Quick warning: My normal editor for this story is m.i.a. so I'm not sure if I have caught everything (something like that for Ch4 too)(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.)

Chapter 5: A Hangman's Noose, die Dunkelheit Schließt

The girl they had found on the rooftop with Lover had calmed down some. She was sitting in an interview room sipping on a cup of coffee with Mado questioning her about what had happened. They had been trying to get her to cooperate for nearly three hours, it was late and everyone was tired. Sasaki walked back in with a fresh pot of coffee he had brewed. He poured her some. She gave a polite thank you, Mado didn't say anything when she got hers. He dropped into his seat with a sigh. "Listen- Aya was it?- that ghoul on the roof you said he was going to attack you but now you're defending him. Might I ask why you are refusing to answer our questions."

Much to their surprise, the girl laughed. "I'm surprised you believed me. Isn't it obvious that I'm buying him time to get away for you?"

"What?" Mado was standing now, glaring at Kotoro Aya.

"I won't let you hunt down the man I love," she responded quietly. "I know what he is doing is wrong. Killing people. But that isn't everything. He teaches us how to survive. To fight through pain and suffering that doctors can't heal. He gives us love and attention, support and kindness, when other would ignore, berate, or injure us. And when he has taught us all he can, he gives us a choice." Sasaki was startled by the passion in her voice This girl was truly in love with a ghoul knowing full well what he was and that she was neither the first nor the last of his victims. "Live without him or if we cannot give ourselves up as food for him."

"So that's why none of his victims struggled. If he made them feel happy then they wouldn't want to slump back into their suicidal tendencies. The vics are the people who refused to go on without him. Lover is a clever bastard, preying on people's need for others." Mado clicked her tongue when she had finished speaking, angered by Lover's practices.

"I didn't need saving, anyway." Aya cut through Sasaki's thoughts. "He was letting me go. I'm one of the strong ones. I'll live like he wants me to. He only eats those he can't save. It just so happens that's most of them." She smiled at him. "You picked a good name for him, Lover, I like it."

"You do understand that he is just using you, right?" He prompted Aya.

"No, you're the one who doesn't understand. Lover is different, he hasn't killed his humanity."

"Humanity?" Mado was incredulous, "Ghouls don't have humanity. They aren't human to begin with."

"That's a shock Miss Mado, you work with a ghoul, right?" she gestured in Sasaki's direction. He shifted uncomfortably.

"He's different, Sasaki only half ghoul, and he was made into a ghoul."

"Exactly!" Aya shot up suddenly, both of the investigators jumped. "Ghouls are born with an instinctive respect for life but from the time they are children they are raised, taught, to devalue it. They have morality the same as humans. They understand right and wrong, maybe even better than we do, and are forced to live the worst life possible. If they are born with the only thing they eat being humans or other ghouls is it really their fault?" She was staring at Mado, a finger pointed at Sasaki, "Is it his fault that he was turned into a ghoul?" She looked at him as if hoping he would support her but Sasaki looked away. Aya, crest fallen, sat down again and grew very quiet, refusing to answer any other questions. They had come full circle with no results. Sasaki knew that if he dwelt on what she said it would shake his resolve.

For the past three hours Aya had been fiddling with something in her pocket. It could be pertinent to the investigation and he was out of options. "Kotoro-san, what is it that you're playing with, exactly?" Sasaki was done playing 'good cop' for Mado, his face slid into a somehow natural expression of annoyance and intimidation. Aya shuddered. Mado flinched slightly adding to the effect. The rebellious civilian quickly dropped the contents of her pocket on the table. It was a red domino tile. Mado's expression changed into something like recognition.

"I'll borrow this. Come on Sasaki, we have work to do."

His face relaxed into a gentle smile, "Thank you for your cooperation Miss Kotoro." and followed Akira out. Two agents from victim relief moved into the room after they left.

It was too late to get to work right away but Mado still managed to write a full report on the interview and send Sasaki on several errands to retrieve old case files. He didn't get back to the penthouse until near midnight. As Mado always did on a big case, she gave him homework to do. He would have to wake up early tomorrow as well. Shirazu had come back some time later that night. The loud crash from the kitchen followed by his distinct and colorful language accounted him.

Sasaki didn't remember falling asleep. He lifted his head wearily from the desk and glanced around his darkened room. The desk was next to his bed, in front a window overlooking the East of Tokyo. The bookshelf dominated the far wall, a reading chair nestled in the corner. From where he was sitting the bathroom would be through a door on the left while the right would lead out to the downstairs, where Shirazu was making enough noise to wake the dead. At least he had changed out of his work clothes which were hanging on the wardrobe against the right wall. It used be in the corner but he had punched a hole in the wall doing something he couldn't really remember, so he moved the wardrobe to cover it up.

Sasaki knew he needed proper sleep. He flopped down onto the black linen sheets, burying his face in the pillow, letting himself drift off. He wasn't really sure how long he was asleep for but he was woken up by a sudden crash from his bathroom. He jolted up. The light was on. A young man dressed in some kind of black combat suit was cleaning up contents of Sasaki's shower basket. A great number of things had been displaced. Who is this and why is he going through my stuff? "Hey!" The young man suddenly turned around.

He had dark hair, abnormally pale skin, and a black mask that cover most of his face, except for his left eye. That eye was the first thing that wrenched Sasaki from his drowsiness, it was a kakugan. A ghoul! How did a ghoul get in here? He was expecting the ghoul to rush him but the stranger remained where he was, staring at Sasaki. The mask was made of leather covering from the chin to the bridge of the nose, two strings connected to an eyepatch that cut through his onix hair, an incredibly detailed mouth was shaped over his with a zipper that could allow him to eat without needing to take it off, and there were two, silver, gasmask air filters affixed over the pulse points just behind the jaw. Sasaki's breath caught in his throat. There was no words to describe the wrongness. It wasn't him, Sasaki knew that, but even though he couldn't remember, he knew that mask was his own. "Who are you?" was all he could say. The ghoul moved faster than he could hope to follow.

Sasaki bolted up, it was morning, he was in his bed. He ran into the bathroom, it was exactly the way he left it. What was that? A dream? He clenched his teeth together. A sudden searing pain jolted through his jaw. He, with little effort, pulled a cracked tooth from his jaw. A new one soon took its place. The tooth was a stress fracture. Being a ghoul it wouldn't be surprising if Sasaki had done that himself in his sleep but...it didn't rule out the fact that someone could have actually been in his room last night. Why am I still alive? If a ghoul was really here then why wouldn't they kill me when they had the chance? He reasoned out that it must have been a nightmare. That is until he walked over to the files on his desk. A domino tile lay on top of the documents a note next to it, "Truths only ghouls can see." it read.

*TIME(You can guess what this means by now)

Mado paced and stared at the note Sasaki had brought in with him. After a brief inventory it was apparent that the intruder from last night had somehow taken the tile from the CCG office and placed in Sasaki's room."He is leaving us clues, why? What would Lover have to gain from having us solve the puzzle?" No one had an answer. Shirazu scuffed his foot against the floor, Mitsuki's head was down, Seiko munched on sweets in the corner, and Urie was chewing again; he had been making an active attempt to suppress his...condition, but it didn't seem to be doing much good. Why would he want us to know the answer? Why would he help us? Who is he, the Eyepatch ghoul? He couldn't be working for Lover… The answer came to him, it was simple that it seemed impossible.

"Unless," Sasaki stood suddenly, walking over to the old cases, "it isn't Lover's puzzle we're solving."

"B-but why wouldn't it be Lover?" Mitsuki stammered. Sasaki looked around when he realized that he had lost them.

"These cases," he tapped the large box on his desk, "Sure the domino is a connection but if we look carefully things don't match up." Mado smiled and nodded, gesturing for Sasaki to explain it to the Quinx. "There are five different kagune used over separate assaults, so there has to be at least five individuals." He pulled out relevant files.

"A gang then? Some organized group." Urie was a bit too eager to get involved in brainstorming. "But that still doesn't make any sense. If they are ghouls wouldn't they hide from the CCG rather than do something like this."

"What if it's like two competing factions?" Seiko piped up, surprising everyone. She glanced around before continuing sheepishly, "Well it's like in an rpg where you can pick different groups to join. The two groups will fight each other in the game so maybe it's one faction of ghouls trying to get the CCG on their side for a big confrontation of some kind."

"So," Sasaki began, "what should we call these? The Domino Murders?" Shirazu visibly flinched. "Bad name?"

"N-no," he shifted his weight on his feet, "It's just something...ah, never mind it's not really that important. We know how Lover is connected to this group but what about Nuts? She was our original objective right?"

"Yes, but that doesn't change the fact that we are dealing with more than just Aogiri. Another large and organized group of ghouls could be disastrous." Mado stared Shirazu down. She had the criticizing look on her face that Sasaki had come to dread. It all comes down to a playing tile in the end. What a strange way to get a message across.

The plot thickens. Dun Dun Dun...