Now to think hard on rerouting Kens life as if Ken was safely back at 20th ward despite the torture days. I hate when chapters sound better in the mind.

"This is why I prefer keeping to myself. My mind either just stopped working or malfunctioned. Definitely feels like my mind blanked out interpreting whatever I thought you were talking about." says Ken awkwardly sipping the coffee.

"You looked like you were trying to empty your mind of me and you together alone." says Hide smirking.

"Eat your cake so we can talk this over somewhere more private. I'm getting the vibe we were about to be more than friends but you wanted 'me' to be happy fucking yourself over. I've just been spouting on and on about myself and neglecting your side of our two way friendship." says Ken setting the cup down.

"You had a rush of emotions. Its all good." says Hide putting on a smile.

"No it isn't! You keep going quiet when I talk of my traumas. You may not know how to reply but you can mesh our grieving hearts by telling what ails you too instead of making me happy and only me." says Ken.

"Lets have happy thoughts. Forget the past and create a new happy ending." says Hide frowning.

"How can we do that if I don't know the feelings you keep to yourself?" wonders Ken.

"Pretend I'm the Hide you ditched before I died of blood loss(hate the idea of Kaneki eating Hide end of s2) for starters and go from there. Forget the outing with Juuzou and we can start from here. If that night you gushed your soul out to me landed us here the following day or a few days later. Think of the things we could be doing now." says Hide.

"...still to awkward to tell." says Ken.

"Its all in your head. Go with the flow and see where each day takes us. Restarting from a saved progress could lead to an array of outcomes you lose sight of." says Hide.

"You're sounding like my foster parents." mutters Ken.

"Lets say there was a save point after you switched forms and I was still looking for you leading me to be a CCG operative. Would you talk yourself into ignoring me again or hang out as much as possible? You're the one seeing yourself as a monster pushing thoughts into your head that tell you what sounds logical. Ignore them and see for yourself that no bond can be broken. It only seems that way if you let anxiety rule your mind. Go with the options your heart longs for and play it out. You'd be surprised by the results." says Hide.

"Life isn't a game. You can't undo what's been set in stone." says Ken.

"Speaking from the heart goes to happy days and that of gloom. You just need a push in the right direction. Take things day by day until anxiety is out of your system." says Hide.

"It won't be easy." says Ken.

"Its gonna be a bumpy start getting you back to being a happy book worm or whatever your demon self wanted to be." says Hide.

"Where we go from here is where things start falling into place." says Ken.

Hide nodded.

"Let the game play out before finding out where the game of life sends you." says Hide grinning.

"Still weird hearing it but its a good weird if its you I'm hearing it from." says Ken smiling a small smile.

"The first step is to strengthen our friendship with Juuzou then we can talk turkey about how to get you signed up as a quinx. Ok with you?" says Hide.

"I'm fucked over whether Juuzou enjoys my company or not. Our best bet is to start with me living with you if you want it to feel like the old days of me living alone with no-one to cling to but you." sighs Ken.

"If I live at your place, I would have your parents' protection. Wouldn't that be easier?" wonders Hide.

"I meant now that I'm of age to move out and try to find my own place without feeling like someone is around every corner." says Ken.

"My place would be the only alternative if you wanna stick to feeling free." says Hide.

"I would say live here but we would be shooed out during business hours." says Ken.

"And sneaking rations to you would make Touka wanna kill me even more." says Hide pondering.

"We are better off asking the manager about my situation before we settle on a plan B. Don't know how well either would go though." says Ken not to thrilled.

"You will need to ease your cravings somehow. What are good ways to get rid of your ghoulish cravings? What can we substitute for human meat if we can't reach this place?" says Hide pondering.

"Nibbling your flesh for starters. You can't go into work with bite marks on you. So that doesn't help at all." says Ken.

"Lets ask Touka where Yoshimura is so we have some options." says Hide getting up.

"Does CCG have synthetic flesh...errrrr...fake human meat? It won't be wise asking them even if you lie claiming its for an experiment." says Ken wearily getting up.

"You know I can't do that." says Hide looking back at Ken.

"Shouldnt my 'parents' be here?" wonders Ken frantically.

"Don't distract yourself." says Hide grabbing Ken's hand.

Hide practically dragged the hesitant half ghoul up to the bar to be face to face with a confused Koma and a staring daggers through Hide Touka.

"Go back to your table." says Touka seething.

"We have an urgent matter with the manager." says Hide.

"Only urgent matter I see is a desperate Hide thinking he has the black haired kid back." says Touka.

"Hide isn't wrong." says Ken.

"Dont amuse the weirdo." says Touka looking at Ken.

"If the body was never found...only explanation would be that it was taken to the hospital. Right? A safe haven for the injured and sick wouldnt be expected to be a place with a crazy surgeon...right?" says Ken itching his cheek.

"Let me handle this." says Hide.

Ken's face grew darker and creepier as he went on with what happened to him.

"You only saw what was on the television. I dont know how true the facts were and I wouldn't dare feel like finding out. That boy was human before falling in love with the purple haired bitch. After the construction damage...the boy felt like himself yet he knew he couldnt ever be the same. Wearing eye patches are useless when you get beaten and battered into switching species perspectives while trying to keep some form of humanity. The human in said boy wants to live somewhere noone will ever see him live out his days in a cruel fucked up world yet the bubbly sunflower friend keeps him pinned to the city so he would have someone by his side even in the darkest of times as he fears the worse every which way he tries to envision a happy moment." says Ken grimly.

"You ok kid?" wonders Koma.

"No I'm not...I'll never be just ok anymore. My mind is trying to keep the positives but every positive has a negative result in some shape or form." says Ken latching onto Hide's arm.

"Yeeeeeaaaaaaaah...so, I don't know the specifics but think of this kid as a stray puppy trying to get by in the world eager to find someone to comfort it even when he doesn't think he needs it. The puppy grows up feeling neglected and turns into an outcast being a snarling mess when push comes to shove before weeping the nights away." says Hide rubbing the back of his head.

"A cute little puppy turning aggressive when it needs to be as it gets older?" says Touka blinking in confusion.

"Does that sum it up Kaneki? A human child aka the puppy going about his days like usual despite keeping to himself never knowing how people react to him. That boy being the puppy grows up like normal meeting the one person who cares a lot about him and does everything with the boy meaning me. That normalcy brightens his days as long as that boy, me, is by his side. Sadly, due to circumstances, we couldn't see each other until we coincidentally saw each other here. More an intrigued me than a panicked him despite looking at each other at times." says Hide petting Ken's head.

"The crazy kid has you talking nonsense now." huffs Touka.

"I'm not a mutt rabbit." says Ken bitterly.

"In the words of Juuzou, you are a house pet turned stray that transformed into a growling werewolf." says Hide chuckling.

"Horror movie logic dictates I'd be a vampire." says Ken.

"Ghouls eat meat and werewolves prey on humans like ghouls so that makes you a scary werewolf. Sweetheart turned savage." says Hide teasingly.

"...shut up bunny boy." says Ken.

"Haha, You two look at the comparison and tell me this isn't Ken Kaneki." says Hide taking out his cell.

Hide went to the Facebook app and clicked his profile icon to get to his page. Hide was ignoring Ken's burning stare clicking the image he had yet to delete. Touka took the cellphone and stared at the side by side images trying to figure out what he meant.

"All I see is your lookalike buddy wearing a Batman attire next to your dead friend." says Touka.

"Look closer." says Hide.

"A 19 year old wouldn't have the guts to dye his hair white." says Touka in disbelief.

"Yet the hairstyle is the same." says Hide.

Koma was trying to get a good view of the pictures when he noticed the eyes.

"Touka, forget the hairstyles and clothes and look closer at the eyes." says Koma.

Touka groaned unamused clicking on the picture to get a larger view of it.

"Look at the human eyes compared to the white haired boy's eyes." says Koma.

"The eyes this boy has aren't that of a ghouls. You can see that too." says Touka frowning.

"This picture was taken some time ago. The white haired boy we see with Hideyoshi has something amiss about the eyes from that day." says Koma.

"That's ridiculous." mutters Touka.