bloodycarnations:

(Looking at the follow-up is making me nostalgic because that’s such a Haise thing to say and believe in… //deep sigh.
I knew Kaneki had a positive mindset in him, somewhere deep in his subconscious.

He was already there since the beginning.)

But, back to your ask: I always took this scene at face value, and tbh this hasn’t really changed. But I can see that looking back at that quote right now, it really looks like Ishida was winking at us 🙂

While it’s certainly possible that Mutsuki remembered Sasaki’s advice, I think it’s also reasonable to believe that even if he hadn’t, Mutsuki would have probably still tried to run for his life if he had a chance of doing so. It’s survival instinct after all. And we know that every minute spent with Torso has been excruciating for him. 

But, as much as I want to believe that Mutsuki really did run off (it’s the hypothesis that involves slightly less pain than the others), I’m starting to doubt that’s what’s happening right now. Yes, it makes sense if you think of the parallel with Kaneki and how he had to defeat Yamori and eat him (thus accepting his ghoul side) to escape, but there are a few hints here and there that make me think otherwise. 

I don’t want to speak too soon and jinx it, but I think that this is all a trap and Mutsuki is still as much of a prisoner as he was before this chapter, and here’s why: 

1. Last time we saw him, Mutsuki was still in a passive mindset, and there’s no hint at the fact that he underwent a change of heart like Kaneki did back then. I think it’s a bit of a stretch that something so important for his development – like chosing to become violent instead of staying a victim who only endures violence – would happen off-screen, without some sort of introspection/hallucination on Mutsuki’s part. Showing a dead Saeki this abruptly seems to me only shock-value worthy. I think Ishida at this point could either go with a parallel to Kaneki and let Mutsuki walk his path too, or using Urie’s presence as a fuel for more positive character development (as a reverse parallel to how Mucchan reached out to Urie after he went nuts against Big Madame. I’ll go back to this one).

2. I’m willing to bet Torso’s nose (or sight) is just as sharp as a Quinx’s. Remember how he spotted Mutsuki standing on a boat who knows how many miles away from Rue’s shore?

Plus, Torso is really possessive with his “lovers”. I think that if he caught whiff of the Quinx approaching, he would’ve set up a trap not to let them “rob” him of his prey. Call it a predator’s instinct, idk.

3. And for this horrible realization I have to thank @madame-pongo-de-pompadour‘s post here. I think there’s an high possibility of that body being neither Torso’s nor Mutsuki’s, but Shirazu’s. 
I know it sounds like madness, but if you think of it, it’s at least possible. For one, Urie noticed a difference in the smell he had been following up until that moment.

(Like the body was of someone who’d been long dead at that point, and had started to rot.)

Secondly, and that’s what really sold me on this hypothesis, is this:

“I can’t help but feel uneasy” and  “I don’t want to imagine”

It’s as though he already knows who that person is, but just doesn’t want to believe it because it would be a nightmare. Hence he feels so scared and he’s internally panicking.

But notice how he’s worried about Saiko in particular even before he reaches the cave where the body is kept. As though he knows that finding that body will have a huge impact on Saiko alone. If it were Saeki’s he wouldn’t have told the Quinx not to enter the cave: 

So there’s a high chance that the body is from someone both Urie and Saiko knew personally, hence the shock, the fear, the wariness. This definition applies both to Mutsuki and to Shirazu, but for Urie of all people to lose his cool like that, I’m willing to bet it must be Shirazu. Someone whose thought Urie had pushed to the back of his mind until he forgot was even in Aogiri’s hands, since he was so focused on the imperative of Saving Mutsuki from a really similar fate. Someone whose smell he definitely knew, someone whose smell would definitely be stronger than that of a bleeding and bruised Mutsuki, someone who he after all knew was in Aogiri’s hands, someone neither he nor Saiko ever properly mourned.

When Shirazu’s body was stolen by Aogiri, he lost his sleep training and wearing himself down in his obsession to find him and give him a proper funeral. So it could make sense that he reacts like he’s seen a ghost if – after all his efforts and during his mission to save Mutsuki from ending up as a name on another empty grave – he comes across the very source of his failure, cut up like meat, far from Urie’s idea of respectful rest:

Yep, it’s still a crack theory and you should take it at face value, but I think it could fit because it would build a cycle: Shirazu was the first one who made an impact on Urie and started his character development: Urie blames Shirazu’s death on his own personal weaknesses. He thinks it was his personal failure. 

So finding Shirazu’s body there, in his quest to save Mutsuki, could be the stepping stone to a more positive growth: it would imply that Mutsuki is actually still alive, and that he can still actively do something to help him. Like reaching out to him in a parallel to how Mutsuki reached out to Urie during his emotional breakdown here: 

That’s what I want to believe at least, because if that body really ends up being Torso’s it means that Mutsuki is taking the Kaneki Road, and that’s one for self-destruction, we all know that by now. It means that Mutsuki will end up believing that to contrast abuse you have to become an abuser and push back the gentleness inside of yourself because it makes you weak. It means walking the lonely path because the other ones only hurt your loved ones.
And Mutsuki did say it himself, didn’t he?

“It’s painful, being alone… It’s agonizing.”