Mika

She wasn't sure where she was running to, but she pressed onward, dialing for Tatara as she went. No answer.

The nearest subway station was twenty minutes away on foot. She stopped, heaving for breath. Her first thought had been to get to Tatara's apartment, but he was unlikely to be there. Mika slowed to a walk, her phone held tight in her hand. What made her most angry was Tatara thinking she'd rather live her life with someone else than risk it to be with him.

They didn't have to stay here. They could leave the country. To Tatara's hometown somewhere in Southern China if he was willing. Her mood lightened at the prospect. She could learn the language, get a job in finance, or even open her own teahouse, one set up for Go players like the one her father runs.

Mika smiled. Her feet stopped dragging. This could work. They could raise their child in relative safety. Little Satsuki. Or little Ayame. She'll walk her to school every morning, and Tatara can bring her back in the evening, her tiny hand swinging in his. And when they arrive home, she'll have dinner ready, a dish or two of the local cuisine, recipes she picked up from coworkers or those nosey housewives they'll have as neighbors.

She called Tatara again, and this time, as though her thoughts about a life out of the country had reached him, he answered.

"You're an idiot," Mika said in lieu of a greeting. Her hand flew up over her mouth to stifle a sob mixed with frustration and relief. "You're an idiot if you think you can get rid of me like that."

There was a beat of silence on his end. "I do often underestimate you."

"Where are you?" She picked up the pace. "I'm a 10 minute walk from Amon's place. I'll come to you. The Azabu subway station's in sight."

"You're out in the streets?"

His tone put a damper on her frenzied pace.

"I'm just about to duck into Azabu station. I—"

"Go back inside. Quickly."

She slowed to a stop. The fear in his voice raised the hairs on the back of her neck. She ran out from under Amon's protection, out into the open like a wounded gazelle separated from its herd. This was a bad move. She couldn't believe her own stupidity.

"Mika, are you there?"

She sucked in a deep breath, hoping it'd calm her. "I'm here," she managed to say.

"Head back immediately. I'll come pick you up at Amon's. I'll be there in twenty minutes." He hung up.

Slowly, Mika lowered the phone from her ear. Slowly, she flipped it shut. Slowly, like she was balancing on a tightrope, she turned around.

Slowly… slowly… slowly, because she knew.

She knew they were behind her.

Two figures stood unmoving under streetlights, terrible in their silence.

Mika could hardly breathe. They approached as one, in an ambling pace that suggested they could take their time.

And they could. Because she was no fighter. This wouldn't be a battle, but an execution.

How will they do it? Will they stick her in the chest with a blade? Behead her? Worse?

They stopped twenty feet away. Headlights reflected off their suitcases from a lone, passing car. Mika could see the boy in the backseat of that car rubbernecking. It was a comforting but fleeting moment of normalcy.

"Mika Hinamori?" one of them asked.

Silently, she nodded.

"My name is Kousuke Houji. This is my partner, Murakami Satou. We're Special Investigators from the CCG." They flashed their badges. She hadn't doubted them. The suitcases they carried was enough to do what their badges did.

Again, she nodded. She wondered if they could see her shaking.

"The CCG has deemed you to be an imminent threat to the viability of the ghoul fighting task force. We are here to—"

"Me? Or the kid growing in me?"

A wry smile twisted Houji's lips. "We've heard a lot about you, Hinamori-san."

Mika was silent. She wasn't sure what that was supposed to mean.

"Surely you didn't think we'd let you carry the child to term."

"I held no such illusions. My plan was to leave for China."

"CCG China would hunt you down all the same. They don't want a one-eyed ghoul, either."

She had to stall them. If only she could keep him talking until Tatara arrived. But would Tatara be able to save her? She'd seen her brother, a Special Investigator himself, unleash his quinque in a blink of an eye. She'd be dead before Tatara could call out her name.

Satou began to read her her sentence. The words went by in a blur. "Fraternization with the enemy… intent to sabotage the CCG task force… illegal association with a ghoul entity." He ended with, "Under penalty of death, to be carried out with extreme prejudice."

"Just curious, Hinamori-san," Houji said, nonchalantly undoing the clasps on his suitcase. "Would you rid yourself of your child if we gave you a chance to do it now?"

It was funny how the CCG saw their relationship. They called it illegal, an attempt to sabotage and undermine as though their relationship had a purpose, as though they'd come together to plot the downfall of the CCG, as though this was some strategic maneuver when all that had happened was two people meeting serendipitously on a snowy, winter night, entwining not just their fates, but their hearts and their souls with such accidental rigor that distance was painful, and a mere joining of their hands, euphoric. It had never been about the CCG or the Aogiri. Not for her. Not for Tatara.

She wanted to say that to her executioners, but found the words unable to leave her, found that even if she could say them, they probably wouldn't understand any of it. Tears fell in unbroken streams.

"I thought not," he said, quietly. "Satou, why don't you do the honors?"

Satou's quinque emerged. His arm raised with it and he closed the distance in that same unhurried pace. She closed her eyes and waited for it to come down on her. Mika heard something slice through the air, felt wind rush by her, felt cold steel approach her neck, heard a clang of metal.

Wait… A clang of metal? Mika's eyes snapped open.

Amon stood before her, wielding Kura. He was fresh out of the shower and had only managed to pull on a pair of sweatpants. His hair was matted to his head with shampoo suds clinging to it. His bareback was still damp with water. The muscles in them strained as he threw Satou off his quinque.

"Get back," Amon told Mika, his eyes trained intently on Satou. "I left my apartment unlocked. When I tell you to run, run back and lock yourself in."

Mika backpedaled several paces.

"Have you lost your mind, investigator?" Houji said. "What is she to you?" Any surprise that had crossed Houji's face was now gone, replaced by a mixture of grim determination. "We will be authorized to kill you if you continue to resist us."

Amon smiled humorlessly. "I'm sure you will."

Satou raised his quinque again and charged him.

Amon parried off the first attack, side-stepped and swung Kura in a wide arc. That would've cleaved Satou in two had he not managed to wedge his quinque between him and the path of Amon's blade. Another ear-splitting clang rang the air. Giving Satou no time to recover himself, Amon struck again, throwing him off his feet.

"Go! Now!"

Mika took off. Her entire body felt weighed down, like she was trying to move her arms and legs through a vat of glue. Rather than drawing closer, the streetlights marking the distance of the road seemed like they were moving further away.

Houji sprang after her, but Amon cut off his path, forcing him to engage with his quinque. It was clear that neither of them were getting past him until they've dealt with him first.

The cacophony of fighting was loud static in Mika's ears. She looked over her shoulder to see Amon struck on the side of the head with the flat of Houji's blade, throwing his entire body to one side. He fell unconscious.

Pure adrenaline and fear shot through Mika's veins like ice water. She pushed herself to run, a sob catching in her throat as the image of Amon's body hitting the asphalt road played over and over again in her mind.

The apartment was in view now, but what distance Mika had covered in two minutes, Houji seemed to get there in seconds. He caught her around the waist, twisting her around so she could see Satou standing over Amon, readying his quinque for a fatal blow.

Out of nowhere, a bikaku tail shot out and punched Satou through the side. He was lifted into the air and then shaken off with a flick of the tail, landing in a bloody heap off the road.

Tatara

He saw Amon laying unconscious with an investigator standing over him with his quinque raised. Amon had never been a friend to him, but if anyone were to kill him, it would have to be him. And for reasons no CCG investigator would empathize about—the murder of one of his unborn children.

He sent a bikaku tail flying, gutting the investigator and throwing him off the road.

Useless piece of trash. Weak and inefficient. How had Amon lost to this guy?

"Tatara!"

He turned to Mika's voice. For him, the sound of it was an irresistible pull. He felt a smile tug on his lips, but when he saw… when he saw that Houji had her in his grasp, his heart stopped. His worst nightmare—Mika possibly moments away from death.

Placatingly, Tatara raised his hands raised chest-level and walked closer. He continued to close the distance until Houji tightened his arm around Mika and said, "Stop."

Tatara did. Unquestioningly, obediently.

Houji reached to his side with his other hand. They heard the rasp of a blade being drawn out of his sheath. Tatara's impulse was to leap forward, but he didn't dare. Helplessly, he watched Houji bring the blade to Mika's neck. She closed her eyes, breaths turning shallow when it touched her skin.

Tatara wanted to remind the Investigator that unlike him, she was a fragile thing, and a nick against the jugular vein would kill her, but of course Houji knew that. Of course he did. The word "please…" made its way past Tatara's lips, barely audible in the winter chill. But he saw no mercy in those eyes.

"You know what I like about being a CCG investigator? About fighting ghouls?" Houji asked, quietly. "It's the feeling of power that comes with it. Of defeating enemies that are, by nature, stronger, faster, and hardier than me. We humans… we're supposed to lose to that. But we don't. Why do you think that is, Tatara?" Met with no answer, Houji said, "Because we're smarter. We've been losing to the ghouls, but we'll outsmart you godforsaken degenerates in the end. Take this as an example. You walked blindly into the scene without observing it from a distance. That—" Houji looked pointedly at Satou's corpse "—could've been me. You could've taken me by surprise. It's the monstrous impulse that you all have in you. That animal instinct trumps reasoning and foresight and everything else that would've made you victorious over mankind. That is your species' tragic downfall. And unfortunately—"

"No, please—!"

"It'll be Ms. Hinamori's downfall, too."

The blade passed over Mika's neck and Tatara's world fell away from him.

Mika

It was a strange sensation to have blood leave one's body so fast. For one thing, seeing it come out in spurts was strange. Feeling fingers of warmth running down her throat, over her chest was strange. That odd coldness gripping her was strange.

When Houji's arm left her, she tried to stand, but her legs buckled and she dropped to her knees. Mika was puzzled by how weak she'd gotten. She felt herself tip over onto her side. Dimly, she saw Houji walking away.

Seconds later, Tatara was there, laying her flat and pushing his hand into the gaping wound, but the blood continued to run past his fingers. He was saying things, but Mika could barely catch the words.

When her body got colder and colder as the seconds passed, Mika said, "No… no more." She pushed his hand away. "Just listen. Please Tatara…"

His hand slipped away. The defiance in his eyes over her imminent death slowly retreated, replaced by a pain so raw, it hurt just to look. Tatara sat next to her and pulled her into his arms.

Reaching up, Mika lay her hand against his face. Her voice was weak. So weak. Just fluttering breaths against Tatara's cheek. "I've said that I don't believe in life after death, but with seconds left with you, I have to believe it exists. I have to believe that eventually, we'll find our ways back to each other. In the next life. Or in the one after that."

A trembling, bloody hand reached up and grasped Mika's hand. "It's been said that time turns oceans to dust, wears mountains to stumps, and snuffs out stars in the sky. But the love I have for you transcends that—I will find my way back to you, Mika. No matter what happens, we'll…" Tatara's voice caught on a deep, wrenching sob when he saw felt the life leave Mika's body.

"… we'll be together again."

A/N: Well, that's it, folks! After a two-year hiatus, I've managed to wrap up this story. Before I get any complaints about a sad ending, I did mention in the summary description that this was a tragedy :)

I might write an epilogue if I have time for it, because it feels abrupt to end it here, but I'm working on a novel right now, so that might not happen for some time.

If you need another good story, check out the novel here: ktkao. com If you read the chapters, don't forget to drop a comment so I can see my fan fiction peeps represented!