Like mentioned before, this is a SFW chapter. The last chapter was smut, and isn't required to understand the rest of the story.
Thank you for the reviews! I will be working on two projects as of this chapter's completion: Chapter 25 of Root H, and I'll be re-releasing a reamped fanfic that stars Ichika Kaneki, age twenty, as one of the main characters.
It'll be called 'Tokyo Ghoul: Dragon-Blooded Orphans,' and is set twenty years after the end of Tokyo Ghoul :re/ This fanfic.
Anyways, this chapter does have a bit of exposition, that's why it's kind of short lol.
Thank you, and please enjoy.
Seated in his leather recliner chair that sat beside the gentle roaring-flames of his private chamber's hearth, Tsukiyama did his best to enjoy the taste of his freshly-poured glass of morning wine while tuning into soothing orchestrated music, coming from the overhead speakers built into the ceiling.
Tilting the thin rim of the glass against his parted lips, Tsukiyama arched an eyebrow over at the fifty-five year old woman standing on the other side of the room from him, who had become side-traced by the ocean view that resided behind his five-meter long aquarium-window built into his mahogany wall.
"Wow…" Roma muttered to herself with a look of astonishment on her face, as she pressed her hands up against the heavy panel of tempered glass separating her from the plethora of sea life swimming before her.
"Enjoying the view?" Tsukiyama asked inquisitively with a slight pompous undertone to his words, as he watched Roma ogling at the several different species of salt-water fish that swam past her gazing eyes. "Also, please, try not to touch the glass with those little grubby mitts of yours," Tsukiyama asked with mild irritation, after noticing that the leader of the Clowns had both her palms pressed up against the glass of the aquarium-window.
"Oh, um… Sorry about that," Roma said apologetically without actually meaning it, before rolling her eyes while stuffing her hands down the waistband of her polka dotted-party skirt. "Yeah, yeah, erm… It's a… A really nice view; that's for sure." She replied back with an uneasy laugh, before becoming quiet as she turned around from the aquarium to gaze around at all the nineteen-twenties pieces of art hung along the other walls of the living room.
While Tsukiyama took pride in the decoration and trophies he kept in his yacht's private chamber, and always enjoyed parading around his family's seemingly-limitless wealth to others, the French-Japanese ghoul couldn't help but feel impatient with how ditsy and spacey the surprisingly powerful ghoul was being.
"... Mind if you take a seat? Perhaps you'd care for a glass of 'Screaming Eagle'?" Tsukiyama offered, as he gestured with his free hand over toward the tall bottle of blood wine that was placed on the edge of his ivory-white hearth.
"'Screaming Eagle' sounds super American…" Roma mused with a low chuckle, as she awkwardly made her way over to the gentle flames of the hearth to pick the bottle up, in order to inspect the printed label on the bottle. "'Bordeaux, France'... Hold up! Isn't that, like, the wine capital of the world? There's an actual company out there that branded their own blood wine?! And it's freakin' aged too?!" Roma asked with a surprised look on her face, after having read that the wine had been supposably fermented over ninety-years ago.
Finding the shanty-woman's fascination and disbelief in there being such a thing as a bottle of blood wine that wasn't made in a boot-leg fashion, Tsukiyama let out a laugh before going on a tangent. "Come now, Hoito; surely you haven't always been drinking that backwater 'pig-shit' made by commoners, for commoners, have you? I mean, you're somewhat of a millionaire, aren't you? With all those profits you've made from those auctions you've orchestrated, surely you somewhat know what it's like living in the lap of luxury, non?"
Frowning as she stared down at the bottle of expensive wine, Roma silently mimicked Tsukiyama's pompous words in a mocking fashion, as she poured herself a glass of wine. Setting the bottle down, Roma stared bitterly at Tsukiyama while making her way over to the other leather recliner in his living room area.
"Well, EXCUSEME! Not all of us were born with a silver spoon in our mouths!" Roma spat out with an upset look in her eyes. Sitting with her legs splayed out on the recliner, Roma began to formulate a way she could insult the spoiled ghoul, but after taking one begrudging sip of the high-grade blood wine, she immediately forgot about her grudge. "... Holy crap, I really was drinking 'pig-shit' this entire time, wasn't I…?! This stuff really IS good!"
"It'd outta be; 'Screaming Eagle' comes from one of the most esteemed and recognizable brands of blood winery in the underground world… Well, the section of the underground world that's reserved for the elite, that is~!" Tsukiyama said with a proud look on his face, before suddenly gasping in disgust at the sight of Roma downing the glass of fermented blood like it was water. "Eugh... At least you're enjoying it... And by the way, it's name originates from Aztec culture; an ancient civil-Why am I even telling you this? You're not even listening."
Having been too enthralled by the euphoria she was experiencing from the best tasting wine she ever had, Roma hadn't heard a word Tsukiyama said about the wine's origins. By the time Roma was done, she spent a few seconds licking her lips and the inside of the empty wine glass before catching a glance of Tsukiyama's judgemental stare. "Oh… Were you saying something, Tsukiyama?"
"... Forget it," Tsukiyama sighed with an annoyed voice, before taking in a breath to recompose himself, and to regather his patience. "... If you don't mind, I'd like to discuss one of your members before we negotiate the terms of the Clowns' alliance with the United Front."
Upon hearing Tsukiyama's attempt to get back to the reason why he had invited Roma into his private quarters in the first place, Roma's smile once again turned back into a disappointed frown.
"Business talk, eh? Sounds pretty boring, so… First thing's first, before we continue, I'm going to have to commandeer that bottle of wine right there; in order to establish equal grounds, good faith in one another, and some other bullshit," Roma said in an exaggerated-professional voice, as she pointed her empty glass directly at the bottle of expensive wine.
Although Tsukiyama knew beforehand that Roma's lack of education and crass lifestyle would make her a handful, he had made the mistake of underestimating just how juvenile the 'Dodgy Mother' actually was when it came to conversing about serious topics. "... Done," Tsukiyama said in a flat tone, while seeing Roma's playfully expression quickly change into absolute shock.
"O...Oh shit? Wait... Really?!" Roma asked with a bewildered look in her eyes, as if she had been anticipating for Tsukiyama to refuse her 'demand'. "That's splendid! Simply splendid… Okay, now that we got that out of the way, let's talk turkey~!" Roma said excitingly with a wide smile on her face, as she clapped her hands repeatedly like a child.
Forcing himself to smile, Tsukiyama reached over toward his side-table to pick up his tablet. "'Vous avez perdu ma matinée (You've wasted my morning)'... Let's see, let's see… Here we go," Tsukiyama muttered to himself, after having navigated through the tablet's user interface to open up the pdf file that Chie Horie had prepared for him earlier. "Your group that you founded, 'The Clowns'-"
"-The baddest bitches in all of Tokyo~?! Yes, what about us~?" Roma said while interrupting Tsukiyama from finishing his sentence; much to his grievance.
"... Yes, I'm quite sure that all three of you are, so… Correct me if the information is outdated or wrong, but from what my associate has told me, you used to have ties with this particular member, no?" Tsukiyama inquired, before bringing up the record file Chie had created about a man named 'Souta', who Tsukiyama himself had met in the past during his Gourmet days.
"Let me take a peek, 'Fancy Pants'," Roma said in a playful voice, before leaning forward in her recliner to take the tablet from Tsukiyama hands. Laying down with her back pressed against the leather back-cushion, Roma stared at the features of the black-haired man who sported a clown mask with the letter 'G' printed on it.
"Oh yeah, that guy! 'That boy ain't right, I'll tell you h'what'~!" Roma said with her best impression of Hank HIll, which was unfortunately lost on Tsukiyama, who just chalked her southern-American impression up as nothing more than just her being weird. "Erm… I-I'm guessing you've never seen 'King of the Hill', huh? I prefer the English dub myself… Haha, ha."
"... No, I haven't," Tsukiyama said coldly with an irritated look in his eyes, before going back on track with the identity behind the man who went under the alias of 'Souta'. "Before we go any further, I want you to be aware of what's going on… Tell me, have you actually seen this 'Souta' without his mask on?"
"No, but it's not unusual; there's plenty of ghouls who are… 'USED TO BE', a part of the 'Clowns' that had always kept their masks on during our group meetings and operations," Roma explained, while suddenly finding herself intrigued as to why Tsukiyama was so interested in 'Souta'. "I don't understand why you're interested in him, though. From what I heard, he was there during my last auction, and well… Judging from how you're callously rubbing it in my face, I'm going to assume that you already know what happened."
Nodding quietly at Roma's account of believing 'Souta' to have died in the Clown's last major operation, Tsukiyama took a moment to clear his throat before continuing to speak about the supposedly dead man. "... Would you be able to recognize his voice if you were to hear him speak?" Tsukiyama further inquired, while pressing forth past Roma's tendency to get off topic.
"Erm…?! Y-Yeah? I'm pretty sure I could, at least?" Roma said with an unsure look in her eyes, as she stared back down on the tablet. "Souta's pretty great at doing impressions, and his voice he uses changes frequently… But who knows, I might be able to identify it if I heard it long enough... Why?"
"... Go on ahead and scroll down a page; there should be a hyperlink on the top of the twelfth page that should take you to a saved video taken from this morning's news broadcast," Tsukiyama instructed, while pointing over at the tablet in Roma's hand.
"... What the hell's a 'hyperlink'?" Roma asked aloud in an obnoxious voice, as she flicked her finger against the screen of the tablet to stare down at the wall of text.
"... It should be the only word on that page that's blue," Tsukiyama said patiently, while mentally cursing himself for forgetting that despite Roma's appearance making her out to be someone in her early thirties, she came from a different era of technology.
With her true age accidentally showing itself to Tsukiyama, Roma grumbled, "These goddamn computers; why can't people use pen and paper anymore…?" And after about half a minute of trying to pinpoint the hyperlink, Tsukiyama was forced to get up from his recliner to make his way over to Roma. so that he could find it for her.
"For the love of God… Here, this is what I wanted to show you!" Tsukiyama said in a frustrated voice, before shoving the tablet back into Roma's hands.
Staring down at the screen of the tablet, Roma was met with the sight of a man with black-hair that covered half of his face sitting down in a crimson-colored sofa; accompanied by a young and small-framed blonde girl with freckles and blue eyes focusing on the young black-haired news anchor that sat across from them.
"Good morning, Toyota! Thanks for having us on the show; I'm what you'd refer to as a 'long-time viewer, first-time caller'...!" Furuta said charismatically with a wide smile on his face, as he adjusted his thin-framed and hipster-equse eyeglasses.
"And a wonderful morning to you as well, Washuu; I'm extremely honored to hear just how excited you are to be here… I just wish that this morning's topic could have been more pleasant…!" The news anchor said, as she smiled sorrowfully at both Furuta and the blonde girl beside him.
Sporting a somber expression on his face, Furuta clamped his hands together over his criss-crossed knees, as he rested one leg over the other. "My thoughts exactly, Toyota, my thoughts exactly… However, I'd like to say that in spite of Toky's recent tragedy, we can do our best to reconcile the wrongs done to the families who've lost loved ones, by ensuring that we can create a better tomorrow by addressing what's wrong with today's society; starting, of course, with CCG."
"... And Washuu, for our viewers out there who aren't familiar with CCG, would you mind explaining who they are, and what they do BEFORE you go into your explanation on how the massacre at Corniculum was their fault?"
"Gladly," Furuta replied back with an eager tone in his voice, before shifting his gaze from the news anchor to look directly into the camera. "'CCG' is an acronym for the organization that goes by 'Commission of Counter Ghoul'; it's a federal agency that serves as a criminal investigative body in cases connected to ghouls… If none of you are familiar with what ghouls are, I highly recommend tuning into my podcast: The One-Eyed King.' You can find it on Apple, Spotify, and Castbox!"
After hearing her guest shamelessly plug in his own social media outlet onto Tokyo's most reputable and watched news channel, Toyato laughed nervously under her breath before insisting on Furuta continuing on with what she had wanted him to say. "A-And we'll be sure to link Washuu's podcast up on our website…! S-So ummm, how exactly is last night's act of terrorism linked with CCG? Aren't they supposed to be the ones protecting the public from these ghouls?"
"Ah, and that's what they want you to believe!" Furuta stated with confidence in his voice, as he shifted his attention from the camera to the news anchor. "As someone who's been a rank-one investigator, which is just below the rank similar to that of a military officer, I have first-hand experience in seeing the inner-workings of my family's corrupt agency… In fact, did you know that the leadership roles of CCG are appointed by a system of nepotism? Each chairman since CCG's creation all come from the Washuu-Clan. The only reason why I myself was never considered for the position was because I, like my many brothers and sisters who were convinced out of wedlock, were never given the family name."
"Interesting… So what you're saying is that the very people who are supposed to be protecting the lives of all of us are led by those who are born into the position, rather than being led by those who are put into those leadership positions based on their own merits?"
"That's precisely what I'm saying, Toyota! But I'm afraid that's just the surface of the iceberg," Furuta said dramatically, before leaning in closer towards the intrigued and astonished news anchor to emphasize the importance of the information he had on CCG. "Not only has CCG been guilly of basing their hierarchy on a system straight out of the feudalism era, but did you know that the top brass is what orchestrates the rise of ghoul crime-syndicates?"
"... Are you implying that CCG is responsible for creating criminal activity within our community?" Toyota asked with a perplexed and skeptical expression on her face, as the camera cut to her crossing her arms with a suspended look of disbelief in her eyes. "That's a strong statement to make, Washuu. Do you have evidence to back that claim up?"
"You bet your bottom-dollar I do, Toyota!" Furuta exclaimed with a triumphed look on his face, as he pointed his finger over at the camera. "Rrrrrrrroll the video, mistero~!" Furuta said in an eccentric voice, before the camera footage faded to the clip of Haise carrying Eto's mangled body through the massive parking lot located underneath Luna Eclipse's foundation, which of course led to showing Saiko shooting him while he was unarmed, and then finally all four of them fleeing from the group of investigators led by none other than Masturi Washuu, who hadn't been in control of CCG back then.
"What you're watching is leaked footage from CCG's raid on the Luna Eclipse building; a ghoul-owned corporation that employed many right here within the city... And might I add the fact that the Tsukiyama family were the ones who helped build Tokyo's economy to what it is today?" Furuta said with an arched brow, as the camera cut back to him. "So not only has CCG been responsible for harboring an environment where they purposefully birth the creations of ghoul crime, but they're also the reason why Tokyo's been heading down the path towards an economic recession."
Nodding at Furuta, the news anchor pressed the tip of her pen against her pursed lips before rebutting by saying, "While that's really bad news for the world stock market, and for locally-owned businesses I suppose, what did that clip have anything to remotely do with supporting your proclaimed conspiracy?"
"Think of my evidence similar to a double entendre: that young man, the one with the whack-ass hairdo, the one fleeing for his life like a coward? That's Haise Sasaki, back when he worked against his will as an investigator for CCG; I'm sure everyone's heard of him, ever since CCG placed out that bounty on his head the other day." Furuta explained, before once again referencing the video clip.
"... CCG wanted Sasaki dead because he was no longer of any use to them, and as we see in the clip it's not like he was trying to fight back, or was even armed to begin with. Those assisting him are nothing more than just his friends trying to help him, but in the eyes of CCG, they might as well be guilty for committing treason."
Making it perfectly clear to her guest that she still held onto her skepticism, Toyota took Furuta's backed-up claims with a grain of salt. "Interesting… And do you have further proof to show the audience that CCG forced Sasaki into any kind of corner? Was he supposedly chosen to play the role of a menace to society, or what?"
"Not only do I have evidence of that, Toyota, I even have an eye-witness account sitting right next to me," Furuta exclaimed boldly, before patting his hand on the young blonde girl's shoulder. "Go on, Ayumu: tell the nice lady what exactly happened!"
After watching the remaining thirty-minutes of Furuta stirring up controversy to all of Tokyo, all while showcasing the hypocrisy and shadowy way CCG operated, Roma sat the tablet down on her lap. Pursing her lips, it didn't take long for Roma to easily identify the man calling himself 'Kichimura Washuu' as being the same person behind the identity of 'Souta'.
"Yep, that's him alright! And thanks for showing me that interview; I'm not much for watching the news, but I do sure enjoy watching a good gaslighting! I'm actually pretty excited to see what comes next!" Roma exclaimed with an eager tone in her voice, as she shook up-and-down in her leather recliner. "Just think of all the civil unrest that's gonna come from this…! Here, let's just get that alliance business out of the way, so I can attend that protest he mentioned over in the 1st Ward!"
While he stared across from him at the sight of Roma being childishly excited at the thought of being a spectator for the protest that was scheduled to occur at CCG's Main Office later that evening, all Tsukiyama could think of was the link between Furuta and the teenage-mercenaries who had wiped a majority of his soldiers.
Without being able to do anything except patiently awaiting for his servants to sort through the recovered files they had gathered after Chie Horie inserted the hacking probe into Corniculum's master server, Tsukiyama silently dreaded the thought of spending the next hour of his life trying to form an agreement with the likes of Roma, who was already getting up from her chair to take a hold of his bottle of alcohol.
"... Mon dieu." Tsukiyama muttered to himself with a sense of self-pity, as he watched Roma wrap her lips around the bottle of wine before immediately beginning to chug it down her gullet.
Apologies that I couldn't really make this chapter more exciting, but I sort of needed to give a tidbit of information about what's going on as far as plot goes.
Thanks for the kind words in the reviews, especially from Saitama lol.
I'm glad you guys enjoyed the smut scene of the last chapter, and I'll probably re-release it as its own one-shot, with some minor adjustments made to it to fit canonically-ish.
Writing a chapter with Hinami imagining her future family would be fun! I might have to do that lol.
And that one guest had a good point, if Haise were to choose Hinami, it would make Touka and Eto's lives hard for a bit, in different ways.
Anyways, sorry that this was a bit rushed, but I got stuff to do lol. Thank you, and please have a good day!
