Chapter 86

Having linked Madam A to Akihiro Kanou, Kaneki resolves to call on Itori at Helter Skelter and pry loose whatever she knows. Gil intercepts him first, having pieced together that Kaneki's crew was behind the restaurant killings. Kaneki tries to defuse the situation, but Gil swings at him for feigning ignorance. Their brief tussle ends with Kaneki pinning Gil to the ground. He proposes they stop fighting as allies, yet Gil spurns the idea because Kaneki reminds him of whoever got Shachi captured. When Kaneki asks whether that person was Rize, Gil shuts the conversation down.

Back at the hideout, Banjou passes Kaneki the material Tsukiyama assembled, and Kaneki works through it after finishing Hinami's haircut. Deciding the papers are worth acting on, he sets out for the fourteenth ward to swap intelligence with Itori.

He gives Itori a roster of the prisoners who fled Cochlea, and she remarks that such a document is no small thing to possess. In return she agrees to field any question he has. Kaneki probes her about Kanou, but she cannot answer much beyond one fact: the doctor once served the CCG as an autopsy specialist. Turning that over, Kaneki puzzles over why Kanou would set out to create one-eyed ghouls. As Itori scans his list she spots that a clown had also escaped, and before more can be said Nico strolls in, snapping Kaneki to full alert.

Kaneki bests Gil in a short fight but fails to win him over, learning only that Gil blames a figure connected to Rize for Shachi's capture. The trip to Helter Skelter yields the revelation that Kanou was a former CCG coroner, and Itori's notice of an escaped clown alongside Nico's abrupt entrance leaves Kaneki on edge.

The ninth-volume chapter carries the Japanese title 来客 (Raikyaku), meaning Visitor, a nod to Nico's unannounced appearance in its closing pages. It advances Kaneki's investigation into Kanou's history and Aogiri's role in it.