Hey guys! As you can tell, I'm back from my long break, and hopefully will be back to writing regularly. I would like to thank Dotred for his constant support by review my work, thank you! It really motivates me to write when I receive comments and reviews!

Chapter 17: Escape

"…Fuck." Kaneki cursed under his breath at the sudden disappearance, until an unbelievably convenient ring was dully heard under a pile of rubble. Recognising the sound, he immediately rushed to the source. Digging up a small pile of rubble was no issue for the half-ghoul, so it was done within seconds. He quickly grabbed his cracked, damaged phone that somehow survived his wrath and ended up under a pile of rubble.

Although the screen was severely damaged, he could make out who his caller was, thus making him smash the accept button without a second thought. Though it did take various times for it to work with the amount of damage on it.

"WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU IDIOT?!"

Even though the voice was hard to hear probably due to the damage on the phone, it was clear who was calling.

…

Touka.

"Whoa whoa calm down Touka I-"

"HOW COULD I CALM DOWN WHEN YOU'VE BEEN GONE FOREVER?!"

"Touka calm down." Hide's voice in the background was ignored by the blue-haired ghoul.

"Serious stuff happened." Kaneki replied.

"…'Serious stuff'? That's not generic at all." Touka rolled her eyes, despite the fact that phones detect rolling eyes. "Anyway 'serious stuff' happened on Earth too."

"Just where do you think I am?"

"God knows where you are."

This time Kaneki rolled his eyes. "What's the 'serious stuff' that happened on Earth then?"

"Just get to the exit already! It's not like I can share the whole story on the phone!"

"Okay okay, I'm on my way."

Kaneki let Touka hang up since anything touch-screen on the phone barely worked. He then proceeded to stare at his phone, debating whether to throw it away, or keep it as a souvenir. He decided to keep it, not as much as a souvenir but in case he received another phone call.

I literally just bought this as well…

Just as he was about to do so, he saw thirty-four missed calls. Though he doubted he could check who the missed calls were from, he could still guess who is was.

… Akihiro.

Well, it makes sense for him to call that many times when Gazel went missing. What doesn't make sense is why his phone didn't ring.

…

Kaneki face palmed. Oh, it's because he called and texted too much I muted him for the time that I was at the beach. Oops.

Deciding not to waste any more valuable time, he stuffed his phone in his pocket and went back to where the unconscious girl was sleeping. He lifted her gingerly and gave extra care as to try not to touch any painful looking cuts or bruises.

Kaneki then began to walk around the damaged facility, searching for a viable exit. Luckily for him, the stairs he used to get into the once clean facility were still usable, though a few small boulders did need to be moved.

"You're eating too much again." An 18 year-old rank 2 investigator stood beside his squad member with crossed arms. "Did you sign the form I gave you?"

"It's called stress eating." The overweight investigator replied, reaching for another rice cracker. "Oh, the bag's finished."

"What's so stressful? It's just signing a form." The boy asked as the girl scrunched up the empty bag and attempted to throw it in the bin one metre away but failed miserably.

"It's not that."

"What is it then?"

"You know what's happened in the recent events don't you?"

"A lot has happened. You're gonna have to be more specific."

"You know what I'm talking about."

"What if I do? What of it?"

"You're so cold!"

The boy rolled his eyes. "Get to the point."

"Well, I just thought we could try find him before anyone else does."

"Why?"

She paused for a moment. "… Maybe we could bring him back…"

The boy almost scoffed. "Why would you want to do that? You know everyone hated him, so what makes you think that people would accept him back?"

The girl saddened. "I just… feel kinda bad."

"Feel bad about what?"

"Well, it's really sad…"

"What's really sad?"

"Urie! The way he's been treated!"

"Look what he's done Saiko. He's a fucking monster. That's why he was treated like a monster."

"No, he's become a monster because we treated him like a monster to begin with."

This time, the boy did scoff. "Whatever."

"Mutsuki is in too!"

"Making her just as dumb as you."

The girl frowned. "What's wrong with you?"

"Me? Look at yourself. Trying to save that freak."

"He was our mentor!"

"Our mentor that we all shunned, even Akira did to an extent."

"To an extent!"

"She still shunned him."

"Well she could be the one to get to him."

"What makes you think that?"

"Well, he was most comfortable with her."

"That's true, but I doubt she'll agree."

"She just needs convincing like Mutsuki did."

The boy turned around. "Yeah, whatever. Good luck with that." What an idiot.

Finally reaching the top of the staircase, Kaneki kicked the door open. To his surprise, not a single soul was in the bar. Double checking to make sure, he didn't miss the state it was in. Broken glass was everywhere, chair legs were broken and tables were turned over. There were also blood splatters around the bar. Though judging by the smell of the blood, it seemed to be a lot mature that natural blood, bringing Kaneki to the assumption that it was simply blood wine, though he wasn't sure.

Walking to the exit of the bar, Kaneki still kept his guard up. The door was blasted off and lay twenty feet outside from the frames. Looking around he found nothing, increasing his anxiety as he walked. It reminded him of those horror movies where everything is too quiet, then something suddenly jumps out. He shouldn't have went with Hide to the cinema and watched those movies.

Not ten metres from the bar, he felt movement in his arms. Looking down, he found the girl he was carrying begin to wake up. Stopping, he waited for her to completely wake up before talking to her, as not to startle her.

She slowly opened her eyes and was met with soft, gentle light grey eyes staring back at her.

Kaneki was the first to speak. "Gazel, you're awake."

"Yes, er… where am I?"

"We're the beach."

"W-WHAT?"

Kaneki became startled at the sudden change in atmosphere. "Y-yeah we're at the beach."

"What would we be doing at the beach after sunset?"

"Do you not remember anything that's happened?"

"My memory is a bit hazy, but I do remember the important parts."

"Okay, we're at the beach because I was In the middle of getting you out of there."

"Wait, so I was at the beach…?"

"It's a long story."

"I'm listening…"

"Okay… you were in an underground facility at the beach which my friends and I just happened to go to for a week as a reward for winning a tennis match and said underground facility was underground (obviously) under a pub run by ghouls who wanted to free the world from its 'birdcage' by creating some Frankenstein monster called 'Frankenstein 2.0' (but I just think they're just crazy) but it was made up of human and ghoul and kagune parts and was brought to life just like in the book in the middle of my rampage and was freed but I don't know where it went… so yeah. That's part of the whole story."

Gazel blinked. Only part of it? "Okay, now I got it."

…

"You didn't get a thing did you?"

"Nope."

Kaneki sighed. "Well right now I need to get to my friends by the exit of the beach and tell them the story. Do you think you can walk? Because I would have to explain a lot if someone sees me walking with a cut and bruised girl in my arms."

"Uh, yeah I think I can walk. But I need help with my right leg."

Kaneki went to her right and assisted her in walking by slinging her arm over his neck while she strode very carefully in an effort not to make the leg bleed any more than it already has.

As they were walking, Kaneki saw Gazel's face scrunch up in pain every time she gently placed her right foot on the ground.

Kaneki stopped. "Stop. Get on my back."

"Why?"

"Because I can tell it's painful for you and it's faster that way."

"Okay."

Gazel carefully climbed onto the half-ghoul's back and they began walking again. Despite the urge to run to the exit, Kaneki knew better or the fast, bumpy ride might hurt the girl on his back even more.

.line

"Where the fuck is he?" Touka grew very impatient waiting by the exit.

Hide sighed. "Call him agai-"

"There he is!"

Hide looked over to where Touka was pointing to indeed see his white-haired best friend. But he couldn't help but be surprised when he saw the beaten little girl the half-ghoul was carrying on his back.

As Kaneki arrived, Touka immediately asked. "Who's she? Why does she look like she got mauled by a dog?"

"It's a long story."

"We're listening."

Kaneki took a deep breath. "Remember when that perv boy took that girl away and I said 'I'll deal with it'? Well the guy lead me to this pub that was run by ghouls that were the same ghouls that attacked Gazel before from the Kagakusha except they had an underground facility as their secret base and they created some Frankenstein monster called 'Frankenstein 2.0' (which is crazy weird and makes no sense as to how it would 'free the word from its bird cage') but anyway it was made up of human and ghoul and kagune parts sewn together and was brought to life just like in the book by lightning (well more like electricity) in the middle of my rampage when I used my kakuja because I saw Gazel being hurt and it was freed but I don't know where it went. That's basically the whole story."

Hide and Touka stared blankly at Kaneki for three seconds.

"So what's the serious stuff that happened to you guys?"

Hide blinked. "Yeah… that Frankenstein monster you were talking about?"

"Mhmm?"

"It kinda rampaged through here, scared everyone off and went into the 20th ward somewhere."

Kaneki blinked. "What?! Seriously?!"

"Yep." Touka replied, recovering from her shock.

"What the hell are we going to do about it?!" Kaneki began panicking. If some Frankenstein monster were to wander through the streets of the 20th ward, the peace it's held for years may be broken.

"We don't know yet. So we decided to wait for you before we make plans." Hide said, making a thoughtful face.

"Have you tried contacting Yomo?"

"Yes, except he isn't answering his phone." Touka replied.

"That's just great…" Kaneki cursed internally.

"Before we do anything it'll be best for you to wear these." Hide said handing Kaneki a sweater and a pair of jeans from his bag. "It's kinda awkward with you walking around half-naked."

Kaneki looked down and realised he indeed was still wearing only his trunks. "K."

"Why did you want to see me Yomo?"

"It's been quite a while since Ken's been back. I thought I'd come here and tell you since you never answer your calls."

"Kaneki?! Really?!"

Yomo smiled. "Yeah."

"That's why no one was at the beach, and that's why the bar was totalled." The one-eyed ghoul, carrying a now sleeping Gazel, thought out load as they made their way back to the pub for Touka and Hide to see what Kaneki meant.

"By the way, why was you voice so distorted when I spoke to you on the phone?" Touka asked.

"Probably because my phone's almost dead."

"Even if your phone's almost dead, it shouldn't distort your voice."

"No, I meant it literally."

"Huh?" Touka asked, confused.

Kaneki pulled out his phone and showed it to her, the damage shocking both the blue-haired girl and the blond boy.

"Whoa man, I wonder how you were even able to make a call with that thing." Hide commented, looking at the damaged phone.

"I guess that extra tough case managed to soak up enough damage for it to survive enough to make a phone call." Kaneki said.

"Good thing I told you you should buy it!" Hide chimed.

"Yeah thanks for that."

"Is this it?" Touka asked, making the two best friends realise they had already arrived.

"Yeah this is it." Kaneki answered. "My guess is 'Frankenstein 2.0' made his exit through here." The half-ghoul pointed at the busted door frame without a door.

"…Yeah." The female ghoul and male human both said simultaneously as they looked at the ruined state of the ghoul bar.

Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed this chapter and please give me a review on how you found it (they're really helpful!) :)