Well uh... This came out a bit longer than it should have... Enjoy chapter four.
Engulfed by a white light, Kaneki let out a small grunt as he shielded his eyes with his forearm. Fortunately, the blinding radiance transitioned to the familiar and hollowed blue skies above in no time flat. Laying on his back, Kaneki stared blankly up at the sky in awe as he watched the painted white clouds above moving across the heavens as a gentle sweet breeze carried them away. "This place again…" He muttered as he looked beside him to see the same white house as the last time. Picking himself off of the grass, he looked down to see that neither dirt nor any loose blades of grass had stained his white collared shirt. Looking over to the clothes line, he found there to be an absence of wet clothes. "He must be inside…" Kaneki concluded. The soft blades of grass brushed gently against the bottom of his bare feet as he walked over to the glass-sliding doors that led into the house. Only having to knock once, he could hear the sounds of distant footsteps from another room closing in. Popping around the corner, the familiar face of the blue-haired man smiled welcomingly as he slide back the glass-frame. "Good morning, Arata." Kaneki greeted with a smile.
"And a good morning to you as well, Kaneki." Arata replied back as he waved for the younger adult to come in. "Like I said before, my house is your house."
"Thank you!" Taking a step inside, Kaneki brushed past the white curtains that hung inside and was greeted with an enticing aroma of brewed coffee. Everything seemed appropriately decorated to match the overall presence of the house. Stepping across the wooden tiles, Kaneki could see the quaint, yet warm-welcoming sight of the yellow and tan counters of the kitchen just past the wooden-oak dining table. Pulling back one of the four chairs, Kaneki seated himself down with Arata sitting across from him. "Your house is very nice."
"My wife and I try to keep it that way." Arata chuckled softly. "But thank you for the compliment… Do you mind staying here for a quick minute?"
"Of course." Kaneki said with a nod.
"Wonderful! I'll be back real quick." With that said, Arata pushed his chair in as he left the dining table. Sitting patiently, Kaneki rested his elbow down on the table as he placed his palm on his cheek. Letting his eyes wander around the walls, Kaneki noticed a framed photograph facing the dining table. The picture was of two children, both with dark blue hair and happy expressions on their faces. At first, Kaneki considered the picture to be an early photograph of Arata and his wife as children, but quickly dismissed that thought for a more reasonable one.
"Must be his children." Kaneki mused quietly as he continued to admire the picture. The boy had hair similar to Arata's, and was sat down with his sister's arms wrapped around him in a loving manner. Looking at her short-parted hair, Kaneki found the white-rabbit hair clip to be adorable.
"Precious, aren't they?" Balancing a white cup on top of the white platter in his hand, Arata walked over to the table to place the set in front of his guest. Leaning over the cup, Kaneki took a whiff of the brown transparent liquid inside, and instantly recognized a peppery scent casting from the cup's contents. Quickly covering his nose with his sleeve, Kaneki sneezed.
"What is this?" Kaneki inquired as he once again took a peek of his beverage.
"It's a cup of detox tea my wife made." Although Kaneki didn't feel the need to be suspicious of Arata, he still felt some hesitance in drinking the tea. Arata was quick to notice this too.
"I don't want to sound ungrateful, but… I thought I was going to have coffee, not tea."
"That's what I thought too." Arata said in agreeance. Rubbing the back of his head, the man let out an uneasy chuckle before shrugging. "But… The Mrs. insisted that you'd drink this before you move on to the uh… To the next drink." Almost apologetically, Arata smiled at Kaneki before patting his shoulder. "She means well, I promise." Glancing up at Arata, then down at the tea, Kaneki stared at the beverage in silence before taking a deep breath.
I didn't want to impose on his hospitality, and even worse, I hated the idea of hurting Arata's feelings. Exhaling all the air in my lung, I grabbed the sides of the cup with both hands and instantly downed the entire cup full of tea. In hindsight, I'm glad that I downed the entirety of it in one gulp, because although the taste wasn't necessarily bad, it was strong. When I had awoken, I couldn't help but notice the bitter taste in my mouth.
Outside in the warm light of the afternoon sun, Kaneki sat at a bench with his legs crossed over one another as he tried to preoccupy himself. Having been extraordinarily hungry, he had tried ordering a quick hamburger from the campus food court, but was shocked when he had taken the first bite. It wasn't so much that the hamburger wasn't tasty; infact, Kaneki found it to be really good. However, Kaneki had found that the hamburger hadn't satisfied his craving. Having found himself plagued with a sweet tooth, Kaneki instead bought a bag of chocolates from the shop near the food court. However, unbeknownst to him, while he had been in the shop, Hide was outside of food court attracting a crowd of fellow students by the flock with his amazing physical abilities. Upon leaving the building, Kaneki was met with the sight of Hide standing ontop of a table with a confidence that only he could pull off. Not wanting to get passed the crowd of students islanding his best friend, Kaneki instead took a seat at a nearby bench with his book out in order to pass the time until lunch ended; however, he couldn't help but to listen in on what was going on across from him. Almost in an instant, Kaneki silently regretted looking over to where Hide stood. Catching sight of his best friend, Hide squinted his eyes from the short-distance to ensure that it was really him. "Hey, hey…" The longer Hide kept looking over at Kaneki, the more unwanted attention Kaneki received from the students as they gazed over at the same direction their champion was staring at. Hide's eyes suddenly shot open wide as he concluded that shy nerd he was staring at was infact Kaneki and not someone else with black hair. 'Pfff, I should have worn my contacts this morning… If only he had on something distinguishable, like an eyepatch or something… Do what you want cause a pirate is free; you are a pirate.' Shaking himself from his sidetracking thoughts, Hide bent his knees down before launching himself several yards into the air. The students let out gasps and comments as they watched Hide leap clear over their heads and land perfectly in front of Kaneki. Clamping his hands on Kaneki's shoulders, Hide begun to playfully shake Kaneki back and forth on the bench. "HEEEE-EY!" Hide shouted in an over dramatic manner.
"Wha?! I was just sitting here!" Kaneki said in defense, but was still shaken nonetheless.
"Damn you, Kaneki! I was waiting for like… How long was I waiting for?" Suddenly stopping shaking his friend, Hide tilted his head in thought as he asked Kaneki. Taking out his phone, Kaneki lowered his gaze toward the time displayed on the screen before turning to face back toward Hide.
"For about ten minutes-"
"-I've been waiting out here for ten minutes dude! I finished my food in about twelve seconds man, what took you so long?!" Letting go Kaneki, Hide let out a sigh as he brushed his fingers through his hair. "Rabbits die of loneliness, you know! Did you that?! Huh?!" Trying his best to play along with Hide's little skit, Kaneki did his best to stuffle his laughter, but that only caused Hide to break out of character.
"Hide, you know that's just a myth." Kaneki said with a light chuckle as he got up from the bench. "And besides, you're no rabbit."
"... Quiet, you."
"Nagachika." Looking over to where the crowd was beginning to disband, an older student with glasses, blond hair and a goatee approached over to where the two best friends stood. "This guy your friend?" The man questioned as he looked over to Kaneki.
"Yeah, this is Kaneki. Kaneki Ken!" Hide introduced him with a finger pointed. "Ever since grade school, I haven't been able to get rid of 'em!" Being as shy as he was, Kaneki avoided eye contact with the stranger and instead focused on Hide instead. Having noticed Kaneki's shyness, Hide rest his arm over Kaneki's neck and looked over to him with a wide smile. "This guy's a senior on the school festival planning committee!" He explained.
"Pleasure." The young man greeted with a wave, which Kaneki only acknowledge with a forced smile.
"And I was invited to be on the committee too. They sure didn't think that decision over too well, ha!" Hide said with a laugh as he put his arm back down to his side.
"You went and said you wanted to do it, didn't you?" The blond man smiled before turning over to looked at Kaneki. "Would you like to join too, Kaneki? Are you in any other clubs?"
"Eh?" Caught off guard by the sudden question, Kaneki begun to stutter for an appropriate way to say no without making himself seem like a loner. After all, it wasn't like he enjoyed anything that involved events like the ones his campus hosted. "Well, uh… I… Not really, but…"
"He can't!" Hide intervened as he lifted a finger up. "He's got, you know, committee phobia!"
"Eh? What's that?" The senior student inquired.
"If he's on a committee or anything, because of the extreme pressure he develops this condition where a mysterious fluid starts leaking out of all of his pores…" Not knowing how to respond to Hide's false diagnosis, Kaneki stared in disbelief at his best friend. He knew what Hide was trying to do, and appreciated his efforts, but Kaneki knew that no one with common sense would believe something as conveniently made-up as committee phobia.
"And how does that end?" Kaneki was at lost of words from hearing that sentence come out of the older, the supposedly more wiser, student's mouth. Even Hide seemed a bit surprised that the older student was buying into his lie.
"Um… Death, I guess."
"Really…" The man with glasses lowered his chin down in a moment of silence as he collected his thoughts. "Well, I'm sorry I asked, Kaneki. In the meantime, Nagachika, why don't you get the DVD of last year's festival from Nishio?" Hearing the other student's name, both Hide and Kaneki felt their hearts drop at the mention of that name. "Is that a problem, Nagachika?"
"Er… No problem." Hide reassured as he did his best to muster a smile. "I roger that."
Nishiki Nishio, a diligent student who had even been known around campus as a prodigy according to what Hide had told me. I didn't know much about him other than what Hide had told me that morning after I had walked Tooru back to his place. I knew I had to be cautious around him, considering that he was one of those ghouls who had no problem hurting others to get what he wanted. I recalled the dismay I felt after Hide had told me had fought him after witnessing a death of another violent ghoul who had tried eating a waitress. As selfish as I might have been, I overlooked the fact that Hide had won and managed to bring that waitress to the hospital. The only thing I really cared about was that he made it out alive.
The walk over the campus dorms wasn't very far from the food court, and before they knew it, Kaneki and Hide stood in front of the room with the plaque hung above reading 'AO'. "Okay, this is it. Wait a sec, will ya?" Just as Hide motioned his arm toward the handle of the door, Kaneki grabbed hold of his wrist.
"Hide, maybe I should get the DVD while you wait outside?" Kaneki questioned as he looked at Hide with concern in his eyes. "It hasn't been that long since that night you two fought. I don't think he'll be too happy to see you."
"Thanks Kaneki, but I doubt he would try anything funny in a place as public as this." Hide reassured as he gently brushed Kaneki's hand away. "Besides, I put him in his place once already; if he tries anything dumb, I'll just whoop him like I did last time!"
"I… I suppose so."
"Great! Glad you agree!" Without hesitation, Hide slide the door open hard.
"Hide, you could at least knock-" Opening the door, the two friends were immediately greeted with the sight of short hime-cut hair girl caught in the act of grinding on top of Nishiki's lap. She let out a high pitch scream as took notice of the two wordless young men at the doorway. Quickly exposing her breast, she pulled up the sleeves of her jacket before hopping off Nishiki. On her way out of the room, she picked up her bra from the floor as she rushed down the hallway with her hands covering her chest. Kaneki watched as the girl mashed the same button on the elevator, even as the doors were closing.
"Agh… Umm… Sorry 'bout that, Nishiki…" Hide apologized nervously as he rubbed the back of his neck.
"Nagachika." Nishiki muttered as he pressed back his glasses up the bridge of his nose. "I hate it when people barge in on my territory…"
"So I've heard." Hide replied back in a low tone as he stuffed his hands into his pockets.
"Don't you know how to knock? Is this how you show respect to your elders?" Nishiki question in a condescending tone of voice.
"I-I'm sorry, I really don't know what to say." Hide admitted in a still-shocked voice.
"You should at least have SOMETHING to say. Do you think I'm trying to trick you with smooth lines and sweet words?"
"That doesn't even make sense." Nishiki looked as though he if were about to counter with another remark, but withheld his tongue as his eyes gazed over to where Kaneki stood.
"Why don't you… Come in then." Nishiki hesitantly invited them inside as he stood up from his seat. "You're with Hide then?"
"Yeah, this is my friend Kaneki!" Hide replied back as he patted the young man in question on the back. "Known each other since we were kids."
"Nice to meet you…" Kaneki whispered softly as he did his best to keep eye contact, but instead found himself staring at the ghoul's mouth instead.
"Is that right… So you're Kaneki, eh?"
"That's literally what I just said." Hide muttered under his breath breath as he watched the older student casually walk over to his best friend. Suspicious and protective over Kaneki, Hide silently prepared himself for any sudden jolts of movement from Nishiki.
"Nishio Nishiki: I'm a sophomore from the pharmaceutical department." He introduced himself as he stopped a few feet away from the nervous bookworm. "My pleasure, Kaneki."
"Nice to… Meet you…" Kaneki replied back with a nervous tone, in which was amusing to Nishiki as he silently stared at the trembling young man with a smirk. Leaning away from Kaneki, Nishiki instead turned his attention to Hide with his grin clear from his face.
"So, now that we our introductions out of the way and we're all just the best of friends now; what is it that you need Nagachika?".
"I uh, I came here because the committee needs the information from last year's store."
"So you're in the event committee now? I never thought the standards would ever be that low." Nishiki smart mouthed before turning around. "Hold on a second, let me look." Searching through the shelves near his computer desk, Nishiki rifled through case-by-case silently. "... Huh… Hm. Nagachika, trying find it over by there by the other shelves. It should be in a green case."
"Ah, okay!" Hide acknowledged as he turned around begin searching in the shelves parallel from where Nishiki was searching through.
"Over there… um… Kaneki… You try helping look too." Nishiki ordered as he continued to switched his attention down the metal cabinets. "It's more efficient if you look over where my desktop and laptop are at. Come on, get a move on."
"Um… Okay…?"
After an hour of their fruitless endeavours, it gradually became more and more apparent that Nishiki was getting tired of what he considered to be a wild-goose chase. Even Kaneki had to admit that after twenty minutes of searching, he had found that he was basically going through the same DVD cases over and over again just to make it seem as though he was looking hard. "... I can't find the damn thing. Is it okay if we give up now?" Nishiki pleaded in exhaustion as he stood up from where had been kneeling near the cabinet.
"No… Please keep searching." Hide insisted as he did his best to keep his hopes up. Even if he was starting to doubt that Nishiki still even had it. Standing still, Nishiki opened the blinds of window and begun to stare silently outside. "...Nishiki?" Hide whispered as he took notice of the odd behaviour.
"Ah." Nishiki suddenly spoke as he tapped his fingers against the window sill. "I'm sorry, I just remembered that I took that disk back to my house."
"Wha!? For real!?"
"Don't make a fuss. I said I was sorry." Nishiki muttered as he felt his grin return to his face. "It's perhaps a bother for you, but you wouldn't mind if we went over to get it, do you?"
"You want me to go over your house?" Hide questioned cautiously.
"I don't see a problem with that, do you?"
"Well, it's just odd that you'd invite me over where you live is all. I mean-"
"Far be it from me to bring you out of your comfort zone, Nagachika." Nishiki countered. "Although, wouldn't it be a shame that the only reason you'd be kicked out of the committee would be over something as minute as not delivering a DVD?" Hide knew that Nishiki was taunting him, but he also knew what he spoke held some truth. Being so new to the committee, Hide knew that if he failed at his first assignment, it would surely soil his reputation for himself. Especially taking in consideration that his newfound popularity was rising rapidly through the campus; but endangering himself over something as trivial as that didn't seem worth it. On the other hand, he had beaten Nishiki once, so the possibility that the elder knew otherwise than to try an ambush on him conflicted with Hide's better judgement.
"Err… Kaneki, sorry! I guess I'll have to drop by Nishiki's place." Hearing Hide agreeing to go sent a shiver down Kaneki's spine. "You can go on ahead back home; I'll be there later." Hide reassured with a comforting smile before turning to face Nishiki. "Is your house close?"
"It's a bit of a walk, but not far."
Nishiki Nishio… He was behaving in such a docile manner with Hide and I. It was definitely how he always deceived humans, I was sure of it. "Deceiving"... In other words, he was hiding his real self… and Hide knew better than me what he was really like… I couldn't let Hide go alone. Even if he had already beaten Nishiki once, there was surely a reason why Nishiki was acting as if though that night never happened.
"Is it okay if I go too?" Kaneki's question surprised Hide.
"Huh?" Just as Hide suspected, Kaneki was frowning after he had asked. "... No, you need to get some rest…" Hide stated a little too firmly than he had anticipated. "Besides… Look! Nishiki and I are going to share some pervy talk…!" Undeterred from Hide's insisting efforts, Kaneki silently stared back at Hide, who only returned the same genuine stare of concern that he was receiving.
"... It's okay if he comes along, right?" Nishiki inquired as he rubbed the back of his head. "It's not like I intend to show you anything particular… Nagachika, you don't have to make such a fuss about it, right?"
"N… No. I just thought it'd be awkward since it's the first time you and Kaneki have met…" Hide replied as he scratched his cheek bone.
"And I'm saying it's okay." Nishiki stated back. Reaching into his pocket, Nishiki took out his cellphone. "Before we go, could you hold on while I make a call?" Without waiting for an answer, Nishiki made his way over to the far side of the dorm room to begin his call. Meanwhile, Kaneki looked over to see Hide looking down at the ground as he rubbed the back of his head.
"Why did you suddenly…?"
"I just… You know… Just in case you need help "finding" that DVD." Kaneki said in emphasis as his eyes gave a quick stare toward where Nishiki was.
"Well… Since Nishiki seems fine with it… I wonder if he's calling that girl from earlier."
"... Hide, is it fair of me to assume that you're not exactly on good terms with Nishiki?"
"Well, in all the days that we've spoken, even before that one night, there's never was once a time that I didn't get the feeling that he's poisonous. But yeah, even before that stunt he pulled, I'm pretty sure I've always hated him."
"I… I see…" Returning back from his conversation on the phone, Nishiki walked back over to where the friends were having their private conversation.
"Okay… Sorry for the wait! Shall we go?" Nishiki inquired with a bored look on his face.
"Yeah!" Hide said with a nod as he rested his hands on the back of his head.
"-Also, Nagachika... You said someone was poisonous?"
"Huh?! No… Hahaha… Ha…"
Nishiki Nishio… Ghouls... It seemed as though Hide and I were cursed to seeing ghouls more and more ever since we agreed to becoming Qunix. Why was it that I was able to see so many ghouls around us like this….? No… That wasn't true. I never noticed it before, but Nishiki and many others like him had always been around me. It was Hide and I who went astray in the "Ghoul's" world…
It had been around six o'clock by the time the group had actually left campus to begin their walk underneath the dark-cloudy skies of twilight. About a mile into the walk, they had stopped at a food stand. Having stopped walking, Kaneki became confused to see Nishiki staring thoughtfully at the food stand before pointing over the cashier. "It's just some taiyaki, but shall we eat?" Both Kaneki and Hide were equally surprised at Nishiki wanting to eat food.
"... Yeah, that'd be great!" Hide replied back with a smile. After they had ordered their food, it wasn't long until their taiyaki was handed to them in plastic wrapping. Peeling back the sides of the wrapping, Kaneki felt his mouth beginning to water as he became focused on the steaming-hot meal in his hand. Just as Hide did, Kaneki was swift to take the first chomp that nearly took off the entire upper half of the steamy fish.
"You two should mind your eating etiquette; we are out in public after all." Nishiki scolded in slight disgust. Although he was beginning to dislike Nishiki on a personal level himself, Kaneki knew that the other man's comment held truth to it. Despite being rude. Although he had to will himself not to immediately take the next bite, Kaneki gritted his teeth down hard as he slowly peeled back the wrapping more to proceed on to taking smaller bites. Chewing the crispy bite he took was painful for Kaneki as he held back to the urge to immediately swallow what he had in his mouth. By the end of it, Kaneki's hands were trembling slightly. "Kaneki, you're not part of the committee?"
"Huh?... Ah… That's right." Kaneki replied back awkwardly as he walked over to a nearby trashcan to toss away his wrapper. "Managing things isn't one of my strong points…"
"... Hm. It seems you're the exact opposite of Nagachika, who likes festivals." He mused with the same bored expression as before.
"Nishiki, do you like those types of events too?" Hide asked.
"Not really." Nishiki replied back with blunt honesty before the group continued their walk down towards the suburbs. "Since only committee members can do this stuff, you're able to make a lot of connections aren't you? When you gain many acquaintances in college, after you graduate, various things will be more convenient."
"You really plan far ahead, don't you?" Hide commented as he looked up to take notice of the sky beginning to get darker and darker.
"Someone who can't plan ahead on their own won't be able to live a good life." Nishiki stated as he begun to finally unwrap his treat. Hearing the sounds of the wrapper crinkling, Kaneki turned to look over with a look of surprise as Nishiki opened his mouth for the first bite.
A ghoul shouldn't have been able to eat something like that… But on the contrary to what I thought, Nishiki showed no signs of disgust as he was not only able to chew the food with no problem, but he was even able to stand swallowing it as well. There was no way… How was he able to eat it…? Perhaps he was just enduring it; it is possible after all.
Nishiki had been blending in with the human world very well. He really… He really seemed just like a normal college student. Up to that point, he'd been performing as a human flawlessly, while at the same time he was still a ghoul. Honestly, it was pretty impressive. I suppose if it hadn't been for the fact that Hide had told me what he really was before meeting him myself, I would have been one of the other students who wouldn't have ever guessed that Nishiki was a ghoul.
The walk had been further than either Hide and Kaneki had hoped for, and even with it clearly be night outside, they continued to press forward. "It's shortly after the bend at the end here." Nishiki assured as his pace begun to slow down.
"Is this a shortcut?" Kaneki questioned as he went ahead of Nishiki to see what was on the other side. What he had found though was what looked like a closed back-entrance for a factory of some sort with various tires and wooden debris spread across the enclosed area. "This… This seems like a dead end."
"You're right, it's a dead end." Before he could turn around in time, Nishiki was already behind Kaneki. Grunting, Nishiki delivered a powerful roundhouse kick that sent Kaneki bouncing against the pavement of the alley before slamming his head against a pile of metal debris with a loud thump. "If he caught a glimpse, it'd be troublesome, right?" Standing shocked at what he had witnessed, Hide felt his entire body became cold as he looked at Kaneki's fluttering eyes stare back at him.
"KANEKI!" Turning to face Nishiki, Hide had only allowed the ghoul open access to his neck. Lifting Hide up by his throat, Nishiki watched Hide struggle for air before taking a whiff through his nostrils.
"How disgusting… You smell like a female ghoul." Nishiki grimaced as he glared into Hide's eyes. "Did you really think that I would forget, or even forgive you for that night?" Without receiving an immediate answer, Nishiki begun to observe his body language for an answer to his question. Looking over to where Hide was staring at, Nishiki looked over at where Kaneki laid against the pile of fallen debris. "... Are you worried about him, Nagachika? I get it… You were planning on eating that guy, weren't you?" Despite his current situation, hearing that accusation caught Hide off guard as he switched his attention over to see the wide eyed-grin of the sadist staring back at him. "The moment when you betray an idiot who believes in you and when their anguished expression emerges… The look of hopelessness and such from other humans… Just doesn't stimulate one's appetite the same way, right… ?" Nishiki chuckled in a low tone before shouting with a demented look in his eyes. "You think so too, don't you!? DON'T YOU!?"
"Who in the hell… would do something like that…?" Hide choked out as he gripped Nishiki's wrist. Glaring back at Nishiki, Hide's left eye became red as he glared hatefully at the elder. "I'M NOT SOME COLD HEARTED BASTARD LIKE YOU!" Swinging his legs back, Hide pressed his feet against the brick wall. Still holding onto Nishiki's wrists, Hide launched himself forward while bringing Nishiki down with him. As soon as the other man's grip became weakened in mid-fall, Hide slammed Nishiki's wrist away and down against ground before rolling forward to break the fall.
"Shit!" Nishiki shouted as held his wrist. As the two got up, they stood a few yards from each other with anger in their eyes. "Touka, the bitch who you smell of, said something along the lines of that to me before… When some stupid junior looks down on me and says things like that, it really pisses me off." Grabbing on to his wrist, Nishiki popped it back into place before letting out a low chuckle. "You got lucky again, Nagachika! It's just your luck that I'm feeling pretty shitty right now… Must be the fault of that taiyaki I ate earlier…" Hide watched as the elder student lifted up his hand with two fingers pointed down toward the direction of his throat. "To think that humans actually eat that stuff of their own free will… It's the same as eating horse shit." Nishiki muttered before stuffing his fingers down his throat to forcefully induce vomiting all over the floor in front of him. "Ah… I feel much better now."
"YOU'RE SICK!" Hide shouted as he rushed forward with his fist raised in the air. However, as soon as he got close and threw his punch, Nishiki had already moved out of the way and positioned himself perfectly to strike. In the same direction that Hide had swung, Nishiki used the younger adult's velocity against him and kicked him into the side of the metal fence across from the factory building.
"This guy's been your friend for a long time, hasn't he?" Nishiki commented as he pointed over to where Kaneki was. "Just when the hell were you planning to eat him? Waiting for a situation where you could attack him? The place is important too, isn't it? How about telling your elder, Nagachika? WHAT WERE YOU PLANNING TO DO!? HUH!? HUH!?"
"He's not food, you sick bastard…" Getting up to his knees, Hide gritted his teeth. "He's my friend! So stop it right now!" Picking up a wooden pole, Hide charged toward Nishiki once more, this time with a weapon in hand.
"ARE YOU SERIOUS!?" Nishiki questioned mockingly as he bursted into laughter. Maneuvering left away from where Hide had swung the pole down, Nishiki reached around to grab hold of Hide's wrist. "It's like you're trying to hurt me using a nerf sword… Tell me Nagachika…" Spinning around, Nishiki delivered a powerful roundhouse kick against the side of Hide's ribcage. "ARE YOU A FUCKING CHILD!?" Before Hide was launched back into the air, Nishiki smirked at the sound of cracking from Hide's ribs as he watched him slide over the pavement as if he were a rock being skipped across a body of water. "What do you think? About my kick?" Nishiki asked mockingly before stuffing his hands into his pocket. "If I really went all out with it, not even Touka and Yomo would be able to beat me." Now fully confident, Nishiki casually walked over to where Hide had landed. "But I don't really get you… After all, to us, humans are just food. It's the same as beef or pork to them." He reasoned as he got closer. "Why are you pretending to be friends with some food? Is it fun to you?"
"It's… It's not pretending." Hide gasped out as he struggled to pick himself up.
"Is that so?... Let's say that's true for now; but I have to admit, you chose well to befriend that coward, Kaneki Ken. That guy's appearance, speech, and behavior are all very quiet and shy… Even if he did know something was amidst, he'd be the one who would never betray his friend, am I right? I mean, even you knew my intentions, and probably passed word onto him, didn't you? And yet, he still agreed to come, just so he could try and protect you… How sad." It certainly was true that Hide often noticed changes in a person's behavior that many would come deem trivial. Since long ago, even Kaneki had always thought that he had good intuition, but that it was only because of the persistent association they had together over the years. Kaneki, still barely conscious, continued to watch the scene unfold in front of him. He had never guessed that others felt the same way about Hide as he did as well. "Stand the fuck up." Without waiting for Hide to get up on his own, Nishiki grabbed him by the hair and yanked him to his feet. "What happened Nagachika? Don't you care about Kaneki?... Or would you rather watch me kill him?" Having enough, Hide swung his fist forward and landed a heavy hit on Nishiki's face. However, instead of having knocked him out, this only angered his attacker. "You little shit… time to put you back in your place…" Nishiki muttered in a low voice as his eyes turned red. In a flash, Nishiki was behind Hide and had already placed his foot down against the back of his knee. Pulling back on Hide arm's, Nishiki popped Hide's joint out of place; all the while he savored his screams of anguish and pain. He quickly did the same for the other leg before kicking Hide down on to the floor. Hearing the whines of his defeated opponent, Nishiki grinned in excitement as he kicked Hide on the side to roll him over before spitting on his face. "Did we play a little too much?" Looking up in painfully, Hide watched as a single tendril with split-ends extending out emerged from the lower back of Nishiki as it wrapped itself around his foot. "Though it was too easy when I let the kagune reveal itself… Well then… Let's quickly end this." Resting his foot on top of his face, Nishiki looked down with an expression of disgust as if it he were about to crush an insect. "See ya, Nagachika." Before he could lift his leg up to deliver to killing blow, the ghoul heard rustling of metal and planks behind him. "Eh?"
Standing high above on a rooftop, Touka stood watching over the city. Hearing her phone ringing, she took the device out of her pocket before accepting the call. "Hello, Yomo?... Sorry, I have some business to take care of… Can you wait for me a little while?"
I… I didn't know what came over me. I would have tried helping Hide sooner, but I found that my body refused to budge an inch forward. It was true that I was kicked and landed pretty hard, but how could I have gone down from one kick while Hide was able to withstand so much punishment? I felt nothing but guilt as I did nothing but watch my best friend being put through so much pain. Why was it that only when I knew that it would have been the end for Hide, did I find the strength to get up? Standing up, all the pain in my body vanished in an instant as I could feel the quinque piercing through my back as it enveloped my body from the neck down in black armor-like plating that shined in the darkness of the night with a dimly-lit blue light. Was this what my kagune was? I didn't know… But I did know that only one thought begun to run rampant in my head: Destroy.
"About time you got up, you-" Kaneki refused to allow the ghoul finished his sentence, he rushed toward Nishiki in a flash. Without warning, Kaneki stood mere feet in front of Nishiki, who jolted back in shock at the sight of the Qunix's body enveloping in a red light as the blue lights in his kagune also transformed. As the red linings on his kagune-armor expanded, Nishiki felt an intense heat beginning to singe his body. "Wh… What the hell are you?!" Crushing Nishiki's wrist and shattering his bones as he grabbed hold of him, Kaneki impaled his arm through the ghoul's torso. Lifting him up by his spine, Kaneki's intense heat produced from his kagune caused a blackened smoke to begin rising out of Nishiki's body. The ghoul could could feel his organs cooking from the inside out. "GAH… STOP IT! STOP IT, YOU FUCKING IDIOT! I'LL DIE! I'LL DIE! I'LL DIE I'LL DIE! I'LL DIE!"
"Kaneki, that's enough."
With a sudden jolt, Kaneki felt his body shudder as he realized what he was doing. Despite everything the ghoul did to both him and Hide, Kaneki still didn't want to hurt anyone. Feeling the heat from red light beginning to fade away, Nishiki let out a grunt as Kaneki released his grip around his spine. Falling to the ground, Nishiki begun to cough up blood violently as he weakly begun to crawl away from Kaneki. Not that it mattered in actuality. It wasn't as though he had any desire to kill him. Looking back over to Hide, Kaneki quickly rushed over to his best friend's side. "Hide!" The closer Kaneki got though, he couldn't help but feel the sense of being targeted. Halting in mid sprint, Kaneki felt his kagune taking control of his movement as his arms reached up to grab hold of an outstretched leg.
"What the-" In one swift movement, Kaneki swung the would-be attacker back into the alley behind him. Turning around, Kaneki watched as the hooded assailant tumbled and bounced over the pavement and into the same pile of debris he had previously landed in himself.
"Stop it! Just stop it!" Kaneki screamed in protest as he felt tears of frustration beginning to run down his cheeks.
Destroy. Destroy. Destroy.
"I don't get it… Is that what your kind does?! Attack others for just because you can?! Is that the kind of power you freaks want?!" Kaneki shouted as he could feel his kagune beginning to glow a brilliant red once more. "IS THAT WHAT YOU WANT!?" Before he could leap toward the fallen figure, Kaneki was instead tugged back with a powerful force. Looking down, he realized that three red tendril-like appendages had been wrapped around his chest- holding him back. "... Hide?" Behind him, from where the kagune had formed, stood Hide who could barely stand up staring back at Kaneki with a look of dismay.
"... Kaneki, please stop...! That's Touka!" Just as the heat from Kaneki's kagune finally ate through Hide's kagune, the bookwork looked over to where the figure was. Standing up from the rubble was a girl with a black skirt and white-school uniform on taking off her jacket glaring back at Kaneki.
"Touka…?" Although the face of the young woman was far from friendly, the familiarity of seeing her likeness eased Kaneki's stress. Even his kagune begun to evaporate into a black mist that vanished in the air as he begun to calm down. " Touka… Why did you try kicking me?"
"I thought your dumbass lost the ability to reason." Touka replied back bitterly as she begun to dust off her uniform.
"Oh… I'm sorry if I hurt you."
"Whatever; just follow me, okay? It won't be long until someone calls in about the shit that went down here."
WELL ZOINKS GANG! I'll update when I can, lol. Once again, thank you for reading this! And yes, I tend to do references.
