Sen


Sen Takatsuki strolled from the Kamii University campus towards the Anteiku coffee shop. It had become her refuge. A quiet place with amazing coffee, where she could study and enjoy her books. Unfortunately her best friend, Hide Nagachika, had followed her and discovered the peaceful little haven. In this manner, the coffee shop had become the two friends' meeting place.

Sen entered the shop, the tiny bell ringing sweetly, and sat down in her usual spot next to the window. She opened the novel she was carrying and proceeded to wait for Hide.

A couple minutes later, just as Sen became fully engrossed in the amazing work of literature, Hide slammed his books on the table and shattered the little world around her created by the book.

"Hide!" Came the startled cry from the green haired 19 year old.

"Yo, Take!" He smiled as he greeted her with the nickname she was given by her class in 7th grade. 'Take and Hide' they had called the duo.

"Excuse me waiter! We'll have two black coffees please!" Hide ordered from across the room to the dark blue haired girl they always ordered from. The poor waiter, who was at least two years younger than Hide, rolled her eyes and wrote down the order on her notepad, passing it to the man behind the counter. Hide turned his attention back to Sen.

"So… Whatcha reading?" Sen raised a questioning eyebrow at the blond haired boy. "No seriously, the cover's interesting." Sen rolled her eyes.

"Trust you to be taken in by the cover and not the author, Hide."

"Forget about that, can you just tell me what it's about?"

"Well… You can see it's called 'The Colour of Love', and it's about this disgraced hitman who wants to find his daughter who he abandoned years ago."

"Why does he want to find her?"

"Because he's old and he finds out he has a brain tumour. So he wants her to know she's got an inheritance for when he dies. Anyway, he calls in all these debts-"

"How does he know she's still alive?"

Sen sighed. "He doesn't."

"Huh?"

"But in finding her, he will know if she's alive or dead, right?"

"Oh yeah. Carry on."

Sen sighed again. "Aaaanyway, the hitman goes out looking for the daughter, and~" As Sen continued to describe the plot to her friend, Anteiku's bell tinkled again and in walked a beautiful woman with lavender hair. Hide stared wide eyed at her as she passed, not missing the wink she shot at him. Sen glared at Hideyoshi, who slowly returned his gaze to Sen.

"Sorry, where were you?"

"Forget it. Reading the book is probably better than me explaining it. Kaneki Ken is a genius. The way he draws characters in and plays with them is just… So…" Sen sighed as she wandered in her thoughts. Hide watched with great amusement.

"Kaneki Ken-san hmmm? Does someone have a crush on their favourite author?" Hide drawled slyly, proceeding to sip his coffee with narrowed eyes. Sen choked on her own beverage.

"H-Have a crush on a horror author? Are you insane?" Sen spluttered as she frantically discredited the theory.

"Hmmmm, what ever you say asylum inmate number one."

"Shut up Hide. I don't even know how old he is, or even what he looks like."

"Fine. I'll drop it." He pouted dejectedly.

Just as the lull in conversation was setting in, the woman with lavender hair from before walked up to the dynamic duo's table. Hide and Sen looked up.

"Excuse me, is there a chance I could sit down for a minute?" She asked. Even as Sen was narrowing her eyes however, Hide was eagerly agreeing. As it turned out, a minute turned into a hour, and then they were outside the shop, walking home. Hide and Rize chatting amicably, while Sen walked behind them clutching her books.

As they reached a three way intersection, Rize came to a halt and regarded Hide.

"Well, it's been fun, I must say, and hope to meet you again, but it's getting late… And is it alright if I ask a small favour?"

"I'll see what I can do." Hide answered.

"Well… I've been really scared recently, all those reports of ghoul attacks…?"

"Sure, I'll walk you home!" Rize's face lit up, then Sen opened her mouth.

"No, Hide, I'll do it. I know that you live in the opposite direction." Rize shot a glare at Sen as Hide looked away from her.

"Are you sure it's alright Sen? I don't want you missing out on grades because you got home late."

"It's fine Hide. If anyone needs better grades, it's you. I'll walk Rize-san home." Hide shrugged.

"Is it ok with you, Rize?"

"Oh, ok sure, it's fine." Hide nodded.

"Ok, see yah Sen! Bye Rize!" Hide left. Just Sen and Rize. Just Takatsuki and Kamishiro. Rize started walking. Sen followed. For a while nothing. Then Sen talked.

"I don't know what your deal is, but I do know you should stay away from Hide."

Rize stopped. Rize turned. Rize talked.

"Oh, really now?" Rize put her hand to her chin and cocked her head to her side, posing like some kind of model. Sen nodded. Rize's eyes narrowed. "One condition."

"The hell you get to set conditions."

Hear me out! My one, tiny, little, insignificant condition is, that. You. DIE." Rize's sclera darkened to a terrifying black and her iris blazed a terrible red. Rize's teeth latched onto Sen's shoulder before Sen could even register how close the ghoul was. The ghoul's teeth sunk in and sucked a mouthful of blood from Sen's shoulder, swallowing it loudly. Sen gasped and dropped her books, clutching a hand to the gaping wound.

Sen watched with utter horror as her blood leaked from Rize's lips. The ghoul slowly sucked one of her blood drenched fingers. See Sen scream. See Sen turn. See Sen run.

See Sen run. See Sen glance. See Sen Scream. See Ghoul tackle. See Ghoul stab. See Sen slump. See Ghoul stalk.

See steel fall. Ghoul see steel. See steel crush. Hear steel crush. Smell crushed ghoul.

See dying girl. See dead ghoul.

The colour of love is what stained her hands. The colour of blood is what pooled on the ground. The colour of love is what is splashed everywhere, because it fills each of us.

The wailing of the ambulance echoed over the rooftops of nighttime Tokyo. Sen groaned, blood the colour of love flowing freely from her wounds. Her head lolled back and she vaguely registered a figure standing on top of building she was leaning against. She squinted and tried to look closer, but was overcome by the darkness and she slipped into unconsciousness.


Ken liked his new name. He liked his knew life, as well.

To put it simply, he was a bestselling, young, successful author, recently publishing his eighth work.

At least, that's what a human would think.

Actually, he was the first one eyed ghoul, born only because his mother was stubborn, depraved and hopelessly in love with his father.

He was also the leader of a small ghoul organisation, which was actually building in strength quite quickly.

Ken sat in his comfortable swivel chair in a darkened room, face lit up by the monitors in front of him. His laptop displayed the final copy of his latest book, 'The Colour of Love'. He had some fun writing it, and drawing small parallels from the book's characters to his own life story.

He had ended the story with a sufficiently shocking twist, finally hinting at what the 'Colour of Love' was. He had decided that, while the protagonist was searching, he had wondered how to show his daughter he loved her. In the end, only after seeing his daughter drenched in his blood, did he realise that the colour was exactly the thing he was looking for.

Ken's cell phone rang and he picked it up from where he had carelessly tossed it earlier and read the screen. Satisfied with the contact he answered it.

"Yes doctor. Yes, you have my permission. What is the patient's name?" Ken quickly scribbled it down on a sticky note and pasted it to a monitor. "And the ghoul was…?" His eyebrows shot up. Rize had been incapacitated by steel beams? What a joke. "Thank you doctor. Yes, I'll keep an eye on her after she's released. Bye." After hanging up and tossing his phone across the room, Ken sat back in his comfortable chair and stared at the ceiling, thinking about this event.

Dr Kanou assured Ken that he could make a half-ghoul survive longer than 48 hours, and that he just needed people who responded better to the operation. Though he had little chance of success so far, Kaneki assumed that was due to a smaller sample space; Kanou had simply not tried enough times yet.


When Sen came home to her apartment she noticed the piles of overdue mail and handouts from Kami University that Hide must have been delivering. She smiled at his act (it was such a Hide thing to do) as she went about gathering the materials and bringing them into her small residence.

She was kinda hungry, so she quickly threw together a sandwich and flicked on the TV for an afternoon snack. She hardly registered the food as she was making it, but when she bit down on the bread, cheese and tomato sandwich she couldn't help but spit it out.

Sen rushed to the sink to wash her mouth out. Maybe the cheese was off? Have I been gone long enough to not notice? She checked the packaging and decided she must have been keeping it wrong, because the used by was weeks away. Maybe the power went out and the fridge stopped working. Whatever. I'm not that hungry anyway.

Sen stood and walked to the landline, quickly bringing up missed calls and messages. There were several from Hide, before she had called him on her cell from the hospital, one from the hospital in case she had a problem with her surgery, and several others from various other well wishers.

After hearing the sound of Hide's voice, her stomach grumbled. Looking at the time, she realised that it was indeed nearing dinner time. Knowing Hide, he'd probably want to go out to someplace to celebrate her being released from hospital. She picked up the phone and dialled his number.

"Hide?"

"Sen? Woah, Sen! It's been what? Five hours since we last talked? Are you taking a shining to me, wanting to hear my beautiful voice so much?" Hide sounded as happy and enthusiastic as ever, and Sen rolled her eyes at his teasing.

"I'm at my apartment now, just released from the hospital. I don't have any food in my fridge, so do you want to eat out?"

Hide mock gasped "Is the radiant Takatsuki Sen asking a humble old me out on a date? I though you already fancied that horror author!" Sen rolled her eyes again at the sarcasm dripping from his voice. It wasn't like they hadn't gone out to eat together before.

"No, you idiot. I'm just poor and want you to pay for my food. Now are you going to take me out or not?"


Sen had never been more embarassed in her life than she had been at the restaurant they had gone to.

Hide had chosen a small, loud place he said had good 'atmosphere'. Upon arrival she was impressed by the aroma of the place, despite being filled with people. She had ordered a steak like she always did when eating out, and made small talk (i.e., shouting) with Hide as they waited for their food.

The waiter had set the meals in front of them, and Sen had a moment of nausea as she inhaled the scent of the steak. She had internally grimaced at the feeling, and wondered what it could possibly be from. The steak couldn't be off, as she knew restaurant food was bought, stored and prepared in bulk, so the chances of getting one off steak in a batch of good steaks was infinitesimally small.

And as she watched Hide enthusiastically tear apart his steak, she more and more couldn't believe that could be the case. Maybe it wasn't her steak? Someone's body odour? Old food? Muck?

Hide paused in his gorging to watch as Sen examined her meal.

"Uhhhm… Something wrong?" Hide asked. His question startled his friend and Sen shook her head and blinked at him.

"Oh… No. Nothing's wrong." She smiled thinly at him and he narrowed his eyes. He watched as she gingerly cut a sliver from her meat and placed it in her mouth. It was terrible. Her jaw clenched and her eyes bugged slightly as she swallowed. She was pale as a sheet.

Sen sighed and smiled slightly after swallowing and began moving to cut another piece, when suddenly her eyes filled with tears and she froze up, suddenly paralysed by abdominal pain and bile in her throat and the overwhelming urge to throw up.

Shit.