This Is The New Me

The rain was heavy on this day as the normally blue skies were covered with thick, dark gray clouds that poured down a relentless shower. Two doves stood at the crime scene of the fight between Kaneki and the White Suit leader Yamori, as they investigated looking for any possible clues they could find as to what happened. The younger but taller of the two searched the grounds while the other stood with an umbrella over his head as he inspected the giant crater that Kaneki had made the day before. "It appears to me that this is the result of two ghouls fighting each other. Strong ones at that. The bottom feeders of this district definitely couldn't create destruction like this." Said the blonde older man who was named Kureo Mado. Koutaro Amon, the lower ranking of the two, walked over to rejoin his partner.

"That much is clear. But what business would two ghouls have of fighting each other? It's rare to see ghoul on ghoul violence, especially to this extent. In most cases if they do fight it's over territory. But this area is what would be called a neutral zone, so that doesn't seem like a likely scenario." Said Amon in response to his partner who had a rather creepy looking grin on his face. "Well, there have been reports from the doves of this district that Yamori has been spotted here recently. An S rated ghoul like him would have no trouble creating a mess like this. Not to mention there's the binge eater that everyone's been talking about as of recent. So what if, just if, Yamori aka Jason, came here to recruit the binge eater? What it seems like to me is that they had some sort of disagreement that would have lead to this scuffle." Amon's eyes widened in admiration from his partners quick thinking, his theory made perfect sense. "That's just so like you sir! Right on the nose! So if our assumptions are correct, then Yamori's true objective would be to find this binge eater. If we can find the binge eater, then we find Yamori. Then we can kill two birds with one stone!"

Hide woke up groggily with a splitting headache as he traced his hand along his head and felt the bandage that was tightly wrapped around his skull, concealing a giant gash underneath his hair that was also held together by staples. His memory of the night before was king of hazy, but he could still remember bits and pieces of what happened. He was walking with Nishio-senpai back to his house to get the documents, and Kaneki was following behind them. Then it all went black after Nishio hit him. "Kaneki… Did Kaneki save me? Wait, is he still here?!" He said with a jolt as he launched himself out of bed and ran down the stairs towards the café part of the building. "Where's Kaneki?!" He yelled as he burst through the door leading to the stairs, his yell causing everyone to turn their attention towards him. Staff and customers alike. His face flushed from embarrassment as he composed himself and looked around the room and stared at Kaneki with wide eyes who was standing behind the counter with Touka wearing an Anteiku uniform, as the younger blue haired girl was teaching him how to make coffee.

Kaneki looked at his best friend and smiled as he saw the human and waved at him affectionately which brought warmth to Hide's heart, because unlike his usual greetings in the past, this one felt genuine. "Good morning Hide. I'm glad to see you up and feeling better. OW!" Kaneki said as he accidentally overpoured the cup, causing the hot coffee to spill onto his hands and drop the cup which shattered very loudly on the ground. "Ugh! You idiot! Can't you do anything right?!" Touka said to the white haired half ghoul as they glared at each other while matching the same intensity. Hide chuckled nervously as he saw how similar their temperaments were. Touka scoffed as she retreated towards the kitchen to grab a clean washcloth and a broomstick to pick up the mess. As she left, Kaneki stared at the back of her head with those same dead looking eyes that Hide had grown accustomed to seeing on his face and winced when he saw Kaneki crack his finger in a disturbing way, almost like you could hear his finger pop out of place as he did so. So even though it seemed that Kaneki was attempting to change, he still had a long way to go when it came to his blood lust and need for violence.

Before the situation escalated any further, Hide stepped up and grabbed him by the shoulder which earned an intense side eye by Kaneki as he was caught off guard, the glare sending a shiver up Hide's neck but he soon relaxed when Kaneki's expression softened after realizing just who had touched him. "Relax man. It isn't worth starting a fight. Since you're gonna be working here you're just going to have to get used to her attitude, she's always like that so don't take it personally." Kaneki just nodded in response as he hollered out that he was planning to take a short break so that he and Hide could talk in private. After getting approval from the manager, they went back upstairs so that they could hash things out where no one could hear them. The situation was slightly awkward as the two sat across from each other in separate seats. Hide didn't know what to say. He recalled Kaneki saying last night that his memories of him had returned, but just how much of them did? Obviously enough for Kaneki to bring him back here to safety, but did that mean he remembered everything? Like what Hide did to him in the past? About his betrayal?

Kaneki spoke up first as he leaned forward to grab the coffee sitting on the table and took a sip from it. "So it's apparent to me now that we have history with each other. Were you aware of who I was when we first me?" Kaneki asked Hide which caused him to jump a little as he broke the silence. "Yeah. I could tell right away that it was you, no mistaking it. You might look a little different from when we were kids but your mannerisms still seemed the same. You still even read from the same author, which I know is kind of an exclusive since no one really knows too much about them. Not a lot of people read their novels unlike you." Kaneki smiled slightly as he stirred his coffee with a small smile on his face. It had been awhile since anyone's spoken about him in such a warm light. And could talk to him without any fear or disdain, it was nice. "I must apologize, but my memories about you are still a bit foggy. I can't recall anything of importance about you other than your name and your face. And if you knew who I was then why didn't you say anything?" Hide leaned back in his chair as he decided to answer honestly. "Cause you looked pretty scary dude. I didn't know if you remembered me or not, but I was trying to be cautious because you just had this look in your eyes. Like I could tell that you've been through a lot." Kaneki's bangs covered his eyes as flashes of his past came speeding through his mind.

"Yeah. I have been through a lot. After my parent's died, I was on the run for a very long time. My father was confirmed by the CCG as a ghoul and now I was on their radar since they figured out my identity. I never called one place home for a very long, because the minute I felt like settling down I was forced out of my home again whenever they caught up. But now as far as the CCG knows, little Kaneki died a long time ago." Kaneki said as he smirked maliciously which made Hide start to sweat. "And just how did you pull that off?" Hide asked as he sat on the edge of his seat. "Do you really want to know?" Kaneki asked to which Hide nodded in response. Kaneki shrugged as he began to speak, "It was when I was twelve years old and living back at the thirteenth ward. I was sick and tired of running, and while I was playing one day I found another ghoul my age. I didn't particularly care for him but I thought he would be useful. He looked a lot like me, in fact, and with his short black hair he looked me like me then I did, since my white hair acted like a good disguise. On the CCG file, they still hadn't made a note about my change in appearance so I was using that to my advantage as best I could." Hide was now leaning with his head on his hands in anticipation.

"I got him to trust me by faking how sincere I was about our friendship, and once we were close enough I started to put my plan into action. I convinced him to go hunting with me. By then I had already killed numerous victims, but it would have been his first time. I took him to a rather hot spot where doves hung around and made a few kills to get their attention. And while we ran away, I killed him too." Hide's eyes widened in shock; the way Kaneki talked about killing so easily scared him. This new version of his best friend was going to take a lot of getting used too. Kaneki used to be scared of a little cockroach, but now, it seemed like he viewed everyone as a bug that needed to be squashed. "I maimed him pretty good and disfigured him just enough so that he would be more easily misidentified to be my own corpse. It helped that we had the same Kagune type too. And as he started to bleed out, I threw his body in the river. The next day on the news, I saw my plan had worked. His body was fished out and broadcasted city wide, 'Ken Kaneki, the child of the SS rated ghoul Arachnid was finally found dead.' I couldn't help but laugh. I was finally free to do what I wanted. I waited a few more years before I resurfaced when it seemed like everyone hard already forgotten about me."

Hide was trembling slightly after he listened to Kaneki's story. At just twelve years old he was able to think of something that diabolical? He manipulated a poor child and killed him just for his own sake? Who does something like that?! "I bet you're judging me right now. I can see it on your face. But what you have to understand Hide is that for us ghouls, we need to do what we can to survive. What you might think is cruel I considered a necessity for my survival. I was twelve years old living on the streets with no one to turn too. What else could I have done? I just wanted to be free." Without even thinking, Hide slammed his hands on the table with his face beet red. "And the freedom to do what?! Kill people?! To eat as much as you want?!" Kaneki looked at his friend with a blank expression. He knew he should feel bad but his pride kept him from admitting it. "Yes." Hide felt his stomach churn as his friends easy confession. "Why do you do that? I get that you need to survive but the other ghouls at Anteiku don't act the way you do. One human corpse is said to last you guys about a month. But yet you eat to excess. You could kill one hundred people in a week and act like it's nothing. Why? I just don't get it. Help me to understand so that I won't judge you! You're my best friend damnit! I don't want to have any reason to be afraid of you but you're making it hard!"

So that's what they were too each other back then? Best friends? It was hard for Kaneki to imagine that considering how much he currently hated humans. Did he really value a humans life enough to think of them as his best friend? After seeing Hide's outburst, Kaneki felt something he hadn't felt in a long time. He didn't know how to describe it, but maybe it was guilt. But guilt towards what? Killing people? For leaving his best friend behind? For being the monster everyone already sees him as? All of it? "Before my father died, he gave me one last piece of advice. He told me to eat. To continue to eat and get stronger. My father was a binge eater too you know so I guess the apple didn't fall that far from the tree. Once I started, it was just hard to stop. I don't just eat because I'm hungry, I mean, that's a big part of it, but it's mostly because I needed to get stronger. So I can get my revenge on humanity and finally bring down the CCG once and for all. They need to pay for all they've done." The look in Kaneki's eyes were intense as the two boys stared down each other, the room falling silent once again.

Hide sighed as he sat back down and crossed his arms behind his head. "Well there's other ways of getting stronger too you know. It's called asking for help. You don't need to do everything on your own you know. That's what friends are for-" "HAH! What friends? You think anyone would want to be friends with a monster like me?!" Kaneki yelled as he pulled his eyepatch off to show Hide his one black and red kakugan. "If you haven't noticed Hide, but I'm not like everyone else. I love my parents but I secretly hated them for leaving me with this… affliction. I'm considered human and ghoul but also neither at the same time. I don't belong anywhere. The only person I can trust is ME." The vein's on his face started to grow wider as Hide tried his best not to react but he couldn't help it. He couldn't help but shrink back in fear at least just a little bit. "Well now you have me too… I've waited ten years for you to come back. And I see that you're here, but you're not really my Kaneki. Let me help you find the light you lost inside of yourself. You might think it's pointless, but I know that it's not true. The Kaneki I know is still somewhere in there." Hide said as he extended his hand out towards the white haired half ghoul.

Kaneki's face started to relax as he attempted to reach his arm out too meet Hide's but held his head in pain as the voices of his past victims started screaming at him as the hunger in his stomach started to get worse. "Kaneki? Are you good, man?" Hide said as he tried to help the suffering ghoul, but Kaneki pushed him away as he glared at him. He gritted his teeth as he turned away while he released an exasperated sigh as he pinched the bridge of his nose, only barely being able to push the hunger down as he tried to take back control of his temper. "I think I need to be alone for a second Hide. Honestly, this talk didn't go how I thought it would at all. Just please, leave me alone." Kaneki said as he was about to open the door. "One more thing Hide. I'm not that same scared little boy you used to remember me being. The Ken you knew is dead. And if you still want to be my friend, then you need to accept that this is who I am now. I'm only trying out this Anteiku thing for you, because I want to understand your world better. And there's still a lot I want to ask you. But a ghoul like me can't just change overnight, so don't expect me too." He said before he left, leaving a sorrowful Hide behind.

Kaneki bolted down the stairs and took his apron off, throwing it onto the counter in a rude fashion before he attempted to leave, but Touka blocked off his path and stood in front of him with her arms crossed. "And just where do you think you're going? We still have work to do." She said with a snarky attitude which only prompted Kaneki to glare at her. He didn't have the patience to deal with her stubbornness. He was already creeping towards the edge and if he wasn't able to let loose a little steam, then everyone was going to be in for a lot of trouble. "Step aside." He said as he loomed over her, but Touka wasn't about to back down as the arrogant jerk in front of her started to challenge her. Yoshimura stepped in between them to try and cut the tension and pulled Touka to the side so that Kaneki could finally leave. "Calm down everyone. I would hate for us to cause a scene in front of our customers. Kaneki, you may leave for the day. Your training is done." Kaneki just nodded at him as he finally took his leave, while Touka puffed her cheeks. "Just what the hell is that guys problem?!"

Hide walked down the stairs looking defeated, his normally cheery personality was nowhere to be seen as his brow was scrunched and his lips curled downwards into a deep frown. "It's my fault. I said some pretty insensitive things to him right when he was starting to finally open up to me. I freaked out on him after hearing some unsettling stuff, so he stormed out. I don't blame him. I shouldn't have said what I said." Hide slapped himself on the forehead as he groaned, and Yoshimura couldn't help but chuckle slightly. "Don't think too hard on it Young Nagichika. I'm sure he will come back around and you guys can patch things up. But as for Kaneki… Yomo?" The manager said as he turned to the middle aged gentleman who was meticulously cleaning a plate. "Please follow him. I want to make sure that he doesn't do anything… drastic. But don't step in unless you absolutely need too. This is the perfect moment to test him and see just how strong his resolve really is." Yomo agreed and went to the back to dress out of his uniform before he also left to go an tail the young half ghoul.

Kaneki stopped by his apartment so that he could get out of the suffocating uniform and dressed into something more comfortable. He prompted for a long sleeved black shirt with a V-neck line, white jeans and black sneakers. After he finished grooming himself, he walked over to his nightstand and pulled out his Frankenstein styled mask and shoved it into his satchel bag before he hit the streets. As he walked, he held a hand up to his stomach as it growled loudly demanding a meal. Whenever he got riled up, his primal instincts always seemed to be at its peak and it was hard to deny the need to feed whenever he got like this. "Ch… it's no use. It can't be helped. Just a little snack wouldn't upset anyone, right? Those human lovers at Anteiku should be grateful that I'm only hunting one person when I really just want a full course." He said as his mouth started to water as he licked his lips. He tilted his head up in the air as he smelled something delectable and followed his nose farther down the street and taking a left turn where he stopped and saw a group of teenaged girls who appeared to be hanging out at an ice cream parlor after a long day of school.

One of the girls in particular had an extra sweet aroma to her that Kaneki just needed to have a taste of. He sat across the street on a bench pretending to read his book as he secretly stalked them to see when they were planning to leave. After about thirty minutes, the girls finally parted ways and he smirked as the girl he wanted the most, split off from the group in the opposite direction of her friends. He stood up and followed her from a safe distance so that she wouldn't detect him, and when she turned down an alley, he hung back around the corner as he slipped on his mask after making sure no one was looking at him. He continued his pursuit, his footsteps echoing in the vacant alley which the girl could hear as she started to quicken her pace after sensing that something was off. He smirked seeing that now was his opportunity as he activated his Kagune. The deathly crackling sound as it emerged catching the girls attention which made her stop dead in her tracks before she turned around and saw the white haired ghoul who stood only a few feet away from her. "A… a ghoul! Someone help me!"

The teenager turned back around as she started to make a sprint for it, desperately trying to get away from the monster, but bumped into something solid which made her fall on her butt and into a puddle. "What the-" She started to say but looked up while horrified as Kaneki was now in front of her, seemingly appearing out of nowhere when he was just behind her only seconds ago. He lunged his tendril which slinked around the girls leg as he lifted her up into the air and slammed her body into the wall of the building next to them, but not hard enough to kill her but definitely hard enough to cause her immense pain. The girl coughed as all the air from her lungs were forced out and she slumped on the ground as she held her ribs. Kaneki knelt down beside her and used two of his tendrils to wrap her arms and legs together so that she couldn't escape and, then used a third one to wrap around her mouth so that she couldn't scream.

"Be a good girl and don't make this difficult for me. Don't worry, I'm not going to kill you. At least not right away." He said as he knelt down in front of her and unzipped the mouth hole of his mask and grinned maliciously. "I've had a pretty bad morning you see. And I thought you could entertain me. I'm going to eat you little by little while you're still alive so you can feel every agonizing moment while I devour your flesh." And just a second after he said that, he bit down deeply into her shoulder, tearing out a good sized junk of her skin which caused her to shriek in pain but the sound was muffled by the tendril that still blocked her mouth. Kaneki was once again in bliss as that oh so familiar and delectable taste of fresh human meat coated his mouth and slid down his throat. He bit into her again this time even deeper and her collarbone was now visible, but he noticed as she was starting to pass out and let go of her mouth and squeezed her cheeks together. "Hey. We just started! Don't go fainting on me now!" He raised another tendril and was about to stab the girl in the leg to wake her up with the pain but froze when her heard her starting to sob.

"Please! You don't have to do this! Just let me go! I won't tell anyone I promise! I'm not ready to die, please, I'm begging you!" Usually he liked the sounds of his victims begging for their lives, but this time, it caused his heart to ache. As he looked at the girls face which was twisted in agony, he imagined Hide in her place and he felt like he was about to vomit from his imagination. He debated with himself on what he should do next and made a decision he had never made before. He released the girl and took a step back, his one visible eye through his mask was turned away from her to avoid her pitiful face. "It's your lucky day. I guess I am feeling merciful after all. So go. Before I change my mind." The teenager hesitated before she stood up while clutching her shoulder and took off running. She was so close, she thought to herself. The light at the end of the alley was just a few footsteps away!

Kaneki turned his back away to retreat down the way he came from until heard the sound of flesh tearing. When he turned around he saw the girl he had just let go was now suspended in the air with a tendril through her stomach, and her lifeless body hit the ground with a wet sounding splat as her blood pooled around her. "Now, now Kaneki. This isn't like you at all. I thought I taught you better than this. Never let your pray go after you've ensnared them." From the shadows stepped out a beautiful girl with long purple hair. She wore red framed glasses with a white dress overtop a long sleeved purple shirt, her purple hair tide with a white ribbon and was pulled over her right shoulder. "Rize. What are you doing here?" Kaneki said with his eyes wide, not expecting his best binge eating ghoul friend to suddenly appear. "I was just in the area when I got a whiff of your scent. I haven't seen you in a while since our last feeding session together so I thought I'd come and visit you. But I didn't expect to see the infamous Eyepatch to actually let a human go."

She skipped over to him and threw herself on him, and on reflex he wrapped his arms around her to stop themselves from both falling backwards while she placed a sly kiss upon his cheek. Underneath his mask, he was blushing profusely because of her random act of affection. "I've been worried about you, you know. Have you been trying to avoid me perhaps?" Kaneki turned his head away as he let her go and put back on his cold demeanor. "No. I've just been busy trying to settle back down in the twentieth ward. It's not like we haven't been apart for that long. I saw you only a couple of days ago." Rize chuckled as she put her arms behind her back and jumped back into his frame of view, refusing to let him ignore her. "How was that little café I told you about? Did you like it? You must be going quite often since you reek with the smell of coffee grounds." Kaneki cleared his throat as he started to feel slightly tense, she could always read him like a book. "It's nice. I quite like it there in fact… I just got a job there too." Rize raised her brows, surprised by his confession. She knew what Anteiku's true purpose was within the twentieth ward, so for a fellow binge eater like her to shack up with a bunch of human loving ghouls, was something she definitely didn't expect.

"Don't tell me you're starting to feel sympathy for these little creatures? Is that why you let that human girl go?" Kaneki sighed in irritation because of her constant questions. "I don't really see how that's any of your business Rize. It's not like we're actually friends. We just share a mutual hobby, that's all. I let her go because I just didn't have an appetite anymore so let's just leave it at that." Rize let out a sinister laugh as she wiped a tear from her eye because of how hard his statement made her laugh. She walked a bit closer to him and leaned her face into his neck so that she could whisper in his ear. "Now you and I both know that's not true. Ghoul's like us are always hungry. You can't change that no matter how hard you try." Kaneki glared at her, but she had already stepped back and activated her Kagune as she elegantly jumped back to stand on top of a concrete fence. "But like you said, it's none of my business. Why should I care if you're trying to deny your true nature? You'll come running back to me eventually, begging for us to go on another killing spree together. And when you do, I'll be waiting. So goodbye for now, my precious little Kaneki."

She jumped away and used her Kagune to make a quick getaway, and in just mere moments she was gone and out of view. Kaneki untensed his shoulders after he was finally alone and allowed his body to slide down against the wall he was leaning on as he removed his mask off of his face. He sat on the ground with his arm laid across his propped up knee as he let out a deep sigh. Rize was the only person he was ever comfortable being around because he saw them as kindred spirits. Binge eaters were rare in numbers, and he had a fateful encounter with her when he was sixteen years old and living within the thirteenth ward. For the last four years, Rize had been his only friend. And normally, he loved seeing her and just letting loose with her whenever he had the chance too, but now things seemed different. Especially now that Hide was back in his life.

Rize was a bad influence on him and he knew this, but getting rid of her was not going to be easy. "I better get a move on before someone finds her body. I suppose I'll just call it a day and head home…" He stood up and placed his Frankenstein mask back in his satchel bag before he left the alleyway. Yomo had watched the entire scene unfold from the rooftop of a nearby building, his kagune activated only momentarily when Rize suddenly appeared. But after she left, he allowed it to dissolved seeing that Kaneki had a handle on the situation. He didn't know how he would have fared if the two binger eaters got into it, but he was prepared to step in if he needed too. He pulled a cellphone out from his coat pocket and dialed up the managers number. "Yoshimura, it's Yomo. Kaneki passed the test."