"Anteiku."

A place for ghouls that need guidance.

Once just a shop he and Hide visited, Kankei couldn't believe it was just a guise for ghouls to operate under the CCG.

A fabricated illusion of friendly people; in reality, they were just ghouls hiding in plain sight. And somehow, life took a cruel twist and made him into one of them.

The foundations of his regular life were now over. He had thought it was going to be simple. Complete his studies, get a career, and have a family, if not a companion, to live with him. Now eating would be a challenge, removing one of the final connections to his mother, hamburgers. Hanging out with Hide will not be possible without conquering innate urges.

Sighing, Kankei closed his eyes, memories of the previous night repeatedly replaying in his head.

She must have dragged him here last night, and everything was blurry to him. All he could remember was that hunger overtook him, and then she put a person's flesh in his mouth.

Human flesh should not taste good. Human flesh should not taste good. I am a human.

Being like them was not an option; it couldn't be the only choice he had in the matter.

"You are awake, young man."

Kaneki opened his eyes to the owner of the coffee shop, breaking him from his thoughts. It was the older man and the blue-haired girl.

"My name is Yoshimura, and I am the owner of Anteiku." The man stated. "Touka brought you here out of concern for your well-being. Furthermore, she told me that you had a peculiar situation. Mr. Kaneki."

"How do you know my name?" Kaneki looked at the man taking in his appearance. He wore a uniform similar to everyone else who worked at the cafe, his hair was slicked back, and his eyes were closed with a content smile.

"I am a very observant man." Then, Yoshimura pointed at the boy's left eye, " Would you mind explaining how you acquired that eye overnight?"

Yoshimura smiled, waiting for Kaneki's answer, it had to be the organization's work, but for now, he would hear the story from the boy's perspective to put together the pieces.

"Uhm, I remember having a date with the purple hair girl, and she attacked me. Then I woke up in a hospital, and they informed me that I received a transplant from her."

Yoshimura stood and listened to the boy's explanation, a hospital that knowingly put a ghoul's organ inside a human.

"Peculiar." He decided it could wait now, as this was here and now.

"Mr. Kaneki, you are no monster. Although, I have a proposal for your problem. Now you don't have to accept this offer, and you are free to leave when you are ready." Yoshimura stated.

"What is the solution, Mr. Yoshimura?"

Kaneki would take any way out of this hell; he didn't care what it was. Plus, the older man seemed genuine. He could have easily killed him whenever he wanted. It is not like he had any relatives that cared or were still around.

Yoshimura pulled out a small jar, and it revealed sugar cubes.

"These cubes will temporarily stave off your hunger for the time being, but eventually, you will need to eat people. However, when the time comes for such a notion, we have meat from corpses."

Yoshimura continued his statement as he placed the container down.

"Now, I propose you work here at Anteiku, and I can keep you a supply of sugar cubes to starve your hunger off for the time being. If you choose not to work here, it's okay, and I can give you supply, and you will have to survive on your own, Kaneki." Yoshimura's voice changed from a friendly nature to a severe and solemn nature.

While he could have forced the boy to stay, he once had a child and would never cage a bird to a prison of his making.

Kankei remained quiet for a few minutes before deciding, "I will work here and be a part of Anteiku."

"Well, it's all settled. Touka will teach you all to need to know about how to brew coffee and how to close up shop." Yoshimura stated, retrieving a uniform from the nearby close and giving Kaneki his new uniform.

"Seems you had all of this planned on him saying yes, Old Man." Touka blurted out, annoyed that she had to continue babysitting the boy. How did she ever get so unlucky?

"As I told Kankei, I am quite observant, Touka." Yoshimura waved as he went back to business.

Touka groaned in annoyance at having to teach. "Be ready in three minutes, bookworm, or I will shove more meat into your mouth."

Touka walked off but was a bit happier on the inside, having someone new to work with. But, of course, she would not let Kaneki know that little secret.

Kaneki changed his uniform as he went downstairs, hoping not to face Touka's wrath. This would mark the first day of many as he learned how to brew coffee and all the other essentials he was required to do.

Two weeks went by as Kaneki spent time at Anteiku, it was a refreshing experience to relax and have company beside Hide. Touka was becoming more friendly as well. At least, that is what he figured was happening with her.

They were almost like a family that he had never had. Speaking of which, Kankei needed to respond to the multitude of messages sent by Hide. He hasn't spoken to him since the incident, and being distant from the guy never ended well. The phone continued to buzz with notifications.

"School and Hide both need my attention."

Kaneki opened his phone and saw the message that Hide had sent.

"Come to school, or I'm gonna kick your ass Kankei."

"Where are you, Kaneki?"

"Are you okay, Kaneki?"

"Kankei?"

"I went by your house and didn't see you. Did something happen with your date?"

Touka looked over at Kaneki, observing the smile. To her, he was just at the wrong place at the wrong time with a ghoul. Nobody deserved to be killed and eaten, so she never wanted to kill a person without good reason. Plus, she knew he didn't like to eat the meat, but choices were limited when you didn't want to kill.

"Family worried about you?" Touka asked.

"No, it's not that, just a friend messaging me." Kaneki smiled and looked at his coworker, "Are you jealous?"

"Why would I be jealous of you?" Touka puffed and crossed her arms, "That accident must have damaged more their just a few organs."

Kaneki inched away from Touka slightly, " It was more of a joke, I promise."

"It better be, and your orange hair friend probably misses you anyway. And you should be fine to go out and see him."

"You care more than you let on, Touka. Thank you."

"Whatever. Just make sure you clean up before you leave."

After closing up the shop for the night, Kaneki began his walk home. The night and cold air always brought him some closure. A routine he developed since working at Anteiku, staying there for free didn't feel right, and he had a place of his own.

CRUNCH! SNAP! CRUNCH!

Grueling sounds of flesh being eaten were all too familiar to Kaneki's ears, making him wince from the previous encounter with almost similar circumstances.

"Avoid and ignore; it's none of my business, after all." However, with the fresh smell of blood, the ability to ignore the scene was too much for a fledgling ghoul, half or not.

Kaneki turned the corner, and what he saw shocked him. Two ghouls were eating at a corpse, ripping it apart as if they were starved for days. He walked closer, stepping on a can that alerted them to him.

The ghouls stopped as they looked upon the newcomer, meat hanging from their mouths as they glared at him from the dark alleyway.

He could only look upon them with fear, as Kaneki knew he could not beat them. Yoshimura had Touka teach him a few defensive techniques, but he wasn't a fighter, much less strong enough to beat ghouls that were bloodlust and complete from the flesh of the corpse.

"He's shaking in fear, dear brother. We should kill him; he smells so...DELICIOUS." The sister said in a sadistic tone.

The female ghoul's kagune phased into existence; from Kaneki's perspective, it looked like a pair of blazing wings. Like the female, the male's kagune was a large appendage with a mouth at the end.

Kaneki could feel their desire to kill, but his chances of outrunning them were slim to zero, and his chances of beating them in a fight would be even smaller. Therefore, his only choice was to fight and hopefully make them run away.

With insufficient time to react, Kaneki is caught off guard and is not prepared to fight, backing away, but the ghouls quickly close in on him. He tries to defend himself with his bare hands but is outmatched by the duo of ghouls' strength and speed.

"Beating them is going to be impossible at this rate."

The first ghoul tries to swipe at Kaneki with its claws, but Ken cannot dodge the attack and takes a hit on his arm. He cries out in pain as he tries to back away, but the second ghoul is quickly upon him.

Fighting through the pain, he tries to punch the second ghoul but does little to no damage; he tries to use his legs for a kick but misses. He knows he is outmatched, and his only chance is to use his surroundings to his advantage. He runs and tries to dodge the ghouls as he searches for something to use as a weapon.

Grabbing a nearby metal pipe and uses it to defend himself against the ghouls' attacks. He uses it to block and strike back, but the ghouls are relentless, and he is quickly tiring. He tries to strike a critical blow but misses and gets hit again.

"Is this how I die, a nobody who just got lucky? My life was starting to get better. I don't want to die." Body shaking and mind collapsing, Kaneki knows this is the end of his story; he never should have gotten that lucky and survived in the first place. Yet, now he is, begging for his life in the most pitiful way, self-loathing.

"Dying. Dying just like your mother, Kaneki?"

"Rize. You're dead. You're not real…."

He could feel the cold body of Rize slinking over his body, trembling as the ghouls began to close in on him.

Rize whispered, "Kaneki, use me to kill them. We are one now. Use what you took from me to kill them."

With animalistic instincts, a singular tentacle is formed, and Kaneki uses it to pierce the chest of the male ghoul.

"Taki!" The female ghoul called out, letting her guard down for a second to look at her injured brother. Instead, Kaneki wasted no time stabbing her through the abdomen, piercing her to the wall as she coughed up blood.

"I did it." I did it." Kaneki thought to himself. Consequently, he forgot that the brother could still move, so the giant kagune snatched him by his arm and slammed him into a nearby abandoned house.

"Ugh!" Kankei winced in pain as he had been too caught up in his achievements to realize that the brother could still move.

Taki walked over to his sister, looking at her bleeding abdomen. "Eat Sanda." He stated as he let her cannibalize his left arm, regaining some of her strength. "I'll kill him. You rest now."

"N-No Taki, let me help you," Sanda stated that as she got from the wall, she could not use her kagune because of the blood loss.

Kaneki groaned in pain but was slightly happy that his body was highly resilient, even as a half-ghoul. However, he did not get much chance to think as the vicious mouth kagune broke the wall, and eyes shot all over it, looking for its prey.

"It's almost like it has a mind of its own." Kaneki thought.

Trying to avoid the view, he used his kagune to wrap around the male ghoul utilizing the momentum to swing him into the building, hoping to stomp the man's rampage.

Not wanting to ease up, he aims the kagune into the man's stomach, piercing like a hot knife through butter, causing a bloodcurdling scream to erupt from Taki.

"Is he dead?" Kaneki didn't want to kill anyone, but he had to do what he could to survive this assault.

Taki looks at Kaneki. Blood dripped from his mouth, and his black hair was now partially red due to the damage done to his body.

"I will kill you and make you watch as we DEVOUR YOU ALIVE!" Taki screamed with rage. He brought to life two more kagunes, which had the original appearance, as they appeared to glare at Kaneki.

The three kagune shot forth like a pack of hungry hyenas, all wanting a piece of Kaneki. Kaneki managed to avoid the first one, but the other two-bit into both his arms and held him against the wall.

"I'm going to fuck you up first. Then I will eat you piece by piece, devouring you slowly as we torture you in our hideout."

The kagunes squeeze tighter causing Kaneki to scream, feeling the pain intensify as they dig their teeth into his arms.

"You feel all that pain. Enjoy every inch of despair, and let it overcome you." Taki said. He uses his right hand to punch Kaneki in the stomach while sadistic laughter erupts from him.

Kaneki could only half hear the man as his consciousness was fading. Nevertheless, he looked around the new place as he was in his regular Anteiku uniform.

"Do you want to live?" A distant voice asked.

"Yes..." Kankei answered.

"Eat Kankei! Kill them, Kaneki! Devour them, Kaneki!" "Yes! Yes!" Kaneki's uncontrolled psyche spoke. Rize's pale arms wrap around him, covering his eyes, and silently whispers, " Kill them."

Kaneki awakes from consciousness as he charges the kagune into the man in front of him with anger stabbing multiple holes into the man over and over.

"Die! DIE!" Kaneki shouts with anger, unleashing the pent-up fury into the ghoul.

Taki yells as the agony spreads across his body, his kagunes disappearing from lack of focus and blood to maintain them. He stared at Kaneki and used his bloody hand to punch the boy one last time as he slid off the glowing red kagune.

Sanda seeing her brother fall limp, screamed in rage as she activated her kagune, knowing it was exerting her limits, but she must retrieve her brother. So she charged back and shot forth like a speeding hummingbird snatching her brother from the ground and shooting off into the building, growing the distance between her and Kaneki.

Kaneki looked at himself, seeing most of the wounds had healed beside the more serious ones. He had no strength left, but he had to make it home. He limped slowly to his destination, but a voice caused him to freeze.

"Where are you going, Kaneki?"

A/n: Revised Ch.2. Let me know what you all think. I was going to do a rewrite and publish a new chapter initially, but it would only cause more conflict as I fix the pacing and implement new ideas.