❧ Edited: 05/10/19
⦅Miho's POV⦆
I strolled down the biography section whilst delicately trailing my index finger across the spines of countless of books in a search for something interesting to read. It wasn't long until one finally caught my attention. I carefully pulled it from the shelf and scanned the book cover: Totto-chan: The Little Girl at the Window by Tetsuko Kuroyanagi.
This should be interesting.
I then walked over to a table nearby and sat down. The corners of my lips twisted into a small smile as I ever so gently flipped the book open and ran my fingers down the glossy page. It seems fairly new. I lifted it to my nose, taking a whiff of its earthly scent-it smells new too.
Hours briefly went by like a breeze, in which I was oblivious to. I was far too engulfed in reading to take any notice of what was happening around me by this very moment-but it was none of my concern. There wasn't a thing in this world that could bring me into such a state of comfort and ecstasy other than this very library I was currently in.
The adequate silence helped set the perfect ambience for reading, and not to mention the strong and earthly aroma that lingered in this library.
But as much as I had the strong urge to stay here for the entire day, I still had other things to do such as stop by the convenience store to buy more coffee and then pay Anteiku a visit to see how everyone has been doing. It's been a while since the last time I went to Anteiku, and I was starting to miss them-and of course, their coffee.
With that said, I then stood up and headed to the counter to pay for my book so that I could continue reading it back at my apartment.
-
I had just left the convenience store after buying two bags of coffee beans. I silently strolled down the sidewalk, paying little attention to my surroundings as I made my way to Anteiku. The streets were surprisingly empty today, which confused me. Is there something going on that I don't know of? Most likely.
My eyes widened when I saw a small group of doves just by the corner. Muttering a profanity under my breath, I took a detour in order to avoid them. What the hell are doves doing in this area? Something must've happened.
"There you are." Upon hearing the all too familiar voice, I came to an abrupt halt in my tracks and turned to face none other than the infamous arrogant bastard we all know, Ayato.
I gave him a cold glare. "What do you want?"
He sneered. "How awful. I expected a warm greeting but instead received a cold look."
"I don't have time for your nonsense, Ayato." I uttered before turning around to take my leave.
"That's rather unfortunate, I thought you'd spare the time to listen to what I have to say." I simply ignored him.
"Especially since it regards Anteiku." Once again, I halted my tracks. I felt my heart stop for a brief moment, more than anxious to hear what he wanted to tell me.
I peered over my shoulder. "What?" I asked.
"They had a few interesting customers earlier, and I must say they put on quite the show."
My heart began thumping rapidly against my chest. "The hell do you mean by that?"
A mischievous grin appeared on his lips. "You know perfectly well what I mean."
I lunged towards him, dropping everything I was holding while doing so and held him by the collar of his shirt. "What the fuck did you do to them?" I seethed through my gritted teeth as I gave him a deadly glare.
"Why don't you have a look for yourself?"
With a scowl, I removed my grip on his shirt. I turned on my heel and ran to Anteiku like as if my life depended on it. With every step I took, the anxiety of what awaited me kept on growing-I could even distinctly feel my insides churn in utter fear.
They better not have harmed them.
Once I was a few feet away, the prominent smell of blood struck my nostrils which made my heart drop. A bead of cold sweat trickled down my forehead.
No, no, no, please don't tell me...
Not wasting another second, I hurried up the short flock of stairs and barged inside. My entire body stiffened, eyes dilating as I stood frozen to the ground upon seeing the horrifying scene that laid before me. Blood was splattered everywhere, the tables and chairs were broken. It was an unsettling scene to witness-but that wasn't what concerned me most.
"T-Touka-san..." I whispered, my voice trembling as my gaze fell upon her unconscious and heavily wounded body.
It felt like as if an anvil was weighing down my chest as I approached her with tears welling up in my eyes, threatening to fall. I kneeled down beside her, delicately placing a hand on her blood stained cheek like she was as if a fragile porcelain doll.
I'll murder whoever did this to you.
Just then, I heard footsteps from behind me. I didn't bother turning around, knowing perfectly well who it was by their scent. I gritted my teeth, curling my palms into tight fists that my knuckles turned into a ghostly shade of white.
"Do you like it?" I could prominently hear the smirk in his voice, in which I found nothing infuriating.
I stood up and turned around, facing him. I held a look, a look that was full of utter malice and dismay. And in a way, I also felt betrayed-betrayed that he caused such tremendous damage to his own sister.
"How could you." My voice trembled, and I hated the fact that it did.
The corners of his lips twisted into a small frown upon seeing my expression. "What? Don't you like it? I put quite a lot of effort into it."
I scoffed, looking at him incredulously as I shook my head in utter disbelief. I hastily ran my hands through my hair, breathing in heavily. As I let them drop to my sides, I then heaved out a loud sigh.
"Why? Why in the fuck would you do this to her!?" I vented out as I took a sudden stride forward and grabbed him by the collar of his shirt, lowering him to my level.
I harshly bit down my bottom lip, stifling a sob that threatened to escape my throat. I felt the familiar burning sensation linger in my eyes as my kakugan activated. I pushed him away from me, covering my face with the palm of my hands as I took a step back.
My head started throbbing like as if someone was pounding a hammer against it, and I could feel a numbing ache in my lower back. "Why do you always make everything so fucking hard for me?!"
Ayato groaned, rolling his eyes. "God, stop whining would you?"
I dropped my hands. "Whining? Are you actually fucking kidding me right now?" I humourlessly laughed. "I seriously don't believe you right now."
"What more do you want from me, Ayato?" I muttered, although loud enough for him to hear as I looked at him solemnly.
Despite having the strong urge to rip out his limbs and repetitively plunge my kagune into his body as I ever so mercilessly watch him suffer and bleed to death, I couldn't bring myself to do it at all. I didn't have a clue why, but something was refraining me from doing so-and it was infuriating.
I could just kill him. Right here, right now.
But I couldn't.
Why?
I don't know.
He held a stern look. "I'm only doing what I'm supposed to do." he stated. "I figured this was the only way to get you to join us-Aogiri Tree."
I squinted my eyes shut upon hearing his words. Aogiri-words couldn't describe just how much I absolutely fucking loathed the organisation. Even just hearing nor saying it was utterly repulsive.
"Seriously?" I scoffed. "There are other ghouls whom are much more stronger than I am, so why don't your stupid excuse of a group recruit them instead and leave me and Anteiku out of this bullshit?"
"I couldn't care less about the other ghouls. It's you that we want, not them."
I furiously sighed through my nose. "Why me? I'm nobody special."
He sneered at me as he took a step forward. "Do you even hear yourself right now? You're different from the rest of us. You have a blue kaku-"
I cut him off with a laugh. "Right. A blue kakugan. There's nothing more to it, it's just blue, that's all."
"Besides that, I'm just an ordinary ghoul."
"Oh, believe me. There's much more with your blue kakugan, and no ordinary ghoul is SS rated like you." I averted my gaze from him and clenched my jaw, folding my arms across my chest. "So? It doesn't matter." I muttered.
He groaned and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Look, I'm sick of this."
I snickered. "Like as if I'm not."
"If you don't want us to cause any more harm to Anteiku, then I suggest you join Aogiri. It's as simple as that." I took a glance at Touka's unconscious state and gnawed on the inside of my right cheek, knitting my eyebrows together in concern.
But she wouldn't like it.
Then again, protecting them is what I do-or at least, try to...
"Have you made up your mind yet?" I briefly closed my eyes and breathed in before I opened them again. We are all bound to make a sacrifice some point in our life in order to protect the person - or in my case, people - you care for the most. And I was more than willing to do absolutely anything and everything just to protect them.
I looked at him dead in the eye. "If it means keeping Anteiku safe, then..."
"I'm joining Aogiri."
❧ End of ⦅13⦆ Revise
Authors Note: Before you say anything, I know-I know I said that I'll be discontinuing this book and start a new one, but since my friends and a lot of you guys kept on messaging me to continue it, well...here I am, back at it again.
It's currently four in the morning right now so I'm absolutely exhausted and in desperate need of sleep, so I guess I'm gonna go ahead and do that after I publish this chapter. So yeah, that's pretty much all I have to say since I'm tired and all.
Hope you enjoyed this chapter and I most certainly hope you have a spectacular day!
P.S: This chapter was rushed so there's bound to be a lot of grammatical and spelling errors, and I apologize for that.
- saorichi