Disclaimer: I own nothing. Not a thing.
Author's Note: Oh my gosh! Thank you so much for the amazing feedback! I'm so glad you guys are enjoying this so far! Hopefully this next chapter won't disappoint!
Kaneki's boots pounded the concrete floor of the warehouse as he raced towards the south entrance. His labored breaths echoed around him, but they weren't quite loud enough to drown out his troubled thoughts.
Hide… What are you doing here?
A uniformed human stepped into the half-ghoul's path, swinging a glowing Quinque with a determined expression.
Kaneki almost growled out loud at the looming barrier. I don't have time for this. With an agitated grunt, the half-ghoul leapt to the side, nearly avoiding being impaled by the weapon. When the man gave no indication of backing down, Kaneki's scowl deepened as he made his decision.
I need to get to Hide now. I can't drag this out any longer.
Kaneki's kagune erupted from his back in an explosion of steam and crimson. His narrowed gaze landed on the investigator's right leg before darting back to the his face. Usually Kaneki simply broke their Quinques, rendering them incapable of fighting. Although his form of mercy often got him into trouble with his less sympathetic superiors in Aogiri Tree, he preferred the substantial lack of blood and death that often triggered his rawer side.
He had a sickening feeling Aogiri would be pleased with his next action.
Diverting the investigator's attention with one of his rinkaku protrusions, he knocked the man's Quinque out of his hands with another piece of his kagune. The human fumbled for something in his pocket to protect himself against Kaneki, but the half-ghoul quickly finished his attack by wrapping one of his razor-sharp tentacles around the man's upper leg. With a half-mumbled apology in his mind, Kaneki jerked his kagune back, cleanly amputating the man at the mid-thigh.
The investigator toppled to the ground with a pained cry as crimson drops exploded from the wound. Kaneki stumbled back, his keen senses temporarily overwhelmed by the sight of blood and loose flesh.
bLOood! BlOoD!
Kaneki mashed his lips together, gritting his teeth behind his leather mask. It was getting harder and harder suppress the bloodthirsty screams rattling in his skull.
How long had it been since he last ate?
ToO lONg…
FaR tOO L-LoNg….
(He won't need that leg anymore…)
Kaneki forcefully shook his head with a deep-throated growl to dislodge the inhuman desires. He didn't have time to eat, nor could he trust himself to stop with a single, discarded limb. The investigator, who had previously been drilling the half-ghoul with a resolute, unafraid glare, faltered at the sight of the conflicted teen backing away. The unnaturalness of a ghoul abandoning an easy kill frightened the seasoned investigator.
Even as he turned away from the injured human, Kaneki could almost feel the disbelieving shock thunder across the man's features before morphing back into unadulterated hatred.
Kaneki certainly could feel the burn of rage aimed at his back.
Let him hate me for not killing him. I have other things to attend to.
Leaving the bleeding man to his own fate, Kaneki quickly scanned the warehouse to regain his bearings.
Damn him for throwing me off. Which way was I going?
The white-haired teen squeezed his eyes shut, fully aware of how dangerous it was to do so in a room filled with armed investigators, and concentrated on his memorized layout of the warehouse complex. Satisfied with his hastily produced map, Kaneki spun on his heels and rushed past several ongoing battles. He ignored the eager cries of his companions, requesting for his assistance. He drowned out the screams and grunts of pain as both sides ripped flesh from one another.
Once, an overly ambitious investigator tried to catch him unaware. However, Kaneki caught the glowing glint of the Quinque in his periphery vision. His kagune responded accordingly, bursting from his mid-back and meeting the victim with a warm squelch. Not even bothering to tear his gaze from the path ahead, Kaneki retracted his weapon and tried to ignore the sweet liquid dribbling down his kagune.
He couldn't afford to be distracted.
Finally Kaneki reached the south entrance, skidding to a stop in the dim warehouse bay. His wide eyes absorbed every detail and every slumped body. He wasn't sure if he wanted to see blond or not.
I don't see him…
Kaneki inhaled deeply, trying to catch a scent of his best friend, but the tantalizing scent of human blood distracted him too much to concentrate.
Another, harsher thought nagged in the back of the boy's mind, bubbling its way to the surface with painful malice.
It's been so long since you've seen Hide. You've probably forgotten what he smells like.
Trying to avoid the inevitable wave of panic, Kaneki squeezed his eyes shut and inhaled again, pouring all of his concentration in dragging up the memories of his best friend.
How long's it been? Months, at least.
He could see Hide's wide grin and crinkled eyes, though the corners of the human's face seemed a little blurry. Kaneki pushed deeper into his memories, savagely shoving aside the hissing, snickering murmurs of his mind's manifestations of Yamori and Rize.
But can't you remember how delicious your friend smelled?
You wanted to eat. Him. All. Up.
Kaneki's eyes flew open and he wisely decided to give up on searching by scent. His gaze wandered towards the destroyed entrance, noting the rubble and mangled steel. To a ghoul, it was a minor barrier. However, to a human, it was impassible.
His squad probably couldn't enter this way. They must've come in another way.
Kaneki resisted the urge to curse under his breath. If he had been in more control, he could have kept the dead investigator's comlink and tracked Hide more effectively. Instead, Kaneki had crushed the device at the mere sound of his best friend's voice, allowing human emotions like shock from superficial betrayal to overwhelm him.
You didn't want Rakko learning where he was. He can't be trusted—he would have killed Hide and called it an accident just for spite, he countered in his head, trying to convince himself that he did the right thing.
He squinted in the dim light, scouring the assembled investigator bodies to find another viable communication device. After another brief moment of silence, he heard the metallic crackle of an earpiece's static.
Kaneki rushed towards the sound, quickly prying the piece of tight-fitting plastic away from the corpse's cold ear. He pressed the crimson stained device to his ear, waiting breathlessly for a voice he recognized.
A hoarse scream echoed through the warehouse complex. It wasn't loud by any means, but something about it seemed familiar to Kaneki. Familiar enough to trigger his inhuman senses and cause the hairs on the back of his neck to rise.
The comlink slipped from Kaneki's limp fingers.
He may have forgotten the exact smell of his best friend, but he couldn't forget the sound of his voice.
"Nagachika!"
Despite the risks to herself, Akira's first reaction was to jerk towards the action, towards the defenseless teen. However, she forced her trembling limbs to remain still as their most inexperienced teammate dashed out of sight, pursued by a ruthless, starving ghoul.
You'll never see him again.
Akira cursed under her breath, curling her limp fingers into hard fists. She wanted to follow him, but her own injuries would only have put them both in danger.
You can't help him now. He gave you the chance to get the others out—so take it!
She forced her body into action, lurching towards Seidou first. He was still unconscious, but as she gingerly rolled him to the side, she was relieved to note that the faint trickle of blood from his hairline had already began to dry.
Grunting at the effort, Akira wound her arms underneath Seidou's splayed limbs and tugged him backwards.
At least he isn't heavy.
It was a struggle to move the investigator's deadweight without aggravating the pain in her own damaged leg. Each inch gained felt like it took an eternity, even though Akira was fairly sure she had only been dragging her teammate for a few seconds. She tossed a hopeful glance over her shoulder, pleased to realize that she was only a few feet from the warehouse entrance.
A loud scream echoed through the warehouse complex, causing the blonde investigator to falter mid-tug and drop her hovering foot with a heavy thud.
Nagachika….
Akira swallowed thickly and focused her bright gaze down on her unconscious teammate.
She had no doubts in her mind now that Nagachika's actions were intended to be suicidal. She should have known there was no possible way he could have expected to survive after leading the ghoul away from the rest of his injured team.
That…he…
She took a shallow, calming breath to steady her whirling mind.
Get a hold of yourself. I have to get the others out before that monster comes back. It'll only be a matter of time.
With another muted grunt, she poured every bit of her broiling rage and regret from not being able to save the blond in her aching muscles. Although her actions were jerky and tense, she yanked her unconscious teammate faster across the concrete floor. Dropping him off at a safe distance a few feet from the entrance, Akira spun on her heels and limped towards her superior.
He was barely conscious, though from his pinched, pale expression and his roaming, sightless eyes, Akira realized he was too far out of it to fully comprehend the situation.
"We have to go now," she urged in a firm whisper. She had no idea how long they had until the ghoul returned.
Amon's dark eyes focused on her face and he gave an imperceptible nod, breaking free from his stupor in an impressive show of control. Akira looped her arms underneath her superior's armpits and strained to pull him towards the entrance. Although he was significantly heavier and bulkier than Seidou, the investigator was able to help by pushing himself across the floor with his uninjured limbs.
Still, their progress was painstakingly slow. Each squeak of Amon's foot slipping against the pooled blood and Akira's labored grunts echoed loudly in the deathly silent warehouse. It wasn't as if they needed to be quiet—after all, the ghoul knew exactly where they were. However, it was easier to hear for any suspicious sounds in the silence. Sounds like footsteps or eager lip smacking.
They were only a few feet from the entrance when the sound of crunching gravel filled the empty warehouse. Hazy rays from vehicle headlights illuminated the bay, bouncing around the metallic girders of the warehouse. Immediately, armored soldiers and paramedics poured from the idling vans.
Akira would have collapsed in exhausted relief if she hadn't been supporting Amon. Their reinforcements were finally here; even if the ghouls returned, she would already be on her way back to the CCG headquarters.
"Here's one of ours. Unconscious, but alive."
Akira squinted at the entrance, suddenly blinded as a bright light stabbed at her unadjusted eyes. She narrowed her eyes at the flashlight beams as shadows poured into the warehouse. One of the lights dimmed as a blurry figure approached her.
"Mado-san?" She recognized the voice as belonging to a fellow investigator. Slowly her eyes acclimated to the change in lighting, absorbing the worried young man in front of her.
"Are you injured?"
Akira shook her head automatically, considered the question, and then frowned. "Tend to my teammates first," she answered instead.
"We've already loaded one of them in the ambulance." He considered the blonde and her superior. "Are you the only two left?"
"No! There's anoth—" Akira quickly began, twisting her head to the exit where she had seen her other teammate disappear. However, she was cut off mid-sentence as paramedics swarmed her, gently pulling Amon out of her grasp. Another medic knelt down by her leg, prodding her bleeding injury carefully with a gloved finger.
"We need to get this stitched up now," he muttered, straightening up.
"Wait, there's an—" she tried again, growing frustrated at being drowned out. The man continued to ignore her protests and forcefully bustled her towards the parked vehicles. Unable to do much else, Akira reluctantly complied, tossing another desperate glance over her shoulder at the darkened doorframe. More investigators entered the warehouse bay, spreading out through the room to search each huddled mass for signs of life. Several had already disappeared through the back exit.
Akira watched them go, knowing they would either return with Nagachika's half-eaten corpse or his barely breathing body.
She sighed and allowed the medic to guide her to the van. There wasn't anything else she could do but wait.
As he raced back through the warehouse complex, he had to avoid even more investigators as they hovered over the wounded and deceased. Sticking close to the shadows, Kaneki leapt from the metal catwalks to the elevated support beams, creating his own route through the enemy inhabited industrial building. A few alarmed shouts echoed below him as the humans caught his erratic movements. Twice, muzzle flares caught in his periphery as half-hearted bullets ricocheted around the steel rafters, but for the most part, Kaneki was left alone by the preoccupied investigators.
They each had their own missions to accomplish.
Kaneki dropped from one of the metal girders with a soft thud before straightening up. Not even pausing to brush the dust and grime off his cloak, he continued his hurried journey towards the sound of his friend's scream a few moments earlier.
He almost burst into the room, but controlled his hasty entrance in the last second. Kaneki threw himself backwards into the shadows, breathing through his nose to not attract any fatal attention. Several uniformed investigators were milling around a puddle of blood while another scratched at a clipboard with a pen.
"There's no one else here."
There were a few mumbled words too hard to make out. Kaneki strained his ears to catch the next utterance.
"Time to move out then?"
"No…not yet. Let's split up to search the next room and then meet back here. Maybe someone'll know what actually happened." The investigator sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. Kaneki couldn't make out his face, but it didn't matter, as he was only looking for one particular individual.
The other humans grunted their agreement to their comrade and together they left the room. Releasing a pent up breath slowly in the dank air of the warehouse bay, Kaneki crept from the shadows and stared down at the puddle of blood they had been standing over.
He's not here anymore.
Kaneki took a tentative sniff, hating the unavoidable rumble in his gut at the vivid, alluring smell of freshly spilt blood.
If he had been here, the investigators would have taken him with them. A ghoul must have gotten him first then. The thought of his subordinates following his orders was strangely unnerving.
He swallowed thickly, inhaling again to catch another whiff of human blood. He couldn't help it.
He chastised himself for dwelling far longer than necessary on the scent. It's Hide's blood, he angrily reminded himself. You shouldn't be enjoying it! It means he's in danger.
It had been so long since he had any contact with his best friend. This stunted reunion seemed far too cruel, far too inhuman.
Kaneki froze as the realization struck him. He had been so concerned about finding Hide, he hadn't stopped to consider what his friend would see as his guardian angel.
He…he would see me. As a ghoul.
No… After all this time. After all I did to keep him safe—he would find out. He would hate me.
Hide would hate me.
Doubt blossomed in his mind, twisting his friend's bright smile into a furtive smirk. The looming feelings of betrayal writhed in his gut as he thought back to his first reactions upon hearing Hide's voice on the comlink.
But why is he here? Hide would never join the CCG unless—
Unless he already knows.
The reverberations of his pounding heart echoed loudly in his chest, repeating the sentence as if each word were a separate beat.
Unless. He. Already. Knows.
Unless. He. Already. Knows.
Kaneki dismissed the thoughts with a vicious shake of his head, causing the zipper on his mask to rasp and rattle against the leather binding.
It's impossible. He can't know. If he knew, he's never go looking for a monster like me, he concluded. Hide was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
(Was he looking for me?)
Kaneki's fingers rose to the strap on his mask and thoughtfully drummed against the thick fabric. Although he preferred the anonymity from his trademark mask, he felt that if he kept it on any longer, he would suffocate in the stale, leather-tasting air. He had no idea on how to save his best friend, but taking the mask off and breathing in the fresh air helped to suppress the icy panic clawing its way up his windpipe.
He inhaled and exhaled twice, relishing the peace and silence, before turning away from the puddle of blood.
He had to find Hide, regardless of the cost.
The moment the needle made its last round through her skin, Akira jumped off the table, ignoring the indignant squawks of the paramedic, and marched towards the first investigator she saw.
"Yori-san!"
The investigator turned casually, partially still invested in his current conversation. However, at the sight of the blonde's determined expression, his smile dropped as he stiffened in respectful attention.
"Akira-san," he blinked, glancing from the woman's still raw injury to her stony stare. "Are you badly inj—"
"Do you know the status of my squad?" she interrupted, preferring to get straight to the point.
"Oh, uh, yes!" Slightly flustered by her directness, the investigator fumbled with the clipboard in his hands. He scanned the listed names with squinting eyes, murmuring each name before jumping to the next. Akira waited with pursed lips, her patience ticking away with each syllable.
"Uh, let's see… Erm… Oh! Here!" The investigator's gaze darted briefly to Akira's unimpressed expression before returning to the report.
"Koutarou Amon… Injured, but not in critical condition by any means. It seems like just a minor fracture to the left tibia." Despite herself, Akira felt an eyebrow rise in mild surprise. She had been fairly certain that the beam would have caused more damage to her superior's leg than that.
"Seidou Takizawa… He was still unconscious last time we checked, but his vitals seemed to be strong." Akira released a small sigh of relief, grateful that the annoying brunet seemed to be fine as well. She hesitated before asking for the third name.
"And Hideyoshi Nagachika?"
The investigator scanned through the names twice before shaking his head. "No… I'm sorry. He isn't on here." He looked uncomfortable all of a sudden, though Akira attributed it the uncertainty of the mission as a whole.
Akira nodded before forcing a weak smile to ease her comrade's nervous frown. "Thank you for looking, Yori-san." She turned to leave, but paused, lips parting as she considered her next words.
"Is there someone else you want me to look for?"
"No," Akira began slowly, "but I was curious about your list. Is everyone who took part in the mission supposed to be on it?" Maybe Nagachika wasn't supposed to even go with us after all.
Yori avoided her gaze and swallowed. Akira studied the pale man as a lump visibly rose and fell in his throat.
"Only the wounded." He licked his lips and nodded to a somber investigator behind him. "He has the list of the fatalities."
She followed his gesture, locking onto the man with narrowed eyes. Thanking the man again for his time, Akira set off towards the new investigator.
"Is that the updated list of fatalities?"
"So far, yes." He glanced at her and pulled his pen from the paper. He offered her the clipboard, knowing far too well what the bright glint in her eye meant. Akira quickly grabbed it with a murmured "thank you" and began to scan the list of names. Although she recognized a few of the deceased investigators, there had been many more on the injured list.
She frowned when she reached the end. She flipped the piece of paper back and forth, glancing at the stark white backside and the faint pen indentations on the clean page underneath.
He…isn't on here either…?
"Is this all…?"
The investigator nodded once, then twice. "They're still pulling a few bodies from inside. As they come out, I record the names," he answered.
"I see."
Akira glanced back towards the main warehouse entrance. The paramedics and her uninjured comrades were routinely carting out lumpy black bags and covered masses on stretchers. It was only a matter of time, she supposed, before they brought out her fallen teammate.
Determined to be of some use, she strode back inside the warehouse, carefully stepping over puddles of spilt crimson and the lifeless corpses of the dead ghouls. She paused at the threshold that Nagachika had disappeared through before crossing into a hallway.
Akira glanced down and mashed her lips at the crusty trail of dried maroon footprints leading to the second door. Although in the darkness they would have been imperceptible to the human gaze, the footsteps would have been a simple path to follow for a ghoul with sharp senses. Now in the blinding light of the CCG emergency lamps, she could see how easily Nagachika had led the ghoul to a fresh kill.
Upon entering the secondary warehouse bay, she quickly spotted the investigators hovering over something in the corner. Suppressing the squirming weakness in her stomach, Akira marched towards them, forcing a hardened frown across her features to prepare for the inevitable.
Along the way, she almost felt as if something was watching her. She turned her gaze towards the steel rafters before shaking her head, dismissing the ridiculous sensation. She was only stalling, knowing perfectly well what she was trying to avoid seeing. Akira resumed her traveling with another soft sigh.
However, once she reached the circle of coworkers, she stumbled to a stop at the puzzling sight in front of her.
Instead of spying Nagachika's mangled, partially consumed corpse, she only saw a puddle of dark crimson. To the side, she spotted the young man's discarded helmet, which had rolled a few feet from the thick liquid. One of the paramedics noticed her presence and offered her a grim smile.
"Did you already move the body here?"
He shook his head and turned his gaze back to the puddle. "No, there wasn't anything here. Strange, don't you think?"
Akira frowned at the man's words. There wasn't anything here? She glanced back towards the discarded helmet and the trail of blood droplets leading to another puddle on the other side of the room.
She didn't want to raise her hopes that he had managed to escape, especially considering that Nagachika was inexperienced and unarmed. However, she reminded herself that the young man had joined their team upon suspicious circumstances and he was absent from both complied lists of casualties.
Akira bent down to scoop up the teen's discarded helmet before straightening up and pinning the nearest person with a firm stare.
"Hideyoshi Nagachika—he's a missing investigation assistant."
"Ma'am…they're still a lot of missing investi—" he began cautiously, holding his hands out in a placating manner towards the blonde.
"He isn't here and there's no blood trail leading to a body. Ghouls don't just drag dead investigators to their hellholes for midnight snacks," she snapped, shoving the helmet into the paramedic's outstretched hands. "He's somewhere, so find him."
Spinning on her heel and trying not to stagger from the jagged dart of pain from her reopening injury, Akira stalked out of the warehouse bay.
She needed to find her superior.
With clenched fingers wrapped in collar of the human's uniform, Rakko studied his new possession with an unamused lift of an eyebrow.
This is what One-Eye wanted alive? He's barely more than an appetizer.
Rakko brought the boy closer to his face, peering at the blond's bruised and blood crusted face.
How could this kill another ghoul? He didn't even have a weapon.
Rakko continued to examine the unconscious human. With each deep inhalation of the boy's sweetly scented blood, his hunger grew and his desire to follow One-Eye's orders weakened.
Thankfully, he only had to wait a few moments for his superior to arrive. One-Eye skidded to a stop, his leather half-mask dangling from his clenched fingers as he glared at Rakko.
"Rakko," the younger ghoul growled, the earlier fury tinging his normally passive tone.
"Ahh, One-Eye," Rakko lazily drawled, allowing a carefree smile to stretch across his crimson flecked lips. "I believe our mission was a success. We killed many investigators despite—"
"Drop him." The words were frigid and sharp.
"Hmm?" Rakko feigned surprise, enjoying how his superior was struggling to reign in his conflicting emotions.
"I said, drop him."
"As you wish," Rakko echoed his previous statement, making sure to layer enough false sincerity to cause the half-ghoul's eye to twitch. He lifted the limp human a few inches in the air and loosened his fingers. The blond crumpled to the ground in a dark gray and crimson pile, remaining still and quiet.
Rakko glanced back towards his superior, noting the twisted, pale expression on One-Eye's face. It looks…it almost looks like he's scared. Of what though?
Could that weakling have actually killed another ghoul?
He didn't know much about One-Eye. Even the rumors surrounding the half-ghoul's mysterious rise to prominence in Aogiri's ranks seemed vague at best. Obviously, there was something between his superior and the unconscious human.
Rakko intended to find out what that connection was.
For a terrifying moment, Kaneki feared that he was too late. When he reached the room they had previously established as home base, all he could smell was his best friend's blood. As he burst into the room, barely holding back his ragged pants, Kaneki's narrowed eyes fell on Rakko's triumphant grin as he held the suspended human in the air.
The ghoul made a sardonic comment, but Kaneki didn't hear it. Instead, his attention was focused on his unconscious best friend, bleeding and bruised after being forcefully apprehended by Rakko.
I thought I told him not to hurt him, Kaneki growled in his mind. Once he figured out how to get Hide out of the psychopath's malicious grasp, he would make sure to punish his subordinate for failure to follow orders.
"Drop him," Kaneki heard himself mutter in a low, deepened voice. He repeated the demand when the ghoul feigned ignorance, straining to control the writhing anger coursing through his veins.
After another silent standoff of wills, Rakko sighed and tossed the human towards Kaneki. The sight of his best friend collapsing like a torn ragdoll caught Kaneki by surprise, causing a lump to rise in his throat. He quickly swallowed it and steeled his expression back to casual disinterest, but he was painfully aware that Rakko had caught his divulging flicker of emotion.
After all, there had to be a reason for the ghoul's muted smirk.
Kaneki tore his suspicious glare from the ghoul and glanced down at his beaten best friend. The prone human smelt so strongly of blood that it turned his stomach, forcing Kaneki to breathe shallowly through his mouth.
"I don't know what's such a big deal about him. He's just some shrimpy human," Rakko made a face at the unconscious investigator before shaking his head in disbelief.
"But… I think Ayato-san will want to see your new pet," he tossed over his shoulder on the way to the door.
Kaneki waited until the ghoul's sharp, echoing footsteps died down before dropping to his knees beside his best friend. He held a trembling hand over the boy's still shoulder before retracting it.
"Hide…?" Kaneki whispered weakly instead, half hoping the teen wouldn't stir. He still had too much to sort out in his mind before he could begin to share everything that had happened to him in the past few months.
The blond remained silent, face relaxed in a peaceful expression with his pale lips faintly parted.
Kaneki swallowed before gently tucking his arms around his best friend. With a soft grunt, he hoisted Hide into the air with one arm supporting the boy's knees while another cradled his shoulder blades. Unable to restrain himself, Kaneki buried his face into the blond's soft hair, inhaling the sweet fragrance of his shampoo. He wondered how he could ever forget the scent of his best friend, the scent of home. It was so comforting to feel the warmth pouring from the human's body as Kaneki held Hide against his chest. He tried to ignore the hot, sticky dribble of liquid that trailed from the human's leg and down Kaneki's sleeve.
The last time Kaneki had seen his best friend so damaged and battered was after Nishiki had ambushed them. Kaneki had failed them both by being too weak, and it had almost gotten Hide killed.
No matter what it took, he wouldn't fail him again.
Thank you so much for reading! Also, thanks for your reviews, favorites, and follows! Let me know what you think!
(Side note... Distressed!Kaneki is such a mess to write, 'cause that boy's mind is everywhere. Also, so psyched to finally start exploring that CCG team dynamics with Hide/Akira/Amon/Seidou. They're the cutest.)