Days have passed and things remained calm at Aogiri, except for the loud screams that came from Yamori's playroom. It was a silence before the storm. Kaiya was sitting on the roof of the 5th building in the headquarters area. She read her book as she watched different groups of ghoul gather around to pick up weapons that they stole from the CCG. Her lecture was suddenly was interrupted by Eto's arrival. "Tonight, the doves will come to us. Are you ready to fight?" She asked in a cheerful way. Her face was covered with bandages under her purple cape but Kaiya could notice the big grin that she was making behind her disguise. She closed her book and gave Eto a glance. "I'm always ready for a fight". Despite her cold look, she was anxious. Her heart was racing because she knew that ghouls from the 20th ward were also going to come to save their friend Kaneki. She didn't feel the need to inform Eto on their arrival. The redhead got up and left Eto's by jumping off the roof to the ground. She slowly walked towards the deserted corner of the headquarters where she could find some peace and silence. After putting on her Aogiri cape, she pulled out the new mask that Uta made her and put it on. It was the same fox mask, same ornements but a different shades of red and white. She tied her long messy hair into a ponytail and decided to join Yamori to ask him whether he was planning to join the fight or not.
Everyone in the Antique Café were ready to leave. They brought their disguises to hide as members of the Aogiri and finished their last preparations. Before leaving the ruined café, Yomo was stopped by Itori. "Renji... I know Kaiya too well and she won't let Kaneki go without a fight. She can't afford to disappoint Yamori without a fight but please, if you see her. Don't let her get herself killed". Yomo gazed into Itori's eyes and could see how concerned she was. He nodded and put on his Aogiri mask. "I'll try but I can't make any promises. You know this". He left the café, followed by Touka, Nishiki, Uta, Yoshimura, Irimi and of course Hinami, who insisted to come.
Only a few hours later, gunshots echoed through the whole area. The 11th ward was already a war zone between CCG's gunfire and the spilled blood. The investigators managed to pass through the first phase of defense after a very young and small white haired investigator managed to kill off every gunman of Aogiri that was standing in the frontline. Yamori, while continuing to torture Kaneki, told Kaiya to take his place in the fight. She sighed and rolled her eyes. "Suit yourself old man", she ran back to the main building where the fight was going on. The spilled blood and screams made Kaiya's heart skip beats. She was excited and she quickly rushed towards the higher ranked investigators. The Bin Brothers were busy with fighting a tall investigator in the backdoor while her target was the infamous and strongest investigator named Arima. While looking for him, she managed to behead a few lower ranked officers who tried to shoot her down. One of the officers who managed to survive with a deep cut on his chest tried to escape by crawling on the ground like a dying centipede. She caught him by his coat and pulled him up. "You only have a few minutes left so tell me... Where is the white haired investigator!? Arima!" She narrowed her eyes and licked the blood that was on her hand and gave him her usual demonic smile. The man struggled to talk and the only words that came out of his mouth were, "he... isn't here." Angry, Kaiya threw him on the ground and crushed his skull with her foot. "Damn it!" She yelled and sighed. "And I thought I was going to have fun...". She noticed another investigator approaching her and grabbed a gun that was on the floor. Without even looking back, she pulled the trigger and shot her attacker from his forehead. She looked at the gun she was holding and chuckled, "things might get interesting though...". Her eyes suddenly changed colour from yellow to red and she released her kagune. Ayato was fighting off a group of investigators on the other side of the area. She decided to give him a hand and jumped in. While Ayato launched projectiles from his wing-shaped kagune, she held the investigators back with her sporpion-tail. "Where the hell is Yamori when he's the most needed!?" The young ghoul yelled. Kaiya shrugged and ignored his question. A large explosion came from the back of the 5th building, she suddenly felt like something wasn't right back in the playroom and decided to head back to check on Yamori and Kaneki. She ran into more investigators on her way but it didn't her much time to kill them off in a single move.
She noticed that she was being followed. She suddenly stopped running and remained still. The odour was easy to recognize, she looked down and smiled. She turned back and took off her cape. "I didn't think I'd ran into old friends... Yomo, Uta and of course the Gourmet." She hissed and cracked her middle finger. The three ghouls pulled down their capes and came out of the shadows. "Ah! Mia bella! You still have a great sense of smell... How delightful!" Tsukiyama laughed and satisfied look on his face. Yomo took off his cape and threw it on the ground. "You two leave. I'll handle this..." He ordered Uta and Tsukiyama to leave. Before leaving Uta gave Yomo's shoulder a pat and whispered, "you're not planning to kill her, are you?" Yomo ignored Uta's question and kept watching Kaiya with determination in his eyes. Kaiya hit the wall with her large kagune and blocked the path by tearing the passage into pieces. "I can't let you pass, no hard feelings. Right, Uta?" Yomo gritted his teeth and frowned. "Find another passage. Go!" Following his order, Uta and Tsukiyama ran back from where they came from, to find another entrance. "I don't want to fight you Kaiya but if you insist, then I have no other choice." He cracked his neck and stretched his large arms. Kaiya hit the ground with her kagune a few times like a dog wagging its tail out of excitement and pointed it at him. She ran towards him and slipped between his legs. Her kagune wandered around his right leg. She managed to pull him towards her and hit his face with her elbow. She then let go of his leg and jumped back and waited for him to attack. Yomo, refusing to release his kagune, approached her in a single jump and kicked her stomach. Instead of doing counter attacks, Kaiya only blocked his blows.
From further behind, instead of leaving, Uta and Tsukiyama took a moment to watch them fight. "She's holding back. Kaiya isn't the defensive kind of fighter. Her offense is her defense but she's holding back and only blocks his kicks." Uta observed them cautiously and finally decided to let them be. "Let's go", he said and pulled up the hood of his cape.
While fighting, Yomo and Kaiya were interrupted by a third individual. It was Take Hirako, a first class investigator known to be Arima's former subordinate. Both Yomo and Kaiya gritted their teeth as soon as they noticed him. Hirako pulled out his quinque and started swinging a large axe towards the two. Kaiya hissed and noticed that she and Yomo were cornered by him. "Isn't that the asshole who killed your sister?" She asked and hissed in anger. Yomo nodded and glared at him. "And I suppose he was with Arima when your family got killed". She nodded and clenched her fists. They both looked at each other and decided to fight Hirako together, instead of fighting each other.
Their movements were perfectly synchronized. While Yomo attacked Hirako and forced him to take a defensive position, Kaiya hit him with her kagune from behind and vice versa. They were fighting in perfect harmony. Yomo, still refusing to use his kagune received a blow on his face and hit his head on the wall. It took Kaiya a second to take a look back to check on him but before she could focus back on the fight, she felt the axe cut through her chest all the way down to her hips. She refused to scream out of pain but spat a large amount of blood and groaned in pain. She fell on her knees and looked down at her injury. Hirako took a few steps towards her and raised his axe to finish her off. "What a dumb way to die..." She thought to herself and looked up at the shining edge of the axe. She kicked the investigator's stomach and pushed him away. Her strength was slowly fading away but she couldn't afford to die yet. She got up, stumbled on her feet and her knees were shaking. She looked at Yomo, half-conscious on the ground. "You've got to be kidding me. Get up, big man!" She yelled at him and pointed the investigator. She released her kagune and swung it towards Hirako. He avoided the first blow, but another one came right after and hit him hard. He shook his head and took off his helmet. The two gazed into each other's eyes in a dangerous way and waited for a minute. Her mask was still solid on her face, she sighed out of relief and cracked her finger. "You are a challenging one aren't you?" She laughed and doubled the size of her kagune. Her injury was still bleeding but she was still standing straight. Hirako suddenly changed his aim and rushed towards Yomo who was on the ground. He swung his axe towards him. Kaiya's eyes grew bigger and jumped in front of Yomo and caught the axe from the sharp edge. Her hand began to bleed and she used all her force to hold him back. Suddenly her kagune disappeared and she let out a loud scream; "NO!"
Forcefully, Hirako swung the axe around and pushed Kaiya aside. She fell down and tried to get up but she was too tired from the fight. Both her stomach and her hands were bleeding and the whole room became a bloodbath. "I guess I'll start with you first," the investigator said as he approached her. Once again, he raised his quinque and gathered his energy for a strong, direct hit. "I'll be waiting for you in hell. Fucking bastard". Kaiya hissed. She shut her eyes and waited for it to end. Yamori's words echoed in her head. "Death is inevitable. All you can do is push it away as long as you can fight but sooner or later it will come to you. Fight your opponents as if it was your last one". A sudden thud caught her attention and she opened her eyes to take a look. It was Yomo, standing on the top of Hirako, his hand around the investigator's neck. His raven mask was still on but through the mask, she could see his glowing red eyes, filled with rage. The investigator's quinque was on the floor, Kaiya got on her feet and picked it up with the last bit of strength left in her. She released her kagune once again and broke it into two. "Kill him Renji! That motherfucker killed your sister didn't he!?" She hissed and fell down on her knees again. Yomo got up and punched his face and knocked him unconscious. He lifted Kaiya up and carried her to the corner of the room. After putting her down, he started walking back to the exit that Uta and Tsukiyama took. "He's not the reason why I'm here. I have no intention to kill him... yet." Before leaving, he turned at Kaiya. "Don't get yourself killed", he warned her and left quickly in silence. Kaiya watched him leave in disbelief. After he left, the redhead looked down at her scar and waited for it to heal. "Fucking idiot...", she took another glance at the door and mumbled.
She managed to heal as much as she could and jumped of the window to climb up to the roof. From the top of the building, she could see the playroom's roof. She rushed towards it by jumping from one roof to another. She finally arrived at her destination, although from the window, she could see that it was too late. She knew something wasn't right. She entered the torture room and found Yamori's body. She knew this was the end for him. Kaneki was nowhere to be found and so she figured that he managed to beat down Yamori. She couldn't tell how but despite her state of shock, she was impressed. She wondered if Yomo and the others managed to help him escape or if he did it all by his own. She approached Yamori and kneeled down to check on him. She swiped off the tears on her cheeks and tried to hold herself from crying. She couldn't believe that he was dead. She got up on her feet and screamed. "You always pushed me to work harder. You never saw my true power and I've always been the little brat in your eyes. Not some prodigy but a burden that you couldn't get rid off!" She clenched her fists and continued, "well look who's alive now! Me! You old fuck... You can't die!" She grabbed the chair the chair that was on the floor and threw it across the room, broke it into pieces." She started walking away forcefully and thought that she heard a groan. She turned and looked back at him one last time. He was motionless, thinking that she just imagined it, she walked away. On her way back to the main building, to continue fighting, she ran into Kaneki who was walking with a leather mask on his face that hid his human eye.
His hair was whitened and there was a different look on his face; a more determined one, the look of a true fighter. "Nice hair, snowflake..." She teased him and the two kept walking together. He remained silent and glared at Kaiya. Suddenly, the redhead ghoul stopped walking and stood still. Kaneki stopped and turned at her. She took a deep breath and sighed. "I'm tired. So tired of this shit... Aogiri, CCG... Ghouls and humans killing each other to make the world a more livable place. To hell with that, I don't even give a shit anymore. I'm out...". She took off her mask and attached it to her belt. "Where will you go?" He asked. Kaiya shrugged and looked behind her. "I'm not sure yet... I guess I'll figure it out." She untied her messy ponytail and checked her hands. The bleeding stopped but her scars were still there. She grinned at him and suddenly started laughing. Kaneki couldn't tell why she was laughing but he kept watching her. "Good luck Ken Kaneki. You'll need it..." She winked at him. Her voice was trembling even though she forced herself to look uncaring, he could see through her. She looked broken and lost. Before leaving, she asked Kaneki a simple question. "Seeing Yamori's situation, I believe you changed your philosophy. Why?" Her question was quite simple although Kaneki couldn't find the words to express himself. "Devour or be devoured. Isn't that what you live by? Well, I can't keep getting hurt if I want to protect those I care for". Just like her question, Kaneki's answer was simple and brief. Kaiya's eyes suddenly turned back to a deep shade of yellow. She graciously smiled at him and started walking towards another direction. Kaneki watched her leave in silence. It was the same kind of silence that would dominate before the thunderstorms. He broke the silence, "good luck to you too. Kaiya Hiromai...".
"Kaiya... She isn't born a monster, she became one. She is the living proof of life's cruelty; whether a victim or guilty. Now just an aimless soul of this world" Kaneki thought of her as he watched her leave.