Aogiri Tree Goes Shopping.

Shiki sat in his personal lab and was going through the information Souta had brought him. He carefully went through the information and compared it to what he had already found out from his time as a guest lecturer at the various academy branches all over Tokyo. He cross examined the information to make sure Souta wasn't feeding him false information. As he went through the large file, he was surprised to come across information on the Sunlit Garden. Most of the information submitted were things he already knew but the fact that Souta had given this to him only put him in more of a positive light for Shiki. He analyzed the information on the Garden before setting it aside in case he needed it for the future. What he needed right now were humans with strong bodies not half-humans with ghoul dna already inside them. Plus the Garden was too important to the Washuu Clan and V organization and targeting the facility right now would attract too much attention and focus from them which he wasn't ready for yet. He'd hit the place when he was closer to his goal and was ready to take them on. He set the parts mentioning the Garden aside and resumed going through the information he'd requested on the Academies. He went through the maps and geographical distribution of the academy branches as well as the number of adult personnel and qualified human subjects that could be found in each branch. He discovered that out of the twelve academy branches in Tokyo, seven of them were for the elite and offered compulsory on-campus residential options like a military boarding school. He crossed out the schools that did not offer this option since he didn't want to have to perform the abductions in broad daylight when the majority of the students were in class. Though he circled the home addresses of their top students especially those with above average strength and agility. He'd have them abducted from their homes directly since they did not live on campus. Focusing on the seven elite schools, he went through their student performance charts and picked out the best ones and labeled them as high priority targets. He highlighted the location of their dorms and analyzed the security measures employed on campus. After that he also went through the staff list and their CCG profiles. He had to be aware of what he'd be going up against in his effort to gather his human subjects. He went through the files and analyzed the threat levels of the staff situated in these branches before planning out the best time to abduct the students. Once he'd analyzed the security measures and figured out countermeasures to get past them, he thought to himself on how he should go about executing this shopping trip. He was about to get up to fetch some ghouls to lead and abduct the students but he paused as he realized something. What was the point of training and building up an army of ghouls if they couldn't run such simple errands for him. He stood up and looked around his lab to inspect it. He'd spent the past few weeks mass producing his new serum in preparation for the incoming human subjects. He had everything he needed to begin his human trials apart from the test subjects. He'd originally thought about going to get them himself but he decided to instead send out some ghoul squads led by Aogiri Tree executives to get them. It was about time they proved themselves to him. He couldn't continue to do everything himself. He had to learn to delegate sometimes, even if they failed it would be best to know now so he could abandon this organization instead of continuing to waste his time here. Worst case scenario is that he'd wipe out the entire base and go solo from now on.

It had been close to an hour since he'd left Souta alone with Rize. Shiki walked out of his lab towards the couple to find Souta resting his head on Rize's lap. He was taking advantage of the fact that she was restrained and rested his head on her lap as one would a pillow while he lay there peacefully with his eyes closed and had a contented smile on his face. Shiki walked past the pair and spotted Rize with her head down glaring at Souta's head in her lap. He could tell that if not for the fact that she was restrained with RC suppressants pumping through her bloodstream, she'd probably waste no time in immediately ripping Souta to pieces. As he passed by, Rize raised her head and began trying to grab his attention by using her eyes to signal for his help in getting him off her. He downright ignored her though he noted a stream of blood running down the side of her face from her scalp as he passed her by. She also seemed to have some bruising on her left cheek and across her neck. Throwing it to the back of his mind, Shiki left the pair behind and walked out of the lab passing Kanou on the way out. He walked through headquarters to find Tatara in the training room sparring with his two protégés, Ayato Kirishima and Hanzo Kimura. Ayato was the brother of one of the Anteiku ghouls Shiki had devoured who he had beat into unconsciousness when they first met due to the fact Ayato had showed him disrespect. He'd spared his life and sent him to be trained under Tatara as a means of instilling in him skill, strength and discipline. As for Hanzo Kimura, he was one of the three SS rated ghouls he'd rescued from Cochlea alongside Roma and Shikorae. He was a former inhabitant of the 24th ward who'd fled Tokyo and was captured in the countryside years later raising a cult of humans dedicated to satisfying his every desire. Both ghouls bowed once they noticed Shiki walking in. Tatara was currently bare chested in a pair of white gi trousers normally used as a uniform in a dojo. His pale albino chest was slick with sweat as he'd just finished a prolonged two on one spar against his protégés in which he was not allowed to attack either one. He was only allowed to dodge or block as both protégés were free to attack him together or on their own while the other rested. They'd been at it for four hours straight and while both Ayato and Hanzo were winded with their white dojo uniforms drenched with sweat, apart from the sweat on his pale chest, Tatara looked like the spar hardly affected him. "Tatara, it's time to move out and attack the CCG academies. I'm delegating this operation to you, pick some executives and have them lead squads to capture this list of targets while you supervise from a central location. This operation will be a coordinated attack at several different locations, plan this out properly and choose only those who are capable and will not mess things up. I will not be participating in this operation, I hope the results don't disappoint me." Shiki calmly said with a carefree smile as he handed over the folder containing the information on the academies he'd gotten from Souta. He'd highlighted the targets he wanted and wrote down some notes on things to be careful of when carrying out this ambitious wide scale abduction. Tatara nodded in understanding as he received the folder, he opened it and skimmed through it before closing it and handing it over to Hanzo for safekeeping. "Rest assured, this will be carried out with the utmost care and efficiency. I expect we'll have a working plan in two weeks once we've performed onsite reconnaissance and confirmed the targets highlighted here. Give us three weeks and I promise you that the targets will be presented before you." Tatara said with a serious tone before turning to his protégés, "Hanzo, start compiling a shortlist of executives with the best combination of strength, discipline and leadership skills to carry out this mission. Ayato, while he's on that you are to head over to the 11th ward to let the branch there know of the upcoming mission in case there are any capable ghouls there who want to volunteer to participate." Tatara said to both his protégés as they solemnly nodded and assented in reply. Shiki noted that both protégés had cut their hair short in a style similar to that of their mentor. Both males seemed to have put on some muscle and were no longer as lean as when he'd first met them. The biggest change came from Ayato's eyes as he seemed to have matured and shed his recklessness while under the tutelage of Tatara. Shiki had turned and was about to leave when he heard Ayato call out to him respectfully, he turned around to find Ayato on the ground kneeling and prostrating himself. He was performing the Japanese etiquette custom known as Dogeza which involved kneeling directly on the ground and bowing to prostrate oneself while touching one's head to the floor. "Sir, I beseech you to allow me the honor to apologize for my disrespectful conduct during the event of our first meeting. I have no excuses for my behavior back then and I'm forever grateful you spared my life that day. Since then, I've seen the error of my ways but will continue to work hard so as to prove myself worthy of your mercy. I hope you'll forgive my past disrespectful self and allow me to work towards earning your acknowledgement as a better and more capable person." Ayato stated in a disciplined formal manner while his head was still touching the floor. Shiki said nothing as he observed the young man before him currently apologizing to him. If he was to be completely honest with himself, the truth was that Shiki had long forgotten about the issue with Ayato. He had a lot of important things going on and the issue was never something he'd really cared about after thrashing the young man. He trusted Tatara to straighten the kid out so he was glad to see he was right to believe in him. He analyzed Ayato's heart to find he wasn't lying or giving him a fake apology. "Get up kid. I'm glad to see you've turned over a new leaf but you've yet to prove yourself to me. How about this? Take part in the upcoming abduction mission and I'll acknowledge you depending on your performance, do not disappoint me." Shiki said as Ayato raised his head to see him with a smile on his face. Once he was done speaking, Shiki turned around and walked out of the training room while waving goodbye leaving Ayato to watch his disappearing silhouette with adoration in his eyes. Ayato pledges to himself that he'd work hard to prove himself to Shiki in the upcoming mission, even if he died trying.

Shiki returned to the lab to find Souta ready to leave while Rize was staring vicious daggers at him. Shiki noticed additional bruises and a busted lip on Rize while Souta had a glob of spit on his face. He acted like he didn't see anything as he directed Souta out of the lab before leading him out of the 24th ward and up to the surface. "I hope you realize that if you try to sneak back in here without my permission, you're gonna end up lost and once I find you, let's just say you're not gonna enjoy what I'm gonna do. Let me know when you want to visit Rize again. You know where to find me and if you can't, tell Itori and she'll let me know. I hope we have an understanding?" Shiki said with a charming smile as he offered his hand for a handshake. Souta had returned his mask to his face but he sweated underneath as he could feel the predatory aura coming off Shiki so he immediately nodded in assent and shook Shiki's hand in agreement. Shiki watched as Souta disappeared into the dark of the night before turning around and heading back to the 24th ward. He returned to the lab and was on the way to his personal lab when Rize called out to him. "Do you have any idea what kind of psycho you're working with? Either you're fond of playing with fire or you have no idea who you're dealing with. You have no idea how scary the people behind that creep are, they've been eliminating ghouls like you and me long before your grandparents were born. You think you're using him but you're the one being used, release me and I promise to tell you everything I know about the organization he and I come from. We can work together to take them down and survive, as long as you release me I'll do anything you want." Rize spoke in a calm somewhat desperate manner, she bent forward in a effort at seduction by giving Shiki a peek at what lay beneath her gown. Shiki gave a glance and admired her curvy hourglass figure for a moment before walking past her and entering his personal lab. He found Rize to be a bit too conniving and manipulative for his tastes. Plus she'd better serve him as a kakuhou organ farm, after all he wasn't the type to lose sight of his goals because of lust. He walked into his lab and began preparing it to receive the massive influx of human test subjects straight from the CCG Training Academies, this was going to cause a riot across Tokyo for sure.

Today was an exciting day for Eto Yoshimura, she'd recently finished the manuscript for her new novel and had just submitted it to her editor Shunji Shiono at the Shoeisha publishing company. Her new novel was about a lonely, depressed woman trapped as a cog in the wheel of society who only felt alive when she snuck out at night to torture and kill unsuspecting civilians. She went on like this until things change one night when she comes across a mysterious handsome man who gets the better of her when she assaults his supposedly unsuspecting figure. The stranger subdues her and sweeps her off her feet in a bid to court her even though she later reveals her true evil self and the extent of her black-hearted deeds. The man accepts her for who she is and she is shocked to discover the darkness in him that far exceeds hers. The novel is a story about a woman who finds love with a man who accepts the darkness in her heart and teaches her to accept herself by exposing her to the greater darkness in his. Eto had yet to receive a detailed review of the manuscript from her editor but from the way he'd been engrossed in it as she left the building, she felt this would be another best seller for her alias as acclaimed author Sen Takatsuki. She hadn't really had time to spend with Shiki in the past month and a half because she'd been busy writing her new novel. She also knew Shiki had been busy preparing with his experiments and she'd recently gotten word that Aogiri Tree was going to acquire a bunch of CCG cadets for him as human test subjects tomorrow night. She'd wanted to finish her manuscript in time so she could have a window of opportunity to spend time with Shiki before he threw himself into test trials once he acquired the incoming human subjects. Eto made her way to the 20th ward before getting into her disguise and entering the 24th ward. She made her way to the Aogiri Tree headquarters and headed straight to the facility's conference hall where meeting were regularly held. She walked in to find a meeting was currently going on between Shiki, Tatara and the executives leading the squads tomorrow to abduct the CCG cadets. Shiki looked stunning as ever, his long, wavy, ink black hair was styled in an untidy manner and his golden eyes shone through the hair obstructing his handsome features. He was wearing a plain dark red oversized kimono cardigan jacket over a white t-shirt, a pair of black baggy linen hakama trousers and a pair of Japanese Zori sandals. He was lounging in his chair as he listened to the executives standing before him and reporting their preparations for the abduction mission tomorrow. Eto paid attention to no one but him as she walked to take a seat beside Shiki and Tatara. It took her all her self control not to jump on him right there in front of everyone but she knew the smart thing was to keep their affair under wraps. She received a bright smile from him as she sat down that made her melt into her seat, she couldn't wait for this meeting to be over. She turned her attention to the executives before them after engaging in a nonverbal greeting with Tatara, she found that twenty-four executives would be partaking in the operation tomorrow including the wards Shiki had assigned to her, Yamori and Shikorae. She'd had fun molding Yamori into the person that stoically stood before her today. She'd taken her time torturing him and patiently carving into him disciplinary etiquette. The man had fared well at first, showing he'd suffered through torture before but eventually she cracked him open like an egg and she was free to reprogram him to her liking. Today he stood before her, a hulking mass with long dark hair going down his back. Gone was his flamboyant white suit, he was now dressed in a black wool monk robe. If the robe were removed, one would find scars running all over his body like treasure map. Eto could still hear his screams as she personally carved into his bones and taught him lessons on manners, she'd really had fun creating the soldier standing quietly before her, Shiki and Tatara. As for Shikorae, he'd been a bit more of a challenge. Physical torture didn't seem to show any positive effects so she'd had to resort to psychological torture to get rid of his cowardice. She'd made use of several psychological torture methods to interrogate him and draw out any and all information from him about himself. She'd then used the information to manipulate and mold him into the person he was today. The process had been a bit challenging as it had required much more subtlety and skill than she'd employed with Yamori though she eventually arrived at a similar result. She'd erased the cowardice from him and instilled in him confidence to follow hers and Shiki's orders. Shikorae wore a grey, long sleeve, skin-tight top over a pair of tight black leather pants. Both Yamori and Shikorae nodded to Eto in greeting once she turned her attention towards them.

The various executives stepped up one by one and stated the preparation for the next day's mission. Eto was bored through it all and was glad when the meeting finally ended an hour later. Shiki ended the meeting by wishing the executives good luck in the mission the next day before they filed out to rest up and do some final preparations for the next day. Once they were done, Eto could hardly wait as she dragged Shiki out of the conference room to his secluded quarters where they stayed locked up in isolation for the next twenty four hours. It had been so long since they'd been together and she'd felt him ravage her. She knew this would be the last time for a while they'd have this much free time to go wild in each other's arms, after all Shiki was busy with his experiments and she'd have her book tour to promote her new book once her editor authorized its release. They stayed cooped up in his bed with their bodies wrapped around each other as Shiki ravaged Eto through numerous thunderous orgasms. They only stopped and came down from his room so they could observe and supervise how the mission was going from the headquarters conference room. They walked in to find the operation had already begun and was halfway through. Eto listened through the communication channels as the Aogiri Tree squads hit each location with silent and deadly force. They wasted no time and tore through any obstructions before immediately knocking out and abducting their targets. Eto knew the operation would go this well since if their elite forces couldn't even handle investigators in training, Aogiri Tree might as well disband itself and not bother facing off against the CCG. There had been some minor issues with the staff but that was the reason for the executives being there, they decimated the campus security and on-campus staff meant to protect the students. Some of the adults had even been disarmed and captured to be brought back to Shiki for trials. Standout performances during the mission had to come from Ayato, Yamori and Shikorae. Ayato had easily dealt with any of the more difficult targets and staff, especially a CCG cadet by the name of Rei Suzuya. Turns out the kid was a wild one and managed to evade and hold his own against the ghoul sent to abduct him. Ayato had quickly moved in and incapacitated the feral young lad with stitched pale skin and shoulder length white hair. Apart from that, the operation went smoothly as the squads went in and out faster than any alarms could be raised. With knowledge of the security measures they were able to easily avoid or disable them preventing anyone from notifying the CCG of what was going on. They cut down anybody that stood in their or slowed them down. Even the squads sent to retrieve the cadets who didn't live on campus did well in covertly infiltrating the civilian residential areas and abducting their targets. They raised no alarms and wiped out any family members that tried to call for help. It was a very efficient performance by the Aogiri Tree executives and squads that greatly pleased Shiki as he received word that all the squads were on their way back with their abductees. He stood up excitedly to leave the conference room. Eto sighed as she could see he couldn't wait to begin his human trials once the squads returned with his test subjects. As she watched him walk towards his lab, she wondered what effects tonight's operation would have on Tokyo when the people wake up tomorrow to find the CCG's finest seeds had been taken while they slept. She giggled at the thought of it.