This is going to be a short chapter explaining what happened during the Third Cochlea Raid while Eto and Touka briefly reflect on it.
The next chapter's contents will be discussed in the author's notes!
Please enjoy!
With the spiral-roof top of Cochlea opening up, Ayato and Touka's respective groups made sure to hold on tightly to the back of Eto's kakuja before descending down the cavernous-like structure of the ghoul prison.
With Eto's fifty-meter tall kakuja shielding them from the barrage of q-bullets and kagune shards being fired from the investigators below, the ghouls who took cover on her back who had ukaku-kagunes did their best to fire back at the doves who came into their line of sight.
Looking over her shoulder, Touka watched as Ayato ordered the gas mask gang to hug the walls on the catwalk to avoid getting shot while they swept the first two levels of Cochlea. After the subordinates had received their orders, each one of them leapt off Eto's back to hop over the railings of level zero's catwalk.
Most of the gas masks successfully landed onto the balcony ledge of the built-in floor of the mega structure, except for one ghoul who Touka saw getting his head blown clean off by what she presumed to be a high-caliber quinque.
"Goddamnit!" She heard Ayato curse out angrily, as he watched the corpse spiral downward in a limp motion. "... Yomo-!"
"-Gotcha," Yomo interrupted, having already known what Ayato was going to ask of him. Making sure that his black raven mask was snug tightly around his face, Yomo's kagune took the form of two black-wings that gave off yellow sparks of bio-electricity. Without saying another word, Yomo leapt off of Eto's back and directly toward the direction of an investigator who had been aiming what looked like a grenade-launching quinque at them.
Slicing the man straight in half, Yomo immediately took cover behind his kagune as a firing squad opened fire from behind him. As the hail fire of q-bullets took out chunks of his dwindling kagune, Yomo quickly knelt down to pick up the explosive-quinque from the man's corpse.
Had it not been for the fact that Yomo was an resourceful combatant who had over a decade of experience fighting CCG, he wouldn't have been able to use the quinque; luckily for him and unfortunately for the firing squad, it only took him a couple seconds to get the grasp of his newly acquired weapon.
Knowing that the standard service rifles that CCG used were modified 'Howa Type 20' assault rifles, Yomo knew that it took about ten seconds for the gun to eat through a thirty-count ammo magazine; and he had been mentally counting down the seconds the entire time.
Bracing himself while most of the investigators were occupied with reloading, Yomo turned around and fought through the pain of getting his torso pierced by minimal gunfire before taking aim and firing a rocket-propelled q-grenade directly into the center of the firing squd's 'V' formation.
A red-glowing kagune crystal pierced the squad's commander who stood at the front center of the formation, and without having any time to save themselves, the surrounding investigators were torn into viscius when the projectile finally exploded into a cloud of fire.
With his counter attack having blown his attackers into red pools of gore that stained the walls and steel floor, Yomo spat out a wad of blood onto the catwalk before walking his injuries off so he could begin freeing ghouls from their cells while searching for Hinami.
Nearing the bottom of Cochlea where CCG kept ghouls they had listed underneath an 'SS' rating, Eto landed on the bottom floor of Cochlea's third level where pillar-like cells circled around the large platform. "I don't think CCG's had enough time to reach our location, but do make haste; there's no telling who they're going to send down here." Eto said, as she spoke using her kakuja's large-gaping mouth to communicate to the brother and sister who were climbing down her back.
"Come on Touka, let's put our asses into gear!" Ayato shouted through a panicked voice, as he sprinted over to the nearest cell to unlock the first of many doors surrounding him. Hoping that he'd find Hinami or at least a ghoul who he could recruit to assist him, Ayato was taken back by the sight of the prison cell containing a massacred ghoul that lied in a pile of shattered glass and ripped organs.
With Touka running around from cell-to-cell, and Eto awkwardly moving around in a circular direction while prying open cells to do her best in helping with their search, it didn't take long for the three ghouls to make the chilling discovery that all but one of level three's prison cells contained ghouls who were violently murdered.
Had it not been for the fact that Ayato knew what Hinami looked like, he would have assumed that she could have been one of the unlucky ghouls who met their ends. Thankfully though, none of the corpses that were intact enough for him to identify looked anything remotely like Hinami.
Rather than assuming the worst, Ayato immediately ran over to one of the abandoned prison cells that he remembered being different from the others. Walking inside of it, Ayato took note of the shattered glass-paneled they used for interrogations still being somewhat intact.
Unlike the other cells, there were no traces of blood, leading Ayato to believe that someone must have taken the whoever had been assigned there. He wanted there to be a connection to Hinami's whereabouts, but without any clear evidence to suggest so or otherwise, Ayato felt lost in the dark.
Ayato had no prior knowledge of which level CCG had put her other than assuming that they wouldn't put a ghoul as timid and weak as Hinami in anything past level three. Luck was all Ayato had to work with so far, and even getting his hands on the keycard that opened Cochlea's roof had been nothing less than chance. In actuality, the whole operation lacked the man power he needed, and the intell he had was proving itself to be insufficient.
Frustrated in himself for being ill prepared and having wasted the potential months of prep time he could have taken advantage of, Ayato dropped to his knees in anguish before slamming his balled fist down against the reinforced floor.
Just when things seemed like they couldn't get worse for him, it was then that he heard the sound of his sister screaming out for their uncle.
"Holy shit, Yomo?! YOMO!"
Picking himself up off the floor, Ayato gathered his composure enough to make his way out of the abandoned cell to see what his sister was panicking over.
In the center of the large platform where Eto stood with her kakuja's arm outreached, Ayato became confused and horrified at the sight of his uncle's mangled body resting in Eto's palm.
"Yomo?!" Touka shrieked, as she climbed up on the side of Eto's kakuja. After climbing on the shoulder of the grey-beast, Touka carefully ran down Eto's massive arm to see what had become of her uncle who had fallen down from the gaping hole on the ceiling.
Bleeding profusely onto the hand of Eto's kakuja, Yomo grunted as he craned his neck upwards to stare up at his niece's concerned gaze. "Hinami… Hinami's being taken by Arima… They're heading to the top… I couldn't get near them… Black-hooded guy got me before they could even see me…" Yomo choked out, before immediately vomiting blood onto the palm of Eto's kakuja.
"Where are they, Yomo? Which level did you see them last?!" Touka asked in a demanding voice, due to the uncertainty she had of whether or not Yomo was going to be awake for much longer.
"Leave... D-Don't… Don't chase them…" Yomo whispered out as a warning to his niece, before finally losing all consciousness. While Touka clearly didn't take Yomo's warning to heart, Eto found herself taking what he said into consideration.
"... We should leave Ms. Kirishima; we've already overstayed our welcome here," Eto said in a concerned voice, as she stared at Yomo's broken body that laid limp in her palm. "If what I've heard about this Arima guy is to be believed, then we're already too late. We should gather whoever's still alive and-"
"-Screw that…! We AREN'T leaving Hinami behind; not now, not ever!" Touka shouted back at Eto with a look of absolute rage and disgust in her eyes, before leaning down the kakuja's hand to stare down at her brother. "Ayato, that Arima-asshole has Hinami! They're trying to leave Cochlea!" Touka announced to Ayato, who seemed taken aback by what he had heard.
However, the amount of passion Ayato had for Hinami outweighed the small part of him that feared the White Reaper. Without a second thought, Ayato leapt off of the ground and onto one of Eto's arms before climbing his way onto the back of the half-ghoul's kakuja.
"Eto! You heard my sister; get your ass moving!" Ayato screamed angrily, as he dug his fingers into her kakuja's thick-hide to fasten himself. "Hurry, before we lose her!"
Still having her doubts, Eto quietly kept to herself as she felt Touka climbing up her arm to be by her brother's side. Closing her kakuja's hand around Yomo's body to keep him safe, Eto said nothing as she began to climb out of the massive holding area while and through the third level's roof.
Ayato and Touka kept their eyes peeled for any signs of Arima or Hinami, Eto focused on the large-scale amount of carnage that was taking place around them as they ascended upward through Cochlea.
While the siblings were blindsided by their fondness for Hinami in their efforts to locate her, Eto was the only one who didn't remember who she was out of their small surviving group. Hinami clearly meant the world to Ayato and Touka, but she also clouded their minds.
Unlike them, Eto was able to come to the conclusion that within the short span of time that it took for them to get in-and-out of level three, things in Cochlea had not transpired well for either side. Bodies of ghouls littered the floors around them, and the few surviving members of CCG appeared to be retreating downwards towards the deeper levels of the prison.
There were no ghouls left alive from what Eto could tell, and as they passed from level two onto level one, there were no present CCG personnel occupying the area around them. Dread coursed through Eto's mind, as she began to think back to what Yomo had said before passing out.
'Leave... D-Don't… Don't chase them…'
That's when she saw four figures standing near the entrance of a large elevator that led to the surface. One figure was dressed in white, one wore black, and the other one wore mostly red, and the last one was a slender and short woman with brown hair that garnished a prisoner outfit.
As the elevator doors opened to reveal a smug individual who held a severed head in his gloved hand, Eto knew then and there that none of the four kidnappers saw any of them as a threat.
And if none of them considered her massive kakuja a threat, then Eto could also assume that they weren't going to consider the two ghouls on her back as anything more than a minor inconvenience. So rather than engaging the four individuals, Eto kept climbing up along the sides of Cochlea's interior walls and up towards the opened roof top; an action that Touka quickly took notice of and wasn't approving of.
"Yoshimura, what the hell are you doing?! Go back down!" Touka screamed angrily with panic in her voice, as she looked down to see Hinami staring up at them with fear in her eyes. "What the hell are you-"
"-We're leaving," was all Eto bothered to explain, as she neared the gaping hole above.
Enraged by Eto's decision to back down at the last minute when they were so close to saving Hinami, Touka looked over to her side to lock eyes with Ayato. They both silently nodded to one another, understanding one another without even having to utter a single word.
Feeling the two ghouls leaping off of her back, Eto began to panic as she instantly knew what Ayato and Touka were doing. Having no time to speak, Eto made sure that four of her six kakuja claws were planted deep into the steel-wall to anchor her massive body before turning around.
The barrage of kagune crystals that Ayato and Touka fired from their kagunes and down toward the four kidnappers were effortlessly blocked by Arima's IXA while Urie and Ihei moved around the shield to get into a defensive position.
That's when Eto was met with the sight of a bastardized version of her father's kakuja mask staring back at her, as she watched Ihei reach around her back to retrieve a large rifle-like quinque that looked like a cannon from a science-fiction movie.
Having no time to spare, Eto shot out her kakuja's arm in an attempt to swipe the two ghouls away from their impending doom. Unfortunately, Eto was only able to grab a hold of Touka as she watched Ihei take aim with her large quinque that began to emit a bright light from the tip of its barrel.
With Ayato being centimeters away from her kakuja's reach, Eto was unable to do anything as she and Touka watched a beam of pink concentrated-light rip clean-through the young man's stomach.
Time seemed to slow down around them, and Eto had but only one thought as she narrowly avoided being caught in the beam of energy that melted the steel wall beside her as though it were made of butter: Eto could only think about how much she wished she could shield Touka's eyes to prevent her from having to witness her brother's upper body being blown apart.
"NO!" Touka shrieked out in a horrified voice, as she grabbed tightly onto Eto's finger in an attempt to pry the kakuja-finger off of her body. "A-AYATO!" She wailed in despair, as she watched her younger brother's upper body quickly become engulfed with fire before exploding into visceral chunks of bone and burnt innards; sending bits of blood and charred muscle onto her face.
The last thing Touka saw of Ayato's remains before going into shock was the sight of her little brother's lower body landing beside Ihei's feet, who stared down at them before gazing up at Eto with a sadistic smile on her mask.
Sitting down on the edge of bed with nothing on her body except for the large blanket that was draped over her slender frame, Touka's empty-gaze remained focused on the floor of her dimly lit room. With Saiko busy preparing her a warm bath enriched with a lavender-scented bath-bomb, all Touka had in her bedroom to keep her company was the silent half-ghoul who sat on the bed beside her.
"... I'm sorry," Touka croaked emotionlessly out in a barely audible voice, as she continued to stare down at the floor.
Having been lost in her own thoughts, Eto was caught off guard by the sudden apology. "What was that, child?"
"... I said that I'm sorry," Touka repeated herself in that same empty voice she used when she first tried apologizing to the other woman.
Unsure of what exactly to say to her, especially since Eto didn't quite know what the manager was apologizing for, she decided to try and play it off by replying with, "Oh don't worry about it, child… We all have our bad days."
"... I'm not talking about what I did in the kitchen, Yoshimura," Touka replied back in a slightly louder voice than before, "I'm talking about how I've been these past two weeks… I'm sorry for how I've been around you, and for all the cruel things I've said to you."
"Oh… You were talking about that…?" Eto muttered uncomfortably to the manager, as she felt her stomach twist slightly at the uncomfortable topic having to be finally addressed. "... You've lost someone who's close to you; if there's anyone here who deserves condolences, it's you," Eto said in a calm voice, before letting out a quiet sigh to herself. "... I don't blame you for what you've said or how you've acted; I'd despise me too if I were you."
Touka let out a humorless chuckle upon hearing Eto's response, and silently shook her head before saying, "It's not fair to blame you for my brother's death… We were the ones stupid enough to think we had a chance to save Hinami; we should have listened to you and Yomo," Touka mused aloud with an emotionally exhausted voice. "It's selfish for me to mourn only my brother… So many ghouls died that day-"
"-Now don't you go thinking like that, Ms. Kirishima; I won't let you blame yourself for what happened down there…!" Eto snapped back in a sudden fit of outrage. "You have a business to run, Ms. Kirishima; your employees and customers rely on you… You can't head down that dark path; I won't let you..."
Not being swayed by what Eto had said, Touka merely shrugged off what the other woman said before replying with, "It's true though… Ayato might have planned the raid himself, but I was the one who brought you and Yomo into it. Maybe… Maybe I could have talked him out of-"
"-What did I just say, child?!" Eto interrupted, as she sprang up to her feet to stand in front of where Touka had been sulking beside her. Putting one hand down on Touka's shoulder and on the other on her chin, Eto forced the other woman to look away from the floor and up at her.
Looking Touka straight in the eye, Eto glared intently at the younger woman as hot tears began to trickle down from the corners of her grey eyes. "I refuse to let you burden yourself with what was out of your control…! What's done is done, and trust me, I wish we could change the past, bu-"
"-Bullshit," Touka interrupted with malice behind her words, as she continued to stare blankly at the half-ghoul who was once again caught off guard by what the manager had to say. "You don't get to say that… I'm sorry for how I treated you these past two weeks, but… You can't even remember your past, so don't try to pretend that you know what I'm feeling… Because you don't."
Opening mouth to immediately retaliate, Eto instead took a moment to gather her composure, and took in a breath to calm herself down. "Ms. Kirishima… I might have forgotten the past, but I'm not denying what happened in it. The things I've done still carry weight, and have consequences… But what matters now is moving on and taking the present for what it is rather than what it used to be… Life goes on Ms. Kirishima; you best remember that."
Blinking at Eto as a way to express disbelief within her catatonic state, Touka took a moment to eye the half-ghoul up and down before letting out a quiet grunt. "... Can't you just accept my apology so we can move on? I really don't want to continue comparing 'apples to oranges' with you."
Feeling her the limits of her patience getting tested by the angsty woman, Eto closed her eyelids and began to silently count to ten in her head as a therapeutic way to prevent her from losing her shit. "... I accept your apology, child."
"Good," was all Touka had to say in response to Eto accepting her apology, before the two once again fell into a period of uncomfortable silence.
Not seeing any point in trying to comfort someone who didn't want to be helped, Eto tightened her lip into a frown as she decided to give up for the time being. Although she had been insulted, Eto still felt pity for what Touka was going through, so the half-ghoul did her best to separate herself emotionally from the situation so she wouldn't get her feelings hurt more than they already did.
As the sound of running water echoed from Touka's private bathroom, Eto gave the young ghoul an empathetic pat on her shoulder before reluctantly making her way back to her spot on the bed to take a seat. Staring down at the floor, Eto thought more about what Touka had said to her, and despite knowing better, the half-ghoul began to fixate on what the ghoul had said to her.
'You can't even remember your past, so don't try to pretend that you know what I'm feeling… Because you don't.' Touka's words echoed in Eto's head like a recited mantra, which in turn made her feel even worse than she already was feeling after her conversation with Haise got cut short.
While Touka's upbringing once her mother and father were gone was far from grand, she at least always had family and friends around her. Meanwhile, Eto herself never had friends until recently, so in comparison to her horrid past, at least the half-ghoul could say that her life has improved significantly; unlike Touka, whose life had been getting progressively worse.
Aside from her uncle who was never affectionate or emotionally supportive towards her, all Touka had left to cling onto in her messy life was Haise, who she couldn't even call by his proper name.
Just when the solemn tension between the two women grew thin enough to cut with a knife, it was then that they heard from the bathroom, "SAIKO'S FINISHED WITH THE BATH!" The young qunix shouted triumphantly, before running into the room with a towel in one hand.
Without speaking another word or even glancing over at Eto, Touka quietly got up from her bed while letting the blanket that had been draped over her fall onto the floor with her ankles. Due to Saiko having seen Haise naked for about six-months, seeing Touka's slender and exposed body didn't even phase her as she walked over to the manager to grab a hold of her hand.
"Come on ma'am; you're gonna love the scented candles Saiko lit for you!" Saiko said enthusiastically, as she began to lead Touka by the hand toward the bath she had prepared for her.
Left alone in the dimly-lit room, Eto made sure to wait until Saiko and Touka were both inside the bathroom before raising her hand up to her eyes to begin quietly sobbing to herself.
And leaving off that somber note, let's talk about the next chapter.
I'm planning on it being a NSFW chapter where Mutsuki decides to take advantage of Haise's inability to dwell on decisions very much while being alone with him in a shower, and decides to see how far he can get while justifying to himself that what he's doing isn't 'that wrong'.
Let me know if you have a preference for what you'd like to see happen; for now, I'm planning on Mutsuki just testing the waters and trying to slowly get Haise into the mindset that what they're doing is normal while trying to insist on him keeping it a secret.
RIP Ayato.
