It was, at least academically speaking, interesting, Six supposed.

Nothing could permanently harm Kaneki physically - even Haki-inflicted injuries, according to his own accounts, simply took longer to heal.

Mentally? It seemed that words would suffice, especially ones such as those the Justicar had spoken.

Six had done his research on the Red Dog, and failed to see why comparison had harmed Kaneki to such a degree as had already become apparent - in public, with Marines watching, he remained the same, but private appearances with nobody save the Oni, Six, or C around it was different, morose silences and eyes darting from place to place as if he expected to be attacked any second. And...worse.

It did not make sense. Comparison to the Red Dog should not have been injurious, especially because it was not accurate.

Kaneki was the Dragon, full of wrath, yes, but it was...directed. And wrath was not the sole deciding factor in him - if anything, it was the least of him, a response that drew from the greater aegis of protecting the hoard. His existence upheld a Law: that which I claim is mine, and none shall steal from me what is mine.

The Red Dog, by contrast, upheld no Laws. Much like most of the Marines, his purpose was empty, following orders from above without question, doing nothing to assert himself in the world and mold it as someone should. It was just...acquiescence, repeating the tired commands and 'rules' of others as if they were Laws, without question. Wrath and brutality and ruin, decades of it, but none of it with purpose to it, just upholding the tired illusions of others.

And yet…

And yet, when the Justicar had compared them, it had struck deep. Or perhaps merely been the stone that started an avalanche. Six did not have the expertise in psychological phenomena to unravel what was going on in Kaneki's mind, nor did the Bosun.

But Six knew who did.

He didn't much like the Center - it was too white, internally and externally, too bright for its purpose, buzzing fluorescent lights and scurrying researchers, but it was where the Captain could be found, and so Six went.

The Captain was busy, talking energetically with a weasely-looking man in a lab coat, but that didn't matter - even the Captain couldn't remain busy forever. Six leaned his back against the nearest wall, and waited, catching half-heard snatches of the conversation.

"-aquifers already seeded. Probably Revolutionary-"

"-purpose? It's doubtful, looks more like intended to tie down-"

"-medicines keep it in remission, but curing it is proving-"

"-fifty years-"

"-speak for what might happen, but maybe with-"

"-I don't believe that I-"

"-lethal as symptoms progress, invariably-"

"-have to deal with-"

"Heya, Six. How long you been standing there?"

Six blinked, and broke eye contact with the Captain to check his watch (something he had purchased with his own pay yesterday). "Two hours," he answered truthfully.

The Captain frowned. "I hope I didn't make you ignore something important just to talk to me," he said.

"The talking is the important thing." Six paused, and looked at the weasely man. "Can we speak privately?" he asked the Captain.

The Captain nodded, and motioned for Six to follow him as he led them out of the room with the weasely man and deeper into the Center, locating an abandoned room with ease - it appeared to be some form of auditorium, perhaps meant for large lectures or presentations.

"What is it that needs talking about, Six?" Vinci asked.

"Kaneki," Six answered simply. "I am...increasingly worried. Something is clearly wrong with him, and it is getting worse. But I do not understand what. You might."

"I've noticed," Vinci said calmly. "I was planning to bring it up with him...but what have you, personally, noticed?"

Six paused, thinking over every moment he'd spent with Kaneki over the past couple of days. "He is becoming...increasingly agitated, for one. Even sparring does little to relieve it. He stares into distances, he is easily startled, and I believe I saw him trying to speak to someone that was not present. And he has not slept since the Justicar spoke to him. I am uncertain, but I believe he may have begun suffering visual and auditory hallucinations. I heard him tell someone who was not present to 'shut up', at least once."

Vinci nodded. "Anything else?"

"No, but C might know more. He has a greater tolerance for cold than I do, and accompanies Kaneki more often."

"I see. Thank you, Six, for letting me know about this. It appears I underestimated just how badly Smoker's words could affect Kaneki. Or overestimated his mental stability." He sighed. "It appears I will have to have a talk with him."

Kaneki, Vinci had come to realize, got fidgety and flighty when he was dealing with...well, anything really, but specifically problems he couldn't simply murder away. And while usually those problems tended to get resolved, and Kaneki returned to normalcy, that hadn't been happening the past couple of days. If anything, Kaneki had gotten jumpier, almost to the point of instability. Actually, definitely to the point of instability, the whole reason Vinci had dragged him onto this rowboat and off the island entirely was because he'd responded to being tapped on the shoulder by drop-kicking the unfortunate Wolf through two walls. The Wolf had been fine, but between Jack's complaints about paying for damages and the fact that Six had come to him with concerns about Kaneki's mental health beforehand, Something Had To Be Done, and thus it fell to Vinci to figure out what was eating at his first mate.

He pulled the rowboat's oars through yet another stroke, keeping an eye on where Kaneki sat on the other end of the small skiff, huddled in on himself. The ghoul had managed to keep up pretenses in front of the Marines thus far, but out here, with nobody to see save Vinci? He was a wreck.

It beggared belief. Smoker had not even said anything that Kaneki (or Kaneki as Vinci saw) would have been predisposed to take seriously. But there were other factors at play. An entire lifetime's worth of memories, if what Kaneki had said was true, and that could have changed things, opened new vulnerabilities. Certainly what the Oni had told him of Kaneki's confrontation with Smoker spoke of a sudden loss of control, beyond anything Vinci had seen before.

Possibilities spun in Vinci's mind as he rowed, theories formed and discarded in an instant as he watched Kaneki carefully. The big man remained seated, arms wrapped around his knees and lips moving silently.

Not real, not real, stay away, stay away.

"What isn't real?" Vinci asked, and Kaneki startled.

"Uh...nothing, Captain, it's just-"

"Kaneki," Vinci said flatly. "Answer."

Kaneki swallowed. "You...you're going to think I'm crazy."

"That would be immensely hypocritical of me."

Kaneki's breath hisses through clenched teeth, and he scrubs his hands through his hair. "Static," he says finally. "Started as that. Bits of motion, corners of my eyes. From the moment I woke up after...finishing off Killer."

"Smoker…"

"Nothing to do with it. Well, no. A little. Set them to work, maybe, gave them an opening, I don't know. What I'm seeing, what I'm hearing...swear that it's Killer, just, standing there, waiting. Getting closer. And what I'm hearing…"

"Well?"

"Was the dragon, at first. I told you about him, right?"

Vinci nodded.

"He's getting louder. Pushing more and more. And half the damn time, can't tell if it's him or Killer talking. And…"

"And?" Vinci asked, continuing to row. They were almost there, now.

"And the more he pushes, more static there is, more I can feel things crawling under my skin. Wanting to be let out. I get angrier, too, and the worse the anger gets the more the scales move and then I get angrier and it hurts and I can't-"

"Kaneki," Vinci said quietly, as the keel of their rowboat grinds on sand. "We're here."

Kaneki's head snapped up, eyes already red - not black, the bloodshot veins filling out the black sclerare entirely - as he looked at the island.

"This," Vinci explained, stepping onto the barren beach, "is Shithole. Too small for a proper magnetic field. Nothing grows here, it's a little spot of barren rock and dirt with little to show for it. Used to be a popular spot to maroon someone, back in the day." He looked out across the island, the barren stretches of broken rock and boulders, a few pillars and crags reaching up into the sky. "I'm sorry," he said. "I should have figured out you wouldn't divulge that kind of stuff unless I asked."

"Would've," Kaneki muttered, standing up and removing his coat. "What now? Gonna stick me here?"

"Hardly. It would be a waste."

"So what's the plan, Captain?"

"I need you to stop holding back," Vinci answered.

Kaneki's expression turned stony. "No. No way. Ain't happening."

"Is," Vinci insisted.

"Last time I let the scaly bastard out to play, he nearly killed C, would've killed everyone he got his hands on, and you want me to let him out right in front of you?!" Kaneki made an X with his arms, shaking his head. "No, Captain. Not going to do it. Make it an order if you like, I'm not going to."

Vinci sighed, and lit a cigarette. "Your error," he said calmly, "is assuming that there is a difference between you and the dragon, between the two of you and Killer."

"I cut the bastard away from me for a reason, Captain, and I don't want him back. I'll work with him, I'll listen, but I won't let him get control. He's hate and malice and the worst possible parts of me, and I can't let him out."

Reason had clearly failed, then. Vinci tsked. "And what if 'he' just drives you mad, and takes control anyway?"

"I'll take that chance," Kaneki growled.

Vinci shrugged, and put one hand in a pocket of his lab coat. "There's nothing I can say, then?"

"Are you nuts, no there's nothing you-"

Vinci stepped out, reality shattering around him and then reforming as he landed behind Kaneki, hand lashing out. The syringe slammed past the steel-hard skin of Kaneki's neck, and sent its payload home. Vinci leapt back to avoid Kaneki's retaliatory swing, the ghoul snarling at him.

"The fuck did you do, Vinci."

Vinci cocked his head. "Life or death. If that won't make you accept what you are...well, nothing will. And that lack of acceptance is what's slowly killing you. So. Life or death, Kaneki. That C-Cell suppressant can be overridden, but there's only one way, and I think you already know what that is."

"No," Kaneki said quietly, eyes going distant. "No, no, no no no…"

"The choice is yours," Vinci said, regretting the necessity of this but knowing he needed to do it all the same. "You can accept, or you can die at my hand. The latter's a mercy, if you insist on continuing as you are you'll go berserk somewhere populated, and I know you don't want that. The former...we'll see. So. You going to make this easy?"

Kaneki laughed, harsh and hateful, and the fact that he had all the reason to do it nearly made Vinci's heart break, but this needed to be done.

"Fuck you, Vinci," he said, black tears gathering in the corners of his eyes. "I refuse."

"So that's how it is," Vinci said, keeping his voice empty. He swung.

The thought 'he's fucking with me, he wouldn't dare' vanishes the moment the scythe nearly connects with my neck.

The thought 'I can handle this, even without tendrils or wings' leaves minutes later.

The thought 'I might just survive' follows it.

I duck and roll, barely avoiding another flying slash that rips the rock around me to pieces. I'm aching and torn, right arm hanging useless after a scalpel cut some tendons that I can't heal, but I'm still moving, I just need to outlast -

-LISTEN -

-static rips into my vision again, thicker than ever, and I scream, shoving the dragon back away as I leap away from Vinci's swinging scythe.

Can't let him out. He'd destroy everything. Death or him free, I choose death.

-FOOL-

"SHUT UP!" I scream back at it, mistiming another dodge and paying for it as a flying scalpel clips my ribs, the jolt of pain making me stumble. "Shut up, shut up shut UP!"

It'd gotten so bad so quickly, how had it done that? There should've been an understanding, a bargain, a -

Lightning.

I fall, muscles twitching spastically, and taste blood as my nose breaks on the rocks. It hurts. Everything hurts. Static and blurs of illusory motion fill my vision, and the dragon's voice is everywhere, sounding louder with every heartbeat. But I drag my head up, hands and knees. Need to keep moving, to keep…

"Kaneki," Vinci says, so calm, and for a moment I hate the very expression on his face. "You think I enjoy this? I don't. I can't. It hurts to do something like this, but..."

I spit out a mouthful of blood. "Me or the crew. Captain."

-MAKE US WHOLE-

"I don't understand it," Vinci says, voice so soft. "Why stop here?"

"What?"

"You cut him away, I can understand. You made a bargain, for power, I can understand. I can't understand why it stops here. Why you refuse to accept." He pauses, and his form moves closer in my blurring vision. "I've looked at you. At everyone, in the crew. There's never been more than one thing inside you, not before you put down Killer, and not after. I don't understand why you hold onto this lie, when it's killing you, Kaneki."

"It isn't a lie."

"It is. Six doesn't call you Dragon for your taste in masks."

"Part of me. Not the whole thing. Never."

"Do you think letting him in will change that? You say he's rage, hate, and malice. So what? Even if you let that part in, does that outweigh the rest of you?"

-MAKE-

"It's enough to tip the scales," I growl.

-US-

"To make you what?"

-WHOLE-

"Akainu," I rasp, pushing myself back to my feet, ignoring dizziness. "Let him leak through too much, and I already sound like the bastard. Let him join, and what's to keep me from being as bad?"

Vinci pauses for a moment.

And then he laughs.

"You think that's fucking funny?" I growl.

"Think it's hilarious you think you could hope to be nearly as bad as the Red Dog," Vinci says. "I know you, Kaneki. And you've got something Akainu won't ever have."

"What?"

"People you give a shit about. Oh, you and him, you're both zealots, I'll give your fears that much, but he doesn't have a damn thing he won't discard. His only principles are that the Marines can do whatever they please, because they're just, and he'd turn on his oldest allies in an instant if they crossed his lines. You, Kaneki, you hold on to people. You trust them to tell you when you're wrong. And right now, you need to listen to me. Let your control loose. Accept. Even the worst of you is better than him."

"And if it kills you?" I rasp.

"You can try your best. I can assure you. You won't succeed. And even if, by some miracle, you nearly do...Third Gear's always an option."

Make us whole, the dragon (or is it Killer?) whispers.

"Do you really think," I say softly, "that I'm so much better? That whatever I become won't do its damnedest to unmake a world it hates?"

"If you don't trust my vision...trust Six. He saw to the core of you, and instead of fear, he found safety. Even if you and the Red Dog would rather see the world burn if it won't change...I think even the worst of you would keep your friends from the blaze."

"I tried to kill C."

"Was that because of the dragon, or the brain damage?"

"I can't risk it."

"And yet you must."

So close… the dragon croons. In the corners of my vision, I see wings, and bladed hands.

"Swear."

"Pardon?"

"If you're wrong...swear you'll finish me off. I'm already a monster...and yet killing you would be worse than everything else I've done, put together. Swear that you won't let that happen."

"Is that it? If you think I'd let you, you have another thing coming. I've got far too much to do to die, little dragon."

I laugh. "Then fine. You asked for it. You really, really did."

There was a place that was not a place, a hill of white clover.

The dragon smiled.

Is it time? It asked the boy.

The boy looked at it. I have but one question.

Ask, the dragon said, willing to indulge in its moment of triumph.

Was there a reason, you tried to take my brother from me? the boy asked.

The dragon paused. I… It stopped. I made a mistake, it said, and despite its nature a note of sorrow touched its voice. I was younger. And it hurt, so badly. I thought that what was not us could not be trusted. That it would leave. That it would hurt us. I thought…

That if you took it away, I couldn't be hurt when the world took it instead, the boy said. What has changed, then, that I should indulge my captain and trust you?

You gave me eyes, the dragon answered. A voice in your ear. And I learned, from watching by myself instead of your frozen memories. They are...precious. For all that they might die.

Yes, the boy said. They are.

Is it in you, for forgiveness? the dragon pleaded. Will you make us whole?

The boy sighed. And what would happen? Do not dare lie. I know your pride and your power, and you would seek to consume me.

Is that what will happen, or what you fear? the dragon asked. Nothing need be lost. Trust me.

Trust, the boy - or was it a man? - replied, must be earned.

A bargain, then, the dragon said. We both love them so.

Trust, the boy offered, and a promise, to finish what is begun.

Power, the dragon granted, and might, to survive the storm.

Agreed, they both said, and dragon and man ceased to be.

…

… …

… … ...

...NIDHOGGR woke.

Vinci had to use his scythe to anchor himself as the spot where Kaneki had been exploded, a raw wave of heat and power ripping through the air and sending chips of rock flying every which way. And he laughed, because it had been worth it.

What stepped out was a beautiful thing, if only the size of a man. Scales, a deep scarlet, covered every inch of its body from snout to long spiked tail. Great batlike wings, lined with crystal, emerged from its back, and clawed feet bit at the earth. A maw full of razor-sharp teeth hung open, grinning wide. Steam and red mist flowed from its body like water, and the latter carved at the rock around it with every second.

"Well?" Vinci asked. "Feeling any more genocidal than before?"

The miniature dragon huffed. "Very funny. Also, it's time for payback."

"Huh?"

"Dear captain, did you really think you could pull something like this? Dragging me out here, trying in all earnest to kill me, just to prove a point? Call it tough love if you like, but that's going to have consequences. Don't worry. I'll be gentle." The dragon's smile turned much less reassuring, and Vinci paled.

Maybe this hadn't been worth it after OH GOD THE PAIN!