AHOY TATERS YES THIS IS A NEW STORY BUT ITS NOT ONE WRITTEN BY ME, THIS IS A STORY THAT I COMMISIONED A FRIEND OF MINE TO WRITE FOR MY BIRTHDAY, MY FRIEND WANTS TO REMAIN ANONYMOUS SO HE ASKED ME TO POST THIS STORY ON MY ACCOUNT!
THIS STORY WILL HAVE LONG WAITS INBETWEEN UPDATES JUST SO YOU KNOW, I DONT HAVE THAT MUCH MONEY AND USUALLY ONLY GET EXTRA MONEY ON BIRTHDAY AND CHRISTMAS WHICH I USE FOR THESE COMMISIONS! ANYWAYS ONTO THE STORY!
"I'm Ken Kaneki. I'm actually Ken Kaneki."
Meriwether kept repeating it to himself over and over, but it still didn't sound real to him. And yet, it certainly looked to be the case. Though the mirror that held his reflection was old and cracked, having been discarded in an alleyway, and though the only illumination was a nearby streetlamp, flickering at odd intervals, there was no mistaking his appearance. The pure white hair, the mismatched eye - one slate grey, the other crimson with black sclera - he even appeared Japanese.
"I got isekai'd and came back as Ken. Kaneki."
It was like a dream come true. Meriwether watched Tokyo Ghoul religiously - more accurately, he watched anime in general religiously - and he had died and reincarnated as his favorite character of all time.
The only thing that put a damper on the whole situation was the memory of his death. Dying would be troubling for anyone, but that wasn't the worst part. If he'd died heroically, he could keep that memory like a badge of honor. If he'd died from some tragic accident, he could simply say, "These things happen."
But the sheer ridiculousness of how it had happened left him mortified. All he'd wanted to do was help an old lady get her cat down from a tree. It had seemed like the right thing to do. But the ungrateful old crone just gave him a good wack in the groin for "scaring poor Patches half to death."
He felt like he could have died of embarrassment right there, but pure humiliation wasn't the cause of death. Of all things, while he was writhing around on the ground defenseless, he'd been mauled to death. By a pelican.
He had no idea how a pelican could kill a person. He just remembered a flurry of feathers, and the beak stabbing into him repeatedly. Maybe it hit an artery? Regardless, it was the sort of death that nobody could hear about while keeping a straight face. People would probably be giggling all through his funeral.
He shook his head, bringing himself back to the present. None of that mattered anymore. He was Ken Kanekia now. He'd always dreamed of becoming an unstoppable badass anime protagonist. He had a veritable mountain of self-insert fanfiction as proof. But now that dream was finally a reality.
Wait… was it? He furrowed his brow. He looked the part, but what about his actual abilities? Was he superhuman?
Well, only one way to find out. He left the alley and looked down the length of the empty sidewalk. He seemed to be in a more industrial part of town, so there were no people or even cars. Nothing to break the silence of the night.
He readied himself for a sprint, crouching down into a four-point start. Or, what he thought was a four-point start. He was never very athletic in his previous life, so he'd never done one before.
He took off, not at full speed, but moving at what felt like a decent clip. Sure enough, the buildings whizzed by, and his breath was barely laboured.
He pushed himself further, and his speed increased. He would easily outpace a car at this point. And yet, he felt just as confused as he did elated. He was already moving so fast, and he could tell he had the potential to move even faster. This was well beyond the speed of a ghoul.
And he felt a distinctly strange sensation in his legs.
It was difficult to tell while he was running so quickly, but looking down he discovered tube-like structures poking out of his legs. They seemed to be propelling him forward faster than he'd be able to on his own, even with his heightened abilities. They almost looked like the engines on the legs of Tenya Ida, from My Hero Academia.
Meriweather stopped a moment to ponder on this. Or, he tried to, but his momentum wasn't so easily stopped, and he started tumbling head over heels.
He groaned after he finally stopped. His ears were ringing, and his head ached terribly.
"I would have figured I had, like, super durability or something," he mumbled to himself. "Though I guess a regular person wouldn't have survived that."
Though his ears were ringing, he could swear he heard voices. He pulled himself to his feet just as two men rounded the corner.
One of them raised an eyebrow when he saw Meriwether. "Woah, what? Is there a convention tomorrow or something?"
The man to his right took a step back. "You don't think he's, like… one of those supervillains, do you?"
The first scoffed. "You're paranoid, Rick. Supervillains don't just stroll down the street in the middle of the night in full costume."
Meriwether cleared his throat. "I, uh… I have to go." He turned around to leave, but felt a hand grip his shoulder.
"Hold on there. You know, I'm a little short on cash. Just got this new gun, you see." The man pulled a pistol out of his jacket pocket and pointed it right at Meriwether. "You probably don't need much money, since you look like you probably live in the looney bin. How about you help a fella out? In fact, why don't you just hand over your whole wallet."
Meriwether froze. Could he outrun a bullet? He couldn't be sure. And any move he made could be enough to set the mugger off.
"I-I don't have any money… I think." He winced as he said it. He hadn't checked his pockets yet, but it probably wasn't the best idea to sound so unsure.
"You think, huh? You trying to give me trouble? Maybe I ought to just off you right now, make things easier for everybody."
Meriwether's face flushed. "W-Wait, please. No, just… please, DON'T!" He shouted the last word at the top of his lungs, his panic overwhelming him. But to his shock, the armed man was thrown back.
"I KNEW it!" The other man shouted as he ran as fast as he could. Meriwether's would-be mugger had hit the side of a building, and was out cold, possibly even dead. Meriwether turned to run as well, but something made him pause. A smell. It was so alluring. He inhaled deeply. It smelled like…
"Oh, no. I'm Ken Kaneki."
It was blood. His attacker must be bleeding. And the fresh blood smelled amazing. Meriwether had been so excited about turning into his favorite anime character, he hadn't considered the major downfall: He was a ghoul now. Ghouls ate people.
He tried to get away, but it was too late - the smell lingered in his nostrils, and it became impossible to bring himself to pull away. His earlier headache was only getting worse, and realized that it wasn't from tumbling over - it was his ghoul body, succumbing to hunger.
"No no no, please no," he whimpered, but his feet would not listen. He shuffled over to the body, lying still on the pavement. He knelt down, and…
He took a bite.
He wished it had tasted terrible. It would have been so much easier if it was disgusting. But the warm flesh was delicious. Better than anything he could remember tasting.
Meriwether sobbed to himself as he ate. It was impossible to stop thinking about what he was doing. It was absolute hell, and the enjoyment he got out of it made it far, far worse.
Finally, he had eaten enough for the overwhelming urge to feed ebbed, and he backed away from the bloody corpse frantically.
"I-Is this going to be my life now?" he asked, speaking to nobody in particular. "Am I going to have to eat people for the rest of my life?"
He inhaled deeply, then exhaled, trying to calm himself. It wouldn't do any good to start panicking. Probably.
"Well, maybe I can figure something out. At any rate, at least I'm safe. It's not like there's anybody out there that could beat me in a fight. As long as I'm careful about who I eat, maybe..."
As he spoke to himself, his eyes trailed upwards to the sign of the building directly in front of him.
"Oh, that's not good."
Gotham City Bank.
"This is bad."
Three Months Later…
"This is awesome!"
Meriweather admired his latest tattoo. Over the past few months, he'd been changing his look to show off his tough side. No longer a pretty-boy anime protagonist, he sported cornrows, a handlebar moustache, and plenty of ink. This was what he always pictured a tough guy as, and he was thrilled with it.
"Nobody's gonna mess with me anymore!" He said to no one in particular. He was alone in his new apartment - for now - but the place was practically big enough for five.
He'd made a number of discoveries since he'd been reincarnated in Gotham City. The most important was that he had been blessed with powers from yet another anime - My Hero Academia. As far as he knew, he had the quirks from seven of the characters: Shoto's Half-Cold Half-Hot, Twice's Double, Iida's Engine, Hitoshi's Brainwashing, Momo's Creation, Taneo tokuda's whole body lens and Present Mic's Voice.
That had certainly made things easier. He was currently using Creation to make jewelry to sell at pawn shops. It was earning him plenty of cash for the moment, but he knew that he'd have to get some sort of job eventually. But for now, he was busy with one, big thing: being Gotham's newest vigilante.
He chose the name "Grim Ghoul" for his crime-fighting persona. It hadn't caught on yet, mostly because he ate all the criminals he stopped, but he hoped that eventually word would spread. He even made a costume to wear to protect his identity, colored in red, black, and white to complement his unique hair and eyes. An eye mask and flowing cape completed the look.
At first, killing and eating criminals had been horrifying. He'd only singled out the criminals because, if he had to eat, it was probably better to pick someone the world could do without. But each kill was easier than the last, and each meal was more enjoyable. Whereas before he was racked with guilt, wondering whether they were really that bad, now he didn't particularly care. It wasn't his problem why people broke the law, he just enforced it his own way.
Of course, he knew that certain people would probably disagree. But although he'd confirmed through conversations that Batman did indeed stalk the night here, he hadn't had a run-in with him yet. Nor had any other of the many other superheroes of this world made any kind of appearance.
"Maybe they don't even care." He pondered. "I mean, I know the DC heroes are all against killing, but maybe I'm, like, an exception? I mean, if I was a hero, I'd let a badass vigilante do his own thing, too."
Meriwether felt satisfied with that answer, and peered out the window. It was getting dark. Time to go out.
The night was crisp and cool. Meriwether dashed through the streets, on the lookout for a crime in progress. It rarely took very long to find one, to his initial surprise. Apparently, rather than following the law, the criminal underbelly of Gotham sought protection from the Dark Knight by going out en masse, so that he couldn't apprehend them all. He wondered to himself why they didn't just… not rob people. Do some of them have a reason why they need to?
He shook his head. Again, not his problem.
Far off in the distance, he could faintly hear a burglar alarm. Perfect. He took a sharp turn at the next intersection and rushed straight for the source of the sound. It looked to be from a museum. Meriwether smirked. Classic.
Bursting through the front door, he skidded to a halt. Looking around, the vigilante didn't see any burglars. Just a smashed exhibit case, the contents still inside.
He frowned. Did they change their mind? Why would-
His thoughts were interrupted as he was struck from behind. He managed to keep his balance and leap away, turning to face his attacker.
"Oh. Guess I'm not an exception, after all."
Sure enough, crouching in the shadows was the Dark Knight himself. He was every bit as intimidating as Meriwether had imagined.
"There are no exceptions when it comes to the law, Grim Ghoul."
Meriwether pumped his fist. "Yes! I knew it would catch on!" As soon as he said it, he cursed silently to himself. This was his first meeting with Batman, he had to make a good impression.
"...What I mean to say is, I'm impressed you know my name. I don't tend to leave survivors."
Batman narrowed his eyes. "I'm aware. You've left a grisly trail for me to follow. I found security footage of one of your attacks, complete with audio. Your rampage through Gotham ends here."
Meriwether smirked. He was about to beat Batman! Part of him wanted to make it a real fight, but he knew better than to go easy on someone with as much combat experience as him. He'd settle this quickly with his Brainwashing quirk.
"Why do you care? I'm only eating criminals. If anything, I'm making your job easier." The phrase was laced with power, only needing a response to be able to take control of the Caped Crusader.
Meriwether's smug expression slowly disappeared as Batman stood there, not responding. After a short amount of time passed, he finally spoke. "That trick won't work on me. I saw you take control of your victim after he answered your question in the footage I found. I analyzed the audio and found a unique signature, and created a device to detect it. If you try to use it on me, I'll know. So long as I don't respond, it's no threat."
Meriwether sighed and hung his head. "Dang. Alright then, the hard way it is." He dashed forward suddenly, lashing out with a right hook. Batman seemed to have been anticipating it, but he wasn't fast enough to block it. The hit landed cleanly, and he grunted with pain.
Emboldened by his successful attack, Meriwether unleashed a flurry of blows. He had practically no combat training, but his enhanced physiology more than made up for it. He was landing more hits than he was missing, and each one carried plenty of weight.
But his wild strikes could only get him so far. Batman was adapting quickly, and managed to grab Meriwether's wrists. Panicking, he activated another of his quirks, igniting his left arm and freezing his right, forcing his opponent to release his grip.
"Alright, hand-to-hand isn't going to cut it." He activated Creation, pulling a katana straight from his own body. He made sure the edge was blunt, however. He might have been a cannibal, but he wasn't about to kill a hero.
He leapt forward again, raising his blade as if to strike. But at the last second, he screamed at the top of his lungs instead, his Voice knocking Batman clean off his feet.
Keeping on the offensive, Meriwether swung his weapon for real, landing a heavy blow on Batman's shoulder. Batman returned the favor with a Batarang, forcing Meriwether to dodge while he put some distance between them.
The Caped Crusader reached into his utility belt. Meriwether tensed, ready for another Batarang. But instead, he pulled out a pellet, and what looked like a respirator. He put the respirator to his mouth and hurled the pellet to the ground.
Poof! A cloud of gas burst from the small pellet, filling the room almost immediately. Before he could stop himself, Meriwether had already inhaled some of it. He quickly started feeling dizzy and disoriented.
It only took him a second to realize that he couldn't continue the fight in this condition. Deciding to cut his losses, he sprinted for the exit. His dizziness made running in a straight line difficult, but with his speed he was more than capable of a quick getaway even while zig-zagging and bumping into things.
Batman didn't pursue him. Instead, he concentrated, reaching out with his mind. "Miss Martian, can you hear me?" he asked through his psychic link.
"I hear you, Batman. Do you want me to catch him?" A voice responded in his head.
"Follow him, but don't engage. Just see if you can access his memories. To fight an enemy like this, we need as much information as we can get."
A green-skinned girl rose up from the floor, as if she were a ghost. "You got it, Batman. I won't let you down!" She flew in Meriwether's direction, passing straight through the museum's wall.
Though Miss Martian wasn't nearly as fast as Meriwether, in his disoriented state and with her ability to move straight through any obstacles, it wasn't long before she caught up to him. He was hiding in an alleyway, catching his breath and checking to see if he had been followed. He stepped back when she approached, ready to continue fighting.
She raised her palms reassuringly. "Woah, woah, take it easy. I don't want to hurt you, I just have a quick job to do. Let me just..." She reached out with her mind, penetrating into his memories. They all came flooding in, and they weren't at all what she was expecting.
She clutched her chest as she lived out his death, reincarnation, and descent into violence and cannibalism. Tears welled up in her eyes.
"Oh… Oh my gosh. M-Meriwether… I'm so sorry. I couldn't have imagined what you're going through. I… I don't know what to say."
Meriwether slumped to the ground. "Did… did you read my mind, then? I… Yeah, it's been a trip."
Cautiously, Miss Martian sat down beside him. "I'll bet. Are… Are you okay?"
Meriwether grinned. "Honestly, I'm great! It was pretty awful at first, but I have it all figured out. I have to eat, so I eat criminals. They're the bad guys, so it doesn't really matter, right? Who cares what happens to them! I get to survive, and I make the world a better place. Win-win, all around."
Miss Martian nodded slowly. "That's a… simple way of looking at it. A coping mechanism, perhaps? Well, anyway… I only needed to get your memories, so if you want to get out of here, I won't stop you. Not this time."
Meriwether shakily got to his feet. After having a chance to breathe, most of the gas had left his system. Miss Martian helped him to steady himself, and touched his shoulder tenderly. "Take care of yourself, okay? And… I'm going to look into a way to let you survive without eating people."
Meriwether grinned. "Oh? Sounds to me like an excuse to see me again. Don't worry, I'll catch you around." He swatted her on the rear and bolted, cackling at his antics as he rushed away. Miss Martian watched him leave, mouth agape. She didn't know whether to yell, gag, or cry.
She settled on a defeated sigh. "He… He's been through a lot. Be patient, you can explain appropriate behavior next time. I'm sure he just didn't know any better."
She leapt to attention as she heard Batman's voice through their psychic link. "Miss Martian, come in. Are you all right? Did you manage to access his memories?"
"Yes, I got them. I managed to talk to him a little bit, too. Listen, he's… He's not just a crazy murderer. He's really been through a lot."
"Of course he has. Killers rarely come from comfortable backgrounds. But we can't let him run wild just because you feel sorry for them. The people he's killed probably had hard lives, too."
"Of course. But, I did find out that he needs to eat other humans to survive. So… what will you do with him when you catch him?"
"Actually, the question is, what will you do? I've decided that your team should handle him. His wide array of powers is better countered by a whole group. Contact your team and let them know."
Miss Martian nodded, although he couldn't see it. "Okay, we'll take care of him. Thanks for trusting us, Batman."
Meanwhile, Meriwether reclined at one of his safehouses as the last of his dizziness dissipated. He had set the space aside so that he couldn't be followed directly back to his home.
"Well, things just got interesting."
AUTHORS NOTES
SO WHAT DO YOU THINK OF WHAT MY FRIEND WROTE? AND YES MERIWETHER WILL BE PAIRED WITH MISS MARTIAN AND THIS ISN'T A HAREM STORY, THOUGH MERIWETHER IS A PERVERT SO HE WILL ACT PERVY TOWARDS A LOT OF OTHER GIRLS
ANYWAYS LATER TATERS!