Rui wakes before her alarm goes off. Just a few minutes, really, but it reminds her how high-strung she's been recently. It's normal for her to sleep right through the blaring alarm on most days, so when she rolls over and taps her clock, resetting it, her heart sinks all over again.

Kaori's still gone, and it's still her fault.

The warmth of her bed is almost too tempting to leave, but she bites her tongue to jolt herself from her stupor and swings legs off the bed, pressing her feet flat to the floor. Electric shivers radiate upward from the soles of her feet, reacting to the chilly wood of her apartment; gooseflesh raises all along her calves and forearms once she's standing, her covers tossed aside and her heat source abandoned.

She'd be more lethargic this morning if she didn't have a purpose for getting out of bed.

That used to be her work. She'd learned from Kaori that a job is something you have to do in order to get by; a career is your life. Journalism is Kaori's life, and it's slowly becoming Rui's. But after Kaori left the paper, everything seemed... dull. Lifeless, listless. Rui still loves journalism with a passion, but without Kaori to nurture that spark, she's found it's been dimming these past few weeks, far from the wildfire it had been when they were together.

"Don't go getting yourself depressed this early in the day," Rui sighs, lightly slapping her cheeks as a mock scolding. Living alone, she doesn't have anyone else to do it for her. Padding across the room to her dresser, Rui snags her phone from the nightstand and dials a number while she decides on what to wear.

They pick up after two rings.

"Rui-chan!"

"Hey, Akane-san," Rui greets, a ghost of a smile flitting over her lips. Akane's cheer manages to brighten her mood, as usual.

"I'm surprised you called. It's like..." Rui can imagine that Akane has to glance at the digital clock above her oven, as she knows the woman's been awake for an hour already and is probably settling in for breakfast right about now. "Seven o'clock? Don't you usually hit the snooze until eight?"

"Yeah, well... I've got something important to do today. Don't wanna be late."

It's a partial lie, seeing as she hasn't set up an appointment or done anything that would signal she's visiting the CCG headquarters today. Akane doesn't need to know that, though, so it works out.

"Ah, gotcha! Does that important thing include coming to work?"

Her tone is teasing, but another wave of guilt still crashes inside Rui's stomach.

"Sorry, not today. I can't... Being there is just..."

"I get it, Rui-chan. Don't worry. Should I tell Harada-san you won't be in again today?"

"If you wouldn't mind. I'd call him myself, but I'm pretty sure he's blocked my number."

"Haha, you did call him about Ikehara-san half a dozen times! That's..."

Akane trails off, and it's her silence that prompts Rui to consider what she'd said properly. She had called Harada at least six times in the space of two days, after it was confirmed that Kaori was missing, not just on one of her adventures. She'd wanted him to do something about it, she still wants that - but he won't admit there's anything for him to do in the first place.

"Anyway," Rui says thickly, just to breathe some life back into their conversation, "thanks, Akane. I'll talk to you again, soon as I can."

"Wait, Rui-chan!"

Rui pauses, bringing the phone to her ear again.

"Yeah?"

"...Are you alright? I mean, I know you're not okay, obviously, with Ikehara-san being... But can I do anything to help? Anything at all? You're like my little sister, Rui-chan, and..."

Rui swallows hard, reflexively adjusting her hold on the phone. She doesn't want to involve Akane with this, whatever it is. She has enough on her plate already. Everytime Rui thinks about her, she automatically pictures Sora beside her, and the date of their upcoming wedding hovers above them. Akane doesn't need to be running around, playing detective with Rui, no matter how much she would appreciate the support.

"I'm not fine," she says, because there's no use in lying; Akane would see through it in an instant. "But I'm getting better. Just talking to you is enough, honestly."

Another half-truth, one Akane hopefully won't detect.

"That's good! That's really good, Rui-chan. Well... then I'll let you get to whatever you have to do today! Hopefully we'll see each other soon!"

Finished changing, Rui drops her phone into her pocket, then bends down to tug on her boots. Her mind wanders more than she'd like it to, and she wonders if this is really such a good idea. Sure, it had seemed the best option at the time, but then, her emotions were heightened, she felt sick with grief, and--

And now she's just making excuses for herself.

Before she can change her mind, Rui grabs her keys and locks the door behind her as she's leaving. The CCG building is a twenty minute walk from her apartment building, which gives her far too much time to try and convince herself to turn right back around and head to work instead, Harada be damned. She's generally not a weak-willed person, but the last week has drained her, body and soul, and she's surprised she hasn't just collapsed from the weight in her chest yet.

The elevator doors open with a offensively cheery ding, and - head down, eyes screwed half-shut - Rui tries to slip inside, only to smack face-first into someone's chest. She stumbles back, but only a few steps, as a pair of hands clamp down on her arms, steadying her.

"Whoops? My bad. You okay?"

Shaking her head, Rui brushes her bangs from her eyes, keeping her hand pressed to her temple as she looks up into the brown eyes staring down at her. She takes him in, head to toe, as she would anyone she found herself face-to-face with; Kaori's teachings have ingrained themselves so deeply into her psyche that she imagines she'll be profiling people well into her old age, when her kind (reporters) are all but forgotten.

Brown eyes, framed by thick black lashes, topped by dark gray hair that's swept into a gothic style (is gothic the right word? She can't be sure, but she hopes it isn't offensive); a pale face, dotted with freckles; dark clothing - an oversized jacket, loose black jeans, and a shirt bearing the name of a band she's never heard of. She'd peg him as a loner if he hadn't been so quick and open to apologize to her.

"It's my fault," she says, brushing off his concern. "Should've been looking where I was going. Er, have a nice day."

She steps past the man, who she thinks can't be older than twenty, twenty-one, and he smiles - sharp and succinct - over his shoulder at her, just before the doors close and she's alone in the elevator, slumped against the wall while her stomach drops as fast as the floor level.

Gotta do this, gotta do this... It's for Kaori, I have to do this...

Reminiscent of her trip to the police station yesterday, Rui enters the CCG building through the glass double-doors. Unlike yesterday, though, she hasn't called ahead, and so doesn't stop to wait in one of the plastic chairs set aside just past the entrance. She weaves her way through the crowd of what she suspects to be civilians, heading towards the desk occupying the center of this area. A woman's seated there, glaring at her computer screen, fingers flying across the keys. She doesn't look up as Rui approaches, or even when she taps lightly at the edge of the desk. It takes her clearing her throat - loudly - for the woman to look away from her apparently frustrating work to even acknowledge the girl.

"Can I help you?" she asks in a tone that Rui would not describe as at all helpful.

"Um, yeah, I need... I need to speak with a Ghoul Investigator."

"Get in line, kid," the woman says, a touch too bitterly for Rui's liking, and gestures indifferently to the crowd she's just worked her way through. "Everyone here has a lead they want an investigator to follow."

"Oh, no, it's not... I'm not here to ask them to take up a case or anything. I just need to ask someone a few questions."

"You a reporter?"

"I'm sorry?" Rui blinks, caught off guard. Does she have that sort of look to her, or...?

"The only people who come here asking questions are reporters and kids on field trips. You look a little old for the latter, so I just assumed."

"Oh, well... I'm a trainee for the local paper. But I'm here out of personal interest."

Almost instantly, Rui regrets phrasing it like that. She can see the suspicion coloring the woman's gaze now, as well as the touch of disgust she herself felt just last night. This woman thinks she's a ghoul fanatic, just like that man on the news she was nearly desperate enough to contact. She's tempted to defend herself, but she doubts it'd have any positive effect on this woman's judgement of her. So she stands there and waits, forcing herself to meet the black-eyed gaze across from her, refusing to back down.

Eventually, the secretary sighs and rolls her chair back to reach for the phone. She dials in a quick number and presses the receiver to her ear, all the while glaring at Rui with the intensity she showed her computer screen.

"Sakura-chan? Mm, it's Chi. Send down Nomura-san, will you? There's someone here" - with a pointed once-over directed at Rui, who flushes despite herself - "who wants to talk to an investigator.... I don't know why, she looks like a college kid. Says she's a trainee at the paper... Yeah, yeah, just have Nomura-san come down. You know he likes helping out the community."

"He'll be here in a minute," the secretary says after she's put down the phone, flicking a blue-painted nail at the row of plastic chairs Rui had been trying to avoid. "Wait there. Also, don't waste Nomura-san's time; if this is just some weird fetish of yours, you can leave now."

Instead of dignifying that accusation with a response, Rui scowls to herself and stalks over to the indicated seats, where she sits down rigidly, hands clasped together in her lap.

Nomura-san better be worth it.