I started writing this back when the original series ended and it stayed as a two-page drabble in my computer for a while, yesterday in a mad coffee rush I decided to actually expand it as I like the idea.
A few things first, this happens about a year before the events in :RE and it's a bit AU-ish in that Ayato is only a year younger then Touka, making him nineteen, you'll guess why soon I guess.
Cookies to anyone who figures out where the story title comes from.
Steel
There was blood pouring through his fingers as he tried his best to assess whether to flee or fight.
The group of investigators was severely decimated, three laid dead on the ground, and of the three that remained standing one was going to be dead in a few minutes and the other two were pretty battered up.
All of his underlings were dead.
Ayato bit his lip.
It had seemed an easy battle, a first-class investigator and a rank 1 guiding a group of academy students through a dangerous sector.
Actually scratch that, it had looked like those people wanted to provide them with an easy meal.
When the fight had started, very predictably three of the four students had dropped dead in mere seconds. He'd gone for the first class investigator as his three companions attacked the remaining student and the rank 1.
After all what could two skinny women do against powerful ghouls?
The student was a black haired woman around his age, she was thin, but curvy and had looked like the easiest prey out of the squad, but Ayato found her holding Eiko's head barely a minute into the battle.
Apparently they were allowing random students to have quinque these days.
One wouldn't expect them to handle a quinque this way though; maybe the woman was some sort of special case.
Her quinque was an axe-like koukaku that she swung around with surprising ease.
The rank 1 investigator was another woman, older in looks, but elegant, she wielded a rinkaku that reminded him a little of Rize Kamishiro's –and that bastard's, really, it served him well if he'd ended up as a suitcase- she too, had jumped at his subordinates fearlessly.
Between those two, Ayato had been left at a numeric disadvantage, even if he had mortally wounded the first class investigator, he was beaten up himself, and hungry –he'd meant for them to be his meal after all.-
He was hiding behind what was left of a warehouse's wall, the night was warm and humid, and the dim lights of the industrial district only made the whole landscape more confusing, providing him with good enough cover.
The older woman began pulling the student along, murmuring something about assistance in her phone.
"Let go, you old hag" apparently the girl was still eager to fight. She struggled against the older woman's hold. Ayato could almost feel the rush she was getting out of the fight.
"Akagi-san. I can't allow-"A harsh tug on her arm "Your mother, I mean Akagi-san will…"
"To hell with my mother" Akagi pulled her arm back with enough strength that the other woman had to let go if only not to fall. "You should leave though, Fujiwara san, the boss' not gonna live to see the hospital"
"Akagi-san, this is an SS rated ghoul. You cannot be possibly planning to…" This was her superior right? Ayato scoffed, the older woman was treating this Akagi girl far too nicely.
He saw the woman begin running, passing him by completely. "Better even then, let us see how good a fight he can give me" Oh, he would, the girl infuriated him already, he'd amuse himself by having her for dinner.
"This is an order Akagi-san" the woman yelled dejectedly "He must be gone already anyway" the woman looked around, as if trying to spot the backup that, he knew, would still take a while. Finding nothing, and with a defeated expression she crumbled to the floor, holding an injury that he hadn't seen before.
That changed things, no matter how much of a wild card; he could take on a mere student alone, even injured as he was. The girl was reckless if he used that to his advantage-
A laugh interrupted his thoughts "He's still here Fujiwara-san"
And so, the woman proceeded to sprint towards his hiding place with her koukaku quinque gleaming around her right arm.
The entrance to the crumbling warehouse consisted of a narrow alley, half occluded by a huge green dumpster, Ayato had thought that'd hinder her movements, but once inside the alley, the woman simply propelled herself off the ground and onto the dumpster. Her quinque lagged behind her, hanging from her hand and nicking the metal as she leaped for the door.
He had been to the right of it, observing through the gap the door and the wall made, but as soon as she burst in, Ayato activated his own kagune, using the wings to propel himself off the ground and barely avoiding the sharp blade of the koukaku that she wasted no time –though seemingly a lot of energy- in deviating towards him.
She leaped at him, all black hair and ivory skin, her weapon made fast, powerful strikes, but at the same time it was predictable and the trajectory could hardly change due to its weight.
"Nice trail you left for me back there, Ghoul"
Beneath the mask, he smirked "Thought you might be foolish enough to come"
Her face twisted into a pout and without more words, the black haired woman leaped at him.
He managed to either avoid or block most strikes; still, she got him good and deep in the arm and used the wound on his side as an easy target.
With each block or dodge, they walked deeper into the warehouse.
Soon he'd have her somewhere she was easy to corner and even that Koukaku wouldn't be good enough to deflect his kagune.
Still, he was bleeding enough that he really needed to get this done fast, he thought as she managed to enlarge the wound on his arm.
Ayato kicked her on the stomach once he found an opening, sending her flying into a nearby wall. When the woman got up, he was already in the air, and as soon as she looked at him, he barreled her with crystalized kagune shards, she deflected the ones that would have grazed too close to her vitals by using her quinque as a shield, but the rest sliced deeply at her arms and legs, every time she moved small drops of blood would fly around her.
The second he landed though, he found himself nearly toppling over from the impact of her foot with his stomach.
She was fast, at least for someone dragging around a koukaku quinque. Seeing an opening, the girl swung the ax towards him. Ayato quickly shielded himself with one of his wings, fragments of it flew over them and the ax embedded itself deeply on his kagune.
His wings had been growing thin for a while, with the force that she had been using, a koukaku should have penetrated them easily. Maybe it was a stroke of luck, but something gnawed at the back of his mind, telling Ayato that there was no reason for the blow to have been that light.
He shook those thoughts away and assessed the situation, her quinque was stuck, Ayato mused, and he was almost out of RC cells. It was perfect.
Gathering as much strength as he could he tackled her and pinned her quinque arm down with both of his wings, the koukaku falling for her painfully bent hand as his hands quickly found her throat and squeezed hard.
He considered taking a bite out of her neck, right then and there, tearing out the chunk of flesh that held the blood vessels and letting her feel as she bled out while he enjoyed the taste of her blood sliding down his throat.
Putting himself in a vulnerable position like that was not something he particularly wanted to do.
He'd enjoy her when she was dead.
Soft, human flesh felt pliant beneath his hands, Ayato could've just snapped her neck, but something stopped him.
She wasn't even moving anymore, though she still lived, and the capillaries around her neck had started to burst and color her skin a ghastly shade of purple.
There was no resistance, no arms trying to push his wings away so she could make a last feeble attempt to escape.
Instead, she just stared at him with wide, dark grey eyes on a bloodied face that was the color of paper, all fight gone, and a second later her body relaxed below his hold.
By all reasonable thought, she ought to at least look scared- wasn't this woman just a student, anyway? - Maybe she thought someone would come to her rescue before he was done.
No.
She wasn't looking at anything but him, definitely not expecting back up, even from her superior and there wasn't nervousness or confidence in her eyes, not even rage or killing intent, she was just…
Resigned.
Ayato felt bile rise up his throat.
So the little girl lost one battle and wanted to die already?
He'd grant her that wish.
The second of hesitation that had overcome him when he'd pinned her down, however, cost him the woman, as her superior, who'd apparently been trying to catch up with them since they'd disappeared inside the ware house, appeared and threw her injured body at him, holding her rinkaku like a spear, and sirens filled the air as the horizon lit up in white police lights.
To avoid the rinkaku he had to leap off the girl. As he did, something caught his eye, strapped to her left leg –the side with the arm that he hadn't bothered to pin down- there were two quinque knives.
The steps of heavily armed investigators got closer and closer. By the time that he thought of attacking either of the women again to regain some strength, the student was up again, coughing her lungs out but holding her quinque steady.
Ayato figured it was better to disappear.
No one needed to know- even if they probably would, Eto had her ways-.
.
.
It took him longer than usual to get to the base, what with the stopping for food and the injuries. Of course, he could do what Hinami always said and eat the Tree's food in the mess hall with most of the other members.
But since he'd made a hobby out of hunting investigators, he figured that he might as well eat his kills.
Ayato liked more muscle in his meat anyway.
And he liked good fights.
That wasn't what he got then though, wounded and alone, he had to sneak through a CCG barrage and just barely managed to snatch one of the rookies that weren't even allowed into the perimeter yet.
The boy didn't even scream.
Somehow, he felt dissatisfied, against the sheer manpower of doves even a powerful ghoul like him was excused to flee –hell, Eto had turned tail after Arima had arrived at Anteiku- despite this, the thrill of the fight was quickly turning sour. She hadn't fought seriously –what the hell- and she hadn't looked any older than him, he'd heard that the CCGs current ace had been active since he was young, but these tales about young, super-powered investigators had never held his attention, mostly because he believed they were just excuses for the weaklings to hide behind.
Ayato wasn't an obsessive person, he never had been, but in that moment he wanted little but to have a good one on one with her –Akae? Akane? - draw the real monster he had seen at first, when she'd actually been interested in the fight, not the idiot with a death wish.
He decided that yes, he would find her, fight her.
And once he had, he would crush her, devour her.
Headquarters was silent. The top floor especially, which he shared with the other higher ups –and Hinami, because Eto had somewhat adopted the girl- felt like not an atom was moving.
Hinami was probably reading, Eto and Tatara were likely to be out and Noro was probably doing whatever he did in his free time, not like he was particularly loud or anything but swift on duty.
Shrugging he headed for his room, his torn, bloodied clothing weighing uncomfortably even though the wounds had long since closed.
Exhausted, he sat on his bed, not really bothered by some of the freshest stains of blood seeping into the sheets.
The knock and the quiet voice that asked him for permission to come in even before he even felt her outside was not a surprise, Hinami's senses had flourished in the past two years, and she had really become something.
"Ayato-kun"
"Hinami."
She had really become something to look at too.
Unaware of his inner musings, the girl sniffed at the air, instantly frowning "Are you wounded? I thought the blood wasn't yours at first but…"
"Tch most isn't. Ghoul just smells more than human."
She pursed her lips "It still smells too much like you anyway" Her hands fell to her lap and she looked down. Hinami had arrived knowing none of them, - just Eto's Takatsuki Sen persona- and accustomed to being treated like a little doll and doted over. She got attached to him at first because they were similar in age, but where physical affection was concerned Ayato had been adamant, by then the girl had all but given up on it. She'd hardened, too, but considering the circumstances that was to be expected.
"Ugh fine" He pulled the tattered black shirt over his head and let her check him over; Hinami had also gotten better at getting what she wanted.
The girl smiled brightly, despite the situation –though there was an undertone of sadness to it- and wordlessly started checking over Ayato's torso, even though they both knew that any of his wounds not having closed by then was highly improbable.
It was funny that she, the younger of the two acted more like a big sister than Ayato.
After she was done, he could feel her hands hesitating. Ayato sighed, figuring that once couldn't hurt when she was clearly worried,-Hinami hadn't grown up alone, fending for herself after all- and leaned back slightly, she jolted, before thin arms came to wrap around him in a grip that was a little too strong for her looks.
Her head was buried between his shoulder blades and he may have heard "Onii-chan" being whispered.
That was none of his business though.
In a way he didn't mind being surrogate for that guy –if anything, it was oddly satisfying- as long as it didn't get too troublesome. Hinami didn't deserve half of what had happened to her anyway, none of them did, at least at first.
Skinny arms let go of him, she sniffled, but by the time Ayato turned around her eyes were dry and just slightly red rimmed.
"Thanks Ayato-kun"
"… Yeah"
She stalked out quickly. To think that Ayato was the closest thing to emotional solace that the girl found those days was sad though very typical of their world.
Lying back on the bed he promised himself it'd only be five minutes until he got up and took a shower- no one minded the smell of blood, but he still felt gross-.
Ayato had a new, very specific prey.
And he knew just where to expect her.
(Or the girl who apparently wanted to die and had eyes of that color)
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