Hide dropped his head on the table.

It felt like, if he looked in a mirror, he'd see steam coming off the top of his head. He wished someone would knock him out just so he had an excuse not to read another chapter of his textbook.

He dully watched a napkin slide into view and picked it up, looking at it without lifting his head.

It was covered in a messily written, barely legible list of words. The ones he'd already gone over with Hinami were crossed out.

Hide sat up, dragging his hands down his face.

He had a little less than two days to memorize all the information he needed to know for the exam. Kaneki had made a study sheet for him, which helped in that he didn't have to memorize the entire textbook.

Just some folktales, preserved memoirs, and personal accounts that had survived until the modern era. So, just half of it.

Hide wished desperately for unconsciousness.

His backpack was next to him, stuffed with his neatly folded work clothes. He'd come up straight after work and changed in the bathroom.

That naive him had thought it would take too long to go home with all the studying he had to do and had been much more determined to pass.

"If you're tired, you don't have to-"

"I'm good," he interrupted her, slapping his hands against his cheeks to wake himself up.

He didn't feel more awake, but now his cheeks hurt.

Hinami, still looking unsure, leaned over the table across from him and turned the book to face him.

"You can help her, can't you? He's your father, and you love him, so why are you standing to the side?" she read slowly, trailing a finger under the passage.

Hide obligingly crossed his arms on the table as he leaned down to look. These were the only 'breaks' he allowed himself, other than when the regret got to him.

"And then he says no, but it can't be that, because there's no period or comma when he says right after it," Hinami explained.

Hide picked up the napkin again, comparing the first word on the list to the one she was pointing at, and thinking about the context it was in.

難しいですね

"In that context, you have to read the words together instead of reading them individually. Instead of no, and right, it's no I can't."

Hide took a pen from her side of the table and drew a line between

難しい and ですね.

Hinami took the napkin and studied it, tracing the words without sound.

Hide, yawning, propped his elbow on the table and leaned his chin on his hand as she reread the passage.

He watched her eyes light up with new understanding.

She devoured the rest of the page and quickly turned to the next one, then stopped around the middle and said, "And here too. He's thinking and it says, I want him to stop, but I don't know how to say it without it sounding like 'I don't love you',"

"Then he says, out loud, hello, but it's not hello. Why would he say hello?"

Hide consulted the napkin again.

どうも

"It's sorry," he told her. "It has a lot of meanings informally like hello, goodbye, and thank you."

Hinami scrambled to write it all down and went back to the book.

Hide's arm lost the fight against gravity and he found his head pillowed on it.

"Oh no, egg, you shouldn't be sorry. It's not your fault," she told the book, sounding sad.

Hide blinked. "I thought that was Monochrome Rainbow, not Dear Kafka."

"It is, but it's a first edition," Hinami gushed, flipping to the back of the book to show him. "It has a prototype story at the end she wrote before The Black Goat's Egg. She says so right here that there were many versions of that story that we'll never get to see, but she still liked Winter Shower at Night."

"Cool," Hide said, not knowing what any of that meant. Using his other hand, he reluctantly pulled his textbook back in front of him.

"Can I try reading that when you're done?" Hinami asked shyly. "It has a lot of stories in it, right?"

"Stories that give me a headache," Hide mumbled.

"I won't ask for help," Hinami promised, clasping her hands together above her head. "And I know it's a book from your school, so I'll take really good care of it and I'll give it back the second you ask without complaining even once."

Hide couldn't lift his head. "Worry about finishing that first."

Hinami pouted at him for a while, but eventually went back to the page she'd been on. "I'm going to get a lit-rature degree too, and then I'll read all the books I want."

Hide let out an amused huff.

He heard footsteps stop by the door and turned his head, catching Touka as she stopped to stare in on them. The second she made eye contact with him she quickly turned away. She strode faster down the hall towards the kitchen, still in uniform.

"Are you and Touka fighting?" Hinami asked, peeking over the top of the book at him.

Hide scratched his cheek, but he was way too fried to think about it. He shrugged. He couldn't keep his eyes open. He heard Hinami talking, but he just needed a few seconds, and then he'd help her again.

He just needed to rest his eyes really quick.

"You've been staring at that mug for a long time. The little old lady you took that order from looks like she might come over here and make it herself soon," Enji drawled, leaning on the counter next to him.

Hide blinked slowly, first at the lack of coffee in the mug on the counter, and then at the Devil Ape. "Oh, sorry," he said. He felt dead on his feet.

Enji studied him for a second, shook his head, and then waved him out of the way. "Move over. A supervisor needs to look after his underling, you know?"

Hide blinked again but shuffled out of the way.

Enji touched the water heater, and it must've gone cold, because he turned it back on. "How'd the exams go?"

Hide didn't want to think about them. "Won't get the results for a few days," he said. He'd taken them earlier, he was pretty sure, when he'd been riding off adrenaline and coffee to keep him awake. Now his brain was in a fog.

Cramming sucked, but it had always sucked.

Enji opened the cabinet under the counter and tossed his used coffee filter in a bin. "She's rough around the edges, our Touka, but she's not cruel. She would've sent you home if she saw you when you came in. You look like you haven't slept in a week."

Hide watched him un-slot the coffee bowl and dump murky-looking coffee in the sink. "I had the day off," he said. "Touka—she's worried about her grades, I think. She asked me to come in for her. I was more awake when I said I'd do it."

Enji put a new filter in the strainer and said, "That explains it. You want to get back on her good side. I had a few lover's spats myself when I was your age—"

"We're not—is it because I smell like her?"

"No, why would that be it?" Enji asked in confusion.

Hide blinked.

"Kidding, kid," he said without looking, picking up the water heater to pour on the beans, and Hide watched brown liquid drain into the cup beneath the strainer. "As long as I've known her, Touka has been distant with anyone she's not familiar with. But you? She'd never show or say it, but she was worried about you being on your own. The only way she could've made it in time to see what when down between you and that Nishio kid was if she'd been searching around for you, which means she knows your schedule. That goes beyond being your superior."

Hide leaned heavily on the counter. "I don't have the brain power to think about this right now."

Enji snorted. He finished the coffee and added a few blood sugar cubes without asking him what the order was, which meant his hearing was at least better than Touka's, and delivered it to a table next to a window.

There weren't many customers, and most were just lingering around after already being served, so Hide could stay where he was and listen to Enji apologize and throw him under the bus as that 'little old lady' gave Hide an unfriendly glance or two.

He didn't remember much at all after his last exam. Not even parting ways with Kaneki.

"I never went to school, you know," Enji said as he came back, wiping down the counter. "But I imagine it's somewhat like being the leader of a group. A lot of eyes watching to see if you'd succeed or fail, enough pressure to drown a man, and it can all fall apart in an instant because of a single dove. I know why Touka is putting herself through that, but I can't see you having the same reason. You know what hers is?"

"Touka and I aren't that close—"

"She wants to live as close to a human life as possible," Enji continued, whispering. "Can't see you as a dreamer. You're more like me and Irimi. Or how we were. You do things as they suit you. You won't let anyone see your weaknesses. You have humanity, until it gets in the way, and then you shed it like an old coat. It's a slippery slope. One day you might wake up and realize that you have no humanity left to shed."

Hide saw that Enji the playful supervisor was gone. He was looking at Koma, the Devil Ape. And still, he couldn't help himself as he said, "I think I left my humanity somewhere under all the rubble at that construction site."

Koma wasn't surprised by his answer. He just smiled faintly, his eyes a little sad.

"What do you think I'm in college for?" Hide asked, using his arms like pillows, keeping half his awareness on the register in case anyone decided to stop loitering.

Koma didn't look at him as he said, "You tell me, kid. That's what I'm trying to figure out."

Hide yawned. "It's not that complicated. I want to graduate with my best friend."

"Ah, I see," Koma said lightly, putting the rag aside. "You must not have studied very hard then."

Hide paused, looking up at him.

"If that's all," Koma began, giving him a side glance, "What'd you spend so much time upstairs doing? All you need to pass are C's, right? I think even I could've managed to scrape by."

Hide kept looking at him.

"You were aiming for C's, right?" Enji asked, rubbing his chin, mock clueless. "If not, then what was someone like you with such a simple goal aiming for? Because it looked to me and everyone else like you were aiming for A's."

Hide could've told him about his 'amnesia', but it didn't explain why he'd gone without sleeping, why he was risking his job here by being too tired to pay attention to his coffee quality if he was aiming to just pass, or why he'd followed Kaneki's cheat sheet at all.

Nagachika had more than enough connections for him to exploit if he was just doing the bare minimum. It didn't make sense to himself, looking at it like that.

Enji peered down at him and asked knowingly, "So, what's your real reason?"

"I got to choose," his mouth blurted out. "I never had a choice before, about school. I had to do it."

He stopped.

Oh.

No one here had expected him to go to college, or to go back. Kaneki wanted him to, but it was his choice in the end. He could've stayed gone, stayed at Anteiku, and no one would've judged him for it.

Enji studied him in silence for so long that Hide almost fell asleep on the counter. Eventually, Enji patted his shoulder. "You have my permission to go take a nap upstairs. If you wake up before your shift is over, then great, but if not, I'll cover for you. Today seems like a slow day. My treat for forcing you to be honest with yourself."

Hide quietly scoffed.

"Plus, you being slumped over like this is making Anteiku look bad," Enji said, patting him again more firmly. "It's all about the image your project to your customers. Days like this are nice, but too many are bad for business. I don't think anyone you served is coming back."

"Harsh."

"I'm your mentor for the day. It's my job," Enji said, grinning at him. "I'll tell them you got food poisoning. Should soften the blow."

"Will I still get paid?"

"You've got priorities. I respect that," Enji said, then hauled him up by the back of his shirt and shoved him towards the stairs.

Hide stumbled but couldn't deny how much appealing the couch seemed right then. He went upstairs, into the meeting room, and was about to collapse onto the couch when he saw a square package on the table. It had his name written on the top and the sides in black marker.

It didn't have a label, or a return address.

Hide raised it above his head and found Uta's scribbled signature on the bottom. It had only been a little over a week since he visited the 4th ward with Touka.

That was... fast. But it also meant that Uta had come to Anteiku and avoided him when he delivered it, because he hadn't seen the mask maker.

"What did I do to him?" Hide asked himself, as surprised as he was confounded, laying back on the couch as he tore it open.

" ̶I̶'̶v̶e̶ ̶b̶e̶e̶n̶ ̶t̶h̶i̶n̶k̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶a̶b̶o̶u̶t̶ ̶w̶h̶a̶t̶ ̶U̶t̶a̶ ̶s̶a̶i̶d̶ ̶a̶s̶ ̶a̶n̶ ̶u̶n̶b̶i̶a̶s̶e̶d̶ ̶t̶h̶i̶r̶d̶-̶p̶a̶r̶t̶y̶,̶"̶ Nagachika said, and Hide stopped, glancing up at where Nagachika stood behind the couch with his hands together behind his head. ̶"̶W̶e̶l̶l̶,̶ ̶a̶t̶ ̶l̶e̶a̶s̶t̶ ̶u̶n̶b̶i̶a̶s̶e̶d̶ ̶i̶n̶ ̶t̶h̶i̶s̶ ̶s̶i̶t̶u̶a̶t̶i̶o̶n̶.̶ ̶Y̶o̶u̶ ̶b̶o̶t̶h̶ ̶w̶e̶a̶r̶ ̶m̶a̶s̶k̶s̶ ̶w̶h̶e̶n̶ ̶y̶o̶u̶'̶r̶e̶ ̶a̶r̶o̶u̶n̶d̶ ̶o̶t̶h̶e̶r̶ ̶p̶e̶o̶p̶l̶e̶,̶ ̶b̶u̶t̶ ̶h̶e̶ ̶s̶a̶w̶ ̶r̶i̶g̶h̶t̶ ̶t̶h̶r̶o̶u̶g̶h̶ ̶y̶o̶u̶r̶s̶.̶ ̶H̶e̶ ̶h̶a̶s̶ ̶b̶e̶e̶n̶ ̶w̶e̶a̶r̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶o̶n̶e̶ ̶f̶o̶r̶ ̶m̶u̶c̶h̶ ̶l̶o̶n̶g̶e̶r̶ ̶t̶h̶a̶n̶ ̶y̶o̶u̶.̶ ̶D̶o̶n̶'̶t̶ ̶t̶a̶k̶e̶ ̶m̶y̶ ̶w̶o̶r̶d̶ ̶a̶s̶ ̶f̶a̶c̶t̶,̶ ̶b̶u̶t̶ ̶i̶f̶ ̶I̶ ̶h̶a̶d̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶g̶u̶e̶s̶s̶,̶ ̶y̶o̶u̶ ̶r̶e̶m̶i̶n̶d̶ ̶h̶i̶m̶ ̶a̶b̶o̶u̶t̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶p̶a̶r̶t̶s̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶h̶i̶m̶s̶e̶l̶f̶ ̶h̶e̶ ̶h̶a̶t̶e̶s̶,̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶t̶h̶a̶t̶ ̶h̶e̶ ̶d̶o̶e̶s̶n̶'̶t̶ ̶s̶h̶o̶w̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶a̶n̶y̶o̶n̶e̶.̶"̶

"What parts?" Hide asked, lowering his voice to a mutter as he opened the rest of the package. "I didn't do anything."

̶"̶T̶h̶a̶t̶'̶s̶ ̶t̶r̶u̶e̶,̶ ̶b̶u̶t̶ ̶u̶n̶l̶i̶k̶e̶ ̶T̶o̶u̶k̶a̶ ̶y̶o̶u̶ ̶s̶h̶o̶w̶e̶d̶ ̶h̶i̶m̶ ̶t̶h̶a̶t̶ ̶y̶o̶u̶ ̶d̶i̶d̶n̶'̶t̶ ̶t̶h̶i̶n̶k̶ ̶h̶e̶'̶d̶ ̶a̶c̶c̶e̶p̶t̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶r̶e̶a̶l̶ ̶y̶o̶u̶,̶"̶ Nagachika said, sitting on the arm of the couch. ̶"̶B̶e̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶a̶ ̶C̶l̶o̶w̶n̶ ̶i̶s̶ ̶h̶o̶w̶ ̶h̶e̶ ̶h̶i̶d̶e̶s̶ ̶h̶i̶m̶s̶e̶l̶f̶.̶ ̶D̶o̶ ̶I̶ ̶r̶e̶a̶l̶l̶y̶ ̶h̶a̶v̶e̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶s̶p̶e̶l̶l̶ ̶i̶t̶ ̶o̶u̶t̶ ̶f̶o̶r̶ ̶y̶o̶u̶,̶ ̶d̶u̶d̶e̶?̶"̶

"Yeah," Hide muttered, sounding childish even to himself.

Nagachika shook his head at him.

Hide pulled the mask out of the plastic wrapping and stared at it. And then he couldn't help a little laugh because—

"He must hate me," he said.

It was a full-face mask, and white, with a black strap that fit around his head. It was the design that made him laugh. It had two circle holes for his eyes and a black line where his mouth would be that curved up at the corners. It looked like a smiley face with painted, colorful trails coming from the eyes, like the mask was crying.

What the hell was this?

̶"̶I̶t̶ ̶a̶c̶t̶u̶a̶l̶l̶y̶ ̶d̶o̶e̶s̶n̶'̶t̶ ̶l̶o̶o̶k̶ ̶h̶a̶l̶f̶-̶b̶a̶d̶,̶"̶ Nagachika said, reaching out to hold it. He stopped just short of touching it, quickly dropped his hand, and Hide pretended not to notice. ̶"̶B̶u̶t̶,̶ ̶u̶h̶.̶.̶.̶"̶

"It makes me look like a clown," Hide finished for him, fitting it on his face.

It was a little tight, and he realized that Uta had made it that way to somewhat muffle his voice.

Hide folded his hands behind his head and couldn't help himself when he started laughing.

What a joke.

.

.

.

Hide was woken up by the movement of his mask as someone looked under it at his face.

Hinami squeaked as his eyes opened and Hide jerked upright as she hastily let go and the bottom of the mask smacked down on his chin.

"Sorry! I was just looking at—You weren't supposed to wake up!"

Hide waved her off. "Doesn't hurt," he lied, because it did.

He pulled the mask off and turned it over in his hands, only half-remembering what led to him putting it on. Uta hadn't delivered it to him directly because then Uta would have to pretend not to see through him, like looking into a mirror at himself.

Right.

"No, I—I shouldn't have. It was rude," she insisted, fingers clenched in her dress. "It's not an excuse but—but no one ever lets me see their masks. Not even mama, no matter how much I ask."

Hide blinked. Without a word, he held it out to her.

She looked at him in surprise, then at the mask, hesitant.

"We don't have to tell anyone I let you see it," he said, waving it at her. "I'll keep it a secret if you do."

Her eyes shot back up and she smiled. She slowly took it with both hands, holding it like it was made of glass, looking at it like it'd disappear if she glanced away.

Hide laid back on the couch. "Your mom drop you off?"

"Yeah," she said, but quieter than before, like the reminder alone had dampened her excitement.

Hide tilted his head towards her and her shoulders hunched. "I'm not going to ask about it, don't worry," he said, and she looked startled, like she didn't think she'd been obvious. "But I do have a favor to ask."

"A favor?" she asked, eyes widening. "But I didn't think I owed you for the book. You didn't say—"

"You don't," Hide said. Dear Kafka was on the table next to his open package. "It's a favor that I'll owe you, that you can cash in whenever you want."

She looked at him in surprised silence.

"Hina, you think you can help me learn how to be a ghoul?"

Her eyes widened more. "You weren't one before?"

Ah.

Hide scratched his head awkwardly, because that made sense. Why would anyone have told Hina otherwise? It just seemed like something everyone at Anteiku knew.

Hina rushed closer to him. "That's why your smell is so weird!"

Hide blinked at her. "What do I smell like?"

"Like..." she trailed off, suddenly embarrassed, holding the mask up to hide her face.

"I can take it. I'm a big boy, you know."

She made a high-pitched sound at him. "Like a girl," she whispered.

Hide reached over and gently pulled the mask down, meeting her eyes. "I know," he whispered back.

Her eyes widened. "You know? Are you—are you a girl?"

Hide shook his head. "I just smell like one."

She hid her face again. "S-Sorry!"

"You're actually the first to tell me that."

She ducked her head, more embarrassed.

Hide sat up. "Don't tell anyone I told you, but I used to be human."

She peered around the mask at him in disbelief.

"Yeah, I know, but it's true," Hide said, lifting his shoulders. "But, about that favor, could you tell me what your kakuhou feels like?"

She looked startled. "My...?" she trailed off and looked away, mumbling a lie, "I don't know."

"What about your kakugan?" he asked, and she hesitated. "You see, I can't control mine all that well."

She kept the mask up, trying to hide her discomfort. "Why not ask Touka? She uses her kagune a lot. Or—Or Mr. Yoshimura...?"

"Ah, well, I haven't made up with Touka yet," he admitted, not sure if he ever would. "And if I ask the manager, he'll ask me about Touka," he lied.

Part of the truth was that the old man made him think of V, and he didn't want to think about V. The other part was that he was still working up to asking him for another package for Nishiki.

They'd both been busy (Nishiki more than him because he still had to run a committee on top of exams, even if Hide hadn't seen him once), but Hide didn't have an excuse anymore to avoid that talk now that they were done.

To avoid that smile that didn't reach the old man's eyes and the long shadow of The Owl behind him.

Hide scrubbed a hand through his hair. Sometimes he wished he didn't know anything about the series at all. The future said he'd be a villain, at least in the eyes of everyone he'd kill in the end, so why not get himself a bad reputation now, so no one would be surprised?

It was easier to not think about it, or to half try to change what would happen while stumbling through the same events anyway.

What was he supposed to do about Aogiri, or the Washuu, or how much trouble he was going to be in since he'd taken Scarecrow out of the picture—

"Are you okay?"

Hide blinked up at Hinami. He dropped his hand, realizing he'd had a strangle grip on his hair. "I'm fine," he lied, waving her concern away. "Well, I am a little worried about my eye turning red in public..."

Hinami hesitated again, and then blurted out, "My kakuhou feels like my arms."

"Like...?"

"I meant just one," she quickly corrected, ducking away from his raised eyebrow. "It's hard to say how it feels because it doesn't feel like anything. It's like asking how my face feels. It's just my face."

Hide paused. Thinking about it like that, it was no wonder he couldn't feel it. It was like trying to feel his kidneys, or his intestines. He leaned back, unsure where to go from there.

"I know that doesn't help, but that's what it feels like."

"No, it helps," Hide said, then pointed at his eyes. "What about this?"

Hinami lowered the mask, staring at him, and her eyes suddenly turned black, her pupils just as suddenly red. "I just think of—of food, and it happens," she tried to explain, unable to keep eye contact.

Hide crossed his arms and nodded. "I see." That'd be hard, since his second least favorite activity was thinking about food. "Does it feel different than your other eyes?"

Hinami quickly put the mask down on the table, like she'd forgotten she was holding it, and still couldn't look at him as she said, "A little. It's like—like a rushing feeling. Like something shooting up to my eyes, but on the inside."

RC Cells?

"I'm going to practice making my eye do that, that okay?" Hide asked.

Hinami's eyes widened. "You want me to help you practice?"

"It's no big deal, Hina, you just have to tell me if I'm doing it."

Hinami nodded once, firmly, and he could see that it meant more to her, even if he didn't know why. "I'll do my best!"

.

.

.

"I'm sorry that I couldn't help," Hinami said, sounding as disappointed as he felt, on her knees next to the table and poking at his mask.

Hide stared at the sunset out the window behind the couch. "Nah, it's fine."

Touka closed her textbook with a sigh and pushed her chair back, going to get the door. She wasn't expecting visitors this late but wasn't all that surprised when she saw Yomo standing in the hall.

He had his ghoul coat folded over his arm, which only meant he'd come straight here after a job, was wearing a plain white shirt, and Touka wondered, not for the first time, if his closet was full of anything else. He never seemed to run out of white shirts.

"Can I come in? It won't take long," he said.

"Sure," Touka said, stretching her arms above her head as she walked back inside. Sitting for hours really did a number on her back.

She pretended not to see the way Yomo's eyes roved over the sitting room as he shut the door behind him, both doing a mental checklist to make sure nothing was suspiciously out of place, and seeing if she was keeping up with the cleaning, though he'd never say that part.

"Want anything? I could whip up a cup of coffee really quick," Touka said, heading into the small kitchen.

"No need," Renji said and sat, folding himself down onto a sitting mat in front of a table, his back to the wall. He made sure to face the door.

Touka started to make a pot of instant coffee anyway, for herself.

The quiet moments between them always felt awkward, filled with things they'd never say out loud to each other. It was easier when they were on jobs together. There was no time to let the silence fester like mold when they were constantly on alert, moving seamlessly around each other with only a few words said between them, and no wasted air.

She wanted to tell him to spit it out already, that she had too much studying to do to be idle like this, but she knew that was just her own frustration talking, because Yomo being here always made her think of Ayato.

Yomo, who had cleaned up after them for years, must have some opinion about the Black Rabbit.

What are you to me? To us? Why won't you just say it?

"I know you haven't known him for very long, but what do you think of Hide?" Yomo finally asked.

Maybe one day they'd stop being cowards and ask each other what they really wanted to, but that day wasn't today.

Touka leaned back against the counter and crossed her arms. "I don't know why you value my opinion on him. Isn't this a question for the manager?"

"You've spent the most time with him out of everyone," Yomo pointed out.

Touka crossed her arms tighter but had no counter to that. "He's a half-ass," she said automatically, then realized that Yomo wouldn't know that meant, or how it was an insult. She thought about it. "The guy is a chronic liar. Wouldn't surprise me if he came out of the womb lying. He'll lie to your face without hesitation. Hard to know if anything he's said since I met him was the truth. I can only ever tell he's lying when he contradicts himself. It's not natural."

The instant coffee maker steamed behind her, but she didn't turn it off, running a hand roughly through her hair in frustration. "He makes stupid jokes and has an annoying laugh and if you only hear about him and his story, it makes sense why he acts like this. His folks are dead, he's only got one friend, and he never, ever talks about whoever took him in. It seems like he's just got issues and he doesn't trust us, but..." she trailed off, holding her hair. "But he can flip the stupid part of his personality off like a switch. And most of the time it doesn't feel like he's lying because he can. It's like he knows more than he's letting slip, like how he knew about you and Uta. It makes me want to punch him in the face. It's why he feels so damn dangerous."

"Touka, the coffee maker," Yomo said.

She didn't hear him. "But sometimes it's like..." she trailed off and made a frustrated sound, glaring at the wall. "It's like he's a good guy, and not acting like one. He's been helping out Hina ever since she started staying at the café. I've been trying to figure out his angle, but there's not one. She's too shy to put in a good word for him with anyone. She never leaves that room, except to use the bathroom. The guy isn't stupid. He knew he wouldn't get any points with me by helping her out. And he's not manipulating his human friend either—"

Touka didn't notice Yomo was next to her until he reached out to turn the coffee maker off. She jumped.

He gazed down at her, then turned away. "I think I understand now. Thank you."

"Wait," Touka said as he took a step. "I just realized—you didn't ask the manager because—were you planning to get rid of him?"

He didn't turn around. "That doesn't matter now," he said. "I thought he was more dangerous, but I was wrong."

Touka felt baffled. "What about what I said convinced you that he isn't—?"

"You said he was a good guy, and you never say that about anyone," he interrupted her.

"I said he was like one."

"It's my job to take care of an immediate danger to you," Yomo said, stunning her into silence. He paused, then added, "I owe Mr. Yoshimura more than I could ever repay, but if it protects your future, I'll toss even that aside."

Touka took a shocked step back, bumping into the counter. She couldn't find it in herself to stop him again as he left.

After a minute, she sat on the floor and pulled her legs up to her chest. "Dammit, you stupid old man. I'm not a kid," she huffed, tightening her hold around her legs. "I can protect myself, especially from a half-ass like him."

But she was only talking to herself, because he was already gone.