I'm in a bit of a rush, and just got done writing this and proofreading it in one day, so please enjoy!
This chapter is SFW, and I promise to address the questions left unanswered for Chapter 35's review, in the author's notes of Chapter 37. There won't be any author notes for the end of this chapter.
Like always, feel free to reach out or to leave a review!
Thank you, and please enjoy!
August 17, 2021 Edit: Fixed some spelling mistakes.
In the aftermath of Futura's assination, and the interruption of what could have possibly been the first step towards the beginning of CCG's reformations for the public to see for themselves, Yusa was escorted by Ihei into the lobby of the Main Office; where he was told to stay while Ihei left to go investigate the skyscraper across from them, where the shooter had last been spotted on its rooftop.
Walking across the marble-white floors, that were pristine and kept up to a high-standard of presentation, Yusa found himself pacing around the lobby; doing his best to remain composed while being stared at by a majority of the men and women huddled inside the large room with him.
Luckily for Yusa, aside from the oggai who supported him and Urie, the remaining occupants of the large room were all investigators, who were maintaining a professional level of self control by keeping their thoughts to themselves, and keeping their focus on the building's entrance that they had been instructed to guard.
Despite the obvious tension in the room that caused Yusa to be on edge, the young teenager couldn't help but find himself focusing solely on the way he was feeling while thinking about the manner in which Furuta died. Although Yusa was able to recognize that it was healthy for him to be feeling sorrow, Furuta's death itself wasn't the primary cause behind his sudden negative emotions, but rather that it vaguely reminded him of.
Doing his best to try to repress the flurry of heartache and self-loathing from his head by walking faster, the mental strain that Yusa was starting to feel eventually became too much for him to ignore. Excusing himself to no one in particular, Yusa walked past the RC-sensor-gate that he somewhat remembered going through, from when he used to be a ghoul investigator.
Despite once being well respected as an up and coming ghoul investigator, many of the investigators kept their eyes glued on the RC-sensor; all of which were waiting for a reason to lock the 'ghoul-lover' up. Chalking this observation up to the onlookers just being cautious of him, while also having a negative disposition towards him after he had spoke so bitterly of CCG, Yusa did his best to focus on making his way to the men's restroom that he thought was around the corner of the front desk, but was stumped after being met with a water cooler instead.
"What…? It's only been a few weeks… There's no way that they did reconstruction that fast… Especially after everything that's happened…" Yusa spoke aloud to himself with a sense of discomfort in his voice, as he furrowed his brow at the water-dispensing device. "I could have sworn the restrooms were over here, though… Maybe I'm confused, and I'm thinking of 'Sunlit Garden', or that Starbuc-?!"
Interrupting his monologue was a hand that planted itself down on his shoulder; causing Yusa to tense up immediately. Expecting it to be met with a bitter investigator who wanted to give him a piece of their mind, Yusa was relieved after realizing that the person behind him was just Mayuzumi: one of the two commanders of the Oggai Squad that served Urie and himself.
"Sorry for spookin' ya, my King; I didn't mean to do that," Mayuzumi said apologetically in a hushed voice, before letting go of his shoulder. .
Opening his mouth to politely forgive the young teenager for accidentally frightening him, Yusa found himself at a loss for words as he stared back at the unmasked girl's facial features.
Having been only somewhat familiar with who she was when she and her brother were wearing their masks, it was only then that Yusa couldn't help but feel as though he were staring at a face that seemed unnaturally familiar to him; similar to the way he felt while thinking about Furuta's death, oddly enough.
Noticing her king grimacing before watching as he raised his hand up to nurse his forehead, Mayuzumi arched her brow up and moved her long raven-black bangs to one side of her face, to further examine Yusa's face; making sure to cover the right-side of her face with her bangs, just incase her kakugan would activate by itself again.
"Kin-, I mean, 'Arima', what's wrong?" Mayuzumi asked with a puzzled look on her face. After having to correct herself. Even though Yusa had a mass following of supporters who called him 'The One Eyed King', the last thing Mayuzumi wanted to do was alert one of the many ghoul investigators in the Main Office by calling the young teenager by that alias. Doing so would expose her loyalty to him.
"It's… It's just a headache, I think; n-nothing too serious," Yusa brushed off, as he did his best to try to not make it obvious that he was fixated on the blue-hues of Mayzumi's particularly-familiar hairstyle, that paired well with her blue-eyes that the young teenager was finding himself getting lost in.
It would have been romantic for Yusa, had it not been for the fact that he was starting to see an unfamiliar face of a woman with indigo bangs and a kakugan glaring back at him, while he was simultaneously seeing Mayuzumi's bewildered face overlapping with the face of phantom woman.
"C-Could you please show me where the restrooms are at, Mayuzumi? I, uh… I think I need to wash my face with cold water, or s-something…" Yusa said as calmly as he could, while doing his best to ignore the fact that he was suddenly finding himself having a sudden influx of foriegn memories invading his head; many of which were of an older woman who looked extremely identical to how Hinami looked, and even of a younger version of the ghoul herself.
Although she was genuinely confused as to why Yusa was flinching and trying his best to not twitch, Mayuzumi did her best to not point out the young teenager's odd mannerisms, and instead she decided to do her part as his soldier to help service him in any way that he needed her to: which in this case meant helping him find a bathroom.
"Of course, Arima… Here, it's over by the elevator room; down the hallway on the left," Mayuzumi said, as she began to raise her arm up to point her finger over towards the corridor's entry way, which wasn't very far from where the water cooler was, before suddenly stopping herself from fully lifting her arm.
Rather than leaving Yusa to wander down the corridor in the disoriented state that he was, the oggai figured that her king was better off if she made sure to accompany him while Ihei was gone. After all, the last thing she wanted was Yusa being caught alone without her or the other oggai there to protect him.
"Thank you, Mayuzumi, I'll just be on my way now-what are you doing...!?" Yusa gasped out with a confused look in his grey eyes, as he stared down at the young girl's hand grabbing on to his.
"I… I think it would be smart to have me accompany you, Arima. That way you don't get lost, or… Ya' know," Mayuzumi muttered quietly, while subtly nodding her head over to the many glaring eyes belonging to the investigators standing just around the corner where the sensor gate was.
Although Yusa was usually confident in his own ability to stand-up for himself, even if that meant having to get physical with someone larger and stronger than himself, the young teenager also wasn't naive enough to believe that he himself could stand a chance if he were cornered by a group of ghoul investigators who had a vendetta against him.
Too self-aware and in pain to care about his own ego, that wasn't very strong to begin with, Yusa decided to not press the subject of why Mayuzumi insisted on holding his hand rather than just asking him to follow him like a normal person would do, and instead decided to just follow behind her, hand-in-hand; but not without first insisting that she'd not call him the same name that Kishou Arima was usually referred to by.
"... Thank you for troubling yourself with escorting me, Mayuzumi… But, might I ask something of you, before we head off?" Yusa asked politely, to which actually sort of irritated the young teenager, despite the fact that she very much respected him with practically every fiber in her body.
"I guess you can…" Mayuzumi replied back with annoyed tone in her aggravated voice, which only made the phantom image of the strange ghoul he was seeing overlapping her intensify in Yusa's mind.
"Y-Yes, umm… Can you… Can you call me 'Kanek-', I mean- 'Yusa'; call me 'Yusa' please!" Yusa corrected himself with an embarrassed expression on his face, which didn't do well to mask the underlying feelings of bafflement and worry that washed over him. 'W… Why the hell was I about to say his name, instead of mine…?! I… I wasn't even thinking about him; that's… That's very strange… Who am I kidding? Everything about today is 'strange'...!'
Smirking at Yusa's mistake, the annoyed look that was on Mayuzumi's face disappeared the moment she heard him accidentally mess up what he was about to say to her. "Heh, haha, ah… Were you seriously about to say 'call me 'Kaneki', Yusa? Was that an intentional order of the sort, to help fulfill your fantasies of being like him? Because if that's the case, then I'd suggest you and my brother, Hajime, start your own 'Kaneki' fanclub… That guy's seriously fascinated with him, and I've yet to understand why…" Mayuzumi said playfully, while also expressing her genuine wonder as to why her brother had a 'man-crush' on Ken Kaneki.
While many in his position would find the young girl's very informal and casual behavior to be disrespectful, Yusa himself found the way Mayuzumi quickly opened her true self up to him to be extremely refreshing, and very welcoming in comparison to the false niceties that he himself had grown begrudgingly used to.
As a matter of fact, Yusa had gotten so happy to see Mayuzumi treating him like a regular guy more so than an authoritative figure, that he hadn't even noticed that they had been walking during the time it took for the young oggai to finish her ramblings. Yusa did eventually come to realize that they had stopped, once he had noticed that he was suddenly in a small room that housed two elevators and two bathrooms that were both unisex.
Rather than finding himself within an office-setting environment however, Yusa slowly watched the world around him transform into that of a coffee-shop aesthetic. When he found himself surrounded by cozy white-wallpaper that had dark-wooden half-panels below it. that matched the polished wooden floorboards that hadn't been there before perfectly, that was around the time the Yusa realized that something was very, very wrong. Even so, Yusa made sure to thank the phantom waitress with indigo-hair, who he figured was actually still Mayuzumi, before making his way through the door that he hoped was the bathroom.
While Yusa was at the ground floor of the lobby, where the Oggai Squad had been instructed to watch over him while Ihei went out to do her own recon of the area where Furuta's assassin had been, Urie was alone with Matsuri, who was sitting down across from where he was standing in his office; seemingly contemplating on everything that he had experienced a few hours ago.
Ignoring the silent tension in the air, Urie casually took out his cellphone to look at the time on his lockscreen; finding himself mildly irritated that it was about to be five o'clock in the afternoon, and that he still needed to go out and hunt for ghouls to drain their RC-cells from their corpses.
"... Urie," Matsuri suddenly said, after having been methodically reflecting over his own thoughts for quite some time, "can I… Can I ask for your honesty? As in, your complete and genuine honesty; not that fake crap that I usually get."
"... By all means, ask away," Urie replied back with mild boredom in his voice, as he resisted the temptation to search through his smart phone's music library, to do some reflecting himself. As of late, Urie was finding himself questioning his own motives, and ever since he fought with Haise, his appearance and own personality seemed to be varaiting from the way he used to be; and although it was trivial to him, there was a still a small part of him that worried about his own mental state.
"Urie… What's your opinion on my character? As in… Do you think I'm an awful man for running CCG the same way my father did, and his father before him did as well?" Matsuri questioned in a solemn voice, while still staring blankly down at his keyboard, as he rested his elbows down on his executive table.
Although he was expecting the man who had recently witnessed the death of his brother to be asking such existential questions to him, Urie still couldn't help but find himself needing to think for a moment about how he would answer Matsuri's question; curious as to how the once prideful man would take his 'honesty'.
"... I've always thought of you to be a professional man who made decisions based on logic rather than emotions; which is the most effective way to operate any sort of business or agency, in my opinion," Urie said with a thoughtful look in his grey and only exposed eye, before adding onto to his critique of Matsuri. "With that being said… You're the reason why my ex-squad mates are missing; one of them is dead, and one of them is a fugitive… Everything that child spoke of you is accurate, as well. And what Kichimura said about you alienating him and the rest of the Washuu-Clan's illegitimate children is… Repulsive, to say the least."
While Urie was half-expecting to see Matsuri glaring bitterly at him, or at least making a sound with his mouth to indicate his displeasure of being called 'repulsive', the one-eyed ghoul ended up being surprised that neither happened. Instead, Matsuri slowly nodded his head to acknowledge the criticism that Urie had given him, all while continuing to stare somberly at his keyboard.
"... Heh, I… I really wish I took what you said to heart all those months ago; back when we raided the Lunar Eclipse building," Matsuri mused with a sorrowful chuckle escaping his lips, as he thought back to before everything had started to fall apart for him and CCG; back when things were simpler. "Remember? When I ordered you and your squadmates to do all the dirty work to clean up the interior of the building, after Noro and the One-Eyed Owl had been 'eliminated'?"
Remembering that day with bittersweet nostalgia flooding into his mind, back when he was a quinx and not the scientific-abomination he was underneath the layers of clothing he wore, Urie arched an eyebrow before speaking. "Which part are you referring to? Are you referring to the part when I told you that we were still able to fight, or the part where I tried arguing with you about how frustrating it was for us that you were punishing us?"
"Neither; I was talking about the part where you told me 'fuck you' to my face," Matsuri said with a slightly humorous tone, as he slowly raised his chin up to smile soberly at Urie, who in turn couldn't help but find himself smirking back with mild amusement. "Urie… I've been an insensitive and remorseless asshole my entire life… I'm a lot of things that I'm not proud of, but one thing that I've never been is stupid."
Urie's half-cocked smirk instantly faded upon hearing the convection in Matsuri's voice, and did his best to remain stone-faced as the CCG bureau director turned his monitor around to reveal a screenshot of CCTV footage from when Corniculum had fallen. Staring at the monitor, Urie was greeted with the image of himself in his 'Black Reaper' attire, which suddenly changed when Matsuri pressed his finger down on the right-arrow key of his keyboard; moving to another screenshot showing Urie in the same kakuja-quinque, without his helmet to conceal his identity.
From picture-to-picture, Matsuri continued to show evidence of Urie attacking several members of Haise's party, including Shirazy and Haise himself, before approaching the end of his 'presentation' by showing the 'Black Reaper' in his frameless state, battling against the 'Centipede' in his half-kakuja form.
"Kichimura sent these this morning through an email address he had from when he was still working under the alias of 'Nimura Furuta', over at Cochlea… Needless to say, I wasn't sure how to approach the situation." Matsuri lamented, as he leaned back in his comfy office chair while interlocking his fingers between each other; displaying a sense of confliction as his eyeglasses reflected the light illuminating from his ceiling fan.
"... I had the Prime Minster down my throat after Kichi's interview with Ms. Toyota, and I had to deal with Yusa Arima and his large entourage of supporters; confronting you with what I discovered would have been foolish of me to do, especially since I myself had no idea what the outcome of this day would be looking like," Matsuri said, as he spoke a calculating voice that sounded more condescending to Urie than strategic. "I've had my suspicions about you ever since you came back to work after the night Corniculum fell… Your hair, your eyes, the way you speak, it's… You've changed drastically, Urie. You look more like the 'Eyepatch' ghoul than you do yourself…"
"... Besides, I did a little digging of my own about those children you 'recommended' to me, and found some rather peculiar discoveries about those 'Oggai'," Matsuri said, before showing Urie the final image that Kichimura had sent to him: an image of Hajime and Mayuzumi carrying his battle-damaged body away from where Haise laid with a broken quinque pierced through his chest.
"... Oddly enough, Urie, those children, the 'Oggai Squad' as they call themselves, have an RC-cell count of approximately one-hundred; the same average cell count as that of your run of the mill human. Yet, they still have the abilities of ghouls, or at least the abilities that you and your squadmates once displayed… Meaning that I know that their true nature is far beyond what you've let on… The same could be said about yourself, Urie," Matsuri said with his smile fading away into a look of disdain, as he pointed one finger at the still stone-faced one-eyed ghoul who stood across from him calmly.
"... Zero. According to the sensor gate's backlog, you have zero RC-cells, Urie." Matsuri said with a brooding look in his eyes, as his eyeglasses continued to obscure his glare from Urie. "Normally, such a thing would be considered impossible, and has only been discussed in theoretical hypotheses; science 'mumbo jumbo' and whatnot…" Matsuri mumbled under his breath, while turning his monitor back around to face him, before rifling away at the keyboard to swiftly bring up another series of images for Urie to take note of.
"... Tell me, Urie, are you familiar with the old' wives tale that the Aogiri Tree believed to be true, about the so-called 'One-Eyed King' that they believe to be the next coming of Jesus Christ, or some shit like that? You know, the same title that Yusa apparently took advantage of by calling himself that, in order to gain support of the ghoul community?" Matsuri asked curiously with a cautious tone in his voice, as he used his mouse to begin opening up several files from a folder he had stored onto his harddrive.
Extremely wary about what the other man's intentions were, and why he was still talking to him, Urie took a moment to think silently to himself before replying to Matsuri. "I know as much about the myth as any other investigator does… Why? Are they true?"
"It would appear so, Urie; considering that the only other person ever hypothesized to have zero RC-cells was the guy who came AFTER the original 'One-Eyed King'. Keep in mind, the guy I'll tell you more about, isn't the same guy who was active and trying to reunite ghouls and humanity, back around a century ago. Although, he was around when the 'One-Eyed King' was active, that was for damn sure."
"... Let me explain: The guy who the Aogiri Tree worshiped wasn't actually called the 'One-Eyed King' in his hay-day, but rather he used to go by the 'Underground King' and 'Naagaraji'; fitting, considering that he's the one who ended up making the 24th Ward into garbage head that it is now," Matsuri explained, before turning his monitor back around to show an old photograph of a massive large stone-like serpent entity surrounded by devastated ruins of the same abandoned city that looked exactly like the same ones that the GOAT were occupying.
Now beginning to grow worried of what might have happened to his comrades and Dr. Shiba, now it became apparent that CCG knew the location of the 24th Ward, Urie was seriously considering the possibility of slaying Matsuri where he sat, despite what GOAT wanted.
However, needing to know more about what the other man knew about the 24th Ward, while also being curious about what he knew that Urie himself didn't know for himself, the one-eyed ghoul remained silent and allowed Matsuri to continue to speak and live, for the time being.
"... Funny thing about the Underground King, Urie, is that he actually used to be a part of the Washuu-Clan, and had migrated to Japan to start a revolution within the Japanese Empire. He despised everything that my other ancestors stood for, so much so that his plan was to create a society within the powerful Japanese Empire that would not only harbor the coexistence of ghouls and humanity, but would force the Eastern countries of Asia's mainland to follow suit as well… You know, since Japan used to be doing a whole lot of invading, back in the day."
"... Damn near did it too, from what my great-great grandfather's journal shows. However, for better or for worse, Daikichi Washuu, founder of a ghoul-hunting guild that would eventually be known as the 'CCG', teamed up with a historical figure who belonged to a clan that I'm sure you're familiar with… His name was Junnosuke Date; he was one the last descendants of the Date-Clan, before they completely lost power. You know? The Date-Clan, as in, 'Masamune Date'."
"... You might know Junnosuke better as 'Zhang Zongyuan', after he later defected to the Chinese government. But before he was committing mass murders during the 'Second Sino-Japanese War', that was fought during the end of 'World War II', he assisted Daikichi Washuu with overthrowing the Underground King's rebelion, and eventually they defeated the ungodly kakuja that the Underground King became, while ironically trying to defend the ghouls who lived in the 24th Ward; which actually resulted in a lot of their deaths," Matsuri continued to speak, while subtly glancing over at his wrist watch, before looking back up to lock eyes with Urie's one-single exposed eye.
"... Why are you telling me this?" Urie asked with a genuine tone of confusion, as he found himself unable to grasp the reason behind why Matsuri was giving him a history lesson, considering that he already knew that he was the same Black Reaper that was responsible for countless deaths.
"Because Urie, you and Junnosuke have something in common: you both were humans at one point in your lives, and you both were, and are for your case, anomalies in comparison to what we consider 'normal'; even by 'ghoul standards'," Matsuri said with a bitter look in his eyes, before showing Urie the final image he had for him to gaze at: a present picture of the 24th Ward that GOAT's militia was occupying.
The same 24th Ward that was missing the entire stone-kakuja that once belonged to the Underground King.
"... Junnosuke Date ended up starting a revolution of his own after defeating the Underground King; he tried taking Japan for himself, under the guise of fighting for the Chinese Army. According to what was written in my ancestor's journal, along with several discoveries made by his descendants that were made before you and your oggai took occupation in the 24th Ward, Date was rumored to have eaten parts of the Underground King himself, after having brought a demolition-extraction team down to gain access to his comatose body, that was being supposedly kept alive by his kakuja…"
"... It was written by my ancestor that his blood turned black, and he was given abilities that were beyond the common ghoul. His blood was to be said as being sentient, and that his body was capable of producing advanced forms of kakuja and kagunes that were complicated and sleek… Much like how your appearance as the 'Black Reaper' has been described by my investigators, Urie..."
"... Masamune Date, the most famous of Junnosuke's clan, used to go by the 'One-Eyed Dragon'. After Junnosuke had supposedly consumed that kakuja, it was around that time that he started to have the need to begin mass killings… Such as yourself, as of lately it would seem." Matsuri stated with a stone-faced expression on his face, even though he could tell that he was starting to agitate Urie.
"... Because of Junnosuke's heinous acts against Japan, many ghouls began to speak that his behavior was caused by the giant kakuja of the Underground King, and spoke of it as being a source of evil and power… Hence why that stone-kakuja was referred to as being a 'dragon'; a name given to it to spite the Date-Clan, and the man who took the name and identity of 'Zhang Zongyuan."
"... Interestly enough, he too was mentioned in my great-great grandfather's journal to have undergone physical changes himself after supposedly devouring the Underground King's heart. The reason why my great-great grandfather knew that, along with knowing of Zhang's black blood, was because he told his sons about it while dying in a pool of his own blood; after failing to kill Zhang."
"I digress… Many ghouls have tried seeking the fabled 'dragon', but of course most ghouls who seek that kind of power lack the millions of dollars it would take to invest in such a demolition-execration; and even if they did, most available mining equipment that would be needed to replicate Zhang's operation would have to be quiet enough to not be picked up by any seismic readings, and not alert CCG…"
"... In other words, the reason why the Aogiri Tree couldn't gain access to the Underground King's body was simply because they lacked the innovative technology needed to silently complete the operation… Which is particular to me, because as you've seen in the picture, that whole goddamn 'dragon' is gone now."
Feeling a wave of unexpected dread washing over his body, especially after suspecting that Matsuri's story of Junnosuke Date had correlations to the meaning behind why the augmented RC-cells within his bodies were called 'dragon-cells', Urie let out a quiet sigh while clenching his fingers into fists. Curious as he was frustrated as to why this revelation was unheard of to him, Urie decided to push aside his burning desire to kill the last living member of the Washuu-Clan to instead ask him a question.
"... I'm familiar enough with Japanese history to know that Junnosuke was executed in China after the Soviet Union, America, and Britain defeated us, back in 1948, if I remember correctly, that is… But, the way you're describing him makes him seem like he and I are the same, isn't that right…? So, what led to his downfall? How was defeated if he apparently displayed strength and abilities that were shocking enough to create a mythos around him and the 24th Ward?"
Picking up on the tone of genuine interest in Urie, which had been lacking during the entire six-month or so period that he had taken him under his wing, Matsuri couldn't help but let out a soft and humorless chuckle before answering the one-eyed ghoul's inquiry.
"By the cruel hand of the 'Mistress of Fate,' Urie, that's how; and you better believe that she has a sense of humor. And believe this too while you're at it: if you don't change your ways, you'll be destined to share a fate that led to Junnosuke's own end, I can promise you that." Matsuri said cryptically with a condescending smirk on his face, while enjoying the anger hidden behind Urie's eye that tickled the director pink on the inside.
"You see, what history won't tell you is that Zhang had a child with one of the ghouls who he had captured in the 24th Ward, through means of nonconsensual conception; it really wasn't too uncommon for men who fought under a flag to pillage the women of their enemies. It was also common practice to dispose of whoever one would rape, after they were done having their way with her… But the woman he ended up bedding, the Underground King's very own fiance, ended up surviving getting her head chopped off by him, after he was done ravaging her body… Keep in mind, this was around 1928, if I remember the entries correctly, so this was before the 'dragon'…"
"... The reason I'm telling you this is because my deceased grandfather, Tsuneyoshi Washuu, ended up finding a young teenager, who was about seventeen years old; only a year younger than himself. Tsuneyoshi befriended this young and outstandly powerful ghoul… Kuzen, that was his name I believe. He and my grandfather formed a group that would later be known as 'V', which originally existed to stop Zhang from causing a ghoul revolution in Tokyo, that he would use to allow China to invade them."
Taking a small break from giving Urie a history lesson, Matsuri reached into his desk drawer to pull out a black fedora, before tossing it over at Urie's feet for him to stare at. "I consider myself as being an ex-member of them, considering that they're gone now. I think you killed them, but that doesn't matter now I suppose," Matsuri muttered to himself, while making it clear to Urie that not only did he not care about the deaths of his fellow V members, but he was blaming him for their deaths rather than Furuta.
"Zhang was a powerful foe, and similar to you, his kagune and kakujas were very compact, yet still were just as destructive, if not more so, than the Underground King's 'dragon' kakuja. Despite the odds that my grandfather and Kuzen were faced with, they were able to cooperate with the Americans to defeat the 'Dragon General'... It would have been a celebrated victory, had it not been for the two bombs dropping just a month later…" Matsuri said with a somewhat saddened look in his eyes, as he leaned back again in his chair to stare hollowing at Urie.
"... That's one of the reasons why I'm telling you all of this, Urie. The path you're heading down isn't just self-destructive; you're going to drag everyone else in the depths of death with you, just like Junnosuke did when he became 'Zhang'. I… I don't know why you're doing this, Urie, but I need your cooperation to help me find out who's behind everything, and to stop them from repeating the mistakes of the past."
"... There's something big coming in the horizon, Urie; something that's bigger than you and I, I'm sure of it. Help me change Tokyo for the better, and to amend for the sins of those who came before us!" Matsuri shouted with a furious passion in his heart, as he stood up from the office chair to lean over the executive table that had been passed down by his own father.
"With Yusa's progessive thinking, and us there together to support him, we can unite Tokyo- Hell, fuck it, we can unite all of Japan! Together, ghouls and humanity can live side-by-side! Please Urie, I… I want to revive the principles of what the Washuu-Clan was supposed to be, not what it ended up being. We should be protecting and serving those weaker and in need of us, not damning those who've already been damned as a ghoul! I-I see that now, Urie! I saw that possible future when Kichimura and I spoke before the people of Tokyo! Don't you want that, Urie?! DON'T YOU!?" Matsuri screamed with tears beginning to swell up in his eyes, as he slammed his fists down on the hardwood desk, with enough force to actually cause it to fall apart to the ground into a mess of splinters and debris.
Caught up in the passion and inner conflict that was tearing his heart and mind apart, Urie lost control of his self-control that very moment. Revealing his kakugan to Matsuri, the business attire that Urie had on over his sleek-black Arata-quinque evaporated into ashes the moment his armor ignited with blue-sparks of electricity. Cocking his elbow back, Urie's silver-tipped claws curled inward as he glared into the eyes of Matsuri, which were oddly showing a strange amount of calmness and disappointment in them, even in the face of his demise.
"I WANT THAT FUTURE; BUT YOU AND EVERYONE IN THIS FUCKING BUILDING CAN'T BE APART OF IT!" Urie shouted out in a battlecry, before stepping forward with his right foot out to blow-apart CCG's director into a gorey mess. That was, however, until suddenly he was blinded by a flash of similar blue-lightning that flooded Matsuri's office room.
Only able to hear the glass-window behind where Matsuri was standing crack for a split second, Urie was suddenly caught off guard by when he felt his fingers being sliced off, before receiving a slash through his chest plate that sent him flying backwards through the office door.
Immediately rolling back up onto his feet, Urie felt his heart pounding, as he stared back at where Matsuri's office was. Half-expecting to see either Haise or Ihei being responsible for attacking him, believing that she would be willing to put Yusa and the fate of Tokyo over his life, Urie was once again caught off guard by the sight of the extremely-augmented and cybernetic man that stood between him and Masturi.
"Oh, another thing, Urie," Matsuri chimed in from behind the silver-headed and augmented quinx that he stood behind. "The last and most practical reason as to why I was rambling on for so long was mostly to buy time for your old squadmate to make his way here, and to my rescue," Matsuri said, as he nodded over at the young cybernetic man that took only a few moments for Urie to realize who he actually was.
"S… Shirazu…!?" Urie spoke out in a hushed whisper, as he lowered his shoulders. Feeling like he was seeing a ghost, Urie found the sleek-black armor that covered all of Shirazu's cybernetic limbs and body to be a more mechanical version of his own Arata; meaning that whatever operations and technological advancements that the CCG had done to Shirazu made his body on par with his own dragon-cell body.
Covered in sleek-jagged armor that was built over the kakuja-fiber muscles that covered his quinque-steel frame, the single black-eye wrap that covered Shirazu's left eye had his illuminated kakugan exposed on the right side of his face. His entire jaw had been replaced by a quinque-steel prosthetic, meaning that everything below where Shirazu's mandible-bone used to be was completely bionic; including his neck. Unlike Urie, however, Shirazu's long and messy hair was silver, and still had traces of its natural blonde color hidden behind its new tint.
Wielding an improved version of his Nutcracker, that was reconstructed to have a longer reach, equipped hollowed with tiny gas-exhausts long the blade that ignited it in a blue-plasmic fire, Shirazu wasn't afraid to show off his new weapon as he stood up from the ground to aim the tip of his newly-modified quinque at the Black Reaper.
"What?! Are you surprised to see me alive, you SON OF A BITCH?!" Shirazu asked in a sadistic and slightly crazed voice, as he locked eyes with the very man who had manipulated him into betraying his friends, and had almost caused him to die.
Even though Urie was unraveling his kagune to form a long-blade over his right arm, Matsuri took pride in the fact that he was able to keep calm, due to the confidence he placed into CCG's most advanced and powerful weapon that had taken him, and their German counterpart company, 'GFG', six-months to complete.
"Billions of capital went into the technology used to create Shirazu's new body, as well as the micro plasma-cutter that's been built into the blade of his new quinque; everything about him is proof of what can be accomplished when unity is achieved to defeat a threat such as yourself," Matsuri lamented, as he strided over to Shirazu to place his hand down on the jagged-shoulder plate that rested over the augmented quinx's upper arm.
"The irony of it all was that all the technology that was installed into the new quinque-suit we made out of the 'Black Rabbit's' corpse was supposed to be used on you, Urie, to defeat the Black Reaper… If that's not ironic, I don't know what is!" Matsuri mused, before following up his taunt with some advice he had for Urie.
"... Remember when I said that you're destined to be defeated by Fate herself, Urie?" Matsuri inquired with a smirk on his face, as he glared triumphantly at the one-eyed ghoul who had betrayed him for the last time. "Well, the Mistress of Fate sure is a bitch, ain't she?"
"... Perhaps she is. Considering that there's still people who are occupying this building, including yourself, I don't see any way that you're getting out of this alive, Matsuri." Urie countered, after brushing off the fact that Shirazu was still alive, and that he would need to correct that if he were to succeed in ensuring CCG's destruction. "From experience, I can tell you right now that if Shirazu and I fight, this entire office will collapse, and its crumbled debris will crush everyone who's not Shirazu o-"
Having bought himself enough time to draw in Matsuri's focus, Urie quickly shedded a layer of his kakuja to form an afterimage of himself, that was amplified by the disorienting flash of lightning that his body created to blind Shirazu and the director. Believing himself to have enough ample time to rush forward with his powerful legs to dispatch Matsuri, Urie had unknowingly made the mistake of underestimating Shirazu.
"Nice try, ASSHOLE!" Shirazu shouted angrily and tauntingly at Urie, as he took advantage of his shielded-kakugan to see past the one-eyed ghoul's trick. Parrying Urie's kagune-blade with his quinque, Shirazu used his blade's plasmic-dispersal exhausts to shatter a large chunk out of the one-eyed ghoul's kagune.
Knowing fully well how fast Urie's dragon-cells were capable of regenerating, especially after being able to spectate Haise's battle against the one-eyed ghoul back at Corniculum, Shirazu knew it was only a matter of time before Urie's kagune blade would reform. "HOW ABOUT WE MOVE THIS PARTY OUTSIDE, URIE?!" Shirazu shouted with a maniacal laughter following his rhetorical question, as he reached up with his free hand to swiftly grab a hold of Urie's arm, before turning around to judo-throw him out of the broken window that he had used to gain access into Matsuri's office.
Not daring to let Urie escape that easily, especially when he knew that he had a lot of information that could help him and the CCG track down the source of whoever was using the collected corpse of the dragon to create beings such the oggai, Shirazu zeroed in solely on where his opponent was descending down the side of the Main Office's top floor.
"URRRIIIIEEEEEEE!" Shirazu screamed out into the cold-winter air, as he used his powerful legs to leap out of the window and towards where he saw Urie landing onto the flat roof top of another skyscraper, which was shorter than the Main Office. With the mobility granted by his internal servo-motor joints, Shirazu was able to use his quinque to parry the hailfire of kagune-shards that Urie was firing at him from his black-blade, as he closed in on where the Black Reaper was standing.
"Kghshhh…!" Urie grunted, as he quickly rolled to the side to avoid being sliced in half by Shirazu, who swung his blade down with enough velocity behind his attack to accidentally slice the entire roof top into chunks.
Although Urie's knowledge on the capabilities and limits of Shirazu's new body were extremely limited themselves, the fact he knew that Shirazu would hesitate to cause further collateral damage meant that Urie could use that to his advantage.
On the flipside of his new revelation, that also meant that Shirazu would be actively trying to push Urie into a non populated area to fight without having to restrain himself as much. Urie made this discovery moments before feeling watching Shirazu effortlessly kicking a two-ton chunk of concrete at him as if it were a soccer ball.
Being a powerhouse himself, Urie was able to shatter the large chunk of concrete with little effort, and moved away from the cloud of debris to avoid having his vision obscured. Just as he had predicted, the rock was just a distraction; another astute observation made by Urie after he parried Shirazu's quinque, before getting kicked off of the roof top for the second time that day.
Wanting to limit his use of his quinque's experimental technology, to avoid overheating its internal plasma-cutters, Shirazu decided to use his brute strength to match the force being applied against his blade by Urie's kagune. Glaring at him with nothing but hate and a need for vengeance, Shirazu continued to lock blades with Urie, as the two descended down towards the pavement and asphalt below.
"You're a bloody backstabbing snake, Urie…! And by God, you'll die like one...!"
"I'll finish what that chunk of rock started, you dickless trash heap ('Robo-Fuck')…!"
And for a moment, just as they landed onto the street below, while causing a large crater to form underneath their feet as they broke the asphalt upon impact, the way Urie and Shirazu spoke to one another, along with the same passionate urge to defeat one another could have been best described as a more intense version of how they used to bicker and fight with one another, back when they were teammates and friends.
For that very brief moment of time, before they once again started to clash blades and exchange blows with one another, Urie felt like himself again for the first time in over six-months.
Sitting down in a pool of his own blood, Matsuri pressed his back up against the corner wall of his office, and gazed out of his shattered glass-panel that he had a habit of looking through; except this time, there was no window separating him from the city air just outside the confinement of the Main Office, that he knew would serve as the place of his death.
Even though he was alone and knew that his investigators were fighting for their lives downstairs against Mayuzumi's squad of oggai that were occupying the lobby, Matsuri looked past the bleakness of everything around him.
Rather than worrying about whether or not Shirazu could actually defeat Urie, or if Yusa would actually survive the battle taking place downstairs, Matsuri took comfort in the same very thing that Furuta did, when he died hours ago: and that very thing was hope.
Hope for a better future that, for the first time in his life, he saw within arms reach.
Having had his kakuhou sacs and abdomen torn apart by Urie, who had managed to fire a well-placed shot of kagune-shards moments after being thrown out of the window by Shirazu, Matsuri couldn't help but find it comforting in knowing that even though the Washuu bloodline would end with him, its principales and what it should have stood would outlive him.
Matsuri's dirty secret of having to live as a ghoul was over, and the weight placed on his shoulders by his family's corruption would die alongside him. Matsuri wanted to be remembered as a great man, meaning that he wouldn't allow himself to go out without making a difference first.
Not caring that he couldn't feel his legs as he shuffled around with his one still good-working hand to fish his cellphone out of his pocket, Matsuri made sure that his kakugans weren't showing as he opened up his camera app, before beginning to record himself during his last and final moments on Earth.
"T-This is… This is CCG B-Bureau Director, Matsuri Washuu… Ginshi Shirazu is currently engaging in combat with the Black Reaper, K-Kuki Urie, nghh…" Matsuri seethed in pain, while taking a few steady breaths to keep himself awake as he felt his mind growing hazy and his vision starting to go dark.
"I… I've sustained a grave injury, and will be dead soon. My final orders are as follows: I hereby absolve Haise Sasaki, Tooru Mutsuki, Saiko Yonebayashi, Ginshi Shirazu, and if possible, I-I want whatever descendants of Kuzen to also be absolved of any charges and persecution, and of course, Kuzen too if he's still alive… Ensure that Yusa and all of you look through my harddrive; it'll… It'll contain my family's top secret records that'll help you understand what needs to be done… We need to stop whoever is behind the oggai children; t-they… They have the dragon, and I fear they'll make another one..."
"... I… I'm also stepping down from my position, a-and recommending that Yusa Arima take control of whatever… Of whatever CCG becomes. Once I'm gone, I… I eventually want it to be named something else, because I… I have faith in that young man t-that he'll reform CCG into something f-far… Far better t-than… Than… Than what my family before me c-could have done with it…"
"... T… This is Matsuri Washuu… S-Signing… Signing off…" He whispered, while using his remaining brain-function to blindly press down on the cellphone's screen to end the recording. As the smart phone dropped down onto the floor, just out of reach of the edge of his pool of blood, Matsuri closed his eyelids and let out his final breath of air, before passing on.
Fearful of Yusa's safety, after hearing the erupt roar of gunfire and metal clashing against metal echoing out through the corridor they had walked through, Mayuzumi unholisterd her sidearm before taking aim at the reinforced door's lock. "YUSA, STAND BACK!" Mayuzumi shouted, before firing a bullet to blow apart the locking mechanism.
Swinging the door open with her firearm pointed away from where the sink and her king was, Mayuzumi turned around to walk backwards into the bathroom; paranoid of having her back facing towards the open corridor, where she could be attacked from behind. "Y-Yusa! I'm going to get you out of here, okay?! Just follow me, and let me take point, okay?" Mayuzumi instructed, while keeping her back facing towards the bathroom's interior.
Waiting for verbal acknowledgement from the unnervingly silent teenager, Mayuzumi's anxiety soon got the better of her tactical prowess, and soon she found herself turning around towards where she last saw a glimpse of Yusa staring at him through the mirror. "Hey! I'm talking to you, Yusa! Shit's stressful enough as it is, and the last thing I need right now is-... Well, that's new..." Mayuzumi muttered to herself with a shocked expression, after fully turning around to see Yusa staring back at her with a single kakugan where his left eye was.
"... Mayuzumi, we need to investigate what's going in the lobby, and end whatever conflict is going on," Yusa said in a slightly shaken voice, as he did his best to calm himself down, after having had to experience a massive influx of painful memories that weren't even his to begin with.
Already feeling stressed out about everything that was going on around them, the thought of having Yusa in a hostile environment didn't sit well with Mayuzumi, who also feared the consequences she would be facing if anything bad happened to her king. "Y-Yusa, with all due respect, I… I really don't fuckin' think that's a good idea, ya know?! I-I don't, I-I can't have you getting hurt out ther- Oh hello?!" The oggai gasped out aloud with a nervous smile spreading across her lips, as she felt Yusa gently holding onto to her trembling hand to try and calm her down.
"... Mayuzumi, I don't have a lot of time to discuss everything I just went through, but… But just know that I've seen what happens when someone holds back, and allows their own hesitation to weaken themselves; I've seen the consequences of what happens when one is too weak and scared to act." Yusa said with a somber tone in his voice, as he felt himself still suffering from the haunting memories of seeing Hinami's mother being decapitated, along with the experience of being tortured for eleven days that felt like a lifetime to him, even if in actuality it was only a few minutes, if that.
Despite Yusa's conviction in the way he spoke, Mayuzumi still hesitated with the idea of letting Yusa put himself in danger. "... You don't even have a weapon, do you? Do you… Do you even know how to fight?" Mayuzumi asked with an inquisitive tone in her voice, as she herself wasn't even sure what Yusa's new kakugan meant.
For all she knew, he could have been a qunix, an oggai like herself, an artificial one-eyed ghoul, or a half-ghoul; the possibilities at that point to her were limited only by what she knew.
While still holding onto her hand to reassure Mayuzumi, Yusa used his free hand to crack his knuckle in the same way that whoever had been torturing him in his new memories had done. Although it was mildly uncomfortable for Yusa to do, it was because of that odd gesture that three red-tendrils emerged from underneath his black-blazer, and curled and displayed complex movements to show Mayuzumi that he had control of his new predatory organ, that looked too sleek and well-defined to be a normal kagune.
"... I think I'll manage," Yusa said with a gentle smile on his face, while finding it odd that he, for whatever reasons that were beyond his understanding at this point, wanted nothing more in the world, but to put a white-surgical eyepatch over his kakugan.
I know I said that their wouldn't be any author's notes, but just know that I know that A LOT has happened in this chapter, and I super encourage you to throw our your own theories and or questions if you feel willing to do so!
Anyways, thank you, and have a wonderful day!
