-101: Reunite and Retreat—
Knowing it was my weapon made the who of its wielder immediately obvious. There were questions as to the why of her being here, but I tamped them down as I approached the group. What mattered now was getting what was in her hand back into mine. Where it belonged.
One of the ghouls stepped in front of me as I approached, avoiding another swipe from my stolen quinque—he was shoved aside hard enough to stumble into one of the others. All it took from there was a few quick steps, sidestepping of a clumsy diagonal slash and there I was, finally touching my weapon again. Well, there was the minor issue of the other party still holding on.
"Hasuko." I dragged her in close as I unfurled my kagune. "I want my quinque back."
Her reaction was to immediately release her grip and stumble to the floor as if I had hit her. The two other CCG agents still standing followed her lead and took an immediate step back.
And I had my quinque again. My purpose-forged weapon, as much a mark of my career as my badge. Even my arm felt better just holding the haft. The quartet of ghouls were silent as I turned back around. Now what I really wanted to do was use it—just to make sure I hadn't gotten rusty since the separation. Well, there were Aogiri ghouls around…and a few CCG.
"So…" One of the Aogiri ghouls shifted uncomfortably before taking a half-step toward me.
So I started with him. His arm had barely hit the ground before I started on the second one.
None of these ghouls were that tough. Punches deflected by my kagune, an unbalanced kick punished with a severed arm. Mediocre tactics, basically no coordination like I had seen from Kaneki and Touka. Shame. The first one went down with a messy thrust through the heart, a charge stopped short by the crosspiece of my quinque.
My kagune blocked a chop from a kokaku and instinctively responded by firing a shard into it with a meaty crack. The ghoul whose arm I had taken found the guts to lunge and force me back, but he attempted to force his luck a second time. Now ready, it was an easy matter to trip him up with my quinque, though I wasn't able to follow up thanks to the third ghoul whipping his bikaku at my head.
My response was to put a pair of spikes through his gut, taking the wriggling worm out of the fight.
Whatever coordination here was accidental; the fact that they had barely been able to hit me was proof enough of that. These were probably ghouls whose combat philosophy was simply to use their enhanced faculties to win in a fight. All brute force and no skill—the ghoul equivalent of a barroom brawler. The kokaku attempted another few hits with his swordlike kagune—I deflected the first, dodged the second and mostly decapitated him on the third.
Damn it. I wanted a good fight after Jason, not Aogiri cannon fodder.
Apparently not having learned his lesson, the one armed ghoul attempted a swipe at my leg from his place on the ground, where he belonged. My reply was to nail the offending limb to the floor with a kagune shard and aerate his skull with my quinque.
Now all that remained was the one who I had spiked in the gut. Perhaps they were better than I had given credit for; this one had managed to remove the spikes, stand up, and manage to plant their feet as if they knew more than nothing about fighting. How welcome. Except I was quickly disappointed. Sure, there was some basic training at play, but this was absolutely not the fight I had hoped for. Especially from the jack-of-all-trades bikaku. An overly obvious kagune strike whiffed just over my shoulder, close enough to send a breeze of its sugary scent to my nose…and I couldn't help myself.
I wrapped the end of the fleshy-scaled limb with my own, holding it in place. Before anything could happen, I had leaned in and taken a sizable mouthful out of the attacking kagune as if it was a shishkebab. It was warm, soft and wet, with a texture like slightly melty gummy candy.
My opponent-slash-snack only had enough time to cultivate a look of horror before I planted a shard from my kagune through their eye socket. And that was…it? Yes, that was all four ghouls. Something moved at the edge of my field of vision.
Of course I had forgotten about the CCG!
I spun, bringing my quinque to bear, blocking a strike from a quinque shaped like an axe, and dropping its owner with a stab. Next was another, stepping in close. I brought my hand close to the crosspiece to slice this one from shoulder to hip—and then screeched my attack to a halt.
Hmm.
Who was this CCG grunt with my quinque three inches from his neck, and why did he look familiar? It all cleared up when his eyes flicked away from my weapon to Hasuko for the briefest of moments. Ah, that was it. This was one of the people who had been at the bar with us that night Hasuko had made her move on me. The one who had been playing drunk footsie with his girlfriend. Not that I remembered his name.
Funny, though.
"Small world." I couldn't help but remark as I stepped back.
His only response was to back off even further and step between Hasuko and I. Hasuko, I noticed then, was bleeding from an arm and a leg. Apparently she had been putting up a fight. Not too much of a fight that she was unable to spit some venom as I took the first aid kit from a dead CCG and tossed at the pair's feet. Whatever her obsessive faults, she had a core of iron.
"Monster."
Now that was funny.
"Purpose built and at your service." I switched my quinque to its inactive state, waving it mockingly at the dead. "And much more effective than...them."
The other poor CCG was torn between confused looks at me and her. Back by the door, Nishiki noted that we should probably be leaving. After a few moments, I agreed. They'd be picked up when the main body of their force retook the floor. Probably. Three flights of stairs and a long hallway later, he finally spoke up again.
"What the fuck was that?"
"Was what?"
"That! All of that!" We hopped over a few overturned garbage cans. "You get this weird look, delay us downstairs for some field trip of a detour."
"Oh. That."
"Yes that! What happened, you didn't get in your quota of bloodshed for this shitshow? Or did you just feel like collecting a quinque for kicks and giggles."
"I, uh, had to meet an old friend." I had no idea how Nishiki was being so long winded while keeping at a dead run.
"The fuck is that supposed to mean!?"
"Later. I'll explain later."
"You better. If your detour there gets us killed, I'm gonna haunt you until the end of days, you bloodthirsty wingnut."
That was actually pretty funny for an insult, even in the present situation.
We could still hear the fighting when we reached the final building in the row, appearing to be mostly limited to the buildings behind us, fortunately. No sign of Kaneki or Touka, hopefully because they had already gotten out. The more pressing problem was more of a…vertical issue.
"…Um." We were at a window at the very end of the building, looking out over the forest. The upper bits of the forest, as it were.
"What?" Nishiki cocked his head, clearly confused.
"It's, ah, about three stories." Nishiki had already leveraged himself up on the sill.
"So?"
"Isn't that…a little high?"
"Eh?" He shrugged, leaning out to look straight down. "Meh. Pretty short drop."
Short drop by what standards?
Nishiki figured it out quickly. "You're scared of heights? Everything going on, and you balk at heights?"
"…not particularly fond of them." I muttered looking away from the window.
The sound Nishiki made in response clearly indicated what he thought of that. "I'm not about to get delayed by acrophobia. Jump, you baby or I swear there's going to be a defenestration in the next ten seconds."
"Acro-who and defe-what now?" Great, more Japanese words I didn't understand.
"Jump or be thrown."
Well, between those two evils, I chose to go willingly. Once I climbed onto the sill, the next thing I knew I was in the treeline with a twinge in my ankle fading. Next time anything like that had to happen would be far too soon. Behind me, Nishiki chuckled evilly and noted that he had not expected me to make a high pitched noise on the way down.
Following Nishiki further in, the sounds from the CCG raid were quickly absorbed by the trees. Now, hopefully, we could call ourselves clear and safe—at least, as safe as being ghoul in Tokyo could be. We were, according to Nishiki, heading toward the meeting point everyone had agreed upon and eventually the growl of the surf overrode the wind in the trees.
"Well, here we are." Nishiki stepped onto a rocky beach and flung his imposter Aogiri mask into the ocean. "Means we somehow made it through that."
"Mh. Also the only ones here." I noted, uncomfortably.
"Give it time." My companion sat on a boulder, using the Aogiri cloak as a cushion. "Touka is never on time, but she eventually shows up."
"True enough." I had to agree. "Still paranoid."
The reassurance was enough to keep me from running back into the forest, but not enough to keep me from pacing. Nor did it get the hundred unpleasant what-ifs in the back of my head to recede.
"You've been talking funny. Should I be worried?"
Tearing my eyes away from the treeline, I looked back to Nishiki.
"Not really my business, but you've been sounding like you've got a mouthful of t-shirt stuffed in there."
Oh. That. "I…" I decided to keep the details to a minimum. "…had a few teeth knocked out."
"Figured. Touka said the only reason you weren't back was if you were dead or captured, and you're too stubborn to end up dead."
Not smart enough to not get captured, though. Not calm enough to stop moving either.
Still pacing and swinging my quinque around by its carry loop, I turned away from the forest and out to sea. Across the bay, the city looked all the world like a line of lights with the skyscrapers of the downtown looking like a luminous mountain. From his perch, Nishiki noted that Yomo and the others had taken an alternate route out. News, but not the news I was looking for. Waiting like this was my least favorite part of anything and not having a way to distract myself was torturous. Where were they?
Pacing back across the same stretch—yet again—the urge to start throwing rocks into the water was pressing, but I was smart enough not to try it. The way my luck had been going, I'd probably awaken some kind of ghoul Godzilla. And I wasn't ready to add 'destroyer of Tokyo' to my resume. At least not yet.
Nishiki hopped from his boulder in a clatter of loose stones. Almost not daring to hope for the best, I turned to see Touka leading Kaneki out of the treeline. Both were a little more beat up and muddier than when I had seen them last, but, it was them. Pulling my mask off as I walked to the pair, I couldn't help but do the first thing that came to mind. Which was to wrap the pair up in a bear hug that neither made a move to escape. It was so gratifying to see the pair that I could almost laugh in relief. When I let go, Nishiki was giving us an odd look and I couldn't help but snag him in one as well despite his attempt to squirm out of reach.
"So…" Touka looked around at our quartet. "What now?"
"Home." I nodded, locking eyes with Kaneki. "Now we get to go home.
And for once, it was just that simple.
First off: stay safe, all of you; wash your hands, restrict your time in groups and take care of yourselves. Of course, you're about as introverted as I am, just keep doing what you've been doing. My office closed to have everybody work from home, so my usual writing habits have basically gone out the window, but I'm healthy if a little impatient to figure out a good schedule again. And remember to do something you love and have a happy little preemptive quarantine.
Up next, a little glimpse through a different perspective and Allen wakes up in a familiar place. Later on, a look into history and a little soul-searching.
As always, it is a pleasure to write for you all and my inbox is open to answer any questions.
