-97: When in Rome—
The Bin Brothers had just dropped me off in what seemed to be serving as a barracks and left without a word. There were still a lot of things I didn't know. For example, was I supposed to be interacting with the others, or were they supposed to approach me first? What was I supposed to do when nighttime happened and I was supposed to be on watch? Also, was leaving my mask on okay? I didn't really want to take it off, but I didn't want to make some huge social scandal out of wearing it around.
And I had thought going around as a human among humans in had been difficult.
If nothing else, my mask might've been why all the other ghouls were on the opposite side of the room. Someone had gone ahead and taken out several walls, making several apartments into one big barrack space. The added distance did not make me any more comfortable, and it looked like I would be sleeping in the same room with these people. Last time I had slept in a room with other ghouls—ghouls plural—had been back in my EOD time, and that had been distinctly uncomfortable. Not to mention it had only gone downhill from there.
Eventually I couldn't deal with being in the room and stepped out onto the nearest balcony. It only faced another building, but it was good enough for getting me out of the room. I'd say that it probably couldn't get much worse, but that stood the risk of further jinxing this whole thing.
Fuck me for not listening to Touka.
What I really needed to do was get in touch with Anteiku and let them know I was still alive. In that respect, I could be thankful that I hadn't been searched: I still had everything that had been in my pockets, though I hadn't checked if it was all intact. At least, it should be all intact.
After only a few minutes outside and feeling the breeze brush over my hands, I broke down and pulled the mask off. Even with it being comfortable as it was, there was something about feeling the coolness that just made me want to feel it on my face. Saltwater mixed with that scent that came before a cold snap or snowfall—possibly both, as it was almost the end of fall. Wonder what everybody did in winter? Maybe it would be just like back home.
"Hey uh, have you seen Kouto and Kei around, have you?"
I blinked, almost surprised at being spoken to.
"Uh…" I turned, not sure of how to answer that I didn't know anybody.
The ghoul blinked hard and put up his hands apologetically. "Sorry, sorry. Didn't think you were new. Nevermind."
"Who are they?" Doing nothing until dusk would be worse than being stuck with Eto. "I can keep an eye out."
"Kei is about so tall," he made a motion at about my shoulder height, "shoulder-ish length hair. Kouto is her kid—about twelve, I think—has a bowl cut and bit of a bold streak."
Well, that rules out the mother and kid I saw earlier; that kid was definitely younger than ten.
"Hazu! Don't try to rope anyone else into that search party! They're in a completely different group, you milf-chaser!"
I almost chuckled at the heckle. Trash talk really is universal.
The ghoul in front of me shot back with a couple rapid-fire insults of his own before turning back to me.
"Sorry about that. I only know her from back in the sixteenth ward."
"A Different group?"
"Yeah. Thought they'd get put under the Bin Bothers like us or with Miza, but they put her in Ayato's group." He shrugged. "Didn't get stuck in Jason's group, at least."
Jason. Now there was a name that rang a bell, even if all I had seen was him toying with Kureo and Amon. More recently, I also had heard the manager and Yomo talking as if he had been one of the uninvited parties to Anteiku on that day. Evven assuming the usual embellishment that went with ghoul tales, Jason sounded more like a serial killer who also happened to be a ghoul. What I could say with certainty was that I was not interested in meeting him, let alone fighting him without a numbers advantage or my quinque.
I groaned under my breath after remembering that. If there was one item I'd do anything for right about now, it was that. Not that I'd ever see it again.
For the time being, the mask stayed off and under the newest addition to my wardrobe. Given how few looks I attracted while I walked around though, wearing it was kind of pointless. Here in Aogiri's hideout I was getting fewer looks than when I was walking around the twentieth ward. Who would've thought that the ghouls were the more tolerant lot.
For the sake of being honest with myself, I wasn't really looking for that Kouto and Kei pair. Well, I was looking, but not with single-minded intensity as much as using the looking to distract myself. In the past twelve hours, I had been basically kidnapped, railroaded into joining what was the exact opposite of my job, and was now basically being imprisoned. Not to mention that I was missing work. Between Touka's wrath and Yoshimura's disapproval, I was not going to be in for an easy time of it once we got Kaneki back.
That said, Kaneki had to be here; everything I knew pointed to it, down to Jason's involvement. There were only twelve or so buildings here to search—even if eight were fairly large apartment blocks—and if I was lucky, I'd find him sooner rather than later. Alive. If he wasn't, then…
A slew of murderous thoughts danced in my head. It would only be right to return the favor, wouldn't it? To the entirety of Aogiri.
Only after that thought did I realize that I had been chewing at the inside of my cheek enough for it to start bleeding again. Recognizing the habit for what it was, I stopped on the sidewalk between two buildings and tried to get myself less worked up. Here I was in an even less familiar world than Tokyo and somehow even further in the deep end than I had been before. Stress was part of my job, whether disarming explosives or tacking ghouls, and I knew how to overcome it—or at least not let it bother me. What I was considerably less versed in dealing with were these recent urges to just solve problems with violence. Maybe the stress was getting to me.
"Where d'you think you're headed, meat?"
I paused midstep. In the doorway of the building ahead, a particularly well dressed ghoul had stepped out to block my path.
"I'm looking for Kouto and Kei."
No response. I started to describe them as they had been to me, but got cut off.
"And why the fuck would you come over here to do it?" He jabbed a thumb behind him. "This here's White Suit territory. These're our territory and Jason's playroom."
Staring back, I rolled around the last word in my head—he had said 'playroom', right? Either that or I was missing some critical detail thanks to me still not knowing enough to hold a conversation at the speed of a native speaker. Had he said 'arcade' or perhaps 'private quarters' perhaps, and I had mistranslated? At least the white suit part had been clear enough, mostly because it explained his getup.
"Holy hells, are you brain damaged or just deaf? We're the White Suits! We don't accept weaklings! If some mom and her twerp came wandering around here we'd chuck them right back where you're standing."
"Is that so." I muttered, trying not to show just how much this roadblock was rubbing me the wrong way.
"Hah? You givin' me lip?" The White Suit approached, cutting the distance between us to barely a foot. "How about you say that again where we both can hear it."
Had I done something to irritate him, or was he just looking to work out some frustrations. In either case, getting into a fight here was something I could not call the best choice. Or I could just kill him.
"What is it? CCG got your tongue?"
It would be pretty easy to get rid of the body, given that the ocean is barely a short walk away.
"C'mon fresh meat. Wanna dance? Wanna run away and I can do to you what Jason did to the last group who tried to run?"
"What I want…" Making eye contact, I took a moment to think. "I want to rip you apart, eat your kagune and throw what's left into the ocean."
The space between the ghoul and I lengthened back to about six feet.
"Oh yeah?" The note of confrontation was also gone. "Go find somebody more gullible to screw with, goddamn nutcase."
To be honest with myself, I didn't know how serious I was being about that threat. It hadn't been empty, but there was just a little too much seriousness to let me dismiss it completely. Maybe I had been a bit too eager in delivering it. Last night's lack of sleep was not doing good things.
The rest of my daylight hours were split between dozing in out of the way rooms and trying to find said rooms that were empty. It was still surprising to me just how many ghouls were here, even if it was probably because I had only been around at most fifteen at a time before this. Ghouls walking around, talking, doing all the things regular humans did when they weren't working.
The closest comparison I had was when friends said they had adult things to do, and then you walked in on them doing their tax returns. Technically true, but not what was expected.
By the time I had been sent up to the roof for guard duty, I had a general of how Anteiku and I would want to raid. Easiest way in would be the same way I had come, and the safe way out would be to travel parallel to the shore through the forest before turning toward the city proper and home. We'd have to split up to search though; between the size of the buildings and getting blocked more times than I had hoped, I had only gotten to search through three.
On a similar vein, I still had no idea how the CCG were planning on raiding this place, though now I was of the opinion that the numbers would be the real problem. With the bodies at their disposal, Aogiri could force a very bloody fight from building to building if they wanted to. Of course, that opened up another possibility; that the CCG didn't know the details of what they were walking into.
Also a new development; three more teeth had fallen out. I was doing my best to not think about my whole mouth situation, but every time I went to bite my cheek on the right side was a reminder of…that.
As the last bit of daylight faded, a question occurred to me that hadn't previously: should I tell the CCG? Amon, really, since I didn't have their tip line. Foul taste toward Kureo and the CCG in general aside, Amon and Shinohara were proof that not everybody there was a lunatic.
I'd call Amon. I owed him that much of a courtesy, from one agent to another.
More important was that I get in touch with Anteiku: I didn't want our own raid to get delayed—or worse, cancelled—thanks to the mess I had gotten my sorry ass into. Sliding a hand down into my pocket, I looked over to the other few individuals who had night watch as well. Each of us had taken a different rooftop, but nobody seemed to be taking it seriously, and one had even laid down on the roof access with the intent to nap. Small wonder Touka and I had such an easy time scouting.
"My oh my, looks who's not failing to surprise."
I knew who it was before I turned. Eto.
"You're either very brave or very stupid." I wasn't about to deny her claim—she was both right and I remembered how easily she had handled me earlier. "Tatara thought it was fairly certain you'd try to run. He doesn't quite know you like I do."
"Okay…" I retreated a step as she advanced. How had she gotten out onto the roof so quietly? More importantly, how was she somehow less disquieting than Hasuko?
"I know how characters like you are written." A finger waggled scoldingly in my direction. "You're either so obsessed with staying alive that it keeps you from becoming interesting, or you're just a puppet who lives only to have his strings pulled."
Something must've flickered across my face, because Eto giggled and smiled, her teeth catching the dim light and staining it silver.
"The puppet wants to stay alive, but is too scared to cut its own strings. Poetic."
I only scowled and pulled my mask out and on. Giving her more things to throw at me was not what I wanted to do right now. We were circling each other by now, though I had only started to keep her from getting behind me.
"You're really more interesting to look at with that mask off. Hmmm," Interlacing her fingers at the side of her face, Eto smiled in a cruel flavor of happiness, "At least you've got more going for you than that other ghoul like you. A character struggling in a noose of fear is more fun to read than to write."
Kaneki. She's talking about Kaneki. She knows about Kaneki.
Taking a step forward, I didn't manage the first syllable of my question before I found myself flat on my back and nailed down by an arm and leg. Eto once again stood above me, smile gone and eyes shadowed in black.
That was…not my brightest idea.
"You know that was clearly foolish." She stepped around to step on my free arm, "Why you'd choose to associate with such a weak boy is beyond me and you should know better. Every weakling you associate with is just another puppeteer to pull your strings.
"Where—"
"Shush." Except I was being spoken to by a complete mouth on the length of Kagune pinning down my arm. Exactly what the hell was Eto?
"I don't even know where he is. And why would I?" She bent down so her head was directly over mine. "I didn't become strong by concerning myself with the weak—something you should do well to note, assuming you want to live much longer."
A second mouth shushed me when I attempted to disagree.
"You interest me, Allen. That's something not even Tatara can claim to have done."
That was very much a not-reassuring thing to hear.
"My advice to you for the moment is simple." Stepping off my arm, she squatted down so her face was upside down and right above mine, and once again pulled off my mask. "Run."
"Run." I echoed with a touch of snark. "After you and Tatara threatened death if I did?"
"I only said that lots of ghouls die trying to run away. Tatara was the only one to make a threat, and he's violently single minded. Did you know he's only after one Investigator in a quaint little vendetta? He probably even thinks there's something between him and I." Eto giggled in that eerie way, making it clear of what she thought of that idea. "He doesn't care much for the end goal here anyway."
"And what would the end goal be?"
But instead of being shushed, Eto just ignored my question.
"Why am I interesting?" I tried again.
That caught her attention. And prompted something awfully close to a smile without malicious intent.
"Because you," she smiled, tweaking my nose, "are a black swan event that nobody has thought to account for. The CCG are dumber than I thought if they didn't tear apart the city looking for you, even if the men behind the curtain might've put a stop to that."
Black swan event, men behind the curtain—Eto was making references to a things that I really couldn't make sense of.
"This is all a little over your head, isn't it?" I detected a distinct sound of disappointment in her tone. "For now, all you need to know is that Tatara and I are leaving, and that anybody still here by the end of the next week will be killed."
"The CCG raid." I could recognize that reference at least.
Eto only put a finger up to her grinning lips in reply before unpinning me with a slippery sound and daintily hopping off the side of the building.
Ugh. Goddamn heights. It would be a very dark day when I would imitate Eto for the sake of avoiding some stairs. As far from the edge as I could, I watched Eto and Tatara disappear into the woods at the head of a stream of ghouls. In the event everything she had said was correct, neither of them would be returning to the apartment complex. Not that I was really in the position to trust anything she said.
Hobbling away from the edge of the rooftop, I slumped down against the stairwell access. However Eto had pinned me, she had apparently done it with a minimum of damage, since I wasn't hurting as much as I thought I should. Noteworthy because I was sure that she could've turned me into a smoothie if she had wanted. Seriously, what did she eat for her kagune to gain the ability to shush me. Forget the other one-eyed ghoul; Itori would better served to learn about Eto.
That said, I'd keep just how nice she smelled to myself. And how I almost wouldn't mind her putting her finger in my mouth—I shook my head, hard, to dislodge that and several other thoughts.
Taking one last look around for unwanted company, I reached into my pockets and pulled out my phones. Black first; I owed Amon a favor, professional to professional.
The idea of Eto referencing writing terminology came about naturally, given her established role as an acclaimed author and that we don't have much in they way of full conversations to go on from the series. Her more sophisticated speech strikes a nice contrast to Allen's more blunt manner moreso when her knowledge is compared with Allen not seeing much of the game behind the scenes.
Work has settled down a little, so I should be able to reply to comments again and post the next chapter sooner.
Next chapters; phone calls, murder, mayhem, a happy reunion, an unexpected reunion, corpse looting, retrieval of lost property, and a room with a checkerboard floor.
