-98: Quiet entry, loud raid—
I almost thought the battery had died until I remembered that I had flipped it on that day everything had gone to hell. Fixing that, I was able to boot the phone. Being tracked via cell signal wasn't exactly a worry, considering where I was: what were they going to do? Track me down to Aogiri's hideout, that they were already going to raid?
There was nothing I really stood to gain or lose by this, I figured, apart from keeping my conscience clear. Once I told Amon, it was all out of my hands as to what he did with it, and Anteiku and I weren't planning on being around to see the CCG raid. I flipped open the phone and took a last look around before pulling up Amon's number. It was not reassuring that each ring felt an accusation.
I overrode the greeting. "Koutarou, this is Allen. I have something you probably need to hear."
"Don't." Was the terse reply after a baited silent moment. "We aren't friends; you don't get address me like that."
Thank god Amon wasn't present to see me roll my eyes.
"Fine then. Amon , this is Agent Grissom. I have something you need to hear."
Dead silence. Great. Was I not allowed to use my title either?
There was some scuffling over the line. "Speak your piece."
"I have a good vantage point on the Aogiri hideout. It looks there's easily about three-zero-zero ghouls in here. Granted, they're spread out over the whole place, but it's pretty busy here."
"And what gave you the need to share that?"
"We're in the same profession, Koutarou, and we both know that good intelligence is essential whenever fieldwork is involved."
"We aren't." The cold in Amon's voice matched the threat of winter in the air. "Not since that night. I should have left you in that storm drain, or better, put you down then and there."
That…hurt more than I expected it to. Even if I had been justified that night.
"Oh, because keeping somebody eager to kill a kid from actually doing so is such an evil thing to do, right?" I winced; should've just kept my mouth shut.
"A ghoul." Amon growled back, a barely controlled tremor in his tone. "You…killed him…over a ghoul."
"After we killed her parents in cold blood." Now I was having a hard time keeping my voice level, "I am not about to stand by and let a traumatized orphaned child get murdered because someone had a taste for blood!"
"So you decided the best course of action was just to kill him yourself then, you goddamn hypocrite? Is that what they taught you at your BGA—if you even were ever part of it?"
"I gave him every opportunity to back down, to take them in, and get everybody out of there alive." The slight against my organization was barely being held back my frayed professionalism. "Multiple chances beyond what I should've, because my BGA taught me that offing innocent kids or anyone else for fun was off-fucking-limits."
Dead silence.
"He laughed in my face, threatened me and threw the first punch."
Amon's reply came through the earpiece like nuclear winter. "You ghoul liar."
Beneath my grip, the phone chassis creaked unhappily. I couldn't deal with this anymore.
"I didn't want that result."
That was all I managed before I snapped the phone closed with the snap of plastic on plastic and tried not to hurl it into the forest out of frustration. The alternative was me cursing out the CCG and Amon's late partner, something that for the moment was I was not. I looked skyward and sighed. I wasn't even sure how truthful the whole thing had been about that night. Between the blood loss and emotional charge, that whole block of time between heading to the drain and getting back to my hotel room was somewhat…fuzzy.
On the bright side, I could be certain of one thing now; I did not want to deal with Amon again.
In contrast Yoshimura, when I got up the nerve to actually call him was calmer than I was. After I told him the basic situation, I didn't expect his first words.
"Allen, it's all right. I'm not angry, only reassured to hear that you're still in one piece."
"I..." For some reason, there was a tear in my eye. "Thank you. I'll do my best to stay that way."
I told him almost everything, less anything about Eto outside her name—I'd keep that to myself until I could figure it out. Security, approaches, everything I thought would prove useful when Anteiku made their move.
"I'm going to keep looking for Kaneki as well," I finished, "if I'm lucky, I might actually find him."
"No, I don't think you should. Allen, you are currently in a fair amount of peril on the fact that you are a very new member of a very dangerous group. In the interest of your safety, I simply cannot recommend taking any further risks in your position."
"Okay." Against a fatherly tone like that, I had no choice. "I'll play it safe."
Despite not wanting to do nothing, the point was undeniable; even with Tatara gone, there was no promise that his enforcers weren't.
The last thing before we ended the call was the most important; there was going to be a meeting on when Anteiku would make their move this afternoon. That was a relief between fearing that everything was going to be delayed and hearing Eto talk as if it would be before the end of next week.
Now all I had to worry about was how hard Touka was going to hit me the next time we saw each other.
Eventually, dawn came and the night watch was swapped out once the sun had risen above horizon. That left me to find the darkest and most isolated spot I could to doze off in, since I really wasn't eager to fall asleep as the new guy with everybody around—that was how pranks and worse happened.
After sleeping away the morning and a good part of the afternoon, I jolted awake when my phone buzzed in my pocket, thinking something with lots of legs was crawling up my leg. After almost freaking out, I came to my senses and pulled out my purple phone. Several messages had been sent, actually. One from Hide, asking if I had any new leads on what he had given me: he could wait until this little Aogiri episode was over. On the more important side were two from Touka and one from the manager. Touka's were 'We're coming to save your and Kaneki's asses tonight, so you better be ready' 'I'm going to kick your ass after this is over'. The manager's sole text was more or less the same thing, except without the language and stating that they'd be starting after dark. All three were timestamped from around one-ish.
As I noted that it was now just after five in the afternoon, the phone buzzed again. Another message from Touka; 'You better not be fucking dead'. That in itself was funnier than it should've been. I confirmed to her that I was indeed alive and questioned her ability to kick my ass, then informed Yoshimura that I would be on the rooftop after dark.
Now all that remained was the worst part: the waiting. The weather seemed to be as restless as I was, the wind blowing in alternately from the ocean and the city and pushing around a patchwork sky.
Long after I had gotten paranoid that I had imagined the texts, a pair of ghouls in standard Aogiri garb came up the stairwell.
"We're looking for a ghoul." One of the pair said, prompting a confused turn from their companion. "One eyed, bit of a stubborn jackass."
"Hah." I recognized the voice and snark even with the Aogiri mask. "Nice one, Touka. I'm guessing you dragged along Nishiki as well."
"Obviously." Nishiki raised his mask just high enough to prove it was indeed him. "If you or Kaneki end up dead then we'll end up with that much more work."
I saw through the joke. At least I hoped It was a joke.
More figures emerged from the stairwell.
"The mask fits you well." A tattooed figure—had to be Uta—nodded approvingly.
That left Yomo as one of the remaining two, though neither of them looked like they could be Kouma or Irimi.
"Mon dieu!"
Oh no. Please no.
"Monsieur Allen! It is, indeed, an unadulterated pleasure to see you again!"
You have got to be kidding me.
"Yomo...anybody?" I was so not prepared to deal with the Francophile. "Why is he...here."
"We needed all hands on deck for this one." Touka sounded about as eager to have him around as I did.
My hand came up to knead my forehead, but I had to settle for lightly touching my mask. Worst part was that I couldn't really disagree: if we ended up in a fight here, we'd need all the help we could get. This was just something to endure for now. Later would be the time for working out any kinks that came with this and if nothing else, we had enough firepower to put him down if it came to that.
Yomo held a quiet conversation over a walkie-talkie and earpiece, while I got a quick briefing from Nishiki on the plan. Anteiku had entered the complex on the side opposite the buildings the White Suits had claimed and searched both buildings at that end. Yoshimura, Itori and Hinami were remaining there to coordinate us on searching for Kaneki.
The general plan was to go floor by floor through the whole complex, working off of the intelligence provided by Yohimura's team until we found Kaneki and then book it back out as quickly as possible. It was a good plan, or at least I couldn't see anything wrong with it. Hinami being along was something I wasn't particularly a fan of, but knowing her, she probably hadn't given the others any choice in the matter. If she really wanted to be out doing stuff like this, I'd be a lot less tense if somebody taught her some self-defense.
Ugh. Later. I'd worry about that later.
Nipping at our Aogiri disguises, the wind tilted back to the opposite direction, blowing from the ocean to the city. This time though, it carried something oddly familiar. Diesel exhaust.
My head perked up from where Yomo had paused his planning to listen to some incoming brief. Diesel hadn't been a common scent in Tokyo for the time I had been around, which made the oddly nostalgic sensation all the more unusual. It finally clicked: it was the same smell as the exhaust from military transport trucks back from when I was an EOD specialist. Which could really only mean one thing—
"The CCG is here," Yomo calmly announced, "we need to continue the search."
The snap of a gunshot added a weighty period to the end of his sentence.
A somewhat irregular waltz of gunfire proceeded as we made our search, floor by floor. Most of the Aogiri members paid us no attention, and those who did gave us little more than a passing glance—there were, unsurprisingly, bigger things for Aogiri to worry about.
"Hey." Nishiki hissed, as Yomo and Uta led our search to another floor. "The hell is going on out there?"
"Stalemate, probably." I flung open a door, only to find a broom closet. "I'd guess that the CCG is focusing their attention on that paved main entrance, but they've gotta deal with Aogiri having the high ground."
"So this lasts until one side runs out of ammunition."
"They won't keep trying to just charge it in up the middle. The CCG will get in, it's just a matter of time."
"Ugh. You are a real mood killer, you know that?"
"Eh." I shrugged, checked an abandoned apartment, and shrugged again. "No attack helicopter, so we're in good shape as far as that goes."
Nishiki made a noise like I had suggested he eat his girlfriend. "Attack Helicopter?"
"It..." I should've kept my mouth shut. "It was just a one time thing."
Now Touka was staring me down through her rabbit mask as well.
"Look, it was for something a lot bigger than this, if that helps." A low rumble undercut the chatter of gunfire. "...Is that a motorcycle?"
Nishiki cocked his head toward the front of the complex. "I... I think so?"
A few moments later, there was a distant but definite crash and a sudden spike in gunfire. What the hell was the CCG doing?
