The hideout above ground was as doom and gloom as he remembered.

As he followed Tatara through the decrepit building, he kept his lips shut out of a desire to avoid another round of beating. On the part of the man leading him, he did his best to not acknowledge him, just sneaking a glance here and there to see if he was following.

Eventually, they came to a stop and Tatara allowed him to walk in first.

The room he was brought to was not the same as the one Ayato brought him to—in both layout and population. Whereas the previous room was barren with furnitures, this room was well furnished, albeit with patio furnitures.

It was slightly wider than the place that he slept through the nights before their breakout. But the floorboard still felt creaky and unstable, as if the entire floor would cave under misapplied weight of a careless step.

At the sound of his footsteps, everyone's eyes fell on top of him immediately. Even Yamori and Nico, who were leaned against the wall on the far side of the room, had turned towards him with their expressions amused and curious. Sitting in the middle of the room was Ayato, head supported by a hand propped against a patio table. For the brief moment that Ken was able to see Ayato's face, he could tell that the boy was annoyed. Then Ayato looked away and never looked back.

The boy didn't like him. That much he knew already.

It was impossible to tell what the trio of Bins and Noro were feeling under their masks. Eto on the other hand waved at him, openly expressing her happiness to see him.

At least he had one ally.

He stopped his surveying of the environment as Yamori's frame towered over him, the man's face as intimidating as ever.

"What is he doing here?" Yamori asked as he eyed the lanky boy up and down, one eye narrowed derisively while the corner of his lips tilted up into a tooth-revealing smirk. "You came back for another round?"

A chill shot down Ken's spine as memories of the previous beating came hammering back to him and his mind told him to run away. He knew it was best to just hang his head low and apologize for what happened in the past. But a part of him, the foolish part that believed in machismo and showy bravado, told him to stand his ground.

Tatara stepped in between them before things could escalate and pushed Yamori back with a commanding shove. "I will not tolerate any more infighting." The chinese ghoul's words were absolute and left no room for compromise. One day, Ken wished to carry such presence himself.

"Tch." Yamori put his hands in his pocket, hunched his back slightly in disappointment, and returned to the wall that he had been leaning against.

Ken let go of the breath that he didn't know he was holding.

Acting aggressive in this situation was simply suicide. Even if he had gotten used to handling his kagune. Taking on enemies in these numbers would be impossible.

Not to mention…

He snuck a peek at Yamori and noted that he still had no idea what was the strange transformation that his opponent displayed the other day—the form where the kagune wrapped around his body like some kind of armor.

Ken was pushed out of his thoughts when Tatara shoved him and caused him to stumble towards the center of the room, right in the heart of malicious intentions. Tatara joined him shortly afterwards.

"From now on, this guy…" Tatara said as he placed a hand on his shoulders. "Will be an executive of Aogiri Tree."

For a moment it felt like everyone else had forgotten how to speak.

"Well," Yamori snorted and applauded sarcastically, breaking the tension in the room. "Welcoming a traitor to be an executive..." The man ran a hand through his hair. "This organization has really gone down the gutter hasn't it?"

Tatara's shifted his glare onto Yamori, who promptly threw a pair of arms forward in mock discomfort, as if trying to shield himself from the wrath of a leader he barely respected. Yamori took a clumsy step backwards to complete his act of false cowardice. "Obviously I didn't mean it. Relax. No need to get all upset."

Tatara glared at Yamori one last time before moving on, resuming the original purpose of the meeting. "This guy, Kaneki Ken, will join the team for the raid on Cochlea. Until then, I expect you all to get along."

The rest of the meeting went off without a hitch, no one spoke to him and no one acknowledged him. There didn't seem to be any further objections regarding him joining the organization as everyone simply filed out of the room after the meeting. All of them either too afraid to question Tatara's judgment, too confused to make sense of what was going on, or too disgruntled to care.

Yamori was the last of the Aogiri member leave. With the same intimidating swagger that he always had, he sauntered up to Kaneki and stared him down once more. "I can't believe a newbie like you will be entrusted with taking part in such an important mission. I guess it really is because of that kagune of your's."

The blonde man turned to leave after that, not before stopping mid step to pass on an uncharacteristic request. "Anyway, as horrible as I am, even I have someone that I want to get out of that shithole. I trust that you will be able to handle it for me."

Then, as if unable to contain himself, Yamori burst out laughing. "I'm just kidding kidding of course. Good luck not dying." Yamori threw up a hand to bid farewell, all the while he continued walking, not turning back even once, crazed laughter accompanied him throughout the way.

Just for once, Ken wished that someone would clue him in to what was happening.

By the afternoon of the next day, he was standing opposite of Ayato in an open field at the back of an abandoned building.

"You need to get used to your body. Breaking into Cochlea is not going to be an easy task."

Those were the words of Eto before she dragged him out of him room and sent him to his likely doom.

Somehow, Ayato ended up picked as his sparring partner. Not anyone nicer, not anyone more accommodating, not Eto herself, but Ayato—the boy who was glaring so much he could kill him by looks alone.

The rest of the executives watched them from the fifth floor of a nearby building, obviously intrigued by the kind of mauling Ayato would give him.

Unfortunately, he wasn't nice to the point he would willingly be someone's sandbag.

"Ayato-kun..." He called out to the boy softly, hoping to keep things between them friendly. He quickly came to regret his naivety as he was forced to block a running punch from the Aogiri executive. Like he suspected, there was no holding back from this one.

Ken threw Ayato fist away and quickly brought his arms up to block a kick from the right. In response, Ayato dropped down, a leg sweeping low, but missed as Ken flipped away onto his hands before thrusting himself to his feet.

Ayato twisted into a standing position as well, his kagune erupting from his shoulders and flickered in the air like sheets of flames. An onslaught of crimson spears came at Ken next, forcing the boy to dodge.

Left...

Right…

Left…

Right…

Down…

Up...

Pain...

He had been hit. Five different times, in five different locations to be exact. A spear on his left knee, two on each arms, and one wedged deep into his right shoulder.

Ken bit back the anguished scream that begged to be released, opting to instead breathe through the pain while his broken body began to reassemble itself. Once he was healed, he finally let out what had been gnawing away at him underneath, not a scream, but a triad of blood-red tentacles.

The atmosphere around here seemed to have changed. Ayato seemed to have gotten tenser. As if finally acknowledging him as a worthy opponent.

Even as he stood face to face with Ayato, he could already hear Yamori making snide remarks about besting him from the room five floors off the ground— as inconsequential as that achievement would be to the other bystanders. He could also sense Takatsuki's eyes beaming with joy at the sinister appendages that he just birthed. But to him, it all felt like defecation.

Ken moved on the offensive next, closing the distance between him and Ayato, his three kagunes pushing against the ground, aiding his jump as he propelled himself skywards. Once he obtained enough height to hover over Ayato comfortably, his tentacles came slamming down, one after another, with a second between each strikes, each strike aiming to hit where Ayato was, and where he ran off to. His opponent dodged his attacks quite effortlessly.

When he landed on the floor, Ayato was on top of him and swiped at him with his flame-like kagune. Ken arched his body backwards response, narrowly avoiding the path of Ayato's strike, then quickly leapt back to evade a second swipe.

He ran to try and create some distance, but was shadowed tightly by Ayato, who displayed no hesitation to pepper him with crystallized shards.

Not going to give me the time to think, huh. Ken's tentacles were quick to strike all of the shards off the air, all the while his legs maintained his sprint. There was something about his kagune that felt different today. It felt more malleable and flexible. It felt more like a part of his body than it ever did.

From the fifth story window, Eto and Tatara watched.

"I told you we could use him, didn't I?"

"..."

Eto took Tatara's silence as agreement.

Kaneki dug his tentacles into the ground, elevating himself up and over the range of Ayato's violent swipes, before depositing himself behind the annoyed teenager.

In one swift, aggressive motion, Ayato spun around, his fiery kagune slamming right into a defending tentacle. Undeterred, Ayato struck at him again, from Ken's right this time. Once again, Ken parried, this time with enough force to knock his opponent off-balance. Three tentacles shot towards Ayato before the boy could correct himself, only narrowly missing him when the younger boy brought his kagune forward to take the hit in his stead.

It was a shoddy, split-second defense that managed to prevent from skewering only, as Ayato's body was blown backwards and bounced mercilessly off the hardened soil.

When Ayato picked himself backup, Ken saw that the boy's expression was one of disbelief, then uncontrollable rage. Not that he could blame the boy for being surprised, even Ken was in shock by how good of a condition his body was in today.

"You..."

Ken blinked and waited for Ayato to continue.

"...piece of shit!"

All of a sudden, it felt like all the air in the world had forced itself on his face as Ayato rammed his kagune into his face. Soon after it was Ken's turn to fly through the air and land roughly on the ground.

As he stared blankly at the afternoon sky, his thoughts slowly caught up to him and his dazedness faded away. Right...I'm fighting Ayato-kun...

Ken tilted his head up to look at his opponent, to see where Ayato was, and to see how long he had before he needed to move again. Much to his surprise, Ayato wasn't towering over him triumphantly, but hunched over trying to catch his breath.

It just occurred to him that he had a chance of winning this.

He made it back to his feet a few moment later and Ayato's scowl worsened. Gone were the handsome features of the male Kirishima, in its place was a vicious snarl that resembled a demon's maw.

"Stay down!"

Ayato's kagune sprung to life again, releasing yet another barrage of crystallized RC cells. Red tentacles furiously whipped through the air in response, shattering the projectiles on the behest of their owner. But by doing so, Ken lost track of an key individual — the person who fired the shards.

"I'm over here, you moron." A breath tickled his ears, then two strong arms quickly locked onto his head. What followed was a sharp pain as he felt Ayato's teeth chomp down on his ear and an even worst one as Ayato's kagune punched two sizable holes in his abdomen.

"Scram!"

In a moment, Ken's body was hurtling across the empty lot courtesy of a kick from Ayato. Everything hurt. From the bleeding remains of his left ear, the gaping holes in his stomach, and the cracks in his spine.

His world disappeared.

When he came to, he was falling through an unending darkness, as if pulled by an irresistible gravity. He wondered if this was what dying felt like. Just a constant feeling of sinking and coldness.

Ah…

He was starting to hear voices again...

A distorted, monstrous one that bore a slight semblance to the voice of...

Ah... yes… Rize…

The woman he went on a date with. The same woman who poked holes in his stomach.

Rize spoke to him.

"You know what you need to do now, don't you?"

He really didn't.

"Kill the ones who hurt you. Its as simple as that."

He disagreed. "But that's Touka's brother."

"No…"

A bright light tore through the gloom atmosphere. Out of the light, Rize descended, her body naked and luminous. She fell on top of him, her slender arms wrapped around him as she pulled him close, and her lithe fingers stroke his ears playfully.

"That's a rebellious child throwing a tantrum over things he can't have."

"You know what to do with people like that right?" Her lips, sultry and plump, closed in on him while her breath provided welcomed warmth in this place of darkness "You of all people should know."

His eyes widened, then closed and his lips thinned into a line. "Yes." He conceded. When he opened his eyes again, the darkness was gone and so was Rize.

"Kids like that need to be bent over the knees and spanked."

The world came back to him.

Ayato stumbled backwards in disbelief. Blue eyes that just a moment ago brimmed with confidence and determination was now softened by the weaknesses of uncertainty. It didn't make sense. He broke the man's bones, bit off his ears and finally put two holes in his stomach. Yet, that little piece of shit was still moving. "H-how is this possible?"

On the opposite side of the field, Kaneki Ken lumbered to his feet, nearly falling over a couple of times from the unexpected weight of his body.

Ayato took another step away from Ken as the fear of the unknown kicked him square in the stomach. The man in front of him no longer a mere ghoul in his eyes. With a durability that surpassed his comprehension. Ayato couldn't help but think of his opponent as an undead zombie. "How can you still stand?"

When his question was left unanswered, he gritted his teeth and resolved to simply beat the man down further.

There was no way he would let someone Yamori beat to show him up. Especially not when he knew he was so much stronger.

That's right, I am strong. So incredibly strong. So unbelievably, unapologetically strong! Ayato nailed Kaneki with a glare as readjusted his footing, the sight of the half-ghoul pissing him off more and more.

The wings on Ayato's back spread and dozens of crystals quickly materialized and blasted towards Kaneki in a spiraling storm of crimson lances.

"You don't get to be cool in my world!"

Kaneki raised his tentacles up just moments before he was swallowed up by the tornado of splinters. A mist of red was all that was visible afterwards.

Ayato breathed heavily on the field, hands on his knees, sweat pouring through his hair, his kagune fading away from overuse. Finally, he smirked, having accomplished what he wanted to. He might have overdone it a bit. He might have even went against Aogiri's wishes. He might have killed the wimp from the coffee shop when he wasn't supposed to. But he couldn't care less at this point. He proved his superi-

From the dissipating mist of blood, something shot out and wrapped around his torso before he could finish his thought. Every smidgen of smug satisfaction left his body as he peered down, staring right into the blood red tentacle that he had come to identify as Kaneki's. He felt his blood run cold, then felt all the air knocked out of his body as he was lifted up and slammed onto the ground.

Ayato quickly lifted his head up, to retaliate, stopped only by the two pointed tentacles held millimeters away from his face. This act of mercy only angered him even more.

Standing across the field was Kaneki Ken, his clothes ripped apart, his body damaged, mind confused by the brief homicidal urge that came over him, but otherwise clearly victorious.

"That's enough."

Both men shifted their attention elsewhere, to the chinese ghoul that came between them. Kaneki retracted his kagune and allowed Ayato to get back to his feet.

"I don't think there's any doubt who won this one." Tatara looked between the two men, keeping his gaze neutral.

"B-but…" Ayato started but was quickly shut down by the coldness of Tatara's eyes.

"Congratulations." Tatara walked over to Kaneki and offered a handshake. "I look forward to working with you."

"And Ayato… go and cool your head. People like you who lose their temper are no better than fodder foot soldier."

With that he left, leaving behind a fuming Ayato and a confused Kaneki.

The night of the Cochlea invasion, Kaneki stood alongside Eto and Tatara as they surveyed the target of their invasion, a small army of Aogiri soldiers behind them.

The chilly December air ruffled with his hair and tickled the exposed skin underneath his skintight bodysuit. A look towards the back showed him that both Ayato and Yamori were nowhere to be seen.

Eto placed a bandaged hand on his back. "Let's begin shall we?"

Kaneki took in a deep breath, before putting on a smiling porcelain mask. "Yeah. Let's begin."