Disclaimer: I don't own Tokyo Ghoul or Akame ga Kill, actually if I owned anything more crossovers would actually occur.
Warning: A little blood, a little guts, maybe a little torture.
KyeVahl-Look on the bright side, they both will appear... at some point. It is all in the plan.
"It definitely seems like Dr. Kanou is dead. No body was found but around a month ago his entire clinic had been drenched in blood seemingly overnight. Another case where Night Raid is involved. A woman carrying a large pair of scissors had been seen fleeing the scene, an identified member of Night Raid." Kaneki thought to himself grimly as he pondered his next course of action.
A week had passed since his visit to Helter Skelter. In that time he'd done some checking himself into the list of doctors Itori had given him. Kanou appeared to be dead. Then the guy that went by Stylish seemed difficult to track down, from what he'd learned the man was out of the Capital at the moment. He'd already seen Chigyou for himself a few days ago, a bit quirky but not who Kaneki was looking for in the end. Now the only doctor left to look into was Fueguchi until Stylish turned up again.
His search for Fueguchi had brought him to the area near the Capital's western gate. The doctor ran a clinic open to the public although it prioritized soldiers, then again all clinics had to by law. Some were able to get away with not prioritizing the soldiers, but those were few. Fueguchi's clinic was one of the clinics more often visited by soldiers, particularly captains and up apparently. This meant that criminals would have to find aid elsewhere, or risk capture.
Good news is, Kaneki wasn't a criminal. Rumor of some guards being brutally murdered had circulated only briefly. Large numbers of brutal murders took place in the Capital everyday-usually at night-so his acts a week ago seemed to be buried for the most part. It wasn't like his left eye was red now and he wasn't wearing a cloak covered in blood.
Bad news was, he had managed to avoid eating people. A clinic that could potentially have traces of blood had the possibility of setting him off again. While he'd learned to suppress his hunger, that was without anything setting him of. There was no telling if he'd be able to continue the suppression when in the presence of a trigger.
Takatsuki was irritated with him for not eating for a week. Thankfully he'd learned to ignore her voice a majority of the time. There were times when he felt his resolve weaken but he always caught it and re-convinced himself not to eat people. Regular food just wasn't satisfying anymore however. It was like the teigu ate almost anything a normal human ate in seconds but it took a while and seemed satisfied by human flesh. By doing so it was causing him to starve unless he ate a person.
Kaneki wasn't about to start eating people if he could avoid it. Even if it meant starving to death. It wasn't like he was going to start something that would require him to continue living. Actually, since the fire there were few people that could even recognize him now. There was his friend, some of the people at the coffee shop he used to frequent... Well, he'd never claimed to be a social butterfly.
Going back to the problem at hand. Kaneki could be found sitting on a bench just down the street from the Fueguchi clinic. He wore a plain white shirt with black slacks. Nothing that stuck out too much. It was better than whatever could've been scavenged from what used to be his room back at the Kamishiro estate. He didn't exactly have a lot of money to burn however so he had to budget his spending carefully. Not needing food helped however.
Taking a breath Kaneki got up and made his way to the clinic. He honestly wasn't sure what to expect so he needed to be prepared for anything. What he hadn't been prepared for was a building that looked more like a home than a clinic. Kaneki almost knocked on the door, but the sign above the door clearly said: "Fueguchi Clinic" meaning it was a business of sorts. No knocking needed.
A small bell rang above his head as he entered the establishment. Wooden floors, white painted walls. Some chairs along the wall for patients he assumed. There was a door opposite the entrance, probably the main part of the clinic. Windows to look out at the city street. Paintings to decorate the plain walls. Couple of tables with a few different papers placed on top, most likely to occupy those waiting to be seen and then there was a desk by the other door for the receptionist.
Behind the desk was a pale woman who wore a pastel yellow-white dress. She had long brown hair braided and coming over her left shoulder and dark brown eyes. A smile was on her face when he came in. "Welcome to the Fueguchi Clinic."
Kaneki stood there awkwardly for a moment before approaching the desk hesitantly. "Ah, hello." He fidgeted a little, maybe it was the lack of communication with others lately, but his conversation skills seemed worse than usual.
The woman seemed to pick up on his uneasiness. "Did you come to see Asaki? He's with a patient right now but he should be done in a little bit."
He was a little surprised she was calling her employer by first name. Then his eyes landed on the wedding ring on the woman's left hand. So she must be Dr. Fueguchi's wife. "Ye-yeah. I need to ask him a few things."
"Ah, well we're not expecting anyone so if you can wait for a bit he can see you when he's done." The woman suggested, her smile seemed a bit smaller but even so she still sounded kind.
The black haired boy nodded an offered an awkward smile. "I can wait. Thank you...?"
"Ryouko Fueguchi." The woman offered a gentle smile. "You?"
"Ah, Ken Kaneki. I prefer to go by Kaneki however." Kaneki offered a weak smile before going to take a seat by one of the tables.
"I didn't expect him to be married..." He thought to himself, out of the corner of his eye noticing for the first time there was a third person in the room. A young girl that looked an awful lot like Ryouko. Most likely a daughter then. "Or to have a family actually..."
"Big deal. If he turns out to be the guy you're looking for you can just kill them too." Takatsuki spoke up, sounding rather bored.
"I'm not killing anybody." Kaneki thought to himself, knowing Takatsuki would hear the thought.
"Then why are you looking for the guy in the first place?"
At that, Kaneki looked down at the floor. Why did he want to find the guy that put a teigu in his body?
"Nothing to say?"
"I... just want answers." He decided to himself, even so Takatsuki still heard the thought.
"Keep telling yourself that."
He frowned at that. Takatsuki always seemed to think the worst of people.
Deciding to go back to ignoring the voice, Kaneki chose to observe his surroundings again. The girl was a few chairs over and reading a book with a notebook on her lap. So she was probably taking notes on what she was reading. Looking at the table a variety of articles, new and old could be seen littering the surface. There were even one or two dated for before the fire, around three weeks ago if he'd been keeping track of the date right.
The door that lead deeper into the building opened slightly. "Ryouko, could you come in here? I need an extra pair of hands."
Kaneki glanced towards the open door, hoping to catch a glimpse of the doctor. His hopes were quickly dashed however as Ryouko gave a quick nod before going through the door. Not even a backwards glance. It looked like he'd have to wait to see the doctor's face after all. Now it was just him and the assumed daughter of the older Fueguchi pair.
Looking more carefully at what the girl was doing, he noticed she was writing down certain kanji. There was no apparent order for them to make sense, at least to him. Then there was the way she'd frown at something she had read, looking confused. She'd get a thoughtful look as if trying to figure something out before writing down another kanji. Was it possible she was trying to learn what those kanji meant?
"Shuuu." The word slipped out of his mouth before he could stop himself when he noticed one particular kanji. It had caused the girl to jump at the sudden sound of his voice before looking at him with confusion. Realizing he should explain himself, he pointed at the kanji he'd noticed on her note pad. "The kanji, it means shuuu... A shower that comes down suddenly."
"O-oh." She stuttered nervously before looking down at the kanji he was pointing at. "Th-thanks."
He offered a small smile. "No problem..." Now he wasn't sure if he should say something more or not. In the end, Kaneki didn't have to worry about it anyways.
Ryouko had returned to the front room without his notice. A small smile on her face from watching the interaction between the two. "Ah, Kaneki? My husband..." She gestured to the door where two newcomers stood.
One was a regular guard with his left arm in a sling. This man was out the door not long after being seen, so Kaneki paid him no mind. The second was undoubtedly Dr. Fueguchi. The man wore brown slacks that cut off below the knees with a white button-up shirt, a white lab coat and an odd pair of sandals. He had black hair just long enough for a small ponytail and had dark gray eyes.
"I heard you wanted to ask me something?" The man asked, walking up to Kaneki and holding out his hand. Had Kaneki been more observant he might've noticed the man's slightly guarded look.
"A few, actually." Kaneki admitted, taking the older man's hand.
"I see." The man glanced over at Ryouko. "Why don't you take Hinami and head over to the shop?"
"Ah." Ryouko offered a smile and looked over at the girl now identified as Hinami. "What do you think Hinami?"
Hinami smiled and jumped up to her feet, nodding to her mother. With that mother and daughter left the clinic without so much as a backwards glance.
Once Kaneki and the doctor were both seated in the front room, the air seemed to become still with tension. Both for their own reasons.
"Well, ask away." Asaki stated, his guarded look more apparent to Kaneki now.
Kaneki tapped the chair arm nervously. "What do you know about the Kamishiro Fire?"
The man blinked, obviously not expecting the question. "... Not much. Just that there was one lucky survivor."
"Lucky?" Kaneki echoed with a raised brow.
"Well, yes. He did survive after all. I heard that he had some pretty bad injuries, not to mention the smoke inhalation." He nodded thoughtfully, as if trying to solve a puzzle. "I'd like to meet the doctor that saved him."
"Well... I wouldn't say I was lucky I survived." The words were in a low murmur, even so, Kaneki was sure the doctor had heard. He felt he could trust this man. "I watched everyone around me die in that fire. It wasn't the fire that killed most of them off either."
Asaki shifted uneasily in his seat. "So... it really was Night Raid then...?"
"I didn't see his face, but probably." With a sigh Kaneki placed a hand over his face. "I'm trying to find out who it was that saved me. I guess it wasn't you though..."
The doctor grimaced and shook his head. "Sorry, I'm afraid not... But why did you suspect me?"
"An informant... I knew it was a doctor that knew a bit about teigus or human experimentation. You were one of the first names I was given." Of course, that made Kaneki wonder what exactly Fueguchi did behind the scenes to get listed in the first place. What did the family man do to get on Itori's radar?
Asaki stiffened slightly, apparently finding that he was included on the list hit a nerve. "And why are you... Why are you looking into teigu and human experimentation experts...?"
Kaneki looked Asaki in the eye. He wasn't sure if he should tell the man... However, looking the man in eye, Kaneki couldn't help but feel like maybe he could trust the man. "Well... the doctor who saved me... he did something." Maybe telling the doctor would help the clearly guarded man trust him as well. "The reason I'm alive right now, is because the doctor that saved me put a teigu in my body."
For the second time that day, a bell rang above Kaneki's head. Only this time, he wasn't stepping into a clinic, but a coffee shop. A coffee shop he'd been to many times before the fire and was beginning to miss. This coffee shop in particular was popular among a certain circulation of people. The name of the coffee shop, Anteiku.
Anteiku was a quiet little shop that proved perfect for book lovers and had excellent coffee. This was the same place he'd go if he needed coffee beans and no place else was open. Actually, before he'd worked for Rize, he had helped out at the shop after his mother's passing for two years. He'd learned how to make a good cup of coffee in that time. After taking a job with Rize, Anteiku had become a second home.
He hadn't come to the shop since before the fire.
"Ah, Kaneki!"
Even so, he was a well-known face among the Anteiku staff and some of the customers.
The one who had greeted him was a man with brown hair styled with a slight pompadour and had light brown eyes. He wore the typical Anteiku staff uniform of a white shirt, black slacks, a black vest and a dusty gray-red tie. Kaneki recognized the man as Enji Koma.
"Come on in!" Koma waved his arm for Kaneki to approach the counter where the man was cleaning a cup. "We were starting to wonder when you'd show up!" He offered a grin, a familiar grin.
"I'm guessing you heard from Itori then." Kaneki murmured as he approached the counter.
"Of course." Turning his head Kaneki saw another familiar face, this one female. She had long black hair and dark brown eyes. As an employee of Anteiku, she wore a white shirt, black skirt, black tights, black vest and dusty gray-red tie. Her name was Kaya Irimi. "We've been keeping an ear out for you ever since the fire."
"Sorry to make you guys worry." Kaneki mumbled, rubbing the back of his head and choosing not to make eye contact. "I thought I should stop by real quick since I was in the area. Can't stay long."
"Are you and my husband done talking already?"
Looking over his shoulder at one of the tables, Kaneki was surprised to see Ryouko and Hinami. So they frequented Anteiku as well then. Well, there was that certain circulation thing, so he shouldn't really be surprised. The Fueguchi family was in the "Anteiku Circle" as it was commonly called by those in it, since Anteiku was at the center of the circle and all. With the Fueguchi Clinic being down the street and Asaki's name coming up on his list of doctors, he really shouldn't be surprised that they would come to Anteiku.
"Miss Fueguchi, of course." Kaneki offered a small smile to the woman. "Doctor Fueguchi was very helpful."
Ryouko looked a little relieved and smiled at that. "I'm glad to hear that."
Meanwhile, back at the clinic...
The front door was slammed off its hinges as a man wearing a white suit with a red shirt entered the clinic. He was a massive man and seemed to exude a dangerous aura. Despite the entrance however, he looked calm. A crack was heard as he reached his thumb over his index finger. This was one of the captains of the Imperial Guards, Yakumo Oomori but more commonly known as Yamori.
"Y-Yamori!" Asaki was found by the receptionist's desk, staring at the scene before him with a measure of worry. "What brings you here?"
Yamori smirked as he sauntered over to the doctor. "I was wondering if you could help me with something. You see, I'm looking for someone. They had at least one red eye, a speedy regeneration going on. You have knowledge on human experimentation, I was wondering if you knew him."
Asaki stiffened slightly at the description, which only made Yamori's smirk grow. "Why ask me?"
In a flash, the doctor was being held by the throat. "Don't play dumb now, Asaki." There was a predatory look in Yamori's eyes. "One of my men were in here earlier... heard that conversation you had with someone just a bit ago."
Terror was flashing in the doctor's eyes. His hands wrapped around the larger man's wrist in a vain attempt to escape his grasp. A part of him knew what was going to happen next, but it wasn't going to stop him from trying to live. He had a wife, he had a daughter... heck, a part of him even wanted to live for the survivor that had walked into his clinic not long ago.
He'd promised Kaneki he'd try removing the teigu himself. As long as the teen upheld his promise of course. Who was he kidding though? Kaneki seemed like the type to do so without anything being held against him.
"Well, I can always ask that wife of yours." Yamori stated absently as he lifted his free hand. He was flat out grinning at the fear in the doctor's eyes. His hand seemed to become wrapped in dark purple flesh. Without a second thought, that same hand was plunged into the doctor's body, eliciting a strangled scream.
It didn't end there however. Yamori seemed to be fishing around in the man's body, causing further screams out. Then he suddenly stopped fishing, apparently having found something of interest. Pulling his encased fist out, covered in blood, with a disturbing fleshy snap, a heart rested in the captain's hand. "Oh? Would you look at that Asaki! And here I thought your pretty little wife had this!"
What Yamori had failed to notice, was that Asaki wasn't screaming anymore. Realizing there was no sound, the man looked at the toy to see a pair of lifeless eyes. The dissatisfying sight made him frown. "Huh, guess you're dead. Too bad, you won't get to see me crush your heart..."
He had just been about to crush the heart himself, when he heard a gasp. Dropping the body, Yamori turned to see the source.
The doctor's wife and daughter had returned, with the company of a young man with black hair.
Yamori's grin returned full-force. "Ah, perfect timing." He clenched his fist, crushing the heart with so much force some blood hit the ceiling. His keen eyes didn't miss the slight twitch of the black haired newcomer. It wasn't a flinching twitch, it was more of a resist temptation twitch.
"Kaneki." The woman, the doc's wife spoke, glancing at the boy. "Take care of Hinami for me, get out of here."
This seemed to shock both the boy and the doctor's daughter.
"Mom?" Hinami asked with a worried tremor in her voice.
The woman's eyes had a steel to them that surprised the daughter and made her take an uncertain step back. "Run."
Kaneki, the boy, his hands were twitching as if arguing with himself about what to do. But the look in the woman's eyes seemed to convince him to take the girl and go. Taking Hinami's hand the two youngest in the clinic ran.
"Hinami... live."
Those were the last words Kaneki heard from Ryouko Fueguchi as he lead Hinami out of the clinic.
Why did someone have to attack now? Because he hadn't had any human flesh he couldn't use the teigu. According to Takatsuki, if he didn't eat, she didn't have the energy to fight. This left him completely useless. The least he could do for the Fueguchi's was save their daughter. He had promised Asaki he'd take care of Hinami if something happened.
Even if the teigu hadn't been taken out of his body, he would still do what he could to keep her safe... Although without the teigu he didn't exactly have the power to keep her safe himself.
He knew someone who might however.
As he and Hinami ran, Kaneki glanced back. Unfortunately he was just in time to see Ryouko's already bloodied and crippled body be thrown into the wall of the opposing building. There was no other option if he wanted to keep Hinami safe.
"Go back to the shop." Kaneki stated before letting go of the girl's hand and skidding to a stop.
Instead of running further, the girl stopped to stare at him. There was a look of betrayal in her eyes. Not because he wanted her to go on her own though. It was because chances were, he wasn't coming back.
"I'll come back for you. I promise." He forced a smile, making it as convincing as he possibly could. "Give me two weeks, tops."
Hinami hesitated, but seeing Yamori catching up she clenched her fists. "You better come for me!" With that she ran off down the street, disappearing into a nearby ally.
"Guess it's a good thing you're awfully hard to kill." Takatsuki spoke up, annoyingly calm despite the situation.
Kaneki turned to face the monster chasing him. That monster of a man had killed both Asaki and Ryouko. He wasn't going to let Hinami suffer the same fate. At least at Anteiku she'll be somewhat safe. Koma and Irimi weren't exactly weak and if nothing else there was the manager.
The massive man grinned as he caught up to Kaneki. "Got guts kid. If you're trying to be noble and keep the girl safe however, I'll still find her."
It was one thing for something like this to be happening at night. But the sun was still out. Or at least he assumed so, some clouds had moved in.
"I won't let you hurt her." Kaneki stated, shifting his stance, ready to defend. He would hold out as long as he could, give Hinami as much time as possible. "I promised Asaki."
At that, the man whose right hand was encased in some kind of dark purple flesh sneered. "That weakling?" The man's white suit was speckled with blood.
His nose twitched, he could smell the blood from where he stood. It was making him anxious. He could really feel the hunger now.
"Oh?" The monster leaned in closer to Kaneki. He'd seen something very interesting. "Your eye turned red." A grin spread across his face. "I wonder if you'll regenerate."
Kaneki reached towards her left eye. The smell of blood and his hunger must've gotten him worked up. Even if he couldn't attack with the teigu. It didn't matter though, because the next moment there was a bleeding gash in his arm. If his eye wasn't red before, it was now.
When had the man even moved? He'd moved with so much speed that shouldn't be possible for someone so large. The man had yet to attack again as well. Instead he was watching the wound with curiosity as it started to repair itself. How had he even known about the regeneration?
A grin, much more twisted than Kaneki had seen so far was now on the large man's face. Once more, before Kaneki could react the man attacked. Only this time the flesh-clad fist went into his stomach. The move had forced Kaneki to cough up blood as he struggled to process what was happening.
"Well, you're dead."
The man withdrew his fist, allowing Kaneki to fall to his knees.
"How about I show you my favorite place?"
Just when Kaneki was making friends... Well, I think we all know what Yamori is going to do. Toes, centipedes, numbers and all that. Hmm... that sounds like a good warning for the next chapter actually. Sorry this chapter got posted a bit later than usual. Normally I'd have posted right before I went to sleep Friday morning, but I didn't even have a majority of this chapter typed up then.
You know the drill, leave me some of your thoughts on the chapter. I don't care if it is by review or otherwise, I like feedback. Tells me if I should work on something or not. There should be another chapter on Friday as long as nothing comes up.
Also, anyone read Tokyo Ghoul:re yet? I feel like the answers everyone wants aren't going to come for a long time for some reason.
Hmm... what else is there... oh yeah, a black squirrel crossed my path!
