You’re not carried away at all. I love your enthusiasm! 

“Mom? Here’s my other Mom.” Hikari giggles as a woman and a little boy enter Anteiku.

“Hikari, it’s late and I was so – oh.” A brunette of about 35 years old presses her hands to her mouth. There’s no doubt who Itori is. 

“Hi,” Itori says, choosing to wield her winsome smile as a weapon. 

“I’m Ichiro Akane.” The woman nods to Uta and Yomo. “Are you…”

“A friend of Itori’s,” Uta says, grinning.

“Both of us.” Yomo elbows Uta. Behave. 

“I see.” Akane nods, her eyes full of questions she will definitely ask. “Not Hikari’s father?”

“No,” Itori says quickly as Uta snickers.

“This is Benjiro.” The woman tugs the boy, who is only a year or so younger than Hikari, forward.

“Hi.” He waves nervously.

“Hello.” Uta smirks, and the kid looks terrified. 

“More coffee?” A girl about Hikari’s age stops by the table. 

“Yes, please,” says Akane. “Say, what’s your name, girl?”

“Hinami.”

“You have a pretty headband. Can I try it?” Hikari waves her hands in excitement, just like Itori used to. 

Hinami nods.

“Ooh, I think it looks better on you.” Hikari frowns at her reflection in her phone. “We should hang out more.”

“Hikari needs people her age,” Akane says quietly. Itori nods. As awkward as this is, at least she and Akane agree on Hikari needing the best in the world. 

“Hi there,” says a girl about Hinami’s age. She has peach hair cut in a bob and a winsome smile that almost obscures how nervous she is. “Is there a Yomo Renji here?”

Touka pauses her sweeping. “Um, hold on a sec.”

The manager eyes her with a a small smile as they wait for Yomo to show up. He offers her a free cup of coffee, which she gladly accepts.

“Ooooh, this is so good!” The girl kicks her legs back and forth.

Yomo is taller than she expected, and probably kinda intimidating if Hikari were the type of person to be intimidated. He slips into the seat across from her. “You were asking for me?”

“Are you my father?” 

Yomo drops his mug. He feels like everyone in Anteiku is watching him now.

“I’m Hikari. Morita Hikari. You gave me to my parents when I was a baby.” The girl watches him carefully.

Yomo curses himself. He should have guessed. With that hair and attitude, of course this is Itori’s daughter.

“No, I’m not,” he says carefully. Her face falls. “But I know your mother quite well.”

“He can call her,” hollers another cafe employee with a bulbous nose.

“Can you?” Hikari grabs his hands. “Please.”

Yomo nods reluctantly. 

As they wait for  Itori and Uta – who were not told the circumstances yet – Yomo wonders what to say. Fortunately, Hikari is quite a chatterbox.

“Why did Mom give me up? Did she hate me? Who was my dad?”

“She was too young. No. I don’t know. You’ll have to ask her.” 

“You’re not very fun.” Hikari pouts. 

Yomo can’t resist a smile. “You’re Itori’s daughter, all right.”

She flushes as the door to Anteiku swings open.

“Well, well, well, who is this?” Uta takes off his sunglasses to inspect the girl. 

“I love your tattoos.” Hikari looks excited.

“You’re Hikari,” Itori says softly.

Hikari’s eyes grow rounder. “Are you Itori?”

Itori holds out her peach hair. 

Hikari’s lips tremble. “Do you like me?”

Itori nods, wordless for once in her existence.

Hikari glances at Uta.

“I’m not your dad,” he says quickly. “Itori and I are just friends.”

“I think you’re beautiful,” Itori says, a catch in her voice. “Hikari.” 

Hikari throws herself at Itori, who hugs her so tight she can’t breathe, and she loves it. Both women are crying, and Yomo can spy tears running down behind Uta’s sunglasses. 

“Let’s get more coffee.” Itori slides into a seat next to Hikari. “I think we’ll have a long night, if your parents allow it.”

“I snuck out. They think I’m asleep, but they’ll call if they notice.”

“I’m so proud of you,” says Itori, and Hikari beams back. 

“Itori, how are you?” Yomo sits across from her at Helter Skelter, where she’s holed up the last month. She says she’s busy regaining her figure and working harder than ever. He suspects this is not the case.

She looks up, her eyes red. From alcohol or crying, he’s unsure. “I miss her.”

Her voice rises. “I just – what was I thinking? I know how to evade CCG. Do her new parents? If she dies, is it my fault? What if she hates me?” 

“All those feelings are natural.”

“They hurt.” Itori knows someday she will laugh at her despair. But that day is not today. 

“Uta and I have a surprise for you.” 

“You do?” Itori brightens. 

“Come along.” He drags her out of Helter Skelter, where a relieved Uta waits.

Yomo drives towards a well-to-do apartment complex with an enormous tree in the front. “We’re going to climb that tree.”

Itori snorts. “Why?”

“You’ll see.” Uta tugs her out of the car.

When they reach as high as gravity allows, Uta points inside one of the apartment complexes. The sunniest one. 

“See?” 

She gasps. That peach hair – the baby is being bounced up and down by a woman. A toddler boy, clad in sunshine yellow, clutches the woman’s leg and tries to pin a bow on Hikari’s hair. His hair is a similar shade to Hikari’s. She’ll blend right in. 

She may not ever need to know she was adopted. 

But she looks happy. 

Itori presses a hand over her mouth to keep from crying. Uta doesn’t hold back, though, and even Yomo sniffles.

A tall man, who looks nothing like either kid, enters the apartment and greets his wife with a kiss. He immediately scoops up the toddler with one hand, and Hikari with the other. He kisses Hikari as the toddler boy kisses him.

Hikari giggles.

“She’s happy,” Itori whispers, her voice raw. 

“You did good, girl,” Uta says back. “And we can come back anytime you like.”

“Thank you.” She throws her arms around both of them. “You are the best friends in the world.” 

I wouldn’t be surprised if something like this happened, given how much she knows about human/ghoul pregnancies. Love it.

“You’re really pregnant?” Uta stares at her.

“Yes!” Itori yells, trying not to cry.

“You can cry,” he says.

“I’m not weak. I just – I won’t – it’ll be fine.” Itori backs away as the door to HySy slams shut. She whirls around. “Ren!”

“Itori?” He gapes at her.

Itori snarls at him. “This is why I never told you! You’re going to judge me, aren’t you?!”

“No,” Yomo says simply. Hikari … Itori will not wind up like Hikari. “We’ll help you.”

He hesitates, then hugs her. 

Itori squeezes him back in one of her characteristic too-tight hugs.

“Is the father around?” Uta asks.

“Probably not.” Itori shrugs.

“Do you want it?” Yomo asks bluntly.

“I don’t know.” Itori looks serious. “But I don’t want an abortion, if that makes sense.”

“Of course it does.” Uta offers her an eye. “I wonder what body parts you’ll crave.”

“Shut up, you.” Itori whacks him playfully.

“No blood wine.” Uta winks.

“Don’t keep it around me.” Itori can’t help but smile at her friends. 

Eight months later, Itori crawls into HySy, doubled over and moaning.

“Are you in labor? Here?” Uta exclaims. 

“What does it look like?” Itori snaps. “I want an epidural.” 

“That requires a hospital which requires you being arrested, so no.” Uta sighs. “I’ll call Ren.”

Yomo barrels in less than five minutes later.

“Did you hit anyone on your way over?” Uta asks. “Help me get her into the back.” 

Yomo is armed with baby pamphlets. “I called Dr. Fueguchi. He’ll be here soon.”  

Itori cringes. “Here comes another one!”

“How much longer?” she groans after Dr. Fueguchi arrives. She’s lying on the bed Uta prepared, biting down on a stick. 

At least she thinks so. She really can’t remember anything but pain.

“First labor can take days.”

“What?” Itori shrieks. “Renji – no – cut it out.”

“Itori, you’ll be fine.” Uta strokes her hair.

“No – I won’t.” Itori begins to cry. She can’t even get proper pain medication because ghouls are so cursed. How can she raise a child? 

She can’t.

It’s well past midnight when Dr. Fueguchi tells her to push. She hears a high-pitched scream and sees Yomo catch something in his arms. 

“Is that her?” Itori is certain she had a girl. 

“Yes.” Yomo smiles. There are tears down his cheeks, and even Uta has choked up.

“Can I hold her?” Itori whimpers. 

Yomo wraps the baby in a towel and hands it to Itori. She smiles down at her girl, the girl she asked Yomo to bring to Yoshimura for adoption. But for a few hours, she will have this baby, and she’ll name her Hikari for Renji’s sister.