Chapter Twenty
Fingers
"Below your estate? Really?" Hajime snorted.
The Washuu mansion sprawled before them, behind a lush but overgrown garden. Inside the house, the blood had probably been scrubbed from the floorboards, but dust should stain the floors.
"It wasn't mine," Furuta mumbled. He would never have dreamed of living here.
Well, that wasn't precisely true. While a child, he dreamed that Tsuneyoshi would realize he really loved Mom, and would whisk them away to live above ground with Yoshitoki and Arima.
"There's a secret passage," Furuta said dully. He gestured for the kids to follow him.
Now all he dreamt about was Kannon not hating him. Was her loving him. Seeing beyond his evil. He felt as hopeless as he had as a child.
He didn't want to feel hurt by her betrayal, especially after her rescue, especially because she was having his child, but he still did. And yet he needed her to love him.
I'm the obstacle, aren't I?
"Shouldn't you be more excited about a secret passage?" Shio asked.
"I'm not talking about the passage we were brought out of whenever Tsuneyoshi deemed us fit toy soldiers," Furuta said. "V's probably stationed guards that way, idiot."
"He's not an idiot." Hajime defended Shio, who smiled at him.
Yusa and Rikai exchanged glances. So the rumors of Souta's treason were true.
Treason to the garden.
"Behind the guardhouse." Furuta brushed past the kids. He'd had a fondness for irony even as a child.
A fountain cackled before them, on and on as if the occupants hadn't been murdered months ago. Furuta bent down and jiggled a slab of marble.
"It's loose!" Sakura gasped.
"Whoa. Why weren't we friends?" Shio asked.
"Because you were an infant at the time." Furuta summoned a smirk he no longer felt.
"Here we go." Furuta heaved aside the slab. A slender, dift tunnel shaft slithered towards the mansionn.
He cleared his throat and spoke brightly. "Make sure not to cause a landslide and suffocate, my dears!"
"Hold on, Shinohara sir," Takizawa rasped. Kurona smiled sideways towards him.
Seeing a truly good man turned into a zombified ghoul was curiously comforting for Takizawa. He felt less ashamed.
Suzuya whimpered as Kurona turned her gaze back to him. "Even when you're facing the enemy, you have to kill ghouls, is that right?"
Suzuya's mouth opened and closed. His usual retorts for Miss Kuro weren't coming.
"I'll handle this one." Eto encapsulated Suzuya in her kagune. She didn't hate him. She almost pitied him, but open the floodgates of pity and she'd wreck herself, so she kept her mind blank.
As the kakuja close around him, Suzuya felt – he felt Big Madam, pinning him in her arms, squeezing himw itha ffection as she drove needles into his skin.
Suzuya released a bloodcurdling scream.
"Suzuya!" Keijin ducked the zombie he was fighting and pushed it into Urie's path. He hurtled towards Eto. Mikage and Mizurou scrambled forward.
"Let him go!"
Eto knew a flashback when she saw one. The Black Goat's Son – her scene where he awakens back inside the Goat's cell – sprang to her mind as she released the brat from her kagune. He collapsed onto the tiled floor, retching.
When Suzuya raised his eyes, Shinohara stared back at him. With recognition.
"Mr. Shinohara?" Suzuya held out a shaking hand.
Shinohara raised a hand and clumsily brushed his fingers against Suzuya's.
His eyes faded again, and he lunged towards Kuro.
"No!" Suzuya screamed. Takizawa blocked Shinohara, and Kuro blew him once more into the wall.
"He knew me." Suzuya shook. "He knew me, I know he did."
"That's impossible!" Keijin cried. "It's not reality!"
"It is," Kurona said tightly. "I saw it, too."
Suzuya gaped at her.
"I'm not doing this for you," she hissed, turning her gaze back to Takizawa. It mattered to her that he saw good in ghouls, too.
"It seems love can reach through death," Eto mused. She'd missed out on a lovely novel, hadn't she?
Kannon crouched behind a bush in the backyard. Their koy pond babbled behind her. When she was younger, she'd named each of their fish. They were long dead though.
There were too many V agents in her house. She wasn't a trained investigator or part ghoul. She was a weak human, with no chance to defeat them.
Touka! Kannon hesitated. She couldn't put another pregnant woman in danger.
What about him?
The fate of the ghoul-human balance mattered more than her family. So did the fate of the kids with him. Stopping Kanou's zombies mattered more than a handful of rich snobs.
But that couldn't mean her family didn't matter. She needed them. She needed to save them, however selfish it was.
Even if Mom and Dad spat on her for her unwed pregnancy, even if they turned her away again without a scond glance, she still wanted them alive. Because with life, there was a chance.
She pulled out her phone, only to hesitate again.
Was it okay to need him? To pull him away from atonement for the children he'd used? Especially when he probably needed space from her.
The backdoor door flung open, and Dad exited first, his face as cold and familiar as she remembered. His hands were on his head, his shoulders hunched forward in submission.
Souta could get space later, the kids could find their peace later, when she wasn't about to watch her family's executions.
Swallowing her pride, she sent Yusa a text. Tell Souta I need help.
"Thank you." Higemaru watched the Grave Robber choke Shirazu into unconsciousness. Someone had better come with Rc suppressants soon.
"I mean, we're the same, right?" Hakatori brushed a strand of dark blue hair out of her eyes.
"What are you saying?" Higemaru bent over, panting.
"Doing right by the wrong means. Same as you, defending your kind by slaughtering innocents. Or ghouls, trying to stay alive by murder. That's what life is, to an extent." Hakatori shrugged. "Plus, we both have bikakus."
Higamaru hesitated, but his face was the color of his hair.
Aura narrowed his eyes. In battle? Ghouls were shameless. And Higemaru was too, apparently.
"So Kanou did all this to advance ghoul research?" barked Marude.
"Apparently." Kimi Nishino sighed. "That's why we all joined him."
"Experimenting on humans!"
"At least I had the goal of reuniting our worlds. What goal did you have? Kill, kill, kill?" Kimi was defiant. "Let me finish, Investigator."
Matsuri nodded. He, at least, saw less reason to judge her than himself.
"Kanou had hoped to use Furuta and the Oggai to summon a giant kagune of pluripotent cells. Stem cells, to heal a thousand illnesses. Cells to restore broken lives. Cells to raise the dead. And he would do this with Kaneki Ken." Kimi swallowed. "Now, no kagune has appeared, but Kaneki remains in hiding, and Kanou has vanished."
"That doesn't sound like a coincidence." Touka Kirishima had invited herself into this conversation, and now fought the desire to wish she hadn't. Marude was not taking kindly to the invasion of ghouls he hadn't personally improved, even before Kimi revealed Kanou's grand plan.
"So do you think Kanou is after Kaneki?" Marude crossed his arms. CCG was incapacitated unless these zombies were subdued. Maybe the One-Eyed Queen could be useful after all, if she could contact her husband.
"Possibly."
"Not his mother's grave?"
Kimi scoffed. "Inspector. You can try to humanize him if you want, but I've never seen him mention his mother until you brought it up. Kanou is a sociopath, one I allied with, but a sociopath nonetheless. And a human. If you want a better world, you'll have to face that at some point."
Touka fired off a series of texts towards Kaneki and Shuu, but she had little hope they would see them. So she would do the only goodness within her grasp right now. "Kimi, Nishiki's in the building."
Kimi's face fell, even as her eyes widened with hope.
"If you forgave him his killings, he'll forgive you," Touka assured her.
"You're in love with a ghoul?" Matsuri was suddenly very invested in this scientist.
Marude scowled. Humans and ghouls. Friends, just like him and Yoshitoki had been. And during his longer days, he'd wished for more.
Now his fear wasn't that Yoshitoki's love was all a lie. Now he feared it was all true.
"Well, this is quite a sight." Nico smiled at the CCG from behind her mask. Sirens blared, ghouls and officers were helping direct humans away from the building, and flashing lights almost made the lot resemble a disco party.
"You! Ghouls? Are you here to help?" A scowling police officer approached them.
Morimine Kyouhei was nearing the end of his patience. Ghous. Undead. Ghouls fighting the undead. Because life made sense.
"More to watch," sang Roma, adjusting her mask.
The officer jerked his gaze away from Itori's revealing dress, clearly discomforted.
"Feeling too human?" Itori purred.
Morimine pointed towards CCG. Ugh, he hated saying this shit aloud. "The dead seem to have appeared in their basement. Supposedly."
"Excellent." Donato didn't move. CCG, the place that had stolen Amon. The place that made Amon hate him.
The Bible would say his sins had made Amon hate him, but Donato didn't like to read the Bible anymore.
Nico, however, glanced skywards. A scuffle to her right caught her attention. Two cloaked ghouls – and one cloaked human, if her sense of smell was accurate – dove forward.
"Look out!" Nico shoved Morimine aside and barely ducked in time to avod decapitation.
"Oh!" Itori fumed. She'd long imbibed Donato's lessons on forgiveness to avoid avenging the mother she never knew.
If you don't know her, what do you care?
"Who are these people?!" A CCG officer – the one with the fat eyebrows – swung a quinque to block the human agent's sword.
"They're called V and they're mad we're working together." Itori burst into laughter. She didn't care that they'd killed her mother; unlike Eto, Itori wasn't one for vengeance.
And yet, everyone thinks Eto is more moral than me. Hilarious.
But maybe she could have some fun while attracting this dashing officer. "Donato, maybe Akemi was right and we do need to help after all. Perhaps more chaos cam stem from our alliance."
In the dark, earthy tunnel, Shio was sweating, and Rikai only looked at the ground. Yusa nibbled his lip, and Furuta looked even deader inside.
Hajime, meanwhile, glowed with excitement as they reached a dead end. Furuta motioned for one of the Oggai to use their kagune.
Ichiro pierced the earth with his rinkaku. Stones, twigs, and soil crumbled to the floor of a small tent.
A woman – a curvaceous human – scrambled upright on her bed.
Furuta sprang forward to clap his hands over her mouth. "Don't scream, Hanae. Huh, so they put you here now."
"Souta," she gasped, her voice muffled by his hands.
"We've come to rescue you." Hajime crossed his arms and smirked.
"Who are they?" The woman – Hanae – frowned. A baby cried in a crib besides them.
Furuta released her so she could grab the brat, another soldier condemned to a short life. From the looks of it, it'd been born after Tsuneyoshi's death. It would never meet its father.
He wondered if it would blame him.
Its short life he couldn't change, but he could change its fate. It didn't have to be a tool anymore.
Hanae brushed a kiss on her baby's forehead, quieting its screams. In less than a year Kannon would have one of those – a tiny human. Furuta paled. What if his child inherited a short life-span too?
No, no, no – I can't do this! I'm not a hero! That's why he was a villain; to die quickly.
"V is guarding us," said Hanae softly.
Furuta blinked. Hanae had always seemed excited to breed with the Washuus. "You don't want to stay here."
"Of course not." Hanae clutched her baby. Shio tiptoed over to wave at it.
Her eyes were haunted, the look of someone whose dreams had been dashed against the wall. "You know what they'll do to my son."
Furuta stared at her, stunned.
"I'm sorry I was mean when you helped Rize." Hanae lowered her face.
"It's okay." Furuta wanted to collapse. Someone – someone finally realized he'd been right to save her.
He wondered what Hanae would say if she heard what he'd done to Rize since.
"We can take on V." Mayazumi tossed his hair.
Hanae was appalled. "I don't think you can."
"We have to try. For all of you," said Yusa.
"Hanae Souza, you and your kid won't be a slave anymore." Rikai finally summoned her courage to speak. She smiled at her half-sister.
"Souta?" Hanae managed, her voice thick.
"Yes?"
"When you killed the rest of us. Why did you spare the Garden?"
"I don't know." Furuta said. He was lying, and to his surprise, he actually felt guilty for it.
Because Mom would have been killed if she was here.
His hand slipped into his pocket, felt the rubber ducky Kannon had returned to him before she left.
Her eyes had shone with tears from what she'd wanted to say, but all she could manage was, "It means a lot to you, right?"
And he'd taken it without a word, shoving it in his pocket so he wouldn't have to look at it.
He ought to have said more. For all he knew, Kannon could be facing V herself.
No. The garden raid would distract them, and they'd leave the Satos alone.
He was, however, assuming the Satos were low on V's priorities, a mere tool of vengeance against him.
Hanae showed Rikai the cackling baby. "His name is Harue."
He snuggled against Kannon, relieved that she finally knew about his family. "What do your parents do?"
"They're businessfolk. My father owns a hospital, and Mom manages the finances." Kannon rolled over to face him. "She's fond of funneling research into premature aging." Kannon tugged on her grey hair. "Probably from this, I think."
"It's just hair though." Unlike him. She wasn't going to die in a few years.
"It stems from the same mechanism that affects all aging. I can't tell you more details, because I suck at science." Kannon shrugged and planted a kiss on Furuta's lips, aware he seemed troubled but certainly not suspecting his impending death.
Furuta doubled over. No, no, no. Dragon – he'd given Kanou the idea, but the Satos would know the people who could stop Dragon – if Kanou hadn't given up on Dragon –
Rescuing the Sunlit Garden was the least dangerous thing he could be doing.
He choked back a laugh. At least he'd fulfilled his promise to keep the kids safe.
But not his kid.
Fuck.
"Souta?" Hanae seemed alarmed.
"Hajime, Yusa," Furuta rasped.
"Huh?"
"There will be three agents by the main entrance, three more stationed at smaller entrances."
"Five by the entrance. They put more in today." Hanae eyed Furuta.
"Can you handle them, my Oggai?" Furuta backed towards the tunnel. Was he really going to Kaneki Ken and take on V himself?
No. He was just checking to make sure his baby was okay. He was trying to be a fucking father.
He'd left Kannon because of his pain. If she died, he'd never forgive himself.
"Of course!" Keiko laughed, a bit too loudly.
"Who's there?" A kid of no more than four tottered into the tent. Their eyes became saucers. "Oh."
"Hey, you!" Shio gave them a high five.
"'Sup," said Hajime, adopting his coolest posture.
"Squad Zero will take the front entrance. Oggai, take the rest. Protect the captives at all costs," Yusa ordered. Hope rushed through his veins. He felt like his relative, like Kishou Arima. Saving the world.
"Where are you going?" demanded Hajime.
Yusa's phone buzzed.
He met Furuta's eyes. So Souta already suspected, did he? "Hurry."
Furuta nodded and bolted back through the tunnels.
Maro bowed his head and shuffled into their backyard, behind his bewildered parents, his angry sister, and her distraught boyfriend.
His heart pounded as they exited the glass door. He half-expected to see Kannon's severed head on the grass – but no, there were only lush bushes and cherry blossoms trembling in the breeze. A bird twittered in the branches above.
Kannon, where did you go? Maro tried to reassure himself that she wouldn't abandon them.
Tweet, tweet.
"How annoying."
Kairo's kagune shot an Rc shard towards the bird. It fell, and Rio whined. "No hurt animals!"
"Oh, but hurt humans, eh?" Kairo poked Rio's nose.
He shrunk back against Akemi.
"They're kids, sir," Father said. He wasn't sure what to make of this boyfriend, but he didn't want him splattered across their backyard. "Let them go."
"Are they?" Kairo chuckled and slid his kagune into Rio's chest.
Rio squealed. Both eyes lit up – cornea black, iris red.
Mother gasped, and Rio cowered, clamping his hands over his eyes. "No!"
They hated him, hated him!
One of Kairo's bulging henchmen, the one with an unkempt mustache, pulled Rio away from the family. Already healing, Rio summoned the strength to reach back. He desperately grabbed for Akemi, to stay connected to family.
"Whoever would have guessed we'd find Shikorae here. Here I was expecting a different ghoul brat." Kairo shrugged. "Oh well."
"What do you want?" Father demanded.
"You may not realize it, Sato, but your denial of ghoul research has been most beneficial to our cause." Kairo smiled. "You've outstayed your use now."
"Leave Rio alone!" Akemi wailed, diving forward. Maro yanked her back before V's henchmen could intercept her.
"Nah."
"A ghoul?" Mother gaped at Akemi.
"It's not his fault for being born. Give him back!" screamed Akemi.
"Kemi," mumbled Rio, turning his lidless eyes upon her. She was crying.
This fuck-up really did care about Akemi. Father gulped.
"He's a monster out of his mind, that's what he is." Kairo brandished a knife. Killing ghouls with human weapons was most satisfying.
"Please don't hurt him," begged Mother, as Maro clapped his hands over Akemi's mouth to silence her screams.
"You work for Kanou. A doctor. You ought to treat him," spat Father.
"You're a father. Shouldn't there be three of your spawn?" Kairo laughed.
"Shut up!" Akemi raged around Maro's fingers.
"You know what might work better?" sneered Kairo. He threw Rio back against Mr. Mustache and snatched Akemi by her shoulders.
Maro's heart exploded. He lurched forward – and one of the henchman's fists collided with his nose.
Maro was momentarily certain he was blind by the sparks that flew in his vision, but no, it was clearing. Maro ground his teeth.
Don't let go, don't let go.
"No!" screamed Akemi as Mr. Bald drew a knife and before – just a moment before – Maro had had four fingers on his right hand. Now he just had a thumb.
Mother screamed, and Father said nothing – he couldn't.
"Agh!" Maro cursed his fear and dove forward again, trying to grab her back, because Akemi mattered more than a fingerless hand, but then Mr. Mustache's boot landed on his back and pinned him down.
"Put it back!" shrieked Akemi. "Reattach his fingers right now – then I'll do anything you want, I promise!"
"You're all going to die." Kairo raised the knife above Akemi.