Tsukiyama’s underlings will do everything they can to keeping him alive as long as possible—no easy task when you have some of CCG’s finest after him. Having already lost so many people, Shuu all but begs Matsumae to make him a promise to come back alive along with Mairo, but she can’t keep it.
Kijima and Ihei await Matsumae and Mairo, while Shuu ends up encountering Sasaki on the rooftop helipad. Sasaki urges Shuu to surrender. Shuu doesn’t comply. He can’t. His life is no longer his own, if it ever was. Shuu has decided that honoring the sacrifices made in his name by living is more important than trying to wring Ken out of Sasaki Haise. So they fight.
It’s a bloody outing, as expected. The two new recruits Shimoguchi reluctantly accepted into his “cursed” squad are taken out by a masked Kanae; killed protecting him, who did nothing but shit-talk them till the end. Ihei is simply having fun fighting Matsumae…until she fails to mind her surroundings, slips on some blood, and gets run through.
Noro, one of Aogiri’s top ghouls, has also arrived, and the Quinx squad along with some others are unlucky enough to face his constantly-regenerating ponytailed ass. And get this: Saiko actually gets to demonstrate her power for once, rather than just stand there with her giant hammer waiting to be rescued (though she does that too, and her big attack has no effect on Noro).
Somewhat surprisingly, two of the most cocky and confident Doves in Ihei and Kijima meet most inauspicious and gruesome deaths; Ihei by a last minute suicide assist from Mairo; Kijima by his own chainsaw quinque, which happens to land right down the middle of his oddly-proportioned head. I wont miss either of them?
When everyone’s in deep shit and there’s seemingly no answer for Goro’s regenerating, Shirazu volunteers to cast away his fear and wield Nutcracker, but like Saiko’s kagune, it’s a lot of sound and fury signifying (and settling) nothing. Noro is simply blown into tiny pieces that are reformed into something even more grotesque and deadly.
Back up on the roof, the Eto-coached Kanae joins the fight, relieving Sasaki of his arm. Sasaki, for his part, was able to correctly predict every move Shuu made, though he didn’t dodge them. We learn that like Shuu is now, Kanae was once a girl, and the last living member of her family, but shed the gender of her birth in order to take on the Rosewald mantle.
But whether Sasaki, remembering Arima’s tough-love training, will show Kanae or Shuu any mercy is up for debate. And we have another ghoul incoming who will shift the momentum once more. But so far this is turning out to be a win for no one.
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