34 Chapter 40: endings and beginnings

Word travels fast in the ghoul world. In particular, rumors and tales of one eyed ghouls spread like wildfire. This was what happened after the incident in the restaurant. Soon almost every ghoul in Tokyo and even some CCG officials were clued in on the hybrid nature of the three Kaneki siblings. For some this was frightening news. Not just one, but three one eyed ghouls sounded like a nightmare to them. Just like the one eyed king. But for others, this was possibly something they could take advantage of.

In the eleventh ward, now largely controlled by a single ghoul organization, a figure sat on the edge of the rooftop of a rundown building. A young woman in a pink purple cape and covered in bandages happily hummed to herself as she watched the sunset over the slums that made up much of this ward. A bit in the distance, one could even see the eleventh ward CCG office. The girl giggled to herself before reaching out towards the ward office building and pretending to pinch the building between her fingers. "Bam."

But her attention on the building was broken when the door to the roof opened up and another figure walked onto the roof. "Oh, Tatara-san. Hello," she greeted the red masked man. He nodded back to her in reply. Tatara walked over to her and stood behind the woman. For a little bit he didn't speak. He just stood there and looked out into the distance as well; maybe lost in thought. Eventual he told her, "Preparations are almost ready. Barring anything unexpected, we should be able to bring this ward completely under our control and crush the CCG here with in no more than a couple months." Eto kicked her legs off the edge of the building, "Is that so?" she idly replied.

She then stood up and began to play on the edge of the building like it was just a balance beam. "What about afterwards? We need to put on a real show for the CCG and all of Tokyo after all," she asked with a hint of amusement to her voice. A small wind blew by them; adding a little bit of impact to the scene. "We recently got the plans for Cochlea. I just looked them over so far but I believe it will be quite easy, given the rest of our plan runs smoothly, to breach the prison and free all of the ghouls trapped there right out from under the noses of those fools at the CCG."

Eto giggled again and she even began to pirouette; completely unconcerned with the multi-story drop she stood over. To the young woman, it looked like things were about to get a lot more fun in the coming months. This thrilled her. She had been getting really bored lately. But she then noticed that Tatara, though trying his best to hide it, was troubled by something.

"Is something the matter, Tatara?" she asked the white haired male. Tatara looked down at her and took his time putting his thoughts together before telling her, "Eto. One of our sources just came across something interesting. There's a rumor going around about Eyepatch and his sisters." Eto looked up at him still waiting for him to come out with it. "I didn't want to tell you until we could verify it with our own resources, but the rumor is that they are all one eyed ghouls."

Tatara expect some reaction from her. From her ordering him to bring the three of them to her now, or questioning him over it excitedly for the next hour. But instead Eto simply went back to looking at the sunset with a simply, "Oh." Tatara found himself slightly surprised by this reaction but even more by what she said next. "Looks like your secrets out, Ken-kun."

"You know who Eyepatch is?" slipped out of his mouth in shock. She didn't respond directly to his question though. She just giggled again as she thought back to those grey eyes. They had reminded her of her own when she saw them. One's filled with hate and the desire for destruction and mischief. "Ken-kun. The one who got away." She jumped down and began to walk back the building entrance. "I'll leave that to you, Tatara. Do as you wish. He is a funny one. So enamored with his sisters."

Now left alone, Tatara began to think over this. There was no way they could ignore such a powerful ghoul. Especially in the twentieth ward that they planned to conquer next and with ties to their enemies in the thirteenth. So that left only two options. Eliminate him or get him to join them. The second option, with how valuable an addition he would be to their organization, was much more preferable. Perhaps, from what Eto had just said, the sisters could be a way to get him to agree. Tatara headed back in; already putting together a rough idea to get Eyepatch to come to them.

"… SS-ranked ghoul Alice of the thirteenth ward has now been identified as one Waki Akiko, eighteen years old. Unfortunately, the fiend escaped from the CCG last night during a daring raid by their forces on her gang's hideout. But the CCG assures people, that they are hot on the trail of this monster and will soon defeat her. They were also able to completely exterminate the rest of her gang, calling itself the wonderland gang, in said raid even with the loss of the raid's commander. According to reports the assault was saved from disaster due to quick thinking and hard work of Rank 2 investigator, Hideaki Takahashi…"

Nishiki muted the tv. Tired of hearing the CCG brag about their latest victory. They were always so happy to brag about it like some sort of big game hunter. They would probably do the same thing when they did him in. Maybe stick his head up on a wall like a hunting a trophy. His morose thoughts though were soon forgotten when he turned back to Kimi. It was only a few days after the fight with that perverted gourmet but things were already looking up. Kimi was relatively safe and that freak had been beaten to a pulp by the Kaneki twins. It was almost a given that he died slowly and hopefully painfully on that church floor much to Nishiki's satisfaction.

There was also the fact that he was now completely healed thanks to Anteiku. He still felt a bit upset at that. Having his pride damaged by taking their help but he knew there was no other choice. If he waited any longer he would have either died or attack Kimi again in a starvation induced madness. And besides it wasn't completely charity since in return he was required by Yoshimura to work at the café and stop causing so much trouble around the ward anymore.

As for Kimi, she had adapted quite well to her new position as the only human who knew about Anteiku's dark side. He watched as she happily chatted with the twins at the café with Hinami watching her with childish fascination as she ate a piece of cheese cake. Pretty much everyone had found the young woman a pleasant addition to their group. She had become close friends with Irimi and Koma. Even a couple times, going out with the female ghoul on shopping trips or being somehow able to happily listen to Koma ramble on about that devil ape drivel or whatever it was. Meanwhile the twins seemed to constantly badger her for attention or with questions. They seemed to see her as something similar to their now deceased mom. They also appeared to be using her in trying to figure out the riddle of how a human could love a ghoul and what that love truly meant. Yoshimura and Yomo both seemed ok with Kimi as well. Even if the both of them had little contact with the woman. As for Hinami, she had slowly warmed up to the new person and was now begging the human woman to describe what human food tasted like and what kind of books she read.

However the last two Anteiku members seemed to have some issues with the human. Ken seemed, for lack of a better word, awkward around the woman. It seemed that he was still uneasy with a human who could become a threat or at least a liability in his quest to protect his sisters. Not to mention that they themselves still had a bad relationship that would probably take a lot of hard work to repair. Nishiki was pretty certain that that negativity between them was leaking into the half-ghoul's perception of Kimi; seeing her as just Nishiki's human girlfriend and not as Kimi the independent person. But there were signs of improvement here with Ken trying some small talk with the woman and walking her home once or twice from Anteiku after it got late. As for Touka. Well he considered avoiding her a step up from actively trying to kill her. Though she also seemed to screw with him ever chance she got with him now. Especially lording over him with her seniority in Anteiku by ordering him to do menial chores around the place or complaining about the quality of the coffee he made.

Right now, Anteiku was closed for the afternoon. It had been a slow day anyway so, after seeing that Kimi was the only costumer there at the time, Ken decided it was the perfect time to make her practice how to eat meat. Apparently, according to the twins and their brother, eating human flesh was necessary for Kimi to do if she wished to carry Nishiki's child to full term when they decided to start a family. With Yoshimura's consent he flipped the sign on the door to close and locked the door before he went to the kitchen where he was now preparing some meat to be edible for the human woman.

Kimi was obviously uncomfortable with this. Right now she was using the twins as a distraction to avoid thinking of what Ken was cooking for her. But eventually the time came and Ken along with Touka came out of the kitchen with a plate of lightly seared meat. Nishiki rushed over to her and as soon as he was aside her, Kimi gripped his hand to steady her nerves. Ken placed the meat, which smelled weird to Nishiki, in front of the freaked out Kimi and cut a piece from it before he presented it to her. "Dig in," he said.

Kimi stared that meat in disgust and fear. For her this wasn't just a meal but one of the greatest taboos a human could do. But she had to do this. It had been her dream since she was a little girl to have a happy family with her soul mate. She was going to have a boy and a girl each and live in a happy suburban home with Nishiki.

Nishiki watched with baited breath as she slowly brought the fork to her mouth. He saw that the twins and Hinami also looked scared. But he wanted to smack Touka and Ken when he noticed both them grinning at his loved one's suffering. For them, it was a bit of karmic justice for a human to be forced to eat meat.

Kimi swallowed and braced herself before finally eating the bite. Everyone waited as the human chewed the meat and swallowed. For a moment she was silent. Slowly she looked up at all of them and said, "It's not bad. It actually sort of tasted like pork." Hinami jumped up first and excitedly shouted, "It tastes like pork?! Really?!" She looked down at the plate, now tempted to steal some to satiate her curiosity on how pork tastes. Ken rubbed Hinami's head affectionately. "I added some spices and cooked it in a way to make it more pleasing to human tastes. It's a trick I picked up from mom. She made up all sorts of ways to hide the meat or make it look like normal human food so that we could carry it around or eat it in front of others. I even had friends once or twice steal pieces of it without ever realizing what they had eaten back in elementary school."

Everyone just talked and enjoyed each other's company for the next few minutes till Hinami snuck a piece of the meat only to gag and heave at the taste till Touka rushed over to her with a nice cup of Anteiku's best coffee. "The taste takes a bit of getting use to though."

Around the same time as this, Amon was in the CCG office in the twentieth ward. He looked haggard; black rings around his eyes and his hair greasy. Surrounding him was everything on Eyepatch. Newspaper clippings, case files, sketches and photographs, CCG datafiles, photos, even dvd's of television specials that had included the ghoul. Such as an episode of a children's anime with Eyepatch as the villian in it. In particular, Amon found himself watching the security footage from when Eyepatch and Rabbit had snuck into the CCG office over and over again. He looked for some clue. Something he had missed in his previous watch troughs of the video that would help him corner Eyepatch. He wanted to be the one to do it. Amon needed to be the one to face Eyepatch. He had to ask after all. What did he mean that night.

'People who only look at one side of the problem. Have you ever thought what it's like for us on the other side? No you haven't, have you?'

"hmph. Just the fiendish whispers of a ghoul trying to confuse me," he tried to play it off as. But the line stayed in his brain as if taunting him. Eventually Nakajima came into the room and handed Amon a can of coffee. "Come on Amon," he tried, "it's not healthy to star at a screen all day long. Let's take a breather." But Amon didn't rest. Instead he got Nakajima to go over reports of stolen uniforms from the same school as the ones' the ghouls had worn to sneak in. But that also came up as a dead in. And despite Nakajima pushing him to move on, maybe look for another case connected to Rabbit or Eyepatch, Amon went right back to his investigation of the video.

Nakajima eventually left and began to walk around the office. He noticed the sour mood among the people present. In less than a year, the whole place had gone from a laidback backwater of a post to being filled with all sorts of monsters; including the newest SSS class, Eyepatch. Everyone was on edge and they had slowly been putting more pressure on the local ghoul population with mixed results. Only locating some small fry ghouls around the ward. There were even rumors going around that a whole contingent of investigators from headquarters would be sent her soon including some special class rank officers.

As he was walking he was approached by an old friend. They chatted a bit. Some about Amon but mostly on the increase of high level unsolved cases plaguing the ward. Apparently the gourmet had vanished. Just like Binge eater, the Ying Yang twins, Rabbit, the daughter ghouls, and Eyepatch. "It's really eerie. So many unsolved cases with big names showing up. And now they are just vanishing. You don't think they are preparing to attack do you? I heard that things are like that in the eleventh ward. If they make a move on us here." His friend nodded in agreement. "Yeah. I even heard rumors that one of those kids in the stolen uniforms that gave us the false lead on that drainage ditch was Eyepatch himself. He even figured out some trick to let ghouls sneak past RC gates. That's why he didn't set off the alarm when Mado made him go through it." Nakajima gulped. "If that's true, then god help us all."

Late at night, someone else was mulling over Eyepatch in a rather large mansion home, a bit outside of the city; alone and out on a balcony deep in thought. Kayoko Fujimori, looked out onto the mansion's lawn and the moonlight night as she thought over what she had seen of him during the dismantling show. She had the silver mask that she had used in the restaurant and was spinning it on her finger. Honestly she hated this mask. Finding it to heavy and stuffy. Perhaps she should follow Eyepatch's example and wear just a half mask from now on. She reached for her cup of coffee but froze when she heard another woman shout, "Kayoko-chan!" Kayoko was suddenly glomped by a giggling Kotone. Not a fan of close contact, she pushed the other woman off of her despite her objections. "What do you want Miyako-san?" she tersely asked. Kotone jumped in front of her; something hidden behind her back. She grinned before shoving the box she had into Kayoko's face with a, "Jajaan," sound effect.

Kayoko, a bit reluctantly, took the box and opened it. Inside was another mask. This one was like Kotone's with cross shaped design on the eyepatch but it was white with the eyepatch part on the other eye. She didn't know what to think. Kotone hugged her again. "Yay! Now we're mask buddies. Uta said that you looked like you didn't really like that other mask so he made you a new one based on Eyepatch's. Now we match!"

Another amused figure walked out onto the balcony as well. "Speaking of Eyepatch, what did you think of him?" Dr. Kanou asked Miyako. For a moment she collected her thoughts. "He seemed weak. I expected someone more mentally or emotionally strong. Not some siscon willing to risk it all by drinking poison and taking part in the show just because his foolish sisters fell into a trap." Kotone booed her. "You're such a hard ass Kayoko. I bet you're just saying that because of some objectivism thing that you subscribe too. You do know that Ayn Rand wasn't against charity right? Just being forced to do it against your will." Rather than reply Kayoko just flicked her partner's forehead and smirked as the other rolled around on the ground in pain for a bit.

Kanou laughed at her antics as well. "Who knows? Perhaps soon Eyepatch and his sisters will be a part our merry little gang." Kanou then left the two to bond while he went back to work on his experiment.

Hide laughed maniacally. Ken had been ignoring him too much recently. He'd have his revenge. Kaneki would pay for ignoring his best friend. Hide had just put the finishing touches together and emailed Kamii University for authorization. He laughed and in his best super villain voice, Hide said, "I hope you're hungry Ken."

Once finished, his face became more serious as he looked to the far wall of his bed room. Across the entire wall was everything he had on eyepatch. Newspaper clippings and notes on the infamous ghoul were tacked all over it. Piece of yarn linked different parts, created some map and organization of the data that only Hide understood.

"It's lonely Ken. Rabbits die of loneliness you know."

His thoughts were interrupted by a phone call from Maria. He went on to talk to her for the rest of the night.

A scream rang out from an abandoned building on the edge of the twentieth ward. Inside a single female ghoul stood over a dying dove; just quietly watching the blood leak out of his wounds. Her crystalline blue wings dissipated and she sat down and began to eat. She needed to eat to get back her strength.

Alice, or by her real name Waki Akiko, had barely escaped with her life a few nights ago from the raid that had killed all of her friends and loved ones. The humans had destroyed everything she held dear. Now she had nothing left but the torn outfit she wore now. She didn't even have any more tears to cry. Having lost all of those the day after she had escaped with the help of her now fallen comrades.

But this wasn't over. She would get her revenge. She would make them all pay for what they had taken from her. Just like she had made them pay for taking her older sister all those years ago.

"Takahashi,"

Later that evening Anteiku reopened for the evening rush. Amazingly the place became packed with in minutes. Everyone, even Ken and Yomo, ended up working the café. Thankfully they got through it without incident.

They began to clean up Anteiku for the evening. Kuro took several plates and cups to the back to be cleaned. As she stepped back into the kitchen though, she heard something. It sounded a lot like giggling. She then felt a hand cup her cheek and someone with her own voice say, "Poor worthless Kuro. You've gone through so much recently, haven't you?"

Ken and Shiro rushed over to their sister when they heard her drop what she was carrying. She nervously brushed off their worried questions and requests to let them examine her for any injuries. They were worried she still had some battle damage from her fight with the gourmet. Finally she was able to escape from them both and run to the employee bathroom. There she stood in front of the sink breathing heavily. She stared at her reflection like she was angry at it.

"I thought I got rid of you!" she said to reflection.

The Kuro in the mirror tilted her head back and laughed at her. It looked her right in the eye again and reached out with its hand and bopped her nose. "Silly Kuro. You can never be rid of me. After all I am a part of you."