With Every Step

31. Free

Though she and Amon had planned to stay only for the battle, after the Dragon War, they aided the relief efforts as well.

It was partly due to their guilt, Akira knew; both of them felt responsible for everything they had done as investigators and this was their way of atoning, no matter how little. Another part was that they hadn't discussed the future yet. It was a vague unknown that stretched ahead of them.

"Hey, Akira," Hideyoshi said one day. "What do you think about joining the TSC? That's an official offer, by the way."

Her immediate answer was a 'no'. It probably wouldn't be much different from the work she was already doing, but she couldn't bring herself to make it formal. Joining the organisation that had replaced the CCG would feel like she was continuing in that never-ending cycle of her life, never moving forward, and that wasn't what she wanted for herself.

...but what was it that she wanted?

She was curled up in the loveseat, pondering that question, when Amon came home. She felt him sit next to her.

"Welcome back," she said distractedly.

"Akira... is something wrong?"

She glanced at him. He was always so drained these days, pushing himself to his limits as he helped Haise and the others, but he still managed to find time for her. It was their silent decision that they wouldn't let anything interfere between them, not in this crucial stage when they were trying to figure out this new world and where they stood in it.

But even without knowing the answer to that, Akira knew her place wasn't in Tokyo, between ghouls and humans and dragon orphans, in a life that mimicked the past she wanted to leave behind.

Maybe she was selfish for wanting something different, but she couldn't bring herself to care.

"Akira?" Amon sounded even more worried now.

She finally answered, "Hideyoshi asked me today if I wanted to join the TSC."

He chuckled, though there was little humour in it. "Eyepatch asked me the same thing."

They were quiet for a few seconds, and then Akira spoke, "We won't... be staying here forever, will we?"

"What do you want?"

He never gave her his opinion outright. It annoyed her sometimes, but she had come to understand that this was his way of trying to help her past the emptiness—letting her struggle with herself for answers and make her own choices. And once she did speak her mind, he wasn't very hesitant about revealing his thoughts.

"I've had enough of Tokyo," she admitted. "But I don't know where..."

"What do you think about Ome?"

"Ome?"

"That was where the orphanage was."

"What was it like?"

"It's more peaceful than Tokyo, for sure," he said. "Last I was there was more than a decade ago though."

Akira had the mental image of a little Amon running around, and suppressed a laugh. To see the place where he had grown up...

"Peaceful sounds perfect."