Quinque Biometric Authentication
There was something I found suspicious in the CCG’s information on Hakatori:
“For some reason, appears to be knowledgeable in the use of Quinques”
It’s as if the CCG are surprised that a ghoul is able to use a Quinque. I’d kind of assumed that they were pretty straightforward to use- you click a button on the briefcase and -BAM- out pops your flesh weapon (wow that didn’t sound as kinky in my head). That the real skill was in learning how to fight with it, like practising swordsmanship. But there might be more to it.
Back in TG chapter 81, after Kaneki’s attack on the Ghoul Restaurant, Amon and Akira inspected the carnage and found the remains of ruined Quinques. What they said gives a clue [x] :
“Quinque’s Organism Confirmation”
Or another translation [x]:
“Biometric Authentication of a Quinque”
The definition of biometrics (cheers once again my old friend wikipedia) [x]:
Biometrics refers to metrics related to human characteristics. Biometric identifiers are often categorized as physiological versus behavioral characteristics. Physiological characteristics are related to the shape of the body. Examples include, but are not limited to fingerprint, palm veins, face recognition, DNA, palm print, hand geometry, iris recognition, retina and odour/scent. Behavioral characteristics are related to the pattern of behavior of a person, including but not limited to typing rhythm, gait, and voice.
This is also addressed in the 2nd Tokyo Ghoul Novel, Heat Haze, when Amon opens Kura which used to belong to Mado [x]:
“ He grips the handle of his suitcase and passes the quinque’s biometric authentication. The suitcase opens and he accepts the object inside in its original shape”
So it seems that Quinques only work in the hands of the correct ‘organism’. We’ve seen Investigators use each others Quinque’s before. Akira inherited her Father’s:
Ui lent Chi She to Take (which he had already lent from Houji) in the Anteiku Raid:
Furuta ‘borrowed’ Kijima’s Chainsaw:
Among many more examples. It seems like the activation and release of the Quinque itself is what requires Authentication and once it has been brought out of the briefcase, it may be used freely by anyone. But then that begs the question, are Quinque cases personalised to one specific individual? When the Quinque is handed down to a new owner, like Akira’s Fueguchi One, does someone like Dr. Chigyou need to modify it to open for a different person? Have we seen in the manga someone opening another’s briefcase to refute this?
I’d like to think that there’s some special identifier built into the Quinque for it’s owner and Mougan shouts out ridiculous attack names in battle because his Quinque is voice activated:
But Twisted Hel Scans translation of Organsim Confirmation makes it seem more like it’s a species specific trait- that perhaps Quinques will only work for humans and that’s why it’s so surprising that a ghoul specifically would be able to use one. It would make sense that way. If a Dove dropped their Quinque in battle, they could pick up and use another from a fallen comrade. On the other hand, ghouls with weak (or no) kagune or ghouls that run out of RC cells quickly *cough*Ukakus*cough* would be unable to pick one up and wield it against the CCG themselves. An exclusive Dove-only weapon.
One way I can think that it could work is by making use of the kakuhou’s innate behaviour of feeding on RC cells in human flesh. The Arata armour has the aggressive characteristic of sensing human flesh and eating it’s wearer. The kakuhous transplanted into Kanou’s unsuccessful experiments also fed on the host body:
Maybe the kakuhou inside the Quinque have this same sense to seek out RC nutrients? And this allows them to be manufactured to only activate when wielded by a human? It would be kind of neat if the button to open the briefcase was a pinprick that took a tiny blood sample and that’s a part of what activates the kakuhou inside the Quinque to release the RC cells. Blood sacrifice sounds much more impressive than something like fingerprint recognition.
No matter how it works, we know that ‘Quinque Hunter’ Hakatori steals CCG Quinques off Investigators which would have this Biometric Authentication. The most likely answer for how she may have got her hands on a usable Quinque is that Kanou modified one for her to cancel the Authentication process. But I feel like there’s more to it than that… its just suspicious that this special Quinque activation has never been brought up again (as far as I’m aware) and now we have a ghoul who seems to have gotten around it. And that this was a fact emphasised in the Special Class Meeting.
I really can’t wait to find out exactly what is going on in Kanou’s lab. When are we going to get a Dr. Chigyou/Dr. Kanou arc where we just learn about Quinques and ghoul biology?
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