Corie=25

Kaneki=19

Deep inside Dr. Kanou's hideout, Tsukiyama, Banjo's friends, and several ghouls who made up Aogiri Tree were in the middle of a fierce battle with various investigators who all needed Kanou for their own reasons.

Under normal circumstances, Aogiri Tree and Kaneki's group would never work together, but they had a common enemy in the investigators and therefore had no choice.

Unfortunately, one of the female investigators had released a small gas bomb containing RC suppressants which effectively rendered all of their kagunes completely unusable.

Akira smiled as she prepared to strike with her quinque. Now she had the upper hand. None of these filthy ghouls had a chance.

Suddenly, a ghoul landed directly in front of her and blocked her attack with her purple and black kagune.

Akira's eyes widened in surprise. Where had this ghoul come from?! She hadn't even heard her approaching. It was as if she just materialized out of thin air!

The young woman stood up and Akira could see her mask clearly. It had a steampunk look with various brass buttons and knobs on the dark leather and only covered the lower half of her face so she could only see her gleaming black and red eyes.

She must've managed to somehow evade the RC suppressant gas.

No problem. Akira could wield her chimera quinque better than anyone, and a rinkaku was no challenge for both her and her quinque.

She whipped her weapon back and prepared for an attack, but the ghoul easily knocked the quinque out of her hand while barely moving her body.

Akira was stunned. She had never seen a ghoul use their kagune without moving their arms, legs, or torso and most certainly not that fast.

Before Akira even had a chance to register the ghoul's kagune coming towards her, she felt her feet leave the ground and she slammed into the opposite wall. She groaned in pain as her vision went fuzzy from the blow.

Corie looked behind the blonde female and for the briefest moment, she met eyes with the man standing behind her. Wasn't that the same investigator from the night she stormed Aogiri headquarters?

"Mia cara?" Tsukiyama said in surprise.

"Hinami told me what was going on," Corie explained lowly as she looked back at the other ghouls, an excited fire in her eyes even behind the kakugan. "I thought you could use my help. Looks like I was right."

"We would've been fine."

"Yeah, right."

"Who's this chick?" Naki asked with annoyance. "And why is she getting in my way? Move it."

Corie looked at Tsukiyama. "Wanna tell me who this is?"

"Monsieur Naki. A member of Aogiri Tree."

"And you're working with him, why?"

"Right place at the wrong time."

Corie quickly looked around her. "Wait a minute, where's Kaneki?"

"He went to find the good doctor while we held off the Doves."

Corie turned back to the investigators.

"You…" the man said harshly.

"So you are the person I saw that night," she answered. "I'm afraid I don't have the time to chat today."

Using the wall to propel her movements when necessary, she leapt around all three of the remaining investigators and quickly disarmed them.

She landed in her previous position and turned to the other ghouls. "That should give you guys enough of an advantage. I'll let you handle this now. I have to go find Kaneki."

Naki started giggling as he approached a downed Akira. "Guess I need to get my strength back then."

Corie raced down the long hallways, searching for the boy she hadn't seen in seven months. The entire place had a strange smell, like a combination of flesh and antiseptic. The sooner she could get everyone out of here, the better.

She could hear the sounds of a large fight happening somewhere not far from where she was. Her heart plummeted when she heard the clear sound of Kaneki screaming in pain.

Corie picked up her steps and tried to find the source of the fight.

Unfortunately, two young girls appeared in her path. One was dressed in all black while the other was dressed in all white. What shocked her was that only one of their eyes on each of them was a kakugan.

They were half-ghouls.

"We cannot let you pass," the black one said.

"Well, that's not up to you," Corie responded. "I have to find Kaneki, and believe me, you don't want to try to stop me."

"Kaneki? You mean our brother?" the white one asked.

"He's my brother. Being half-ghouls like him means nothing. Did Kanou do this to you?"

"Yes, Father opened our eyes and made us better than we ever could've been as humans."

"He is not your father. He doesn't care about anyone except himself."

They both released their kagunes and began attempting to strike her, but Corie easily maneuvered out of the way.

"I don't have time for this," she said.

She stood completely still and flinched her shoulders. Two of her tentacles aimed directly for their legs and snapped the right one on both of them completely in half.

Both girls screamed in pain and fell to the ground.

"I'm sorry," Corie apologized as she walked past them. "But my brother needs me. Your wounds will heal in about ten minutes. And if you know what's good for you, you'll get out of here and away from Kanou."

She continued racing down the hallway, following the sounds of Kaneki's screams.

When she finally found the large chamber he was in, she couldn't believe what she saw.

Kaneki's kagune had unleashed…in addition to a second kagune that resembled a centipede. On his face, he wore a mask that looked like a long beak and his one kakugan eye gleamed darker than ever.

"Oh, Kaneki…" she said softly.

There was only one way he could have acquired that kagune and become a half-kakuja.

Just what had he been through in the time she was gone?

Kakujas were incredibly dangerous, especially when they weren't fully formed. For someone like Kaneki who already had little mental control over his regular kagune, he was completely deranged when his kakuja form took over.

She watched in horror as he began to devour an investigator's kakuja armor in a ghoulish frenzy. Just as she was about to step in, the same male investigator from before approached the scene which forced her to remain hidden for the moment.

Though Corie knew Kaneki wasn't actually eating the investigator, to the other one, it didn't appear that way at all.

He angrily activated his quinque and charged Kaneki. "EYEPATCH!"

Kaneki turned and easily deflected with attack with his kagune.

"Okay, Eyepatch," the investigator growled in between strikes. "I want answers and you're going to give them to me, got it? Why?! You had the chance to kill me, but you didn't! Why did you spare my life? You were crying that night. I saw tears streaming down your face. Or was that…all a lie?!"

He attacked again and cut off one of Kaneki's kagune tentacles.

Kaneki started gasping in pain both from that attack and from the kakuja consuming his mind. "I don't know what you're talking about. I don't remember. I can't recall. I don't know."

"I thought I'd get some answers if I found you again. But it looks like the ghoul who saved my life is long gone!"

"Not if I have anything to say about it," Corie said to herself.

Having seen enough, she released her tentacles and jumped right in front of Kaneki to act as a shield. She then pushed the investigator out of the way and tossed him across the room with enough strength to knock him down but not enough to hurt him.

Then she turned and faced Kaneki, taking his head in her hands. "Look at me! Look at me! You don't want to do this! I know you! You don't want to kill anyone, especially not him!"

Kaneki's kagune tried to attack her, but she deflected it without even trying.

Amon looked up and tried to clear the stars from his eyes. Is she…trying to talk him down? he thought. Is she…trying to keep him from killing me? Just moments ago, she was trying to kill me herself!

Kaneki groaned in pain and held his head in his hands. "Centipedes…centipedes…in my ear! I don't want to! I don't want to kill anymore! 1,000 minus 7! What is it?!"

Corie couldn't do this here. Not with investigators all around them. His mind was slipping more and more with each passing second. She had to get him out of here.

She met eyes with the other investigator. Then the young woman hooked her arms under Kaneki's shoulders and jumped into the air to escape.

Amon slowly stood back up and looked in the direction they had gone. Was that woman truly the same one he had spoken to the night of the Aogiri Tree operation? Twice now, why hadn't she just killed him instead of disarming him? Was Eyepatch the one she had meant when she'd said she had someone to protect?

And her eyes…he had never seen a ghoul's eyes look like that before. Not angry but concerned and tired.

Who was that woman?

Corie landed back inside the tunnels with Kaneki still groaning and writhing in pain. She ripped off her mask so he could see her full face.

She wasn't really sure what she could to do calm him down. Maybe she just needed to get him to focus on one thing instead of everything that was currently bombarding his mind at once.

"Kaneki, look at me. Focus only on me, okay? Remember me. Remember who you really are. Remember why you are fighting."

Kaneki looked directly at her, but she could tell he couldn't fully process who he was seeing. It was still too much to focus on. She needed to get him to just focus on one small thing.

"I want you to just focus on my voice, okay? Only on my voice. Take some deep breaths and just focus on me and my voice. Okay? I'm right here. I'm here, Kaneki."

"Kaneki! Corie!"

Corie turned for a split-second to see Banjo, his friends, and Tsukiyama running towards them.

Then she heard a disgusting squish and felt pain in her abdomen. She let out a groan as she looked down.

Kaneki had stabbed directly through her with his fist.

Corie just smiled. "Payback for almost eating you that one time, huh?"

Behind her, Tsukiyama quietly whispered, "She did what now?"

Banjo looked at him angrily. "This is clearly not the time!"

Kaneki yanked his fist out of her body, and for the first time, she could see recognition slowly begin to return to his eyes.

Corie cried out in pain and fell to the floor.

"C…Corie?"

Corie held the large wound as she gasped for breath.

Kaneki's large kagune slowly dissolved and his eyes returned to normal. He sank down to his knees. "What…what have I done…?"

Corie put her hand to the side of his head. "Hey," she said gently. "You know, I think you and I are pretty similar. We have a huge desire to protect those we care about, and we don't think about the consequences or how it will affect us. When someone gets hurt, you blame yourself for it. I always rush in to help without thinking or caring about what will happen to me. We're constantly trying to shoulder everything all by ourselves. Maybe…the two of us should start relying on each other, and stop fighting alone. Maybe…true strength is depending on others to fight next to you rather than behind you."

Kaneki's trembling hands reached for her wound. "Corie…"

Corie cried out in pain again and held her stomach.

"Corie, I think I can help," Banjo said as he rushed to her side.

"H-How?"

The ghoul closed his eyes and concentrated. Thread-like pieces of kagune emerged from his shoulder blades and stretched until they strategically maneuvered over Corie's wound and began to fix it.

"Banjo," '2' sweatshirt said softly. "You accessed your kagune?"

"Eto found me and did a real number on me. Before I could even process what she'd done, I felt it come out of me and begin healing me. It's not perfect but it looks like I can do the same for someone else."

Corie smiled as his kagune disappeared. "Thanks. It still hurts, but it's much more tolerable now."

"It's good to see you again. You couldn't have picked a better time to come back."

Corie looked over at Kaneki who still looked devastated and horrified. "Hey. I'm okay. If that's what it takes to get you back, so be it. I promised that if you ever lost yourself, I'd get you back, right?"

"I'm so sorry, Corie."

"Kaneki."

Kaneki looked her in the eyes.

Corie gave him that same warm smile she always seemed to save just for him. "I'm really glad to see you again."

She got up and wrapped her arms around him. It felt so good to hug him after all this time.

Kaneki wondered if this was what she had felt like after she'd almost eaten him. It was no wonder she'd avoided him for four days. He felt so embarrassed and ashamed and he didn't want to even look at her.

But underneath that feeling, he wondered if he could trust her. After learning that Yoshimura was hiding even more from him, he had no idea if Corie knew everything as well or if she was just as in the dark as he was. Could it be that she was hiding a lot from him too?

Somehow, feeling her arms around him and her warm embrace, he couldn't find it within him to care. Maybe she was hiding things from him, but everything she'd ever done had been for his own good. There was a reason she had become like a sister to him.

His arms slowly went around her waist. "I missed you…"

Corie knocked on the door to Kaneki's room and slowly opened it. "Can I come in?"

Kaneki nodded from his position on the bed.

"I know how you're feeling. But I'm not mad."

"Yeah, I know," he said softly.

"It doesn't even hurt anymore. If anything, at least we're even now."

"It's just…it's not the first time I've hurt you like that. What if I end up hurting you every single time I lose myself like that?"

Corie sat down next to him on the bed. "Look, Kaneki, I had no idea things were getting so difficult for you. Why didn't you call me? I told you that if you ever needed me, I would come running."

"It…it was just better for me to handle it so that you wouldn't have to worry or get hurt anymore. No one would have to get hurt anymore."

"That's a huge burden to put on yourself. And you're clearly wearing yourself down trying to do that. How much longer do you think you can keep going like this?"

"I…I don't know."

"It's okay to lean on other people. It's okay to lean on me. That's what big sisters are for, right?"

Kaneki laughed lightly. "Did you learn any more techniques while you traveled again?"

"Yeah, a couple. I can show them to you when we start training again."

"I think I need your training now more than ever."

"How come?"

"I really want to get that precision technique down. And you are by far the hardest teacher I've ever had. Not even Tsukiyama tests me as much as you did."

Corie laughed. "I am going to take that as a compliment."

Kaneki's face darkened a little. "Corie…what do you know about Yoshimura…before he was the manager of Anteiku?"

Corie lost her smile. "I'm not sure. He's never really told me about his own life. To be fair though, I never really gave him a chance. He took me in after my parents died and as a young kid, his main focus was trying to make sure I was able to keep living after something like that. And then, I moved to the States for school and kept traveling, so…"

Kaneki took a breath. He was so relieved to hear that. If he had known that Corie was keeping as many things from him as the manager was, he wouldn't know how to handle that level of betrayal from someone he admired so much.

She lightly put her hand on his arm. "Everyone's pretty worried about you. You've holed yourself up in here for a couple days now. You know…that author you really like is doing a signing today at the bookstore. Why don't you take Hinami? It would do you both good to get out for a little while."

Kaneki's smile returned. "I think that's a good idea. Will you come too?"

Corie's eyebrows rose in surprise. "How come?"

The boy's face reddened as he looked away from her. "I haven't seen you in over six months, and you know, I've missed hanging out with you."

Touched, Corie smiled. "I'd love to come."

So Corie and Kaneki retrieved Hinami from downstairs and they all started heading down to the bookstore.

"It's been a while since we've gone out together," Hinami remarked.

"It has been," Kaneki replied.

"Kaneki?"

"Hm?"

"Can I…hold your hand? There's gonna be a lot of people, so…"

Kaneki smiled warmly and held his hand out for her to take. Corie smiled at the affectionate action. If she saw Kaneki as a younger brother, Hinami definitely saw him as an older brother and she thought that was absolutely adorable.

They finally reached the bookstore where a large crowd of people had gathered to meet Sen Takatsuki.

"Everybody has the same book," Hinami noticed. "That's so weird."

"It is," Kaneki added. He noticed the table at the front of the line was still empty. "Guess it hasn't started yet. I guess it's running late."

"What's Takatsuki like?"

"I've only read her interviews, but she's a pretty lady. There are some fans that like her personally more than her work. I wish they actually read her books."

A woman with wild and untamed green hair rushed past them mumbling, "I am so late! Ugh, my back's all sore!" She finally reached the front table and took a seat before giving the crowd an apologetic look. "I'm sorry. I overslept."

Sen Takatsuki looked pretty much like the stereotypical writer. She wore an oversized sweater and a long skirt with her hair running wild around her perfectly shaped face. Corie was surprised to see that she wasn't older than herself. It was impressive she was so popular already at such a young age.

She seemed to enjoy herself at the signing because she happily took pictures with her fans despite her manager trying to tell people that pictures weren't allowed.

Finally, it was their turn. Hinami shyly approached the desk and put down her copy of one of Takatsuki's books.

"What a cute couple," the young woman remarked upon seeing Hinami and Kaneki together. "But I also smell a scent of danger too."

"We're not a couple," Kaneki awkwardly smiled.

The writer rested her chin on the back of her hands. "Who should I make it out to?"

"Fue…Hinami," Hinami answered nervously.

"'Fuehinami'?"

"N-no, Hinami!"

"Hinami, okay. How old are you, Hinami?"

"Um…14."

"Oh, my. I'm surprised I have such a young fan. That's a cute hairpin."

"It's because my mother used to read it."

"Your mother!" She laughed as she looked over at Kaneki. "What about the punky guy? What's your name?"

"Oh. How about…Kanaki. 'Kana' as in Friday and 'Ki' as in Thursday."

Takatsuki scribbled the name down onto the book page. "'To Kanaki', okay. Osamu Dazai's from Kanagimachi with the same characters, isn't he?"

"Yeah, he is."

"Nice."

"Do you dye your hair?"

"It's natural."

"Natural?!"

"Yeah…"

"How long have you been reading my stuff?"

"Since Dear Kafka. I've read everything. Your short stories and all your novels. The warden Kimio Ohta in your new book, The Hanged Man's MacGuffin, he's the uncle of Detective Tanizaki in Salt and Opium, right?"

"Ooh, I'm surprised you figured that out. Not bad."

"I thought, 'Wait a minute. Looking back at their conversation and family structure, their timelines matched up'."

Hinami looked just as confused as Corie did, but at least Hinami had read some of Takatsuki's books. Corie was completely in the dark amongst all these die-hard fans.

Still, it was nice to see Kaneki excited about something normal for once.

Takatsuki smiled up at Corie. "And what's your name, sweetie?"

Corie awkwardly shook her hands. "Oh, no, I'm just tagging along. These guys are the huge fans. I unfortunately don't have a lot of time for reading."

The young writer laughed lightly. "Well, let me take this time to recommend The Hanged Man's MacGuffin and Dear Kafka. But I may be a little biased."

"Sen, we have people waiting," her manager told her with a nervous smile.

"Okay. See you later, Hinami. You little cutie pie. And it was nice to meet you both, Kaneki and…"

"Oh, Corie!" Corie told her.

"Corie. Thank you for coming out."

"Thank you so much," Kaneki smiled.

"Come by again!"

The three of them walked away from the signing and headed out of the bookstore.

"That was cool meeting her!" Hinami gushed. She smiled up at Kaneki warmly. "Haven't seen you that happy in a long time."

Kaneki laughed. "What? Was I?"

Corie smiled at him. It was true. That was the happiest she'd seen him since she'd met him. She wished she could see him this happy much more often.

Corie decided to stay the night at Kaneki's hideout to catch up with Hinami and the rest of the group.

She ended up staying awake later than everyone else since she wanted to practice some of her techniques before going to sleep.

Just as she was about to turn in, she heard whimpers and cries of pain coming from down the hall. Corie exited the room and slowly followed the noises.

They were coming from Kaneki's room.

"Kaneki," she called softly as she knocked on the door.

When the only response was another whimper, she opened the door and stepped inside. Kaneki's head shined with sweat as he tossed his head back and forth in pain.

"Please, stop," he cried.

Corie quickly sat up him and held him close. "It's okay, you're not alone. I'm here. You're okay, I promise. I'm here. I'm here."

Kaneki awoke in her arms and took heaving breaths.

Corie rubbed comforting circles onto his back as he came out of the nightmare. "You're not alone. I'm here."

Kaneki had been suffering from nightmares for months. But it was the first time he had ever woken up in someone's protective embrace and it made all the difference.

He felt as if nothing bad could happen as long as he was inside Corie's arms.

After trying to shoulder all of his and everyone else's pain, it felt as if he finally had someone to share his burden if only for a minute.

"Corie?"

Corie turned from her place at the bar in Anteiku. "Hide? Hey, it's been a while!"

Hide laughed and came to sit next to her. "Where have you been this time?"

"I spent some time in Singapore and I just got back from New Zealand."

"Man, that's so cool. I wish I could travel the world like you. You're still going by yourself?"

"Yep."

"Ugh, you're killing me! You really won't take me with you?"

"Don't you have a life here that you need to worry about?"

"I guess. But even still, I think you should consider bringing someone along with you."

"Maybe someday. For now, I need to focus on my own needs before worrying about someone else. Anyway, what have you been up to since I left?"

"Oh, still taking classes at Kami. I got a part-time job as a staff assistant at the CCG so that's going pretty well for me."

Corie made sure her expression didn't change, but she couldn't stop her heart from sinking.

Hide at the CCG? Working against ghouls? Working unknowingly against…his best friend?

"That's good," she smiled.

"You haven't happened to see Kaneki, have you?"

Corie's face darkened. Technically, Kaneki was identified as missing by everyone at the university and at Anteiku. "Yeah, I heard he'd gone missing around the same time I left Japan. I was hoping I could track him down when I came back."

"It's been hard taking all these tough classes without him. He was the one who helped me not die of boredom in the lecture courses."

"You really miss him, huh?"

"Yeah. You seem to have gotten pretty close with him. You must be pretty worried too."

"I am."

"Did you ever manage to figure out his tell?"

"What do you mean?"

"When Kaneki tries to lie, he puts his hand to his chin like this," Hide said as he demonstrated the gesture. "I love the guy, but he's the worst liar I ever met."

Corie smiled a little. "That's not necessarily a bad trait to have. Just as long as he doesn't have to keep a secret about a surprise party."

"I just hope he's okay…wherever he is."

"Yeah. Me too."