2 Chapter 2: Ken's woes

"Impossible," a stuned and completely white haired Kaneki croaked as another ghoul fell. It was only one man. Even if he was a dove, to be able to take on some many ghouls at once; including at least one S class, and even come out at the end with barely even a rip in his clothes; let alone a wound was just too insane. As Kaneki tried to figure out something, anything to survive this, one of the "dead" ghouls next to him suddenly grabbed him and forced Kaneki to face it only for Kaneki to see not the face of the deceased ghoul, but the blood covered image of his father staring at him with a disturbingly calm face. Kaneki's mind froze. 'What is this?' ran through his mind over and over but no answer came. There was no way his father could be here! After all he died almost five years ago! What in the world is going on?! The apparition just calmly stated, "Why are you here? Are you really going to go off and die and abandon your sisters? Didn't you promise me you'd protect them?" "And after you're gone they will suffer. It will all be your fault. Just like with us. Wasn't it your fault that we had to die?" a second voice added after his father stopped talking. Kaneki slowly twisted his head and from there watched as one of the dead female ghouls transformed into his mother. Kaneki wanted to close them out. Cover his ears and shut his eyes or use all his training to blow these…. things away. But he couldn't for some reason. He could only stand there and listen and cry; he couldn't even offer up an apology. "If you hadn't been born," the mother apparition continued in that same empty tone, "then your sisters, your father, me, none of us would have to had to suffer at all. It's all your fault." That last line continued to reverberate in his head over and over as the glasses man stepped in front of him with his blood covered sword. He stepped forward and moved to impale Kaneki on the tip of his blade. The Blade met flesh and began to rip it asunder.

Kaneki shot up from the bed. His body covered in sweat and his breath ragged. As he slowly realized it was a dream, he started to calm down. Flopping down on the bed again, he tried to wrangle his erratic heart beat and heavy breathing back under control. It had been while since he'd had a dream like that. 'Must be the whole club incident thing. Bringing back old fears again.' Thought Kaneki. Hearing the twins in the living room with the TV on, he decided that now was as good a time as any to talk to them about the current situation, Kaneki grabbed a shirt and went to the living room as he put it on.

When he came out the TV was currently showing news footage of the site of last night's incident. The news anchor was assuring viewers that the CCG would handle the threat. The twins watched it while eating their lunch. "Auntie Rize was busy last night," Shiro said between bites. Kaneki grimaced and corrected her. "Alleged aunt." Kaneki still had reservations on her claim despite her knowledge of their father and their similar Kagunes. Though he couldn't disprove her as they had not been that close to either of their parents' families beforehand. Plus she, got along surprisingly well with the twins. Thanks to that Kaneki had to constantly watch to make sure they didn't pick up any of Rize's bad habits. In the end she just used them as the occasional place to crash when in their neighborhood and for the some occasional companionship. She also keeps pushing him to go out with her as a hunting buddy every so often. 'Probably trying to reform me into a "proper ghoul". Last time that glutton was here, she forced me to listen to her as she went on for nearly an hour on how unhealthy it was to scavenge,' lamented Kaneki.

Being Kaneki's day off, thankfully meant he could use it to get a handle on the current situation of the ward instead. Deciding they needed to talk first, Kaneki went to Kuro and grabbed the TV remote as well as a sizable chunk of meat off her plate. He ignored her sounds of protest as he popped the piece in his mouth and then muted the TV. Next he stood before the twins and cleared his throat. "Now as you can both see things are a bit hectic due to a certain someone right?" Both of the twins nodded. "Ok, so as you can guess this means things are gonna get really dangerous in the near future. So, first I'm going to go out there and see what I can find out about the things and what response the CCG is currently pulling. Now second, you two are not to leave the apartment at all. Lock the door after I'm gone and do not open the door for anyone understand?" This time Kaneki's statements were meant with squeaks of outrage. "But you can't do that! We are grown adults and can take care of ourselves!" Shouted Kuro. "Yeah," Shiro whined behind her. "We were going to see Matoi's new dog this afternoon." "Sorry but it's just too dangerous out there. And as your guardian I have every right to do so," Kaneki fired back. Suddenly Kuro screamed, "I can't believe you're this upset just because of one ghoul attack! You're just over reacting!" Thankful she made it sound to the neighbors like he was afraid of ghouls, Kaneki yelled back, "Of course I am! Do you even realize what they (Doves) will do to you if they catch you out there!? They will rip even cute young girls like you two to shreds if they catch you! Now you are going to listen to me and stay home is that understood?!" "Ugh this is so unfair!" Kuro screamed before stomping off to the bedroom. Shiro followed her and stuck her tongue out at their older brother before slamming the door shut. The only man in the family sighed. "Raising two girls in their rebellious phase is hard," he stated to the empty room.

The rest of the day was not that bad for the young half ghoul. He traveled around the ward as he searched for any valuable intelligence on the goings on in the ward. He talked with some but mostly just listened; using his superior senses to listen in on the conversations around him. Most of it was unfortunately junk. Like some forty old woman bragging about an affair with a younger man or how delicious some bakeries cakes were. Still some of it proved valuable. He was able to take note of a couple people to watch out for who talked about starting some neighborhood watch thing to locate the local ghouls. A ghoul he met passed him a warning about a couple abandoned buildings that were no longer safe hide outs. The CCG was currently watching them like some sort of big mouse trap, and sadly how one of the best scavenging spots in the ward had been located and locked down by the Doves. That part in particular scared Kaneki. Perhaps he should stock up on food before things get worse.

Next Kaneki stopped by the local grocery store. He listened in while picking up some groceries to use as camouflage with the neighbors. And while he didn't get much good information that there, one of the cashiers that knew him by name did give him some food for thought by passing him a can of pepper spray for defense. As he headed to his last stop of the day, he had been tossing around the question of if pepper spray would actually be effective against ghouls in his mind. It was a surprisingly interesting question. He needed to test out later. But for now he had to deal with his last stop; the CCG branch office for the ward. Specifically he wanted to look at the bulletin board outside the building as it had been surprisingly helpful in helping him know what the Doves were up to before. He pulled out an apple as he got closer and began to eat it, in order to further blend in. Granted it tasted like wet chalk but he could stomach it with only some light food poisoning.

As he got closer he noticed a large crowd and some cameras outside surrounding a podium. While curious, Kaneki decided to get what he came here done first before investigating further. The bulletin board proved its use once again. First he noticed new public notices that gave him a rough idea of how many Doves would move in and how they'd work to "cleanse" the ward. He also noticed the reports on recent ghoul takedowns and a couple of posters with new information on high level ghouls in the area. In one corner he noticed his own as well those of his sisters' wanted posters. They had been placed next to Rize's as it seemed the Doves had reasoned that the Binge Eater was connected to their pact and were hunting them all as a group now. Still one particular thing upset him; their ratings. Being connected to the Binge Eater alone had raised them all too S class and that scared Kaneki. The higher rating would do nothing more than attract glory seekers of both the human and ghoul variety who'd could be major threats. Not to mention his own rating had recently jumped to SS which meant that the CCG was likely gunning for him and one misstep would be all it would take for him to find himself swarmed by doves.

Turning to the weird podium again, Kaneki realized it was some kind of press rally as some big shot got behind the podium and began to ramble on about the same old same old. About justice and fighting the enemy of all mankind. However it took every fiber of Kaneki's being not to freak out when the man introduced who would lead the doves' cleanup of the ward. It was the same monster who he had barely escaped from all those years ago. The same one from his dream. He didn't say much but the words this time had weight. And Kaneki swore that as the man's eyes went over the crowd, they had locked on his and somehow this… thing knew what he was. While he wanted to run off as fast as possible and escape with his sisters, Kaneki instead calmly bit into his apple one last time and slowly made his way back home. Forget waiting it out. With that beast here there was no way this ward would ever be safe for his sisters. They needed to leave as soon as possible.

Omake:

Sighing Kaneki knocked on the door one more time. "Come on you two let me in. I forgot my keys when I left." "We can't," Shiro calmly replied. "Yeah remember you said do not open the door for anyone and that includes you," Kaneki could swear he could see Kuro's mischievous smirk as she said that. He knocked on the door again. "You know I didn't mean that so open it. Please. This is embarrassing." Kaneki finally got in half an hour later with help of the landlord.