It had been weeks since she had last gone out; still, she couldn't bring herself to eat the contents sitting inside her fridge, and she only sipped the coffee inside her apartment absentmindedly as the flesh rotted and festered in the chilled darkness. It had been weeks, and though her stomach growled and snarled for substance, every time she would reach for even a sliver of meat, his face would appear before her, and in consequence, she couldn't bring herself to do it. Not with him haunting her.

He had loved humans, strangely enough, and being with him had apparently made her soft.

She paced around her home; her fridge had long been emptied from the gory chunks of flesh and bone, and she decided it was best to just take a hot shower. With a seething scoff, she whirled around and headed towards the bathroom, where she stripped herself from the nightgown and stormed into the shower stall.

She flipped on the hot water, which doused her skin until it turned bright red, and stood under the showerhead as the steam rose up into the cold air, drifting off to condense onto the bathroom mirror. She swallowed a hard lump forming in her throat, and let out a strangled sigh. She stood there, unmoving, dipping her face in and out of the pounding hot water.

It was only after some time when she decided it was time to wrap up the wash, and the first thing she did was reach for the auburn bottle of shampoo in the corner.

She froze.

She cursed under her breath, clenching her jaw tightly as she stared at the bottle. She hadn't paid attention to it until then, and now that her undivided attention was drawn towards it, she could smell that dreaded aroma stronger than before. It was nostalgically sweet, similar to blood but different in the way it rolled off the tongue; it tingled her senses, both in a good way and in a terrible one. Her pupils dilated and her nostrils flared, the hot needles of water stabbing into her flushed back.

Sucking in an enduring breath, she went ahead and scrubbed her scalp with the caramel shampoo and quickly slathered on the conditioner, only to beat it out a minute later.

She had stripped herself from the first three layers of skin with her loofa by the time she had gotten out, and she threw back on the nightgown she had worn. She sulked over to her couch and plopped down like a dead body she resembled; her eyes were bulging out like billiard balls and her cheeks sunken in like shadows from the hunger, her lips crackled and chapped and her ribs showing through her white translucent skin, thin as paper.

She sat there in the darkness of her apartment, swallowed up by the shadows and her yellowed eyes staring blankly into oblivion, bereaved and fragmented. There was a sense of mourning within her gaze, hard as a stone but crumbling still. She was befuddled, stunned into madness with her most recent tragedies, and it was clear that it began to slowly take over her mind and body. Slowly, she began to rot.

There was a knock on her door; three solid raps, deliberate like punches to the nose. Her ears pricked up suddenly at the noise, her nostrils flaring and drinking in the air like some beastly creature. Her mustard irises swirled into a bloody crimson as she realized the scent was, in fact, human. Her lips curled up into a threatening snarl, staring at the door with her body rigid and frozen as if she were a statue, her eyes unblinking and her eyes glinting with malicious intents.

There was another round of knocks, and she slowly approached the door, her limbs moving seamlessly through the shadows of her apartment. The scent of ghoul mingling with human drifted through the cold air, along with hints of crisp paper and ink. She could hear the shoes shuffling about from the other side of the door, and she let out another growl; it was an investigator - that she was sure of. Maybe they had found her after all these years and came to take her away; she wouldn't mind, anyways - there was nothing left to live for anymore. She couldn't eat, she could barely sleep without nightmares raining down upon her like fire, and she couldn't even go outside for even one second. Her damn shampoo was the only thing that she clung onto, and she'd spend hours on end just standing naked in the bathroom, smelling the scent of caramel that twisted her heart in that deliciously miserable way, and staring at the two animal figures engrossed into her translucent skin.

She crept towards the door still; a single mustard yellow eye peered into the peephole, and the sight outside startled her.

The door flew open immediately, with her face spread out in an electrified shock.

"Ichijou-san?" she murmured.

"Etsuko-chan!" the man exclaimed, clearly relieved. "Where have you been? I've been trying to contact you for the past six weeks!"

Etsuko blinked, her face returning back to its rather indifferent expression.

"I seemed to have lost my phone charger," she lied smoothly. "My phone has been dead."

"Dead?" Ichijou inquired. "Haven't you thought of buying a new charger, then?"

"Haven't had the time," she muttered. "I've been too preoccupied with...other things."

Ichijou furrowed his thick brows, skeptical but brushing the matter aside.

"What have you been doing to yourself?" he demanded, changing the subject just only slightly. "You look like you haven't eaten since the last time I saw you!"

Etsuko muttered something inaudible under her breath, most likely something extremely witty.

"What's it to you?" she said a bit louder. "Why does that concern you? It's none of your business."

Ichijou blinked in astonishment, his expression reading as if he was offended by the answer.

"It has everything to do with me!" he insisted. "I care about you, isn't that obvious?"

Etsuko, finding this to be a little annoying, ground her teeth together and glared at the man with sunken yellow eyes; sickly and murky from weeks of malnutrition.

"Idiot," she hissed venomously. "Why would anyone care about someone like me?"

Ichijou knitted his eyebrows together, his dark eyes sad.

"Do you really think that lowly of yourself, Etsuko-chan?" he asked solemnly, gazing at her with deep, endless eyes. "Is that how you see yourself?"

Etsuko clenched her jaw so tightly it seemed her skull would shatter from the pressure. She was transported back to those times of merciless bloodshed, and she could feel the sticky gore upon her skin; it was hot, thick, and it clung onto her body like a vice, wrapping around her and enshrouding her in a suffocating deathly veil. She couldn't breathe for a moment, and her breath caught in her burning throat, parched and feeling as though she had shredded it raw with a yard of sandpaper.

She swallowed, her mind slowly easing back into reality, and raised her yellow eyes up to meet his own pitch ones.

"So...what have you been up to?" she asked in a small voice.

Caught off guard by the sudden question, Ichijou staggered back a little and fluttered his eyelids. He stared down at the young woman in a sort of awe, mixed with a daunting rigidness.

His mind stewed for a moment, taking in the woman's paler-than-usual complexion and compared it to Tokyo's yearly snowfall, coming to a conclusion that her skin was far icier and whiter than the powdery snow. Her cheeks were hollow and her eyes were bulging out, dark purple shadows deepening the recesses of her face and sharpening her insipid features even further. Her limbs could be compared to a skeleton's, merely bones loosely wrapped in a layer of paper-thin skin - so delicate it seemed as though the slight breeze outside could tear a gaping wound into it. He swallowed back some more comments about her dreadful appearance, the words simmering deep within his gut as he let out a long sigh.

"Well, the Temptress is one crazy bitch, I can give her that," Ichijou grunted, exasperated; he shoved his hands into his jacket pockets. "I've been hunting her for such a long while, and all of the investigators before me, but after four years of chasing I don't think she's ever gonna slip. She's been coming and going in so many different places, but her recent activities have diminished to zero. Nothing. I just don't get it. Did some other ghoul get to her or something?"

Ichijou continued on with his rambling, standing in front of her door with Etsuko blocking the entrance with her fragile frame. She just stood there with her arms crossed over her chest, blinking her unyielding yellow eyes, dulled and lacking that insane, lacquered sheen it had once emitted in her times of prime. She didn't even know what to do anymore, so she just stood there, her features blank and wiped from any sort of emotion, save for some detachment whisking mysteriously across her glassy eyes. She didn't care anymore, and though the starvation was beginning to drive her even more insane, she was willing to deal with it - because of him.

"Etsuko-chan?" Ichijou called to her suddenly, jolting her from her thoughts. "Are you alright?"

"A-ah," Etsuko sputtered, rubbing her tired face in a skeletal hand. "I'm fine."

"Are you sure?" Ichijou murmured switching from his ranting mode to a more cautious, softer side within seconds. He knelt down a little so his careful eyes met with hers, brushing a wispy lock of long white hair from her face. "You look like you're about to pass out. Do you need to lay down?"

Etsuko closed her eyes and let out a long sigh, massaging the bridge of her nose with long, bony fingers.

"I-I'm fine," she insisted weakly. "I'm just a bit tired, that's all."

"You're so thin," he whispered again in despair. His dark eyes scanned her skinny body, his brows furrowed a little with disappointment. "When was the last time you had a meal?"

Etsuko pressed her lips together, tense. She sighed again into her hand, clenching and grinding her jaw.

"A while..."

Ichijou twisted his lip and let out a long breath.

"Well, let me at least tend to you for a little bit," he said softly.

Etsuko's eyes flashed open.

"It's quite alright," she said monotonously, staring down at the ground. "I can take care of myself."

Ichijou scoffed.

"Obviously not, since you're in this sort of state," he jeered half-heartedly. He motioned her inside. "Here, lay down in your bed and I'll make you some soup."

"A-actually that's not - "

"Hush," Ichijou snapped, shoving her into her own apartment by her shoulders. "Go. I'll see what you have in the fridge."

"Th-that's the thing," Etsuko murmured stumbling inside her home. "I don't have any - "

There was a click of an opening appliance, and Etsuko fell silent. She heard a scoff from the kitchen, her eyes trained down onto the floor as she twiddled her thumbs nervously. She sighed.

"No wonder you're starving to death in here," Ichijou snorted, slamming the refrigerator door closed. "You have absolutely nothing in your fridge. Seriously. Literally nothing. Is this really how you take care of yourself?"

Etsuko blinked her bulging eyes and averted her sickly gaze from him.

"I just haven't had that much of an appetite lately," she murmured solemnly. "And I don't need you to lecture me like you're my father or something."

"You should just at least eat a little, Etsuko-chan," Ichijou insisted, his voice sad. "I've been worried about you, and this doesn't really ease my anxiety."

Her eyes flashed viciously.

"Nobody asked for you to worry about me," she spat darkly. "No one asked for you to take care of me. We just went on one date; that doesn't make you my partner or anything. You don't have to be here."

"Etsuko-chan," Ichijou said firmly, walking over to her and grabbing her bony shoulders once more. He stared deeply into her eyes, sending her heart to shoot up and thump wildly inside her throat. "I'm here because I want to be. I just finished work for today and I could've just gone home like I've been doing normally. But I was worried about you, since you haven't called or texted back in over six weeks, and I wanted to see if you were okay."

Etsuko scowled, her slim face frowning deeply.

"I'm fine," she hissed, shrugging her shoulders from his grasp. "I'm just fucking dandy. Now can you leave me to rest? I'm really tired right now and I just...need some time to get my thoughts together."

Ichijou eyed her suspiciously, his look skeptical.

"What's gotten into you?" he murmured. "Are you always this irritable?"

Etsuko snorted.

"Only every day," she hissed crossly.

Ichijou scowled a little, his features etched in annoyance.

"So I got tangled up with a stubborn brat," he rumbled. Etsuko stared up at him, her pale face cantankerous as well. Ichijou huffed. "But I guess that's alright. I'm not going to leave you no matter how hard you push me away."

Vexed, Etsuko scrunched up her face into a fierce snarl.

"Who do you think you are?" she shrieked at him, shoving him with surprisingly strong arms. Those skinny limbs sent the six-foot man back into the wall, his eyes wide with shock. She advanced on him, her teeth clenched tightly. "Just because you look like him doesn't mean you can go acting like you know me so well!"

Ichijou narrowed his eyes dangerously.

"I never said anything about anyone else," Ichijou murmured, remaining still against the wall. His dark eyes stared into her own, which grew even rounder, stunned. "Is this what everything's all about? Your ex-boyfriend?"

The color rushed up to her bony cheeks, spiking a rosy tint to her powder white skin. Her fists tightened by her sides as she whirled around, turning her slender back towards him.

"You only look like him," Etsuko muttered bitterly under her sour breath. "That's the only reason why I went out with you in the first place. Don't get your hopes up. You'll only get hurt."

Etsuko stared hard at the ground clenching her jaws and squeezing her fists together so tightly she could feel the blood begin to seep under her fingernails. Upon her rather harsh words, she expected him to make a sort of farewell and leave the apartment for good; but the strong arms that wrapped around her lithe figure said otherwise, and stunned her so much that she jumped back further into his embrace.

She felt warm lips press upon her scalp, kissing her hair tenderly with so much caution and care it left her breathless. Her heart rate spiked and thumped wildly inside her throat, her bottom glossy lip quivering slightly as her breaths became ragged and uneven. She couldn't understand what was happening to her- a human, out of all the people was doing this to her.

"Tell me about him," Ichijou murmured, slowly rocking her side to side as his arms remained entangled around her. She continued to gape at the ground, her eyes resembling globes more than eyes, as her body remained rigid and stiff. "What was his name?"

Etsuko's lips shook, her chest constricting as a huge lump rose painfully up her throat. She refused to relax; his arms were unsettling, feeling as though they were straps on a straightjacket rather than strong beams supporting a home. She shook violently, her thin white hair shimmering as her dipped her head down, the strands tumbling past her shoulders and dangling above the empty ground with her mustard eyes still glaring menacingly at the floor. She let out a growl.

"Let go of me," she spat grimly.

"Etsuko-san..." Ichijou whispered as he nuzzled his nose into her hair, closing his eyes and desperately trying to find comfort within her. His arms tightened around her. "Please, open yourself up to me."

"No one can ever replace him," she snarled, prying his strong arms off of her with ease. Ichijou stumbled back as she pushed him again, facing him with hard eyes that screamed murder. "You think you can waltz into my life and take over me like this? Who do you think you are? Acting like you know me just because we went out for coffee once. Just because we went out late that night doesn't mean you know my entire life, idiot. What kind of dumbass thinks like that?"

Every word pierced him like a poisoned knife, the string of phrases tightening around his throat and choking him like a noose. He fluttered his eyelids, shocked beyond belief.

"I..." he sputtered, lost for words.

"You think you can help me?" she snickered darkly, her voice oozing with macabre. "You'd be a fucking fool if you think anything near that. No one can help me. I've been alone since he - "

She stopped abruptly in her tracks, widening her eyes even more as she stared beyond the void of reality, past Ichijou's astonished expression and into a whole other world - she had lost herself again.

"You need to find happiness somehow, Etsuko-chan."

His voice resonated like pealing church bells, soothing and constant as it rang smoothly through the ears. It eased her, and she felt at peace whenever he spoke to her.

It was the only time she had ever felt serene.

"I'm happy with you, Oniisan," Etsuko piped up, chuckling a bit. "I'm only happy with you."

"Ahh, that's not like you one bit, Etsuko-chan," Takashi sighed playfully, exasperated. "You need to find hobbies. Something to keep your mind away from all of this."

"But that's why I talk to you, Oniisan," Etsuko mumbled, turning her embarrassed gaze away from the tall man. She hugged her knees to her chest tighter, letting her long white hair fall in between them in a thick curtain. "Whenever I talk to you, I feel relieved. I'm happy."

Takashi chuckled a little, leaning back onto his hands and gazing up at the sky, layered in sheets upon vivid sheets of an orange and violet dusk.

"I'm glad," he sighed again, the slight breeze sweeping his black wavy locks to the side of his face. "I feel the same way about you. But if something happens to me, what will you do then?"

Etsuko snapped her fierce gaze back to him, eyeing him threateningly like a predator.

"Don't you dare," she snarled, pronouncing each syllable with a deliberate stab.

Takashi raised his palms up to her in defense, falling back a little terrified.

"Easy there, Scorpion," he laughed playfully. "I don't plan on going anywhere anytime soon. But let's just say...what if?"

Etsuko rested her chin upon her knees, huffing in irritation as she stared off into the sunset, the sky painted in splashes of pinks and tangerines and lilacs, the clouds outlined in a heavenly white glow as the sinking rays descended beyond the horizon. Her gaze was cold and stone hard, immobile and stubborn as a mountain.

"You should at least get into some other things girls like to do," Takashi suggested hopefully, flickering a jesting glance to her.

Uninterested, she responded in a flat tone.

"Oh? Like what."

"You know. Girl stuff, and other things," Takashi murmured, shrugging. "Makeup. Sewing. Maybe even reading a little. It's the little things that matter to us the most, you know."

She remained unresponsive, just staring out into the world with a look plagued by boredom and a little bit of irritation.

"You're lecturing me again, Oniisan," she mumbled.

Takashi blinked his eyes, befuddled.

"I am not," he retorted with a scoff. "I'm just offering some insight to my thoughts."

She shifted in her place, puffing out a breath.

"So you think I'm actually unhappy," she stated lowly.

Takashi sighed, gazing at her straight in the eyes before tilting his head back up towards the brilliant orange sky again.

"Yes," he replied simply, his voice tired. "You are unhappy."

Etsuko growled, her chest prickling with annoyance. Her face was pulled down into a scowl, challenging him.

"Don't talk like you know me all that well," she spat. "It's only been six months since I moved in, anyways. What makes you think you can talk to me like you've known me my whole life?"

He closed his eyes, taking in a deep breath; his chest inflated out as the chilled air filled his lungs, exhaling deeply into the cool dark air. He flickered soft dark irises back over to her, his thin lips tugging back into a ghost of a smile.

"I can see it in your eyes," he murmured gently, the breeze caressing them both like a sigh; it nipped at her rosy cheeks a bit, enflamed by either anger or embarrassment. "Your expressions and actions are very hard to read, Etsuko-chan, but your eyes tell no lies. I can read a book by just glancing at them - you know the saying about the eyes being the window to your soul. They reveal your true nature."

Etsuko gaped at him, her golden eyes wide with a certain fear that pierced her chest and constricted it so tightly she could barely breathe. Her gaze remained stuck on his figure while he still looked up admiringly at the dimming sky, the colors wilting to more muted colors, darkening until blackness enveloped the placidity of the scene. She gulped.

"And?" she mumbled under her breath a bit coarsely. "What is your conclusion? About my true nature."

Takashi gazed at her warmly, the moon climbing higher into the black canvas of the sky, glittering with hundreds of millions of stars, reflecting the mysteries of the universe within those black eyes, endless and waiting for the puzzles to finally be unraveled; they were tame, but frazzled and wild all the same. She found herself falling into that void, feeling nothing but numbness and emptiness swallowing her up into oblivion.

"You're lost," he finally murmured, his voice hovering with a radiating silky undertone. He continued staring at her with such intensity she that felt like she would have collapsed then and there. With that look, she became even more enraptured, captivated in the mesmerizing glory of peace and a haunting quiescence in that single glance. His eyes told her that he understood and that he was there for her, and that in itself shot through her like a devastating nuclear warhead. "You're utterly, hopelessly lost."

~~~✿~~~

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