Tokyo Ghoul: The Other Story
Chapter 6: Trap
Meanwhile as Shirazu was walking to Nutcrackers apartment something was lurking underground in the sewers of this busy little town. Ayato that morning left his flat to meet up with Eto the two had business today practically with the incident yesterday they needed more cooperation and ground work if the auction and their plans was going to work effectively.
At that moment most of the higher up members of the organization have been using the sewers as their main meeting place and usual hang out, particularly Eto but Ayato knew that the main reason why she spent so much time here in his dank dirty place, until the 'Doc' comes to town someone had to look after him.
Ayato had finished climbing down the shaky and unstable ladder that led him down to the sewers, he ensured that his scarf was tightly covering his nose and mouth so the smell of damp and murky water wouldn't destroy his highly effective ghoul nose.
The ukaku type ghoul travelled north down the long metal tunnel his footsteps echoing though out the tunnel as he stayed on the narrow damp pathway keeping clear of filthy water to his right. He hated this place and he didn't understand how Eto or that mongrel could live here, he was relieved when he came to the door on his left which was made of rusty old but strong metal.
Ayato knocked lightly on the rusty red door but it didn't stop the sound echoing loudly though the tunnels, Ayato cringed at the sound.
"Come in!" A sweet child-like voice called out though the door but Ayato knew better to describe it as innocent. He pushed open the door making a loud creaking sound that went right though Ayato's sensitive ghoul ears, he wondered again how the other ghoul in the room could stand it.
Although, Ayato wouldn't know if the female ghoul was in pain nor not or what other face expressions she would make because her face was hidden by white bandages with gaping black holes where her eyes would be. The ghoul, Eto was sitting on her bed with a book in her hands and her bare legs swinging back and forth with her dark red/brown robes hanging over her.
Ayato knew that she had been waiting for him, even though he hadn't made an appointment she had told him to come in when it could have been anyone at the door. You see before Eto moved in and personalised the small cupboard sized room with a bed, posters and multi-coloured candles, Ayato guessed it used to be a storage room for tools, extra pipes, rubbish and gas but now it seemed forgotten and unused for donkeys years.
Ayato had to confess that Eto had done a good job of stopping this place smell like piss, maybe it was the candles?
"Ayato-kun!" The banged girl messily dropped her book on the floor with a tump and jumped out of her bed to greet the teenage ghoul in a friendly manner "Big Madam has just contacted us" She said with excitement in her voice "Even with the incident that happened yesterday, Big Madam is still fine going through with the auction, in fact I think the risk of the CCG attacking the auction has got her even more excited!"
"That sound like Big Madam" Ayato said sighing and could help the little eye-roll "but it means that we are going to have to take more defensive measures, Torso won't be much good if a gang of investigators target us and I would also need back-up if anything happens".
"Don't yourself about that" Eto said with a little giggle in her voice as she waved Ayato off "I already thought that far ahead, I have decided that Naki and Miza would be on your team"
"Alright…" Ayato agreed nodding his head, he couldn't complain even if Naki had the emotional span of a four year old he wasn't an S rated ghoul for nothing and was one of Aogiri Tree's strongest allies at least Miza could sort him out.
"Anyway, was this all you wanted to talk about?" Eto asked as she tilted her head to the side in a curious manner.
"Not really" Ayato said solemnly "I just needed to know, are we still going after the Eye-patched ghoul?"
"Of course we are!" Eto said laughing putting her hands on her hips playfully, everything seemed to be a game with Eto. "Why do you ask?" She asked the teen ghoul with his hands in his pockets and gazing at the floor in a sullen mood. "Oh I know why!" Eto lifted her arm and pointed to the ceiling in a cartoon and expressive manner "You're onee-chan is in town isn't she?!"
Ayato clenched his fists at Eto's words, no one in Aogiri dared to mention the White Rabbit, especially in front of Ayato. But this was Eto, the ghoul that you wouldn't be stupid enough to attack and Ayato wasn't stupid.
"It's not like that" Ayato mumbled but it was loud enough for Eto to hear "I'm saying she has probably made contact with Eyepatch now, maybe we could use her in some way…"
"You are sweet Ayato, it's what I like about you" Eto said, the male ghoul could hear the smirk under her bandages "You're onee-chan won't be harmed, not by me anyway but I think we can use her absence from RE to our advantage".
"How do you mean?" Ayato as suspicion sank into his gut. He didn't like how Eto said those words…
"You don't have to worry about it" Eto said in her usual sing-song voice as you should talk to an infant. "Just worry about CCG and Big M, I'm sure that Kanou's favourite experiment would come to the auction too".
"Then doesn't that give us more to worry about?" Ayato said questionably, the last time he faced that bastard Kaneki he had broken 103 of his bones including giving him an effective science lesson on the human body. To be honest he didn't fancy facing that half-ghoul anytime soon.
"Again, don't worry" Eto said lying back down on the bed as she waved her legs in the air like a child would "The mutt will take care of that".
'Him?' Ayato thought as thoughts rushed into his head like a swarm of bees "Are you sure that's a good idea, Eto?" Ayato questioned the ghoul in front of him "you don't want to lose one of Kanou's best creations".
"You have to let the dog of the leash at some point Ayato-kun" the child like ghoul sighed tiredly, showing that she didn't want to have this conversation "I will confess I will miss him, it's been a good three years but we can't keep him forever and besides it will be worth it when the CCG find him in such a state, I wonder what they would do?"
Xxx
It was very easy for Shirazu to just show the picture of Nutcracker to the landlord of the block of flats where she stayed at and point him to her room. The first thing that Shirazu did when he came to her room was knock on the door, normally this would be a stupid thing to do but he had to check if the ghoul was in first before proceeding and besides if she was in he could just say he had the wrong flat. The orange haired investigator knocked on the wooden door three time, paused then knocked again louder just to be safe. Still no answer.
Shirazu couldn't believe his luck, finally it was his turn to do something useful! Luckily for him he always kept his lock-hacking kit in his coat pocket, looking over his shoulder and down the corridors to ensure that no one was going to pass him he then knelt on his knees in front of the door, set out the tool and got to work.
It only took him less than five minutes when he heard the click inside the lock and the door swung open as Shirazu let himself in.
It was a small room with a simple kitchen that looked tidy and unused and to the right was a small T.V and sofa that made up the living room. At the far right where two white wooden doors, Shirazu didn't bother investigating the kitchen and living room. They were too simple that you only had to give it one look to know it was unused so he walked to the two doors. He opened the first one and he came across that seemed to be the bathroom, nothing really interesting there only the fact that it was full of bottles of hair products and skin creams. He closed the door and decided to check the last door which was as he guessed her bedroom.
As room as Shirazu opened the bedroom door he was greeted by the smell of perfume, it was a disgustingly strong smell but at least there wasn't the smell of bead bodies. Shirazu didn't know where to start searching, if Nutcracker was going to have any info on the auction it would be here but why did this room have to be such a mess?
The dingy dark blue carpet was littered with makeup such as cheap lipstick, broken eyeshadow dust scattered across the floor, perfume bottles that where half empty and mascara missing its lids. The room way also filled with clothes both cheap and expensive with high heeled shoes without pairs. Shirazu noticed that the wardrobe doors were wide open and stripped bare of any possessions and all thrown across the floor, mostly on bed.
Shirazu wondered why there where piles of clothing on top of the bed, he walked over the pile trying not to trip on anything and picked out a black lace object out of interest. He stared at the object but then threw it back onto the pile in horror when he realised what the object was and started to wipe his hands on his jeans.
Oh well, at least he could say boldly that he had touched a woman's bra.
Now Shirazu thought that it was time to get back on topic. Searching for information!
The place Shirazu decided to investigate was the wardrobe, it must have been cleared out a reason so maybe the ghoul hid the info inside the wall or something. He tapped on the wood of the small wardrobe, from the top to the bottom and all the sides and still nothing. He got on the floor and checked the underneath but the only things he found was piles of bust bunnies and a spider! And no Shirazu didn't scream like a little girl….
The rank three investigator had now given up on the wardrobe and moved to the drawers. When he pulled out the draws they were empty, but Shirazu wasn't going to fall in despair yet! Although there wasn't much to search in this room he hadn't checked the bed yet. He thought to try under the bed first, he didn't fancy checking under all that pile of clothes anytime soon.
The investigator got onto his hands and knees once again, mentally crossing this fingers that he was on the right track. The bed was a single and there was not much to look under so Shirazu's eyes were imminently on the black glossy folder laying in the middle. He grinned madly showing of his famous shark like teeth, this had to be it! He just hoped that his presumption wasn't wrong and it wasn't an order forms for more makeup.
But suddenly as soon as his hand moved to grab the folder a sudden red muscle like object shot out from under the carpet. It must have been under the floor boards all this time, waiting and watching because Shirazu had no time to react the kagune like object pierced into his hand.
Then he screamed.
Xxx
Urie was now on his fifteen minute break as he sat in the small collage cafe not far from his next class. It was now quarter to eleven and he had spent nearly two hours in Sasaki's class then after his break he had History then lunch, then Sasaki again! Seriously that teacher was really starting to get on his nerves. Urie this time had concentrated on his work, writing down notes and essays while looking for any ghoul like behaviour which wasn't easy. Maybe it was better to have all the gang here after all, at least one could keep a good eye out while the other tried to look like a normal student.
Besides there were other ways to get a promotion.
Suddenly Urie felt his phone vibrate in his pocket, he sighed miserably and here he thought he would get a quite fifteen minutes to himself. He pulled out his phone and checked the caller, it was from Saiko. Urie raised his eyebrows in confusion, since when did ever Saiko call him or at least talk to him?
Urie pressed the accept button on his and placed it his ear and hoped to God this better be important.
"Urie here" He said wearily "What's up Saiko?" He didn't get an answer at first; he had to wait for five seconds until Saiko could answer in shaky and whispery breaths that sent Urie's senses on edge.
"U-u-urie" She said stammering, Urie could just see her now hiding under her duvet in her dark room, clutching her frog teddy to her cheats as her hands shook when she held the phone. Urie really hoped it was an actual emergency instead of Saiko calling to say that her Nintendo dog died or something...
"Saiko this better be important, I've got class soon" Urie said irritably wishing he had a coffee right now.
"No no no no it's important!" Saiko shirked down the phone that Urie had to pull is ear away a little "There are two strange men in the flat, they are sitting on the sofa and going through my cookie jar!"
Urie sighed and cursed Saiko's stupidity; he could guess who Saiko was talking about because of that one sentence but he decided to ask just in case.
"Ok and what do these two strange men look like?"
"W-w-well" Saiko stammered fearfully "One is small, black hair and stiches around his eyes and down his arms like Frankenstein's monster, but instead of having the taste for human flesh its eating my cookies!"
Ok…Urie wasn't sure if Frankenstein originally ate people but he knew better than to comment on it.
"Ok and what about the second man?" Urie asked then thought he could already guess what type of answer the girl would give him.
"H-he's really terrifying and really tall with sickly pale skin like Slender Man expect with hair and creepy look eyes, he has no irises! He looks like a serial killer, you know those ones that chop young pretty girls like me into pieces and keep the body parts safely in the fridge!"
Urie really wanted to bang his head against the table right now, it was like she was describing a ghoul.
"Saiko listen to me" Urie said calmly over Sakio's shaky breaths "If you don't over sleep during work hours or if you tried to at least pay a little bit attention to your surrounds you wouldn't be getting so worked up over nothing!" At this moment Urie was getting strange looks from passby's and people in the café.
"Huh?" Saiko said confused and shocked by Urie's outburst, he had to take a couple of breaths to calm himself down.
"Saiko the serial killers sitting on our sofa eating you're cookies are fellow investigators Juuzou Suzuya and Hanbee Abara, they are here to talk to us about Mutsuki's and Shirazu's incident. I'm sure that Shirazu is dealing with them right now…"
"No, he's not" Saiko said and Urie's eyes widened in shock.
"What are you talking about?" He asked solemnly, he hoped that he heard wrong or Saiko could be mistaken.
"I mean Shirazu in not the flat" Saiko said calmly "I went to make breakfast before the investigators came in and his shoes and coat were gone".
"Ok" Urie said calmly, he felt he had said that words ten times today but that wasn't the point. It looked like he had to skip second period "I'm on my way to the flat, please tell Suzuya and Abara that I'm on my way". And he hung up the phone before Saiko could say anything else, picked up his bag and headed to the exit. He had no time to worry about or call Shirazu, the idiot was probably slacking off somewhere and it was time to see Special Class Juuzou Suzuya.
Xxx
Shirazu breaths came out ragged and heavy as he tried to calm himself down, despite the pain in his hand which was getting sharper by the second. He tried to listen out for the sound of running footsteps of the neighbours or the receptionist, surly they must off heard his screams?
Yet no one came running. It was either that the people in this flat were all deaf or they were all used to hearing screams in this place and that was a frightening thought. The trapped investigator closed his eyes and focused on his breathing and thought that maybe if no one heard his screams then maybe they would head his pleas for help? But first he wanted to see what was hurting his hand.
He mustered up his courage and took another look under the bed a prepared himself for the worse. He was grateful that he did or he might have fainted right there.
Pierced into his hand was a thick long red muscle that looked like it came from a kagune that had popped out from the floorboards, went into a curve and buried itself though Shirazu's right hand. But Shirazu wondered how that was possible? If a kagune was in his hand that means that a ghoul must be under him, but why couldn't he hear any sign of movement? Why would the ghoul just leave him here? Why not eat him now?
There was only one way he could get the answer to that question. With his free left hand he tour at the broken carpet from around and kagune until his could see the floor board and he put his eyes to the gap. He could just about see the two ends of the kagune at the bottom, it seemed that the kagune had proper hooked its self around his hand but he couldn't see the owner of the steal like muscle.
Luckily Shirazu was a fast thinker and suddenly realised that this was a trap, the ghoul Nutcracker must of somehow detached her kagune and embedded it into the floorboards next to the important file and if some pesky investigator got into her flat and found the file the kagune would shot out and trap the investigator until the ghoul came home. Shirazu thought it was a cleaver plan and it seemed that his target was not just a pretty face, but a detachable Kagune? He couldn't remember learning anything like that in the Academy.
But it didn't matter now, he had to escape with the file and this new information on Nutcracker, surly this would give the CCG a warning advantage.
Shirazu suddenly with all his might tore at the wood of the floorboards, Shirazu didn't give a fuck if he was disturbing the neighbours down below. He knew he couldn't get the kagune out of his hand by himself but at least he could take the kagune with him.
Once he had tour out the floorboard around his hand he reached down with his free hand towards the end of the kagune. It was difficult using only hand but he managed to pull out the kagune from the bottom floorboards, then he cried out in the victory once it came loose so it now time to pull out the other end which was thinner and weaker than the other end since this was end that stabbed his hand.
It came out effortlessly and Shirazu couldn't help but sigh in relief. With his injured hand he still held on the file and with his free hand his pushed himself up using the bed, his figures going under the duvet and pile of junk. But just then Shirazu's fingers touched something under the duvet that wasn't meant to be there. It was soft, cold but solid and Shirazu felt his body freeze up.
Against his better nature he got up and using his free hand he ripped the duvet of the bed making the piles of clothes and objects crash down making the floorboards shake. Shirazu's eyes widened at the sight before him, now he realised why there was a strong stench of perfume: It was used to cover the stench of death. The piles of clothing on the bed where to hide the shape of the body that lay on the bed.
A young man, around twenty was a pale as a ghost and his eyes glassy and blue with a look of pain and terror along his face and of course his nuts had been torn out.
Shirazu screamed for the third time that day.
Horary finished collage until September so plenty of time to write so an early update! Seriously I really enjoyed writing this chapter I hope it's an improvement from last weeks chapter, I wasn't too happy with that one
Oh by the way! What did you think of Hanbee being compared to Slender Man? I love Saiko and I'm glad she got her scene in this chapter. Oh and that fucking Urie! Not at least on bit worried about Shirazu and have you noticed that Mutsuki is in hospital and hasn't even wondered about him once! At least Saiko and Shirazu made the effort to visit him a few chapters back! Also I'm sure you can guess who Eto's dog is?
I can't be bothered naming them today but thank you to the few who have reviewed on the last chapter. Seriously where did the rest of you run off too?