well I had planned to do this Yesterday but well I had a birthday dinner so I didnt get home till late. Still good food though I havent yet gotten my gifts.
thanks new people: CrowsColors, haou246, sk101, personas, boredforlife12, reginlief2004, th3 5L3NT A55A551N, joonahullu, and loop2
anyways heres todays dose of Shiro torture.
It had now been a couple days since Ken's adventure and things had settled into an uncomfortable calm. The death of Ryouko was still too painfully fresh to forget about and the pressure from the doves on the ward was still strong. But still, time had begun to march forward. The ghouls of the twentieth ward were forced to carry on with their lives as they continued to deal with both the internal and external strife caused by recent events. Especially poor Hinami who would barely eat or sleep. Instead she would spend most of her time in depressed contemplation.
Today was a quiet day that saw only a few customers come into Anteiku. Ken, Touka, Shiro, and Kuro had been left to run the café as the others took care of various business around the ward. Still so few people had come in today that all but Touka had decided to take a break. They began to divvy up a newspaper to read amongst themselves. Among the pages was one particular piece of news. It was a simple obituary about a young bureau investigator of the CCG who had been killed by a ghoul.
Shiro was reading this article when Touka yanked the paper away. She collected the whole thing, despite some mild objections from Ken when she took the comics page. As she neatly folded the paper, she noticed a disapproving glare from Shiro. "What the hell is your problem?" she gruffly asked. Shiro simply pointed at her accusingly and replied, "That guy in the paper. The CCG employee. It was you who killed him wasn't it?" Touka glared back at her. "So, you gonna make something of it?" Shiro sputtered a bit as she tried to find the words. "You can't be serious? That's like declaring war on the CCG. Don't you understand what you're doing?" Touka nearly crushed the paper as she tightened her grip into a frustrated fist. "Hmph! I know exactly what I'm doing. What I don't understand is how you can just stand by and ignore that one of our own was murdered for no reason. Or when Hinami could suffer the same fate once one of those rotten doves tracks her down. I won't stop till I kill ever last one of them." Once Touka finished speaking, she coolly walked away to make a cup of coffee for their current dependent and went into the back.
Shiro was almost about to chase after her before her older brother told her, "Drop it Shiro." She immediately turned to the new target of her fury. "You're taking her side?!" she all but screamed at Ken. He sighed in response. 'I really thought she had gotten over this. Though that would have been too easy I guess,' "It's not that. Nothing you say to her will help right now. In fact, it probably just make her more angry and resistant. All we can do for now is stay back and watch over her. Let her work out everything. I'm sure she'll come to the right answer eventually." However Ken was not expecting what his sister said next. "I can't accept that. Not again." Realization as to what she actually meant slowly dawned on him as she continued. "To be forced to watch someone putting themselves through such pointless danger and suffering. To be forced to watch each and every time as they leave on their stupid quest for revenge with the fear deep in your gut that this will be the last time you'll see them. That the by the end of the day you'll lose them on some pointless self-serving sacrifice. Getting revenge for Hinami? Yeah right, if you were really doing this for her you'd stay by her side. She needs her loved ones close not some stupid concept of justice or vengence. This is for no one but yourself. To appease your anger and nothing more." At the end of her triad, Shiro was openly crying. Ken, now feeling a bit guilty himself, hugged her and petted her head. "It'll be alright. I promise you, Shiro. I won't let anything happen to Touka. I'll protect her and we can go back to those happy days again. Before the doves attacked." Shiro simply sniffled in response.
Touka lightly knocked on the door before entering the room. Inside, she found Hinami just waking up. She smiled warmly at the young ghoul before apologizing for waking her. "I heard you're not eating. That's no good. You're a growing girl after all," she continued; placing the cup of coffee on the table. Hinami smiled weakly and answered, "Ok." Touka could tell that the depressed girl was not taking what she said to heart. So she sat next to her and rubbed her head affectionately. "You don't have to worry about anything. I'll take care of everything and you can also rely on everyone else at Anteiku. I promise you, instead of being stuck in this small room, I'm gonna show you the whole wide world." She hoped that her words could inspire Hinami a little and get her out of her slump.
However what brought the excitement back to her tired eyes was not Touka's speech but instead the simple newspaper she held in her arm. "What's that?" Hinami asked. Touka smiled at her again. "It's a newspaper. The manager likes them so from time to time he buys one and leaves them in the café." "That's amazing, there's so many Kanji." Touka lightheartedly sighed at how Hinami could be amazed at something so simple. So she threw the paper to the little girl. "Here take it. It can help with your studies after all." For the first time in a while, Hinami's face lit up in a big smile. "Thanks you big sister. If there are any big words I don't know then I can ask big brother Kaneki," she excitedly rambled to Touka's slight dismay at losing out to that dumbass Ken. However her kind demeanor grew cold as she left the room. It was time to continue her mission against the doves.
Later Touka watched as the doves searched the place she had set for their next confrontation. She couldn't help but feel a bit smug. As the doves floundered around on her little stage. All the pieces were falling into place.
However what she didn't know was that two of them had already caught on to her plan. Amon walked over to where his mentor was watching, studying the area. "What do you think Mado?" he asked. Mado grinned with his iconic slasher smile as he put it all together. He started to snicker a little too. "Quite the interesting choice, eh Amon? This kinda battlefield will certainly put me at a disadvantage with lack of maneuverability for my current favorite quinques. Seems like that rabbit she-ghoul has finally gotten her head on straight. Or maybe it's that slug, Eyepatch, who picked it out." As he continued to ponder, his partner Amon gripped his hands in frustration. "To be played around with by these beasts. It's infuriating," he snapped. Mado though simply waved at him to calm down. "Now now, calm down Amon. It won't do you any good to get upset. Dulls the senses. Besides I have already prepared some things for this little game. Soon all this will come to a close."
A few days later, Hinami was reading the newspaper Touka had given her; excitedly absorbing all the new words and kanji she came across. She tried to figure out each one by herself first so she could show off to the others at Anteiku. However she came across one word in particular. She pulled out her dictionary and found said word meant sorrow or regret over the death of a person. 'Huh, that's just like me,' she idly thought. What her thoughts about the word itself were was lost after she saw the picture next to the article. She instantly recognized it as one of the men who had been a part of the group that had killed her mother. Slowly it dawned on her what Touka had really meant that day. This realization filled her with both anger and sorrow. She looked out the window as she decided on what she had to do.
Meanwhile, downstairs, none of the employees of Anteiku noticed anything wrong. They continued their work just like any other day. Nothing out of the ordinary happened as they served customers and engaged in small talk. Touka thanked whatever god was listening, that Hide didn't appear to ask her out once again.
Eventually night fell and with it the closed sign was placed over the door. Eventually only the Kanekis and Touka remained. As Touka put on her jacket she asked, "Did you lock the door Ken?" The only male here answered, "Yeah. Oi, you two ready." Shiro came out of the restroom, drying her hands and gave him a simple nod in confirmation and Kuro, sitting at a table reading her baking book, answered, "I'm ready. Just been waiting on Shiro." Shiro playfully smacked her sister for that. It seemed that everything was finished and it was time to head home.
However all three girls were alerted when Ken asked, "Hey is it just me or is it a little too quiet upstairs." Touka grimaced. "Hinami's probably just asleep right now. Stop trying to freak us out Bakaneki." However Touka couldn't keep the slight fear out of her voice at what Ken's question could mean. Shiro also added, "When I went upstairs earlier this afternoon, she didn't respond either." Ken added, "Don't you think she's sleeping a bit too much." Now worried, all four of them headed upstairs to check up on the young girl.
Touka knocked on the door but there was no answer. So she opened the door only to find an empty room and an open window. For the first few moments no one moved. Simply standing there in stunned silence.
"No way," Touka whispered in shock. Her mind was in a panic as she tried to figure out why the young girl had decided to run away. Was it her fault? But she had done it all for her. Was she really going to lose a loved one again? Where did she go? It took Ken to knock her out of her questioning panic. "Touka," he called to her. Once he was certain he had gotten her attention, he continued. "We need to find her before the doves do. Go check the nearby park. The rest of us will check elsewhere." Touka could only numbly nod back at him.
At the same time, Hinami was wandering the streets of the now quiet twentieth ward. She slowly ambled like a zombie with no real destination set. Just getting away from Anteiku. However, as she walked a certain scent reached her nostrils. Though somewhat stale and a bit wrong, the scent was still immensely comforting. She started to head towards it. "Mother."
Touka leapt across the rooftops as she continued to search for Hinami. They hadn't found the young girl in the area around the café. So after a quick call to inform the manager the four of them spread out to search the entire ward. Touka took off in the direction of the elementary school area that she had set up for trapping the doves at. As she searched for the missing ghoul child, her thoughts returned to the fear that she had chased away Hinami. Just like with her brother. But as she pondered though, she suddenly smelled a familiar scent. 'This scent is … What the hell is going on?'
A scream suddenly filled the air. Touka instantly knew it was Hinami, as she leapt towards the scream. Like some sick joke, the place she arrived at turned out to be the very tunnel she had sent the doves to earlier. She ran towards the tunnel; barely noticing when Shiro arrived a few moments after her. Both girls followed the sounds of crying to where the younger girl lay; cradling a bag that smelled an awful lot like Ryouko. Touka took a few steps closer to her. "Hinami. Thank god you're safe. We were all afraid that we'd lost you. Come on, it's not safe here. Let's all go back home."
But she and Shiro were both caught off guard by the defiant "No," that came from Hinami. "No matter where I go, I'm gonna die. Somehow, I'll be killed like mother. That glasses guy from the CCG was killed too. Was it you Big sister? I'm only bringing more suffering to everyone by staying her. I'll surely be killed as well. Those people who killed mother are going to kill me too. So I have to run. Far away. Far far away." She hugged the bag. Noticing this, but not really wanting an answer, Touka asked the distraught girl, "Hinami… what's in the bag?" Hinami tensed for a second before revealing the bags contents while simply answering with, "Mother."
Both of the older girls could feel the bile in their throats at the contents. The bag contained pieces of Ryouko's body. Some of the scrap waste left over after the CCG was finished processing a ghoul's body that was normally cast aside without even some semblance of a decent burial. All of it showed signs of decay. Touka's rage reached the boil point as she pictured what she'd do to the sick person who'd pulled this disturbing prank. However she also became concerned as she looked over at Shiro. Shiro suffered something similar to a small PTSD attack as flashbacks to the death of her own mother and father, and all that had followed, flowed across her mind's eye. She trembled a little as she hyperventilated a small bit and shook slightly.
Hinami then asked, "Why is it so wrong for ghouls to live?! Why?!" Both girls were brought back to the present by this sad plea. Shiro gave the best smile she could and comfortingly rubbed Hinami's head. "Listen Hinami. I know what you're going through, sadly. But I promise you, you can get through this. You're strong. So please, please don't leave us. We'll take care of you. Trust me." Touka also stated, "When me and Ken went to the CCG earlier, they couldn't show me even a portrait of you. Only those four that were there that day know what you look like. Hinami," she dropped down and hugged the young female ghoul. "I promise you. I will protect you. I won't let those guys kill you. I'll swear it" After a short pause she continued with, "I don't know whether it's right for ghouls to live either. But it should have some significance right?" Hinami stayed still as she simply soaked up all the comfort and love the other two offered her. "Yeah," was all that she said.
A little while later, Touka got up and pulled out her phone to call Ken, Kuro, and the manager. She left Hinami to Shiro as she started to dial. First, Touka dialed up Ken. When he answered, she said, "Ken, I'm with Shiro now. We found Hinami." She heard a heavy sigh on the other end of the line. "Thank goodness. Where are you guys now?" Currently, Touka was facing away from the entryway to the tunnel. "We're near Kasahara elementary at the…" but a pained scream interrupted her answer. Touka spun around in time to see Shiro pulled away from Hinami by a red rinkaku quinque that had pierced her stomach; her phone breaking as she dropped it. The quinque placed Shiro right between Touka and the crafty dove that had found them; as a human shield. Shiro wiggled like a worm caught on a fish hook as she panicked and tried to get away despite the pain from moving. Though she froze in fright when the dove who caught her simply stated, "Now that wasn't very observant of you, Sasaki-chan. I'm honestly disappointed"
"TOUKA! TOUKA!" Ken screamed at his phone after he heard the scream and Touka shout for his sister. His worst fears of losing yet another family member seemed close to being realized. He tried to call Kuro but received no answer. "Damn it," he cursed; putting his phone away. He started to head to where he believed Touka was. He calmed his nerves as he ran. If it came to a fight then it wouldn't do anyone any good for him to be a panicked mess.
He pulled out his masked and put it on. However, he also spotted something along his path. It was another dove. The partner of that Mado freak to be precise. And he was running straight for the waterway tunnel also. Ken made a split second decision. While he did need to get to Touka, Shiro, and Hinami as soon as possible, it wouldn't be a good idea to ignore a dove that he could take out now instead of letting him threaten the others. Plus they didn't have their masks on and there was no way he could let this man see their faces as well. So he'd take care of this murderer first, then continue on his way to the others.
Amon had received the signal from his partner. The ghouls had taken the bait and Mado had already moved in to finish them all. It was Amon's job to provide back up and eliminate any other ghouls who tried to approach the operation zone. His face was grim as he vowed that he wouldn't let a single one of the escape this time. He would see to it that this scourge was defeated before more innocent victims were lost to them.
He barely spotted the shadow from above coming down upon him. He dodged as a figure slammed their leg into the ground. 'If I hadn't dodged that just then, than my leg would have been broken. No, maybe even completely ripped off,' he realized as the ghoul that had attacked him removed his leg from the small crater he formed. It turned to face him and he instantly recognized the mask.
"Eyepatch!"
The ghoul mockingly posed as it said in a sing songy voice, "Oh Mr. investigator. Can you come out and plllaaaayyyy?"
Well I hope you enjoyed that. Sorry if it seemed like it was too jumpy. I wanted to get the set up done.
ALso does anyone know of a good picture with Ken, Kuro, and Shiro together. after writing this i kinda wantone now
Still please review, fav, follow, and if you want, put up some ideas for some omakes to add for the next few chapters. im kinda out at the momment.