Guardian of Memories

Chapter 14

Today was a new day. Last night I had the same nightmare that I had been having for days, but this time, I learned something new.
I remember that after I 'awoke' in the field, the little girl from before was standing next to me with a crown made of wheat grass and flowers on her head. She was smiling down at me, but when I asked her for her name, she giggled and ran off. I followed her to the same scene where the man and woman were sitting.

(Flashback)
I sat down next to the woman as she picked grass off of the little girl's dress.

"Excuse me?" I said. The woman turned to me with the same sad smile as before.

"Yes, sweety?" She responded.

"Are you... My mother?" I asked. Before she could respond the man stood up, looking past us.

"Oomori.." He whispered. I looked behind me and there stood the same man as before. I was afraid and stood up, running over to the man who I believed to be my father. I stood in front of him, blocking the other man's path to them.

"So, I see your spirit hasn't changed," the man said. His smirk was enough to send chills down my spine.

Looking back on the dream, it had ended the same as before. I was thrown to the side, lost consciousness, and when I had regained my sight, the same bloody scene awaited me.

"Oomori, was it?" I sighed as I put my work uniform on. If that was true, I now knew the name of the man I was looking for.

I pushed those thoughts aside for now as I entered the café. When I opened the door, I was immediately greeted by Irimi and Koma.

"Good morning! Did you sleep well? You look tired." Irimi said, looking concerned.

"I slept fine, just had a bad dream," I said, smiling.

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that! Well, it was just a dream after all."

If only...

"Where's Touka?" I ask.

"Over there. She's been talking to that one boy." Koma responded.

I looked over to see a laughing Touka with Hide. I bow to them in thanks and run over.

"Faye!" Hide yelled, waving at me.

"I'm glad to see you're in better shape!" I said, standing next to Touka.

"Yeah, that car accident got me banged up pretty good," he said, looking off to the side.

I tilted my head, but didn't say anything. He seemed to be hiding something from me, but what? Hide only looks away like that when he's covering up something. I didn't want to push it though and instead turned to Touka.

"So, is Yoshimura helping him prepare for his shift?" I asked her.

"Huh? Oh, Kaneki. Yeah, the manager is attempting to get his coffee skills to an acceptable stage, but I think he might just wait tables mostly until he gets the hang of it."

"Fair enough!" I laughed. I remembered when I first started here. I was young, so I didn't really do much except for clean and watch the others make sandwiches and coffee, but eventually I had to learn it all too. It took some time, but the manager is a very good teacher.

"Speak of the devil!" Hide said, waving to someone behind us. "Surprise!"

I looked back to see Kaneki looking over at our table with a hint of shock in his expression. Touka seemed really relieved to see him as she whispered for him to join us. Now that I think about it, she looked the same way when I came over too. Man, Hide must make her really uncomfortable.