Tokyo Ghoul: Regina

love.

Jirou

"Kishimoto, what brings you today, my boy?!" The local coffee shop employee tells me.
"Same as usual." I waved. "Oh, and can you make me another one?"
"Of course, kid, who is it for?"
"Someone that I'm going to see." I smirk.
"Alright, my little guy!" She smiles. "Special lady friend?"
"Co worker."
She gives me my coffee and I pay and tip and leave. I take a sip of one of the cups, they finally made it even better than last time! The weather is finally changing as it's June finally, but that doesn't change my love for a nice hot coffee. I get to the park and sit down, waiting for them to arrive. "I hope she's not late." I said to myself.

"Yo, Jirou." I hear her behind me. Kaito was finally on time for once. She was always one of the last few people to arrive in class, as she always slept through her alarm. You'd think someone as smart and focused would be on time, she'd be there early. She was wearing a short sleeve T shirt and a long dark skirt with flats. "Sorry if I was late, I didn't know what to wear."
"That's okay." I smirked. "I'm sorry if this was on short notice, I just wanted to talk about some plans and a possible upcoming mission." I told her as she sits down. I pull out a file from my bag and show it. "Here, coffee!" I handed to her.
"Oh you didn't have to-"
"It's on me." I gave a thumbs up.

"We're only focusing on two people this time, and that's Erik Kioshi and Satoru Nobuyuki." I told her. "Nobuyuki was someone I really wanted to take down." I said.
"Yeah, that dudes a lot, he's more joker like and less violent." She said. "Why those two explicitly?"
"Me and Naito when we were undercover knew those two were more of the catastrophic ones out of the higher ups." I explained. "They go hand in hand with many of the incidents and murders." I circled on the paper. "They trusted me so much I'm one of the main operators for this mission!" I got up and cheered.
"That's great!" She clapped. I sat right back down and put my file away. "Anyway, is there anything else you need to tell me?
"Like what?" She asked.
"Like about the mission?"
"Oh, I'm good." She smiled and drank her coffee. "We haven't talked in forever like this, I remember the last time was three years ago, before you left for Oslo."
"Yeah it was a really weird time." I said. "I'm glad I'm not in this period of hiding anymore though."
"Yeah, me too." She drinks her coffee. "Do you remember the night you returned?"
"I got so wasted I woke up in your bed, I'm sorry!" I laughed.
"Yeah," she smiled. "Nevermind, I got to get going actually." She gets up.
"No, no, you sit." I grabbed her arm. "You wanted to talk, so we talk, don't go running away like you always have done." I gave her scary eyes.
"Okay, jeez!" She says as she plops down. "Again, about that night, I remember you were going on and on about how you missed me."
"Oh, I guess I do remember?" I scratched my head and then it head me like a truck. "Oh god!" I screamed. "I'm so sorry!"
"No it's okay, it's okay!" She assures me. "It's just I wanted to also say this." She gets up from her seat.
"What's that?" I turned around. I see her hands shaking, and her lip quivering. It was unlike her at all.
"I'm..." she says slowly. "I'm in love with you." She finally tells me. My eyes widen as I remembered that night again. When we were drunk, she was constantly telling me how much she missed me, and I was repeating the same thing. Have I really been in denial all this long? Ever since she became a ghoul, something awoken in me. I have become protective of her. Every mission we had together, her getting injured, I would be the one carrying her out. I think I was always going to be the guy that girls would dream over to have them save them, I was the knight and she was the damsel in distress. But now, since she is like me now in some way, we are both knights.

"Stay with me damnit!" I remember telling her as I was carrying her out of the mission three years ago. "Don't you leave me dammit, this is just another mission where you get too cocky, so don't die on me!" She's bleeding really quickly, it won't stop. Why the hell would she do that? Sacrificing herself for Reina.
"Oh my god?!" Naito shouts as I cross paths with her."
"She got pierced by Kinuko, I need to rush her out of here!" I stopped by her. "There's a body in that room we can take and it can help her replace her organs, get Haruki and go, now!"
"Oh my god, okay, on it!" She runs past me.

"Jirou, she's going to become a half ghoul, this can help her." Toyama tells me.
"It's the only body we can find that matches her, we are using it!" Naito shouts at me. "Don't you want her to live?"
"Okay, okay, go ahead!" I shout back. "When the hell did everyone become so weak?!" I got mad. "Would turning her into a ghoul help her, or do you think it would kill her?" I asked them. "Cause I think it could do both!"  I started crying. "Im sorry."
"So, is it a yes or a no?" A doctor asks me. It takes me a moment to think about it.
"Last option, from what I hear?" I ask him. "Do it." I wiped my tears away.
"Bring the body and do it, now." Toyama turns to the doctor and they both rush off. I get up and rest my head against the wall and I start crying harder.
"Jirou, this was the only option." Naito tells me. "I mean, if the body that we found isn't a match, it means she-"
"Yeah and I don't think the squad would move a damn muscle because of it." I turned around. "Yeah, I said it, I knew almost all of you didn't give a single shit about her because she had this attitude, she was this and that, but she is the reason why we got Reina back, why we are still breathing, she sacrificed for us." I told her. "And you were the one who instigated all that shit."
"No I did not, where the hell are you getting that?"
"Do not play dumb with me, Marikou." I replied.
"Jirou, what is wrong with you?" She tries to touch me but I swat at her hand.
"Don't fucking touch me." I told her as I ran out of the room.
"Jirou!" She shouts for me.
"Hey, hey, hey, what happened?" Hide stops me. "I don't know if I can do this anymore, I can't do this."
"Do what?" He asks me.
"They're turning Arita into a ghoul." I cried.
"Take a deep breath, let me talk to them, please." He pats my back and walks off. I fall to the floor, crying harder than ever.
I don't know why I approved of that, hell I don't think Sensei would've either. But, it was going to be a loss for both sides. I didn't talk to any of the members for the night, even Hide. I kept my distance from them, I just didn't want to see any of them right now, I just had to think.
"Jirou." Hide comes by me. "Do you want to see Arita?" I kept being silent. "I'm sorry, it was the last option we had."
"I understand, sir." I sat up from my chair. "But however I feel like this would lead to something bad."
"Yeah, I get that." He says to me.
"Sir?"
"Yes, kid?"
"Do you ever get these moments where you just stop and can't stop crying and shaking and your heart feels like it's going to explode?" I asked him.
"Occasionally." He answers me. "Those are called panic attacks."
"I feel like they just come so often for me." I said "I don't know how to control it, it's like it's coming more and more by the minute."
"You know what would make them better?" Hide asks me. "Let's go see, Arita, I think you'll feel much better to know that she is receptive and moving, everyone else has already seen her."
"Okay." I got up.

"I'm sorry." I get up from my seat and start to go by Kaito. "I guess I've been hiding this for a while too." I told her.
"What do you mean-" she asks me as I pick her up and hug her. I squeezed her tight as I started to cry.
"For hiding my feelings from you." I told her. "I shouldn't have."  I released her. She grabs my head and kisses me on the lips, I knelt down so I can be close to her level.
"I love you." We said to each other as we hugged each other tightly. I don't want this moment to end, everything that I hid, was now unleashed.