WARNING! PLEASE READ:
This story does not completely follow the Tokyo Ghoul storyline.
Unknown Location, Unknown Time
'It was just supposed to be a date...no harm in getting to know a girl who liked the same books you did, right? But why did she have to be a BLOODTHIRSTY GHOUL?! Whyyyy?!' Kaneki mentally reprimanded himself. He and his best friend, Hideyoshi Nagachika, were just discussing the recent news on ghoul attacks in the world's most populated city, Tokyo, Japan, when the irony struck. His crush ended up ambushing him and got crushed by the coincidental falling of several steel beams. He fell unconscious thanks to blood loss, and now he was possibly bleeding to death...alone...in a construction site.
'Oh God...what did I do to deserve this...?' He questioned again. While he was mentally lamenting his supposed fate, he heard a horrifyingly familiar whisper that was getting louder as it repeated his name.
"Kanekiii..." It cooed.
'Uhhnn...huh? Wh-Wh-Who's there?'' He asked, frightened.
"Kaneki-kuuuun...WAKE UP!"
The voice screamed into his ear, forcing Kaneki to jolt his eyes open due to the shrillness of it. He was then greeted with the feeling of intense pain all over his body. It didn't help that his head felt like mush. Looking around without moving his head, he saw an IV tube and a heart monitor on his left. On his right there was a set of cameras and an observation window stained with blood on it. He realized that he was on an operating table when he felt cold plastic on his back.
'Am I...in a hospital? What...happened...to me?' He thought to himself. He was surprised to hear the voice answer.
"Because I attacked you."
He looked around wildly. There was someone speaking to him, and "she" sounded very close yet he couldn't see anyone except himself in the "operating room."
"Over heeere." It said in a playful tone.
He turned to where the voice seemed to have came from. He then saw a familiar girl with purple hair in place of his reflection in a mirror.
"R-Rize?!" He weakly exclaimed in shock and fear.
"Hello again, Kaneki-kun. Although, I'm not actually her..."
"W-What do you mean?"
"She" giggled.
"You might have so many questions for me I assume...but please forgive me 'cause I won't be able to answer most of them..."
Kaneki closed his eyes and shook his head. There was a strong sting of pain after "she" answered him. He looked back at the mirror and saw her standing up instead of sitting on the operating table.
"...however, I am here because I must guide you."
"Guide..me?"
"I must guide you in escaping this place. The people here have done some things unspeakably horrible to many ghouls and humans alike. YOU are their latest project."
Kaneki couldn't believe a single word "she" said. Everything felt so woozy and bizarre that it seemed like it was some sort of really vivid nightmare.
"Project? What...are you talking about?"
"Every journey begins with a single step, Kaneki-kun. Let's start with securing the key."
Kaneki was about ask "Rize" what she meant, but she disappeared and all he could see was his own reflection again. But then he saw his eye. His pupil was completely red and his sclera was all black.
"GYAAAAAAAAAAA!"
He fell back upon seeing this and landed on the floor, narrowly missing the the heart monitor. He took hold of the operating table and struggled as he pulled himself up. Afterwards, he saw that his arm was bleeding since the IV needle was violently pulled off by the fall.
"Oh God...I need to wrap this up."
Clutching his wound, Kaneki groggily made his way to the nearest medical locker. He opened it only to find a single bandage roll.
"Agh! Damn...I guess this'll do..."
He wrapped the wound up as tightly as he could. Eventually, "Rize's" voice suddenly spoke up as if she was whispering closely to both of his ears.
"Hurry up, Kaneki-kun..." "Her" playful tone still there.
He immediately went to the door near the observation window. He entered the room and saw that there was blood splattered nearly everywhere. He almost threw up as he pushed open the blood-stained door to exit it. The hallways were dimly illuminated by emergency backup lights at each corner and the eerie red flashes of an alarm light.
"RED ALERT! RED ALERT! POWER FAILURE! ALL PERSONNEL ARE TO EVACUATE THE FACILITY IMMEDIATELY! THE CONTAINMENT WARD DOORS HAVE FAILED TO CLOSE! EVACUATE NOW!" A loudspeaker announced he passed by.
'Containment ward? What the hell is this place?!'
Kaneki limped quickly to the end of the hallway. Entering a locker room, he found a blood-stained lab coat hanging from one of the coat hangers and in its pocket was a red keycard.
'Is this the "key"?' He thought. Then "Rize's" voice suddenly answered.
"Good work...now we must ascend from darkness."
'Ascend...from darkness?'
"You must find a way to escape this place."
Kaneki took a shirt from the locker as he was only topless. The only thing he was wearing was the same pants from his "date" before. Putting the keycard in his pocket, he exited the room and walked through the blood-stained hallways littered with the mutilated bodies of what he presumed to be scientists. There were many other vault-like doors labeled 'LAB 01' and such. Keeping his composure and trying not to vomit, he reached an elevator. A slot for the keycard was on the right, so he took it from his pocket and slid it in.
"SECURITY LEVEL 5 KEYCARD CLEARED. PLEASE ENTER." The intercom announced.
Kaneki entered the elevator. It also was stained with blood, albeit lesser than the hallways. He pushed the button for the first floor. Looking at the buttons, apparently he was on the fifth level. Afterwards he looked at himself in the mirror. He checked his left eye. It was perfectly normal.
'Weird...I swear it looked...black and red earlier.' He thought.
The ambience of the elevator was a sharp contrast to what he saw earlier. It was comforting, except for the small bloodstains on the floor. He wished that he could just stay in there and wait for rescue, but that was not the case now. He needed to get out of this place to end this nightmare.
Eventually, the doors opened but the sight he was greeted to was mortifying. There were many disfigured "things" scattered around what used to be a lobby, dead or dying. They barely looked human with many metal restraints hanging of their arms and legs. They were so horrifying that he couldn't describe their appearance or accept if those were formerly human.
"Oh...oh my God...I can't hold it in..."
Kaneki finally threw up.
"You see them. They were the previous projects of the people who you saw in the hallways down there." "Rize's" voice said suddenly as he was emptying whatever remained in his stomach in the elevator.
"How...how did you know that?"
"I'm sorry, Kaneki-kuuun. I can't tell youu...but I can tell you how you can get out of here."
"O-Okay then..." He said. In a nightmare like this, was there anything else he could do?
"You see that blueprint over there? Near the corridor on your left? Take it."
Sure enough, there was a blueprint on his left, near a corridor. It seemed to have been conveniently left there by maintenance. Upon opening it, "Rize's" voice chimed in again.
"Now, do you see the gate control room?"
"Yeah... It says here that it's right near this corridor."
"Go there."
Doing as told, since he had no idea what to do, Kaneki drowsily traversed the corridor. Stepping bodies and passing by a wrecked sentry gun, he walked and walked until he reached a door that said: RESTRICTED AREA. It was ajar, so he pushed it open. There were lesser blood and bodies in the area, but it was filled with many pipes and valves. Going down a few steps, he glanced at the blueprint and saw that the gate control room was on the corridor on his right.
"Okay. So it's over-ooooof!"
Something or someone bumped into him at full speed. After picking himself up he saw that it was a dark-haired girl wearing a patient's gown who bumped into him. She was still on the floor, but it was very dim so he couldn't make out any discerning details about her.
"Hurry Kaneki. We don't have much time."
At that moment he heard another alarm.
"ALL PERSONNEL EVACUATE. THE FACILITY WILL BE SUBJECT TO CLEANUP."
He finally reached the door which said "GATE CONTROL ROOM." He opened the door and saw some monitors showing different gate areas in the facility.
"Good. Now we're here, it is time to initiate Step Three."
"Step Three?" Kaneki asked.
"Look at the those monitors on the left. What do you see?"
Kaneki looked at the left monitors and saw a lot of military vehicles and soldiers right outside the main security gate. There were also a horde of those 'things' grouped at the gate, and the soldiers were shooting at them.
"I see...soldiers, and those things..."
"Now, I want you to open all the gates."
Kaneki's eyes widened in shock. "What?! All of those things will get out!"
"That's Step Three. Unleash the horde."
"That'll kill all of them! Why would I do that?!"
"Just do as I say Kaneki! You'll thank me later."
Kaneki pushed all the buttons. All the gates immediately opened, releasing the creatures from their captivity. Nearly all of them were being gunned down by the soldiers.
"Very good, Kaneki-kun. Let's get out of here."
Kaneki left the room and went further down the corridor. The blueprint showed an air vent that led directly outside. After putting down the blueprint, he pulled out the vent cover and crawled in. It had enough room for him so he managed to crawl very easily. He managed to reach the outer exit after a while. He pushed the outer cover and pulled himself out.
The soldiers were all wearing black battle dress uniforms and balaclavas, preventing Kaneki from identifying who they were aligned with. Their tanks, APCs and trucks were also black, with no markings. He crouched and snuck away from them as they were busy shooting down all of the 'things' which tried to get out. He wondered why soldiers were involved in this nightmare.
"You see. They're all so busy killing them that they don't even notice you." "Rize" told him.
"Now we have achieved the final Step..."
"The final step?"
"Freedom."
Kaneki looked back, due to the feeling that someone was following him. All he saw was the soldiers still shooting at the last of the creatures. The voice did not say anything else.
'Please tell me this is over...'
No response. Kaneki started losing consciousness again...
'When is this going to end?!'
Kaneki fainted. He didn't know, that after this day, his life would change forever...