"Hey, Dr. Kanou, you're really hard to track down."
In a luxurious underground laboratory beneath a building in District 6, a sudden voice startled Dr. Kanou Akihiro—who was deep in his research—causing him to spin around. When he saw a mysterious figure squatting by the second-floor railing, he immediately hit the alarm button. Moments later, four figures burst out from the opposite side.
Only when these four appeared did Dr. Kanou finally relax, and he asked, "Who are you, and how did you find this place?"
"Black-and-white twins, along with two clownish cadres—today's luck is pretty good," Daniel replied coolly. He didn't waste time answering Dr. Kanou's questions; instead, his gaze fixed on the figures charging out. All four were ghouls. Two of them were naturally the black-and-white twins, and as for the other two who had appeared together, Daniel recognized them from his memories of Kyudo Nibifuku: the SSS-class "Mother of Chaos," Roma, and Shikan.
At this time, it was precisely during Kyudo Nibifuku's covert phase—by day, he served as a CCG investigator, while secretly having joined the Clown Organization to conspire on his "Dragon Plan." The core of that plan centered on Kyudo Nibifuku and Dr. Kanou Akihiro; as for Kaneki becoming a target, that was merely collateral. After all, back then Kaneki happened to be with Rize Kamishiro.
"How did you know about this place? Obviously, someone tipped me off. By the way, you two probably know him, right?" Daniel said, gesturing with his left hand. In an instant, a bird materialized in his left hand.
"Kyudo."
Seeing the head—eyes tightly shut—inside the birdcage, Dr. Kanou gasped in shock. He could hardly believe that his most important partner had died just like that. With Kyudo Nibifuku gone, the so-called Dragon Plan was basically doomed.
The other members of the Clown Organization, though aware of the plan, had joined mostly out of boredom—just looking for some excitement. For instance, the "Mother of Chaos," Roma, standing before Daniel now, might appear as a demure, attractive woman on the surface, but in reality she was utterly unhinged. Almost everyone in the Clown Organization had a dark, twisted heart—even the seemingly pleasant Ibari Riri and Bei were only slightly better than Roma, Kyudo Nibifuku, and the priest.
"Kill him."
Just as Daniel was about to rouse Kyudo from within the birdcage, Dr. Kanou suddenly shouted, and immediately afterward, Shikan roared. A tail kagune burst forth, streaking toward Daniel with blinding speed.
At the same moment, Roma and the black-and-white twins also unleashed their kagune, launching their attacks on Daniel. For reasons unknown—whether intentionally or not—the twins' kagune all zeroed in on the head of Kyudo's body contained within Daniel's left-hand bird.
"Don't be so hasty—I haven't even finished speaking yet."
Watching as all four attacked simultaneously, Daniel couldn't help but feel exasperated. Of course, in reality, no one waits until you're finished talking before they act. With that, he raised his right hand, and a blast of icy energy instantly permeated the area, freezing the black-and-white twins, Roma, Shikan, and Dr. Kanou—all five of them—in an instant.
Of course, mindful that he'd need to communicate further, Daniel only froze the parts of their bodies below the neck.
"Truly, she's worthy of an SSS-class 'Mother of Chaos'—well, forget it."
Daniel couldn't help but shake his head at the sight of Roma spitting out kagune. He also thought the display was a bit hard on the eyes. Fortunately, he wasn't an ordinary person; otherwise, even eating afterward might be a problem. Meanwhile, although Shikan couldn't extend his kagune from his mouth, he continued bellowing angrily.
Daniel had no choice but to completely freeze the two of them, and in an instant, the area around fell silent. The twins and Dr. Kanou, on the other hand, seemed far more pragmatic.
"Would you two like to work for me? I can offer you a chance for revenge—and even let you become human again."
Addressing the twins directly, Daniel laid out his terms. Their plight had indeed been tragic: originally heiresses from a prominent family and CCG investigators—students of Amon Koutarou and classmates of Suzuya Jishou—but due to the actions of Kyudo Nibifuku and Dr. Kanou, not only did their father die, but they themselves became experimental subjects and were transformed into one-eyed ghouls.
Dr. Kanou and Kyudo Nibifuku's objective was simple—to secure the property under the twins' father's name. That property wasn't just any asset; it included the luxurious laboratory where Daniel now worked, which was crucial because research is extremely expensive.
Although Kyudo Nibifuku belonged to the Kaku Clan, he wasn't allowed to freely access funds—after all, as an illegitimate child, he had no right to a vast fortune, and even if he did, suddenly spending enormous sums would only arouse suspicion.
As for the Clown Organization, they weren't exactly short on money individually, but as individuals their fortunes were limited. Money spent on research would be mere peanuts. In the ghoul world, unless one belonged to an ancient, wealthy family, most ghouls weren't well off and had to work.
"This can't be? Ghouls can't become human."
Before the twins could speak further, Dr. Kanou shouted loudly. Under normal circumstances, a ghoul's transformation is irreversible—just like with Kaneki; even if you removed his Rize-derived organs and replaced them with normal human ones, he wouldn't revert.
"You can't do it—you're nothing but a waste. Soon, you'll see exactly how I manage to do it."
Daniel was extremely confident in his ability to turn ghouls into humans. Not only did he possess the Surgical Fruit—a veritable trump card—but even if technology failed him, he had a mysterious, esoteric method to achieve this. The only drawback was that such mysterious abilities couldn't be widely distributed.
"Can't believe they ended it so easily."
In a dim, vast underground plaza littered with bodies in disarray, two figures stood silently amid the carnage: the sharply dressed, white-suited General Arima, and Takatsuki Izumi—dressed in bandages with a white mask—both standing regally at the center of the plaza.
"Up until now, neither Kamishiro nor the late Kaku Clan leader, Kyudo Zongta, has shown up. They must have already fallen into someone's hands."
"That person who promised to expose their identities."
"Other than him, do you think anyone else would dare?"
At that, the two fell silent. They knew all too well the might of the Kaku Clan—a power so overwhelming that their collapse in just one day left an eerie, surreal feeling in their hearts.
If Daniel were here, he'd surely say they were overthinking it. Ghouls and humans are fundamentally different. It's one thing if their identities remain hidden, but once exposed, in this human-dominated world, they'd be universally reviled.
In fact, Daniel's goal was simply to expose the Kaku Clan and force the CCG investigators to make them their primary targets. He never imagined that, after the loss of their leader, General Arima would team up with Takatsuki Izumi to wipe out the rest of the V Organization.
"Does this not solve the problem between ghouls and humans? The 'One-Eyed King' plan must go on."
"Mm."
After a brief exchange, General Arima and Takatsuki Izumi decided to continue with their original One-Eyed King plan, which aimed to exterminate the Kaku Clan. While that was cause for celebration, for them it didn't resolve the underlying issue. The sole purpose of the collaboration between the CCG's strongest special-class investigator and the Bronze Tree's leader—the One-Eyed Owl—was to ensure peaceful coexistence between humans and ghouls.
At the same time that Kyudo Nibifuku was preparing to use Kaneki to further his Dragon Plan, General Arima and Takatsuki Izumi also incorporated Kaneki into the One-Eyed King plan.
"I'll keep in touch with him to see what his real aim is. By the way, please help me track down Dr. Kanou's whereabouts as well."
"Sure thing."
"Seriously? That's your goal? It's absurd—does everyone want to learn how to become a dark version of Obito?"
After gleaning Dr. Kanou's intentions for the Dragon Plan from his memories, Daniel felt a wave of exasperation. His actions had been motivated by a multitude of reasons—the most important of which turned out to be for the advancement of medicine.
The incredible potential of RC cells, if harnessed properly, could indeed cure many ailments deemed terminal. But that was merely an ideal scenario. Despite decades of research by Dr. Kanou, his studies had only managed to produce one-eyed ghouls. In this respect, he was, frankly, no better than some CCG researcher.
Recently, the CCG had even fielded investigators—Cookins—who could use kagune while still being able to consume human food. Although they still couldn't use RC cells to save lives, it was a significant breakthrough. With further development, it might eventually solve the fundamental problem of ghouls—though predicting exactly how many years that would take was impossible given the unpredictable pace of technological advancement.
"So that's how Cookins work—they autonomously reshape RC cells. That's definitely worth further study."
Having obtained all of Dr. Kanou's research materials on ghouls, Daniel no longer needed to make another trip to the CCG. He had originally intended to go there for data on the manufacturing of Cookins, but everything was already here.
Dr. Kanou had once been a CCG researcher, but due to issues with human experimentation, he was expelled from the CCG. Later, he was found and funded by Kyudo Nibifuku.
Through Dr. Kanou's research on ghouls, Daniel saved a tremendous amount of time and also dispelled many of his earlier doubts—for instance, why humans wielding Cookins could battle ghouls, and why Kaneki's suicide attempt with a knife failed to harm his own body.
Ghouls are classified by rank. Kaneki—having acquired Rize's organs and her kagune—was of a much higher rank from the start compared to ordinary ghouls.
"Impossible—how did you manage to do that?"
Staring at the black-and-white twins who had reverted to a human state, Dr. Kanou was utterly stunned. He immediately blurted out a question about the reason behind it.
"That's something you don't need to know—they've been handed over for your disposal."
Daniel wasn't interested in explaining further. In truth, the black-and-white twins were not purely human anymore; like the Cookins later fielded by the CCG, they could utilize kagune even though their RC cell count was below 1,000. This wasn't solely due to technological means—it was the result of combining the Surgical Fruit with the Philosopher's Stone.
After all, for the twins to survive, they needed to eat. Even though Daniel understood this, he didn't want to witness them doing so right in front of him—hence the current situation.
It wasn't that Daniel couldn't restore them completely; it was simply that retaining their power was preferable until he had truly figured out how to turn an ordinary ghoul into a human. Otherwise, when facing an enemy, the tragedy of the original story might repeat itself.
In fact, to be precise, through his research with the Surgical Fruit, Daniel had already managed to convert ordinary ghouls into humans—but the cost was prohibitively high, so he abandoned that route. He wanted the benefits to be accessible to all ghouls, not just reserved for a select few wealthy elites.
His method involved using nanomachines—implanting them into the body to target RC cells. These nanomachines could lower and even transplant RC cells, but they had to remain in the body indefinitely, making them impractical for most people.
"Finally, it's done."
Staring at the red liquid before him, Daniel smiled and nodded. After countless sleepless nights of research and experiments on subjects like Kyudo Nibifuku and Shikan, he had finally developed a drug that allowed ghouls to subsist on human food. Of course, its effect was temporary—it lasted only five days.
Even though the effect was limited to five days, the drug could be re-administered. If greedy investors got involved, even a superior drug would never be released to the public—because money talks. With so many ghouls in the world, merely selling this drug could produce a world-class billionaire.
This breakthrough came from Daniel's observations—using the Surgical Fruit to watch, in real time, how subjects like Kyudo Nibifuku fed. He noted that there were foods meant for ghouls and foods for humans, and by analyzing the movement of cells within their bodies, he finally derived his method.
"I've been so wrapped up in research that I almost forgot about Izumi-sensei. But I suppose she's too busy for me these days."
Although Daniel had been engrossed in his studies, he wasn't cut off from the outside world; he was well aware of ongoing events—namely, the conflict between the CCG and the Bronze Tree.
After the CCG's explosive revelation that the Kaku Clan were ghouls, the impact was enormous. Fortunately, General Arima intervened, stabilizing the CCG's situation.
At the same time, Daniel had also learned about the outcome of Dr. Makoto Arima's case. This time, he hadn't died—instead, after his battle with Xiu Changji, he was severely injured, having lost an arm and a leg, and was now lying in a hospital bed. For Dr. Makoto Arima, this result might not be so bad after all.
One thing was clear: the combat power of the Kaku Clan was extraordinarily high. Whether it was the chairman, the CCG director, or even Kyudo Nibifuku, their strength surpassed that of an SSS-class ghoul. Even if General Arima attempted a one-on-one fight, victory would be extremely difficult. No wonder that even with General Arima teaming up with Izumi-sensei, they never managed to expose them outright.
Had Daniel not directly forced Kyudo Nibifuku and Xiu Changji to retreat and regroup the V Organization, the outcome might have been very different.
To Daniel's surprise, not all members of the Kaku Clan were ghouls—some were normal humans.
"Half-human? Or were they betrayed?"
Through his research, Daniel discovered why the Kaku Clan were predominantly ghouls. Normally, the Kaku Clan does include some half-humans—like Kyudo Nibifuku, who was originally half-human. But since the lifespan of a half-human is far shorter than that of a full human, they undergo transformation into ghouls to eliminate that disadvantage.
For normal humans, the failure rate of becoming a ghoul is extremely high—but half-humans are different. Due to their inherent physiology, their transformation into ghouls is almost guaranteed.
(End of Chapter)
[Get +20 Extra Chapters On — P@tr3on "Mutter"]
[Every 100 Power Stones = 1 Bonus Chapter Drop]
[Thanks for Reading!]