A/N: So I disappeared there for a while there. I'm sorry about that, internet problems and some other stuff I won't bore you with. I'll try and make sure it doesn't happen more.
On a higher note: over 100 favourites. Damn you people like this, and I personally can't see why. But thank you nonetheless.
Oh, last thing, I have a big announcement at the end. So stick around for a bit. Anyway, let's get on with it.
Chapter 9: Tastes like rot
Settling into Vale hadn't been necessarily hard for Kaneki. Cinder's work had travelled here, and subsequently so did the ghouls. Vale hadn't seemed like a bad place to set up Shizukana Yume, or just 'Yume' as the customers came to call it, but it had already been filled with good coffee shops. Even if he could produce coffee near the level of Yoshimura, he doubted his shop would get much attention.
So the fact that all the seats in his little shop had been filled was a pleasant surprise.
And absolutely terrifying.
It had been like this for the past couple days now, about two weeks since his first customer. The day after a young couple had come in, looking for a place to have a quite first date. They had recommended to their friends, which led to seven people frequenting the place. Then several firm executives came in on the fifth day of Yume's existence. They now came in every so often. Soon, more and more people just showed up looking for coffee, and 'Ritoru' found himself swamped.
Twenty customers and only a single member of staff. He was missing Anteiku more and more.
Luckily, closing time was coming up soon. Had it not been for that he would have given up ages ago.
As people began to leave, saying their goodbyes and offering their thanks for the coffee, it dawned on him that he was supposed to meet the 'candidates' for the ghoul operation. If he remembered correctly some fruit shops were still open at this time. He had also been saving a little something special in a cupboard.
It was time to see if the 'candidates' could actually handle the operation's consequences.
Oasis was not considered an especially patient person. Even back in Vacuo, what many had called 'the most violent of the kingdoms', people would bitch about his inability to wait.
Those people didn't tend to realise how patient he could be if he getting a decent meal out of it. Though in all fairness, they didn't learn what constituted 'a decent meal' until the last minute.
The fact that he lacked patience for most things was true however, he understood that. It was a flaw that had developed back when he was nothing more than a little kid, and he was never really able to overcome it. However, he could handle waiting for things to occur at specified times.
He wasn't patient when it came to people who were quite noticeably late.
"Where the fuck is this guy?" The young man muttered irritably while flicking though various apps his scroll. "He should've been here fifteen minutes ago." He opened the contacts list and pressed the call button on a name. Maybe that Fall chick could explain what was up with the hold up.
Lily was one of the people who didn't appreciate Oasis' impatience. Unlike most of the other however, he actually cared for her considerably. They had known each other since they were five. They played together, fought together. Sure she was a bit grouchy most of the time, but she made up for it by being very agile, and very violent when she needed. Besides, they both ate at the same table, it's only right that they'd be comfortable enough with their flaws around eachother.
"Seriously dude, you got to chill." She herself was playing some shooter on their recently 'acquired' console. And considering she picked it up yesterday, she was quite good at game. Or at least, that was the opposite of what the prepubescents online had been yelling. "Getting angry at things out of your control is kind of pathetic." She muttered.
Oasis extended a middle finger. They were good friends, they could afford to be dicks to each other. "Real mature." She returned a finger of her own, the effect of which undercut rather heavily when it was covered by her oversized pink sweater sleeve. Long strands of carrot-colored hair fell over her face, which were quickly blown away.
Ra was also a friend. Not as close as Lily, super shy around new people, generally antisocial, and very easily frightened. Quite contrasting to his build. But when it was necessary, Oasis knew from first hand experience he was completely able to depend on the big guy. He was also very happy with his cooking skills.
Over the years, Ra had become comfortable enough around them to be his true self in their presence: A unapologetic prick. "Hey if you two could bicker somewhere else, that would really help." He was sitting at a wooden desk tapping away furiously at a keyboard. He scoffed at what he saw on the screen "This is fucking dumb. I can't find that weapon part anywhere."
"We're all quite aware you could make the whatever part your looking for." Oasis comments, putting away his scroll after getting no response from Fall.
"But that's the point." Ra counters. "I could, but that fucker doesn't deserve a high quality weapon. If someone says 'no' to joining your terrorist organization, you don't threaten them when you think their friends are out of earshot."
"Such a nice looking guy too." Lily lamented. "Shame he had to be such an ass. I wonder if he'll refuse to sell me a book next time I'm in his shop." A distinctly loud prepubescent called her a fucking try-hard hacker. And then threatened to rape her 'bitch mom'. "No need to be cheap for my sake Ra. Be cheap for the sake of being cheap,"
The weapon smith chuckled, and began tapping away at the keyboard again and fiddling with his lime-green hair.
"Sounds fair, Lily." He grinned broadly.
Oasis was just about try and call Fall again when doorbell rang. "Finally!" The young man exclaimed, walking briskly to the door.
Opening it, he found a creepy look dude in a creepy mask leaning on the left adjacent concrete wall. His attire was heavily covered by a black hoodie, leaving only grey, latex pants and shoes visible. In his right hand he clutched a blue, plastic bag with a few unknown, round objects in it. While his left held a black bag with only one of whatever these objects we're. Whatever was in it, it smelt awful.
He faced the opposite wall, hiding the rest of his masked face. And he stayed there, making no movement to actually greet the noticeably smaller of the two. "So..." Oasis started. "You're Kaneki, huh?"
"Hmm?" The masked man apparently had been in a daze. Turning his head to face Oasis revealed an uncovered grey eye. Not a silver one like Lily, but a dull, grey one. He stayed quiet for a brief, looking the younger man over. "Yeah, that would be me. Mister Verlede, was it?" A slow nod came from the shorter man.
"Care to explain the mask?" Oasis was quickly becoming irritated. The guy's bored tone and attitude grated on him, when it shouldn't have been able to considering what he put up with when it Lily and Ra almost all time. The possibility of this guy being worse than those two was not comforting..
The 'ghoul' got off the wall. "A necessary precaution, in case you all decide to opt out of the operation." He turned fully to face the short man. "It wouldn't help me in any way if someone ran to the police station and gave them a description of a human-eating monster in man's clothing."
"Point taken." It made sense, Oasis could admit that. It still bugged him regardless. "So you coming in or what?"
"You're the one in the doorway." The smaller one sighed irritably, before stepping back into the flat and gesturing for the masked man to follow. Once in, they walked into the living room. Both occupants have dropped their previous activities to stare, the fox girl in the pink sweater appeared to shiver at the sight of him, while the big one had a look of reserved caution.
Oasis gestured to them offhandedly, not noticing the changes in their demeanour. "Well, this is the gang. And they appear ready to leave, so let's go."
"Actually, I have a few things for you all." The masked man pulled from the blue bag in his hand three green apples. He threw one at each of them, all of which were easy to catch.
The fox faunus was the first to take a bite. A large chunk of the apple in her hand disappeared. She spent some time munching.
"well it isn't poisoned." She said. "But otherwise, it tastes like a regular apple. Maybe a little acidic." The other two took a smaller bite. She was right, nothing special at all.
"So what's the point of this?" Oasis asked. As he opened his mouth to take another, larger bite, 'Kaneki' pulled another apple from the black bag. Unlike the others this one was rotting, brown with various large grey spots all across it.. The blue-jacketed man found out exactly how rotten it was first-hand.
Just as he was biting down.
He immediately spit the offending fruit out as the disgusting taste spread throughout his mouth. He fell to his knees and resisted the urge to throw up on the floor.
A kitchen knife sprung from the fox faunus' oversized sleeve into her hand. With lightning quick speed she stabbed the blade through the masked man's exposed neck.
Or she would have, had the knife not broken on his skin.
The ghoul turned his head toward her, the shivering she felt before intensifying.
"I'm going to guess that your blade just there wasn't aura enhanced." He said dully. "You're friend will be fine. But I needed to make a point."
"What exactly would that point be?" She asked coldly, anger bubbling and threatening to destroy whatever composure she had left. "Because as far as I'm concerned, you just shoved something toxic into my friend's mouth because you fucking felt like it!" The masked man snatched her apple before she even reacted. She held up both the rotten one and her own.
"If you do decide to have the surgery, it won't matter what kind of apple you eat." He said, flinging her apple into a nearby trash can. "They'll all taste like this." He brought the rotten apple up, a huge bite in it. "Fresh food will taste rotten, anything but water will be undrinkable. Nothing, absolutely nothing will be edible for you." He quickly flung the rotten fruit into the trash as well. "With the exception of raw human flesh."
Everything went silent. The catch had finally revealed itself, and it suddenly gave a lot of reasons not to go through with the operation.
"...You're full of shit."
The masked man turned back to the rising blue-jacketed man, who was in all honestly, no more than a teenager. Eighteen at most. "You're fucking scared of not being the only one, and you're trying to push us away." His grimace turned into a sadistic grin. "When the operation's done. I'm going to eat an apple right in front of you, and I'm going to enjoy it."
The bored look on the masked man's face never changed. "That Fall chick said the operation's supposed to enhance natural ability. That it'll make us stronger than we are now. She also told us you used to be a civilian." Still, no change. "So after I finish that apple, I'm going to kick your ass, and make you my bitch."
"You're welcome to try." The ghoul said, pulling out a scroll with what looked like a contract on it. "If you're agreeing to the operation, and to it's consequences, you will work for Cinder Fall. If you refuse to cooperate after the operation," The masked man's eye became black. "I will kill you." Oasis stared at the contract. Was it really worth the risk? If what this guy was saying is true, is it worth working for someone else. Then he realised that he wasn't in any danger. If he did become as powerful as they said he would, he could take this fucker on no problem.
"Fine." He said, pressing a finger onto a scroll and sealing the deal. The masked man extended the scroll to Lily and Ra, who both did the same after varying levels of hesitance.
"I hope you don't regret your decision." The masked man- no, Ken said with a shrug. "Contrary to what you may believe, I don't dislike you. I'm just trying to help."
"I'll believe it when I see it." Oasis muttered.
"No, you'll believe it when you taste it."
A/N: And so the chapter comes to a close. These new three are more for practising character development on my part. The aim isn't to get you to like them now. I'm hoping that by the end of the story you'll consider decent at the least.
Now, the announcement.
I'm doing a Bloodborne crossover for RWBY next Thursday!
Here's How it works: I going to upload it every other week instead of this. This means you're getting this fic twice a month instead of weekly. While this does mean updates will be slower, It also allows me to write more for both stories. Meaning you get even more fic every update. I feel like this is the best way of doing things. For those interested, check it out next Thursday.
Get ready for Qrow Hunter Badge. Oh and yes that's a cheesy name.
Hopefully you'll check it out. Until next time.