Two chapter arc, just like I wanted. At a certain point in this chapter, there is (implied) attempted rape, so please be warned. A big thank you to GRAVEM1ND, plowplum, and SurbhitSri for following and favoriting this story. And finally, special thanks to The-Killer40513, for both following and favoriting this story, as well as your review which I will address at the end of the chapter.
Disclaimer: I do not claim ownership Tokyo ghoul, Tokyo Ghoul:re or any related media, all these properties belong to Sui Ishida and Shueisha.
Dialogue format:
'thoughts'
"talking"
"talking in a different language(if applicable)"
"kakuja speak/yelling/murderous intent/etc."
Ōta ward, Tokyo
6 years before the escape
Erika Jameson smiled as she and her three children walked home. Her youngest son walked by his older sister, grinning happily at the girl while she lapped at her ice cream. The ghoul woman frowned a bit when she caught sigh of her oldest, Eric, still scowling at his two younger siblings every so often.
"Why did you have to give her your ice cream idiot?" the older boy asked his sibling.
"Because onee-chan dropped hers" Riley said, looking up at his older brother as if the other boy was asking a rhetorical question.
"Quit mixing japanese with english dumbass!"
"Eric Lucille Jameson, watch your language!" Erika growled to her oldest. The young hybrid was immediately cowed by the woman's intimidating glare.
"Yeah Lucy, watch your flippin mouth" the boy's younger sister called over to him, giggling when Eric sent her an angry glare.
Erika shook her head in exasperation at her two oldest children's antics. Riley, for the most part, was simply looking at his older siblings with a bemused look. When the ghoul woman looked to her daughter, she grimaced when she spotted the mostly faded tear stains on the girl's cheeks. Earlier, Erika had taken them out to an ice cream stand at a plaza in the 11th ward. After ordering, the three had happily dug into their frozen treats.
Then some random man walked through and pushed her daughter to the side, knocking the young girl down and causing her to drop her ice cream into the street where a passing car unceremoniously pulverized it. The man who caused it had simply sneered at her little girl and used a racial slur towards the four of them. Erika had never been more angry in her life, it had taken every ounce of the self-control she developed since her youth to not trail the man and wait for him to make a turn into a dark alley.
Her daughter didn't wail out loud at what had happened, for the most part the little girl sobbed quietly at what had been said. Riley had looked on the scene owlishly as it occurred, and looked over to his older sister pitifully. The small boy would then immediately give away his ice cream cone to his sister, and declining Erika's offer to buy him another. The dark-haired woman wanted to cry at how the boy behaved...whenever she looked her youngest son in the eyes, and saw how gentle he was, she could almost see the image of her (possibly) late husband superimposed over her youngest's.
As they arrived at their house, Erika was brought from her reverie by Eric tapping her on the shoulder. The ghoul woman turned to the tall boy, growing unsettled when she saw his concerned expression.
"Hey mom, when we left the house...did we leave the door broken in half?" the raven-haired preteen motioned over to their home. "Because it looks broken in half…"
When she looked over to the front of their house, she found that yes, their door had been broken in two. Alarms went off in her head as she ran towards her porch, her mind conjuring up any and every scenario that would make her heart sink. There could be robbers that had broken in, and it would be just her luck to have missed them after they had gone through their fridge.
She could just imagine how that would work out, a pair or group of human scum walking into the CCG branch office and telling investigators how they found a ghoul by breaking into their house. The doves wouldn't even bat an eye at the breaking and entering, they'd charge through her home and kill her. Her children would be unfortunate enough to live, her breathing immediately grew heavy as she imagined all the things their doctors would do to her family.
Erika's eyes widened when she heard a crash coming from inside her house. So they weren't gone yet, that meant she could handle them. At least, handle them and make it look like she had taken self defense classes. She furrowed her brows and clenched her fists as she began walking to the doorway. She stopped as she was going up the steps to her porch, looking back at her oldest.
"Stay put, I'll handle this" she whispered loudly to her kids.
"No, I'm coming in with you mom" Eric hissed back, walking to her side quickly as he made his proclamation.
His siblings, scared of how their mother was acting and confused at what was going on, followed him. Erika groaned at her oldest son's behavior, sending him and his siblings a sharp look.
"Stay behind me and don't do anything reckless...just let me handle this."
When she walked into her home, she found that all the lights were turned off. The ghoul woman frowned, remembering she had supposedly left a lamp on at least. Moving to a nearby switch, she mentally panicked when nothing happened.
'So the electricity was cut…' she thought, moving further throughout her house and peeking her head into the living room.
She narrowed her eyes at the silhouette standing near one of the windows not far from her couch. Nearby, a vase had crashed to the floor and was shattered completely. Frowning, Erika moved silently towards their home invader, noticing that they had their back to her once she was only a few feet away from the couch.
"...HEY!"
"BWAAAH?!"
The ghoul woman blinked as the unknown person suddenly jumped a good few feet into the air, calling out loudly before landing on their backs with a pained grunt. Erika couldn't believe it, she had just yelled out one word and the person fell over with such an overreaction. As they sat up straight and rubbed their shoulders, The ghoul woman could finally get a better look at the person who had broken into her home.
They were a slim woman wearing circus-themed clothing, with her reddish brown hair done up into a spiky bun. They were wearing a half-mask that looked like a cartoonish rodent with buck teeth, along with a bulbous clown nose and a star around one of it's googly eyes. The clown woman looked over to the westerner, a look of shock visible on what could be seen of her face.
"AH! Gomen, gomen! I didn't mean to break the vase!" the clown cried out, looking up at Erika pleadingly. The westerner recognized a red glow from the eye holes in the clown's mask, and activated her own kakugan in response.
"I don't know why you thought it would be appropriate to break into somebody's house for food…" Erika growled, starting towards the clown ghoul slowly. "But there isn't anything for you here, now leave!"
The clown stared at Erika dumbly for several seconds, then she broke into full on laughter.
"Y-you thought I broke in...for food?" she asked in between giggles, standing to her full height. "I didn't come here for that, I'm here on a job for a friend…"
The clown ghoul moved her head to the side, smiling devilishly when something caught her eye. Erika paled when she saw the look on the other ghoul's face, turning her head to see her own children shaking in their places several feet behind her with their active kakugan.
"Yeah, ya see...my friend heard about a place through the grapevine where we could find some one-eyes" she pointed to her own right eye, giving the western woman a goofy tongue-showing smile. "So he asked some people about it. Soon enough he already had some major buyers, so we came for the pickup."
Erika immediately released her bikaku tails, three monstrous reptilian limbs twisting around and spearing at the clown woman. The other ghoul cried in shock, barely dodging the ghoul mother's kagune.
"My children are not for sale you bitch!" the western woman growled, kicking the other ghoul's legs out from under her. "And I'm not letting you take them from me!"
"Hehehe...that's cute" the clown smiled as she speared her own fish-like rinkaku tentacles through her stomach to surprise her opponent. "You actually think we take your compliance into account…"
The western ghoul dodged a tentacle swipe, screaming over to Eric to escape with his siblings. The raven-haired boy grabbed the two younger children, hauling them through the house as he charged his way towards the front door. As her tail met the crazed clown's tentacles, she heard a few of screams from nearby, one from her oldest son and the other from her daughter.
She heard a loud grunt soon after, and Riley soon ran into the room dragging his brother along with his newly unlocked kagune while holding his sister in his arms. Erika felt her heart drop when she saw her little girl's bleeding shoulder, a large chunk having been bitten off. The ghoul mother remembered the clown saying "we" before, and paled when a second figure walked into the living room.
"'No flesh shall be spared'... Mark, 13:20…" the new ghoul called out, tilting his head at Erika. "It seems your little kittens have lost their way…"
The new ghoul was a tall man with white hair dressed as a priest. His mask was pure white and covered his entire face, with a crown symbol on the forehead. The red lips dripping with blood, and a red glow emanated from the cross-shaped eye holes. The priest pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and began wiping the blood from his mask in the most nonchalant manner the western woman had seen.
Erika sent one of her stray tails towards the new ghoul, and another towards her children. The priest ghoul barely dodged the reptilian tendril as it attempted to slice into him, the tail bumping him into a fall he stopped with his hands. The mother's other tail dragged her three children to safety, dropping them gently behind her. The priest stood up slowly and tilted his head towards the mother as she crouched down in a defensive position.
"Hmmm...quite the stance you've taken, Mrs.Jameson…I'll have to use this then" the priest sneered from behind his mask, releasing a monstrous koukaku tendril shaped like a coalesced mass of crosses and poising it at the woman.
"My my, what a nice opportunity...well then, how about we go ahead and put on a show?"
"24th Ward"(Green Zone), Tokyo
10 months after The escape
Kinunao looked up from his spot on the ground mutely at what had happened earlier. Looking to his side, he saw his twin sister sitting several feet away, slowly eating a piece of meat. Nearby, Kosshi whittled at a piece of wood using her kagune, several other large wooden stakes put in a pile next to her.
"...So, are we gonna address what happened on our patrol?" the blonde boy asked, sitting up straight and calling to the other two. "You know, the thing with the blades?"
"What do you think this is for?" the tall brunette growled, holding up her unfinished wooden stake. "I'm gonna place these around the entrances to the zone so that it'll be easier to mount the defense."
"Ko, they didn't say they wanted to attack, just that they wanted to have a meeting…" Kinuyo chimed in. "I don't think we need to prepare for some war all of the sudden."
"Ha! Yeah, we don't need to prepare for war with the blades?" Kosshi called out in a sardonic tone. "Between them and Eto, it's like short people are out to get us…"
"Maybe if you didn't reflexively call short people munchkins or gremlins, then they wouldn't try to kill you all the time…" Kinunao snarked.
"I thought it was endearing…"
"It gets endearing after a while, once somebody has gotten to know you well enough" the blonde looked over to her, sending the girl a deadpan stare. "Then it gets annoying...then rage inducing, and again that's when people know you well. Eto probably doesn't even know your name. The blades on the other hand-"
"Waitwaitwait! Can you both shut up for a second?!" Kinuyo called out. "You guys hear that right?"
The other two ghouls cupped hands to their ears, gasping when they heard the loud sound of multiple footsteps heading towards the chamber they were gathered in. Kosshi stood up, holding out her skeletal koukaku blade in preparation for a fight. The twins jumped to their feet, releasing their insectoid rinkaku and poising them towards the entrance. The three blinked in confusion when Neneko charged into the chamber, followed by several people with their own kagune out. The cat-like girl looked over to her comrades in bewilderment.
"W-where are they?"
"...they being?" Kinunao asked her, still unsure what was going on.
"Ok, so Minami, Kenta, and Riley were supposed to bring a bunch of women and children here and explain what was happening…" Neko looked around the room desperately. "Some of them were pregnant so-"
"They were bringing us pregnant children?" the male twin asked, looking at the cat-girl in shock.
"...yes Kinunao, they were bringing you a bunch of women and pregnant children to protect."
"Wow, never thought I'd hear that sentence being used seriously-GAh!" the boy was cut off when the cat-girl slammed a fist into his face.
"There aren't any pregnant children you ass! I was talking about the women, the women were the pregnant ones!" Neko shouted in exasperation, motioning to the group of tense ghouls behind her. "King Crab is attacking our turf, so I was going around gathering people to help fight him off. I told those three to bring you the children's group they were with today-"
"Wait, we're being attacked by a dangerous kakuja?" Kinuyo asked with a deadpan look. "And you...you didn't lead with that?"
"Ah yeah, probably should have started with that…"
"Is anybody who's with you injured?" the blonde girl inquired, looking the group over.
"A few had run-ins with Crab before we found them, I'm guessing you'd wanna get right on that?"
"Just sit them against the wall and I'll get started…" Kinuyo said, rubbing the bridge of her nose. "So, what about those three? They were supposed to bring children for safe keeping?"
"Yeah, you guys sure they haven't come around?" Neko asked, motioning for some of the ghouls to bring their injured comrades forward.
"Nobody was here we came in over an hour ago...did you send anybody to get Meiko?"
"Oh yeah, one runner to grab her while she was out trying to reach out to Noroi again…" the cat-girl stiffened when her ears picked up the sound of multiple footsteps heading towards the chamber.
The ghouls turned to the entrance of the chamber, many of the men in the group gasping in shock. Kentetsu and Minami barreled into the chamber tiredly, trailed by a group of terrified women, children, and three men who could barely stand up straight. While the families reunited with each other, Neneko walked over to the two nervously. When she was close enough, she could see the dark rings around their eyes and the pained expressions on their faces.
"What happened? Did you guys try to take a shortcut or something?" she cringed when the mute teen looked up at her, swallowing hard and shaking his head weakly.
"We..we ran into King Crab on the way here, and he was going to kill all of…" Minami whimpered lowly, motioning to the group of women and children now huddled with their families. "We barely got away…that guy, he would have really killed them."
Neneko gave the doe-eyed girl a sympathetic look. Then her eyes widened in realization, and she looked around anxiously.
"Where's Riley? He was supposed to be with you."
Minami and Kentetsu froze at this, tears forming at the corner of their eyes. The mute boy fell to his knees with a loud growl and slammed his fist into the ground. Neko looked around, seeing several of the children with downcast expressions of their own.
"...Please, please do not tell me that he-" Neko took a step back when Minami gave her a slow nod.
"He told us to go, said he'd hold him back…" the doe-eyed girl buried her face into her hands. "We, we just left him and now he's dead! We couldn't do anything to help him."
Neko looked at the two impassively, taking a deep breath to calm herself. Nearby, Kinunao gaped in dismay, not able to think properly from what he heard. Kinuyo looked down, clenching her fists and fighting back tears. Kosshi stood nearby, showing no reaction for a whole minute. Then, she slammed her fist into the nearby wall, cracking and splintering the stone.
"Damn it! What the fuck?!"
"Ko, there are kids-" the male twin was cut off by a sharp glare from the tall brunette.
"He's dead! He's dead and I've been the person most openly distrustful of him ever since he came here!" Kosshi clutched her head roughly, grunting as she nearly scalped herself in anger. "I treated him like the fucking plague so many times, and now I...I can't ever ask him to forgive me for it…"
"Ko, it's alright...I mean, he-he's a pretty tough kid" Kinunao said, more to himself than the others. "He could be alright, so-"
"Hello~! Anybody around?!"
Everybody in the chamber immediately stiffened at the voice. Kentetsu stood up, looking towards the entrance with a hateful grimace. Kinuyo took her eyes off the ghoul she was healing and looked over, cringing when she saw a red glow emanating through the tunnel.
"Is...is that him?"
"Olly olly oxen bitch! Come on, I already took care of the child-murder boner I had earlier" the kakuja's comment was followed by sickening laughter, which caused the mute teen to grunt angrily. "I'm not asking for much...I just wanna talk about putting y'all under new leadership."
"Yeah, it's him...I recognize the voice" Minami said weakly.
Before any of them could try to come up with a plan of attack or at least try to question the monster, Kentetsu released his kagune and charged through the entrance. The small group paled when they heard the crashing sound of ukaku shards accompanied by a surprised roar. The five of them ran after the mute boy, hoping to pull him back before he did anything too reckless.
When they exited the underground chamber, they saw the mute boy attempting to spear the crab-like monster with a ukaku tentacle. The kakuja smiled back, sending his own spike-tendrils to attack the younger ghoul. Kentetsu hissed angrily at the monster, shaping his ukaku wings into giant clawed hands and slashing at the armored maniac. King Crab simply laughed as he batted the limbs away with his claws.
"Wow, you seem pretty pissed off...is this about that tall white kid I killed?" the kakuja's smirk grew wilder when the mute teen gave him a deranged look. "Hey, if it's any consolation, he didn't scream in pain or anything like that. I made it as clean and precise as possible, all to make sure that he would die alone. His corpse is just laying on the dirt, nobody was there give him any comfort or sweet nothings as everything ended."
"...Y-YOU BASTARD!"
While the kakuja wasn't fazed by the boy's yell, the five ghouls nearby were shell-shocked. Kentetsu had just yelled at the top of his lungs, and his ukaku limbs had shaped into monstrous arms with feathery protrusions. The limbs clashed with King Crab's claws, grappling with them and pushing the monstrous kakuja back several feet. The crab monster grunted as he was pushed, digging his spiked limbs into the dirt to resist.
"Ah shit, he's so pissed...gotta hold out or he'll pin me and-eh, the fuck?" the crab kakuja gaped in confusion as the bird-like limbs disappeared and the mute boy fell to his knees, coughing up copious amounts of blood. "Ok, you guys saw that right?! Because that...that one was not me, so…"
The kakuja's words fell on deaf ears, the five ghouls released their kagune and charged toward the monster, pushing him back several more feet. Kinuyo immediately rushed to Kentetsu's side, lifting him up and pulling him further away from the fight. Minami soon joined them, doing her best to help heal the boy.
"He can talk?" the doe-eyed girl asked the blonde.
"Yes and no...when he was younger his vocal chords were damaged, and the treatment he received immediately afterwards made it worse, so they never fully healed" Kinuyo said, cringing as she heard a loud shout nearby from Neko. "Meiko and I have worked on it for years, but so far the best we'll get is him permanently whispering or something…"
Then, the blonde girl smacked the mute teen lightly upside the head.
"If you stop doing stuff that causes more damage" she told him with a deadpan look, causing Kentetsu to shrink back a bit.
"Oi, asshole! What's your fucking deal anyway?!" the three looked over to Neneko, her dual cat-like bikaku poised towards the kakuja. "Why do you have it out for us? What's your fucking endgame?"
"...Hehe, my endgame? Well sweet cheeks, thing is...I got big plans" the kakuja sent several spike-tentacles her way, smiling wildly when one caught her by the leg. "My main goal is of course, having some beauties like you wrapped around me…"
The crab monster swung the cat-girl into a wall, before throwing her towards Kosshi. The tall brunette had little time to react before the living missile slammed into her and knocked her to the ground, the two of them skidding to a halt in front of Minami and Kinuyo. The male twin sped forward, hoping to catch the beast off-guard. King Crab responded by snapping a leg up in Kinunao's direction, throwing him into the air and causing him to land with a resounding *crack*.
"N-NII-SAN!"
"Whew, not the best way to catch a flight huh?" the kakuja let out a disgusting laugh at his own joke, sending the four girls a sickening smile as he sauntered over to them.
In a few split seconds, his spike-tendrils had wrapped around the two downed ghouls and completely restrained them. King Crab's grin became lecherous as his tentacles grasped and rubbed at places left unspoken of, eliciting screams from the cat-girl and tall brunette. The girls fought down small blushes as tears formed at the corners of their eyes. Kinuyo, Minami, and Kentetsu paled as they watched, bile rising at the back of their throats.
"See, my goals are pretty simple...first off, I'm gonna take over every last bit of the tunnels" the kakuja smirked at Neneko's whimpers when one of his tendrils slipped up her robes. "All the while I'll be picking up sexy little things like you four, just for the hell of it" the crab monster gave Kosshi a pointed stare with his many eyes. "You, you're pretty feisty y'know...that's a huge turn on for me, makes really just want to dig in if you catch my drift."
The tall girl bared her teeth at the maniac and sent him a vicious glare, all while fighting down a scream as the kakuja's tentacles groped at her body beneath her clothes. King Crab turned back to the other two girls, sending them a terrifying grin as he walked closer. He lowered his face to them, and the blonde healer and doe-eyed girl felt like they could vomit at the stench of rotten ghoul flesh staining the area around his mouth.
"Once I conquer the tunnels and fill up my harem quota, then I'm going to take over the city, then...the whole fuckin country!" the crab monster closed some of his eyes slightly, clattering his crab claws in jubilation. "I saw that one-eye earlier, maybe I'll make a few of those if I feel like it...don't worry ladies, I promise I'll be a "dutiful lover" to all of you."
"Yeah, no! I'm afraid that's off the table."
The kakuja barely dodged the red-violet tentacles that speared his way, the limbs slicing through his spike-tendrils and causing him to drop the two girls in his grasp. Neko and Kosshi manically crawled to Kinuyo and Minami's side, shivering in disgust. The five conscious ghouls looked over tearfully to their savior.
Meiko glared at King Crab with active kakugan, her rinkaku poised in his direction. Behind her Moriomi and Tetsuomi stood with their own kagune pointed at the beast. The downed ghouls barely caught a glimpse of a young woman rushing into the safe chamber. The crab kakuja stared at his three new opponents, then let out a long and uproarious laugh. This only caused the pum haired girl's scowl to deepen.
"Whew-wee, this is shaping up to be quite the party...you're the boss of these parts, right?" the crab monster leaned forward, sending a disgusting leer to the bespectacled girl. "You're really going past all the...expectations I had, hehe."
"Shut it creep! I'm not interested in your whole "domination of Japan" thing" she growled, willing her kagune forward to impale him. "You're going to die today asshole! You'll be lucky if you actually leave here alive."
"Hahaha! This is great! She's got a huge temper and a bangin' bod" the kakuja roared as he batted away her tentacles. "I can't stop thinking about what I wanna do first once I beat you down."
Meiko let out a grunt as she dodged a strike from one of his claws, aiming her rinkaku towards the kakuja's legs. When the beast brought his claws down to block them, the plum-haired girl signalled for Moriomi and Tetsuomi to check on the others. The raven-haired teen ran towards his girlfriend and pulled her into a hug. The redhead ran over, looking down at the cat-girl and tall brunette pitifully.
"That fucking creep...to think what would have happened if we hadn't gotten here when we did" Tetsuomi grimaced as the kakuja let out another laugh. "I think I'm gonna have nightmares for a couple of days…"
The redhead paled when he caught sight of Kentetsu with blood dripping from his mouth, and rushed over to the boy.
"Did you try talking?!" he cried out, flinching when the mute teen nodded. "Shit...alright, well as far as I can tell nobody has died from the bastard yet-"
"Is Riley ok?" Meiko called out as she used her kagune to hold the crab kakuja down.
Tetsuomi felt a chill crawl down his back when the five paled. Kentetsu's face morphed into a pained expression, and Minami bit down on her lip as tears welled up at the corner of her eyes. Meiko caught their expressions, then turned to the crab kakuja with a hateful stare.
"Where is he?!"
"..."He" being?"
"One-eyed ghoul, tall white kid with silver hair."
"Oh yeah, he dead. I ate an arm and a leg, stabbed him through the torso, then I left him to die on the ground alone. Fucking hilarious right?" the kakuja's smile shrank slightly when the plum-haired girl sent him an unhinged scowl. "Oh come on, why can't I ever meet a nice girl who appreciates my sense of humor…"
Meiko made a wordless growl of rage as her kagune rippled and changed. The red tentacles grew larger and became nearly black in color, eyes and what toothy suction cups sprouting on them. The plum-haired girl felt her kagune snaking across her back, seeing armor form on her shoulders just out of the corner of her vision.
"I don't like using this, all things considered...but after what you did to him…" Meiko growled as she glared over at King Crab. "I think I'll make an exception, just this once...I promise, you aren't going to leave the Green Zone alive!"
Before the bespectacled girl could fully summon her kakuja, a large shape crashed through a nearby wall. A dust cloud was kicked up, and from it a monstrous tail emerged and speared through the crab kakuja. The tail looked like the familiar crocodilian tail they knew, but it was charcoal black and sported sharper scutes. Interspersed along its length were reddish orange cracks that discharged wisps of vaporous smoke, making it look as though active volcanoes were dotted across the scaly limb and threatening to erupt. From within the dust cloud, a small red glow flashed.
"Riley?!" Tetsuomi called out, gaping when he heard the boy's grunts from the cloud. "He's...he's alive!"
It was then that the dust cloud cleared and they were able to see him completely, and the group paled and gawked at what they saw.
"He...he has a kakuja..." Kosshi deadpanned weakly, looking at the half-ghouls incomplete armor.
The hybrid's kakuja exuded smoke, and covered his entire head and back, with small bits of armor coiling around his shoulders, torso, right arm and left leg. The boy's kakuja mask looked like a slim, cat-like face with a human profile, with a chin consisting of three spikes and a jawline dotted with bony protrusions. Instead of a nose and eyes, a single kakugan eye took up the face of the mask, sitting just above a fanged maw that glowed blazing red-orange and hissed when it opened. Two short backwards facing pronged horns, almost looking like antlers, sat at the top of the mask just above two cat-like ears, his silvery hair forming a short mane behind them. Running down the back of the boy's neck and splayed out down to his tail were a mass of kaiju-esque spikes that had a slight fiery glow. Instead of a normal left arm and right leg, the previously removed limbs had been replaced with saurian analogues, a scale covered arm and leg dotted with osteoderm-like protrusions at the elbow and knee, both limbs ending in three vicious taloned fingers and toes.
Riley gave a hissing laugh as he twisted his tail stiffly, spearing it deeper into the other kakuja. A mass of smoke suddenly exploded from the half-ghouls tail and the crab kakuja, obscuring their forms slightly. The moment the smoke blasted throughout the tunnel, King Crab let out a pained scream, raising his kakuja head up and rolling his kakugan eyes back. The hybrid made another hissing laugh as he moved to closer to his new victim, raising his draconic arm up just slightly.
"GAAAAH! IT BURNS! Whaat the fuuck, yoou're supposed to be deaad!" the crab kakuja roared over to the incomplete kakuja, sending the boy a hateful grimace. "GRRRRR! GO AND FUCKING DIE YOU BRAT!"
One of the crab kakuja's right pincers snapped forward, hoping to once again pierce through the hybrid's torso. The half-ghoul's kagune arm flicked up, grabbing the offending limb before it was even a foot away from his body. Another hissing laugh resounded from the incomplete kakuja as Riley removed his tail from the other ghoul's body and wrapped it around the offending limb. With the combined force of his kagune arm and tail, the crab-like arm was soon ripped away from the angry kakuja, a large jet of blood issuing from the stump. While King Crab screamed wordlessly in rage, Riley dropped the severed limb to the ground and loomed over it like a cat that had caught a mouse within it's forepaw.
"HehEHehe! SSSSo HunGRy! HAve tO Eat...DOn't wANt to EAt...GAhAHahA!" the half-ghoul brought his hands to his kakuja mask and began to claw at it viciously, laughing as he did so. "M-MoM...I D-Don'T WanNA, But I G-GoTTa...HaAaAaAh! EaT!eAt!EaT!"
The mouth on the hybrid's kakuja mask opened, and the tall preteen darted his head forward to take a bite out of the dismembered kakuja limb. The boy's monstrous black kakuja tail whipped around like an angry cats as he ate, marring the walls of the tunnel with deep gouges. The armor around his torso and uncovered limbs began to grow, covering more of the half-breed's body.
The crab kakuja, still panting in pain from his internal burning and lost kakuja claw, looked over to the hybrid as the boy finished and shuddered in rage.
"HEY! Quit eating that you little shit, that's mine!"
"HaAaAaAaGh! SsSsoOoO BaD! sSo...BaD! sObAdSoBaDsObAd, SO BAD!" Riley turned his head to the ceiling and let out a deranged roar as he began clawing at his mask again. "EeEeEeEh! It AlWaYsSs hAsSs tO tAsSsTe SsSo BaD...m-mOm, iT wAsSs SsSoO GoOd, I dIdN't wAn'T tO...HaH! I'm sSsOo SsSoRrY..."
"You little shit!" Crab roared, charging towards the hybrid with his remaining three pincers poised toward him. "GURAAAAAHHHH! DIE!"
Riley's kakuja tail whipped around, the scutes and osteoderms extending into sharpened tentacles. The hybrid's tail met the kakuja's two left arms, while his kagune arm met Crab's remaining right arm. The crab kakuja roared down at the boy as he was caught in a grapple, grunting when the half-ghoul gave a reptilian hiss in response. Riley looked up at the larger kakuja, opening his mouth and lolling a long reddish-orange tongue out mockingly. A few seconds later, the boy let out a mad growl as he darted his head towards the larger kakuja's face, tearing a huge chunk from the ghoul's armor casing. King Crab reared back, screaming in pain.
"GAAAH! You fucker! I'll fuckin-HOOUUUF!" Crab was cut off when the hybrid slamming his kakuja shoulder into the larger kakuja, throwing him through the wall and into the adjacent tunnel.
Riley lowered his head, pointing the horns on his kakuja mask at his opponent, before charging at the larger kakuja. The hybrid's kakuja horns hooked into the downed ghoul, and the boy forcefully pushed him through several more walls, letting out a hissing laugh as he charged. The other nine ghouls were still shocked at the half-ghoul's arrival and what had occured after, gaping at the tall boy's diminishing form. Meiko finally shook her head clear when the pained and terrified screams of the crab kakuja echoed far away from them.
"W-we have to go after him!" the bespectacled girl cried.
"...You sure that's a good idea Mei? While he's in his...well" Tetsuomi grimaced, looking over their downed friends. "Plus, somebody needs to stay here to help them and make sure everybody in the room behind us is safe."
"I'll handle that…" Kosshi called out, standing up shakily. "Besides, shorty over there is unconscious, and the other brat over there fucked up his throat. There's only two other people who can fix em up, so..."
"I'll be staying back too…" Moriomi said lowly, looking down to his girlfriend in concern as she embraced him. "I'll make sure everybody in the safe room is fine."
"Alright, I gotcha…" Meiko trailed off, getting a nervous nod from the redhead. "Ok, if everybody is good then-"
"Wait! Lemme come" Neneko called out, standing up shakily. The cat-girl shuddered nervously before walking over to the two. "I can help hold him down if we need to."
"Are you sure about that Neko? I mean, that crab asshole…" The redhead grimaced when the cat-girl sent him a pointed glare.
"Nya~! I'm coming, don't try to stop me!"
"Neko, calm down! You're fine" the plum-haired girl said, lowing her hands in a calming gesture. Meiko looked over to the massive hole in the nearby wall, flinching when a loud screech of pain resounded far past it. "Alright, let's go then…"
"24th Ward"(outside the Green Zone), Tokyo
The three ghouls, having ran through the massive holes in the tunnel walls the hybrid had caused by slamming another kakuja around, found themselves a ways outside their territory. Throughout the entire expedition, they had winced every so often at the periodic screams from King crab. Looking around, they could see they were in a long corridor marred with deep scratches and gouges in the stone. Around a nearby corner, the could see a bright red glow emanating.
"So...anybody notice that the screaming stopped?" Tetsuomi said nervously.
Meiko gulped audibly when she realized this, looking over to the glow around the corner. The plum-haired girl grit her teeth, before heading towards it.
"Wait, Meiko!" Neko hissed lowly, looking over to the glow nervously. "We have no idea what's back there. It could be Crab, it could be Riley but it isn't really Riley, it could be...well, we shouldn't just charge in!"
"We aren't gonna charge in, we just walk around the corner slowly" the bespectacled girl said, adjusting her glasses with one hand and making a turning gesture with the other. "If you're really worried, we can bring our kagune out if we need to be ready."
"...Nya! Alright, let's just get it over with!"
The three moved slowly towards the corner, each taking an anxious breath. As they got closer, Meiko could feel beads of sweat dripping down the sides of her temples. The air had suddenly gotten hotter, the red glow getting brighter than before. When they were close enough, they noticed wisps of smoke wafting from around the corner. A rumbling sound, like a mix between a purring tom-cat and the bellowing of an alligator, throbbed in their ears.
When they were just in front of the corner, Meiko swallowed a lump in her throat and steeled herself in preparation. She slowly walked towards the glowing light, rounding the corner with a nervous gait. A sad look spread across her face when she saw the scene before her.
King Crab was dead, little more than a shredded and charred corpse with no distinctive or recognizable features. What was left of his kakuja were bits and pieces of the formerly blood red armor spread around his corpse or barely clinging to it, the solidified RC cells now burnt and little more than charcoal. Looming over his singed corpse was Riley, now with a completed kakuja, finishing up what looked like the last of Crab's kakuhou.
The half-ghoul's completed kakuja looked like a dinosaurian kaiju from movies made in the mid 50s and onward. The armor covered his entire form and then some, being a good few feet taller than the hybrid's normal height and towering over the three unarmored ghouls. The kakuja body, uncovered by crocodilian scutes like his back, was scaly and dotted with osteoderm-like knobs and protrusions all over. Both the theropod-like arms and legs were now completed, the triply clawed hands tucked close to his chest and the thick saurian legs splayed out beneath him while he wolfed down his meal. The kakuja torso looked like thickly armored scales, the gaps in between them shimmering like red-hot metal. The horns on his kakuja mask had grown slightly longer, and the massive tail twitched behind him like a curious cat.
All three of the unarmored ghouls shuddered when the hybrid finished, and turned his head in their direction. The half-breed shifted his armor-clad body towards them, dropping on all fours and staring them down. While an annoyed hiss sounded out from the fanged mouth, the preteen made no move against them. Tetsuomi made a strangled yelp when the draconic kakuja faced them.
"Mei, maybe we should wait for him to-"
"Tetsuo, shut up for a few seconds" the plum-haired girl whispered, not even glancing his way. Meiko walked towards the half-ghoul slowly, losing her footing slightly when he reared back with a hiss and arched himself like a cornered cat.
"...Riley!" she called out, in english, hoping that she could get a response. The kakuja froze, then tilted it's head slightly. "Riley, it's me Meiko. Y'know, "Onee-chan"...I'm not mad about...well that" the girl motioned to the dragon-esque armor around the boy.
"I...I was worried about you, when they told me what you did, and what he said" she looked over to the now well-done ghoul corpse behind the hybrid. "But, I'm glad you're okay...please, you need to come out of that now. If you stay in there, it'll cause you problems with how you think, and your body will have trouble working right…"
The hybrid stalked forward like an anxious cat, each step from his quadrupedal gait slow and deliberate. Riley lowered his kakuja mask to the same level as the girl's head, opening his mouth slowly and letting small wisps of smoke out. Meiko stood still, only taking a deep breath and not giving the hybrid any ground. The preteen tilted his head, the iris on his mask dilating in recognition.
"O-OneE-cHaN?"
Meiko's lips slowly transformed into a kind smile.
"Yeah, it's me...why don't you come on out?"
The half-ghoul stepped back a few feet, then his kakuja suddenly began glowing a bright red that was nearly blinding to the three ghouls, causing them to cover their eyes. When they looked back, they saw Riley knelt with his hands bracing the ground. He was visibly breathing heavily, and the three could hear his quiet sobs. Tetsuomi looked over to the boys left arm and gasped at what he saw.
"The fuck happened to your arm?!"
"Huh?" the tall hybrid asked dumbly, straightening himself to look up to the redhead, and then to his arm.
Meiko grimaced when she saw the tears trailing down the boy's face, though she also felt concerned about the state of his arm. Instead of it's normal appearance, the limb seemed to be covered in scales that began at just above the elbow joint and his fingers ended in sharp claws. Riley, for the most part, simply looked at his arm and then sighed before looking back down and continuing his quiet sobs. When the three ghouls angled their heads a bit, they saw the boy's right leg in a similar state.
"You're not even bothered by your freaky arm and leg?" the redhead asked, his voice dripping with apprehension.
"Not really...I've had it happen before back in the lab, if my limbs were cut off without reattaching and my healing was overtaxed" the half-ghoul said weakly. "It usually clears up after I've gotten enough to eat."
"...How long have you had a kakuja?" Meiko asked.
"Since...since my ninth birthday" Riley choked out, tears now cascading down his cheeks. "I didn't know what it was called before a couple of months ago, just that I had it and I couldn't intentionally bring it out…" the half-ghoul shuddered, gritting his teeth hard and clenching his fists.
"Whenever I use it, I black out. I have no idea what I do and I'm…" the tall boy stuttered slightly, closing his eyes and making a sharp intake of air. "I'm back at my ninth birthday, I'm reliving it in my head...that day my brother, he brought me a body to eat...when I saw that it was her, I screamed, and I kept screaming that I didn't want to eat, but he force me and-" Riley cut himself off, clutching his head at the overwhelmingness of his own emotions.
Meiko walked over to the young hybrid and put a hand on his shoulder. Riley shied away from her touch, more for concern for her safety than his own. The plum-haired girl frowned slightly at the boy's anxiety, deciding to simply pull the boy into a big hug.
"It's alright...you don't need to worry about it anymore. You're...you're marginally safer here, and you have every chance to leave that all behind" Meiko grabbed the boy's shoulder gently, helping him to his feet. "Come on, we should get back home and check on everybody. We'll need to talk about your kakuja too…"
"24th Ward"(Green Zone), Tokyo
"Gaah! B'lyad'!"
"Nii-san, hold still, you have a head injury!" Kinuyo growled to her brother, wrapping bandages around his head and chest.
"Tch...derr'mo, how long was I out?" the blonde boy asked weakly.
"Almost an hour…"
"What happened to that crab asshole?" he growled lowly.
"Riley might have eaten him...turns out he wasn't dead-"
"And he has his own kakuja" Kosshi cut in, a morose expression on her face. "You were lucky to be asleep, since I know you guys understand english. I only caught a few words, but from what your sister said, the implications were...well, I feel pretty sick."
Nearby, Kentetsu sat next to Moriomi and Minami as the doe-eyed girl worked on his vocal chords. The quiet teen grimaced when he heard the tall girl's words, wondering just what the other boy had said. He stiffened slightly when he felt a hand on his shoulder, looking over to Moriomi and finding the older teen giving him a concerned look.
"Hey, I know you're worried, but you're fidgeting and Uruka needs you to hold still to work better."
"...S-sorry-ow!?" Kentetsu hissed when the doe-eyed girl flicked him on the forehead.
"Didn't Kinuyo and Tetsuo say no talking?" she said in annoyance. The quiet boy opened his mouth to apologize, then shut it again and let out a weak grunt.
"It's still pretty surprising that you can talk...well, you can sort of talk" Moriomi said nervously, rubbing the back of his head. "You could have just shown me the scar back then and I would have dropped it."
Kentetsu shrugged blithely, not too bothered by the other teen's past insistence. The six ghouls suddenly blinked when a sound outside the safe chamber caught in their ears. Some of the other numerous ghouls gathered in the chamber shifted nervously, looking ready to fight if possible. Moriomi stood up and moved into a combat stance, ready for any possible threat to the others.
When Meiko, Tetsuomi, Neneko, and Riley stepped in, almost every ghoul breathed a sigh of relief. Moriomi and the others. However, noticed the hybrid's solemn expression, and his mutated left arm and right leg. The plum-haired girl motioned for the tall boy to sit down nearby, then called over for Kinuyo. The blonde, looking down at her twin for a few seconds before deciding he would be fine, walked over to her friend's side and the two began a hushed discussion. Moriomi, curious about what had happened, slowly approached.
"...Completed?" he heard the blonde hiss, her eyes wide.
"Yeah, he ate the guy till there was nothing but char. Now his is completed, and he…" Meiko trailed off nervously when she caught sight of Moriomi.
"What happened exactly Mei?" the raven-haired teen asked anxiously, folding his arms.
"I killed Crab" Riley said before Meiko could speak. "I killed him, then I ate his kakuja and now mine is "completed", but I'm not a full kakuja because to be considered one I need to control it…"
"...When did you get your-"
"We'll save that for later" the plum-haired girl cut in, looking around the room nervously. "The gist is that he's had it since he was nine, and like he said, he can't control it."
"Well, you know I'm not much help there" Moriomi said nervously, rubbing the back of his scalp. "I only have a half-formed one, and I have trouble controlling it."
"So...who's going to help me?" the hybrid asked.
"I'll help you and Meiko handle it" Kinuyo said, giving the boy a smile. "I...I'm a full kakuja, my brother too, so Mei and I both have to help everybody else rein it in. I already figured you, Kenta and Minami would need the training, so I'm not against handling it or anything."
Riley looked up at the blonde anxiously for a few seconds, then turned his head down and gave a relieved sigh.
"T-thanks, I appreciate that Kinuyo…"
And there we go. Riley's kakuja, if you're wondering, looks like a hybrid between Glaurung from the Silmarillion and the 2014 version of Godzilla, with some draconic elements from eastern dragons mixed in, the antlers for example. I already alluded to it in chapter 9, so I hope it wasn't too big of a surprise. If that's everything...OH WAIT!
The-Killer40513: Yeah, they'll want him less because it looks like a dragon and more for other reasons. As for Eto...yeah, they're gonna be paired together, not immediately and it won't seem like it's supposed to be that way first, but it'll happen long after she gets the reunion with Kuzen we all wanted. Just wait a few more chapters. Next chapter has a minor appearance by Miza though, so your thirst for short people jokes can be quenched just fine.
As for anybody else, if you feel like it please leave any thoughts, questions, and constructive criticism in your future reviews.