Forest Covered Application Information.
Jul. 9th, 2015 08:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gourmet_trash_kingSince I expended far more effort than was necessary on this, as in over three thousand words of effort, I decided to go ahead and post it.
( CHARACTER INFORMATION )
Name/Work Name: Tsukiyama Shuu / Selenite
Canon: Tokyo Ghoul (Manga)
Canon Point: A few months after the end of the first manga, well before the start of :re.
AU/CRAU: Nope
Age: 22
History:
The earliest canon point we have seen of Tsukiyama is a flashback in :re in which he meets Kanae, a young Ghoul who has just had his entire family slaughtered by Matsuri Washuu: a prominent and particularly deadly CCG Agent. We see that Tsukiyama's father Mirumo has brought young Kanae to the manor all the way from Germany to become a servant in the Tsukiyama household. Shuu finds the young boy crying alone , and takes him to the Tsukiyama family's overly extravagant rose garden in an attempt to comfort the child. Calling him "My distant younger brother separated by blood" and gifting him a particular German rose, he asks that Kanae not cry alone anymore. Adding "Live beautifully with your head held high, just like that rose on your chest. That is the responsibility of being part of the Tsukiyama family" it more or less seems that he considers Kanae his little brother from this point on.
The next early glimpse we get of the high-school age Tsukiyama Shuu is from the "Tokyo Ghoul-Days" novel, in which a sixteen year old Shuu is just beginning to make a name for himself as his twisted alter-ego 'The Gourmet'. We come in on him just having made a kill, apparently feeling a bit lonely now that his victim is entirely dead. Not that it matters much, because he has his delicious gourmet meal--except, it is ruined on the first bite when a very small 'unappealing' (in fact, he thinks to himself that he didn't know humans could be quite this unappealing once he's studied her) human named Hori Chie takes a photograph of him. Tsukiyama gives chase, shocked to find that the over-excited girl is actually pretty adept at avoiding him. He almost starts to suspect that she could be a member of the CCG or another Ghoul, and ends up going a little over the top in his pursuit (but when doesn't he, really?). For example, literally vaulting himself onto the rooftops in order to chase her more effectively.
When he finally corners her in an alleyway, he finds her on her laptop instead of cowering--and she presents him with the photo she just took of him. He barely gets time to register the shock of the girl's baffling actions before she uses his name, and reveals herself to be a fellow student of his prestigious high school. All this before demanding he treat her to something sweet--and surprisingly, possibly out of curiosity, he does. He attempts to ascertain her true purpose over the parfait he buys her, but baiting and questioning her gets him nowhere. She doesn't seem to want to expose him, nor ask for any sort of bribes; and gets bored with the conversation and leaves before he can get any sort of real information out of her.
Afterwards, he continues to watch Hori at school and gather information about her. Matsumae, his homeroom teacher and secret Ghoul employee of his family, dutifully offers to 'get rid' of her, but Tsukiyama insists that he must 'clean up after himself'. Deciding to lay a trap to kill her, and possibly finally figure out her true intentions, he invites the small human to the university hospital with him. There, he introduces Chie to a particular nurse and elderly patient--a patient he makes it quite clear that he intends to eat that night. He issues a further invitation to the girl, to 'tonight's dinner show', but informs her that she will need to 'acquire her own ticket' by sneaking into the facility herself and opening the window in the old man's room for him. Hori succeeds without much trouble, but while waiting for Tsukiyama to arrive she discovers signs that the senile old man is being abused--signs that are confirmed when the nurse she met earlier comes in to beat and berate the man. While she is listening from beneath the hospital bed, our flamboyant Gourmet Ghoul makes his entrance by crashing through the window she never had a chance to open for him. Shuu proceeds to reveal the nurse's sins to Chie, who has now climbed out from her hiding place, and applauds the nurse for her 'wonderful plot' in abusing a patient who wouldn't be able to remember what had been done to him. After pointing out the sights of the man's internal bleeding, Tsukiyama starts to peel off the geezer's skin and eat it. The man awakens from the pain, and starts to beg for mercy. The nurse is frozen in fear until the old man crawls towards her, pleading for help and reaching out a skinless hand to her. The woman's reaction is to kick the poor old man, screaming for him to get away. Chie photographs the moment, and Shuu's attention is once again returned to her. Grabbing her by the neck, he lifts the tiny girl into the air and dangles her out the window while continuing a dramatic monologue that he hasn't actually stopped since arriving. He starts to remove the fingers from around her neck one by one, threatening to drop her from the eighth floor, even now attempting to ascertain what sort of person she is.
When Hori doesn't respond with fear or begging, instead proceeding to take a picture of him 'as usual'--he sees something of himself in her. Fascinated by this, he brings her back inside and releases her, no longer intending to kill her. Unable to understand his own feelings of wanting to befriend her after finding a bizarre kinship in the human, he declares that Chie is a 'pet' and declares that from this day on the 'Little Mouse' will be his pet. She, of course, flat out refuses--but he's not deterred at all at pets her head. He can't seem to understand being charmed by her without wanting to eat her as anything but a pet and owner relationship. Perhaps because he was raised to think of humans as dangerous prey but not equals, the possibility of simple friendship doesn't seem to cross his mind properly at all--despite an earlier statement to her that 'two people who share a secret are generally considered friends'. Which, is another broken view of friendship, but I won't get into that in this section.
The pair of them end up leaving through the window Tsukiyama broke, leaving the nurse and the old man alive in what appears to be an unusually sloppy move on the teenaged Ghoul's part. I'm not sure if it was because they clearly had blackmail on the woman, or Shuu knew her well enough to know she wouldn't talk--but she doesn't. Instead, when the old man suddenly seems to have regained his facilities and threatens to expose what she did along with Tsukiyama, she murders him. Chie and Shuu actually discuss the matter at a cafe afterwards, about how the nurse blamed the man's death on a Ghoul attack, and ended up engaged to a doctor who sympathysed with her ordeal. Chie tells Shuu that the nurse is actually grateful to him, and thinks of him like a god. The two of them seem amused by the nurses' cruelty and cunning.
Tsukiyama's next canon point is his first actual appearance in the manga, walking into Anteiku at age twenty one: no less the misguided, sadistic douchenozzle than he was at sixteen. By now he's a known trouble maker in the Ghoul community, one that Touka immediately warns Kaneki against. Not that Kaneki listens, the poor boy obviously still just wants a date and in sweeps this eccentric model-esque Ghoul who compliments his scent and invades his personal space probably smelling really good himself. Unfortunately, Shuu's only thoughts at this point are that Kaneki Ken smells freaking delicious(a mix of human and female Ghoul) and that he simply must sample this 'rare ingredient'. To that end, he ends up following Kaneki to his college and talking with him. He paints himself as a misunderstood, socially awkward young man who has lost the only companion he can converse with over literature (Rize, the Ghoul from whom they transferred organs to put into Kaneki). Tsukiyama further triggers Ken's sympathy by sharing that books got him through difficult times in his childhood, just as they did for Kaneki. It isn't long before the innocent half-ghoul takes the bait and the two of them have agreed to meet again at a later date.
Upon said later date, Shuu takes Ken to play squash before going out for coffee as 'preliminary arrangements' before they end up at the Ghoul Restaurant. It might have been difficult to get Kaneki to go under normal circumstances, no matter how much he had our protagonist convinced that he was actually a decent yet shifty guy who just happened to eat people, but the clowns had already kindly manipulated Ken into gathering information on the restaurant. Thanks to that, Kaneki brings it up himself and follows Tsukiyama there like a tasty lamb wandering into a lion's den even after odd rules like showering before entering are imposed. It is here that The Gourmet's betrayal is revealed, and Ken learns that he is actually to be a meal for the assembled Ghoul's along with the two humans brought by other high society jerk faces. During his ensuing struggle with the 'scrapper' (some manner of genetically enhanced human slave) and failure to protect the two humans in the same deep pile of shite as him, his kakugan activates and he's revealed to be a one-eyed Ghoul.
Tsukiyama freaking loses it.
Not that he hadn't already been fanboying pretty hard at Ken's abilities to learn martial arts from books alone, displaying his weird habit to semi-befriend his food out of loneliness, but this is going back to him being a hungry psychopath. A hungry psychopath that no longer wants to share his 'rare ingredient', that only he is worthy of eating. So his next course of action is to stop the scrapper from killing Kaneki(which he was very close to doing) by ripping the mutant gorilla man in half with his bare hands and walk right the heck through the guy. The cold hearted monsters of the restaurant are all to happy to switch their evening to meal to the scrapper, his owner only needing the promise of replacement slaves from Tsukiyama to be placated.
Shuu tells Kaneki it was all a joke that had gotten out of hand, and asks that the half-ghoul forget what happened.
Unsurprisingly, it doesn't work.
But who can resist a second invitation from the trash king of Tokyo Ghoul when it's delivered to their door with a rose and a threat to eat one of your friend's girlfriend that he went and kidnapped just for you? Not Kaneki Ken.
Armed with nothing but his fists and half-dead Ghoul senpai Nishiki, who insisted on coming to get his girlfriend back, Kaneki confronts Tsukiyama at the violet haired predator's chosen stage: a church. Because he required the perfect setting for the perfect meal, he either rented out an entire church specifically for this purpose or broke in. It's never revealed which it is, but both are pretty amusing thoughts.
They find him playing Beethoven on the piano(it could have been an organ) when they arrive, Kimi's unconscious form bound and placed on the alter. He's not pleased that Kaneki brought along a plus one to their 'special night', but he deals alright. The way he deals, is by making dramatic speeches about how the value of a life is meaningless as they're all just lumps of meat and doing a lot of ridiculous poses in a show of aggressive body language. He follows up by announcing his plans to eat Kaneki while Kaneki is eating Kimi, and when confronted with the insult of being a pervert he blames Ken for his potential deliciousness. Once he's done monologuing Tsukiyama promptly kicks Nishiki and Ken's butts, but before things get too terribly dire, Touka arrives. Then, things actually get dire because she's weakened from eating her humangirlfriend's cooking and actually going to the trouble of digesting it. Fortunately, Kaneki thinks of the solution of allowing Touka a bite of himself, which not only heals and restores her to full strength: it throws Shuu into a rage that makes him sloppy. Touka quickly removes the rampaging Ghoul's right arm entirely, along with a fairly large chunk of his head. He falls to the ground, seemingly dying, and when he doesn't get up again they assume he's dead.
Obviously, he didn't die.
The great and magnificent Tsukiyama Shuu defies death by taking Touka's words to heart when she talks down to his mutilated, armless form and tells him that 'even his meat can be eaten'. He eats his own detached arm to save himself, and it's not long before he's fine and dandy with a sexy brand new arm. Can't beat that new arm smell.
We don't actually get to see that he's still alive until much later, however, when he arrives at Anteiku per the Manager's request: as a recruit to help rescue Kaneki from Aogiri. Not one person is happy to see him. While he does participate in the following infiltration of the Ghoul Organization Aogiri, he and everyone else at Anteiku don't succeed in doing a whole lot other than meeting up with Kaneki once he's escaped on his own. Tsukiyama gets into a lot of fights, bites into a lot of Ghouls, does a lot of dramatic an unnecessary yelling and basically has no real impact on the plot here.
When they finally re-unite with Kaneki he boldly volunteers to help Ken in his future endeavors, following Banjou's example after hearing Kaneki planned to go his own way instead of returning to Anteiku. No longer afraid of the flamboyant Ghoul due to his new found, torture-induced strength, Ken accepts his offer. He includes a threat, however, which only seems to excite The Gourmet more--and Shuu reflects that it's a good thing he hadn't eaten Kaneki sooner.
As the hunt for answers as to why such an experiment was inflicted upon Kaneki in the first place begins, Tsukiyama becomes not only battle support for their little band--but financial support as well. He provides Kaneki, Hinami, and Banjou's group with a place to live and train along with bringing books and flowers regularly. It's never made clear, but he may have also been providing food. In his quest to win Ken's favor, he begins to use Chie and his other connections to track down information on Dr. Kanou, the man who preformed the surgery that changed Kaneki's life forever. He even goes so far as to betray the only Ghoul organization that ever meant anything to him, the Ghoul Restaurant, allowing most of his acquaintances to be murdered and devoured by Kaneki so that they can capture Madam A.
It is during this course of events that we start to see Tsukiyama develop genuine feelings towards the group, and catch glimpses of his true loneliness. Though he clings to his original reasoning that his sole focus is to eat Ken, that he is simply using the others to gain the half-ghoul's trust, he constantly seems to wish for inclusion. He gets upset when he is left behind at the hospital, and in one omake demands that he and Kaneki go do kareoke upon learning that everyone had previously gone without him.
While he still doesn't seem to care much for the lives of Banjou and company(He even threatens to kill Banjou's three followers when they get in the way of him finding and helping Kaneki), he gets along exceptionally well with Hinami and seems to truly respect her. They even become close enough to earn him the nickname 'flower man', and at one point Hinami refers to him as "another onii-chan". He's making genuine connections whether he intended to or not, and we even see his expressions becoming less sinister throughout. Despite having plenty of chances to try and eat Kaneki, especially once Kaneki asks him to start training together, he never seems to make another move. Somewhere along the line he even begins referring to Kaneki as his 'Master' and becomes exceptionally proud of Ken's strength and skill, going on and on about the half-ghoul to anyone that will listen in the dramas and light novels. In once such novel, he talks about himself and Kaneki creating a 'legend' together to Chie, one that would 'even reach her ears'. In that same novel, Tsukiyama admits to have become less picky about his food while helping Ken. When Hori calls it eating 'junk food' and points out his changing, he seems to immediately latch onto the idea of eating an Idol she had just shown him pictures of. He appears terribly desperate to prove to Chie that he's still the same 'Gourmet', and they start a small war(which he seems to fight rather half-heartedly) over the Idol girl which Chie wins by using Kaneki. All she has to do is ask Kaneki to start going through Tsukiyama to contact her, giving him a chance to get closer to the half-ghoul, and(with that and an order from Kaneki) he loses interest in eating the Idol entirely.
In the battles that ensue during this period, he shows genuine concern for Ken that doesn't logically line up with simple concern for a meal. He also continues to help the half-ghoul get stronger and more difficult to ever actually eat, and we see him express an unusually strong desire to become Kaneki's 'strength' to Nishiki and Touka.
What all this eventually leads to is the discovery of Dr. Kanou's location, and after Ken's conversation with both the doctor, Yomo, and the manager of Anteiku: the disbanding of their little Ghoul gang. Kaneki proclaims that he wishes to return to the little Ghoul coffee shop once again, and asks the others to join him. Everyone accepts, and once again we glimpse Tsukiyama pining for inclusion as he asks to be included in this 'harmonious family'. He's unsurprised when Ken tells him that he still can't be trusted, but positively stunned when Kaneki invites him to stick around as his 'sword'. The iconic line for all Tsukiyama fans shows up here, in Shuu's thoughts: "This tremolo in my chest...". Most of us believe this to be the first moment that the man actually begins to recognize his own feelings of wanting something other a meal, despite the fact that he continues to cling to the idea moments later.
This is the last time we see a happy Tsukiyama Shuu.
The next and last time he appears in the Tokyo Ghoul manga is when he is having his chance to sort out his emotions ripped out from under him as the world they had all built together is shattered. The CCG has discovered the identities of the Anteiku staff, and are preparing to raid the cafe in order to eliminate the original one-eyed owl. Unable to escape his martyr complex, Kaneki stands on a roof overlooking the city as he prepares to go straight into the battle in an attempt to do something about it.
Tsukiyama arrives on the scene, already an utter wreck, in tears. He tells Kaneki that he won't let him go, saying the reason is that he cannot allow anyone to get in the way of eating Ken, even if it's Ken himself. He attacks, screaming about how going down there is certain death. Kaneki calmly doges all his panic-and-rage induced assaults without ever even activating his kakugan, and it isn't long before Tsukiyama simply gives up. Abruptly ceasing his childish tantrum, Shuu lies on the roof in a puddle of his own tears and begs Ken not to go. His last desperate plea is "For dear life Kaneki, would you please not go?"
It doesn't work, and he is left there until morning when Chie comes to fetch him at last. He asks her a question "Hori, could you tell me... just what gourmet food is...?"
It is later revealed in :re that he falls into depression and stops getting out of bed, refusing to eat for a very long time. This is the canon point I'm pulling him from, in the beginnings of his depression. After Tokyo Ghoul ends, but well before :re begins.
Personality:
In the beginning, Tsukiyama's motivations were solely based on hunger and conquest of 'his greatest delicacy'. The troublesome persona he had built up around himself and made infamous, 'The Gourmet', valued food above all else. In the Ghoul world, consumption is power, and he has been striving to achieve the most refined form of power his world had to offer him since he was sixteen--possibly even sooner. It's clear that he's never had any real friendships, and was already raised believing himself and his family 'above' most people(not even just humans), so his skewed world view of everyone being simply 'meat' where the strong devour the weak is understandable. In his mind, he's entitled to whatever meal he wants so long as he proves himself to be the stronger, more intelligent one. Which, he's certain he is. He's very proud of being a Ghoul, and revels in the brutality that naturally comes with it. As such, he's extremely cold and unsympathetic to his prey and humans in general, amused by the cruelty they show one another.
With his fellow Ghouls however, he seems to try too hard to be familiar with them and impress them. He obviously craves companionship whether he himself realizes it properly or not, and when his one shaky acquaintance with Rize was ruined by her mocking his preferences, he seems particularly betrayed. Further evidence of this can be seen in his overwhelming need for attention, shown in the way he hams it up all the time and dresses to impress even when he knows he's walking into a battle. There's also the occasion he draws attention to himself when not enough people notice his arrival at a coffee shop, and his unusual habit of chatting with his prey before they die. His grades, sports interests, and the persona he's built up around himself all point to him trying with everything he can to be acknowledged by his peers. When it fails, we catch glimpses of his underlying loneliness and the insecurities that he does anything to avoid properly facing.
Beneath all the misplaced values and bravado, lies a lesser seen softer side to Shuu. Most often seen in his interactions with Hinami (and later in :re, with Kanae), Tsukiyama cares deeply for anyone he can manage to make a genuine connection with. While he doesn't quite know how to properly express his feelings towards his few important people, supplementing with gifts and financial support--we can see him making emotional efforts as well. When Kaneki is upset over accidentally hurting Banjou, Tsukiyama brings by a selection of books and tries to comfort Ken with what he thinks is a motivational speech, according to his own beliefs on the world. He's shown genuinely worrying over Kaneki on numerous occasions, usually to himself--so we know it's not the usual 'act' of trying to befriend the half-ghoul. We also see him spending quality time with Hinami, gently wiping her face at a festival after she attempts to eat cotton candy. When Kanae is crying over the deaths of his entire family, Shuu brings the boy to the Tsukiyama family garden, giving Kanae a rose and encouraging him to live beautifully instead of crying alone. He clearly cares for Chie deeply as well, despite the girl believing herself to be expendable: not retaliating against the girl even when she causes him no end of trouble. In the most recent chapter of :re, we even see him showing concern for troubling the servants, and the first apology we ever witness him giving is to Kanae for 'being like this'--just before he states that the family is in the boy's hands now, clearly having adopted him as a true little brother. There is no doubt that for all his faults, Tsukiyama has a lonely, but loving heart.
Debt: Tsukiyama's wish is a selfish one. He wants to go back in time. Instead of making things easier and going back just enough months to warn the Ghouls at Anteiku that the CCG had begun to investigate them, Shuu would rather risk the higher debt so that he can go all the way back to the day he betrayed and tried to devour Kaneki. Because the thing he wants more than Ken's safety is his trust, something he believes would be impossible to earn back now that he's gone and so thoroughly destroyed it.
Previous Game Info: No previous game canon.
Inventory: I doubt he'd have anything particularly special on his actual person at the time aside from the handkerchief with Kaneki's blood on it inside a plastic bag, his clothes, and most likely a compact mirror. Because he's definitely the type to have one of those on hand at all times.
Abilities:As an S rank Ghoul, Tsukiyama has all the base powers that affords him: Enhanced speed and strength, regeneration, invulnerability to conventional human weapons, and his predatory organ: his Kagune.
His kagune is a long, steely, ribbon-like appendage that wraps around his arm in a drill shape. It is far more flexible and versatile than most koukaku types, so while it's primary nature is to act as steel-like armor, he can also form a deadly blade at the end. Tsukiyama CAN, in fact, also use it as a drill for even more devastating damage.
Because it is a Koukaku type, which is the densest kagune type and therefore extremely heavy, he is exceptionally strong. He is shown as perfectly capable of crunching a church pew into pieces with his kick alone, before ever activating his kakugan. In the light novel he is shown to have the ability to create an actual dent in the ground with his foot at only sixteen. The same weight that has forged such incredible might, however, limits his range of movement to close quarters. Whle he seems particularly speedy for his kagune type, he's still far slower than the others.
It should also be noted that he has had formal martial arts training on top of his natural abilities. He also plays piano, has an extensive knowledge on floriography, is at least conversationally bilingual, and was the one to design Kaneki's battle suit. Can also talk for extended periods of time about things whether or not anyone is listening.
Strengths and Weaknesses:
Starting with strengths, his actually strength is notably high. I'm about 80% percent sure he could lift an actual car if he wanted too, considering the examples we've been given. A second connected strength would definitely be his battle skills, and efficiency at killing. He shows an impressive amount of skill even against two opponents using the kagune considered his types 'weakness'. A third would be his stamina, as he seems to recover quickly even after going into a rage--but it's particularly high when he keeps himself in complete control.
He's also extremely intelligent and analytical(and is one of the few Ghouls actually going to college), keeping on par with Kaneki and sharing the half-ghoul protagonist's love of reading. His deception and acting skills are exceptional as well, enough so that it can be difficult to discern exactly where the facades he puts on end and the real Tsukiyama begins--even for himself.
His confidence can be considered both a strength and a weakness, as it tends to mold into a help or a hindrance depending on the situation.
His biggest weakness is probably his inability to properly understand interpersonal relationships properly. While he knows enough to imitate and achieve desired effects, he has a great deal of difficulty creating genuine connections on purpose. It seems to become worse when humans are involved, as he doesn't consider them equals to Ghouls.
His second greatest weakness is his emotional immaturity and the sheer strength of his emotions when they get out of his control, rage and excitement being the usual worst offenders(We've seen at least two straight up tantrums from this man). We have also now learned that Tsukiyama's sadness can throw him into a depression that has lasted three entire years, so there's that.
The third, on par with the first, is definitely his tunnel vision, which tends to turn whatever his latest interest is at the time into an obsession until he's gotten what he wants. This leads to a possible fourth, or simply a tie-in weakness: Kaneki Ken. He is absolutely obsessed with Kaneki, and at this point I'm certain would do anything for him. (His understanding of what's best for Ken may not always be right, however, and could lead to trouble but...I digress.)
A far more simple weakness of his is that with enough speed he could be in some serious trouble in a fight.
He's also incredibly spoiled, so being stuck in a situation with little money and zero real luxuries is going to be a pretty huge culture shock, and could be considered a weakness I guess.
Typical Ghoul weaknesses to CCG methods apply to him too of course, as in their specially made bullets and RC cell suppressants.
( SAMPLE )
Characterization Sample:
Tsukiyama watched smugly as the light left the investigator's eyes, blood pouring from the man's mouth and stomach as the his drill-like kagune pierced clean through the unlucky Dove. But there was no time to savor the way the man's grip on his weapon was lost as his corpse went full ragdoll, or the delightful scent of fresh blood that permeated the area--because there were more of them. The decidedly over-dressed Ghoul had only moments to withdraw his koukaku and flick the last enemies' intestines from it's tip before another one of the blasted white coats were upon him, attacking with a bikaku type quinque. In his experience, the CCG members who used bikaku's were usually fairly unskilled, and this time was no different. It took about two minutes of simple parries to determine that this uncultured swine was little better than his predecessor, and only thirty more seconds to knock his feet out from under him. The instant the agent hit the ground, Tsukiyama's foot came down on top of his head with enough force to crush it completely.
Ah...Shuu had ruined his shoes.
For some reason, he just couldn't find it in himself to hold back...and it wasn't at all the usual adrenaline rush of battle driving him over the edge. He was angry, so angry--what was it, again, that had brought on so much rage? It wasn't as if the CCG had interrupted a meal; but there was no time to ponder it now. This time there were two of them, another bikaku and a rinkaku. Perhaps they could actually offer a challenge this time. The young man with the bikaku is slow, and it's obvious he's relying on his partner to distract The Gourmet. They're trying to overwhelm him with a higher number of blows, the female attacking relentlessly so that he's forced to block as her subordinate works his way closer from the side. Tsukiyama can practically smell the fledgling agent's over-confidence as he comes in low, and when every ounce of it shatters as his attack is blocked by the S-rank Ghoul grabbing his weapon and using it to launch him into his partner he can definitely smell the fear.
It smelled delectable.
The pair of them absolutely reeked of it when he charged them next, and the violet haired man could only imagine how much spice it would add to their flavor once they were dead. Killing them would be so therapeutic, and he was having so much fun. It felt like it had been such a long time since he'd enjoyed himself this much. Shuu had just begun to calculate exactly how he could off them while causing them the maximum amount of agony when a searing pain all his own interrupted.
He'd been stabbed: straight through the chest, by a far too familiar appendage. The world had slowed to a crawl as his eyes opened as wide as they were able, the horrible torrent of memories crashing down on him and hitting him hard with the reason behind his fury. No. No!
But there was no mistaking it as he finally managed to turn and glimpse his attacker, the magnificent kagune of his 'Master' had come from one of those hellish briefcases. It was wrong, wrong! Seeing it move according to the whims of that disgusting bespectacled man, that freakishly talented human...detached from the back of his beautiful master. Tsukiyama distantly heard himself screaming as he blacked out--and woke up.
A dream, but not a dream at all.
He could still hear himself screaming as the doors to his bedroom flew open.
( CHARACTER INFORMATION )
Name/Work Name: Tsukiyama Shuu / Selenite
Canon: Tokyo Ghoul (Manga)
Canon Point: A few months after the end of the first manga, well before the start of :re.
AU/CRAU: Nope
Age: 22
History:
The earliest canon point we have seen of Tsukiyama is a flashback in :re in which he meets Kanae, a young Ghoul who has just had his entire family slaughtered by Matsuri Washuu: a prominent and particularly deadly CCG Agent. We see that Tsukiyama's father Mirumo has brought young Kanae to the manor all the way from Germany to become a servant in the Tsukiyama household. Shuu finds the young boy crying alone , and takes him to the Tsukiyama family's overly extravagant rose garden in an attempt to comfort the child. Calling him "My distant younger brother separated by blood" and gifting him a particular German rose, he asks that Kanae not cry alone anymore. Adding "Live beautifully with your head held high, just like that rose on your chest. That is the responsibility of being part of the Tsukiyama family" it more or less seems that he considers Kanae his little brother from this point on.
The next early glimpse we get of the high-school age Tsukiyama Shuu is from the "Tokyo Ghoul-Days" novel, in which a sixteen year old Shuu is just beginning to make a name for himself as his twisted alter-ego 'The Gourmet'. We come in on him just having made a kill, apparently feeling a bit lonely now that his victim is entirely dead. Not that it matters much, because he has his delicious gourmet meal--except, it is ruined on the first bite when a very small 'unappealing' (in fact, he thinks to himself that he didn't know humans could be quite this unappealing once he's studied her) human named Hori Chie takes a photograph of him. Tsukiyama gives chase, shocked to find that the over-excited girl is actually pretty adept at avoiding him. He almost starts to suspect that she could be a member of the CCG or another Ghoul, and ends up going a little over the top in his pursuit (but when doesn't he, really?). For example, literally vaulting himself onto the rooftops in order to chase her more effectively.
When he finally corners her in an alleyway, he finds her on her laptop instead of cowering--and she presents him with the photo she just took of him. He barely gets time to register the shock of the girl's baffling actions before she uses his name, and reveals herself to be a fellow student of his prestigious high school. All this before demanding he treat her to something sweet--and surprisingly, possibly out of curiosity, he does. He attempts to ascertain her true purpose over the parfait he buys her, but baiting and questioning her gets him nowhere. She doesn't seem to want to expose him, nor ask for any sort of bribes; and gets bored with the conversation and leaves before he can get any sort of real information out of her.
Afterwards, he continues to watch Hori at school and gather information about her. Matsumae, his homeroom teacher and secret Ghoul employee of his family, dutifully offers to 'get rid' of her, but Tsukiyama insists that he must 'clean up after himself'. Deciding to lay a trap to kill her, and possibly finally figure out her true intentions, he invites the small human to the university hospital with him. There, he introduces Chie to a particular nurse and elderly patient--a patient he makes it quite clear that he intends to eat that night. He issues a further invitation to the girl, to 'tonight's dinner show', but informs her that she will need to 'acquire her own ticket' by sneaking into the facility herself and opening the window in the old man's room for him. Hori succeeds without much trouble, but while waiting for Tsukiyama to arrive she discovers signs that the senile old man is being abused--signs that are confirmed when the nurse she met earlier comes in to beat and berate the man. While she is listening from beneath the hospital bed, our flamboyant Gourmet Ghoul makes his entrance by crashing through the window she never had a chance to open for him. Shuu proceeds to reveal the nurse's sins to Chie, who has now climbed out from her hiding place, and applauds the nurse for her 'wonderful plot' in abusing a patient who wouldn't be able to remember what had been done to him. After pointing out the sights of the man's internal bleeding, Tsukiyama starts to peel off the geezer's skin and eat it. The man awakens from the pain, and starts to beg for mercy. The nurse is frozen in fear until the old man crawls towards her, pleading for help and reaching out a skinless hand to her. The woman's reaction is to kick the poor old man, screaming for him to get away. Chie photographs the moment, and Shuu's attention is once again returned to her. Grabbing her by the neck, he lifts the tiny girl into the air and dangles her out the window while continuing a dramatic monologue that he hasn't actually stopped since arriving. He starts to remove the fingers from around her neck one by one, threatening to drop her from the eighth floor, even now attempting to ascertain what sort of person she is.
When Hori doesn't respond with fear or begging, instead proceeding to take a picture of him 'as usual'--he sees something of himself in her. Fascinated by this, he brings her back inside and releases her, no longer intending to kill her. Unable to understand his own feelings of wanting to befriend her after finding a bizarre kinship in the human, he declares that Chie is a 'pet' and declares that from this day on the 'Little Mouse' will be his pet. She, of course, flat out refuses--but he's not deterred at all at pets her head. He can't seem to understand being charmed by her without wanting to eat her as anything but a pet and owner relationship. Perhaps because he was raised to think of humans as dangerous prey but not equals, the possibility of simple friendship doesn't seem to cross his mind properly at all--despite an earlier statement to her that 'two people who share a secret are generally considered friends'. Which, is another broken view of friendship, but I won't get into that in this section.
The pair of them end up leaving through the window Tsukiyama broke, leaving the nurse and the old man alive in what appears to be an unusually sloppy move on the teenaged Ghoul's part. I'm not sure if it was because they clearly had blackmail on the woman, or Shuu knew her well enough to know she wouldn't talk--but she doesn't. Instead, when the old man suddenly seems to have regained his facilities and threatens to expose what she did along with Tsukiyama, she murders him. Chie and Shuu actually discuss the matter at a cafe afterwards, about how the nurse blamed the man's death on a Ghoul attack, and ended up engaged to a doctor who sympathysed with her ordeal. Chie tells Shuu that the nurse is actually grateful to him, and thinks of him like a god. The two of them seem amused by the nurses' cruelty and cunning.
Tsukiyama's next canon point is his first actual appearance in the manga, walking into Anteiku at age twenty one: no less the misguided, sadistic douchenozzle than he was at sixteen. By now he's a known trouble maker in the Ghoul community, one that Touka immediately warns Kaneki against. Not that Kaneki listens, the poor boy obviously still just wants a date and in sweeps this eccentric model-esque Ghoul who compliments his scent and invades his personal space probably smelling really good himself. Unfortunately, Shuu's only thoughts at this point are that Kaneki Ken smells freaking delicious(a mix of human and female Ghoul) and that he simply must sample this 'rare ingredient'. To that end, he ends up following Kaneki to his college and talking with him. He paints himself as a misunderstood, socially awkward young man who has lost the only companion he can converse with over literature (Rize, the Ghoul from whom they transferred organs to put into Kaneki). Tsukiyama further triggers Ken's sympathy by sharing that books got him through difficult times in his childhood, just as they did for Kaneki. It isn't long before the innocent half-ghoul takes the bait and the two of them have agreed to meet again at a later date.
Upon said later date, Shuu takes Ken to play squash before going out for coffee as 'preliminary arrangements' before they end up at the Ghoul Restaurant. It might have been difficult to get Kaneki to go under normal circumstances, no matter how much he had our protagonist convinced that he was actually a decent yet shifty guy who just happened to eat people, but the clowns had already kindly manipulated Ken into gathering information on the restaurant. Thanks to that, Kaneki brings it up himself and follows Tsukiyama there like a tasty lamb wandering into a lion's den even after odd rules like showering before entering are imposed. It is here that The Gourmet's betrayal is revealed, and Ken learns that he is actually to be a meal for the assembled Ghoul's along with the two humans brought by other high society jerk faces. During his ensuing struggle with the 'scrapper' (some manner of genetically enhanced human slave) and failure to protect the two humans in the same deep pile of shite as him, his kakugan activates and he's revealed to be a one-eyed Ghoul.
Tsukiyama freaking loses it.
Not that he hadn't already been fanboying pretty hard at Ken's abilities to learn martial arts from books alone, displaying his weird habit to semi-befriend his food out of loneliness, but this is going back to him being a hungry psychopath. A hungry psychopath that no longer wants to share his 'rare ingredient', that only he is worthy of eating. So his next course of action is to stop the scrapper from killing Kaneki(which he was very close to doing) by ripping the mutant gorilla man in half with his bare hands and walk right the heck through the guy. The cold hearted monsters of the restaurant are all to happy to switch their evening to meal to the scrapper, his owner only needing the promise of replacement slaves from Tsukiyama to be placated.
Shuu tells Kaneki it was all a joke that had gotten out of hand, and asks that the half-ghoul forget what happened.
Unsurprisingly, it doesn't work.
But who can resist a second invitation from the trash king of Tokyo Ghoul when it's delivered to their door with a rose and a threat to eat one of your friend's girlfriend that he went and kidnapped just for you? Not Kaneki Ken.
Armed with nothing but his fists and half-dead Ghoul senpai Nishiki, who insisted on coming to get his girlfriend back, Kaneki confronts Tsukiyama at the violet haired predator's chosen stage: a church. Because he required the perfect setting for the perfect meal, he either rented out an entire church specifically for this purpose or broke in. It's never revealed which it is, but both are pretty amusing thoughts.
They find him playing Beethoven on the piano(it could have been an organ) when they arrive, Kimi's unconscious form bound and placed on the alter. He's not pleased that Kaneki brought along a plus one to their 'special night', but he deals alright. The way he deals, is by making dramatic speeches about how the value of a life is meaningless as they're all just lumps of meat and doing a lot of ridiculous poses in a show of aggressive body language. He follows up by announcing his plans to eat Kaneki while Kaneki is eating Kimi, and when confronted with the insult of being a pervert he blames Ken for his potential deliciousness. Once he's done monologuing Tsukiyama promptly kicks Nishiki and Ken's butts, but before things get too terribly dire, Touka arrives. Then, things actually get dire because she's weakened from eating her human
Obviously, he didn't die.
The great and magnificent Tsukiyama Shuu defies death by taking Touka's words to heart when she talks down to his mutilated, armless form and tells him that 'even his meat can be eaten'. He eats his own detached arm to save himself, and it's not long before he's fine and dandy with a sexy brand new arm. Can't beat that new arm smell.
We don't actually get to see that he's still alive until much later, however, when he arrives at Anteiku per the Manager's request: as a recruit to help rescue Kaneki from Aogiri. Not one person is happy to see him. While he does participate in the following infiltration of the Ghoul Organization Aogiri, he and everyone else at Anteiku don't succeed in doing a whole lot other than meeting up with Kaneki once he's escaped on his own. Tsukiyama gets into a lot of fights, bites into a lot of Ghouls, does a lot of dramatic an unnecessary yelling and basically has no real impact on the plot here.
When they finally re-unite with Kaneki he boldly volunteers to help Ken in his future endeavors, following Banjou's example after hearing Kaneki planned to go his own way instead of returning to Anteiku. No longer afraid of the flamboyant Ghoul due to his new found, torture-induced strength, Ken accepts his offer. He includes a threat, however, which only seems to excite The Gourmet more--and Shuu reflects that it's a good thing he hadn't eaten Kaneki sooner.
As the hunt for answers as to why such an experiment was inflicted upon Kaneki in the first place begins, Tsukiyama becomes not only battle support for their little band--but financial support as well. He provides Kaneki, Hinami, and Banjou's group with a place to live and train along with bringing books and flowers regularly. It's never made clear, but he may have also been providing food. In his quest to win Ken's favor, he begins to use Chie and his other connections to track down information on Dr. Kanou, the man who preformed the surgery that changed Kaneki's life forever. He even goes so far as to betray the only Ghoul organization that ever meant anything to him, the Ghoul Restaurant, allowing most of his acquaintances to be murdered and devoured by Kaneki so that they can capture Madam A.
It is during this course of events that we start to see Tsukiyama develop genuine feelings towards the group, and catch glimpses of his true loneliness. Though he clings to his original reasoning that his sole focus is to eat Ken, that he is simply using the others to gain the half-ghoul's trust, he constantly seems to wish for inclusion. He gets upset when he is left behind at the hospital, and in one omake demands that he and Kaneki go do kareoke upon learning that everyone had previously gone without him.
While he still doesn't seem to care much for the lives of Banjou and company(He even threatens to kill Banjou's three followers when they get in the way of him finding and helping Kaneki), he gets along exceptionally well with Hinami and seems to truly respect her. They even become close enough to earn him the nickname 'flower man', and at one point Hinami refers to him as "another onii-chan". He's making genuine connections whether he intended to or not, and we even see his expressions becoming less sinister throughout. Despite having plenty of chances to try and eat Kaneki, especially once Kaneki asks him to start training together, he never seems to make another move. Somewhere along the line he even begins referring to Kaneki as his 'Master' and becomes exceptionally proud of Ken's strength and skill, going on and on about the half-ghoul to anyone that will listen in the dramas and light novels. In once such novel, he talks about himself and Kaneki creating a 'legend' together to Chie, one that would 'even reach her ears'. In that same novel, Tsukiyama admits to have become less picky about his food while helping Ken. When Hori calls it eating 'junk food' and points out his changing, he seems to immediately latch onto the idea of eating an Idol she had just shown him pictures of. He appears terribly desperate to prove to Chie that he's still the same 'Gourmet', and they start a small war(which he seems to fight rather half-heartedly) over the Idol girl which Chie wins by using Kaneki. All she has to do is ask Kaneki to start going through Tsukiyama to contact her, giving him a chance to get closer to the half-ghoul, and(with that and an order from Kaneki) he loses interest in eating the Idol entirely.
In the battles that ensue during this period, he shows genuine concern for Ken that doesn't logically line up with simple concern for a meal. He also continues to help the half-ghoul get stronger and more difficult to ever actually eat, and we see him express an unusually strong desire to become Kaneki's 'strength' to Nishiki and Touka.
What all this eventually leads to is the discovery of Dr. Kanou's location, and after Ken's conversation with both the doctor, Yomo, and the manager of Anteiku: the disbanding of their little Ghoul gang. Kaneki proclaims that he wishes to return to the little Ghoul coffee shop once again, and asks the others to join him. Everyone accepts, and once again we glimpse Tsukiyama pining for inclusion as he asks to be included in this 'harmonious family'. He's unsurprised when Ken tells him that he still can't be trusted, but positively stunned when Kaneki invites him to stick around as his 'sword'. The iconic line for all Tsukiyama fans shows up here, in Shuu's thoughts: "This tremolo in my chest...". Most of us believe this to be the first moment that the man actually begins to recognize his own feelings of wanting something other a meal, despite the fact that he continues to cling to the idea moments later.
This is the last time we see a happy Tsukiyama Shuu.
The next and last time he appears in the Tokyo Ghoul manga is when he is having his chance to sort out his emotions ripped out from under him as the world they had all built together is shattered. The CCG has discovered the identities of the Anteiku staff, and are preparing to raid the cafe in order to eliminate the original one-eyed owl. Unable to escape his martyr complex, Kaneki stands on a roof overlooking the city as he prepares to go straight into the battle in an attempt to do something about it.
Tsukiyama arrives on the scene, already an utter wreck, in tears. He tells Kaneki that he won't let him go, saying the reason is that he cannot allow anyone to get in the way of eating Ken, even if it's Ken himself. He attacks, screaming about how going down there is certain death. Kaneki calmly doges all his panic-and-rage induced assaults without ever even activating his kakugan, and it isn't long before Tsukiyama simply gives up. Abruptly ceasing his childish tantrum, Shuu lies on the roof in a puddle of his own tears and begs Ken not to go. His last desperate plea is "For dear life Kaneki, would you please not go?"
It doesn't work, and he is left there until morning when Chie comes to fetch him at last. He asks her a question "Hori, could you tell me... just what gourmet food is...?"
It is later revealed in :re that he falls into depression and stops getting out of bed, refusing to eat for a very long time. This is the canon point I'm pulling him from, in the beginnings of his depression. After Tokyo Ghoul ends, but well before :re begins.
Personality:
In the beginning, Tsukiyama's motivations were solely based on hunger and conquest of 'his greatest delicacy'. The troublesome persona he had built up around himself and made infamous, 'The Gourmet', valued food above all else. In the Ghoul world, consumption is power, and he has been striving to achieve the most refined form of power his world had to offer him since he was sixteen--possibly even sooner. It's clear that he's never had any real friendships, and was already raised believing himself and his family 'above' most people(not even just humans), so his skewed world view of everyone being simply 'meat' where the strong devour the weak is understandable. In his mind, he's entitled to whatever meal he wants so long as he proves himself to be the stronger, more intelligent one. Which, he's certain he is. He's very proud of being a Ghoul, and revels in the brutality that naturally comes with it. As such, he's extremely cold and unsympathetic to his prey and humans in general, amused by the cruelty they show one another.
With his fellow Ghouls however, he seems to try too hard to be familiar with them and impress them. He obviously craves companionship whether he himself realizes it properly or not, and when his one shaky acquaintance with Rize was ruined by her mocking his preferences, he seems particularly betrayed. Further evidence of this can be seen in his overwhelming need for attention, shown in the way he hams it up all the time and dresses to impress even when he knows he's walking into a battle. There's also the occasion he draws attention to himself when not enough people notice his arrival at a coffee shop, and his unusual habit of chatting with his prey before they die. His grades, sports interests, and the persona he's built up around himself all point to him trying with everything he can to be acknowledged by his peers. When it fails, we catch glimpses of his underlying loneliness and the insecurities that he does anything to avoid properly facing.
Beneath all the misplaced values and bravado, lies a lesser seen softer side to Shuu. Most often seen in his interactions with Hinami (and later in :re, with Kanae), Tsukiyama cares deeply for anyone he can manage to make a genuine connection with. While he doesn't quite know how to properly express his feelings towards his few important people, supplementing with gifts and financial support--we can see him making emotional efforts as well. When Kaneki is upset over accidentally hurting Banjou, Tsukiyama brings by a selection of books and tries to comfort Ken with what he thinks is a motivational speech, according to his own beliefs on the world. He's shown genuinely worrying over Kaneki on numerous occasions, usually to himself--so we know it's not the usual 'act' of trying to befriend the half-ghoul. We also see him spending quality time with Hinami, gently wiping her face at a festival after she attempts to eat cotton candy. When Kanae is crying over the deaths of his entire family, Shuu brings the boy to the Tsukiyama family garden, giving Kanae a rose and encouraging him to live beautifully instead of crying alone. He clearly cares for Chie deeply as well, despite the girl believing herself to be expendable: not retaliating against the girl even when she causes him no end of trouble. In the most recent chapter of :re, we even see him showing concern for troubling the servants, and the first apology we ever witness him giving is to Kanae for 'being like this'--just before he states that the family is in the boy's hands now, clearly having adopted him as a true little brother. There is no doubt that for all his faults, Tsukiyama has a lonely, but loving heart.
Debt: Tsukiyama's wish is a selfish one. He wants to go back in time. Instead of making things easier and going back just enough months to warn the Ghouls at Anteiku that the CCG had begun to investigate them, Shuu would rather risk the higher debt so that he can go all the way back to the day he betrayed and tried to devour Kaneki. Because the thing he wants more than Ken's safety is his trust, something he believes would be impossible to earn back now that he's gone and so thoroughly destroyed it.
Previous Game Info: No previous game canon.
Inventory: I doubt he'd have anything particularly special on his actual person at the time aside from the handkerchief with Kaneki's blood on it inside a plastic bag, his clothes, and most likely a compact mirror. Because he's definitely the type to have one of those on hand at all times.
Abilities:As an S rank Ghoul, Tsukiyama has all the base powers that affords him: Enhanced speed and strength, regeneration, invulnerability to conventional human weapons, and his predatory organ: his Kagune.
His kagune is a long, steely, ribbon-like appendage that wraps around his arm in a drill shape. It is far more flexible and versatile than most koukaku types, so while it's primary nature is to act as steel-like armor, he can also form a deadly blade at the end. Tsukiyama CAN, in fact, also use it as a drill for even more devastating damage.
Because it is a Koukaku type, which is the densest kagune type and therefore extremely heavy, he is exceptionally strong. He is shown as perfectly capable of crunching a church pew into pieces with his kick alone, before ever activating his kakugan. In the light novel he is shown to have the ability to create an actual dent in the ground with his foot at only sixteen. The same weight that has forged such incredible might, however, limits his range of movement to close quarters. Whle he seems particularly speedy for his kagune type, he's still far slower than the others.
It should also be noted that he has had formal martial arts training on top of his natural abilities. He also plays piano, has an extensive knowledge on floriography, is at least conversationally bilingual, and was the one to design Kaneki's battle suit. Can also talk for extended periods of time about things whether or not anyone is listening.
Strengths and Weaknesses:
Starting with strengths, his actually strength is notably high. I'm about 80% percent sure he could lift an actual car if he wanted too, considering the examples we've been given. A second connected strength would definitely be his battle skills, and efficiency at killing. He shows an impressive amount of skill even against two opponents using the kagune considered his types 'weakness'. A third would be his stamina, as he seems to recover quickly even after going into a rage--but it's particularly high when he keeps himself in complete control.
He's also extremely intelligent and analytical(and is one of the few Ghouls actually going to college), keeping on par with Kaneki and sharing the half-ghoul protagonist's love of reading. His deception and acting skills are exceptional as well, enough so that it can be difficult to discern exactly where the facades he puts on end and the real Tsukiyama begins--even for himself.
His confidence can be considered both a strength and a weakness, as it tends to mold into a help or a hindrance depending on the situation.
His biggest weakness is probably his inability to properly understand interpersonal relationships properly. While he knows enough to imitate and achieve desired effects, he has a great deal of difficulty creating genuine connections on purpose. It seems to become worse when humans are involved, as he doesn't consider them equals to Ghouls.
His second greatest weakness is his emotional immaturity and the sheer strength of his emotions when they get out of his control, rage and excitement being the usual worst offenders(We've seen at least two straight up tantrums from this man). We have also now learned that Tsukiyama's sadness can throw him into a depression that has lasted three entire years, so there's that.
The third, on par with the first, is definitely his tunnel vision, which tends to turn whatever his latest interest is at the time into an obsession until he's gotten what he wants. This leads to a possible fourth, or simply a tie-in weakness: Kaneki Ken. He is absolutely obsessed with Kaneki, and at this point I'm certain would do anything for him. (His understanding of what's best for Ken may not always be right, however, and could lead to trouble but...I digress.)
A far more simple weakness of his is that with enough speed he could be in some serious trouble in a fight.
He's also incredibly spoiled, so being stuck in a situation with little money and zero real luxuries is going to be a pretty huge culture shock, and could be considered a weakness I guess.
Typical Ghoul weaknesses to CCG methods apply to him too of course, as in their specially made bullets and RC cell suppressants.
( SAMPLE )
Characterization Sample:
Tsukiyama watched smugly as the light left the investigator's eyes, blood pouring from the man's mouth and stomach as the his drill-like kagune pierced clean through the unlucky Dove. But there was no time to savor the way the man's grip on his weapon was lost as his corpse went full ragdoll, or the delightful scent of fresh blood that permeated the area--because there were more of them. The decidedly over-dressed Ghoul had only moments to withdraw his koukaku and flick the last enemies' intestines from it's tip before another one of the blasted white coats were upon him, attacking with a bikaku type quinque. In his experience, the CCG members who used bikaku's were usually fairly unskilled, and this time was no different. It took about two minutes of simple parries to determine that this uncultured swine was little better than his predecessor, and only thirty more seconds to knock his feet out from under him. The instant the agent hit the ground, Tsukiyama's foot came down on top of his head with enough force to crush it completely.
Ah...Shuu had ruined his shoes.
For some reason, he just couldn't find it in himself to hold back...and it wasn't at all the usual adrenaline rush of battle driving him over the edge. He was angry, so angry--what was it, again, that had brought on so much rage? It wasn't as if the CCG had interrupted a meal; but there was no time to ponder it now. This time there were two of them, another bikaku and a rinkaku. Perhaps they could actually offer a challenge this time. The young man with the bikaku is slow, and it's obvious he's relying on his partner to distract The Gourmet. They're trying to overwhelm him with a higher number of blows, the female attacking relentlessly so that he's forced to block as her subordinate works his way closer from the side. Tsukiyama can practically smell the fledgling agent's over-confidence as he comes in low, and when every ounce of it shatters as his attack is blocked by the S-rank Ghoul grabbing his weapon and using it to launch him into his partner he can definitely smell the fear.
It smelled delectable.
The pair of them absolutely reeked of it when he charged them next, and the violet haired man could only imagine how much spice it would add to their flavor once they were dead. Killing them would be so therapeutic, and he was having so much fun. It felt like it had been such a long time since he'd enjoyed himself this much. Shuu had just begun to calculate exactly how he could off them while causing them the maximum amount of agony when a searing pain all his own interrupted.
He'd been stabbed: straight through the chest, by a far too familiar appendage. The world had slowed to a crawl as his eyes opened as wide as they were able, the horrible torrent of memories crashing down on him and hitting him hard with the reason behind his fury. No. No!
But there was no mistaking it as he finally managed to turn and glimpse his attacker, the magnificent kagune of his 'Master' had come from one of those hellish briefcases. It was wrong, wrong! Seeing it move according to the whims of that disgusting bespectacled man, that freakishly talented human...detached from the back of his beautiful master. Tsukiyama distantly heard himself screaming as he blacked out--and woke up.
A dream, but not a dream at all.
He could still hear himself screaming as the doors to his bedroom flew open.
