They called him the Black Reaper.
The second coming of Arima Kishou. The man who took the battlefield by the horns and turned it into a one-sided bloodbath, spreading absolute terror among the ghouls of Tokyo like the rumors of the One-eyed King's defeat at his hand.
A half ghoul, half human hybrid working to exterminate the non-human abominations that plagued the world.
Hair as black as his soul, they whispered in the dark corners of the thirteenth ward. If he even had one at all. And a hand coated in red, as if to remind himself and everyone else of the ocean of blood he had spilled.
No one looked past the Black Reaper, towards Sasaki Haise.
The pinnacle of a group of freaks, a new experiment by the CCG. Deceivingly friendly, was what his supposed colleagues thought again and again. Disgustingly attached to the strongest of their organization. Leader of a pack of walking, talking creatures that had long since ceased being human.
A man drowning in loneliness, who could not remember his past and could not perceive his future.
A man who lived for the present day, difficult as it may be, for it might be his last.
No one looked past Sasaki Haise, towards the Centipede.
A ghoul whose insanity came from constant abuse and a wrecked heart, who had tried to help his comrades in a time of crisis, who tried to help anyone at any time.
Who thought the one in pain should be him instead of others.
A ghoul modeled by the torture he had endured, who had sought strength in order to protect what was precious to him.
Whose human best friend sacrificed himself for.
Who lost the light in his eyes right after losing the last remains of his heart.
No one looked past the Centipede, towards the Eyepatch.
A boy plunged into a world too cruel for him to endure, a world which broke him time and again. A boy unknowingly used as a lab rat.
The bridge between worlds, the last hope for peace between humans and ghouls. The forever unlit spark of revolution.
A waiter at a coffee shop, adjusting to his new reality. A boy who saw a monster in the mirror, who wrecked knives in an attempt to escape his new fate.
From another's viewpoint, a newly emerged threat.
No one looked past the Eyepatch, towards Kaneki Ken.
An unsuspecting victim, prey of the strong.
A lonely boy whose only spark of sunshine was his best friend.
A boy who longed for a loving mother and got hurt countless times instead.
An innocence that would not last, already torn and frayed as it was.
So who was this terrifying Black Reaper but a small, lonely boy born into a world that loved and despised him?
Who is Kaneki Ken?