Akira gets some hot goss over shots
They entered the dimly-lit bar. Akira glanced around without being too obvious about it. The place was not a dive, as she expected. It had a comfortable ambiance that probably attracted artsy types.
A gorgeous redhead was wiping out wineglasses behind the counter while she hummed along to Vivaldi playing in the background. "Oh, hey, Touka! You did show up." She smiled. "And you brought your friend."
After a silent moment of thought, Touka pushed her hood back and took off her mask. "Hi, Itori. Yeah, she goes by Akiyo. She's a customer of mine and she did me a big favor so I'm helping her out."
"You're so much nicer than I am," Itori laughed.
She seemed cheerful, charming, and stylish. It was easy to see how good she was at creating a friendly atmosphere. The bartender was nothing like the cruel-looking gossip Akira had imagined. You can't be an amoral backstabber unless you can get people to trust you first, though. That must be why she's so dangerous.
The ghoul's black cocktail dress was the sort of outfit that the investigator was often tempted to buy, but always talked herself out of—she had nowhere to wear a dress that nice, and besides, Akira was a practical, professional woman who only wore pencil skirts and blazers.
Maybe after this I'll feel like I'm exciting enough to deserve a little black dress.
The ghoul grabbed a whiskey tumbler and pulled an unlabeled bottle from behind the counter. With the flourished movement of a professional, she poured herself a couple of fingers of a thick burgundy liquid.
"Oh, where are my manners? Would you like a drink?" She held up the still uncapped bottled in offering.
"I never touch the stuff," said Touka. "You know how Yomo gets. I'm worried it runs in the family."
"Oh, Yomo. He's either doing the strong and silent act, or you can't get him to shut up." Itori savored a sip of her drink. "And you, Akiyo?" Her sly little smile made it clear that she was perfectly aware that "Akiyo" was a fake name.
"No thank you. I don't drink this late. It'll throw off my sleep schedule."
"Boo. We don't like that attitude here. It's bad for business." Nevertheless, she put her bottle away under the bar. "So. Let's get on with it! I'm told you're looking for information on one of Aogiri Tree's pets. The one they're calling the Owl now."
"I am." Akira leaned forward and rested her forearms on the bar, trying to look as casual as possible.
"Word on the street is he was snatched up from the CCG before he became a science experiment. What could you possibly want with a former investigator?"
"I have unfinished business with him."
The ghoul behind the bar tilted her head to the side, smirking. "You'll have to fight Tatara for him. He's not just a pet, he's a pawn."
That name was familiar enough to Akira to make her grimace. "What does Tatara want with him, exactly?"
"Aogiri's pet used to belong to the investigator that killed his brother…Hoji, was it? If I was a betting woman, I'd say Tatara was planning to sic his pet on its former master. A bit too complicated for revenge, if you ask me." She finished up by taking a long draught of her drink and licking her blood-red lips. "I would just catch him alone and eat him slow."
Akira suppressed a shudder. "How do I get to him?"
The bartender set down her empty drink with a clink. "When Touka came by here asking questions, I reached out to a buddy of mine who used to hang out with Aogiri Tree. You remember Nico, right? He was with Jason and Ayato when they wrecked up Anteiku and kidnapped Kaneki."
Touka stared angrily at Itori. "Yeah, I remember getting my ass kicked right up until I passed out."
"Oh, but that's all in the past now. My point is, I asked Nico, who asked some of his old buddies from Aogiri what they could tell us about the new Owl, and the consensus is that he's bonkers and no one wants to hang out with him. Sounds like my kind of guy." She sighed. "Unfortunately, he's a prized attack dog, and the Aogiri executives never let him out of their sight. To get to him, you'll need to destroy Aogiri Tree."
As if that would be a bad thing. "You're making it sound hopeless."
"It is, until that Tree gets chopped down. It'll happen eventually. They can't sustain their losses much longer. Cracks are appearing. Poor little Hinami got taken away by those brutes at the CCG. My sources say Ayato is bad at hiding how much he likes her. If Aogiri doesn't stand by her, it'll drive a wedge between him and the other Aogiri executives."
Touka scoffed. "Ayato and Hinami? I'll believe it when I see it."
"You just don't like the thought of your baby brother growing up and getting a girlfriend," Itori laughed warmly.
Ah, if Ayato is Touka's brother, and a high-ranking member of Aogiri, he must be the Black Rabbit.
The bartender's breezy demeanor fell away. "And that's all I can say on that matter. At least, for the price you've already paid—that nice little tidbit about how there's an investigator out there with no idea he's dating a ghoul. Ooh, that already got me invited to some fun parties, but it'll be forgotten about by next week when some new rumor sweeps through town. I can keep talking, though, if you give me something really, really good…"
The two women glanced at each other. Akira shook her head. If they were at a dead end with getting to Takizawa, they should regroup and think of some other avenue to go down.
Itori saw she was losing them, so she leaned in and whispered, "You'll be especially interested in this, Touka. If you're going to keep flirting with danger and with Kaneki, you might want to know what I have to tell you…You think the only threat you face is from the CCG finding out about you and it's fine if I keep everything you tell me among us ghouls, but what if there's someone out there playing both sides? You'll never survive."
The two women looked at each other sharply. How does she know?
Touka raised an eyebrow, waiting. She was letting Akira make the call, now that Seido was a lost cause until something changed. Akira nodded. If someone out there was spreading rumors about her recent ghoul-friendly activities, it would be important to contain that gossip as much as possible. To do so, she needed to know what the gossip was saying. What's one more Faustian bargain, in the grand scheme of things?
Touka turned back to the smiling bartender. "Alright, Itori. How's this for gossip—I'm pregnant. And Kaneki's the father. What's that get us?"
Itori blinked, then started laughing so hard she slowly collapsed behind the bar. "Perfect! Better than I ever imagined!" She stood and tried to rein herself in, wiping the tears of laughter from her eyes. "You have no idea how much danger you're in, or how badly you need me. You're so lucky I'm shameless when I see an opportunity like this unfolding."
"An opportunity for what, exactly?" While the ghoul's reaction was extreme, Akira wasn't worried yet considering she was the fabled double agent and Touka didn't have to worry about being betrayed, as things currently stood.
Itori smiled her cold, predatorial smile. "An opportunity to cause a bit of chaos. What fun is life without a little excitement, after all?"
"So quit playing games and tell me," Touka gritted out.
"Oh, let me savor betraying a friend a little bit. And extract just a little more payment, while I'm at it." Itori brought out her bottle of dark, bloody liquid to refill her tumbler, then pulled out a pair of shot glasses and filled them up as well.
She slid one shot in front of Akira. "Touka here shouldn't drink while she's with child, but how's about we toast to a healthy little ankle biter?"
Akira stared at the glass. Even if I could suck it up and do the shot without getting sick, she'll know I'm human when my eyes don't change. There's no good way out of this. But…she isn't a low-level goon, she's running her own game. If she hasn't killed me yet, I'm more valuable alive than dead.
The human slid the shot glass back across the bar and held her hands up in surrender. "What gave me away?"
Itori picked up the shot with a flourish.
The ghoul threw her head back and downed it in one gulp. "I know every ghoul in this city, and especially the ones who keep company with important connections like Touka. If I don't know you, you're probably not a ghoul. It was a good effort, you hid your humanness well, but you banked on me being bad at what I do best. I think the word for it is hubris?"
Itori tapped her chin with one finger. "Knowing that there's been an uptick in CCG personnel popping into Touka's café, combined with the fact that there's not a lot of reasons why a human would want to dig up information on Aogiri's ex-investigator pet…hmm, let me guess, are you a colleague of his?"
Akira remained silent. No need to just tell her when she guesses right.
Itori continued. "No matter. I know you work for the CCG. You have a cop face. Ooh, I can't wait to see the look on your cop face when I tell you!"
Touka stepped in. "Just spit it out, Itori. You've gotten more than enough for one night."
"Fine. You and Yomo, I swear—your whole family needs to lighten up. I'm making a meal of this because it's not every day I get to throw a live grenade into the CCG like this. If you thought I was referring to the turncoat Miss Akiyo here as your biggest threat, I wasn't. There's another investigator who's been running with ghouls even longer than her."
"No way," breathed Touka.
"Believe it. He finagled his way into the Clowns, and the best part is that he wants to use us to tear apart the CCG from within. I said, sign me up."
Akira's brain stuttered. "But…why?"
"His parents didn't love him enough as a child, I guess. He was raised from birth to be a part of the CCG, and maybe he resents that fact. He came from someplace called the Overcast Garden or something."
"Sunlit Garden," muttered Akira.
"Yes! That's the one."
Touka still had the presence of mind to ask one last important question. "Why are you turning on him, and on the Clowns?"
"Oh, that's easy. I made a pass at him and he turned me down. Says he's still carrying a torch for a girl he grew up with at the Garden…a girl named Rize."
Akira didn't recognize the significance of that revelation, but Touka did. "Shit."
Itori blithely continued. "Plus, I think it'll be so much more exciting when no one knows who they can trust anymore, and I get a front row seat to the pandemonium. Speaking of which, you two ladies might want to get out of here." She threw back the remaining shot on the bar. "Ah, that's good."
The blonde calmed her racing thoughts enough to recognize how suspicious that statement was. "Why?"
"I have to at least pretend to have a side. I need to put on a show of acting in the interest of the Clowns. So…I may have called in an anonymous tip to the CCG when I saw Rabbit and her friend walking right by my building. My eyesight must be failing me, because I thought you—" She pointed at Akira. "—looked like Eyepatch. It's been over fifteen minutes, so I'm sure whoever they sent to check out the neighborhood must be here by now."
Touka stood, shaking. "You said you saw Eyepatch and Rabbit in this area?" She picked up her mask and hesitated to put it on, but going without it wasn't an option either. "He's at the main office right now. If a report comes in that Eyepatch is prowling around out here…"
Akira finished that thought. "Haise is going to check it out. We've got to run."
The two of them raced out of the building, Itori's cackling laughter following them out. "Tell Yomo to stop by for a drink soon! I miss his cute little tushie!"
"Now do you see why I hate dealing with her," panted Touka.
"Yeah. I get it now."
Uh-oh spaghettio…
Next week: Akira and Yomo are the only adults in the room.