Chapter Four: SS Rated Ghoul
When Amon exited the tent early in the morning after his daily push-ups, a mug of black coffee in one hand, he was surprised to see that Hagrid had already arrived and was busy trying to coax the ghoul to eat. "Yeh need ta eat something. Go on…eat it."
"Any luck?" Enquired Amon as he came to a stop beside the larger man.
"No. He's still as stubborn as he was yesterday," Hagrid replied, waving the wrapped meat about. Amon eyes swivelled over to look at Eyepatch and was baffled to see the ghoul's eye glance away. Was he self-conscious? Did he not want me to see him eating?
"Good morning, Hagrid, Amon. I see you're trying your luck at feeding the ghoul, any progress?" Shinohara greeted cheerfully. They shook their heads in lieu of saying 'no'. "Ah…I see. The students should be here soon."
"Yeh hear tha'? Yeh should eat something before they get here, yeh don' wanna bite another student again, do yeh?" Hagrid asked. The ghoul paused before slowly shaking his head and this time when Hagrid offered the meat, the ghoul took it.
They watched the ghoul stare down at the package in his hands as though having second thoughts before he began ripping the wrapping off ravenously. Eyepatch held the meat up to his mouth before seeming to remember about the mask and hastily struggled to unzip it. A drooling mouth was revealed beneath the mask, which opened and bit down into the offered meat. The starving ghoul devoured the small meal in under a minute, head bowed and gaze fixed on the cage floor, Eyepatch held his hand out towards them.
A silent plea for more.
This time, Amon handed the package to Eyepatch and watched as the ghoul scoffed it down just as quickly as the first serving. By the time the ghoul had eaten no less than five packages, the ghoul's appetite was finally satiated. As Hagrid and Shinohara moved away to prepare for today's lesson, Amon turned to the ghoul curled up in the cage.
"Eyepatch…hey, I got you your coffee," he said gently, holding the mug out towards the bars. Eyepatch lifted his head, his eye meeting Amon's as he raised his hand out once more. Amon carefully placed the mug in the ghoul's hand, gripping it until the ghoul's fingers had finished wrapping around the handle.
"Thank you," Eyepatch thanked politely as he took a sip from the mug. "It's good," he complimented, pleasantly surprised.
"The school's staff made it. They make all the human food," informed Amon, smiling, happy to have pleased the ghoul so much.
"Amon, the students are here," Shinohara announced, Amon turned to see a group of sixth year Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs trailing after him. They waited until they had all gathered around the cage before beginning the lesson. Amon was amused to see the students throwing disconcerted looks at the ghoul calmly drinking coffee in the cage. Perhaps they had heard about the biting incident the other day?
"I'll leave it teh the two of yer then," boomed Hagrid cheerily.
"It doesn't look very dangerous," a Hufflepuff, who held a striking resemblance to the boy that was injured, exclaimed as he poked the ghoul with his wand. "It's nothing like what my little brother descr-AHH!" The student shrieked, fumbling backwards away from the cage as he was met with the blazing glare of an activated kakugan.
"Do not put anything through those bars!" Amon scolded.
"Ten points from Hufflepuff, yeh need teh listen carefully to their instructions. They know their ghouls very well," Hagrid added, worried that another student had nearly gotten hurt.
"Let's begin with what you have just witnessed. The kakugan," Amon began, gesturing to Eyepatch, "When a ghoul is excited, extremely hungry or using their kagune, their eyes will change to this appearance due to the influence of active Rc cells. However, ghouls may also choose to activate their kakugan at will."
"As for their inconspicuous appearance, Japanese ghouls are, in fact, more dangerous than the ghouls you know…or so I've heard. They-" Amon's lecturing was cut short by a loud crash from behind them followed by a few students' screams. Before Amon could turn around, a blur sped by him, the breeze created briefly ruffling the investigator's hair. Amon could only watch as Eyepatch made a bid for freedom, sprinting full speed towards the clearing's tree line only to smack painfully into an invisible barrier, the wards as the wizards called it.
The two investigators released their quinque as more of the students began shouting in alarm at seeing the escaped ghoul. "Everybody leave the clearing, go to the trees so tha' the wards can protect yeh," yelled Hagrid, ushering the students to the safety of the forest and leaving the ghoul in the hands of the CCG.
Four red rinkaku tentacles burst from the ghoul's lower back, the glow of its vein-like pattern pulsing to a silent rhythm as his kakugan darted wildly about, desperate to find an escape route. Feeling stressed and cornered like a trapped predator, Eyepatch tensed as he prepared to strike.
All was silent but for the sound of the ghoul's panicked breathing. Birds hushed their melodic voices, trees halted in their sway and the wind exhaled soundlessly as even the forest held its breath in anticipation for the inevitable confrontation.
A harsh battle cry roared from Shinohara's throat as he made the first move, charging at the ghoul with his weapon ready. The ghoul countered the blow with a rinkaku limb before sending two more tentacles to swipe at the investigator. Shinohara dodged them, swinging his quinque at the ghoul, refusing to underestimate it. Something about Eyepatch reminded Shinohara of the incomplete kakuja, Centipede. Perhaps it was the white hair or the way the ghoul cracked a finger before all four of the rinkaku tentacles swung towards him. The resemblance was there and it made Shinohara shudder at the memory.
Shinohara attacked again, putting as much power as he could into the blow. A rinkaku tentacle met Shinohara's quinque halfway, neither side giving in as they pushed back at full-force. Eyepatch feinted with a second rinkaku limb, pretending to go for the investigator's exposed waist and causing Shinohara to jump back out of the way. His retreat left enough room to escape thus allowing the ghoul to zip past. "Amon! Engage it!" He shouted over his shoulder.
With no other choice, Amon moved to swing his quinque at the ghoul's kagune. Eyepatch blocked it with two of his rinkaku, distracted. The ghoul's eye was still glancing nervously about the clearing, watching the surrounding students that were observing them from the clearing's edge. "Eyepatch!" He exclaimed, catching the ghoul's attention. "Calm down!"
Instantly, the anxiety drained from the ghoul's form. His shoulders relaxing, his thrashing kagune calming and his eye ceasing with its constant, nervous sidelong glances.
"I really don't wish to fight you," said Eyepatch, truthfully, as his kakugan made eye contact with him. There was no malice in the ghoul's black sclera and scarlet iris, only reluctance.
"Neither do I," Amon replied in kind, dropping his quinque to his side while Eyepatch's rinkaku mimicked his actions, returning to a relaxed position closer to the ghoul. "Why are you doing this, Eyepatch?"
"I don't want to stay in a cage all day while being ogled at like some kind of beast by a bunch of kids!" growled Eyepatch, frustrated. "I can't stand it!"
"Listen, Eyepatch. We're in a similar position to you," Amon sympathised. Out the corner of his eye he could see Shinohara staring at them astonished, while hidden in the shadows of the trees, the students watched them in awe. The ghoul investigator dropped his voice to a murmur so quiet, only a ghoul could hear it. "We didn't come here by choice. Remember that time in the abandoned police station? I told you back then that we had been captured. Well, Shinohara and I were kidnapped by a wizard while we were out eating at a restaurant!"
Amon hissed, his eyes glancing warily at the magical people under the trees, "I overheard them talking about erasing our memories once this tournament of theirs is over! We can't let that happen. The three of us need to escape before the tournament is finished."
"Then what should we do? If I go back in there how are we supposed to escape? They won't let it happen again. We should escape now while we still can!" Argued Eyepatch, keeping his voice quiet but loud enough for Amon to hear.
"I'm sure we can find a way to escape both this forest clearing and this country if we take the time to plan it," reasoned Amon. "For now, please return to the cage, Eyepatch," he added softly.
The fight drained out of the ghoul completely at his words, giving in to Amon's reasoning.
"Um…" Eyepatch glanced over to where the cage used to be, only finding a pile of broken bars. "What cage?"
"Ah…" Amon said, stunned. "You never cease to amaze me, Eyepatch. How on earth did you manage to destroy a quinque steel cage?" The eye-patched ghoul had the grace to look embarrassed, another remarkably human reaction.
"Amon?" Shinohara questioned incredulously as he cautiously approached the pair.
"Eyepatch is now subdued, Shinohara," reported Amon as though it wasn't extraordinary how he was calmly standing beside a deadly, possibly SS rated ghoul. "The cage has been destroyed so there's currently nowhere to put him."
"I sent a student to fetch Dumbledore earlier," informed Hagrid as he approached them. "He should be 'ere any second now. He should have something better than the ropes I've got."
"Is it really necessary?" Eyepatch asked.
"Yes, it's for the safety of the students and us," Shinohara answered. It felt strange to talk to a ghoul outside of battle, no threats or insults and no anger or violence. Shinohara was astonished when he saw the sad acceptance in the ghoul's now silver eye. Why was it being so reasonable and compliant with them? Was it all a trick?
"I am here," Dumbledore declared as he strode into the clearing. "What problem do you need help my help with?"
"Dumbledore! The ghoul broke his cage and escaped," Hagrid exclaimed, filling the headmaster in on the situation.
"Let's try this, shall we then?" Dumbledore withdrew a long wand from his sleeve and gave it an elegant swish.
The cage remained broken, much to the utter surprise of the professor and his students. "This cage is made from quinque steel, is it not?" Queried the wizened wizard.
"Yes, quinque steel is one of the few materials that can counter a ghoul's kagune. It's a wonder the ghoul had been able to escape in the first place," answered Shinohara.
"When they captured me, I noticed that if a spell hit my kagune it wouldn't have any effect on me," Eyepatch supplied, surprisingly speaking in English, voicing his thoughts on the matter.
"That would explain why the magic didn't work on it," Amon mused, the first of the group to recover from the surprise of the ghoul joining in on the conversation. "Quinque steel is made from a ghoul's kagune," he added the information for the benefit of the two wizards.
"I see…then I'm afraid we will have to resort to a different method of retainment," said Dumbledore as he waved in wand in an elaborate sweep. "I apologise in advance, I don't have access to quinque steel so these would be made from ordinary iron. As an extra precaution, however, I can place some enchantments on them to give the iron some extra strength."
A pair of handcuffs were conjured and upon seeing them, Eyepatch took a fearful step back. "No." At first they thought the ghoul was being stubborn again, so Hagrid reached out like he had often done to an injured unicorn.
"It's okay, we won't hurt yeh," he soothed but the ghoul only backed away further.
"I'm not wearing those things again!" Growled the ghoul in English, kakugan re-activating and kagune curling defensively around him. Again? Eyepatch had been handcuffed before? Amon wondered what the ghoul had been through to react so negatively to the sight of handcuffs.
Confused by the ghoul's reaction, Dumbledore banished the handcuffs he had created before conjuring a metal collar with an attached chain. "I'm afraid these are rather degrading for someone of such intelligence," the wizard apologised showing him the iron restraints.
"They're fine…" Eyepatch muttered, his now human-like eye averted elsewhere. His eye darted back to them as he noticed Hagrid approaching with the iron collar. "Let Amon do it," he blurted to their surprise. The silent I trust him went unspoken yet was heard all the same.
Amon hated the idea of putting a collar on Eyepatch like he was some kind of pet to be controlled. The investigator respected the ghoul too much to humiliate Eyepatch like that. However, since Eyepatch was trusting him to do this, something which greatly thrilled Amon, he would do it despite how his blood boiled with anger at the mere thought of doing such a thing to the ghoul.
Taking the collar from Hagrid's hands and into his own, Amon slowly approached the ghoul, reluctant not because he thought Eyepatch would attack him but because he didn't want to collar Eyepatch like an animal. Once Amon was close enough, Eyepatch bowed, exposing the back of his neck to the investigator.
The amount trust he was putting in Amon with this vulnerable position was almost overwhelming.
His neck was encircled by the black leather of his mask and Amon paused, briefly debate on how to put the collar on. Eventually the investigator came to the decision to put the collar on over the leather, rather than under it, and with trembling hands he carefully clipped the metal on around the ghoul's neck.
Amon's hands lingered as he gently checked to see if the collar wasn't too tight and was surprised to see the diameter of the circular metal magically self-adjust. "How does it feel?" He asked Eyepatch, the guilt shining in his eyes.
"Fine…" The ghoul replied in Japanese, bringing a hand up to tug at the iron band. When he saw the look Amon was giving him, he then added, "It's not your fault."
Amon made no move to hold the chain leash.
"What about during the night?" Questioned Shinohara, worried. At his words, a gleam entered the ghoul's eye and he began to walk towards the tent. Shinohara grabbed the chain connected to the ghoul's collar, accidentally yanking on it and causing the ghoul to stumble backwards. The investigator shot the white-haired ghoul a nervous look as it gave him a fierce one-eyed glare. "It can't sleep with us! We'd have to stay up all night watching it."
"The ghoul can sleep in this then," Dumbledore declared as he conjured another cage where the other one once stood, not unlike the previous cage. He waved his wand once more, showering the iron bars in sparks. "There. It's not a strong as a quinque steel cage but at least it can give you some piece of mind at night. There's a set of keys with it you can use. Now, I must get back to the castle. Cheery pip!"
Shinohara thanked Dumbledore and watched as the class left after they were dismissed by Hagrid. He turned around to find the ghoul standing there patiently and suddenly he realised he was still holding the chain. Hastily, Shinohara pushed the chain leash into Amon's arms and quickly backed away with a poor excuse, "The ghoul likes you so you should hold be the one to hold it. I'm absolutely famished! Are you? I need to go and get something to eat. See you later. Bye."
Amon and Eyepatch shared a look, amused. They chuckled at the bizarreness of the situation and Shinohara's flimsy excuse.
"Why don't I get us some coffee?" The investigator offered, eyes sparkling with glee.
"Sounds great," the eye-patched ghoul agreed, an identical spark reflected in his left eye.
"I've been told that your magical creatures have ratings giving to them depending on the danger they pose. Can anyone tell me what your native ghouls are rated?" Quizzed Amon, scanning the class of fourth year Gryffindors and Slytherins for raised hands. Only one student raised her hand as all her classmates were too pre-occupied with staring uncertainly at the ghoul, outside of its usual cage, sipping coffee while standing unnervingly close to the investigator, Amon, who held its chain (upon Shinohara's insistence) loosely in one hand. "Yes, Miss…?"
"Granger. Hermione Granger," the Gryffindor replied, "The Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures classifies magical creatures on a scale from one to five. Ghouls are classified as XX, two, meaning they are harmless and can be domesticated."
"Mr. Hagrid?" Amon asked, sending the large professor a questioning look.
"Tha' is correct, Hermione. Well done, five points to Gryffindor," Hagrid praised, proud of his student.
"And what might you classify the most dangerous magical creatures as, Miss Granger?" Shinohara questioned.
"XXXXX- a five, Sir, any magical creature classified as such is considered a known wizard killer," she answered, keen to show them her knowledge on the matter.
"Yes, and that would be the classification of a Japanese ghoul here," Shinohara informed. Upon hearing this, the class glanced anxiously back at the chained ghoul, worried at the lack of familiar metal bars separating them.
Eyepatch placidly took another sip of the coffee, the chain links clinking together from the movement, ignoring the stares he was garnering.
"The CCG also have ratings for the ghouls in Tokyo," explained Amon, "These ratings are set via an evaluation of the ghoul's individual ability, the lowest being C rated. B rated ghouls are ranked higher followed by A, S- and S+ rated ghouls. Finally, the strongest ghouls are SS rated and SSS rated."
A shaky hand was raised into the air. "Yes, Mr. Longbottom, was it?" Said Amon, giving the shy Gryffindor a nod to speak.
"Y-Yes, Sir. What r-rating d-d-does that g-ghoul have?" Neville stuttered.
"Excellent question, five points to Gryffindor," Amon praised, causing Neville to blush. "Eyepatch is an SS rated ghoul," his answer causing the flush to drain from the Gryffindor's face as he paled drastically.
"There's no need to look so worried, Mr. Longbottom," reassured Shinohara, "Amon has got the ghoul under control, he won't let it harm you." Shinohara gave them a sidelong glance out the corner of his eye and noted the way the chain inched a few centimetres through Amon's fist each time the ghoul took a sip of its cup. He's not even trying to keep a firm grip on it! Peering a little closer at the ghoul's drink he discovered the liquid inside looked suspiciously like coffee. Since when did ghouls drink coffee?
Shinohara could already feel the beginnings of a headache. He turned to face the jittery fourth year students and internally groaned when he realised they still hadn't covered the criteria used to determine the ranking of a ghoul.
'I could use a cup of coffee right now too…'
"It's a good thing our dinner's here," Shinohara commented as he entered the tent's dining room, cheering up at the promise of a good meal. "Right, Amon?" He turned in time to see the man in question enter the tent, bringing the ghoul with him. "Don't bring the ghoul in here!" He exclaimed, shocked. His eyes widened further when Amon, instead of walking back out and putting the ghoul into the cage for the night, only released his hold on the chain. Once the chain had slipped from Amon's fingers, Eyepatch made a beeline towards the beds, collapsing onto a mattress with a content sigh.
"You know, that's my bed, Eyepatch," Amon remarked, amused.
"I know," Eyepatch replied and Shinohara could hear the smirk in the ghoul's voice. "It has your scent on it." The nonchalant comment caused Amon to splutter. "Your bed is really comfortable…" Eyepatch muttered, almost too quietly for the investigators to catch.
Amon gazed at the white-haired ghoul that was lounging on his bed with sombre eyes. "You can rest there as long as you want."
"Eyepatch can't stay here all night, Amon, it needs to go back to the cage once we're done eating," reminded Shinohara, sending a cautious glance at the resting ghoul knowing how sensitive their hearing is. There was no attack. Instead, it rolled over onto its other side, pulling the blanket over its shoulders and making itself comfortable.
Amon opened his mouth, not to reply, but to eat his forkful of food. Throughout dinner, the investigator continued to shoot the sleeping ghoul concerned glances out of the corner of his eye. When the time came to return the ghoul to the cage, Shinohara warily approached Eyepatch and picked up the chain leash. "It's time."
Slowly, the ghoul sat up, its soft white hair tousled from lying in the bed. Dragging itself out of the bed, the ghoul re-made the covers before half-heartedly following Shinohara to the exit with a heavy aura of reluctant resignation.
"Wait! Eyepatch!" Amon called after them. "At least take this blanket," he said as he tossed the blanket from his bed over to the ghoul. Shinohara allowed the ghoul to approach Amon, curious to see what it would do next.
Eyepatch looked up from the blanket to stare at the exposed mattress, his silver eye flicking over to meet Amon's eyes. "I can't accept this. It's your only blanket," refused Eyepatch as he carefully handed the blanket back to the crestfallen investigator. "You'll need it tonight."
Shinohara was astonished to see how caring the ghoul was towards Amon. Dazed, he led him away and locked the ghoul in the cage, the click of the lock startling him out of his stupor. "Why?" Was all Shinohara could say.
Why do you, a ghoul, care for an investigator?
Eyepatch understood his silent question. "Why shouldn't I? Just because I'm a ghoul, doesn't mean I shouldn't care."
Speechless, Shinohara could only stare at the ghoul so human inside the cage.
Were they wrong about ghouls? Are they not the heartless, man-eating monsters in human form they had always been warned about?
Kaneki watched through the iron bars as the warm glow emanating from the tent was snuffed out, plunging the clearing into the darkness. A river of stars twinkled merrily in the night sky, framed by the forest clearing's circle of trees.
Snap!
Kaneki's sensitive hearing picked up the faint sound of a thin twig splitting in half beneath someone's foot. He tilted his head in the direction of noise and called out: "Who's there?"
Silence followed for a few breaths of chilly air, then: "What was that? Did you hear that?"
"Ow! 'Mione!" A male voiced hissed in English, Kaneki's ears easily catching every whispered word. He had studied enough of the English language before that fateful accident to understand and speak it well enough to get by. Kaneki had, at the time, read a few English horror novels and although he had enjoyed reading them, he still prefers Takatsuki Sen's writing.
"Shh! It sounded like Japanese," the hushed conversation continued.
"You mean those men are still awake?"
"C'mon…Let's get a closer look." Kaneki listened to the crunch of the fallen leaves beneath the group's footfalls accompanied by the muffled rustling of fabric. As the voices neared, Kaneki scanned the clearing for their arrival but it continued to remain empty. Then the wind drastically changed direction and the scent of human meat smacked him in the nose, its sudden appearance so close to him, overwhelming him.
Where are they? They smell so close.
"At least it's in the cage again," a voice spoke up from the empty space near the front of the cage causing Kaneki to flinch. The air shimmered and slipped from the shoulders of three students, pooling at their feet in a pile of fabric.
"I wonder…" the only female of the trio murmured, Kaneki recognised her as Hermione Granger, the Gryffindor from one of the classes. "Can you talk, Eyepatch?" Her companions shot her surprised looks from where they stood beside her.
"Now that you've mentioned it, I don't remember hearing it speak," remarked the dark-haired boy with the lightning-shaped scar on his forehead.
"He is not an "it", Harry!" Hermione admonished before turning to stare expectantly at the caged ghoul.
"Yes," Kaneki replied, then realising he had spoken in Japanese, he hastily switched to English, "Yes, I can."
Harry and his friend stared at the ghoul in astonishment while Hermione's eyes lit up in a flare of excitement and awe. "You can speak both Japanese and English fluently?" She asked.
Kaneki shrugged in reply then remembering to answer in English, he added, "I wouldn't say that I can speak English fluently, yet, I didn't study it for very long."
"You studied it? Does that mean…" She trailed off.
"That I went to university? Yes," Kaneki finished, his answer surprising them. The wind howled briefly in the following silence, ruffling his white hair and buffeting the cage's bars.
"I think this is wrong," stated Hermione, startling the others. "You shouldn't be here in a cage, even if…e-even if you eat h-humans…ghouls don't have much of a choice in terms of their diet, do they?" Hermione took the grim look in Kaneki's uncovered eye as confirmation. "I'll open the cage for you." Immediately, her Gryffindor companions protested, alarmed at her words.
"What? No!"
"Hermione!"
"Alohomora," incanted the young witch in a language that was neither Japanese nor English. With a soft click that resounded in the night air, the cage door creaked open, much to the horror of Hermione's two friends.
Kaneki remained in the cage, staring out the open door.
"Go! Quickly before they re-capture you," ushered Hermione, urging the ghoul to dash off into the shadows of the forest. "Why aren't you going? I heard about the time you escaped during class this morning. Don't you want to escape?"
"If I left here, where would I go? I can't get back to Tokyo without a plane ticket and I don't have any money on me to pay for it," Kaneki replied, logically. "Besides, I agreed to stay here so that we could make an escape plan together. I'm not leaving without them."
"You mean those strange guys that were teaching us?" the red-headed boy asked.
"They're ghoul investigators, Ron," corrected Hermione, exasperated. She then turned to Kaneki with furrowed eyebrows, "Why would you want to stay with them?"
"You could say that they're…in a similar situation to me, that and…I want to help them," he answered her, a determined glint in his silver eye.
Above them, the night sky began receding as the dawn's light chased it away, forcing the darkness to flee from its touch. Kaneki tiredly blinked up at the rapidly lightening sky. Was that the time already? "You better start heading back now," the half-ghoul advised as he stood up and closed the cage door.
"What do you mean? We haven't been here for very long," Hermione commented, confused.
"You must have arrived here sometime in the morning then. Look. The sun's starting to rise," Kaneki said, pointing east. The trio of teenagers followed his finger, they jolted at the sight of the pink and gold clouds painted upon a blue sky.
"Merlin's beard! If we don't hurry we're going to miss breakfast!" Ron yelped. "Come on, Harry, let's go!"
"Boys…" Hermione muttered to herself, rolling her eyes, amused as she watched Harry and Ron sprint off before picking up the silvery fabric and rushing after them. Kaneki waited until they had disappeared from his line of sight before lying down and closing his eyes.
He hoped Hagrid would let him catch up on his sleep…
His tired eyes slid shut and within seconds, Kaneki was pulled into sleep's embrace.
End of Chapter Notes:
Note that Eyepatch/Kaneki hasn't had a translation spell cast on him.
Kaneki speaks in Japanese when speaking to the investigators and when he wants to talk to the others, he would speak in English. Being a literature student and a lover of books, he would probably know quite a bit of English.
I apologise for any confusion it has caused in the previous chapters, I didn't realise the problem until after I had published it, so I hope it was much clearer in this chapter.
I also want to say thank you to everyone (guests too) who reviewed and will review in the future. :) It's great hearing your thoughts on it.
Until next time,
~PurpleFlyingBird