Chapter 29

One Step Forward

Kanae was standing in front of the wooden door of the library. He tidied up his dark purple suit a bit and tucked some of his hair behind his ear before he knocked. He wanted to appear his best before his master.

"Master Shuu, may I come in?" he asked after he knocked.

"Come in." Tsukiyama's faint voice replied.

Kanae proceeded to open the door and stepped inside. "The car is ready, Master Shuu. Our driver's currently waiting at the lobby." He said as he bowed.

Tsukiyama closed his book and stood up. He smiled widely and tidied up his blazer. The Gourmet seemed excited. "Very well. Let's go, Kanae."

"Yes, Master." Kanae smiled back. He stood beside the door to let Tsukiyama walked out first. He closed the door immediately as he reminded himself to tell the maid to get that book on top of Tsukiyama's favorite chair back to the shelf.

Both Tsukiyama and Kanae got inside of the car. The driver greeted his master a good morning before he stepped his foot onto the gas pedal. Kanae sat in front while Tsukiyama casually sat behind with his phone on his hand. He was reading the news.

"Kanae, have you read the news?" Tsukiyama asked with an amused expression attached on his face.

"My apologies, Master Shuu. No, I have not."

"'Centipede Comes Back Again! 15th Ward's CCG Base Destroyed'," Tsukiyama read the headline aloud, "How marvelous. I am so proud of us. Now that you're back Kanae, my team will be in our top form again." He said proudly. A genuine smile spread across his face, looking forward to work together again with Kanae.

Kanae chuckled. It made him feel happy to see such positive energy coming from his master in the morning. He hoped he could keep that forever. "I will do my best to meet your expectations, Master Shuu."

The car was taking them to Mukade's secret base. It was the first Sunday after their last raid. This Sunday would be more than just a meeting for all of the captains. It would be a meeting for all of the members of Mukade. Kaneki would stand in front of them all to give his speech. After that, he would speak to all of the captains regarding their next plan. Thirty minutes later, they both finally arrived at the 11th ward. Stepping out from the car, Tsukiyama swept back his silky hair and walked towards the basement with Kanae loyally followed behind him.

"Good morning, Tsukiyama-san!" greeted the guard in charge of that day, "Ah, Kanae-san is back too. It's good to see you again, sir!"

"It is good to see you too, Rie. I look forward to work with you again." Kanae replied out of kindness. Rie was a sweet ghoul and also helpful in raid. She might not look like it, but the young ghoul was strong enough to survive. Rie proceeded to use her card to open the gate towards the basement. After it was fully opened, both Tsukiyama and Kanae began to walk down the stairs as the neon lights lit up one by one to aid their vision. Tsukiyama could hear the noises from down there. It seemed like most ghouls had already arrived and indulged themselves in their annual party.

Tsukiyama saw Itori and Uta both sat on the bar. They were conversing with other members as they sipped on their glass of "wine". Smiling, Tsukiyama approached them both.

"Good morning Itori-san and Uta-kun!"

"Oh! Hello Tsukiyama-oh my God Kanae you're back!!" the brunette's eyes quickly lit up after she saw the lilac haired man behind the Gourmet. "I've missed you! How are you? How was German?"

"It is good to see you too, Itori-san. Now that I am here to continue helping Mukade, I feel great." Kanae said as he smiled. "Whenever I'm in German, I feel like home. So having to work there comes with a sense of pride and comfort too. Perhaps you should visit German sometimes, Itori-san?"

"I'd love too! But," Itori winked, "Only if you become my tour guide."

"Ahahaha. I'm afraid I still have my responsibility to stay by Master Shuu's side, Itori-san."

"Well now ladies and gentlemen. Before we talk about vacation, we still have work to do and that is-" Tsukiyama paused to look straight beyond. His eyes focused on a certain person, "To fight for our dearest leader."

Kanae followed Tsukiyama's gaze. There, sitting with Rize on the sofa talking with both Banjou and a new member he hadn't met yet, he saw Kaneki Ken. The Mukade's Leader.

His master's leader.

Without his master knowing, Kanae's face turned grim. His right hand grabbed ahold of his left wrist softly as it was the place where the mark of his membership placed. Permanently.

And truth to be told, he hated it.

Feeling happy, Tsukiyama walked ahead to approach his leader. His struts were long and confident as always. Everyone greeted him as they saw him and of course for a gentleman such as Tsukiyama he waved his hand back. Everyone respected him. Well, maybe except Yamori and Rize.

"Kaneki-kun!" Tsukiyama yelled out his name because the place was too crowded.

Kaneki looked sideway when he heard his name. He smiled when he saw the Gourmet was there, "Morning, Tsukiyama." Both Banjou and Ren greeted him too. Having Tsukiyama in there never fails to lighten up the atmosphere. Kanae shortly followed behind and didn't forget to put up his smile. He didn't want to be the only one sour in that party. After all, Mukade's accomplishment was in his agenda too.

"I'd like to say congratulations for our victory. I believe your decision to step in the raid was a good one." Tsukiyama praised. "Too bad Kanae didn't get to join us." He looked behind to see his loyal servant stood idly.

Kanae humbly bowed his head as he spoke, "I am sorry for my absence in the last raid, Kaneki-san. Now that I'm back, I'll be sure to give you my utmost support for the next raids."

The leader smiled. After all, thanks to Kanae, Kaneki was able to track where the doctor is.

"It's alright. Your job for the Tsukiyama Family comes first. It would be rude of me to forbid you from going especially towards Mirumo-san."

"You have my gratitude." Kanae replied.

"It's good to see you again, Kanae! We've missed you." Banjou greeted as he waved his hand. For Banjou, Kanae was a member that deserved to be respected for both his attitude and power. Banjou truly looked up towards Kanae's loyalty for Tsukiyama too. "I look forward to fight with you again." Banjou added.

Kanae chuckled, "Good to see you too again, Banjou-kun. You can count on me" He said with a nod.

Everyone gave Kanae a very warm welcome. He was a ghoul that everyone found to be nice, not to mention very dependable too. Together with Tsukiyama they were unstoppable. Having two powerful ghouls from the Tsukiyama House was nothing but an advantage. First time Tsukiyama joined, three days later Kanae joined and introduced himself as Tsukiyama's aide. His loyal servant.

Now that everyone was there, Kaneki stood up and stand in front of everyone. He clapped his hands to get some attention for his brief opening speech. Everyone took notice of it and stop talking with each other. Their attention was solely focused to the leader who brought their victory.

"Good morning, ghouls of Mukade. Today we proudly celebrate our twenty third victory through out these 4 years. Knowing just how far we have gotten here, it is truly a remarkable achievement for what a ghoul organization can reach," Kaneki paused to look at everyone's eyes, "Mukade is the first and the ONLY ghouls organization that succeeded in infiltrating the CCG's bases. WE are the ONLY ones who are serious and brave enough in taking them down. We are WARRIORS!"

With his shout, he made everyone screamed along with pride and honor. Everyone in that place was proud of what they've done. Everyone looked up to their leader, trusting him with their lives. After the crowd calmed down, the leader continued.

"Of course, we would never get this far without sacrifices. Your parents who died in hunting for your foods, your brothers who protected you, your sisters who died for you, your friends who got killed in front of your own eyes, and also the ghouls of Mukade who died in the raids, today… we honor them. Do not let their deaths be in vain. Make this worth it. Do not forget them. Let their deaths be the oil to fuel your spirit to fight. And last but not least.." Kaneki looked at the table beside of him and took a glass of blood that was still left untouched. "I, Kaneki Ken, leader of Mukade. I promise. I shall lead us to our desired victory. We will NOT lose. Not without all of your help. Again, I thank all of you for walking on this journey with me. I thank all of you for trusting me."

With a smile, Kaneki brought up his glass as a sign of his closure.

"For vengeance."

"FOR VENGEANCE!" Everyone roared along as that speech was the lighter that burned their spirit. Everyone celebrated for being alive and victorious for another day.

In his apartment, Amon was doing his usual 50 push-ups routine with sweats dripping like rain on top of his floor. He was doing it to shake off his nervousness. The big man was expecting someone today and he didn't want to think too much about since it would be his first time having a colleague going inside his private place. Suddenly the bell rang, making Amon hastily stood up to open the door.

"Good morni-" Akira stopped after she saw the view, "Um… do you mind wearing your shirt?" She awkwardly asked.

Amon quickly looked at himself then he just realized his heavily sweaty body was completely bare for Akira to see. He immediately apologized and closed the door back again just to wear his shirt, leaving his colleague hanging in front of his door. Amon took a hand towel to wipe off his face quickly and then he went back to open the door. He hoped Akira wasn't mad about it, but he was definitely sure he didn't make a good first impression of his home.

"I-I'm really sorry. Please come in, Madou-san."

"You okay, right?" The woman asked as she began to walk inside, "Excuse me."

"Y-yes! I'm okay. You can leave your shoes there." He replied. "I'm uh… I'm just…"

The braided hair woman looked around the place. It wasn't too big. Enough space for a man to live alone, spacey enough for two residents. Akira could smell her partner's distinctive scent. Quickly disturbed by that thought, Akira looked back smirking.

"Your first time inviting a girl in?" She said teasingly.

"M-Madou-san!!" Amon couldn't help but to get flustered. He was big for a size yet his guts were not as big as his body. In matter outside of work that was.

"I'm joking. Relax. We're here to discuss our secret mission, yes?" Akira chuckled. "Well, where do we sit?"

"Uh… you mind the island?"

"Not at all."

Akira took a seat on the high wooden chair and dropped her bag on the chair beside of her. She took out her notebooks and some papers to the table. Amon was in the kitchen, filling two glasses of cold water. Then he joined Akira by sitting opposite of her.

"Have you eaten, Amon-san?" She asked to break the ice.

"Breakfast? Oh, no I haven't. I'll eat later."

Akira smiled, "Good thing I bought us some onigiri! I haven't had my breakfast too. Only drank a cup of coffee on my way here." She said as she got back to her bag and took 6 onigiri with different fillings. "Pick whatever you like."

"Th-thank you very much Madou-san. You know you didn't have to do this." Amon said as he looked at the amount of his share of breakfast. He thought Akira was being very generous of him. Perhaps it was a courtesy.

"Hey, don't sweat it. It's better to eat while we discuss something serious. It's almost 10 already."

"Then… Thanks for the food." The man took one with the chicken filling and started to eat it. He felt fulfilled nicely. A nice filling after an exercise is always the best.

"Were you doing work outs Amon-san?"

Amon nodded, "Yeah. Fifty push-ups. It's my daily routine every morning."

"Admirable. I've always known you have a strong discipline." Akira complimented as she smiled and took an onigiri.

"It's what I think an investigator should do to keep their body fit all the time. And uh… I like working out. It keeps you positive and healthy in the long run."

"True. I do work out, usually yoga at home and jogs every 4 days a week. It does keep your body in shape and your mood positive." She nodded as she chewed a bite. That day, both Akira and Amon learned a little something more about each other. "Okay, shall we get to business?"

Amon nodded and adjusted himself on his seat to get serious. "Of course."

Amon began to talk about his short conversation with Mukade's leader two days ago. About how brief yet it was almost enough for him to get a glimpse of what was the motives behind Mukade's attacks. However the answer was not there. Not deep enough for them to figure something out. Akira started to contemplate. She wrote some notes on her notebook, reading them over again.

"Remember... your sin?" She muttered outloud. "Sin? A fault? CCG's fault?"

"Back then in the file room, I was searching any records from when I haven't joined the CCG. Unfortunately I haven't found anything useful since you said you wanted to talk about it with me."

"I'll help you tomorrow. But now let's talk hypothetically. Centipede clearly stated CCG had done something in the past. Something that we are not aware of. I can confidently saying his problem is not about us killing ghouls. It's more than that." She began to voice out her opinion. Starting to find her throat getting dry, Akira drinks her cold water to refresh.

"He laughed at me when I said he wanted to conquer Tokyo. His goals... it's not as shallow as we think it is. This attack has been personal. It's a grudge."

"And Centipede recruits ghouls to join on his venture of vengeance," Akira quickly added as she wrote more notes then dropped her pen. "Was he charismatic enough to you, Amon-san?"

"I couldn't really tell. But from the way he talked, I judged him as someone who's strict and ambitious. A man... of his words? I mean-well he did gave me that vibe." The raven haired man shrugged. He proceeded to open another onigiri to eat feeling his stomach not full yet.

Akira nodded. She took full acknowledgement of that information. She wanted to get everything into account.

"How about his voice?" She asked, "Was it familiar?" She said hoping that the answer would be according to her expectation.

"I know what you're thinking but sorry his voice was just like your generic young adult male voices. It was hard for me to find something distinctive about it." Answered Amon as he shook his head slightly.

"Kay... Anyway, Amon-san," Akira coughed up a couple of breaths and said, "I think we're onto something here." Akira said as she sipped her water again, "This is what we're gonna do. We will find out what is the problem that he meant. In order to that, we'll have to do our own research on records before we joined the CCG. I'm going to ask for the IT's help."

"Are we going to talk about this in the meeting tomorrow?"

Akira went quite for a while. She was thinking what the outcome would be if they were to tell their boss. Akira thought if she couldn't back her findings with enough facts, it wouldn't be worth it. Finally she answered, "If we can't find anything worth considerating, we'll talk to Marude."

Amon nodded. The guy trusted Akira's every decisions. He knew he was not a guy fittes for a brain. He mostly relied on his strength. He was grateful for having Akira as his partner. She fillled his weakness.

"Got it."