Kill him… Annihilate him… Devour him…
Damn it, I'm still listening voices in my head, but I don't have time to think about that right now. I must run inside the restaurant and find the Gourmet as soon as possible, before him… No, don't think about that, Leonard will be fine, no doubt about it. And if the Gourmet dares to harm him…
But I can't think about it right now. The mask I'm wearing will only protect me from the poison that the Gourmet released, but it won't protect me from any other damage. I must advance carefully or a ghoul might take me by surprise, the same way the Gourmet did. Damn it, how could I lower my guard so easily? I must be cold, merciless, brutal…
I must be strong.
I will be your strength, Kaneki…
Again? These fucking voices again, are they never going to stop?
You want strength… I will give it to you… again…
Whatever the voices say… the only strength I need is my own strength. And that strength is the one pushing me forward as fast as I can go. I can hear the cries of humans and ghouls while they are fighting each other around. Even though I hate it, I don't have time to help them. My objective is only one: to save Leonard and kill the Gourmet by any means necessary. But…
A sudden change in the atmosphere makes me stop and crouch for a second, just in time to evade the charge of a ghoul that ends up hitting a lateral wall. It makes a heavy noise and provokes dust, and I make use of this confusion to attack him with my halberd. I can hear him cry in pain, and I consider it over, because I don't have enough time to finish the job. Anyways, the damage is enough to force him to stay on the ground till another investigator finds him.
Damn it, what am I thinking? I just fought a ghoul for the second time in my life and I left him alive. But I have a good reason: I must rescue Leonard. I can't doubt now, I must keep running. I cross lots of rooms and corridors, but there's no sign of them anywhere around. I am desperate right now, I'm afraid I won't be able to find them in time. I…
-KANEKI, WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING HERE?!
-…!
The voice of an investigator takes me by surprise, and when I turn around to fin who it is, I realize it was one of the investigators from Squad 0, Arima's team. He seems terrified and surprised because I am inside, and that makes him lose his concentration. I am about to shout to him that I have things to do and that he must keep fighting, but then he screams at me again.
-DAMN IT, GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE, HE IS GOING TO…!
He is going to…? But neither of us has enough time to react or talk, because a ghoul jumped out of nowhere and took the head of the investigator with his kagune. What type of kagune was that? I couldn't tell, neither did I care. I just wanted to kill him and avenge my comrade.
-Such a mess, that idiot Tsukiyama really knows how to attract attention – With extreme care; the ghoul accommodates his glasses and takes care of his brown hair. He seems a little bit older than me.
-FUCKER, FUCKER, FUCKER! – I don't care what the ghoul is talking about, but I am going to kill him no matter what.
Neither of us, the ghoul and me, have enough time to react to this situation. By the time I realize it, I am rushing forward to the kagune of the ghoul. Looking carefully now, it is a tail. Bikaku type? This could go really bad. If he manages to evade my halberd, he will have a free route to any of my vital organs. Damn it, I didn't think it enough, I could really die here. But I believe I still have a chance: if I manage to thrust my quinque through his tail, I will at least be able to repel the impact. Whatever comes next is another story. Something else I should think about? Not sure. Anyways, here I come and…
I missed.
I was too slow. Damn, damn, damn. I can see his triumphal aspect on his disgusting ghoul face while he thrust his tail to my face, and it's about to crash. I can feel my fury while thinking that such a horrible ghoul is going to kill me. I need strength, god dammit. I NEED TO BE STRONGER!
You just had to ask, Kaneki… Okay, I will be your strength.
I close my eyes, waiting for the impact, and it frustrates me that my last thought is a voice on my head that didn't stop since I got my quinque. Then, on a fraction of milliseconds, I know how I will be able to beat him. My quinque had transformed on the claw mode, and the four claws were trying to stop the tail of the ghoul, just in time to save my eye from a sure spike. I know it was a sure hit because the tail managed to break one of the glasses from the mask, and now I can see him clearly. But something has changed within him, because he looks surprised and terrified, as he won't stop looking at my quinque.
-You… that kagune… Was it you who killed him? – I can hear the ghoul taking abruptly, like he had seen a revelation just in front of him.
-Killing who? – My quinque is holding his tail, so I feel safe to interrogate him. Why am I doing this? Damn it, I'm in a hurry, I can't lose any more time.
-Maybe… you are the killer of the centipede?
-…Centipede? – Centipede… I think I know that name. Damn it, why am I still losing time with this ghoul?
-ANSWER ME, IDIOT! DID YOU KILL CENTIPEDE?! WHY ARE YOU USING HIS RINKAKU?!
-I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT, SHUT UP ALREADY! – Damn it, this gives me headache.
-FUCKER, IT IS YOUR FAULT THAT TSUKIYAMA NEARLY DIED! ALSO, CENTIPEDE WAS MY FRIEND, AND YOU KILLED HIM! – The ghoul has gone crazy – NOW I AM GOING TO KILL YOU!
I don't have time to relax and recover from the headache because the ghoul is coming for me, using the pressure on his tail to launch himself towards my face. I think he believes that, since my quinque is holding his tail, I won't have any way to counter his attack. But I'm not as dizzy as before, when I fought Gourmet, and he is way slower than the purple haired ghoul, so I can keep pressure on his tail while I knock his head with my empty briefcase. Right now I am happy that they are made with a resistant material, but it just buys me some seconds. Well, that's more than enough to land a killing blow and avenge the dead investigator. I just need to crush him and…
Stop.
…And I end up crushing the four claws on his limbs. Four fucking claws and none of them managed to hit a vital spot. I can hear his cries of agony, and I know he is incapable of fighting any more. Should I keep fighting him? Of course not, I must hurry and find Gourmet and Leonard. Damn, he is the third ghoul I fight and I am incapable of finishing the job. But that will change soon, since I will start to fix this situation killing the first ghoul I fought. I am definitely killing the Gourmet.
While I keep running through the restaurant, I can't stop thinking about the name that the bikaku ghoul talked about: Centipede. Why am I so curious about this name? Centipede, Rinkaku, Gourmet… Is there any kind of connection between all of this? Undoubtedly, my quinque shares some relation with a Rinkaku type kagune. Maybe Centipede used a Rinkaku? Is this Centipede connected with the Gourmet? Too many ideas right now, but I must focus on my mission and find them already. But where…?
Kaneki, remember…
That I remember…?
The main dish… the main hall…
The hall…? I am so desperate right now that I believe it is fine to let myself be driven by a voice inside my head. The main hall… I keep running while my head is aching even more. I feel like it's going to explode when I manage to find the main hall.
There they are: Leonard is tied to a large table while the Gourmet is inspecting a bunch of instruments on an auxiliary table near Leonard, and a bunch of corpses of dead investigators surround him. I am frozen with this scene, and I can't help it but blame myself for his actions. Was it the Gourmet the one who killed them? Most likely, and I was too slow to rescue any of them. But I won't let this continue. This ends right here.
Should I take advantage of his focus on the table and attack? After all, I still have my quinque activated, and with the strength of the claws I should be able to defeat him. So I jump with all my forces to reach the Gourmet, and I hope that one of my claws – I mean, the claws of my quinque – Crush him.
But this doesn't happen, because while I was in mid-air my quinque returned to the halberd form, and the Gourmet managed to block my attack at last second using his koukaku.