Ghouls Dogma (1x1 with DarkMudkip)

“You’re getting blood all over your clothes..” She muttered, holding onto him as they walked. “And sorry, I think your jacket is ruined..”
 
The office was in a state of chaos ever since the jail break at Cochlea, many investigators stuck on looking into the handful of ghouls that escaped that day.
 
Mitsunari was looking through so many cluttered reports before he finally found it. A confirmed sighting of the Hostess. He pushed out of his desk and made his way out into the open cubicals.
"Notify Kawabe-jotososakan and Matsunaga-jotososakan to meet me in the briefing room."
"H-Hai!"
"Sanada-sosakan." Mitsunari stopped beside Yukimura, "Ikuzo."
 
Yukimura stood from his desk immediately, discarding the task he was currently working on. “Hai! Have you found something, Mitsunari-senpai?”
 
Mitsunari began walking with him to meet Jin and Matsunaga in the briefing room. "We have some new information on the Hostess. We found her hunting grounds."
 
Yukimura felt his guts twist into knots, and he was worried that his face would pale. “You found her hunting grounds? Do you know where she’s located?”
 
"Somewhere within the 22nd Ward." He answered,"We're going to make our move within the next couple days." He told him as they entered the briefing room,Matsunaga and Jin already waiting.
 
Jin and Matsunaga were sitting in wait for Mitsunari and Yukimura, Jin looking to Mitsunari as he entered. “Ishida-sosakan, Sanada-sosakan.” She stood and bowed to them both. “We’ve only been informed briefly on the situation, please fill us in on the details.”
 
"I've had investigators combing the wards, almost literally, for anything on the Hostess after her break in of Cochlea. I've finally narrowed down her hunting grounds."
"Ah, how wonderful," Matsunaga said, "I've been itching to finally test her. See if she's really worthy of her S Rank."
 
“And of the woman she broke in for? Tamura? We’re there any connections or sightings of her? Files indicate frequent territory spats between the two. Not to mention the unknown woman who used the confusion to escape, killing the man who was guarding her in the process.” She pointed out.
 
"We suspect there was a form of rivalry between them but breaking Tamura out to take her territory doesn't add up." Mitsunari said. Matsunaga made a noise.
"Altruism isn't very common in ghouls." He noted, "I for one am well aware of Tamura's condition when she was taken from Cochlea, there's no point unless they're sharing the territory."
"Tamura hasn't been sighted since, which means only one thing." Mitsunari fixed his glasses, "The Hostess consumed what she could to form a kakuja."
 
“It’s true that from Matsunaga-sosakan’s notes, Tamura herself was in the beginning stages of forming her own Kakuja, ultimately leaving the theory of the Hostess consuming her for the gains, but it makes no sense for her to break out Tamura simply for that fact. It is likely that Tamura has expired, her condition less than favorable when she was taken, but the Hostess has a large territory, and no doubt many ghouls within it, so why go after only Tamura? Reports don’t indicate any increase in typical ghoul violence within her territory, yet it would make the most sense for her to be eating other Ghouls as well.” Jin said with a frown, looking through the reports in front of her behind her own glasses.
Yukimura had been sitting silently the entire time, both listening and fretting silently to himself. Did they know of his meetings with Akihime? Were they trying to catch him in the act? He would have to be far more careful now, and over everything else, he would have to warn Akihime.
 
"Sanada-sosakan," Mitsunari pulled him from his thoughts, "You've been very quiet through this entire meeting. Do you have anything to add? You were outside your patrol zone at least a few times, the last I checked."
 
Yukimura stiffened, perking and looking to his superior, shaking his head. “I too cannot wrap my head around why she would break into such a highly secured facility such as Cochlea, only to cannibalize the ghoul she saved.”
Lying was easy for him now, he had done it thousands of times.
“There has to be something else at play here, deeper than a rivalry or need to bolster strength, but what?” Every good lie had some truths to it.
“And we haven’t seen any other outlandish behavior from her before or since; she isn’t laying low, but she isn’t making herself known either.”
“Sanada-sosakan is right, her behavior isn’t congruent. I feel she may have ties with bigger fish.” Jin said with a frown.
 
"So she is merely a puppet for a ghoul family then?" Mitsunari asked. Matsunaga made a noise before his expression changed to realization.
"Matsunaga-sosakan?" Mitsunari asked.
"There was a ghoul she faintly interacted with when she broke in." Matsunaga had forgotten all about his brief fight with the Hostess until just then. He remembered most of her face, which meant he could spot her if he saw her in public, "The albino ghoul. Hostess called her Amaya. I was fighting her when the ghoul used the confusion to escape." He looked up and his eyes were serious, cold, "I know what the Hostess looks like."
 
Yukimura didn’t so much as flinch, but inside he felt his heart drop into his stomach and die. He had to tell Akihime as soon as he could, she needed to be warned.
“And of the albino ghoul? I could find nothing of her in the files, yet she didn’t come in with the Hostess, nor did she come in within even the last few years. It’s almost as if she had always been inside Cochlea.” Jin said.
 
"Another instance to look into." Mitsunari said, "Another time, for now, we have a powerful ghoul to remove from the streets. We will meet at the beginning of the 22nd Ward in 48 hours." He checked his watch to see the time, "On the 5th at 20:00 hours."
 
Yukimura returned to work after the meeting, busying himself with work. He didn’t send any texts to Akihime, no this was something he had to say in person.
 
When work was done and over with, he couldn't leave the office fast enough. Akihime was more than likely home from the restaurant by now, giving him plenty of time to figure out just how to tell her.
 
He couldn’t think of anyway, how was he supposed to explain to her that his colleges had pinned her down? How was he supposed to explain how he didn’t notice before hand? His face was ashen, and he was sweating as he knocked on her front door, hands nearly trembling.
 
“We need to talk.” He said almost numbly, moving inside before she even invited him in and closing the door behind himself, hands trembling now. “Akihime..” He couldn’t look up at her, only able to bring himself to stare at her slippered feet. “They’ve found your hunting grounds. They know your face.”
 
She was quiet, so quiet that he heard the blood rushing in his ears louder than he could hear his own heart. "I see..." She muttered, "I suppose I have been much too careless recently."
 
“I didn’t tell them anything, they only started to dig more since the Cochlea raid. They want to get rid of you and find the woman who escaped that night- they think that you took Tamura to eat her.” The words fell out of his mouth like vomit, unable to stop.
 
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