Kaneki's eyes bolted open and he sat up, drenched in cold sweat.
She's gone, she's gone… Why did she leave?
It had been the same every morning for the past month or so. Wake up early from a nightmare, wonder why Eto had left, miserably try to sleep again and, when he couldn't, run himself to exhaustion searching the twenty-fourth ward.
He stepped off his mattress, knowing that he would not fall back asleep until his body forced him back to rest. With that in mind, he bolted off into the familiar network of tunnels below Tokyo.
He had been running for perhaps fifteen minutes when something hit him mid stride, causing him to smash painfully face-first into the hard concrete floor. In a flash, he rolled to his feet and, ignoring his aching cheek, turned to face his assailant.
It was a ghoul, of course, and not a particularly pleasant one. His gangly, bony figure stood at roughly six feet tall and was crowned by an irritating smirk and a blond crew but. Kaneki didn't know his name, but he had seen him taunting Eto several times, only to be sent flying by a simple swipe of her Kagune. How the hell this guy was still alive, Kaneki did not know.
"So," the ghoul said, "The little prick is out without his asshole big sister, eh?"
Kaneki didn't respond, he only kept his eyes trained on the opponent.
"I suppose," the ghoul continued, "She finally wised up to how unwelcome she was here and ditched your sorry, weak a-"
He was cut off mid-sentence by a dash and a swipe of Kaneki's hand, which would have dealt a significant amount of damage, had he not cleanly sidestepped it.
"Maybe I'll kill you," the ghoul said, "just to spite that stupid bitch."
He spun around and launched himself forwards, hitting Kaneki with a body slam and launching him ten feet into the concrete wall of the tunnel.
Kaneki fell to the ground, winded and likely nursing a few broken ribs.
The other ghoul leisurely began to move towards him, as though he had not a care in the world. He stopped about two feet from the collapsed boy and said, "Well, I suppose this is it for you. You're even weaker than I thought. I guess that bitch did nothing but save you ass the-"
He was interrupted by a swipe of Kaneki's tentacle-like Kagune, which severed his head cleanly from where is was attached to the rest of his body.
This is no good, thought a fuming Kaneki, If he hadn't gotten so full of himself and distracted, I was toast.
It was just then that it hit him how much he had relied on Eto's help. He wasn't a weak ghoul, per se, but she had always protected him and fed him to a certain degree. He simply wasn't strong enough to take on an alert opponent twice his age.
This is no good, he thought, as he sank his teeth into the other ghoul's flesh. I have to be stronger to survive. I can't go to that coffee shop like this, I'll be turned away for sure. I'll live on my own for a while longer.
Yes, he had relied a lot on Eto. That was why he couldn't understand that she had just left so abruptly. There must have been more of a reason to it than that, he thought, desperately trying to reason through his abandonment. No, he wouldn't go straight to Anteiku. He'd try on his own for a while longer.
But not here, he thought. Too many memories.
Maybe he'd scour the other wards again. After all, if he needed to become stronger, the best thing to do was fight.