Kishou Arima

Kishou Arima (有馬 貴将, Arima Kishō) was a renowned Special Class Ghoul Investigator known as the CCG's Reaper (CCGの死神, Shīshījī no Shinigami, lit. "Death God of CCG"). Arima secretly held the title as the One-eyed King (隻眼の王, Sekigan no Ō) before Kaneki. He was the S3 Squad Leader.

He was undefeated as a Ghoul Investigator for 18 years until his death and was formerly partnered with Take Hirako. He was the protagonist of the spin-off Tokyo Ghoul: Jack, alongside Taishi Fura.

His investigative skills and prowess in combat have led many investigators, such as Koutarou Amon, to admire him. However, there are many who are envious of Arima's combat power, and older investigators who realized their own great inferiority to Arima often suffer from "Arima disease."

Appearance
Arima was a tall, well-built man with snow white hair and gray eyes. He was always seen wearing his glasses with his face kept in an apathetic expression. Like all ghoul investigators he wore a suit, tie, and a white overcoat.

During his youth at Seishin High School, he was mostly seen dressed in his standard school uniform. He also always carried on his back what was perceived to be a "guitar case." However this was only a concealment for his blade quinque, Yukimura 1/3, which he used to fight ghouls.

In his youth, Arima had dark blue hair.

Personality
Arima was shown to have a very calm personality, he remained unperturbed and composed even when surrounded by several ghouls or facing the monstrous One-Eyed Owl. He was also an overly strict mentor, as seen when he reprimanded Hirako for being off on his attack by 0.01 seconds. As a teenager, Arima exerted the same personality, and also noted his main hobby to be ghoul extermination. He had a very cold and calculating approach to exterminating ghouls as shown when he was about to finish off Renji Yomo, and Yoshimura appeared suddenly; instead of panicking or attacking he merely greeted the ghoul. Arima was shown to respect the dead as he reprimanded Itsuki Marude when he talked ill about Mado after his death.

Despite his stoic demeanor, he was capable of forming friendships, he often borrowed books from Haise Sasaki, and Akira Mado described his feelings towards Sasaki as "parental love." Arima was also the type of person who complimented his ghoul opponents, an example being when he did so when Kaneki damaged his quinque, IXA. Surprisingly while dying he reveals he despised himself for killing ghouls. He admits how happy he is to have done something good by imparting his mission to depose V and become a symbol of hope for ghouls.

Jack
Arima was hailed as a genius within the CCG, stemming from his affiliation with the organization since his teens. He was personally selected by CCG's chairman Tsuneyoshi Washuu to be promoted to a 3rd class investigator. Taking advantage of his youth, he took on assignments that regular Investigators could not handle. One such assignment saw him working undercover as a transfer student in the 13th Ward, where he became the classmate of Taishi Fura. Sent to eliminate the ghoul Lantern, he rescued Taishi and the two formed a partnership to hunt the ghoul down. Their activities soon caught the attention of several ghouls in the ward, as two high school students killing ghouls was unheard of before.

The pair rescued Uruka Minami from Sumiharu Katou, a ghoul posing as a hairdresser and agreed to let her aid them in their investigations. Though Taishi believed Minami to be in love with Arima, in truth she was simply trying to manipulate them. At an abandoned house, Minami revealed herself to be Lantern and tried to kill Arima -- who had already suspected her. Though he fatally wounded her, Taishi was forced to deliver the final blow in self-defense. Afterward, Arima left to take on his next assignment.

Past Exploits
When Arima was 16 years old, Investigator Daisuke Atou witnessed Arima killing more than thirty ghouls single-handed. Furthermore, Arima killed Hikari Kirishima at that age.

Due to his outstanding talent, he was promoted to Rank 2 in less than a year. During the rampage of the One-Eyed Owl, he took part in the defense of the 2nd ward -- used numerous quinques to challenge and defeated a disguised Yoshimura in battle. From this battle, he obtained a kakuhou that would be used to create the SSS-rated quinque Owl.

At an unspecified point, he found and defeated Eto Yoshimura at her shrine hide-out. Rather than simply kill the infamous One-Eyed Owl, he questioned her about her motivations and learned of her desire to change the world. Interested in her ideals, Arima spared her life and allegedly began to conspire in secret with her.

In the passing years, he partnered with Take Hirako. The pair took part in the extermination of the Clowns in the 4th ward, coming into conflict with Uta's gang. There, he was confronted by the younger brother of Hikari Kirishima, Renji Yomo. Before he could deliver the finishing blow, Yoshimura interrupted and rescued the young ghoul from him.

Doves' Emergence
Arima attended Kureo Mado's funeral and after Itsuki Marude had expressed his aversion to Mado's work ethic and fixation on quinques at his funeral service, Arima reprimanded him.

Aogiri Arc
Marude contacted him to inform him about their victory in raiding Aogiri base only for Arima to tell him Aogiri Tree used that as distraction and raided the ghoul detention center, Cochlea.

Owl Suppression Operation
After being given the mission to ambush any fleeing ghouls and neutralize the One-Eyed Owl, Arima was stationed within the underground Route V14, where he encountered and single-handedly killed dozens of ghouls. Upon having his gaze fall on Ken Kaneki, he quickly approached him with the intention of completing his mission and, without warning, dealt an attack towards Kaneki that tore a large chunk out of his abdomen. Before Kaneki could recover and fight, Arima lunged his quinque IXA through the back of Kaneki's skull, which pierced his brain and destroyed his left eye. He easily dodged Kaneki's rapid kagune strikes and witnessed a sudden emotional outburst from Kaneki, during which Kaneki recited a Hakushū poem. Apparently moved by the poem, Arima made note of Kaneki's identity, then offhandedly mentioned that he could tell it was raining outside from the sound of water pouring in from above. He stated that his sense of time got dulled when he was underground. Arima then brought out his other quinque, Narukami, and activated it. He declared that his objective was to ensure no ghouls would pass through Route V14, and released bolts of Rc projectiles towards Kaneki. After Kaneki dodged those attacks, Arima commanded his quinque to go into remote activation and continued to strike at Kaneki, keeping the manic ghoul at bay. He blocked a desperate attack from Kaneki's kagune using IXA's defensive barrier, but was surprised that Kaneki's blow managed to break the barrier, and so complimented his opponent. Arima went on to impale Kaneki through the abdomen with IXA, lifted him high into the air briefly before he threw him back to the ground. Arima stated that he had not expected Kaneki to damage his quinque and finished Kaneki off with a stab through the other eye and mentioned that he needed a new quinque. Arima noticed a bleeding scratch on his right cheek. Later on, he confronted the One-Eyed Owl alone and managed to sever its arm, forcing it to escape and mirrored his battle with the first Owl years ago.

Years later, Tatara recalled Arima dragged a half-dead Kaneki by the hair after his defeat. Tatara bowed as he passed.

Post-Owl Suppression Operation
After the CCG imprisoned Kaneki in Cochlea, Arima visited Kaneki in order to observe him. During one such visit, Arima witnessed an emotional outburst by Kaneki, now called Prisoner #240. As Kaneki frantically begged to be let out to save his friends, Arima calmly told Kaneki that he had killed all of them. He inquired about the amnesiac Prisoner #240's state with the Warden Shinme Haisaki. Haisaki told him that Prisoner #240 was refusing food, was apparently tormented by nightmares that made him cry worse than a baby during the night, and picked at his eyes so much they were festering; thus, the Warden expected the prisoner to die soon due to starvation. Thereafter, Arima started to bring Prisoner #240 books to read, and Prisoner #240's health improved substantially.

Alongside Yoshitoki Washuu, he discussed the results of the operation with Chairman Tsuneyoshi Washuu. The chairman turned to Arima and asked him what he would do about the name as the 'ownership rights' were his. Arima replied that he would entrust this to 'him'.

During another visit, Arima told Prisoner #240 that he would need a name, as it was planned for Prisoner #240 to be appointed an investigator during his rehabilitation. He asked Prisoner #240 to pick his new name, and by using Prisoner #240's two favorite kanji from the words "coffee" and "world", they formed the name 'Haise'.

Torso Investigation
Some time after the Owl Suppression Operation, Arima along with Akira Mado were in charge of supervising Haise Sasaki and his Quinx members. Following the failed operation to capture Torso and Serpent, Arima summoned Haise to an S3 meeting. He did a minor spar with Haise, subsequently returned the book he borrowed from Haise to him. When Sasaki apologized for using his kagune to fight Serpent, Arima dismissed this apology, and listened attentively as Haise compared him, Akira and the rest of the Quinx Squad to a somewhat dysfunctional family.

Auction
Arima entered Yoshitoki's office while the latter was speaking with Urie. After Yoshitoki asked of his opinion, Arima gave his approval for Urie's frame release surgery.

After the second operation during the Auction Raid, Arima arrived at the auction location near the end of the raid with his Squad and members of S3 Squad. He, along with the rest of his squad confronted Hinami Fueguchi, who after her fight with Takizawa, was in no fit state to put up a fight. He approached her and was stopped by Haise Sasaki, which made him tighten the grip on his quinque. Haise asked him for ownership rights over Hinami, which he granted before ordering his squad to call for the medical team to deal with Haise's wounds.

Post Auction
A month had passed since the Auction mopping-up operation and he attended a Christmas party at The Chateau, arriving with Akira. He enjoyed himself in the company of everyone and talked about the bizarre stories that surrounded him, like the time he fought a ghoul with an umbrella, fell asleep during a fight, and how ghouls were so afraid of him that they fainted on the spot and were taken straight to prison. These stories turned out to be true. He received a tie-pin with a decorative horse as a present from Sasaki.

Rose Extermination
Koori was visited by Arima, who had heard of his operation commander position from Marude earlier, and expressed ease as his former superior was the only one he could feel relaxed around after being promoted to Special Class. Koori attempted to tell Arima something, but his former superior was then called on by a fellow employee and left before anything else could be said.

A vision of him later appeared before Sasaki in what appeared to be a training session, Arima acted cold towards him and told Sasaki to kill like him. This vision of Arima then held IXA to Sasaki's eye and asked if he wanted to die again. Arima approached Furuta, to deliver a message that V called for them in regards to Ken Kaneki. The two proceeded to report in at one of said organization's locations about the whereabouts of Eto and the likelihood of her being the "King". Kaiko ordered Arima to deal with a problem involving Rize. He later confronted Shachi and fired a bolt of condensed Rc cells at him with Narukami. Shachi dodged as Arima declared that he will capture and exterminate him. During the fight Shachi noticed a strange pause in Arima's strikes and concluded that he had a "blind spot". After the other squad members were defeated he was left alone to face Shachi, who tried to take advantage of his weakness and struck from his blind spot. However, Arima dodged the attack and countered by stabbing Shachi's left eye, pierced his throat with Narukami, and sent a wave of condensed Rc cells coursing through his body. Gravely wounded, Shachi slumped to the floor, and admitted that despite Arima being his enemy and having those eyes, his fighting skills were magnificent.

Third Cochlea Raid
During the Rushima Invasion, he and his squad were assigned alongside Mougan Tanakamaru's and Kiyoko Aura's squads to protect Cochlea while the main invasion team attacked the Rushima. Arima patrolled the facility and headed for the main building, leaving a section of the prison in Sasaki's care. Afterwards, as the ambush on Cochlea began, Arima fired a bolt of condensed Rc cells at Ayato Kirishima, who was saved by one of Banjou's group members. As their battle began, Ayato fired bolts from his kagune at Arima at close range, but Arima blocked them easily with one hand. Ayato tried to strike from behind, but his kagune was blocked by Arima, who countered with a strike that narrowly missed him. Arima activated IXA and shot another bolt at Ayato which grazed his mask and destroyed it. He quickly followed up with several strikes to Ayato's legs. Having rendered Ayato immobile, Arima prepared to deliver the final blow. However, his quinque was blocked by Renji Yomo. Arima was then flanked from behind as Touka Kirishima shot at him with her kagune. Arima quickly blocked the shards with IXA's shield, and narrowly dodged a punch from Renji. He countered with Narukami but the blow was similarly dodged by Renji. When the emergency doors opened, the three ghouls escaped, leaving Arima watching them.

Arima intercepted the three again when they tried to access a door to the containment cell tower. He split the three up by firing a bolt at them. He then focused his attention on Renji, firing repeatedly at him and eventually grazed his arm. Having distracted Renji, Arima struck at him with Narukami. Touka attempted to block the blow but Renji pushed her away, taking the blow at his neck.

As Yomo fell to the ground severely wounded, Ayato and Touka attempted to attack Arima, the latter easily repelled both of them. Yomo revealed his kagune and charged a lightning bolt, fired it towards the investigator who blocked the attack with Narukami, damaging the quinque in the process. As Arima fired one last Rc projectile at Yomo to finish him off, Sasaki suddenly intervened and blocked the projectile with his kagune.

Sasaki was immediately attacked by Arima, who threw Narukami away and now wielded IXA. Sasaki revealed a large kagune, after Ayato, Touka and Yomo escaped, he repeatedly attacked Arima. However, the investigator parried all of his attacks and pierced him in the abdomen, which Sasaki quickly recovered from. They both exchanged numerous blows with each other. As Sasaki tried to attack Arima in his blind spot, Arima swiftly countered the attack and sliced both of Sasaki's legs off. He approached the wounded Sasaki and pointed IXA at his head. While the former tried to reattach his legs, Arima ripped them off again. He stabbed Sasaki multiple times, goading him to fight seriously. After finally recovering, Sasaki launched a sudden, powerful attack towards Arima, which the investigator blocked with IXA, shattering the weapon into pieces. Cornered, Arima called out to a mysterious figure to lend him a new quinque. Displaying this new weapon, Owl, Arima revealed the quinque was made from the kakuhou of the Non-Killing Owl that he battled when he was 19, and it was his first time using it. Sasaki jumped and attacked Arima, who nonchalantly evaded the attack and countered with a barrage of projectiles. Sasaki blocked the projectiles and pierced through Arima's coat with his kagune. Arima quickly removed his coat and charged forward to confront Sasaki. As Arima and Sasaki clashed head to head, Sasaki wrapped his arm around Owl, restraining Arima from attacking. Arima quickly shook Sasaki's binding by releasing Owl's blade, which he then remotely activated so that it materialized below Sasaki and impaled him. With Sasaki stunned and injured, Arima quickly recalled Owl's blade and severed both of Sasaki's arms. Arima proceeded to slash Sasaki numerous times midair, preventing him from healing any of his injuries, until Sasaki collapsed onto the field of flowers. Miraculously, Sasaki recovered regaining his identity back as Kaneki Ken, and got back up as his kagune began to replace his limbs. Before resuming the battle, Kaneki smiled confidently at Arima, who responded with a faint smile of his own. Armor then emerged from Kaneki's kagune and slowly covered his entire body apart from his head, and their clash continued.

Kaneki began to attack Arima from afar with his kagune, which Arima countered by slicing the tentacles off. Realizing that simple frontal attacks would not affect Arima in any way, Kaneki burrowed his kagune underground, shaping it into a net. Arima leaped through the net in order to reach Kaneki's position, only to be surrounded by numerous tentacles on all sides, in response, he slashed and destroyed all the kagune around him. Afterwards, he noticed a sound behind him and immediately attacked it with Owl, only to discover that he had merely slashed one of Kaneki's tentacles. Taking advantage of this, Kaneki struck at Arima from behind. The investigator managed to block Kaneki's attack in time, but Owl was destroyed by the force of the blow. Though Kaneki declared the battle over, Arima charged him and stated the battle will not end until one of them died. He continued to attack with the broken quinque, slashing apart tentacles until he closed the distance between them and stabbed Kaneki through his abdomen. However, Kaneki pleaded with him to accept his defeat and voiced his belief that continuing was meaningless. Arima stepped back, lowered his broken quinque and asked whether Kaneki has no intention of killing him. After Kaneki's response, he turned his gaze upwards, mused that in his eighteen years as an Investigator, he had never faced an opponent he could not defeat. Once more, he asked Kaneki whether he will really not finish him off. Kaneki confirmed his decision once more, and after he stated his understanding, Arima slashed his own throat with Owl. Mortally wounded, Arima collapsed with blood pouring from his throat and mouth. As Kaneki held him, he used the last of his strength to confess his many secrets. He revealed himself to be a Half-human, a ghoul-human hybrid born without a kagune, bred by the Sunlit Garden. Because of his hybrid nature, he had developed glaucoma as a result of an accelerated aging progress and would soon die from old age. He revealed to Kaneki that the Washuu Clan were ghouls, and entrusted him with his final wish -- Kaneki to take credit for his death. He promised that Kaneki would understand soon enough, and admitted that he always hated his own existence as someone that could only kill, taking the lives of others while never giving anything to the world in return. With his dying breath, Arima praised Kaneki as something he could leave behind and lifted his hand to touch his face, before he succumbed to his wounds.

Ken Kaneki / Haise Sasaki
According to Akira, Arima possessed “parental love” for Sasaki, as they usually lent each other books and Arima even checked on Sasaki regularly. Even though Haise claimed he had a “make-believe” family, Arima was like his father figure. Arima often sparred with Haise as a means of training, and gave him advice when he was in need of help. In his final face-off with Sasaki, Arima claimed that he could have killed the latter 645 times but decided to spare him, and provoked him in order to get Sasaki to fight him seriously. During his last moments, he uncovered the secrets of the Sunlit Garden, his origins and his past to Kaneki, and said he was glad for leaving something behind him. Eto and Arima cooperated in order to find and nurture somebody to become the One-Eyed King, the individual that would become the hope for ghouls, who later turned out to be Kaneki himself.

Taishi Fura
Arima and Taishi knew each other for over twelve years. They attended the same high school for a short while, and were even in the same class. As teenagers, Taishi and Arima embarked on many ghoul investigations, where they were shown to look out for each others' well-being. However, because their personalities were so different, they often had trivial quarrels, where Fura would accuse Arima of not ‘living a normal life.’

Take Hirako
Hirako was Arima's former partner. Arima trained/mentored him as his subordinate. As Arima always looked down to him as a rookie, and often scolded Hirako for minor imperfections, it seemed to be implied that Hirako had an inner hatred for him as evidenced by his immediate strike when Uta wore his Arima mask. This implication ultimately proved to be false, however -- Arima trusted him enough to not only reveal his secrets, but to leave Hirako to carry out his final wish. Acting under Arima's orders, Hirako betrayed the CCG.

Juuzou Suzuya
Since becoming an investigator, he and Arima shared a positive, professional relationship. They often participated in Whack-a-Mole operations together.

Koori Ui
Arima was Koori's former mentor, having been partnered together in the past. Koori seemed to share a rather friendly relationship with Arima, being one of the few that Arima had been shown to smile to. Koori also noted that after being promoted to Special Class, he could not seem to be at ease with anyone other than his former superior. He respected his former mentor greatly, as he thought of him as a genius.

Hairu Ihei
A former member of Arima's squad. He knew her since she was a small child as they were both raised in the Sunlit Garden. Details about their past history is shrouded in mystery. Apparently, she thought of him as "super strong."

Akira Mado
The two have worked together for years and admire each other as fine investigators. Together they supervised the Quinx project and Sasaki acting as guidance figures. Akira considers him to be CCG's greatest strength.

Kureo Mado
According to Akira, her father once mentored Arima and taught him everything he knows about quinques. Arima respected Mado enough to reprimand Marude when he talked ill of him.

Nimura Furuta
The relationship between them is unclear, however, they are both involved with V. Arima sought Furuta out to inform him that V was calling about Ken Kaneki.

Eto Yoshimura
The two met as teenagers, when Arima defeated her in battle. However, her desire to change the world caught his interest and the two began to conspire together against his superiors. The extent of Arima's involvement in her plots remains unknown, though he aided her in keeping his superiors misinformed with the belief that the One-Eyed Owl and the One-Eyed King were the same. He also allowed Eto to pass through the CCG's containment net during the Owl Suppression Operation, and then let her escape with Yoshimura after briefly fighting her.

Tatara
The relationship between these two is quite unclear, other than what was briefly shown in Tatara's flashback moments prior to his death. Tatara seems to be aware of the goal between him and Eto to create a Ghoul who could defeat and kill him. He had a deep respect for Arima, as he refers to him as "King."

Power and Abilities
Half-Human Physiology: Being a failed half-ghoul, Arima was granted increased physical abilities at the cost of a shortened life span. Swordsmanship: Having extraordinary skill with his quinque, Arima could quickly block projectiles and easily slice through a ghoul's kakuja.
 * Superhuman Agility: Arima was capable of dodging Kaneki's enormously destructive and rapid attacks, suffering a small cheek wound after the blow, after slaughtering a large amount of fleeing ghouls underground. During his life, he repelled both Yoshimura and Eto. His reflexes are sufficient enough to deflect a barrage of ukaku shards shot by Ayato Kirishima, block Touka's projectiles and parry Yomo's attacks at close-range. He was also able to easily outmaneuver Shachi's attacks, and counter the martial artist's movements.
 * Yukimura 1/3: A koukaku-type quinque that takes the form of a sword consisting of a long, thin blade without a guard. This quinque was used during Arima's early days as an investigator.
 * IXA: A koukaku-type quinque that takes the form of a lance attached to a gun-sword handle with a spiked pommel. It is able to change form into a shield that is capable of blocking potent attacks coming towards Arima. It is also capable of changing into a secondary offensive form that changes the shape of the quinque into several tentacles which can home and pierce any enemy of Arima's choosing.
 * Narukami: An ukaku-type quinque that takes the form of four satellite panels attached to a rapier handle. The quinque can shoot condensed Rc cells like lightning that can home towards a target of Arima's choosing. It also has the ability to combine the panels into a single rapier blade sharp enough to slice through the One-Eyed Owl.
 * Owl: Ripped out of the One-eyed Owl thirteen years ago, this quinque is an SSS-rated ukaku-type that takes the form of an elongated large blade with a long hilt. Being an ukaku quinque, Owl can shoot out concentrated Rc cell projectiles of various sizes. Furthermore, Owl's blade can be released and materialized remotely to launch an attack on a target from an unexpected location.

Trivia

 * He was the one of two people (the other being Juuzou Suzuya) to be promoted to a 2nd Class Investigator in less than a year.
 * In the first character popularity poll, Arima was ranked fifteenth. In the latest, he came in as seventh.
 * He shared the same birthday with Ken Kaneki.
 * Arima held the highest kill count and number of conferred decorations within the CCG.
 * While he originally had dark blue hair, his hair gradually became white over the course of his twenties. This was presumably because of his accelerated aging process.
 * Arima had been associated with the number "13." It referenced the tarot card Death (XIII).
 * His relationship with Sasaki referenced Franz Kafka's short story, A Crossbreed. The narrator is the owner of an unusual creature that is half-kitten and half-lamb.
 * In :re Chapter 31.5, the Quinx Squad and their guests discussed some of the myths surrounding Arima, namely that he slept in the middle of missions and that he once defeated a ghoul with an umbrella. Surprisingly, Arima confirmed both of these to be true. He killed the ghoul with an umbrella as his quinque IXA was in repair and he slept between missions to keep himself alert.
 * In Tokyo Ghoul Trump, he is featured as a "Black Joker."
 * He likes to challenge his subordinates in sparring sessions in the meeting room as shown in the omake of :re Volume 1.
 * When a fan asked Ishida how to draw Arima, Ishida responded that he kept "sadistic & massive" in his mind.
 * Arima and Sasaki's family names are both present in the list of Japan's Kōke families during the Tokugawa Shogunate. The Arima clan was first on the list, while last on the list was the Rokkaku clan of whom many kept their family name from their origins from the Sasaki clan.
 * Ishida has stated that Arima's theme was "Protagonist: In The Future."

Quotes

 * To Minami: "Events that happen in this world, are a continuous series of trifling things, and within those myriad pieces of puzzles, there is always a fragment that leads to the truth."
 * To Ken Kaneki: "...Oh, I see... You're... It's raining. I don't know what the weather outside is when I'm below the surface. My sense of time also gets dull. But I know if it's raining outside from the sound of water... It'll be over soon. We're in V14. No 'ghoul' can pass through here. You can't go any further than 14."
 * To Haise Sasaki: "645 times. 645 times I could have fatally wounded you. 645. 645 times I decided not to. It would take me two seconds to kill you. Your eyes are the eyes of a dead man. The dead cannot stop me."
 * To Ken Kaneki: "Defeat, huh... Eighteen years. Eighteen years have I been an investigator. And yet this is the first time I am faced with an opponent against whom I have no course of action."
 * To Ken Kaneki: "I... I've... always... hated it. I hated myself, who only ever stole from others... I was finally... able to leave something..."

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