Just as a warning, this chapter is long. It's also the date chapter for Haise and Eto. So expect there to be romance.
It also might be the longest chapter, thus far. Over 9K words of Etoken content, which isn't including the other 3K+ words of commentary that's in the beginning and end of this chapter.
Also, as a trigger warning, the teenage version of Eto tends to swear A LOT in this chapter during the flashbacks. So please don't be caught off guard when it becomes apparent that Eto wasn't always a smooth-talking enigmatic woman, but rather was very punk and vulgar from being a product of her environment.
Think of her teenage self as a more punk version of Ayato, but with a heart of gold still. With that being said, I decided to show this side of her character because I figured it would be interesting and fun to see a less nihilistic and a more emotionally vulnerable side of Eto, while also highlighting her being a millennial.
Anyways, there won't really be too much NSFW content in this chapter, but expect there to be in the next chapter.
Without further adieu, the author's notes will be at the end, and I hope you enjoy this chapter!
It was the middle of April; the clouds above were a clear indicator that the Spring showers were on their way. While many children who were around Eto's age enjoyed the thought of being able to splash around in puddles while wearing their favorite rain attire, for the homeless half-ghoul, there were hardly worse days for her than when it rained.
Already dreading the possibility of the 24th Ward suffering from floods, due to it being underground where Tokyo's flood system laid dormant underneath the city's streets, Eto pulled her raggedy jacket that lacked a zipper around her small frame. Having taken greater lengths in preserving her stolen high-top Vans sneakers than her raggedy coat, the young half-ghoul did her best to avoid getting her shoes dirty while searching Ishida Park's trash cans for leftover food; all while skateboarding on a board that she also stole.
With the only possession on her person that she was proud of being the portable CD player Noroi had given her, after he had hunted a lone jogger who had gotten lost in the woods, Eto made sure that her headphones were plugged into her device while waiting for the outdoor restrooms to be opened.
Sitting down on the same wooden bench she sat on every morning, Eto nestled herself into the seat while reaching into her oversized coat to retrieve a small blackcase she used to keep her CDs in. Unzipping the small nylon-fabric container, Eto's boney fingers rifled through her small collection of album-discs.
Despite Eto's extreme poverty, she took pride in being able to say that all of her CDs were purchased legally, and weren't bootleg or stolen. With that being said, Eto was careful when she finally picked out her favorite Nirvana album that was a compilation of their most popular songs.
Sliding the black CD into the portable walkman's slot, Eto could feel the disc beginning to spin while the device's laser reader scanned its contents. Peering down with her green eyes to take a closer look at the small display screen, Eto pressed the skip button until she got to the song she wanted to hear: 'Smells Like Teen Spirit.'
Eto may not have been able to read the words said, but she could tell what song was able to play by recognizing the black digital symbols.
Although Eto's English wasn't great, considering that everything she learned about it was solely from music, she knew enough to relate to the lyrics, but that wasn't what stuck out most to her. Eto enjoyed grunge, punk, and alternative rock from the West more than the kinds of music that came from her home country.
She hated how poppy most of the songs were, how 'happy' they were, and how most of the Japanese music she had tried listening that pretended to be sad were about things Eto couldn't relate to. And the songs that were actually depressing didn't interest the homeless half-ghoul at all, because according to her, she was already sad enough as it was, and didn't need to wallow in it.
No, what entranced Eto into loving her preferred genres of music, specifically bands such as 'Nirvana' and 'Green Day', was how listening to those kinds of songs allowed her to express anger and passion that felt refreshing from the overwhelming sense of nihilism that life made her feel.
And more importantly, it was music that she could 'rock to'.
Reaching into her coat pocket to retrieve her pack of stolen cigarettes and flintbox lighter, Eto placed her walkman safely into the same pocket to free her hands. Placing the orange filter of the cigarette between her lips, Eto used the lighter to ignite the tip of the cancer-stick before putting it back into her coat.
Closing her eyelids while vibing out to 'Nirvana', Eto enjoyed the nicotine taste in her mouth as she inhaled a lung full of smoke before exhaling it out of her lips. Wishing that she had a warm cup of coffee that would pair well with her morning cigarette, it was then that Eto caught a glance at a middle-aged jogger stopping in his tracks to stare at her with a concerned look on his face.
A look that rubbed Eto the wrong way.
"What the FUCK are you gawking at, you fat piece of shit?!" Eto shouted out hatefully, which appeared to catch the older man off guard. Not caring what the jogger had to say, Eto kept her headphones on her head before temporarily taking her cigarette out of her mouth to further insult and threaten the man.
"Wanna fucking die today?! Come over here! Come on, you little pussy, get your fat ass over here, so I can shove my foot up it! I'll put my cig out in your blungened asshole! Come on, come on; fucking come here! Make my fucking morning, you little bitch!" Eto shouted out with a murderous look in her eyes, and watched as the jogger suddenly booked it the moment she got up from the bench.
"Yeah, fucking run away, you goddamn coward! PISS OFF!" Eto egged on with a delightful look in her eyes, as she soon found herself grinning from ear-to-ear as she watched the jogger disappear from her line of sight.
"Pfft… What a fucking joker," Eto chuckled to herself, before looking over her shoulder to see the public custodian opening the restrooms for her. Unlike the jogger, the custodian knew better than to dare catch a glimpse at the same little girl who he saw beating a grown man to death with her bare fists, before telling him that she'd do the same to him if I told anyone what she did.
"Mornin', Hayato," Eto called out casually to the custodian, before passing by him with her cigarette placed back in between her cracked lips. Stepping into the bathroom that was as clean as it ever was going to get, Eto placed her headphones around her neck as she began her morning routine of washing herself with the bathroom sink, before doing her business in whatever stall she wanted.
"'With the lights out, it's less dangerous~... Here we are now, entertain us; I feel stupid, and contagious~'," Eto sang to herself, while turning on the bathroom faucet before running her head underneath the stream of water that was pouring inside the white-porclean sink.
"Here we are now, entertain us~... A mulatto, an ablino~; a mosquito, my libido, yeah~...!" Eto hummed to herself with a sense of nostalgia coursing through her, as she finished washing the suds off of her hands. Shaking her wet hands after turning off the same faucet she used to use when she was an angsty preteen, Eto made her way over to the public bathroom's air blower to dry her hands off.
Stepping out of the same restroom that Haise had been waiting outside of, Eto had an embarrassed look on her face as she made her way over to where her date had been waiting for her. "Sorry about that… I've had to use the restroom since I got here, it's just because, well… You know… I sort of forgot about it after I almost watched you die," Eto said with an uneasy chuckle, after apologizing for needing to backtrack to the restrooms in the middle of their walk.
"... When you gotta, you gotta go," Haise replied jokingly with an understanding smile on his face, as he reached out to offer his hand back to Eto, who happily took his hand into her own. "Ready to go, then Eto?"
"I've been ready, my handsome man~!" Eto said endearingly with a wide smile on her face, while using her other hand to playfully pinch Haise's blushing cheeks. Getting up on her tippy toes, Eto gave Haise a peck on his lips before following by his side, as they began to walk along the pavement walkway towards their destination.
With Eto wrapping her arm around his, Haise found himself enjoying the lucrative amounts of Christmas decorations that had gone into making the park look festive. Feeling Eto leaning her head against his bicep while snuggling his arm that she was still using to hold his hand, Haise pointed with his free hand over at one of the many iron-cast lamp posts that had been garnished with garland and Christmas lights.
"Say what you want about the local government for pouring so much money into CCG, but I love how much effort went into decorating the city… I can't really remember, but was it always like this?" Haise asked aloud to his date, before suddenly realizing how vague his question had been. "Well, I mean as far as parks and streets go, anyway."
Having spent every moment she could on streets as a child to avoid spending more time than she needed in the dreary and depressing 24th Ward, Eto took a moment to think back to her large collection of memories she had of every Christmas she could remember.
"Hmm… I want to say yes, but at the same time I want to say that it wasn't always AS good. For example, the city's increased budget in the past six years has really made a difference in comparison to the decorations I grew up looking at," Eto mused, while looking over at the light post that had caught Haise's attention.
"... But you'll only really see the expensive decorations on important government-owned properties, such as the downtown area, or the beach... But as far as parks go, yeah, they've always used the same expendable-cheap decorations since I was a kid… I think it's because they usually get stolen."
Shocked at hearing such a thing, Haise whipped his head over to Eto, while still walking down the park's pathway, before suddenly asking "Really?! Who steals Christmas decorations?!" Haise asked with a disappointed look in his eyes, before suddenly being taken aback by the playfully-guilty look on Eto's face.
"Me, that's who; I used to steal decorations from the city AND from rich people's lawns all the time!" Eto said with an amused look on her face, while snickering at Haise's surprised expression.
"... Haise, I grew up showering in public restrooms, swimming through fountains to collect coins, and shoplifted all the time; back then, stealing some overpriced inflatable Santa and selling it to a shady pawn shop to get an album wasn't out of the question for me! By all means, say what you want, but that's how I got my 'American Idiot' album when I was ten years old."
Laughing while finding himself pitting Eto, who was fortunately able to find humor in her own past misfortunes, Haise shook his head at the half-ghoul's confessed misdemeanors. "My Goodness…! You really were a 'Grinch' back then, weren't you!?"
"More than you know, Haise! I was an angsty young girl back then, who you probably would have found to be insufferable," Eto said with a slight grimace on her face, after suddenly recalling just how vicious and merciless she used to be as a teenager.
"... Or maybe you wouldn't? We probably would have been friends, and I'd probably end up cleaning up my life a lot sooner..." Eto said quietly more so to herself than Haise, as they continued to walk along the pavement, and past various decorated lamp posts.
"You think so?" Haise asked with an oblivious look on his face, while secretly confirming Eto's suspicions that he didn't remember seeing her all those years ago. "You wouldn't try to mug me, or something?"
"... Eh, I'd probably use peer pressure to have you do something for me... But no, I wouldn't try to rough up someone as cute as you," Eto said with a playful wink, which made Haise chuckle.
"Oh good, I feel flattered; I think?" Haise mused with an unsure look on his face, which Eto found to be simply adorable.
"You should! Back in the day, I wasn't exactly known for being an upstanding young lady with manners to spare," Eto said with an embarrassed look on her face, before casually saying, "I was what you'd call a 'punk'… I committed a lot of violent acts just to get what I needed in life… And sometimes I did it for no justifiable reasons, such as when I used to wait for people outside gas stations to mug them when I was low on cigarettes, and didn't want to bother going inside to steal them; you'd be surprised about how many people I had to kill who decided to try and fight back against the scrappy little preteen I used to be…"
Even though her youth wasn't a glamorous time period of her life, by any means, it was a part of her life that Eto often overlooked and repressed. So, being able to talk freely about it with Haise made her feel nostalgic for how carefree and fun she used to be, that was until she finally processed everything she had just admitted to her potential future-husband. "You know... In hindsight, I shouldn't have told you that much; considering this is sort of our 'first date,' the last thing I want to do is scare you off… More than I already have, mind you."
Having worked at Anteiku and CCG, Haise somewhat remembered the stories he had been told in regards to how tragic and hard life could be for ghouls, especially for those who weren't born into established households, like how Touka and Hinami did for a time being.
Being able to understand the concept of one needing to be feared in order to protect themselves from other ghouls, as well as one merely doing what it took to survive extreme poverty, Haise was able to empathize with Eto's extremely troubled childhood without judging her too much for her choices. "... I can't say that I blame you for what you had to do to get by back then… The way I see it, you only did those things because you were in a position where you had to do those things to survive, and you probably didn't know any other way that worked for you."
"Thank you!" Eto said aloud in an exasperated sigh, after finally being in the company of someone who didn't berate her for her past mistakes and decisions. "You don't know how many times I've been told 'you shouldn't have done that' or 'that's not what I would have done'...! Seriously, some of the few people who I've opened up to, like Touka and Tatara, don't get what it was like for me… They think just because I was 'raised' by Noro, I should have been a 'better person'...!"
Knowing Noro solely as the unspeaking enigma that he himself had only seen a few times, back when he used to be Kaneki, Haise somewhat found it hard to believe that someone like Noro could be considered a responsible caretaker. "Noro? That silent ghoul who wore that creepy mask, and had that kagune coming out of his head…? Was he a good parent?"
Having to only think about her answer to whether or not the ghoul had been what most people would refer to as a 'good caretaker', Eto shrugged her shoulders before replying to Haise. "... Looking back on it now, considering that I grew up in the sewers like a 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle', I think I'm obligated to say that he probably wasn't the best foster father when it came to trying to raise me to be a 'contributing member of society'," Eto said sarcastically with a slightly frustrated tone in her voice, while still hugging Haise's arm for comfort.
"... By the way, Noro wasn't always a hulking abomination, like how most people know him as… He used to have this serene look about him, and always tried to use his wisdom to help guide me down the right path… He might not have known a lot about being a good father, per say, but… He loved me like I was his own child, and he always tried his best to watch over me, when he could anyways," Eto said, while defending the memory of her foster parent who had died saving her and Haise.
"... A parent can do only so much to protect their child from the way the world is, you know?" Eto asked with a methodical look on her face, before suddenly remembering that Haise's memories of his childhood were essentially non-existent. "Um… I guess you, uh… Wouldn't know, huh?"
Flashing Eto a reassuring smile, Haise gently squeezed Eto's hand to comfort her. "Not really, no, but I can empathize with you, and understand what you're trying to say… But like… Did you really have to smoke cigarettes when you were still a child?"
Opening her mouth to mimic a scoff, Eto leapt up once with a knowing expression on her face. "I knew it! I knew you were going to say something about that! EVERYONE does!" Eto vented out loud, while listening to Haise laugh uneasily at her playful outburst. "You don't get it, Haise…! You don't know how good a cigarette first thing in the morning is! Pair that with a nice cappuccino when it's nice and chilly outside…! Mmmmh...!" Eto said with her wide grin finding its way back to her lips, as she reminisced how much she used to enjoy smoking.
"So… Unless you've smoked before, you wouldn't get it; I'm afraid you're too 'straight-edge' to get it, Haise… Besides, I stopped smoking when I was twelve; thank you very much," Eto teased playfully, as she momentarily stuck her tongue out at her date, who in turn was giving her a pompous look that caught her attention. "What? What's with the smug look?"
"'Straight-edge', huh? Is that what you think?" Haise asked with a cocky expression on his face, while visibly soaking up the bewildered look of disbelief on Eto's face.
"What? You think having too many glasses of wine makes you a delinquent, or something?" Eto asked in an attempt to challenge Haise's cocky attitude, which of course only made Haise's smug smirk grow even wider.
"Yes, I do think that counts; but no, that wasn't what I was referring to," Haise replied back with a slight bit of sass in his voice, before slowly reaching into his leather jacket to retrieve a ziplock stuffed with rolled-up joints.
Never, not ever in a million years, did Eto think she'd see someone as seemingly innocent as Haise being in possession of a bag filled with marijuana paraphernalia. Despite being at a loss for words at the absurd revelation, Eto silently was glad to know that Haise chose to smoke weed over cigarettes. "H-How did you get all that?!" Eto asked with an astonished tone in her voice, before quickly yanking the bag of joints out of Haise's hand to stuff it in her hoodie's large pocket.
"Don't get caught with this stuff, Haise…! It's illegal here…!" Eto lectured with an excited look in her eyes, while already planning on taking a few tokes before heading back to her apartment. "By the way, you have a lighter for these, right?" Eto asked with a curious look in her eyes, while watching as Haise's smug smirk suddenly faded in an instant.
"... Ah damn it; I should have got one while I was at 7-Eleven…!" Haise scolded himself under his breath, before shaking his head. "Sorry, I don't have one on me. I wish Roma would have lent me one of hers when she gave me that bag."
"So that's how you got your hands on that stuff… She probably took it from Tsukiyama's little fancy boat, or something," Eto said with a frown on her face, while looking in her pockets to make sure that she was still carrying her emergency lighter on her. "... By the way, why are you even talking to that old hag?! What's she got that I don't?!"
Being sick of the taste of meat, due to her having constantly cannibalized ghouls both in and out of the 24th Ward, Eto was in the mood for something more commonly accepted in human society. Not feeling motivated to make her way down to a gas station to steal a quick bite and a drink to go, Eto figured that she might as well see if there were any leftover snacks from the outdoor tables at nearby elementary school.
Making sure to put her cigarette out before coming within the vicinity of Sakura Elementary, Eto was able to avoid attracting unwanted attention from the school's staff by blending in as a student who was just wearing a jacket over her non-existent school uniform. Due to it still being rather early in the morning, there weren't many students around, and the ones that were out-and-about were busy talking amongst their groups of friends in their own little corners.
Rolling her eyes at the sight of seeing so many humans being able to live such cushy lives, Eto muttered vulgarities under her breath as she walked through the front gate of the school. Due to her having freshened up, Eto wasn't stopped at the entrance by any school yard supervisors, who hardly paid attentioned to her as she made her way over to the outdoor seating area, just outside the gym that also served as a cafeteria.
Discouraged to see that there wasn't any food inside the outdoor trash can she subtly peeked into upon passing by it, Eto was considering just leaving before she caught sight of a very young boy with black hair reading a book that happened to have a tray of untouched food sitting right of the table he was seated at.
Being illiterate, Eto paid no mind in trying to interpret what the cover of the boy's book said as she casually made her way over to the stone table he was at. Taking a seat across from the young boy, who appeared to be too enthralled in his book to take notice of her presence, Eto rested her elbow down on the table while silently observing the boy; waiting for him to take notice of her.
After it became apparent that he wasn't going to put the book down anytime soon, Eto got impatient and decided to take matters into her own hands. "... Hey kid!" Eto said in a loud voice, before startling the poor child.
Appearing to be trembling slightly from having been startled, the young boy looked back at her with his brown eyes that conveyed a sense of submission and curiosity in them. "I… I'm sorry ma'am; w-were you t-talking to m-me...?" The young boy asked in a timid voice, which Eto couldn't help but to find hilariously cute.
"Yeah, no shit Sherlock; of course I was talking to you! Who the fuck else would I be talking to?!" Eto asked sarcastically with an amused grin on her face, before gesturing at the empty seats surrounding them.
"O-Oh… I-I'm sorry, I… I should have noticed that," the young boy said quietly with a slightly quivering lip, while doing his best to avoid having Eto see the tears that were extremely noticeable to see.
"Don't fuckin' apologize; you didn't do shit… I hate when people say sorry and they don't mean it," Eto said with an annoyed look in her eyes, before suddenly turning her attention to his untouched breakfast sandwich that sat enticingly on his tray. "Hey, give me your breakfast, yeah? I haven't had real food for like, a fucking week…"
Without having any self-confidence to argue with the punk half-ghoul, the young boy shrunk in his seat before slowly sliding his tray over to Eto. "O… Okay," he said quietly, while watching as Eto grabbed the sandwich before ravenously devouring it down like it was her last meal. "O-Oh my goodness… Y-You weren't joking about not eating, huh ma'am…?"
Licking her fingers clean, Eto casually tossed the sandwich's wrapper back onto the tray before pushing back over to the young boy, so that he could dispose of it for her. "First off, stop fucking calling me 'ma'am'; that fake formal shit pisses me off…"
"O-Oh, I'm sorry… I-I'll do my best to not do that in the future," the young boy said apologetically, which again, ticked Eto off.
"Yeah, whatever… Now for the next step into making you less of a wimp: stop fucking apologzing for everything, dude. I've known you for like, what, two minutes, if that? And you've said sorry to me like, fuckin' three times; quit that shit, man. It makes you look like a little bitch," Eto said unapologetically to the young boy, who appeared to be silently crying after being berated by her.
"I… I'm s-sorry…!" The young man replied back in a choked up voice, which only made Eto groan while becoming even more frustrated with him.
"What the hell did I just say, dude?! You're already fucking up, kid…!" Eto said with a humorless chuckle, before quickly noticing that what she said only made him cry harder. "Dude…! Shut the hell up already; you're gonna get fucked with if someone sees you like that…!"
Unable to form coherent sentences, all the young boy could do was sob behind his book, while being too ashamed of himself to let Eto see his face.
To Eto, having mercy or compassion for others had always led to her getting screwed over or betrayed. The few times Eto tried being nice were often the last of her attempts of trying to be the good little girl that Noroi wanted her to be. But even if she had sworn off trying to be unnecessary kind to others, hearing the young boy who she took advantage of sobbing like a weakling made Eto suddenly want to take pity on him.
"... Christ, kid; you're the living embodiment of one of those fuckin' animal rescue commericals," Eto said with a low chuckle, before shaking her head to herself, while trying to compose her thoughts. Letting out a sigh, Eto reluctantly uttered out, "Fuckin'... Look, kid; I'm sorry. I shouldn't have been an asshole to you… So like, can you forgive me already, so I can stop feeling like I just kicked a sad puppy in the face?"
Although he was still crying, the young boy couldn't help but to find the comparison Eto made to be hilarious. "T-That's f-farcical…"
Unaware of what that word meant, Eto arched an eyebrow at the young boy, who was slowly lowering his book down to stare back at her from the top of the pages he was still partially hiding behind. "'Farcical'? Does that mean like 'ripping ass', or something?"
Beginning to find Eto's brash nature to become humorous, the young boy's quiet laughter began to pick up, while his crying started to subside. "'Farcical: relating to or resembling farce, especially because of absurd or ridiculous aspects.' It just means that I think you're funny… Sorry if th- I mean… It's okay if you didn't understand what I meant the first time." The young boy explained, after correcting himself to appease the half-ghoul while following her advice.
"Damn right, I'm funny; I'm the funniest bitch in this whole shithole city~!" Eto said sarcastically with a smirk on her face, which only made the young boy smile. "There we go, a smile! That's what you were missing, kid…" Eto said, while putting her hands down on the table to push herself up on her feet. "... Well dude, thanks for the sandwich; I'll catch you around sometim-"
Before Eto could finish her sentence, she was suddenly caught off guard at the sight of a large kid, who looked older than the young boy, suddenly shoving him off of his seat. Standing tall above the smaller child, the bully smirked menacingly at the boy he had just assaulted.
"Heh…! Hey Kaneki, who's the hobo you're hanging out with?! I thought a faggot like you, would-"
Eto didn't even bother letting the bully finish his sentence before reacting by suddenly appearing behind him. Grabbing the bully by the back of his head, Eto slammed the burly kid's face into the stone table before tossing him several meters away like he weighed nothing to her.
"Get fucked, you cocksucker..." Eto muttered bitterly at the horrified bully, who had been brutally mutilated by the half-ghoul shattering his teeth against the table, who also happened to break his jaw in half, and shatter the septum of his nose.
Already knowing that her little act of vigilante justice had alerted every staff member within a thirty-meter radius, Eto quickly used the dwindling time she had left to pick Kaneki back up to his feet before quietly whispering to him, "Hey kid, meet me at the Ishida Park's restrooms after school, okay...? I wanna be your friend…"
"O… Okay?!" Kaneki replied back with a baffled look in his brown eyes, while simultaneously looking past Eto's shoulder to watch as his bully had been reduced to nothing more than a whimpering bloodied-mess by the hands of the mysterious punk girl.
"Good boy," Eto said sassily with a confident smirk on her face, before getting up on top of the table to get the attention of all the other students who were watching from afar. "OI! ANYONE WHO FUCKS WITH THIS KID WILL HAVE TO ANSWER TO ME! GOT THAT?! IF HE TELLS ME IF YOU'RE MESSING WITH HIM, I'LL FIND YOU AND FUCKING KILL YOUR FAMILY!"
With her time running out, Eto decided to finish her display of dominance over the school by giving her audience a sight to behold. Leaning down, Eto planted a kiss on Kaneki's cheek to mark him as hers, before leaping over the arms of a school yard supervisor who was trying to grab her from the table.
"Suck my dick, bitches!" Eto said tauntingly in her usual vulgar language, before practically disappearing before everyone's eyes in a flash, due to how fast her legs were able to carry her.
Amazed at what he had seen, Kaneki stood in shock as he watched the supervisors split up into two groups to begin rounding up the children inside the gymnasium to protect them from whatever Eto was. Looking around him, Kaneki couldn't help but enjoy the feeling of knowing that all the children who had made it a point to go out of their way to harass him were suddenly averting their gaze away from his own.
Still processing everything that happened within the short span of five minutes, Kaneki couldn't help but to start blushing as he thought back to how Eto's lips felt against his cheeks. Smiling like a dork, the young boy knelt down and picked his father's book up from the grass before making his way into the gymnasium; all while finding himself fixated on meeting the mysterious green-haired girl at the park.
Climbing the fence wasn't an issue for either Haise or Eto, and thanks to it being winter break for all schools across Tokyo, there wasn't anyone else with him on the enclosed campus.
Having been told to sit down at the same exact spot where he and Eto first met almost more than seventeen years ago, Haise sat with his elbows resting on the stone table top while trying to process the memories that were flooding his head.
Without having to be told what was going on, Eto sat across from Haise with a patient look on her face, while waiting for her date to finish whatever it was that he needed to do in order to come to terms with the past.
Letting out an elongated sigh, Haise chuckled humorlessly at the absurdity of how intertwined their destinies had been thus far. "That was really you…? That… That angry preteen who sent that kid to the hospital, and who stole my breakfast sandwich?"
"That would be correct, Haise; I'm also that same pretreen who you met at the park later that day… And the day after, and so on," Eto said with a nostalgic smile on her face, as she slowly extended her arm out to grab a hold of his Haise's hand.
"... And you were that cute little five-year old boy who taught me how to read and write…! You're also my first and only crush; it's been that way for about… Seventeen years, now? Perhaps closer to sixteen?" Eto said aloud with an unsure look on her face, before finally shrugging her shoulders in defeat. "Who knows…"
"... Five? You thought I was five-years old?" Haise asked with an amused grin on his face, as he watched Eto suddenly recoiling at the question.
"Y… Yes, I did. Why? Was I wrong, or…?" Eto started to ask, before trailing off as she watched Haise's grin grow wider. Letting out a sigh, Eto jokingly rolled her eyes at his playfully smug expression before raising her hands up in the air. "Okay, let's just get our age difference settled; that's why you and I aren't in the dark about one another."
"Sounds fair," Haise said with his smirk tightening up, before smacking his lips as he said, "Okay, I'm twenty-three years old, and I have two birthdays: my real one is December 20th, and the fake birthday date I got from CCG is April 2nd. I'm pretty sure I was asleep during my birthday, which was four days ago… But regardless, I'm twenty-three years old now."
Frowning at his answer, Eto squinted her eyes with a confused look on her face, before asking, "That's unfortunate; we'll have to do something later to make up for your missed birthday… Also, why did they give you a fake birthday date?"
"If I had to assume, it's probably because when they captured me from when they raided Anteiku, the people over at Cochlea decided it would be easier to make up a birthday for me when I started to go by 'Haise Sasaki', rather than actually looking me up for themselves," Haise said while taking enjoyment from seeing Eto's face contorting with mild-fury. "I was a student, so my fingerprints were in the system… I suppose that when my fingers were crushed repeatedly by Yamaori, it became too difficult for them to look me up in my records… And it wasn't like I was the most coherent person when I was imprisoned."
"That's foolish of them to give up so easily on looking up something as simple as a birthday date…" Eto mused with an unimpressed look on her face, while being too caught up with how inefficient she thought the CCG to be to take notice of Haise's smile fading away. "Anyway… My birthday is January 16th; I'm twenty-seven years old… My, my, I'm getting really old…"
Hearing Eto chuckling sadly to herself at once again being reminded how many years she had wasted by not enjoying her life, Haise couldn't help but to think back to what went wrong between him and the half-ghoul; how they had gone from being close-outcasts, to being enemies.
"... Eto, can I ask you something?" Haise asked with a serious tone in his voice, despite still trying to put on a happy face that Eto was able to see right through with ease.
"... Y-Yeah, of course; please, do ask," Eto asked nervously with a sinking feeling of dread weighing down on her soul, after suddenly feeling queasy from realizing the sudden shift in Haise's voice.
"... Would you say that you and I were friends back then?" Haise asked with a fading smile, which only further proved Eto's suspicions that she was finally going to have to address the dirty history between him and her; the history that she was ashamed of.
"... I'd like to think that we were, yes," Eto replied back with a low whimper behind her groan, while beginning to nervously tap her feet against the grass underneath the stone table.
With the burning question igniting in his mind to the point where Haise was unable to sugarcoat, Haise let out a quiet breath before finally asking, "If… If you and I really were friends, then why did you make my life a living hell? I mean, you and the Aogiri Tree put me through so much pain that I'm still trying to live with... The nightmares I had were terrible, especially the ones I started to get after being tortured for eleven days straight… You've devastated my life for so long… Why? Why did you let those things happen to me?" Haise muttered with a hurt look in his eyes, which instantly made Eto flinch upon hearing.
"I… I admit that I've done a lot of things I'm not proud of," Eto said quietly with a remorseful look in her grey eyes, as she did her best to maintain her eye contact with Haise. "... Hurting you was the worst thing I've ever done, and… And I still hate myself for what I did to you, Haise… It's just…"
"... It's just that, well… I grew attached to you when we were kids, you know? I knew you were a bit younger than me, and it was a bit weird, I suppose, but…You were truly the first person who I loved; the first person who made me feel like I was an actual person worth a damn… And then, one day… You stopped seeing me; no explanation ever given," Eto recalled with an ashamed look on her face, as she vidily could remember the heartbreak she experienced all those years ago.
"... I loved you; you were the only friend I ever had, and then… And then you left… That… That really messed up, Haise," Eto said aloud with a somber voice, as if telling Haise everything that was coming out of her mouth was the first time ever that she actually reflected back on what made her into the sadistic psychopath, that would later on lead a terrorist group of ghouls who hated humanity.
"... I'm not trying to excuse myself for what I did, but after you stopped seeing me, I… I stopped doing the things that I enjoyed. Smoking, listening to music, having fun doing stupid junvile things… I even found myself unable to go back to the park until just today… I stopped enjoying life, and started to turn to writing because it… It made me almost feel close to you," Eto said with a frustrated voice, while starting to fight back the tears that were threatening to leak out of her eyes.
"... Eto, I-"
"-Why...? Why did you leave me, Haise?" Eto asked with a suddenly dark look washing over her face, as she couldn't help but to feel her repressed frustration and anger resonating within her. "I'm not trying to turn this around on you, but… But I-I just have to know, you know? W-Why did you stop seeing me all those years ago, and more importantly… Why didn't you ever say goodbye to me? Didn't… Didn't I deserve that much at least?"
Despite feeling his own repressed feelings of anger and sadness that were resurfacing, Haise wasn't blind to the fact that Eto's own tragedies and hardships caused by him were still just as valid as his own struggles. Having said too much to go back on the subject of their past, Haise knew that the date could go one of two ways: either they would be able to work through it and make it work, or give up and watch what love potentially could have bloomed between them go up in smoke.
Rather than allowing his emotions to get the best of him, Haise wanted Eto enough that he decided to calm himself down, before further bracing himself to both listen to what she had to say, while also preparing to say what needed to be said on his part.
Waiting a few moments to make sure that the visibly upset half-ghoul wasn't going to say anything else to interrupt him with, Haise tightened his lips into a slight frown before letting out a sigh. "Eto… I stopped seeing you because I was told to, not because I wanted to… My mother, before she passed away… She started to notice that I would come home late, and that I'd take things from the house so I could share them with you. One day, she told me that I wasn't allowed to ever go back to that park, so… So I didn't."
The part of her that still held resentment for being left alone felt unsatisfied with the answer given to her, but the part of Eto that loved Haise did its best to understand that he was just a kid back then; a kid that never knew how to stand up for himself. So rather than trying to demonize Haise for abandoning her, Eto took in a deep breath before moving past her own frustrations, so she could finally give him the answers as to what motivated her to hurt him.
"I… I recognized you the moment I set eyes on you, back when Ayato brought you into the old 11th Ward headquarters," Eto said with a seemingly emotionless expression, while still appearing to be fighting back tears as she stared directly into Haise's eyes. "... I wanted to hate you; I wanted to see you suffer, just so you could feel a fraction of the pain I carried for all those years… I thought if I hated you, and you hated me in return, then the love I felt for you would die, and I'd finally be able to crawl out of the hole I've dug for myself…" Eto explained quietly to Haise, before closing her eyelids while grimacing at the ugly words that had left her mouth.
"I… I see," Haise said with as much empathy in his voice as he could muster out to give. "I… I still don't think what you did to me wasn't justified, it was petty revenge. Rather than trying to confront the past, you tried killing it; you tried suffocating it, just so you could feel better about yourself. That… That wasn't okay of you," Haise stated with a serious look on his face, that cut deep into Eto's heart.
"Y… Y-Yeah, I know…" Eto whispered quietly while her voice started to crack, as warm tears were beginning to trail down the sides of her eyes.
Wanting to be stern with Eto, letting her know that she did hurt him and that it wasn't okay, Haise gently gave her hand another squeeze before softing his expression into a gentle and warm smile that only made the emotional half-ghoul choke up more.
"With that being said… I want you to know that I forgive you, and I want to apologize for abandoning you when you needed me… If I knew of all the suffering you had to endure that could have easily been avoided by simply telling you why I couldn't see you anymore, then maybe things wouldn't have been so hard for the both of us," Haise said apologetically to Eto, who in turn bit down on her quivering bottom lip to keep herself from bursting into tears. "... I'm sorry, Eto; I'm sorry for not being the friend you needed."
"W-What did I tell you before, Haise…?! S-Stop saying sorry so much, damn it…!" Eto chuckled in a cracked voice, before reaching up with her hand to begin sobbing to herself. Haise watched as Eto's face became a deep shade of red, while her uncontrollable wailing grew ear-piercingly loud.
With years-upon-years of repressed emotions surfacing their way up from the deepest recesses of her consciousness, Eto retracted her hand from Haise's own hand, just so she could bury her face into her arms while laying down against the cold-stone table.
Getting up from his seat silently, Haise made his way over to the weeping half-ghoul before sitting down by her side. Wrapping his arm around her trembling body, Haise pulled Eto closer to him. Shushing her in the same gentle voice he used when consoling the quinx squad back in the day, specifically Saiko, Haise took the role of being Eto's emotional rock while continuously rubbing her back to sooth her.
While what came out of Eto's mouth would sound like babbling-gibberish to anyone else, Haise was able to clearly decipher her asking him "W-Why are you so nice to me…!?", before once again breaking down into tears.
After about thirty minutes of comforting Eto enough to coax her out of the outdoor eating area, Haise was able to lead her over to the elementary school's playground equipment. Feeling like he was taking care of Saiko again, Haise smiled to himself while picking Eto up to set her down on one of the dangling seats that were connected to the large swing set.
With Eto being unresponsive to any verbal commands or requests, Haise stared worryingly at how empty her emotionally exhausted eyes were. Thinking to himself about how he could fix her, Haise searched through his newly acquired memories for something he could use to cheer her spirits up. It was then that thought back to the time she and him used to spend at Ishida Park as children.
It wasn't long until Haise got an idea that he thought to be more than exceptional. Reaching into the large pocket of Eto's hoodie to retrieve his bag of rolled up cannabis, Haise took one joint out before placing the plastic bag back into the half-ghoul's hoodie, but not before retrieving the flintbox lighter he had felt while rummaging through her pocket.
Placing the joint in between his lips, Haise used Eto's lighter to burn the tip of the hemp-wrapper before pocketing the small metal box. Without taking a toke and just letting the burning joint rest between his lips, Haise took out his iPhone so he could navigate to a music app.
After opening the Spotify app that Roma helped install and signed him up for, Haise typed in the perfect song he had in mind into the search bar before bringing it up on his screen. With the play-button at the ready, Haise took a single puff from the joint before seating himself down on the swing beside where the despondent half-ghoul was sitting.
'Do you have the time to listen to me whine? About nothing and everything all at once,' the vocalist sang out from the phone's speaker, while the strumming of the guitar's strings played alongside his voice during the song's introduction.
Seeing how this wasn't having a visible effect on Eto just yet, Haise only needed a few seconds to remember the rest of the song before beginning to sing aloud with the song, 'Basket Case'.
"... 'I am one of those melodramatic fools. Neurotic to the bone, no doubt about it~!'" Haise sang confidently with a smile on his face, as he watched Eto's lips begin to part open.
"... 'Sometimes I give myself the creeps... Sometimes my mind plays tricks on me'," Eto whispered softly in unison with Green Day's lead singer, before continuing on with her sudden urge to sing, "'It all keeps adding up, I think I'm cracking up... Am I just paranoid, or am I just stoned...?'"
"'I went to a shrink; to analyze my dreams~!'" Eto sang aloud with a shameless look on her face, while paying no mind to anyone else around Kaneki and herself. "'She says 'it's a lack of sex,' that's bringing me down'- Go on Kaneki, you know the rest!"
Extremely embarrassed, but also knowing that there wasn't any use in trying to tell Eto 'no' while she was 'rocking', Kaneki smiled uncomfortably to the half-ghoul who was having the time of her life playing her CDs on his mother's boombox; the same very one that he had taken from the apartment without her permission.
"... 'I went to a w-whore, who said my life's a bore'," Kaneki sang awkwardly aloud alongside the music blaring through the boombox's speakers, for all around them to unwillingly hear. "... 'S-So I quit my whining, 'cause it's bringing her down'...?!"
"Fuckin' aye, Kaneki; I'm proud of you!" Eto said enthusiastically with an enormous smile on her face, after having managed to push Kaneki out of his comfort zone enough to actually get him to sing out in public. Deciding to push the envelope further, Eto got on top of the park's outdoor table before suddenly picking Kaneki up so that he was standing beside her while the song was in the midst of its guitar solo.
"Y-Yoshimura?! W-What's going on?! Why am I standing up here with you…?!" Kaneki asked with an anxious tone in his voice, as he started to feel the effects of stage fright taking a hold of his body. "This is ridiculous…!"
"Nah, Kaneki! It's, uh-fuckin'... 'Farcical'! Yeah, that fancy-ass word!" Eto said happily to Kaneki, before looking around to stare back at all the judgemental expressions being tossed their way; the same sort of hypercritical looks that were causing Kaneki to feel self-conscious.
"Oi, you can all seriously go FUCK yourselves with a wrench! We're gonna do whatever the hell we want, so you can take your fat ugly asses back home if you can't handle this shit!" Eto shouted angrily with an indifference of what every scoffing face thought of her.
"Y-Yoshimura…?! Y-You're embarrassing us…!" Kaneki squeaked out with a panicked look on his face, before suddenly finding Eto's hands clamping down on his shoulders.
Turning him around so that he was only facing her, Eto smiled reassuringly at Kaneki with a confident look on her face. "To Hell with these people, Kaneki; just have fun and don't be afraid of what the world thinks of you, alright…? Oh! Come on, the last chorus is about to play! Let's sing it together, yeah?!"
Feeling unsure on what to do, it wasn't until Kaneki felt Eto suddenly lowering her arms down to grab a hold of his hands that his worries started to subside. Feeling her gently squeezing his hands while smiling sweetly at him, Kaneki stared back at Eto for a few seconds before finally cracking a nervous smile on his face.
"'Sometimes I give myself the creeps~! Sometimes my mind plays tricks on me~!'" Haise and Eto sang out loud with spunk and soul in their voice, as they stood side-by-side underneath the swing set with the actual song still playing from the one-eyed ghoul's iPhone. "'It all keeps adding up, I think I'm cracking up~! Am I just paranoid, or am I stoneeeeed~?!'" The two sang out loud like total dorks, before Eto raised the joint up to her lips to take a long toke from it.
Feeling Haise temporarily leaving her side to try turning the music off, Eto quickly blew out a cloud of smoke from her mouth before chasing after him. "Wait, what are you doing?! I want to listen to more!" Eto exclaimed with a frantic look in her grey eyes, as she quickly stepped in front of Haise to swipe the iPhone away from him.
Watching with an amused and playfully smug look on his face, Haise crossed his arms as he watched Eto staring down at the screen of his phone through a pair of squinted eyes. "Eto, you can't read, remember? If you're wanting to listen to something, please let me help you…!"
Scoffing at the blashaphy she was hearing, Eto let out a chortle while pressing down on the side power button of the iPhone. "Pffft…! Before I met you, I used to not know how to read and I still knew my way around a music player!" Eto sassed back, before taking a moment to take another puff of the joint before putting it out on one of the swing set's steel chains. "Hey Siri! Put on 'What's My Age Again?' by 'Blink-182'~!"
Lowering his arms back to his sides while letting out a chuckle, Haise watched as Eto made her way back over to the swing he had set her on earlier. Knowing fully well from experience that it was only a matter of time before the THC would start to make them act like total fools, Haise figured that he might as well enjoy his time with her before that inevitably happened.
With Eto and Haise completely forgetting about the planned protest, along with Uta's Christmas party, the two swung for as long as they could, while listening to whatever music the half-ghoul wanted to put on from her childhood. About thirty minutes of essentially singing karaoke together while swinging sideways towards one another in their playful attempts of trying to knock the other off of their swing, eventually Haise and Eto both fell off their seats at the same exact moment.
Landing onto the soft sand that laid beneath the entire circumference of the playground, Haise and Eto rolled over towards each other while completely making fools of themselves, as they started to play-wrestle in the sand.
With their bodies pressing up against each other, accidentally causing friction between their sensitive spots while trying to pin the other to the ground, eventually Eto was able to pull off Haise's leather jacket and belt, making his pants loose and fall down enough to expose his black briefs.
Only losing her hoodie and shirt from wrestling with her date, Eto ended up getting Haise to lay down on his back before grabbing his wrists to pin them above his shoulders. Breathing in and out with deep breaths, after having worked themselves over during their playful session, the more Eto stared down into Haise's grey irises while still mounting him, the less innocent her playful nature became.
Staring back at one another with an ever growing sexual tension in the air, Eto eventually couldn't hold herself back any longer. Without bothering to speak about what she wanted to do to him, the impatient half-ghoul tightened her grip around Haise's wrists before lowering herself down to plant her lips on top of his.
Unlike their previous kiss that was very restrained and vanilla, Eto wasted no time with sliding her tongue past Haise's lips to gain access into his mouth. Grinding her hips against his member that was growing stiffer by the second, Eto let out an unrestrained moan into Haise's mouth, as she used the tip of her tongue to lick the insides of his cheek.
The taste of Haise's saliva was sweeter than anything she had experienced in her life, and just one taste made her crave more. With her heart racing with excitement and with anticipation for finally having the opportunity to fulfill her dream of making love to the man she loved, Eto used one of her hands to guide Haise's very own hand towards her left breast.
Squeezing his hand down to silently gesture at him to start groping at her bra-covered boob, Eto traced her hand down Haise's chest and up his neck before sensually opening his jaw open to allow her even more access to the inside of his mouth.
With his mouth wide open, Haise found himself letting out a small whimper of ecstasy, as he couldn't help but savor the phenomenal taste of Eto's very own unique saliva. Even in comparison to Mutsuki or Touka, the taste of Eto's lips and tongue couldn't be described as anything short of 'heavenly' to Haise.
As if God Himself was setting the atmosphere that she had dreamed of for so long, the iPhone's playlist had begun to play more romantic punk songs from Eto's youth; songs that she had secretly started to listen to after she and Kaneki religiously started to spend more time together at the public park when they were younger.
Opening her jaw to entice Haise to stick his own tongue into her mouth, Eto was pleased to know that her lover had picked up on the hint she was dropping on him. With the one-eyed ghoul's delicious tongue sliding over hers, Eto let out another sensual moan that was muffled by her passionate kiss with Haise, as she began to run her tongue along his while tracing her hand down Haise's body to begin undressing him.
And that about does it for this chapter; I'll just leave it off as a foretelling of events that are about to unfold for next time.
Sex; I'm talking about sex, incase that wasn't obvious lol.
Anyways, let me just go ahead and post the little funny scenarios that I saw in the reviews, before going deeper into the other ones I read.
This one comes from L: "Oh Haise! It's time for the pill!" said Eto joyfully.
"Oh barnacles! I hate the pill!" spoke an irritated Haise. Eto pulls out a giant red and white pill that's too big for a normal person to swallow. Haise opens his mouth and Eto dumps the pill inside. Haise comically swallows the pill like a cartoon then Eto hands him a glass of water.
"That wasn't so bad now was it?" said a cheery Eto.
Haise drinks the water and responds, "Now I know why Mr. Krabs was in such a bad mood when Hide ran into him at Walmart last week."
"Mr. Krabs was at Walmart?!" shouted a surprised Eto.
(This was a reference to a stupid joke fic I wrote, where Hide battles Mr. Krabs for the last PS5… Which I guess are still hard to find without paying a grand for.)
(This next one is inspired by Haise's stupid little Mario impression he did in the last chapter.)
Haise: 'Great! Well then, what are we waiting for? Let's a-go~!'
Cappy: 'Hey buddy! Heyyy!'
Haise: 'Did you say something Eto?'
Eto: 'Huh?'
Cappy: 'Over here!'
Eto and Haise: 'Is that a talking hat!?'
Cappy: 'I'm a cap but yeah I can talk. Do you mind if I hitch a ride on you?'
Haise: ' Okay.' Puts Cappy on.
Haise: 'Hey look Eto I'm a CAP driver!'
Eto: 'No CAP!'
(I loved those puns and this little crossover scenario, even if I can't ever imagine Eto using Gen-Z lingo.)
Okay, now for the reviews.
Thank you so very much Guest for that very, very hot scenario you wrote for that future Haise x Saiko lemon I want to write. I'm going to have to save that in my own notes, and reference it because it was fucking amazing lol. If you can do another one with Roma or even Ayumu, I'd clap my feet together while smiling like a baby, lmao.
JK, but for real, I absolutely adore your ideas, please do another for Roma or Ayumu. Or just anyone, really! I already am planning on using that Touka one I think you wrote from an earlier chapter review, so please keep them coming omg lol.
Thank you Carla for reviewing! And yes, Eto's laughter was just from her being relieved more so than actually finding Haise almost dying to be funny. And I'm glad you enjoyed the analogy I made about their eyes, and yes they have met lol. And thank you for telling me that I'm doing her character justice; it's a shame that she ended up being wasted potential in the canon smh. But yeah, I still can't get over how Furuta somehow beat her so easily.
Thank you for reviewing Saitama, and oh yeah, Haise would have been fucked if the motorcycle ended up shitting the bed while he was riding it. Luckily, I can't imagine Haise being a fast driver. And yeppers, Roma just gave him that bike so Haise would feel obligated to make it up to her; she'll just have to wait her turn lol.
And lmao, 'The only reason why one shot and Furuta should be in a sentence is if its referring to how long he lasts in bed,' made me laugh irl.
I have to admit, I didn't plan on there being a connection to Haise burying a toxic waste product into the grounds of a park named after the Tokyo Ghoul manga writer, nor did I plan on that being a shot at him. But hey, I think the connection you made was funny, and yeah, I'm still with you about some of the ass-pulls he did when he started to rush :re.
Thank you for reviewing L, and for the scenario I posted above! Haise doesn't drink the medication, more so lets it dissolve underneath his tongue, but I guess that could count as drinking, right?
Thank you for reviewing, Reviewbruh! With Arima having about five years left to live, I think he'd be able to see his pseudo grandchildren, as in, Touka's and Eto's offsprings, yes. And oh yeah, huh? I almost forgot about Far Cry 2, lol. Nice similarities you spotted! If Haise died, I wouldn't put it past Eto to try and make a puppet of his body in the way she did for Noro. I would say Eto's ideal life with Haise would be living together with him, their children, and her other friends who she sees as family (Mutsuki, Saiko, Touka, and later on Shirazu if he wants to stay once he's reunited with his sister).
To Eto, she'd want Haise to do what makes him happy, but would probably insist on him taking it easy, and wouldn't mind if he were to be a stay-at-home dad. Again, I love the connection made here by you about Ishida Park being a symbol of a place where good characters die lol, and yes I suppose that Sakura Elementary would be sort of a safe haven, huh? I'll have to reuse the location in the sequel or something too, like you recommended.
In my humble opinion, I honestly think that Kaneki didn't save Eto after the Cochlea Prison Breakout because Ishida didn't like Eto. But as for an explanation that would justify why Kaneki didn't save her, he probably thought she was beyond saving, and wasn't on very good terms with her. He probably didn't want to let her eat him to heal herself, so that's probably why Kaneki left her to die.
Thank you for reviewing Root A! Thank you for noticing the connection I made with Unravel, and how similar Kaneki and Urie are in the sense of how Haise sees Urie in the real world. Not to spoil anything, but the dragon-cells that Urie and Amon have can be neutralized, because they were engineered not as a way to improve one's fighting and healing ability, but they were made to reconstruct a ghoul's body to make their DNA susceptible to rapid alterations.
(Spoiler Alert) Ie, there's another component that was supposed to pair with the dragon-cells, to change the host back into a human, while eliminating the body's need for RC cells. By removing RC cells out of the equation, there wouldn't be ghouls nor would there be a reason for CCG to exist. To me, that would make more sense for Kanou to create that, rather than a giant tumor that spawns golems as a way to 'fix' society. Kimi, rather than creating lab-created substitutes for meat, is going to try to use the dragon-cells to create vegetation that ghouls can eat, but biological engineering them to use photosynthesis as a way to create RC-cells, while changing the vegetation and fruit as to something that can imitate the way human meat feels on a ghoul's tongue.
With all the bad stuff that happens in Haise's life, the best way in his opinion to deal with it is to try to find humor in things that are scary.
I definitely can squeeze Ayumu into the list of girls that Haise's going to bang, Guest. I think that's a cool idea too, her having developed a crush on Haise after thinking more about how he saved her; thus, her having a 'hero-kink' sounds fun to write about.
Speaking of the list, no, it's not in any particular order. It's extremely flexible. And you're right, I needed to add Ihei to it!
Matsumae using her role as the Crescent Moon's doctor to get into Haise's pants sounds amazing! Her using the excuse of needing a semen sample while 'accidentally' swallowing Haise's load sounds hot. I'll probably have her put a condom on Haise, and have him cum inside it while fucking her. Afterward, she'd probably give Haise some medication for his PTSD, while recommending him to continue smoking weed, and to get endorphins into his system by promoting him having sex. She'd probably ask him to see him every so often, so she can 'check' on his 'health'.
Also, I love the idea of having Haise carrying around a bullshit prescription for 'sex' that he thinks is valid.
If only this story could be a manga, lol… Or at least the parts with sex, lmao. Thank you for the kind words about what would happen if you won the lottery, lol.
Don't worry, I made it so Haise thinks Eto's lips taste the best out of all the women who he's kissed so far.
And Urie destroying the ships was a heroic act, which sort of adds to the fact that Urie's a tragic hero in his own perspective. Everything evil that he does is for a good cause, or at least that's what he tells himself. But yeah, the Rushima Island's dragon, Amon, would be a lot more powerful if Urie didn't destroy those ships.
Anyways, that about does it for now lol. The next chapter will be a lemon between Haise and Eto!
Thank you for reading, and please have a wonderful day!
