2 years later.
Kaneki and Eto stood upon a tall building in the first district, looking down on what could possibly be the most dangerous area in all of Tokyo. Below them, they could see multiple gangs of ghouls moving swiftly from shadow to shadow, converging on an empty, poorly lit, square. There was no doubt in their minds that this was preparation for a bloodbath.
2 years prior.
Kaneki Ken opened his bleary eyes and looked at his surroundings. It seemed he was in a large, empty and rather poorly lit space. Focusing his vision, he noticed the girl with green hair standing a few feet away from him. She seemed a little older than him, maybe ten years of age.
"Where am I," He said, trying to concentrate.
"An empty underground passage in the 24th ward. I took you here after I found you fleeing those doves."
"My… my parents?" The boy managed to force out, despite his dread at the answer.
"The doves killed them," was the deadpan response.
She doesn't look very sad, he thought.
Sensing his reaction, the girl said "Sadness just isn't in my character." She sounded almost sorry. Almost.
The boy closed his eyes for a moment, too spent to cry. "Who are you?" he asked.
"You can call me Eto."
The boy stayed silent for a moment, then said, "I'm Kaneki Ken. I'm rather hungry."
At this, Eto smiled. It wasn't a happy smile, he noted. It was so wide it looked almost insane. It was, all in all, he later would reflect, a rather mad smile.
"Humans taste best," she said, "but the way to gain strength, strength enough to beat any dove…" She paused and smiled, seeing she had the younger ghoul's attention, "Is to eat ghouls."
Kaneki smiled at the memory, just as the ghoul gangs converged in the empty square, ready for a fight.
Oh yes, he thought as he and Eto dove off the skyscraper and into the fray of ghouls. This will be a bloodbath… and a kingly feast.
The next morning, as the sun rose over the forsaken backstreets of the first district, it would witness fewer ghouls than had been seen in months, and just one more bloody square, which would be washed away, like so many before it, in the next rainfall.