#this must be like a detached kagune thing

[astravis]

I'M UGLY LAUGHING AT THIS. THANKS AUTOCORRECT FOR THINKING KAGUNE SHOULD BE CHANGED TO KARENS. YEAH THAT'S HOW GHOULS FIGHT.

An amorphous shape emerges from their back and solidifies into a couple of Karens.

They're ready with complaints and will hunt down your manager.

The pettiest wins.

[iya5rt]

Kalopsia Project [Bakugo Katsuki x Reader – Tokyo Ghoul AU]

Chapter 10 – A Collision Soon to Come

Chapter Summary: Was this really how it was all going to end…?

Kalopsia Project Masterpost

Glossary:

Detached Kagune – some ghouls possess a rare ability to detach part of their kagune. This detached piece maintains its traits for some time, and continues to function separate from the main body. One of the ways to use it is to create traps which will lie in wait until nearby movement triggers them, bursting from their hiding place to impale what has set them off.

(excerpts taken from the Tokyo Ghoul Wiki)

***

It had been a few hours since you’d left both the literal and more metaphorical comfort of Yuuei, and people had finally flooded the streets. Or most of them anyway.

However, the dingy alleyways not far from what was assumed to be a murder scene (little did everyone know the “victim” hadn’t been killed by the ghoul that had attacked her that night) were as empty as if it were the apocalypse. Though for the people who’d used to live in them, the apocalypse had long come and gone, taking them along to oblivion

The hustle and bustle of the busy city life felt so far away. The only sound echoing throughout the narrow streets was that of the occasional bird or rat passing by, and two pairs of footsteps. Yet the two passing through made no attempt to talk.

Bakugo had decided to give you some space. Instead of proceeding ways ahead with his usual stroll and forcing you to have to catch up to him, he let you walk ahead and think things through. He wasn’t exactly the conversational type, yet in this moment it was taking all of him not to try and say something. Because he knew he’d just screw up.

He thought he would have wanted to tell you to suck it up and stop pretending like it’s a big deal – everyone else at Yuuei, him included, was, after all, a ghoul. What was the big commotion about you being one now too?

He thought he would have.

Yet… never once had he sincerely considered this to be true.

Yeah, he was frustrated. But not with you. Why wasn’t he frustrated with you!?

It seemed like you weren’t the only one who needed some time to think, huh…?

Instead of forcing words he knew would never come, feigning an ability to comfort you and tell you he understood what you were going through, he remained silent. For all he knew, you probably didn’t want to confide in him. Nonetheless, he kept his eyes pointed to your back, while his senses were alert, ready to root out any unwelcomed guests. You were in a sketchy dark alleyway, after all.

His scanning of the surroundings was interrupted when the second pair of footsteps went quiet. You had stopped, as if mid-step, and remained unmoving.

A sense he didn’t want to admit was worry crept into Bakugo’s mind. What was it now!? Were you about to faint again? Was this a new symptom? Had you gotten hurt without him even noticing!?

A quiet sob made his thoughts go quiet and his eyes widen.

Yeah, it was barely audible, perhaps too quiet to hear. If he were human, that is.

All this convincing himself to stay just as silent went out the window at once. Your shoulders had begun trembling, though he could tell that you were trying not to let it show with all your might. With a few quiet steps, only slowed down further by his hesitation, Bakugo approached you and put a hand on your shoulder.

The sudden action made you jump a little, as you looked up at him, only to frantically begin rubbing at your eyes a moment later. Not that it was going to be any help – he’d already caught the briefest of glimpses of your tear-stained cheeks and red eyes.

He had just started wondering how much longer you’d have been able to hold it all in too...

“Hey… You doing okay?” he muttered, looking away to let you wipe your tears in peace. Or perhaps finally figure out there was no need to hide them in the first place. You sniffled a few times, looking back at him from behind your now tear-stained sleeve.

“Been better,” you tried to steady your voice, though your efforts were in vain, and a crack slipped in towards the end.

Bakugo never really regretted a lot of things. He just tried to live so that he’d never have to.

Yet it was in moments like these that he regretted not knowing his way with words quite like you did. The way you’d instantly fit in with everyone else back at Yuuei, how easy it was for you to get along with people, but to also help them when they needed it most. You’d never catch him admitting it out loud, but the words you’d said to him that day when you had properly seen his kagune for the first time still resurfaced in his mind at the most inappropriate of times.

And there was never an appropriate time for him to remember something like that.

So he decided to do all he could. To make sure you knew you weren’t going through this alone. That you had all the support you could ever wish for.

He reached out a hand and began rubbing circles in your back, much like he had done when he’d first told you what was happening with you last night. It wasn’t much but even something so small was sure to lend you a hand in fighting for the light at the end of this hellish tunnel. And you could be damn sure he’d be walking you through it hand in hand.

Where this sudden softness had come from, was a thought he had to leave for another day.

Though not because his former thoughts were more important. The long night seemed to have been growing into an even longer day.

Because he noticed an unfamiliar scent that was anything but friendly.

“Shit,” he growled, letting his eyes change into that inhuman black and red. Your own eyes widened in response, clearly realizing there must have been a threat nearby.

“What are you doing, Bakugo-kun!? What if they didn’t know you were a ghoul!? That’d just give you away!” you would have cried out, yet were forced to only settle for a whisper, as Bakugo had motioned for you to keep quiet. He only shook his head in response.

“No, it’s worth it either way. With this, a ghoul’s vision and sense of hearing sharpen too. And right now, we need to have the upper hand.” His eyes suddenly narrowed towards the far end of the alley, as he gently pushed you behind himself, hunching forward in preparation to unleash his kagune. “Though I have a feeling whoever’s here knows who we are very well…”

In the blink of an eye, something whizzed past. It was much too quick for your eyes to even see, let alone make out what it was. Though Bakugo was a different story – not only had he seen your attacker, he’d managed to block the incoming attack with his kagune, holding back a man with light violet hair mostly covered by a hood that also concealed a large part of his face. His kagune that Bakugo was holding off was green in color, covered in something akin to scales.

You never got the chance to rejoice in your victory, however. After all, it was still too early to declare the other side’s loss.

A sudden yelp and its almost immediate muffling made Bakugo turn around sharply to find another man clamping something over your mouth. Judging by the way your fierce struggling gradually lessened, it must have been meant to knock you out.

Not that he was about to let them get away with it though.

Bakugo delivered a single swift kick to the purple-haired man to distract him just long enough so he could turn around and swing his kagune at his other companion, clad in a suit of white, black, and orange, and wearing a peculiar mask over his face. And of course, still holding your now unconscious form.

Before his attack could even connect however, he was blocked by the same scaly green kagune from earlier.

Damn it, those guys were quick to get back on their feet.

The advantages of an Ukaku kagune were not to be underestimated though – Bakugo delivered an onslaught of quick but powerful hits, forcing the purple-haired man back and injuring him enough to make him retreat, if only for a second.

That was all the time he needed to-

His heart sank.

The masked man was already a few streets away and before Bakugo’s very eyes he used his own kagune to hop on the roof of a building.

“Damn it, get back here, you-“ he yelled, not wasting any breath in dashing after them, though a mere couple of strides later, a kagune seemingly burst out of the ground, stabbing through his side.

As he fell forward on the pavement, he kept trying to will his body to move, to get up and just chase after them already.

Yet, as he lay there, watching the two retrieving figures carry you off into the distance, he could do nothing but curse, as he slowly regenerated.

***

By now it was already long dark outside. Everyone at Yuuei was a bit uneasy. And understandably so.

It was getting late. So then… where were…

The door was suddenly slammed open, startling everyone inside, and even echoing across the upper floor, successfully waking up Midoriya, who’d taken to napping during the day after he’d ended up pulling an all-nighter with Bakugo and Aizawa last night.

“They took her!!” the newcomer screamed, stomping inside, as he ran a hand through his already messy hair, now covered in grime and dust for reasons no one at Yuuei knew quite yet, and upon approaching the counter, loudly slammed his fists against it. “They fucking kidnapped [F/N]!! Right in front of me…!” There was a dark expression on Bakugo’s face, as he suddenly went quiet, though the gritting of his teeth was still too loud to remain unheard.

A certain pair of blue eyes seemed to not merely widen like everyone else’s, but also light up with recognition.

“Took her, you say… Who was it? Did you see them?” Monoma was surprisingly the first one to speak. And the only one who somehow remained calm enough not to go completely silent or stumble over his own thoughts.

“How the hell should I know!?” Bakugo snapped back. “Two weird guys – both were ghouls. One had a weird green kagune and wore a hood. The other one was some weirdo with a white mask and a suit.” Monoma’s eyes also narrowed.

“Who would’ve thought…” he muttered, heading for the front door. Before he opened it, he stopped and turned to look at Bakugo. “Seems like it was the same guys that were following her yesterday.” With those final words, Monoma, with furrowed brows and a face for once devoid of this infuriating smirk of his, left the warmth of the café and headed off somewhere into the darkness of the night.

With the sound of the door slamming shut, it was as though everyone suddenly got ahold of themselves again and the next one to speak was Uraraka.

“T-They did what!? That’s really bad!! We have to- we have to do something! How can we go after them? Bakugo-kun – did you see anything else-“

Bakugo seemed at edge and was ready to snap back any moment, had he not been interrupted.

“Calm down, everyone, please,” Midoriya rushed down the stairs, likely having heard a decent part of the conversation, if not all of it. “We’ll figure this out. Chances are, we already know who took her. We’ll organize some sort of rescue operation and get her out of there in no time,” he spoke quickly, already rushing to find a piece of paper and a pen to begin planning with.

“Don’t be so hasty,” a new voice came in, causing the whole room to freeze. The air became heavy, as Aizawa’s slow emergence from one of the back rooms made all eyes turn to him. “I hope you haven’t forgotten that [F/N] is a human working at Yuuei to repay a favor. Have you considered that the risk of saving her might not be worth it in the first place?”

A chair hit the ground when Bakugo practically jumped up, hands balled into fists and a deadly glare preparing for the moment he was going to explode. Which was going to be any second now.

“It’s good to see you’re as sharp as the last time I saw you, Aizawa-kun.”

Or not.

Everything was moving too quickly to grasp now. Most were only left to scrunch their brows in confusion, as a tall and skinny man with sunken eyes and blond hair entered the café through the same door Bakugo had burst through minutes earlier. For three people inside however, this was a very familiar face.

“Toshinori…” Midoriya gaped at the scene, immediately rushing to the man’s side, only for Toshinori, or as everyone else likely knew him – All Might, to signal him to stay put with a wave of his hand.

“It’s okay, Young Midoriya. I came here with Young Bakugo after what happened.” All Might briefly glanced at all the wide eyes trained on him. “I can tell you all have many questions but please refrain from asking them for now. We have a slightly more urgent issue on our hands at the moment. I’m sure those of you who heard what happened are already aware she was most likely taken by someone related to the project, now that they’ve decided to finish what they started all those years ago.”

All Might turned to give Aizawa a serious look.

“Lock up the place. It’s probably going to be a pretty long night.”

***

Black. Everything was black.

It took you a solid couple of seconds to realize why everything was black though.

Unlike the previous few times you’d abruptly woken up from a sleep you didn’t remember having voluntarily taken, today you recalled exactly what had happened much more quickly. Your eyes shot open, though you remained frozen for a while after.

You… You had been kidnapped. And there was no mistaking who had done this – after all, you were a test subject, albeit without you even knowing it for the better part of your life.

You weren’t given even a minute to begin devising an escape plan. Though the creeping thoughts of what might have happened to Bakugo after you’d lost consciousness made no attempt to help either. What if they’d hurt him? Or brought him here with you? What if… what if they had…

The single door in the dark and almost empty room made a loud creaking noise, as it swung open. You could barely make out the silhouette of a tall and slender man, who held the door open at first, though later remained standing outside. Instead of him, in walked a short old man with a bald head, big round glasses and a grey mustache.

In the dimly lit room you studied him briefly, only for your eyes to widen. This was the last person you’d expected to find in a place like this. But Bakugo’s words from your earlier conversation with All Might crept up in your mind again.

“Perhaps they have been monitoring you all this time. Instead of keeping you captive, they’ve just been keeping an eye on you in a way that wouldn’t make them look suspicious.”

So, no – you should have expected it. You should have seen it all coming. But evidently, you never did.

That was how you found yourself face to face with your family doctor - Doctor Ujiko, of all people. Your family doctor who was affiliated with the CCG and had been the only medical expert you and your parents had consulted for as long as you could remember.

Everything was slowly starting to click together. Unfortunately, that click was a couple years too late.

When Ujiko’s eyes met yours, he snickered. As if your shock and the pale hue that overcame your face were but a spectacle held just for him and his own twisted mind to laugh at.

“Don’t look at me like that – we had to keep you in check somehow.” He had taken to pacing around the room, though quickly came to a sudden stop, turning to look at you again, the reflections on his glasses hiding his eyes behind them. “But I have to admit – your sudden disappearance was quite alarming. Never thought we’d find you in a café full of ghouls of all places!” His laugh continued. So they had begun suspecting something happened with you after the incident with Monoma, when you’d been taken into Yuuei? And speaking of the incident with Monoma…

He had laughed too. And on that night, Monoma’s laugh had caused you to fear him. To fear death. Because that’s what you knew was going to happen to you – you knew you were going to be killed, so you were afraid of the one who was going to kill you.

Yet it wasn’t the fear of death that made your eyes water just barely, or your hands shake, while you desperately tried to hide it now. They weren’t going to kill you – they’d spent years perfecting this project. No way were they going to just discard their single real success. They wouldn’t have even gone through the trouble of capturing you, if that was all they’d been planning.

But for some reason, you feared what was going to happen to you now more than you feared even death. You wanted to live, didn’t you? So then why…?

All throughout, you remained almost perfectly still. Though Ujiko (it was time to drop the formal ‘Doctor’ part – doctors didn’t normally kidnap their patients, after all) would have been easy enough to avoid by himself, what with his definitely not fit body and old age, there was still the man waiting outside the door, not to mention any other unfamiliar faces that might have been hiding nearby.

You didn’t know where you were either. The chances of you making your way back to Yuuei or even your old home without being attacked by a ghoul or, hell – even a human criminal, were slim at best.

Even still, you were seriously considering the option. Right now, all seemed better than surrendering peacefully.

I can’t do anything yet though… Not until he leaves. And I pray he leaves eventually.

“Good call on not immediately trying to escape,” Ujiko said, as if getting a glimpse of your thoughts. He motioned towards the barely open door and the man standing outside with his back turned on you two. “Kurogiri here has trapped all exits. Now, for a normal ghoul maybe that wouldn’t be that big of an issue. But…” The sinister smirk returned. “I doubt your regenerative abilities are up to par quite yet.”

He turned his back to you and proceeded towards the door, sparing you one last glance before he left.

“I know you’ve heard the whole story already. So allow me to welcome you to our humble little research lab.” The glint on his glasses disappeared for a moment, and you could finally see his eyes. Which only made a cold shiver run down your spine. “Enjoy your last hours as a human, little one…”

With that, he was gone.

And only then did you realize you had been holding your breath. The tears which had been slowly gathering at the corners of your eyes spilled without a sound, leaving your cheeks soaked.

When you inhaled, you realized how shaky your breath was.

That’s right… Before this all happened, when I was still with Bakugo-kun, I… I was crying, wasn’t I…?

The growing pain in your stomach was the final nail in the coffin. With it came the sinking realization that this wasn’t a pain that would go away with something like a small pastry, a snack, even a good meal like those you were used to.

Not anymore.

All the thoughts finally took their toll on you and, between your falling tears and muffled sobs, you curled up on yourself in the corner of the room, shoulders shaking in tone with your sharp and shaky breaths.

So this was it, huh…?

This was really how it was going to end…?

A single thought came back to you and in that moment, you almost laughed at yourself. At a time like this, he was really the only person you wanted to scream and call out to?

Even still, you called for him again and again in your mind.

Please… Bakugo-kun…

***

[CLASSIFIED INFORMATION]

Protocol K78152112

Subject #37

Real Name: Shigaraki Tomura

Background: Subject was the adopted son of a researcher affiliated with the project.

Results: Numerous areas of skin were damaged and began disintegrating. Hair faded to a lighter, almost white color.

Full sync with the kakuhou was achieved in a few hours. Subject lived and showed no further signs of deterioration.

(scribbled in pen) We’re still going strong, success is almost upon us, I can feel it!! This one might just be the strongest one yet. We just need to figure out how to put together one that regains their personality and stuff. These guys still can’t make decisions on their own… We just need to get lucky!!

***

Author’s Note:   :)

It’s time to suffer. While this story isn’t very long and hasn’t really had arcs that spanned multiple chapters (it’s been more of a “one event gradually flows into the next” kind of thing), this is definitely the final arc. I’ve been horrible at managing my time lately and I’d like to avoid making assumptions about how many chapters we have left based solely on my outline, so unfortunately I don’t have a concrete number yet.

I’m just as curious as you to see how these next few chapters are going to turn out because I’m not all that experienced with writing stuff like what you saw this chapter. I think I’m going to keep this note shorter than last week’s so thank you all so much for reading and sticking with this story for as long as you have! I really hope you’re enjoying it and please leave a comment to share some of your thoughts with me! I love you all so much and I’ll see you again next Wednesday! Bye~

(Meanwhile, this week I get to find out what it’s like to celebrate your birthday during a quarantine. Yaaaay…? Also, @afuckingunicornn  @creativedogs  @chims-kookies  - thank you for the support and here is the next part!) 

[dreamofcentipedes]

Red Lotus Blooms: 7 - Blood and Water

Summary: A monster is forged in flame. As light burns out, red leaves unfurl. Under the new lights of Tokyo, Tatara's feral existence is disturbed by the appearance of a girl calling herself a god.

Characters: Tatara, Eto, Noro

Rating: Teen Words: 5, 749 Link to AO3

Link to Table of Contents

The Japanese air suited Tatara well. An unfamiliar air to an unfamiliar place, hostile and unwelcoming, where he was unknown and undesired. A bad place to live, a good place to die.

That was Tatara’s life here – an extended death. A quest for death, inspired by death, suffused with death, seen through the eyes of the dead man walking, who had no home to return to and nothing left to defend. He was the agent now rather than the victim. He had encountered the reaper and left with the scythe.

This was the tale the devastated bodies of countless Tokyo ghouls testified. A year and a half had passed since the refugee conned his way aboard an aeroplane and came to the Japanese metropolis, where the futuristic sheen of neon lights and towering concrete was juxtaposed against remnant wooden shrines and their ghosts of gods and nature. It was a modernity forever in the shadow of the ancient, a living past well suited for his zombie-like existence. In those eighteen months he had set about cannibalising every ghoul he could get his hands on. He did not know the rules of territory, and they did not matter to him. The big fish ate the little, and Tatara had yet to encounter any fish bigger.

Nor did the birds pose any threat. Excessive eating habits like those Tatara was exhibiting typically attract the attention of the local doves, but the years he spent in Chi She Lian had taught him the art of stealth. He made sure to leave nothing left of his prey – if he was interrupted, the intruding element would join his meal. When a ghoul syndicate of the size of Lian had floated past the CCG like ships in the night for years, masking the presence of one ghoul using their techniques was child’s play. He still did not understand how the Chinese CCG ever managed to find Yan. They could not find him, though – no-one knew Tatara Huo was in Japan.

His days were spent sleeping in alleyways and his nights prowling the dark. He had none of the comforts he was used to in his old home, but comfort, or home, was not what he was looking for. This was atonement. He would master his kakuja and kill Kousuke Houji. That was all.

It was the kind of lifestyle that made little in the way of allies and much in the way of enemies. It was on one night in a brisk winter, within which even the ascetic Tatara could not abide sleeping outside, that he came across a dilapidated hideout and discovered it was occupied. This was not much of a deterrent as he slaughtered every ghoul inside. They were stronger than he was used to, but it was hardly an even match. After sleeping there for two nights, he heard a knock on his door in the morning.

His white cloak, now stained with dirt and blood and sewer water, dragged along the ground as he moved to the shattered window and peered out with tired eyes. The ancient house was detached in an old industrial area that was mostly abandoned but had become a common haunt for ghouls. He knew what kind of visitors they would be.

A short girl who looked around his age stood out front in a burgundy robe and a green-haired bob cut with some kind of accessory. She was flanked by a tall and sinister figure wearing a similar robe and sporting a black ponytail that stuck straight out of the top of his head. Most notable, however, was his mask. It was pale, with the emblem of a toothy mouth and no discernible eye holes. Tatara felt as though he should be careful of this one. Shortly, he lumbered down the stairs and swung open the door.

“What?” He asked charmlessly. Japanese had been one of the languages Chi She Lian had taught him. The Huo family had been big figures in the Chinese business world, so knowing the language of their closest trading partner, together with English, was necessary to retain their influence in the sphere of human politics.

He could see now that the accessory on the girl’s head was a red lotus flower, not unlike the kind that had floated among the fish in the old pond at Yangshuo. It soured his already grim mood to see a stranger so casually appropriate his memories. He could also pick up their scent at this range. The masked man smelled as ghoulish as he looked, but the girl had a curious scent he could not quite place. Her big eyes beamed with a salesman-like enthusiasm.

“Hello sir, we’re here to talk to you about Our Lord and Saviour -”

Tatara swung the door shut. He made to leave, but he saw the door open again. The girl had caught it just in time.

“Ah…you’re definitely going to hell for that one.” He heard her grumble cheerily.

“I’ll send you to hell if you don’t leave now.” Tatara threatened, looming over the dwarfish woman with a glower. He had always been tall for his age, but he had come to equal Yan’s stature in the past year. Her silent companion matched him for height, however, dampening the threat.

“Mmm, I doubt that.” She retorted with a wink.

Tatara’s patience ran out and his kagune raced out. As soon as his eyes reddened, so did one of hers – just one - and she instantly blocked the blow with a bizarre-looking kagune of her own. It stretched out from her upper back and was swollen and bloated with an array of tiny arms and fully-fingered hands growing out of it. The masked man did not seem to react at all beyond leisurely moving back a few steps to give the girl some room.

After Tatara glared at her some more and she responded with a smug grin of her own, he swung his kagune back to his side and she lowered hers.

“So you are a ghoul. Or some kind of mongrel.”

“How rude, a lady has feelings!”

Tatara narrowed his eyes.

“Okay, okay, Mr Grinch.” The girl complained, and lightly rapped her knuckles against the man standing next to her. “Couldn’t you tell from my buddy here? He sticks out a bit. Kind of like you, with your chin-mask and your period dress.”

“I knew about him.” Tatara snapped. “It’s you who I was unsure of. You stink.”

The girl clutched her imaginary pearls again in affected wide-mouthed shock. She had a major talent for getting on his nerves.

“And I made an effort to look nice and everything. Here, do you like it?”

She tugged on the flower perched on her head. There was no denying that the girl was pretty, but her personality quickly poisoned any appeal she might have. Not that Tatara had any interest in such frivolous matters in the first place.

“Why are you here?” He growled. “To fight? You want the building?”

“Well, that’s one way this could go down.” She mused with a knowing smirk. “We want the building back. You’re squatting in my territory.”

Her territory? So the masked man wasn’t the leader? It was this runt? Tatara could not help but scoff. Well, he was here to eat ghouls anyway. He was hardly going to complain if they presented themselves at his doorstep. No matter how strong they might be, Tokyo had no ghoul organisation anything like Chi She Lian. He was a big fish in a small pond.

“You’re not getting it back.” Tatara asserted menacingly as he poised his kagune above his head in striking position.

“Oh, you can keep it, I just want it back.”

…What on earth was this woman saying?

“This is the other way of going about things.” She touched her nose in confirmation of secret knowledge.

“And what’s that?” Tatara asked warily.

“We talk about our Lord and Saviour.”

Tatara swung the door shut.

“Wait, seriously!”

She caught it again.

“I’m serious. I think we could all do with a bit of God in our lives. Without a God to look up to, we’re lost, confused. We might as well just be stumbling around in the dark.”

The girl was sounding frustratingly earnest now. He preferred it when she was mocking him, instead of saying such ridiculous things to him in all seriousness. He was torn between killing her and just walking away.

“After all, if there’s no God…hmm. What was it Shakespeare said? ‘Humanity must perforce prey on itself like monsters of the deep’.”

Tatara froze. How much did she know…?

“You’ve been eating a lot of ghouls, haven’t you? Those hits, the reason it’s so dangerous for ghouls to go out at night now – it’s you, isn’t it?”

“And what if it is?” His returning whisper was sharp as a dagger.

“Well, some of those people are my people. You’ve been making things veeery difficult for me. But, if I can avoid fighting someone as scary as you, that would be swell. Especially if that rumour is true.”

The rumour that cannibalisation makes ghouls stronger, he assumed. Tatara knew this to be a fact, but it was not common knowledge.

“It is. So go home, and stay out of my way.”

“But here’s the thing,” The girl yammered on, “I think this can all be settled peaceably. I can’t let a ghoul like you keep making trouble for my baby organisation. However, a great threat could also make a great asset.”

Tatara watched her expectantly. She stretched out her hand.

“Be happy, Hannibal Lecter. I’m offering you a job.”

He met her with stony silence.

“You’d get to keep the pad, of course, as company accommodation. Besides, aren’t you tired of living like a wild animal? Aogiri Tree can give you roots. Stability. Purpose.” She looked up at him with a wicked and unstable smile that made her suddenly seem much more dangerous than she had initially appeared.  “Let me be your God.”

The cold wind whistled down the early morning alleyway. Their cloaks fluttered in the breeze.

“I have a God.” Tatara answered icily. The severed head of Kousuke Houji. “Do you want to fight here?”

The girl looked down in disappointment, and then heaved out a sigh with a shrug of her shoulders. “Ah, I really thought you would agree. What a pain. Well, no, we’ll probably kill you in your sleep or something. Until then, think about my offer! The name’s Eto, this guy’s Noro. Don’t call us – we’ll call you.”

She turned and began walking away with the tall man following behind her. Tatara was hardly going to let a threat like that slide by. He shot his kagune silently through the air towards the girl’s back.

In an instant, an eldritch, carmine kagune with a maw of enormous jagged teeth burst out of from the lower back of her companion. It smashed back Tatara’s bikaku and slipped right back into his body. Neither of them missed a step.

What a strange pair, Tatara thought. He did not mean it fondly.

He knew he would have to be all the more on his guard henceforth. But perhaps, if he grew strong enough to defeat that silent spectre, he would be strong enough to defeat Houji, too.

--

It was not long before the Aogiri assaults began.

It started with minor assassins that Tatara made short work of. He was no heavy sleeper, alert from his feral lifestyle and plagued as he was by nightmares of burning buildings. He knew he could be free of his unwanted guests if he just left the old shack. The nights had not gotten any warmer, but if necessary he could always get hold of a place occupied by less persistent ghouls. However, he had no intention of giving that brat the satisfaction of victory, and besides, he was grateful for the free meals and prey he could play with like the catfish in that pond he was feeling nostalgic for. He had kept a collection of heads now that he had somewhere to hide them, mostly just to keep count.

The more time passed, the more assailants came. Clearly this Eto did not like that her drones were not coming back. As the waves kept coming, Tatara began to notice some disturbing features. One set of heads he collected had their mouths completely stitched up. Others, their eyes, groping about entirely by smell. If she was hoping to win the battle of psychological warfare, she had picked the wrong target. Horror was his habitat now, and burnt bodies all looked the same.

He could feel his power growing with every discoloured limb he forced down his throat. On the rare occasions he needed to activate his kakuja, he noticed it had grown taller, wider, stronger. His firepower was now hot enough to rage in blue. It was not enough to simply become like Yan: he must surpass him if he ever hoped to defeat his killer. So he welcomed the nightmare more than ever when it came to his doorstep in full force.

A light snow was falling that night, but the heavy snow from the night before had already swamped the ground in velvety frost. Trudging through the snowfield, the small army knew they could not approach quietly, so they compensated by making themselves horrifically visible. Monstrous masks replaced their faces and their kagune stretched out on full ghastly display. They yelled war chants and beat their chests and stamped their feet with ferocious intensity until they came to a halt outside Tatara’s self-made abode.

He examined them from the window. Something like a hundred ghouls were amassed beyond his walls. Not bad for a fledgling organisation, though he had certainly never heard of Aogiri Tree before. He noted with caution the presence of the masked man, Noro, among them. His kagune was freakish, like nothing Tatara had seen before. Perhaps it would be wisest to take him out first.

As for Eto, he could not see a green head of hair among them. Leaving it to the grunts. How insulting. Or so he thought, when he heard a familiar voice pierce the dark.

“Tatara? Tatara Huo?”

He backed away from his vantage point in shock before hurriedly pressing himself up against the aperture. He could see a small figure wrapped head to toe in bandages, wearing a short burgundy cloak with a colourful neckerchief and a hood with protrusions like rabbit ears. What a grotesque appearance. Was this Eto in full ghoul flare? More importantly, Tatara thought, grinding his teeth, how does she know my name?

“I see you, Tatara, come on down!”

Tatara placed his hands on the windowsill and looked down disdainfully.

“Come in, I insist. I’ll make it nice and warm for you.”

“Somehow that doesn’t sound too inviting.” Eto objected from below. “It still doesn’t have to be this way, Tatara. You can make up for all my people you’ve killed. Join us, and we’ll give you a blank slate.”

“There are no blank slates.” Tatara shot back cynically.

Eto giggled. “No, maybe not. We’re never really free from our pasts, are we? Not until the wrongs are righted.”

A brief silence fell upon them amid the tension and snowfall.

“You know,” Tatara told Eto through hostile eyes, “I’m getting tired of your indirectness.”

“I’m telling you that I can take you to Kousuke Houji.”

A longer silence passed as Tatara gripped the rotten wooden windowsill like a liferaft. He could feel his heartbeat in his ears as blood pulsated through his brain. Houji. She can take me to Houji.

“I told a friend of mine about you, and apparently he knows you. He knew about China and Chi She Lian. He knew about the Huo family and their extermination, and the operation’s shining star: First Class Kousuke Houji. Ah, or that should be Special Class now. He did so well they bumped him up two ranks when he got back home.”

He’s here. In Japan. In Tokyo? If Eto could take him to him, then he could not be too far away. Tatara’s head was flooded with a rush of memories like acid. Fei’s stupid nicknames for him. The pride on Yan’s face when Tatara told him about his first kill. A burning building, an interloping whale, and, out of the corner of his eye, the cold professional face of Death. A solemn admission and an agonised howl.

“I also heard a story about a half-kakuja escaping their grasp. Apparently, they never found the middle child either.” Her bandages crinkled in an impish grin. “So how about it, Tatara Huo? Join us, and he’s yours.”

“No.” Tatara responded immediately.

“…No?” Came Eto’s confused reaction.

“No.” Tatara asserted in a firm voice coloured by the anger surging through him. “Here’s what we’re going to do instead. You’re going to tell me where he is or I’m going to kill every last one of you.”

Eto stood silently as snowflakes settled on her cloak.

“You’re alone against a hundred of my best ghouls. Do you really think you’re in the position to make an ultimatum like that?” Her face, expressionless behind her bandages, rose. A single red kakugan gleamed in the black hollows of her eyes. “Do you know who I am?”

“No. And by the time I’m done with you, no-one will.”

Tatara reached into a storage space and threw something out onto the snow. The ghouls instinctively leapt back, but when they saw it was not explosive they inched closer and turned it over. The head of a would-be assassin graced the midwinter floor elegantly, the blood long too black and congealed to stain.

As soon as they looked back up at him, Tatara left the windowside and retreated inside to prepare. No more negotiation. This would be no Xuhangli, he affirmed to himself: Eto would follow the Longxia into the graveyard of over-reachers.

--

It was a matter of seconds before the first wave of Aogiri ghouls had broken down the door. It was a matter of seconds before their bloody carcasses decorated the desolated apartment.

They had instantly began running up the stairs, knowing that Tatara would not have had the time to descend, only to find strange burning balls tumbling down the stairway. On impact, the long red cloaks of the ghouls were set alight, and they immediately turned around to quench the flames in the moistness of the snow. A turned back made an easy target for Tatara’s kagune, snaking down from the top of the stairs to zip in and out of head after head like a fine scalpel, sparing no time stuck in the flesh but seizing prey after prey after prey.

All the while, in his hands Tatara began to hurl the flaming balls directly at the backs of his victims, knocking them to the ground and catching them in between the fire on their back and the fire on the floor: as the balls from before were still rolling about, spreading fire in their wake. To burn alive caught between two walls of flame while looking at the stitched eyes of your fallen comrade staring up at you sightlessly, the flames melting their face and yours alike…

How’s that for psychological warfare?

The warriors in the first wave who survived the initial onslaught left screaming in a mad panic, deserting into the darkness and ruining the Aogiri formation as other ghouls broke off to stop them. There was a brief pause before Eto sent in a second pack of wolves, but it was a hesitant, demoralised bunch. As they inched into the kitchen just through the entrance, their heads swung round at a flaming object sent hurtling towards the old gas cooker.

Those heads were jerked back at lethal angles in the force of the explosion that resounded throughout the ground floor. It was left blackened and smoking without a single survivor from that second wave. Tatara had sprinted back up the stairs just in time to avoid the blast himself and rolled to the floor to avoid being spotted through the window. Peeking up outside, he could see more desertions ensuing. Suddenly, a kagune smashed down right in front of his face.

He leapt back as a ghoul pulled itself up onto the window frame. Eto must have sent out two waves at once, he realised with irritation, one for the door and one for the windows. Before the ghoul could break its kagune free from the house’s brick exterior, Tatara rammed it outside again with his own kagune. He realised that now, however, Eto would have an accurate read on his location.

Several other ghouls quickly followed, clambering up the windows into multiple different rooms. As soon as Tatara knocked one off he would find another entering through a different window, and while he managed to keep the windows in his immediate range clear, he could not defend windows in separate rooms at the same time: which meant that an increasingly large numbers of ghouls did manage to get into the house, posing a much larger threat and taking much longer to kill. And the longer it took to kill those ghouls, the less time he could spend defending the windows, until he found himself becoming overwhelmed.

The space was too small. It had worked to his advantage before, but this time he needed open space. Charging towards an invading enemy, he kicked her out of the window and jumped.

Cracking out his kagune, he anchored himself to the wall of the house and scampered vertically towards the roof. As he ran he noticed that the assembly of the main force below was completely gone, while clamberers were everywhere. He even had to kick a few off just to make it to the roof. Eto had clearly recognised which strategy was superior. Somewhere, she must be among them.

He climbed up on top of the roof in little time and saw that, for now, thankfully, it was clear. It was flat and tiled, making it ideal as a non-flammable battleground – it would be no good if the roof collapsed beneath him. As clamberers made their way up to him, he activated his kakuja.

It had reached colossal proportions. A scaled silver beast, nigh identical to Yan’s. The old anger coursed through him now, savage, relentless. With a sweep of its gigantic arm, the clamberers fell right back down into the snow; the cushioned fall meant nothing when their bones were shattered instantaneously.

The titan peered over the ledge. The scalers were struck with terror, one so badly he fell off immediately. The others joined him when their lives were scorched out of them by the firestorm erupting from Tatara’s throat. He kept the blast going like a red waterfall, moving along one side of the building, then another, roasting every climber who dared advance. They plummeted to the ground like ashen comets. Tatara had lost track of how many scores of people he had killed now, but he knew there was only one side of the building left.

Before he could turn around, he was knocked severely off balance by an intrusive wormish kagune. His flames puttered out as he skidded along the rooftop, but managed to remain upright. The kagune bit into the tiles and, propelled by its forward motion, a man burst into the sky like a rocket, before landing on the rooftop with perfect form. The eyeless mask stared at him. It was a confrontation Tatara had been waiting for. He was ready to incinerate him on sight, before something emerged from his back. Relinquishing her clutch on Noro’s robe, Eto hopped down to join them.

“If you were going to destroy the house, you might as well have just left.” She complained.

Her words were just meaningless noise to Tatara in his kakuja’s mental state. It lived to kill, not to talk. With a roar like a hurricane, Tatara barrelled forward.

Noro’s kagune with its rows of shark teeth bit at Tatara’s legs, but his armour sustained the blow. Hauling his great weight into the air over the ankle-biter, he slammed his chest into the empty space where Noro and Eto were standing just a second before. They had split in opposite directions, Eto perched on a corner of the roof, enjoying the show, while Noro stood directly behind Tatara, his kagune already poising, rising, striking.

Just in time, Tatara managed to block the great serpent with his appendage. The tension between the two forces continued for some time before Tatara flung off the kagune to the side, but it wasn’t long before it was circling back around towards him. He unleashed a jet of flame that sent the kagune rearing back to its owner with its blind head singed and seeming to scream. Tatara continued to defend himself with the blaze of protective blue fire as he pummelled his pillars into the rooftop to right himself. When he was standing and blew the fire out, Noro was gone.

Immediately the kagune smashed into his back, and Tatara thrust his appendage forward to prevent his weight from being used against him again. The kagune was fast, hitting his back like a machine gun, first here, then there, constantly moving and leaving nothing unscathed. Tatara could feel his armour weakening and his pain rising, but while he was under assault from behind, he could not turn to face his foe, rendering his firepower useless. Each hit made his anger burn more furiously. Eventually, Noro’s teeth cracked through the armour and sunk into the kakuja’s exposed flesh.

It was the opening Tatara needed. Now that Noro’s kagune was firmly attached to him, he hauled his bulk around with all his strength, and dragged Noro with him. As the kagune’s teeth clung onto Tatara’s flesh, Noro was flung upwards into the sky and twisted around by Tatara’s circling movements. The stress of the motion made the kagune finally give way and broke off with a chunk of kakuja flesh, and Noro went flying off the side of the building and plunged into the snow beneath.

Tatara lumbered towards the edge, stinging from the sheet of missing skin. Through the spiderlike eyes beneath his helmet he could see that Noro had landed on a bricky outcrop in the snow from which a small leafless tree stood up limply. Or rather, his head had. Blood stained the bricks as his cranium was twisted at an unnatural angle. This battle was over. He made to turn to Eto and crush her next.

But before he could, he saw a strange spasm out of the corner of his eye, and turned back to the body. There was no way he could be alive. And yet, with sudden recoil like an elastic band, the head spun rapidly back into place. The vacancy of its white plaster face stared up at him, expectantly.

What kind of monster was this?

The body begun bleeding, but not blood. His body was bubbling with a boiling red tar that oozed and squelched around him in a mad cthonic dance. As the crimson mass grew and grew, more and more mouths grew out of it, littering the tendrils racing at Tatara with tongues and teeth. Tatara swung out his appendages to defend himself, but the teeth of the chattering, moaning wall of crimson midnight bit into them and tugged, throwing Tatara off his balance and towards the snow, toward the nightmare abominable.

A rocket of flame lit up the bloodlike darkness and set the creature curving backwards as its many mouths shrieked and gnashed their teeth in hatred of the light. The snow melted beneath Tatara’s feet as he stomped forward and vomited fire, pouring out of his helmet in an incessant stream of incendiary viscosity. The alien entity loathed the heat, and its tentacles surrounded Tatara and assaulted his back relentlessly as its main body desperately retreated further from the flames with each step Tatara took.

The force of the assaults were far worse with Noro in kakuja form, and his many arms flooded into the hole his kagune made earlier, ramming and tearing at the exposed skin of Tatara’s kakuja. Yet Tatara persisted, even while his legs stumbled and his body grew weary, and his earholes ached with the cacophony of screeching sound and pain multiplied in him like a virus. The vaccine of hatred soothed whatever torments hell could unleash upon him. This thing was getting in his way, just like the Whale had back at Xuhangli. Standing between him and Houji. Between vengeance. Between salvation.

He would not forgive that.

As chunks of Tatara’s armour were torn off and shattered on the ground, as blood poured from his wounds and his legs gave way, Tatara dragged himself across the floor, inching closer and closer to the noctal horror until he could grab it by its fleshy, slimy surface and hold it still so its central, largest, mouth, tongue lashing out like mad dog, could face the judgement of fire.

It screamed at a pitch that rent the human ears before disappearing into the supersonic as the moisture was drained, sucked, stolen from the once-slobbering tongue. The flames burned right through the protective wall of teeth, exposing the creature’s innards to the full agony of the scorching of the flames that warped the tongue and shrivelled it to a cinder. Its tendrils writhed around uselessly as its mind was subsumed by torture. Before the judgement could conclude and Tatara rule death on the hellspawn, another interfering voice cut through the silent noise.

“Stop it, Tatara. That’s enough. You win.”

The flames guttered out and the aberration lay dazed, its many visionless heads paused mid-motion, jaws wide or clenched or thrown back. Tatara tore himself out of his ruined kakuja and dropped into the snow, battered, bruised and bloody, but far from broken.

Eto was standing in front of the house not far from them, her small form smaller in defeat. To make sure, Tatara blasted his hulkish kagune towards her. She had no time to react and was quickly caught with a yelp inside its stranglehold, crushing and squeezing her like a boa constrictor. Tatara walked closer as he hoisted her into the air.

“You’re going to take me to Kousuke Houji. Understand?” He informed her in a voice colder than the night now warmed by the inferno.

She eked out a response like “Yes” as she battered at the kagune with her small arms, struggling to breathe.

“I will have full control over you and your organisation until such a time that he lies dead at my feet. Do you understand?”

She hacked out an affirmation like a wheezing cough. He had not been opposed to working with Aogiri, but merely working for them. The last scion of Chi She Lian was not going to follow a petty gang leader around like a lapdog. They might make for convenient puppets, however, so long as he pulled the strings.

Tatara relaxed his grip for a moment so he could get a clear answer out of her for his next question. She gulped down air like an oasis in the desert.

“Where is he?”

Eto was still focused on her heavy breathing. He made his point in a sudden constriction, and she screeched out an answer at the night sky as her back was jolted up again.

“Cochlea! He’s in Cochlea!”

Cochlea, huh…Tatara had heard via eavesdropped conversations from ghouls and doves alike about the maximum security ghoul prison in the 23rd Ward. What, had he become a glorified guard dog? It was about the worst, most difficult to access place he could be. But with Aogiri at Tatara’s disposal, assuming he had not already killed all the ghouls they had enlisted, it might just be possible to squeeze open a breach and find his way inside. Making his way out again was not important. All that mattered was that Houji dies.

He cast his gaze over the smoking husk of the Noro kakuja. Its owner was just now tearing himself free, come back to his senses, with his cloak tattered and singed and looking much worse for wear. If he could defeat a monster like that, win a battle of a hundred to one, and bring the head of a sizeable ghoul organisation to heel within the same half-hour, then he was ready to face Houji. He could feel it in his heated blood. After a year and a half of this bestial existence, he could finally fulfil the promise he made to those ghosts so dear to him.

He pulled the barely breathing mummy closer to him so his glare singed her bandaged face.

“You’re going to break into Cochlea for me. No objections.”

Before her solitary red eye could make any response, he released her from the hold of his kagune the hard way. She was flung into the snow and rolled along its dunes, until she finally came to a halt and shakily began to lift herself up. Noro strode over to help her with a quickened pace.

A second, ethereal sunset fell in the sky as the night was illuminated by the glow of the red and blue flames coating the house which had led to all this chaos. Just as the roof caved in, ten or so survivor ghouls crawled hurriedly out of the ruin to freeze before the triumphant Tatara. They dropped to their knees when they read the situation, as did the eight ghouls who had left earlier to unsuccessfully round up deserters.

The remainder of the ghouls that had come there that night lay out in a litany of charred corpses. Together with the remains of the great black kakuja, they stood out in sharp contrast against the septic whiteness of the snow. They had made quite the spectacle here, and a great deal of noise too. It would be good to leave before the doves caught wind of it.

As the reluctant ghouls led Tatara to the Aogiri base under the menace of his kagune, he looked back on the scene with a pride like elation. Here was one burning building that burned for him. Nothing was taken from him in these flames - only from his enemies.

Cochlea would be next. He was so close now. So close.

[ghoul-caps]

Chapter 141: The Eve of Parallels

So as @i-b-a-r-a-h-i-m-e told you in our answer to a recent ask, this chapter is crucial for the development of numerous characters, mainly for Hina-chan :,( 

So in this meta, I will try to explain my personal thoughts on the chapter for all the characters involved, and here I want to say that I do not share Viktoria’s opinion on HInami’s part in TG. For me she has always been of great importance and despite being used as a plot-device several times, her development and personal road are not to be neglected. Now here are my thoughts about these characters!

Tooru Mutuski

I’ve talked about Mutsuki’s twisted personality before, and this chapter shows just another step downwards the spiral of despair, the hopeless journey of Eyepatch 2.0. There was another meta floating around that stated the obvious parallel between Kaneki and Tooru, which differs only in its end - basically, it predicted that Mutsuki would die in a final battle against Suzuya. I adore that meta cause the symbolism is absolutely on point, but I will not expand more on that. I’m just pointing this out cause I will talk about parallels a lot now, hence the title. 

Just like Kaneki, Mutsuki was associated heavily with eyes and eye-motifs. In chapter 141 of the original, the first words in the chapter are Kaneki’s last “dying” screams, after his eyes were gouged out by Arima. Well, this chapter starts with Mutsuki vs Yomo, and more specifically, Yomo’s eye being hit by Tooru’s knife.

We have seen this before already. Mutsuki always aims for the eyes in battle. They are his strong point, cause he has an amazing visual perception in battle, and is already wearing an eyepatch, so by blinding his opponent, he instantly raises his chances of winning a lot. In his confrontation with Torso in the taxi, he sliced up his eyes. He later gouges them brutally out after he escapes the cave in Rushima. He then makes his re-appearance by shooting Seidou straight in the eye with Juuzou’s knife. And now again, he aims for the eye of Raven-kun.

On this panel, we have emphasis on Mutsuki’s ghoul eye, or in other words, he is completely blinded by his psychotic urge to spread terror and kill everybody against him. This was what lead to Kaneki’s demise as well, he wanted to eradicate every evil ghoul on his way. This could mean that Mutsuki will frame-out soon, probably feasting on the almost surely dead Aura, and rampaging towards Touka, where he would find Juuzou who will have to kill him. That’s what I believe will happen, I do not have any evidence, it just feels plausible.

Shinsanpei Aura

Sigh, one of my least favourite characters, if I have to be honest. But again, his story is not to be neglected and for all we know, he might retreat to his old self soon enough, once he finds his inner peace, maybe by understanding the ghouls’ position. 

This whole chapter has been about tragic paths and Shinsanpei’s path is marked by his suppressed inferiority complex. Once he was given the power to murder as an investigator, he gave in to it and embraced the pleasure of feeling stronger than the ghouls he killed. When I read this chapter I wondered, why did he not run away? Tooru was immobilized and he had little chance of defeating Yomo. Was he scared of the shame, the guilt? My theory is that his character’s role is a “Hide wannabe”.

While Hide offered his comfort to Kaneki while he was lost in the sewers (and maybe even let him take a bite out of him?), Aura saw Mutsuki becoming a mass murdered and decided to just play along - because that was a convenient way to get to Kaneki. It was too late to help Mutsuki, or at least that’s what he thought, so he just hopped on the “Kaneki will die” bandwagon and now we’re here. I am not saying that he follows Hide’s steps. He just fits into the role. Kaneki is to Hide what Tooru is to Aura. Not exactly though, and this is why they will both reach their endgame pretty soon, at least in my opinion. 

And just something I noticed, I am almost 100% sure that Aura has been cannibalizing as well, cause there is no way he learnt how to use a detached kagune or form an eye on his kagune just by looking at Mutsuki.

Renji Yomo

As for Renji - ouch. All that beating must have hurt a lot. But anyway, with him there are less parallels than with the other characters. The only thing I can personally think of is this - he is Touka’s uncle, and even if Mutsuki doesn’t know this, he is still fighting so Touka can escape. Which makes him another obstacle in Tooru’s way to reach Touka, and by extension - Kaneki.

In a similar manner, Amon was in Kaneki’s way in TG and they both suffered severe wounds after their battle. Afterwards, Kaneki was defeated by Arima and Amon was defeated by Tatara. Now we have a similar situation. If Renji is Amon and Mutsuki is Kaneki, then the parallel is a bit grim, cause that means that Yomo will soon take part in another battle, only to be defeated there. I predict that he will be subdued by Suzuya Squad, and I am not sure whether or not he will see Touka ever again. 

After all, his life philosophy is to “live while losing others” and if he loses everything, then he will not have anything to live for. I just hope that Mutsuki does not creep behind him in the next chapter while framing out,cause that would not be pretty.

Juuzou Suzuya

He is the new Mr. Reaper. I don’t really have anything much to add here, to be honest xD 

There were already tons of metas about him and Arima and the overall parallel is pretty well-outlined. The only difference that exists here is that Juuzou has no personal motivations. I hope he gets to spare Touka and Hinami in the battle, but I doubt it. He will fight with whoever becomes the main threat, whether it is Touka and co. or Furuta starting to get on his nerves. Which means that if he encounters Mutsuki in a deranged frame-out state, he will not hesitate and will murder him on the spot. 

I’ve always personally rooted for Juuzou going astray and becoming a solo player, because neither side fits him too well. He has said it himself, peace is not really his thing so I bet that he will play on his own agenda at one point or another.

Touka Kirishima

As for Touka, the poem about the rotten womb may still be in game, the fact that Hinami got a blow to the abdomen instead does not guarantee that Touka will escape totally intact from this fight. I am sure that somebody will come to the rescue and help Touka and Hinami, because otherwise they are done for. Ishida said it himself, a force that can stop the S3 Squad is not to be found underground. 

I find it kinda ironical that this time Kaneki is above while Touka is underground, not the other way round. Kaneki is actively being kept away from the fight, but I think this will lead to his reunion with Hide, cause he is also above the surface this time. 

And maybe, just maybe, Hide and Kaneki will both get to Touka in time, cause we don’t really know where Kaneki is during Touka and Juuzou’s fight (in that 6 hours interval).

So back to Touka, I think there are numerous ways the next chapter can go:

1) Hinami will fall down and Touka will have to rush to her side. Just as Juuzou’s blade hits her, somebody will intervene - Ayato, Kaneki, Amon, Akira, the list is long.

2) She will be forced to retreat and will wander in the sewers only to meet Mutsuki and we will have another epic fight and here the baby might be in actual danger. But still, we need to know why she brought flowers to Shinohara so I think she will stay where she is for now. 

3) Juuzou will somehow change his mind and will attack Furuta, and here Touka and Hinami will both have a chance to escape.

Hinami Fueguchi

I saw many people saying that Hinami has been practically useless in the long run and has only been used as a plot device and a damsel in distress. I can see why some people think so - the Doves arc in the original and the Cochlea arc in :re were both centred around Hinami being saved/protected. 

But many people fail to notice her amazing development and her overall place in the story. Strength-wise she has matured a lot and can now use her kagune better than ever. 

Personality-wise, she has become the complete opposite of what many people bring her down to. She has joined Aogiri Tree for the sole purpose of learning how to be strong enough to protect her loved ones. She musters the courage to become an integral piece of Aogiri, as she is promoted to an executive in just 2 years. She appeared to save Kaneki from Takizawa, a very powerful ghoul as well, and despite the fact that she did not manage to defeat him, she smacked him well enough for him to use his kakuja. On several other occasions, she was the main protection as well. She defended Ayato and the others when fighting Kiyoko and Mougan, she defended Touka from Hajime and now she took another blow by Juuzou to help the others survive. 

I find some symbolism in her kagune. She inherited both the defensive kagune of her mother and the attack kagune of her father. While we did not get to see her father fight, we saw her mother against Mado, and Ryoko showed that all she cared about was protecting Hinami. While every mother would do this, this left Hinami traumatized and made her lose her belief in her own strength until she had to defeat Mado on her own. And the fact that she has an offensive kagune as well makes her an even more dangerous opponent. And this is why she will live on, unlike her mother, cause she has been born into this world to become better than her parents. She will not only defend her loved ones but she will also live on for them and won’t become a tragic memory.

As for this chapter as a whole in her development, I think that she will recover from the wound and as I said, somebody will interfere. That’s just Ishida’s style ;) 

And one last thing towards the Hinami-antis, I think that her role in TG :re is far from over, and she is not there just to serve as Touka’s walking “plot armour”. She will become one of the faces of ghouls in the future, serving as a bridge between humanity and ghouls. She has been more humane than most human characters and her weaknesses have always turned into strong points eventually.