Chapter 12: Offering
"Kimi-san is very dedicated to her work"
"Yes but her personal feelings are getting ahead of her. Kanou and I made a bet on how long before Kimi will betray us" The taller male cheekily admitted to his companion. Staring into the people below the building somewhat amused them most of the time that is why they always meet here once in awhile.
"She is after the cure so what are you expecting, Souta?" He turned his head towards the man sitting on the railings with him.
A playful laugh escaped his lips, dark coloured eyes stares at his companion and friend. "I never expect anything from anyone. You of all people must know that"
"Anyway, be careful" He tapped the king's shoulder and squishes it. "This might sound stupid to you but you have be careful no matter how lucky you are there are times that fate won't side with you"
"I know. It's time for you to do your part in our play—" Nimura silently mouthed his name which made his friend smile ever so bright.
Gathering inside the CCG's main office, Kaneki's group along with CCG's group were trying to settle a few things before officially announced the temporary peace treaty between humans and ghouls. Everything is happening smoothly until they received a report stating that men clad in black overcoat and hat started killing ghouls within the perimeter. Even those humans who were just helping the ghouls were also killed. Kaneki and the GOAT executives along with CCG investigators checked the perimeter. As expected, V is the one behind the chaos. Civilians were evacuated by the military force and other government agencies.
"Kill them all" Souta ordered the framed out Oggai and special investigators with him. "Pity no one because they are all traitors"
"Furuta!" The king screamed. Ui Koori grabbed Kaneki's shoulder and he shook his head disapprovingly at the young man. He understands that Kaneki will feel anxious especially after they saw Furuta surrounded by V agents but Kirishima Touka is not around.
"Calm down. Don't let him know your weakness or he'll utilize it against you" Ui warned. He eyed Kaneki before darting his hateful glare towards Furuta, the man whom he trusted and the man who betrayed them. "You are a traitor"
"Am I?" Furuta tilted his head in an awkward way which revealed both his eyes. "As far as I am concern it is you who became friends with ghouls, Special Class Koori Ui"
"Where is Touka?" Hairu clenched her quinque, tempted to slice the smug bastard into half.
"?!" Arima Kishou's quinque clashed against Kaiko's, he was blocked by the man from ambushing Nimura.
"Kishou, what a foolish boy you have become" Kaiko clicked his tongue.
"Thanks" Furuta muttered to his senior, aware that Kaneki will foolishly go after him like what they all planned.
"Furuta-kuuuuuuuun~" Eto called out, resurfacing from her huge kakuja in front of Furuta. She killed the V agents surrounding him but failed to kill her target.
"As much as I want to reminisce with you, you are of no importance to me." He paused for a moment. "Roma!" Souta called out and the clown founder's kakuja stopped the owl from advancing further.
"Get the fuck away, Gypsy" Eto snarled. SSS rate Kakujas clashed.
"Everything's meaningless enjoyments like the underground king all of tens of years ago. If it meant that wish coming true then even spectators from high are willing to step foot onto the stage" Roma chimed and Furuta remained calm, their grand stage was set up and is ready to be of any use soon.
"Uta" Yomo was stopped by Uta even before he can follow their youngest executive.
"Your life will be forfeited if you step further than here"
"Furuta, where is Touka-chan?!" Kaneki glared at his nemesis hatefully. He advanced despite the framed out Oggai tried to stop the rampaging king.
"..." Furuta smiled albeit without any mirth, pulling out a head from the bag he's been holding. His hands grip the fluffy azure hair of it.
"Touka-neesan" Hinami gasped in horror upon seeing what the madman just showed them.
"I'm somewhat fond of her. She's pretty skilled in bed my dear Kaneki. No wonder you've been fond of her" The Washuu king laughed at the horrified looks of Kirishima's friends and husband.
"Touka-chan" Kaneki fell on his knees and he whimpered. Memories with his wife flashed before his eyes like an old movie. "No why—"
"She was your friend's niece" Tsukiyama's expression darkens. He can't understand why the Clowns even went as far as killing Kaneki's wife and child just to get what they want.
"This is all part of our show" Itori snorted.
"You sick fuckers!" Nishiki screamed at Nico. His kagune clashed against Nico's. "You don't have to kill her if you want to get into Kaneki's nerves!"
"How funny you guys could be? We all killed more than how we can even remember so what is the difference if we kill one pregnant ghoul?" The flamboyant clown rolled his eyes.
"You are monsters" Amon slammed his quinque into Donato's koukaku.
"We cannot wash our sins no matter how we all want to. All of us took from one another" Donato's lips quirked into malicious grin. "We bath in blood"
"You are a different level of monstrosity!"
"Touka. Touka. Touka. Touka" Kaneki clenched his head and he cried at the death of his wife. He howled in pain of losing his partner, taking from others is natural for both humans and ghouls but the fact that they took away his source of light somewhat broke him inside. Kill him. A voice inside his head whispered, Kaneki suspected it to be the personality he developed after Yamori's torture. No! Don't listen to him! Furuta will pay for it but not like this. Haise Sasaki screamed. Shut up trash. Furuta is beyond saving. The Black reaper uttered coldly. I don't want to kill a human! Another Kaneki screamed at the black reaper. Unconsciously, his kagune spreads too wide, eating, killing and destroying everything near it. Furuta did not even look remorseful at all. Kaneki rushed to where the man is, killing the Oggai and eating them.
"Little baby Eat up!" His grin widened in delight that his dragon is about to happen. In less than a minute, a huge kagune swallowed him and everything around them till the whole Tokyo was covered by it too, killing the civilians.
"Furuta! Sasaki!" Ui is horrified at what happened and more terrified at the thing that is happening around them, Kaneki became something that is beyond any monstrous thing they ever saw. Huge kagune-like things tried to attack everyone. V escaped as soon as they can while Clowns just vanished as soon as Kaneki changed. The two groups parted ways to save their own lives and leaving everyone to fight their way out of this mess. In less than a day, whole Tokyo is terrorized by the thing that Kaneki has become. Civilians, Investigators and Ghouls experienced losing someone important to them but still it gave way to unification of humans and ghoul. The investigators were all tired same goes for Kaneki Ken's ghoul group.
"That fucking Furuta is after the dragon" Hairu cussed angrily, kicking the chair and breaking it.
"That is not the real thing that humans need to fear. It'll start soon—" Matsuri sighed, he rubbed his forehead because of the brewing headache.
"The only good thing that happened is that we started to accept ghouls and vice versa. Coexistence" Itou smiled although tired.
'"Coexistence and Confrontation are both trivial matters. Arima-san said to me once that a brutal upheaval will come about when rivalry between ghouls and humans is surpassed" Take Hirako stated bluntly.
"Is that monster the brutal upheaval?" Ui inquired
"No. I thought that was it but it's a different situation Arima-san is concerned about" Hirako stares at the window, rain started to pour.
"So what it is then?"
"Every single human will turn into ghoul" Arima Kishou said, loud enough that everyone in the room snapped their head towards his direction.
"WHAT?!" Marude snapped his head towards their direction. "Why would that brat Furuta want every single human to turn into a ghoul?"
"Tens of years ago, Tokyo encountered the same problem. The one-eyed king turned himself into something akin to what Kaneki Ken has become. Consumed humans and ghouls alike. The one-eyed king's real identity from hundred years ago was—" He stopped once Matsuri gripped his shoulder.
"I will explain to them Arima. As a member of the main family of Washuu clan, I have to take responsibility of explaining things. I have to explain for we are at fault too of fueling Furuta Nimura's hatred further than necessary and because of that incident a several years ago we created another malevolent hybrid out of him."
"…" Kishou nodded his head. Somewhat surprised that Matsuri changed from the purist asshole to a less annoying person.
"The underground king hundred years ago is one of the Washuu clan's taboos. That thing's real identity is the one-eyed ghoul of the Washuu. He was of the Washuu but he hated us, faced the CCG head on and was driven underground. I heard that Kaneki Ken's kakuhou was from the binge eater, Rize Kamishiro. That woman's real identity is Rize Washuu. She is the paternal half-sister of my father, Furuta Nimura and Arima Kishou but she suddenly vanished one day. Grandfather found out that it was Souta Furuta who helped her but my grandfather loved that child more than any of his illegitimate children and doted on him ever so dearly thus Furuta was never executed for such feat but instead he was ostracized by everyone in the clan and was disowned by my grandfather as his punishment for helping Rize."
"Rize was one of the wombs that were breed to ensure the future line of the Washuu line. Furuta never want our sister to experience rape that is why he helped her" Kishou said, ashamed that everything that is happening now was caused by the ghost of their past, an unsettled business between their family members. "Tsuneyoshi loved him even after how many years have passed"
"Things like this would have never happened if Tsuneyoshi Washuu lowered his ego" Eto adjusted herself from where she is sitting. Hearing all this things somewhat gave her the feeling that Nimura Furuta is no different from her; a child who was abandoned by their father for the sake of saving themselves has become so rotten inside.
Somewhere far from the chaos, a group of hedonist stares at the man on the bed, a grunt escaped his lips as his body slowly knitting himself back to how it was supposed to be. Pain lulled him to temporary sleep as his body regrows its lost parts. Unable to open his eyes yet, the founder of the group beckons for the rest to leave the young man.
"Luck favoured him once more"
"That might have hurt a lot"
"Well his whole upper body was ripped off. Lucky for him, he is a ghoul with superb regenerative skills than the rest or else he could have died there"
"We all know that it is really hard to kill our little king"
"Let him rest. Nico stay here in case he'll need a hand in knitting himself back"
Incidents of humans suffering from ROS increased in less than a day, Hideyoshi Nagachika along with Marude Itsuki sits at the control room quietly as they wait for Kimi Nishino and the others to arrive. The meeting's agenda is to find a way to destroy the duct that is producing the detachable kakuja-like things that is killing, eating and turning humans into ghouls with their poison.
"How can we destroy the duct containing these things that poisons humans?" Marude inquired with less enthusiasm. Ten minutes later, Ayato, Hinami, Nishiki, Kimi and Eto entered the room while the rest were ordered to stand by and wait for the next notice to come.
"Not every bastard child— I mean the things that were formed from the ducts—" Kimi corrected herself. "Not all those things are carrying poison. Only a selected few are carrying the 'poison' or toxin. However we don't know yet how and where they were being produce."
"If we destroy that thing, will the production of these bastard children can be stop?" Marude asked.
"In order to stop the original king, according to the ghouls from the 24th ward, they attacked him all at once. Their main target are the eyeball-like object and the king's attacked dull and once every eyeball-like parts of him were all destroyed, he turned into stone" Ayato explained what he discovered from the ghouls he met from the 24th ward.
"We don't have much time left until it resumes its activities; we are in need of a method that can find Kaneki Ken's body too."
"We can't lose onii-chan too" Hinami sniffles miserably, still unable to believe that they lost Touka and now even Kaneki's life is in danger. Ayato awkwardly pats her head.
"We'll find the wimp so you don't have to worry" He tried to reassure her, deep down that he knows the chances of finding Kaneki is rather low but they need to at least try. Ayato wants to try for the sake of his sister and Hinami.
"Oi" Eto called out.
"What do you want Eto?" The black rabbit asked almost bashful.
"If you can find the ring, you can find Kaneki Ken" The one-eyed owl revealed. She can still remember the time when Kirishima Touka gave the ring of her father to her husband. Witnessing the young couple exchanging vows, she also saw the time wherein Touka handed Kaneki a necklace where the ring rest.
"Ring?"
"I saw your sister giving your father's ring to Kaneki Ken"
"What are the chances that he is not wearing it?"
"Kaneki is wearing it all the time" Nishiki said, Kimi sitting beside him.
"We need a metal detector but where could we even take a huge amount of it, the area is too huge" Marude asked.
"Leave it to me. I know someone who can do something about that" Nishiki dialed Tsukiyama Shuu's number and he asked him if he knows someone who can provide them what they needed. Shuu told him that he'll ask his father and gladly the man agreed.
A day after the meeting, the metal detectors were all delivered into CCG's main branch office. Marude was surprised that Tsukiyama Mirumo can do this kind of thing in a short notice.
"How the hell did you arrange all of this in a short time?" The former dove asked the business Tycoon.
"I asked a favour to the prime minister"
"The prime minister is also a ghoul?"
"No. His father and I are college friends so if you'll excuse me, I need to help the evacuation of the civilians" Mirumo said politely. He was on his way out when he bumped into the familiar dove, the man who led his family's destruction.
"Thank you" Ui muttered, unable to look at the man in the eyes. Guilt is after all hard to ignore especially now that he realized that not all ghouls are evil. It is just that humans feared the things they never understood.
"…." Mirumo squeezes the young man's shoulder and he smiled before stepping out of the main office.