Last chapter including Kaneki as the main protagonist for a bit. Next one will go back to Hide as the protagonist and then Hinami.
Lost in his thoughts, Arima didn't notice that his path towards Kaneki's barley-living body had been obstructed by a slender and short ghoul baring a white mask and a purple cloak until he was a meter away from them. With the memory of the fight he and Arata had over two years ago making his mind hazy, Arima didn't even bother to raise Demon Yamada 1 up defensively as the ghoul with dark indigo ponytails before him raised a quinque of her own at him.
Just from where he was standing, he was able to tell from her buckling knees and trembling arms that the ghoul before him knew who he was, and what he was capable of.
"I… I c-can't let you get near him." Yumitsu said, as she tried to make her voice sound more intimidating than it really was, but her shaking voice and stutter was an immediate sign that she was terrified. "D-Did you hear me?! S-Stand down, or I'll-!?"
Before Yumitsu could finish her sentence, Arima had already stepped in and had taken hold of her quinque's handle. Before she knew what had happened, Yumitsu stood before the White Reaper who had disarmed her.
"... What's your name?" Arima asked with a solemn tone in his voice, as the ghoul before him stood frozen in her place; knowing that the moment she unravelled her kagune, it would spell immediate death for her.
In an attempt to show submission to make it clear that she was surrendering, Yumitsu reached up with a trembling hand to push her mask over her face. With her mask resting on the top of her dark blue hair, the look in Yumitsu's eyes reflected absolute terror in them to Arima.
Still, the ghoul in spite of her fear, quickly mustered up what little courage she could, in order to formulate a response for the White Reaper. "G-Grave Robber..." Yumitsu said, as she figured her alias would have sufficed the investigator's curiosity.
"I see… Did you base your alias from Arata Kirishima's nickname?"
"Y-Yes, y-yes I did…" Yumitsu replied back with a shaking voice, before deciding to give a better explanation to the investigator who she knew had killed Arata once already. "I… I g-grew up wanting to be like him; to be strong like Arata Kirishima was... I-I know who K-Ken Kaneki is, and I know he's not Arata... W-we met last night, in the Main Office."
More curious about the ghoul and the qunix's prior encounter more so than the reason why she was willing to put her life on the line to save him, Arima was prepared to give Yumitsu room to speak.
However, before Arima could get the chance to even ask Yumitsu about what happened last night, Shinohara and Iwao had already set their sights on her.
"Arima! What do you think you're doing?! Don't you know who that is?!" Shinohara asked in a demanding yet exhausted voice, as he reached over to rip Demon Yamada 1 from Arima's clutches. "This little brat has the same mask as those Bin Brothers we killed before you arrived here… She must be the sister they were yammering about."
Hearing the news of her brothers' deaths for herself was the last nail in the coffin for Yumitsu's hopes of ever finding them. Feeling her body grow cold as her arms dropped down at her sides, Yumitsu felt her fingers involuntary twitching for the briefest of moments, as an exacerbated breath of dread escaped from her suddenly dried lips.
"Y-Yuki…? S-Sota…?" Yumitsu uttered under her breath in a hauntingly shoken voice, as her red eyes slowly opened wider and wider, as the reality of her brothers' death came crashing down on her. "Y-You…? Y-You… You… You. YOU. YOU-" Yumitsu chanted under her breath, as her kakugan eyes transformed her white scleras into void-like abysses.
"-IT WAS YOU!" Yumitsu shouted out in a roar, as her bikaku kagune took the form of three-pronged tails with tips that were exceptionally sharp. Leaping toward Shinohara at incredible speeds that were even impressive for a ghoul, Yumitsu landed on the man's large chestpiece and grabbed hold of his neck, as she plunged the tips of her sharp kagune into the back of the man's neck.
"I'LL KILL YOU! DO YOU HEAR ME?! I'LL-!?" Yumitsu screamed out hatefully, but was quickly cut off after suddenly feeling the tips of her armor-piercing kagune getting stuck inside the investigator's transforming Arata.
Feeling the tendrils of his quinque eating away at whatever was left of his RC-cells, Shinohara ignored the pain of being eaten alive as his Arata activated its enhanced protocol: 'Destroy Mode'.
As his once-smooth plating began to writhe and extend out into crimson tendrils, Shinohara's eyes became glowing orbs that radiated brilliantly in a white glow through his helmet's eye-slits. Feeling his biological limitations being devoured away to make way for evolutionary improvements, what was left of Shinohara glared menacingly into the eyes of bewildered and terrified ghoul on top of his hardening chest.
"Mmmm-mmm, mmmhh…! Your agility is impressive, 'Little Bin'; quite impressive, indeed!" Shinohara mused with an overly expressive tone, before raising his burning red gauntlet up to clamp his razor-sharp claws around Yumitsu's throat.
Laughing maniacally in an animalistic enthusiasm, Shinohara could feel the tendrils of his Arata piercing through his torso and skull, but brushed it off as he watched Yumitsu flail while screaming in pain. Being held up into the air by within the monster's clutches, Yumitsu could feel the skin around her neck beginning to boil and smoke underneath the beast's grasp. "Smells… G-Go… GOOD." Shinohara bellowed out in a monstrous roar, as his Arata finally fully integrated itself into his brain.
With a maddening hunger that he had never felt before in his life demanding him to feed from the ghoul's succulent and nutritious flesh, Shinohara separated his Arata's beak-like mouth to reveal row-after-row of glowing red teeth.
Feeling his mind slipping away, Shinohara plunged his kakuja-like teeth into Yumistu's bicep. Jerking his head back with the ghoul's entire torn shoulder muscle trapped in his extended mouth, the beast let out a hungry growl as he chewed gluttonously at the raw meat cooking within his oven-like gullet.
Stunned and disgusted at what was going on before him, Arima felt himself suddenly tightening his grip on the handle of the black katana he had taken from Yumitsu. Following his instincts, the White Reaper lunged toward Shinohara, and swung down the blade of Yumitsu's quinque onto his armored right forearm to free the ghoul.
However, just like what happened to the unfortunate ghoul's kagune, Arima's quinque was met with the same fate when the crimson Arata armor reacted to his attack.
Even though Arima was able to land a hit on Shinohara's armored forearm, it soon served to be useless. Small black and red tendrils quickly erupted from Shinohara's demon-like armor, and wrapped themselves around the blade of the katana-quinque before suddenly snapping it into shatter pieces. Pulling the handle of his broken quinque back, Arima watched as Shinohara's Arata began to devour the shattered pieces of the black blade.
"What the Hell…?" Arima muttered in bewilderment to himself, as he took a step back from the furnace-like Arata quinque that enveloped Shinohara.
Although Shinohara had noticed Arima's attempt to free the Aogiri Tree member from his devil-like claws, the kakuja controlling the man was too focused on Yumitsu to care. It was actually Iwao who was the one to not only take notice of Arima's treasonous act, but react to it as well.
"I knew you were a traitor." Iwao spoke out in a firm and gruff voice, as he swung his shield sideways in an attempt to bash Arima off of his feet.
Seeing the attacking coming from the side of his vision, Arata was more than easily able to practically teleport away just in time to avoid being hit by Iwao's quinque. Skidding back on the heels of his boots, Arima came to a halt.
"Enough, Iwao. Look what's happening to Shinohara; we need to stop him." Arima insisted in his usual stoic yet urgent tone, to which Iwao responded with by letting out a quiet scoff.
Only bothering to take a moment's glance towards Shinohara swallowing the raw and chewed up meat that he bit off from the ghoul who was starting to go into shock, Iwao felt himself smirking behind his black-armored visor before looking back at Arima.
"... All I see is justice finally being served." Iwao said in a satisfied tone of voice, before beginning to once again continue his barrage of attacks against Arima, who was able to dodge his shield again-and-again.
"What are you talking about?" Arima asked briefly, as he continued to bob-and-weave his body to avoid being hit by Iwao's quinque.
Without daring to stop or to even slow down his assault, Iwao continued to attack Arima as he addressed the White Reaper's confusion. "You're still a boy, Arima… You wouldn't understand the sacrifices men are willing to commit in order to serve the greater good… To avenge and protect the family they have left…"Iwao grunted with each time he swung his shield; each time he swung his was growing faster-and-faster, as his Arata began to dig its tendrils into his body the same way it did with Shinohara.
"The Arata series depletes its host's RC-Cells before resorting to eating them… Whatever Shinohara is wearing isn't just doing that; it's killing him." Arima explained in a calm voice, even as he was beginning to struggle in out-maneuvering Iwao's attacks. "You need to stop this, and take yours off before it takes a hold of you too."
Although a part of him knew that what Arima was saying was true, the determination Iwao felt when he thought back to his wife and son drowned out any that small part of him that wanted to preserve his humanity. "... My son is an investigator; I can't allow Takeomi to meet this fate."
Feeling the tendrils of the Arata he wore finally beginning to pierce through his skull, Iwao felt a strange sense of tranquility overcome his body; the feeling he experienced reassured him that what he was doing was the right thing to do.
"I might lose myself to whatever Kichimura's scientists did to this quinque… But the choice we were given was simple, Arima… Die as a human… OR LIVE AS A MONSTER." Iwao bellowed out in a haunting and booming voice, as he was finally beginning to gain the reflexes and speed needed to grow closer towards matching the legendary White Reaper's abilities himself. "... NOW DIE AS A MAN."
The last sight Arima was able to see of Iwao before finally feeling the wrath of his quinque was a pair of glowing white eyes that gleamed ominously behind the dark eye-slits of the berserking investigator's armored visor. It was then that Iwao had finally managed to bash Arima with the wide surface of his quinque.
"Nngh…!" Arima seethed through his clenched jaw painfully, before being flung at a high velocity towards the front bumper of an already wrecked diesel truck.
Feeling his ribs snapping the moment he made a dent into the white hood of the truck, Arima felt the wind fleeing from his lungs before collapsing down onto the asphalt beneath where he had landed, which wasn't far from where Kaneki had fallen as well.
With each raspy breath of air he painfully took into his deflated, and more than likely punctured lungs, the more the ringing in his ears grew louder. With his glasses hanging loosely underneath his bleeding nose, Arima stared down at his shattered lenses that were scattered underneath him, as he laid with his cheek against the gravely road.
Forcing himself to try and squint, Arima gritted his teeth as he brought his arms out to try and push himself up to his feet. Although he was struggling to even stand up, let alone get up on his knees, Arima was able to watch Iwao's glowing red silhouette coming closer-and-closer toward his direction.
"I AM SINCERELY SORRY THAT IT'S COME TO THIS, BUT IT HAS TO BE THIS WAY, ARIMA…" Iwao echoed out in a deep vocal tone that had with it a hint of remorse and sorrow. With his quinque, Kuroiwa Special, Iwao raised his weapon up in preparation to make Arima's death quick and as painless as possible, as he drew nearer-and-nearer towards the injured man. "GOODBYE, WHITE REAPER…"
Hunched over with his black hair draping down over his forehead, Kaneki held his face within the little comfort his palms were able to provide him, as he sat down in a large and weathered throne. Within the astral-like plane he found himself residing in, the glassy sky above him was reflected in the mirror-like ground that seemed to expand perfectly-even across the infinite horizon that surrounded him.
The cool and refreshing air blew gently through his black lockets of hair, and the ambience around him was filled with the tranquil sound of waves from an ocean of water gently crashing against an invisible shore. Despite the peaceful atmosphere that surrounded him, the harmony that the world around him had to offer was lost on him.
Standing before him was a young version of the 'Fallen Child of Man' himself, who was dressed in a unzipped hoodie, denim pants, and boots. This manifestation of Arata must have been no older than fourteen years old, and had long-lockets of blue hair that reached above his eyebrows and to his shoulders.
Staring at Kaneki with a mildly disgusted look on his judgemental face, Arata squinted his sapphire-blue and ruby-red eyes down at the qunix before finally speaking in a voice that was far less ominous than the one Kaneki had grown used to hearing. "... Do you know what your problem is, partner?"
Although Kaneki had heard as clear as day what the apparition had asked him, he didn't have an answer to give to Arata. Even if he did have something to say, the thought of Arima and Yumistu suffering in the real world weighed far too heavily on his mind for him to speak.
"... I'll tell you what your problem is: You're a waste of life, Ken Kaneki." Arata said with a low and bitter tone, while Kaneki continued to keep his face buried into his hands. "You've been given my kakuhou, and have the power to expand on the legacy that was taken from me… You have the ability to improve where I couldn't… And yet, you think you're above that."
"Your ego tells you that I'm the monster, that I'm the evil one who controls you like a puppeteer… You judge me for the things I've done, without realizing why I did what I did." Arata continued, as Kaneki remained silent with his fingers beginning to fidget slightly against his cheeks. "You think of yourself as a savior, as a hero; yet, you've done practically nothing to earn the title of either of those things."
"You're ignorant, and the worst part about that is that you're fully aware of that; you're actively trying to pursue blissful ignorance by upkeeping a code of honor that you've done nothing with."
"... No, you've done worse than 'nothing' with your made up code; you've broken it you're entire life. You're a hypocrite..."
"You've lied, manipulated, cheated your way through life, and you've always blamed your actions on your aunt. You can't take accountability for the wrongs you've done, and use your sheltered upbringing to justify your actions, and lack of them…"
"... You hide behind the education that fuels your ego, and use it as a front to make yourself seem bigger than you actually are." Arata said in a cold and callous tone, which managed to actually elicit a frustrated and hateful grunt from Kaneki.
"But I've been inside your head, Ken; I know that deep down, you're pitiful. You're strong enough to help your friends live, yet you rather just lie there and cower within the recesses of your mind than to help them in their time of need… You're selfish, and you've always been that way, haven't you?"
"S-Shut up… Shut up…" Kaneki finally whispered out in a puny voice, which made the amused ghost chuckle quietly to himself.
"Mphm-hmm, haha, ha...! Everything I've said to you is the truth… And it's what you've chosen to actively avoid realizing your entire life, hasn't it?" Arata continued; completely unphased by how Kaneki was beginning to tremble violently, as the quinx began to grip and pull at his own hair.
"I said shut up…! Shut your mouth...!" Kaneki demanded in a more audible tone, while breathing heavier-and-heavier by the passing second.
"What are you going to do if I don't? Are you going to make up an excuse for me running my mouth as well? Are you going to sabotage yourself for the sake of wanting to prove your own argume-"
Not allowing for the apiriation before him to finish his sentence, Kaneki let out an angered cry. Casting down the broken and useless throne that he had sat upon, Kaneki took action into his own hands by launching himself on top of Arata.
"Shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up…! SHUT UP!" Kaneki shouted, as he growled viciously through his teeth while wrapping his hands around Arata's throat.
Unphased by Kaneki's sudden act of aggression, Arata remained straight faced; even as he felt the enraged young man's hands tightening around his throat. "... You're angry, aren't you? You want to deny those insecurities you have… Cast them aside for what, pride...? As if pride's going to help save your friends, or even yoursel-"
"-STOP TOYING WITH ME, ARATA!" Kaneki spat out hatefully, and continued to squeeze Arata's neck harder and harder, until the face he was glaring hatefully at began to slowly morph into a completely different person.
"What…? W-What are you doing...?" Kaneki whispered in a ghastly voice, as he soon found himself staring face-to-face with the spitting image of his younger self looking back at him.
Staring back at Kaneki were a large pair of grey eyes that gazed back at him with a false sense of innocence, and a deceitful smile that portrayed a sense of fake happiness. The sight beneath him was mockingly cruel to Kaneki, and added a fuel like no other to the burning hatred that overtook his heart.
"This is the image you wanted to present yourself as, right? You purposefully want others to think you're naive and innocent... But you're not a fool; stop pretending that you are." Arata said without a hint of malice in his voice, which only pushed Kaneki further-and-further toward the edge.
Gritting his teeth with his jaw clenched, Kaneki felt hot tears beginning to trail down his red cheeks, as he finally reached his breaking point. "Stop it…" Kaneki muttered bitterly in a cracking voice, as he felt himself once again tightening his grip around the young child's neck.
If Kaneki wasn't already shaken enough, it was then that the child-version of him himself began to recite some of the familiar words he had spoken aloud during that fateful day.
""I have a dream, Dr. Kanou: I have a dream that one day the violence between humans and ghoul will end, and that both species can live side by side in a prosperous society where they live under the same juris-""
"-Stop that… Stop that right now...!" Kaneki demanded once more, as he quickly remembered speaking those very words himself.
""In order to achieve this dream, I want to be a ghoul biologist so I can one day disco-""
"-STOP TALKING!" Kaneki barked out in an enraged voice, before releasing the grip of his right hand off of the child's neck to raise his hand into a clenched fist.
Despite Kaneki threatening to strike him, his young and sweetly kind self continued to recite the quinx. ""Um…. Er, as far as how Rize and I are doing…! I would say that things are going well enough I suppose… I still um, haven't really been able to tell her how I feel-""
"-DAMN IT, I SAID STOP RIGHT NOW!" Kaneki screamed hatefully, before finally striking the manifestation of himself.
""My life isn't worth any more or less than anyone else's who would have the courage to volunteer themselves for this surgery, and in my eyes, the unity between humans and ghouls is inevitable; what matters now-""
"-DIE, JUST DIE! IF YOUR LIFE'S SO WORTHLESS, THEN JUST DIE ALREADY!" Kaneki roared out in the most genuine tone of hatred he ever had leave his lips, as he continued to pound his fist into the personified image of his childhood in its still-smiling face.
The sight of seeing himself so blissfully happy despite the damage being inflicted on him was enough to bring out the worst of Kaneki, and of that resentment he harbored for the boy underneath him. "I HATE YOU… I HATE YOU SO MUCH! YOU'RE JUST LIKE EVERYONE ELSE WHOSE RUINED MY LIFE!" Kaneki roared in a feral state of bloodlust.
Although his hot tears were profusely blurring his vision, Kaneki began to see the faces of those who he grew to hate manifesting themselves where his younger self's face once was. "MY MANIPULATIVE AUNT... I HATE HER FOR MAKING ME THIS WAY!" Kaneki screeched, before opening his closed and bloodied fist to jab his thumb into the right eye of the familiar, yet distant, woman he saw in place of where his younger self once was.
"-AND RIZE! I HATE HER, I HATE HER SO MUCH FOR LEADING ME ON LIKE A DOG!" Kaneki admitted aloud through all the screams of despair and agony that left his gaping mouth, as he pulled his thumb out of the bloodied pulp inside of what was then Rize's eye socket. "I NEVER GAVE ANYONE PERMISSION TO USE ME LIKE THAT…"
"... ESPECIALLY THAT LYING, DECEITFUL-FUCK WHO I TRUSTED: KANOU!" Kaneki stated hatefully with an overly-bitter and emotionally-pained voice, before suddenly feeling the cold metal handle of the same scalpel that Kanou had used manifest itself into the palm of his bloodied hand. "I HATE THEM, I HATE THEM ALL! I-I…"
"I-... I…" Kaneki stuttered out with a trembling voice, as he stopped himself from delivering the final blow to stare down at what he had done to himself.
Looking down at the bruised and bloodied image of himself looking back at him with pleading eyes and an empathic smile, it was then that Kaneki finally realized that the image of himself wasn't smiling to play the ignorant role of the fool.
He was smiling because despite what Kaneki had done to him, the innocent boy underneath him continued to smile for the sake of wanting to achieve a happiness that had eluded itself from the qunix during his entire life.
Kaneki had never been truly happy, and had long since repressed the pursuit of ever obtaining it. He had always lived to make others like his aunt, Rize, and Kanou, and never for himself.
Logos and ethos had been the shackles that suppressed Kaneki's need to do what he felt was right, and had made him into the docile being that had been taken advantage of time-again-time.
As the sinking feeling of guilt and shame tore away at the rage that he had ignored for long enough, Kaneki found himself unable to keep his grip tightened around the boy's throat, nor was he able to hold the scalpel in his grip.
As the scalpel dropped from his open hand, the murderous tool faded away into nothing. With the palms of his hands resting against his thighs, Kaneki watched with tears flowing down his cheeks as the boy beneath him spoke yet again to him for one last time.
""... I know that this is scary, and you don't want to fight, but… This has to be done, and going against hesitation will lead us to victory.""The broken and yet still loving child said, using the same very words Kaneki had said to Hide the night before.
Having said what he needed to say, the younger version of himself finally succumbed to the wrath that Kaneki had merciless bestowed onto him.
Although he was experiencing the heartache and sadness that he had suppressed for his entire life finally flooding his heart like a rushing tsunami, the tranquil and dawning revelation of acceptance was enough to allow Kaneki to speak through the pain he felt in his very soul.
Biting his lip, Kaneki could taste the copper taste of blood in his mouth before finally finding the words he had always wanted to say to himself, but never had the heart to say until then.
"I-I hate them all… But, I… I hate myself the most for letting that happen to me..." Kaneki said in a solemn and accepting voice, as he stared teary-eyed at the mutilated corpse of his past self. "I'm sorry… I… I'm so sorry…" Kaneki whispered quietly in a devastated voice, as he slowly reached down to bring the shattering childhood-image of himself up into his embracing arms.
"... Forgive me." Kaneki whispered pleading into the boy's disintegrating ear, as the quinx continued to hold the fading child to comfort him in his last-fleeting moments of existence.
Holding onto the memory of the boy that had faded into the sands of time and annihilation, Kaneki was left alone with only the glassy sky above to accompany him.
*...
*Finally.
*I missed having a body.
*...
*I'm going to disconnect the safety module, and unplug that pseudo RC-Cell processor, and reconnect that tube into the cardiovascular system, via heart.
*...
*Good, good.
*Now all I need to do is break apart these Q-frames, like so…
*...
*There we are.
*...
*Now… Where were we?
Swallowing the last bit of muscle in his mouth, Shinohara in his maddened state let out an echoing laugh of pleasure, as his extended tongue licked away the blood from his kakuja-like beak.
"GOOD. GOOD. GOOD. BUT I NEED MORE; MORE, MORE, MORE, MORE." Shinohara chanted gluttonously, as his piercing white eyes stared hungrily at Yumistu's youthful face that had been frozen in terror.
"EYES, EARS, A MOUTH, AND A NOSE; HEAD, SHOULDERS, KNEES, AND TOES~~. KNEES AND TOES~~." Shinohara chanted out in a sing-songy tune, as the tendrils of his Arata ate away at his brain. After all, the entity controlling artificial-kakuja was practically almost finished with its host, and soon wouldn't even need Shinohara alive anymore.
Opening his beak in practically a one-hundred-and-eighty degree angle, Shinohara tightened his hold on the unconscious ghoul's neck before bringing her closer to his gaping maw to chop down on her skull. Feeling far too excited and enthralled in the madness he was in, Shinohara let out a laugh as he suddenly tried shutting his jaw.
However, rather relishing in the taste of Yumitsu's flesh and bone, Shinohara was suddenly caught off guard by the taste of a hardened metal that was far hotter and durable than the one his Arata was capable of producing. "... H-"
"... Your singing is fucking abysmal." The black armored figure said in a voice far different than Kaneki's. With sparks erupting his back, Arata ripped the kakuja-infused jaw off of Shiohara before immediately ramming his armored-clawed hand into the monstrosity's gorey maw.
Grinning ear-to-ear, the coursing adrenaline and rush of battle that had long since been absent from his life felt nostalgic to Arata, to the point where he needed to take a moment to himself to breathe in the euphoria he felt.
"I missed this so much… It's good to be back." Arata sighed in a relaxed voice, as he grabbed a fistful of what was left of the man's brain and skull before ripping it out.
Pulling the handful of ripped viscus from the kakuja-monster's throat, Arata had expected for the beast before him to collapse into a pile of gore and q-metal onto the floor. So when he instead heard the large creature underneath him let out an unholy-screech that caught everybody else off guard, Arata felt a surging rush of joy overcome him.
"...Oh? You're actually going to put up a fight then?" Arata asked with a challenging smile hidden behind his knight-like helmet, before quickly leaping off from Shinohara to avoid being clawed at.
As the Arata that Shinohara finally accessed the opponent that it would be facing, the kakuja forced itself back up to its feet with a surprisingly impressive showcase of agility. With Yumitsu one one hand, and its Demon Yamada 1 in the other, the kakuja let out a challenging roar that was immediately accepted by the original Grave Robber himself.
"Mmmph-hmm, mmph… Good." Arata mused with a throaty chuckle, as he knelt down with his clawed finger tips against the asphalt below him. Revamped and feeling more replenished than ever before, Arata's body emitted a brilliant-burning crimson light that radiated from underneath this shifting kakuja.
His black plated pieces of his kakuja shifted upward to release the blazing heat that came from Kaneki's stolen body. Without any safety features or q-frames to contain his power, Arata felt almost like his old self once more.
Before Arata could even get a chance to quickly dispose of the man Kakuja before him, the familiar boom echo of the sound barrier being broken above forced both him and his opponent to stare into the sky above.
Everyone, including Arima and Iwao, watched as a six-winged being from the sky crash landed directly on top of Shinohara; sending sprinkles of viscous and shards of bones and quinque flying outward.
As the dust from the new challenger began to settle, Arata found himself focusing in on the glowing outlines of various purples and reds surrounding the slender and armored figure that stood tall within the center of the crater she had made.
Baring a kakuja helmet that bore a resemblance to her father's own, Touka gazed down at Yumitsu, as she cradled the ghoul's small body. "Yumitsu… Hey, wake up...!" Touka whispered quietly in a pleading and uncertain voice, as she used his blackened-indigo claws to gently tap the unconscious ghoul's forehead.
"W-White… White R-Rabbit…?" Yumitsu whispered in a weak voice, uncertain whether or not the armored figure holding her was actually there or not.
Seeing the unmasked ghoul in her arms beginning to stir awake, Touka let out a relieved sigh. "Oh thank God…!" Touka choked out with a slightly trembling voice. "Hey… Everything's being okay, alright? I'm going to take you Anteiku. They'll take care of you."
"What… What about Kaneki…? Is he… Is he coming?" Yumitsu whispered out in a hoarse voice, to which hesitantly shook her head in response. "W-Why…? He… He didn't-"
"-We can talk about it when we get there; I just need you to stay awake, okay? I can't have you falling back asleep." Touka interrupted, while not wanting to risk Yumitsu expelling what little energy she still had in her on something as trivial as rambling.
Looking up from Yumitsu, Touka broke eye contact with the ghoul in her arms to finally address her father, who stood parallel from her. Without saying a word, Touka continued to maintain eye-contact with Arata, even as a large black shadow was momentarily casted over her.
Knowing exactly how to fight her brother, Eto didn't risk holding onto his extremely hot armor longer than she needed to. With the distraction that her niece uses to buy her time, Eto flew over the road in her kakuja form to quickly grapple Arata. "HELLO, BROTHER!" Eto cackled out maddeningly, before chucking Arata's body as far as she could, while using the momentum she built during her aerial dive and to do so.
Laughing maniacally out loud, Eto ignored Arima and Iwao as she used her kakuja's large bat-like wings to propel herself back into the air. Having kept a careful eye on where she had thrown Arata, Eto wasted no time in flying towards the vicinity of the distant chapel she predicted him landing near.
With Eto returning the favor by distracting Arima and Iwao long enough for her to safely set Yumitsu down in the center of the crater, Touka flew at the armored investigator like a bat out of Hell. Landing dead center on Iwao's upper back, Touka's six glowing winged-kagunes easily sliced off the investigators arms and legs.
With her armored and clawed fingers still buried deep within the man's quinque, Touka's six kagunes retracted before she wrapped them around Iwao's limbless body.
The sound of metal being pried open, and high-pressure steam being released tore through the air as Touka flayed Iwao's quinque open like a lobster tail. Letting Iwao's naked and heavily scarred body fall onto the asphalt below, Touka pulled herself free from the shattered quinque before walking over toward Arima.
Tucking her armored boot underneath Iwao's rib cage, Touka flipped the limbless man over so that his armor-plated visor was staring back at her. "Your Arata was trying to attack me the moment I landed on it. I could feel it trying to worm its small tendrils into my kakuja… What the Hell were you wearing?" Touka demanded with an interrogative voice, which made the dying man grunt defiantly at.
"THE WHIte rabbit, herself…" Iwao mused addressingly, as his usual voice returned once again. Despite being covered from head to where his toes used to be in open wounds that were spread across his pale and dried-up skin, the investigator kept his pride intact by not showing any signs of his excruciating pain.
"You… You fool." Iwao spoke with a slight throaty-chuckle, and took hidden pleasure in knowingly pissing Touka off. "What we wore were modified quinques of the Arata Series… This was a test run, and a successful one at that."
"Successful? I just annihilated you and your friend in less than a few seconds; how the Hell is that a victory for you?!" Touka asked with a baffled tone in her voice. "Smug bastard… You're going to tell me everything you know about that Arata, or else I'll find your family and-"
Deciding then to intervene, Arima finally managed to pick himself up from the ground before speaking. "-White Rabbit, that's enough." Arima interrupted, which earned him a shocked gaze from the helmet-wearing woman.
"... Who the Hell do you think you're-"
"-I said that's enough." Arata said once again, with an emphasis to how stern he was being with the half-ghoul.
Suddenly feeling as though she was six years younger, Touka felt herself tensing up. Feeling like an eleven-year-old girl being scolded for stepping over a boundary, especially by the man she once considered to be her uncle, Touka let out a low grunt before taking a step away from Iwao.
Grunting quietly through the aching pain he felt in his chest, Arima softly exhaled as he slowly knelt down beside the man who had tried moments ago to kill him. "Iwao… These are your last moments on Earth. I'm not going to help CCG, nor am I going to help Aogiri Tree; I'm here today to help rebuild something entirely different…"
"I'm not seeking power, nor am I trying to attack one based on their ideals or circumstance… I'm fighting to protect my friends and those who I call family." Arima said respectfully in an empathetic and honest tone, which made Iwao feel conflicted to say the least.
Still, Iwao continued to remain silent while silently gesturing to the White Reaper to continue with a respectful nod.
"... Ihei and I are looking after a ghoul named Hinami Fueguchi. She's fourteen years old and lost her family and church members when a gang of ghouls who claimed to be a part of Aogiri Tree slaughtered everyone she knew. That was last night Iwao, before we arrived at the Main Office." Arima continued, which was actually picking up the interest of not only Iwao, but of Touka herself.
"... Hinami can heal wounds and replace missing limbs. She's already saved Ihei's life, and there's no doubt that she can save yours as well." Arima said with a comforting smile on his face, as he reached down to slowly remove Iwao's heavy mask.
"I've learned that humanity and ghoulkind shouldn't be on two separate sides, nor should they have to live in two separate realities that co-exist in the world we both should share." Arima said confidently, as he carefully set Iwao's mask down on the road.
"... A man fights to protect his family, doesn't he? Killing others and making the world around us isn't fighting for them. If you really want to protect them and fight for something worthy of leaving behind, then you'll do what's right, won't you? Isn't that what a man should fight for?"
Without the cover of his mask to hide the tears that were welling up in his eyes, Iwao pursed his lips together before quietly letting out an exhale.
"... Can you take me to her? To Hinami…?" Iwao asked with a vulnerable tone in his still gruff voice, as he gazed up at the White Reaper. "I… I can't die yet Arima… I… I can't die until I fix this mess."
Within the words that Iwao spoke, Arima could tell that within the confusion and uncertainty the man felt underneath him, there was more than just an abundance of remorse in his gruff voice; Iwao sounded like he wanted to redeem the wrongs done on Tokyo, but wasn't sure just how to.
None of them knew, but that didn't stop Arima from gazing up at Touka's obscured face that was hidden behind the helmet she bore. Even in a full clad of armor, Touka was nothing but transparent to Arima, as his grey eyes pierced into her single burning kakugan.
"... White Rabbit," Arima said, as he addressed Touka by her alias out of respect more so than to hide her identity. "I have a favor to ask of you."
"... If you're about to ask me to save this murdering sack of shit, then you can forget it." Touka spat back bitterly, as she crossed her arms over her armored chest. "Kishou, this fucker is a murderer, just like everyone else at CCG. It's my duty to protect the lives of the innocent, not to give second chances to those who've killed ghouls who didn't deserve to die!"
Before Arima could get a chance to argue with Touka, Iwao was already opening his mouth to talk. "White Rabbit… What you've said is true; I have killed many ghouls in my career as an investigator. I'm… I'm not proud of what I've done."
"I don't give a shit about your sob story! Give me one reason why I shouldn't just smash your head in right now like a pumpkin!" Touka barked out angrily, before raising her armored boot to press the cold-metal bottom of her foot against Iwao's wrinkled and wide forehead. "Go on! Give me one!"
"... Because White Rabbit, if you kill me then I won't be able to warn you of what CCG is planning." Iwao said in a serious voice, which made Touka tense up for a brief second. "Do not be fooled; CCG is not defeated, not by a long shot. Unless you know what you're up against, they will win, and the future Arima spoke about will not be obtainable from then on."
"... Innocent ghouls, children, and families who only want to live the life of peace that is only possible through Arima's vision will be at the mercy of absolute oppression." Iwao said grimly, which not only shook Touka to her core, but even made Arima feel an unexplainable amount of dread in his heart.
"... What are you talking about, Iwao?" Arima asked the extremely resilient man, who despite his injuries looked to be in a stable condition.
Turning his head toward Arima, Iwao locked eyes with the White Reaper before finally revealing the tip of the iceberg of CCG's counterattack. "... It's an ungodly creature crafted from the Washuu Clan's bastard-son. It's a hybrid of science and God-knows what else…"
"He named it 'DRAGON', and it'll remember what you did to its 'orphans'."
As Arata neared the grassy fields of the chapel's cemetery, the one-eyed ghoul positioned his upper back toward the incoming gravesite which he was heading for. With a blatant disregard for the memory of whoever's tomb was underneath him, Arata's kakuhou expelled a large cyan-colored plasmic blast that propelled him upward.
Although his last minute decision broke his fall and saved him from sustaining damage, the tomb underneath him exploded into a cloud of debris that he fell through before landing on a grassy patch of land.
Not bothering to take in the surroundings of the cemetery that had been spared of the riots last night, Arata had no qualms about defiling such a sacred place by staying there to fight.
Up above him, Eto knew better than to dive toward her brother. Although Arata's kakuja was significantly smaller than hers, Eto knew fully well what her brother was capable of.
Staying airborne by keeping herself afloat with her powerful wings, Eto launched a barrage of large-crimson crystallized projectiles that rained down onto Arata. "LOOK AT THE WAY YOU'RE DODGING MY ATTACKS... I KNOW IT'S YOU ARATA; IF THE BOY WAS IN YOUR PLACE, HE WOULD HAVE DIED BY NOW!"
What Eto had said was very much true; despite her large calibered k-bullets being launched at Mach speeds down at the ground, Arata was dodging every single of them.
As the gravestones and burials across the cemetery were destroyed and desecrated by Eto's volley, Arata's cyan wings sent sparks falling back down on the Earth below as he hopped from bullet-to-bullet. Ascending upwards through the showering projectiles, Arata leapt upwards on the final k-bullet before flying towards Eto to fire a heavily-concentrated beam of plasma at her head.
"USELESS!" Eto roared back mockingly, as she maneuvered her kakuja form to quickly use its wings to propel herself back down toward the field of debris and uprooted soil below. Upon landing on the torn up patch of dirt and scattered blades of grass, Eto gazed upward and focused all of her attention at her airborne brother.
"WE AREN'T IN THE UNDERGROUND ANYMORE, ARATA! YOU HAVE NOWHERE TO HIDE FROM ME!" Eto screamed in a maddened fit of laughter, before using her kakuja's red-thorn-like protrusions on it's back to fire an upward volley of smaller k-bullets to prevent her brother from using them as platforms once again.
"I killed you once Eto… And I'll do it again." Arata spoke in his calm and collected voice, as he used his burning blue wings of concentrated RC-cells to shield his free-falling body. As he fell toward his sister with the ferocity of a meteor piercing through the atmosphere, every k-bullet that was sent disintegrated the moment it entered his kagune's plasma-field.
Seeing the incoming blur of light heading toward her increasing in size and luminance, Eto knew what Arata was about to do next. Using her kakuja's kagune to produce a heavy cloud of dust made entirely of RC-cells, Eto used her wings to expand the red cloud before her in order to block the thousands of blue-tesla-like arcs of lightning.
Although Eto's intent of her cloud was to merely protect herself from being electruced, the plasmic-heat delivered from Arata's lightning attack had caused a chain reaction to occur. The large crimson cloud began to blacken and began to spark violently like a raging cumulonimbus.
With Arata falling and unable to change direction while Eto wasn't able to react fast enough in order to dodge, both siblings were caught in the massive megaflash that boom and shook the 20th Ward similar to the biblical trumpets that shook the walls of Jerusalem.
In the aftermath of the colossal blast of plasmic-lightning, the cemetery around them had been transformed into a field of blackened soot and ember, while ash and fallout fell down from the large cloud of debris that was beginning to settle.
Had it not been for the fact that his body had grown a natural resistance to extreme heat and his kakuja's ability to redirect currents, Arata would have died, and Kaneki along with him. Picking himself up from the pile of ash and blackened dirt that covered his armor, Arata's body ached as each and everyone of his nerve ends felt as though they were on fire.
Despite the pain he felt, it was still a physical reminder that he was alive; it was an unpleasant feeling, but a feeling that Arata had grown up with. "... Was that your idea of a good plan, Eto? To cause an explosion to kill us both? Or was it merely an accident?" Arata asked with an amused and impressed tone of voice, as he began to tread through the soft and crumpled ground underneath his armored feet.
With his red bio-illuminance revealing his location like a beacon, and his electro-perception being interfered with by the fallout around him, Arata coughed through the soot and ash entering his lungs as he kept his guard up for any sign of his sister's kakuja.
"Where are you Eto? Reveal yourself, so I can finish what we started." Arata called out in an impatient yet calm voice, as he continued to walk down the direction he last saw his sister. With each breath he took in and out of the hot air surrounding him, Arata was finding it unnervingly harder and harder to walk; each step he took felt heavier than the last.
Still, despite the slowly progressing setbacks that were beginning to affect his ability to move, Arata continued to wander through the dust until the large silhouette of the One Eyed Owl's kakuja finally revealed itself to him in the near distance. Smiling behind his helmet that was beginning to feel surprisingly moist and damp, Arata felt a rush of excitement course through Kaneki's blown-out nerve endings as he approached Eto.
"There you are… And it would appear as though your kakuja, once again, has failed you." Arata mused mockingly with a smug tone in his voice, as he observed the charred remains of her kakuja that was slowly disintegrating into the air, as the summer breeze blew its ashes away. Approaching closer until he was directly underneath her kakuja's large rib cage, Arata lifted his head up at the beast's sternum to stare at the solar plexus.
Bending his knees slightly, Arata leapt up to dig his clawed fingers underneath the kakuja's sternum, before pulling its rib cage apart as though he were flaying it open. Seeing Eto's sizzling and burnt body flopping down from the kakuja's torn-open body, Arata felt his fingers slip easily out of his sister's kakuja before safely landing on the floor next to her.
Not immediately choosing to speak, Arata remained silent as he knelt down on one knee to take a good-hard look at his sister. Supporting herself by being hunched forward with her legs splayed out in the ashy-dirt, Eto was barely able to keep herself sitting upright as she stared back at her brother's single-glowing kakugan from within the confines of his helmet.
With her nude body covered in charred skin and her blood-red eyes, it was obvious to Arata that his sister's RC-cell reservoir within her kakuhous had been completely depleted; whether it was from a byproduct the explosion or from her body trying to heal itself during the explosion was something he wasn't sure of. All Arata knew was that he once again won, and Eto knew that too.
"Did you honestly expect that you were going to win this battle, Eto? You've lost to me, again and again… What made you think this time was going to be any different?" Arata asked with a curious and somewhat mocking voice, as he watched his sister visibly flinch from hearing the tone he was using with her. "Go ahead, answer my question already. What reason did you have to fight a battle you knew you were going to lose?"
Smiling a joyless grin, Eto pursed her dried lips momentarily before parting them to speak using whatever part of her vocal cords she still had left. "Do… Do you really want to know the reason why am I doing this...?" Eto asked in a scratchy and raspy voice, before needing to cough in order to clear her lungs out.
"You… You were the only one who was ever fun to play with; you were the only person who ever truly understood me…" Eto replied back with a soft and tired chuckle, before slowly shaking her head. "W-When Tartara took over Aogiri Tree, t-that time we spent together… Fighting side-by-side together with Kishou… Those years were the best I've ever had."
"When I found out… Found out that you wanted to kill everyone in CCG after we finished our 'adventure'... I wanted to stop you. I tried… And repaid that by killing me." The words Eto spoke were said with a bitter tone, and the look of betrayal and sadness reflected in her bloodied eyes were enough to even make Arata feel a slight emotional twinge of guilt.
"I forgive you, for what you did to me… You killing me was something I never felt angry or vindictive over…" Eto said with the same bitter and hurt voice as before, leading Arata to believe that there was still more to her explanation."The reason I fought you was the same exact r-reason as before…"
"... That 'absolution' you've told me about… It's just an excuse to kill, is what it is." Eto spat out with a disgusted look on her face, which made Arata smile amusingly at. "I've tried it, Arata… I tried being the monster you were… I thought maybe if I tried to reach it for myself, I'd finally be able to understand you, just like how you understood me."
Ignoring the loss of feeling he was experiencing, Arata tried his best to not make it evident to his sister that he couldn't bring himself to stand up; so he remained kneeling down on one knee before speaking to her. "... You wouldn't understand me if I told you-"
"-Then why didn't you ever just FUCKING tell me, Arata?!" Eto spat out in a cry, as the tears that were welling up in the corners of her eyes were finally beginning to trail down her ashy cheeks. "I loved you Arata… I still do. I-I care about you more than anyone… That's why I can't let you do this yourself; I-I can't let you become the monster that everyone said you were…"
"... M-Mom and Hikari wouldn't want that either..." The moment Eto mentioned those two women, Arata felt his patience and confidence snap in an instant.
Ignoring the pain and sluggishness he felt, Arata knelt closer to wrap one clawed hand around Eto's throat before plunging his other claw deep inside of her. Watching his sister wince and whine while she tried her hardest to not show the pain she was feeling, Arata's claws tore her kakuhou and surrounding organs in a pasty mush, before sloppily pulling his hand out of her stomach.
"... My mistake last time was not tearing your kakuhou out; that must have been how you survived our last encounter." Arata said with a quiet and bothered voice. "I won't make the same mistake as last time… I'm going to kill you Eto, and this time Kishou won't be there to comfort y-...?"
Trailing off, Arata and Eto both collectively stared down at his clawed hand. The reddened light caused from the heat projecting off his host's body had long since faded away, and the once durable and nearly unbreakable armored kakuja he had boasted was doing something it never did before: melt.
Lowering his head down to see the rest of his kakuja, Arata couldn't help but once again feel what it was like to feel defeated, as he realized why he was having a hard time moving in the first place. Feeling the melted RC-cells dripping down from the top of his helmet like hot wax, Arata stared down at the bottom of his legs to see Kaneki's bare flesh exposed from within the shifting and liquified armor that was sinking into the soil underneath him.
"What's… What's happening to you, Arata?" Eto asked in a hoarse voice, as she slowly gazed away from Arata's disappearing kakuja to stare into the melting eye slits of his helmet.
"I… I think I've overestimated myself." Arata suggested with a slightly indifferent tone, as he watched his kakuja melt faster-and-faster away from Kaneki's body that only hastened by the passing second. "Through the excitement of once again having a body to control, I… I must have forgotten this vessel was never my own."
As Eto's chest began to rise and fall at a faster rate due to the heartbreaking feeling she felt from watching her brother slowly fade away, Arata merely gazed down at his disappearing form before letting out a quiet chuckle. "Mmm-mmph, mmph… I guess you've won, Eto."
Arata mused with an impressed tone in his quiet voice, before his hand slipped from Eto's neck. Unable to control Kaneki's body any longer, Arata fell forward towards Eto. Despite the critical state she was in and her fatal injuries, Eto used the last of her strength to lean forward to wrap her arms around her brother's fading kakuja. Landing on her side, Eto tightened her weakening arms around Arata to pull him closer to her.
"... What are you doing? Why aren't you eating me?" Arata asked in a curious and somewhat frustrated tone, as he felt Eto bury her face into his armored shoulder. "You need to stop wasting time and eat my kakuja or Ken Kaneki…! Hurry up; you're going to die if-"
"Shhh… It's okay Arata; it's going to be okay." Eto whispered quietly in a soothing voice, as she ignored the pain in her arm to softly rub Arata's upper back. "You… You just need some rest, is all… We both do."
"I don't understand… Why are you doing this? This is pointless, Eto. No one is going to benefit from us both dy-"
"-Hey, Arata... Remember when we were kids? Remember when we're in the kitchen one day, and we were drawing… Just like any other day…"
"Hey Arata, look at what I drew!" Eto shouted enthusiastically. Carrying herself as fast as her small legs would allow her to go, the green-haired half-ghoul traversed across the red and yellow tile floors of the kitchen, before finally arriving at the dining table that her recently-adopted brother sat. "Look! Look what I made!"
Taking a momentary break from his own drawing, Arata reluctantly dropped the crayon in his hand to give his attention toward Eto's outstretched drawing. Due to having his younger sister's work being practically shoved into his face, Arata needed a moment to focus his blackened eyes enough to get a better look at what Eto had drawn.
"This is the 'One-Eyed Owl!' I drew her like that because of dad's kakuja!" Eto said proudly, as she reached around with one hand to point directly at the somewhat monstrous features of the drawn creature. "She's very big and strong, and is really hard to hit! Not only because her kakuja is super-hard, but because she's super fast too… But that's not all…!" Eto announced with an ecstatic and childish voice, as though there was something more to her character than what was presented to her brother.
"Go on Arata! Ask me about it! Ask me what's her secret power!"
Smirking at how adorable he thought Eto was being, Arata let out a quiet chuckle as he crossed his legs together. "Let me guess… She has magical powers?" Arata guessed, which made Eto grin mischievously in response to his shot in the dark.
"You're almost right… Take a look at THIS!" Eto announced theatrically, before making a 'whoosh' sound effect under her breath, as she flipped the page to reveal another drawing she made.
"Check her out now! She's fifty meters tall, a-and she can shoot laser beams, a-and she can fly! She could destroy everyone if she really wanted to, but she would never do that, Arata! NEVER!" Eto insisted with a dead-serious expression on her face that quickly dissolved away to once again reveal her wide grin. "Isn't she cool?!"
Despite Eto's less-than-expert coloring skills, Arata in his childhood demeanor was genuinely impressed with how much effort she had poured into her drawing. The pale-white beast with glowing pink lights emanating from the top of its wing-like kagune was quite creative in the young boy's eyes. "Wow…! She's very cool, Eto…!"
"Thank you Arata! I knew you'd think so too." Eto said confidently with a slightly smug look on her face. "What about you? What did you draw?" Eto asked, as she put her drawing down onto the wooden dining table to give her older brother her full attention.
While he wasn't sure if his drawing could compare to the bright colors and unique creation that Eto had managed to jout down onto her piece of paper, Arata still was more than happy to share his own drawing with his younger sister.
"This is my character… They don't have a name yet, but they do have an angel telling them what to do, and how to protect themselves." Arata explained with his usual flat-tone of voice, as he handed Eto the drawing of what appeared to be a young boy who looked much like himself, with black hair instead of his blue hair.
"They weren't born very strong, but through their own determination and the help of their guardian angel, they're able to hurt anyone who tries to hurt them." Arata explained with a slightly solemn look in his black-refelctive eyes.
Staring at the pitch-black eyes of her brother's character, Eto's own green and red eyes were practically starstruck after having heard of the backstory of the character. "SO COOOOOL!" Eto shouted in a loud-pitched voice that was heard throughout a large portion of their underground castle.
While Arata felt worried that either their parents or Noro himself would be coming from around the corner to scold them about being too loud, a suddenly bright idea soon came into the half-ghoul's head. "Hey Arata, wouldn't it be nice if we grew up to be like them?!"
"Mh…" Arata said quietly, before slowly convincing himself that no one was about to bust in on them messing around in the kitchen.
"If we were like them, we could- We could- We could protect EVERYONE!" Eto proposed with a intrigued and thoughtful look on her face. "And the best part is that I could protect you from anyone that tries to hurt you, Arata. That way, you don't have to be scared of people anymore…"
"So when we eventually are allowed back onto the surface, you and I could have fun without you feeling afraid ever again!" Eto explained, as she was already beginning to imagine the image of the One-Eyed Owl watching over Arata, and scaring away any humans who would want to hurt her brother. "Wouldn't that be great?!" Eto asked excitingly, as she and Arata reached for their respective drawings to once again stare down at their own handiwork. "Who knows?! Maybe the One-Eyed Owl could be your guardian angel too!"
Although in truth, the main reason why Arata decided to raise his paper up to obscure his face away from Etos field of vision was to hide away the blackened tears that were trailing down his face. To never have to be afraid again, and to feel protected at all times… The mere idea of Eto being the one to willingly protect him and shield him away from the horrors of the world was heart wrenching to him.
"Y-Yeah… I-I think that would be great." Arata whispered out quietly through a choked-up voice; a sorrowful voice that was immediately picked up by his overly protective and loving younger sister. In less than a second, Eto dropped her drawing and allowed for it to fall on the floor.
Without needing to say another word, Eto nestled her head lovingly into Arata's small chest, as she wrapped her sleeved arms around his still-frail body to pull him into a warm embrace. Reaching up behind his back, Eto gently patted Arata while rubbing him reassuringly, as he sobbed violently into her shoulder.
It wasn't long after having first heard the faintest echo of their newest child crying that both Kuzen and Ukina came rushing into the kitchen to wrap their arms around both Arata and Eto. Silently, all three of them gave Arata as much time and love as he needed, and none of them dared to let go of their newest family member until he felt safe once again.
Rolling over the pile of corpses underneath her, Rize rolled onto her side as she landed onto the hot cement of the 20th Ward's lobby entrance. Squinting her purple eyes open, the ghoul immediately recoiled from the bright after sun that loomed over Tokyo. Her head felt as though someone was drilling into her skull, and her lips and skin felt as dry as the Sahara desert itself.
Despite the ungodly amount of pain and confusion she felt, Rize after about twenty minutes of laying underneath the hot sun was finally able to muster the strength to flip her body over. Without a stomach or kakuhou to use, Rize knew that the hunger she awoken with had to be satisfied one way or the other.
Using her elbows to carry her limp-nude body, the purple-haired ghoul followed her nose towards the tantalizing aroma that was emitting itself from within the confines of the large metallic chests on top of the nearby garden bed. Practically having to try several times to pull herself up onto the elevated cement structure, Rize continued to use her elbows as she wiggled herself across the bed of dead flowers and soil until she got near the closest chest.
"Food… I need… Food." Rize spoke hoarsely through her dried throat, as she used her shoulder to continuously bash the chest until it finally tipped over. Like a feral animal, the moment the chest filled with kakuhous finally tipped over and spilled onto the soil and dead flowers behind it, Rize carried herself as quickly as she could towards its bounty.
Grabbing at the first bloodied kakuhou she could get her gaunt fingers around, Rize brought the predatory organ close to her lips before sinking her teeth into it. Although her stomach hadn't grown back yet, that didn't stop the ghoul who was crazed with starvation to suckle at its blood before devouring it.
Although the lumps of chewed meat would literally go through her, the RC-cells she was getting from chewing and the blood that was entering her body was quickly rebuilding her gutted organs.
After having spent her time devouring the entirety of what she could digest from the first chest, Rize's injuries had been fully healed, and her body was back to its usual self.
Moving on to the second chest of kakuhous, Rize was able to receive more nutrients from the organs she ate hungrily at.
By the time the ghoul had finished eating the third and last chest of harvested kakuhous, Rize felt rejuvenated like she had never felt before.
Enriched, empowered, and feeling practically unstoppable, Rize let out a calming breath of air as she stretched her muscles underneath the warm sun above. Rolling her head from shoulder-to-shoulder to work out the tendons in her neck, Rize raised her chin and rolled her shoulders back as a smile formed across her blood-soaked lips.
Rize's back, and boom Arata and Eto fought, not Arata vs Shinohara.
The next chapters will have different protagonists for a bit, as mentioned before.
I'm excited to write the next chapter so not much to be said.
Thank you, and please enjoy!