This story was a winning submission to the fanfiction contest for Freecon 2018 in Tallahassee, Florida based on the following prompt:

"You wake up in you favorite anime after being knocked out (must be canon-verse), and a character(s) is/are your guide(s)."

Dirt. Why am I smelling dirt right now? I sat up and felt an ache in my head. Touched my forehead and felt a big lump on the right side that stung as I lightly pushed against it. Strange noises distracted me from trying to recall just how I got into this situation. I felt a little dizzy as I stood up, but otherwise I was good to go.

"Oh, you've got to be kidding me." I moaned as I wandered towards the sound that had woke me from the deepest sleep of my life. I recognized the scene immediately, hundreds of uniformed officers fighting against a variety of wild people with fleshy limbs bulging from their backs. If I didn't know any better, I'd say this was the first CCG raid against Aogiri Tree in Tokyo Ghoul!

"Of all the anime series to get magically self-inserted into, did it really have to be Tokyo Ghoul? Why not 'Free!'? Or 'Haikyuu!'? Hell, even 'Yuri on Ice!' would have sufficed. Something with a lot of exclamation points and even more female fanservice! I wanted guys that would look at me fondly, not look at me like I was a snack!"

I surveyed the layout of the area I was in and tried to judge where in the story I was from there. It looked like the raid was just beginning. Which meant that the second member of my white-haired anime boy harem, Kaneki, was about to awaken to his true badassery. Despite the danger of being considered a meal to most of the beings in the vicinity, I just could not miss the chance to see the fight between Kaneki and Jason in person. As I made my way to the domed annex where Jason played his sick and twisted ghoul games, I found myself wondering if I'd be able to hear 'Unravel' playing as Kaneki accepts the ghoul within and begs the question, What's a thousand minus seven?

Through some amazing acts of coincidence (as well as convenience), I easily got into the building and felt the ground beneath my feet tremble. Ahh damn, it's already started! Gotta move it, I only have as long as the song lasts. I begin to hum the melody of the OP as I finally find an upper entrance looking down into the expansive room. Just in time to see Kaneki sprout four deadly kagune from his back. I found myself rather disappointed that there was no background music playing at all, so I decided to sing it to myself as he began to battle the ghoul that had been torturing him for the last ten days.

"Oshiete oshiete yo sono shikumi wo..."

Just like I knew he would, Kaneki destroys his captor and begins to torture him in a suitably karmic fashion. By forcing him to do math without a calculator! I shudder at the thought myself and thank my lucky stars it isn't me down there. Yamori's tears are genuine as he fumbles to get each number right, while Kaneki proceeds to make a meal of his kagune. I found myself a little put off by this part of the action. The anime just stopped after his catchy line about it being okay to eat Yamori because he tried to eat him first.

I decided to give my boy some privacy to eat his dinner and went back towards the other towers. Damn, now I had to figure out which way to go to avoid both sides of the current fight. I stood out to both factions and would either be shot by one side or nommed by the other. So, I took the opportunity to retrace my steps and wound up back where I started. I chilled in my little safe space and tried to remember how the second season's story went.

"Oh shit, the second season sucked! They should've read the manga."

"What's that about a manga?"

I wasn't expecting to run into anyone else this close to where the action was taking place, but as I slowly turned around I recognized the source of the question.

"Hide?! What are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be bicycling your way across Tokyo right now?"

I got a strange look, which was expected to be fair. "How do you know my name? And my main method of transportation?"

"Magic. So, I'm guessing you're looking for Kaneki then? I think he's taking some... personal time right now."

"He's eating Jason, isn't he." Hide said matter-of-factly, not even bothering to phrase it as a question.

Surprised that he was so well informed, I just nodded my head. Then I realized that Hide wasn't the happy-go-lucky best friend trope that he's first made out to be. This guy was smart and observant. I also realized that at least until the end of season two, he managed to keep himself from becoming ghoul food. My best bet would be to stick to him like ghouls to a Starbucks.

Hide looked at me suspiciously, "So who are you and what are you doing here anyway?"

"Honestly, I don't know how I got here, one second I was walking to my English Literature class and the next thing I know I'm in the middle of a mediocre adaptation."

"You're being weird again. Either explain or just stop talking." Hide sighed and squeezed his temples as though stemming off a migraine.

The gunfire sounded like it was getting closer, which started getting me kinda nervous. "You wanna get out of here? I kind of feel like we're in the wrong place at the wrong time."

"I suppose it'd be rude to just leave you here, so come with me. I'll just have to try again with Kaneki another time."

"I guess that depends on how season three goes," I said quietly as I started to follow Hide. If this world really was following the events of the anime, then giving him or anyone else a heads-up of what their futures hold would be a bad idea. But would it really be that bad if I could prevent some horrible things from happening? Sure, it may end up causing a butterfly effect that could come back to bite everyone in the ass later, but I just didn't want this cute little cinnamon roll to meet with such a pointless demise.

"Uhh, I thought we were getting away from this scene, why are we getting closer to the CCG?"

Hide turned back to look at me, his eyes tired and impatient, "I'm a part-timer with the CCG, but there's some info I need to gather while everyone's busy. This actually may work to my advantage, if I use you as a distraction."

"What kind of info?"

"Just some stuff, nothing that would cause you any concern. It's mainly for his benefit anyway."

Ah, Kaneki. I forgot how much of a boner this guy had for him. "If it keeps me alive long enough to see a decent Tokyo Ghoul :Re adaptation, then lead the way!"

"There you go spouting off nonsense again. Once we're done here I want some straight answers from you, okay? You seem to know far more than someone with no obvious affiliation should."

"If you get me out of here in one piece, I'll even throw in a free back rub while I tell you everything you want to know."

What did I have to lose, really. Maybe I ended up here on purpose, so I could change the way it plays out.

This originally was just a short story for a different writing prompt but I liked the idea of it so much I expanded it to use for the fanfiction contest. I didn't originally have any plans to write more than this, but I do have part of a second chapter written. I have other projects I'm working on, but I may come back to this one once those are finished. Hope you enjoyed this!