Trade Mistakes

Chapter 5

"Wanna spar?" Juuzou asked suddenly.

Owl had to wonder who he was asking. He hadn't been paying attention. It'd been a week since he'd been allowed to work for the CCG and he was quite sure Houji was regretting it already. Surely Takizawa had never been this distracted.

Something made contact with the back of his head and he looked behind him to glare.

"Well?" Juuzou asked.

Oh. He'd been asking him.

"I'm not sure that's the best idea." Houji said.
Owl shrugged. "Why not? I'm bored. Amon isn't around for me to terrorise and Houji doesn't get bothered by that sort of thing."
Juuzou grinned. "Great."
He noticed the people with him, one of them looking a bit fretful. "Who are they?"
"Oh, this is my squad." The childish – yet somehow so much mature – man told him cheerfully. "Takizawa, this is Keijin, Hanbee, Mizurou and Miyuki."
Owl waved shortly before focusing back on Juuzou. "Just call me Owl."

He could feel Houji's surprise from where he was. He could see Juuzou's surprise.

"Chances are I'll respond to it sooner than I would Takizawa." He explained. "Pretty sure I gotta be able to respond to people to be effective."
"How's T-Owl?" Juuzou asked, smiling strangely. "Just Owl is bound to confuse some people."
"That's fine. She called me that too." He answered agreeably.

Owl could cooperate when it benefited him.

"So, about that spar?" He asked.





The rather empty gym at the CCG smelt worse than Owl remembered – or was it Takizawa who remembered. The stench of sweat lingered in the air and he was sure it smelt worse than that cell of rotting flesh and bones and blood.

"You look like you've never seen a gym before." One of Juuzou's squad – Hanbee, he was pretty sure – said.
"It smells worse than I remember." He muttered.
"No quinques or kagunes." Houji said suddenly.
"But that takes all the fun out of it!" He and Juuzou exclaimed at the same time.

Huh. That'd never happened before.

"I don't care." His superior said. "Juuzou can't exactly heal like you, Owl."

Now that felt comfy.

"So what? I just won't aim to kill or maim." He said. "I'm sure Juuzou can handle himself."
"That's not my concern and you know it." The man replied.

He stuck his tongue out and grinned widely at the twitch Houji's eye gave, only earning himself a glare.

"I'll be fine." Juuzou said. "You gonna wear that, T-Owl?"
He shrugged. "Why not?"

To be fair, he was wearing something some semi-decent clothes. He toed his shoes and socks off, feeling better when his bare feet touched the floor. Juuzou activated his quinque. It smelt of death and blood. Jason.

"Maybe Houji is right." Hanbee said. "Perhaps –"

Owl dodged a swipe from the scythe and had to keep dodging. Juuzou was quick. Takizawa had never fought him before – Takizawa couldn't stand to be in the same room as him – but he'd known he was fast. But...

He went under and kicked Juuzou in the shin before skipping away, noticing Juuzou hadn't even flinched. Something was off. Even Juuzou would have felt that. He dodged the quinque again, finding himself on the wall, kagune bursting out. Launching himself off, he crystallised it and sent shards down towards Juuzou, watching him dodge as expected.

He came to land on the ground and dodged Jason again. He wasn't too sure how long this went on for – both of them dodging and attacking – but it was fun and it was like fighting Eto when she was toying with him to improve him.

Owl landed on the wall again and Juuzou's leg popped open at the knee. Well, that was new. He dodged the first few knives but he knew some had made contact by the handle in sticking out of his calf as he moved along the wall. Tearing it out, he felt the limb go limp and ignored it as he threw the knife back at Juuzou, earning a high-pitched giggle.

His leg regained feeling and he let his kakuja grow out, his vision becoming clearer as the singular eye in the kakuja jerked around, taking in anything and everything. He launched himself down and landed on Juuzou, knocking the newly picked up Jason from his hands. He pinned the investigator down then paused.

Something felt... off.

His kakuja receded as his kagune dissipated, Juuzou laughing beneath him.

"Did you even feel that?" The giggling menace asked.
"Feel what?" He asked back, a little confused.

He went to get off him only to realise what Juuzou meant. His legs were gone. His innards were probably spilt across Juuzou right now. Owl laughed and pushed his upper body off the investigator, landing on his back. Tendrils grew out from his upper body and snapped onto his lower half which was some way across the gym.

He felt it snap back into him and the flesh knitting back together even as his organs fixed themselves.

"You can do that?!" Juuzou exclaimed.
"Huh? Yeah." He said.
"I thought I said to not kill or seriously maim." Houji said.
"He was flying at me with this crazy grin on his face!" Juuzou replied defensively. "And he's not even dead!"
Houji sighed. "Not the point, Juuzou."
Owl rolled his eyes. "I'm fine. What happened to your leg, by the way?"
"Huh? Oh, the One-Eyed Owl did." Juuzou said.

He nodded, getting to his feet, then dragged Juuzou up.

"I'm hungry." He told his superior.
"Oh, I wonder why." Houji muttered sarcastically.

He laughed.





Eto sighed as her legs started to grow back. "Did you really have to cut me in half?"
"Yes." Arima said.
"This is really an inconvenience, you know." She told him.
He nodded. "I know."
She rolled onto her stomach to grin at him. "So, how are our little friends settling in?"
"Amon's settled in with the Quinx well." Arima told him. "Haise's taken a bit of a shine to him, for obvious reasons. Takizawa's been allowed to re-join the CCG under strict supervision from Houji."
"They made a good decision there." She admitted. "Owl doesn't play well with others."
"I heard he and Suzuya sparred today." Arima told her. "I hear he reattached his lower half instead of waiting for it to heal."
She grinned. "Huh."
He looked at her. "You taught him that."
"Maybe." She said. "Or maybe I injected my kagune into him in the name of improvement and it's just more fun to let him act of his own free will."
"I see." He muttered.

Eto stood, wriggling her toes. It was always weird to regrow limbs – she preferred reattaching them – but it was a little fun to if time allowed.

"Did you have to cut me in half though?" She asked.
"I did." Arima answered without hesitation. "Amon being back at the CCG will cost us. Takizawa being there might cost us."
"Owl will be fine." She said, shrugging off his concern. "He knows too much about the CCG to be loyal. Amon's problem is that he refuses to believe that the place he dedicated his life to is nothing more than a sick lie masquerading as a pathetic truth. He'll fall like a house of cards when the truth comes out."