Author's note: Hi, sorry this chapter took so long, I've been really busy lately, so just to get back into the swing of things, this chapter is going to be a little shorter than the two prior to this one. Also, big thanks to all of you who've read this story! It really means a lot to me, and this story is a joy to work on! ^.^
Obi
Obi walked through the winding door into the lobby of the hotel, his shoes barely made any sound as he walked across the plush red carpet. Purple and indigo wallpapered walls boxed him in as he made his way across the small lobby to his stubby co-worker, who looked to be in deep conversation with a disinterested lady across the counter.
'Ah, the playboy returns!' Ryuu joked in the lobby of the hotel. 'Find your way alright?' Obi nodded, it was easy, extremely easy, the neon signs were a dead give away they might as well plaster eat me now in all the colours of the rainbow across their door frame. The lady across the counter smiled at him. 'Achka said that there's only one room spare tonight, so I've booked us into that room.'
'I'm afraid that it's only a single room, so I have asked a maid to bring some bedding up' The lady behind the counter said, her voice was annoyingly high-pitched she could be classed as a mewing kitten. Ryuu thanked her, grabbing the key from the counter. He gestured for Obi to follow him.
'How was your conversation with Miss Chiaki? Or should I say the future Mrs Mitayushi?'He asked chortling at his own joke as they walked towards a very untrustworthy elevator. Otherwise, pristine wallpaper was bubbling around the frame of it, and the floor lights above it flashed on and off in an unorderly fashion.
'Oh, we just talked...' Trying to avoid conversation with Ryuu was impossible, many investigators back at HQ would often start with a quick pace, intentionally slip into someone else's office just to avoid his lengthy conversations. They normally lasted several hours over stale, cold coffee.
Obi absentmindedly played with his fingers, in deep thought about his old friend. She'd changed so much it was almost scary, the way the light never really entered her grey eyes, the way her hair had considerably darkened, her attitude to things. Yet still, he found that she kept things from people. And that Touka girl, why did it seem that they had more in common with each other than what she and Obi had in an entire childhood worth of friendship?
He hadn't noticed it but they had somehow walked out of the elevator onto a floor completely designed for the colour red. It was surprisingly busy, Ryuu was going off about some woman he met when he was Obis age and about the night of passion Obi could care less hearing about at all.
Obi continued on walking when he felt he was being tugged, his mind in the midst of remembering Kida. 'Kida, I'm not going to play with you today!' He shouted loudly Ryuu cringing at the volume.
'Hey, first off I'm not your girlfriend Kida, second of all this is our room.' Ryuu laughed a little, using the key, to the red door, unlocking the dark room.
Flicking the lights on to a blood red room. 'This is going to get confusing...' Ryuu laughed. The bedding for one of them was laid across the floor, a double bedded futon just to the side of it, a white door that presumably led to the bathroom and a coffee table and a T.V
The bedding for one of them was laid across the floor, out of place and blue against the dark rouge carpet. A red futon lay just to the side of it, there was a bathroom just opposite the bed, a small T.V that seemed to display the news and a large window, displaying the skyline of Tokyo, the glow from the building's neon lights below cast down onto the streets below.
In the distance, he could make out the little shop Kida owned, the faint lights flickered out and yellow lights flashed on upstairs. He turned back to Ryuu who was already sitting comfortably on the futon.
'I guess I'm taking the floor then...' Obi said begrudgingly. He placed his grey suitcase that held his Quinque safe and sound on the floor beside his bed for the night.
'So,' Ryuu pressed, there was no getting out of this. 'what did you talk about?'
'I guess I got frustrated with her.' he admitted scratching his head nervously. Ryuu sucked in a breath, his eyebrows furrowed like he was recoiling from his answer.
'Obi, that's not how a man behaves in front of a lady especially your future wife!' Ryuu jokingly scolded
'I know.' a frustrated look passed by his green eyes.
'It's been a long time since you've seen her.'
'She's changed so much I barely recognised her, she certainly has grown up... What did you find out about the area?' As if changing the subject would help the course of the night, Obi looked to where Ryuu was sitting.
'Only that The Blue Death is the executioner to all CCG agents' Obi gave him a questioning look.
'No seriously, the last CCG agent was decapitated, another was split in half. Need I go on.' Ryuu said. Obi gulped this thing was like no ghoul he'd seen, it was merciless, it had no need for apologies. Just like Death himself he wondered. he took his jacket off throwing it onto a desk away from Ryuu's futon, flopping down the cold floor. Screams could be heard miles away throughout that night.
Tokyo is a restless city, there is always something to do no matter what time of day it is...
But Death's fingers extended like an arachnid searching the nooks and crannies for any sign of hopeless and meagre life. That's why he hated Ghouls because they were merciless.
So it was decided on that night...
He vowed that he'd apprehend both Ghouls. And bring peace back to the ward 19 streets.
His mental thought applauded by the loud snoring of his co-worker.
Meanwhile in the dead of night
'Devilishly delectable! Devine, Devine Devine!'
A hand lay in a pool of blood, its arm lay somewhere else in the dark alleyway. The night would soon be over
'All mine!' It feasted on the body as the dark blue sky slowly turned purple.
It repeated those words over and over again. Congealed blood decorated the ghoul's dark scarlet clothing, but even more splattered the dead end of the alley walls, like abstract art. Hand prints and face marks where his skull had been bashed into the walls like punishment for trying to escape.
Their masks lay somewhere in the blood that surrounded the two figures. He'd wandered into the alleyway carrying a travel bag with all sorts of hidden gems tucked away. The moon shone bright and silver white that night, but its reflection in the alleyway was blood red and hopeless.
'Devine Devine Devine!' Its Kagune, only partial now, covering its legs and coiling around the other half of the body.
'Yo, Spike!' a youth's voice sounded. Somewhere close. Its attention drawn like lightning from the body for once in what seemed like forever, blood dribbled down its chin.
'Yo, Doggy!' They talked for a while, the Kakugan eyes seemed to disappear and so did the Kagune.
'Ready to record some sick moves?' It moved like a snake, hardly making a sound, the moon was still up, and was still pretty dark. The Youths were just around the corner.
Fair game. One was fat and meaty, the other scrawny and bony.
'Help me' it wheezed, the blood on its clothing would serve as a distraction. It feigned a limp and clutched its arm in the process.
'My friend is back in the alley there, he's hurt badly'
'Dude we have to help!' the fat one said. The youths nodded in synch, it led them, feigning the injuries into the shadows of the new morning.
'My friend is just up ahead, I don't have the strength to continue'
As the shadows got darker, and the smells even more horrid, it finally heard the screams of their discovery a sadistic smile spread on its features. They ran back into the light where it was waiting, It's Kakugan eyes pierced their own. They screamed and tried to avoid its silver and red Kagune, thrashing one of them around like a rag doll, coiling around one of them like a snake. Teasingly the ghoul dangled the poor youth in front of the other who was now at a safe distance away.
The captured one reached out to grab onto the other's hand, 'PULL ME OUT! PULL ME OUT!' he screamed, the other shook his head, fear shook his whole body. he bolted. As quick as a snap of the fingers, the youth was dragged back into the darkness of the alleyway. Screams echoed all around, just another day in Tokyo.
As quick as a snap of the fingers, the youth was dragged back into the pools of blood. Another body next to the already deceased. His screams of pain woke everyone in that vicinity up for the new day.
The sun's rays climbed optimistically high that morning
Kida's shop opened at a usual time that morning, the sun's golden rays cast pools of light onto the shop floor, and women, usual gossipers she'd learned, came into the shop that morning.
'Have you heard?' this woman had a red, crocodile printed, handbag. She was a regular here, but Kida hardly paid attention to her name.
'Here's your cinnamon cake, Miss'
Kida said to the red handbag lady but she paid no heed. She just put the right money on the counter and collected her cake. Kida had made that cake on commission for this lady, said it was some very important reunion between families. But now something else had taken residence.
'No, why' this woman had blue eyes.
'A ghoul's been cannibalised only three blocks away! And they've found other body parts, too small to be that of the ghoul!' Red handbag said.
Great! Just what I need, two ghoul investigators and a cannibalistic ghoul only THREE blocks away!
'That's not entirely strange' Blue eyes said.
'No, but this time, they found its mask. Here I have a screenshot of it, Miss Chiaki, would you care to take a look?' The woman fished into her red handbag to get her phone out.
She dialled up the right screen and sure enough a mask was there, covered in dry blood, its shape now resembled half of an elongated heart, that would only cover half a face, this one was salmon pink and looked like it would fit on the right side of one's face. A little notch where the nose should be and an elegantly poked through hole for the eye. It had many patterns on it, including many snakes and tigers imprinted onto it.
It doesn't look like Uta made this, I'll have to ask him about it next time I break mine.
Just then her phone buzzed. The Red handbag lady turned away from them and checked her phone. When she turned back, there was slight sorrow in her eyes.
'T-They've Identified the body parts, her tone was full of apology.
'It's Rikagu. they've made a positive ID on his fingerprint'
The Blue-eyed woman burst into tears, she nearly collapsed on that floor. Kida immediately went to pull up a chair for her and gave her a glass of water and tissues as her friend calmed her down and called the CCG about who the mother was and what his friends called him. They were still looking for a witness.
The morning quickly grew late and both women were still there, and the blue-eyed woman's sobs slowly began to form soundless tears. She'd lost her son. just then a theme tune rang out and it was quickly stopped, a blush adorning the other woman's face. 'Yes, Rikagu's name was Doggy to his friends. Why?'
It's a Dog-e-dog world I suppose.
'Yes, right.' she put her phone away
'They've found Doku, he was hiding in a bin not two blocks down. I'll tell his mother that he's safe, but the CCG want to question him'. Just then, a bedraggled looking Obi slowly walked in, he had a raven bed head and looked like he'd been awake most of the morning. He was traipsing sticky blood into her shop.
'Have you heard?' He asked, yawning and covering his mouth. His suitcase was with him.
Kida nodded gravely. Telling him to be quiet and that the lady was Rikagu's mother. She placed a closed sign on the counter and took Obi into the hallway leading to her apartment and closed the door that separated the two.
'How bad is it?' She asked. The dim only lighting his face perfectly.
'Quite bad, the body parts had to be identified by RC count' Obi yawned and leant against the wall. His suitcase attached to his hand like he was waiting for something to pop out at him.
That's horrendous. That cannibalistic ghoul.
'Who do you think has done this?' This was turning into an interrogation
'It's not the Blue death that's for sure, no sign or spotting on any CCTV cameras of that mask' His green eyes looked dark and tired, almost as if he'd been up half the night.
Yes because I was tucked away in bed having the nightmares of my life!
'Then it's the cannibal' She said firmly
'there is more than one cannibal you know that' He said to her, raising an eyebrow at her. 'The two males died in the same time frame of an hour, the only thing I can think of is that the two males were together with the other boy at the time when the ghoul came.' His theory rejected her initial thoughts and just feigned a nod of the head, as if in deep thought.
Plausible, but I don't believe it.
'Ryuu wanted to ask whether you wanted to help question the other boy. We don't really know anything about the area yet.'
Kida just nodded her head. She opened the door again to see that both women had left and almost every other customer she hadn't served had gone too.
'Just bring him over here. I don't bite.' She said. For once his green eyes didn't seem lost in a mound of questions like he was completely relaxed. But then as soon as it was there it was gone.
I might take a bite or two if he annoys me.
'Thank you, Kida I won't forget this!' Obi said, 'I'll come by with Ryuu and the boy later after we've finished up over there' He lazily walked towards the door, and waved goodbye to her as he left, and she waved back.
She couldn't help but shake the feeling that maybe she was in a bigger mess than she first thought it out to be...