"Did you enjoy running laps Kaneki?" were Touka's first words to her white-haired friend after seeing him. The grin on her face showed just what she wanted to hear
"Yes, actually. I found something that will be very useful to us" he informed her
"Oh? What is it?" Touka asked, rather disappointed that he had enjoyed his run
"A source of food. In the warehouse over there, there's the leftovers of the Survey Corps" he pointed to the warehouse
"Fan-fucking-tastic!" Touka had been getting a bit concerned with regards to what to do for food here, this news was just perfect
"I say we go there after 'dinner', if we say we're just going for an after-dinner run, nobody will be too concerned about where we are" Kaneki proposed
"Yeah, but we've just got to make sure we don't get our clothes all bloody and make sure we don't stay in their too long, the smell of blood will cling to us" Touka didn't want to get caught so quickly, to which Kaneki agreed
"All right, maggots, today we'll be testing your aptitude for the ODM gear, if you can't do this, you can't just kiss goodbye to ever being a soldier!" Keith yelled
Kaneki and Touka found the ODM gear rather easy to use, they just had to keep their balance, it was easy. "FUCK!" W
Evidently Eren wasn't finding it quite so easy, this was his third time falling and hitting his head, it was certainly giving everyone a good laugh. Looking around Touka noticed that Mikasa was finding it just as easy as they were, it was similar with Jean, Connie and Sasha. "Uh-oh, that means Jean's gonna get all cocky about it and lord it over Eren. Not another argument" Touka was exasperated just by the thought of it
"KANEKI! KIRISHIMA! ACKERMAN! YOU THREE WILL BE TRYING BASIC MANUEVERING TOMORROW! THE REST OF YOU BETTER STEP UP YOUR GAME OR THESE THREE WILL LEAVE YOU IN THE DUST!" Keith yelled, "Can he not speak quietly at any point in time?" Kaneki whispered to Touka, to which she giggled lightly, "The better question is whether he can say anything without insulting someone else" Touka whispered back with a smile on her face. It had been a while since Kaneki had last seen that gentle smile; it was a precious sight to behold.
"We should get going" Mikasa's voice interrupted his train of thought as she spoke to Eren, who was still struggling to even get upright on the ODM gear.
"Leave me alone!" Eren scolded her, attempting to swat her away from helping him, "Oh great, he's too proud to let even Mikasa help him" Kaneki thought
The next day, Kaneki, Touka and Mikasa went with Keith into the forest to attempt to move around using the ODM gear, it was relatively easy for them. After only one day of using, they looked like they had been using it their whole lives. Their level of talent for this honestly made Keith a bit scared of how strong they'd be in the future. They were able to move between the trees seemingly effortlessly, Kaneki likened it to when he uses his kagune to move around, just replace tentacles with wires. Touka was honestly by how easy this was to get the hang of, how the others didn't find it so easy was a mystery to her.
"ALRIGHT, THAT'S ENOUGH! NEXT UP, WE'VE GOT HAND-TO-HAND COMBAT TRAINING" Keith yelled leading them to a large training field where the rest of the 104th squad were already practising.
Touka and Kaneki looked at each other, silently agreeing to try and avoid this as much as possible, lest they accidentally kill someone. They separated and tried to stick to the side-lines as much as possible, unfortunately, it didn't exactly work. Kaneki was approached by Reiner and Eren, clearly wanting a fight, "Just because you're talented with the ODM gear doesn't mean you can slack off in this"
Reiner pushed Eren in front of him, "Go get 'em, Eren" he encouraged
"Just you? Are you sure you don't want your friend to join too?" Kaneki asked out of genuine concern for Eren's safety, he didn't know how much to hold back
"Don't underestimate me!" Eren yelled, charging at Kaneki with the wooden training knife in his hands, thrusting it towards him
Kaneki didn't even flinch, Eren's movements were so slow that the white-haired ghoul could've avoided him in his sleep. He moved closer to Eren and grabbed Eren's head and slammed him to the ground, causing Eren to grunt in pain. "Are you satisfied now? Even combined, you two couldn't beat me"
"Are you sure about that?" Reiner taunted before charging Kaneki head-on
"Yes" Kaneki, gave Reiner a small punch to the stomach, holding back considerably, but it was still enough to cause the large man to keel over on the ground
"YAAARGH" Eren roared, attempting to punch Kaneki, Kaneki expertly dodged each blow until he finally got bored and gave Kaneki a small punch to the nose. Once again, he hadn't held back enough, he broke Eren's nose and had knocked him unconscious.
"He quickly noticed his mistake as he felt an overwhelming bloodlust targeting him, looking behind him, he noticed Mikasa walking towards him. Her eyes were covered by her bangs but he didn't need to see them to know exactly what kind of look she was giving him.
"Kaneki, what exactly do you think you're doing?" Her voice was quiet but each word was heavy on the ears of all nearby
"They wanted me to fight them, and so I did. I'll admit that I didn't hold back enough but the fault ultimately lies with them" He spoke calmly, not intimidated by her in the slightest.
"Their fault? What do you mean by that?" Mikasa seemed ready to kill Kaneki if he pushed her any further.
"They were too weak, they couldn't even protect themselves" that pushed her to her limit, no sooner than he finished speaking, Mikasa was rushing towards him. She through a strong right cross towards his face, however he caught it in his left hand.
"Is that all?" Kaneki's voice echoed in Mikasa's head, how could he be that strong? What did she need to do to get that strong? Was she still weak? How could she protect Eren if she could be stopped so easily? These questions rushed through her head.
Kaneki grabbed hold of Mikasa's right hand and pulled her towards him and raised his right leg, kicking her in the stomach, knocking her back about 3 metres. She held her stomach as she stared at Kaneki, not entirely out of hatred anymore, instead there was a glint of admiration, she wanted that much strength and he had it. Granted she still wanted to kill him for hurting Eren.
"Hey, what are you doing Bakaneki?!" "Uh-oh" he thought, realising who was yelling at him, he turned to face them quickly, before having to dodge quickly as said person tried to kick him in the face
"Why'd you dodge that?" she really wanted to kick him now
"Because, I don't want to die. You were trying to take my head off" he attempted to reason
"SO?" her temper had gotten the better of her, she rather liked Mikasa, she ran straight at Kaneki, not intending to hold back against him.
She tried to kick him in the face again, but her attempt was foiled as Kaneki brought his arms up to block, this wasn't going to be easy and she knew it. Kaneki stood still, awaiting Touka's next move, he didn't need to wait long, Touka came at him again with a fierce flurry of punches, which Kaneki blocked expertly. Touka had to get clever now, she faked a punch from the left, leading into a right roundhouse kick to his side, she got him. Kaneki was knocked down from the intense force, the recruits had all gathered to watch now, such a high-level fight wasn't exactly a common sight. Touka let herself smirk at landing a kick on him, until he got back up, the only indication of him being hit was a bit of dirt on the side of his uniform. Touka's smirk fell from her face, she knew he had gotten stronger but she had never expected him to have become this strong.
"Kaneki, if you went all out, you could have beaten me already couldn't you?" Touka asked, already knowing the answer, the only answer she received was Kaneki looking away slightly. "And if I used my full strength, it would still not be too difficult for you, would it?" once again, silence was his response
"All out? They were holding back? And they were still that strong?" Mikasa watched the two ghouls fight in awe of their strength
"WHAT'S GOING ON HERE?!" Keith yelled, he really never stops yelling, walking over to where all of the recruits were gathered. The sight he witnessed certainly wasn't what he had expected to see, Reiner keeled of on the ground, clutching his stomach, Eren lying on his back with a large bruise and nosebleed covering his face, Mikasa on the ground staring intently towards Kaneki and Touka, who seemed to have been fighting, but now the two of them just looked sad.
"ALRIGHT, SHOW'S OVER, GET BACK TO TRAINING!" Keith ordered the recruits, "As for you lot, take Braus and Yaeger to the med-wing. Ackerman, can you walk?" Keith sounded genuinely concerned for his students, he wasn't yelling for once.
"Yes sir" Mikasa stood up, completely recovered from Kaneki's kick, she rushed to Eren's side and lifted him over her shoulder, Kaneki walked over to Reiner and offered him a hand, to which Reiner chuckled.
"You certainly are strong, I'm sorry I messed with you" he spoke quietly, still not entirely recovered
"No, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have hit you so hard" Kaneki apologised, bowing his head to Reiner
"Heh, it's okay, now help me up" Kaneki pulled Reiner's arm around his shoulder and supported him as he attempted to walk. It wasn't long before Reiner began to fall over, until he was caught by a certain purple-haired ghoul, who lifted Reiner's other arm over her shoulder, "Here, let me help" she asked of them
"Thanks Touka", "Yeah, thanks a lot" The two boys thanked her
"Hey Kaneki"
"Yeah?"
"Can you give me a bit of training, you know, like how I used to train you?" she asked trying to avoid looking at him
"Sure, I'll try my best to be as good as you were" he resolved
"We might want to hurry up, or we'll be left behind" Reiner interrupted them, drawing the ghouls attention to Mikasa who was currently running full speed to the med-bay with Eren over her shoulder.
"Maybe we should follow her example?" Touka had a teasing look in her eyes
"Wait, what do you mean?" Reiner was worried now
"I like the way you think, Touka" Kaneki agreed with her, the two ghouls lifted up one of Reiner's legs with one hand, supporting his back with the other
"Guys, I really don't think this is sa-AAAAAAAAAAAARGH!" Reiner was reduced to screams as the two ghouls began running full speed to the med-bay
"YOU GUYS ARE FUCKING CRAZY!" He screamed at them, to which the two ghouls just smiled at each other and sped up their running
Touka began laughing as they ran, then an idea popped into her head, she moved her hand that was supporting Reiner's back as she snaked it towards Kaneki's, their fingers interlocked. Kaneki looked at her, rather confused by her action, she looked at him with a giant smile on her face and her cheeks were dusted pink.
After leaving Reiner and Eren with the medical staff, Mikasa refused to leave Eren's side so the two ghouls let her stay and walked back to the others. "COME ON, IF YOU WANT TO BE A PART OF THE MILITARY, YOU NEED TO DO BETTER THAN THIS!" Keith's voice could be heard from miles away. Upon their arrival, the majority of the other recruits began backing away from them, scared of their monstrous strength. "Ah, Kirishima, Kaneki. How are they doing?" Keith asked them, slightly worried about his recruits
"They'll be fine, but Mikasa's going to stay with them for the time being" Touka reassured their instructor
"Good to hear, those two have some potential and it would be a shame if they had to drop out over this. Now, for you two… I heard what happened, and instead of punishing you, as I should, I'm going to give you two permission to use the forest over there to do training while the rest stay here" this surprised the two ghouls, it was exactly what they needed
"Sir, we'll accept that, but why?" Touka questioned their instructor
"Because you scare the other recruits when you fight seriously and I don't want anyone in my class to slack off while the others train, it gives the impression that I'm lenient"
"Sir, you see, I'm a bit sensitive about my strength, and so could you not let anyone watch us as we train" Touka asked him in the sweetest voice she could manage, forcing a small blush to her face, similar to what she did at Anteiku when Hide flirted with her.
"You're very good at the 'sweet little girl' act, and sure, I don't care what you do there during that time anyway, you're already perfectly skilled at hand-to-hand combat so I don't need to teach you anything. Go have fun with your boyfriend, I'll whistle when it's time to go back, so just have your clothes back on before then" he waved them off as he went to scream at Connie and Sasha for messing about
"Erm, well at least we have somewhere for me to train you" Kaneki reasoned with pink cheeks
"Shut up, Bakaneki" Touka ordered him, her face considerably reddened
This took a while for me to write, I'm sorry
I might include a bit more Touken if you ask for it, or not, let me know what you want :)
