Chapter 11: Splitting Paths

“I’ll go my way, you go yours”

A stand off. Two ghouls; brother and sister, a masked ghoul and a unicorn. One side hungry; offense. The other side fighting for protection; defense.

Kaneki and Streamlight held their ground against the sibling ghouls. The younger one, Yumi stood beside her slightly injured brother who was still nursing his injured arm, Yu. Neither had made a move since the one eyed ghouls appearance. Kaneki and Streamlight hadn’t made a move either.

They just stood there, staring at each other on the abandoned street. Wind passing by and playing with the leaves, sweeping one or two by the two different parties.

Yumi shifted her weight on her left foot a bit. She could feel the intensity of the fight now. Things had definitely changed since this ghouls appearance, and it was as clear as the stars in the sky that things were about to change depending on how they fought next. Yu continued to watch the detective and one eyed ghoul from his side.

He didn’t get what this ghoul’s deal was but if he was right then he must be a part of the ghoul’s that only ate with the help of Anteiku. A faint smile that soon disappeared crossed his face. Him, his little sister and their senior brother had been a part of that party. It was too bad since coming here that they currently now had to feed off of these beings after hiding in the shadows for the past few days.

Honestly if they had a choice they’d go with something else, but they were hungry. Him and his sister hadn’t eaten in days. And if they waited any longer they’d snap and go on a killing spree. If CCG were here he couldn’t risk their safety on such a thing. They needed to eat. And they needed to eat now.

Streamlight kept his eye on the ghoul beside him, but knew if this one had wanted him for supper he could have done it in a matter of seconds with his speed. For now he would simply have to focus on the battle at hand and use healing magic while he had the chance to fix his fractured rib. It wouldn’t do anything extremely efficient, but at least it would numb the pain a bit and allow him to move easily.

Streamlight closed his eyes, let his ears perk up in alert and focused. His horn became caked in a light brown overglow as his magic began doing it’s work. A few seconds should suffice.

Kaneki didn’t even bother to give Streamlight the chance to see his face. He knew if this guy was already suspicious then it’d all be over if he heard his voice or saw even a glimpse of his face. He had to remain silent throughout this fight and only speak when absolutely necessary.

Otherwise he’d lose Pinkie, he’d lose Rainbow Dash, Twilight, Rarity, Spike, Applejack, Fluttershy. He’d even lose the Cake family and Raiment Wear. And that was not something he was willing to lose.

He’d already lost Hide, and Anteiku along with the rest of his friends back in Japan, he would not lose the few friends he had made now.

His ghoul eye narrowed as he stared at the two ghouls in front of them before he spoke in japanese.

“Koi.”

Yumi looked at Yu, Yu noded.

Turning her attention back to the ghoul and unicorn ahead she assumed a cougar position. Her bikaku gator tail raised and waving in the air like a cat that’s on the alert. With a wave of the tail in the air Yumi slammed her tail into the ground and sent herself soaring towards Kaneki and Streamlight.

Kaneki moved to counter, taking a step forward he activated his kagune. Oblivious to Streamlight’s ears twitching in the mildly disturbing way the two of his rinkaku shot out of his back, before spreading apart and attempting to slam down on the young girl like two arms coming from above.

Yumi gracefully dodged, using her tail like a hook, she jabbed the tip into the ground and stopped and flung herself back to her brother’s side, just barely managing to escape Kaneki’s fatal blow.

Once back by her brother’s side she looked over to Yu nervously. “Aniki, he’s definitely not holding back.”

Yu grimaced, staring at the ghoul whose eye was still narrowed in their direction.

“We attack together” Yu said after a few seconds.

Yumi nodded.

“San...” he started.

“Ni...” she finished.

“Ich!” they said together.

Taking off simultaneously, brother and sister went in snake format. Zigzagging and crossing each other’s path in the process as they neared their targets. Kaneki’s eye kept up, Streamlight, however still had his eyes closed and his ears alert. Still working on fixing himself with his magic.

Kaneki glanced over to the detective and actually looked slightly stunned by how he was simply just standing there without paying attention, then again it might be possible that he could simply follow them based on movement just by how his ears were standing straight up.

Before Kaneki could actually touch him though to snap him out of whatever he was doing, the one eyed ghoul had to jump out of the way of Yu’s koukaku as it came in a sweep like fashion at Kaneki’s legs.

Using his rinkaku to send himself back Kaneki was pushed away from Streamlight who continued to stand there like an idiot, while Yu continued his assault towards Kaneki.

Yumi now rushed for the detective while her brother kept Kaneki busy, pouncing into the air the little girl held some pain in her eyes as she stared at the unmoving detective.

Kaneki ducked Yu’s blade, then with a quick and strong jab to the gut sent the ghoul sliding backwards in the process coughing out some blood from the wound he’d received earlier.

Yumi was now inches away from Streamlight, just a few more seconds and she’d have her target. Though the girl still couldn’t help but feel guilty. The only thing empowering her to pull through with this act was her hunger and her brother.

“Sorry mister” she said in a barely audible whisper.

Streamlight’s horn stopped glowing, his ear twitched then his eyes flashed open. In one swift movement he was about nearly a foot away from Yumi, who was now slightly perplexed by his swift movement.

Without wasting a second Streamlight’s horn glowed, quickly lifting the girl higher into the air before she could touch the ground.

Yumi began thrashing, trying to get her tail to reach the ground so she could break through the force that kept her suspended in the air, but try as she might she was having trouble escaping.

Streamlight maintained his focus. This wasn’t a problem, back in his first few days as a junior detective he’d had to break up a fight between two earth ponies. Given an earth pony’s natural strength it wasn’t easy taking on two stallions especially when they were pumped up on pure rage.

He grinned, slightly sweating now. “Just give up Yumi as long as I have my focus on you there’s no way you’ll-” his ear twitched, footsteps were rushing at him.

Ducking just in time Streamlight managed to dodge an oncoming Koukaku. Kaneki’s kagune soon dragged the older brother away slamming him into the ground.

Streamlight however wasn’t able to get back up on his feet in time. When his focus had been broken Yumi stayed balanced on her tail, the moment he fell she took the opportunity her brother had given her.

Now on top her tail raised Yumi, licked her lips as the sound of her stomach grumbled before the detective.

“I’ll try to make this quick” she said opening her mouth for the bite. Streamlight moved his arm to aim his gun at her. A strong hand, tight grip and immediate jerk backwards was all Yumi needed to do to prevent the detective from shooting her.

Streamlight winced, slightly surprised by the strength the girl had in her hands.

Yumi was beginning to close in on him, any second now he’d be chow for her. Glancing back to who he believed to be Kaneki, Streamlight could see the brother was putting his everything in keeping the hooded boy away from them, swinging his kagune around madly, and guarding expertly against Kaneki’s kagune.

“Hurry Yumi!” Yu yelled.

Yumi moved in for the kill.

There was a flash of light, a small yelp and then silence. Both Kaneki and Yu stopped their fight and glanced over to Streamlight who was now sitting up, Yumi lay a few feet away from the unicorn on his right, her rinkaku gone and was clutching her chest as if in serious pain.

“Yumi w-” a strong hit to the face from one of Kaneki’s rinkaku sent the ghoul flying towards his sister. Yu came skidding to a stop, beside her a large gash on his face as well as trails of blood now dripping from his injured arm, though it had slowly begun to heal now.

Streamlight slowly rose, rubbing both his wrists. “Damn” he said looking at the little girl. “She’s got one heck of a grip.”

Kaneki said nothing, moving towards the unicorn while brother and sister merely lay there wincing in pain.

Streamlight moved closer to Kaneki, the two staring at each other in silence not saying a word and ignoring their opponents in the meantime.

Just as Streamlight was about to say something though, something surprising happened.

Yumi who’d been clutching her chest after getting hit by a concentrated shot from Streamlight, slowly got up, her shirt slightly ruined, exposing only a little skin. The girl didn’t make a sound, but the moment she was back on her feet her bikaku shot right out, and in a flash she was right behind Streamlight.

Everything seemed to slow down for both ghouls and the unicorn. Yumi’s movement had increased, her agility off the railing and Streamlight had not expected her to be so quick despite the information Hachikawa had given him.

Kaneki’s eye widened in alarm as he could see the look of murder in the preteen’s eyes. Streamlight in almost slow motion was turning his head to see the girl now just behind him, her tail slowly raising for the kill.

Then the girl did something. Something that reminded Kaneki of his past.

She licked her lips sensually. Almost like Rize.

Time resumed its normal pace, no longer slowing down for dramatic effect. With one quick step Kaneki reached for Streamlight’s collar, and pulled, at the same time Kaneki released a combined kagune in front of him to defend the spear like gator tail that now came in his direction.

Tossing Streamlight behind him with one hand, Kaneki flexed his other hand and in one quick motion his kagune moved up and blocked the spear still aiming for Streamlight.

Sparks slightly flew in the air for some strange reason, most likely because the girl had hardened her kagune and the cells within it. Yumi’s tiptoes touched the ground and in a second, using the force Kaneki had used to block, the girl did a triple front flip with her body tucked in over Kaneki.

Kaneki’s eye followed her movement, and just as he moved in to grab her tail and drag her back down it suddenly disappeared.

She’d retracted her kagune, landing a foot away from Kaneki. Yumi ducked then did a quick jump, using Kaneki’s kagune as a stepping stone to launch herself forward. Now giving her full attention for the objective at hand.

Before Kaneki could go after her, he suddenly felt a strong force tackle him to the ground. Big brother, Yu had come to the rescue and was now looking a bit better, his cheek having been healed and his injured arm looking less injured.

Dodging jab after jab, Kaneki only managed to gain a few scratch marks against his face which also slightly cut up his mask.

Yu had had enough, his hunger was driving him nuts and if he didn’t eat something soon he would lose it. Still trying to cut into Kaneki Yu decided he would be the best option. After all, one nibble on another ghoul couldn’t do that much damage.

Lunging in after stabbing his koukaku close to Kaneki’s face, Yu prepared to bite into Kaneki’s shoulder.

He never got any closer than a few inches away.

With Kaneki dealing with Yu, Streamlight was now on the ground slowly getting up. His ears twitched, perked up then he turned his head to see hungry looking Yumi coming right at him.

With an open palm thrust, Yumi sent her hand towards Streamlight’s solar plexus. He dodged with ease. Continuing to use martial arts against him, the girl kept trying to strike with her hands, legs and, knees, elbows, and on few occasions fists. Streamlight managing to dodge and block as best he could. Ignoring the pain that few strikes gave him when he blocked.

Throwing both her arms back, Yumi hit Streamlight with two open palms. One he blocked with both arms up, sliding back on his hooves and hitting a lamp post.

Streamlight winced when his back met the light post. But he didn’t have time to swear. Ducking just in time as Yumi’s tail came into clip his head, Streamlight rolled out of the way and came right behind Yumi.

Yumi didn’t look back, her bikaku just shot out straight for Streamlight’s direction, hitting the ground a few inches to his left then dragging along the mortar made road in his direction.

Rolling out of the way once more Streamlight stood up, lit his horn and held the girl in his magic. When Yumi whipped her tail at him he barely managed to evade a serious injury to the arm, but made it out nonetheless. Maintaining his focus on her.

Raising her into the air and slowly turning her around Yumi thrashed and snarled at him, drool starting to dribble down her lips.

“Let me go!” she yelled.

Streamlight snorted, slightly wincing from the pain in his back and the slow pain that was returning in his side. “If I did that you’d try to eat me again.”

Hearing footsteps behind him, Streamlight summoned his gun to his side and while keeping Yumi up in the air, he levitated his gun in the direction of the footsteps. They stopped.

Glancing over his shoulder he saw the ghoul, or rather Kaneki walking towards him. With the help of the light post, Streamlight could see that the ghoul had lost a few pieces of his mask. He ignored it then allowed his gun to lower back to his side as Kaneki came closer.

“Where’s the brother?” he asked his eyes still focused on the struggling preteen.

Kaneki’s kagune brought down a unconscious Yu, held around the waist.

Streamlight nodded. Levitating his gun up to the ghoul’s head he lifted Yu’s head up with the barrel and stared at the ghoul. “...”

After that he looked up at Yumi who was still thrashing about.

“Hey!” he said in calm yet very cold tone. Yumi stopped. And when she saw the gun up to her brother’s head she immediately grew submissive.

Streamlight looked at Kaneki, then looked at brother and sister. He bit his lip, mulling over what his decision should be. He flinched slightly when he heard the masked ghoul’s voice behind him.

“You can shoot them” he said.

Streamlight looked at the ghoul with narrowed eyes. “Aren’t they one of your own?”

Kaneki shook his head. “They’re not family. It doesn’t matter what happens to them to me. But if in case they didn’t know.” Kaneki raised a kagune and smacked Yu harshly along the face with it.

The brother woke up with a snort and yell. “Wh-- Yumi?!” he said looking around frantically. The click of Streamlight’s gun made him stop.

“Try anything and I will shoot you” he stated.

Yu stopped moving, scowling at the detective. “Where’s my sis-”

“She’s up there” Streamlight said with a head gesture.

Yu looked up to see his sister staring at him. Tears beginning to fall from her eyes. Yu smiled warmly then turned his attention back to Streamlight and Kaneki with a scowl. “What are you going to do to us?”

Kaneki said nothing and merely released Yu from his kagune’s grip, before stepping back and giving Streamlight full view of the ghoul. Keeping one kagune blade out, Kaneki made sure that if the ghoul tried anything he could simply cut him down in a second.

Looking at Streamlight he nodded.

Streamlight understood what Kaneki had said, words or not. Keeping Yumi in the air, he walked towards Yu and pointed his floating gun at the ghoul’s head. Yu froze, not moving, but his red irises dared the unicorn to shoot him and see what would happen.

Streamlight’s expression was impassive, barely readable from Kaneki’s standpoint. The look in the unicorn’s eyes could be described as one who was absolutely sure of his decision.

Looking up at Yumi, then back to Yu, Streamlight spoke to Kaneki without looking back. “Is there a way these two can eat without killing?”

Kaneki said nothing, slightly surprised the detective was considering this option but after a few seconds he spoke. “There is. Not to far from here on the other side of this town, there is a cemetery. They can eat there.”

Streamlight kept his steel gaze on Yu, then looked at Yumi moving his gun away from him to her. “I have two bullets left in my gun. I can shoot both of you now and end all this.”

Yu moved, Kaneki brought his kagune down threateningly, the ghoul stopped.

“But, if you two promise me that you will never harm anyone here and only eat in that cemetery” his gun lowered slowly. “I won’t shoot you.”

Yu and Yumi stared with a shocked expression. Brother and sister looked at each other, ignoring the compelling feeling for flesh that called them. Yu looked at Streamlight with a quizzical brow, unable to hide the disbelief in his voice.

“Why are you giving us a chance?” he asked.

Kaneki looked at Streamlight, just as interested as the other two on why he would even consider giving them a chance since they had tried to kill him.

“Your sister” he said pointing at her. “She apologized on three different occasions. Once before the fight, again during, and a third time when she thought she was about to finish me off. If you were both cold blooded murders you wouldn’t have hesitated to attack me the moment we met. That could have saved both you and your brother time in fighting me and eventually, him” he said with a gesture to Kaneki.

“I’m giving you a chance. But only one. If I find out either of you have harmed any of the ponies in this town” Streamlight quickly pointed his levitated gun at Yu and fired. The bullet shot past Yu, cutting his cheek with accurate precision before slamming into the ground with a spark.

Yu swallowed.

“I’ll kill you two without mercy” he said coldly. “I’m a detective. My duty is the safety of the citizens of Equestria. So take my warning or don’t” he said now lowering Yumi back to the ground. “I’m only doing this since you two seem like you were pushed too far. But remember, cross the line again” he said gliding the gun back to his hand.

“And you two won’t be having any late night dinners together ever again.” With that said Streamlight cut the magic flowing from his horn, Yumi dropped to the ground on her feet retracting her kagune.

A lengthy silence filled the area as Yumi moved over to her brother and helped him up. The two stared at Streamlight who continued to stare at them with a steely gaze. Clearly meaning every single word he had said.

“Thank you...” Yu said after a few seconds of awkwardness. “For not killing us. We wouldn’t get away with something like this where we’re from. We’ll...take your warning.”

Streamlight nodded then turned his attention to the masked ghoul who’d been staring silently. “Get them to the cemetery. I need to go to the hospital and make sure I’m not dying while standing here.”

His horn glowing once more Streamlight gathered his MDA coat that had been tossed to the side and draped it over his shoulders.

Kaneki looked at the two ghouls and with his kagune directed them to walk ahead, he had something he wanted to say.

Yumi and Yu nodded, with Yumi supporting her brother the two stared at Streamlight as they walked by then looked at Kaneki who nodded at them then turned his attention back to the detective. Brother and sister walked down the street a good few feet and waited.

Once they were out of ear shot Kaneki spoke: “You didn’t need to do that.”

Streamlight merely walked over to his holster and picked it up wincing in pain. “I know.”

“Then why?”

“Like I said, they were pushed to their limit. Caged animals, people, even ghouls when pushed to the brink of death or put in a dangerous situation will behave in ways they normally wouldn’t. I can’t fully blame them. But I will kill them if they’re the ones that pull a stunt like this again.”

Kaneki remained silent for a bit. Staring at the detective and holding him in a different light from before. Perhaps he wasn’t one of those narrow-minded officers like the ones he’d met in Japan, or those that were part of the CCG.

“I see” Kaneki said turning around and retracting his kagune. “Well, I’m off to show them the cemetery.”

“Wait” Streamlight said putting his gun in its holster.

Kaneki looked back to see Streamlight’s slightly dirty hand extend as a form of respect; a handshake. “Thanks for the help” Streamlight said with a slight smile.

Kaneki said nothing, merely looked at the hand then back at the detective. “Don’t mention it” he said shaking the hand.

“I just hope we don’t end up having to fight each other someday” Streamlight said after they’d shaken hands.

Kaneki’s ghoul eye returned to its normal state, slightly slanted. “I hope so also. Ja ne” he said turning around and heading towards the two ghouls waiting ahead.

Streamlight watched Kaneki walk away towards the two ghouls now sure of who it was under the mask. Deciding he wouldn’t say anything, Streamlight simply planned to just wait and see where things went. If he was wrong, and boy did he hope he was. Then he wouldn’t need to exert force.

If he was right, then “I’ll have to kill him.”

Turning around the detective’s horn glowed as the image of the nearest clinic came to form an image in his head. With a bright glow he was gone.

Kaneki didn’t look back as he headed in the direction of the cemetery, watching his surroundings as he led the two ghouls behind him to their salvation.

Depending on how the following days went he’d have to make a decision. Kill Streamlight. Or let him live.

Only time will tell.

Author's Note

Tensions rise, suspicions grow. Who knows what will happen between the half ghoul and the detective.

Side Note: Will be taking a small break from this story for a bit to gather more ideas and thoughts. Comments are always welcomed.