"You showed up out of nowhere to stop our little game, then dragged us to a place like this you owe us an explanation, don't you?"
She tried to keep it light, probing. But deep in her gaze was nothing but wariness and inquiry.
Hearing her, Rei Ao slowly set down his coffee cup.
The corner of his mouth curled into a playful arc.
His eyes swept past Takatsuki Sen, then over Arima Kishou and Yoshimura Kuzen in turn. He said mildly:
"A local gangno, forgive meladies and gentlemen, you're being rather rude."
"Before asking who someone is, shouldn't you introduce yourselves first?"
His gaze fixed first on Yoshimura Kuzen; his tone was calm, but the words crashed like thunder:
"Yoshimura Kuzenformerly the V Organization's top cleaner, code name 'Janitor,' hands soaked in the blood of both your own kind and humans."
"After defecting from V, you hid in the 20th Ward, became the SSS-rated ghoul known as the 'Non-killing Owl,' ran this Anteiku caf, and sheltered ghouls who longed for peace Am I wrong?"
Yoshimura Kuzen: "!!!"
The calm on his face shattered in an instant, replaced by raw shock and horror.
The V Organization!
That was his deepest secretsomething no outsider could possibly know!
How did this man know?
Who on earth was he?!
Before Yoshimura could recover, Rei Ao's eyes had already moved to Arima Kishou.
"Arima Kishou, the CCG's acknowledged top combatant, its strongest Special Class investigator'the CCG's Reaper,' the 'Undefeated Ghoul Investigator'"
A faint taunt edged Rei Ao's voice.
"But under that glossy rsum, you're a pitiful, short-lived experimental subjecta 'half-human, half-ghoul.'"
"!!!"
Arima's pupils tightened sharply.
For the first time, something stirred that icy face.
"And"
Rei Ao went on, as if he hadn't seen the change in him:
"You're also the first 'One-Eyed King,' propped up in secret by V to keep the ghoul world in balance. Tell me I'm wrong, Special Class Arima?"
"What?! Half-human? The One-Eyed King?!"
Even the eavesdroppersRenji Yomo and the otherscouldn't help crying out, staring in disbelief at the ghouls' greatest enemy.
Arima Kishou a half-ghoul?
And backed by the very V Organization the manager once servedas the One-Eyed King?
The CCG harboring a ghouldoes that mean
The sheer amount of information was so overwhelming it upended their understanding of the world.
Arima said nothing.
He locked those utterly cold eyes on Rei Ao, as if to see straight through him. The hilt of IXA hummed faintly in his grip.
At last, Rei Ao's playful gaze settled on Takatsuki Sen at the far right.
She had completely put away her playful mask; the body beneath her bandages had tensed.
The man in front of her knew far, far too muchenough to be terrifying.
Rei Ao smiled lightly at her.
"And youMiss best-selling author writing under the name Takatsuki Sen, and the head of Aogiri Tree, Eto"
"Would you like to introduce yourselfas the natural-born one-eyed ghoul, daughter of Yoshimura Kuzen and the human journalist Ukinaand as"
"the one secretly pulling the strings, the new 'One-Eyed King'?"
"Or shall I do the honors and explain it all to your father and your collaborator?"
His words fell like the gavel of a final verdict, pounding on everyone's heart.
The entire caf dropped into deathly silence. You could hear a pin drop.
Takatsuki Sen froze where she stood.
The crimson kakugan peeking through her bandages narrowed to a needlepoint.
Secretsevery last onewere nothing but glass before this man, laid bare at a glance!
Who was he?!
Rei Ao's words hit the quiet caf like a boulder into a still lake, throwing up wave after wave.
Every deeply buried secret, every carefully masked identity
Before this mysterious man, they were bubbles in the sun, bursting at a touch.
""
Silence.
A suffocating stillness blanketed the caf.
The age in Yoshimura's face seemed to deepen into loneliness.
His eyes stayed on Eto Yoshimura; his lips trembled.
In those clouded eyes that had weathered so many storms churned emotions too tangled for wordspain and guilt.
In truth, the instant she unveiled her Owl form, Yoshimura had recognized her.
Takatsuki Sen (Eto Yoshimura) said nothing.
The body under the bandages seemed to shiver.
After a long moment, she slowly raised her hand and unwound the filthy bandages from her face bit by bit.
They slipped away, revealing a face that was a touch stunning, stamped with a wild, untamed grace.
Her short green hair was slightly mussed.
The exposed kakugan no longer brimmed with mockery and cruelty; it had settled into a chill that wouldn't thawand hatred.
She didn't look at Yoshimura, treating him as if he weren't there.
But he couldn't take his eyes off her face.
This was his daughter.
He and Ukina's daughter had grown this much
His thoughts were dragged back, unbidden, to the years more than three decades agoyears woven from blood, loneliness, brief warmth, and final despair.
Back then, he wasn't the kindly shopkeeper of the Anteiku caf.
He roamed the dark world, hunting ceaselessly just to survive.
His vicious reputation spread far and wide, eventually drawing V's attention.
They extended an olive branchor rather, handed down an order.
Join as a "cleaner," become the sharpest blade in their hand.
Eliminate every obstacle on command, whether human or ghoul.
He accepted.
He thought he'd found a place to belong, a steadier food supply at least.
But slaughter only deepened the emptiness and solitude; the V Organization's cold rules never gave him a shred of warmth.
Until the day he met Ukinaa human woman, a journalistin an ordinary caf.
Ukina's warmth and sunshine were a beam of light piercing his cold, dark world.
The time with her was one of the rare stretches in his long life when he didn't feel alone.
He even navely thought he might have another kind of life.
~~~
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Chapter 922: Who are you!
But secrets don't stay buried for long.
Ukina sensed the change in him and eventually uncovered the truththat he was a ghoul.
In that moment, Yoshimura Kuzen fell into despair. He thought everything was over. He even prepared himself to kill Ukina to silence her. That was V's iron ruleand the law of survival in the ghoul world.
But Ukina's response defied his expectations. After fear came struggle, and, finally acceptance. She accepted that he was a ghoul, and even accepted his love. They broke through the boundary between their kinds and truly came togetherand conceived a child.
The joy was brief. A deeper despair followed.
Between a ghoul and a human, a fetus cannot receive the RC-cell nutrients it needs from the mother and is fated to die in the womb.
He told Ukina this in anguish, thinking she would give up. But this seemingly gentle woman showed a fierceone might even say madmaternal love. To keep the child, she began to eat like a ghoul during her pregnancy. As a human, she swallowed the flesh and blood of her own kind, enduring an ordeal that defied common sense.
She succeeded.
She gave birth to a healthy baby girla natural-born one-eyed ghoul, unheard of until then. They named her Eto.
The miracle didn't last.
By chance, Yoshimura discovered Ukina's hidden notes and realized she was no ordinary reporter. She was secretly investigating V and had unearthed some of the massive, shadowy organization's core secrets.
V's power was far beyond anything he could resist alone. Soon, the organization learned of Ukinaand of his "betrayal." The order came down, cold as ice: execute Ukina with his own hands, their final test of his "loyalty."
On one side were the wife he loved and their newborn daughter. On the other was an unfathomable organization and its unfeeling blade. He wasn't strong enough then, and he lacked the courage to sever himself from V for Ukina's sake. He knew that even if he fought to the death, he couldn't possibly protect the infant Eto.
In agony and despair, he made the decision he would regret for the rest of his life.
He killed Ukina with his own handstrading her death for a sliver of hope that their daughter might live. It was the last thing he ever did for V.
After that, burdened with endless guilt and ties he couldn't cut completely, he sent young Eto to be raised in the relatively safer 24th Ward. He kept only Ukina's bloodstained notebookthe sole keepsake of his late wife, and an eternal curse upon his own cowardice.
Sent away, Eto grew up in loneliness and distortion. She was born strong, preternaturally bright. Upon reaching adulthood, she began writing under the pen name Takatsuki Sen, venting the darkness and isolation in her heart through words.
At the same time, to protect ghouls who struggled to survive like herselfand to gain the power to take revenge on V and this twisted worldshe secretly founded the radical militant group Aogiri Tree, acting under the disguised identity of the cadre "Eto."
At eighteen, with overwhelming strength, she slaughtered the CCG's Special Class investigator in the 3rd Ward. The incident shocked the entire CCG, which classified her as an S-rated ghoul.
A month later, she launched an even larger surprise attack, dealing heavy damage to the 2nd Ward's CCG branch. Because of her distinctive feathered kagune, she was given the codename "Owl." And because she bore only one kakugan, she became known as the "One-Eyed Owl," her threat level raised to SS.
When Yoshimura heard that the One-Eyed Owl had reappeared, he understood at once: it was his daughter.
To conceal Eto's true identity and protect her from being targeted by V and the CCG, he chose to become "Owl" himself and struck a CCG branch, taking the crimesand the SSS-level threat ratingonto his own shoulders.
He thought he was protecting her. But to Eto, it was nothing more than a coward's belated, hollow compensation. She hated himfor killing her mother Ukina with his own hands to save himself and "protect" the burden she represented. She hated his cowardice and abandonment back then. That hatred seeped through her like poison, becoming the engine that drove her to grow strongerand to destroy.
With a cold face, Eto laid out the hatred she carried. Rei Ao had torn open the truth like a bleeding wound, exposing it to everyone present. Kirishima Touka, Irimi Kaya, Koma Enji, even Yomo Renji stared, dumbstruck, shaken to the core.
None of them had imagined that the kindly manager had such a paststill less that the terrifying One-Eyed Owl was the manager's daughter.
"I'm sorry."
Yoshimura closed his eyes in pain, too spent to defend himself. Any words felt pale and laughable in the shadow of Ukina's death. He was indeed a cowarda sinner.
"Heh."
Seeing him like that, Eto let out a sneer. In the look she threw him, there wasn't a shred of the feeling a daughter should have for her fatheronly scorn and a hatred that would not melt.
"What's the point of saying any of this now? Coward."
Her voice was hoarse and frigid.
Yoshimura's lips moved, but all that came out was a powerless sigh.
Eto refused to look at him again, as if another glance would stain her eyes. She refocused on Rei Ao, that single eye filled with a gravity and scrutiny she had never shown before.
"You"
She spoke slowly, voice low.
"Who are you, really?"
"Why do you know so muchsecrets so deep that even V might not know them?"
"What is that power you wield? What is your true aim?"
It was the question on everyone's mind, Arima Kishou's included. The man's appearance was uncanny. Everything he had shown was far beyond their understanding. His gaze felt like that of a god looking down on ants. The feeling left them completely unmoored.
Chapter 923: You Force Touka?!
Under everyone's tense gaze, Rei Ao unhurriedly lifted his cup again for a light sip of coffee. He set it down, lounged back against the sofa, and kept his arm casually around Kirishima Touka, whose body was stiff and cheeks were burning red.
"Rei Ao," he said evenly, giving his name. "You can call me that."
"As for why I know so much"the corner of his mouth curved into a secretive smile"very few of this world's secrets are opaque to me."
"And my reason for coming here is simple." His eyes swept across everyone from Anteiku and finally settled on the girl in his arms. "I'm just here to complete a deal with Touka-san."
"A deal?" Yoshimura Kuzen frowned. He looked at Touka, worry and confusion in his eyes. "Sir, may I ask what kind of deal?"
He feared Touka had paid a price too heavy to bear to save them. The others at Anteiku immediately turned to Touka, tense.
"Heh." Rei Ao chuckled and answered for Touka, who seemed too embarrassed to speak. "The terms are I save all of youeveryone at the Anteiku cafand make sure you live."
Warmth rose in the hearts of Yoshimura, Yomo Renji, and the others; their looks toward Touka brimmed with gratitude and emotion. This kid
But Yomo quickly seized on the point. "And the price?" he pressed. "What does a deal like that cost?" He didn't believe someone this powerful would help for nothingespecially with the whole CCG on their tail.
Rei Ao's smile turned more playful. He reached out a long finger and lightly tipped Touka's chin up, forcing her to lift that flushed, flustered face.
The gesture was flippant, yet carried an unquestionable dominance. Under everyone's suddenly stunned, furious, or conflicted stares, he drawled in that smooth, magnetic voice:
"The price? The price is, of course her."
"What?!" Yomo exploded; as Touka's uncle he nearly rushed in. Yoshimura's face went grim in an instant. Even Arima Kishou and Eto's eyes flickered with surprise.
Touka's body jolted. Her cheeks were so red they might drip blood. She bowed her head deeply, not daring to meet her uncle's or the manager's eyesbut she did not deny it.
Rei Ao seemed oblivious to the killing intent thick enough to solidify in the air. Still smiling, he idly stroked the smooth line of Touka's chin, as if admiring a precious item he'd just traded for.
The caf's atmosphere plunged from shocking revelations into an even stranger, tighter whirlpool.
"You'd force Touka?!" Yomo's growl cracked like thunder; he looked ready to charge anyway. Irimi Kaya and Koma Enji stepped up beside him at once, faces equally dark. They were grateful to Touka for saving thembut they could never accept her sacrificing herself.
"Sir!" Irimi's voice was ice. "If the price for saving us is Touka's sacrifice, then we don't want these lives!"
