:re Chapter 66

Locked inside Cochlea, Eto Yoshimura shows Furuta how much she already knows, tying him to a string of past incidents: rounding up test subjects, tipping Aogiri Tree off about the transport vehicles, and dropping the steel girders on Rize Kamishiro. She presses him to explain how all of it connects to V, but he will not answer. Furuta instead puzzles over what she still hopes to gain now that she sits behind bars, admits his superiors dread the One-Eyed King, and offers a bargain: reveal what she knows and he will move her to comfortable quarters.

He lays out the philosophy his forebears followed for keeping the population in line. By fixing the crowd's attention on a single target, they can steer the masses toward destroying themselves, which is why the organization deliberately raises up foes such as the Clowns and the Tsukiyama family only to wipe them out. Eto and the One-Eyed King unsettle that plan because they refuse to behave like the usual enemies. When she realizes he genuinely knows nothing about the King, Eto relaxes. Furuta recounts chasing the mystery through the Ghoul Restaurant and even joining the Clowns, yet Itori gave him nothing, and Nico insisted the King is not real, leading Furuta to suspect the title is only a symbol. Eto counters that the King is very real and lives within the belly of the CCG itself.

Furuta argues that upsetting the balance serves no purpose and that preserving the current order is wiser, but Eto, herself a casualty of V, rejects him outright. As he turns to leave, she needles him as a Washuu who cannot even acknowledge his own father, and the taunt sends him storming back to threaten her life. Alone afterward, he recalls the Sunlit Garden where he and Rize were raised. Haise Sasaki notices how worn Furuta looks, and Furuta blames overwork. Haise then plays back a recording of the exchange, in which Eto begs him to kill the One-Eyed King, and he is left turning her words over. At the eighth ward harbor the CCG assemble for the Rushima Landing Operation with Arima Squad assigned to hold Cochlea, mistrust of the Washuu spreading through the ranks since King Bileygr appeared. Tatara readies his forces for the coming attack, Banjou gathers the Gas Masks and confirms with Ayato that they have enough to breach the prison, and a hooded figure watches everything from a distance.

Eto exposes Furuta's involvement in the girder attack on Rize and other manipulations tied to V. Furuta reveals the CCG's strategy of inventing enemies like the Clowns and Tsukiyama family so it can annihilate them and control the public. He confirms he has no real knowledge of the One-Eyed King, while Eto asserts the King hides inside the CCG. Haise hears Eto's recorded plea to kill the King, and both factions finalize their positions ahead of the Rushima operation and the Cochlea break-in.

The chapter goes by the Japanese title 古き護り, romanized as Furuki Mamori and given in English as Old Guard. It debuted in issue 2016-14 on March 3, 2016, and later joined the seventh collected volume of Tokyo Ghoul:re, placed between chapters 65 and 67.