Disclaimer: Dun own nothing.

Chapter 2 – Friend

"Mum! I'm back from school." An eight year old Kaneki yelled as he slid off his shoes and placed them on a shoe rack near the door.

"Welcome home Ken-kun. Did you learn anything new?" Rize turned from her place next to the kitchen bench and strode over to the doorway to greet her son.

Kaneki was currently wrapped in a large, green puffy jacket, a blue scarf was wrapped around his neck, covering his mouth and nose and his black locks peaked out from under his blue beanie. In other words, he looked like a small ball of material.

Rize felt a small twinge of guilt nudge at the back of her mind. Her little Ken-kun had to walk all the way home in the snow, albeit their tiny apartment was two streets away from the school.

However, her caution was necessary. She was a famous S ranked ghoul, although this was the 20th Ward she just couldn't afford to be recognised and associated with her son. He was still at his most vulnerable age and couldn't fight for himself. This was the safest option she could choose.

The guilt slowly faded away the closer she reached Kaneki.

"Yeah! I learnt how to find the area of a bunch of things!" He held up two fingers, one from each hand and started drawing invisible shapes in the air with them and grinned.

"Ah, you're turning so smart Ken-kun, someday you might even know more things than me." She bent down to pick up the ball of energy and sat him on her hip.

"I also made a snowman with Hide. I didn't want to at first 'cuz it looked cold and I was reading my book, but he convinced me and it was really really fun!" He grasped some of her purple hair.

"Hideyoshi again? Don't you think it's time to stop playing with your food?" she lightly chided. Kaneki had lately been hanging around with a new human, Hideyoshi Naga something rather. If he was marking his food, he had to be careful, especially considering his inexperience. It would just be their luck if a dove put the connections together between a 'missing' human and her Ken-kun.

"He he, don't you remember? Hide isn't food. He's my friend."

"Oh yeah, that's right I guess Mummy was being silly."Rize mentally scolded herself for forgetting.

She never understood her son's connection to humans, nor did she ever understand why he didn't seem to like to indulge in food like she did. Perhaps it was his human half? She didn't know.

Although she had to admit it was strange how her son could stomach food better than she did. It wasn't as if he loved it, but it wasn't as inedible as many other ghouls found, he was just able to tolerate it.

It was a very useful skill for a young ghoul to have, especially when they attended school. Yes, that's right. Her poor little Ken-kun was going to school. Eight hours a day, five days a week. He had only started his first year 3 months ago.

Naturally ghouls would home school their children as mingling young ghouls with humans was always dangerous. The combination of school and ghouls screamed 'exposure'. Especially young eight year old ghouls like Ken-kun who has a much weaker restraint on his kakugan than normal.

Rize sighed, if it weren't for her Hiroki objecting to the idea of home schooling, little Ken-kun would be with her. Safe and sound.

Well perhaps she's just being too paranoid. It wasn't common for ghouls to attend school but it had heard of. Her Ken-kun above all had an advantage that helped him blend in as a human better than any other.

He was half-ghoul of course. Or rather half-human.

Rize looked at the little enigma sitting in her arms. Hybrid ghouls were unheard of. Yet here was one right in her arms. If people were to learn of his one eyed kakugan, he would be the target of many doves and ghouls alike for his rarity.

She would protect him. No matter what.

Seeing her son start to squirm in her arms she gently set him down on the ground. "Alright my little human lover, why don't you go have a shower. We can go hunt for some dinner."

"Okay." Kaneki yelled as he dashed away from Rize's sight, excited to finally hunt in what seemed like forever.

Rize merely sighed at her son's excitement. She rarely let him go hunting for food. Normally it was her that would do the hunting and then bring back little pieces for her Ken-kun to snack on.

Kaneki had already voiced his dislike for eating her 'scraps' but she only responded that he was still too young to do it.

If a ghoul was to hunt, especially in areas like the 20th Ward where one could get killed by the other ghouls for attracting doves, then they had to be careful.

Picking off the humans that no one cared for nor would miss, choosing areas where no one would take a second glance and disposing the remaining body parts discreetly were all necessary factors to take into consideration.

To be honest it went against Rize's policies to regulate the meals she took with the movements of the CCG. She should just eat whoever she wanted to, she was the feared 'Binge Eater' after all. But if it was for Ken-kun's safety then she would abide by the rules.

It was soon, she could feel it but she could feel herself getting restless. She wasn't a wanderer because of boredom, but rather because it felt safer to be constantly on the move rather than stay in one spot. There had been talk about something bad stirring up in the 24th Ward and she wanted no part in it.

As soon as her Ken-kun was old enough to protect himself and hunt they were going to move.

-Timeskip- (3 years later)

Kaneki looked up from his book to spy on his energetic friend throwing some rocks at a wall.

That's right. His friend. The human boy. Hide.

He wasn't stupid. He knew behind his mother's cheery façade she didn't like him hanging around a human. She probably thought that he might accidentally reveal their little secret. He would have liked to have told her that he had more sense than that but since knowing Hide for only a week he already knew that he had to be very careful when around his friend.

Tired after thoroughly pelting the wall with pebbles, Hide bounded towards his friend who was seated on a swing.

"Hey Kaneki, you want this juice box? It's good, a new flavour too!" Hide offered the beverage with a large smile.

"No thanks, my mum says they're bad for you" If Kaneki really wanted he could have taken a little sip of the juice. Human food to him, as he understood it, was not as bad as it was for other ghouls. It still tasted like something had died in his mouth, but in small portions, it was edible without vomiting.

Unfazed by the rejection, Hide loudly announced "Okay, suit yourself. But man you're missing out!"

As he took a big loud slurp from his drink, Kaneki's nose slightly scrunched up. How could humans like these things? They smelt like rotting garbage!

"Oi, something wrong Kaneki?"

"No…it's nothing, I was just thinking." Kaneki mentally sweat dropped. He had to be careful around Hide, even being as young as he was, he was probably more perceptive than some rookie CCG officers.

"So anyways you're just eating bread for lunch again?"

"Yeah, I like bread, it's my favourite food." Kaneki mentally cheered, for once he had told his friend the truth.

Bread was his favourite human food. Even though it had the texture of a sponge and tasted like cardboard. It was the softness of the bread that made it easy to swallow a whole bite whole, therefore making bread the easiest food he could fake-eat.

Kaneki watched as Hide enthusiastically dug into his bento next to him. He tried not to think of Hide as the meal he ate the week before. Perhaps in another world he would have been disgusted at eating humans due to the fact that he was half. But his mother was 'Binge Eater' and so some of her genes must have passed on to him. Although he could physically restrain himself to just one body a month unlike his mother who wasn't satisfied until she had gorged herself on numerous humans each night.

"So, what are you doing after school today?" Hide finally managed to say after swallowing the last of his bento.

"Nothing much, I'm just gonna go home." Kaneki mentally sighed, his mother had gotten very jumpy lately and was adamant he always returned straight home after school.

"Huh, again?"

"Yeah, my mum's been getting scared of the new ghoul sightings." He grimaced internally. He didn't like lying to his best friend but it was the only reasonable explanation, besides, he couldn't have told Hide that it was actually the doves that were giving his mum the jitters.

"Aww, life must be so hard for our darling, cute as a button Kaneki-kun. How will he ever get a girl with such an overbearing mother?" Hide waved his arms above his head melodramatically, spinning slowly in circles.

"Shush you, she's just concerned." Kaneki lightly reprimanded in response to his friend's antics. Tucking his book under one arm, he slowly stood up from his spot on the swing and shallowly dipped his head to his friend to acknowledge his departure.

"Huh, leaving already?"

"It is currently 1:52pm, the bell will ring at precisely 2:00pm. Our classroom is located on the South-West Wing of the school. We are sitting outside in the northernmost area of the school. Given the dimension of the school plus the span of our legs, it will take approximately seven minutes to return to our class at a leisurely stroll." Kaneki responded in monotone, staring at his friend's awestruck expression for a moment before starting to walk towards the direction of their classroom.

"Cripes! How could ever be friends which such a sticker to the rules!?" Hide yelled once he snapped out of his daze.

-linebreak-

In an office somewhere in the 1st Ward sat an old man at a large mahogany desk cluttered with papers and files. His face was pale with wrinkles that could have only be caused by an overabundance of frowning.

A knock resounded on the door which made the man look up from his desk towards the door in front of him.

"You may enter" he called out calmly.

The door opened with a squeak to reveal a young fair skinned, black haired man with dull black eyes.

"What is the matter that you would like to discuss, Director?"

"There has been reports of dead bodies. They appear to fit the modus operandi of one particular ghoul" The older of the men opened the yellow folder on his desk, revealing an array of mutilated bodies. He started to read aloud what was written, "Severed limbs, mostly uneaten yet shredded. Numerous mauled bodies…"

"But it can't be…there's only one ghoul who can do that." His forehead starting to sweat as his thought process reached the only logical conclusion.

"Yeah, I know what you're thinking."

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"Binge Eater is in the 20th Ward."

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AN

Dun dun duuuuuun. So doves will soon be appearing. How do you guys feel about that? I don't have much of a direction going with this fic so if anyone has any possible ideas or things they want to see just PM me or chuck the ideas in a review, I'll be sure to consider them. Anyways thanks so much to anyone who reviewed, read or did anything in between! I really appreciate all the feedback. So stay tuned for next chapter and please review!

-Cifer66