Akira's chasing gains

AND another bonus bumper that I realized too late would have been much better:

Akira finds out how the sausage is made


It was only a day later that Touka complained to her about feeling cooped up.

"I know what you mean. I'm usually better about making time for exercise, but lately that's at the bottom of my list…" Akira rubbed at one arm, wondering how much strength she'd already lost. She couldn't afford to get any weaker—she needed to be at her physical peak to stand a chance against ghouls. And against investigators now, too, she reminded herself.

They were walking around the compound on a semi-official patrol, just to make sure none of the newer ghouls had any issues and no one was causing trouble.

They passed Banjo heading the opposite way and exchanged greetings.

"He doesn't seem to be missing any workouts," Touka said, practically seething with resentment.

"Him and Amon found an area to set up a little gym. It's actually the most pathetic gym I've ever seen." Akira had tried to spend some time there on her own while waiting for Shinohara to wake up, but found herself unable to focus.

Touka grabbed her by the shoulder. "You mean…there's a gym and no one told me? Show me, now."


In short order, they changed directions to wander by the the sad, dim, underground gym. It was really just an incomplete set of weights, a discarded bench press, and a large area of floor to do other exercises and sparring.

Touka nodded in satisfaction. "Let me change real quick, and let's meet back here in ten minutes."

Not a huge fan of suddenly changing plans, Akira sighed and went off to throw on her own workout clothes. By the time she got back, Touka was already waiting with a couple of other ghouls she'd rounded up along the way. Apparently, they weren't the only ones feeling cooped up.

Doing a circuit of exercises around the room turned out to be the exact kind of mindless activity she needed. The opportunity to spar with ghouls a little didn't hurt, either.

Having others around brought out her competitive side, too, and that helped keep her on track.

Akira was only human and couldn't really keep up with ghouls on an even playing field, often needing more frequent breaks and lower weights, but seeing up close and personal where the discrepancies were was invaluable data to Akira's mind.


Getting the motivation to start really exercising again was a struggle, but once she got back in the habit it became easier to drag herself to the "gym" over the next couple of days.

She was hanging upside down by her knees on some pipes running across the ceiling, eyes closed and arms dangling for a moment.

"What is this, some secret CCG training technique?"

Her eyes shot open. An upside-down Ayato was standing in front of her, hands shoved in pockets.

Akira rolled her eyes. "I got bored of doing normal crunches." Break over, she resumed her set of punishing upside-down crunches. "What…do…you…want?"

He was silent.

"Well?" She stopped her workout again and stared at Ayato, crossing her arms. Though it seemed like a less imperious gesture when she was dangling there, inverted. Groaning in annoyance, she reached up to grab the pipes and unhook her legs. Flipping around to land upright, she felt the blood rush out of her head.

"Come on, I haven't got all day."

Touka had flashes of irritability, but Ayato seemed to run on it. He glared at her from under his unkempt mop of hair. "The investigator you guys rescued. Why'd you pick him?"

She thought carefully about how to answer. "Because he was well-liked, and he was in a position where we thought there was a chance to help him. Why?"

"I know there's more than that. I keep asking everyone about him, and none of you will talk. Touka told me to leave it alone and gave me that look, like I'm a dumb little kid and this is adult business."

Well, there's a reason for that. "Just leave him alone."

"You're keeping something from me. I'm not stupid. I did well in Aogiri for a reason." He stared at her in that intense, wolfish way he shared with Touka. "I know what it means. You think I'll kill him if I know."

Yomo knew the truth, and he'd chosen to stay away. No one believed Ayato would display that level of maturity, though. They'd hoped they could get away with just not mentioning anything to him—it had worked well enough on other matters, after all.

"He was a special investigator," Akira said. She could give him the truth without the specifics. "Half the ghouls down here would probably try to kill him if they knew all the cases he's worked. You don't have to like what he did as an investigator, but you should at least respect him. Like it or not, it takes a lot of courage and skill for us to go up against ghouls. He was always in it because he wanted to protect his family. Surely you can understand that much."

The boy kept his eyes on his shoes. No response, but he at least appeared to be chewing on what she'd said. He turned around and walked away.

She shrugged and jumped up to grab the pipe again. She thought she might do some hanging windshield wipers if she was feeling masochistic. Which she was.


As often happened, Akira found that the physical exertion helped clear her mind. While she showered in their lackluster bathing facilities after that session, she ran through all the loose threads bothering her and played with ways to tie them up. After turning a couple of ideas in her head, she thought she had at least one good idea.

Later in the day she ran it by Kaneki and set off to get the wheels turning.


It took a bit of asking around to locate the room that Kurona had claimed.

She knocked on the sheet of drywall that was acting as a door. There was no answer, so she knocked again and after a pause, moved the drywall aside.

Her target was sitting on an old cot, glaring at Akira from behind the old Game Boy she'd been playing. "What."

"I was wondering—what are you still doing here? You helped with breaking into the CCG labs, but you've been holed up down here ever since."

She frowned. "I'm only still here because I haven't thought of what to do next. I'll clear out as soon as I have an idea. I'll probably have to pawn this relic for cash," she complained as the sounds of her game echoed through the small room. "It's the only piece of junk I've found around here that might be worth something."

"You don't have to. You can stay as long as you want."

Kurona shook her head, returning to her game. Eight-bit music filled the small chamber. "Nope. I thought maybe it'd be nice to be around people again but…it wasn't."

"You seemed to get along with Takizawa well enough." The two of them had at least stayed in the vicinity of each other before Takizawa had wandered off, even if they weren't exactly attached at the hip.

"I could barely stand him, actually. But at least he kind of understood." She sank into the bed. "No one really understands."

"What it's like to be an artificial ghoul? There's plenty of people around here who understand." Akira winced internally. She wanted to be comforting, and instead sounded dismissive.

"No," the girl snorted. "Being alone. I was never alone my whole life. I had a twin who went through everything with me and then one day I was alone. Worse than alone. I'm only half of myself without her, and she's…really gone, isn't she?"

Akira furrowed her brow. She'd had a bit of a lonely childhood, without siblings or close friends, and the depth of Kurona's loss didn't quite make sense to her.

"I'm sorry you went through that," she replied. It was her stock response in those sorts of situations, when people expected a type of empathy from her she didn't quite grasp.

She could still recognize soul-deep sorrow when she saw it, though. And it made her uncomfortable. She'd felt so thin-skinned lately, as if she was holding on by a thread and anything could set her off.

Akira missed, for a moment, the days when her emotions had felt much lower in the mix than they were now.

She wanted to return to the original reason she was there.

"Well, if you want to get out of here but you don't know what to do next, I might have an idea," Akira countered. "The human medic, she'll need to go back to Dr. Kano soon. She'll need a handler."

"No."

"If you are, you'll be in a position to take the first crack at the doctor when the time comes."

The young woman set her game down. "Tell me more."

"Kimi could be a direct line to getting ahold of the doctor's research, but she's so exposed on her own. If she can get back into Kano's inner circle, we can safeguard an important resource. I don't want to send her off unprotected, though."

"Why me, really? There's plenty of other ghouls around who you probably trust more."

The former investigator smiled. "You're a risky woman to put on this job. I think if you get the chance, you might kill the doctor too soon and tip our hand. But you have also spent the most time around him. If anyone's going to be able to tell when something's up and protect Kimi if she needs it, I think it's you."

And, Akira tacked on silently, I think people can rise to the occasion. Maybe a new goal will be good for you.

"How long?"

"I don't know. Kimi wants to get as much of Kano's knowledge as possible. It sounds like he guards his expertise carefully, so who knows when she'll get the chance to grab the data." She looked Kurona over. "I won't lie—it'll be boring. The job is just watch over Kimi from a safe distance, let her know if you think Kano is up to anything, and step in if things go downhill. But it's still an important role."

Kurona looked around at her sad little room, the old Game Boy she'd set aside on her worn out cot, and finally at Akira. She looked to be on the edge of agreeing, but not quite there yet.

The blonde added, hopefully, "If for some reason the situation goes wrong fast, you have full latitude to tear your way through his entire lab and everyone in it. Except Kimi, or anyone else who says they know me."

That put a glint in the artificial ghoul's eye. "Fine. I'll do it."

"Excellent choice." Akira resisted the impulse to gloat. "I think Kimi is at least going to stay for the festivities in a couple of days. Can you be ready to go after that?"

Shinohara was stable enough, even if he got winded trying to go farther than the distance from his room to the kitchen. If Kimi stayed away too long, they would lose their lead and Kano could completely disappear. But, at the same time, everyone was so hungry for something to look forward to. Akira knew she wouldn't convince anyone to miss the party.

Kurona looked around her empty room with a flat expression. "I don't know if I can get packed by then."


In the hallway outside, she heaved an exhale of relief.

She decided to take the long way back to the main sitting area. It was really just a large central area where people tended to congregate when they had nothing better to do.

She was tired in every muscle and mentally exhausted. Akira thought she'd earned a short break and a little change of scene—sitting in a big dilapidated underground room instead of a little one.

When she got there and went to look through the small stack of old books that had begun to pile up into a little community library, though, she passed a pair in deep conversation.

"—and here's the important part, you have to chill the meat and the grinder. Some bits of fat should be mixed in, too, or else it'll end up too lean. When you grind it all together, the fat will render out while you cook it, so the meat is juicy." Yoriko was sitting on a stack of cinderblocks, acting something out with a pantomime appliance.

Tsukiyama was enraptured. "Fascinating! And then what?"

"That's when I would add spices and maybe even emulsify it with some ice water in a food processor."

"How clever. And that's the farce, correct?

"It is. The next step is feeding it into the intestine casing—"

Akira gagged, loudly and involuntarily. "Ugh…why?"

The two turned to look at her.

Tsukiyama spoke first, with the appeasing air of someone who was sure he'd get his way. "Oh, just a little party planning business. I wanted to consult with her about what to provide for the human guests. Nothing nefarious, I assure you!"

"That makes sense. I don't understand why intestines were a part of the conversation." It took some iron willpower for Akira to calm her stomach at the thought.

"He asked what canapés I could whip up, and then we started on charcuterie boards, and then..." Yoriko looked over at Tsukiyama, beginning to see through the wolf in sheep's clothes act he'd pulled. "I don't know what happened…no one lets me go on about food this much." She shuddered, seeing how easily the charming ghoul had gotten her to relax her defenses.

"Keep your guard up, Yoriko. Especially around this one."

"Heaven forbid I try to have a civil conversation, what could possibly be wrong with that?"

She narrowed her eyes at Tsukiyama. He took a step back.

He was still a bit jumpy around her after the way she startled him on the night of the Rosé extermination. She didn't want to let that go to waste by getting chummy. "You lay a finger on her, and I'll turn you into a medium rare filet. Maybe served on a bed of greens. Red wine sauce on the side."

"But…surely that would be repulsive!"

"I'll hate every bite, but you would hate it more and that's all that matters to me."


The next day, she sat in a little alcove, sipping on a cup of coffee and reading a book she'd grabbed from the community book pile. Leaving behind her ebook reader had been an inconvenience, but most electronics were useless underground. Besides, there was something to be said about turning the pages of a physical book.

One strange thing about these long stretches underground was how time passed—if it wasn't for a rigid daily schedule, she'd lose all sense of when to sleep and when to wake. It was also a small luxury she cherished, when she'd been forced to give up most of her usual creature comforts in rough living conditions.

Her morning coffee was rapidly becoming the center of her day. It was nice to have a few moments alone to regroup and get her thoughts in order.

It was a bit of a surprise to see Take round the corner and make a beeline for the coffee area. He looked around, realizing he was alone save Akira.

"There's no ghouls around. You'll have to make your own coffee for once, you freeloader."

He looked at her. "I can make a decent cup of coffee, Mado. Those ghouls, though, they're just…impeccable."

"They've all had more practice than any of us ever will."

He got his coffee and sat a short distance away from her.

"Where is everyone?"

"Asleep, busy fixing a burst pipe a few tunnels over, out on resupply runs…it's just a quiet morning today." She set her book down. Checking the analog watch she'd started wearing on her wrist, she made sure that, yes, it was very early in the morning.

"What are you reading," he asked, peeking over at the spine of the book.

"A military history of World War II. Just the bits on the Battle of Stalingrad." Going over to the food storage area, she passed Maris Stella—batting at a cobweb and not exactly looking on guard against vermin—and got an energy bar and a banana for a quick, easy meal. "Did you know the Germans called it a Rattenkrieg? A rat war, on account of how small groups of Russians kept popping up out of sewers and basements."

"Interesting."

Her and Take sat in companionable silence while they both enjoyed their victuals.

She voiced a thought. "The ghouls from the café. I see you spending your downtime with them a lot. You got a little best friends gang going on?"

He shrugged. "Is it strange to say I might like them better than most of the people from the CCG? They're not on any high horse, they won't throw you under the bus for arriving at a meeting a few minutes late, they don't need to make small talk all the time…I don't have to do any fake song and dance around them to keep people from complaining about my attitude."

Akira nodded. She could see it. All the little things that set Hirako apart were normal to ghouls. If Arima had never seen something in Hirako and given him the chance to excel, he probably would have languished in a branch office, ignored and forgotten because he kept to himself.

"And here I thought you might be nursing a crush on Irimi," she teased.

Hirako was not nearly as fun to tease as Amon, though, and he barely reacted. "I knew it was an act, Mado. I'm good enough at that myself to know when someone else is putting on a show. But it's nice to have someone like her to talk to, sometimes, and she makes the best coffee I've ever tasted. I'd call her a friend, at least."

"Ah. That's probably for the best. With how overdramatic you are, it would have been a headache for all of us if some messy breakup happened while we're all stuck down here."

"I can't think about stuff like that right now." Take leaned back and stared up at the ceiling. "Arima said he picked me because I was empty like him. That never bothered me but I suppose it should. If this somehow ends well, I think I'm going to have to go somewhere quiet, by myself, and confront that emptiness." He looked down at his coffee. "I think I've put a lot of grieving on hold."

"I suppose I understand. It was harder to see when we were inside of it, but from the outside…there's a lot of ways working at the CCG affected us." Akira felt a bit melancholy at the thought.

He nodded. "You're not that different. You never had patience for all the bureaucratic games and office politics, because you see the bigger picture. That's part of why Arima chose us. You were willing to play the game a little more than me, and, frankly, I think you might get complimented on your looks a little more than me. That helps people ignore the rough edges."

She rolled her eyes. "I suppose."

"You know," he continued, "I think you and Amon are good together. It's ironic, but being around him humanizes you a bit."

"Hey, mind your own business, Hirako," she shot back, but also smiled to herself a little.

They ate and drank in companionable silence for a while longer, before Take left her with a simple goodbye.

Akira stayed, made herself another coffee, and enjoyed the quiet.


A little bit of a filler chapter before stuff starts happening again!

I don't want to disappoint anyone, but I never had some grand plan to pair up Irimi and Take, I just saw an opportunity for some saucy dog-themed dialogue and thought it'd be fun…but I do suspect he'd fit in surprisingly well with some of the ghouls from Café :re. I kind of like the idea of them perhaps being interested but having bigger fish to fry at the moment…I think in fiction there's often this "romantic love must always come first" sort of paradigm, but a lot of times that's not the case in real life so maybe stories should reflect that a bit more.

Next week: Akira is haunted by the ghosts of cocktails past