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Kaneki watched the TV in silence, Touka doing the same. On the screen, Furuta was giving a speech about how how was introducing a new force within the CCG. One known as the Oggai, the newly created Quinx squad. He talked about how the original Quinx squad had produced exceptional investigators like Urie and Mutsuki, so he had taken a step further. And then, he introduced the proof of their usefulness. A person was thrown onto the stage, all of the cameras zooming in instantly, focusing on the person as they looked up. Except, the person was Kaneki. Or, at least, they looked exactly like him.

"Who the hell..." Kaneki trailed off watching as Furuta blathered on about how the Oggai had captured him and about how great they were and on and on and on.

As he talked, the rest of the Oggai walked off stage, returning with Clowns, though whether they were real Clowns or civilians dressed like Clowns, he wasn't sure. After a moment, Furuta asked the fake Kaneki if he had led the Clowns. Upon receiving no answer, he nodded to the Oggai now standing at his side. The Oggai instantly slammed a devastating kick to the fake Kaneki's abdomen, likely shattering his ribs but definitely rupturing something, judging by the blood running down the fake Kaneki's chin. Then, he walked to the side of the stage and waved an arm, stating that peace would only come if all ghouls in the world were eliminated. Then, he waved his hand and the Oggai all drew sickle-shaped quinque, decapitating the captured clowns, right there on live television.

As soon as he had, he began to speak again, this time with a crazed expression on his face, and shouting. He announced to the would that the Clowns had mixed civilians into their numbers when they attacked, resulting in countless innocent deaths. Then, he announced that the CCG would begin to exterminate every last ghoul in Tokyo, and that the Oggai would be leading the charge. Then, a deafening cheer began to ring out from the assembled investigators. Finally, Kaneki shut the TV off, swallowing hard. Those were the children Furuta had been talking about. All of them had had Rize's kakuho transplanted into them.

"So that's what it's come to," Kaneki mused. "I should have killed Furuta while I had the chance." He sighed, standing. "Guess we've run out of time."

"Where are you going?" Touka asked.

"I'm going to deliver the CCG an ultimatum for the entire world to hear," Kaneki said.

He walked to the door, finding most of the others of the inner circle gathered.

"Where are you going?" Tsukiyama asked.

"To make a huge mistake," Kaneki said. "I'm going to offer peace to the CCG, and to request the chance to have peace talks. And I'm going to do it by hacking the entire city's TV and internet."

"I have someone who might actually be able to do that," Tsukiyama said. "Follow me."

"Not without me," Touka said.

"Or us," Kuro said, indicating herself and Shiro.

Kaneki nodded and the five of them headed out, reaching a news broadcasting station at the same time as a young girl.

"My name's Chie Hori," the girl introduced herself. "I'm a friend of Shu's."

"Nice to meet you," Kaneki said, pulling his mask down. "Can you take control of every TV channel and the internet from here?"

"Sure," Chie nodded. "It'll just take me a few minutes."

"Alright," Kaneki nodded. "Let's go ask permission."

He pushed the door open, everyone in the one small room filled with monitors looking over at him before scrambling to their feet.

"I won't hurt any of you," Kaneki said, hands raised placatingly. "I just need to borrow your equipment for a few minutes. After that, I'll leave you all in peace."

They all looked at each other before watching as Chie went to work, plugging her computer into the main computer and hijacking as many signals as she could, as well as starting a video feed to the CCG website with a virus to send an alert to anyone with an internet connection on their phone. Then, she turned to Kaneki, nodding.

"The computer's camera will record you, and send your message all over the city," Chie said. "I set up a special program so that the CCG won't be able to delete the video. Once you're ready, just hit enter."

"Do you happen to have a recording of us fighting the Clowns?" Kaneki asked.

"Yes," Chie nodded. "I figured you might want that. Just click on the video at the top of the screen and that will replace the video of you until you pause it. Then you'll be recording again."

Kaneki nodded and sat down in front of the computer, taking a moment to get it centered on him. Then he pressed play.

"Hello, my name is Ken Kaneki," Kaneki said. "Although, you all know me as Haise Sasaki. As you may have seen, the CCG claim to have executed me, however, this is simply a ruse to gain your trust. As you can see, it's a lie. I would like to bring a few things to your attention, things the CCG, particularly the new director, does not want you to know. Firstly, I did not lead the Clowns. In fact, my organization, known as Black Goat, fought against the Clowns in order to protect the CCG. In case you don't believe me, here's my proof."

He pressed play on the video, wondering for a moment where Chie had gotten the footage. It was good. In the video, Kaneki, Touka, and Ayato flew to the front of the Clowns and stopped their advance. Then, quite clearly, Kaneki told the CCG that he would handle the Clowns, and for them to gather their wounded. Then, he and his friends began to fight the clowns back. Finally, Kaneki paused the video.

"I apologize for the graphic scenes toward the end, but death isn't pretty, no matter whose it is," Kaneki said. "Now, as you just saw, I bear the CCG no ill will. Nor any human. I have no intention of attempting to take over the city, or wipe out the CCG, or whatever other rumors you might have heard. I merely want peace between humans and ghouls. Did you know that the number one most researched subject in the world today is Ghoul Physiology? For anyone who doesn't like big words, that means that the majority of scientists and doctors in the world are studying ghouls, and how their bodies work. And every single one of those doctors and scientists is using that knowledge to learn how to better kill my kind. My kind is capable of eating exactly one thing in existence. Humans. Any other type of food, even animals, makes us violently sick, and acts as poison to our bodies, killing us. And for that, the CCG and other similar organizations around the would have decided that all ghouls need to die. That's fair. I can understand the reasoning behind it. But try to see it from our point of view.

"Imagine, for a moment, that humankind was only capable of eating...let's say...deer meat, and that any other kind of food, be it vegetables, fruit, grain, beans, even other types of meat, would kill a human to eat. Then, imagine that the deer decided that all humans had to die, simply because that was the only thing humans could eat. Would you consider that fair? Would you, if you could, try with all of your power, to find something else to eat? Of course you would. Because you don't want to be hunted to extinction. Well, neither do we. Take it from someone who knows, if there were another option besides eating humans, we would take it in a heartbeat. And, coincidentally, there actually could be an alternative. The majority of the scientists of the world spend their lives studying ghouls, but not a single one has ever thought, 'Hey, why don't we create a type of artificial food that ghouls can survive off of, that way they don't have to eat us.' Not a single scientist has ever once considered looking for an alternative to slaughtering ghoul for being physically capable of surviving on only one food source. So I have a message for the CCG. I want to discuss peace with you. The CCG possesses the most brilliant and the most knowledgeable ghoul researchers in the entire world. If it were possible for an artificial food source to be created for ghouls, it would most likely be them to be able to create it. So, I wish to discuss a peace treaty of sorts with the CCG. A way to end the bloodshed on both sides without one species or the other having to go extinct. We will be monitoring the CCG website, and we await their answer. We hope that the CCG is willing to consider peace, rather than choosing to commit genocide against my kind simply because they don't care to try to help us find alternative food sources. Thank you for listening, and I apologize for interrupting whatever you were doing. Have a good day."

He ended the broadcast, Chie disconnecting and restoring everything to the way it should be, with the exception of leaving the video stuck on the CCG's home page. Then, she nodded to Kaneki and the others.

"This building's probably surrounded by now," Touka said.

"We'll be fine," Kaneki said, turning to the humans that were watching him speechlessly, bowing as he spoke. "I apologize for intruding and for borrowing your equipment. Thank you for your time."

He straightened up and opened the door, stepping out and finding Kiyoko, Urie, Saiko, Hsiao, and Higemaru all standing outside, quinque in-hand. Kaneki sighed, stepping forward, holding up a hand to tell the others to stay put.

"Urie," Kaneki said. "I'm not surprised that it's you."

"Of course," Urie said. "It has to be us. You were our teacher. We have to be the ones to deal with you as we see fit."

Kaneki nodded, sighing, looking to Kiyoko. "Hello Kiyoko. How are you?"

"Well, thank you," Kiyoko smiled. "When I tried to stop you in Cochlea, I fully expected to die. You were surprisingly gentle."

"I didn't want to hurt you at all," Kaneki said. "I just wanted to protect the people I care about."

Kiyoko nodded. "And now you're trying to make peace."

"Furuta will never accept," Kaneki said. "His response will be to send the Oggai out to slaughter every ghoul they can find. I'm just hoping that his response will lose the CCG support now that I've said my piece."

"It will," Urie nodded. "Now that it's been pointed out that there's an alternative that no one ever took the time to consider, the entire world will demand it be taken."

"So, what do we do about this?" Kaneki asked, gesturing around at himself and them.

Saiko walked forward silently, stopping in front of Kaneki before smiling and hugging him. "I missed you Maman."

"I missed you too, Saiko," Kaneki smiled, hugging her back. "Keep looking out for Urie, okay? Don't let him get himself killed."

Saiko smiled, nodding. "I won't."

Kaneki looked to Urie, who rolled his eyes.

"I'm not going to get myself killed," Urie said.

Kaneki nodded. "You should consider giving your answer. You never know how long you'll have. Especially with Furuta in charge."

Urie nodded and Kaneki looked to Kiyoko and the others.

"As far as I'm concerned, we arrived too late," Kiyoko said.

"Yes, it's a shame," Hsiao said. "I wanted to test my training against the man that trained my superiors."

"Same," Higemaru smiled.

"I'm glad you've recovered," Kaneki said. "Hopefully, we'll be able to see each other again soon."

Urie nodded and Kaneki and the rest of the ghouls took off, escaping into the back alleys and then the sewer before anyone else from the CCG arrived. After a while of traveling through the sewer, they reached their hideout and climbed out in a back alley, heading into the building.

"Welcome back," Nishiki said. "Good news, your video's popular."

"How popular?" Kaneki asked.

"A couple hundred thousand views already, and thousands of people have already sent emails and posted on the CCG website, demanding that someone look into alternative food sources," Hinami said. "We might actually be able to have peace after all."

"No," Kaneki said. "Furuta's going to send the Oggai after us. It's only a matter of time. And V will probably also be sent."

"So it was pointless?" Miza asked.

"Not pointless," Kaneki said. "Now that people are demanding peace, and know that we are asking for peace, imagine what their reactions will be when the CCG starts slaughtering ghouls, rather than considering that peace."

"Shouldn't we help the ghouls?" Nishiki asked.

"The Oggai are all made from Rize's kakuho," Kaneki said. "They're going to be powerful, terrifyingly so. And they're going to be able to track ghouls even better than Hinami."

"How do you know that?" Hinami asked.

"Because Furuta needs them to be able to in order for them to kill every single ghoul," Kaneki said. "It's more of a hunch, but it makes sense."

"Kaneki's right," Yomo said. "We need to be able to help as much as we can, but we won't be able to save many. It'll be a slaughter fest, no matter what."

"Are we really okay with that?" Touka asked. "What if we met the Oggai when they're deployed, and fought them?"

"Then Furuta would be able to say we attacked them," Kaneki sighed. "We can't fight the Oggai. Well, at least not to start with. We're definitely going to fight the Oggai, but we're going to wait for as long as we can before hand. Instead, we'll focus on trying to rescue ghoul children and families from them. As many as we can."

"When do we switch from running away to fighting back?" Nishiki asked.

"As soon as we know the public will support it," Kaneki said. "We're not fighting a physical war this time. It's as much about public opinion as it is about beating the CCG."

"Are we going to win?" Nishiki asked. "And are we going to survive?"

"Yes," Kaneki nodded. "We can win, and we will survive."

The others all nodded and began to disperse. As they did, Kaneki walked up to the roof of the building, finding a spot where the people in the street wouldn't be able to see him, and sat down, staring up at the stars. After a moment, Takizawa stepped up beside him.

"So, you've been declared war on, and you respond by asking for peace," Takizawa said. "Bold."

"Yeah," Kaneki said, staring down at the roof below him quietly.

"You really okay with letting so many ghouls die when this all starts?" Takizawa asked.

"No," Kaneki said. "But if we fight the Oggai, just as many people will be killed because the public will see us as monsters again, and demand we be killed. This is the only way."

"Well, if nothing else, at least you're a good public speaker," Takizawa said.

"I suppose," Kaneki said. "Hey, Takizawa."

"Yeah?"

"Thank you for saving Amon," Kaneki said.

"It's not like I did it for you, or for him," Takizawa said.

Kaneki smiled. "I suppose. Still though."

"Anyway, my job's done," Takizawa said. "I'm leaving."

"You said you'd join if we saved Akira," Kaneki said.

"And I did," Takizawa said. "Now it's time for me to leave. Here."

He tossed a necklace to Kaneki, who caught it. It was a silver cross on a chain. Kaneki recognized it as Amon's instantly.

"Give that back to Amon for me," Takizawa said, walking away, only to instantly catch it as Kaneki threw it back.

"I'm not taking it," Kaneki said.

Takizawa stared at the necklace. "It's just a simple chain, and yet, it feels so heavy. Whatever, I'm out of here."

"You sure you don't want to stay?" Kaneki asked. "I think Eto has taken a liking to you."

Takizawa stared back at him in silence before rolling his eyes. "I don't care what that crazy bitch likes. She's the reason I'm like this. I still owe her for taking my life away from me."

"I asked her about that," Kaneki said. "She said that Tatara was acting on his own when he targeted you and Amon. All Eto did was save your life by having Kanou give you the operation. It may not be the life you wanted, but at least you are alive."

Takizawa sighed, staring at his feet. "You really do know what to say. Fine. I'll stick around. At least for a little while."

Kaneki nodded, watching Takizawa head inside before turning back to the front, sighing heavily. After a few more minutes, Touka sat beside him.

"Am I making the right choice?" Kaneki asked.

"I don't know," Touka said. "Maybe. But there's no way to be sure. We just have to have faith. All of us will follow you to whatever end."

"I know," Kaneki sighed. "That's what terrifies me. I don't know if I'll be able to protect all of you."

"You don't need to," Touka said. "This is about more than just us. We can take care of ourselves. Right now, you need to focus on making peace between ghouls and humans. Let us worry about ourselves."

Kaneki sighed, Touka wrapping her arms around him. "I love you Touka."

"I love you too," Touka smiled.

She kissed him for a moment before pulling back, standing and holding out her hand. He accepted her help, standing, and followed her back inside.

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