Oops, I did it again: I extended this arc by another chapter. But don't worry, the next chapter should definitely be the one to conclude the Vault 079 arc. Then we can get back to Tokyo, and by then Kaneki will have a bit more confidence and be in a better position than before.
Anyways, please enjoy, and author notes will be at the bottom!
Update (8/30/2022): Replaced Yashiro with Yasuhisa.
Allowing for Roma to hold onto his leather duster as he followed behind her with his anti-material rifle in hand, Haise assumed from the lack of gunfire and explosions in the air that the TSC had completed their mission. This suspicion ended up being confirmed the moment Haise heard the first of many armored vehicles coming up the road he and Roma were traveling on.
"Stay low," Haise commanded as used his rifle's strap to swing it around on his back, before reaching his arm out over Roma's shoulder to grab her by her bicep. Escorting her quickly inside the windowless building that was once a clothing store, Haise hid in the shadows with his hand still pulling in Roma closely to him.
While Haise was keeping an eye on the convoy of armored vehicles that were driving down the empty road toward the secured Outpost Tango Foxtrot 37, Roma didn't know exactly what to think when it became obvious to her that not only did she like being held close to the half-ghoul's body, but that she was beginning to feel safe around him. Unable to help herself, especially since Haise was the only thing that was bringing her comfort when she was feeling so exposed and vulnerable, Roma leaned her head slowly until she was resting herself against his armored chest.
"Why are you hiding from them…? Aren't you supposed to be on their side…?" Roma asked quietly behind the air-filter of her goofy mask, while being relieved to see that Haise didn't have an issue with her wanting to be so close to him.
Being used to having his subjects of his successful interrogations begin developing early signs of Stockholm syndrome, Haise didn't think much about Roma trying to cuddle him. Using his thermal lenses to scan the pitch-black interior of the abandoned clothing store to make sure that there wasn't anything trying to sneak up on them, Haise replied to Roma's inquiry by telling her, "Sort of, not really; I'm not a peacekeeper anymore… I'm trying not to let them see you…"
"Is it… Is it because you don't want them to hurt me…? You… You want to protect me…?" Roma asked with her cheeks becoming a shade of pink behind her mask, as she pulled herself even closer to Haise, who was slightly distracted with flicking off his thermal vision.
"Your safety is my top priority right now…" Haise replied back truthfully, especially after Arima had ordered him to escort her back to Tokyo alive; the fact that she knew who Tatara was enough for the White Reaper to see her as too valuable to allow TSC to kill her. On top of that, Haise needed her to stay alive so she could take him to where Rize was being imprisoned.
Of course, Roma being in the fragile state that she was in, took that as Haise returning the feelings she was beginning to have for him. "I… I see… And tell me, Haise: where will you take me after you bring Kamishiro back to her father…?" Roma asked in a meek voice, which was slightly getting on Haise's nerves.
"I'm going to take you back to my apartment at my agency. There's lots of spare rooms up there, and you'll be able to stay safe and away from the TSC and Tatara… If anyone tries to touch you or take you from me, I'll kill them and whoever else they brought with them," Haise reassured, and although what he said made Roma think that he was willing to fight for her sake alone, the truth was that Haise was hardwired to follow Arima's orders, and didn't have any issues killing whoever got in his mentor's way.
Of course, being someone who never had anyone to stand up for her or show in the slightest bit of genuine care to her since her mother died, Roma ate up Haise's words. Wrapping her arms around Haise's torso and buried her masked face into his chest, she remained comforted by having him in her arms as the two of them waited for the caravan of armored vehicles to pass.
Tatara, the ghoul who had been raised from childbirth to be indoctrinated into China's special forces group: The Crimson Dragoons. Being a master of espionage, stealth, orchestrating terrorist operations and sabotage, Tatara had agents placed within several groups, including V, CCG, and even Aogiri Tree. Although Kuzen didn't get into the details of why he had a personal vendetta against the Chinese ghoul, Kaneki was made aware that he should be considered dangerous and to not trust him.
When Kaneki asked who the 'Underground King' was, and what he and Tatara were trying to accomplish, and why they wanted Rize's kakuhou to begin with, Kuzen didn't answer him immediately. All Kuzen could tell Kaneki was that the Underground King was a half-ghoul who led the organization that Tatara was assigned to oversee. Their group went by many names— Fuxiao, Saebyeong, Daybreak— all of which translated to 'Akatsuki'.
From what Kuzen told Kaneki, the Akatsuki were a militant group of war mongers who had conquered the northwestern quadrant of China, both North and South Korea, and were carving their empire out of the dragon-torn ruins of Asia. When asked again what Akatsuki wanted with him and their goal in Japan was, Kuzen insisted that he didn't know what the importance of Rize was, nor could even say if Akatsuki even had any goals to conquer Japan.
While Rio and the Yasuhisa twins were patrolling the corridors of Vault 079 with squadrons of armed ghouls, many of which were beginning to feel the effects of the experimental RC-cell suppressants leaving their bodies, Kaneki was seated at the Overseer's desk with Kuzen sitting down across from him, where there was a blue-velvet couch pressed against the wall opposite of where Kaneki was sitting.
Assuming Kuzen had a lot on his mind and was meditating after having opened up his old metaphorical scars, Kaneki was sipping on an iced-cold water bottle that Rio had gotten for him earlier from the Vault's giant freezer storage room. With their Vault doors protecting them from the outside world, along with the fact that Kaneki's Pipboy was able to catch the TSC's signal, knowing that the Clowns had been exterminated and were no longer a threat made everyone feel more at ease.
Reading the lines of text on the terminal, the ones of the transcribed, out of his own curiosity sake and wanting to make sure that his flock was well rested before their journey back to Tokyo, Kaneki was reading the final logs of the Overseer to pass the time.
'May 31, 2027…'
'The briefing I received from our research department was one that I had been anticipating (more like dreading) for the past year. As of last night, our final remaining test subject had passed away when exposed to the latest genome of forced evolution virus (F.E.V.).'
'Ever since we received our orders from Vault-Tec's headquarters back home to modify our non-lethal, very extensively researched, and long-lasting RC-suppressant gas into something it never was meant to be, our test subjects have been dying at an alarming rate.'
'I believe in the goal of Vault-Tec, and of the United States; I know that by creating an air-borne compound that kills only the Dragon-Mutagen variant of the F.E.V., we'll be able to modify a strand of it to target specific DNA. Our hope is to annihilate the dragons plaguing the North and South American continents, while allowing for the other variants native to Asia, Europe, and Africa to carry on for the next few decades.'
'While I understand the importance of creating a united world government that can rebuild society into something greater than it ever could be, the test subjects from Saitama weren't keen on our mission's success. The riot that took place a week ago was what led to our shortage of subjects, along with the deaths of some of our staff. I'm hoping that Vault-Tec responds to my request for new scientists and test subjects, otherwise I'll have to obtain both of those resources with my security task force.'
'Overseer Damian Valles, Vault 079.'
'July 4, 2027…'
'Happy Independence Day to us! Security Task Force Bravo had managed to locate a large pool of candidates to be used for test subjects! Ghouls too, all of them living above us, in the ruins of the New Urban Center. They're a band of raiders who specialize in slave trading, dressed like clowns out of all things! They're poorly armed and appear to be using Chinese weapons.'
'Needless to say, I don't think anyone is going to be missing these sorry sacks of shit.'
'Overseer Damian Valles, Vault 079.'
'July 11, 2072…'
'The Clowns discovered our location, and used the Pipboys they looted from Bravo and Charlie's team to open up the entrance we've been using. I've locked the door and tried issuing an evacuation order, but it's not working. They came through the unfinished back door entrance we've been using to take them while they're asleep.'
'They led a dragon into the finished cavern where the elevator leads up to the main entrance. I estimate it's around twenty meters tall. It's all a jet-black mass of Dragon-Cells, has massive arms and claws, small legs and an elongated torso. It's got tendrils wrapped around its head, yellow glowing eyes. Can't make out its features. I saw through the security footage how it splattered the Clowns who had been unfortunate enough to be chosen to lead it there to begin with.'
'I'm trapped in my office. The doors are secured, and thankfully only I have administrative access. I hear them taunting me, banging on it, and telling me that they're going to drag me out there and let me get eaten by the dragon.'
'I won't let that happen. My security task force is still fighting, and they are survivors. I'll be sending out a distress signal, hopefully the Tokyo Security Group will be able to send help. I don't see Vault-Tec rushing in to save us at this point.'
'There's this metal casket that they brought in while I was writing what I thought to be my grim final thoughts, or whatever. It's near the vault door leading to the elevator. Not sure why the Clowns chose to put it below the retractable catwalk leading into the elevator though? It looked heavy, and unless they plan on doing something with that dragon, I don't see the point of leaving it there.'
'I don't see the point in writing this.'
'Overseer Damian Valles, Vault 079.'
'July 14, 2027…'
'I've run out of water. Dr. Miyazaki was the only survivor that wasn't taken to be presumably killed for food. The tall Clown, with black hair and that mask with the letter 'G' on it, he stripped Dr. Miyazaki naked, and strapped an explosive device onto his chest this morning.'
'Sliced his eyes out and blindfolded him, told him that the dragon had left and he would let him survive if he could make his way out of the Vault. That was a lie, of course. The dragon who I've named 'Darkside' has been sleeping in a state similar to a bear in hibernation. It's offspring, tall black and muscular bipedal creatures with long antennae sticking out from the back of their heads like the pointy parts of a jester's hat, they've been crawling out of Darkside's black mass and been digging into the Earth, using their sharp claws like moles. I've named them 'Tunnelers'.
'The Clown, who I'll be addressing as 'G', purposefully had members of his gang lead Dr. Miyazaki to the collection of center support beams in the middle of the vault on purpose. He detonated the bombs and casued a cave in. The 'Tunnelers' dug their way through the cave in, and started slaughtering the Clowns who were too slow to escape. Those who were left behind by the time 'G' ordered the front vault door to be closed were eaten alive. Good riddance.'
'Unfortunately, 'G' is a lot smarter than I thought someone from that Raider gang could be. He used Dr. Miyazaki's Pipboy to bypass the security software, and took away my administrative rights from my profile. From the outside, he remotely unlocked every door, turned off the lights, air purifier, and water treatment system. He could have done this the whole time, he was just toying with me.'
'I'm not going to let myself be eaten by something that I won't even have a chance to see coming. I hear the tunnelers crawling their way up the staircase just outside my hallway; their long claws dragging against the metal floors as they approach my location. I won't let them have me.'
'I have my terminal, and I've already got the failsafe ready. With one push of a button, I'll force activate the 'Purge Organic Matter' procedure from the labratory. Without the air filter system on, it'll seep into the air ducts, and turn everything carbon-based it touches in this tomb into ash. My only complaint left is that the compound isn't finished, and it'll lose all its lethal properties within an hour or so, meaning that there's nothing stopping the Clowns from coming back inside to pick over the carcass of this facility.'
'I see their yellow glowing eyes staring at me at the doorway. I've already activated the failsafe, all that's left to do is hope that the gas gets me before they do.'
'Overseer Damian Valles, Vault 079. God Bless America.'
Sitting there with his hands raised up to support his chin, Kaneki felt sick to his stomach after having read the late Overseer's final moments, transcribed by the vault's automated data recording system. Looking over at the corner of the room with his face still facing toward the monitor of the terminal, Kaneki stared at the security camera mounted on the wall above the door, and wondered if it was still recording him with its visible microphone.
Shuddering at the mental image of being trapped in a room with monsters that one couldn't even see advancing toward them, as gas seeped into the room to deconstruct their organic matter into nothing more than dust, Kaneki let out an elongated sigh as he turned his gaze over to where Kuzen was still sitting.
"Were you here when all of this happened? When… When the Clowns invaded this vault?" Kaneki asked, while suddenly finding himself trying to piece together the pieces as to why the mysterious old man had been imprisoned in the first place.
Looking up from where he was staring blankly down toward the grey-metal floor below, Kuzen's narrowed eyes met Kaneki's curious gaze as he let out a tired breath. "No… No, that happened before I came out here. It's only been four days since I was captured, young man."
"And why were you out here to begin with? Shouldn't you be in Tokyo, where it's safe?" Kaneki asked with his eyes slightly narrowed, as it didn't make sense to him as to why someone who was as old as Kuzen would try and brave the wasteland without a good reason.
Smiling joylessly, Kuzen let out a humorless chuckle as he nodded his head. "You're correct, Mr. Kaneki, I should be back home right now. My daughter must be worried sick…" Kuzen said, as he knew that Eto couldn't have been doing well. "But… Being safe means nothing when there's danger waiting for you on the other side of the wall."
Confused as to what Kuzen was implying, Kaneki raised an eyebrow at the elder ghoul before asking, "What do you mean by that? Are you… Are you talking about 'Akatsuki'?"
"Yes, and no," Kuzen replied with another gruff and sorrowful chuckle, as he held his hands together over his lap. "I'm not interested in trying to go up against an empire that hasn't given me a reason to fight them. No… No I came out here to kill the Godless bastard who murdered the mother of my only child," Kuzen said without any remorse in his voice, before once again pausing as he shook his head at his own failure. "Or at least, that's what I thought I would do; it seems as though my attempt on Tatara's life was for nothing."
"He… He killed Ukina?" Kaneki asked with his eyes widening and his arms dropping down to the sides of his chair. "I… I'm sorry to hear that. Did… Did anyone else come with you? Maybe there's a chance that he's being followed?"
"There is no such chance, my young man; I came to the heart of the Clowns' territory on my own," Kuzen explained, as he once again thought back to his daughter. "I didn't tell anyone where I was going… It was selfish of me, but once I learned that Tatara would be meeting with the leader of the Clowns… I knew that I had to make the journey out here myself."
"That sounds ambitious… How were you planning on escaping? I can't imagine that the Clowns would have just let you waltz right into their territory," Kaneki asked, while avoiding mentioning Kuzen's age as being a factor.
Breathing slowly, Kuzen smiled softly at Kaneki as he said, "I had no intentions of getting out of here alive, Mr. Kaneki. This was supposed to be a one-way trip… That's why I went alone."
Hearing that someone who was old as Kuzen had gone out by himself for the sole purpose of pursing a suicide mission broke Kaneki's heart. Not wanting to push the subject further, especially since he couldn't judge Kuzen for wanting to avenge the death of his wife— whose death remained a mystery to him still— Kaneki apologized quietly for bringing the subject up, before awkwardly turning his attention back to the monitor of the terminal.
While he was trying to think of something to say as he scrolled through the live security footage from the CCTV cameras, Kaneki remembered what he read from the Overseer's final logs. "I should probably make an announcement that there aren't any dragon orphans within… Wait," Kaneki trailed off, as he suddenly remembered the other important piece of information left behind by the Overseer.
Concerned by the look of shock on Kaneki's face, Kuzen rose to his feet and made his way back toward the back of the Overseer's desk. "What's the matter, Mr. Kaneki? What are you trying to search for?" Kuzen asked, as he looked down to see Kaneki frantically trying to look through the hundreds of videos playing live-footage throughout the vault.
"T-The dragon…! The Overseer wrote about there being a dragon in the cave where the main elevator rose up to," Kaneki said with a worried tone in his voice, as he kept scrolling through the live-footage being recorded by each CCTV camera. "Its name is 'Darkside' I think… If it's still here, then we're safe! H-He said it spawns offspring, 'tunnelers', and… And the toxin he used to purge the ones in the Vault has already been neutralized…"
"… T-Those things are just going to crawl back into the holes left behind by the last tunnelers! If those things are able to break through the locked sliding doors, then… Then…" Kaneki trailed off, as he thought back to Hide being in the medical bay, and about everyone else who was injured and needed more time to be treated before any sort of evacuation order could be given.
"We can't leave yet… It'll be too dangerous to travel in the dark anyway… T-There has to be something we can do in the meantime, isn't there?" Kaneki asked desperately, as he turned around in his chair to stare pleading up toward the elder ghoul towering over him. And as much as Kuzen wanted to reassure the troubled young man that he knew what to do in that very instant. However, the hard truth of the matter was that Kuzen knew what to do, he just didn't know how to bring himself to say it.
In the aftermath of TSG's 'Clown Extermination' operation, Haise and Roma had to traverse across hundreds of corpses belonging to every Clown who died at the hands of the peacekeepers, as well as occasionally coming across the deceased peacekeeper who had died in the line of duty. Haise and Roma didn't speak much as they made their way through the bloodied New Urban Center, which had gone from being the Clown's center of operations, to being nothing more than a ghost town.
The inside of the building that led down into the back entrance of Vault 079 was filled with bullet casings and splattered gore; a fun time that was missed out in Haise's eyes. And as they made their way down to the basement, the two were eventually stumped at first when they were met with a locked door; a locked door that took Roma two seconds to rip out of its frame before she tossed it across the corridor.
Without the grim sight of corpses everywhere to remind Roma of the reality of what her actions had led up to, she became more talkative as she followed behind as Haise took point down the kilometers-lengths of catwalk and stairs that allowed for them to descend down into the cavern.
"So Haise… Is there a Mrs. Sasaki waiting for you back home?" Roma asked as casually as she could, as she still clenched her fingers around the edges of the dragon-leather duster he had given to her for warmth and comfort.
"Actually, there's not. I suppose you could say that I'm, uh… I'm working through my own issues," Haise admitted with a bit of hesitation in his voice, as he used his gas-mask's thermal lenses to scan the abyss below with his anti-material rifle held at the ready. "… What I mean to say is that I'm not opposed to settling down, it's just that I think I need to do some self-improvement before I really consider even dating someone."
"Ah, I see, I see…" Roma said with a giddy grin hidden behind her mask, as the news that Haise wasn't seeing anyone special made the short ghoul feel relieved to hear. "When you say 'self-improvement', what do you mean by that?"
Although Haise's initial reaction to Roma poking and prodding into his personal business was to either dismiss her or make up a lie altogether, Haise couldn't help but think back to when she had compared him to Satan; something that was still bothering the half-ghoul. "… So, here's the thing: My life… It's been complicated since even before I was born. I was created in Sunlit Gardens, the same place as where Arima and every other 'reaper' was made in a lab; I suppose you could say it's also 'ground zero' for the 'dragon outbreak', or whatever people want to call it."
"Born in a lab, you say? What, are you talking about artificial insemination, or something more along the lines of being a test-tube baby?" Roma asked curiously, while trying to do her best to follow with what was being told to her. "Not trying to make a mockery of your upbringing, Haise; I'm just asking what's on my mind is all."
"No, trust me, I completely understand," Haise reassured, before continuing to pass the time by explaining more about himself to Roma. "Sunlit Gardens was all about eugenics; you know, breeding for the sole purpose of children carrying on desirable traits. Anyway, I… I don't actually know who my father was, much less my mother, really. All I know is that my mother was a half-ghoul, like me, but… She was essentially just used to birth more half-ghouls, like again, yours truly…"
"… Like I was saying," Haise continued, after trailing off as he suddenly found himself comparing his faceless mother to Roma's own mother; the thought that both of them had mothers who were raped made him feel sick. "Um, yeah… I'm not all that great with bioengineering, let alone science in general, so forgive me for not knowing any jargon when I say this: When I was in the womb, they spliced and diced my DNA with 'stuff'. Don't ask what, because I have no idea what they injected me as a fetus with."
"… It's embarrassing to say, but I… I was created and modified for the sole purpose of being used to breed and pass on whatever it is that makes me into a half-ghoul onto my hypothetical offspring," Haise said uncomfortably, as talking about the subject usually always made him think back to his undesirable past. "Didn't matter if it was ghoul, human, or anything in between; I was made to always be ready to impregnate wherever V wanted me to impregnate."
Blushing behind her mask, Roma pulled the duster draped over shoulder closer to her. "I'm sorry to hear that… Usually that's a desirable trait, no? Ghouls aren't able to bear children as successfully as humans, after all…"
Rolling his eyes without worrying about Roma noticing it, Haise tapped his fingers repeatedly against the bottom of his rifle as he continued to walk down the flight of stairs while performing his own recon. "I wouldn't have such an issue with it if it weren't for all the side effects that came with it."
"Side effects?" Roma asked, while prompting Haise to respond to her curiosity.
"Yes, side effects," Haise replied back with a bothered tone in his voice, which told Roma that it was a sore subject for him as well. "If I don't… You know? 'Release' every day, at least twice or even once if I'm in a time crunch, I… I get really nasty. It's like I have pent-up psychotic energy, or whatever building up in my head. It's like a pounding sensation in my head, it goes from being a mild headache into a head-splitting migraine. I'm pretty sure it's hormones or some biological-crap; again, I'm not great at science."
"… Forgive me for stepping over any more boundaries than I already have, but… Have you tried masturbating? That might be able to help you?" Roma suggested, as she figured the answer to Haise's problem was as simple as that.
Embarrassed, but still frustrated that his issue wasn't as simple as Roma was making it out to be, Haise let out a dry chuckle as he shook his head. "Have you ever tried masturbating when you have a really bad headache? Besides, I-I can't really get off by myself… I get all jittery and it's hard to focus so I just end up not finishing… Really, the only thing that helps me feel better is… N-Nevermind," Haise said, as he tried dropping the subject.
Having been invested with what Haise was telling her about his past and the way his mind and body worked, Roma wasn't keen on the idea of not getting the conclusion she wanted to hear. "Oh, no-no-no! You don't get to leave me hanging, Haise; not after what I shared with you inside that military bunker!" Roma scolded in her usual goofy demeanor, which honestly made Haise crack a smile underneath his air-filtration mask.
"It wasn't a bunker, it was an outpost…" Haise corrected with a slight bit of sass behind his playful response, before going quiet for a few moments as he collected his thoughts.
"Yeah, sure, whatever you say, smart ass…" Roma replied with a pouting face that Haise could visualize with just the way she was talking to him. "Look, I get it, alright? You're fucked in the head; like, really, REALLY, bad…!"
Letting out an amused chuckle, Haise was able to enjoy Roma's vulgar sense of humor in a way that he usually didn't allow himself to partake in when he was trying to be the innocent person others thought he was. "Well I mean, you aren't wrong about that…"
"So just tell me already! Go on, tell me what's eating you up, Haise! What makes you so different from the rest of the reapers who sleep soundly, knowing that they're the reason why someone's loved one isn't coming home to them?! Why should ANYONE feel sorry for someone like you?!" Roma asked with a louder and more aggressive laugh, and it was only then that Haise realized that he had mistaken the older ghoul's ranting for being simply edgy humor.
Coming to a stand still, Haise paused as he turned around while standing in the middle of the last stairwell that led down to the closed vault door that was built into the wall of the rocky cavern wall. Seeing Roma trembling once more as she tried to hide herself underneath his duster, Haise could hear the distraught ghoul sobbing as she stared up at him through her mask's eyeholes.
"… Roma, I-"
"-You were laughing, y-you were laughing earlier… W-When you were walking by all those dead people, y-you enjoyed all of that, d-didn't you?!" Roma accused with disgust in her voice, as she stared up at the young man who she desperately wanted to be someone who she could see as redeemable. "I-I wasn't going to say anything, b-because I-I get it… You're a 'reaper', aren't you? Death doesn't bother you like the rest of us; far be it, y-you genuinely get enjoyment out of it, don't you…?"
"Roma, you don't have to-"
"-That's what you were going to say, wasn't it…? T-That you can only feel happy— get that high you get from sex— when you're taking the life of someone else…? If that's the case, then… T-Then why don't you do the world a favor, and just kill yourse…" Roma trailed off in a meek voice, before lowering her head as silence began to echo out in the spacious cavern air around them. "… I-I apologize for what I said, Haise. I'm… I'm still processing everything… I didn't mean what I said…"
Truthfully, what Roma had said did genuinely hurt Haise's feelings, especially since had actually stepped out of his comfort zone while he had tried telling her the reasons behind why he was who he was. So when Haise tried to fake being okay about Roma's hurtful words, when he tried to think of a way to joke about how right he thought her opinion of him actually was, all he could do was remain silent as he slowly turned away from her and continued down the final flight of stairs.
Feeling her stomach tying itself into knots as a wave of regret washed over her, Roma snapped out of her trance and quickly followed behind him with her heart pounding in her small chest. "Haise, wait! I-I just want talk this-"
"-Unless it has anything to do with Kamishiro, I respectfully don't want to talk," Haise interrupted, as he made his way over to the already extended-out catwalk platform that allowed him to walk over to the control module that Kaneki had used earlier to open the vault door.
Knowing that she had ruined whatever friendship she was building with Haise, Roma couldn't help but feel dreadful and afraid as she approached him from behind; the same feeling she had as a little girl when her mother had passed came flooding back to her. "Y-You… You can't get inside. Souta locked it with a special Pipboy that he put away in the armory, and I didn't see it in there while on the way here," Roma explained in a shaky voice, as the thought of upsetting Haise made her feel smaller than she actually was. "I've already tried with my kakuja; these things are kept in place by hydraulics and magnetic force. They were meant to withstand nuclear blasts, so… Brute forcing our way inside isn't going to work for us."
Frustrated enough with all the emotions going on in his head that he didn't want to address, realizing that Roma knew that they couldn't get in even before they made the long descent down into the cavern irked Haise enough for him to whip his head around to glare at her through his glowing-red visor-lenses. "You knew that this entire time, and you're only now just mentioning this? Why didn't you say something earlier?"
"I… I knew that the escaped prisoners must have gone through the vault; it's the only way they would have been able to flee from my soldiers," Roma explained. "I was hoping that they didn't know how to use the Pipboy… Seeing how that Ken Kaneki kid was the one who led them, I figured th-"
"-What the hell did you just say!?" Haise suddenly interrupted Roma, as he dropped whatever pleasantries he could spare for her the moment she let slip the name of who the prized prisoner was. "Did… Did you kidnap Ken Kaneki?! Young shy-kid, looks a lot like, black straight hair, in the style of a bowl-cut?!" Haise demanded in an intimidating voice that Roma hadn't heard from him, even when he had killed two of her executives in front of him.
"Yes…? But uh, I-I wasn't the one who took him and his blond friend, that was Uta— the guy who your friends beheaded. Kaneki is uh, he's sort of the reason why Tatara came here in person earlier… A-After we fucked up that job with Kamishiro, t-that is…" Roma replied back with a stutter in her voice, as Haise stood there as still as a statue with his hand resting on his quinque handle. "Is… Is he your little brother, or something? Y-You two do look a lot like each other, now that I— H-How was I supposed to know?! I-I didn't I was going to be in this fucked up position when I took the job?! I-It wasn't even my idea, okay?! It was Souta— SOUTA WAS THE ONE WHO SET IT UP, NOT ME!"
Normally, Haise would have dismissed Arima's orders with the given situation before him. Normally, Haise would have just resorted to torturing whoever he was supposed to protect, just so he could get information out of them in order to make them no longer needed. Normally, he wouldn't really think twice about offing someone who he felt deserved it; even if it was for a petty reason.
So for the life of him, Haise couldn't figure out why he didn't have those urges when he was staring down at Roma. Tears, begging, and pitiful attempts made by others to have him spare their lives never worked on him; he had been trained from childbirth to never show mercy. Such hesitation would get one killed out in the field; something that Haise had seen happen countless times to others in the past.
But for the first time in his life, Haise didn't feel any instinct, any urge, and reason to motivate him into wanting to hurt the ghoul before him, and that feeling, knowing that he couldn't bring himself to do what he had been told to do all his life, scared him.
Feeling himself loosening his grip from the handle of Yukimura , Haise was about to say something to Roma when all of a sudden the two of them whipped around to see hundreds, it not thousands, of glowing yellow eyes in the black abyss behind them, in the direction of where the stairsteps led back up to the surface. Using his thermal lenses, Haise was able to make out a few of the dragon orphans who were digging themselves out of the cavern walls around them, and it was only then did he realize that they weren't just coming from back where they came from, but they were dropping down from the ceiling and digging their way up from under the catwalk platforms.
Finding it comforting that she didn't have to live with the consequences of her careless words, Roma smiled smugly beneath her half mask as the tunnelers around them started to advance up toward the elevated platform they stood on. "Well shit, there goes my dinner plans…!" Roma said jokingly, as she began performing her arm-stretching exercises as she readied herself to unleash her SSS-rated kakuja on the same monsters who Souta brought to their location earlier.
Sighing with relief, even when he was staring at the swarm of dragon orphans who wanted nothing more than to tear the two of them apart, Haise was glad that he had something to take his pent-up hormonal rage out on. "About time… I was actually a bit disappointed with how easy your gang was to kill," Haise said half-jokingly, as he extended his arm out to crack his finger beneath his knuckle; a method that he learned from his days of training with Arima, who taught him to do that in order to train his body to stimulate his RC-cells on command.
"Jesus, you made us sound like we were boring as fuck to be around! We were Clowns for God's sake; it's our jobs to make people laugh!" Roma joked back, before leaping high above the heads of the yellow-eyed dragon-orphans below the edge of the platform she abandoned.
Within seconds, her kagune expanded and enveloped her entire body, and soon it transformed into a kakuja that gave Roma the form of a stark-white abomination that had giant cartoon eyes, an open side-ways mouth with large lips and razor-sharp teeth like the mouth of a leech, and her kakuja form grew six massive-muscular arms that had red and black stripes colored around its forearms. Making sure to make her kakuja grow three-massive strands of hair that grew back from its bulbous head, her demented clown-like spider kakuja began crushing the tunnelers beneath its fisted appendages.
Eager to get started, Haise the armored back-flap covering his back attached to his outfit unfolded, as four massive and long ivory-white tendrils with glowing-red straight-line markings unraveled out of his bioengineered kakuhou. Extending his four tendrils that had large glowing red crosses for tips out, so that they were ten-meters in length, Haise felt his brain releasing the same endorphins that he felt during sex, as leapt into the fray with his anti-material rifle in one hand, and his quinque in the other.
From the security footage, Kaneki watched in awe and with disbelief, as the same soft-spoken and kind investigator who had visited him at the hospital just the other day was now slaughtering an army of dragon orphans. Unable to believe that Haise was capable of using his kagune to shred through the flesh of monsters while also dual wielding weapons that almost every other person would need two-hands to use, Kaneki was genuinely surprised that the investigator didn't end up accidentally hurting the Dodgy Mother, who she herself was proving to be a power house on her own.
Looking away from the live-footage on his monitor, Kaneki stared over his shoulder and up at the relieved and smiling face of the elder ghoul standing behind him. "… A-Are you sure that's Sasaki?! T-The same guy who does missing cases for ghouls?! That guy who's apparently really nice to everyone?!" Kaneki asked with a flabbergasted look in his widened eyes, and let out an exasperated chuckle as Kuzen nodded his head.
"Why, of course it is, Mr. Kaneki! I know that fighting style and kagune from anywhere!" Kuzen said with a nostalgic voice, as he glanced again at the screen to watch the same child who he had rescued ten years ago fighting alongside the leader of the Clowns. "I haven't seen him for so long… I've been meaning to catch up with him; last I checked he was living with his little friend, Mr. Suzuya… Those two were always really close… Maybe a little too close, now that I think about it…" Kuzen muttered to himself, as he suddenly found himself remembering how Juuzou refused to let go of Haise's hand, back when he and Aogiri Tree had rescued them from Sunlit Gardens.
"Ah… I-I see." Kaneki said, as he slowly turned away from Kuzen to stare back at the live-footage yet again. "Should… Should we go out there and help him? There's a lot of those tunnelers out…. Err, there WERE a lot," Kaneki corrected himself, after realizing that most of what he was seeing with the night-vision camera was severed body parts and black blood splattered all over various parts of the cave.
"Oh, I wouldn't advise that, Mr. Kaneki. Mr. Sasaki and most other reapers I've met have a tendency to be a bit…'Antsy', when they're on the 'hunt', to put it crassly. Especially the ones who are half-ghouls, like him," Kuzen said, as he really didn't know how else to describe the reapers' homicidal euphoria they got when going on a killing spree more lightly than that; the same psychotic behavior that he and Ukina had spent years training Eto to avoid losing herself in, especially when she used to have to use her kakuja on behalf of Aogiri Tree. "What you could do is head down to the vault door, and wait for my mark to open it for him and the 'Dodgy Mother'."
While Kaneki was already hesitant enough to approach Haise, now that he knew just how good he was at killing things, the one-eyed ghoul really wasn't comfortable with opening the door for something as terrifying as Roma's kakuja. "Are you, uh… Are you sure that would be smart on our part? Seems like, you know… L-Letting the leader of the gang who kidnapped all of us into our only safe haven would be… Risky, wouldn't you say?"
Putting his hand down on Kaneki's shoulder to give him a reassuring squeeze, Kuzen nodded his head confidently. "Normally I would agree full-heartedly with you, Mr. Kaneki. But seeing how Mr. Sasaki hasn't disposed of her yet, I trust him— and Arima, the man who practically raised him— enough to believe without a shadow of doubt that he must have a damn-good reason for letting her live!"
While it did comfort Kaneki to hear just how confident Kuzen sounded when he professed his trust in the man who was picking off the last straggling tunnelers off, the fact that he was going to meet with Roma still made the young bookworm feel uneasy. "Well… You haven't steered me wrong yet, Mr. Yoshimura. And besides, uh… You're right about us needing all the help we can get, if uh… I-If we're really going to get rid of 'Darkside'," Kaneki said with a nervous look on his face, as he thought back to the footage of the sleeping behemoth that he and Kuzen had came across earlier, before they were alerted of Haise and Roma's presence.
"That's the spirit, Mr. Kaneki! Now, go on ahead and make your way down to the vault door entrance; I'll keep watch on how things are going from here, and open the door with the terminal once it's safe," Kuzen instructed, before reaching over to the side of the terminal to pick up the gas-mask Kaneki had been using. "Here young man, you're going to need this for when the vault door opens. I'll make sure that the air-filtration system is doing its work to keep the rest of us safe, while you bring Mr. Sasaki and the Clown's leader into the entrance lobby of the vault."
Getting up from his chair, Kaneki politely took the mask from Kuzen's wrinkled hand and stared down at it before pulling back the strap to put it around his head. "I… I better get to it then, huh?" Kaneki asked anxiously, as Kuzen gave him a confident nod.
"'No time like the present', as they say," Kuzen said politely, as he walked alongside Kaneki in order to usher the nervous young man out of the Overseer's office. "Remember, Mr. Sasaki won't hurt you, nor will he let the Dodgy Mother harm you either; you're perfectly safe!" Kuzen called out to Kaneki, as he watched the young man descend down the stairs and through the corridor. It was only then when Kaneki had left the area did Kuzen have the privacy to whisper, "… Probably... More than likely," under his breath, before heading back over to the Overseer's terminal to ready himself to open the vault door when it was appropriate to.
That's right, Haise and Kaneki will finally start teaming up in the next chapter. I'm excited to write what's to come, because even though so far Haise's been getting the one with the most love shown so far, Kaneki's moment to shine is coming up in the next chapter; it's going to be the one that cements him as the main protagonist! It's going to be where he finally goes from being nobody special, to becoming literally similar to Dragonborn from Skyrim. I'm very excited to write.
Speaking of writing, I've tried to do it for money before but it really loses its charm for me at least. I already have a job where I get time to write, hence why I can pump these out fast sometimes, so as of now at least, I'll probably keep doing this as a hobby lol. Maybe I'll write my own thing one day, who knows lol?
Okay, review time.
So Hinata is really that hated, huh? Even though there's a lot of porn with her? She looks alright imo, but I agree that her personality is like, ehhh it okay I guess? Pretty cut and dry, but she's kinda cute. That is until you put into perspective that if she was a guy, it'd be less cute imo ngl on god.
Fu as a potential girl for either Kaneki or whoever doesn't seem like a bad idea, she already kinda looks like Mutsuki, so it'd be redundant to have her as an option for Haise.
The dragon, Darkside, will not infect other prisoners directly, because it only creates offspring by being fed RC-cells by whatever their orphans bring to it from their kills; sort of like how Rize did in the manga/anime. The only way to be infected is to be exposed to the 'fallout'/'red mist' for too long, to breathe in the heavy concentration of fallout coming from a dragon without a air-filtered mask, or to get mutated into one from consuming too much Dragon-Mutated Cells (DM-Cells/ modified F.E.V.).
Honestly, might have Kaneki get frisky with Pieck Finger after they defeat Darkside; a celebration in the vault that leads to Kaneki and Haise getting into bed with girls for a one night stand. Maybe for Kaneki it would be more so that he thinks it's romance, but only finds out in the morning that it was just a fling, while Haise himself would be fine with only doing it once with a stranger.
I would say Kuzen isn't afraid of Tatara or worried about him individually in terms of a one-on-one fight, just more so what he's capable of. Especially since Tatara is the general of a powerful post-dragon era empire. Enclave and the Brotherhood of Steel will be included too, don't forget lol.
I chose Ukina to be the one to start the Aogiri Tree, and have her take on a more direct role to really showcase how similar she and Eto would be. I want there to be a positive role model in Eto's life to show how she became the woman she was, and all that. She had to learn how to smooth-talk to people and get a love for literature somewhere.
Don't worry, Roma is capable of handling her own; she is an SSS rank ghoul, after all. The only reason she didn't put up a fight before was because, well, she was up against Arima and the two people he trained, she and everyone else knew in that room that any sudden movement would have gotten them killed.
It'll be revealed later by Eto as to how Tatara killed her mother, and it wasn't because of a lack of trying to protect her on Kuzen's part.
I hope that the terminal logs explained the history of the 'Purge Organic Matter' option, and gave a little insight into the recent history of Vault 079.
And don't worry. Kaneki will definitely be earning his fair share of brownie points with Eto and Kuzen by the end of this arc. The Yasuhisa twins will probably want to go to Tokyo and fill the position at Anteiku, especially when Kaneki and Kuzen become business partners after Kaneki is chosen to basically become the ambassador of Vault 079, which will be the first settlement he helps build and manage it with Rio being there to keep an eye on it for him when he's not there.
And yes, Touka only gives a shit about humans when it comes to money, lol. God I love how much of an asshole she was in the beginning of Tokyo Ghoul lol. Which is what Haise needs, considering that he was able to actually make real progress on self-improvement, and that was only because Roma called him out for his bullshit, which is something that Haise needs, because he's gone his whole life being rewarded and praised for killing people. Arima and Juuzou both enable Haise to be that way, despite knowing he wants to change.
But yeah lol, Roma is definitely going to not be allowed in Vault 079 after they deal with Darkside, and she sure as well won't be going to Anteiku anytime soon. That's why she's going to have to stay upstairs with Haise, merely because she's made too many enemies to really go out on her own.
I think Hikari, hot milf of course, would have white hair, just because of Yomo. Besides, I don't think that she and her husband should both have the same colored hair; it reminds me of how Millhouse from the Simpsons has parents who are related cousins, lol.
Thank you for the god-tier list of Naruto waifus that we can have at our disposal for lemons. Again, won't go crazy on the lemons here, because Kaneki can't be a whore like Haise, but that's what Haise's for, to be a hoe so Kaneki can remain pure for the most part.
Also lmao, I didn't know Naruto's creator got sent to the couch for pairing Naruto with Hinata lol. And honestly, yeah Naruto and Sasuke had a lot of gay tension from what I remember. But it's all good lol. Kushina would definitely blacklist Hinata from her noodle stand lol. I might check out the last prayer if I remember to do so, thank you for the recommendation!
Okay, that's it for now homies. Stay safe and have a damn good day!
