"Hey Kaneki! Time to wake up," Ron called, opening the canopy on his bed.

"Hmm? Ok ok, I'm up," He said groggily, shading his eyes from the bright sun light as he sat up in his bed. He'd just been about to get up when he froze, it hadn't been Ron who had woken him up.

"H-Hide?" Kaneki stuttered. He felt terror and pain rise in his chest at seeing his face again.

"Yo 'neki! How have you been?" He asked like he wasn't supposed to be dead. Kaneki didn't move, he couldn't.

"Hey? Did I taste good? When You ate me?" Hide asked as his body began to corrode in front of his eyes.

"N- No!," Kaneki yelled as Hide's guts spilled out of his half-eaten stomach. The dorm room lost clarity, turning into a muddled black as he was surrounded by all the people he'd killed. Most were ghouls, but some were human too, Their faces were indistinct but Kaneki didn't notice as he clutched his head while hunched over in the center of all this.

Slowly the people were gone and the room began to fill with blood. He was drowning, drowning in guilt and the blood of his victims. He was about to die, to give up and take his final breath when he woke up still in his bed, safe and sound.

Then he moved his hand to try and grab some water from the nightstand when, from where his hand had previously been, a familiar white flower bud sprouted. They kept sprouting around him, faster and faster until he was back again in that familiar field of white. As the flowers bloomed they went from spider lilies to a checker tiled floor with a chair and a bucket in the center. A boy with black hair was strapped to the chair begging someone who wasn't there to not put a centipede in his ear.

But Kaneki knew how this ended. He'd read this story before, it was his.

Kaneki bolted awake with his screams still ringing in his ears. He looked at the clock and sighed. It was only 4:23, breakfast didn't start till 6:00. He was tired, so very tired. But he wasn't just about to go back to sleep after that.

Finally, he decided to go for a walk before class. The lack of physical activity was bothering him since he was used to regularly fighting so finding a private spot to practice would be nice.

Slipping on his invisibility cloak, Kaneki walked through the quiet castle. The sun still wasn't out but it didn't really bother him. He softly moved through the halls until he was outside. It had only been a few days but he still became a different person as soon as he was doing something familiar.

He hadn't really been focusing on where he was going since it was less about the destination than the journey but soon he found himself at the edge of the forbidden forest. He hesitated for a second as he contemplated if it was a good idea to enter. It almost didn't feel like his choice when he did decide to though, something about the forest was intoxicating.

He let his instincts take over as he walked further and further into the forest. For some reason he expected it to be lifeless and silent even though forests weren't ever like that unless someone was very wrong.

As he walked he noticed cornish pixies buzzing around fairy circles and small ashwinder slithering through the underbrush. It was different from the concrete jungles of Tokyo, the usual habitat of ghouls, but not something he would mind getting used to.

He got so caught up in the beauty of his surroundings that It took him an embarrassing amount of time to realize that he could finally stretch out his kagune.

He used his biological weapon to travel through the huge trees. Swinging through them was almost as good as flying. Unlike usual he wasn't in a life or death situation which meant he was free to just enjoy himself.

The happy, satisfied laugh that he let out when he landed was when he realized what a big impact that actually had on him. He'd been letting his human and ghoul mix unlike he'd been able to before and god it felt amazing.

After a while of that, he landed in a nice little clearing and started using a tree as a sandbag as he worked on his martial arts. At this point, they were well memorized so he just went through the motions because it felt good.

Once he finished that he looked up at the sun. He had to leave now if he wanted enough time to take a shower he realized.

It wasn't too hard to find his way back to the castle but sneaking in without bumping into anyone was a little tricky.

He slipped into the common room behind a random girl he didn't know before going back up to his room and putting his cloak in his trunk. Most of his other dorm mates were in the shower right now too it seemed. He sighed, he should've come back a bit earlier, then he would've had the bathroom to himself.

He walked into the bathroom that heavily resembled a public bathhouse. The first room was full of cubbies to put your clothes in where he stripped down. From there there were two other doors, one lead to bathroom stalls and the other to the bathing area.

He went to the bathing area which had an area to wash yourself off and a few different types of large pool-like tubs for soaking in and relaxing.

He walked over to the washing area next to Ron and waved. "Good morning Ron," He said, causing Ron to turn to look at him.

"Oh he- bloody hell mate!" Ron said, immediately making Kaneki once again regret not taking a bath earlier!

"You're covered in scars!" Ron exclaimed loudly. Loud enough that all eyes were locked on him. Loud enough that Kaneki threatened Ron, not dissimilar from the way he did with Tsukiyama.

Kaneki carefully pulled his "I'm pissed off" emotions behind the mask of a sheepish smile.

"Most of it's because of an accident I was in" he "nervously" explained.

Once Kaneki addressed the issue most of the crowd went back to doing their own thing while Ron winced both in sympathy for Kaneki's injuries and at the realization of how insensitive his question had been.

"What happened?" Seamus, who was next to Kaneki, asked.

"Steel beams," Kaneki said shortly and sweetly.

"Even the one on your spine?" He asked, pointing to the scar from his Kagune implant.

Kaneki's eye twitched slightly in annoyance. Why couldn't they keep their noses in their own business? He was too tired for this shit. If Seamus had been either Nishiki, Ayato, or Tsukiyama he would've stabbed them at this point.

His stroll through the forest had been nice but he was still running on a few hours of sleep and the lack of ghoul meat was starting to affect him. He was perpetually pissed off but not actually anywhere near dangerous yet.

"It was from the operation after the accident," Kaneki responded while washing his hair.

"Woah! When'd you get ripped!?" Dean Thomas asked in admiration

That was a comment he hadn't expected. His body was a by-product of his insanity. He wasn't like this because he was trying to better himself, only out of necessity. It felt wrong to be proud of becoming more of a monster.

"Umm- after I started working in a dojo themed cafe," He lied. 'Wow, That wasn't even a convincing lie!' he panicked as he berated himself in his head.

"What?! Man Japan really does have the strangest cafes," Dean said.

Outwardly nothing about Kaneki changed but in his head, he was screaming. 'They bought it? They actually FUCKING BOUGHT IT!' he marveled internally.

The rest of his morning was, for the most part, uneventful and he was thankfully able to get away with only eating jerky for breakfast which gave him some of his strength back.

…

Haise walked out to Hagrid's house with Hermione and Ron and he immediately noticed how excited Hagrid was about the upcoming lesson. The bell rang just moments after they arrived and Hagrid jumped right into the lesson.

"I've got a surprise planned for today! I have two animals I think you're all gonna like. Follow me." He said before guiding them into the forbidden forest.

They didn't go deep into the forest, just a little ways in until they reached a pen. Most of the class expressed they're awe at the animal with gasps.

Unicorns

"Beautiful aren't they? Girls go up first, they prefer women. I've got sugar cubes if you want to give them a snack." Hagrid instructed since at this point the class was still quite a distance away from the enclosure.

Kaneki watched the girls from a distance and marveled at how elegant the horses were.

"Ok boys, you can head up. Make sure to move slowly and let them come to you. Unicorns are sensitive to people's hearts. Since you're children though, you have an inherent pureness so it should be fine ," Hagrid said.

Kaneki hesitated at that. He was the furthest thing from pure and he suspected that the unicorns would realize that. Suddenly he wasn't excited about the prospect of approaching them anymore.

He moved towards them with soft steps but it was for naught. The moment he was too close the unicorns were in a frenzied panic, neighing frantically as they tried to get away from him.

Hagrid immediately rushed over to try and calm them down. Kaneki dejectedly and walked away from the pen. Once Kaneki left the unicorns calmed down quickly.

Not many people understood what caused the unicorns to freak but when Hagrid saw Kaneki away from everyone he realized that the unicorns had probably reacted to him. Once the unicorns were calm and the kids were interacting with them again he walked over to Kaneki.

"Sorry about that. I've never seen them react like that to a kid.," He said while making sure to keep an eye on the kids

"No, it's fine. I expected it," Kaneki said, leaning against a tree and looking at the ground. He didn't trust himself to convincingly fake a smile, rather than just let people see his emotions though he unconsciously slipped into the indifference of Eyepatch.

"Really? I thought they'd like you. You're quiet, friendly, and calm. That's usually a great combination for them. Don't worry too much about it," Hagrid tried to console.

Kaneki responded with a nod before Hagrid went to supervise the class for a bit longer.

A little while later, Kaneki heard Hagrid round up everyone else as he slipped back into the crowd. Rather than go back to the castle though, Hagrid led them deeper into the forest

Rather quickly they reached another fenced off area, only this one looked empty to most people, Kaneki wasn't one of those people. He saw the skeletal, winged horses that were the total antithesis of unicorns.

"Now not everyone can see these beauties but this pen is full of Thestrals. They're what pull the carriages every year and they're actually very closely related to unicorns. Can anyone tell me what you have to do to see them?" Hagrid said.

"Only people who've seen death can see them and as such it's been wrongly associated as an omen of death," Hermione said.

Hagrid nodded in approval "Yeah, can any of you see them?" He asked.

Kaneki watched as a few hands hesitantly went up before he slowly put up his own hand.

"Good good! You all go up first then. They like meat more than sugar, I've got some if you want to feed them," Hagrid encouraged.

Kaneki was prepared for rejection again, after all they were relatives of unicorns but unlike last time the animals didn't panic. In fact, they seemed to really like him.

He didn't realize it but he released a large portion of the tension within himself by playing with Thestrals. It wasn't a permanent fix but it was better than nothing. Without thinking, Kaneki pulled out a little bit or his jerky and gave it to one of the horses closest to him. As it turns out, Thestrals apparently really liked human meat and Kaneki quickly became overrun by them.

"Kaneki, what meat did you feed them? They really like it," Hagrid asked, suddenly making Kaneki aware of what he was doing.

"Uhh- it's fancy pork, It's really hard to get your hands on but I know a guy," he responded, trying to keep his voice even and panic-free as he scratched his chin.

"Oh ok, if it's hard to get it would be terrible if they got hooked on the stuff," Hagrid said with a nod of understanding.

After that conversion Kaneki was careful to avoid feeding them his food, making sure he only gave them Hagrid's stuff. Surprisingly though it didn't diminish his popularity with the thestrals, so a lot of people stood around Kaneki making it impossible for him to slip into the shadows like he usually did to calm down when he was in a pissy mood.

It only got worse when Kaneki was forced to eat again at lunch. He didn't eat too much but his stomach still twisted painfully because he hadn't gotten a chance to throw up as he got dragged off to potions, because of course it had to be potions.

Kaneki was doing his best to hide his annoyance but Hermione and Ron picked up at least on how on edge he was.

"Are you ok Kaneki?" Ron asked as they waited outside the potion's classroom.

"I'm fine! Don't worry," Kaneki said, trying to, ironically enough, force himself to relax.

"You look tired, did you sleep yesterday?" Hermione asked, clearly disregarding Kaneki's assurance.

"I did, please don't worry about me," Kaneki said, scratching his chin now that he'd put his books down.

"Quiet," Snape growled as he walked in, his cloak bellowing in a way that he thought was only possible by the likes of Tsukiyama.

Snape hadn't directly addressed Kaneki yet, which he was immensely thankful for as he hoped that the class would pass uneventfully. He really didn't want to deal with anymore shit today.

Unfortunately, his luck didn't hold out when Malfoy knocked Kaneki's potion over and pinned the blame on him.

"Potter! Just how incompetent are you?!" Snape berated his voice never raising above what would be allowed in a library.

"But-' Kaneki tried to retort only to be cut off.

"Oh are you talking back to a professor now too?!" He asked

The soft, enticing whisper of Mukade buzzed in his head as the familiar burn of rage that he'd been trying to hold back started to leak into his coherent thoughts. He wanted to beat someone up, let out his anger.

CRACK!

The sound combined with the animosity that Kaneki was leaking made Snape and quite a few other's flinch, not that Kaneki was really aware right now. At this point, he was struggling to keep himself from lashing out. He WaNtEd BlOoD! He CoUlD kIlL hIm. He WaS aN INSECT!

No! That wasn't an option! He wouldn't taint this world with the blood of tokyo!

Kaneki shoved a stick of jerky in his mouth and though it wasn't much it was enough to calm him down.

"Sorry," He said with an unnervingly bright, genuine-looking smile before he turned to restart his potion.

…

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