Long-ass chapter and the first action-packed arc that I'm excited to dig into. The author's notes will be at the bottom, please enjoy!


With the taste similar to iron and salt fresh in his mouth, Kaneki's head felt as though there were daggers piercing through his skull, as he felt him beginning to stir awake. 'What…? What is this?' Kaneki thought with a searing agony in his head preventing him from thinking thoughts that were too extensive, as he squinted past his blurry vision to identify the long vertical steel-bars that were surrounding him.

'It's dark in here, yet… I think I can still see lighta vaguely coming through… Ah, those must be windows,' Kaneki thought to himself as he began to become more aware of his surroundings, after looking past the bars of his indoor cage to see windows pouring light into the office building that he realized he was inside of. 'This place smells like dust and none of those windows have any glass… How decrepit everything looks.'

Attempting to get up from the surprisingly sturdy chair that he had awoken on, Kaneki struggled to pull his arms and legs away from the piece of furniture beneath him that was, upon further inspection, bolted and secured into the ground floor beneath them. 'I… I must be…' Kaneki thought groggily to himself, and despite knowing that he wasn't in a good spot to be in, he couldn't do much other than to roll around in his bindings.

Tied to the metal chair with heavy chains wrapped around his limbs and chest, Kaneki couldn't help but to wonder why he couldn't escape such crude binding with his newfound strength. 'These chains… I don't think they're anything a ghoul shouldn't be able to free themselves from… Unless…?' Kaneki thought to himself, while concentrating on trying to remember the events that led to him ending up being in such a compromising position.

'Hide and I were walking back to Kami… T-Then we took the shortcut we always use through the alleyway behind that hardware store,' Kaneki recalled to himself, as he was beginning to vividly play the memory back in his head. 'Then… Then there was that hooded guy… Wore that weird bird mask… And then… Oh no,' Kaneki thought grimly to himself, as the color drained from his face the moment he recalled the tall and lanky individual sticking a needle in his neck. With the last thing he could remember being seeing the hooded man grabbing Hide by the collar before he himself passed out on the floor, Kaneki's adrenaline began to course through his veins.

'I… I have to get out of here, and find Hide,' Kaneki thought to himself with his heart racing in his chest, as he immediately began to blindly feel around for anything that he could use to aid him in his freedom. Hearing footsteps occasionally from several floors above him and beneath him, Kaneki knew that he had to be sneaky, so being as careful as he could, he was able to eventually find the lock that was keeping the chains around his chest secured.

Trying to use his fingers to forcibly unlock the mechanism of the lock proved useless, due to the fact that whatever it was that was in his system made him as weak as his human self. 'The one time where actually being a ghoul would have come in handy…! This is… Wait, wait this is a combination lock… It's one of those that you only need to put four individual numbers into as well…!' Kaneki thought with newfound hope flowing through his veins, before suddenly realizing that he wouldn't be able to actually see what he was doing.

With no other choice other than to sit and wait for his captors to return, Kaneki closed his eyelids and used the tips of his fingers to mentally catalog what each sketched-in digit of each rotating mechanism felt like. 'It'll take too long to start with '0000' and go up randomly from there… Maybe it's an important date, or something that someone would find easy to remember,' Kaneki thought as calmly as he could to himself, while on the outside he was sweating profusely and taking in panicked breaths of air.

Doing his best not to let his trembling nerves undermine his survival instincts, Kaneki took calming breaths while trying to think of every likely combination into the combo lock behind him. Even as the sounds of footsteps drew closer to his location from outside of his cage, Kaneki made sure to continue entering codes into the lock while shaking violently within his binding chains.

Looking up with sweat pouring down his brow, Kaneki's wide eyes found themselves staring at the silhouette of the hooded figure who had drugged him the night before. The tall and lanky figure from before came into view the moment he stepped forward and turned on the light on the back of his phone; blinding Kaneki momentarily as the camera of the man's device was directed onto him from the other side of the cage.

"It appears as though your pet project has finally awoken, Tatara," the man spoke in a calm and monotone voice that Kaneki wouldn't have taken for threatening, had it not been for the fact that the hooded figure was still wearing the odd white-mask with an elongated beak strutting out it's center that he remembered from last night as well. "Just in time too… I was growing impatient."

"You've done enough; that won't be necessary… For now," a deep and menacing voice sounded from the phone speakers, which only made Kaneki feel even more uneasy as the hooded figure extended his arm through the cage's bars in order to bring the camera even closer to the bookworm's face. "You, boy, state your name," Tatara demanded through the speakers of the phone being practically shoved into Kaneki's face, as the young man squinted his eyelids in an attempt to try and shield his eyes from the very bright light illuminating his entire bloodied face.

"It's… K-Ken. Ken Kaneki," he answered truthfully; knowing better to upset his captors by testing whether or not they already knew that answer or not.

Pausing for a moment while repeating Kaneki's last name beneath his breath several times, Tatara finally spoke up once again. "That name, 'Kaneki'… It sounds familiar; very familiar. Tell me Kaneki, do you have any knowledge of a place called 'Sunlit Gardens'?"

Needing a second to think with everything going around him that was stressing him out, Kaneki frowned while tightening up his face before finally shaking his head slowly. "N-No… No, I-I don't… I don't think I know what that is."

Pausing for a moment, deciding whether or not Kaneki was telling him the truth or not while he analyzed every mannerism being shown to him on his phone screen from wherever he was, Tatara finally let out a sigh before finally asking, "… How old are you?"

"I'm… I'm eighteen," Kaneki replied, to which the owner of the foreboding voice digested with a low hum.

"Ah… Interesting… You would have been only eight years old when that facility was overrun. Considering the sort of work that was conducted within those walls, I suppose it would be believable if…" Tatara trailed off, needing a moment to collect his thoughts before something came to his mind. "… Your mother. What was her name?"

Had Kaneki's mother still been alive, he would have hesitated to answer such a personal question, yet the act of self preservation along with his own curiosity beckoned him to answer, "Her name was Kimiko Kaneki… Why does that matter?"

"Because that answer you've given calls for further investigation into your identity… It's also the only reason why I'm allowing you to live," Tatara said in an almost indifferent voice that carried with it a slight bit of concern in it, as if he was reluctant to say that aloud. "That kagune inside of you… You have your captors to thank for it. It belonged to a very special girl; a very special girl who had to make a muck of the very special gift given to her when she was in the womb."

"You're… Y-You're talking about Rize Kamishiro, aren't you?" Kaneki inquired with curiosity in his voice, while also trying to buy time while subtly putting in more possible combination codes into the lock. "She was the one who attacked me, so… W-Why? Why would you go out of your way to do all of this? I'm… I'm not anyone special."

"How shall I put this…?" Tatara muttered to himself, and took a few moments to collect his thoughts before finally knowing what to say to the still-drugged out young man. "You weren't our target, far be it. She was what we were after… No. No, more specifically, my King wanted what was inside of her, not the bitch herself. Your captors wanted her alive, and to themselves."

"… The morons who my King relied on had severely damaged Rize's kakuhou when they dropped those steel bars on top of her, when they sprung their far-fetched trap onto her," Tatara said with disdain his voice, as to make it clear that he didn't approve of the hired thugs' methods. "Up until this point, you- boy- were just at the wrong place at the wrong time. It was agreed that we'd allow you to heal, so that the kakuhou within you would rebuild itself, and not lose its precious essence. You were nothing more than a package meant to be delivered…"

"… Or at least, that was the case up until now," Tatara said with a slightly softened voice, which Kaneki wasn't sure whether or not he should be relieved to hear that shift in tone, or more alarmed. "If what you've told me about your identity is true, then the blunder of the 'Clowns' could have been a blessing in disguise this entire time."

Silently cursing under his breath as he failed to unlock the lock behind him once again, Kaneki shook his head while processing all the information that had been dropped into his lap. "This is all so much to take in…!W-Where's Hide?! What do you do to him?!" Kaneki demanded with his usually bottled-up rage getting the better of him, as he thrashed in his chains; much to the hooded figure's amusement.

"My, my…! Someone hasn't had their 'Wheaties' this morning, have they?" The tall and lanky figure mused, and felt content as he gazed through the eye holes of his mask to stare back at the look of fear and panic in Kaneki's single kakugan. "If it makes you feel any better, your blond friend is still alive. Although, I can't say for sure if he's doing all that well. My friends, they can be… A bit handsy with the 'merchandise'."

"Bastard…! W-What do you mean by that?! What the hell do you mean 'merchandise'?!" Kaneki demanded with a trembling voice, as the thought of Hide being hurt by a bunch of brutish men struck a nerve with the usually reserved bookworm.

Considering himself to be the voice of reason, Tatara decided to answer Kaneki's question directly, rather than sitting back and waiting for the hooded figure to go on a long tangent for his own entertainment at the boy's expense. "The Clowns are a gang of ghouls who have their base of operations outside of Tokyo. They're human traffickers, hence why you're caged up right now. More than likely, they're going to do unspeakable acts of depravity onto your friend, before selling him off to the highest bidder of whatever auction they plan on hosting next… That is, if he's still alive."

The newfound experience of what horror truly felt like made Kaneki's skin even paler than it already was from the drugs in his system. Feeling sick to his stomach, Kaneki immediately felt the acidic taste of bile rising up to the back of his throat, and it wasn't long after until the overwhelmed one-eyed ghoul vomited all down the bloodied outfit that he had been wearing the night before. Trembling while becoming lightheaded as he fell deeper into his panic attack, Kaneki's thrashing slowly came to a stop, and soon all he seemingly did was sob out of despair for what he thought to be a hopeless situation.

Being seen as nothing more than a broken boy who could only sob while begging them to let him and Hide go, Tatara had ordered for the hooded figure who he called 'Faceless' to leave Kaneki alone in his cage. As the cellphone was pulled away from his face so that Faceless could put the call back to private, Kaneki waited anxiously with tears pouring down his cheeks until the ghoul was several stories down the stairwell just outside the office room that he was caged in. Once the area around him was safe enough, Kaneki immediately pulled down the mechanism of the combo lock, and quickly began pulling the chains off of his body.

The code to the combo-lock behind him was '0079'.


Although he was in an absolute distraught and full of fear, Kaneki knew better than to be noisier than he had to be. Placing the chains and bindings down beside his metal chair as quietly as he could, Kaneki did his best to ignore the awful odor on his clothes as he carefully made his way over to the door of the cage. Trying to open it, Kaneki found it to be expectantly locked, and rather than a combo, it required a key.

Unable to brute force his way out of the cage through the reinforced bars that proved to be too sturdy for his weakened state, Kaneki tried keeping himself under control as he searched around the confines of his imprisonment for anything he could use to escape.

'Hide… I hope to God that those bastards haven't laid a finger on him yet… I-I have to do something, I-I need to find something to break the lock, or…' Kaneki thought frantically to himself, before stumbling upon an old and decrypted office filing cabinet that none of his captors had bothered to take out of the cage. Nimbly with his shaky hands, Kaneki searched through the three filing cabinets to sort through all the junk that had been thrown into it by whoever had owned it in the past.

'There's a lot of things in here… Let's see…' Kaneki thought to himself, while trying to keep himself distracted and calm as he took inventory of everything he had to work with. 'An expired can of raviolis… Lots of scattered paper… A box of bobby-pins… Batteries… And a ruler… Shit, can any of this be useful?!' Kaneki thought frantically to himself, as another panic attack felt like it was just around the corner for him.

Knowing that the can of old Chef Boyarde's wasn't going to be helpful, nor were a stack of a decade-old sales reports, Kaneki narrowed his options down to the batteries, the twelve-inch ruler, and box of unopened bobby-pins in his hands. 'Batteries might come in handy, but… Can't be much use right now,' Kaneki thought to himself, before shoving them into the pocket of his vomit-stained pants.

'Bobby-pins on the other hand… I-I think I Hide told me that… T-That they can be used to pick a lock if it was cheap enough…' Kaneki thought to himself with frustration growing in his head, as he had to resist the urge to throw the box of them down on the floor. 'Damn it…! They're no use to me if I don't know how to use them… That means that all I have left to use is this,' Kaneki thought grimly to himself, as he placed the bobby-pins into his pocket before staring down at the ruler in his hands.

'What the hell am I even supposed to do with this…?! It's made of wood; not even metal…!' Kaneki thought with tears pouring down his cheeks, but still held onto the hope of escaping for the sake of wanting to rescue Hide. It was a long shot, but with time running out and his options growing thin, all Kaneki could do was to hope for the best, as he turned his attention over to the metal chair and chains he had escaped from.

Fashioning a makeshift grappling hook by using the ruler to poke it through the top ring of the chain, Kaneki used the torn latex fabric of the head cushion from the metal chair to reinforce the ruler in its place. Taking several loose screws out of the chair to poke them through the ruler, so that it would catch whatever Kaneki was trying to wrangle easier, the desperate young man immediately scanned the room out of his cage, until he found the closet desk to him; the very desk that had a key carelessly left behind on its surface.

Throwing the ruler out like a harpoon several times and cringing with fear as the chain slammed hard against the old tile floor, Kaneki knew that it was only a matter of time before one of the Clowns came up or down stairs to investigate the source of the noise. "Shit, shit, shit…!" Kaneki cursed profusely under his breath, as he heard footsteps coming from the stairwell. With time running out for him, Kaneki was barely able to grapple onto the foot of the desk.

In one hard pull, Kaneki managed to bring the desk close enough to his cage to retrieve the key from the top of the table. Ducking down while leaping toward the door of the cage, Kaneki nearly dropped the key as he fiddled with the lock. The moment it was unlocked, Kaneki swung the door open and immediately rolled forward underneath the shadows of the unlit office room.

Recovering from his attempt at a silent roll, Kaneki's flight or fight senses kicked in as he saw a colorful-dressed ghoul sporting a horrifying clown mask running into the room with his shotgun in hand. Immediately noticing the opened cage, the clown continued to run toward its open door while uttering out a horrified, "Oh… Oh, bananas!"

With every second counting, Kaneki knew that locking the door behind the ghoul wouldn't do him any good. If he knelt down and continued to remain undetected in his poor hiding spot, all the clown had to do was turn around from the cage door to see him several meters away. With Hide's safety being the biggest motivation to do whatever it took to escape, all Kaneki could think to do was yank hard on the metal chain that was still hooked on the desk across from the room.

Creating tension with the metal chain that caught the ghoul off guard, Kaneki ran forward from his hiding spot with the end of the chain in his hand. "What the hell is th- ACK!!!" The ghoul tried shouting, but was quickly silenced as Kaneki mounted his back and pulled as hard as he could on the chain he had wrapped around the clown's neck. Feeling the ghoul beneath him struggling to stay alive as his kagune began to unravel out of his lower back, Kaneki was once again forced to rely solely on his survival instincts as he heard footsteps once again coming up from the stairwell.

Leaping forward while the ghoul beneath him freed his hands up to try and pull the chain away from his neck, Kaneki grabbed the clown's shotgun and flipped on his back. Having planned on trying to negotiate his way out of the office building, Kaneki was horrified the moment he heard the shotgun going off in his hands. With his ears ringing, Kaneki looked down at the ghoul with the metal chain wrapped around his neck, who looked just as terrified and in shock as he was.

Together, the two of them slowly looked over his shoulder to look upon the other ghoul who had come up there as his supposed backed up; or rather, what was left of her. An average sized woman in a gothic clown outfit had been flung to the wall, with bits of her brain and head splattered across the wall. Laughing out of his own panicked state, the clown snickered madly before turning toward Kaneki while his latex mask sent chills down the already terrified young man.

"Haha, heehee… Holy shit, that's gonna leave a-" Being overtaken by his fear and desire to escape with Hide, Kaneki didn't allow the ghoul to finish his sentence, and had been too focused on the fact that it's kagune was several seconds away from piercing him with its two purple tendrils. Firing the shotgun with whatever knowledge he had of firearms being from the movies and books he had read in his past, Kaneki blew apart the ghoul's head at a point blank range with the fury of q-metal buckshots.

Knowing that his cover had been blown, and that his only option to escape was to run and gun his way downstairs, Kaneki felt his heart racing and his legs shaking beneath him as he searched the bodies of the ghouls for whatever he could use. 'This isn't real; none of this feels real,' Kaneki thought to him with dread in his heart, as he took a belt with several ammo-pouches off of the first ghoul who had attacked him, and put it around his waist before looting the next ghoul.

Armed with an all-black army pump action shotgun, several olive-green pouches filled with shotgun shells, and an old CCG-issued glock strapped to the holster around his thigh that he had taken from the first ghoul who he had killed, Kaneki could feel his adrenaline pumping through his veins as he made a beeline down the stairs.

Without any real combat experience to guide him, Kaneki thought that his chances of surviving were practically non-existent, especially since he was greatly outnumbered. However, even with his ghoul abilities hindered by what he assumed to be RC-cell suppressants in his system, Kaneki's reflexes and surprisingly skilled ability to use firearms had proved more than a match for the clowns who had tried to retaliate against him.

'This… This feels so natural… Like I've done this before…' Kaneki thought to himself while letting out a scream, as he used his shotgun to blow apart a kagune-created sword of a ghoul who had tried to rush him from behind. 'But… That's impossible, isn't it…?' He continued to think to himself in a calm inner voice, as he ducted just in time to avoid being hit with the shrapnel of the kagune that he had shot into several hundred pieces. Leaping up and shoulder bashing the injured clown, down the final flight of stairs.

Leaping down after his injured prey, Kaneki stomped down with enough force to break the neck of the injured ghoul beneath him, but not before rolling forward and grabbing the now-deceased ghoul's body in order to use it as a shield against the hail fire of bullets being shot at him. Knowing that the cover that was around him wouldn't have done him well, all Kaneki could do while surrounded by a room full of armed ghouls who were closing in on him with their kagunes out was to simply hope for the best.

Throwing the bullet-ridden body of the dead ghoul forward, Kaneki kept his focus on his targets while his momentary distraction bought him enough time to empty his shotgun into the foreheads of the furthest ghouls in the room. Even as several bullets and kagune-shards pierced into his legs and stomach, Kaneki kept himself fixated on the panicked ghouls who weren't believing what they were seeing. Pulling out his glock like a true gunslinger, Kaneki managed to get headshot-after-headshot as he fell down backward to the floor; but not before using the remaining ammo in his clip to gravely injure a ghoul by emptying his magazine into their kakuhou.

Although Kaneki was in quite a bit of pain and was hyperventilating with tears pouring down the corners of his eyes, he wasn't as hysterical as the ghoul who he had shot down. "A-Ah, d-damn!" Kaneki cursed while stifling a scream, as he pushed past his slowly healing injuries in order to get back up to his feet. With his regeneration ability from being a ghoul severely hindered, Kaneki had to limp over toward the only surviving ghoul in the room while his body still had several projectiles lodged inside of him.


Only stopping in order to pick up an AK-47 with Chinese writing stenciled onto its manufactured barrel barely still visible on it, Kaneki once again found it jarring that he knew to do a weapons inspection on his newfound rifle as he limped over above the flamboyantly dressed ghoul. Feeling empowered by realizing in the aftermath of his destruction what he was actually capable of, Kaneki found his confidence to be a step above than it was earlier, as he pressed the tip of the barrel down against the back of the terrified ghoul's head.

"Where… Where are you keeping my friend?" Kaneki asked with a worried tone in his voice, but didn't allow the visible concern in his tone to take away from what he was prepared to do. "You… You're going to talk, or else… Or else I'll kill you, like I did to everyone else," Kaneki threatened, while silently hoping that it wouldn't have to come to that.

"Don't do it! P-Please! I-I will do whatever you want, j-just don't shoot; t-they never told us that you were a 'Reaper'!" The young ghoul beneath him cried out in an anguished voice, as though his life depended on it.

"A 'Reaper'…?" Kaneki muttered to himself out of confusion for what he had just been called by the terrified ghoul, who appeared to be a lot younger compared to the rest of the ghouls who he had killed. Still dealing with his own bodily injuries while the weight of actually taking the lives of others was beginning to get to him, Kaneki let out a shaky breath as shook his head. "L-Look… I-I just want to know where your group, t-the Clowns… W-Where did they take my friend?"

Letting out a shaky breath while whimpering, the ghoul beneath him did his best to collect his thoughts before replying back, "I-I'm not… I-I was just conscripted into this, o-okay?! I'm not a member of this gang because I want to be; I-I was forced into this… J-Just let me up, and I'll help you… Alright?! P-Please!" The teenager begged while beginning to weep, as the fear of being killed like the rest of those around him finally took hold of him.

Even though it was likely a trap just to get him to lower his guard, there was something genuine about the way the boy beneath him was sobbing. Feeling sorry for the young light-skinned ghoul beneath him, Kaneki tried to use logic to justify his actions as he took a step back before kneeling down to hook his hand beneath the teenage boy's lavender long-sleeve. "Okay… Alright… D-Don't betray my trust… I'm… I-I'm gonna trust you, okay?"

Letting out a heavy sigh of relief while still crying and trembling, the young ghoul allowed Kaneki to help him up to his feet. Due to having been critically injured though, the young boy with light-green hair in the style of a long-lengthens bowl-cut that covered his ears had to lean against Kaneki, just so he could keep up on his booted feet. "Oh thank G-God… Oh thank you, thank you…!" The ghoul sobbed out profusely with his bloodshot-purple eyes gazing at Kaneki with nothing but appreciation and fear in them.

Although saving a young teenager who made it sound like he never wanted to be part of the gang that he had mowed down made Kaneki feel better about his actions, the one-eyed ghoul wasn't going to let his own politeness get in the way of finding his best friend. "You can thank me by helping me find my friend… Can you walk on your own?" Kaneki asked with a concerned tone in his voice, as he himself didn't like the idea of having to lug around another body while still deep within enemy territory.

"I-I don't think I can; not yet anyways," the young boy replied back with a slightly feminine tone in his voice, as he attempted to take a step forward before buckling underneath his own weight. Wrapping his arms around Kaneki's shoulders in order to prevent himself from falling back down, the ghoul shook his head with sweat pouring down his forehead as he looked back up at Kaneki. "N-No… No, no I don't think I can yet… I'm sorry."

"I… I see," Kaneki muttered with frustration and anxiety behind his words, as he found himself weighing his options. 'I could just get information out of him and leave him behind… But what if I need more information out of him and he's not here? Besides… If what he said about his circumstances is really true, then that must make him low ranking… Which means if anyone from his group does find him and place the blame on him for helping me escape, then… He's going to be killed.'

Sensing that Kaneki was thinking about leaving him behind, the young teenager stared up at the taller young man and swallowed back the lump in his throat. "Aah… S-So… S-So w-what are we going to do?" The ghoul asked with a shaky voice, which immediately confirmed Kaneki's assumption that the ghoul was afraid of being left behind as well. "Can you…? C-Can you let me come with you? I-I don't want to stay here, and… And I won't get in your way, I promise."

Sighing, Kaneki shook his head at how pathetic the young ghoul sounded, even to someone like him. "I'm not going to leave you, just… Besides… We're going to need to work together here if we're going to make it out of here, okay? Which means we're going to have to trust each other to not betray one another…" Kaneki said with a determined look in his eyes, as he fought against his better instincts while extending the rifle out for the younger boy to take from him. "Do… Do you know how to use this?"

"I… I think I… I think I've used something like this before," the ghoul replied with a bit of uncertainty in his voice, as he eyed the firearm in his hand before giving Kaneki a nervous nod. "I-If you'll let me live, I'll… I'll help you. But… But we're going to need to gather some masks if we're planning on leaving this building… Especially if you're wanting to rescue the prisoners down in the basement," the boy said, before adding, "We're not going to get far with the fallout outside… M-Maybe we can find some gear to help us in the armory; it's… It's downstairs too."

Looking over to where the maskless ghoul gestured with a nod, Kaneki looked over to the stairwell beside the front entrance door that had red-mist leaking through the seeps of it and into the building. Wondering just how much he had already inhaled while inside the office building, Kaneki felt a shiver run down his spine as he proceeded to walk over to another deceased ghoul on the floor, while on his way over to the staircase that would lead him down in the basement. "It's over there, right…?"

Nodding, the ghoul replied, "Yes… W-We should hurry. It's only a matter of time before more of them come through the front door."

"T-There's more of them?!" Kaneki inquired with a shocked expression on his face, as he and the ghoul he was carrying nodded to his question.

"A lot more… We're in the Clown's base camp. It expands out to a couple of blocks," the ghoul answered honestly, which only made Kaneki believe his story about not wanting to be a member of the Clowns with each bit of helpful information he fed to him. "I think we're somewhere South in Saitama; just up North of Tokyo… So we're definitely going to need those masks if we're planning on heading there or anywhere else once we're done here."

"And… What about the Clowns? Are there any of them that might be an issue for you?" Kaneki asked with concern in his voice, as the two of them began to descend down the flight of stairs leading them into the basement. "We're probably going to have to fight our way out of here… Is that an issue for you?" Kaneki questioned, as the survivalist within him had already made it clear to him that he himself was very capable of killing if it meant he had to. 'There'll be time afterward to reflect on all of this… J-Just not now.'

Letting out a weak yet sadden laugh, the ghoul who he was carrying shook his head as they made their way to the bottom floor of the stairwell. "Absolutely not…! With all of the unforgivable acts of cruelty they've done to me… I-I'll gladly help you fight them… It's over here," the ghoul instructed after having shown a cathartic eagerness to get revenge on the older clowns who had hurt him.

"If that's the case, then… Why haven't you done anything before, if you've had all that resentment inside of you this whole time?" Kaneki asked while trying to pass the time and keep himself from losing his focus, as he opened the door to the large-office space that served as the Clown's makeshift armory.

Being sat down on an old dusty couch while Kaneki quickly began undressing himself out of his soiled clothing to swap his outfit for something that would provide him more protection, the young ghoul stared down toward the floors with shame in his purple eyes before shrugging. "I… I just… I just didn't want to die, y-you know? I'm not… I'm not special, it's… It would be suicide for someone like me to take on the Clowns, all by myself. I'm not… I'm not a 'Reaper' like you," the teenager admitted with guilt in his voice, before looking up at Kaneki.

'I don't understand why he keeps calling me that… What even is a 'Reaper'?' Kaneki thought to himself, as he turned his gaze away from Rio's purple eyes to instead focus on where he had been shot. Feeling hungry, thirsty, and sore, Kaneki wasn't in a good mood to begin with, so when it came time for him to pull out the kagune-shards and q-metal bullets from his slowly closing wounds, needless to say that he was bitter and spiteful by the end of the process.

Wearing only his underwear and socks, Kaneki began scouring the armory for anything he could fit himself into. "I don't want to have to kill anyone if I don't have to… I… I've never actually taken anyone's life before, you see," Kaneki said with a shaken look on his face, as merely talking about what he had done made him feel dirty.

Catching the bloodied-buckshot that was falling out of his healing abdomen, Rio stared at the small q-metal pellets before dropping them onto the dirty tiled floor beneath where he was haunted over on the worn-out couch. "I… I have a hard time believing that…" Rio admitted in a low voice, as he watched Kaneki searching through several lockers on one side of the room, until he eventually stumbled upon one that specifically held items from their latest haul: Vault 079.

"That's… Understandable," Kaneki replied back agreeingly with a humorless chuckle, as he opened up the two wide-metal doors of the large locker. Rifling through the blue vault suits to find one his size that would need the least amount of adjusting, Kaneki said, "I… I honestly couldn't tell you where all that came from. I… I can't actually recall myself ever receiving any sort of combat training, let alone ever being taught on how to use a gun."

Holding onto the assault rifle that Kaneki had handed him upstairs earlier, Rio narrowed his eyes at the older young man as he began putting on the vault suit. "Could have fooled me… But, if what you're saying is true, then… Then perhaps brute forcing our way through the front door isn't going to work for us," Rio said aloud, while silently weighing his options as the thought of killing Kaneki with his back turned to him seemed like an opportunity that he wouldn't get again.

'What's stopping him from killing me when he doesn't need me? He might think I'm dead weight once…' Rio thought to himself while holding the rifle closer to him, and paused for a few moments while Kaneki was using pieces of leather made from the folded tan of dragon orphans to fortify his jumpsuit into an armored vault suit. '… It doesn't matter, I'll be dead either way if that's the case. Might… Might as well just take my chances with him,' Rio finally concluded to himself, before setting his assault rifle to the side of the couch.

"… Excuse me, but you were about to say something just now, right? Something important to our situation, I'm hoping," Kaneki asked with an impatient look on his mis-matched eyes, as the stress he was feeling was beginning to take a toll on his usually soft-nature.

Nodding his head slowly while regaining his composure, Rio replied, "Y-Yeah, yeah… I think I might have a plan, but… It's not going to guarantee us a completely safe route." Squirming a bit in his seat on the frumpy couch, Rio thought back to the restricted part of the basement, the one that led to the cavern that they had barely managed to secure, after opening what they thought to be an abandoned vault.

"This place, uh… It's built above this underground cave. It's man made, and I'm pretty sure it was dug out when the dragons first started killing all those people. It leads into some kind of underground bunker-city… I think it's called a 'Vault', I'm… I'm not too familiar one the subject, I'm afraid," Rio explained, and frowned even as Kaneki looked back at him from over his shoulder.

"A 'Vault' just within reach of the basement, huh? That explains the abundance of 'Vault-Tec' items here… The Clowns must have spent a lot of time securing all of this… May I have your name, by the way? So I know how to address you?" Kaneki asked with his back still turned to Rio, as he searched through one of the drawers in the vault locker. Sorting through microchips and motherboards, at the bottom of the drawer Kaneki fought a sturdy and clunky armband device that read 'Pipboy' on top the black screen that was built into the wrist module, and beside various turns and dials. 'Oh wow; I'm surprised no one has taken this thing yet. I've heard about these… They're supposed to have an accurate GPS system. I'm going to need this…'

"It's… My name's Rio…" The young ghoul answered back with curiosity in his voice, as he looked over Kaneki's shoulder to see him fitting the armband device over his blue sleeve. "You can actually read what that stuff says? It's English, isn't it?" Rio asked with bewilderment in his purple eyes, as he watched Kaneki lower his head down to read the glowing green-text of the black monitor, as the one-eyed ghoul began to start it up.

"Um… Y-Yes, of course I can read it… You make it sound like a niche skill; have you never learned English in school?" Kaneki asked with disbelief in his voice, as he found it hard for anyone from Tokyo to not know how to read English; a language that was highly valued, even before the English-speaking countries arrived all those years ago.

Frowning from the way Kaneki spoke, Rio shook his head before muttering back, "I-I never finished school… My brother and I, we… We were… We never got a chance to actually go to school. Too busy being 'clowns' for that, I guess," Rio explained hesitantly, as though admitting his past to Kaneki was hard for him.

Upon hearing that Rio had a brother who could possibly be a member of the Clowns, the young man dressed in what one would consider to be an 'Armored Vault Suit', Kaneki frowned as he put on a secured gas mask over his face. "I thought you said that there wasn't anyone from the Clowns who would be an issue for you to fight?" Kaneki asked with a slight bit of annoyance in his voice, as he stood back up before walking over to the table where they kept the guns and ammo to begin fitting himself with more weapons and supplies.

"There isn't anyone. My brother… He's… He's not here." Rio trailed off with bitterness and hatred in his voice, before letting out a shaky voice as he calmly tried to regain his composure. "Not anymore, he's not," Rio stated with melancholy in his voice, as he slowly got back up to feet from the couch he had been resting on.

Walking over to the table with a duffel bag he had picked up beside the couch, Rio began to help Kaneki by gathering enough supplies in it, before making his way to the metal bracket-storage where more gas masks were being held. Side glancing at Rio, who appeared to still be wary and distrustful of him to a certain degree, Kaneki couldn't help but to relate to how insignificant the ghoul felt, especially when it came to feeling powerless.

"I'm… I'm sorry to hear about your brother," Kaneki said to console Rio, who in the dim light of the makeshift armory appeared to be still crying with an anxious look on his face. "And sorry about shooting you… If I would have known-"

"-You don't have to apologize. I've learned that it's best to not think about those sorts of things," Rio interrupted with furrowed brows, as he finished stuffing the duffel bag with gas masks and whatever supplies he could stuff into it, before zipping it up. "No point in making yourself feel worse about anything, especially when you're living out here…"

Although what Rio had said was borderline nihilistic, Kaneki could understand why the young teenage ghoul would take comfort in absolving himself from the guilt; especially if it meant that he didn't have to think about all the things he had to do to survive outside the walls of Tokyo. Nodding his head as he finished packing gas-masks and replacement filters into one of the duffel bags he had found beneath the metal table, Kaneki muttered, "I suppose you're right…"

"Wish I wasn't…" Rio added with a heavy sigh, as he tossed the duffel bag over his shoulder and tightened the strap around his chest. "Anyway, about that Vault… The Clowns found it when they first established this block as their territory, and only discovered the underground construction site after they were already settled in."

"… They were doing what most Raider groups out here do best: Plunder it and carelessly use the construction equipment left behind to mindlessly demolish pieces of the vault and cave. You know, what most idiots do when they're unsupervised," Rio said with a small smirk on his face, to which Kaneki assumed it was the result of finally being able to speak his mind about what he really thought about the gang he was forced to join.

"… It was all fun and games for those dumbasses, until this one guy— I think his name was Souta, or something— decided to use some of the dynamite left behind to strap it around one of their prisoners, and have him try to escape through the vault, blindfolded," Rio said with disgust on his face, as the memory of hearing the old man crying out for hep while the Clowns laughed at his expense still weighed heavily on his conscious. "Mind you, that there actually is a way out of the vault. It leads from here, to… Well, I can't actually say for certain; the Clowns never got that far past the last vault door, to see what was on the other side."

"Is it that big?" Kaneki asked with a concerned look on his face, as he made sure that he had enough clips of ammo inside of his dragon-leather pouch on his belt to last him through whatever journey he would need to take. "I mean, I know that vaults are supposed to be underground cities, but… How big are we talking about?"

"Normally, it would take around two or so hours to get from one side to the other. Emphasis on 'normally'," Rio said with his hands up to make air-quotation marks with his fingers. "You know how I was talking about that old guy with bombs strapped to him? Well, Souta thought it would be hilarious to actually set them off when that poor guy was holding a support beam… Little did that stupid bastard know just how important that particular beam was…"

"… Souta ended up causing a massive cave in, at the center of the vault. Which in itself already presents an obstacle for us, especially if you're serious about going through the vault and out the other side… Which, keep in mind, we have no idea that's actually on the other side," Rio explained, before pausing to think about his options once again. "That's not even the worst part of it all…"

Having just been told that he would need to traverse through an unstable underground city that was at risk of caving in even more at any moment, Kaneki was starting to reconsider risking his chances of getting shot in the head by a sniper as Rio continued on with all the dangers they would be facing. 'Maybe we can snipe them through the windows? But then, we risk getting swarmed from the ground level…'

"… You're from Tokyo, so forgive me if this sounds rude of me to ask, but… Do you know what a 'dragon' is, or what 'dragon orphans' are?" Rio asked, while making it clear to Kaneki that he was beginning to believe less-and-less in the 'Reaper' theory he had earlier.

Being strapped for time, Kaneki slung his duffel bag over his shoulder and gestured for Rio to leave the way. With the scoped hunting rifle he took from the armory in hand, and his glock strapped to his thigh, Kaneki followed Rio with his gun at the ready. "Just give me the 'Layman's explanation'," Kaneki ordered with his heart racing in his chest, as he narrowly avoided getting headshot by one of the prison guards who were posted behind a makeshift barricade at the end of the hallway they needed to go down.

Watching as Kaneki shot a round powerful enough to transform the clown at the end of the hallway's head into a red-mist, Rio quickly used his kagune to form a shield-like append in front of him and Kaneki, after he saw three ghouls running toward them with their ukaku kagunes out. "Basically— Shit— t-they're monsters that used to be ghouls…!" Rio shouted through his gritted teeth, as his kagune was getting pierced with kagune-bullets, while he and Kaneki fired their guns over the top of his organic shield.

"A-Are they any worse than these guys?!" Kaneki asked with panic in his eyes, as he poked his rifle over the side of Rio's kagune, before landing a killing shot on a ghoul who had tried to rush them. 'Holy shit, these guns are loud down here!' Kaneki thought to himself, as his ears rang while he switched to his glock to give Rio some cover fire.

"Considering t-that they're bullet sponges and come at you until either you're dead or they're dead…!" Rio mused with adrenaline pumping through his veins, as he pushed Kaneki behind him just as his kagune blew apart into a cloud of black mist. Taking a few shards into his leg and shoulder, Rio was able to use his assault rifle to tear into the ghoul in front of him like swiss cheese. "G-Good question— Ngh…!" Rio grunted in pain, as he fell to the floor on one knee; leaving Kaneki exposed to the ghoul who had gotten close enough to disarm him.

"Peek-A-Boo, you little bitch!" The deranged ghoul with a stitched-clown mask screamed manically at Kaneki, as he grabbed the young man's wrist and squeezed hard enough to cause the bones in Kaneki's wrist to crack and break. Screaming out in pain unlike he had ever felt before, Kaneki fell to the floor and on his knees, and left his chest open for the ghoul to try and pierce through it with his fist.

Had it not been for his armored vault suit that had been reinforced with dragon-hide leather, the clown ghoul would have been able to break open Kaneki's chest and rip his heart out. Not completely unscathed though, due to the fact that the ghoul's punch was still strong enough to break his ribs and sternum, Kaneki had all of the air escape from his lung as he keeled over with his bloodied and broken arm still being held tightly by his tormentor.

"Lucky bastar— AGH?!" Before the bulky clown could finish his sentence, he was cut off the moment cold steel was being pressed up against his throat. Without a kagune to use or time to reload his firearm, Rio panicked and did the only thing he could think to do within his injured state. Choking the larger ghoul with the top of his gun while holding onto the barrel and stock for leverage, Rio was able to force the assailant to let go of Kaneki.

"N-No you don't, you little faggot…!" The hateful clown spat out from behind his grotesque mask made of human skin, as he threw his back up against the wall of the hallway; breaking through it and causing Rio to lose his grip. Still wearing his leather mask that protected him from the insulation from the old wall being airborne, Rio was able to see the bulky ghoul standing over him raising his boot above his head.

Rolling to the side just in time to avoid getting his head stomped in, Rio pulled his leg back all the way until his knee was against his own chest, and kicked with all his might. Hearing the clown letting out a goofy cry of pain the moment his boot made contact with his groin, Rio was shocked to see his attacker ignoring his crushed genitals as he reached down to grab his leg.

"Jokes on you, gay boy, I'm into that shit!" The clown taunted with a perverted laugh, as he used his big hands to snap Rio's femur in half. Moaning while hearing the young teenager screaming out in agony, the clown could feel his pants tightening as his grip tightened on Rio's pant leg. "Just like yesterday morning, huh sissy? Daddy loves it when they fig-"

Before the burly man behind the clown mask could continue with whatever perverted plans he had for the injured ghoul in his grasp, Kaneki had managed to retrieve his glock with his good hand, and emptied the clip into the back of the ghoul's head. Screaming and crying like a feral animal the moment the clown's heavy body fell on top of him, Rio ripped the ghoul's body apart while trying to take his corpse off of him.

Even in his injured state where breathing was painful, Kaneki scrambled up to his feet and quickly walked over to Rio to push the clown's corpse off of his small body. "Hey, hey… It's okay, it's okay! We did it, okay? H-He can't hurt you anymore," Kaneki said reassuringly, while kneeling down to help console Rio, who was in the middle of having a panic attack.

Reloading his glock and hunting rifle while giving Rio a moment to calm himself down, Kaneki stared over to the large body of the dead clown beside Rio's trembling body, and felt disgusted by what he had heard. 'Poor kid… He really must have had a bad life here. I… I wonder how much longer he could have taken before…' Kaneki thought grimly to himself, before shaking the idea out of his head as he hovered over Rio before lowering his good arm down.

"I understand that you're dealing with a lot right now, but… T-That's going to have to wait for now, okay? We… We need to help the others and ourselves leave this God-awful place, okay?" Kaneki said encouragingly with purpose in his voice, as he kept looking over his shoulder while listening for footsteps.

"Y… Yeah… Yeah, y-you're right…" Rio whispered through tears falling down his cheeks, as he forced himself to reach out and hook his hand over Kaneki's forearm. Although his leg had already healed, Rio still felt sore as he rose up to his feet, and avoided looking at the deceased ghoul while uttering to Kaneki, "H-He's the jailer… He's got the key on his belt… C-Could you get it please? I… I don't want to touch him."

Having suspected a particularly tragic and upsetting reason for why Rio wanted nothing to do with the large-burly clown on the ground, Kaneki lowered his gaze to the jailer's corpse while slowly nodding. "Of… Of course," Kaneki said in a respectful voice, before kneeling down to take the key that had been latched onto the jailer's belt loop. Making sure to wipe whatever residue was still on the small metal key on his vaultsuit's pant leg, Kaneki latched the key onto his own belt before subtly pulling Rio away from the wreckage and back down toward the hallway they needed to be.


Once he had been led out of the area, Rio was able to think clearer, and his attention turned toward Kaneki as they arrived at the reinforced door that they had the key to. "The cave that I was talking about earlier serves as where they keep the prisoners locked up in cells… It's just on the other side of this door, and… I can't help but notice that your injuries, they're… They're healing slowly," Rio pointed out, as his purple eyes stared down at the crippled forearm that Kaneki was keeping tucked closely in against the side of his broken ribs.

Nodding while taking in a slow breath, Kaneki let out a cough before explaining, "I… I think when I was attacked last night, I was drugged and injected with what I'm guessing are RC-cell suppressants, or something akin to that. They're surely healing as they say, I can feel it, but… I'm not going to lie, my body's not taking it very well." Kaneki admitted with anxiousness in his voice, while his stomach let out a growl that Rio heard.

"Judging by that eye of yours, I'm going to assume that you're an 'artificial one-eyed ghoul', not a 'half-ghoul'; correct me if I'm wrong though." Rio said, as he motioned for Kaneki to use the key to unlock the heavy door before them. "I wouldn't recommend eating any ghouls or humans who've spent too much time in the wasteland, or in fact any other inhabitants around here, for that matter; you never know if you're going to catch that disease that turns you into a feral… Or worse," Rio said as a shiver went down his back.

"Worse?" Kaneki asked with a raised eyebrow, as he locked the practically impenetrable door behind them to give themselves time to slow down and take a breather.

"Yeah, much worse than death or becoming feral, in fact… Also, there shouldn't be any clowns down here. They're stupid, but they're at least smart enough to avoid being in here with the door locked; especially when the only thing keeping them from getting eaten by a dragon orphan is a vault door that they forgot to close on their way out," Rio said with a chuckle as they made their way down a metal walk way that had been built into the rocky formation of the cave system.

"If that's true, then… What's stopping Hide or the others from being eaten too?" Kaneki asked with worry in his voice, as he and Rio walked down a system of white-metal catwalks while floodlights and their flashlights illuminated their path for them.

"'The Dodgy Mother'— the founder and leader of the Clowns— said that the dragon orphans would scare the prisoners, and prevent them from leaving their cages," Rio said with dwindling confidence, as he thought more about whether or not the caged would actually protect the prisoners from the dragon orphans. "But, uh… O-On second thought, maybe we shouldn't take too long to check on the prisoners."

"That… That would probably be for the best," Kaneki said with an unamused sigh, as he and Rio continued to walk down more and more steps that led them further down into the bowels of the Earth. "How long do these damn catwalks go down for?! I'm… I'm so hungry; I-I could go for Big Girl's right now…" Kaneki whined irritatedly, as he clutched his sore hand down to rub his aching stomach that hungered for nourishment.

Chuckling, Rio commented, "I'm not into girls who are 'big' or 'small', or uh… Girls in general, actually, so I can't help you there. Unless you're talking about the other 'red meat', then I could definitely help you with that sort of girl problem."

Realizing that Rio thought that he was talking about actual girls instead of the restaurant he had actually been referencing, Kaneki's momentary embarrassment transformed into horror. "You mean… Y-You mean like human meat?!"

"Yeah, there might still be some fresh meat around down in the cold storage… If you're okay with eating humans, that is," Rio said with an uneasy laugh. "I'm not, uh… I'm not really a fan of eating people myself— I prefer the artificial stuff over the real thing for my own skewed conscientious beliefs— but I ain't gonna judge you if that's what you need to do. Some ghouls get that 'dark craving' once they get the taste of human flesh, and the more they give into it, the less effective the artificial food is…"

"… But, given that we're in a 'life-or-death' situation, well… When in Rome," Rio muttered sarcastically, as he brought Kaneki to the corner of the large cavernous underground construction site that had several meat-lockers on wheels. Powered by a gas generator that sounded like it would give out any moment, the locker that Rio took Kaneki to had raw-bloody meat stored inside of it; a gruesome sight that would have made Kaneki feel ill to his stomach, had it not been for the fact that he was so weak, and his body desired substance to replenish its used up RC-cells.

'So marbled, so fresh… I think I smell smokiness coming from the top shelf… O-One plate actually has cooked meat!' Kaneki thought to himself with a wide smile, as he found himself being drawn to one plate in the refrigerated locker that had a cooked human tricep on it. 'Maybe I should just… Just have a bite? I'm fighting for my life, and… And I'm just making excuses,' Kaneki realized in a split moment, and instinctively took a step away from the cold locker as shame filled his head. 'What the hell was I thinking?! I was about to just go to town on human flesh, and was… I was about to justify it too, without even… Without even asking if there was an alternative… F-Fuck!'

Sensing what Kaneki was thinking as he stood there with a look of disgust and guilt written all over his face, Rio thought about what he could do to help his savior for a few moments, before an idea came to him. "You know, if you want to push past the pain you're feeling and wait until we're in the vault, I'm pretty sure you'll find some artificial food stored away in their cafeteria's cold storage room. The Clowns aren't too big on it, and these things were built after scientists discovered how to first make artificial meat, so… You could do that if you're wanting choices here."

Desperate for a reliable alternative that would allow him to give his body what it needed without giving into his ghoulish desires, Kaneki turned to Rio with wide eyes and asked, "Do you think so? Even… Even after the Clowns took all that stuff from the vault?"

Rolling his eyes as he slammed the meat locker shut, Rio motioned for Kaneki to follow behind him once again as they descended further down into the dark abyss below. "The Clowns are a lot of things… 'Patient' and 'thorough' are not what I would use to describe them, though," Rio stated insultingly, as the two of them reached the bottom of the cave where their flashlights revealed rows of cages that were packed with prisoners.

"I'm willing to bet that there's tons of resources and valuable loot waiting to be taken… Including enough food and supplies to hold over all of these soon-to-be-free people," Rio said with sorrow and hope in his voice, as he gestured to all the caged humans and ghouls who stared at the two with fearful pleading eyes and cries. "How about you give me the keys so I can start freeing these poor people, while you go up ahead and find your best friend? I'll eventually make my way up to his cage, that's for sure."


Thanking Rio for willing to do the heavy work while he went off to go search through cage-after-cave for Hide, Kaneki was also tasked with reassuring every desperate and malnourished prisoner that they were there to help, and that they would be all escaping through Vault 079. The cages stunk, and there were plenty of eaten corpses in each one, with the survivors looking up at Kaneki with shame and remorse deep in their eyes; all of them apologizing for what they had to do to survive, while the prisoners Kaneki talked to did their best to lead him to where they remembered seeing someone who fit Hide's description being hauled off to.

Kaneki was beginning to feel the sickening and twisting pit of hopelessness digging away at his very soul, after about ten minutes of trying to find Hide but to no avail. Just when Kaneki was beginning to lose hope of ever finding his best friend, it was then that a cage tucked into the corner of the large rocky area called out for Kaneki; the prisoners shouting for him that they had Hide.

Rushing over there with as much speed as his weakened state could muster, Kaneki was heaving for air by the time he slammed himself against the bars of the cage. The prisoners inside made way for the ones propping Hide up by holding him up with their arms tucked under his armpits. Still dressed in the same yellow and black jacket that he had on the night he was attacked, Hide looked up at Kaneki and smiled wearily at his best friend through the grime and blood that was matted on his face.

"H-Hide! HIDE!!!" Kaneki screamed out for his best friend, as he desperately clung his hands around the bars of the cage as the two young girls who were carrying Hide stared up at Kaneki with anxiety in their grey eyes. "W-What… What happened?! What did you do to him?!" Kaneki demanded with tears rolling down the corners of his mis-matched eyes, as his primal anger enticed him to pull out his glock and aim it at all the frail and terrified people inside of the cages. "WHO DID IT?! WHO HURT HIM?!"

With his single kakugan glowing in the dark as he pointed the barrel of his glock at each ghoul who tried to back away from him, Kaneki fired a warning shot into the air and watched them as the ghouls in the front screamed for him to stop; trying to explain to him through their whimpers and sobs that Hide's left leg from the bottom of his knee was already gone when he was thrown in there, and that they had been trying their best to care for him while his body went into shock.

Being filled with bloodlust and rage that he had never felt before in his life, Kaneki was moments away from talking himself into killing everyone in that cage. It didn't matter to him which of them was guilty at that moment, all that he cared about was that someone paid for what happened to Hide. Just as Kaneki took aim at the black-haired young girl who appeared to be a one-eyed ghoul just like himself, the sounds of slow-heavy footsteps behind him forced him to turn around and take aim at a tall old man, who was dressed in tatter formal wear and who had his arms up calmly.

"Young man… I can give you my word as a gentleman, that none of the imprisoned people here, humans or ghouls, have done anything to your friend, except try to keep him comfortable in his time of need," the old man spoke in a calm manner that instantly made Kaneki see him as a sincere and kind. "You have every right to seek justice for the one who severed his leg… But I ask you to think about what you're about to do, and please ask yourself if you think hurting these innocent people will bring you closer to happiness, or if that'll help your friend recover."

Being consoled by someone who was older than him was already enough for Kaneki's anger to waiver, but being asked to do the right thing when he knew better was easily more than enough for the young man to quickly lower his gun, and avert his gaze from the tall older man's narrow eyes. "I… I'm sorry," Kaneki apologized with a trembling voice, as the weight of what he was about to do was finally felt by his conscience. "You're right… I was going to help these people escape, it's what… It's what Hide would have done; it's what he probably would tell me to do, if… If he could talk right now," Kaneki whispered in an ashamed voice, as he looked over his shoulder at the two terrified young one-eyed ghouls, who despite having a gun pointed at them still made sure to keep Hide safe.

"Your friend, Hide… He sounds like a good man. Perhaps there's a doctor among us who could use the facilities within the vault to administer medical care to your friend?" The old man suggested as he extended his hand out for Kaneki's pistol, to which the young man reluctantly gave him. "You'll have to forgive me for needing to borrow this. Vault 079 had an extensive amount of experimental RC-suppressants stored inside its testing grounds; I believe that their goal was to research more effective ways to subdue ghouls and dragons with more powerful chemicals…"

"… With that being said, ghouls such as I have been forced to digest them everyday, along with the one meal they give us per day. So I'm afraid we won't be able to be as useful as you'd want us to be," the old man apologized, before pressing the barrel of the pistol against the cage's lock to break it in an instant. "What a shame too; I'm quite the capable warrior myself when it comes to honing the ways of the kagune. But… I suppose we'll all have to make do, won't we?" The kind old man mused with a smile on his face, as he handed Kaneki the firearm back before holding the door open for the prisoners to flee with.

"… Myself and the others who've had leadership responsibilities before shall gather up the rest of the freed people in front of the entrance to the vault. I'm afraid in our weakened states that not many of us will be capable of taking point, so I ask of you young man that you and your friend over there lead us through the vault. I'll… I'll be sure to ask for volunteers on behalf of you two, to see if we can rustle up some able-bodied men to give you support," the old man instructed, while placing a warm and comforting hand on top of Kaneki's leather-covered shoulder.

"Most of us will be assisting the wounded, and those who cannot walk on their own. Before I rally up the troops, I'd like to know your name, young man. I believe it's only right that those who are entrusting their lives into your hands should know who their hero is," the old gentleman said with a friendly wrinkled-smile on his face, as he towered over Kaneki.

'Hero, huh? Even after I was about to shoot a whole cage full of them?' Kaneki thought cynically to himself, as the guilt for his previous actions still made him feel terrible about his new-found aggression. "… I don't feel like I'm a hero, but… You're right: I have to be the one to lead these people. If they're as injured and weak as you say they are, it's only right that those who are capable— those who are strong— protect them, right? Nice people, who rather be hurt than hurt others… They need someone to protect them, otherwise… Otherwise they get taken advantage of, and those who hurt them will just keep hurting others," Kaneki spoke in a hollow voice, as he remembered the terrified look in Rio's eyes when his body was pinned to the ground by the burly clown.

Nodding his head at Kaneki's philosophy, the old man tightened his grip on the young man's leather pauldron with an approving look on his face. "Those are words that I've lived by since I was your age, young man. Keep your morals in your heart, and be the change you want to see; don't lose your way."

"I… I won't," Kaneki said with a determined nod, and let out a sigh to recompose himself before looking back up at the taller man's narrowed eyes. "My name… My name is Ken Kaneki. I… I want to help these people. I'm going to take them through the vault, and back to Tokyo where they can be safe."

"A noble goal to have, Mr. Kaneki; a very noble one, indeed," the old man said with a nod, before lowering his hand off of Kaneki's shoulder. Bowing at the waist before Kaneki, the old man said, "My name is Kuzen Yoshimura, and I am at your service."


Sorry that took so long to write, I was out doing stuff with my family over the weekend, and was meaning to finish this chapter up. Anyways, thank you for reading this fanfic and I'm happy to see that more people are reading this lol; not that it matters though, I don't really write form numbers, more so just to jot down my ideas for others to read as free entertainment.

As much as I'd love to include more Naruto characters into the story, I still have to introduce him before randomly throwing him into the mix. Which don't worry, it will happen. I love multi-crossovers. As seen in this chapter, Kaneki isn't the helpless emo nerd that he started off in the canon, he actually can be badass right off the bat, but he still lacks refined combat skills and doesn't know how to fight if he doesn't have a gun on him. The reason why he knows how to use one so well will be revealed later, but fuck what I said about Kaneki being a nobody; the Clowns and their employers fucked with the wrong bookworm.

Why did I make this change? Well, realistically, Kaneki would have been fucked if he didn't have a hidden ace up his sleeve that not even he was aware of. Doesn't have his kagune yet, because the RC-suppressants in his system are preventing him from using one, like Kuzen and the rest of the ghouls who he had freed. Rio, who is from the PS game 'Tokyo Ghoul Jail' will be one of Kaneki's sidekicks, and I guess is his equivalent to Haise's Juuzou, without the sex or repressed feelings involved. He's just a bit of a femboy who's helping Kaneki right now for his own sake, and later down the line because he becomes loyal friends with him.

Also fuck what I said earlier too: this is officially a Fallout crossover with minor changes. There's Vault-Tec and all that jazz. Even the AE9 Rifle from the last chapter is just the standard laser rifle that's in Fallout 3/NV/4/76. There's going to be stimpacks and a modified version of rad-away too, along with rad-x and all that stuff. Plus might introduce Eren Yeager later as being part of the Brotherhood of Steel, idk.

Can't wait to write Kaneki having sex with Hikari later, especially since she's the typical athetlic mom whose a tomboy that wears workout attire. He's gonna get some yoga-booty later, boys. There's no Minutemen, except for like, what Kaneki might start up? Which might be GOAT, since he's already being forced into a leadership position due to him needing to save a bunch of ghouls and humans from the Clowns.

I like what my fellow lemon drafter wrote about his theory of whether or not Mutsuki gave Haise head or not. That's officially what happened now: Mutsuki drank the frappe he gave to Haise to mask his breath after blowing him under his desk. Plus yes, you can bet your bottom dollar that there's a very good reason why Mutsuki is Haise's personal assistant, and why he's always the first one in and last one out. And yes, Haise will be going back to hooking up with Ruisawa.

While Touka's mom didn't find a pipboy, Kaneki sure did lol. He's one of the main protagonists after all, so of course he would get one lol. And no, people do guard the walls around Tokyo. The Clowns used the underground network of tunnels beneath Tokyo to kidnap Kaneki and Hide, which will be revealed later. Elizabeth Maxwell will be introduced again later, just now in this arc.

That's about it for now, thank you for reading! Until next time, have a damn good day!