"Tatara, I would like to meet your leader. We have a common enemy here, and cooperation would be conducive for both sides."
Said Lucien with a smiling face. True, that gaining the help of the Aogiri Tree would help him tremendously; at least they could stall and fight with the Commission of Counter Ghoul when he is fighting with Washuu Clan or Vasuki. And if he were to cultivate them a little, like giving them some blood essences to increase their RC Level and thus creating new S-Rated, SS-Rated, or even SSS-Rated ghouls could help him even in his fight against Washuu Clan and Vasuki.
"Common enemy? Do you mean CCG or them?"
The common enemy of all ghouls was CCG, at least on the surface. The real common enemy was, in fact, hidden. The true enemy was actually Washuu Clan and Vasuki as their loyal dogs that kept this equilibrium and balance.
And, of course, the final enemy... humanity.
"Washuu Clan is my enemy, and they shall be annihilated, leaving none alive."
Stated Lucien as hatred was felt in his voice. Even Tatara could feel and see that Lucien really hated Washuu to the core. In reality minority of ghouls knew the truth about Washuu Clan.
Truth be told, they could count on one hand how many knew this secret information.
Tatara was now in deep thought. He saw in Lucien that he was sincere, but he was still a little vigilant. It was his job as one of the top executives of the Aogiri Tree. He was thinking about when Lucien could meet their leader.
"Now, it is not possible. But in one month, in the ruins of the 24th Ward. There you could meet with leader, but as you don't know where exactly, we will send somebody to pick you up when you arrive at the 24th Ward."
Lucien nodded as he was happy that meeting with Eto could be done soon. Now only something more than two months remained before the Steel Beam Incident, so he needed to meet all influential ghouls and people who could be some help.
Aftermath, both of them talked about some things and compared fighting styles. Lucien quickly took a liking to Tatara and gave him something as a gift. It was part of the equivalent of Rinkaku Martial Arts but for Bikaku kagune.
Bikaku Martial Arts, though it was only a shortened version and described some basic stances. It couldn't serve as a manual but could improve some fighting methods.
"To commemorate this meeting and to the beginning of cooperation and friendship, I will give you this as a gift. Its martial arts specially created for ghouls with bikaku kagune."
Lucien gave a scroll to Tataro, who looked at it with great interest.
Compared to most ghouls, he knew martial arts and could fight far more effectively than most of them. His combination of effective and precise attacks and overwhelming strength killed numerous ghouls and investigators.
Tatara took the scroll from Lucien's hands and stored it in his cloak.
"Thank you. We will see each other in a month in 24th Ward."
Thanked Tatara, and both of them went away.
***
Lucien returned to his estate after finishing his discussion with Tatara and hunting for materials for blood essences. Lucien returned to his room and took out Blood-Essence Extractor and used it on his spoils war. There were around ten B-Rated ghouls, so the process was rather quick, and Lucien retrieved newly extracted Blood-Essence.
Then he used it on the remaining bodies of fifteen B-Rated ghouls and one A-Rated ghoul. Though the process took a little more time, it was still done quickly, and now Lucien was holding two blood essences extracted from ghouls. Blood-Essence extracted from ghouls was best, as they contained the highest number of RC Cells.
Lucien gulped the two slightly bigger red Blood Essences in one go and started digesting them.
He could feel that his RC Cells were multiplying at an alarming rate, quickly reaching the RC Level of 30,000. He knew that today he would reach Kakuja V4, and his strength would be increased by a massive amount.
Right now, he could probably win against Tatara even if he used his kakuja to full. He was probably unmatched among the S-Rated Ghouls, be it in terms of physique or kagune.
After exercising his body a bit, he looked at the Game's statistics.
[Name: Lucien Etras die Aeon
Race: Ghoul
RC Type: Rinkaku
RC Level: 30,650
Unique State: Kakuja V4
- Kakuja V1: Left hand - body armor, right hand - kagune katana
- Kakuja V2: Entire body armor without a mask, kagune katana
- Kakuja V3: Entire body armor with the mask, another armor layer (extra thin), kagune katana
- Kakuja V4: Entire body armor with the mask, another armor layer (extra thin), kagune katana, Rinkaku Tails
Star Rank: 4th
***
Abilities: Telekinesis]
He had an RC Level of 30,000 and was on the slow way to the Level of 75,000 and reaching the 5th Star. Normal ghouls didn't know that RC Level could be increased if you knew how exactly to do it. Lucien found out only thanks to long experimentation and extensive books on the ghoul physique that was available to him.
Now he only needed to train a little in Rinkaku Martial Arts to increase his combat prowess.
Lucien looked at this with huge satisfaction because he was Kakuja V4, meaning he could hope to survive a fight with figures such as Arima Kishou or some monsters from Washuu Clan and Vasuki. As he was done with an examination of changes on his records, Lucien laid down on his bed and went to sleep.
More hard days were coming, and soon the meeting with Eto would happen. Lucien wondered if there would even be Arima Kishou because he was a real One-Eyed King.