Itona thought over what Uraraka said before she jumped. A little more information would have been useful. He looked over her body, catching the faint rise and fall of her back. Uraraka had survived the fall, meaning she'd heal. Itona scoffed at the soft whimpers escaping her.

"So," he said coldly. "are you going to tell me any more?"

"I don't know anymore...just–" Uraraka lied, choking and coughing– "just put me out of my misery..."

He sighed deeply. He knew that certain ghouls like to have their heads up their asses, but you should do your research if you're going to be inhabiting a new area. A ghoul without a death wish would have at least been able to find something on the strange anomaly ghoul by Rakuyama. 

No one would ever die by Itona's hands. He consumed suicide victims to keep blood off his hands and mind—he wouldn't go against his morals for a pathetic low-life. Uraraka's soft cries continued.

"No." Itona stood, dropping the arm he was eating on the ground. He began to walk away.

"Nagisa was injured!" Uraraka called desperately after him, barely able to roll over to face him. Itona stopped in his tracks, waiting for her to continue. "They'd started to eat him...and he managed to get away long enough to find...he...he wanted me..." She looked faint.

Back still turned to her, Itona scowled. He hadn't actually known Karma and Nagisa that long. Sure, they'd been in the same class for a while in junior high, but they weren't close. However, the two of them were predictable enough. Anyone with a brain could see that they were each other's first line of defense. That was why they stuck together even though they were both extremely dangerous by their own accounts. 

"He wanted you to tell Karma," Itona stated. "you decided to jump off a ledge instead. I might not have heard you, and we wouldn't know where to look. You could have the information to Karma yourself—he's got others around the area searching for Nagisa still."

Uraraka could think of nothing to say back. Itona was so cold...cold, and absolutely correct. She'd passed a blonde ghoul who'd asked her if she'd seen him. That ghoul was likely still around, and yet, Uraraka put herself first. Monoma ended up getting himself killed to give her something, and now she was throwing her life away when someone else's might just depend on it. There's also the fact that Shiota's life is far more important than mine.

"Pathetic. Finish that." He gestured to the limb he'd left by her. "Heal up and meet me here tomorrow morning. Karma can decide what to do with you...and don't try running."

Itona continued to walk away, leaving her there. Using his kagune, he scaled the cliffside Uraraka lept off. He was face to face with the ghouls Two-Face and the General. They all stood there quietly for a moment—it had been a while since they'd all stood in the same place. Itona had done a bad job of keeping in touch with the ghouls from his class.

"Nakamura, Mr. Karasuma," Itona acknowledged. He paused and scented the air. There were several places where blood and soaked into the dirt, and Itona had a feeling he knew whose it was. "It's Nagisa's. He was here."

"How long ago is the question..." Rio muttered, not greeting him back.

"He was just here," Itona stated. "Bunny just told me before flinging herself off the ledge. She let them catch him again, and it sounded like he was in bad shape."

Mr. Karasuma gave him a curious look. "She killed herself over this? I didn't know they knew each other."

"We got involved with her and Grin recently, and she's not dead. Barely survived, and I gave her some extra food so that Karma could deal with her tomorrow."

"Did he know she was going to kill herself?"

"Oh...you guys don't know, then." They looked at Itona expectantly. "A lot of shit has already happened at Rakuyama since the school year started. This isn't the time for most of it, but for starters, Grin died this morning and King probably attends Rakuyama."

"Grin's dead? What happened?" Mr. Karasuma asked, shocked. 

"Someone else could tell you better than I can."

"What?"

"Out of everyone, I was probably the least involved. Rose could tell you if you ran into her, but she's super quiet about going out. I don't think she's been spotted anywhere in over a year."

Itona paused for a moment then sighed heavily. He glared around him, waiting until the burst of color hit his eyes. He was surprised to see not one, but two people listening in. He stared at the first one long enough to get the message across.

"You're starting to make me feel bad at my job," Kaminari joked nervously. He was sure that Itona wouldn't hurt him too bad because Itona never did, and Two-Face might have given him a pass because he had good intentions. He'd never seen the General in person, though. As far as he was concerned, the General was almost an urban legend around these parts. "come on out, dude, he knows you're here too."

"You brought a friend this time?"

"It's just Mite...he doesn't know anything. I just told him to keep an eye out...he's useless anyway!"

"Hey."

"Shut up."

Itona sighed. Kaminari by himself was enough to deal with, but at least he was useful. Mite was little more than a burden. "You know these two?" Mr. Karasuma asked. Rio had been quiet.

"Unfortunately. Now, what did you get out of listening?"

"Nothing I didn't already know. I just got here, Kraken."

"These people know me."

"I just got here, Itona." Kaminari shrunk at the unimpressed look from the three of them. He chuckled nervously again. "um... I should still be here bright and early tomorrow to continue looking, right? I won't bring Mite, promise. He'll stay home."

"Yeah, but there's been a change of plans. Mite, do yourself a favor and go home. I won't tell Crimson Raven you tried to listen in, and you can remain uninvolved without asking questions. He isn't exactly in the mood to be lenient, and there's already one ghoul who may get the short end of the stick."

The redhead nodded and rushed off without a word. Kaminari was visibly relieved that his friend wouldn't have to get sucked into this. "Don't look so happy—you owe me something now." Itona watched Mite loosely, not taking lazy eyes off of him until he was out of sight. "I'll see you tomorrow. Escort Two-Face at least to Aichi, and don't give her any information. Sorry, but the fewer people actively involved, the quicker this can blow over. You can get back at me later."

Rio scowled and took her leave. Kaminari nervously went after her. All the way to Aichi? That's so far... my mom'll wonder why I didn't make it home, too. I'm in so much trouble.

┈

"Morning..." Karma sounded exhausted. Isogai gave him a concerned look. "I never got around to sleeping last night. Don't worry about it." Karma glared at no one in particular. "Where is Rio?"

"I told her not to come."

"You what? Who gave you the right?"

"Nagisa showed up last night, Karma. Uraraka saw him and let one of the kakuja catch him again. Instead of finding you like Nagisa probably asked, she flung herself off that cliff and tried to kill herself. She failed, so I gave her some food and told her to meet us here. I figured you'd deal with her."

'So cruel...' Kaminari thought nervously. Uraraka's stomach dropped at the look on his face.

"Hey..."

"Ochako," Karma called affectionately. She almost didn't catch the dangerous undertone...almost. 

"Akabane..."

"I heard you ran into Nagisa last night," Karma said. "I also heard you chose not to do anything about that, which is unfortunate."

"I swear that–"

"I don't care to hear your side of the story. You're coming with us to the last place Knight was spotted to see if we can lure one of them out, and you had better hope we can strike a deal with them to get Nagisa back. His condition will determine any action after that."

Kaminari shivered at the cruelness in his tone. He didn't want to know what "action" meant. All he knew was that Karma, Crimson Raven was dangerous. Worse, now he was angry. Part of Kaminari dreaded the thought of making a deal. Would they be in debt to the group of kakuja? What if the Emperor asked something of them? The sheer idea of it had acid jumping into his throat.

"We're going to their territory, then?" Isogai asked. 

"Sadly," Karma lamented. "(Y/n) and Mr. Karasuma'll also be joining us on the way there, unless Itona told him not to come, too." Itona glared at him.

"What do we do when we get there, hope they approach us?"

"That's what (Y/n)'s for. I was thinking only a couple of us should do any talking. The rest of you will be there in case things take a turn for the worst."

"Akabane..."

"Quiet, Uraraka. You should keep your mouth shut before I get even angrier at you. I'm not in a good mood, and I'm less than lenient on a good day."

"Um, Akabane," Kaminari started nervously. "if something does happen, what do we do? I hate to admit it, but I actually know nothing useful about the kakuja...what if they just decide we're better food that bargainers?"

"You guys get Nagisa out, and the strongest of us buy you time."

┈

The town they were in was empty. It was near the coast. No one had lived there since a particularly bad monsoon season twenty years ago. At the time, the local government didn't the money to build it back up; now they just labeled the place a lost cause. (Y/n) had led them there once they had gotten off the train at the nearest station (which was miles away—Karasuma's family had a winter home further south that they would crash in that night). He said that he'd been trailing Monoma to this place before the kakuja suddenly showed up and chased him all the way to where Nagisa happened to be. (Y/n) had run off at the first sight of Knight and King, but Monoma had quickly followed his path without a thought, getting them cornered once they accidentally crossed into the wrong territory.

The thing Karma hated most about kakuja was the fact that they couldn't be sensed by anyone but each other, yet they could sense humans, ghouls, themselves, and occasionally large animals. With no one around, they were at a disadvantage. If the kakuja were there, then they'd have known about their arrival a while ago. Karma just prayed that he'd sense Nagisa nearby at some point.

"Hey," Karasuma said lowly. "Nagisa's nearby. I can't sense him, but I can smell it."

Karma was silent. It hadn't occurred to him until it was mentioned, but there was a layer of deep iron beneath the scent of moldy, rotting wood and the musty smell of abandonment. Nagisa was there. 

The group of seven (Karma, Itona, (Y/n), Karasuma, Kaminari, Isogai, and Uraraka) unanimously decided that Karasuma would lead them after that. The older, more experienced ghoul seemed to suddenly know exactly where he was going. He led them to an old car park with eight floors. They entered cautiously, stepping over loose rubble and around a few collapsed pillars. The few cars left were old, dusty, and most were dented. 

The air was stale, making Karma's nose tingle unpleasantly as they looked for a staircase. After failing to find one for several minutes, Karasuma finally came across a jammed door. He forced it open, only to find that all of the stairs had crumbled, their metal foundations rusted beyond repair.

Next to it was an elevator that couldn't have worked no matter how lucky they were. Karma was beginning to get frustrated. Nagisa was here. The scent was so clear, and they were piddling around here uselessly. He growled, then pulled the elevator door open. After that, he repeatedly jabbed him kagune into the roof of the vessel until a decently-sized hole formed.

"Karma." Karasuma sounded concerned.

"There. We'll scale the cavity until we hit the right floor."

No one argued. Finally, on the last level before the roof, they came face to face with Knight. He'd been waiting for them to finally get there, and he didn't look pleased. He began to walk away from them without a word, gesturing for them to follow him. Karma immediately stepped forward, then stopped.

"Itona, Mr. Karasuma," he said. Karma looked at everyone else. "stay here unless we ask for you."

The three of them trailed after Knight without a word. This was already going too well.

┈

(2182 Words)