Finally… We've gotten to the end of the first story arc.
Hopefully the wait for this chapter wasn't too bad. I'll have an author's note at the end like usual, and please enjoy this chapter! I had a blast writing it.
Using IXA's defensive abilities to create a large barrier in front of him and his two remaining allies, Arima knew it was only a matter of time before IXA's already damaged lance would shatter under the volley of k-bullets being rained down on him from Eto's kakuja. "Ihei, Hinami, head down; we're at a disadvantage here." Arima ordered calmly, before pointing the tip of Narukami's blade over to direct the two young females over to where a portion of some barricades were still in tack. While Ihei picked up Hinami to carry her down the flight of blood-stained steps to take cover, Arima raised Narukami up to launch several wide bolts of lightning up at the raining bullets to deflect them away from the two girls.
Feeling relieved that she wouldn't have to attack someone as young as Hinami, Eto quickly ran forward to swipe her kakuja's upper right claw towards Arima direction. "DIE!" Eto screamed out madly. Even though she was able to successfully tear IXA into shreds, it wasn't without a cost to her. "GRK….!" Eto grunted while inside the armored protection of her kakuja, as she felt Narukami's blade slice clean through her kakuja's arm.
Having leapt over her swinging clawed hand after he had managed to successfully sever her right arm in half, Arima didn't stop there. Using Narukami's sharp and durable blade, Arima stabbed his quinque into the kakuja's shoulder to pull himself up on Eto's back before she could get a chance to attack him. "You're trying too hard to be like him..." The White Reaper said in a low voice, before grabbing onto one of the many red kagune-made spikes that ran along the kakuja's upper back.
"GET OFF…! GET OFF, GET OFF, GET OFF!" Eto bellowed out in a monsterous voice, as she began to violently buck up and down in an effort to try and knock Arima off of her. When that didn't work, Eto decided to suddenly do a barrel roll in hopes of trying to catch Arima off guard so that she could crush him. Getting back up to begin frantically searching around for where he had gone, by the time Eto had caught a glimpse of Arima standing between her and the flight of stairs, it was too late for her. Letting out a howl of laughter and pain, Arima's quinque, the same one that Eto herself had unknowingly pushed deep inside her kakuja by accident when barrel rolling, caused her kagune-made spikes to begin boiling before all of a sudden bursting into a large cloud of lightning and red mist.
Thinking that there might have been thunder outside, both Kaneki and Touka looked over toward the ramp for a brief moment before returning their gazes toward one another. By the time Kaneki had explained to Touka about who he was, what he was, what his intentions were, and what he did with her hostages and her squadron, she had appeared to be far less hostile. Lowering her kagune-created blade down to her side, Touka paused for a moment to collect her thoughts as she finished processing everything that Kaneki had spewed out to her. "So… Let me get this straight. You're trying to tell me that Arata Kirishima, the actual Grave Robber himself, is talking to you from beyond the dead or whatever, and that's only made possible because some asshole doctor implanted some sort of modified kakuhou into you, and thanks to some science mumbo-jumbo, you're a mix between a half-ghoul and a human?"
Due to the sarcastic voice she was using along with her left hand resting casually on her hip, Kaneki was suspecting that she was having a hard time believing him and what he had just said to her. Regardless, considering that everything he had said was true, Kaneki didn't see a reason to lie or bend the truth in any shape or form. "I, uh… I understand that what I'm telling you is extremely hard to believe; in fact, I don't blame you for having your doubts. If I were you, I probably wouldn't believe me either." Kaneki said, as he finished his sentence with an uneasy laugh. "But even so, despite the doubt that you have, you yourself said it: You felt Grave Robber's presence the moment you saw me."
Still not convinced that what her father's look-alike was telling her, Touka began to walk slowly over to Kaneki by climbing down the small flight of stairs that led down to the black-asphault of the parking lot. Seeing Kaneki visibly tense up and becoming frozen to the spot as she got closer to him, Touka came to a halt when she was at an arm's length from him. Without another word being spoken, Touka reached up slowly to her face to pull away her white rabbit mask and pink wig before placing it on the ground beside her feet. Staring back at Kaneki's kagune-created helmet, Touka brushed her fingers quickly through her violet bangs that covered the entire right side of her face before glaring at the qunix with her normal blue eye, as her kagune dissipated into a flurry of beautiful crimson and white particles. "Listen here, punk! My name is Touka Kirishima, and the FIRST thing you should know about me is that I'm a classy kind of a girl, okay?! So why don't you look me in the eye like a man, instead of trying to lie behind a mask?! Show me your face, Ken Kaneki!" Touka ordered, as though Kaneki was one of her underlings. "And if you're expecting for me to spare your life, you'll do as I say… Understood?"
*...
*I feel…
*...
*Remorse.
Confused as to what Arata was referring to, Kaneki decided to remain focused on his given order. On command, the kagune tendrils that were responsible for extending out to create his helmet from along the back of his neck retracted back into his kakuhou, revealing his face to Touka. "Is this better?" Kaneki asked with a friendly smile on his face, while staring back at her confused facial expression. Curious, Kaneki opened his mouth to speak, but then paused as he felt a cold sensation running down his right cheek. Lifting up his armored hand to see what was trailing down his cheek, Kaneki felt bewildered as he lifted up with his finger toward his left eye to closely examine the black substance on his fingertip. "What on Earth is that…?!"
Swallowing a lump in her throat, Touka felt an uncomfortable sensation run down her lungs before letting out a small breath of air. "... Don't worry about that junk. That stuff is just heavily-concentrated RC-cells that come from your lacrimal gland… It's a rare form of RC-cell oversecretion disease, but it's not harmful, so like I said: don't worry about it." Touka said in a solemn tone of voice, as she found herself staring down at the floor separating the space between her and Kaneki before speaking once more.
"... You probably figured this out already, with our last names being the same and all, but in case you're stupid or something, I'll spell it for you. Grave Robber was my father, but he never acted like one. I never saw him around the house, or just in general actually. Grave Robber was usually with my aunt trying to always battle CCG while establishing influence on the surface. I resented him for the longest time for his absence; always blaming him for the fact that I had to be the strong one to take care of my younger brother and as well as my mother." Touka explained while staring down at Kaneki's armored feet, while suppressed thoughts were beginning to return to her head once more. "I never got the chance to really enjoy my childhood, but that didn't mean that my younger brother had to be deprived of his either. I worked my ass off to ensure that I could keep him safe, and that one day I would be able to ensure the safety and future of my kind. It's been my dream ever since my mother was taken away that I would one day be the one who ever looked up to for protection and help; kind of like how people used to look up to Grave Robber before he betrayed Aogiri Tree."
"Although I never saw him as my father, and I still don't really, I always wondered whether or not he actually even gave a shit about us… Or even my mother for that matter…"
"I try not to think about it, but… I feel as though he only married my mother and had us all for the sake of trying to fit in. I can't ever recall him telling me that he loved me, or that he was proud of me."
"..."
"But do you know what, punk? That doesn't matter now. What matters now is that we pave the path toward a better future for all ghoul-kind to flourish in! In order for ghouls to return back to their peaceful lives and become united yet again under a banner of order, Aogiri Tree must once again rise to power, and take Tokyo back!" No longer feeling any sense of sadness holding her back, the fire within Touka's soul was now burning brighter than the sun as a wide smile parted her lips to reveal a row of white teeth.
Grabbing Kaneki by his armored collar that was created from his kagune, Touka pulled the qunix in closer so that she could stare into his confused eyes. "SCREW THIS SENTIMENTAL CRAP! DADDY ISSUES OR NOT, I'M THE HERO OF AOGIRI TREE AND IT'S MY DUTY TO STRIKE DOWN ANYONE WHO WISHES TO GET IN THE WAY OF OUR HOPES AND DREAMS!" Touka bellowed out in a warrior's voice, while also accidentally spitting a few times on Kaneki's face. Without warning, Touka suddenly vanished right before his eyes. Standing behind Kaneki before he could register where she had gone, Touka wrapped her arms around his waist before lifting his armored body to suplex the qunix into the ground; sending asphalt and rebar fragments flying across the parking lot while shaking the very foundation of the Main Office itself. "NGAAAAHHHHH!" Touka roared in a furious and booming voice, as she stood over the five meter-deep crater that Kaneki laid inside of.
"YOU…! YOU! YOU!" Eto screamed out in a maniacal and crazed voice, as she used her kakuja's single large eye to glare down at the unarmed investigator, who was repeatedly dodging her attacks. "JUST DIE ALREADY!" Eto demanded with a blood-curdling roar, before launching herself with her jaws wide open towards Arima with the intention of eating him. Feeling Eto's large teeth brushing against the tail ends of his trench coat, Arima was barely able to leap away in time to avoid being devoured by the One-Eyed Owl herself. Unfortunately for Arima, not only was Eto anticipating for him to dodge her attack, a sudden tremor in the ground caused him to lose his footing before he leapt into the air. "I GOT YOU!" Eto screamed in delight, as she used her kakuja's left claw to grab hold of Arima while he was in midair.
"Ngh…!" Arima groaned out quietly in pain, as he felt the kakuja's clawed fingers tighten around his rib cage. Despite being more durable than the average human, it only took Eto two seconds to break several of his ribs.
Unbeknownst to both Arima and Eto, Ihei already had T-Human charged up past its limit, and had been waiting for Eto to stick her kakuja's ugly head into range. Smiling gently with Hinami hugged tightly around her thigh, Ihei's pink eyes lit up in joy the moment she saw Eto's large black and red eye looking down at the bright light being produced by her quinque. "Go to Hell." Ihei said bitterly with a slight bit of sadism in her voice, before unleashing a pink beam of plasma that was so intense that not only did it completely disintegrated the head of Eto's kakuja, but it went through it and managed to destroy a large portion of the Main Office's upper floor as well. "Tsk…!" Hissing out in pain after having sacrificed her upper right arm in order to launch an attack that powerful, Ihei was thankful that her wound had been cauterized thanks to T-Human's intense heat. Despite the pain she was in, Ihei wasted no time in picking up Hinami with her one good arm before rushing down the flight of stairs to avoid being crushed by Eto's still sliding and now headless kakuja.
Even though Eto's kakuja had been rendered unusable due to Ihei destroying the kakuja's nervous system that allowed her to operate it, the headless husk still had Arima grasped tightly around its unmoving hand as it violently fell down the large flight of stairs. By the time Eto's kakuja laid motionless at the bottom of the steps, where it rested amongst the body-ridden area where the ghouls and investigators had first begun to fight, Arima had sustained multiple injuries from the fall. Groaning in pain, Arima did his best to squirm and pry himself free from the unwavering clenched up claw he was still trapped in, but to no success.
Setting Hinami down on the ground beside her, Ihei did her best to fight past the awkwardness of using her less-dominant hand to clumsily unsheathe Aus from its scabbard on her back. "Hinami…! Is there… Is there anything you do about this…?!" Ihei asked with an unnerved look in her pink eyes, as the thought of only having one arm for the rest of her life made her feel uneasy and even fearful.
Taking a look at her blackened stump, Hinami thought to herself for a moment as she mentally calculated how long it would take for her to help create a new arm for Ihei. "Don't be afraid, Ms. Hairu…! I-I can make you a new arm, just like the one you had before… But it'll take me a few hours." Hinami replied back with a small frown on her face, before staring up into Ihei's somewhat relieved face. "I'm sorry Ms. Hairu. Normal wounds and deep cuts are one thing, but making a new limb from scratch takes a lot longer for me to do."
Although it wasn't the answer she wanted to hear, Ihei was still thankful to know that she would be able to get a new arm nonetheless. "Thank God… That's going to have to wait until later, then." Ihei said with her eyebrows furrowed, as she turned around to look over as Eto tore her way out of the kakuja's rib cage.
Covered with viscous, Eto stood naked on top of her kakuja's husk before unsheathing her kagune. "I'm not done with you, Kishou; not by a long shot." Eto spat out hatifully, before traversing across her kakuja's body to make her way closer to Arima, who was still struggling to free himself. While she was carefully walking along her kakuja's seized up left arm, Eto was suddenly knocked off onto the blood-soaked pavement below by Ihei, who had leapt up towards her to successfully slice clean through her kagune and even managed to tear apart her kakuhou, all in one clean cut. Tumbling over before getting back up to her feet, Eto sneered angrily at Ihei, who was still somehow able to wield Aus with just one hand. "You… You should have just pretended to be dead."
Despite being in pain and at a total disadvantage, Ihei still felt the need to push past her circumstances in order to smirk mockingly back at Eto. "I don't play pretend, friend. Maybe you should try not to either." Without bothering to reply, Eto rushed toward Ihei with her right glowing red eye focused on Ihei's movements. Sliding underneath Aus' blade, Eto attempted to upper cut Ihei with the intention of decapitating her. "Hey, hey…! No need for that…" Ihei said tauntingly, before letting go of Aus in order to grab hold of Eto's arm in mid swing. Having evaded the half-ghoul's punch, Ihei used Eto's momentum against her by using her one hand to flip her opponent over her back and onto the ground.
Stomping down hard, Ihei felt Eto's nose shatter underneath her boot before trying to reach down to grab Aus in order to execute the half-ghoul. Unfortunately for the investigator, despite being blinded by the blood flooding out of her nostrils, Eto was able to successfully grab hold of Ihei's ankle. In one quick motion, Eto smiled back victoriously as she heard Ihei seething in pain as the half-ghoul ripped her foot off of her leg. "Too slow~! Too slow~!" Eto chuckled mockingly at Ihei's expense, before nearly getting back to her feet in an instant. Before Ihei could fall backwards onto the pavement below, Eto skillfully delivered a roundhouse kick that shattered the left side of the investigator's rib cage into hundreds of broken pieces of splintered bone that tore into her organs. Flying backwards, Ihei slammed the back of her head against the tall metal barricade that Eto had kicked her into. Unconscious and missing her right lower arm and left foot, Ihei sat with her back against the barricade before slumping forward.
"Heh… Two down, one to go." Eto mused to herself, before turning away from Ihei. Without a kagune or kakuja at her disposal to use, Eto decided to settle with picking up Aus from the ground before carrying it over her shoulder as she ran over to her kakuja's clawed hand with the intent of ending Arima's life in one slice. However, what waited for Eto by the time she reached around her kakuja's husk was the sight of Hinami staring back at her with her kagune out. Looking past the trembling fourteen year old ghoul, Eto felt a gasp escape from her lips as she realized that Hinami had used her two-armored tendrils to slice off the fingers of her kakuja while she had been busy engaging in combat with Ihei. "You stupid little girl…! Why?! Why would you betray your own kind?!" Eto demanded, as she marched over to where Hinami stood frozen.
Seeing the older woman lifting Aus up over her head in a striking-position, Hinami felt herself releasing the contents of her bladder as the realization that she was about to be murdered in cold blood made her unable to flee. "I-I… I…" Hinami stuttered out, as she felt her kagune disappear into a white cloud of light behind her the moment Eto got into range of her. Letting out a trembled breath, Hinami shut her eyes closed and feebly raised her arms up to protect herself as she heard Aus' blade cut through the air.
Expecting to hear the loud cracking of bones splitting apart and the gushing sound of organs being sliced opened, Eto was surprised when she instead was met with the sound of a loud metallic-clang. Standing between her and the ghoul who chose to save a human rather than helping her own kind was none other than Arima, who had blocked her attack with the help of using Koori's quinque: Taruhi. "Kishou… Why are you fighting for CCG? You know it's a system based on supremacy and hate! So why? Why would you help the very same group of people who committed genocide against Aogiri and her citizens all those years ago?!"
Despite having several broken ribs, Arima was able to step in front of Hinami while still pushing up on his quinque's handle to shield himself from Aus' black blade. "I was only nine years old when that happened, Eto; that was far before my time as an investigator…!" Arima explained through gritted teeth, as he watched Eto's eyes flare up in fury.
"IF YOU KNEW THAT ALREADY, THEN WHY ARE YOU STILL HELPING THEM?!" Eto screamed out in fury, before finally overpowering Arima and causing him to step back. Swinging Aus up diagonally up, Eto once again clashed quinques with Arima, as the two warriors exchanged attacks back and forth. Each time Arima would try to swing Taruhi's spearhead down or extend it out to stab Eto, she would always step out of the side to parry his attack, and vice versa whenever she would try to land a hit on him.
Rolling around in the pile of broken rebar and asphalt underneath coating his body, Kaneki could feel thousands of shattered pieces of his kagune brush against his bare skin as he shakingly crawled out of the large crater that Touka had created when she had thrown him into the ground. Feeling the warm and humid air of the enclosed parking lot brushing against his exposed backside, Kaneki let out a groan of pain before reaching down to pop his back into place. "Why did you, ngh, why did you do all of that…?!" Kaneki asked while seething in agony, as he felt several of his shattered ribs shifting around inside of his chest.
Standing before him with her kagune-created wings spread out to her sides, Touka stared at Kaneki with a determined look in her eyes as she smirked sinsterly at him. "The One-Eyed Owl is outside fighting the only investigator who has a chance at defeating the King of the Underground… However, seeing how you survived an attack that had just enough force to completely destroy a quinque, I see now that you were telling the truth!" Touka exclaimed as she raised her fist up before her. "Before I became the woman I am today, Grave Robber was able to wipe out Aogiri Tree all by himself! If he really is back from the dead then I can't allow history to repeat itself!"
"... Really?! And that's how you decided to judge whether or not I was telling the truth or not?!" Kaneki asked with an exacerbated look on his face, completely feeling shocked and outraged by the method the ghoul had used. "Why didn't you just, like… Ask me a personal question that only he would know about you?! Or literally just, I don't know… ANYTHING OTHER THAN THAT!?"
"BECAUSE I'M TIRED OF TALKING, AND WORDS CAN BE DECEIVING!" Touka screamed back with a burning passion in her voice, while Kaneki stood dumbfounded. "No more playing games! You're gonna pay for what Grave Robber did to us!" With the fury of tens-of-thousands of RC-cells at her disposal, Touka's kagune gleamed even brighter than before, as it fired hundreds of red bolts of plasma that exploded on impact towards Kaneki's direction. "FUHUHUHU! THIS IS THE ULTIMATE REVENGE! I KNEW I SURPASSED HIM! NOW THAT I'VE PROVEN TO MYSELF THAT NO ONE CAN... What the Hell?! Where'd ya go, ya punk?!"
Having expected there to be a large pile of ash and broken pieces of her father's kagune scattered across the destroyed asphalt, all that stood left in the wake of her attack were destroyed and blackened car frames and a large creator of fire that was casting black smoke up into the large opening that she were the ceiling of the parking lot had once been. Squinting her left eye in an effort to peer through the flames and debris she had created in a single move, the last sight she was able to see of Kaneki was his bareback and asscheeks jiggling behind him, as he ran up the ramp that led outside. "OH COME ON! WHY THE HELL ARE YOU RUNNING AWAY!? FIGHT ME, YOU PUNK ASS COWARD!" Touka shouted in frustration at the fleeing qunix, before swearing under her breath. "How annoying… FINE! IF THAT'S THE WAY YOU WANT TO DIE, THEN SO BE IT!"
Charging up the heat of her plasma within her kagune, Touka's wings became a bright white color as she knelt down to get into position, but not before stretching her arms and legs so they wouldn't get strained. Eagerly awaiting for her kagune to be ready for take off, Touka envisioned a waypoint for her to sore through above the rising flames and smoke that were underneath an unstable ceiling that looked as though it was moments away from collapsing. Feeling her kakuhou about ready to burst from her back, Touka's smile widened even further as her eyes lit up in excitement. "NGAAAAAAAAAHHH!" Touka bellowed out in a powerful roar, before leaping forward during the exact moment A bright flash of plasma exploded from behind her kagune. Using her wings to guide her, Touka flew through the smoke and fire while twirling in midair just in time to use her kagune to toss aside the falling debris from the ceiling. Emerging from the black cloud of smoke and embers of fire, Touka gritted her teeth as she continued to propel herself while still in midair to fly up the asphalt ramp just in time before the entire ceiling of the parking lot collapsed into itself.
Hearing her cackling laughter and battle cries echoing behind him within the confines of the cavernous-like ramp, Kaneki felt his heart racing within his chest and a warm breeze brush against his backside as he escaped the ramp and began to run as fast as his kakuhou-powered legs could carry him. "What the Hell?! That's your daughter?!" Kaneki asked with a panicked tone in his voice, as he ran through the streets of the 20th Ward's downtown area.
*She is, and despite the predicament we're in, I have to admit something.
*Despite the hardships she had to face, and the lack of me being there to protect her and the rest of my family…
*She rose above that, and well…
*From what I've seen of her inner and outer strength, I have to say that I'm proud of her.
"WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE?!" Kaneki cried out loud with a desperate tone in his voice, as he continued to run down the streets littered with various ghouls and investigators battling one another. Ignoring the various surprised glances and screams he was getting from both Aogiri Tree and CCG personnel who were on the sidewalks in front of the various shops and restaurants, Kaneki was thankful for the fact that the cars he was crushing underneath his feet were long since abandoned as he ran and leapt across various vehicles towards.
*My, my, aren't you going fast?
*Do you even know where you're going?
"I'm... Just trying... To get the Hell... Away…!" Kaneki replied back in a horse voice, as he heard the distant sound of a sonic boom emitting from behind him while hot air brushed against his kagune. Feeling his armor beginning to shift and expand open over his body, Kaneki felt himself sweating profusely, far more than what should have been humanly possible, as a red burning light became to illuminate the undersides of his kagune. "I… I don't… I don't feel good…" Kaneki wheezed out, as he felt his vision beginning to blur and his balance becoming more and more unstable by the passing second.
*Of course you don't feel good, my kakuhou is putting your body into overdrive; hence why it's opening up to release the heat created from your body.
*If you were a ghoul like myself, this wouldn't be a problem.
*But since you're not that far from being a human, in order to allow you to run at the speeds you're going at, my kakuhou is burning through your RC cells at a far more significant rate than what your modifications are able to support.
*Your body can only store so many RC-cells at a time, even with help from the modifications done on my kakuhou.
*Even with that assistance, there's no way your body is able to store enough RC-cells to keep up with the demand of my kakuhou in order to produce the amount of energy needed to keep up with the demand being set by your kagune.
*In other words, it's only a matter of time before you burn yourself out.
*Luckily for you, I can feel one of the modifiers that the doctor installed in my kakuhou activating a failsafe of some kind inside of you; preventing my kakuhou from killing you by shutting off its ability to create a kagune.
*It's only a matter of time before you're going to pass out from heat exhaustion.
*So I suggest you find a comfy place to land, partner.
By the time Arata had finished explaining what was going on inside of his body and what was about to happen to him, Kaneki had already managed to completely lose the ability to stay on his feet. Just as Arata had predicted, Kaneki slipped off of the car he had last landed on, and came tumbling down its side before landing hard on the sidewalk. Feeling exhausted far more than he had ever been, Kaneki was unable to move as he felt his kagune break apart from his steaming and burning body. Breathing quick and shallow breaths through his wrinkled and dehydrated lips, Kaneki felt himself shaking violently as his eyelids became heavier by the second.
Before falling into an unconscious state, Kaneki felt a cool breeze of air escape from what sounded like a door being opened from behind him, along with the sound of footsteps drawing near him.
Kneeling down to hover his hand over the naked young man's still glowing-body, Ayato retracted his hand away from Kaneki while letting out a small gasp. "Jesus, it's like putting my hand over a campfire…! Ugh, I really wish you weren't butt-ass naked right now…!" Ayato muttered under his breath, before reaching into his black waiter's apron to pull out two heat-resistant mittens that he always kept on hand to carry pots of scalding hot coffee. Slipping them on, Ayato repeatedly swore under his breath in pain as he dragged Kaneki's body off of the sidewalk and into the air-conditioned coffee shop. "I wonder if he'll be okay if I threw him in a bathtub and filled it with cold water…?" Ayato mused to himself, as he began to drag Kaneki upstairs towards the living spaces above the cafe area.
Blasting out of the parking lot ramp like a burning righteous angel who was ready to deliver her judgement, Touka took flight above the downtown area to scan her eyes across the burning streets and various muzzle flashes of firearms being fired across the metropolitan area. "Damn it, he got away..." Touka spat out angrily to herself, as she hovered in the night sky like a burning red beacon. Contemplating whether or not to give chase to Kaneki and risk hurting ghoul bystanders or possibly even children, Touka begrudgingly decided against the idea before lowering herself back to the ground below. "I'll have to rendezvous back with Eto for now… SHIT, I LEFT MY MASK BACK IN THE PARKING LOT! SON OF A BITCH!"
While Arima and Eto were battling in a seemingly endless waltz of exchanging attacks that would always be countered, Hinami had snuck over to Ihei's unconscious body to stop her bleeding and stabilize her body so that she could work on healing her later when it was safer. "Don't worry Ms. Hairu, I'll take care of you…!" Hinami said reassuringly to the injured woman. Despite feeling petrified, Hinami casted aside her fear in order to help Ihei survive while Arima fought Eto.
"Rize told me her plan before she died…!" Arima said to Eto, as he quickly took a step back to avoid being hit by Aus' blade by raising Taruhi's handle up once again to defend himself. Due to Aus being a quinque meant to break through kagunes and kakujas alike, Eto was finally able to break Arima's lesser quinque into pieces. "She told me that she wanted the 'King of the Underground' to lead her revolution for her…! She never intended on living through this, and she even expected for you to die as well…!"
"Looks like I'm proving that traitorous whore wrong, aren't I?!" Eto retorted back with furrowed eyebrows, as she swung Aus down vertically. However, rather than getting his head split in half, Arima was nimble and strong enough to clap his hands down to catch the quinque in mid-swing. "And as much as I would hate to admit it… I-I always figured that ghouls would prefer my father over me… It doesn't surprise me that Rize was only able to rally up ghouls who were just looking for an excuse to express their anarchism…!" Eto mused bitterly, before letting out a groan after Arima pushed the handle of her quinque into her shoulder. Letting go of the weapon involuntarily, Eto was soon surprised by not only how quick Arima was with his hands, but also how hard his fist felt as he punched her temple. "But that doesn't mean I'll give up!"
Seeing Eto stagger backward toward the ground before raising her hands up to begin exchanging fists with him, Arima ignored how much pain he had to endure with each punch that the half-ghoul managed to land on his body, as he continued to focus on beating his fists against the sides of her forehead. "What… What even is your plan, Eto? To just… Tch…! To just keep killing others until you eventually die…?!" Arima demanded in a weak voice, before chopping the edge of his hand against her throat. "How can someone like that be considered a good leader…?!"
Falling to her knee, Eto reached one hand up to hold her throat where Arima had struck her. Letting out a pain-ridden groan, Eto managed to kick Arima's chest to send him falling backwards onto the ground just in time before she herself finally fell down. Forced to endure tunnel vision and her splitting headache that had only gotten worse after her opponent had punched her head multiple times, Eto reached up to grasp her forehead to nurse it while Arima struggled to recover from such a devastating blow. "N-No… No, I don't plan on that at all… Arata told me… Told me that in order to help everyone, we had to clear out our opposition… He said we had to reach the 'absolution' in order to progress with establishing peace…" Eto whimpered out painfully, as she found herself unable to get up due to how much pain she was in. "My head… You really hurt my head…!"
Coughing up a large wad of blood, Arima could hear his punctured lungs make raspy-gurgling noises as he breathed heavily under his breath. Finally getting up to his feet, Arima limped his way over to Eto before mounting himself on top of her. With her back pressed against the red pavement below, surrounded by the bodies of hundreds of fallen men and women, Arima grabbed Eto by the side of her head before making her look at the carnage around them. "Look at what you did…! This is what Arata wanted Eto; he didn't give a damn about anyone else's life so long as it furthered his agenda… But what about you…?!" Arima demanded with widen eyes, as his busted glasses slid off from the bridge of his broken nose and fell down beside Eto's head. "Look at them, Eto… Look how many people died here today…!"
"S-Stop it…" Eto demanded with a horrified look in her eyes, as she did her best to fight back against Arima's grasp to avoid having to look at the sea of bodies scattered across the pavement. "L-Let go of me, Kishou…!"
"Look at them… They're all younger than us." Arima commented with a pained look in his grey eyes, and watched as the corners of Eto's eyes began to tear up. "None of them were around back when Aogiri was destroyed by CCG… Their hate, their burning desire for revenge was solely based on the influence they were exposed to from their elders; the same elders who are more than likely dead thanks to Arata and what What Aogiri Tree ended up becoming…! Tell me Eto, is this what you wanted all along?! Because this sure as Hell is what Arata wanted!"
"Shut up… Shut up!" Eto hissed back at Arima with a spiteful look in her eyes, before all of a suddenly pushing herself up to head butt him. As Arima fell back with his vision blackening as he became momentarily unconscious, Eto screeched out in pain as she quickly reached back up with her hands to hold her forehead. While Arima laid on his back trying to regain his senses, Eto was huddled up on her side, unable to get up. Even though the two legendary fighters were both beyond their threshold of pain, Arima and Eto struggled to recover from their agony for the sole purpose of wanting to get back to fight yet again. "You… You don't get to… Judge me… You d-dirty brother killer…!"
Try and she might, Eto along with Arima himself were unable to get up in time to finish one another off for good. All of a sudden, a pair of hands lifted Eto up from the back of her knees and shoulders. Confused as to who was picking her up, Eto fought past the agony of her headache to look up at the glowing red eye of her. "To- White Rabbit…?! What are you doing…?! Y-You need to let me go so I can-"
"One-Eyed Owl, we need to leave; there isn't anything left for us here." Touka said in a low voice, before gesturing over with her eyes toward the top of the building. Due to having been too distracted with fighting off Arima and Ihei, Eto hadn't noticed before, but leaking from the shattered glass windows of where T-Human had blasted its pink beam of burning plasma through, black smoke was beginning to rise out from the Main Office as its internal flames ate away at the building's structure. "We're done here; we need to head to Cochlea to provide reinforcements for Eyepatch's group."
"Did you not hear what I said, child…?! Put me down…! Down… Down, down, down...! I have to… Have to…"
Finally having enough of her aunt's rambling, Touka decided to say what she had hoped to reveal once they were alone out loud, despite Arima still being half-conscious beside her. "Grave Robber is back, and we need to cripple CCG before he becomes a serious threat to us." Hearing those words leaving the young ghoul's mouth, both Arima and Eto felt their eyes involuntarily open wide. Looking down to stare at the bloodied-investigator who had been responsible for her father's death, along with her mother's arrest, Touka glared at the confused and gobsmacked face of the White Reaper before finally gathering the words she wanted to say to him. "... The only reason why I don't kill you right here, right now is simple: You're already down for the count. If I were to kill you right now, that wouldn't prove anything. Unlike humans, we ghouls aren't cowards who finish our opponents when they're already weakened… Isn't that right, Kishou?" Touka explained with a hint of disgust and anger in her voice, before looking away from Arima. Sprouting out in a glowing cloud of RC-cells, Touka's kagune took the shape of two large crimson wings that spanned out in a total length of forty meters wide. While her wings began to glow violently white, Touka glanced over to Arima as she held her aunt's small body close to hers. "The next time I see you Arima, I won't be as merciful… Until then, prepare yourself to die at my hand." Touka said quietly, before looking back forward toward the night sky above. Leaping up so she was airborne, Touka's kagune released a powerful propulsion of ignited gas that sent her and Eto soaring into the air, while Arima was forced to brace himself as his body tumbled away from the initial take off area. While his eardrums and nostrils bled violently from the blast wave of Touka's take off, Arima was able to use his waning and blurry vision in time to gaze upon the burning city's clouded night sky to see a red burning trail of particles following in Touka's wake.
Arima couldn't tell how many broken bones or ruptured organs he had in his body, but what he did know was that it hurt like Hell when he picked himself up from the blood-soaked pavement below. Regardless of how much agony he was in, the White Reaper spat out another wad of blood before looking up toward the direction of where he thought he could make out the silhouettes of his companions. "Ihei… Hinami…" Arima called out in a hoarse voice, as he limped slowly towards their direction. However, by the time the white-haired man was able to take a few steps forward, his injuries and blood loss were finally catching up to him. Without adrenaline pumping through his ruptured veins to keep him going, Arima was no longer able to walk, much less keep his balance, and began to fall forward.
However, before Arima's unconscious body could land on the warm pavement below, his body was suddenly pulled back by a black-hooded figure wearing a raven's mask. Scooping up Arima's unconscious body before he could fall down, Renji Yomo lifted the investigator up over his shoulder before looking over to where Hinami stared at him nervously.
Using his free hand to remove his intimidating mask from his face, the white haired ghoul smiled gently at the young ghoul. "Don't worry, I'm here to take you and your friends somewhere safe until this blows over." Yomo announced in a calmly voice, as he made his way over to Hinami.
"Somewhere safe…? Does such a place even exist right now?" Hinami asked with a skeptical tone in her voice, before using her tendrils to lift Ihei's stable body into the air so that she could still watch over the young woman's injured body. "Please, if you're wanting us to come with you, at least tell me where you're planning on taking us."
"... Ever heard of Anteiku? It's a coffee shop that my nephew and I work at." Yomo explained in his soft and stoic voice, as he gestured for Hinami to follow behind him as he made his way over to his black sedan that he had parked behind Arima's white car. "I'm going to make sure you get fed and that you're given a proper space to watch over and work your magic on your friends." Yomo explained with an impressed look in his eyes, as he threw Arima into his trunk with a little bit more force than he needed to use before slamming it shut over him. "I watched what you're capable of, kid; that's quite a gift you got there."
Smiling humbly at the compliment she received, Hinami gently extended her tendrils out in the back cabin of Yomo's car to lower Ihei down on her back before hopping in to buckle the investigator in. "Thank you… My parents told me it's a gift from God, and that I was given it to help others." Hinami explained with a melancholy smile on her face, as for some strange reason, despite everything that had transpired in her life recently, the young ghoul couldn't help but feel as though she was finally able to take bittersweet solace in the memories of her parents and congregation. "They were good people… You would have liked them, sir."
It didn't take long for Yomo to pick up on the fact that the young ghoul's parents were deceased, and from what he could only imagine considering the level of ultra violence occurring around them, the white-haired ghoul figured their deaths were very recent. "... I'm sure that I would have too… My name is Renji Yomo, by the way; sorry if I didn't mention that earlier."
"It's okay, I think that with everything that's going on, I think forgetting our manners from time to time right now is kind of inevitable right now, wouldn't you agree?" Hinami mused with a somewhat playful look on her face, before dispersing her kagune into a cloud of glowing white-mist. "... It's a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Yomo; my name is Hinami Fueguchi." Hinami greeted back in a delightful voice, as she got into the passenger's side door to buckle herself in.
"Likewise Hinami, likewise." Yomo replied back, before closing the passenger side door for the younger ghoul before making his way over toward the driver's side door to buckle himself in as well. Once inside, Yomo pressed his finger down on the keyless ignition button to start up his engine, before driving off with the remaining survivors of Zero Squad to take them into the sanctuary that was Anteiku; just as Kuzen Yoshimura had told him to do.
Standing at the docks of the 8th Ward, Kuzen stood tall with a seldom and forlorn look on his wrinkled face that was hidden by his iconic white facial mask that covered his right eyes with three small horizontal slits while the left side of his mask was a glowing red eye. Across the horizon toward the city, the old ghoul watched with a dreadful pit in his heart as the surface he had become accustomed to seeing burned before his very eyes. Standing beside the head of the Tsukiyama family, the wealthiest family of ghouls in Tokyo who had gained their financial success back when they lived in Aogiri, Kuzen took comfort from Mirumo Tsukiyama's presence as the two stood on the dock behind the wealthy ghoul's largest cargo ship while standing before a crowd of at least two-thousand ghouls; all of who were terrified and looked up towards him for hope.
"My dad was shot while we were trying to get into my car… They killed him… Just like that… He was eighty-years old, for God's sake! He didn't pose a threat to anyone!"
"I can't get a hold of my son…!"
"Help us, King Yoshimura! My family's home was destroyed by CCG! We have nowhere else to go!"
"I don't want to die… I'm really scared..."
"Those crazy bastards are making those tyrants retaliate! I saw them driving tanks down the 23rd Ward!"
"Help us, King Yoshimura! Save us from this Hell!"
Letting a quiet breath out to calm his nerves, the tall and impressively regal gentleman of a ghoul made his way over to the podium that Mirumo had set up for him before leaning down toward the microphone.
"The King is going to speak!"
"Hush up, he's going to talk…!"
"Shhh! He speaks!"
Waiting for the whispered voices and silencing hushes to end from within the masses before him, Kuzen let out another tired sigh before speaking into the microphone. "My fellow ghouls and friends, try as I might, there are no words on God's Green Earth that could justify the amount of sorrow and pain I feel for your losses. Tonight's events of unchecked violence and hatred are a result of there being a lack of proper leadership and guidance being directed over those who needed it the most, and now that their unheard voices are now deafening to my ears, it has become apparent to me that I'm needed once more to restore order to our people."
"I've lost my wife and son to CCG, and stepped down from my power after my daughter ran away from home... It's been over two years since I've been your king, and there has been so much we've done to try and fit in with humanity underneath CCG's banner… I see now that my absence was a foolish and naive choice that I made, and the heartache I've felt throughout these years means nothing if I don't do my duties to protect our children and families from suffering the fates that my own kin had to endure. Tonight, I stand here before you all to assure you that our losses will not be in vain!"
"It has come to my attention that these riots were started by my daughter and a friend of hers, and have sparked a revolution across Japan! CCG has lost their leadership, and without the resources available amongst other branches to help them, now is the time for us to rise amongst our enemies!"
"Good people of Tokyo, friends, family… I, Kuzen Yoshimura, King of the Underground, will take control of this madness, and usher in a new generation of Aogiri Tree to provide protection and establish law and order to this land once more! Humanity will accept us, or perish! Our hopes and dreams WILL be fulfilled! No longer will we live in a world where we need to fear for the lives of our children!"
"I will lay down my life to ensure our future on the surface! So rest your weary heads in the comfortable beds provided by the Tsukiyama family tonight, for when you awaken in the morning, you shall awaken to a new dawn, my friends! Tonight, we shall take the surface back from those who've damned us!"
"WE GHOULS SHALL CLAIM THE VICTORY THAT'S RIGHTFULLY OURS!"
With the regality and the amount of charismatic-authority he spoke with, the crowd before him felt their worries begin to fade away as the fires inside their hearts blossomed into a full inferno of passion. Those who were alive during Kuzen's reign had trusted him with their lives, and thus their descendants felt nothing but inspiration flowing through them as they bore witness to the legendary King of the Underground's greatness.
"... Yeah, YEAH!"
"We won't be hunted and tormented anymore!"
"The city was built by us! It was ours to begin with; humanity stole it from us!"
"CCG MUST FALL!"
"Death to CCG! Burn down the fascist government!"
"Their bigotry and hatred won't stand against our hopes and dreams!"
"King Yoshimura's gonna show them how a REAL leader rules over his people!"
"CCG and their evil followers will be vanquished! They will learn to tolerate us or die!"
"The King will make Tokyo safe like how it did with Aogiri!"
"We have justice on our side! White Rabbit and the One-Eyed Owl are the strongest ghouls alive! Humanity doesn't stand a chance against them!"
"Gone are the old corrupt figures of Aogiri Tree… The King won't allow for that to happen again!"
"Neither will White Rabbit or The One Eyed Owl!"
"Victory will be ours!"
"Hail to the King!"
"Hail!"
"Hail!"
"Hail!"
As the ghouls who submitted themselves under his guidance cheered for the dawn of a new age they craved for, Kuzen could already feel a familiar burden being bestowed upon his soul. It no longer was about what he wanted as a person anymore; gone were his visions of wanting to live a quiet and peaceful life amongst humanity. No, he was no longer Kuzen Yoshimura: the old gentleman from the 20th Ward who owned a coffee shop. He was once again King Yoshimura, the powerful ghoul who carried the heavy weight of being the voice of reason amongst a crowd of people who pinned their hopes and dreams on his tired-old shoulders.
His people demanded justice and safety from their oppressors, and as king, it was his duty to protect and serve them, or die trying.
Meanwhile in the 23rd Ward, the largest of Eto's resistance fighters led by Haise Sasaki had breached through the highly fortified perimeter walls that stood outside the heavily guarded building that led into a hive-like underground facility that housed thousands of imprisoned ghouls. Many experiments were conducted in the deepest parts of Cochlea, and the ghoul prison of course had production floors dedicated to creating material made from kagunes to be shipped out to laboratories across Tokyo to be used for weapon production.
Most of Tokyo's investigators who weren't preoccupied with failing at trying to reestablish order out on the streets were fighting their hardest to maintain control of their last true stronghold in the city. Just when CCG were beginning to turn the tides of the battle, two flying ghouls were suddenly spotting making a beeline towards them in the night sky.
Dropping down on the large and fortified building that held the elevator that they needed to access, Eto and Touka wasted no time in raining down a volley of projectiles down upon the investigators and walls. While Eto sported her kakuja form of a large six-limbed monster, Touka sported six glowing red wings as she blasted apart the entrance of the building with her explosive plasma bolts to allow Haise to lead his battalion into Cochlea.
Covered head to toe in a black armor much like her father's own kakuja, Touka advanced beside Eto and Haise as they slaughtered anyone foolish enough to not surrender to them while they went through separate staircases to ensure that their battalion was able to safely traverse down the elevator into the lower levels of Cochlea.
Once inside Cochlea's underground facility, Haise was able to break apart from his battalion while Eto and Touka continued to tear apart the opposition with ease. Traveling down the flights of stairs while defending himself as needed, the white and black-haired young man wasted no time in getting through the waning enemy lines to head down to the deepest part of the ghoul detention center, where they were keeping his friends imprisoned.
While he wanted to help as many ghouls escape from their cells as he passed them, Haise was told before being tasked with raiding Cochlea to leave them alone, for there were still violent ghouls within the cells of Cochlea that needed to pass judgement before being given their freedom. As he was told by the One-Eyed Owl herself, 'After this is all said and done, those who have gone astray from the path of righteousness will be dealt with accordingly.'
There were also plenty of ghouls on the surface who were killing in the name of Aogiri Tree who would have to answer to either Eto or Touka later on, but that wasn't Haise's focus at the moment. Right then, his only personal mission that night was to liberate his fellow science experiments who had been given false promises of hope by Dr. Kanou for a better life, only to be thrown into a cell once the man had gotten the test results he needed from them to pursue his goal of creating the final missing link to transform a ghoul into a human: Qunix.
Due to the demand of manpower required up above by the now deceased wardens of Cochlea, there were hardly any investigators left inside the last level of the detention center that had been dedicated to house Tokyo's most potentially dangerous ghouls. Plunging the red crossed-tips of his four glowing red tendrils into the chest of the guard who refused to surrender peacefully to him, Kaneki made quick work of the investigator by tearing him apart into chunky bloodied piles of gore before reaching down to pick up his keycard from within his mangled viscous.
Without the intervention of a living dispatcher to deny his keycard's access, Haise eagerly awaited as he opened the most heavily fortified and cramped prison cell out of the many other cells that circled around the large and opened chamber. Mounted against the walls with various IV tubes injecting various suppressants and nutrients into their bodies, Haise's unconscious friends were freed one by one, as the young man sliced apart their bondages with ease.
Being the first one of his group to be freed from his shackles and IV tubes, Juuzou Suzuya was regaining consciousness as he held himself up by his hands and knees on top of the cold floor he had been suspended up above. Feeling light headed and nauseous, the only thing keeping the young man smiling in his groggy and sickly state was the familiar sight of the other man dressed in a black battle suit and a half mask staring back at him behind a single eyepatch that hid his right grey-eye. "Haise-Kun…? Is that really you…?"
After freeing Kuki Urie and Saiko Yonebayashi from their shackles and IV tubes, Haise made his way over to Juuzou before kneeling down beside the white-haired young man to get him back up to his feet. "Juuzou, I'm so happy to see you again…! But we don't have a lot of time to talk right now; Eto and Touka are upstairs with a group of ghouls fighting CCG, and so far we're winning, but that doesn't mean we're done yet." Haise said with a stressed out voice, as he turned around momentarily to glance around at the other four artificially created half-ghouls who were beginning to recover from their medically-induced stasis. "I hate what we're doing right now, and I don't even know if what we're doing is the right thing, but-?!"
Interrupting the worried and panicked artificially created half-ghoul, Juuzou wrapped his arms around Haise before bringing him closer to embrace him. "Hey, hey…! Don't worry about all of that nonsense, Haise-Kun…! We'll be okay, alright? We're together again, aren't we? Isn't that what matters right now?" Juuzou asked in a sweet voice, as he rested his chin down on the other man's shoulder. "If what you're saying is true, and Eto and Touka are both upstairs as we speak… There's no rush to get back up just yet, is there? We should just stay here for now, Haise-Kun; just for a little bit longer, please..."
Stifling in a chuckle, Haise couldn't help but shake his head at how lackadaisical Juuzou was toward their dire situation; they were in the middle of a large-scale battle, after all. Yet, despite the young man who had earned the nickname of 'Joker' being nonchalant about Cochlea's raid, Haise couldn't help but give in to the urge of returning Juuzou's embrace, and soon he found himself wrapping his arms around him as well. "You've always been a troublemaker, haven't you…?" Haise asked with an amused tone in his voice, while Juuzou snickered back with a wide grin spread across his lips.
"Only when it comes to you, Haise-Kun…" Juuzou replied back with a sassy tone, as he continued to revel in the feeling of being held by the other man who he cared very much for. For a moment, as the two rejected science experiments embraced one another as their fellow rejects became more and more conscious, the worries of the world awaiting for them above them seemed to fade away. For just a moment, Haise and Juuzou felt a momentary blissful escape from the cruel and beautiful world that they were born into.
And there we have it: CCG wasn't able to stop Rize's plans to have Kuzen take control of the riots and forcing him into a position where he would have to lead his people once more.
Unlike the canon, Touka isn't someone who allows her moody behavior or emotional instability to riddle her life with angst. In this story, she didn't get to be someone who felt sorry for herself and the position she was in; she had Ayato to take care of. So instead of trying to fit into the status quo, she became inspired to become strong so she could protect others.
Aogiri Tree this time around has order and morals that are enforced by their strongest executives, thus why Enji probably would have been killed regardless of Arima intervening or not. This is the reason why Arata ended up wiping out what Aogiri Tree became.
If it also isn't apparent by now, I love joking and adding humor to my stories, so don't expect me to keep this story always so gloom and doom with death and whatnot befalling our characters all the time.
This isn't supposed to be an edgy story at all. Touka suplexed Kaneki that caused Arima to slip. Kaneki ran with his asscheeks flapping in the wind. Ayato carries mittens inside of his apron.
And to clarify a few things, I'll add these points.
Dr. Kanou only valued Kaneki's and Arata's lives. During his state of depression, he purposefully would lie and trick desperate young people who no one would miss in order to further his research. These people include Urie, Saiko, Shirazu, Mutsuki, Haise, and Juuzou. They will be part of Aogiri Tree.
Haise Sasaki is Eyepatch in this story, and will have Kaneki's original dragon-arc kagune to fight with. Since Rize died and her kakuhou hasn't been used for anything yet, I had to give Haise something to use. I figured it would be an interesting take on their character to have Haise and Juuzou fight for Aogiri rather than CCG.
Juuzou's alias is 'Joker', which is a nod to the last quinque he used in Tokyo Ghoul :re.
Expect the quinx squad to be similar in most traits, with the exception of a few changes due to their circumstances.
In this fanfic, not that it matters to some people, but the Main Office is in the 20th Ward; unlike the canon, where it's in the 1st Ward. This was a result of me thinking that it was in the 20th Ward rather than the 1st Ward, and since I kinda already written it in the story as such, I have to sort of implement that change. This is minor, but I figured I would add this here.
Kaneki's kagune version of Arata's kakuja is inspired heavily on the RX-0 Unicorn Gundam, as it will transform to release the heat inside its frame; same how his armor will glow red and expand out to release heat as well.
Speaking of Kaneki's kagune, the reason why his kagune falls apart like pieces of metal rather than vaporize into the air like most other kagunes is because of how RC-cell ridden his kagune is. Arata in this story was the strongest character in the story after all, even more so than Touka and Eto.
Other than that, that's all I have for now.
Please leave a review or private message if you have any ideas you'd like to see implemented into the next story arc, or if you just wanna ask a question in general.
Thank you, and have a good one.