Akira sinks to a new low
They snuck back to Akira's car without incident. She offered to drive Touka and no one else. She had put up with a lot recently, but she drew the line at giving a ride to Orochi.
Yomo and Orochi disappeared into the night, with an agreement to meet at the café after everyone had cleaned up.
In the staff bathroom at Café :re, Akira got into a spare change of clothes—stashed in her trunk because she had a hunch it would be a long night and she'd been right as usual—and splashed cold water on her face. Tomorrow is going to be a rough day at work.
Touka did the same, then unlocked the back door and let in Yomo and Nishiki. When all four had looked like menacing ghouls less than an hour ago, they now looked like a sleep-deprived group of humans.
After brewing everyone a cup of coffee, they all sat at the break room table and Touka began retelling their encounter with Itori.
As she reached the end, the ghoul laid her head on the table. Dejectedly she mumbled, "All that…and she didn't even tell us the guy's name."
"She narrowed it down plenty," responded Akira with a bleak look on her face. "Not many recruits come from the Sunlit Gardens, but they're all elite from day one. We hear all about it when someone from the Sunlit Garden joins the CCG."
"And whoever it is knew Rize somehow," Touka grimaced.
Akira tilted her head to the side. "I didn't understand that part."
Nishiki chimed in. "Rize, the Binge Eater? The one who made an involuntary organ donation to Kaneki?"
There was a beat of silence from Akira. "No, it couldn't be. She just said someone named Rize was at the Sunlit Gardens with whoever is betraying the CCG," she clarified.
Touka shook her head. "If Itori said it was Rize, there's only one person she would be referring to—the Binge Eater who just appeared one day. No one knows where she came from or who her people are. Whatever this sunset garden place is, it might finally solve that mystery."
Akira collected herself and thought. "The Binge Eater ceased predation a couple of years ago, and was active for a while before that. How old was she then?"
"An adult. Late teens, early twenties, I don't know for sure. Besides, she seemed the type to lie about that stuff," shrugged Touka.
"I'm currently working with a new batch of recruits from the Sunlit Gardens—they're far too young to be who she's talking about. They were practically still in diapers back then. Not counting female investigators, and not counting investigators who would be too young to have any meaningful interactions with the adult Binge Eater several years ago, that leaves…two possibilities. My boss, Arima, and some young gun in another squad."
The table was quiet, contemplating how unpleasant Akira's position was if the White Reaper was the other traitor.
Why would a ghoul come out of the Sunlit Gardens? How was that even possible? They were so highly respected for cranking out good investigators…Something rattled in her brain. Chase that hunch…
"I need to think out loud. The Sunlit Garden is an elite training facility that produces the best recruits. They are beyond reproach or suspicion. On the other hand, they somehow may have also produced one of the more dangerous ghouls in recent memory, as well as an investigator who may try to betray the CCG. I find all that very difficult to imagine, because they are beyond reproach or suspicion."
"Now you know to suspect them," said Nishiki. "It's funny. You never would have pried unless you had ghouls providing you with info."
She pointed at him. "Yes! That's it. Tell me how crazy this sounds: From what we know on the CCG's side, there's nothing to suspect. It's only when you add in our intel from ghoul sources that they start to sound suspicious. Unfortunately, except for this discussion right now, that'll never come to light because ghouls and investigators don't talk. If it's true, it's very neatly done—how perfectly the animosity between ghouls and the CCG provides cover to the Sunlit Garden."
Nishiki picked up where she left off. "So the next question to ask is, is that just a coincidence or are they actively taking advantage of the firewall between us?"
Touka added in, "Plus who are 'they'? If this training camp is the top of the pyramid…why go through all that trouble? It seems kind of pointless unless it's a part of something bigger."
"Whatever it is," sighed Akira as she propped up her tired head on one hand, elbow on the table, "it's beginning to feel like there's something rotten in the CCG."
The stark silence that followed was unsettling. It took the investigator a moment to remember she was at a table with ghouls. They've always thought that about us, I suppose. "In any case, there are enemies on all sides. We're all in a precarious position, now, so lay as low as possible. Two of the three ghouls at this table are good at that."
Nishiki stood suddenly. "Well, this sure has been fun but I've really got to get going—"
Without skipping a beat, Yomo reached over to grab the younger man's shoulder and yank him back into his seat. "You stay until we're done here."
He tried to argue, but they all jumped at the sudden sound of a ringtone.
It was Touka's. After retrieving her phone from her pocket, she looked at the screen in horror. "Shut up, it's Haise." She cleared her throat and answered the phone. "Hey, what are you calling so late for...No, I had to run to the café. The alarm got triggered, but it was a false alarm…Just a big moth that got in, but I still need to reset it…Yeah, I'll hang out here and wait for you." She hung up.
"Dammit." Touka looked around. "He went to my apartment and I wasn't there. He's headed here now to walk me home. Stay in the back and keep quiet."
As soon as she left to go to wait in the café's front, Yomo turned off the main overhead lights. Only the mild glow of appliances and a couple of night lights were left to illuminate the room.
Nishiki turned to Yomo. "Hey, don't you guys have security cameras in there?"
Soon Akira and both ghouls were in an office barely bigger than a closet, clustered around a large screen, watching a medium quality image of the dark storefront set to the lowest possible volume.
This is wrong on so many levels. I'm shoulder-to-shoulder with a wanted ghoul, trying to spy on a private conversation between my subordinate and his wife…But it's not like I'm not going to do it…
Touka wiled away the minutes by tidying the cluttered shelves, until she noticed something out front and went to unlock the door.
Haise entered, also cleaned up and in a new change of clothes.
He looked at Touka for a long moment, then ran up to her and embraced her.
"Are you okay?"
His voice was muffled by the way his face was buried against her shoulder. "I had a difficult night at work."
She rubbed his back in response. "I know you can't talk about it with me, but I'm here for you." She pulled away from him and directed him to sit on a bench near the front windows, then seated herself at his side.
Touka leaned her head on his shoulder, and Haise reached over to rest a hand on her stomach.
He laughed. "Hiccups?"
"Yeah, I think so."
In the back office, Nishiki gasped and whispered, "Oh, they're talking about the baby!"
Akira had to suppress a shudder at how sappy he sounded. Orochi is baby crazy. Who knew.
On the monitor, Touka spoke. "Haise. You hide what you're going through from me, and I don't just mean work stuff. You think you're protecting me, but you can't keep shouldering all these burdens by yourself."
He slouched. "I'm scared that something will happen to me, I'll die or disappear…and you'll hate me for leaving you."
"Hey. That'll never happen. You better not die, but if you do, I'd be crushed that you're gone. No hate, though."
"And if I disappear? If one day something happens to me and who I am now is gone? If I become a different person?"
She was quiet while she thought of how to respond. "I don't love you for your weird hair, or anything else that might be different one day. I love you for the things that won't ever change. You're kind, you're compassionate, you work so hard to protect everyone you care about, you're a total dork…" She reached up and ruffled his hair, a look of warm affection on her face.
Haise laughed. "It's way too late. I'm probably not thinking clearly. Let's go back to your place."
They stood up, holding hands as they left. While Touka reset the alarm by the door, he joked, "Hey, do you think we'll ever be able to move in together?"
"Hmm, maybe by our third anniversary. By the time the kid's in school, definitely."
In the back office, the trio of voyeurs breathed a sigh of relief. They filtered back into the break room, where their abandoned cups of coffee were tending towards lukewarm.
Nishiki flipped the lights back on and muttered, "Don't ever tell her I said so, but she's gonna be a good mom."
Akira thought of Haise's endless patience with the Quinx squad. "He's going to be a good father, as well." A thought occurred to her. "It might be silly to wonder this late in the game…but why can't he tell that she's a ghoul? Some of the Quinx squad has been here, why can't they tell that it's full of ghouls? I thought they had a superior sense of smell." She thought about Yonebayashi in her office but she was just too tired to string an intelligent thought together on that subject.
The ghoul adjusted his glasses and shrugged. "She mostly smells like coffee. Just like everyone who works in a coffeeshop, or even drinks a lot of coffee. It's a strong scent." He looked to Yomo. "Do you want to explain why you and Touka are hanging out with a dove, or is this one of those 'elephant in the room' situations?"
Akira gulped down her room-temperature coffee—at least it would keep her alert for the drive home— and stood to leave. "I have to be at work in a few hours. I'll let Yomo explain however much he feels you need to know."
She passed him on the way out the back door and had one last passing thought. "Oh, and one more thing." In a flash, she pulled out the blade of quinque steel hidden up her sleeve.
Before he knew what had happened, she had Orochi by the collar with one hand and pressed the blade to his neck with the other until a thin stream of blood trickled from the point.
Through gritted teeth, she growled, "Stop hurting investigators, or I will end you, Nishiki."
His eyes flashed red, but he held his hands up in surrender. "You got it!"
She shoved him away and exited through the back.
What a ridiculous night, she thought as she circled around to her car, knife in hand. She paused to yawn once she was back on the well-lit sidewalk.
When her alarm went off the next morning, Akira's first thought was: If I drop dead of a brain aneurysm right now, I don't have to get up and go to work.
When fate didn't step in and kill her, she had a second thought that instantly energized her.
We might have set a canary trap.
She rushed over to Café :re during her morning commute and trudged up to the counter where Touka was yawning.
Through her own yawns, Akira managed to get out her order: "A red eye, to go."
Touka frowned. "Is that supposed to be a joke?"
"No. I want caffeine. As much as possible. Right now."
"One red eye to go, then."
When Touka set the cup in front of her, Akira leaned in to whisper, "We have a canary trap on our hands."
"Thanks but no thanks? I don't need any canaries at the moment. Not a big fan of birds that talk back at me."
Akira sighed. There were other customers around, so she couldn't speak clearly. "It's an espionage term. Or maybe it was a barium meal test? Anyways. We have two possible targets, and last night you gave some sensational news to someone neither of them should be talking to. If either one of them says or does anything that indicates they were talking to her…"
"Ah, I see now."
"Make sure everyone in your circle keeps their mouths shut. It only works if your bartender is the only possible source."
"I'm not exactly broadcasting the happy news, so no worries on that front. You've scared off most of the casual…customers by now. Otherwise, my employees and longtime regulars mostly keep to our own little social circle. I'll make sure they know I'll kill them if they gossip about me. Now take your coffee and get to work. I've got a line."
Akira glanced behind her, where several impatient commuters were waiting. She sneered at Touka, grabbed her drink, and left.
As she walked back to her car, she felt a strange chill.
Something's off…She looked down the street, at the crowds of people on their way to work. When she glanced behind her, she saw more of the same. She felt eyes on her again. It could be V, or Aogiri, the Clowns, or some investigator tailing me. Or maybe I'm just becoming paranoid.
She hated that eerie sixth sense for feeling when someone was watching her. It was the instinct of a prey animal, a reminder that she wasn't the top of the food chain. She'd been held back by her human weakness the whole previous night. It didn't feel good.
Akira shrugged to herself and yawned again. Maybe if I'm lucky I'll get assassinated before I get to the main office. Then I won't have to spend all day trying to stay awake.
She was not so lucky—she made it to the main office unharmed.
That scene in the café is about the sappiest you're gonna get from me, soooooo cherish it hahahaha.
Poor Akira's sleep deprived—what she's talking about is in fact technically a barium meal test and not a canary trap, though the two are extremely similar. I hope you forgive me for preferring the term "canary trap," since it's less obscure and it calls to mind such a great image.
Next week: Akira realizes she's not always the smartest person in the room.