Work at Anteiku continues

"Kaneki, are you in here?" Kaneki raised his head as he heard Mr. Yoshimura's voice call out to him. "Ah, there are you are. I have a job I need your help with, please, follow me."

Yoshimura lead him to a room on the second floor of Anteiku, where Yomo, another employee at Anteiku, was waiting for them. Kaneki glanced at Yomo as he walked in, then quickly looked away. He was pretty sure Yomo hadn't said a single work to Kaneki in the weeks he'd been working at Anteiku so far. And Kaneki wasn't really upset with that. Yomo scared him, to be honest.

"Kaneki, please accompany Yomo on his errands tonight," the manager said.

"Okay, sir." Kaneki replied. That wasn't nearly as bad as he expected. Just helping Yomo run errands couldn't be that bad, right?

Kaneki sat in the back of Yomo's car, staring out the window at the rain pouring down and trying to avoid thinking about the dead body that was in the trunk behind him. When the manager had asked Kaneki to help with an errand, he never could've imaged he meant collecting dead bodies. He knew that the ghouls of Anteiku had to get meat somehow, and taking the remains of suicides was certainly better than going out to kill humans, Kaneki supposed.

"We're going to make a quick stop up ahead." Yomo said. Kaneki didn't respond, leaving the sound of rain hitting the car to fill the silence.

A minute later, they were pulled up against the curb in what looked like a normal, residential area of Tokyo's 20th ward. Two shadowy figures approached the car window, and Yomo rolled it down to speak to them.

"It's in the back right now. We haven't cut it up yet, so I'll come by tomorrow to give it to you then." Yomo paused for a second and glanced at the rain showered the two figures. "Get in the car, I'll give you a ride home."

The figures moved around to the other side of the car, and Kaneki saw the door across from him open, before the two entered the car. They sat next to him, still wet from the rain.

Once they were inside, Kaneki got a better look at them. It was a woman and a young girl, her daughter, if Kaneki remembered correctly. Kaneki had seen them at Anteiku several times since he started working there. The mother was Ryouko, and her daughter was named Hinami. They often came by to collect packages from Mr. Yoshimura. Kaneki had often wondered what was inside them, and he figured he knew now.

"Ah, you're the new employee, correct." Ryouko smiled at him as she spoke. Her face was kind, and her eyes gently focused on him as she spoke. She gave off a motherly aura, and Kaneki suddenly felt a lot more comfortable in the car than when it had just been him and Yomo.

"Yes, that's me." Kaneki responded. It was the first time he'd spoke since him and Yomo had collected the body.

"How did you end up working for Yoshimura?" She asked.

Kaneki, much more relaxed in her presence, started telling her his story so far, starting with his encounter with Rize, the surgery that ended up making him a ghoul, how he'd run into Nishio, everything he could really. Except for his moment with Touka. He left that out.

The young girl besides her was leaning forward to look at Kaneki past her mother. Her eyes were wide with excitement as she listened to his story. Her mother seemed quite enthralled too.

"Oh, that's sounds awful," Ryouko said. She seemed truly upset by what happened to him, and Kaneki felt a warmth sprout in his chest. "It must've been hard for you to adapt to ghoul society. We live so differently from humans after all." She continued.

"If you'd like," she paused for a second, as if unsure of her words. "I can give you some lessons about ghoul society. Try to help you fit in and all that." She said it like a mother trying to give her son dating advice. Somewhat embarrassed, but truly trying to help.

Kaneki was surprised at her offer, but the smile on her face as she said it was sincere, and she had been so kind to him so far, that there was no way he would deny. "I'd like that," he said, all thoughts of the human body in the trunk completely swept from his mind by this kind, gentle woman.