The youth sighed as he lifted another box of documents onto the shelf above, he was a young man working part time at the CCG as a bookkeeper. He'd been placing documents in boxes and boxes on shelves for a few months now, he categorised each case file while memorising where each was located. It wasn't uncommon for investigators to come looking for case files regarding individual ghouls, this was usually when they had spotted a ghoul and wanted to research it before assembling a small team to attack.
The young man turned to see a tall man with glasses standing in the doorway, waiting to have gained the young mans attention. He was his most reoccurring visitor as the man would often come down here, he would never announce himself however. He'd rarely speak even when spoken too, any questions regarding his personal life or even pleasantries would be brushed off impersonally.
"Evening Associate Special Class Investigator Zuno-ryoku. How are you today?" He asked the young man calling him by his full title as so often requested, he knew that the Higher class investigator was not especially vain in his persistence of his title, in fact he wasn't sure the taller man could be vain.
"I'm fine." Was all Zuno-ryoku responded with after waiting at the door for an unknown closed amount of time. He walked in as his eagle eyes scanned the boxes for a particular case file. "Missing persons file, the three senior investigators and single junior investigator." The young man knew what he was looking for, the four missing investigators had been the talk of the section for a while now. Zuno-ryoku had a habit of working on cold cases no one else was interested in, his brain seemed to absorb information and retain even the most trivial facts.
The strange mans mind demanded constant challenge for it to maintain its brilliance, Zuno-ryoku was well known for solving difficult cases no one else was able to out if boredom alone. The young man handed the investigator the box containing any and all information retaining to the missing personas case.
Zuno-ryoku took the box without a word of thanks and swiftly took it to his office upstairs, he had already finished any and all work assigned to him for that day so he had time to indulge his favourite past time.
The case file was surprisingly small, containing barely any information. Four investigators went missing in the same day was highly concerning of course, but the fact they disappeared without a trace was more so. Last known information on them was that one of them rushed out in a panic and a second followed him a few minutes later in a calm state. The junior investigator and his trainer were patrolling their usual stomping ground in the 19th ward, the junior investigator was being shown the ropes following a lead.
Thankfully there was a tracker on the patrol car of the senior investigator with the junior one, the tracker led investigators to the twentieth ward where it had been parked up next to an old alleyway leading to an underpass. On the underside of the pass was a second alley where the investigators found the cars of the second two investigators, yet there was no sign of the investigators in between. There had been heavy rainfall since the day they went missing so any forensic evidence was long gone.
Zuno-ryoku took the time to read up on all the missing investigators using not just the CCG database but also the polices for any past criminal activity and his academic grades, nothing that indicated anything as to his missing person. The other three however turned out to have worked together in the owl operation ten years ago, so they probably were close friends too. The first investigator who ran in a panic also had a missing son who disappeared the same day he had done, a little more digging showed that the child had applied to join a school not far from the underpass. The school also had an open day the same day they disappeared, one quick phone call later revealed that the son had attended the first part of the day, yet had disappeared at lunch.
Zuno-ryoku knew that all investigators were given a second phone for business use only, these phones were encrypted and connected to a cloud server allowing the CCG to record all professional conversations within the organisation. With that in mind he checked the database for each of their latest conversations, like the report had stated there had been no mention of this underpass between any of them. The associate special class investigator was almost certain they had intended to meet at the underpass at around the same time, the odds of three senior investigators who were friends all deciding to abandon their duties and head for a remote underpass in the 20th ward for a unknown reason were mathematically irreverent they were that small.
No, they had used their personal phones to communicate. It was possible they were engaged in some criminal activity but Zuno-ryoku doubted they'd do it in working hours when they knew that at least one of their cars would be tracked, he was sure something else had happened.
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Ayato dashed forward at (Y/N) and launched a furious punch at the older ghoul which you dodged amazingly quick, you grabbed a hold of Ayatos collarbone below his neck and pushing him to the floor. You help him down pinned while you both took a moment to regain your breath, though Ayato was obviously more tired then you.
"Not bad." You told him as you let him up off the floor. "Your defiantly improving and your speeds something to brag about, but you need to be carful about leaving your organs exposed." You threw him a bottle of water which he drank heavily, the youngster was beyond committed to the sparring matches after your shifts. "Though you really should be talking to Yomo about this stuff, I'll ask Yoshimura about getting him to train you up."
"You don't need to." Ayato told you kicking up onto his feet, he's grown since coming to Anteiku. Judging by his sudden growth he's probably be taller then you one day, his hair had grown out too making him look older. "Besides I don't think Yomo was able to kill four doves on his own like you did."
"Don't count him out kid, besides it not as if it went off without a hitch." For a long time after the incident Ayato's shame had been palpable, but lately he'd seemed to burn with a desire to go as strong as you. Whatever your feelings about it you had become his hero, at first you tried to discourage it. But the more you thought at it you more you realised you could use this influence for good, to help him grow into a man from a boy. Once you figured that out yourself though you'd get back to him.
"You were amazing, then you took on the other two doves after taking down Taurus. Six doves and still undetected, I doubt there's anyone who could take you on."
"Calm down Ayato, I'm not a god. Besides I still need to find a way to deal with this zodiac situation." You hadn't spotted anything since you'd gone out the first night, they'd been quiet after Taurus got ambushed. You doubted it was over.
"(Y/N) I've been meaning to ask you something."
"Shoot."
"Do you think my pap is still alive?" You froze in place as he asked, what the hell kind of question was that? How the fuck were you supposed to answer that?
"I think there's a chance, where there's a chance there's hope." You told him while thinking on your feet, it wasn't a lie after all.
"That's not what I asked." You sighed. Ayato knew you were brutally honest with people, you'd built up that reputation for years. No had known you to be gentle with people feelings and despite softening up since starting your relationship with Touka you were far from and open book, yet Ayato wasn't looking for a comforting voice. If he'd wanted reassurance he'd had gone to Shinsetsu but he'd come to you instead, there was a chance he was still looking for comfort from you, but Ayato knew better then that. He'd come to you for an honest answer, for better or for worse.
"No, I don't think he is. I don't believe he can be missing for so long after disappearing like that and be alive, I think he got caught by the CCG." Ayato nodded. It seemed he'd already accepted this as a fact, but your honestly had allowed him to fully understand it.
"Thanks for your honestly." Was all he said for a few minutes, not wanting to further explain himself. You say with him in silence for as long as he needed, the young ghoul had learnt much in the time you'd spent together but he was still only a boy. "I don't know how you stand serving humans like they're anything more then, then animals."
Your eyes narrowed at him when he said that, something didn't feel right about the way he spoke. "Cause it's how we stay alive, blending in with the humans as if we were one of them. Its our cover, if we went around as ghouls the CCG would come down on us hard and fast."
"I know, but imagine if it didn't have to be like that. Imagine if we could..."
"That's dangerous thinking Ayato, thinking about a world we don't live in when the one we do is fought with peril. We both got lucky when you got found by the CCG, sure I was able to kill them that time but what about next? What happens if i can't kill them all or I'm not there to look out for you?"
"That's why I want to be strong, so I can fight for myself. I want to be able to kill any of those filthy humans in my path!"
"Like libra?"
"Exactly!" Ayato grinned, the zodiacs biggest psychopath had killed dozens of doves and was currently the CCGs biggest target.
"You haven't heard then have you?" You asked Ayato as the coldness grew in your eyes again, you weren't the person who'd been looking after him suddenly, now you were the ruthless stranger as when you'd first met. "He got so cocky he removed his mask, probably thought he shouldn't have to hide his face from them. Like you Libra wanted the humans to fear him, for them to cower under superior ghoul rule. They figured out who he was by his human identity as he intended, course he'd gone to ground by then. Only thing is Ayato, they found who his family was. In less then twelve hours they hunted down his sister, brother, parents and grandmother." You let it sink in for a moment before continuing. "You see Ayato? Life and death for so many relies on so little, one mistake, one slip up, one reckless moment! And that's it! Everything we care about is at risk! Think about that next time you have grand notions of grandeur."