Kuri interrupted her hissing laughter.
"Get back with the others, Cori. You don't strike until I tell you to."
Cori. The name triggered his memory. "Cori Ishiyama?" Kaneki said.
The pretty blonde narrowed her eyes at him. "How do you know me, Ghoul?"
"Kaneki knows a lot of stuff," Hide said, stepping around Kaneki. He was using what Kaneki used to call his boss voice. He sounded tough and pissed and totally ready for a fight. "And I'm about sick of all of you fucked-up creatures."
"Why is that speaking?" Kuri spat.
Kaneki sighed and rolled his eyes. He agreed with Hide—hewas totally sick of all of this scary weirdness. It was time they got out of there, and it was also time his girlfriend started acting like the person he'd glimpsed hiding in her eyes. "He isn't a that. He's Hide. Remember, Kuri? My friend?"
"Kaneki. I am not your friend. I'm your best friend." Hide grinned like they were just hanging out instead of in the middle of a group of undead creatures that wanted to eat them.
"Hide, this is definitely not the time."
"What'sss happening . . ." the gross Etsu creature hissed. The rest of the horrid things that surrounded us moved restlessly, and Cori glided one step closer to Hide. Kaneki forced himself not to shiver or scream or whatever. Instead, a weird calm came over him. Kaneki looked at Kuri, and suddenly knew what he needed to say. Kaneki put his hands on Kuri's shoulders and faced her.
"Tell him," Kaneki said. "Tell all of them."
"Tell them what?" Kuri stepped out of reach and narrowed her garnet eyes dangerously.
"Tell them what's happening here. You know. I know you do."
Kuri's face contorted, and the words sounded like they were being wrenched from her throat. "Humanity! They're showing their humanity." The creatures snarled like she'd just thrown holy water on them.
"Weakness! It's why we're stronger than they are." Cori curled her lip. "Because it's a weakness we don't have anymore."
Kaneki ignored Cori. He ignored Etsu. Hell, he ignored them all and stared at Kuri, forcing her to meet his eyes, and forcing himself not to look away or flinch as hers glowed hot and red.
"Bullshit," Kaneki said.
"She's right," Kuri said. Her voice was cold and mean. "When we died, so did our humanity."
"That might be true with them, but I don't believe it's true with you," Kaneki said.
"You don't know anything about this, Ken," Kuri said.
"I don't have to. I know you, and that's all I need to know."
"You don't know me anymore."
"Really, just like your not my girlfriend anymore?" Kaneki knew he'd hit a nerve when he saw her jerk as if she were in physical pain.
"I don't have a boyfriend. I'm not a human anymore."
"Big fucking deal. Technically, I'm not a human anymore, either. I'm somewhere in between, which makes me a little of this and a lot of that. Hell, the only one here who's still human is Hide."
"Not that I hold your un-human-ness against you guys," Hide said.
Kaneki sighed. "Hide, un-human-ness isn't a word. It's inhumanity."
"Man, I'm not stupid. I know that. I was just coining a word."
"Coining?" Had he really said that?
He nodded. "I learned about it in English class. It has to do with . . ." He paused, and Kaneki could swear the creatures were even listening expectantly. "Poetry."
Despite the awful situation Kaneki laughed. "Hide, you really have been studying literature!"
"Told you so." Hide grinned.
"Enough!" Kuri's voice echoed off the round walls of the tunnel. "I'm done with this." She turned her back to Hide and Kaneki, ignoring them completely. "They've seen us. They know too much. They have to die. Kill them." And she walked away.
This time Hide didn't mess with trying to pull Kaneki behind him. Instead he whirled around and, completely catching Kaneki off guard, tackled him so that he landed on his butt on the disgusting mattress with an oofh. Then he turned to the closing circle of snarling undead creatures with his legs planted a hip's width apart and his hands balled into fists and he growled.
"Bring it, freaks!"
Okay, it wasn't that Kaneki didn't appreciate it. But the boy was in over his head. Kaneki stood up and centered himself.
His kagune burst into life. He would have liked to have studied the form his kagune was taking but there was no time for that. "Move, Hide."
Hide looked over his shoulder at Kaneki, and his eyes got huge and round. "Kaneki?"
"I'm fine. Just move!"
Hide jumped out of his way as Kaneki walked forward. The creatures cringed back from him, even as their hands tried to reach around me to get to Hide. "Stop it!" Kaneki yelled. "Back off and leave him alone. Hide and I are going to walk out of here. Now. If you try to stop us, I'm going to kill you, and I have a feeling that this time you're going to die for good." Kaneki really didn't want to kill anyone. What he wanted to do was to get Hide out of there, and then find Kuri and have her explain to him how ghouls who were supposed to have died could be walking around with bad attitudes, glowing eyes, and smelling like mold and dust. And how she, a human, was one of them.
From the edge of Kaneki's vision he saw a movement. Kaneki turned in time to see one of the creatures launch herself at Hide. Kaneki lifted his arms and flung his kagune at her as if he were throwing a ball. Whatever he ripped away, he ate. As she screamed and backed off Kaneki recognized her and had to fight hard not to be sick; the taste was reeking of spoiled meat and decay, which was all that was left of her lifeless shell.
Kaneki yanked his kagune back, and Shari stopped screaming and whimpered, her healing taking over.
Kaneki faced the creatures again. "That's what I'll do to any of you who try to stop us." Kaneki motioned for Hide to walk in front of him, and Kaneki followed him, backing away from the creatures.
They followed the two of them. Kaneki couldn't always see them as he and Hide rewound their way through the dark tunnel, but he could hear their shuffling feet and muffled snarls. It was about then that Kaneki began to feel the exhaustion. After he passed two offshoot tunnel branches Kaneki called for Hide to stop.
"We should hurry, man. I know you have this Ghoul thing going on, but there are a lot of them—more than what were back there. I don't know how many you can handle." Hide managed a weak laugh. "Not to be mean or anything, but you look like shit."
Kaneki felt like shit, too, but he didn't want to mention it. "I have an idea." They'd just come around a curve where the tunnel had narrowed until he could touch either side of it by spreading out his arms. Kaneki walked back to the narrowest part of the curve. Hide started to follow Kaneki, but Kaneki told him, "Stand over there," and pointed farther down the tunnel the way they were heading. He frowned, but did as Kaneki told him. Kaneki turned his back to Hide and concentrated.
Then, with a swift, powerful motion Kaneki lunged with his kagune and attacked the wall. In front and above him, pieces of dirt and rock began to fall from the ceiling. At first it was just a trickle of pebbles, but soon there was a mini-avalanche going on that quickly drowned out the pissed-off growls and hisses of the trapped creatures.
A wave of weakness crashed over Kaneki and he staggered back.
"I got ya, man." Hide caught him. He smelled delicious, but not as good as Kuri.
"They're not really trapped, you know," Kaneki said softly, trying to keep his mind off the lure of flesh. "We passed a couple other tunnels. I'm sure they'll be able to find their way out eventually."
"It's okay, man." Hide held him up. "I'm sorry about Kuri. Always knew you were a Ghoul tho."
Kaneki managed a dry laugh. "Figures."
"Hide, you've been through way too much. I'm s—"
"Kill me!" Kuri's broken voice shattered the night.