I do not own Tokyo Ghoul or any of the characters.
Changed Man
Kaneki opened his eyes, groaning. He looked around and saw a doctor sitting beside the bed, smiling down at him.
"How do you feel Mr. Kaneki?" The doctor asked.
"Sore," Kaneki said. "I guess that's good since it means I'm alive."
"Indeed," the doctor nodded. "You were lucky. It was like something shielded you. Instead of your organs being damaged, you only suffered a few broken bones."
"So, how long until I can leave?" Kaneki asked.
"We'll say about two days for now, pending the results of your next x-ray," the doctor said.
Kaneki nodded, lying back. Over the next couple of days, Hide cycled through the hospital daily, stopping by to see how his friend was doing. Instead of two days, Kaneki ended up in for another week. And every day of that week, he found food growing more and more revolting. He couldn't even chew twice before vomiting it back out. Finally, on the last day, the doctor came in around lunch time as Kaneki simply stared at the food he couldn't stomach no matter how hard he tried.
"The nurse tells me you haven't been eating anything," the doctor said. "Is this true?"
"I've been trying sir," Kaneki promised. "It's just...everything tastes awful to me now. The bread tastes moldy, and the meat tastes rancid."
The doctor chuckled. "I see. Well, I'm sure that problem will remedy itself soon enough. In any event, you're free to go."
Kaneki nodded, thanking him and stood, changing into the fresh clothes Hide had brought him. Then, he stood, leaving the hospital. He walked until he was sure he got away, slowing to a stop as he finally reached his house. He shut and locked the door, walking to his bed and dropping onto it, ignoring the shopping bag of food Hide had somehow managed to get inside his home, a not sitting on top of it. As he dropped to the bed, his shoulder hit the TV remote and turned it on, the TV on the news. There was footage of a "Ghoul Extermination Expert" talking to a talkshow host about ghouls.
"Well, this situation with the Binge Eater just doesn't make sense," the exterminator said. "Normally, a ghoul isn't too active, a single body can satisfy them for a few months. However, this one is different. It eats far more than that."
"Let me just ask this, why can't ghouls survive off of human food?" the host asked.
"To put it simply, they simply can't derive nutrients from anything except human flesh," the exterminator explained. "Eating our food may actually be detrimental to them. It tastes disgusting to ghouls because their tongues work differently."
Kaneki stared at the screen before sprinting to the shopping back left beside his door. He ripped it open, pulling out various food containers. He ripped them open, shoving food into his mouth only to sprint to the bathroom, heaving it all into the toilet. He sprinted to his kitchen, then back. Then the pantry, and back. Finally, the only thing left was a hamburger that used to be his favorite, something Hide had probably gotten specifically to cheer him up. He stood, setting a pot on the stove and cooking it. Once it was ready, he cut a piece off and put it in his mouth. He felt his throat clenching instantly and felt tears run down his cheek before he bent forward, vomiting yet again.
It can't be, Kaneki thought as he fell to his knees.
He cleaned up the vomit, then walked to his bed, dropping onto it and pulling the blanket over himself. After a couple of hours, his phone vibrated. He let it go to voicemail before lifting it to his ear.
"Hey Kaneki, it's Hide, just thought I'd check on you, see how you're doing. Oh, Takatsuki what's-her-name is doing a signing at the book store. Give me a call and let me know when you're feeling better. Later."
The message ended and Kaneki slowly pushed himself up. He stared at the phone before sighing. He got dressed, pulling his shoes on and walking to the book store, only to stop, seeing on the sign that the signing was over. He sighed. Typical. The only thing that could cheer him up and he missed it. He turned, beginning to walk away, back across the street. As he did, however, his stomach rumbled and he stopped, staring at the people around him. His eyes darted from one to the next, at first words like "man," "woman," and "child" flashing through his mind. But then, the only thing that flashed through his mind was "meat."
Finally, he caught himself and bit down on his finger, hard. He stood there, forcing himself under control again before sprinting home, slamming the door and sprinting to the bathroom, staring at his reflection, and the black eye with a red iris in place of his usual left eye. He staggered out of the bathroom, grabbing a knife and falling to his knees.
I have to get it out! I have to get it out right now! It's her organs that are doing this to me! I have to get them out!
He drove the knife down at his gut, hearing the impact resonate through the kitchen as it hit. He raised the knife's handle, looking at the spot where the blade had snapped off, then at the blade on the ground, then at his unmarked skin. He closed his eyes, sobbing for what felt like hours in dismay and fear of what he had become. then, he pushed himself up, leaving his house, wandering toward where he had been attacked by Rize. The memory of the attack was hazy at best, but he remembered something. Right before the girders had fallen, he had fought back. He could barely remember it, though. He remembered the pain, and then he remembered seeing something red. And Rize was bleeding.
He sighed as his stomach rumbled again. He needed food. Except there was nothing he could eat. No way to sustain himself. No, there was a way.
"Kill a person, take their flesh, and eat it!" he said to himself, before snapping to his senses, swallowing hard.
He was losing control. He had to fight to stay in control. To stay human. He staggered around another corner only to stop as he saw a familiar face. The blue-haired waitress Hide had been talking to at the coffee shop where he met Rize. She was pinned to the wall by a fat, balding man looking to be in his mid fifties with a lecherous grin on his face. Kaneki felt his stomach throb painfully as his eyes shot to the girl's exposed legs. Smooth, soft, slim waist. Just the right amount of fat. Probably would taste amazing. He bit his tongue, forcing himself under control as the man spoke.
"Hey there pretty girl, you're showing an awful lot of leg," the man sneered. "You better come with me. Wouldn't want anyone to take advantage of a helpless little girl all alone."
She shrunk back from him as he leaned closer and Kaneki felt himself gain marginal control again.
"Hey, what are you doing?" Kaneki spoke up, the man jerking back as if burned. "Get away from her!"
Two sets of eyes wheeled around on him, the man speaking first.
"Who the hell are you!?" His eyes narrowed for a moment before widening, fear filling them, though his voice managed to sound angrier as he stepped toward Kaneki. "Get the fuck out of here you goddamn monster!"
Kaneki blinked in confusion just before the girl moved, almost too fast to see, her hand flattening like a blade before splitting the man's head completely. The body dropped and the girl sighed.
"Dammit, I killed him, and I'm not even really hungry," the girl sighed, kneeling down and lifting an arm before slamming her other hand into it, breaking it completely off just below the elbow and holding it out. "Here. You're hungry, right?"
"Y-You're...you're a..." Kaneki stared at her, eyes wide with fright.
"Whoa, only one of your eyes is red, cool," she said before her face grew irritated. "Well, are you going to eat this or not?"
She stepped forward but as she did, Kaneki's terror overrode any sense or train of thought, making him spin and sprint away, fast. He tripped over several trashcans and piles of garbage before slowing to a stop, sniffing. He could smell something. It was coming from up ahead. It smelled delicious. Sweet. It reminded him of the food his mother used to cook for him.
He sprinted toward it, the prospect of having something to eat completely wiping any thoughts of the ghoul behind him out of his mind. Then, he slowed to a stop as he found the source of the smell, the corpse of a man with a dark haired male ghoul kneeling over it, eating. Kaneki fell to his knees, the ghoul's head snapping around.
"Oh, you're a ghoul, aren't you?" the ghoul asked. "What's wrong. Are you alright? Don't cry. My It's okay. I'm Kazuo. I haven't eaten in a while, so I'm afraid I can't share much too much with you," he ripped a chunk of flesh out of the body, "but here you can have some-"
He was cut off by a foot touching the back of his head then shoving so hard that his head all but exploded off of his shoulders, his blood splattering over Kaneki's face.
"Good riddance," the newcomer ghoul said, pushing his glasses up his nose. "You should know better than to trespass on my feeding grounds." He stopped as he noticed Kaneki for the first time, beginning to walk over to him. "I've never seen you before. Whoa, how come only one of your eyes is red? That looks pretty nasty." Then, he grabbed Kaneki by the throat, slamming him into the wall. "Did you think you could hunt for food on my feeding grounds, and get away with it?"
"No!" Kaneki choked out, barely able to breath and unable to break the ghoul's grip. "I was...just passing through! I swear!"
"You think I believe that?" the ghoul asked. "Imagine this, your girlfriend is lying naked on the ground. A guy standing over her with his pants around his ankles says, 'I didn't do it, I swear I was just passing by.' That's basically the same as what you're telling me right now. If someone did that to my girl, I'd kill him!" He began to squeeze tighter, choking the air from Kaneki's lungs, cutting his air supply off entirely. "So that's what I'm going to do to you. If you trespass on my territory you die."
Kaneki had stopped listening by then. All he could hear was his heart pounding in his ears, and the failed attempts by his diaphragm to pull in fresh air. He needed to get away. He needed to escape. But he couldn't. Suddenly, his eyes snapped open, seeing the man looking away, toward the same girl that Kaneki had just watched split a man's head with her hand. They seemed to be talking. Kaneki had a chance. Only one. He tried to swing his foot but his body failed to respond. Fear began to fill him as his vision began to darken. Then, suddenly, pain flared in his back and suddenly there was a blue flaming wing on his right side reaching around his body and sticking into the man's shoulder. The man looked down at it in surprise before dropping Kaneki, the wing vanishing instantly. As blood rushed to Kaneki's head, his vision faded to black, returning after what felt like seconds to see the male ghoul vanishing around a corner deeper into the alleyway, a hand held to his bloody shoulder. The girl was kneeling beside the body, watching Kaneki carefully.
"Here," she said, holding out the hand she seemed to have kept from earlier.
One of Kaneki's hands reached out toward it but he caught it with the other, pulling it back.
"You're not eating?" she asked. "Alright, then answer me this. You're the guy who was with Rize, right? Why didn't she eat you?"
Kaneki didn't respond, too busy struggling to keep his hand down.
"Okay, how did you go from human to ghoul?" she asked.
"I...don't know!" he sobbed, arm finally stopping trying to take the hand. "I was human! I met a girl who was beautiful and seemed to like me back! Then one day, as I'm walking her home, she bites me and starts stabbing me with a bunch of tentacles coming out of her back! The next thing I know, I think I had tentacles too, and I was stabbing her back! Then a bunch of girders fell on us, and I woke up in the hospital like this! Suddenly I couldn't eat anything, and part of me desperately wants to eat that!"
Tears were streaming down his face and the girl stared at him in silence.
"Listen," the girl said, tossing the hand aside. "Thank you for stepping in before. Obviously is was unnecessary, but I appreciate what you were trying to do. So I'll make it up to you. I'll help you."
"You will?" he asked.
"Yes," she nodded, kneeling over the body and ripping the heart out. "Since you don't have the nerve to eat on your own, I'll give you a hand!"
In the span of time it took Kaneki to process her words, and for his eyes to widen, she had lunged across the space between them, shoving the heart into his mouth hole. Before he could stop himself, he had bitten some off, swallowing it whole. Then, he spat the rest out, shoving his fingers into his mouth to make himself vomit unsuccessfully.
"How could you do that to me!?" He shouted. "I thought you were going to help!"
"I did," she said. "You were starving yourself to death because you're too much of a pussy to eat. So, I made the decision for you. You're welcome."
"No!" he said. "I'm not thanking you! I won't eat another person! I'm not a monster!"
Her reaction was instantly. First, a kick to the gut. Then, his head was slammed into the wall. Several punches and a knee to the groin later, he was kneeling on the ground, coughing up blood as the injuries she had given him healed themselves instantly.
"If I'm a monster, what does that make you?" she asked.
"I don't know!" he sobbed. "I don't know what I am anymore!"
"I suppose that would be rough," she sighed. "But I can't really say I pity you. You see, I've always wondered why humans like cake. It tastes so disgusting to me that it makes me want to puke." She knelt down to inspect the head of the ghoul who had offered to share the corpse. "But, you guys sure seem to enjoy eating it. It must have been nice to live such a peaceful life. One where you didn't have to live in fear of the CCG or other ghouls. You think your life sucks now? Give me a break. This life is all I've ever known so how do you think that makes me feel? Well buddy? Answer me!" she hurled the head at him, hitting it against his own head before he caught it, shouting in fear and tossing it away.
She grabbed him by the hair, throwing him down the alleyway before kicking him into the wall.
"You're not a ghoul," she said, sniffing. "But you're obviously not human either. A halfbreed like you isn't going to last five seconds out here. but if you want to be human so badly, go ahead and starve. But I'll warn you, starvation is utter hell for a ghoul."
"That's enough Touka," a voice behind her said, both turning to look just as an older man with combed back grey hair and a kind smile stepped into view.
He wore a clean white button-up shirt, a vest with black in the back and grey in the front with thin vertical white stripes, and a black tie in the front shaped like a four-pointed star with thin arms and a gold button in the center. Kaneki recognized him as the owner of the coffee shop where Touka worked. Anteiku, if he remembered correctly.
"This must be hard on you," the man said, smiling at Kaneki. "Please come with me young man."
"Are you gonna take him in?" Touka demanded.
"Of course I am," the man said. "Remember, it's our policy to help our fellow ghouls in their time of need."
He turned, walking away and Touka sighed, following, glaring back at Kaneki for a moment before he also followed.
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