Why was it that I was seeing beauty in death, rather than life?
Kaneki's body was as motionless as a statue. None of his muscles moved a single inch.
Strangely, I thought he was beautiful.
His mouth formed a hole in the shape of amazement, dread, and terror.
I had failed to comprehend the scene before my eyes. It was not anything like flowers, but a large amount of... death.
His eyes were unblinking as they remained frozen, staring straight ahead.
No matter how I tried to rouse my will to fight with hatred, more than sorrow, more than rage...
The land of corpses that covered the entire ground around them seemed to blur out of his view.
The emotion that arose within me was, despair...
The only thing that his eyes could make out clearly was the white hair, white clothing, and the black quinque of the figure before him.
Because, "my turn "was next.
The gaze of the shinigami was a rock in a frostbite cave.
For the first time since his metamorphosis, Kaneki apperceived the full meaning of fear.
"O-Onee-chan." Hinami whimpered a little as she said this, seeing Touka sit on the ground with a dizzied and depressed expression.
"Hinami..." Touka turned to look at Hinami's small figure running towards her. The young ghoul had a worried look. Behind Hinami, Yomo calmly walked towards Touka. "Yomo-san..."
"Onee-chan, are you okay?" Hinami asked, her eyebrows frowning as pout her lips.
"I... I don't know." Touka knew that she should have soothed Hinami with her words. It's her duty to do so as her big sister after all. However, she just couldn't bring herself to say those words, because every tear on her face disagreed with it.
Uncertain of what to say, Hinami stood in front of Touka and looked down.
Slowly walking up to Touka, Yomo held out a hand to her.
Touka slowly reached her hand upwards towards his, and Yomo helped her to stand up. Being still in a lost state, Touka didn't notice immediately the small arms around her waist. She looked down and saw Hinami clanged onto her, struggling to find comfort.
"Where is Onii-chan?" Hinami asked timidly, already guessing the answer.
Gently, Touka rested a hand on her hair.
"He's... going to leave us for a while." Barely being able to retain her calm voice, Touka began caressing the tiny ghoul's hair.
Yomo didn't say anything, but silently stood vigil for the two girls as they remained in the hug for a long time.
"Wait for his move... No, I can't, I'll fall behind... I need to take initiative... take him by surprise." Kaneki murmured to himself about all the scenarios, and desperately tried not to think that the ghoul investor in front of him was undefeated.
As Kaneki slowly regained control over his frozen body, his breathing increased.
Immediately, Kaneki dashed towards Arima's side with speed untraceable with a human eye... but Arima was no human.
Kaneki didn't feel anything touch him.
He only felt a scorching pain on his kakuhou.
Turning around, he saw that his rinkaku kagunes were sliced to pieces.
"W-What the f-fuck... he was wide open... he was there less than a second ago..." Kaneki looked at Arima's back turned towards him in shock.
"It's okay, I can still figh-"
Before Kaneki could finish his soliloquy, he felt another pain.
This time on his kakugan.
He felt infinite blades pierce his head as his left eye went blind.
"ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" His lungs almost burst with that screech.
Out of the corner of his right eye, he saw a sharp, black point extending out of his kakugan eye. There was no doubt that it was Arima's quinque.
After a split second, he felt blood flood out from inside of his head as he lost consciousness.
"Ara ara. There's shinigami-san again, killing mercilessly all the ghouls." Eto said playfully as she skipped towards Arima.
Arima turned his head towards her, and scrutinized her bandaged face with a cold glare.
"You weren't supposed to come, owl." He spoke with an annoyed voice, and jerked his head back towards the ghoul that he stabbed in the eye in front of him.
"This one is an one-eyed. He's special to me." Tilting her head to one side, Eto said in a childish manner, like a little girl wanting to keep her toy.
"Our pact remains strictly to our common goal, and that means I have no reason to satisfy your demands in any other situations." The angel of death spoke again.
"Ah, but Arima-san, this one has potential. This one can be the one-eyed-king." Eto spoke, and smiled as she saw Arima show his first hint of emotion as his eyes opened a little more.
"Then, I should instruct him to grow stronger." Arima said with a determined voice.
"And how are you going to let him trust you?" Eto inquired.
"There is an answer to every question. I can definitely find a way."
"But that won't be necessary, because he already trusts me." Eto smirked.
Looking towards Eto, then looking towards the frozen Kaneki in front of him, Arima nodded, and pulled the quinque out of his eyes. He stood up, and slowly walked away, not giving any of the corpses surrounding him a second glance.
"Train him well, owl."
Smiling, Eto skipped towards Kaneki, and kneeled down.
"Poor Kaneki-kun. Having to be tortured this way. What a tragic kid." Eto rested her hand on his cheek. Her owl kakuja instantly formed around her, and she held Kaneki's unconscious body by one of her claw as she sped towards the opening of the runnel, and soared into the air.
"Keep him safe, doctor..."
Kaneki could hear obscure voices as his eyes strived to open, but closed immediately after. His head still burned like hell's inferno, so he didn't have any strength to think.
Suddenly, a white mist of cloud formed in his head, and he felt everything become numb.
He was floating in the middle of a white space, his white hair blending in, and his kakugan sparking a light.
Everything was so empty...
Then he sensed fingers on his cheeks as he slowly opened his eyes, and saw a distant, smiling face. Green hair streamed down around them like a cascade.
Kaneki opened his mouth to speak, but felt a gentle finger rest on his lips.
Closing his eyes again, Kaneki drifted into a deep sleep.
A very deep sleep.
As his vision slowly returned, Kaneki managed to distinguish a tiled ceiling with his eyes.
Simultaneously, his head began burning again, and he raised both hands to grasp his face, trying to ease the pain. Then, he saw his black fingernails.
Jerking, Kaneki glanced at his surroundings, and saw himself on a bed in a room, with monitors beside him. Nothing made sense. He couldn't understand anything.
Kaneki's brain threatened to burst out of his head, so he grunted and clenched his eyes. He heard a strange ringing in his ears.
"W-Who am I?"
To be continued...
Author's note: Thank you so much for staying with me! I know that the previous chapters was basically a remake of the second half of Tokyo Ghoul. However, from this chapter on, the story will take place after Tokyo Ghoul, so it won't be a remake of the original manga/anime anymore.