Arata

Named for the Corpse Collector whose kakuja supplies its raw material, Arata is a family of quinque that wraps itself around whoever equips it. The koukaku-type gear amplifies the wearer's strength and speed well beyond anything a normal person could muster, buying an investigator the chance to trade blows with ghouls in the highest threat brackets, though only for a short window.

The earliest builds, labeled proto and β 0.8, were carried into the fight with Yoshimura by Special Class officers Iwao Kuroiwa and Yukinori Shinohara, and Shinohara admitted the pair would have died without them. Those first suits carried a flaw: the longer they stayed active, the heavier the physical toll grew on the person inside.

A reworked model, proto Ⅱ, sheathed almost the entire body and face while pushing the output higher, yet it still taxed Koutarou Amon severely as he faced Kaneki, and even as the armor failed it let him deal serious damage, leaving their duel close to even. The later Joker variant, worn by Juuzou Suzuya, added claw blades at the hands and spikes along the upper back, making it the first version to arrive with weapons of its own, and it gave Suzuya the edge over a kakuja-formed Kurona Yasuhisa. The newest iteration, Arata Ⅱ, seals the face behind a skull-shaped mask and shielded Hanbee Abara well enough that he walked away unhurt after meeting Kaneki's kakuja.

Across its versions the armor has passed through many hands. Shinohara and Kuroiwa both wore the prototype and later models, Amon operated the proto Ⅱ, Suzuya took up the Joker build, and Hanbee Abara wielded Arata Ⅱ. A note from Tokyo Ghoul Root A adds an eerie touch: Shinohara observed that the suit moved sluggishly against Ayato Kirishima, hinting the gear may hold a will of its own.