I've had this idea in my head for a while now, and finally decided to get it out now that I have some actual writing experience under my belt.

For the time being, this is a one-shot, but who knows? I may discover a plot in here somewhere and turn it into something bigger

and so, without further ado, I present you with Goodbye

It had been all over the news.

The coffee Anteiku had been a nest of ghouls. The coffee shop itself had been destroyed and dozens of CCG personnel were dead along with at least two ghouls.

Yoriko didn't care.

Touka had worked there.

That was all that mattered

had she been a ghoul? Had she truly been her friend?

she was interrupted from her thoughts by a knock on the door. On the other side she found a tall muscular man with an odd goatee who somehow managed to look both intimidating and terrified at the same time.

"are you Yoriko?"

"y-yes"

relief flooded his features, "I was told to give this to you" he said, holding out a letter.

"um, thank you?"

"Don't mention it, just doing a favor for a friend" and then, business apparently concluded, he turned and walked away, leaving a somewhat bewildered Yoriko wondering what exactly had just happened.

As Yoriko made her way back to her room she realized she hadn't gotten the man's name. Ah well, that wasn't too much of a concern.

Sitting down at her desk, Yoriko opened the letter.

And then her breath caught.

Yoriko

If you haven't guessed already, I am a ghoul.
I want you to know that the affection I had for you was real. I never planned to eat you, In fact, had it come to it, I had planned to protect you from any ghoul who did.
Heh, imagine that, a monster trying to act like a hero.
Well, I suppose it doesn't matter anymore. With any luck you'll never see me again. Honestly that's half the reason I allowed myself to write this.
The other half was to say thank you
Thank you, for making school enjoyable, even if you did insist on feeding me that garbage you humans call food.
Thank you, for being the best friend I could have had, even when I was moody and distant.
Thank you, for letting me feel like something other than a monster.
Please, don't look for me, I could never forgive myself if I heard you got eaten by wandering around the wrong part of town. Live happily, become a chef like you wanted to.
I'm sorry I couldn't be a better taste-tester for you, and please, don't feel guilty about feeding me things I couldn't actually eat. I'd do anything for you, a little sickness was a small price to pay for your friendship.

There's so much I wish I could tell you, so much I wish you could understand,
I've seen so much tragedy and cruelty in my life Yoriko, I've had to live every day in fear of discovery,seen my friends and family cut down mercilessly, seen their killers praised as heroes.
I've wished, so many times, that I could have been born human, to truly live among you.

You have no idea how lucky you are.

I trust you.

Touka

by the time she had finished reading it, the paper was soaked with tears and she had no real idea of how to feel. Relief warred with betrayal as a thousand little clues clicked into place.

How could she trust any of this? How could she not? On the one hand, Touka had never tried to hurt her in any way, but on the other ghouls were known to be capable actors, but then why reveal all of this in a letter after the fact?

The image of the sarcastic yet kind girl she considered her closest friend being a monster, eating people, it made no sense, it couldn't be true.

And yet, there really was no other explanation.

She needed answers,

the joys of writing an underused side character: I get to/have to make up a lot of stuff

I'll probably be messing with this off and on until I decide whether or not to actually turn it into a series. It still feels incomplete to me, but I think this is plenty for a pilot/teaser

I just hope I'm not breaking Touka's character too badly