They are coming they are coming they are coming…

Toes, long and fine, spanned the ground. Red tail waved in sync to his movement. Parked vehicles were his stepping stones. The basilisk raced along the asphalt.

Nothing stopped him.

They are coming they are coming they are coming…

Blinding rays from the sky chased after the target in zigzag. Even at speed of light, it caught a glimpse of his whip-like tail.

At most.

"Urie, don't let him get away." The earpiece hissed.

Urie gritted his teeth. Why the hell did Marude send Sasaki to watch his back?

"He's picking up speed."

"Shut up." Urie pulled out Ginkui and jumped off the ledge. While he appreciated Sasaki's concern, his former mentor's voice irritated his ears. "Saiko, where are you?" He had Saiko to thank for. If the latter had not pulled off the disguise, that child killer would have stayed incognito forever.

"I… I am… running the best I can."

Urie resisted to press further. Physical intensive activity was never her forte.

For months Urie had been tracking that ghoul. He was not going to let him live another day.

If Saiko could not make it in time…

"Saiko, meet me at Charlie."

"Urie—"

"I know what I'm doing, Sasaki." From that moment on, he did not hear from Sasaki again. One way or another, Sasaki had to accept that his hatchlings had grown feathers and could hunt on their own.

His ear welcomed the hard earned peace. As he fully focused on the chase, the rusty smell of blood too became more pungent.

Which means...

The Meat Grinder stood in awe at the majesty of red brick walls. That venue was perfect, specially chosen...

...to bury a ghoul.

"Gotcha." Urie threw his arm up. Ginkui disappeared in his hand.

Blood spurted from an invisible gash, right across the ghoul's chest.

"Saiko."

A gigantic rock hailed from heaven, crushing the ghoul in a single punch.

Urie went closer. His eyes narrowed on the blood pooling out under Saiko's kagune. He could have done it alone, but he never forgot the meaning of teamwork.

Now Sasaki would have nothing to say.

"Uri… something's wrong."

Saiko's kagune began to quiver. The free flowing blood beneath lost its fluidity and agglomerated to individual strings.

"Regeneration?" Urie stepped back. The ground that touched the blood sprouted shoots of red stems. The growth accelerated to make mature vines, they immediately lashed out. "What the hell?" Before he knew it, he was running for his life.

The rest of the red vines joined and bound together until a humanoid took shape. He guffawed. "You're here to catch me." The ghoul touched the trapped kagune with his hands. Vines sprouted from all his digits and crawled up the rocky kagune. "I'm not going back."

"No!"

"Saiko, withdraw now."

"Can't do… It's pulling me in."

Urie kicked against the brick wall and catapulted himself into mid-air. With a quick swirl to his back, he looked down.

The red vine bound and constricted around the rock-like kagune until it cracked.

"Ah!"

"I told you I'm not going back!" The ghoul widened his grin at the captured peacekeeper in his grasp, unaware of three sharp spearheads coming hot at him and pierced through his chest.

Deadlock unwound. Red vines retracted.

Urie landed before the humanoid. Between them was Sasaki.

"Now! Saiko!" Sasaki cried out.

Saiko stayed afloat until gravity kicked in. Free falling, she bursted from her back dozens of long spears, which raced against each other to the ground.

One after the other, the kagune jabbed and went through the ghoul, skewering him from top to toe.

Arms swung down and dangled by his sides. To any lifeform, that was the signal of something breathing his last.

"Maman!" With Saiko's touchdown, the team of three reassembled.

Watching his former subordinates flanking him, Sasaki could not contain the smile on his face. "Well, Isn't that nostalgic?"

"Not at all." This time, Urie said it purely to pop Sasaki's bubble.

Saiko retracted her kagune. The trio watched the skewered meat plummet onto the pavement. They did not dare to bat their eyes.

Even a slight twitch was enough to make their chest explode.

They should have just cut the ghoul into half.

The ghoul arched himself. His body was twisting and contorting at angles which no human could achieve.

While Urie tightened his grip on Ginkui, a drone flooded Sasaki's ears.

That low rhythmic thud lapped at high speed, too soft to be deciphered at first, until Sasaki picked up the noise of choppy air.

Sasaki blinked his eyes and turned around.

"Haise." The transmission hissed.

"Everyone! Get down!" Sasaki roared.

A short fizz followed by a zip over their heads. The trio jumped just in time before a thunder struck. Pure light channeled from earth to heaven as it pierced through the sky. Such beauty lasted no longer than a few seconds.

The sky cleared itself as the clouds receded to give way to the full bright moon.

Their ears buzzed. The ground shook as they pushed themselves up. Before they could steady themselves, the shadow of a small whale loomed over them. The peacekeepers brought their arms up to block the unruly turbulence, but their effort was futile.

Sasaki forced his eyes open and looked up. The deafening swoop entered their territory. It continued to hover over them.

"What in the world was that?" Marude's fist rapped the control panel. "Answer me, Mado!" A laugh mocked him.

"Why do you sound surprised, Director?" Akira folded her arms, the bluetooth in her ear blinked. "As written in the contract, Matsuoka Corporation has full authority over the Meat Grinder."

"I don't give a damn about that ghoul! My peacekeepers—your former team—were on the ground when you and your American toy blasted a sinkhole in our city. You could have gotten them killed!"

"You are right." Akira paused to relent to the rattling blades. She turned to the Apache as it surfaced from the horizon, just ten feet away from where she stood. "The high explosives packed in the CRC rocket was an overkill." With her fingertips, she combed along her hairline, stopped by her ear to keep her bangs from getting in her eyes. As the Apache climbed higher, the long rope that tethered to the Apache's belly pulled up a net full of red blobs. "However, please understand that we are a private entity. Unlike TSC which is backed by the government, we have shareholders to please…"

"Listen, Mado! I don't care what kind of deal the Prime Minister had cut with Matsuoka. The TSC will not send anymore peacekeepers. If I am to be martyred for going against the Prime Minister, so be it!" Marude pulled the earpiece off his ear and threw it aside. "Damn those military contractors!" He was wrong about Akira. After all, that woman was just as crazy as her father.

After a sigh, Akira looked up to the sky. That black. That darkness. It suited her. It had not even been a year, and she had pretty much burnt every single bridge in her life.

She was only afraid that Marude might not be her last.

"Akira!"

Akira looked back. The wandering ray from the Apache gave a better view to where she was looking.

Face soiled with soot. The sleeves ripped with tiny holes here and there. Kaneki spread his arms like an eagle's wings. "For old times' sake."

He had returned to be Ken Kaneki, the leader of the United Front, someone's husband and father, and even a ghoul.

But those knitted brows and pouted lips of a child were all he was to her now.

Akira huffed out. She had been wrong all along.

There was one bridge that would never burn.

The name was Haise Sasaki.

A/N:

It's very sad to see Kaneki, after his mother's abuse, craving for a mother's love and never be filled until Akira's I think Akira depended on Kaneki a lot more than she knew, especially after she lost Amon and Takizawa. With Kaneki under her, she had reasons to continue fighting.

Let me know what you think. Bye for now!