I started working at Uta's shop a few days after our conversation at the bar. He was a total different person than I expected at first, it was probably because of the fact that he tried to scare me off the first time we met.

"(First name)-Chan, can you hand me the paint over there?" he asked pointing at a set of varnish colors.

"Sure" I carried the box with the colors over to him and watched him painting the mask he was currently working on.

"Who is this mask for?" I asked curiously

"A really short tempered customer who has the urge to destroy everything in his range" he joked with a smile.

"And that customer is into rabbits I suppose..." he nodded

"Exactly, but he likes to keep it a secret" I chuckled

"No wonder, as a guy I would be embarrassed to admit it too" both of us laughed until he requested me to pick up some more tools from his shelf. I looked through the boxes until I had everything he requested. When I closed the box something fell out and landed before my feet.

"A mask?" I bend down to pick it up and inspected it closely.

"It has the face of a cat... it's really detailed..."

"Need some help?" Uta looked over his shoulder and found me staring at something. He left his chair and walked up behind me, he noticed I was holding the cat mask in my hands.

"Do you like it?" he asked startling me a little.

"Yeah, it's really pretty..." he smiled

"Then take it" I looked at him surprised

"R-Really?? But doesn't it already belong to someone?" he shook his head.

"It did once but now it's just a dust collector" I looked at the mask and felt bad for such a nice piece of work to be packed away.

"What a pity for such a beautiful mask to be packed away... if you really don't mind I'll take it" I felt a strong attraction towards this mask, it looked somewhat familiar but I could not trigger why.

"Sure, it's all yours" he said and took the mask from my hands.

"Let me help you put it on, we have to see if it fits your size" I nodded and let him place the mask on my face, it fitted perfectly.

"There you go, have a look in the mirror over there" he pointed at the mirror on his wall and I headed towards it.

"Wow... this mask really looks amazing" I said as I saw my reflection.

"Glad you think so, it was a piece of work until I finished it, especially attaching all the vibrisse" I hummed and stared in the mirror for a little longer before I turned away and removed the mask.

"You are really talented when it comes to designing masks, the material feels amazing and you really have an eye for details... " I complimented

"That's really nice of you, thank you I appreciate your compliment a lot" he gave me a closed eyes smile before he moved to another box.

"In this one I keep some of the masks I made in the past" he placed the box down and showed me some of his works.

"Wow! There are so many of them, why don't you put them back to your collection?" his eyes lingered in a light sadness before he gave a faint smile.

"Because those are the masks of my friends who've fallen in battle" my expression changed and I turned quiet.

"I'm sorry..." I apologized but he looked at me and shook his head.

"Don't be, they lived out their live to the fullest without regrets, I am sure they rest in piece" I nodded and he showed me some of them.

"This one was a spontaneous idea I got after my friend told me he was into van gogh" the mask was painted in crazy acrylic colors with sharp edges on each side of the face, creating a 3D effect to the mask.

"So you design your masks based on the taste of your customers" he nodded

"Yeah, that's really important since the mask reflects your inner self, the more I know about the person the better I can design a mask to their liking" he was really impressive and inspiring, my eyes wandered back to the mask in my hands and I was curious about it.

"Who did you design this mask after?" I asked.

"She was a special customer a few years ago, to be honest your personality kind of reminds me of her a lot" he smiled as his eyes looked at me.

"Really? What was she like?" he noticed I was pretty interested.

"She was a clumsy one and always wearing a smile on her lips, but sometimes her mood could change from serious to childish within mere seconds" he chuckled

"And she was really into cats, her parents bought a cat as an apology for not spending enough time with her since they were always busy with work. She was really lonely and seek nothing more than a friend, the cat replaced a person and quickly became her dearest friend. But unfortunately it died in a car crash leaving the little girl all alone again. One day she came to my shop and showed me an image of her beloved cat and asked me to make a mask for her, she wanted to wear it for her school festival. She shared her story with me and I immediately felt a connection to her that's why I gave my everything to make it as realistic as possible" his story sounded really sad and I felt bad holding on to the mask that was so precious to someone else.

"W-What happened to her? Why did she return the mask if it was so precious to her?" his eyes were having this glassy shimmer as he formed a light smile.

"She disappeared without a trance, the mask was all that she left behind" I suddenly felt a heart ache that tightened my muscle and send painful signals to my nerves. His eyes noticed my reaction and he stood up from the floor.

"The CCG broadcasted in the news that at a school festival a handful of children disappeared during a ghoul attack. The investigators were in the dark regarding the motive and the culprit, the girl was among those who disappeared. Until today it is unclear what happened to those children, they never reappeared again nor were their death bodies found" My breathing increased as if my throat was being strangled with a rope.

"In the underground district I heard some rumors among the ghouls that they sold those children to a hospital that is involved with illegal human experimentation in the name of the CCG" my heart was racing and I could not get my thoughts together.

"I heard they were testing a new drug that can increase the RC level of a human, turning them into a ghoul" My chest was tightening so badly that I was now panting for air, sweat pearls were covering my forehead as I gripped my shirt tightly around my heart.

"N-No way..."

"A few years ago there was a fire in that facility that destroyed the entire lab, everyone inside was reported dead, the bodies were so badly damaged that it was not possible to identify the targets. The files listed 75 research assistants and 9 tests subjects, among the 9 there were 5 children at the age between 13-16 and 4 adults between 25 -30. However the corpses that were found listed only 7 test subjects, it is said that the other 2 managed to escape."

"Is it possible that... Mari and me... no this can't be true... why don't I remember?"

"Enough talk about that creepy stuff, in the underground district a lot of rumors are only rumors, nothing has been confirmed so don't let it get to your head, ok?" he looked at me with a cheerful face and I tried to pull myself together casting this rumors aside.

"Y-Yeah... rumors are just rumors after all..." I stared at the mask

"It sounds to realistic to actually be true... is has to be a rumor, I only ever heard good things about the CCG there is no way they were actually trying to turn humans into ghouls... besides if they did that and I was really a test subject then why am I still human? That must me a mistake and if Mari was the one who was with me then she should have been a ghoul too... and the story about the girl doesn't fit me at all since Mari and I were sisters... that makes no sense at all"

"Let's take a break, you must be hungry I am not a pro at cooking human food but I'll figure something out" I hummed in return listening to his footsteps as he left the room and headed into the backside of the shop.

"If that story really is true... then they all know something about it... Itori and Yomo-san too... I don't get it how they are involved in this... it makes no sense if I was really an escapee together with Mari then how come we could live a normal life? Wasn't there any information about us somewhere in a data base of the CCG? I mean our DNA and our fingerprints are still saved there, it's no way you could fake it right? It's not like a fake ID card... damn... I have to know the truth and the reason why they keep quiet about it"

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