Chapter IV
Keep your enemies closer

The Aoigiri den was worse than I anticipated. The hyena chuckling, the damp, the smell of blood, and violence, screaming ghouls and humans alike. All of these sensations all washed over me as soon as we walked through the doors.
I can feel the fear off Naoki and Tsubasa, hear their uneven breathing. I force myself to take deep breaths while I analyze my surroundings, the den is temporary, that's easy enough to figure out. They probably move on a need to basis. The den is made of several dilapidated warehouses mushed together and set by an old pier. The smell of oil and sea makes me feel almost as nauseous as human food does. I'd say the place hasn't been touched by humans for years.
We are led into the lower levels of the den into a long corridor with lots of doors, one of the doors is opened and we're thrown in. A guard is put outside to watch us. Naoki stands up and paces, Tsubasa curls up in a ball, I lean my head back and close my eyes, trying to think.

From here, we're about 300 steps from where we came in. Up the stairs, turn left, up three flights, right, left again, and then straight down to the door.

If only it would be so easy.

"Tsubasa how many people are here?" I stand over her, and put my mask on, before folding my arms.

"We're doomed Ame-san." she sobs quietly, "There's no way we can-"

"How many?!" I raise my voice involuntarily, she looks up and sniffs, "I- I can't tell, there's too many to track at once, thousands, thousands Ame."Naoki punches the wall. Tsubasa and I jump slightly, a deep hole surrounds his fist. I walk over and pull his arm free before slapping him, "Don't pull shit like that! We need to think!"

"What the hell is that going to do?" he growls, "This is Aoigiri, not a smallville bumfuck ragtag of Ghouls. This is an army. And a vicious one at that. We join or we die. The last is most likely."
"So we die fighting, not sitting in a cell." I return his growl, he frowns, ""We"? Ame-san, who do you think they'll value more? A Ghoul known and feared, or her two followers?" he walks closer to me and taps the noise of my mask, "It's this they want."

"I'm- I-" I look at my feet, not so sure of myself, "I'll negotiate, find a place here fo-"

"Ame-san, you don't negotiate with Aoigiri." Tsubasa whispers, Naoki sits next to her, they quietly look at theirs hands, keeping silent, waiting for our fate.

We're led upstairs to a large room filled to the brim with cloaked ghouls, at the top of the room are other ghouls, leaders of sort probably. We're pushed to our knees in front of the other Ghouls. A white-haired, red masked man looks lazily down on us. I look at each pf them through my mask, there's a child like one in a pink dress cloak, a tall man with a faceless mask, save a creepy smile, bored face, a tall broad pale guy with a thin colorful guy on his arm.

"So this is the Kitsune?" white hair sighs, "She's smaller than even Ayato."

"Hey!" bored face snarls, I smirk beneath my mask. White hair continues, "Kitsune will be assigned to one of you, her two followers here can be subordinates under.. Yamori."

Sniggers, and uncomfortable shifting fill the room, the tall broad guy; Yamori, grins, "I have no use for subordinates, but I think I could use some new toys."

"No," I look towards him, "my subordinates will be treated as soldiers, not as 'toys' you sick p-" I'm slapped before I can continue, white hair raises an eyebrow, "You don't agree with my placement of your former subordinates?"

"Their good strategists, and Tsubasa's hearing rivals no one. They should be given proper positions in Aoigiri."

He looks me for a brief moment, "Then they can be assigned to Noro. Noro." he waves the smiling mask man forward. He stands in front of us, silently, before his kagune bursts out of his back, and grabs Naoki. Realizing my mistake, I move forward to attack but am taken down, Ayato pins me down on my stomach, his knee pressed on my back and holds my head up, "Now watch your subordinates get killed for your mistakes. With Yamori, they could have survived, but Noro, he has one hell of an appetite." I squirm and try to break free but am held in place as Naoki is torn apart, Tsubasa cries quietly, as Naoki screams. The ghouls of Aoigiri laugh.

Beneath my mask, tears slide down my face.

Noro picks up Tsubasa, who quivers and shakes and impales her. She looks at me and weakly smiles before going still. Noro exits the room, dragging their bodies with him. White hair gets up and walks over to me, grabbing me by the neck, he lifts me up and removes my mask.

"As I suspected, your that woman's daughter. No wonder you repulse me." He tosses me to the ground, "Any one of you want to have the oh so feared Kitsune?"

I'm thrown to the ground, while my fate is decided.

"She's too small for any use." Yamori says, his companion coos, "But pretty with those eyes."

"She seems too much trouble for us Tatara-san." the twin blue cloaks decide, white hair; Tatara, turns to Ayato who rolls his eyes, "I get it, I'm left with the runt."

Unsteadily, I stand up, putting my mask back on, I take a breath to protest but Ayato kicks me in the stomach, "Did I say you could move?"

Tatara tosses me a red cape, "Meeting over."

6 months later

Hell.

That's the only way I can describe this place.
Everyday brings a fight of some-sort. You fight for food, you fight for work, you fight for your life, your dignity, so on and so fourth. You trust no one and no one trusts you. Everyday I've had to work my way up the ranks, through killing, intimidation, and sabotage. I tricked people into messing up, getting killed. And now I'm here. Sitting on the roof of our most recent den, on the lookout for suspicious behavior, 'bad apples' or CCG. Just anyone that isn't in an Aoigiri cloak. I shiver and pull my own closer around me. In the night, my breath comes out in clouds, and a light frost sleeps on everything around me. The edge of November has always been my favorite month. But in times like this, in the stillness of a cold night, I always remember them. The first day I meant them.

I had been on my own for about three months at that point, becoming an urban legend of sort. I slept in the day, and ran rogue at night, killing any CCG operative that came across my path. Looking for answers about my mother. People feared me, or at least the idea of me. Needless to say, I received a lot of attention.
A small time hunting ground leader in the 18th ward thought he could take me down, using a disguised human as bait, he surrounded me with Ghouls from his ragtag group. I surrendered for a bit of fun. The leader tried to torture me, make himself seem bigger. I laughed in his face, and killed him. Then I gave the followers a choice. Go or suffer consequences. Some decided to fight for the boss out of loyalty, I planned to kill them but was stopped by the guy with brown hair and brown eyes. He grabbed my arm, and flung me back before begging for the lives of his comrades. I shrugged and planned to walk away from the whole mess. It was a cold December Eve night when he and the girl began to follow me. When I stopped and confronted them, they asked to join me. I didn't really know what they meant. And soon enough, they were just living in my den. I taught Tsubasa and Naoki how to read, we learned to fight, and to survive. They taught me the humanity I lost. And I protected them.

Like that did them any good in the end.

Sighing I stand up, and walk to the other side of the building. A quiet night, no one in sight except other patrolling Ghouls. Footsteps from behind me, make me look up. Ayato strolls over, and stands next to me, I stiffen up, and keep my gaze fixed on the surroundings.

"Disturbances?"

I shake my head, he raises an eyebrow, "Jeese, you're still not over them? Get over it, loyalties make you weak."

"Is that why you eat out of Tatara's hand?"

"Watch your mouth." he snarls, "Then watch yours." I mutter. A moment of silence passes. He laughs humorlessly, and smirks, "You don't think I've noticed? How every person above you has fallen to ruin somehow, and you've taken their place."

"It's a badge of honor to betray and set up your comrades here. I use it to my advantage. I want to leave this group, I've made that clear, so before I get the chance to leave, I plan to leave as much havoc and annoyance behind me as possible." My arms stay crossed as I speak, Ayato sniggers, "You really think you can leave here? And live? You're more stupid than I thought." he begins to walk away, calling back as he leaves, "If you really want to leave, you'll have to die or get killed Kitsune."

Then I'll do just that.