Hey guys and welcome to the tenth chapter of Tokyo Ghoul: Remnant. So, here it is, and no this isn't a joke! Not everything posted on April Fool's Day is a joke, y'know! This is one-hundred percent serious.
So, before I continue, I have to say that I got this pretty out quick. Less than three weeks maybe? I don't really know… That last poem I posted really mess things up on keeping track on the two month deadline.
It's almost exactly ten-thousand words long too. When FineChyna, my beta (for people who don't know), finished editing what I gave to her it was literally at nine-thousand nine-hundred ninety-nine words. I had to add in a couple words she missed, but other than that, another great job from her! She's laughing at you guys, by the way. Y'know, since she gets to read these long before any of you guys do since I give it to her in snippets, when I'm done with them.
Anyways, this is a great chapter for people who like the seemingly mindless violence that comes with Centipede-kun. It's chocked filled with him. Centipede-kun, I mean. If you're not a big fan of that kind of stuff and like the more mental aspect of Tokyo Ghoul, well, wait for the chapter after this because I'm planning on going deep into that shit.
Well, anyways, I love y'all for getting me to seven-hundred favorites! Closer and closer to that coveted thousand! Also look out for a Tokyo Ghoul/RWBY crossover from FineChyna in the future, I've read a part of it and heard its general premise, and it's going to be interesting for y'all to read, I promise. In a good way, of course.
SO, extremely long author's note aside, let's get this mother up and running, why don't we? Y'know after this SUPER-aggressive disclaimer. Sorry, I promise I'll mellow out next chapter.
-Mandatory Disclaimer-
Why the fuck do I even try? It's not like any of you actually read these things anyways… I DON'T FUCKING OWN EITHER OF THESE SERIES!
-Chapter 10: Crying Lactose-
Neo flipped sideways, just barely missing one of her former partner's centipede-like tentacles. It hurtled past her, so fast she could barely even believe a living being could move at that speed. She grimaced when she saw the part of ground where she had been standing explode into such tiny pieces that it formed a dust cloud of pure concrete.
You're still not done surprising me, are you, Haise? Neo mused inwardly, leaning her body diagonally to dodge the other spiny appendage trying to turn her into pulp. This one could stand to be a lot less murderous, but beggars can't be choosers, after all.
The girl quickly found that her opponent's newly upgraded attacks were extremely easy to read, but, with the speed they were moving at, she also found keeping up to be rather difficult. Every time one of them even twitched, Neo had to force all of her attention onto it like it was already being shot towards her. It was truly an exhilarating experience for someone like her.
Stepping to the left to dodge an incoming right attack, Neo immediately shifted her direction of movement back towards the opposite direction, flipping over the protrusion she just dodged. She jumped just in time-fast as she was, she just barely avoided being hit by the other. Right as her feet touched the ground, her eyes were suddenly filled with a black and white blur before a powerful force-a force that felt a lot like a fist-slammed right into the center of her chest, knocking all the air out of her lungs.
The blow had enough energy behind it to send her flying backwards, which was exactly what her body did, but not even a second into her flight, another force hit her back into the opposite direction. Pain radiating throughout her entire body, Neo shook herself to action and teleported out of the way of any more strikes.
Not being able to focus on a single place, she ended up only a few feet from where she was first hit, up on a nearby storage container. The moment she got her bearings back, her mismatched eyes fixated back onto her crazed former partner, who was panting heavily as if he expended a lot of energy.
I'm guessing that form takes up energy for him to use, she thought to herself as she fixed the pace of her own breathing. Good, that just means-
Before she could finish that line of thought, Haise suddenly shifted to the left and disappeared from sight completely.
What the- She thought bewilderedly, but a burst of wind prompted her to turn to her left, just to find a familiar blur standing next to her with his tentacles primed to strike. Crap, she cursed to herself, lifting her umbrella up and opening it.
The tri-colored girl went flying almost immediately. As she soared through the air, she bitterly wondered how exactly the two of them reached this point.
Neo could remember the first day she met the dark-haired young man she was currently fighting vividly. Truth be told, though she'd probably never actually tell it to anyone, it was one of the few days from her childhood that she truly did care to remember. Not because she thought it to be a good memory, not even because she thought it a bad one, but because it was the day she came across the one person in the world who seemed to have it worse than her.
She lived at that damned orphanage ever since her parents died, which meant that almost every single memory she had as a child took place in a setting that only reminded her of how truly alone she was. It was a place where everyone other than her came and went frequently. The few friends she made early on were adopted and shipped off to make the memories she'd never be able to. The only parental figure in her life, the caretaker that had been assigned to care of her when she was little, was fired and replaced by one that would never have the same impact.
To be forced to watch everyone come into her life and then eventually leave her behind, over and over again, eventually made her so numb that she truly started to believe that no one in the world could've had it worse than she did.
That was the case for years. All the while, Neo kept anyone and everyone from approaching her by making it seem like she thought herself better than everyone, which amounted to be nothing more than a childhood delusion-a delusion that was fueled by all of the hardships she had to live through. All of that changed when Haise first showed up at the orphanage, however.
At first, she didn't think much of anything from the dark-haired boy. She thought him to be nothing more than a carbon copy of the other children who came in at later stages of their childhood, when they were old enough to really remember losing their parents. This assumption that was based off previous her experiences with the type. Neo assumed that he was probably going to be one of three things: either he was someone who would try and hide his sorrow with a deceitful mask of faux cheeriness, someone who used the death of their loved ones to justify his overly aggressive behavior, or someone who took the loss harshly and sequestered himself away from the rest of the world in response.
She soon found her answer when she found him sitting in a corner away from the other children, reading an extremely thick book. At the time, she thought that was going to be the last time she'd even spare a glance at the boy, but she was dead wrong.
Not a week later, she saw him walking back from recess with multiple bruises on his legs and arms. The caretakers asked the boy who had given him them, but he refused to answer, giving some flimsy excuse of him falling down instead. He did so with the most sickeningly sweet smile Neo had ever seen anyone use. This made the girl curious, so she decided to follow him around for a day. She found the answer she was looking for in less than a hour.
She saw him getting beaten up by some other boys-boys who just so happened to fall into that second category she listed earlier, boys who lashed out violently at anyone who would dare cross their paths. From what she could gather at the time, they were attacking only because they thought the new boy was trying to show them up by reading those big books of his. He tried to deny their accusation, but they either weren't listening or just didn't care, and continued to whale on him.
It was a pitiful sight to say the least, but not one part of her wanted to go and help him. Instead, she opted to sit back and see how the boy would react to the beating. What she was presented with surprised her to no end.
No matter how much or how hard the group hit him, not a single tear leaked from his eyes. The boy just lay there, curled up in a ball, taking each and every one of their hits without reacting. When the boys finished releasing their unjustified anger on him, he simply picked himself up off the ground, brushed the dirt off of his clothes, and went to read some more. It was almost as if the beating never happened to begin with.
Now harboring a good amount of curiosity towards the boy, Neo continued to watch him for days. She found that the same cycle happened time and time again. The only thing that would ever change was the book he would go to read afterwards.
Despite all she found out during those days of secret surveillance, Neo kept to her position on the sidelines for weeks. She only decided to act when she found something that made her curiosity with the boy flow over. She found the books he would always return to after the beatings, took one of the more ragged-looking ones back to her room and skimmed through its contents. Even at that age, she could tell that it wasn't something someone their age should be reading at all, much less at the frequency the condition of the book implied.
At that moment, the girl moved to help him. Not because she genuinely cared about his well being, but because she actually found his life to be quite pitiable, even after comparing it to her own, yet somehow he remained steadfast in his ways. One that she could only describe with two words-sickly sweet.
Haise continued to treat anyone who approached him kindly, despite his introverted personality, and that was when she noticed something that intrigued her greatly. Beyond the weak-bodied and weak-willed exterior he seemed to possess, her childhood self saw that there was a strength in him. One that continued to persevere, even with the trials that were forced onto his shoulders.
Neo wanted to see more of it. She wanted to test that strength's limits. She wanted to see if she could tap into that strength and make something of the boy who got beaten up each and every day.
That was the reality behind their first meeting. She couldn't claim to know the light Haise saw it in, especially now after everything happened after, but she knew that there was once a part of him that thought back to that day and remembered a happy memory, and not what it actually was.
When she reached out to him on that day, she didn't do so as a lonely girl trying to reach out to a lonely boy. At that time, she was nothing more than a little girl who found a new toy to play with.
After being hit by her former partner's attack, Neo shifted her body weight mid-air and flipped herself in a way that would ensure she would land on her feet upon landing. The undersides of her boots let out a loud screeching noise as the pieces of plastic helped her skid to a stop.
When she was no longer sliding on pure concrete like it was ice, her mismatched eyes darted around her new surroundings, looking for any sign of the rampaging form of whatever monster Haise had turned himself into.
What even was that? Neo asked herself as scanned, a bitter smirk forming on her lips when she felt her heartbeat quicken like it never had before. Ah, so many surprises, so little time.
Rapid footsteps hitting against metal drew her attention. When she turned to look at where it was coming from, she saw him. There, sitting crouched on top of a storage crate, was the snowy-haired young man she was searching for.
"Oh, there you are," Haise called out to her, his tone of voice mocking in nature. He suddenly tilted his head to the side, revealing what shadows hid from view earlier. The bloodthirsty smile that Neo had seen him sporting earlier wasn't actually a full one that went ear-to-ear like she expected. No, a much more chilling sight was what greeted her. "I actually thought that you tried to do what you did all those years ago and sneak away before we were able to finish our game." Instead of a full upward turn of his lips, she found that the right half of his mouth was turned downwards in a deep frown. The corresponding eye was glazed, flat, and pure white, no pupil or iris to be seen. "Don't you remember?" A laugh escaped his mouth. "I waited…and waited…and…wait…waited…"
The sudden trail off confused Neo. She wondered what caused it, but she got her answer less than a second later. Haise's black-tipped fingers suddenly wrapped themselves around his temples, ruffling his snow-white hair as he let out a pained growl.
"What the…" she could hear him mumble to himself, the conflicting countenance on his face becoming a full grimace. "No…no, no, no, no," he repeated that word over and over, his body starting to tremble uncontrollably. "Remember?" The words slipped from his lips, shaky as his body. "No, no, it isn't mine!" He shook his head so violently that he rocked from side to side. "Zero-absolutely none of it belongs to me!"
Then, as if a switch was flipped in his head, his hands fell from their previous positions and the lone eye that sat right in the center of that mask refocused itself on to Neo.
"Must focus on goal…" Haise muttered to himself, preparing to pounce on her, digging his black-tipped fingers into the metal under him as he did so. "...Must save her…" Neo, not wanting to be caught off guard by an attack, brought her umbrella up and pointed its tip directly at the being she deemed to be nothing more than a rampaging monster. Her body was shaking slightly, with what she believed to be anticipation. "...Must obliterate!"
Haise did as she expected and pounced directly at her at a nearly untraceable speed, shooting one centipede-like protrusion at her. Neo dodged it by flipping forwards, having every intention of getting in close to him and striking at the young man's more vital areas.
Already knowing that a hit to the groin probably wasn't going to help her now, she swung for his head with all of her might, only to hit nothing but air as he ducked under the swing. Two hands latched themselves onto her shoulders with a painfully strong grip as she was pushed to the ground.
Looking up to see what knocked her down, Neo found herself staring at the feral expression Haise had plastered on his face. A lone crimson-colored iris stared into her own mismatched eyes, looking like nothing else so much as a drop of blood in a pool of ink.
Neo remembered very little of her childhood before Haise came into her life, but even then, she only bothered to remember a few bits and pieces of a couple select ones. Like the time where she told him her intentions of eventually leaving the orphanage.
A couple of months after she first helped him with his bully problem, Neo went looking for the dark-haired boy after he failed to show up to their daily meetup. She found him sitting under the bare branches of a tree that sat near the very edge of the orphanage, staring off into space with an expression that looked could only be described as lonely.
"Hey, Neopolitan," he called out to her, despite the fact that he was looking in the complete opposite direction as to where she was standing. "Sorry about not showing up earlier." The dark-haired bookworm didn't spare a glance at her as he added, "I just needed some space to think about a few things."
"Don't worry about it, I don't need your sorry butt around me at all times," she reassured him in her usual mocking manner, a style of speaking that he adjusted to faster than she expected. "So, what are you thinking about that's got you so down?" she asked, all the while hoping her voice didn't show as much confusion as she felt.
"Was it that obvious?" The question slipped from a pair of upturned lips, yet there was zero positive emotion behind it. Choosing to not give a verbal answer, she moved to sit next to him and wait for him to continue instead. She didn't have to wait long-he opened his mouth not a second after she plopped herself down next to him. "Hey, tell me," he began, momentarily glancing over at her before returning his gaze out in front of him. "Do you ever think about leaving this place?"
"Other than all the time?" she answered, a light hint of amusement to her voice, not being able to stop herself from saying it.
He visibly frowned at that response and stated, his voice remaining uncharacteristically solemn as he spoke, "I'm trying to be serious here, Neo."
"I can tell," the truth-colored girl replied, a little bit less of a mocking undertone in her voice. "It's not everyday one bears witness to a serious Haise Sasaki, after all." This elicited a half-hearted glare from him. Neo gave a tired sigh and a serious answer, albeit a begrudging one. "Alright, fine, I'll give you an actual answer."
She took in a deep breath, contemplated the words she wanted to say and then began. "What I told you earlier was pretty much the truth," she stated, her mismatched eyes finding themselves being pointed in any direction that wasn't towards him. "There really isn't a time where I don't think about leaving this place," she continued, her tone becoming a little more solemn. "But unfortunately, I think my promise to you is going to keep me tied down to this place for a little while longer."
"Really…?" When Neo heard Haise's response to that statement, she immediately turned her attention back onto him and what she found, she couldn't say she liked all too much. He was looking at her with sadness and...was that guilt?
"Hey, no need to get so sad," she muttered, averting her gaze from him once more. A bit of guilt grew inside of her. "I never said I actually had a problem with it."
"Even then-" She heard him begin to say, but she refused to let him finish that ridiculously selfless train of thought.
"I said it was fine," she repeated, but more emphatically, making sure that she got her point across to him.
In response, he simply hung his head so that his bangs covered his face with shadows. After that, not a single word escaped from his lips, leaving them in an uncomfortable silence.
She eventually came to leave the dark-haired boy sitting there by that tree, all alone. Something she now regretted doing in retrospect, as it probably reinforced the idea of her leaving him in his head, but at the time, she didn't know how much that simple act affected him. She didn't even realize it up until recently, when she was forced to think back to it due to Haise's sudden want to departure from their group. That prompted her to realize another thing upon looking back on those memories and it was that, in the end, it was probably just another straw that broke the camel's back.
Neo couldn't help but focus on the single, Grimm-like eye that belonged to her former partner as it stared down at her. The crimson iris was filled with a wildness that she'd only ever seen in the creatures the eye reminded her so much of.
An eternity seemed to pass her by as she gazed at the orb, before finally being broken from her reverie by distorted giggling. Upon freeing herself from the fogs of her own mind, she found that Haise's face was only inches away from her own. His once soft, baby-faced features were marred by both the bone white mask that covered a quarter of his face, and the toothy smile that seemed to take up the rest of it.
"Oh, I can't wait to sink my teeth into you." The words slipped from his mouth in a way that eerily reminded her of herself. "You don't know how sick and tired I am of eating rotten-tasting meat," he purred, leaning even closer.
Their faces were probably only centimeters apart when Haise froze. Neo felt one of his hands release its grip on her left arm. Her eyes instinctively shot down towards said appendage and found that his hand was slowly approaching her face.
A shiver ran down her spine when she felt his cold fingers make contact with her cheek. However. unlike the almost painfully rough grip he had had on her arm, the way he touched her cheek was surprisingly soft. Almost feather soft.
"Dammit, why…?" The snowy-haired version of her former partner asked, pulling his hand away, prompting Neo to turn her attention back onto his face. The toothy smile was no longer present, instead replaced with that deep frown from earlier. "Why, why, why, why, why, why…?"
The moment her former partner released his grip on her arm, the tri-colored woman didn't waste any time in getting him off of her.
Using her newly freed arm, Neo sent an elbow right into the exposed portion of Haise's face with all of the force she could muster, knocking the crazed young man off of her almost instantly. Not wanting to be anywhere near him as of the moment, her mismatched eyes began frantically searching for somewhere to teleport to.
There! she exclaimed to herself when she finally found it.
Springing into action, she concentrated on the location and she soon found herself standing on top of a nearby tower crane's jib. Her hands soon found their way onto her knees as she panted in and out heavily.
Once she finally managed to regain her breath, Neo stood up straight and attempted to use her elevated position to find her opponent. Before she could even begin, she was stopped by a loud, metallic clang followed by a sudden series of violent vibrations that shook the metal under her. What the- the professional criminal thought, searching for the cause of the sudden shaking. She found it almost immediately.
There, running up the side of the crane's tower at a speed she didn't even think physically possible with his centipede-like appendages trailing behind him, was none other than the man she was looking for.
Shit, how did he find me so quickly? Neo cursed to herself, preparing to teleport away. She stopped herself when she noticed the young man suddenly stab his centipede-like tentacles into the metal of the crane and screech to a stop as he reached the operator's cabin. What is he-?
Her former partner suddenly launched himself towards her position, which prompted the tri-colored to flip backwards out of instinct alone as he slipped between the rungs of the crane. Neo felt a gust of air hit her back as she reached the midway point of the flip.
Assuming that it was probably Haise, she turned on her heel upon landing so that she was facing the opposite direction. She found aforementioned young man flipping himself forwards in mid-air so that he was upside down facing her direction. He then sent both of his tentacles hurtling her way, prompting her to jump back to avoid getting cleaved in half.
Probably to avoid flying off into the air, he kept his tentacles planted in the metal of the crane, using them as an anchor as he used the momentum he built up to hook himself onto the tip of the crane's jib with his back facing her. The landing causing even more vibrations to run through the crane.
"Hey, Neo, do you wanna know something interesting?" The monstrous young man asked, glancing over his shoulder at her. That frown from earlier was still present on his lips. "It still hurts, you know…" One of his hands clenched at the flesh of his stomach while the other was raised up to chin-level. He cracked a finger under his thumb. "...The place where you stabbed me."
"I would definitely hope so," the professional criminal shot back, with all of her usual confidence. Her legs continued to shake under her in anticipation of what was to come. Her breathing was ragged due all of her previous physical exertion. "Wouldn't want you forgetting all about me, now would I?"
Another smirk appeared on Haise's lips in response to the statement. Less than a second later, he launched one of his protrusions at Neo. She flipped to the right and just barely landed her feet on the edge of the crane's jib.
As she flipped, her former partner charged straight at her with his other tentacle primed to strike. He aimed a strike at her head, but Neo leaned her body out of the way, just barely miss getting decapitated. Deciding that it was probably best to keep her distance from him, especially after what happened earlier, she took a step towards Haise and hit him in the side of the head with her umbrella, before immediately jumping back out of the way.
The attack made Haise recoil backwards, but other than that, it made no physical indication of affecting him in the slightest, as he returned to the offensive almost immediately.
Wildly, and without any sort of pattern to it, he sent attack after attack Neo's way, which she made sure to dodge. All the while, she did her best to keep her footing on the crane as every attack forced her to teeter on the edge of falling to the ground below her. Suddenly, Haise full-out launched himself at her, hurtling through the air while launching another tentacle at her. Seeing no other option, the tri-colored woman decided to slip in between the rungs of the jib under her and stop her descent to the ground by catching a metal rung with the handle of her umbrella.
Now hanging several feet in the air by her umbrella, Neo frantically began pulling herself back up so that she wasn't easy prey for her crazed adversary, who was doing as he did earlier and was using his tentacles as a grappling hook to curve back towards her direction. Come on… she thought as she pulled, a rare sense of panic rising inside her as the seconds passed as slow hours.
Neo felt another gust of air pass by under her as she finally pulled herself up into the very center of the crane's jib. Once again assuming that it was Haise, she turned glanced over her shoulder in the direction the air was going in and found that her former partner had hooked a tentacle on the very end of the crane's trolley.
Unlike last time, however, he wasn't using his momentum to swing towards he. He was using it to sling himself towards the the crane's mast.
The snowy-haired monster slammed into it with enough force to shake the entire structure. Soon enough, the sound of metal screeching against metal deafened Neo as she felt the jib of the crane begin to tilt dramatically towards its tip.
Holy- was all she had time to think before the jib fell down to the concrete ground, taking her with it.
During the weeks that followed the conversation she had with Haise under that tree, Neo found that any and all interactions with her meek companion became increasingly harder and harder to come by. Normally, he would meet up with her after classes ended, as he was very adamant about wanting her to actually pay attention during class, which she reluctantly agreed to as it was the only thing he was ever actually adamant about. However, that all changed when he started to disappear after the teacher dismissed them.
The first day, she didn't think much of it, as he eventually reappeared again after about a half hour. She just assumed that the boy was busy doing something that didn't concern her. She tried asking him about it, but all she got back in response was the same sickly-sweet runaround he gave the teachers when they asked about his bruises. Of course, he probably had no idea that she was able to recognize it, as he didn't know she was watching him at the time. Since that was the way she wanted to keep it, she played along with it for the time being.
Then, the same thing happened the next day, and the day after that. The same scenario played over and over again for a full week before there was finally a change in the script, but it wasn't a change she liked all that much, for very obvious reasons. Instead of disappearing for a half hour, Haise was gone for a full hour, and it didn't even stop there! About two weeks since it first started happening, that amount of time doubled, and he started disappearing for two hours.
Now, all of that would've been fine if he actually interacted with her at all when she did see him, but the simple fact was that he didn't. Whenever she actually managed to spend any time with him, it was almost as if she was talking with a robot. He seemed to be completely disinterested in what she had to tell him and only ever spoke when spoken directly to. To make a long story short, it frustrated her to no end, and eventually that frustration morphed into resentment.
At the time, her ten year old self believed it to be a form of retaliation for what happened under that tree. A fact she would've been fine with if he wasn't so blatantly trying to distance himself from her because of it.
One day, Neo finally let her frustrations known to the boy, but all she got back was the same answer she got last time she asked. For some reason, all of her composure slipped away, and before she realized what she was doing, the palm of her hand met with his cheek. Surprisingly enough, he didn't even flinch at the strike. He simply turned his head to look at her after recovering from the initial strike. His usually life-filled eyes adopted the same heavy feel they had during the conversation that started everything.
Upon seeing this, Neo proceeded to ask him what he was doing again. Every part of her hoped that he wouldn't give her that same lie. Her heart sank when she heard him utter his answer, and at that moment, all of the emotion that was welling up inside her took control and she ran, leaving him standing there with a red handprint on his cheek.
To hear him flat out lie to her face, even after she gave him the opportunity to rescind it… It actually hurt. It hurt more than she ever expected it to.
What that was… The entirety of what she just did… It was more than just her trying to get answers. Neo knew the bookworm, despite all of his social ineptness, understood that much. She was giving him a choice, and that was his answer.
Knowing him and his strange word-loving ways, Haise would probably say that the better word for it would be 'ultimatum'. She'd gladly concede that point to him. Mainly because he was right. She really didn't give him much other choice in the situation and she regretted that, even back then, and that regret plagued her for a while. Not enough that it made her forsake her childish pride, but there were a couple nights where she would lie awake contemplating what would've happened if she handled things differently, especially when she caught wind of his apparent departure from the orphanage.
It felt like her entire world was about to fall apart when she heard that news. She went to go confront him about it almost immediately afterwards. For what reason, she didn't know. Truth be told, Neo didn't really know what she would have said to him if they saw one another that day. A part of her wanted to channel all of her anger and resentment towards him into a speech that was meant to tear down everything he held dear, but another part of her wanted to pour every ounce of pent up emotion she had inside her into some impassioned, admittedly melodramatic plea to get him to stay.
In the end, she'd never have the chance to figure that out. Haise and almost everything he owned was gone by the time she went to go see him. The cycle that she hated so much played itself over again and ripped something important to her away, leaving her with only resentment.
Resentment towards… everything.
Towards her deceased parents for starting the cycle. Towards the orphanage she was forced to live in for allowing it a base to sustain itself. Towards the whole world for allowing such things to happen. Towards Haise Sasaki for wriggling his way into her heart, only to rip it out by willingly taking a part in it. Towards herself for fooling herself into thinking that sickly-sweet little boy would be any different.
And so, Neo ran, far away from that place with no plan or set goal in her mind. She just wanted to be rid of the place that kept taking so much from her.
The first thing that became apparent to Neo when the painfully strong ringing in her head finally subsided was pain. An extremely fiery pain that ran throughout her entire body.
Forcing open the eyes she clenched shut in response to the pain, Neo looked around and found herself lying inside the metal jib, which was currently leaning against the tower portion of the crane, backend first.
Thank everything for aura, the tri-colored woman thought, trying to force herself up into a sitting position. She was quickly forced to stop when she felt something pinning the majority of her left arm down to the ground under her. Instinctively, she glanced over to see what was restricting her movement and found that it was stuck in between two metal rungs of the crane's peak, which somehow got around her arm before the impact twisted them into a vice keeping her in place. Aw, you've got to be kidding- That train of thought skid to a halt when she both heard and felt something slam into the top of the jib. Turning her gaze towards it, she found something that made her curse. Shit!
There, perched up at the top of the jib and staring directly at her with his one working eye, was one Haise Sasaki, or rather, the monster that wore his skin. The Grimm-like monstrosity was holding onto to what was very clearly the last remaining pieces of the top half of the jib, before something tore it clean off.
The sight caused panic to swell up inside her. Neo immediately began trying to free her arm from its confines, but unfortunately, her struggles didn't get her anywhere. Haise launched himself down the insides of the jib and towards her trapped form before she could even get her trapped limb to move an inch.
The very bones in her body vibrated as he impacted with the ground around her. "That's much better," Haise sneered mockingly, looming over her. He out an equally mocking laugh as he grabbed onto the metal rungs surrounding them, leaning in so that their faces were once again inches apart. "C'mon, try flying away now, little birdy."
Haise continued to inch closer and closer to Neo, before suddenly grabbing her chin and forcibly tilting her head up, exposing her neck. "The last thing a centipede wants is a meal that doesn't struggle, after all." Neo watched helplessly as her former partner leaned his head so that his mouth was positioned directly in front of her bare throat. His cold breath tickled her exposed skin as he spoke in a deceitfully soft voice. "Tell me, have you ever seen a centipede eat something before?"
The lone black eye stared down at Neo hungrily, sending an unfamiliar chill down her spine like a trickle of raindrops. "It's actually quite the gruesome sight to behold," Haise continued, in the same infuriatingly soft tone. "It sinks its fangs into its prey and waits until its venom completely paralyzes it." The professional criminal flinched as she felt his other hand grasp her shoulder roughly, digging in with cold, bony fingers. "And then it wraps its legs around the prey, and tears and tears and tears and tears and tears at the meat until there's nothing left."
"It hurts like you wouldn't believe…" A high-pitched, distorted giggle clawed its way from his throat. "…I should know. I've had one in my ear, after all." Neo's eyes widened in shock and confusion.
Before she could even question what her partner meant by that, Haise opened his mouth wide and slowly brought it to her throat. Damn, I don't think I have enough aura left to block this! Neo cursed to herself, right before an explosion rocked the jib that enclosed the two of them. The aftershocks knocked the crazed beast standing over her off-balance. My arm! The young woman felt the pressure on her arm suddenly lighten, which allowed her enough room to pull said appendage out of its trap.
Turning her head over to where the blast originated from, Neo found herself staring at the familiar figure of a man in a gaudy three-piece suit standing in the open side door of a bullhead, cane pointed directly in her former partner's direction. "Sorry about intruding right as you two were about to get intimate, but I'm afraid I'm going to have to take her off your hands for the moment," the man said condescendingly, pulling the trigger of his weapon. This prompted Neo to focus her attention onto the spot of ground next to Roman and teleport to it, right as the explosive was let loose from the cane.
The professional criminal turned her head towards the wreck of the jib right in time to see her former partner get slammed in the face with said explosive. The resulting explosion encompassing the young man completely in an instant. Despite all that happened, she felt the familiar pang of worry hit her heart at the sight, but she wasn't able to confirm his condition as the bullhead began to pull away almost immediately after it hit.
Haise… Neo thought to herself as she watched the location where he once stood move farther and farther away.
"Blake!" Blake could only blink in confusion as she heard her voice being called out. She immediately turned her head towards where the voice came from and Ruby running towards her, the weird orange-haired girl from a couple days back in tow. "Hey, are you alright?!"
"R-Ruby?" Blake stuttered, panting heavily as her friend and fellow teammate ran up to her. Fighting Torchwick had taken a lot out of her. Truthfully, she underestimated the man's abilities and nearly lost because of it. The only real reason she managed to win was because the crane suddenly collapsing had distracted him long enough for her to get a decent hit in. One that made him retreat into the safety of a bullhead almost immediately afterwards. "What… What are you doing here?"
"Finding you, silly!" Ruby exclaimed in an uncharacteristically stern tone that oddly reminded Blake of her mother. "Do you know how long we've been looking for you and Kaneki?" The smaller girl put her hands on her hips and added, "Do you know how worried the two of you made us when you up and disappeared like that?"
"Yes, you two made Ruby very worried," the orange-haired girl, Penny, butted in suddenly. "She wouldn't stop muttering your names under her breath the entire time we were running here."
This earned the strange girl a betrayed glare from Ruby. "Sorry about that," Blake offered her leader, flashing her younger a bashful smile. "After all that happened…" she trailed off to find the perfect words to describe what happened over the past couple days. "… I needed some space to sort out a couple of things out and I ended up dragging Kaneki into it by accident."
Ruby sighed in relief. "You don't have to explain yourself to me," she replied with an understanding smile. "I'm really just happy to see that you're alright." Blake couldn't stop herself from smiling at her leader's admission. "So, what happened to Kaneki anyways?"
Blake's eyes reflexively widened at the mention of her companion's name, just then remembering that he was probably still fighting the tri-colored woman from before. "He should still be fighting that woman from the settlement," she explained to her teammate. "You know, the one who took you all hostage after Kaneki and I fell out of the bullhead."
"What?!" Ruby cried, her silver eyes widening as the worry in her voice piqued. "Why didn't you say so earlier! We need to-"
Almost as if it was waiting for its cue, the sound of an explosion rang out through the air, making all three of the girls jump in shock. Blake turned towards the source of the sound and found that it originated from the fallen crane from earlier. From out of the sounds of destruction that continuously emanated from that direction, she heard something that made her heart still in her chest. Something she hoped was only audible because of her naturally superior sense of hearing, and wasn't just loud enough for everyone to hear.
"AGGGGGGHHHHHH!"
That voice… It was shrill, and sounded as if it was trying to convey a pain that she could never hope to comprehend without experiencing it for herself. But most importantly to her, it sounded like Kaneki.
"FUCK FUCK FUCK!" Blake could only listen helplessly to her friend's pain-induced screams. Her body screamed for her to go and help him, but the shock of it all made her feel as though her bones had been replaced with lead. "It burns-my head, no everything it feels like-agh, why won't it stop?!"
"I can't stop here…" Blake's heart sank when she heard Kaneki's voice suddenly weaken. "I need to…Blake, I need to save her save her save her save her-Blake!"
"Blake!" The sound of another voice calling out her name broke the bookworm from her fixation and prompted her to turn her towards where it came from, finding a worried-looking Ruby and an extremely confused Penny. "Are you alright?" Her young leader asked worriedly. "You've been-"
"It's Kaneki." The words slipped from Blake's already hanging mouth without her usual calm; instead, her voice was filled with worry for the wellbeing of her friend. "He's-"
"Pardon me. I don't mean to be rude, but I think we have bigger problems," Penny cut her off whilst pointing up towards the sky. This prompted the two members of team RWBY to turn their heads in that direction to find a group of three bullheads approaching them.
They must be here to cover that guy's escape, Blake thought to herself, instinctively looking around for a place to take cover. They're probably going to start opening fire on us. I need to get to cover before-
Bullet fire cut Blake's train of thought short. Her amber eyes widened upon hearing the noise and she flinched, fully expecting to be riddled full of holes, but suddenly, the flashes of death coming out of the bullhead's machine guns were stopped. A group of swords had appeared from out of nowhere, circling rapidly in front of her like some sort of overly-ironic shield as they blocked every bullet.
"Don't you worry, Ruby and Ruby's friend, Blake," Penny said, prompting the two to turn towards her. "I'll take care of them." What they found was a Penny with swords that flew around her almost as if she was controlling them through some form of telekinesis. What she said next, she said with a confident smile and military-like salute that were both directed towards Blake's crimson-clad leader. "I'm combat ready, after all."
With that, orange-haired girl sent several of those swords directly into the leading bullhead's front and then pulled both her arms back, making it seem like she was pulling on some string that wasn't visible to the human eye. Aforementioned bullhead swerved side to side in response, before finally slamming directly into the bullhead behind it as it passed. The collision knocked the two transports out of the air and onto the ground almost immediately.
"Whoa," Blake and Ruby said in unison.
Turning her attention onto the last remaining bullhead, which was already starting to pull away, Penny pointed the tips of the floating swords at it, probably in an attempt to do to it what she did the other two ships. However, before she could do so, a black blur slammed right into the cockpit.
Already knowing who it was, thanks to the long objects that were coming out of his back, Blake felt a wave of relief run through her at the knowledge her friend wasn't debilitatingly injured. That relief, however, only lasted until the moment she saw what Kaneki was doing. He used his 'kagune' as he called it, though they looked much bigger and much spikier than she remembered, to tear off the cockpit's shielding like it was a wet piece of paper. The metal fell through the air as he jumped inside.
The cat-eared faunus was able to pick up on what was going on inside the ship. What she heard made her blood freeze almost instantly.
It was screaming. Frantic and hauntingly agonized screaming that definitely didn't belong to Kaneki; screaming that soon died and was replaced with the very faint sound of chewing. As she heard those noises, the bullhead neared the ground, swerving back and forth uncontrollably, before finally slamming into the ground side-first. The resulting impact caused the concrete it landed on to break apart as it ground to a halt.
"Blake…" Ruby called out to her suddenly, immediately breaking the older girl's fixation on the downed vehicle. "...Was that…?"
"Yeah," Blake answered, already knowing the question her leader was going to ask.
"You don't think he'd…"
"I…" At that moment, memories of his pained wailing ran through Blake's head. "… I don't know."
Ruby soon got her answer. A pale, black-nailed hand emerged from the cockpit, soon followed by a head of snow-white hair, angled in a way that made it impossible for anyone to see the face underneath as the half-ghoul climbed out of the transport's inner workings.
Suddenly, Kaneki exploded from out of the cockpit and landed on to the ground in front of them, crouched down on all fours so that the entirety of his front was out of sight. That, however, didn't stop Blake from noticing the metallic smell that emanated him. It was so overpowering that she almost didn't notice the faint burning smell that lingered in the air.
"Ah, it's no good," Kaneki muttered, shaking his downturned head violently. His voice came out muffled, as if he was speaking directly into the surface of a pillow. "It's no good, I say."
"Kaneki…" Blake tried to force down the lump that suddenly grew in her throat as she called out to her teammate, who ceased all shaking of his head the moment after she managed to do so. "… Are you alright?"
"Am I alright?" Kaneki parroted disbelievingly, reaching his hands up to his hidden face. "I don't really know…" At that moment, he straightened up, looked up from the ground, and stared directly at the cat-eared faunus, revealing his once hidden face to the world. Blake could only gasp at what she saw. "I can't feel any-everything's just gone so numb…I can barely even move my mouth."
Oh my… what in the world happened? Blake asked herself, the sight of her companion's condition leaving her completely speechless.
The almost deathly pale face that she had gotten so familiar with-the same one that made a tinge of warmth spike in her heart every time she saw it-was almost completely scorched. It almost looked as though someone had taken a piece of charcoal and smeared it everywhere other than the top left portion his face, which only emphasized the milky white mask- a mask set with a single black and red eye-that covered it. If it weren't for the charred edges of bone that poked out from where his cheekbones and jawline should have been, that's exactly what she would've thought happened.
The sight made bile rise up from Blake's throat, which was only enhanced when she realized that the burned smell she'd picked up had been her teammate's skin. She tried to force it down, but her amber eyes caught notice of something else, something that forced her to swallow hard to avoid vomiting.
At that moment, several thin, black strands suddenly emerged from the charred remnants of Kaneki's face and began laying themselves over the damaged areas. The bookworm could only watch on in horror as the fibers rapidly connected to one another and began forming layers of muscle tissue over the damaged areas.
"Ruby, is that the Kaneki person you were talking about earlier?" Blake heard Penny ask in a low whisper, but the Faunus remained focused on her companion as his face continued to heal inch by inch.
"Y-yeah," the young team leader answered tentatively, in an equally low whisper. "That's him."
"Then, could you please explain to me how he's able to do that?"
"Uh…" Ruby began, but paused when a familiar, hoarse chuckle rang through air. "…I'll be sure to explain it to you later."
"How?" A set of giggles escaped from the half ghoul as his hands transitioned further up his face and covered the only portion that wasn't finished healing-the top right part of his face. "Ha, that's actually a good question," he continued in his delirium, standing up and revealing the rest of his body, which was covered with a liquid that reflected the fading light of dusk despite its dark crimson color. "Maybe you should ask whoever was flying that bullhead, I think they may know."
Suddenly, the artificially-made half ghoul lowered his hands from the still-burned portion of his face and grinned, while suddenly focusing his lone eye directly towards Blake's right. Exactly where Penny was standing.
Another round of giggles rang through the air. The orange-haired girl simply tilted her head quizzically in response. "Unfortunately, I don't think that he's going to be enough," Kaneki sneered, two centipede-like protrusions slipping out from the small of his back and and landing, twitching, on the ground. "You wouldn't mind helping me out with that...right?"
"Kaneki," Blake said, realizing that the situation needed defusing, making sure to keep her voice level and calm as she spoke. "You need to calm down." There was no response, so she called out to him in a louder voice. "Kaneki! You need to calm down!"
"Blake's right!" Ruby yelled as well, her voice sounding like it belonged to someone much older than her age let on. "I know that you might be hungry and that you're in pain, but you need to remember that we're all friends here!"
"Yes, I suggest you listen to Blake and Ruby," Penny chimed in, her demeanor not changing despite the tension of situation. "You may be Ruby's friend, but if you attempt to hurt either of them, I'll be forced to-"
Before the orange-haired girl could finish her warning, Kaneki suddenly burst forward at a speed that Blake could barely even track with her eyes, stopping right in front of Penny. He lashed out at aforementioned girl with one of his centipede-like tentacles, with very obvious killing intent, but suddenly, a group of swords intercepted the incoming kagune as it approached her head.
Growling in frustration, the crazed half ghoul retracted his deadly appendage and attempted another attack on Penny, but this time, he decided to use both of his tentacles instead of one. The method may have been different, but result was exactly the same.
Both centipede-like appendages were stopped by a group of swords. The two forces pushed against each other before Kaneki was overpowered, forcibly sent several feet backwards.
"Kaneki, Penny, you two need to stop this!" Ruby yelled, but her words fell on deaf ears. The orange-haired girl sent the swords she used to block the prior strikes directly at the crazed half ghoul. In response, Kaneki shot off towards his right and just barely missed getting hit. Penny kept firing her swords at him and continued to just barely miss, when the young man suddenly leapt up on to the wall of a nearby storage container, running on its side as if it were nothing. As if just suddenly realizing what she needed to do, Penny sent two swords directly in front of him.
The crazed half ghoul dug the tips of his tentacles into the wall of the storage container and forced himself to a dead stop, just barely missing being hit by the incoming projectiles. He then turned and pounced off of the container, aiming one of his protrusions directly at the orange-haired girl.
Sparks flew out into the air as Penny stopped the attack with another group of floating swords, but the move did very little to stop the half ghoul's own momentum, which allowed him to land directly in front of her after a slight trajectory change in mid-air. Kaneki hit the ground and proceeded to spin and slam the girl straight up into the air with backside of his other kagune.
Blake and Ruby could only watch as Kaneki reared his other tentacle back in preparation for a strike, lashing it out at Penny when she reached the peak of her launch. Before the spiny appendage could make contact with the girl, two swords shot out from the girls back and seemingly pulled her down back to the ground.
The moment she landed, Penny shot towards Kaneki's now exposed front and attempted to land an elbow directly into his face, but he leaned his head out of the way before the blow could hit. The crazed half ghoul jumped towards his opponent and tried to latch onto her arm, but was thrown off and away several feet backwards the moment he tried doing so.
Another volley of flying swords were sent Kaneki's way once space was made between the two, but the young man shifted his body to the right and shot off so fast that it looked like he disappeared, reappearing behind the orange-haired girl not a second later.
However, before Kaneki could do anything, a sudden crimson blur slammed directly into him as he slowed, knocking him straight up into the air. "Blake!" Ruby called out the moment she slowed. The Faunus in question jumped into action almost immediately.
Blake unwrapped her ribbon from around her wrist and shot towards the action. As she closed the distance, she noticed her companion flip himself all the way backwards and land clean on all fours, but she didn't stop her charge.
Probably sensing her approach, Kaneki switched his attention over to her and visibly froze up the moment he laid his one visible eye on her.
Remembering the pained cries he let out earlier, Blake unsheathed Gambol Shroud, tied her ribbon around its hilt, and stabbed it into the ground right as she neared the snowy-haired half ghoul.
Running around her friend while simultaneously tying him up with the ribbon was actually surprisingly easy, especially since he just remained frozen to where he stood nearly the entire time. He did eventually snap out of his daze, but unfortunately for him, she was already tying the knot tightly around him by that time.
The half ghoul attempted to free himself from the hold of his bonds by struggling against them violently with his tentacles flailing around behind him, but his outburst was soon stopped by a floating sword that suddenly slammed itself into his upper body. Its tip didn't break skin, but the energy built up behind it was enough to knock him several feet backwards.
Already knowing that it was Penny, Blake turned towards the orange-haired girl and found that she had several more swords floating around, all of which were pointed directly at Kaneki. "Wha-" Blake began to ask, but was cut off when she saw all of the swords fly directly at him.
One by one, every sword slammed itself against Kaneki's body with enough force to elicit pained grunts, coming so quickly and frequently that he didn't even have time to raise his kagune to protect himself. He just kept getting pummeled and pummeled by the floating blades, until the strikes eventually forced him down to his knees.
Upon seeing her end her assault, Blake subconsciously turned towards where Penny stood to see what she was planning to do next. What she found perplexed her to no end. The orange-haired girl's eyes had visibly changed as they were trained on her target, turning from green to red and losing their previous child-like luster. Her swords were arranged in a tight circle and spinning rapidly, pointed at Kaneki.
What the girl was planning on doing was initially completely lost to Blake, who only found herself even more perplexed when she saw a green light begin to grow in the middle of the circle. She only truly realized what was going on when it was too late and the light suddenly grew in size, before it burst from the group of swords quicker than a flash.
The bookworm could only watch on in delayed horror as the beam of light speed towards her bound friend, but thankfully, the snowy-haired half ghoul seemed to sense the danger and tried to shoot off to his right. She could tell from the way the ground crumbled under where he once stood that she did so with all of his energy. Unfortunately, however, that wasn't enough to completely evade the speed of light and the laser clipped him right in the side.
Kaneki was knocked off balance by the blow and bounced across the ground like a rock being skipped across a pond, before suddenly being stopped by the corner of a nearby storage container. There was no spectacular amount of destruction or debris knocked into the air when the two collided, but what did happen was his head bouncing right off the sharp edge of the container.
A loud, grisly metallic noise that made Blake cringe rang out through the air upon impact. Kaneki's head simply lolled forwards limply afterwards. His head remained hung like that for several seconds before trails of crimson began to stain his snowy hair. The trails ran down the length of each strand until the entire top half of his head was turned a deep, dark crimson.
Blake, truth be told, was horrified by the sight of her friend's injury. Not by the injury his tumble across the concrete resulted in however, but the injury that caused it to begin with.
A chunk of his abdomen was completely missing, leaving a large, circular hole in her friend's mid-section-one that she knew would've been bleeding profusely if it not for the fact the laser Penny shot at him singed all of the severed blood vessels closed.
Again, however, that wasn't the injury that was distressing Blake so much. No, the injury that her amber eyes were focused on made her legs lose all strength and made her fall to her knees. She could barely move from shock, but at the same time, made her want to run over to his side and see if he was alright.
"Oh no…" she muttered to herself, her voice gaining an uncharacteristically weak feel to it as the ears on the top her head drooped at what she saw. "… Kaneki."
When Blake had tied him up with her ribbon earlier, she did it in a way that pinned his arms down to his sides. But now, his arm…
His arm, right up to where his forearm met his elbow, was non-existent. Simply replaced by empty space.
Gone.
-Chapter End-
Did any of you really expect anything other than a cliffhanger from me? I mean, I've done it so many times that you should all just expect it from me now…
*quickly hides in a fridge to save self from incoming nuclear blasts*
[muffled] UNTIL NEXT TIME FOLKS!
*cue mushroom clouds*