“Sorry I took so long, there's a big line today.”

The triplets demolished their first scoop in seconds. “Damn, these are good. Where did you get these from?”

Aki smiled, taking a big bite out of his own ice cream. “ ‘Sesame’. It’s got tempura fries, chicken, fish, vegetables, prawns, chicken-”

I raised an eyebrow. “You said ‘chicken’ twice.”

The triplets laughed as his cheeks reddened. “It’s really good!”

My watch chimed a moment later, and the smile melted off my face. “It’s past six…….I have to head home soon.”

Aki’s smile disappeared almost as quickly. “Oh……right. But can we go somewhere quickly first? I have something I want to show you.”

The triplets suddenly tensed and exchanged looks. “...are you sure?”

Aki smiled. “He’s one of my best friends, I trust him.”

I nibbled on the crunchy coating while we walked, and after a few turns I noticed we were headed for the CCG office building. “What’s so great about this place?”

The four of them smiled at me cryptically. “You’ll see.”

As we approached I started guessing in my head, ranging from a fancy conference room to a Quinque armoury. Then they walked right past the front door and into the adjacent alley, dropping my expectations like a sack of bricks.

The service elevator was clean but it didn’t exactly fill me with confidence, and as it climbed skywards I narrowed my eyes. “We’re not supposed to be going up to wherever you’re taking me, are we?”

Aki grinned mischievously. “Well, we’re only in trouble if we get caught.”

As the elevator slowed the triplets smiled too, nudging me to the front as we stopped. “Welcome to the best view in the 8th ward.”

The elevator doors slid open, and the wind pushed back my jacket’s hood as we were bathed in soft orange light. The sun was just beginning to set, casting the sky in an orange glow. The city skyline seemed to blaze in the sunlight, with night just beginning to appear on the edges of the horizon.

For a few moments I didn’t say anything, shuffling forward a few steps as the warm glow bathed my skin. “…………wow.”

The triplets smiled. “Yup.”

“We’re just in time for the sunset.”

We sat on the vents as the disk of gold slowly dipped lower, the watercolours of dawn streaming across the sky as we sat in a comfortable silence. After a few moments I glanced back at my friend, my ice-cream almost finished. “I know you already gave me an answer, but is there…more? To why you want to be an Investigator?”

He brushed a hand through his hair. “It wasn’t my parents’ decision, if that’s what you’re asking; I just want to protect the people I care about. There are plenty of doctors and cops and all of that, but joining the CCG is almost always a last resort or a revenge plan. Since I’m athletic I thought I might as well do something that made a difference.”

I smiled and turned back to the sun, “That’s about what I was expecting. Maybe I’ll go into Ghoul biosciences and become a lab tech, keep you company or something.”

I heard him get up and turned just in time to see him take a selfie, smiling at whatever image he had managed to capture. He sat down next to me and sent it to my phone, staring off at the sun as it sunk below the horizon. “Even after I become an Investigator, let’s keep coming here. All five of us.”

)o(

I jolted awake, breathing hard. …fuck.

Sumi was still asleep, so I quietly went to the bathroom to wash my face. Is this going to keep happening? Every night reliving the things I’d rather forget? I glanced up at the mirror, studying my reflection. A few faint acne scars dotted my face, but they weren’t very noticeable. My hair was only a few centimetres from my shoulders, my bangs covering my forehead and hanging a few strands in my line of sight. …maybe I should look into sleeping pills or something.

I stopped by a food stall to grab a taiyaki on my way to work, stowing it in my bag for later. The locks on the shutters still caught a little but they opened well enough, and I flicked the switches as I walked in. The shop still looked the same, and I put the locks into a drawer under the counter before flipping the sign to open and checking the backroom. Not much has changed in terms of inventory. One or two boxes are missing, but I’ll wait until Crata gets here before I put in more orders. I put my bag onto the empty space in the rack and locked the door, going upstairs to check the office.

The small stack of paper on the desk was still there and the filing cabinet was still locked, so I turned on the computer to check the order logs. Crata has already logged orders for the boxes. Looks like I’ll just be on shopfront duty. I went back down and sat at the counter, pulling out my phone and scrolling through my social media. While my eyes watched the screen I kept my ears alert, listening for footsteps even as I caught up on a few web comics. 

The next half hour was quite peaceful, nobody even passed on the sidewalk until a car pulled up to the curb and someone stepped out. I turned off my phone and looked around, making sure everything was in order as Crata walked in. “Good morning Teru.”

“Good morning Crata. We haven't had any customers yet, but everything seems to be in order.”

She nodded and headed up the stairs. “Alright. I’ll be upstairs, call me if you need any help.”

I didn't need a lunch break, but I was almost tempted to take one anyway just so I could do some walking around. Working at the cafe was far more interesting. It may have smelled a bit interesting sometimes, especially when I was working on those limited-edition durian stuff, but nothing a bit of Petrichor and my facemask couldn’t fix. At the end of the day I had helped maybe a dozen people buy something, and as I walked home I sighed. Maybe I should bring a book. 

Sumi was eating when I walked in, but she looked up and meowed once before she continued with her meal. I took a quick shower and refilled my water bottle, sitting down next to Sumi and plugging my phone in to charge. “Well, today was slow. What about you?” Sumi kept eating, and I sighed. “Sometimes I wish I was a cat too. Less people would be trying to kill me.”

I spun a pen through my fingers, flipping it around a few times as I watched the illusion of the plastic shell blurring into arcs. …I should be glad that today was slow; slow means normal. It means safe, or at least safer. If the rest of my days are like this, it would be…better.

I turned my computer on and checked my cloud storage capacity. Almost full? Odd. I opened the storage and browsed it’s contents, flicking through the files inside. Locations in code. Smokescreen folder 1, recipes. I picked a few of the files at random, selecting them and hitting the backspace key. I can delete a few of these. Smokescreen folder 2, photos of Sumi. I’ll leave those ones. My cursor paused over the next folder. …old photos.

An odd sensation swirled in my chest, and I took a deep breath. Relax. They’re just pictures. I clicked twice, loading the most recent image. Taken almost two years ago. Exactly as I remember.

I was the farthest away, the hardest to notice, sitting on the roof vent and just barely visible under the glare of the sunset. I had only just looked at the camera as the photo was taken, making it look like I was wearing an icy expression. The triplets were all smiling and striking the same pose to make it look like someone had photoshopped them in, the only differentiating feature being the fried ice creams in various stages of consumption. Aki was the one taking the selfie, smiling wide and holding his tempura ice cream in his other hand.

I should probably delete them. And yet…here I am. I pressed the arrow key, flipping through the photos in reverse order. The triplets’ birthday party. Aki’s birthday party. Hanging out in the 1st ward. Keho’s birthday party. In each photo, I was the hardest to spot. Normally in the back, dressed in darker and muted colours, not looking at the camera or barely looking out of the corner of my eye. I always felt detached from larger groups. Then I hit the only photo where I was the centre of attention. My birthday.

It was a small event, with maybe seven of my friends. I was smiling properly, laughing with Aki. My pendant had fallen out of my shirt, the metal reflecting the flash back at the lens. It looked as if there was a light source glaring at the camera from my chest, obscuring the steel shape from view.

Sumi meowed and jumped into my lap, looking at the screen and sniffing at the centre of the photo. She looked up at me and pawed at my sleeve to make sure I was watching, then she pawed at the screen and tilted her head at the image of me. I closed my computer and scratched her under the chin, smiling. “Yeah, that was me. A long time ago.”

She curled up in my lap and started purring, and I carefully nestled her in my arms before standing and carrying her over to my room. I don’t have much, but I’m alive. I haven’t gone hungry, I’m healthy, and I have enough money to live comfortably. I’m not safe, or uninjured, but I’m still relatively healthy. I guess that’s going to have to be enough for me.

)o(

It was raining pretty heavily, fat drops falling from the clouds as I waited in front of the school. The blanket of noise was calming, the cool air prickling against my skin. Running footsteps sounded nearby, and I turned to see Akise skidding down the halls into the shoe locker area. “Kou! Sorry I’m late, the club dragged on for a bit longer than I was expecting.”

I smiled and pulled out my umbrella as he wedged his shoes on. “It’s fine, I don’t mind. I like the rain.”

The patter of water against our umbrellas soon joined the hush of the falling rain as we walked, Aki pulling out his wallet. “You feeling like an early dinner? We can go get yakiniku from the place down the road.”

I rubbed the back of my neck. “I…can’t. I don’t have cash to spare, my sister and my mom both had their birthdays a month ago; I’m practically broke.”

“It’s fine, let’s go! I’ll pay.”

I smiled and shook my head. “First off, if I accepted that I would be a terrible friend. Second, if my parents found out I accepted I’d be dead.”

He sighed, shaking his head as we came to a stop at an intersection. “You could just cheap out and say you couldn’t find anything better for them, it’s not like they get you anything useful.”

I scoffed. “You clearly have no idea what it’s like to have siblings.”

He laughed. “Times like this I’m glad to be an only child.”

I pulled out my phone and cleared a stack of E-mail notifications. “I do have enough money to buy your Christmas present though.”

He smiled and shook his head. “You won’t go out to eat unless you absolutely have to, but you still reserve money to get me presents.”

I shrugged . “I can cook most foods, I like to keep the money for something else. Besides, I don’t get much of an allowance.” The traffic lights changed and we walked along the crosswalk, which was practically empty in the downpour. “So, what do you-”

There was a loud screech of rubber on tarmac, and the two of us paused momentarily to look to our left. Through the sleet-like rain I was able to make out the outline of a truck trailer before red tail lights flashed across my vision, the blare of a horn sounding just before everything went silent.

I stared at the haze of rain as wind whipped against my sides, my shoes no longer on the tarmac. Then I hit the ground and heard something snap, bouncing twice the asphalt before slamming against a wall. 

It was painful but also empty, vision swimming. I blinked and Aki was leaning over me, saying something I couldn’t hear. Sirens wailed through the distorted mess of sound and light, red tinting half my vision. A few more images flashed through the fog as I drifted further from consciousness; an ambulance with strobing lights, a nurse fitting an oxygen mask over my face, another one stopping Aki from getting in the vehicle. A hospital corridor. A white ceiling. Soft lights.

My vision focused most of the way, still fuzzy but stable enough. I tried to sit up and found bandages encircling my body, covered with hospital clothes. My head throbbed and I felt…weird. Like I was somehow lighter. Or heavier? I only felt half awake, as if I was dreaming. Still, through the haze I managed to piece together that bandages in a strange room meant I wasn't in a good spot. 

There was a quiet swish as the door opened and I looked up just as Akise walked in. Even without my glasses I could see he was weighed down by something, but before I could even process this he looked up and saw me staring back at him. Shock blossomed first, then his worry evaporated as it was replaced with relief. “Kou! You’re awake!”

I tried to lift my arms, but I couldn’t move my right hand. It was covered in white plaster from wrist to shoulder, something I barely noticed as he dropped his skateboard and rushed over. A dull ache speared through my eye and I ground the heel of my other hand into my forehead. “Ngh. What……where…?”

He pressed the call button and sat down next to the bed. “You're at the hospital, one of the big ones in the 3rd ward. Are you feeling okay? Do you remember what happened?”

I tried to shake my head and winced, the back of my neck throbbing as my hand traced bandages around my throat. “I…I don’t……it was raining?”

“A trailer truck hit you, your left arm was broken in three places and part of your spine was cracked. You’ve been out for two days.”

“Two days….” I blinked and squinted at him through the blur. “What about you? Are you hurt?”

He looked down. “I was lucky. I barely got clipped by the tailbar, another few inches and the truck would have hit me too.”

I looked around. “Did any of my stuff survive?”

He pulled out a little black container and put it on the table next to me. “Your earbuds and some of your books. Your books are at your house, but everything else got destroyed. Your glasses too. Here.” He reached into his bag and handed me a faux-crocodile skin glasses case, a set of rectangular black-framed glasses inside. “I tracked down your optometrist and asked them to make a new pair.”

As he put them on for me his face came into focus, and I smiled. “Thanks, but you should have waited; if my vision got any worse than it already is, then it would have been a waste.”

He shook his head. “No. I- I had to get it. Everyone said that I should wait because- because you-”

The shaking travelled into his shoulders, and as the door slid open he threw his arms around me. I used my one hand to hug him back as moisture pricked my shoulder, the nurse sidling back into the hallway as I shook my head slightly at her. “It’s okay, I’m okay. Thank you, Akise. I’m sorry I worried you.”