Oh boy, it's been a long time, hasn't it? I'm pretty happy with this next update, and it's definitely made me want to keep writing again, so that's a plus!

YeTianshi: I think that a frank conversation between Ruby and Kaneki would be a fun interaction to write. As for your analyses of Kaneki's predicament, you're pretty spot on for what sort of mental gymnastics I've been having to go through to try to do to get into Kaneki's head when I write him lol.

SkyChaser17: Arknights sounds vaguely familiar, but I can't really think of when or where I heard about it. You can ask my discord, I'm pretty oblivious to a lot of pop media lol.

Artful Lounger: I'm happy to flatter you and thankful that you brought them up initially.

Hellibleri: At this point in the story, Ruby is still 15, actually! I agree that Velvet has quite the burden on her shoulders right now, so hopefully she'll catch a break soon, right?

KnightOfZaku: I always felt that Ruby has that quality about her that sort of allows her to reach people, even if she's not always aware of it, so that interaction with Kaneki was a fun time to write. I'm glad you enjoyed it too!

artem-abramov-2004: It does feel like everything is starting to, well for lack of a better word, start. lol

I also want to thank everybody else who left a review. I read and reread them all the time whenever I'm writing, need inspiration or just want to feel better about my work, so know that you've all been heard. I hope not to take another four months to update again but I can't really promise anything right now, unfortunately. I love you all!

~Morgan

"I knew I could count on you, Firecracker. Once this mess is over we'll figure out how we can help you out."

Yang nodded, solemnly. She watched as her uncle walked off, leaving her alone at the park. It wasn't dark yet, but the street lights had already come on. Yang took her scroll out, skimming the updates Blake had sent her. "Guess Team JNPR knows…" she said with a sigh. She got up to head back to Beacon, when she noticed a red blur zipping down the street. Instantly, she knew it was her sister, likely running away from something. Ruby always had that habit of using her Semblance to get out of hairy situations. Yang looked over to where she zipped from, knowing she had no hope of catching her, and noticed Kaneki being approached by Coco. Judging by the strut of the team leader, she wasn't entirely happy. 'Guess she got tired of him ghosting Velvet,' she thought to herself. Normally, she'd stay to watch, but after her talk with Qrow, she wasn't in the mood. Shaking her head, she silently wished the barista luck as she headed back to her dorm.

"Ken," Coco called out, her voice cold. Kaneki stopped in his tracks, appearing surprised.

"Coco?" he asked, turning to face her. Scratching his cheek and smiling nervously. "I didn't know you were there. How are you?"

Coco lowered her sunglasses and stared at him over the frames. She adjusted her purse as she leaned in by his ear. "We're talking," she said firmly, "now."

Kaneki gestured to the scroll still in his hand. "I just messaged Velvet." he began. "I meant to do so sooner. I've just–"

The fashionista had closed the distance with long steps and whispered harshly. "I'm not worried about Velvet, Ken. We're talking about the Faunus Killer."

Kaneki nearly flinched at her approach, taken aback at how directly she had demanded it. He looked around for a second then back to her. "Would it be possible to talk about this somewhere… more private?" he requested. His discomfort was genuine, making it easier for him to try to convince the girl.

"Fine," she agreed easily. "Where's your place?"

Kaneki's eye widened. He hadn't planned on that, meaning he didn't have an excuse ready. "M-my place? Oh, I don't know about that, it's not really furnished at the moment," he began. "You see, with the café closed money has been pretty tight and–"

"Don't care," Coco punctuated with a hand wave. "You want privacy, that is our only option. My place is a no go; in case you didn't know my mom's a detective."

Kaneki fidgeted a bit more. "Surely there must be somewhere else," he continued. "I don't exactly live in a nice area."

Coco let out a sigh of annoyance. "Ugh, fine, let's go to my dorm," she relented. "I'll have Fox take the other out before we get there. Is that alright with you?" It was becoming apparent that Coco was upset about something, so Kaneki decided to placate her from this point on.

"Yes, thank you Miss Adel," he said in an attempt to be polite, however, he noticed her tense up a bit as he did. She was on edge, he would have to be careful.

Specialist Schnee stood before Ozpin, frustration clear on her face. She listened as Ozpin flipped through the files she had gathered, which weren't many, before he turned off his scroll and looked over to her. His expression was neutral as he adjusted his glasses. "As you've seen, this boy is elusive, Specialist Schnee. However, if the pattern holds, there should be another attack by the end of the week. Now that you've gotten familiar with the city, you and Qrow should be able to corner him. Our goal is to apprehend him, so as soon as his options to escape are limited, you are to give the signal so Glynda and I can assist."

"Sir, I thought we had agreed that Branwen and I would work independently."

"Are you aware of how powerful this enemy is?" he asked simply. He rose from his seat and pulled up the footage from the breach.

"I'm aware that he bested a few of your students as well as elduing Professor Goodwitch–"

"Please, observe," he interrupted, pulling up a different point of view of the encounter with the Faunus Killer not released to the public. It was from the perspective of the pilot that assisted Glynda. Even through the smoke, a heat signature faintly made out the teen and his multiple appendages. After a stream of dust-infused rounds, it was clear that the enemy had sustained a fatal amount of damage, but he stood there defiantly as his body quickly regenerated.

Winter had heard from the General what she was up against but to see evidence of it was surreal. When she looked over to Ozpin she saw what almost looked to be a fearful recognition, as if he had seen this sort of thing before. "You… you think we can reason with something like that?!" she asked in disbelief.

"You've heard the recording, Ice Queen," Qrow scoffed.

Winter glared daggers at Qrow and retorted, "oh, you mean the one you screwed up? Yes, I heard it."

Qrow rolled his eyes at her attempt to get under his skin and looked over to Ozpin. "I still think involving this teacher's pet is more trouble than she's worth."

"That's enough," Glynda scolded. "You're both supposed to be professionals, and yet all you've done is bicker like a couple of teenagers. We have a clear mission and you both have your roles, understand?"

The two exchanged one last glare before turning to Glynda. "Yes Ma'am/Yeah" they said.

Ozpin cleared his throat to get their attention. "Well, now that we've settled that, I would like to inform you of the Huntsmen you will be commanding." As if on cue, the elevator doors opened revealing a pair composed of a Huntsman and Huntress. "Thank you for answering my request for assistance," he said to them.

Something was off. Kaneki had never been to Beacon before, but there was a tension in the air that he just couldn't shake. Maybe it was because he knew he was surrounded by warriors capable of ending his existence, or perhaps it was that he was starting to feel peckish. He put a hand over his stomach as if willing the hunger to disappear. Had he been visiting Beacon for pleasure, maybe he could have appreciated the campus and its facilities.

"I'll take it that you've never been to a Huntsmen academy before?" asked Coco, noticing how Kaneki kept looking around. "I guess it's pretty to look at. I must just be used to it by now."

Kaneki nodded, still feeling a bit paranoid. "I don't think I've ever been to a campus this… grand," he said lamely.

"Is that right? What school did you go to again? I only really know the big four Huntsmen academies."

"It's, um, not around here," he replied carefully. "Most of my life before, well… you know, is just a blur."

Coco nodded but said nothing. The rest of their walk to the dorm was silent and uncomfortable, but it seemed Coco was saving her questions for when they had some privacy. Upon arriving, Coco opened the door to let the one-eyed barista enter first. "We're here," she said simply. "Get comfortable, we're going to be here a while."

"How long, exactly? I had something to do this afternoon."

Coco shut the door as she entered and locked it. She adjusted her purse so it rested in front of her. "We'll be done in no time if you're forthcoming with what you know, but I just have a hunch you're going to try to dodge some of my questions. So it's really up to you. Should we get started?"

Kaneki gulped nervously and nodded. He took a seat on the chair by the desk. "Yes, let's get this over with."

"Who are you?"

"W-what? I'm Ken Kaneki," he replied confused.

Coco removed her sunglasses and placed them on the desk by Kaneki. "Are you? It seems that you're the only person who can verify that, since you don't seem to exist anywhere else."

Kaneki reached for his wallet and took out his school identification card. "Look, this is all I have," he replied honestly. He handed it to Coco, who looked at it bewildered.

"This looks… authentic," she said, a bit surprised. "these characters… what language is this?"

Kaneki sighed and shrugged. "I don't know, but I can read some of it," he said, rubbing his cheek gently. "I recognized my name and birthday, but not much else. If this isn't who I am, I don't know who I am."

Coco handed it back, failing to hide her empathy. She composed herself and sat on one of the beds across Kaneki. She crossed her arms and looked at him critically. "Let me see your eye," she said simply. Kaneki instinctively covered the eye patch he wore. "I just want to see what was done to you."

"I'm not really comfortable taking–"

"I wasn't asking," Coco interrupted. "I don't want to take it off by force, so just take it off."

"Kaneki stood up and backed up nervously. "Do you have a bathroom I can use?" he asked suddenly. "It's just… I'm self-conscious. I need to mentally prepare myself."

Coco raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, that door by the window. If you're thinking about running off, you won't get far."

Kaneki nodded timidly, rushed to the bathroom and shut the door behind him. He stood before the sink and removed his eye patch revealing his Kakugan active, likely from the sudden stress he was feeling.

"Tick tock, Ken," Coco called out.

"I'll be right now," he called out. He grabbed some bathroom tissue to wrap his fingers as he forced them into his eye, tearing it out. Silently, he composed himself and shoved the severed eye into the bathroom tissue and into his pocket. He grabbed some more to clean off any drops of blood that may have spurted onto the sink and sighed. He could feel it beginning to regenerate already, but willed it to stop. To his surprise it halted completely, something he hadn't really thought to try before. He put the eye patch back on and stepped out. "Are you sure this is necessary?" he asked tugging on the cloth eye patch.

"Just take it off," she said rolling her eyes. Kaneki sighed once more and took it off. He was surprised that Coco didn't gasp or react at all. In fact, she stood and approached him with a morbid curiosity. "Damn, that's pretty gnarly," she said, grabbing his face to turn his head. She started peering through different angles of his eye socket before letting him go and shrugging. "I'm not going to lie, Ken, I thought you were faking it this whole time."

"Why would I fake something like this?" he asked incredulously.

"Not important," she dismissed. "Let's get to why you're here. This Faunus Killer, he did that to you?"

"Yes," he answered tiredly. He replaced the eye patch and hardened his expression slightly. "He looked me in the eyes, shoved his fingers into my eye and ripped it out. I wanted to scream, but he wouldn't let me. Is that what you want to hear?"

"Don't get defensive," she snapped, shoving him back into the chair. "You said you were tortured, I can't imagine that yanking your eye out was the only thing he did to you."

The half-ghoul was surprised by Coco's reaction. Still, he needed to show her that he wasn't hiding anything. He raised his fingers to show her his ever-black fingernails. "I don't paint my fingernails," he said simply. "I was chained to a chair in his playroom. He pulled out my fingernails and toenails one by one, waiting for them to grow back only to do it again. He stuck a centipede in my ear, where it burrowed and clawed its way wherever it wanted. He found out two people meant to keep me alive were planning on helping me escape, so he made me choose which one would get to live. Whenever he physically tortured me, he had me count backwards from a thousand so that I wouldn't lose my mind. Every second I was with him, I wanted to die. I hoped he would go too far and kill me, but I never got that relief." Kaneki was standing now, his voice was void of emotion as he looked to Coco, whose hand was shaking as she held her purse. "Is there anything else you need to know?"

Coco gestured for him to sit back down. "One more thing, actually." Despite her shaking, her voice was steady. "Did he wear his mask the entire time he tortured you?"

"Yes," he replied, recalling Yamori's hockey mask splattered with Kaneki's blood.

Coco finally broke eye contact with the barista and looked down to her lap. She was about to get up to escort him out when something caught her eye. She put her shades back on and stood up to stretch. "Well, I've asked my share, do you have any questions for me?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean I've bullied you enough, so feel free to ask me whatever you want. Surely there's something you want to know about me, or maybe something about Velvet?"

Kaneki thought about his upcoming date with the Faunus girl. He was still a bit annoyed at how the conversation went, but he figured he would make the most out of the opportunity presented. "Actually, I would like to know what Velvet likes to do for fun," he admitted. "I asked to take her out this weekend and I haven't really been able to fig–". Kaneki instinctively ducked under a sudden roundhouse from Coco. He hopped back as she swung her purse in a downward motion right at his head. "What are you doing?!" he shouted, raising his fists. To his annoyance, Coco just smirked and shrugged.

"If you're going to be dating my teammate I want to be sure you're not some spineless kid." she said matter-of-factly. She frowned slightly and looked at his stance. "You seem to know some basics, why not train a bit more? Who knows, you might unlock your Aura."

"I don't like fighting," he said, lowering his hands. She was still testing him, but her methods were beginning to annoy Kaneki. "Why are you so skeptical of me? I haven't done anything wrong."

Coco's expression darkened. "You wouldn't think that's a red flag?" The fashionista stared into Kaneki's lone eye. "You have quite a few people convinced, but I know you have some connection to the Faunus Killer, Ken. You show up the day after his first victim, you happened to be 'out of town' when he invaded Vale with an army of Grimm, and most of all, you just happen to be the only one he's spared despite him eating all his other victims. Don't you think that's all a bit strange?"

Kaneki wore a blank expression as she threw all her suspicions at him. "I don't know what to tell you, Miss Adel," he said coldly. "I'm trying to appease you on behalf of Velvet, but it seems it doesn't matter what I do or say that will change your mind." He straightened his posture and dusted off his clothes. "We're done here."

He began walking toward the locked door, but Coco grabbed his shoulder. "Hey! Where do you–"

"Remove your hand, Miss Adel," he growled. He felt her hand fly off his shoulder as if it was getting burned. He didn't bother looking back as he unlocked the door and left.

Coco felt a wave of relief as the barista left the room. She tried to calm her breathing before she took out her scroll and began to type furiously. "I just need one piece of evidence," she muttered to herself. She then remembered what caught her eye earlier and looked to the chair Kaneki was sitting in. On the right side of the chair, there was a tiny drop of red. She looked back towards the bathroom, then the path he took from it. Coco opened the bathroom and began to look up and down for any signs of blood when she saw a small brownish stain near the sink. She reached into the cabinets to find her cotton swabs. Upon finding them, she wiped up what she could and called Libby. "Mom, I think I might have something."

Kaneki briskly made his way through the Beacon campus, trying to remember where they had arrived from. He wasn't sure if Coco had deliberately taken detours to her dorm, as he found himself retracing the seemingly same corridor several times. After a while he composed himself, pushing aside his feelings towards Coco and approached a student he didn't recognize. "Um, excuse me," he said to a tall red head. "I'm a bit turned around, can you help me?"

"I'd be happy to!" she replied. "Where do you need to go?"

"A friend of a friend brought me here and I have no clue how to get back to Vale," he admitted. "She led me around in circles, it feels."

"Beacon can be a bit overwhelming, I remember a lot of students being late on the first day of class," she said with a gentle smile. "Would you like me to show you? It can get a bit confusing."

"That'd be nice," Kaneki replied. "I'm Ken Kaneki by the way. I imagine you're a student here?"

"I am, " she confirmed, walking beside him. "I'm Pyrrha Nikos. It's a pleasure to meet you. I must admit your name sounds a bit familiar, but I can't seem to place it."

Kaneki shrugged awkwardly. "I can't imagine we've met before, but maybe you know Velvet?"

"That's right!" she said as she remembered. "Team RWBY told us that Velvet had a friend taking care of her not too long ago. I assume that was you?"

Kaneki nodded uncomfortably. "Yeah, she was having a rough week with… well, you know. She was worried about her mom, so I switched shifts with her so she didn't have to walk home alone after dark. That didn't really last, since Marble decided to close down the café until the Faunus community can recover from that Grimm attack."

Pyrrha nodded solemnly. "That was a tragic day for all of us," she sighed. "Dozens of people were hurt and few killed, including one of our professors."

"I- I'm sorry to hear that."

"It comes with the job," she said with a forced smile. "It just felt so sudden. I don't know the official reports, but I'd like to think his sacrifice helped in some way."

"I'm sure it did," he agreed solemnly.

"Anyway, what are you doing at Beacon?" she asked, shifting the subject. "Were you visiting Velvet?"

"Not exactly. I think Coco was screening me on Velvets behalf. Not sure how I did, if I'm being honest."

Pyrrha tilted her head and shrugged. "I haven't really gotten the opportunity to speak to Coco or her team very much, so I can't really speak on that. I hope that things work out between you two! Velvet is sweet and you seem nice too."

"I do my best," he replied with an awkward smile. The pair walked in relative silence, Pyrrha occasionally waving to passing students and wishing them a good afternoon. After the tenth or so greeting, Kaneki took another look at Pyrrha, confused. "You seem rather popular," he pointed out. To his surprise, Pyrrha let out a tired sigh.

"Yeah, I guess you could say that," she replied with that same forced smile. Kaneki raised an eyebrow but wasn't sure what to ask. Pyrrha just brushed it off and smiled again. "Anyway, you should be able to take a Bullhead back to Vale just down there, unless you'd prefer to walk. In that case you'll want to take those stairs on the west side of the landing pad."

"Thanks Miss Nikos," Kaneki said politely. "This academy felt like a maze, who knows how long it would have taken me to get back here."

"You wouldn't be alone in feeling that," Pyrrha laughed light-heartedly. "So many students were late for the first week of classes and a few even missed orientation."

Kaneki let out a small laugh. "Maybe they should rethink the layout of this place. It's almost like they're covering something up," he joked. Kaneki waved as he left the campus, trying to go over the mental map he had created.

Velvet looked at her reflection trying to make it appear prettier but the dark rings around her eyes made it abundantly clear that she hadn't been resting as much as she should. Granted, she had only really been pushing herself for a couple of days, however, she began to regret Yatsuhashi's advice to take it easy. "Maybe I should go buy some new clothes…" she mumbled to herself. She took her scroll out and called Coco, hoping that the fashionista could help her out.

"Hey Velvet, can't talk right now," Coco said urgently. "I'm in the middle of something, so I'll call you later."

"Wait, what—" she began, only for the call to end. She looked at her scroll in disbelief, unsure what could have possibly come up. Velvet sighed defeatedly as she put her scroll down on her vanity. Suddenly, a thought emerged in her head. Maybe what she was currently doing was the reason for Ken becoming so distant. Before the date, she wasn't a nervous wreck but after realizing how she feels, she couldn't deny there was a shift in her behavior. What were just two friends working or talking became her second guessing herself at every point. "I just need to be myself…" she told herself.

"What are your names?" Specialist Schnee asked, looking at the two chosen Huntsmen and Huntresses Ozpin had provided. The Huntress stepped forward with a playful grin.

"I'm Alabaster, or Allie, for short," she said, performing an exaggerated salute.

The Huntsman behind her shook his head slightly but failed to conceal a small grin on his face. "I'm Fern," he said simply. "Professor Ozpin gave us a rough idea of what we're here to do, but he skimped on the details. Might you enlighten us a bit?"

Winter nodded and placed her scroll down behind her to project the images of the Faunus Killer during the breach. "This… thing," she said, still unsure how to refer to it, "is our target. Don't let its appearance fool you, the creature is capable of retracting those appendages into its body and pass off as just a normal person. We have reason to believe that this creature is capable of speech as well as stalking its prey while disguised."

"Is this thing a Grimm?" asked Fern, looking at the Faunus Killer's form. "From the way you've been describing it and by its appearance, it doesn't really seem to be one."

"That's classified," Winter said curtly.

Allie giggled a bit and whispered loudly to Fern. "That means no."

"Specialist Schnee, are we expected to eliminate this threat, or is there a reason Professor Ozpin reached out to us specifically?"

Winter let out a breath of defeat. These were more insightful than she had initially pegged them for. "Professor Ozpin would like for us to detain this creature…" she paused for a moment and added, "He is under the impression that this thing could be a person."

Allie's playfulness disappeared in an instant, her grin vanishing. "Professor Ozpin is aware of our… history, I assume."

Winter was surprised by the woman's change in demeanor, but welcomed it. "Yes."

Fern shut his eyes in thought, shaking his head slightly. "Alright, we'll do what we can," he replied. "I mean, we're already here."

"This mission is important, but there is more to it," Winter added. "The Faunus Killer, which is what we've been referring to it as, has many frightening abilities that puts it in its own league, separate from Grimm or Huntsmen."

Allie tilted her head in confusion. "What do you mean? If this is a person, wouldn't those appendages be some sort of Semblance? I've seen people manifest extra appendages out of Aura before."

"There is a lot unknown about how its powers work or what they fully entail, but it is capable of frighteningly efficient regeneration, superhuman strength, and possibly more transformations. The image of it you see here is moments after he was mowed down by heavy airship fire. If the thermal scans of the ship are to be believed, all of its appendages were shot off and the Faunus Killer itself was bisected by the heavy Dust rounds. Despite that, in mere seconds, it was able to heal the worst of its injuries."

"You cut the thing in half and it's still running around?" Fern asked. "Gods, this just got a lot more difficult."

Allie circled the image a few times as Fern and Winter spoke. "Probably not relevant, but why do you guys call him the Faunus Killer?"

Winter looked over to her and shook her head. "Every victim so far has been a Faunus."

"Victim?" Fern asked. "What do you mean?"

"I mentioned that it stalks its prey disguised as a person. Well, it preys on Faunus. At first, Ozpin believed this to be a serial killer of some sort… but it seems that this thing eats its victims."

"This thing eats people?" Allie asked, a shiver going down her spine. "Really throwing us out to the wolves here, aren't you?"

"You won't be alone. Professor Ozpin has shut down Beacon to provide as many Huntsmen to assist you two in your hunt. The only issue is that the Faunus Killer has already made contact with a handful of Beacon staff, as well as being suspected of killing one of their professors."

Fern and Allie looked at each other surprised. "Professor Ozpin… shut down the academy?" Fern asked, as if he heard wrong.

"Ozpin has been keeping a lot of this under the radar, both to prevent panic as well as to not tip off the Faunus Killer."

Allie shook her in disappointment. "It's all the behind-the-scenes bullshit that gets people killed."

Winter raised an eyebrow at her comment. Fern elbowed her slightly, chiding her. "Sorry about her, Specialist Schnee. If this concludes our briefing, can we start on a plan of attack?"

Kaneki paced in his apartment silently seething at his interaction with Coco, but mostly, he was concerned at the implications of her suspicions. If Velvet caught wind of Coco's theory, regardless of any evidence she may or may not have, it would cause a wedge to form between them. Although, if Velvet, and Marble for that matter, did distance themselves from him, they would be safer by virtue of not being in his path should he lose himself to his Ghoulish tendencies. Before he could ponder any further, he got a call from Torchwick.

"This better be important," Kaneki growled.

"You think I would talk to you if it wasn't?" he asked sarcastically. "Look Eyepatch, this Merlot guy is a lot more capable than I expected. Neo and I were dropping off some of the things he needed and he's already begun on a base off shore. I don't know exactly what he's planning, but by the looks of it, he really will have it up and running within a month."

"Get to the point, Roman."

"Look, I'm just warning you, Merlot may not be a threat to you physically, but we have no idea what he can do to your identity. I honestly don't care who you are under that mask, but if it's really that important to you, I'd keep an eye on him."

Kaneki frowned slightly at the thought of Merlot betraying him. It was one of the many risks he had thought about when allowing the mad scientist on board, but not one he had spent enough time really considering. "I see," he said simply. "I appreciate the heads up." He hung up the call and nearly threw his scroll across the room. It seemed his web of lies was beginning to become untangled. While he had hoped that he'd go unnoticed, Kaneki was not foolish enough to think that he could keep up the charade forever.

He thought about his interaction with Coco earlier in the day. She was right to be suspicious of him but that only made her somebody who was a threat to what little he cared about. Velvet and Marble were blissfully unaware of the fact that they harbored the Faunus Killer in their place of business, but also lived in a false fear that they were in danger of being targeted next. Kaneki began to realize that he would have to be the one to tell Velvet of his true nature, before Coco did. Hesitantly, he looked at his contacts, wondering what to do. "I guess it was only a matter of time before she found out…" he thought sourly.

Velvet internally panicked as she saw Kaneki's incoming call. Did he change his mind all of a sudden? Or maybe he was going out of town again and is letting her know? She pushed these intrusive thoughts aside and answered as cheerfully as she could without sounding overly eager. "Hey Ken! How's it going?" she asked.

"Things could be better," he said. Velvet frowned slightly and suddenly her own worries didn't seem to matter.

"What's wrong?" she asked. "You sound… a bit off."

"Can we talk? It's important."

"Of course, you don't even need to ask!" she said, trying to cheer him up. "What's on your mind?"

Ken audibly sighed. "I meant in person," he clarified. "I… There's something I need to tell you… Something that can't really wait."

"Ken, you're scaring me," she admitted, feeling her stomach drop. "What happened?"

"I'll send you an address," he said, ignoring her question. "I'll be waiting… although I can't promise I'll be here long."

"Ken, wait!" Velvet said, but he ended the call before she could respond. She stared at her scroll in disbelief for a moment before she got a message. It was an address she was not familiar with in the slightest and when she looked it up, it was in the middle of the slums. What made her even more concerned was the follow up message asking her to come alone.

She felt knots tightening in her stomach as countless ideas coursed through her head as to why Kaneki was acting out of sorts. Velvet nearly headed out the door, but her camera box caught her eye before she left. It was going to be dark soon and there was no telling how long this 'talk' Kaneki wanted to have was going to be.