Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The lights of the distant city skyline twinkled like artificial stars. Kaneki shifted from his perch on the top of the abandoned warehouse, admiring the view. They were too far from the bustle to catch most of the city noise. Car horns and rumbling engines were little more than muted buzzes, even to his sensitive ears.

He pulled his flimsy cloak tighter around his shoulders with a satisfied exhale. Despite the dropping temperatures, he wasn’t cold. In fact, he rather enjoyed the nipping chill against his exposed skin. The breeze helped stifle the worst of the heat and itchiness from his mask.

Kaneki allowed his eyes to drift shut. He could almost call this peaceful.

“Oi! One-Eye!”

Or, perhaps not.

He sighed again, a decidedly less content sound than his first exhale. His short-lived respite was over for the moment. Kaneki turned to face his latest partner.

“Yes?”

“It’s almost showtime. The first wave will be here in a few minutes.” His partner flicked back his cloak, revealing a toothy grin and flaring eyes.

Rakko. A particularly nasty ghoul with a fondness for dragging out his victims’ deaths. Sometimes he even forced his victims to watch themselves be devoured. Gruesome and foul.

Safely hidden behind his mask, Kaneki twisted his lips into a wry frown. He wasn’t sure why his superiors thought pairing him with Rakko was a good idea. He half-suspected it was punishment or their version of a joke.

Kaneki had yet to see the punchline. Likewise, he doubted there would be anything funny about the looming mission, either.

“I’ll join you in a second.”

Rakko hummed, his crimson brows jumping in mock disbelief. “Don’t be late. I don’t want to kill all those bastards myself.” Then, he turned and leapt from the roof.

Kill all the bastards? Somehow, Kaneki suspected that would be Rakko’s preferred way for this night to end. Likewise, Kaneki wouldn’t mind if he didn’t have to get involved in the fighting, either.

But the supervisors of Aogiri Tree would be expecting a detailed report. If he didn’t do something of merit tonight, then he might end up stuck with a partner even more horrendous than Rakko for future missions.

He sighed for the third time and rocked backwards to better climb to his feet. If he didn’t get moving, Rakko would mention something about his “lack of dedication” in the report. Kaneki absently ran a hand through his hair, his fingers gliding through the wind-chilled strands. He tightened the strap on his mask and tugged his cloak over his head.

Moments later, their enemy arrived. Gravel crunched and headlights dimmed as the CCG vans surrounded the abandoned warehouse complex. They were attempting to be stealthy, traveling in the dark with minimal lights or sound, but in the end, they only managed to stumble into the trap, too blinded by their caution.

This night would serve as another firm message from the Aogiri Tree.

Their mission: destroy as many investigators as possible.

Such a simple, mindless, destructive goal. It was hard to keep fighting when there wasn’t even a true purpose to all this chaos. No goal in sight – just more carnage and hatred.

Not for the first time, Kaneki wondered if it had been a mistake to become part of the Tree.

“Are you sure you’re ready for this?” Amon’s eyebrow lifted, unconvinced, as he considered their team’s youngest – and most inexperienced – member.

Nagachika flashed a wide smile. In the darkness and tense atmosphere, the expression almost felt as jarring as a blow. “Of course! It’s just a routine check, right? We’re just following up on an anonymous tip?”

Amon nodded slowly. “That’s what the mission parameters include, yes.”

He ran the orders through his head for the twentieth time. No matter how many times his brain writhed through the words, something still didn’t make sense.

We’ve received an anonymous tip regarding suspicious ghoul activity at the Soujin Warehouse complex. Due to the nature of the information, we are sending multiple teams to investigate. However, we anticipate this will not be a dangerous mission.

The churning in his gut only festered worse with each platitude they’d been given. Not a dangerous mission? Then why were there half a dozen fully equipped teams here.

No, something wasn’t right about this mission. Maybe his supervisors could sense the uneasiness, too – that’s why they overcompensated with the assignments. Maybe they even knew something they weren’t telling him and his fellow investigators.  

Doubt, apprehension, frustration – if he wanted this mission to be successful, he shouldn’t be inviting such hindering emotions into his chest.

He hated the feeling – hated how his palms grew a little slicker and the bottoms of his feet started itching. He’d come to learn that these strange manifestations of his nerves only arose when his subordinates were in danger. First, when Akira was bitten by a ghoul at Kanou’s lab. Then, again when Seidou was ambushed during the pursuit of a B-rank ghoul.

Now, Amon felt it again as Nagachika strapped on his helmet, concealing his shock of messy blond hair. That writhing, twisting knot in his stomach grew ever tighter.

Akira watched Nagachika, arms crossed and eyes narrowed. “You shouldn’t be here,” she said, her tone flat and emotionless, as if she were stating an indisputable fact. “You have little formal training and you’re just an investigation assistant. At best, you’ll slow us down. Worst case scenario – you’ll get us killed.”

Amon opened his mouth to stem the harshness but found he couldn’t argue. She was right, in that tactlessly blunt way of hers. Nagachika was a vulnerability and a liability.

“There shouldn’t be anything to worry about,” Nagachika insisted, his smile now strained. “It’s a routine check.”

“Yeah, nothing to worry about,” Seidou echoed while fumbling with his helmet buckle.

“You shouldn’t let him participate,” Akira countered, scowling at Amon now. She was relentless; if he didn’t know any better, he might have even thought she was concerned.

For Nagachika or for their own survival – that was the real question.

“I wasn’t the one who made the decision,” Amon said instead. “We’re all assigned to this mission.”

He didn’t know how Nagachika’s name got added to the list of participating investigators. Investigation assistants never left the office; that was one of the reasons he ever let such an… enthusiastic civilian join their team in the first place – so he wouldn’t be in danger.

When they returned – hopefully with all their limbs attached – Amon intended to ask Marude, personally, about this personnel decision. Amon pinched the bridge of his nose. No use worrying about things now. They only thing they needed to focus on was surviving.

“It’s almost time. Be careful. All of you.” His stare jumped from Akira’s unimpressed frown to Seidou’s slightly buggy eyes to Nagachika’s indecipherable smile. “And Nagachika?”

“Yes?”

“Stay close. Don’t wander off.”

Nagachika grinned, his eyes scrunched up in a cheeky wink. “Got it!”

Akira’s lips tightened but she remained silent. Amon refocused on checking the buckles to his Quinque case. He sorely needed something he could control right now.

As they stepped out of the armored vans, Hide was grateful for the thick padding in his uniform. It was far warmer than the outfit he would’ve worn if he hadn’t been assigned to join the investigators – his own “civilian stealth ensemble”, as he had affectionately dubbed it. One way or another, he knew he was going to participate in this CCG mission. After all, if the rumors were true about this potentially involving Aogori Tree, then he might finally run into—

Hide swallowed thickly. There were quite a few ghouls he might run into – ghouls other than the one person he was aching to find. All things considered, he was relieved to be with fellow investigators than having to slink around in the dark by himself.

He exhaled in the frigid air, his breath swirling in the dull glow from the CCG van lights and the lamps outside the warehouse. For a place supposedly abandoned, it was a bit unnerving to see the electricity still on.

Perhaps not as abandoned as their anonymous tipper had led them to believe.

“Nervous, Nagachika?”

Hide startled and glanced to the teammate on his right. Here he was, jumping like a spooked rabbit, and they hadn’t even stepped inside yet. No wonder Akira was so harsh with her evaluations of his abilities.

“A little bit,” he admitted. Not necessarily for the raid – more so about possibly reuniting with his best friend-slash-wanted-ghoul, though it wasn’t like he could say that to a bunch of investigators, armed to the teeth.

“But the CCG investigates random tips all the time, don’t they?” Hide continued, flicked his wrist as if to dispel any lingering troubles. “Besides, the main teams already went in ‘round back. We’re just back up.”

Seidou frowned. “How do you know that?”

Hide blinked and scratched at his cheek with an index finger. “I, uh, heard it on the commlink?” He gestured from his cheek to the tiny responder in his ear. He’d actually overheard a conversation while fetching coffee for his team that the first wave of the raid would enter the warehouse about an hour before midnight.

“Oh…” Seidou frowned at the plastic piece in his palm before tucking it into his ear. He listened for a moment, his expression distant, before glancing at Hide. “I don’t hear anything though?”

“Really? You can’t hear anything? Maybe you ought to check to make sure your communicator is working before we go in.”

Another lie, but who was keeping track at this point?

“Yeah, probably.” Seidou grunted and fiddled with the frequency knob.

Akira and Amon joined them soon after, the latter confirming Hide’s earlier statement with a brief report of the first wave’s progress.

“So far they’ve had no confirmation of ghoul sightings. However, they’ve requested we remain on standby in case there’s an ambush from the back. We’re to enter at the southern entrance and perform a quick sweep through to the center of the main warehouse bay. Understand?”

Hide and the others nodded. Amon continued.

“There are no specific targets for this mission, as the tip itself was very… vague. However, if A-rank or S-rank ghouls are spotted, the priority will be to eliminate them first.”

Hide swallowed thickly. What was Kaneki’s official status? Scrolling through the ghoul database hadn’t yielded viable answers.

“Our anonymous source claimed this warehouse is a satellite base for Aogiri. That means there may be extremely dangerous ghouls present. So, above all—”

Amon cut off as the sound of screams filled their earpieces. All four of them winced, their hands flying simultaneously to their ringing commlinks. For a moment, no one spoke as the sounds of their panicking companions washed over them in the cold stillness. Hide’s throat grew drier with each rasping groan.

This is Squad Leader Kimu Tokana. We request immediate backup at the south si—uugh…”

The message trailed off, much to their dismay. Seidou broke the silence first, glancing sidelong at Hide.

“Maybe this won’t be a routine check after all…”

Amon unlocked his Quinque case and hastily assembled his weapon. He straightened up with an ominous expression. “This is Koutarou Amon. We are on our way,” he barked into the commlink. Then, he turned to consider his team.

Hide stiffened and put on his bravest face. Even so, it didn’t soften the frustration clearly etched across their squad leader’s face.

“Akira and Takizawa – you follow me. Nagachika, stay behind until we give you the signal to advance with us.” He glanced over his shoulder at the warehouse. “You maybe have been put on the participation list, but Akira is right. Until you have a Quinque and proper training, you aren’t joining us on the front line.” He narrowed his eyes. “Do I make myself clear?”

“Crystal,” Hide responded with a strained swallow. He couldn’t look too eager – otherwise, Amon would definitely know something was up.

“Sensible,” Akira muttered, striding past him on the way to the darkened warehouse entrance. Seidou shot him an encouraging smile before chasing after Amon and Akira.

Hide watched them disappear in the shadows, his apprehensive frown hardening to determination. He took a steadying breath and adjusted his helmet.

Like hell was he just going to sit and wait.

Kaneki watched from his spot on the steel girder as the investigators and ghouls fought. The only light in this particular warehouse bay came from the glow of the ghouls’ kagune and the humans’ weapons as they slashed and tore at one another.

More chaos, more carnage. His disinterested gaze drifted from one end of the bay to the other, not looking for anyone in particular. He had no allies among the humans, no true allies among the ghouls.

Such was the lonely fate of a half-ghoul.

“Oi! One-Eye! Aren’t you going to do something? Or are you just gonna sit on your ass the whole time?”

Rakko’s shouting tore Kaneki from his musing. He scowled down at his partner. Crimson dribbled from Rakko’s sharpened teeth and stained his pale chin. Evidentially, Rakko was enjoying himself.

For some inexplicable reason, the sight – or maybe it was Rakko’s sadistic confidence – set Kaneki’s patience on edge. He dropped from the ceiling and landed directly in front of Rakko, rising from his catlike crouch. The bloodthirsty ghoul had a solid twenty centimeters and just as many kilos on Kaneki. Nevertheless, Rakko took a hasty step back to put some distance between them.  

Good.

“Do you think this is all they have?” Kaneki jerked a thumb at the nearest pile of shredded corpses. “This is only one of the warehouse’s bays. There are at least four other squads coming to other parts of the building, including several teams with special investigators.”

Rakko shrugged. “So?”

“So,” Kaneki gritted through clenched teeth, “there will be stronger investigators coming in at any moment. Wasting your strength now is foolish.”

Rakko narrowed his eyes and opened his mouth to say something. However, a faint buzzing erupted from the commlink buried in a nearby corpse’s ear. Both Kaneki’s and Rakko’s attention jumped to the sound.

“tsss—this is – Koutarou Amon – tsss.”

Kaneki frowned, his brow furrowing in vague recollection. He knew that voice. But how…

Prickles erupted down his spine. Right. It was the investigator from—

“Whudya know – you were right. More pigs are coming in.” Rakko’s grin stretched wide. “Just in time, too. I was getting hungry again.”

The communication device was damaged, the sound distorted, from the investigator’s fatal head injury. However, Kaneki could still make out the gist of what was being said. It might be a useful tool for reconnaissance. He bent down to pry it free from the remnants of the dead investigator’s mushy skull.

“tsss—you follow me—tsss—Nagachika---tsss—”

Kaneki went rigid as he jerked his hand back.

Nagachika…?

It couldn’t— No, it couldn’t be Hide.

The device continued to crackle, relaying instructions and positions, but Kaneki couldn’t break free from the name or the possibility.

“Oh? Did it shock you?” Rakko squinted at the buzzing piece of plastic. “I’m not surprised they’d bug their equipment so we couldn’t use it against them.”

“I—No, it didn’t shock me.” Kaneki stared, wide-eyed, at the communication device, still stained with the blood of its previous owner.

It was foolish to think that Hide – his Hide – would be here. He was just a normal university student. Not a ghoul investigator.

“—tssss—I understand—tsss—”

Before he could stop himself, Kaneki’s fist collided with the commlink, smashing it and the dead investigator’s skull into tiny, jagged pieces. He blinked at his handiwork, at the crimson splattered across his uniform and exposed skin.

It was Hide’s voice.

Hide’s voice.

Kaneki knew it. He would know that sound from a thousand kilometers away. But… why was it here? Why here? Why now?

Rakko crossed his arms, his eyebrow rising higher on his forehead. “Care explaining?”

Kaneki couldn’t even explain it to himself. And there was no way in hell he’d ever want such a foul monster to know about Hide.

Except—They were in the middle of a battlefield field right now. Rakko would kill every investigator he saw. Unless he got to Hide first and—

Kaneki’s mind whirled with chest-stabbing fears and desperate strategies. He had never been much of a risk-taker – that had always been Hide’s forte. Lately, all of Kaneki’s “risks” – that fateful date with Rize, joining Aogiri Tree – were only dragging him deeper into trouble.

Still, he needed to do something. He just prayed it was the right decision. He straightened up and rubbed the blood from his cheek with the back of his hand.

“There’s a blond investigator out there. He’s young. Tell the others not to hurt him. Instead, bring him to me. Alive.”

A sneer rose on Rakko’s lips. “I wasn’t under the impression that this was a ‘take prisoners’ kind of assignment. In fact, the bosses told us to leave no survivors.”

Kaneki surged forward and tangled his clenched fists into the older ghoul’s cloak. He yanked Rakko down to eye level, his kakugan blazing. He could smell the intoxicating tang of blood on Rakko’s breath; the scent only made his fury bubble sharper.

“I said,” he growled, “tell the others not to hurt him.”

He held Rakko down for a moment longer before releasing him. Rakko stepped back, brushed the wrinkles from his cloak, and narrowed his eyes at Kaneki.

“Listen, I’m just following orders, alright?”

“That’s your new order,” Kaneki hissed. His fingers curled into tight fists. Was that fear or fury that was making his hands tremble?

“Fine, fine.” Rakko dipped his head in mock deference. “As you command, One-Eye.” His calculating stare jumped back to Kaneki. “What’d this guy ever do to you anyway?”

Kaneki hesitated before glancing away. He subconsciously reached to brush at his chin, but the thick material of his mask got in the way. He dropped his hand to his side instead.

“He, uh, he killed an old friend.”

Kaneki suppressed the urge to wince as soon as the words left his mouth, but Rakko was watching him too carefully now. Fortunately, his partner seemed satisfied by the answer. He bobbed his head and turned away.

“Got it. You want to rip him apart yourself,” Rakko called over his shoulder. “That’s alright then – as long as the bastard ends up dead.”

Kaneki kept his expression blank despite the writhing in his gut. He watched for Rakko’s back to disappear in the shadows before pivoting on his heel and dashing for the southern side of the warehouse. That’s where the one investigator – Koutarou Amon – said they were heading. He had to reach Hide first. He had to.

Hide… what are you doing? What have you done?

None of them spoke for a solid moment.

The south-side entrance to the warehouse complex was destroyed. All that remained was a pile of jutting steel beams and crumbled concrete. They could try to navigate through the wreckage, but it would slow them down. A prime spot for an ambush.

Akira tilted her head and considered the rusty spikes and jagged slabs of concrete. If ghouls didn’t kill them, tetanus would.

“We’re not going in that way, are we?” Seidou spoke after another pause.

“No,” Amon grunted. “Too risky. We’ll have to enter the complex through another entrance. Maybe there’s a side door that workers once used.” He pressed a finger to the commlink in his ear. “Did you get that, Nagachika?”

There was a crackle before Nagachika’s chipper “I understand” echoed over their shared channel. Akira grimaced. He was still taking this mission far too lightly. She could only hope their squad leader had enough sense to keep Nagachika from advancing with them.

They moved quickly around the other side of the building. They passed Nagachika along the way, the latter still waiting in the same spot they left him. He offered a thin-lipped smile and a weak wave.

Good. At least he wasn’t disobeying orders.

Akira refocused on the outer edges of the warehouse complex as they approached the alternative entrance. No sign of sentries or observers. The quietness made Akira’s skin prickle.

However, that eerie calmness soon boiled to a chaotic rage as soon as they slipped into the warehouse complex’s main bay. A cackling ghoul dove for Seidou’s exposed back. Akira decapitated him with her Quinque before her teammate even had the chance to shout.

“Th-thanks,” he mumbled, wiping at the spray of ghoul blood on his armor.

Before Akira could make a stern remark about being distracted, Seidou stiffened and fired an entire round of bullets into another ghoul that was creeping in their periphery.

Akira glanced around. Two ghouls down, many more to go. The monsters peeled from the walls, howling and shrieking and giggling. Other investigators from the first wave were sprawled across the blood-stained concrete floor. Some were moving or groaning. Most were still.

Their team stuck together in a tight, triangular formation. While she watched the shadows in the furthest back corner of the warehouse bay, Amon and Seidou watched the entrance for reinforcements or more enemies. Despite their cohesiveness, the sheer number of attacking ghouls was nearly enough to overwhelm them. After several intense rounds of blows, limbs flying and screams growing louder, Akira and her teammates were covered in bruises and slashes.

Panting and holding a palm against the shallow wound in her thigh, Akira took another quick survey of the warehouse. A ghoul was crawling towards her, dragging its nearly bisected torso behind.

Too slow, too obvious. She lobbed off its head with a single strike, a cold form of mercy. She scoured the shifting shadows, keeping her chimera Quinque close at hand, ready to lash out at any sudden movement. Another ghoul ran at her left side. Amon took care of that one before she even tensed a muscle.

She didn’t look up until it was too late.

“Such a pity to let good food go to waste. Still, there’re too many of you to eat at once – even for me.”

Akira’s wide eyes jumped to the rafters. A ghoul flashed his jagged teeth and tucked his kagune back to the side. A second later, the steel girders up above her screeched as they grated against one another. The metal was still smoking from where the ghoul’s kagune sliced. A large chunk of the beam broke free from the rest, falling fast for her head.

“Akira!”

He promised himself that he would wait for ten minutes – as a courtesy for his agreement with Amon. However, after nine minutes, Hide couldn’t wait any longer. Nerves and an unbearable itch to see his best friend propelled him closer to the warehouse entrance.

Hide kept close to the walls and shadows, eager to stay out of the main fray. All he had tucked in his pockets were a few RC canisters and a CCG-issued cyanide capsule. Neither were particularly inviting options if he were to be cornered by a murderous ghoul. He knew he was being reckless by drifting so close to the conflict – like a moth to a flame.

Truly, he should have thought this through a bit more. Come up with a better plan to—

He skidded to a breathless stop in front of the spot where his team entered just as a steel beam fell from the ceiling. Akira was directly underneath, moving out of the way, but not fast enough.

“Akira!” Amon’s shout cut through the chaos. He slammed into her, knocking them both out of falling beam’s path. It struck the concrete a millisecond later, sending up a cloud of debris and powder.

When the dust cleared, Akira was shakily climbing to her feet. However, Amon remained on the ground, writhing to free his pinned leg from underneath the beam.

Shit. Hide’s heartbeat resumed its frantic pace. That had been a close one.

Akira immediately dropped to her knees beside their squad leader and strained against the heavy metal, trying to lift it enough for Amon to pull his crushed leg out. She shouted for Seidou, but he was busy fending off another pair of ghouls halfway across the room.

She wouldn’t be able to do it alone, Hide realized with a start. He hurried in their direction, keeping one eye fixed on the steel beams overhead for any more dangers. Akira nearly decked him when he popped up over her shoulder.

“Nagachika?” Akira pulled her fist back before it collided with Hide’s chin.

Pale-faced and sweaty, Amon sent a half-hearted glare in Hide’s direction. “I thought I told—"

Hide sensed the looming reprimand, but Amon could chew him out to his heart’s content when they were all safe and away from this warehouse.

“Here, take this end and lift.” He dropped to a low crouch on the opposite end of the beam and dug his fingers into the twisted metal.

Akira nodded and reclaimed her original place. However, even with both their efforts, they still could not lift the beam off Amon’s leg.

“Seidou!” Akira shouted again. Within seconds, Seidou crashed to his knees beside them, panting and bleeding from a slice to the forehead.

“On three?” Hide offered.

“One, two, three,” Seidou blurted in a hurried rush before straining against the steel beam. Akira and Hide scrambled to catch up, pulling on the heavy metal as well. After a moment of tense grunting, they managed to lift the beam long enough for Amon to sluggishly drag himself backwards.

“We’re good!” Akira called. “Let it go.”

They dropped the beam with breathy gasps, pulling their own toes back before it crashed back into the concrete. Hide reflexively rolled his shoulders back and winced at the growing ache along his strained muscles.  

“We need to get him out of here,” Akira said, her voice a touch ragged from the exertion.

Hide nodded and hovered over Amon’s shoulder. “How bad is it? Broken?”

“I can get—urgh…” Amon tried to climb to his feet, but his leg gave out the moment he was standing. He tumbled to the concrete before Hide had the chance to catch him. Though, considering how much muscle Amon had on him, Hide doubted he would have been able to do anything anyway except break the fall.

Seidou glanced from Amon to Hide. “Nagachika and I can help him if you watch out backs.”

“I can do that.” Akira stooped down to scoop up her Quinque.

A low cackle echoed around them. The hairs trembled along the back of Hide’s neck.

“Ahh, look how sweet – a bunch of juniors trying to save their injured senior. Why don’t you just leave him to me instead?” The ghoul dropped from the ceiling, watching them with narrowed, red eyes. “Let me get rid of some of that dead weight.”

Akira shouldered herself in front of the others. “I dare you to try.”

“Oh, I intend to.”

Hide swapped nods with Seidou. This was their chance. He looped his arms under Amon’s armpits and started tugging backwards. Seidou hovered between helping Hide and watching the unfolding action between the ghoul and Akira. Hide knew he ought to be focusing on moving Amon, but he couldn’t help peeking up to watch the fight as well.

The ghoul moved first, swinging his glowing kagune at Akira’s chest. She blocked it with a swing of her own weapon. Shards of discarded RC went flying, twinkling on the concrete floor like broken glass. The ghoul tilted his head and hummed thoughtfully.

“Hmmm… Blonde, but not a man. Too bad – guess that means I get to kill you.”

Hide frowned, his narrowed eyes momentarily darting towards the ghoul. What kind of cryptic shit was that? Did that ghoul have a fetish or something – fuck, those were the worst ones.

Akira paid little attention the ghoul’s taunts and offered a strained laugh. “Hmm…” she mimicked in an equally condescending tone. “A rinkaku kagune. Too bad. You could’ve made a useful Quinque if you were a bikaku instead.”

The ghoul growled in barely restrained fury. He swung wildly at Akira, his eyes burning and spittle flying. Even Akira looked as if she was having difficulties keeping his strikes from landing.

The ghoul continued to shout fearsome curses. That devastating, rumbling rage felt like a physical weight pressing against Hide’s chest. If his body wasn’t in autopilot, busy dragging Amon to safety, he might’ve frozen.

Hide swallowed thickly. Seemed like this ghoul didn’t take kindly to being mocked. For better or for worse, all that rage was focused on Akira. The ghoul didn’t seem to care that Hide and the others were making a break for the exit. The damn monster probably thought they wouldn’t make it, anyway. Hide gritted his teeth and poured more strength into each backwards tug.

Then something heavy crashed into his chest and sent Hide flying. His brain’s first addled reaction was to think he’d been kicked by Nishio again. He was dimly aware of Akira’s panicked shout and Seidou’s cry of pain in the background. Then, he was tumbling fast and hard across the cold concrete.

He groaned and rolled onto his stomach, fighting to regain a hold of his senses. Shit – he felt like he was going to puke. What happened? Hide rubbed at the rising bruise along his cheek and blurrily tried to make sense of the chaos.

Amon and Seidou had been knocked further away, both of them left as motionless huddles. The ghoul retracted his kagune with a laugh, gloating about refusing to let the vermin run free. Akira raced at the ghoul, swinging her Quinque and knocking away the ghoul’s kagune before it pierced Seidou’s stomach.

Hide struggled to his hands and knees. Akira was skilled – she truly was. He was almost breathless, watching her for the first time in true combat. Even so, she couldn’t hold this ghoul off for long while protecting the rest of them. He had been knocked the farthest from the fight. Too far, perhaps, for the ghoul to notice him.

Out of the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of Seidou’s discarded gun. He quietly shuffled closer, keeping most of his attention fixed on the fight. Hide scowled at the unfamiliar weapon and prodded half-heartedly at the trigger.

How was it supposed to work again? Did he have to load something? He’d watched thousands of Hollywood movies involving guns, but it wasn’t like the characters ever explained how the stupid things worked.

Damn. He really should’ve asked Seidou for a lesson earlier. If he didn’t do something soon, he might never get his chance.

“It looks like I’ll get to eat you after all,” the ghoul taunted. “I’m craving something sweet after burning all this energy.”

“You probably wouldn’t like me,” Akira countered. “I’m more bitter than sweet.”

“You don’t know that. I’ll just have to try and see if I like the taste.”

Hide’s lips drew into a thoughtful pucker. He’d have to go for the obvious, then, when trying to get the gun to work. He tugged on the trigger, but the only sound was a loud click.

Dammit.

“I’m also a bit tough to chew.”

“No problem. We can soften you up then!”

Hide half-wondered if Akira was always prone to bantering on the battlefield or if this was a strategy to buy more time. Either way, it was keeping the ghoul’s attention fixed on her – and not on Hide.

Too bad Hide didn’t have a good plan. Oh, he had a plan, alright. Only, it was not a good one.

He glanced at the gun in his palms as he climbed to his feet. He couldn’t shoot, but there were other ways to use a weapon. Rearing back his shoulder and arm, he launched the useless weapon in the ghoul’s direction. It struck its target, smashing into the ghoul’s head and falling to the ground with a metallic clatter.

There was a moment of horrified silence as all eyes slowly turned on him.

Hide was the first to react, taking a hesitant step backwards. The ghoul snarled and took a menacing step towards him to compensate. His kagune slackened while his body quivered with rage.

Akira used that moment to strike, darting forward and swinging her weapon at the distracted ghoul. However, without even tearing his murderous glare from Hide, the ghoul caught the writhing Quinque with his kagune. He yanked Akira’s weapon forward and she had to release her grip on the handle or be dragged into the spikes. With a grunt, the ghoul flung Akira’s weapon far out of reach.

“Would you mind waiting, sweetheart?” The ghoul’s tone was calm and casual as he advanced on Hide. “I have to deal with a small problem, but then I promise I’ll turn my attention back to you.”

Hide scanned the empty warehouse, taking in his surroundings with a dizzying speed. He and his team were the only ones left in this bay. No lingering ghouls, no investigators. If he drew this monster away, it might be enough time for Akira to get the others out. His attention caught on a darkened doorframe at the far edge of the room. He didn’t know where it would lead or if it was just a dead end, but it was something.

But first – he needed a distraction. A little misdirection. He turned his head fully towards the warehouse entrance where they had come in. The ghoul scoffed and moved to position himself directly in the path to the entrance.

Coincidentally, the ghoul was now further from the darkened doorframe. Hide’s little trick only gave him a few seconds of a head start, but maybe it would be enough to outrun an inhuman ghoul.

Aw, hell – who was he kidding? The was a fucking awful plan. He inhaled sharply and darted for the darkened doorway. His back was to the ghoul – was the bastard surprised? There was no way Hide would waste his chance at escape by glancing over his shoulder.

“Nagachika! Run!” Akira’s scream barely broke through his concentration. The ghoul’s roar sounded close behind.

Hide’s combat boots squeaked and squealed as he raced through puddles of sticky crimson. He pumped his legs and arms furiously as he ducked through the doorway. He paused for a millisecond to take stock of his surroundings, relieved to note that the door led to a wide hallway with multiple exits. Without any windows or overhead lights, it was too dark to make out much more.

No time to second guess himself then. He skipped the closest door – too obvious – and ran for the third exit. Hide burst into another empty warehouse bay. It was smaller than where he’d come from. However, unlike the first, this one was brightly lit by the outside streetlamps pouring directly in the broken glass windows.

Hide squinted against the overwhelming light. Was there another exit? There had to be. How else would the workers—

There! A steel door with a heavy latch was tucked in the far corner.

He raced towards it. His trembling fingertips barely scraped the metal handle when something sharp impaled his calf. A startled cry sprung from his lips, which built to a louder scream when the kagune yanked him back, ripping deeper into flesh and muscle. Hide crashed to the ground, falling face-first on the cold concrete with a pained grunt. The piercing tentacle released its grip on his leg, and he twisted into a seated position to face his looming death.

“You thought you could hide?” The ghoul sneered as he entered the room. He retracted his kagune and licked the blood from the tip with a delighted leer.

Hide wasn’t sure which was worse – the blinding pain in his leg or the ghoul’s rumbled hum of pleasure.

“Your blood betrayed you. The scent of it was everywhere. On your shoes, on your body,” the ghoul continued.

Hide stared, horrified, at the trail of partial crimson footprints, leading directly to where he sat, soaked in a puddle of his own blood. He scrambled backwards, using his palms and the heel of his uninjured leg to push against the floor. His elbow brushed against the hard plastic of the RC canister in his vest pocket. Maybe he could—

“Despite your idiocy, I still enjoyed hunting you. I think I’ll savor this moment by eating you nice and slow.”

On the last word, the ghoul’s kagune shot out and tangled around Hide’s neck and torso. Hide gasped and struggled in the tight grip, trying to free himself – or, at least, catch the release tab on one of the RC canisters.

The ghoul flung him backwards. Hide barely managed a stunned grunt as his body collided with the opposite wall. If not for his helmet and padded vest, he would have been splattered like a grape. His consciousness flickered as the pain and impact threatened to overwhelm him. He groaned and tipped forward, his loosened helmet slipping from his head.

His last recollection before darkness swamped his senses was the sensation of fingers tangled tightly in his hair and a muttered, “Blond hair... Pity.”

Chapter Text

Kaneki’s boots pounded the concrete floor of the warehouse as he raced towards the south entrance. His labored breaths echoed around him, but they weren’t quite loud enough to drown out his troubled thoughts.

Hide… What are you doing here?

An investigator stepped into Kaneki’s path, swinging a glowing weapon with a determined expression. Kaneki almost growled out loud at the looming barrier. He didn’t have time for this. With an agitated grunt, Kaneki leapt to the side, nearly avoiding being impaled by the weapon. When the investigator gave no indication of backing down, Kaneki’s scowl deepened as he made his decision.

He needed to get to Hide. He couldn’t drag this out any longer. Each second he spent with this investigator was another second that Hide could be injured or dying.

Kaneki’s kagune erupted from his back in an explosion of steam and crimson. His narrowed gaze landed on the investigator’s right leg before darting back to his face. Usually Kaneki simply broke their weapons, rendering them incapable of fighting. Although his form of mercy often got him into trouble with his less sympathetic superiors in Aogiri Tree, he preferred the substantial lack of blood and death that often triggered his rawer side.

He had a sickening feeling Aogiri would be pleased with his next action.

Diverting the investigator’s attention with one of his rinkaku protrusions, he knocked the man’s weapon out of his hands with another part of his kagune. The investigator fumbled for something in his pocket to protect himself, but Kaneki quickly finished his attack by wrapping one of his razor-sharp tentacles around the man’s knee. With a half-mumbled apology in his mind, Kaneki jerked his kagune back, cleanly amputating the man at the knee.

The investigator toppled to the ground with a pained cry as crimson gushed from the wound. Kaneki stumbled back, his keen senses temporarily overwhelmed by the sight of blood and loose flesh.

bLOood! BlOoD!

Kaneki mashed his lips together, gritting his teeth behind his leather mask. It was getting harder and harder suppress the bloodthirsty screams rattling in his skull.

How long had it been since he last ate?

ToO lONg…

FaR tOO L-LoNg….

(He won’t need that leg anymore…)

Kaneki forcefully shook his head with a deep-throated growl to dislodge the inhuman desires. He didn’t have time to eat, nor could he trust himself to stop with a single, discarded limb. He kicked the pale leg away and lurched from the investigator. Disbelieving shock thunder across the man’s features. A ghoul abandoning an easy kill was uncommon, unnatural.      

Then, that shock shifted to hatred and suspicion. Kaneki couldn’t care less.   

Let him hate me for not killing him. I have other things to focus on.

Leaving the bleeding man to his own fate, Kaneki quickly scanned the warehouse to regain his bearings. Damn that investigator for slowing him down. Where had he been going again?

Kaneki squeezed his eyes shut, fully aware of how dangerous it was to do so in a room filled with armed investigators, and concentrated on his memorized layout of the warehouse complex. Satisfied with his hastily produced map, Kaneki spun on his heels and rushed past several ongoing battles. He ignored the eager cries of his companions, requesting for his assistance. He drowned out the screams and grunts of pain as both sides ripped flesh from one another.

Once, an overly ambitious investigator tried to catch him unaware. However, Kaneki caught the glowing glint of the Quinque in his periphery vision. His kagune responded accordingly, bursting from his mid-back and meeting the victim with a warm squelch. Not even bothering to tear his gaze from the path ahead, Kaneki retracted his weapon and tried to ignore the sweet liquid dribbling down his kagune.

He couldn’t afford to be distracted.

Finally, Kaneki reached the south entrance, skidding to a stop in the dim warehouse bay. His wide eyes absorbed every detail and every slumped body. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to see blond or not.

I don’t see him…

Kaneki inhaled deeply, trying to catch a scent of his best friend, but the tantalizing scent of human blood distracted him too much to concentrate. Another, harsher voice nagged in the back of his mind, bubbling its way to the surface with painful malice.

It’s been so long since you’ve seen Hide. You’ve probably forgotten what he smells like.

Trying to avoid the inevitable wave of panic, Kaneki squeezed his eyes shut and inhaled again, pouring all of his concentration in dragging up the memories of his best friend.

How long had it been since he’d last seen Hide? Months, at least. Maybe even half a year.

He could still picture Hide’s wide grin and crinkled eyes, though the corners of his best friend’s face had grown a little blurry. Kaneki pushed deeper into his memories, savagely shoving aside the hissing, snickering murmurs of his mind’s manifestations of Yamori and Rize.

But can’t you remember how delicious your friend smelled?

You wanted to eat. Him. All. Up.

Kaneki’s eyes flew open and he wisely decided to give up on searching by scent. His gaze wandered towards the destroyed entrance. With all that rubble and mangled steel, the investigators would have had trouble getting it. His squad must’ve come in another way, then.

Kaneki resisted the urge to growl again. If he had been in more control, he could have kept the dead investigator’s commlink and tracked Hide more effectively. Instead, Kaneki had crushed the device at the mere sound of his best friend’s voice, allowing human emotions like shock and panic to overwhelm him.

You didn’t want Rakko learning where he was. He can’t be trusted—he would have killed Hide and called it an accident just for spite, he countered in his head, trying to convince himself that he did the right thing. Even so, he felt like it was a losing battle. In more ways than one.

He squinted in the dim light, scouring the assembled investigator bodies to find another viable communication device. After another brief moment of silence, he heard the metallic crackle of an earpiece’s static.

Kaneki rushed towards the sound, quickly prying the piece of tight-fitting plastic away from the cold corpse. He pressed the crimson stained device to his ear, waiting breathlessly for a voice he recognized.

A hoarse scream echoed through the warehouse complex. It wasn’t loud by any means, but something about it was familiar to Kaneki. Familiar enough to set him on edge. The commlink slipped from Kaneki’s limp fingers.

He may have forgotten the exact smell of his best friend, but he couldn’t forget the sound of his voice.

“Nagachika! Run!”

Despite the risks to herself, Akira’s first reaction was to jerk towards the action and towards her defenseless teammate. However, she forced her trembling limbs to remain still as their untrained investigation assistant dashed out of sight, pursued by a ruthless, starving ghoul. 

You’ll never see him again, a cruel voice whispered in the back of her mind. Akira cursed under her breath, curling her fingers into hard fists. She wanted to follow him, but her own injuries would only have put them both in danger.  

You can’t help him now. He gave you the chance to get the others out—so take it!

She forced her body into action, lurching towards Seidou first. He was still unconscious, but as she gingerly rolled him to the side, she was relieved to note that the faint trickle of blood from his hairline had already began to dry.

Grunting at the effort, Akira wound her arms underneath Seidou’s splayed limbs and tugged him backwards. At least he wasn’t as heavy as Amon or that damn steal beam.  

Even so, it was a struggle to move her teammate’s deadweight without aggravating the pain in her own injured leg. Each centimeter gained felt like it took an eternity, even though Akira was fairly sure she had only been dragging her teammate for a few seconds. She tossed a hopeful glance over her shoulder. They were only a few meters from the warehouse entrance.

A loud scream echoed through the warehouse complex, causing her to falter mid-tug and drop her hovering foot with a heavy thud.

Nagachika….

Akira swallowed thickly and focused her bright gaze on her unconscious teammate. Her Quinique was within reach. Maybe she could catch the ghoul by surprise and—

No.

She hadn’t been able to stop him before. If she went after Nagachika, she’d only end up damning herself and the rest of their team.

She had no doubt now that Nagachika’s actions were intended to be suicidal. There was no way he could’ve expected to survive after leading the ghoul away from the rest of his injured team. It was too late for him.  

  That…he…

She took a shallow, calming breath to steady her whirling mind. She shouldn’t dwell on things she couldn’t change now. She needed to get the others out before that flesh-eating bastard came back. Nagachika bought them time and she refused to waste it.

With another muted grunt, she poured every bit of her broiling rage and regret from not being able to save Nagachika into her aching muscles. Although her actions were jerky and tense, she yanked her unconscious teammate faster across the concrete floor. Dropping him off at the entrance, Akira spun on her heels and limped towards their team leader.

He was barely conscious. From his pinched, pale expression and his roaming, sightless eyes, Akira suspected he was too far out of it to fully comprehend the situation.

“We have to go now,” she urged in a firm whisper. She had no idea how long they had until the ghoul returned.

Amon’s dark eyes focused on her face and he gave an imperceptible nod, some of his confusion clearing. Akira looped her arms underneath his armpits and strained to pull him towards the entrance. Although he was significantly heavier and bulkier than Seidou, Amon was able to help by pushing himself across the floor with his uninjured limbs.

Still, their progress was painstakingly slow. Each squeak of Amon’s foot slipping against the pooled blood and Akira’s labored grunts echoed loudly in the deathly silent warehouse. It wasn’t as if they needed to be quiet—after all, the ghoul knew exactly where they were. However, the silence made it easier to listen for any suspicious sounds. Sounds like footsteps or eager lip smacking.

They were only a few meters from the entrance when the sound of crunching gravel filled the empty warehouse. Hazy rays from vehicle headlights illuminated the bay, bouncing around the metallic girders of the warehouse. Immediately, armored soldiers and paramedics streamed from the idling vans.

Akira would have collapsed in exhausted relief if she hadn’t been supporting Amon. Their reinforcements were finally here; even if the ghouls returned, she would already be on her way back to the CCG headquarters.

“Here’s one of ours. Unconscious, but alive.”

Akira squinted at the entrance, suddenly blinded as a bright light stabbed at her unadjusted eyes. She narrowed her eyes at the flashlight beams as shadows poured into the warehouse. One of the lights dimmed as a blurry figure approached her.

“Mado?” She recognized the voice. A fellow investigator. Slowly her eyes acclimated to the change in lighting, absorbing the worried young man in front of her.

“Are you injured?”

Akira shook her head automatically, considered the question, and then frowned. “Tend to my teammates first,” she answered instead.

“We’ve already loaded one of them in the ambulance.” He glanced from her to Amon. “Are you the only two left?”

“No! There’s ano—“ Akira blurted, twisting her head to the exit where she had seen her other teammate disappear. However, she was cut off mid-sentence as paramedics swarmed her, gently pulling Amon out of her grasp. Another medic knelt down by her leg, prodding her bleeding injury carefully with a gloved finger.

“We need to get this stitched up,” he muttered, straightening up.

“Wait, there’s anoth—“ she tried again, growing frustrated at being drowned out. The medic continued to ignore her protests and forcefully bustled her towards the parked vehicles. Unable to do much else, Akira reluctantly complied, tossing another desperate glance over her shoulder at the darkened doorframe. More investigators entered the warehouse bay, spreading out through the room to search each huddled mass for signs of life. Several had already disappeared through the back exit.

Akira watched them go, knowing they would either return with Nagachika’s half-eaten corpse or his barely breathing body.

She sighed and allowed the medic to guide her to the van. There wasn’t anything else she could do but wait.

As he raced back through the warehouse complex, he had to avoid even more investigators as they hovered over the wounded and deceased. Sticking close to the shadows, Kaneki leapt from the metal catwalks to the elevated support beams, creating his own route through the enemy-inhabited industrial complex. A few alarmed shouts echoed below him as the humans caught his erratic movements. Twice, muzzle flares caught in his periphery as half-hearted bullets ricocheted around the steel rafters, but for the most part, Kaneki was left alone by the preoccupied investigators.

They each had their own missions to accomplish.

Kaneki dropped from one of the metal girders with a soft thud before straightening up. Not even pausing to brush the dust and grime off his cloak, he continued his hurried journey towards the sound of his friend’s scream a few moments earlier.

He almost burst into the room, but controlled his hasty entrance in the last second. Kaneki threw himself backwards into the shadows, breathing faintly through his nose to not attract any fatal attention. Several investigators gathered around a puddle of blood while another scratched at a clipboard with a pen.

“There’s no one else here.”

There were a few mumbled words too hard to make out. Kaneki strained his ears to catch the next utterance.

“Time to move out then?”

“No…not yet. Let’s split up to search the next room and then meet back here. Maybe someone’ll know what actually happened.” The investigator sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. Kaneki couldn’t make out his face, but it didn’t matter. He was only looking for one particular individual.

The other humans grunted their agreement to their comrade and together they left the room. Releasing a pent up breath slowly in the dank air of the warehouse bay, Kaneki crept from the shadows and stared down at the puddle of blood they had been standing over.

Hide wasn’t here anymore.

Kaneki took a tentative sniff, hating the unavoidable rumble in his gut at the vivid, alluring smell of freshly spilt blood. If Hide had been here, then the investigators would have taken him with them. A ghoul must have gotten to him first then.

The thought of his subordinates following his orders was strangely unnerving.

He swallowed thickly, inhaling again to catch another whiff of human blood. He couldn’t help it.

He chastised himself for dwelling far longer than necessary on the scent. It’s Hide’s blood, he angrily reminded himself. You shouldn’t be enjoying it! It means he’s in danger.

 It had been so long since he had any contact with his best friend. This stunted reunion seemed far too cruel, far too inhuman.

Kaneki froze as the realization struck him. He had been so concerned about finding Hide that he hadn’t stopped to consider what his friend would see as his guardian angel.

He…he would see me. As a ghoul.

No… After all this time. After all I did to keep him safe—he would find out. He would hate me.

Hide would hate me.

Doubt blossomed in his mind, twisting his friend’s bright smile into a furtive leer. The looming feelings of betrayal writhed in his gut as he thought back to hearing Hide’s voice on the commlink.

But why is he here? Hide would never join the CCG unless—

Unless he already knows.

The reverberations of his pounding heart echoed loudly in his chest, repeating the sentence as if each word were a separate beat. 

Unless. He. Already. Knows.

Unless. He. Already. Knows.

Kaneki dismissed the thoughts with a vicious shake of his head, causing the zipper on his mask to rasp and rattle against the leather binding. It was impossible. Hide couldn’t know. If he knew, then he never would have gone looking for a monster like Kaneki.

No, Hide must have been in the wrong place at the wrong time.

But… still. Why this place? A small, almost pathetically hopeful voice lingered in the back of Kaneki’s mind. Was Hide looking for him?

Kaneki’s fingers rose to the strap on his mask and drummed against the thick fabric. Although he preferred the anonymity from his trademark mask, if he kept it on any longer, he would suffocate in the stale, leather-tasting air. He had no idea on how to save his best friend, but taking the mask off and breathing in the fresh air helped suppress the icy panic clawing up his windpipe.

He inhaled and exhaled twice, relishing the peace and silence, before turning away from the puddle of blood.

He had to find Hide, regardless of the cost.

The moment the needle made its last round through her skin, Akira jumped off the table, ignoring the indignant squawks of the paramedic, and marched towards the first investigator she saw.

“Yori!”

The investigator turned casually, partially still invested in his current conversation. However, at the sight of her determined expression, his smile dropped as he stiffened in respectful attention.

“Akira,” he blinked, glancing from her still raw injury to her stony stare. “Are you badly inj—“

“Do you know the status of my squad?” she interrupted. There wasn’t time to think about her own body, the ache in her leg and the wooziness in her pounding temples.

“Oh, uh, yes!” Slightly flustered by her directness, Yori fumbled with the clipboard in his hands. He scanned the listed names with squinting eyes, murmuring each name before jumping to the next. Akira waited with pursed lips, her patience ticking away with each syllable.

“Uh, let’s see… Erm… Oh! Here!” His gaze darted briefly to Akira’s unimpressed expression before returning to the report.

“Koutarou Amon… Injured, but not in critical condition by any means. It seems like a minor fracture to the left tibia.” Despite herself, Akira felt an eyebrow rise in mild surprise. She had been fairly certain that the beam would have caused more damage to her superior’s leg than that. That guy truly was tough.

“Seidou Takizawa… He was still unconscious last time we checked, but his vitals seemed to be strong.” Akira released a small sigh of relief, grateful that he seemed to be fine as well. She hesitated before asking for the third name.

“And Hideyoshi Nagachika?”

The investigator scanned through the names twice before shaking his head. “No… I’m sorry. He isn’t on here.” His expression shifted, unease staining his features. 

Akira nodded slowly. “Thank you for looking, Yori.” She turned to leave, but paused, lips parting as she considered her next words.

“Is there someone else you want me to look for?”

“No,” Akira hesitated, “but I was curious about your list. Is everyone who took part in the mission supposed to be on it?”

Yori avoided her gaze as he swallowed. A lump visibly rose and fell in his throat.

The realization hit Akira like a blow. “Only the wounded?”

Yori licked his lips and nodded to a somber investigator behind him. “He has the list of the fatalities.”

She followed his gesture, locking onto the man with narrowed eyes. Thanking Yori again for his time, Akira set off towards the new investigator.

“Is that the updated list of fatalities?”

“So far, yes.” He glanced at her and pulled his pen from the paper. He offered her the clipboard so she could search herself. It was a strange sort of kindness.

Akira quickly grabbed it with a murmured “thank you” and began to scan the list of names. Although she recognized a few of the deceased investigators, there had been many more on the injured list.

She frowned when she reached the end. She flipped the piece of paper back and forth, glancing at the stark white backside and the faint pen indentations on the clean page underneath.

Nagachika wasn’t on this list, either.

“Is this all…?”

The investigator nodded once, then twice. “They’re still pulling a few bodies from inside. As they come out, I record the names,” he answered.

“I see.”

Akira glanced at the main warehouse entrance. The paramedics and her uninjured comrades were carting out lumpy black bags and covered masses on stretchers. It was only a matter of time before they brought out her fallen teammate.

Determined to be of some use, she strode back inside the warehouse, carefully stepping over puddles of spilt crimson and the lifeless corpses of the dead ghouls. She paused at the threshold that Nagachika had disappeared through before stepping into a hallway.

Akira mashed her lips at the crusty trail of dried maroon footprints leading to the second door. The footsteps would have been a simple path to follow for a ghoul with sharp senses. Now in the blinding light of the CCG emergency lamps, she could see how easily Nagachika had led the ghoul to a fresh kill.

Upon entering the secondary warehouse bay, she quickly spotted the investigators hovering over something in the corner. Suppressing the squirming weakness in her stomach, Akira marched towards them, forcing a hardened frown across her features to prepare for the inevitable.

Along the way, she almost felt as if something was watching her. She turned her gaze towards the steel rafters before shaking her head, dismissing the ridiculous sensation. She was only stalling, knowing perfectly well what she was trying to avoid seeing.

However, once she reached the circle of coworkers, she stumbled to a stop at the puzzling sight in front of her. Instead of seeing Nagachika’s mangled, partially consumed corpse, she only saw a puddle of dark crimson. To the side, she spotted a discarded helmet, which had rolled a meter or two from the thick liquid. One of the paramedics noticed her presence and offered her a grim smile.

“Did you already move the body here?”

He shook his head and turned his gaze back to the puddle. “No, there wasn’t anything here. Strange, don’t you think?”

Akira frowned. There wasn’t anything here? She glanced between the discarded helmet and the trail of blood droplets leading to another puddle on the other side of the room.

She didn’t want to raise her hopes that he had managed to escape, especially considering that Nagachika was inexperienced and unarmed.

But… then again, Nagachika had joined their team upon suspicious circumstances, and he was absent from both complied lists of casualties. 

Akira bent down to scoop up the discarded helmet and pinned the nearest person with a firm stare. “Hideyoshi Nagachika—he’s a missing investigation assistant.”

“Ma’am…there are still a lot of missing investi—“ he began cautiously, holding his hands out in a placating manner.

“He isn’t here and there’s no blood trail leading to a body. Ghouls don’t just drag dead investigators to their hellholes for midnight snacks,” she snapped, shoving the helmet into the paramedic’s outstretched hands. “He’s somewhere, so find him.”

Spinning on her heel and trying not to stagger from the jagged dart of pain from her reopening injury, Akira stalked out of the warehouse bay.

She needed to find her team.

With clenched fingers wrapped in collar of the human’s uniform, Rakko studied his new possession with an unamused lift of an eyebrow.

This was what One-Eye wanted alive? The brat was barely more than an appetizer. Rakko brought the investigator in for a closer look, peering at the blond’s bruised and blood crusted face.

How could this pathetic excuse for an investigator kill another ghoul? He didn’t even have a weapon.

Rakko continued to examine the unconscious human. With each deep inhalation of the Dove’s sweetly scented blood, his hunger grew and his desire to follow One-Eye’s orders weakened.

Thankfully, he only had to wait a few moments for his partner to arrive. One-Eye skidded to a stop, his leather half-mask dangling from his clenched fingers as he glared at Rakko.

“Rakko,” he growled, the earlier fury tinging his normally passive tone.

“Ahh, One-Eye,” Rakko lazily drawled, allowing a carefree smile to stretch across his crimson flecked lips. “I believe our mission was a success. We killed many investigators despite—“

“Drop him.” The words were frigid and sharp.

“Hmm?” Rakko feigned surprise, enjoying how his partner was struggling to reign in his conflicting emotions. Such a nice change of pace from the bastard’s forced indifference.

“I said, drop him.”

“As you wish,” Rakko echoed his previous statement, making sure to layer enough false sincerity to cause the half-ghoul’s eye to twitch. He lifted the limp human a few inches in the air and loosened his fingers. The human crumpled to the ground in a dark gray and crimson pile, remaining still and quiet.

Rakko glanced back towards his partner and savored the twisted, pale expression on One-Eye’s face. If he didn’t know any better, he’d almost say One-Eye looked scared.

Did that weakling human actually kill another ghoul? He hummed, his eyes narrowing. Or was there something else at play?

He didn’t know much about One-Eye. Even the rumors surrounding the half-ghoul’s mysterious rise to prominence in Aogiri’s ranks seemed vague at best. Obviously, there was something between his partner and the unconscious human.

And Rakko fully intended to find out what that connection was.

For a terrifying moment, Kaneki feared that he was too late. When he reached the room they had previously established as their base, all he could smell was his best friend’s blood. As he burst through the door, barely holding back his ragged pants, Kaneki’s glare fell on Rakko’s triumphant grin as he held his prisoner in the air.

Rakko made a sardonic comment, but Kaneki didn’t hear it. Instead, his attention was focused on his unconscious best friend, bleeding and bruised after being forcefully apprehended by Rakko.

I thought I told him not to hurt him, Kaneki growled in his mind. Once he figured out how to get Hide out of the psychopath’s malicious grasp, he would make sure to punish him for failure to follow orders.  

Hide’s blood drip, drip, dropped onto the floor and – fuck – no, Kaneki was going to kill Rakko.

“Drop him,” Kaneki heard himself mutter in a low, deepened voice. He repeated the demand when Rakko feigned ignorance, straining to control the writhing anger coursing through his veins.

After another silent standoff of wills, Rakko sighed and tossed Hide to the ground. The sight of his best friend collapsing like a torn ragdoll caught Kaneki like a blade to the chest. A lump to rose in his throat, threatening to choke him. He quickly swallowed it and steeled his expression back to casual disinterest, but he was painfully aware that Rakko had caught his divulging flicker of emotion.

After all, there had to be a reason for the bastard’s smirk.

Kaneki tore his suspicious glare from Rakko and quickly looked over his injured best friend. Hide smelt so strongly of blood that it turned his stomach. Kaneki had to breathe shallowly through his mouth or he would be sick.

“I don’t know what’s the big deal about him. He’s just some shrimpy human.” Rakko pulled a face before shaking his head in disbelief. “But… I think Ayato will want to see your new pet,” he tossed over his shoulder on the way to the door.

Kaneki waited until the Rakko’s sharp, echoing footsteps faded before dropping to his knees beside his best friend. He held a trembling hand over Hide’s shoulder before retracting it.

“Hide…?” Kaneki whispered weakly instead, half-hoping Hide wouldn’t stir. He still had too much to sort out in his mind before he could begin to share everything that had happened to him in the past few months.

Hide remained silent, face relaxed in a peaceful expression with his pale lips parted.

Kaneki swallowed before gently tucking his arms around his best friend. With a soft grunt, he hoisted Hide into the air with one arm supporting his knees while another cradled his shoulder blades. Unable to restrain himself, Kaneki buried his face into the Hide’s soft hair, inhaling the sweet fragrance of his shampoo. He wondered how he could ever forget the scent of his best friend, the scent of home. It was so comforting to feel the warmth pouring from Hide’s body as Kaneki held him against his chest. He tried to ignore the hot, sticky dribble of liquid that trailed from the human’s leg and down Kaneki’s sleeve.

The last time Kaneki had seen his best friend so damaged and battered was after Nishio had ambushed them. Kaneki had failed them both by being too weak, and it had almost gotten Hide killed.

 No matter what it took, he would not fail him again.  

Chapter Text

Akira had the audacity to be surprised when her stitches came out after stomping around the warehouse for an hour, searching for any clues about her missing teammate. When the medics forcefully escorted her to the nearest ambulance, they decided to proactively prevent any further damage by sending her directly to the hospital for treatment. She protested, but they shut the ambulance doors, regardless.

With such a containable injury, Akira’s treatment was done by the time the ambulance pulled into the lot dedicated to the CCG. Thanking her pseudo-captors with a curt nod, she slipped out of the back and limped to the entrance. If she couldn’t keep looking for Nagachika, then at least she could find the rest of her team.

Akira pushed through the glass doors and blinked, lost amidst the hurrying nurses and scattered gurneys on the main emergency room floor. Although she had been brought back this way once or twice after disastrous missions, she had never been conscious. She tried to find the path of least nuisance, skirting around a gasping agent clutching her stomach and tiptoeing around a doctor barking orders to the nearby nurses.

Akira slipped through another set of doors, relieved to be in a more familiar part of the CCG ward of the hospital. She moved down the long hallway, glancing from room to room. Nurses and doctors milled quietly about, checking on their stabilized patients. After escaping the chaos of the receiving terminal, the main corridor was almost peaceful.

Almost.

“What do you mean I can’t have my phone!? I need to contact my partner!”

“Sir…”

Akira’s lips quirked upwards at the familiar voice. She knocked on the door, coming face to face with an exasperated nurse.

“Are you his partner? Or family?”

Akira shook her head. “No, but he used to work with my fa—“

The nurse did a quick survey of Akira before shrugging. “Good enough. Keep him distracted until we come back with a stronger sedative.” She slid past Akira, calling for another doctor.

Akira entered the room, brow scrunching at the sight of one of her father’s old friends, grumbling and grunting as he rooted through his discarded uniform. He glanced up and grinned at the sight of her.

“Akira! You’ve grown!”

She smiled thinly. “I didn’t know you were participating in this mission, Tanaka.”

He nodded before sitting up, tossing his jacket to the floor. “I was supposed to be part of the reinforcements, but somehow ended up on the front line. Higher ups did a pretty shitty job of planning.”

“So I’ve heard.” Her lips curled to a frown. They weren’t the only team that had strange orders, apparently. “I hope you weren’t too injured.”

Tanaka sighed before flipping back the blankets. Akira frowned at the absence before she realized there was supposed to be the rest of a leg attached to his swaddled thigh.

“I’m sorry for your loss,” Akira murmured, ducking her head.

He shrugged before tucking the blankets gingerly back around the stump. “Ehh, the ghoul did me a favor. The knee was going bad anyway. Now maybe I’ll get some vacation time and the CCG will cover my replacement surgery.” His forced smile faded as his shoulders crumpled. Akira watched, silent and expressionless, as his confident bravado slipped.

“Don’t know what the hell I’m laughing about. I’m lucky to be alive. Could’ve sworn that kid was going to come back and finish the job. But instead he left me bleeding all over the damn floor.”

“Kid?” Akira tilted her head, curious at the shift in tone. “He didn’t try to kill you?”

Tanaka shook his head. “No, he didn’t. Didn’t even try, really. He seemed too distracted, looking everywhere but at me. Once I was down, he rushed in the opposite direction. Looked like he was on a mission and nothing was going to stop him. I guess that included me.”

Akira’s forehead furrowed as she reviewed her mental map of the warehouse complex. “Where was he going?”

He considered the question before shrugging. “The southern bays. Don’t know why. They were damn near destroyed after a roof collapse a few years ago. We didn’t even bother trying to go that way.”

Akira’s gut clenched automatically. They were supposed to be at one of the southern entrances, but the compromised structure made them move. A ghoul on a mission, a missing investigator. The chances that the two events were related seemed impossible, but Akira remembered again how Nagachika first entered their team on murky orders from Marude.

Nagachika was not ordinary investigation assistant. In that regard, his disappearance wouldn’t be mundane, either.

“Can you describe the ghoul?”

Whoever this mysterious ghoul was, he didn’t kill Tanaka. He had been distracted and trying to get somewhere else. What ghoul from Aogiri Tree would do that?  She shuddered as she thought back to the grinning, bloody-toothed monster, toying with them, trying to beat them down one-by-one. 

“He was young, probably even younger than you. Which was what made me remember that he had such white hair.”

“And? Did he have a mask on?”

“Yeah, he did. I’m trying to think…” He groaned, rubbing at his temples. “Oh, right! It was a nasty one, teeth barred and smiling and—“ Tanaka’s eyes glazed over as if he were somewhere other than his hospital room. “He seemed so determined… So frightened…”

Akira wasn’t sure who Tanaka was referring to anymore, but it was probably time to let him rest. A nurse had slipped into the room a few moments earlier and was watching her with a solemn silence as she adjusted Tanaka’s IV.

She nodded to the nurse before moving towards the door. Tanaka’s sleepy, slurry voice caused her to pause.

“Akira… my team. Do you know what happened to them? Nakamura and Inoue?”

She glanced down at her whitened knuckles, clenched around the door handle. She had seen Nakamura’s name, right below where Nagachika’s name would have been when she scanned the fatalities list.

“I don’t know,” she muttered. Her father’s old friend would already have nightmares. She didn’t need to add on the death of a teammate. Tanaka released a knowing sigh before burrowing deeper into his blankets, finally overcome by the stronger sedatives.

Akira slipped through the door. Time to find Amon.

She found Amon in the waiting rooms, propped up in a chair with a pair of crutches tucked underneath the seats. When he spotted her coming, he attempted to rise with a grunt, but she waved him down with a firm sweep of the hand.

His gaze dropped to her leg, eyeing the stream of dried blood from the earlier reopened stitches. She had been in too much of a hurry to let the paramedics deal with the cosmetics or the painkillers.

“Are you—“

“Fine. What about you?” She glanced down at his ankle, concealed beneath a heavy walking boot.

Amon’s lips quirked upwards before flattening out, as if he would have been disappointed with any other response from her. “A fractured tibia. They only gave me this,” he gestured towards the boot, “since I couldn’t promise I’d stay off my feet.”

“And Seidou?”

“They’re keeping him under observation, but he seemed to be fine.” Amon locked gazes with Akira. “Nagachika was not brought here.”

“No, he wasn’t.”

Amon nodded, his expression one of weary resignation. “So, it was real then. Nagachika really did try to lure the ghoul away.”

“They couldn’t find him,” Akira added.  

Amon’s brow furrowed as he looked back up at her.

“Nagachika is missing,” she continued. “He’s injured—the paramedics found his helmet next to a puddle of blood—but he isn’t on either of the lists.” She paused. “I even checked over the investigators too…damaged to identify and he wasn’t there either.”

That had also been a heart pounding experience, scanning over the mangled corpses for a flash of blond. If there had been anything in her stomach, she might’ve lost it right then and there.

“He’s missing?” Amon echoed, still struggling through the last remnants of his painkillers to catch up. “Did you file a report?”

“I did, but due to his lack of training and the circumstances around how he disappeared, they believe finding him is a low priority.”

“Missing” investigators were not uncommon, especially since their statuses were frequently changed to deceased once the bodies were found a few hundred meters from the battleground. These were their “low” priority cases.

However, Akira knew that cases involving missing investigation assistants who may have been captured by ghouls were considerably rarer. Amon did, too, grunting as he rose to his feet again. If Nagachika was to be treated like a low priority, then it was up to them to find him.

He was part of their team.

It was a strange feeling, holding Hide. With Hide pressed to his chest, Kaneki could feel everything he had tried to force himself to forget. He could feel Hide’s warmth, radiating through the chill of the frigid night. He could feel the soft rise and fall of Hide’s shoulders each time he took a shallow breath.

Hide felt so real, so alive, but also so fragile, as if Kaneki could snap him in two with a single misstep.

He didn’t know where he was going, but he knew he had to get Hide away from where Rakko could find him. At least, away from Rakko and the others before Hide woke up. He was still struggling around his explanation, feeling the jumbled words tangle through his mind and heart like writhing snakes. Kaneki shuddered; the sensation was disgustingly familiar.

Hide murmured something, shifting in Kaneki’s arms. Kaneki froze, starting down at his delicate cargo with widened eyes. His mask was clipped to his belt—what if Hide woke up and saw him like this?

Tossing a look over his shoulder, Kaneki figured they were far enough from Rakko’s room to rest. He gingerly laid Hide down, pillowing his discarded Aogiri cloak under his bruised temple. His trembling fingers hovered over Hide’s crimson matted hair before he yanked them backwards.

A monster like him didn’t deserve the tenderness. No, he needed to hide. He couldn’t let Hide see him. Kaneki fumbled with his mask, scrambling to undo the buckles with jerking motions. He had to hurry. It was only a matter of moments bef—

Hide groaned again, reaching up to rub at his squeezed-shut eyes with a wince. He moved to rise up, but Kaneki automatically reached out his hands to keep him in a reclined position. Hide’s blurry eyes slowly opened and landed on Kaneki. He flinched, pulling his arms from Hide and burying half of his face in the crook of his elbow.

 “Hey Kaneki.”

Kaneki trembled at the words. How many times had he dreamed them, only to wake up alone in the dark, strapped to a chair?

“It’s been a while, huh?”

Why isn’t he scared? He should be scared of me! Angry!

He kept his gaze lowered. He couldn’t bear to see the fear, the rejection. The expression would surely be the antithesis of Hide – cold and brutal and angry, because there was no way that Hide could still care—

“Kaneki… look at me.” Kaneki hesitated, clenching his darkened fingernails deeper into his palm. It felt so good to hear his own name again, but that warmth was dangerous. Like a fire, capable of burning him hollow.

“Kaneki, please.”

With a shuddering gasp, he finally relented and peeked at his best friend.

Hide was upright and watching him with a sad smile. “I’d apologize for bleeding all over your cloak, but you can’t even see the stain. Pretty smart way to reduce laundry costs, if you ask me.”

Kaneki’s ragged breaths grew shakier when Hide reached over and planted a firm hand on his shoulder.

“Kaneki, I’m glad I found you.”

Kaneki jerked his head back, narrowly missing Hide’s chin after he had scooted closer. This wasn’t – this wasn’t how he was expecting this reunion to go. Hide was supposed to be scared of him.

Not—not glad.

“I mean, technically you found me, but that’s beside the point. I’m glad we found each other,” Hide amended.

“Found?” Kaneki croaked. His voice was hoarse and thick like Hide’s, but more from emotion than injury.

Hide was truly looking for him?

“I was worried about you, man. Ever since you disappeared, I tried everything to find you.”

“Did you know? That I was a mo—“

He knew and he was still looking for Kaneki?

“A ghoul? Sure. First time I saw you after the accident, you had an ear lodged between your front teeth.”

Kaneki stiffened with a sharp intake of breath. “Hide, I ne—“

“Kidding! I was kidding, Kaneki.” Hide rolled his eyes with a good-natured smile. “I was trying to tell a joke to lighten the mood. You look you’re at a funeral or something.”

Almost was.

He eyed Hide’s temple, swollen and purple. His gaze traveled down Hide’s battered body, landing on his dripping calf and the small pool of blood underneath it. Kaneki immediately chastised himself for being so concerned about Hide’s reaction.

(Stupid! You didn’t even try to stop the bleeding! He could have died before you even had the chance to explain.)

Hide followed his gaze and mashed his lips. “Right… That’ll make getting out of here a bit trickier.”

“Does it hurt?” Kaneki moved tentatively towards the injury. His stomach growled, but Hide made an ostentatious show of masking it with a loud yawn instead.

“Oh, it’s absolutely excruciating. Worse than the time you made me read that one book by Takatsuki Sen. What was it—something about a gruff goat?”

Kaneki shook his head and laughed, a hesitant sound that crescendoed. “You got two of the stories crossed.” Although his expression faded to a more comfortable one, the smile remained on his face. He ripped off a shred of his cloak and fastened around the puncture wound on Hide’s calf. Hide winced at the contact but kept chattering.

Kaneki was grateful for the respite. It gave his mind – and stomach – something else to focus on.  

“I still don’t know how I made it. I was trying to lead this ghoul away from my team—right, I’ll have to explain that later too—and he speared me through the leg with his kagune. I thought I was dead mea—err, I wasn’t sure what happened next, but then I woke up here. With you.”

 “The ghoul that hurt you, what was he like?” 

Hide shuddered, rubbing the back of his neck. “Red hair. A bit creepy. He was really relishing it all. That’s why it was so surprising that I survived.”

Rakko. He’ll pay for hurting Hide. Kaneki’s grip around Hide’s leg tightened reflexively, but he loosened it with a murmured apology when Hide started to fidget.  

“That must have been Rakko.”

 “Rakko? Like, the sea otter?”

Kaneki blinked. He had never stopped to consider the translation of Rakko’s name before. He could only imagine how frustrated Rakko would be if he knew that a human was laughing at his name.

“Wow, that’s a bit embarrassing. Being killed by a ghoul named after a fluffy water cat.”

Kaneki opened his mouth to warn Hide about mocking such an unhinged ghoul when his communicator went off. Flicking a careful glance towards Hide, Kaneki flipped it open.

“One-Eye,” he muttered in a deeper, coarser voice. Hide’s eyebrow darted upwards in mock amusement.

“Hello, One-Eye. I went back to fetch you, but you weren’t there.”

Kaneki watched Hide out of the corner of his eye. His best friend’s expression had noticeably dropped at the familiar voice. Despite all of his smiles and confident bravado, apparently his brush with death had still shaken him.

“I moved. The location was compromised by Doves.”

“Speaking of Doves, I hope you still have your little birdie. Ayato is interested in meeting this dangerous ghoul-killer. You have fifteen minutes to report back to the conference room.” The line went dead, leaving Kaneki to glare at the device.

“Ghoul-killer…?”

Kaneki sighed. He had been hoping to avoid this particular topic. “I heard your voice on one of the CCG radios. I told the other ghouls to find you and bring you to me. Unharmed.” Kaneki swallowed thickly. “Rakko disobeyed and…. I’m sorry, Hide.”

Hide tittered weakly, though Kaneki could sense an underlying unease in his laugh. “So, it wasn’t my dashing wit and luck that kept me from being killed?” He tried for a melodramatic sign, but it came out in two shaky, fragmented exhales.

“It’s my fault that he knows about you.”

Hide shrugged. “We would have run into each other eventually. My team encountered him in one of the warehouse bays. You ordering him not to kill me probably saved my life.”

Kaneki’s brow twitched. This was the second time Hide talked about his team. Was he actually part of the CCG? A genuine investigator?

“You keep mentioning your team,” Kaneki began cautiously, unsure of whether this was a safe thread to pull.

Hide offered a bland smile. “When I mentioned trying everything to find you, I wasn’t kidding. The CCG seemed to have…the best information, so I tried to get some of that by part-timing as an investigation assistant. It worked, didn’t it?”

Kaneki didn’t like the fact that Hide had entered such a dangerous business, especially after he went through so much trouble trying to distance himself from his best friend in the first place. However, his heart had settled into a peaceful rhythm sometime during their conversation and Kaneki couldn’t remember the last time he had laughed so frequently. It was selfish of him to be happy while Hide was still at risk, but he decided he deserved to enjoy the sensation at least once more.

“I have to get you out of here before Rakko and the others come looking for us.”

Hide frowned. “Won’t you get in trouble if they find out you helped a CCG agent?”

Kaneki shook his head with a firm jerk of the chin. “I’m not going to let them take you away again.”

Hide tilted his head at the wording, but he said nothing. Likewise, Kaneki didn’t feel like expanding. This was already too vulnerable and raw of a reunion.

Kaneki cleared his throat. “Can you walk on your own? I can distract the others while you run towards an entrance.”

Hide pressed his lips together, shoulders slumping. “I don’t think so. I… I think the bone might be damaged.” Kaneki glanced back at Hide’s leg. He hadn’t noticed while binding the more distracting injury, but his foot had seemed at an odd angle. It had been unresponsive while Kaneki bandaged and put pressure on Hide’s calf.

“I might be able to crawl though?” Hide offered unhelpfully.

Kaneki blanched. He refused to let Hide crawl through a ghoul-infested base.

“I’ll have to carry you out then. I can fi—”

Hide puckered his lips, thinking. “Well, are these ghouls particularly smart?”

“Huh?”

He pulled Kaneki’s cloak closer to himself. “I could pretend to be your comrade that died in the raid. No one would know if I lie really still and you cover me in this!”

Kaneki didn’t like the sound of that either. The thought of carrying a motionless Hide under a shroud—even if he were still alive—was deeply unnerving to Kaneki, almost like a distant nightmare.

However, if it was the only way to save him—

“Knock, knock.”

Both pairs of eyes darted towards the door. Rakko burst in, teeth gleaming as he noticed Hide was awake. Rakko’s gaze landed pointedly on the bandaging on Hide’s leg.

Kaneki cringed, hating the sudden sensation of being trapped. Of course, Rakko would know something was off. After all, what was the point to tending the injuries of an enemy if they were supposed to be executed soon?

“Rakko.” He buried his uneasiness into his venomous hiss. “What do you want?”

“I decided to escort you to Ayato myself. I’d feel so terrible if my supervisor was killed by some dangerous ghoul-killer that I delivered to him.” He reached towards Hide’s collar, but Kaneki smacked his hand away.

“I’ll carry him.”

Rakko bowed his head, no longer bothering to conceal his smile.

“After you.”

Once Seidou had regained consciousness, Akira recounted what had happened for the third time that day. She included every detail, even ones as confusing as the two pools of blood and Nagachika’s discarded helmet.

Amon, who had already heard it once, watched Akira impassively. Seidou, however, was significantly more emotional.

“What? What do you mean he’s missing?! Ghouls don’t kidnap CCG agents! That’s not what happens!”

Amon flicked his gaze towards the door. The doctors had warned them about upsetting Seidou.

“I mean what I said!” Akira snapped. “He’s missing and we need to find him!”

Amon could tell she felt just as helpless as he did. They had all coped with loss and were aware that any mission could be their last. But Nagachika was different—he was too young, too close to being like the civilians they strove to save. He was part of their team and he risked his life for theirs.

Seidou settled back down in the bed, momentarily stunned into silence. “I—"

Amon crossed his arms, leaning back against the wall to take pressure off of his injured leg. He knew he should be seated, but he was tired of resting.

“Is there anything else?”

Akira hesitated before pursing her lips. Her behavior only made Amon more curious. He knew his subordinate hated feeling foolish, so she only spoke up whenever there was an indisputable reason to do so.

She must have a theory, but she isn’t sure about it.

“Tell us.”

Akira sighed before relenting. “It’s what Tanaka said about the ghoul that attacked him.” Amon hoisted a brow upwards. Akira had briefly mentioned visiting Tanaka, but she didn’t say what they had discussed.

“He said the ghoul that attacked him didn’t try to kill him. That he incapacitated him then rushed towards the south entrance. Tanaka seemed to think that the ghoul was on some sort of mission.”

“We were supposed to be at the south entrance,” Seidou muttered, tentatively poking himself back into the conversation.

Akira nodded with a frown. “That’s what I thought too, but it doesn’t mean anything. Tanaka-san was severely injured and who knows what that ghoul was doing.”

“He said the ghoul was distressed for some reason? Did he say anymore?”

“He said the ghoul was young with white hair.”

Amon’s expression remained unchanged. White hair? He didn’t know of any ghouls who looked like that, much less any who might be involved with this raid or Nagachika’s disappearance.

“And his mask was some sort of creepy grimace,” she added.

Amon jerked his arms out of their crossed position, sending his nearby crutches clattering to the floor. Seidou jumped at the sound, nearly toppling out of his hospital bed.

“What?”

Akira glanced from the crutches back to Amon’s pale face. “He said the mask was an exposed smile or something. Do you know who it is?”       

Shit.

Amon nodded tersely, his head bobbing once. “We’ve met before when—“ He broke off, glancing in Akira’s direction before altering the conversation. “When he still had dark hair. The database has him listed as One-Eye, but others used to call him Eyepatch. He always had strange ideas about ghouls and humans coexisting.”

“Do you think he has anything to do with this? With Nagachika going missing?”

“I’m not sure, but there’s no harm in looking into it.”

Kaneki tried to keep his heartbeats even as he trailed after Rakko, but each time Hide shifted or bounced in his arms, his heart rate rocketed.

I have to kill him. That’s the only way to save Hide.

“Oh, Ooooone-Eye,” Rakko drawled, glancing over his shoulder with a wicked smile. “Aren’t you going to tell me why your little birdie is still alive? I thought you said you were going to be the one to take care of him.”

I can’t lose Hide again. Not again. Never again.

“If I’d had known you’d be this gentle, I would have killed him myself.” Kaneki’s grip tightened around Hide, who was being remarkably still and silent. His earlier suggestion to play dead seemed like an increasingly better alternative with each step they took towards Ayato.

“You’ll do no such thing. You already disobeyed orders by harming him.”

“Aww, but he was a wriggly one. It was the only way to catch him.” Rakko offered another wink in Hide’s direction. “Maybe you were right about him being more than a simple human.”

Kaneki gritted his teeth. He ached to say more or do more, but Rakko’s kagune was out, twitching and tickling the air near Hide’s cheek. Rakko claimed the tendrils were for Kaneki’s protection, but they were really there to keep Kaneki subdued. A single flick of any one of his rinkaku tendrils could decapitate Hide.

They walked in silence for a few more tense moments. Kaneki and Hide exchanged wide-eyed glances each time Rakko turned back around. However, the bastard was too close for them to come up with a more viable plan.

They would have to improvise – Kaneki’s least favorite thing.

The tiny group stopped at a heavy door. Rakko knocked once before pushing through. He recalled his kagune, but not before offering a Kaneki a frosty smile that seemed as much of a threat as a warning.

Kaneki and Hide followed reluctantly behind. Kaneki took note of the other occupants and felt his stomach twist. Although Ayato was the most concerning obstacle, there were other ghouls that would make escape difficult. Naki and his bodyguards slouched on the couch in the corner, while several executives glanced up with mild interest at the new visitors. 

“Good evening, Ayato. As you requested, I have retrieved One-Eye.”       

Ayato flicked his unimpressed gaze from Rakko to Kaneki. “According to this one, I heard that you were pretty fucking useless during this raid. For your sake, I hope he’s wrong.”

Ayato slipped off his chair and stalked towards the three. Kaneki tried to pull Hide closer to himself, but Hide wriggled out of his grasp with a loosely aimed kick. He tumbled to the ground, wincing in pain, but struggled into a more dignified position, glaring defiantly at the ghouls around him.

What are you doing, Hide? This isn’t the time for bluffing!

“What do you want with me? Who are you?”

Ayato blinked at Hide, as if noticing him for the first time. “And what’s with this talking piece of shit?”

Rakko moved towards Ayato’s side, whispering in his ear while keeping his gaze locked with Kaneki. Ayato scoffed after his briefing, looking even less impressed with Hide.

“Ghoul-killer? Are you serious? This looks like a waste of my time.” And Ayato’s growl suggested that he did not like to waste time.

“That’s what I thought too, but One-Eye has been very…concerned about this human. If a ghoul as capable of One-Eye is worried about this Dove, then I thought it would be wise to inform you.”

Ayato narrowed his eyes at Kaneki. “Explain yourself before I take this to Tatara.”

Kaneki took a deep breath and opened his mouth, though he was at a loss for what to say next. He glanced to the side at the other Aogiri Tree members. They were watching, but still at an uninterested distance. Ayato and Rakko were the only ones close enough to hurt Hide, but if Kaneki acted fast eno—

“Hey! What do you want from me?”

Hide… Stop before you get yourself killed!

Rakko quirked an eyebrow at Hide’s audacity. “The bird’s bold, I’ll give him that.”

Ayato crossed his arms, still unimpressed. “Or maybe just an idiot.”

Kaneki remained rigid. That look – that quick, sheepish glance Hide just gave him. Kaneki knew that expression from their childhood, knew that it always used to precede shattered windows or scuffed up knees.

Goddammit. Hide was about to do something incredible stupid, and Kaneki couldn’t stop him.

“You do look familiar though,” Hide drawled. “The way you called me idiot just now, could have sworn I’ve heard it before…”

Ayato pivoted sharply, taking a threatening step towards Hide. “What are you talking about?”

“You didn’t happen to have a sister, do you? Worked at a coffee shop? She was really cute too, but I haven’t seen her since the Doves came. Such a shame, though I guess I know why.”

Hide—no no no no no.... Not Touka – not in front of Ayato.

Rakko didn’t understand the reference, but the sudden fury that surged through Ayato’s trembling form caused even him to take a hasty step backwards. A twinge of uncertainty flickered across Rakko’s features for the first time that evening.  Kaneki was too busy screaming internally to savor the bastard’s fear.

“Shut the fuck up!” Ayato seethed, lashing out at Hide with a hard kick. Hide caught the boot in his stomach and cried out in pain, curling in on himself. Kaneki stiffened, fighting the urge to destroy everything in the room. Ayato reared back as if strike again, but caught himself with a hiccupy pant.

Instead, he swung his fiery glare in Kaneki’s direction. “Get rid of him. Now. I don’t care what you do—just get him out!”

Kaneki nodded weakly, pulling a gasping Hide back into his arms. He backed towards the exit when Rakko regained his composure.

“Ayato, perhaps we should first hear about this bird’s other crimes before having One-Eye…dispose of him.”

“It doesn’t matter what he’s done.” Ayato shot a glare in Rakko’s direction, and the latter lowered his gaze. “He’s not going to be alive much longer anyway. Right, Kaneki?”

“R-right.”

“If I may—“

Kaneki clutched Hide tighter, desperately striving to keep his steps even as he neared the door. Could this be it? Was it that easy to escape? He just had to get out before Rakko made things worse.

“Don’t test me,” Ayato growled. However, a furrow-browed curiosity replaced Ayato’s fury. He shifted his attention back towards Kaneki and Hide.

“Oi! Hold up, Kaneki!”

Kaneki closed and slowly opened his eyes before turning back to Ayato. Ayato approached, grabbing a fistful of blond hair and yanking back to better see Hide’s bruised face. Kaneki’s fingers pressed harder into Hide’s uniform.

“What ghoul did you kill?”

“He killed an o—“

“I want to hear it from him. To see if he even knows what he did.”

Make up a name. Say something. Don’t say Touka this time.  

Rakko grinned, crossing his arms. “It better be someone important after all this. If not, I want to kill the bird myself.”

Hide swallowed thickly before steeling his expression. “Jason.”

What…?

Kaneki wasn’t the only one startled. Ayato parted his lips, confused by the unexpected answer. Rakko seemed similarly baffled —after all, they all had heard the ghost stories about the psychotic Dove that drove a motorcycle through a fourth-floor window.

And Kaneki knew the real truth about who took down Jason.

“What?” Ayato echoed. 

Avoiding Kaneki’s pleading stare for him to shut up, Hide continued. “I tailed Jason and put a tracker on the bottom of his shoe. He didn’t know I was a human, since I disguised myself as a ghoul,” he explained in a rush of words. “I reported his location to the CCG. That’s how they knew about the Aogiri base in the 11^th Ward. Otherwise our attack would have been weeks later.”

The room fell silent before a shriek from Naki shattered the stunned calm. His kakugan blazed red as his kagune exploded from his back and wrapped around his right arm.

“What did you say about Big Bro?!”

Chapter Text

“What did you say about Big Bro?!”

For a moment, Naki’s violent response was met with a stunned silence. He even seemed shocked by his own outburst, swinging his head back and forth to find the cause of his anguish. Kaneki took a reflexive half-step back and then instantly regretted drawing any attention to himself or Hide.

Maybe he didn’t realize it was Hide who said it. Maybe he thought it was someone else.

Naki had been fooled by less, after all.

Kaneki’s fingers tightened around Hide, his dark nails scraping against the velcro padding on his CCG uniform. The only CCG-related thing in the room. Naki snarled and lurched forward, drawing his right arm and kagune back.

“Were you the one who said it? Huh, dove-dove?”

No such luck.

He could feel Hide tense and Kaneki realized he felt just as anxious. What were you thinking, Hide? The words didn’t carry the same exasperated fondness as they used to when Hide would concoct ridiculous schemes as a child.

Before Hide or Kaneki could respond, Naki screeched and lurched forward.

Whether he was acting on instinct or delaying Hide’s death for his own dark purposes, Rakko moved to intercept Naki’s attack, wrapping his own kagune around Naki’s koukaku protrusion and yanking backwards. The latter instantly recoiled at the personal affront, turning his anger to Rakko.

“Huh? Did you kill Big Bro?” Naki’s eyes widened as he lunged towards Rakko, teeth flashing and chomping the air in an attempt to bite himself free. Upon seeing their boss change targets—indeed, a more formidable one at that—Naki’s twin bodyguards leaped to his aid, their own kagune drawn.

As this had happened in a few seconds, the rest of the ghouls gawked at the exchange, too stunned to comprehend the sharp turn of events, much less intervene. Ayato reacted first, simultaneously growling under his breath while shouting for Naki to stop. He jerked his head back and forth, from Rakko to the bodyguards and back to Naki, and settled for an even louder bellowing.

Kaneki was temporarily transfixed by the chaos. Naki had landed a particularly deep bite on Rakko’s shoulder, ripping his head back and spraying the room with dark ghoul blood. Kaneki’s nose twitched instinctually, his spine prickling in uncertainty. Should he activate his kagune? Should he join the fight too?

“Go!”

Hide’s hoarse whisper jarred Kaneki out of his stupor. He glanced down to meet Hide’s eyes, so wide that his chestnut irises seemed stranded in seas of white.

“Kaneki, run!”

Kaneki nodded numbly before backpedaling, keeping his wary gaze fixed on Rakko. Rakko, who was attempting to extract his leg from the salivating jaw of one of Naki’s bodyguards, caught sight of their hasty retreat. He growled something, lost under Naki’s shrieks of “Boss! Boss!”, but Kaneki could feel the murderous intent. He struggled harder to escape, to catch them and rip them both apart, but another ghoul entered the fray and tangled herself in Rakko’s kagune.

The moment Kaneki moved out of sight of the conference room door, he turned and ran, keeping Hide firmly grasped in his iron clutches. If he dropped Hide or if they fell due to his recklessness, then all of that terror and carnage would have been for nothing.

After several minutes of sustained running, Kaneki slowed, fearing his heart would burst if he kept moving. He was stronger than he had ever been, certainly, but he had been carrying Hide for what seemed like hours. Kaneki could feel Hide trembling sharply and he couldn’t blame him. Kaneki always felt at unease when interacting with the Aogiri executive team—and he was part of them. 

“Hide—” It still felt so wonderfully strange to say his best friend’s name “Hide, are you okay?”

Hide pulled his face away from Kaneki’s chest, but Kaneki was surprised to see a crinkled-eyed grin instead of tears.

“Hide—you’re laughing…?”

He knew some people reacted to intense situations in different ways. Touka and Nishio always resorted to some sort of cathartic violence, but Hide’s frame-shaking laughter stunned him.

“I’m—I really shouldn’t be laughing—aha, and maybe I’m just so—so, ha, nervous. But that worked so much better than I thought it would!”

Kaneki stared blankly at his friend. So, Hide did have a plan. He almost regretted asking, but he figured it would be a better conversation topic than some of the other things they were past due to talk about.

“What plan?”

They were far outside of the main compound now. Kaneki knew from past experiences that no one would be patrolling this far outside of range. He gently set Hide down against a fallen tree, watching as his best friend scooted and wriggled with discontent sighs until he was acceptably comfortable.

Typical. He’s fine being carried through a high-ranking ghoul conference, but leaning against a tree draws the line. Kaneki hid a rueful smile. He knew they weren’t safe—judging by the malice in Rakko’s glare, Hide would never be safe—but he felt secure enough to enjoy the small pleasures again.

“What plan?” Kaneki repeated. He reviewed the chaotic events that led up to their escape: Ayato’s anger, Naki’s loss of control, Rakko’s accidental assistance. As far as Kaneki could see, it all felt circumstantial and very lucky to him. 

Hide prodded at his leg injury while he spoke, investigating the fresh beads of blood that dribbled from the stained cloak binding. Kaneki’s stomach twisted; apparently, he hadn’t been as gentle as he had thought during their panicked flight. He was, however, relieved to note that at least the smell no longer set off his rumbling stomach.

“I was hoping that if the leader guy got angry or distracted, then we would have a chance to slip away.” Hide winced, patting his stomach gingerly from where Ayato had kicked him. “I didn’t think he’d be that angry though. And I definitely didn’t expect that other guy to freak out.”

Hide paused, a shit-eating grin appearing on his bruised and mottled face. Kaneki eyed the expression warily, knowing it had to be tender.

“He was Touka’s brother, right? The resemblance was uncanny.”

“Yes.” Kaneki mashed his lips together. “That was a very stupid thing to do, Hide.”

Hide laughed again and shook his head. “I can’t believe I missed hearing you call me an idiot.”

Kaneki’s stern expression faded as he mirrored Hide’s smile. “I mean it,” he insisted. “Especially telling them about…Jason.” Kaneki swallowed thickly, though he knew there was nothing in his throat other than the soured aftertaste of nightmares. Truthfully, he felt a bit sick that Hide even knew who Jason was. “If Ayato remembers what you looked like, he’ll try to bring you to the rest of Aogiri Tree. Couldn’t you have come up with a less dangerous story…?” Kaneki trailed off at Hide’s suddenly serious expression.

“Kaneki,” Hide began gently, almost uncertainly as if he were testing the water. “It wasn’t something I made up. I actually did that stuff.”

Kaneki blinked, uncomprehending. “What?”

Hide resumed his picking at the Aogiri cloth bound around his calf, yanking on one of the crusty, crimson threads. He jerked his gaze back up, meeting Kaneki’s blank expression with a solemn frown.

“I stopped by Anteiku the night you were taken. It was…everything was broken and they were so upset. The door was open—completely off its hinge actually—and the windows and mugs were shattered. I was just standing there, trying to figure out what to do.”

“I asked the little girl while she was sweeping up glass. Hinami. I think that’s what her name was. She was so distracted that she didn’t even realize who I was, that I was a human. She said that Yamori had taken away her big brother.”

Hide paused for a moment to order his thoughts. Kaneki listened intently. He had been unconscious at this point, already trapped in Yamori’s nightmare. No one had informed him of the aftermath. He hadn’t thought to ask. Hadn’t really wanted to, either.

“I didn’t know what else to do, so I decided to follow him and hope that I could figure out a way to find you. There wasn’t much else I could do.” Hide’s voice grew quieter, perhaps a bit meeker. “I wore an old coat from a ghoul and pretended to drop some coins by his feet. I slipped a tracker on him and reported his location to the CCG.” Hide’s gaze jumped to Kaneki’s white hair.

“I guess I was too late to stop everything. I’m sorry.”

Throughout Hide’s confession, Kaneki’s expression had slowly morphed from confusion to muted horror. He reluctantly recalled the graphic scenes he endured during Jason’s torture. He had fought so hard to keep his untainted memories of Hide from the monster’s eager, greedy grasp, but Hide—the real Hide—had been in danger the whole time.  He had risked his life, waging a battle of skills against a deadly ghoul. All to try to save Kaneki.

And now… now he was apologizing?

This wasn’t – this wasn’t Hide’s fault. None of it was.

Well, perhaps joining the CCG wasn’t the brightest decision, but it had all been to find him and Kaneki couldn’t fully condemn Hide’s choice, even though it was what put them in this horrid situation in the first place, because it meant Hide still cared about him.

Kaneki still wasn’t sure how to react, lips faintly parted as his eyes darted around, searching for the right response as if it were scrawled on the nearby tree trunks.

As if sensing Kaneki’s uncertainty, Hide forced an unconvincing chuckle. “Enough about that. It wasn’t even that dangerous. He must have had a head cold or something—which, can ghouls even get sick? —because he didn’t even look twice at me.”

Kaneki knew what Hide was doing: downplaying the danger so he wouldn’t worry. It might have worked once upon a time – back when Kaneki was only too eager to believe any softer story – but Hide’s nonchalance was harder to accept now that he knew how reckless his friend could be.

Kaneki shook his head slowly, guilt swirling in his gut. Joining the CCG, tracking down deadly ghouls…

How could Hide consider himself the one to blame when Kaneki was the one who drove him to such dangers?

Marude leaned across his desk, propping his chin on his interlaced fingers. “Shouldn’t you be on bed rest or something? The last assignment was, what, fourteen hours ago?”

Amon shifted the weight to his good leg, causing his crutches to creak with the motion. “I was cleared for noncombative duty.”

Marude hoisted an eyebrow. “Then what are you doing in my office with a case file? Aren’t there waste bins closer to your desk?”

He cleared his throat before hobbling closer to his supervisor’s desk. “The mission last night—the raid on the warehouse.”

“Yes, I heard the latest updates. We took some casualties, didn’t we?” Marude’s puckered frown tightened. “According to the reports, there was some confusion on entrances.”

Amon nodded. He almost began to explain how their assigned entrance had been destroyed, but he decided to skip the nonessential conversations and cut straight to why he had come. After all, Nagachika’s life was at stake. Almost a day had passed since they had seen him last.

He dropped the file on Marude’s desk, causing the older man to lean back in surprise at the papery smack. “Our investigation assistant—Hideyoshi Nagachika—was assigned to be on that mission.”

“Nagachika…?” Marude narrowed his eyes, considering the name before snapping his fingers. “Nagachika… Oh, right! That excitable part-timer.” He flipped through the file, humming at each familiar name. “That’s not possible. Investigation assistants aren’t deployed for—” He broke off, frowning when he came to Amon’s squad on the assignment list.

Leader: Koutarou Amon.

Squad Members: Akira Mado, Seidou Takizawa, Hideyoshi Nagachika.

Marude’s eyebrows knotted together, wriggling on his forehead like frustrated caterpillars.

“There must have been some mistake then.”

“Do you know how he got on this list?”

Marude shook his head. “Someone should have caught it. I’ll put a strict word in to the Assignments Department that he doesn’t end up on the active combat list again.” He paused and glanced up, a strained discomfort to his expression. “Assuming he’s still around…?”

Assuming he’s still alive, Amon corrected glumly. That was what his boss really meant.

“That’s to be determined.”

If Marude was intrigued by his cryptic wording, he didn’t press further. Amon felt his shoulders slacken. A strict word wouldn’t be much help in finding Nagachika, but he doubted his superior could offer any more help on the matter. After all, it would be irresponsible to ask for more resources or agents in tracking down a missing investigation assistant. Especially one who shouldn’t have been on the mission in the first place.

“Please let me know if you find out why he was on the list.” It was the best that Amon could hope for, since this lead felt like it was growing dry.

“Sure, sure,” Marude flipped his wrist dismissively, already distracted by a new thought. The phone on his desk buzzed and he sighed, reaching for the handset.

Amon dipped his head respectfully and turned to leave.

“Oi! That Nagachika—”

He turned expectantly. Marude covered the mouthpiece with a palm.

“I still don’t know what brought him to the CCG in the first place, running around with tips on ghoul syndicates. Make sure to keep an eye on the kid.” He waggled the phone in Amon’s direction for extra emphasis. “So, hurry it up and determine faster.”

Amon smiled thinly. “We’ll try,” he murmured, but his superior had already turned back to grunting in the telephone. Amon moved gingerly to the door and froze when his knuckles brushed against the brass handle.

Tips on ghoul syndicates, huh? Perhaps they had another lead.

When Amon pushed through the door to their tiny workspace, Seidou was the first to react, rising quickly from his chair. He had been discharged from the hospital earlier that morning, appearing immediately after the completion of his mandated 12-hour observation period.

(Amon had half-heartedly ordered him to take the day off, but after Seidou gave his crutches a pointed look, Amon dropped the issue.)

“Did Marude say anything?”

“Anything important?” Akira added, her clarification earning an extra roll of the eye from Seidou.

Amon shook his head, settling down in the chair that Seidou had vacated with a relieved grunt. “Not particularly. He didn’t know why Nagachika was assigned to be on that mission. Said it must have been some mistake.”

Akira’s nose wrinkled. Amon mirrored her disgust. If Nagachika’s death had been because of some mistake made by one of their superiors…

Well, it wouldn’t be the first time and it probably wouldn’t be the last.  

“But did he say anything else? Anything that could help?” Seidou pushed harder.

“Not about why Nagachika might have been on the list. But he did remind me of something—the reason Nagachika was assigned to our team in the first place.”

Akira nodded with a knowing hum. It was now Seidou’s turn to be confused. Seidou had been the last to officially join the “team” as Nagachika affectionately dubbed it, despite collaborating with Amon and Akira in the past. By the time he started working full time with them, Nagachika had already been absorbed into Akira’s and Amon’s confidence.

By then, Amon never really saw a need for formal introductions. Nagachika had been personable enough to make himself at home in their shared office space.

“Huh? Wasn’t it just because he was a hard worker? That’s what he told me.”

Amon shook his head again. Neither Marude nor Nagachika had offered an explanation for the full circumstances. Katsuya, who had been beside Marude during Nagachika’s impromptu “promotional” hearing, was the one who told him afterwards.

He briefly summarized the story. Seidou absorbed it with an awed blink.

“Honestly didn’t think Nagachika had it in him,” he murmured, impressed. “But…” Seidou’s brow furrowed. “The raid on the 11^th Ward base was how we got most of our intelligence for later assaults against Aogiri. If we didn’t have that, we would have been months behind. Do you think the ghouls found out about Nagachika being a spy?”

Amon frowned. He wasn’t sure either. If Nagachika didn’t even tell his partners about his anonymous tip to the CCG, then it was doubtful the source would leak. Other than himself, Akira, and now Seidou, the only other people who knew would have been Marude and Katsuya.

“I don’t know how they would have. Even if there was a mole in the Bureau, any personal information about informants is confidential.” Akira countered, crossing her arms. “None of this is helpful information. We should see if any of the other investigators know anything else. That’s a more promising lead.”

“I still think it has to mean something,” Seidou insisted, leaning forward. “Ghouls don’t kidnap random CCG agents for science experiments. There has to be something that made Nagachika a target.”

“How would they have even known he would be there?”

“I don’t know! But—but—there’s something!”

Amon remained silent, trying to drown out his subordinates’ squabbling. They only resorted to bickering when stressed, but he didn’t have the energy to add more volume to the fray. Seidou clearly thought that they should be pursuing Nagachika’s past as an amateur ghoul tracker, whereas Akira was eager to interview other survivors of the raid. He wasn’t sure which path was the right one, if either of them were.

What did Tanaka say again? That the ghoul he thought he was fighting was Eyepatch?

Amon hadn’t read any recent reports of Eyepatch since their last encounter, but it was entirely possible that he was going by a new name. He shuddered, remembering how desperate Eyepatch had been, begging Amon to listen to him about ghouls and humans coexisting. According to Tanaka’s account of the attack, his opponent had been just as anxious to complete some task.

Even though Akira had dismissed the connection between Eyepatch and Nagachika as coincidence, Amon couldn’t subdue the twisting in his gut. He could feel that there was something to that theory, but he wasn’t sure what.

Amon sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. It seemed like they would be splitting up, each chasing after separate leads. He could only hope that they would converge with Nagachika, alive, at the end.

Hide yawned, overall content with his position, despite the dull throb in his leg and chest. They had remained by the small forest clearing for several hours, talking and giggling and making the most of their unexpected reunion. Hide could tell by the periodical stiffening of Kaneki’s shoulders each time an overzealous squirrel snapped a branch that his friend was far from relaxed, but it felt so good to chatter and chuckle like the old days.

He knew he should have said something, made some sort of remark about getting further away from the Aogiri base, but he didn’t want to spoil the moment. Besides, Kaneki still looked exhausted and Hide wasn’t ready to be a hefty sack of deadweight again. 

However, their conversation trickled down to silence after Hide’s enthusiastic retelling of an incident from their childhood, punctuated with a few winces and gasps of pain. Kaneki still couldn’t believe that this moment was actually real, that his best friend was alive and not afraid of him.

It unnerved him that Hide had seen through his attempts to hide the truth. He wondered what other conclusions Hide had made; he already knew that Touka was a ghoul and that Aogiri Tree was an organization not to be messed with. Hide might even know more than him about certain ghoul matters.

It unnerved him even more that Hide’s characteristically-Hide response to Kaneki’s self-imposed reclusion had been to risk his life repeatedly until he found him. Though, Kaneki supposed he shouldn’t be surprised.

Hide prodded the next conversation topic gently. “What’s going to happen next?”

Kaneki frowned. The different scenarios had played in the back of his mind during their welcomed respite. Should he run away with Hide? Should he leave Hide at the hospital and return to Aogiri Tree? What would they do without evidence of Hide’s death? Kill Kaneki? Hunt down Hide?

“I’m not sure.” He didn’t want to risk losing Hide again, but he couldn’t come up with a situation where everything turned out fine in the end. If he abandoned Aogiri Tree to protect Hide, he knew they would retaliate against his family at Anteiku. If he returned without Hide, he could be punished.

Was he strong enough to protect everyone this time?

Hide sighed loudly, leaning against the fallen tree trunk with a contemplative grunt. “It seems like I’ve gotten you into trouble, Kaneki.”

“Nothing I’m not used to,” Kaneki remarked dryly, though there was a ghost of a smile on his lips.

Hide playfully shoved his uninjured foot into Kaneki’s stomach, meeting resistance against Kaneki’s defined abdomen. “This wouldn’t have happened if you answered your phone for once, you idiot.”

Kaneki glanced away, reminded again of his lonely days away from his best friend. Back when he thought that Hide finding out about him was the worst thing that could happen.

Oh, how wrong he’d been.

Hide shuffled closer. He had been gently trying to reintroduce his touch to Kaneki, laying a hand on Kaneki’s shoulder or tapping him with a foot whenever he seemed too tense. At first, the intrusions to his personal space had made Kaneki jump, but after a few more careful adjustments, he quickly acclimated to the tentative touches, even relaxing at the contact.

This was Hide, after all. His best friend – his most precious person. The one who didn’t care that he was a flesh-eating half-ghoul.

Hide reached forward for his most ambitious move yet, tucking two fingers under Kaneki’s pointed chin and tilting it upwards. Kaneki met his eyes, feeling less like a monster and more like a bashful child.

“Hey, chin up, man. We’ll get through this somehow.” He pulled away first, but Kaneki kept his gaze locked with Hide’s. “Let’s look at it like one of those mystery novels that you’re always reading. How do those end?”

“Everyone usually dies,” Kaneki replied flatly.

Hide made a face. “Right. There was a reason I never got into those books. Too depressing.” He perked up. “Besides, no one likes a copycat. We’ll think of something else.” Hide tapped his chin. “What if we make it look like I died? Then you can go back and pretend that you ate me or something so they won’t be as suspicious. You can even take my uniform and shred it up some.”

Kaneki’s stomach flipped at the thought, but it would probably be their best option. He didn’t relish the thought of returning, knowing that there was a chance he might see Hide again on the battle lines again.

Hide seemed to misinterpret his expression. “Hmm, right. They might punish you for what happened back there.”

Kaneki shook his head. Rakko seemed to be the only one who suspected Kaneki’s tie to Hide and Ayato trusted him more. If he denied any emotional bond and brought back Hide’s blood-stained uniform, there was little Rakko could do to twist the situation to his favor.

“It’s not that. I don’t want to have to see you again…in that.” He eyed Hide’s uniform pointedly. The other ghouls might not know enough to track Hide down, but they’d remember him if he reappeared in a CCG uniform. Hide was quite… unforgettable.

Kaneki wasn’t sure if he could defy orders again to save him. He remembered the white-hot fear of betrayal, wondering if Hide had turned on him after hearing his voice over the CCG radios. His panicked dash towards Hide’s scream, not knowing if he would ever get the chance to apologize or explain.

Hide nodded once. “Oh, yeah….” He scratched the edge of his cheek, glancing to the side with a sheepish smile. “You don’t have to worry about that anymore. Being assigned to this mission was, uh, a mistake. A little bit of a, er, clerical oversight. I’m just an investigation assistant—it won’t happen again, believe me.”

“Won’t happen again?” Kaneki echoed numbly. Somehow, he was having a hard time believing Hide.

Hide rolled his eyes with a self-deprecating sigh. “Akira and the others are going to put me on desk duty for the rest of my life. Not that I mind,” he added with a wince as he repositioned himself, sliding his injured leg closer to himself.

Kaneki winced as well. “Won’t happen again” wasn’t the same as “never”.

He didn’t like the idea of Hide working with the CCG, didn’t like the idea of him still being in danger. If anything like this were to happen again – the terror, the uncertainty, meeting Hide on the opposite side of a goddamn warzone – Kaneki feared he might literally snap.

Regardless, it seemed quite a bit of time would pass before they would risk encountering each other again. He hoped that would be long enough for Kaneki to destroy Aogiri himself.

He now had a new deadline to adhere to.

With some of the solemn matters taken care of, Kaneki and Hide resorted back to cheerier conversations. However, after the third yawn in a single sentence, Hide admitted with a sleep-drunk giggle that he had been up for nearly a day and a half. Although part of that time had been spent unconscious, he complained how he still didn’t feel refreshed.

Kaneki, conversely, had not been nearly as amused by the joke. He’d also heard Hide’s stomach rumble multiple times through their conversation but hadn’t brought it up. The idea of discussing hunger made him sick to his own stomach, even with Hide’s baffling, miraculous lack of fear.  

Still, enough time had passed for the patrols to thin.

Kaneki took Hide’s yawns as a cue that it was time to move along. He too was exhausted, but more so from the sharp peak of stress than anything else. He glanced down at the bandage wrapped around Hide’s calf and the unnatural way in which Hide held himself up, as if he didn’t want to press too much weight against where Ayato had kicked him.

He could feel his own paltry injuries healing, stitching back together under the watchful care of his RC cells, but Hide needed a hospital. He climbed to his feet and Hide responded reflexively, bracing the undersides of his palms against the ground, as if he were about to push himself up as well.

Kaneki waved him down with a shake of the head. “Don’t get up yet. I’m going to make sure that no one’s nearby to see us leave.”

Hide nodded and settled back down into a more comfortable position. Kaneki unhooked his tattered cloak and draped it over Hide. He nestled in it deeper, relishing the residual warmth from Kaneki’s body.

“Rest for a moment,” Kaneki added, much softer. “I’ll be back soon.” He hesitated before turning away. “If anything happens, call for me.”

Hide mumbled his understanding, heavy eyes drifting shut under the warmth. Kaneki watched him for a moment, enjoying the sight of Hide’s chest rising and falling steadily. He cemented the picture in his mind before disappearing into the thickest section of the forest.

Despite the first swell of exhaustion that broke over him, Hide was unable to slip away to a dreamless sleep. He wriggled against the hard bark of the fallen tree truck, causing a sharp jolt of pain to radiate from his ribs. He immediately fell still, eyes closed while breathing shallowly through his teeth.

Perhaps angering Touka’s brother had been the wrong decision. He had tried to pass off his bluffing as a calculated plan, but quite frankly he had been acting on instinct, trying to rile up the ghouls as much as he could.

Real smart, Nagachika.

This entire plan had been a gamble, but the chance to see Kaneki had been too much to pass up. He shook his head with a fond smile. It had all been worth it, hadn’t it?

He shifted again, this time more gently, and tried to fall asleep again. A stillness in the forest caused the hairs on the back of his neck to prickle and he could no longer get comfortable.

He wasn’t sure how long Kaneki had been gone, but the birds had resumed their chatter once he had left. He had registered their soft, twinkling tweets in his subconscious as he tried to sleep. Now they were oddly silent again.

His eyelids fluttered and he smiled. It would be just like Kaneki to stay silent to let him rest longer, despite the risk to the both of them. He pictured Kaneki hovering nearby, nervously wringing his hands as he debated between waking Hide up and watching him sleep. 

“Don’t you know it’s impolite to watch people sleep, you creep?” Hide mumbled, still with his eyes closed.

There was no response. The silence felt different, almost overbearing. He slowly pried his eyes open in the late afternoon sun, squinting at the dark shadow a few meters away. He blinked again, rubbing at the thin layer of crust along his eyelids.

Rakko’s wide, gape-toothed smile filled Hide’s immediate vision. He scrambled backwards, the sharp pain from moving his torso disappearing with a sharp intake of breath. He pressed against the tree trunk, too caught off-guard to clamber over it. He felt like he was cornered in the warehouse again, pinned and motionless under the ghoul’s blazing, triumphant glare. He could hear the birds twittering nervously in the background; he imagined they were urging him to flee, but he couldn’t tear his wide gaze away.

“Hmm? Where’s your sharp tongue now, little bird?”

The response died on Hide’s tongue. He tried to lick his lips, but his tongue wouldn’t work, instead lying languidly in his mouth.

“I don’t see that fire in your eyes anymore.”

He reached out and clamped a pale hand around Hide’s throat. His grip tightened, pressing Hide backwards slightly.

“You aren’t so tough without your ghoul to save you.”

Kaneki was proud of himself, apart from one momentarily embarrassing event. He had been away for longer than he had planned, but after straying towards a berry bush, he couldn’t help but pause to gather some for Hide. As he stared at the dark, round berries, he rolled one around on his palm and absently popped it in his mouth, wondering if they would be ripe enough for Hide. He immediately gagged and spat it out, blinking before he realized what he had done.

Feeling foolish indeed, Kaneki gently grabbed a few more berries to make up for the lost one and cupped them in his palm. He glanced up at the sinking sun. He should return to Hide soon. Their best chance of escaping unseen would take most of the night.

As he crashed through the thickets, loudly to warn Hide of his approach, he frowned at the empty clearing.

Did I get lost? I swore this was whe—

He broke off at the sight of his discarded cloak. It was flung aside and wrinkled. Kaneki moved towards it slowly, cautiously, as if Hide would leap out from underneath it.

“Hide…” Kaneki whispered, his voice sounding too hoarse and pitchy to his own ears. “Hide…?”

He swung his head around, desperately searching for clues to his best friend’s disappearance. The berries dropped from his palm, striking the ground with muted plops.

“Hide! I’m here!” He couldn’t hold it in anymore. He was shouting, louder than he should have, since he had noticed an Aogiri patrol only an hour earlier. “Where are you?!”

His wide eyes dropped to the grass. There were clumps of dirt and grass near the stump, like someone had kicked against the ground. Kaneki stared at them blankly before realizing what they meant. The mournful coo of a turtle dove echoed from the branches above him.

Hide… No…

His communicator blared to life, causing the few remaining birds to explode out of the trees with furious flaps of their wings. He tensed and stared down at the closed device clipped to his pants, lights pulsing in the darkening evening light. It only worked when it was near another communicator.

He flipped it open, pressing the cold plastic to his ear. Rakko’s rolling chuckles poured from the speaker and filled the clearing like a thick, smothering fog.

“Looking for something, One-Eye?”

“Rakko.”

“Your little bird?” Kaneki squeezed his eyes tightly. He felt like they had had this conversation already, but somehow it felt sharper, more dangerous. Rakko now knew how much Hide meant to him.

“Where is he?”

“Come to the warehouse. Midnight.”

Kaneki opened his mouth—either to curse or perhaps hiss some frustrated threats—but the line went dead.  

Chapter Text

Once he managed to snap out of his stunned panic, Hide decided he wouldn’t let Rakko take him without a struggle. He kicked at the ground with his good leg, trying to clamber away from the ghoul. If he could get a few feet away—

Rakko’s hand, the one that had been tight around Hide’s throat and had been knocked away by a desperate elbow, yanked on Hide’s tender calf. Hide’s face smashed into the side of the log he had been propped against, the splinters from the rotting wood scraping against his bruised cheek. Hide sucked in a sharp breath and tried to swing a wild fist at Rakko’s barred smile. It missed, only making the ghoul laugh harder.

“Ah, so there’s the fire from earlier. I was hoping it would come back.”

Hide tried to roll over onto his knees, but Rakko pinned him to the ground with a heavy boot. He felt his breath leave his body in a gasping whoosh, but it was a better sensation to focus on than the stabbing pain in his chest. First Ayato’s kick and now Rakko’s stomp? He wouldn’t be surprised if his chest resembled a broken pack of crayons: snapped ribs and his skin a mottled range of reds, greens, and blues.  

Hide opened his mouth to suck in more air—god, it was getting harder to breathe—and maybe scream for Kaneki, but Rakko’s hand clamped around his mouth and chin with an iron grip. His hand was sweaty and sticky, tinged with the ghoul blood from his earlier fights, and Hide knew he would have been sick if there was anything left in his stomach to gag up.

“Ah, ah. Not a peep. We don’t want to attract any unwanted attention. No need for anyone from base to hear us.”

Hide froze. He had only thought of Kaneki, not of the scouts that Kaneki wanted to avoid. His screams would have caught Kaneki’s attention, but it might have brought other ghouls as well.

If the others found me… Hide averted his eyes from Rakko’s crinkle-eyed grin. Kaneki couldn’t take on the entire Aogiri Tree and expect to survive, but Hide was afraid Kaneki would try if it meant it was the only way to save him. No, it was better to go along with whatever Rakko wanted and hope the timing worked out.

He still wasn’t sure if that meant he would rather Kaneki reach him in time or be too late. Rakko could easily kill Hide—that was a gruesome given—but could Rakko kill Kaneki too? Maybe Hide’s death would be enough to satisfy Rakko’s bloodthirst and Kaneki would realize there was nothing he could do.

(Maybe this whole plan had been a mistake. He hated all these sappy, morbid uncertainties.)

Hide felt the fight leave him just as forcefully as his breath had. Sensing no more resistance from his quarry, Rakko grabbed the collar of Hide’s uniform and hoisted him up in the air.

“Come on. We’re moving locations. Don’t want One-Eye to find us before we get there.”

Hide wasn’t so despondent that he couldn’t rustle up a glare. It probably looked ridiculous on his puffy and scratched face, but it was the only thing he had left. At least, as of now, he added halfheartedly, trying to boost his rapidly dwindling hopes. I’m not giving up yet.

“Yes, you’ll see your dear friend Kaneki again. Don’t worry, Dove.”

Hide swallowed. Not the most reassuring.

They had gone off in their own directions, just as he thought they would. At least it hadn’t been a violent splintering, Amon mused. They all still grasped to some sort of desperate hope that their missing teammate was out there. Maybe working different angles will give us something… Anything.

Amon sighed and leaned back in his desk chair as far as he could until the hinges squealed. His hobbled pacing earlier had almost felt like progress—at least he was moving forward, even if he felt like a caged animal—but he was paying for it now. His injured leg throbbed in the cast and he eyed the bottle of prescription painkillers on the edge of his desk. Just an arm’s length away, if he so desired.

Instead, Amon reached for a thick folder on the opposite edge of his desk. He had looked through it a dozen times, unable to bury the nagging sensation in the back of his head that Eyepatch had something to do with all of this. He drummed his fingers on the manila file cover, repeating Tanaka’s description of the ghoul in his mind.

Hell, for all that we know, that might have been some random kid. Tanaka-san probably saw a lot of masks that night. How can we know for sure that he saw Eyepatch’s mask?

He pinched the bridge of his nose and flicked open the folder anyway. It wasn’t like he was going to learn anything new the thirteenth time around, but there wasn’t much more he could do except flip through papers and stew in his frustrated unhappiness. Amon leafed through the various reports and lingered on his shoddy sketch of the ghoul, done only a few hours after they loaded Mado’s mangled corpse into a body bag.

Even if this was the ghoul Tanaka saw, what does he have to do with Nagachika?

He supposed they were from the same ward, but that was a flimsy link. They both were young, perhaps the same age.

They’d be what, twenty?

The same age as a couple hundred thousand other kids. Another flimsy link.

Amon rolled his eyes with a dry scoff. Sometimes he forgot he was only a few years older than Nagachika. For some reason, their difference in age seemed much wider.

Amon’s eyes glazed over Nagachika’s messy desk a few meters away. Maybe that’s why. A few leftover burger wrappers still lingered in Nagachika’s waste basket and several files were left opened, fanned out across the desk as if Nagachika would stroll back into the room any moment.

Amon shook his head and tried to focus on his own desk, but his gaze kept shifting back to the desk, drawn like a magnet. What if he never had the chance to lecture Nagachika on his chaotic disorganization? What if someone came to collect his personal things and had to sort through all this mess? What would they think of Nagachika?

Amon sighed again and pushed himself back into a standing position. He hobbled towards Nagachika’s desk and neatly tucked the papers back into their respective files. He surveyed his handiwork with a tightlipped nod, but the sight of the case file stacks still didn’t satisfy him.

Amon cast a cautious glance over his shoulder—he needn’t have worried about being observed; the building was mostly abandoned at such a late hour—before opening one of Nagachika’s desk drawers. He tried to rationalize his intrusion of Nagachika’s privacy as a necessary step towards cleanliness, reminding himself that he was just going to hide the files away from any prying eyes.

However, curiosity got the best of him and instead of packing away what had been left on Nagachika’s desk, Amon spread out the contents of Nagachika’s drawers across the desktop. He challenged himself with a new argument: prying through Nagachika’s stuff might shed some light on his disappearance and it was his responsibility as an investigator to explore every possible avenue.

Satisfied with his mission’s solid justification, Amon picked through the various things Nagachika had squirreled away in his desk. Most of it seemed like mundane junk: some pens, a couple of energy bars, and some crumpled up receipts from the same coffee shop. However, Amon felt his interest piquing when his fingertips scraped against the glossy finish of a photograph buried deep in the back of the bottom drawer. He pulled it out and tilted his head as he tried to identify the photograph’s two subjects.

Nagachika was easy enough to spot, with his messy hair and an arm slung around the neck of a shyly smiling teenager. He squinted at the second boy with his dark hair and downcast eyes just familiar enough to make Amon pause a little bit longer. A friend of Nagachika’s? I wonder who he might be.

Amon set the photograph aside and dug deeper in the bottom drawer. He pulled out a crinkled cut out of a newspaper article about a construction accident over a year ago. Right around the time when he was reassigned to the 20^th Ward with Mado.  

Wonder what Nagachika’s doing with that. And all these copies, he added, flipping through several darkened Xerox copies of ghoul reports from around the same time.

He glanced back at the old photograph. Something about the second boy seemed so familiar to Amon, like a distant memory he couldn’t quite grasp.

Maybe he was killed in a ghoul attack. That might be why Nagachika has all of this, to get some extra information and find his killer. It wouldn’t surprise Amon; people came to the CCG regularly for vengeance.

Amon shook his head and grabbed the photograph, ready to pack it all away. He really had no business looking through all of this. He glanced down one more time, noting that his thumb covered over the boy’s mouth and partially concealed one of his eyes.

Wait… It can’t be—

He hobbled quickly to his desk, keeping his death grip on the photograph as he shuffled through his case file on Eyepatch. He held the rushed sketch to the photo, noting the similarity in shaggy haircuts and rounded, soft cheeks.

It’s just a coincidence. But what if… Nagachika’s friend—could he really be Eyepatch? Does that mean—

Seidou’s flushed face appeared in the doorway. Amon started at his sudden appearance, but Seidou seemed too concerned with catching his breath to mention it.

“Huuuh, ahhh, great—you’re still here!” Seidou waved a notebook as he collapsed in Amon’s vacated chair. He hoisted an eyebrow at Seidou’s mistake but waited to hear what his subordinate had to say.

“I think I found the connection between this attack and the one in the 11^th Ward!”

While Akira rushed away to interview more witnesses, Amon had remained in the office, flipping through the same file. Seidou figured he’d only get in the way if he followed either of them, so he shuffled towards the cafeteria. After hours of fruitless theorizing and searching, it was well into the evening, so only a few of the night staff were strolling through.

Well, the night workers and the insane, Seidou sniffed, eyeing the back of Suzuya’s colorful suspenders a few meters away. He took a hasty step backwards and turned to leave, hoping he hadn’t been spotted yet.

“Oooooh, Boooring-boy! What are you doing here so late?”

Seidou winced and pursed his lips. He really wasn’t in the mood to deal with Suzuya’s giggling taunting, not when he had bigger problems. Something in his demeanor must have conveyed this, as Suzuya tilted his head at Seidou’s sour expression.

“I could ask the same of you,” Seidou countered, inching backwards ever so slowly.

“So? I asked first! Aren’t hiding any secrets, are you?” Suzuya was relentless.

Seidou hesitated before answering. Was this really something he wanted to share? Not really, but he knew the brat would be insufferable if he didn’t get what he wanted.

“A member of my squad went missing after the warehouse raid. The rest of us—we’re still looking for him.”

“Oh.” Suzuya made a tutting sound in the back of his throat, seemingly disappointed with such a mundane reason. “You shouldn’t bother. He’s probably dead,” he said, picking at one of the stitches on his knuckles with a disinterested expression.

Seidou gritted his teeth and resisted the urge to ball his loose fingers into fists. “Nagachika’s still out there and we’re going to find him,” he insisted, the syllables more clipped than usual.

“It’s the part-timer who’s missing? Then he’s definitely dead.” His bark of laughter was harsh and devoid of its usual joy.

“He’s a lot smarter than you think!”

The story of Nagachika’s risky mission to track down the Aogiri base remained fresh in Seidou’s head. He knew he was spilling confidential information, but he couldn’t help himself. Not when Suzuya didn’t know how much Nagachika had risked helping the CCG.

Hell, what he risked saving us last night, he added, recalling Akira’s story about how they managed to escape the warehouse because of Nagachika’s sacrifice.

Suzuya didn’t react to Seidou’s frustrated outburst, so he continued to babble about Nagachika’s reconnaissance mission before he joined the CCG. If Suzuya was impressed when Seidou finished, his blank expression revealed nothing.

Seidou felt the urge to make one more remark. He doubted it would lessen the aching pound in his head, but he was willing to try.

“The way I see it, Nagachika deserved to get a promotion from that mission more than you. You just—you just lobbed the head off some ghoul! And, I—uh, I heard he was almost dead already.”

(A rumor from a quinque tech who had processed the body. Seidou hated that he couldn’t recall the guy’s name, because he would have gladly tossed him under the proverbial bus.)

Now a bit terrified by his uncharacteristic boldness, Seidou paled and tried to come up with a suitable reason to slip away before Suzuya decided to retaliate. However, before he could stutter out an excuse, Suzuya tossed his head back with a loud laugh, a different sound from before, though it felt just as sharp.  

Instead of denying Seidou’s accusations, Seidou nodded. “Mmmhmm, someone came along and nearly killed my Jason before I could do it all myself. I saw him too—his hair looked so much like mine that I let him run right past me!” He laughed again and Seidou made a face.

“Hair like yours—wait, you mean he had white hair? Was he young? Could you see a mask?”

How many white-haired ghouls were out there, running around and attacking Aogiri Tree members? Not many, if he had to hazard a guess. It was a stretch, but maybe this ghoul was the one Akira mentioned earlier. The one from the warehouse raid had seemed just as aberrant.

Suzuya didn’t answer, instead turning around and sauntering towards the exit. Seidou grumbled under his breath before racing after him. He was certain Suzuya was doing this to torture him, but he would suck it up for Nagachika’s sake

“You didn’t answer my questions!”

“’Cause I didn’t want to. Why should I care about some missing investigation assistant?”

Seidou groaned, shifting from foot to foot. “Listen—just answer the questions and I’ll leave you alone.”

Suzuya stopped in front of the elevator and gave Seidou a calculating, side-eyed squint. It was a clear sign that his interrogation was about to be cut short. However, Seidou got the feeling that Suzuya knew more than he was letting on.

“There was a coffee shop in the 20^th Ward. Shinohara-san used to take me there.” Suzuya blew out air through his puckered lips before boarding the elevator. “Too bad it got smashed up right before the raid. They had such pretty cakes.” He glanced back at Seidou. “Your part-timer brought me one once. Always talked about a friend who worked there.”

The elevator doors closed and Seidou scowled at his reflection in the glossy metal paneling.

Coffee shops and fancy cakes? What the hell does that mean?

He shook his head and thought back to Suzuya’s earlier statements. He couldn’t shrug off the possibility that the ghoul from the base raid was the same ghoul that Tanaka saw during the warehouse attack. Skirting by the records room to pick up whatever information he could find on the Aogiri base raid, he then raced back towards his team’s office, hoping at least one of his partners would still be there.

“Huuuh, ahhh…” Seidou panted, perking up when he noticed Amon hovering over Nagachika’s desk. “Great!”

Wait…why does Amon look so guilty? Never mind—don’t have time for that.

“You’re still here!” He settled in the nearest chair and flipped through his notebook, where he had scribbled down notes from Suzuya’s story.

“I think I found the connection between this attack and the one in the 11^th Ward!”

“The 11^th Ward attack? That was months ago.”

Amon limped back to his desk, grabbing the thick folder Seidou had dropped on the desk. He flipped through the pages, recognizing typed testimonies from several of the investigator witnesses. He had skimmed through it earlier, right after first learning about Nagachika’s involvement, but nothing had jumped out at him then.

“I talked to Suzuya—someone really should teach hi—”

“What did he say?” Amon interrupted.

“Oh, right. Uh, he mentioned that he saw a white-haired ghoul leaving the room where they found Jason’s body.”

Amon frowned and reached for a faded photograph of the grisly scene. “That room was some sort of torture area. There were ghoul bodies and severed appendages, but they were too damaged to identify…” he murmured, scanning over the report. Another detail he had passed off as being too creepy to understand.

“What if that white-haired ghoul, y’know, the one that Tanaka saw at the warehouse—what if he’s the same one who was being tortured? That means the two incidents might be connected!

Amon didn’t like the sound of that. If this ghoul was Eyepatch—the young, terrified ghoul who pleaded for humans and ghouls to get along—then horrendous torture might have twisted his optimism about coexistence into something sour.

Especially if he’s with the Aogiri Tree now. His gaze slid back towards the photograph of Nagachika and his friend. And what does that mean for Nagachika?

“Did Suzuya say anything else? Anything that might help?”

Seidou puckered his lips and glanced away with a derisive snort. “Not really. Then he started prattling on about some coffee shop that got busted up right before the base raid.”

Amon reached for one of the many crumpled receipts he fished from Nagachika’s bottom drawer. “Was it called Anteiku?”

“Uh, yeah,” Seidou’s scowl dropped as he blinked at Amon. “It was. Does that mean something to you?”

He grunted and shook his head. “Not really. Apparently Nagachika visited it a lot though. It might mean something.”

Amon suppressed the urge to groan. He felt like they were only tumbling further down the rabbit hole. How would a vandalized coffee shop help them find Nagachika? And what did his newest revelation mean, that Nagachika’s friend might be Eyepatch? They were grasping at straws.

Seidou seemed to share his frustrations. “Uggh. I hate this feeling... Maybe Akira’s found something?”

“Do you recognize where we are, little bird?”

Hide remained motionless, trying not to move after Rakko unceremoniously dumped him on the chilly ground. He had caught a glimpse of several CCG vans parked by the warehouse, but they were silent and empty, likely abandoned for the night. He strained to hear any shuffling or communicator static, but there was nothing apart from the distant hum of traffic several miles away.

He and Rakko were completely alone.

“Hmm? Know where we are?”

It’d be impossible to forget a place like this. Especially since I was here yesterday.

Rakko jostled him when he didn’t answer right away, pouting in mock concern. “You haven’t died on me, have you?”

Hide turned his head as far as he could without making his ribs ache.

“Oh, good. You’re still alive. Hard to tell with you delicate humans sometimes.”

He had remained as quiet as he could while Rakko dragged him through the forest and back to the warehouse. He hadn’t wanted to give Rakko the satisfaction of seeing him squirm or cry out. His control only lapsed a brief second when he inhaled sharply after Rakko yanked him through the dark, gapping warehouse bay doors. If Rakko noticed his hesitation, he didn’t comment on it.   

Rakko hauled him across the cold concrete floor, intentionally winding through the warehouse to make sure he dragged Hide through the partially dried puddles of blood. Hide wrinkled his nose.

Is this how ghoul’s season their meals? With blood from other people? That’s a little…too on the nose.

Their journey ended when Rakko wrenched open a door and threw Hide inside the darkened room before slamming it behind him. Hide uncurled from his tight huddle as slowly as his injuries would allow him and blinked at his new surroundings. He was in a smaller warehouse bay, illuminated by a fake yellow glow from nearby streetlamps. He swallowed when he realized where he was.

It's the second room. The one where Rakko…caught me.

A strange calm descended over him. It was so unlike the desperate scrambling from earlier, when he had raced through the warehouse to escape a rabid ghoul. He could finally take in his surroundings, including the door on the far side of the room.

Who does he think I am? Some idiot rabbit ready to give up and get eaten.

Hide rolled himself onto his hands and knees and crawled towards the door. He hoped Rakko had forgotten about it in the shuffle. He strained to reach up, feeling the tightness of his chest as he grabbed onto the door latch. He tried to twist the latch handle open, but it rattled uselessly in his grip.

“Come on… come on!” He hissed through his teeth, yanking the latch harder until he the sweat-warmed metal bit an indentation into his palm. He eyed the locked door again. The hinges were facing an awkward angle. Even if he were at peak strength, he wouldn’t be able to break the door open either. It looked like there might have been some sort of keyhole, but he couldn’t tell for sure in the dim lighting.

No use. Hide sighed and sagged against the door. So that exit is no good. What else do we have?

He gingerly turned himself around to look at the rest of the warehouse. There weren’t any other doors. Just a few dusty windows well out of reach and a few smashed wooden crates. He could probably find a sizable stake, but he doubted he would have the strength to fight off Rakko if it came to that.

Hide resumed his scan of the warehouse. He almost laughed at the sight of his helmet a few meters away, near another puddle of his blood and several evidence flags.

A lot of good that helmet will do me now. Hide froze and looked back at the door latch. Wait—those flags. There’s a metal wire supporting the flag. If I could get it out, I may be able to mess with the lock.

Hide sucked in a hopeful breath before crawling towards the puddle of blood. He grabbed the nearest flag and shredded the bright orange plastic from the thin wire.

“Yes!”

He was about to turn back when he eyed his helmet again. Can’t hurt. He reached for it with a fond shake of the head but froze at the sight of his communicator tangled in the strap.

“My communicator!” He had forgotten about it in the chaos, fearing it had been destroyed or dropped somewhere along the way.

“Thank yooou, Akira,” he muttered, untangling the device from the helmet strap. Akira had forced him to wear the helmet earlier during their mission, claiming that if he didn’t have it on then he couldn’t participate. He never anticipated that her unrelenting order might end up saving his life.

Well, maybe. Jury’s still out on that.

His communicator looked rather rough after its forceful collision with the wall. Several wires were exposed, and it made a mournful, staticky buzz when Hide tried to adjust the volume. He wrinkled his nose and fiddled with the earpiece, trying to hold it together long enough to try something. It was all for naught—he kept getting the same crackling feedback.

Tzzzst. Tzzzst.

That sounded a little different.

He straightened up and tweaked another wire. The same buzz sounded again. He rolled his eyes upwards, feeling a bit foolish to be talking to a broken communicator, but it was his best shot at getting out.

 “Uh, hello? Is anyone there?”

Tzzzst. Tzzzzzzzzst.

“Hello? Hello?”

He couldn’t imagine who might be near a raid communicator at this time of night, but he could have sworn he heard something on the other end.

Tzzzzst. “This is…” Tzzzzst. “Mado…”

Hide couldn’t stunt the nervous titter that burst from his lips. It was Akira. If his team could rescue him before midnight came, then he could find a way to stop Kaneki before he came to fight Rakko. Nevermind how I’ll reach Kaneki in time. I’ll figure that out once I’m out of this dump.

“Akira! It’s me—Hide! I’m in the warehouse!”

Tzzzst. “This is…” Tzzzst. “Akira Mado. Answer if you can…” Tzzzst. “Hear me…”

“I’m here! I’m here! Can you hear me?” Hide knew he didn’t need to shout to be heard, but he was trying to cover up his rising panic. He supposed he still had the lockpicking option but being so close to his team felt too cruel.

“Is anyone…” Tzzzst. “There? This is…”

Hide groaned and suppressed the urge to chuck the communicator across the room. He could hear Akira, but she couldn’t hear him.

At least… she couldn’t hear my voice. But she had to have heard something, otherwise she wouldn’t have tried talking. Hide tweaked another wire, wincing at the jarring sound of staticky feedback. It might be enough.

Hide was about to try talking again when the door where Rakko had previously disappeared through exploded open. Rakko’s wide crimson gaze landed on the communicator in his hands.

“What is that?”

Hide startled and tried to scramble away from the helmet, but Rakko was too fast.

He snarled and strode quickly towards Hide, clamping onto his wrist with a crushing grip. Hide sucked in a sharp breath and tried to hold out as best he could before the device slipped through his numb fingers. Rakko glared at the damaged communication device before stomping it repeatedly into the concrete. Hide winced at each furious footfall, realizing it was only a matter of time before Rakko turned that rage on him.

Satisfied when he had reduced the communicator to severed wires and plastic splinters, Rakko straightened up and grinned at Hide. Despite the glinting teeth, the rest of his expression was painfully humorless.

“I’m tired of waiting.”

That’s it. There are no more leads.

Akira slumped over the breakroom table and rested her chin in the folds of her crossed arms. She had been so certain that interviewing the other survivors of the warehouse raid could provide some answers, but she had come up with nothing. No one could remember seeing Nagachika, nor did anyone notice a white-haired ghoul running around. The closest she had come was when a few shuddering investigators recalled their encounters with a bloodthirsty ghoul with a crooked grin.

That must have been him. The ghoul who attacked us.

Still, they hadn’t been able to offer any more help and Akira thanked her informants with a polite but discouraged nod.

Get some rest, they had told her with sympathetic pats to the shoulder. Go home and try not to think about your partner. They’ll find him eventually.

Akira sighed and straightened up. Maybe they were right. Maybe she needed some time to clear her head. She had been in the same clothes for nearly two days now. She couldn’t remember her last genuine meal and she was certain she reeked of blood and sweat. As much as Nagachika might need her and the others, she couldn’t go on like this and still be productive.

She reached up to rub her aching temples and felt her thumb brush against the smooth plastic of her communicator. Apart from a few crackles, it had been mostly silent of speech since the mission’s end. After all, there was no longer a need for orders from their superiors anymore. She must have forgotten about it in her frenzied rush to find Nagachika. Or maybe a part of her subconscious had wanted to keep it in, just in case she heard the impossible.

No use in hoping anymore.

Akira yanked the earpiece from around her ear, finally ready to shut it off.

Tzzzst. Tzzzst.

What was that? She squinted at the communicator and flipped it over. The crackle hadn’t come from hers.

Probably just static from an earpiece that got damaged during the raid. The CCG clean up teams usually tried to retrieve the earpieces from the fallen agents, otherwise their channels would be filled with incessant feedback. They must have missed one and now it was suddenly active in the warehouse.

Her fingers curled reflexively around the plastic earpiece.

They had missed one. What if that earpiece was still attached to a body? What if they were still miraculously alive? It might explain why she was hearing static for the first time in nearly twenty-four hours.

Akira jammed down on the volume button until she could hear the crackling without needing to keep the device by her ear. The static was sustained, perhaps intentional.

“This is Akira Mado.” She paused, but the only response was another long bzzzt.

She frowned and paused before speaking again. “This is Akira Mado. Answer if you can hear me.”

Tzzzzst.

“Is anyone there? This is Akira Mado of the CCG.”

Tzzzzzzst.

Akira sighed and dropped the communicator back on the desk before leaning back in her chair. Maybe it had all been in her head. She really needed sleep if she was getting so worked up over a few seconds of static.

Suddenly, the sustained crackle ended with a jarring, pitchy screech. Akira jerked upright, blinking at her communicator with bated breath. She waited another fifteen seconds, but the sound never came back. Whatever happened on the other end, it wasn’t some technological fluke. She was sure of it.

What the hell was that? Did…did someone destroy the other communicator?

She took a deep breath before jumping to her feet and hurrying towards her team’s shared office. Seidou and Amon where still there, huddling and muttering over a file on Nagachika’s desk. They looked up quickly after she tossed her communicator on the file in front of them.

“I think someone’s still in the warehouse,” she announced in a rush of words before her mind could justify some sort of plausible excuse.

“Did they say something?” Seidou was practically bouncing on his heels. Akira noticed several empty coffee cups in the trash can. “Who was it?”

Akira mashed her lips together before glancing away. “Not exactly. They didn’t say anything. The static sounded different though.”

Now saying it out loud, she realized how ridiculous it all seemed. Static sounds different? I’m the one who sounds different. Like a desperate lunatic.

“Static?” Amon echoed.

“Sounds different?” Seidou ventured with a quirked eyebrow.

“Yes. And then it cut off suddenly. Like someone destroyed the device!”

“Uh, how do you know they’re in the warehouse?”

“I—I don’t…”

They stared blankly at her. Akira sagged against the door frame with a frustrated shake of the head. “Forget it. It’s late and—”

“There isn’t anything else we can do here,” Amon finished. He flipped the file closed and reached for his crutches. He hobbled towards the door and Seidou followed him out with a final backwards glance towards Nagachika’s empty desk. They filtered out of the office in silence.

Amon hesitated before pulling the door behind him.

“The warehouse is on the way to my apartment. If you’re already planning on—”

Seidou perked up with an eager nod. “I’ll come too. I, uh, have to pick up some groceries on that side of town anyway.”

Akira nodded with a faint smile. She didn’t mention that the warehouse was nearly twenty blocks out of the way of Amon’s apartment or that the businesses would be closed at this time of night.

“I’ll meet you in the lobby then. I have to pick something up first.”

Chapter Text

“I’m tired of waiting.”   

Four little, impatient words. Hide had probably groaned that exact phrase several times in the past. Maybe when Kaneki was taking too long at the bookstore? Or when another one of their team’s leads was about to dry up?

However, that phrase didn’t carry the same exasperated humor when growled by a leering, bloodthirsty ghoul who was hellbent on hanging Hide’s guts from the rafters like gory party streamers.

Hide pushed himself backwards to escape that potent fury – his body reacting before his mind could catch up – but he only hit the unyielding metal of the locked door. His impaled leg throbbed from being tossed around repeatedly like a ragdoll; his chest burned with each hitched breath against his cracked ribs.

He was in no position to move, much less fight. Not like there was any room for it anyway. In the blink of an eye, Rakko had him pinned to the door. Rakko’s grip on Hide’s shoulder was careful, yet firm as if the bastard was weighing a delicate, mushy peach in his palm. Hide would have scoffed at the uncharacteristic delicateness if another, less charming, thought hadn’t popped into his head.

Rakko might be tired of waiting, but he still didn’t want Hide to die too quickly. The restraint was far more foreboding than if Rakko had simply gone and snapped Hide’s collarbone in half.

When Hide swallowed, Rakko’s fingers shifted to the base of his throat. They fluttered playfully against the underside of Hide’s chin. A single squeeze would kill him.

“Oh, go on – try to swallow again. I missed that last one. I want to feel how hard it is for you to breathe.”

Damn, this guy was a sadistic bastard. Hide almost wanted to hold his breath just to spite his tormentor. Hell, if he held it long enough, he might even pass out – and who knew what sort of response that would cause.

However, his traitorous body continued to take shallow, desperate sips of air. Not quite hyperventilating yet, but it must’ve been close enough to panicking to make Rakko satisfied. His sharp nails traced the undersides of Hide’s chin, circling once, twice, around where his pulse thudded the hardest.

“You put on such a brave face,” Rakko murmured, his tone thoughtful. “There was even a point where I thought you weren’t even scared of me.”

That nail dug into Hide’s skin. Hide hissed in pain and arched his back, trying to put distance between his flesh and Rakko’s nails. Something wet dribbled down his neck and pooled in the hollow of his throat.

 “But that was an act, wasn’t it?” Rakko pulled his blood-stained hand away and offered Hide an unsettling smirk. “You’re a better actor than your sentimental friend – I’ll give you that.” Rakko laughed. “That fool was barely able to control himself when you were getting pummeled by Ayato. I wonder what sort of pathetic expression he’ll be wearing when he finds your lifeless body. We’ll know soon enough.” Rakko paused, laughed again. “Or, at least, one of us will. You’ll be dead.”

Hide forced his expression into a blank frown. He could do without the melodramatic monologuing. The other ghouls he’d run into before hadn’t been nearly this bad about gloating.

No, wait – Nishio was pretty insufferable that one time. He spent so much time talking shit that he missed his chance to actually kill me.  

Could he try the same tactic? Play dead and hope Rakko got bored?

Probably not. The guy would just torture me until I stopped pretending.

When Nishio had ambushed him a lifetime ago, Hide hadn’t been the true target. Not really, anyway. Nishio had wanted to get to Kaneki; Hide hadn’t been anything more than a means to an end.

Overlooked, underestimated. Ultimately, still alive.

Hide’s narrowed-eyed stare flicked from Rakko’s leer to the Aogiri Tree insignia along the buckle of his cape. Hide might be the ghoul’s current fixation, but Rakko wanted to make Kaneki suffer. He wanted to savor Kaneki’s pain, Kaneki’s reaction to Hide’s death.

Kaneki was the one that Rakko must’ve truly hated – or truly feared.

“So… you’re going to kill me before Kaneki gets here?” Hide quirked his lips into a pained smile. “Kinda embarrassing, don’t you think? You gotta go after the weak, injured human first.”

If Rakko only saw Hide as a pathetic human, defenseless without Kaneki’s protection, then Hide could use that to his advantage.

“What did you say?” Rakko’s voice was cold, steely, and very unamused.

 Or… he might end up pissing off the ghoul worse. A tossup as this point.

However, ever since that bastard mentioned Kaneki’s devastated expression – damn, Hide never even wanted to think about what that might look like – a new determination burned through him. He was never planning to let the ghoul kill him without a fight, but he felt like fighting a lot harder now.

Because now? Now Hide had a plan. Not a good plan – at this point, he assumed none of his plans were actually good – but a plan. His hand reflexively brushed against the metallic lump in his pocket.

“Do you not think you could beat him otherwise? That you need to weaken him first by killing me?” Hide tried to smile wider, but his throbbing cheek muscles wouldn’t move properly. “Because that’s what it sounds like to me.”

“You don’t think I’m strong enough to kill your friend?” Rakko leaned closer, his eyes blazing. “Did you not see what I did to your pitiful team earlier?” His crimson kagune erupted from his back and formed a cage of glowing tentacles around Hide’s body.

“I don’t think you’re strong enough to kill a ghoul as fearsome as One-Eye.” Hide felt like he was babbling now, but he needed Rakko close and distracted for this to work. “Listen, I spend a lot of time at the CCG and brush shoulders with a ton of experienced investigators. They all love to talk about the strongest ghouls they’ve faced. One-Eye gets mentioned a lot.”

A lie, technically. He didn’t even know Kaneki called himself One-Eye until overhearing it from Rakko and the other ghouls. Even so, Hide’s words sent Rakko’s lips twisting into a satisfying scowl.

“But you know who never gets talked about? An arrogant, obnoxious, predictable dipshit who named himself after goddamn sea otters.”

Hide suppressed the urge to cringe the moment the words left his mouth. Maybe – just maybe – he was pushing a bit too far. He half-expected Rakko’s fist to crash through his skull.

Instead, the ghoul blinked and pulled away, as if stunned. The ends of his kagune even wilted, one falling to rest on Hide’s shoulder.

Then, he laughed and Hide realized he might have fucked up.

Rakko laughed and laughed and laughed, each chuckle sending another wave of shivers up Hide’s spine. “Was that your best attempt to rile me up? To distract me into making a careless mistake?”

Rakko leaned uncomfortably close, their faces only a few centimeters apart. Hide could smell the sour stench of old blood on Rakko’s breath. The tips of his kagune tangled around Hide’s body like the limbs of a demented octopus: draped over his shoulder, looped around his waist, snagged around his injured calf.

“You are brave. Foolishly so,” Rakko murmured, his voice a husky whisper in Hide’s ear. “But you’re the one who’s predictable. And you clearly don’t know anything about sea otters.”

Hide couldn’t help the nervous giggle that burst from his lips. “Oh? What’s there to know?”

“Sea otters can eat up to twenty-five percent of their body weight in one day.” Rakko licked his lips. “I reckon you’ll last me at least four days.”

Rakko’s jaw opened wide, those wicked teeth glinting, and—

Hide yanked the pull tab on the RC canister in his vest. Immediately, a stream of hazy reddish-gray smoke poured from his pocket and engulfed them. To Hide, it felt like a swell of woodsmoke or something spicy had been blown in his face.  

To Rakko, it was, evidently, worse.

The ghoul roared in pain and reared back. His kagune writhed, one slicing across Hide’s shoulder, before crumbling into dust. He pawed at his face, growling and spitting incoherently. Through the haze of the dissipating smoke, Hide caught a glimpse of the ghoul’s furious, flaring eyes fixed on him.

Hide resisted his sudden desire to cover his face – protection from the eye-stinging smoke or maybe a childish urge to hide – and dug through his pockets for the next part of his plan. He grabbed the metal wire he took from the evidence marker flag and jammed it into the top of Rakko’s wrist.

It wasn’t a deep wound, but Hide relished the thought of leaving his own mark on the monster after everything Rakko had done to him. He dug the wire a little deeper, gouging out a small pockmark of flesh.

He didn’t have much time before the skin would knit back together. Even with the caustic RC smoke burning at Rakko’s flesh and kagune, Hide knew rinkaku types were the most resilient. He fished through his pocket for the last part of his plan. He’d only have another moment before—

Rakko’s hand shot through the smoke and caught the underside of Hide’s neck. He barely managed a startled choke before Rakko shoved him roughly against the wall. His head snapped against metal and stars twinkled in his vision.

There was no delicateness to Rakko’s actions now.

Hide’s fingers scrambled against Rakko’s wrist, scratching and digging at the mark he made earlier. After a few unsuccessful swipes, Hide switched tactics to pounding against Rakko’s wrist with the heel of his palm. Rakko simply scoffed, as if Hide were no more threatening than a woodpecker to a mighty oak.

“Do you think you’re clever?” Rakko spat. “Did you think that would stop me?”

Hide tried to gasp out a witty retort, but Rakko’s fingers tightened even further around his windpipe. There was a solid chance the ghoul might actually snap his neck in half before his lungs had the chance to starve.

Rakko stared at him, impassive, as Hide’s vision started blurring. Was this how he was going to die? Strangled? It was surprisingly… bloodless. All things considered, his death could have been far grislier.

Rakko must’ve realized it as well. His grip around Hide’s throat slackened. Hide sucked in a desperate breath of air before collapsing into a fit of wheezy coughs.

“I’ve changed my mind.” Rakko’s voice came out blunt, almost clinical. Rakko pulled his hand back. Hide’s wary gaze remained fixed on the ghoul’s wrist, at the bloody smear where he’d stabbed him with the flag wire.

“I don’t care anymore about One-Eye’s expression when he finds your dead body.” Bloodstained lips curled into a smile. “Now, I’m more interested in savoring your anguished face when I rip your friend apart. Your tears will make an excellent seasoning.”

I hate him.

He couldn’t manage much more that a spiteful thought. Hide slumped to the side as the adrenaline faded from his system. Exhaustion and pain and fear had taken a heavy toll on his body. His eyes flickered closed as an even greater darkness threatened to overwhelm him. He was dimly aware of two sharp pats against his bruised cheek, but his eyelids were too heavy to lift again.

“So, don’t go anywhere, little birdie. I wouldn’t want you to miss the show.”  

His heels slapped heavy against the concrete as he raced through the darkened warehouse complex. This could be an ambush – Rakko could have gathered a dozen other resentful ghouls – but Kaneki didn’t care.

He needed to get to Hide, damn the dangers.

Besides, he had a growing suspicion that a ghoul like Rakko wasn’t keen on sharing. It didn’t make Hide any safer, but it meant better odds for them.

After all, it meant Kaneki only had to rip off one head rather than thirteen.

He skidded to a stop, overwhelmed by the jarring scent of blood and something caustically bitter. His throat clenched, his skin and eyes burning. What—

“Took you long enough to get here, One-Eye,” Rakko growled from the far side of the warehouse bay. Hide laid in a crumpled heap at his feet.

Fury sparked through Kaneki’s bones, moving fast and blind like a raging forest fire. He would read about this sort of all-consuming anger in his favorite books, but it always took him by surprise, leaving him almost breathless, each time it struck him.

“Rakko!” Kaneki took a staggering step closer.

“Let’s skip the scary threats, shall we?” Rakko dug a heel into Hide’s bruised cheek. “We don’t have much time to waste.”

A fierce shudder wracked through Kaneki’s body. Suddenly, he was trapped in that alleyway, defenseless and terrified, as Nishio nearly killed Hide.

Back when Kaneki had been weak. Back when he hadn’t been able to protect those important to him. Back when he didn’t have control or a plan.

Kaneki wasn’t the same person he was then. He curled his fingers into fists before launching himself at Rakko. The plan was simple: get Hide away from the bastard and then kill Rakko. The sooner he could move Hide from the danger, the sooner Kaneki could fully unleash.

His kagune erupted from his lower back, four dagger-sharp tendrils aimed for Rakko’s chest. Rakko yanked a limp Hide into the air as a human shield. His momentum was too fast – Hide too close –  but, well…

He had been expecting such a cowardly, sadistic trick. If Rakko wanted Kaneki to suffer, of course he’d try to make Kaneki kill his best friend. He’d spent too much time around members of Aogiri Tree – knew the ways they liked to toy with their victims.

Kaneki’s kagune changed shape and direction, slipping between Hide’s back and Rakko’s grip. He carefully pried Hide free from the ghoul’s clutches. Rakko tried to lash out with his own kagune, but they bounced harmlessly off the glowing, crimson cocoon. Kaneki gently set an unconscious Hide behind him.

Now, Rakko would need to get through Kaneki to hurt Hide.

Step one: complete.

He recalled his kagune and leapt for Rakko with renewed vigor. Their kagune clashed with powerful booms. They were well-matched, both bearing rinkakus. This battle would likely be one of endurance.

Kaneki and Rakko traded several rounds of powerful blows. Once, Rakko managed to slip past Kaneki’s defense, his kagune skewering through Kaneki’s side. Kaneki retaliated with a heavy punch to Rakko’s chin. Even so, Rakko’s blow left him winded. He wobbled and tried to reassess his surroundings.

Hide was several meters behind him, safe from the chaos.

Rakko had a longer range than Kaneki, but his kagune wasn’t nearly as strong.

Kaneki couldn’t attack too recklessly. A second deep wound might not be so easy to recover from.

Lastly, Rakko was enjoying himself. Perhaps that was the most infuriating observation. He grinned and cackled each time his kagune caught Kaneki off guard. Hell, he even laughed whenever Kaneki landed a hit.

Truly, a psychopath.

Kaneki landed a solid kick to Rakko’s chest. Rakko staggered back with a huffy gasp and clutched at his right wrist. For the first time since their fight began, he almost looked… concerned?

Kaneki froze and eyed his opponent warily. What was going on? Rakko suddenly seemed more preoccupied with his arm and twitching fingers than fighting Kaneki. The unexpected shift in priorities was unsettling.

Had— Had Kaneki landed a stronger blow to the monster’s arm than he thought? He couldn’t remember anything in particular, his recollection of their fight blurred with fury and Hide’s blood. Rakko might have blocked one of Kaneki’s striking kagune with that side of his arm, but it wouldn’t have been enough to cause significant damage.

It didn’t matter. If Rakko was distracted, then Kaneki couldn’t waste this chance. He lunged for Rakko’s throat. Rakko leapt away with a startled growl. Several large tentacles from his kagune swung wildly over Kaneki’s head.

Kaneki almost thought they had been a panicked reflex – until the sound of screeching metal filled the air. He jerked his gaze to the rafters overhead. Chunks of steel grated against one another as the weakened metal stared to fall.

Damn!

Hide was directly in the crossfall. That bastard was playing dirty to keep Kaneki away.

Kaneki launched himself in Hide’s direction, pushing off against the concrete floor with his kagune. He barely managed to shield Hide’s huddled body with his own as the first chunks of metal struck his back and shoulders. By the time the larger pieces fell, Kaneki’s kagune had erupted from his lower back and formed a protective cage around the both of them.

Safe.

Kaneki exhaled shakily. In their close proximity, he could sense each of Hide’s sluggish breaths. He knew he ought to refocus on the battle, but Rakko remained fixated on his arm.

And… there was a part of him that savored this momentary respite. Hide was close, warm, alive. They still had a monster to deal with, but at least they were together again. Kaneki could protect Hide.

Hide groaned and shifted slightly, his shoulder knocking against Kaneki’s extended elbows. “Ugh… ‘neki?”

“Hide, are you alright?” Kaneki whispered, his voice strained. The crimson glow from his kagune shell casted an unnatural sheen to Hide’s pale face, making the bruises under his eyes and along his cheek even darker.

Hide cracked his eyes open and offered a wry smile. “That’s the second time he’s pulled that trick. Cutting through the rafters, I mean.” His scoff sounded more like a hitched whimper. Kaneki tried not to wince. “And that guy called me predictable.”

Hide’s fine. As fine as he can be, at least.

Kaneki was suddenly struck by the baffling urge to laugh and sob at the same time. He settled for a pained, fond sigh. “You shouldn’t be taking this so lightly. Rakko is dangerous.”

“Oh, yeah, message definitely received.”

With a grunt, Hide struggled into a half-slouched position, resting his weight on his elbows. Kaneki carefully maneuvered off of Hide and sat back on his heels to give his best friend more room to move. His kagune still stretched over their heads like a protective shield, but there didn’t seem to be any more debris falling from the ceiling.

Hide squinted at Rakko, teeth gritted. Kaneki followed his best friend’s glare.

“His arm,” Hide spoke first. “There’s something wrong with it.”

Kaneki nodded slowly. “So, you saw it, too.”

Hide flashed a cryptic smile. “I saw it first,” he corrected.

“What?”

Hide sat up the rest of the way. He nearly tipped and Kaneki had to steady his shoulders. Hide tapped a finger against the tendons along his right forearm.

“It’s probably healed now, but I managed to cut him on the wrist before you got here.” Hide’s grin turned wicked. “Then I shoved a CCG cyanide capsule in the wound. Reckon he was too distracted by the RC canister – oh, and choking me – to notice.”

“Hide—” Kaneki’s fingers dug reflexively into the padding of Hide’s uniform. Sometimes, Kaneki found it hard to believe that he was supposed to be the monster between the two of them.

Hide did not look repentant. If anything, he almost looked smug at Kaneki’s distress. It was a strange sight to see on such a bruised, bloody face.

“I’m not sure what it would do to a ghoul. You know, ‘cause your physiologies are a bit different. Even so, I bet there are enough similarities for the poison to fuck up his arm. You hitting him at that spot during the fight must’ve broken the capsule. That’s what I call teamwork.”

Kaneki blinked once, twice. How long had it taken Hide to come up with this plan? Considering the stress and pain he must’ve been facing during his time along with Rakko, then—

“You’re terrifying.”

It was the only thing Kaneki could think to say.

Hide’s laugh bubbled free. “I’m going to take that as a compliment.” Then, he winced and hunched forward, clutching at his ribs. “Ergh…”

Kaneki’s own faint smile faded as the gravity of the situation rushed back like an icy, crashing wave. They weren’t finished with this fight yet. Hide’s trick may have bought them time – and gave Kaneki the upper hand – but Rakko was a formidable ghoul. His temper was already a fearsome obstacle. If he learned that Hide was responsible for his poisoned arm, then—

“Oi! Sea otter! Are you enjoying that little surprise in your arm, courtesy of the CCG?” Hide called.

“What are you doing?” Kaneki nudged him in the ribs – perhaps a bit harder than necessary, considering Hide’s pained grimace.

“He doesn’t like to be mocked. Sure, it makes him angry, but it also makes him careless.” Hide smiled thinly. “There’s not much else I can do to help.”

“You’ve already done enough.”

Kaneki immediately winced at his words. They felt sharper than he intended. Hide, likewise, averted his gaze, his smile gone.

“I—I didn’t mean it like that,” Kaneki hastily clarified. “You’ve already done so much to slow Rakko down. You’re the reason we were able to get away from Aogiri Tree earlier. But, because of that, you got—” Kaneki stared pointedly at Hide’s ribs.

“The shit beat out of me?” Hide offered, tone mild.

Kaneki sighed and shook his head. “I don’t want you to put yourself in anymore danger. Not… not for my sake.”

Hide opened his mouth, closed it. He looked as if he were about to say something, his expression so Hide-like: kind and warm and gentle. However, Rakko took their lapse in attention as an opportunity to strike. His kagune struck against Kaneki’s protective cage, sending cracks radiating through the hardened tentacles.

“Get out of that cage, little birdie,” Rakko sneered, his eyes blazing. “Come out, so I can rip off your fucking wings.”

Blood dripped from the deep gash in his forearm. Evidentially, Rakko’s solution to the cyanide pill had been to gouge out the poisoned flesh.

Kaneki glanced from the monster to his best friend. Hide’s lips were mashed in an uneasy frown, his fingers reflexively tangled in the hem of Kaneki’s shirt. The sight made Kaneki’s heart throb. Despite Hide’s boldness and cunning, he was still human and still afraid.

“Stay behind me,” Kaneki whispered before rising to his feet.

The moment he recalled his kagune back to attack, removing the protective shield from over their heads, Rakko would undoubtedly lash out at Hide. Their greatest defense was simultaneously a danger. He would need to act fast to catch Rakko by surprise.

“When I move, try to get as low as possible,” he added, keeping his tone low.

Hide’s gaze jumped from Kaneki’s face to Rakko’s crimson tendrils snapping against Kaneki’s shield. “Got it,” he murmured with a stiff nod. “And Kaneki?”

“Yeah?”

“Whatever happens, you have to keep attacking, alright? If you get seriously hurt, then we’re both screwed. Trust me, okay?”

“I… I will.” He spared a moment to cement Hide’s image in his mind, greedily drinking in the spark to those brown eyes and the familiar quirk of his lips. This wouldn’t be the last time they saw each other, but… just in case…

Kaneki took a steadying breath and fixed his glare on Rakko. He might not be as brilliant as Hide when it came to cunning plans, but he had plenty of experience in fighting. Muscle memory and brutal instinct were what Kaneki could offer.  

“Oh? Finished with your parting words?” Rakko bared his teeth. “Let’s wrap this up.”

Kaneki tensed his knees before launching himself at Rakko. His kagune flared behind him like a massive, pulsing wall. He hoped that sort of attack – plus Hide’s lunge to the side – would keep Rakko’s vicious kagune from finding its mark.

Kaneki was only a few meters from Rakko, his outstretched hands aimed for the bastard’s neck, when a yelp of pain and a thud echoed behind him. Kaneki’s blood ran cold, and his next step almost faltered, but he couldn’t slow down. He had to push through and pray that Hide was still alright.

He needed to trust Hide, needed to ignore the cruel screaming in the back of his mind that he was a goddamn failure.

Because if he stopped mid-attack now? Rakko would rip them both to shreds.

Rakko’s coy smirk froze when Kaneki didn’t immediately fall back. He even leaned away, arm rising to defend himself, as Kaneki descended on him. Kaneki’s numerous tentacles, once fanned out as a protective shield, now crashed against Rakko’s chest and limbs like a dozen knives. With a savage kick downwards, Kaneki completely severed Rakko’s protective forearm from his elbow. Another kick sent Rakko’s kneecap through the back of his leg.

He was furious. He was livid. He was—he was losing control, but, fuck, if the bastard didn’t deserve it after what he’d done to Hide.

Hide. Hide. Hide.

Hide had to be alive – he had to.

He was dimly aware of Rakko’s kagune piercing through his upper shoulder. What a pathetic counterattack, mused a voice that wasn’t quite Kaneki’s own. As if caught in a trace, Kaneki ripped the twitching tentacle from his own body and shoved it deep into Rakko’s gut.

Awe replaced fear on Rakko’s face. When he laughed, bloody spittle caught along his lips.

“There you are,” he whispered. “The monster that—”

Rakko didn’t get the chance to say anything else. Kaneki’s flattened hand sliced through Rakko’s neck, sending the ghoul’s head flying. It landed a few meters away, those lips still twisted into a gloating sneer and those still-open eyes dead and cold.

Rakko was gone. It was over.

Kaneki wobbled on his feet, as if jarred out of the bloody trance. His breaths came out in hitching pants, his chest rising and falling rapidly. He blinked at his trembling, crimson-stained fingertips and palms. Rakko was finally dead, so that meant—

“Hide!” Kaneki pivoted on a heel and raced to where his best friend laid, curled up in a pool of his own blood.

Oh, god. It was too much blood. The tantalizing scent sent his battle-fatigued senses into a buzz, his stomach rumbling, desperate for compensation. He suppressed the urge to be sick and pushed through the desires to feast.

Kaneki dropped beside Hide’s side. His fingers shook as they hovered over his best friend’s still shoulders. Blood leaked from a new nick along his temple, but it wasn’t the source of the fresh blood. Kaneki’s gaze traveled down Hide’s body until it stopped at his calf. Kaneki’s loose bindings had come undone in the struggle, the wound reopening during the fight.

No new injuries then. At least, not any outwardly ones.

“Hide…?”

Then, why wasn’t Hide moving—

Hide groaned and stirred. Kaneki almost crushed him to his chest in relief. Hide’s eyes opened, his pupils blown unnaturally large. There was a vacantness to his stare that gave Kaneki chills. He never remembered Hide looking that… empty.

“D’we geddim?” he slurred, his eyelashes fluttering.

“We—” Kaneki glanced over his shoulder at Rakko’s headless corpse, “—yes, we got him. Try not to move or talk. You must’ve hit your head.”

“Would ‘splain the head…ugh…” He cringed and tilted his face away from the overhead lights.

Kaneki’s frown tightened. The lights weren’t even that bright. Another worrisome observation.

“Hide, please. Just try…try to rest. But don’t fall asleep. Please.” His voice cracked. “You can’t go to sleep.”

You can’t leave me here.

Kaneki didn’t know anything about head trauma. However, the thought of Hide slipping away with a slow, sleepy sigh terrified him to his core. After everything they’d been through together in the past two days – hell, the past ten years – this couldn’t be how it ended.  

Hide grumbled something incoherent, his head lolling weakly to the side, and Kaneki gently pulled Hide into his lap to better cradle his head. His fingers absently smoothed away some of the blood-soaked bangs plastered to Hide’s forehead.

What should he do? He needed to get help. That much was obvious. But—could he move Hide? Would that make things worse? What if Hide died in his arms because Kaneki wasn’t careful enough?

Fuck, he was going to be sick again. However, if he didn’t do something now, he might lose Hide.

“Hide,” Kaneki kept his voice low and soft. “I need to take you someplace where they can help you.”

“I got asprin ‘n my apartmen’,” Hide slurred. “Let’s go home…”

Kaneki’s heart clenched. The words leaving Hide’s lips were senseless rambles, but that phrase hit harder than any of the blows Rakko had left on him.

Home.

Where was his home anyway? His barren apartment or the colorless walls of the Aogiri Tree base never offered him any warmth.

“Hide?” Kaneki whispered.

No response.

“Hide.” Kaneki’s panic swelled, building and building until it nearly choked him.  “Hide – wake up. Please, you need--” Kaneki broke off with a startled gasp.

Someone had entered the warehouse.

No one spoke for the entirety of the trip.

Amon thought he caught a glimpse of Seidou opening his mouth in the rearview mirror, but no words filled the space between them. Akira glared out the passenger side window, as if locked in a brutal staring contest with her reflection.

Amon’s grip tightened around the steering wheel. What were they even doing? The only thing this impromptu mission would accomplish was getting their hopes up. And for what? It was impossible that Nagachika would turn up in the place where he disappeared. Not after their thorough search and all those dead-end leads.

Still, there was a chance to find their missing teammate and he refused to let it slip away.

Before he could convince himself otherwise, Amon took the final turn into the abandoned warehouse complex. Only twenty-four hours prior, the lot had been full of CCG vans and tensed investigators.

Now, the emptiness was eerie. The cavernous entrances of the warehouse bays gaped like open mouths. Discarded waste – medical equipment, unused black tarps, lost helmets – littered the space around them.

Amon frowned and shut off the engine. His team sat, silent, for a long moment.

“Shouldn’t we call for backup?” Seidou finally spoke up from the backseat. “What if—I mean, what if the ghouls came back and are waiting for us?”

“Requesting backup would only call more attention to ourselves.” Amon reached down to unbuckle his safety belt.

“Yeah, but… we’re injured and—”

“If you’re scared, then wait in the car,” Akira snapped.

Seidou’s eyes bugged before they narrowed into a scowl. “I’m not scared,” he declared. As if to prove it, he tumbled out of the car first. “Come on – let’s just get this over with.”

They made slow progress through the abandoned warehouse complex. Seidou hadn’t been wrong: their team was injured and otherwise hindered. Amon was the slowest, each of his hobbling steps restricted by the boot around his ankle. Akira, likewise, had developed a noticeable limp. Seidou would stop every couple of meters and frown at the nearest puddle of blood, his expression green in the weak light from the outside lamps.

He was unconscious when Nagachika faced the ghoul. It’s as if he’s seeing this for the first time. Amon’s gaze jumped to a stony-faced Akira. He had been on the edge of consciousness, too. Only Akira had actually seen everything.

She gestured towards a door in the back of the warehouse bay. “Nagachika went through there,” she murmured, her tone flat. “That’s where we – I – last saw him alive.”

Seidou winced and Amon grimaced. She probably didn’t need to add that last bit.

“You mentioned seeing his helmet somewhere, right? Let’s go—” Amon broke off with a confused sniff. The warehouse complex was dank and musty, but he could have sworn he caught a whiff of something else. Something… spicy?

“Do you smell that?”

“Smell what?” Seidou frowned, jabbing his heel at a nearby blood smear.

The hairs on the back of Amon’s neck prickled. It smelled like someone had set off an RC canister nearby. The smell was still fresh – it couldn’t be leftovers from the previous night’s fight.

Akira inhaled, too. Her brow furrowed in confusion before her eyes widened. “I made him take some with him. Since he couldn’t use other weapons,” she breathed, her voice barely audible.

Akira turned and strode towards the far exist with renewed determination. Amon hobbled after her, his grip tightening around the handle to his Quinque’s briefcase. Seidou trailed behind, loudly demanding to know what they were talking about.

They heard the whispers next. Maybe it was the static from the commlinks that Akira was so desperately chasing, but maybe it was—

Amon staggered to a stop and Seidou nearly collided with his back.

There. In the center of the warehouse bay.

Nagachika.

Nagachika, so still and so quiet.

The room’s other occupant, the one holding Nagachika in his lap, glanced up with a startled gasp. His eye glowed a brilliant crimson in the dimness. The hair color was different, and he was wearing strange clothes, but Amon would recognize that haunting stare anywhere.

Eyepatch.

Eyepatch reacted first, holding up an elbow to block his face. He hunched closer to Nagachika’s head, as if trying to keep him shielded.

Akira reacted next, her grip tightening around the handle to her Quinque. “Get away from him.” She took a menacing step forward, her body poised to swing.

Amon snagged her shoulder and tugged her back. “Wait.”

He wasn’t sure why he stopped her. Eyepatch was a ghoul. Eyepatch was standing between them and their teammate. It was their duty to kill him, but…

Something didn’t feel right about that.

She rounded her furious glare on him. For a moment, Amon thought she might disobey his order and attack Eyepatch anyway. However, her stare caught on something over his shoulder and the breath left her chest with a strained huff.

“Shit.” Seidou recoiled, bringing a hand to his mouth.

It took Amon a moment to recognize the tattered lump on the far side of the warehouse bay as a headless body. It took him another second to recognize it as the ghoul who had nearly killed them.

The way that ghoul died – it was messy and angry and now Amon had a sickening understanding of what most likely transpired.

They turned back to face Eyepatch and Nagachika as one. Eyepatch dropped his arm from his face. His gaze flicked to Amon before dropping back to Nagachika’s slackened expression.

“He wasn’t supposed to get hurt,” Eyepatch whispered, his voice strained and weary. There was a tenderness to his words, a tenderness to the way he wiped the blood from Nagachika’s forehead. “He wasn’t supposed to get involved.”

Amon winced at the familiar words. How ironic – for a ghoul and an investigator to have the exact same thoughts. He still didn’t even know if Nagachika was even alive. He wanted to rush closer, but the thought of spooking such a volatile ghoul made him pause.

Instead, it was Akira who stepped forward first. Eyepatch tensed as she approached, his hand reflexively hovering over Nagachika’s chest. Akira’s eyes followed the movement, narrowing as they rested on Nagachika’s pale body. She tensed, as if waiting for something.

Then, her shoulders visibly sagged with relief and Amon felt his own tangled nerves loosen. Nagachika was still alive. Seidou let out a wet laugh and backed away, digging his phone out of his pocket.

“We’ll take care of him,” Akira said. “We’ll make sure he won’t get hurt again.”

“Can you promise that?” Eyepatch rasped. His lip curled to a weak scowl, his fingers brushing against the CCG logo on Nagachika’s chest.

“No.” Akira took another step and squatted down, nearly eye-level with Eyepatch. “But we’ll do our best.”

“It won’t be easy,” Amon added, each word deliberate and cautious. Eyepatch was a ghoul – he shouldn’t be trusted, and they ought to get Nagachika away as soon as possible.

Yet, it was hard to deny the obvious affection the ghoul held for their injured teammate. Now that they were closer, he could see the resemblance between the ghoul and Nagachika’s missing best friend. Those whispered pleas – Eyepatch begging for Amon to reconsider what it meant to co-exist during their last encounter – hit a little bit harder now.

“Nagachika tends to bring a lot of his troubles on himself,” he continued, watching the ghoul’s expression carefully.

Something resembling a faded smile flickered across the ghoul’s face. “Yes, Hide does do that…”

Hide.

Hearing that nickname spoken so casually on the lips of a ghoul was what finally tore down Amon’s lingering reluctance. Nagachika had tried unsuccessfully to get his teammates to call him that overly formal nickname. To think that it would pop up in a blood-stained warehouse.

Seidou shuffled back into the conversation. “I requested an ambulance, but what should I tell dispatch about, uh…” He glanced towards Eyepatch with a hand pressed over the speaker of his phone.

Amon met Eyepatch’s solemn stare. If he were a proper investigator, he would have let Akira attack Eyepatch or instructed Seidou to call for backup. They weren’t supposed to let ghouls escape or survive.

Then again, ghouls weren’t supposed to save investigation assistants or fondly address them by their childhood nicknames.

If both of them were bending the rules of the universe, then that ought to make them even.  

“There was a dangerous ghoul, and it was dispatched accordingly.” Amon nodded towards the headless corpse at the far side of the room. “There were no other ghouls present when we found Nagachika.”

Seidou nodded shakily and turned away to repeat the message into his phone. Akira remained silent, her focus fixed on Nagachika’s rising and falling chest.

Amon was almost grateful for the lack of attention on him. He dipped his head in Eyepatch’s direction. The ghoul stared at him before slowly returning the gesture.

A silent “thank you” might be the best they could share.

They were, after all, supposed to be enemies.

Chapter Text

A severe concussion, four broken ribs, spiral fractures to his tibia and fibula, and countless lacerations and deep-muscle bruises.

Akira played the doctors’ report over and over in her head. The words felt so heavy, so overwhelmingly clinical. Any one of them could have been fatal if things had been slightly different or if they had arrived a second too late. If the brain injuries had been any more serious, they even might’ve needed to place him in an induced coma for treatment.

Her fingers clenched into fists as she watched Nagachika’s slow, machine-aided breathing. He looked so defenseless and small, tangled in wires and an oversized hospital gown. If she had a choice, she would’ve told the doctors to induce the coma anyway. Anything that might keep him safe in the bed – and not at risk of being hurt again.

The calm, rhythmic beeps and whirls of the hospital machinery were disrupted by the occasional sniffle from Seidou. He sat on the opposite side of the bed, swiping at his nose while scribbling down notes from their latest mission. Amon hovered over his shoulder, reading each new line of information with an impassive expression.

Akira’s gaze shifted back to Nagachika. How the hell were they supposed to explain what happened? When they stepped into that abandoned warehouse bay, it felt like the credits had already begun to roll. Did their superiors really expect them to write a report when they missed all the important scenes? Only Nagachika and the ghoul who held him so desperately could tell the whole story.

And that bloodthirsty ghoul who tried to kill us. Obviously, they wouldn’t get any information from him. Not after his lifeless body and head got carted off in two separate plastic bags.

The only thing we’ll get from that bastard is a new quinque.

She halfheartedly remembered her brazen threat when they first faced off – that she’d turn that horrible monster into her next weapon. However, with the dust now settling, the fulfilled promise didn’t feel nearly as thrilling or vindicating.

The machines beeped loudly as Nagachika shifted on the bed. His fingers twitched and he rolled his head to the side, eyelids scrunching up in pain. When he gradually opened his eyes, a touch of blurriness clouded his gaze.

“Nagachika!” Seidou leapt from his chair with a giddy sniffle. He might’ve thrown himself on the bed if Amon hadn’t snagged his shoulder and held him back. “You’re awake! We didn’t—we didn’t think you—”

Nagachika’s eyes widened, and he flinched at the flurry of sound and motion. It almost reminded Akira of how someone might startle awake from a terrible nightmare.

“We didn’t think you’d be this much of a slacker,” Akira interrupted, her tone wry. “You’ve been asleep for nearly a day.”

Amon shot her a warning look, but Nagachika’s disoriented expression sharpened to relieved recognition. His first attempt at speaking came out as a crackly rasp. Amon helped him take a slow sip of water, though most ended up dribbling down his chin.

Nagachika’s second attempt was far more successful. Unsurprisingly, a wheezy chuckle burst from his lips. Akira felt her own lips twitch at the warm, familiar sound.  

“Really? How embarrassing. Did you come here to lecture me about sleeping on the job?” He stifled a wince after flashing them a wide smile. Akira’s attention lingered on the mottled bruise along Nagachika’s swollen lip and cheek.

“We came here to make sure you were doing okay!” Seidou countered, his volume spiking. “We’re teammates!”

Doing okay, huh?

Akira resisted the urge to scratch at the itch prickling along her stitches. Amon shifted and leaned against the wall, as if to alleviate pressure from his fractured leg. A glob of dried blood still clung to Seidou’s bangs.

All of them were injured from the latest raid, but their wounds felt like mere splinters and stubbed toes compared to what Nagachika endured.

“We also wanted to hear your story,” Amon added. “We need to file a report on what happened to you while you were missing.”

“What… happened…?” Nagachika echoed. His expression faltered as he sunk back into his pillows. The bruises along his face grew darker against his paling skin.

Akira watched his reaction carefully. Perhaps it was cruel to question someone so soon after a traumatic incident – never mind the strong painkillers flowing through his veins – but they might not get another chance for a glimpse at honesty.

“Do you not remember?” Amon asked. “You did sustain a serious head injury.”

That guy’s trying to give Nagachika an escape route. Akira mashed her lips in a displeased frown. Chalking the missing information up to the head trauma might be the easiest solution.

But Akira didn’t want easy. She wanted answers. Like, why would a ghoul from Aogiri seem so desperate to protect Nagachika? Or why would Nagachika get himself involved in such a dangerous mission in the first place?  

“If you can’t remember, we can open a more in-depth investigation,” Akira countered. “We could start by tracking down any of the ghouls suspected in the eve—”

“No! That’s—” Nagachika jerked into an upright position, the monitors beeping loudly. He winced and clutched at his ribs before calming his expression. “I mean, that’s not necessary. It would be a waste of resources. I remember what happened. We can wrap everything up here.”

Amon shot Akira another loaded look, yet she pretended not to see it. “What happened after you distracted the red-haired ghoul—”

“Rakko.”

“What?” Seidou’s pen hovered over his notepad.

“That guy’s name was Rakko. I, uh, overheard him say it.”

Akira tilted her head. “There was another ghoul?”

“Ah, no, no. It must’ve been over their communicators or something.” Nagachika offered a shaky laugh. “You know what they say – adrenaline makes your senses sharper and all. Anyway, I ran into the other warehouse bay. He attacked me there. Stabbed me in the leg and threw me against the wall. That’s how I got most of my injuries.”

“Why didn’t he kill you?” Seidou asked, eyes wide. “You wouldn’t have been able to fight back.”

Nagachika paused. Akira could practically see the gears turning in his head. The truth rarely required so much thought.

“Uh, I think he was called away by another ghoul. That must’ve been when I heard his name pop up. The rest of our reinforcements came in.” Nagachika nodded, more determined. “Yeah, that’s probably why.”

Even though our reinforcements came in much later. There would have been plenty of time for that bastard to kill you.

“When we searched for you, we found a pool of your blood and your helmet. But strangely you weren’t in that warehouse bay.”

“Uhh….” Nagachika’s face wrinkled up in a thoughtful pucker. “Hold on. Let me think. It’s hard trying to remember after a couple blows to the head, you know?”

“A couple? I thought you said the ghoul only threw you once.” Seidou frowned and squinted at his notes.

Nagachika flinched. His heartrate monitor momentarily spiked. “Did I say a couple? My mistake. See what I mean about head injuries?” He glanced back at Akira. “After Rakko left, I thought he might come back and kill me. I didn’t have a weapon, so I figured hiding was my best bet. I must’ve lost consciousness while waiting to be rescued.”

Akira digested this with a slow blink. She suspected her expression mirrored Maris Stella’s unimpressed, unconvinced stare whenever the laser pointer toy came out.

None of Nagachika’s excuses lined up. She had seen the warehouse bay herself – saw the distinct lack of a crawling blood trail, saw the absence of hiding places. As she continued to question him, the weak threads of his story grew increasingly tattered.   

“Oh, right – my ribs. That came from Rakko kicking me.”

“I thought you said he threw you?”

“Uh, he kicked me hard enough to throw me.”

“It looked like there was an Aogiri cloak tied around your leg. The doctors said it stopped a lot of the bleeding.”

“Fast thinking, huh? I stole a scrap from one of the dead ghouls in the warehouse. I bandaged my leg, uh, before I lost consciousness.”

“It also smelled like an RC cannister had been recently activated when we found you.”

“Hmm. I don’t know anything about that. Maybe it seemed fresh, ‘cause the smell was trapped in the warehouse?”

So many excuses, so many ways to say nothing.

Although Nagachika’s voice remained steady, his eyelids were starting to droop heavier with each response. A doctor had already come in earlier and tersely remarked about letting patients rest. Akira estimated they only had another minute or two before Nagachika slipped back into a peaceful slumber.

“Last question. When we found you, there was a ghoul with you.”

“A ghoul?” Nagachika froze, the sleepiness instantly draining from his expression. “What happened to hi—them? You didn’t—you didn’t fight them, did you?”

Akira opened her mouth to press harder, but Amon spoke first.

“He was already dead when we arrived. It was the one who attacked us earlier – Rakko.” Amon tilted his head. “There wasn’t anyone else.”

Akira shot him an exasperated scowl. He’s offering another escape route.

“Wasn’t anyone else…” Nagachika echoed with a shaky exhale, relief washing across his features. Some of the tension in his shoulders slackened. “That’s—that’s good to hear.”

“That so?” Amon’s brow quirked. If Akira didn’t know any better, she’d almost think her superior was holding back a smile.

I don’t know what you’re smiling about. We should ask Nagachika about the other ghoul. The one who killed Rakko. Eyepatch.

Nagachika murmured something, his words slurring, as he settled back into his pillows. Akira’s exasperation melted at the sight of his relaxed expression. His eyelashes fluttered closed as his breaths grew even.  

I wonder if he was worried about Eyepatch. He must’ve been on edge without knowing how to ask about him.

Akira scoffed under her breath. Nagachika spent the last half-hour lying to them, yet somehow it was hard to get mad at him.

Even if it meant writing this spotty-as-hell report was going to cause a massive headache later. She groaned and pinched the bridge of her nose. How long had it been since she had a proper night’s sleep? At this point, she was running on spite and caffeine.

Speaking of which—

“Go and get us some coffee,” Akira said, looking directly at Seidou.

He sat up with an open-mouthed frown. “What? That’s always been Naga—” He cut himself off with a heavy glance at Nagachika and then at the cast on Amon’s foot. “Ah, sure. Right. I’ll be back.” With a grumble, he slipped out of the hospital room.

Silence stretched. Akira looked at Amon; Amon looked at Nagachika.

“Should we have recorded him?” Amon spoke first.

Akira suppressed the urge to roll her eyes. The only thing they could’ve gotten from that last conversation was blackmail material.

“Probably. He’s only going to come up with a better lie when he’s not on painkillers.” She hummed. “He won’t be hooked up to that heart monitor, either.”

Amon grunted in agreement.

Akira’s frown deepened. “We should’ve pressed harder. We could’ve learned more about the other ghoul. If you didn’t—”

“I think we have enough for our report. Marude doesn’t care about irrelevant information.”

Irrelevant information.

A ghoul who saved humans felt far from irrelevant.

“What do we do about Eyepatch, then? He’s currently listed on the ‘kill on sight’ list for his involvement with Aogiri.” Akira tilted her head. “If he’s Nagachika’s friend, then that means we have his identity.”

Amon’s brow furrowed. “It would be irresponsible to include that sort of information in a report if it hasn’t been confirmed.”

Confirmed, my ass. You know it’s true.

Akira sighed and tapped her injured foot once, twice, against the underside of Nagachika’s hospital bed. Her stitches throbbed, but the sharpest pain had eased. Scars would fade and bones would stitch back together. Soon, this nightmare would be just that – a horrible memory to put behind them.

Amon and Nagachika both seemed eager to wrap things up. Seidou didn’t know enough of the truth to be suspicious. She was the only one left – the only one still asking questions.

Fine.

If they were going to cover this up, then they might as well do it properly. She leaned back until her rickety hospital chair squealed.

“Funny you should mention Eyepatch. I don’t remember seeing that file. It must’ve gotten misplaced somewhere.”

Amon grunted again. “Who knows when the file when missing. I suspect the digital copies are corrupted, too.”

“Hmmm. Too bad.”

Akira studied Nagachika, focusing on his gently fluttering eyelashes and the faint upwards tick of his lips. Lying in that hospital bed, he looked so naïve, so guileless.

But she knew better than to trust appearances. If they didn’t destroy the evidence, a certain someone would. She caught Amon’s eye, a knowing nod shared between them.

All of them ought to be disciplined for insubordination, truly.

“Get out of that cage, little birdie.”

“Come out, so I can rip off your fucking wings.”

“Don’t go anywhere, little birdie. I wouldn’t want you to miss the show.”

Shadows rippled, teeth glinted. Something warm and metallic bubbled from his lips. No matter where he turned, no matter how far he ran, that bastard was getting closer and closer and—

Hide startled awake with a gasp. Sometime during his latest nightmare, he must’ve jerked his leg. It burned, the pain radiating from the very bone. His fingers automatically strayed for the button to the morphine pump before he reconsidered.

He hated how his mind felt like melted butter while on the painkillers, but his sleep was always shallower – the nightmares more tangible – whenever he went without. He stared at the ceiling of his hospital room and blinked once, twice, to drive away the echo of Rakko’s sneer. He rubbed his eyelids and tried to get comfortable in his blankets again.

Just a nightmare. He’s dea—shit!

Hide’s breath hitched as a shadow shifted in the far corner of his hospital room. His body went rigid, his broken leg pulsing against its temporary casing. He fumbled for a grip in his blankets while staring, wide-eyed, at the faint red glow moving towards him.

Just a nightmare. Just a nightmare. He’s dead. He’s dead. He’s dead.

His frantic thoughts bounced around his skull with the rhythm of the rapid beeping of his heart monitor.

“Hide, it’s alright. It’s just me. You’re safe.”

Kaneki’s soft whisper floated through the darkness as the shadow loomed closer.

Hide focused on his best friend’s voice, letting it guide him through the aftershocks of his latest nightmare. Kaneki was here, which meant Rakko was gone. He was safe. He was safe.

Then calm down, you idiot! If he grew any more panicked, the nurses would come to check on him and they’d see Kaneki and—

Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep!

Hide forced his breathing to steady, holding each inhale for several seconds before exhaling. His thudding heartbeats finally slowed to a more manageable rate. He dropped out of the “warning” range, the machines tethered to his body falling quiet again.

“You scared the hell out of me, man,” he croaked.

“Sorry…” Kaneki murmured with a sheepish glance away. The profile of his face glowed under the light of Hide’s various monitors. The shadows stretched heavy under his eyes, his dark outfit melting into the darkness. His kakugan wasn’t activated. Instead, the flare of red in the far corner of the room seemed to be a reflection from the smoke detector above.

Hide laughed weakly. Somehow, that seemed like a really bad design idea in a hospital room meant for CCG agents. How many had woken from brutal nightmares, only to glimpse those red glowing lights across the room?

He stiffened. Wait – CCG agents.

“Kaneki! What are you doing here?” Hide whisper-hissed, his eyes widening. He clenched his blankets harder, fighting to keep his vitals from spiking again. “You’re—this floor is under surveillance by CCG agents! What if they find you?”

“I didn’t know what happened after the CCG agents took you away. I needed to make sure you were al—” Kaneki hesitated. “Alright.”

“Right…” Hide swallowed thickly. He had already been unconscious by that point. His last memories of the fight with Rakko were hazy, chaotic: spiraling concrete and the sensation of freefall after the kagune slammed into his body. He couldn’t remember anything after striking the ground. He didn’t even realize that he’d been rescued until he woke up in the hospital.

I didn’t know if Kaneki was safe. It’s not like I could’ve asked Amon or the others.

Hide frowned. Safe? That was a strange word to use, considering their current situation. For fuck’s sake, even the nurses carried RC cannisters.

“You really shouldn’t be here though,” Hide added. “Being here is dangerous. It’s like—”

“A human infiltrating an Aogiri Tree base?” Kaneki countered flatly.

Hide opened his mouth, closed it. Reconsidered his argument. “In my defense, I didn’t go there by choice. Rakko dragged me there like a stray cat with a pigeon.”

Kaneki winced. “Please don’t use that analogy again.”

Hide smiled, though the gesture felt far less warm than usual. “Anyway, it wasn’t my intention to end up there. Things got out of hand, and I needed to help my team.”

“You put yourself in a lot of danger, Hide. You could’ve been killed. And if you died, then what would I have—” Kaneki broke off with a hitched exhale.

“I’m sorry, Kaneki. I should have been more careful.” Hide kept his voice soft, gentle. Guilt nagged at the pit of his stomach. Sure, sneaking into that investigation was a dangerous risk, but he hadn’t anticipated the trouble he caused for Kaneki.

Rakko could have killed them both. Aogiri Tree might still be seeking vengeance.

He screwed everything up. Made everything worse, just ‘cause he couldn’t cope with a little bit of loneliness.  

“I was just…” He glanced at the ceiling, unable to meet Kaneki’s intense stare. The shadows helped hide his expression; it somehow felt easier to be vulnerable in the darkness. “I was just trying to find my best friend. I was scared you might’ve been lost for good.”

Now it was Kaneki’s turn to look away. “You don’t need to worry about me. I don’t deserve it.”

Hide’s heart monitor beeped faster, a spike in frustration rather than fear. “The hell is that supposed to mean?” He was speaking louder than a whisper now, but, dammit, Kaneki needed to hear it. “You’re my best friend. And you – something scary happened to you. I couldn’t—I couldn’t keep it from happening.”

“It’s not your fault—"

“You were always the one worrying when we were younger. Let someone else do it now, okay?” Hide wrinkled his nose and refocused on Kaneki’s face. “I’m going to do whatever I can to make things better for you. It’s just like when you were scared of heights, so I jumped off the top of the jungle gym to prove—”

“Hide, this isn’t like when we were kids.”

Hide scoffed. “Obviously not. You weren’t as stubborn back then.”

A tentative smile flickered on Kaneki’s lips. “I believe that was your role.” A pause as the smile grew more confident. “It’s strange to be the one getting lectured.”

Hide’s rising tension – the guilt, the worry, the fear that he still hadn’t found Kaneki – fizzled out in a breathy laugh. “Not fun being on the receiving end, huh?”

Kaneki hummed. “It’s actually nice. I missed it.” He glanced at Hide before dropping his eyes. “I missed you.”

“Aw, shit, Kaneki – you’re going to make me cry.” Hide swiped at the wetness prickling along his lashes.

Well, whatever. He could blame it on the morphine.

A wave of exhaustion and bittersweet relief washed through him. He yawned and slouched against his pillows, the burn radiating to his heavy eyelids. “I’d really love to continue catching up, but—” The tail end of his sentence was swallowed by another yawn.

“You need to rest.” Kaneki hesitated before tugging at the hem of Hide’s blanket. His movements were clumsy, his hands snagging against the various wires attached to Hide’s arms, but he managed to pull the blankets to Hide’s shoulders.

Hide wanted to make a smartass remark about getting tucked in, but his tongue felt leaden in his mouth. The warmth of the blankets and the residual glow in his chest were overwhelmingly intoxicating compared to the chilly air.

He only had enough energy for one more request. It was selfish; it was childish. Kaneki should leave before anyone spotted him. Even so…

“Would you mind staying till I fall asleep?” Hide murmured, the words muffled in his blankets. If Kaneki was nearby, then the nightmares might stay away.

His eyes had already drifted closed, and he couldn’t see Kaneki’s face. Instead, a breathy chuckle accompanied the faint dip of the mattress as someone perched on the edge. Hide’s lips remained quirked in a smile as he slipped into a quiet, dreamless slumber.

For at least a little bit longer, he still had his best friend.

He couldn’t remember the last time he visited this place. Perhaps with his previous partner, Akira’s father?

At the time, he hadn’t thought it any different from the dozens of other coffee shops and cafes in their ward. Now, as he stepped inside, the greeting bell ringing behind him, Amon’s nerves prickled as if he were participating in a mission. Whether it was a reconnaissance mission or something else – he wasn’t quite sure.

Amon’s narrowed eyes flicked around the coffee shop as he absorbed the pleasant atmosphere. Sunlight streamed through the large glass windows. The polished wooden furniture glowed like honey under the overhead lights. The hum of chatter paused momentarily, several gazes darting towards him, before the gentle conversations resumed.

Before the warehouse raid, he never would have thought twice about the eyes on him. Knowing the potential connection between Nagachika’s best friend and this unassuming coffee shop, he was grateful he left his CCG badge at the office.

Movement shifted by a door in the far corner of the café. A slender young man conversed with a dark-haired waitress. Amon locked gazes with a familiar pair of gray eyes. The eyes widened for a brief moment; then, their owner tugged on brim of his baseball cap, further hiding the white hair underneath. Amon maintained the stare for a moment longer before moving to an empty table in the far corner.

It’s him. Eyepatch. Amon paused and glanced over his shoulder at the young man. Kaneki.

Kaneki remained rooted by the staff entrance, watching warily. Amon could feel a growing number of eyes drift his way as well. Reflexive, battle-won instincts kicked in. Sweat beaded along the undersides of his arms and the small of his back. Were the other customers gho—

Calm down.

The patrons weren’t monsters, weren’t causing harm. They were just enjoying their coffee: the old couple, fingers interlaced; the trio of kids crowded around their phone, coffee cakes untouched; the young lady pensively sipping from her steaming mug. Most of them were probably faithful regulars.

A new thought struck him. How many of them knew Nagachika’s name? A prime spot by the bar remained unoccupied, despite the crowded café. Was that where he always sat – a seat held empty for him?

With a half-hearted shake of his head, he pushed the other customers from his mind. He was technically off the clock and there wasn’t any point worrying about “hypotheticals”. If the customers were ghouls and if they tried to harm him, he’d let that unease squirming in his gut build into action.

The young waitress who’d been talking with Kaneki appeared at the edge of his table. She eyed Amon, her expression difficult to read, before dropping a small box on the table. The overwhelming scent of sugar and candied lemons wafted from the gaps in carboard and shimmering cellophane wrap.

Amon blinked, startled. “I didn’t—"

“It’s for Nagachika. You work with him, right?” Her voice came out light and pleasant; however, he didn’t miss the faintest crease around her violet eyes or the clench of muscle underneath her chin.

They know me, then. Amon’s gaze darted to Kaneki. I wonder how they knew. Did he tell them or was it Nagachika?

Kaneki offered Amon a faint bob of the head. It was near identical to the gesture they shared before, but it somehow felt different, calmer, in this warm coffee shop compared to the dark, bloody warehouse.

“We all wish him a quick recovery,” the girl added pointedly. Her expression softened for the briefest moment, a glimpse at something more genuine. “Many of us care about Hide, too.”

Hide.

There it was again – that endearing nickname. What did it mean when ghouls used it more often than humans?

“I’ll let him know.” Amon considered his next words carefully. “He always talks fondly of this place. I’m sure he’ll continue to visit for many, many years.”

He preferred straightforwardness to hidden messages, but that wasn’t an option. After bringing these treats to Nagachika, he would have to make sure Anteiku was quietly removed from any list of locations suspected of harboring ghouls.

Falsifying records? Omitting details on official reports? Letting high-tiered ghouls escape?

Amon smiled faintly. It seemed like he’d been breaking protocol after protocol ever since that investigation assistant joined their team.

The girl stiffened before nodding in understanding. “We always watch over our regulars.”

This time, the message was obvious: we’ll watch over Nagachika, too. Considering the sort of reckless dangers their part-timer got into, Amon was a bit relieved for the extra help.

 She turned away and headed back for Kaneki. Amon took it as his signal to leave. He scooped up the package of treats, slid out of his seat, and headed for the exit without a second glance over his shoulder. He waited for the door latch to click and the cheerful bell chime to fade before letting out a wry chuckle.

When did “watching over Nagachika” turn into a full-time job?

The sound of clattering plastic and glass clinking jarred Hide out of a dreamless sleep. He squinted at the shadow tumbling through his window, the dark silhouette backlit by the outside streetlamps. His hand automatically shot towards the RC canister he kept on his bedside table.

An intruder? A ghoul breaking in?

Hide tilted his head as he studied his unannounced visitor.

Then again, a ghoul hell-bent on vengeance wouldn’t be panic-whispering his apologies while scrambling to pick up the fallen knickknacks and glass cups.

Hide’s heartbeat slowed, his smile growing. “A bit late to drop by for a visit, don’t you think?” he said around a face-splitting yawn.

He tugged at the dangling cord of his bedside lamp rather than the pin to his anti-ghoul grenade. Light flooded his small apartment. His guest flinched, holding his arm up to his eyes, and finished righting all of Hide’s upturned possessions.

“I wanted to make sure you’re safe. I heard you were discharged from the hospital earlier this week.”

“I have a door, Kaneki. Try that instead of a window next time.”

Kaneki winced and glanced at the clutter around Hide’s window. His expression shifted from sheepish to sullen. Was he pouting about being caught or the state of Hide’s apartment? Hide let a laugh bubble free, hoping it might lighten the mood.

“What? Let me guess, you’re about to lecture me on keeping my place clean? Well, I’ll have you know that I rig—”

“You set it up on purpose, didn’t you?” Kaneki interrupted, his voice soft. “It’s a trap.”

“Hey – you never know what kind of creeps are lurking around, always peeping into windows.”

“Hide.”

Hide leaned back against the wall, his smile fading. He picked absently at the hem of his blanket. “Yeah, it is. I thought you’d be relieved that I’m doing something proactive. Y’know, keeping myself safe in case someone ever tried to get it.”

Kaneki’s frown tightened. “I wish you didn’t have to worry about that in the first place.”

Hide shrugged. Truthfully, he doubted anyone from Aogiri Tree cared enough to track him down. It would be far safer for their reputation if the current story remained unchallenged: that the fearsome Jason was killed by a dangerous CCG Dove and not because of a part-timer playing detective. Keeping his loudest possessions precariously balanced along the windowsill had become a habit. Nothing more than a small gesture to keep the darkest nightmares at bay.

When Kaneki remained stranded by his window, Hide patted the edge of his bed. After a moment’s pause, Kaneki trudged forward to claim the spot. He sank onto the mattress with a weary sigh, his shoulders slumping and head lolling.

“How have things been?” Hide broke the silence first. “Did you—have you run into trouble since the last time we saw each other?”

The last time, of course, being in the hospital. Even though two weeks had passed since they last spoke – not long, considering the almost-year it took him to find Kaneki in the first place – each day still felt like an eternity.

I guess I got used to being around him. Even when stuck with those other ghouls trying to kill me.

Kaneki hesitated as he peeked at Hide. He opened his mouth, closed it. Glanced back at the floor.

Hide rolled his eyes with a fond groan. “If you don’t tell me, I’ll have to go digging for myself. I need something to do, since Amon and the others said I can’t come back to the office for another week.”

“Hide.” Kaneki’s shoulders hunched as he shot Hide a sour look.

Hide almost laughed. Goddamn, he missed Kaneki’s wry exasperation so much. Considering everything that had happened, Hide supposed his words weren’t just empty threats anymore. They eyed each other for a solid five heartbeats before Kaneki relented first.

Kaneki sighed and shook his head. “There was trouble initially. Several of Rakko’s followers tried going after me for retribution, but I… stopped them. I think the others are too wary of Ayato to attack Anteiku.” He smiled, small and relieved, at his fidgeting fingers.

“I’m glad to hear about Anteiku. You were worried about the others getting involved, right?”

“Mmmhmm.”

Hide tapped his chin with a thoughtful hum. “Touka sent me a really nice box of treats. Honestly, I didn’t know she cared that much.” He laughed again. “It’s hard to tell sometimes. You know what she’s like.”

Kaneki glanced at him. “She was worried when she found out what Rakko did to you. Everyone was. Especially after I told them what you did for us.” His smile faded. “Tracking down Jason, I mean.”

“Sounds pretty impressive, huh? D’you think I can convince them to give me free refills for life?”

Perhaps he was treating this a bit too flippantly, but he couldn’t help himself. It was far better to joke than to ruminate on worst case scenarios.

“Touka also called you an idiot,” Kaneki continued, his tone flat. “I’m sure she’ll say the same thing to your face the next time you visit Anteiku.”

Hide’s grin lingered. He could deal with a few fond insults. It almost felt like the old days again.

But… he couldn’t stay in the past, no matter how easy it would be. No matter how much he wanted to.

“What’s next then?” The back of his throat soured as the words left his lips. “Will you leave again? Or go back to Aogiri Tree and try to smooth things over with them?”

Kaneki shook his head. “No. I’m not going to run away again. Not when you’re still in danger. I need to make sure the ghouls who saw you won’t come after you again. One way or another.”

The iciness that stained Kaneki’s words surged up Hide’s spine. He’s going to put himself in danger by going after Aogiri Tree. He might get hurt or worse.  

Hide knew he was just as guilty when it came to being reckless, but—

But it’s different. Kaneki can’t get hurt. Not because of something I did.

This pattern they had established – of mutual sacrifice and lonely suffering – was not sustainable. How long would their luck hold before something irreversible happened?

“Kaneki. Don’t put—”

“There’s more to it, though.” Kaneki leaned back to stare at Hide’s ceiling; one of his palms brushed against Hide’s blanket-covered leg. “I think… I think there are other ghouls like Rakko out there. Dangerous ones who are a threat to everyone – ghouls and humans, alike. If we can stop them, then our home will be safer. The CCG won’t need to get involved and everyone can live like they always have.”

Hide’s brows jumped. “When you say we…?”

“Not you.” Kanek shot him a stern look. His focus dropped to Hide’s sheets and blanket as he absently smoothed out creases in the fabric.  “There are several of us who feel the same way. Some of them are part of Anteiku. Others are those who’ve been wronged by Aogiri Tree.”

So, now he has a team, too. I hope they’re as good as Amon, Akira, and Seidou. The thought of his best friend having an additional source of support, teammates and comrades, made Hide’s heart warm. Warm enough, at least, to mask the faint chill of envy.  

“We’re currently tracking potential targets. One of Rakko’s supporters has been causing trouble in a neighboring ward. It seems like she might be coming this way, which means—” Kaneki cut himself off with a shrug.

Hide kept his own lips pressed shut in a soft smile. He could bring up the lead that Seidou offhandedly dropped during their latest lunch chat. Or he could mention how he overheard the ladies at his grocery store whispering about brutal attacks on the rise.

Perhaps it was best if he sat this one out. He brushed a palm across his tender ribcage. Truthfully, he wasn’t even sure how eager he was to get back into the field, anyway. Facing down Rakko had scared him more than he’d ever like to admit.

That psycho was ten times worse than Jason.

Instead, Hide laughed until his ribs throbbed. “Oh, this’ll be fun to see. Now you get to be the one running around and playing detective. It’s not as easy as it sounds.”

Kaneki groaned and slouched forward. “Yeah.”

Hide watched him for a moment before knocking his leg against Kaneki’s lower back. “But it’s worth it in the end,” he added after another thoughtful pause. “I’m glad I found you, man.”

A beat of silence, then—

“Me too.” Another pause. “Thank you, Hide.”

Had it been any other CCG squad, he would have pulled his team back and allowed the investigators to fight on their own. Although their small team didn’t directly clash with Doves, they weren’t allies, either.

Yet, when the rival ghoul’s kagune shot towards the blonde investigator, Kaneki swooped in to knock it from its intended path. Their kagunes collided with a resounded bang, flecks of RC flying like sparks.

The rival ghoul staggered back, momentarily stunned as he glanced from the female investigator to Kaneki. Recognition and fury burned in his glare.

“Hey! You’re that Dove-loving bas—” The final words of his snarl ended abruptly with the squelch of ripping flesh and gargled wheezing.

The blonde investigator – she’d be Akira, one of Hide’s teammates – spun on her heels, her own weapon at the ready; by the time she spotted him, Kaneki had already retreated from striking distance with a forceful leap. Akira spared him a frown, her eyes narrowing, before lunging for the next enemy.

Kaneki hovered in the shadows and watched the fighting unfold. The CCG interrupting their mission had been a bit of a surprise. Running into familiar faces had been even more surprising.

If they’re Hide’s teammates, I supposed they’d want all traces of Rakko gone, too.

Even so, Kaneki couldn’t fight the unease starting to nag in the back of his mind. It had taken Kaneki and his team nearly two weeks to chase the last of Rakko’s followers to this abandoned grocery store. Were the CCG monitoring and surveillance programs just as effective?

Several meters away, Amon and the brown-haired investigator – I think Hide called him Seidou? – grappled with a trio of ghouls. Kaneki speared one with his kagune and yanked her from the fight, dispatching her quickly.

Seidou yelped and aimed his gun at Kaneki, reflexes overriding recognition. Amon waved his teammate down with a subtle flick of the wrist and an acknowledging grunt aimed in Kaneki’s direction.

Seidou lowered his gun, face growing pale. Kaneki caught a bit of his mumbles as he rushed to a different part of the abandoned grocery story.

“…so weird to work with ghouls.”

He suppressed a wry smile. It was equally odd to work with CCG agents. Evidently, the rest of his team agreed when he regrouped with them.

“Your left side was exposed when you blocked that last attack,” Tsukiyama drawled, crossing his arms over his chest. “Don’t you think those Doves can take care of themselves?”

Despite the stern words, a faint smile twitched on his lips. It hadn’t been the first time Kaneki had stepped in to help Hide’s team, after all. He hadn’t told his teammates the full truth yet, but several of them were awfully perceptive.

Kaneki rolled his shoulders and rubbed at the residual stiffness from blocking an earlier blow. “As long as our mission succeeds, it doesn’t matter how it happens.”

“You oughta be careful,” Banjou added, squinting at Kaneki. “Trusting Doves is an easy way to get yourself killed.”

Kaneki nodded weakly. What an ominous comment. He trusted a certain “Dove” more than anyone else in his life. Hopefully it wouldn’t lead to either of their deaths.

Tsukiyama glanced sidelong at Kaneki before chuckling. “I think we’re about done here. We better get out before more Doves show up.”

“Right. Let’s go.” Kaneki led the way towards a back exit. They were just about to make a break for the rooftops when a hunched silhouette caught Kaneki’s attention. He jerked to a stop, his still activated kakugan blazing.

“Go on without me. I’ll be right behind,” he muttered tersely.

“Huh? Wait, what? What are you gonna do—”

“It’ll be alright.” Hinami caught Banjou’s hand while offering Kaneki a soft smile.

With baffled or amused glances, the rest of Kaneki’s team leapt for the rooftops and disappeared into the night. Kaneki steadied his own breaths before creeping closer to the bumbling shadow.

“Whatever happened to won’t happen again?” He forced his tone to remain cold, low.

Internally, his heart was pounding. Seeing Hide’s team was surprising but not altogether alarming. They were agents, trained to fight deadly ghouls.

But Hide wasn’t trained. He wasn’t even fully healed, if the heavy boot around his broken leg meant anything.

Then what’s he doing here? He promised he wouldn’t put himself at risk in the field again.

Any one of Rakko’s followers could have found him before Kaneki’s team or the other Doves wiped them out. Frustration and helplessness prickled along the back of Kaneki’s neck.  It felt far too much like their terrifying reunion before – where he thought he might lose his best friend forever.

Hide let out a startled squeak and spun around. “Kaneki! You startled me!”

“You didn’t answer my question,” Kaneki countered with a scowl. “You said you weren’t going on missions anymore.”

Hide flashed his widest grin, yet Kaneki still maintained his frustrated frown. He wouldn’t let himself be charmed this time.

“I said I wouldn’t step foot in the field,” Hide corrected. “And I haven’t. I’ve been in the van the whole time. Which is, technically, not the field. Depending on the height of the tires, it’s about thirty centimeters above the field.”

Kaneki looked pointedly at Hide’s feet. As an avid reader, he knew about the trickiness of semantics better than others. And where Hide was standing now? Definitely qualified as “the field.”

“Ah, well…” Hide scratched along his cheekbone. “I had to take a leak? Those vans don’t have toilets?”

“Hide.”

Hide offered a weak shrug. “When I overhead Seidou muttering on comms about some weird ghouls helping out, I wanted to see if it was you. Guess my hunch was right, huh? Besides, we got the ‘all clear’ that the target ghouls were apprehended or killed. It took me a wh—I mean, the investigators spent a while trying to track these ghouls down.”

Kaneki frowned. That uneasy suspicion from before resurfaced like a stoked flame.

Did he have anything to do with locating Rakko’s last followers?

He could ask, but knowing the answer might worsen the twisting in his gut. Instead, he shook his head with a weary sigh. Despite the surprises and unforeseen disruptions, their mission was still a success.

The ghouls who wanted vengeance on Hide were dead. His best friend was a little bit safer now. That was what mattered most.

“You haven’t been by in a while,” Hide added, tilting his head with a pointed look.

“I’ve been busy.”

“Maybe now you’ll have a bit more time?” Hide wriggled his shoulders with a knowing grin. “I’ll even leave the windowsill clear, if you’d rather visit that way.”

“Only if you promise to stop putting yourself into danger.”

“I only did all this, ‘cause you left me behind last time!” Hide jabbed a finger at Kaneki’s chest.

Kaneki blinked, resisting the urge to step backwards. Why the hell do I feel more threatened by an injured investigation assistant than I ever do while fighting ghouls and CCG agents?

His gaze jumped from Hide’s heavy boot to the pale scar along his temple. Badges of honor from the ruthless ghoul who tried – and failed – to kill them.

Right. Because Hide’s kinda terrifying sometimes.

“This wouldn’t have happened if you picked up the phone or stopped by my apartment, you know,” Hide added with another waggle of his finger.

A smile tugged on Kaneki’s lips. “Then I guess I don’t have a choice. I’ll have to stay close this time.”

Hide laughed and nodded, as if satisfied with their compromise. Likewise, the agitation and irritation drained from Kaneki’s tense muscles. Things were still far from perfect; there was no way they could ever go back to the way things were “before”.

Even so, it felt too hopeful to be considered a tragedy.