Hey guys! Um, it's With Death Comes More Death, here with a brand new for your faces to enjoy. Well, it's technically a "new story".
This is all pretty much going to be a collection of side stories that sometimes has something to do with the canon story this branches off from. Delving into stories that I hint at in the main story, but never made it to the final product, for whatever reason. For example, I may delve into that race I teased in chapter two and never actually wrote, because I found it unnecessary. I also may dive into Haise's past and show y'all what I envision Haise being like, if any of you are actually interested in that sub-plot.
Other times, the content I put on here may just be ideas that I wanted to execute at some point, but had to axe from the main story for whatever reason. For example (and this is planned so it will happen at some point in the future, by the way), y'know the ending of chapter 11 and beginning of chapter 12 of the main story? I had an entirely different way of handling those two scenes that led to an entirely different storyline for the story to go in. You could call it the Root A of the TG:R story, but y'know, actually significantly different and not complete trash.
My hatred for Root A aside, I know that some of you might be wondering why this story is rated M, when the main story is only rated T. Well, the answer is simple. If, and this is the biggest IF I've ever uttered, I ever want to write any sort of lemons, I will be posting them here instead of the main story (P.S: don't take that 'if' as anything damning. If Ishida-sensei can write the manga "Penis Man", then I can write some goddamn smut-smut that'll probably want to make my parents disown me if they ever found it, but then again, I wouldn't blame them).
Why? Because there are people who legitimately don't want to see that shit, and I personally don't feel like I should force them to read it, if they don't want to. The people who want that stuff, can hang out here instead, making it so that the two sides never have to fight about it on the main story.
Anyways, let's just get on with the show. Shall we?
-Mandatory Disclaimer-
Do I even need to say it anymore? Fine… I don't own either of these series.
-Side Story #1: Justifying Blood-
Takes place during chapter 7
"So, you're the guy who's been snooping around, asking questions about us?" Kaneki couldn't stop himself from frowning when he heard the man in front of him let out a scoff. "Huh, you're nothing more than a kid."
"Yeah," the taller man standing next to the first agreed with a nod, "and a scrawny one at that." Another scoff prompted the half ghoul to crack his finger. "Do yourself a favor and learn to keep your nose out-"
The one speaking didn't get to finish what he was going to say. Something that could be easily attributed to the palm that suddenly found its way into the center of his stomach, causing him to fall over into a slouched position on his knees. A palm courtesy of a certain snowy-haired teenager, who had a dislike of being so openly disrespected.
"He-!" The shorter man began before he received an elbow to the cheek from aforementioned teen, knocking the consciousness out of the man almost immediately.
Once the shorter of the two was taken care of, the half ghoul turned his attention back to the man he dropped to his knees earlier, grabbing the downed man by the collar of his black suit before sending a knee straight into the bridge of the man's nose. The resulting impact sending the man sprawling on his back, clutching at his freshly broken nose as he writhed in pain.
"Fuck, that hurts!" the man cursed aloud as the snowy-haired teen strided over to where he lay and stared down at the writhing form.
"I'm sorry," Kaneki began as he tilted his head quizzically at his downed victim, his voice coming out as mocking despite the lack of emotion in it, "I didn't quite catch that." A crack rang out through the air as he asked, "What were you going to tell me earlier?"
"Fu-" the man began, but was once again cut off when the bottom of a black loafer was pushed against his hands, which were busy cupping his broken nose.
"I'm sorry, I didn't quite catch that," the artificially-made half ghoul repeated as he added a tiny bit more pressure on the object that rested between his foot and the ground. "Tell me," he began, speaking with a little more edge to his voice this time, "what were you going to-"
"Alright, alright!" the man yelled out from underneath his foot, prompting him to cease adding pressure and remove the underside of his shoe from the man's face. "Ah, fucking hell that hurt…" he muttered to himself bitterly, his hands never leaving his nose. "The club! Junior's at the club! Tending the bar most likely!"
Kaneki felt a smile crawl onto his lips as he began his reply, which was accompanied by a polite bow of the head, "Thank you for being so cooperative, sir." Another crack resonated through the air as he added, "Before I let you go, I wanted to see if you could do me a favor."
The double doors in front of Kaneki exploded off their hinges as he threw the earlier thug's body into them and into the room beyond. An amused scoff coming from him as he walked past the remnants of the doors and the club's bouncer, who was currently lying on the ground next to the now doorless-door frame, holding onto whatever remained of his ribcage.
When he walked through into the club, the snowy-haired half ghoul was immediately met with the sight of at least a dozen machine gun barrels, all of which being pointed directly at him. Seeing this, he halted his advance, stopping right where the thug he threw earlier now lay. He blinked at them all owlishly before proceeding to ask in the most courteous tone he could manage, "Pardon the intrusion, but I heard that this is where I could find a man that I'm looking for. Maybe some of you know him? I've been told that he goes by the name: 'Junior'."
"Yeah, I know him," a gruff voice sounded with the answer to his question. The voice coming out at a volume that rose above the chatter of the other grunts with little to no effort, which made it easy for him to turn towards where it was coming from. There, pushing through the crowd, was a man much larger than the other grunts. Kaneki noted that there was a deep scowl present on the larger male's face. "The question is what do you want from him?"
"Oh, it's just that the guy at my feet…" the half ghoul trailed off, his one visible eye angling down towards the barely conscious grunt at his feet, "…I think he has something to tell you." Upon seeing the large man narrow his eyes, Kaneki squatted down and grabbed the aforementioned grunt by the back of his dress shirt, pulling him up so that he was facing the burly man currently glaring down at them.
"B-boss…" the grunt wheezed out, just barely holding onto his consciousness as he spoke, "…t-this is the guy… the one who was asking around about you." With that, he went limp in the snowy-haired young man's grip, having lost any and all consciousness in that moment.
"'Boss'?" Kaneki repeated, the question clearly holding a rhetorical inflection behind it. Raising his one visible eyebrow at the larger man before him, he loosened the grip he had on the now unconscious man's shirt, which prompted said man's head to fall onto the ground hard. "Doesn't that make you-?" he began to ask as he stood up, but was almost immediately cut off by the larger man.
"Yeah, I'm the man you're looking for. So, what exactly do you want from me?"
Not going to exchange pleasantries? The former language major couldn't help but smile a bit in response to that, though it wasn't like it really mattered because of his mask. Well, then I guess it should be fine if I did the same as you then, right?
"Your men…" He took a moment to glance around at all the men around him. "…I hear that you contract them out to paying customers from time to time."
Junior gave curt nod back in response. "You heard right. What's it to you? You interested in becoming one of those 'paying customers'?"
"No, no." Kaneki both verbally and physically waved the man's assumption off, remembering to keep his tone courteous as he spoke. "I'm actually just looking for some information on one of those customers. More specifically, the ones who contracted them out to one of the settlements beyond the city walls."
"Yeah, that job…" The burly man trailed off as he scratched at his hair-covered chin, "…I remember a few things about the guy-I mean, guys who paid us to do it."
"Well, I had a few questions I wanted to ask you about them. Of course, I have something to offer you in exchange for the information."
"Really?" The crime boss shot back, sounding genuinely surprised by his offer, but not in the condescending way that Kaneki expected. No, from the inflection of how it was said, he could tell that the man wasn't expecting to get an offer in the first place.
The masked half ghoul could only blink owlishly at the man in front of him, not knowing why the crime boss would think about something like that in the first place. "I'm sorry. Is there a problem with that?" He knew that his entrance might've caused the grunts to think that he was only here to fight them, but he thought that a boss would think differently from his men, or at the very least, that's what past experience told him.
"Uh, n-" he began before raising a balled fist up to his mouth and clearing his throat loudly, "-no, of course not. How much did you have in mind?"
"Oh, sorry, but it wasn't my intention to ensue that I was offering you money."
"Then, what exactly were you offering us then?"
"I understand that your gang has been having trouble with another gang, as of late." The bear-like man visibly flinched at the mere mention of them, all but confirming the rumors he had been told by the people in that bar. He smirked a bit under his mask. "I can get rid of them for you, if you'd like."
"Huh? What exactly do you mean by 'get rid of them'?"
Kaneki subconsciously placed his thumb over his index finger when he heard that. "Well…" He began as he pressed down, causing a crack to ring through the air, "…you all know what a culling is, right?"
"So, you're the guy Junior was telling us about?" Kaneki's ears perked up when that question was carried to them by a melodious voice. "Hm, you certainly don't look like much…"
Looking over to where the voice had come from, he found two women walking over to where he stood, leaning against a wall near the entrance of their target.
One appeared to be the mirror reflection of the other-a detail that really didn't surprise the half ghoul at all, since they were explicitly referred to as 'the twins' when he was first told about them. The only visible difference that he could see between the two being their choice in clothing and makeup. Both of them wore a variant of a strapless dress, but one was shaded a deep crimson and the other lacked all shade whatsoever.
Huh, why do I feel like they wear those colors just to make it easier for Junior to distinguish one from the other? Kaneki asked himself as an amused smirk crept onto his lips, which was thankfully kept hidden underneath his mask. Yeah, I can definitely see him accidentally mixing the two up and going on as if nothing was ever wrong.
The snowy-haired half ghoul, of course, didn't mean anything malicious towards the crime boss by thinking that. Truth be told, the fact that Junior wasn't the most intelligent person he's ever met actually only made him like the man more, since it reminded him a bit of Banjou and how he would act-the large, brutish guy who looked intimidating but was more or less harmless.
"…are you really the one who's supposed to be leading this so-called 'culling'?" The girl in red was the one to say that, which immediately made him think that she was the one who said that first part.
Kaneki hummed back in affirmation and pushed himself off the wall he was leaning against. "Yeah, I'm the one. You two ready to start?"
"You want to get straight to business then?" The one dressed in the white dress was the one to ask that question. Her tone resembling a much more aggressive version of her sister's. "How brutish." She scoffed as she shook her head disbelievingly. "Has your mother ever taught you how to greet a lady before?"
The half ghoul smirked a bit underneath his mask. "Sorry about that." He didn't waste any time in apologizing. Already knowing that he wouldn't get anywhere by being stubborn-a lesson that had been drilled into his head a long ago thanks to his time sparring with Weiss. "I wasn't really thinking there," he added as he sheepishly scratched at the back of his head.
"Keeping your focus on what's to come?" The one in red suggested while raising brow at him.
He nodded, returned his arm back to his side and replied with, "Yeah, you could say that."
"Well, at the very least, you know how to keep your priorities straight," the one in red relented, which made it very clear to the young man that she was the much less confrontational of the two-albeit, it seemed that the difference was only by a little bit. "My name is Miltia, by the way. Miltia Malachite."
"Ah, it's nice to meet you," he stated as he plastered on a smile that was wide enough to be seen through his mask. He then shifted his gaze over to the girl in white and flashed the knowledge he got from Junior earlier, "So, is it safe to assume that your name is Melanie then?"
"Is it safe to assume that Junior told you about us before you came to meet with us?" Melanie shot back with a question that was clearly meant to be rhetoric. When he heard that, Kaneki immediately began acting out of habit and let out an awkward chuckle, which prompted said twin to ask, "Did I say something funny?"
"Ah, no, sorry about that," he once again drew upon his past experience and immediately moved to apologize to forgo any more conflict. "It's nice to meet you, Melanie," he stated before shifting his gaze over to the other twin, "and it's nice to meet you as well, Miltia. I'm called 'Eyepatch'."
"Likewise," the aforementioned twin said back dryly. "Now that we're done with introductions, shall we head inside?" she suggested while momentarily glancing over at her sister next to her. "Sorry if this comes across as rude, but I'd prefer if we get this over and done with as soon as possible."
"Me too," the twin in white agreed with a nod of her head. "I want to be out of this area as quickly as possible. It's filled with nothing but scum."
Wait, wasn't I- he began to think that, but stopped himself before it could somehow leak out from his head. He knew better than to argue against women when they did things like that. Touka had forcibly drilled that lesson into him a long time ago.
After letting out the slightest of a nostalgic sigh, the artificially-made half ghoul nodded his head and turned towards the double doors behind him. "Alright then," he started, cracking the middle joint of his index finger before he smashed the bottom of his loafer right where the two doors' locking mechanisms met-an act that caused the previously locked doors to fly wide open. He glanced back at the two from over his shoulder, smiled at them and said, "Follow me."
As he strode through the now open doors, he could've swore he heard one of the girls say, "You really like kicking down doors, huh?" He couldn't help but laugh at the observation.
Kaneki ducked underneath the incoming swing of some random grunt without a weapon and slashed the blade of his weapon at the man's legs, making sure to only use enough force to slice through the flesh of the leg with the blade and the flesh only. His victim let out a scream as metal cut through his upper thigh and spilled a streak of blood onto the carpeted floor below them-an act that led to the man falling to his knees. The moment he did so, the masked half ghoul grabbed the man head by his hair and dragged the cutting edge of his blade across the man's throat, forcing any life in the man to slowly pour out from the gaping wound in his neck.
Naught a moment later, a sweet scent wafted up from the body and into his nostrils, forcing a frown to form underneath the smile of his mask. The smell… It was nearly enough to make his mouth water. It definitely would've been enough to drive a younger and less resilient version of himself mad with hunger. Now, all it did was activate his kakugan.
It was a good thing I thought to have those two go and cover the back, he thought himself as he released his grip on the man's hair and watched as it slumped lifelessly on to the ground with a bit of disdain in his face. Now, he started to think, walking away from the recently made corpse and down the door the man and the rest of his dead friends were supposed to be guarding, where are the rest of them?
A crack resonated through the air as the snowy-haired young man used his free hand to fling the blood off of his blade. The resulting crimson just barely standing out from the already red-colored carpet.
"They're even worse than that those idiots Junior orders around!" The grip he had on the hilt of his blade tightened as he lowered his head, making it so that the top portion of his face was hidden by his bangs.
When he reached the door, the young man went against his usual mannerisms and simply pulled the door open, revealing the remnants of a room that was nearly completely void of people. The only people in the room being a group of twelve, all of varying genders and race, and all of which pointing the barrels of their guns right at him.
"You! Stop right there!" Commanded one of the twelve, the voice sounding distinctly female. He didn't stop advancing towards them. "Stop right there or we blow your fucking head off!"
"Yeah, the members of Junior's gang don't even attempt to do half the shit those asshats do." His grip got even tighter. "They don't care who's life they ruin. All they care about is getting money."
"You fucking deaf, man?! The woman told you to stop fucking moving!"
"Yeah, just take what they did to that surgeon that used to work with them for example." His grip tightened so much that the weapon was shaking him in his grasp. "The guy wanted to leave the gang to take care of his family and they said he could as long as he did one more job for them. When he finished it, they just up and offed him anyways. I hear that they did the same to his wife and daughter too, or are at least trying to."
"Why the hell are we even warning this guy? We should just-" Another, different man in the group began to yell out, but was forced to stop when the masked half ghoul dashed forwards. Going from twenty feet in front of the group to right in front of them in a moment's notice.
The moment that he was close enough to one of them, Kaneki sent the tip of his sword right into the chest of the one who was unfortunate enough to be in striking distance, running the man clean through with ease. When he saw the blade come out through to the other side, he twisted it so that its cutting edge was horizontal and pulled it out, before immediately moving onto the woman who stood right next to his first victim.
A horizontal slash aimed at the woman's shoulder later and he left the lady lying on the ground with a large, bleeding gash that started from her shoulder and went all the way down to the opposite hip.
The next one of his targets seemed to have recovered from the shock, because the moment he took a step towards him, the man raised his gun in an attempt to riddle him with holes before he could do anything. That effort, of course, proved to be nothing more than useless-a lesson the man immediately learned when the snowy-haired half ghoul knocked the gun's barrel away with a well placed swipe from his sword.
Kaneki then proceeded to lodge the tip of his foot right into his third victim's stomach, which left the man bending over, clutching at his stomach. A second after that, he was immediately met with the sound of guns caulking coming from behind him.
Wasting little time, he used his free hand to grab the back of the hunched over man's shirt and spun around to face the guns behind him, intending to use the man as a human shield. His plan worked, as naught a second later, gunfire erupted into the air and bullets riddled the newly-made shield.
Four…five…six, Kaneki counted the people firing at him as they unknowingly fired into their ally. That should mean that there are three behind me as of right now. As he thought that he heard more guns caulk from behind him. Good, that means I don't have to use as much energy.
Letting go off of his meat shield, the masked half ghoul jumped up and flipped himself backwards. Just barely missing getting pumped full of dozens of bullets.
As he flipped himself through the air, he noted the positions of the three behind him and pushed three of his kagune up to the surface. Landing behind the three, he proceeded to use the three jet black predatory organs to impale them in the chest with pinpoint accuracy.
"Wh-what the hell?!" Screamed a man-the same one who Kaneki heard yell at him to stop moving earlier-machine gun shaking in his hands as he pointed it at him. "The hell are-?"
Whatever the man was going to say was cut off when five more tentacles sprouted out from the half ghoul's back and shot out towards the group, impaling all but the aforementioned man through the chest-an act that only caused even more of that sweet scent up into the air.
"Fu-fuck!" The man screamed out in terror as he tried to back away from the half ghoul-probably to try and get away from him-but the effort only ended backfiring as he suddenly stumbled and fell flat onto his backside, leaving the man in an even more vulnerable position. "Get the hell away from me, you goddamn monster!"
Kaneki couldn't help but smile as he watched the man tried to crawl away from him, all the while shrieking in complete and utter terror. He took note of the fear in the man's voice and began to wonder if that was what the surgeon's wife and child felt as they were killed. He then began to wonder if the terrified man trying to get away from him held a part in the murders. The sheer thought was enough to further escalate the rage that burned inside of him.
"I'm the monster?" He asked the man rhetorically, his tone curious as he approached the man, whose crawling was put to a halt due to the wall that was at his back. The bodies of the eight Kaneki had just killed dragging along the ground as he walked, due to the fact that his kagune were still implanted inside their chests. "No, you're the bad bean here." A crack echoed off of the plaster walls around him. "Now, tell me," he continued as he looked down at the now trembling man, tilting his head to the side quizzically, "where can I find the other bad beans?"
"T-th-they went out the back!" the man stuttered out while he continued to try and shrink away from the masked monster in front of him. "Y-you'll never get away with this, you monster! They'll fucking kill you for this, y'know?!"
The artificially-made half ghoul let out a scoff and bent down so that his head was right next to his ear, and whispered, "No." He then stabbed the tip of his sword right into the man's legs. "No they're not."
The man let out an anguished scream. It was the first of many to come from the man's throat. All of it beginning when Kaneki unzipped the zipper covering his mouth.
Hm, looks like the ambush worked according to plan. Kaneki crossed his arm against his chest as he watched the enemy get systematically picked apart one-by-one by the twins, despite their clear numbers advantage.
Their movements flowed around one another. The one in red attacking with her wrist-mounted claws and the other with the blades that replaced the heels of her, well, heels. Moving so in synch with one another that it was almost as if the two shared the same brain and already knew what the other was going to do before they did it.
Seeing that he wasn't currently needed, the young man crossed his arms over his chest and leaned back on the wall behind him, deciding that it'd be best to just sit back and watch the two work. I wonder if Ruby and Yang have this sort of synergy with one another.
Right as he thought that, the two began attacking the last of their opponents-a much larger man in a suit who was used a large club-like object to fight. Unlike the rest of his group, he actually seemed to be putting up a fight against the two.
One could tell a lot about how someone fought by the way they looked and the man, being of a much larger size, looked to be a sort of powerhouse. Not an ounce of speed, but he a ton of power. Yet, the man was deceptively fast. Easily dodging attacks as if they were moving in slow-motion.
So much so, that he actually managed to keep up with the much smaller two. He used his club with the ease of a fly swatter, swinging it around like it was nothing, and the ground shook every time the large piece of metal made contact with it. Strange enough, the man seemed to be doing so with purpose, because he'd only ever swing when either of them got close in a clear attempt to knock the twins off balance.
Strong, durable, fast, and intelligent… I wonder if he's this group's leader? Kaneki couldn't help but wonder that as he watched the three-way deadlock continue on. He sure has the fighting ability to be one…
Somehow, despite the man's surprising amount of combat ability, that still wasn't the strangest thing about him. If anything, that title went to the mask he was wearing. It was the standard-issue hockey mask, but instead of having a clean white surface, there were thick black lines sprouting out from the air holes, giving the mask a strangely feline-like appearance.
For a while, the battle between the three remained completely stagnant. Neither side gaining any sort of real advantage. The twins had a clear advantage in terms of numbers, but the man's ability made it hard for them to get in close enough to do any real damage. The man, in turn, was having a hard time beating the two of them back fully, due to the fact that they outnumbered him. It was a seesaw of a battle that didn't seem like it would end anytime soon.
Not wanting to have to wait until the afternoon to go and check out Vale Public Library, the masked half ghoul pulled his sword out once again and jumped into the fray, making sure to do so right when the twins tried to charge at him once more.
Probably having heard footsteps approaching from behind, the cat-masked man suddenly turned to face where the footsteps were coming from and brought his club with him, slamming it against the ground in a blatant reuse of his previous strategy.
Already knowing what he was going for, Kaneki leapt at the large man right as the club was about to hit concrete, rendering the strategy completely and utterly useless. Looks like the twins had the same idea as I did, he idly noted to himself when he saw the two sisters leap up towards the enemy at the same time as him.
Being the fastest of the three, Kaneki made it to the target much faster than the other two and was able to get his attempt in first, which resulted in his blade getting being caught by the man's left hand. The man sneered at the masked half ghoul for a moment, but that sneer soon turned into a scowl when Melanie and Miltia slashed out the back of the man's knees with their respective weapons, cutting in deep enough to quickly drop him on to them, while also forcing him to have to let go of the blade he just caught.
The club-wielding gangster let out a pained grunt in response to that, but still attempted to stand back up naught a second later. A feat that Kaneki knew to be entirely possible if he allowed it thanks to aura.
So, to combat this from happening, the snowy-haired half ghoul proceeded to tear the man apart where he knelt. While darting around his downed opponent, he slashed at any sign of exposed flesh on the man, continually doing so until he saw that the wounds were no longer being temporarily healed by his aura, which signified that he was completely out of aura.
When that happened, the man simply began to lean forward and fall flat on to his face, but before he could do so, Kaneki moved himself so that he was directly in front of the nearly unconscious man. He latched a hand on to his opponent's shoulder and pulled while simultaneously sending the tip of his blade towards the center of the man's chest, causing one last burst of that sweet smell to explode out into the air.
"It's nice to see that you're a man of your word, Eyepatch," Kaneki heard one of the twins say to him as he pulled his sword from his deceased opponent's chest, which prompted the half ghoul to glance over his shoulder towards where it came from. There, much to his own surprise, he found Melanie staring at him with a satisfied expression gracing her features. "Truth be told, I didn't think you'd have the stomach to lead a culling, but from the looks of it, I was very clearly in the wrong with that assumption. Good job."
His one visible eye widened at that. "Um, thanks," he replied as he scratched at the back of his head with his free hand, his voice growing sheepish at the sudden praise being thrown his way. "Good job with the ambush, by the way. You two did great."
That prompted to Melanie let out a scoff while crossing her arms over her chest. "Please, other than the guy you just stabbed through the heart, this lot wasn't anything special. Really, I'm still outstanded by the fact that Junior's lackeys didn't just wipe these bugs out."
He smiled at the barely veiled arrogance the girl was showing. "Yeah…" he started before kneeling down and slipping the mask off the deceased man's face, "…I was sort of expecting more from them myself."
"Hm, getting yourself a souvenir?" Miltia asked him as she walked up to where he and his sister stood. "Afraid that the blood all over you isn't going to be enough of a reminder?"
"No, this mask…" the half ghoul started, staring at it for a couple of seconds before tucking it into the inside of his vest. "It just reminds me of someone I used to know."
"Were they close to you?" The twin in red continued to question him, an edge of curiosity to her voice.
He simply shook his head and answered with, "No…not at all."
-Side Story End-
Well, that puts a finish to the first of the side stories. I'll see you next time, I guess.