"What the hell are you doing here?"
Emiko asked with a bewildered expression, staring at the silver haired boy who laid curled up on her counter.
"Swearing isn't nice, Emi." He grumbled tiredly causing the woman to pinch the skin between her eyes in irritation. He had broke into her home and was sleeping on her counter in the middle of the day but he was talking to her about being nice.
She glared icily as she dropped her bag onto the couch.
"How did you get in my apartment and why, Suzuya?" She snapped and the boy peaked an eye open lazily with a tired smile.
"I saw some ghouls circle your building a few times and you weren't home, so I killed them, then I took a nap on your counter." She stiffened at how easily he said the words. He killed them.
Memories of killing one of the twins from last night rushed to her head and she covered her mouth as her skin began to pale. She suddenly felt cold and nauseous as the guilt wracked through her body.
I killed him...
She thought as her heart began to pound loudly against her chest and her hands clenched into fists. She stared down at the ground and gritted her teeth as she tried to calm down. But she felt the bile inch cooly up her throat and felt his eyes on her as she sprinted for the bathroom and threw up. She had let her stomach empty itself, unable to hold it down any longer. She just kept rethinking to herself the memories of last night and found herself sick to her stomach.
I killed him..
I'm just like him.
I've killed.
I have blood on my hands.
"What's wrong Emi?" His childish tone came to her ears when she had finished vomiting and simply rested her head against her cool arm. She cried. She cried like a baby, harder than she ever has in a long time.
She knew it was to survive.
She was aware it was him or her.
But she had killed.
She cried harder and was broken down into sobbing. She felt herself get lifted up like a ragdoll and it only made her cry harder. She wanted to throw up again, she wanted to break something, maybe she just wanted to curl up in the dark.
Feeling herself being laid down in her bed, she curled even further in her ball and allowed the hot tears to fall silently down her face.
"A crying Emi is no fun. So sleep, because I'm sleepy too." She heard the voice as she was sat down on what seemed to be her bed. She couldn't find it in her to panic as the male laid behind her and pulled the blanket up. She just found herself asleep.
"Yeah, I killed him and I broke." She admitted, a hand tangled in her dark waves out of distress.
Her body ached and her mind was racing as the sound of water buzzed her ears. She thought quietly on her emotional morning with slight irritation. A highlight over how awkward she felt waking up with Juuzou holding her so tight.
"Emiko, you know it was self defence and it was either him or you." Her adopted father reminded her and she scowled, her nails digging into her scalp in frustration.
"That doesn't change that I've taken someone's life, dad!" She almost shrieked and Arima grew silent, knowing she needed to speak out loud about the conflicts that were swimming in her mind. "S-Someone's son! Another's big brother or little one and a cousin! Someone's possible soon to be father, another's lover and someone who another held dear!" Emiko wanted to shout through her rambling. "I've always wanted a family, someone to love me, and I'm the selfish monster who stopped another from getting the one thing I could ever wish for."
She wasn't crying like she was before she had slept, she was just shaking and distressed.
Arima stopped breathing at the girl's words.
She believes no one loves her?...
"Emik-"
"I gotta go, work and stuff... Bye." She suddenly rambled.
Emiko swore, knowing she had hit the panic button because of her confession and it was the reason she hung up so quickly.
With such a stupid excuse... I don't even have a job.
"Emi?" Juuzou's voice woke her from her slightly frantic mind and she blinked before looking at the red eyed male in front of her. He wore his usual clothes but his hair was wet and flat against his head. Oh yeah.... He is my job...
"Let's have breakfast!" He grinned and the girl stared flatly at his excitement.
"You're late for work, Juuzou." She pointed out and he only grinned wider.
"Exactly! I'm already late so why not breakfast with Emi?" She only stared at him, hoping for a sudden burst of sanity for at least a moment but only recieved his Juuzouness. So she gave up fighting him on it and stood to make breakfast.
Actually sitting and watching him eat his food, caused her to realize he really was unaware of how to eat in moderation. He scrambled for his food and ate it while hunched over, as if to protect it. She observed how he glanced up every few seconds and how his hands flexed.
"Juuzou." Her tone was flat and drawled as she called his name but he immediately poked his head with wide red eyes. "Sit up straight, I'm not going to swipe the plate from you and slow down... It's not going anywhere." He stared at her for a moment before giving a closed eyes grin.
"Aye aye, Emi!" She rolled her eyes pretending like the boy did not amuse her and she hid her quirking lips. She eyed him and found herself staring at the stitches that decorated his body before staring at her lap where her arm laid.
Her thoughts swirled in her mind as she eyed the crimson J that was stitched into her skin. She wondered what it meant to Juuzou to do such an action.
Did it mean possession?
Did it mean she belonged to him?
She looked at the white haired male across from her who ate his food in a more respectable manner but he still seemed to hold this guarded look behind his eyes.
She looked at her arm once more, tracing the cursive crimson J and analyzing it with her eyes.
"You must really like it!" Juuzou suddenly exclaimed, a happy closed eyed smile on his porcelain face. Emiko tugged the thread and shivered at the sensation that seemed to squirm in her veins. She gnawed at her lip with a frown as she looked down at her hands that were fisted in her lap.
She didn't look up at the crimson eyed male across from her who didn't seem to mind her grey mood. She didn't look into the the crimson shade that used to glare daggers at her.
"Juuzou," her voice was soft without a particular emotion. He looked up with a hum to respond to her call. "Where are you from?" His eyes seemed to darken but a thoughtful look was across his face. He shrugged with a careless expression before finishing his food while Emiko thought silently.
"Are you okay, Emi?" She paused, realizing she had been tugging gently on the thread in her arm. She glanced up at the red eyes and found that they held a child like gleam as they stared at her. He was bored.
The taste of blood filled her tastebuds when she licked her dry lips, realizing she had been biting her lips the whole time.
"You don't really care, Juuzou.." She mumbled before standing to retrieve her phone.
Juuzou, cocked his head to the side, confused on why Emi was so upset. But as soon as the thought came, it left and he shrugged it off before standing up.
"I'm going to the CCG with you, Suzuya." Her voice was an annoyed grumble.
"I thought you were calling me Juuzou?" He questioned in his light tone and she didn't reply but instead started for the door. He pouted but followed the shorter female nonetheless.
.
.
.
"I did not expect to see you today, Emiko." She rolled her eyes at the monotone of her adoptive parents as she ran her thin fingers through his CCG files.
"You weren't supposed to." Her monotone replied flatly as she mumbled the words she read on the many files in the cabinet.
"I don't believe that is the proper way to rest bruised ribs and stitches, Emiko." She sighed deciding to ignore his scoldings that were left for her own interpretation.
"Where is it?" She questioned bluntly and tensed when a hand was sat on her shoulder. Her heart was pounding and she found her body flooding with exhaustion.
"You have just been through a lot, you need to be resting." He reminded gently. She refused to turn around, the tone already causing a tightness in her throat.
"I need his file." She swallowed and reminded her adoptive father.
"I need you to remember you're only human." She shook her head, her grip tightening on the metal drawer of the filing cabinet.
"They didn't treat me like a human, I was just a test bunny..." She mumbled and the male mentally sighed. Everything seemed to be triggering her memories of the past. "You know... Those ghouls, they belonged to him." Her tone was soft and quiet.
"They were twins... Brothers..."
"Stop dwelling, you'll make yourself sick." His words seemed callous and monotone but their meaning was filled with warmth. The girl has learned over the years of being under his care it was just how he was.
"You make me sick." She spat dryly. "Correction, he makes me sick." He knew she was talking about Suzuya now and it drew a chuckle from him.
He rubbed the shoulder of the small girl who breathed out with a small huff of air before resting her head on his shoulder.
She looked up with tired coffee brown eyes and was slightly startled when a warm smile grazed the lips of the white haired man who gazed down at her.
"I truly think of you as my own, Emiko. You're not just a responsibility or some brat." Emiko held her breath as she waited for him to say the exact words. She knew he meant them and understood he truly did care for her through these years.
"Special Class Ghoul Investigator Kishou Arima!"
"Yes, Investigator Takizawa?" Annoyance in Arima's clipped tone caused the nervous investigator in the door way to flush brightly finding himself in an amount of stutters.
"Th-The meeting about the t-twentieth w-ward is about to start." Sighing Arima glanced down at the girl who's head rested on his arm.
Emiko froze and flushed when her adoptive father pressed a light kiss on her forehead, glaring at his back as he left with Takizawa in a rushed speed.
"Look for a file named Rei." He called behind him and Emiko could practically hear the smirk on his lips.
"Thanks old man!" She called back, a sigh following it.
He cared for her dearly, and she was beginning to understand that well.