Chapter 31: Coming Face To Face With The One Eyed King
The moment Shiki walked into the abandoned storage facility, his gaze landed and focused on the tall, well built figure with white hair and gray eyes standing in between Tatara and Noro. The man with a calm, apathetic expression wore a pair of thin framed glasses and was dressed in a white, hooded trench coat over a black, professional suit and tie. Shiki immediately recognized the One-Eyed King as his senior at the Sunlit Garden and the widely known CCG's White Reaper, Kishou Arima. Shiki was a bit surprised and intrigued at this unexpected development. It was even better than the time when he discovered his brother was part of the Clowns. Were the Washuu Clan and V organization really so lax and incompetent when it came to keeping track of their members and their activities? Maybe they were so conceited that it never occurred to them that three of their members would covertly join enemy ghoul organizations. Seriously, Kichimuri was acceptable since he'd changed his face, identity and had created a clone to take his place but Kichimura and Kishou Arima had no such abilities. They were literally just walking around Tokyo meeting up and working with enemy ghoul organizations. Shiki found the situation so ludicrous he couldn't suppress the smirk forming on his face. "My my my, I was wondering why would the legendary One Eyed King request my presence and I only came to satisfy my curiosity at the identity of such an enigmatic figure. But imagine my surprise as I arrive to find the CCG's top investigator, The White Reaper, standing at the spot I'd expected to find the true leader of Aogiri Tree. Is this a trap perhaps, set up by both the CCG and my own comrades to lure me out here to an isolated enclosed storage facility so you can easily eliminate me and dispose of my corpse after you're done. Because I'll have an easier time believing that than the fact that the CCG's top combatant is a ghoul who happens to also be the leader of an enemy ghoul organization." Shiki said in a mocking tone with a smirk on his face. Arima's reveal as the One Eyed King may have surprised him a bit but Shiki was not going to display it for all to see. He was fully aware of the fact that Arima was not a ghoul but due to the fact that Shiki and Arima were supposed to have never met, he was not meant to know that. Some may think Arima was really a ghoul in disguise due to his heightened abilities but Shiki was fully aware of the reason and source of his abilities. Kishou Arima was a half-human, a hybrid offspring birthed as a result of conception between a male ghoul and a female human. Half-humans were thought to be the failed result when people tried to conceive and produce half-ghouls like Eto Yoshimura. Half-humans were born with increased physical abilities such as superhuman senses, strength and agility. While some were capable of regenerative abilities, all half-humans were born with shortened lifespans of less than 40 years with a few exceptions. Their bodies aged and deteriorated at a faster rate than the average human or ghoul. Also they were not born with a kakuhou organ and were therefore incapable of using kagune. Shiki knew all this because he too was born as a half-human with Tsuneyoshi Washuu as his ghoul father and his unnamed mother as the human female who conceived and birthed him. His elder brother Kichimura was the same which might explain his ambition to cause chaos since he'd been aware of the fact that he wouldn't live a long life like everybody else since a very young age.
Shiki walked further into the storage facility alongside Eto who was failing to suppress her laughter. They both walked until they stood at a close distance to and were face to face with Arima, Tatara and Noro. "Your imagination and the way you express yourself is as amusing as always Shiki but I assure you there are no traps or attempts at foul play here today. Our king simply wanted to meet you after all this time and thus this meeting was set up to make it happen. Please behave yourself, we have important matters to discuss." Tatara said with a dry, humorless tone while giving Eto a look of disapproval to get her to stop laughing. Eto dialed back her laughing to a slight chuckle before sticking her tongue out at Tatara in playful defiance. "Tatara is right Shiki, take comfort in the fact that you have no enemies here today. It's a pleasure to finally meet you, I've heard much about you as I'm sure you already know. Forgive Tatara if he was not the most forthcoming with information about me as it was of the utmost importance my identity stayed secret and you had yet to prove yourself as a true ally and someone we could fully trust." Arima said calmly with a light gentle smile on his face. " Besides, I wanted to meet the man who's done so much to improve Aogiri Tree and thank him for all his hard work in increasing the organization's overall strength. As I'm sure you already know, my name is Kishou Arima and I'm a special class investigator at the CCG. However, I am not a ghoul but rather I'm a failed product in creating the perfect ghoul-human hybrid. I won't get too much into the details of my origin as today is all about meeting you face to face and letting you in on the secret of the true purpose of Aogiri Tree. We've acknowledged your commitment to the organization through your continued valuable contributions. You've proven yourself to us so we thought it was time to fully let you in on everything we knew and what exactly is happening in Tokyo. First of all, how much do you know about the Washuu Clan and the organization lurking behind the CCG?" Arima said as he went on to let Shiki in on many secrets concerning the CCG and the real nature of the Washuu Clan that controlled it as well as the clandestine organization that did their bidding. He told him about how the real goal of Aogiri Tree was not the destruction of the CCG but rather to put it through a period of organizational change after eliminating the Washuu Clan and their attack dogs, the Vasuki organization. Their ultimate goal was to work towards a revolution that brought together ghouls and humans in a united peaceful society for a brighter future. "And that's why we need your help, you've proven yourself to be trustworthy and strong enough to fight the people we're going up against. You've also proven yourself to be cunning and smart when it comes to battle and other areas. Most important of all is the ghoulification research you're currently working on. The fact that you've succeeded in creating artificial one eyed ghouls is remarkable and it's success is something that could further bridge the gap between humans and ghouls. Due to my unique physical constitution as a half-human, I do not have much time left on this earth but I can see that your research could really do a lot in aiding our cause. As long as humans and ghouls are on opposite sides, there must always be a One-Eyed King who knows what life is like for both species with the strength to bring them together. I've yet to find someone who can take over the position when I die and I would have chosen you were it not for the fact that you're not part human and ghoul. Instead I currently have my sight on a particular young man who I think would be a perfect fit for the position of the One-Eyed King. In fact your golden eyes remind me of him. However while your eyes give off the vibe of a deadly serpent and exude danger, his golden eyes look like stars that shine with the hopeful innocence and ignorant arrogance of youth. I intend on drawing him into our cause to mould him into my successor and would very much appreciate it if you could perform the one-Eyed ghoul procedure on him." Arima spoke of all this with a professional tone as Shiki put on an appearance of actively listening while Eto and the rest kept silent. He waited until Arima was done talking and had asked if he'd agree to join their cause before Shiki accepted. Shiki honestly couldn't care less about this crusade to bring humans and ghouls together but he'd accepted since it would allow him to execute his ultimate plan to increase his strength before he left this universe. He'd been here for over two decades and he could feel Vyrx getting impatient even though 20 years was nothing compared to the amount of time either of them had lived.
With the discussion over, Arima disappeared into the night while Noro and Tatara returned to their respective Aogiri Tree branches. Shiki and Eto headed over to the apartment she lived in under her human identity as a best selling author. Eto had finished her city wide book tour a few months ago and her new novel "Nyx's Heart" was a best selling hit in the Horror Romance genre. It was especially popular among avid horror and romance readers with its explicit gory descriptions and emotion filled sex scenes. It was also a massive hit among the female demographic of all ages. Many lauded it for its take on the psychological journey love takes one on and how vulnerable one is during the process. Many thought the male lead to be a representation of evil and its seductive draw and transformation of those unhappy in society. Shiki had recently finished given it a read during his research breaks and hadn't really seen the symbolism. He'd merely thought it was a story about a city girl who liked to kill people, who then met a man who liked to kill people more than her and they eventually fell in love while committing a series of vicious murders. The story ended in a massive shootout with the police and the fate of the couple was hinted at the conclusion that they survived and ended up traveling the world together on a new murderous adventure. Eto had exploded into laughter when he'd told her what he'd thought of the novel when they got to her apartment as she hopped on his lap and claimed she'd finally found something she was better at than him before engaging him in a sensual make out session. They'd quickly stripped each other of clothes before fucking each other silly on her couch for the next few hours. The next day Shiki had headed back to his lab after giving Eto a 'proper goodbye' to continue his research and perfect his serum. He also began work on a new kind of serum that was built of the work he'd put into his earlier research. This particular serum would be the key to his ultimate plan in getting stronger before leaving this universe.
Shiki stood in his lab and watched as his brother Kichimura Washuu, otherwise known as Souta, released his rinkaku kagune in the form of two scaled tentacles that grew out of the back of his waist. Souta played with his new ghoul appendages as a look of gleeful wonder spread across his face. Kichimura could feel this wasn't the final form of his new kagune and it would only evolve into different forms as he got stronger. It had been a productive few months for Shiki since his meeting with Arima as he'd finished perfecting the serum that made any human compatible with a kakuhou transplant. It worked by violently extracting the body's potential to a state where it was like fertile soil ready to be planted with the seed of any kakuhou regardless of kagune type. Due to the human bodies being a blank slate, any kagune type could be chosen and implanted, which led to the foreign ghoul dna infiltrating and transforming the human body into that of a half-ghoul before kicking off recovery by regeneration. Souta had requested the procedure and had recently recovered from the surgery. With the perfection of the new serum, Aogiri Tree had managed to substantially increase their forces by kidnapping random civilians and brainwashing them before putting them through the procedure. Eto had noticed that it was easier and more time effective to brainwash their victims into their loyal soldiers before turning them into half-ghouls. The new recruits were then turned over to the leader of the Half-ghoul secret forces Rei Suzuya, otherwise known under the codename Juuzou, who trained and incorporated them into squads of deadly combatants. Shiki sat in his lab as Souta finished testing out his new kagune and started walking towards him. Souta looked as though he wanted to test himself against Shiki but upon seeing the disinterested killing intent in Shiki's eyes, decided to reconsider the suicidal course of action. Souta walked up to Shiki and thanked him before looking towards the comatose Rize restrained to the wall. It seemed all the kakuhou harvesting had really taken their toll on Rize who'd recently gone into a coma after suffering through constant pain and increasing degrees of weakness. Her body and mind had eventually shut down to protect her so she could properly recover. Her regenerative ability had a limit after all. Shiki decided to let her rest as he intended to make use of her for his final plan. He'd already harvested more than a hundred kakuhou from her and he'd already noticed that her consciousness had closed itself off due to the pain and constant medication. Souta looked back at Shiki and requested the same ghoulification procedure be done to his younger brother but requested time to bring him into the fold. Shiki agreed and told him he was free to come in whenever before escorting him out and returning to his research. His new project was beyond anything he'd attempted before and had caused Kanou to travel to Germany to seek expertise on the project from the scientists at the Ghoul Research Institute there. This venture would be his final one in the ghoul universe. Its completion and execution would spell the resolution of all he'd worked towards in this world on his quest to grow stronger. After he was done with this, it would be time to leave this world. Vlad would make sure he went out with a huge bang.
It had been a busy couple of months for Muri and the rest of the CCG. There had been an increasing frequency in conflict breakouts between ghouls and their forces. After their large scale operation to take down upper class ghoul society auction, the CCG had recalled its forces in victorious celebration. They began preparing to resume their campaign to cleanse Tokyo of all ghouls. Due to the fact they'd lost a number of combatants during the large scale Auction operation as well as other smaller scale operations over the past year, the CCG was running low on soldiers. The higher ups were initially debating possible solutions to the issue including fast tracking those in the Training Academies so they'd graduate early or partnering with the local police and government military. Luckily for the CCG, their research department had recently finished their long term anti-ghoul weapon development research project they'd started shortly after Cochlea's destruction. The results greatly pleased the higher ups as they'd managed to come up with several new forms of anti-ghoul weaponry including RC suppressant mists, RC grenades, quinque wire nets, Q-bazookas, Q-47s, armor piercing Q-bullets, etc. Each newly developed weapon had increased efficiency and lethality when dealing with ghouls. The research department had even upgraded the existing CCG weaponry to increase their lethality since the CCG was aiming for complete ghoul annihilation. With numerous assembly lines filling the CCG's warehouses with newly produced deadly anti-ghoul weaponry, the higher ups sent down orders to conscript and train local law enforcement in the use of the weapons so they could have more hands to make use of their growing inventory of weaponry. The law enforcement were trained in the use of easy to handle weaponry that could still do a lot of damage like guns, explosives and wire traps. Their presence in the campaign would help in the elimination of ghoul cannon fodder and the distraction of the very powerful, heavyweight ghouls. Meanwhile, the CCG heavily invested their funding and had the quinque of all active investigators upgraded to increase their lethality. This would increase the investigators' chances of survival through this very ambitious venture. After all, the CCG was planning to go up against all the ghouls in Tokyo. Already, their previous devastating attacks on the ghoul populace had pushed the survivors into forming groups to fight back against the CCG and terrorize Tokyo. Most had fled to join Aogiri Tree, the largest ghoul organization but many still formed groups and ambushed investigator squads. Everyday, at least one person died by quinque or kagune. The CCG took their time to properly train and prepare their forces before announcing the beginning of their most ambitious operation yet, they were moving through every single ward in Tokyo, rooting out and cleansing every single one of ghouls. Every single participating investigator was ordered to write a will in case they didn't survive the campaign. It was during this nerve wracking period that rumors spread about the wills submitted by the top and most popular combatants in the CCG. It was said that Kishou Arima submitted his will blank as a way of stating that he was sure he was coming back alive. Special Class Investigstor Kiyoko Aura addressed her will to her sister and nephew. Same went for other investigators like Iwao Kuroiwa and Yukinori Shinohara who had families. Surprisingly, Mougan Tanakamaru left in his will a directive to sell off all his worldly possessions and donate the proceeds to a temple of monks. Finally and most important of all was the will written by Mimuri Furuta, the rising star of the CCG. The news about what he'd written on his will spread when his fellow squad member Momo peeked at it as he was handing it in. Apparently it had only a single sentence, "I regret nothing." Such a simple sentence that was the epitome of one's manly spirit had riled up all the investigators who'd been hesitant about participating in this campaign. They berated themselves for their cowardice and thought that if such a young investigator was already so mature and without fear of death, then who were they as his elders to back down from this operation. The morale of the CCG's forces was raised by the rumor of what was written in Muri's will which caused the higher ups no small amount of confusion and relief. Meanwhile, as the CCG was preparing for war, Muri was busy in Kiyoko's office fucking his mentor from behind as he bent her over her desk. He could sense their time together was quickly approaching its end and he intended to savor every last minute they had together fucking this sexy, authoritative, mature woman senseless. The end of his time in this world was approaching, Muri could feel it.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Chibi_Senpai
Chibi_Senpai Even people who are good for nothing have the capacity to bring a smile to your face.
For instance, when you push them down the stairs and watch as they break all their bones on the way to the bottom.
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