Half and Half

Chapter 5

It's been a week since she stayed at home, and Yoriko is ready to go back to school on Monday. Despite the fact that she doesn't have an appetite, her mother nevertheless made her lunch and advises her to eat, regardless.

"Yoriko, are you feeling better?" Touka asked her as they walked to school.

"Yes, I am," Yoriko responds with a smile. "I wanna say thank you for bringing me to the hospital."

"Hey, what are friends for?"

The two smiled to each other as they entered the school building and head to their class. Once again, they both receive trouble from Mayuhara and her gang.

"Look, it's the girl who slept on a tree!" Mayuhara taunted Yoriko.

"It's obviously true," Mariko joined in. "After all, where could she be found lying on that night?"

"Hey, leave her alone!" Touka yelled.

"Says who?" Mayuhara sneered.

"Says me!"

Mayuhara and her gang laughed at this before she pins Touka to the wall while her friends put Yoriko down to her seat in order to prevent her from interfering.

"How about we settle this once and for all? We fight at the park after school," Mayuhara proposed.

"Fine, you're on," Touka quickly accepted the proposal.

At least neither she nor Yoriko got into more trouble with the bully girl during the first period. Lunch time arrives, but neither women don't really want to eat their food; Touka for being a ghoul, and Yoriko for a lack of appetite. Nevertheless, they decided to eat their food so that neither of them would worry the other.

Touka starts taking a bite of her sandwich, and she swallows it down her throat while trying to hide her discomfort of it. Yoriko, on the other hand, tries to eat fried chicken, but the taste she found in it is disgusting. Therefore, when she ate enough, she suddenly runs out of the classroom, holding back the temptation to throw up.

"Yoriko?" Touka is confused to see her best friend like this.

"Oh, my. Perhaps it would be funny if she threw up on you, Kirishima," Mayuhara smirked.

"She... She's just like this because she isn't feeling well! She just got out of the hospital!" Touka yelled her defense.

"Maybe she got some special treatment there, which was why she hasn't been eating ever since she came out of the hospital," Mariko jeered as well.

Touka angrily shifts her focus to this other bully girl, but she feels like there's no time to pick a fight with Mayuhara and her gang, so she runs out of the classroom to find Yoriko.

"Well, that went well," Mayuhara said casually as she took a sip of apple juice.

Meanwhile, in the ladies' restroom...

After throwing up more than she consumed, Yoriko just couldn't understand what is happening to her. Ever since she came out of the hospital, she lost her appetite. Also, when she tried to eat her food, it became disgusting to her.

She splashes some water on her face to try and cool off. After wiping her face with a towel, she looked into the mirror to see something that causes tears to fall from her eyes. The sight is that her right eye changed into a red iris and black sclera with red veins across the eye and into the skin around the eye. Her right eye has become a kakugan.

"Why?" she weeps. "Why am I a ghoul?"

"Yoriko?" a voice called.

Yoriko recoils and remembers that if anyone saw her eye, she would be killed by the investigators who hunt ghouls, so she covered it before Touka showed up.

"Yoriko, what is going on?" Touka asked. With each step she took forward, her friend took a step backward.

"Touka, I need to go to the clinic," Yoriko sobbed as she ran past Touka before she could grab her.

"No way. She can't be..." Touka said to herself, remembering what Kaneki was like when she first met him.

She makes her way to the clinic where no one is there, except for Yoriko, who has covered her right eye with a medical eyepatch.

"Yoriko..." she said.

"Touka... please go," Yoriko sobbed.

There's no doubt about it. The food now becoming disgusting to her, running to the restroom to throw it up, and covering her eye with an eyepatch has led her to the most obvious conclusion. Before she can ask the most obvious question, Touka made sure the door is closed and locked to give some privacy between them.

"Yoriko... Are you a ghoul?" she asked softly.

The words hit Yoriko like a knife, and she collapses to her knees with tears coming out of her eyes.

"What am I going to do? You know and now you're going to report me," Yoriko weeps.

"No, I'm not," Touka reassured her as she kneeled closer to her.

"What?" Yoriko looked at her, still teary-eyed.

"I'm not going to report you to anyone. We're best friends, Yoriko," Touka reassured her. "With the way you are now, I think this is the right time I show you my secret. This will prove that we're best friends. Wanna know what it is?"

Yoriko nodded.

Touka closed her eyes, and after a few seconds, she opened them, showing two kakugans.

"Touka, you're a..." Yoriko said in astonishment.

"Yes, Yoriko. I'm a ghoul," she admitted.

"What have I done?" Yoriko covers her face with her hands, crying more than ever now that the secret is revealed to her. "I made you eat my food. It hurt you, yet you still did it."

"Because I love you. We're best friends, Yoriko, and I will always love you," Touka lifts her up to the ground before hugging her.

"Oh, Touka..." Yoriko cries, hugging back.

They hold on to each other for what it feels to be a lifetime, but they enjoy it, knowing nothing would ever destroy their friendship.

After a few seconds, they let go of the hug, and Yoriko wiped off her tears from her eyes. Touka turned off her kakugan.

"Feeling better?" she asked.

"Yeah, thanks," was her reply.

"I know you just found out, but this isn't bad as it seems," she reassured her. "If only Kaneki is here to see this..."

"Kaneki?" Yoriko asked.

"Remember the guy you saw in my apartment from the other night when you brought me food because I was sick from eating your food yesterday before that? That's him," Touka said.

"Oh yeah, I remember him," Yoriko realized. "Is he a ghoul?"

"Well, he's like you. A half ghoul."

"Right..."

They left the clinic and went back to the classroom, just in time to get bullied by Mayuhara and her gang.

"It's about time you two went back," Mayuhara snarled. "I can't wait for classes to be over for the day, so we can settle this once and for all, Kirishima."

"You're on, Mayuhara," Touka smirked.

"By the way, Kosaka, why are you wearing an eyepatch?" Mayuhara shifted her focus on Yoriko. "Trying to cosplay as your favorite anime character?"

"Well, um..." Yoriko nervously tries to come up with an excuse.

Before she could answer, the school bell rang, signifying that lunch period is over. At least she and Touka went through their classes without any further incident from Mayuhara.