Hide was currently reviewing Kaneki for the lessons he missed.
Kaneki sat by one of the vacant tables in Anteiku, listening to his best friend give him a review of each and every lecture he missed during his absence.
Hide has been at it ever since they got to the café. He even made sure to take as much notes as he can just so Kaneki could catch up, especially since they had a test coming up. And Kaneki, being the responsible and all, barely had anything to work with because of his rather busy schedule lately.
He mentally noted to treat his best friend for the amount of extra stress he's been giving him, and for caring for his welfare so much.
"Ahgh!" Hide screamed in frustration as he pulled on his hair. "What the hell have you been doing for you to go off the grid for nearly a week?!"
Kaneki felt bad. Hide did his best not to show it with his usual happy go lucky attitude, but he could tell his friend's been worrying a lot. It also pained him to keep Hide away from all of this, as much as he wanted him to know, he firmly believed that it would best to keep Hide out of his mess.
He brought a finger towards his chin and gently massaged it. "I never really got some rest ever since the whole accident. I just felt like resting for awhile you know? I even saw Dr. Kanou for awhile."
It didn't seem to reassure him as Hide glared at him for a second before sighing and collapsed himself on the table. "We've been at this for hours! I need a break."
Kaneki looked at the time and realized that his shift was about to start soon. "Well it looks like my shifts about to start soon, so I guess you're getting one."
Hide then slammed his hands on the table as he looked at Kaneki in surprise. "What, already?" He then looked at the clock. "I didn't realize it. I guess we've been in here longer than I thought."
Kaneki stood up from his seat and placed a hand on Hide's shoulder. "Thanks a lot Hide. I'll treat you today as I sign of thanks."
Hide smiled and waved it off with his hand. "Nah man, you did the same for me on several occasions. It's no big deal."
Kaneki shook his head. "I insist." His eyes shifted once more to the clock. "I really should get ready soon."
"Fine." Hide sighed before his face shifted into a playful grin as his eyes wandered to a certain lavender-haired girl by the counter. "You probably just don't want Touka-chan to be even more upset with you."
Kaneki's face quickly reddened at Hide's words. "N-no!" He said as he tried to compose himself. "I just don't want to lose my job that's all."
His eyes then shifted towards said person who was currently brewing up a hot cup of coffee. As he did so, he noted to himself to check up on her right after he changed. Touka looked oddly red and he worried that she might have a fever.
"Well, anyways Hide I have to get to work." Kaneki said as he picked up his stuff as he stood up.
Hide merely waved his hand. "Alright, I'll just be here then."
As Kaneki began to walk towards the stairs, he heard a bell chime and immediately turned towards the door. "Welcome to Anteik-"
Kaneki stopped mid way a step when he noticed it was Nishiki who entered the shop, wearing one of Anteiku's uniforms that suited him rather nicely, if he had to say so for himself.
"Nishio-senpai!" Hide spoke up before him. "What are you doing here?!"
"Oh!" Nishiki then turned towards Hide and stared at him for a couple moments. "What's your name again?"
Hide looked crestfallen. People rarely forgot about Hide because he usually gave a strong impression of himself. To hear someone say that probably ruined his pride a bit.
"H-Hide Nagachika!" He said as he recomposed himself. "How could you forget me after catching you having sexy time with that hot biology major?!"
"Ahgh!" Nishiki's face turned pale white. "I told you to never mention that again!"
"But how could I forget such a sight?" Hide said with a dramatic pause. "The sound of moaning, the smell of sex? I'll never see that hot senpai the same way ever again!"
Kaneki could practically see the veins on Nishiki's forehead throb frustration. "That's my girlfriend you're talking about you bastard!"
"Careful Nishio-senpai~" Hide said as he playfully made circles with his finger. "That's not how a proper Anteiku employee should behave."
This caused Nishiki to make a fist. "Shut the hell up Nagachika!"
"See!" Hide's face immediately lit up. "You do remember me." He then crossed his arms and puffed his chest in victory.
"You little…" Nishiki said as he grit his teeth in annoyance before sighing. "Fine."
"I've been working here for awhile to pay off a debt that I owe the manager." Nishiki continued as he placed his hands in his pockets. "To be honest though it's not a bad job, and well… I'm still getting paid and it has a lot of perks."
"I bet Kaneki dragged you into this huh?" Hide asked.
"Yep." Nishiki said as he sighed to himself.
"I knew it!" Hide slammed his fist unto the table.
"HEY!" Hide immediately paled as he turned to face a pissed off Touka glaring at him. "Don't damage Anteiku property!"
"Sorry!" Hide bowed his head in apology before pouting. "I'm jealous… now I want to work for Anteiku."
"But your family's pretty well off." Kaneki butted in.
"I know." Hide crossed his arms and puffed his cheeks. "But you can't just leave me out of the fun you know."
Kaneki scratched the back of his head at his best friend's antics. As much as he wanted to, it was too dangerous for Hide to be even more involved with the ghoul world than he already has.
Sure, Anteiku may be a friendly place to call home and all. But as far as he was aware, 100% of their employees were ghouls. Well if you count him being a half-ghoul, it would be far less than that.
He looked towards Touka only to be glared at as she looked towards a different direction. 'definitely still upset at me' he thought to himself as he realized his shift already started.
"I've gotta get dressed Hide." Hide looked at him, face still pouting. "Cmon, I'll treat you a frappucino."
He noticed Hide pout again. He sighed to himself as he scratched the back of his head. "And I'll cook you up a steak for lunch."
This seemed to lighten up his best friend again as a small smile crept to his face. "Deal."
"Yoshimura probably knows everything about Kimi." Nishiki said as he sat at one of the chairs in Anteiku's conference room. "And is trying to put a grip on me."
Nishiki sighed to himself as he continued. "I wonder if that's the case?" He then looked at Kaneki, who was currently busy feeding Hetare. "In the worst case scenario I could just move away. Jeez… that old man is a control freak isn't he?"
"Anteiku's lasted this long hasn't it?" Kaneki said as Nishiki looked at him with a curious expression. "He's probably doing what he can in order to preserve whatever peace is left on the 20th ward."
Nishiki leaned back deep in thought at what Kaneki said. "If you think about it…" Nishiki raised his brow to Kaneki. "Shouldn't he be keeping an eye out for you more?"
This caused Kaneki to momentarily freeze as he gave Nishiki a questioning look. "What do you mean by that…?"
"You're the Eyepatch ghoul right?"
Kaneki's heart skipped a beat. He couldn't recall ever telling Nishiki about that. Could he possibly have been too reckless with his movements that he was giving away his identity that easily?
As if noticing him tensing up Nishiki spoke up. "Relax." Nishiki said breaking him from his thoughts. "The manager told me."
"What…"
Nishiki shrugged. "Well it was more along the lines of 'The 20th ward's been more dangerous ever since Kaneki and Touka's incident'." He smirked at Kaneki. "And you could say that I just pieced everything together and it makes so much sense now."
Kaneki sighed to himself. "I forgot how smart you were Nishio-senpai."
A vein popped on Nishiki's forehead. "Oi! Are you insulting me?"
"No." Kaneki began scratching the back of his head. "But you're right."
This time it was Nishiki's turn to sigh. "I never really asked you." He said as he stood up. "Why did you help me?"
Kaneki was taken aback by what he said. Not that he thought about it, he never really thought why he decided to help him. Even back then when they barely knew each other.
Perhaps he felt bad and he still had a spark of humanity in him but…
"You needed help." Kaneki said, crossing his arms. "It was the right thing to do."
Nishiki burst out laughing.
"I'm so-orry it's just…" Nishiki trailed off "I guess you Anteiku ghouls really are insane."
Kaneki narrowed his eyes at him. "You're part of Anteiku now too, you know."
"Does he know?" Nishiki said, leaning on the wall as he recollected himself.
"Who?"
"You know who I'm talking about." Nishiki gestured his thumb to the door. "Nagachika."
Kaneki's eyes shifted towards the floor before shaking his head. "No." He tilted his head up and met Nishiki's eyes with his own. "And I don't plan on letting him know."
Nishiki stared at him for a few moments before slowly walking towards him and placed his hand on Kaneki's shoulder.
"I understand." He paused as he let go. "Now that I think about it, I'm sure as hell lucky that I found someone like Kimi. I can't imagine a lot of humans who'd accept us ghouls, even the ones from Anteiku."
"Well not everyone's as lucky as you Nishio-senpai." Kaneki said.
This brought a smirk on Anteiku's new member. "Well, can't deny that."
The two continued to talk throughout their break time. Laughs and insults were exchanged between them, as they enjoyed each other's company.
Despite the lighthearted mood between the two, Nishiki's words never left Kaneki's mind.
It wasn't like Kaneki was afraid that Hide would leave him once he found out the truth… It was that he knew he would.
But he'd die knowing.
"Well that's the last one." Kaneki said as the familiar ringing of bells signaled as the last customer left.
He made his way towards the only entrance to the store, flipping the sign to 'closed'.
Looking back he saw Touka starting to stack the chairs atop the tables. With no indication whatsoever that she heard what he said.
Sighing to himself, Kaneki pinched the bridge of his nose as he approached his co-worker. "Let me help you out." He then reached out to pick up the chair that Touka was about to pick up, only to be rather forcefully shoved away from the piece of furniture.
"I can help myself." Touka said, rather harshly as she placed it atop the table.
Kaneki grit his teeth. He was growing rather frustrated with how Touka was treating him throughout the day. He didn't understand why she was being so passively aggressive with him. He knew she was upset, but he never recalled doing anything to her to deserve her treatment.
"Touka." Kaneki said sharply. "What's bothering you so much? You've been so cold to me all day!"
As soon as the words left his mouth he immediately regretted it as Touka dropped the chair she picked up a little too forcefully.
"What's bothering me?" Touka screamed at him. "There's nothing bothering me dipshit! I've always been like this!"
She then jammed a finger to his chest. "Don't go asking me shit like that just because I'm not checking up on your stupid ass!"
This time Kaneki's face flushed in anger. "Stop treating it like a chore if I never asked you to!"
It all happened in a second.
First Touka looked taken aback by his words. Before she clenched her teeth and a fist landed square on his jaw.
"I was worried about you because you're my friend you asshole!"
He heard footsteps hurry towards the stairs. Slowly, his hand rose to the sharp pain on his jaw were Touka hit him, gently caressing the pain.
Kaneki collapsed at one of the chairs left around the store. He sighed to himself as he stared at the dimly lit ceiling above him. The anger quickly residing away as guilt washed over it.
Was he always like this? He never remembered his temper cut so low for him to lash out at Touka like this. He blamed it at one of the traits left over to him by his days as Haise.
Then he shook his head and knew it was something else.
He took a deep breath as he tried to relieve the tension in his chest. He started feeling it more and more ever since the incident with Hinami. He didn't really understand what was going on with him, but he supposed it was causing him to act rather more rash than the usual.
After taking a few breaths he slowly sat up the chair and gently picked it up, placing it atop the table.
He looked around and realized he was alone to clean up after the shop.
"Say that again and I'll cook you, you stupid bird!"
Kaneki heard as he slowly opened the door to the lounge. As soon as he entered, he found a slightly flustered Touka standing next to Hetare looking at him in surprise.
He watched as she puffed her chest out, her face immediately forming into a scowl as she stomped her way to the door.
"Touka wait!" Kaneki screamed putting the girl to a stop. "I came here to apologize."
She looked at him for a few moments before her eyes narrowed at him. "Leave me alone Kaneki."
"Please." He presented her the cup of coffee, which caused her eyes to widen slightly. "Atleast hear me out."
Despite being rather average at latte art, he tried his very best with the cup he made for Touka. He only had one chance at making this, as he didn't want to waste their stock on coffee for practice.
He held a simple latte with a bunny sketched with the cream. The bunny was rather rusty, and it was barely recognizable without its two long ears. Needless to say, he wasn't as good as Touka but he tried his best.
"I'm sorry for screaming at you." Kaneki said with his head bowed slightly.
He suffered in silence for a few moments before Touka spoke up. "Your latte art looks like shit." He looked up to find her lips turned up slightly.
They both took a seat right next to each other as Touka took a few gentle sips at her drink. "It's a little too creamy but it's not bad." She then crossed her arms. "Fine, I'll hear you out."
Kaneki bowed his head. "I'm also sorry for worrying you like that." He then leaned back and let his head hang slightly. "And for worrying everyone in Anteiku again."
"It's just…" He paused. "I didn't expect any of this to happen… And I guess I'm just so scared that things could go wrong at any moment."
He felt something touch his cheek as he turned to find Touka's hand in front of his face.
And flicked her finger straight at his nose.
"Ouch." Kaneki said in reflex as he rubbed his nose. "What was that for!"
"That." Touka said with an annoyed expression on her face. "Was for being stupid."
"What-"
"You can't stress yourself out over stupid things like that." She cut him off. "I get that it must suck hard for you not being a human and all that shit."
A finger poked his chest once again. "But you can't keep dwelling on that." She let go as she sighed. "This is your life now… You know, we're not as lucky as you."
A sad look washed over her face. "I've always been jealous of humans… They never had to worry about anything you know? They'll never spend the rest of their lives being hunted down like pests." She began to clench her fists. "So you better be damn grateful you were born one, even if you're a ghoul now or whatever!"
She turned to him with a scowl on her face. It made him feel bad for some reason. He knew how she felt about humans… So even back then, it was one of the things that drove him to do his best when he was king.
But seeing her now, telling him her vulnerabilities once more. It made him kind of happy, and that's probably what made him feel bad.
It was nice knowing that Touka was starting to trust him again.
Carefully he brought his hand atop hers, causing her to look at him with a confused and flustered expression on her face.
"I'm sorry…" He gave her a gentle smile. "If anything, I was happy I met the people of Anteiku, I was happy I met you."
He saw Touka's face start to heat up at his words. "Meeting you guys made me feel like it wasn't so bad you know?"
"Kaneki…" Touka told him as she slowly leaned closer to him. "Why did you save me back then?"
He felt himself drawing closer to her as she did. "That's crazy…"
He felt her breath touch his face. The scent of coffee filled his nostrils.
"…I would have been sad if you died."
He closed his eyes, taking in Touka's scent as he let his feelings take over.
"Am I interrupting something?"
He quickly leaned back and opened his eyes as he and Touka looked towards the door wearing a flustered expression on their faces as the manager stood rather awkwardly at the door.
"Baka baka baka!" Kaneki looked behind him to find the insult come from Hetare.
Maybe they really should cook the bird.
(Kurona POV)
The stares they gave them were rather unsettling as they made their way through the stares the Aogiri ghouls gave them.
She looked towards her sister and found that she was in a similar state. They were both tense, their kagune ready to strike should anyone make a move.
Perhaps to tense as she didn't notice that they already stopped moving.
"Well this is unexpected."
She heard the voice come from a rather petite girl fully wrapped around in bandages. She wore a purple cloak around her, and she seemed to be barefooted.
"I've decided that it would be more beneficial for us if we worked together, don't you say?" Kanou spoke up, trying to lighten up the tension in the air.
A small chuckle was heard around the room. "I'm glad you came to your senses and decided to stop running from us, doctor."
"Well, I was given no other choice by Kaneki-kun after he infiltrated my lab and all." Kanou said with surprisingly no hint of malice in his voice.
"Kaneki?" The woman in bandages said as she twiddled her finger at her covered lip. "Now where have I heard that name before."
"I'm surprised you haven't had your eye on him." Kanou said. "He's been causing quite the stir on the 20th ward after all."
She then playfully smacked her fist against her palm. "I remember now." She said with a hint of mirth on her tone. "Well that explains why he smelled a little funny."
"Good." Nashiro watched as her pseudo-father brought out a picture from his coat. "Because he has something that I need if you want me to help you."
"Have you heard of anyone named Rize?"
She ran.
She didn't know how long she kept her feet running, she didn't know how far she went. All she knew now was that her legs finally gave out on her, the soaring numbness paralyzed her, keeping her to the ground.
She panted deeply, desperately trying to breathe in as much oxygen as she can, trying her best to recover.
The fatigue enveloped her, with her feeling her consciousness slowly dwindling away. She wanted to rest right then and there, but she didn't know if someone was still looking for her.
She didn't want to risk it.
Her quivering arms slowly raised themselves to the ground as she tried her best to pick herself up, only to fall as they lay limp onto the cold pavement.
She was hungry, her stomach ached in pain as it craved for food. And right then and there, she wondered if she was going to die here on the cold hard floor.
"Young girl, what are you doing?" She heard a voice call out to her.
Her tired eye looked towards the source of the voice and found a stranger standing before her.
"One must not sleep in the middle of the path."
She turned her eye to meet the face of the stranger. It was a man with long raven hair that reached passed his shoulders.
"To run…" She weakly told him as her stomach grumbled. "I hungry…"
"Hmm?" She heard the man grumble as he reached out to his robe and took a small parcel and held it out in front of her.
Sweet aroma filled her nostrils and she felt her eyes flare as she quickly sat up and practically snatched the parcel from the stranger.
She violently unwrapped it revealing the meat hidden inside. Without hesitation, she brought the flesh to her mouth and started devouring it.
"You." She looked to her side and noticed the stranger sit right next to her. "Your name?"
She paused blankly, staring at the stranger who offered her food.
"Rize… My name is Rize."
Rize jerked up from her bed, to find beads of sweat dripping from her forehead.
Immediately she felt a wave of dizziness cloud her vision as blood rushed its way to her head. 'Why do I feel so weak?' she thought to herself as the familiar pang of hunger etched its way to her gut.
She tried to move from her bed but found that her arms and legs were restrained. She felt alarmed at her situation as her eye flared to life, willing her kagune to release.
Only to find nothing.
"I see you're awake." She turned towards the voice as her eyes widened in surprise. "Remember me Rize-chan?"
Kinda short and lighter than usual, I know. Sorry for the long wait everyone, been quite busy over the past month.
Thank you to everyone who's reviewed and continued to support this fic so far. Without you guys I don't think I'd really keep up the story, so your kind words and continous support kept me writing.
Now I'm most of you know what story arc's going to happen next, and a lot of you have been wondering how I'm going to roll with things. You'll see soon, hopefully real soon if I find the time and the inspiration.
After this arc, theres this gap between the major events in the original manga since I basically eliminated any reason for the story to progress down the original plot, besides the major arcs. So feel free to drop an idea or so, that might get my gears working. Oh and don't worry, I've got this whole fic figured out, but it's mostly centered around the ending(If we even get there), so I don't want to accidentally make the whole midpoint of the story a bit too boring for ya'll, especially with my usual late updates and all. So just hit me up!
Thank you once again and please do continue with your support everyone!
And thanks once again to those of you who point out my errors in the fic, I always make sure to leave a thank you note to those of you who do when I edit the chapter. And thanks to those of you who give me some helpful insight, I'm talking about you Ohnoes, seriously man make an account already.
Disclaimer: Tokyo Ghoul belongs to Ishida Sui