A/N: Even though this is a hypothetical scenario fanfiction, all events take place pre-Aogiri Tree.
Kaneki flew backwards onto the hard concrete, his back aching as he hit the ground. As a ghoul, he might have had an advanced healing factor, but that didn't keep him from feeling pain.
"Touka!" he groaned. "Don't be so rough!"
"You think that was rough? Try taking a hit from Yomo. That's rough." she replied.
"Well, don't, okay? My stupid kagune won't come out." Kaneki pulled himself up off the ground.
"Your kagune won't come out because you never eat anything except those sugar cubes. We talked about this already-you can't expect to be strong when you never eat anything."
"Ugh...yeah, I guess," Kaneki mumbled, still a bit revolted at the idea of eating human meat. "Whatever. Let's just keep going."
"We can't. It's getting late, Yomo will probably be here any minute. We have to run an errand."
"Ah." Kaneki nodded, having himself run an "errand" with Yomo before.
Touka and Kaneki walked over to the ladder that connected Anteiku to the old underground Ghoul tunnels, and climbed up back into the cafe.
"Nobody's coming to get food tonight or anything, so just clean up the cafe or something." Touka advised him. Her phone suddenly beeped, and she pulled it from her pocket. "Yomo's waiting out front. I'll be back later."
She walked out to Yomo's car, leaving Kaneki all alone in the cafe. He obeyed her instructions and cleaned the kitchen.
Kaneki soon grew bored, however, and brewed himself a coffee before sitting down to keep reading his Sen Takatsuki novel.
Kaneki thought it felt a bit eerie, sitting all alone in a cafe that was usually bustling with both human and Ghoul customers. The lights were dimmed to save electricity, adding to the creepiness. But the minutes passed uneventfully.
Suddenly, however, Kaneki was startled by a loud banging on the door. At first, he thought it might have been Touka, that maybe the doors had just been locked and she wanted to get inside.
But as Kaneki approached the door, his heart lept into his throat. Standing outside the door, was a tall figure wearing a long tan coat and carrying a briefcase-an Investigator.
There was a Dove at Anteiku.