Tranquil [Kishou Arima X Reader]

Part 7

My hair flew into my face as a certain white- haired dude flew past me, he simultaneously clicked his suitcase, and his quinque released; while all I could do was blink. Fortunately, it didn't take long for me to come to my senses and stop fan-girling over Arima-san. I released my quinque as well, though it seemed as though there was no need to. Arima-san was fighting all seven ghouls by himself. I stood there, wiggling my toes in my boots. I was restless.

My opening came when certain goosebumps-inducing voice went, "Oh lookie here. A little cutie dove. She'll look great in my collection." I turned around and smiled sweetly. "Now don't lose that smile. I need that smile there when I cut your head off." I rolled my eyes at the ghoul. "No. Eyes closed. Definitely closed." The ghoul didn't have a mask on, which was something that was surprising. Lucky for me though because if he got away somehow, I could easily catch him.

At this point in my career, which hadn't been very long, I wondered why I always got the fancy ghouls. The ghouls I'd gone after so far always cared about whether their shirts were in fashion, how they could make my lopped off head look good, which deodorant I wore, and so on. Couldn't I just get one which said, "Imma kill you, woman." Or something like that; and get on the fighting? But no, they always had to be all refined and annoying.

I cricked my neck, taking my times stretching and turning; basically getting ready for the inevitable fight. And annoying him, because of course, when you can hit two birds with one stone, you do it. To my chagrin, he merely watched, staring at his nails for shorts stretches of time; probably checking his manicure. Okay, so one stone. Better than nothing.

"Done staring at your manicure?" I asked leisurely. "Yes, thank you for asking. I got it done just yesterday." I nodded. "Hm. Maybe I should kill you with my hands behind my back, wouldn't want to waste all the money I spent on it. I had to give away my favorite head for that too. You humans honestly have the most interesting faces." I snorted, "And ghouls don't?" "Well, they do. Except there's something pure about humans." He said, almost wistfully. "So pure that you eat them." I muttered distastefully. He clapped his hands together, "Finally! Someone who gets it!" I rolled my eyes again, this time dropping the chit-chat and lunging.

The ghoul had pretty good reflexes, unfortunately. He caught my quinque with his kagune and smashed me across the wall. I sighed as I got up, this was becoming way too routine for comfort. These were the times I wished I had the same regenerating ability as ghouls, without the need for human flesh. Holding my quinque at the ready, I steadied myself, looking up at the enemy.

An enemy who had one black eye with red veins.

And a normal eye. A human one.

I reeled back, "You... You're..." "Yes. I'm half human, half ghoul." There was no more time left to ponder the implications, I lunged again. This time managing to maim the guy, except, of course, maiming wasn't going to get me anywhere. "That hurt." He whined.

Huh. Almost all the ghouls I've gone up against were drama queens too.

"Drama queen." I said, looking at him with a deadpan look. He grinned, lunging at me this time. I fell to the ground with him on top. The quinque I had in hand went through his stomach and his kagune into my shoulder. The very fact that it went through my shoulder told me that he was toying with me. I grinned and I began moving the quinque higher, towards his neck, the aim being slicing him into two. Unfortunately, the quinque was too slow, or perhaps the pressure I was applying was too less; the ghoul leapt backwards, off of me with a weird squelch. The quinque was dripping blood, and so was my shoulder wound. I shifted the quinque to my left, and jumped out of the way as the ghoul came towards me, brandishing his kagune. It was a clumsy move, and a slightly slow one. It seemed his regenerating powers weren't all that fast. A normal ghoul then. He also didn't seem to be all that attuned to his ghoul senses.

Suddenly, the ghoul's eyes widened, and he looked down to see another quinque protruding from his stomach. It was suddenly ripped back and sliced into the air, right across his neck. I winced, knowing exactly whose quinque it was, and closed my eyes as the ghoul's blood splattered onto me.

I blinked, looking down at the half-ghoul. "Are you alright?" I nodded, not looking up. I was wondering who this guy was before he became a ghoul. "[Name]-san." My head snapped up, surprised to hear my name. Quickly, I thought of a way to cover up my quick response, I didn't want it to seem weird. "He was half ghoul and half human." I said quickly, hoping to distract Arima-san. It seemed to have worked. "Seems like they're continuing Kanou's experiments." "Wasn't he killed?" "No, he's still a part of Aogiri Tree." "Do you think he's still experimenting?" "It's safe to say that he is." "I was wondering, would it be worth it to check the missing persons reports? This guy seemed like someone I had seen around, or maybe on a poster. He seemed familiar, somehow." "The person who was worried about a partner affecting her way of investigation is asking me this?" He asked, with a amused tilt of his head. I cleared my throat, "I will check the missing persons reports." I gave him a nod and a bow, all ready to get back and confirm my suspicions. I say 'confirm' because I have an eidetic memory. I remember this guy, I know I do.

"We're pretty far from headquarters. Were you planning on getting back on foot?"

I paused.

Oh yeah. I came in Arima-san's car.

"Let's go." "Hai, Arima-san!" "Stop saluting."

I laughed awkwardly, I was used to teasing Fura-san with salutes when he asked me to do something.

Old habits die hard.