Kaneki Ken, while not a person with a perfect life could easily admit that his life was not - and would never be - anything remotely resembling a tragedy. He was raised in a loving home with his kindhearted, hardworking mother and his bookish, but friendly dad. He had outstanding grades, many close friends, and an aunt and cousin that loved him beyond belief. However, his entire life, he had one thing that bothered him. Certain names, phrases, words seemed absolutely familiar to him. But he could swear he had never hear them before. In his childhood, when he had first heard the name "Hideyoshi", he had instantly pictured a boy about his age with blond hair, despite never seeing a single person named Hideyoshi. Strangely enough, when he was ten or so, a boy named Hideyoshi Nagachika had transferred into his class, and looked like the Hideyoshi in his dreams. He had written in off on coincidence, and had never told a single soul about this. There were instances where he heard a name on a CCG report that sounded so awfully familiar, as if he knew that person very well, but he could never recall how he knew it.

When he was eighteen, he had decided to attend Kamii University in the 20th ward of Tokyo to pursue his dream of becoming an editor. To him, language, especially in written form, was magical. It could be as fierce as a tiger, flow as smoothly as a river or burn away all hope like a rapidly spreading wildfire. The first time he had seen a novel use writing in such diverse ways was when he had read a novel by the then-sixteen author Takatsuki Sen. The Black Goat's Egg had lead him to love literature - and that had been a very long time ago. However, for some reason, just like Hideyoshi's name, the book seemed terribly familiar, like an old friend that he had met once again, while the name Takatsuki Sen brought him unimaginable anguish. Kaneki had again decided to ignore those feelings. After all, it's possible that his father, an avid reader like himself despite his job as a marketing expert had told him about the book before he had picked it up and read it himself.

The first day of classes, to him, was terribly nerve-racking, as well as stressful. He, for the first time since his childhood was not surrounded by friends, and that made him very lonely and scared. Those were not emotions that Kaneki was used to feeling, and feeling them scared Kaneki more then they should've. However, everything changed on his second day. When he entered his Analysis 101 class, a loud shout of his name broke him out of his daze.

"Hey, Kaneki, right? Come and sit over here!"

Kaneki's head snapped towards the boy had called his name, and his eyes marginally widened. What was Nagachika doing in his classroom?

"A-ah, alright." He replied back nervously, unsure of why the other wanted him anywhere near. It wasn't like they were close friends or something. They were classmates, that's all.

As soon as Kaneki made his way over to Nagachika, he kept wondered why the other boy was even calling him over.

"Hey, Kaneki, why exactly are you taking this class?" was the first thing that Nagachika blurted when Kaneki sat down in the chair beside him. Kaneki's eyebrow arched.

"What do you mean?" he asked, wondering whether the other boy was judging him.

Nagachika chuckled brightly, much to Kaneki's surprise. He has a nice laugh. Kaneki thought, before returning his attention to his companion.

"Why are you taking Analysis 101? It's not really a common class, is it? There are like twenty of us here." he stated cheerfully, his eyes still lit up in a chuckle.

"I want to be an editor, so I like analyzing novels in particular. How about you?"

"Well, my dad always wanted me to be a CCG officer, and I always wanted to be a detective or a spy or something, like one of those movies, you know?" Kaneki nodded. "So I decided to become a CCG detective. Well, I'm officially a 'Deputy Junior Assistant', " he said those words in an almost mocking tone, but continued as earnestly as before "but I'll rank up in no time! And you always walked around with some sort of thick book with like a million pages in it, so it's not shocking that you want to be something bookish!"

Kaneki chuckled at Nagachika's enthusiastic reply before saying something that would change his life for the better. "Can I call you Hide?" As soon as those words slipped out of his mouth, he gasped. That was so terribly impolite! However, he didn't want to take what he said back, or even apologize. To him, Nagachika was Hide, and he didn't know why.

Hide, yes he was now Hide, looked shocked for a second or two before turning a wide grin to Kaneki. "Sure, I don't mind at all!" he replied with a giant grin on his face.

Kaneki sighed internally, though he didn't know what he was so relieved about. Why was he so exited about an almost-stranger and him changing to a first-name basis? He shook his head. It was another one of those strange familiarities that he could never explain, and didn't want to explain. It was comforting to have Hide right beside him, as if they belonged together, and were an unbreakable duo. Of course, these thoughts were ridiculous. They were classmates for a few years, but they had barely even spoken. To call someone like that your other half is creepy and unpleasant, but Kaneki, for some reason didn't mind. The duo sat beside each other in silence for a while, both thinking their own thoughts

Hide nudged Kaneki out of his thoughts, and jerked his thumb at the front of the classroom. "This is only the second day, and the teacher's already late. Do you think this will always be this way?" he remarked, glancing around the other students who were preoccupied with their own things. "Like, will we never attend class?"

His companion's lips twitched up slightly, amused by Hide's inability to be patient. "Calm down. It's been twenty eight minutes."

"It's been longer!" came the cheery reply, as Hide overdramatically fell forwards onto the hard wooden desk in front of him. "It had been decades! Centuries! Eons! Kaneki, help me! I'm trapped in a class for all of eternity!"

Kaneki's smile widened. "Well, in," he checked his watch "a minute, if the teacher doesn't show up, we can go home." Hide instantly popped up from his position on the desk.

"Want to go to a nice cafe around here? It's amazing!" he said with the wide grin back on his face

"Sure. I have no classes left today, and no homework, so it's fine."

The 'class', if you could even call it that ended and the duo made their way towards the cafe that Hide suggested.

"This is Anteiku! It is amazing!" Hide called to Kaneki as they entered the small, but well-decorated and well-lit cafe.

A young girl with dark purple hair was leaning onto the counter, her bangs falling in front of her face. Kaneki's mind started turning. He knew her. He didn't know why, and he didn't know how, but he knew her. Her name was on the tip of his tongue, but he had never met her. It was the same sensation he felt around Hide, this feeling of knowing those people…

Hide seemingly noticed Kaneki's growing discomfort, but didn't comment on it at all. "Kaneki, this is Kirishima! Kirishima, this is Kaneki! He's my classmate!" he called out, smiling brightly.

Kirishima looked back and nodded. Kaneki's heart leapt up. Her name is Touka.