Juuzou awoke in the middle of the night. It was Sen and his eleven month anniversary. Not that they did anything for it, but he made a mental note of it. He should be happy. But here it was, 3:00 in the morning, and he was terrified. Sen was gone again. She had disappeared. For some reason, Suzuya knew she was in terrible danger. Just as he was going to get dressed, he remembered.

"It's a dream," he said. Juuzou often had a dream where he would awake in the middle of the night, and his beloved girlfriend was gone. "Just lay down on the bed," he told himself. "And you'll fall into a deep sleep, and in the morning, Sen will be right next to you."

And that's what he did. And in the morning, just as predicted, the author slept next to him.

"Sen," he said, shaking her awake. The clock read 8:13 a.m.

"What?" she mumbled, rolling over.

"I had the dream again," he said nervously.

Sen's gut wrenched. She knew that wasn't a dream. However, she had no choice but to lie.

"I'm sorry baby," she said, brushing his bangs out of his eyes. She softly kissed him. "I'm right here with you."

He smiled, and then sighed. "I have to get to work soon."

"I know," she said, climbing out of bed.

Suzuya readied herself for work, and he couldn't help but notice the glances he got when he was changing. It made him blush. He also noticed his girlfriend's face become red when he did the same.

He left for work, and when he got to the office there was a large commotion.

"What's going on?" Juuzou asked Kiniko, who was sipping coffee at his desk.

"Well," the man said. "For one, we're having a raid-ish thing today."

"Raid-ish thing?"

"Mhm. Amon and several other investigators are going to go check out a suspicious abandoned mall where they think ghouls congregating. You're going."

"Alright," Juuzou said. He swallowed; he had promised to always tell Sen if they were going to have a raid. He couldn't text her; she would freak out. "What's the other thing?"

"Amon proposed to Akira, and she said yes," he said, rolling his eyes. "They're getting married next week."

"Wow," Juuzou said. Marriage. Proposals. Those were two topics that had been bouncing around his head often. He knew that he wanted to marry Sen Takatsuki. He had made up his mind that if he was going to do it, it would be on their one year anniversary. But how to go about doing it, he had no idea. Sen Suzuya. It had a nice ring to it.

Juuzou prepared himself for the mission, and soon him, Amon, Kiniko, and a few other investigators bounced along in a CCG van.

"Congratulations," Juuzou told Amon.

"Thank you," he said, smiling a little.

"Are you going to have babies?" Juuzou blurted out.

"Oh, um," Amon blushed and rubbed his neck. "Probably."

"Do you want a boy or a girl?" the white haired investigator asked.

"We're not even married yet!" Amon protested. He then hesitated and answered the question. "I would really be good either way. I would love for them to be an investigator though. Fight ghouls, just like their… mom and dad."

The van pulled up in front of an abandoned shopping mall. The group got out and hurried inside. They silently searched the building, but were unsuccessful.

"Let's go, there's nothing here," Juuzou whined.

"Shhh!" Kiniko suddenly said.

Suzuya opened his mouth to retort, but Kiniko hushed him by pointing at a men's dress clothes shop. The suits inside were dusty, but the man browsing through didn't seem to care.

He was wearing a navy blue dress shirt and a white suit, and his blond hair was brushed back into three sections.

"The S rated Naki," Amon muttered.

Naki must've heard them, for he turned and stared directly at them. His red eyes widened, and then a cruel smirk crossed his face.

"Doves," he muttered.

He tried to play it cool, but inside he was panicking. The twins had stayed back at the estate he had taken over when Yamori was killed, and he was alone, facing seven doves.

His kagune burst from his skin and coiled around his arm. Amon stepped up to challenge the S rated ghoul, but Juuzou tugged at his sleeve.

"Please let me do it," Juuzou said, giving his superior puppy dog eyes. "I haven't gotten to cut up a ghoul in forever."

Amon sighed. "Be my guest."

Juuzou giggled and twirled his scythe. "Ready to die?" he asked Naki, who's eyes were already tearing up.

He recognized the dove. It was Suzuya Juuzou, a dangerous and psychotic investigator who would mercilessly slaughter ghouls. Also Eto's boyfriend. He couldn't hurt this dove, Eto would be so sad. But at the same time, he had no intent of getting hurt himself.

Suzuya swung the scythe, and he dodged.

"I'm only getting started," Juuzou giggled as he repeatedly swung. A slash cut open the skin of Naki's chest, and his once white suit soon became red. He howled in pain, tearing flowing down his face.

"Aw, look at him cry," Suzuya said mockingly.

Naki did not like to run from a fight, but it currently looked like he had no choice. He dashed towards the stairs, and Suzuya and the doves followed.

"Hey get back here!" Juuzou whined. "I haven't seen your guts yet!"

Kiniko shot at Naki, and the blond ghoul was hit in the shoulder. He cried harder and he stumbled and fell. Amon got to him first, and the black haired man hit the ghoul full force in the side. He crashed through the concrete wall, and began coughing, blood spraying from his mouth.

He hid behind a wall and watched the doves run by. When he knew they were out of sight, he pulled out his phone and called the only person he could think of that could face seven doves; and that cared enough about him to come save him.

He dialed and put the phone up to his ear, whimpering and crying. No matter how hard he tried to heal the wound in his chest, it continued bleeding. The bullet hole in his shoulder wasn't doing much better, considering that the quinque bullet was still lodged inside.

Eto sat in the middle of a meeting with some of her editors. They were all arguing, and she lazily twirled a pen around. Suddenly, her phone rang. She took it out of her bag, surprised to see that it was Naki calling her.

She was in a meeting; she couldn't answer now. She declined the call.

Naki choked out a sob when after three rings the call had gone to voicemail. He decided to try again. And once again, he was declined.

When Eto's phone rang for a third time, she excused herself to the restroom.

"I'm in a meeting," she hissed as she picked up her phone and strode through the hall and into the restroom.

"E—Eto," he stuttered. He was panting hard. "I—I need you."

"Um, what?" Eto asked, feeling her face redden, not sure what her friend meant.

"I—I need you really bad," he said, groaning.

"Um, Naki, can't you take care of it yourself?" she asked awkwardly. She didn't know what was up with him, he had never shown any sexual feelings toward her before.

"I already tried," he said. "I can't. You're the only one that can."

Eto was silent for a moment. "I can't do that. I don't want to. I'm sorry."

"You don't want to?" Naki said.

Et couldn't believe he didn't understand. She had a boyfriend, and she loved said boyfriend very much.

"No Naki, I don't want to."

"You have to!" he said. "It won't come out! You know all medical stuffs so I thought you could fix it!"

Eto's face was stark white. "Um, it's not that difficult. Haven't you done it… before?"

"No," Naki said. "Yamori did it for me."

Eto was ready to vomit into the toilet.

"Please—please just take care of it yourself," she stammered.

"It's so hard though!" Naki whined.

"Naki, that's enough!" Eto snapped. She didn't want to listen to her best friend's lust.

"It's going all over my suit!" Naki said.

"Then take your clothes off!" the one eyed ghoul hissed.

"Someone might see me!" Naki mewled.

"You're in public?" Eto asked in horror.

"Sort of," Naki said.

"Naki—that's—that's—."

"Your boyfriend is here!" said Naki.

"What?" Eto screeched.

"Yeah! There's seven of them!"

"Wait," Eto said, confused. "What are you talking about?"

"I'm at the abandoned mall all by myself and Doves showed up! Your boyfriend too! I'm hurt really bad, it won't heal! The blood is going all over my suit! And I got shot in shoulder and the bullet won't come out! Yamori always took out the bullets if I got shot… I can't fight them. I need you!"

All color drained from Eto's face. She had taken his words horribly out of context.

"I didn't know that's what you meant! I thought you were talking about— something else!" she sputtered. "I'll come get you, hang in there!"

"Thank you!" Naki said, breathing out a sigh of relief. "Wait— what did you think I was talking about?"

"Don't worry about it," Eto said, embarrassed. She ended the call before Naki could say anything else.

Sen rushed to the abandoned mall and slipped inside. She used her hearing to pinpoint the location of the doves and Naki.

With a jolt, she realized that she was not wrapped up. If Juuzou saw her… She sighed and transformed into her kakuja form.

Eto smirked a little and began crashing through the mall, knocking down whatever she pleased. She found poor Naki curled up hiding behind crumbled concrete. She scooped him up into her claws and ran. She crashed out of the mall, and pulled the CGG driver out of the van, knocking him out.

She then shrank into her human like form, Naki leaning on her. He cried.

"Thank you, best friend," he sobbed.

"Welcome," said said, huffing as she opened the van door and shoved the male ghoul inside.

She climbed into the drivers seat, happy to find the keys still in ignition. She turned them and the engine roared to life.

The half ghoul smirked and she hit the gas, driving away. She decided to take Naki to her old apartment, Noro could take care of him.

She dropped the blond ghoul off, ditched the CCG van, and walked to her and Juuzou's apartment, and promptly passed out in bed.

Amon splashed cold water on the van driver's face. He had already called another transport; and they were on their way.

"Wh—What?" the van driver said, coming to.

"Bandoraiba, what happened?" Kiniko asked.

"The owl," he coughed.

"The owl?" Kiniko said in shock.

"That explains the crashes and such," Amon sighed.

Rage filled Juuzou. He had been in the owl's presence once again, and he had failed to kill him.

"Now we know the alliance has an alliance with Naki," Kiniko mumbled. "Great."

The transport arrived soon, and the investigators were bused back to the CCG headquarters. Juuzou got his things to go home for the night. He thought he was alone in the office, but then he noticed Akira also gathering her things.

"Congratulations," he said, walking up to her.

She looked up, startled. "Oh, hello Suzuya. Thank you."

"So proposals huh?" he said, sitting on her desk.

"Yes," she said.

"So um, how do women like to be proposed to?" Juuzou asked awkwardly.

Akira eyed Juuzou. "Depends. Why?"

"Just wondering."

"Then don't worry about it," Akira said, getting ready to walk away.

"Actually, my friend needs to know," he lied.

Akira frowned. "Well," she said. "Pick out a nice ring. Do it someplace special."

"Like where?"

"Where you met could be nice, if that's a pretty place."

"And I just get down on one knee and ask?"

"I thought this was about your friend?" Akira smirked.

"It is," Juuzou blushed, embarrassed at being caught in a lie. "Well, thank you for the info!" he said, and then hurried out of the office.

"I've been through a lot of crazy things, but I never imagined I'd give advice on how to propose to investigator Suzuya," she murmured to herself as she watched him leave.