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Two years have passed since her life spun upside down at the whims of some kind of higher fate, and Akira might have even said that she was at peace.
She still mourned the passing of her father and her former partner, but she was forced to go on. Akira was the one who carried the burning torch of their legacy for them. She would find a way to ensure they rest in peace. Sometimes, she thought helping Sasaki was a part of it. Amon had had such an interest in him, hadn't he? She could see why now. Everything he did, he did for his friends. It was no wonder he had almost lost himself to insanity had Arima not found him.
Things were at a stalemate, even with the looming threat of Aogiri Tree. The pieces stood on the board where they fell, each King standing at opposite ends. As Akira taught Sasaki what it meant to be a Ghoul Investigator, she hadn't noticed that their opponent had made a move. She only realized it when she came face to face with the intruder. A man clad in a disguise, his voice tired, but the same she knew - filled with an indistinguishable pain that she couldn't bear to imagine. His suffering didn't change her reaction.
Akira was angry. That he had left her. That Amon had taught her so much about herself, about her father, about what they had to do, then left her behind without a second thought. She'd snarled and glared and everything she thought possible, to show him that she was upset and that she had cared. Felt for Amon Koutarou, the only man in existence who made her bawl like she did when she lost her mother - all because he had given her the illusion of comradery when she thought she would never get to know it again. He shows his face when she rips the cowl off his head. He doesn't move, feet planted to the ground firmly. At first she thinks he's a coward, but by the time she stares into his eyes, he becomes anything but that. A tragic hero, a man in rags, a man who had showed her all, a man with two eyes, one black, one red. No man anymore. A ghoul. It was then that she saw it. Someone had stolen a piece on the chess board and thrust it back at them, now a knight clad in black.
Akira steps back, every inch of her body feeling sick, almost wanting to throw up. Was it his fault? No, never. It had to be like it was with Sasaki. He would never willingly become the creature they both despised, the same monster that took everything away from the both of them. It doesn't stop the mixed emotions from rising to her throat as she clasps her hand to her mouth, trying to hold back the slightest sound. Her and Amon, they were a team. A team that none of the Quinx could understand. He was the one who lugged her home after that incident in the bar, and she was the one who scolded him when he had stayed in her apartment the whole night, worrying if she would be okay. To think she had thought all these years the Ghouls had taken her partner away from her, licking their conniving lips clean of blood from the prey they had just devoured - but they had done something worse, much worse, worse than Mother and Father's loss combined. They had made him one of them, and now, he could never go back, and nor could she. It was her duty to kill him, and yet, he didn't even flinch when she had taken off his hood, accepting it as fate.
This game the Ghouls played was a dirty one. The chess pieces went every which way as the imaginary board crashed to the ground, falling out of reach. There was no going back for the CCG, or one of their own. Akira's life turned upside down just like those pieces, tragedy pulling at her heart a second time. After all, she was as much of a pawn as he was, and a mission was something that always had to be carried out.