Chapter 106 - 104: Option 2
"Juuzou."
Kanzaki Ryoma smiled as he greeted Suzuya Juuzou. "I hear you're working with Investigator Shinohara now. How is it? You haven't made too much trouble for him, have you?"
"Uh..."
Juuzou scratched his head sheepishly, clearly caught off guard. His grin betrayed him. He couldn't exactly say no.
Ryoma didn't press. Instead, he let out a faint chuckle. "Well, it's not a bad thing. You seem a lot more open than when you were still at the Academy."
"I do? Maybe," Juuzou replied, blinking for a moment as if just realizing it himself.
Back at the Academy, Juuzou had been treated like a freak. Students and instructors alike avoided him. That isolation, the trauma from the past, had made him shut down emotionally. Being taken in by CCG and especially by Shinohara had started to change that.
Ryoma remembered the rumors. Abducted and sold into the Ghoul Auction. Raised like a pet by Big Madam. Juuzou had been warped into something unrecognizable— immoral not by choice, but by survival.
Even in the manga, Kaneki's first encounter with Juuzou had ended with his wallet stolen.
Shinohara Yukinori, standing nearby, couldn't hide his surprise. Suzuya, the problem child of CCG, was actually behaving and even smiling in front of someone else. And it didn't feel fake.
"Mado, Amon. It's been a while."