Chapter Text
Thinking back on it, it was supposed to have been a simple mission. Well, as simple as a raid this scale could get. Yet, as soon as he heard the yelling of his superior as Suzuya crashed through the window and the following sound of gunshots that rang like church bells, that hope was quickly dissipated. Worry swelled in his chest for a split second when the air went silent. Not even a mouse would move, people processing someone had slammed into a room of fully armed ghouls. It was an irrational fear, Amon knew Suzuya could have himself, but that split second before Suzuya popped his head up and gave the all clear was terrifying. Even if the other slayed ghouls like he was one, the fear that he would end on a gravestone hit hard. Those fears disappear when he rises from the broken window. Glass covered his hair, light reflecting off of it to appear so similar to the stars above them. His mouth curled up into an overly stretched smile, hands making an ‘all clear’ shape as blood dripped from scorpion.
He was stuck in that loop of fear for only a moment, a moment not a single soul but him would remember. Amon was quickly pulled out of the mind set as he felt a body push against him, then another, and suddenly he was running. It was a blur, blood simply spilling around him. It did not matter if it was ghoul or human blood, it looked and smelled the same. Even the brothers, though a special kill in their own way, didn’t freeze him in his tracks. Their kagune danced over his skin, kissing his body and leaving red marks in their wake. Still, moved on and slashed them, for an investigator should never stop. Freezing would mean death. Yet, ice coated his veins when he spotted the oh so familiar mask. Not the ice when one is fighting for their life, the ice when one sees something they shouldn’t. How stupid he was to freeze when he saw his face.
It was supposed to have been a view of the trees, a return to nature. Still, Amon’s eyes refused to cooperate and instead landed on the one eye the moon hit. Eyepatch stood on the ground, blood covering him and clothings torn. He had seen a million ghouls who looked like that, but it still felt wrong. Maybe because he had seen eyepatch with a more civil appearance. Maybe because the others' hair had gone a stark white. Maybe it was because something that was once in the others eyes had left. What set the alarm bells off? The dove couldn’t pinpoint it, but something was terribly different with him. Even from this far away, he could see the damage laced across his skin in a cruel display of art. He had no time to reason what caused the injuries, though. He heard Shinohara call his name, and the ghoul was gone when he looked back.
Perhaps he should have run after the ghoul, ask him the questions he so desperately wanted to know. Yet, he could hear Shinohara dealing with an overly excited Suzuya. He was lucky enough to not have to deal with the problem child he had grown fond of constantly, but yet he still understood that he was troublesome to deal with alone. Considering how the investigator was most of the time, an overly excited version of him would be a pain for the other to deal with by himself. Perhaps he should have ran after eyepatch, for the first thing he saw upon turning the corner was the infamous Juuzou holding up a corpse like a crude teddy bear.
“Does this mean I can have a Quinque now? I got the Kagune, so I should get one, right? You said I could have one. How does making the Quinque work?” Suzuya was practically buzzing with excitement, the poor Shinohara desperately trying to calm him. The two were like a beehive and the beekeeper, so intertwined with care, yet they could so easily hurt each other if too rough. The older man was carefully removing the other's grip from the body, eyes trained on the corpse instead of the person he spoke to.
“I know this is very exciting Suzuya, but you need to be careful with the corpse, okay? You can’t drag it around.”
“I agree with him on that Suzuya. While I’m proud of you for being a bit more moderate with your wounds, you can not be reckless with things we will turn into weapons.” Amon’s voice cut through the cold air just like his Quinque did not so long ago, finally catching the attention of the stitched up man. It appears he hadn’t even noticed him up to this point. He didn’t lie about being grateful about the damages, though. It was never fun when they couldn’t even identify the number of bodies, which was a far too frequent event with the red eyed investigator.
“That I can do, and I wasn’t the reckless one! The demon person that the dude mentioned was the reckless one. Or he was hallucinating. He did call me an angel, so probably the latter.” The words slipped out of his mouth like honey, yet the content of his sentences only made his coworkers' stomachs upset. It was a creeping feeling of wrongness that stirred in their guts, begging for them to investigate it. After a few beats of silence, Shinohara fell for the temptation.
“Suzuya, how did you find this ghoul? Did you see anyone else around?”
“I found him in the weird big building, with the checker floor. As for anyone else, sadly not. I wish I could have seen the one that tore him up for me! There was blood and guts everywhere!” There was a slight giggle from the other at the last sentence, a wicked smile on his face. Death was Suzuya’s sugar rush. It wasn’t like a drug, per say. Suzuya was still always there, but just more of who he was when guts were involved.
“That’s.. he was attacked before you got there? Did you see any weapon that could have done the damage?” Unlike the other melodic voices, Shinohara’s covered up a degree of worry. Looking closer at the ghoul, the trademark of Suzuya’s scorpion could be seen across it. Still, other injuries lay hidden under the sliced skin. Large bruises and blunt force damage Suzuya simply couldn’t have caused. The most concerning to Amon, at least, was the cuts caused by a Kagune. Unless his colleagues were suddenly right about Suzuya being a ghoul at heart, he simply couldn’t have done that.
“Nope! If you follow me, I can show you where I found him? That way you could look around?” The idea sounded good at the time. Suzuya dropped the corpse off so the kagune could be extracted, and Shinohara cleared it with the higher ups. Hell, even when they approached the building, it seemed normal enough. It was simply a building, the most interesting part being the roof. Still, the outside couldn’t have prepared him for the interior. It was like a trap, a praying mantis laying in the flowers. Except, the praying mantis was the flowers, and Amon knew they were the flies.
As soon as the doors swung open, the smell of death and rot assaulted Amon’s nostrils. A look of disgust wormed its way onto both his and Shinohara’s faces, the look only getting worse the more they saw. The place was what hell would look like. Blood splattered across the floor, like someone spilled a can of paint. Fingers and toes dusted the black and white tiles as well, far far to many of them to ever be considered normal. Shattered remains of furniture lined the rounded walls, almost like they were cowering from the red spot etched into the floor. The only one who wasn’t concerned with the mess was the white haired male, the other two with varying levels of disgust and fear mixed in their faces.
That’s how he got to where he was now. Carefully moving piles of rubble as they searched for information on what the fuck had happened. Shinohara had found the iconic wire cutters early into the search, the knowledge that this was Jason’s doing making the sinking feeling in Amon’s gut worsen. It wasn’t because Jason was strong, it was because someone was stronger than him. Someone beat Jason to a point where Suzuya could kill him without major injuries. With the knowledge that the Rank 2 investigator didn’t see anyone around, plus the lack of a second corpse, there was a very real chance the one who killed him got away.
His spiraling was once again interrupted, a pleasant squeal coming from where Suzuya was searching. Turning to face him, Amon could see the little black box the other held up. His first thoughts ran to the idea that that was a bomb, that it was going go off and his comrade was going become a pile of guts and oh god he needed to get to him-
“Look! I found a camera!”