Capítulo 8: Chapter 11: setting the stage
Kureo Mado was happy. Thrilled in fact. Multiple things over the past few months had led to this mood. First his newest quinque had arrived. He could not wait to test it out on the local scum. The second thing that made the man so jovial was that while they had escaped before being properly identified, the CCG was hot on the trail of the mate and offspring of their last target. He was certain that they were among the list of suspects they had compiled and now it was only a matter of time till they figured out which one of them was their quarry. But the final reason for his attitude was also probably the greatest. Like a gift from god, it had fallen into their laps. For in his hands, Mado held the photo of a destroyed alleyway. Sadly due to the isolated nature of the place, they arrived only after local showers had washed away large amounts of the biological evidence. However, to Mado, these unmistakable gashes were enough. That and the miniscule bits of biomatter that had been saved in them had allowed Mado and Amon to connect this to a previous case. The same case that Amon had connected to Eyepatch and the ying-yang sisters. Mado was certain now, that this could be the key to catching the trash that had slipped through their grasps in the 13th ward crackdown.
He continued to look over his papers in glee as the other members of his little 20th ward hunting troop gathered. Amon was even forced to get his attention by clearing his throat when he still did not acknowledge them. He apologized. "Ah sorry Amon. I was just marveling over our little golden egg again." "Um, excuse me Mado, sir. I still not entirely clear on what this new evidence means. Is it really that important?" Mado turned to face the man who asked; Yasunori Nakajima. To Mado, this man did hold promise for a Bureau Investigator but unfortunately didn't show the drive to properly use it. Mado had been contemplating how best to push the man in the right direction. Mado smiled; unsettling the young man. "Right, I can understand how you got confused. I've just been so excited that I forgot to give you a proper explanation and review of recent events. So let's fix that shall we?" He began to pass around the files and photos so that the others could view them as he talked. "First of all let me just say, good job everyone on our last case. Thanks to all of your commendable work, yet another piece of scum has been eliminated. Sadly his little pack did escape and most likely fled farther into the ward. As such, Amon and I will need to start taking on a more proactive part in the 20th ward as a whole. But do not worry, for it's only a matter of time till we take them down too." Mado looked over his men. "As for the stroke of luck we have gotten in the Eyepatch and possibly even the Ying-yang sisters investigations. As you can see from the pictures provided, an alleyway near the Kamii campus was found damaged by something that could produce such large gashes in a relatively short time. Investigation of the damage, as well as what could be collected by the forensic units has confirmed the damage to be ghoul related. In fact this damage has been seen before at least once." "The Yamata no Orochi case," Amon supplied. Mado nodded. Mado cupped his chin in his palm as he reminisced. "Yes I remember that case. Unfortunately I was not able to take part in his takedown. His kagune was top grade material. But one of my friends was the agent in charge. She lost an arm and a fine partner to bring that beast to heel. She still hasn't forgiven herself for letting that snake's hatchlings escape though. But we may be able to finally bring her some closure. As with this data we can infer two things. First is that Eyepatch, at least, is most likely the offspring of Orochi. And second, that he has a kakuja of some sort." "A kakuja?!" the fourth member of their band, Ippei Kusaba, squeaked out. Amon and Mado looked at him. A nice guy that reminded Mado of a bunny rabbit in a way. "Yes, the lowest of all the bottom feeders. Trash that will even devour its own kind. A true monster," Mado explained. Kusaba gulped. "Don't worry too much. After I talked with her, my friend was more than willing to help. I requested the proper tool for this operation and it's already on its way. We have grabbed the end of the thread gentlemen. Now we just have to follow it to our target and bring swift justice upon it."
Touka was not sure what to make of the scene before her. She had just come in to Anteiku to begin her shift only to find a sweaty Ken draped across one of the tables; a couple of water bottles next to his head. Shiro and a rather overly happy Kuro also sat at the table. So Touka asked, "What's wrong with you?" Ken picked his head up. "Training with the manager." Ken kept it vague purposely as they were still in a public setting. Kuro's grin got wider, "And we got to help today." Her brother shot her a glare but remained silent. Bothered a bit by how happy she was over getting to "help".
A few hours earlier
Ken was not looking forward this. Granted it was nice to finally get to the next part of his training for controlling his kakuja. Before this it had mostly been a mix of physical training in the form of spars with Yomo or sometimes even the manager and mental training. The mental training had taken up most of his time. It was a mix of things including, breathing exercises, meditation, and even simply talking about his fears and things that upset him with the manager; sometimes with a nice cup of coffee. To be honest, Ken wasn't sure how much it did help. Though he had to admit that he had felt calmer and more in control of himself recently.
But now was the next step. Yoshimura had even gotten the twins involved. The next step proved to be surprisingly simple. To improve Ken's control under stress, Yoshimura wanted him to try to meditate again. Meanwhile the twins, with Kuro being a little too enthusiastic at the idea, would constantly smack him with sticks. Their goal was to try to break his concentration or make him angry. And so Ken was forced to suffer through an hour of this and afterwards had to fight Yomo again. By the end of it all he was tired, both physically and mentally, and thus fell over once he got to an empty table in the café.
Now
And so Ken stayed till Touka discovered him. He couldn't even gather enough energy to be embarrassed or worried by the looks and whispers of those around him. Unfortunately, as he was reminded by Touka, he had another shift in ten minutes. So Ken got up with a groan and headed for the changing rooms. He was able to take a quick shower and toss on his uniform in the little time he had left. Thankfully, Yoshimura had allowed Ken to run the counter today. Meaning he wouldn't have to walk around or deal with the tables. However he would also have to help in making the food for the human customers as well as attend to all the ones at the counter. One of which was Hide. He had come in while Ken was in the back. Ken couldn't help but grin at his friend's attempts to charm Touka and said barista's attempts at escaping.
Ken quickly made a cup of Hide's favorite coffee and even tried to do some latte art. Hide pursed his lips when Ken gave him it. "Booooo. I wanted Touka to make it with some of her cute foam art." Ken grinned. "And what's wrong with my art oh great Casanova?" Hide looked at the drink and raised an eyebrow. "Art? It looks like just a bunch of squiggles." "It's supposed to be a centipede." "Now that's morbid. Any particular reason my friend has such foul creatures on the brain." "No real reason. Just felt like they don't get enough love. Aren't centipedes creepy cute or something?" Hide paused for a second before throwing a pretend child tantrum. "But I wanted one of Touka's cute bunnies." Ken sighed and grabbed the cup. "Fine," Ken made a new cup. "I'll show you a bunny rabbit." After a few seconds he put it back in front of his friend. "How's that for a rabbit?" Ken asked with a smug smile. Hide looked at before responding, "You know, you could have a future in making abstract art." Ken's grin fell before saying, "Shut up Hide." With the jokes over, they both settled into some nice small talk as Ken went about work. Most of it was about University and what the two would do next time they were both off.
However the conversation soured a bit when Hide brought out the new book he was reading; the book of ghoul dismantling. The sight of it in Hide's hands made Ken think back to the deal he made with Touka only a few nights ago. At the very same counter that Hide now sat at. "I see you weren't lying at the restaurant about being interested in ghouls," Ken said. "Yeah. In a way, ghouls are a mystery that just begs you to solve it. Studying them makes me feel like Sherlock Holmes on the tail of Moriarty at times. Have you read this yet?" Hide asked pushing the book towards his friend. Ken felt irritated just by having the book itself in his presence. The whole thing just felt demeaning. But still he smiled as he answered, "No, I haven't had the pleasure." Though he also thought, 'Besides I already know pretty much anything that Jackass could have written in his stupid book. Besides it can't be that good with such a stupid title.'
Ken glanced around the café. He noticed the subtle uncomfortable and unhappy looks by the staff and many of the customers at the book. Obviously he was not alone in his distaste for the thing. However he got worried when more than a few hostile looks went to the human who had brought this heretical book into their sanctuary. He cleared his throat to get Hide's attention. "Look Hide. Could you put that away? It's not really appropriate in a place like this. Where people are trying to relax and eat or drink. They'd rather not be reminded of such things." The look Hide gave him made him nervous. It like he was breaking down his argument and could tell there was something more behind it. Thankfully Hide agreed and after a bit of small talk, left to go do whatever it was that he did with some committee from Kamii. As soon as the door shut behind him, Ken felt a huge weight lift off his shoulders. Touka walked by and gave him a look. She too was worried. Ken continued to work on the outside. But on the inside, every bit of his mind was working on how to get Hide to lose interest in ghouls. Before he lost his life.
Later in the evening Ken took a small break. The shop was empty currently so Ken made himself a cup of coffee and opened up the Black Goat's Egg to reread again. His sisters had been sent out to get some supplies and Touka was somewhere in the back right now. He was about an eighth of the way through it when the door opened. He smiled and gave the customary greeting to the new guests. There were two of them. The mother returned Ken's smile with her own as she asked, "Oh a new worker?" Ken bowed slightly. "Yes, I'm Ken Kaneki. My sisters and I started working here less than a year ago. It's a pleasure to meet you." "I'm Ryouko Fueguchi. And this is my daughter; Hinami. Come on Hinami, say hello." Ken and the elder Fueguchi turned to the young girl. Rather than greeting Ken, she shyly hid behind her mother. He found it rather cute. It actually reminded him of how Shiro was when they were kids. Before events forced them all to grow up. Ken gently smiled and said, "Hello." After another moment of hesitation she hesitantly bowed and replied with a quiet, "Hello."
Touka suddenly jumped out. "Ryouko-san, Hinami," Touka excitedly greeted. Ryouko replied, "Hello Touka-chan." "The manager is already waiting for you on the second floor. You can go on up." Ken watched as Ryouko thanked Touka and went to the back with her daughter. "Are they VIP's or something," he asked. Touka gave him an annoyed look. "Idiot they just came here to pick up a package." Now Ken understood. "So, they're those kind of customers. But why haven't I seen them before then? I've even gone with Yomo on delivers before too so that can't be it. Did something happen that made it impossible for them to hunt?" Touka glared at him. "You're constant questioning is annoying! Why do you care? It's none of your business anyway!" She then turned away and walked off; leaving a stunned Ken behind. "Well you don't have to get so pissy about it," he shot back at Touka's retreating form. Sighing, Ken took another sip of his coffee. "Well it can't be that big a deal. Can it?"
It was now late at night. A time that many humans had learned to dread. For this was the time that the apex predator came out. Many ghouls were out on the hunt at this time. Plenty were successful in taking down their unfortunate prey. However one had lost sight of his target. The young boy he had been following since he had left the café early this day had given him the slip. In anger he slammed his fist into the alley wall. "Shit, that brat should have gone through here. I can't believe I lost sight of that pointy haired bastard. Fuck, I'm starved." At this point he spotted an old man walking through one of the secluded backstreets. Deciding he was good enough, the ghoul leapt out of his hiding spot to take down his new prey. The next moment he found all of his limbs slashed apart. As he slammed onto the ground, the old man begin to speak like a teacher in front of a classroom. "Article twelve clause one of the antighoul act a species which special precautions should be taken, known as ghoul are distinct in that it is confirmed that they can produce kakugan and kagune. Same article clause two in the relation to the target group distinguished as ghouls, there are no laws that protect those individuals." The ghoul only had enough time to realize his mistake before the sounds of flesh ripping echoed into the night.
A younger man appeared soon afterwards caring another silver suitcase. "Sorry I'm late. The package only just arrived." He looked down at the body and asked the older man, "What happened here?" The older man waved him off. "I was just attacked by a rather foolish ghoul. Never mind that Amon. Let me see it." Amon handed the case to his mentor. He grabbed the briefcase like a child on Christmas. Grinning he pressed the release. Kusanagi began to activate.
Omake:
Kusaba was looking at the picture they had of eyepatch. Curious he asked his freind Nakajima, "Hey why do you think he choose an eyepatch." Nakajima looked at Kusaba. "Why ask me? Probably a fetish or something." "But what if hes hiding something. Like a cybernatic eye." "Thats just stupid. I'd rather go with he only has one eye. like a cyclops."
Amon came over. "What kind of stupid thing are talking about?" he asked. Kusaba grinned. "Just talking about eyepatch. What do you think he hides under his right eye?" Amon thought for a bit before pulling out a pen and paper. He drew a picture of eyepatch without his mask; as a girl. "This?" "How does a mask change your sex?!" Nakajima exlaimed.
However Kusaba, suddenly had an idea. "What if his face was like Inspector Mado's?" They all three looked at the bug eyed man working at his desk. All three of them thought, 'That really does fit.'
Mado didn't know why, but something made him want to double the training regimen for his unit.
Status de energia semanal
-- Ranking de
Poder 
-- Pedra de
Poder