KITSUNE

➖ Retake: One who writhes

Tatara attempted to walk away, but Ayato spoke his name. "Tatara." He stopped. "Yamori. Bin Brothers and all the other dead..." Ayato looked at him over his shoulder. "What is Aogiri to you? Just a bunch of interchangeable pawns in your game?"

"That's right." Tatara replied. "And you are just a stray dog, so know your place."

The silence fell heavily among the ghouls as Tatara left them. Soon after, Ayato walked away with a gloomy expression falling over his face. Aya could see how distraught he was – since Hinami was captured, he began to blame himself, as well as everyone involved, but mostly himself. He felt responsible for Hinami.

Takizawa sighed as Ayato and Tatara left. "Man, he is no fun." Takizawa complained, skipping down onto the floor – his eyes looked at the back of the white haired ghoul. "Oh, Aya." He teased her. "Are you angry at me as well?" Aya could feel his presence close. "I'm sorry I didn't carve out his heart for you."

Miza, Naki and Saeki watched wide eyed as suddenly, Aya was on her feet and Takizawa was pressed hard against the wall. Despite Aya being at least one foot shorter than Takizawa, she had no trouble holding him with one hand. Takizawa couldn't breathe. He was shocked and caught off guard. The hand that was wrapped around his throat tightened and he felt the long nails digging into his skin.

"You are forgetting your place, Takizawa." Aya told him – her voice low and threatening. "The only reason why you are breathing right now..." Aya squeezed harder, causing him to grip onto her hand, asking politely for a release. "...is because Dr. Kanou asked me nicely not to kill you."

With one more squeeze, Aya released Takizawa. He fell to his knees in front of her and breathed in deeply. He could feel blood oozing from the wounds of Aya's nails around his throat. He laughed – catching his breath like a maniac. He looked at Aya as she had turned on the heels of her boots and walked away.

Takizawa held no hate towards Aya – but he wanted to impress her. He wanted to bring her the heart of Ken Kaneki and show it to her. He wanted to show her that he was much better than Ken Kaneki. However, the next encounter with Ken Kaneki will have to wait until Dr. Kanou or Eto tells him he can go play.

Ayato attempted to hide himself from everyone and just enjoy his silence. However, it did not take long until he was hearing footsteps following him. By the rhythm of those steps, he could tell it was Aya following him. He stopped in his tracks and looked at her shadow approaching him.

"What?" Ayato questioned. "Do you want to scold me?"

"Scold you?" Aya chuckled at his question. "You are not a child anymore, Ayato." She stepped in front of him.

Ayato placed his hands in the pockets of his white trousers. He looked at her with the gloomiest heavy on his thick eyelashes. She was smaller than him – because it was strange, but not he had gotten used to it. They were always around the same height – and while he got taller, Aya remained at the same height.

"Then what?" Ayato questioned.

"Can't I just be around you?" Aya acted offended to which Ayato scoffed. "The two of us were always around each other."

"Before you started to mingle with humans. Yeah, I remember."

Bitterness was all over his words. He did not hide his displeasure towards the fact that Aya was never accompanying any of Aogiri's missions. She was always somewhere in the back, directing, redirecting, holding back from a fight. Ayato was becoming unnerved by it. He was even more unnerved that she was living a double life and was not there for him when he needed her.

Two years ago, so many things changed. He was there for her when she was giving up on her life. He was taught compassion and patience when she was in that state. Then, one day, she recovered and she slipped away from Aogiri. She was given a life-changing task to interact with humans and monitor what is happening while pretending to be human. While she was seemingly moving on, Ayato was stuck. He didn't hold a grudge against her – he just missed her.