Chapter 9

"I'm sorry, I accidentally overheard you when I walked by. You are ghouls, right?"

"A human, huh… So what if we are ghouls? Do you think you are something better? Do you want to threaten us?" Touka said, getting increasingly angrier.

"Did I say something bad? I didn't mean to threaten you, you know?"

"Who the f#ck would believe you? DIE!" Touka said, sprinting towards Isaac. When she was in front of him, she lunged out and immediately tried to pierce through his heart. But instead of the usual, soft flesh texture, she felt something holding her hand so that it couldn't advance.

When she felt that he loosened his grip, she backed off and glared at Isaac warily.

"Do you think you won just because you stopped my attack? I'm a ghoul, don't forget that!" Touka said. Right after, on her back appeared something similar to the last ghoul – a kagune. The difference was, that it came out of her shoulders and it reminded Isaac of wings - only that she had one wing. Immediately, after the kagune formed, Touka started to attack Isaac with flying spikes that came out of her wing.

"Well, I think it's better to leave for now…" Isaac said when the spikes arrived and dodged them before he walked back to the street. When he walked around the corner, Touka tried to follow him but he was nowhere to be seen.

"F#ck!"

After Isaac left, Touka went back to the cafe named "Anteiku" to talk to the manager, Mr. Yoshimura. The manager was someone who helped ghouls who were either can't hunt or kill humans. Even though he was a ghoul, he loved both species ant wanted peace.

"Sorry for visiting at this hour, manager."

"Don't worry. Come in and have a cup of coffee," Yoshimura said and started to make some coffee for Touka.

"So what did you come here for, Touka?"

"It could be that a dove has seen my face…"

"Are you sure?"

"I am not sure, whether he is a dove…he didn't carry a briefcase with him, but when I attacked him he was able to stop me…"

"Are you sure it wasn't a ghoul?" Yoshimura asked.

"I wouldn't make such a mistake, manager! He smelled like a pure human…. I'm sorry that he saw my face, I will stop coming here tomorrow so that the café isn't implicated…" Touka said to Yoshimura.

"Well, let's wait and see… If its time let's think about what we should do. We can't be sure what he will do and how much he saw in the night. Now, drink your coffee and calm down." Yoshimura said, but inwardly thought, "Hopefully he wasn't a ghoul inspector…"

The next day, Isaac didn't have any plans, so he went shopping. While going around, he saw a mother and daughter with heavy luggage and walked over to them.

The mother was a slender and fairly tall woman with chest-length brown hair that was loosely tied towards the left side of her shoulder, with three flowers ornamenting it and brown eyes. She wore a pale, pastel dress tied at the waist with a braided orange belt, a pale, yellow sweater, and a reddish scarf.

The girl beside her who looked 14-15 years old had short, straight brown hair, brown eyes, and often wore a hairband decorated with two four-leaf clovers. It was very obvious that both were mother and daughter because they looked very alike.

"Both are ghouls?" Isaac realized.

"Hello, do you need some help carrying the luggage. It looks pretty heavy?" Isaac asked the mother. When the young girl beside her saw, that someone came over just to talk to them, she hid behind her mother and looked at Isaac with a nervous gaze.

"You don't need to force yourself. You probably have something better to do," the mother said.

"Don't worry, if I would have something better to do, I wouldn't have asked," Isaac said. On one side he wanted to help but on the other, he still wanted to know more about ghouls. When watching the two you wouldn't think they were ghouls different from the experience he had until now, where all the ghouls only tried to kill him, humans or fought among themselves.

Seeing, that Isaac persisted, the mother agreed so that Isaac took some luggage from the girl and the mother.

While walking, Isaac asked, "What are your names? I'm Isaac."

"I'm Ryouko Fueguchi and this is my daughter Hinami," Ryouko Fueguchi said.

"Hello Hinami," Isaac said to the girl who was hiding beside her mother the whole time.

"H-hello," Hinami said, surprised that he spoke to her, before hiding behind her mother again.

"She's bad with strangers, don't be surprised," Ryouko Fueguchi said.

"That's ok. So, did you come here to go on a vacation or to visit relatives if I may ask?"

"Well, you could say that we visit some people we know…" Ryouko said while a sad look.

After walking a bit, they arrived at a café named Anteiku. From outside it looked like the usual friendly neighborhood café.

"Here we are. You don't need to come inside, it's already enough that you helped to carry our luggage here.,"

"Ok, then I'll leave it here. You probably have enough to do so I'll take my leave."

"Thank you very much for helping us. If you have the time, I would be happy to treat you to some coffee."

"How about I come tomorrow then?" Isaac asked. He didn't have something important to do anyway and this was his only contact to ghouls.

"It would be a pleasure. Until tomorrow then, Mister Isaac."

"Until tomorrow then Ms. Ryouko. Goodbye Hinami," Isaac said and walked away. After they couldn't see him anymore, they walked into the cafe.