Tooru Mutsuki

Tooru Mutsuki (六月 透, Mutsuki Tōru) is a Special Class Ghoul Investigator in a rural branch office of the CCG, a Quinx, and a former member of the Quinx Squad and the TSC. Following the Tsukiyama Family Extermination Operation, he was re-assigned to Support for other squads during their missions. He has served as a temporary member of the Hachikawa and Suzuya Squads during major operations.

In *Tokyo Ghoul:re*, he acted as a mentor to the Oggai Squads and supported their mission as the Zero Squad, up until his department from the CCG alongside Shinsanpei Aura, in order to personally seek out his former mentor, Ken Kaneki.

Eventually, Mutsuki returns to the CCG amidst the guidance of Urie and Saiko before ultimately departing from the TSC (née CCG) again to transfer to a rural branch office alongside Shinsanpei Aura and Ayumu Hogi.

He is nicknamed Eyepatch (眼帯, Gantai) by Dr. Shiba and the Hirako Squad.

## Appearance

Tooru appears with a classic, short nape undercut including a mid-length fringe; concurrently retaining his blanched hair color.

Tooru also wears a TLF battlesuit on his first encounter with Tohru.

## Personality

Mutsuki is kindhearted and gentle but starts off as shy with little self-confidence. Having constant bouts of anemia, ironically, Mutsuki feels repulsed by blood. Due to being sickly and his low self-esteem, he faces discouragement as a ghoul investigator to the point where he feels as though he is not even needed for the job. He expresses frustration with his own weakness, feeling anger at his lack of ability compared to his comrades. However, he is reliable and hard-working, always following orders in contrast to the more troublesome or lazy members of his team. Though lacking in confidence, he shows a strong desire to help others and does not hesitate to place himself at risk to protect the innocent. He eventually gains a boost in confidence and becomes much more assertive. He takes a more active role in having his teammates work together and begins to branch out to other people.

A flashback reveals that he was born female, but was unable to reconcile his feelings of discomfort towards his gender. As such, he began living as a man and uses highly-masculine personal pronouns, even when such informal language is not socially appropriate. It contrasts strongly with his gentle personality, and his consistent respect towards others. He shows great respect to Sasaki and Dr. Shiba, as well as other investigators even when treated poorly by them. He is also a confidant to his superior, as he always reassures him when he is feeling down, thus showing a great fondness and admiration for Sasaki.

It is eventually revealed that Mutsuki suffers black-out episodes, leaving gaps in his memories. During these episodes, his personality traits significantly change and frequently involve extreme acts of violence. Afterward, he retains no memory of these actions and denies any accusations involving them. After hallucinating the events of those lost memories, Mutsuki reacts with horror and disgust. However, during his battle against Takizawa he becomes merciless and cruel, expressing arousal when he crushes the latter's testicles. He also severely wounds Akira when she protects Takizawa from his attacks.

After the Clown Siege, Mutsuki's personality becomes very unstable and violent as he becomes obsessed with killing Touka — even willing to harm an innocent citizen associated with her. After the Dragon War, she finally reconciled with Touka and showed a kind attitude towards other people.

## Plot

### Dragon Quinx arc

Mutsuki was first seen when she arrived to rescue Tohru from Shouta who had transformed into a ghoul and attempted to attack her. He desperately told Tohru that he is taking Shouta in for suspicion of a Dire Ghoul, but Tohru convinces him that he meant no threat to anyone as she needs to recover his stolen powers.

However, Mutsuki doubt her excuse and proceeds to stab Shouta in the shouler with his quinque. This results to enrage Tohru as she proceeds to assault Mutsuki for hurting Shouta. Mutsuki subsequently subdued Tohru and later sees that Shouta was protecting her from Mutsuki.

With Shouta releasing his kagune, Mutsuki overpowers and subdued him, later having faith on both of them. Later, Mutsuki orders Tohru to find Amon in Tokyo, stating that he'll be able to make her a Ghoul Investigator in order to help Shouta.

## Relationships

### Haise Sasaki

From their first meeting, Mutsuki recognized Sasaki as the part-time instructor from the CCG Junior Academy, therefore Mutsuki refers to him as *sensei*. Mutsuki looks up to Sasaki as his superior, and even views him as a close friend. Though he may be timid around other ghoul investigators, Mutsuki is often very comfortable around Sasaki. Unlike the other members of the Quinx Squad, he is very loyal, to the point where he prefers to accompany Sasaki on a mission, rather than to do it independently without his mentor’s consent. Mutsuki is also shown to have concern for Sasaki's well-being, but would not hesitate once an order is given. He respects Sasaki to a great extent, as seen when he becomes furious after witnessing Urie insult Sasaki. Mutsuki admitted that he is afraid after seeing Sasaki losing control; not because he fears his superior but rather he fears losing control the same way.

Even after Sasaki left the Quinx Squad, Mutsuki still cares about him as shown in his conversation with Hogi. Hogi reminisced about Hachikawa and said that if you had one beautiful memory of a person, it is hard to feel disgusted for them. Mutsuki thinks about how much Sasaki has changed, saying that he possibly understood Hogi's feelings.

After learning of Sasaki's defection from the CCG, Mutsuki never expresses any ill-will towards the former and knew he had his reasons. This however is proven to be just another false impression Mutsuki tries to pass on to others. In secret, he harbors intense romantic feelings for his former teacher on a pathological level. He was extremely jealous when he witnessed Touka handing Sasaki her handkerchief when his eyes swelled with tears. In a fit of madness he proceeds to violate Uta after frantically stabbing him on the face and throat, thinking it is Sasaki. His obsession has grown to the point where he declares that as long as Sasaki doesn't belong to anyone else, he doesn't care about what happens in the end.

In Dragon Quinx, he hears that Kaneki (Who was known to be Sasaki) was killed by the artificially evolved ghouls known as Dire Ghouls. This fuelled up his hatred towards the Dire Ghouls and plans to avenge his death with Tohru.

### Kuki Urie

Mutsuki and Urie were often not on good terms, due to their differences in approach towards Sasaki. He often grows worried whenever there is a dispute between Urie and Sasaki, and even becomes angry to see Urie insult Sasaki. However, Mutsuki is still somewhat concerned for Urie, as shown when he insisted that they retreat during the battle against Serpent, and even asked Shirazu to apologize for kicking Urie. During the auction, they end up paired together and Mutsuki comforts an out-of-control Urie at the risk of his own life. As a result, both are now aware of a significant secret. Mutsuki's shown to be working alongside him even more than before.

When Mutsuki reveals to Urie that he had brought a ghoul alongside with Tohru to the TLF, Urie warns him that Shouta could be a spy from Legion and worried that Mutsuki would be sentenced to death or placed in solitary confinement as a punishment. But Mutsuki proves to him that Shouta is a one-eyed ghoul when he test on him whether Shouta has the desire to kill humans.

### Tohru Kobayashi

Tohru and Mutsuki had a complicated relationship with each other. Tohru first off hated him for stabbing Shouta in the shoulder with his quinque. Mutsuki then congratulates Tohru on being recruited with the Quinx Squad in TLF, he warns that she will face the consequence if she tries to let her squad down.

### Ginshi Shirazu

They had a close friendship, frequently joking around and spending their free time together. Mutsuki's more gentle and observant personality worked well with Shirazu's more aggressive nature, making them good friends that were able to balance each other out. He frequently acted as a mediator between Shirazu and the others when he lost his temper, helping to smooth out disagreements before they could cause problems within the team. He also served as Shirazu's primary confidante after being promoted to squad leader, listening to his worries and offering reassurances or advice. Shirazu showed a protective streak towards him, while Mutsuki compared himself negatively to his stronger comrade in terms of fighting ability and powers. Like the rest of the squad, he mourned him greatly after he passed away.

### Saiko Yonebayashi

The two have worked together on an investigation in the past and seem to be on good terms. When her actions cause friction in the group, Saiko looks to him to act as a mediator and defend her from Shirazu's wrath. Mutsuki expresses concern over how her actions have caused them all stress, and wonders if there is a larger reason for their mentor allowing Saiko to slack off so much, also Saiko once mentioned she smelled human blood on Mutsuki. According to an omake, he spies on Saiko's Twitter account to find out when she was ditching work and is often the one to pass news about her to others.

### Juuzou Suzuya

As Mutsuki uses dagger quinque, Suzuya became a mentor of sorts to him being proficient in dagger use himself. Their relationship started out as strictly professional, but Suzuya's surprising wisdom helped Mutsuki gain more confidence. Suzuya has become a person Mutsuki trusts and confides in and after the Auction Mopping-up Operation, their friendship took off. Suzuya and his squad appear to be some of the few people Mutsuki associates with recreationally aside from the Quinx Squad.

### Touka Kirishima

Mutsuki harbors a grudge for Touka due to his feelings of love towards Sasaki. Takeomi Kuroiwa asks Mutsuki to find Touka as a favor to Yoriko, and gives him a photograph of Yoriko and Touka. Urie enters Mutsuki's room and finds copies of the photograph stabbed into the wall with knives, with the blade through Touka's face. Mutsuki tracks down Kaneki to Touka's coffee shop, where he attacks them, showing that he has a deep hatred for Touka. These feelings only escalate when Mutuski discovers that Kaneki and Touka are married.

However, after Mutsuki finally resolves his feelings towards Kaneki thanks to the other Quinx members, his hatred to Touka eventually dissipates as he realizes his mistakes. Six years after the Dragon event, Mutsuki sends fruits to Touka as presents for her and her family, hinting they have finally reconciled. After hearing about her death in Dragon Quinx, Mutsuki agrees to join forces with Tohru to help avenge the person responsible for her death.

## Powers and Abilities

Like all members of the Quinx Squad, Mutsuki received preliminary training in combat and investigative procedures. His body surgically modified with the intention of granting him abilities similar to a ghoul. In the beginning, he was unable to use his kagune and lacked the superior physical abilities of his peers nor could he wield his quinque well. He did, however, show a decent level of regeneration. A short time after being stabbed through his arms by a kagune, he used them without significant impairment. He possessed exceptional eyesight, able to make out details from long distances even though his right eye was usually covered by an eye patch.

After the Auction Mopping-up Operation, he is able to summon his kagune properly and has become all around much more skillful. Some time after being promoted to Rank 1, he learned to control his kagune and improved on his dagger wielding after being taught by Suzuya. He improves so much that Sasaki, who at first was concerned that Mutsuki was not cut out to be an investigator, now defends his status and places him in the front of formations with Urie. Considered very agile and is relied on to close in on dangerous enemies quickly.

**Quinx Physiology**: After his body was surgically modified, Mutsuki possesses a bikaku kagune and increased physical abilities.

* **Bikaku Kagune**: His kagune possesses several segmented edges. He is able to extend it to long distances and use it to block, make powerful attacks, or to bind an enemy. At first, he was only able to manifest a single kagune, but after his experience with Torso, he is now able to produced several kagune tails. During the Goat Wipeout Operation, he displayed his ability to shape his kagune into a cocoon as a form of insulation against Yomo's electrokinesis. During the Defense of Tokyo, it is revealed that he is able to trace the kagune formations of others and use their own kagune against them.
* **Kagune Detachment**: Mutsuki has shown to be capable of detaching fragments of his kagune, applying his knife-throwing skills.
* **Superhuman Durability**: Mutsuki was able to take Urie's attack directed at his abdomen without flinching.
* **Superhuman Regeneration**: After receiving critical wounds, Mutsuki displayed the ability to regenerate and recover from them at an inhuman rate.
* **RC Control**: Mutsuki has developed a method of concealing RC levels within the body, causing standard methods of detection to fail. Dr. Shiba theorizes that this ability involves suppression of the RC cells, as blood tests gave back an impossible RC level of 3; even for humans, the average RC cell count is 200-500. As a result of this ability, the CCG researchers have been unable to make an accurate assessment of Mutsuki's physical condition.

## Trivia

* Mutsuki was ranked twenty-second in the latest character popularity poll.
* Mutsuki has numerous traits in common with Kaneki in the first series.
	+ Both originally had a meek personality and experienced difficulty in controlling their powers. After their respective tortures, they each become much more cold and ruthless.
	+ The two share a similar past experience. Kaneki had an abusive mother, and it was implied that she beat him out of pure stress when he was asking for things or otherwise nagging her. Mutsuki's father abused him by hitting and drowning him and is hinted to have sexually abused him.
	+ Kaneki's hair turned white as a result of the torture he received from Yamori. Mutsuki's hair began to whiten after having been held captive by Torso and having his limbs cut off, and turns completely white after regaining his memories about the black-out episodes.
	+ Others refer to him as "Eyepatch-kun," the alias once given to Kaneki.
* During Mutsuki's time as Torso's captive, he began to sympathize with Torso after hearing his history, this is a sign of a psychological phenomenon known as Stockholm Syndrome.
* His kakugan was permanently activated. In *:re* Chapter 92, his kakugan is no longer permanently activated.
* He dislikes rare cooked meat.
* In contrast to his gentle personality, Mutsuki uses the personal pronoun *ore* (俺), usually reserved for male characters that are tough or aggressive but can also be used by girls with a tomboyish nature, which is referred to as Ore Onna. This is fitting for Mutsuki to use as he is a transgender male.
* When nervous or upset, he has a tendency to grab onto the fabric covering his lap and wring his hands.
* He is ambidextrous, and one of the few investigators shown dual-wielding.
* According to Shirazu, he is the only member of the Quinx that can cook when Sasaki is unavailable.
* Mutsuki has been associated with the Tarot cards *The Wheel of Fortune* and *The Chariot*.
* Mutsuki was rumored at the Academy to have killed a cat, something people said Suzuya had done as well.
	+ This was confirmed in *:re* Chapter 79, having stuffed the cat's remains in a jar and later buried it.
* For his contribution to the Auction Mopping-up Operation, Mutsuki is awarded a two-rank promotion. The only other known instance of such a promotion is Arima's promotion after defeating the Owl as a teenager.
* In *Tokyo Ghoul Trump*, Mutsuki is the "Three of Spades."

## Quotes

### Tokyo Ghoul:re

* To Dr. Shiba: "I'm hopeless... Ugh... Seeing blood makes me..."
* To Haise about Donato: "Sasaki... why does the CCG let someone like that live? When I look into that ghoul's eyes... it sends shivers down my spine."
* To unnamed CCG officials: "I don't really know why, but for a long time now I've only had unpleasant feelings about living as a woman. I want to live as a man from here on out."
* Internally: "For me... it's not a fact that I 'have' the [heart of a man]. But... I hate them. Men's eyes are so disgusting.
* To himself about his life: "If I could have run away to the sky, or to the sea, I'd have gone in a heartbeat. I guess this is my destiny. Always stolen away by men. Completely helpless..."
* About Sasaki: "Thinking of their face, whispering 'I love them' under your breath, feeling, in the depths of your chest, a warmth, and yet a tightness... That's what love is, isn't it?"
* To Kaneki: "Sensei, you've become very strange. Come back. I will remove everything that stands in your way."
* To Kaneki: "After them! Don't go. Please. I'll fucking kill you! I will! Sensei..."
* To Urie: "Did any of us... ever get the chance to taste such happiness?
* To Urie: "Why? Because I love him. I love inspector Sasaki. And there's nothing I can do about it. If there was, I'd do it. Come what may."
* To Urie: "I couldn't care less, if you die."
* To Saiko and Urie: "We're not a family! My family consists of... My shit-eating dad, my shitty mother and my shitty brother!"
* To Urie and Saiko: "This is hopeless... It would've been better if I was dead. When I was taken by Torso, when I underwent the Quinx surgery, when I grasped the knife, when I was born into that house... I should have just died. But, then... living at the Chateau helped stitch me back together. I wanted to bring things back to the way they were before... he wouldn't even had to look back at me. I just... I just... It doesn't matter anymore... I don't want to hurt anyone more than the two of you. I can't keep deluding myself any longer. I was a human who should've died. I'm sorry for all of this."

### Dragon Quinx

* To himself foreseeing the people around him: "Everyone here is alive, in a matter of time, they would be dead. The only way to prevent that from happening is that you can't."