44

Chapter 44: The Reason For Their Hostility

To put it bluntly, There's a clear winner, and a clear runner up.

If Kurona and Nashiro wanted to secure the top two positions at the same time, even without Ryoma suddenly appearing, it would have been difficult for them to achieve that.

In other words, Kurona and Nashiro were already facing enough pressure, and Ryoma's unexpected appearance only doubled that burden.

So, naturally, they were quite hostile toward Ryoma.

Now Ryoma fully understood the reason, and it was almost exactly as he had guessed — it was related to Akihiro Kanou.

"I can only say that Akihiro Kanou really hurt those two sisters..."

Ryoma muttered softly.

If Akihiro Kanou had shown even a little more consideration or care for Kurona and Nashiro, things wouldn't have turned out this way.

In the original story, Akihiro Kanou tricked the Yasuhisa sisters into undergoing his artificial half-ghoul experiment, using Rize Kamishiro's kakuhou to transform them into one-eyed ghouls like Ken Kaneki.

Later, when Akihiro Kanou's underground lab was discovered, the team led by the Aogiri Tree, CCG, and Ken Kaneki raided the facility. In their attempt to protect their "father," Kurona and Nashiro ended up facing Juuzou Suzuya, who was already a Second-Class Investigator by then.

Even though they had become one-eyed ghouls, the sisters still weren't a match for Suzuya.

Perhaps out of frustration with their inability to understand him — and their cold attitude toward him — Suzuya not only taunted the sisters but also cruelly threatened to carve out their intestines to compare their lengths. His sadistic tendencies drove him to torture the sisters mercilessly.

However, Suzuya didn't kill them in the end. When Nashiro was critically injured, Suzuya spared Kurona's life.

With Nashiro gravely wounded and barely clinging to life, Kurona turned to their "father" for help.

However, by then, Akihiro Kanou had already joined forces with the Aogiri Tree. They protected Kanou from being captured by the CCG, allowing him to continue his artificial half-ghoul experiments for their organization.

As for Nashiro, who lay on the brink of death, Kanou ignored her entirely. Although her chances of survival were slim, his attitude showed no trace of compassion.

Fearing Nashiro wouldn't survive, Kurona ultimately absorbed her sister into her abdomen in a desperate attempt to keep her alive.

In the end, Nashiro couldn't be saved. She completely merged with Kurona, her consciousness lost, her vital signs extinguished. Kanou even referred to Nashiro's faint, lingering breath as nothing more than "farting."

In short, Akihiro Kanou was a complete villain. His disregard for human life surpassed even Rize Kamishiro's cruelty.

He was the type of person impossible to redeem — yet his twisted charisma made him an unforgettable antagonist.

Kanou never regretted his actions until the very end. His goal, like Kichimura Washuu's, was to shatter the twisted "birdcage" that entrapped their world. He believed only a "one-eyed ghoul" could accomplish that, and he was willing to sacrifice everything to achieve his ambition.

In the end, he succeeded. The Kaneki Ken he created fulfilled his vision.

All of this stemmed from the death of Kanou's mother from an incurable disease. In his view, if ghouls could have been used for medical research earlier, the development of specialized medicine would have saved her.

After her death, Kanou's perspective shifted. He believed the world itself needed to be reshaped — and he knew full well how sinful his actions were.

Before his twisted "new world" came to fruition, he chose to commit suicide, shooting himself in the head. He believed that the new world had no place for a villain like him, a final act of cold rationality.

Ultimately, he died at his mother's grave, with no regrets and no doubt that his actions were justified.

Ironically, the medical community's later research on ghouls and "dragon cells" rapidly advanced medicine, curing numerous diseases — even reviving Yukinori Shinohara from his vegetative state.

"Now that they have little chance of using Rize Kamishiro as a test subject, I wonder what Akihiro Kanou and Kichimura Washuu will do next..."

Ryoma was lost in thought, ignoring the varied looks from those around him.

After all, two cute twin girls were leaning on his shoulders, one on each side — an awkward sight that naturally drew attention.

Waking them up directly seemed a bit inappropriate, so Ryoma simply waited.

...

When they were nearly at Kurona and Nashiro's stop, Ryoma decided to wake them.

"Kurona, Nashiro, this is your stop," Ryoma reminded them, gently nudging Kurona's shoulder to rouse her.

"Hmm? …Are we here already?"

Kurona blinked, still half-asleep. She rubbed her eyes, unaware of what had just happened.

Meanwhile, Nashiro quickly snapped to her senses. Realizing she had accidentally fallen asleep — and worse, that she'd been leaning on Ryoma — her face turned red with embarrassment.

Trying to play it off, Nashiro stood up quickly, pretending nothing had happened.

Kurona, still half-dazed, followed after her without noticing anything unusual.

Ryoma kept quiet the whole time, acting as though nothing had occurred.

After getting off the train, Nashiro glanced at Kurona, noting her calm expression — as if she had no idea what had happened.

But Nashiro remembered everything clearly. She knew Kurona had also been leaning on Ryoma.

Does she really not care at all?

Curious, Nashiro turned to Kurona and asked softly, "Hey... do you even know what just happened?"

Kurona looked puzzled. "What do you mean?"

"You... fell asleep... on Ryoma's shoulder," Nashiro explained hesitantly.

"...!"

Kurona froze for a moment before her eyes widened in disbelief. Her pupils trembled slightly, as if she couldn't process what she'd just heard.

"I... I slept on his shoulder?!"

Nashiro felt a bit relieved now. At least Kurona had the same reaction — it wasn't just her feeling embarrassed.

But the real problem was that Ryoma had clearly known what had happened.

The thought of that made Nashiro feel even more flustered and shy.