"Grandpa?"
"I know (Y/N), for now don't do anything rash. We'll talk about it later." Mr. Yoshimura told you while smiling so as not to cause any suspicion.
"As you wish." You nodded, making the coffee for Taurus and his friend who were currently sitting in Anteiku. They're borders hadn't clashed with yours set, but there was no doubt they were close. A big group of ghouls like this would alert any others in the area, most likely
surveying the area before heading in.
You took the coffee over to the two men, placing it gently on the table for them with a polite smile. "Here you two go."
"Thanks." Taurus responded without looking up at you while speaking with his friend, a older boy about two years older the you. He was a little taller then you and slightly bulkier too, though he didn't have your sharp looks. He flashed you a easy, confident smile full of ego.
"Thank you my friend." He had an almost musical tune to his voice, this one was a charmer no doubt. He sipped your coffee slowly, savouring the taste. "Oh, oh I must say, such an exquisite cup of coffee."
"Thank you, house speciality." You nodded respectfully with a warm, but fake, smile. As usual you were acting like you weren't detached from most people, yet you were giving it your all today. Taurus was stupid enough and might not recognise you at all, but his friend had an intelligence to him judging by the look of his eyes.
He was still smiling though he's shifted his gaze towards Touka, irritatingly his smile seemed to, widen. You clenched your jaw as you starred daggers into him, wishing beyond reason you could break his arm. But that be out of character, you had no idea what this person knew or did not know and you weren't one to be an idiot and give something as prudent as being one of the zodiac signs.
"Anything else I can get you sir?"
"No thank you my good man, this is delightful thank you very much." Nothing you could do about that now so you nodded and left, heading back to the bar and looking for something to do while you tried to eavesdrop. It was doubtful they'd be something important they let slip and if they did say something important you'd be more then a little dubious, suspicion was not harmful in this situation.
The enemy was currently sitting in your home, drinking coffee and no doubt inspecting the members here. At the moment it was yourself, Touka and Mr. Yoshimura on shift, but no doubt they'd be other checking out the other known members of Anteiku. You kept and eye on them as best as you could without alerting suspicion, tonight you'd go out bafter hours and investigate where they had headed off too.
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You pulled the hoodie over your head and pulled it down over your torso, it was a pure black hoodie you had lying around. It wouldn't be identifiable in anyway, just like your dark, baggy trousers that do many people had. The only real identifier for you would be the mask.
It had arrived shortly after your battle with the doves, Uta had apparently worked through the night to complete both your and Toukas masks as soon as possible. Yours was a simple gas mask, one that covered your face but left your eyes uncovered.
It was perfect!
"My my that really suits you." Came a familiar voice. Touka was standing in the doorway as she watched you dress yourself, chances were she knew what you were going to do.
"Thanks, I hope your just as happy with your own mask as I am with mine."
"Yeah, Uta really is good with the masks isn't he."
"It's kinda his thing."
"Yeah, yeah it is." She went quiet, thinking about the works she was going to say to you. "I know what your planning to do, your going out aren't you?"
"Your not going to be able to stop me Touka."
"I know you idiot." She spat despite trying to keep her voice down so not to awake Ayato and Shinsetsu, she looked up with a fierce purpose in her eyes. "I'm going with you, your not fully recovered yet and your going to need my help."
There was a moment of silence between you both, your first instinct would have been
keep her here where it was safe. But this was Touka after all, odds were she'd stop at nothing to go with you and keep you safe. "Alright, you can come." You told her. "If you have your mask."
She smirked. "Yeah don't worry about me, I got mine too." She lifted up a pink rabbit mask up to her face and placing it on her face, it was not what you were excepting from her. "Go on, laugh."
"Nah, I think it looks cute on you." You admitted as you opened the window so you could sneak out. "Kinda makes me want to throw you down on the bed and..."
"Not another word." She told you.
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You'd seen nothing out of the ordinary in the hour you'd been outside, you were both searching for Ghoul smells that weren't known to you. Any scent you picked up that was foreign to the twentieth ward was cause for investigation, you'd gone up and down the entire ward but found nothing that stood out.
"God damn it." You cursed softly under your breath, frustrated at the lack of any leads. You'd turned up nothing but a few human tourists and a stashed corpse someone had stored for later, sooner you'd head home and call it a night.
"Seems like there's nothing particularly strange going on." Touka commented. "Maybe we should go back?" It wasn't a bad suggestion since it was starting to reach the early hours of the morning, Ghoul activity usual started to really pick up after about midnight when only small groups were out and they could hunt with near immunity.
"Yeah, I think you might be..." Suddenly an ear piercing scream went out scattering the silence of the night, both you and Touka snapped yours heads towards the origin of the scream. You didn't have to say a word as your both ran towards the sound, it wasn't long before a second scream filled your ears allowing you to further pin point the location of the sound.
"Can you smell that?" Touka asked as she clearly took in some sort of scent in deep breaths.
"No." You told her as you smelled only clear air, actually you couldn't smell anything like usual. None of the city smells like the rubbish bins put out or the bird droppings left around and certainly not the sweet scent of blood that was guaranteed to be left after a scream like that.
"What?" She exclaimed. You imagined that she was giving you a strange look under her rabbit mask, now you think about it she looked kinda cute in it. Touka sniffed the air in the meantime as her ghoul senses honed in on whatever odour was hovering in the air. "Smells like someone's lost a lot of blood, it's not too far from here follow me."
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One ghoul had managed to corner another three in an underpass, one was down and seemed to be bleeding out already. The other two had their backs to the wall with their shoulder mounted Kagunes out, the aggressor was a heavy built man with what looked like butterfly wings for a Kagune. The ends ended with spikes though which you had no doubt could extend to attack or wrap around him for protection against other kagunes.
"I've never seen him before in my life." Touka told you from the top of the underpass out of harms way for now, yet still able to hear everything clearly. "But I'm willing to guess that idiot is Taurus."
"What gave it away? The bull mask possibly?" You asked sarcastically looking down at the situation, Taurus was obviously bullying weaker ghouls for some reason. Possibly because Zodiac wanted to push further into Anteiku territory and wanted to make a statement, it was equally possible that Taurus was just a sadist who wanted to enjoy some cannibalism.
"So were hurting this guy right?" Touka asked looking over at you.
"What do you want to do."
"I wanna break his teeth."
"Then be my guest darling."
Touka thankfully didn't hear that last part as she darted forward with lightning speed that only a ukaku could possess, Taurus didn't even see it coming as she collided her foot against the side of his head. He was sent flying across the ground dazed, Touka stood ready for him to get up and attack. The two ghouls he had cornered had no concern where their priorities lay, they lifted their friend up and turned to run.
"Hey." You said grabbing one by the collar of his shirt before he could get away. "Head to Anteiku and tell them what happened here, tell them Taurus was behind it." You then let go and turned your attention to the chimera ghoul.
Taurus was back up and in the fight, he'd already sent some pretty heavy attacks her away. His Kagune was leaving heavy marks in the ground from where it had destroyed the concrete, Touka was having some trouble dodging both of his kagunes as they came flying towards her.
You darted forward using your own ukaku speed and leapt over Taurus head, flipping over him as your own Kagune came out and wrapped around his throat like a constricting boa. Pulling forward and down you bend the larger ghouls back at an awkward angle while Touka pointed her Kagune ready to fire towards him.
"Why are you here!?" You demanded from Taurus while lightening up your grip so he could talk. "And don't even think about struggling! Or I'll break your neck like a twig." Your voice lowered without shouting to maintain attention and authority without losing control by shouting, your voice was even to maintain control of the situation.
"Go to hell!" He roared.
"As you wish." You tightened your hold on his neck like a vice strangling him, you then contradicted the muscles in your Kagune and pulled down hard slamming Taurus to the ground with his neck at an awkward angle. Touka fired her RC crystals into his Kagune pinning them to the floor, he would have screamed if it wasn't for the fact he couldn't get any air in or out his body due to your scorpion tail scrambling him.
"Ready to talk now?" Touka asked as his face went purple, Taurus nodded furiously clawing for breath. You obliged and loosened your hold slightly but kept your grip to easily constrict again if he proved troublesome.
"Leo! Leo wanted us to expand! He said force the weaker ghouls to turn on Anteiku!"
"Well that wasn't nice was it? Leo your leader?" You asked him while standing over his body.
"Yes!"
"So Leo wanted to make the weaker ghouls fear you more then they respect us?"
"Yes!"
"And you were going to get one of them to what? Launch a surprise attack? Leave us open to the CCG? What?"
"They were supposed to attack in mass, Zodiac would support them and overwhelm Anteiku! That's it I swear!" You exchanged looks with Touka, though it didn't mean much under your masks. Those three you sent to Anteiku might have turned out to be vital in early warning for the others.
"Thank you Taurus, you've been very helpful." You released him from your hold, since neither you nor Touka relished the thought of killing someone while they were down. "Now were going to leave you to lick your wounds, you just stay here and don't follow..."
It was then that a small canister rolled its way into the underpass, it was only about a foot long at the most. You and Touka eyed it curiously while round to a halt as it hit against Taurus Kagune, it almost looked like a flash grenade... with the pin missing!
It suddenly exploded sending white gas everywhere, it was extremely thick and difficult to see through. Touka and Taurus was spluttering with a coughing as their kagunes disintegrated, Touka collapsed as if she couldn't breath.
Toxic Gas! It was choking both Touka and Taurus to death! Your heard rumours that the CCG were creating a gas to nullify the effects of ghouls but so far it only killed them, which meant that the doves were here!
"See rookie? Never engaged if you don't have too." Came a voice that was entering the smoke. Probably one of the doves and his apprentice by the sound of it, you could see the outline of them emerging from the smoke as they approached.
You could kiss Uta at that moment as you realised he'd given you an actual Gas mask which was making you immune to the gas, that was why you couldn't smell the blood earlier. It also meant that the two doves would never see you coming...
You dived forward as quickly as you could with your Kagune aiming for the veterans throat, with his guard down he never had a chance to defend himself as your Kagune went straight through his neck. The trainee fell to panic and turned to run, he didn't get far as you fired a crystal into his brain.
You scooped up Touka in your arms and ran as fast as your ukaku blood would let you, you jumped into a building and kicked off to let you land on the roof with silently. Touka was still coughing but not as much as before, you needed to get her back home as soon as possible.
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"Tut tut tut." Leo told Taurus while sitting on the table comfortably while his underling stood up straight. "I told you to bully some small time ghouls, kill a few if necessary and avoid the doves attention. That's all, wasn't too hard. Yet somehow you come back, choking on gas with your Kagune ruined. Best of all though, you claim some unknown ghouls attacked you and you don't even know who it was!"
The usually charismatic and charming leader was boiling over with rage, his plan at risk. He didn't know Taurus had told the other ghouls his plans, the bigger ghoul had left that out. He did know that he's drawn attention during a time he could least afford it, with several members down and his control over the group slipping somewhat he needed to demonstrate his leadership over the other ghouls with a clean and easy victory.
"If I may?" Spoke up a third sign, walking in unannounced with some kind of folder in his hands and a smug, satisfied face.
"What is it Capricorn?" The lion sign asked, he had a sneaking suspicion that the goat sign was planning some sort of mutiny but he couldn't quite prove it.
"I believe I have found out dear friend Taurus' masked attackers." He grinned throwing the folder down, several pictures from Capricorns private camera network spilled out onto the table. Leo picked one up inspecting the photo of a ukaku with a rabbit mask and what looked like a bikaku judging by the positioning of the Kagune from the tailbone. A few more photos showed the gas attack from the CCG and the doves dead when the smoke cleared, nothing especially interesting
"So we're looking for a rabbit no ones seen before and a gas mask no ones seen before. This is helpful how?"
"I read up on the CCG report, seems that the second investigator was killed by a single ukaku shot to the brain."
"And? There was a ukaku there case you haven't noticed."
"The gas used by the CCG would have nullified her Kagune as with Taurus, only the bikaku with the gas mask was able to fight because the gas mask would have filtered the toxic fumes out. Meaning that somehow a bikaku killed a dove with a ukaku shot, so obviously it's a chimera. A chimera with a scorpion kagune." Capricorn then placed another picture down, one with a clear shot of the scorpion tail sprouting from the gas mask ghoul.
Leo chuckled as his bad mood faded . "Well done Capricorn, it seems you've found Scorpio."
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Authors note: Hey guys, I was wondering if you would like me to continue the zodiac story line or skip to the first episode of Tokyo ghoul?