Die, die, die, die...

At this point, Furuta Nimura held several identities at once.

The first was a logistics worker for V.

V had roughly a few dozen members, almost all with combat strength on par with a Special-Class Ghoul Investigator. Furuta Nimura's current strength clearly put him nowhere near the top, though, so he was only a logistics worker.

Of course, it was also possible that Furuta Nimura was deliberately playing weak. After all, being overlooked by V made it easier for him to carry out his plans.

His second identity was a student at Kamii University. He really did attend classes there.

His third identity was a member of the Clowns, where he went by the name Sōta.

His fourth identity was one of the Ghoul Restaurant's VIP guests.

Despite all these identities, Furuta Nimura belonged to none of those factions. Everything he did served his own plans.

This also proved that, from the very beginning, Furuta Nimura had not simply wanted revenge on Rize Kamishiro-or at least, that was not his main reason. His plan required him to sacrifice her.

Otherwise, had he taken on all those identities just for fun?

Still, Rize Kamishiro was his childhood friend, after all. It was impossible to say he had no feelings for her whatsoever.

Otherwise, he would not have helped her escape the Washuu Clan back then. Of course, it was also possible that he had already begun laying his plans at the time. After all, if Rize Kamishiro had never left the Washuu Clan, he would never have had the chance to let Akihiro Kanou experiment on her.

"Furuta?"

Just then, Rize Kamishiro noticed Furuta Nimura as well.

They were not far apart, and Rize Kamishiro had a keen sense of smell to begin with.

Now that she had spotted him, Furuta Nimura did not intend to hide anymore.

He noticed that she had called him "Furuta," rather than "Nimura" as she always had before. It seemed she really had seen him when he orchestrated the Falling Steel Beam Incident last time.

That incident had been a complete failure. Furuta Nimura had thought he would succeed without a hitch, only for Amahane Byakuya to turn back immediately and rescue Rize Kamishiro-even though she had nearly tortured the boy to death and devoured him.

Not only had he failed, but Rize Kamishiro had also discovered that he was behind it. She would certainly be on guard against him now, making another attempt far more difficult.

He knew that Rize was actually very powerful when she fought seriously. He was not confident he could capture Rize Kamishiro without resorting to trickery. Even if she could not win, she could still escape; otherwise, the Washuu Clan would have caught her long ago.

It was just like the Anteiku Raid in the original story. By then, Eto, the One-Eyed Owl, was already far stronger than the aging Non-Killing Owl, yet she still secretly worked with Kishou Arima to use the CCG to drive him out. She was not confident she could capture Yoshimura Kuzen with her own strength alone.

As for why she wanted to capture her own father, it was because Rize Kamishiro, who had been serving as an experimental donor, had already been rescued and hidden away by Renji Yomo. Eto needed a new donor so Akihiro Kanou could continue creating artificial half-ghouls, fulfilling the wish she shared with Kishou Arima: to place a true One-Eyed King upon the throne they had prepared.

Later, Eto took Yoshimura Kuzen away and made him the new experimental donor, producing two artificial half-ghouls: Seidou Takizawa, the "Pineapple King," and Kōtarō Amon...

"Rize, long time no see."

Furuta Nimura greeted Rize Kamishiro with a smile.

As though he had never done anything at all.

"Heh~"

Rize Kamishiro offered no further comment, merely letting out a chuckle.

"By the way, who's this...?"

Furuta Nimura turned toward Amahane Byakuya. "Ah! I remember you. We met in the cafeteria before."

Amahane Byakuya immediately thought that Nimura really loved putting on an act.

"Yeah, I didn't expect to see you again so soon."

Amahane Byakuya replied casually.

"You two already knew each other? That really is quite a coincidence."

Rize Kamishiro feigned surprise.

"But Rize, you're not a student here, are you? What brings you here all of a sudden? Don't tell me you missed me?"

Furuta Nimura was at it again.

That was just his personality: a little unhinged, though only on the surface...

"No. If we hadn't happened to run into each other today, I might have forgotten all about you. I came here to look around with my boyfriend."

Rize Kamishiro spoke with a beaming smile.

Every word cut deep. She was clearly getting back at Furuta Nimura on purpose.

Not only that, but Rize Kamishiro also linked her arm through Amahane Byakuya's to prove their relationship.

She had no intention of demanding to know why Furuta Nimura had done what he did back then. She thought such a childish question was pointless. He would only play dumb anyway.

"..."

Amahane Byakuya gave Rize Kamishiro a somewhat surprised look.

Was she really going to provoke Furuta Nimura like this?

"Ahaha, well, I hope you and your boyfriend have a lovely time."

Furuta Nimura spoke with a smile that did not reach his eyes.

"Thank you. Goodbye, then, Furuta."

With that, Rize Kamishiro turned and left, still holding Amahane Byakuya's arm.

As Amahane Byakuya and Rize Kamishiro walked away, Furuta Nimura silently approached a nearby tree, resting one hand against its trunk while clenching the other into a fist.

His expression instantly darkened, twisting slightly as he kept muttering curses at Amahane Byakuya under his breath. "Die, die, die, die, die, die, die..."

Despite this side of Furuta Nimura's personality, it did nothing to shake his resolve to carry out his plans.

No matter how much it bothered him to see Rize Kamishiro with another man, it merely gave him another excuse for his plans, allowing him to numb his heart and deceive himself into believing he was carrying them out to take revenge on her.

It was just like how, in the original story, Furuta Nimura ran his mouth at Ken Kaneki, saying he wanted to marry Rize, have a whole bunch of children, and even invite Kaneki to be his best man.

But he was only running his mouth. Just think about it: he had already turned Rize into the dragon core. Marriage, his ass-he could not even touch her.

Deep down, his heart had died long ago. He had lost all hope in this world.

All he wanted was either for the world to be destroyed, or for his death to secure Ken Kaneki's Supreme Throne.

P.S. All three updates are done. The story has already reached eighty thousand characters and will soon hit one hundred thousand. Once its debut promotion starts at one hundred thousand, it will no longer be in the new-release period, so the guaranteed schedule will change to two updates a day. The reason is the same old issue with Fanqie's recommendation system: mass releases have almost no benefits, only drawbacks. That's why you'll notice many authors post no more than two updates a day. As for bonus updates, the rule remains the same: one extra update for every 200 points in total gift value.