Chapter 45: Labs and Takahashis

"With this."

Ken mulled over that line again. He had been trying to figure out what she really meant by that for days now. Rather than tell him what she meant by that, she apparently had instead decided to mess with him. She had only told him, "It's classified. I'll have to get permission from my boss but I'm sure he'll be fine with it. Always loves to show and brag when he can. So just be patient okay." And finally, after a week of waiting, she had texted him last night and asked him to meet her and Hide at Anteiku after classes today. He had been counting the hours now. He was just too curious to concentrate on anything else. He wanted to know what she meant by creating a world that ghouls no longer had to hide. And more importantly, could she actually do it. It was easy to promise the impossible.

The last class finally ended and Ken dumped all of his school supplies in his bag haphazardly before nearly running out the door. He called Hide only to find out his friend would be late due to some club work. So he began to walk to Anteiku. But on his way he was stopped. The ones who stopped him were none other than a pair of doves. Ken put on his best smile with just a hint of worry that a civilian would have and asked, "What service can I be two you, Mr. Investigator?" The younger of the two doves looked Ken over with a rather critical eye, before pulling out his badge and flashing it to the slightly younger college student. However he did it too fast for the younger boy to really see the name on it.

"I was wondering if you could answer a few of our questions." Ken nodded his head and replied, "Sure, I can spare a few minutes officer. The name is Ken. Ken Kaneki." Ken felt his heart rate jump several times and hoped his skin wasn't calming up or sweating like crazy. He just wanted to run away from here but this particular dove seemed to be the kind which perceived everyone as a ghoul till you proved your innocence. Ken knew from experience the last thing you should do with this kind of dove was run. Instead play nice and get them to see you as human. It was best to act calm and appear completely willing to do anything they wanted. If possible, you could use these questionings as a way to sabotage some investigations. He noticed that the one who introduced himself was only a junior investigator yet still seemed to be taking the lead in the questioning. 'A real go getter huh?' Ken observed.

He seemed to drop his scrutiny just a bit from Ken's willingness to help but still looked like he could rip out his quinque at any provocation. He pulled out a picture and handed Ken it. "We are looking for this woman. She is a known ghoul that escaped from a CCG assault in the thirteenth ward and is believed to have fled to this ward. Have you seen her?" It was a picture of Akiko with some rough information about her on the bottom and a reward for any information that led to her capture or termination. Ken honestly answered, "No, I can't say I have. Sorry sir." The other investigator then asked, "How about anything strange or odd? For example another cute homeless girl in an alleyway you passed by? Or bloodstains off the beaten path? Or have you felt like you were being watched or threatened by someone?" Ken shook his head. "No, I haven't even seen noticed anything different at all. Are you sure that she's here? Couldn't you just be mistaken?" Ken let a hint of hopefulness enter his voice at the last line. Of course an innocent citizen would try to avoid the thought of a ghoul running around in their midst.

Both the doves looked at each other before the younger one told him, "Unfortunately not. An investigator tracking her was killed in this ward a few days ago and evidence seems to show that she's still in this ward." He pulled a card out of his coat and handed Ken it. "Here is a number to contact us if you come across anything. No matter how inconsequential." His partner smiled at Ken and said, "Don't worry young man. It's our job to protect you and the fine citizens from ghouls. We won't let them get to you."

"I will track down and eliminate this beast," his partner added. Ken did not like the look in his eyes at that remark. "Thank you sirs. That's a relief to know that we have such dependable people on hand to protect us. Do you need anything else?" The senior investigator told him no before moving on to question another passerby. Ken walked briskly away. He needed to warn his sisters to be careful. He did not want them to run into these men unprepared.

Of course he didn't notice that the younger one was still watching him. His eyes stayed on the retreating student. Something still nagged at him about that boy. His answers to fluid. His reactions seemed almost timed to the right moment to deflect suspicion. His partner called out to him, "Come on Takahashi, we need to cover this entire block before we can go back to headquarters." He noticed that Takahashi didn't respond or budge and asked, "Is something wrong?" Rank one Hideaki Takahashi watched the boy turn the corner before he turned back to his partner and momentarily forgot Ken. "Nothing sir. Just a something I don't like about that boy."

Meanwhile, Maria was sitting at the counter in Anteiku. She had ordered a small snack and something sweet to drink and had been working a bit more in her notebook and studying for some classes while waiting for the boys. But that was getting boring so she decided to people watch while eating instead. One of her favorite games to play while watching people was to guess what kind of kagune they would have if they were a ghoul. For example she felt that the two twins who worked her, especially that black haired one, fit the mold for a rinkaku type. Fast paced, aggressive, highly creative, intelligent, and seemingly uncaring about the possible pain or loss of going forward.

She did notice, however, that Kuro appeared a bit haggard. The young girl looked like she was having trouble sleeping and seemed stressed. She was also was a bit more snappy and confrontational and Maria had spotted her more than once talking to herself and sending dirty looks to empty spaces. It looked like this was upsetting her sister as well. Maria planned to slip her a big tip in the hopes that it might be a nice pick me up for the exhausted girl.

She felt for the girl. Maria had visited the café quite a lot after her first visit and even more after meeting Ken. The food was delicious and the service great. She really liked all the waiters and baristas here. They were friendly and sometimes even willing to talk with her every now and then. Though Kuro had been difficult at first. Their first meeting caused a bit of prickliness between the two for a bit.

She finished up her meal and cleaned her hands off before reaching into her bag and removing one of her treasures. An original copy of Hotaru Sasaki's last novel; The Serpant's Embrace. She opened the book carefully, so as not to wear out the binding any more than necessary. She had just started reading when she heard an excited squee from across the counter. She looked up to see the big round eyes of Kuro locked on her book. Maria was certain that if Kuro was a rinkaku, then her kagune would be swishing back and forth excitedly like an excited dog or cat's tail. She asked the barista, "Um, can I help you?"

Realizing what she did, Kuro quickly jumped back up and tried to make herself look respectable. Maria noticed that during this she once again looked over to the space to her right and stuck her tongue out at it. 'Maybe high school's harder then I remember.' Kuro cleared her throat and pointed to the book. "I just wanted to inquire about where you found that book." Maria tried not to giggle at the girl's attempt to regain some respectability by using the term inquire and answered, "I found it at a second hand shop I like. I was shocked. I mean it's in mint condition and looks like it was barely touched." Kuro looked at it again. "Lucky," she said in slightly jealous voice. Maria looked at the book before smirking at the girl and tossing her the book. "Here. Keep it. I can always find another one." Kuro's eyes nearly popped out of her head. "You can't be serious! It's almost impossible to find any of her books anymore! Especially this one!"

What Kuro said was true. When the book had first came out, there were already calls for it to banned and several major bookstores refused to sell it. Even the publishing company she worked for only printed it due to her reputation and the author hounding her editor. And even then only a small quantiy were printed. The reason was simple. It was a love-tragedy story with a ghoul as one of the protagonists. Many people slammed it as being too pro-ghoul and even went so far as to try to find some way to get the author in legal trouble. Perhaps it even helped the CCG form its cause against the family when they decided to raid their home.

Maria patted Kuro on the shoulder. "It's ok. I know that book by heart now anyway and I can find exerts of it online now if I want too. Keep it. Judging by the way you're acting, it means a lot to you." Kuro face took on a bitter-sweet look. "Yeah," she answered. "My… mother… used to read them to us. Mrs. Sasaki's books were my favorites back when I was little. Unfortunately by the time I was able to look for my own copies, every major retailer had gotten rid of their stocks of her books. No one wanted anything to do with a woman who had been hiding a ghoul. A SS rank one at that. I've been, with the help my siblings, hunting for her books one by one. And this is one of the last ones I need." Kuro sniffled a bit before tearfully grinning at Maria. "Thank you, so much."

Maria was speechless for a second. "What's wrong?" Kuro asked. Maria ducked her head away with a nervous laugh. "No! Just seeing you with that face remind me of someone I haven't seen in a long time. An old friend." Shortly afterwards Ken showed up and Kuro raced up to him and Shiro to show off the book. After a bit more thanks from the other two family members and some light talking Hide showed up and the three college students began to leave. But before she stepped out of the door, Maria looked back at the happy Kuro, already engrossed in her new book. When Ken asked her what was wrong, she simply answered, "Nothing. Just reminding myself to come back here for a visit first thing after I fix this world. Perhaps we could have the after party here."

Ken was surprised when they got to the place that Maria led them to. It was a rather nice laboratory a bit away from anything else. It even had its own grounds that was surrounded by a gate and had security cameras. They were met by several guards when they entered. A couple of which Ken could smell, had quinque bullets. They were forced to sign several pieces of paper that stated things like that they agreed not to talk about what they saw and the actually criminal penalties they could suffer if they did speak about any of this classified material. The CCG seal displayed prominently on each sheet. Afterwards they walked through a metal detector and allowed their bags to be checked before finally being allowed to see what was inside.

They entered into an advanced laboratory filled with machines that neither boy could make heads of tails of. A p.a. system was blaring out this and that from the control room while all sorts of researchers ran this way and that or worked on something or other. Hide looked fascinated and immediately started to form what questions he wanted to ask in his mind. Ken though became even more confused. He could smell among the scents of chemicals and mechanical research equipment, the scents of flesh both human and ghoul. But for many of these scents there was something off about them. Ken really wanted to know now what they were doing here and how it would allow Maria to change the world like she said she would.

The one who brought them here had gone ahead of them, as she didn't need to go through the screening process like them. She was on the other side of the main lab talking to two others and once she was done she wave the two boys over. "So what do you guys think? Pretty amazing right?" she bragged. Ken nodded slowly. "A bit. Though it would be better if I actually knew what was going on other than just science stuff." Maria just laughed at his response. "Follow me," she ordered.

She led them to what looked like some sort of meeting/class room. Several rows of tables and chairs faced the far wall with a movable whiteboard in front of them covered up by a simple cloth. Maria led Ken and Hide to the front table where there was a paperback book for each of them that was tilted, RC-infusion and bioreplication for the creation of artificial resources for use by the CCG and Cochlea. Hide observed, "RC? Like the cells that humans and ghouls have?" Maria didn't answer Hide but instead asked, "Ok you two. What is the biggest reason why humans and ghouls can't get along?" Ken answered, "Because they eat us." Maria gave him a thumbs up. "Correct. Gold stars all around. As long as Ghouls have to feed on humans, true peace is impossible. But what if there was an alternative?" Both of them began to realize what she meant. "You mean…" Hide began but was cut off by Maria when she continued while ripping off the cloth on top of the whiteboard. "Here at this lab we are researching ways to create artificial RC-infused flesh for, among other reasons, use as a replacement food for ghouls. See I told you I was going to make a world where she could live happily and free."

The director of the lab stood nervously at the front entrance that Ken and Hide had just gone through previously. He was here to meet the CCG representative to the lab and discuss any new findings and necessary changes in the budget or supply of resources and data. The lab had been under fire for a while now. It was still showing little real progress and was way over the project budget. The director hoped that he could keep them from shutting down the lab. They were due for a break through; he just knew. Finally the representative walked through the last checkpoint, a RC scanner disguised as a metal detector, and grabbed her quinque before walking over to him. They shook hands.

"Good evening. I hope you have good news for me," said one Setsuko Takahashi.