Ayaka is thirteen years old. That’s old enough to know that humans and ghouls can’t work together. Her parents were just slaughtered by CCG. And years before, that bitch, the cafe manager, killed her older brother.
She won’t say his name until she kills Touka. She’ll scream his name before she strikes that ghoul down.
Because her parents being killed by CCG? That she understands. But a ghoul killing ghouls?
There’s no atonement. They should work with their fellow ghouls, not these shitty humans who will return to slaughtering them as soon as Kaneki is freed.
Goat begins to prepare to advance towards CCG. It’s suicide.
“You can’t be serious!” Ayaka screams suddenly, stepping forward.
Touka looks back with surprise from her position besides those former CCG officials, those humans.
She flies at Touka, using her detachable ukaku to distract. She nearly strikes her, but that stupid blonde human knocks Touka out of the way.
The tall human – the half-ghoul, now – pins Ayaka to the ground. “Kid, don’t make me hurt you.”
Hopelessness wells up inside Ayaka. Tears burn her eyes, but she can’t let them fall. “Why?”
Why has she failed again? Why is the world moving on, asking forgiveness for killers before she has had a chance for vengeance? Why has the world forgotten her?
“No one’s forgotten you,” says Touka, and Ayaka cringes. She’s been speaking aloud all this time.
“You did,” Ayaka accuses. “You killed my brother. Ito Akio. You kicked off his head five years ago.”
Touka blinks. Truth is, she doesn’t remember. But that sounds like her. “I’m so sorry.”
Ito Ayaka…weren’t her parents caught up in CCG’s genocide? Pity stirs in Touka’s heart.
“Fuck your apologies! I want him back, dammit!” Ayaka pounds the ground like a two-year-old. The half-human still holds her down, and she isn’t strong enough to save herself. “Why are we with humans now? We keep forgiving and giving and giving and there’s almost nothing left! I don’t – I don’t want to move on!”
Touka sighs and steps forward. She reaches a hand across to wipe the tears and dirt off Ayaka’s cheeks.
“I was a stupid and wrong as a kid, just like you. And I’m sorry about your brother. I wish I could bring him back.” Touka swallows. “But I can’t. All I can do is say that, if you want to honor your brother’s memory, you should aim for a world where kids don’t resort to violence as teens. So there’s never another one like him.”
“I want him back.”
“Me too,” says Touka, pushing Amon away to grab the girl in an embrace.
Ayaka tries to pull away, then surrenders to sob on Touka’s shoulder.
“You’re gonna be okay,” Touka tells her. “It’s not okay, but you will be.”
Ayaka looks around with a shudder. She suddenly realizes she may have exposed them by delaying.
She’s a monster, too. She expects Goat to be disgusted with her display, or hating Touka.
She sees neither. Just kindness and sympathy, and Yotsume is holding out her hand. Like she has a new family.
Ayaka sobs more, but she allows Goat to continue their march towards CCG, because where else will she go?
And Amon even offers her a piggyback ride to CCG.
She hasn’t forgiven, not yet, but someone else has forgiven her. And that gives her inexplicable hope.
Mercy and Magic 