DISCLAIMER
The following is a fan-based
FICTION
Tokyo Ghoul, Tokyo Ghoul Root A and Tokyo Ghoul:re and other products related to the TG Series are all owned by Sui Ishida, Shin Towada and Shueisha.
F/SN, F/Z, F/KPI and other products related to the Fate Series are all owned by TYPE-MOON, Kinoko Nasu and Takashi Takeuchi.
Chapter 33: Witness Protection
"I hope you both understand that you are here because you know things and because you work well together."
Just with this sentence, Shirou and Koitsu felt shivers going through their backs.
They were both sitting in front of the CCG's Angel of Death and both felt uneasy for some reason.
To say that the researcher had been less than thrilled to be called in Arima's office together with The Reaper's apprentice was an understandment.
It's been just two weeks since the suppression of the Aogiri HQ in the 11th Ward and the whole reveal of 'why' Shirou managed to beat back the One-Eyed Owl, this meant just two things to the noteworthy paranoid scientist.
Death or subjugation to the CCG with a massive reduction of his paycheck.
"What do you mean, Arima-san?"
The Investigator nodded and pushed a folder with files in front of them, the Emiya being the first to pick it and open it, revealing some photos and detailed reports.
"Kimi Nishino?"
"Wait!" Chigyou snatched the folder from the Magus' hands and gave it a long study before frowning.
"Why we need to meet up with one of Doctor Kanou's assistants?"
The Reaper sighed before dropping the bomb on them.
"Doctor Kanou was studying the process of Ghoulification before leaving the CCG. Recently, some Investigators have found some important papers while on the 11th Ward."
Another sets of photos was thrown in front of them, Shirou turning away from the terrible pictures potraying several human corpses with deformations akin to failing Kagune.
Koitsu's reaction was less of shock and more of surprise at this point, having studied under the intelligent scientist prior to his resignation.
"Aogiri is certain that Akihiro Kanou is responsible for the creation of several artificial one-eyed ghouls and so we are."
"Why there isn't a simple investigation in his former labs? It would be easier if-" "Washuu-san refuses to open the laboratories without a major evidence of this accusation."
Koitsu restrained a gasp as he let his hand massage the temple of his head, shocked by this development.
"You are tasked of approaching Nishino-san with the pretext of an interview regarding the past research about the Synthetic Meat project. Once you are sure that you are out of eyesight and earsight of possible agents of Aogiri, you might inform the woman about the real reason of the visit."
Shirou hummed quietly as he thought about this very detail.
"So we are guaranteeing her some kind of witness protection, yes?"
Arima nodded and got up from his chair.
"There had been curious activities as of now in the 20th Ward, Aogiri's cloaks were spotting in the area."
The Emiya blinked, realising the repercussion of having the spotlights that much near Anteiku.
"This is considered a SS-Rank mission in our system and you shall be given the right amount of salary to match up with its completion. I hope you two understood the importance of this all."
They nodded and were soon escorted out of the office.
As Nishiki Nishio enjoyed the bliss of sleep together with his girlfriend, his cellphone's ringtone managed to not only wake him and Kimi up but also irritating him and pushing enough bloodlust in his brain.
He picked the call.
"Who's there."
"Nishio-san, forgive me for calling so early. It's urgent."
The medicine student groaned and picked his glasses. "What do you want, Emiya?"
"There is an investigation I have been made part of and I might have to visit Nishino-san's appartment soon-"
"What the hell are you blabbering about, dove?! What has Kimi to do with-"
"It's not about you, Nishio-san. It is about the very reason Ken-san's nature is now ghoulish."
The Ghoul froze, ignoring the quiet voice of the woman he loved that asked him to return to sleep, trying to understand how she was implied in the situation.
"Is 10:30 alright?"
"Yes. My colleague, he is not a Dove, just a scientist."
"Yes, sure, fine. Go annoy someone else now."
The call ended and Nishiki facepalmed as a mean to wake up faster.
"Kimi, do you know anything about one-eyed Ghouls?"
To his surprise, the woman opened his eyes in shock, as if she knew more than she had let on about her work under Kanou.
"We are sorry to come here uninvited-" "It's alright, Koitsu-san. After all, we were students under Kanou-san."
The scientist smiled grimly as they all sat in the living room of the flat.
Nishiki's eyes were cautiously studying them as they commenced their brief interrogation.
"Kimi-san.. do you perhaps have some files, documents left by Akihiro Kanou-san?"
The human hesitated for a brief moment, then nodded and got up from her seat, disappearing momentarely in the hallway.
Soon she returned with a several notebooks and papers. "Kanou-san had asked me to not reveal this to anyone-" "Kimi-san, Kanou is suspected of having done ghoulification experiments with humans, we need all the proof we can gather to push for a crackdown."
"I-If it was just this why bother disturbing for a visit?" The innocent question of the distraught woman caused the two CCG workers to look away from the couple. "There is more?"
Shirou nodded. "We have learned about your connection with Kanou thanks to some documents we found in the former Aogiri base in the 11th Ward. You are already being tailed by agents, Nishino-san."
"You want to put her in what? Witness protection?" The Emiya gulped at the strong tone behind the Ghoul's question but nodded nonetheless.
"Aogiri has been spotted lurking in the 20th more than past situations. We think they are planning to kidnap her."
The Kamii's student was ready to refuse the deal outright, unwilling to separate from his girlfriend.
Yet the woman smiled and put an hand on his shoulder, blocking any protest and calming him a little bit.
"It's alright." She looked at Shirou. "I hope Emiya-san will be part of the group protecting me. I heard he is efficient in his work."
The Magus looked at the Ghoul, the Ghoul looked back and nodded at him.
"I will make sure this is the case then. I think Arima-san will not have any issue with this."
"A-Arima?" Nishiki muttered, shocked by the one who sent the two.
"The Director is unsure of proceeding with the lack of proof, thus the head of the Investigation Section has decided to not play the waiting game."
"Koitsu Chigyou, right?" Nishiki's question was answered with a quick 'yes' by the researcher. "You seem quite the crazy kind of scientist."
"Thank you." Koitsu replied amused, this kind of adjectives having become compliments to him after hearing those for so long.
The Ghoul smiled. "You are welcome."
Hinami sighed as she left the bookshop with the newest book from Sen Takatsuki.
It took a lot for her to finally prove to her Oneechan that she could now protect herself perfectly.
The dummy to show her true strenght had been an unwilling Yomo that had been overwhelmed in mere instants in the spar.
Once she was deemed the victor of the match, she had found the shocked look on Touka-neechan amusing and felt even proud to have finally managed to reach this kind of capacity with her Kagune and physical abilities.
Just one book and then quickly back to Anteiku, that was the promise she had made to her Oneechan and Hinami was going to mantain it without hesitation-
"Oh? Isn't that.. Hinami-chan?"
She paused wide-eyed as she turned to see to her glee the author of the book she had just bought.
"Takatsuki-san? What are you doing there?"
She hummed, looking pensive. "It might be because I'm actually hiding from humans since I'm an Alien, like many theorists deem me nowadays!" She exclaimed with a smile plastered in her visage. "Or maybe I just needed a break from my work. Shiono-san is truly annoying.."
Hinami giggled at the eccentric woman as she straightened her glasses.
"Anyway, Hinami-san! I see you are alone this time, where is that boring man? What was it, Shirou-kun?"
The Fueguchi nodded, happy that her favourite author remembered her and her Ma- Shirou-san.
"Shirou-san is busy at his workplace as of now, plus I finally got my Oneechan to trust me!"
"Good!" Sen smiled before snapping her fingers. "Would you keep me company during my pause break? I would be delighted to have someone as sweet as you to bring some interesting chat while I rest my poor, tired head."
Hinami paused just a second, thinking about the promise she had made to Touka-neechan and...
She could bring a signed copy to Kaneki-niichan to try and appease her! Yes, that could work.
"Sure."
The two entered a small cafe nearby and had the waiter take their orders.
"So, what can you tell me about you? Anything interesting?"
"I am liking literature. I-I've been homeschooled since I was very young and just started to study this kind of subject just now."
"Interesting." In her hands was a small notebook as she took notes regarding... her? "What about that Shirou-kun? Did he cause any issue by being your chaperone?"
The petite girl shook her head. "No. Actually he is quite a nice person and I think of him as a role model?"
"Is that so?" Sen asked as she paused in her writing. "He might be just one of those pesky friends that come and go, what makes you trust him so much."
"Because Shirou-san actually told me a lot about himself and I find many common points with him."
"Really? What kind of common points?"
At that point, Hinami felt as if she was doing a mistake about telling someone else about her Ma- Shirou-san(!)'s past.
But then again, Sen Takatsuki didn't seem the time of betraying anyone that was actually honest to her.
"Shirou-san was orphaned... twice. His parents died during a big fire twenty years ago, while his adoptive father died when he was twelve."
For some curious reason, the author froze at those words, her expression stuck in a curious way.
"T-That's so curious..." She giggled nervously as her composure seemed to have broken, just briefly. "You know, Hinami-chan, I'm orphan too."
"I-" Hinami's surprise turned stale and then disappeared as her mind understood her words. "I'm sorry, Takatsuki-san."
The older female giggled at her apology. "No need, no need! I was still a newborn when I was abandoned and... my step-father was quite kind."
As much as a battle-hardened Ghoul could be, Eto thought darkly as she felt surprised by this curious detail of Arima's little student.
It seems like there was much more that she could learn about this new pawn in the big chessboard.
"Emiya! Your girlfriend is here!"
Shirou groaned from his workplace as the loud yells from Marude reached his ears.
The door of his 'office' was opened and the nun entered the room silently.
"It seems that things are much, much worse than I thought, Shirou-san."
At those words the Magus frowned.
"Did you know that a Dead Apostle is visiting the CCG frequently nowadays?"
That- Shirou jumped out of the chair. "What?!"
"Be quiet." Caren calmly stated, eyeing the not-so-soundproof wall that divided them from the staff of the laboratory. "The Church is silent about this, this particular Vampire being 'harmless' to many innocents."
"I thought that only Zelretch was 'harmless'." Shirou's words were met with a quiet scoff.
"He is one of the few 'harmless' ones, yet he is still the most annoying."
That they can agree about. "What about this Apostle?"
"Van-Fem is renowned for his influence in the business world. His chains of casinos is trying to reach into Tokyo."
The Emiya stood silent few more moments, hoping to learn more of the predicament.
"Is that it?"
Caren blinked. "No. It seems that the Vampire is trying to get the CCG to clean up Aogiri and... someone else."
His mouth opened, yet the nun beat him to it. "There is some dangerous plot lurking in the Capital's shadows, Shirou. They are much worse than Aogiri Tree, much worse than the corrupt leadership of the CCG."
"What am I supposed to do now that I know about this?"
The woman smiled. "Nothing."
...
"What do you mean with 'nothing'? I can-" "Do nothing as not even I know the extent of this secret group's influence. As far as I know they might as well have an army ready somewhere ready to use at the minimum reason to worry."
...
"Focus on that Doctor, Akihiro Kanou." She finished, already walking towards the door. "He might know more about this little organisation that elude even the Church's spy network."
And with that, Caren closed the door behind her, leaving Shirou to deal with this new information.
A satisfied smile accompaning her till she reached her room in the hotel she was staying for her holiday.
AN
Long chapter!
Investigation on Kanou Saga is now here and it will be quite a long mess to deal with as the good doctor is good in this massive hide n' seek game and he got quite the means to do it without getting caught.
How is he going to be found then? That is a good question that will be answered in quite a lot of chapters from now.
Next chapter: Raid on the laboratory AND two new characters join the cast!
Review Q&A!
Ezeakel: Thank you!
Yolea Irk's: Oh, Roma's interest in Shirou is far from romantic. It's more of a twisted maternal sense she got over him. Both are red-haired, she is old enough to be his mother and he is strong enough to make her serious in a fight.
KRKing: Will do! In the AN of the chapters I did explain the why. Let's just say that her eyes can do more than just stun her enemies.