Corie=27
Kaneki=22
For over a month, Corie went down into the tunnel every single day and attempted to release her kagune. When that continued to fail, she spent the rest of her time trying to heed Uta's instructions and will herself to change her appearance.
She thought she got close a couple times, but she still remained Corie and never once was she able to change her face or her voice.
Every now and again, Kaneki came down into the tunnel to spar with her and tell her if he'd learned anything about Kanou or her cousin.
There wasn't really anything substantial about the One-Eyed Owl's true identity, so they were going to have to do a lot more digging once they found Kanou.
At one point, Kaneki delivered the mask Uta had finished making for her. It covered the upper half of her face, and the red and white design looked as if it had been glued back together after shattering. She thought about calling herself 'Opera Ghost' but decided to just let the CCG name her if she ever got out again.
After a month of planning their raid, the group at :re gathered together and prepared to carry out the mission.
"Tsukiyama?" Corie said as she approached the man who looked uncharacteristically down. "Is something wrong?"
"No, it's just…one of my servants has not been seen in a while, and I must admit I'm rather worried."
"Which one?"
"Kanae."
Corie furrowed her brow. She had seen Kanae's extreme devotion to Tsukiyama firsthand so his disappearance probably wasn't anything good. "Let's deal with this mission tonight, and then I'll help you try to find him."
"I'm surprised you're willing to offer your assistance. Not only do you sorely dislike me, but you've made it clear you don't really care for him either."
"Maybe not, but if he's in trouble, I'm not going to just sit and do nothing."
Tsukiyama dramatically took both of her hands in his. "You always continue to surprise me, darling."
Corie smiled a little. "Some of us look out for other people besides ourselves."
She didn't know if Tsukiyama truly didn't want to eat Kaneki anymore, but something about him and his presence was reassuring. Of all the things that had changed dramatically, his personality was the same as ever.
The group moved out of the café and headed to the location Kaneki had researched intensively.
The building itself looked completely abandoned from the outside which was probably why the CCG had never looked into it again.
However, the fact that it was more than a little difficult to get inside said that someone, if not Kanou, had been doing work here quite recently and the work was not meant for prying eyes.
The group quietly traversed the halls, looking for Kanou specifically or anything else that might lead them to him or Eto.
Corie was more on edge than ever before. This was her first real mission since she'd lost her kagune, and she was really worried that she wasn't going to be able to protect herself or anyone else in the group. Now she somewhat understood how the investigators felt, and though they were on opposite sides, her respect for them increased.
She could only hope that they didn't run into any SS+ ghouls.
"Where is everyone?" Irimi asked. "You'd think that there'd be at least one worker somewhere in this whole place."
The sound of maniacal giggles echoed from down the hall. Everyone quickly put up their guards and continued walking.
They soon found themselves inside a large chamber with multiple glass cases surrounding the entirety of the room. Each of them had a number on the frontside. The numbers went all the way up to 150, but there were probably more in another room.
"What are these things?" Touka asked quietly.
"Hey, how did you get in here?!" someone yelled.
They all turned to find several employees wearing white lab coats.
"Why didn't the alarms go off?!"
"Evacuate the building now!"
"You know what the doctor said if this happens!"
"Someone push the button!"
Alarms and red lights pulsed throughout the building.
Everyone in the group, minus Corie, activated their kagunes and easily knocked down all of the employees without killing them.
To their horror, all of the doors on the cases opened simultaneously.
What came out of them was very difficult to describe. They all looked like masses of flesh that were trying to be human but fell just short of achieving that goal. Then they started to release various kagunes that were surprisingly well-formed for such misshapen human experiments.
"Corie, run!" Kaneki yelled, knowing she wouldn't be able to fight these things without her kagune. "Find Kanou!"
Not arguing with the appointed leader of their group, Corie rushed through the halls and away from the ensuing fight. She prayed she didn't run into anymore of those mutated lumps of flesh or she was going to have to put her powers of evasion to the ultimate test.
The same maniacal giggle they had heard earlier echoed throughout the hall again.
Corie froze.
At the end of the hall, she could see a familiar black mass blocking her way.
"So you survived," the figure laughed. "You're tougher than I gave you credit for."
She recognized that voice. She'd fought him before, hadn't she?
The figure stepped forward into the light, his white hair standing out against his black hood and darkened lips.
"Why are you here?" she asked him. "Why did you go after Kaneki before?"
"I do whatever Eto tells me to do. She gives the orders."
"You know Eto?"
"Yeah."
"I need to find her."
"Tough luck. She isn't someone you can just reach out to whenever you want. She comes to you when she needs something from you."
"What does she need from you?"
"To guard this place in case people like you come searching for things you're not supposed to find."
Corie pressed her lips together. Why she did know this person? It wasn't just because she saved Sasaki from him. She knew him before that. But where?
Her eyes widened as it hit her and she took a step forward. "I know you."
"Yeah, we've already established that."
"No…I mean I've seen you before. Back before…all of this. You used to be an investigator, right?"
The ghoul's maniacal smile slowly disappeared and his eyebrows creased together.
"The night of the Owl Extermination Operation, I saved you from Tatara. I don't understand. What…what happened to you?"
"You…were that ghoul?" he asked softly. "Why did you do that?"
Corie sighed, recalling one of the worst nights of her life. "I tend to act on the emotion I'm feeling at the current moment without thinking about the consequences. I saw how scared you were as you tried to fight the other ghouls. Even if I'm not supposed to side with the Doves, it didn't seem right for another person to needlessly lose their life that night. I also really hate Tatara and Aogiri Tree, and the enemy of my enemy is my friend."
The ghoul quieted, unable to believe that the infamous Lightning he'd been warned about had been the same one to save him years ago.
"What's your name?"
"…Takizawa. Seidou Takizawa."
"What happened to you?"
"It was Noro. He ambushed me right after you left. I thought he killed me, but I woke up and saw Dr. Kanou. He did something to me that made me more ghoul than human. Then to strengthen my RC cells, he subjected me to endless torture over and over and over and over and over!" Takizawa put his hands to his head to try to block out the horrendous memories.
"Hey!" Corie exclaimed putting her hand to his shoulders. "…Is that how you became like this?"
"Yeah."
"He shattered your mind."
"Yeah."
"I'm…I'm so sorry. After I dealt with Tatara, I should've made sure that other ghouls weren't in the area."
'Sorry'. That was a word he hadn't heard in so long except when someone told him he was a 'sorry' excuse for a human and a ghoul. He had forgotten what it felt like to have someone take pity on him. To want to help him. To save him.
"Why are you helping Kanou after he did all this to you?"
"He works with Eto. And I told you, she makes the rules."
"Why are you helping either of them?"
Takizawa paused. Why was he helping them? What was he getting out of this deal? After everything that he'd gone through, his mind had been lost and he'd sort of just ended up finding himself under Eto's command.
"We're looking for Kanou. Help us find him, and I promise you that I will help you make him pay for what he has done to you."
"Who's 'we'?"
"Me, and some other people from what used to be Anteiku. And Kaneki."
"Kaneki? I thought he was Sasaki now."
"He was. But he got all his memories back."
Takizawa's eyes quickly clouded over with rage. "Kaneki…he was Kanou's successful experiment. Everything I did was never enough because Kaneki was the best one. Kaneki, Kaneki, Kaneki!"
"Takizawa!" Corie exclaimed. "Does Kanou's opinion really matter to you? It doesn't matter if Kaneki is this or that or whatever. All that matters is that you are who you are. No one else has a say in what makes you good or bad or anything. The only person who decides that is you."
Takizawa looked away from her.
"Did you know that the only reason Kanou considers Kaneki to be successful is because he was tortured too?"
The ghoul's brow furrowed further. "He…he was?"
Corie nodded. "By the ghoul known as Yamori."
"Wait, I remember…I remember you telling Tatara you…you killed him."
The woman smiled a little. "Yeah, but it wasn't just me. Kaneki did most of the work, I just delivered the finishing blow. See, Kaneki's kind of become like my little brother. And let's just say I don't take kindly to people who hurt my family."
"Yeah, I saw that the last time we fought. What did Yamori do to him?"
"What didn't he do? He told me that Yamori injected RC suppressant through a needle in his eye, he continuously ripped off his fingers and toes, he let a centipede crawl inside his ear, and he forced him to choose between saving a mother or her child. When he couldn't decide, Yamori killed them both." She looked at him sadly. "What did Kanou do to you?"
"He sawed off my arms and legs and then let them grow back just so he could saw them off again."
Corie shook her head in disbelief. In a world where there lived beings that had to eat human flesh just to survive, she questioned who the real monster was.
"I've been tortured too," she said softly.
"You have?"
"Not as long as you, and certainly not to that extent, but yes. I managed to infiltrate the CCG, and when they found out, they tortured me for information even though I'd already told them everything they needed to know."
"Who was it?"
"Um, some guy named Jiro Kimura."
"Hate that guy."
"You know him?"
"We crossed paths a couple of times. He always had this really weird vibe, and he gave me the creeps." He laughed humorlessly and gestured to himself. "I guess that's pretty ironic now, isn't it?"
"Kanou deserves to die for what he has done," she said firmly. "Come with us, and I will help you make that happen."
Takizawa pulled the hood off his head. "Why do you want to help me?"
"The same reason I helped you back then. Besides, we have a common enemy, don't we? And two ghouls are better than one."
He pursed his lips, considering her offer.
Just when he was about to say something, a voice called, "Corie!"
She turned to find Kaneki and the rest of the group running down the hall to join her. This probably didn't look good, especially since Kaneki had nearly died by Takizawa's hand a few months ago.
Corie quickly stepped in front of Takizawa protectively. "Hold your fire!" she exclaimed when she saw their exposed kakugans and kagunes. "He's with us." She turned back to face Takizawa. "At least, I hope he is."
Takizawa gave a barely discernible nod.
Corie looked back to the others. "Kanou did the same thing to him that he did to Kaneki…but worse. He subjected him to torture for months to strengthen his RC cells and make him better than Kaneki."
Kaneki visibly winced, painfully reminded of his time with Yamori. Everyone allowed their kagunes to disappear.
"He's going to help us find him and Eto. She and the doctor are working together."
"Why?" Kaneki asked.
The rage and anger Takizawa had previously felt towards Kaneki slowly seemed to dissolve when he realized that the supposed 'success' had actually not had it all that easy either. "Eto wants more one-eyed ghouls and Kanou is the only one who can make them."
"Who's kakuhou is he using for the transplants?"
"I don't know."
Corie felt her stomach flip. "So all those cases in the chamber…those were his failed attempts at creating half-ghouls."
Takizawa nodded grimly. "He calls them 'floppies'."
"Where did he get that many bodies?" Touka asked.
"From the Owl Extermination Operation. And all operations afterward where there were casualties."
"Is he here now?"
"No. He knew you guys were coming so he took all the important things and people to a new location. But I have no idea where they've gone. They wouldn't tell me."
"Are there any more experiments here?" Corie asked him.
"There's one more chamber with just as many floppies." A look of realization crossed his face. "There's someone here you need to help."
"Who?"
"Come with me."
Everyone kept their guards up, still rather distrusting of someone who worked for Kanou and Eto only a few minutes ago.
Mere seconds after they began traversing down the hallway, they all heard discordant footsteps and eerie groaning.
"Takizawa," Corie said softly. "Didn't you say there was another chamber of floppies?"
"…Yes."
"Are there more employees working here that we haven't seen yet?"
"…Yes."
From behind them, more of the failed human/ghoul hybrids appeared, gaining on them rather quickly. Corie was surprised that they could move so fast for being considered 'failures'.
"Kaneki, you, Corie, and Takizawa go ahead," Touka ordered. "We'll take care of these things."
"Be careful, you guys," Kaneki told them as he squeezed Touka's hand.
"You don't need to worry about us."
Kaneki grabbed Corie's hand and rushed down the hall after Takizawa.
Tsukiyama put his hand to his forehead. "Such poor creatures. Stuck in such an ugly state." His kagune wrapped around his arm and sharpened at the end. "I shall relieve you of your misery!"
Tsukiyama, Touka, Yomo, Irimi, and Koma quickly engaged the floppies in a fierce battle despite being drained from the other fight just moments before.
Kaneki, Corie, and Takizawa found themselves in a smaller chamber than the last one. There were several large tanks against the walls, but it was too cloudy to see what was inside them.
"Are these more floppies?" Corie asked.
"One of them is," Takizawa answered. "That's who I was talking about."
"Who is it?"
Before he could answer, a female employee walked into the room and froze when she saw the intruders.
She dropped everything she was holding, slammed her fist onto a red button on the wall, and ran back out of the room.
One of the tanks burst open and someone stepped out. He looked much different than the other floppies they had seen. This one looked very much human aside from the large kagune extending near his shoulder.
Kaneki and Corie looked at him in surprise.
"That's Investigator Amon," Kaneki said.
"I did not see this coming."
"Kanou snatched him up after the Owl Operation," Takizawa explained quickly. "But his RC count surged too high during the experiments and messed with his mind. I don't even know if he registers who we are."
Amon's kagune whipped towards them, and they all maneuvered out of its path.
"I don't think so," Corie said. "What do we do?"
"Stay back!" Kaneki told her.
"What?!"
"He's right," Takizawa added. "You won't be able to help me pay back Kanou if you die first."
Reluctantly, Corie backed away from the three of them to allow Kaneki and Takizawa to fight the former investigator.
This was beyond frustrating, and (she wasn't going to lie) a little demeaning. Before she had lost her kagune, Corie had been an expert fighter in all situations and was usually the one to rush in and save the day when people were in trouble. To have that ability taken away from her once again reminded her that she was essentially useless now.
To their shock and horror, Amon's kagune grew three sizes and then separated into four separate pieces.
Just how had he managed that? Even more experienced ghouls couldn't pull that off!
Kaneki and Takizawa blocked his attacks for a little while, but it was clear that they were outmatched. The problem was that they didn't want to kill him but he had no problem killing them.
One of the kagune pieces knocked Takizawa onto the floor and then proceeded to crush him with one blow.
He cried out in agonizing pain while Corie could only watch in horror.
She flinched when another kagune piece smacked Kaneki into the wall with enough force to knock him out.
"Kaneki!" she screamed.
Amon morphed the kagune pieces into one and then hit Kaneki as hard as he could.
Something inside of Corie snapped. She could feel every muscle in her body aching as power surged through her all at once.
She knelt over at the waist and let out a powerful scream as all of the energy building up inside her exited her back.
When she stood upright again, she looked behind her in disbelief. Not only had her kagune come back after all this time, but her purple and black tentacles had molded together and increased in size so that she had two very large tentacles instead of four small ones.
She looked back at Amon and let out a fierce yell as she threw her tentacles towards him. He blocked the first and second strike, but he couldn't block the torrent of strikes that followed.
With another cry, Corie morphed her kagune into one giant tentacle and slammed him onto the ground. He fell unconscious and his kagune slowly dissolved.
Corie panted heavily, allowing her tentacles to separate into the four normal-sized ones.
"Corie?" Kaneki said as he sat up. "I think you got your kagune back."
Corie laughed lightly and helped him up off the floor. "You okay?"
"I'll live."
They both went over to Takizawa and helped him up. One of his legs had bent into a very disturbing angle, but he simply hit it with one arm and it fell back into place with a sickening crack. After a few mere seconds, his leg had already healed.
"After you heal yourself multiple times, injuries like this are nothing."
Corie preferred not to think about how he had gained that ability.
Tsukiyama, Touka, Yomo, Irimi, and Koma walked into the room, all of them covered in various bodily fluids from fighting the floppies. There was no telling how much of it was their own.
"Hey, isn't that a Dove?" Touka asked when she saw Amon's unconscious form.
"Yeah, his name's Amon," Kaneki told her.
Corie knelt down next to him. "What do we do with him now?"
After a bit of silence, Touka said, "I know where he can go."
