The night in Tokyo's 20th Ward was calm on the surface, but beneath the quiet sky, dark currents stirred.
Outside a secluded alley, three masked men glanced around nervously.
"This is the place. Anyone behind us?"
"No one!"
"You sure?"
"I'm sure. No one!"
"All right, let's go."
After confirming they weren't followed, the trio slipped into the alley. At its end stood a rusty iron door with no handle or keyhole, only openable from within. In Tokyo, distinctive masks marked them as ghouls, the scourge disrupting the city's nightlife. But tonight, they weren't here to kill or feed.
The leader knocked on the door: three raps, two raps, one.
A small window slid open, revealing a pair of eyes. "Who're you looking for?"
"We were sent by a friend." The leader replied, his red kakugan flashing to prove his ghoul identity.
"Who sent you?"
"Gecko."
The window snapped shut, and the door creaked open. The man inside was none other than CCG investigator Koutarou Amon.
After Altair's barrage of revelations, Amon had chosen to align with him, driven to fix the broken world of ghouls and humans. Altair's suppressant offered a chance to change everything, and with Japan's elite either corrupt or complicit, Amon saw no choice but to rely on an outsider's power to save his country. It was a quintessentially Japanese move, defying the system from below.
Amon regarded the three ghouls without hostility, his expression blank. He stepped aside, nodding toward the interior. The ghouls returned a slight nod and proceeded deeper. Amon wasn't worried about an attack; he'd injected himself with the suppressant, neutralizing his RC cells. To ghouls, he held no appeal, no scent, no temptation, unless they sought pure vengeance.
His current role? A Tokyo arms dealer.
Days earlier, Eto Yoshimura had tracked Altair, seeking more suppressants. He'd casually tossed her six syringes to test. She used one on a low-ranking Aogiri Tree ghoul, who instantly became human, unnoticed by other ghouls. The ex-ghoul walked out of Aogiri's base, unscathed.
Convinced of the suppressant's power, Eto sought Altair again, offering a deal: help him find the original ghoul in exchange for more suppressants. With enough, all ghouls could become human, ending the ghoul-human conflict. Human infighting would persist, but that was nothing new.
Altair's method evolved from handing out syringes to selling "arms." Syringes were tricky in combat, either restrain the target for a safe injection or risk splashing yourself in a fight. So, Altair and Amon opened an arms shop. Using his knack for blending in, Altair sourced a stockpile of weapons, from vintage to cutting-edge. He then crafted suppressant-laced bullets, selling both the cure and the weapons for profit.
When Aogiri Tree received the first batch, ghouls scoffed. They were proud, wielding kagune like superpowers, why use guns? But orders from above forced their hand. In one battle, a volley of bullets stripped their enemies' kagune away. They understood why their leaders insisted on firearms.
Aogiri began dominating, but within a day, their rivals wielded the same weapons. Unbeknownst to them, Eto had tipped off their enemies, directing them to Altair. She played both sides, weakening rival ghouls while thinning her own ranks, all turning human. Ghoul battles morphed into gunfights, with both sides in bulletproof vests, terrified of losing their powers. What should've been supernatural clashes became gangland shootouts, thanks to Altair.
In just three days, Tokyo's ghoul population plummeted by over two hundred.
Altair, the "American." played his role perfectly. Without lifting a finger, he'd sparked a ghoul civil war, selling arms to one side to crush the other, then arming the opposition to keep the cycle going. He'd warped ghoul society single-handedly, raking in profits.
Now, these three ghouls from Aogiri Tree had come to procure the next batch of "arms."
They reached the end of the path, pushing open a glass door. Behind a desk sat Altair, wearing glasses and striking a pose like a shady commander.
"Welcome, my guests." He said with a grin.
***
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