Do You :REmember?

Chapter 8: Taming A Beast (Part 2)

"KANEKI!" Touka yelled as she dodged a rampaging tentacle which was accompanied by many sharp and deadly shards, firing some of her own Ukaku crystals as well. Needless to say, they were deflected by the Rinkaku quickly.

Was it even possible for a ghoul to have four Kagunes? Surely not, but it must be Kaneki's cursed luck that always brought him into the most unfortunate situations. Touka tried not to smirk at the thought of always having to clean up after him. Damn Aogiri. Damn Kanou. Damn CCG. Damn everyone. If only she could have protected him from running to his "death" three years back, then maybe he would not have to endure all this shit.

And after three years of waiting, she could finally see Kaneki. As in Kaneki and not Sasaki Haise. But after all this time, massive shit had happened to him once again. Massive massive shit. Why couldn't people just protect him properly? Why did an innocent useless bookworm have to go through all this? Touka was very pissed. Because she knew that she herself could do nothing to protect him.

And what made her even more pissed was that she was distracted, resulting in a shard grazing her thigh. "Gah..." Touka tripped a little and she was careless once again. A tentacle ripped through her skin and through her abdomen. Blood made its way up her throat and she coughed the red liquid out, pooling on the floor before her. How long had it been since her last fight? She was rusty indeed.

"yOuU l-LOoK tAStY HeEEHEe Y-yOu sHaALl bE m-MY fIRsT mEeEaAL hAhAHAh!"

White-hot pain seared through her right shoulder.


The meat tasted horrible. So he was eating a ghoul. But it was fine. He was hungry anyways. He just wanted to eat. Hahaha he was just soooo hungry! And it was such a fine piece of meat. He opened his jaws for another bite.

But he felt arms encircling him.

What…?

"Kaneki... If it's for you, go ahead and eat... It's fine..."

It was a woman's voice. He could not see anything. But this voice. This voice.

It was familiar.

He knew this person.

Who. Who. Who. Who. Who.

tT-T-oOUuUk-Kk-KaAA


"If you were at your best right now, who's better, you or him?"

"A few years ago I would have beaten him."

"Alright. I have an idea."

Teeth sunk into his right shoulder, but it was fine. If it was her, he did not mind. Someone screamed his name and said that he was his. The creep. But it was fine now, wasn't it? She could fight him. She was strong.

He could only watch the fight from where he was kneeling, rivulets of blood dribbling down his shoulder. She was beautiful, her Kagune a magnificent shade of red and purple. It was like seeing a literal version of the fire burning in her heart. It was the first time he had really seen her Ukaku.

He wondered if he would ever be this strong. He wondered if he would ever catch up to her. He wondered if he could ever protect people like how she was protecting him now. She was just perfect in his every sense of the word.


She was Touka. The same person who had beaten him over and over in Anteiku, bashed him for breaking plates or using the wrong coffee beans. The person who had glared at him when he tried to help. The same person who had punched him over and over on that overhead bridge. The person who had never ever turned away from him (he could tell she meant the opposite of what she was saying that day on the overhead bridge) even after he had changed so much. The person who had wanted him back so much.

But he had left her.

Again and again.

And what was he doing now?

This flesh that he was ripping off.

Was.

Touka.


"... Kaneki?" Touka managed weakly. Somewhere behind, she could hear Yomo's shouts of worry and Ayato's curses. So her brother actually cared after so many years, huh. How ironic. But her attention was not on them. It was on the person before her. He was still a person to her even after so many years. He had never been a monster to her - just a lost nerdy bookworm not knowing what to do and messing up over and over again.

He had been fervently tearing at her now mangled right shoulder, ripping off layer after layer of flesh. His appetite had brought his teeth biting at the flesh around her shoulder bone. She absently wondered how long it would take to heal - then she was suddenly aware that the pain in her shoulder had ebbed slightly. Kaneki's jaws were open and ready to bite but he did not move. Did something she say hit a nerve? She hoped so.

"Kaneki?" she tried again. His blank eyes were frozen, focused on nothing.

Before anything could happen, though, an impact blasted both Kaneki and her backwards. Kaneki's kagune were all blasted away, no doubt by the Death Reaper who had the Quinque Narukami held up. With inhuman speed, he dashed forward and brought IXA slicing down Kaneki's back. Blood spurted and streamed from the deep gash. All of his kakuhou had been injured in that one attack. "I'm sorry, Haise," Touka heard him say, and a sickly red filled her vision.

Kaneki screamed but fell silent soon after. He lay limp on the cold cement floor, blood quickly pooling around him. Touka crawled towards him, stroking his now tainted but all-white hair with a sad smile on her face as she stared at Kaneki's face scrunched up in pain. Her shoulder and abdomen were bleeding profusely but she could have cared less about the pain. All she cared about at that moment was Kaneki.

"He needs immediate medical help. Medical Squad," Arima ordered through the headpiece. Said squad did not need more words before they got to work, trying to stem the blood flow while transferring Kaneki into an ambulance.


Meanwhile, a certain blonde stared out of the small airplane window. Ahh... those clouds look as white as his hair hahaha... I wonder how he's doing? That Kaneki...