" Welcome!" Everyone in Anteiku greeted as Kaneki held the cup's handle, the other hand holding one of Takatsuki Sen's books. Laughter and happiness filled the atmosphere and the male looked at them one by one, smiling. The staff's door opened, revealing the one and only.
" Manger," Kaneki smiled as he continued to beam towards the manager wholeheartedly.
" Kaneki? Kaneki! What are you spacing out for? Are you even listening?" the blonde, who had a headphone surrounding his neck, asked Kaneki.
" Hide.."
" Who's the lucky girl? The cutie you were talking about? Come on, just tell me already! Oh? It's gotta be her, right?" Hide whispered towards Kaneki's ear as he pointed out to a female who was sitting behind the ravenette. When she was about to look at him, she disappeared, along with the others. Knowing this, Kaneki finally screamed out his best friend's name.
" Hide!"
He disappeared to only return to the reality he was in. Blood dripped to the brown, wooden floor as Kaneki held his stomach and winced in pain.
" Coffee is surprisingly hard to make, isn't it?" a male exclaimed as he walked towards the white-haired male, carrying two mugs of coffee. The light finally beamed towards their direction and Kaneki finally saw the male. The blonde flashed him a friendly smile and made eye contact with him," Yo, Kaneki."
" Hide.." Kaneki gasped.
They continued to stay in that position, not until realization has finally hit the ghoul. He quickly slammed his eye that was ghoul-like. He started to whimper, and Hide stared at him sadly before he stared at the floor.
" Kaneki. I knew," Kaneki then gasped slowly as he stopped and listened, " Yeah. I knew."
***
( b/n ) was walking in the alleyway, lifelessly. He cursed under his breath several times as his hatred towards the CCG grew stronger. Suddenly, he collapsed to the floor and started punching the snow, grunting whenever his fist made contact with the ground.
" Damn it, damn it, damn it, damn it! Fuck this cursed world! Goddammit!"
( Y/n ) stared at his brother from above sadly, knowing the current situation he was facing now. She didn't want to come down though. She did want to comfort her brother who was dejected but then again, what can someone as hopeless as her do?
' I guess we're going to be even soon, brother.'
***
" It's plain. I should have let it sit a little longer," Hide said honestly as he took a sip. Once he tried out the drink, his face turned sour,
" Sorry, Kaneki. This one isn't any better."
On the other hand, Kaneki was still covering his eye, ashamed and embarrassed for keeping the truth from him.
" I guess it doesn't come that easily, huh? Oh, Kaneki, do you remember? That time Nishio-senpai beat the crap out of me? To be honest, I thought I was a goner. I tried playing dead to shake him off, but that guy didn't let up. Well, it did help me some. Kaneki.. Thanks for giving it your all trying to save me back then."
Kaneki finally accepted the fact that his best friend knew that he was a ghoul for a long period and so, he lowered down his hand.
-
" Thinking back on everyone in Anteiku. I really admired how everyone seemed to be so full of life. You were part of that, too. It kind of felt like I was the only one being left out. So I decided to help out however I could. But with the way things turned out, I didn't do a very good job on my own, huh?" Hide admitted, and Kaneki looked down with a quite guilty-looking face, " Kaneki, don't shoulder the burden all by yourself. You've always done that for others."
" Yeah.." Kaneki then smiled a bit after hearing Hide. More blood stained the floor as Hide stood up from his chair.
" You know, Kaneki, you've gotten pretty famous. ' Eyepatch', they call you! You do it for the ladies?"
Kaneki then chuckled, causing Hide to smile after seeing him laugh for the first time in a while. When the white-haired male was still smiling, more blood came in and the blonde grunted. He started to get wobbly and finally, he was on the floor, knees-first. With his bloody hand, he tried to stand up but the pain was far greater than he thought. He held his stomach and he winced in pain.
" Hide?" Kaneki asked, his eyes filled with shock and surprise.
" I ran into a little trouble out there.. it was a good thing ( Y/n )-chan came on time," Hide smiled, and Kaneki gave him support. Tears started flowing down the ghoul's cheeks as he continued to give him support using his hand.
" Hide..."
" Kaneki.." Hide held his shoulder with bloody and shaking hands before he smiled at him,
" Let's go home.... let's go home."
The sky turned red. Dark red. Anteiku, the place where it feels like home, started to burn into pieces. Parts collapsed into the floor, causing more fire to be spread out. Touka was sitting in the snow right in front of the burning building, and she was shaking, not knowing what to do.
" Hide.." Kaneki said as Hide laid in his arms. His ghoul eye started to cry red tears and it soon dropped into the tip of his best friend's nose. The two friends just smiled, and the building continued to burn," Let's go home, Hide. Let's go home."
-
Carrying Hide in bridal style through the burning buildings, it continued to snow heavily. Then there was Touka, who saw the male carrying someone that had a white cloth covering him or her, gasped before she continued to catch up with him, and at the same time, ( b/n ) was wandering the streets alone.
As Touka was running with small tears of worry because she was so scared of ( b/n ) losing his life, Kaneki continued to walk calmly. In one straight street, she suddenly bumped into someone. Touka looked up to see the brown-haired male with a half-broken mask.
" ( b/n )? ( b/n )!" Touka hugged him and they both fell into the snow.
" Touka.." ( b/n ) said her name softly and hugged her back. They finally stood up and nodded at each other before they started walking, not until the two saw the grey-haired male, who was showing his back to them.
" Yomo-san.." Touka muttered.
" I'm sorry," he apologized sadly,
" Yoshimura-san... Yoshimura-san asked me to do this one last job for him."
» [ Unravel ( acoustic version ) ] «
0:00 〇───── 3:49
TK from Ling tosite sigure
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Touka fell to the floor, and ( b/n ) looked down gloomily, finally understanding he couldn't do anything to save them.
" Touka, ( b/n )... All we can do is to live on as we bear our losses."
Oshiete oshiete yo sono shikumi wo boku no naka ni dare ga iru no?
kowareta kowareta yo kono sekai de kimi ga warau nanimo miezu ni
kowareta boku nante sa iki wo tomete
hodokenai mou hodokenai yo shinjitsu sae freeze
kowaseru kowasenai kurueru kuruenai
anata wo mitsukete yureta
yuganda sekai ni dan dan boku wa sukitootte mienaku natte
mitsukenaide boku no koto wo mitsumenaide
dareka ga egaita sekai no naka de anata wo kizutsuketaku wa nai yo
oboeteite boku no koto wo azayaka na mama
Kaneki continued to walk through the path where a myriad of dead bodies filled the ground. Knowing the CCGs could kill him, he didn't give a care. The survivors helped pick up the bodies, some were trying to deny the fact they died by pumping their body and some were sitting on the edge as they grieved for their loss. The wind blew away the white cloth that was covering Hide's dead body and because of that, the people lowered their guns, knowing what he was carrying.
mugen ni hirogaru kodoku ga karamaru mujaki ni waratta kioku ga sasatte
ugokenai ugokenai ugokenai ugokenai ugokenai ugokenai yo
Unravelling the world
" That's.." Houji said as he continued to watch Kaneki carry the body, " Marude-san.."
kawatte shimatta kaerarenakatta
futatsu ga karamaru futari ga horobiru
kowaseru kowasenai kurueru kuruenai
anata wo kegasenai yo yureta
" Yeah, understood," Marude said and huffed, " Yoshitoki-san..that's definitely the one Houji was investigating."
yuganda sekai ni dan dan boku wa sukitootte mienaku natte
mitsukenaide boku no koto wo mitsumenaide
dareka ga shikunda kodoku na wana ni mirai ga hodokete shimau mae ni
" How shall we deal with this?" Marude asked.
omoidashite boku no koto wo azayaka na mama
wasurenaide wasurenaide wasurenaide wasurenaide
kawatte shimatta koto ni paralyze
kaerarenai koto darake no paradise
oboeteite boku no koto wo
Kaneki then looked at Hide's face, and every survivor for the CCGs stared at him confusingly.
oshiete
.
.
.
.
oshiete
.
.
.
.
boku no naka ni
.
.
.
.
dare ga iru no?
A helicopter flew past them, causing Kaneki and his friend's hair to sway. He continued to tilt his head to see his face and always smiled, not until he stopped in his tracks. He saw someone picking up a black suitcase from the ground.
He finally entered the huge circle with the helicopter's light and his face was seen emotionless. Neither did he smiled, nor did Kaneki. The white-haired male gently placed the body into the ground and made eye contact with his opponent.
( Y/n ) ran through the buildings, trying to find Kaneki desperately, not until she saw something black in the middle of the road. She then decided to approach it. She widened her eyes and stared at it. It was Kaneki's mask or to be more precise, his ghoul mask. She used her hand to wipe off the dust and her heart started to pump faster than ever.
The ( h/c )-female didn't forget the promise she made with Kaneki. On that one night where she found his mask, she went up to Tokyo Tower to only see the huge city with tons of blinding lights. Sure, it was beautiful but the main reason she went this far up wasn't here. Kaneki didn't arrive. In fact, he never arrived. She couldn't accept the fact that he didn't come so she did it for one week straight.
One month straight. One year straight. No news from him. That one night, he planned to go up at the top to ask something special, but he wasn't able to do so. It was more like he couldn't but at this rate, he will never tell her how much he cares for her. Never ever, never.