Chapter Text
Cochlea, a ghoul detention center located in the 23rd Ward, a place where captured ghouls are detained inside. The third floor holds a valuable piece of information, known as SS rated ghoul, Centipede. Centipede is an incomplete kakuja, as well as a one-eyed ghoul. His identity is of a missing college student, Kaneki Ken.
CCG is withholding any information regarding Kaneki Ken, from the press and from any CCG investigator. If an investigator were to leak information concerning this matter, CCG would have a serious matter on their hands.
Shinme Haiseki, the prison director, lead Amon Koutarou and Akira Mado through Cochlea. As they walked unease settled at the pit of Amon’s stomach, as he thought back to the raid.
-
“I...I.. don’t….don’t want to eat anymore….”
The words that came out of Eyepatch sounded pained and strained. His kangue was retracting, almost as if he was surrendering to Amon. It seemed as if he wanted to be killed. From where Amon stood he could see the unhealed, gaping wounds left from Juuzou. The wounds still bleeding and trying to clot. He could see the dried blood on the ghoul’s face and the speckles in his messy bleached hair.
His hands were tightly clenched around his face, while the other tugged at his hair. The nails stood out the most, they seemed to clash with the chalky white hair. Were the ghoul’s nails black during their first meeting? No, Amon was sure they weren’t. Could it be a fashion statement, could they be painted?
Amon took a slight step forward to inspect the ghoul closer while holding onto his quinque tightly. Now looking closer, the nails seemed to be a deep dark red, like the color of dried blood. What could have happened to make them that shade?
Amon felt himself shiver, then he turned towards the walls and ceilings. The walls were covered with crimson blood, along with having deep jagged cuts into the walls and flooring.
Amon closed his eyes. He felt pity for the ghoul, and its weak display to be spared. Amon raised to quinque ready to strike, but he hesitated. The ghoul looked physically and mentally broken, the one-eyed ghoul looked to be clinging to his identity as a human. Amon could see silent tears leaking out of both eyes.
Is Eyepatch just a ghoul?
“Yes,” Amon spoke, only speaking to himself.
He tried to rid his mind of all thoughts and continue with his job. His job was to exterminate all ghouls. But as he tried to empty his mind, questions and thoughts swarmed him. Amon knew that any of his questions would never be answered just by killing. Could Amon decide either to receive the answers he needed or to let them vanish into the darkness?
“Why are all you bums, just standing around? Amon-sa~n! You need to move or else!” But before Amon could react, three scorpion bikaku quinque knives soared past Amon and struck Eyepatch. The knives had been thrown by Juuzou, who was smiling cruelly.
One of the knives had lodged itself into the half-ghoul’s torso and the other two were lodged into his arm. Crimson blood leaked out of each wound. After losing so much blood, the kakuja mask was starting to flake off like dead skin cells. You could see the expression of betrayal and distrust on the ghoul’s face. You could see his eyes were no longer rolled back into his head, but staring dead onto the floor.
“I wonder, is your regeneration faster? I might just have to time you! Now, should I rip out a few guts, or better yet, chop a few limbs off? You won’t miss them will you, Centipede? After all, you have so many,” Juuzou’s smile widened.
Eyepatch quickly covered his ears, trying to block out any noise, any sound. His body started to tremble, and his face paled.
“Oh, scared? Don’t worry it will be over soon! Just try to hold on tight until I saw off each of your arms!”
Then came a scream, but it was not just a normal scream, but one that would make Amon lie awake at night. One that would loop over and over again in his head. The scream of someone in pure agony.
The scream reminded Amon of a wounded animal stuck in a trap, knowing it could not escape. It wasn’t just that, it was also his body posture. The way he sat hunched over kneeling, with his ears covered and his eyes wide. The way his clear grey eyes focused solely on the bloody flooring.
Then the ghoul released one single scrawny, red kagune to block more incoming knives thrown by Juuzou.
His face was of pure horror, and deception.
And then came another scream.
-
By the time Amon snapped out of his thoughts, Shinme Haiseki had finished leading the pair to the interrogation room.
“Please take care and use the utmost caution. Alert me if anything goes wrong. At Cochlea we need to punish ‘problematic’ ghouls.” Shinme then left the two by the interrogation room.
“Akira, what information do we have concerning Ey-Centipede?” The new alias was given to the ghoul by Shinohara. It's not hard to understand why after seeing the pictures of it at full strength.
“Just your reports filed on the ghoul. They are either not interested in this ghoul, or they are withholding any information.” Amon’s response was a lifeless grunt. It's not like he needed it anyways; he already knew everything regarding the investigation.
Akira continued saying, “I still don’t understand why you would spare this ghoul instead of killing it. What use could it be to us? You should have taken care of it, it seemed to be in a great deal of pain. It would have been a mercy to die.”
Akira never wanted to keep the ghoul around from the beginning. It took part in her father’s murder, killing the thing would be vengeance for his death. Yet Amon fought against her words. Despite all of Mado’s teachings, he wasn’t able to kill Eyepatch.
Mado always followed his instincts, and while Amon certainly isn’t as seasoned of an investigator like him, his gut told him to save Eyepatch. At first, CCG doubted Amon’s decision to keep the ghoul alive until interrogating Centipede, then their mindset changed completely. The doubts from Itsuki Marude suddenly stopped, and all information concerning the ghoul was suddenly kept hidden.
-
Inside the interrogation room sat two fold-out chairs, while directly across them sat SS rated ghoul, Centipede. The ghoul sat upright, with his hands in his lap. He looked uncomfortable, and the dark rings and heavy bags under his eyes showed he hadn’t slept recently.
Amon sat down quickly in one fluid motion, while Akira remained standing.
“Hello Eyepatch, I would like to ask you some questions.”