Sean Morbsy moved through the smoke, eyes and ears straining as the sound of numerous boots grew louder. Growing up in the heart of London, one of the most anti-Ghoul areas in the whole of England, had been hard on him. But he'd learned to gauge how far a pair of booted feet were on only the sounds they made. So he knew that he and his allies had a few moments.
"Grab'm Harby," Sean ordered when they reached the barely human figure lying on the ground. "Be careful, he's a right mess!"
Something whistled by his ear, and he brought his rifle up, firing a burst towards where the knife had appeared from. Behind him, a scratching sound made Sean duck backwards, just as a large scythe slashed through the air above him.
"Shit!" Harby cursed as the blade of a Quinque appeared in the center of his chest. "Damn y-"
I told Command that we shouldn't have brought any normies with us!
Sean didn't hear Harby's last words, as another blade, wielded by a tall, white eyed man, removed his head from his shoulders. Body moving with years of muscle memory, Sean's hand went to the blade on his back, smoothly drawing it downwards. At a foot and a half, it was nearly a sword, but was long and thin, like a dagger. It had also been a blade handed down for generations through his family.
Shots tore through the smoke as McCoy let loose with his rifle. His shots were deflected by the Dove's Quinques, and the sound of McCoy dropping his weapon to retrieve the blade from his back seemed to put pause to the battle.
The young, black haired man carrying the scythe eyed Agent Lincoln's body hungrily.
"I'm going to turn him into an excellent Quinque!" He said gleefully, as his squad formed up around him.
"McCoy, we gotsta…" Morbsy began to say, not taking his eyes off the Doves.
"El-Tee, get moving." The short, stocky SAS trooper said. "I'll cover you."
Morbsy risked a look to the side at his fellow soldier, and seeing the sureness of his footing and face, Morbsy plucked Agent Lincolns body from the ground and bounded away.
"Multiple known Ghouls have been sighted with the main American offensive," The communications tech yelled as the Command Center seemed to explode into a hive of activity. Marude and Aura stood nearby, listening with pained expressions. "Mikasa and Hayato Squads have been wiped out!"
According to Marude's calculations, nearly two hundred of his fellow Investigators had been killed in just the last fifteen minutes. The situation was spiraling wildly out of control, as the Americans continued to ferociously attack, and their artillery bombarded the Japanese Army into submission. It was shaping up to be a massacre.
"Report from Cochlea!" A different comms tech said. The shocked look on his face drew Marude's attention. "They are under heavy assault! All outer defense teams have been destroyed!"
"What?" Marude said, before stepping closer, cursing himself. He'd been the one to pull the cream of Cochlea's defense teams into the Hellhound Extermination Mission. "What's going on? Is it the Americans?"
"Unknown, Special Class. Cochlea has been penetrated to the SS level, and," Marude watched as the screen in front of the tech went blank. "Cochlea has been completely lost!"
What in the hell is going on?
"The First Quinx Squad under First Class Urie are moving to engage the Centipede!" A third tech called out. "Second Quinx Squad under Special Class Durbonovic is moving to engage Hellhound!"
"Fire on those fookin' Doves!"
Morbsy through himself and Agent Lincoln to the ground as the rest of his men and the Americans opened fire towards the squad of Doves. Their targets dodged out of the way and disappeared, leaving the headless body of McCoy on the pavement. The Japanese girl who had been with Agent Lincoln let out a pained noise, going to her knees beside the charred body.
"Where's the detonator?" His second in command, Sergeant Jones, asked, taking his knee beside Morbsy. "We gotta drop that building now. Word is the Japs and Doves are counterattacking finally."
In the distance, a beam of light erupted into the sky accompanied by a horrendous bellowing, and both of the remaining escort helicopters ceased to exist. Morbsy's eyes widened in horror, as both that sight and Jones statement struck him with palpable weight. Where was the detonator?
His eyes flashed down to the Agent's hands, but they were a charred mess. Using a gloved hand, he pried them apart, the crackling of burnt skin sending waves of revulsion through Morbsy. As he was prying them apart, a drop of blood from a wound on his forehead fell onto the flesh. He nearly let go of the hand when it spasmed, the blood being sucked into the black, cracked skin.
"Shit!" Jones said, having seen the reaction. The Japanese girl had seen it too, and with grim determination stood, and, drawing a knife from one of her uniforms pockets, sliced open her right arm from wrist to elbow, blood and small chunks of flesh flowing down onto the body.
Morbsy leapt backwards, as did Jones and all of the other soldiers around, though the Japanese girl held firm, as the Agent's body seemed to erupt into a massive seizure. Kagune with mouths and… teeth, burst from across the Agent's body, catching the blood and meat.
"Behind you!"
Morbsy barely had time to dodge as an ukaku shard buried itself into the side of the Humvee behind him. Doves and soldiers streamed out from the buildings to either side of them, and Morbsy felt pride as his men, the men he'd bled and fought with, went about their business and got to killing.
Hinami felt her heart racing as the blood streamed from her arm onto Ace's body. She'd nearly devolved into a weeping mess when she'd first seen what had become of him, even more broken than when Roma had gotten to him, but seeing how Ace had reacted to that soldiers blood…
I've never seen anyone react so violently during feeding. She thought, seeing the strange little kagune mouths appear. Is this because he's a kakuja? Or is it something else?
"Hi…na…mi…" Ace's eyes opened as the skin across his body began to heal itself. His kakugan were strange, his pupils seeming roughly formed and… they were glowing. "Run."
She didn't know what drove her legs, but she found herself running. Soldiers and Doves were fighting with the SAS, who were being pushed steadily backwards. The tanks and vehicles were rumbling backwards, gunners and cannon firing steadily at targets out of sight.
Stopping and turning, she caught sight of Ace shakily standing, a mangled hole still through one side of his chest. The fighting had moved past him, but a Dove who had been late to the game leapt towards him, clearly hoping to finish the most dangerous threat on the field. Hinami was too far away to do anything except watch as that black blade flashed towards Ace's neck.
The dark haired Dove seemed to disappear in a shower of meat and blood, as Ace's rinkaku lacerated him in a hundred places and tore him to pieces. Even from this distance she could see that there was a ferocious head, almost like a snarling wolf, at the end of each rinkaku tentacle. It was grotesque, but she could see that as those rinkaku feasted on the Dove, the hole in Ace's chest healed with unnerving speed.
Hinami was forced to defend herself as a female Dove attacked, koukaku and rinkaku working in concert as she'd learned during her time with Aogiri Tree.
What… What is this?
Ace. No, he wasn't Ace now. This was something else, something had awakened within him. He was the Hellhound. It was surreal, almost as if Ace was watching his own body from outside itself. His mind seemed to be split.
A minor pain in his abdomen brought his attention back to the real world. A young man, likely around the same age, had buried a long, thin Quinque blade through his chest.
"It's the end, Hellhound." The man said, triumph written across his face as he drew the blade downwards, cleanly slicing Hellhound from shoulder to hip.
Hellhound let out a bellow of laughter as his body healed itself, kagune pulling it back together almost as fast as it was pulled apart.
"I am the end." Ace heard himself snarl, before a massive rinkaku tentacle formed itself into the grotesque head of a wolf. It was horrific looking, almost malformed, with a pair of staring red eyes. It struck with blinding speed, leaving the Dove's legs standing alone like a pair of traffic cones. With a monstrous noise, the wolf's head swallowed the body and Quinque together, and then spiraled protectively around Ace's body.
"Mizurou! Hanbee! Motherfucker!" Ace watched as a dark haired, thin faced Dove carrying a scythe appeared from the smoke. Seeing the mangle remains at Ace's feet, he let out an inarticulate sound of rage and attacked, two other Doves with him following with their own bellows of anger. Ace didn't move a muscle, except for his right thumb.
He clicked the detonator, and suddenly he was surrounded by smoke, flames and dust.
"How could you, Sassan? Ginshi died, and now you betray us!"
Ken looked dispassionately at the Quinx Squad, and Saiko in particular, from amid the debris of the building the Senior American agent had just destroyed. The American soldiers and Agent had retreated already, the other Ghoul having given him a strange look when he'd said he was hanging around for a few moments. Shuu had ignored his request to return with the American, instead remaining nearby.
The Quinx had arrived not long after, with several new members. But Kuki, Saiko and Tooru were there, and looked at him with horror. Ken knew that he was an atrocious sight right now, covered in blood and with his kakuja armor streaming out behind him like a pair of tails.
"I'm not Sassan, anymore, Saiko," Ken said, his single kakugan glaring at them. "I'm Ken Kaneki."
"You're a traitor is what you are, Ghoul!" Kuki screamed, his kagune appearing. He had grown stronger since last Ken had seen him, and he attacked with a ferocity that made Ken take a step back…
…So he could drive the Quinx face first into the ground with one of his kakuja tails, feeling bone crunch against concrete.
"I am also not one to be trifled with, First Class Kuki Urie." Ken said, letting no emotion color his voice. "Do not become my enemy, for what I shall build will not tolerate interference."
With a final look towards his former comrades, he darted away into the darkness.
"Hinami…"
Ace looked down at the unmoving woman, as her body attempted to heal the horrific gash across her chest. The Quinx who had inflicted the wound lay beside her, head several feet away from the body. Hinami's eyes fluttered open, and she looked up at him.
Hundreds of bodies lay around them, a mix of SAS, US soldier, Dove and Japanese soldier. They covered the asphalt like a field of grotesque flowers, with a few moving and groaning periodically. He had been forced to watch as his body had swallowed a few of the injured whole, but when he'd seen Hinami, the other presence had disappeared.
"Can… Can we go home?" She asked weakly. Ace reached down and picked her up, gingerly cradling her head in one hand.
"Of course, Hina."
Holding her tightly, he marched down the street, stepping carefully over any bodies. A Humvee roared down the road, skidding to a stop. That British SAS officer was at the wheel, missing one of his ears and with a vicious slash across his face. Another wounded SAS trooper manned the vehicles gun.
"Get in!"
A scent reached Ace's nose, pungent and sweet at the same time. Someone had been drinking bloodwine, a gratuitous amount of it.
"Don't worry about me, I'm hungry," Ace lied, having had his fill of man-flesh, "Get her back to the base, please."
Morbsy nodded, throwing the truck into gear and squealing off into the darkness. Ace turned and headed towards where the stench was strongest. Halfway there, a whisper from above caused him to dodge aside.
"Getting a little paranoid, aren't we?" Itori said from her perch on a building stanchion. "I only came to talk."
"I figured you'd be here. Bitch." Ace said coldly, sending a flurry of rinkaku towards her. "This game that you're playing ends here."
She rolled from her perch and fell the twenty or so feet to the ground, landing lightly on her feet. His rinkaku tore a chunk of concrete from her perch and sent it raining down on her. But she didn't flinch or cower, and he noted that she wore a skintight outfit, like the battlesuits that Agent's usually wore. And around her neck was a Clown mask with pointed teeth and jagged chin.
"I know it was you and Uta that shot down that plane," Ace said angrily, "And I know that you're both Clowns, Ken mentioned it to me. And you wanna know something funny," Itori gave him a sly look, as if she were a child caught with her hand in the cookie jar who truly didn't care about the consequences. "I hate fucking Clowns."
"You know, Arima just arrived back from wherever he was," Itori said, giving him a sultry look, "Apparently he was testing out a new weapon."
Ace struck, the evil looking wolf's head kagune forming. Itori darted to the side, her own kagune being used as extra limbs to enhance her mobility.
She's like Ken. Faster than I am. Ace cursed himself, even as the wolf's head buried itself into the concrete. Itori let out a giggle as she somersaulted away from the recovered head.
"It's funny, you fight like your father. But you can't break what you can't hit!"
Her statement brought him to a grinding halt.
"What do you know about my father?" Ace asked, winding the wolf's head protectively around himself. Itori wiped some dirt off her outfit, before provocatively unzipping the top of her outfit. Ace snarled at her. "What do you know?!"
"I know that he tried to escape through the sewers." She said, "And that we Clowns stopped him from escaping."
Another figure appeared beside her.
"Your father was an unfortunate victim of circumstance," Uta said, his black eyes looking like a sharks. "We wanted him dead, and the CCG wanted him alive."
"We compromised." He finished mysteriously. "And left him, bloody and beaten, for the CCG to pick up."
Ace shook with anger.
No. Don't let them rile you up. That's what they want. Ace beat down the flood of anger that caused his face to flush. We've got too much to do to worry about them.
"I… I'm done with you." Ace said, face solemn as he finally got a handle on his anger. "Tonight has been far, far too long to deal with you rabble."
Ace began to walk away, leaving the pair to look at his back.
"But… I will kill you both the next time I see you." Ace said without turning back around.
"If you see us again. With so much royalty in one area," Itori snarked, "It may be hard to survive. Unless you join us."
Ace stop and turned his head to look into Itori's eyes. Then he brought a hand up and gave her a single fingered salute, before continuing back towards the base.
Wearing a torn uniform and covered in blood, Ace walked back to the base. The soldiers manning the defensive line had shouted at him to give them the password, and apparently 'fuck you' was the correct one, because they'd let him past without another word. After hearing from Lieutenant Morbsy that Hinami was being taken to the infirmary, little good that it would do her since she was a Ghoul, Ace began to make his way deeper into the base. Halfway to the command center, an open topped jeep pulled up next to him, with Senior Agent Tomlinson in it.
"Get in. The decoy force was mangled pretty badly, and some of them are encircled. That bastard Arima showed up and cut about fifty men and your Ghoul friends."
Ace nodded and got in. The driver gunned the motor, and Ace began to get sideways glances from the soldier manning the pintle-mounted machine gun.
"We've got a relief force mobilizing up ahead. I want you to lead it."
"Why?" Ace asked, knowing that his tone bordered on insubordination, even though he left out the implied 'Why not lead it yourself'.
"The Doves are sneaking men in through the sewer system. I'm leading a team to stop them."
Ace just sat there in silence until the jeep braked hard by a group of loudly idling tanks.
"Get our folks out of there."
Finding the commander of the relief force wasn't hard, as it was Colonel Flynn, the man who'd called Senior Agent Tomlinson a monster. He and four other high ranking Army officers were looking at a small, ragged map showing the local streets.
"First Platoon can setup a blocking position here," Flynn pointed, "Everyone else guns for the main force of Doves and Japs."
Ace cleared his throat, still mostly cloaked in shadow.
"Whatdyou want, Ghoul?" Flynn said, apparently recognizing him. Ace stepped into the light from the tanks headlights, revealing his blood covered form and ragged and torn clothing.
"I want Arima, motherfucker."
Ten minutes went by before the first vehicle rolled forward. According to reports from the encircled men, they were holed up in a warehouse, surrounded by, according to them, several hundred Doves. Ace stood atop the turret of Flynn's tank, tapping his foot impatiently. Flynn had been unwilling to provide Ace his own vehicle, especially when Ace had explained what he was planning.
Ken appeared beside him a moment later, climbing up onto the turret to stand beside him. Another figure appeared on the other side, and Ace's lip twitched when he saw Eto climbing aboard.
"What are you doing?" He asked sharply, kakugan appearing. It took him a moment of confusion to recognize that he'd spoken in English. Repeating his question in Japanese, Eto smiled slyly.
"I'm not going to leave my own self-preservation up to that stupid barely-a-Ghoul that you left in charge of me. And anyways, if Arima is involved, I need to be involved."
Ace didn't feel like arguing, so he shrugged and looked at Ken.
"Do you think the three of us can face him?"
"Not really. But we might as well try."
Flynn's helmeted head appeared out of the tanks command cupola, he took a long look at both of the newly arrived One-Eyed Ghouls and then turned forward to man the machine gun. A dozen helicopters and several jump jets hovered nearby, the sound of their engines redoubling when Flynn made a lassoing motion with his hands and spoke his command into the helmet mic. The tank accelerated underneath him, its engine making a high pitched whine as it moved the heavy vehicle forward. The sound of twelve of them accelerating was deafening. They skidded around the corner, and the pitch black street immediately lit up with gunfire, tracers crisscrossing back and forth.
"Well, I'm not waiting here." Eto said, and leapt from the turret, running forward at great speed. Ken and Ace followed her, ducking and diving through the storm of bullets and rockets. A line of Doves, lower ranking ones armed with submachine guns backed up by Japanese army tanks and soldiers, materialized as they grew nearer, leaping from building to building. The three Ghouls bounded over the line of soldiers, kagune reaping a horrible harvest, moments before the American tanks thundered down upon them, their main guns having already destroyed their Japanese foes.
Ahead, near the warehouse, a battle was already raging, with the defending American's and Ghouls being under merciless attack. Two figures were at the main doors, fighting a lone man with snow-white hair. And losing, badly.
A massive Quinque bolt, glowing orange, planted itself in Ace's chest and exploded, and other Quinque weapons brought Eto and Ken down. The three dropped into the street, their bodies healing with the extraordinary quickness of kakuja.
Eto was the first to activate her kakuja, as dozens of Quinque armed Doves appeared, but Ace and Ken quickly followed.
"Oh, my god."
Marude had moved his command post further forward, and was only a few hundred meters away from the three Ghouls that had just appeared.
"Marude, what's happening?" Yoshitoki Washuu asked through his small wireless earbud, sitting miles away in the main command post trying to salvage what he could from the situation in and around Cochlea. "Report!"
"The Hellhound, the One-Eyed Owl and the Centipede have appeared." Marude replied quietly, before pulling the earbud out and grabbing his own Quinque case. Aura stood nearby, still heavily wounded but carrying her own attaché case. "What do you think…?"
"I'm going to provide covering fire, don't argue." She said, cutting him off. "I have business with the three of them anyways."
He shrugged in response. Pulling the mic in front of him around, he gave his final order.
"All Associate and Special class Investigators will engage the Owl, Hellhound and Centipede. All other units fall back on Special Class Arima."
Heading out into the strangely humid night, he felt himself starting to perspire even before he naturally should have.
This is insane. Three SSS+ Ghouls in one place, and cooperating? Why, why why?!
Marude pulled his Quinque from its box, revealing the long, saber-like form of the Nobora 1/1. Seeing a horrifyingly familiar shape leaping overhead, he flicked his wrist upwards, and the saber split into a wide shield, deflecting the barrage of shards from the One-Eyed Owl as it leapt overhead. Of the dozens Investigators he had been standing among, only he, Aura, and two others had made it through. The others had become human pincushions, many still moaning.
Centipede and Hellhound weren't moving with the speed that the Owl did, but they were killing just as many good Investigators. A Russian colleague of Marude, Vlad Dubovsky, was batted aside by one of Centipedes eponymous tails, and skidded to a halt near Marude.
"Marude, what in the hell should we do?" He said in fluent Japanese. "These bastards are-"
A massive set of jaws sank themselves around Vlad's entire torso, tearing away with a sound that made Marude want to vomit. The other man took two steps, and then lifeless corpse folded over itself. Something hit Marude hard in the chest, and he looked into the face of Associate Special Class Haise Sasaki. He drove his fist into Marude's stomach, sending him flying several feet backwards.
Coughing up some blood, he watched in horror as Aura and the two still living Investigators attacked Sasaki and were handily defeated. Taking his chance, Marude buried his Quinque in Sasaki's chest up to the hilt. The Ghoul didn't even flinch, and Marude felt something slide into his pocket and deposit something.
"Important Information." Haise whispered, before his kagune pierced Marude through the side of his chest.
Ace killed another Dove with a slash, finally breaking through the horde to where Arima was fighting Eto. They moved like lightning, coming together momentarily in streaks of sparks. Touka and Irimi were lying on the ground near the entrance of the warehouse, with Renji standing over them fighting a trio of Doves. Ace moved to join him.
His rinkaku slid through ones chest, before the two meter long koukaku lance on his right arm decapitated the other. Renji, taking advantage of the third Dove's momentary distraction, pulled the man's head off with his bare hands.
"Get inside." Ace growled to Renji through his kakuja, turning towards the fight between Arima and Eto. Suddenly, Ken joined the battle, seeming to catch Arima off guard momentarily. The older man seemed to stumble as Ken kicked him in the side, but recovered with unnerving quickness and slice Ken's legs off at the knee.
Ace joined the fray, dozens of rinkaku joining the wolf's head in his attack, even as he leapt forward, lance aiming directly for Arima's heart. Fear took hold when Arima caught the kakuja driven lance thrust with his right hand. It drove him back several feet, but he simply leaned into the strike and took it. A massive amount of heat was produce, and Ace watched as the right sleeve of Arima's tunic seemed to burn away, revealing a silver armor that covered him from the tip of his fingers to his shoulder. Tendrils ran across his chest as far as Ace could see, and down towards his waist as well.
That's… That's… Ace felt his throat constrict. He thought of what Itori had said about Arima returning from testing out a new weapon. Dad.
The battle seemed to pause for a moment, as hundreds of eyes widened in awe and surprise.
"This looks familiar, doesn't it, Hellhound?" Arima said quietly, holding the offending arm up when Ace stepped back. "This is what you get for kill so many of those I cared about."
Kill. Rip. DESTROY!
He felt his mind shatter in that moment, as any hope of seeing his Father again were destroyed. The Hellhound personality returned, but it was part of him now, fueling his anger.
"MOTHERFUCKER!"
Arima batted his next strike away, before using a blast from his IXA Quinque to destroy all of Ace's rinkaku. Eto attacked from the other direction, but Arima, with a smooth movement flipped IXA's grip around and fired through his armpit. Taking it full in the chest of her kakuja, he watched as Eto's massive form seemed to shrivel into nothingness, and her body appeared from within, a massive hole in her chest. She looked vaguely surprised, but still wore a slight smile.
The surrounding Investigators pulled back as Arima's blast had caught a dozen of them in the backblast, and the attacking American's took advantage of this as they slammed into them with the dozens tanks and other vehicles leading a charge of infantry. It was pure chaos.
Another pair of arms appeared from Ace's kakuja, and his eyes began to glow ominously. Arima aimed IXA at him, firing another blast. All four of his arms formed shields, holding them together to protect his body. Crackling bolts of lightning arced all around him, burning into the asphalt and lighting the warehouse behind them on fire. Shields disappearing, and returning to their clawed form, Ace leapt to attack, finding Arima had already made his own attack. Another Quinque had materialized in his hand, and a massive Quinque appeared in his hand, slicing towards Ace.
A few moments passed, and Ace found himself lying without limbs, his kakuja destroyed. His lips were dry, and his wounds refused to heal. Arima had a large set of wounds on his chest that had destroyed the rest of his tunic, revealing that Dad's Quinque covered his arms and legs as well. The one over his right arm was cracked, and the left had several large dents in it, courtesy of Ace. But it had all been for naught. He had still lost. And now his Father would go unavenged.
"You know, Hellhound," Arima said quietly, "I wish I had time to spend finishing you off. But, the true challenger has finally arrived."
"Arima." Ken Kaneki, healed of his wounds, said, stepping in between Ace and Arima. "I will claim my crown, now."
"I thought you would." Arima replied, "There can be only one One-Eyed King. Eto explained that, correct?"
Ace watched in confusion as Ken nodded.
"To the death, then?" The older Dove asked, before moving with inhuman speed to attack. The world began to fade as Ken moved just as quickly, his kagune striking like lightning. Just as with Eto and Arima, the battle with Ken and Arima generated massive showers of sparks. It was simply amazing how fast the two of them moved, how quickly they parried and countered.
It ended as quickly as it started, though the two minutes of battle had seemed like an eternity to Ace. Arima impaled Ken with his right arm, while Ken had sliced open the Dove's chest. Another pause took hold over the battlefield, as the Doves watched their strongest collapse to the ground.
The world spun suddenly, and Ace felt a nausea he'd never felt before as the darkness finally took him.
"…will help you when you call for them. Did you give Marude the information from Eto?"
Ken nodded as his mentor lay on the ground, looking up at him with a single eye, the other clouded and unseeing.
"The Hellhound is the single largest thorn in our sides, the wildcard," Arima said, almost whispering, "He shall either be your greatest enemy or your greatest ally."
"Eto thought the latter." Ken said, going to his knees beside Arima. During the battle, his hair had gone completely white again as he struggled mentally with what was going on, and so when he looked at Arima, he saw so much of himself, so much of what he had become.
Part of me hates you. And part of me loves you as a father.
"And I think the former. Do what you will, but beware of the other Kings…"
The Reaper of the CCG relaxed suddenly, finally giving in to the massive wounds across his body.