Chapter 16

As I exited my apartment, I glanced at my house again for a bit and then proceeded towards the direction of a clothing store that was near my area while musing to myself.

Well, I feel like all the things she was telling me are the truth but I still can't be a hundred per cent certain that the ghoul investigators didn't see her face, as far as I remember no recent newspapers or news channel mentioned a young ghoul escaping….Hopefully, that's the case.

While I was wondering about Nanami's face being known to CCG or not, I suddenly facepalmed my head as a thought struck my head..how could I be so dumb..sigh. I ended up making my mask from Uta out of a little bit of excitement and also because I didn't know where to go after visiting Anteiku.

Thankfully I didn't do anything yet to attract the attention of people since yesterday was my first day wearing it outside. Uta would have got to know about my identity through the mouths of other ghouls or Itori the information seller if I had made some big fuss while wearing this mask. Sigh...and it looks cool as well, I sighed again and decided to buy a new readymade one from some normal mask shop and destroy this current one. I searched nearby mask stores on my smartphone and soon walked towards the one nearest to me.

It took me around 30 mins walking and I finally reached the store, it was a two-story old wooden house, the ground floor was used as a stationary shop or the kind but it also has a few masks outside to attract the eyes of the youngsters as they pass by it.

I checked a few masks and they felt good and sturdy, I finally decided on the one that looked quite simple, it was a full face white mask with a red claw scratching patter that starts from below the right eye region and goes up towards the upper left end of the mask. What I liked about the mask was that it only had two narrow lines in place of big holes for the eyes to see through. As a result, I won't have to care about others finding out about me being a one-eyed ghoul.

There were other masks with such small eye spaces as well which would stop others from seeing my eyes but I preferred this one because it kind of reminded me of Anbu mask from Naruto.

I picked up the mask and showed it to the old lady asking her for its price before buying it. After that, I went to the clothes store to buy things for Nanami. It felt weird to ask for her sizes when we just met so I just thought of buying her a few baggy clothes. The shop assistant helped me a bit and I bought a few sets of sweatshirts and shorts for her.

I was kind of exhausted after buying all this. Shopping really exhausts the heck out of me, it has always been like this in both of my lives and apparently the earlier Kaneki was also not very fond of it. So while going back home with shopping bags on both of my arms I thought of relaxing a bit at Anteiku since it was much nearer compared to my house.

After suffering from the raging sun for around 20 minutes I soon entered the cafe and was welcomed by the cold comfy breeze from the air conditioner. Touka was not here today, looks like she went to school. I gave Koma-san my order and sat on the table near the window side and took time to relax while shutting my eyes for a while.

*RING*

Looks like another customer has arrived, or should I say customers I thought after I smelt the scent of the newcomers. I opened my eyes and was a little bit surprised by the visitors. One was a mature woman with long chestnut coloured hairs, a gentle look and a kind smile to her face from which a subtle hint of sadness could be observed and the one accompanying her was a cute little girl with short hairs of a little lighter shade when compared to her mother, she looked a little nervous while entering the cafe.

"Ah Ryouko san you're here, the manager is inside you can go and visit him." Koma san said while gesturing for them to enter the staff doors.

While they were entering the staff doors Hinami's eyes met mine for a second to which I smiled at her and she nervously moved her eyes away from me. I inwardly chuckled seeing how nervous she felt when in front of strangers.

I finished my coffee along with the snacks and exited the shop. It was already around 2 in the afternoon so I decided to return home while wondering whether Nanami was still at home or had escaped.

I deliberately didn't bound her and lock the door when I was going out, this was more like a test for her, if she wants to escape she can, I have confidence in finding her again cause I already know her scent and finish her. If she doesn't then even if she sees me as a person who will increase her chances of survival, which is the most likely case, I don't mind being that person for her but in return will also just use her as a chess piece. As for the other possibility, I don't think that's possible and didn't think of it.

While pondering about all this I reached my house.