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kenkamishiro · 7 years

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re:quest [tension] - chapter 4

I don’t even know how it took me this long to do chapter 4 (please don’t ask). Unfortunately the last chapter will definitely take a while since I’ll be starting school soon, but I’ll definitely finish it at some point.

For those who haven’t read “tension”, the short story about the CCG art festival, you can read chapter 1 here. Enjoy!

(Thank you @tokyo-ghoul-out-of-context for proofreading.)

“Huh?” Koori-senpai, what are you doing?”

When Hairu had showed up to work at the S1 squad’s task room, she had found Ui cutting up photographs with a pair of scissors. “Do you have a grudge against those people in the photos or something?”

“Of course not.” Ui said, glaring at his hand. Hairu shrugged and sat down in her seat to escape from his line of sight.

When Ui finished cutting up the photo he had been holding, he began to clean up. Hairu rose from her chair and looked at him again. “Are you making a scrapbook then?”

In addition, the photos he had were similar colours.

“...it’s for the art festival. I’m making a collage out of them.” It seemed like he was going to paste the photos he had cut out to form one complete piece of art.

“You’re going all out, huh?”

“If I’m going to do something, I’m going to do my best. If I hand in an unfinished product, I’ll look like a fool, and I don’t really want that to happen…”

Ui took a deep breath.

The annual art festival that had been a slump for all these years was now booming. It had become a topic of discussion among investigators, which was unheard of. And even though the deadline wasn’t near, the art festival executive committee was worried that the hall they rented every year to display the artwork wouldn’t be big enough to display them all.

“I never thought this would become this big of a deal.”

“Isn’t this what you wanted though, Koori-senpai?” Wasn’t this now an event that was suitable for Arima to adjudicate?

“...there’s a limit to everything.”

However, Ui was a pessimist. As Hairu pondered just what exactly was making him this high-strung, a visitor suddenly came into the room.

“Mmm...Koori-boy.”

With just a glance she could see the muscles bulging from the man’s brawny figure, hair styled into a pompadour coupled with a voluminous moustache. This was Tanakamaru Mougan, a Special Class investigator with a presence that was like overwhelming stench of a million spices mixed together.

He was a veteran investigator known as ‘Mougan of the 2nd ward’, but to Hairu he was simply someone who reeked of old man. His sweltering presence made it seem like the task room was heating up.

Ui stared wide-eyed at Mougan who looked like he had been planning to meet Ui all along, though it seemed like Ui hadn’t been expecting him at all.

“I heard about it, boy.” Mougan lumbered over to Ui’s side and approached him thoughtlessly.

“...h-heard what?”

“That you set this year’s art festival on fire!” Mougan was applauding for Ui as his way of praising him. Just how in the world did he make his claps sound like large explosions?

Ui was making a face that was impossible to describe because of the unwanted flattery. Was the sullen expression Ui made whenever the popularity of the art festival was brought up because this was the news that was being spread?

“I wholeheartedly believe that events that enrich life, or in other words, ‘adult extracurricular activities’, are a fantastic idea. Take me for example. I organized the CCG Dandy Contest and the Inter-ward Baseball Classic, though I wasn’t able to turn them into major events. Unbelievable, perhaps I should call you a young genius now...hmm?”

Mougan, who had been stroking his moustache the entire time while he was talking, grabbed Ui’s scraps of photos. “Koori-boy, you’re in the middle of making something as well! Hoh, how fascinating, you’re making a collage, I see.”

“Yeah…”

Mougan could guess what Ui was trying to make right away, thanks to his deep and extensive knowledge of culture from having grown up in a temple. “It must be difficult preparing the photos though.”

“I suppose…”

Mougan nodded in agreement, and then he suddenly made a fist and thumped his chest. “I see, boy! Is it that you need my help with your art!?”

“No, I’m good,” Ui said, turning him down.

But Mougan’s reply was, “Don’t hold back! So you were interested in my camera!?”

Once Mougan became like this, there was no stopping him. He firmly grabbed Ui’s shoulders. “Hahaha! Looks like we’ll be dripping sweat and tears for your fantastic art! Fwahahahaha!!”

Ui’s day is getting worse, Hairu thought as Mougan’s explosive laugh resounded in the room.

Even people with art experience were having difficulties. This wasn’t limited to just Ui, however.

“I told you, this should be like this, like this, like that, and this should be like that. Get what I’m sayin’, buzzcut?”

“No, I don’t get what you mean!” the Qs squad leader Shirazu yelled out without thinking in response to Saiko’s rude explanation.

Shirazu and Saiko were currently in a family restaurant. Sitting on top of Shirazu’s table was a glass of juice brought from the fountain machine and a motorcycle magazine alongside a sketchbook which had two circles and horizontal lines drawn in it. At a quick glance the drawing looked like an eggplant or a cucumber, but it looked like a motorcycle to Shirazu.

Shirazu was trying to get an award from the art festival, as the winners would receive prize money, though it was a meagre amount. But to him, whose biggest desire was to make money, this was an opportunity that he couldn’t pass up.

The problem was that it was virtually impossible for him to win an award. Shirazu had lived a life unrelated to the arts, and going for a ride on his motorcycle suited his nature more than holding a paintbrush. Because of that, he was aiming for the honourable mention rather than shooting too high for the grand prize or the runner-up prize. He had asked Saiko to teach him how to draw because it seemed like her drawings that she doodled to waste time were easier to draw compared to Urie’s oil paintings.

But it was more difficult than he’d expected putting it into practice. “For starters, show me what you can do,” Saiko had said, so he had tried drawing a motorcycle while glancing back and forth at the magazine. But it was evident that he couldn’t draw to save his life.

“Shiragin, how’re you supposed to ride that spoopy horse?”

“...shut up.”

On the other hand, Saiko’s paper had a well-drawn motorcycle drawn in a distorted style. Shirazu and Saiko had drawn the same motorcycle, yet the drawings looked like completely different things.

“I thought it’d be easy to draw if it was familiar and something that I like…”

“Guys are just like that. They can’t see the people in front of them.”

“And this ain’t even a person. Shit…” Shirazu fell flat onto the table and groaned. “I just wanna cover my face in black ink, stamp it against the paper, and just submit that as my self-portrait.”

“I won’t stop you then.”

“That’s when you’re supposed to stop me.”

“As a squad member, I shall watch over the Qs squad leader’s naked body print.”

“Don’t say that.”

“Ahh, I wanna eat a ton of karaage.”

“I don’t care if that’s what you wanna order, just teach me properly!” Today was Shirazu’s treat to Saiko for helping him out.

“Right, right,” Saiko said as she pressed the call button to bring the waitstaff.

While he watched her order, Shirazu thought about how surprisingly peaceful it was now.

“...eventually I’ll forget that I’m an investigator.”

“You know, I always forget.”

“And just how do you do that?”

“‘Cause the only thing in my mind right now is karaage. Karaage, karaage!” Saiko sang the word in her own tune. In this kind of state she wouldn’t be able to coach him until she was done eating. Shirazu, having become bored again, began filling the blank spaces on the page with circles. The small circles began to multiply.

The reason why he had been noticing how peaceful things were was because of the Auction Cleanup Operation that had taken place recently. Shirazu harboured all kinds of emotions from that battle.

I want to...be beautiful.

Those were the words that his opponent Nutcracker had spit out after his finishing blow, words that didn’t sound like anything like what a ghoul would say. Because of that, when he stabbed her it hadn’t felt like he had exterminated a ghoul, but rather killed a person, and those emotions weighed down Shirazu’s heart. It had reminded him of the mortality of humans, and also related his father’s suicide.

He wasn’t the type to think too deeply, but he couldn’t erase these thoughts burning within himself. Though in that fight, it wasn’t just Shirazu’s heart that had been affected. All the Qs had been affected one way or another; it had affected Saiko who was always cracking jokes, it had affected Urie, it had affected Mutsuki as well.

“Lotsa nice circles there, Shiragin.”

“Hm? Oh, you’re right.” Before he knew it, Shirazu had drawn circles all over the paper without any gaps in between them.

“Wow, this is kinda disturbing.”

Looking at the aggregation of circles, Shirazu closed the sketchbook, but Saiko grabbed it. “THIS IS...ART!”

“The hell are you sayin’?”

She pulled the sketchbook out of Shirazu’s hand and looked at the page covered in circles. “Shiragin, draw a ton of small circles on a big piece of paper. A ginormous one.”

“Huh? That sounds like a pain to do, where’s the fun in that?” he said exasperatedly to Saiko, who sounded like she was off her rockers.

She waved her finger and clicked her tongue at him. “You don’t understand what art is, so of course you’d find it boring.”

“Oi, I’m startin’ to get pissed off at you art geeks.”

“Funny comin’ from the CCG bastard! Draw the damn circles, draw them!” Saiko shoved the paper in front of Shirazu’s face.

“Stop it already!” Shirazu said, swatting the paper away.

“Do you want the prize or not, Ginshira!?” Saiko exclaimed.

“I want it…”

“Then listen to what the charismatic Saiko has to say!”

The way he was right now, he wouldn’t even have a remote chance of winning the award. That being said, Saiko didn’t think that those circles would help him win one, but she felt that Shirazu could somehow manage since circles were easy to draw.

“Fine,” Shirazu replied.

Now that the artistic direction was settled, all that was left was to just draw it. He and Saiko split ways when Saiko said that she was going to go buy art supplies for herself, and he began walking to the Chateau.

“Art festival, huh…”

Urie was going to paint as always, and Haise was going to make a gingerbread castle with Mutsuki.

“...”

Now that he thought about it, it felt like Haise had changed as well after the Auction Cleanup Operation, though it was hard to say just what exactly had changed in him.

“...who knows, he might just be tired or something,” Shirazu muttered to himself, and then he suddenly remembered something. “Ah, that’s right.”

Shirazu changed his course of direction. He soon arrived at a cafe called :re, and passed through the entrance.

“Welcome,” the cafe owner came to greet with a gentle smile. She was a lovely woman who looked around Shirazu’s age.

“Ah, thanks.” Shirazu sat at the counter and ordered a cup of coffee which the taciturn male employee behind the counter prepared for him.

The aroma of coffee rising from the steam, he placed the cup to his mouth without waiting to cool it down. It was delicious as always. Haise had teared up when he drank this coffee.

“Looks like you’re the only one here today,” the owner called out.

Shirazu raised his head. “Ah, yeah. The black coffee I drank last time was amazing.”

“Thank you so much. Come to think of it, we met at the hospital as well.”

A while back Shirazu had gone with Hanbee from the Suzuya squad to visit Juuzou’s partner Shinohara, and that was when they had passed by each other. It had been just for that moment, but it seemed like she remembered.

If that was the case, then maybe he could bring up the topic.

“Um, has Sassan come by?” he asked. “Um, he was the person that was with me before. But not the one wearing the eyepatch…”

“I haven’t seen him recently,” she replied. Recently, so that meant that he came by a few times. “He must be pretty busy, I heard he was doing some investigator work.”

“Huh, I don’t think it’s that busy right now though…” He should have plenty of time now because things were usually calm after a big operation like the Auction Cleanup Operation. Maybe it was because he was spending time interacting with the ghoul he had invoked ownership rights over?

“...um, you know, there’s going to be a CCG art festival coming up soon.”

“C-CCG?” The manager seemed to respond more to the fact that he had said CCG instead of the art festival.

“Pretty weird, huh? Sassan and the guy with the eyepatch, Tooru, are gonna make a gingerbread castle. It’s gonna be pretty fun, so if you have time do you wanna drop by? It’s open to the public.”

“I’d love to go, but the shop…” She looked at the male employee standing behind the counter. The silent man was washing the mugs and didn’t seem to react to anything she had said.

“Oh, I guess there’s nothing you can do about that. It was only if you had time.”

“Yes. Thank you for offering.” The owner gave him a soft smile, then went back to work. Shirazu also finished his coffee and left the cafe.

“Hnn...so much for that.” He’d thought about how happy Haise would’ve been if she had come…

“Oh well. Though I’m pretty sure I saw Sassan pass by here secretly…”

If the opportunity came up, Shirazu would ask her again. This time Shirazu walked towards the Chateau.

“Did that guy leave yet?”

After Shirazu left, a bespectacled man appeared from the back of the shop. With a listless expression on his face, Nishio Nishiki, known by the CCG as the S-rate ghoul Serpent, sat down in a chair with a thud. His face had been covered by a mask back when he fought the Qs, but they still heard his voice, which was why he had been hiding in the back.

“Shouldn’t you go to the festival, Manager?”

“Idiot,” the cafe owner, Kirishima Touka, replied to Nishiki’s words. She stared at the door that Shirazu had exited out of. If Sasaki Haise knew that he had spent time with Touka and the others as Kaneki Ken, what would he think?

“Make me coffee,” Nishiki demanded to Touka.

“Go make it yourself,” she retorted.

“So stingy,” he said, and he went behind the counter. “But an art festival, huh...it’s just like grade school.”

“What’s wrong with that? It sounds fun,” Touka said as she washed Shirazu’s mug.

School.

The sound of it made her chest ache.

Touka-chan, do you want to go to the zoo together?

She unexpectedly recalled that scene. This was back when she’d still been attending school.

The zoo?

Yeah! I can bring lunch, and we can go sometime during summer break...I want us to go together again. I know you’re busy with studying but…

It’s fine. It’s not like I’m gonna fail just by taking a day off.

In this life where all she’d done was lose, the only things she had accumulated were promises she’d been unable to keep.

Once we graduate, Yoriko, are we going to drift apart?

...I don’t wanna...

Yoriko. Even if we graduate, we’ll still hang out together.

The words she had said to her beloved friend in the end, became nothing but a lie.

“Hmm, I guess. Being able to do stupid things like that does seem like a lot of fun,” Nishiki said as he finished making his coffee. He then suddenly let out a sharp laugh.

“What’s that laugh for? You’re grossing me out.”

“What’d you say?”

Nishiki glared at her, but realizing that arguing would be pointless, he returned to his seat at the counter with his coffee in hand.

“I just remembered this guy from the school festival planning committee at the university who had the dumbest haircut.” He looked at Touka while grinning. He had been at the university that Nishiki had attended.

“...”

Touka looked at the door again. Even now, she still remembered the moment that she saw Kaneki - no, Sasaki Haise - appear and pass through that door.

Touka wiped the washed mug and returned it to the shelf. “Looks like he’s pretty valued by them.”

From the way Shirazu spoke, Kaneki was needed by them, and she could imagine that that was how Kaneki had come to call that place home.

“Valued? That’s kinda fucking scary, you comparing him to a female lion?”

“Huh? Want me to kill you?” She glared at him again, but feeling foolish she dropped her gaze right away. When she turned away, she saw Yomo looking at her, and she looked away again.

“...”

When was the last time he’d called her Touka-chan?

“...Nishiki, it’d be too difficult for me to go, so why don’t you go to the art festival in my stead instead?”

“Don’t you even feel a bit sorry for daring me to go out in this cold weather?”

The sun was setting, and soon the cafe would become crowded with salarymen and students commuting from school that Touka and Yomo would have to serve coffee to.

Speaking of which, a long time ago she had used her younger brother Ayato as her practice partner for making coffee. But no matter how much he drank, he never once said that it was delicious.

What would it taste like now? She wouldn’t be able to make her coffee taste like Yoshimura’s, but could she bring out the taste of Anteiku?

It was then that Haise floated into her mind. He had cried drinking her coffee. His name may have changed, but he was still him even with his memories lost.

Touka brought the coffee she’d made to her mouth. It wasn’t that she wasn’t lonely. It was just that there was an emotion more powerful than loneliness inside of her and in the cafe too.

The sun was setting, and the bars in town were bustling with people. The ghoul investigator, Fura Taishi, entered a cozy pub and found the back of a nondescript-looking man sitting at the bar.

“Hey,” he called out with a wry smile, without bothering to check who the person that blended into the pub was. The man, Hirako Take, looked over his shoulder. Seeing Fura, he gave him a small nod.

“Mind if I sit next to you?”

“Go ahead.”

After ordering drinks, Fura talked to Hirako while snacking on the appetizers that they were served. “The art festival’s become a pretty big deal.”

“It really has.”

“Are you participating as well? What are you going to submit?”

“Kuramoto told me to submit pictures of my dog.”

“I see.”

Hirako was supposed to submit something but had no clue what to submit, so the vice squad leader Itou Kuramoto had suggested he take photos of his dog.

Speaking of photos, Ui was also using photos to make a collage, but he was losing his mind because of Mougan, who had suggested that they work together. All of Mougan’s photos that he took were spirit photography, which he couldn't use. It was strange, considering Mougan had grown up in a temple. Furthermore, Mougan had even destroyed his camera after being disgusted by a ghost that he had photographed.

“What about you?” Hirako asked as Fura took out his cigarette and lit it.

Fura shook his head silently. “Art isn’t really my thing, plus Arima isn’t making anything himself.”

It had only been for a short time, but Arima had been in the same class as Fura in the past. Fura had become an investigator, and it had been many years since he last spent time with Arima, but he couldn’t forget his memories from that time.

I’m going to continue pursuing ghouls, moving from place to place. It’s been a while since I spoke to someone my age. Although I wasn’t quite able to live a normal school life...it was surprisingly fun. Thank you.

They had met in his second year of high school. Arima was blunt, didn’t have much to say yet spoke too many unnecessary things, and was indifferent to his work. But he had saved Fura’s life in the process. Once Fura’s wish to defeat the ghoul who had robbed the life and right eye of his childhood friends was granted, Arima had left.

Even to this day, many years later, Arima was someone Fura didn’t understand, but he might just be the type who didn’t like talking and kept to himself.

“...hey, that reminds me.”

Hirako was now a squad leader with his own subordinates, but he had been requested to return to the Arima squad to help Arima. Considering how the vice squad leader Itou had grown, Hirako’s time there would be up soon. However, figuring that Hirako wouldn’t have much to say about that matter, Fura swallowed his words and smoked his cigarette instead. As the man who had served as the long-time partner of the ‘strongest investigator’, he must be carrying a heavy burden.

“...do you have pictures of your dog with you now?”

“No, the only ones I had I submitted already.”

“I see. I’ll look for them with my wife and daughter then.”

He exhaled the smoke from his mouth, and the smoke immediately dissipated.

Time went by, and the art festival slowly drew near.

“...one, two, three...fufu.”

The white drawing paper was steadily being coloured bit by bit by Hairu, who was sitting on the floor, surrounded by coloured pencils strewn about.

She had drawn a field of flowers, the backdrop of her memories.

The deadline of the art festival that brought about excitement absent in previous years, finally arrived. Amidst the grief of the investigators who couldn’t make their artwork in time, the judging began.

“...why is there so much art?”

Every year, someone from the Washuu clan acted as the adjudicator. This year it was Washuu Matsuri. He looked at the crowded displays of artwork with a tired expression. Just reviewing all this artwork would take ages.

Meanwhile, Washuu Yoshitoki, the CCG Bureau Director and Matsuri’s father, looked at the art with a smile. “Isn’t this great? The art festival was a success!”

“It’s a waste of time.”

“These were all made with precious time. You should take your time admiring them,” Yoshitoki chided to the rebellious Matsuri. However, Matsuri’s discontent face refused to disappear.

A distance away from them, Arima was observing the artwork by himself.

He had been told to select just one piece of art that he liked. All he had to say was “I like this,” and that would be the end of it.

Arima moved forward at a quick pace.

He continued without stopping, and it seemed like he was going to run out of artwork.

“...”

Arima stopped. It was a single picture. A scene of flowers blooming profusely. Standing in the middle of the flowers was a gentle-looking teenager with black hair and a young girl.

“...”

A landscape from long, long ago.

Arima stayed there for a short while, gazing at that picture.

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#Tokyo Ghoul #Tokyo Ghoul:re #Tokyo Ghoul:re[quest]#Translations #my translations #Ui Koori #Ihei Hairu #Tanakamaru Mougan #Yonebayashi Saiko #Shirazu Ginshi #Kirishima Touka #Nishio Nishiki #Fura Taishi #Hirako Take #Washuu Matsuri #Washuu Yoshitoki #Arima Kishou

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