Chapter 18

Insane As Us

There was one thing that bad been bothering Amon.

He was still standing right there, alive and breathing.

Why did The Centipede spared him? Why didn't he killed him?

And most of all, that formidable foe he fought said something that could make him brainstorming all night.

"...Why do you think we're fighting The CCG?"

Amon raised his eyebrows. His breath stuck in his throat while his head processed that question. He was sitting like a duck right there, he couldn't use his left leg. What does that mean? It was a perfect chance to die. But instead, this ghoul asked him something. That was pretty funny, he had this same question before, from the man he suspected.

"I don't find it necessary to voice out my opinion."

"Answer me or one of those weaklings you brought won't be able to go home tonight."

Amon gritted his teeth. That wasn't logical at all. Why would he go so far with killing an innocent people who didn't even try to fight him? Oh, he got it. This ghoul was a psychopath.

Having no choice, Amon went along. All he had to do was only to answer. He gave him a mocking one.

"Either it's taking over Tokyo or for your own amusement." He said with a bitter chuckle.

Kaneki didn't like that. This guy answered entirely different than that time. What the heck?

"Is that really what you think?"

"...Huh?"

"Heh... For my own amusement you said?" The leader's voice turned slightly low. His change of tone made the human who was vulnerable before him turned tense. "If you think this is for my own amusement, then you're pretty stupid. This kind of thing wastes my energy and risks my members' life."

Amon scoffed, "So even you do care for others. Why do I feel so unsure?"

"At least I don't want to lose valuable pawns. They're important for the sake of my victory."

Amon only gave The Centipede a hard stare. He didn't like they way that ghoul talked. However, Amon couldn't sense any hostility coming from that ghoul. If he could only stand, Amon would immediately attack him when his guard down.

"Then why are you doing this?" Amon decided to ask, even though he already had some real, honest reason stored in his head. "Why do you attack us?"

"Wow. Another brilliant question." Kaneki smiled sarcastically. This man really started getting irksome. "So you think we, ghouls, would just stand still and let you guys killing us here and there?"

"Because you all are just monsters that would make humanity extinct!"

"Then I can say the exact opposite, right?" Kaneki replied curtly, "Let me ask you. What makes a living being a 'monster'?"

Amon couldn't reply that. He clammed up. He did know the answer, he did understand the question. But no, he didn't want to admit he lost in that argument.

"From my point of view, CCG is the monster. A hypocrite monster."

"...What are you talking about?"

Kaneki turned his back away, deciding to disclose the conversation. He gave the signal to Sante and Hani to pour the oil down. Both snipers were quick to respond. Both of them descended from the rooftops and poured down the gallons of oil between their leader and the enemy.

"N-no! Wait!" Amon yelled, calling out to the ghoul's name.

Kaneki looked over to his shoulder, showing Amon his glimmering red eye,"Know your sin."

What he saw next was the curtain of fire that blocked their way. Hot air stroked his long face but it really didn't matter to him.

"...Sin?"

"Oi, Amon!"

"!" Amon looked over the man who called him. His face that looked better now turned quite sour. "What?" He replied curtly.

"Guess what? I fought Jason up there!" He said as his eyes sparkled like a kid, "Apparently he wasn't as strong as I expected. I'm disappointed really."

Both Amon and Akira twitched their eyebrows. Something was wrong. They still couldn't believe that Zetsu Toukage who was supposedly fired 4 years ago because he violated a certain law. Why would he be inside the CCG's base? The man wasn't supposedly able to walk around outside freely. His punishment was that severe.

"Why the hell are you here, Toukage? How did you get-"

Ignoring Akira's question, Zetsu cut her off to insult her, "THE Spine User-Akira Madou got bitten by The Binge Eater. Wew, ain't that lame, Akira-chan?" Zetsu teased, trying to hit on her nerves. He really did try to make her even madder by adding 'chan' behind her name.

"Don't make me get a detention from killing you right now, Toukage." Akira said threateningly. Her eyes poured out the hatred she had for the awful man.

"That's nasty! I'm really sad you know... There wasn't any home-coming party for me..." Zetsu pouted with his fake disappointment. "I could've used your... 'company', Akira-chan." He ended with a disgusting grin which Akira hated so much.

Without more thinking, the pissed off woman abruptly stood up from her seat, readying her hand to slap the shit out of the grinning man.

Before Akira was able to bring her hand up to slap Zetsu, Amon was fast to interfere and spoke out, "Zetsu, were you in the building?" He said. His hand grabbed on Akira's shoulder firmly to stop her rampage.

Zetsu shifted his eyes toward Amon, secretly feeling disappointed for not receiving the reaction he wanted to see. "Yeah." The man replied nonchalantly.

"You survived."

"I got out before it blew up. So I didn't get to finish Jason off."

"You only met him?"

"Hm... Not really. I met Gourmet and that heavily tattooed one."

"...The one with piercings and black hair?"

"Yeah, that one."

"You fought the three of them?"

"Long story. I'll tell you later at the head quarter. Too tired to speak anymore now. Remind me for the story telling."

Amon only tutted. He turned away from that place, checking on everybody else. It had been half an hour after the raid. The medical teams had arrived on the scene, treating the heavily wounded ones and evacuated whatever bodies they could find from the burned down base.

Amon bit his lip. He recalled what The Centipede said to him again.

"Know your sin."

From that, Amon deducted. This raid was definitely like what he thought.

This raid came from a personal hatred. This raid was a revenge.

The CCG did something wrong from the past, something which even Amon didn't know about. The man decided. He had to do something about this.

He had to find the truth.

He had to find the 'sin'.

Kaneki walked down towards the stairs which lead down to the underground cell where they kept their prisoners. However this time, he didn't keep anyone in there.

So what business does the leader had down there?

"...Kaneki."

The violet haired woman who were standing in front of the door called out to his name. She saw the man she'd been waiting already changed his clothes to an ordinary white shirt and a pair of black dress pants. His typical attire.

"Is he awake yet?" Kaneki asked as he looked at the steel door.

"Not yet." She replied.

Kaneki glanced to his side, looking at Rize, "You don't want to go home first?" He asked worriedly. It was already late, and he knew so well that his woman was tired. "Kazu's still up there. He can take you home. I asked him to wait for you."

Rize went quiet for awhile. She was thinking about the offer. She was tired, but not really. She wanted to take a quick warm shower then threw herself onto the bed, yes. Her stomach was also full. She ate some snacks back there. Then, her scalp felt a sudden comforting touch which stopped her from thinking anymore.

"I'll be long, Rize. Go get some rest back home." Said Kaneki.

'Home', how she loved that word. Well, she knew what he actually meant. He wanted to be alone in that cell with Yamori. Only God knows what'd happen. But one thing for sure, Kaneki didn't like it when someone jeopardized his perfect plan, even if it was his own friend. If only it wasn't Yamori, Kaneki would've killed that one guy.

"I understand," Rize began to walk away leaving the leader alone standing in front of the steel door. She stopped for a brief second before she passed the man, "Don't be too late, okay?"

Kaneki only smiled. He only nodded and that reaction was satisfying enough for Rize.

Once he heard his woman's heels continued stepping on the cold concrete floor, Kaneki touched the door knob and pushed it down. He opened the door. There he saw Yamori was sitting on a single chair, still unconscious. That chair was the chair that The Jason had always used for his play time purpose. What irony for him to be sitting there now.

"Wake up." Kaneki said once. No response. "Wake up." This time he bellowed. Still no response.

Losing his patience, Kaneki brought up his fist and landed it on Yamori's face. Either it was too strong or Yamori was too powerless that the punch could send him falling to the floor.

"Ngrrngh..." Yamori groaned, signaling that he was starting to wake. His eyes were shut tight, his blonde eyebrows were creased, slowly he opened those small eyes. "...Where am I?"

"Stand up." Even though Yamori just woke up, he could tell that cold voice were meant for him. He shifted his gaze up, and it found a pair of legs looming over him. When he lifted his head up a bit, he caught that one, dissatisfied face of Kaneki Ken. Kaneki was close to pissed off.

With a groan, Yamori slowly stood up. The drug effect was still lingering in him, disturbing his nerves, making his legs felt weak. He also just realized that his hands were handcuffed.

As Yamori straighten his back, he spoke to the angry man, "Liste-!?"

Before he got the chance to finish a word, Kaneki kicked the big ghoul's stomach, sending him not too far away and ended up rolling on the tiled floor. Enough for The Centipede to take his sweet walk and ask him to get up one more time.

"Kuh... What the fuck, Kane-GAH!" When Jason just tried to get up one more time and were already on four, Kaneki kicked his ribs one more time. This time hard enough to make the S rated ghoul groaned in pain.

"What was the deal, Yamori?" Kaneki asked coldly. No kidding, Yamori really wouldn't be able to get a good night sleep today with his body hurting all over like this.

"Urggh..." Yamori groaned again. His recovery ability wasn't fully working because of the drug. And even though he really hated to admit it, every single kick from Kaneki would always get into his nerves of pain. He sparred with him sometimes and he knew they were on par. However this time, Yamori was really weak. There was no way he could fight back.

"No turning into a kakuja whenever I get to raid..." Yamori finally said lowly. He was sitting on top of the floor, embracing himself for maybe another punch on his face.

And he was right. He was quick to gritted on his teeth before his face got hit by another frontal kick. Yamori fell on his back heavily. Blood oozing from his big nose. As the last touch, Kaneki stomped his feet that he used to kick on top of Yamori's chest. It wasn't really that hard. Honestly, it was just for the white head's own satisfaction. He felt like he didn't go all out enough tonight.

"Do you have any idea just how many of our members died because we took too long playing around there?" Kaneki paused, "186 members."

Yamori didn't say anything for that. He didn't feel any sympathy at all. He really didn't care. He wasn't even responsible for a team in the first place anyway. However it was indeed quite a loss. They'd be low on manpower for the next raid.

"Do you even remember that one time when this happened when we raided the base in the 5th ward? It took more than a hundred lives from our side. But what's worst, mostly you were the one who killed them. Your kakuja form is to blame."

Jason gave a wide grin for that, showing his bloodied white sharp teeth, "This time I didn't right?"

"You didn't. Which is the only one good thing coming from your contribution tonight." Kaneki pushed his loafer harder on Jason's chest and leaned down his body, "Your kakuja is unstable, Jason. It's a different story if I was there. I could stop you. But I wasn't. You're mainly responsible for this loss."

Yamori really didn't like what's happening to him. He really didn't like it seeing Kaneki standing on top of him, acting all high and mighty, punishing him as he wished. In the first place, he was in his own fucking play room. With unwritten rules, even Kaneki had no authority over this place. His sacred play room.

"Get your fucking foot off me first then I'll explain why I lost my control, Kaneki." Yamori said as his handcuffed hands grabbed onto the leader's ankle. However, Kaneki didn't just budge away. Nobody could order him right now, even Jason in his own room.

"It's punishment time, Yamori. You wo-"

"Goumasa Toukage."

Kaneki immediately clammed up. He widened his eyes. Time seemed to stop for a moment. That name hit his ears like baseball bat, recalling lots of memories. Unknown to him, Yamori could see the rare astonished face of Kaneki Ken. He should've said that before that friend of his hit him like a sandbag here and there. Well, it wasn't like Kaneki gave him the chance anyway.

Kaneki lifted up his foot from Jason's chest, putting it back to the floor with a light thud. Yamori took that as his cue to sat back up. Actually he hoped there wouldn't be any surprise attack coming to his face again. He used the back of his big hand to wipe his bloodied nose. His small eyes stayed on that one foot that was used to beat him up-okay so far so good.

After calming his mind, Kaneki finally spoke. "What about him?"

"Heh, you're still effected by his name alone, aren't you?" Yamori grinned, "Feeling your heart beats faster?"

"Shut the fuck up and tell me what you mean." Kaneki replied curtly. It was already late at night. He wanted to go home fast and sleep.

Yamori only chuckled at that. When Kaneki spoke a cursed word, he really couldn't help but to obey. After all the blonde man didn't want to die on the leader's hand tonight.

"Sit down first. It's tiring to look at you up there."

Kaneki only tutted. Grudgingly he sat down on the floor. One leg propped his left arm, while the other was bent inside.

"Now speak." The leader demanded.

"I met a strong investigator when I was inside, on the fifth floor." Said Yamori as much as he hated to admit it.

"Strong?" Kaneki raised his eyebrow. His S rated ghoul friend just said there was a strong investigator, which was very rare of him. "How strong?"

"Enough to be on par with you and forced the kakuja out of me." Yamori replied seriously. "But... I have to admit, I used the kakuja out of my hatred. It happened when he told me his name."

"What's his name?"

"Zetsu Toukage." Yamori paused, "Goumasa's son."

Kaneki widened his eyes for the second time now. His mouth made a tight frown. He would never have thought about hearing that name again. The name that both him and Yamori hated so damn much. But now what? Zetsu Toukage, Goumasa's son. The human they hated the most had a son and like what Yamori said, he was strong.

"...So he left a living seed in this world. How could I have never heard of his name?" Kaneki asked to himself. It had been 4 years since their first raid. How could he never ever seen nor heard about this man?

"You should've met him," Yamori gave a chuckle, "He's as insane as us."

Kaneki looked back up from his leg. He tilted his head and raised an eyebrow, "What do you mean?". It wasn't like he didn't understand. Even Kaneki knew that he, himself, was not even what people could call 'normal'. Hell, his own girlfriend was insane too. But he wasn't really sure if he could see himself just as insane as Yamori.

"Fucking hell, Kaneki." Yamori shook his head. That amused grin still attached on his lizard-like face. "I met this guy when I was in the middle of cleaning up the fifth floor. Suddenly I heard someone calling me, "JASON! THERE YOU ARE!", like that. Well automatically I looked at the source of the voice, right? Then what happened next was incredible."

"What? What did he do?"

Yamori swung his hand in the air and blew the wind out from his mouth, "He saved me some time by killing the rest of the other people in there and only left the two of us. Honestly, that's incredible. I was amused."

The leader didn't feel anything. No hatred, no anger, no sympathy, but only confusion. "Why would he do that?"

"I've never seen any investigators acting like him. He's the only one who's crazy about me. But knowing that he's Goumasa's son, that makes sense." Yamori said as he shrugged his shoulders.

"He must have thought you were the one who killed Goumasa." Kaneki chuckled.

"Oh shut up. Just knowing that he was still alive after I got him good yet somebody managed to kill him still irritate me to the bone," Yamori then gave the leader a grudging stare. He brought up his hand up, pointing out his index finger to Kaneki's face, "Especially knowing that you were the one who actually did it."

Kaneki only smirked. It looked smug in Yamori's eyes and the blonde only tutted. Kaneki threw back his head, looking up to the ceiling. He closed his eyes, remembering the feelings he felt during those times. When the first time he met Goumasa until when he ended the man's life.

"...He changed us didn't he, Yamori?" Kaneki bellowed. His head was still tilted up.

"He did," Unknowingly to the leader, Yamori grinned. He brought up his hand, and he repeated his habit again, "To be better."

Kaneki heard that he knew all-too-well cracking sound. Hearing that pushed out the impulse to do the same. Kaneki brought up his black nailed hands. His grey eyes were looking at them for awhile. Bitter memories from 8 years ago haunted his vision once more.

As if destroying the memories, or maybe triggering it more, Kaneki cracked his finger. He really couldn't let that habit go. Somehow, it had become a part of himself. Honestly he also didn't know why on earth he kept doing it. That habit was something both him and Yamori inherited from Goumasa. He honestly didn't understand why he felt... he felt stronger like that. He felt... he felt more in control. It was really hard to explain it with words.

"We have to meet that Zetsu Toukage again. I want to fight him and see what he looks like." Kaneki said. He slowly stood up from the cold floor, leaving his friend who was still sitting with crossed legs. "You can go now Yamori. I'm going back home."

"This handcuff needs to go off first, sir." Yamori said sarcastically. He brought up his big hands again to show that the handcuff were starting to get uncomfortable, and he needed it to be taken care off ASAP.

"Yamori, you can break that by yourself." Kaneki sighed as he shook his head. Well, he had the key but he figured Yamori wouldn't need it anyway.

"My strength still haven't return to me." He said grudgingly.

"You're just too lazy to try so break that off by yourself." Kaneki rolled his eyes. He turned his back away, leaving Yamori behind.

"Oi! I'm serious! The drug's dose that shitty Gourmet made is 30% higher than norm-GIVE ME THE KEY, HEY!" Yamori stood up when he went frantic when Kaneki almost leaving out from the room. The leader loudly sighed again. He took out the key from his pocket, then threw it away to Yamori. He didn't even care if the blonde guy managed to get it.

"I'm going. Thanks for the info." Said Kaneki for the last time now. He walked away from the room, turning right to the stairs that lead above.

When he finally got out from the basement, he looked at the sky. The moon shone bright above his head, but the stars were hindered behind curtains of clouds. Nobody was there, they had already gotten home. His car and Jason's were still parked in the lot, untouched.

Kaneki checked out his watch. 22:38.

The man pulled out the black eyepatch he didn't wear from his pocket. He wore it again this time. The sudden fabric that touched his left eye felt so familiar and comfortable. He walked to his car, getting in the driver's seat.

But before Kaneki started the engine, he pulled down the visor. From there he took out the photo which Tsukiyama gave to him in their fancy dinner.

His thumbs caressed its surface, specifically on his aunt's face. Slowly his face made out a wide smile, his eye softened in a dark way.

"Soon... We'll meet again." The Centipede mused.

A/N: FAST UPDATE, YEA? YEP!

Soon.

Sooooooon... :3