illusions- hidekane (kaneki x hide)

Chapter 5: I-L-L-U-S-I-O-N-S (final chapter)

Chapter 5: I-L-L-U-S-I-O-N-S (final chapter)

"You didn't kill him, idiot," A familiar voice responds, startling Kaneki. Turning his head ever so slightly, he sees her.

Despite the fact that a rabbit mask hides her face, and that her locks are a bright pink instead of violet, Kaneki knows the ghoul speaking to him is Touka.

"H-How do you know?" Kaneki asks, meanwhile staring at his hands, which are stained with blood, blood that smells so sweet that it HAS to be Hide's.

"I know, because," she slowly approaches him. Or more accurately described, she CAUTIOUSLY approaches him. "He isn't real. He never was. Whenever you were talking with 'Hide' you were just talking to yourself."

"LIES" Kaneki snarls, the intense heat of anger now spreading throughout his body. "YOU are an illusion! The Touka I know would never say something so... So..." How could he describe it? When the not-Touka told him Hide isn't real, he felt like the world was ending. He felt like the world was crumbling, being reduced to dust by some unknown force. Also, it was if, before the world ended, his heart was repeatedly shattered and glued back together. "Cruel. Touka-chan would never say something so CRUEL!" In a blur of motion, Kaneki's kagune swing through the air, aiming for the "not-Touka". Not-Touka successfully dodges numerous blows intended for her, until she is within arm's reach of Kaneki...

The words that the not-Touka uttered made Kaneki feel like he had to rip his own heart and look at it, before it was repeatedly shattered and fixed.

Right now, his heart is fixed. Right now, he is holding his bloody mess of a heart within his hands.

Right now, he can feel his heart beat within his chest, even though he is holding it within his hands.

What?

How could that be?

He shifts his gaze from the heart within his hands to his chest. His chest lacks a hole. HIS CHEST DOESN'T EVEN HAVE A SCRATCH ON IT.

Kaneki's legs shake beneath him, and soon he is on his knees. He is sitting on his knees, in a pool of blood, next to two corpses.

NO

NO

NO

NO

NO

Not-Touka was an illusion! Kaneki was sure of it!

Kaneki pokes the motionless girl next to him.

HIS FINGERS COME INTO CONTACT WITH SOFT SKIN.

SHE IS REAL.

SHE IS REAL.

SHE IS TOUKA.

SHE IS NOT AN ILLUSION.

HIDE WAS AN ILLUSION.

NOT...

WAS...

"Illusion," Kaneki whispers, meanwhile cradling Touka's body within his arms, "Illusion..."

"ILLUSION."

"ILLUSION."

"I-L-L-U-S-I-O-N"

"My life was filled with I-L-L-U-S-I-O-N-S." 

"Was my life one big I-L-L-U-S-I-O-N?"