A Saint's Patronage

Finding Beauty in Negative Spaces

Things had changed for the better part when I was able to leave the hospital ward of the office, because the next thing I knew I was in my desk, talking on the phone to my brother, explaining my current offer that Kureo had given me.

"Out of the hospital and already up to join Mado on an investigation of the Daughter Ghoul Tori? That's excellent. Soon enough you'll be able to join me." He had said with a tinge of excitement in his voice, as I knew that the squad that he leads, Squad 0, is the most prestigious squad in the whole organization.

"Kishou, don't be crazy, I'd not want to be upstaging you at all, because you know I got the best of your combat prowess and the best of your intuition, so it'll be hard trying to compete with me at all." I retorted calmly, almost with the same stoicism as my brother. I had developed a much more stoic personality as a result of my torture, my mind was clear of most things in life, excluding the things that I found beautiful. I had explained to Kishou that Seidou Takizawa, the salutatorian of the academy, had taken my heart and that if anything were to happen to him, I'd probably be going through hell and back to save him.

"I think that you're in love with him Tori, you have to let him know your feelings for him before he moves on. Remember, I'm always behind you, no matter what you do or what orientation you swing for. Just remember to be yourself. I'll talk to you soon, I have a meeting to attend to." He hung up as he said his departing words. I relaxed a little bit, knowing that my biggest concern was supportive of who I am, no matter what I say or do, as long as I keep it as professional as I could.

After mentally preparing myself for this moment for the entire morning, I had started my trek up to Takizawa's office, and once I heard him yelling at Juuzou to stop messing around with him, I knew that he was the one for me.

"Juuzou, for the last time, get out! We both may be investigators, but we aren't equals!" Takizawa had yelled at the white haired male in his office, almost making him rip his own delicate brown locks out of his head. Thankfully, Juuzou had given up with a defeated sigh, walking out of the office.

"You're no fun Taki, you need to lighten up every once in a while." Juuzou retorted as he walked out of the office, sighing as if to say that he wanted to mess with him more.

"That was unnecessary, I would've almost like to have beat him, if I wasn't a well respected investigator and was always under scrutiny for the slightest of things, even though undeserved, for being a half-ghoul." I said, looking behind me as Juuzou had merrily skipped down the halls, back to his own office. Takizawa just put his hands to his face as he sighed gently. I walked up behind him and put my hands on to his shoulders, starting to gently rub them. "You need to relax your muscles Seidou, it's no reason to be mad at him for being so childish in his nature. You need to not listen to the sounds of the pariah, but to the sounds of those that welcome you for who you are."

Takizawa, a tiny bit taken aback at my words, had blushed gently. "Rank One Arima! I thought you still were hospitalized for the benefit of yo-" I put a finger to his mouth, silencing his voice as it started to raise.

"Seidou, call me Tori please, it's my proper name. Sometimes you need to accept the feelings within you, and as such I came here to see if you were able to find it in yourself to go out with me, because when I first laid my eyes on you, something in my heart clicked. I want to be with you no matter what happens to the both of us." I spilled my heart out to Takizawa, right then and there and his response to my declaration of love was to stand up and hug me tenderly.

"Oh Tori, of course I will. I had the same feeling in my heart when I laid my eyes on to you, I just didn't know how to say anything about it. I'll be there for you as you will be there for me." His words were like the mending of a battered and bruised heart, like the gauze used on bandages to mend those cuts and scrapes that everyone has to deal with from time to time.

"Of course, now, if you'd excuse me, I need to get ready for the extermination of the Daughter Ghoul. I'll see you when I get back from that little excursion." I replied to Takizawa, walking my way out of his office and back down to my own, stopping by Kureo-san's desk on my way.

"Hello Investigator Tori, and might I say congratulations on your new boyfriend. I myself may not hold anything as a male widow, but I hope you and Seidou make it work. I hope you're ready for the investigation, and I do want to make sure you take care of Kura, because if I happen to perish, I want to give the quinque to Koutarou Amon, my partner. But seeming as he's going to be our look out tonight, I guess he wouldn't mind if Kura was given a test run by yourself." Kureo had said, giving me a silver briefcase, the feel of the steel was like ice to my bare hands, but the case itself was as light as a feather, may that be because of my enhanced strength due to being a ghoul, or maybe that I had been conditioned to be the holder of much heavier objects then that of my colleagues.

"Thank you kindly Kureo-san. I make sure to treat it as my child until the end of our extermination. Shall we head out now? It's best to get an early start on things in order to make any headway on our investigations." I said with a stoic look on my face, putting on my coat as I waited for Kureo to get up out of his chair.

"Of course, what investigators would we be if we weren't able to slaughter the helpless scum that plague our little piece of heaven." He retorted and stood up, beckoning Amon over to us. After Koutarou had made his way to us, we made our way out on our investigation.

This was going to be a very long night.

"Watch out!" I yelled at Mado as the ukaku shards had hit the blade of my barowed quinque as I tried to advance on the ghouls that we were fighting. The ukaku ghoul was fast, extremely fast as she was able to catch up with my repeated attacks, but as I have came to find out, speed isn't everything in a fight, and this little Rabbit was running out of stamina. As her attacks started to die down, I had the upper hand once again.

"Well well, it seems that the White Rabbit had finally slowed down enough to let Alice catch it. Any last words before I silence you permanently?" I had asked the ghoul, who would later be revealed to me as Touka Kirishima.

"You are a lying piece of shit, there's nothing that'll change between us, because you'll remember the hatred my family will bring onto you." She said with a certain spite in her voice, and after she had finished I swung the blades of the barrowed quinque down ontop of her, killing the violet haired individual with a gush of her crimson blood that had hit my face, hands and coat.

"Noooo!" The anguished cries of the young ghoul whom we had cornered hit my eardrums, but it was easy to take her out, even though she was a chimera ghoul, one with both a kokaku and rinkaku. Mado was the one who had delt this final blow to the child, Hinami Fueguchi, to snuff out the creature's lights.

"That's it, it's finally over. I'll carry the Rabbit and Daughter, and I'll make sure to let our friend Chigyou understand that the Daughter ghoul's quinque is made for you Mado. I'll see you at the office when Amon finishes up with that one ghoul." I had said to Mado, picking up the lifeless bodies of Hinami and Touka, trudging my way to the vehicle that I had taken Mado and Amon in, and I placed both of the corpses into the trunk as I made my way to the driver's seat, getting ready to head in for the night.

For the next operation would be one that I would be remembering for the rest of my life, nothing more would be as traumatic as this event.

Power beyond containing
Are you gonna remain a slave
For the rest of your life?
Give into The Night!