"..."
Akira immediately knew her father was drawing from his own experience to teach her.
She said nothing in response, simply continuing to eat her breakfast quietly.
Kureo didn't press further on the topic.
Accounting for the subway ride to Ward 20, Akira arrived half an hour before CCG's designated work time.
Her complexion looked completely normal, no different from usual—as if nothing had happened last night.
"Good morning, First Class Amaha."
Akira greeted Byakuya with her usual calm expression.
"Good morning, Akira. By the way..."
Byakuya said, "Are you alright now? About last night..."
"Yes, I'm fine now."
Akira replied. "...I apologize for the trouble I caused you last night."
"It's nothing. Just be more careful about how much you drink in the future."
Byakuya said.
"Mm... I'll be more careful from now on."
Akira nodded slightly.
The matter was put behind them, and Byakuya and Akira moved on to discussing business.
"Yesterday, we destroyed another 'Ghoul Restaurant,' but we still didn't catch the 'Gourmet.' He seems to have escaped right after we entered the scene."
Akira recalled the events at the Ghoul Restaurant yesterday.
"Well, he is an S-rated 'Gourmet.' Catching him won't be easy."
Byakuya responded.
"But something feels strange. Those ghouls at the Ghoul Restaurant—even if they wanted to escape, they could only go toward where we were standing, since the main entrance was right behind us."
Akira said in a low voice. "But the 'Gourmet' clearly escaped from a different location. The other ghouls didn't seem to know about it. It almost feels like... the 'Gourmet' was using us to slaughter those ghouls."
"...Indeed, that is suspicious."
Byakuya nodded.
Once again, Akira's intuition had gotten most of it right.
But he wasn't the least bit worried about Akira using her intuition to uncover his true identity. To outsiders, he had absolutely no reason to cooperate with the "Gourmet"—it was simply too unreasonable.
Kishou Arima cooperating with "Aogiri Tree" was more plausible than his situation, yet no one could ever imagine Arima would work with Aogiri.
Unless his acting was exceptionally poor, there was no way Akira would pick up on it.
"But why would the 'Gourmet' want to eliminate his own kind? Could it be related to that 'prey target' of his? Were those ghouls subordinates of that 'target' or something..."
Akira's remarkable intuition hit a dead end here.
The reason for the dead end was that one point in her understanding was absolutely wrong: she had subconsciously excluded Amaha Byakuya—the only correct answer—from her considerations. Naturally, her intuition couldn't work properly after that.
Still, the fact that Akira had gotten this far was impressive.
"Since we've hit a dead end, let's not dig deeper from this angle. Treat the investigation of the 'Gourmet' as a prolonged operation—we can take our time."
Byakuya said.
He wouldn't show any favoritism toward the "Gourmet" in situations like this, lest Akira's intuition catch any suspicious points. Instead, he rationally offered his opinion.
He didn't need to protect Tsukiyama Shuu at all. As long as he himself didn't go actively hunting Tsukiyama with the answer already in hand, that was enough.
The Tsukiyama family's influence was no joke. Despite Tsukiyama doing as he pleased all this time, the family had still managed to protect him.
If Tsukiyama hadn't screwed things up so badly later on, CCG would never have uncovered the Tsukiyama family's secrets.
In short, during this current period, Byakuya didn't need to interfere with anything. Akira definitely wouldn't catch the "Gourmet."
...
Night.
Byakuya met with Tsukiyama Shuu again.
"My partner has sharp intuition. Be careful going forward—don't let her catch you slipping up."
Byakuya casually reminded Tsukiyama.
"Understood. Amaha-sama can rest assured."
Tsukiyama said with the utmost respect.
"Also, I came to see you this time because there's something important I need to tell you."
Byakuya said directly. "I'm planning to establish an organization called 'Akatsuki'..."
He directly informed Tsukiyama about the Akatsuki organization. Aside from not mentioning the "Eye of the Moon Plan" and the "Infinite Tsukuyomi," he roughly disclosed everything else to Tsukiyama.
There was no need to mention the Eye of the Moon Plan and Infinite Tsukuyomi for now—even if he explained, Tsukiyama wouldn't be able to comprehend it.
"I understand Amaha-sama's intentions. I am still willing to follow you."
Tsukiyama said almost without hesitation.
He wasn't actually interested in world peace or humans and ghouls coexisting peacefully. If he were interested in such things, he wouldn't be himself. He agreed simply because the other party was Amaha Byakuya—that was the only reason.
"Good. Then there's no problem. Next is seeing what Matsumae and Kanae think."
Byakuya said.
His tentatively planned organization members remained the same as before: first, himself as leader; then the SS-rated Rize and Matsumae; and finally the S-rated Kurona, Nashiro, Tsukiyama, and Kanae.
This would satisfy the conditions for creating the Akatsuki organization.
"Matsumae and Kanae? I can speak to them. There shouldn't be any issues."
Tsukiyama said. "Oh, right—since we're establishing an organization, we'll need funding too. The Tsukiyama family can certainly help with that."
"Mm. We'll need a base and some funding."
Byakuya said.
...
With Tsukiyama's help, Matsumae and Kanae had no objections either.
First, because they were willing to follow the Young Master's lead, and second, because their current "Master" was quite reliable.
Moreover, a powerful human investigator who wanted humans and ghouls to achieve peace—they found that rather interesting.
As for the base and funding, that was even easier.
Tsukiyama simply had his father, Mirumo Tsukiyama, give them a commercial building under the Tsukiyama family's ownership to serve as Akatsuki's first headquarters. Of course, the real base was in the underground facility beneath the building. The building itself continued operating as normal, which provided cover and made it difficult for CCG to notice anything unusual.
With everything prepared, Byakuya, Rize, and the others gathered in this underground base.
He felt like adding some ceremonial flair—one set of Akatsuki organization attire for everyone. The Akatsuki Robes.
[Ding! Host purchased "Akatsuki Robe ×7." Cost: 70 Fusion Points. Remaining Fusion Points: 2,330!]
...
Get 20+ chapters ahead on - P.a.t.r.e.o.n "RoseWhisky"