Chapter 9:

"Damn it! Why does my head hurt so much?" complained OEG1 as she looked at herself in the mirror. As she attempted to read a note she found on her mirror, she began to feel dizzy. She fell to the ground and lost consciousness.

—

"Ne, ne, Ayato-kun! Where are you? I need some help!" echoed a cheerful voice.

"Tch. Go play with the little kids and leave me alone, idiot." replied a familiar voice.

"Awww come on, please?" asked the cheerful voice.

"Go away. You're annoying!" roared the familiar voice.

OEG1 saw the outline of a girl walking towards a taller and more intimidating outline. Although they looked fuzzy, she attempted to get a closer look at the faces of the mysterious people. When the girl touched the shoulder of the other outline, the other figure turned and punched the girl. Somehow, the girl had caught the person's fist.

"You're going to have to try better than that to overpower me!" teased the cheerful voice as she let go of the fist. As the other figure began to walk away, OEG1 was able to see part of it's face.

"The blue-haired ghoul?" mumbled OEG1 as she continued to watch.

"Don't run away from me, you moron!" complained the cheerful voice as she jumped towards the other figure and hugged him from behind. He immediately punched her in the face, causing her to go flying.

"Don't be so mean!" said girl as she got up. The figures began to disappear, but for a split-second, OEG1 thought the girl looked (or was) her.

—

"OEG1!" said a voice as she began to regain consciousness. What was going on? What was that? What did she just see?

"Are you all right?" asked as he began to examine her eyes. OEG1 quickly took out her blade kagune as a precaution, but noticed that she was safe so it dematerialized.

"Taro, something is wrong. I think I'm getting my memories back." said OEG1. Just who was that ghoul? What did he mean to her in the past, before she lost her memory?

—

"You're welcome~" said a bandaged ghoul.

"I didn't ask for your help. I was fine on my own." replied Ayato. Eto pulled Ayato downwards by his jacket to see him face-to-face.

"Look here, you ungrateful ghoul. One misstep and you're out. Soon, there will be an attack on our base by the CCG. I need you to bring Rize-san, the binge eating ghoul. Yamori is has also been given that task. Ensure that she doesn't get away!" roared Eto.

Once Ayato arrived at his designated place in the Aogiri Tree base, he headed towards the storage where he could find some food to help with help regeneration. After all, the wound Lith had given him was deep. It was surprising what one month could do to someone.

That wasn't Lith anymore. Not the one he had come to know, anyways. After a few seconds, he noticed that he was thinking a little too much about that idiot ghoul. Why did that always happen? He hadn't felt this way in so many years, yet at the same time it felt so different. Wait…what was he doing thinking about feelings? He was a powerful, merciless ghoul, not a manga character gushing over a girl.

"Great, I forgot. I still have to go to school." thought Ayato out loud as he chowed down on a terribly preserved arm.

—

"Currently, there have been multiple reports of CCG investigators disappearing under unknown circumstances. More on that, after this announcement."

Inside the empty coffee shop, the customer bell rang and a tall man walked in.

"Welcome." said a nervous, black-haired college student. Kaneki turned around to face a serious looking man.

"Is the shop manager here?" asked the tall man. Kaneki gawked as he replied.

"Why did you suddenly come here?" he answered. "The manager? He's out right now…"

"If you have some business here then I'll bring out a cup of coffee, sir." stated Touka as she appeared from behind the counter.

"What did you…say…!?" asked the shocked man. An unamused Touka watched him as he began to talk gibberish.

"…Oh…it's…a girl?" He began to break out into a cold sweat as Touka was suddenly startled by his statement. The man yelped before he continued to talk.

"There's something I'd like to know…I can ask you guys as well."

"Um…how about I pass along a message to the manager about your business?" asked Kaneki as he noticed the three ghouls beside the giant man.

"Do you two…know Kamishiro Rize?" asked the man. A startled Kaneki glanced at Touka with a look that read, 'could it be an investigator?'.

Touka shook her head in response, as if to say it was a ghoul. Because of this, Kaneki began to question the identity of the mysterious ghoul.

"We'll talk further inside. Follow me." stated Touka as she led the ghouls towards the second floor, where they sat down (except for the three, hooded ghouls).

"Show us your eyes." said Touka, as if to confirm that he was in fact, a ghoul. The man closed his eyes and when he opened them, they had turned a different colour.

"Is this good enough?" asked the ghoul. When Touka and Kaneki nodded to each other, the ghoul began to talk.

"I am 'Banjou'. I was in the 11th ward with Rize-san." he began to explain.

"Well then, why are you searching for Rize?" asked Touka.

"So you know her!?" questioned Banjou in surprise. Then, he began to mumble to himself. "As I thought, Rize-san definitely came to this shop.."

"So, where in the hell is Rize-san now…?" asked Banjou.

"Hm…? Dunno~" lied Touka as she began to scratch her head.

Was this person an acquaintance of Rize-san? He doesn't seem to know that she's already dead…

As Kaneki continued to stare at the man, Banjou suddenly slammed his hand on the coffee table and watched the One-Eyed Ghoul. Kaneki was surprised at the sudden change in character as the ghoul began to sniff (poor) Kaneki. Why did ghouls always do this to him? This triggered the thought of Tsukiyama-san and made Kaneki shudder.

"Why? Why can I smell Rize-san's scent on you?" the angry man inquired as he lifted the dumbfound Kaneki by the collar.

"Hold on…! Don't get violent in the shop!" began to say Touka as she attepted to save Kaneki from the clutches of the weird ghoul.

"Are you Rize-san's boyfriend!?" screamed Banjou.

"Wha…?" began to stutter Kaneki. "No…I-Rize-sa…my girlfriend…" Banjou grit his teeth and tried to punch Kaneki.

"SHE'S YOUR GIRLFRIEND!?"

"No, no, you've got it all wrong!" begged Kaneki.

Meanwhile…

"Is he always like this?" asked Touka to one of the subordinates.

"Well, in general…" they replied.

Kaneki grabbed Banjou's arm and hit him in the back of the head with his elbow.

"Crap! I accidentally…" panicked Kaneki. This is the result of my training with Touka-chan and Yomo-san…

"I'm sorry…uh…umm…I…" mumbled Banjou before he lost consciousness on the ground. He's out cold…thought everyone as they saw his limp body.

"Just as we figured, huh?" said one subordinate.

"Sorry about our leader." apologized another.

"…so weak." mumbled Touka in astonishment.

—

While Banjou was unconscious, he kept on murmuring about Rize. None of his followers know the reason to why he was looking for Rize-san, but they thought that had fallen in love with her. During this time, Kaneki had decided to tell Banjou what had happened to Rize.

Unbeknown to them, Banjou's cellphone had been ringing none-stop on the counter.

—

"Che, that meathead can't do anything." growled Ayato. He tossed his cellphone aside as he continued complaining. "Jeez, what is that dumbs doing? Useless trash."

"If this 'Yamori' and that fag are going to surpass me…since the merit of 'securing Rize' is huge…" said Ayato to himself before he was interrupted.

"Boss, you came from the 20th ward, right? Do you know the conditions there pretty well…?" asked one of Ayato's subordinates.

"I knew a lot before, but I don't know what's going on there now…but it doesn't matter. Basically, there are just a bunch of peace-loving idiots." explained Ayato. At that last part, he remembered Lith, the most idiot of the idiotic.

"Even my 'family' was a bunch of peace-loving idiots, now that I think about it."

—

As the followers of Banjou began to talk, Touka had other things on her mind. Had the tall man woken up yet?

"Oh man, this coffee is really tasty."

"Ain't it?"

A few moments, Banjou opened his eyes.

"How are you feeling?" asked Kaneki as he saw the conscious man begin to get up.

"We would have let you sleep in a different room but…all the beds were too small…you're too big." stated Kaneki as he handed Banjou a glass of water.

"Sorry about earlier…I just moved my arm reflexively…" apologized Kaneki as he lowered his head.

"What's your name?" asked Banjou.

"It's Kaneki Ken."

"Kaneki, you are a lot stronger…than you look. That's probably why that person chose you." admitted Banjou.

—

A while after Banjou had awakened and the ghouls began conversing, the coffee shop's glass shattered. Everyone stared wide-eyed at the window to see what had happened. A blue-haired ghoul kicked Banjou in the stomach before walking in.

"Banjou-san!" screamed Kaneki in surprise as Banjou fell to the ground.

"You sure do talk a lot, Banjou." said the reckless ghoul as he placed a foot on the small coffee table. "Do you want me to torment you until you're vomiting blood again?"

"Aya…to…!"

"Banjou-san!? Are you being violent-" asked one of Banjou's subordinates as they walked in. When they saw Banjou on the floor, they gasped.

"A-Ayato-san…why are you…?" asked another subordinate as they tried to lift their leader.

"That guy wouldn't answer his cellphone. At any rate, all of the 20th ward's information is gathered here. Therefore, I went out of my way to come here. Got it, dumb-asses?"

"What a waste…they'll come to this place too…Rize-san…" mumbled Banjou.

"Did you say something, trash?" roared Ayato. As Kaneki was about to approach Ayato, Touka stormed in.

"Hold on a minute! What's all the commotion?!" complained Touka but turned wide-eyed when she saw who was there.

"A…yato…"

"Yo. Long time, no see, idiot Aneki."

—

Author's Note: Sorry it took a little to publish and in the end it was mostly a recap of the manga. I promise the next chapter will be much more interesting (I hope).