*Please note that anything offensive said in this chapter is not my personal opinion.*
Screams. That's all the unlucky ward heard that night. Bloodcurdling screams, and if they were especially unlucky, a chilling laughter. Not one of innocence or happiness, but of madness. One who was truly enjoying whatever they were doing to make their victims scream like that.
And enjoy he did. Heavily influenced by Pain and Hunger, a young man mercilessly ripped into the bodies of ghouls. Drinking in their screams as much as their blood. Blood and tissuestaining his shockingly white hair red.
It was a feast to him. Having been starved most of his life and looked down upon after he escaped. But with the thrill of the hunt coursing through his veins as he did, nothing could stop him from his binge.
'That's it Mukade!'
'Ghouls never really do end up tasting better, do they?'
"No, they don't."
'We should probably head back Mukade. It's close to sunrise and the doves will be arriving later after how much noise we made. Might as well leave well before they get here than stay eating with a chance of leaving even more evidence.'
'You're no fun Reason.'
'Yeah, no fun at all.'
"A fter we finish this one we can go." Following that sentence, a loud crack could be heard, silencing the last of the screams. Brains now leaked out of the skull Kaneki had just cracked, mixing with the pool of blood and strung about intestines. The final dish in his feast for the night, was served. Nothing would be left, even bones were eaten, all that remained was a stain from where the blood had pooled.
.......
Back to another day of sitting at Anteiku, observing how the humans and ghouls pretending to be human acted. Aunt Rize had to work and Hide had classes all day, so he was left alone for the day. It was okay though, Hide had gotten him a new book so he had something to read. So that's how he tried to spend his day, reading. Things never turned out that way for him though.
"That kid over there is fucking creepy!" Someone from across the room whispered to their friend. They probably thought no one could hear them, but when your ear has had to repair itself more time than there are bones in your body your hearing tends to improve. At least, it does in Kaneki's case.
"Fuck, he doesn't even have to be looking at anyone. And he probably does his hair white and nails black for attention."
"I know! No one respectable does that kind of thing. He smells really weird too, like a ghoul but not. Oh, have you seen his face? I swear that kid had a mental disorder or something..."
"Probably an 'or something'. I saw that really pretty purple haired chick that girl is a total babe! Don't know why she's spending time with the creepy fuck. teaching him to read the last times they were here together. He acts like a child, so I bet he's retarded. He fucking talks to himself too!"
"You know he's a faggot, right? He and that hyperactive little blonde fuck are dating. The blonde one must be doing this out of pity, but still to actual date the guy is disgusting. Fucking fags..."
"That's fucking gross! Blondie's a fag too? I can understand the boy over there, poor thing's obviously confused, but the blonde one? Fags like him"
Kaneki couldn't hold it in anymore. He was fine with them insulting him, he'd heard much worse before, but they insulted Hide. He stood up and crossed the room in seconds, grabbing the ears of the two on his way out, dragging the two out back with him, knowing they would be fine since they were ghouls. When he was sure no one could see them, he stopped and pulled. An ear from each was pulled off.
'Mukade!'
'Yes! Rip off another!'
'You got us a snack Mukade! How thoughtful.'
By now, the two were screaming. "What the...hell was that for...bastard?!" One managed to get out between screams.
"You can talk about me all you like," SNAP ",but don't you ever talk about h im that way. It takes three pounds of pressure to pull off an ear, want to know how many it takes to snap a leg?" Kaneki's insane smile was on his face now.
"Why-"
"You two are ghouls, although weak ones at that, so you'll eventually heal from whatever I do to you. You're lucky I ate just last night, so I can't really do much," he took a bite of one of the ears "I'll let you off with a warning for now. If you ever say one more fucking bad thing about h im I'll show you how easy it is to break your bones." And with that, he finished up the ears, cracked another finger and left.
.......
He had to move. He absofuckinglutely had to move, and soon. His books were nice, yes, but he had to move. After years of sitting in that chair or his room, he wanted to move. He was fine when he had to sit still with Auntie Rize or Hide, but alone he couldn't do it. Even with beating up the two ghouls earlier, he was restless. He had to move.
It was then that he had the perfect idea. The mean waitress, Touka, was picking up an order. He had heard her grumbling a few minutes ago about the test she had to study for that day, and she needed a pick me up. Kaneki didn't want her, or anyone that matter to take a test they were absolutely horrible. They always hurt him real badly, so he really hoped no one else had to go through them. So doing something with him would be a better alternative. Maybe she could spar with him.
'Maybe she could help us with our Ukaku...'
'Mukade, you need to see if she could help us! Imagine how much more we could do if we could properly use our Ukaku!'
"It's not like we can't use it..."
'No we can still use it, we just suck at it.'
"Thanks for the encouragement, Pain, " was Kaneki's sarcastic reply.
'You're welcome Mukade!'
'That was sarcasm, Pain...'
'Shut up Reason!'
'They do have a point Pain, it was obviously sarcastic. Jeez!' 'Not you too, Hunger.'
Just shut up guys, we haven't even asked yet." And with this, he got up and made his way to Touka, ignoring the promises of later from the other manifestations of himself.
"Touka!"
"What the hell do you want brat?"
"Hey Touka, will you"
"Fuck no shitty brat."
"I didn't even get to finish my question though..."
"I don't care, my answer's no."
"But Touka," he whined.
"What the hell do you want?"
"You're an Ukaku, right?"
She sighed loudly, obviously annoyed with the situation. "Your point is?"
"Well, I only recently developed a kakuhou capable of producing an Ukaku Rc type. I can use it, but not that good. If you're an Ukaku, that means you can help me. Please?"
"And why the hell should I help you? I have a test to study for. You don't even go to school even though you look fucking old enough to be in high schoolso you don't realize how important it is I pass this test to look normal. What makes you think you're so damn special that I have to drop studying and teach you how to use your damn kagune?"
"Auntie Rize says I'm about eighteen and that I'll turn nineteen in December! She says that normally I'd be in college, so ha! I wouldn't be in high school.
"Besides, tests aren't good. They hurt a lot and make you scream and change you. They say they help, but all they do is bring you pain and make you bleed a lot. And when they're done, they leave you by yourself as they starve you. It was really scary whenever I took them, although Reason helped a lot. Pain and Hunger would always talk about how I needed to kill something. Anyways, you shouldn't have to take tests."
He wasn't expecting the look he got from her, wasn't expecting it at all. Auntie Rize had told him what this look was, pity. Touka had a renewed look of pity as she gazes at the other.
"I can spare an hour, but only an hour dumbass."
"Okay Touka."
He was once again led to the underground of the 20th Ward. It, of course, looked the same since the last time he had been down here, when he had been showing his kagune.
"Come on dumbass, I'm only giving you an hour."
For the next hour or so, Touka taught him how to use an Ukaku Rc type. Well, at least tried too. It was a little hard to teach someone to use the Rc type you were born with. Kaneki was actually a fast learner, quickly grasping everything she said, or understanding what she meant soon after if he didn't understand fully; he was easily going to surpass her soon, maybe in the next lesson she gave him, if she did give him another lesson in using his Ukaku. Maybe Yomo or Irimi could come down next to give him the pointers she couldn't.
'They sure have a lot of people with an Ukaku Rc type here at Anteiku.'
"Anteiku sure has a lot of ghouls with an Ukaku type." Kaneki said after they were finished,wanting to know after Reason's comment.
"Hah?"
"There are a lot of ghouls with an Ukaku who work at Anteiku. You have one, and so does the Black Dog, Raven, and the manager guy. Reason made a comment on it and I had to say something."
"How do you know the names the doves have for them? And who the hell is Reason?"
"You pick up things after a while. They're pretty loud. Even when they tried to whisper, I'd hear every word with clarity. Maybe my hearing got sharper after so many times it had to repair itself. Same for my eyes, I can usually catch a glimpse of what they had. It wasn't too hard to put it together. Powerful ghouls disappear for over ten years and the ghouls at Anteiku are all powerful, it was pretty easy to put together. Besides, I wasn't even sure, you confirmed my guess. That and I can smell them.
"Oh, Reason's me and I'm Reason. I'm also Pain and Hunger and they're me. They call me Mukade, because I'm the main one and didn't have a name when we were all Mukade. Now we all make up Kaneki and I get to make the main decisions since I was the first."
'Aw, you introduced us Mukade.'
'That was really sweet of you.'
'Maybe you shouldn't have, she doesn't seem to be processing what we just told her all too well.'
"Well, thanks for helping me, Miss Meanie. I had a lot of fun, let's do it again!"
"Huh?" She still hadn't fully processed what Kaneki had told her.
"Our hour was up twenty minutes ago. I know you have that scary test you need to study for. While I wish no one else had to take a test, I know they make 'em worse if you don't do them." As he finished the sentence, he began to walk back up to the surface of Anteiku. When they were back in the main part of the coffee shop, Touka turned and walked towards the door, coffee long forgotten, while Kaneki went back to his table.
She paused at the doorway, knowing he'd be able to hear what she said next. "Not all tests are bad, Kaneki. How you grew up was wrong, just plain wrong. No child should be raised the way you were, and I don't even know the half of what happened to you. Just know Kaneki that you don't have to live by the shadows anymore, we deserve to live."
She left after that, leaving Kaneki to ponder all that she said. Could he really live without the shadows?
.......
Hide passed by the bulletin board that had posters of wanted ghouls in the area. He usually passed by often, considering he'd had more than his fair share of ghoul run ins and sometimes having a name or description helped him with his observations. Not that it had ever stopped him before, it wasn't too hard to spot someone who's dangerous. One of the flyers up there though made him stop.
Kaneki was up there. Not as a ghoul that had been spotted, those were the ones that were usually put up, but as the SSS rank ghoul Mukade who had escaped from Cochlea. They thought that because of his unique appearance, hair as white as his and the way he acts wouldn't be that hard to miss, that a civilian could tip off an investigator as to where he might be located. Shit! It hadn't taken him long to realize that Kaneki was a ghoul it had still been a hunch until he saw the poster but he was going to have to confront him on it. He'd come to care a great deal for the ghoul, and he wasn't going to let the CCG take him away, so he'll have to help Kaneki change his appearance a little. He still wasn't going to ask what happened to him, he'd let Kaneki tell him that on his own time, but he'd have to confront him about being a ghoul sooner than expected.
.......
Two figures stood in the distance of the 20th Ward. One being a large, young man and the other, somewhat shorter, but had a crazed look in his eyes. The doves had come to the 20th Ward.
"Hey Amon-kun?"
"Yes Mado-san?"
"What do you think the odds are of the Centipede being in the 20th Ward?"
"I wouldn't think very likely, sir. A more peaceful ward like the 20th wouldn't mix well with a violent and certifiably insane ghoul like him."
"True, true. He doesn't seem like one to settle in a docile ward. It would be nice though, I'd be able to make a fine quinque out of a ghoul with as many kakuhous as he does." And with that, the two investigators left to begin their hunt of the Binge Eater.
* Thanks to my beta strawberry_swirl for editing this. You rock Kuro-kun~!