A stifling silence spread through the Anteiku café.
In the end, it was Takatsuki Sen—the most impulsive and curious of them—who couldn't hold back first.
She tilted her head, the single eye beneath her bandages studying Rei Ao with open curiosity, and in that trademark hoarse voice with a teasing lilt, asked:
"Hey, mister with the miraculous powers who looks like he can do anything~ who exactly are you?"
"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 gang—no, forgive me—ladies 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 Kuzen—formerly 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 café, 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 secret—something 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 résumé, you're a pitiful, short-lived experimental subject—a '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 eavesdroppers—Renji Yomo and the others—couldn'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 served—as the One-Eyed King?
The CCG harboring a ghoul—does 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 much—enough to be terrifying.
Rei Ao smiled lightly at her.
"And you—Miss best-selling author writing under the name Takatsuki Sen, and the head of Aogiri Tree, Eto…"
"Would you like to introduce yourself—as the natural-born one-eyed ghoul, daughter of Yoshimura Kuzen and the human journalist Ukina—and 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 café 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.
Secrets—every last one—were nothing but glass before this man, laid bare at a glance!
Who was he?!
Rei Ao's words hit the quiet café 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 café.
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 words—pain 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 thaw—and… 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 ago—years woven from blood, loneliness, brief warmth, and final despair.
Back then, he wasn't the kindly shopkeeper of the Anteiku café.
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 branch—or 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 Ukina—a human woman, a journalist—in an ordinary café.
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 naïvely thought he might have another kind of life.
~~~
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