Kaneki reluctantly steeled himself to face his ex-alive girlfriend and stop her from eating his best friend.
Man his life sucked.
Letting out his kagune, Kaneki prowled through the dank and filthy tunnels below Kano's lab.
Lost in thought like this, Kaneki wasn't prepared when Hide's scream split his focus. He had never heard anything so heart wrenching.
He felt himself speed up and lose caution— a dangerous, if not fatal, combination. He lunged into the circular room.
Hide was bound, but somehow still in one piece.
Kuri was standing over him.
"He's MY feast!"She snarled at them. "Leave so I can have him!"
"That's right I don't wanna get eaten by anyone but her!" Hide helped unnecessarily.
Kaneki realized quickly that Kuri was protecting him. Hoping it was because she cared and not because she truly wanted to feast.
He barreled into the surrounding ghouls before a fight could break out, tossing them aside like rag dolls.
"Are you alright?" Kaneki pulled Hide to his feet.
"Kaneki…your a ghoul?"
"Yeah," Kaneki said sheepishly. "I didn't want you to find out this way…"
"You didn't bring back up?" Hide asked.
"Don't need it." Kaneki said, fury taking hold of his features. "Just watch."
The red ghouls surrounded them.
They were different than other ghouls. Their kakugan was completely red, and they smelled…wrong. Like rotten blood. They were all filthy from their lives in the tunnels, and had varying scents of human blood and flesh on them—proving they had eaten much more than even a binge-eater ghoul.
Yet they were not Kakuja, though their power was indeed similar. They hissed when they spoke, and they seemed to be feral; with only base human intelligence.
That was what was missing. Humanity.
Kaneki could only hope Kuri had kept hers.
"It'sss just a Ghoul," hissed one of them. "The One Eye doesn't make him powerful. It makesssss him a freak."
Kaneki recognized the speaker; a regular at Anteiku—and a ghoul! Kaneki's mind raced—these things had been ghouls; not humans! "Etsu! Yomo said you were killed by the Doves!"
"I wasss. I'm not the Etsu you knew anymore." Snakelike his head wove back and forth as he spoke. Then his glowing eyes flattened and he curled his lip. "I'll ssshow you what I mean . . ."
He started to move toward me with a feral, crouching stride. The other creatures stirred, gaining bravery from him.
"Watch out, man, they're coming for us," Hide said, trying to step around in front of him.
"No they're not," Kaneki said. He closed his eyes for just a second and centered himself, cracking his knuckles and counting backwards in sevens, and slowly his kagune sprang out. He opened his Ghoul eye and raised his kagune threateningly.
"Stay back, Etsu! You were a pain in the ass when you were alive, and death hasn't changed anything." Etsu cringed back from Kaneki's lightning fast kagune. Kaneki took a step forward, ready to tell Hide to follow him so they could get the hell outta there, but a voice made him freeze.
"You're wrong, Ken. Death has changed some things."
The crowd of creatures parted to let Kuri through.