NTR is a trash fetish…
-Mandatory Disclaimer-
I repeat, NTR is a trash fetish.
-Chapter 12: Agon and Selfishness-
When Kaneki finally returned to consciousness, he found that the back of his head was strangely comfortable-an adjective that he couldn't use to describe the rest of his body, as he was sure that he was currently lying flat against concrete.
Whatever was under his head was extremely soft and warm, making it easily the most comfortable pillow he'd ever laid his head on. Subconsciously, in attempt to gain even more comfort for himself, he tried to dig his face deeper into whatever was under him, but was forced to stop when he felt it shift slightly.
What… He thought groggily, attempting to pry his eyelids open. What in the world was that?
The moment he finally managed to force his heavy eyelids open, the first thing that Kaneki noticed was that he was staring straight at someone's bare stomach. It took a few moments for his mind to shake off the haze he gained earlier and figure out who exactly he was staring at, but when he did, his eyes immediately shot upwards to confirm his assumption.
Kaneki could feel his heart skip a beat at the sight of her. "Blake…?" The name slipped out of his mouth as gray met amber. The two were suddenly thrown into an inescapable contest of the other's stamina-a contest that never got the chance to determine a clear winner, as it was, unfortunately, broken up a few seconds into its conception by the all-too-familiar voice of their team leader.
"Kaneki!" Ruby exclaimed, her voice somehow harboring a mixture of panic and relief, despite the natural conflictions something of that nature would entail. "You're finally awake!"
As she yelled the final part, Kaneki heard the sound of her footsteps tapping rapidly against the ground and promptly rolled himself onto his back to turn towards where it came from. Once turned, he saw nothing but a familiar bundle of crimson standing over him with a worried expression plastered over her normally bright face. "Are you alri-" she began to ask him the moment she saw that she had his attention, "-uh, I mean, does it hurt anywhere?"
Kaneki couldn't help but smile at the worry his team leader was showing him, being completely unable to find the familiar display anything but cute. At that moment, all of the brotherly instincts that had developed over his time with Hinami were forced up to the surface and made him move to quell her worries. His abdominal muscles screamed in protest as he forced himself up into a sitting position, but that pain, when compared to the stab in his heart when he saw how much he worried her, seemed all too insignificant.
"I'm going to be fine, Ruby," Kaneki assured her in the most soothing tone he could muster.
Ruby opened her mouth, probably in an attempt to try and refute what he'd just claimed, but whatever she was going to say was cut off by the sound of footsteps. He could hear multiple pairs of them, three to be more specific, all coming directly towards where the three of them stood.
Kaneki and his two teammates turned their heads towards where the footsteps were coming from and found a group of three walking towards them. None of which looking particularly happy, he idly noted.
Immediately, he recognized two of three to be Weiss and Yang, but the blonde-haired boy following them was completely unfamiliar.
"Weiss, I can explain-" Ruby began, but her words ended up falling on deaf ears as Weiss walked by her without uttering a word, only stopping when she stood directly in front of where Kaneki and Blake sat together.
The artificially-made half ghoul could only smile as he felt Weiss's icy eyes scan over him several times, immediately recognizing it to be one of the few ways she would ever show her worry. One that he got very familiar with over the few weeks he spent training with her.
Not being one who enjoyed having serious conversations while sitting flat on asphalt, Kaneki reached a hand up onto the police car that had, at some point, appeared behind his back. He searched for a suitable handhold and tried to pull himself up onto his feet. His already strained muscles once again screeched their protest at being put to use. Kaneki tried to push past it, but unlike last time, his efforts were in vain.
Looks like using my kakuja drained me even more than the last couple times I used it, he thought as his right leg gave out under him, forcing him to strain his remaining arm even further as he caught himself before he landed on the ground. I suppose that should be expected, since I didn't get anything to eat after sustaining those injuries. I'm going to have to fix that before I get back to Beacon.
Placing the leg that gave out back under him, Kaneki attempted to try and push himself up again and immediately realized that the attempt would fare no better than the last, which prompted him to brace for another fall. The pain, however, never came, as a familiar warmth wrapped itself around his midsection, catching him just before he could impact with the asphalt.
"Thanks," He murmured appreciatively, shooting Blake, who had been the one to stop his descent, a warm smile.
"Don't mention it," she replied, switching over to his left side before slinging his remaining arm over her shoulders and helping him up to his feet.
Once his feet were back under him, Kaneki found that his legs could barely carry his weight. Having probably sensed that, he felt Blake pull him closer to her, which prompted a relieved sigh to slip from him as he felt the weight taken off of his already weary legs.
"Kaneki…are you-?" Weiss began the expected question once Kaneki finally managed to pry his eyes from the ground and refocus them back onto her, but he decided to stop her before it could come out.
"Weiss, I'm going to be-" he began, but now, he soon found himself being interrupted.
"Don't you dare say that you're going to be alright!" At that moment, the heiress's beloved composure slipped and blared all of her pent up worries right in his face, prompting everyone around her to stare in shock. Taking in a deep breath through her nostrils, she continued in a much more controlled, yet equally angry tone. "I mean, Kaneki, just take a look at yourself." She gestured at him with a vertical wave of her hand. "You can barely stand, you're completely covered in blood, and I know that I don't need to remind you of this, but you're missing an arm!"
"So tell me," Weiss finished, pinching the bridge of her nose, "how can you possibly try to say that you're alright when you're in such bad condition?"
"Weiss…" Blake muttered under her breath, guilty. This prompted Kaneki to clench her shoulder in an attempt to comfort the person who was keeping him up.
The heiress must've heard her name being said, because immediately to after that, she turned her attention towards Blake. "How did this happen?"
Blake blinked, seemingly out of it. "Huh?"
"How did this happen?" Weiss repeated, an almost palpable irritability in her voice.
"Weiss-" Kaneki tried to interrupt the heiress, sensing a bit of an accusation in her voice.
However, Weiss promptly cut him off."How in the world did you running away turn into all of this?" demanded the snowy-haired young woman, blowing past his attempt at an interruption like it was never there. "Was it the White Fang?"
Kaneki glanced at his dark-haired support and found that she had cast her eyes down at the ground. At first he assumed that she was letting the silence answer the question for her, but she suddenly opened her mouth and spoke, though it came out as nothing more than a low whisper. "No, it wasn't completely the White Fang."
"But they definitely played a part, correct?" Weiss asked. Blake could only nod in response, albeit begrudgingly. Weiss shook her head and growl loudly. If it was out of frustration or disgust, Kaneki simply didn't know.
"Yes, but-" Blake attempted to argue, but was promptly cut off.
"But what?" Weiss demanded, her tone filled with a form of outrage Kaneki had never heard before. "What could you possibly say that could justify Kaneki losing an arm?!" Her teammate's outburst left Blake completely speechless. "Just admit it already! This was nothing more than a wild goose chase for something that you should've left behind a long time ago!" Weiss pointed at him. "And just look at what happened!"
A pang hit him when he heard those words screamed at Blake, recognizing them as a much more blunt version of what he told her a couple of hours earlier.
Knowing that he wouldn't be able to stop the argument between the two, as he was the cause of it to begin with, Kaneki turned his eyes towards the other four watching it all go down them and found nothing other than reluctant gazes. He couldn't say he blamed them for being reluctant to intervene, as even he felt that Weiss's anger was definitely somewhat justified.
He couldn't deny that the fact if Blake had just forsaken her past ties with the White Fang from the very beginning, none of this would've happened. It was really just as simple as that. Yet, despite him knowing that, he couldn't bring himself to say that what just was entirely Blake's fault. No, it wasn't her fault that he ended up in this condition, nor did fault lie with that orange-haired girl from earlier. By habit, he almost blamed himself for it, but he couldn't even do that in the end.
The person at fault here, ironically enough, wasn't here at all. Fault belonged solely to the ones who attacked the docks: the White Fang, that man with the orange hair who he recognized to be Torchwick, and Neo. They were the ones who caused all of this. Trying to place blame in their own ranks wasn't going to get them anywhere, so he moved to act, despite knowing how long his odds were.
"Weiss, that's enough," Kaneki told his snowy-haired teammate, drawing the attention of everyone around him immediately.
"But-" Weiss tried to protest, but he killed it off before it could reach fruition.
"Weiss, that's enough," he reiterated. He intended to add a little more vehemence in his voice, but it only ended up coming out sounding extremely tired. At that moment, the heiress's expression shifted from one of anger to one of guilt, which in turn made him to feel a little guilty himself.
A palpable tension grew in between them as neither of them really knew how to proceed after that, but thankfully a certain blonde-haired loudmouth broke the silence between them.
"Short-stuff has a point," Yang piped in suddenly, speaking for the first time in the conversation. "I don't think right now is the best time for us to talk about this, especially after the past couple of days the two of them have had." She then proceeded to cross her arms over her chest and add, "I think we should just head back to Beacon for now and let the two of them rest up before we do anything else."
Weiss opened her mouth, probably to protest, but she closed a moment later and nodded reluctantly. "Fine," she stated, voice filled with reluctance as she crossed her arms over her chest and turned to walk away.
"Don't you two mind her," Yang told the two of them once Weiss looked to be far enough away, flashing them a reassuring smile as she did so. "She was just worried about the two of you, is all."
"Yeah, concerned," Blake shot back. The sarcasm in her voice wasn't lost to anyone present. "That's what she was." Kaneki tried to comfort her by once again tightening the grip he had on her arm, which elicited a tired sigh from the weary Faunus holding him up. "Thank you," she muttered under her breath, sending him a sideways glance-a glance that was accompanied by a smile that remained appreciative, despite the exhaustion it contained.
"Hm…" He heard a suspicious hum from Yang, which prompted both him and Blake to turn their attention towards the self-proclaimed bombshell. Upon turning towards her, the half ghoul found that the blonde was shifting her violet eyes between the both of them mischievously. "…Did I actually manage to call it?" She asked, most likely to no one in particular given her tone.
"Call what?" Ruby chimed in suddenly, voicing the question Kaneki was asking himself.
"Ah, nothing," Yang answered in a tone that failed to convey her supposed innocence. "Don't any of you mind me," she continued. "I was just thinking out loud, is all."
From the corner of his eye, Kaneki could've swore he saw that blonde Faunus from earlier shake his head disbelievingly before walking away. The snowy-haired half ghoul raised his eyebrow at the act, but decided that it was best not to question it.
I wonder where they met him? He thought, tracking the fair-haired stranger's departure from the group. Actually, where have they been meeting all of these new people anyways?
"Hey, Ruby, Yang," he called out to the two who could answer that question, "do you two mind filling us in on what we missed while we were gone?"
Neo's legs were heavy from exhaustion, a fact that only made itself even more pronounced as she threw herself onto her bed. Haise…The moment she could take her mind off her aching limbs, she found herself thinking about the condition of her former partner. I blew it…she couldn't stop herself from thinking that as she lay there. A hand subconsciously reached its way up to where her heart beat in her chest and clenched at it.
That was probably her only chance…All she had needed to do was knock him out so she could drag him back to the compound, but, of course, absolutely nothing wanted to go according to how she planned it. Then again, it wasn't like she helped things along by threatening that friend of his.
She couldn't help but laugh inwardly at herself at at her own forgetfulness. He had always been like that. Overprotective to a fault. In the past, entire armies wouldn't stop him from trying to protect her. A detail that never failed to amuse her, especially since she had always been the one to save him whenever he got himself into trouble.
It was sweet though. To see the lengths he would go to keep her safe. There was one time where he actually did take on an entire army and, funnily enough, actually win!
I really did take him for granted, didn't I? That question replayed itself in her mind once more, immediately followed by the memory of how he reacted after she threatened his most recent attachment. A bitter taste pooled in her mouth she remembered that desperation being shown for someone other than her. It was still present now.
How dare she-she began to think, but was cut off when she heard a series of knocks landed against the giant piece of wood that lead into her room, which was immediately followed by sound of said door creaking open.
Neo didn't need to look over at the door to know who it was. There was only one person she knew who would be polite enough to knock before barging into a room.
"Neopolitan, how many times must I remind you of this?" As she thought, the one to knock on her door was none other than the undisputed leader of their little group of criminals, Cinder Fall. "Always report to me before you go off and rest."
Letting out a silent sigh, the tri-colored woman sat up in her bed and turned herself towards where her unequivocal leader's voice came from. She saw the raven-haired young woman standing in her doorway with her arms crossed over her chest.
"Sorry about that," Neo replied, trying to keep her exasperation to minimum. Clearing her throat, she gave a much more professional answer. "It was my impression that Torchwick's report would suffice for the both of us."
"I thought that as well," her leader began, "but I realized that I needed to hear your side of things when he told me, and I quote, 'that bug you got rid of came back with a vengeance' and left it at that."
Neo couldn't stop her eyes from shifting down towards the ground at that statement. "Haise isn't dead," she told her leader, her hands balled into tight fists.
"Haise?" Cinder's brows furrowed as she repeated the name Neo had given to her, her tone dripping with confusion all the while. "Are you referring to that boy I had you remove months ago?"
The tri-colored woman used every ounce of her willpower to stop herself from flinching in response to that question. She couldn't afford to look like she still felt anything for her former partner, especially in front of her leader. If she was going to get him back to where he belonged now, it was imperative that Cinder thought of him as a valuable piece to have.
"Yes," Neo replied with a nod of her head, forcing every ounce of malice she had left for the boy to the surface, doing so all in the in hope of sounding more convincing. "The little parasite somehow managed to survive, even after all I did to him."
Cinder gave no immediate response to that statement. All she did was cross one of her arms over her chest and cupped her chin with her free hand. "What exactly did Roman mean when he said that he 'came back with a vengeance'?"
It was now Neo's turn to take a moment to think about what sort of response she should give. She had absolutely no clue on how she should relay the past night's events to her leader, and even if she did, there was absolutely no way she could do it justice.
Hm, maybe…The tri-colored woman trailed of mentally as she finally came up with something that might just work. "Is there any possible way you could get into the surveillance system at the docks?" She asked her leader with a raised eyebrow.
"Of course," Cinder stated with a nod, her voice dripping with a strange mix of both wariness and intrigue. "Why do you think I allowed you and Torchwick to go there without proper disguises?"
"Good." A wry smirk crawled onto Neo's lips as she continued. "Because, trust me, it's something that needs to be seen to be believed."
Kaneki reached his one remaining hand up and used it to wipe away the blood that was trickling down from the corner of his mouth. A relieved sigh escaped him when he felt the grips of hunger finally lose their hold on him.
"Finished?" He heard someone directly behind him ask. Kaneki turned and glanced over in the direction he heard the voice coming from.
There, standing behind him with his arms crossed over his chest, was none other than Ozpin himself. "Yeah," he said with a slight nod of his head, right as the corpse of his meal evaporated into nothingness behind him.
"I heard from a certain someone that you caused quite the racket over at the docks this afternoon," Ozpin stated, walking towards him. "I even managed to see a few minutes of it through security cameras."
"And?" Kaneki asked, voice curt and lifeless. He turned away and stared fixedly at the now empty place where his meal had been.
"That kagune of yours," Ozpin continued, seemingly nonplussed by the emotion, or rather, lack thereof, the younger was showing towards the incident that took a good portion of his arm. "It looked different from the last time I saw it. Was that your-"
"Yeah, that was my kakuja," Kaneki interrupted. "Half of it, to be exact."
"Half?" The headmaster repeated. A curious undertone-one that was just barely noticeable-leaked into his voice as he spoke.
"My kakuja isn't fully developed yet," Kaneki explained, his voice retaining its curt and lifeless tone throughout the entire time he spoke. "And before you ask, I had absolutely zero control over it at the time. Even attempting it to use it was a mistake on my part."
"Why did you use it then?"
"You said you watched it didn't you? Doesn't that mean you should know the answer to that question?"
"Not all of it, I'm afraid. I saw what had caused the loss of your arm and what happened after it, but that's all."
Ozpin's response left Kaneki completely unable to respond. Mainly because he really didn't know how to. There was no doubt that a part of him wanted to tell the headmaster what happened on the docks, but another, equally as compelling part of him wanted to do the exact opposite of that and keep everything to himself for the time being.
Did he really want Ozpin knowing about Haise Sasaki? That was the question that plagued his mind and frustratingly enough, his mind continued to remain divided on the subject.
"Do you remember that woman I told you about a couple weeks back?" the artificially-made half ghoul asked, once he finally decided upon a route to take.
"I remember," Ozpin answered with the slightest nod of his head, his tone as simple as the response itself. "Did she make an appearance at the docks as well?"
"Mhm," Kaneki hummed back in affirmation. "I didn't want to risk losing to her when Blake was still fighting Torchwick, so at the time, I thought that using it would be worth the risk." After that, he shot a quick glance down towards the empty space that remained where the upper portion of his right arm used to be, letting out a bitter sigh at the sight of it. "And even though I'm relieved that no one other than myself got injured," he began, shaking his head tiredly, "I'd be lying to you if I said was happy with how everything turned out."
Ozpin opened his mouth, but a few moments later, he closed it again and opted to simply nod his head instead. Then, without saying another word, the headmaster turned on a heel and promptly began to make his way out of the room, leaving Kaneki alone once again.
Offhandedly, the snowy-haired half ghoul sent a momentary glance down at where his meal used to be before it disintegrated and finally released the grip his fingers had around his chin.
Unfortunately, no matter how much he trusted the man, Kaneki knew that he couldn't tell Ozpin about Haise Sasaki. In every scenario that played out in his head, the headmaster knowing of his body's previous owner only complicated things further.
Clearly, if he wanted everything to go as planned, he would need to keep every little aspect about it to himself for the time being. No one could know. Not Ozpin. Not Yang. Not Weiss. Not Ruby… Not even Blake could know. No matter how much he hated the fact.
What he had planned…the request he promised to fulfill…he needed to do so alone. He had no right to drag the people here at Beacon into his personal problems, especially after all they've done to help him up until this point.
Still, Kaneki couldn't deny the fact that he wanted them to help him with it. To shoulder some of the load that his task would put on his shoulders. The thought was so tantalizing, but he needed to deny himself that indulgence.
At the very least, I won't be crossing into unknown territory by doing so, he thought to himself, a wry smile crossing his features as he did so.
"Ugh, that girl…" Weiss growled under her breath, angrily stomping towards Kaneki's room. "I swear, when I get my hands on her…"
She couldn't believe it. Blake just got back from a three day long disappearance and, unbelievably, had the audacity to disappear on them again not even a day later!
Yang, who was striding alongside her, let out an audible sigh. "Oh, could you lay off the girl?" She asked, an obvious aggravation replacing the usual mirth in her voice. "I know that you wanted to talk to her and all, but at least let her get a good night's sleep before you start laying into her."
Weiss couldn't help but let out an indignant snort in response. "For your information, I wasn't planning on doing anything like that." Her reply was just as indignant.
"Yeah and I totally plan on believing you when you say that," Yang countered, a good amount of sarcasm in her voice.
"Well, could you really blame me for wanting to say something to her?" Weiss snapped back, unable to contain her growing frustration with the situation. "She and her reckless actions cost Kaneki an arm! Do you seriously expect me to not be angry with her?!"
Another exasperated sigh escaped from the blonde's mouth as she shook her head. "Look, I know that this may come as a surprise to you, but seeing the condition he was in earlier made me just as angry as you are." She stopped dead in her tracks, which prompted Weiss to do the same. "Hell, the moment I saw him covered in all that blood, I wanted to run over and ask who's heads needed smashing in."
"Then you of all people should understand why I'm so angry with her right now," Weiss huffed angrily, her brows furrowing as she glared at the blonde standing across from her. "She's the only reason he ended up in a situation like that to begin with. If she had just stayed calm and-"
"And whose fault was that?" Yang cut her off, causing all of the steam the heiress was building up to die down almost immediately, leaving her completely speechless. "Look," the blonde loudmouth let out another sigh and began speaking once more. "Dig deep enough and you can place blame on just about anything, as long as there's some sort of connection."
This once again stunned Weiss into silence. A few awkwardly quiet moments later, she found herself angling her head down towards the ground.
Yang let out her third sigh of the conversation at that and wordlessly started down the hallway again. Weiss moved to follow her a few moments later.
"Hm, this is definitely interesting…" Neo heard Cinder whisper under her breath, fiery amber eyes never leaving the screen in front of her. Despite knowing that she probably couldn't see her do so, Neo nodded back in response. Mainly because that was all she could manage to do, as her attention was completely taken by the video they were watching. "And you were never aware of these powers until now, correct?"
"Correct…" Neo replied, her first word in the entire conversation. She was initially going to say more, but she was forced to stop herself momentarily when she saw the explosive round get shot directly into Haise's face. Every part of her wanted to flinch when she saw him take the hit, so she was forced to stop that train of thought and focus everything she had on staying nonchalant.
Probably picking up on her sudden hesitation, Cinder immediately said, "Is there a problem?"
"No." Neo was quick to respond, as she didn't want to give anything away. "I was just pondering the reasoning behind him hiding such a thing from me."
That was a question she found herself asking quite frequently, as of late. They spent a good portion of their childhood and the last two years together, but he never once showed anything close to what he displayed during their last two encounters with each other.
There was always a chance that Haise acquired those powers sometime after she cut ties with him, but she knew that also meant that the opposite was possible as well. Truth be told, it terrified her to think about. To think that, he did have those powers for the entire time she knew him and just decided to not use them for whatever reason.
After what he heard him say to himself before he showcased his newest ability, it didn't take a lot to figure out why he kept it from her, but for him to never use it, even when she was in life-threatening danger… It meant that her former partner wasn't willing to risk using it for her sake, but he would for hers.
That Faunus he was with-the one he was so quick to try and protect with those powers when danger presented itself. So quick to jump towards her and wrap his arms around-
"AGGGGGGHHHHHH!"
Before she could finish that thought, a scream suddenly erupted from the monitor's speakers, cutting her off and forcing her attention back onto aforementioned screen.
There, hunched over in the barely held-together remains of the crane, stood Haise. His entire body was trembling uncontrollably as he clutched at his face with both of his black-tipped hands.
"FUCK FUCK FUCK!" The woman with three hair colors felt her hands subconsciously clench into tight fists when she heard her former partner let out such anguish-filled curses. She couldn't help but respond in that fashion, she had never heard him in so much pain before. "It burns-my head, no everything. It feels like-" As he mindlessly rambled that out, his trembling legs gave out under him and he fell to his knees. "-Agh, why won't it stop?!"
"That explosion would've killed any normal man," Cinder noted idly, eyes never leaving the screen as she continued to watch the trembling Haise. "Endurance is clearly a strength of his."
Haise…Neo could feel her fingernails digging into the leather of her gloves as she listened to him ramble in pain. Pain, she was sure, that was unbearable to have to go through. At that moment, every single emotionally-driven part of her wanted to be able to reach a hand through the screen that lay between them, so she could provide her former partner with some form of comfort.
"I can't stop here…" A second after he said that, the very audible sound of bullheads filled the air, drawing the snowy-haired young man's head out of his hands and towards where the sounds were coming from. "I need to… Blake, I need to save her save her save her-Blake!"
Blake? Neo felt a stab of bitterness in her heart when she heard the amount of desperation that name was uttered with. So, that's the name of his little companion, huh? Interesting…
As if to further emphasize the desperation he felt, Haise suddenly placed his feet back down under him and launched himself forwards from where he stood, so quickly that it seemed like he just disappeared into thin air.
Anticipation welled up inside Neo as she watched Haise dash off. Finally, she would be able to see what happened to him after she left and ease her worries.
When the camera feed switched to another one, she found herself looking down at a group of three teenage girls-one of which being that girl Haise was being so protective of-as they looked up at something up in the air. Assumedly, they were looking at the bullheads Neo heard earlier.
"That one in the red…" Cinder began suddenly, drawing Neo from her fixation with the screen. "She's the girl who interfered with the robbery Torchwick staged three months ago."
"So, that's the girl who took Torchwick's ego down a peg?" The tri-colored woman couldn't help but ask, the corners of her lips curling up into a smile at the thought. "If that's the company he keeps nowadays, it's no wonder Haise has gotten more annoying than he was before."
As she said that, all hell broke loose on the docks. Floating swords suddenly popped out from a pack on the orange-haired girl's back pulled two of the three bullheads down with very little effort on the part of the wielder.
"Hm…" Cinder hummed to herself as she narrowed her eyes at the screen.
Neo let out an amused snort in response to her leader's actions. Yeah, my thoughts exactly. How in the world is she able to do that? Normally, she would've taken a moment to deliberate on the subject more, but she was forced to push it to the back of her mind when the one thing she was looking for appeared on screen.
From out of nowhere, Haise burst in from the edge of the screen and latched onto a bullhead as it tried to pull away from the combat area, using the two centipede-like tendrils on his back to pry the cockpit open before jumping inside. What came after he jumped inside was the sound of someone screaming out in a mix of terror and pain, as the vehicle slowly spun down to the concrete below with a loud screeching noise.
What the-Neo thought, but was cut off when she saw her former partner emerge from the cockpit. The upper portion of his body shimmered in the light of the already setting sun, due to the clearly fresh blood that had somehow made its way onto his clothes. It didn't take long for her to figure out what happened inside of that cockpit, especially after hearing the things he said to her that day.
Then, if that wasn't enough to make her want to lose her lunch, he raised his head after saying something that resembled the instability that he displayed to her earlier, and the camera just so happened to be at the right angle to catch him revealing his face to the world. It was charcoal black, charred beyond recognition-only the pale mask and a measly patch of skin near it remained.
"Well, that doesn't look good at all," Cinder commented to herself offhandedly, her tone remaining the same, despite the grievous injury that Haise had just sustained. Neo felt one of her eyebrows twitch when she heard the flippancy being shown towards aforementioned injury. She thought about replying, but decided against it, knowing that anything that it would probably come out with a fair amount of irritation. So, instead, she kept her focus on the screen in front of her and pushed her aggravation to the farthest corner of her mind.
"Yeah, he should probably go and get that checked out," she remarked, as snidely as she could manage at the moment-a task that was made even harder with the maelstrom of emotion brewing in her heart. "One of the only things that made him even remotely tolerable was how cute he was." There was more truth in that statement than she liked to admit. If she had a lien for every time she gave her former partner slack just because he looked like a kicked puppy, she would have probably been as rich as the Schnee family by now.
Just as she said that, however, something began happening to whatever remained of Haise's face. Little black fibers were emerging from the charcoal-like remains and connecting with one another, and soon a good portion of his face was back. Clear and as white as porcelain, almost as if nothing had happened to it to begin with.
How…? Neo couldn't help but ask herself that, despite knowing full well that she shouldn't be surprised by things like that anymore, especially after all of the other stuff she'd seen Haise do. As she watched his face grow back to its former glory, a pang hit her heart when she a realization crossed her mind. I guess this just confirms it. It all made sense, now that she knew all of the factors going into it. Of course, he would be able to survive being stabbed if he can recover from burns like that in less than a couple seconds.
While she thought that, Haise suddenly burst into action, attacking the group of girls in front of him, or more specifically, the one with the orange hair.
The two clashed against one another. His two tentacles and her many swords collided until Haise managed to find himself an opening, but was denied of getting his prize when a crimson blur suddenly barreled into the young man with the speed of a bullet, knocking him off balance. This bought 'Blake' enough time to wrap some sort of ribbon around his midsection, pinning his arms to his sides.
As he tried to struggle out of his binds, the girl with the orange hair, or 'Penny', as she heard the youngest of the girls call her, capitalized immediately. She sent sword after sword his way, but the blades-the same ones that were sharp enough to pierce the hull of a bullhead-bounced off of his body as if they were plastic, forcing him ever so slowly to his knees. The sight reminded her of their days back in the orphanage when he'd be beaten up by those bullies, because the barrage was just that one-sided.
How are those things not impaling him? Neo couldn't help but ask herself that as she watched the onslaught. Of course, she was ecstatic that he wasn't being turned into a pincushion, but it still confused her to no end.
Seemingly unpleased with the amount of punishment she'd dealt out to Neo's former partner, 'Penny' gathered a group of her floating swords together and began spinning them around in a circle. This confused both of the people watching the feed, making the both of them question the reasoning behind the action.
Only a second later after began to speculate, the little speck of light expanded and shot out from the group of blades, heading towards the downed form of Haise with deadly intent.
Neo could only watch on in horror at what happened next. Haise, in recognition of the danger the beam heading towards him posed, tried to dodge off to his right. Unfortunately, he wasn't anywhere fast enough to outrun the speed of light and got hit in the side as a result, prompting him to be knocked off balance and slam into the corner of a shipping container. Neo internally cringed when she heard the loud crack that rang through the air when his head met metal, and that cringe only intensified when she saw the overall damage that had been dealt to him.
His left arm was completely gone. A large, cauterized hole was now present in his abdomen. Enough of his blood leaked out from where his head met metal, that it managed to soak into nearly all of the white in his hair.
Neo was at a loss for words. She could only stare at the bloodied form of her former partner as he sat there, slumped limply against the twisted metal of the container he collided with. She waited for the black fibers from earlier to appear once more and erase all of damage, but nothing like that happened.
Ten seconds passed by-though they felt more like hours to her-and the only thing Haise managed to do was continue to lie where he was motionlessly. She felt the need to scream at him to stand up, to raise his head, to do anything other than lie there, well up inside her. All she wanted was some sign that he wasn't dead…
Her already balled fists tightened even further, so much so that she wouldn't have been surprised to see that her fingernails had somehow managed to dig through her leather gloves.
Don't you dare die on me! she screamed at the screen mentally, being so caught up in what she was witnessing that she completely forgot that what she was seeing had been pre-recorded.
Then, almost as if he heard her pleading, Haise said something. It was said at the volume of a whisper, but the scene around him was so deadly quiet that she was just able to make it out. "Wha…what do you want from me? Wha…?"
Neo could hear the other three who were present talking to each other, but she cared so little about what they had to say that it wasn't even audible to her. All of her attention was focused on Haise and how he was already pushing himself up to his feet.
"This body is…mine…mine mine mine mine mine!"
"What…?" Neo felt her mismatched eyes narrow in confusion when she heard him say that.
"Need…need to save…" he continued on in his rambling. "…Manager…Irimi…Koma…have to get to, need to save…going to…can't-won't let them be taken away from me…"
Who in the world is he talking about? She asked herself, watching Haise fall down pitifully to his knees. Those names he'd just listed weren't ones she'd heard him ever utter before. Yet, by the despair in his voice, it was clear that they meant a lot to him, whoever they were. He must've met them sometime he left the orphanage. Neo nodded to herself. Yeah, that's the only explanation that makes sense.
There was nothing Haise wouldn't share with her, after- "S-so beautiful…" he stuttered weakly, staring blankly out in front of him. "The Reaper, he's standing in a field of flowers." The more the snowy-haired young man spoke, the more Neo found herself confused. "He…he's razed a coffee field to the ground. A field that's sown on beloved corpses, but still I-so why…?" His voice broke down into sobs, and the sound made her heart drop. "Why do I still find that sight to be so beautiful?"
After that, his forehead met with the ground as he prostrated himself, clutching at his temple with his one remaining hand. "It…it hurts so much…" Haise sobbed as his body began to shake with the force of his tears. "My toes-my fingers-they're completely numb…I can't feel them at all."
When he said that, the memory of him pressing down on his finger and cracking replayed in her mind. For whatever reason, she couldn't help but shake the feeling that two were connected somehow, and then she heard him say something that made everything a little bit clearer. "Stop…please stop…please stop taking them…I-I can't take watching them regrow again. "
Regrow? Neo repeated that word to herself over and over again, but no matter how many times she said it, she just couldn't manage to wrap her head around what he was mumbling.
Haise proceeded to say something that only served to further drive in the point she was actively trying to avoid. "N-no, please don't…p-please don't stick that in there…" He screamed, so abruptly that it took every ounce of Neo's composure to not jump. "Get it out, get it out, get it out! It keeps clawing and biting at everything! Get it out, get it out of my head!"
"It hurts like you wouldn't believe…I should know. I've had one stuck in my ear, after all."
Everything fell into place for Neo after she heard Haise say that. It only made sense. From the sudden change in his personality to his new choice in hair color. What else could have explained them better than that?
"Hm, is he implying what I think he's implying?" She heard Cinder ask that question, but she could only nod numbly.
The realization caused her heart to hurt for what felt like the umpteenth time. For something like that to have happened to someone like him…It just reminded her of how unfair the world was at times. Someone as kind as he was didn't deserve to have to go through something like that.
Neo couldn't help but laugh inside at her own hypocrisy. Here she was, lamenting on how Haise didn't deserve such a fate, when she herself did something to him that he definitely didn't deserve just a few months ago.
"You seem to be at a loss for words," Cinder commented, a hint of suspicion in her voice that she very clearly meant for Neo to hear. "Are you actually feeling sorry for him?" Neo no longer had the strength to answer after all that she learned and, thankfully, Cinder made no attempt to call her out on her silence, for whatever reason.
And so, with nothing better to do, the tri-colored woman shifted her attention back onto the screen and was immediately shocked at what she saw. At some point, 'Blake' had managed to pry herself from where she stood and over to where Haise lay, trembling violently as he clutched at his temples.
"Mother…" Neo could feel her eyes narrowing at the screen when she heard him make mention of his mother-the very woman who had first instilled that idiotic thought-process into his mind and made him the pushover he was for the majority of his life. "…I don't need it… I don't need it anymore, I'm sorry…"
Neo hated absolutely everything about the woman. She hated that stupid mantra of her's, and how it manipulated her only child into thinking that it was okay to never defend himself. She hated how she left her son all alone in the world, just because she was too weak to cut ties with a parasite. She hated the fact that her son would sing her praises as if she was some sort of angel among men, despite-
"I…don't need it…I don't need it anymore, so please…please don't hit me again…I'm sorry."
W-what? Neo couldn't believe her ears. Haise's mother…s-she beat him? That went against literally everything he'd ever said about her. All of those good things he said about her…Those were all just lies?
Memories flooded into her mind-the same memories she recalled during their earlier fight. His choice in books and how he was always able to take all of that punishment without shedding a single tear. When she first noticed them, she had always thought they were just strange anomalies in his character that could never be explained, but it seems that was actually the farthest thing from the truth. They weren't unexplainable at all. That was the reason.
Neo was so caught up in trying to piece together the wreckage that was her mind, that she nearly missed what was happening on-screen. However, she was able to compose herself just in time to hear another verbal bomb being dropped on her.
At some point, while she was completely caught up in her thoughts, 'Blake' and Haise had come together, and pulled each other into an embrace. Neo could feel a pang of envy hit her heart at the sight. "Why…why…why didn't I want to die?"
He asked that question, though the inflection of it didn't imply that he was looking for an answer. It was more like he already knew the answer, and was only asking it as a build up to it, which was exactly what he did.
"I…" he began, "…I just don't want to be hurt anymore."
At that moment, Neo realized that she was definitely being a hypocrite.
Yang couldn't keep herself from smiling at what she was currently looking at. Everything about what she was looking at made her want to jump up and down like her little sister locked inside a weapon store, but unfortunately, she couldn't do so without giving away her position.
Why was keeping her position a secret a priority? Well, what she was looking at was as fragile as a thin piece of glass and would shatter like one if the two involved were to find out she was there watching.
"What exactly are you-?" Weiss began to ask, but was cut off when a gloved hand was clamped over her mouth.
Not one who appreciated being cut off in such a fashion, she shot a questioning glare her silencer's way and was immediately met with a nod that was aimed directly towards the door next to them, which lay just a bit open. She didn't quite understand what the gesture meant, so she narrowed her icy eyes at her teammate, but all she got back as a response was another arm being wrapped around her waist and a strong pull away from the door.
Weiss immediately began to protest, but all of her effort turned out to be all for naught as the blonde easily overpowered the snowy-haired heiress, dragging her away from the door to Kaneki's room without much effort.
When Yang felt that they were far away enough from the door, she removed her gloved hand away from her teammate's mouth, which prompted the heiress to let out an extremely irritated cry. "What in the world was that?! I thought we were going to bring Blake back to our room?!"
"Yeah, we were," Yang conceded, a smirk still prominent on her lips as she continued to drag her teammate away, "but I'd never be able to live with myself if I broke up a moment like that, y'know?"
"What moment?!" Weiss demanded as she continued to try and squirm out of the blonde's tight clutches.
The smile Yang's face grew even wider as she replied, "Oh, nothing. Just something I've been waiting for quite awhile now. Besides, after all those two have been through, those two definitely need the sleep."
Kaneki blinked owlishly at the person before him. Not a moment afterwards, a pair of amber eyes blinked back in response.
"Blake?" He called, removing the towel from his still damp hair and allowed it to lay limply on his shoulders. Said teammate lifted herself up from her position sitting against the wall his bed was pushed against. "I thought you said you were-"
"Yeah, I know what I said," the dark-haired Faunus cut him off, her voice still managing to sound biting, despite the clear exhaustion present in it. "But…" She trailed off, her voice waning in strength. "...But I'd just rather not right now."
The snowy-haired half ghoul could only furrow his brows in confusion at the statement. "You do know that you're not going to be able to put off talking to Weiss forever, right? I mean, you're going to need to sleep eventually, and you two do share a room."
"No, I hadn't noticed," she shot back sarcastically with a roll of her eyes, which prompted a mirthful smirk to grow on his lips in response. "Look, I'm just really not in the mood to deal with all of that right now." She reached a hand up to massage the bridge of her nose.
Not knowing how to refute her point after the past couple days, Kaneki decided to relent and nod along in agreement, which elicited a tired-sounding sigh from Blake. After that brief admission of exhaustion, she opened her mouth in an attempt to say something, but nothing came out. She just closed it again and allowed her head to fall on the sole pillow on his bed, sighing again.
After seeing that, Kaneki momentarily thought about saying something, but ultimately decided against it in favor of going over to the bed and sitting himself down next to it, resting his weight on its frame and his head on top the mattress.
An indeterminate amount of time passed as the two sat there in complete silence. As he lay there next to Blake, Kaneki's mind subconsciously began to wander back to the events of the past few days. It didn't take him back to all of the bad things that happened like how one might expect. He began to think about the things that ultimately brought the both of them here.
The two of them had gotten closer over the past couple of days. That much was obvious. If their closeness could be plotted out on a graph, he was sure that there would've been an upward spike in the already steadily-rising line right around all of this started, and he didn't know how he felt about that. There was a part of him, a very large part of him, that was happy about the fact, and wanted for the two of them to grow closer. Kaneki cared about Blake a lot, he couldn't and wouldn't deny that, but with that care came the obvious worries.
Did he really want her getting close to something, to someone like him? Someone who could very well lose control one day and devour her? Someone who could very well disappear one day without a single word? Someone who attracted tragedies to those associated with him like a magnet?
All of those worries piled up and forced the very thought into his mind. If I really do care about her, then shouldn't I be doing everything in my power to keep her away from me? He asked himself, not as a question that needed answering, but as a reaffirmation of a similar thought that he remembered having and acting upon in the past.
It was right after Kaneki's escape from Jason and Aogiri Tree. He had just informed his friends of his departure from Anteiku. Banjou offered his help to him and Tsukiyama soon did the same, but he needed to stop the last person from offering before she could do so.
It was mainly because that person was one Touka Kirishima, and the only other person to ever elicit such emotions from him. Coming with him would surely bring an end to the life she built at Anteiku. It was as close to human as a ghoul could get, and he knew how hard she worked for that. So he just couldn't allow her to throw it away like that.
Kaneki would be lying if he said he liked doing it, though. A very large, very compelling part of him wanted to have her come along. He never got the chance to say it to her in person, but her presence had always been calming to him. In a world that was as turbulent as his at the time, the one thing he wanted was something that made him feel normal again, for at least a tiny bit, and she would always be able to provide that in spades. The last thing he wanted to do was leave that, but he couldn't allow her to destroy everything she'd worked for like that. So he made sure she stayed.
Kaneki ran his hand through his hair as he used that past experience to analyze the situation he currently found himself in and find the best course of action to go with. However, he found himself replaying that scene over in his head the moment he tried doing so.
He thought of the first time he and Touka saw each other since the day he first left. It certainly left a lasting impression on him. Getting called out for what you were as a person tended to do that, after all, especially when the person doing it was as spot on as she was.
Touka had essentially called Kaneki on his self-sacrificing nature-his desire to protect all of them, that was actually just an act fueled of his own selfishness, not any sort of selflessness. It astounded him how easily she caught onto his real motivations-motivations that he himself didn't know about, or just didn't want to acknowledge at the time.
The fact was, Ken Kaneki was nothing more than a selfish person at heart. It was a different brand of selfishness, but selfishness by any other name was still selfishness in the 's why he found it necessary to try and affirm that thought in his head earlier. He couldn't bring himself to fully fall into the same cycle with what Touka said still lingering in his mind.
The half ghoul couldn't help but laugh a bit at his current situation. Earlier, when it was just Ozpin in the same room as him, he was able to commit himself to what he had planned. Now, that Blake was there with him, he was getting cold feet.
Dammit…he cursed to himself, idly turning his gaze on to the source of his confliction, feeling a sharp pang reach his heart when he saw her face. It seemed that, at some point while he was in the midst of his inner conflict, she had fallen asleep.
For what felt like an eternity, he marveled at the girl who lay before him, reveling in her slumber. He was so caught up in his reverie that he didn't notice that his hand was slowly inching towards Blake until he felt it make contact with one of her hands, and before he could even realize what was happening, her hand twitched back before slowly sliding itself over his own.
An all too familiar warmth filled him after that, which was then immediately followed by whatever conviction he had in his plan slipping away into obscurity.
At that moment, he remembered something that he realized in that delusion of his earlier.
That warmth from earlier…
He couldn't help but smile to himself as he remembered that, deep down, Ken Kaneki was nothing more than a selfish person and that selfishness remained the same, no matter what form it decided to take on.
-Chapter End-
Well, NTR is still a trash fetish…
Oh, and FineChyna says hi. Y'all should go say hi back. She worked hard to finish editing this as fast as she could. The least that she deserves.