My goodness... Thank you all, so much for over 100 favorites! It really means a lot to me!, but anyways, on with the chapter
Hinami was running now, she didn't know how, and she didn't know where, perhaps back to her pseudo siblings' home, maybe to the coffee shop, again she didn't know. Her mother had told her to run, then a large, flower-petal like organ emerged from her back and surrounded the both of them, sheilding the mother and daughter from the rain, and the investigators. Her mother had traced Hinami's cheek sadly as a smile had graced the elders soft lips, even as single tear rolled down that same face and then she said what had put Hinami into motion, before she violently swung out her kagune. "Hinami, run."
Kaneki walked calmly down the busy Tokyo sidewalk, a blue umbrella, matching his hoodie, in one hand, and a beige bag slung over his shoulder, holding a copy of Eto's new book: 'The Hanged Man's McGuffin', inside it's protected pouch. The rain was coming down hard now, the tiny droplets were so plentiful that they were creating a white haze around the city of Tokyo, and furiously, almost angrily, as if trying to tell him something important, beating on his blue umbrella. But, he shrugged it off as his own imagination.
Turning the corner, he once again found that the mother-daughter pair were nowhere in sight and sighed. He'd hoped that he would catch them sooner than this but they did have a major head start, they were probably already at Anteiku. Kaneki forwned and continued his walk, luckily for him, Anteiku was only a few blocks away, and if the rain got to violent, then he would stay there till it let up. Maybe he could help Hinami learn more Kanji.
As the college student moved closer to yet another turn, a brunette blur sped from around it, going to fast to stop before it hit him, nearly knocking him off his feet. clumsily, he stumbled back a distance before he gained his bearings, carefully steadying his umbrella as to not get hit by the rain. The blur, now still after bouncing off him and falling onto the ground, revealed itself as a young girl... actually, he knew this girl... it was Hinami, but something was different about her now. Her eye's, once happy and kind, were now filled to the brim with: horror, urgency, and... a little bit of contempt. Violent tears streamed down her round face, blending into the rain. That's when Kaneki noticed that Hinami was without an umbrella... and her mother.
"H-Hinami?" Ken asked, a little surprised at her sudden appearance. "What's going on? Why are you here alone? I thought you-"
Kaneki was interrupted as the young ghouls wrapped her arms around Kaneki's waist and held tight. "B-big brother!" she cried, with sadness in the rain and the crowd, which had no time to deal with the two young people, parted around them. "M-Mom's... M'mom's..!"
Kaneki interrupted her now, dropping to one knee and placing his hand's on her shoulders with an unintentional strength, causing her to wince slightly. "What's going on with your mother?" he asked, his own voice frantic now, "Is she in trouble?"
Hinami's face simply contorted into different versions of the same horror, tears streamed down her face continuously, her eye's were barley visible, she couldn't speak, her throat was filled with a heavy weight that refused her air out of her body. "D-Do... I-... She..."
Kaneki, now panicking, gripped her shoulders tighter, again causing her to wince. He could piece together what was going on by a single incomplete word, 'Do-'. There were only two letters, but there was a certain pronunciation. It was not 'dew' as in 'do you?'. but rather 'duh', as in 'dove'. "Take me to her!" Kaneki said, panic over taking him now, the only thing he could think of right now... was saving Ryouko.
Ryouko pushed hard against the single appendage of her late husbands Kagune, it was hard, heavy even, and she struggled to shield herself from the attacks, and keep the other three at bay. The mother had already sustained a few light wounds herself from said weapon, they stung but she needed to keep them busy long enough for Hinami to escape.
When they'd arrived, she was lucky to see that they had no camera's, nor were they around any traffic lights, so she was 99% sure that Hinami was not caught on camera, but she'd have remain confined for a while.
Look at me... the older ghoul thought as another blow landed on her Kagune, who would have thought that I, who couldn't even hunt for herself, let alone harm someone... but here I am, fighting... My legs feel like they'll give way any moment, my hands are sweaty, my arms feel like noodles, and i feel like i don't have a torso... But, all things considered... I feel like I can win... maybe... I won't leave Hinami just yet.
Another heavy crash fell upon her Kagune, sending her back a little. "Oh my, Mrs. Fueguchi... you may not be a fighter, but your Kagune is so thick... I think I'll enjoy molding it into my new quinque. The man in question, the one with a sadistic, crazed look in his eyes, along with that skeletal face, retracted the severed appendage and held it loosely, taping his fingers on the handle of the whip-like weapon. "It may just be harder and stronger than your husbands... After all, you are putting up a better fight than him..." He recalled a slight giddyness in his voice, "In fact he was slaughtered if i remember correctly, again I don't know exactly how easy he was... I tend to forget key details of the lesser trash of your species."
The way he spoke... as if he was talking to a child, or one of his comrades about a prize he'd won in some contest about her husbands demise, calling him 'lesser trash', the man she loved 'lesser trash'... sent the mother right over the edge. For the first time in her life of peace and non- violence, Ryouko felt an urge, a fiery sensation burning in her face and upper body, an urge to kill... not for food... but for sheer pleasure.
She broke the guard she had set up around herself with her quad- appendage kagune and shot them at him, hoping to run him straight through... unfortunately for her, this was what he wanted...
Laughing, the investigator, twirled, narrowly escaping the vanilla tentacle that threatened to rip him in two and smash the remains. "Oh my, Mrs. Fueguchi!", he called, the elation in his voice rising considerably, as he now rushed for her, "How childish of you!" The man then slung the quinque, overhand, at her. Her own Kagune was to far out to pull back in now... she was too open.
With horrifying pain, one of the curved blades on the weapon tearing into her collar bone, leaving a deep, gushing wound in her body. Ryouko didn't scream, it wasn't resiliency that held her tongue, nor her own mouth, which was wide open, but rather shock... shock was her savior. She was only numb now, a slight throbbing in her body, but it wasn't that bad all things considered, she hadn't even noticed that she'd dropped to her knee's, nor that her once brown dress was now dark red and said red surrounded her body in a puddle.
The man now stood before her, quinque lazily laying behind him, like a snake that was placed in a cold environment for a certain period of time, and his grin ever so big on his thin face. "Oh my, Mrs. fueguchi", he feigned concern, "You seem to have a little cut." Ryouko said nothing, she merely avoided his gaze, and kept her sad eye's hidden, she only wished she could've seen Hinami a final time.
however, just past the man, Ryouko saw a face, a familiar one, two in fact. It was Hinami and... Kaneki? Kaneki held Hianmi back, hiding themselves behind a wall. He had one hand over her eye's and one over her mouth... unfortunately his hands were not big enough to cover her ears as well, which gace her the dissatisfaction of hearing her mothers death, still she was glad she got to see Hinami as her final sight in this world.
"Well, Mrs. Fueguchi? Any last words... I'm feeling quite generous today, so I'll give you that much..."
"Hinami... Li-" That was the last and only thing Ryouko got to say before the Kagune of her husband smashed down on her neck, severing her still smiling head, and then some, clean of her body, making it clumsily and violently tumble to the ground.
"Oh, my bad... But, you know... Butter fingers!"
Touka bitterly stomped down the street, black knapsack slung over her shoulder adorned with a small bunny key chain. Touka had decided that day, that she hated school. Sure, most teenagers say that but don't necessarily mean it, but Touka really, truly, from the deepest pits of hell, meant it. Why? Well, that was actually an embarrassing reason... She failed a classical literature test... by a question. The thought of her missing that question burned at her, as it was made all the more embarrassing by the fact that she carefully examined each question thoroughly, because that meant one thing... She was an idiot.
"Dammit..." she muttered to herself through clenched teeth, "I suck ass at classical literature, why in the hell do I even bother?"
Sighing, Touka came to a stop at the entrance of Anteiku, and looked at it with confusion. On it's brown wood surface a sign hung lazily that read 'closed'. Touka was a bit dumbstruck, she hadn't been informed that today was an off-day, and she didn't think i was a holiday, maybe the manager was sick... but that wasn't a reason to close the shop. Touka frowned, the manager had her cell number, he could've called her and told her... though her high school didn't have very good reception.
Sighing, the dark haired girl attempted, just out of curiosity, to open up the door. Much to her surprise... it was unlocked.
Now, being very cautious, Touka stepped in, trying to mute the sound of her uniform shoes from tapping on the hardwood floor, and trying to make sure the door didn't creak or slam shut. What if a burglar, or murder stepped in? Sure she could most likely take them without breaking a sweat, but it would be difficult explain to the police how a 16 year old girl punched a whole into a full grown man's chest. Even more so to the manager why she killed him anyway.
Then, making her jump slighty, she heard a set of footsteps making there way down the stairs that led up to the staff only areas. The foot steps were loud almost thunderous and they made Touka start to feel increasingly uneasy. Cold sweat began to melt out of her skin and her hair became unbearably hot for some reason. Dammit,this is just fucking great, I can feel my uniform getting soaked... now I'm going to have wash sweat out of it... and maybe blood. She thought, the possibility of a break in still fresh in her mind.
As she saw shiny boots touch the floor she already knew who it was, but still, her body was already in motion, and they were to close. Shit! However, her hand was gripped lightly and brought to a complete and udder stop. The manager now held her balled up fist, inches from his face, which he wore a surprised look on. Touka was alway's surprised with how vigilant he was, even though he always seemed to have his eye's closed. It made her wonder just what type of ghoul he was back when he was in the past.
"Touka." He said, surprised, completely unfazed by the sudden attack. Though, this hardly surprised Touka, he knew very well how violent she could be.
Embaressed, she retracted her hand, "O-oh, y-you were open... I thought that- Uh the sign is backwards I guess." She corrected herself, quickly before she embaressed herself even more so.
"But, more importantly get this, I failed my test, by one-"
"Touka..." He said, both sadly and commanding, prompting her to stop talking. The last time she heard him sound like this... was when Yomo had reported Ayato being spotted in the 14th ward. She knew something was wrong... she just didn't know what.
"Y-yes..?" She asked, now breathing heavily, trying to contain her worry and failing miserably.
"Could you come up stairs for a moment. please?"
Kaneki and Eto sat close together now, her arm rested gently across his shoulders in a comforting way, pulling his body close to her own, almost as if she knew what he was feeling. It was immediately after Ryouko's decapitation that Kaneki had rushed(carried to be precise) a balling Hinami home in his arms, hoping to God that the doves didn't catch wind of them. She stayed the night last night... and the entire time... all she would do is cry.
By the time morning came and everyone, besides Touka, who had been busy at school, was informed Hinami remained silent, almost shutting herself off from the world. Her face showed her despair as well, the brunette had deep black lines around her eye's accompanied by a raw meat colored ring due from sleeplessness and crying. She didn't bother changing clothes, no she decided that what she wore that day would be fine... that... or she didn't notice that she was even wearing it. In fact Hinami had reverted into somewhat of a toy, allowing others to put her into motion... It made Kaneki even angrier with himself, because he knew that it was his fault.
A metal chink was then heard, followed by the turning of a knob, prompting all those in the room: Renji, Kaya, Enji, Eto, and Kaneki himself to focus on the door. The wooden slab moved into the room, revealing the manager a somber look on his wrinkled features, and a comforting hand on his companion's, Touka, left shoulder. From the looks of it... Touka had no clue what was going on, which made it all the worse for Kaneki to bare.
A soft, uneasy chuckle escaped the girls mouth, followed by an equally uneasy smile. "E-even Yomo is here..." She said, looking over to the tall well-built man in the corner, his arms crossed over his chest, prompting him to look away. Yomo, Kaneki had come to know, was not a talker. No, he actually seemed to prefer solitude to actual company, and(according to Eto at least) he was actually much kinder than he let on, still Kaneki didn't know if he could go 'collecting' with him... ever.
The room was silent, in fact, no one even bothered to greet Touka. It wasn't out of spite, or any emotion like that, but rather mournfulness. Said, sudden silence encouraged Touka to exam each of their faces, all bearing the same downcast look, almost like a disease. These faces were not lost on her...
"D-did... Did something happen?" she asked, a small crack in her voice breaking sharply.
Kaneki wanted to say something, anything, but he couldn't, even though he knew everyone... including Eto was thinking it. It... was his fault... that Ryouko had died... He should have done something to interfere, he wasn't going to try to defend himself this time and ask rhetorically 'but what could I do', because he knew the answer to that, and that answer was: something. He could've done something, but he didn't and now Hinami's mother was dead.
I should have been the one to die yesterday... Kaneki thought, warm tears threatening to leak through his eyes. If I weren't so damn pathetic then I could have saved Hinami's mother... and she wouldn't have to be going through all this.
Finally, after guilting himself relentlessly into speaking up and taking responsibility for his actions he opened his mouth... Only to be interrupted by the manager who now spoke with a loud, but sad, voice, almost trying to overtake his own.
"Mrs. Fueguchi was killed by Doves in the 20th ward yesterday..." He paused, giving the waitress time to let that sink in before preparing the truly sad news. "It seems... she was attempting to protect Hinami..."
That's a lie.
The waitress appeared unfazed at first, her eye boredly moving to examin the brown door frame next to her, as if the information wasn't worth the time. Kaneki felt a sudden rush of anger overtake him. A person had died, and she was acting like it was no big deal? How dare she? What a cold hearte-
A sudden boom was heard, followed by a loud crack, Courtesy of Touka's fist slamming into the door frame. Kanek jumped, feeling a sudden surge of lightning race through his nerves. Though he also felt a little ashamed... he'd judged Touka for coping with the new's in her own way... now he felt cold hearted...
"Where's Hinami?" Touka asked, her voice a bit wavy under the weight of sadness.
"She's asleep in the other room," answered Eto now, voice kind and soft, almost relaxing, "She stayed with Kaneki and I last night... she couldn't sleep..."
"Why was she with you?" Touka asked raising an eyebrow, a new curiosity peaking her interest. At the question, Kaneki felt a lump in his throat, every one else already blamed him for Royuko's death, even if they didn't come out right, he knew they did, could her bare yet another accusatory stare?... Then again... did it even matter?
"I-I..." Kaneki stammered out, breath now quick and heart pounding. "I brought her back..." He said, almost quickly, so that Touka wouldn't be able to register it. He knew after that she should be able to piece together how things went, but he didn't stop. "I watched as she was killed... I... I should've done something, but I was just too damn scared!"
A tense silence settled within the room, as Touka stared at the hybrid, a surprised look in her visible eye, It wasn't one of contempt, but rather surprise. Eto, Kaneki felt, stiffened at the sudden outburst, almost as if she herself was responsible for the death. Kaya looked sad down at him, mouth agape, an expression Enji shared. Yomo simply looked away, hiding his response to Kaneki's sudden outburst of self loathing. The half-ghoul couldn't see the manager's expression, as he was in at an angle that Kaneki couldn't reach, not without snapping his neck, but he did hear a low, saddened sigh emitted from the elder.
Twisting his head back around, he wanted to see if Touka's expression had changed, to see if she now held the somewhat sympathetic look the others had... But, he didn't see Touka, no instead he saw a balled up fist flying towards him, trembling with rage.
The fist connected roughly onto his cheek, sending the college student rolling off of the couch he had situated himself on. Kaneki groaned out in pain as his head connected with the edge of the coffee table. The impact of the table didn't hurt at all, just the shock of it all, Kaneki's body still wasn't quite used to being a ghoul yet, so he thought that he was in pain, but in actuality it was nothing more than a mild annoyance.
"You fucking coward!" He heard a high, angry scream pierce through the air, aimed at him.
Touka gave him no time to recover as she leapt unto his chest and struck him once more across the face, causing him to spittle up blood. "You should've been the one who died!" she yelled, ready to strike again. She would have used this next hit to cave his skull in(not really, but a simulation of the pain she wanted to cause him) had Yomo not roughly pulled her off of the boy.
Now kicking violently at the floored Kaneki, as Eto carefully helped kaneki to sit up, her eye's scornfully looking at Touka, but Touka couldn't give two shits what Eto thought at this point, she wanted fuck him up and if not physically, emotionally. "You're not welcome here, you fucking Frankenstein rip-off!" she yelled, now spouting mindless insults at the wounded college student. "You're as much to blame as the fucking doves!"
And, even as Renji wrestled her out of the room, her screams of venom echoed through the hall, though muffled, only amplifying her anger. A short silence settled after that, then the sounds of a door roughly opening and closing, then breaking china.
Now, in the break room where the rest of them had congregated, they all had eye's glued to the door.. expecting Touka to march back in any minuet now... she never did. Eto's father, sadly, looked back to her daughter and Kaneki, a noticable look of disappointment on his worn face. "Eto... Kaneki, I do believe you two should go on back home... we'll calm down Touka."
Eto and Kaneki sat together in the living room now, facing one another, Eto cleaning the wounds left by Touka's assault carefully. The author had to admit, upon closer inspection, the teen had done more than she had thought with just two punches. She had been out of line in laying hands on Kaneki, someone she could easily decimate if she wished, but not only had she done that, she'd emotionally and mentally attacked him as well.
Telling him that he should have died instead of Ryouko, that he was a monster... It pissed Eto off, which was a normally hard thing to do. She couldn't quite explain it... it wasn't a maternal feeling... but something different, but she was overly protective of the new hybrid. It made her feel uncomfortable... but she also loved being around him, her tendency to share a bed with him was proof of that.
Kaneki winced in pain as she dabbed a soaking rag on one of Kaneki's swells, letting out a hissing sound as he reeled back.
"Oh, come on..." she giggled, "It can't sting that much." she then playfully jabbed at the same wound, teasing him.
"No... you're right, keep going." Kaneki said, his voice low... not quite the shy tone he normally had but a dejected one. Eto knew why.
"Is what Touka said bothering you?" she asked, her voice turning from playful, to slightly worried. Kaneki didn't need any emotional abuse right now, even though it had been a few weeks since he'd become a half-ghoul. Eto didn't know what a transition of species felt like, but she had to imagine that it was less than helpful on ones mental state. She could never hate Touka, but she was fairly pissed at her for doing what she did to Kaneki. "You know she's only mad, everyone else was glad you didn't interfere."
"No," Kaneki somewhat laughed, "I'm sure they would have much rather seen Hinami's mother telling them I died instead of her. After all... Touka is right, it is my fault." He then, tentatively rubbed one of his bruises with two fingers. "In all honestly, I deserve much worse than this..."
Eto frowned, she didn't like seeing Kaneki like this, the transition was much to tragic... from a small nerdy college student who loved to read(her works in particular) to a self loathing, depressed boy who somewhat wished his own death. She didn;t know what exactly she found more disturbing, the look on his face when he spoke, or how familiar it all was to her.
"Maybe I-"
Eto didn't let him finish, she didn't want to hear him blame himself for Ryouko's death, nor did she wan't to hear his depressed tone anymore. The author then pinned him, gently, yet forcefully, to the couch that he sat on, and sat on his lap. "That's enough... don't talk like that..." She said, with a happy voice... a tiny bit of sadness escaping her voice. "What is that going to solve for you? It's just feeling sorry for yourself... Personally, I don't think what you did was wrong, nor do you deserve what you're doing to yourself. But, since you do feel this way, you need to know that, though tragic, these things happen, and blaming yourself is only going to make it worse." She said, her voice growing into a whisper with every word, and her face gradually getting closer to his until they were only inches away from one another.
Kaneki's eyes had grown wide, and his cheeks were now visibly red, his mouth slightly parted giving him the look of a surprised toddler. It also became apparent to Eto of the position they now held, however she could care less, in fact she wanted to break the damn tension and get it over with, it was quite obvious to herself what she wanted, it was time to quit playing stupid and just admit it all ready.
Kaneki was at first surprised at Eto's sudden action, he didn't know why she did this, but he knew... it wasn't something he disliked and he suddenly found himself warming to it. Eto had taken it upon herself to press her lips unto his own, in a soft, caressing way. Kaneki, prompted by a primal lust, pressed back gently, causing the lips to make a smacking sound. Eto then took her mouth and placed his lower lip in between her own, forcing him to take her upper lip.
In an almost comedic way, Kaneki began, perversely and uncharacteristically, wondering if there would be tongue. Though, his question was answered, somewhat reluctantly as Eto broke the embrace of lips. She now looked down upon him, a slight smile on her dace her cheeks light red, with what was not embarrassment, but rather pleasure, but he was sure his was ten times redder.
"Feel better?" she asked, a little smugly.
"I..." A million things were dancing in Kaneki's mind now, questions that begged answers... But out of all those questions he choose one. "What now?"
"Now..." Eto grunted out, as she got off Kaneki, and stood up above him, "we go to sleep... I know it's still early, but I'm tired..." She now stretched.
Once again Eto had awestruck him, she'd just kissed him, and now she acted just as she had before this happened, laid back, as opposed to Kaneki who's heart was beating like a drum.
"Come on... you need some sleep too..." She commented, grabbing him by the wrist, gently and helping him up.
Hide sat down on a flight of three stairs, a soft drink in one hand, and his phone in the other, cycling through different songs, hoping to find one he hadn't heard too much for it to become white noise to him. He'd stayed up late tonight, it was already dark. He'd gone by Kaneki's new place, the one he shared with that author girl that he so adored. What was her name, again? Sen tatski?... Whatever.
But, yes, the blond had tried to pay a visit to Kaneki and that woman, who he had ever so defensively stated that he was not intimate with, but they weren't home... or they didn't answer. Kaneki and he, though hanging out occasionally, hardly ever sw one another anymore... though, Hide figured that was his own fault... It had been about a week since the incident with Nishiki had occurred, and even though he had suffered a concussion that day, he remembered quite vividly what he saw and heard... The long and short of it... Kaneki was a ghoul.
At first, the blond was terrified, imagine being that close to a ghoul your entire life, and not even knowing it, Kaneki could have killed him without a sweat... But that was the key word: could, he could have, but he didn't. Kaneki had fought to protect Hide... at first he thought it may have been the act of fending off competitors from a food source, but that wasn't the case, as Kaneki made no attempts to try and attack him at all... In fact, it seemed Kaneki wanted to avoid people... Was it a fear that he'd snap and eat them? Was it a fear of being discovered? But even that didn't make sense... Kaneki was 19 years old, as old as him, the chances of him not being able to control himself were low.
Which made Hide think, as preposterous as it seemed, was Kaneki turned into a ghoul? His behavior had started not long ago, in fact right after the hospital... Was that girl...
His thoughts were interrupted as a rather large man in a snow white suit walked from behind him, catching the blonde off guard, followed by four more people. One of the quad was almost as big as the white suited man, while the other three wore different colored, numbered hoods. If they noticed them at all none of them showed it, in fact they seemed to just be minding their own buisiness at the moment. But still... Hide couldn't help but feel... nervous as they faded from view.