A young girl, with silky hair the colour of swirling dark chocolate and deep-set doe eyes, clad in a non-descript school uniform was in a bustling school hallway. Students jostled past her in their rush towards the doors. The last bell for the day had rung, and Ayako, a few years younger than when Dylan met her, smiled shyly at a few people who gave her a few passing words as she fought against the crowd to get back to her locker.

      She changed her shoes, packed away everything she didn't need, and loaded her bag with the things she would be taking home. She lifted it onto her shoulder, tucked her hair behind her ear and tagged on the to tail-end of the crowd.

     It was a typical Friday, nothing was out of the norm. A handful of students made their way through the crowd towards the changing room for the after school softball practice, but most were filing towards the doors, their mind occupied with only the plans of their weekend and where they'd get their takeaway from tonight.

      However, something wasn't right. The crowd had come to standstill, and Ayako couldn't see why. She was a ways back from the door, and the hushed murmurings rolling back through the crowd of students in waves was making her anxious.

     She lifted herself onto her tiptoes and peered over the countless bobbing heads, eyes darting back and forth in the background, trying to see the disturbance. And see it, she did. She dropped back down flat onto her feet and swallowed thickly, trying not to gasp out loud.

      Manning the doors were ghoul investigators, she'd seen enough to be able to spot them a mile away. In their hands had been some kind of scanner devices, no doubt new technology they'd developed to detect ghouls, Oh, why couldn't they just leave them alone?

       She had to think of another way out. She had to. But the only problem was, the only doors leading to somewhere she could escape from were in front of her, manned by the doves. The other doors lead to dead ends or courtyards, giving her nowhere to run, and the last waves of the crowd were floating up behind her.

    Her heart began to pick up speed, hammering in her chest like a racehorse. There was nothing for it. She'd just have to push through and run.

     The crowd filtered through the investigators, each getting two high pitch beeps from the scanners before they were sent on their way. Only a few students left in front of her now.

      Ayako stepped up to the investigators and sucked in a breath as she held her arms out as all the other students before her had done. The investigator began to wave the scanner in front of her, and before it could even complete one length, it let out a long, ear-splitting ring and all the investigators jumped into action.

     The scanner dropped to the ground as the investigator dove for her, but she was quicker, ditching her bag at their feet and taking off out the doors, sprinting through the crowds who were more or less unaware of what had just happened.

      She slammed shoulders with students as she jostled through them, head whipping back to see where the investigators were, and she was horrified to see they weren't far behind. She tried to go faster, push harder, but all the bodies in her way made going tough work, and with all the weaving and twisting, her lung were begging to scream, her back aching and legs burning.

      However, a force collided with her from behind and she was barrelled over, landing face-first on the asphalt, bare palms and knees splitting open and blood began to pour, her face grazed down one side.

      The weight crushed down on her back, her chest squeezing against the ground, breathing coming in short, laboured gasps.

     "The serum, quick!" A voice from above her yelled, and just before her flaming wing-like Kagune could burst forth, the point of a needle jabbed into the soft flesh of her neck, and she felt the cold seeping into her blood stream, creeping through her veins. Her body became heavy and tired, like a dead weight to her mind which was quickly being wound tightly in thick cobwebs. She soon lost consciousness.

     When she started to come to, her body still felt cold and heavy, like her blood had turned to lead. Her hair was criss-crossing her face and where she was had been hidden from her view, but the cold, hard floor bit into her side. Sluggishly, she pushed back the hair from her face and slowly propped herself up onto an elbow.

     "Welcome to the 15th ward, ghoul No. 21," A loud voice boomed through the concrete hall. It was a uniform grey all over, aside from a long glass window down one of the wall, giving a blurry peek into a room filled with computers, machines, and desks piled high with unruly print-outs. Lined up against one of the walls was a whole troop of CCG investigators, all clad in midnight armour and matching briefcases. Quinques.

       "What do you want with me?" Ayako choked out, slowly pulling herself to her feet, facing the squadron of investigators. One began to stride forward, and Ayako stumbled back. "Why haven't you kill me yet? What do you want from me?!"

     The investigator cleared his throat.

      "Ghoul No. 21, you have been captured and taken prisoner in the 15th ward. You will be subject to the testing of new anti-ghoul technology. The testing will take place whether you consent or not."

    "N-No," Ayako coughed out, her eyes pulsing in and out of focus, black mist lining her vision, Everything felt vague and foggy, her mind and head felt blocked, like there was a pressure squeezing her skull, and her steps were staggering and dizzy. Drugs.

     There was a click followed by a 'whoosh' sound, and the lead investigator was wielding a quinque, like an over-sized sword of glowing green. He gave a war cry before charging towards Ayako.

     The veins around her eyes burned and lifted to the surface and she knew her normally chocolate coloured eyes were now swirling pools of incriminating black and crimson. The wing-shaped Kagune sprung from her back as she tried to leap into action and defend herself. The drugs made it hard.

      She was defeated, but left barely alive.

     For month and months, maybe even years, Ayako was used as a punching bag for the investigators, trying out their new technology on living subjects, drugged up to their eyeballs so they posed a much lesser threat. Ayako knew she couldn't be the only one, she was number 21, after all.

      It was the same cycle, day after day, week after week, month after month, being sliced to ribbons by the burning blades, but nothing fatal. They needed their subjects alive, after all.

      Until one day, one of the rookie investigators got too carried away, practicing with his quinque. It was a simple enough design, and not too advanced, but the crazy kid with unruly white hair and red stitches had a drive unlike anything Ayako had ever faced before. The kid had doubled back behind her, and before she could react, there was a white-hot searing pain and she screamed out in agony, and dropped to the floor as her knees buckled with the intensity.

      Through her pain-hazed vision, laying a few feet away on the floor, was the dying magenta glow of her now severed wing-like Kagune.

     The rookie had sliced her Kagune clean off.

     There was yelling as other investigators began to pour into the great hall, and humans in lab coats, carrying a white stretcher came running in as Ayako's hearing blurred in and out of focus.

      "You went too far, Suzuya,"

     "Do you even know how few ghouls we have left to test on?"

      "If we get her to the infirmary in time, we might be able to heal it,"

      "Do we even have the right technology for that?"

     "Maybe, maybe not, but this would be a good time to test it out,"

      "Someone collect that Kagune, and take it to the lab for testing,"

     "I can't wait until they make a quinque out of that one,"

       And with that, Ayako's half-limp body was lifted onto a stretcher and she was carted off down the halls of dull, peeling blue paint, and the antiseptic smell hit her once the double doors opened in front of her and she was carried though.

    She was dumped face down on an empty bed as the sound of drawers rattling echoed around her, the sounds of various people hunting for something they needed desperately.

     "Find formula X, quickly, we don't know the window of opportunity we may have,"

     "It's here," A voice called. There was a moment of quiet, before and ear-splitting scream erupted from Ayako's throat as the most agonising burning pain shot from the stumps of her shattered Kagune through her whole body.

     "I don't think formula X will regrow the Kagune,"

     "We can't be sure. We need more applications and observation time to be sure. Make preparations for the testing of formula X on subject 21, and inform the director of our plans,"

       Ayako listened hazily as the pain numbed until she felt cold and heavy all over, the words buzzing in her brain like a swarm of angry wasps. 'testing of formula X', 'more application', 'more observation time'. Nothing sounded good to Ayako. She desperately wanted to escape, desperately wanted to escape back to the as-normal-as-can-be life she came from. But she knew she couldn't go back, it was too late now.

    She had to escape. She had to move forward.

     The desire to escape was so strong, she would be willing to try just about anything, desperate to escape the torture she had been accustomed to for the last however the hell long she had been trapped in this godforsaken place. So as her blurry eyes rested on the large window, showing the city lights illuminating the city-scape beyond from about three or four stories up, she knew she had to take her chance.

      She didn't expect to be as strong as she was, when she pushed herself up. Perhaps she had always been this strong, and the drugs had deceived her. But now it had been a while since the last dosing, and it was beginning to wear off. The fiery pain shot from her broken Kagune but she couldn't think about that now, she wouldn't let herself.

     The only people around were the lab technicians, none of which would be able to stop her. She projected herself across the room as the startled cries arose in a chorus. One of the technicians slammed their hand down on a panic button mounted on a wall and the faint wail of a siren arose somewhere in the building, but Ayako paid no mind.

      She launched herself at the large window, and there was a loud crack as it shattered, Ayako's body hurling through it along with the shards of glass. She landed on the floor, a three storey drop later, with a sickening thud. Her bones crunched painfully, and while she was weaker than she would've been, she was still a ghoul, she was still strong.

     She pulled herself to her feet and fled down the dark streets, propelling herself into the night. By the time the investigators had assembled, she was long gone.

      Somewhere, far away from the CCG building, her weary body came to a halt. She didn't know where to go, what to do, she certainly couldn't go back where she came from. Only one place came to mind, a safe-haven for vulnerable ghouls.

     She looked around herself hopefully, scanning the environment, and despite her pain, hope swelled in her gut. She forced herself onwards, trudging through the night streets, until she stopped outside a coffee shop. She let out a breathy laugh in relief and almost fell through the door, the scent of strong coffee lighting up her senses.

      She had reached anteiku.

~