“Ui!” Hairu cries. “I love you! But you’re heading down a path I can’t follow!”
She’s here. She’s alive again. Ui blinks in confusion.
And then her kakugan emerges.
“Liar!” Ui screams suddenly. He raises his quinque.
“Let her go, Ui!” Hirako rushes at him.
“You turned her into a ghoul! I know it was you!” cries Ui.
“The Sunlit Garden had already done that.” Hirako draws his quinque and gestures around the bodies of Oggai. “Look at you, King of Ethics. You’ve become the very thing you despise.”
“I’m not a ghoul!” Ui shouts back. “I’ve just brought peace to Tokyo! This is – this is all your fault!”
“Peace?” Hirako scoffs. The bodies of Shio and Rikai etch themselves in Ui’s mind. “Is this peace?”
Ui swings at Hirako. Yusa grabs Hairu and hauls her out of the way.
“I failed you! I never told you the truth!” Hirako pleads. “Ui, listen. Arima was a ghoul!”
“You lie!” Ui swings again.
Hirako dodges, as quick as Arima, and scampers up the stairs to the tunnel. “It’s over, Ui. I have the high ground!”
“It’s never over!” Ui spits at Hirako. “Why did you leave me? Why did everyone leave me? And now you’ve brought me back a cursed ghoul dressed as Hairu?”
Ui dives for Hirako, but suddenly an enormous kagune crashes through the concrete.
“What?!”
“Look out!” Hirako knocks Ui backward, and Yusa scrambles towards them.
Hairu uses her ukaku to knock it away.
“H – Hairu?” Ui’s lips tremble.
“It’s really me.” She looks sad. “Ui, why?”
“Why are you a ghoul?! What’s this about Arima?”
“Let’s focus on surviving first, please.” Hirako knocks the kagune back, and Ui barely manages to save Yusa from being absorbed.
Ui feels Hairu’s hand brush his, a little confirmation that yes, answers will come.
Mercy and Magic 