Disclaimer: Not exactly sure why I need to write this, I think it's obvious that I don't own Tokyo Ghoul.
Alright, first off I'd like to thank y'all the positive reception the first chapter received, to tell y'all the truth I didn't really like it all too much until my my fanfic friend (FFF), hoobab gave it a quick read through and told me it was good, so I published it. Secondly Kaneki is a born hybrid born into the Sasaki Clan and the ghoul Kenshi, his name isn't actually Kenshi, that's just what the CCG has dubbed him it means Swordsman. The third thing y'all need to know is that this story will have many OCs in it because of lore that I've come up with. Said lore can be found in my forum, OC Asylum. Final thing y'all need to know is that ToukaXKaneki (TouKen) will be slowly developed over time.
The Renowned Mukade
Walking to Anteiku was not what Kaneki had planned for today. He thought Yomo was going to drop Hinami and himself off at the coffee shop, but when he had awoken in the morning his friend Yomo was gone, leaving a note stating, "Got to run some errands. I'll meet you at Anteiku at noon." Kaneki sighed to himself and kept walking with his younger sister ahead of him skipping down the sidewalk. At the sight of her, Kaneki's spirits were lifted and he smiled at the younger ghoul.
Looking back and seeing her smiling brother Hinami called out to him, "Hey Onii-chan!" Kaneki hummed a response. "Hurry up or we're gonna be late!" her words made Kaneki increase the speed of his steps. He didn't really know how the ghouls of Anteiku would respond to him being late and decided it was better to not find out on the first day.
Upon arriving at Anteiku, Kaneki was taken back by its size. Even though he knew the building was large, he didn't expect a coffee shop to be so grand. But once he entered it was like he had stepped into a whole new world. The smell of coffee washed over him, filling him with a sense of warmth and comfort, two things the young man was not very familiar with growing up in the twenty-fourth ward. He found himself gazing all about him, trying to see just how to elaborate the decor was. He was impressed to see how much craftsmanship was put into just about every inch of the shop.
"Kaneki Ken?" The sound of his name being called by an unfamiliar voice made the ghoul spin around, ready for a fight, but was instead greeted by a rather pretty waitress around his age. She had dark blue hair that shielded the right of her deep violet eyes from view, but her left eye gazed into Kaneki's. He blinked a few times before he realized that she was the one who had called his name.
"Oh, yeah right. Sorry…" He trailed off for a moment to compose himself. "Yes, I'm Kaneki. And you are?" She tilted her head to the side in confusion.
"You look nothing like rumors say you do," her words made Kaneki raise and eyebrow. "Sorry, I'm Touka. I work here. You and your sister can go speak with the manager now. He's going to be up the stairs, first door on the left." Kaneki nodded his thanks and then shepherded Hinami up the stairs to meet with the famed Yoshimura.
Kaneki could hear the voices of two men discussing something in the room up the stairs with his superior hearing, so when he and his sister reached the door he knocked out of politeness. There was a pause in the conversation and the sound of footsteps could be heard coming closer. The door swung open and Kaneki and Hinami were met with the face of an older, tan-skinned man with brown hair that reached down his neck. His eyes were a crystal blue and he was dressed in a light gray button-up shirt with a dark gray formal button vest and black khakis to hide his obvious muscular build. To Kaneki the man had the body of an Olympic runner, while Hinami simply smiled up at the tall man. He flashed a kind smile back at her before greeting them.
"You must be Kaneki and Hinami," he began, gesturing for them to enter. "My name is Albert Blumstein, but you can just call me Albert." Kaneki stared at the man with interest. He had never met a foreign ghoul before. Hinami was just shocked by the man's name.
"You're not Japanese?!" she gawked at the man who simply smiled and shook his head. A voice from the other side of the room called out, catching their attention. "Hello, you two," it belonged to the famed Yoshimura that almost every ghoul knew. He was legendary for his community service to their kind and just about every peaceful ghoul who lived above ground looked up to the man for not just his kind nature, but also his unparalleled power. He had a warm, welcoming smile on his face, even though it was obviously forced. Kaneki could tell these two men were being very cautious with him. "Welcome to Anteiku." It made sense to the young man. He understood why they would be wary of him as he was a renowned member of the Sasaki Clan.
Deciding it would be best to properly introduce himself, Kaneki nodded his thanks to the man. "I'm 'Kaneki Ken' of the Sasaki Clan, and this is Hinami," Kaneki wrapped his arm around the younger girl's shoulders and held her reassuringly. "She has been left under my protection and will be treated as my younger sister." Yoshimura raised an eyebrow with a speculating look on his face while Albert also looked puzzled. Was Hinami not Kaneki's sister and a member of the Sasaki Clan?
Yoshimura simply nodded, deciding not to speak further on the matter of the relation between Kaneki and Hinami to each other. "Since you have chosen to seek refuge in Anteiku you will be living in one of our apartments on this floor," spoke the elderly ghoul. "Of course, you will have to work here at Anteiku as well." Kaneki nodded, knowing the old ghoul meant just him as Hinami was only thirteen and not able to work yet. "Though your hair might scare some of the human customers, most ghouls that come here will know who you are."
Kaneki nodded again, "I understand, but I'd like to keep my hair this way if that's alright." he ran a hand through his monochromatic locks, slightly ruffling his shaggy hair. Yoshimura cast a quick glance to Albert who simply nodded in response.
"That will be perfectly fine with us, Kaneki." Yoshimura smiled at the much younger ghoul, "I will also request your assistance with acquiring food for our ghoul customers, as well as one of our territory distributors, and deal with troublemakers." that got a slight chuckle out of not only Kaneki but Hinami as well.
"What's so funny?" asked Albert from their right. Hinami spoke up for the first time in the conversation, "Onii-chan can definitely do that!" more giggles escaped her and she covered her mouth with her hand in order to stifle her fit of laughter. An amused smile spread over Yoshimura's face at the young girl's form shaking with laughter.
"Of course," the old ghoul began. "I would expect nothing less from the renowned Mukade."
"Fuckin' ay!" cursed the ghoul Kenshi as he held his blood-soaked side, lightly slamming his head against the wall of the dark tunnel. He could barely move and his wounds were not healing either. Whatever kind of quinque that investigator was using had messed with his regeneration and almost all the wounds he was dealt hadn't even begun to heal. He had a giant hole pierced through his left forearm, a large gaping hole in his right side, and several other slashes and stabs covering his whole body. "I can't fuckin' believe this shit!" the ghoul cursed under his breath.
A voice from down the long passageway echoed throughout the tunnel and reached Kenshi's ears. "Did ya hear that? Someone's down here." another voice replied, arguing with the first voice. "Oh yeah? Who the hell would be down 'ere? What'd ya 'ear anyways?"
"I heard somethin' that sounded like 'Fuckin' ay!'." the first voice mimicked Kenshi's words and Kenshi growled under his breath, letting out a huff of anger and exasperation. "Ya heard that growl?!" The first voice shouted and Kenshi could hear heavier footsteps approaching him at a faster pace. He scoffed at how loud this person was under his breath and leaned his head back, waiting for whoever it was with a smirk behind his helmet. The footsteps stopped right in front of Kenshi, "See! I told ya there was someone here!"
"Yeah, so what? 'E looks dead." replied the other voice. Kenshi didn't move, enticing the two get closer to him because he seemed harmless. "You're crazy Hito, there no way this guy was cursin' 'e's dead!" The second voice belittled his companion that had been identified as Hito.
Hito who had no noticeable features to him except for the large wart on his nose frowned at the motionless form of Kenshi. Hito also had a long, scraggly beard that was due for a much-needed trim and an unlit cigarette clenched in between his crooked, yellow teeth. "Coulda swore he was just cursin'." he then pulled out a lighter and lit his cigarette but before Hito could take a draw from the thing it was sliced in half, the lit end falling to the floor of the dimly lit tunnel. "What the hell…?"
"What 'appened?" asked Hito's companion.
"I dunno. My cigarette…" Hito went to show his friend his clipped cigarette but his hand was severed from the rest of his arm and a pain filled scream ripped from Hito's throat. Blood sprayed from the stump and the man collapsed to his knees, holding his arm as blood gushed violently from the wound. His friend looked utterly shocked by these events and his head whipped over to look at the body of Kenshi that they believed to be dead, standing hunched over and gazing at him. His eyes grew wide at the sight of the glowing red lights that formed the helmet's eyes. Said helmet looked almost exactly like one of a certain villain's helmet from a video game about a bat-themed superhero. Blood caked the helmet-clad ghoul's body from all his wounds and held firmly in his right hand was what appeared to be a broken quinque of a ghoul investigator.
"Who… who are ya?" stuttered the ghoul. His friend, Hito, had stopped screaming and rose to his feet with his hand reattached. Hito's kagune burst from his shoulders, an ukaku kagune which looked like black pigeon wings. The kagune were small and uneven. "It don't matter, let's kill this bastard, Kyoji!" Hito shouted and charged Kenshi. His ukaku wings seemed to flicker like they didn't want to stay in use as he raced towards the blood-soaked Kenshi.
"You're rather slow for an ukaku." croaked Kenshi as he weakly dodged Hito's attack. The missed attack made his wings retract and flicker away for a moment before they erupted from his shoulders again. He attacked Kenshi again, who was surprisingly still limber and agile enough to avoid the slow ukaku, despite his wounds, twisted his battered body at an odd angle and swung the sharp edge of the quinque fragment at Hito. The jagged edge of the weapon sliced through Hito's stomach and a bloody mess of digested human meat spilled out of the deep gash. A howl of intense pain escaped his throat, but was silenced by Kenshi as he flipped around the weapon so it was held in a reverse grip and he jammed the quinque fragment into the back of Hito's neck, effectively killing him.
He ripped the weapon from the ghoul's body violently, slinging blood through the air. "Now to answer your question," the ghoul, referred to by Hito as Kyoji stared with wide eyes filled with terror at the sight of his friend being killed so easily, "my name is Takehiko but you might know me by another name…" Kenshi, whose real name was Takehiko Fudo, twirled the quinque around his hand for a few seconds as he slowly stalked closer to Kyoji, who was frozen in fear. They were so close now and Takehiko's helmet-clad head was right next to Kyoji's ear. "Kenshi," that whispered word made Kyoji's eyes widen in even more fear. He gasped as the broken quinque was thrust into his ribcage, puncturing his lung.
"You… you're that mercenary the… the one tha... that works fff… for the Jo… Josuke Cla… Clan…" Takehiko simply nodded to Kyoji's words as he slipped away, his life fading. Takehiko yanked the quinque shard from the dead ghoul's chest, flinging it from him and down the long tunnel in one swift motion. He then reached up to his helmet and removed it from his head to reveal matted black hair that wasn't bery long and stunning golden eyes. His face was recently shaven and had five o'clock shadow along his sharp jawline leading up to his ears which had 00g sized gauges punched through them. He lowered his thin lips to Kyoji's body and opened his mouth to reveal a set of pearly white teeth which he sunk into the dead ghoul.
After chewing the coarse meat for a few minutes, Takehiko swallowed with an audible gulp. "Ugh! This shit is disgusting!" he wiped the back of his hand across his lips to clean the foul tasting blood, then looked down at himself. His wounds healed quickly, not even leaving scars. Huffing, Takehiko stood, sliding his helmet back over his head. "God, why the fuck do all ghouls but that bastard taste like shit?" he asked himself as he left the two dead bodies there and walked down the dimly lit passageway.
Kaneki's first day of training was rather eventful with his trainer, Touka. The pretty, blue haired girl had one hell of a temper and would scorn or ridicule him every time he did something wrong. By the end of the day, Kaneki was praying for closing hours and was thankful when the final customer left. He began to mop the hardwood floors and chuckled silently to himself. How was it that the great Mukade, vanguard of the Sasaki Clan, ended up being bossed around by a feisty blue haired waitress all day and mopping floors of a café? He shook his head as he silently laughed to himself, about to continue his task when the voice of the girl who had been ordering him around all day pulled him from his thoughts. "What's so funny?" he looked up at her, confused by her snappy attitude.
"Oh, nothing really," Kaneki admitted. "Simply found today amusing is all." she cocked an eyebrow at his response, more confused than before she asked. "Hey Touka," he started, she responded with a hum as she went about cleaning glass. "You go to school, right?"
"Well yeah, why?" Kaneki nodded at Touka's response and didn't speak for several moments before he stopped mopping the floor and looked up at her again. "What's it like?" his question caught Touka off guard and she wasn't sure how to respond, she just simply blinked at him. She shook her head to gather her wits and stuttered slightly with her answer, "Well… uhmm. It's… it's actually pretty great! Though classical literature is a pain in the ass." he nodded at her answer and continued mopping the floor, not responding.
Wanting to know why he randomly brought up the situation, she asked, "Why? Did you never go to school?" after she asked the question, Touka mentally facepalmed herself. Of course he didn't! Kaneki grew up in the twenty-fourth ward and knew nothing but violence and bloodshed. She could practically smell the blood on him like it was soaked into his skin as a permanent cologne, but there was something else mixed in with it. Something sweet and alluring to him, a sweet aroma of sorts, like no other ghoul Touka had ever met.
Her thoughts were interrupted by Kaneki's voice, "Not really, I was taught by my mother, but…" he trailed off, leaving Touka desperate to learn more, "She's dead now." Kaneki said nothing for the rest of the night as he finished mopping the floor. Touka was going to ask him more, but he just looked at the floor as he mopped over it, his eyes were filled with so many emotions, but to Touka they looked so broken. She could practically feel his mind racing through memories he'd rather forget.
Kaneki went upstairs and locked himself in his room for the night, and Touka knew she fucked up. She went upstairs herself, heading to her own room. Her hand gripped the doorknob, but before she opened the door she cast a glance at Kaneki's locked bedroom and sighed. "I guess the renowned Mukade has a more complicated past than I thought," she muttered to herself before entering her own room.