As the hissing of the shutting door set inside the small cramped corridor Touka found herself almost hoping to see Yakumo enter behind them- just barely making it... But then she only "almost" wished it. Instead she was greeted with the door that shielded them against their assailants, complete with the ominous rumble of fighting going on.

Touka had seen what had happened. She had seen that strange Kagune that had wrapped itself around Yakumo's torso with those two thick arms. She had never seen anything like it before though. Still, the answer was somewhat obvious. Yamori, as he used to address himself, was a known cannibal and everyone had heard the stories of what cannibalism does to the ghouls who can stomach it... Kakuja.

Touka had tried it once, admittedly. However, she would have rather eaten Yoriko's cooking.

"A- alright, lady..." Banjou breathed out heavily, not out of exhaustion but rather fear, as he leaned his back against the wall and gripped at his heart. "What's the deal? Who are you and why are you helping us?"

A valid question, no doubt, why was she helping them? They were ghouls. She was human. For all the nurse knew the group would eat her the moment she turned her back on them. However, she seemed to not care in the slightest, just placing her ear to the metal door and listening carefully. Then, removing her head from it, she sighed, almost in relief.

"The door will hold... But they'll find a way around soon. If Jason doesn't kill them first that is..." She spoke, sounding a little bit too excited about Yakumo killing the ghoul security force... and a bit sad as well.

"Hey!" Banjou spoke once more, gaining a little bass to his voice now, "You hear me? What the hell is your deal!"

The nurse shot him an annoyed glance in response. As weak as Banjou was for ghoul standards, it was still pretty brave of her to do. In fact, Touka almost laughed when she noticed the bulky man tense up in fear a bit when she looked at him.

"That's my business." She spoke calmly, but with a bit of authority. That answer, however, would not do.

Tsukiyama gripped her arm as she turned, hard enough to make her wince, but not enough to cause any serious pain, and pulled her close in a threatening manner. "Forgive me, mon amor, but you see; after being attacked we are all a little on edge at the moment. As it stands now, none of us have a reason to trust you at all. So, you will tell us who you are, why you helped us, and what you want." the gourmet paused for a moment then gently rubbed a finger over her eye and smiled, "Unless of course, you want to lose your pretty brown eye's..?"

The nurse frowned, trying to act unfazed. The gourmet was known for his affinity for eye's, though. Taguchi knew that.

After a tense silence, the nurse finally gave way, sighing and looking down she spoke. "Alright dammit, just get your hands off me. I've been grabbed enough in the past few weeks to last for a lifetime..."

Tsukiyama complied.

"My name is..." she paused then, considering actually telling her name to them, then spoke,"Taguchi. I-" she paused again, this she would rather not tell them. It was not out of shame so much as it was out of a fear of how they would respond to the information. "I used to be Kanou's assistant... I helped Kanou turn Kaneki into what he is today."

Taguchi noticed the youngest girl of the group, who she had now deduced to be rabbit, tense up slightly in anger at the statement. She had good reason to as well if the nurse was being completely honest with herself, Kaneki had been suffering since that day and it was partially her fault.

"You spoke in past tense." spoke up one of the gas-masked ghouls now, another female, leaning forward and sticking a finger out to her, "Did you and Kanou have a falling out?"

The nurse looked away, frowning. "In a way... yes..." There was malice in her voice, malice that ran deep. "A few weeks ago, I was taken by Aogiri tree the ghoul organization that also took your friend... I was used as a source of information and as leverage to make her stay."

"Leverage?" Banjou asked, vocalizing the question they all had.

"Yeah. They told her that if she refused to join them, or at least remain in their custody, they would send me to the CCG and make me tell them about your coffee shop."

Touka's mouth opened slightly at the revelation, "So Kaneki was right... she was protecting us..." However, Aogiri was one thing, all of Tokyo was another. "Then, we can't... we can't let Kaneki get to Eto." Touka spoke, almost letting her voice choke. Dammit, it wasn't fair. She'd give anything to see the author again, but it seemed fate was less than obliging. "If she leaves Aogiri, which she won't, then the CCG will come down on us. We'll have nowhere to run or hide..."

"Wrong." Taguchi spoke, determined, almost as if she were trying to lift Touka's spirit's. "I was their leverage. If you can manage to bust me out of here then they'll have no bargaining chip for them to keep her there."

Touka nodded her head slowly, allowing the pieces to fall together slowly in her head. "Right, Right! But, what about Kanou, I can only assume that you being here means that you gave them the information about the laboratory and Kanou had joined them. Won't they use him as well?"

"He won't do it." she assured, "Not as long as we get her out with me. Then he won't dare let a possible keeping place for her be attacked."

"Who is "her"?" Tsukiyama now spoke up.

"The binge eater, Rize Kamishiro."

Banjou's ears were ringing now. Had he heard her right? Rize? Rize is here, she's alive?! His heart was beating fast and he became more and more excited. He was smiling(Thankfully unseen by the others, a big, toothy smile that made him look a psychopath. His hands were jittery and his eye's widened. "Rize!?" He asked, hoping for conformation. "What is she doing here?!"

Taguchi looked at him almost apologizing. From the way he spoke, his excitement, he almost sounded like a kid. It was clear he held her dear to himself one way or another. "She's the base for those two twins you saw out there, as well as for Kaneki... Kanou has been harvesting her Kakuhou since the steel beam incident... I'm sorry."

She then turned her attention back to everyone. "If we get her out of here as well, then Aogiri will have no weapon to use against you..."

Kaneki quickly side stepped, narrowly dodging a fist that had been aimed for his face and letting it crash into the wall that had hindered his retreat. The metal dented under the force, creating a jagged crater. Kaneki had to distance himself from Hide, the latter of which was giving uninterrupted chase after the white haired ghoul.

Thousands of questions fired off at once in Kaneki's mind. Why was Hide here? Why does he have Rize's Kagune? Why does he have a kakugan in his eye? But out of all of those questions, only one stood prominent. Why is he trying to kill me?

The prototype then threw his head back, lifting his body into the air, his white hair like a freshly washed sheet being tossed about, allowing a tentacle, which had been thrown to resemble some what of a back hand, to fly over his head. However, he was not quite safe yet. Fingers then wrapped around his ankle, pulling Kaneki towards his assailant with ease.

Then, with a hard hit to the gut, Kaneki was punched into the floor. The sickening sound of skin smashing against then being peeled of metal rang through out the room and Kaneki found the air he had in his lungs had ran out like there was a fire. Fully anticipating another blow, Kaneki crossed his forearms over his chest in a guarding motion and brought his legs up to form a tight ball.

However the blow never came, instead, Hide simply stood over Kaneki, looking at him; his face a mixture of confusion and displeasure accompanied by labored breathing. "Why..." he paused, catching his breath "Why aren't you attacking me..." He stated more than asked as he looked down at Kaneki, body completely lose.

There was a tense silence, Kaneki keeping his face monotone as he looked up at his assailant, who was coincidentally his best friend. He had begun to ask himself the same question. Why wasn't he attacking Hide? Whether the orange haired boy knew it or not Kaneki could easily take him on, he had more experience. Kaneki could end this with a single blow. So... why didn't he... Actually. He knew.

"I don't want to hurt you." Kaneki replied, tensing up even further as he did.

Hide tilted his head a little, opening his mouth slightly. "You don't want to hurt me?"

Another tense silence.

"It's a little late for that, don't you think?"

"What?" Kaneki asked, confused himself now.

"You don't understand do you?" Hide asked, as if he were talking to a small child. "I'm like this because of you..." He let that sink in. "Because I had to keep on protecting you, because you didn't care enough to do the same for me... Because you had to think with your dick... Because I chose to befriend you. Now I have to suffer." He paused, narrowing his eyes. "I knew it from the day that you came back to school. When Nishiki attacked me. You fought him, I heard that commotion, but you also almost ate me. I heard you say something about me being your friend and that you should be the one to eat me. Honestly I should have cut all tie with you there... But I had to be the good friend, right? After all one of us had too... Back when you got taken by Aogiri, I was the one who called the CCG and sent them to the hide-out. I was trying to save you. But, once again I had to be punished fro helping you. I was taken from the payphone and turned into this..." His then motioned to himself, "This is all your fault. So Don't you think it's a little late for you not to hurt me?"

Kaneki frowned, feeling tears beginning to form in his eye's. It seemed, no matter how hard he tried, he was always a burden to someone in some way. "I-I'm sorry" he stuttered, looking him in the eye. Then he smiled, tilting his head as a single tear slid down his left eye. "You must... You must hate me don't you?"

Hide simply remained glaring at him, tightening his fists. "Well, that's just fine... Because I hate myself more."

Hide then gritted his teeth together hard, he was apparently done talking. reeling back his fist, Hide prepared to continue his assault.

However, quickly, Kaneki released his Kagune, this time forcing much more RC cells into the tentacles than last time. He then wrapped the arms around Hide and tossed him against the wall hard. The force wasn't enough to kill Hide, but it was enough to tear through the metal wall and send Hide into the next room. Kaneki followed

Stepping through the hole, The half ghoul found himself in a large, open room, even more-so than the last one. In the center was a large machine that stretched all the way up to the roof and at the base was a single container.

It was then that Kaneki noticed the two people near the control center of the machine. One person he missed and the other he hoped never to see again. To the left, looking down at the scene before her, apologies hidden in her mint eye's, was Eto. To the right was doctor Kanou, a friendly smile gracing old lips... Just like when Kaneki had first seen him at the hospital- he looked old and young at the same time.

The doctor then raised a single wrinkled hand and began to greet them. "Oh, hello there Kaneki. How long has it been hmmm?"

Kaneki didn't respond, he just kept looking at them. Then a sound drew his attention to the base of the device- a sound like something hitting glass. There- in the container- was Rize. She was bare to the world, Naked, the only thing blocking her more sensual areas to any onlookers was her long purple hair that covered her breast as it hung, and her tilted body angle. She looked up at Kaneki, blood dripping down from wide, horrified eyes... It was at that moment that, for whatever reason, Kaneki felt powerless... He had no idea why.

Then the doctor continued his speech, redirecting Kaneki's attention back to him. "But, you've caught me at a bad time... You see... I'm about to have to leave."

YAY! After many late nights, studying I have finally had enough time to finish this chapter- AND I'M REALLY HAPPY WITH HOW IT TURNED OUT! PLEASE REVIEW!