Isogai felt sick. His head was still spinning with the thoughts of what happened. It had been a week now, and he still had no idea how to get back to the ghoul who helped him. He had no name, ghoul or otherwise to go on. All Isogai knew was that the ghoul was a Crow, but that wasn't helpful.

There were several generations of Crows, and even if the ghoul who helped him didn't seem old, there were still at least four or five possible generations of Crows that the ghoul could belong to. There was also the factor that it wasn't often that you stumbled upon a crow who was wearing the group mask. I was lucky he was there, even more so nice enough to help.

As he neared Rakuyama Academy, he couldn't help but gag at the thought of what else happened that night. That was another reason he wished to contact the ghoul so bad... Isogai needed to know if he was alive. His memories of the night were faint, but he wasn't stupid. Isogai knew well that he had to have gained the strength to regenerate from somewhere.

Some other parts of the night still puzzled him as well, or rather, a certain event the next morning. Isogai had woken up in his small home in the room he shared with his siblings. How had he gotten there? As amazing as the Crows could be, the ghoul probably didn't know where he lived. He also remembered in the small time he had been awake to eat that he was definitely not at home.

Isogai had heard some familiar voices as well, but he figured that that part of his vague memory was most likely a trick of his mind. After all, he knew for a fact that no one he was familiar with was a Crow, so the other voices were in his head.

"Isogai," Itona called, tapping the brunet on the shoulder. 

"Itona!" Isogai sounded surprised as he jumped slightly, abandoning his former thoughts. "don't scare me like that..."

"Nagisa and Karma would have met you, but they're kind of dealing with something else," Itona stated, "oh, and we all know what happened to you."

Isogai wanted to ask, but decided against it. He figured that maybe the Crow wasn't the only other ghoul nearby, and when that's the case news always spreads quickly. Isogai asked about the classes, and where his was placed. Itona sighed, almost sounding disappointed when he saw the room number.

"You're not in our class," Itona said upfront, "you're in the same class as the guy who could have exposed me a while ago."

Isogai gave him a puzzled look.

"Just by that statement alone, I'm getting the feeling that there is a lot I should be filled in on." Isogai sighed, scratching his upper arm.

┈

"Hey, Nagisa!"

Karma had just gone in the building in order to ask Yachi about Yamaguchi and Tsukishima. Nagisa had decided to stay outside for a while before the bell rang, and he was strongly regretting his choices. The short, blue-haired teen would rather die than deal with these two guys at the moment. I should have gone with Itona... 

"Hey, Girly! Don't ignore us!"

Nagisa turned on his heal, giving the two others a sickly sweet smile.

"Tanaka... Takada... how nice to see you guys," Nagisa said, "can I help you with something?" 

┈

"You've got to be joking!" Nagisa grumbled, stepping into the classroom. Behind him, Tanaka Nobuta and Chōsuke Takada waltzed in, slightly uncomfortable expressions splayed on both of their faces.

The look only seemed to grow when they made brief eye contact with Itona.

Nagisa's changed since we last saw him...

"How's Isogai doing?" Nagisa asked his grey-haired friend.

"He seems fine, conflicted at most," Itona reported, sighing, "I told him we know about what happened. I think he feels guilty."

(Y/n) approached them, leaving his cousin's side in the process. He didn't like the feeling his two new classmates gave him, so he opted to move away from them. 

"Guys," (Y/n) interrupted, looking back at Nobuta and Chōsuke, "am I the only one who's getting a bad feeling from them? They give me the chills, and they sat in Yamaguchi's and Tsukishima's seats like they own them."

Nagisa sighed at the intrusion, but turned to answer nonetheless.

"Don't feel uneasy about them, the two of them are weaker than you, and if you were to fight them Todoroki would help you anyway," Nagisa said, "and yeah, they don't know that the beanpoles have been missing, so they're being rude by taking their seats."

"Yamaguchi seemed weak, and I'm sure even he could take the both of them," Itona added. Nagisa hit him. "What?"

"You shouldn't talk about the dead like that," (Y/n) uttered.

"We don't know if he's dead," Nagisa voiced quickly, "don't make gruesome assumptions."

Todoroki walked up to them and joined the conversation, a disgusted look decorating his otherwise pleasant features.

"I already don't like the new guys," he declared. "they seem like jerks, and they smell."

"They smell? Like what? I didn't notice anything earlier." Nagisa moved some hair out of his eyes.

"I don't know, something pungent, though. Like rotten human food, but fainter," Todoroki described, "whatever it is, I can't stand it."

"I might check that out later, purely out of curiosity," (Y/n) thought aloud.

"Anyway, is there any news on Yamaguchi? I know he's still out there-"

"How?" Itona interrupted. Nagisa had the same thought.

"This is going to sound bad, and maybe I'll explain later, but basically a CCG officer I know asked me about him, and indirectly told me that they haven't caught him. I can't say anything about his actual state of health, though."

"I forgot about that! Yeah, it looks like literally no one knows where he is!"

Both Nagisa and Itona gave (Y/n) an unimpressed look.

"You being all buddy-buddy with one of them aside, how the hell did you forget something that important?"

┈

"Hey, Yachi," Karma called, tapping the small-framed girl on her shoulder.

"Yes, Akabane?" she responded nervously, "is something wrong?"

"Well yeah, but I wanted to see if you knew more about what's going on than the rest of us. I mean, you're friends with the pretzel sticks, aren't you?" Karma said, "and Karma is fine."

"Well... A.. Karma... I feel like I, along with the rest of the volleyball club knows the least." Yachi played with her fingers. "I'm not even one-hundred percent sure what happened at all. The guys in their class seem to know plenty, since they're whispering whenever I see them."

"Oh. Would you like to be filled in? Once lunch rolls around, we'll probably have a pretty clear vision of that night's events."

"Sure, I guess? Can I tell the ghouls in our club? Like, is that crossing the line?"

"If that was crossing the line then Itona and I probably would know a lot less than we do. Todoroki and Okina wouldn't have been clued in on crap."

Another blond sauntered up to them confidently. He smiled, an interesting glint in his eyes. Karma sighed, glaring at him. The slightly shorter male hadn't spoken to him much, but he just rubbed Karma the wrong way (aside from the whole 'being an unacquainted and suspicious ghoul' thing). Said blond put his hands up in surrender, stopping about a comfortable distance from them.

"Hey, I couldn't help but overhear your conversation," he stated, "I've heard bits and pieces of the story myself. Do you think he's dead? I'm willing to bet the CCG is coming to check out all the ghouls in their class!"

Karma scowled at the suggestion that his friends were in danger, and Yachi seemed to wilt immediately.

"Don't say that, I'm sure Yamaguchi and Kei are fine..." 

"Yeah, and they aren't coming to check them out. If they did, I'd turn you in myself just out of suspicion."

"So harsh. I bet that's why only others like us would ever wanna be your friend," Monoma teased, "but you don't even have that many of us as your friends either, do you, Akabane?"

"Karma has plenty of friends!" Yachi blurted defensively. 

"Sure he does, like the weakling Ikeman and that trash heap, Pops!"

"Monoma, stop being such a jerk! What did they ever do to you?" a brunette interrupted, "you need to stop bothering people like this out of the blue! We talked about this."

"Uraraka,"

"At this rate, the only person who'll ever love you is your mom, and then you'll die alone in her basement!"

Karma took the opportunity to slip out of the room for the last few minutes before school officially started. Yachi watched the blond's and brunette's exchange curiously.

┈

Tsukishima stared at his ceiling, thinking with a cold, sinking sensation in his chest. He was scared, to an extent. Not of Yamaguchi, but of the people he was friends with. He had seen the mask, and even humans were aware of the crows. Tsukishima felt as if he could be attacked at any moment by one of them. Maybe they'd break in through his window, or perhaps there was one under his bed, waiting until he fell asleep to strike.

He was scared to go back to school, too. If Yamaguchi had hidden the fact that he was a ghoul for so long, then how could he trust everybody else? Were any of his other friends ghouls? How many of his classmates fed off people? How many would want to feed off of him once they heard what happened to Yamaguchi?

Another thing that kept Tsukishima in his room for the last week was shame. He'd called the CCG on his best friend since childhood. Yamaguchi would have to lie low for the rest of his life if this matter were openly broadcast, promptly ruining his future. Tsukishima had been so frightened at the time that he hadn't even thought that far. All he could think was 'ghoul,' and not for a second did he think 'Yamaguchi Tadashi.'

If Yamaguchi was a ghoul this whole time, and hadn't hurt Tsukishima despite the countless opportunities, then who was he to assume his freckled friend ever would? In fact, now that things had had some time to settle in, Tsukishima's little realizations were making him feel more and more like the bad guy. 

Sure, both Yamaguchi and I are both naturally skinny, but... I knew he wasn't eating enough. And now..? 

He'd been getting messages from his friends and teammates all week. He'd heard from Yachi that the school had finally gotten the several new students from the one that was temporarily shut down. What stories had been made up about his empty seat? What about Yamaguchi's? He'd gotten a call from the person he reported his friend to. They hadn't found him yet.

I'm glad, but... that isn't good enough.

He heard a knock on his bedroom door and froze. Was it his time? Was this his punishment for acting before he considered the consequences? Surely some of Yamaguchi's other friends would come to get him. The freckled teen had told him himself:

"You should've gone with Nishinoya — it's not your world at this time of night, it isn't safe, so go home."

"it's not your world at this time of night"

It's his. Yamaguchi's. Yamaguchi and all the other ghouls he probably was friendly with.

"Kei?" Tsukishima sighed at the calm call of his name. 

"Yeah?"

"It's Akiteru. I came to visit after mom told me about Tadashi..."

"And?"

"And... I wanted to hear it from you myself." Akiteru opened the door slowly and stepped inside, shutting the door behind him. "Is Tadashi really a ghoul?"

For some reason, gears that Tsukishima didn't know were there started to turn in his head. Something about the situation had given him an idea. 

The taller (yet younger) of the blonds made a decision at that moment that he was sure wasn't even close to reasonable, realistically. He made the decision without taking the time to think of the consequences. That said, something told him that this time it was a good thing.

"... No."  

┈

(2086 Words)