@LemonZest1337@Old Amsterdam@knifeman@Alias

She felt the heat of her cheeks when Katashi corrected her on her mistake. He was honestly like a little angel, a snow white prince, with pale skin. His eyes were so blue they were almost like a frozen over lake. It inspired a creative side of her that hadn’t been sparked in a while. He was like a little doll or angel. Then she heard Alice talking and the boy asking where to change.

She frantically flailed her arms around. Her heart racing out of sheer nervous embarrassment.

“You don’t have to put on the dress,” she said, “I’ll find...find..find you something more normal. Wait do we have any boy clothes around….aaaa…”

She began to frantically look around the room. Staring at each of the individuals in the room she had made a terrible mistake in error right now. She was trying to correct it.

Kristian watched her reaction. Why did she smell so sweet? Humans don’t normally smell like that. And why was she panicking? He was in no mood really to be playing these games.

“It’s….what you have on hand,” he mumbled just as embarrassed.

Mika turned to him.

“Only if you want to,” Mika said grabbing his two hands and staring at him with intent, her eyes were twinkling with the look of a sad puppy dog.

He didn’t want to. But he looked at the floor. This was some test from the other Ghouls, wasn’t it? Why was the leader so nonchalant about this? It was his body. His choice to do what he wanted with it. Not anyone else’s. It was. He took it back.

“Just….show me where to go,” he said.

“I’ll take you to the bathroom,” Mika told him. She guided him gently towards the hallway and behind the stairs. While he followed dragging his feet doing so. Pointing to a door, “There you go if you need help, I’ll zip you up in the back. Okay.” She smiled.

Kristian just nodded his head and walked into the bathroom. There he was left with a choice. To lose even more dignity, after already losing the dignity he had already lost this morning or to escape. Live on his own like he had been doing.

But what if he was found? What if they tried to take him? Did he stay here? Could these ghouls protect him? They didn’t seem like they could. He didn’t know if he should trust them or not. Staring in the mirror as he began to derobe.

Was he really going to go through with this? Slipping into the dress, it seemed he was. Placing it on, the individual in the mirror staring at him didn’t resemble anything he really recognized. The dress made him feel like a doll or a toy. Not a person.

He was a person. Wasn’t he?

Walking out of the bathroom he looked at the girl. Who was humming a song in the hallway. She looked at him and her eyes lit up in a way he couldn’t even express.

She looked at Kristian, he was dazzling. More beautiful in the dress she could ever imagine. She squealed and had him turn around. She zipped up the dress and had him turn forward again.

“You’re like a little prince princess,” Mika called out, “I am Sasaki Mika. It’s nice to meet you Kristian.”

“I feel awkward,” Kristian told her, trying to hold down the skirt of the dress. He didn’t really like this one bit. But she seemed to be enjoying it. Her embarrassment from before all, but seemed to have faded away.

It didn’t matter to her as she dragged him along the hallway to present him to the group, untying his hair tie and letting his white hair fall to his shoulder. Kristian felt even more embarrassed now. This was not something he expected he would have had done today.

Mika just wanted him to have fun with it. He seemed sad or like there was a lot of trauma he was dealing with. If everyone else was having fun with it, maybe he too would have fun with it.

Natsuya

He had been watching from the shadows and only decided to make his presence known now. He unfolded his fan and fanned himself for a second. While the charge he was asked to take care of stared at him as he appeared before her very eyes, their very eyes in the Birdcage.

“Natsu-san,” Sasaki-san said, “How did you get in here everything was locked up?”

He stared off a little and covered part of his face with his fan, “Ancient secrets I could not tell you about Sasaki-san. Or else a great curse will be placed upon you.”

“EEEHHHH!”

Natsuya glanced at the rest in the Birdcage. Just the usual suspect. There was Katashi the man had an abhorrent amount of red suits that made him look like a gangster. There was a new girl, her name also started with a K funny enough, Travis looking like a wounded animal, and a new fellow girl in a sailor’s dress. She looked mighty uncomfortable in her outfit though.

Then there was Alice. She was like a key that unlocked the secrets of this modern world. Things he may have never known or understood without her. She made him like this modern world, without her he probably would see everyone in this city as a blight.

---

Agh. Damn it, but he was a tricky bastard. Ketsu's initial slam maneuver had succeeded, but he'd been lucky to barely avoid losing his grip on the beast's tail, and hadn't managed to keep himself grounded very well when it leapt backwards. How was this guy so strong? Was that a trait of all Chimera ghouls? Research to be done, he supposed.

For now, he had to plan: he'd been yanked in close, and the ghoul was about to take a swing with one of those razor-sharp blades. Whilst the blade itself likely wouldn't injure him, the force behind it might cause some serious injuries...

But then, maybe he could use that to his advantage? As the blade swung at him, Ketsu let go of the tail with one claw, trying to grab the ghoul's arm to use its own momentum against it and throw it to the ground. If that succeeded, his next plan would be to keep a grip on its arm with that claw, pinning it whilst his other claw moved to grab the ghoul's head. It'd most likely need to be done without the tail in hand, risking it smacking him away even if he retained a firm grip on the blade arm (though he'd certainly try to keep hold of that too if he thought he could), but if he could just get its head between a claw, the fight was as good as over: any effort to knock him away would mean the ghoul risked breaking its neck or getting its head torn off, and whilst he'd heard tales of ghouls reattaching their own severed heads, he doubted this one could regenerate from its skull being crushed and its brain pulped.

And after that, it'd be a matter of getting Seto to check on Graye with no other people to observe, distracting the investigator long enough for Ketsu to feed off of the dead ghoul. Perhaps not for too long, just in case... just enough to sate himself for a while. The pulsating neck arteries would be convenient places to stab into, perhaps, to avoid leaving evidence. But not just yet.

---

Seto watched on in surprise as Ketsu single handedly repurposed the Chimera's attack against it, successfully grabbing the arm and pinning the beast with a slight thud as the body hit the ground.

The tails whipped up, and Seto reacted instantly, sending his Quinque out to trap them before they could impact Ketsu.

It was then that Ketsu got his second Claw on the Chimera's head, with some difficulty. The result was messy, sounded like a gun going off when the skull cracked, and would drive a lesser man to insanity by the sight alone.

Seto released his Quinque cautiously. He'd heard of Ghouls reattaching their heads before, and had personally seen one regrow limbs at an alarming rate.

Moving forward, he inspected the body. No pulse. No movement. No light behind the eyes.
"Dead," he announced quietly. "I'm impressed Ketsu. Not many fresh out of the Academy could deal with a Chimera so easily."

He shook his head before moving quickly to Graye, who was still unconscious nearly three minutes after her impact. He began checking her over, pulling out his phone. "This is Lead Senior Investigator Seto. Get me an ambulance to my GPS location, and a squad to take care of a Ghoul corpse. We'll want to make a Quinque from this one... Yes... Very poor condition, consider it an emergency.... 200 meters, at least, into a tree.... Yeah, weakly. Definitely a broken arm, maybe ribs... Good, we'll stick around until then."

---

---

Alice shook her head at the whole ordeal going on, perking up when she heard Nat enter and speak. "Don't let him fool you, Mika, he's got a key. You did lock behind you, Nat, right? Dealing with enough without open doors at the moment," she called into the back before turning back to the others.

She slid a cup of coffee to Travis. "It's special. Help ya heal faster with fresh coffee infusion, yeah?"

She glanced at the young girl, who seemed perfectly content sticking around, before Kristian exited in a dress.

She blinked a few times in surprise. "I'll give you some money to replace the clothes. Let's just settle this so you can get dressed properly. Even if you really pull off that dress," Alice said quickly, motioning for everyone to sit again and running a hand briefly across Natsuya's cheek. "Alright, I was going to wait for this but here's the deal. I'm pulling together Ghouls into a group. For those unfamiliar with me, you should easily recognize my Alias... The Wolf. Nat and I make up the Wolves that so many fear, and for good reason. But we want to create peace, even if we have to start violently. This won't be flowers and rainbows," she glanced at Mika briefly, "But I'm offering you all a spot alongside me. Together we can achieve what we couldn't alone, and maybe stop all this madness. If you choose to decline, that's fine, but you're still under an oath of secrecy. Break it, and I'll kill you." With a sigh, Alice leaned on the counter, looking at everyone briefly.

"So, who's in?"

---

---

The Chimera quietly followed Mei's instructions, showing no immediate signs of permanent damage, besides not talking. He followed her like a lost puppy towards shelter and away from the scene of the fight, keeping a light touch on her the entire time.

After they traveled a few minutes his grip tightened slightly.
"Why?" He asked, barely making noise as if he had never used his voice before. His face was full of confusion and hints of fear as if he expected retaliation for the question.

Travis took the offered coffee and nodded a thanks "Thanks, I can't help but feel I'm going to need a lot of these in the future." Travis chuckled slightly then sighed because deep down he knew it was true. Then as he went to take a sip he saw Kristian and was lucky he didn't spill his coffee again, he covered his mouth to contain his laughter "Looking good. You actually look adorable in that dress." Travis then took a sip and mad his way over to a seat. Travis sipped his coffee as he listened to Alice explain her idea, he was still for it but wasn't sure how useful he would be. He did tense up upon hearing that this new guy "Nat" was part of the wolves. And the fact that there was only two of them might have been even more frightening, two ghouls making such a name for themselves.

Travis leaned back as Alice finished speaking. "I've said yes once and I'll say it again. I am with you, even if fighting isn't my strongest suit." he smiled weakly at Alice, he partly hoped someone got his little pun but he would be fine if nobody got it as well. He then went back to sipping his coffee, at least this doesn't suck... Truthfully a part of Travis wanted to say no but he knew that he'd feel like shit if he had to sit around knowing about the group of people going around making peace. He'd hate himself for not joining and he'd also have to keep it a secret, and that would gnaw away at him constantly.

---

The Red Tiger felt kind of bad for bursting Mika's bubble like that, but on the other hand it was a little entertaining to see her get flustered about it. He decided to leave the two alone until they were ready to join the others. He could question Kristian at a later time, when matters weren't so pressing. It was a surprise to see Natsuya and joined the others. That man always had his ways and almost an air of extravaganza with his fan. Mind you, Katashi wasn't one to judge. He does go about as a masked crusader at night, so was he really one to talk?

Still, if had earned the title of the second Wolf of Ward 8 alongside Alice, then Natsuya had earned the respect of Katashi too. It was then that Alice revealed her plans to an entire group, somewhat at least. Travis was the first to volunteer. He managed to show off his resilience a little. Many people would be put off doing anything after taking a blow like he did. It was motivating. It was just then that Katashi had noticed Kristian's... wardrobe change. You know what, if Katashi didn't know any better, he could see the gender confusion that Mika had. Knowing her she probably imagined the young boy in a multitude of outfits just after laying eyes on him. He shook his head at the thought then turned back to Alice and Natsuya.

"Ward 8 needs people to represent peace, not the oppression of ghouls AND humans alike. Just looking around me, I reckon we have a pretty good shot at achieving your vision, Alice. I'm in!"

Kristian eyed the other girl for a second, she was in a dress. He didn’t see how she was so comfortable in it. Hearing the compliments just made him sink in further into embarrassment, he wanted to hide. Here he had been reduced to a toy. He was staring at the man who had appeared out of nowhere, he was wearing an odd sort of garb that he had never seen before. The Wolves. Which meant, the woman and him were quite powerful.

She was talking about Ward 8. About them joining and making peace with the humans. He didn’t know about that. It wasn’t that he didn’t know about making peace with humans, but he had only feasibly got here recently. He didn’t know any of the politics and couldn’t agree to their ideals because he didn’t really know what was going on.

Feasibly he could argue though that if he joined them that he would know what was going on. But it was not the main directive that ran in his blood. Kristian looked at Travis’ cup of coffee while everybody else already was joining up no questions asked. He needed security. He knew that.

But he was worried that he might not be able to give them what they wanted. He didn’t know what his ideals were. He just knew, he was suppose to kill. He could also argue that’s why he was here.

“I’d like to join,” he mumbled in the smallest voice he could possibly muster. Honestly getting on the good side of this group would mean he have protectors in the long run. Just in case that ever happened, but he made sure it wouldn’t.

Mei's steady gait stopped, after the subtle, but fairly noticeable prompt of her companion. She breathed deep, in the alleway, as she allowed herself to catch her breath. "Why, you say." She paused as she eyed the droplets down her legs. She had to do something about the blood samples she was scattering through half of the city aswell. She inhaled, thinking carefully. He seemed keener than she initially thought, maybe she could reason with her charge as if he were an infant rather than a severely mentally-impaired patient. "Flowers. It's because of that." . She pondered. "A flower is a fragile thing, that one might crush at our mercy in our palms, should we wish to. However... it is also a wondrous thing. Something that has been growing on water, soil and light, and yet exquisitely complicated." Mei added as she spotted a manhole cover. "Should we not, then, grow flowers instead of crushing them?" She paused as she strained herself dragging the cover out, the raw smell making her nostrils curl. "Saving ghoul lives is even more complicated, while extinguishing them is still fairly easy. I want to see a world full of life, not full of death as it is now.". She indicated to Draco. "Now we go down, Hopefully whatever kind of stuff grows in the sewers will ruin any kind of trace we are leaving. It is going to stink, but then we will go to have a shower at some haven I possess."

I'll have to scrub down hard the grime leading to the haven too, but I can do that with a bit of more time. Mei bitterly thought as she splashed inside the sewer.

---

He had to admit, the ease with which he handled that event was enough to bring him to laughter. Just a little bit, at least. Once Seto had confirmed the kill and sounded off how impressed he was with Ketsu's effectiveness, he replied simply: 'I didn't work my butt off for fourth in my year just to get slain by a Chimera, sir.'

And after that, he sort of just... allowed Seto to run off toward Graye, a couple of hundred meters away, as he positioned himself between the ghoul's corpse and Seto himself. It didn't take the Special Class Investigator too long to move toward Graye, but Ketsu still waited until the guy had travelled at least half the distance toward the fallen Dove before checking around himself to see if anybody was nearby, any people, and just as importantly any cameras.

Once visual and nasal evidence suggested otherwise, Kyūketsuki finally allowed himself to release his kagune - the three bikaku tails manifested from the base of his spine, pushing out from between his clothes and passing seamlessly through the cells making up his ex-father's kagune to achieve their full length. Aligning themselves with three of the biggest arteries in the stump of the dead ghoul's neck, the points pushed into the open holes as cleanly as possible, with minimal extra-

Sweet lord. He'd tasted nice ghouls before, but this was something else entirely. The flavour of... let's see, wild boar, and... was that fresh young lamb he detected? Both of those, with a hint of the usual coppery taste that came with consuming blood and flesh. Yes, this was what he lived for, this sensation of flavour, sating his hunger for... alright, that rather depended on how much of a meal he got, actually.

In the end, he decided to take a middling route between caution and satiety. Perhaps a two and a half pints of blood had already been wasted on the ground; it only took him fifteen seconds at most to drain the body of another two or three, each tail drinking up about a third of that content each before withdrawing back into his kakuhou, his quinque demanifesting as well once the tails had fully retracted and he was sure his kakugan wasn't showing. That, he felt, would do him for at least a couple of weeks on top of his remaining time before then, and it'd be a near-certainty that he'd get the chance to feed again before then.

That need handled, he took another look around just to be sure nobody had spotted him feeding, and then began sprinting at "full speed" (i.e. not even close to full speed, but as fast as he pretended he could go) toward Seto and Graye, ready to offer his help as necessary. It probably wouldn't be needed, but hey, what else could he do?

@Old Amsterdam@LemonZest1337@AngelofOctober

Mika frowned, they were going to get themselves hurt again and other people too. She wished that everybody could see what she saw. She wish the CCG could see the Ghouls as humans, maybe they could come to some compromise. Why did everybody have to fight each other to mean something to each other?

It broke her heart knowing Alice had saved her and she could see Alice’s humanity, but not other people. Mika frowned at the table now thinking to herself. Now she was dragging that cute, angelic boy into the problem as well. And he was willing to join.

“I wish, you didn’t have to fight to get peace,” Mika told Alice, “I wish we could find a better way for peace. Why does everyone have to hurt each other?”

Mika pouted in a sullen mood she didn’t want anyone to answer her question. But she also didn’t want them to hurt themselves. Natsuya, everyone had been so kind to her. So, why was it so important that they fight just to be recognized as something they were?



There was a fair bit of excitement that he felt when Alice brushed across his cheek. But it was only a brief touch, sometimes he wished she would touch him more in that affectionate matter. He was starting to see his feelings were becoming more developed over time. Watching her lead made him feel like he made the right choice. But knowing they were to die meant he tried to keep the relationship distant. He stared at Mika. Such a gentle soul.

Ultimately it would be fruitless for as long as the Investigators kept recruiting monsters to fight monsters. He smiled a little, he wondered what the Oda family was to the Investigators then. At least the Humans in his family had respect for their kind and worshipped them as a superior species.

Life back then was easy. He eyed the new stranger who said they wanted to join. He was just a kid. Very young, and like the others had said he pulled off the dress well. Natsuya wondered if he really had anything that marked him as a he, or he was living some kind of lie of what he was. Natsuya bit his lip. He didn’t like undermining Alice. She was a good leader. Strong leader. It was made him trust her and perhaps love her. Was that the word?

He fanned himself with the fan and eyed Travis for a second, then back to this so called Kristian.

“Alice, you know I will always have your back,” Natsuya told her, “Through it all I will wade through the reeds for you.” it sounded quite poetic, and he found it quite satisfactory something to put in his notebook later. He paused.

“Travis, do you trust the young man who is knew to our fold?” Natsuya ask and turns his eyes back to this “Kristian” boy, “I’d much prefer you earn your worth instead of just be given it. We don’t know where you came from. And I quite frankly don’t trust stranger who get the people I know, no matter how strongly or vaguely that bond is, to be targets of some kind of attack. How do we know that wasn’t part of your plan? Where do you come from? What clan?”

Natsuya was looking at the boy with sharpness. He would not be satisfied until he heard answers.

---

The Chimera followed down the hole dutifully, looking more confused than he had before getting an answer.

Upon hitting the bottom his nose wrinkled as the stench of the sewer system assaulting his nose, followed by a displeased look around before he relaxed slightly at the darker tunnels that were apparently empty.

"I... Not understand..." He said hesitantly. "This... Kindness? Failure brings pain, not.... This."

---

---

Several vehicles appeared along the path the trio had originally been on, their motors barely audible to human hearing. Five men approached the downed Chimera, securing the body and preparing to remove it from the scene. Four more approached the trio, medical equipment in hand, and began loading Graye onto a stretcher, who was finally coming around to consciousness.

"Fucking bullshit..." She muttered weakly, giving a glance towards Ketsu. At best one might notice a hint of hostility in her eyes.

Seto motioned for Ketsu to follow him, satisfied Graye was out of his control now. His face showed his concern, and a hint of anger permeated his movements.

"With all that settled, today is over. Not a failure, at any rate, but I've got a lot of paperwork to do now. File your report sometime tomorrow, won't you?" He mentioned as they passed the corpse being loaded up. Seto stopped to look at it with a curious expression on his face, shaking his head lightly, before moving on. "That'll make for an interesting Quinque, assuming all goes well. Take the rest of the day off, relax."

With another shake of his head, Seto began walking back towards the HQ. "And again, good work today Ketsu. I knew I was right to push you back at the Academy," he called back before he left earshot.

@Banana

CCG - In Front of Building



He went outside to smoke after sitting at the lobby for over ten minutes. He was making a list of things as a note to himself;

Jericho Yuno - Rank 2

-Runs Late, could prove to be a disadvantage

-The Iron Grip, amusing

He noticed a look from one of the desk jockeys, he always got looks when he smoked on his good side of his face. There really was no such reason to cover up his face. To cover it up, he would deem that shame or regret. Or that is how he would read it if he saw someone covering up a wound. He had no reason for egotism or gloating in this arena, but he also saw no logical reason for someone to feel shame about their job.

Yuno Jericho. She was said to be a bit unorthodox. He wondered how unorthodox that was and how advantageous that unorthodoxy would give them. How compromising would she be? Those would be the determining factors of a good team.

So he’d set up a little test when she got here. It help him determine a lot of unknowns. Not that he really experienced uncertainty, he was sure that would be how someone else would describe it. For him it had to do with all the dynamics of working together.

He put the cigarette out in the butt can. Someone out there was making an inappropriate joke about butt can. He did admit it could be seen as an amusing word or phrase or object.

Where was she?

He dusted some ash off his sleeve. There would have to be other factors he have to consider as well. Luckily he had most of it lined up in his head. Now to see how Miss. Jericho would react to all of it. He’d wait out front.

"Shit shit shit shit-" Yuno swore as she saw the time. She was late for her meeting! Did she have time to put on a better shirt? No, fuck an actual shirt, her tanktop would have to do. Thankfully, she had her leather jacket, so a problem presented itself with a solution yet again. Yuno grabbed her bag on her way out as she rushed to the rendezvous point, scared out of her mind what her partner would think of her.

On the way, Yuno sifted through her partner's information as she prepared herself for what she was about to get into.

Lietner, Grant. Alright, not the worst name in the world at least.

Antisocial and unemotional...? What did that mean specifically though?

Two quin- WAIT TWO? This guy was quite the achiever! Would she even be able to compare to hi- no. He was first class and he was only 32. Damn.

She stepped outside of the building and saw the smoking man, and it took a second for her to realize it was him. "You must be Grant! Sorry for being late, I-I got sidetracked in personal affairs." That was slightly a lie. She was playing Jenga by herself and just seeing how tall of a tower she could make using the blocks provided. Twenty-seven rows wasn't that bad, was it?

Fuck. There was always going to be the one, wasn’t there? The one who was too smart for their own good. It was a shame he needed them for his own protection or else he would have cut out his throat. For now though he guessed he had to play the innocent card. He gasped a little at what Natsuya had said as a response to his accusation. He looked at Travis, then Alice. His blue eyes twinkling a little.

Guess he had no choice. It wasn’t something he wanted to do, not in front of them. God how fucking low was he going to go just for some protection in this world and security. He couldn’t tell them. No not about that.

Kristian clasped onto the front of the dress with shaking hands. He stared at Natsuya, then away from him to stare at the floor.

“I….thought,” Kristian let his voice quiver a bit, “....you’d protect Ghouls. That you’d care about ghouls.” Kristian let his voice shake, staring at the table this always worked back then. He let tears fall out of his eyes.

“I…” Kristian told him, “Couldn’t…..possibly tell you…..” Kristian looked away from the group, letting tears fall down his face, “Momma was always so cruel….I managed with my own strength…..to leave…..”

He broke down on the table in fits, “I can’t….go back to those memories…….please…..don’t make me remember.”

----

Travis looked at Natsuya as he used his name but before he’d get the chance to talk Kristian had already started. From past experience Travis could tell the tone was a little forced, not completely genuine but if the kid was willing to try and lie to a room full of people he obviously did not want to talk about his past. Travis went to stand behind Kristian and put a hand on his shoulder. ”Alright Kristian it’s fine…”

Travis looked over at Natsuya ”Look he’s obviously not comfortable talking about his past, and to ask him to tell it to an entire room full of people he’s just met seems a little. Unfair don’t you think?” Travis let the question hang in the air for awhile hoping someone would agree with him, it was true that he’d only know Kristian for a very short time but he did say he’d be friends with him. And Travis wasn’t going to watch his friend get questioned and stand idly by as it happened. Kristian was a friend of Travis, something he’d been lacking for a while. And he’d hope to be able to call everyone else in the room friend in time as well, but currently Kristian was the only friend Travis had.

----
Score. At least the sissy was good for something. Other than getting sprayed in the face with pepper spray and getting his shoulder chewed up. It pissed him off they could have killed that chimera. Still this worked to his advantage if someone was on his side, he didn’t know how much this would work on the other guy, and he wasn’t sure Travis was convinced. These people really had trust issues. What did they know about trust? Their lives were so easy.

The CCG weren’t Ghouls pretending to be not Ghouls to kill them. They were people killing Ghouls. That should have been obvious. How weak were these people that they had that much infighting that he would have been asked the question he had? They still had a group. The Wolves, meant they fought together at some point.

They had no meaning of what it meant to be alone and having to learn it all. Kristian looked up teary eyed at Travis.

“Thank you…..” he said in a breathy way, “....you...don’t have to stick up for me…” he paused, “but you are…” he smiles at Travis as the last of his tears came rolling down his cheek.

----

Travis again looked back at Kristian returning the smile, this kid is fucking sneaky I’ll give him that. his thoughts didn’t show on his face. ”We’re friends, what kind of a friend would I be if I didn’t stick up for you?” Travis’ words were very genuine even through his scepticism. He then pat Kristian on the shoulder in an attempt to reassure him slightly. He may have to ask Kristian for the truth later, but before then he’d built up some major trust first.

He then looked between Alice and Natsuya, honestly hoping that Alice would be for dropping the questions until later. Travis still couldn’t help but feel uneasy, there was honestly nothing stopping Alice and Natsuya from forcing the information out, Travis would stand no chance against either of them let alone both. And Alice had made it clear she held no problems with killing them if they were to jeopardize her plans. Travis had gotten himself into some dangerous shit.

----

Kristian looked at Travis, he widened his blue eyes, that sparkled with the tears he had been producing. Light shined into them making them look like diamonds. Even if he didn’t believe Travis believed him, Kristian had a few things going for him. They, for whatever reason, thought he looked cute in this dress and two he was very good at keeping up an act for as long as he had too.

Suddenly standing up, and overjoyed he jumped up to hug Travis, allowing himself to wrap his arms around his neck and dangle a little. He realized his mistake when he forgot about Travis shoulder and immediately let go, but looked at Travis with a gentle, angelic, smile, as he let the light hit his eyes, “Thank you so much…..hearing that I have a friend now….makes me soooo happy,” Kristian said, “It…..makes going…..and doing scary things…..less scary knowing I have you.”

@TheRedWatcher

---

Phew. Looked like he was in the clear. Graye had looked a tad hostile, but that could be taken fairly simply as being annoyed about how she'd been taken out immediately, only for Ketsu to rapidly defeat the ghoul himself, with assistance from Seto. Nobody liked to be shown up, and she'd absolutely been unconscious whilst he was feeding, with no good way for her to show that he'd drained the ghoul's blood to his knowledge; suffice to say, Ketsu would be receiving good marks for this affair that Graye had been denied by the sudden assault.

As for Seto, he'd been a tad suspicious about the body, perhaps the inevitably lesser amount of blood it was spewing after Ketsu's ministrations, but seemingly shook it off at the end of the day. Ketsu had responded appropriately to each of his statements: 'Maybe I'll even get it in tonight, sir!'; 'Will do. I could use something to calm me down.'; and 'And I thank you for pushing me, Seto!', this last call to Seto half-yelled in his direction as he walked back towards the HQ. Afterwards, with all said and done... frankly speaking, Ketsu saw no special reason not to do the same, though he figured he'd go at his own pace. He had the time, after all.

A few short minutes later, and Ketsu had found himself just in front of Ward 8's CCG building, a little ways away from... Grant. One of the few people other than Seto he paid particular mind to remember, though it was hard not to remember a face like his. The half-ghoul half-admired the man's dedication to, amongst other things, his willingness to push the bounds of what was known of ghoul psychology to their limit. And yet, Grant really didn't seem human in mentality half the time, and half of that was apparently due to not caring for the pretense. His physical deformities hardly fased Ketsu, to wit- he'd already seen far worse sights by the tender age of four- but his attitude was... something of a threat. At the end of the day, he had little doubt that the man would try to dissect his brain, both metaphorically and most likely very literally, if he ever found out about Ketsu's heritage. Plus, he was just plain nuts.

And then there was the poor girl who had begun chatting to him after stepping out of the building. He recognised her as... his best guess was "Miss Scatterbrain", who if he recalled correctly had only "graduated" a little while after Ketsu himself, after co-opting in at Rank 3 and receiving years of additional training under a Senior Investigator; admittedly, that was hearsay rather than affirmed fact in his mind, but it nonetheless intrigued him to figure out what a regime of personally-tailored battle education did for an investigator. In a way, that partnership made sense, with brains leading brawn, but it didn't make it a much easier affair for the Junior. Maybe he should go over and help break the ice a little...

'Good morning, my friends!' he called, smiling lightly and speaking with a carefree tone as he strolled over to the two investigators. 'I take it you two are just getting to know one another? Grant, it's good to see you again; ma'am, I don't think I've had the pleasure yet. I'm Bisuto Ketsu, and you are...?' He offered her his hand to shake, adding a bit of flourish just to better draw her attention.

@BCTheEntity@Banana

Grant studied Miss. Jericho as she began to walk up towards him. He was briefly blinded the vision of a puppy, one with cute floppy ears. It was quickly replaced back with the woman with brown hair, standing more directly from him.

She was an anomaly to him, maybe to most of the department. She didn’t particularly strike him as anything. Which could be a bad thing and a good thing. He’d have to continue watching her for a few days. Figure her out. Wear her mind.

“Miss. Jericho, I presume,” he says, he watches her for a second. To give him the reason she was late. He just smirks slightly. It’s interesting to see what people think they can get away with. He caught that she wasn’t being entirely honest with what she had to do with her time.

But instead of saying anything about it, he says “I understand perfectly what that is like. When work piles up and drags you in.” he gives a very dry laugh that anyone listening could have caught was dry and hollow.

Before she responded his eyes turned to Ketsu. Ketsu fascinated in all forms of the word. He was twenty-one, but quite exceptional. He heard of his deeds and accomplishments before, how extraordinary his results were in the physical exam, how much Seto had on eye on him. It fascinated him. And here he came with a friendly greeting towards them. That fascinated him as well.

He flourished around Miss. Jericho. He wondered what went on in Ketsu’s mind. He’d like to wear his mind sometime too. Just to see what it was like in there.

“Ketsu you came at the right time,” Grant said, he didn’t see no need to stop what he was planning to do in the first place. Grant stuck his hand in his pocket, taking out a voucher coupon with five stamps on it, “Miss. Jericho is my new partner. And in good faith, I was going to treat her. How about I treat you as well?” Grant pauses, what is that phrase that escapes him sometimes?

“The more the merrier right,” Grant says trying to remain as charming as he could right now. Sometimes people needed reassurance he was on their side.

Yuno was a bit intimidated by the presence of not one, but TWO superiors to her as she stood there. She couldn't help but nervously stutter out a response to Ketsu. "I-I'm Yuno Jericho... b-but you can call me Yu!" Ugh. Yu? Really? You could've done better than that, probably. Whatever, it's kind of cute.

Honestly, it was a bit odd standing there in front of Ketsu like that. She heard of his accomplishments through the grapevine, and they made her a bit embarrassed. He was able to pass with effectively flying colors while she struggled to the point where she barely passed AND got the desk jockey job. This guy was able to get a Rank II easy compared to her. In a way though, Yuno still respected him to a large extent. He had a commitment she could never fully have, and that was pretty cool.

Plus, there was just something about him. She didn't understand it, but she liked it.

Grant, on the other hand, was motherfucking creepy. Like, not the kind of creepy you'd get from just a dark room with a single chair in it, but rather if there was a single music box on the chair playing carnival music. Slowed down carnival music. Slightly distorted, but not distractedly so. Either that or he seemed like the kind of guy that would watch you at night and reassure you that it would all be over soon, although you never really understood what he truly meant by that. He didn't really speak with inflection, more or less he just rose his voice very slightly to simulate it.

Yuno understood now what that document meant.

She stood there, slightly discomforted as she spoke again. "Well... I don't want to be rude!"

Who was gonna pass that opportunity up? It was free coffee! Wonder if they would mind Jenga there...

---

Alice smiled slightly at the acknowledgement and agreement to her vision, not terribly surprised by Mika's objections.

Nat asked what she expected him to, but the display that came surprised her. She raised an eyebrow, which didn't drop during the entire exchange, before her mouth set into a thin line.

She ran a hand along Nat's shoulders, gentle as a feather. "Why don't you go upstairs, Nat? I've got things to discuss with you shortly. I've heard some interesting rumors that I think the Wolves will need to act on," she said quietly, moving on.

She stepped up to Kristian and Travis, that same cold expression on her face. Grabbing Travis, she steered him towards the door, surprisingly gentle. "Go on now, your friend will be right out. Take him to get new clothes," she instructed, slipping him a fair chunk of cash. "Keep the change between y'all."

Turning towards Katashi, Alice nodded to herself. "You like action. Why don't you escort Mika home, and maybe look into these random killings they're trying to blame on us afterwards?"

With a smile she looked at the slightly younger ruffian. "If you follow Nat, there's roof access and I'll join you two for some training, yeah?"

Finally she came to Kristian, leaning forward so that her cheek actually rubbed against his as she whispered into his ear loud enough for only him to hear. "I know you're hiding something. I can see it in your eyes. You're just as twisted as I am, pretty boy, on the inside. Just as fucked. But that's okay, because that just means we're stronger for it. You want protection? I can do that. But not for you. No, not for you. I'll do it because eventually that deep dark scary stuff inside you is gonna give, and I want to be there when it happens. Now run along, or the big bad Wolf might start biting." She gave his cheek a slight pat, licking it as she pulled away, and practically skipped back towards Mika.

"Do stop by again soon, my beautiful flower. I'm sorry to cut the visit short, but I've got so much to do. I hope you enjoy the walk with Katashi," she said happily, with a wink and a smile.

Travis winced as Kristian hugged him, he pet him on the shoulder.practically shit himself as Alice directed him towards the door, she was being so gentle but he knew what she could do if she wasn't feeling so nice. So without question he let himself get guided out Jesus fucking Christ she's fucking terrifying! Fuck! Travis' left hand was shaking slightly, he felt like he'd just cheated death. he took a deep breath and positioned himself a few paces down from the door to the coffee store, he hoped Kristian would be alright. Travis didn't smell blood so he had no reason to believe he'd been hurt, but he couldn't let his guard down around Alice. He'd heard the stories, and he didn't want to test if they were real. So he waited there with the money tucked away in his pocket.

Her attempt was to frighten him, wasn’t it? She thought she was a big bad wolf, granted he had to be careful around every Ghoul in this city because he knew nothing about them. But he had seen worse experienced worse. All she managed to do was some unsavory and unhygienic lick of his cheek.

She really knew nothing about him. So the bitch had nothing really to use against him. He just stared at her, and smiled delightfully as if none of it he paid mind to. One day he’d cut her tongue off for doing that to him.

“Thank you so much for all your help,” he said innocently and sweetly, “You’ve been most kind.” Something about Travis expression made him roll his eyes internally and he grabbed Travis’ hand. With a sweet sickly innocent he said, “Shall we?”

He paused, “You promise to show me all the wonderful hot spots, right?”

---

'I'll take you up on that, Yu,' Ketsu said a bit quietly, gently pulling her hand close to his face as if to kiss the back, only to wink at her and let her go free. Did he feel the need to fluster her? No, but since she was already flustered, why not poke a bit of fun at her expense?

'And free coffee to celebrate your new partnership, Grant?' he exclaimed, continuing to grin just a little. 'Why, I'd be a fool to refuse!' In truth, he highly suspected Grant was trying to trick him somehow. Or at least examining him in some way or another. That damned ridiculous silly straw of his was a bit odd to observe when he first saw it, but a straw made sense in hindsight, considering his deformity. Not specifically that straw, but when it was accompanied by free coffee...

'Where were you thinking, then? I know there's a cafe that opened up in Kiyosumi a little while back, but somehow I suspect that coupon isn't for that particular shop.' Ketsu's voice remained light, though his thoughts verged darker than typical when discussing one of the few things he could physically ingest; he'd only heard a little bit about the Birdcage, just enough to surmise that the drinks it sold were of at least decent quality.

He also had his... apprehensions... about the place. Really, "the Birdcage"? When practically everyone knew that Dove was a slang term for a Ghoul Investigator? It reeked of death in plain sight to him, but he knew full-well that without evidence, there was nothing to suggest it would be different than any other coffee shop. Which still meant it was a good place to scope out, of course... it'd just need a bit of tact to it, was all. And perhaps a suitable disguise.