Akira has the most anxious macchiato of her entire life

The days continued to pass. Now that she had actually met the baby, Akira could admit that Ichika was tolerable—especially if she had just been fed and changed, and was about to fall asleep. And yet, Akira was still banned from babysitting because of an incident where she called the crying infant overdramatic and ordered Ichika to quit it immediately. No one believed that she was mostly joking.

To be clear, she felt ambivalent on the idea of babysitting. She ju st resented the fact that everyone assumed she'd be terrible at it.

Akira continued to stop by Café :re on a regular basis. As soon as Touka felt okay to return to work, she was back to making the best cappuccino in the city. Her hours were closer to part-time for the moment, but it was enough to keep the place in shipshape. Ichika either napped in the back room or was handed over to someone on her roster of babysitters. Touka was, in effect, a single mother but she had a lot of friends helping her out.

The child was a surprisingly happy baby, and easy to take care of, if a bit demanding. Anyone could tell that the attitude was all Touka, but as she grew, her appearance definitely leaned towards her father—especially her hair. When it started to grow out of the peach fuzz stage, it was unusual enough that it needed to be hidden in public. Thus began a phase of admittedly cute baby hats.

Haise still kept his distance. He'd begun spending every waking moment at work, from what Akira could gather.

And in the meanwhile, Akira watched, and waited, and worried. She worried about Amon, about Haise and Touka, about Takizawa and Black Rabbit, about Arima, Hirako, the Quinx squad, and everyone in Squad Zero, Hide and even Marude when she was feeling nice, the ghouls at the café, and—a late entry to her list—she worried about Ichika.

There were a few memorable bright spots.

On two separate occasions, she popped into the café and discovered Ichika lying in her carrier on the counter, with Yomo making funny faces at her as she giggled. It was excellent blackmail material, to be used for as-yet-undetermined reasons.

Amon continued to take his job as her bodyguard far too seriously. Yes, he was there to keep the Clowns and Aogiri away whenever Akira went out, but he was also there to keep Akira company. He didn't seem to pick up the hint, no matter how many swanky piano lounges she dragged him to on the weekends.

More often, he stopped by in the evenings to watch TV with her. Even artificial ghouls needed a bit of mindless entertainment in their lives. While she was watching the screen, she would often catch him watching her out of the corner of her eye.

She could have spelled it out, and she probably should have, but a prideful part of her was still seething in resentment at being turned down so long ago. She'd already made the first move once. That was enough vulnerability for one lifetime. It was his turn.

"Akira," said Touka in a wavering voice when she phoned one evening.

Her heart sank at the tone of voice. "What happened?"

"I couldn't wait any longer…and I tried to feed her a little bit of applesauce. She ate applesauce and she likes it!" The ghoul sniffled on the other end.

That's all? "Isn't she a bit young for solid food?"

"If something happens to me while she's still nursing…"

"Oh." That's a cynical thought, but I can't fault her logic.

The voice on the other end of the call sounded on the verge of tears. "She ate human food and it hasn't made her sick. No matter what happens, she won't have a life like mine."

Oh, she's happy, not sad. As she listened to the ghoul weep tears of joy that her daughter could eat human food, Akira had another one of those moments where she suddenly realized that she had been half-informed on ghouls her whole life.

"I see," she said.

"I'm sorry to bother you, I just needed to tell someone who gets how big this is."

"I understand. You're right, that is big. I'll come over tomorrow to celebrate."

The next day, Akira showed up with a couple of jars of baby food and they spent an amusing afternoon trying to figure out what else Ichika liked. A single taste of puréed carrots and rice caused immediate tears, bananas and yogurt were acceptable, and applesauce remained the clear winner.

"I wonder…" thought Akira as she stared at the baby, who was happily waving around her favorite stuffed rabbit.

"Yeah?"

"You don't happen to have some poor bastard's spleen in your fridge, do you?"

Touka grimaced. "I was going to wait until you left to try that one…"

"It's important to know exactly what we're dealing with. Let's find out."

Touka disappeared to the kitchen, returning with a very small spoonful of what looked like dark reddish-brown jelly. "I think…liver…would be good because it's sweeter and soft enough for a baby."

Ew, liver is sweet to them? "I could have gone my whole life without learning that. Alright, moment of truth." Akira picked up Ichika to hold her in a sitting position, while Touka let the infant sniff at the spoon.

Ichika happily opened her mouth for a taste. After a moment of hesitation, Touka spoon-fed the baby, then rocked back in shock.

Akira leaned over to look at the baby, who was smacking her lips and kicking her feet at her first taste of human flesh.

Her left eye had lit up red.

The blonde looked up at the ghoul, who appeared sad and worried. It seemed they were both thinking the same thing—Just like her father, and we know what hell that red left eye put him through.

"Hey. She can eat human food and she likes it, that's huge."

Touka sniffed and nodded. "Yeah. You're right. This was a happy day." But she didn't sound like she believed it.

At work, she often floated around and filled in for any other squads that needed additional skill or firepower. As a squad leader she had no partner assigned. However, the squad she oversaw on paper was, by design, very nearly independent at that point so she was trapped in professional limbo.

Akira was still attached to Squad Zero, but most days that distinction felt nominal. That talk with Hirako where she couldn't promise to commit had left her on the fringes of Squad Zero's activities. Not close enough to learn anything incriminating or be trusted with any major cases, but close enough that Arima and Take could walk up behind her at any given moment.

If she didn't have her eyes on other goals, she would have been devastated that her career had more or less cratered.

Besides, with all of her free time at work, she often ended up training with and without her quinque or practicing at the shooting range in the basement. Time spent honing her skills was not time wasted.

She was still occasionally asked to join in on training exercises with Squad Zero, which she gladly did. Her goal was to keep a foot in the door, both to keep a closer eye on whatever Hirako and Arima were up to, and to keep a line of communication open if it ever became necessary.

On one such day, she stopped by in the late afternoon to run some drills, making sure the kids stayed firm on their fundamentals. Then they talked through some hypotheticals—drawn from real life experiences—about what to do when things went wrong during an investigation.

She noticed that their eyes were being drawn over her shoulder and glanced back to see Arima standing there, watching them. Akira released the rookies for the day and walked over to greet her superior.

"They all look forward to the time you spend with them, you know."

"Really?" They were well-behaved and professional for how young they were, but she didn't detect any excess enthusiasm.

Arima nodded. "You're very honest in your criticism. They know when you praise them, they've truly earned it."

"Well, I'm a terrible liar so I could never pretend that they're any better or worse than they are."

"That's exactly what I wanted for them when I asked you to be involved." He smiled. "Let's grab dinner. Maybe at that place Haise's girlfriend works? I've put that off for far too long and I finally have a free evening."

Akira forced herself to smile and nod. Inside, she was beating herself up for tempting fate with her earlier comment about being a bad liar. It was true, aside from the very simplest of deceptions she much preferred to tell half-truths or simply remain silent and let others draw incorrect conclusions. If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything, after all. She'd always found those methods far more effective than any elaborate lie.

Except now she needed to be an excellent liar and she just wasn't. "I suspect they're going through a rough patch lately," she said. A half-truth, again.

She'd discussed some of Haise's behavior lately with Arima. He didn't seem very bothered, writing it off as an "angsty teenager phase," the kind that usually accompanied an increase in independence. As long as Haise continued to deliver at work, there was no real cause for concern in Arima's estimation.

Arima waved her off. "They're young, it happens. If she hasn't broken up with him yet, I might as well stop in while I finally have the time."

She nodded mutely, running through any lies she could tell to derail this plan. I could just say they did break up, but then I'd have to explain why I didn't say that to begin with, when it happened, why, how I know…

I could say that the café burned down. No. The barista got hit by a car, she's in the hospital. No. Nothing based on an event will work, because it would be easy to fact check. And any elaborate interpersonal drama I try to sell will be so out of character for me, it'll raise suspicions.

Maybe…the best way out is through. Just get it over with so it's not hanging over our heads and we don't have to worry about making endless excuses to Arima. Just stay calm.

Hirako walked up. "I'd like to join you, if that's all right. The case I'm working is at a dead end. I think I need a change of scenery to clear my head."

She nodded. "Ok, then. I'll drive myself, though. I have an errand I'd like to attend to in that neighborhood on the way there." She said it with finality and refused to elaborate. "I'll send you both the address and see you there."

The errand Akira referred to was, of course, frantically calling Touka's cell phone as she drove. After she didn't get through, and nearly rear-ended the car in front of her at a stop light, she switched over to calling Café :re's business number.

"Hello! Café :re! Touka speaking, how may I help you?"

"It's Akira. You've got a couple of investigators incoming for after-work food and drinks. The White Reaper is one of them. Be ready."

"Wait, what?!"

"I'll be there in a couple of minutes." She hung up, took a few deep breaths to slow her heart rate, and focused on driving.

Akira got to the café first. Touka met her at the door.

At least it was that dead time in the late afternoon, between lunch and dinner. The place was nearly empty.

"I sent Yomo off to pick up some stock orders. He'd snap and attack for sure. Irimi was stopping by on her day off, so I begged her to step in instead."

"How could I say no to that bonus you offered me?" The other woman was rolling up the sleeves of her linen blouse in preparation for an impromptu shift.

Touka looked uneasy—she did not have the determined expression Akira wanted to see on someone about to go into battle.

"Can you handle this?"

She nodded, but it was shaky. "Yeah. It's just…he killed my mom."

Akira felt a pang of empathy for her—she understood the emptiness a mother's death left behind—but there was anger, too. "Look at me, Kirishima," she snapped. "If I can have a normal conversation with my father's killer, you can have one normal conversation with your mother's killer. So suck it up, buttercup."

A spark of rage ignited in the ghoul's eyes. "Fine," Touka bit out. She marched through the café, heading to her usual spot behind the register.

There we go, thought Akira as she took her favorite seat at the counter. She turned to the other ghoul still sitting nearby. "Don't tell me you need a pep talk, too."

Irimi shook her head primly at Akira. "I'm ready. I have a plan. You just need to let me work. You said it was the White Reaper and who on their way here?"

"Investigator Hirako."

"Why does that name ring a bell?"

Akira rubbed her temples. "I don't know why. I don't know who you are to the CCG."

"I think you guys call me the Black Dog?"

"Oh, for crap's sake." The investigator leaned her forehead on the counter. "Yup, you fought with him during the battle of the 20th ward."

Then she looked at Touka. "We have to have a talk later about who exactly is on your payroll."

The older barista pulled her hair back with a hair tie from her wrist, then threw on an apron. "Oh, I think I remember him now. Not much to look at but he certainly had some fight in him!"

"Just…stay calm and do your jobs. It'll be fine." She breathed, shook out her hands, and turned around with a smile when the bell on the door jingled.

It was only Hirako. "Hey, Mado. Arima's behind me. He had a phone call on the way out, but he'll be here soon." He took a seat at the counter and looked at Irimi. "Could I have a plain black coffee? House blend."

She nodded and calmly went about preparing the drink.

Akira sat and fiddled with her phone, but made sure one ear was pointed towards the other occupants of the shop so she could eavesdrop better without appearing obtrusive.

A short time later, Irimi set a cup of steaming hot coffee in front of Hirako. "Here you go," she said.

He took a sip, then looked back up at the barista. "That is a damn fine cup of coffee."

She laughed off his compliment. "It's nothing. I'm just passionate about small-batch single-origin light roasted coffee beans, with notes of citrus."

"As we all should be." He took another drink.

She shot him a flirtatious grin. "Before you walked in, our favorite regular over there was telling us that her boss and his lackey were stopping in tonight. Which one are you?"

"The lackey. It's honest work. We can't all be the lead dog on the sled team. What's wrong with that?"

She barely contained a grimace at the way he described his work as "honest." Tossing her ponytail over her shoulder, she retorted, "I'm not much of a dog person."

He smiled. "That's a shame, because I am a dog person."

After a pause, she said, "Somehow, I just knew you would say that."

Hirako laughed. "Let me know if you ever want to grab a drink and continue this," He tossed out smoothly. He took another sip of coffee. "Damn, that's good."

"My manager has forbidden me from going out with customers. I have a bit of a reputation from my misspent youth."

He leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms as he looked her up and down. "Funny. I didn't think you were the obedient type."

"Lucky for you, I'm not," she said with a wink.

They both glanced at Touka, who was aggressively drying a glass and staring at the two of them, and Akira, who was holding her head with a forlorn look on her face.

Touka and Akira exchanged glances, both very spooked at what was unfolding in front of them.

"Akira, you have to block them. I don't care if this is her plan. No way this ends well," Touka said in a hushed whisper.

"I don't know him well enough! I'm not sure what'll deflect him!" Akira hissed back, "Why can't you call off your employee?!"

"It's not that kind of relationship. She stays with us because she wants to be here. She's free to leave and do whatever she wants." Touka frowned. "Besides, she opens most days. I can't afford to make her mad."

"Ugh," grumbled Akira. "At this rate we're going to be crawling in half-ghouls."

"No way. Irimi's just toying with him for fun. I think."

"You don't understand the gravity of the situation. Hirako was never a pretty boy so he had to develop actual conversational skills to get a date. I've seen him pull this stunt before on the waitstaff at after-work happy hours."

They both looked back at Irimi, who was writing her number on a napkin and coyly sliding it across the counter.

"Shit," said Touka.

The Black Dog glanced over at Akira. The smile on her face could be that of a maneater or a maneater, Akira honestly couldn't tell.

"Hirako! Leave her alone while she's on the clock," she snapped.

"Mind your own business, Mado," he shot back in a bored voice.

"I tried." She turned back to Touka. "A macchiato, I suppose."

When Akira was taking her first sip of the drink, the door jingled again.

In walked the White Reaper, Kisho Arima himself, with a small smile on his face.

Akira carefully watched Touka to make sure she could do this. The ghoul remained blank and expressionless rather than let any revealing emotions cross her face, but still took a deep breath.

There was the slightest moment of hesitation—only noticeable to Akira because she'd seen the seamless customer service act so many times—before she smiled and said, "Hi, what can I get you today?"

Arima looked at the menu by the register, then at Touka. "Just a plain black coffee and a ham sandwich…and the rest of those yuzu madeleines. I'd like to cover the tabs for these two, as well."

"Sir, that's not necessary…" Akira tried to gracefully turn down the generous offer.

"It's quite all right. I'm in the mood to celebrate, today. Haise asked me to clear away some red tape after a very big arrest earlier today. That was the phone call that held me up. It should be going public soon." He looked over at Touka. "I've heard a lot about you. It's nice to finally meet you."

Touka nodded, very casually moved a strand of hair behind her ear, and responded, "Same here."

She got to filling his order. Touka gave him his sandwich on a plate, soon followed by the madeleines and his coffee. He picked one of the cookies up. Dipping it in the coffee, he ate it in one bite and closed his eyes.

"Delicious. I always have an involuntary memory of reading In Search of Lost Time when I eat these, ironically enough. Are you a reader as well?"

She shook her head. "Afraid not. I didn't even make the cookies—they're from a partnership we have with a nearby bakery. Sorry to disappoint," she said with a chuckle. "You'll have to confine your book talk to Haise."

Arima glanced around at the shelves of books surrounding them. "Interesting. This place seems like it was put together by a bibliophile."

Akira reminded herself not to hold her breath. If he zeroes in on Touka's less-than-stellar literacy, will that be enough to raise his suspicions?

The ghoul was not an amateur, though. She smiled softly as she looked out at the café. "I'm not much of a reader, but I always enjoyed the company of book people. Besides, they're polite customers and they usually hang out here for hours reading and buying lots of drinks. Of course I want to attract them to my café."

"Impressive. Business savvy instead of book smart. You're different than I imagined."

"I'll take that as a compliment," she laughed.

He already picked up on something I never noticed…this place isn't full of books for decoration or because Touka loves books, but rather because she loves someone who loves books. Akira sipped at her drink as she eavesdropped. Hirako has been successfully distracted by Irimi, Touka and Arima are having a normal conversation…now how quickly can I get them out of here before something goes wrong?

Before she could continue down that line of thought, Arima's phone beeped with an alert.

He checked it, smiled to himself, and put his phone away again.

She chimed in. "Good news, sir?"

"Depends on how you look at it." He took a bite of his sandwich and looked back at Touka. "Tell me, how did you put together the collection in here?"

The friendly chatting continued for a while. She had to admit that Irimi flirtatiously distracting Hirako was actually brilliant. It was a game of divide and conquer: this way they didn't have to worry about two top-tier investigators scrutinizing Touka.

Arima continued to ask her about the café, how the business was going, how they'd teamed up with Yoriko's bakery. Touka answered with a calm and friendly manner.

Touka retorted with the kind of questions one would expect a curious girlfriend to have: what was Haise like at work, why did the CCG insist on making him work such long hours, could Arima tell her any embarrassing stories that Haise wouldn't, and the like.

Just when Akira was starting to relax and trust that the encounter would stay on-script, though, is when the curveball came.

The bell jingled, and in walked Nishiki. He was maneuvering a stroller into the café with one hand and looking down at his phone in the other. "Hey, you guys are not going to believe this!"

He finally looked up at the room full of ghouls and investigators staring back at him and froze.

Akira caught his eye and shot him a look. Act natural, dumbass!

Touka—always calm in delicate situations—said, "You're here early. What's up?" She glanced at Arima and with a relaxed shrug, explained, "He's a weeknight regular. Will you excuse me?"

Arima nodded and returned to his food.

The ghoul took her spot behind the register.

The young man collected himself quickly and walked up to the counter. "I want to grab an Americano and—what cookies do you have left?"

"Just some peanut butter miso cookies. We're fresh out of madeleines." She shot Arima a cheeky smile.

"Two of those, then."

Touka slid a small plate with two cookies across the counter for him.

He dug the money out of his wallet and handed it to Touka, then looked over at Ichika to check on her. It was chilly out, so the infant was bundled up and wearing a hat to cover her unusual hair—a small miracle.

Again, Akira found herself impressed and disturbed by the quality of their playacting as human.

"What were you so excited about when you walked in," asked Take.

Nishiki took a deep breath. "This famous author just broke the internet. On live TV, during a press conference, she confessed to being a ghoul." He held up his phone, the screen replaying the shocking clip on a loop.

It felt like time froze for a second, before Akira reminded herself that of course a normal human would be gossiping about such an outrageous event taking the internet by storm. It would look more suspicious if the ghouls pretended not to know or care.

"Holy shit," said Touka, before slapping a hand over her mouth.

"Took the words out of my mouth," said Hirako.

Akira pulled out her own work phone and saw the texts and emails starting to roll in from all of her coworkers. As she watched a longer clip, she was startled to see some familiar faces when the camera cut to the audience. One could have been Touka's doppelganger…Could that be Ayato without his mask turning to duck out the back? And right by him…

"Sir, is that Haise? Was this the arrest you were talking about?"

Touka opened her mouth to ask Akira something, but thought better of it and stayed silent.

Arima ate one last madeleine and stood to leave. "Yes, it was. We have reason to suspect that she was a high-ranking member of Aogiri, as well. The Tree is about to come crashing down."

As he walked towards the door, he passed by the stroller and paused to look down at the baby.

"Is she yours?" He addressed Nishiki, but didn't take his eyes off of the child.

"No, my niece. I watch her sometimes when her parents have to work late."

Arima looked down at the baby in the stroller, who was busy babbling nonsense to herself. Ichika noticed the man looming above her and started babbling with greater excitement, as well as flailing her arms in his general direction.

Akira held her breath as she watched him crouch down. She noticed that Touka's face was expressionless, but the ghoul had one hand wrapped around the other wrist so tight, her white knuckles were straining and the bones were probably close to breaking.

The White Reaper held out his hand to the baby and smiled when she grabbed his pointer finger in her chubby baby fist.

"Ah!" she said.

"Pleased to meet you." Arima looked up at Nishiki. "She's a cute one. Take care of her."

Nishiki nodded mutely.

"Let's go, Hirako. I'm sure the main office is in chaos right about now. You too, Mado."

"Yes, sir. Right behind you."

As the White Reaper adjusted his tie and turned to leave, Akira swore he still had a faint smile on his face.

After Arima and Hirako left, she stopped and exhaled.

"Was that…" Touka dropped the act and ran around the counter to grab Ichika.

"Yeah. I think that was our sign. I have a hunch that we're going to be making our move very, very soon."

Akira hoisted up her quinque and grabbed the cookies off their small plate in front of Nishiki.

"Hey! I paid for those!"

She took a defiant bite. "And I'm eating them. What are you gonna do about it?"

He glared at her, but gave up in a huff and returned to his coffee.

Akira looked at Touka. Between bites of her stolen cookie, she said, "Before I go, can I get a latte for the road? It's going to be a long night."

Cursed knowledge for the day: The liver of an adult human is about 5-6% glycogen by weight. It would not taste sweet as is but would break down into glucose (sugar) as you chew and it starts getting digested by enzymes in your saliva, so I think it would be a favorite of ghouls with a sweet tooth.

Also—peanut butter miso cookies, holy crap. So easy, so delicious. If you've never had any, this is your sign to bake a batch. You're welcome ?

Next week: Akira's lunch is spectacularly delayed.