Chapter 14, just two chapters away from Eto. This'll be the last chapter for a bit though, while Fudō no Ryū is the story I'm focusing on the most I haven't updated "In Another World with Start Platinum" for a few weeks, so I have to rectify that. Thank you to followers and favoriters: Artemis's hunter, Venca10, Ryan383638378, and 22darthvadrulesall.
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"
Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo
CCG Main Office
Marude Itsuki looked over the latest lab results from samples collected in the "24th" ward a couple of weeks ago. Several recent expeditions into the ward had been much quieter than normal, to the point that a good few of them didn't end with the investigators having to play "whack-a-mole", the last one in particular being marginally safer than normal. It was the samples collected, and the results they yielded, that concerned Marude. The dark-haired man groaned in frustration as he collected everything from the reference room, then made his way towards the meeting room not too far away.
When he walked in, the key investigators involved in the expedition stood up from their chairs. Iba and Shinohara looked over to him expectantly, Urie, Kuroiwa and the Mados standing next to them and sending the dark-haired man concerned looks. Marude looked over at the files in his hands for a few seconds, before placing them on the table and looking back up at his subordinates.
"At ease," he called out blithely, furrowing his brows when some of the lower ranked investigators still stood up, awkwardly staring at him. "I said sit down damn it!"
Most of the first class and higher investigators sat down with an exasperated sigh. Some of the lower ranked investigators however, jolted at his yelling and slammed themselves on their seats with barely muffled yelps. Marude internally grimaced at the unprofessional behavior of some of the men and women now under his employ.
'Most of these idiots are barely out of the academy,' he thought, looking around and noting the larger amount of rank 3 and 2 investigators. 'They have no idea how to handle anything more than an A-rank ghoul, the King Crab debacle just proved it…'
The first SSS-rated ghoul to show up in at least a few decades, and it ended with a catastrophe. Three whole squads of junior investigators wiped out, ten of their best First-Class investigators that wouldn't come home, and two Associate Special-Class dead, two old friends he would never see again. The decision from the Washuus to change that monster's rank was almost immediate, and he made sure he would be on the team that would personally bring the bastard to justice. Only problem was, somebody else apparently beat them to it.
'Speaking of which…' Marude looked over to Fujishige and Urie with a serious expression. "Iba, Mikito, I have the latest lab results for all the samples you found, but I need your report first, if you don't mind."
"Of course…damn, where to start…" Iba grinned nervously as he collected his thoughts. "Well, when we went down there we did our normal routine...we mapped a few of the new routes we found, as you could see from all the papers we submitted. So far it's been the same as the last several times, mostly quiet with only a few confrontations. Then we were under...shit, Yuki where do you reckon we were under when we found it?"
"I think we were maybe somewhere under the 20th, or maybe under the border between the 20th and Nishitōkyō, maybe near Saitama as well" Shinohara rubbed his scalp in thought. "At least, that was what I could get from the GPS. What we found, well it was a stretch of tunnel covered in markings, claw marks and deeper gouges that would match up with a tail, and a lot of burn marks. Towards the end we found a body, pretty damaged-"
"Apologies for interrupting, but I'm willing to take over in this regard Shinohara," Urie piped up. "The body was obviously of a ghoul, a kakuja to be specific. We knew this because of the remnants of its armor still clinging to it, though they were definitely burnt beyond recognition so we couldn't tell which type. Aside from that-"
"Footprints!" Mado Kasuka cut in, giving her superiors a serious look. "There were large footprints throughout the stretch of tunnel, different pairs that didn't match up to one another. The pair that was next to the body looked like dinosaur footprints, so we can assume this was two kakujas having a spat."
Kuroiwa let out an "mhmm" from his spot next to Urie. Several of the other investigators squirmed in their seats, murmuring among themselves nervously. Marude sighed anxiously as he looked over the lab results, steeling himself for what he was about to announce.
"Well, you're about half right Mado. Our higher-ups probably know about this and are prepared to put the information through the entire organization, but I'm telling you here and now…" Marude slid copies of the lab results towards the squad leaders, not waiting for them to start reading up on them. "The body you found in the tunnels belonged to SSS-rate King Crab, that's one SSS-rated ghoul that's dead and another that's suddenly popped up out of nowhere."
The investigators suddenly began murmuring terrifiedly among themselves. Marude sent his subordinates a dark look, hoping he could get the point across.
"All we know is that it's a bikaku type, and lives under the 20th ward. We have no distinctive signatures, no unique identifiers, nothing to go on…which means we can't put anything on the list, even with any amount of paperwork," the dark-haired man's scowl deepened. "But make no mistake, this unknown ghoul is dangerous. Not since 30 years ago, with the Hanzaki debacle, did we have an unknown like this on our hands. If we leave this thing alone for too long, it might just end up spelling the death knell for the CCG that we never could have seen coming…"
"24th Ward" (Green Zone), Tokyo
1 year after The Escape (13 years before Steel Beams Incident)
*Achoo!*
Riley rubbed his nose, a bit taken aback at the out of nowhere sneeze.
"Woah there, you catching a cold or something?" Kosshi called out nearby with a laugh. "Maybe it's time to lay off the honey bottles you got for your birthday kid."
"Blasphemy!" The tall hybrid called out, faux anger spreading across his face. "Honey is the most delicious gift nature could possibly gift us mortals, for we are truly not worthy of it! Also...I have no idea what honey has to do with me sneezing…"
"Eh, just grasping at straws mostly...I'm soooo bored!" the tall girl called out.
"Riley, focus on your breathing exercises!" Kinuyo chided from in front of him, causing the half-breed to shrink back nervously.
"I'm not sure why doing this is supposed to help, especially when I have...well…" Riley trailed off, motioning to his volcanic kakuja tail twitching behind him. "I think it's counterintuitive to have a portion of my kakuja out when I'm trying to control it, that's all."
"Your concern isn't a bad thing, from the outside it may look bad but…" the blonde girl trailed off, sighing irritatedly. "If you just do the breathing exercises, you don't really gain that much control over it. You might make a tiny bit of headway in handling it, but really for the most part you're just meditating over nothing. If you don't have a piece of your kakuja out, then it would take maybe decades to fully control it."
"It's still unnerving, considering what I see when I do it…" The boy trailed off, grimacing as images from that day flashed through his mind briefly. "Also, I don't think it's doing my hand any favors" the tall boy said, waving his bandaged hand around and unclasping it to show the clawed fingers beneath the wrappings.
"Wait, so why am I here?" Minami called out from the side, anxiously watching Riley and Kentetsu.
While she nervously watched the half-ghoul's tail twitch like an annoyed cat's, she kept another eye on the mute boy. Kentetsu's kakuja, or at least the portion he had out, looked like two pairs of large blades shaped like bird wings. The doe-eyed girl couldn't help but feel concerned at the partial presence of their mutated kagune.
"Well Minami, it's probably best that you at least attend…" Kinunao called over, his own spider-like kakuja tentacles splayed around him while he meditated. "Since you're living down here, and you've at least started to cannibalize, you'll need to at least learn so that you won't have trouble with your own."
"Yeah, though you'll probably be fine for a while," Neneko called over as she meditated, her two monstrous kakuja tails flicking behind her. "I didn't develop mine until a few years ago, and I've been living down here for a long time…"
"Ok, but why is Kosshi here? She's not meditating, nor does she have part of her kakuja out, so…" Minami tilted her head over to the tall brunette's direction when the other girl groaned.
"Mei, Tetsuo, and your boyfriend told me to stay here or they'd have my ass...they're in a meeting with the blades and they're worried I'll cause them problems," Kosshi turned her head and snorted in annoyance. "They don't know that, I wouldn't have-"
"Bullshit! You know what you'd do Ko!" Kinunao growled out, slamming a kakuja leg into the ground next to himself. "You'd never be able to stop cracking short people jokes, and Meiko doesn't want you to piss the Blades off."
"...What do these "Blades" have to do with short people?" Riley asked confusedly.
"Oh, oh! You're gonna laugh at this...so, you know how blondie and his sister are so short?" Kosshi pointed to Kinunao. "They're...about 154 cm. Or, for your barbaric American measurement system, he's five-foot one, maybe they're both pushing on five-foot two."
"Yeah, I know that…" the tall boy said. "You constantly remind him about it, and you don't seem to have any restraint about that."
"You also know Eto, right?"
"I've heard of her, but I've never met her," Riley sighed and ran a hand through his silver hair. "All I know about her is that she's had a hard life, and from what you've said about her she's really short."
Kosshi flashed him a wide grin. "Your birthday was three days ago, and we found you grew a couple of inches two weeks ago, right?"
"Yeah, I remember now!" Minami called out, sending the half-breed an unsteady smirk. "You're just over 213 centimeters, or seven feet. You're officially a clinical giant now."
"Yeah, that's cool…" the hybrid trailed off, looking back at the tall brunette questioningly. "What does my height have to do with Eto, the blades, and the twins?"
"Because Eto and the Blades make the twins look like you," Kosshi said, letting out a small giggle. "Eto is about...she's 135 cm, four-foot five, and the tallest members of the blades are just about 140 cm, or four-foot seven. Eto is maybe a year younger than you, so she's probably just stunted. But the blades, the oldest of them can be anywhere from three-foot ten to four-foot seven."
Kosshi let out a barking laughter, her words causing the hybrid to grow even more confused. Riley looked over to Minami, tilting his head questioningly at her for help. The doe-eyed girl gave an exasperated sigh as she turned away from the taller girl.
"Meiko explained it to me a few days ago...the blades have dwarfism, the opposite problem you have," Minami brought her hands behind her head, closing her eyes in thought. "Whereas you couldn't get any shorter if your life depended on it, the blades can't get any taller than four foot ten."
Riley blinked owlishly at what she was insinuating. Yes, he was absurdly tall, but he couldn't imagine anybody being so small that they wouldn't be close in height to his shoulders. It just didn't quite click in his head. Before the half-ghoul could mull it over, his ears were pricked by the sound of a group approaching the chamber they were staying in. He could hear his surrogate sister's voice, and a few unfamiliar people apparently with her.
"Ah! Kusakari-san, I don't think this is the best idea-"
"Nonsense!" the voice of an older woman cut in, though it sounded somewhat high-pitched. "I think it's a great opportunity to get to know our new allies."
"Possible allies" another unknown voice chimed in, with a couple of others murmuring in agreement.
"Kaa-san, she's acting strange…" another voice, that of a younger girl, called out in concern. "We should be on alert."
Riley dispelled his kakuja tail when he heard the group's voices getting closer. The others soon followed suit, some of them standing up straight. The half-breed scooched back just a bit, hoping he could duck out of being seen by these "blades". Riley, Kentetsu, and Minami watched with bated breath as the group entered the chamber.
"Miza, sweetie, you need to stop being so paranoid! Look, they don't seem so bad."
The half-ghoul's eyes went wide at what he was looking at. Standing in front of a very nervous Meiko, an exasperated Moriomi, and a tired Tetsuomi, were several little people, their heads barely reaching past the taller ghoul's waists. The speaker looked like a robed little girl with light back-length purple hair, but her face had faint wrinkles that denoted her being older than her height would let on. Next to her was what seemed to be her younger counterpart, the only difference she had from her older counterpart being a large section of her hair tied into a high top knot. While the younger girl could easily pass as a child due to her height, her face had a mature shape to it, much like Meiko and Kinuyo's. Next to them stood three cloaked ghouls of equal height.
There was a short stuttering sound nearby, and Riley tilted his head around to figure out what it was. When his eyes caught Kosshi, he froze when he realized what was going on.
'...Is she...laughing?' the tall boy thought, watching as the tall brunette tried (and failed) to barely contain her laughter.
"Kosshi, don't say anything…" Meiko growled lowly.
"R-Relax Mei *pfft*, I had a bunch of stuff ready but…*pfft* it just wouldn't measure up!" the floodgates opened and the tall girl let out a loud bout of laughter at her own joke.
The five short ghouls looked at the tall girl flatly, somewhat confused. It was then that the younger girl understood what was happening.
"...She's talking about how we're-"
"Small, yes I got that much Miza" the older dwarfish woman said, a sour look spreading across her face.
"Kusakari-san, I'm so sorry!" Meiko cried out, giving the smaller woman an apologetic look. "Kosshi, she's a friend of mine but...she just sort of does these types of things reflexively, it's gotten her into trouble more than once."
"I'm sorry Mei!" the tall girl called out in between her laughter. "When it comes to restraining myself...I come up a bit short! AHAHAHAHAHA!"
"Dammit Ko! You can't just-"
"Let it be," Miza cut the plum-haired girl off. "We deal with this more than you think, she'll run out of steam pretty soon."
"Eh, what was that? Speak up, I can't hear you from down there!"
Miza scrunched her face up and took an infuriated breath. "I said, you'll run out of steam in a short amount of time-oh no" the short girl grimaced when she realized what she said.
"Short amount of time huh? Bet you know all 'bout that! HAHAHA!" Kosshi continued her barking laughter. "I'm glad I don't have to explain my jokes at least...I was worried they'd go right over their heads! HAHAHAHA!"
The plum-haired girl cringed at her friends antics, watching the blades carefully in case they became aggravated. Soon enough, Kosshi seemed to be slowing down. Her breathing became ragged and her chuckles became much weaker. Then…
"*huff*...PFFTTT! W-What do you call a hundred of these guys having a party?" she called out, flashing everybody a smirk. "*snigger* A little get together! HAHAHAHA!"
"For real?" Meika groaned, surprised the taller girl could still go. "How the hell does she even manage to do that?"
"Hey, I'm not being mean or anything...I just learned to appreciate the little things in life!" Kosshi once again let out a bark of laughter.
A tick mark appeared on Miza's forehead, and the girl grit her teeth. "Alright that's enough you hag!" she growled out.
The taller girl tilted her head toward her aggressor, then smiled widely.
"Awww, is somebody...a little mad?! HAHAHA!"
"Jesus Ko! You could start a fucking turf war!" Meiko hissed to her.
Despite being told this, the tall girl continued to laugh uncontrollably, seemingly with no end in sight. Riley grimaced at the look the one blade member, Miza, was giving Kosshi. Deciding he needed to try and diffuse the situation, the hybrid stood up and moved towards the guffawing brunette. He barely the registered strangles gasps from the blades nearby.
"Kosshi, I think you're going a bit overboard…" The tall boy cringed when she huffed in between her laughter. "Also, maybe you want to breath just a bit?"
"*huff* Yeah, I'm gonna…*huff*, gonna take a breather…" Kosshi gave a small chuckle as she leaned back tiredly.
Riley looked back to the group of short ghouls, shrinking back nervously at their bewildered looks. The half-ghoul gulped when the younger dwarf girl, Miza, approached him slowly. When she was only a few feet away from the boy, the young girl tilted her head up at him in wonder.
"You're so...big"
"So I've been told" Riley said flatly.
"How though?" the short girl called out.
"It's the opposite of you guys," Meiko said. "You guys can't get any taller, while he's constantly getting bigger."
"Did he climb down from the top of a bean stalk?" one of the cloaked blades asked.
"I still don't even know what that's a reference to it…" Riley groaned. "And no, I didn't climb down the top of a bean stalk."
"Uwah! You're so huge!" the cloaked blades called up to him, mobbing around the poor boy.
"You're like a living mountain."
"Look at your hand, it's so big."
"If we keep raising ours heads to look up at you, do you get taller?"
"Oh goodness. Meiko, I'm sorry for my family member's...energetic behavior towards him" the blades leader said nervously.
"He'll be alright...no offense to your group, but they're acting not too dissimilar to some of the children in the Green Zone," the plum-haired girl said, shaking her head. "So, while they're busy socializing, would you maybe like to continue our meeting Kusakari-san?"
The blades leader observed her family for a few more seconds, before letting out a chuckle. She tilted her head to the other girl with a bright smile spreading across her face.
"Of course, I'm sure those five will be fine with your subordinates…"
A few hours later
"Ow!" Kosshi cried out from her seat at a particularly hard poke to her forehead. Meiko loomed over her, sending the girl a flat glare.
"You're lucky you're only getting poked! Why do you have to do shit like that?"
"Because it was funny! No, for real, they were so tiny!" the tall brunette broke into a fit of giggles. "Do you think if we dressed them up as beavers, they'd make a dam?"
"Ugh...you have to be such a pain…" the plum-haired girl said.
Kosshi blinked for a few seconds before realizing something about the bespectacled girl. instead of her usual robes, she was wearing a more worn cloak, and thick boots. The tall girl eyed her friend suspiciously.
"Where are you off to?"
"Did you forget? Moriomi had the bright idea to mention "The Statue" half a year ago," Meiko then sent Kosshi an accusatory look. "You definitely didn't help. So since Riley and Kenta have asked about it, we're taking them down to the city."
"The city? To see the statue?" the tall girl asked flatly. "You sure that's a good idea? You know the rumors about that place...and that thing down there."
"I thought it'd be a nice little field trip Ko, now come on," the bespectacled girl grabbed Kosshi by the hand and pulled her to her feet. "You're coming with and I'm not letting you out of my sight."
Kosshi groaned as the plum-haired girl pulled her along from the room they were in. They walked for a good few minutes before they were near an entrance to the rest of the tunnels. The tall brunette spotted the rest of their group loitering nearby. Kentetsu had a small look of excitement on his face, while Riley had a much more subdued look. Minami was leaning back against the wall, a sour look on her face.
"Why are you so uppity anyway?" Moriomi growled to the girl, getting a small scowl in response.
"There's a city deep below us, and we're living here instead of there!" she growled, throwing her hands up. "Of course I'm uppity!"
"There's a good reason we can't live in the city," the raven-haired teen said. "When we get there I'll tell you, but maybe be less uptight about it."
"Don't call me uptight Morio-baka!" the doe-eyed girl growled.
"Ok, enough!" Tetsuomi growled, standing in between them. "We can't live in the city, and when we get there you'll see why. But we aren't gonna get there if you two are arguing over it."
Minami turned away and grumbled to herself. Moriomi ran a hand through is hair and sighed, glancing at his girlfriend nervously from the corner of her eye. Meiko shrugged at the scene, walking past them and motioning everybody to follow.
"Alright, let's save dealing with the little lover's spat for later and get moving" the plum haired girl called out.
"It wasn't a spat!" the two called out, pouting when they only got muted chuckles in response.
It was a good couple of hours that the group followed the bespectacled girl deeper into the recesses of the 24th. After leaving the stuffy underground forest, they traversed through a massive expanse of ruins and trash. They soon reached a stretch of downward passages with steep stairs, several members of the group nearly fell more than once. Eventually, they reached what large round doorway that emanated bright light.
"Well, there it is, just beyond that," Meiko said lowly, giving the group a sly grin. "Anybody getting cold feet? We could turn back now…"
"Absolutely not!" Minami said, giving the other girl a fierce look. "I wanna see it, this city we're not supposed to live in. There just can't be a good reason for it."
Riley grimaced, turning his head nervously before looking back at his surrogate sister. "This statue guy, he's like me right?" he gave a near-quiet sigh when Meiko gave him a slow nod. "Then I...I want to meet him."
"...Hoooh boy!" Tetsuomi squeaked out, backing away at the half-ghoul's confused look. "Oh it's nothing kiddo, just...don't expect to have a conversation with the guy."
The half-ghoul's face scrunched up in annoyance and he walked forward with a huff, walking past the doorway and stopping not long after. The group quickly followed, moving several feet past the door and stopping just behind the tall boy. Minami and Kentetsu looked at the scene before them in awe, noticing Riley's similar look from the corner of their eyes. The three were so caught in that moment that they didn't notice the others giggling behind them.
Far below the cliff they stood on was a massive city, sprawled throughout the huge underground chamber to the point that it seemed almost endless. The center of the city had medieval-styled buildings topped with what looked like battlements. On the outskirts of these stone edifices and the border of the city itself were old-fashioned japanese styled houses made from bamboo, scarce amounts of wood, and paper.
"Well...I mean, it looks a tiny bit old-fashioned," Minami said carefully, looking over at some of the seemingly abandoned homes down below. "I haven't seen those types of houses in...well, never" she called out, backing away and leaning against a large rock.
"Those...those are the types of houses my mom always talked about…" Riley said sadly.
"Your mom sounded like a real historian," the redhead said from behind him. "It's pretty impressive that she was into other countries histories…"
"Oh no, she wasn't a historian...she was a huge japanophile" the hybrid said, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly. "That was really it, she liked japanese culture and did a lot of research...and she even had her own kimono."
Riley gulped audibly as his cheeks turned bright red.
"Eh, what's wrong with your mom having a kimono?" Kosshi called out, confused by the taller boy's bashfulness.
"Eh-heh...I read her journal sometimes, and apparently…" Riley cringed, his face growing redder by the second. "Apparently I was...umm...conceived while she was wearing it…"
"...And she left that for you in her journal?" the tall girl asked, barely keeping down a smile at the half-ghoul's embarrassment. "Hahaha! Oh, you poor thing, you look like a tomato."
"So where is this statue guy?" Minami cut in, hoping to save the boy from his dilemma. "I don't see any other one-eyes here besides Riley."
Moriomi looked over to his girlfriend, then tilted his head to look at the area around her. "If I'm remembering it correctly...he's right behind you."
"Eh!" the doe-eyed girl jumped, turning around and finding nothing but the massive rock embedded in the wall that she had leaned on. She stared at it confusedly, then her eyes widened when she looked for a few more seconds. Rocks weren't supposed to be blood red and covered in scales.
Minami looked at the stone, then followed along its length upon realizing that the boulder was actually a long structure trailing straight into the underground city. The younger ghouls followed her gaze, noticing exactly what the three had all missed before. The monstrous structure snaked throughout the entire city, massive arms with clawed hands embedded into buildings and houses and huge half-lidded or closed eyes spread across the scaly skin, the whole of the structure marring the otherwise pristine underground metropolis.
"Well, you guys wanted to see it...there it is, the other one-eye and the reason we can't live in this city" Tetsuomi called out dramatically. "Introducing the Nagaraja, the king of the underground ward!"
"24th Ward", Tokyo
Underground City (Nagaraja's Lair)
Despite the convenience of a path leading from the cliff into the ruined city, it still took them several minutes to finally reach the city. The entire time, Minami, Riley, and Kentetsu eyed the giant snake-like monstrosity as the group walked past it. At several points the ghouls had to take alternate routes due to the kakuja's massive limbs and body blocking their path.
"This thing...it's a kakuja?" the doe-eyed girl asked, still gaping at the massive kagune.
"Yeah, I think so," Moriomi said. "I mean, from all the stories and evidence-"
"That's fucking impossible! Kakujas can't get that big!" Minami yelled. "No ghoul could hold that many RC cells, it's a physical impossibility."
"Well it's there…" the dark-haired teen trailed off.
"Why is it even called a statue anyway?"
"Because of this!" Tetsuomi called out, rapping his knuckles against the kakuja.
The three unbriefed ghouls cringed when the redhead did this, but settled down when the only thing that happen was the sound of knuckles banging against stone. Riley walked over to the massive kakuja and began running a hand across it's scaled hide. The tall boy blinked owlishly when he felt the texture beneath his fingers.
'...It's like concrete' the half-breed thought before turning back to the group. "Where are we going? And where did this thing come from?"
"We're going to the head!" Kinunao called out. "As for where Nāgaraja came from...that's a story that dates all the way back to the feudal era…"
"Oh! Oh! Story time, nya~!" Neko cried out, dancing at the blonde's heels happily.
"Alright, where to start...ok, I think he showed maybe almost a decade before bakumatsu. Back then, we weren't any better off than we are now, but there were no government run ghoul hunting organizations. The best there was were mercenary groups or bands of rōnin roaming across the country dedicated to the "cause" of ghoul hunting," the blonde made a sucked in laugh. "And they usually weren't any better than bandits, extorting whole towns and stuff. The closest thing there was to a government sanctioned ghoul hunting organization were the good ol' Washuus, the assholes emigrated from the middle east and set themselves up as nobles with samurai training. The shogunate didn't think very highly of them, seeing them as upstarts."
"Huh, no CCG doesn't sound so bad…" Minami said.
"...FDGC" was the half-ghouls response, garnering him several bewildered looks. "The Federal Department of Ghoul Control, back in my country. They were established in the 1840s, after an incident between the military with something called "Piasa" that happened just at the end of one of the indian wars."
"Hot damn, you guys got one earlier than us…" Kinunao said, then started just a bit when Kentetsu poked his arm.
"When does Nagaraja come in?" the quiet boy whispered, shrinking a bit when the others gave him concerned looks.
"Nagaraja started by raising an army of ghouls, and they attacking the shogunate and the imperial courts directly. The Washuus were the ones who opposed him, destroyed his army and drove him into hiding, which got them major score points in the eyes of the shōgun and the emperor," Kinunao let out a mocking laugh. "A few years later however, he came back and went straight to Kyoto during a big political meeting, then presented himself to the Washuus, Kōmei-tennō, and Tokugawa Ieyoshi. He made some big speech to them about a revolution and then he became...that" the blonde grimaced, motioning to the giant kakuja as the walked along its length.
"...Then what?" Riley asked, looking at the blonde expectantly.
"Then he ate Kyoto," Meiko said flatly. "Ghouls, humans, didn't matter what, he destroyed the entire city and just ate people. Then he rampaged through the country until he hit Tokyo, where the Washuus met him in a big climactic battle…" the plum-haired girl swallowed as she eyed the giant stone monster. "He lost obviously...they defeated him and he retreated into a giant hole, the Washuus were given a greenlight by the Emperor and the Shogun to make the government-funded CCG, and by the time Commodore Perry came everybody thought Nāgaraja was dead and gone," Meiko motioned to the massive underground chamber, and the city around them. "Obviously he wasn't dead, in reality he used his kakuja to carve out the entire 24th ward right under everybody's noses, then smuggled every other ghoul he could find down here, enough to populate the city and villages he created himself. From then on, we were all supposed to wait down here until the day we could once again rise up against humanity."
"Well, I guess that didn't stick…" Minami said, looking over to the giant kakuja. "What happened down here, and how do you two know so much about it?"
"Well, Nee-san and I learned about it from our dad, he lived in the city when he was younger. Meiko on the other hand…" Kinunao trailed off, looking over at the plum-haired girl.
"...I'm related to him, to Nagaraja," Meiko said weakly, flinching when the three unbriefed ghouls made loud exclamations. "Before you start, I'm distantly related to him. He had pure blooded ghoul siblings, and they're my descendants. We all share the same...quirk I guess is what I call it."
"What do you mean quirk?" the tall hybrid asked, tilting his head.
"Normally, in order to gain the mutated RC cells needed to get a kakuja, you cannibalize other ghouls. My family, we have a genetic mutation that causes us to just build up those mutated cells naturally," the girl adjusted her glasses and let out a tired sigh. "Every ghoul in my family is literally born with a kakuja."
"...How did the doves not find out about you guys?" the doe-eyed girl asked, still giving Meiko a bewildered look.
"My family...they're "high society ghouls" in the style of an old feudal clan. If somebody gets close to finding them out, they bribe them or pay to get them...y'know" the plum-haired girl drew a finger across her throat to illustrate.
"You...you came from a high society family?" Minami asked the other girl, her lips turning down into a frown.
"I-it's not like that! I wasn't some spoiled brat, and I hate my family and I ran away from them!"
"Then what is it like?" Minami asked, cocking an eyebrow up.
"My mom was my sister," Meiko growled flatly, then she snorted at the incredulous looks she got from the other three. "I'm not joking, my dad is the "clan head" of our family and he wants to ensure that the bloodline remains pure. We had branch families for the purpose of bearing the main branches legitimate heirs, and when he had daughters they'd usually be placed in those branch families. So my mom was also my biological sister...I was lucky enough to escape the same fate because I showed heiress potential."
The doe-eyed girl blinked owlishly at Meiko, then looked to the other six ghouls that were showing no outward reaction.
"You guys knew about that?"
"Most of us know the bare minimum," Kosshi said. "But yeah, we knew about how she was her mom's "daughter-sister", which is pretty fucked up."
"And y-you're...you're okay?" Minami asked the plum-haired girl. "I mean, in a biological and physical sense, you're fine right?"
"Eh, I'm only 16, so I don't know if I have any complications from it-"
"Hey, I think we're here guys!" Moriomi called out, cutting the bespectacled girl off.
When they looked up, the group found themselves at the entrance of a large clearing surrounded by rubble and ruined buildings. At the center was the kakuja's head, a monstrous snake-like visage covered in closed or half-lidded eyes, mouth turned up into a snarl to show off its humanoid teeth. Several large tentacles trailed off the monster's head, seemingly like dozens of whiskers or horns covered in red eyes.
"...it looks kind of like a sleeping dragon" Riley said after a few moments.
"You would know huh?" Tetsuomi said to the boy teasingly. "I mean, yours looks like the result of Godzilla marrying a dragon princess and making sweet love to her while they used an active volcano as a jacuzzi."
"And that's an image I never wanted in my head" Kosshi said nervously.
Kinunao's eyes suddenly widened, and his sister let out a gasp next to him. Within a few seconds, the two had released their kagune to block an attack from a thick bikaku tail. The rest of the group jumped back, releasing their own kagune as they faced their attack. The hostile ghouls let out barely worded growls as they deftly charged at the group. Riley blocked a strike with his tail, cringing when he saw the other ghoul's kagune.
"Your blade is too thick, it's not meant for cutting!" he illustrated this by blocking another strike from the koukaku with his left arm, then pulled back his right arm and let a fist fly towards the other ghoul's face. As the koukaku type was thrown backwards, a strangled cry resounded nearby. The hybrid looked over to see their other attackers equally incapacitated, one of them pinned to the wall by his surrogate sister's rinkaku.
When Riley walked up to the ghoul that attacked him, he found a boy that must have only been a few years older than himself. The teenager looked up at him, hissing at the taller boy angrily.
"Nott etted up, won' lejyar etted me uppin biggun!" the other boy snarled.
"...what?" the half-ghoul cried out.
"He said he isn't gonna let you eat him!" Tetsuomi called over, lifting his own attacker by the scruff of their neck. "Also, he called you "biggun", but that should be obvious."
"Etted, yar gunna ett us, git dun it uppin."
"Gunna shika chika dur cuttin 'nd ettin."
"Dizz biggun braken to den badeen."
"I...I can't understand them…" Riley hissed over to the redhead.
"Welcome to the club!" Minami yelled, holding another ghoul under her foot. "Just what the hell is up with these guys."
"These guys are ghouls who live deep in the 24th ward, and they have their own weird dialect," Kinunao said, looking down at the three he had captured. "They're just a bit territorial. Come on, put them over here" the boy called out, motioning to a flat space.
"Mumblin dur da confuzzy tingers" the one Riley held hissed out as he was lifted around. "Wazza ghoul? Werra humans!"
"Bullshit! I'm more human than you are!" the white-haired boy growled as he activated his kakugan. The hostile ghouls gasped when they saw his eye, looking up at Riley in shock.
"Naaga! Hezza Naaga!"
"Biggun brake everytinger, braken jus laik Naaga."
"I'm not a "Naga", I'm a one-eye" the tall boy said.
"Brake everytinger, he gunna braken everytinger, steem deem gud."
"What are they on about?" Kosshi whispered to the plum-haired girl. "I can barely understand a quarter of the shit they're saying."
"Alright, I think that's enough from you!" a voice called out.
The group from the green zone looked over to see a young silver-haired man standing atop a ruined building. The made a start when he jumped down, landing near them and giving the capture ghouls a disappointed look with closed eyes. The green zone ghouls blinked owlishly when they saw he was dressed as a shinto priest.
"Please, forgive these ones, they're just children and they've been isolated from the outside," the priest said, opening his eyes to reveal active kakugan. The ghoul looked over to Riley and gave him a soft smile. "That's quite the...interesting feature you have there young man."
The tall boy deactivated his kakugan and shrunk back nervously. The priest looked at the boy sadly, then let out a sigh before bringing his hand up and snapping his fingers. Another shape appeared on the ruined building and bounded down, landing next to the priest. The half-ghoul let out a gasp when he saw the new figure was a dark-haired giant of a man that surpassed even his own height, having forgone a shirt to show off his heavily muscled and scar covered torso.
"Holy shit, there are more giants?!" Neko whisper-yelled.
"Keitoku-sama, what's is the problem?" The giant man asked, looking down at the priest in concern.
"Those ones, Toshiki," the priest pointed to the angry looking ghoul children. "These nice people were visiting the king, and the children there decided they would stir up trouble."
"Hmmph, alright then," the scarred ghoul walked over to them, releasing several rinkaku tentacles and grappling the angry children. "Alright brats, don't give me any hassle. Keitoku-sama will give out your punishments later."
The hostile ghoul children groaned when the giant lifted them up and hauled them away. The green zone ghouls cringed as they heard the cries of "Naaga" and "braken". The shinto priest sweatdropped as they were dragged off, turning back to the green zone ghouls as he rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.
"Hehe...would you like to come back to my house? I can give you coffee for all this trouble…"
The group followed the shinto priest for several more minutes before reaching his home, one of the old-fashioned houses near the outskirts of the city. When they arrived, there was a young silver-haired boy dressed in monk robes sweeping the porch. The child looked up and gave his master a wide-eyed stare when he saw the people behind him.
"Eh! Tou-san, who are these people?"
"They're guests Rami, visitors from the middle levels of the tunnels…" the shinto ghoul glanced back to the group behind him. "Rami, would you mind telling Suumi and Kagami to get some coffee started?"
"H-Hai tou-san!" the boy cried out, making a salute towards the man before running inside.
"Give him a few minutes, then we can go in."
"Of course...and again, thanks for the save back there with those kids," Meiko said, giving the shinto ghoul a kind look. "I didn't think we'd run into any trouble down here, since nobody bothered us before."
"What did they mean when they said they were human?" Tetsuomi asked.
"Ah, that would be an combination of isolation from the rest of the world, and an ideology that sprung up towards the end of the king's reign," Keitoku's look grew morose. "There were some in the city who believed that we, the ghouls, are the true humans, and that real humans are just pretenders...those children were taught a mix of those and it's led them to such confusion."
"So you knew somebody who lived in the city at the time?" Kinunao asked, edging towards the man excitedly.
"Of course, myself. I'm one of the handful of people who still remembers what the king looks like."
"EH?! But, you look way too young, like in your 20s" the blonde cried out. "My pops said that the king turned into that 60 years ago!"
"I know, I was there. I'm actually almost to my eighties" Keitouku said, flashing the boy a wry smile that only an old and wizened man could have.
"Wait, you saw the king, and he became that 60 years ago?" Minami asked, leaning forward questioningly. "He was born before the end of the feudal era, how could he have been alive 60 years ago?"
"Uruka, he's still alive now," Moriomi said nonchalantly. "Last time I visited part of him was in a different position, he moved just a bit I think."
"Yes, he's actually moved more within the past year than any time before. Everybody was getting worried he'd wake up again," the shinto ghoul's face grew anxious. "In my eyes, that can only mean something important is on the near horizon."
"Still...alive?" the doe-eyed girl breathed out, looking back to the giant stone kagune in shock. "But...how?"
"I think it's best that I explained that inside" Keitoku said, motioning for the group to follow.
When the group walked into the shinto priest's home, their noses were immediately assaulted by the smell of coffee. Keitoku led them to the dining room and motioned for the ghouls to sit at the table, then moved to the kitchen. He returned a few minutes later with his son, both of them holding full pots of steaming coffee. Following them were two silver-haired teenage girls garbed in kimonos, both holding trays crowded with cups. One was curvaceous and had long waist-length hair, the other was slim and had messy neck-length hair.
"It's nice to meet you all, I'm Suumi" the long-haired girl said, bowing slightly.
"My name is Kagami," the short-haired girl said, giving a bow of her own. "Tou-san told us the gist of it, that three of you wanted to know about the king."
"Yeah, since everybody else is in the loop, I'm pretty interested in the subject" Minami said flatly, accompanied by a nod from Kentetsu and a shrug from Riley.
"What do you guys wanna know anyway?" Rami asked as he helped his older sisters serve coffee to the ghouls.
"The king, how did he become a statue?" the doe-eyed girl asked, causing their hosts to flinch.
"That happened 60 years ago, from what tou-san says...apparently the king lost the ability to control his kakuja," the young boy looked outside the window, eyeing the giant eye-covered form nervously. "It just emerged from him one day, he couldn't hold it back and...he went on a rampage throughout the city he made and began eating his own people. Nobody knew what to do."
"The city's defenders, they didn't want to hurt the king, but they started attacking the head so that he'd maybe come out, or at least pull back a bit," the boy scrunched his face up in thought. "When they attacked those eyeballs and made them close, his attacks were dulled and he'd slow down a bit. After all of them closed, he stopped thrashing the entire place and fell asleep. The people who fought him or were exposed to his cells, they had a bunch of changes happen to them, like tou-san being nearly immortal but having silver hair and passing it on to us" the child fiddled with his own whitened locks to demonstrate.
"But he still moves?" Riley asked.
"Every now and then he moves around a bit, kind of like a big cat or dog when it's stirring in its sleep," Rami said blithely, then furrowed his brows nervously. "They way he's been moving now, with the thrashing and what not, that only happens when he senses a chosen, and he's preparing to meet them. Tou-san said the last time it happened was almost 10 years ago."
"Wait, chosen?!" Minami asked, leaning forward with a questioning glare. "What's a chosen, and why would Nagaraja be jittery at meeting them."
"Oh, a chosen is a person that the kings gives a piece of his-"
"Alright Rami, I think that's enough," Keitouku said, cutting off his son with a stern gaze. "I'm sorry for that, but I don't think telling all of you about the chosen is necessary, all things considered."
Minami was about to try and push the issue when Riley held a hand in front of her. The tall boy leaned forward anxiously.
"The king, was he really a one-eye?" the silver-haired preteen asked.
"Yes, the genuine article. I saw it plenty of times when I was younger" the shinto ghoul said.
"Wait, why would you care about the king being a one-eye?" Rami asked, squinting his eyes at the taller silver-haired boy. "What does it matter to you, huh?"
Riley let out a sharp breath, then activated his single kakugan. The reaction from Keitoku's family was instant. Rami jumped from his seat in shock, looking up at the hybrid in wonder. The teenage girls gaped in awe at the boy, light blushes dusting their cheeks. The shinto ghoul blanched when he saw his children walk towards the ghoul and drop the floor in deep bows.
"Heika…" the silver-haired child said, dipping his head lowly to the half-ghoul. "Kokuō Heika!"
"...Wait, what?!" the tall boy cried out, ignoring a laugh from Kosshi and Tetsuomi.
"He's referring to you as a king," Kinunao told the boy. "Which I also do not understand, he's just a one-eyed ghoul…"
"He's the first one-eye to visit the king, the king himself always said that the first one-eye he would meet would be his successor" Rami said, looking up at the tall preteen with a reverent look.
"But...I'm not exactly kingly material-EH!" Riley was cut off when Kagami ran forward and curled herself around his right arm, grinding closely against the boy's form.
"Your Majesty! Please make me your queen! I promise you I will be your dutiful wife and a loving mother to your children!" the girl cried, causing the hybrid's face to turn completely red.
"N-no, I can't just-"
"Uwah?! Am I not pleasing enough to you?" the short-haired girl moaned, giving the boy a sad look. "Is it because of my body milord? Are my breasts not big enough to suit your tastes? You simply prefer big ones?" she asked while palming her chest.
"Oh yeah, I do like big ones...WAIT, NO! That's not what this is about-EEP!" Riley was once again cut off when Suumi curled herself around his left arm, a coy smile spreading across her face as she pressed her substantial bust against him.
"Then allow me to be your wife Your Majesty, if only to keep my sister from being with a man who will not be able to properly take care of her," the busty girl blew the tall boy a small kiss, causing his blush to deepen. "I promise to be your perfect lover, and the most wonderful mother to our twenty children."
'TWENTY?!' Riley thought. 'I don't even know her, or if I can actually do that, and she's already asking for twenty kids?'
The two girls suddenly let out squeaks when Meiko grabbed them both by their ears. The plum-haired girl pulled the other two off her surrogate brother, then placed them in front of herself. The two silver-haired girl shrunk back when the bespectacled girl sent them a flat glare.
"Ok, for starters, he is 12! He isn't ready for that just yet, and he shouldn't even be thinking about losing or trying to lose his virginity for another year…" the plum-haired girl trailed off, glaring at the girls again when she felt they weren't sufficiently cowed. "Second, he was already uncomfortable about being called a king and you two didn't help by grinding on him."
"GAH! We're sorry, we're sorry!" the two said, turning the half-breed and bowing apologetically. While their father gave an exasperated sigh at their antics, their younger brother gave the tall boy a bewildered look.
"Why?! Why don't you want to be the new king?!" Rami cried out, practically confronting the taller ghoul.
"I'm not the person for it. People tell me I'm pretty smart, but I'm probably just above average in that regard. I'm a big guy, so I'm pretty strong, but I'm don't have this refined fighting style that relies on being speedy or anything like that…" Riley took a deep breath and ran a hand through his hair. "I don't have it in me to lead a huge army or an underground country like this place...plus, the Washuus never did anything to me personally, so I don't see any point in starting a revolution against them or trying to take them on directly."
Meiko swallowed hard when he said this.
'I wish I could tell him…' the plum-haired girl thought, flinching at the thought of how he would react. 'Dammit, why does my dad have to be such a psychotic asshole.'
"So, you aren't going to be the king then…" Rami asked the taller boy.
"...No, I'm not" the half-ghoul said, giving the younger ghoul an apologetic look. "I...I'm sorry little guy."
Later
"Thank you for the coffee Keitoku-san!"
"It was no problem Meiko, really!" the shinto ghoul called out, waving to the group as they left. "Please, feel free to visit any time."
"Maybe we will, but only if we're not too busy" Kinunao called back.
"They were pretty nice…" Minami said, grimacing when she saw the tall hybrid out of the corner of her eyes. "I mean, y'know...aside from being asked to be a king and having two older girls begging to be your queens."
"...Part of me feels like you guys think I'm crazy" Riley said flatly.
"Well duh!" Tetsuomi said, giggling at the boy's frown. "You had two older, and sexy, girls grinding against you and you refused their offers to be your queen."
"Sorry, I just have this weird mental tick that makes me want to get to know a girl and take her feelings into account instead of forcing myself on her" the tall boy said, shivering slightly. "If you remember, I haven't had the best experience with girls who were "interested" in me. When I actually get a girlfriend, I'm not gonna screw it up…"
"Words to live by kid!" Kosshi called over to him, flashing the boy a genuinely kind smirk. "Me thinks every guy should take a cue from you."
Neneko let out a frustrated "hmmph", causing the group to look back at her. The cat-like girl sent a scowl Riley's way, causing the boy to shrink slightly.
"Is something wrong Neko?" the tall hybrid asked.
"...How the hell did you become such a pervert?!" the short brunette hissed, her mouth turning up into a snarl directed at the boy.
Riley blinked owlishly at the girl's words and her hostile attitude. "Wh-what do you mean? How am I a pervert?!"
"What you said back there when those girls were grinding on you...about how you liked big breasts!" the cat-girl yelled, pointing an accusatory finger just an inch away from the boy's chest. "It's just not fair that, I thought we could prevent it. But somehow you turned into a giant pervert that bases his attraction to women on the size of the damn lumps of fat on their chests!"
Some of the group grimaced at the girl's proclamation. Kosshi snickered just a bit, giving the cat-girl an incredulous look. Meiko, Kinuyo, and Minami sighed in exasperation at the other girl's antics.
"Hey, don't worry kid, Neko isn't the biggest here so she's projecting just a bit" the tall brunette said, blinking when the giant ignored her.
"...Neko, you do see me, right?" the boy asked, motioning to himself. "As in my entire body...which also includes my gigantic hands" he held them up to demonstrate, his hands were easily big enough to envelope the girl's entire head.
"Nya~! I get it, you have huge hands, what does that have to do with you liking big breasts?!"
"Because I can at least justify it a bit," the tall preteen said flatly. "If I were with a...small girl, then I might accidentally crush her ribs if I wasn't careful."
Neneko stared owlishly at the boy for half a minute. Then she let out an agitated sigh and sent the boy a flat look.
"Alright! I'll give you that one, but you're the only person who could have a good reason like that."
"All this talk about boobs is real nice and all…" Tetsuomi called out, ignoring the looks he got from the girls. "But I have a question about this whole king business."
"What's the question?" the tall boy asked.
"Aside from not feeling like you could handle being a king, why didn't you take more time to consider it?" the redhead leaned towards the hybrid. "I mean, you have to know why you would be a good choice."
"Why would I be a good choice?"
"Commodore Perry and his Black Ships, the Enola Gay and Douglas MacArthur," the redhead said blithely. "When Perry came with his ships and threatened to blow up a bunch of our buildings, we surrendered and opened our ports to trade...may have had a bit to do with it happening not long after Nagaraja, but still, That event with Perry led to the collapse of the entire shogunate. Then there's the Enola Gay and Bockscar dropping nukes on two of our cities and literally blowing them to kingdom come, and our direct surrender to the allied forces and Douglas MacArthur specifically," Tetsuomi leaned up to the half-ghoul. "The point I'm trying to make Riley, is that if you trained hard enough, and got a kakuja even just half the size of Nagaraja's, you could pull that off too, you could be the driving force behind the CCG's surrender and getting rights granted to our species here," the redhead said, giving the boy an urging look. "If you were the king, you could get it done. Everybody knows it's the golden rule by now, if you want the Japanese to surrender, then you need to get the Americans to blow up a bunch of their buildings."
Riley gave the redhead an incredulous look, still shocked at the older boy's forwardness. The tall boy looked away from the other, and let out a tired sigh after several seconds passed.
"I...I can see what you're getting at Tetsuo, but that's just not the person I am," the tall boy said, giving the teen an apologetic look. "I'm not...exactly a vengeful person, and even if I was, the Washuus and the CCG haven't done anything to me personally."
"Yet, they haven't done anything to you yet," the redhead said before swallowing nervously. "L-look, I'm not gonna order you to do it or anything. All I'm asking is that you consider it…"
"Well, all this talk about tits and blowing up buildings was nice," Kosshi said cheekily. "But maybe it's a good idea to start heading home...otherwise we might run into more of those crazy kids that talk weird."
"Yeah, plus this boob talk is making me feel all...offbeat, I guess?" Minami said nervously, holding herself close to Moriomi.
As they left, the tall boy stopped a bit when he heard a loud cracking sound. Kinunao called out to the others that it was probably a stray boulder falling, but the half-ghoul turned to where he felt the source was. When he looked over at Nagaraja's head, he saw one of the monster's kagune eyes open, the pupil narrowed in the group's direction.
Riley was frozen in terror. The kakuja's eye was looking straight in his direction, and the monstrous pupil zeroed in on the hybrid's form. The Underground King held Riley in place with his glare for almost a minute, then the look in his eye softened. Soon after, the massive eye closed halfway again, and Nagaraja was asleep once more...
For anybody starting to wonder, Riley isn't going to replace Kaneki as the One-Eyed King or Dragon. For starters, Dragon had to be made from a Washuu or at least the kagune of a Washuu. That is why, regardless of his genetic and physical modifications and the genetic mutation I haven't revealed yet, he isn't going to push the main character out of his spot. Hell, that's the whole reason why I've been trying my hardest to not make him a Gary Stu.
The-Killer40513: Yup, it's become a good rule of thumb that if Eto is in the tags with an OC, they'll be paired. First saw it in a now dead fic a few years ago, then theres some of SocialistBukharin's fics which are a pretty good read.
For everybody else, please leave any thoughts, questions, and constructive criticism in your reviews.