FIRST 9TH WARD WAS ATTACKED, THEN 10TH WARD, AND THEN UNEXPECTED TRANSPORT WAS SCHEDULED BY CCG WITH A PERSON OF INTEREST BEING TRANSPORTED. And that person of interest being Naki – leader of group of ghouls known as White Suits – originally founded by Yamori. At this point, Aogiri was desperate to recruit more strong ghouls into their ranks and Yamori's right-hand man who somehow managed to get captured by CCG, seemed like a worthy recruit. And it was thanks to Aya that information of Naki's transport came to the surface. Along with that, their attack on Cochlea had to be delayed.
Aya adored new clothes – just as Tatara wanted off her. She wore a black jumpsuit with her usual black combat boots that were slowly wearing out – but she liked them the best. And over her hard wearing fabric of the jumpsuit which to her preference was not sticking to her skin – was the usual Aogiri cloak. She liked blending in with the rest. And she liked to use her own element of surprise. There is nothing more than she enjoyed but to see the shocked expression on doves' faces when they notice that it is Kitsune they're dealing with. But also, it made other subordinates feel a bit more comfortable.
On top of the tall building, above the empty highway in the least busy time of the night, stood Aya with a group of Aogiri members. And soon, the group was joined by Ayato Kirishima and Ken Kaneki. Ayato was not pleased. Working alongside a person who brutally broke his bones was a silent torture. Every time he looked at Ken, he thought of how badly he wants to break every single bone within his body – just out of fun and a little bit of revenge. But fighting among members of Aogiri was not allowed and Ayato didn't want to try and see what Tatara will do to him if he even tries to murder Ken.
Aya was crouching on the edge of the roof – loss of balance keeping her from falling down from such height. In the distance, red and blue light flashed closer and closer. Ayato and Ken came to stand on each side of her, examining the same view as Aya. With Ayato and Ken finally by her side, she was ready to begin.
"Take your positions."
With Aya's command coming through the black medical mask, all the subordinates rushed pass the three of them and jumped down the building – this cloaks levitating in the air with them as they slowly came to land onto the road. They hid behind the walls of the highway, waiting carefully for their time to act.
"What's the plan?" Ayato wondered.
"Ken you'll block their path, Ayato you'll attack from the back and leave the truck to me. The others will do the rest."
Ken scanned their position – in his head he already found a way of stopping the transport without throwing himself onto the road to block their path. Tilting his head to the side, Ken examined both Aya and Ayato. They seemed relaxed. Aya was crouching by the very edge with her elbows resting in her knees – her body calm despite the height underneath her. Ayato stood right beside her, his hands in the pockets of his pants. Ken felt out of place – he did not feel relaxed. From killings in 9th Ward to killings in 10th Ward, Ken had so much blood on his hands – it wasn't him, he could never do something like that. But something within him changed – it was worst. The only motivation that kept him going is the goal he lived for – become stronger and protect Anteiku.
"It's time."
Aya raised onto her feet and looked over her shoulder at Ken who snapped out of his troubled thoughts. Her eyes indicated that he was the one that will make the first move. He gave her a firm nod, understanding her command and rushed off the roof. The eyepatch mask hid away his appearance and the grey eye of his change its color. With bright red eye of a ghoul, the red kagune emerged from the back of his waist and aimed for the concrete wall fence of the highway above the road on which the CCG vehicles were approaching.
The wall broke in pieces upon heavy kagune's contact and fell onto the road underneath, causing the CCG cars to come to a sudden and forceful stop. Ayato swooped in, shooting crystallized bullets from his ukaku kagune onto the cars behind the truck. But the truck did not intend to come to a stop – upon seeing what was happening, the driver stepped onto the gas pedal, following the protocol which said that whatever happens, the vehicle transporting a ghoul had to continue. However, while pushing through the CCG vehicle, flash of red passed by them and with a loud blow, the truck flipped to the side – sliding on the road until it hit the wall.
The surviving CCG members emerged from their cars and aimed towards the only ghouls they could see at the moment – Kitsune, Eyepatch and Black Rabbit; standing in the middle of the road. But their view was blocked when suddenly a group of Aogiri came into their view as a surprise card. The ghouls attacked the remaining CCG members, leaving no one alive to tell the story.
Ken and Ayato came to Aya's side. There was a sound behind them and all three of them turned to see two figures standing on top of the street light – standing very still almost in the way that made Aya's skin crawl. One in white with black and white horizontal-striped mask and a hole in the right eye. One in black with black and white vertical-striped mask and a hole in the left eye. They stood on the street lamp and they examined them – or more specifically: they were watching Ken.
"Aya?" Ayato murmured very quietly.
Aya already predicted his unspoken question. "Don't know." She didn't like them.
With a cracking sound, there emerged three tails of rinkaku kagune on their waist – kagune that was the same as Ken's. Now that's interesting – Aya thought with a grin coming to her lips hidden underneath the mask. Ken however had a different reaction – he gasped in shock, his visible grey eyes widening at the sight. The two girls jumped in the air, their direction of landing directed towards Ken. Ken's kagune erupted and he blocked them in the nick of time. Thousands of thoughts still passed through his head. Snapping out of the shock and thoughts regarding the girls with the same kagune as him, Ken pushed them away.
The girls jumped off, landing onto the wall that barricaded each side of the road. And the girls gripped onto their masks before taking them off – revealing something very interesting. Both had one eye of a ghoul – they were the same as Ken – artificial one-eyed ghouls. How very interesting...
An explosion took Ayato and Ken's attention from the two girls, but not Aya's. She stared at them as they took that distraction as an opportunity to disappear. When Ken looked back into their direction, they were no longer there – leaving him with troubled thoughts that contained many unanswered questions.
"Shit! Get him out of there!" Ayato commanded the ghouls – rushing towards the track that was burning with a possibility of exploding into pieces. "Hurry, damn it!"
And while Ayato rushed the others, Ken turned to Aya. "Where did they go?"
She looked at him and shrugged with her shoulders – answering with little to no concern. Aya turned on her heels, she made her way towards Ayato and the group of ghouls. Ayato came to a halt before the back of the truck when banging begun from inside – along with a few screams of humans. Ayato stood there on alert – not knowing what to expect. There was yelling as well, almost as if someone was crying and the first through that came to Ayato's mind is that Naki was being burned alive within the truck. With a loud scream, the door burst open and a man in prisoner's clothes jumped out from the truck which was filled with fresh corpses of the men that guarded him.
"Where's my boss?! Where's Yamori?! Take me to him!"
Within his tantrum, Naki – right-hand man of Yamori – begun to attack Ayato. Ayato was definitely caught with his guard down, but that didn't stop him from dodging Naki's aimless attacks. He tried to make reason, but it felt as if he was trying to talk down a child from buying a toy – impossible. Seeing an opening in Naki's swings, Ayato twirled on his leg and with strength in his other leg, he kicked the childish ghoul. The ghoul with broken feelings landed into the fence on the highway. Naki's back creating a dent in the metal barricade which a ghoul like him barely felt to describe it as painful.
He sobbed. "Boss..." Aya raised her eyebrows at the ghoul as she came to stand next to Ayato. "My feelings are infernal! Take me to Yamori or I'll incinerate you!" Just like a child, the ghoul begun to trash with his arms and legs.
"You've got to be kidding me." Ayato commented the childish scene in front of him. "All the convicts we could have busted out; we choose this dumbass?" Ayato gestured towards hysterically crying Naki, looking at Aya with annoyed expression – to his question, Aya shrug with her shoulder, speechless at this point.
"What did you call me!?" Naki confronted Ayato. "No one talks to me like that and lives! No one except for boss Yamori! And you ain't, you hear!?" He cracked his finger – in the same matter as Yamori used to do. "So, I'll pound you into a bloody pulp!"
Aya shook her head at the dramatic behavior. "Calm yourself." She said with edge in her voice. "We need to leave before doves show up. So, Naki you can either stay and give them a welcoming tantrum or you can come with us and live another day." Aya spoke with a reasonable tone.
Naki stared at her for a moment, glaring at both, Aya and Ayato. There's more he had to say, but when the sounds of CCG police reached their ears – whatever he had to say was put as a reminded in his head for later. The ghouls disappeared before the CCG police arrived – leaving them to witness the corpses of all the CCG members that were tasked with responsibility of transporting Naki to Cochlea.
Ken followed after Aya and Ayato left with heavy thoughts. On his way towards the abandoned building though the tunnel, all he could think about who were the two girls with the same kagune as him and the same one ghoul eyes. Within Aogiri, he felt as if he was given more questions than answers.
◾
The shop "Toy Island" in the abandoned building was completely trashed when Aya revealed that Yamori was no longer among the living. Naki threw toys out, and one teddy bear almost landed in Aya's face. She leaned to the side, successfully dodging the harmless toy. Gagi and Guge, members of White Suits, came when they were informed by one subordinate of Aogiri Tree that their new leader was saved. The twin brothers tried their best to calm their new boss – but as Naki was having a drastic breakdown, his emotions were all over the place.
"Boss Yamori!" Naki yelled as he trashed on the ground.
Ken stood by Aya's side, watching Naki as he kept yelling while Gagi and Guge tried to calm him down. Ayato scoffed at the extremely loud ghoul and left. Ken expected Aya to be the next to leave, but instead, she stood there watching. He didn't know what was the expression that hid in her eyes – was she happy that Yamori is dead, was she sad, did she even feel anything. Pity? Grief? Content? Ken couldn't decipher Aya's feelings. While he didn't know her feelings, he knew his own. His face seemed indifferent, but within, he was feeling guilt and confusion. He wondered how could a man like Yamori even be missed by someone. He was brutal and loved to torture others, so why did Naki cried so much for him?
"Boss, come back! If you're gone, what does that make me?!" Naki cried out, reaching out to fallen wax crayons which were scattered on the ground. "I wanna see you. Even if it's just your name. Boss Yamori..."
Gripping to the crayon, he begun to write in red – but the letters he wrote did not say Yamori's name. Naki lacked education – just as most ghouls did since they grew up separated from human community which was offered far more that ghoul community. Gage and Guge looked at one another, shrugging as neither of them knew how to even write. Ken watched Naki struggle to write down Yamori's name – and he felt pity. He stepped to the devastated ghoul and took black crayon. He wrote upside down, for the name to face Naki.
With red crying eyes, Naki looked at him. "So, is that, how it's spelled?"
"Yeah." Ken answered indifferently.
Naki looked at the letters, touched them as if he could physically feel them and tears fell from his eyes. Once again, he broke down in loud cries, staining the ground with his tears. Ken got up onto his feet and looked at Aya's direction – there was a look in her eyes as if she was impressed, or maybe she was seeing through him; seeing the stinging feeling of guilt within his heart. He was facing his past action – and he learned that there were always consequences.
"Hey, Eyepatch!" Ken looked back at the loud ghoul. "You're a really good guy, I mean it. Thanks for helping me out, man."
And the guilt in his heart grew stronger – but he couldn't confess to Naki that it was actually him that killed him. Such karma. And those words did not only awake guilt, but also that tiny little piece of himself that questioned his choice for joining Aogiri. After all the things I've done – how can I be good? With lowered head, and troubled thoughts weighing on his shoulders, he walked pass Aya and retreated somewhere where he could be alone.
With a small sigh leaving her parted lips, Aya looked up – she saw Tatara and Eto watching everything unfold. And Aya found her way up towards them – putting Naki's crying in the background by trying her best to ignore how loud he was being with his emotions. For now, she was not too happy with Naki, but she strongly believed that his mourning for Yamori will pass soon enough and he'll prove himself worthy.
"We need more men if we want to attack Cochlea." Tatara commented as he begun to walk away to mute Naki's crying – Eto and Aya followed next to him.
"So we'll delay the attack?"
"Yes." Tatara confirmed. "I've heard about groups of ghouls hiding in 24th Ward. Eto, Noro and I will recruit them into our ranks to expand our numbers. I believe there are quite a few ghouls that would like to infiltrate Cochlea."
"Mm." Aya nodded.
By now, they though their numbers will be high enough to attack such stronghold, but to be certain, they needed more to make sure that the attack on Cochlea ends successfully – there could be no mistakes. Their numbers will grow after that attack – at least that's what Tatara and Aya calculated. But Cochlea was not the only thing that was on Aya's mind at the moment.
"Kanou is here somewhere." She revealed. "Two girls attacked us during our attack on the CCG transport. Well, they attacked Ken actually. And they had Rize's kagune and one ghoul eye."
"Kanou sent them?"
"Mmm. I believe so." Aya pointed out. "He's making more one-eyed ghouls. We just need to find where."
"I'll leave that to you." Aya came to a stop to look at Tatara – seeking more explanation. "No one else can know. You'll track Kanou down and persuade him to join Aogiri."
"You want me work out a plan for Cochlea and you also want to me find Kanou?" Aya questioned in disbelief – her list of duties just piling up.
"The One-Eyed King wants you to be less involved physically on missions. You're making too much noise lately." Tatara revealed, receiving an offended expression from Aya. "The others can help you with Cochlea. But as for Kanou, keep it for yourself. No one can know expect you, me, Eto and Noro."
Aya let out a large amount of breath that seemed to occupy her lungs. "And how the hell will I persuade Kanou into joining Aogiri?"
It was Tatara that recruited people into Aogiri – not Aya. She still had much to learn when it came to leadership, and didn't trust herself to be up for such a task.
"Think, Aya. We have something he wants to keep a close eye on."
Aya watched as Tatara walked away with a giggling Eto following after him into the long hallway. He's being used...Aya's arms wrapped around her with a need to laugh from desperation. That's why Eto made Ken join... Aya was not an idiot – maybe sometimes she denying the truth but in the end, that what she denies, ends up being exactly what it is. And it hurt Aya to know she was being cruel to the boy who made her smile when she was a child, who made her feel less lonely and who made her think she'll have a beautiful life.
For the sake of Aogiri, Aya was letting herself be twisted and morphed into someone whose only intention is to use others and throw them away when they are of no use anymore. That's what Tatara wants... It was clear Tatara was trying to break her – she wasn't blind to it. And he knew that Ken Kaneki meant something to her. No one in Aogiri really matter to her until Ken came and Tatara was troubled by it. That's why he's testing me...
◾
Making too much noise... Aya huffed in irritation. I need to let loose somehow. Pulling on her bangs, Aya split them up and pinned them on each side with hair pin – crossing them in X. They have grown longer and most of the time they would poke her eyes. Aya was considering of letting her bangs grow. Occupying my thoughts with unnecessary thoughts again... Aya let out a sigh and placed her face into her hands.
"Hey, idiot!"
Something hit her head and with a glare she looked up to see Ayato standing by the frame of her small room. But she said nothing. Instead, she looked down at the maps with Cochlea's levels, floor plants, blueprints and other designs – each had something in red written on them. Among those plans, sticking out was a fluffy black rabbit keychain.
"It's your birthday, isn't it?"
My birthday? It took Aya a second to realize it was December 31st, a date that became meaningless to her. Some celebrated a New Year, some did this on December 31st, some did that on December 31st and to Aya, December 31st was the day she was born 18 years ago. And she forgot about it – ever since she joined Aogiri, her birthdays did not exist anymore. To ghouls, those days were unimportant, yet Ayato remembered.
"Thank you..." Aya picked up the little fluffy keychain – such small gift of affection warming up her chest. "Didn't know you could be affectional." Ayato scoffed at her, his cheeks warming up a bit with embarrassment since affection was not something Ayato commonly showed.
"Shut up, you idiot." He snapped at her, ready to walk away to hid his flushed face.
"Hey, Ayato." As she called his name, he stopped. "It's nice what you're doing for your sister."
Ayato and Touka had not been on best of terms. Ayato did not like her lifestyle of blending with the humans and pretending to be one. That might even be the reason why Ayato left Anteiku in the first place – to become stronger and to be what he is: a ghoul; and not pretend to be a human. But he had changed – his sister got target by CCG as Rabbit and after their confrontation, in order to protect her, he let took the alias Black Rabbit to draw attention to himself. They both had the same ukaku kagune, therefore it was not hard to make CCG believe Rabbit is with Aogiri.
"Whatever." Ayato scoffed, looking unaffected, but Aya knew that was just a façade – all he wanted is to protect Touka, whatever she knows it or not.
As Ayato left, Aya let out little smile and she leaned in her chair – dangling the black rabbit keychain in front of her. It was a nice small gift, enough to changed Aya's mood from irritated and weary to happy. But she definitely didn't expect from Ayato such gift of affection – she didn't expect it from anyone. Yet, Ayato pleasantly surprised her.
Soft footsteps in the hallway interrupted Aya. She placed the black rabbit onto the table and watched the door – waiting for the one that was approaching. A mop of white hair caught her attention first, and then those grey eyes filled with void. Ken Kaneki stood there, genuinely surprising her with his presence. He seemed desperate, as if part of him was dying.
"Busy?" He asked her with a monotone, to which Aya shook her head negatively. "Wanna go catch some fresh air?"
How can I say no when you look so hurt?