Kaneki couldn't even remember falling asleep. He'd been interviewed again, and then he'd been speaking with Amon. Part of him had been distracted by the scent of Amon and the other investigator filling the room. He'd felt so confident, so in control, despite the fact he was a prisoner. Now he was... where was he.

He tried to blink his eyes open. The lighting in the room was so harsh it made him squint, but when he tried to rub at his eyes he found he couldn't really move. His hands and feet were strapped to a chair

'No… no,' he shook his head. He couldn't seem to stop shaking it. He wasn't back there again. He couldn't be.

Looking around him quickly, he saw that the floor was white, not chequered. The lighting overhead was too white, too garish. There was an electric gate in front of him, sitting there like it was calling for him to walk through it in spite of the metal shackles adorning his limbs. And yet, the feeling, the sensations, they were so similar to that time.

'It's a bad dream,' he mumbled, closing his eyes and trying to calm his breathing.

'It's not a dream, Kaneki.'

Kaneki's gaze seemed to revolve in his skull at one thousand times a minute before it settled on Rize beside him.

'The doves are to blame,' Rize said, nodding at a long mirror set into the wall. Kaneki focussed on it, staring into the eyes of a white-haired man whose eyes looked like they were about to roll right out of his head.

Even though he hadn't eaten in days, it felt like a thick substance was moving up his oesophagus, a taste akin to sewage in the back of his throat.

'Shhh… shhh, you're ok, Kaneki,' Rize said softly, reaching out to stroke his hair.

'Awww, look at the poor ghoul,' said a male voice over a tannoy.

Kaneki swivelled quickly, trying to find the source of the voice. A male and a female voice rang out, laughing at him. A buzzer sounded, and the mirror screen shifted to reveal a transparent window, through which Kaneki could make out a large room with several microphones. Two Cochlea guards were standing there, leering at him. He didn't recognise either of them.

'What's going on?' Kaneki asked, trying to look one of them in the eye.

'wHaT's goInG oN,' mimicked the male guard, and they both fell about laughing.

'I feel so sick,' Kaneki said quietly, letting his head hang down towards his lap.

'I think it's that stuff they used to knock you out,' Rize said, looking at him pitifully.

'Awww, poor lickle ghoulie,' said the female guard, pulling an over-exaggerated pout. 'He hasn't had his din-dins.'

'Perhaps we should just leave him here and watch him starve?' said the other, pretending to ponder the situation.

'Don't listen to them, Kaneki,' Rize said, glaring daggers at the two guards. She disappeared from beside him, then reappeared beside the glass, peering through. 'They probably only have one brain cell between them.'

A booming laugh echoed around the room, but not from the tannoy this time. It seemed to reverberate through the floor.

'Oh god…' Kaneki whimpered.

The two guards laughed again, and now all the laughs were harmonising, churning, twisting their way into Kaneki's head.

'Shhh, shhhh, don't listen!' said Rize, beside him again. She pulled his head to the side against her waist, running her fingers through his hair again. 'You're not back there, you're not.'

'I wouldn't be so sure about that.' The voice was booming. It made the floor vibrate. For a moment Kaneki forgot to breath. Even the investigators had gone quiet. Could they hear it? Feel it?

'No, no, no,' Rize cried. She stepped away from him, closing her eyes and clutching at her own temples.

'Rize...?'

She looked a little crazed. Kaneki had never seen her like this.

'A little jumpy today, aren't we, ghoulie,' said the male guard over the tannoy again.

Rize opened her eyes and took a sharp breath. 'It's never been this difficult before, Kaneki.' She looked shaken, although the pressure on her seemed to have eased a bit.

Kaneki shook his head, looking at his thighs again. 'Please don't let him come through,' he pleaded quietly.

'Come through?' said the female guard. Kaneki looked up to see them both frowning. 'Does it mean the investigators?'

'How should I know?' shrugged the other one.

'You idiot!' She said, looking up at what was presumably a clock on the wall. 'We were meant to call them in at three.'

'Well, don't just tell me, go and do it then,' said the other guard. He pushed his colleague towards the door. He looked back to Kaneki with a smirk. 'Now the fun can begin.'

'I'll carve him out a new one,' Rize hissed, appearing beside the glass again to pound her fist on it.

'Rize…'

'You see if I don't…'

'Rize, please,' Kaneki said. His head was beginning to ache, and he was trying desperately to stave off another wave of nausea.

'Guard!' shouted a familiar voice. Investigator Marude had come striding in, his head high in the air as he ran his gaze over the two rooms in view.

'Yes, sir!' saluted the male guard, standing to attention.

'How does the ghoul know your name, man?' Marude continued, looking Kaneki over.

'It… it doesn't, sir.'

'Your name isn't "Rize"?'

The male guard shook his head.

'He's talking to Rize?' said another voice Kaneki recognised. Amon.

He recognised other faces as they all filed in. Akira was there, and Shinohara too, as well as the female guard and a few others he didn't know.

'What is going on? Who is this Rize?'

'I don't know, sir,' Amon said to Marude, although he was looking straight at Kaneki, 'I've just heard the ghoul mention the name before.'

'Well,' Marude huffed. 'We'll add it to the long list of questions we have for this ghoul.' He leant forwards and clutched the table, attempting for a moment to take in a calming breath. 'Now, will somebody please tell me why the ghoul is strapped to a chair.'

The two guards looked at each other. 'It's for everyone's safety, sir,' said the man finally.

'Not-Rize,' Marude said rudely, his annoyance clearly growing, 'we are here to test what happens when it walks through the gate. How is it supposed to walk through the gate if it's strapped to a chair?'

'Well, sir…'

'Get in there and unshackle it!'

'But,' said the female guard hesitantly, 'it hasn't been fed in days. You said that…'

'You wouldn't walk into the den of a hungry lion, would you?' said the male guard.

'No, you wouldn't,' said the female.

Marude looked like he wanted to tear his hair out. 'Then give it a represent shot, goddammit!'

'Oh right, yes, of course.' And with that the two guards hurried out of the room.

Amon was still standing at the edge of the glass, his gaze fixed on Kaneki.

The guards appeared a few moments later in front of Kaneki, each holding a set of keys. The scent of delectable humans hit him immediately, and he felt his red-eyed kakugan appear. Kaneki scrunched his eyes up and bent his head down towards his knees. Now he had a bigger problem on his hands, a topic that he had so far surreptitiously managed to avoid.

Kaneki felt the stab of the inhibitor shot going into his arm. Would that repress his eye too? He didn't want to risk it.

'Sit up,' one of them hissed, as they unshackled his feet before moving onto his wrists.

Kaneki did as he was instructed, but he kept his eyes tightly shut. He felt them shackle his wrists to each other, then felt a violent shove on his back, pushing him off the chair.

'Get him up,' said Marude impatiently. Hands pulled Kaneki to a kneeling position. 'Why does its face look like that?

'Is it in pain?' came Shinohara's voice with a note of worry.

'It should be painfully hungry, if those guards have done their job right,' Marude said with a sniff.

'You really think the contents of the ghoul's stomach is going to effect the gates?' Akira asked, an eyebrow raised. 'It seems a little…'

'We have to try everything, Mado-san,' Marude cut in.

The guards forced Kaneki to sit up straight. One grabbed hold of his face and forced it towards the glass.

'Why is its face scrunched up? Fix it!'

Kaneki felt fingers probing at his eyelids.

'Make it open them!' cried Marude.

'Open your eyes, or I'll poke them out,' cried the guard, her voice loud.

Kaneki finally let go, praying that the shot has repressed his kakugan as much as it had everything else.

When he finally looked at the hoard of investigators, he could tell from their faces that it hadn't.

There was a long bout of silence. Amon was staring at him, transfixed. The other investigator's expressions varied from shock to confusion.

Marude pounded his fist onto the desk. 'How has no one noticed this when it eats!?'

In the reflection of the window, Kaneki saw the guards holding him look between each other, a little baffled.

'GET OUT OF MY SIGHT!' Marude bellowed, eyeing the guards and pointing at the door, before collapsing onto a waiting chair with his head in his hands.

The guards did as they were told, leaving Kaneki kneeling on the floor.

'There's a link here,' Marude muttered finally.

'Of course there is,' Akira said immediately, her finger playing with her lip.

Marude sprang up, coming right up to the glass to practically press his nose against it.

'Why does only one of your eyes work?' he demanded, staring at Kaneki's kakugan.

Kaneki was still settling his breath from being wrenched about all over the place.

'Make it talk,' Marude huffed, looking around at the others in the room. 'Why does it only have one?'

'When it first appeared, this ghoul was known as Eyepatch, sir,' said a young investigator, coming forward eagerly, waving a photograph of Kaneki wearing the eyepatch mask. 'The mask left the kakugan eye exposed,' said the man, looking up at Kaneki to check, but then quickly looking away when he met Kaneki's eyes.

'Very good, Takizawa, you're right,' Marude said, nodding. The younger investigator beamed.

'So, you wanted to hide your one-eyed nature when you played the ghoul then?' Shinohara asked, talking to Kaneki in the same tone he had when he'd been chatting amicably in the Korean restaurant.

'Of course I did,' Kaneki said slowly.

'Why?'

Kaneki took a breath, kneeling on the floor and trying to relax his muscles. 'Because you'd lock me up and run a load of tests on me, perhaps?' he finally said quietly.

'Only if you were caught,' Shinohara retorted.

'I didn't want to be a point of intrigue,' Kaneki added, glancing at Amon.

'Well, you managed that without even revealing your one-eye,' Shinohara said, tapping his finger against his chin.

Kaneki nodded, laughing humourlessly.

'Why do you only have one eye!?' Marude asked quickly, slapping the desk again.

Kaneki shook his head. He couldn't tell them, could he? He couldn't trust these people.

'Ghoul, walk through the gate,' Marude said.

'Who's he calling 'ghoul'?' Rize huffed, 'the stinking waste of walking nourishment…'

'Come on now, chop chop! Or we'll make you,' Marude yelled, watching Kaneki intently.

Kankei stood up, swaying slightly on the spot. He clutched at his stomach as a wave of nausea hit again.

'It doesn't look well,' Shinohara muttered to the side, and Kaneki saw Akira nod in his periphery.

'Kaneeeekiiiiiii…' said thundering voice.

Kaneki snapped his head up. He reached out to grasp Rize on the arm. 'Was that you?'

She shook her head, the whites of her eyes flashing in the fluorescent light.

'Walk through the gate!'

Kaneki stumbled forwards. The gate reached his waist, and he leant on it as he walked through. As expected, the gate made no sound whatsoever.

Shinohara was looking at a monitor at the side of the room. 'Nothing,' he said, shaking his head.

'As we predicted,' Akira said monotonously.

Kaneki turned and found her eyes looking at him steadily. If he hadn't lived through it, he would be doubting whether they'd ever met before.

'Ghoul, why doesn't the gate work?' Marude asked.

Kaneki shook his head. 'I don't know.'

'What's that!?'

'I said I don't know.'

'You're lying!'

'No, I'm not.' Kaneki clutched at his stomach, looking down at the ground. The harsh lighting was giving him a headache. 'I came through it months ago. Akira Mado's father spotted me, suspected I was a ghoul, and forced me through it, but it didn't go off.'

Shinohara's eyebrows were raised. 'Your father always did have a good gut instinct, Akira.'

Kaneki took a breath, trying to steady himself on his feet. 'Why do I feel so dizzy?'

'Repressor shots and no food,' Rize said, touching his arm.

'And I keep seeing flashes of that place,' Kaneki said quietly, rubbing at his eyes. The chequered floor stretching out for infinity. A trail of his fingers and toes falling behind him as he stumbled along.

Kaneki clicked his knuckles quickly, checking they were all still there. 'I feel like he's here. He reached out for Rize again, but all he found was the gate to lean on. 'He's here, invisible, watching me, laughing at me...'

'Kaneki...'

Yamori. His booming laugh, his ugly sneer, his looming frame, casting a shadow over Kaneki's mind.

'He likes seeing me suffer, Rize.'

The investigators had gone very quiet, watching him. He locked eyes with Amon. Kaneki had never seen him looking so apologetic.

'Forget the gate!' Marude said, slapping the table. 'It's because of this eye thing. The eye is the key.'

'We don't know that...' Akira started, but Marude cut across her.

'Let's do the kakuja test. Perhaps that will loosen the ghoul's lips.'

Shinohara sighed, but then nodded, exiting through a side door.

The two guards came back in, silent this time, and unshackled Kaneki's wrists.

'What's going on?' Kaneki mumbled.

The guards left, and a door at the other end of the room opened. Out of it walked two children, each being led by a stone-faced investigator, their briefcases clutched tightly in their hands.

Kaneki smelt it immediately. Three humans and one ghoul. Both of the children looked terrified, and…

'Oni-chan!'

Kaneki was momentarily shocked when he heard the words shouted at him. For a second he pictured a little brown-haired girl smiling up at him in a cosy warm coffee shop. Then he saw the real speaker.

It was the little boy, Aiko, the one that Kaneki had met in Gyoen park. The one who he had told he was a ghoul…

'Oni-chan!' The boy struggled, trying to move towards Kaneki, but the investigator's grip on his arm held him back.

Something wasn't right. The little boy was smiling brilliantly up at Kaneki, but his eyes were filled with tears and his cheeks were blotchy and red.

'Aiko-san,' Kaneki said, 'what are you doing here?'

Shinohara's voice sounded loudly over the tannoy. 'Do you know this boy?'

Kaneki looked across at the window and nodded.

'Answer properly. How do you know this boy?'

Kaneki gritted his teeth and tried to straighten up a little. 'I played Frisbee with him in the park once.'

'That's all?'

'Yes.'

'It could sway the result,' Shinohara said to the side.

'We'll carry on,' muttered Marude. 'We can always repeat the experiment.'

Kaneki looked down at Aiko, who was crying in earnest now.

'Do you know what's going on, Aiko-chan?'

The little boy shook his head. 'These men in suits told me that my parents are dead.'

This had to be some kind of sick prank. Maybe this boy would materialise into Rize and she would laugh and say 'the joke's on you Kaneki' and then he'd wake up.

'This is nothing to do with me. Hallucinations aren't really my style,' Rize said with a harsh laugh. 'I'm more about the verbal persuasion.'

'You're not wrong.'

The investigators shifted behind the window.

'Talk to me in your head, you idiot.'

'I…'

Rize shot him a look of incredulity.

I don't like this, Kaneki thought, and Rize nodded solemnly in agreement.

'I missed you,' the little boy said, not taking his eyes off Kaneki.

'We had a great time playing, right?' Kaneki said with a smile. 'But we've only met once, remember?'

'But everyone else here is a stranger.'

Kaneki looked up at the investigators standing behind the children. They were nothing more than a sea of stern expressions. Kaneki looked down with as kind of an expression as he could muster.

'Is it true? Are your parents really dead?'

Aiko nodded, and tears welled up in his eyes again.

'What happened?'

'The men in suits said that ghouls killed them.'

Kaneki shivered involuntarily. 'Oh… oh God…'

Aiko pulled at the investigator's grip again, trying to get to Kaneki.

'But, Aiko, you remember…' Kaneki gulped. 'You remember that I'm a ghoul, don't you?'

The boy had fresh tears in his eyes, but now he also looked confused. Kaneki was dreading the moment when everything would sink in and he would realise what kind of creature he was reaching for to comfort him.

'You're a ghoul?' asked the other little boy quietly, who also looked like he was on the verge of tears.

Kaneki nodded. 'How did you get here?'

A tear rolled down the boy's cheek. 'The doves killed my parents.'

The tannoy crackled into life again. 'Two very different children,' Marude stated, 'and no one left to miss them.' He paused, leering at Kaneki. 'It's been a while since you ate, hasn't it, Kakuja?'

Kaneki didn't move a muscle.

'When the investigators apprehended you in the train station, you gave up without a fight because apparently you didn't want to hurt anyone,' Marude continued.

Kaneki nodded.

'But now you're hungry.'

'I still don't want to hurt anyone,' Kaneki said pleadingly. 'Please believe me.'

'Why?' Shinohara's voice was so calm it was almost like a drone, so measured and constant.

'Because it's wrong.'

'Why do you care?' he persisted.

'Because I do.'

'Why does only one of your eyes change?'

'It's always been like that.'

'Since when?'

'Ever since I've been a ghoul.'

'But why?'

Kaneki was silent.

'Before you, we have a ghoul child and a human child,' Marude said matter-of-factly. 'You can eat one of them, but you have to choose. Otherwise, we'll kill them both.'

Kaneki felt like he was falling down a dark pit. His feet were sinking into the chequered tiles. Not again.

'Those bastards!' cried Rize, outraged on Kaneki's behalf. He was past that. He felt numb. He was drowning, sinking, dissolving into oblivion.

The booming voice laughed again, reverberating up from the depths of hell.

'Please, no…'

'Kaneki…'

'Decide? Rize, how can they make me decide? Not again. I can't, I can't.'

Every pair of eyes, human or ghoul, were fixed on Kaneki. He could even see his own warped reflection as he looked through the glass at the investigators.

'I thought the CCG were meant to protect humans.'

'Tests like this are necessary,' said Marude.

'They're children,' Kaneki said, backing away. 'You're sick, all of you.' He found Amon, standing at the back of the room. 'Please, Amon, don't let them do this, please…'

Amon looked like he was on the verge of being genuinely upset. Akira's mask had slipped a little too. She was looking between the other investigators in the room as if she had only just noticed they were there. Shinohara looked regretful, but he was watching Kaneki intently, waiting for him to make his move.

'Amon won't help you now, Ghoul,' the young-looking investigator said, pointing at him, so high and mighty, like he was on the side of right. 'Don't act like this decision is so awful to you, when you kill people week in week out to prolong your pathetic…'

'Be quiet, Takizawa!' Marude cried, and the young man snapped into silence.

'I've never killed a human to eat,' Kaneki said adamantly.

'Then kill the ghoul, Kakuja,' Shinohara said simply.

Kaneki stared at him. He had always thought Shinohara was one of the good ones.

'Why are you one-eyed?' Marude asked.

Kaneki shook his head.

'Why won't you kill humans?' Marude shot out quickly, before he muttered to the side with a sneer, 'if we're to believe a ghoul, of all things.'

'We shouldn't be doing this, Marude-san?' Akira said. 'It's not ethical.'

'Of course it is,' Marude exclaimed, then he yelled at Kaneki, 'Eat one, or they'll both end up dead.'

'You're a ghoul,' said the little boy, 'just like me. Please, I… I want to go home.'

Kaneki looked from the ghoul boy to Aiko, who was crying silently, watching Kaneki with a new wave of fear in his heart.

'Enough of this waiting. Investigators, kill them both.'

The investigators nodded, and with a flick of their wrist they each released their quinques from their briefcases. Both children jumped back in fear, crying out as the investigators held them steady.

'No, NO! Please!' Kaneki cried, holding his hands up. He was crying himself now.

Amon was shaking his head. Even his lip was quivering as he watched the scene unfold.

'Make your choice, or they both die,' Marude stated.

'Wait,' Amon cut in. All the investigators turned to look at him. 'I think I know why he's a one-eyed.'

Kaneki just shook his head at him. He knew what Amon was trying to do, but telling them wouldn't change anything, wouldn't stop the doves murdering these kids and then strapping him down to put centipedes in his ears.

'They won't go that far, Kaneki.'

'You don't know that.'

Amon looked at him, thinking Kaneki was talking to him, and obviously trying to hide how he knew the truth. 'I can take a guess. Based on what we've seen…'

'Yes!?' Marude cried.

'I used to be human.'

All the investigators snapped their heads to look at Kaneki. Even the cold expressions of the investigators holding the children slipped a little.

Akira didn't look particularly surprised.

Everyone else looked a bit baffled, but Rize's eyes were wide open with complete shock.

'What are you looking so surprised for?' Kaneki huffed, looking at her. 'You've known since day one.'

'I'm shocked at the fact you've told them, you imbecile.'

'Who has known?' Marude asked quickly.

'What?' Kaneki said, turning towards the glass with a frown.

'Tell us the truth.'

'I haven't lied to you once,' Kaneki defended.

'There's no way you're a human.'

'I believe he's telling the truth,' Amon said quietly. 'It makes sense. Why the RC scanners didn't work, for example.'

Akira shook her head. 'You can't make assumptions like that.'

'It does makes sense, doesn't it?' Marude said, his eyes staring off into space. 'A half-human, half-ghoul.'

'I'm not half and half.'

Rize gave Kaneki an incredulous look.

'I was born a human,' Kaneki continued. 'I lived an ordinary life up until I was attacked at university by the Bing Eater, Rize Kamishiro. Her organs were transplanted into me, so now part of me is ghoul.'

Shinohara was staring at Kaneki, his eyes wide. 'You have ghoul… organs,' he finally said.

Kaneki nodded. 'Yes, but naturally, I'm human.'

Marude was drumming his fingers against the desk thoughtfully. 'This would make a very interesting specimen for the lab.'

Amon flinched. 'What!? No, you can't mean dissection?' The whole room turned to look at him. Shinohara was frowning at him.

Marude shrugged. He looked a lot brighter in disposition now that he'd had such a major breakthrough in results.

'No,' Amon said more calmly. 'You've just potentially found a half-human half-ghoul, and you want to kill him and cut him up?'

More silence.

'That would be like when they found what they thought was the oldest tree in the world, so they cut it down to find out for sure. It's…' his voice had grown very small. 'It's just a crying shame.'

'Did that really happen?' Takizawa muttered.

'Yes,' Amon mumbled in reply. 'Eight-year-old me cried about it for a week when I found out.'

'We wouldn't necessarily have to kill him,' Marude pondered. 'He's a ghoul. He can heal himself if he's cut open.'

'But only to a certain extent!' Amon cried. 'And that amount of suffering and pain, no…'

'Alright, alright. I think you're right, Amon-san,' Marude huffed. 'I think this ghoul-human-fusion-thing is more useful to us alive and well.'

Kaneki saw Amon's shoulders visibly relax.

'But I still want to see it make a choice now,' Marude continued. 'It may have been human once, but now it's a kakuja.'

Akira stepped forwards. 'But what we understand about ghouls and how their brains work, the lack of empathy, the animalistic behaviour, that doesn't apply anymore.' She turned to Kaneki. 'I'm guessing that none of your brain was transplanted from the Binge Eater ghoul?'

Kaneki looked sideways at Rize, but he ended up shaking his head.

'What? Your brain is completely human,' Rize said, poking Kaneki's skull. 'I don't know why I'm here.' Her disposition slipped for one moment as she thought. 'I don't know why either of us are here.'

'It doesn't matter,' Marude stated. 'For all we know, the ghoul organs corrupt the rest of the body. I still want to find out his decision.'

Akira was shaking her head.

'Chose which one you want to die, Kakuja,' Takizawa yelled from the back, apparently unable to keep it in.

'I can't,' Kaneki muttered.

'Chose!' Marude yelled.

'What do I do?' Kaneki muttered.

'Inside voice, Kaneki.'

What do I do?

Rize pondered for a moment. 'Kill all four of them.'

What?

'It's the strongest decision you could make right now. It would send them all a message...'

I can't do that. Even if I hadn't had an inhibitor shot, I couldn't…

'...and it might scare him off a bit.'

Rize slipped her hand into Kaneki's. She was staring at a spot behind the two investigators, poised ready with their quinques.

The ghoul boy let out a sob, and his investigator gave him a harsh shake.

'I hate to say it, but I think that either way they're going to kill the ghoul child,' Rize said. She sounded genuinely sad.

'I can't do this again, Rize,' Kaneki said, putting his head in his hands. 'I can't cope.' He wiped the tears away from his eyes. 'I want to die. I want to die… Kill me!' Kaneki yelled at the window. 'Please, kill me instead!'

'Sir,' Shinohara said quietly, 'I'm not sure if this is right. The level of distress it's…'

'Quiet!' Marude yelled. 'You, ghoul, hurry up and decide, or all three of you will die!'

Kaneki clutched at himself, hunching in mournfully.

'Maybe… kill the ghoul child. If he's going to die anyway…'

'But what if…'

'Inside voice!'

The thing is, Rize… if I was one of these investigators, I wouldn't protect a ghoul if another ghoul tried to kill it, but…

'You would protect a human child?'

Exaclty.

'I'm sorry, Aiko-chan.' Kaneki watched the little boy's eyes widened with fear, and he practically felt his heart break into two.

Before Kaneki could lose his nerve, he lunged forwards, rushing at Aiko. He couldn't form his kagune, but he bared his teeth as much as he could, snarling at the boy.

He saw Aiko dive backwards in terror just as he felt a slicing feeling against his abdomen.

'Ahhhh!' He fell to the ground.

He'd been right. The investigator had protected the human child, and now Kaneki had a long cut across his chest. Kaneki lay on the floor with his head in his hands and screamed.

'What an animal,' he heard Marude spit out. 'It's worse than a dog.'

Kaneki collapsed back onto the floor. Was that him, still screaming? He felt blood gushing at his side, but his body still felt like it was in once piece. He heard the investigators ushering the children out, and he heard garbled voices on the tannoy.

He felt a shadow fall across his body, and then Rize was screaming too. He reached his hands out for her, calling for her, but he couldn't find her in his blind panic. There were more shouting voices, but it didn't matter, none of it did.

'Amon,' Kaneki whispered. Even Rize didn't seem to have heard him.

Yamori loomed above him, his blonde hair shining in the harsh light. The leering glint of his teeth was like a jagged row of knives.

'Oh god.' He couldn't stop screaming. Yamori stooped over him and grabbed him by the scruff of the neck.

Rize was nowhere to be found. She couldn't help him now, and neither could Amon.

Kaneki hit and jabbed at Yamori's strong arm until the monster let him go with a laugh. Kaneki scrambled away and staggered to his feet, swaying where he stood. Yamori tossed the plyers from hand to hand as he grinned at him horribly.

Kaneki took a deep breath and tried to focus his thoughts. He tried to step back from the situation, as if he was one of the investigators watching through the glass. What would they see?

A crazed young man, standing alone in a white room.

Rize had collapsed on the floor, her skirts pooled around her, her eyes shining with unshed tears. 'I'm sorry, Kaneki,' she whispered, 'I've kept him back for so long, for you, but…'

'It's alright,' Kaneki said, his voice in tatters.

'You look good like this, Kaneki... shaking, pleading, waiting for me to have my way with you.' Yamori knocked his head back and laughed. 'And you have been waiting, haven't you?'

Kaneki stepped backwards through the RC gate, but Yamori only followed him.

'Don't hide, Kaneki. You've been hiding all this time, running.'

Rize was staring at Yamori unwaveringly, but her hands were fluttering about her skirts as if she was searching for something to hold on to.

'I don't understand how you're here,' Kaneki said quietly.

'I've always been here, Kaneki. You just haven't seen me until now.'

Kaneki, taking every ounce of courage he had, closed his eyes, not like a child, naively pretending something wasn't there, but calming his beating heart, focusing on his breath, on the fire in his chest that he couldn't let die out.

'I've fought you before,' Kaneki said, 'and I won. I can do it again.'

'But I'm in here this time,' Kaneki flinched when he felt a hand tap the side of his temple, a big fat finger, rough and calloused.'You can't so easily tear me apart.'

Kaneki kept his eyes closed and shook his head, trying to quell his shaking. 'It's easier this time, because you're not really here.'

Kaneki opened his eyes. Rize was looking at him instead of Yamori, her eyes wide, like she couldn't believe what she was seeing.

Kaneki was satisfied to find the leer had fallen off of Yamori's face.

'I don't let people have power over me anymore,' Kaneki continued. He brought his hands up to the side of his face so he could hear his knuckle reassuringly crack, 'not if I can help it.'

Amon was watching Kaneki carefully. His gaze was hard, unwavering, his body angled defensively.

'What is going on?' muttered Shinohara. Marude had been quiet for a surprisingly long moment, watching Kaneki with a deep frown.

'He's talking to someone,' Amon said.

'No shit, Sherlock,' Akira said, giving him a look.

'I knew all ghouls were mad, but I didn't know it would be this mad,' a niggling voice piped up.

'Oh, put a sock in it, Takizawa,' Akira hissed.

'This ends here,' Kaneki said softly.

Amon watched Kaneki stand there, unwavering, staring at nothing. He cracked his knuckle again, flashing his teeth in a smile.

'Don't look so scared. You made me this way, you should be proud,' Kaneki hissed, still smiling.

Then the ghoul cocked his head to the side as if he was listening to something, before he nodded.

'Yes, I think so. You certainly look it.'

Silence. Amon couldn't even here the other investigators breath.

'No?' Kaneki stepped confidently forwards. 'You don't scare me anymore, because you're not real.'

He abruptly stumbled backwards, as if a force had crashed into him, but then he cried out, not scared this time, but something like battle cry, and he lurched forwards, brought his own arm up in front of his face, and tore out a massive chunk.

Amon flinched back in horror.

'You see!' Kaneki cried, 'I will devour you!' and he pulled off another chunk of his own flesh, and another, then he was on the floor, pounding at it with his abused limbs, trying to sink his nails into his legs so that he might rip pieces of them off to eat too.

'Stop him! Christ, stop him doing that!' Amon cried.

'Guards!' Marude yelled. The guards and investigators from earlier came rushing in. They pushed Kaneki to the ground, holding his limbs in place as the ghoul bled over the tiled floor. But he was laughing elatedly, looking up at the fluorescent bulbs hanging from the ceiling.

'He's gone,' Kaneki sighed, laughing gleefully. 'He's gone, he's gone.' His entire body was slumped, relaxed. The guards were all looking between each other fearfully, but Kaneki might as well have been sunbathing on an Okinawan beach.

'I'm exhausted,' Marude muttered, running his hands over his face.

Looking around, everyone seemed a little shaken by what they had just seen, even Akira.

'Take the ghoul back to its cell and give it some food so it can heal itself,' Shinohara ordered, not even waiting for Marude to agree. 'We'll recommence these tests when it's had a chance to recover.'