I recognise that this work was produced on the traditional lands of the Kaurna and Ngadjuri peoples.

[][][][][][]

This was not how Ken normally spent his Sunday mornings, walking the sidewalk shoulder to shoulder with Mado Kureo on the investigator's way to his headquarters in the thirteenth.

While he had come to like the man, it set his teeth on edge. Kureo was a killer in away most people on this earth simply weren't, human or ghoul: apathetic, calculating, and unremorseful. He understood people, not empathise with them, nor sympathise with them. Understood them.

They walked past one of the small ponds in on this headquarters campus. If nothing else, the landscaping was very beautiful and neatly finished.

"Do you know what types of flowers they used here?"

"No? Why would I know that?"

Ken shrugged. "I was just thinking they might look nice in a pot."

Kureo, Ken had also realised, struggled with small talk; and thus, elected to ignore his comment.

They approached the glass front of the main building, people in business attire and white coats much like his neighbour's own coming and going – two loitering by a quant bench eating their lunch.

They entered, Ken looking around as Kureo led him towards the stairs, waving his ID to the security guard while Ken taking a moment longer to do the same with is "visitor" lanyard.

"There's been a massive reduction in ghoul activity in the neighbouring ward – our suburb's ward actually."

Ken walked under the RC gate, pace sedate, "really?"

"Yeah, it's not good news though, Kaneki."

"Why not?"

They began ascending the stairs.

"Means a stronger, meaner, ghoul has claimed the territory." Ken made to look thoughtful.

"Should I begin looking for a security upgrade?"

Kureo seemed surprised, eye's widening. "Of course not; apartment complexes are some of the safest places to keep away from ghouls, don't you know?"

"Maybe not?"

"How much school did you miss when your family was killed Ken, honestly?" Yes… Killed by ghouls… It absolutely happened and it's absolutely why I have no family…

"I was traumatised! Things slip past you when you're in that state." He sighed, happy he'd been keeping up with his strength regime as they submitted the four flight of stairs and rounded into the office spaces. "If I didn't have Touka who knows where I'd be."

Kureo scoffed: "Now thoughts like that aren't worth happening: that way leads to madness. It's a left here."

"As you say."

They rounded the corner into Mado's office. The desk was nearly perfectly cantered, a window to its right – Ken's left as he sat in the offered chair, Kureo walked behind the desk and checked the papers atop before sitting. It was a cramped but impeccably organised space.

"I still don't think I'll ever trust others fully."

"That seems reasonable." The investigator shifted in his chair. "One day everything's normal, the next? Someone you loved and trusted is tearing into the dead flesh of someone you loved and trusted. No one's the same after that."

Ken sighed. "No. No, they're not." I certainly never fully recovered from losing control and eating my best friend.

The sharp sound of paper slapping against the edge of the desk brought him back into the room.

Ken took a slow breath in through his nose, then reached forward and began to rifle through the offered paper, taking in the photos of scrawling's over dilapidated walls and other documented ravings. "What's this?"

The investigator smiled. "Well, "this" is why I brought you here. You know literature. This ghoul is obsessed with it." He clapped his hands twice. "Analyse, now! Go!"

Ken laughed; "give me a moment to read, please."

68

"'I have done that,' says my memory. 'I cannot have done that' – claims my pride, and remains adamant. At last – memory yields."

"Memory always yields for the lesser. They allow themselves to be unafraid and sure. They do not look and see those things that haunt them."

73 a

"Many a peacock hides his peacock tail from all eyes – and calls it his pride."

"When is a ghoul not a ghoul, and when is pride not pride? Under the conditions of peace, the warlike man attacks himself – when is a ghoul, a ghoul?"

Odd.

It pulled at his memory.

Something hit him, and he looked to the side, seeing as the purple haired woman leaned against the windowsill.

"Many a peacock hides his peacock tail from all eyes – and calls it his pride." Ken muttered to himself.

It seemed…

He looked up, then swallowed – feeling for all the world like an insect before Kureo's gaze. To be under the scrutiny of a future mad man's eyes…

"Sometimes, Kaneki, It's like you're not all there."

"Sorry. I don't mean to float off like that."

"Hn."

Ken cleared his throat: "Some of this is from a publication of Nietzsche's work; they often include interludes with poems or sayings: the rest are notes or errant thoughts."

"Nietzsche? So, it's deluded."

"Hm?"

"Nietzsche thought that we make meaning through our experiences, right? Not through God. Not though government or society. Through experience. Does this make our ghoul a ghoul who thinks their murder has meaning?"

"Possibly. If so, they're likely working towards manifesting that "meaning" – weather the meaning is as simple as their survival, or something more… I guess that's where you come in."

Kureo huffed. "A Nazi ghoul. Tokyo really needed that. Well, thank you – this provided something of value, I'm sure!"

Kureo checked his phone – a Nokia brick. An undeniable drawback of time travel. "I need to go, my new subordinate isn't going to teach themselves! Go, shew!" he waved his hands appropriately.

Ken grinned. "I'll see you next weekend, if I don't catch you leaving in the mornings."

"Yes, yes; make sure it's you, and not Touka, who cooks."

"Naturally."

[][][][][][]

The electronic bell sounded, singling the start of the last period. Gods Touka was ready to go home and relax – school could be so dull.

She picked up her bookbag, leaving the classroom and making her way across the building, the halls filled with students moving to-and-fro.

School felt so much like a big aquarium, times like these. Glass windows letting the outside world poke in to see the sholes of kids, and the flowing waves of their movements. Like sea grass pushed by the tide.

Then Touka remembered what was waiting for her when she got home, and she had to stifle a groan. Safety planning night. Gods I wish I was still eleven. Her Aunt and uncle had decided she was old enough now to know how they got their meat. Rather who got them their meat.

And with that knowledge came the responsibility if keeping the secret and being present every time her caregiver's discussed alterations to their food schedule.

She was largely unsurprised to lean that her other Uncle, Yomo, (who was her mum's and aunt's little brother apparently) was the one who did most of the hunting in their family.

They explained that this was because he had more time to spend hunting as his job requires him to keep nocturnal hours. The interesting and important thing she'd been told about, however, was that Yomo and her aunt and uncle were hunting for more than just their family.

They were hunting for the lot of the ninth and tenth ward: it was like a charity thing, apparently. Like how humans had soup shelters for the homeless. The old man had given them the idea; having supplied their family with food while they were living hard years ago.

And if anything bad happened – if they were exposed – she was supposed to take Ayato and Ichika to the old man, traveling through the 24th and he'd take care of them again.

Not that anything was going to happen to them – they were very good at hiding both in the literal sense and the societal sense.

Touka rounded the corner, walking bodily into something suddenly, bouncing off it, causing her to fall back.

She landed on her bag, hands splaying out behind her and squeaking against the wooden floor.

Someone laughed, another person "tiched".

There was someone in front of her, above her, looking like she'd kicked their dog, their face distorted into something decidedly unkind.

Shit.

The man bent down and offered their hand.

Touka took it.

He tightened his grip, not letting her pull herself up.

"Would you like to apologies?"

"Sorry?"

"Thank you!"

He pulled her up suddenly; she had to fight for her balance.

He smelt her – Creep!

"Off you pop, now!."

She jumped out of his reach, looking back at him with disgust.

He was already walking away. He had to be a matric student.

Who even dyed their hair purple like that? Making it look boring? It was nothing like her own mix or Aunt Touka's variety of shades.

What a twat, Touka thought, expressing herself through one of her new favourite English words.

[][][][][][]

The Red Rabbit stalked through the abandoned office, following her nose to the conference room, passing three of her "security guards" as she glided through the peeling halls and left-over cubical dividers.

While Touka had successfully dominated and captured the entire ward, she'd broken down her territory into nine subdivisions in the charge of those ghouls willing to contribute time and work to the benefit of the larger whole. These were her shareholders, and they were each aloud a contingent of clerks to help them manage the physical realities of their subdivision.

She'd called this meeting to further develop her understanding of her shareholders' and clerks' wider opinions on forming a defensive alliance with the neighbouring tenth ward. Technically Touka already knew that the leader in the tenth would be amenable – after all, she was married to the dork – but she needed her ghouls to back her willingly.

Otherwise, her family's rebellion was dead on arrival.

These chosen nine had the right to vote on topics brought up during meetings like this one. The Executive themself managed the safety of the entire ward, removing particularly sticky investigators and police while providing shelter and relocation for exposed ghouls.

She walked into the conference room; this time they were making use of a circular table. Cute.

Her two secretaries moved to sit either side of her, once they were sat the rest of the shareholders took their own seats, including her Warden. Technically, her secretaries were themselves shareholders, as such they managed their own subdivisions. They had close to unrestricted access the executive, however, and thus had a degree of influence over the entre ward.

These were elected positions, with four-year terms, unlike that of the warden, which, while it was filled by an elected shareholder, had the same term limit as the executive: eight years. The warden and the executive needed to work closely together to pre-emptively manage the wards wider security.

With some intrusions, you couldn't wait for them to become a problem.

The executive's sole right to remove shareholders who weren't keeping to their duties.

Naturally, being the one to establish and maintain their primitive system of organisation and kill the previous strongest ghoul, Touka, the Red Rabbit, was the executive.

It had been a hard fight – she'd bled – but she'd still came out on top.

So many of the ghouls in this ward were professionals and office workers: salary men. They had, at best, faith and, at worse, familiarity, with this form of hierarchy. It's likely why they'd been so ready to accept it when Touka had proposed it.

It was comfortable for them, with the potential for upward movement and "democratic" power.

Square, the secretary to her right, spoke first; listing the topics for discussion and the order in which they'd be addressed before handing the floor to Fukuda Ritsu. He was one of the few comfortable forgoing his mask.

That had been one of their first votes; weather the members of their Firm must wear masks or not. the result determined that it was the choice of an individual, weather they wanted to take that risk or not.

Amusingly, Touka reflected, the vote following their "mask mandate" regarded weather they would ware casual, smart casual, or business attire.

She smirked behind her mask. Casual was their majority rule.

It was amusingly surreal to be across from the likes of will renowned surgeons and accountants in their trackpants and flipflops. It did set a more relaxed tone to their meetings, which for their kind was helpful.

This many killers in a small space would make any predator uncomfortable.

Fukuda finished his topic, passing the floor back to Square, who intern passed it to the Warden.

He began thusly: "There is an opportunity presented to us to form a secure defensive alliance with the leadership of the tenth ward. I wish for us to discuss what we'd expect to gain from such a relationship and what we'd be unwilling to provide or change in such a relationship."

"Why do we need an alliance with ghouls in the tenth ward?"

"To avoid kidnapping and pressganging." The warden answered calmly. He was in his late fifties, and one of the oldest ghouls Touka had ever met. "Currently, while the Restaurant doesn't represent a large movement in our ward or the tenth, there have been recent cases of their members infiltrating the surrounding wards and taking vulnerable ghouls to eat them."

That statement engendered several sounds of disgust and mutterings of cannibals.

"Furthermore," the warden continued, "we cannot ignore the growing influence of Aogiri Tree in the eastern wards, and the port." The older ghoul sighed. "They are radicals; they don't care about the status quo nor the law, nor exposure."

"Maybe their right to be radicals." Added the shareholder across from Touka.

The warden scoffed. "What's right is irrelevant: they make the everyday lives of ghouls in Tokyo more dangerous by targeting the CCG directly."

"I agree." Touka joined. "Just or no, their actions invite additional scrutiny to every ward. Regardless, in the event of a defensive alliance I'd expect them to be ready to shelter our ghouls in the event of discovery."

That resulted in three "ayes."

"I wouldn't be willing to sacrifice our structure of solving disputes. Do we know if their own process would meld with our own?"

"While their structure is more militant, they solve disputes through a jury-like system." The secretary to her left added.

That held the attention of most present – "Is it stable?"

"It seems to be," Touka answered. "What concerns me most is what they can offer in the way of pre-emptive security, they have at least two capable fighters: Eye Patch and Crow."

"Eye Patch was the one who brought No-Face down a peg, right?" Blue muttered, their voice reflecting a blocked nose.

The warden nodded. "That would help Aogiri Tree re-think their course."

One of her shareholders sighed, there mask a mimicry of a dragon's fearsome visage. "I'm tired of living like this, in the dirt and shadows. I want things to change."

Fukuda Ritsu turned his head in question. "Do you think Aogiri could enable that change? They're violent thugs."

Another joined, "You going to overthrow the government scales?" she scoffed. "Good luck."

"We wouldn't need to overthrow it," Touka began, "just change a few select laws. It's the CCG that needs to be overthrown given the current circumstance."

"Those words cast a big shadow Red…"

"Something to think on and table for moment." Touka sighed. "I'll be making a final decision regarding the ninths desire for a defensive alliance with the tenth two months from now: that's your window to gather your thoughts and vote. In the meantime, I think we ought to move onto our next agenda." She turned to Square, inviting them to speak again.

Authors note: those quotes from Nietzsche are from part four: maxims and interludes, pages 90, 91, 92, of beyond good and evil.

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