A month after the attack, the Anteiku and Aogiri were settled off from a feud in the ghoul realm, number of casualties from the attack leaves the Ghoul Investigators question what was the Crystal Anteiku's clear goal was after attacking their own kind.

That does not stop from Homeworld Aogiri claiming territories that troubles the CCG (Commission of Counter Ghoul) in their hidden schemes, including the Aogiri's main target is the CCG instead of the Crystal Anteiku.

According to the Aogiri ghoul who is arrested from the attack, their main objective was surrounding in the abandoned building for rescuing their single member, no plans for fighting the Anteiku whatsoever.

However, Rose plans to make the clan settled to their peaceful lives to keep their territory away from Homeworld. It wasn't much to change from Aogiri's motive but it is a best choice to avoid any more casualties and getting arrested from the Doves.

Loyal members of the Crystal Anteiku opened a new café on the main street in Beach City still named "Anteiku" for the sake of making peaceful environment between ghouls and humans alike.

But Rose, Pearl and Garnet are not working with the café, inspite they have their own lives to handle in their safehouse by the temple that is surrounded by a tall metal fence with warning sighs around, located by the massive beach.


In evening, the three ghouls are sneaking down by the end of Beach City for their 'hunt' routine.

"So, you heard that there's a place where we can hunt the humans without getting trouble...", Pearl sighs through her mask, "what's that place called and how can you be so sure we won't be in trouble?"

"That place is called the Kindergarten," Garnet answers while not looking at Pearl, "It is mainly a abandoned subdivision where…unfortunate humans lived."

"Unfortunate?", Pearl asks with her confused tone.

"It's a remote place where humans commit suicide.", Rose stated sadly, "I pity them, I can't believe some humans rather kill themselves than living…"

"Well, I don't.", Pearl snapped with her cold tone, "It was their choice and it's their fault either way."

"Pearl," Garnet added sternly, "Don't say that. We have no idea what's going on through their heads and we know they don't want to do that in the first place either."

Pearl huffs in defeat and remorse, "I'm sorry, I just have this heating hatred towards the humans and them feeling helpless seems so new to me."

"We understand, Pearl.", Rose comforts.

They stepped into the Kindergarten and sees that the small town itself was surely abandoned; crumbled three-story buildings, family homes filled with boarded windows and graffiti tags, damaged furniture scattered across the streets and shattered beer bottles lying on lawns.

"This is the Kindergarten?", Pearl asks.

"Indeed," Garnet takes a step forward, observing and sniffs around to search for bodies.

Rose hums, "I can't tell if this neighborhood used to be like a normal place or it's already been like this."

"I heard it used to be a normal neighborhood with human and ghouls together," Garnet frowns, "Not until Homeworld Aogiri invaded here for recruitment."

"I hope the humans and their children ran off." Rose walks towards a boarded up suburb house.

"I couldn't imagine Aogiri might…slaughter other humans for food." Pearl added while following Rose behind.

"Not to mention that young ghouls and humans who're born and raised here were left behind." Garnet sighs, "Even certain defective ghouls were abandoned here, I'm guessing the damaged homes are the results of it."

They walk pass through the flickering streetlights, seeing more knocked down garbage cans and old torn posters flying around.

"A corrupted hood," Pearl whispers, feeling the eerie silence, "never seen a messed up place like this before..."

Suddenly, three ghouls were startled by a sound of shattering glass echoes by the distance.

"It's coming over there!", Rose announced and points at the alleyway between the Bar and the tall building.

The three follows to the source of sound. The deeper they go in the alleyway, they were shocked to see a child with messy short white hair, dark skin and tattered clothes. The child is chewing loudly while leaning down to the corpses.

"A child?...", Pearl whispers to Rose.

The large ghoul decides to step forward to the child but she accidentally steps on the small broken glass, makes a cracking noise. The child quickly turns around, exposes the purple kagune below the waist (bikaku), wide black eyes with purple irises were focused at Rose.

Rose astonishes and thought, 'A female ghoul.'

"W-Who are you?", the child panics, causing the kagune to tense up, "Go away!"

Pearl and Garnet changed their stances but Rose raised her hand to halt them.

"No, it's alright.", Rose says calmly as she slowly goes to the child, "We are not going to hurt you."

The child flinched back, "No! Stop!"

Rose kneels down and pulls up her mask, revealing her black eyes with pink irises to the child, "Three of us are ghouls just like you, you were born here right?"

The child's kagune settles down a bit and she shakes her head as an answer to Rose's question. After moments of silence, she leans down and sobs to let her tears out that she's been holding on.

"I-I ran away from home months ago...because I'm sick of my parents treating me like dirt!" The child slams her fists on the ground, "And I have no place to," she whimpers, "stay except these dark places."

"I see, you were alone for this entire time," The older ghoul emphasizes, "It must be really hard especially in experiencing harsh childhood, I understand and I won't judge you for it."

The child nods and wipes off her tears. The child finally calms down after listening to Rose's soft voice.

"Then what happened here?", Pearl blandly asks.

"Pearl...", Garnet mutters while shoving the slender ghoul's shoulder.

"I got hungry and-and," the child turns her head to the corpse, "found that smelly guy with bottle on his hand while staying in this place and killed him...I-I..."

Rose placed her bare hands on the child's shoulders, giving a soft massage to comfort, "Don't force yourself to tell us further, you didn't want this in the first place.", Rose sighs and closed her eyes, "I've done what you did when I was a young ghoul."

"Except I don't even know who're my parents or my entire family.", Rose opens her eyes, revealing her normal state, "We are born like ghouls that most humans called us evil, and surviving like this...was very painful.

She smiles softly, "It doesn't matter how and why they treat you like this because of unfair treatment…don't let that stop you for being a decent ghoul like normal humans and who you want to be and who you are."

The child remained silent, understands Rose's words.

"And..." Pearl spoke up, "You can't live alone here, maybe you can live with us if you want to."

"Don't worry, we're not like those mean ghouls around." Garnet added, "If you don't want to come along, then we won't stop you."

The child wasn't expecting that offer, causing her tears and snot floods out again on the child's face. Her kagune returns back into her flesh and dashes to Rose, giving her a tight hug.

"Name's Amethyst!", the child squealed, to fight back her uncontrollable tears, "I will come with you guys! You guys are the first one's who are so nice to me! Please please please please-!"

Rose joyfully laughs then returns the hug. Pearl and Garnet giggles along while watching the two ghouls confronting each other out.

"Don't worry Amethyst...", Rose whispered, "We'll take care of you as much as we can."


-months later-

"Whaaaaaaat? You have lovely-dovely feelings to Rose?", Amethyst blurted with her shocked expression.

"It's quite obvious, though.", Garnet assured. Pearl tries to hide the dark shade of red on her cheeks, "Well...Rose and I have spent a lot of time together for a long time."

Suddenly, Rose walked into the front door.

"Hey, Rose is back-!", Amethyst cheers.

With a surprise, Rose was with a man, the human. Holding hands together.

"...with a guy!", the youngest finishes then Pearl jolted up as she heard that phrase.

"What?!", Pearl turns around to the front door where Rose and the man standing. The man was few inches smaller than Rose, an appearance of long brown hair and a unshaved stubble and the attire of his black 'Mr. Universe' shirt and blue jeans.

"Oh boy, this is unexpected.", Rose crowed as she saw the expressions of the three ghouls, "Girls, this is Greg. He is the musician that I talked about."

Greg smiles and waves his hand to the three. Garnet waves back and Amethyst jumps to Greg, observing him.

Pearl, however, gives a disapproving look to him.

"Oh man, music man! Look at him," Amethyst gushes, "long rad hair, big guts...seems like you pick a right guy, Rose!"

"You must be Amethyst, right?", Greg laughs as the youngest plays with his long hair, "Rose wasn't kidding about you being a really playful kid around here."

While Amethyst is having fun, Garnet steps forward to Greg and places her hand on his shoulder to give him a close glance to him through her sunglasses.

"Does this man," The tall ghoul turns her head to Rose, "Or Greg, creates good music?"

"Is that even a question?" Greg smirks, "Because it doesn't sounds like it."

Rose chuckles wholeheartedly while Garnet raised her eyebrow in approval, then out of all the sudden;

"Oh snap! I'm late for the big show!" Greg yelps "Maybe we'll see each other again later? Or sooner?"

"You should catch up soon, you might miss the trip to the cosmos.", Rose chuckles and Greg's face grew to shade of red. He gave Rose a quick kiss and runs off to the front door while everyone gave him a goodbye except one.

The four are standing on the front door, watching Greg drove off.

"I can sing.", Pearl says out of nowhere then crosses her arms.

The three snickers, Pearl gave them a disapproval look.


Pearl and Rose are alone on the dark sidewalk with a streetlight above them, having a conversation about earlier while Garnet and Amethyst are out in the Anteiku café.

Pearl said distantly, "So, this 'Greg' is your boyfriend then?"

Rose nodded sheepishly. "I was drawn to the love and heart he placed in his music. It was wonderful, seeing him enjoy singing so much."

"Oh, I bet it was." Pearl muttered angrily, Rose seemed to realize what she was looking for.

"Pearl." She said firmly. "I hope you're not planning on doing anything to him. Greg is a loving, gentle, and kind person. And frankly, I'm worried about your intentions about him."

"I don't have any intentions."

"You started flaring up in the middle of an intersection earlier. Someone could've seen you."

The group are going to the café for a weekly visit to the other members of the clan, in a conversation about Rose's new boyfriend leaves Pearl an unease thoughts, causing her to flare up with residents around. That leaves the human bystanders a suspicious look to Pearl.

"Ohhh, so now you're concerned about our identities. Rose, he's a human. They hate people like us. They think we're monsters. I don't care about how kind and understanding he is, once he knows that you're a…" She looked around, seeing the people watching them. Growling in frustration she started walking off. "…You know what I mean."

"He won't betray us. He's different. I just know it."

"But what if he isn't? What if you're wrong? Your life will be in danger. The attack since months ago shows that the Doves are still looking for us. I don't… I don't…" She started crying hot tears. Angry tears. "...I don't want to see you get hurt..."

Rose pulled Pearl into a deep, warm hug. "I know you don't Pearl." she said softly. "God knows how many times you've thrown yourself into a doomed fight just to protect me." She crouched down, to look the younger ghoul in the eye. "But this is what I truly want. A future. A family."

"But I thought we were your family.", Pearl said, turning away.

"You are. You all are my family. But I want to have a child. To hold a little bundle of joy in my arms. To prove that humans and ghouls can live together in harmony."

Pearl cried even more, her face now blotchy and streaked with tears, "Let someone else do it. Let someone else risk their life for a fool's errand. I won't let you throw your life away for it."

"Pearl, I love you." Rose said. Pearl's heart stopped for a second.

'Did she just…?'

"I care about you, and I honestly couldn't think of anyone other than you at my side. But I am afraid that it's not up to you whether or not something isn't worth risking my life for.", Pearl heard Rose sigh, "I need this Pearl. I need to know that there is more to life than just hiding and eating and killing. So please. Help me make this world something more. Please?"

Pearl gave a sobbing sigh, "Alright. I will help. Somehow." She felt Rose gently hug her from behind, and she snuggled into her arms. But it did not feel as good as it used to, it doesn't have the same warmth or softness to it that she remembered.

"Thank you Pearl. This means so much to me."

'Right. Of course, it didn't feel right.'


-one year later-

Garnet walks out of the room, tears flowing down her cheeks.

"Garnet…" Pearl quickly stands up from her seat and strolls towards Garnet to comfort her.

"She wants to see you, Pearl.", Garnet struggles to talk through her soft sniffles.

Pearl looks at Garnet with wide eyes, not believing what she meant.

"So, she's…", the blonde's tears start to fall and Garnet grips her shoulder, "Yes, she is. You must let it all out to her while you can."

'No…'

Pearl simply nods and lets her arms sag down, proceeding to the bedroom door. She heard heavy footsteps fade off behind her, thinking that Garnet walks off from the hallway to be alone.

She strongly inhales to hold off her tears, then exhales. Upon opening the door, she sees Rose lying on bed looking pale while Greg on the side holding her hand with their fingers stroking around to ease each other.

They are not the only ones who are in the room, there was a newborn covered with a clean towel and being cradled by Rose's arms.

"Rose?" Pearl slowly walks in the room, the couple looked up to her. She noticed that their expressions are solemn, but peaceful.

"Hey Pearl…" Rose casually greets with her trembling voice, her head lowers to look at the baby she's holding, "He's beautiful, isn't he?"

Pearl gives a good look to the baby; he was sleeping with his lips a bit apart and tiny fingertips are rested on his chest.

"He is, Rose…" Pearl shows a painful smile, "He even sleeps like how you and Greg snuggle up together one night."

Greg laughs softly, "I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought about that. Hey Rose, you should let Pearl handle Steven while he's asleep."

"Steven?" Pearl questions as Rose carefully handles Steven to the blonde, who awkwardly grabs him and adjusts to make the baby rest on her arm.

"That's what we name him," Rose answers, "Greg thought it was a cool and fun name for our son, and so I agree for it."

'His details...' She thought as she closely watches Steven on his breathing pattern and occasional coos he makes.

"I could relate," Rose hums, "I just wish I could see him much longer until he grew up but…"

Pearl and Greg looks at Rose in gloom, "Rose…you wouldn't last so long, right?", Pearl gently asks as she can feel tears slowly stream down.

"I'm afraid not…" Rose exhales and her grip on Greg's hand weakens, "This childbirth was a wild wide for me, an experience…to give another life to another being like Steven…"

Pearl sits down on the chair that is beside of the bed and scoots closer to Rose, "I…why you?"

"Hmm?"

"Out of all the possibilities, why are you dying? Why the hell is this so unfair, Rose?" Pearl sobs while gently embraces Steven on her chest, "An amazing person like you, a leader whose goals and ambitions are for everyone's need, a dearest friend who's always there for someone who's struggling…"

She grasps Rose's left hand, feeling cold to the touch, "I don't want you to go, Rose… if only I could trade my life for you-"

"Pearl."

As Rose calls, Pearl quickly raise her head to Rose. While her eyes are a bit red and wet from tears, Rose has the same expression and appearance as Pearl's, "Please don't say that, I also don't want you to die, no one does."

She closes her eyes to let a big tear drop, "I guess this is what I was destined for… all this just for Steven and my dream for having a family with Greg, I've never felt this peaceful in my life, Pearl… despite how this cruel world falls heavy on us, at least we got a chance to experience something so special like…"

Her left hand lets go of Pearl's hand to let her index finger wrap around Steven's tiny hand while Rose's trembling hand still holds there, "Him…"

"Rose…"

"And Pearl?" Rose raise her trembling hand to stroke Pearl's cheek, "I want you and everyone else here take care of Steven…not only for me, but for Greg too…"

Pearl nods and let's go of Rose's hand from her cheek to give a gentle kiss on her palm, "I kept them in my heart, Rose…"

"Thank you…for everything, Pearl. I mean it…"

Rose moved her head towards Greg and gives a soft kiss on his hand, "Sweetheart, I can't wait to see what the cosmos looked like…"

Greg sobs and leans closer to Rose, "You'll have an amazing adventure ahead, darling."

Rose gives him a weak smile and turns to Pearl, gestures her to hand her back to Steven.

She gives him a kiss on his forehead, "I want you to have a nice life ahead, Steven. And your family is giving you that."

She gives Steven to Greg and looks up to the ceiling in a relaxed expression.

Rose smiles before the life from her eyes has faded away.


A.N: I finally give enough details to Rose's final moments. I don't want to make this chapter much longer (which is why it goes straight from Garnet walking out for Pearl, not showing from Amethyst and others).

Reviews and criticism are appreciated.