Corie=25-26

Kaneki=? ?

Assuming nothing happened to her during the battle, Corie had planned to hide out at Touka's apartment afterward until she figured out a more solid plan.

Her legs barely keep her up, she managed to stumble inside. Blood covered the entire frontside of her body, and her clothing had been torn in several places.

"Corie?" Touka exclaimed as she rushed to the door. She ran over to the young woman as Corie collapsed into her arms. "Hey. Tell me what happened!"

Corie held onto the girl as she let out sobs and gasps that wracked her body and rang out into the otherwise empty living space. Touka wasn't sure she had ever seen her like this, and that really scared her.

If only Yomo had let her just help.

"Corie, breathe. Tell me what happened tonight."

"…dead…Uncle Yoshimura…he's dead."

Even though Touka knew that her beloved boss had planned on dying tonight, it still killed her to hear that.

"So…so many ghouls are dead…so many died."

"What about Irimi and Koma?"

"I-I don't know. I haven't heard from them. So many of them were dead. Hundreds. Piled up."

Touka was no stranger to gruesome sights, but even she couldn't imagine seeing hundreds of ghouls slaughtered like that. No wonder Corie was a mess.

"And…and Kaneki…"

No. No, not Kaneki. He wasn't supposed to be there. That idiot.

"Arima…he killed him. Kaneki is…he's dead."

Touka bit her lip so hard that it almost began bleeding. She hated Yomo. She hadn't ever felt so much anger towards a person before which was saying a lot considering how much anger she felt all the time. If he had let her go, she could've saved him. She could've saved everyone. She wouldn't have had to lose anyone else. Especially not him.

Corie began quickly gathering up her few belongings. "I need to go," she said frantically. "I can't be here. I need to get out. I have to go. I have to go. I have to get out of here. I can't be here."

Just as she started to the door, Touka grabbed her arm. "Wait. Corie, please, don't. Don't leave."

Corie closed her eyes and felt two more tears join the other hundreds. Touka had never begged her for anything. She needed her.

But Corie wasn't so sure she had ever felt more suffocated. It felt as if the entire world was closing in on her. She couldn't breathe. She couldn't think. All she knew was that she had to get out.

Without another glance, Corie took her arm out of her grasp and left the apartment out into the falling snow.

Corie began running. She ran and ran and ran as if she could somehow outrun the awful feelings swirling around inside her.

A piece of uneven ground caused her to trip and fall. The snow both on the ground and falling from the sky seeped through her torn clothing and made her shiver. Instead of getting up, she curled up into a ball and sobbed. She didn't care if another ghoul saw her or if she simply froze to death here. She couldn't move.

"Corie," a serene voice broke through her inner turmoil.

Someone gently lifted her up and made her stand again.

Tears continued to run down her frozen face, and she wondered when she would be out of them. The cold air surrounded her and allowed her to see her frantic breaths in the small clouds that exited her mouth.

She turned and saw that Yomo had been the one to help her up. He put a jacket around her to warm her up and cover all of the blood.

He looked at her seriously. "You can't leave. Not this time. You're needed here. Touka needs you right now. Hinami needs you."

If anyone knew how she was feeling, it was Yomo. She knew he had lost a sister at Arima's hands several years ago.

For the briefest moment, she considered letting him take her back to Touka's apartment so they could figure out what to do now that Anteiku had been destroyed.

But within seconds, the overwhelming suffocating feeling returned and she couldn't breathe again. If she didn't get out soon, she was going to break.

"I have to go," she whispered.

She turned and resumed running. She ran the entire long way to the airport and stood outside as the snow drenched her hair and clothes.

This was her last chance. She could turn around and go back. She could face this head-on with the others.

Corie closed her eyes, felt two final tears drip down her cheeks, and walked inside the airport.


There was a knock on Corie's apartment door. "Hey, Corie?"

No answer.

"Look, Corie, I know something must've happened. Will you please let me in? I just want to talk with you."

The young man looked around to ensure that no one could see him. Then he released his green bikaku kagune and sharpened the end of it to fit inside the keyhole. The lock clicked and the door opened. He made his kagune and kakugan disappear.

"Corie?"

He sighed when he saw his friend curled up in bed unresponsive. She looked terrible and somehow, her small studio apartment was a complete mess despite the fact that she'd only been here for a couple weeks and didn't own very much.

The young man took a seat on her bed. "What happened?"

"How'd you get in here, Matthias?" she asked so softly that he almost couldn't hear her.

"Ghouls can do anything if they try hard enough. What's going on? I've never seen you like this before."

"I lost someone."

"We lose people every day. What makes this one so special?"

"He was my brother."

"What do you mean? Reo died years ago."

Corie sat up, her eyes glassy. "Technically, he wasn't my real brother, but he felt like it. I've never felt so close to someone. You should've seen the way we could fight. I helped train him to use his rinkaku kagune, and it was…amazing to fight someone who was so much like me."

"So he became like your brother just because the guy could fight well?"

"No. It was…the way he saw me. He looked up to me, and I had someone to protect again. Someone I could fight for. We needed each other. We both filled this void that we didn't even know we had. It was almost as if we were each other's missing half."

"You sound like you're in love with him."

"Oh, gross, I don't even want to imagine that."

Matthias chuckled softly before becoming serious again. "How'd he die?"

"There was a huge battle between ghouls and investigators. So many people died that night. Hundreds. On both sides. My uncle was one of them."

"Geez, Corie, I'm sorry."

"But Kaneki…"

"Kaneki's the guy who was like your brother?"

Corie nodded. "He wasn't supposed to die that night. He wasn't supposed to be involved in any of this. He…he's not even a real ghoul."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"He was turned into a ghoul by this insane doctor. He was human a year ago."

"Holy. Crap. I didn't even know that was possible."

"It shouldn't be. Then he would still be alive. He had been through so much more than anyone, human or ghoul, should have to go through. He did nothing to deserve it either."

She ran a hand through her hair. It felt greasy and stringy seeing as she hadn't taken a shower in longer than she cared to admit.

"The whole reason I went to university here and then traveled to all those other countries was so that I could make sure that what happened to Reo wouldn't happen again. But it was all pointless. I couldn't stop him from dying. I couldn't protect anyone that night."

Matthias sighed heavily. There really wasn't anything he could say to make this situation any less awful, and both of them knew it. He knew what it was like to lose family as he'd lost his mother to American investigators when he was ten.

But that was the only family he'd lost. He still had his father, and unlike Corie, he didn't have other family to lose. He didn't have siblings or an uncle. He had close friends he would die for, but none that felt closer to him than family. It seemed like every time she gave her heart to someone, something kept snatching them away. He didn't know how much more people she could lose before she just crumbled.

Matthias gently rubbed her arm. "I can't imagine how you must be feeling right now."

"Losing Kaneki…it didn't feel like losing Reo even though they were both brothers to me. Losing him…felt like I lost everything in me that I had left after Reo died. And I don't know if I'm ever going to be okay again."

"Healing is a pretty rough process. Let me help you just take a couple baby steps, okay? We can get you into the shower and some clothes. We'll get a good meal inside you. And we'll get your place cleaned up. But we'll do all of that later. For now, let's just go out and do something tonight."

"Like what?"

"You want to go on a hunt? We found this really seedy place where you can always find some action. You can pretend that person is the investigator who killed Kaneki. Or anyone else who made his life hell."

"I appreciate the thought, but I did that after Reo died, and I just felt worse. You know what I really want to do?"

"Name it. We'll do it."

"I really want to get super drunk."

Matthias sighed. "We can't drink alcohol."

"Well, yeah, but…" Corie stopped and looked at him. "No way. You don't know."

"What?"

She put her hand to his head. "Oh, my sweet, innocent young man. Come on. We're going to go find a bar."

"But I just said—"

"I know what you said. Just come on." She pulled out her phone and dialed a number. "Hey, Itori, I need a big favor."


Corie stepped into the little café Touka and Yomo had built. She looked around and smiled a little. "This place is perfect," she remarked to the girl behind the counter. "My uncle would be very proud."

Touka smiled back, but she couldn't help but notice how…tired her friend looked. Even being away from Tokyo for a whole year hadn't been enough to completely get her back to her old self. "It's good to see you again, Corie. We've really missed you."

"Yeah, I've missed you guys too. How have things been?"

"Um…maybe we should talk in the back."

Confused, Corie followed the two owners to one of the back rooms which looked pretty similar to how it had been at Anteiku. She sat down on one of the couches, a littler unnerved by Touka's expression.

"Yomo and I cleaned out Kaneki's apartment last year," Touka started. "We kept a couple things to have around the shop, but I thought you might want this."

She handed Corie the boy's black hoodie he had frequently worn when they trained together. Corie hugged the sweatshirt close to her, her eyes pricking with tears. There were no words to truly express how much she really missed him.

I don't really know how to tell you this, so I'll just say it," Touka continued. "Kaneki…is alive."

Corie was pretty sure all of the blood in her body stopped moving at one time because she suddenly didn't know how to move or breathe. "That's…impossible," she croaked. "I saw him die. For the last year, every time I close my eyes, I see him lying on the ground with his eyes gouged out. I left him with Arima. Arima doesn't let ghouls live!"

"Well, he's not dead, but—"

"Why didn't you tell me this sooner?"

"Because…he's not exactly…Kaneki anymore."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"He's inside the CCG."

Corie sprang up from the couch. "What?! Then what are we doing standing here? We have to go get him!"

"No, Corie, listen. It's not that simple. He's an investigator now who goes by Sasaki. And…he doesn't remember anything prior to the Anteiku battle."

All of the euphoria Corie had previously felt suddenly vanished so quickly that it left her head spinning and her body aching. "You mean…he doesn't remember anything? Anteiku, Yoshimura, you? He doesn't remember…me?"

"I mean, he's come in here a couple times before, and I feel like I can see just the faintest bit of recognition but I'm not completely sure."

"You mean to tell me that he's working with people who previously attempted to slaughter him and you're okay with it?!"

"Of course I'm not okay with it! But this is his life now, and we can't just go in kagune flying and take him away from it when he doesn't even know who we are."

"We cannot trust them to protect him! Because they don't trust him! What if he loses control of his kagune? What if he suddenly gets all of his memories back? They will kill him if that happens!"

"Corie—"

Corie quickly left the café, unwilling to listen to anymore. She climbed up onto the rooftops and raced towards the CCG headquarters.

Touka was wrong. She had to be wrong. Kaneki, or Sasaki or whatever, would recognize her. He had to.

Sitting upon a high perch away from prying investigator eyes, she slipped on Kaneki's old hoodie. For the first time in a year, she had a small piece of him again. She hugged herself as if that would make her feel closer to him.

Then she waited and waited.

Finally, she saw a familiar face exit the building, and she thought that the rapid alternating feelings of euphoria and despair were going to cause her heart to burst.

He really was alive. She didn't know how exactly those horrific wounds hadn't killed him or why Arima had let him live or why he was now working at the CCG of all places, but none of that mattered.

He was alive.

She hopped down from the building where no one could see her, and then she walked onto the sidewalk. The young man with white and black hair glanced at her, nodded his head with a polite hello, and then continued walking with three other people in similar dress following behind him.

Corie felt her legs wobble. She wasn't sure what was more painful: cradling Kaneki's dead body in her arms or having him look her right in the eye and not recognizing her.

Unable to stop tears from rolling down her cheeks, she quickly walked all the way down to HySy.

"Hey, Cor," Uta greeted. "I didn't realize you were back." He looked up and noticed her tear-stained face. "What's wrong?"

A strong and determined fire lit up Corie's eyes for the first time since the night of the battle for Anteiku. "Uta…I'm going to need your help."