A mention to my wonderful beta reader, Lilister whom I adore (seriously thank her for how much I've been writing cuz she's been hounding me for more) :D
….
Ok, so people pointed out the thing with the bag that the butch gave Kaneki being too small so I fixed that little oof :P It should be the right size now.
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lazyandbitter :
With Kaneki only eating this jerky I wonder how long it'll take someone to realize, or will he pretend to eat only to have to throw it up later?
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Well, Kaneki earns the reputation of being overprotective of his jerky. Kaneki doesn't have to throw it up since it's human meat, but nobody else realizes that's why he doesn't let people eat it. I tried to make the fact that it was human meat turned jerky clear but sorry if it was hard to understand.
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joseph joestar:
What, and I cannot stress this enough, the is teach gonna think of Tsukiyama?
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I planned to have it in this chapter but this chapter got way too long. The poor woman is just so confused.
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McGonagall had shrunk down the sack of jerky so that they could apparate and had taken them to a spot a little aways from the Tsukiyama Estate.
When McGonagall saw the huge mansion she was a little startled. Sure, Hogwarts was bigger, but this place felt so suffocatingly elegant that she felt underdressed. Hogwarts found beauty in chaos while this place found it in symmetry and order.
Kaneki was walking up to the manor when the guard at the gate stopped him.
"I'm sorry this is private property. I'm going to have to ask you to leave," he said said. His tone of voice wasn't kind, but it certainly couldn't be considered rude either.
"I'm here to talk to Tsukiyama-san, please let me through," Kaneki asked politely.
"And what would he want with a kid?" He asked with a bit of sarcasm spilling into his voice.
"Oh! K-Kaneki-sama! Shuu-sama's been looking all over for you! P-Please forgive him, he's new. You can head inside. I'll let Shuu-sama know to come and meet you at the door," Another older looking guard said hastily with a deep bow. As he bowed, he pushed his junior's head down in apology, only daring to stand back up once Kaneki and his companion were a respectable distance away.
"Hey! What was that for!?" The new guard demand, disgruntled.
"You idiot! Didn't you read over the training packet!? He's one of the people with constant access to the manor. That was Centipede. Treat him the way you'd treat Shuu-sama!" The boy's senior admonished.
"What?! No way!" The younger boy said wide-eyed and shocked. He wiped his head back to look at the boy getting further and further away. Was that kid really the monster so many people were afraid of?
"You know someone made a similar mistake once, only, Centipede had been a bad mood that day. When I got back from my bathroom break Centipede was goring himself on the guy. In the end, Shuu-sama had to calm him down. I know the unlucky guy who had to go through the security camera footage too and I can tell you that there's a reason everyone's so afraid of the bastard," The older man warned.
The junior gulped nervously and counted his lucky stars that he was ok. That encounter could've been worse. He vowed to read his pamphlet before his next shift,
Kaneki would never know it, but his visit led to someone (other than Hide) going home and doing their homework.
…
Kaneki walked swiftly toward the ornately decorated main entrance of the manor. No matter how many times he saw it still amazed him how much of a flex this was to most ghouls who tried their best to scrape by.
Kaneki knocked on one of the dark Mahogany doors which promptly opened to reveal Tsukiyama.
"Kaneki!" he exclaimed as he moved toward the boy in question - only to smack his face.
"I thought you were gone! Rushing into the middle of a dove's nest like that!" He said letting some of his genuine concern and fear through his mask of false bravado.
Kaneki clutched his check-in surprise before smiling sadly at him and averting his eyes.
"I thought I was gone too," he admitted.
Tsukiyama flinched at the idea that he'd given up but cleared his throat and composed himself.
(English is italicized)
"Mon ami! Who is this?" He asked clearly referring to McGonagall.
"I'm one of his professors. You can speak English?" McGonagall said cautiously, his english was certainly better than Itori's. She had been surprised when the man had slapped Kaneki and expected him to react the same way he had with Itori. Instead, he had just smiled unhappily and it had thrown her for a loop.
She felt a particular type of dread pool in her stomach the moment that he composed himself. A type of dread that was usually reserved for the Marauders and the Weasley twins. His energy reminded her of the way a prankster lulled you into a false sense of security before pulling the rug from under your feet mixed with heavy amounts of eccentricity.
Despite all that he felt wrong. He didn't feel as off-putting as Itori or the mask man but it was still there. She reminded herself that she didn't really know any of the history behind them that would have contributed to why Kaneki had acted so out of character toward her. Which brought up the question of what was in her drink in the first place again.
"Ah Yes! I have a passion for western language. Would you excuse us for a moment? I'd like to speak to Kaneki in private. I'll have Kanae tend to you until then," he said gesturing to a very pretty woman next to him.
"O-oh-um-alright," she said, surprised at being pulled out of her thoughts.
Tsukiyama gave her a polite smile before walking off with Kaneki.
…
The moment they were alone in Tsukiyama's study he relaxed slightly.
"How did you escape the reaper? The rumor is that you disappeared in flames," Tsukiyama said
"The rumor is right," Kaneki responded
"Non! That can't be!" Tsukiyama said. It just wasn't possible. Fire didn't do that. This really was a pathetic lie. Kaneki wasn't usually this-oh. He hadn't touched his chin at all.
Kaneki made sure the door was closed and locked before he spoke again.
"I wasn't always Kaneki Ken. Tell me Tsukiyama-san, do you know anything about the magical community?" He said dead seriously.
"Non. What magical community?!" He asked, shocked.
"Don't beat yourself up over not noticing. I couldn't find the Japanese magical community and I'm part of it. It's much better hidden than the British one. Let's sit down for this, it's a lot," Kaneki said, leading Tsukiyama to the chair in his study.
"Explain Mon ami," Tsukiyama said.
"Ok, so I was born in England as Harry Potter and my identity as a somewhat normal child went out the window on my eleventh birthday," Kaneki stopped to gather his thoughts. He really hadn't expected to have to tell anyone in Tokyo about who he used to be.
Taking a deep breath he started again. "There's a world out there hidden among ours, a world of magic, wizards, and witches. I was a wizard and my parents were magical too and when I turned eleven I was invited to a school of magic called Hogwarts. The year I spent there was honestly one of the best years of my life. During the summer between my first and second year though, I accidentally transported myself here to escape my relatives and the rest is history," Kaneki explained.
"Did you teleport like you did to get here?" Tsukiyama asked.
Kaneki sighed tiredly, "No, it's a lot worse and much more complicated," he conceded.
"I'll do what I can to help," He responded without hesitation.
Kaneki smirked playfully. "You haven't heard the details yet?" He reminded.
"Please mon chéri, I want my food as unmarred as possible," he said with his own sly smile.
"Thanks you food obsessed bastard," he said, genuinely thankful.
"It would be helpful if I did know the details of the mess you've gotten yourself in though," Tsukiyama said.
"Fine fine. So, basically, someone illegally entered me in a magical tournament and I got teleported back to Hogwarts because of it. The fact that it saved me from Arima is just plot convenience," he said.
"Right, and did you forfeit?" Tsukiyama asked.
"Nope," he responded in English, popping the p.
"Of course not, why make things easy for me?" Tsukiyama asked sarcastically while relaxing into his chair.
"To forfeit would mean losing my magic which wouldn't be a problem if I wasn't a ghoul, there's a magical portion of the Tokyo Metropolitan Library and I went there to research ghouls after I got here. I found out that ghouls have a limited amount of magic that they need to keep their bodies functioning properly, most of it resides near the kakuhou, stomach, and tongue. This limited amount of magic also makes it virtually impossible for a ghoul to be a wizard since the genes for both cancel each other out and result in a stillbirth if they even managed to get pregnant at all," Kaneki told him.
Tsukiyama pinched the bridge of his nose, this was going to be a headache to deal with.
"Only you could get yourself involved in something so convoluted," he said with a sigh.
"I'm staying there for at least a year," Kaneki said.
"What are you doing for food?" Tsukiyama asked.
"Jerky made from humans," Kaneki divulged.
Tsukiyama raised an eyebrow incredulously. "Mon Chéri how long can you last without eating ghoul?" He asked.
Kaneki grimaced "I don't know," he admitted.
"Right, I'll deal with it. I'll make sure it blends in. Is there a mailing address I can use?" He asked.
"Wizards use owl post," Kaneki replied with a straight face.
"You've got to be kidding me- is there no way for me to reach you?" Tsukiyama inquired.
"Probably, but I need to ask my professor about it," He said.
"Alright, make sure to ask before you leave. Before you go I suppose you want to see the others," Tsukiyama said.
"Of course! Little Hinami must be so worried!" Kaneki fussed in big brother mode.
At the mention of Hinami, Tsukiyama froze. "Actually, I was trying to figure out how to bring it up but Hinami is- she's missing," Tsukiyama said pain coloring his voice. It was unexpected but the two were surprisingly close.
"What?!" Kaneki demanded, wide-eyed.
"Touka found out somehow and now she's out there looking for her. The CCG knows That Touka's a ghoul though and they're going after her before the trail goes cold," Tsukiyama told him.
"No! Is that why she's in the tunnels?!" Kaneki asked.
"You know?" Tsukiyama asked, kind of surprised.
"I had to go to Itori to find out where you all were," Kaneki explained.
"Mama Mia! This is quite a pickle," Tsukiyama said.
"What's going through her head?!" Kaneki asked him.
"The same thing that went through your head when you found out that Anteiku was in trouble I imagine," Tsukiyama responded, causing Kaneki to flinch. He'd made Tsukiyama this worried when he did that, hadn't he?
"Don't apologize, but understand that somehow you've become our king. If you were to suddenly disappear then this little Empire would fall with you," Tsukiyama said, guessing the words that Kaneki was about to say.
Kaneki simply nodded in response but Tsukiyama knew he understood that he couldn't treat himself like a sacrificial pawn anymore.
"The others have turned my game room into the base of operation for the "Find Hinami and Touka" project. Tsukiyama said before opening the door to the aforementioned room.
The moment the door opened Kaneki got a face full of yelling. Absolutely no one noticed the two figures who had just entered the room.
"We should go out there and look for them!" Banjou yelled
"No! We should plan first!" Ayato yelled back.
"What about Kimi!" Nishiki yelled.
Kaneki's smile became forced and a vein popped out of his forehead. This was going to be a long day.