After the fighting, as their party walked through the tunnels to the planned extraction point, Touka looked around and decided it was over for now. She reached over and grabbed Ichika out of Yoriko's arms.

Having her child back in her arms, and safe enough for the moment, finally lifted the weight of fear that had been suffocating her for hours. The baby had cried herself to sleep as soon as the fighting ended, and was now out cold. Even Ichika had ended up completely drained from the noise and the action.

Yoriko looked shell-shocked, numbly putting one foot in front of the other. Yomo—recovering from his own injuries—was staying near her, keeping her from falling too far behind.

"I'm sorry, Yoriko," she muttered. "I never wanted you to get mixed up in all of this. I just thought…when you offered to watch Ichika at the last minute, she'd be safest with you…removed from anything involving ghouls and the CCG. I'm so sorry."

Her human friend stared straight ahead as they walked in silence for a few minutes. Then—

"You're really a ghoul. I don't think I could have believed it if I hadn't seen it myself."

Touka couldn't think of anything else to say except for one more pathetic, "I'm sorry."

"You know what, Touka," spat out Yoriko with an edge to her voice.

Touka braced herself for whatever venom was coming, tightened her grip on Ichika.

"I can't believe you never told me…I mean, I thought we were friends! You ate everything I gave you, even though you could never…" Yoriko glanced over at her, looking less angry and more unsure.

"I could never taste it right. I am…so, so sorry…but now you've seen how they treat anyone who helps us."

Yoriko sniffed. "I know. I get why you never told me, I get it in my head…but it still hurts in my heart." She chewed her lip for a moment and nodded up ahead, where Kaneki was talking quietly to Hirako. "Who's he? Is he…"

"Yeah, that's my husband," said Touka a bit glumly.

"You don't sound too excited about it. Even after he stormed in and saved the day? That was kind of hot."

Touka laughed, but hesitated. "It's really complicated. A lot more complicated than I made it sound…before you knew about any of the ghoul stuff…"

Yoriko shook her head. "Now that I think of it, it was weird you never had any photos around of him, or the two of you together. I just wrote it off as you hating technology and social media and stuff."

"I think I'd be like that even if I was human," muttered Touka. "You can still turn around. Go back, say we made you help and you're an escaped hostage…it'll be safer for you."

Yoriko turned that idea over in her head. "I could…but after seeing them in action, and the way they talked about executing people who helped ghouls…I think until I find out what Takeomi says, maybe I'm safer with you. I trust you a little more than the CCG right now."

Touka was quiet for so long that Yoriko looked over at her. "Is that okay?"

The ghoul cleared her throat and nodded. "Yeah, Yoriko. That's okay. Thank you."

Kaneki dropped back to walk on Touka's other side.

She wasn't quite sure how to start, as this would be the first time in a long time talking without a veil of secrets and lies hanging over them.

It was a good thing he decided to speak first. "Why are you and Ichika here?"

"We always had a plan to try and save Hinami…but this fiasco with Yoriko and Ichika happened at the last minute." She gave him a quick, bare-bones summary of what happened.

"Did you have a plan for what happens next?"

She nodded. "We have several cars hidden near where this drains out. I was supposed to be waiting there as a getaway driver. We have a rendezvous set to pick up the people heading back from Rushima, near the shore. Then, we go quiet and see how it all shakes out."

He nodded. "It sounds like a proper operation."

"It should, it was planned by former investigators."

He looked over at her, curious at that statement, but before he could comment they came to where the drainage outlet emptied and stepped into daylight.

They reached the cars that were off the side of the nearest road.

In an exhausted near-silence, the group piled into the trio of vehicles, now much more full than originally planned. The drivers, Touka, Yomo, and Koma sped off to their next destination.

When they pulled up to the designated meeting site—an empty stretch of beach surrounded by enough foul-smelling factories to keep beachgoers away—no one had arrived yet.

They discussed the possibility of an ambush if Akira really had betrayed them, but in the end decided that they couldn't abandon the others coming in from Rushima. They posted a few sentries for safety, and then they were stuck waiting, nervously, feeling far too exposed.

Everyone else had gotten out to grab some fresh air, and to keep a better eye on the road and the ocean. Touka stayed alone in the car with Ichika. As the baby slept, Touka had to gently touch her every few minutes to convince herself that they'd really gotten her back. It hadn't sunk in yet. She was still coming down from the heightened emotions of the past day.

She cracked her neck and rolled her shoulders. Some soreness was starting to set in—there was something about using her kagune so aggressively, for the first time in a long time, that strained muscles in her back she didn't even know she had.

Hinami knocked on the car window after nearly an hour. "I think I hear engines."

Ichika started waking up at the noise. Touka picked her up and climbed out of the car. She handed the child off to Ayato as she followed Hinami towards the beach. "Here, hold your niece."

"What?! My nie—"

She walked down to the shore, where several others were already waiting. Shielding her eyes from the sun, she spotted a couple of dots on the horizon headed their way.

She looked over at Banjo, who'd passed the time by making sure Ayato and Yomo were recovering well.

"Thanks for showing up today. Ayato asked you to come?" With the surgically precise plan that Akira had spearheaded, all the Gas Masks showing up could have been a disaster. With the way everything went up in flames at the last minute, their presence was a boon.

Banjo nodded once. "He did. Of course I'd help out, for Hinami."

"Are you okay to keep being our medic?"

He nodded, clenching and unclenching his fists. "I am. You guys might be able to fight until you collapse, but this is my fight."

She smiled at him. "Thank you."

The first boat slowed down as it approached shore, then ran its hull aground on the sand. The second one followed soon after. Before it even came to a stop, Nishiki jumped out of the second boat and powered through the knee-high waves to get there first.

As he was climbing onto the deck, he noticed Banjo on the shore. "Hey, get up here. I think we might need you."

Banjo awkwardly scrambled over the side of the boat.

Touka tensed up at how shaky Nishiki's voice was.

Jumping up on the prow and walking around to the main deck area, Touka's heart sank.

There was Nishiki and Banjo, leaning over a blonde figure laid across the bench seats in the back.

"—never tried this on a human, though."

"And I'm not a paramedic. We don't exactly have much choice. She can't go to a hospital, and if we're going to move her we've got to get these knives out and get her stable."

Clamping her mouth shut—she didn't want to distract anyone—Touka watched the two of them work.

Nishiki pushed his glasses up his nose and leaned close, inspecting one. "Okay, human anatomy. We can do this. I think this one is in the worst spot, it could be close to the abdominal aorta, so…do your thing there first, I guess?"

"Please don't gamble with her life," Touka whispered.

He didn't look back at her, just kept carefully checking over the smaller cuts on her arms and legs. "She either dies from this right now, or she's got a chance. I can't…I don't want to draw this out any longer than I have to."

He turned back to Banjo. "I guess, I'll remove it really slowly and carefully and you…uh…get in there and try to heal as we go?"

Banjo nodded and got to his knees, kagune at the ready.

Touka spun around and squeezed her eyes shut, held her breath. She didn't want to watch. After a couple of minutes there were no anguished screams or curses, so she cracked her eyes open.

Perched on top of the windshield, a few feet away from her, a particularly…ghoulish-looking ghoul was chewing on his finger and staring at the battlefield operation happening in the back of the boat.

He noticed Touka watching him and muttered, "What?" Then, after a closer look, "Let me guess. You're related to the little asshat who's been following me around lately."

She frowned. "Who are you? Why are you watching Akira?"

"Huh?" He went back to compulsively chewing on his fingernails again. Trailing off into a whisper, he finally said. "She…saved me. I don't understand…"

"Oh. You're him. The guy she used to work with. She was always talking about getting you away from Aogiri Tree." Touka still owed him an ass kicking for what he'd done to Haise, but that could wait.

He froze, then buried his face in his hands and groaned.

The sound of Banjo and Nishiki muttering to each other filtered in from behind her. She gritted her teeth and turned around. At first, the sight of blood on the seats made her heartbeat take off, but both men looked calm.

Nishiki had finished pulling the knife out of her back. A trickle of blood escaped the wound, but Banjo was leaning in and doing what he could.

When the knife was safely extracted with no signs of Akira crashing, they both leaned back and gasped for air as if they'd just run a marathon.

Nishiki recovered first. "Okay. We're all okay, right?"

"Yeah," nodded Banjo. "I think that went okay."

"Let's keep going. We don't have all day, we need to get out of the open fast."

Seeing that the two medics were working at a slow but steady pace, and since they seemed out of the danger zone, Touka jumped off the prow. Landing in the surf, she looked around to spot Yomo helping direct people from the second, more crowded boat.

As people unloaded onto the shore, they dispersed quickly. Most of the ghouls were sent off on foot, with instructions on where to hide and when they'd hear further news. Only a select few stayed behind to catch a ride back to the café.

"Yomo. She's on the boat. Unconscious and wounded, but it sounds like she might survive."

He looked over her, at the figures of Banjo and Nishiki still at work on their patient. "Hmm."

Touka almost screamed at him in aggravation but managed to contain herself. He'd always been more of a shepherd than a micromanager to Touka and Ayato, more interested in keeping them from getting themselves killed than controlling them. Sometimes, though, she just wished he'd tell her what he thought about a situation instead of letting her figure it out.

"It sounds like she was seen violating Countermeasure law in front of other investigators. She can't go back to the CCG."

Yomo nodded.

"I…I don't think Akira betrayed us. I think that thing with the card at Cochlea was something else, but we won't know unless…until she wakes up."

Yomo nodded again. So at least Touka was on the right track.

"But that means she's got too much heat on her to go back to the café. We need somewhere safer to put her."

Instead of nodding, Yomo reached into a pocket and tossed Touka something. She caught it in one hand and looked. "Keys?"

"To a CCG safe house. A gift from Akira."

The urge to scream at Yomo returned. "Shit! You couldn't have mentioned that sooner?!" Then she thought a little more. "That's…actually perfect. We put her there. If she sold us out, it's her who'll suffer. And if not…it's such a crazy hiding place that they'll never suspect it."

Yomo nodded. "I think you're right," was all he said before he turned back to watch the horizon, where the third and final boat was making a beeline for them.

Irimi was piloting the final boat. She powered towards the shore and cut the engine, hopping out of the cabin and onto the beach. Pulling her mask off, she kicked through the surf towards Touka.

"We got the stragglers. The tide took us a little off course and I think the main CCG ship spotted us, but it didn't give chase. I don't think that's a good sign, though."

"Good job, Irimi."

"And…Akira? How is she?"

Touka inclined her head behind her. "Banjo and Nishiki are trying to get her okay to move." She looked around, feeling uneasy. "Um…where is Amon? You guys didn't forget him, right?"

"When things went off the rails with Akira, he went kakuja…after the investigators he fought took him down, we snuck him out and hit him with RC suppressants for good measure." Irimi called over her shoulder, "Hey, ladies!"

A couple of new faces looked over from the deck of the boat.

Irimi shouted, "The big guy didn't fall out the back on the ride over, did he?"

One of the women with long black hair glared back at Irimi. She ducked below the sideboard and with a great heave tossed a body over the side of the boat.

He landed with a splash at Touka's feet. She kicked him over onto his back to reveal Amon, barely conscious and completely out of it.

A larger wave washed over his face, and he suddenly sat up, coughing. When he cleared most of the seawater out of his lungs, he looked around to find Touka.

"Akira—" Another coughing fit stopped him.

"Don't hurt yourself. She's on that boat—" She nodded sharply in that direction. "—and she's in bad shape, but hopefully we'll be able to move her soon."

He tried to climb to his feet, but he was still so woozy that a wave knocked him back down. He looked particularly scuffed up from whatever had happened to him.

Touka grabbed his arm and helped him up. "Leave them be for now, we don't want to distract them. We should get out of the water first."

He stumbled a bit, still coughing, but with Touka half-dragging him he made it back to shore. "And—Takizawa?"

"Got him, too." She looked back at where the cars were parked by the road, past the high tide line. "Let's find a place for you to sit and catch your breath."

"Okay," he rasped out.

Her own cold, soggy shoes were quickly becoming an annoyance, and she imagined that Amon was even worse off. She helped him sit on the sandy shoulder of the road. "We don't care about these cars, but you might want to rest here and dry off a bit for your own comfort."

He nodded, still out of it.

She grabbed her phone and messaged Hide. Hey, do you have any info on what is going on with a CCG ship off of Rushima? Touka tended to avoid contacting him, as she suspected that he was in a much more dangerous position than he let on. She didn't want to do anything that drew attention to him, and conversely, if he got taken down, she didn't want anything that could lead back to her.

It had been a rough day, though, and she didn't really care about following the rules at the moment.

There was a response after less than a minute. I might know something…Stay far away, just trust me on this one.

Wasn't gonna board it, I'm not that dumb. They might have spotted us but there was no pursuit. I want to know how worried I should be.

Hide took a little longer to respond this time. The people on that boat have bigger worries at the moment, but wherever you are, get out fast.

Kaneki's here with us. She hesitated but finally hit send.

I know. I think I spotted you guys, wave hi!

Touka looked up from her phone, shading her eyes with her hand to scan the forested hillside above the beach, the smokestacks of the factories, a rocky cliff at the far end of the beach…no luck spotting him but there were plenty of places for someone to hide with binoculars. She could probably ask Hinami to suss him out, if she really wanted to.

Not going to come down here and say hello in person?

I want to. Her phone buzzed again. My work here isn't done. I need to stay invisible to accomplish what I want. I want to come back, but it won't be safe for any of us. I need you to keep quiet about me a little while longer.

Fine. But you get to explain to Kaneki why I let him think you were dead for so long. I'm not falling on that grenade for you.

Deal. Hey, how far do you think the average person can swim?

Then, quickly after, Nevermind, he can see the shore. I've gotta go. You might want to get a new phone after today, by the way.

Got it, Touka replied. Good luck.

You too! You look like you might have a situation brewing behind you.

She spun around, ready for danger, but quickly realized that the commotion happening behind her was not that sort of commotion.

Ayato was walking around with Ichika still in his arms, though it appeared Kaneki was trailing behind him saying something and on the verge of pulling his hair out, but trying to stay calm.

Touka grumbled to herself and clambered back across the beach. The wind was strong enough that she couldn't hear them until she was nearly back.

"—told you, you half-ass, you can't hold my niece! I don't care if you try to break all my bones this time!"

"I'm not trying to fight you, I just want—"

"If you don't leave us alone, I'll fight you!"

Ichika laughed and cooed at the slow-moving chase.

"Ayato," Touka said sharply. Both young men turned to look at her. "Let him hold Ichika, she's not your pet."

A bit cowed, Ayato stood still and stopped evading Kaneki.

He carefully grabbed Ichika from Ayato's arms and smiled down at her. Touka's heart nearly exploded in her chest.

When she first let herself get too entangled with Haise, it was because some irrational part of her had hoped it would lead anywhere other than death and sorrow. Some wild impulse kept tempting her to be reckless and suck the marrow out of life, instead of playing it safe like she had in the gray years after Anteiku fell. And here she was, surrounded again by death and sorrow, but also her family and friends and a future that was miraculously up for grabs.

She gently removed Ichika's little hat to reveal her child's incriminating hair, then turned back to a disgruntled Ayato and smiled. "You're going to be a great uncle. But you can't keep her from her father."

Chastened, he nodded for a moment before he froze. "Wait—her father? What the hell, Touka! Are you kidding me? You and the half-ass—"

Touka just patted him on the shoulder as she walked away. She passed Hinami, who was sitting on the hood of one of the cars, staring out at the horizon. "Will you go distract Ayato? He's a little rattled."

She noticed Kaneki standing still, looking down at the boats. Moving to stand next to him, she adjusted Ichika's blanket to better shield her from the ocean wind.

"They brought Akira back from Rushima?"

Touka looked at where he was gazing. Down at the shore, Nishiki was carefully handing an unconscious Akira out of the boat to Banjo. He gently took her in his arms and began cautiously walking through the surf. He had to brace himself to stay upright when a couple of larger waves from the incoming tide rolled in.

The knot of worry in her stomach loosened up some. It was a good sign if they were moving her.

"We did. That was always the plan. She wasn't supposed to get hurt like this, though."

He whipped his head over at her. "What?"

"Yeah. Her and Amon helped plan everything at Cochlea and Rushima. Helps to have investigators on your side to plan around the CCG, right?"

Kaneki stared at her. "…on your side?"

Before she could explain anything, Ichika started getting agitated. As she began crying, Kaneki froze, a look of complete horror on his face.

Touka grabbed the baby and started rocking her.

Frantically he said, "I'm sorry!"

Touka sighed. "It's not your fault. She's just tired and probably hungry. There should be a bag in the trunk of the black car—Ichika was supposed to stay with me in that car before everything went wrong."

Sitting in the open trunk of the hatchback, Touka showed Kaneki how to feed Ichika some mashed bananas.

Meanwhile, Akira was carefully laid across the backseat. Yomo helped Amon to his feet and put him in the passenger seat.

By the time Ichika had eaten her snack and settled down, they were ready to roll out.

The last few ghouls on the beach pushed the commandeered boats back out onto the water, and watched for a few minutes to make sure the tide was carrying them off.

The drive back into the city was nearly silent. Everyone was bone-tired.

Touka spent the time thinking.

She could feel it in the air, that this was the beginning of the end for her beloved café. There was no way it could remain unscathed for very long, not when it had become the epicenter of their little group. When and how she didn't know for sure, but it was inevitable.

She considered that fact with a bittersweet pang. Nothing could last forever—not the bad things, and not the good things—but letting go was always painful. It had been a labor of love, getting Café :re running smoothly and somewhat profitably. And it was everything she'd missed about Anteiku, except for the stupid uniforms.

So, she would try to be ready to let it go when the time came.

Most of the people in their contingent who needed a place to crash were ferried to the spare rooms above the café.

Until the situation calmed down more, it would only be Yoriko and Akira at the safe house. It was a small but functional 2-bedroom house in a quiet neighborhood. Touka reminded the ghouls among them to make an effort to stay quiet and not draw attention.

She made sure that Yoriko was settled in one bedroom—though she required a dose of some old allergy medicine they'd found in a cupboard to finally fall asleep. Akira was in the other bedroom with Banjo keeping an eye on her. The deepest wounds and worst breaks had healed up surprisingly well, but she hadn't regained consciousness and she was beginning to get feverish.

"I'll sleep here on the futon," Touka announced quietly as she walked into the living room, looking for Kaneki. He hadn't seemed to hear her.

He was sitting on a barstool at a counter, a sleeping Ichika tucked under his chin and wrapped in his arms like she was the only thing keeping him afloat.

"Hey, Ken."

He opened his eyes and looked at her. "Touka. Are you okay?"

She hummed. "I've seen worse. You, though…"

She sat on the stool next to him and reached out to grab the arm that wasn't primarily occupied with holding up their daughter. She turned his hand over, ran her fingertips over the jointed red digits and followed the scaled skin up his forearm until she hit the rolled-up sleeve of his shirt. "You took a beating."

"I guess."

Touka let go and leaned back. "Is this from the White Reaper?"

"Yes. I…I killed him."

The way he absentmindedly rubbed his chin against Ichika's hair didn't escape her. "Did you?"

"I had to. He knew you and Ichika were there. He would have…" He paused for a moment, then whispered almost to himself, "I had to be the one that killed him. Eto was right. That's the way that story has to go."

Touka frowned. "Eto, huh? What does she have to do with anything?"

He was quiet. "I ran into Eto after the fight with Arima, when I was trying to get to you. She was dying."

Touka nodded. She'd never met that ghoul, or even thought of her much beyond a general disgust for Aogiri's more vicious members and the way they'd used Ayato and Hinami. When the kakuja smashed her way through the disposal press was probably the first and only time Touka had been in the same room as her. Although, hearing the grisly details of her mother's pregnancy was a tidbit that turned out to be unexpectedly important to her.

He glanced over at Touka. "She said a lot of things…I don't know how much she knew…but… one of the things she said was not to let the next generation repeat the mistakes of the last, or we'll just end up right back here in twenty years. I shouldn't have left you two alone, or tried to save everyone on my own. I was just repeating the same mistakes."

She felt heartbroken at the sound of his voice, but after such a difficult couple of days the last thing she felt like doing was breaking down and crying. She could think about all of that later, when she had the time and energy to cry.

"She'll always be surrounded by people who love her," Touka declared. "Here, let's put her down to sleep."

His arms tightened around the baby. "Just a couple more minutes?"

"Okay," she whispered. She got it.

For a space of several still moments, they just sat and listened to the sound of Ichika breathing.

Eventually, Kaneki stood up and looked around the room.

Touka pointed to the little travel bassinet she'd set up on the floor near the futon.

Very gently, he set her down. She stretched a little at her new resting place, but stayed asleep.

Kaneki and Touka retreated to the kitchen to continue talking. Just above a whisper, he asked "How's Akira?"

"Healing, but she's getting a fever and she's not breathing right. I'm starting to think she's got a collapsed lung or something, because nothing Banjo's tried has helped. We're going to track down a doctor first thing in the morning."

Kaneki spoke, suspicion in his voice. "What doctor?"

"We're getting the doctor for Akira," Touka responded firmly. "She was there for me. When you weren't around," she said with a sly glance at him.

He slumped a bit.

Touka continued. "It sounds like people think she's mean…or cold, or whatever, and I get why they think that. But she might be one of the kindest people I've ever met. I kill her father under Amon's nose, and then she has to work with Amon…then you take out Amon and she has to work with you, and then I come along and ask her for help…she probably sees it as just doing what she should do…but we've all hurt her so badly in different ways and she cares about all of us so much."

Touka nodded towards the door to the room where Akira was sleeping fitfully. "We can't just repay that by letting her die. Plus, if we don't do something, Amon will once he shakes off all the fun he had today."

"Okay. We're getting the doctor for Akira. I still can't believe you were with Akira and Amon the whole time." He leaned back and stared at the ceiling, still trying to reconcile what he knew with everything he'd just found out.

"I…like them." She shook her head. "Wow, I never thought I'd say that. She acts like she has no sense of humor, but she's secretly very funny. He really doesn't have a sense of humor, though, so it's hilarious to watch her mess with him. I'm rooting those uptight losers."

"That reminds me. There's something else we need to talk about, too." He smiled weakly. "You took advantage of me…I mean, Haise."

"You didn't exactly put up a fight." Laughing, Touka said, "I'm sorry for corrupting poor, sweet Haise."

"I'll be honest. I'm not sure how I feel about it."

She broke eye contact, more serious now. "I was ready to just leave you alone, wait for you if you ever remembered…but then you asked me to go out with you. You looked like you'd pass out or cry if I said no, so…"

He looked away, a slight smile on his face.

"Sometimes it feels like I just keep finding new ways to hurt you, even though I don't mean to," she admitted with a frown. She could level the same accusation at him, but that would be childish and she was trying so hard to be a calmer, more mature person who didn't pick a fight every time she saw an opening, so she held herself back. Instead, she said, "I'm sorry."

"Oh." Kaneki looked shocked that she'd apologize, which was equally funny and sad to her. "I'm…I'm sorry, too. I don't know what to say." He rubbed his forehead "It's been a strange day."

"We don't have to go over everything right now." She leaned back and looked him over. He still looked stunned and confused by the events of recent hours, but he also looked like himself for the first time in a long time. And she could at least be grateful for that.

"My turn to be honest," continued Touka. "It's kind of messed up, because you didn't have all your memories and I was lying to you the whole time, but I don't regret it. We got Ichika…and for a moment there, it was really nice to pretend to be a normal couple…going on dates and hanging out after work, without so many shadows in your eyes…"

"Yeah," he said quietly. "That was nice."

He didn't say what they both knew: that they'd probably never get that again.

A collapsed lung would mean air got into the chest cavity outside of the lung, here as a result of being knocked around, preventing the lung from expanding. I'm assuming that ghouls are too hardy for that to be much of a problem in the first place, but it's something Banjo wouldn't be able to fix without getting the air out first. It should be checked out by a medical professional ASAP, but it's not instantly fatal and you can survive with it for while.

Next week: Akira gets a new job title