In this world, there are beings that walk among the humans... creatures that appear as humans, but feast upon their flesh. They hold no regard for human life, and devour all that lies before them.
We call these beings of destruction... Ghouls.
Tokyo Ghoul:reBIRTH
"Nishio... sen...pai...?"
The words tumbled out of his mouth before he realized what he was saying. The name felt so familiar, it rolled off of his tongue so casually, so easy as if it was second nature for him to speak it. And yet, now, it felt so foreign to him, a word that meant nothing to him. No, that wasn't quite true... this name... it was important to him... but why? Why was it important?
W-what...? W-who...?!
Memories began to writhe angrily in his mind, some flashing before his eyes, and others proceeding before him so slowly that it was almost agonizing. They were all out of order, one scene familiar and the other foreign. They were clashing against him, so out of place and unfamiliar...
And yet, a few of them stood out to him.
Oi, Shitty Kaneki... if you're late, I'll kill you.
K-Kaneki... That name... W-why did it sound familiar...?!
Haha, oh man, Kaneki...! Seriously, that's hilarious!
Wh-who is that... Why do I feel so...?!
I want to help those like my daughter... and you as well, Kaneki.
That man... W-who... Why does he...?
Don't ever come back to Anteiku!
A-Anteiku... Why... Why does that sound...
Kaneki...? Hey, Kaneki, is that you man? What's with the get-up? Are you cosplaying or something?
N-no... He can't... No, stop...
Please... I don't want him to...
What are you talking about? I already know about that, man!
Come on, what do you say we just go home already?
Gah, stupid Kaneki... How many times do I have to fucking tell you?
Sometimes, it's better to be hurt than to hurt others.
What's one thousand times seven?
I'm done not being able to do anything anymore.
Is it wrong for Ghouls to live?
The act of taking a life shall amount to all the evils in the world.
Mom... Why did you leave me...
His mind was reeling, the memories becoming more clearer. His head felt like it was about to split open, crimson streaks running down his face while his hands dug into his school, as if trying to end the pain. His teeth grinded together harshly, his knees on the floor, and his head against the ground. "M-my head...!"
"Do you remember now... Haise...?"
He didn't look up. The pain, it wouldn't stop...
"How much longer do you intend to keep living a false life?"
He didn't answer. He just wanted it to end.
"How much longer do you want them to suffer, all because of your own selfish desire?"
He forced himself to look up, his bangs clouding most of his vision. He was there again, that white-haired boy that always tempted him, that demanded that he give his body back to him. He didn't bother listen to him back then, pushing him back to the depths of his subconscious. He knew that, somewhere, this was how he used to be, his former self.
"Do you want to continue going on like this...?" the white-haired boy asked, looking down on Haise, tilting his head while his hands rested on his knees. Haise could hear the faint rattle of chains, cuffs dangling from his wrists. "Why do are so adamant on living like this?"
Again, Haise didn't answer. The pain continued to grow, his body quivering. The memories were beginning to place themselves together properly, images becoming clearer, moments becoming brighter, and faces turning sharper. He was slowly able to recall them... the people he had...
"I... I don't..."
"You don't what?" the boy asked, curious. The world around them, a room with a checkered floor and red bars as if mimicking a bird cage, was beginning to slowly break apart, cracks forming. This was a prison, so to speak, a prison of the mind. This was the prison he had been confined to, memories locked away with him.
"I don't want..." Haise sobbed, the pain not ending. "I don't... want to forget them..."
"You mean your 'friends'?" the boy asked, leaning in. He was curious to know the reasons why he had been rejected thus far, the reasons why he had been denied. "Why are you so scared of losing them?"
"I... I want to..." The pain was slowly beginning to lessen. Earlier, it had felt as if he had been stripped off all of his skin, and then tossed into salt water. Now, it just felt as if he had burning hot needles jammed into his body, straight to the bone. "I want... to protect them... I don't... I don't want to... forget everyone..."
He had forgotten the people precious to him before. Though he never showed it to anyone, to not even those close to him like Akira and Arima, he was conflicted. He wanted to remember the people he knew in the past, the ones that meant everything to him... but he was scared. Scared of remembering his past, of the "him" he used to be. Would he be a monster? Would he be a killer? Would he be human? Would he be a normal person?
It had been this conflict that made him so hesitant to recall everything, to accept himself from the past while living as the "him" he existed as now.
"Protect them...?" the boy laughed, as if finding Haise's words to be hilarious. "How? Just by thinking of your teachers to give you courage? Since when has that ever helped you? Does feeling brave help you fight? Does no longer fearing the enemy give you strength?" He leaned in, his lips so close to Haise's ear. "Does it keep your friends alive?"
The world around them was breaking apart. The checkered floor shattered into what looked like crystalline blue, and the birdcage falling apart, revealing an azure blue sky. Something was beginning to form on Haise's face, the pain dulling away. It crept along his neck, moving upwards until it reached his jaw. "Let's say you finally decided to accept the Ghoul within... would you still want to protect your friends?"
It was almost incoherent to the boy, but he could hear it, a choked voice stained with bloody tears. The crimson living substance was growing, touching the corner of his lip and covering half of his cheek. "...Yes..."
"If you chose to become a Ghoul, would you devour others to protect everything you love...?" Haise hadn't noticed it yet, but the mask on the boy's face was crumbling away, revealing pale skin underneath.
His voice grew. "I would..."
"And..." By now, only the ground beneath them was all that was left of this prison, the cage gone to show the brilliant blue sky, and the ground now a glassy surface. Only the boy's eyes remained hidden. "If you had to fight CCG... even your mentors... would you kill them..." A wicked grin formed on the boy's face. "All to protect your 'friends'...?"
Haise threw his face up, a scream tearing out of his throat. "Even then!" he shouted at the boy in front of him. The entire left half of his face was covered by a mask, the same one the white-haired youth had been wearing up until now. His right eye was completely blank, bloody tears still running down his eye, while a Kakugan rested in the center of the mask, twitching violently. Something erupted from his back, lashing and quivering, much thicker than the tendrils that had emerged from him previously.
The boy's face was revealed to him at long last.
It was his face.
The boy was grinning from ear to ear, as his body began to slowly start to disappear, fading away. And yet... Haise could not forget the Kakugan that seemed to burn wickedly in delight in his left eye. "Well..." the boy said, pleased. "It's about damn time..."
Hirako sighed as he looked back at Haise's unconscious form, the Q Suppressant bullet that Akira had fired from her sniper scope finding its mark in the base of his neck. 'Talk about a lot of work...' he thought, but still kept his Quinque out, in case the suppressant was ineffective. It was not uncommon to see what should have kept a Ghoul weak from being overpowered, if they were strong enough.
Haise Sasaki was among those individuals. He was classified as an SS-Rated Ghoul, after all. Of course, he still wondered what in the world the Director and the Chairman were thinking, allowing a Ghoul, especially one so dangerous, to be working with CCG in the first place, but he chose to keep his mouth shut, and do as he was told. After all, he was a subordinate, one of their loyal guard dogs. If he was told to do something, he'd do it.
Even still... this Ghoul worried him. He had actually managed to give his former teacher, Kishou Arima, some trouble, and that alone was enough to scream danger. Personally, he felt that the kid was as dangerous, if not more so, than the Owls, both the One-Eyed and the Non-Killing Owl.
"Well, let's clear this up..." he muttered as he tapped his hand against the communicator in his ear. "Mado, it looks like it's-"
"...M-my fingers..."
Hirako froze, and cursed silently as he turned just in time to see something lash out at him. 'Shit.' He quickly dived to the left, the ground where he once stood torn apart by sheer force alone. Dust and debris flied into the air, a cloud of murk flowing around the Kagune.
At least, that's what he thought it was until he got a better look at it, and cursed again, this time letting it slip out of his mouth. "Ah, hell..." Instead of a bloody tendril, it was an armored tentacle with flowing red beneath the gaps an underneath it, sharp twitching talons placed at it's sides. It looked like a demonic centipede, a factor that led to Haise Sasaki's alias during the raid on Akihiko Kanou's laboratory. He touched the communicator on his ear again. "Mado."
"I know, Hirako..." Akira responded despondently, saddened most likely. "He's Risk Level 2 now."
Hirako felt sorry for Akira, not in the way most would feel. Having a subordinate, who was a Ghoul, would certainly have people raising eyebrows, even if you were asked to treat him as a human being, but Akira had a sort of attachment to the boy, almost a mother/son sort of relationship, much like the father/son relationship Haise had with Arima.
She was about to lose the third, most precious person in her life since the Owl Extermination from two years ago.
"Sorry 'bout this, kid..." he apologized in advance as he watched Haise shakily lift himself up from the ground, his Kakuja returning to his side, and his arms hanging limply at his sides. "We'll try to make this as painless as possible."
"M-my fingers... on the bench..." Haise Sasaki growled, his voice distorted as his back hunched over. "C-centipedes... crawling... in my ears...!" He gripped his head, as if it were in pain, and threw his head back, letting out an ear-piercing scream as four bloody red tendrils, and another armored tentacle emerged, bursting out from his back and lashing around wilidly.
Hirako grimaced as he managed to avoid them, leaping back to evade a Kagune from skewering him before rolling off to the side, the Kakuja nearly swiping his head off. "You kids!" he shouted over at Sasaki's squad. "Get out of here!"
"W-what?!" Shirazu Ginshi shouted, eyes wide in disbelief. "Why?! The fuck is up with Sas-san?!"
Hirako couldn't tell them the full story about Haise Sasaki's condition, and instead informed them of the basic information they had on Kakuja. "First Class Investigator Sasaki is an Incomplete Kakuja. You should know how they act from the academy!"
"B-but, even still!" Tooru Mutsuki tried to argue, making Hirako groan. Thankfully, Kuki Urie didn't looked worried or concerned for his superior's well-being, albeit interested in this new development, but how come they had to be so attached to their Squad Leader? Honestly, sometimes it just annoyed the heck out of him. Attachment was likely to lead to sorrow, and he had seen plenty to last him a lifetime.
Last thing he needed was to see more of it, and caused by his own hand no less.
"Hahahahahahahahaha..." Hirako looked back to see Sasaki calming down, his screams turning into a hysterical laugh, his head still thrown back. "A thousand... A-a thousand... minus..."
'A thousand minus seven.' Hirako observed. 'A method used when being subjected to torture. More often than not does the subject experience pain, pain so severe it can cause them to lose their minds. However, by subtracting a thousand from seven continuously, they can maintain it, even as they feel they are still under undergoing torture.' The grip on his Quinque tightened. 'It was the method used by Jason and the Investigator that tortured him.'
"S-seven..." Haise Sasaki giggled as he looked over at Hirako, a purple mask covering half of his face with a black and red Kakugan staring at him, shaking and twitching, dashing all over the place, completely consumed by madness. "...is what?"
Once again, Hirako felt himself sigh. "This is gonna be a long day..."
-Chapter END (1) The Reawakening-