Guns, Bullets & Bones [Tokyo Ghoul]

Ch. 6 ~ Counter-Attack

    For a moment, the only sounds were heavy breathing and the man's footsteps as he drew closer. Dylan found himself rooted to the spot, every muscle pulled taught with tension, like a coiled spring, or a shaken fizzy drink. He held his breath and remained perfectly still, his mind racing through possible scenarios, one after another.

     Rio herself stiffened ever so slightly when the cold metal ring of the gun barrel brushed her hair from her face, before it was lined up between her eyes, ready to pop a bullet into her brain at a moment's notice. So close up, Rio could see the vast expanse of his pupil, and quickly came to the conclusion that the man was in fact high. This made her job a lot easier, however, it wasn't without risk, as, after all, there was a pistol pressed to her forehead.

    "I think you ought to pay up, kiddos." The man said lowly, his voice slicing through the tense air like a knife, and both Rio and Dylan felt that a single movement would shatter the very atmosphere like throwing a stone in a glasshouse.

    When no one made a move, the man with the gun became impatient, and he swung it wildly between Rio and Dylan, face contorting into a dangerous snarl. After a moment, it stopped back on Rio, and the man's beady, glaring eyes shot through Dylan like daggers.

     "You, boy! You better give me all you have or the girl gets it-"

     The man cut himself off with a loud cry and Dylan almost missed Rio's lighting fast reflexes. Her hand shot out and snatched a hold of the man's forearm and made a sharp jerk, snapping it back with a twist and a sickening crack, and a howl of pain follwoed.  The gun fell to the floor with a loud clatter and Rio gave the man a harsh shove.

     He fell backwards, at least three feet, colliding hard with the floor, and another dull thump echoed down the brook. He writhed in pain on the floor, but his hand darted out to something else, while Rio turned back towards Dylan, and the gun laying on the floor just before his feet. She nudged it with the toe of her beaten converse, before taking a step back, and delivering the most vicious kick Dylan had ever seen, sending it sailing down the brook, far out of sight. She glanced over her shoulder briefly, and only saw the man writing in pain, clutching what she thought was his injured arm to his chest.

    "I'll take care of him, don't worry." She said, and Dylan didn't have to see her through the dark to know she was smirking, practically oozing smugness.

   "Wh-what are you doing!?" Dylan finally choked out, taking huge gasps of air where his throat had closed up in panic.

    "I said I'd protect you, didn't I?" She snorted indignantly as if Dylan had said something particularly blasphemous, and rested a curled fist on her hip.

   "You don't have a weapon!" Dylan cried in anger, seizing her shoulders in his hands. He was consumed with a sudden anger at what he thought was her stupidity, how could she even consider taking this nutcase on with nothing but her own hands to defend her?!

    "You don't need a weapon when you were born one." Rio said with a sharp look which could cut him to the bone, and she jerked her shoulders away with such a force Dylan stumbled before he could regain his balance.

    There was a quiet thump and a grunt, and Dylan's head shot up, his eyes widening to the point they stung in the cold air, and he began to violently tremble all over. Rio gripped the man's other arm, trying to keep his hand away from her throat, where he was clutching a knife, pointed dangerously at her pale throat.

    Her hands gripped tighter and there was a uniform tension across her body, back up against the wall with  a knife inches from plunging through her arteries.

    "Sir, you should really-" Rio grunted before she could finish as the man tried to drive the knife closer, but she resisted.

    "It's a good job I remember where I dropped my knife. It'll be much more fun slitting your pretty white throat." The man taunted and Rio's face fell into a dark scowl, her fists coiling tighter and tighter until she felt the man's arm begin to shake with exertion.

    "I'm trying my best to be polite," Dylan scarcely heard Rio's hiss over his own heavy, panicked breathing, but he held his breath momentarily and listened on in anticipation. "But if you move that knife a centimetre closer to me I will tear you apart."

    The man bellowed out a sound somewhere between a war-cry and hysterical laugh as he ripped his arm from Rio's grip, drawing it back only to slice down on her in a soaring arch, and Dylan collapsed back against the wall in horror and self-loathing, being able to do nothing more than just watch.

    However, the knife shot out and clattered against the wall just next to Dylan and he watched in terror as Rio's shining blue eyes became clouded by black and red, and six vicious tentacles of her Kagune ripped from her back.

     A singular plum coloured appendage curled around the mans throat and suspended him in the air, as he cried out in horror, legs flailing desperately, hands clawing at her Kagune, despite the fact she felt nothing. A quick flick sent the man flying down the brook and he landed with a sickening crunch of bones cracking against the concrete, and he laid in a useless, blubbering heap.

    With seemingly no effort, Rio lept and propelled herself into the air, easily gliding towards the man, landing in a crouch as if she'd done it thousands of times before, and perfected the art.

    She stood, and advanced on the man excruciatingly slow, her movements nothing less than predatory. As she moved, five of her six tentacles curled around each other, creating a horrifying purple mass of Kagune somewhere between a spear and dagger. With the free tentacle, she once again lifted the man to his feet, and the other five drew back, ready to strike.

    Dylan knew what came next, but his breath was caught in his throat, and couldn't have screamed if he wanted to. His mind was blurred in confusion and the only real grip he had on anything was his white-knuckle grip on the wall behind himself.

   Without warning, the Kagune spear shot forward and drove straight through the man's abdomen. Blood splattered in every direction, like a red paint bomb. Rio dropped the man to the floor, and with a few, short gasps of pain, he was dead.

~