Tᴏᴋʏᴏ Gʜᴏᴜʟ Rᴇ:Cᴏᴅᴇᴅ

Glimpse

They arrived at the cafe within minutes  and stopped directly outside the door to inhale the blissful aroma of coffee.

As ghouls they appreciated coffee a lot more than humans because it was the one thing that they could ingest with humans without getting sick.

As they walked in, they were greeted by an elderly man with a warm smile and seated by one of the windows.

Kaneki could hear them talking but his mind was elsewhere. Rize. Hide. Tsukiyama. Nishio. In the past couple of days these names had just swam and swam in his brain for no reason in particular.

What did he know about them? About any of them? Rize was just a cute girl he'd occasionally encounter at a bookstore or cafe and she turned out to be a vicious flesh eating monster.

Tsukiyama had just met him and had already embraced every part of him without even really knowing him. He wasn't doubting his intentions or anything but Kaneki could swear there was something else behind that smile he wore.

Nishiki had always been a jerk even when Hide first introduced them but now he knew it went deeper. He was just like Rize, a monster.

And then there was Hide. With everything that was going on he had to wonder, did he even know his best friend? Was he another wolf in sheep's clothing? No. Couldn't be, he'd known him for years. He would know if his best friend was like them...right?

He was dragged out of thoughts when he felt someone tapping his shoulder. "Oh I'm sorry, what's up?"

"Jeez, our gorgeous waitress here has been asking you what you wanted to order for the longest. It's not cool to keep a pretty girl waiting Kaneki."

Kaneki ignored Hide and looked into the stunning eye of a waitress with short purple hair. She looked shy.

"Sorry about that, I'll have an iced coffee please."

"Sure no problem, by the way if you have a lot on your mind you should really talk to someone. I mean you are here with three other people."

"I'll keep that in mind miss...uh?"

"Just call me Touka alright. I'll be back with your orders shortly."

Kaneki couldn't keep his eyes off of her. She was just so gorgeous and radiated with kindness. She reminded him of Rize in all honesty but there was no way Touka could be like her.

She returned with their drinks and left them to their own devices. Hide was talking everyone's ear off about what a babe she was and other girls on campus. Nishiki looked as if he was ready to kill him and honestly Tsukiyama acted like he was listening but he was pretty sure he wasn't.

After about two hours passed, Hide got up and said he had a hot date so he had to book. When he left, the conversation shifted to a much darker tone.

"Now where were we half ass?"

"We were at the part where you stay away from him."

Kaneki's words were practically drenched with venom at this point, there was no way he was going to let this bastard hurt the one closest to him.

"Wow one night with the Gourmet and here you are acting all tough but let me ask you this, can you even bring out your kagune? Do you even know how to fight? I don't think you do."

"I don't care damn it! You make one move against him and it'll be your last!"

Kaneki had no idea where this anger was coming from but he didn't care, he felt like he was actually getting his point across.

Tsukiyama knew what it was. The hunger was finally getting to him and driving his emotions into overdrive. Soon the shy and reserved Kaneki would be no more and in his place would a ravenous beast hellbent on devouring everything. Even Hideyoshi Nagachika.

"All right Kaneki, meet me out back then. If you can beat me in a fight then I won't hurt your precious boy toy."

"You're on..."

They paid their tab and headed out before going around the corner to the back of the shop where no one could see them.

Tsukiyama agreed that he wouldn't interfere unless things got life threatening and merely stayed to watch the ensuing battle.

Nishiki's kagune emerged from his back and coiled around his leg while Kaneki merely took of his eye patch.

"Can't even control your kakugan but you think you can beat me? Last chance to back out of this kid."

"Are you done talking?"

Nishiki growled and dashed toward with inhuman speed. "DON'T GET COCKY YOU LITTLE BASTARD!!!"

Nishiki's fist collided with Kaneki's jaw, sending the young man flying towards the ground hard. Blood dripped from his mouth as he got up and glared at Nishiki.

"Is that all? You hit harder yesterday."

"And you're a little more defiant then yesterday. Guess you're not the sniveling twerp I thought you were. But...that still ain't enough to save you."

Nishiki's whipped towards Kaneki who didn't move a muscle, and impaled him directly through the abdomen which made him stagger and spit out blood.

Some of the blood from his wound flew onto Tsukiyama's cheek which made him stick out his tongue and lick it. It was like he'd tasted a lightning bolt from Zeus himself. He'd never experienced a flavor this good in all the years he'd been eating humans. It actually brought a tear to his eye.

"How's that Kaneki?! Not talking like you're a hotshot now now are ya?!

Kaneki stayed silent as he stood straight up and wrapped his arms around the kagune, a small smirk gracing his lips as he did so. "Got you."

As if on cue, four red tails emerged from his back and shot out towards Nishiki who couldn't escape in time. Ouch.

They shot directly through him and pulled out before thrusting themselves back into him. He screamed out and began vomiting blood as he was impaled over and over.

"STOP!! KEEP THIS UP AND YOU'LL KILL ME!!!

"When I asked you to leave Hide alone you didn't agree did you little Nishio? So now you pay the price...with YOUR life!!"

Tsukiyama was at a loss for words. He knew Kaneki would snap but hadn't known it'd be so soon and so vicious. He wasn't sure he could stop him if he wanted to and he didn't want to. So long Nishio.

At that moment, crystalline projectiles began to rain down on Kaneki and hid kagune. They barely left scratches but definitely grabbed his attention.

He looked up and saw someone with long pink hair and a rabbit mask standing on a rooftop. A single wing like kagune protruding from their back.

Kaneki's mind began to deteriorate even farther as he began to drooling and smiling like a twisted serial killer eyeing his latest prey.

He extracted his kagune from Nishiki who fell to the ground unconscious, and placed them in attack position.

Rabbit jumped down from their vantage point and landed in a crouching position next to Nishiki.

They checked his pulse and stood up. Before removing their mask to reveal the face of Touka.

"So you're the offspring of Rize huh? Never thought it'd be a little shrimp like you."

Kaneki's shock was outweighed by his hunger and rage but when he moved to attack, he was knocked out from behind by Tsukiyama.

"Take a rest Ken."