Chapter 6

showed up at Juuzou's apartment early the next morning. He had knocked on her door lightly at first, but the hits became progressively louder the longer he waited. Juuzou had to force herself from her bed, her feet dragging along the floor as she yawned and stretched. Last night had been tiring, and she was supposed to have today off. When she opened the door to find there, her heart sank.

"Oh, come on! It's my day off!" She complained loudly, leaning against the doorframe. gave her a sympathetic look, but said nothing. He was shocked to see her in such a state. Her hair was a mess, her face smeared with last nights makeup. She still wore the dress, but her shoes were gone, as was the jacket. She was wrinkled and sleepy, and totally not in the mood.

"Some ghoul remains have been found, we have to go and check them out... Sorry." He watched as she shuffled back into the room, her hand running along the wall for balance. She paused at the corner, looking back over her shoulder, frowning.

"You can come in, I'm not gonna be ready for a while... You're not a vampire, are you?" She was joking, but there was a clear order in her words. nodded awkwardly, ducking through the small apartment doorway to stand in the kitchen.

"What have you been up to, Juuzou?" He couldn't help but ask, his gaze shuffling along the ruins of the apartment. It was fair to say Juuzou had made quite a mess while making her way in last night. She had planned to sleep off her hangover before cleaning up. Sadly, that plan was no longer an option.

"Nothing too illegal, don't worry... You won't be getting a phone call." She assured him, pulling a carton of orange juice out of the fridge and taking a few much needed gulps.

"You look like hell." He added helpfully. Shinohara could tell she had been drinking. He knew first hand how susceptible Juuzou was to such substances, and was now finding humour in her pains. Served her right for drinking in the first place! She should be looking after herself.

"I'm aware." Juuzou groaned, rubbing her eyes and frowning when her hand came back smudged by eyeliner. She sighed, dropping the juice back into the fridge before turning to her partner.

"Look, I'll shower and get ready as quickly as possible, so until then... Make yourself at home, I guess." nodded, his dark eyes still glowing with humour. He watched as Juuzou stumbled around the corner and into the bathroom, holding onto his laughter. He would save this moment for future teasing, he was sure of that.

Juuzou was ready to go in half an hour. Her hair was still damp, and there were a few buttons done up wrong on her shirt, but other than that she was the same as always. She managed a small smile as they made their way to the crime scene, nodding along to the music of the stereo. had been dropped off by a colleague who had been kind enough to wait for them. Honestly, he was heading to the same place, and would be there for most of the day, so he wasn't really losing out.

Juuzou instantly recognised the crime scene. It had been a few days, but this was the exact place she had killed those ghouls... Oh, shit! She felt herself shrink into her seat as they rounded the corner, the car coming to a stop.

'Don't say a word, Juuzou! They don't know it was you!' Her mind hissed. Juuzou steeled herself, hopping out of the car as the driver and did the same. spoke quietly with a few of the officers before making his way over to the beaten old tarp they had used to cover the remains. Juuzou didn't need to see it again. She knew how badly destroyed they were, how impossibly small some of the boys were. Mama would have said it was some of her best work, but now the fear of being caught made her feel more sick than proud.

"Juuzou?" called as he peered into the darkness under the tarp, his voice no different than before. Juuzou swallowed hard before answering.

"Yeah?"

"Come over here for a minute." He requested. He probably just wanted her opinion on how many corpses there where, considering the third head was pretty well buried by other parts, but Juuzou felt her knees lock. She shook her head, forcibly crossing her arms grumpily.

"Eh? No way!" She cried, turning her back. She pretended to cover her nose, as if either of them would believe that the smell of slightly aged corpses were even close to the worst thing she had smelt. sighed, lowering the tarp once more and coming to stand beside her, brushing off his hands on his trousers. Juuzou looked up at him curiously.

"The ghouls bodies that have been found have been dismembered into at least two hindered separate parts. From what I saw of the points of superstation, I would say whoever did this was incredibly skilled with their weapon. As in, they use it regularly." He shot her a meaningful look, his head and tone lowering in sync. "Juuzou, it was you, wasn't it?"

Juuzou felt her stomach drop. She had been caught. She felt like slapping herself. She should have hidden the bodies, or destroyed them even! But no, she had been too cocky. She had assumed they would pin it as ghoul on ghoul violence!

"Y-you knew?" She asked quietly, avoiding eye contact. sighed, leading her away from the crime scene.

"Juuzou, I am painfully familiar with your handiwork. I have seen enough of it in the past to make me sick. I don't think I would have the right to claim to be your partner if I didn't know what your work looks like." Juuzou felt her cheeks warm up, a slight blush spreading. She wasn't sure if she should be flattered or insulted. He had said her work sickened him, but he had also made a point of looking at her technique. had by this point moved onto a speech about how it was wrong to cause unnecessary pain for the ghouls, and Juuzou was only half listening. It was only the final thing he said that caught her attention.

"No matter how much you want a quinque, you'll never get one if you keep tearing the ghouls apart." He stated, peering down at her, his dark eyes chastening.

"What?" Juuzou cried, spinning around to face him fully, her neck bent back to look him in the eye. "Are you serious?"

He sighed, nodding his head slowly.

"Yeah, I am."

The conversation that followed them leaving the crime scene had been a long one. had gone into detail explaining the ghouls anatomy, leaving Juuzou even more tired than before. Ghouls were both a mentally and physically draining topic, and both of the investigators were ready to be rid of the subject.

"You still don't understand?" asked after a small pause, staring woefully down at his partner. Juuzou shook her head quickly, her brows creased.

"No, no! It's not that. I was just wondering... Why do ghouls have a certain type of ghoul they are a good match for if they're all the same species? Isn't that kind of strange?" She knew ghouls were lethal. Though it was rare, it was not unheard of for ghouls to battle during her shows. She had always pitted the victors win down to being more skilled or stronger, but thanks to 's explanation, she could now see there was more to it than that. Their kagunes were built to destroy each other.

"That's simple too." He started, staring out onto the city skyline, looking weirdly like the protagonist on some crappy cop show. "The kagune are the weapons used to win 'turf wars'."

He paused, maybe to gather his words, or maybe for dramatic effect. Either way, he had Juuzou's attention.

"Those guys are made to kill... Even each other."

Juuzou fell into bed once again, cocooning herself in her sheets. She remembered small bits of her childhood before Big Mama chose her, not real memories, but small snippets, like photographs. One of the more prominent images was of her building a pillow fort out of her baby pink bed covers.

She was very detached from her pre-ghoul childhood. Though most would have clung to the random flickers of information, constantly wondering what could have been, Juuzou wasn't like that. She didn't care what could have been, and there was no point in wishing for a reality she had never even seen. Mama had changed her life, for better or worse, and there was no way to change it back.

She was just dropping off when there was a quiet knock at her door. Not her bedroom door, she realised when her head flew off the pillow, finding she had left the passage open, but her front door. Juuzou nearly screamed. All she wanted to do was curl up and die for a few hours, sleep off her heavy night, and move on.

The unwanted guest knocked again, and Juuzou finally flipped herself out of her bed, flinging the covers back with unnecessary force. had only just dropped her home! Why couldn't they come back tomorrow? She stormed through the apartment, kicking random articles of clothing or entertainment out of her way. She pulled the door open without checking who it was first, knowing full well her knives were scattered around the room.

She wasn't expecting to see Amon. He towered over her, his hand sheepishly rubbing the back of his head. He gave her a small smile in an almost apologetic way.

" , why are you..."

"Sorry to disturb you, Juuzou, I just wanted to make sure you were alright. You didn't get home until very late last night." He said it like she wasn't aware. Like she couldn't feel every hour of lost sleep like a block of cement, weighing her down. She knew he was only trying to be nice, but nice wasn't what she needed right now. What she needed was to curl up in her bed and pretend tomorrow was a year away.

"I'm fine, Amon. I'm not some silly little girl, I can look after myself." She wasn't trying to be rude, really. She actually quite liked Amon, even when he was forcing her to stay awake. The large man seemed to realise what he had said before shaking his head and frowning at himself slightly.

"I didn't mean to say you were... I'm sorry, Juuzou, I sometimes have trouble remembering you don't actually need looking after." She could tell his apology was sincere. Reluctantly, Juuzou turned, opening up her doorway, a wordless invitation.

"Do you want a drink? I've got a couple juice pouches in the fridge..." Amon smiles awkwardly and nodded. Juuzou pulled two strawberry juice pouches from the fridge and handed one to the giant man beside her, then took at seat at the table. Amon followed her lead and sat opposite her, his large frame fitting just barely into the childish furniture. He looked around in what appeared to be wonder, his dark eyes taking over the walls as though he was trying to absorb every minuscule detail.

"Did you paint this?" He asked, nodding to the walls. Juuzou managed a small smile, her head bowed as she poked her straw through the juice pouches opening.

"Yes. I didn't like the walls plain, so I decorated. said I could when I first moved in... I add things here and there, but I haven't touched it in a while." She explained, taking a sip.

Amon pulled the tiny straw from the pouch and attempted to stab it through, but his large hands were too big for something so small. Juuzou sighed, taking it from him and completing the task with a flourish.

The sat in silence for a moment, Juuzou staring blatantly at the man opposite her. It was almost too funny. Amon was so straight laced at work, she would have never imagined him like this, perched on the edge of one of her tiny chairs, sipping on a strawberry juice pouch. Finally, Amon broke the silence.

"You're a lot different outside of work." He stated, placing the pouch on the table. Juuzou raised a fair brow, her tired eyes quizzical.

"What do you mean?"

"Well," he started, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly. "You're not as... Hyper? You're a lot mellower when you're not in uniform. Well, not that you wear uniform-"

"The last two times you've seen me, I've not exactly been at my best, Amon. Last night I was drunk and on my way home from a one night stand, and tonight I'm hungover." She grinned ruefully, shaking her head at herself. Realising this conversation wasn't going to be short, she decided to get comfortable, resting her elbows on the table and placing her head on her hand. Amon chuckled, his head bobbing.

"True, but I've seen you in a much worse off state than this, and you've still had the stamina to take on the world. It's almost admirable." Juuzou pointed to her arm, her finger just brushing one of the many scars she would have to live with.

"I guess it comes down to how I was raised. Did you know over forty percent of my body is scarred tissue? I'm a medical mystery! When the doctors found out what I was up to, and what I was put through physically, they said it should have been closer to seventy. I heal quickly. Well, that and the fact I can't process pain..."

"You can't process pain?" Amon's brows had knitted together in a deep frown, the corners of his mouth turning down. Juuzou shrugged, taking another sip of her juice.

"Not really. I'm not numb, I just process it differently. It's a conditioning thing, or at least that's what they told me. That why I can do my body stitch, and why I fight so well. Most people couldn't take more than a few punches from a ghoul, but not me!" Amon had the expression of a man torn between wonder and horror. It was a look Juuzou was more than used to.

"Guess I'm just fucked up." She sighed, chuckling ruefully. Amon seemed to shake off his stupor and jumped to deny her words.

"Hey, I was raised in an orphanage run by a ghoul who was eating the other kids, and I'm not fucked up! You're fine-"

"Are you blind? Or just stupid? I am five foot two of pure crazy. I know it, you know it, and so does anyone else who meets me. It's not a bad thing. That thing about the orphanage? That's fucked up, and any normal person couldn't walk away from that normal. Doesn't mean you're bad. Bad is what you do, not how you are." She pointed to herself first, then Amon.

"I am fucked up and proud, and you should be too. It means you survived! How many other people could say that? Not that many. And you're right, I play up the crazy a little at work... At least then when the real insanity pops up, nobody is surprised."

Amon was silent for a moment, absorbing her words, then he smiled, the largest, most genuine smile Juuzou had even seen on the man.

"You know what, you're actually pretty smart." He told her, grinning. Juuzou laughed, nodding her head as she lifted her juice pouch in salute.

"And don't you forget it!"

A/N:

Hey guys, sorry this took so long! I feel like I take forever to do anything these days! Alright, I just wanted a little Juuzou/Amon love towards the end, I just love the idea to two people to totally different being friends.

Please drop me a review to let me know what you think, and any questions you may have!

Laters

KD xxx