24 Chapter 30: an end to hostilities

"What do you really feel about humanity?"

Ken found himself hesitant to answer. Before when he had been asked this in friendly conversation he had always answered in the positive. He wanted to believe that it was the truth. That he had forgiven them for what they had done to him and his family and that he could see the good in humanity. That he could see a happy future without the anger and sorrow that had once clouded his world. But now faced with the question seriously, he found himself at a loss for words.

He was confronted again by how cruel this world is. Wasn't it humanity that rejected all sense of cooperation with ghouls? Wasn't it humanity that had declared even his family's very existence illegal? That took their parents away? That had destroyed their innocence? That forced all three of them to live on the streets like rats? To become murders just to survive? That still hunted his sisters and him? That nearly succeeded in taking his sisters from him not too long ago? That even used his own father as a blade to slice apart what little happiness they had struggled so hard for?

He thought of Mado and how that man had ripped open several old emotional scars of his. Of Amon and his blind belief that ghouls were the supreme evil that must be stopped. And of the fact that he had to pretend in front of ones like Hide or Yoriko. Thinking of those two reminded him of the fear and guilt of having to hide and the pain and betrayal that came from discovery. After all there's no way that either of them would accept him, Touka, or even his sisters if they truly did know.

The fake…Kotone gave him a sympathetic smile. "Looks like I tongue tied you. But it's like I thought isn't it? You can't truly say you love humanity. Not after everything they've done to you. But at least with you they had a reason for it. Despite how flimsy it may be. You are their natural predator and they are the prey naturally defending themselves." She began to stare off into distance. Her eyes seeing some scene from long ago. One of great pain and sorrow.

"Truth be told, I hate humanity. Being human. They always brag about it like it's something special; a badge of honor. Even before all this I always found it kinda funny. I mean why are humans so special? That just being one is an accomplishment?" She laughed again. But this time it wasn't playful but hollow and dark. "But maybe they really are special. After all what other species can show such pointless cruelty even to its own members? They invented war, discrimination, pollution. They even have caused so many other species to go extinct just because it's convenient for them. Perhaps it's only a matter of time till ghouls join that list.

Sure ghouls are monsters and cruel beyond measure. But for them, it's in their nature. Humans don't have that excuse. They simple do it because they can. …And perhaps it's their fault that ghouls have to become such monsters themselves to survive, huh? Do you agree Eyepatch?" She looked at him straight in the eyes this time. Just like before she wanted an honest answer. As if to validate her own reasoning's. But Ken only answered with, "Is that why you gave up your own humanity?"

Kotone looked shocked that he had figured it but then again this young man did seem to be quite intelligent. Perhaps if he had born as a normal human he'd of had a happy successful life. Maybe even as a top rate ghoul investigator. "Ah. I choose to become a monster that revels in its sins then one that dwells in hypocrisy. To ignore its own sins while punishing those of another simply for its biology. To me, this kagune. It was the greatest gift. Even if they gave it to me for their own impure reasons, I'll gladly accept it. With this power there is a chance I could get my revenge on this screwed up world. Or I could change this world for the better." She once again smiled at the other one present and extended her hand towards him. "Ne, Eyepatch. Would you be willing to join us?"

Kuro blocked another strike from her opponent's quinque. The doves weren't going to make it easy for them to get out of here now that the sisters had their prize. They had already taken control of most of the first floor and were now pushing back the remaining ghouls in the higher floors. The earlier alarm that Shiro had pulled had been a signal for the others to escape and for those who had been waiting outside to break some holes in the cordon to slip through. But it seems like the doves were ready for this and were moving to pen the ghouls in the building towards the inner rooms and away from any escape route.

Currently Shiro and Kuro were trying to reach a set of windows on this floor and get out through them. Thankfully on their way they had met up with a rather large kokaku, yakuza ghoul who now held onto the priest for them while Shiro had both of the backpacks. Kuro, uninhibited, acted as the vanguard with her sister once again using her kagune in support. They had actually been making good head way but were now stuck by a group of rather persistent doves. The yakuza ghoul was handling a rather thuggish looking one while Shiro kept the ukaku quinque user too preoccupied to fire his weapon with any real accuracy. This left Kuro with the young woman who wielded a rapier like quinque that was annoyingly good at piercing Kuro's rinkaku. So Kuro pulled out her self-created fighting style.

Modeling it after the way Kokakus could put their kagunes around their arms, Kuro had wrapped four of her combat tentacles around both her arms and legs. This allowed her to add the power of her kagune to her punches and kicks. As well as allowing Kuro to block most kagunes and quinques in close quarters combat. Granted it may look silly for her to be wrapped up in her own tenacles but they provided an excellent defense and offense asset this way. Still it wasn't as simple as that for Kuro to copy the smoothish kokakus with scaled rinkaku. She had had to practice for months on smoothing the back of the kagune to avoid death by extreme chaffing. But she had mastered it and now used it to punch at the dove again; forcing her back even with a successful block. Kuro smirked behind her mask. Her opponent was sore and tired. It was the perfect time to strike. She shot forward while low to the ground. The dove lost sight of her and was too slow to react while she jumped up and slugged the woman in the abdomen. She coughed up some blood and bile; three of her ribs breaking under the punch. Kuro wasted no time and jumped behind the now wounded woman and wrapped her arm around her throat. She could feel her tremble slightly in her hold and a dark part of her thought about killing her; possibly in a painful and gruesome way. But her conscience won out and she instead just made her pass out with a slight tightening of her hold.

As Kuro was finishing she heard a yelp by the ukaku user and saw him fly by her; crashing in a heap. Also deciding to end this, Shiro had formed her kagune into one large tenacle and just backhanded the man with it. Crude but effective. The other ghoul had also defeated his opponent as well so all three of them continued on and soon found their goal.

They broke open the window and Shiro went first. She jumped across to the next building with one of the backpacks securely on her. The plan was next for Yakuza ghoul to jump with priest and Kuro to go last. But as Kuro was securing her backpack she heard something and barely jumped out of the way in time as several Ukaku shards ripped through the wall. She shouted in pain as a couple lodged into her shoulder. Unfortunately the other ghoul was not as quick and was killed. Though in his last moments he shielded their quarry as his last duty.

Kuro ripped out the offending spikes as soon as she landed. Her advanced healing already working on fixing the damage. She turned in rage to look as the one who had shot her came out from behind the corner. Her blood froze though as she realized who it was. She would never forget that face. The face of the woman she saw as they fled from their once happy home all those years ago. "You!" she growled. All sorts of emotions bubbled up to the surface. Anger. Fear. Sadness. And shock highest among them.

As for Setsuko, only one emotion reigned supreme. Desire. Before her was one of the remainders of her greatest failure. One of that man's spawn that she had let escape. And now she could finally right this wrong after so long. And give vengeance for all the lives that this she-beast had taken. Her livid face doing its best Mado impersonation. A crazed laugh slipped through her lips. "Finally. After all these years." She brought Artemis up and took aim. She would not miss again.

Kuro found herself conflicted. She badly wanted to rip this woman open; if only to make her feel a bit of the pain that Kuro had felt over the years. But she had bigger things to deal with now. She turned to look at the still unconscious head priest who laid by the windows. But her opponent saw her look to towards the window and thinking that she was preparing to escape, Setsuko screamed, "You're not getting away! Not again!" and opened fire. Kuro was forced to dodge as she jumped and weaved around the deadly shards. Those she couldn't avoid she used her kagune to block. This went on for about half a minute before Kuro finally saw an opening and jumped forward her kagune ready to strike while she roared out a battle cry. But Setsuko grinned while the fool of a ghoul charged at her. She slipped through the rinkakus that flew at her and as the she-ghoul came in range. She activated her second quinque in her prosthetic arm and swung at her targets neck like she did with Robin.

Ken laughed. He didn't know why he did. Perhaps it was just because of the craziness of dealing with this woman. First she stole his identity, then ran from him, then tried to kill him. And now, after a heartfelt monologue, she was trying to recruit him for some over the top vague goal as changing the world. It was just all too hilarious. She didn't look upset about his laughing at her though.

"I guess that's a no then?" was all she said in reply. Ken stopped laughing and answered, "Yeah. I guess it is. Honestly if you had given the same offer to me all those years ago or maybe even just before I moved to the twentieth ward, I might have said yes. If nothing else, for the self-satisfaction of lashing out at this world. But not now. Now I have a true home to protect. One that includes not just my sisters, but Touka, the manager, everyone from Anteiku as well. Perhaps even Hide and Yoriko. We've finally found a place, after all these years, where all three of us can truly belong. And I won't let anything come between that ever again. Even if the world itself burns in the process."

No other words were said between the two. They were unneeded. Now was the time for action. Kotone dove at Ken; unleashing all of her rinkakus at him. But Ken easily dodged all of them. He launched a couple of his own and clipped the other across her side as she jumped away from them. But seeing its master injured, the hulk jumped in as well forcing Ken back as the beast tried to crush him under its powerful quinque. Ken was forced back a bit by the two of them working together. He actually found it funny how this tag team reminded him of the way his sisters fought. Still Ken was able to easily dodge and block every attack from either of them. With years of experience, including many bouts with the original owner of the other's kagune, Ken easily controlled the battle.

He first aimed to take out the hulk since it was a way easier target. Unlike the other two from before, Ken decided to just do this the simple way and just beat the thing to death. He slashed at it over and over again while dodging the pair's attacks. His opponent did seem rather sturdy but slowly the hits took their toll. The hulk slowed down and started to wobble. Even with its healing factor and the tiny kagune armor, the damage was too much. With one last groan it fell down; never to stir again. Now Ken turned to look at the fake. But if Kotone felt anything about now being without her minions, she didn't show it. She simply looked back at Ken. And after an unspoken acknowledgment, the two of them leapt at each other.

It was on instinct that Kuro acted. Sensing something, she had flung one of her tentacles out to yank her off of her previous course. Because of this, she avoided a nasty decapitation. Only getting a small cut on her neck that slowly oozed blood when Setsuko used her hidden blade. Realizing she had dodged it, Setsuko scowled and pulled up Artemis again but Kuro used her kagune to smack the quinque far to the right and then struck left.

Setsuko though proved robust for her age. She nimbly twisted around to face the ghoul again; slipping through the kagune strikes. She opened fire with the Ukaku quinque again. Forcing Kuro to fall back. She chased Kuro as she did her best to escape from her opponent. After blocking a few more rounds, Kuro moved to close the distance. She used a turned over chair nearby as a step to leap up and then bound off the wall to the roof and then to Setsuko who couldn't react fast enough to shoot at the attacking half-ghoul. Kuro spun her body in the air to bring her kagune to bear in a large slashing move.

But the older woman was able to block it with only a bit of damage to her prosthetic arm and quinque. But Kuro had still closed the gap. She unleashed a flurry of strikes both from kagunes and her own fists and legs. The older woman returned her attacks with just as many blows and parries. They both struck at each other with blind furry. Setsuko's false arm creak while Kuro's mask cracked. Small wounds appeared on their bodies when some strikes slipped through. Kuro was able to press the offensive with her kagunes giving her more limbs to strike with but Setsuko was able to hold off complete domination with expert moves that even allowed her to shoot of few rounds with Artemis; some of them actually hitting the young half-ghoul. But Kuro didn't give her the satisfaction of hearing her cry out in pain again. Now she only screamed in raw determination to win. She barely even noticed when several other doves arrived behind her. Neither did Setsuko; forcing several of them to avoid getting hit by straw shots from her quinque.

But something had to eventually give. And so, one of Setsuko's legs, because of one somewhat deep cut on her outer calf, gave and her stance faltered. Kuro took this chance wrapped her kagune around the woman's quinque wielding fake arm. She let out one more powerful roar and in one mighty kick to Setsuko in the gut while breaking her arm. The force of the impact even caused her mask to break; forcing the girl to duck her head down and cover it with her hand to hide her identity. But her opponent was still able to spot her mismatched eyes. The hint to her true heritage.

Needless to say, the other doves were shocked by this. To many of them, Setsuko had been the strongest person they knew. A heroine who stood up for humanity. But now this lone fiend had brought her down and with only what looked like minor damage. Many of the wounds already healing.

Kuro hoped they would just run. She felt tired and just didn't feel like fighting anymore. Plus without her mask now, she'd be hard pressed to fight without revealing herself. Unless she just killed them all. But someone came to her rescue. A wide spread of kagune shards ripped through the windows and outer wall forcing the young doves to scatter. Suddenly Alice appeared in one of the windows and shouted, "Come on pipsqueak!" Not needing anymore encouragement, the half ghoul ran to the window but stopped half way out of it. She had one last thing to say to these people. "Never again!" she shouted. "I won't ever let you monsters take another precious person from me! Ever!" And with that she and Alice both jumped to the next building where Shiro gave her a deep sisterly hug and all three of them fled into the night with all the records that they had gotten.

Meanwhile the doves surveyed their injuries. A couple had gotten hit by a couple shards but nothing to serious. One of them had also sprained her ankle when she had dove from the attack. A couple of them secured the head priest while others checked on their injured commander. But she didn't respond to their worried queries. Setsuko was too busy fuming over her failure again. Kuro's last words still rang in her head. She squeezed her fist in shame and anger. 'How dare a monster call me a monster!'

Ken threw Kotone again. But the female copycat just landed like a cat and kept on fighting. Ken was impressed despite being able to easily take control of the fight. She seemed to be about equal to him in raw power since her kagune could hold off his own strikes with little to no give. But she was way behind him in experience. She did show some training and was certainly not a novice to fighting but she still fought, for lack of a better explanation, too much like a human and not enough as a ghoul. She took too long to maneuver her kagune. Treating it more as a weapon than a part of her body. She tried too hard to avoid injury instead of just letting her healing take up the slack. And when she was hit, she spent too long agonizing over said wounds rather than just keep fighting.

Still she kept fighting. She didn't even stop after Ken had impaled her and then flung her with four of his kagune. She simply got up, though slowly and shakily, and attacked again. So he responded to her and fought with her somewhat seriously. But eventually the fight began to come to a close. With one last strike, Ken's kagune slammed the girl back again and this time she remained on the ground; panting heavily. Ken approached her slowly; prepared for any last surprise attack.

"Finally finished?" he asked. She simply nodded. "Good. Then for now I'm taking you priso…." Ken was interrupted by couple small quinque knives that embedded themselves in his leg and ankle. The attacker had been smart and had attacked from downwind to hide their scent and waited till the fight had tired him out. They also proved to have great aim. The blades ripped into his tendons and muscles in such a way as to make it impossible for him to walk on it and all while his healing would be slow due to be being exhausted. As Ken was forced to kneel on one knee, two figures jumped out of the bushes.

The large one grabbed the half-conscious girl while the other took a somewhat defensive position in front of the two. Ken was more than a little angry at the two clown masked interlopers. "Souta!" he screamed at the one now twirling another knife in his hands. He looked over to the half-ghoul and replied, "Now, now Ken-kun. Don't be so upset. After all it's been years since we last saw each other." He paused to look over Ken again. Ken let out a feral growl but was still not able to stand up on his wounded leg. Much to the interloper's relief. "But I'm so sorry Ken. But we can't have you take away our dear Kotone just yet. Don't worry. I'm sure you both will meet each other again soon." And with that the two leapt away with the false half ghoul.

Ken could only slam his fist into the ground in rage. "Damn it!" he shouted to no one. With no reason to remain here, he finally pulled himself off the ground and used his kagune to support his leg. He got to the meet up spot a few hours later. Almost immediately the twins grabbed him in a deep embrace; too happy that their brother had finally returned safely. He patted the two on the head and told them, "Pack your things. We're going back home tomorrow."