(One last thing *POV indicates a change in point of view, however since part of the fun in my writing is for my reader to figure out whose pov they are in, I won't outright tell you who is whom.) This chapter is going to be "fun"

Chapter 3: The Lover Ghoul, Ein Giftiger Dornenbusch

Sasaki had been called into the office early in the morning. Arima-san wanted to talk to him. What is this about? It's not time for reports, yet. Did something happen? He rushed out the door, Mitsuki was clever enough to get on-the-go coffee cups for Sasaki. He would have to remember to get him a present for his thoughtfulness. Ah, they're such good kids. He pushed open the doors to CCG a few minutes later. "Hiase."

"Eh, Arima-san?" That was unusual to be sure, Arima hardly ever spoke with Sasaki outside of regular meetings without being in a council room of some kind. Arima was walking towards him with a file in one hand and his quinque case in the other. The white trench coat pulled over his suit was a clear message, he was going somewhere.

"Sasaki, we have been receiving reports of a ghoul that may be related to your 'Nuts' case." He handed the file to Sasaki.

"Ah, thank you, Arima-san." If only for a fleeting moment Sasaki thought he shouldn't ask but curiosity soon won out. "Where are you going?"

"Business," he responded coolly, "just focus on your work, okay? 'Dad' will be alright and if anything happens you have 'Mom' right."

Sasaki flushed at the mention of his personal feelings about Arima and Mado in such an open setting. "Really, sir, that's just embarrassing to say." He smiled at Sasaki. Arima gave him a reassuring pat on the shoulder before walking out of the CCG and disappearing into the rush hour crowd.

Sasaki tweaked his tie and continued up to his office, determined to get a head start on today's work. The file contained a series of strange murders. He was the only one in the office. Odd. It was early but Akira was normally an early riser. He slumped down in his chair and spread the file's contents over the desk. Reading through the file gave him a sense of something being very wrong. He sipped on his coffee thoughtfully. The medical reports show that all the victims were eaten alive. Grisly. He shivered and pulled a disgusted face. It was just out of reach. Flipping through the reports again revealed nothing new. Just as I thought. Crime scene pictures were horrifying but, much to Sasaki's self loathing, were making him hungry. Focus, Hiase, focus. He scratched that back of his head, pensively. Blood and viscera patterns, medical reports. All of the vitims were sexualy aroused, eaten in a way that they wouldn't die quickly, kagune fluids on all of their genetals, it's got to mean something. "Where are the signs of struggle?" He said it out loud without meaning to.

"Just what I was thinking." Akira Mado said. Sasaki jumped. She had been standing right behind him for a few moments. "Also," she continued pointing to the victim bios, " The murdered individuals are all suicidal."

"But they had recovered, right? All the family and friends interviewed are quoted in saying that 'they never had seemed so full of life in a while' so why did this happen to them?"

"Slowly and deliberately eaten by an unknown ghoul that pleasured them while they ate. Strange any way you look at it."

It had dawned on him so suddenly. Sasaki looked up, Mado was leaning over his shoulder to get a better look at the file's contents. Her scent filled his nose momentarily disrupting his focus. "You smell tasty." Mado lept back her hand reaching for her quinque. "Ah, wait, wait, Mado-san, I was going somewhere with that." She glared at him.

"Explanation. Now."

"Okay, so I'm thinking his predatory behavior has something to do with his sense of taste and smell."

"What?"

Sasaki scratched his head again blood rushing to his cheeks. "It would be turn on for him. T-to put it bluntly 'sex smells'." He floundered for a way to explain what he was thinking.

Mado's face lit up with understanding and she seemed to relax a bit. "Of course! Endorphins and adrenaline, or for lack of a better description, the 'taste' of pleasure and pain." Mado suddenly had a thoughtful look on her face. "How do you know it's a he?" Sasaki fumbled through the reports.

"They all seem mention a new, 'boyfriend'."

Mado let out a sigh, "Why were we handed this one?"

"He might be connected to Nuts, though it's a bit of a stretch we're low on solid leads that don't put our squad members in the line of fire."

"What are we going to call him? A ghoul with his m.o. doesn't seem to be in any field reports." Irritation was clear in her voice. Sasaki would be lying if he said he didn't feel the same. So many victims and there only now hearing about him?

"Lover." Sasaki was staring at a picture of the most recent victim.

"Huh?" Mado was standing next to Sasaki again. He put his hands behind his head and leaned back in the chair, fingers knitting together.

"None of his victims struggle, not one, like they want it to happen. And there is no signs of drugs in their systems. Why would there be? If pain and pleasure is his goal, then the taste matters a great deal to him. Drugs would change the flavor and, above all, he wants his prey to feel everything he does to them. Or at least that's the impression anyway." The room was filled with a strange silence. He could tell Mado was thinking about what he was saying, even if he didn't look at her. Her breathing changed when she was thinking intently. "I'll get Shirazu, we'll need his long range capabilities, and Urie, too, he might be able to sniff this guy out."

"Okay, just one thing."

"Yes?"

"Are you...hungry?" The question shocked Sasaki, he knew if he answered honestly it would be worse than him trying to pass of a lie as self control. He put his left hand up to his chin.

"No, not at all."

It was early afternoon by the time Sasaki got back to the penthouse, he had spent the rest of the morning with Mado making a plan for Lover's capture and writing up a report summarizing their finding. So far they had a m.o. but no physical features to go on. This is going to be a hard one. Urie was in his room, he had responded to Sasaki's knock with an 'I'll be up in a minute'. He had just gotten back from the hospital two days before so Sasaki wanted to avoid pushing him if he could. Shirazu didn't answer. Maybe he went out for a bit.

Sasaki was brewing coffee when Urie came in, he was off, something was definitely wrong. He poured Urie a cup. He was looking haggard, a bit pale, and there was something about the way he smelled that was wrong. Almost like a ghoul. "Are you okay, Urie-kun? You're looking a bit sick."

"It's nothing, I'm fine." Sasaki raised an eyebrow, he didn't seem fine, more like the exact opposite, even his voice was on the weak side.

"Here," he handed Urie the cup, "I'll get the sugar cubes, just wait a second." He opened a locked draw with the key he kept in his pocket, careful that Urie couldn't see what he was doing. Sasaki didn't want Mado finding these but he needed to check something. He pulled out two of the light red-orange, cubes, put one into his own glass, and walked out of the kitchen with the other. "There we go," he dropped it into Urie's cup before he could protest.

"I-I don't like sugar." He seemed to be fumbling for an excuse not to drink it.

"What? But you always got your coffee with sugar before." He flinched, like he had been caught in a lie, and sipped the coffee carefully. His eyes widened. Is he surprised that it tasted good? No it's something more than that. He knows ghouls can drink coffee.

"It's good."

"I'm glad you like it, now, sit." That command had come out more forcefully than Sasaki intended but Urie sat down immediately, resting the cup on the counter. "So how was it? In detail, please. You could probably tell that sugar cube was homemade. I need to know if my recipe is any good."

Urie seemed to relax a bit at Sasaki's suggestion that he couldn't taste it. "Well it wasn't exactly sweet, but it was definitely a savoury flavor with hints of some kind of meaty aftertaste. It was a little bit too spicy to be pork, and just a little bitter. What was is it?"

"Urie, have you found your sense of taste changing in any strange ways?"

"N-no, why?" A nervous sweat was breaking out on Urie's neck.

"Well they are homemade after all, I'm the only one who uses them," an expression of horrible comprehension spread over Urie's face. Sasaki kept his tone even, "so I use any excess RC fluid from my quinque to make them. Mitsuki had tried them once and he said they tasted awful. Of course I didn't think so. It seems you're not telling me all of the side effects of having your frame upgraded, Urie." Sasaki realized just how terrifying he must sound right about now. He was fully expecting Urie to react very badly.

"You're right." he was laughing, "Ah, you would be the first to find out Sasaki-san! So, are you mad at me? Are you going to report me? I'm in a really weird place you know. I'm not a human, I can't say that I am anymore, but I'm not a ghoul either, I can't be. So what am I? Where do I belong? Hu, Sasaki!" Urie was yelling at the end but cycled back into a worried muttering. Something about it felt like someone was 'walking over Sasaki's grave'. "... 979...972...965...958...951.."

Sasaki sucked in a breath. Any anger or disappointment was replaced with a crushing concern. He pulled Urie into a rough embrace much to Urie's surprise, Urie hugged back, releasing a silent sob into his shoulder. "I'm not mad at you, Urie, or even disappointed. I can't say I understand what you're going through. I'm pretty sure you hate me," he chuckled slightly, "but I consider you all my family and I will never, never abandon my family." Urie calmed down quickly. Sasaki pulled back and gave his gentlest smile and sat down a bit awkwardly. "Well, this isn't actually the reason I called you up here." Urie stiffened and gave Sasaki a glare, the kind that he used to give him. Yes, he is definitely feeling better. Sasaki quaft his coffee, letting it take the edge off of his hunger. "We have recently discovered a ghoul that may be connected to the Nutz case." He gestured to the file on the table, "Mado-san and I identified his m.o. based on the trends in his murders. Maybe you could find something that we might have missed." Urie had a small smile and got to work.

It was late evening when Urie finally "got something". Sasaki had been working on finding any physical features from the few questions asked about the "new boyfriend" in relatives' testimonies. Urie was trying to find a range of activity. "Rising Sun Senior High."

"What?"

Urie shifted toward Sasaki with his notes in hand, a map spread out on the table. "The epicenter we were looking for, there is a lot of activity around the school. While there are plenty of victims from surrounding wards the vast majority come from this school district. None of the students have been attacked, in fact students and teachers from the academy have the lowest rate of assaults by ghouls of any public area in all of Tokyo."

"Well that is certainly strange considering the steady predation cases coming from that district." Sasaki moved over beside Urie to look at the map. "It looks like most of the district is strictly Lover's hunting grounds," He pointed out the large areas where only Lover seemed to hunt, "it might be possible that Lover is a student. Senior high, huh. At that age he would be just coming off of the binge eating curb of a juvenile. This could become problematic if he graduates and changes his m.o. He could effectively disappear like the Gourmet or Binge Eater." Urie noded.

"So this guy has become priority one?"

"For now. Our only other lead on Nutz is to wait for the ghoul auction to come around and I'm going to be honest, I hate the idea of using Mitsuki as bait. If we are going to make a move on this guy it'll have to be soon." Sasaki looked up at the clock, half past eight. Shirazu should have been back a while ago. "Where is Shirazu?"

Urie pulled what could only be described as an annoyed expression before he returned to his blatant neutrality. "That guy was bothering me earlier so when I wouldn't talk to him he stormed off, no idea where to."

"Tch, that'll make things more complicated." Concern again gnawed at Sasaki. Shirazu couldn't be lost, right?

"I don't need someone like him hanging around being useless." Sasaki sighed at Urie's remark.

"Same old Urie." he muttered. When it looked like Urie was going to retort Sasaki ficked him on the forehead. "Common, let's go, we need to find Lover soon, I have a bad feeling." He pulled on his trenchcoat and threw Urie his. Picking up his quinque case he headed out on the hunt.

*POV

Kotoro Aya was standing on the roof of the parking garage, the school sprawled out to the right, the city to the left. It wasn't that late but it was already dark, as to be expected in November. Tokyo was beautiful at night she wanted so badly to fall against the warmth of the boy standing next to her but she knew she couldn't. This wasn't the time to show weakness, not in front of a creature like him. "So, have you made your choice?" His voice was a low tenor, obsidian hair whipped to the side in the night breeze. He was standing downwind of her, it was probably making him ravenous. She had to be sure of herself now or she would be eaten, that is because, he was a ghoul. She was standing to his right so she couldn't tell if his kakugan was active or not.

"Yes," she whispered almost to soft for anyone to hear, "I have and I'm sure."

"Oh?"

Don't speak to me in that perfect voice, I'll lose all my confidence."I'm happy, really happy. You make me so happy, but you also taught me how to be strong of will, even though my body is so frail compared to yours. I-I can live without you. I will live without you. I'll take the things you taught me and I'll fight, become a survivor. This sadness that eats away at me," she laughed a little, "it won't disappear completely, not ever, even if you were to eat me. So really, thank you, for all of the joyful memories, I will treasure them and live." He was looking at her with an expression that matched the way she was feeling. His right eye shining a light gray-blue, tranquil like a misty morning, his left, crimson and black, and practically dripping with hunger. "I'm sorry, it looks like Aya-chan is off the menu, huh?"

"Yeah." He reached into his pocket and handed her a red domino tile. "It's a puzzle," he explained, "You have proven yourself to have a lot of willpower, but if you're really clever and can figure this out then," he gave her a lonely smile, "this won't be a good bye so much as a 'see you later'."

She turned it over in her hands. There was an elaborate "D" carved into the back, there were five white dots on one end and what looked like a very special dot, designed to look like a kakugan, on the other. "Cool." Aya was relaxing now, she knew him, he wasn't going to try anything. He was letting her go and it was killing him. Sorrow.

"So, shall we say farewell?" he hugged her and she had started to cry. He pulled Aya back and looked into her eyes. His hair fell into his face when he bent down slightly to lick the tears running down her cheeks.

A whistling sound broke into their tender moment and he shoved Aya away and jumped back. He slid on a black domino mask quickly and righted himself. Two men in trenchcoats with strange weapons were on the roof, one landing right where her boyfriend was just seconds ago, the other, having come up the stairwell, blocking egress in that direction.

"Tch, shit. Doves." her ex-lover turn and bolted off the roof using his sheer strength to leap the distance over the street to grip and climb the wall of another building. They were going to go after him. She had to stop them so she played the only card she had.

"Please, don't leave me," She clamped onto the stranger's leg, auburn hair falling onto her face. "It was so scary." ironically she was already crying and her voice was plenty shaken up. "He'll come back to get me! He's going to eat me. Please don't leave!" Aya was in luck the white and black haired one that landed in front of her was in charge and very compassionate. Perhaps most unsettling is the man that just left her and the man that just arrived had the same face.