Most of the people at the meeting were nervous. They tried not to show it though because the reason for their nervousness was none other than Suzuya Juuzou. They had all heard rumors of the carefree looking but merciless boy who slaughtered his enemies without fear or hesitation. The meeting had been calm until the boy spoke up. “Where’s my candy?” complained Juuzou. He had been promised candy but he never got any after the fight. Juuzou continued talking unaware of the atmosphere in the room “Sasaki had promised me some after the fig- I mean spar but I never got any”. He put up a face similar to pouting but under that face the investigators could see the real meaning, he was annoyed. After that the meeting had continued considerably silently while some people tried to offer Juuzou jelly beans and while he took the jelly beans he was still waiting for Sasaki’s candy, after all his candy was the best!
After the meeting finished Juuzou started walking down the hall not really paying any attention to his surroundings he ran into Arima. An apology on his tongue he looked up to see the sullen face of Arima. Changing what he was going to say he started talking. “Are you okay?” asked Juuzou realizing how unfamiliar those words sounded to him. Apparently Arima agreed because he had a look of shock on his face. Although the expression was brief Juuzou felt proud being able to something depressing off someone else’s mind for once. Arima quickly got over the shock and replied with a forced sounding “I’m fine”. Juuzou wasn’t great at reading people but anyone could tell that he was not alright. Juuzou ignored that for the time being and tried to figure out what was bothering him. “So” started Juuzou “How’s Sasaki doing?” At this statement Arima tensed up and his face fell. “Oh” thought Juuzou “That’s what’s bothering him. “ it didn’t take a genius to realize that Sasaki was bothering him. Juuzou tried to comfort him. “You don’t have to worry about Sasaki, he’s strong y’know” said Juuzou as he started to walk away. As he was walking away he could hear a faint “that’s not it” but choose to ignore it. After all there’s no use asking Arima for information.
Arima was actually quite surprised that Juuzou had been able to read him and even more surprised at his attempts to comfort him. Shaking his head to clear his thoughts he headed towards his original destination, The Quinx squad house. When he arrived at the house he was greeted by three very eager faces and one nonchalant one. Quickly realizing this person was not the one they were hoping for their faces fell. Urie was the first to speak “What brings you here Arima?” asked Urie. He was hoping Arima was here to give him a promotion but judging by his creastfallen expression Arima did not have any good news. “Actually” started Arima trying to look a bit more cheerful “I’m here for information.” Everybody wondered what kind information Arima needed that he didn’t have but Mutsuki spoke up first “What kind of information do we have that you don’t have access to.” Everybody was taken back by the boy’s bluntness but Arima seemed unfazed. “I need information on Sasaki.” Most of the Quinx squad had no idea what to think but Saiko had other ideas. “I know you and Sasaki had something going on but I never thought you’d ask us for advice” said Saiko smugly. While the Quinx were still processing the information Arima blushed a bit and replied “I don’t know what you mean” and unknowingly made it worse. “Oh come on Arima,” started Saiko in a teasing tone “We all heard Sasaki and you in office the other day. He was quite loud when he screamed ‘notice me sempai.’” The quinx flushed red at the assumption she was making but decided to stay out of it afraid of the CCG’s Reaper’s wrath.
Arima stood there with his mouth open and a light pink dusting his cheeks realizing what Saiko had assumed. He cleared his throat and started talking. “ This is just a test to make sure he is still in control of himself and won’t harm anyone here.” Arima knew that that didn’t sound believable at all but it was the best he had. While Saiko didn’t buy the excuse one bit she decided to let it go in favor of knowing what he wanted to ask. “So,” started Saiko with curiosity laced into her voice “What did you want to ask us?” Arima had been quite surprised that she had let that go but continued with his original question. “Have you noticed anything weird about Sasaki?” After Arima said it he realized that the question could be rather suggestive but the quinx didn’t seem to mind. Urie was the first to talk. “His hair is weird” suggested Urie “Whenever he’s sad it’s down and flat but when he’s happy it’s floofy.” The quinx squad had to hold in their laughter at what Urie had said. It was funny how the “All mighty Urie” had noticed an odd thing and had described his hair as “floofy”. Arima mentally faceplamed and asked again if anybody had noticed anything but this time in a more serious tone. Mutsuki was the first to speak up this time. “I have noticed that whenever we eat burgers and specifically burgers he gets the kind of longing stare and blanks out for a few minutes.” Said Mutsuki. While he had no idea if this was the kind of information Arima had wanted he had said it anyway. “Yeah” said Shizaru adding on to Mutsuki’s thought “and sometimes when he sees some things he says he gets a small headache and goes to sit down. Other times he just goes to sleep afterwards.”
That was the information Arima had wanted to hear. That meant Sasaki had shown signs of remembering but never really remembered anything. “Anything else?” asked Arima. He doubted that there was anything else but if he didn’t ask he would never know. Surprisingly Saiko spoke up. “ While he’s sleeping he sometimes mutters things” said Saiko with a straight face. Arima could tell that she was serious and actually involved in the conversation. “What does he say?” asked Arima. He knew that these questions could be considered intrusive but he needed information. Saiko seemed hesitant before answering but she still spoke up. “He says things like ‘it hurts’ or ‘I will protect them and sometimes he counts backwards from a thousand saying things like ‘993,986,979 I want to die’. I have no idea why he says these things though.” Said Saiko timidly. Although she didn’t want to admit it she was scared. Some of the thing he said were not pleasant. While everyone sat in silence at what Saiko had said Shizaru tried to lighten the mood. “Hey Saiko” asked Shizaru in a teasing tone “How do you know what Sasaki says in his sleep? Are you a stalker or something?” Saiko realizing what he was trying to do replied with “I’m not just any stalker, I’m Sasaki’s personal Super Stalker! I know everything he does and watch every move. The reason I stay up all night is so that I can sneak into Sasaki’s room and steal his clothes!” Everybody except for Arima burst out laughing with Saiko’s ridiculous statement. Arima could feel the smile on his face as he enjoyed the moment with the teenagers. For once he felt like he could actually talk and spend time with the quinx without it being awkward but realizing what time it was and knowing he had work to do he bid the quinx good night.
After Arima left the quinx couldn’t help but wonder why Arima needed that information and the only one who had the slightest clue was Shizaru. To him the pieces of information were slowly falling into place fitting like a puzzle. Arima let out a sigh as he looked back at the door of the quinx house. He really wanted to stay and chat but he had more important matters to attend to. As he walked towards the CCG building he noticed Akira leaving and decided to ask her the same question. Akira was just finishing work and heading towards her apartment when Arima called her over. He hadn’t realized that he was there so it had somewhat startled her when someone called her name out of nowhere. After she had walked over to Arima he asked her a strange question. “Have you noticed anything strange about Sasaki?” asked Arima. Truth to be told she hadn’t really noticed anything strange about Sasaki so she responded to Arima to know why he had asked that question. “No, why?” asked Akira. Arima gave her the ‘what do you think look’ and she realized why he had asked. “No” said Akira “you don’t think he’s-“ “yeah he might be relapsing” responded Arima. Akira felt her whole world come crashing down on her. If Sasaki got his memories beck then he might turn into the evil ghoul he was before. “Mukade” whispered Akira clearly remembering the look of insanity on his face as he face Amon in his Kajuka form. The boy was so kind the way he is he helped others as much as he could and was patient with those who needed time. Like Arima Akira had grown attached to this version of the ghoul and couldn’t imagine killing him. If he truly was relapsing they would have to be more careful about what they exposed him to.
Arima could see the troubled look on Akira’s face and realized that she also didn’t want to kill him. He knew that he was going to regret what he was about to say but Akira had to know. If he didn’t tell her he would tell someone else and Akira was the one he trusted most, so he opened his mouth and began to speak bracing himself for the wrath of Akira. “You know” started Arima. Akira was hoping that Arima would tell her that he was okay, that he wasn’t going to regain his memories, Akira was hoping Arima would comfort her. What she heard was the exact opposite. “ There is a lot of proof that he was tortured in the past.” Said Arima in a calm but shaky voice, like he was trying to keep his voice calm. Akira felt her blood run cold. She could fell the tear dripping down her cheek and the only thing that was keeping her composure together was the small bit of hope that it wasn’t a long or really bad torture session. Her voice cracking she let out a small “By who”. Arima looked away and Akira could immediately tell that it was bad. “Jason” replied Arima almost losing control over his emotions. Akira on the other hand broke down crying, turning herself into a sobbing mess. Somewhere in the back of her mind she was thankful that her co-workers had all left and nobody except for Arima would see her like this. He was such a sweet boy he never deserved any of this but fate could be cruel.
Looking down at the sobbing mess that was Akira he could make out small words such as “Why him”, “he is such a sweet boy”, and “he never deserved any of this”. Arima sat down and wanted to try to calm her down by telling her that it was just a theory but he couldn’t tell a lie. There was so much proof it was almost certain that he had been tortured so he sat there rubbing circles onto her back and telling her that he had forgotten and it didn’t haunt him anymore. Akira knew that it was stupid but she couldn’t help but feel guilty. It was the CCG’s job to help humans and he was half human so they were responsible for him. As she continued to sob into the night Arima sat there providing her a small level of comfort.