I'm back. I'M BACK! Heck, that took me some time. If you guys, or the small group of people who kept their hopes of this story being continued, then HERE I AM. And if you do want an explanation, then I'll just say this. I got lazy :/ And caught up with school work. End of Year Exams just ended, and god, am I relieved. If anything, I'm more than happy to continue writing, though I REALLY need some reviews from you guys, or maybe even comments on how you guys want this story to be written. (Another way of saying I'm lazy and I don't want use too much time just thinking of a plot) But in all honesty, I'm slowly realizing that I am going to have a barricade that prevents me from going any further in the story, just because I am unable to think of any interesting plots. So, yeah. (QwQ) To anyone reading this, give this story a chance, follow or favourite it, maybe even leave a comment. Whatever it is, any feedback is invaluable to me, as long as it is constructive. Then, without further ado, let's get on with the real story! (BTW I currently have a BNHA story in the works, with a whooping 24k words. I am going to post it real soon, once I'm confident that it is up to standard, so do look out for that! ^w^)
"Onii-chan…"
"Hnn… not yet…" Kaneki groaned.
"Onii-chan wake up."
"Five more minutes…"
"Onii-chan, I told Onee-chan that you touched her."
"Right, sure… WHAT?!" He sat up immediately, accidentally hitting his head against Hinami's.
"Ow ow ow, that hurt, Onii-chan…" Hinami pouted, rubbing her forehead.
"E-eh? Hinami? Where's Touka? Is she going to kill me?" He asked frantically.
"Heh, I was joking. I was trying to wake you up." Hinami giggled.
"God, don't do that! You almost scared the life out of me…" Kaneki grumbled. "Where's Touka then?"
"Right beside you." Hinami pointed. That was when he felt the gentle tugging of something on his waist. Looking down, he found Touka lying there peacefully, an arm around his waist gently tugging him back down. Smiling, he let himself get pulled back down into a warm embrace.
"Eh? Let me join too!" Hinami leapt onto Kaneki in glee, snuggling herself in his chest.
"I thought you didn't want to sleep?"
"I changed my mind!" Hinami hummed happily.
"Riiight…" Kaneki sighed in defeat. He could and would never understand girls. Taking his phone from the bedside, he checked the time. Seven? Why was Hinami up so early? Finding himself unable to sleep, Kaneki took his earphones and let some music play. Thinking back to his last few conscious days, it really had been hectic; saving humans while almost dying, then finding out that his feelings for Touka were reciprocated… Certainly not what he was expecting.
"Hmm… Kaneki?" Touka mumbled, eyes fluttering open.
"Oh? Touka, you're awake." Kaneki took off an earbud. "How was your sleep?"
"It was great…" She smiled, drawing closer to the half-ghoul. Then, as if she remembered what she was supposed to be acting like, she pulled back while her face turned beet red.
"Touka?" He reached his hand towards the female ghoul, only for her to retract once more. Sighing, he snaked his arm around Touka's shoulder in one swift movement and pulled her towards him, causing her to let out a squeak.
"K-Kaneki?!" Touka stuttered in embarrassment. "What are you—"
"Shh, Touka, relax." He pressed a finger onto her lips, stopping her from finishing that sentence. "What did I say yesterday? I need you and you need me. So trust me." He smiled at Touka. "I know you do not like to show your weak side. But we are family, and as a family, it is our duty and obligation to give each other comfort and a place to be weak so that we can be strong when we need to be."
Touka's face heated up once again and she hid her eyes under her bangs. "Kaneki, you baka…"
"But I'm the idiot you like, am I wrong?" Kaneki chuckled. "Don't worry, I promise to stay with you forever, as long as you're fine with it."
"Kaneki…" Touka buried her face into the side of his body. "You better not leave…"
"Sure." His hold on the girl only tightened as he bent his neck and, in a moment of impulse, kissed her on the head. Touka stiffened for a moment, causing Kaneki to panic. However, she soon melted into a squealing mess. Laughing, he rubbed her head affectionately. Everything's fine now. And that's how he wanted it to stay.
"Say, Touka." Kaneki spoke up a bit over an hour later. "Have you been attending school?"
"What kind of question is that?! Of course I would go to school!" Touka retorted.
"Wait… don't the investigators know your face?" Kaneki asked worriedly.
"H-Huh? Oh, well, only two…" Touka stuttered.
"Won't they go after you?"
"We kinda… talked."
"Amon and Akira, wasn't it?"
"W-Wha… how?" Touka looked at him in surprise.
"Had a feeling… Though if anyone threatens you, I'll protect you, you can count on that." Kaneki smiled.
"R-Right…"
An awkward silence fell over the two.
"So… how confident are you in your subjects?" Kaneki asked, casually diverting off the previous topic. "It's about a month away from your entrance exams."
"Oh, I'm confident alright! I'll breeze through the exams!" She proclaimed with determination, before suddenly turning red. "W-Well, math and literature may be a problem…" She finished meekly.
"Figures." He laughed. "I'll tutor you then. Math and literature are my stronger subjects, other than chemistry."
"W-Wait, you would really tutor me?" Touka looked at him hopefully.
"Why wouldn't I? It would be fun to study with my girlfriend." He grinned warmly.
"W-Why thank you…" She squeaked at his word choices, before nodding appreciatively.
"I'll warn you though, I may overload you, considering the exams are only a few weeks away." Kaneki smirked.
"I'll survive." She muttered, before hearing a loud growl. "Is a dog in our house?"
"Ahh, well…" Kaneki flushed, before his stomach growled again.
"Why, aren't you a hungry one?" Touka smirked. "Come, let me get you something to eat." They got out of the bed, Kaneki laying the still asleep Hinami gently onto the bed. After a quick breakfast consisting of a detached limb, Kaneki announced his need to head back to his own apartment. Touka insisted on going with him, so after the two put on a wig each, they made haste to his humble abode.
Then again, humble was an over-exaggeration. His apartment was in a mess after it's owner's six-month-long leave. Dust has settled everywhere, and so has rats. His bed was ridden with bed bugs, and opening the fridge revealed rotting limbs that were only shielded from the pests due to its containment. The entire place smelled of urine and defecation, and generally felt like the sewers.
"This is… bad." Touka commented, pinching her nose.
"No shit." Kaneki deadpanned. "Don't you have an apartment?"
"Uh, yeah?"
"Can I live there?" Kaneki said with the most pleading face he could muster.
"Alright, fine." Touka sighed. "Even I wouldn't be cleaning this up anyways."
"Thanks Touka, you're a life saver." Kaneki sighed in relief. "Now, as for the food…"
"The dumpster would work." She suggested.
"I'll do that later then. I'll get ready my things." As he walked into his bedroom, two words resonated throughout that neighbourhood, waking anyone who was still in bed and enjoying the weekend morning.
"MY BOOKS!"
She never found out whether a ghoul could die of a heart attack. She almost did that day. Kaneki lugged his suitcase depressingly, holding the two measly books that managed to stay alive in the infestation. "My books… My novels…" He mumbled to himself in despair, much to Touka's chagrin.
"Get over it, Kaneki. It's only a bunch of paper." Touka huffed.
"But my books…"
"Shut up."
The rest of the walk to her apartment fell into a mixture of Kaneki's grumbling and Touka's grumbling about his grumbling.
So it was more or less a normal day for the Anteiku staff.
Through the rest of the afternoon and a huge portion of the evening, Kaneki managed to get his room sorted out. The room in Touka's apartment, which he would he using for until he gets a new home.
"Say, Touka," he asked while he folded his clothes. "Why were you at Yomo's place if you had an apartment?"
"I wanted to stay with you."
"Why, isn't that sweet of you?" He smirked while Touka huffed back.
"Yeah yeah, go get diabetes by yourself."
"Why didn't you bring me here then?"
"I couldn't bring you here. What if Yorika comes?" She shuddered at the thought of her best friend finding a comatose male in her house. "She would freak."
"Good point." Kaneki then grew serious. "So, Amon and Akira, huh? Does anyone else know?"
"Only them, I presume. If anyone else knew, the CCG would have swarmed us already."
"I want to talk to them." Kaneki stated, shocking Touka.
"But why? Wouldn't you be risking yourself?"
"Yeah, but they already know, don't they?" Kaneki pointed out. "How does meeting them have any effect on our chances of survival?"
"F-Fair point…"
"Alright then! That's settled." Kaneki clapped his hands together. "I'm going today."
Much to Touka's chagrin, he refused to let her follow, claiming that he would rather her stay home and study than going with him on an errand, though Touka had begged to differ with the word 'errand'. Plugging his earphones into his device, he brushed an annoying strand of brown hair out of his eye as he breathed in the evening air. God, this wig is killing my scalp…
Walking into the infamous CCG building was basically treading in a lion's den. No normal ghoul would do that without being on their toes. Luckily, he was no normal ghoul. He just hoped that his disguise would hold. He wouldn't want his wig dropping in the middle of a bunch of investigators.
He approached the receptionist calmly. "Hi there, I would like to request a meeting with Amon Koutarou, please." He politely asked the lady on duty.
"Well, he shouldn't be busy right now. May I ask for your name?" She queried.
"…Kenta Kenoki."
"Right…" She looked at him funny, before calling the requested man. "Hello Mr Koutarou? There is a man named… Kenta Kenoki requesting to meet you."
"Ah Akira Mado too, if she won't mind."
"And Miss Mado." She added.
He swore he heard the sound of a snigger over the phone, before the man responded. "Send him in."
"Right away." She hung up. "Step right this way, Mr Kenoki." She giggled, showing him to the RC gate.
"My name is weird, I know." He sighed at his choice of name, before stepping through the gate with no problem. Huh, guess the human part of me can still trick the gate.
"Mr Koutarou and Miss Mado would on the 21st floor, two rooms down to the right."
"Thank you." He nodded appreciatively and walked off, but not before he heard laughter. Kenoki… You did good, Kenta Kenoki.
"This should be it…" He looked at the room before him. "Right, let's do this." Opening the door, he wasn't sure what he expected, but Akira tenderly kissing Amon was definitely not on that list.
"Uh…"
"Urk!" Amon pulled away, noticing the intruder.
"Am I disturbing something?" Kaneki slowly backed away.
"Ah, no no no, it's fine." He laughed awkwardly, briefly shooting a glare at the wheelchair-bound female that definitely conveyed 'for fuck's sake', before taking a seat. "Please ignore that. My partner tends to get slightly over-the-top…" He sighed in frustration while Akira shot him a playful smirk.
"Can tell." Kaneki took a seat. Amon Koutarou in a relationship? This has to be the new 'wtf'.
"So, Mr Kenoki, isn't it?" Amon asked.
"Yeah." He replied absent-mindedly, before snickering to himself.
"Is something of the matter?" Amon raised a single brow.
"No. Wait, actually, yes." He looked around. "Are there cameras in here?"
"No, if not she wouldn't be kissing me. Why?" Amon looked at him suspiciously.
"Ah, that's just fantastic." He pulled of his wig, letting his snow-white hair tumble down, relieving his head of the annoying material. He then flashed his one ghoul eye.
"Forget Kenta Kenoki, it's Ken Kaneki." He smiled amusedly at the frozen investigators. "Nice to meet you, Amon and Akira."
So, what business does Keno… Kaneki have with the two investigators? What events would transpire after his reveal? Was the Touken good? Are you glad that I'm back? Want some of your interesting ideas in the subsequent chapters? Should I die to falling steel beams? LIKE AND COMMENT! Simple and easy! d(^w^) (Do it on your own accord. No one is forcing you.) With that, I'll be signing out! See y'all in the next chapter!
Peace!
EAZGAME (~w~)
(P.S. Should I change my username? EAZGAME sounds kinda weird.)