Save Me | Juuzou Suzuya

Doom

Silence.

No, not silence: there's an aggravated ringing piercing itself through her ears.
People always speak about the shadows being a darkness, a place in which you get lost, stuck trying to find yourself until your end.

But this darkness was her safety, keeping her from things that haunt the light.
Keeping her from Juuzou.

Miyako's world slowed, and yet simultaneously sped up. Eyes wide, full of disbelief as Miyako watched the two from the shadows; watched as Kaneki made the next move. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

Fuck. Fuck!

And why couldn't she move? Why were her feet so suddenly heavily planted on the wet floor beneath her, as if somebody had slipped between the chaos and poured cement over them? Like a deer stuck in the headlights of a moving van at night; a van with no intention of swerving out of the way.

Swerve out of the goddamn way.

It was delayed, a large gasp escaping her as Miyako ducked— barely missing a heavy swing from Kaneki's kagune. Fingers pressed against damp tar, and only then did her survival instincts kick in.
Miyako pushes her foot off the ground, pivoting on the other before beginning to run. To where? Uncertain. All she knew was she had to get as far away from these two as possible.

Juuzou couldn't find out. This was all so stupid.
She didn't dare look back, looking back always slowed one down. Looking back gave way to hesitation, and hesitation lead to—

Him.

Miyako switched directions, eyes scanning her surroundings, looking for something, anything.
An open window. So stupid. So goddamn stupid.
Miyako was quick to jump, fingers gripping around the end of a dangling apartment ladder before she hoisted herself up on the ledge.

As agile as she was, she slipped into the window without a sound, carefully crouching down as soon as her feet made contact. Dark eyes stared through more darkness, scouting what she could before she started crawling further in.

There was a voice, not one in the room but inside her head, nagging at her to go back. To help Kaneki, to make sure that he made it out alive.
But part of Miyako was selfish. Part of her didn't want to go back.

. . . But to have these thoughts, was to be living. Humans were always arrogant, taking pride in thinking they were the only beings to ever feel. Emotions weren't limited to them. They never will be.

Fingers dug into wood, and as Miyako crouched, stayed hidden in the dark, she calculated each option.
And it always came back to one.

She was quick to stand, head turning in order to look around herself in search of what she needed. When she couldn't find it, she entered another room.
Side stepping, being quiet as she made her way past a sleeping resident, a human ignorantly unaware of her presence, Miyako slowly pushed the sliding door to the closet open.

Only to find nothing.
Or at least, nothing she was searching for.

Out of the room, Miyako entered another. More searching, irritation growing.
Until, fingers made contact with something cold. It causes her to stop in her tracks, brushing the digits across more of the surface.
Miyako looked down, slowly picking the object up, eyes wide.

An Oni mask.

Miyako slipped out of the window moments later, her trace nonexistent to those left in the apartment.
Miyako climbed further up until she was on the roof of the building, a large hush of wind hitting her the instant she stood. She didn't bother thinking on it too long, her attention now fixed on the mask she was holding onto.

She was always so reckless, thinking she would be able to get away with living without a hidden identity. Maybe blissfully naive, hoping that one day things could be simple. As if ghouls and humans could ever co-exist.

Not in her lifetime, at least. Who was she kidding.

A shaky breath leaves her lips, brows furrowed now as that thought clouds her mind. She didn't want to believe it, was liking the fantasy she had created in her head. It was better than the real thing.

Moments later, a cry rings out. Miyako's head snaps up at the sound, pulling her from her thoughts; chest tightening. She was wasting time mulling in her own thoughts. Time that could have been salvaged.
Time in which she could have made things right.

The cry belonged to Kaneki. He was losing the fight.

If one dagger missed, the other made contact. Piercing, ripping through skin, tearing clothing. Laboured breathing, staggered steps.
The difference between Kaneki and Juuzou was one wasn't afraid to die, and it wasn't hard to decipher who that applied to.

"Aaah? What's this, what's this?" Sing-song, toying. Juuzou flicked his wrist, a knife spinning into the air before he caught it by the hilt. He offered Kaneki a large, playful grin; a skip in his step. Child's play.

"The One Eyed Ghoul seems to be falling! S'not as fun if you don't try. . ." Juuzou pouts, tapping the flat side of the blade against his cheek; completely ignoring the way it presses blood to his skin. Kaneki's blood. "Hey, heeey! C'mon, c'mon! Try a little harder!"

And harder he tried. Each lashing out of his kagune became more sporadic, more rough. Kaneki did his best to weaponise it, a hand shifting to press down against one of his wounds. Teeth bared, he grew further frustrated by just how easy this all seemed to be for the agent in front of him.
All because he couldn't run away.

Maybe he should have. Saves dealing with this mess. Saves not knowing whether he was going to make it out alive. Juuzou seemed to dodge every one of his attacks with grace, and Kaneki could barely do the same.
Useless. It was all useless.

"I'll fucking kill you." Growled, deadly. A heavy breath is sucked in, and Kaneki wasted no time in pushing his foot off the ground; running towards Juuzou all over again. Only this time, he slipped to the side right as the other was about to attack in defense, the end of his kagune hitting the ground. He uses it to push himself up, a leg swinging back before it came forward; making direct contact under Juuzou's jaw.

He stumbled back, until regaining his stance; hand moving up to assess the new-found pain.
Which only excites him further.

"Ehh?" So, now they were getting somewhere. A smile forms once more, devious as it grows. Juuzou gathered the mixture of saliva and blood into his mouth, before spitting it out. Then, a laugh.
He doubles over as it continues to ring out, arms wrapping over his stomach; the laugh growing louder.

There was something chilling about the moment that had Kaneki ceasing movement, and he stared over at Juuzou, taking this moment to catch his breath. God knows he needed it.
It's almost agonising, eerie how long it spans out.

Even scarier when it suddenly stops.

Juuzou hums from the back of his throat, slowly straightening himself back up as a new dagger appears in his grasp. He stares at Kaneki, letting it roll through his fingers before he spoke; low.

"It seems our friend is back."

In an instant, he spins, the dagger being thrown behind him. In an instant, his smile disappears. Because in that same instant, his dagger had been caught.

Slow steps were made then, the one that lingered in the shadows bringing themself to the light. The Oni mask appeared, the dagger spinning in the air.
It was gripped at the hilt once more, only this time by Miyako's hand.
She just hoped she didn't choose the wrong option.

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A/N:   um, we!