You yawned widely sucking in air as if to swallow a person whole, your insomnia was getting worse leaving you more and more unable to fight off sleep during the day. Oddly enough though, you were no more sluggish then you usually were. You were able to go about your day easily enough as before, it was nearly impossible to stay away once you sat down though.
"(Y/N) Your not falling to sleep are you?" Shinsetsu asked hovering over you in her uniform, you and Touka had arrived early for your shift so you were sitting at Anteiku for the next few minutes while you waited for the shift to begin.
"No no, not at all." You told her with black eyes, she probably didn't believe you at all. "I'll have a cup of caffeine please."
"You mean coffee?" Shinsetsu asked raising an eyebrow.
"I know what I said, just skip the coffee and give me pure caffeine."
"Listen son." She told you cocking her hips and putting one hand on her hip authoritatively. "Just cause your girlfriend is here doesn't mean I won't teach you a lesson."
"Coffee mother, now! Come on now chop chop!" You clapped your hands together while bossing her around, much to her displeasure. Touka smirked as she walked off.
"She really can't help bringing it up can she?" Touka mentioned, she had a point after all. Ever since your mother had learned you were seeing each other, she brought it up at every opportunity for a week. It was getting beyond annoying at this point and becoming some infuriating, especially since everyone in your life kept talking about it.
It wasn't like you wanted to keep it a secret or anything, honestly you couldn't care less what people thought as per usual. You'd gone about your day like any other, yet Shinsetsu had made it her personal mission to inform apparently the whole of Tokyo that you had a girlfriend.
"Honestly I'm considering killing her at this point." You joked while looking around Anteiku, seemed it wasn't particularly busy today. It usually wasn't though around this time of day, since your shift patterns changed to accustom to the work pattern of most people. Shinsetsu finished just after the schools finished where upon you and Touka would take over for the rush of people looking for a drink before heading home.
Your relationship with Touka had been good, really good. You both enjoyed a lot of time together, talking about anything from the smallest of topics to the deepest of conversations. It was weird for you to care so much about such mundane things, yet you could sit and discuss them with Touka where as before you'd blow it off. You were the first to admit it as cliché, but Touka really was changing you for the better.
Of course it was a slow process, evidence by your rude behaviour towards your mother. Then again you were tired and she had been irritating you for a while now, then again it was just your way of blowing off steam.
"Aunty Shinsetsu!" Came a young girlish cry, one you were very familiar with. Looking over your shoulder towards the front door you saw a young brunette girl with shoulder length hair of around ten years old, behind her was a tall woman with the same hair colour and a happy smile as she watched her daughter run towards your mother.
"Hinami!" Shinsetsu greeted her happily, crouching down to hug the youngster. Your mother and Ryouko went back a long time you knew, though you were shady on the details as it really didn't bother you most of the time. Behind them an intelligent looking man entered, this was the patriarch of the family Asaki.
"Good evening Shinsetsu, we were in the neighbourhood and we thought we'd drop by and see you. We hope it isn't an inconvenience." Askai spoke politely but warmly, smiling as he put an arm around his wife.
"It's nothing." Shinsetsu smiled back. "My shift is finished soon, (Y/N) is here in the meantime." She pointed towards you, causing Hinami to run over and practically throw herself against you.
"Hey big brother! I've missed you!"
"I missed you too Hinami." You told her ruffling her hair. "How've you been?"
"Good thanks. I've been working really hard on my writing." She beamed furiously, she'd have taken all your time for herself if she could have before her mother interrupted her.
"Now now Hinami, I'm sure Y/N would love to talk with you later but he has to work soon."
"Sorry Hinami, I promise we'll talk later." You assured her. Askai lifted her up to control her since she was over energetic at times, when he came close to you though he sniffed the air.
"(Y/N)?" He raised an eyebrow questionably. Askai was a ghoul doctor after all, able to detect the smallest details about Ghoul health and strength. His knowledge and experience had been invaluable to help your mother over the years, he'd been away on vacation with Ryouko and Hinami lately so he'd been unable to assist you after the fight with four doves.
No doubt he'd be able to detect the small sickness in your scent, since your immune system was weakened lately, but also be aware of the difference in your diet. Since the incident you'd been feasting on the raw taste of uncooked human meat, rather then chewing on the tasteless overdone stuff Shinsetsu had been serving you for years.
As a result you felt a million times stronger, the sudden improvement in fuel for your bodily engine your healing factor had been overcharged and was able to keep up with your horrendous wounds. The phenomenon had been short lived however since you sick again, but your body had healed amazing well.
"I finally changed over to the raw stuff, done amazing things for me Askai. Anyway sorry to cut this short but our shifts starting any second, we best get started Touka."
"Touka?" Ryouko asked moving forward. "Your the one that Shinsetsu had been going on about for a week now."
"Uuhhmm, yeah. That's me." Touka blushed embarrassedly, raising a hand a waving nervously.
"Well it's lovely to meet you, we'll be seeing you around a lot. But you two best get ready for work before Yoshimura thinks your slacking."
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"And in other news another sighting of the S zodiac ghoul "Taurus" had been reported last night, ghoul investigators have claimed that Taurus had been claiming territory amount ghouls up to thrice the usual size of similarly strong ghouls. We'll be back later with the latest coverage." The Anchorman said on the news channel before going to an ad break.
"Possessive bastard." You muttered to yourself under your breath at the table. Ryouko and her family had joined you all at home to catch up, Touka and Ayato were there too since they still lived with you.
"Uh?" Ayato asked hearing you."
"Taurus, the Ghoul on the news." You explained. "Bastards been running with his little group of Zodiac Signs for a while now, he's defiantly taking orders from someone else." You suggested.
"Wait you mean you know an S rated Ghoul?" Ayato asked surprised, looking at the Tv.
"Yeah, his real names Buru Ushi-za though he doesn't know that I know."
"How do you know then?"
"You ever seen footage of pictures of Taurus?"
"No."
"Guys huge, easily a few inches past six foot. Exact same build, he isn't subtle when he's running around at night either so it's not hard to figure out. He's one of the most possessive people I've ever met, everything's his."
"The TV says Zodiac Ghouls." Touka noticed, obviously wondering what it meant.
"For a while now Ghouls have been popping up that match a member of the Zodiac, so far eight ghouls have been classified under the Zodiac group. Or at least eight the CCG had picked up on recording to the news, they'll all fifteen to twenty, all chimera ghouls, all shown up in the last six months and all S rated."
"So who hasn't been spotted yet."
"Only Gemeni, Virgo, Aquarius and Scorpio has remained undetected by the CCG, could be they're on the down low could be they just avoided going out all together. Judging by Taurus rapid expansion though it's possible they're looking to pin someone down, force them to either leave their own territory to avoid getting caught up in the storm or they have to hunt in the Zodiacs grounds."
"Uh, I wonder who it is then." Touka wondered to herself, while Ayato looked up nervously.
"Yeah, id rather know about them guys if possible. Ive been paying close attention considering how close their borders are getting to our own, won't be long before it becomes an issue."
"You think they'd come into our land?" Ayato asked.
"Probably, more worried on who comes on our land. Aries by all counts is a total berserk psychopath, few times now he's challenged the doves in public. Got hit pretty bad last time too, he must have been licking his wounds ever since cause he's been pretty quiet lately."
"Have any ideas on who's running it?"
"Probably... Leo. He's quiet charismatic from what I heard, some of the lower ghouls who come to Anteiku for help say they heard him speak."
"Hey (Y/N)" Ayato spoke for the first time in a while. What about Scorpio?" He asked nervously.
"He just said he doesn't know idi-" Touka began to snap before you interrupted.
"It's me." You stated calmly. "Got it from my Kagune?" You asked him since he'd seen your Kagune during the fight with the doves, he nodded confirming your theory.
"Wait are you S rated or something?" Touka asked.
"I'm not anything Rated, doves don't know I exist. But I'm a chimera of fifteen years with a recluse personality, a vindictive personality and a scorpion Kagune for gods sake."
You looked back to the tv, think about the zodiac. You knew they'd come looking for you sooner or later, avoiding any attention was the best way to do that. Eventually they'd shift their focus on Anteiku to try and sniff you out, when that happened you might find yourself in trouble.
The question was, could you protect your family from them?