"You are so cruel, Akira." Kaneki's cheeks instantly turned into a pufferfish. "Could you not let us know that you are back in town?"

Marude mentioned those who left the CCG had been elusive. Akira would be one of them.

"Sorry about that," Akira replied. "I was caught up with work."

"You just came back at the right time. TSC is still looking for more instructors."

Akira smirked. "Hate to break it to you. Try your luck with those who have not stepped on Director Marude's toes. They might help." She walked away, leaving.

"Don't worry about the director." Kaneki jogged, then slowed to a walk to keep abreast with her. "He's not a person who holds grudges. Let me talk to him."

"Appreciate the offer, but I'm done fighting."

"It's teaching."

"It's the same if it involves ghoul."

"Then what are you doing now?"

"I've resigned. Yesterday was supposed to be my last day."

"Great! The job is yours."

"Haise." She stopped abruptly, a few flights of stairs below, and swirled to face him. Her stern glare was no match to that radiant smile.

He might never understand why everyone had been keeping their distance as if those who stayed behind were some kind of highly contagious disease. He only knew that once he caught one, he would not let her go that easily.

The reason was more than to find TSC a competent instructor.

That smile across his lips flattened soon. "Can you not do it for me?" His poised stature deflated.

He knew very well that his days back in the CCG were only an illusion, something he made up to fill up that emptiness he had. The family he made with Touka filled that hole, but that hole returned sometimes.

The love and care he felt back then... They had to be real.

"I wish I could help, but TSC is not where I want to be."

He cast his eyes down. Her message was clear enough. "Is it because of Ken Kaneki?" He never planned to make it sound bitter.

Her brows raised.

"I still see him…" Kaneki turned to the metal rail. His hands squeezed it. "Arima." He shivered when the breeze caressed his face. The wind stopped, but the twitch on his shoulders persisted. In fact, it became worse.

He regretted bringing the topic up after so many years. He had kept that secret well. He even swore to die with it. Why then? Why now? "Akira, actually…"

Watching Kaneki's back, Akira chose to remain silent. She then closed her eyes.

"That day at Cochlea, I—"

"I know."

Kaneki swirled around. His widened eyes stared at her.

"You didn't kill him." Her eyes reopened. "No matter what people had said, I should have known. You couldn't have done it."

She watched his cheeks getting wet. The dirt on his face streaked, following the trails of his tears.

"What I said that time..." She breathed out. "I just felt like I had to salvage anything that I could recognize, be it something from the CCG, or Haise Sasaki." She grabbed her arm and looked up to the sky emitting its first light. "The fact that I don't know Ken Kaneki... It scared me."

"I'd told you, Akira." Kaneki clenched his fists. "I haven't changed."

He froze when she stepped up to him. "I see that now." Her thumb rubbed away the tears under his eye. "Sorry, Haise. I didn't know that you are still carrying that burden after all these years."

It was not just her. What Arima pinned on Kaneki's shoulders was too heavy. It was unfair.

"Losing Special Class Arima hurt you just as much as it hurt me, but you are the one who suffers most. Instead of supporting you as I should have done, I let fear cloud my judgment and rejected you. Please forgive me."

Looking into her eyes that were laden with sorrow, he wondered, "Are you happy?"

She blinked.

"You had been away for six years. I just want to know if you have found what you are looking for."

The Akira he knew was a prisoner to an invisible chain. It weighed on her, binding and tethering her at one place. Even when she smiled, it had always been brief, as if she did not have the strength to keep it.

"Not yet, but..." She let out a smile. "I'm getting there."

He knew he was staring, because he had never seen a face glow like the sun next to them. Even the dark circles around her eyes failed to obscure that radiance.

That woman standing before him was someone he never knew. What happened to those six years?

"Haise?"

TSC is not where I want to be.

"I see." He grinned all of the sudden. It was never about him being Ken Kaneki. She merely found where she belonged. "Akira—"

The ringtone from his side pocket broke their conversation. Kaneki picked up the call, held on the phone, and paused there. "Thanks." He muttered, before putting his phone away. "Akira… come visit your grandchildren sometime."

She crossed her arms. "Didn't I say—"

"Not the Quinx. I mean Ichika and Hiro."

"Right. Ichika, your daughter. But who is Hiro?"

"Touka just gave birth. It's a boy." He had always wanted to share that joy with her. His son happened to have better timing.

If becoming an instructor was too much to ask, what about a nod or a smile, anything that showed she was happy for him?

Her face softened eventually, but she did not congratulate him, not even a word.

Once again, she turned her back against him.

"Akira?"

"I'll stop by, maybe."

He stood there. Mind went blank. Eyes followed her down the stairs.

Eventually, his heart bloomed. Face lit up with a broad smile across his face. "This Saturday at Anteiku! I'll make you curry!" Kaneki shouted. "And bring Amon too!"

She neither stopped nor turned. Instead, she flagged her hand up. "Special Class Arima… I finally see why you chose him."

Arima did not give Kaneki a burden. He gave Kaneki a key, which the latter used to turn the world that was full of tragedies into a paradise.

A/N

Arima would have been proud of what Kaneki has become.