Tranquil [Kishou Arima X Reader]

Part 2

It had been five years since that fateful day when my father died. 'Died' was a pretty decent way to put it, considering what had happened. As for the guy who saved us, I never saw him again. When I woke up, I was confused to get up in an extremely bright place. My first thought, stupidly, was that I had reached heaven, possibly because I used to watch a lot of movies. My second thought was of my brother, who I found right next to me. Apparently the 8 year old had thrown a tantrum until they placed him next to me. After a few days, we realized that the kid had no memory of what had happened, the doctors called it dissociative amnesia. His brain had crumpled up and thrown the memory into his mind's recycling bin, because of 'mild trauma'. The doctors hadn't known what trauma we had undergone, but there was a government official who came over to set things right. Taishi Fura, the guy who was sent to help us out, was a part of a relatively unknown branch called the CCG. He explained that what had happened was real, and that guy was a 'ghoul' nicknamed 'The Scarecrow'. Taishi-san explained that the 'ghoul' had been christened that way because of his mask. 

I shook my head, that day was too much for 17 year old me to handle. Total information overload. I sighed as I placed the book I had been reading back in its correct place. Life hadn't really been easy. I had to hand over my clueless brother to my relatives, considering I was a minor. He seemed fine, but me... I had nightmares of that day. Every single night. I gritted my teeth, remembering the latest dream. One that involved the ghoul's kagune piercing my brother from behind. I shuddered, eyes moistening slightly. I blinked back the moisture just as a smooth voice said, "Hello, are you done with that book?" I nodded, turning back to face the person with a forced smile on my face. I pulled out the book and held it out to the guy, looking up at him. My eyes widened slightly as I looked. A handsome face, dark hair swept to the side elegantly, and a knee-weakening smile. 

His delicate eyebrows moved up, and I realized that he was politely questioning my sanity. I shook my head slightly, fixing my smile and handing over the book. He took it, and our hands slightly brushed against each other. At the touch, my head snapped up. He was still smiling down at me. The guy moved back a few steps and turned slightly. 

I knew exactly what was going to happen before it actually did. 

I ducked as his vine-like kagune came swinging towards my head, with the intent of knocking it off my torso. My eyes narrowed as I straightened, reaching behind for my quinque. When my fingers searched behind me, the ghoul turned to entirely face me, his eyes having their characteristic black with red veins. Somehow it made him seem a lot more maniacal when compared to his seemingly human demeanor. They were two very far extremities. 

My fingers finally felt the cool metal of the case that held my quinque, I gripped the handle and held it in my right hand. The ghoul chuckled, "I knew it." My eyes narrowed at him, and he surprisingly felt the need to explain further, "You, my dear, were sniffing around. Do you really think we wouldn't figure it out? Wearing cheap clothes and crappy makeup doesn't cover the fact that you smell the same. Honestly, do all doves forget to apply some deodorant? I mean, would it kill you to buy a good one? Always the sweaty odor." I blinked, not sure what to say to that. My deo can was empty and I always forgot to get a new one. I tapped the button on my quinque-case and my weapon opened up. It was a thin, and wide sword quinque with thick tendrils swirling around. 

"Enough talk." I said brusquely, narrowing my eyes at the ghoul. He seemed to be enjoying himself, and I wanted to slice the smirk off his face. Fortunately, my reflexes were on par with my thoughts, and I charged forward, aiming my weapon right at where his heart would be, if ghouls even had hearts. If they did, I was pretty sure this one's froze, right when he began picking off kids and eating them for breakfast. 

This thought coupled with the image of my brother staring down at the kagune that had just pierced him all the way through fuelled my hatred and I charged with renewed vigor. 'The abductor'kept dodging me, infuriating me with his annoying chuckling as he dodged. I tried again and again, but to no avail. 

I suppose he finally got tired of it, and his kagune slammed me against the book cases. I landed on the first one, toppling it, and it resulted in the domino effect. Groaning, I got up, raising my quinque. "You're too boring." He said, mock-yawning at me. I growled and flicked my quinque, it became whip-like, and I lassoed it around him quickly, the sharp edge of the weapon cutting into his chest as it wound around him. When he was distracted with the pain, or possibly the blood stain on his shirt, I wasn't sure which, I twisted my end of the quinque around my hand to improve my grip and slammed him to the wall on the side. Tit for tat. 

I smirked at the place when I had thrown him, my smirk widening into a grin when he went, "Now look what you've done to my clothes." While I was grinning at my apparent brilliance, his kagune suddenly whipped out of the dust cloud and pierced into my thigh. It was accompanied by, "Did it go through your heart? I can't really see from here." I grunted as he retracted it, looking down at the massive amount of blood flowing down my thigh and soaking my pants. My leg wobbled, and I was forced stand on one leg considering that he had knocked down all the book shelves around me, using me as a literal wrecking ball. 

He walked out of the dust cloud, and I had to say, with the streetlight streaming in, he looked like he was the star of a rock show. Minus the hobo-like look he was sporting, courtesy me. I was looking at him warily, and he was now staring back with a blank expression which alarmingly morphed into a pout, "You spoilt my clothes." He said accusingly. I gave a tired laugh, "I had to return the favor." He held a palm to his heart, "Oh! She laughs!" Then the pout changed into a manic expression, "I should return the favor." 

My eyes widened as two other kagune emerged from his back. "A kakuja." I breathed out in utter shock. His rating just shot up, and for some reason, I wished I could call my brother up right now. I shook the thoughts away, I didn't endure all those years of training just to give up. Sometimes people in stressful situations do impulsive things, and my previous instructors had tried their best to get rid of that habit of mine. I guess it had not worked as well as they thought it would. 

I threw my quinque at him, weakly, considering I was loosing a lot of blood. He batted it away carelessly with one of his kagune, using it like a flyswatter. I snorted, "showoff." Suddenly something came toward my face. Fast. I was in no position to duck, and it hit me hard in the face, breaking my nose, and one eye. My lower body was already on the ground, now my upper torso slammed backwards onto the ground, probably cracking my skull. 

My fingers twitched, reaching slowly for my pocket. I pulled out my dagger, also made from quinque steel. A gift for my brother, to protect himself. I made to throw it from the sleeping position I was in, but it simply clattered. 

Tears began flowing out from my unharmed eye, my fingers scratching the ground and trying to catch hold of the dagger, but to no avail. Suddenly, a warm hand lifted mine, and set it back down. I could no longer feel the dagger, and I began panicking, fingers squabbling and my good eye looking around wildly with a narrowed and blurry field of vision. Suddenly a white haired man appeared in my blurry vision. I could make out spectacles, and when I blinked continuously, his long face. It was a very familiar face, one that I respected, one that I was secretly infatuated with. His blank expression swam above me, "Rest." He said. The voice seemed ethereal, possibly because I closed my eyes right after I saw him. "Hai, Arima-san." I wanted to say. I opened my mouth to, but I don't know if I did.