Disclaimer: I do not own tokyo ghoul.

"I'm sorry I didn't mean to trespass." Ariana said to the kakuja trying to hide her nervousness.

The kakuja chuckled "Oh no, please you should stay for dinner."

"Oh I just ate I'm sorry." Ariana started to back away slightly.

"I wasn't asking for you." the kakuja gritted his teeth and a mask started to form on his face, his kagune deployed but it was oddly shaped, it looked like a kokaku but it was forming 4 thin, sharp, spider-like appendages. He licked his lips and dashed at her, pinning her against the wall. Immediately Ariana tried to escape.

"Oh no, no, no." The ghoul said as his kokaku started to tense up and a mask started slowly creeping across his face as it generated.

"Uh oh." Ariana thought to herself as she started to run away. "I have to get out of here."

Before she could get away she found herself being thrown to the ground. She screamed as the spider legs pierced through her arms preventing any escape from happening. Her consciousness started to fade away as the kakuja drew closer.

"Ah yes you look delicious." The kakuja said as Ariana slipped away.

"Well this is unfortunate." Someone said close to where Ariana was. "Our family has really been affected by these attacks."

Getting the strength to open her eyes Ariana gasped. She was back at her childhood apartment. It seemed to have aged with faded walls and ripped curtains. For some reason it seemed to be foggy. Looking at the old living room table she saw an overturned picture. Picking it up she smiled. It was from when she was five and at the amusement park with her uncle. Holding back her tears she embraced the photo.

"That is a nice picture isn't it." She heard the voice say but sounding very familiar now. "It was a very nice day too."

"Uncle John?" Ariana asked in disbelief. Looking up she saw her uncle on the balcony. He seemed to be staring off into the distance with a hand in his pocket. Ariana walked closer to him. "Have you been alive all this time?"

"I have been." John answered still looking out into the distance. "In your memories."

"I was hoping you'd really be alive." Ariana looked down as she walked next to him.

"You can't change what happened in the past Ariana. You can change the future even the present but never the past."

"You sound like Grandpa." Ariana said leaning over the balcony as John started to chuckle a little.

"Death doesn't feel to great. Believe me, I know. You on the other hand don't have to experience that yet. At least not this way."

"I remember how Mom was when you died. Hate to see her if I died the same way."

"Ah yes my big sister how has she been?"

"Not herself since you died." Ariana looked the other direction.

"I figured that. Ever since we were younger she always wanted to protect me. That's why we joined that gang in the first place for our protection. Then your mom met your dad and in less than a second she was gone for good."

"You could have this." Ariana said somberly. "You could have found someone and had a family."

"I could have." Ariana turned towards to her uncle. "But I did have this."

At that moment, his face was covered by a half mask that looked like it had teeth protruding from the from the mouth area and his bikaku grew small bristles as he spread his arms as parts of his bikaku wrapped around his arms.

"How are proud of that?" Ariana asked slightly appalled by the display.

"This Ariana." John lifted up one of his arms. "Is power."

"But," Ariana paused a bit before continuing. "But it's how you died."

"Not how I see it." John looked down a bit. "I should have known I couldn't have taken them all at once."

"What do you mean?" Ariana asked him confused.

"Our old gang was falling apart. The members were literally eating each other. Two of my friends and I wanted to leave but the current leader had a new policy. With our member count already decreasing as fast as they were already another loss wouldn't look good on our record. When we were about to leave the current leader and his lackeys jumped us. I fought them off single handedly. My friends were able to escape even though I made the ultimate sacrifice."

"You mean you died to save your friends." Ariana said walking closer to him.

"I had no choice. I knew they wouldn't be able to fight them."

"I always thought they killed you simply because you were a kakuja."

"Sometimes that's how things work you expect one thing to be true while in fact it's the complete opposite."

"But why did you even become a kakuja?" Ariana asked desperately needing an answer.

"To protect your mother when she couldn't protect herself. She could have died and we would have lost you too." he held up his hands and warmed them.

"There are immeasurable amounts of power, waiting for a kakuja to unlock, the stage i died at wasn't even half of the power you can begin to acquire. Look at your friends, they have power to protect themselves and others because of what they have become." she looked into the distance as she began to see her friends at dragon's claw. They all had kakuja forms and were all standing proud.

"This looks so unusual." Ariana said looking at her friends.

"They did this to protect their friends and everyone close to them." A dragon with three eyes perched on the roof and roared after he spoke.

"Is that Nathaniel?" Ariana looked up in awe.

"He made this form… to protect you" John turned to her.

"Protect me?" Ariana said in surprise.

"Yep, he almost lost his mind to attain it."

"Why would he do that?" Ariana cried.

"He loves you." John said as he took off his hat. "He wants you to live." He looked at her. "So fulfill his wish! LIVE!" He yelled as Ariana faded to reality.

She opened her eyes to the kakuja who was opening his mouth to bite her.

With all of her strength Ariana used her Ukaku to fire spikes at him.

He blocked a few shards but some sunk into his body. He was visibly annoyed and charged at her. Standing back up Ariana fired more spikes at him. He flattened his spider legs into shield-like blade and chest armor and started to block more effectively. Ariana breathed slowly trying to gain some of her strength back. After a bit she fired three spikes. He blocked the three of them easily.

"What do I do?" She thought to herself starting to feel anxious.

The Kakuja lunged in and on instinct she jumped just high enough so she could extend her legs and force him to the ground.

"Urgh!" the kakuja growled as he got back up. He dug his kagune into the ground and threw himself at her with two blades outstretched like a living torpedo.

Ariana used her speed to her advantage and flipped over him, she then, as fast as she could and without thinking, bit into his neck and tore a chunk out and ate it, it hit her tongue with a strange and somewhat rotten taste but she gulped the piece down the second she swallowed the flesh, the holes in her hands healed almost as fast as they had been made. Her vision also got a bit blurry as her stomach growled, she was very hungry and having a bite didn't help her maintain control. She started to act on more and more instinct as her bloodlust started to take over.

The kakuja started to waiver, noticing Ariana was starting to overpower him. He started to get on the defensive. Ariana still persisted, she didn't feel tired either, she was filling with all these emotions that were forcing themselves out to be known, it was like a ball of fire was burning inside of her. She outstretched her wings and they grew a bit, she dashed at the kakuja and slashed at his chest, his armor was pierced by her wing, he started to panic as she kept following up with more slashes until his kagune deteriorated and he fell to his knees.

"Urgh! H-how..?" he looked at Ariana in terror.

"You monster." Ariana yelled before mindlessly taking another bite from him.

He screamed as Ariana kept ripping him to pieces until eventually there was nothing left.

Ariana breathed heavily it felt so good. She felt so alive! Then it hit her. She had just consumed a ghoul. She became the one thing she despised more than the CCG. running over to the back of the alley she started to try to undo it all.

She was about to to make herself throw it up when a hand grabbed hers. She turned ready for a fight, but when she saw who it was. Her eyes welled up with tears. Nathaniel was there.

"Help me." She whispered to once she realized it was him.

He hugged her. "You don't need help, you just need time." he looked emotionless. He then formed his kakuja dragon wings and flew them both back to the tower.

"I can't believe I did that." Ariana cried still trying to force it out of her while crying.

Nathaniel continued to stop her as he led her down a hallway she didn't recognize.

"Nathaniel please i just want to undo my mistake." She started to explained to him as they kept walking. "I wasn't thinking it just sort of happened."

"Even if you could, I would want you to recognize your newfound power."

"Can't we just keep this between ourselves?" Ariana begged starting to tear up again.

"No… your true nature would be found out sooner or later, you should try to embrace it." He Kissed her forehead and gave her a hug.

"But this isn't me. I don't want to eat my own kind." She paused for minute before continuing. "Even if my family has a history of it. I sort of promised myself that this wouldn't happen."

"I have a hard time believing that there were no kakujas in your family" Nathaniel responded as he tilted his head.

"There were." Ariana looked down seemingly ashamed by this.

"Kakujas are powerful, they may be considered taboo but they are very powerful, once a certain threshold is broken." Nathaniel said as he turned the knob of a door.

Ariana stepped back a little. Something inside of her was saying it was a bad idea to go in there.

Nathaniel stepped in and looked at the pile of corpses piled in a little mound. It smelled of ghoul blood but none of the ghouls in the pile seemed familiar.

Ariana poked her head in. "I am not eating from that!"

"You don't need to yet but you can come into this room since you have stepped into our world.

"I wish I could go back and undo this." Ariana thought to herself stepping away slowly from the room.

"Nobody can change the past…" he sighed as he grabbed a piece of ghoul meat.

Refusing to watch this Ariana ran back to her room. Once there she got under her covers, hoping this was a dream that would all go away.

"Hey" Ariana felt a tap on her shoulder from under the blankets. "You ok Ariana?"

"No." She answered bluntly.

Arden lifted the covers off of Ariana "if… your.. Hurt… witch you don't look to be, then you should tell us." Arden looked over her "you look fine"

"I'm not." She replied burying her head in her pillow.

"What's up?" she rubbed Ariana's back.

"Have you ever regretted doing something?" Ariana asked her.

"Totally, Why?"

"I regret going outside my room today."

"Why is that?" Arden chuckled a bit. "It couldn't be too bad…"

"I ate a ghoul without thinking." Ariana told her reluctantly. "Now I'm a monster."

Arden looked a bit offended "Uhmm… I've eaten a lot of other ghouls, I lost count almost a year ago"

"You like doing that I don't." Ariana pulled the covers over her again.

"It's not as weird as you think!" she left very offended.

"Great now I ruined my relationship with Arden." She whispered to herself. She looked at her window if she wanted to she could. "Do I even belong here? I keep ruining everything."

A few minutes later Nathaniel walked in. "hey, Arden told me you were upset about..."

He paused he saw her standing in the window. She wasn't facing him but she looked ready to jump.

"...what are you-"

Without speaking she lept from the window. She deployed her wings and flew away.

Nathaniel stood shocked for a second, he then deployed his dragon wings and took off after her. Ariana flew on without looking back. She tried to fly faster except her back kept cramping up.

Nathaniel spread his wings and simultaneously deployed his crescent wings as he accelerated and caught up really quickly to Ariana. Hoping to get away Ariana swooped down into a dark alley. She ran and stopped in front of three glowing eyes. Nathaniel had caught up, he stared at her through his Kakuja Mask.

"There's got to be a way out." She thought to herself as she looked around.

Nathaniel broke the silence. "Why?" he said in an upset tone.

"I don't want to be this." She said quietly.

"You can't change the past. you need to look ahead to the future" Nathaniel said walking forward to hug her.

"But I promised I wouldn't become this."

"Well. it's a bit late for that." he chuckled "please… come back to the tower. We want you to be safe."

As he said that a CCG agent rounded the corner and jumped back

Nathaniel looked fast and covered Ariana's face with the mask he used as the phantom.

The agent activated his Quinque. It was a neon green scythe. Immediately Ariana threw a few of her spikes at him.

The agent deflected all but one, which missed.

Nathaniel raised his wings and roared at the agent. A little scared Ariana backed a few steps back to let Nathaniel do his thing

Nathaniel Dashed toward the agent and shot a hurricane of spikes at him, the spikes were a bit larger due to his kakuja nature. The agent went to block a spike and it shattered the scythe blade to which he jumped for cover. As he did though, one spike went right through his leg which blew it off.

Ariana gasped at the power that spike had.

The Agent screamed as Nathaniel picked him up and drove his cresent through the man's heart.

"Are we going to eat him?" Ariana asked.

"Prey is prey…" he responded.

"When was the last time you ate?" Ariana asked concerned.

"I haven't had a proper meal in half a month." Nathaniel answered shoving the heart in his mouth.

"Well you can have it all then." Just then from the side she noticed a rinkaku pierce his shoulder. Before he could react he was pierced by two more. A ghoul walked into the open.

"Well… two ghouls, and you don't appear to be a kakuja miss, looks like you're first he said looking at Ariana.

Ariana looked at Nathaniel he was currently motionless on the ground. If she didn't do anything who knows what would have happened to him. She couldn't leave him to die meaning there was only one thing she could do.

"That's where you're wrong."

He eyed her and sniffed the air. "You don't smell like one." He tilted his head as his jaw was covered with one of the tendrils, the other two wrapped around his arms.

"Does it matter?" Ariana asked.

The tendril across his face manifested into a large lower jaw and the ones on his arms tuned into large claws. "It will soon."

With all her might Ariana spread her wings larger. As a test she fired on of her spikes, slightly larger than before and it was unable to strike him. Jumping she flew into the air.

He used his kagune wrapped arms to catapult himself upward at Ariana and went in for a swing. As quickness she could Ariana dodged it. Hoping for safety she went on top of the building.

Using the surroundings to his advantage, he tore up rubble to throw at her. Luckily for Ariana she was quickly able to dodge it. Looking around she found a brick and threw it at him before surrounding herself with her wings. The brick hit him in the jaw and he jumped up to slam down on her wings but was stopped, he looked at the two stab marks.

Nathaniel had climbed to the roof and used his tail to stab the ghoul

"Why you…" before he finished Nathaniel had grabbed his face and hit him against the building surface.

The ghoul summoned his rinkaku to attack Nathaniel but his

Tendrils caught the others. The two were locked where they stood, even Nathaniel found his ukaku busy with the man's kagune.

Ariana watched the scene intently. She looked down she could escape right now but that would leave Nathaniel alone. She couldn't do that to him. Creeping over she made it behind the ghoul without him noticing. Closing her eyes she took a bite out of him

He yelled out and tried to lunge at her but was still entangled in Nathaniel's kagune. "AURGH! You… augh! Nathaniel grabbed him by the jaw before he crushed the ghoul's mandible bone in his grip. "It's impolite to insult a lady, even more so when you interrupt her meal…"

Ariana swallowed the piece of ghoul meat in her mouth before saying. "Make another move and I'll bite you again!"

The man didn't respond to her request and kept struggling. "Argh ugh rgh…" he tried to speak but it was no use his jaw was splintered.

"I will." Ariana reinforced stumbling a bit. "I'm not afraid to. I'll only get stronger."

The man scoffed despite the broken jaw and rolled his eyes as he tried to reach out with his arm.

With quick movement Ariana dodged before biting him on the arm. Ripping out a piece she quickly ate it.

"I told you." She said angrily not letting go of his arm.

He grunted in pain but with his remaining strength he used his other arm to try to grab her back and claw at anything he could.

He grabbed him tighter. "And I'm not afraid to eat every bit of you until you nothing but some rags."

He wriggled a tendril free, but instead of stabbing her to stop her, he stabbed Nathaniel to free more tendrils. He hit Nathaniel in the stomach.

Nathaniel was forced back and was able to barely retain his grip.

"Too far." Ariana whispered before biting into his neck.

Blood sprayed everywhere as the man started to go limp, Ariana started to eat the man's corpse as she stuck to her word and ate him until he was just ribbons.

"Oh sorry should have asked if you wanted some." Ariana wiping her mouth.

Nathaniel shook his head and smiled, he hugged her close and licked her cheek of the blood. "I think you deserved all of it."

Just then Ariana felt a small tingling sensation from her back.

Something had been laid dormant for the moment...

2 days left…

AN: Anime: We hit 3k words I can't believe It! Seems like yesterday we were struggling for 2k. Wow have we come so far with this story. See you next chapter.