Silence.

The air around the room was sick, filled with the stench of blood and rotting body parts. The body parts that caused the rotting smell were located in a large metal bucket and consisted of an uncountable amount of fingers and toes still coated in the blood that had come from their extraction.

Blood was all around the room, on the floor, walls and even the ceiling. The madman that had caused all the blood to spill was no tame one, he enjoyed brutalization and overkill to the extreme.

Said man's name was Yakumo Oomori, more commonly known to his employers and victims as Jason. Akin to the serial killer of the hit movies, the torturer wore the famous hockey mask while he committed his horrible deeds, no one knew why he did but they were either too afraid or too dead to ask.

The boy standing in front of him was the source of the rotting body parts stinking up the room, his name was Ken Kaneki and at 16 years old he'd been abducted by the organisation known as Aogiri Tree for no other reason than entertainment for Jason.

The man in question delivered a quick yet powerful strike to Kaneki's kneecap with a socket wrench earning a scream from the boy. You'd think after the 12 hours of torture he'd endured so far the boy would have become used to the pain, however that would spoil the fun for Jason as he loved to hear the screams from his victims, so to prevent desensitization, he'd instructed the boy to count backwards from 1000 in 7s. This would ensure Kaneki stayed sane and very much aware of every bit of pain.

Kaneki shed a few more tears as he reached the 600s.

"P-please, stop" he begged.

Jason responded to the boy's pleads by setting down his wrench and picking up some very heavy duty looking shears. The man walked slowly back over to the boy with a wide grin plastering his face behind his mask.

Ear piercing screams could be heard for miles around as Kankei endured yet another round of amputations from the blunt instrument, it was so cold and caked in blood that he'd be dead purely from shock and infection if he were human.

Crunch

The bones in the base of another finger were crushed and severed from the hand, a fountain of blood spurted from the open wound while the finger that had been chopped off fell into the full bucket that the mad torturer had previously placed in front of Kaneki.

"Now don't go passing out on me Kaneki, I have something very enjoyable planned" Jason told the captive boy with a sadistically gleeful tone.

Jason placed the shears onto the table behind him and exited the room through the metal double doors.

Kaneki reveled in this short moment of alone time he'd been blessed with, Jason usually never left during his sessions until it was time for lights out in the compound which was about 9pm from what he'd been able to gather. Then it started all over again at 9am sharp, 12 hours of relentless torture every single day for 2 weeks now.

Snapping him out of his thoughts was the sound of multiple footsteps coming his way. Kaneki looked to his left as the door to the room opened with Jason pulling three others with bags upon their heads by leashes attached to collars on their necks.

Jason stopped them just short of Kaneki and directed the three in front of the boy lined up on their knees, Kaneki didn't need any hints as to who they were, he could already tell by the sound of their muffled cries and the pang of anguish it brought his heart when hearing them.

They were his family...

Jason ripped the bags off them one by one, his father, his mother, his sister. They all looked at him in fear and surprise, not expecting him to be here of all places, let alone in this kind of condition.

"K-Kaneki?" his mother stuttered in shock and worry, never expecting her son to be here in this condition.

His father looked him in the eye and silently made a promise between them with his last moments... save them. Meanwhile his sister was sobbing quietly looking between Kaneki her mother and her father.

"Now then, let's have some fun" Jason's twisted playful voice made itself present.

"Choose one" was all he said as Kaneki's eyes shot up him with pain and surprise, he thought he could at least save 2 of them, he couldn't do this, he wouldn't do this, he simply couldn't choose one of these three helpless people, no less his family.

"Please... don't make me choose" the boy choked out.

"Quickly child, or i'll kill them all" Jason stated in a sharp tone.

Kaneki was in shock, he was torn, how was he supposed to choose between his family twice? Tears rolled down his face, his body sweat bullets and shook like nothing else, the torture had been bliss compared to this.

Then, he cracked...

He began to chuckle, which caught the attention of all four in the room with him.

"Kill the couple" He stated without emotion.

"No!" screamed the girl who'd been spared, she lunged for her mother next to her for a hug but the woman had been yanked from her reach along with her father.

"Good choice" Jason said with a smile before devouring the two in front of Kaneki and his sister, ensuring that nothing was left, not even bones. Jason made sure to lengthen the process as much as possible, taking his time with each and every bite to ensure the show for the remaining two was a sickeningly good one.

Kaneki could on stare in shock at the display while hearing his sister cry out in pain and despair, constantly straining against the shackles holding her in place hoping a miracle would allow her to escape and stop this.

Alas that miracle never came and Jason finished his meal uninterrupted. The tall man lumbered back towards the now orphaned siblings with a sickening smile, fresh blood still adorned his face from the sloppy eating.

"Thanks for the meal, Kaneki" he addressed the boy after a gleeful pause.

Kaneki couldn't believe it, he'd just watched both his parents be eaten alive, they'd died for nothing but the entertainment of a madman and that resonated a new emotion inside of him, one he hadn't been able to feel since he got here, hate, a white hot burning hatred in his heart for the man standing so proudly in front of him.

Kaneki growled in a low tone, his hands began to shake, his hair swept around in a non existent breeze before fading from his usual jet black hair to it's pure opposite of snow white. The shackles binding his arm to the wooden chair he'd been seated upon shattered in shards.

Before Jason could comprehend even the boy's change in hair colour, Kaneki was on him, then he was off to the side 10 meters away wiping blood from his chin.

"You taste foul, almost like the intestines of a fish on the verge of spoiling" Kaneki stated monotonously.

"Y- You bit me?" Jason mumbled in shock, still unable to believe this boy had just moved faster than his eyes could see and taken a chunk out of his cheek, in the ghoul world a feat like that was considered the utmost disrespect and a challenge, while Jason cared not for what others thought of him, he would not back down from a challenge issued to him by his victim.

Jason roared with rage as his body began to transform, his muscle mass increased rapidly tearing his shirt apart, the mass covered from his waist upwards, leaving only his mouth open from which incoherent babble escaped as he'd long long his mind to the half kakuja transformation.

The monstrosity once known as Jason charged at Kaneki using his new muscle mass as a battering ram.

Kaneki graciously flipped over Jason as he charged and allowed him to smash into the wall. Jason turned round slowly before charging once more while Kankei prepared to repeat his previous move, however the former white suit stopped his charge early and reached out with a muscular tentacle, ensnaring Kaneki in it's grasp and bringing him down to earth with large force.

Kaneki rose to his feet and ran at Jason, jumping into the air and cocking back his foot for a kick to Jason's face, before it hit it's target, the man grabbed his foot with both hands and Kaneki's momentum spun him round so his foot twisted 720 degrees in Jason's grasp. However he was unfazed by this and used his momentum to twist round further and slam his other foot into Jason's face, freeing him.

Kaneki landed a few meters away and his foot twisted back to it's natural position without him even flinching.

"You think after all i've been through, something like this would hurt?" Kaneki rhetorically asked the monster in front of him.

Kaneki decided it was time to up the ante and allowed his kagune to manifest, four smooth blood red tentacles erupted from his back. This was his power now, he hadn't been born with it, it had been thrust upon him after the actions of a madman, through said man's schemes, Kaneki had been reborn as a half ghoul with the implanted kakuhou of a binge eating ghoul known to him only as the woman he'd been on a date with.

Kaneki had later learned from the doctor taking care of him that the woman's name was Rize and she'd been pronounced dead upon the arrival of the police to the scene of their accident, the details of which were still a haze to him. The doctor had told him that her organs had been implanted into him to replace his damaged ones so he may live, however the doctor had not told him of the side effect, half ghoul nature in the form of Rize's own kagune.

Jason growled at him before charging once more. Snapping out of his recollection, Kaneki met his challenge and charged towards Jason before dodging to the left at the last minute while wrapping a tentacle from his kagune around Jason's arm which he used to swing himself round and push off the wall, flying into the air. Kaneki outstretched his arms, legs and all four tentacles of his kagune as he freefalled to the ground with a mad grin on his face.

Before he hit the ground he sent two tentacles to intercept Jason's attention allowing his to stomp down on the ghoul's head with all his weight upon landing. This move knocked Jason into the floor, creating a crater and a cloud of dust. Once the dust settled Kankei was shown to be on top of the torturer, holding his arms round his back in a position ready to break them if needed.

"Now, what's 1000-7?" Kaneki asked maliciously.

Jason grunted in pain as he refused to conform to the boy he'd had so much control over just a few minutes ago. Kaneki grinned again and imbedded one of his kagune tentacles into Jason's left ankle which caused him to yell out in pain.

"I'll ask once more, what's 1000-7?" Kaneki repeated his question and this time his words were laced with impatience.

After some grunting and mumbling the ghoul relented and answered the question.

"N-nine hundred and... ninety three, nine hundred and eighty six, nine hundred and... seventy... n-nine" Jason stuttered.

Kaneki patted his ear, then reached inside and pulled out the long centipede that Jason had inserted into his ear days ago, it had been gnawing away inside his head like an itch that couldn't be scratched.

"Now sit still while I finish this off, it's only fair since you ate first" Kaneki said, licking his lips before devouring every bite of Jason, nothing was left when he'd finished, not a scrap of meat, not a drop of blood, not a shard of bone.

The room was eerily quiet, filled only by the low sobbing of the girl who had been spared the same fate as her parents and captor. Now she was alone in the world apart from her brother who she'd just witness order their parent's death and then fight and brutally devour the man who killed them, to say she was shocked would be a rather large understatement.

Kaneki opened his eyes, his lone kakugan in the left eye faded back from black and red to milky white and pale brown. He let out an audible sigh releasing any remaining tension from his system as best he could. Then he locked eyes with the other survivor, he swiftly made his way over and crouched down to be the same height as the crumpled form of his sister.

"Maya..." he breathed before being slapped across the face.

Kaneki brought his hand up to his reddening cheek while observing the drastic shift in his sister's demeanor. Mere moments ago she had been in shock and unresponsive however now she was very much back and held a furious expression laced with anger, pain and betrayal.

"HOW COULD YOU!" the girl dubbed as Maya yelled into Kaneki's face.

"It was them or you, I didn't expect him to kill two of us so I had to choose quickly or he would've killed you as well" Kaneki explained painfully to his sister, the guilt of his choice weighing heavily on him.

"WELL MAYBE IT WOULD HAVE BEEN BETTER IF I HAD JOINED THEM, YOU'RE A MONSTER, A MURDERER AND NO BROTHER OF MINE!" the girl bellowed as loud as she could, spit from the force of her words flying into Kaneki's face as she was mere centimeters from him before she turned away from the boy in disgust and pain.

Her words cut Kaneki deeply, he'd been forced to think quickly in the moment and his father had wanted him to save his mother and sister, however Jason threw a curve ball into that choice and demanded two sacrifices so he made his choice and in doing so murdered his parents. His sister was right, he was a monster and deserved nothing more than death, the weight of his choice was so heavy, it was dragging him down, seemingly into nothingness, he was drowning in his guilt and sorrow, then suddenly...

Crack

He broke again, but this time past the point of repair. The white haired boy stood up straight, catching the attention of the girl that had previously driven him to breaking point.

"What're you doing?" she asked, slightly worried for her brother, she hadn't truly meant what she'd bellowed out, she was merely hurting from the loss of their parents and she knew that Kaneki had saved her because it was all he could do in that situation, but that didn't mean she forgave him.

After a brief pause from Kaneki, he looked into the eyes of his former sister with contempt before turning on his heel and walking towards the room's exit.

"Please brother wait, where are you going!?" Maya cried out, grabbing onto the bottom of Kaneki's torn black shirt.

All she heard was a growl before he spun round faster than she'd ever seen him move and deliver a powerful punch to her jaw. Maya was thrown to the floor by its force and stared up at her brother in shock.

"Do not call me brother because I have no sister, she made her feelings about me quite clear" Kaneki stated coldly before resuming his walk to the door.

This time Maya did not interfere with her brother's movement, she watched with tears in her eyes as the person that had saved her life, the person that was the only family she had left in this world open the door and disappear from her view. She was overwhelmed with emotion and with tears streaming down her face she yelled louder than she had before in her life.

"I'M SO SORRY BROTHER PLEASE DON'T LEAVE ME!".

Kaneki heard these words from the hallway outside but continued his walk, those cries no longer had any meaning for the person he was, he found a large metal door and shoved against it with all his might. He stumbled out into the rain as the door gave way, he had nowhere to go now but aimlessly walking, he left the compound and his previous life behind...

Howdy :)

So the results of my little question resulted in a landslide victory for a complete rewrite of 'Darkness Can Be Shown the Light' with my updated writing style.

Hopefully this time around with some better planning I can avoid the story becoming so cliche and 1 dimensional, no promises on the cliches though ;)

Just as a heads up, this story will be shorted to it's letters with rewrite after it so it'll look like this 'DCBSL Rewrite', this is purely to simplify the title for myself and previous readers, however if you think I should either keep the title full or change it completely to something else then please let me know via pm :)

Anyways before I ramble too much longer i'd like to remind everyone that if you have any questions or suggestions for the story then please pm me at any time and i'll get back to you asap, thank you to all the people who have read and supported my work over my time on this site, I hope I can continue to entertain you all for a while longer :P

BK out ;)