looks, but that would be more luck then I usually have.'

"Here with us again is the ghoul expert Ogura Hisashi-"

"ugh… what nonsense" Thug-san (Gakudera-san) called disgust, changing the channel from that show, much to the relief of Kaneki.

After surfing the channels some more, Thug-san threw the remote in disgust, and irritated Kaneki made sure to look where the batteries fell from it, lest the roll under furniture and become lost.

He knew the remote itself won't break-this was not the first time Gakudera-san threw it. And that he will be the one picking up and reassembling it later.

"Yo, Kankari!"

"-its Kaneki, Gakudera-san."

"I don't care, I want you to go and buy more beer, you're running out of it."

Kaneki chose not to pint that it was because Gakudera-san was drinking all of it.

"And while you at it, buy some DVD's."

"We don't even have a device to play them on." The half ghoul pointed out.

"We do now, one of the guys in the house across got, and he be volunteering his, he just don't knows it yet."

'Calm down, kaneki, calm down, dicing him to mince-meat won't help.'

"And what DVD's should I buy?"

"The mature ones, what kind-im talkin about porn, you idiot! I'm surprised you don't got any here. What are you, eunuch?"

Kaneki was known as a ruthless Ghoul, and had known quite the few gruesome deaths, causing no small number of them (for other ghouls), but he still found himself blushing at the idea.

"G-gakudera-san, are you sure this is wise, we have limited funds, an-"

"I'll be deciding what's wise here! Now go and buy, unless you rather bend over yourself." The man sneered, and took another gulp of his beer, not breaking eye contact.

Fulfilling that request was harder then he thought. The beer was bought with little problem, but it was extremely awkward to even enter the shop , not to mention his stammer as he tried to find words to ask for adult DVD, with surprising level of difficulty. He was much more erudite usually.

That the near clerk he was talking to was a woman browsing only made the problem bigger. She eavesdropped at the conversation, and kept pausing her browsing, throwing strange glances at him.

He also thought he smelled ghoul on her. It was too mortifying to stay ay moment more than he had too, so he wasn't too sure.

When he returned later, with groceries for the two humans, beer and the DVD's, Gakudera-san was in a bad mood, though seemed to perk at the arrival of the 'supplies'. The man did have a dvd player with him, already hooked, and spent the rest of the day watching the movies ken brought with him, its sound loud and distracting to the ghoul. The indecent cries kept his imagination kept him from sleeping-it was after midnight that the man paused his marathon of debauched films.

And even after finally getting some quiet, his sleep was restless and full of nightmares.

What awoke him, was a loud noise, arguing.

His sleepy mind identified the voice of his Hide quickly, but took too long to identify the other, and by the time he was finished his hurried

Dressing and went to help his dear one, it was over.

Hide was looking worse for wear, with a 'shiner' under his left eye.

"Did he do that? I'll kill him! Ill feed him his own putrid guts! I'll-"

"Do nothing!" Hideyoshi angrily whispered. "Now is not the time for you heroic, as appreciative as a princess I am of them. It's almost over, and he shouldn't trouble us again. Bear it just a bit longer, please"

"What do you mean?" he angrily whispered back.

"He is losing his patience. Tomorrow I will find what he has been looking for."

Author Notes: finally some more progress. Akira is on the quest to fetch the rabbit like co-worker, team member and possibly friend, Kaneki sent to fetch 'supplies', and Hide is about to fetch the mysterious item his cousin impatiently wants.