Akira sits with the weirdos at lunch
Everything was chaos for a couple of minutes—the investigators frozen at the audacity of their invasion, but regrouping quickly and calling in as many reinforcements as possible, while the ghouls bristled at the possibility of attack, barely restraining themselves.
Akira let Nagachika do the negotiating. If she didn't know how much he and Marude had been colluding behind the scenes, the show they were putting on would have been quite convincing. She kept one ear on their jockeying—Marude couldn't immediately welcome the ghouls without looking like a traitor, he had to lead the crowd into accepting their aid.
Most of her attention was on watching the line of investigators, looking for any troublemakers, any hands twitching on their quinque cases a little too much. Her newly-discovered fear of mob mentality had her on high alert. They were restless, yes, but there was a clear leader they were looking to for cues. As long as Marude held the reins, she thought they had a good chance of success.
Glancing through the ranks, she spotted one annoyingly sharp haircut in the back. Well, Ui? How much of a liar am I now? It was hard to hold back a smug smirk.
He sent a sour look back at her. He mouthed something that looked an awful lot like, "Screw you." But then he glanced around at the people around him, at their hostile body language. Something in the hallway to his side suddenly caught his eye and he looked back to Akira with an eye roll.
"Have you all lost it?" Everyone hushed as Ui's sudden outburst echoed through the lobby. "Of course we shouldn't trust them. Just ask their hostage."
"You talking about me behind my back?" The crowd shuffled around, parting to reveal Shinohara in the hallway. He was rolling himself in a wheelchair, wearing a fresh set of CCG sweats, and…following close behind was Juzo, skidding to a stop in his slippers.
Marude looked over at the two of them, nonplussed at the interruptions that seemed to be derailing everything. "Nice of you to join us. Do you have anything to contribute?"
"Don't look at me, I'm not on active duty. What do you think?" Shinohara turned towards Juzo.
His breath caught. His eyes skittered over Akira, but avoided her gaze. He seemed to pause on Hinami for slightly longer. "I think…if we work together, it'll be easy."
"I…I agree!" A small voice joined in. Akira was startled to notice Yonebayashi stepping forward and raising her hand. Her wide eyes were darting from Amon to Akira and back. The rest of the Quinx squad was standing close behind her. None of them acted as sure as she did, but no one grabbed her and pulled her back into line, either.
She knew there was now a clock ticking—soon she wouldn't be able to avoid the Quinx any longer.
But it was like the aura of hostility melted away. Ito burst through the front lines and yelled, a little too exuberantly, "Yeah! We need them right now!"
Agreement swept through the investigators, row by row.
"You're welcome," Ui murmured as he passed nearby on his way back down a side hallway.
"You're still an asshole," she hissed after him.
After the all the excitement died down, an uncomfortable silence overtook the room.
Marude looked around. "What are you all waiting for?! If you know your job, hop to it! If you need a job, come see me!"
Most of the investigators dispersed with wary glances back at the crowd of ghouls.
Their de facto leader looked askance at Akira. "Well? What can they do?"
She thought for a minute. Pointing to a group that looked alert enough, she ordered, "Get outside and establish a perimeter around the building. At least a block out, if you can manage it."
To Marude, she said, "If you can get radios, we can send some out some small groups for scouting."
He snapped his fingers and shooed off an underling to start organizing their equipment needs.
"Everyone else might need a rest and some coffee before they can be helpful," she continued.
He nodded. "I'll admit, they're a useful resource. I was afraid to risk investigator's lives on patrol until we knew more, but this works out pretty well."
She grabbed his arm and pulled him aside. "If they're under your command, you take responsibility for them. You'll get cooperation and loyalty, but you're going to lose it fast if you keep talking like that."
A sarcastic voice cut in. "It's not like we expected anything more from that old asshole."
Marude spun to stare down his nose at Touka. "You."
She stared right back. "You."
"Well, that solves one mystery."
"What?"
He shrugged. "Last time we met, I thought maybe you were so pissy because you were pregnant. Now I know that's just your sparkling personality."
Touka looked over at Nagachika with a smile. "Hide, could you hold my daughter while I kick this guy's ass?"
For a second, it sounded like Nagachika's voice box was glitching out as he choked on his response. "Well, um, do you really think that's setting a good example for her?"
"I think kicking his ass would set a great example for her."
Marude appeared very unimpressed. He seemed to either not care about her threats, or he knew she was more bark than bite by now.
A guy in a rumpled suit waved down Marude from across the room and held up a satellite phone. "Sir! We have more survivors in several branch offices trying to get in contact!"
With a sneer, Marude waved them away. "Get out of here. Send the rest to the cafeteria for coffee. Find an empty office for the brat to take a nap in. I'll get back with you when we get a good command center established." He turned around to march off in the direction of the conference room that normally served as a center of operations for large-scale missions.
"Yes, sir," Akira breathed with gratitude.
He paused and looked back at her. "You know, that's the first time you've ever called me 'sir' and meant it, Mado?"
She gaped as he jogged away. Oh, maybe he's a little sharper than I thought.
She brought Touka and Ichika to her old office. The room was untouched, other than the signs of a forensically thorough ransacking. Ichika quickly curled up in one of the chairs, while Touka just stretched out on the floor.
Akira opened a drawer of her filing cabinet, filled with blankets, a pillow, basic toiletries, and a couple of changes of clothes. Long nights at the office had happened on rare occasion before, and Akira was grateful that she liked to be well-prepared. She tucked one set of clothes under her arm and tossed everything else to the girls. "Here, something might fit if you want to change into clean clothes. I'll come get you if anything happens, but for now get some sleep. You should be left alone here."
Touka reached for the pillow and yawned. "You had a restless night too. You need some sleep eventually."
"I'll sleep soon. I just want to make the rounds and see where we are right now." Backing out, she turned off the light and quietly shut the door.
She cleaned herself up in a bathroom and changed into her spare outfit for tactical operations, a black T-shirt and durable olive drab cargo pants. Oh wait, if I grabbed this outfit, it means the one I left for Touka…Ha.
Akira quickly figured out that most people not out on a mission were congregating down in the cafeteria.
She spotted her people—Amon, Takizawa, and Hide—sitting at the same table where they used to eat lunch in another life. They were all working through paper cups full of steaming coffee.
When she pulled out a chair and flopped down bonelessly, Hide glanced over her. "That's a different look for you."
She stole a sip of coffee from Amon. "I know—I haven't worn a blazer or heels in ages. I don't even know who I am anymore."
"Nah. You look like you're amongst the people."
Akira looked down at her bandaged arm, then around the table. Amon, sitting up straight but with a thousand-yard stare, Takizawa with his hood pulled over his head and eyes darting around neurotically, Hide adjusting the covering on his scarred face…and she started chuckling. Then laughing out loud.
"What," groused Takizawa.
"Do—" she took a moment to collect herself. "Do you remember the last time we were all sitting here? Wow, have we had a rough go of it."
It took a moment, but Seido snorted. "We were looking for Eyepatch back then, too."
Hide shook his head. "A real full-circle moment."
They kept collecting stares as more and more people filtered through the cafeteria. The four of them were completely past caring.
Someone walked by, tossing handfuls of protein bars and energy drinks on each table, probably raided from nearby vending machines. Clearly, they had decided that fueling everyone up was more important than that line item in the budget.
The artificial ghouls pushed their table's pile down to Akira and Hide.
Hide pocketed a bar and passed the rest to Akira. "Not super interested in putting on a public show. Here."
Akira stared at the food, feeling queasy. She copied Hide, shoving a couple of bars in her pocket for later. "I think I'll throw up if I try to eat anything. Too much adrenaline."
She looked around. For years of her life, she'd eaten lunch in that cafeteria. It had been just fine then. The room had once been welcoming during long, difficult days of work. Now, it looked smaller than she remembered. More drab.
She had the same feeling walking through the halls of the CCG's main office. Yes, it was familiar and a bit comforting, but…she'd outgrown the place, and it would never be home again.
Grabbing Amon's hand on the table, she attempted to lift the mood. "But it is a little nice to be back here again. Exactly like old times. I miss those days, on occasion."
Takizawa very suddenly bristled at that. He slapped his hands on the table, stood up, and said, "Well, this has been a great trip down memory lane and all, but I think I'll be going now."
He was halfway across the cafeteria before the rest of the table snapped out of it.
Hide cocked his head to the side. "Aw, Seido…"
Amon stood, but Akira motioned for him to sit back down.
"I'll get him. Again," she added with growing annoyance. Akira stole the last of Amon's coffee and fought through her bone deep fatigue to get back on her feet and run after him.
She caught up to him in the main lobby, now mostly empty. "Seido, quit running away!"
"Quit bothering me!"
"If you would pull your head out of your ass and listen—"
"Me?! Oh, get over yourself, you selfish bitch! What more do you want from me? 'Ooh, look at me, I'm Akira, I'm so uptight and I like to hold everyone to the same impossible standards I hold myself to and then look right through them when they turn out to be human—" He broke off his high-pitched imitation of her voice suddenly.
It seemed like he was caught up in exorcising some old, old grievance, maybe brought up by being back in the building where he'd nursed it. And then he'd accidentally reminded himself of how much had changed.
He spun around. Before Akira could think of how to respond, he'd stomped through the RC gates. They didn't go off.
She took a step after him—and nearly jumped out of her skin when they started blaring.
Takizawa spun back around to stare at her. "Well, that's interesting."
First she took a second to get her bearings, startled out of her wits as she was. Spinning around on one heel, she raced over to the gate's monitors and held down the shutoff button to halt the alarm. Putting one hand over her racing heart, she said, "Holy shit."
Takizawa backed into the building, never taking his eyes off her. The alarms still didn't go off for him.
The noise attracted a couple of investigators who were passing through. "We're fine," she yelled at them. "Just tripped the alarm on accident!"
"About that. That doctor always promised me and Amon wouldn't set off the alarms because the One-Eyed Owl didn't trigger them." He pointed at her hip pocket. She glanced down at the packaged energy bar sticking out. "Sooo…out of curiosity, how long has it been since you've eaten?"
"I…snacked on some wasabi peas while waiting for Furuta's little press conference. Everything's been so crazy, and they destroy my tastebuds anyways…"
"Aaaaand that knife that was in your arm, how's that going?"
Akira frantically peeled back one of the bandages on her forearm. She hadn't thought about it much, but it had stopped bothering her hours ago. The slashes were healing up, and the knife wound was not as red and angry around the edges as it had been earlier, but not miraculously healed on its own. And disturbing the bandage did cause it to start stinging again.
"Oh, I thought that was going to be a dramatic reveal," Takizawa said blandly.
She stared off into the distance. "But…I still smell human, right?"
"I wasn't gonna say anything, but you mostly smell like RC suppressant right now. Not the best perfume."
Almost absentmindedly, she touched the pocket of her pants where she was keeping her last aliquot of suppressant. "I don't have time for this." Looking up at Seido, she said, "Don't tell anyone any of this. I'll…I'll figure it out later."
"No problem. I was leaving anyways."
"Are you kidding me? You're really insisting on doing this now?!"
"You feel it too, right? None of us belong here anymore. At least Nagachika's still human. You and Amon can be freaks together. I just…I don't know what to do next, but my future isn't here. Just let me go already."
She nodded along. "Uh huh, I hear that, but we're also in the middle of a historic crisis and we need you, so maybe this time you can give it a few days before going off to find yourself?"
He wrinkled his nose. "Calm down. I was just gonna hole up across the street. Yell when you've got a job for me, but otherwise let me have some peace and quiet." He hesitated, but dropped one last bomb on her. "All I ever wanted was for you to see me. It kind of sucks that it only happened after…everything."
She didn't go back to the lunchroom, although she knew people would probably start wondering where she was. And she couldn't go back to her office—Touka and Ichika were still there. Instead, she paced up and down the hall.
After a moment, she picked a spot and sat on the ground, leaning against the wall. Half out of curiosity, she choked down the protein bar. Once she started eating, it turned out she was hungrier than she realized. It tasted bland and stale, and it felt like a heavy lump in her stomach, but she kept it down.
For several quiet minutes, she wrapped her arms around her legs and laid her head on her knees. It felt like she was trying to hold herself together.
"I was looking for you. They're asking anyone who is available to help with evacuations, so I was going to assist." Amon slid to the ground next to her. "You disappeared. Are you trying to avoid me?"
She answered frankly. "I suppose. It doesn't really have anything to do with you, though."
He thought about how to interpret that. After a moment, he must have settled on neutral to positive. "As long as it's not my fault."
"No. Takizawa left, but he's staying close. I wish…I was better at getting through to him. I think I hurt him." And in a lower voice, "Am I a bad friend?"
"I see," he said quietly. "No one can save him from himself, in the end. Nothing in his life worked out the way he wanted it to. He's also fighting plenty of demons that have nothing to do with you."
"You've faced a few unexpected difficulties, too." Without really understanding why, her eyes started watering. "And even then, you're far too patient with me. You always have been. Even when I'm self-involved and petty and cynical…"
"Do you want me to lie and say that it's easy because you're perfect?"
She laughed, and swiped at her eyes. "No."
"Love in action is a harsh and dreadful thing compared to love in dreams. That's an unpleasant truth for most people, but I think it makes perfect sense to you. It's hard to see at first, but once I realized that about you, I saw how much you do care for everyone around you, even if you show it in your own way…you're worth some patience."
Again, she could only admire how steadfast he always seemed when she felt completely adrift. "I don't think I'd have stayed sane this long without you," she whispered.
"You would have. Maybe it would have been a bit lonelier, but you would have survived."
I'm getting a little sick of just surviving, though. She quietly sniffled, taking comfort in Amon's arm around her shoulders. It probably would have been better to just let go and sob for a few minutes, but…real tears just didn't come.
Within a couple of minutes she felt slightly better.
Unfortunately, this was not a good time to sit with little personal dramas. Amon recalled that first. "I need to go help. Will you be alright for a while?"
"Yeah. Go be a hero." She held up her arm. "I need to find someone to patch me up and then I'll probably join in."
There's a part of my brain that stores away cool quotes as I run across them in the wild. Most of the time, I don't use them because it would be highly unlikely for the characters to have any reason to also know those quotes, but I feel like it makes sense for Amon to have read Dostoevsky at some point so…thanks for putting up with me sneaking that in.
Edit 11/28: Fixed a small typo :)
Next week: Akira does not appreciate arts and crafts