Corie=28

Kaneki=23

Kaneki slowly walked to the end of V14. Memories he had long since forgotten swam through his mind so quickly that his head hurt. He hadn't been in his right mind that night so what he did remember was blurry, but it was enough to make him feel ill.

He had never told Corie, but even when he was Sasaki, he had remembered that night very, very faintly. What he remembered most was the screaming. Arima had already defeated him by that point so he couldn't see, but he could remember hearing an incredibly anguished scream as someone held him. Even as his memories had continued to fade the longer he spent locked up in Cochlea following that night, that one never left. He had always wondered who that person had been. He never could've guessed that it was the girl he loved as a sister nor could he have predicted the events that led up to him finally remembering her.

"How appropriate that we should meet here," a voice said behind him. "Considering this is where it all began."

Kaneki spun around and saw none other than Arima standing at the entrance to the tunnel. A flurry of mixed emotions ambushed him so quickly that he could barely process each one. He felt angry, sad, confused, and shockingly, relieved.

"How did you find me?" he asked.

Arima smirked. "Come now, surely you of all people aren't underestimating my ability to find those who don't want to be found."

"I'm guessing you're not here to chat."

"You know why I'm here."

Kaneki slowly unleashed his kagune. "I don't want to have to do this."

Arima clicked a button on his attaché case and it transformed into his quinque. "Nor do I."

Almost as if another's will moved his feet, Kaneki began to fight Arima as he had done hundreds of times before.

But this time was much different. This wasn't fighting to train. This was going to be a fight to the death. And last time hadn't worked out very well.

Having learned Arima's fighting style over the course of the last couple years, Kaneki managed to hold his own well enough for a while. But he was also beginning to lose stamina, and from the looks of it, Arima wasn't.

He quickly fought to catch his breath. His emotions were everywhere and he had a hard time figuring out what his next move should be. If he lost this fight, he was fairly certain Arima wasn't going to let him live a second time.

Kaneki looked up at his former mentor in fury. "You lied to me," he bit out. "You tried to kill me, you told me you'd killed all of my friends when I begged you to let me save them, and then you kept me alive just so you could use me to hunt the people I care about."

"It started out that way, yes," Arima admitted. "But I admit that I grew to care about you, Haise."

"That's not my name!" He looked Arima dead in the eye. "My name is Ken Kaneki."

"I'm sorry to hear that. Because Haise Sasaki may be allowed to live, but Ken Kaneki is not."

Kaneki tightened the muscles in his back and went in for another attack against the man he had looked up to so fondly. While a huge part of him was furious for everything he'd put him through, another part of him didn't want to fight him and was honestly glad to see him again.

Quicker than Kaneki had anticipated, Arima started to gain the upper hand. "Haven't I taught you anything?" he taunted. "Or did you truly learn nothing over the past two years?"

Arima blocked each kagune strike Kaneki aimed at him. When Kaneki misjudged a kick, Arima slashed his quinque across the boy's arm and nearly sliced the limb off.

Kaneki screamed in agony as he sank to the ground. He attempted to continue attacking, but Arima just did the same thing to both of his legs and then stabbed him in the abdomen.

The investigator approached the downed ghoul with no expression in his eyes. "There were 645 times I could have killed you," he stated.

"So why didn't you?" Kaneki mustered out, blood beginning to pool around him.

"I needed you. A half-ghoul working for the CCG was quite the accomplishment for us."

Kaneki clenched his jaw. Even though he'd known all of that, it hurt much more than he'd thought it would to hear Arima actually admit it.

"I knew you'd gotten your memories back a while ago. I'm not completely blind. I could have ordered the entire CCG after you while you were pretending to be Haise. But I didn't. Against my better judgment, I have a soft spot for you, Ken."

"Arima," Kaneki choked out. "You…were all I had when I'd lost all my memories. Despite everything you have put me through and all of the anger I feel towards you, I can't bring myself to hate you."

Arima raised his quinque above Kaneki's head. "I'm truly sorry it's come to this."

Kaneki closed his eyes and readied himself for the strike that would finally end his life.

Just as Arima brought the weapon down, a purple and black tentacle whipped in between the quinque and Kaneki.

Corie threw herself between the two men, shielding Kaneki with her body and her kagune. She looked down at Kaneki and said quietly but firmly, "I am not going to lose you again."

"Corie…" Kaneki said softly.

She gently touched his blood-covered hand then stood up straight and turned to face the investigator.

"Arima," she said lowly. "I've waited a long time for this."

"Reina Furukawa," he replied. "Better known as Corie Masataka. We meet again."

"I hate you, Kishou Arima. I have always hated you. You assisted the squad that slaughtered my parents in front of me and my brother. You tried to kill Kaneki and then you used him for your own personal gain. I am never going to forgive you for what you've done. This ends here and now."

Arima skillfully twirled his quinque.

Corie manipulated her kagune into two large tentacles and charged.

Kaneki watched with morbid fascination as the two people he respected fought one another. It was perhaps one of the most amazing battles he'd ever witnessed.

Corie was fast, but somehow, Arima was faster. She didn't understand how an investigator could move so fast and handle his quinque so well. It was the most incredible thing she'd ever seen, and had he been anyone else, she might've stopped for a moment to appreciate his battle techniques.

"We've already done this dance before," Arima taunted. "The results weren't so great then."

"I'm stronger now," Corie bit out, her eyes full of hatred. "And I refuse to let you take anything else from me."

She charged again, but Arima deflected each attack and delivered several blows of his own. Thoughts and memories of the last time she had battled Arima began to fill her mind along with the painful image of the mutilated body she had found.

"I easily could've killed you that night at the Chateau."

"But you didn't. Because I had managed to fool even you. You just can't admit that you didn't know I was a ghoul."

The more blows she tried to deliver, but more wounds she received instead. The longer she fought him, the more she felt her clear head slipping away which would also render her useless. Against Arima, she couldn't be useless.

But it was hopeless. She couldn't find an opening.

When she tried to attack again, Arima sent her flying thirty feet away.

She collapsed on the ground near Kaneki in pain, covered in wounds that were taking much too long to heal.

I don't understand, she thought to herself, her mind foggy. I need to get my clear head back or he's going to kill both of us. But…I don't know how. Even after all this time, I never managed to find my way.

That night she stormed Aogiri Tree to get Kaneki back after they'd abducted him, Corie's head had been clearer than ever and she'd never had such incredible control over her kagune. She had never been able to repeat the success of that night.

But why was that? What made that night different?

She tried to remember all of the times she'd had full control over her kagune. Storming Aogiri, searching Kanou's lab, every single fight she got into during her time as Lightning.

She looked over at Kaneki. Blood pooled around him from the multiple wounds covering his entire body. He looked exhausted and broken.

Then it hit her. All of those times had one thing in common.

"That's it," she whispered.

Kaneki weakly glanced at her when he heard her speak.

"It's not about having a clear head. It's about having a reason to fight. It's you. You are my reason for fighting!"

All of the fog in her mind cleared. Corie stood up, reformed her kagune into four separate tentacles, and faced Arima.

Arima raised his eyebrows, surprised she still had the strength to fight.

Corie firmly planted her feet to the ground. She wouldn't need to move for this. Taking a deep breath, she flinched her shoulder and one of her tentacles flew towards Arima so fast that even he didn't have enough time to register the attack before she'd knocked his glasses clean off his face.

She smirked at her small success.

From there, she kept her feet still while only moving her shoulders which resulted in her kagune striking again and again and again and again, too fast for even an experienced investigator liked Arima to keep up with.

From his position on the ground, Kaneki could see that this fight was getting nowhere. Despite Corie finding her secret to controlling her kagune, Arima was still faster than her and he managed to continue blocking most of her strikes.

Using every ounce of strength he had left, he reformed one of his kagune tentacles. Then he quietly sent it underground and maneuvered it over to Arima. Arima was so focused on Corie's kagune that he didn't have time to register a separate tentacle shooting from the ground until he felt his feet sweep out from under him.

One of Corie's tentacles swiped his weapon away from him while the other two stabbed through both of his hands to keep him pinned to the ground.

Arima cried out in pain as sweat dripped from his brow to the dirt.

Corie slowly walked up to him, keeping her tentacles impaled into his hands. Part of the reason Corie hated Arima so much was because he always kept a neutral face when fighting as if he didn't care about the multiple lives he took every day. At least the other investigators she fought were angry, determined, scared, or at least showed some kind of emotion. Arima's expressionless face had always infuriated her.

But now, as he lay on the ground with his hands torn by her kagune, Arima looked back up at her in fear, breathing heavily both from the exertion of their fight and the current pain in his hands.

Corie smirked again. "That's the look I wanted to see."

Kaneki watched the interaction with a mix of horror and awe.

"I could easily kill you right now, but I like the idea of letting you live a lot more. Because even though you may choose to hide it from your fellow investigators, you are going to live the rest of your life knowing that a ghoul got the better of you. And that it was a girl." She knelt down next to his head so that he could hear her next words very clearly. "But if you ever mess with my family again, I won't hesitate to kill you next time."

She quickly removed her tentacles from his hands which caused him to cry out in pain again.

Then she went over to Kaneki and put his arm over her shoulder.

"Come on, let's get back," she told him.

"You…you just defeated Arima," he gasped weakly.

"No, we did. I couldn't have done it if you hadn't come in with that well-timed strike."

"Can we talk about how amazing that fight with Arima was?" Corie smiled, eagerly bouncing up and down in excitement as she ran into the training area. "I have been dreaming about that moment for years, and it was even better than I imagined it."

Kaneki remained with his back towards her.

"Kaneki?"

After a long silence, Kaneki said lowly, "We can't keep doing this, Corie."

"Doing what?"

"We're not related. We can't keep acting like we are."

Corie scoffed. "Where is it written that you need to be related by blood to have a familial bond?"

"You're not my sister."

The words hit her like a punch to the gut. "Where is this coming from?"

"I don't have any family left."

"Stop," Corie said firmly. "That's not true. Maybe I'm not your sister by blood, but does that really matter? Would someone who's not like your sister worry about you all the time? Would someone who's not like your sister have sacrificed their time and health in order to stay by your side? Would someone who's not like your sister have willingly put themselves through hell every single day for over a year in order to look out for you?"

Kaneki furiously rounded on her. "I never asked you to any of that, Corie!"

"Yeah, but I did! Because I care about you, Kaneki!" She sighed and crossed her arms. "What's really going on?"

Kaneki looked away from her. "…Part of me wishes I'd never gotten my memories back. Does that make me a bad person?"

"Of course not. You built a life for yourself as Haise. It only makes sense that you would want to go back to that life. I knew from the moment I found out what had happened to you that you were always going to be torn between your life as Kaneki and your life as Sasaki. Even if you hadn't gotten your memories back, no one could possibly be okay missing twenty years of their life. It's another reason I'll never able to forgive Arima."

"That's another thing. Even after everything he's done, knowing what he did to you, even after what happened tonight…I can't hate him. I want to, I should, but I just can't."

"Kaneki, we're always going to have differing opinions about Arima. We've had different experiences. And that's okay. You will never be able to convince me to like the guy, but if you do, I'm not going to try to talk you out of it."

"…Why can't I hate him?"

"I think he became a sort of father-figure for you when you were Haise. And for you to have grown up without a father, that makes his position in your life that much more important. My personal feelings aside, I think he really has grown to like you. I can see the way he interacts with you, even when you guys are trying to kill each other. I really don't think he wanted to kill you back there."

Kaneki swallowed thickly. "That's not all. I got more memories back. Memories that I'd suppressed even before."

"Like what?"

"My mother…she hit me."

"…What?"

"She wasn't the nice woman I talked about. She was so overworked and stressed out that she lost control and…hit me when I asked for something."

Corie put her hand to her mouth. She had not been expecting that confession. What could she possibly say now?

"It seems like every time I try to help, I only make things worse," she finally said softly. "Maybe it would've been better if I had just stayed out of the way and left you alone."

"Maybe…"

"Maybe I shouldn't have even intervened back then…with Rize."

Kaneki rubbed his arm. "At least then you wouldn't have gone through everything you did at the CCG."

"Wait a minute, that's what you're concerned about? About everything I went through?"

"How do you think it makes me feel to know you were tortured at the hands of the CCG all because of me? To know that you were in pain every day that entire year for me?"

Corie took a step forward. "Kaneki, I want you to listen to me. I don't regret anything that I did. And if you told me I had to do it all over again tomorrow, I would. Without hesitation. That's what it means to have someone who cares about you. That's what it means to have a big sister. And even if you truly don't think of me like that anymore, you will always be my brother."

He looked over at her as the words hit him between the eyes. "But you…you said that you should've stayed away."

Corie sighed. "I only started it regretting it then because I thought I was hurting you. And people say things they don't mean when they're scared and stressed."

"Or maybe you were saying how you really felt."

"…Do you know what Jiro's toxin made me see?"

"No, you never told me."

"Because at the time, it wouldn't have meant anything to you. I saw Reo and my parents. I knew they were all dead, but it seemed so real and the toxin made me really believe that it was. Reo accused me of replacing him and my parents blamed me for him dying. That was my biggest fear."

Kaneki looked down at his feet guiltily.

"Seeing something like that is enough to break anyone. I wasn't in my right mind, Kaneki. But that doesn't mean that I wouldn't do all of that a hundred times over if I had to in order to keep you safe."

"Corie—"

"Can you honestly tell me that if the roles were reversed, you wouldn't have done the same thing?"

"No!"

Corie's shoulders fell dejectedly.

"I would've gotten a team together the second I found out you were still alive, infiltrated the CCG, and forced your memories to come back."

Despite the intensity of the conversation, Corie couldn't help but laugh lightly, amused at their drastically different ways of handling the same situation.

"You want to know what the worst part of me working at the CCG was aside from you not recognizing me?" she asked. "It wasn't that I had to put myself through an extremely painful process in the morning, it wasn't that walking through the RC gates was incredibly stressful, it wasn't that I had to lie every day, it wasn't even all the torture Jiro put me through. The worst part of that year was that working an office job was the dullest thing I have ever done in my life. Going to work every day knowing that I was just going to sit at a desk for eight hours and do mostly data entry kind of sucked out a part of my soul. And the business clothes! Man, I missed my jeans and t-shirt. And my beanie, oh, you have no idea how much I missed my beanie!"

Kaneki smiled a little. Only Corie could go through hell for an entire year and feel that the worst part was the choice of fashion.

"But I sat through the terrible job and I wore the terrible clothes because I wanted to. You didn't know who I was, but I knew who you were. And I wanted to look out for you. I have years' worth of protecting you to make up for. So you're stuck with me whether you like it or not. I am always going to try my absolute hardest to protect you. And I am not going to regret a second of it."

Suddenly, it hit him.

Various images flashed through Kaneki's mind of all the visions and hallucinations he'd experienced over the last several years.

But they were different now.

The child Kaneki looked up, flinching as his mother prepared to deal another blow. But instead of hitting him, her fists landed against Corie's backside. She smiled down at him as his mother's blows continued to hit her over and over again.

His aunt appeared before him shouting hurtful words about how he didn't matter because he wasn't her son and that she wished he was dead. Corie walked up behind him and covered his ears so that the hate-filled words could no longer reach him.

The hallucination of Rize smirked at him from his days when his hair was still black, her eyes glowing black and red. She lunged for him, but she only hit Corie. Corie smiled at him, holding Rize back with her body and forbidding her from getting to him so she could torment his mind even in death.

The version of himself with a black shirt and chains on his wrists and ankles attempted to reach him in order to overwhelm his mind and remind him of his past where he had become ruthless against other ghouls and lost his mind in the process. But Corie appeared behind him and put her hand on that version's shoulder. With that action, she calmly stopped the version from reaching him and refused to let Kaneki's mind go back to those days.

The version of himself that he just barely remembered when he had been taken to Cochlea after the raid on Anteiku desperately pounded against a metal door, his empty eye sockets blindfolded. Corie came up behind him and tightly hugged him so that he could feel that even though he was in the worst of circumstances, he was not alone.

But the visions didn't stop there.

When a large and powerful ghoul, the same one who had killed Reo, attempted to attack a sobbing younger version of Corie, Kaneki stepped in between them and took the ghouls blows on himself to protect the young girl.

A sad and despondent version of Corie started walking towards her current self, but Kaneki stopped her from progressing any further. He wouldn't allow her to be that upset and depressed ever again if he could help it.

Kaneki then saw Reina Furukawa. He slowly walked up to her and watched as she held a needle in her hand preparing to stab it into her flesh. Kaneki grabbed her hand and gently brought it back down before taking the needle from her. She didn't need to put herself through that kind of pain for him anymore.

Kaneki looked at Corie. She would protect him. From all of the things that had hurt him in the past and all the things that might hurt him in the future.

He in turn would do whatever it took to protect her.

"I'm sorry," she apologized. "That I helped bring back some unwanted memories."

"My memories were always going to come back. I'm just glad it was in time to save my sister."