Chapter 16: flashback pt 1

Ken stretched in the warm sun. He had just gotten off from school and was heading home for the day. It was a really pleasant day. The warm late summer/early autumn weather made the city pleasantly warm; not the scorching heat of the last couple of months. People happily went about their day as they chatted, shopped, and other mundane activities. Ken could even smell more than a few ghoul scents mixed into the crowds. He also watched the crows, pigeons, and other city wildlife make their way around the humans; eating crumbs and leftovers on the ground or patrolling their territory in one of the many alleyways that lined the route back to his house.

Ken was particularly excited to get home today. His father had promised him that he'd train him some more tonight in how to use his newly manifested rinkaku. Earlier this year, Ken's kagune had materialized; allowing the young boy to now pull out a single rinkaku tentacle. While it did remind him of his father in overall appearance he did noticed how there were still differences. The greatest one being how the tip of his was different from Takashi's. It was his own kagune and he was so excited that he kept finding excuses to pull it out at home. It also gave him something to tease his now jealous little sisters with. When he got home, after eating a bit, they would both go to an abandoned factory they had claimed and practice with it. In particular, Takashi was now teaching his son how to properly use the rinkaku like a grappling hook to allow him to move in a much more three dimensional style and to avoid attacks while in the air.

Ken decided to take the path home that led him through the park. He really liked the park. Here he could happily read or play games with his sisters and parents. It was one of the earliest places he remembered his mom taking him after she was certain that he'd wouldn't bring any CCG attention to them. It was here that she had shown him beauty of nature. She had also shown him how cruel it could be though; letting him watch as ants attacked and killed a larger bug as she explained to him about the dark side of the world. He went off the main path and into the forested parts as he listened to the birds in the trees and admired the plants growing around here; away from the beaten path. He had gotten pretty far from the path when he heard a meow. Looking up, the boy saw a cat in one of the trees. He recognized its orange and white coloring and flabby shape as belonging to the cat from next door. It was stuck high up in the tree. Ken wanted to help it but none of the branches were low enough for him to climb up unless…

Ken quickly glanced around the area and sniffed the air. He didn't sense anyone close. The young half-ghoul decided to risk it and used his superior strength to leap up into the tree; quickly climbing it to where the cat was. It took a minute to calm down the animal after he spooked it but after a few pets and nice words the feline was purring and rubbing its scent on his hand. He picked it up and placed it next to his chest. Ken tried to climb back down with one hand. Unfortunately his grip slipped and he began to fall. Reacting instinctively, the boy released his kagune. The single rinkaku shot forward and grabbed onto the tree. It functioned as a bungee cord and allowed Ken to avoid smashing his head on the ground or hurting the cat.

Once back on the ground and his rinkaku retracted. Ken giggled at what just happened. 'I'm getting better and better at using it. Soon I'll be able to help dad with protecting all of us from bad ghouls and the CCG.' He scratched behind the cat's ears as it happily meowed at him again. "What do you think Patton? Pretty cool right?" he asked the feline who only mewed in response. He then heard the sound of a stick breaking to his left. The boy snapped around to try to spot what had made the sound. Could someone have seen him?! Ken was panicking as he tried to remember what his mother had told him to do if he was discovered when a squirrel came out of the bushes. The animal looked at him then ran back into the bushes as the cat struggled out of his grip and ran after it. Ken took a deep breath and relaxed. 'It was just a squirrel. No one saw me then. Thank God,' he thought. The boy soon cleaned himself as he grumbled about the damage to his shirt from the release of his rinkaku. He quickly hid it with his coat and ran the rest of the way back home; making sure to keep his pace with in human levels.

Several days later, things were winding down in the Sasaki household. Currently Shiro and Ken were with their mother in the kitchen. Hotaru was leading them in preparing some food for tonight and tomorrow. Some it was completely normal human food. While most of this was for Hotaru, some of it was for the kids to practice eating what humans called food. The rest of the food was for the ghouls of the family. This food and had been either mixed with a little bit of human food or made to look like its counterpart so that they could eat it front of most other humans safely; such as for school lunches. Meanwhile, Kuro was in the back taking a nap with their father.

It was when Ken was showing off his latest rice ball to his mother, fishing for her approval that the doorbell rang. "Hai, I'm coming," Hotaru called out as she cleaned her hands off with her apron. Shiro tried to come with her but she pulled the young half ghoul from her leg. She patted the girl on the head. "It's okay. I'll be right back. It's probably just someone selling newspaper subscriptions. Play with your big brother till I get back, ok?" She ruffled Shiro's hair after the child nodded. Still both Ken and Shiro stood at the kitchen entrance and watched as Hotaru approached the door. She unlocked the door and turned to smile at her two children.

Ken smelled something weird as the door knob clicked open. It was like rusted blood. However before he could say anything about it his mother had already pulled the door open. At that moment, a red organic-like blade slipped through the opening and ripped into Hotaru's torso; splashing the foyer in blood. Time slowed for Ken as he watched his mother's body fall to the ground with a wet thud. All went quiet for a heartbeat. Then in the next Shiro screamed.

Ken grabbed the crying, screaming girl as she tried to run to where their mother lay; constantly calling out for momma. But no comforting response came from the woman. Instead a large man came through the still open door; his professional shoes soaking in the blood of the woman he had just slaughtered. He held in his hands a quinque shaped like a large spear-like lance or pike. His one callous glance at the two children chilled them both to the bone. Shiro was now reduced to sniffles, tears, and squeaks as she buried her face into her brother's protective chest.

The other two Sasaki family members entered as well. Both of them now frozen in the back doorway; stunned by the sudden tragedy before their eyes. Several more figures could be seen outside the doorway, quinques at the ready, behind the man who now observed his victim's corpse. The man gave a depressed sigh. "Damn, it was only the human woman. I guess it was too much to hope that she would have brought one or two of the little brats with her to the door."

Hearing someone so causally talk about the murder of his wife, and desire to slay more of his family caused the father ghoul snap. All eight of his rinkaku shot out and immediately flew towards their target. The man was able to block three of them but the other five ripped into and through his flesh. Takashi didn't even wait for the body parts to fall as he roared and charged as well. He began to fight off all the doves. He used four of the tentacles to attack while another four surrounded their master as a shield from the gun like quinques. As he fought, Kuro snuck over to her siblings and the three children just curled together in a frightened and confused shivering huddle. Unfortunately the doves had come prepared and now Takashi was being pushed back. There were just too many of them and several of them were obviously high level. As another quinque grazed his arm, he realized they couldn't fend them off and safely escape. That they had to flee; and leave Hotaru's body behind.

The elder Sasaki turned to Ken and shouted, "Ken grab your sisters and run!" He was answered by Kuro who yelled back, thinking their father meant to sacrifice himself for them, with, "But we can't just leave you!" Ken and Shiro however were still frozen. Ken barely registered what his dad had ordered and only wondered, 'Run? But to where?' All he could do was stare at the doves as they began come closer and closer and at the body of his dear mother that they simply trampled over her. His mind was finally snapped out of its confused state as he heard glass shatter. He turned his head just in time to see several Ukaku shards flying straight towards the three of them. One of the doves must have decided to attack them from the neighboring building. There was no time for them to evade. Ken barely had enough time to close his eyes and shield his sisters. But the searing pain of impalement never came. Ken opened his eyes to see his father before him; the crystalline spikes through his chest and stomach.

A stunned whispered, "father," slipped through his lips as the older man simply smiled at him wrapped his arms around the three of them. He then wrapped his kagune together in one massive tentacle and slammed it into front of the apartment; demolishing the front of the building. He then used the smoke and shock of this to escape. He ran while holding onto his three children and jumped out the window. As they jumped, Takashi was able to spot the female dove who had dared to fire at his children. He launched one rinkaku at her as they fled. He was rewarded with her cries of pain as it cleaved her arm off and stopped her from shooting at them again. And so they escaped into the night.

They reached the abandoned factory that he had prepared as a training ground for the family later that evening. He had been careful to take a roundabout way so as to keep the doves from locating this place; a ward and half away from their home. He was already starting to fall in and out of consciousness as the ukaku rounds in him started to break apart and allow the wounds to begin to bleed out. He carried the three others into the managerial office they had made into a place to rest and camp out in as Ken and hopefully later his sisters began serious Kagune training. However, now this factory would be a safe house that held a mattress with blankets, working water, and an emergency radio currently set to the CCG's propaganda station.

He sat against the wall; grunting in pain as the move aggravated his wounds. Ken, Kuro, and Shiro quickly surround the man. They knew that he was dying, but the three young ones didn't want to accept it. If he didn't survive, then what would they do? Kuro and Shiro began begging him to hold on and not to leave them while Ken just silently watched as the strongest person he had known, who seemed invincible, began to fade away in front of him. In one night he and his sisters had lost two great pillars of their world to the doves. 'Why?' he mentally questioned. 'What did we do to deserve this? The doves just come in destroy our lives. Even after we tried our hardest to live to a quiet, peaceful life and were always nice to everyone. Hell we've been more humane then the humans themselves at times. So why?! It's not fair!' "Ken." The boy's thoughts were interrupted by his father's call. He came closer to Takashi who placed his bloody hand on his son's shoulder. He looked deep into the young boy's eyes. "Promise me," he asked. "Promise me that you will protect your sisters now. You're the head of the household and you have to protect them." Takashi tried to smile but instead began to cough up blood to the dismay of his children. "Keep them safe and happy. Understand. You need to live." Ken couldn't say anything. Instead he just mutely nodded. Takashi passed away shortly thereafter; leaving his now emotionally crushed children alone in this messed up world; crying over his body.

Two days later

Ken quickly gulped down the water as it fell from the industrial faucet. He swallowed the last bit of water as he turned it off and wiped his mouth with his sleeve. He grimaced at the stench of two days without a shower in the same dirty clothes; only able to clean himself off with some water and the old rags they found a day earlier. The trio was not doing well. They were depressed, afraid, angry, and uncertain how they would even survive the week. Any sudden noise frightened them as they expected the doves to appear again.

They were also very tired. The stress and uncertainty of it all made it difficult for any of them to fall asleep at all and when they did sleep it would likely be for only a short time till they would be awoken in a screaming fit by nightmares and memories. Ken's addled and sleep deprived mind looked at his reflection in the puddle on the ground; causing him to lightly laugh. His hair looked ridiculous to him in all its white glory. Though it did look slightly gray or silver when compared to the now traumatized Shiro's bone white hair.

Finished admiring his reflection, he went back inside and sat with the twins. They were currently listening to the CCG radio station again. As expected, Ken, his sisters, and their now deceased father were the main topic on it. Ken was pretty certain that their faces were on the tv news too as the CCG called on the public to help them find their location. They had even had interviews with a couple people who had known them before they were discovered. From the cat owning neighbor who had reported them after seeing Ken use his Kagune to their maternal grandparents who Ken could only remember meeting twice.

As he listened to the man on the radio once again give their descriptions and warn the public to call the CCG if they saw anything suspicious, Ken turned to look at his sisters. Shiro was staring at her can of vending machine coffee. She seemed to have closed herself off; only showing the simplest of reactions to everything. Her only real shows of emotion now were when she fearfully jumped at unknown sounds, cried when going to sleep, and woke up panicking after a bad nightmare. Meanwhile Kuro had done the opposite. She had copped by putting on a painfully cheerful mood and by trying to be helpful and relaxing to the other two. She was always there to comfort Shiro and always went to grabbed cans of coffee from the vending machine down the street after nightfall. However she ignored the dead body of their father and would not talk at all about what happened that night or since. Simply put, she was actively denying that tragedy.

As for Ken, he was using his last promise with his father to avoid dealing with it all. He busied himself with figuring out how to keep his sisters safe and alive. He had been patrolling the factory grounds for any signs of possible discovery. He had filled up the factory's abandoned water cooler and brought it in the room for his sisters and even been there as guard and a living security blanket as they hugged him for comfort in their sleep. But his current thoughts went to their biggest problem; food. They had obviously not had the time to eat anything when they fled and now, after days without anything to eat, all three of them were quite hungry. And it would get worse as Ken was pretty certain it could be months before it was safe for them to leave with the CCG hot on their trail. But what would they eat until they could find somewhere truly safe to escape to? Ken wondered if any of the local delinquents hung out here or perhaps a couple of teenagers looking for a deserted place to make out in would come. He felt his rinkaku ripple under his skin. Granted he hadn't ever killed someone before and the thought of doing so frightened him but he had promised and in the end his sisters' lives were more important to him. He'd gladly kill for them.

A sudden realization occurred to Ken as he glanced at the body of their father. He hesitated for only a second before standing up and walking over to the body. Kuro and Shiro watched their brother as he removed the cover that they had used to shroud their father's body. Ken then shoved his hand into one of the wounds; much to Kuro's shock. "What the hell are you doing?!" she yelled. Ken ignored her as he pulled out some of their father's flesh and gave it to Shiro. He simply ordered, "Eat." The white haired girl looked at her brother in shock for a second before she dutifully started eating. Ken grabbed some more and then turned to Kuro who starred at him indignantly. "You can't be serious. That's our father!" Ken sighed and answered, "I know. But what else can we do? If we don't eat this then we'll starve." "I'd rather starve!" she shot back. Ken simply replied, "I see," before forcing the meat into her mouth. The two struggled as he forced it farther down her throat. As if to make this scene even more cruelly ridiculous, Kuro's kagune activated for the first time and came to her defense; forcing Ken to use his own to hold it back. This went on for about a minute before the girl finally swallowed. Ken slowly removed his hand but still held onto the now coughing girl. She tried to shove her fingers into her mouth to force her gag reflex but he grabbed her hand before she could try to force herself to throw up. "Don't you dare barf! I promised dad I'd protect you and that we will all survive. Please. Even if you come to hate me. Don't leave me as well," he pleaded. Kuro trembled before grabbing her brother and bawling. Ken pulled out some more of the meat as his sister cried and took a bite. It was the worst tasting food he had ever had.