New chapter!

I want to thank everyone who reviewed, but specifically CrimsonUzumakiGod. Your review was exactly what I needed to hear to kick me into gear for this next chapter, and I wrote it right after I got your review.

Seriously, everyone, nothing will get chapters out faster than reviews. I'm not the kind of person who will withhold an update until I get a certain number of reviews, but the more I get or just ones with really good content and encouragement undeniably help the writing process. I love people reading my stories and I write to please most of the time (as long as the idea catches my fancy, of course) so please, if you like this story, I beg you to review. You can't possibly understand the motivation it gives me and how disappointed I am when I don't get reviews. When people are reviewing, it lets me know that the story is appreciated and really oils the gears of creativity in my brain.

Anyways, I'm sure you all can guess what happens in this chapter. I did my very best to give Aiko a fighting chance without making her a Mary Sue. I'm very determined to make this a realistic as possible and not make her overpowered. If I've failed that, PLEASE let me know. I won't go back and change chapters, but it gives me a good idea on how to proceed.

Enjoy!

Asymmetrical

Chapter One

What a thrill -

My thumb instead of an onion.

The top quite gone

Except for a sort of a hinge

Of skin,

A flap like a hat,

Dead white.

Then that red plush.

-from "Cut" by Sylvia Plath

When Ken went off to college, I lost much of my ability to keep him safe, as we no longer attended the same school. We still lived together, of course, and since Kanou-sensei was still secretly sending us money, we could afford a two-bedroom apartment. Nonetheless, I worried about him when we weren't together.

One day, on a day like any other, Ken announced to me that he was going to the coffee shop, Anteiku. I knew that he was safe there, even if it was where he would eventually meet Rize, but I wasn't worried yet. Ken had never mentioned an attractive book-reading young woman around his age, so even though there were news reports about a binge-eater in the 20th Ward, I was certain that she hadn't shown up yet. Ken surely would have told me about his crush.

"Promise you'll stay with Hide at all times!" I told him. "And don't stay out after dark! You know it's dangerous!"

"You're such a nag," he whined, but this was par for the course for us. I acted older than him, mostly because mentally I was, but he took it as his little sister being bossy. He never heard the very real undercurrent of worry in my voice.

"Promise?" I demanded, mock-glaring at him from over my algebra textbook.

He sighed and rolled his eyes. "I promise, Aiko-chan."

I huffed and nodded. "What time do you think you'll be back?" I asked. The fact that he was halfway out the door didn't faze me. Even though I had been raised in Japanese culture this time around, I still felt very much American, and Americans really don't have the same standard for manners that the Japanese do.

"Eight!" he called back. "Stop worrying so much!"

I frowned and stood up to follow him and possibly nag some more, which he would take good-naturedly as always, but by the time I reached the doorway he was already halfway down the street. Frowning even more deeply, I went back into the kitchen and began to review the most recent chapter assigned to my math class again.

Time passed quickly while I immersed myself in the new developments in the mathematical realm. Math was never my best subject and probably never would be, but I had to be prepared to be accepted into Kamii University. I had to protect Ken, and the best way to do that was to go to the same school as him. Of course, I was a year away from taking the entrance exams, but one could never be too prepared.

When I realized that it was eight-thirty at night and my brother still had not returned, I began to grow worried. I wasn't going to go jumping to conclusions that it was Rize because I was still certain that Ken would have told me about her. However, prudence made me pick up my cellphone and call Hide.

I was fond of Hide, even though he didn't play as much of a part in preventing my brother's loneliness as he had in the anime, simply because Ken wasn't alone as he would have been if I had not been thrust into this world. I was always there, hovering like a mother hen, even if Ken didn't see it for what it was. There was no way he could know who and what I truly was. I was hoping to keep the fact that I was hybrid from him for as long as possible—possibly forever. He didn't need to become involved in the world of ghouls. If the secret came out that a naturally born hybrid existed, that would be a futile effort. I would be hunted.

Which is why I didn't protest when Ken wanted to spend one-on-one time with Hide. If I failed with Rize—and I wouldn't, I promised myself—at least Hide would prevent my brother from accepting his fate for much longer. And I would never let that Jason so much as lay a hand on him or blood would spill in rivers. The thought of Ken being tortured like that…well, it had horrified me in the anime, and now that I knew him, now that he was my beloved brother…Yamori would rue the day he had hunted the artificial hybrid.

But that wasn't going to happen. I would scramble Rize's intestines just so that Ken couldn't have them implanted into him.

"Moshi-moshi," answered Hide after two rings. I sighed in relief.

"Hey, Ken hasn't come home yet. Is he with you?" I asked as politely as possible. When Hide grunted in annoyance, I immediately began to scowl.

"Nah, he met this one chick he's been pining after and asked her out on a date. Dunno when they'll be back, but he texted me a little while ago saying that it was going great."

I froze. "Wh-what did she look like?" I demanded furiously, already knowing the answer.

"Whoa, chill, Jealous-san! She was really hot—kinda had the nerdy thing going on with the glasses, but nice tits and a rockin' bod. She's perfect for Kaneki-kun, she reads all the same stuff he does. Tatsuki Sen or something."

"Takatsuki Sen," I corrected automatically, as Ken had done for me so many times. Then I quickly freaked the fuck out. "Ah, SHIT!"

Hide protested, "Don't going ruining his date, you-"

I hung up abruptly.

I was panicking, but I was also furious. Why hadn't Ken told me? Didn't he trust me? It was unfathomable that he wouldn't tell his sister, even if I was a nag and even if I would strongly discourage it. However, the latter was something that he couldn't possibly know, so why wouldn't he tell me?

How was I supposed to keep him safe if he kept such important secrets from me?

Then again, the still slightly rational voice in my head told me that Ken couldn't possibly know how big of a secret this was. Perhaps he was embarrassed to be so head-over-heels for a stranger. That would be very much in-character for him, but nonetheless, I wish he trusted me more.

I knew a fight was coming. I made sure to take a bite of the care-package that Kanou-sensei had sent three days ago, hidden in the depths of the refrigerator—thankfully, Ken never questioned them and I wasn't about to tell him. I wanted to be in perfect form, even if I was a little rusty since I hadn't been able to practice much while supervising Ken and without anywhere safe to release my kagune. Still, my incredible regenerative abilities would give me stamina that Rize couldn't keep up with, and fighting came naturally to me. It was strange, since I hadn't so much as been in a fistfight in my old life—I was actually a born pacifist, but I guess the ghoul in me had taken that characteristic away.

Or perhaps it was from the way I had died.

Pushing the thoughts from my head, I bolted out of the house, barely having the wherewithal to lock the door behind me. Being robbed was the least of my worries and at this point, every second counted.

Vaguely, I recalled the memories from Ken's date with Rize. They went to a bookstore—no, that would be over already. They went to dinner after the sun had set, but the name of the restaurant hadn't been stated in the anime—or if it had, it wasn't coming to mind. After all, for the first nine years of my life, I never really gave credence to the happenings of Tokyo Ghoul because I hadn't thought it would affect me. I cursed myself as I ran.

In the end, I determined that I would find the construction site—there were only a few in the 20th Ward, so it shouldn't be hard to narrow it down—and wait for them there, which would prevent Rize from ever attacking him. That would work even better, even if it meant I had to fight to the death. Even if I didn't smell good, I was pretty sure that that wouldn't affect my taste if someone ever was able to take a bite of me.

The first construction site was not familiar to me and it was the closest. I swore loudly and then darted towards the other one, which was on the other side of the ward.

"Fuck fuck, fuck fuck fuck!" I cursed continually as I ran. Would I get there in time? It was nearing nine o'clock, if not afterwards. I hadn't thought to bring my phone and I cursed louder. In my panic, it hadn't even occurred to me that I could call Ken and find out exactly where he was—if he would have answered at all. His manners would probably prevent him from checking his phone while he was on a date, even if it was an urgent call from his sister. Still, though, he wouldn't answer anyway if he had already been attacked.

The very thought of the pain that he could be in right now spurred me into an even more dogged run.

When I finally reached the alley, I could smell Ken acutely. However, I didn't smell blood, so there was still time. Panting, I slowed to a walk so that once the fight commenced—because I doubted Rize would give up her prey just like that, she was vicious—I would not be out of breath. I still might be slightly worn out, but that wasn't important. I could do this.

I would give my life to save my brother, my only remaining family. I believed that sacrifice would make my parents proud, all four of them.

I walked towards the alleyway that branched from the construction site and immediately saw them. Rize was leaning into Ken flirtatiously and the blush that I could see from this angle told me that my time was almost up. Once Rize got a bite of him, she would be much more powerful than she would be if she hadn't fed yet.

"Get away from him, you bitch!" I bellowed, charging forward. I didn't activate anything yet—if I could prevent Ken from finding out that I was part ghoul, I would.

Rize paused what she was doing and looked up at me. "Oh, is he yours, little girl?" she asked with a giggle. "Looks like you have an admirer, Kaneki-kun."

Ken ignored her, whirling around when he recognized my voice.

"Aiko-chan, what are you-?"

"Ken, run!" I screeched. "She's a ghou-"

Rize didn't give my brother any time to react. She bit down viciously into his shoulder and the terrified scream of pain that choked forth from his throat enraged me to the point where I couldn't resist my bloodlust. My kakugan activated and my kagune shot forth from my back, ripping the back of my school uniform.

My kagune was unique and rather powerful, and the only reason I could attribute to that was the fact that I was a hybrid. Ken would become insanely powerful as well, maybe even more powerful than me, if I failed my mission to save him. However, I was rusty in fighting, not nearly as practiced as I had been when I was with my foster family, and Rize had been using her kagune constantly during her binges. As her kagune activated in response to mine, I suddenly had the fleeting thought that I actually might die.

"Ken, run!" I screamed again, but Rize rushed me with her red kagune darting forth to impale me. I dodged by a few feet, but not nearly enough to prevent the second from wrapping around my ankle and landing me on my back. I roared in fury and the top two snapped down on the offending tendril and sawed into her kagune, the multiple rows of saw-like razors cutting and drawing blood.

My kagune were silver-white and looked like opaque, multi-faceted diamonds in the shape of lily petals, able to freeze into a shield just as hard as the jewels they looked like. However, they were could also be good at offense as well, as I could make them become jagged like rows of shark teeth and just as painful.

Rize deftly retracted her kagune from my ankle, whipping it so that the blood went flying off as it healed, and attempted to spear me again. I dodged once more and somersaulted out of the way before jerkily forcing myself on my feet again.

"Aiko…chan?" Ken wheezed, kneeling on the ground not far from the spot where Rize had bitten him and clutching his profusely bleeding shoulder.

"Why are you still here, you baka!" I roared at him. He just stared at me with wide eyes, and then I had to tear my eyes away to focus on the fight again.

Rize was laughing maniacally. "Ooooh, a one-eyed ghoul! You'll be a nice dessert after I'm done with your boyfriend!"

"He's my brother, you frigid cunt!" I hissed, blocking her attack at my thighs with my lower kagune, freezing them to be defensive while I lashed out with the top two, which were still formed for offense.

Rize blocked easily, whipping all four tendrils around me like an intricate and deadly dance. I was forced onto the defensive, retracting the razor edges and hardening my kagune into shields instead. I was able to block most of the blows, but she was knocking me around pretty good. Suddenly, two of them came at me from the side and before I could try to parry, she knocked me into the nearest wall hard enough to make a crater in the brick.

Dazed, I recovered as quickly as I could, surging forward and whipping her desperately with my kagune, morphing all of them into shark teeth. A glancing blow tore into her abdomen. I saw her eyes harden and she retreated, jumping back about ten feet.

"You're getting annoying, little girl," she spat. "I'm done playing."

I was panting and adrenaline coursed through my veins strongly enough to almost make me dizzy. She had just been playing? I had exerted all my effort into dodging and it had been an effort just to graze her like I had.

Suddenly, she was attacking with real fervor and I found myself being knocked about like a soccer ball. A blow to my head blacked out my vision for five seconds, a tendril wrapped around my shin and shattered the bone. I screamed in pain even as the bone immediately began to knit itself back together. Another tendril had plunged into my stomach and exited through the back before I regained my vision, so fast were her attacks, and as I screamed I choked on blood.

Rize must have had some idea of a hybrid's healing abilities, because she didn't retract the kagune from my abdomen, which stopped my body from being able to heal itself though it still tried. I struggled feebly, so sick with pain that I would have vomited if my organs weren't skewered like shish kabobs. Her kagune wrapped around my throat and tightened.

"I like my meals fresh, so you'll be first to go," Rize gloated. "I changed my mind. Kaneki-kun can be dessert. You're much too delicious."

Somewhere from within my daze of pain, I noticed her licking my blood off one of her kagune, and then I realized that my organs and abdomen were healing. So she'd gotten the good blood, the fresh blood. But then the tendril around my throat tightened and I choked, no longer able to breathe. If it tightened anymore, it would snap my neck.

"No!"

Suddenly, I was released from the kagune. I couldn't understand it, but while I desperately tried to catch my breath, I noticed that Ken had tackled Rize with everything he was. Rize was rather petite and I knew that Ken probably weighed more than her, but it still didn't account for the difference in their species' strength. The only way Ken could have managed that was if he'd genuinely caught her by surprise.

I gasped painfully through a nearly-crushed windpipe, but I was regenerating quickly. Still, my abdomen wasn't finished healing yet and my shin was still tender, so it was all I could do to stumble towards them.

"You two are quite annoying," Rize snarled. She picked up Ken and hurled him into the center of the construction yard.

I frantically tried to catch up, to protect Ken from the scene that I had seen once before in another life, but I couldn't gain enough speed. One bite obviously wasn't enough to make me a match for Rize; I was simply too out of practice to keep up with her. I would be dead if not for Ken's valiant, self-sacrificing actions.

I had just reached the edge of the yard when I saw what I had never wanted to see.

"…scramble your organs like eggs!" And her kagune began to do just that.

I heard the snapping of cords, but Ken's screams were drowning out the sound for Rize. There was the groaning of metal and I knew exactly what was happening.

"NO!"

But it was too late. Even if I had wanted to kill Rize the way she was killing my brother, I couldn't change things now. Ken would die without an organ donor and Rize was obviously the only one who could supply that.

I fell to my knees, an agonized scream tearing from my throat as the construction site collapsed in on itself. I vaguely heard Rize mumble her last words, but it was mostly drowned out by my horrified sobs.

Eventually I stumbled through the wreckage to Ken's side. His eyes were glazed, but he was still conscious.

"Ken-kun, Ken, Ken…" I whispered urgently, kneeling on the steel beam caging him in. My vision was blurry from tears, but my sense of smell told me that he was losing a lot of blood very quickly.

"Aiko…chan?" he mumbled. "Please…it…h-hurts-"

"Shh, don't talk," I said, trying to soothe him as best I could through my panic. "Hey, hey, where's your phone? I'm going to call an ambulance, okay? Shh, shh, don't worry, everything's going to be okay."

Ken was nearly unconscious, and I wasn't sure if I was comforting him or myself at that point.

"Love…you, 'ko-chan," he wheeze, and then his eyes closed.

"No, Ken, Ken, stay awake!" I pleaded. "No, Ken! Open your eyes! Open your eyes, damnit!" But he was too far gone and I knew time was running out.

However, before I reached the phone there was already a siren in the distance and nearing quickly. Someone must have seen the wreckage and heard the screams. I quickly made sure all signs of being a ghoul were gone and then stumbled towards the noise. I was fully healed at this point, but there was still residual pain.

"Help! HELP!" I screamed, my voice raw from its abuse, but I couldn't so much as give one fuck at that point. I waved my arms and then the ambulance screeched to a halt at the sidewalk. Mere seconds later, paramedics rushed out the back. "Over here! Over here! My brother, he's-"

What I didn't expect was to be seized and dragged away by one of the paramedics.

"No, stop! My brother! He's alive! You can't-no, not me-my brother! Stop! Let me go!"

In my panic for Ken's safety, I hadn't realized what I looked like. Blood soaked through my shirt front to back, a black and blue ring of bruising around my throat, and ragged, torn clothing.

"No, you stupid fucking idiot!" I gathered myself enough to elbow the paramedic and send him crashing to the ground.

I ran towards Ken but found him already on a stretcher being rushed towards the ambulance, a stretcher with Rize on it not far behind. Either she wasn't dead yet—good, let her feel pain—or they just didn't realize it.

I ran towards Ken, even as the paramedic I'd knocked down pursued me.

"Miss, you're injured! Please come with us, you need medical atten-"

Ken's cellphone had clattered to the ground as they wheel him there and I said, "Stop it! It's his blood!" Somewhere along the way I realized that I couldn't let them inspect me—it would reveal me to be a ghoul. "Just please, take him! There's no time to waste!"

"Miss, you need to-"

I picked up Ken's cellphone and then ran back to the paramedic. "Fine, take me! But get him help!" My tears were falling again and I was desperate, my heart pounding so hard and so fast it felt like I really would vomit, and this time, my organs weren't so torn that I wouldn't be able to.

They shuffled us all into the back of the van. Ken was the most important, apparently, and they hooked him up to every machine in the van.

I vaguely heard them calling out orders, such as 'blood transfusion' and 'surgery, stat!' I ignored them in favor of holding Ken's hand where an IV hadn't been put in.

I sat in complete, numb silence until we reached the hospital, and then I grew manic at the thought of them separating me from my brother. "No! No!" I screamed, desperately attempting to follow Ken and Rize into the operating room, but I was restrained by two burly policemen. I knew they were going to try to sedate me forcefully and I was in a lot of trouble because hypodermic needles couldn't penetrate my skin.

So, I disabled the two guards and I was forced to run. I didn't want to leave Ken, but if I didn't, I would be found out as a ghoul and sentenced to death. I wouldn't be able to protect Ken from beyond the grave.

I ran, crying the whole time, and they eventually lost the trail. At some point I got home and collapsed into bed, but the next morning I wouldn't remember it.

I don't know if you read the author's note at the top, but I hope you did! Please review! I love everyone one of you who follows, favorites, and reviews, but reviews are the real motivation.

I promise I won't go begging like this again!