Here it is, the juicy finale of the Vault 079 arc! After this chapter, there'll be an aftermath small story leading up to two new lemons, before finally reaching our first time! I'm super excited to continue on with this plot; it's the most fun I've had with writing for a while!

Okay, thank you for reading and the author's notes are at the end.

Enjoy!

There were a lot of thoughts going on through the Overseer's office, between Haise and Kaneki, both who had their eyes fixated on one another, while their respective allies in the room watched the two standing before one another. The uncanny similarities between the two were once again making themselves clear to not just each other, but to those in the room who found the two young men to look almost identical.

They both had the same shade of grey in their eyes, and both even had their red iris showing on the left side. Their facial structure, skin color, posture, all of it was the same. The only actual difference between Haise and Kaneki was their hair, and the fact that Haise was slightly taller than Kaneki, but not by much. Even their voices sounded similar, which they themselves couldn't tell, but it was apparent as daylight to the rest of the ghouls in the office room.

Being the one without much of a filter on her mouth, Roma raised her hand up and pointed a finger at Haise before blurting out, "Oh yeah, you two are definitely brothers! The resemblance is identical! I'm genuinely surprised that you two didn't make the connection earlier!" Roma said in her usual loud and squeaky voice, which irked Rio as he glared at her from the side of his peripheral vision.

"… Why are we letting her stay here, again?" Rio asked with a bitter voice, as he looked over to Kaneki to get his attention. "Boss, she's the one who was in charge of all those dead assholes… She's the one who approved of all of us getting locked up in the first place; we should just throw her out of here and leave her to the dragon."

Scoffing at the thought of being insulted by someone who she saw as expendable, Roma turned her head over to Rio and scowled at him with a goofy smirk on her youthful face. "Wow, the balls on this little twink! Got me out numbered five-to-one, and now you think you're hot shit! How about you show a little appreciation; Haise and I are the ones who solved that little dragon-orphan infestation of yours…!"

Being one of the hundreds of people who Roma had wronged, Kurona took a step forward in front of Rio until she stood two feet taller than the ex-leader of the Clowns, who was standing less than a foot away from her. "Shut your mouth, you little freak… We could have fought off those small fry ourselves; don't oversell yourself. After all, you have more enemies here than allies, so I'd watch my step if I were you."

Not afraid of the black-haired one-eyed ghoul who was trying to intimidate her, Roma raised her arm up and made the shape of an 'L' on her forehead, using her finger and thumb. Blowing a raspberry at her, Roma flipped Kurona off with her other hand. "Sister-Fucker!" Roma insulted in a very obnoxious and immature voice that made Kurona recoil, and made Nashiro come toward her with fury in her eyes.

The moment he saw Nashiro cocking her arm back to punch Roma in the back of the head, Haise immediately stepped in. Unholstering his large revolver from his hip within less than a second, Haise shoved the tip of his firearm up against the underside of Nashiro's throat as he put himself between her and Roma.

Just as Haise cocked back the hammer of his revolver and Nashiro became frozen with a confused and horrified look in her wide-open eyes, Kuzen quickly leaped in. Using his decades of close-quarters-combat experience, Kuzen grabbed the barrel of Haise's revolver and made sure it wasn't pointing at anyone in the room before pulling the firearm out of the half-ghoul's hand.

"Perhaps this isn't the best time for such actions, wouldn't you say Mr. Sasaki?" Kuzen asked in a calm manner, while frowning at the annoyed half-ghoul the same way a disapproving grandfather would do to his grandson. Had it been anyone else who took his gun away, with the exception of Arima, Juuzou, and now apparently Kaneki, Haise wouldn't have hesitated to kill them. But since Haise had known Kuzen since he was ten years old, the half-ghoul made the exception, and instead simply chose to pull Roma away from the Yashiro twins and keep her close to him in a protective way.

"Arima's ordered me to escort her back to Tokyo. unharmed. I won't tolerate anyone laying a hand on her under my watch," Haise explained to Kuzen, while still being on edge as he kept his eyes on Rio, Kurona, and Nashiro. "I understand the grudges you three have against Roma Hoito, and you all have every right to feel the way you do about her. However, until further notice, she is under my protection. Do I make myself clear?" Haise asked in an authoritative tone, just the one he used to use back when he was working for TSC.

Holding her sister protectively in her arms, embracing her so that their breasts were pressing up against each other, Kurona glared hatefully at Haise while a look of fear and outrage grew on her face. "Y-You were going to kill my sister over something small, you deranged psychopath! Why the Hell should we take orders from you?!" Kurona shouted angrily at Haise, all while Roma stuck her tongue at her, while her arms were wrapped around the half-ghoul's waist.

"Because he'll kill you, that's why!" Roma jeered like a brat hiding behind their overprotective father, as the confidence she had knowing that Haise was on her side made her feel invincible. "Go ahead, do it! I dare you; I double-dog dare you! He's actually crazy; make his day!" Roma instigated, before turning her head over to Rio, who was trying to stay out of the drama. "How about you, 'Tinkerbell'? Feeling lucky today?"

"Uh… N-Not really, no," Rio said cautiously, as he really wasn't trying to risk his own safety over something that didn't involve him.

Glaring down at Roma while still having his arm over her shoulder to keep her close to him, Haise frowned at her. "Stop that; you're not helping…" Haise scolded Roma, before quickly looking back up to lock eyes with the scowling one-eyed ghoul twins.

With the tension high in the air and it appearing as though Kurona and Nashiro were going to try and take a swing at Roma at any second, Kuzen quietly made his way over to Kaneki's side. Leaning down subtly, Kuzen whispered into Kaneki's ear, "This is the part where you, the Boss, de-escalates the situation… I'd recommend that you establish order with the Yashiro twins, and I'll quietly pull Haise and his little friend aside to break them apart…"

Having never been one for confrontation, with the exception of earlier when he was fighting for his life, Kaneki looked up into Kuzen's narrowed eyes and gave him a nervous smile. "Uh… I'll… I'll try, I guess," Kaneki whispered back to Kuzen, who gave him a proud smile.

"Good show, Mr. Kaneki…" Kuzen complimented him, and gave Kaneki a pat on the shoulder before walking over to Haise to subtly pull him and Roma out of the Overseer's office. Before either Kurona or Nashiro could follow behind them, Kaneki stepped in front of him and raised his hands up to gesture them to halt.

"Now just, uh… Hold on, okay? There's no need to get physical here; let's save that aggression for the dragon, alright?" Kaneki said calmly with an anxious smile on his face, as he felt uncomfortable beneath the gazes of the pissed off girls standing in front of him.

"He just pulled a gun on my sister, Kaneki! How are you actually standing up for him?!" Kurona asked while outraged at the young man who was supposed to be leading her. "What, he's got a pass because he's your long-lost brother, or some shit?! Is that what you're going to say?!"

"N-No, it's not like that at all, Kurona. I'm trying to make sure that we're all on the same page here; we can't afford to fight amongst each other… Not when we have bigger issues to deal with," Kaneki reasoned, which although made sense to the two sisters, it still didn't satisfy them.

"What about me, Kaneki? He could have blown my brains out all over the ceiling… How can we trust him? Especially since he's willing to protect someone as scummy as the Dodgy Mother?" Nashiro asked in a stern voice that was less frantic than how her sister sounded. "He's one of those 'reapers', isn't he? They're born and raised to kill people, Kaneki; he's dangerous, and so is she."

Nodding his head to show that he wasn't trying to invalidate her feelings, Kaneki lowered her arms down and stared into Nashiro's worried eyes. "Sasaki is… He isn't like that always. When he met me in the hospital, he was really nice to me and he didn't give me any bad vibes about him. But still, what he did was wrong, I'm not going to say it wasn't… How about I go to talk to him after we get rid of 'Darkside'? I'll make him apologize to you, and make it up to you and Kurona."

Easing up and appearing just as surprised as Kurona at how Kaneki offered to stand up for both of them, Nashiro turned around for a moment to exchange looks with her twin sister. "I mean… It'll take a lot to make up for shoving a gun into my throat, right? That Sasaki guy probably has something to give us… You said he owns his own business, right Boss?" Nashiro asked curiously, with the thought of being compensated making her feel more willing to forgive Haise, and even Roma.

Furrowing his brow, Kaneki wasn't at all too happy to see the Yashiro twins showing their materialistic side to him, but at the same time he was beginning to see the world for what it was. "Yes, yes he does… He owns a pretty big detective agency, and gets funded by TSC, I think? I have a business card… Err, had one," Kaneki corrected himself, after remembering that his possessions on the night he was kidnapped were disposed of.

'Wait… Possessions… That's it!' Kaneki thought to himself, as he suddenly was struck with a brilliant idea on how to persuade the twins into being cooperative. "You two saw all that gear he had on him when he came inside… Sasaki had on an expensive-looking gas-mask when he came inside. He has a built in-computer hooked up into his helmet and the lenses of his mask, and he told me that his riot-armor and duster are made out of a special dragon-skin weave…"

"… Pair all that with the fact that he owns a quinque, a military-grade rifle and that big-revolver, I think it's fair to say that Sasaki has money to spare," Kaneki assumed, while hoping that his sales-pitch for his older brother's probable network would be enough to sway the hearts of both sisters.

Holding her hand up to her chin, Kurona's gaze wandered down to the shiny cold-steel metal floor, as she thought about the offer along with her equally intrigued sister. "I mean… We aren't from Tokyo, so it's like we have connections there… If he were to give us what we needed to get on our feet, that would be really helpful…" Kurona mused aloud with a conflicted tone, before turning to her white-haired twin. "What do you say, dear sister? Does our Boss' proposed offer sound acceptable to you?"

Dragging out the time it took to appear as though she was on the fence about it herself, Nashiro finally gave her answer when she said, "I think I could find it in my heart to forgive both Sasaki and his little 'clown whore', if penitence was given." Giving Kurona a smirk, Nashiro turned back around to Kaneki before nodding to him. "I accept the terms of his apology, Boss; we can discuss more about it later… Shall my sister and I go down to the rally point, and inform the others to gather what they need for our battle?"

'Are they calling me 'Boss' now too, because they're getting what they wanted? Or… Or are they respecting me because I fought for them?' Kaneki wondered to himself, as he was pleasantly surprised to find that he was getting more respect than he'd ever could remember having in his life. 'It doesn't matter, I suppose…'

"… Make it so," Kaneki said with newfound confidence, as he stood with his back straightened and his expression more serious, all while he tried to mimic the voice that he heard Haise using when he was protecting Roma.

Exchanging surprised glances with one another, Kurona and Nashiro found themselves blushing from the way Kaneki's lowered and more intimidating voice sounded sexy to them. "R-Right away, Boss…!" Kurona replied back with a bashful smile, before pulling her sister behind her, as they left the Overseer's office to make their way down to the elevator room to prepare their able-bodied ghouls for battle.

Not long after the twins were gone, Rio nodded his head with an impressed look in his purple eyes. "I'm actually surprised you were able to talk those two down, Boss. Kurona looked like she was about to unleash her kagune on the Dodgy Mother; things were definitely about to go south, that's for sure."

Still wanting to be more confident and beginning to take a liking to the way his new way of speaking made the Yashiro twins blush like school girls, Kaneki thought of how Kuzen carried himself, and wanted to try doing the same as well. Walking over to Rio until he was standing right infront of him, Kaneki smiled softly at the confused ghoul before extending his arm out to place his hand on his shoulder.

"I appreciate hearing you say that, Rio. Thank you," Kaneki said in his slower and deeper voice that he was starting to perfect after Haise. Giving Rio's shoulder a reassuring squeeze like how Kuzen did, Kaneki gave the blushing ghoul an approving nod before lowering his arm down to his side. "I need you to accompany me; I have to make sure my… 'Brother' is ready to help lead the charge." Kaneki said, while still trying to get used to the fact that he had an older sibling.

Charmed by Kaneki's growing charisma, Rio had practically forgotten all about how the two of them had tried killing one another just hours ago. Swallowing back the lump in his throat, Rio replied, "Y-Yes Boss," before following behind Kaneki, as the two of them made their way to the Overseer's bedroom, which was just the next room over.

Although the armory inside Vault 079 had been practically gutted by the Clowns, there was still enough for Kaneki to arm those who were calling themselves his 'soldiers'. Getting rid of the tattered clothing of those who had been imprisoned, everyone, with the exception of Haise and Roma, was fitted with their own vault security armor.

Although Kaneki knew that the ballistic-weave that the armored padding that his soldiers wore wasn't as durable as the armor he and Haise had on, simply because the standard vault-security armor used q-metal instead of treated dragon-skin, he knew that it would be detrimental to the safety of those who were putting their lives at risk.

Due to the limited amount of ammunition and firearms present in the vault, the few humans who were brave enough to volunteer themselves to help defeat Darkside were the ones who received whatever weapons were in the armory. And although Kaneki only had a few magazines left for the bolt-action hunting rifle he had gotten earlier, he felt hopeful for his chances to not only stay alive, but to turn the tides of battle; especially after Kuzen and him had made a trip down to the vault's laboratory before they had met up at the rendezvous point.

In order to best utilize those who he would be fighting alongside and leading, Kaneki positioned all the armed humans in the back of the formation; counting on them to cover the ghouls in front of him, who would be using their kagunes to defend them from any tunnelers who would surely be there to defend Darkside. In front, Kaneki and his selected allies would be leading the charge and bringing the fight to the hulking beast that would no doubt awaken the moment the elevator would ascend up to its cave.

After establishing and comparing every ghoul's abilities and strengths, it was decided that since Kuzen and Roma were able to produce large-armored kakuja that were considered 'SSS' rank, they would be the first to clear the way toward Darkside. Haise, being extremely agile and equipped with a devastating kagune, was tasked with provoking the dragon and to have it focus on him while Kaneki would use his Pipboy's VATS— Vault Assisted Targeting System— to pin-point and call out its weak spots.

Unraveling his kagune from his lower back to unleash his three red-tendrils, Kaneki's kakugan activated as he stepped forward with his leather belt strapped with jury-rigged toxic-grenades he had fashioned from the vault's experimental gas. Armed and as ready as he was ever going to get, Kaneki plugged his Pipboy's wire into the elevator's control panel, and hacked into the system before activating the lift protocol.

With the hydraulic mechanism beneath the large and yellow vault-shaped platform they were standing in formation on, all of them felt the Earth vibrate and rattle as they ascended up the elevator shaft. Even over the loud humming of the steam spouting out from the intense heat of the powerful hydraulic system, all of Kaneki's soldiers could hear the unnerving sounds of the tunnelers digging up through the Earth just outside the safety of their elevator-shaft.

And as they approached the end of their ascension, Kaneki couldn't help but to think back to how quickly his values had changed over the course of two days. 'And to think, I thought my life was over because I couldn't imagine myself getting accepted back into Kami University… And here I am, about to lead a charge through an army of two-meter tall monsters that want to rip us to shreds, just so I could get past them and kill a Lovecraftian nightmare…'

"Overwatch, lock and load!" Haise commanded without really considering that he was leading a militia instead of trained combatants, as he turned his head over his shoulder to address the confused humans and ghouls behind him. "Base of fire, let Overwatch cover you; expect hostiles from all angles! Cavern will be kinetic; be ready for anything, and check your fire!"

Like most of the people in the elevator who didn't know what Haise's jargon actually meant, Roma shouted over the hydraulic system beneath them, "WHAT?! WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?!"

Having been ex-military himself, Kuzen took it upon himself to translate quickly as they were moments away from reaching the top of the lift. "He wants the humans to shoot and not worry about the ghouls defending them! The cave will be dangerous and crawling with tunnelers, so- Oh, forget it!" Kuzen snapped, after realizing that he wouldn't have enough time to go over every detail of what Haise had just said.

'… I wonder what Hide would say right now,' Kaneki thought to himself with a feeling of serenity coming over him; the calm before the storm which faded away the moment their platform reached the colossal cavern. As soon as the sliding doors opened, the floodlights mounted into the walls of the cavern walls illuminated the area around them, and over the sea of tunnelers that were closing in on them, the world seemed to slow down as Kaneki watched in horror as the sleeping giant rose up from its feet.

Towering above its offspring at a height that seemed more akin to thirty-meters tall than how it was described being shorter in the Overseer's logs, Darkside's glowing yellow eyes stared down at them from within its sunken face that had writhing tendrils wiggling and squirming out of its skull. Despite its size and short legs, the massive jet-black dragon was fast on its feet, and was crushing the tunnelers beneath it as it advanced toward all of them; the cavern ceiling crumbling as the Earth shook with each step it took.

Luckily for Kaneki, Haise was faster than Darkside, and it didn't take more than half a second for his older brother to tear his way through the tunnelers to get to the hulking beast. Doing his best to not get distracted with the gunfire going off from behind him, along with the battle cries of the ghouls who were engaging with the tunnelers surrounding them, Kaneki stared down at his Pipboy screen after he had used its senor reader to scan the dragon.

'Arms are too bulky to focus on… Legs are the least bulky, yet this thing's telling me that their the most pierce-resist part on the body— same as the tendrils on its head,' Kaneki thought to himself as each passing second brought them a step-closer to being overwhelmed.

'The head has no vital weaknesses, just the eyes… The abdomen? That's… That's where it wants us to attack?' Kaneki thought to himself, as his gaze left the monitor to look up at Darkside to take a look of the dragon's elongated abdomen. Kaneki managed to only catch a glimpse of Darkside ripping off the arms of Roma's kakuja that it had pinned down beneath its foot before he was suddenly blindsided by a tunneler.

Letting out a grunted cry of agony the moment he felt it's half-meter long claws piercing his left shoulder and through his now-destroyed leather-pauldron, Kaneki put one foot back and used his three tendrils to grab a hold of the tunnelers raised claw. Even with his enhanced strength from being a one-eyed ghoul, it took all of the power of Kaneki's kagune to prevent the tunneler from using its raised claw to swipe down to behead him.

Once it realized that it wouldn't be able to decapitate Kaneki as easily as it thought, the tunneler proceeded to pull its claws out of Kaneki's shoulder to try and slice its sharpened fingers through his neck. Being thankful for the fact that the suppressants in his body had worn off, Kaneki reached up with both hands to grab the dragon-orphan's wrist to push its claw away from his throat.

Once Kaneki was able to get the upper hand in their skirmish, he was able to rip its clawed-hand right off of its blackened arm. Watching for a split second as small black tendrils squirmed out its stumped-wrist, as if though it were trying to reconnect its lost limb back, Kaneki let out an adrenaline-fueled shout as he rammed the tunnelers own severed hand upperwards and pierced its own claws through its head before decapitating the dragon orphan.

Raising a leg and kicking its convulsing and headless corpse away from him, Kaneki began emptying his hunting rifle's magazine into Darkside's torso; alerting Kuzen to use his kakuja to fire a volley of kagune-bullets straight into its abdomen, while Haise swooped down to pull Roma out of her kakuja before she could get crushed by the dragon's black-foot.

Having to trust the three strongest fighters in his group to deal with Darkside, Kaneki managed to duck down just in time to avoid getting his stomach impaled by another tunneler. Using the butt of his empty rifle, Kaneki bashed it against the tunneler to push it away from him to give him some room to use his kagune. Wrapping his tendrils around its neck and shoulder, Kaneki pulled its head and left arm apart as he reached into his belt to begin chucking his homemade anti-dragon toxin-grenades out into the groups of tunnelers closing in one them.

Kaneki wasn't sure how much time had passed while he had been fighting wave-after-wave of tunnelers, and his body was quickly adapting to the pain as he received injuries with each time he had to fight off one or more aggressors. Even with the toxic-gas having softened up the dragon-orphans by making them significantly weaker and less durable, the fact was that there were too many, and the ghouls who were in charge of protecting the humans were beginning to get overwhelmed.

In order to compensate for the seemingly endless amount of tunnelers who were circling around them, Kaneki and his group were forced to tighten their formation to avoid being ambushed. And in all but one moment, things went from bad to worse.

Time seemed to slow again for Kaneki, as the sound of Kurona letting out a piercing scream alerted him to look over his shoulder. Dread filled Kaneki's eyes, as he watched Kurona struggling to free herself of the three tunnelers who were attacking her, as she watched helplessly as Nashiro was pinned down by a group of six dragon orphans; all of which were knelt down around her grounded body, as they plunged their claws in and out of her body.

Not less than a moment later, the Earth-shifting quake that rocked the cavern walls around them forced Kaneki to look away from the Yashiro twins, and back to Darkside. From the crater inside the wall where it was retracting its mutilated fist, Kaneki let out a gasp as he noticed just how much blood and broken-pieces of kakuja were speared around the walls of the crater, where Kuzen had been punched into.

Inside of Darkside's other massive clawed-hand, Roma was failing to save herself as the dragon was trying to crush her in its palm like an insect; the only thing preventing Roma's brutal demise was Haise, who was using his kagune to pry open Darkside's hand from closing down on the bloodied ghoul. Unable to use his kagune to defend himself, Haise was forced to use his quinque to slash away at the regenerating tendrils wrapped around Darkside's head, as it tried using its nightmarish tendrils to pull the half-ghoul it had trapped near its opened and unseen maw.

With their grim end seemingly coming at any second, Kaneki couldn't help but to wonder why time actually seemed to slow down for him. At first, he assumed it was because of his own body's hormones, but that still didn't explain why he felt clarity unlike anything he ever felt before. Even with the chaos around him, Kaneki felt more level-headed than he had ever been; his spatial awareness and perception felt superhuman.

It was only then did Kaneki see from the corner of his peripheral vision, as the screen on his Pipboy lit up with the cartoony-image of Vault-Boy smiling back at him; winking with his hands pointed at him in the shape of finger-guns, as if telling him 'Give 'em Hell.' Below the image of the cheering mascot character read, 'VATS Active: Critical Meter Full.'

'Have I… Have I really been using this thing wrong?' Kaneki thought to himself, as the advanced systems within his arm-mounted device sent signals to his brain using its calibrated oscillation readers to guide a highlighted path to the objective it had mapped out for him.

Following the glowing-green trail that the Pipboy had manifested in his eyes, Kaneki was able to use his heightened senses to focus on the one objective that his Pipboy and kakuhou told him to accomplish: 'Use your kagune to pierce through Darkside's highlighted weak spot.'

It was easier said than done, as Kaneki felt an immediate pain in his chest and head the moment time sped back up to normal, after he had chosen his targets in order. With reflexes and speed that made him temporarily on par with Haise, Kaneki swung his three tendrils straight through the necks of all six tunnelers who had ganged up on Nashiro; freeing her before immediately dismembering the dragon-orphans who had been attacking Kurona.

Buying time for the Yasuhisa twins to recover, Kaneki immediately turned his attention back to where his next target stood towering over the thick cloud of toxic-gas that hovered three meters above the ground of the cavern. Lifting himself over the cloud of death with his tendrils, Kaneki moved as fast as he could with his kagune. Time was of the essence, as the organic-killing toxins within the thick cloud of gas was dissolving his kagune at a rapid rate, and the moment Kaneki traversed over the barrier of poison, his weakened kagune was being ripped to shreds by the powerful tunnelers below; all of which were untouched by the powerful compound, and all of which who were causing Kaneki to descend down to their level.

Had it been for his enhanced speed and boost of agility, Kaneki would have been torn to shreds by the thousands of dragon-orphans he had walked through. In fact, Kaneki would have been caught by the bloodthirsty tunnelers below, had he not been clear headed and quick enough to use what little was left of his kagune to launch himself upward toward Darkside, who had noticed him advancing toward them immediately.

With only red-stubs left of where his three-meter tendrils once were, Kaneki realized his mistake the moment it became apparent that he saw Darkside's pried-open hand swatting down toward where he was soaring. Bloodied and injured, Roma used what little strength she had left to produce a kagune through her own abdomen, so that she could push Kaneki out of the way just as Darkside was about to send him splattering down toward the sea of its offspring below.

Not willing to allow Kaneki to get away that easily, Darkside attempted to use the fist it had used to crater Kuzen into the side of the cave. However, just as the dragon cocked it hand back to slash its eight-meter long fingers straight through the incoming one-eyed ghoul, a flurry of heavy-caliber kagune-bullets shot from Kuzen's broken body, as the old man used all his remaining strength to fire enough organic crystal shards straight through the dragon's shoulder to sever its limb completely.

With his objective within his reach, the only obstacle left for Kaneki to face was the conundrum of not having the means to pierce through Darkside's damaged abdomen. He knew that his small fist wouldn't do anything against the skin and muscle of a dragon, even if its abdomen was weakened from Haise, Kuzen, and Roma's frontal assault. Beginning to think that everything was for naught, it was then that Kaneki's eyes caught sight of a gleaming white-katana with black-and-red etching along its handle and blade coming straight at him.

Looking up at where Haise had thrown his quinque toward him, Kaneki grabbed Yukimura's handle just as he watched his newfound brother suddenly get pushed into the black-abyss that was Darkside's maw; his white-and-red kagune exploding into a bloody cloud of RC-cells as the dragon chomped down on the reaper's body.

Cocking back both his arms while envisioning where he could do the most critical damage against the monstrosity, Kaneki saw from the corner of his eyes as Darkside's hand was moving into to crush Roma into a fine paste, while Kuzen's limp body fell forward and descend down toward the pack of tunnelers below, who were all eagerly awaiting to tear the old ghoul apart with their razor-sharp claws.

Even in the face of uncertainty and tragedy, Kaneki let out the most furious battle cry he had ever thought possible, as he used all his strength and his Pipboy's guidance to cut through Darkside's torso in one-clean slash with Yukimura's powerful blade. For a split second after he had created an opening into the dragon's torso, Kaneki suddenly felt another wave of serenity and focus wash over him, as his kagune began moving on its own toward the glowing-red mass of DM-cells within Darkside's body.

At the moment Kaneki's kagune pierced into the dragon's 'heart', he suddenly found himself staring through not only the eyes of the monster he was slaying, but through the collective hive-mind of all its offspring. His mind was clear, yet his body was beginning to succumb to the newfound feeling of otherworldly stimulation, as Kaneki's kakugan transformed from red to a brilliant-glowing yellow light. While still airborne and holding onto the quinque given to him by Haise, Kaneki was in control of Darkside and the tunnelers' fate, and in that moment, all that the young one-eyed ghoul wanted was just one command away from being his.

"Die… All of you. Die for me," Kaneki whispered, as he suddenly felt Darkside's seized up body going limp, before slowly falling backwards headfirst into the cave-wall behind him. Watching as the blackened creature of Lovecraftian creation came tumbling down and breaking through the rock it landed on, Kaneki could see its yellow eyes quickly dimming as its life faded into nothing.

With his kagune still forcing him to latch onto the corpse of the thirty-meter monster, Kaneki landed on its carved abdomen— below where his kagune was glowing a brilliant-red as it appeared to him to be draining its DM-cells out of its dying husk of a heart. Exhausted and unable to move as his kakuhou fed itself before retracting his empowered kagune back into his body, Kaneki laid limb, unable to move, as he stared off toward the direction of where the elevator platform was located.

From his elevated vantage point on top of the dragon he had slayed, Kaneki vision was going blurry after he managed to see the breath-taking sight of tens-of-thousands of dragon-orphan corpses laying all over the massive-cavern floors.

Letting out the longest sigh of relief that he had ever taken in his life, Kaneki felt Yukimura's handle rolling out of his weakened grip, as he heavy-lids came closing down over his tired eyes.

Although he was passing out and his world was going black, Kaneki found himself smiling as a sense of accomplishment and triumph from his decisive victory made him feel at rest, as his mind faded away from reality, and awoke in a world that felt surreal like a dream.

The apartment was small, and wasn't anything like how the young seven year-old boy remembered his home back at Sunlit Gardens being. Hearing the door being locked behind him, Ken looked over his small shoulder to gaze up with a blank-stare at the woman who had brought him that small-cozy apartment in the first place.

She looked frightened, shaken up and her usually pristine lab coat had been covered in soothe and ash. Ken didn't understand why she was crying as she collapsed with her back up against the floor, and simply stood there with a confused expression on his face as he watched the doctor sob aggressively into her forearms.

Huddled up into her knees, the woman took her thin-red framed glasses off her face before trying to wipe her eyes free of the messy tears pouring out from the corners of her brown-eyes. Ken didn't understand why they were in such a small and cluttered place, within some city that he never heard of before. He didn't want to be there, especially not after all the time it took for the Senior Researcher's protege to bring him to an apartment, out of all places.

"… Why aren't we home? There's much to be done, and I can't help my brothers and sisters from here," Ken asked in a monotone and slow voice, as all he could think about was how much he was failing the likes of Dr. Kanou and members of V; all of which had taught him since he was a toddler that failure and shame was a worse fate than death.

"S-Sunlit Gardens isn't your home anymore, Ken; i-it never was…" the woman protested with a raspy voice, as she raised her head up from her forearms to stare sorrowfully into the emotionless child who met her gaze with bored eyes.

Ken felt terrible about himself, and thought it to be selfish that the good doctor's protege took him from the rest of the boys and girls who he grew up with; those who he had been taught to kill and die for. "… You're a coward. Move out of my way; I'm going back to help my family."

Raising her arms up to grab Ken by his shoulders, the heartbroken and distraught scientist shook her head violently as more tears ran down the sides of her cheeks. "Y-You can't, Ken… Y-You couldn't do anything if you wanted to… You're just a child, for God's sake…!"

"I've already gone through the firearms training course, that's good enough isn't it?" Ken argued back with his white eyebrows furrowed, as he wasn't understanding why the scientist before him was trying to stop him from accomplishing his mission.

"N-No! No, it's n-not okay, Ken! C-Children… Children like you shouldn't be fighting and dying for adults… N-Not when we should be the ones fighting for you, not sending all of you to your deaths!"

Horrified at what she had heard coming from the mouth of a child who shouldn't have been so eager to back into the nightmarish hellscape that was taking place just outside the city that was fighting for its life, Kimiko Kaneki let out a gasp as she smacked Ken straight across the face far harder than she had intended.

Repulsed with her own actions, Kimiko immediately let go of Ken and covered her mouth with one hand. Staring back through her widened eyes as Ken stood there with the same unflinching expression as when she found him, Kimiko felt her blood grow icy cold as the young reaper-in-training turned his small little head back to her to stare straight through her soul with his broken eyes.

"… You think something like that would hurt me? After all I've been through?" Ken asked in an emotionless voice that lacked any fear or warmth to it; a voice that no child should have.

Having only recently found out what her teacher— the same man who had adopted her when she was orphaned as a baby— had been working on for the past several decades made Kimiko sick to her stomach. The man she called her father had been experimenting on children born out of rape, all for the sake of eugenics and working toward the goal of creating the ultimate life: dragons.

At the very moment, now that she had separated herself from the source of all of Japan's future evil, Kimiko couldn't help but feel regretful for having ever listened to Ukina in the first place. Had she only lived in blissful ignorance and not agreed to commit espionage on behalf of Aogiri Tree, then Kimiko could have gone on living under the assumption that her father died a good and loving man.

That selfish and intrusive thought alone was enough to finally push her over the edge. Collapsing onto the floor and going into the fetal position, Kimiko stared blankly ahead at the metal braces around Ken's ankles, that still had broken chains dragging behind his feet from when Noroi had broken them before, shoving the bastard child into her. "I… I hate it; I hate it all… W-What's wrong with this messed up world… Why is it so twisted…?" Kimiko asked herself, and held her breath afterward as she watched Ken kneel down on one scraped-up knee to stare down at her with a look of superiority and disappointment in his grey gaze.

"This world… This world isn't wrong, Ms. Kaneki, nor is it right; the world is just the way it is, and always will be." Ken said, as he recited the words he had been taught to believe in ever since he was old enough to speak; even before he knew what any of it meant. "…If you feel the need to curse anything, then curse your own weakness; all the determent in this world stems from a lack of individual ability."

And as Kaneki watched the younger version of himself stare down coldly at the woman who later would adopt him and give her last name to him, the memory of his past life faded, as his subconscious was plunged into a stark-white world filled with beautiful red spider-lilies.

And boom, ended the arc with more questions being left unanswered after giving more backstory and lore to this AU.

Had a blast writing the dragon battle, and especially when Kaneki discovered how to actually use VATS to fight. This chapter also marks the beginning of Kaneki becoming more confident, and becoming a mix between the Black Reaper and his Post-Aogiri confidence and bravery, all without being mentally unstable or wanting to die fighting Arima.

And the big reveal of why Tatara wanted to secure Rize's kakuhou I think was worth it imo. I'll write more about what asbording Darkside did for Kaneki, but just expect him getting stronger and more unique abilities with each dragon he 'devours'.

By the way, only Kaneki can eat 'dragon hearts'; anyone else who would try the same would either die or become feral, and or a dragon themselves. And there we have it, Kaneki has gone from being a wimp who whines a lot, into someone who has learned to become confident, deadly, tactical, determined, and shown the potential of being a great leader. Yet, he still has a long way to go, considering that the only ability he's honed so far is just his expertise with guns, which was explained at the end of this chapter well enough, I hope.

I hope the end also explains why Kaneki was able to shrug off and withstand all the pain he received so far in the story; he's had a high pain tolerance since a child not from his mother beating him, but just because of growing up in Sunlit Gardens to one day be a reaper.

The only reason why Kaneki grew up becoming the soft and relatively normal person that he ended up being was because of his mother, who was far kinder in this AU than canon. Her hitting him would be the equivalent of smacking a kid with a single piece of paper; it was nothing to Kaneki. Kuzen didn't recognize Kaneki because Noroi was the one who rescued him, and Noroi's dead in the present of this AU.

When the time skips, expect Kaneki to take less shit from people and become more of a stand-up sort of person who's still kind to those who are weak and or nobel in his eyes. Think of it like this, he's his goofy pre-aogiri self with his friends, and doesn't mind getting teased and joking around, merely because he's confident enough to not take it personally.

With his enemies and those who he's deemed his enemy, he's more serious and sadistic, not forgiving of them. He'll act more like the Black Reaper and his Post-Aogiri self when he's dealing with those who have wronged him and his friends. Why, you ask? Because he'll start to hang Haise more, and will end up doing that thing where he picks up mannerisms and traits from him, like a little brother does with his older brother. And likewise, Haise will want to hang around Kaneki more to make up for lost time, and because he thinks Kaneki will be a good influence on him.

Okay, time for the reviews.

When is Kaneki going to get with Eto? Probably after he gets with Kurona for having saved Nashiro, after he gets trained by Hikari on how to be a good lover, after he accidentally finds himself developing feelings for Hinami. Only after that will Kaneki get the Eto booty.

Hide won't become a ghoul, but he'll get a prosthetic leg after the time skip (a small time skip mind you, only about three months or so). I might include Megatown or a variation of it, and as far as including Godzilla, idk if I'm ready to get THAT wacky just yet. As of now, I'll probably just include references to him, like sailors who claim they've seen a fifty-meter tall lizard swimming off the bay of Tokyo.

Because I'm waiting for whatever characters I pull from Attack on Titan to be members exclusively for the Brotherhood of Steel, simply because that faction in this AU was once the United Front, which were made up of ex-soldiers and scientists who were left behind after the United States and their allies left Tokyo. It would explain why most of them aren't Japanese or Asian in general, and most of them all have Western-European names.

For the lemons happening in Vault 079, I'm definitely going to do Haise x Roma, and Kaneki x Kurona. Might even have both Kurona and Nashiro pleasure Kaneki after the two of them feel indebted to him, and want to reward him greatly for saving their lives. Roma is already attracted to Haise, and will use the excuse of 'relieving his tensions' in order to convince him to let her sleep with him.

Oh don't worry, I'm going to use material from Dead Space, Silent Hill, Creepypastas, Cryptoids, and all that good stuff to base future dragons, feral ghouls, and dragon orphans off of!

Kanae canonically hates Haise, and would probably be too into Tsukiyama to even have an attraction toward Haise in this one. Keep tossing me suggestions for tomboys and boyish girls to add to the list of possible candidates though, I'm all eyes.

And thank you for the compliment! Arima does have his own agenda that aligns with TSC, but he doesn't agree with their policies or bureaucratic ways of painting situations as black or white. Only reason Juuzou didn't come along with Haise to escort Roma while trying to save Rize was simply because he was busy doing his own thing, and wasn't really interested in it. Arima figured Haise could have done it by himself.

And Roma definitely was the sort of person to be too focused on her own goals to care about doing the dirty work for her gang, hence why she never bothered to see Kaneki for herself. And thank you for the idea, I'll definitely put in the story how she would have to hide from the men her mother took home, just because they would get drunk and try to hurt her. Her secret will be that she's always been afraid of adult men, and had always been too scared to ever put herself into a vunerable enough position where she could get raped like her mother. She's a fifty-six year old virgin who has trust issues, and acts like a kid because she is afraid of ending up like her mother, so she does everything in her power to be the opposite.

The cum drinking thing seems a bit out there for this story, maybe Root H? But not this, although I'll use it for the sake of Roma bullshitting with Haise as a way to lighten up the mood, before opening up to him about how miserable her life was, and how it made her become the immature woman who tried hiding behind nihilism her entire life.

I agree that Kuzen was in the wrong for making the trip out to Saitama to kill Tatara in the first place. Kaneki didn't approve of it, but understood why he did it, and Eto certainly will be relieved to see her dad, but will be furious with him for doing something so suicidal in the first place. Even Kuzen knows he was wrong, but will claim to not have regretted going out there in the first place. If he didn't, he would have never gotten to help Kaneki.

Can't have Kaneki be pure when there's Touka's mom to fuck in her yoga pants and work out attire. And he's got twins to bang, along with Hinami's innocent ass. Kaneki's not a saint, he can and will pull in the women like his brother does. Kaneki isn't going to party like the rest though, as I still want to keep him in character, but he will find his way into the Yashiro twin's bed, one way or the other.

I think Kuzen will eventually try to push Kaneki into dating his daughter, just not quite yet. He's only known Kaneki for a day or so, so naturally being the protective father that he is, Kuzen would be waiting until he's ready to be a perfect match for his daughter. With that being said, rather than making it romantic, I'm probably going to have Hikari have an intense sex session with Kaneki, but not traditional sex, more like having him take notes and learn different positions and how to last long, and how to treat a woman. Before, you know, letting him cum inside of her or on her yoga pants. How to be a good kisser, how to eat pussy, eat ass, after care, all of that.

I think that'll happen only because in his first time with the Yashiro twins, he's mostly going to be taking it from them, because he doesn't know how to be good at sex. It'll be embarrassing for him to think about once he gets that post nut clarity, but he won't be judged for it. Like you said, they'll be honored and be patient with him, considering that they respect him as their boss and aren't doing it out of romance, but out of showing their admiration and loyalty to him.

Kaneki will still be haunted by that, and eventually Hikari will be able to trick him into fulfilling her own fantasies by telling him that she can show him how to be a dominant man in the bed like Haise, which of course would be something that Kaneki would want, just because of that whole thing where he looks up to Haise and thinks he's really cool. It's that 'I want to be like you' mentality. So Hikari becomes Kaneki's mommy/Sensai for a little bit, only until she tells him that he's ready to move onto the next woman.

And damn, is Hinata that disliked? What's the OTP that most other people have, is it Naruto x Sasuke? I mean, yeah wait, no, that's the biggest ship of the series, isn't it? Is second place Naurto x Sakura? Tbh, when the anime first came out, I remember as a kid thinking that Naruto was going to end up with Sakura.

And I love the last idea about Ysmir and Haise, but it wouldn't be practical on account that she would be in the BoS during the next chapter, and that she's lesbian AF. She would probably take one look at Haise and tell him that unless he has a pussy and tits underneath his armor, that she isn't interested.

Anyways, please keep sending me suggestions and all that jazz! Thank you for reading, hope you have a damn good day!