BCTheEntity

The Fate of Ward 8: A Tokyo Ghoul RP

Bisuto Ketsu

@AngelofOctober@Gardevoiran@Alias@TheRedWatcher

---

Yes, of course he was taking notes. What psychopath didn't? Well, perhaps plenty, but it was nonetheless an annoying thing to observe as he glanced toward Grant. Of everybody, he was perhaps the most likely to figure out the truth about Ketsu for sheer bloody-minded determination to find out about him; everyone else took it for granted that he had normal human thoughts, like a normal human being, but Grant, it seemed, had to know exactly how people ticked, and that made him a very specific psychological threat.

Yuno, by contrast, was... well, green. A rookie. He'd argue as new as himself, but she had technically been in the field longer than he had; nonetheless, he'd not missed her slight looks toward him. She was already looking favourably upon him, a very open mind... too open, perhaps. Grant was going to read her like a book if she didn't ensconce her emotions more effectively, and there was no telling what he'd do with the information he got out of her.

That said, the coffee shop didn't take long to reach- nice place, very East-meets-West- and Ketsu was more than happy to have his drinks purchased for him. He didn't miss the tone of the server's voice when she spoke to Grant, though... how long had Grant been going to this place, had he said? And was he even slightly cognizant of how she felt for him? Either way, the poor woman was pining for somebody who barely even noticed her, and she had no idea. What a shame.

Eventually, he placed his order, a double espresso which he'd put in just half a teaspoon of sugar into afterward to take the edge off, before moving to sit at the table with Yuno. 'Nice place they have here,' he murmured to her. 'Very interesting style - middle of the road, is all, but never bad from what I've seen.'

Halfway through his sentence, his ear was drawn by the sound of the door to the place opening again, and blinked in surprise, nothing more, as his nose was hit a couple of seconds later by the undeniable scent of ghoul and... something sweet? Turning as though he were merely curious about the noise, rather than instantly on edge, he glanced between the two newcomers to the place, trying to figure out which was-

Well, one of them was actually an idol - he wasn't especially into all that, but the girl was plastered practically everywhere in Ward 8, so it was impossible to not know about Ms. Himehana, though apparently she had a secret fetish for the inhuman and a most pleasurable smell to her. Which meant the man she was practically hanging off of... tall, dark, handsome, a complete unknown, and if he paid attention the source of the smell? Ghoul, 99% certainty. And he had no way of proving it for sure without outing himself in the process. Shit. Best to play it cool for now, then.

'Y'see?' he continued quietly, turning back to Yuno with a grin. 'Not moments after we arrive, and there's already a couple of new customers. Perfectly reasonable place to have a drink and cake. Maybe I'll go here a bit more frequently than I normally do, after all, what do you think?'

Into The Dark: Tales of Maroleth

@The Fated Fallen I thought it was pretty good, myself. Keep up the good work, I say.

S-SWAT: Doorkicking, Demons and Drug Busts

@BespeckledCeph I am cyka blyat supreme.

The Fate of Ward 8: A Tokyo Ghoul RP

Bisuto Ketsu

@AngelofOctober@Banana

---

'...yes, I do enjoy coffee and investigation,' Ketsu replied bluntly, honestly not really wanting to give more than that, a very deliberately neutral answer, to the mind-trawling First Class Investigator. He'd say it to himself as many times as he needed: Grant's thought processes were alien to him most of the time, but he highly doubted many of them were well-meaning, and certainly that they wouldn't be if Ketsu's race were revealed... but there was at least one point of his he could plainly refute, which he did shortly after Yuno mentioned that she didn't know where they were headed: 'Well, wherever we go, I think it's safe to suggest you'd both be fine if we got in a fight with some ghouls. Even if I am skilled for my level, I'm still only a Rank 2.'

As he spoke, he espied Yuno looking between him and Grant, only to draw out her weapon- a child's grabber, of some sort?- and begin clicking it together over and over. He didn't need a qualification in psychological profiling to recognise nervous behaviour, nor did he need any extra information to figure out what the cause was. To somebody unused to the rigours of real battle, Grant served as an unsettling reminder of the risks all investigators took, not to mention a demonstration of- ...a possible demonstration of the fact that there were investigators just as bad as some ghouls.

Regardless, they had a coffee shop to get to, so he quickly took another peek at the card Grant held, recognising the shop's name after a moment. 'You know what, I do recognise that place,' Ketsu capitulated, 'I've been there a couple of times myself. If you guys don't mind me leading the way...' He gestured to both investigators to walk on either side of him, an arrangement that would conveniently keep Yuno physically separated from Grant for the time being. She was admittedly quite cute, and whilst she'd have to learn to work with her partner eventually and vice versa, Ketsu felt there was no harm in making sure the more emotional of the pair remained at ease in his presence for now.

The Fate of Ward 8: A Tokyo Ghoul RP

Bisuto Ketsu

@AngelofOctober@Banana

---

'I'll take you up on that, Yu,' Ketsu said a bit quietly, gently pulling her hand close to his face as if to kiss the back, only to wink at her and let her go free. Did he feel the need to fluster her? No, but since she was already flustered, why not poke a bit of fun at her expense?

'And free coffee to celebrate your new partnership, Grant?' he exclaimed, continuing to grin just a little. 'Why, I'd be a fool to refuse!' In truth, he highly suspected Grant was trying to trick him somehow. Or at least examining him in some way or another. That damned ridiculous silly straw of his was a bit odd to observe when he first saw it, but a straw made sense in hindsight, considering his deformity. Not specifically that straw, but when it was accompanied by free coffee...

'Where were you thinking, then? I know there's a cafe that opened up in Kiyosumi a little while back, but somehow I suspect that coupon isn't for that particular shop.' Ketsu's voice remained light, though his thoughts verged darker than typical when discussing one of the few things he could physically ingest; he'd only heard a little bit about the Birdcage, just enough to surmise that the drinks it sold were of at least decent quality.

He also had his... apprehensions... about the place. Really, "the Birdcage"? When practically everyone knew that Dove was a slang term for a Ghoul Investigator? It reeked of death in plain sight to him, but he knew full-well that without evidence, there was nothing to suggest it would be different than any other coffee shop. Which still meant it was a good place to scope out, of course... it'd just need a bit of tact to it, was all. And perhaps a suitable disguise.

The Fate of Ward 8: A Tokyo Ghoul RP

Bisuto Ketsu

@Old Amsterdam@AngelofOctober@Banana

---

Phew. Looked like he was in the clear. Graye had looked a tad hostile, but that could be taken fairly simply as being annoyed about how she'd been taken out immediately, only for Ketsu to rapidly defeat the ghoul himself, with assistance from Seto. Nobody liked to be shown up, and she'd absolutely been unconscious whilst he was feeding, with no good way for her to show that he'd drained the ghoul's blood to his knowledge; suffice to say, Ketsu would be receiving good marks for this affair that Graye had been denied by the sudden assault.

As for Seto, he'd been a tad suspicious about the body, perhaps the inevitably lesser amount of blood it was spewing after Ketsu's ministrations, but seemingly shook it off at the end of the day. Ketsu had responded appropriately to each of his statements: 'Maybe I'll even get it in tonight, sir!'; 'Will do. I could use something to calm me down.'; and 'And I thank you for pushing me, Seto!', this last call to Seto half-yelled in his direction as he walked back towards the HQ. Afterwards, with all said and done... frankly speaking, Ketsu saw no special reason not to do the same, though he figured he'd go at his own pace. He had the time, after all.

A few short minutes later, and Ketsu had found himself just in front of Ward 8's CCG building, a little ways away from... Grant. One of the few people other than Seto he paid particular mind to remember, though it was hard not to remember a face like his. The half-ghoul half-admired the man's dedication to, amongst other things, his willingness to push the bounds of what was known of ghoul psychology to their limit. And yet, Grant really didn't seem human in mentality half the time, and half of that was apparently due to not caring for the pretense. His physical deformities hardly fased Ketsu, to wit- he'd already seen far worse sights by the tender age of four- but his attitude was... something of a threat. At the end of the day, he had little doubt that the man would try to dissect his brain, both metaphorically and most likely very literally, if he ever found out about Ketsu's heritage. Plus, he was just plain nuts.

And then there was the poor girl who had begun chatting to him after stepping out of the building. He recognised her as... his best guess was "Miss Scatterbrain", who if he recalled correctly had only "graduated" a little while after Ketsu himself, after co-opting in at Rank 3 and receiving years of additional training under a Senior Investigator; admittedly, that was hearsay rather than affirmed fact in his mind, but it nonetheless intrigued him to figure out what a regime of personally-tailored battle education did for an investigator. In a way, that partnership made sense, with brains leading brawn, but it didn't make it a much easier affair for the Junior. Maybe he should go over and help break the ice a little...

'Good morning, my friends!' he called, smiling lightly and speaking with a carefree tone as he strolled over to the two investigators. 'I take it you two are just getting to know one another? Grant, it's good to see you again; ma'am, I don't think I've had the pleasure yet. I'm Bisuto Ketsu, and you are...?' He offered her his hand to shake, adding a bit of flourish just to better draw her attention.

Into The Dark: Tales of Maroleth

@POOHEAD189 Brilliant. In which case, we're now just waiting for, I believe, @The Fated Fallen to post.

Into The Dark: Tales of Maroleth

@Fetzen@BCTheEntity That is entirely up to y'all. Though I am curious on what you have prepared, BC.

@POOHEAD189

Well, exactly what's in his post: he's praying to Fineki to give him a sign as to whether or not he should take the staff, specifically whether he does so as part of the post before anyone else shows up. I was meaning for that to be something you handled, but if we're limiting it to whether we have PCs show up before he receives any such sign, then it's not a big deal either way.

Into The Dark: Tales of Maroleth

@Fetzen If you don't mind my saying so, I kind of have an action queued up for Sett regarding whether or not he actually grabs the staff. I'm inclined to suggest you wait on whether he does grab it or not before anything else, but... well, maybe it also works out, I'm not entirely sure. @POOHEAD189, your opinions on the matter?

The Fate of Ward 8: A Tokyo Ghoul RP

Bisuto Ketsu

@Old Amsterdam

---

He had to admit, the ease with which he handled that event was enough to bring him to laughter. Just a little bit, at least. Once Seto had confirmed the kill and sounded off how impressed he was with Ketsu's effectiveness, he replied simply: 'I didn't work my butt off for fourth in my year just to get slain by a Chimera, sir.'

And after that, he sort of just... allowed Seto to run off toward Graye, a couple of hundred meters away, as he positioned himself between the ghoul's corpse and Seto himself. It didn't take the Special Class Investigator too long to move toward Graye, but Ketsu still waited until the guy had travelled at least half the distance toward the fallen Dove before checking around himself to see if anybody was nearby, any people, and just as importantly any cameras.

Once visual and nasal evidence suggested otherwise, Kyūketsuki finally allowed himself to release his kagune - the three bikaku tails manifested from the base of his spine, pushing out from between his clothes and passing seamlessly through the cells making up his ex-father's kagune to achieve their full length. Aligning themselves with three of the biggest arteries in the stump of the dead ghoul's neck, the points pushed into the open holes as cleanly as possible, with minimal extra-

Sweet lord. He'd tasted nice ghouls before, but this was something else entirely. The flavour of... let's see, wild boar, and... was that fresh young lamb he detected? Both of those, with a hint of the usual coppery taste that came with consuming blood and flesh. Yes, this was what he lived for, this sensation of flavour, sating his hunger for... alright, that rather depended on how much of a meal he got, actually.

In the end, he decided to take a middling route between caution and satiety. Perhaps a two and a half pints of blood had already been wasted on the ground; it only took him fifteen seconds at most to drain the body of another two or three, each tail drinking up about a third of that content each before withdrawing back into his kakuhou, his quinque demanifesting as well once the tails had fully retracted and he was sure his kakugan wasn't showing. That, he felt, would do him for at least a couple of weeks on top of his remaining time before then, and it'd be a near-certainty that he'd get the chance to feed again before then.

That need handled, he took another look around just to be sure nobody had spotted him feeding, and then began sprinting at "full speed" (i.e. not even close to full speed, but as fast as he pretended he could go) toward Seto and Graye, ready to offer his help as necessary. It probably wouldn't be needed, but hey, what else could he do?