I love it.
SPOILERS for TLJ, obviously.
“Oh, did he really tell you? He tried to kill us. Once he saw Eto and I were too powerful, we awoke to him holding his kakuja above us.” Ben lowers his gaze. “We were just kids who wanted vengeance for our mother.”
Rey is too horrified to speak. After a moment of silence, though, she knows she has to try. “Ben…I’m so sorry.” She reaches across the table to touch his hands. Her eyes shine with tears and indignation. “You didn’t deserve that.”
A crash catches her attention. Yoshimura himself has walked into Anteiku.
Ben leaps to his feet and rushes past his father. He makes no attempt to follow.
“I know what you did!” Rey flies at Yoshimura. “You tried to kill your own kids – Ben and Eto. That’s why they left. You lied to me! Snake!”
“No!” Yoshimura pleads. “I went to see them, finally, after fifteen years away. And their bloodlust- their anger against mankind – stunned me. In a moment of weakness, I raised my kagune. And then I stopped.”
His voice thickens. “I was so ashamed. How could I try to kill my own children? But before I could remove my kagune, Ben awoke.”
Rey suspects this is the truth. It’s the only story that meshes with both Ben and Yoshimura’s characters. “So then? You gave up and ran back to your coffee shop?”
“I retreated to learn the ways of ghouls and see if we could ever become peaceful. To learn how not to be the monster I was to my kids.” Yoshimura’s eyes are moist.
“You hurt your kids by leaving them,” Rey says. “I saw Ben’s heart. He’s still a child yearning for justice. I – if I go to him, I can save him.”
“No!” Yoshimura’s eyes widen. “This will not go the way you think.”
“Maybe not,” says Rey angrily, “But unlike you, I’m going to try.”
Mercy and Magic 