A/N: Two things to say. First, staring this week, I will officially be uploading two chapters at a time. Both will be uploaded simultaneously, on Thursdays. This is due to the large number of chapters I have written (44 as of this upload) but due to my Thursdays only uploads, it would take forever and a day to upload the whole story, one chapter a week.
Second, in response to the Guest Review that was recently posted for Chapter 13. You asked where the zombies were, and my answer...
"Keep reading and find out."
"I can't believe you managed to pull that off, my dear. God, just hearing you describe that entire ordeal stressed me out!"
Javier was fussing over the small ricochet marks to Tobias' armour, assessing the extent of the damage. "And it was your own mother that did this! I'm amazed she fired so inaccurately, to be honest."
"She was crying. Can't say that helps." Tobias commented in a low voice. He was leaning on the wall beside his desk, which was where Javier was examining the metal sleeve.
"And somehow you not only kept the flames of war down between them, but you even managed to weasel the whole sordid affair out of them. I'm impressed." Javier lowered the metal sleeve before adding. "The bullets only glanced off, shouldn't be much of an issue in terms of damage. Just some scratches."
"Thank you." Tobias slid his arm back into the sleeve, locking it in place on his arm and sealing the clasps.
"It's what I'm here for, Master." Javier gave a slight bow before leaving Tobias' room, closing the doors with a small click.
Tobias sat down at his desk, leaning back in his chair to stare up at his ceiling.
Now that the truth of their fight had been explained, he couldn't harbour any negativity towards Alice for what she did. Not that she could've done any harm to him by shooting. Her gun was weaker than what he'd been shot with, so it'd not even done anything worth a glance.
Even Rize handled the situation well, given her tendency for impulsivity and hot-headedness, he was actually proud of her calm, level-headed approach.
His phone suddenly rang in his pocket, and he pulled it out. It was Rize.
"Tobias Darkwood speaking."
"Look, sorry to be so sudden about this, but... I'm kinda having another hot flash, and it's like... intense. Like, really intense."
"I'm on my way." Tobias smirked before hanging up. He stood up, tucking his mask into his suit jacket as he grabbed his keys and helmet.
Rize was pacing, back and forth, steam rising from her shoulders and head as she nervously chewed on her thumbnail. This had to be one of her worst hot flashes in recent months. Normally she had an intense full bodied fever and raging sex drive, but she never started steaming like this.
Toby had visited her once, a few weeks prior. So he had commented it only took fifteen minutes for him to reach hers and Tabitha's apartment from the mansion. She knew this... but she grew impatient.
The moment that she sensed Toby's T-Virus outside her apartment, she rushed to the door and pulled it open, launching herself out the door and into...
A snowman?!
The instant she collided against the hard packed snow of the snowman's chest, she realized that Tobias had slid around behind her back, dismissing his creation as he embraced her from behind.
"Privjet." He whispered into her ear, his icy breath sending a shiver down her spine.
"Konichiwa..." She replied, not willing to admit she'd used Google Translate to figure out some of the Russian words that he usually mixed with his English.
The next thing she knew, he'd pulled her back into her modest apartment, closing the door behind them with his foot. Then, he lifted her into a princess carry, smiling as she planted a passionate kiss on his lips.
"Where's Tabitha?" Tobias asked quietly, making sure he had a secure hold on her as he began to carry her to her room.
"She's visiting her friend, Hinami." Rize linked her arms around his neck, causing some steam to hiss out at the contact.
"Good." Tobias grinned, pushing her bedroom door open with his foot.
After over a month of researching the Advanced Ghouls case, the investigation team, which consisted of Director Ryan, Amon Kotaro, Akira Mado, Shinohara, and a surprisingly young - and creepy - Suzuya Juuzo were sitting in their boardroom, going over the little evidence and information they possessed.
Juuzo was painstakingly sewing more and more of the red thread into his skin, his gaze riveted to his needlework, but his ears were instead focused on the meeting between his colleagues.
"In regard to the Hellhound, we've determined that she occasionally incinerates her victim's corpses, which have almost entirely consisted of men, according to the RPD's analysis of the bones that remained... most of the time.
"Her fire must reach an excess of a thousand degrees to achieve that." Shinohara commented, his arms crossed.
"Wouldn't that have some sort of affect to her physically?" Ryan asked, struck by a sudden idea regarding Hellhound and Frostbite. "The same being true with Frostbite as well."
"You mean their body temperatures?" Akira's gaze hardened suddenly.
"Precisely."
"So, what, do we just scan the streets, checking for outlier temperatures with thermal sensors?" Shinohara asked, unsure of how to process this detail.
"That'd take too much time, besides, it's unreliable." Amon spoke up. "If the four of them never make public appearances, then our plan is null from the start."
"I have no other ideas..." Ryan admitted, tapping his index finger on the table until he realized that Juuzo had turned his unblinking gaze towards him, staring in silence. "Uh... Juuzo?"
"I'm hungry, and was just waiting to ask if anyone would like something while I step out." Juuzo spoke in a creepy monotone.
"I'll join you." Shinohara stood up. Back in Tokyo, they'd been partners, so it wasn't unusual for them to be together like this. "I'm feeling a bit peckish myself."
Both of them left without another word, eventually arriving at a small cafe in a residential area, away from the city's center where the CCG HQ was located.
Upon arrival, they parked Shinohara's car beside a sinister black motorcycle, both of them glancing at it as they entered the cafe, carrying their Quinque attache cases with them, out of habit.
Almost immediately, their gazes scanned the place - also out of habit - but their gaze locked onto an individual seated nearby. He had sparkling silver hair, and one single strikingly icy blue eye. His other eye appeared to be blind, as it was completely white, like a sheet of paper.
Another striking feature of his appearance was his manner of dress. His entire left arm was covered by a skull and bones stylized armoured sleeve, and he was wearing a very long leather jacket over an all black suit. On the seat beside him was a black motorcycle helmet, and a set of keys laid on the table beside his half eaten sandwich and cup of coffee.
"Excuse me, but I couldn't help noticing your bike outside. I quite like it." Juuzo spoke to the young man - early twenties, at the most. Not much older than he was - who looked up from his cellphone when Juuzo spoke.
"Thank you. It's a ZX6R." His thick Russian accent was a slight surprise, but nonetheless, he seemed friendly enough.
"Which year is it?"
"2008." The young Soviet replied, placing his phone beside his keys.
"Well, have a good day. Sorry to interrupt you." Juuzo held up a hand to wave slightly as he followed Shinohara to the cashier to place their order.
Tobias lowered his phone as the younger of the two CCG investigators spoke to him. His unblinking gaze was friendly enough, but his tone was monotonous, veiling much emotion.
After their conversation, he returned to his quick snack and coffee. He'd taken one of Issacs' serum pills before arriving, thus enabling him to eat the sandwich, but he'd had a theory. Could he drink a coffee alongside it?
So, taking a hefty bite of the sandwich, he chewed it for several seconds before raising the coffee to his lips and drinking some of it.
Seemed to taste fine, unlike the bland taste of the sandwich. Still had the full flavour he'd come to expect from coffee.
With that in mind, he finished eating, dusting the crumbs off his hands, then collected his keys, phone and helmet before leaving the cafe. The two CCG investigators were still inside, speaking in Japanese, it seemed.
That sparked his concern as he swung his leg over his bike. Were they chasing after a trace of Rize? Or was his little project regarding Kaneki attracting more attention than it should?
Kicking his bike into life, he returned to the mansion, planning to speak to Rize about Kaneki after dinner.
"Where did Toby go again?" Alice asked, unable to sense him inside the mansion. She was speaking to Sir Andrew and Natasha, in hopes that either of them knew.
"I do believe he took his bike into the city, but didn't say specifically where he was going. He appeared to be in a slight hurry." Sir Andrew replied. "An urgent summons, perhaps?"
"Wesker or Issacs would want me there as well, so it's not from the Corporation... Hmmm..." Alice pursed her lips, but then Natasha spoke up.
"Would he have gone to visit Miss Kamishiro, perhaps?"
Alice stopped pursing her lips, then nodded. That seemed to be the most likely reason he'd left so quickly.
"Yeah... I guess you're right." She wasn't going to delve further into it, but she had a theory it was because of Rize's 'hot flashes' caused by her Pyrokinesis. She recalled having to extinguish them when they'd been partners quite often, especially after any sort of combat or stressful tests done to them by Umbrella.
The distant sound of a knock at the front door caught their attention, and Natasha scurried away to answer it. There was no way it was Toby. He didn't knock whenever he entered the front door, and had an occasional habit of jumping up to his balcony to enter the mansion.
A minute or two later, Natasha arrived with a smiling Rize, wearing a black leather bolero jacket and jeans over a white shirt.
"Konichiwa." Rize stopped in her tracks when she came face to face with Alice, who, for lack of a better word, was basically her ex-girlfriend.
"English, please. I'm giving Toby the same lecture when he gets back." Alice spoke calmly, giving a small nod to acknowledge the greeting.
"That seems reasonable enough." Rize smiled, then asked. "He's not back yet?"
"No. It's odd, but I'm not worried." Alice shook her head slightly. "Care for some coffee? I was about to have one."
"Sure." Rize smiled again, then followed Alice to the dining room.
Tobias was stuck in traffic. There'd been an accident up ahead, so all but one lane was blocked off, and he was in the middle of dozens of angry drivers honking their car horns incessantly. Sadly, there wasn't even enough space for his bike to zip between the cars.
"If only I could pull some strings at Umbrella, have them airlift me and my bike through this clusterfuck..." He mused to himself as his lane moved a few cars through the bottleneck. "This shit better be a bloody fucking mess when I see it."
Alice and Rize were enjoying their coffee, discussing Issacs' serum test when the sound of Tobias' bike reached their ears, coming from outside. Rize seemed to perk up, and Alice's gaze glanced in the direction of his T-Virus presense. Otherwise, she remained motionless as the sound of his bike engine stopped. Moments later, he entered the foyer, then went upstairs.
Alice's gaze tracked his presence the whole time. She knew he'd be dropping off his helmet, keys, mask and his magnum in his room. She never asked, but she knew he never went outside totally unarmed. His VP9's and his knife were safely and covertly hidden beneath his suit jacket at all times, even when he brought his magnum.
A minute or two later, he entered the dining room, sitting across from Rize, beside Alice at the head of the table.
"Privjet." He spoke to them both, expecting them to have been sitting in silence the entire time.
"To keep things fair between us, I've asked Rize to only speak in English. Same goes for you, Toby... and for me." Alice gave her request, and Tobias nodded his head in understanding.
"Alright, that's more than fair." He agreed, sitting back slightly. "I take it we're having flesh tonight?"
"Victoria's cooking human food tonight. It seems Issacs called her after we'd left." Alice smirked at Issacs' covert attempts to further his serum tests. "She knows about the serum."
"Well, in that case... I'll be right back." Tobias suddenly grinned, then stood up and left the dining room. Both of them followed their senses, he returned to his bedroom and seemed to retrieve something from one side of the room, then came back.
When he reentered the dining hall, he was carrying the bottle of vodka that Victoria had given him for his birthday, still sealed.
"Not like it'll affect us, right?" He smirked as he placed it in the center of the table, and after a short pause, created three shot glasses out of ice.
Alice instinctively knew he was right, but her motherly aspect kicked in for a moment. "I'm not so sure..."
"Well, my interpretation of this serum is that it let's us eat - and drink - human fair, but not digest it. Seems like it's within reason for alcohol to be included in our list." Rize spoke up after a sip of her coffee. "I'd be willing to test his idea out."
"I got that impression as well, but... I don't know..." Alice was still unsure. "I'm not entirely comfortable with this... But fine. One drink."
"Before or after we eat?" Tobias asked, smiling slightly.
"I'd prefer after, myself." Rize admitted with a small shrug. "Besides, I may melt those little cups you created." She teased slightly.
"After." Alice nodded in agreement. Tobias disintegrated the three shot glasses with barely a glance, then moved the bottle aside for the time being.
"Where's Tabitha?" Alice asked before taking a sip of her own coffee.
"Sleeping over with her friend, Hinami." Rize replied, a subtlely amused expression flickering over her face.
"You mean the girl she has a crush on?" Alice asked, seemingly interested in this detail. "Hinami Fueguchi?"
"I didn't know anything about a crush..." Rize seemed surprised by the revelation, so her interest was clearly piqued as she leaned forward. "How did you find out?"
"I've known for ages." Alice smiled. "But it was Natasha that got her to admit it vocally. Couple days ago, in fact."
"How did...?" Tobias was looking at Alice, impressed by her observation that Tabitha had a crush on this Hinami girl.
"Oh, that's right... we haven't told you." Alice stared him straight in the face as she said. "Natasha's a former CCG investigator."
"Bullshit." Tobias didn't believe her. "What CCG investigator would be living with half a dozen Ghouls and know about it, without lifting a finger?"
"I grew tired of their crusade against Ghouls." Natasha's voice came from the foyer doors, which Tobias accidentally left slightly ajar when he'd returned with the vodka. "Especially since I learned Umbrella was successful in manufacturing a Ghoul, which was Mistress Alice."
"That was a year ago." Alice nodded. "Ever since, Natasha's been crucial in training all of us to fool the CCG's interrogation and torture tactics. Well, except for you, Toby. I doubt the CCG could do so much as scratch you."
"I don't know... Fire's a pretty strong contender to fuck me up." Tobias admitted, crossing his arms. "Not that I'd be willing to set myself on fire to test that theory."
"Tokyo Airlines Flight C177 arriving at Gate 5." The announcement over the loudspeakers at the Raccoon City airport was grating to the ears of a young white haired boy with a white eyepatch over his left eye. After over twelve hours with the drone of the jet engines, his sense of hearing was overly sensitive.
"Hey, Kaneki, this way." His traveling companion, a punk-like boy with navy blue hair swatted him with the back of his hand, speaking in Japanese as he indicating their awaiting escort.
Kaneki Ken slowly turned his gaze towards Ayato, annoyed by the strike, but followed him regardless. They got into their awaiting car, nodding to their driver in silence.
"You think they're still in town?" Ayato asked, sitting back in the seat.
"Who? Rize and Touka?" Kaneki put on a thoughtful expression for a moment, his voice a bored, flat tone. "Yeah, I'm sure of it..."
A/N: No references in this chapter, but there are a few inside jokes between myself and Vizord tucked away in a few paragraphs. :P