The Plan was simple: Infiltrate the auction and then rescue the hostage, Mutsuki Tooru.

But Juuzou, now smarter and deadlier, having lost a leg to Kuzen (still no pain), had a different motivation.

Mama.

He had realized subconsciously in his dreams that this woman had caused him pain.

The only pain that Juuzou was officially aware of was emotional pain, seeing his partner fall before him. Smiling. Bleeding. The scenes replayed over and over in Juuzou’s mind often when he laid his head to rest on his mattress which he slept on without a pillow.

He was still used to the bare and hard floors of his former home.

The pain he did not know of was that of which he was going to return in full.

 

Mutsuki Tooru stood on the stage, the bright light reflecting off her beautiful dark hair.

She cringed before the loud crowds, ready for the intense excitement and thrill of the auction.

Just moments before, two strange ghouls performed a weird clown-jester act before the ghoul known as Uta, wearing a paper white owl mask with several holes in it, introduced what was going to happen during the auction.

Juuzou waited in the darkness. Waiting, excited to see the shock on the ghouls’ face when he popped out of the shadows and ended all of them.

Every last single one.

Patience. Patience. Patience.

They had just sold a man with brown hair who had worn a tux with a red tie.

The man had cried until he had been sold to a gray-haired ghoul with glasses.

35 Million. The man’s life was apparently worth 35 million for a ghoul to do whatever he pleased with him.

The mere thought of it sickened Juuzou. But he had no choice but to lie in wait.

But what sickened him more after he had noticed the presence of Mama.

Her presence solidified his supposition that he was just a toy.

The love Mama had felt for Juuzou was the same as a child with his favorite pair of sneakers.

Just for show.

The lights went out for a while as Tooru was led onto stage.

Then the lights came back on, leading to the present.

Uta moved closer to the young girl. “The starting bid is one million yen,” the gothic-like ghoul announced.

Murmurs of protest-mixed confusion filled the large room, probably since the starting bid was so high for a little girl.

And as far as humans go, a little girl could only do so much.

But then, suddenly, Uta snatched the eyepatch off the girl’s right eye, inspiring ooh’s and ah’s, gasps of surprise and gasps of sheer delight.

The color surrounding the bright red iris was black, the eyelids surrounded by dark red veins.

A half-ghoul. What a surprise, indeed.

“A half-eyed ghoul,” Uta said with false surprise. “This is quite a rarity! Therefore, I must ask that the starting bid be 10 million yen!”

Not giving a second rest, cards shot up in the air.

“10 million!”

“12 million!”

“15 million!”

“17 million!”

Tooru, the poor little girl, was on her knees and was shivering and shaking like a tortured animal.

The crowd still shouting what they would pay to take poor Tooru, which sounded as if they would just be numbers at this point, Uta leaned down and whispered something in Tooru’s ear.

“70 million yen!”

“80 million,” another voice called out.

“120 million for such a rarity,” a rumbling voice sounded louder than all the other ghouls.

“Ohhhh! It appears that Big Madam is not backing down this time,” Uta announced.

“140 million,” a voice replied to this offer.

“Bidder 110 is not backing down either,” Uta said.

The two had quite a duel until Big Madam lowered her gaze with disappointment.

But Juuzou knew Mama. She was not the one to back down. She was strong in all the wrong ways and given the opportunity in a situation such as this one, she would refuse to lose.

Proving him right, sure enough, Big Madam broke into a grin, displaying oversized teeth securely guarded by expensive gold brackets.

“200 million yen!,” Mama offered in a smooth voice.

Intensity that was built up in the room continued to escalate.

“Bidder One, Big Madam, has the final bid,” Uta declared.

There was applause that Juuzou barely heard and Tooru was led away by the arm.

Was I just a play thing, Juuzou asked himself as a long-forgotten memory hit him. The memory of being sold to big Madam.

 

‘Snow white skin. Crystal eyes,’ cooed Mama. 

‘But one day you’ll grow big! And have muscles. And hair,” Mama said with disgust that four year-old Juuzou could barely comprehend.

‘But I love you just like this’

Like a doll. Like a TOY.

‘But if I get rid of these…,” Mama continued.

She reached under the skirt Juuzou wore, causing him to trip and stumble backwards onto the floor.

Scaring Juuzou severely, she fondled him.

‘Mama? What are you…,” Juuzou trailed off.

Mama’s voice. The distant look on her face. It all scared Juuzou.

Scared him very very badly. But she wouldn’t. She couldn’t. Because Mama would never hurt—

Mama’s grip tightened, crushing the organs between him.

He had gasped. Screamed. Vomited. Bled—

 

Juuzou shuddered.

But Juuzou sensed it was his time to strike.

“I have yet another gift for all of you,” said Uta. “Presenting another exceptionally beautiful lady!”

Juuzou stepped into the light.

A black skirt. Black hair. Dark red eyes (ruby red-crystal eyes), pale (snow white) skin.

“Oh! Look at the fair skin and those large eyes! She looks like a doll,” Uta said.

A doll, thought Juuzou. I was a doll to Mama. Nothing but a doll to be played with… and if I broke— when I broke, I would be replaced with another doll. Another toy.

Juuzou’s eyes narrowed with anger.

He stared at Mama. Straight. In. To. Her. Ugly. Deceitful. Evil. Eyes.

“All right! Our starting bid—,” Uta began.

“You won’t need one,” Juuzou interrupted.

Pain? Pain. This is going to be fun, Juuzou thought.

He licked his lips and leapt into the air.

He showed off a bit, flipping mid-way.

Landing on his prosthetic leg, the area below his knee opened up, revealing a dozen compartments in which a knife revealed itself in each one.

He made another leap and Uta could barely blink before his body was ridden with several of these blades, laying him out on the wooden floor of the stage.

You all get some!

Ichi, ni, san, shi, go blades straight into the foreheads of bidders; gracefully through their masks.

Roku, Nana, Hachi, Ku, Juu, Juuichi, Juuni, Juusan.

They all dropped in the stands.

Die hard fans hehehehe.

Other ghouls who weren’t dead already started to flee from the balconies.

Juuzou had been transformed into his true form. The one Mama had raised: a killing machine.

(The next time the ghouls from that night got together they had counted three quarters of the ghouls had been killed by Juuzou.)

Finally, when Juuzou had almost run out of knives, everybody had either been killed or had escaped.

Except for Mama, who was still on the balcony.

She said something and although Juuzou did not hear it directly, he already knew what she had said.

“Rei.”

Juuzou sensed movement to his left as a ghoul ran up to him, a large knife in his hand.

With one quick move, Juuzou weaved and swung a leg out in a circular motion, tripping the ghoul.

As the ghoul made his way toward the wooden floor of the stage, Juuzou reached out and grasped the man’s chin with a cupped hand.

Just as a man with a lawnmower would do with a string, Juuzou yanked his arm back, still having his hold on the man and broke the man’s neck gruesomely.

Blood splattered onto Juuzou’s face.

He looked up at the wide, still figure in the booth and smiled. “Hello, Mama,” he said.