neropet:

Part 2 of Thoughts on The Nature of Rc Cells
Co-written by @absolutetimeandspace and @coromoor.

While the part 1 and the original draft of part 2 was written by me and @absolutetimeandspace, both of us ended discussing part 2’s final draft with @coromoor. As a result we wound up adding more topics to this after expanding on each other’s thoughts and ideas.

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You’ll need to have read part 1 to understand what the hell is going on in part 2.

Main points we’ll be covering from part 1:

“…[T]he surgery work[s] better for individuals with lower Rc levels, while higher Rc runs the risk of the subjects becoming floppies (such as Amon) and/or developing the “nameless” syndrome seen in Dr. Kanou’s failed experiments.”

“NOTES:
…Buuut one thing I can’t help but briefly mention is that Shirazu might have physical problems in the future (not RoS), and the fact that the cage around his kagune just broke in ch 53 just made it so much more likely. gl boi.”

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SHIRAZU

…[T]he surgery work[s] better for individuals with lower Rc levels, while higher Rc runs the risk of the subjects becoming floppies (such as Amon) and/or developing the “nameless” syndrome seen in Dr. Kanou’s failed experiments.
– Part 1

The reason Light and I said Shirazu would have problems in the future was because we assumed he had a high Rc count before the Quinx surgery from shared genes with a sister suffering from ROS (giving him a predisposition for a higher count and lower quality) and as a result putting him at a higher risk of future complications with the compatibility of his kakuhou.

This point stems from what we’ve seen in Kanou’s failed experiments; a volatile kakuhou that can result in the host being devoured by the organ.

Since it’s nameless we’ll be calling it Kanou Lab syndrome (KLS) for now.

During the making of part 1 we concluded that if the metal frames around Shirazu’s kakuhou were to break down or be removed, he would develop some form of KLS. Though it was hard to say what the exact effect that would bring to a Quinx because of their different biology from artificial half-ghouls.

This brings us to what we believe is the real reason behind his death. Ishida’s shown Shirazu getting stabbed through the abdomen two times before the fatal third by Noro; first by Kobayashi, and second by Nutcracker.

So why did the third hit specifically (third time’s the charm) kill him when he shrugged off the other ones with no problem? It’s possible that it’s because the third wound was sustained when he was not a Quinx, but an artificial half-ghoul. Some theories at the time were reasoning that this could be a good thing because of the increased regeneration, but it seems that turning into a half-ghoul was what could have killed Shirazu. Once there were no frames separating the kakuhou and the human body, Shirazu would have instantly become a failed experiment and developed KLS. Instead of healing him, the kakuhou would begin to eat him alive and nullify any healing. Urie may have mistook this for the beginning signs of Quinx regeneration.

THE QUINX PROJECT

After Shirazu’s death was confirmed in the next chapters, we started to discuss the theory once again and realized that if this was the real reason he died, then the CCG might not have realized the cons in the criteria they use to find humans most compatible with the Quinx surgery. The problem could lie in them testing for Rc quantity – specifically individuals with abnormally high levels – with the intention of creating Quinx who would avoid eating human flesh because of a naturally occurring high reserve of Rc to sustain their bodies while also still being able to generate a kagune. The CCG’s criteria successfully gave them these exact results they were aiming for. Not only that but, while Part 1 states that the lower the Rc before the half-ghoul surgery, the stronger the resulting half-ghoul, the opposite happens for a Quinx; the higher the Rc before the Quinx surgery, the stronger the resulting Quinx. This is because a perfect Quinx doesn’t need human flesh to sustain its body, and the higher quantity creates a more durable kagune while still maintaining that fact (at least until you start removing frames to tap into ghoul strength).

But why can the Quinx get away with having a high Rc count before their surgery while artificial half-ghouls can’t? The answer is, they don’t. They still pay the price for it one way or another.

The thing is, while the CCG may see these large pros of choosing based on high Rc count, they might have yet to realize the equally as large cons. As we know, the problem with performing the ghoul surgery on people with average (and especially higher than average) Rc is that they become failed experiments, may develop KLS, and then risk falling victim to a volatile kakuhou. This means that the Quinx, who all have a high starting Rc count, would also suffer the same fate as Shirazu if their frames were to be removed. These frames are the only barriers preventing direct contact between the ghoulish organ and the incompatible human body; a life support for a body that shouldn’t be able to exist in the first place.

Essentially the Quinx surgery is a death sentence, and each Quinx a ticking time bomb. Results may vary for each individual considering there are different degrees of “floppy-ness”, but the overall effect could be devastating.

URIE

Now the fewer frames the closer a Quinx is to becoming a floppy half-ghoul. Urie is currently experiencing some of the side effects of this with the changes in his senses – specifically his sense of taste. His mental stability and/or health should also be degrading with each removal until the power boost drastically drops off after the last frame. Hopefully Kaneki’s jab at his strength won’t be the deciding factor for how far Urie is willing to take the frame removals, otherwise Kaneki could indirectly be the cause of Urie’s demise.

KANOU

The reason Kanou is so fascinated by the Shirazu’s frames is because the technology just opened up the possibility of a much higher “success” rate for his experiments, creating half-ghouls that would otherwise have end up as floppies.

Something Kanou said concerning the Quinx surgery in :re Chapter 59 was interesting.

Gradually acclimatizing a human body to a ghoul’s kakuhou

Obviously this seems to be the key to successfully creating a half-ghoul and is what the Quinx frames do so effectively. Post-transplant, a kakuhou must establish itself, or as Kanou says acclimate, to the new human host body. Kanou gave us a hint about this back in TG Chapter 99 that at the time didn’t make a lot of sense – the ghoul surgeries are linked to the RC cell walls that were found in his lab.

As long as the walls still have nutrients, it will continue to propagate and grow – it is self-sufficient with a constant supply of RC cells. Perhaps this phenomenon explains how KLS develops; a constant supply of RC cells allows to kakuhou to grow too rapidly and aggressively to a stage where it devours the body, rather than gradually acclimatising and becoming a part of the new host’s body. In Kaneki’s case, the combined results of a naturally low Rc level, blood loss from Rize’s attack and months of sustaining himself on only “sugar cubes” may have inhibited the kakuhou’s activity, and in turn its ability to aggressively propagate and digest the human host’s body.

TL;DR pain? pain.

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NOTES:

There are none this time because we’re too lazy to go over the parts on Saiko, Mutsuki, and the 7th Quinx that we took out.