Disclaimer: Let's face it, I'm not nearly talented enough to even think about owning Tokyo Ghoul. It's not going to happen.
A/N: Just a quick author's note here...Sorry it's two days late...Also, for those who don't know or who have forgotten, the set update date is the first Friday of every month.
Guest Reviews:
Guest (1): Here's another new chappie for you! :) (Also, your questions will be answered in my other, longer author's note in the bottom. You had some really good questions that I want all of this story's followers to know about!)
The Ayato ship thing I'll answer now since it was more of a personal question: Having Ayato like the female Kaneki actually doesn't seem too far off, thinking about it now. I think it's a plausible situation and the more I think about it the more I like it! So, yeah, there's probably going to be a relationship between them, I'm thinking it's going to be purely platonic, though.
Dotti3: Thank you once again for your kindness, your comments make me so happy! I'm so overjoyed that you are enjoying this, I really hope you can bear with my weird update schedule and see this to the end. Thank you so much! :)
Guest (2): Don't worry about your English, there was nothing wrong with it...I'm guessing that it's not your first language? Anyway, Eto being caring towards Kaneki had not crossed my mind, thanks for the idea, actually! There are so many directions to take this story, but so far I think I'm leaning more towards Kaneki joining Aogiri tree..hmmm. I actually haven't watched the anime yet, so I'm not sure what Kaneki did in while in Aogiri tree. Anyway, thanks for your lovely review, I hope you find this chapter to your expectations!
Chapter 3: Death
Quick Recap:
Kaneki discovers coffee and meets Nishiki. Hide makes a move on her (not in that way, mind you) and they become almost friends, however, Kaneki pushes him away and relapses back into a solitude-centered mindset. Her hunger grows, almost to the point of consuming (lol, get it? Badum-tsss) her, and she has suicidal thoughts. The raven finds herself standing at the side of the road behind some metal railing and before she knows it, she's falling down.
A silver-haired man watched silently as a girl, standing on a cliff at the side of the road, went through several different changes. Despair, resignation, then determination. She, who was nearly about to kill herself before, made a split-second decision not to do it. But as she turned around to leave the cliff, she fell.
The man made no move to save her. He was used to seeing death, so he was easily able to detach himself from the events going on right before his eyes. After all, if he let her live, there would be certain 'people' unable to eat.
The girl looked shocked, then scared. She was far away but he could easily spot the emotions going wild on her face.
He watched as the girl closed her eyes in a reluctant acceptance of the events. The man waited for the sound of a body hitting the ground, but it never came. The girl, showing strength and resolve that was not in her previously, suddenly shot her eyes open and—cat-like—twisted mid-air to cling to the side of the cliff. For a brief moment, it seemed like she was going to slide off. She was able to hold on, however.
The man wasn't surprised; he's seen it all before. The girl would try to hang on only to realize she didn't have enough strength and he would continue to take the lifeless body for the food reserve.
The girl stayed clinging to the cliff for a longer time than he had expected. She tried to climb down once or twice, however, it proved to be futile as it was too steep. He saw her scrutinize the area for any escape, but again there was nothing. Eventually, her hand slipped and she, wide-eyed, started falling again. The man had to applaud her for her persistence and stubbornness.
She landed on the ground with a sickening crack and he knew the struggle was over. He slowly edged toward the limp body and gently searched it for any ID so he could somehow contact a friend or relative about the death. He found a small brown wallet, keys, a cell phone, and, oddly, a small medical eyepatch. All of which miraculously survived the fall. Pocketing the eyepatch to examine later, the man decided to check the other items first. The cell phone was useless, as he didn't know her password, and so were the keys. In the wallet, he was able to find a simple school identification.
Kamii University
Kaneki Kenna
Female
Literature Major
Kamii? The man wondered. That's a pretty high-level school.
A stir drew his attention back to the 'dead' body, which apparently wasn't as dead as he thought. The girl groaned.
The man was puzzled. That was a two-story drop. She should definitely be dead unless…
A sniff.
She was a ghoul.
How could he have not noticed before? The scent was faint, barely even there. However, the supernatural strength, effortless air mobility, and even the reason why she wanted to commit suicide were all because of her ghoul DNA.
He contemplated leaving the girl to rot but seeing her spurred emotions of sympathy, and he just couldn't leave her there. Boosting his resolve, he grabbed her and dragged her to his hidden car, parked cleverly in the shadows, away from any wandering eyes.
Hopefully, he wouldn't regret this decision.
The car drove to a stop right in front of a quaint cafe. A sign out front had the name Anteiku written on it in fancy letters with chalk. A sturdy and silent man got out of the car and walked to the passenger's seat to grab a sleeping girl, carrying her bridal style.
He got a few odd stares which just screamed "pedophile!", however, he ignored them for the most part.
As the man opened the door, he was greeted by the manager, an older man with a calming smile.
"Ah, welcome back Renji-kun."
Renji silently nodded back in a greeting.
The manager noticed the girl being carried in Renji's arms and gestured to her.
"Who might that be?"
"...She's one of us."
The manager's eyes sharpened. "I see."
"She tried to commit suicide?" The manager asked, eyes revealing sorrow-filled empathy as he looked at the girl resting peacefully on one of the break room's couches.
A nod. Renji looked at the elder with seemingly blank eyes, but years of knowing the now quiet man enabled the manager to decipher the hidden message: Help her like you helped me.
The manager smiled. "Of course."
"Yoshimura," Renji spoke, never taking his eyes away from the resting girl. Her strong will...it reminded him vaguely of his sister.
"Hmmm?" The other man looked at Renji.
"What are you going to do with her?"
Yoshimura smiled fondly at him. "Seems like someone has taken a shine to her?" The manager teased.
Renji opened his mouth to speak, the barest of blushes tinting his cheeks a bashful shade of pink, "I—"
The girl stirred on the couch and the two men paid rapt attention. She slowly turned from her position on her side onto her back and her crusted-over eyelids fluttered open.
Yoshimura couldn't keep his eyes from shooting wide open and neither could Renji.
The girl...only had one kakugan...She was a half-ghoul.
She centered her eyes on the pair and both could instantly tell that she wasn't herself, her eyes cried out hunger. It wasn't surprising when she attacked Renji.
Kaneki woke up in an unfamiliar setting on an unfamiliar couch under unfamiliar covers and in an unfamiliar room. She couldn't remember the prior events which led up to this moment and was quite confused. The most unusual thing about waking up, though, was the feeling of being completely rejuvenated and not at all hungry. She hadn't felt this energetic since, well, before the accident. Kaneki licked her lips and was met with the taste of iron. Taken aback, she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and saw red.
Is this...blood? Wha-how? Where did it come from? Actually, Kaneki paused to observe her surroundings. Where am I? She rubbed her eyes and looked around, seeing everything with surprising clarity, as her eyepatch usually left her visually impaired. The raven shot her hands up to her face and realized her eyepatch was gone. She panicked slightly and thought for a terror-filled moment that she had been found out. Standing, she let the covers fall haphazardly off of her in pursuit of a lost eyepatch. The girl tried to quietly shuffle around the room, observing her surroundings. The only source of light was from a window, right above the couch she was sleeping on. Judging by the amount of light pouring into the room, it was noon. The place looked like a small break room: three couches surrounded a small table in a U shape. A TV sat on a small television stand in front of the table. Her surroundings gave off a cozy feeling and she felt as if she'd been here before.
She looked at the table and saw all her small, white medical eyepatch, along with some other personal items. She sighed with relief and reached towards them.
A door parallel to the window opened, startling her, and she quickly dove back onto the couch and grabbed for the covers, turning away from the door so as to hide her face. She willed her breathing to become longer, deeper in order to imitate that of one dreaming. Her eyepatch laid on the table, forgotten.
"It's useless to feign sleep." A familiar female voice said, with a hint of annoyance. "I heard you moving all the way from the front room."
The ravenette still made no move and continued her act.
The intruder (or maybe Kaneki was the intruder?) sighed, and the sound of the cushions being breathing out dust alerted Kaneki to the fact that the stranger was now sitting down.
"You can turn around now."
Kaneki hesitated and furtively rolled over onto her other side in order to face her (presumed) adversary. Needless to say, she was surprised to see Kirishima Touka staring at her with an irritated—perhaps even inquisitive—expression.
"Hey." The waitress became suspicious at seeing the girl's face clearly and warily leaned in towards Kaneki. "Weren't you Rize's-"
The door opened and the word meal was left hanging in the air.
Kirishima looked at the person who entered and then back at Kaneki. The waitress nodded at the silent girl in a We'll talk later fashion and started to walk out of the room.
"Ah! Wait-!" Kaneki started but was cut off by the sound of the door slamming shut.
"I see you're awake." The man who entered spoke softly as if he were afraid that the girl lying before him would fall apart.
Kaneki decided not to answer and only stared inanimately at the man. Silently, she took in his face—wrinkled and old with years of experience—his white, pulled-back hair and his calming demeanor. If he was disturbed by her vapid gaze, then he certainly didn't show it.
"This is the second floor of Anteiku." He continued steadily. "Yomo-kun brought you here and I see you've already met Touka-chan."
This time, the girl answered with a small, barely noticeable nod.
"Good." The man smiled but, rather than being friendly and inviting, it was grim and solemn. "You're a bit pale," he paused, and Kaneki dreaded what he was going to say next. "Have you been eating right?"
That was it; Kaneki had been discovered. What would happen to her? Would they turn her in?
The fear must have been evident in her eyes because the man before her laughed, easing the girl into a calm, albeit confused, state. She hesitated, but eventually spoke up after the man stopped laughing.
"What?" The girl asked bluntly, not wanting to fool around.
"I'm sorry miss, but I feel like I must ease you of your stress." The man—who she still did not know the name of—smiled genuinely this time. "Here," he gestured to the whole cafe, "we help ghouls like you. Ghouls that cannot hunt or kill human beings for themselves."
Kaneki nodded slowly and glanced down before speaking again. "Recently…" She began. "My hunger has been dragging on for a long time… Occasionally at times I feel like I'm at the point where I'll starve to death… And even I don't understand the reason." She paused, trying to collect her thoughts. "But, now that's not entirely the case. The blood in my mouth." She made a forlorn face and Yoshimura's smile vanished. "I get it… This isn't mine." She looked up at the older man fiercely. "Answer me honestly… What… what have I become?"
He stared at her, one eye open; showing his kakugan. His face was deadly serious, mouth pressed into a thin line. "I think you know." He replied. "There's only one way to satisfy the hunger… You also know that." He walked up to the girl, his steps slow and careful as if he were walking through molasses.
"When you fell, you knew fully that you wouldn't die, this relieved and terrified you at the same time. You wanted to live, however, you also knew that there was no way to stop your impending hunger and you would've gone on a hunger-driven rampage." He was now standing in front of the ravenette, giving off a powerful aura. "If Renji-kun hadn't taken you, you would've woken and killed any and every person you came across… Please realize the type of person you've become."
The girl's eyes widened and the memories and feelings came rushing back.
The hunger made her blackout and she fell down a long drop that would surely kill her...If she were a normal human. As she is now, she's practically invincible and yet, she still felt so scared.
What is happening with me? Why can't I just think clearly? Her mind swirled with answers, none of which completely satisfied her. She felt tears run across her cheeks. She knew she wasn't going to die...However, she was so terrified...
Her mind irrationally shouted at her to save herself, but from what? A drop like this surely wouldn't kill a ghoul. So why were her emotions running rampant?
The raven's thoughts continued to go on like this and it gave her a headache. She felt the air swoosh past all around her and knew that with every passing second the ground was getting closer. Her heart went a mile a minute, her eyes slammed shut and in her mind she tried to regain some type of order.
I just know...that if I hit that ground, there's no turning back.
Kaneki unexpectedly revived, twisting in the air with agility she never knew she had. She grabbed the cliff's wall and hung onto it with all her might. Her thoughts came back stronger than ever and her body resisted with a vengeance, but she was able to cling onto the rocky wall.
You should just let go, A traitorous part of her mind whispered, her grip weakened. Aren't you hungry? Her stomach growled. If you let go now...we can go on a rampage. Kaneki's mouth twitched up into a crazy smile. "Yeah, I would like that!"
She let go of the cliff wall and her eyes widened as she realized what she had just done. The raven flailed around fruitlessly. Hide…I'm sorry.
Yoshimura watched silently as the girl's already somber and dark disposition seemed to be weighed down with his revelation. Her eyes were far too sad for a girl of her age and he wondered what exactly has happened in her lifetime. Well, besides becoming a ghoul of course.
The girl chuckled, drawing a curious glance from him.
"You're right about one thing, however, I'll have to disagree with you about the hunger part." She shrugged carelessly and silently drew a hand to her chin before hastily shoving it down. "I could care less about what happens to other people. I've never belonged, I was always different from the crowd. Too shy, too weird, all around strange. Now, I suppose that me being a ghoul enforces that fact." She glared at the man icily. "I'm neither human nor a ghoul. I'm all alone. I don't have any place where I belong and I'm perfectly fine with that."
Liar! Liar! Liar! Her mind screamed at herself.
The man was stunned into silence for a fleeting moment before letting a sympathetic smile come onto his face. He took out a handkerchief from his front breast pocket and asked, "Then, why are you crying?" He held out the item, bending over slightly in order to get closer.
She looked shocked. "Wha…?" She touched her face and, sure enough, her fingers became wet. She laughed. "I guess I am, huh?" A cruel smile spread onto her face and she accepted the handkerchief, but merely stared at it in her lap as the tears fell down onto it. "I've never been good at lying really."
The man stood back up. "I believe you're mistaken, though, by saying 'neither'."
Kaneki was unable to protest and he went on.
"You are a ghoul and at the same time a human. You are a single person who has two worlds in which to belong."
Kaneki stared at him with her sad eyes.
"Join our shop, Anteiku. We'll teach you how to live like a ghoul. Keeping your place as a human is definitely linked to that. And, in a short time, hopefully, you will come to terms with both existences."
The man once again smiled with such a kindness Kaneki has never seen before.
"How about it? But first… I'll show you how to make delicious coffee."
He smiled with such respite and reassurance that the Raven was able to ignore that sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach—even for just a moment. Because, finally, for once in her life, she felt accepted.
She spread her wings and took off.
Omake 1.0
A stir drew his attention back to the 'dead' body, which apparently wasn't as dead as he thought. The girl groaned.
He walked over to the body and poked at it a little, eliciting an annoyed growl. The girl's eyes opened and she opened her mouth to say something but it was too late.
Renji freaked out. OMFG, IT'S A ZOMBIE. He drew out his Kagune and started beating the undead girl.
"OWWWW! What the hell are you doing?!"
"Silence you flesh eating monster!"
"Who the fuck are you calling a flesh eating monster?! You're a fucking ghoul!"
Omake 2.0
The raven's thoughts continued to go on like this and it gave her a headache. She felt the air swoosh past all around her and knew that with every passing second the ground was getting closer. Her heart went a mile a minute, her eyes slammed shut and in her mind, she tried to regain some type of order.
I just know...that if I hit that ground, there's no—
Her thoughts were cut short, rudely so, by a face full of reality. Quite literally.
Right in her big moment of profound insight the ground decided to be a jackass and come closer.
Honestly, was it too much to ask for life to wait on her, hand and foot, while she tried to sort out her whole early-life crisis in a single life-threatening moment?! The answer was a resounding, Yes, you goddamn idiot!
Omake 3.0
She let go of the cliff wall and her eyes widened as she realized what she had just done. The raven flailed around fruitlessly. Hide…I'm sorry.
She closed her eyes and was surprised as her back made immediate contact with the ground. She opened her eyes and looked up at her previous spot where she clung to the wall.
…
It was literally one foot off of the ground.
Omake 4.0
The door opened, startling her, and she quickly dove back under the covers—or at least, she tried to.
Keyword: tried.
She missed fantastically, overshooting the bed by a full foot and instead hit the window. But it didn't stop there, oh, no. Of course it didn't.
Life just seems to looove Kaneki so much that it decided, Hey, since this girl seems to love falling so much, let's let her do so!
So, that's how Kaneki managed to take yet another plunge from the two-story window of Anteiku.
IMPORTANT A/N: A Guest reviewer asked me several questions about this story's direction and many of them are ones that I think everyone deserves to know an answer to.
1. Will Kaneki become a part of or at least and ally to Anteiku?
Haha, I think the answer to this question is self-explanatory after this chapter. Lol. Anyway, long story short, yes. She very much will be. Interactions will be different, though…I think.
2. Who will Kaneki be shipped with? Hide? Ayato? Nishiki?
Ahem, I really had not planned to address this question so early in the development of this story…The truth is, I have no idea. The answer to this question largely depends on how I develop the story as I go and whether or not you guys even want to have a ship.
If I'm being honest, I love HideKane. I 1000000000% ship them. The Ayato x Kaneki ship has never really been a favorite of mine (whispers, Ayato's Hina-chan's man), but I see the appeal. The guest (the one who asked all these questions) asked me about the ship and I like the idea of Ayato maybe developing a crush on Kaneki, but then it'll turn out to be a platonic thing in the end. As for Nishiki…He will forever be faithful to his girlfriend thank you very much! (Did you see the frankly depressing theory about Kimi being killed by Torso. I was devastated).
On another note, Shuuneki is a guilty (#notreallyguiltyatall) pleasure that I'm also quite in love with. Amoneki…could be a thing. I'm not planning on it. And, if you guys want, I'll even do Touken. I really like Touka and I think Kaneki is good for her. I've never taken an interest in Touken before, but I've really wanted to check it out.
Anyway, since the cat's outta the bag about my view on ships, you guys can feel free to vote on what relationships you want. I've never been good at romance, but my previous effort was with a ship that I wasn't even sure I liked.
(Also, I'll take side ships like pairing Touka with Yoriko…I like that pairing)
3. In the case Kaneki is not involved with Anteiku, will the story go in a completely different direction plot-wise? Will she not get tortured by Jason or will she not meet Amon?
Welp, as I said before, Kaneki is 100% joining Anteiku so answering this question is kinda pointless…However, I've contemplated doing an alternate version of this story after I finish it…There are just too many directions to take it and if I'm not satisfied by the end result, I can be satisfied in knowing another version will be put out.
4. Will this story follow the anime or manga?
Well, I'll be following the manga completely for now. I haven't even seen the anime yet…But following the anime is a possibility. (More information in the next answer to the following question).
5. Will Kaneki join Aogiri tree?
Okay, this is a tuffy. While I have an inkling of an idea of what I'm doing with the ships, I haven't the slightest about what I'm going to do about Aogiri. As I said before, I have not seen the anime, and for those who haven't read the manga, spoiler alert, Kaneki does not join Aogiri tree. In fact, Kaneki makes his own little vigilante group with Tsukiyama, Banjou, Hinami, and Banjou's goons in order to search for Kanou.
Continuing with my previous statement, because I have not watched the anime, I'm very reluctant to have Kaneki join Aogiri tree. I feel like I would screw it up and just get things wrong. Also, I'm very reluctant to watch the anime, mainly because I am married to the manga. And I maan married. However, one person has managed to open my eyes with a suggestion. You see, with Kaneki being so lonely and weak-minded, Eto could easily manipulate her, if given the chance (My second nameless guest reviewer's words, not mine. Though, anon is completely correct in their analysis), and I really like that idea. It's a lot better than what I came up with for the manga's plot-line (hint: I didn't come up with anything).
So yeah. The answer is a solid maybe.
And that concludes the Q&A section of today's chappie. Feel free to ask more questions, I love talking to you guys!
(P.S.) Sorry for the short(er) chapter. I felt like that was a good stopping point so I didn't write anymore. (Also a lazy authoress is a lazy authoress)
Sincerely,
Krazypeople
