:re Chapter 12

Kanae von Rosewald calls on his master Shuu Tsukiyama, who has sunk into a paralyzing despair since Kaneki vanished during the Anteiku raid. Kanae hopes a gift will stir some reaction, but Shuu's senses stay numb, though he does admit to a faint nostalgia and a fondness for its design. Later, meeting Chie Hori at a cafe, Kanae orders the pilfered undergarment hidden away and dodges her prodding; the item turns out to belong to the investigator Haise Sasaki, whose name Kanae mocks. Chie shrugs off his threats, certain Shuu would never let her come to harm.

Chie recalls first learning of Shuu in high school, drawn in by classmates praising his brilliance and pedigree, and how an invitation to one of his dinner shows ended not with her death but with her designation as his pet. She thinks back on photographing his hunts and on finding him weeping after Kaneki's disappearance, and she longs for him to bring excitement back into her days.

At CCG headquarters, the Quinx and the Suzuya Squad convene over Nutcracker, reviewing lists of so-called ingredients recovered from her home. Suspicion grows that she serves the dangerous Big Madam, who is rumored to run a human-trafficking auction, a link that could balloon the case and pull in Division II. Urie is conspicuously absent, having quietly gone in for his Frame-release surgery, and Haise, unable to reach Dr. Shiba, decides the squad will proceed without him.

Haise slips away to visit the imprisoned Donato Porpora, apologizing that a lead went cold after Torso escaped. Donato instead turns the talk toward Haise's fractured memories, reading his mood with unsettling accuracy and tying his gloom to the Torso case. He raises a particular ghoul he believes could unlock those memories and hints cryptically that a warm soup fills an empty bowl. Afterward Haise stops by :re, where Touka offers him coffee and small talk and asks whether he teaches at a school; he explains he mentors investigators. Finally, back at the Chateau, Haise settles the squad's next move against Nutcracker, deciding they will infiltrate her hunting grounds disguised as women.

Kanae fails to rouse Tsukiyama from his depression with a gift taken from Haise. The Quinx learn Nutcracker may be tied to Big Madam and a trafficking auction. Urie secretly undergoes Frame-release surgery. Donato prods Haise about his buried past and names a ghoul who could restore it. Haise decides the squad will go undercover as women to reach Nutcracker.

Withered Souls, rendered in Japanese as Kodama and given the English reading Reckon, is the twelfth chapter of Tokyo Ghoul:re. It ran in issue 2015-06-07 on January 8, 2015, and forms part of the second collected volume, falling between chapters 11 and 13.