"Hey, did you every realise that Big Girl kinda looks like Sukiya?" Hide pondered out loud trying to break the awkward tension in the group. Morie had taken Hide on his offer to spend time with him and Kaneki which resulted in the skittish boy's paler face and twiddling fingers. "They are both yellow and red. I mean what's the coincidence in that!"
"Isn't McDonalds yellow and red as well?" Kaneki mumbled.
Morie glanced up from her laptop screen to meet Hide's eyes. "Kaneki is correct."
The nervous boy's eyes darted to Morie's hands. The wounds she received healed surprisingly quickly for something so sever. Within days of it happening the gauze was removed, band aids were applied, and she now comfortably toiled away in her lab with her injuries covered in pink marks of newly healed flesh. She quickly took notice, stopped her work by shutting the lid of her laptop and gently tapped the small glass cage next to her. Shirozumi lifted its head off the shredded newspapers lining the floor before leaping up to paw at the glass. With a click, the steely looking lid popped off and Morie reached inside to grab her pet who happily squeaked as it was lifted up and allowed to scamper across the tips of her fingers. She stared intently and paid close attention to the mouse's cold paws with every step it took. Her mind wondered. Was Kaneki pale because of his anxiety or had he still not coped? It was probably a combination of the two… Well what could she do to help? Afterall she didn't want her or her newly found friend to become slices of steak for him to devour.
Whilst she was in her thoughts, Hide was jesting with Kaneki about a potential conspiracy theory surrounding fast food chains and their colour schemes saying something along the lines of "The Illuminati is in on it". Kaneki protested against such a theory calmly stating that red and yellow colours urged certain emotions such as happiness and rushed decision-making. As soon as he heard his friend's response, a "Told you so! There is a conspiracy!" was yelled. It did not perturb Morie's thoughts.
Their semi-argument was cut short when Morie tired of thinking too hard about things and the repetitive pitter pattering of Shirozumi's paws on her skin told everyone to "Get your hands off the table unless you want the possibility of being bitten by my rodent." They both quickly obliged knowing and seeing the result of the wounds the mouse inflicted. Shirozumi just proceeded to run around the edges, sticking its nose into the air to sniff at unfamiliar scents.
Humdrum made it to Morie's ears as a group of students soon approached the table to direct their attention at Hide who was about to leap forward to give Kaneki a friendly ruffle of the hair.
Shirozumi nearly made a leap off the table but Morie quickly grabbed its tail and dropped the animal back into its cage. It wriggled and writhed perturbed by its sudden loss of freedom. She saw the signs of a glowing red eye and slight chattering of teeth, so she quickly shed her jacket off and draped it over the cage. Silence entered her mind for just a moment even though Hide was talking to the new arrivals about the upcoming cultural festival. It was soon cut by the sounds of harsh banging. It echoed in the air around them. Sharp, angry furious. It stopped mere moments after it began and when she looked under the jacket, she found the thing asleep as if nothing had happened at all. A deep sigh escaped her lips. She needed those denied RC Cells quickly.
Morie was physically knocked out of her thoughts as Hide gently tapped her on her head. There was nothing in his face telling her that he was concerned at all. Hide jabbed his thumb behind him and pointed at the group of people behind him who were starting to dissipate. "Need to grab a DVD from Nishiki."
"Nishiki?"
"Yeah, Nishiki. He's my senpai. Come to think of it, you would be considered my senpai too." He started wiggling his eyebrows and Morie stared him in the eyes giving him a firm "no". "Anyway, it's for the cultural festival. Wanna tag along? I know he's your friend."
"Acquaintance actually," Morie sighed and shifted her glace towards Kaneki his nose buried back into his book. "You be careful around him, alright. Hey, Kaneki, are you going as well?" He looked up from his book and gave a curt nod. "In that case, be extra careful, both of you. He can be a royal dick when he wants to be. Unfortunately, that seems to be what he wants right now, so take heed."
Hide swung an arm over Kaneki's shoulders and used the other one to point at Morie. "Aww, he's not that bad~"
Morie raised an eyebrow but quickly directed her attention to Shirozumi's cage. Weary that the thing could start acting up again and the fact that her two newfound friends we about to walk into ghoul territory, she made up her mind to follow the two not just for them but for herself too. She needed RC Cells and there was only one way she knew how to get an extremely small amount safely. Blood. Her own blood. For that she would need to use some of the pharmaceutical equipment. Lucky for her, Nishiki was the one who allowed her to grab said equipment.
The trio made their way through the university grounds until they reached a simple sliding door labelled with a series of numbers indicating that it was Nishiki's workspace. Hide reached out his hand ready to open the door but Morie held out her arm to stop him. "Trust me, knock before you enter," she warned before tapping her knuckles against the door. With the sound of muffled ruffling, a few seconds later the door slid open and a brunet with short hair quickly strode out. Morie eyed the woman fully knowing who she was then quickly faced Hide with an 'I told you so' expression for she once made the same mistake Hide nearly did.
A man with hazelnut hair lounged on his desk chair, eyes somewhat narrowed in mild annoyance. The room itself was filled with bits and bobs, messy papers but what stood out to Morie every time she stepped into the room was the windowsill stacked with jars of instant Blondy coffee and the trashcan filled with dented coffee cans that once belonged to the local vending machines. It was one of the first signs that told her that this man was a ghoul and now fully knowing she knew he would be screwed if the CCG ever suspected him.
Morie glanced over to Kaneki curious to judge his reaction upon seeing another ghoul. She thought that surely, he could smell the large amount of coffee in the room and had heard from Nishiki that ghoul could smell other ghouls. For her it was like a mini test of sorts. However, she wasn't fully prepared for what she witnessed. Kaneki had turned ghostly pale at the sight of the man which seemed to be a normal action for Kaneki to do even if it was a bit extreme. What really alerted Morie was Nishiki's reaction to Kaneki. For a split-second hatred flashed across Nishiki's eyes but it quickly disappeared as he gestured for the trio to enter the room.
Kaneki was fidgeting around nervously looking like he was about to pass out but even through the twitching he managed to stutter out an introduction. Nishiki made his way over and stood towering over the boy. His eyes narrowed, and his mouth widened with every word he uttered.
Morie kept a close watch, inching closer to Kaneki. Her left hand drifted to the pocket of her jacket and brushed over the scalpel concealed inside in case her acquaintance tried anything. Although they had been working together for just short of a year, she did not fully trust the ghoul. He could play the part of a human to some extent, but she knew his temper could be nasty and sharp like that of a snake's.
Hide for his part from what Morie guessed kept a facade of ignorance about the situation, causally grinning. The tension was so thick that a butter knife could cut through it but Hide seemed to lighten the situation by just being in the room. "Yeah, yeah, introductions are out of the way now, so how about that DVD?" Hide joyfully questioned.
Nishiki backed away from Kaneki and over to a shelf containing a mixture of books, CDs and DVDs and traced his fingers over each of their spines. "It was the cultural festival wasn't it? It should be around here somewhere."
"Yeah, it has a green cover!" piped Hide as he wandered over to Nishiki's location eager to get his hands on it.
Morie continued to keep close to Kaneki and relaxed her left hand. Under her breath she whispered to the anxious boy. "Try to keep calm. If anything happens, I know what to do." Upon hearing this he paled even more to which Morie ignored somewhat irritated by Kaneki's squirminess.
After assuring Kaneki, she needed to get something out of Nishiki too; permission to use the pharmaceutical equipment he had access to. So, she asked him whilst he searched and he chucked her his set of keys to get into the storage room. Furthermore, because she would come back to the room during the start of the next day, she left Shirozumi's cage against the wall in order to save her the burden of carting the creature and its belongings back to her apartment.
With a loud groan from Hide as Nishiki faked forgetting to bring the DVD with him from his apartment, Morie raised her eye knowing that it was uncharacteristic of him to go through the action of saying that he had it then changing it to "Oh, I must have left it at home".
Strongly gripping the scalpel out of suspicion and distrust, her thumb slipped onto the blade slicing a sliver of flesh open just a paper cut. Although Morie showed no inclination of pain, Kaneki definitely noticed. He bit his lip desperately trying to distract his mind from the enticing scent as his felt his mouth beginning to water. He reached for Morie's arm then halted. It was wrong. He couldn't eat another human being no matter how much his stomach boiled so he shoved her away and turned away just as the homely smell faded. Morie stumbled, taking a step and leading forward due to the force but shortly regained her normal posture soon afterwards.
From the corner of his eye, Nishiki saw the whole thing and narrowed his eyes in interest. He too smelt the drop of blood but ignored it, choosing instead to purr an offer to retrieve his "forgotten" disk with Hide. "Your friend can come too," he added after a slight pause and gestured to the back-facing Kaneki.
"Sure, if he wants, man." At this Kaneki turned his head to look at Nishiki. His eyes glinted with a hidden anger filled with distrust but agreed to the offer anyway.
Morie also squinted her eyes wearily calculating Nishiki's actions and determining the best path of action. If he wanted Kaneki to come along, she should too. Something had gone down between the two at some point in time and she knew from their reactions that if she did not do something, it would be the death of at least one living being in the room and it would most likely be Hide taking the fall. She reached again for her scalpel for security before saying, "If Kaneki is going, I am too. You wouldn't have a problem with that would you Nishiki?"
"The more the merrier." With his hands in his pockets, Nishiki strode out of the room smirking.
Once out of sight Hide scratched his nose and looked at the stacks of coffee jars. "You know, I might actually hate him. Nishiki, I mean. He feels poisonous."
"I couldn't agree more," Morie said and whipped out her scalpel to point at Hide. Its silvery edge shone dangerously in the light but she quickly hid it again by tucking it back into her pocket. "Listen, if anything happens, we can sort this out."
"You plan to stab him with that?" Hide deadpanned.
"No, I plan to incapacitate him. It's made of quinque steel so it's extremely sharp and strong."
"Yeah, but it's so tiny…"
Morie shot him a look of annoyance as the three of them stood in the room. Kaneki was facing the door watching for any sign of the ghoul outside. The only sound heard was the squeeking of Shirozumi and the fading steps of Nishiki/ Hide noting that they'd better catch up with him started to rush out of the room leaving Morie and Kaneki to cautiously follow behind.
The sky was being to bleed shades of orange and red due to the pollution of Tokyo city and the setting of the sun. Unlike the previous few days that were shifting from rainy to sunny, it was the day where that trend seemed to end. Parts of the sky were visible through the towering skyscrapers only showed scatterings of cotton candy clouds that hung lazily due to the low wind speeds.
The group of tense university students casually walked past shops selling everything from scrappy clothes to warm treats like takoyaki and taiyaki. Not having eaten that day out of sheer stupidity Morie's stomach let out a growl which grabbed the attention of Hide and Nishiki.
"Alright, we're gonna stop here," Nishiki suddenly announced and pointed at the closes taiyaki shop. "I'm beginning to get hungry so I'll get taiyaki for everyone."
"Aww, yes!" Hide jumped in the air and fist pumped. Any free food was considered good food let alone a free snack with some people he considered friends.
With an order of four red bean taiyaki, each person received one. To Morie and Hide the steam seeping from the golden fish wrapped in paper looked so enticing that they immediately took a bite of it and closed their eyes in bliss as the sweetness of the red bean paste pleased their tongues.
Kaneki on the other hand froze, face grimacing at rotten smell of fish left out for far too long that made it to his nose. Noticing this Morie finished the last few bites of the fish, crushed the taiyaki wrapping and shoved it into a pocket. "If you are not hungry now, have it later."
Realising this, he nervously wrapped the fish back up and placed it in his satchel just as Nishiki calmly took a bite of the fish's head and swallowed. Morie wasn't surprised by his sudden action of eating as he had told her how he could do it. But it was a test, a test from Nishiki forced upon Kaneki.
The snake was always cunning in its ways.
When the two first met it was no different. She'd cornered him in his office and shut the door so no outside people would be able to see the results of her conversation with him. Morie never expected the interaction to go smoothly in the first place and thus had managed to squirrel away some RC suppressants in her backpack along with her scalpel held closely in her pocket. Bluntly, Morie accused him of being a ghoul then proceeded to list everything in the room that gave away his ghoul act. There was little tact in the way she talked to him and Nishiki in his dumbfoundment grew an increasingly reddening face due to the sheer ballsiness of the woman he knew nothing about standing right in front of him. His kakugan flared to life as he readied himself to bisect her but halted when Morie lowered herself to sit cross legged on the floor and simply stated that she wanted to discover more about the world of ghouls and integrate greater understanding between the senseless discrimination between human and ghoul. If that wasn't enough, she explained her current research into the nutrition ghouls needed and theorised that if she had a guineapig that a reality where ghouls wouldn't have to kill for food would eventually be possible. Nishiki had let her go that day but Morie awoke to a surprise when she found her printed notes and theories scattered around her apartment. Left on top of her laptop case was a sticky note scrawled with an address. That was the start of their mutual partnership.
So, when Nishiki turned a corner sooner than he should of, Morie tensed and reached for Hide, the closest person to the deceiving ghoul. It was too late. Everything appeared in slow motion. Her fingers curled around thin air as Hide's body soared horizontally into the stack of wooden planks, rotting ladders and discarded tires as Kaneki screeched out his name in desperation.
"Bastard!" Morie scowled whilst Nishiki casually strolled up to the two of them, ignoring Hide's limp body. His eyes flashed with black and red as he reached two fingers into his mouth, gagged and spat out the taiyaki he'd swallowed.
"Now that the hyperactive brat is out of the way, Morie be a dear and get out." He rolled his head around his shoulders cracking it as he went. "We wouldn't want you to die tragically here, now would we?"
At this comment, Morie fished for her scalpel and jabbed it in the man's direction. Gritting her teeth, she stood her ground in front of Kaneki. "Back off, Nishiki. We may have a partnership but if you dare do anything else, I will terminate it. I will warn you once again. Back. Off."
A slim smile crept to his lips. For a split second he vanished only to appear right next to Morie who lunged to stab him. A sliver patterned fabric from his shirt sliced open as a dribble of blood seeped from the shallow cut. "I've been wanting to be rid of you since the second we met," he hissed into her ear before punching her in the gut.
Morie gasped for air as her diaphragm refused to suck it in. Her body caved onto Nishiki's arm as she dropped her scalpel on the ground with the clattering of metal hitting concrete echoing. Grabbing onto the loose fabric of her shirt, Nishiki then slammed her onto the ground the with the force only possessed by ghouls. The ground under her body cracked from the impact and she felt pain shoot through her body. It was like a heavy weight was constantly baring down on her preventing even the slightest of twitches from her fingers.
As Kaneki was lifted up by the collar of his shirt, she could do nothing but watch the blurring vision of the struggle. Foggy legs swung as the face of a viper loomed overhead. Like sinking in the depths of an ocean, the spluttering coughs, gasps of her newly found friend and the taunts of her once acquaintance mashed together into a tangle of agony and wrath.
Nishiki dropped the boy as he lurked his way over to Hide's unconscious body and placed his foot on top of the dirty blond hair. "Don't tell me you weren't planning to do anything to them?" He gestured to Morie with an open hand and continued. "Ah, spoiling another's meal is the best kind of feeling, wouldn't you agree?" With each word, Nishiki applied more pressure to Hide's head whilst Kaneki picked himself off the ground, grinding his teeth.
"Get your foot off him…" Kaneki said weakly as he tore his satchel from his shoulder. It drifted past Nishiki's head and Kaneki fell head first after throwing a punch that missed its mark.
Nishiki just cackled tauntingly in response, grabbed Kaneki's arm and sent him spinning into a wall near Morie. He stepped on Morie's chest to get closer to Kaneki's crouched form and reached for the boy's head, tearing off his eyepatch in the process. Staring back at the man was the duel eyes of Kaneki which had been sharpened into an intense rage. Pupils were retracted in fear and determination as he flung his scrawny in an attempt to land a hit on the ghoul.
"Alright, I'm done playing," Nishiki said deflecting one of Kaneki's pitiful attacks. He retracted his arm and punched they boy firmly in the face, knocking him back into the wall, a bloodied pulp.
Twisting around his right leg, Nishiki's tail-like kagune tinted blue with flecks of emerald appeared and as he stepped over Morie, her vison came back into focus. Panic flooded her body but she still couldn't move. Something was definitely broken somewhere and her muscles still refused to twitch but at least her breath had returned to normal.
As Nishiki approached Hide, Kaneki scrambled, inching forward like some desperate insect. Tears clouded his vision until he felt a soft surface slowly moving up and down.
"Move. Get up." Morie had croaked those words as her brown eyes sifted to meet his. "If you do nothing, we'll all die."
The last drops of tears fell onto the navy fabric of Morie's button up shirt as Nishiki slowly lowered his foot closer and closer to Hide's face.
Then something snapped.
Kaneki clenched his fists and rose. His mouth morphed into a snarl and he leaped at Nishiki, tackling him to the ground away from Hide's form. Flaring from low back three tendrils of crimson burst outwards and pierced Nishiki in the chest. Flicking Nishiki up, the newly revealed kagune suspended the Nishiki in the air. Blood rained down as his body was repeatedly pierced by the scaled appendages formed into spears and shot themselves through his body. Nishiki screamed out in pain, eyes bulging and fingers clawing at anything, anything at all to get him out of this hell that would surely kill him. His body hung like a rag from the metal pipes twisted on the walls enclosing the alleyway and he was silent.
As the red kagune broke and faded back into Kaneki's body, his kakugan didn't fade away. The metallic stench of blood and the sweet scent of flesh made Kaneki's mouth water and drool. Maddened out of hunger and spent energy, his legs wobbled to the closest human body which happened to be Hide's.
Noticing this, Morie urged her body to move, to get up, to do something. Her first friend in forever would not, could not be devoured before her eyes. She could not let anything like that happen again, not when she had vowed to create a world where no one would be eaten due to insanity. Only her arms wanted to work so she was left there stretching out to the boy who loomed over Hide, bits of spittle dripping from his jaw. "Kaneki, you need to stop. Just stop!" The words fell on deaf ears due to his own muttering mumblings.
Everything happened quickly. Expecting herself to witness the death of her bubbly friend, her eyes were fixated in horror on his body so she didn't see or sense the presence of another ghoul who had entered the fray.
"Seems you've become pretty reprehensible. You fool." The voice was feminine yet oozed coldness. "It's so painful you'd rather die, right?"
Kaneki turned to face her, a snarl once again distorting his soft features into something to fear. Drool ceased flowing from his mouth as the threat of a competitor took over his mind. His kagune bubbled and formed, poised to strike. It didn't matter that they had met before. The black-haired girl was nothing but an enemy, a threat ready to take his meal. "They're mine."
"Look at yourself. Soaked in blood and guts about to eat your friends. It's pathetic," she spat and closed her eyes, opening them to reveal pools of onyx glowing with a fiery red. "I'm tired of all of this but for this one time I'll help you out." Like a gas pipe had burst out of her shoulder the alleyway was filled with a faint and warm glow emanating from her kagune, a singular wing made of a rainbow fire.
It was over in a minute. Kaneki had charged at her but Morie's fingers finally touched him. She gripped his ankle firmly and from the momentum coming to a sudden halt, Kaneki fell onto her body. He clawed and snapped at her neck, her arms, her torso, her face. Each attack sent waves of fear through Morie as she squirmed under his weight. It was dire and her body was slow, burning with piercing pain every time she twisted to avoid his natural weapons.
Kaneki's kagune flailed around wildly, hitting everything in sight in is hungered state. The newcomer to the scene effortlessly danced between them, ducking and weaving as she went. The fire of her weapon crystallised and shards of glass shot from it impaling Kaneki in the back as his teeth met flesh.
Morie yelled in pain but managed to lift a leg and kick him in the stomach sending the boy a few centimetres back. Blood seeped from the bite wound in her r bicep and spilled to the ground as Morie huffed as she attempted to get up but failed due to the effort it took and the aching of her injuries. Her hand did however touch the coolness of her scalpel that had skid closer to her in the scuffle. She grasped it but couldn't do anything more so she laid there, mind flashing with images of her past, of Hide and of the caring Kaneki.
Her eyes found Kaneki and the newcomer. He was pinned down by her, legs either side of his torso preventing him from doing anything but kick his feet and wave his arms. The girl herself let her body relax and dug up her phone a white rabbit charm dangling from it. "Yomo, I need your help. Get yourself to the ally on the fifth street. We have a situation."
The body underneath the she-ghoul wouldn't stop struggling so with a grunt of effort, she balled up a fist and slammed it into Kaneki's head, knocking the boy out.
Morie saw this from the corner of her eye and closed her eyes. "So, is this how it's going to end?" she breathed.
"Not quite." The female ghoul had gotten up from Kaneki, walked over to Morie and bent down to face her. Steely blue eyes looked down on her form with one of them hidden behind raven locks that looked like lavender when the light hit it just right. Her face was round yet sharp at the same time giving it an edge of dangerous beauty in the light of the setting sun. She was all Morie saw before she felt something hit her head and her world faded to black.
Author's Note:
Sukiya （すき家）: Sukiya is a commercial gyudon (牛丼) or beef bowl restaurant in Japan. Gyudon is a traditional Japanese dish which serves up bits of meat, usually beef on rice. Most of the time it also comes with an egg on top. The name Sukiya comes from the Japanese words for like （すき）and house （家）. The main colours of a Sukiya store are yellow and red much like McDonalds.
Colours in marketing: Believe it or not but the colours chosen for business have been specifically chosen to fulfil a purpose. Different colours have different properties to them for example as Kaneki stated, red is associated with rushed decision-making which is why sale signs are normally coloured red. A few other examples include green which is associated with nature and health, black which is associated with authority and strength and yellow which promotes happiness.
Takoyaki (たこ焼き）: Takayaki which literally translates to fried octopus is a Japanese street food made from octopus and a flour-based batter. Due to the way it is made, they look like balls.
Taiyaki (たい焼き) ：Taiyaki is another Japanese street food and it is one of my favourite foods. Each taiyaki is shaped like a fish using a special pan and I like to think of it as a fancy pancake. Inside each fish is a flavour and the most common one is red bean paste. That being said I have seen other flavours such as custard, caramel, chocolate and apple.