Get ready to say hello to Kurona and Chie! Don't worry guys, I didn't forget about them lol.

I'll try to get through as many reviews as I can by the end of this chapter, which I absolutely loved writing!

Furuta's 'behind the curtain' operations and string pulling finally has its pay out in this chapter!

Without further adieu, the author's notes will be at the end again, and I sure do hope that you enjoy this chapter!

Thank you, and please enjoy!


Walking along the shoulder of the freeway with Roma's 'Hello Kitty' themed motorcycle, while still wearing a clown-themed helmet, wasn't exactly how Haise envisioned him spending his morning on Christmas Eve.

Getting honked at several times along with hearing the occasional jeer or insult made the journey to the nearest gas station annoying for Haise, but eventually after twenty minutes of walking alongside his lent motorcycle, Haise finally arrived at the 7-Eleven marked on his phone's GPS.

Pulling Roma's motorcycle up to an unoccupied gas pump, Haise made sure that the kickstand was locked in place so the bike wouldn't fall over, before walking through the sliding doors of the gas station. Hearing the doors making a loud enough ring to alert everyone inside of his presence, Haise wasn't able to take a few steps inside until suddenly being approached by the manager of the establishment.

"Sir, sir?!" The woman said in a cordial, yet stern, way, as she quickly made her way around the counter to stop Haise in his tracks. Staring up at the manager's unnerving smile, Haise couldn't help but to think how familiar the freckled woman with shoulder-length straight-auburn hair seemed, as she continued to beret him.

"Sir, I'm going to have to ask you to take off your helmet! It's a policy that customers have to remove headwear that obscures their identity while inside the store; it's for our own protection, you see~!" The woman said cheerfully, as she pointed up towards the various cameras hanging from the white ceiling, while also keeping one hand tucked away in her purse.

Blaming himself for being too stubborn to want to dye his hair an indistinguishable color that wouldn't make him stick out in a crowd, Haise reluctantly did as the manager asked. "... Alrighty then," Haise said in a hesitant voice, before removing his helmet to reveal his head of white-and-black hair to the woman, along with his red and grey irises.

As he expected, the woman in question quickly was able to identify him, although her smile still remained in spite of the shock being portrayed in her brown eyes. "… Haise Sasaki, is that you?!" The woman asked with a surprised tone in her voice, while attracting the attention of several other customers and employees who turned around to take their phones out to begin snapping pictures of the one-eyed ghoul in question.

Annoyed more than he was feeling anxious, Haise let out an uneasy laugh in response to the question. "Haha, ha, ah… Y-Yep, that's me, I guess…" Haise said with a nervous smile on his face, while looking around to take notice of how many people around him were photographing him. "Erm… If you're going to call CCG, the cops, or whatever… Can I at least first get two-thousand yen on pump two, and buy some snacks for the road; preferably before you call them?" Haise asked half-jokingly, while also catching himself glancing over at a bag of doritos that seemed to be beckoning him over, like a moth to a flame.

Tilting her head at Haise's assumption of what she would do in light of recognizing him, the manager arched a brow at him before asking, "C-Call the cops on you? Why would I do that!?" The woman asked curiously with an uneasy tone in her voice, before suddenly pointing to her own name tag. "S-Sasaki, it's me, Ruisawa…! Don't you remember me? I used to work at the Bureau Office; I used to see you from time to time, back when you did secretary work for Special Class Investigator Arima," Ruisawa said loudly enough so everyone else in the store could hear her.

Due to his memory not being the greatest, especially after having suffered from three instances of major-brain damage, Haise furrowed his brow while trying his hardest to think back to when he might have interacted with Ruisawa in the past. While he couldn't ever remember talking to her when he used to go down to the 20th Ward's branch office to catch up on his paperwork, Haise was able to vaguely remember interacting with Ruisawa back when he used to have black hair, and went by the name of Kaneki.

Back when he and Touka had gone to the 20th Ward to give false information about Hinami to throw off CCG's pursuit of her, Haise recalled Ruisawa being the one who would take the tips from the public in regards to ghoul activity. From what Haise could remember, Ruisawa was one of the many members of CCG who saw ghouls as subhuman. More specifically, Haise was able to remember that the woman before him was extremely apathetic when it came to the thought of investigators killing children who were ghouls.

So needless to say, Haise's personal disposition of the woman standing before him wasn't great.

"Ah… I remember you now," Haise said with a frown on his face, as he instantly remembered the distaste he had of her. "... It's surprising to see you here." Haise said in a flat tone, before beginning to walk away from her to head over to the snack aisle.

Following behind Haise with an awed look on her face, while being completely oblivious to the fact that he was purposefully giving her the cold shoulder, Ruisawa ended up catching up to the one-eyed ghoul while he stood in place to decide on what bag of doritos he wanted. "I know, right?! I was happy with my old office job, but hey, this one pays more AND doesn't put me in a position where I'll be publicly lynched~…!"

Finding it odd how optimistic Ruisawa sounded while describing her fear of being executed for being a member of CCG, Haise grimaced at the woman's words while taking a large bag of spicy-nacho cheese flavored doritos off of the shelf. "Publicly lynched, huh? That's a rather strong statement to make, wouldn't you say?" Haise said without really being too interested in what she had to say, before making his way over to the candy section of the aisle to further add to his collection of snacks that he would use to combat his case of the morning munchies.

Again, Ruisawa followed behind Haise enough to begin making him feel even more uncomfortable with her presence than he already was. From behind his shoulder, Ruisawa watched intently while Haise decided on whether or not to get a kitkat bar, or a pack of Reese's cups. "… Considering that there's going to be a protest in about three hours at the Main Office, I'd say that my assumption is PRETTY accurate! The times are changing, Sasaki; a beloved celebrity such as yourself should know that better than anyone else!"

"'Beloved Celebrity', huh? Is that what they're calling people who are on a 'Most-Wanted' list?" Haise asked sarcastically, after deciding to get both chocolate candies to satisfy his cravings. Seeing how his hands were getting full, Haise was about to go out of his way to grab a plastic basket before suddenly being approached by a young woman in a 7-Eleven uniform.

"I-I saw that your hands were getting full, Sasaki-Kun! S-So I got you this…~!" The girl stammered with blushing cheeks, as she bashfully handed over the basket for Haise to take from her hand that trembled like a nervous school girl's.

Needless to say, Haise was very confused at what was going on. Nonetheless, Haise was still grateful for the young girl's offer, despite the fact that she addressed him with an honorific that made him feel a bit uncomfortable. "Erm… Thank you… 'Naomi'," Haise said in an uneasy voice, after looking down at her name tag to address her.

Gasping with a shocked expression on her face, Naomi's hands were beginning to further shake, as she watched Haise awkwardly take the basket from her hands. "Oh my God…! Y-You said my name…!" The young woman said in an astonished voice, as she watched in awe as Haise placed his junk food into the very basket she got for him. "C-Can I get a selfie with you?! P-Please, Sasaki-Kun~?!"

"... What's a 'selfie'?" Haise asked with a confused look on his face, while still trying to figure out why he was getting so much positive attention, despite being wanted for terrorism.

In spite of Haise's apparent inability to understand basic social media concepts and terminology, the young woman found his confusion to be endearing. However, before Naomi could explain to Haise what a selfie was, Ruisawa quickly stepped in to intervene with her employee's lack of professionalism, as well as to prevent her from taking the limelight away from her..

"Naomi, what do you think you're doing? You can't be using your cell phone for personal matters while on the clock," Ruisawa said in a slightly condensing voice, while subtly making her way over to Haise's side.

"S-Sorry, boss! I-I got excited to see Sasaki-Kun was all," Naomi said apologetically, while explaining her reasoning for stepping out of line.

Still smiling, it was then that Ruisawa suddenly got an idea. "That's fine, I suppose…! But, in order for me to excuse this behavior, I'm going to have to request on behalf of 7-Eleven, that you post a picture of me by Sasaki's side, and that you make sure to share it with the corporate media account, okay~?" Ruisawa ordered her employee in a passive way, while suddenly sliding her arm underneath Haise's to pull him closer to her.

Clearly disappointed that she wasn't going to be able to snap the picture she wanted, Naomi still knew better than to argue with her employer. "Uh… S-Sure thing, boss," the young woman said in a less-than-enthusiastic voice, as she unlocked her phone before raising it up to get her boss and Haise in her camera's frame. "... Say 'cheese'."

"Cheese~!" Ruisawa said enthusiastically, before suddenly leaning close to Haise to plant her lips on his cheek just in time to catch him off guard as Naomi snapped the picture. While still locking arms with Haise, who stood still with a baffled expression on his face, Ruisawa made sure to pose while the rest of her shoppers and employees alike began to snap picture-after-picture of her with the infamous one-eyed ghoul.

Watching as Naomi glared bitterly at her boss before walking away with her hands balled into fists by her sides, it was then that Haise managed to gather enough of his wits to step away from Ruisawa. "Hey! What was that for?!" Haise asked with an agitated tone in his voice, as he yanked his arm away from the store manager, while the onlookers around him were busy posting their pictures up onto their social media accounts.

"Apologies for intruding on your personal boundaries, Sasaki! I only did that to make sure that people know that I'm on 'Team Haise'; as the kids are calling it…!" Ruisawa explained somewhat nervously, while making it abundantly clear to Haise that she only kissed and posed with him in order to cover her own ass.

"… I'm ninety-nine percent sure that most of us ex-bureau employees still have records on CCG's database, and I'm sure that we're all about to be doxxed pretty soon; especially after that Washuu guy said that there was a data breach back when Corniculum was raided… But hey, you probably already knew that too, huh? After all, you were there fighting that scary 'Black Reaper' guy!"

While Haise didn't know what the term 'doxxed' meant, he did know that the details of Corniculum's raid shouldn't have been public, and it worried him that somehow Rusiawa knew that he was fighting Urie; albeit, without knowing his actual identity, as far as Haise knew. "... H-How the hell do you know all of that?!" Haise asked in an anxious voice, while still making sure to keep his grip fastened on his basket full of treats.

Looking back at him with a confused look of her own, Ruisawa frowned at Haise while arching a brow at him. "What do you mean by that? Pretty much everyone's seen that clip of you fighting him… Wait, did you not see Toyato's interview with Kichimura Washuu and Ayumu Hogi? It was on 'Good Morning Tokyo', around seven o' clock this morning." Ruisawa explained with a surprised look on her face, while finding it odd that what she was saying was somehow news to Haise.

Immediately getting out the iPhone that Tsukiyama had given him, Haise did his best to type on the smartphone's keyboard while searching up the news channel on his phone's browser.

Catching a glimpse at what he was doing on his phone, Ruisawa decided to further continue her quest to get on Haise's good side by suddenly asking him, "Did you want to use the break-room to catch up on the news? You'll have more privacy in there, and I'll even let you take your snacks there if you'd like. Don't worry about paying for them, they're on the house!" Ruisawa offered with her ever-present smile returning to her face, all while Haise nodded silently.

Staring down at the screen of his iPhone while awaiting for the video to load, Haise followed absent-mindedly behind Ruisawa, as she led him past the various onlookers towards the 'employees-only' door behind the front counter.


Although Tsukiyama had insisted that she'd stay aboard the Crescent Moon as the United Front's captive, Kurona, after staying four days aboard the mega yacht, honestly couldn't say that she felt like a prisoner to any extent of the term.

In comparison to her short imprisonment at Corniculum, and even her poor living conditions while working for the Aogiri Tree, Kurona's stay while in the United Front's custody seemed like a dream come true for her.

She was given well-prepared meals from an extremely well maintained kitchen that was run by world-renowned chefs. Not only was she well fed, Kurona even got her own studio-apartment aboard the yacht, and was given full access to the ship's entertainment centers ranging from its large movie theater, to its well-equipped arcade area.

Compared to even most of the humans living in Tokyo, Kurona's life aboard the Crescent Moon was far better than theirs.

When she did think about why she was being treated so well, Kurona assumed that it was because Tsukiyama was using his seemingly limitless wealth to keep unruly ghouls such as Roma and herself under his control. Although a part of her knew that Tsukiyama was essentially buying the loyalty of those powerful enough to be an asset to him, Kurona really didn't mind.

Kurona got to live a life that most humans would envy, and she was fighting for a cause that she believed in. After all, the United Front was an extremely pro-ghoul organization, and the thought of humans being the one to beg ghouls for help made Kurona smile.

So when it came time for Chie Hori to interview her about what happened on Rushima Island, Kurona was more than willing to tell anything that the United Front wanted to hear. As per her request, Kurona was able to convince Tsukiyama to let her stay inside the top deck's hot tub while conducting her interview with Chie.

Sitting down inside the vat of bubbling water that felt amazing on her scarred-skin, the chilly seabreeze cooled Kurona's head and hair, while the steaming-hot water she was submerged in kept her face warm. Wearing nothing but a thin black bikini and a pair of complementary sunglasses, Kurona felt comfortable as she took a sip from her chilled bottle of blood-wine before nodding over at the small woman sitting across from her inside the jacuzzi.

"I'm ready when you are, Hori," Kurona said in a relaxed voice, as she pressed her back up against one of the hot tub's many jetstreams that was massaging her back.

Although she had access to waterproof tablets and more technologically advanced means of taking notes, there was something about using a simple pen and paper notepad that Chie found comforting. Flipping the cover of her notepad, Chie made sure that her tape-recorder resting in a nearby patio table was recording, before beginning her interview with Rushima Island's only survivor who managed to escape from its seemingly cursed shores.

"Okay then… Kurona, from what I've gathered, you were rescued by the coast guard before being handed over to CCG. Did you give the CCG or the coast guard any sort of statement or information regarding what you saw at Rushima Island?" Chie asked professionally, while eagerly waiting for Kurona's answer so she could begin taking notes.

Sipping from her bottle of cold-alcohol again, Kurona grimaced at the memories she had of the night she was captured. "No ma'am. I kept my mouth shut the whole time; no matter how 'persistent' they were when it came to trying to extract information from me."

"I see…" Chie muttered under her breath, as she jotted down some notes before moving onto her next question. "And what exactly did happen at Rushima? From the information our data analysts were able to decipher from that probe I took from Haise's pocket and plugged into the master server, we were able to see that CCG sent out an armada of investigators to Rushima during the time that Cochlea was under attack."

"Well… When CCG first arrived, most of the investigators were dispatched to the shores, where the Aogiri Tree had been waiting to ambush them there. But, with that being said, a majority of the 'headstrong' ghouls who tried rushing towards the beach were picked off by the snipers who were still on the ships that CCG used to transport their investigators onto the island… Oh, and there were also the cannons being used on Aogiri Tree too; can't forget those," Kurona explained, before thinking of a way to properly describe what it was like to be there during the initial invasion.

"... Think about that one gory scene from 'Saving Private Ryan;' the one where everyone's being blown up and shot to death? Yeah, it was pretty much like that for the first four hours."

Mentally envisioning the bloodbath of what happened on Rushima Island's shores, Chie silently nodded while writing Kurona's response into her notepad. "That sounds messy… And what about the ships? There were four of them, right?"

"Four at first, yes… But then after about a few hours into the battle, there was a small patrol-boat that showed up," Kurona explained, while taking notice of the look of surprise on Chie's face after she mentioned there being a fifth water vessel. "That guy… The one who fought Sasaki… I don't remember what they called him, but he was the only one on that fifth boat."

"The Black Reaper…?" Chie asked with a bewildered look on her usually emotionless face. "He was at Rushima Island? How?! From what CCG's records show, he was at Cochlea that night…!"

Shrugging, Kurona gave Chie a nonchalant look before taking another sip of her drink. "I wish I could say. If I were to make an assumption though, I'd say that he probably showed up after he was done finishing up his business at Cochlea. Keep in mind that I wasn't there to see it myself, but from what I heard around the island, he apparently boarded one of the ships and then used CCG's cannons against the other three ships before sinking the last ship himself."

Knowing fully well that Tsukiyama was going to want to hear about the Black Reaper being the reason why CCG's ships never returned back to shore, Chie made sure to mark that page on her notepad before flipping to the next page. "Really now…? And what then? Did he leave afterwards?"

"Like I said, I didn't see what he did with my own eyes, but from what I've heard, he went to each ship while they were still sinking," Kurona explained. "None of us knew what he did while he was hopping from ship-to-ship, but considering that he didn't bring anyone back with him on that patrol boat of his when he did leave… Well, if I were a betting woman, I'd say he was doing a whole lot of killing."

"Ah… So he didn't end up stepping foot on Rushima?"

"Correct," Kurona said with a nod, before adding onto her statement by saying "Thankfully none of us had to try and fight him. There's just… Something very 'wrong' with the Black Reaper; like when you see him in person, you start to feel… Cold," Kurona said with a slightly bothered look on her face, before shrugging it off. "Anyways, it doesn't help that a rumor started to go around the island that he's killed a lot of people before coming to the island; both ghouls and humans alike."

"More than you think," Chie commented, while taking a small break to rest her hand. "We've been keeping an eye on him, along with that other one with pink hair and a scary mask… The Black Reaper alone has been linked to well over three thousand deaths across Japan, even though he's only been active for about five or four months… And those are just the ones we were able to find out about; there's no telling how many more he's murdered."

"Christ…!" Kurona muttered with a look of dread on her face, which only intensified after realizing that if it hadn't been for Haise, she and Chie would have both been added to Urie's massive kill-count. "Why hasn't the United Front sent an assassin to eliminate him yet? Surely someone that dangerous shouldn't be allowed to live…!"

"Tsukiyama already put a bounty on his head; it's just that all the hitmen who did end up taking the job went missing afterwards," Chie explained casually to Kurona, while getting herself ready to write more notes down. "… After a few months, we just stopped getting calls; as of now, there's literally no hitman left alive who wants the job. You'd be surprised if I told you just how many hitmen complained about going after a target that would fight back, when we asked them why they would decline the job."

"I see… And I'm going to assume that's why Tsukiyama needs Sasaki? Because he's the only one who'll go after the Black Reaper on his own accord?"

"Precisely," Chie said with a nod, before further explaining, "Sasaki's the only person who knows the Black Reaper personally… From what I've gathered, the Black Reaper, also known as Kuki Urie, used to work for Sasaki, back when they were in the CCG together… And from what else I've gathered, Sasaki and him were once close like father and son."

While she wasn't necessarily on great terms with Haise, even though he had bought her and Chie enough time to escape, the importance of family wasn't lost on Kurona; especially since she recently had to come to terms with her own sister's demise. "I… I see, that's… That's terrible."

"… It does have a tragic aspect to it, doesn't it?" Chie said nonchalantly, without really giving much thought to how hard it was for Haise to learn what his sudo-son had become. "If you don't mind Yasuhisa, I'd like to go over some of the things you think we should be expecting to see when we do land on Rushima."

Frowning while still thinking about the relation between Haise and the Black Reaper, Kurona felt a chill running down her jet-massaged back after hearing Chie's inquiry in regards to what they'll see at Rushima Island. "Death… Expect there to be lots of death." Kurona said in a cryptic tone.

"… Death, huh? Can you please be a little more specific?" Chie asked calmly, while somewhat annoyed at how unhelpful Kurona's melodramatic answer was.

Before daring to press on about the horrors she had seen, Kurona made sure to finish off the rest of her bottle of ice-cold bloodwine first. After the last red-droplet of alcohol tricked its way out of the glass and past her lips, Kurona set the empty bottle aside before taking a moment to collect her thoughts.

"… You see, the Aogiri Tree made sure to keep the island well stocked with drinkable water; for any given situation, there was always 'emergency water' available inside that old military base. That's the one thing humans and ghouls need more than anything: fresh water," Kurona said calmly, while watching as Chie wrote into her notepad. "… I'm sure you know that people, humans included, can last about three days without water… With no way off the island after it became apparent that someone had sabotaged all the escape boats during the first day of CCG's invasion, we began to divide amongst ourselves. Soon, no one was really concerned about fighting the other side anymore, but rather it came down to who can hoard the most resources…"

"… Go on," Chie ushered, while finding Kurona's account of what transpired on Rushima to be intriguing in a sense that was satisfying her morbid sense of curiosity.

Taking a moment to let out a deep breath, Kurona pursed her lips while silently thinking to herself before continuing on with her statement. "Right… So, like I was saying about water becoming the main concern for Aogiri Tree, the same applied to CCG's surviving investigators. From what I've heard while trying to survive myself, a majority of their supplies were inside their ships… Which, as you can imagine, began to tear apart the investigators' alliance with one another, after it became clear that the different squad leaders began to have disputes over what their next plan of action should be…"

"… From what I remember, the 'Rushima Island Landing Operation', as the CCG called it, began December 13th… And by the 17th, the island became what you'd call a 'dog-eat-dog world'; no one was looking out for anyone else other than themselves. Flesh became abundant for us to consume, to the point where even the humans were having to eat the corpses of their fallen comrades just to survive…"

"… On December 18th, that's when that blizzard started. It was so cold, and many of us were running out of dry clothes to keep ourselves warm… It's funny; you don't ever really think about how firewood works, until you start chopping down trees and try using fresh wood to start campfires… Not only is fresh wood difficult to ignite, it also doesn't burn well… But what it does do is make a look of smoke; thick-black smoke that asphyxiates you if you try burning it in an enclosed shelter." Kurona said with a bothered look on her face, after remembering how many ghouls she found dead beside an extinguished campfire while she was searching for supplies.

Even ghouls were experienced survivalists from being hermits, such as 'Torso', ended up having no other choice but to burn wet firewood to fight off hypothermia, and ended up dead because of it. Although, a part of Kurona wondered if Torso himself did it because he was desperate to stay alive, or if he was desperate to escape their cruel fate on the isolated island.

"… I digress," Kurona said with a straight face, after taking another moment to recompose herself to move on from her negative thoughts about just how many ghouls actually did end up killing themselves.

"… The man you're looking for, 'Dr. Kanou', was the primary reason why I was at Rushima to begin with. I once believed that he… That he was capable of saving my sister. I reached him and talked to him once, before he locked himself and his team of scientists up inside that laboratory of his… Where all the supplies were, nonetheless," Kurona mused with a bitter and sarcastic tone in her voice, before suddenly softening her expression. "I… I understand that you're hoping to find his assistants alive, but… I don't think they're alive."

Arching an eyebrow at how certain Kurona sounded upon bringing up her own opinion on whether or not Kimi and Kanou were still alive, Chie gave Kurona some time to once again collect her thoughts while she finished up writing her notes, before asking her question.

"What makes you think that they're dead? If they're really secured inside Rushima's old military base with all those supplies, I'd imagine that they'd be the ones to outlast everyone else, no?"

"You'd think so, wouldn't you?" Kurona asked somewhat snidely with an unamused smirk on her face, before slowly becoming once again visibly uncomfortable. "… It was… Still the 18th, I think? Yeah… Anyways, he and his team had been using Aogiri Tree's captured humans as test subjects for his attempts at recreating a 'qunix': which in his eyes, was essentially just an artificial ghoul like myself, who's able to survive by eating human food-"

"-I'm actually aware of what a quinx is, Yasuhisa; some of our contracted employees are actually quinxes themselves," Chie interjected, while doing her best to try to not sound too condescending; not that it actually stopped Kurona from wanting to give a sassy response back to her.

"… I know, I've met one of them; he beat the shit out of me, put six syringes in my eye, dragged me upstairs in a burning building, and shoved me into a godforsaken computer room to be shackled to a rusty-metal desk alongside the likes of you, remember?" Kurona asked sarcastically, which actually managed to incite a chuckle from Chie.

"Ah, yes…! How could I forget?" Chie replied back with a mildly embarrassed look on her face, after being called out for somehow forgetting that Shirazu was also a qunix. "My apologies… Please, continue… Also, to be fair, Shirazu never signed the contract, so technically we weren't associated with him."

"Thank God for that, right?! That could have been a real pain for your HR department to deal with…!" Kurona chuckled out with an amused smirk on her face, as she couldn't help but find the mousy expression on the other woman's face to be endearing to say the least.

"You keep distracting me…! Anyway, like I was saying… The reason why I don't think Kanou and his team are alive anymore is because all those test subjects of his, the ones he keeps locked up like zoo animals? They ended up escaping from their captivity, and ended up killing one another upon exiting the military post that was SUPPOSED to be locked up... But, you know… The funny thing is, that… That they all had this… 'Black stuff' crawling in and out of them; eating them from the inside out until there was nothing left but dust."

"Black stuff eating them from the inside out? How… Odd," Chie mused with an intrigued glimmer in her brown eyes, as he made sure to circle her the paragraph in her notepad that contained Kurona's account of what she had found on the deceased test subjects. "And did you try to interact with this black goop in any way?"

"Absolutely not! I've seen enough horror movies to know what happens to curious imbeciles who tamper with things they're not equipped to deal with," Kurona replied with a chortle, while finding the idea of her snooping around where she had no business treading to be idiotic, if not sucidal.

"Anyway… That was sort of a wake up call for me, I suppose. Before then, I figured that if I held out long enough, I'd eventually get rescued from Rushima Island one way or the other. But after seeing that horrific scene, it made me realize how hopeless it was to wait for help, and that things were probably going to get a whole lot worse for me if I stayed, so… That's when I made the decision to start swimming and never looking back. And we all know how well that plan went…!"

Finding Kurona to be far more entertaining than what her demeanor foretold, Chie found herself chuckling once again at the one-eyed ghoul's sarcastic sense of humor, which made jotting down the last of her notes more challenging than it should have been for someone with her experience. "Alrighty, alrighty…! Welp, I think that pretty much concludes all I need to hear from you; thank you for being cooperative, Yasuhisa."

"The pleasure is all mine, Hori," Kurona replied back in a cordial manner, while also beginning to find Chie's company to be pleasant. "So, does that mean you'll be getting out of the water, now that you got your 'scoop'?"

Immediately dropping her emotionless demeanor, Chie made sure to turn her tape recorder off before tossing her notepad beside it on the patio table that resided beside the jacuzzi she and Kurona were occupying.

"Nah, I'll wait to give Tsukiyama my report on the 26th. I don't work holidays, and besides, he's probably busy fornicating with his cousin in that 'European sex-dungeon' he calls his 'master quarters'," Chie said dismissively, before crossing her hands behind her head while getting into a comfortable position inside the hot tub.

Caught off guard by how nonchalantly Chie's voice sounded when she mentioned Tsukiyama committing acts of incest, Kurona couldn't help but become slightly flustered at the thought of it. "A-Are you joking?! Tsukiyama actually has sex with Karren?!"

"Eeyup... He was raised to, uh… 'Keep it in the family', if you know what I'm saying," Chie said with a slight southern-draw to her voice, while secretly admiring the blush that was enveloping Kurona's face. "… By the way, what do you think of this lime-color bikini? I think it makes me look hot."


Sitting down in the employee break room of Ruisawa's very own 7-Eleven, Haise had finished watching the morning news interview, in order to get the gist of what was going on in Tokyo, and why people were acting so friendly to him. From what Haise gathered, while occasionally having to pause to indulge in the employees' requests of taking selfies with him, Furuta had painted him to be completely opposite of what CCG had publicly described him as when they first put a bounty on his head.

According to Furuta, Haise was a selected victim of CCG to play the part of a martyr, and had been experimented on by them to become a one-eyed ghoul, in order to be used to eliminate any opposition to them, before eventually trying to kill him.

Even though it was mostly falsified information and seemed a little far fetched, Furuta's words weren't too far off from the truth; especially since he was technically used by the CCG, for the sole purpose of being a disposable weapon to them.

However, in Furuta's interview, it struck Haise as off putting when the man eventually mentioned Hinami's name while showing a picture of her when she was fourteen. According to the story Furuta told the public, Hinami had been used by CCG to control Haise into doing what they wanted him to do, and when they wrote him off as deceased, they had planned on executing her due to her supposedly being of no further use to them.

It became even stranger for Haise when Furuta finally came across to showing live footage of Corniculum during the United Front's raid. Because Haise wasn't wearing one of their uniforms, Furuta spun a web of lies stating that he had infiltrated the prison during the raid to recuse Hinami, who was actually just Chie Hori being shown in the footage. But because the surveillance camera never got a good shot of Chie's face, and because she and Hinami looked extremely similar from afar, Furuta was able to convince the news anchor that Haise was indeed rescuing 'Hinami' from the clutches of CCG.

Due to Haise not having to fight anyone aside from Shirazu and Urie while he was at Corniculum, Furuta insisted to the news anchor that Haise wasn't trying to harm humans or ghouls; making it seem like Haise was a pacifist who could do no wrong.

Instead, the way Furuta made it seem like was that Haise was fighting two agents of V, who Furuta also managed to convince the news anchor to be a shadowy group belonging to CCG's Washuu family. As much as Haise wanted to disbelieve that statement, the fact that he didn't know much about V's members and their organization in general made him wonder if Urie and Shirazu really were a part of that supposedly evil group.

What really made Haise begin to question how much of what Furuta was spewing was actually false was when the topic of his battle with Urie came up to discussion. While Urie did fall from grace, and was someone who betrayed Haise, the way Furuta depicted him out to be to the public was extremely unforgiving.

Showing statistics and footage of the Black Reaper slaughtering investigators, ghouls, and regular humans alike built Urie up to be a vile monster that existed for the sole purpose of being a common enemy amongst humans and ghouls alike. The Black Reaper was shown as nothing more than a villian for the public to fear and hate.

So, with Haise being shown as a tragic hero who was fighting against overwhelming odds to rescue his depicted young and helpless sister, and with Urie being purposefully shown as Tokyo's boogeyman that lived only to kill with the same predator instinct of a heartless beast, Furuta managed to weave together a tragic tale for the public of a heroic father having to fight with his evil son, all while also blaming CCG for causing it in the first place.

What ended up being the final nail in CCG's coffin was when Ayumu, a young and innocent girl who won the audience and news anchor over with her helpless appearance, told her side of the story in regards to Haise killing Hachikawa in self defense only, and not how the CCG reported it.

With Ayumu tearing up as she talked about how Haise was purposely holding back because he only wanted to defend himself, the news anchor began to tear up a bit. It was only after Ayumu told the news anchor about how Haise had to call the ambulance himself to save her, after Hachikawa had fatally wounded her, did the news anchor's expression change from pity to outrage.

After having watched the entire interview, it was clear to Haise why Ruisawa was persistent about severing all ties she had with CCG, and why she was trying to show off to everyone that she allied herself with him.

Although Haise knew that there were a lot of inconsistencies and flat out lies that existed to solely gaslight the public into turning on CCG, he had a hard time arguing with Furuta's points, and even found himself believing some of what the charismatic man was saying. Whether or not Haise believed in what Furuta said didn't matter, because according to the comments section listed below the article containing the video, it seemed as though almost everyone else believed in his words.

Furuta Nimura, who was going by the name 'Kichimura Washuu', had become the man who sold the world.


Alrighty, folks! That's the reason why Furuta keeps Hinami safe in the mountains, while Urie purposely does horrible atrocities: it makes Haise have to play the role of the hero for the public to support, while also demonizing CCG.

Furuta wouldn't directly confront Haise about it, because why would he risk being on the 'loosing side'? He gets to win the public over, have Yusa be the symbol of a new era, destroy everything his family did to create a society controlled by CCG, and gets to manipulate Haise into getting him Rize, all without ever having to make himself look like the bad guy.

Why Yusa, and not himself? The answer is simple: Furuta wants to live the rest of his life living a relatively average existence with Rize. Aside from that, Furuta and his siblings purposely made sure Yusa resembled a younger version of Haise, to better inspire and gain public trust even more so.

That's Urie's duty, to protect Yusa and secure a future for his friends who hate him by having the world fear him. He purposely became an antagonist for the public to hate; a villian that will be defeated by someone who's considered his opposite. His existence as the Black Reaper is to harbor the hate of both humanity and ghouls alike, hence why he's considered the 'dragon' of this story.

As for Haise, he nor anyone else in his group knows better. Even Roma and the other clowns don't know enough about Urie's role and Furuta to understand what's going on behind the curtain. Because Haise's goals are inline with the path being set out for him, it's not like he himself can break free out of his role as GOAT's 'protagonist' role.

If Hinami was killed, there would be no motivation for him to be of use to them, hence why Hinami's helping by 'keeping away from Haise'; even she herself doesn't agree with it, and is trying to somehow find a way to see him without him discovering who she is.

Or maybe she already has? After all, Hinami and Chie Hori look awfully similar, don't they?

Anyways, time to go over the comments. Be kind, I'll be trying to go over the reviews for both chapters 24 and 25… On an iPhone, because I'm away from my laptop.

As far as the bounty goes, CCG will be forced to drop it due to added negative outlook they get for having it open. At least, they'll stop advertising it, while secretly trying their hardest to kill Haise, Furuta, Urie, and even Yusa once he makes his appearance at the protests as GOAT's public speaker.

Luckily for them, Furuta's Oggai are there to feed them information, and can be used against CCG. Especially when it comes into light that Matsuri approved the use of child soldiers.

It seems like there's an interest in that fanfic to made, that happens twenty years in the future. I love all of your ideas, especially Eto having twins, while Hinami would want plenty of children.

But to make sure there's no continuity errors, and to make sure this fanfic has top priority, I'll wait until I finish this one before moving on to that one. Plus, it gives me more time to iron out the plot.

By the way, thanks to the guest reviewer who gave me the idea of how not only Touka will change due to her kakuja taking an effect on her mental status as well as her power, but the idea of having a Mikasa-buff like Touka dominating Haise/Kaneki sounds amazing. 10/10, you're the reason why Touka's now a buff tomboy gf.

Speaking of Touka, I'd say she's about SS+ without her kakuja, and SSS with her full kakuja.

Also, I'm glad people are enjoying the way I'm writing Roma's character. I figured that she'd be the kind of person who would make dated jokes, due to how old she is. Speaking of which, much like how Roma enjoys 80's era music, expect Eto to enjoy 90's- early 20's grunge rock. Roma listened to happy music to lightened her mood growing up, while Eto listened to bands like Niravana, My Chemical Romance, and Greenday to express her inner-emo.

The one-shot with Hinami will also come later tbh, when I either have time to do it, or get writer's block. Although, I've had writer's block so many times that I kinda don't get it as much anymore. I hope that doesn't make me sound pretentious, lmao.

Haise being able to train would help him a little bit, but because he doesn't really have time to train like he did when he was Kaneki, he sort of has to rely on his merits, teamwork, luck, and outwitting stronger opponents to beat them.

And it's all good, guest. I'm sorry that I misinterpreted you saying that you wanted Hinami to eat Kaneki's ass like it was a bag of groceries. I can see Hinami wanting to grope Kaneki's asscheeks, tbh.

Haise's newly acquired Hello Kitty motorcycle will take him far in life, until he inevitably gets destroyed. Speaking of it, the reason why I had Haise not immediately call Eto for help is just because, well, he's Haise. He really didn't want to inconvenience her, especially if it was something he could fix himself.

Thank you for making Spongebob references, L. It really took me a bit to realize what you were referring to when you made that 'What's funnier than 24' joke, lol.

Roma, being Roma, purposefully gave Haise a bike with almost no gas. She might like him and even think of him entertaining enough to be somewhat a friend to her, but at the end of the day Roma enjoys messing with people.

Touka really is out here stinking up the joint, and that febreeze review made me lol irl.

Honestly though, it will take a lot more than Mutsuki's poor communication skills to make Eto and Touka okay with sharing Haise. Like Old Nick sarcastically typed, it won't go well for Mutsuki.

Honestly, it was hinted that Touka and Eto did end up getting into a fist fight, but I assure you that it was more like when two siblings wrestle aggressively with one another than anything serious.

Don't worry guys, Eto and Touka will both fuck the hell out of poor little Haise. Touka will be extra rough, and Eto will be extra 'pretend that I'm not trying to get knocked up, but then lock my legs around his waist when he does cum' when it comes time for them to shine.

Don't worry guys, the rice balls are okay. Even though technically Eto, Saiko, Mutsuki, and Haise are the only ones who could eat them; which honestly I think sits well with Eto.

There can only be one tomboy gf, and it's Touka. Honestly, I don't see Eto working out because she's more of the curvy kind of woman than musclar.

And yes, take it easy on Eto. She knows her apartment is cramped and she needs to recolate. They're all a bit busy at the moment, unfortunately.

Anyways, I think that pretty much wraps things up.

Thank you again for reading, and I'll look forward to reading more feedback and posting the next chapter.

Thank you, and have a great day!