Notes at the bottom!
Blood Shot Chp. 2
Blood Shot
It had been a week since Touka met Kaneki Ken, and in that week the white-haired enigma made no move to associate with her, or anyone for that matter. He generally sat at a table in the shop or staff room upstairs and wrote in a thick charcoal coloured leather book. The only time she saw him talk was when Koma or Irimi brought him coffee.
That night in the staff room she learnt a lot about the mysterious boy. Apparently, he used to work at the café before 3 years back he left to a different ward. What he did during those 3 years is still unknown to her. She also learnt that Kaneki also owned the big apartment that took up almost the entire floor above her. It was even bigger then the managers! According to Yoshimura that whole floor was built for Kaneki when he first he first came to Anteiku and after he moved away the old man had left the apartment alone just in case kaneki might ever come back. Talk about special treatment!
"Touka, are you able to take Kaneki's coffee up to him. He's probably too engrossed in his work he doesn't realise the time." Irimi's voice brought her out of her thoughts.
"What?! But why he can come down himself to get it!" She shouted outraged. Every customer in the café looked at her. Touka could feel heat rising to her cheeks but continued in a quieter tone anyway.
"His been here for a week and the brat has only spoken to us if we speak to first! His an arrogant, egotistical, self-centred…"
"Touka if you don't take coffee to Kaneki I'm afraid I'll have to bring out the 'Devil Ape'." Koma threatened in a low voice, interrupting Touka's rage.
"…..…"
Silence and blank looks met with such a statement they heard so many times before.
Irimi turned to Touka, "look Touka, I think you and Kaneki could be great friends you just need to get to know each other. Besides he's in his room and you've always wanted to know what was in that apartment, right? Well, if anything now's your chance."
What she said was true, well the second part anyway, for two years she had lived at Anteiku she had been curious about what was behind that always locked door. She wasn't the one to find it, her brother-no she wasn't going to think of that now.
"Fine, whatever I'll go. But only so I can get off my shift. Pass the damn coffee."
With that said Irimi gave Touka a tray with two cups of black coffee, a small jug of milk and a small bowl type cup filled with sugar cubes.
She made her way up the three flights of stairs and to Kaneki's apartment door with the tray, cursing all the way. Coming face-to-face with the door she remembered how many times she had been in this same position before. For so long she had imagined what was behind this door and now to she was about to find out. Hiding her exactment with a mask of annoyance, she kicked the door open and stomped into the apartment.
"Oi Kaneki, I brought you some damn cof…"
Once again, she was interrupted but this time not by somebody's voice but by the sight that was in front of her. Kaneki was wearing a similar monochromic coloured outfit to the one he wore when they met only this time he was wearing white slacks and a black t-shirt, his white hair was as wild as ever. But that wasn't what made her stop speaking. No, it was his eyes. They were both uncovered, his right eye was the silver-grey colour she had seen before, while the other was a pitch-black colour with a blood red iris and blood red veins stuck up on the skin next to his eye. It looked like a Ghouls eye. He had blood dripping down from his mouth and his pale face was freckled with blood. Touka couldn't help but scrunched up her nose in disgust as the stanch of the blood met her. While normally the smell of blood made her stomach ache of hunger this blood did the exact opposite-it made her stomach ache with the urged to throw up.
Focussing back on Kaneki, Touka saw him wipe his face clear of blood and stood, walking to the kitchen. He came back with a wet dish washing cloth picked up a red stand plate in one hand and washed the blood on the table with the cloth with the other. He walked back into the kitchen, disposed of the plate and cloth then disappeared into another room reappearing moments later wearing a different top.
"Touka, please come in and sit down. I apologise you had to see me in such a state." Kaneki said in an emotionless voice while sitting on a lounge chair across the room.
Touka, un-scrunched her nose and took a seat opposite Kaneki, placing the tray on the coffee table before picking up a cup and taking a sip watching as Kaneki did the same after adding one cube of sugar.
"What are you?" she asked Kaneki bluntly looking into his still two-toned eyes.
She had been wondering about this since she had first smelt him-a person who didn't smell like a human or ghoul but at the same time smelt of both, it was an over powering smell that still manage to smell delicious.
"Mmm, that is a question. You see Touka, I am very different to the people who visit this café-both human and ghoul visitors."
"What do you mean?"
"Let me ask you a question, when a human and ghoul fall in love and have a baby, what do you get?"
"What do you mean 'a human and ghoul fall in love' as if that will ever happen. Ghouls eat humans."
Kaneki smiled although it didn't meet his eyes.
"I don't know how a human and ghoul can fall in love or want to have a child but if it happens then you get a corpse. Sometimes not even that. They just don't mix, humans and ghouls. If the mother is a human then the ghoul child can't gain enough nutrients while in the womb to survive-it will die of starvation. However, if the mother is a ghoul then her body will see the child to be food and it will eat the child."
Touka was listening with rapid attention. She hadn't ever known or heard about any of this before.
"On the off chance that the child is born alive then it would be a hybrid of the two species and will have properties both weaker and superior to that of a fully-blooded ghoul. Also, the half-ghoul, half-human hybrid only has one kakugan"
That last sentence caused Touka's eyes to snap from her coffee to his one crimson red eye.
"So, then your one. You're a half-human, half-ghoul hybrid." She asked with wide eyes, to which Kaneki nodded.
"My father was a ghoul, while my mother was human. My father was a man much like the manager, always trying to make pace between ghouls and humans even though he was a powerful ghoul himself. My mother was similar, she believed that it didn't matter whether you were a human or ghoul. She believed that both species are people who have many emotions, that both species deserved to live a long, happy, joyful life, filled with opportunities. She wanted to make her believes known so when I was conceived she began to eat human suicide victims, not unlike you do now. With her eating humans, my ghoul body was able to have the nutrients it needed to survive. The only people who know about my half-human states are the workers here-which now includes you-and a few good friends of mine." Kaneki finished downing the rest of his coffee with ease.
"So, your stronger than normal ghouls. 'Cause you're a half ghoul."
"In some aspects. My sense of smell and sound is much weaker than the average ghoul but my eye sight makes up for that. My sense of taste is different to a ghoul's too. I also can't control my kakugan like you can."
"What do you mean?" Touka repeated her previous question.
"If I'm hungry, emotionally overwhelmed or my body is under a great amount of stress then my kakugan appears weather I like it or not. There are times when I can control it but I can only do so for a couple of hours and I rarely get that chance."
Touka was in stunned silence.
A mirror showed the reflection of a white-headed male with dull grey eyes. Or rather ONE dull grey EYE. The other eye was a shade of pale red. They were cold, broken eyes. Eyes that have seen too much, connected to a body that has felt too much. He was a person who has lived too much in world where his life could only be a cursed tragedy.
"Ah, guess its back to normal. Well as 'normal' as anything about me can be." Kaneki Ken idly commented.
Turning away from the mirror Kaneki took two long strides into his bedroom before collapsing on his fluffy mattress.
"Normal" he faintly mummed as he diffed off into a sleep he just knew was going to be filled with nightmares.
"Normal?"
SMACK!
"How could you be normal?"
HIT!
"You're a MONSTER! An ABNORMAL FREAK!"
WHIMPER.
"How could someone like you even hope to live a normal life? A human and a ghoul in one body. How disgusting. Such a thing existing is atrocious."
SOB. SOB.
"You're an abomination! You deserve to die!"
Clank, clank, clank. Slam!
SOB. SOB. SOB.
"I-I'm not. I'm not a monster or a freak. I'm not abnormal."
'You're an abomination! You deserve to die!'
SOB. SOB.
"I'm such an aberrant, demonic existence."
'I'm neither human…nor a ghoul. I'm…I'm…alone. I don't belong anywhere.'
~Kaneki Ken, Tokyo Ghoul
Hi everybody! Annabell here!
Here's the second chapter! Sorry for the wait. I wasn't able to write this chapter till now-I had SO much work to do! *sigh* All Well. It's up now!
Thank you to everyone who took the time to read the first chapter and thank you to all the people who left review! Reading through them really gave me the confidence boost I think I needed for the chapter.
In this chapter Touka isn't really 'drop dead by shock' surprised as I think we all believed she would be when she found out about the half ghoul that's because in future chapters there will be other surprises that i think needs that reaction. SO I'll just save it for later!
It'll be a HUGE help if you continue to leave reviews/comments/suggestions!
THANKS AGAIN FOR EVERYTHING!
Love you all, have a good day/night.
~Annabell