I was going to conclude the arc by the third chapter, but I found myself wanting to expand on the characters and their backstories; specifically Kuzen, Ukina, and Roma, while teasing a bit of Tatara's backstory as well. Oh well, nothing wrong with adding more to the story to read, right?

Like always, thank you for reading and the author's notes will be at the end. Thank you, and please enjoy!

It was a miracle that the electrical grid within Vault 079 was still in working condition, which made it far easier for Kaneki and his small gang of leaders to keep account of all the freed prisoners. With most of the ghouls' bellies having been filled with the meat from the meat lockers before they had traversed through the vault door that Kaneki had managed to open with the use of his Pipboy, the humans within the group were able to receive the most care and focus from the crowds of ghouls.

Using his Pipboy map, which was drafting its own extremely detailed topographic map using its advanced radio technology within its chassis, Kaneki was able to lead his flock into the medical bay of the vault, where he was finally able to find a sterile safe haven for Hide, and the rest of the injured humans who were riddled with infections, to receive medical care from the ghouls who came from a medical background.

With his mind eased now that he knew that Hide was receiving the treatment he desperately needed, Kaneki was able to focus on practicing his responsibilities and skills as being the appointed leader. With the help of Kuzen, who was able to advise the young one-eyed ghoul on what would be best to do, Kaneki was able to formulate a plan with the help of his Pipboy.

With the medical bay acting as their temporary safe house within the dragon orphan infested corridors of Vault 079, Kaneki with a handful of capable ghouls— including Kuzen, Rio, and the other two artificial one-eyed ghouls who had helped carry Hide, Kurona and Nashiro Yasuhisa— fought their way through the retro-futuristic decorated hallways until they finally arrived at where they needed to be: The Overseer's office.

With Rio and the Yasuhisa twins guarding the only way in and out of the door, the three of them couldn't help but to begin to wonder if there even were dragon orphans within the Vault, due to there not even being any signs of life along the way to the Overseer's office; not even the bodies of the Clowns who Rio remembered going in and never coming out were present.

Swallowing the lump in his throat as he exhaled through his mask, Rio quietly muttered, "Wonder what happened to all the vault residents… Weren't these made to create safe places for people to survive while the world went to Hell?"

Brushing her long black hair with one hand, while keeping her other hand gripped tightly on the 10mm pistol she had been given earlier, Kurona pursed her lips at Rio's naivety before deciding to tell him her own theory. "Not exactly… Well, there's two kinds of vaults, made for two separate purposes. You got your standard 'underground safe haven', which was meant to sustain life for those within the vault for generations… Think of it like them wanting to wait all of this out. For how long though? I can't say."

"Interesting…" Rio muttered as he looked over his shoulder to watch as Kaneki sat down behind the large circular desk on the other side of the main office, with Kuzen standing before him as the young bookworm plugged his Pipboy into the Overseer's main terminal. "Do you two think that this vault was one of those kinds of vaults? The one meant to house people? To keep them safe?"

The white haired twin let out a quiet chuckle, and shared an amused glance with her sister. "Rio, ALL vaults are built to sustain life and keep its residences safe, it's just some were made with the purpose of either repopulating the world when enough time had passed, or… Or the other kind of vault, where they conduct experiments on the unsuspecting residents who aren't aware that they're actually just lab mice," Nashiro explained.

Frowning a bit, Rio turned back around and kept his focus down the iron sights of his AK-47, before asking his next question. "Seeing how this vault's empty, I'm guessing it's the latter of the two options… I know the Clowns were getting all their RC-suppressants from this place, before those purple-skinned golems crawled out of where there was that cave in. That's probably what they were doing in here, before uh… Before whatever happened to them made them leave this vault, huh?"

"Wouldn't it," Kurona commented, and before their ended conversation became awkward as the three of them didn't know what else to say as they stood guard, the sudden roaring of fans from the vents above them made all three of them flinch. "What the Hell was that?!"

"Sorry about that, I was just turning restarting the air-filtration system," Kaneki called out, as he typed away at the terminal that he was able to unlock using his Pipboy's hacking program; something that he wouldn't have known to use, had it not been for Kuzen being there to show him to best use the device on his wrist.

"All of you can take off your masks now; I've already purged the contaminated air and water from the vault's system, and locked the vault door," Kaneki said with an optimistic tone in his voice, as he took a moment to reluctantly pull his gas mask off before taking in a deep-fresh breath of the purified air within the metallic room. "This computer's surprisingly easy to use… And there, I managed to isolate the caved-in area by locking all the reinforced sliding doors leading in-and-out of there. All that we need to do is go out and-"

Curious as to what had caused Kaneki to suddenly stop talking, Rio and the twins looked over their shoulders at the same time after locking the door they were guarding. Furrowing just light-blond eyebrows that rested beneath his straight-cut bangs, Rio felt anxious and confused the moment he saw just how shocked Kaneki looked as he stared back at the monitor before him. "Hey, Boss? Is… Is something wrong?" Rio asked with a worried tone, while Kaneki re-read the pop-up option that appeared on his screen.

"I… Y-Yeah, yeah, I'm… I'm alright," Kaneki said with a shaken voice, as he was still trying to process what he had read. "It's… It's just that there's an option here for, uh… There's an option here that's asking me if I want to 'Purge Organic Matter within Vault'," Kaneki explained, which instantly caught the attention of the three other young adults.

"Wait, wait, wait, what?" Nashiro asked with a shiver suddenly going down her back, as she and her twin walked past Rio to make their way behind the Overseer's desk to read the pop-up message that was centered in the middle of the terminal's screen.

"'Purge Organic Matter'… W-What the hell does that even mean?" Kurona asked with her eyes narrowed, as she felt anxious with the possibility that their lives were just a click-away from being ended. "Y-You shouldn't click on 'Yes', obviously, but uh… H-Here, l-let me do it please," the nervous black-haired twin muttered as she leaned over Kaneki's shoulder to reach down and place her hand over his, where he was holding the mouse.

Had the situation not been so surreal and tense, Kaneki might have actually gotten enjoyment from the way the young woman's breasts were being pushed against the back of his shoulder. But instead of finding comfort in her soft breasts, Kaneki felt sick to his stomach as he anxiously watched as Kurona moved the cursor over to the option that read 'decline', and felt her sweaty palm on top of his hand shake during the entire time.

All of them, including even the wise old man Kuzen, held their breath the moment Kurona clicked 'decline', and a tense moment of fear filled the room after the pop-up disappeared. It was only after a few moments had passed and nothing happened did they all let out a collective sigh of relief, and Kaneki felt Kurona backing away from the desk as she pressed her back against the wall behind them.

"Dear God, that was… T-That felt like we were disarming a bomb, or something," Kurona said half-jokingly with a nervous chuckle, as she raised her hand up to feel her racing heart pounding away at her chest.

Having not been there to see what she did, Rio anxiously walked over to where the rest of the ghouls were standing, and felt as though he was walking on eggshells as he peeked over Kaneki's shoulder to stare at the monitor. "Did you… D-Did you guys take care of it?" Rio asked nervously, before feeling Kuzen's comforting hand patting him on his shoulder.

"I believe we'll be safe for the moment, young man… Although, it begs the question, doesn't it?" Kuzen mused with his temporary anxiety subsiding as he found his curiosity slowly getting the better of him. "Mr. Kaneki, if I may?" Kuzen asked politely with a gentle smile on his face, which wasn't enough to prevent him from suddenly receiving wide-eyed stares from the younger adults around him.

Sitting down with an uneasy smile on his face, Kaneki awkwardly let out a forced chuckle as he felt himself beginning to sweat nervously. "Uh… Y-You're going to, you know…? You wouldn't, w-would you…?" Kaneki uttered out with his heart racing, as he did his best to ask the burning questions that he and everybody else in the room had.

Surprised at first, it was only then when Kuzen took a moment to do some self-reflecting did he realize what his mistake was. Shaking his head and bowing down to apologize, when Kuzen rose back up with his back straight, he said, "Heavens no, Mr. Kaneki, I wouldn't dare jeopardize our lives! I was only wanting to read the collective logs that the Overseer's terminal will have access to; nothing that would put our lives at risk, I assure you."

Although Kaneki was on edge like the rest of those around him, the comforting and sincere way Kuzen spoke along with his gentle and caring mannerisms and metaphorical aura surrounding him didn't give the young bookworm any reason to doubt his intentions. Getting up from his chair, Kaneki made room for Kuzen to sit down, and stood beside Nashiro as the four of them watched as their elder navigated through the terminal like a tech-savvy professional.

"Wow… Contrary to your age old man, you're uh… You're surprisingly quite the wiz on that keyboard," Nashiro said half-jokingly, as she and the rest of them tried to comprehend how someone like Kuzen was able to open up hidden files by using system commands from memory alone.

"Looks are rather deceiving, aren't they?" Kuzen asked with an amused smile on his face, as he unlocked the administrative access in order to begin remotely transferring all the files of every personal terminal within the vault onto his terminal. "I've done my fair share of 'black-ops' missions for the United States Navy and V back in my youth, and being technologically experienced was something that I had to be. But I'm sure you children don't want to hear about an old man's war stories, do you?" Kuzen said with a teasing smile, as he knew that what he said would obviously spark curiosity within at least one of them.

"United States? Weren't they… Didn't they only come here like, three or four years ago?" Rio asked, uncertain with the exact dates of when their country had been occupied by them and their allies. "Wouldn't that mean that you'd only been a part of their Navy or whatever recently?"

"No, it's been decades longer than that. I was a Navy Seal who had been stationed in Japan as part of the Eastern Special Ops command since I was eighteen years old, so… We're in the year 2027, so minus seventy, and… Ah, yes, I first started my career with Ol' Uncle Sam in the year 1957," Kuzen explained openly, as he quietly read through each document and transcribed audio-recording, starting from the last one recorded a week ago. "Despite what you've been led to believe, the United States has had its eyes and fingers in Japan since the forties…"

Having knowledge about V along with her twin sister, Kurona still wasn't satisfied with Kuzen's explanation, so she decided to challenge his supposed backstory. "You mentioned that you were with V as well… How does that work? Weren't they very selective on who they trusted to be part of their ranks?"

"Very, which is why I had to take on the role of a troubled ghoul who had no strings attached, and appeared lost and in need of a purpose," Kuzen explained, all while still speed-reading through thousands of lines of transcribed text. "Started off as nothing more than a 'Cleaner'; a rank reserved for low ranking members whose job is was to clean up the evidence left behind from the aftermath of an assassination on V's part. Reported my findings to command, and worked my way up V's own chain of command until they trusted me enough to be part of their inner circle."

Having her own questions that were separate from the ones that had been already asked, Nashiro followed up Kurona's inquiry by asking, "If that's true, wouldn't that mean that you knew who Akihiro Kanou was? The doctor who was responsible for… For all of this shit?" The white haired woman asked, as she gestured with her hands at the vault, along with the dangers that were out there, kilometers above where their underground sanctuary was.

Shaking his head, Kuzen turned his head away from the monitor and appeared to have lost his smile as he turned to face Nashiro. Opening his mouth to speak, Kuzen found himself unable to utter a word as the feeling of repressed remorse made him suddenly choke up for just a moment. Once he found the words he wanted to say, Kuzen let out a slow sigh as he massaged his fingertips against his wrinkled forehead.

"… V didn't know about Akihiro Kanou's plan for releasing his 'dragon' genome projects onto Japan. Dr. Kanou was… Was like me, he was a sleeper agent planted there by the Eastern Special Operations. Neither of us knew one another personally or professionally. He was there first on his own mission, and I was there for mine. I didn't know it at the time, but his research of the dragon genome was the collaboration of many scientists back home. The United States chose Japan to be their testing grounds, due to there being distance between the two countries, via the Pacific Ocean."

Not believing at first what he was hearing, especially when it was coming from the gentle voice of the old man before him, Kaneki shook his head before deciding he needed more information. "So… What you're saying is that you knew that there was going to be dragons before it actually happened? You're saying that… That this was all planned?"

Unable to nod or shake his head at Kaneki's inquiry, Kuzen replied, "No, I wasn't aware of it at the time. The United States only told me what I needed to know, and it wasn't until later did I find that out from an outside source. But, yes… Dr. Kanou was practicing research on behalf of the United States behind the backs of V and CCG, and yes, eventually once enough research and data had been collected, he was going to release the dragons onto Japan the moment he received orders to do so…" Kuzen explained with a heavy heart, before gesturing toward the walls surrounding them. "Who do you think built and funded these vaults? They weren't built recently, they've been around since the fifties for the day that the United States unleashed their new biological weapon onto their rival: China."

Needing a moment to process the information that was being given to him by the extremely remorseful looking man, Kaneki felt conflicted about the way he was beginning to feel about Kuzen. "If… If what you said is true, then… Then why didn't Tokyo fall like the rest of Japan? And what about that part where you said that Akihiro was separate from your mission? How would have known what he was doing, if the United States was actually trying to leave you guys all in the dark?"

With guilt weighing heavy on his heart, especially with what he wanted to say next, Kuzen needed a moment to collect his thoughts. Wiping away the tears beginning to well up in his eyes with the handkerchief he kept tucked in his breast pocket, Kuzen frowned and lowered his head. "Forgive me, I… I haven't talked about this for quite some time. I know… I know what you younglings must be thinking of me, and… And you have every right to judge me; I deserve it, especially what… What happened to her."

Not understanding who he was trying to refer to, Kurona, who was already starting to get heated from the knowledge that she was more than likely actually talking to someone who had hand in the world around them, took an aggressive step forward before kneeling down to glare intensely into Kuzen's narrowed eyes of sorrow. "Who, old man? Who the hell are you talking about?"

Unable to answer Kurona's answer immediately, Kuzen recoiled and let out a distressed breath as the image of the beautiful blond woman who he had damned came to his mind. "Her… Her name was Ukina... Ukina Augus. I met her while I was in Tokyo, when I first opened up my coffee shop that served as a front for me while I did my assignments for the Navy, under the guise of working for V."

"… At first, she was nothing more than a loyal customer who would talk to me about what story she was working on. You see, Ukina was a reporter for Tokyo Times, and always strived to uncover the truth about things that you normally wouldn't think twice about. She had a fascination with CCG and the gangs of ghouls who used to operate in Tokyo. At first, I thought her to be too forthcoming for her own good, but little did I know back then that she was sharing her findings with me to gauge me; it was all to confirm her suspicions of me."

"… It wasn't until we started to become closer did she finally reveal to me that she had been keeping an eye on my coffee shop, and on me in specific. Ukina revealed to me that she wanted to uncover the truth about V, and had taken a chance on me to not only assist her from the inside, but to join her own secretive group of like minded individuals— a mixed group of ghouls and investigators alike— who she led."

"… The group, 'Aogiri Tree', was founded by Ukina back when she wa fourteen, when she first started to gather up a following from those who she knew to be ghouls and undercover investigators. Their purpose was to free themselves and others of the way the world was forced to be. This 'bird cage' as she always described it, forced ghouls to become demonized and brought up to live violent lives for the sake of CCG's way of keeping their power; all of it was orchestrated by V, who were made up of power individuals of the Japanese government who profited from the blood of its citizens."

"… Love has a way of turning your world upside down, and makes you question the morals and codes that you thought meant everything to you. Ukina opened my eyes, showed me the world for what it was. I told her that I was a spy for the United States, an ex-Navy seal who was there to aid V. She and I expanded Aogiri Tree to all of Tokyo, and worked against both V and the United States in order to do what we thought was best for everyone."

"… It was actually her who discovered that Akihiro Kanou was a sleeper agent like myself, and had me infiltrate one of V and CCG's most confidential facilities, Sunlit Gardens," Kuzen said, before stopping his tale the moment he heard Kaneki taking in a sharp breath. "I take it Mr. Kaneki, you've heard of Sunlit Gardens, but I'm also under the assumption that you yourself don't know what it is."

Nodding his head after the moment he finally realized that there were too many coincidences for Kuzen to be lying about his past, Kaneki thought back to the voice he heard earlier, and did his best to remember recalling what he heard as the hooded ghoul was walking out of the room. "This guy, deep voice… Uh… H-He had a Chinese accent I think? Ta… Tarata? I think that was his name. He asked me if I was from there, and I told him I never heard of it…"

Frowning and becoming instantly tensed the moment he heard of Tatara's name, Kuzen involuntarily rose to his feet as his fight or flight senses kicked in. "Tatara… He's that ex-Crimson Dragoon operative who was part of the People's Liberation Army. I know him…" Kuzen said with anger in his voice. "When was this, Mr. Kaneki? When did you last talk to him? I… I need you to tell me everything he said, and what you remember."

Having been invested in the backstory that Kuzen was being forthcoming with, Rio frowned with the way that the elder ghoul decided to cut it off mid-story. "Mr. Yoshimura… A-Aren't you going to tell us the rest of your story?"

Opening his eyes to reveal his kaugans that had been activated from his body's reaction to hearing that Tatara was still alive, Kuzen gave Rio a serious stare before telling him, "My cautionary tale of why you shouldn't blindly follow what you're being told can wait for another day, Mr. Rio. If Tatara is still alive, then it means that I've failed my mission… And if I've failed my mission, then that means that Tokyo isn't safe from him or the Underground King."

Unlike Juuzou, Haise's interrogation methods relied more on playing good cop, just so his already highly-stressed and traumatized subject would look upon him as their only way of salvation. It was psychological torture ontop of the physical torture that Arima and Juuzou were accustomed to inflicting, and Haise's people skills and charisma he had developed over the years of presenting himself as the perfect happy-go-lucky young man that women and men alike fell for had stemmed from years of practice.

Purposefully taking Roma into a secure place where he knew the red mist wouldn't be able to enter through their lungs, Haise made sure to close the reinforced door of the old armory that he was going to use to question Roma. Once alone, Haise sat her down on the only chair he could find.

"It's okay… I'm not going to hurt you," Haise falsely promised, as he reached up with one gloved hand to adjust the module earpiece attached to his dark q-metal combat helmet and thermal-lensed gas mask; making sure to properly tweak the audio equalizers built into his intricate headpiece, as to not lose the settings he had set for it. Once he was ready, Haise took off his helmet and gas mask before setting them down on the ground beneath his combat boots.

Like always, the moment his subject saw his face, she had become entranced and mystified by what she was seeing. "You're… You're so young. So… So pretty," Roma muttered beneath her breath, as she was in awe at how prestine Haise's skin was, and how unique and fluffy his full head of hair was.

"Thank you for the compliment, ma'am. Judging by the intel I've received on you, you're quite young-looking yourself," Haise said with a pleasant and friendly smile on his face, as he reached into his pouch to pull out his hand-held PDA to bring up the file he had on Roma. "Says here that you're fifty-five, yet you're youthful in appearance and in the way you carry yourself. That's impressive."

Unsure on how to take Haise's analysis on the way she looked and sounded, Roma remained quiet for a moment as she continued to gaze at Haise's comforting smile, which she found to be hypnotic. 'He's so beautiful, so cute… He just killed two of my executive members, yet… Yet I can't stop admiring him; wanting to be on his good side,' Roma thought to herself as she kept her gaze on the young man who had captivated her attention.

"… May I share something personal with you, Haise? That is, if… If you don't mind me calling you that; it's what I heard your comrades calling you," Roma asked in a quiet voice, and felt her heart racing as she eagerly awaited his response.

Wanting for her to think that his friendship was within her grasp, Haise continued to smile comfortingly to Roma as he knelt down on one knee so that they were eye level with one another, and that their faces were only a half a meter apart from one another. "Of course, and I would be honored if you could share something personal of yours."

Being so close to his angelic smile made Roma blush, and she couldn't help but feel like a schoolgirl within his presence as she shyfully averted her gaze down to her lap. Wanting Haise to see her face and not the mask on her face, Roma unlatched the strap, which was keeping it secured to her face, and took it off before setting it down on lap.

"I… I was raised Catholic, and was raised by my mother after my father was murdered by CCG," Roma shared, as she thought back to how happy her childhood was, even after her father had passed away and her mother loved her unconditionally. "I remember when she told me about temptation, and how Satan had tried using it on Jesus when he went out into the wilderness…"

"… Of course, Jesus being literally the son of God was able to keep true to his faith in the face of the three temptations that sully man: The temptation of being alive, of the world left behind, and of eternal pride," Roma recalled, as she did her best to remember the night of when that discussion took place. "It got me thinking: I know that almost everyone on Earth wouldn't have passed up on Satan's temptations, especially if they were starving in the middle of bum-fuck nowhere…"

"… But then, that's when it came to me. I asked my mother, 'Wouldn't we be able to realize that we're being tricked by someone who was as evil and vile as Satan himself? Surely no one would ever trust someone who had horns, red skin, a pointy tail, and goat legs'," Roma chuckled softly, as she remembered the way she asked the question to her mother during their nightly Bible reading. "I mean, I phrased it a lot more simply back then, compared to how I just said it right now; I was like, twelve years old, after all…"

"… Anyways, that's when she told me something that really stuck to me, and well, it's something I've seen personally ever since she told me, 'Roma, Satan isn't some red-skinned monster who's ugly, who's offensive in appearance and nature, nor is he scary. He's not just an angel, he was God's favorite angel. He's the most beautiful thing imaginable, he makes you feel safe, loved, important; makes you feel like you can lower your guard around him'," Roma quoted before letting out a humorless laugh beneath her breath, and smiled sadly as she looked up into Haise's inquisitive eyes.

"It makes sense, doesn't it? Don't they call Satan the 'Father of all Lies'?" Roma asked, and continued to gaze deep into the young man's grey eyes before finally saying, "… Haise Sasaki, you remind me of Satan."

Although Roma's comparison to him being literally the most evil being in scripture didn't sit too well with Haise, he remained patient and charming as he held his gaze with her. "… If that's true, then can one really blame Satan for being evil? Wasn't it God who made him that way?" Haise asked more sincerely than he wanted to, as the conversation he had with Arima was still fresh on his mind. "I was born to be this way, raised to end the lives of those who prey on the innocent. Tell me, does that still make me evil?"

"That depends, does growing up penniless with a loving mother who had to sell her body to disgusting men justify my fear of being at the mercy of others? Does that make me selling slaves to the same sort of people who raped my mother before killing her okay? Or was I just born that way? To let others suffer on my behalf like my mother did, just so I don't end up like her?" Roma asked with an angered look on her face, as whatever trace of a smile had faded from her face.

Although Haise wasn't comfortable with the fact that he was relating to what Roma was beginning to rant on about as she approached what he knew to be her emotional breakdown, the young half-ghoul conveyed comfort in his understanding expression, silently urging the distraught ghoul to release her bottled up emotions.

"The world doesn't give two shits about people like us, Haise! If I wasn't the one telling others to capture and enslave the weak and helpless, then I would have been the one on the receiving end by someone else's hand! In this world, you either hurt others, and be hurt; and I don't want to be hurt anymore! I-I can't, I-I won't just stand there and take it like my mother! I-I won't be anyone's victim, and I sure as Hell not going to be yours or Tatara's bitch!" Roma shouted with tears running down the sides of her cheeks, as she stood up with her fists balled at her sides.

"You didn't have to hide in the cabinets while you watched helpless as your mother got raped by CCG, did you?! How dare you label me as vile, how dare you! The world made me this way, I never wanted to hurt others; no one wakes up and decides to do this sort of thing on a whim! That bastard, Souta, h-he's the one who got everyone else on board with this slave shit, I-I just wanted to play dress up and have fun! I-I didn't want to hurt anyone, a-and then he got us entangled with that Chinese guy, T-Tartara- OH, SPEAKING OF WHICH," Roma shouted with a deranged look on her face, as she suddenly spun around toward the security camera mounted in the corner of the room.

Raising her hands up to flip off the camera, Roma screamed, "FUCK YOU!!! FUCK YOU!!!" Watching with his hand tightening around the handle of his holstered hunting revolver, Haise remained vigilant as he watched Roma run over to the camera to leap up and rip it out of its mount. Falling onto her knees, she gritted her teeth and hollered profanities as she smashed the camera against the ground until it was nothing but a pile of scrap.

Standing up from where he was kneeling, Haise made sure to jot down the names 'Tatara' and 'Souta' onto his Pipboy Readius' note application, as Roma quickly broke down into a hysterical mess. Once he had finished writing that they had been monitored, and that TSC would need to sever the remote network connection, or at the very least investigate it, Haise put his hand-held device back into the pouch he kept on his belt.

Roma laid with her knees brought into her chest with her hands covering her eyes, and cried out for her mother to forgive her, and that she was sorry for what she had become. Closing his eyes and feeling sorry for her, and to a degree himself for her struggles hitting too close to home, Haise let out a genuine sigh of empathy for Roma. Wanting to comfort her and make her believe that he cared about her feelings, Haise took off his heavy leather duster that was made out of treated dragon skin, and knelt down beside Roma to drape it over her small frame; making sure to wrap it around her like a blanket before standing back up to his feet.

Standing patiently over Roma as sobbing quieted down the longer she cradled the duster around her body, Haise waited for her to calm down more before wanting to move on to trying to convince him to show him where Rize was being kept, all without risking her wanting to go out of her way to set out a trap for him. It was always how Haise managed to get information out of those who he interrogated; he made them want to help him, to keep him safe. And while Haise was messaging Arima to find the server room of the outpost so that he could disable the communications link, the half-ghoul found himself doing more of his own self-reflection.

Let me just go over the questions I got.

So in the last chapter, Haise did show that he found Itori to be hot, and didn't want to kill her. He only did it because Arima told him to, which was meant to show just how loyal he was to him, and how Haise's programmed to follow orders from him without question. What a shame too, because Itori's got big o' tiddies.

Kaneki and Haise will meet up in the next chapter, hopefully, but they're too far away from one another to have done that within a reasonable amount of time, so there really wasn't any way for Kaneki to step in if Haise decided to turn violent on Roma. If I do end up writing a lemon with her, I might give her to team Haise, just because they're similar when it comes to doing evil things because that's all they know, they know what they're doing is wrong and it goes against their own personal principles, yet they still do it for their own reasons.

Eto has more in common with Kaneki anyways, and I don't really see Kaneki and Roma being able to relate to one another. And please keep mentioning possible characters who I could use from Naruto, lol! I love having options, and even if I don't end up using them, they're still good to use for later or just entertaining to read in general.

Plus considering the backstory I gave to Roma and the way she thinks, I don't see her rushing into any casual sexual encounter, and probably is turned off by it. If I wrote characters the same way I did in Root H, I could do that, but like, ya know, depth and all that.

But speaking of Naruto women they could court, I'm totally down for Kaneki to get a piece of Konan, Ino, Koyuki, and maybe Hinata, although I might give her to Naruto once becomes Kaneki's friend. Also, I love the idea of Haise having a thing with Kurotsuchi, since yeah so far he's only shown genuine interest in girls who act like tomboys and/or look like feminine boys.

With that being said, as far as Roma goes, I can really only see the attraction being one sided. She doesn't really fit Haise's standards, and I see him more so looking at her like a friend, so he would friendzone Roma. Touka is boyish and doesn't really act like a girl, or at least that's the way I'm keeping her, because I loved when she was like that in the beginning of Tokyo Ghoul.

Also, if Tokyo Ghoul was written more realistically, then yeah I can totally see Kaneki having a mommy kink, or at the very least being interested in older women. I would ship Kaneki in this with Kurona and Nashiro, simply because they know each other and the twins are looking up to him as a leader, and will develop more respect for him the more Kaneki focuses his attention on GOAT.

Although Saiko is Kaneki's age, I agree that the two wouldn't be capable. If she's going to have a thing for someone, it's going to be Haise, her 'Maman', and seeing how Haise sees her as a daughter more than anything else, I think it's fair to say that she's the one person who Haise wouldn't want to corrupt or taint. But yeah, I definitely don't want to make this just over saturated with lemons, or at least not a harem fic.

It's easier to write Kaneki being with one woman at a time, while having Haise screwing different women while trying to really find 'the one'. Writing multiple lemons of characters who are dating for that period is better imo, maybe even show Haise trying to break away from his habits and just slipping up once in a while. Which leads me to like, I really think Haise and Touka are cute together, and I love Kaneki and Eto being together.

Kaneki and Ihei? I could maybe see that, but Ihei is probably more so attracted to Arima, so I can only see her having sex with Kaneki once he gets his white hair and starts acting like him. And don't worry, definitely going to have sweaty milfs in yoga pants and spandex, especially Hikari. Might even have Touka try that for Haise.

Fuck guys, this might just turn out to be a Etoken and 'Toukaise' fanfic soon lol, just gotta get Kaneki ready for Eto and Haise ready for Touka. Right now, they're not. Haise, as of now, doesn't understand love or how to be anything other than a bloodthirsty nymphomaniac who has sociopathic tendencies, and Kaneki is still doing his own growing up right now, and needs to find his purpose in life before he can settle down with his end goal.

As for Rize, again, she's attracted to Haise and, to a lesser degree, Kaneki. But again, she ain't the kind of girl that Haise is into; he grew up with Ihei and other girls from Sunlit Gardens who were hardened who weren't girly. Haise doesn't understand girly, and doesn't find most women to be beautiful. Haise would probably just tell Rize that he liked it when her hair was shorter and her breasts were less 'fatty'; he's into flat chests.

Yeah, he oggles cleavages and curvy women, but so far Haise hasn't tried to make a move on a girl unless they fit his criteria. Kaneki just needs to get his virgin ass back to Anteiku and get laid by Touka's mom.

Also speaking of kagunes, I'm thinking about giving Kaneki his usual kagune that works it way up to being the One-Eyed King variant/Centipede, while giving Haise a modified version of the the six-tendril one that had those crosses at their ends (The final version of Kaneki's kagune in the manga/anime, just minus the centipede chest piece). I'm excited to decide, because coming up will be the first time Haise and Kaneki team up, in order to fight the first dragon in the fanfic, which I plan on being modeled after that one Kingdom Hearts boss: Darkside.

You know, that giant thirty-meter tall hulking black figure with tendrils coming out its head? Giant claws and arms, bat wings, and glowing eyes? Yeah, that's gonna be their first dragon they fight, and it'll be the first time they actually go against something that'll give them a real challenge.

And thank you for reminding me that .50 caliber rifles are loud AF. It reminded me of the fact that Haise's combat helmet has a sound-equalizer to protect his hearing without muffling any outside noises that he would need to hear. And will a .50 Caliber do anything to a dragon? It'll do very slight damage, but if uses all of his ammo, he might be able to do a considerable amount of damage to something that's about 30-50 meters large.

Think about Eto's kakuja, the one she uses at Cochlea, and imagine if she got shot with a .50 caliber rifle. Emptying a magazine might cause it to stumble or lose a small appendage, but it's not going to kill it alone. Especially if you consider that the dragon I'll be writing about doesn't have any organs, and they'll still come at you without a head.

If Kaneki or Haise had a fatman, it would definitely do most of the work for them. Unless they have a mini-nuke, a missile launcher with a good amount of rockets, Tesla cannon, an energy weapon, a specialized flamethrower, a really good quinque, or heavy artillery, their best bet would be just to keep slicing at it with their kagune and hope that it'll eventually run out of RC-cells and the dragon cells inside of it end up being unable to regenerate.

Anyway, that's about it for now. If you got any lemon ideas, or suggestions or cool ideas I could use, such as Kaneki eventually finding an alien blaster later as a 'side quest', then hit me up lol.

Anyways, thank you for reading and I hope you have a damn good day.