Standing out in the brisk autumn night with just his signature white trench coat on over his black collared shirt and white tie, Haise felt his heart pounding rapidly in his chest as he gazed out at the vast asphalt-covered lot of the fairgrounds— overlooking a large canal behind a chain link fence, that separated him from the large office buildings on the other side of the running water. ' There hasn't been a day that's gone by that I haven't fantasized about this moment… And in spite of those imaginative dreams, at the end of the day I've always figured that my only way out of the CCG was through death itself… '
' … Always told myself if and when I got out, that I would leave… Leave Tokyo— leave Japan— and never, NEVERlook back, ' Haise thought solemnly to himself, while continuing to constantly look over his shoulder as he nervously waited for the undesired arrival of his soon-to-be accomplice. ' Yet, here I am… I finally have the opportunity to leave all of this behind… And all I have inside of me is a sense of dread that's compelling me, no… That's BEGGINGme to go back, and to throw myself down on the floor— to beg Marude and anyone else who's willing to listen for forgiveness… I'm afraid— I'm afraid of the consequences that'll inevitably come. '
Silently cursing himself and the power that the CCG still had over him, Haise let out a heavy and elongated sigh— watching his barely visible and frosted breath disappear into a fading cloud of white before him, just as he noticed a slender hooded-figure leaping over the chain link fence, up from the edge of the concrete cliff that dropped onto the canal. Feeling a sinking pit of despair in his stomach, Haise swallowed the lump in his throat before forcing himself to cautiously approach the masked individual— keeping on guard, even after recognizing the snake-like mask that covered the figure's concealed face.
Both he and Orochi came to a trailing halt once the distance between them reached approximately six-meters— the two men silently glancing at one another to read each other's body language. It was then that Haise noticed the stock of what appeared to be a rifle, strapped to the back of the hooded ghoul before him; the indistinguishable diamond-engraved grooves along its shimmering quinque-steel surface made it obvious to Haise as to who's scoped rifle that belonged to. "That's-"
"-The dove's?" Orochi interjected with a somewhat snarky voice, before reaching down to lift the right-sided bottom-flap of his olive-green trench coat— revealing that he had Akira's sidearm strapped around his upper thigh. "What's that old expression again…? Ah, yes: "to the victor, goes the spoils"… I even managed to snag this piece-of-work from the rubble," Orochi said, before nodding down toward his left hand; slipping out past his sleeve was a dark-gray handle, which took Haise a moment before piercing together whose retracted quinque that the ghoul had in his left palm.
"You're… You're a thief," Haise muttered accusingly with his brows knitted, to which elicited a cynical low-chuckle from the masked ghoul.
Applying pressure around the geometric handle, the nerves within Orochi's fingertips were able to send a signal through the quinque-steel that caused severa black tendrils to unravel out from the top of the apparatus in his hand— the small-black tendrils taking the shape of a serrated blade, which completed Thinning's form. "That's rich…! You're telling me that I'M the thief, when CCG's primary income comes from harvesting kakuhous from unwilling ghouls; ghouls who are either murder in cold blood, or imprisoned until their " fountain" runs dry?!" Orochi asked rhetorically with a condescending voice, as he raised Thinning up to showcase its blackened blade to the tongue-tied ex-investigator. "… Doesn't matter, I guess; it's not even for me— it's for you… Here, catch," Orochi said in a dry tone, before retracting the blade back into the quinque's handle.
Confused as to why the ghoul before him was giving him such a useful weapon, Haise caught Thinning's handle after Orochi had half-heartedly tossed it to him. "I… I don't understand… Why are you giving me this?" Haise asked in a cautious voice— darting his eyes from side-to-side, searching for any signs of anyone else attempting to sneak up on him.
Through his snake-like mask, Orochi gave Haise a look of contempt before letting out a low scoff. "Didn't think I needed to point it out, but… Using your kagune or own quinque is a sure-fire way of revealing your identity; your past exploits have made you a bit of an urban legend around these parts, Kaneki," Orochi explained with a slightly smug tone, as he slid one hand into the side pocket of his olive-green trench coat. "… But you already knew that; whether you can see that or not."
' The nerve of this asshole… He's starting to get on my nerves… ' Haise thought annoyed to himself, as he glanced down at Thinning's handle before hesitantly sliding it into the large inner pocket of his trench coat. "… With all that talk about you and I reconnecting, I assumed you would have wanted me to sever ties with the CCG," Haise argued, as he watched carefully as Orochi pulled out a black balaclava from the pocket his hand had been in.
"You, cutting ties with the CCG…? Now why would I want that?" Orochi asked with an audible smirk in his voice, before gesturing for Haise to walk with him as he began to make his departure from the empty fairgrounds. "I hate those bastards as much as the next guy, but your status with them— as minute as you might imagine it being— is what'll give us the inside intelligence we need to find Kimi," Orochi explained in a more genuine voice.
The entire time since having first met up with Orochi, Haise had been seeing the other man as nothing more than the ghoul who had kidnapped someone he cared about, all for the sake of manipulating him to help further his own goal. However, upon hearing the name "Kimi", Haise was then reminded that Orochi wasn't just a ghoul who was an enemy of the CCG, but rather was someone who he was beginning to remember as a dedicated partner— a loyal comrade, who just like him went against the grain to protect those who he cared for.
The deeper Haise found himself lamenting on the past he once had of the ghoul beside him, the more his perception of the real world began to meld with his resurfacing memories. Slowing down with how distracting the visual thoughts before his eyes were getting, it wasn't until Haise caught the glimpse of Orochi changing masks with a balaclava of his own did the imagative bulb above the one-eyed ghoul's head suddenly flicker to life. ' I… I see… I see it now… You… You're… ' Haise's thoughts trailed off, as his pace came to a sudden halt— prompting the ghoul in front of him to stop, before slowly turning around to see the wide-eyed expression on the other man's pale face. "… Nishiki… Nishio Nishiki," Haise uttered out just above a ghostly whisper, which caused the ghoul in question to fall into an deafening moment of silence, before finally breaking the tension with an elongated breath.
" Heh… Hehe… What took you so long to remember that, Kaneki?" Nishki asked with a more relaxed posture— his shoulders lowering slightly, as his voice became less dissociative. Thinking momentarily to himself, Nishiki began to tap the fingers of his right hand against his hip. "… Say, you're not going to have another episode if I take my mask off around you, will you? Last time I tried jogging your memory like that, it didn't end too well, now did it?" Nishiki said with a mildly sarcastic voice— one that resonated with empathy.
Despite Haise wanting to immediately deny the possibility of having a repeat incident of how their last encounter ended, the one eyed ghoul found himself unable to confidently give Nishiki a solid response. Hesitantly, Haise smiled back uneasily at the masked ghoul before softly suggesting, "M… Maybe we should save that for another time… When Mado's life isn't on the line, that is."
Recognizing the slight tone of disapproval in Haise's soft voice, Nishiki rolled his eyes to himself as he slid the frames of his eyeglasses through the eye-holes of his balaclava— watching through the lenses of his glasses as Haise began to pull his own balaclava over his thick-voluptuous hair. "Mado…? Ah, I see… You've got a personal connection to her then, I presume? Huh… Not sure how Kirishima would feel if she knew that you were talking to other women," Nishiki half-jokingly mused, before turning around to begin walking past the entrance of the empty fairgrounds, and towards the opening of the nearest alleyway.
Easily catching up with the abrasive ghoul, Haise furrowed his brow while the two of them traveled in between two backsides of what appeared to be somewhat run-down mom-and-pop shops— the back porch lights of each small business barely illuminating the narrow asphalt road they were walking on. "It's not like that, Nishki. But even if it was, that's besides the point: you're holding her hostage. If you're really wanting me to trust you, then you've got to release her BEFOREyou have me go to God-knows-where with you…"
Considering Haise's request, Nishiki hummed methodically to himself before choosing his words carefully. "Trust is earned, not given,
Kaneki; besides, it's not you who I don't trust— it's her," Nishiki replied honestly, as both he and Haise continued down through the alleys of the 8th Ward. "Think of it this way: not only are we going to miss our deadline to infiltrate the auction— if we were to take a detour back to where I've got her comfortably held up— but then what do you suppose will happen when you come to rescue her; her knight in shining armor?" Nishki asked rhetorically with a somewhat amused sounding tone in his voice, as he glanced over his shoulder to make eye contact with the masked one-eyed ghoul. "Think you'll have time to make it back to help me? Because the way I see it, she'll want you to take her back to CCG's main office— or wherever else the doves go… Sorry Kaneki; it's just not in the cards, I'm afraid."
Although Haise understood the argument Nishki was making against him wanting to prioritize Akira's release, the one-eyed ghoul's protective nature made it all the more frustrating for him to hear the ghoul's response to his request. "And what if this doesn't go our way? It's two of us against an unknown number of Aogiri Tree personnel; the odds aren't in our favor here, Nishiki, so I want to know what the back-up plan is if neither of us get out of this alive?" Haise asked with a low voice, which didn't seem to phase Nishiki much as he proceeded to slide both of his hands into his trench coat's pockets.
"All the more reason for us to not die in the first place; consider her a constant motivation to ensure that BOTHof us get through this mess alive," Nishki quipped half-jokingly in a low-tone voice of his own. "Hope all of that puts your concerns to rest for the time being, Kaneki, because from this point forth, you and I are going to have to be quiet— we're getting close," Nishki said with a more serious voice; a voice that reflected a hidden sense of urgency and uncertainty— revealing to Haise that there was some doubt in the ghoul's mind about what he was dragging the both of them into.
About a half-an-hour had passed since the conversation between Haise and Nishiki came to an end. Before they reached the vicinity of the supposedly closed-down underground theater that was usually reserved for high-profile performers, Nishiki had Haise follow him a fire-escape ladder that led them to an unsuspecting apartment building, approximately a kilometer from where Aogiri Tree's rooftop sentries were overlooking whoever entered the vicinity of their domain. With one hand flat and horizontal from the flat concrete roof that they climbed onto, Nishiki ushered Haise to get on the floor with him before having him follow behind him as he crawled toward the raised concrete ledge overlooking the street below.
Using it as a makeshift battlement, Nishiki held his back up against the meter-tall concrete wall that was built around the entirety of the flat roof; the ghoul pulling his shoulder and upper body out of the leather strapped attached to the bottom of Akira's Barrett 308 Winchester rifle. " Shhh… " Nishiki hushed with one finger held up to his lips, before handing to the perplexed one-eyed ghoul his ill-gotten sidearm.
' … Since when the hell did he learn how to use a gun? Especially a scoped rifle? ' Haise thought curiously to himself, as he did a quick mag-check on Akira's sleek H&K VP9; ensuring that q-bullets were properly spring-loaded, and that there was a round chambered, Haise gave Nishiki an acknowledging nod before holding the pistol out toward the direction of where the ghoul's back was facing.
With Haise covering his back, Nishiki gathered the resolve he needed before peeking out from the cover of the concrete ledge; reminding himself of what he was fighting for, the young man was able to steady his trembling hands long enough to align the crosshairs of his scope on the head of the most isolated groups of ghouls— all of the five aforementioned Aogiri Tree sentries were perched over the ledge of Nishiki could only guess was a factory that was closed for the night. Reading the electronic measurements being displayed on the overlay of Akira's advanced scope, Nishiki quietly did the math in his head of where the bullet drop-off would take effect before finally holding his breath— exhaling shakingly, as he squeezed the trigger five times.
Even with Akira's rifle being equipped with a powerful silencer attached to the tip of its long barrel, the sound was just barely audible enough to grab the attention of the group of sentries who were less than a kilometer from where Nishiki had fired. Narrowly avoiding being caught just after getting a glimpse of one of them speaking into what faintly resembled a walkie-talkie, Nishiki took immediate cover behind the short concrete wall; gasping for breath, as he turned to Haise with a wide-eyed expression on his face.
"T-That should get their attention…! Come on, we can't be here when they show up…!" Nishiki whispered urgently to Haise, before pocketing the dispensed casing of the 308 round that was ejected from his rifle's chamber. Taking the lead once again with Haise watching his back, Nishiki and his comrade began crawling along the ground and toward the rooftop access door. Once there, Nishiki quickly brute-forced the handle open— dislodging the lock entirely, before he and Haise closed the door behind them, as they descended down the flight of stairs, and through the interior of the apartment building they had been in.
Having communicated to Haise about what their next step was, Nishiki had the younger male hide with him behind the dumpster in the back alley of the apartments; hiding behind not only the metal bin itself, but the pungent stench that masked their own fragrances, the two remained out of sight as they watched around forty masked ghouls entering through the back entrance of the apartment building, with many more closing in on the place from the neighboring rooftops themselves. With a majority of Aogiri Tree's nearest sentries investigating the apartment building, while the furthest groups were undoubtedly checking on the six ghouls who wouldn't be able to reply to any sort of radio check issued to them, Nishiki and Haise sprinted as silently as they could toward the surface level building that was built above the underground theater.
Zig-zagging behind cover while mentally keeping track of time of how long he expected the sentries' investigations to last— before they inevitably realized that their defenses had been breached— Nishiki led Haise up the nearly ten-story tall white building that was built on top of the theater where the auction was being housed. Knowing better than to blow their cover by trying out more of Akira's firearms, Nishiki and Haise snuck up on the two sentries who were left to guard the rooftop access door. Wrapping their arms around the throats of the two surprised and hand-muffled ghouls, Nishiki and Haise snapped their necks swirly and cleanly before dealing killing blows on the two Aogiri Tree soldiers.
Although Haise didn't consider himself to be a killer or violent man by any means, at the end of the day he understood that it was either his life, or the lives of his enemies that were on the line, and he couldn't afford to be the one to die— not when Akira was still imprisoned, and in need of a friend would come rescue her. Just like Nishiki, Haise began patting down the bloodied corpse of the ghoul who he had just decapitated; feeling around through the man's pockets beneath his maroon-colored robe, Haise was able to fish out a singular bronze-key— a key that allowed them to open the rooftop access door.
Dragging the corpses of the men who they had just killed into the small room that led to the top step of a spiraling set of stairs that descend further down into the ground-level building itself, Haise was met with flashbacks of the time he, as Ken Kaneki, had escaped an Aogiri Tree headquarters building that was within the 11th Ward; and judging by the methodical expression on Nishiki's face, after he had taken his balaclava off— who seemed entranced by his own mesmerizing flashbacks as well— Haise felt safe to assume that he too was thinking back to that fateful night as well.
"Just like old times for you, right Nishiki…?" Haise quietly joked with a small smirk across his lips, which was visible to the other man after the one-eyed ghoul had pulled his own balaclava off of his head.
Nishiki's partially slack-jaw look of anxiety soon faded away, and in its place there appeared to be a look of nostalgic comfort as the memories of being the first one to see Kaneki's new transformation resonated within the sentimental ghoul during that very moment. Letting out a dry chuckle, Nishiki grinned sheepishly as slipped the maroon-colored robe over his head and arms. " Heh… Yeah… I… I guess this is a lot like that, isn't it…?" Nishiki mused quietly, before concealing his face with the mask of the ghoul who he had dispatched. "That ended well enough for us… So by that logic, this shouldn't be any different then, huh…?" Nishiki half-sarcastically mused, as he hid the rifle underneath the large hood that completely covered his legs with its skirt that reached all the way down to his ankles.
Shrugging his shoulders before slipping on his own slightly bloodied robes and mask, Haise stood patiently as Nishiki used one hand to unlatch the holster strapped to his hip, before receiving it and strapping it around his. "Our reason for being here is more-or-less different from last time… But that's neither here nor there," Haise joked back, before making sure that the three additional magazines that were attached to the holster's straps were secured around his outer thigh. With time being of the essence, Haise figured that the moment had passed and that they were about to get back to their mission to essentially kidnap whatever Aogiri Tree member looked important enough to pass as a high-ranking executive.
Although Nishiki's facial expressions were hidden behind the mask that he wore as a disguise, Haise could tell right then and there by his still body language that the ghoul was deep in thought. "H… Hey, Kaneki… Uh… I… I just wanted to, uh… I… I-I've been thinking m-more about what you said… A-About this not panning the way I want it to," Nishiki said in a reluctant voice, while watching as Haise made his way over to the roof-access door. "I… I don't think it's fair that I'm keeping your friend's location a secret from you; I'm not sure how much of the past you remember exactly, but… Kimi and I, we… W-We owe our lives to you, and neither of us would be alive today, had it not been for you."
Giving Nishiki a reassuring nod as he used the bronze key to lock the door behind them, Kaneki tucked the keys underneath the collar of his maroon robe as he shrugged his shoulders at the ghoul. "I remember most of it, it's just… It's just a bit of a challenge honestly for me to actually connect to those memories personally… But uh… Yeah, hey— don't even mention it. After all, I mean… You were right about us having time to properly release Akira from wherever you've got her held; it's an unfavorable circumstance, but I get-"
"-Oh my fuckin'- hey, dumbass, that's not what I was trying to get at, alright…?!" Nishiki snapped suddenly in a hushed voice— causing the smile hidden behind Haise's mask to disappear entirely. No longer having insulted the one-eyed ghoul, Nishiki's demeanor changed suddenly, as his head lowered toward the ground— impending doom weighing heavily on his mind. "Look, uh… I'm sorry, alright…? I've been an asshole since my sister died, and I'll probably always be one to the day I die… With that being said… If tonight happens to be my final day on Earth, then so be it, but there's… There's something I've got to tell you, before it becomes possibly too late to say it."
Although Haise wanted nothing more than to try to lighten the mood by persuading Nishiki that what he was experiencing was nothing more than justified anxiety, the almost begging tone within the ghoul's voice told the one-eyed that blind-optimism wasn't going to remove any impending doom from the other man's heart. Taking what was obviously serious to Nishiki to heart, Haise softly took a deep breath before softly nodding at the other man. "O… Okay… O-Okay then: what is it that you need to tell me…?" Haise asked with a nervous tone, as he too was keeping track of the possible time of when the sentries outside would finally catch on to their infiltration.
"First and foremost… Your blond friend is being kept underneath the ruins of where Anteiku used to be; if you can't remember its address, then just Google "coffee shop burns down in 20th Ward", and you'll find its location online somewhere— I'm certain of it," Nishiki explained helpfully, after having just given up his leverage over Haise out of good-faith alone. "Secondly, even if this plan goes to total shit and I… And I don't make it out of here, then… Then you still find "Kimi Uraraka"; the only lead I've gotten so far is that she was last seen with some old-bastard whose got close ties with Aogiri Tree— that's why it's important that one of us gets out of here with the most knowledgeable-looking ghoul we can find…"
With Nishiki having just given him the true intention of why he was so willing to risk everything he had, over what many would consider to be nothing more than a suicide mission, Haise took a quick moment to digest the vital information that he had been fed, before bluntly saying what suddenly popped up in his mind. "So… This is what this is all about…? You were willing to have Mado killed, and quite possibly both of us as well, JUST to get back with Kimi, or something…?" Haise asked with his eyelids narrowed, while voicing his frustration to the suddenly defensive ghoul.
"Don't be ridiculous, Kaneki— this goes beyond my own personal past relationship with her…! The reason why finding her is so goddamn important to me is tha-?!" Before Nishiki could finish stringing together his thoughts into a complete explanation, the violently shaking door handle of the roof-access door interrupted his train of thought— causing both men to turn their attention directly toward it, before quickly noticing that the reinforced hinges were beginning to be pulled out of the door frame itself. "Fucking…! Ugh, fuck…! C-Come on— it's now or never, Kaneki…!" Nishiki called out with urgency behind his words, before turning around to make a mad dash down the flight of stairs.
Unsure of whether or not attempting to fight the unknown horde of sentries would even be worth it or not, Haise quickly ripped a piece of flesh from one of the corpses before piling both bodies against the door. ' It won't do much, but it'll buy us a few precious moments… I hope,' Haise thought anxiously to himself, before hauling ass as he sprinted down within the enclosed concrete walls of the geometric staircase.
Knowing that their firearms would make too much noise within such an enclosed space, Haise decided to take the lead as he made his way past Nishiki. Knowing that their blood-stained disguises— paired with the fact that there were sentries several flights above screaming for whoever was within earshot that there were imposters on site— Haise utilized his disguise in the best possible way he could; using the small window of time it took for all the Aogiri Tree members to register that their disguises were bloodied, which gave him all the time he needed to decapitate each one with Thinning's sharp edge, and jagged back blade.
Due to his quinque being modeled after a katana, had it not been for Haise's enhanced strength alone then Thinning's skinny blade wouldn't have been cutting through the bones of anyone who he had crossed paths with. Needing to exert himself, just to get the quinque to cut clean through the necks of his enemies, by the time that Haise and Nishiki finally reached the crowded and underground lobby of well-financed patrons, he had worked himself into a sweat. Even with the spacious Victorian-styled theater waiting area being as grand and large as it was, it didn't take long for everyone who were waiting to begin bidding on human slaves like they were cattle to take immediate notice of the commotion coming from behind Haise and Nishiki; which in turn caused all eyes to fall on the pair.
Before Haise could even begin to plot out what their best strategy in that situation was, it was then that Nishiki quickly tore a large section of the maroon robe from his chest; allowing him to reach into his olive-green trench coat. Seeing a bunch of tangled black strings wrapped around what looked to be cylindrical objects, it didn't take long for Haise— or anyone else within the room for that matter— to piece together the jury-rigged weapon of mass destruction that Nishiki had crudely constructed. Not bothering to stick around to watch Nishiki pull the pins of all twelve glued-together q-grenades out from their fuses, Haise immediately began opening fire on all of the sentries who were the first of many to witness the cluster of explosives being thrown above the center of the shrieking crowds of ghouls .
Relying on the rapid double-tap method to ensure that the ghouls who he had managed to skillfully headshot wouldn't be immediately get up from their bullet wounds, Haise used Thinning to push his way through the crowded staircase— his eardrums exploding along with everyone else's, as the shockwave created from the powerful explosive caused him and the rest of the sentries to collapse down the flight of stairs. Tumbling over bodies and getting lost amongst those who were just as disoriented as he was, Haise's eardrums were suffering from a high-pitched ringing as he laid underneath a pile of concrete debris— laying tangled up in the limbs of those who were struggling to get up as well.
Not wanting to immediately put himself as being the one who had been hacking and slashing his way up the stairs, Haise pretended to play dead— remaining limp, even as he was pushed aside by a few of the adrenaline-fueled sentries, who had struggled to stand up through the dust of fall out within what remained of the part of the staircase they were on. Careful not to move his head, Haise kept eyes on the three limping ghouls, and noted through blurry vision as each of them gazed up toward the direction of where the theater was— the three suddenly attempting to retreat up the destroyed staircase, just before suddenly they were grabbed by a massive pale-hand, that pulled them toward the direction they had been gazing at in horror.
One-by-one, those around him who were foolish enough to be startled into either trying to flee from whatever kakuja was suddenly picking them off en masse. As Haise's vision began to correct itself and his eardrums began to piece themselves back together accordingly, the one-eyed ghoul did his best to move his hands subtly underneath the fabric of his robe— stealthily switching out the magazine of Akira H&K VP9, just in time before suddenly the hand reached over to squeeze its fingertip and thumb against both his ankles.
Going wide-eyed and involuntarily screaming out from the pain of having his ankles crushed into fragmented dust, Haise was lifted from the pile of bodies and debris he had been trying to camouflage in. Hanging upside down while being pulled closer to whatever had him in its grasp, Haise gazed down ten meters above the devastated lobby where Nishiki's homemade cluster had gone off. Despite being in an immense amount of pain— and very much in danger of getting eaten by whatever was dragging him closer to its body— Haise found himself desperately trying to call out for Nishiki; his raspy voice seemingly falling on deaf ears.
Before being jerked up suddenly from the height he was already being dangled at, Haise managed to catch the glimpse of what looked like a demented band of circus clowns using their bare hands and kagunes to begin indiscriminately slaughtering anyone who wasn't them; not caring whether the ghouls they were hacking into bits were members of the Aogiri Tree or returning customers, the clowns were too enthralled in their own murderous performance to even take notice of Haise, whose disguise still concealed every bit of his flesh. Closing his eyelids just as he was about to watch a large brutish ghoul about to unbutton the straps of his overalls— as he stood before a limbless woman whose thighs were being forced open by two regular sized ghouls— it was than that Haise felt a warm, moist breeze blowing up against the side of his body.
Upon reluctantly opening his eyes open from behind the cover of his mask, Haise found himself staring into the sideways maw of what l resembled a massive mouth of a leech— with rows and rows of sharpen teeth lining the inside of the six-armed kakuja that was staring back at him with huge, uncanny eyes. In the center of the bulbous forehead of the nightmarish beast that was bringing him closer and closer toward the tip of its disgustingly large and extended out tongue, it was there that Haise saw the demented upper half of the brown-haired ghoul who was controlling the kakuja that was seconds away from pulling him into its ungodly maw of teeth.
Thinking fast and desperately, Haise knew from one quick glance that the finger and thumb that were preventing his ankles from regenerating properly were too large for his bullets, quinque, or even his kagune to sever in time before being chewed up and swallowed by the beast. Not paying attention to the daunting words being spoken to him by the deranged ghoul who was eyeing him with a hungry gaze, Haise decided right then and there that he would have to rely solely on eliciting an involuntary reaction from the ghoul— one that would be so sudden and painful, that she would undoubtedly let go of him.
Knowing that she couldn't see the pistol he had at the ready, Haise waited until he was seconds away from having his body wrapped up by the kagune's drooling-tongue, before whipping out Akira's sidearm to empty six rounds into the shocker's ghoul's forehead, before using the remaining bullets in his magazine to shoot out the pupils of the kakuhou. Hearing the ghoul letting out an angry growl mixed with hysterical laughter, Haise was suddenly raised over and behind the creature's bulky shoulder. Having successfully blinded his attacker, Haise was thrown without any direction in mind across the entire bloodied lobby— crashing through several walls, before finding himself staring up into the far-away ceiling that seemed untouched by the cloud of debris that had kicked up from the cluster-bomb having gone off.
Having just survived being within the kill-zone of the cluster-bomb's shockwave, Haise's body was already damaged enough as it was; the fate of having been thrown violently at break-neck speeds into what looked to be in between two sections of red-velvet folding seats was the final push that his body seemed to be struggling to recover from. Seething in pain as his head began to pulsate with how intense the sudden migraine he was getting was, Haise was tearing up as he stared flat on his back at the blank canvas that was the blackened-ceiling above him. There, his unhinged mind began to fill the void that was his dwindling consciousness with vivid imagery of a flamboyant man who had his eyes slit open and one arm missing, gazing up at the ceiling of what looked to be a church of some kind— speaking in French and Japanese, as he sung to him about how he was seeing the afterlife.
' N… No… No, no… N-Not yet… No! No! NOT YET!' Haise's resilient consciousness screamed at his concussed brain, as the one-eyed ghoul fought past how badly his body wanted to rest by accepting defeat right then and there. Hearing multiple footsteps scurrying toward him from the direction of the lobby— in between the thunderous stomps of the creature who had tried devouring him whole— Haise, through sheer will alone, stammered back up to his feet; the feeling of nausea causing him to immediately rip of his mask, just so he could vomit out the contents of his stomach onto the ground.
Looking up and away from the pool of blood that was now at his feet, Haise was finding himself constantly twitching from trying his damndest to put up with his debilitating condition, as he gazed up without his disguise at the twelve clowns who stood at the six limbed monstrosity that was standing in the midst of where a wall had once been. Although it was too difficult for him to make out any of their masked faces— save for the ghoul who was station on the forehead of her massive kakuja, who didn't feel the need to conceal her identity— Haise could tell by the manic laughter coming from the brown-haired ringleader of ghouls that she knew who he was, and was ecstatic to see him.
"Well, well, well my friends! Why, we've stumbled upon the "Birthday Boy" himself! I suppose the Birthday Boy couldn't help but to be tempted by Orochi's invitation, now could he~?" The brown-haired ghoul mused mockingly with a wide grin on her face, as she rubbed her own two gloved-hands together with malice in her blackened eyes. "You must be a naive little boy for having trust in a snake, out of all things!"
Swaying from side-to-side while trying to maintain his balance, Haise did his best to use his left hand to grip Akira's pistol, while using his other hand to wrap his fingers somewhat tightly around the handle of Thinning; only three of his tendrils coming out of his kakuhou, as he continued to shake while attempting to keep eye-contact with the sneering ghoul before him. 'W… What the hell is she on about…?' Haise wondered frustratingly to himself, while at the same time staving off the despair of what he already knew what the ringleader of the clowns was implying.
Recognizing the look of denial and uncertainty written across Haise's bloodied face, the ghoul ringleader faked an overly dramatic sad face— bringing one balled hand up to the corner of her left hand, before rocking it back and forth to simulate rubbing invisible tears away. "Awww~!Did I hurt the poor Birthday Boy's little feeeeelings~? Poor babyyyy— you thought you were coming h ere on some gallant quest, weren't you champ~?!" The ringleader baby-talked condescendingly, before suddenly dropping the playful demeanor as she furrowed her brows with an arrogant expression taking over her youthful looking face.
"Look around you, child… Do you see anyone else at this auction? Hmmm… No… No you don't, do you?" The ringleader asked rhetorically, as she, along with the rest of her posse, began to tauntingly close in toward the betrayed one-eyed ghoul, who was beginning to piece together the implications that she was making. "There is— was— an auction… Except we weren't selling anyone; we were selling information that was valuable enough to convince a certain snake that your freedom was worth knowing where his little bitch was last seen~! You see, the slaughtering of those who trusted us was just the icing on this DELECTABLE "cake"~! You see Birthday Boy, this might be YOUR party, but YOU'RE MY gift! The gift that I PAID for— YOU'RE MY PROPERTY, MINE! ALL MINE!" The ringleader shrieked with an ear-to-ear grin of perversion, that seemed too wide for even a ghoul.