Authors Note!: The chapters are gonna be shortish, because I have a report I have to do kinda REALLY soon.
.
.
.
With the Other Kaneki's rapidly destabilizing mind, Kaneki really shouldn't have been surprised when the room around him started to fall apart.
It started off small, a little crack in the middle of the wall. It wasn't really all that noticeable.
But then the crack started to spread out, and the smooth plane was beginning to resemble busted glass. Kaneki watched this happen with uncomfortable wariness.
He figured that the cracks in the wall symbolized the other Kaneki's splintering sanity That was a scary thought. What would happen if the cracks spread all the way out? Would the wall crumble?
Kaneki inspected the crack in the wall. It was about as large as his hand, and when he touched it, he felt cold. It was an unpleasant feeling. A kind of cold that shocked him up his arm with pins and needles.
But still, he prodded at it. Maybe he could...um, seal it with some glue? Or maybe clay?
With that in mind, Kaneki thought up some sticky textured clay and spread it over the cracks. He waited for it to dry and then ran his fingers over the spot again. When he didn't feel anything, he figured that everything was okay and sat back down with his piles of books.
-:-
.
It was fine for a little while before another, much larger, crack appeared in the white room.
It was on the ceiling.
The other crack that Kaneki had fixed was also starting to open up again. He sighed, fixed the crack in the wall, and thought up a ladder to reach the ceiling. This time he used clay and duct tape just to make extra sure it stayed fixed.
But then several other little cracks began to pop up in random spots. Kaneki was frantic in trying to seal them all closed, even resorting to asking Rize for a bit of assistance. She, of course, ignored him in favor of eating.
By the time Kaneki sat down in his own little chair in the corner, he was exhausted.
It really was a chore keeping the other Kaneki's mind from collapsing in. The cracks were now ranging from a couple of inches to full blown meters. The room was more duct tape and gray clay than it was white walls and smooth surfaces.
Even Rize took a small break from eating to comment on the miserable state of the room, "Oh my, that's not very good is it?" she noted, then she went back to eating.
Kaneki sighed at her lackluster reaction, and watched as another crack appeared next to Rize's head. Kaneki winced. He might have wanted to keep the room in one piece, but he really didn't want to go near Rize.
Maybe it wouldn't get that big?
It did.
The spider webbed cracks spread out from the corners to the sides of the walls, plaster flaking around them.
Oh god, he really was going to have to do this, wasn't he?
Alright, fine, talk to the woman, it's not that hard. 'Don't be such a coward.'
Kaneki scooted from behind his mountain of books. "Ah, Miss Rize...do you mind if I..." Kaneki trailed off as Rize's head snapped up to look at him, a severed and gnawed on finger protruding from her lips. Her ghoul eyes wide and glazed over with a thin sheen of dazed bloodlust.
"...Never mind, sorry." Kaneki sighed and slipped back behinds his pile of books.
Yep, this was going to end badly.
-:-
.
Kaneki clutched desperately at his books as the room continued to shake violently. The cracks on the walls splintered further until they gaped and showed the inky blackness behind them.
Another vision of the outside world flickered into view. Investigators and ghouls in battle. The other Kaneki wasn't even in full control of his body as wound after wound was inflicted upon him and survival instinct flared in him.
The scene abruptly cut off as the ground beneath his feet gave another lurch into the air. Kaneki scrambled for purchase as books and blood flew about the room. Rize hissed in displeasure when the room's jolt was almost enough to rip away the body she held so firmly between her teeth.
It went on like this, shockwave after shockwave that crumbled the ground beneath their feet. Kaneki sometimes had to jump from spot to spot on the floor just to avoid the sinkholes that kept on appearing. Rize had immediately dug her Kagune into the walls and just hung there, irritation clear on her face.
Kaneki would have followed her example, seeing as the floor was disappearing faster than the walls were, but he was afraid that piercing the walls would bring them down further. It was bad enough that Rize had already done it.
Minutes, hours, Kaneki wasn't sure how much time had passed. But he was fairly certain that it was an event that seemed longer than it actually was.
Though eventually, the shaking began to subside. Kaneki breathed slowly and carefully as he remained flattened up against the wall. The ground underneath his feet was barely enough for him to tip-toe on, the rest had crumbled to reveal a pitch black abyss below.
"Miss Rize...are you alright?" Kaneki asked without turning her way. He was trying very hard to avoid any movement that would jeopardize his very delicate position.
He heard Miss Rize give a irritated huff, "No." she snapped.
"Oh. Um, what do you think we should do now? This is a rather...difficult situation." Maybe he could think up a floor? He tried, and failed.
Okay, this was bad. Very very bad.
"This place is useless now." Rize sighed. The sound of her Kagune dislodging from the wall was enough for Kaneki to give into his desire to turn his head towards her to see what she was doing.
He gasped in horror as he watched Rize drop down into the darkness with a bored look on her face.
"Miss Rize!" he called after her. Kaneki's mind raced in a panic for two reasons. 1) He might have just watched Rize commit metal suicide, 2) It was possible that Rize, a woman that he had heard gorging herself on human innards for who knows how long, had just gained access to the rest of Kaneki's mind outside of the room.
Was it awful if he preferred the first possibility over the second?
Kaneki remembered all too well what it was like to have Rize pushing stress and hunger driven insanity into his brain at the worst possible times, trying to tear down his morals at every opportunity.
Maybe if Kaneki followed her down into the abyss, he would be able to sort of cushion some that? Hopefully? He definitely didn't think that the Other Kaneki would appreciate the returning visions of Rize.
Okay, he was going to do this. Not that big a deal. Just jump in after her.
With that in mind, Kaneki took in a deep shuddering breath, tried to keep him mind off of what he was about to do, and then stepped over the edge of his slim platform.
.
.
.
AN: I'm a bitch, I know.