For once since the incident with the steel beams, and his transformation into a half-ghoul, Ken Kaneki had a pleasant dream. Not to say his dreams were particularly horrifying nor were they unpleasant(not to say he didn't experience those either), but he'd never quite had one that he particularly enjoyed. It was warm, comforting, like a trip to the beach during the summer season, or a warm bed holding him in it's clutches. It was a shame that he could hardly remember it when he woke up...

Kaneki's eye's rose a quarter of the way to their full reveal, then closed once more, then opened, trying to wake his brain up with images of the real world and not some dream. Kaneki had a thin lipped smile on his face, he didn't know why, and he didn't particularly care either, he was simply warm, so warm. It then dawned on the hybrid that there was a weight, however wide on his body. It wasn't a blanket or quilt, no, it was a living breathing, warm weight... A weight named: Eto.

Kaneki's mind was suddenly filled with the events of the past night, Eto's bandaging of him, leading to a warm kiss, then to Kaneki returning the lip lock, then them going to the bedroom... to 'sleep'. Kaneki honestly didn't remember what kind of 'sleeping' the new couple(he supposed) did last night, as due to the rush of adrenaline and a light headed feeling falling upon him from Eto mashing lips with him... that... or he had a concussion from Touka's fists. Though Kaneki, quite obviously, was a virgin, so(though inexperienced) he was fairly certain that he'd remember his first time.

Suddenly, the sleeping author lying on top of him began to stir awake, lightly groaning, a subconscious way for her body to tell her to go back to sleep. Lazily, lashed lids flutter in front of a green eye, waking up the brain in a similar fashion to Kaneki's, and yielding the same result. Eto, letting out a tired, and admittedly seductive, groan pushed herself up off Kaneki, using thin arms and shook her green haired head, her body's traditional attempt in waking itself up.

She looked up at the boy laying down under her, a red cheeked expression on a rather innocent face, look of curiosity in his eye's... She couldn't help but smile, he was adorable... but not quite in a brother, or pet, or child like way, but rather something more-so than that. Eto, unlike Kaneki, fell asleep and woke up remembering vividly the oral show of affection that they held last night. To her, they way it went down was almost cheesy, but that didn't really matter to her at the moment...

"Good morning." She chimed, a tired smile appearing on her face, not a hint of an awkward feeling on it.

Kaneki was almost dumbstruck, he found it odd, she was saying 'good morning' to him as if nothing had happened. Did she forget? Did she even do it at all?... Had Touka hit him that hard? However, Kaneki once again found himself breathless as the woman sitting on him brought down her lips to meet his once more, just as she did last night, however this time less forceful and more of a greeting.

"G-good morning..." Kaneki replied back, mono-tone in his reply, as his face grew burgundy.

That day, after Kaneki had gotten out of bed and gone to work(despite Eto's protests and warnings about Touka being there) the day had moved rather uneventfully and the hybrid felt completely out of it. So now he found himself in the coffee bean room, holding a can of espresso beans in his left hand and wearing an open-mouthed look of stupidity on his face. He'd forgotten why he was up here, in fact he'd forgotten who'd sent him up here.

Then he'd realized... his body must have gone into some sort of auto-pilot while he replayed the kiss he and Eto shared in his mind. It was almost embarrassing, he was probably acting like a fool in front of everyone because he'd gotten a kiss from a girl(though, said girl was his idol, but still). Ken then looked up, as if coming out of a trance, shook his head once, trying to wake up his mind, which had reached a high of some sort, and promptly turned for the door. However, as he opened it, a small, raven haired girl stumbled forward, giving out a surprised yelp as her hand gripped for a moving nob and she lost her balance.

Touka, plummeted right onto Kaneki, leting out a rather boyish 'oof' sound and promptly bounced right off, landing flat on her ass. Kaneki would have laughed, had he not feared a second beating from the female ghoul, so instead he fearfully apologized.

"S-sorry!" He almost yelped aloud, as he backed away fearfully.

However, instead of trying to hit him, scold him, hell even spit at him, Touka began rubbing her arm slowly, making a less than pleasured face at the sensation and muttering the words 'ow'. Well, 'mother-fucking shit that hurts' was more like it, but Kaneki preferred 'ow'. Upon closer examination, he realized he saw the trickling of blood running down her upper arm, dampening the white vest under shirt, gibing it a brownish hue.

"T-Touka!" he quietly exclaimed, "Y-your arm! I'm sorry..!" he said kneeling down next to her, ready to treat the wound. However, Touka replied to this act of kindness by pushing him away, causing her self even more pain. "Back off, shit-head" She hissed through pained, gritted teeth, "You didn't do this, it was my own fault..." With that she stood up, still clutching her arm tightly and looking down at him as he stood back up himself.

"Koma sent me up here to get you." Kaneki noticed how she spat the word 'you' with venom. "You've been up here for 30 fucking minuets, what are you doing? beating off?"

Kaneki, scared of being labeled as some kind of pervert, was quick to defend himself. "N-no! I-I was just-"

"I don't care what you were doing, just stop being so fucking useless all the damn time." She spat, looking down upon him with hateful, dark eyes. "Anyway's get down stairs, Koma is ready for those beans..." With that she began too take her leave, almost stomping her way out of the room. Still, despite her hateful, scorning words, Kaneki knew he had to say something.

"Touka, you should really let someone treat that... I don't know if ghoul's get infections, but if they do-" He only got that far before Touka pinned him against the coffee shelves, forearm against his throat, pushing tightly.

"I said: it's none of your fucking business!" She angrily spat, through grinding teeth, "Now, leave me the fuck alone, or I'll kick your ass again!"

"Touka!" boomed a loud, commanding voice from behind them, causing them booth to look. There, half turned their way, was Eto's father, more than a little displeased with Kaneki's assailant, as shown by the expression on his face. The wrinkles morphed into downward angled lines, amplifying his frown and his normally closed eye's were also angled in a rather annoyed way.

"Dammit..." Touka muttered, as she released the almost chocking Kaneki to the floor ground, but not before pushing slightly on his neck as she began walking out once again. Kaneki couldn't help but notice the managers disapproving gaze as she did so, however, which came as a surprise, during his time at Anteiku, he'd seen nothing but a happy old man, so seeing him be so cold was... off putting.

Finally, when Touka was out of ear shot, Kaneki found his voice and began to speak. "Touka, needs her arm looked at... It's bleeding, and will probably get infected if it goes without treatment..." There was then a definite silence as the manager overlooked Kaneki, his face softening into something akin to sadness.

"I'm well aware of that..." He responded, almost reluctantly all the while still maintaining eye-contact with Kaneki.

"Then, why don't you-"

"Because she needs to learn her lesson..." the old ghoul replied before Kaneki could even finish. "Yesterday, during the evening, after you and Eto went home, Touka took it upon herself to try and take revenge for Hinami... She suffers that wound because of it." He pause, looking down, face filled with regret. "She put the shop at risk and acted alone. So now, she must deal with it alone."

Another long silence befell them, and Kaneki began gripping the beans in frustration, almost denting the can. "I don't understand..." Kaneki began, looking down at his feet, "I thought Anteiku was here to help ghouls."

To this Yoshimura sighed, and began to go into detail. "We are, but when ghouls get involved with doves we cannot allow ourselves to be apart of it, lest we risk discovery. Anteiku alone cannot oppose the full brunt of the 'nest'." He paused then looked at Kaneki, slightly opening his eye's, "Besides, it was a selfish act in the first place, whether she lives or dies should be no concern to anyone else..."

"I see you've already made up your mind about this..." Kaneki said, looking at him sternly. "But, I can't do that, after all I'm kind of indebted to all of you... When I was a human you could've eaten me, but you chose not to... It may just be my luck in running into you when you weren't particularly hungry, but still... That, and you all took me in, no questions, gave me a place to live and went out of your way for me... So, until I can see the rest of the ghoul world beyond Anteiku, I'm going to help anyone I can." With that Kaneki walked past the elderly ghoul and down the stairs, coffee beans clutched tightly.

Yoshimura was alone now, standing in the same position he had taken during his talk with Kaneki. He let the young man's words dance in his mind, floating there, being analyzed, until... he smiled. "You do that then, Ken Kaneki..."

Touka sat outside Anteiku, wrapping her wound with some bandages, and pulling tightly, to ensure the pressure would stop the bleeding. She hated feeling helpless like this, especially when it was her fault... The thought of that man's face, his sadistic look, the laugh he gave when he ran the bony appendage through her arm, it haunted her... she never knew until that day... just how terrifying a human could be.

Suddenly, the back door of the restaurant crept open, making a slight wail as it moved on slightly rusted hinges. Touka didn't look up, she didn't need too, she knew who it was... she knew exactly who it was. She wanted him to leave, but to be honest she didn't have the energy to chew him out at the moment so instead she made it simple. "What do you want?"

"I brought treatment for your-"

"I don't need it."

There was a tense silence now, as the two stayed the way they were, Touka stubbornly looking away and Kaneki stubbornly remaining there. Finally, annoyed by it all Touka spoke. "You really want to help me?" she asked, slightly smiling. Kaneki said nothing. "Kill them..."

"Who-"

"The doves..." she paused, "Kill them in my place... You have Rize's kagune so that means you have a chance right? I mean, look what you did to Nishiki..." She looked up at Kaneki curious as to his reaction... as she expected... he was sweating, his face was red with worry and his eyes were wide. She scoffed. "You can't can you?" ,she looked back down to the ground. "There is no way a weak coward like you could kill anyone... not even to save a life..." She looked back at him, apathetically, "I also can't have the manager or Yomo do it for me either... I already know that... In fact by doing this I put them in danger..." She paused, smiling a little sadly, "I said you should die, didn't I? Well, I actually think a murderer like me should die instead."

There was a tense silence between them, well tense for Kaneki as just last night he said the same thing to Eto... Only now did he realized just how terrible that could make someone feel, the burden someone places on you when they tell you they think that they should die is enough to make even the strongest man break he wondered exactly how Eto felt.

"But, how could you understand... after all, you're just a human..."

Eto rested her couch, the television on simply for background noise, as she was lost im thought about something that troubled her... Kaneki... In fact the boy's well being had been the center of her mind a lot recently, even before the kiss they shared. And, while at first it was just his physical health, his mentality was starting to become worrisome as well. 'It should have been me who died, not Mrs. Fueguchi', the way he said that, with such a self loathing, was almost chilling. Was it a notion to suicide? No, but that's what it could eventually turn into, even though for a ghoul suicide is rather difficult by use of physical force... and Eto didn't keep pills of any kind around in the house.

Releasing a soft sigh , Eto opened her eye's. The thought of Kaneki dying was something she almost couldn't bare, over the time they knew each other, Eto had become increasingly attached to him, and she didn't know why. It was almost laughable, here she was, a writer, a person who could decipher the deepest of emotions, and she couldn't do so for herself.

Suddenly, the creaking of the front door sounded, followed by the footsteps of shoes on floor, then the closing of said door slowly. Eto sat up and threw her head back to see a tired looking Kaneki, beginning to take off his black shoes one foot at a time.

"Hello there!' she called, lazily, throwing her arm over the back of the sofa and letting it hang like a noodle. Kaneki looked up, a little startled at the greeting, his gray eye's growing just a little wider. Normally, he would have noticed her, after all, how hard was it to miss a woman like Eto in an empty room, but to be fair he had something gnawing at his thoughts currently...

"Oh, h-hi!" he stammered. Being around the author was getting increasingly nerve racking for him, The way she acted, and talked to him were almost the exact same way she did when they were just at roommate status... though, that made Kaneki happy he supposed. In fact in hindsight the way Eto acted when they were just roommates was something lovers would do... just at the time Kaneki never thought of it that way...

"Touka didn't try to hit you again today, did she?" Eto asked, bringing the rest of her torso back from it's laying down position.

"Huh?" Kaneki asked, a little bit out of it, "Ahhhh, no, she kind of ignored me today..."

The green haired half ghoul smiled at this. "That's good, that means she's in the process of forgiving you..."

"Forgiving..?" Kaneki asked, a little confused. The way the rather moody girl had acted today made it seem like she had no intention of forgiving him. But, then again, the female mind was not his forte...

Eto laughed a little at this, placing her chin on the top of the sofa and grinning. "Yes, she doesn't seem like the type to forgive, does she..?" Eto trailed off focusing on Kaneki. "Come here," she then curved a finger towards herself twice and grinned, "I want to see something."

Kaneki was kind of reluctant to get close to Eto, considering her tendency to grab him, but lately, he'd been enjoying the feeling of being held close to her. So he obeyed. Kaneki trudged over to her, he was more tired than even he thought, his shoulders slumped, he felt heavy, and his eye's threatened to shut tight. You know, I could fall asleep right now... The artificial hybrid thought as he reached the edge of the couch and looked down at Eto and, as he expected, she grabbed him, but what he did not expect was for her to kiss him.

Eto smiled as Kaneki let out a muffled surprised gasp when their lips touched, though he might as well get used to it because she was going to do it a lot. Then, Eto wrapped her arms around his waist and pulled him over the sofa, having him land on top of her, all the while maintaining the oral show of affection. In fact, she began to push further with the kiss, now working her tongue into hid mouth, pushing past his lips and probing around. Kaneki's mouth, she discovered was warm and begging to become warmer as heated, labored breaths began to pump out of it. He then began to, a bit reluctantly, use his own tongue to push into her mouth.

Now that was a new experience for Eto. The girl was after all a virgin to relationships of any kind(besides friendship of course). She'd never hugged, kissed, or even touched the opposite sex before Kaneki. In fact the only experience she had in the art of showing affection in a more intimate way was reading x-rated books for... research... yes that was the term... research for her own books, which sometimes involved intimacy.

Eto smiled then, without breaking the interlocking of lips, and the gripped his hands and place them on her waist. It had always astounded her, how people could get so much pleasure from simply touching lips together and tongue-play. Eto then, not to be out done, pushed in her tongue more forcefully and began to intertwine it with his own. It was kind of like reaching a high, sure they had kissed twice before, but those were much less heated than this.

Finally, reluctantly, Eto broke the embrace and began to laugh. "Wow, Ken, I never figured you to be so good at that..." She said, leaning her forehead into his blushing face, making it all the redder.

"Ahhhh..." he replied, a little more flustered. "E-eto... I have a questioned.

"Oh?" she co'ed, "Whats that, Ken?"

"I wan't to learn... how to fight... As a ghoul"

Eto was taken slightly aback by the sudden question, how harshly it deviated from what they just did. It was actually comedic, forcing her to smile more. "Oh, why would you want to do that?" she asked, placing another soft kiss on his lips, which he returned quickly. "I mean, I thought you to be a pacifist."

"I... I am..." He replied, lowly, "But I wan't to be able to help in some way, you know? And besides that I can't rely on people to save me for the rest of my life right?"

Eto looked at him in the eye now, starring at him intently, looking to see if this was what he wanted, or if someone(most likely Touka) was forcing him into it. She was surprised to see though, that he was determined. "Is this what you really want?" she asked softly, showing that she was taking him seriously.

Kaneki was silent for a while, his lips tightening as well as his hands, until he finally spoke once more. "I-I'm sure..."

It was now Eto's turn to be silent, she tilted her head at him as they looked at one another, Kaneki, clearly determined to get stronger, Eto, not quite wanting to introduce him to violence. She looked almost sadly at him now, like she was going to lose her hold on him if he learned how to fight... Until... she caved.

"Ok... tomorrow, after work, stay after and we'll begin..." She said, looking up at him with a smile.

"We'll?" He asked, surprised.

"You don't think I can fight?" She asked, almost laughing, though it was an inside joke on her part and a rather dark one, considering her violent past.

"No, I just... didn't think I'd be fighting my girlfriend..."

Eto smiled at that, and then pulled him closer, to whisper in his ear, "You mean; 'getting my ass kicked by my girlfriend'." This earned a small, light chuckle from Kaneki, who looked away in embarrassment...

"Yeah, most likely."

The Next Day/Evening.

Kaneki stood by the door of the now closed coffee shop, alone. All other employee's had gone home, apart from Hinami and Touka who used the upstairs as a home, but by now they were both in bed. In fact, Hinami hadn't left her room all day, it was becoming incredibly worrisome for the shop. On rare occasions she could be heard whimpering in her room, repeating the words 'mother' and 'father' between them. It was an all too familiar experience for Kaneki... When his mother died and... that woman... adopted him, he hadn't spoken a word for about a month, nor had he gone to school. While Hinami didn't attend learning centers of any kind, cooping ones self up in a room alone was not healthy, and they needed to get her out of there.

Then, distracting Kaneki from his thoughts, the tapping of feet was heard coming down the street. The student lifted his head up to see a silhouette, feminine shaped with long hair flowing down behind her. Kaneki hardly needed to see beyond the silhouette to know who it was, who else would be walking down the street to a coffee shop this late at night?

As the silhouette formed into a person, Kaneki's suspicion was confirmed, it was Eto and, slung over her left shoulder, was a black workout bag. "Sorry, I'm late, Kaneki..." she said a familiar tired grain in her voice, "I overslept."

Kaneki smiled and placed a single hand on the back of his head and let out a nervous laugh, "T-that's fine..." He said, shaking a bit... he was beginning to think that maybe this wasn't such a great idea... but... he had to do it if he wanted to be able to protect himself... and Anteiku.

Now, after trekking down, deep into the basement of Anteiku, Eto and Kaneki stood in a wide, circular arena, with many tunnels diverging from it. Kaneki couldn't help but gawk at the size, and how well built it looked... it reminded him of a bomb shelter, built some-time after world war 2 when America unleashed the first atomic bomb upon japan. However, despite his interpretation of it, he still had to ask: "What is this place?"

"This..." Eto replied as she set the gym bag on the floor, "Is a tunnel system crafted decades ago by the ghouls of Tokyo... It was used as an easy escape from the doves and only Ghouls know how to navigate it... I've used it once or twice before during my... more rebellious years..." She added on, more to herself than Kaneki... "Anyways, are you ready?" she asked, pushing her arms out back and leaning forward, creating loud pops as she hummed in satisfaction.

It was only just now that Kaneki realized... Eto was wearing normal clothing, tennis shoes, a t-shirt, and shorts, no workout gear, no gloves, hell even her hair was laying loose. Which begged the question: what was in the bag? Kaneki decided to probe into it. "A-almost..." he stammered, pointing at the bag, "But aren't you going to change into some clothes more suited for exercise?"

Eto merely giggled at the insinuation, then, sighed. "No, because, quite frankly, you aren't even going to give me a work out..." she said, almost boastfully.

Kaneki frowned, that stung a little, but nevertheless he decided to ask more questions. "Ok... then why bring a bag?"

"This?" she asked, glancing down at the black bag that rested next to her feet, "This is for bandaging you up afterwords..."

Kaneki began to sweat coldly, a sharp contrast to his now heating body. It felt weird to him though, here they were about to throw fists, not out of some relationship dispute, nor out of spite but rather to make him stronger. It was an odd thing for them to be doing considering their relationship... But then, their relationship wasn't really normal to begin with...

"Are you ready?" she asked again, this time sweetly, accompanying it with a kind smile, which reassured Kaneki.

"Ah, yeah-"

He couldn't say anything past that, because in nearly the blink of an eye, Eto had rushed up and delivered an underhanded blow into his stomach.

All the wind evacuated his lungs like birds when a gun fired his mouth formed into an 'O' shape. his pupils shrunk and his body lurched forward violently, sending blood out through his mouth. Eto watched as her boyfriend fell back unto the ground and his head smacked into the concrete violently. She'd floored him with a single hit... She didn't want to bask in victory, nor did she want to gloat, the only thing she could think about is how much she didn't want to do this.

Kaneki was fairly certain that he no longer had a stomach, where he once felt nothing he felt a drill that slowly dug deeper and deeper into him. He sprawled out on the floor, hoping to catch some air, any air that would flow into his lungs, but no matter how many times he inhaled, he felt it made no difference. Slowly, however, he began to feel the air flowing again, and sat up, albeit in a considerable amount of pain, to see Eto leaning down over him, one eye Kakugan glowing.

"You don't seem to feel threatened..." she commented looking down at him. She then gently grabbed his index finger pulled on it slightly... "Let's change that..." then, with a simple flick of her hand, Kaneki found his finger stretched over the back of his hand to the point where he could feel it touching the skin. Then, a little stalled, Kaneki let out an animalistic, purely pain driven scream, which made Eto mentally apologize... but she had to push him further...

Kaneki had taken to falling on his back for support to hold his now throbbing finger, it felt like a million bee's stinging him at the same time. Fresh tears flowed from his eye's, tears of pain, and he bit his lip to stifle his screams of agony. Dammit, what was I thinking? I can't do this... I'm to weak. Though, his thoughts were interrupted when Eto once again hovered over him, her face now resembling a bit of pain herself.

"I see you still feel safe..." she said as a wavy, multicolored wing grew from behind her right shoulder blade... "Let's change that..."

Three shards flew from her wing, heading towards Kaneki's chest. It was perhaps the most anxious moment Kaneki had ever experienced so far, he forgot where he was for a moment... He forgot his intamacy with Eto, and forgot even who she was, in fact he'd only regained his memory when a pair of red tentacles had appeared before his eye's intercepting the shards , only inches away from his chest.

There was a tense moment of silence then, as Kaneki stared onto the red appendages as they began to dissipate into thin air. A-Again? He asked, pain forgotten, and mouth slightly agape. Is this what Eto was trying to do, bring these tentacles out? He asked, as they finally, along with Eto's shards, dissipated completely.

"So Touka was right..." Eto said aloud, looking at Kaneki with sorrowful eyes. "You do have Rize's Kagune..."

Kaneki then remembered his finger and began groaning in pain, staring at it's awkward position. Though the pain had dulled compared to the initial breaking of it, it still stung like a bitch, and unbearably so.

Eto knelt down in front of Kaneki, an apologetic smile on her face. "Sorry, here let me fix it for you..." she said gently as she lightly grabbed his finger. "This... is going to hurt a lot." She said as she slightly tightened her own fingers around it.

"W-wait!"

Too late, a snap was heard, then a searing pain felt, and finally another yell of agony.

"... Why don't we call it a night?"

They were now in the main part of Anteiku, the lights were off, it was quiet, and one could see cars pass by, going most likely home after a hard day. Kaneki scoffed, he figured no one's day was as hard as his own today... well, except for maybe one, but practically all her days were hard now. He was talking about Hinami, the little girl had gotten into his mind again, even with the throbbing in his finger... He wished there should be something he could do to make her cheer up if even a little.

But, yes, now, apart from the two girls sleeping above them, it was just Kaneki and Eto in the coffee shop, the latter of which was busy brewing them coffee. Kaneki had offered to do so, but Eto wouldn't accept it, she thought it was the least she could do for breaking his finger like that. Speaking of said coffee, Kaneki was shaken from his thoughts when Eto rested two cups on the table he now sat at.

"Here..." she said, kindly, as she took a seat. "I'm sorry I went so rough out there, I just needed to know if you actually could use that Kagune or not... Touka said something about it, but I wanted to see it for my self..."

Kaneki grinned, he didn't blame Eto at all, he figured it was his fault anyway, after all, he insisted on trying to learn how to fight. "Well, at least I know it wasn't a one time thing." He said, trying to hide the fact that his finger, besides being in a small metal cast, was still stabbing him. Eto had said something about it being healed by the morning, but he wanted to see that for himself.

Which brought him to a different subject now... Eto's strength... Yes, all ghouls were strong, but Eto... she made Nishiki look like a 5 year old with that punch, and that speed, it was almost beyond the realms of reality, what she did with a few movements. It was funny though, normally the male of the relationship was the one with the strength.

Suddenly, a knock on the door rang through the Coffee shop, prompting both of the ghouls to look over towards the door. Eto sniffed the air once, then sighed happily. "You've got a present..."

"A present?" Kaneki inquired, as his eye's followed her to the door. Eto didn't respond, instead she opened the door to reveal a tattooed man, wearing shades(at night?) and and a beanie. In his bony hands he held a medium sized box and a smile on his face. It was Uta.

"Ah, Kaneki, I know it's late, but I just finished your mask, and I couldn't wait till tomorrow..." He apologized, as he rushed in completely ignoring Eto in his excitement.

"N-no, that's fine, we're out pretty late ourselves." he replied, nodding to Eto.

"Yes, Yes," Uta rushed, "But, go ahead and try it on." He said as he opened the box. Inside was a rather unsettling object. From what Kaneki could tell, it was made out of different types of leather, had two bolts on the side, and... an eye patch? Kaneki reluctantly lifted the facewear out of it's compartment and held it up to examine better.

"Go on, go on, try it on." Said Uta, excitedly.

Kaneki obeyed, slowly slipping it on. As it grazed his face he noticed the calming smell of leather and it's cool feeling dance on his skin, but as calming as it was, it made him feel strangely lively like he could jog a mile right now.

Uta stepped back, admiring his work. Then with a satisfied sigh, he clasped his hands together. "Perfect..."

Eto looked at Kaneki, a little surprised. It was funny, how a mask could change the way one looked. It had transformed Kaneki from a silent boy, to a crazed maniac. On it, it had a hungry, lipless smile, a bolted neck, and an eye patch on his right eye. For once in his life probably, Kaneki looked intimidating.