Masquerading Virtuoso【Tokyo Ghoul Fan-Fiction】

v. Prelude

"She hides behind a marble slab of her fears. Unable to tear it down, she must bear its weight until the bitter end."

～～～＊～～～

"M-Mom!" she cried, as she rushed up the crumbling stairs to the pitifully burned woman. She paused as she reached the top. Her eyes shifted from her mother's face to her lower torso: it was gone. She could see that her large intestine was protruding from it, part of it being trapped beneath fallen boards like a string of taffy. The muscles and skin of her lower abdomen had been dragging and falling in small bits behind her before she'd came to a halt in her current position.

Tsuki's eyes wavered in horror at the state her mother was in. "H-How did this ... happen?"

"G ... Ghouls," her mother replied, lying her face against the warm floorboards and inhaling long draws of smoke filled air. "Th ... three of ... them."

Fluctuating her frustrated gaze from the gore, Tsuki knelt down in front of Ame and furrowed her eyebrows as she reached toward her, only to recoil mid-distance upon noticing the deep wounds marring her back. "H-How are you still ... alive?" she asked, her chocolate eyes examining her mother's dark brown one.

More flaming debris suddenly fell from the floor above, before it could land on her mother, Tsuki had snatched her bloody form into her arms and leapt to the bottom of the stairs. As she landed, more broke loose and descended upon them. As if it were a reflex, her kagune flared up and her three tentacle-like arms slammed the boards into a nearby wall.

"P-Put me ... down," Ame whispered, her voice already growing weaker.

The brunette set her mother down, though, she kept her kagune intact, forcing the muscle-like substance to flatten out above them, as if it were a protective sheath, then she knelt down beside her. "Why aren't you healing?" Tsuki asked, examining the organs that still remained exposed. "We just ate last week and ... your body shouldn't be so slow to hea--"

Ame hushed her daughter by placing her charred hand over her cheek. "Y-Your father ... and I ... we're just ... n-not as strong as ... you," she admitted, a solemn smile spreading across her moist, boil-covered lips.

Tsuki averted her eyes and coughed---her scarf had long since fallen off her mouth, leaving her lungs open for the smoke to fill them. "Is that your way of saying he's already ... dead?" She looked back to her mother's scorched face just as she felt more burning boards crash against her shielding kagune.

The woman closed her eyes, just as a bloody tear escaped her left eye, which was destroyed. Lowering her arm back down to the floorboards, she said, "He ... wanted you to know that ... he loved you."

Tsuki's eyes widened, her brown irises wavering.

"A-And ... so do I."

Listening to the creaks and groans of the house around them, Tsuki noted that it was nearing a complete collapse. She furrowed her eyebrows and shook her head. "Come on, Mother, we have to get out of h---"

Ame declined her daughter's help by forcing her hands away. "No, Tsu-chan ..."

"What do you mean?! You can still heal!"

The woman shook her head, causing Tsuki to let go of her. "They will ... come for you," she mumbled, closing her eyes and releasing a strained breath. "You ... you will have to be gone ... before they do."

Ame's breathing was swiftly diminishing, Tsuki could see that her mother wished to die along with the house and her father. Leaning over Ame's face, she kissed of her forehead, the taste of bitter blood oozing from the skin. She sat up on her knees and nodded. "I-I ... love you both," she murmured, the tears quickly escaping her eyes as she watched Ame smile against the hurt she was enduring and the knowledge of her daughter being left alone.

"Go now," she whispered, to which Tsuki stood to her feet.

Allowing her three scaled tentacles to slowly disperse, she wiped away the tears with the heel of her palm. Forcing a slight smile, she glanced up to where she suspected her burned father was. "Good-bye," she said, her expression growing grim as she sprinted toward the exit the trio from earlier had made and leapt from it and into the cover of the bushes.

She paused and turned to face her old home. The once mighty and beautiful traditional house was toppling to the earth below in a fiery and smoky heap. Her head lowered as she relayed all the fond memories she had had with her parents ... and her piano.

No more pampering, she thought, her hands bundling into tight fists as she watched the firemen frantically hurry around the house to contain the flames. I have to fend ... for myself now.

〜〜〜＊〜〜〜

Nearly a month had passed since the incident at her home; Tsuki had lost her livelihood and the two most influential figures in her life. In that time, she had changed her hair, from the luscious long, natural brunette, to a coal black shade, receiving a more subtle, short bob cut and bangs that rounded out her face.

Without a penny left to her name after changing it to a more unsuspecting one of Ume Ichida and hiring someone to forge an I.D. and birth certificate, she was forced to take up a job.

Rather than working at some indecent location within her old ward, she looked for work at a library in the 20th one. She remembered how her parents had always spoken highly of the Nerima Public Library, so she'd taken up a job there. The work was a bit different from what she was used to, however, the pay was good.

The coworkers suspected nothing of her because she interacted normally with them. When she was invited out to karaoke, she went and would pretend she'd eaten before hand, so they wouldn't feel obligated to get her anything. She enjoyed her time with them, but on occassion, she would catch a whiff of their delightful flesh when they would sit closely to her and that riled up a rather ... ravenous hunger.

After the first notion, she had made up an excuse to leave them for the night. Once outside of the club, she inhaled the cold, night air. The city was still clinging to life, though, in the darkest corners, death was ensuing. Tsuki could smell the inviting scents of fresh human flesh. She forced herself to venture into the alleyways, where she knew there was bound to be an indecent fellow lurking about in the shadows for their next victim.

She clutched the band of her clutch, timidly, and lowered her gaze as two men rounded the corner and blocked her path. Tsuki paused and cautiously examined them both.

"Alone on a S-Saturday night?" asked the man, his chin adorned in a stubble and bleary onyx eyes admiring Tsuki's feeble, petite form.

"I'd like to give her some of my company," commented the one sloppily standing next to him, his caramel eyes gawking at her exposed cleavage beneath her grey v-neck shirt. "Whaya say, ya pretty thing, you? You wanna go for a ride?"

They reeked of alcohol and putrid piss. However, her nose twitched in excitement once it caught wind of their true scent.

"As long as you'll go gentle," she said, slowly shifting her eyes upward to reveal their sinister color. "I will." A vile smile suddenly corrupted her once-sweet expression.

Two of her rinkaku tails immediately splintered out from her lower back and flared at the two men---whom had been shown on the news and reported as rapists of two unlucky young girls. Tsuki had been a pacifist before she had lost her parents and piano, but now ... she was a hunter.