Her feet slapped against the cracked concrete underneath her making a loud smack that was soon overtaken by another smack as she ran down an old, dusty corridor following Nishiki and the others. After the incident with the corner, Yomo had forced her to stay in the back with Uta. Nishiki had lead them to the domed building, however he was a little apprehensive about actually entering it, it was subtle but Touka saw it, he stuttered in his movements when he opened the door. What was his motivation for helping them? Why was he bothering with Kaneki? These were the questions were most prominent on Touka's mind... she saw what Kaneki did, he butchered Nishiki, he left him hanging like a pinata... Did Nishiki hate Aogiri that much or... was it something else entirely?

Suddenly, abruptly, the others stopped, almost causing Touka to fall over due to lack of preparedness, she stumbled forward a bit before gaining her balance and looking ahead, to see why Nishiki stopped. There was a clean, white door in front of them, with a black door knob. It shined like a beacon in the gray, dull, hallways of the structure, something like an item one would find in a video game, that, as silly as it was, was a proper analogy if you asked Touka. She looked to Nishiki, who stood looking at the door way, almost shaking with fright... Why? Why was he scared for? Touka frowned, it made her uneasy and she hated it... but even more so, she hated being kept in the dark. "Hey, shitty- Nishiki!" she hissed, in a low tone, "What's wrong..?"

She heard Nishiki gulp, his shaky sigh, and his body shake as he tried to speak, then, as if it were the end of his world he replied, "Jason's in there... I can smell him..." Yomo looked over to the college student, studying him for a moment, then to the door, as if he could see through it, like he was trying to figure out what exactly was behind that door. Then, grabbing Nishiki's shoulder and pulling him back, Yomo roughly kicked the white door of it's hinges, sending it flying into a dark room, the only visible parts in it was what was revealed by the dim lighting from the hallway. There was then a powerful smell that wafted into Touka's nose, assaulting her nostrils with a tasty smell, and at that moment her heart sank... It was blood, Kaneki's blood... She didn't know why but she felt like she couldn't stand, the worst possible images appeared in her mind, Kaneki's dead body, mutilated, stripped, cut up, hung... It made her shiver with rage and sadness...

Then, Nishiki slipped his hand in the doorway and began groping the wall for something, finally a click sounded, followed by sets of bright, booming lights exploding to life, to illuminate the room... It was massive, the floor stretched out a good ways to the other side of the room, like the outside, the ceiling was high, bearing steel beams that resembled a bird cage, and on one side there was a platform accompanied by two ramps with a single door, made of concrete in shark contrast with the clean room... Well... clean wasn't actually the right word for it... In the center, there was a small, wooden chair, covered in blood, with broken chains on at it's feet, next to it were two buckets, dripping with blood. But what caught Touka's attention the most was the big, collapsed form of a crazed babbling ghoul, who was in a fetal position on the floor, covered in blood his hair dampened with it, his eye's barley open and his body quivering in fear. It was that man... the one who took Kaneki

"What the hell..." Nishiki murmured in disbelief as he walked over to the floored man, his fear replaced by curiosity. Tsukiyama went over to the chair, where the blood was and the buckets. He then, almost impatiently stuck his finger into a pool of blood and stuck it in his mouth... It made Touka sick, only that pervert would do that, but it also pissed her off, it was undoubtedly Kaneki's blood, he just wanted the taste. However, to her surprise, he frowned, clear annoyance on his face. "This is Kaneki's blood... but it's stale, like he hasn't been here for a while..."

"What do you mean, he left? He escaped?" Touka asked, almost hopeful, but still confused. However Nishiki answered for Tsukiyama, kneeling in front of the shaking Jason. "No... I don't think that's it... I was in here a few days ago... Jason would have his subordinates clean off Kaneki every now and again to prep him for torturing... It was either that... or he kills us... but, he didn't look like he was going anywhere at the time... Maybe Jason knows..." He informed as he reached a hand to touch Jason, who shifted his head slightly in reply.

"Jason... where is Kaneki?" Nishiki asked the shaking man, as he looked up at him. Jason's reply was... strange... to say the least. "Ja-son?" He asked, voice light and confused like that of a child, "Who is Jason? My name is-is Yakumo..." Nishki furrowed his brow in confusion, clearly someone had come in... someone able to beat Jason within an inch of his life and make him breakdown like this... and Nishiki wanted to know who... "Fine then... Yakumo... Who did this to you?"

Suddenly, with great force, Jason or Yakumo rather pulled Nishiki close ans began to speak, as if he were giving an angry lecture. "Who? Who indeed, surely it couldn't have been him, he had the same face but his hair was white. He was strong, so strong, I cried, I begged... I was tortured. What's 1000- 7? No, no, not now, now is time for answers..." Then, Jason pulled Nishiki down and spoke directly into his ear, but loud enough so that everyone could hear him. "It was Kaneki..."

Nishiki froze, did he hear that right? Kaneki did this to Jason, he was the one who turned him into this bloody mess? What the hell was going on? Kaneki couldn't hurt a damn fly if he wanted to, his own fight with Kaneki disregarded, but that was Nishiki's own carelessness. But... somehow he managed to do this to Jason? It was absurd, how could a wimp like him do that? Nishiki then looked over to Touka, who had a similar expression of disbelief on her face, her eye's wide with a mix of Horror and surprise. She looked back and shrugged.

Nishiki stood up and walked away from Jason to the others and began the conversation. "I don't understand... How could Kaneki do that to someone like Jason..." He looked back over his shoulder to see the well-built ghoul shaking in insanity... "What did he do to him?" From the center of the room Shuu responded, with a more than morbid tone, but morbid wans't quite the word... it was more... jealous. "I don't know what Kaneki did to him, but I have an Idea of what Jason did to him for Kaneki to respond like that." The group looked over to Shuu, and watched as he nudged over two buckets with a single foot. From them spilled severed toes and fingers, surrounded by fly's and coated by coagulated blood.

Touka felt her head grow lighter and lighter... It was disgusting, horrifying, God there must have been hundreds in there, just how much did this bastard torture him? Just how much did Kaneki go through before he snapped like this? Suddenly Uta spoke up, almost as if he didn't just hear the news, "We should go, the CCG will be here soon." "Yeah," agreed Yomo, "We'll find Kaneki later... right now it's to dangerous to stay here..."

"Hold on, there's something else we need to check..." Nishiki responded as he began walking to the platform on the other side of the room.

Ayato was on his own now, the last of his immediate group gunned down by the CCG foot soldiers. Those Q- bullets were beginning to piss him off, leave it to humans to desecrate another species and use the remains against said species, he wanted to vomit... But then it wouldn't be quite as fun killing them would it? The dark haired teen ran across the old, gray, dirty room, narrowly escaping the hail of bullets that hunted him. He had to wonder, as he escaped the bullets, where the hell Yamori was... Probably playing with his new toy still. He only did what people wanted when Tatara ordered him too, and, while he didn't intentionally piss him off, Ayato didn't like him. Ayato outclassed him by a full rank, but he didn't know if he could beat him... He had a terrifying healing factor and his resilience to pain was borderline supernatural... he'd love to meet anyone who could keep him down.

Then, Ayato pivoted on his most recent step, carefully calculating his pursuers position. The two armored grunts were standing, legs spread, and weapons amateurishly held at their hips, they'd seen one two many action movies. However, the spray of the bullets was dangerous, completely covering the wall behind him. So, using his sunset colored wings, he covered himself in the gas-like kagune, wrapping it around his body like a blanket, and rushed them.

The bullets normally would have passed right through his Kagune, but they couldn't pass through it when it was rotating at high speed. So that's what Ayato did, he had his winds spin around him, keeping him safe from his hunters and their weapons as he slowly forced his way towards them. He could tell that they were panicking now, Ayato wasn't exactly a slouch when came to record of the CCG, SS-rating, multiple investigators killed, he was practically untouchable as well, making him a high priority to eliminate for these bastards.

Then, as he got within arms distance of the two soldiers, he unfolded his wingspan, and angled both just right to decapitate the two. He often wondered what it was like for humans, being utterly helpless before another creature as it mangled you and drained the life from your body. Then, with a wet chopping sound, the heads flew from their body's and the two forms lifelessly flopped to the ground, as if they were puppets and their strings had just been cut. One of the two's body still twitched slightly, his trigger finger still pulling at a nonexistent lever, in hopes to fire off more rounds. It made him wonder even more... how helpless he felt when Ayato severed his head.

Suddenlt, the 14 year old felt a looming presence behind him. The presence was incredibly tangible, it felt like a ghost was standing behind him, it sent chills down his body and he began developing goose bumps. But what was scary wasn't necessarily the presence, but more so... how he got behind Ayato without him noticing. Then hoping to recreate his attack on the CCG agents, Ayato twisted around, straightening his wing out flat and sharp, adding, for good measure, his arm in front of it, to help guide it. He would regret that decision...

Ice cold fingers coiled around his wrist, then, he felt a just as cold palm press against his elbow, the contradiction between forces, and the superior pull on the wrist, caused Ayato's fore arm to bend backwards at the elbow... He never quite felt a pain like that before, sure he'd been hurt, but never in his life had he suffered a broken bone, it was like lightening racing inside your arm, filling it with both life and death at the same time. The pain made Ayato lose his concentration and as a result, his kagune dissipated into a blood red RC mist. Then, with the force of a semi-truck, a pair of red appendages slammed him into the floor of the room, sending him straight through to the next floor, then the next floor, then the next floor, until finally... with a great shattering pain Ayato landed in the inside courtyard of the building, under a low roof that hid him from the moonlight that showered in, illuminating dead tree's and old, decayed furniture.

Ayato tried opening his eye's, to catch a glimpse of his assailant, however the only thing that greeted him was the blur of concrete as a tentacle wrapped around his ankle and threw him into the moon light, against an elevated in door tree bed, making it crack. The impact was clearly less forceful than before, but it still stunned Ayato none the less. The boy watched as from the shadows emerged a small, thin figure, hair whiter than the moon that lit most of the area, his skin pale and dirty, bruised and cut in some areas, then skin around his wrist and ankles were somewhat raw from friction, and his left eye held a pulsing, menacing, blood red kakugan that centered solely on Ayato.

"What the fuck?" He asked, broken arm forgotten, as he leaned forward slightly, "You're that Kaneki guy Touka was hanging out with when I busted in... Aren't you suposed to be being tortured?" Suddenly realization set in, Ayato felt his blood lose heat and his stomach disappear as he put the pieces together. "Shit... you... you killed Jason?!" He called, as if it had to be some sort of joke, it must be right? There's no way in hell that this little shit-stain could hurt Jason, right... but Jason wouldn't let him go... would he?

"Kill?" Kaneki asked, his unsettlingly calm voice asked as he looked at Ayato with disinterest, "No, I thought about it... believe me I did... but I would be as just as bad as him if I did..." There was an unnerving silence for a moment and then Kaneki grinned, ever so slightly. "I only tortured him until he was on the brink of sanity... that's all, whether or not he dies now is his own fault..."

"You... You little fucker!" the younger ghoul roared as he remade his Kagune and began firing purple-red shards at the ghost of a man. It was terror, unbelievably world shattering when Kaneki calmly walked right through the hail of feathers, some actually managing to pierce his arms, but it was like he was a sponge or something, he just took it like it was a pinch, like it was just the wind. God, it was impossible, everything felt pain right, RIGHT?! No, he's not doing this, he's not fucking doing this, I refuse, I absolutely refuse to believe that he's not FUCKING HURT!

Then, casually, but painfully, Kaneki shoved a hard kick into the area just below Ayato's ribcage, once again destroying the ghouls Kagune, forcing it into red mist. Then, as if he was trying to calm him with that cool, calm voice of his Kaneki knelt down and spoke to him. "Don't worry Ayato your punishment won't be nearly as bad as Jason's... But that's not to say it won't be bad..."

"What... did I do to you?" Ayato panted out. It was an honest question, sure he helped capture them but he never really caused Kaneki any physical pain, no he avoided him like the plague... It was his face... it reminded him so much of his father, his shitty, weak father, he wanted nothing to do with him... So why was he going after him...

"You're right..." Kaneki confirmed, as he flexed his rinkaku slightly, "But this is not about me... This is for Touka and Banjou..." He explained looking down with a tinge of anger.

"What?"

"You broke Banjou's arm and who knows how much emotional pain you've caused Touka... So that can not go un-punished... Now, I thought about how I was going to punish you, I really did, I thought about it while I beat Jason to the brink of death...But, for you I decided since you are Touka's brother that I would only punish you. Then I decided while I won't kill you... I'd half Kill you... That's when you do something that, if you did so completely, would end the life of the victim... At first I thought about destroying your organs... but that would require tedious picking out of them and I don't have that kind of time to be honest with you... So it was down to bones, I couldn't do your lower or upper half as those seperations aren't equal, so I decided to do it mirrored. I'm not too well versed in ghoul anatomy, but if ghouls and humans are as similar in structure as they appear then they are almost identical on the left and right sides of the body, also they each have the same amount of bones: 206, I decided to break 103... that up there was two, the forearm is comprised of two bones... So, starting now, Ayato Kirishima, I'm going to break the remaining 101 bones in your right side. Then, with a crack of his pale finger... he began.

"Starting from the arm..." Kaneki explain as he gripped Ayato's limp hand tightly, the one attached to his broken arm ad pulled up roughly, causing him to gasp in annoyance. "We'll begin with the hands first, breaking your fingers then, working our way down to your torso then down your legs, right?" Then he began breaking them. Ayato's screams were loud, deafening, but he hardly heard them as Kaneki punished him like a machine. All he could do was listen as Kaneki explained what he was doing to him. "But, actually, before we begin, I have a question for you..." Kaneki said, matter-of-factly, a single finger in the air as he looked down at Ayato, who didn't respond. "Who is the leader of Aogiri..?"

"Fuck off-" Kanek planted a foot on Ayato's cheek and began applying pressure to it, making Ayato squirm. "Dammit, Ok, Ok... He's the One eye'd Owl..." Kaneki stopped then, cracked his index finger, "Thank you, Ayato... Now let's begin..."

"There's one bone in the pinky called the 'Ulna'." CRACK. "The one on the thumb I'm about to break is called the radius." CRACK. "The hand bones are split into three different bones; Carpus, Metacarpus, and Phalanges." CRACK CRACK CRACK. "There are eight bones making up the carpal croup: the Pisiformtriquetrum, Lunate, Scaphoid, Hamate, Capitate, Trapezoid, Trapezium." CRACK CRACK CRACK CRACK CRACK CRACK CRACK CRACK. "These bones are all clustered together so they can all be broken together as well." He then shifted his hands into a new position. "The meta-carpals are numbered from 1-5... " After this Ayato's ears only focused on his own screams and the sounds of his bones breaking, it was more or less hell... all he knew for sure was that at this moment it hurt to be alive.

Koutarous Amon stood, legs planted firmly on the ground as he swung his new quinque, Kura, created for his mentor, Kureo Mado, and given to him as a will testament of sorts, saying that it was too heavy for him and would be used better in Koutarou's hands if any at all. The blade was a dark red, much like his previous club-inspired weapon, it also had a single pulsing red circle in the center where the blade would split into for duel wielding, but Amon hadn't run into a situation that quite called for that yet, and he quite frankly hoped he wouldn't.

So far the CCG was fortunate, especially with that Juuzou kid and his borderline suicidal ways. Only he would drive a motorcycle into a ghoul infested building then manage to kill them all with a single fire arm, never the less it was very impressive.

Another ghoul came at Amon who then backed up a bit allowing the ghouls own weight to make him stumble so the investigator wouldn't have to use unnecessary energy on scum like this one. However, a single blue tentacle shot out in between the two, blocking the swing of Kura and saving the ghoul from certain death. Then another tentacle came, hoping to decapitate Koutarou in exchange, whom of which expertly dodged it and pulled back his Kura, hoping to bat it away, however the tail retracted itself back towards it's caster as did the other.

It wasn't good news at all when the culprit, or culprits rather, revealed themselves... Two purple cloaked ghouls, wearing nearly Identicle masks, the only difference was that one had a 'P' shaped marking on it and the other wore a more complex design. It didn't take long for Amon to discover who these two infamy's were... The Tailed brothers, that's what the CCG called them, they work in tandom, nearly exact copies of one another, same movements, same Kagune, same eerie feel... Koutarou's grip on Kura tightened as he gritted his teeth, and sweat dripped down his face, against any other pair he may be able to win, but against these two... combined with the forces of Aogiri behind them... there was only one option.

Amon slid his finger over a button, clicking it, activating Kura's secondary mode. The red dot in the center became somewhat of a knife and spread down the center of the quinque, splitting it in two. Then using his extraordinary strength, Amon pulled it apart at the handles. It was harder than one would expect, like some super magnet was keeping it bound together. He then shifted his stance to a more suitable one in an attempt to better use the two blades.

"Oh my, Bin, look..." One pointed out, it was hard to tell which, those masks gave no hint of emotion at all, maybe that was the Idea, making it seemed like you were fighting something immortal, something without the ability to feel pain, fear, anything besides the desire to kill or eat... In a way it was genius, genius because it was working.

"Yes... that's a special one isn't it... too bad it's being wielded by such a cocky one... I hate unnecessary bravado don't you, Bin?" said the other(unless one was just insane) as they began doing an odd dance shifting positions one behind the other.

"Indeed..." Then they rushed, using their little dance in an effect to confuse Amon. He wasn't going to fall prey to it it was far too amateurish for him to fall too, besides, every single one of their maneuvers had been documented and shown to CCG investiagtors... Amon had studied it and he knew exactly how to deal with it. Then, in a twist of events the two leapt to either side, changing their routine up drastically. Amon didn't know how to counter this, not at all, he didn't account for it, so in a foolish effort to guard either side he threw his arms out to his sides, hoping to fight each one with a single hand.

Then... the brothers stopped, placed hands on their ears remained as statues. Then, almost annoyed they straightened, pulled their Kagunes into their backs once more... and left... It was like they never appeared at all, it was so strange it seemed like a bad joke to Amon, who looked dumb founded... Even the Aogiri memebers looked confused behind their masks... what the hell was going on?

Then, suddenly, violently, the building began to rock. It was like, for Amon, watching a Godzilla movie as a child when the monster would walk in the ity making buildings crumble... Then a loud voice rang out in his ear, it was Marude's and what he heard made his heart skip a beat... "Shinohara, get out of there, It's the Owl!" All sound faded from Amon's ears then a figure plummeted through the floor above him and landed dead center in the middle of the room... He was big, his mask was the color of bone, his hair gray and a single eye pulsing on the left side... He wore a hood that covered him generously... but in Amon's case it was not generous enough, Because it laid bare the giant, muscular blades hung from his shoulders and the menacing spines that covered his upper back... All in all he was massive, he looked like a monster out of greek mythology... There was no wonder that he was so feard... The One-eye'd Owl...

Hinami stood at the top of a shadowy hill, the cold wind that carried sounds of fighting and the smell of freshly spilled blood both ghouls and humans alike. The wind blew her short brunette hair in front of her brown eye's as she scanned the complex... there was no one on the outside anymore, all the fighting had moved to the interior, and that made Hinami worried as she couldn't clearly tell what was going on anymore. The manager had told her that he was going to draw the attention away from the others... then left...

Irimi on the other hand could tell perfectly what was transpiring on the inside, and she seemed rather calm... but behind it there laid a heavy worry... she could hear what Kaneki was doing to Ayato now... Despite the youngers rebellious nature, his attitude, and his rude way towards everyone, she still did help race him, that's why she shuddered every time she heard Kaneki count and then the sickening crack followed by his blood-curdling screams of pain, and his crazed swearing of vengeance. And then... there was nothing...

"That makes 103..." Spoke Kaneki, regardless of weather or not Ayato could hear him... chances are he couldn't, but Kaneki it didn't matter really, all that mattered was that Ayato learned his lesson. "We're done now Ayato..." Spoke Kaneki, like a doctor who had just administered a shot to a screaming child who had during the time rebelled with all his might as the assistants held him down and allowed the needle to push in. Ayato now laid on the floor blood laying on him, his mouth agape with a mindless drool seeping down his cheek. I should get going... I need to go back to the others...

The sound of guns rattling from behind him caught his attention now, prompting his head to turn over his back to look at the new arrivals. There were three CCG soldiers there, guns aimed on Kaneki, some shaking others staring in confusion. He could hear them muttering 'What do we do? This ghoul just took down another ghoul for us..?', 'No, it's a ruse, kill him...' Until finally, the one Kaneki assumed held the authority in the trio, opened his mouth. "Fir-"

He had been interrupted by a huge gaping mouth, attached to a worm like body that had swallowed the mans head whole. The other two were not much different as their now torsoless remains flopped to the floor. Kaneki then twisted his head back around, too get a look at their murderer. He was tall, easily towering above most ghouls, Jason included, he still appeared quite thin though and his hair was a light red, almost neon, tied in to a ponytail and it still fell down his back. But, the most notable feature was his mask... It was a big, toothy smile that easily covered more that fifty percent of his face... Kaneki had seen him before, when he met Tatara before Jason took him, his name was-

"No-ro..." Groaned out Ayato, barley conscious as Noro's Kagune wrapped around him and pulled him back... It seems like I'm going to have to fight again... Thought Kaneki, almost annoyed at the idea of it, but nevertheless his red, scaled, Kagune crawled out of his back. He had to fight he had to fight, fight to protect everyone, Eto, Touka, Hinami, he wouldn't let anyone cause them pain... Then... a hand gently fell on his shoulder, he could feel it was soft underneath his tattered black shirt, it was calming and warm and he almost relaxed. Quickly his head twisted, a crazed look in his eye's like he was ready to kill... He almost hated himself when he realized. The green hair, the eye's, the soft pretty face, and the smile that graced her lips. It was like seeing a ghost, he in fact, didn't realize how much he wanted to see her until now, then he muttered out the name, "Eto..."

Eto smiled a slight, happy smile. She wanted to smile brighter but she couldn't bring herself to do so to be honest... That look in his eye's was horrifying it was that of a deranged man, looking for his next victim. Then, softly, calmly, she pulled used her hands to trace his face, feeling his skin... It was cold, a strong contrast as to when he was warm, so warm, perhaps that's why she had grown so fond of holding him while they slept.

She watched as he slowly fell to his knee's under her touch, then she whispered: "It's OK now, Ken... You can stop fighting..." He looked up at her, surprised first, then confused as if her words were unintelligible, it didn't take a smart person to figure out that he was almost dumbfounded by the concept of 'not fighting', It tore at her, because she also had a similar feeling at a younger age. Then reluctantly she pulled her hands from his face and walked past him, towards the tall, mute ghoul.

"I'll be fighting for you this time." And with that, a single large blade ripped out of her left shoulder, it's base pulsing red with the enormity of RC cells running through it and from her right shoulder emerged a single black wing, which curled slightly aiming at the ghoul. Kaneki had never seen her Kagune before, but figured it would make since that she was an Ukaku, she was fast, so much so that she was hard to keep track of... It was strange, up until that moment he'd always felt he'd need to protect her, despite her clear dominance over him... but now he felt that... Eto didn't need protection... others needed protection from her.

Suddenly a loud, but muffled, ringing emitted from Noro. It rang twice before he reached into his coat and pulled out a large digital clock. It was bland, it had a gray frame and big blue screen. He looked at it calmly for a moment, then placed it back, turned and began to leave.

It was just Eto and Kaneki now, standing in silence, the smell of Ayato's blood evident in the air around them. Eto's kagune retracted, and when it did, Kaneki actually looked at her attire, he'd never seen it before, she was wrapped in skin tight bandages which showed off her petite form well, over that she wore a purple, hooded dress, the hood bore animal ears that flopped down lazily on the side. Her face had hint's of bandaging as well, but those were loose, like she'd ripped them off.

Then The building began to shake, sounds of explosions filled the air and the sounds of screaming was heard. Eto tuned to Kaneki and began walking towards him, trying to pick him up... Kaneki refused... He batted her hands away gently, he refused to be of any hindrance to anyone any longer. Then, looking at her almost apologetically, Kaneki smiled a sad smile and said, as if to calm her, "I can walk... I feel fine..."... It did anything but.

Yoshimura looked back at the buildings as they collapsed, he had barley made it out himself. It was almost a waist to him, having announced his presence only to be upstaged by a trap set by the members of Aogiri. However, at the same time, he was thankful... He didn't want to kill anyone. Then he heard the rustling of grass under feet and turned to see two familiar faces, his daughter... and Kaneki...

The boy's hair was pure white, it looked unkempt ant frayed, blood stained his mouth and bruises covered his body... His skin was pale, pale from blood loss, he had a dazed look in his once innocent eye's, eye's that were now replace with cold, but burning anger, an anger he once saw in his daughters eye's back when she was the Owl... It shook him to his core, because he knew that they were too late...

The couple found themselves back atop the hill that Hinami and Irimi awaited them on, they were the last to arrive, but then who cared about that... everyone was there... Touka, Hinami, Irimi, Kaya, Yomo, Uta, The manager... Then there were others, others Kaneki was wary of, one of which was that cannibal, the one who had once tried to eat Eto and who now had a taste for Kaneki; Shuu Tsukiyama... Then there was another person Kaneki was wary of: Nishiki Nishio, but, to be fair, he did clean Kaneki's wounds when he was tortured by Yamori... Then, some rather unexpected face... Banjou and his group who looked upon Kaneki, particularly the muscular one... with guilt... He wondered why though... It wasn't their fault, they couldn't stop Yamori, besides it wasn't like he blamed them either.

Then a gentle, wrinkled hand fell on his shoulder, prompting him too look. It was the manager, he held a kind smile on his old, wrinkled face... It was pleasing to see, the elder always calmed Kaneki greatly somehow... Maybe it was a family trait that both he and Eto shared. Then, he noticed a rather uneasy brunette stumble towards him, wide eye's, almost ashamed and sad as she stared at him... Touka... she blamed herself too... It wasn't fair... it was nobody's fault but his own self's... he had been weak... Nobody should blame themselves.

However, upon further inspection, he saw that practically all of them bore that expression... He hated it, God did he hate it... To them it was sympathy, but too him it was unnecessary. Why were they making themselves suffer like that? For his sake? Ridiculous, it was no ones fault but his own, for being to afraid to fight back. They didn't need to do that to themselves.

Then Yoshimura spoke up, clearing his throat. "Ken... I don't have you scheduled at all on any work days from now... don't worry about coming back to work for a while... it will be fine." There was a silence as Ken stared at him, then too the group, looking at them... He needed to tell them, they deserved that much...

"I'm not returning to work..." He said, as he straightened up and gave a slight smile to soften the blow... it didn't seem to work.

"... That's fine, I understand..." Replied Yoshimura as he sighed, but smiled.

"No... I mean I'm leaving for a while..." He paused, watching as the group took in the news... Touka in particular seemed the most upset...

"I can't let Aogiri run wild like this... Killing who they please, when they please... It's my moral obligation of sorts... as someone who survived them... I'm going to take down Aogiri... then The One-Eye'd Owl..."

Touka finally tried speaking her discomfort at this, but was interupted by Eto. "Let's talk about this later..." She said, Keeping her gaze at Kaneki, who didn't look back. "Besides... I'm sure Kaneki is tired after all this..."