A/N: Hello! I'm so glad so many people are enjoying this so far! We even have two follows and a favorite! I never thought that the first chapter would do so well, thanks!
Title: The Bloody Files: A Ghoul's God
Summary: Shinohara and Juuzou are assigned to a case involving a cult full of humans that worship ghouls as 'angels'. Within the cult is the disillusioned daughter that's more than happy to sell them out for a price. Matters become worse when a binge eating ghouls breaks loose, and human cannibalism becomes common place. Tokyo is beginning to burst at the seams, and time is running out.
Characters: Shinohara Yukinori, Suzuya Juuzou, Oc
Pairings: Eventual Suzuya Juuzou x Oc
Lily stared at the teacher's mouth as she spoke, trying to catch anything that might help her in the upcoming Biology test, while at the same time jotting down notes in her notebook. Biology had always been a hard concept for her to grasp, so it was constanly bringing down her overall grade. She wasn't even sure why this subject was so hard for her to understand, she worked just as hard in it as anything else that she studied. She paused in her writing as the teacher stopped talking, the woman pushing up her thick rimmed glasses and actually looking at the class. "I'll stop here since we have a few minutes until lunch. So what would you all like to talk about?"
A student in the front row raised his hand. "Oshiro-sensei, do you know anything about ghouls?"
"And why do you want to know about them?"
The boy shrugged. "We always talk about humans but never ghouls. Wouldn't it be important to know how ghouls work?"
The teacher sighed and leaned against her old wooden desk, crossing her arms over her buxom chest. "Everything you need to know about ghouls is covered in the ghoul safety classes." She leaned forward slightly. "However, if you wanna know more about ghouls I'll ask my husband, is that fair?"
A few of the kids cheered while others whispered to each other, already trying to figure out what her husband would know. Oshiro-sensei's husband was a ghoul investigator for the CCG, and whenever there was an attack close to the school she was always the first to know. On top of that she was one of the more lenient teachers, as long as they completed what the book covered and did their homework, she was more than willing to discuss different topics with them. That almost always had something to do with ghouls and her husband's work, the bits he could tell her, anyway. Why everyone wanted to know more about human eating creatures that they could meet on the way home, Lily didn't know. It probably had something to do with human curiosity or something within the brain, her lips pursed at the thought, her attention going back to her biology book.
Her grey eyes scanned the diagram, while her hand worked on scratching eligible notes into her notebook. This continued on for ten minuets until a low chime rang from the intercoms. High pitched screeches echoed off the walls as the students carelessly pushed back their chairs, stuffing their papers and books in their school bags, all of their attention leaving Oshiro-sensei to their friends. Lily moaned and dropped her pencil on her desk, slowly opening and closing her hand. "You shouldn't grip the pencils so tightly, Lily-chan."
Lily glanced behind her, a sigh escaping her lips when she saw her best friend. "It's called concentrating, Sana. If you did that then maybe you wouldn't always be in danger of failing."
Sana's pale face bloomed into a bright red. "It's really not my fault! They stopped showing my anime at the right time since the soccer season started, so now I have to stay up late so I can catch it."
"Why don't you record it?"
"I'm too dedicated."
Lily shook her head and began putting her books and papers into her book bag. Sana had always had this problem for as long as they had known each other. She'd put off her studies so that she could pursue her hobbies, mostly dealing anime and manga, and then beg her to help her study. She put her bag on her shoulder and stood up. "Are you going to lunch?"
Sana nodded excitedly, a hop in her step as she guided Lily out of the classroom and into the crowded hallway. "Yup! I made some riceballs by myself since my Dad is tired of making my lunch." She paused in the middle of the hall and rummaged around in her bag for a moment. A few of the students stared while others rolled their eyes at the eccentric behavior. "Lunch."
Inches from Lily's face was a purple bento box with red hearts printed on it. Even locked away in the plastic she could smell the bacon and soy sauce from the bento box. Lily took it and held it secruley to her chest. "Thanks, I forgot mine."
"You always do. You're lucky you're tutoring me or my Dad wouldn't make your lunch." Sana said. "I'm always looking out for you. What do you eat when I'm sick?"
"Water."
Sana rolled her eyes at that but didn't comment. As they made their way up to the roof, they passed by a large group of kids crowding around a blonde haired boy. "I heard it myself, the CCG found a human eating another human!"
"Yeah right, Senji. You're always making up those type of stories."
"But it's true!"
Sana tilted her head at the news, her blue eyes lighting up in excitement. As soon as they climbed the stairs and made it to the roof, she spun around and grabbed Lily by her shoulders. "Doesn't that sound exciting! If they found zombies in Tokyo we could form a survival team and everything!"
"Why don't you just join the CCG academy?"
Sana's face flushed again and she looked away. "That's too much studying."
Lily shook her head and leaned against a small wall, sliding down it until she was sitting comfortably. She popped open her bento and almost slobbered when she got a look at her lunch. Sana's father had scrambled some eggs, cooked some broccoli, and fried a piece of bacon for her. She set the bento on her lap and slapped her hands together. "Thank you for the food."
She dug the chopsticks into the broccoli and picked up a piece and popped it into her mouth. It was actually a bit strange to hear about a cannibalism case, human or ghoul. In fact, she hadn't heard of a human cannibalism case in Tokyo before today. Then again this was coming from Senji, he was a gossip and spread all types of rumors. She popped some bacon into her mouth, the grease and smoked meat wiping away any worries she may have had only moments ago. If it was something important then it was something for the authorities to handle, not a sixteen year old high school student.
That evening Lily baked some cookies. They weren't overly complex, just some standard chocolate cookies that her mother had asked for. Seeing as her father was at the church doing some marriage counseling, she was the only person to do it. She poured some more chocolate chips into the thick batter, her brain barely even registering the act as she bobbed her head along to the loud rap music coming from her headphones. When there was nothing in the bag she dumped it into the trash can and then began spooning the batter into a pan. As far as she was was concerned her mom could treat it like cookie cake, the woman probably wouldn't even bother to share anyway. She smoothed the sticky substance with her spatula before chucking it towards the sink, just when it was about to land a pale stitched hand grabbed it. Lily stared at it for several seconds before her eyes widened and she looked the owner in the face, sliding off her bright pink headphones. "What are you doing here?!"
Juuzou stuck the spatula in his mouth and tried to talk around it. "Well you see, Shinohara-san wanted to come up here himself but he didn't have a reason to. So he sent me up here since we're close to the same age or something. I wanted to sneak in, but he said that'll look suspicious or something. That almost made me sad since I haven't gotten to do anything fun all day and climbing up the side of your apartment building looks like fun-"
"You climbed up the side of the building?"
He shook his head. "Nah, Shinohara-san dragged me down. I hit my head too, that's kinda why there's blood on your floor."
Lily just stared at the boy, her blank expression seamlessly coming back into position. Wasn't this guy supposed to be an investigator, why was he using such...uncouth methods just to come see her? Lily leaned forward and snatched the now spotless spatula and chucked it into the sink, noting the blood that was running down the side of the investigator's face. It made his already pale face stand out even more, looking more like a skull than skin, the large red eyes were doing nothing to soften that impression. "Does my mom know you're here?"
"Yup!"
Knowing her mom, the woman probably though that Juuzou was just a friend. No doubt busy wondering if he was a boy or girl, and when her cookies would ever be finished. She grabbed the metal pan and went over to their small oven and opened it up, tossing the pan in without too much thought before addressing her unwanted guest. "Juuzou, why are you here?"
"Uh," He paused in his fidgeting, tilting his head to the side. "I think Shinohara-san wanted me to get you so we could go to the church."
"Why?"
He shrugged, his arms slapping against his sides dramatically. Lily groaned and almost curled up in herself right then and there. Seeing as how it was Wednesday, she really thought she could get out of leaving her house again. She wearily watched Juuzou press his face against the oven door, obviously trying to watch the cookies cook. What Shinohara wanted wasn't all that hard to do, her father was in a small study with the couple, everywhere else was completely abandoned until Sunday morning. "Are you sure we can't let this wait until Sunday?"
He didn't even bother to look at her. "Nope! Too many people on Sunday, and since we're outsiders it'd look kinda weird for us to hang around, right?"
Lily really didn't like hearing the logic coming out of his mouth. Crossing her arms she snuggled a bit deeper into her plush robe, already dreading having to go out into the early spring weather. "Let me just tell my mom we're leaving, okay?"
Lily made a choking sound the minute the two of them made it outside, her entire body shuddering. "Oh, god."
Shinohara stood outside a black car, his features relaxing when he saw them. "I'm sorry for the inconvenience, Mc'Knight-san. I thought it would be best to look around the church with as few people inside as possible."
"Yeah. Sure." She huddled deeper into her windbreaker, her eyes narrowed. "Can we go so we can come back? I'm gonna fall asleep at this rate."
"Of course, Mc'Knight-san."
"Lily." She opened up the door and slipped inside the front, not even bothering to give Juuzou the option. Shinohara slipped in as well, buckling himself in with a light chuckle. "I'm serious, I hate my last name. Sounds like some kind of old fashioned pub name in the wilds of Scotland or something."
Juuzou grabbed the back of her head rest and leaned forward. "Is that where you're from, Ri-chan*?"
"No, I'm American."
He oh'd before engaging in a mostly one-sided conversation with Shinohara. Watching the two she quickly deduced that even though they were partners, the two also had a deeper dynamic. Whenever Juuzou said something a bit inappropriate, Shinohara would swoop in and instruct him on how to say whatever it was properly, or to just shut up about it. By the time they got to the church Lily had learned all about icing, the difference between it and blood when it comes to texture, and apprently her skin would be perfect to scar since the pink would stand out from the coffee brown. When the car pulled into the parking lot Lily practically lept out and went up to the door, sticking her key into the lock and jiggling it. She hopped from one foot to the other, her body already shuddering thanks to the cold. "What're you guys looking for?"
"Stuff." Juuzou said excitedly. "Hey, when do you guys sacrifice virgins?"
Lily pressed harder against the door. "Are you volunteering?"
Juuzou opened his mouth to say something, but the door opened with a loud groan. Inside the light were all out and the plastic chair were put away, all of them stacked in the corner in neat pyramids. Shinohara dragged out his cellphone and pressed a few buttons on the touch screen. "Let's work Juuzou. We're looking for anything hidden, you know what I'm talking about."Juuzou gave a salute with the wrong hand before skipping over to the podium. Shinohara directed his attention back to Lily who was standing to the side awkwardly. "Go talk to your Dad."
"...Right."
She watched them for a few more moments before going down the narrow hall. The sharp smell of green tea spiked with lemon wafted from the the open doorway, along with the gentle smell of something sweet. She peeked into the room and saw her father drinking tea with a young couple who were sitting across from him, their bodies stiff and as far away from each other as possible.
"Um, Dad?" The man looked up from his tea and nodded, a smile easing on his face, and gestured for her to come in with his pen. "Momma wanted me to see if you were okay since you're taking longer than normal."
He hummed and set his mug down on his metal desk. "We're just wrapping up here, why don't you go to the chapel, we'll be out in a minute."
"Right..."
She made her way back into the chapel, hands shoved into her windbreaker. Her father had always been this way, busy at all times and constantly pushing her to the side. She knew he wasn't being mean by it, he was paying for her schooling after all, but she did wonder if she got some of her personality from him. The ability to separate 'family' and 'love' to get things done regardless of sentimental limitations. She let out a low sigh and shook her head, that line of thought was far more depressing than she initially thought. Entering back into the chapel she saw Shinohara and Juuzou by the podium, phones away and quietly talking. Juuzou noticed her and broke out into a smile that stretched too far across his face. Shinohara turned around and looked at her and nodded. "We found what we were looking for."
"That's great." She shuffled over to a wall and slid down to the floor. "I'm gonna go home with my Dad, I'm sure you don't want me hearing in on your secret ghoul stuff."
"Are you sure?"
She shrugged and leaned her head on the wooden walls. "Yeah, I'll live."
Juuzou skipped over to the door, not even sparing her a second glance, already chatting about anything and everything that came to his head. Shinohara followed behind him, the man frowning for a moment before answering Juuzou's question. They opened the door, the cold rushing in and swirling around, before the door shut behind them. Lily burrowed deep into her windbreaker, bringing her knees to her chin and narrowing her eyes, trying to find something in the never ending darkness.
Translations:
Ri-chan: To say Lily in Japanese you'd say Riri. Juuzou is being very literal with how he's saying her name, identifying the 'ri' sound and using that in place of her full name.
Review Responses:
Pancakes21: Thanks! That air of danger is super important, and I'm glad it translated onto the page. ^_^ And the idea about the worshiping cult came from the opening. I thought Tsukiyama was a preacher. XD
