It was silent inside the car on the way to the Aogiri Tree's 11th Ward Base. Yukina, Amon, Shinohara, and four other investigators - including the driver - were in the car. (Since there was space for only seven people, Juuzou was in the car right behind them.) None of them spoke, and the only sound you could hear were the clanking sounds that their Quinque cases made inside the trunk.

"..."

Yukina, who was sitting on the left side of the back seat with Amon and Shinohara, looked down at her feet nervously.

"Yukina, try to relax a bit more," said Amon, who was sitting in the middle. "We're going to attack after the rank-3 investigators shoot at the Aogiri for a while, when Marude-san tells us to go in. We still have a long way to go."

"Y-yes! I'm sorry..." Yukina took a deep breath, but she still looked down at her hands, clenched tightly on her lap.

"Hey, Amon," Shinohara called, looking up from Yamori's data that he had been reading carefully for the past few minutes, "what did you think of Jason when you fought him?"

"Hmm...I guess he was...different from other ghouls. Like, very strange," said Amon.

"Mhmm," Shinohara nodded. "I don't know if you've heard of this before, but...before he was called 'Jason,' he was caught by the CCG once and was put in Cochlea."

Yukina looked at Shinohara and exclaimed in surprise. "He was caught before?!"

"Yes," said Shinohara, "but in Cochlea, there was an investigator with problems...and after long periods of torture, Jason made another personality inside him, in order to protect himself. And then he escaped. After that, he's committed brutal acts, using torture methods that he learned with his own body."

"I've heard of his being caught and that he escaped, but I didn't know about the details like the torture," said Amon.

"But then..." Yukina started to say something, but stopped.

"Hm? What is it?" Shinohara asked.

"Oh, um..." Yukina spoke with hesitation. "I thought, maybe...aren't we, the investigators, responsible for Jason's current actions?"

"Well, as I said earlier, the investigator had problems, though he doesn't work for the CCG anymore. But remember, Jason is a ghoul; he's been committing murder since before the torture. And even if he was tortured, that doesn't justify his atrocities."

"Yes, I guess that's true..." Yukina said, looking down again. But she suddenly looked up at Shinohara again and asked, "By the way, what do the ghouls in Cochlea eat?"

"I think they are given blood...blood that was donated but is past the expiration date," Shinohara explained. "But since it's like humans living by just drinking juice or tea, most of them go mad eventually. When that happens, we kill them immediately."

"But why do we even imprison them? We have to get blood for them, and if they go crazy, we have to kill them. That seems like a lot of work..."

"Well, sometimes, we have to interrogate them, like if they're affiliated with organizations like the Aogiri. Also, the scientists are doing research."

"What kind of research?"

"Hmm...I'm not sure about the details."

"Maybe Quinques?" Amon suggested. "I don't hear much about their research, but they must be producing some results if their research is ongoing."

"...I think it would be good if they research about possible ways ghouls can live without eating humans," Yukina looked down and said in a low voice. "Even if ghouls can't live with just blood, there might be a way we can coexist..."

Shinohara looked at Yukina sternly. "Coexisting with ghouls might be good as an ideal. But they eat us, and we get eaten. That has always been our relationship. It's impossible to realize such an ideal."

"...Maybe we can't coexist with all ghouls," said Yukina, "but...if we can at least save the ghouls who are kind at heart and eat humans only because they need to in order to survive, then...I think we can make progress."

"What do you mean by 'progress?'" Shinohara asked.

"It means that the world will become more peaceful," said Yukina. "All we're doing right now is killing ghouls, but violence only results in more violence. The world might become more safe for humans if we exterminate all ghouls, but that's impossible...and even if it is possible, I feel sorry for kind-hearted ghouls and child ghouls. If we research more, we might able to live together with the cooperative ones. And as humans and ghouls start to respect each other more, human predation will decrease, and ghouls won't have to worry about them or their loved ones being killed just because of what they were born into."

Shinohara tilted his head and said, "As I said earlier, that's a nice ideal, for all of us to live in harmony. But since we don't respect each other, as of right now, there's no way we can realize that."

Just then, the car came to a stop.

"We've arrived," said the investigator who was driving the truck.

Everyone got out of the car and took their Quinque out. Yukina looked around. All she could see down the road were cars owned by the CCG, from which investigators came out one after another. Juuzou joined Yukina, Amon, and Shinohara, and the four stood behind the shooting squad. The shooting squad waited quietly for the signal fire, and once it went up, they started firing all at once. However, the Aogiri's shooting squad also started firing. The investigators who stood behind the shooting squad waited for a chance to go in and attack, but after around 20 minutes had passed, it seemed like the CCG was losing.

Then, Marude came forward with a rifle in his hand.

"Guys! Hurry up and finish them off!" Marude yelled, and fired a few shots. Almost all of them hit the Aogiri's ghouls.

"Wow..." Yukina stared at him, amazed. Suddenly, she heard a motorcycle's engine start from behind her. She and others around her turned around.

"Is that...?" Marude started to say, also turning around.

"Yup, it's your motorcycle, Marude-san," an investigator who stood next to him said.

On the motorcycle was Juuzou Suzuya, the only rank-3 investigator who was not in the shooting squad.

"Uh...Suzuya-san...?" Yukina called. But Juuzou was not paying attention to anything around him.

"I'm borrowing this!" Juuzou said with a big smile, and he took off.

"Hey...wait wait wait wait wait," Marude said, looking at his motorcycle with a horror-stricken face as it zoomed by him.

"No...oh no no no no no..." Sweat ran down Marude's face, and tears welled up in his eyes.

"Hey hey hey hey!" Marude's cried, just as his motorcycle went up in the air.

Juuzou jumped off the motorcycle and went into the building through a window.

"Good...eve...ning!" he shouted with a smile, and took down the Aogiri's ghouls around him. He then looked at the investigators down below and put his hands up in the air, laughing, as though he was saying, "Hooray!" At the same time, the motorcycle hit the building and exploded in the air.

Marude's gritted his teeth and yelled, "Attaaaaaack!"

The investigators who were standing behind the shooting squad started running towards the building.

"Suzuya-san!" Yukina shouted, and started running too with her Quinque in her hands.

"No, wait, Yukina...!" Amon called, but Yukina was already inside the building.

What should I do? Should I go after her? Amon thought, looking helplessly at the building. But she and I were supposed to be with Shinohara-san... If I go after her, then -

"Amon!" Shinohara called, putting his right hand on Amon's left shoulder. Amon looked at Shinohara, who looked back at him with a serious expression.

"I will be going in with Kuroiwa and others, as planned. Can you take care of Juuzou and Teshigawara?"

"Yes, sir!" Amon said, looking relieved. He then went inside the building, chasing Yukina, who was going after Juuzou.