"Tiger got to hunt, bird got to fly;
Man got to sit and wonder 'why, why, why?'
Tiger got to sleep, bird got to land;
Man got to tell himself he understand."
- Kurt Vonnegut, "Cat's Cradle"
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??? POV
The walls of the corridors were covered in blood. Stepping past some severed limbs and even half of a mans head, I walked into an open room which I assumed was the cafeteria. The whole room smelled of blood; the metal like aroma overwhelmed my senses.
The figure in the corner was familiar. A grown man with long dark blue hair. I clenched my suitcase in my right hand and set the one in my left hand down on the floor.
This movement made a slight sound, getting a frozen reaction from the ghoul in front of me. Clicking open my briefcase, my weapon forming perfectly into my hand. The ghoul made eye contact through his kakuja's mask which had almost completely devoured him.
So, the Crow left you here.
"Ryuunosuke. I came to keep my promise." I said, aiming my weapon at him. A long range type, formed into closely relating a pistol.
He made a weird sound, one mixed of confusion and rage. He didn't like the look of quinque's, he could still understand they were a threat. I straightened my glasses on the bridge of my nose, and aimed.
Without a waited movement, he jumped straight at me, swinging his two kakuja covered arms, formed into large objects with barbs connected to them. I stepped to the side, and shot my first bullet. My arm reeled back from the kick of the shot.
The bullet ripped through one of his arms, the kakuja kagune covering him started to grey, and wither away. I take this small opening, and walk right next to him, grabbing his arm and putting my gun to his shoulder.
Firing another bullet, his skin twisted and his bones cracked. He yelled inn pain as he lost an arm, it had fallen off from the second shot.
Now with one arm without a kagune around it, and the other gone; made my job easier. Moving quickly I aimed at his head, and pulled the trigger.
Another sound of a gun being fired filled the room, echoing through the halls.
I lowered my gun and looked down a the ghoul. Blood drenched and pooled underneath the corpse. placing my gun on my side, I leaned down next to the him and frowned.
"I guess the past always crawls back for retribution, Ryuunosuke." I mumbled, placing my hand on his chest, then standing.
As I grabbed my other suitcase, my mic in my ear ringed out with the operators voice.
"Noel, sir! The Crow is close to wearing down Suzuya! Where are you?" The operator yelled in desperation. His loud voice was giving me a headache.
Scratching my head I took a deep breath and talked into the mic. "This is Noel. I took care of a kakuja inside the ships innards. What are my orders?" I said.
The other end of the mic someone else answered.
"This is Furuta. Noel, go back up Suzuya. I bet your itching to hunt more?" Said the bureau chief. on the other end. Just listening to his voice irritated me. But this was good, it's what I was going to do anyway.
"Roger." I mumbled into the mic, then shut it off.
Glancing back at Ryuunosuke's body, I clenched the briefcase that had yet to be opened and began to walk away. "I'll fulfill the rest of my promise, Ryuunosuke."
Levin POV
Getting shoved into the wall of the greenhouse, I quickly ducked out of the way of another slice from Juuzou's scythe. Countering with my own attack, I let one of my talon swipe at his feet.
He jumped into the air, but I make my talon chase him upwards, and slice his right foot off. For a moment I feel like I'm getting somewhere, like I finally did some real damage other than scratches and bruises.
But Juuzou quickly lands on his now broken prosthetic leg and swings at my talon, cutting it into two.
I had forgotten that Juuzou had a fake leg, if I had aimed for the other leg instead then it would've been a sure hit. Gritting my teeth, I force another talon out of my back. Suddenly pain arched into me, and I reeled in pain.
I'm using too much of my H cells, I can't take much more without feeding on something. My eyes dart around, looking for something to bite into. Grazing past a unconscious dove, I smirked and sent a talon over to his leg, grabbing onto him and dragging him quickly over to me.
Juuzou, seeing what I was doing, grabbed at some knives in his jacket pockets and threw them at me. One got lucky enough to jab into my side, the rest were blocked by my other talons.
Swiftly I kneeled down and bit the doves arm, ripping some flesh off. He stirred while unconscious, and screamed in pain. I'm sorry, but I need this!
Then, before I could get another bite for more, Juuzou was in front of me, his eyes stared right into mine. The scythe swung upwards, knocking away some of my talons. Before he could slice downwards for an open attack, I grabbed his throat, and squeezed.
Juuzou didn't expect this, and still tried for the swing. But with my open other hand I grabbed his wrist, squeezing it so hard a loud crack could be heard. He grit his teeth as I lifted him into the air, and now that his quinque had fallen, he was at my mercy.
Both my hands squeezed, I could feel the air slowly being drained from him as he struggled and kicked at me. A sense of rage had filled me, I was acting on pure instinct. My strength, even stronger than a normal ghouls, was much too much for Juuzou to even move my hands a little.
Suddenly in my ear, the pilot screamed into the mic.
"Crow! I am leaving, grab onto the ladder!" He yelled.
My sight moved over to the chopper, which was now moving to leave; along with the ladder, moving to the edge of the ships railing. There was no time to think about killing, I threw Juuzou as hard as I could to the side, where he slammed into the wall of the green house.
Sprinting past the unconscious doves and everything else, I reached for the ladder, and grabbed hold of it.
But then I suddenly couldn't think.
My mind went off pace, I had no idea why either. I tried to think about why I fell on the ground, into the flowers, but I couldn't.
I reached up to my head, but then I barely was able to think of why I wasn't able to think. Part of my head was gone.
Third Person POV
A gun shot had rang out, echoing across the ship, even with the loud noise from the choppers blades cutting through the wind.
Noel stood at the other end of the greenhouse, his gun was smoking. The bullet he had fired had hit it's mark perfectly, and hit the Crow in the head.
Levin struggled on the ground, rolling over on his side and half screaming, half sobbing in pain. His nervous sensors went haywire, and his talons grew around him, swinging around and slamming into the flowers, making petals float into the air.
Red covered the flowers of all colors, all of them blew in the breeze.
In the chopper which was now flying off into the distance, whilst getting shot at, Ayato yelled at the pilot.
"Get the hell back there! We're not leaving him!" He yelled, grabbing the pilots collar.
The pilot grit his teeth. "If we go back it'll be a one way ticket. We barely had enough fuel to stay in the air this long, we never had a full tank to begin with because of the resources we had!" He yelled back.
"Go back or I'm throwing you out of the chopper myself!" Ayato yelled, then from behind him Kaneki grabbed his shoulder, whilst wielding a solid face of calmness.
"Ayato, calm down." Kaneki said.
"Calm down?! Levin is gonna die down there!" Ayato yelled.
Then, Kaneki's fist flew into Ayato's gut, making him cough up saliva, and his eyes rolled backwards until he was unconscious. The pilot looked nervous as Kaneki put Ayato into a fastened seat.
"Are you sure that was alright?" The pilot wondered aloud.
Kaneki frowned. "Yes. I will take full responsibility for this."
The pilot kept quiet the rest of the ride, feeling guilt well up in him. Kaneki looked back at the ship and frowned deeply. "Levin..."
. . .
(This is Noel, the new character.)
"This is Noel, I've arrived in area 20, the greenhouse. Will now exterminate the Crow." Noel said into his earpiece before turning it off for silence and concentration.
Levin slowly got to his feet with the help of his talons, his head slowly regenerating. He mumbled random things, his mind still not being able to comprehend what was happening.
With another bullet escaping from Noel's gun, Levin's arm was now only hanging from a thread of flesh. He screamed in pain from the attack and his talons whipped around at the man he'd never seen before.
Noel jumped between the talons and shot another bullet into Levin's back, some of his talons turning to nothing and withering.
Levin let out a wailing scream, and sent even more Talons that replaced the ones he had just lost. They all aimed for Noel, who in return kept shooting at them as they got close while backing away.
Then, one misstep, and Noel nearly tripped, making him stumble. One talon broke his defense, and nearly took his head off. Luckily he ducked to the side, the talon only skimming the side of his head, taking off his glasses with it.
Noel got his footing again and looked down at his broken glasses. He pursed his lips and squinted over at Levin, but his vision couldn't see that far.
"Damn cursed eyes." Noel mumbled as he pondered that he couldn't change the fact that he was a bad aim without his glasses; being near sighted was bad when you had a long range weapon.
Now he'd have to get close.
He clicked his other briefcase, which had been in his left hand. This case produced a long sword with a double sided blade. The blade, with a simple flick of the handle, started to glow red hot. Noel took a deep breath, and stood still, waiting for the Crow to attack.
The quinque, which was burning bright, had been found by doves, a body collected by Tokyo beaches, near a bridge. The ghoul it came from was a former executive of Aogiri, and after many thought, the sword was given to Noel because of his prowess as a dove.
The Quinque's name was: Tatara
Levin's mind was slowly being repaired, slower than usual with the lack of meals he had. Finally he was able to see who he was attacking. A man, young, maybe around the same age as Kaneki. His hair was messy, frizzy is a fitting word. He no longer had his glasses, which were smashed onto the ground.
Moving his sight away from the man he saw the chopper in the distance, leaving. His mind raced, would it be wise to just jump overboard and swim? No he couldn't make that swim, he'd drown.
Why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why?
Levin's mind began to go in circles, his entire being started o think of only escape, to kill the man in front of him and escape. He felt the urge to let his kakuja devour his body, and to fight like he used to, but he held back.
But as he's thinking about this, Noel charged at him, slicing away the talons that were in his way. Levin panicked, taking a few steps back and swiping another talon at him. But Noel dodged it, and got a slice off on the Crow.
Levin screamed more in surprise than the pain of how easily the quinque went through him. Like butter and a hot knife. The blade burned and charred his skin where it had hit him.
Without much warning, Noel quickly slashed again and again and again, he didn't let up, slicing down Levin's talons when they regrew, and making openings fro attacks. the last strike before Noel backed off sliced Levin's throat open, making the air he was trying to breath escape him.
Falling to the ground he coughed blood and grabbed at his throat. In his head he screamed out for it to heal, but it was going more slowly than usual. Noel aimed his gun while up close, and shot a bullet into Levin's kagune again, as soon as it impacted they withered and died.
Levin tried to make more talons appear, but they wouldn't do his bidding, no more grew.
Noel shot again, this time into Levin's chest, blood fell out of the wound, and he gagged; falling to the ground on his knees. He was about to get up again, but Noel then sliced his legs, cutting them off, charring the flesh, making it even harder to heal.
Levin made a small gasping sound, spitting out blood, then looked up at Noel. Even though he was looking at this man, his mind was somewhere else.
Kurona? I can't leave her. I said I'd be back. He thought.
Noel noticed the tears falling from Levin's eyes and froze up. There then was silence.
Slowly Noel got his guard off and looked down at the Crow. "I'm sorry, but this was the only option open." He said.
"Why?" Levin managed to mutter out a simple word.
Noel put the point of his blade on Levin's chest, readying to push it through him. They made eye contact.
"You are not dead, but only sleeping. We should smile, and stop our weeping." Noel said, in a hushed tone of voice.
Levin's eyes shone brighter for just a moment, then he slowly understood.
The blade then was pushed through his chest, and his heart had trouble beating normally. Noel pulled the blade out and stood in front of Levin.
Levin fell back, into the flowers. As he landed the petals that had been shaken free flew into the air, some were covered in his blood. All different types of colors, he could see. He cupped a handful of the petals, and kept them in his palm.
In the distance, the sun could be seen rising.
Noel looked at the sun, then down at Levin, who had his eyes closed, his body covered in flower petals and blood.
Noel turned on his mic again, and spoke into it.
"Crow extermination complete. All hands disengage." He said.
Over the radio he could hear cheering, and he could even hear it without the mic in from the surrounding boats.
Beside me Suzuya walked up and gave me a glance over, then down at the Crow. In the distance, the sun was rising, the gleam off the water got into Noel's eyes, and he pulled his sight back to Suzuya.
"Sorry to steal your kill, Suzuya. I'd call for the medic team for your buddy over there." Noel said, beginning to put away his weapons.
Suzuya looked at Noel and squinted at him, trying to read him. "You're the new investigator that is under the chiefs watch."
"Not anymore after this fight. I'm being assigned to a squad after this, from what I hear." Noel mumbled, pulling out a cigarette and lighting it with a match from his pocket. Slowly letting out some smoke from his mouth; he looked over to Suzuya and held out another cigarette. "Want one?" he asked.
Suzuya didn't say anything, before turning around and walking towards his squad. Noel put away his smokes and looked at the sun, under its warm embrace was the Crow, laying silently. Slowly a smile grew on Noel's face.
"Just sleeping, huh?" He wondered, before feeling a gust of wind hit his back.
. . .
. . .
. . .
(Stay tuned for the epilogue, and the authors notes afterword. Nonetheless, I hope you enjoyed and have a wonderful day!) - MnMs171