-111: Awkward Questions-
Why more? The thought seeped through my brain with the same crimson certainty as the blood through my bandages. Why use twins was something I was fairly certain I could answer; twins are a genetic match, so what worked on one should do the same to the other. Still, why risk two successes on something as menial as bodyguarding for some socialite? I would've traded an eye for the same kind of insight Kaneki had, because he had clearly been thinking since we had locked Madam A in a shipping container in a particularly decrepit storage yard.
Nishiki had decided to visit today, though this had consisted of him covering most of the kitchen tables in notebooks and papers. When Hinami stopped moving long enough to ask what he was doing, he had replied 'chemistry' in a tone implying great personal suffering, to the point where I made him a pot of pity coffee. I had been doing some chemistry of my own, though nothing so intricate as the...something...that was being laid out in the kitchen. Still, I had hit a brick wall there, so I was taking a break.
Hinami had started moving about an hour after noon, and hadn't really stopped. Her copy of Sen Tatsuki's book had been forgotten and there was now a regular thumping noise from the living room, where she was making longer and longer leaps.
Apparently yesterday's trip across the city had awoken something. If Nishiki was as annoyed by the noise as I thought he was, he was hiding it well.
"I guess you've found something you like."
"Yesterday was awesome! I got to jump on rooftops, hang out with mister Nishiki and even use my kagune! And mister Nishiki even said mine looked really cool!" Her tone immediately switched to businesslike. "Um, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have been having so much fun and thank you for letting me help. I'm glad I was able to be of assistance."
"Nishiki told you to say the last part, didn't he."
She nodded.
"Sounded boring enough."
There was muffled 'screw you' from the kitchen.
Hinami however, seemed to be considering me for something.
"Allen... will you teach me to fight?"
Uh.
From the kitchen, much more distinctly: "Bad idea!"
"Please Allen?" Despite being a few years too old for it to work, she still made the attempt at puppy eyes.
"Touka will kill you." The voice from the kitchen made a good point.
"You can teach me in secret! I'll never tell Touka or Kaneki."
"Your funeral." Nishiki's award-winning rendition of my voice of reason continued. "The longer before she finds out, the angrier she'll be."
Hinami leaned to the side and glared into the kitchen.
"All right." Despite the risks, and hazard of Touka's temper, I gave in. "In secret though."
"Yesssss!"
Successful in her personal mission, she bounded off and left me to wander into the kitchen to see Nishiki.
"She's going to beat the shit out of you when she finds out."
"I'll deal with it when it happens. How goes your..." I waved my hands at the table, "...thingy?"
Smirking, Nishiki stepped back to lean on the counter. "Lab project. And much better, now that I can lay everything out. Basically a long stuipd process to synthesize one of the active components in perfume manufacture."
"Ah. I've been doing something...basic." I thought back to my brick wall upstairs. "Stuck though."
"Happens.
"On this? Really?"
"Shut it."
"Idiot, you aren't using enough potassium nit—hold on. Magnesium, sulfur..." A very suspicious look was directed at my hopefully innocent face. "Explosives, really?"
"Flashbang." I clarified.
Nishiki passed me back the paper and made a motion of washing his hands. "Speaking of flashy, did you see Kaneki and Touka? Fuck me did they look like a matched pair. Where is Kaneki today, anyway?"
"With Tsukiyama. Probably talking with Madam A."
"And you're pissed that they went without you, right? What did you expect after you scared her fucking senseless."
"I did not."
If Nishiki would've rolled his eyes any harder I would've been able to hear it. "Forget it. I gotta work on this lab, so..."
He went back to his papers, and I recognized the end of a conversation. On the bright side being at home today had given me a way through one roadblock. And then when I went upstairs, Kaneki was sitting at my desk and Tsukiyama was sitting on my bed. This of course led to questions. No, they had not snuck in via my window; they had come in through the back door. No, my help was not needed with interrogating Madam A, but according to Tsukiyama, the threat of my involvement in her questioning had been very useful. Cold comfort: I would rather be directly involved rather than sitting out.
Kaneki toyed with a paper on my desk. "She gave us something. An address where, allegedly, she met with Kanou."
"Think it's true?"
Tsukiyama sniffed, crossing his legs, "At a glance, the address looks like it is a fair way outside the city, which could be useful for someone trying to hide from prying eyes..."
"...Or we've been given false intelligence." I finished, feeling the pessimism on my tongue.
"We can't spare any time if it is true." Kaneki noted, "And while the odds of a trap are there, I think we would stand to benefit even if it is a trap—someone would be on hand to spring it. Catch them, and we have another lead."
"Sounds hazardous." Tsukiyama sounded unconcerned, but he leaned forward all the same.
"Only if we walk in blind." I replied.
Kaneki nodded. "I want both of you to see what you can learn—separately. Consult whatever sources you can dig up, but be discrete. I don't think Kanou would have many connections to the ghoul world, but whose two... Well, we can convene whenever we have something concrete, and make our move sooner rather than later."
Tsukiyama asked me after Kaneki went downstairs whether I would be heading out to ask Itori. Personally, I had no intention of bringing this to her or visit her bar, until I had recovered from the last meeting we had. I conceded the resource of Itori to Tsukiyama, but I didn't really have the sources Kaneki thought I had. My time roaming around had been pretty much the opposite of making friends, but I suppose if I really had to I could always interrogate some random ghoul or Aogiri grunt about it.
In what could be considered cheating, I went to a local library, printed off a satellite image of the address and tried to glean anything that I could. After that, I looked at it like a potential operation; where to enter the property, where lines of sight were, possible escape and breach options. Was it sufficient? I didn't know; Kaneki had asked for everything on the property, not just how we would go about breaking in. What I needed right now was someone who had a completely different angle on this. The 'who' of it didn't take long, but I hesitated. It had been months, we hadn't talked since and I had taken more than I had given that time. On the other hand the only other option I could see was to use that other phone and get in touch with the Australians, and that felt...unsafe.
Lemme know when you have a minute?
I barely had the phone back in my pocket before it buzzed.
Allen, long time no hear! What's up?
Got a project I'm working on and I need a new set of eyes. You interested?
Was looking for some excuse to stop studying, so perfect timing! But first, you're gonna need to treat me to some karakoe. Deal?
Deal. Same place as last time?
You know it!
Half an hour later, we were sitting in the same refurbished hotel, with a jaunty and probably British show tune aimed directly at the door.
"Always something interesting when you're around." Hide was looking at my notes and his laptop at the same time. "There annotations are for sightlines, right? I assume Kaneki has you planning a raid."
Just like last time, I couldn't hide much from him. "How'd you figure it out?"
"Snuck peeks at some of my dad's maps from S.A.T work. Notes look pretty much the same."
"Still interested in the more dangerous side of law enforcement? Perhaps..." I let my voice trail off, and pointed to the lanyard dangling from a backpack pocket, "The CCG?"
"Ah, I know." Hide chuckled uncomfortably. "But the police force proper wants a two year degree from a special college and the SDF or S.A.T. would take me out of Tokyo for years, so that's a nope for me. With the CCG internship, I get to stay in the city, get training, and even if the S.A.T. hates the CCG, they still respect the experience on a resume."
"Fair enough." I sighed, knowing that I was going to have as much success changing his mind as I would Kaneki's. "Just know that the junior guys seem to be cursed with shorter life spans."
"Speaking of cursed, this address might be."
"You really think that?"
"Guy who built it, some concrete magnate: cancer got him in the sixties, next owner used it as a vacation home and died from a hunting accident on the property. Last owner and first result for the search of the address; some executive and family, and the husband and wife get devoured by a ghoul while the daughters are at daycare. If that's not cursed, it's pretty close."
"Ghoul, huh." That was certainly an unusual coincidence.
"Figured that'd perk up your ears." Hide spun his laptop around to show me a map. "Plus, you know this property is a lot bigger than the picture you printed, right? It's huge, got a forest and a good sized stream going through it as well."
"I thought it was just out in the boonies."
"Yeah, but this is rich people boonies, where there's huge estates and fancy front gates. Plots of land that they just keep for...whatever. Also, I think he's been digging."
"Digging?"
"Yeah, see these shapes behind the house?"
"You mean the ruts in the grass?"
Shaking his head, Hide traced some of the parts with his fingertip. "They're too geometric; right angles, arcs, and there's no mud, just an outline. I'd bet my college tuition on it there's something down there."
I didn't know what to say about that. Maybe Hide was seeing some bigger picture, maybe he was seeing patterns in the static.
And speaking of seeing.
"Hide," I paused as the song ended, and waited until its replacement had spun up, "have you talked to Kaneki?"
"Ah, well..." That his mood shifted from energetic to awkward told me enough.
"You haven't?"
"He'll get in touch when he's ready."
"I have been telling him for months to get in touch." I made a high-pitched sound of frustration. "If I had both of you here right now, I would bonk your heads together."
"I don't want to rush him, it'll just resolve on its own."
Yeah, after the CCG threw me a parade.
The purple phone was in my hand and when Hide started to protest, I told him to sit and wait with a tone reserved for training obstinate puppies. Kaneki answered on the fourth ring.
"You know the karaoke place about two blocks from that row of coffee vending machines? The one in that converted hotel? How soon can you get there?"
"Um...maybe twenty minutes." A pause. "Allen, what's this about?"
"It's about the case. Head up to room-" I pointed at Hide, who signed it with his hands, "One-four-one. It is important."
"All right." Kaneki sounded like a parent being dragged by a child. "Karakoe, room one hundred and forty one."
Hide moved as if to pack up, but I stopped him.
"You're staying." I repeated. "Kaneki is too scared to drag you into any of this, so he's not going to reach out. You are too willing to wait to let him reach out so you aren't going to reach out. I'm fucking terrible at relations stuff, but I know that if I don't do something, the two of you are just going to dance around this until the sun goes out."
"But what should I do?"
"I already said I'm no good at this! Show him everything you just showed me, hug it out, karakoe, rap battle, children's card games. Figure. It. Out."
When Kaneki finally did arrive five songs in the playlist later, he saw Hide and immediately tried to walk backward out of the room. Snagging a handful of his shirt, I reeled him back and placed myself between the pair and the doorway. From there, I informed the duo that I was giving them fifteen minutes to get up to speed and after that, we'd talk shop. I then spent fifteen minutes pretending to be very interested in the snack vending machines at the end of the hall while making sure neither Kaneki nor Hide made an escape attempt. At that point, I was fed up with their dithering to the point where I would've just explained it out for both of them and then bonked their heads together, just for the emphasis.
As it turned out, I didn't need to do anything of the sort.
An American song was playing when I re-entered—AC/DC of all things. A pair of microphones were on the table suggesting of a duet.
"To, uh, commemorate your help." Hide sniffed. "It was the only American song they had."
He and Kaneki both had red eyes, but the two of them were both smiling from where they sat. Despite a few tears, it seemed everything had been worked out.
And they had even started without me. With the pair working in tandem, I was content to be somewhat left out as they reviewed and planned. Hide shared some CCG wisdom with us—well, more with Kaneki and I was just in the background—the estate was indeed owned by Kanou. Also known thanks to Hide's internship, the CCG were planning to make a move on the manor as well. At that, Kaneki looked to me. I was getting Aogiri raid vibes all over again.
Hide and Kaneki talked a bit over Kanou while I hunched over the satellite images on the laptop of the former. I wasn't too interested in where he had worked, but the tidbit that he had worked in Germany brought back a memory of Monica taking me aside and telling me to never trust anything from that country.
"Tomorrow?" Kaneki asked me.
"I can do tomorrow."
I was not entirely eager to do tomorrow. Sure, I didn't have anything technical to disagree with: he and Hide had pretty much the whole plan laid out. On the other hand, there was still a lot of healing underneath my baggy hoodie, and I didn't know who would actually come with on such short notice.
"Sounds like that's a plan then." Hide sounded almost wistful. "Wish I could go with you."
"You don't want to come with." Kaneki shook his head, no doubt thinking of the mess that the path to ghoulhood entailed.
"We'll bring you back a souvenir," I added, "something harmless."
That actually got a chuckle out of both of them.
Hide's last words before were left stuck uncomfortably in my head. "Just come back, all right? That'll be more than enough."
That felt like a jinx if I had ever heard one. Kaneki though, was pensively happy, despite the limitations of who we could bring. Hinami, was out since this was possibly a trap and possibly a CCG raid as well. My fears about not being able to take enough people were confirmed in an afternoon meeting with Tsykiyama and Banjou.
Nishiki, according to Kaneki, had a chemistry lab that would make or break his grade for the semester, so he was out. Touka had told me—despite Kaneki asking me to leave her out of the loop—that she was working at Anteiku and while she might've been able to trade a shift, that probably wasn't an option with less than a day in advance. That left Banjou and his band, Tsukiyama, and me. While I didn't really trust Tsukiyama as an ally, I did respect him as a fighter and Kaneki did as both—not to mention the man would probably follow Kaneki into CCG headquarters at this point. Banjou was little more than a speed bump without a kagune, but his band were competent even if not strong.
It was going well up until there was a sharp rap at the back door, halting conversation. Going back to the Touka, complete with mandatory glare—and stalked to the living room without a word. She took my seat too, not that I was going to bicker over it. Foot tapping the worn carpet, Kaneki's eyes bounced between me and her, calculating something.
"So." Touka broke the silence. "What did I miss?"
Kaneki said my name, not with reproach, but with an 'Allen' more appropriate for a subtle request for help. Despite the look of mild amusement on Tsukiyama's face, Banjou looked distinctly uncomfortable.
"He said we were planning something." Touka pointed a finger over her shoulder, at me. "So I'm here."
Kaneki's eyes made several more bounces back and forth, and I had the icy realization that his offhand comment about Touka not being involved in this had been an order and not an idle thought.
"I don't-" Touka cut him off like a knife.
"Who do you think I am?" She leaned in, probably daring Kaneki to fight back. "If you think I'm some helpless squishy princess, we can always take this downstairs and I can beat some sense into you."
I met Kaneki's stare once again; found what looked to be simmering irritation. Banou was definitely giving me a 'what have you done' look as well. Ah well. I was willing to die on this hill though: Touka was a very good fighter, and unlike the two outsiders here, I trusted her at my back. Ironically, it was Tsukiyama who broke the uncomfortable quiet, jovially observing that we'd need to buy one additional train ticket. This was followed by Touka asking where we were going and then Kaneki sighed, running over the plan outline once again.
