"You're awfully busy these days, Mado," Shinohara called out to his former mentor as the older man passed by the meeting room door.

Mado paused in place. He tore his gaze from the report he was reading to look over him and Juuzou, who was turning back and forth in the chair next to him, humming to himself.

They were early, because without the extra time to find and wrangle Juuzou, Shinohara would never get him in a seat on time.

"Such is the life of an Investigator in the 20th," Mado drawled, waving the page at him. "There are rarely so many cases above a C or D rank at once like this, so when it does pile up, we tend to have to double or triple up on the work. How is the search for the Gourmet going?" he asked, half a jab at them, half a genuine question.

Shinohara was well aware of Mado's... eccentric personality. He was one of the few that willingly spoke regularly to him and in return, Mado gave him the bare minimum of politeness.

Shinohara rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly, because Mado was reminding him that it was the only case he had and, embarrassingly, they had made little progress. He told Mado as much.

"The Gourmet is slippery, more so than I'm used to or expected for a ghoul of his... inclination. I've had to change my entire approach because of him," Shinohara explained.

The ghouls of the 11th were all the direct, attack you in broad daylight sort. The 20th was much quieter, much more about chasing shadows than he was used to.

"Uh-huh," Mado said, less than impressed.

Mado and Amon had the Binge Eater, the Daughter, and now the Rabbit on their plate, though the last two were because they were connected.

It had been a mistake, on Mado's part, to encourage those posters of the Daughter to be put up all over. Shinohara knew that because they only had an outfit and the Daughter's hair color, the calls leaving 'tips' had been nonstop.

It had been half a dozen times already that lower ranked Investigators had been deployed to elementary schools and playgrounds.

Mado had been overeager, and the whole thing hadn't helped his image one bit.

"If that's all..." Mado trailed off, attention waning.

Shinohara pulled a handful of random candies from his pocket and put them on the table without looking, because Juuzou had started slumping down in his chair and hanging his head over the back in similar boredom.

"How's Amon?" Shinohara asked as Juuzou made an interested sound and sat up.

"Off grieving I suppose," Mado said in disinterest.

Shinohara took the lack of care in stride. "Any progress on the Daughter?"

"Oh yes," Mado said, glancing at the report again with an eager glint in his eye. "I've realized the error of my methods as well. Expecting competency from the public was foolish of me. To lure out a bear, you first have to create a honey trap."

"And the Rabbit?"

"Ah. She's the bear I was talking about, Shinohara."

That made more sense. From what he read, the Daughter seemed more like a C or D rank like her mother.

Shinohara folded his hands together on the table. "Well, if you need help with the Binge Eater until everything calms down—"

"No," Mado said immediately. "I had her first."

"Of course," Shinohara said, like the obsessive possession Mado had over his cases was normal. Others were like that as well, but the CCG never would work as well as it did if everyone hoarded intel.

In fact, the 11th couldn't afford to do so at all, as overrun as they had been. But Shinohara didn't voice these thoughts.

Mado glanced around the room Shinohara sat in, as if seeing it for the first time. "...is there a meeting soon?"

Shinohara glanced at his watch. "Should be... fifteen minutes from now."

"Huh," Mado said, then went back to reading his report. He walked away without another word.

Shinohara couldn't find it in himself to take offense. It was a net positive that he'd managed to stall Mado for as long as he did.

Mado seemed to still have some positive feelings for him from their days of being partnered, at least, even if he hadn't acknowledged Juuzou.

"I've been meaning to ask, but can you tell when someone is a ghoul before they go all red-eyed?" Juuzou asked, sucking on something as he gave the same treatment right back to Mado.

"Yes and no. The ghouls you and I are used to dealing with had an inhuman sense about them, didn't they?" he asked, giving Juuzou an indulging smile. "Those were easy, but these ghouls have had decades, if not more, to study and mimic humans. Here, you can't tell based on sight or intuition alone. That's why the investigating part of being an Investigator is so important."

Juuzou pouted, unwrapping a yellow candy. "I didn't ask to get a lecture, Shinohara."

Shinohara laughed a little. "That group of ghouls who you tricked into attacking you, you did it to be sure, right? And that one they're calling Mimic, who you put in a hospital, who you thought was a ghoul, and who I'm still getting calls about—"

"So, you can't tell?" Juuzou asked, staring intently at him, cutting through his words like his voice was a knife.

Shinohara paused at that intensity, but not for very long. Shinohara, who had been forged in the flames of Mado's random whims, was probably the only one besides Arima who could get along with someone like Juuzou, and he was painfully aware of it.

"No, I can't," Shinohara admitted.

Juuzou stared at him in silence, rolling a yellow ball between his stitched fingers. "Are you sure?"

"Is this about something specific, Juuzou?"

Juuzou popped the candy in his mouth and made a vague noise at him that could've meant anything. "The Gourmet is our top priority, right?"

"Yes?"

Juuzou made another vague sound. "Was I wrong to stop that Mimic guy then?"

Shinohara wondered how his mind worked for him to ask that, but still smiled as he said, "No, of course not. You did a good thing, Juuzou. It's easy to forget that, in a world full of man-eating monsters, humans sometimes need protecting from other humans too. On top of that, you captured a ghoul alive to be interrogated. I was impressed!"

Juuzou crunched down on his candy. "But I hurt that guy, like you said. We're not supposed to hurt humans."

"You thought you were breaking up a fight between ghouls. You couldn't have known. And besides, did you hear anything I said? Humans need to protect humans too. You're human."

"Oh. Yeah."

"In the police report, Mimic claimed you and your friend were both ghouls. Is that where this is coming from? Juuzou, no matter what crazy things you do, I never have, or will, think of you as anything but human. Shouldn't my opinion matter mean more than someone you met only once?"

Juuzou stared intently at him again, but he somehow looked distant too. "Me?" he asked no one, his gaze drifting away. "Was it about me? I don't think so."

Shinohara dared to put a hand on his shoulder, drawing Juuzou's attention back to him.

Juuzou squirmed, but didn't shake him off. It was a good sign that he was getting through to him.

"Ghouls and humans both bleed red, so what's it matter what I am?" Juuzou asked randomly. "We're practically the same."

Shinohara felt sad, looking at him, but he'd pushed Juuzou enough for the day. He could see clearly that he couldn't make him understand just yet.

"How was the... what was it? The Star Festival? Did you have fun with Hide?"

Juuzou did shake him off then, and Shinohara leaned back. "I told you. We went to his friend's instead."

"Oh, right." The day Juuzou had told him what happened had been a long day.

Shinohara had been tired and resigned when he'd been woken up by a call in the middle of the night to come down to the station, but what waited for him there had still shocked him. It had taken throwing nearly all his credentials on the table to convince the police that Juuzou was part of the CCG and not a ghoul. He hadn't needed to say anything in Hide's defense after the hours that took.

"His friend was..." Juuzou shrugged. "The papers looked nice as they burned though."

"That's nice."

"Mmhmm," Juuzou said, but wasn't paying attention to him anymore. People were starting to trickle in.

Even Amon made an appearance, but not Mado.