To Be A Dove (TBAS Sequel)

Chapter 11

I wish I could say Rei fainted after the eighth or ninth knife. But that was far from the truth. That day I realized how strong he truly was...

Because after the 116th knife, he was still screaming.

~~

"Any luck with your search?" Emi's small head poked through the door.

Hovering over countless stacks of papers, the oldest elite suddenly ripped his bloodshot blue gaze from the lines of ink in front of him.

"Nothing."

"Don't push yourself too hard, Shin." The girl attempted to ease his frustration, taking a seat right next to him. Her hand came up to brush against his own, taking the papers from his grasp and setting them further away on the table.

"Here, I brought you this." She smiled, setting a box of food right in front of him. "You haven't eaten a proper meal since..."

Emi trailed off, not knowing how to finish the sentence. Ever since the raid, she had been showered with new experiences that completely destroyed her original ways of thinking. "Proper meals" in Madam A's care would be considered merely snacks to what she was having now. Yet Madam A's food was still an enormous improvement from Big Madam's.

The air in her lungs emptied altogether in a sigh, which managed to get the attention of the older.

"Thanks, Emi."

With a stinging sensation to her heart, she realized how long it had been since she'd heard her name come from Shin's mouth. And suddenly she couldn't fight the electricity that sent her body forward. Falling into the older boy's arms, she immediately secured herself around him before the boy could instinctively recoil.

Shin stared at the girl's head nestled against his chest, his breath unconsciously held at the back of his throat. The feeling was so foreign yet so familiar, burning to the touch and soothing at the same time. He opened his mouth, but failed to produce nothing but a shaky gasp of air.

This was Emi...

She was here, she was with him...

Twitching his fingers, his arms finally came up to surround the smaller girl's body, pulling her further into him as he experienced the familiarity crashing into his brain.

"I missed you so much." He heard a soft whisper, but was unsure if it had come from Emi or from his own lips.

He could do nothing but agree in silence, allowing himself to feel comfort for the first time in a while.

"You know," Emi broke the silence for a few seconds, settling into her chair before pushing the food towards the older, encouraging him to eat. "I don't think you'll find anything about Jiro here. If he lived with Madam A his whole life, the CCG won't have information about him."

Shin acknowledged the truth behind Emi's words, yet he couldn't think of a place to start researching Jiro's past. He didn't know where Madam A's base was, he didn't even know if she had survived the raid.

"Did Mr. Shinohara ask you to join the CCG too?" Emi voiced her thoughts.

Shin nodded.

"You should be able to reach more places if you join. You could ask around, maybe some ghouls actually knew about him." The girl brainstormed to which Shin agreed with a silent nod.

"What about you? Are you joining?"

"I don't know, " Emi scratched the back of her head. "I just got out of all that. I'm not too eager to jump back in."