Kalopsia Project [Bakugo Katsuki x Reader - Tokyo Ghoul AU]

Chapter 11 - Games - of Waiting, of Gambling, and of Time

Glossary:

Tartarus –a ghoul detention center owned by the CCG. Captured ghouls get detained here after the decision is made to keep them alive either for information, Quirk materials, or any other exceptional need from them. (Called Cochlea in Tokyo Ghoul)

(excerpts taken from the Tokyo Ghoul Wiki)

...

Just this morning, he had slipped on a black face mask to hide his face from the bustling world of humans. And the very same night, he had to adorn a different mask of black and orange to remain hidden among others of his own kind. It seemed like lately no one was allowed a break.

Bakugo had never worn his mask all that much and he remembered going to a strange pink-haired girl (who'd been a tad too energetic for his liking) many years ago. Aizawa had told him that, as a ghoul, he needed to possess a mask to hide his face from humans and especially the pesky Ghoul Investigators when he was out to look for food. A week after their initial visit to "take measurements", he'd returned to that pink-haired girl and received a mask that was apparently designed by her.

He didn't want to admit it out loud, but at the time he'd found the design to be quite cool – with all the shapes reminiscent of an explosion and the colors matching his kagune exactly. Now, a few years down the line, he realized it looked a tad too immature and stupid. Though perhaps that was for the best – after all, the further this mask strayed from who he was, the lesser the chance somebody would recognize him.

He put it on, though lifted it a bit, so as to not hide his face quite yet – the need for that wouldn't arise for another hour or two. He only hoped an hour or two won't be too late...

Walking to the door, his eyes briefly registered the sight of the small bed covered by a pure white sheet. The memories flooded his mind – he could recall how they'd been forced to throw out what used to be a perfectly good white sheet from the very same bed, after he'd brought in the injured and practically dying [F/N] to Yuuei, where Midoriya had tended to her wounds.

And speaking of that first night she had spent there...

"Damn that sly bastard..." Bakugo muttered under his breath, just as Midoriya and Todoroki peeked their heads inside the room to check up on him. "He slipped off to somewhere again. He reeks of suspicion," the grumbling continued. And he was right – nobody had seen Monoma since he'd first walked out upon Bakugo's arrival and the news that [F/N] had been kidnapped. Who knew what he was doing or how he might have been involved with this whole thing from the beginning...?

With all three boys now out in the halls, soon joined by the remaining couple of members to this impromptu "rescue operation" – namely Uraraka and Ida, preparations seemed to be complete. Aizawa also emerged from somewhere nearby and passed by them, motioning for everyone to follow him into the main area of the café, where he stopped and gave one final explanation.

"Good to see you're all ready. We have to be rational with our time, since we don't know how much of it we have. We're taking off any minute now." He tapped a few times on his phone and brought up a map with a clearly marked start and end point, and a curvy red line connecting the two. "It will take us about an hour to get to the facility All Might told us about. He's prepared to send the anonymous message to the CCG at dawn, so we will have to wrap this up as early as we can. Objections?"

The five remained silent, only exchanging worried glances – though whether it was for their own safety, for the success of the rescue, or even just for [F/N]'s wellbeing, was a mystery to them as well. The crushing silence was broken by a single pair of footsteps, followed by the jingling of a bell, as Bakugo opened the front door and briefly stopped in front of it.