Hey guys! As I promised, I quickly made the next chapter. And once again, thanks Vi-violence for giving your opinion in my work.
Chapter 3: Rival
A lonely cool breeze swept through the empty, dark streets of Tokyo. The Tokyo everyone knows. The Tokyo filled with secrets and lies. The Tokyo that harbors the spirits of both humans and ghouls.
An eerie silence corrupted the once lively passages leading people to divergent shops that welcome their keen customers with warm smiles of acceptance. The short phrase said to each and every customer indiscriminately that carries a heavy meaning in each and every one of its words; "Welcome to-".
The countless varieties of design and purpose created by humans and ghouls alike; the souls that liven Tokyo. The stores that all have their own voices, announcing their place in this world. The gossip and chatter that coats Tokyo throughout the day without rest.
The noisy cars carrying all sorts of passengers; students; playful children; workers; tourists; humans; ghouls.
All of which is asleep, blanketed by the night's darkness. Pillowed by the Moon's soft and gentle light. Hushed by the countless stars' twinkling and dancing in the beautiful midnight sky.
Tokyo is sleeping, resting for the next day.
The faint sound of footsteps obstructed the smooth silence in one of Tokyo's many wards.
3 people walked its empty streets, their snowy, silky and long hair all glistening under the moonlight, gracefully waving about at the presence of every breeze.
Although they all seemed to walk in sync, their feelings were nowhere near as close.
One had a perfect emotionless poker face with a pair of dull grey eyes, completely mastering the expression in every way possible. Another had a face of annoyance, staring daggers at a certain milky haired individual. The other had her head held high, with a proud face as if she had accomplished one of her life goals and had just crossed it off her bucket-list.
Their moods never seemed to change throughout their long journey, which was quite funny if you think about it. They were like robots who were set to do one task and one task only; walk.
How far is their house?
It feels like we've been walking for at least 30 minutes.
I wonder what I'll look like.
They don't live alone do they? No, of course they don't, Gazel said it's a small family.
I hope the people are nice, I honestly don't want any more trouble.
When I get there, I should ask if I could stay for a while 'cuz I have absolutely no clue where the hell I am. I would need a place to fall back on if necessary.
I'm probably in another random ward huh? That means I'll need to know how to get back to the 20th.
But staying with them means I would need a steady food source and a whole lot of excuses to refuse the food I'm given.
Though I guess I could force some down at times…
Although Kaneki looked like a robot with his unflinching poker face, he certainly wasn't one with all the different thoughts racing through his mind.
He carefully analysed his position to identify at all the possible scenarios that could sprout from a situation like this, just like he usually would.
Kaneki is a type of person that is so hard to annoy. Near to nothing works on him, he always keeps his cool and never gets distracted. A relatively calm guy.
But despite all that, a certain boy to his far left is touching a lot of nerve, and Kaneki doesn't like one bit.
The boy kept shooting Kaneki hateful glances every now and then, sometimes looking disgusted while other times looking annoyed.
Everything about Kaneki Akihiro hated, his eyes, his hair, his face, his personality, his mysterious and sudden appearance in his life, his everything!
But it was all behind many reasonable reasons in his mind.
Whenever he glanced at Kaneki, he would look at his pale face, then look down at his torn and tattered trench coat and repeat the process.
Is he ever going to fucking stop?
He's such a pussy, he should just man up and say to my face why the fuck he hates me.
At this point, Akihiro is practically turning his head to face Kaneki and give him more of his dirty looks.
It's so obvious it's as if he wants me to notice him giving me dirties.
Maybe he does… in that case…
While keeping his head forward and face neutral, Kaneki shot his eyes at lightning speed straight to his left, resulting in eye contact with a particularly annoyed boy.
Kaneki noticed that the boy was staring right at his chest. They were locked on there as if he was expecting something to pop out, not realizing that Kaneki was staring right back at him.
Subconsciously, Kaneki flinched and let his head turn to the boy.
Kaneki stared at the boy staring at his chest in total and utter confusion. Naturally, he went through any of the possible reasons in his head to try and understand why the hell the boy was staring at his slightly exposed chest.
Maybe he's trying to figure out what happened to me? No, if that was the case, then I'm pretty sure he would just ask considering how forward this guy acts.
…
…
…
Then what the hell man, what's his fucking problem?
Holy shit, he gets on my nerves.
As Kaneki's hateful thoughts raced through his mind, he didn't notice his fists clenched in both hands, responding to his annoyance. His facial expression had also morphed from one of pure confusion to one of hate with a hint of disgust.
I can tell, we won't get along…
Although the two looked completely different, their personalities were far from it. They both shared the careless plain face with matching personas, yet they didn't seem to get along for a reason Kaneki so curiously is digging for.
The two stayed staring for at least 5 seconds before one of their gazes began to shift.
The silky-haired boy looked up from an exposed chest with jealousy to see a slightly angered face printed on the snowy-haired older male.
He was shocked, and wasn't able to hide it. He didn't realize Kaneki had been staring at him the whole time. His reflexes told him to quickly turn his turn his head away and face front.
His face was splashed with worry when he realized Kaneki was still staring at him. He thought fast and decided to act cool with a neutral face until an angered Kaneki would stop staring back at him.
Akihiro thought it had worked because he eventually did look away but it had been for another reason, a reason that also explained why Kaneki had a smirk on his face.
Kaneki kept that smirk for 3 seconds before replacing it with glee.
Haha, so that's why he was staring huh? Well, I guess someone's jealous.
Akihiro's chest was completely flat compared to Kaneki's, who had a lot of muscle built there as a result of his past experiences. It's laughable to compare the two.
Kaneki indulged the felling a little longer before deciding to become reasonable about the situation.
He wanted to be the sensible one between their not so sensible relationship.
Taking action, he turned to boy who had slowed down considerably in an attempt to get out of Kaneki's field of view.
"Akihiro." He said simply, which was just enough to get his attention through a cold breeze.
"What do you want?" The boy also turned his head to face who called his name, his reply coming to sound just as simple as the question itself.
Kaneki stopped moving and decided to continue the simple flow of words that formed their sentences by asking "Why do you hate me so much?"
The question seemed to catch him off guard because he stopped dead in his tracks, his eyes immediately widened and his mouth slightly opened.
It seemed like that was the reaction Kaneki had expected and showed a genuine smile as a result.
Gazel had also stopped and turned around, confused at the relatively straight forward question that left Kaneki's mouth.
Now the 3 of them were staring at each other.
Though the boy's shocked reaction only lasted for 2 seconds after a sigh escaped his lips and he pulled out his serious face. "It's was pretty obvious huh? Well I hate you 'cuz because you look like the kind of guy who's good at everything and always rubs it in. Y'know, the guy that everyone hates?"
Kaneki kept smiling, though it was only a slight smile. "So you judge a book by its cover do you? If I judged you, I'd say you're the guy who always tries to win but fails miserably, sulking and angry as a result." Kaneki's voice stayed calm and level throughout the whole sentence.
Akihiro flinched when he said that, and Kaneki assumed it was because he hit the nail right on the head.
The boy didn't know how to respond, he was completely speechless, mainly because those were the exact words that so many people he had met seemed to have said.
A wave of sadness crashed into him, his eyes slowly make their way to the ground as if it would offer him comfort.
Gazel calmly and quietly walked over to Kaneki who seemed rather confused by the saddened boy's vulnerability.
She wore a slight smile and warmly whispered in his ear. "Kaneki, ya shouldn't have said that…"
Kaneki shifted his dull, grey eyes towards the girl beside him, still carrying his confused cast. "O-oh, I'm sorry. I didn't know that something like that would affect him so much…" He had emphasized the 'him' to indicate how pathetically he overestimated the boy's toughness, though she didn't seem to notice.
He wasn't really sorry for the boy, he just felt sorry for making the girl uneasy. He had opened his heart a little to care for the girl, even if it was just a centimeter.
He couldn't really care less about the annoying boy as his tolerance for bullshit had gone down considerably in the past year.
She nodded and continued whispering. "It's not really a big deal, it's just that he got bullied a lot in school and umm… a sentence like that always seemed to make its way into the bully's mouth. I guess it was mainly because, as you said, he always judges books by their cover, and judges them badly. Not to mention, you resemble a particularly… well, horrible bully he had met."
Kaneki just seemed to blink his tired unconcerned eyes while keeping his neutral face in check. He even had to try hold back a yawn. Kaneki couldn't find a single drop of sympathy for the boy, mainly because it's hard to find sympathy for someone who, to him, acted like a complete dick.
The black-haired boy looked up as he noticed Gazel exchanging words quietly with a poker faced Kaneki.
He had seen this scene so many times. Too many times. The younger, more mature girl had always saved him and talked sense into the bullies, sparing him the hurt for another day.
She had gone through more, way more than him. His problems were microscopic compared to hers, yet her change in behaviour as a result of her problems were microscopic to his.
What a disgrace, how shameful.
Why had he turned a blind eye to such a thing? It had been so blatantly there in front of him. It wouldn't take long for even a blind man to notice something was off.
You didn't need to see it, feeling or hearing it would've been enough to notice its presence.
He's getting tired of it.
He can't stay needy for a little girls help forever!
If he's going to do something about it, it's going to be now.
If he's going to stop this, it's going to be now!
If he's going to grow up, it's going to be NOW!
He's going to do what Gazel had been secretly hoping he would do for a long time now.
He took 3 steps forward, until he was 1 meter away from Kaneki and Gazel.
Their conversation stopped and they simultaneously shifted their gazes to look at the sudden change in the boy's behavior.
His brunette eyes comfortably resting on the white-haired boy's stone cold ones, exchanging meaningless, empty looks.
It stayed that way for an unexciting 5 seconds, both figures unflinching. But Akihiro still seemed uncomfortable staring at the dullest, most empty eyes he had ever seen.
The both stayed staring, one person expecting the other to start something, to get them out of this rather weird situation.
Unable to take the tension, Akihiro decided to finish what he started. "I realized we can't go on like this for long. If I can judge you again, I'd say that you would treat someone the way they would treat you. If that's the case, then hating you wouldn't be wise right?"
Kaneki didn't respond. He just kept staring at the boy, waiting for him to finish his point.
Realizing he wasn't getting an answer he continued. "That being said, and also learning from past experiences, I frankly wouldn't want a bad relationship with you."
Kaneki still hadn't moved a muscle to the sound of his words, though he did find it a bit interesting.
"But, that doesn't mean I want to be friends with you. I realized that you're quite tough, physically and mentally. Judging once more, I'd say you would stick up for someone no matter what who would also stick up for you, the guy who would keep a promise or a secret no matter what it is. Having those qualities, I realized you're the perfect person to be my rival."
That one word echoed in Kaneki's mind a bit.
Rival…
His head tilted and his face bore a rather confused expression.
Rival…
He found it quite interesting because he'd never had a rival before. The thought of having one never even crossed his mind once, mainly because he was so weak before that he wasn't fit to be a rival.
Keeping his confused state, he added a smile to his face. "So you make a big decision out of a whole load of assumptions? A whole load of judges?"
Akihiro grew angry, he thought he had made valid points in his words. He thought he had been smart for once, but clearly not to that selfish grey-eyed jerk. "Yeah, and what of it? You better be honored to be my rival 'cuz not everyone gets a chance like this. So be grateful ya hear?"
Kaneki tilted his head back in place and gave the rambling boy a neutral face with a slight smile.
"But I haven't given you my consent to the matter Mr Akihiro." Kaneki sarcastically replied, holding his hands out in a gesture to emphasize his point further.
"So I take that as you don't comply with my demands Mr Ken." Akihiro's statement mirrored the sarcasm and hand gesture Kaneki used, which made the white-haired boy's smile grow just the slightest.
Kaneki's face held it dull, never changing eyes but harbored the smile despite it.
How interesting… alright, I'll play with you for a while.
At the corner of his eye, Kaneki saw a smile on Gazel's happy expression, proving her relief and agreement in the situation.
"But it also doesn't mean that I haven't given you my consent." Kaneki sealed his vague agreement with a fast wink.
For the first time, Akihiro smiled at the pale boy, genuinely.
Just like Kaneki had, he saw the happy smile printed on Gazel's face, making his smile even wider. He was relived he had finally made her happy by doing something right, and learning from his mistakes.
"C'mon boys, stop idling about and let's get home. We should have been there 30 minutes ago, so chop chop!" Gazel perfectly ended what could have been an awkward situation between the two resolved men, if time kept ticking by.
She gestured the direction in which they should head then began to happily skip that way.
The two boys followed her lead into Tokyo's dark streets, both their eyes twinkling with resolve.
Thanks for reading chapter 3! Please leave a comment on what you think about it or what I can improve on. :)