"Put yourself in my shoes! When rabbits get lonely, they can die!"
- Hideyoshi Nagachika
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Kaneki POV
I remember going through a dark hall. My thoughts I couldn't control, and my body ached with pain. Blood dripped from my body as I walked, and fell over again and again.
At one point a voice rang out, and a kind looking man came out of the darkness of the tunnel that had felt so lonely before.
I remember his words, trying to convince me everything was going to be okay, that we should "Go home already".
No. He couldn't be real. Hide wouldn't like how I was, I was a ghoul. A monster. Something humans detest, and hate. Beings that are above humans on the food chain, it's only natural for them to hate us.
I would know, I once was one.
But I just stood there and stared at him, my mind still not accepting Hide was really there or not. But it is then that he smiled and me, and put a hand on my shoulder.
"Kaneki... I... I want to save you." He said, then gave me a determined look. "Please eat me."
I froze, and I could just push out words of protest, even though I thought he wasn't real. "Hide... what are you saying?" I mumbled.
"What lies ahead is a very dangerous man, from this there is no escape." He said, sweat dripping from his forehead. "You know... after you lose, you could die. That's why..."
He started to trail off, but picked back up before I could say anything. "You must show him you are worth keeping alive. Can you... with all your strength... fight one last time?"
. . .
Hide. How could I forget such an important piece of my memories? Was my conscience pulling it back, because it was painful? Or was I secretly still scared of what might happen if I did remember fully?
But even so... I now know. What happened, and what I'm going to do from this day out.
Before me, I shake out of my daze, the Quinx in front of me, seemingly getting ready to take advantage of my confusion from a moment ago.
I look down at my hands, squeezing them together tightly, then with a large breath, I look right at them. On my comms, voices call out to me, telling me to escape now, that they were leaving.
Akira raised an eye brow at my behavior, she probably expected me to start going nuts...
I suddenly jump up on the roof, away from them. Urie calls out as I turn away from them, heading to the back.
"Kaneki! We're not done yet!" He yelled.
I stopped and glanced back. "Thanks for the memories, Mado." He said.
Akira looked confused, but I didn't push on the subject any more than I had to. I turned once again and ran to the back.
Levin POV
"Shut up! Your lying!" I yelled, backing off a bit more, nearly tripping because of my shock.
What did he mean by that?! Arima has to be lying, he's a member of V, he's just trying to provoke me. Besides, I heard the gun shots and the fighting as I left the house that day, they definitely killed him!
Arima's face didn't change. "So you saw the body?" He asked.
"Shut up!" I said, swiping my Kakuja talon at him, which he dodged and now stood on top of a burnt car that was destroyed by the earlier grenades.
"He's dead! He has to be! If he was alive he would've saved me!" I yelled, slicing again, destroying the car he was standing on. Arima jumped off of the car, landing on the concrete with ease.
Arima lunged at me, pushing my talon aside with his sword, and then hitting my mask with the butt of his sword. I back off, but he uppercut me, slicing my shoulder.
I don't jump back this time, but attack, spinning around and trying to hit him with my large wings. He ducks under then, and stabs my knee, making me lose balance.
With my other talon, I push myself off the ground and onto another burnt car, away from his swift attacks. I can barely keep up with him, I can't get a hit on him either.
No, calm down Levin... take a deep breath and stay on track. Everyone's getting ready to leave, if I can get him off guard even a tiny bit, then I can slip out of here.
I look around the battlefield, dead bodies of investigators lie around, including the trucks and weapons. The only terrain here is the trucks really, not really much of a height advantage-Wait.
Weapons?
. . .
I got it. Let out a long breath and dissipate my Kakuja, making it go back to my normal kagune. If I use too much energy, I won't be able to fight much longer, need to preserve it as long as I can.
Arima tilted his head at this, probably already thinking what I was planning.
No time to think this through, I need to act now before he gets wind of what I'm planning! I run at him, swinging one talon from above and one from my side, ducking low as I do this. He side steps the one from above, and with his sword, blocks the one from my right.
But with my normal hands, I reach down, grab something, and swing it. There is a moment where nothing moves, except there is a tiny fleck of blood that flies into the air.
Arima kicks my back, which I then propelled myself into the air and land on a truck, looking down at him. He reaches up to his face, where on his cheek...
A cut, reaching from the bottom of his jaw, to the middle of his cheek. A small gleam of red blood flowed from it. In my hand was a quinque, a short sword like one.
I dropped the sword, then jumped off the car in that moment, landing near the door and running through the building. For a moment I think he's chasing me, but as I look back right as I get to the very back where the others escaped.
He didn't follow.
Urie POV
We got info that the ghouls of the Tsukiyama family had escaped. Now we were to clean up the bodies and give out names to the paramedics of the deceased.
Many people who I knew or saw from CCG now lay on the ground, no longer breathing and their eyes still wide open, like a fishes.
Mutsuki hugs his knees while sitting inside a ambulance. "How many did we lose?" He mumbled.
Akira, who was quiet up until now, spoke up at this. "Around seventy... and we only got around ten of the bastards, and all of them were from their front force."
So what your trying to tell us is that we didn't get any main targets? This raid was a blow. We expected resistance, but we didn't expect a random group to come and help them.
"Nest." Shirazu said, looking down at the ground.
"Huh?"
Akira spoke up. "He means the group. That was Nest, having the Crow be here is proof enough of that. But it seems they grew in numbers rather quickly." She said.
"And their out for revenge?" I wondered aloud.
The Crow huh? Levin Seto. He was with Aogiri last time I saw him, he saved me from those freak shows. I shiver at the thought of what they did to me. They had started to slice my skin up on my back, but before they could do any worse the Crow found me and set me free.
It didn't seem like he liked what was going on in Aogiri. Now he doesn't seem to be appearing in any of their raids... could he have left Aogiri and went back to Nest after the attack?
"Hey, check it out." Shirazu whispered, poking my arm and pointing over at another ambulance.
Sitting in the ambulance was Arima. He was staring off into space, seemingly not paying attention to anything. On his cheek was a patched up cut.
Wait... cut?
"Arima was... maimed?" I blurted.
Akira gave a grim look. "He was fighting the Crow in the front..."
Crow did that? No, it had to be a fluke. Unless...
No. I won't get into this anymore. But... Crow does interest me a bit. I turned to Akira after going through me thought process a bit. "Mado, is it alright if I see the Crow's file when we get back?" I asked.
Akira looked confused. "I guess. Why?"
I play dumb. "Just curious."
Soon the clean up crew was done, and around seventy people went home in boxes, and the dead ghouls were taken wherever they go, probably to be turned into quinques.
The Tsukiyama Raid in all... was a complete failure.
(And yes, before you guys freak out about the Hide memory part, that part is actually canon! Yes! It's from the real story! It recently came out just in time for this chapter to come out~! Nonetheless I hope you enjoyed and have a wonderful day!) - MnMs171