[color=#E34234][b]Takumi Minamoto - Break[/b][/color]
[i]Third Ward, Sakura Clinic, Fourth Floor[/i]
[hr]
The beast had finally been defeated. He’d felt its arm and armor shatter with a sickening crunch under the weight of his attack. He’d felt the defiant weakness in its last attack, the rounds of which tore into his abdomen like stinging bees, but were otherwise unable to fell him. Now, the finishing blow was his.

But he couldn’t take it.

Takumi had the hammer raised over his head, ready to put the ghoul out of its misery. If his instructors from the Garden were here, they’d call this a textbook example of why the CCG told their investigators not to speak with ghouls. Sympathy was a powerful weapon against the uninitiated. They were the ones who’d forced the girl ([color=#E34234][i]’Ghoul,’[/i][/color] he reminded himself) into a more confrontational stance, right? It was their fault, wasn’t it? 

Takumi’s hammer fell, but slowly and to the ground.

Unbeatable, unbreakable, and unstoppable - that was how Takumi was should have been feeling in the aftermath, right? It was a fight. Not only that, it was a fight that he’d emerged [i]victorious[/i] (from a certain perspective, at least). He should’ve been feeling good, great even. The boiling of blood and the clash of arms was supposed to be the one constant that he could take solace in, no matter how bad or how confusing the rest of his life became. 

That was the ideal. Unfortunately the reality was far more unfulfilling than that. After all, the aftermath of battle is when you begin to count up your losses, when you lick your wounds, and when you take your good look of the consequences and wonder. If he were in a better state of mind, maybe he would’ve thought it was funny - or disgusting - that he only knew the situation was off because there was no catharsis nor thrill of encountering such a wonderful opponent to be found there. Not the eviscerated face of his sibling, not the girl with the hanging arm and the pleading eyes, but the fact it hadn’t left him satisfied with the result. 

The only thing it had left was the storm. 

Takumi blinked, gaze blankly locked on the crying kakuja girl and the sister with the shredded face. [color=#E34234]“...Ah...”[/color] he uttered softly. He was completely at a loss of what to do, even with the thin, ever-cracking veneer of serenity. For all that poetic waxing about justice and sacrifice, he’d never actually saved a life, at least not in this way. Slowly, his breathing began to intensify. [color=#E34234][i]’Calm down, calm down…’[/i][/color] he thought, snapping himself out of his stupor, [color=#E34234][i]’I'm better than this. I need to thinkthinkthink!’[/i][/color]

Time was of the essence. Takumi was no medic, but even he knew that much. But Takumi was no medic, so he didn’t know enough to do anything good about it. But he did know one important thing. He stared down at his left arm. A half-ghoul was effectively a human in composition, or so he’d been told. If that was true... Could he do something about this? Almost unconsciously, his kagune slithered from his shoulder blade and connects with his hammer, warping the shape into a short, wicked edge.

Justice and sacrifice, right?

[color=#E34234][i]’If Aso-’[/i][/color] Then it hit him. Asoka. Kitchen. Dick-eating Itsuki. Human remains. Leftovers. Regeneration. The gears of his masterstroke were turning. [color=#E34234][i]’...Nee-san is going to disapprove of this,’[/i][/color] Takumi quickly turned to the kitchen, his final source of hope in this worrying time, [color=#E34234][i]’But this is much less needlessly masochistic on my part.’[/i][/color] By the looks of it, things were finally starting to go his way! (...Sort of.) But the question was: could the ukaku girl wait? He looked to her distraught visage, and back to his arm. [color=#E34234][i]'...It's insurance.'[/i][/color] He sighed, made a face, and cut a chunk of flesh from his left hand. [color=#E34234]“I’ve got. Got some stuff to do,”[/color] he explained, his wavering voice and nervous smile doing their best to bring levity to this grim situation, [color=#E34234]“Just. Just try to stop thinking about dying. Or just. Try not to die in general, please?”[/color] He dropped the small morsel into her mouth. [color=#E34234]“I’ll be right back!”[/color] he called out, rushing over to the kitchen as fast as his wounded body could carry him.
[hr]
[color=#E34234]“Nothing is going wrong,”[/color] Takumi explained calmly to Asoka as he bled a trail over to the freezer, [color=#E34234]“Your elder siblings have everything under control.”[/color] He popped open the freezer and withdrew the container with the preserved part from last night. [color=#E34234]“...Still here.”[/color] He closed the container and tucked it under his arm - the one with the mangled hand - before turning to face Asoka, [color=#E34234]“No need to worry about us.”[/color] He gave a particularly pathetic thumbs up, then he walked right back out to the fray, leaving bloody footsteps in his wake.
[hr]
Slipping on a pool of blood, Takumi skidded to his knees in front of Hana’s mangled body. His body was shaking, but his right hand was firm and purposeful as it gently opened the container and lifted the appendage. Then, rather inelegantly, he forced it in Hana’s mouth and down her throat to kickstart her regeneration. Now he had to wake her up.  First came one slap with all his strength - probably not a good call given her condition, but he was desperate - then the shouting: [color=#E34234]“WAKE UP!”[/color] He was almost so absorbed that his keen ears didn’t catch the elevator opening. 

Takumi’s head whirled to the door, where there stood none other than Itsuki himself. Even with his self-perceived inability to really understand these people, he knew what those eyes meant. He’d seen them before, in the eyes of investigator and ghoul alike. Unbridled rage, fueled by a desire for vengeance against the girl. He was helpless and left only to watch the events unfold. Then another presence. He looked to Rin, eyes containing some combination of desperation, hope, and confusion. 

[color=#E34234]“I CAN EXPLAIN!”[/color] Takumi screamed - he didn’t mean to, but there wasn’t much room for control right now - at Itsuki, trying to get through to the mind-addled young man. Except he couldn’t explain, not really. But he’d do his best, because the girl definitely. [color=#E34234]“She came here for help!”[/color] he said, voice hoarse and raw, [color=#E34234]“We provoked her. This our fault! AAAAAAAH!!!! [b]AAAAAAAAAH!!!!![/b]”[/color] This wasn’t going to work, even he could see that. He wasn’t smart enough or charismatic enough for this. [color=#E34234][i]’Dammitdammitdammitdammit!’[/i][/color] He scanned the room for someone or something, anyone or anything, to get Itsuki to [i]let go[/i]. Itsuki. He could use Itsuki. Appeal to his interest. What did he know about his bro- [color=#E34234]"I brought her here!"[/color] Takumi crawled forward, pathetically reaching out for the two, [color=#E34234]"She's... I... She's like what that girl of yours is, but for me. Just let go. Please."[/color]