A Saint's Patronage

The Devil in I

Undo these chains my friend
I'll show you the rage I've hidden
Perish the sacrament
Swallow but nothing's forgiven

As I walked throughout the 11th Ward, seeing how Yamori had made the trek from the 13th to the Aogiri's base of operation in order to torture me, I looked down at myself. The tattered and torn jeans that had once clothed my legs felt like it was crawling up and down my skin.

"Great, I need to get to the 20th ward at least, seeing how things are getting out of hand there. At least I have myself for some sort of company." I had said to myself as I felt an ache in my back.

'Ten days without any stretching really put a risk for my health, I need to get going before I get hunted down by anyone of the Aogiri higher ups.' I thought to myself as I made my way out of the ward, hoping to find an investigator that happened to be wandering around on patrol. To my luck, the CCG had done its best to try and find me, because as soon as I got any solid footing around the Wards, a familiar figure had caught me before I ended up falling onto the concrete.

"I see you're doing well brother." The male had said to me whilst I was in his arms, the stoic gaze that I had known so well I had found once again. Kishou Arima had seen better days, as his hair started to change from the dark blue that I had once knew two years ago, to a more dark black that almost resembled my current hair color, minus all the red that was permanently stained into the bottom half of my hair, I could only guess that it was the remnants of my natural auburn hair that remained. His features were more defined, but that wasn't on my mind.

"Kishou, please take me to someplace where I can freshen up. I smell of blood, my own blood to be exact, and I've had enough time in a ten day span to know what fear smells like." I said to my brother, who only nodded at my request. My mind has became so clear, almost like what Jason said about this "rehabilitation" had taken hold of my mind, clearing it of any blotches and mental instability. But to every angel, a demon hides, and this demon was my Devil as it tormented me with the thought of losing control and becoming what was to be hated, a monster in other words.

"I'll make sure the higher-ups know that we found you wandering the wards without anything to you. What had happened to you 11 days ago?" He had asked in the same monotonous voice that I had came to both love and loathe.

"I was on patrol, and seeing how I was anxious about the day, I had stayed up past midnight. I had went to a local coffee shop in the 13th Ward, when two ghouls, at least I was sure of one of them being a ghoul, had walked in. I decided to humor them to see what and who they were looking for. In actuality, the one that had kidnapped me was my potential elimination target, Jason." I had explained to Arima, my vision blurring out at a rapid pace. "Now....if you excuse me....I need to sleep." I said before my eyes closed, my breathing started to normalize as I started to sleep in the arms of my brother.

When I woke up next, a blinding light had taken hold of my eyes, I had knew the place all too well. It was the hospital in the 20th Ward's branch.

'Great, I was out for the whole damn ride to the 20th, next thing I know someone is going to tell me I'm discharged from the CCG due to me being a ravenous cancer that's draining the financial aid because of my poor decision making skills.' I had thought initially, but when a young male with brown hair entered my room, I knew things would be different.

"Rank One Investigator Arima, it's a pleasure to meet you finally. My name is Seidou Takizawa. You've seen better days haven't you?" Takizawa had said, feeling sorry for my current condition. "To be honest, it seems like this will never end, but you seem like our trump card in ending this war.

"Thank you Seidou-san for feeling compassionate for my situation, but to be honest I don't have any answers other than that of the fact that I have been inside of the Aogiri headquarters, although in a different room than the main area. How's Houji? I mean, we were partners before I advanced into Rank One." I said with a friendly gesture to the male that was in the same room as I, my heart fluttering as I saw his face light up the entire room.

"Well, after everything we've been put through trying to pin any leads on the Gourmet, he's managing to keep a calm and professional look to things." Seidou had said, smiling at me. I know that it may seem sappy for me, but I knew that this was the first time I have ever felt like I was happy, and it shows because the next person that had entered my room was Kureo Mado, the old man that had once trained me in my infantile days of being an investigator.

"Good to see you're finally awake Rank One Arima, you had any leads on Jason?" He had said to me as he entered the room, sitting by my side. His smile was infectious, but I knew deep inside he was fueled by revenge, his wife was killed on duty and he kinda went bonkers trying to get the deadliest quinque out of any ghoul so he could hope to get revenge.

"Not yet sir, but during one of my patrols, I was kidnapped by him and led to what seemed like the base of operations of the terrorist group Aogiri Tree, even though it was a separate room from what seemed to be the main building. But before I do anything, I need to speak with Kishou-san in order to aquire a quinque, since mine was apparently destroyed during my struggle against the serial murderer." I retorted calmly to the male by my side, raising my head up gently. "How's the daughter doing Kureo? The last time I saw her it was when she was still in grade school."

Kureo smiled gently, closing his eyes. "She's doing well, graduated the top of her class in the Academy and she is getting sent out here. But there's a case that I need your help on, if you so wish to help that is. You've been hearing word about the Daughter Ghoul?" He finished his comment with that question, as I gently nodded my head. "Well, I did have some people come to the office to fill out any information that they had known, the boy looked suspicious so I tried to bring him through the RC scan gates and nothing seemed to be off." Kureo had continued to explain to me the details of the ghoul that he was after. Apparently he had a plan to flush her out using the hand of her mother, while using my generally good combat skills to subdue any other ghoul that had came around in order to either save the ghoul or kill her for themselves.

"Mado, while the word around the office is that you're insane, I don't believe it. I remember meeting your wife, and she was the most gentle soul. Of course I'll help you, but on the condition that if any other ghoul intervenes with the extermination, I get to make a quinque out of them." I said, obviously delighted to help my mentor and best friend out with the extermination.

"Of course, I only want the Daughter Ghoul, so you can have the rest of the scum that try to attack us. I'll let you know when the time of the investigation is so you can prepare a spare quinque to deal with the threats. If you want, I can lend you my Kura to at least defend yourself." He offered as he finished up his sentence with the offer. I smiled gently, nodding my head.

"Of course, I just need to prepare myself for the responsibility of carrying around my mentor's quinque." I replied with my acceptance of his offer, and since I had a intuition that things would go horribly wrong during the investigation.

How further from the truth I was.