The Lost and Broken

Kaneki eyed the long row of plastic jars holding hundreds of small coffee before him; he picked up a jar and examines the brand label.

"Blondie coffee?" he muttered, he smirked to himself as he recalled the very first time he met Nishio "You use to be such an idiot…" he moved his head upwards and observed his surroundings; the small store he was in was brightly lit, so much so that if it weren't for those large windows at the front you'd almost forget it was dark outside. The floor, shelves and even the air inside seemed sterile and shiny as the dull hum of the large refrigerators and soft music played from the speakers on the corner of the white walls occupied the space.

He pulled the duffle bag he had over his left shoulder as he tried to place it in a more comfortable position with one hand as he held onto the Blondie coffee with the other. He casually walked to the counter, on the oppose side was a tall middle aged man who smiled at him; Kaneki placed the coffee jar down as the store clerk began to scan the barcode.

"If you don't mind me asking, what happened to your eye?" the clerk asked.

Kaneki gently touched the medical eye patch he wore over his left eye "Just a little incident, but its fine now." He replied.

"That's good" the clerked smiled "will that be all?"

Kaneki looked off to the side, a glossy and brightly coloured magazine with the image of a woman with nicely cut hair adorning the front cover alongside large bold letters.

Hinami would like this Kaneki thought as he slid the magazine over to the centre of the counter. "I'll take this too." He said as he took out a banknote from his wallet and handed it to the clerk.

"Thank you." said the man behind the counter as he handed Kaneki his change. Kaneki placed the jar of coffee beans and the magazine into his bag… alongside his neatly rolled up bodysuit, short sleeve hoodie and his leather mask. He was thankful that there was a nice Laundromat run by a ghoul where he could go to wash his clothes without any questions asked.

As he pocketed the change he walked outside into the street; the cold night air tussling his white hair as he gently blew past him and all that could be heard was the sound of distance cars and the buzzing of nearby lamps.

Kaneki closed his eyes for a second as he took in the serenity of the night.

Then almost immediately something seemed off.

Noise, like dozens of people nearby walking and talking around him, the sound of animals, a flowing river and the feeling of heat from… the sun?

His quickly opened his eyes to an almost relentless attack of light on his eye; he blinked a few times as his eye quickly adapted to the light. All around him were people… no… animals; dogs, cats, lizards and even a sloth, walking on two legs alongside humans and all of whom were dressed in clothes he could only describe as medieval, European to be specific, like something out of the Shakespeare play he once read and the buildings around him looked respective to the time period of these people's clothes.

"Where the hell am I?" he said out loud as he looked around completely dumbfounded. "What the hell just happened?" He stood there, on the spot, as he tried to think of every reasonable explanation he could think of. At first he thought that he must have blacked out and wandered into a medieval themed cosplay event but that was quickly dismissed by the sheer size of everything. He wondered if he was dreaming but after a few pinches that turned out to be untrue… maybe he finally went insane, eating that investigator's quinque armour must have had taken a serious toll on his mental health alongside everything else, but why would his madness conjure this? Ultimately he came up with nothing that could explain it. "Alright… first I got to find out where or what this place is."

He began walking along the path as he followed the crowd of people walking along the large cobblestone path; along the side were wooden stalls selling different wares, food and other items. He could smell the fresh fruit, vegetables and meat in the air as he passed by a lizard buying what looked to be a leg of lamb and a woman buying a head of cabbage. The wretched memory from the taste of rotten meat and dried leaves began to flood his mind.

It's a shame it all tastes disgusting…

He pulled out his phone and opened it; he flicked through his contacts and tried to call Banjo "Damn it, no service." He growled, frustrated as he stuffed his phone back into his pocket.

He came upon a large road with a busy stream of wooden carts tied to what could only be described as large lizards dragging it. He spotted a cream coloured stone bridge which connected two buildings across the large road; within the centre of that bridge was an golden emblem which looked like an upside down triangle with a ruby at the centre.

That must have some significance he thought as he continued his journey around the city. He walked back into another path lined with street vendors in wooden stalls he walked up to one of the stalls, a fruits and vegetable stalls manned by a large muscular guy with short green hair under what looked to be some kind of dark cloth and small vest and a necklace. Kaneki had no intention of buying any of it but he hoped that he could gain some information from the guy.

As he approached the stall he noticed that the signs next to the different baskets of fruit and vegetable weren't in Japanese… in fact it was an entirely new language.

"Hey!" said the man in stall, standing under the shade of his roof. "You another one of those weird travellers?" he asked, though it sounded more like a demand if anything.

"Werid travellers?" Kaneki asked somewhat perplexed.

"Some guy in strange clothes came here and wanted to buy an appa and tried to pay with his strange currency."

"Strange clothes…" Kaneki repeated confused. He looked down at his own clothes; he was dressed in a white button t-shirt with a grey-greenish hoodie over it and white grey jeans. "Was it something like what I'm wearing?"

"No." the vendor replied.

It was a long shot but Kaneki had to be sure, he pulled out his wallet and took out a few coins and a banknote. "Did it look like this?" he asked.

"Yeah, that kind of money won't work in Lugunica."

Lugunica… never heard this place before.

"Do you know where that guy went?" Kaneki asked as he placed his wallet back into his pocket.

"What's with all the questions, why should I waste my time on broke weirdoes like you? Get lost!" the vender demanded as he raised his voice at Kaneki. Kaneki glared at the guy before backing away and continuing his walk around the city.

"Asshole…" Kaneki muttered under his breath. As he walked along the path, Kaneki began to plan out what he had to do moving forward "Main thing I have to do is find out what place on earth I'm in, but first I have to find that other guy; another person from Japan was here too… somewhere in this city." As he walked through the crowd of people he quickly noticed someone running across the rooftops of the city; they leapt down from the building and then onto the wagons, hopping onto them as they crossed the busy road, Kaneki only caught a slight glimpse of the person but he could made out the blond hair and tight clothes. He then noticed another person, who looked to be wearing a white dress and had long white hair, running on the ground and chasing after them.

Wonder what's going on there he thought, Kaneki quickly followed them; naturally he managed to pass the pursuer but whoever was running across the buildings was fast and he didn't want to show off any of his real speed as to keep any attention away from him. In the distance he saw the person run straight into an alley way. He cautiously approached the area and as he drew closer he could hear the sound of what appeared to be a fight; he peered past the corner and came upon three guys dressed in rags beating up another guy on the ground. The alley was dark, masking them slightly.

"Hey." He said as he stood at the entrance of the alleyway "What do you think you're doing?" his tone was calm yet stern.

The three turned to face him; one of them looked to be large and a mixed between muscular and fat, the other was tall and lanky and the third guy was short. The one in the middle quickly took notice of Kaneki's duffle bag.

"Look at this… what's in the bag?" he asked.

"None of your business" Kaneki replied.

"I'm afraid it is" said the lank guy with a wide grin as he showed off two large knives in each hand "How about you hand over everything you've got and maybe we won't kill you."

"Will you now?" Kaneki replied slightly bemused, he took his duffle bag off and placed it onto the ground as he placed his thumb on the bottom half of his index finger and pressed down.

Crack!

"I'll give you five seconds to run the other way."

"You think you can threaten us, scum!" yelled the small guy "We'll show you."

The three of them charge at an unimpressed looking Kaneki; the big guy made the first move, with a wide swing towards Kaneki's face. There are few humans who could rival the strength a ghoul would possess, Kaneki easily blocked his attack and delivered a simply right hook to his gut, this guy wasn't one of those people, the big guy collapsed onto the ground trying not to throw up from the impact of Kaneki's punch.

The second guy came at him with his knives and slashed wildly at Kaneki; every swing was evaded with the ease of someone who had experience in dodging attacks much faster than this.

Strange Kaneki thought as he analysed his opponent while effortlessly sidestepping a wide slash it's almost as if he's trying to scare me away then kill me.

Kaneki grabbed the man by the collar of his ragged shirt and with threw him into the wall. He turned his head towards the last guy who was standing back and looking unsure as to whether he should attack him.

"Your move." Kaneki said with a smug smile on his face.

"Damn you, we won't go easy on you next time!" Said the short guy as the other two got up and quickly made their escape.

"Likewise!" Kaneki responded as he watched them run past the small set of steps and around the corner. Kaneki placed his duffle bag back on and approached the guy on the ground, he looked to be unconscious. He wore a plain black shirt and pants, his skin colour was a light olive oil colour and his hair was spiky at the front. He didn't look like any of the humans he met in this place.

This must be the other guy

Kaneki knelt down and checked his pulse.

"You there!" said a feminine voice behind him, Kaneki turned back to see a woman staying at the entrance; it was the person pursuing the fast runner. "I cannot allow you to steal from this man, return what you have taken and leave at once."

"Relax I didn't steal anything from him, I just saved the guy from getting killed by some thugs." Kaneki responded. He observed the woman in front of him; she looked to be just a few centimetres shorter than him, had long silk like silver hair tied up into a long ponytail with a white rose which revealed slightly pointed ears and a snow white dress with purple lines stripes along the edges of the dress which matched the irises of her eyes. "And just who are you exactly?"

"I don't have to answer to you." the woman shot back "For all I know you could be in league with the thief who stole my insignia."

"I just got here and trust me when I say this but I'm not that sociable." He remarked. "I don't know about your insignia." She began to approach him and stared at him with a cautious look. The two stared at each other for a second.

"Are you sure? It was about this big" she illustrated this using her hands "with a jewel in the centre."

"Jewel in the centre… you mean like the symbol on that bridge?" Kaneki responded.

She must be very important then…

"Yes, exactly that." she replied, her voice became more lively and demanding "Do you know anything about the thief who stole it from me?"

"Sorry, like I said before, I don't know anything." Kaneki replied.

"You didn't look away, so it seems you're telling the truth." She reasoned, she looked down at the guy lying on the ground "Who is this man?" she asked as she knelt down.

"I don't know but I have a feeling that he and I come from the same place." Kaneki replied.

"So you must know him then." said a voice from out of nowhere.

"Who said that?" Kaneki said as he looked around.

"I did." Suddenly a small cat in grey fur with a purple bag wrapped around it appeared before him "Hello there."

"A flying talking cat," Kaneki muttered "Now I've really gone mad."

"My name's Puck and I am her spirit animal."

"A flying talking magical cat." Kaneki rephrased.

"This guy looks to be in a pretty bad state." Puck commented. "I'm guessing you're going to heal him?" it said looking towards the woman.

"He may have information relating to my stolen insignia." She replied. She knelt down beside the guy with her hands hovering over him; there was a bright light forming over him as the cuts and bruises which marked his face slowly vanished from his skin. "There, he should be fine now." Suddenly the floating cat grew to the size of a person and picked up the unconscious man as it laid his head their lap.

"Let's hope he's not allergic to cats." Kaneki commented as he took off his bag and placed it next to him as he sat on the steps.

"I must ask do you happen to be half elf?" asked the woman.

"Half elf?" Kaneki asked, he quickly realised that his white hair must have led her to think that he was like her.

Half human half ghoul though…

"I'm human." He said as he cupped the base of his chin with his right hand "This is just how my hair is, I'm guessing from your hair, ears and your question that you must be a half elf."

The half elf was silent at first, it was clear she was hesitant to answer Kaneki "Yes" she replied very simply. "Where are you from?"

"Tell me, have you ever heard of a country called Japan?" he asked. "I live in its capital city, Tokyo."

"No, I've never heard of it." She replied.

"What about the U.S, China, Germany or South Africa?" he added, he wanted to cover at least one country per continent in he just might of happened to land on a different side of the world somehow.

"Those are all unfamiliar places that I've never heard of." The woman replied "The countries which boarder Lugunica is Gusteko to the north, Kararagi to the west and the Vollachia Empire. We are the eastern most country."

"I see…" he sat silently for a second "I'm not on earth then." There was a deeply uneasy feeling taking him over as a thousand different questions seemed to scramble in his mind with one sticking out among the thousands of scared voices.

Will I ever get back home?

Kaneki dreaded not seeing those close to him again as the memory of his last encounter with them flashed in his mind; his team, the people at Anteiku… Hide…Touka…

'Trash like you should stay out of Anteiku!'

Am I alone again? He thought to himself.

Suddenly a pained groan snapped him out of his thoughts as he turned his attention towards the guy resting on Puck's lap.

Subaru slowly opened his eyes as he awoke to the feeling of soft fur against his cheek, his eyes moved upwards to see a stunningly beautiful woman in front of him dressed in a clear white dress and dark purple eyes looking down at him.

"You must be the cute girl who summoned me and saved my life." He said smiling.

"No actually, I just healed your wounds;" She replied "he was the one who saved your life." Suddenly another person walked into view; Subaru gasped slightly as a man, perhaps about his own age, dressed in normal clothes and wearing a medical eye-patch over his left eye with white hair cut into a rough bowl like shape standing before him.

"Don't forget about me." Said a voice above him, Subaru looked upwards to see the face of a large grey cat with green eyes and a gold ring on its left ear.

"Ahhh!" he exclaimed as Subaru quickly got up to his feet and moved a few feet from the person sized cat. He turned his attention back towards the young woman and the guy standing next to her "Who are you?" he said, directing his attention to the guy in the eye-patch.

"Ken Kaneki, but just Kaneki is fine." The guy replied.

"Oh… I'm Subaru Natsuki, but just Subaru is okay." Subaru replied "So wait, I wasn't the only one you summoned here then?" he asked, hurt by the idea that he might not be the main protagonist of this adventure.

"Summoned?" the woman said slightly confused "I do not have the power to summon a person other than my spirit animal, Puck."

"Do you have any idea what brought us here." Kaneki inquired.

"I'm sorry but I do not know." the young woman replied, her voice seemed sympathetic towards them. That suddenly changed to a look of shocked realisation as she quickly put on a stern face and turned towards Subaru "Do you know anything about my stolen insignia?" she demanded pointing at him accusingly.

Subaru raised his arms up slightly "I don't know anything about a stolen insignia."

"Do you have any idea about who might have stolen it?" she added.

"Sorry but I don't know anything." He replied.

She folded her arms and looked away from him "Well then since you know nothing I'll be on my way then." She began to walk off before Subaru called out to her.

"Hey wait!" he exclaimed "Why don't I… um… we help you." he turned towards the guy off to the side. The guy looked at Subaru with a perplexed look on his face.

"No need, you had given me information in exchange for being healed and as such owe me nothing so there's no point in me staying here." She said, waving him away. "Next time don't go near any dangerous alleyways as neither I nor your friend over there might not be able to save you again." She advised, wagging her finger, as she quickly rushed off.

"Hey." Kaneki yelled "You're looking for a short blond girl in a huge city; you'll do better if you've got more eyes to help you." she turned back to face them again.

"I have already paid back my debt to this man and you owe me nothing." She replied. "Why would you help me?"

"I want to help you for my own sake!" Subaru declared proudly "I'll even set an objective; one good deed per day." He said with his arm out stretch and his finger pointing upwards.

"I'm basically homeless at the moment so if I help you find this insignia of yours then you can help me arrange for some kind of place to stay for a while, until I find a way to get back to Tokyo." Subaru sharply turned his head towards Kaneki.

He's from Japan too!

Puck suddenly appeared onto the woman's shoulder, his size was that of a hamster. "There doesn't appear to be any malice in them, so I say you should accept the offer." He advised "At the very least they'll serve as a nice shield from other ruffians."

"That's what you want us around for?" Subaru yelled.

"I'm sorry but there's no way I could repay you two." She replied.

"That insignia is plastered around the city; I assume you've probably got some connections you can point me to afterwards." The guy with the eye patch replied.

"Maybe…" she said, looking to the ground. It looked as though she was in deep thought about the offer "Okay, I accept."

"Alright, let's get moving then!" Subaru cheered. He wanted to ask her one last thing…"Wh-"

"Hey wait." Kaneki called out before she reached the entrance to the alleyway "I know your cat's name is Puck but we haven't heard your name."

The young woman stood there quietly for a few seconds as she looked off to the side. "It's Satella…"

The moment had been taken from him…

The gang of three patrolled the market place as they continued their difficult search for a small blond haired needle in a mountain sized haystack. Kaneki scanned the area, looking for the possible culprit, while he thought about how he'd get his next meal when the time came.

I should look for a graveyard later…

He felt a slight nudge to his side as Subaru tapped his arm with his elbow to get his attention. "Yeah?" Kaneki asked.

"So how'd you end up here?" Subaru inquired.

"Left a small convenient store for some coffee beans, walked outside and next thing I knew I was here." Kaneki responded.

"What did you get?" Subaru asked.

"What did I get? You mean what's in my duffle bag?" Kaneki clarified, a little confused by his question. "Just a jar of coffee beans, a magazine and my gym clothes." He said as he rubbed the bottom of his chin.

"Man, you'd think they'd give us better items and power ups before sending us here." Subaru remarked. "All I have on me is my phone, some corn chips and noodles."

"Excuse me?" Kaneki said, somewhat stunned by Subaru's comment.

"This is meant to be like one of those light novels or video games, usually the protagonist gets some kind of powerful ability or something." Subaru explained.

"I doubt this is some kind of game," Kaneki replied, a little dumbfounded "by the looks of it this world is very real and we've just been thrown in." Kaneki could tell he had dampened Subaru's mood from the disappointed expression on his face.

"So you're from Tokyo" Subaru said, trying to continue the conversation "I heard there's a big ghoul epidemic in the city."

"Depends on which ward you live in." Kaneki replied "Some are very peaceful, like the 20th ward, and others are more violent because of factional disputes between some ghouls. They don't have ghouls where you live?" Kaneki wondered if at any point he'd have to explain to the guy that he too was a ghoul. For now Kaneki planned to keep it to himself, else he scare off possibly the only other person with a connection to home.

"There are a few incidents and even those are super rare." Subaru explained.

"How much do you know about ghouls?" Kaneki asked.

"That they can't eat regular food so they have to eat people instead, they've got these things called Kagune that come from their backs, they can turn their eyes red and black and that they're faster and stronger than people."

"That's pretty much the basics." Kaneki said.

"Are you a student?" Subaru asked, moving the conversation to a different topic.

"At the University of Kamii, I'm a freshmen doing Japanese literature." Kaneki said, of course he didn't tell Subaru that he hadn't attended a class in possibly more six months.

"Isn't that one of the top universities in the country?" Subaru exclaimed "Damn, you must be pretty smart to get into there; I'm still in High school." They walked in silence for a few seconds "She pretty cute don't you think?" his voice was hushed.

"You mean Satella?" Kaneki replied "Yeah I guess but I've… got someone else on my mind."

'Why… did you have to change…?'

"So you won't mind if I go for it?" Subaru replied a little too overjoyed; Kaneki gave Subaru an unimpressed look as the guy no doubt plotted how he'd find a way into Satella's heart. Kaneki let out a soft sigh as an even softer smile formed on his lips.

Hide would have liked to have met this guy.

The two chatted idly as they walked until Satella came to a halt "Does that girl seemed lost to you two?" she asked, a little concerned. The two looked towards the direction of a small girl dressed in a long pink dress with green hair cut into a bowl shape standing beside some boxes as she anxiously stared at passersby.

"We're a bit pressed for time to help." Subaru replied. "We should probably focus on finding the thief."

"But that little girl is crying… we have to help her." Satella calmly declared.

Kaneki watched the girl with sad eyes as she continued to search in the crowd for someone, likely her parent… her mother perhaps… he closed his eyes for a second as he recalled the last time he saw Hinami with Ryouko. "You guys go on ahead; I'll see what I can do for the girl." He suggested "Meet me back at the market place, okay."

"Great idea!" Subaru praised, almost too enthusiastic about the plan.

"Thank you" Satella replied with a soft smile. She quickly turned away just as Subaru threw his arm around Kaneki's shoulder.

"Thanks for taking one for the team." He said with a huge smile as he gave Kaneki a thumb up, he quickly jogged over to Satella as they two continued the hunt.

Kaneki approached the little girl, as he stood before her she looked up at him with tearful eyes. He knelt down at eye level and smiled at her. "Hey there, it's alright." He said reached into his duffle bag and pulled out the hairstylist magazine, showing it to her. The bright colours and smiling faces seemed to have calmed her down as they quickly flicked through the pages "They're all very pretty huh." He said getting her attention once more "But you know whose prettier?" he tapped the little girl on the nose gently "You are." She giggled at Kaneki remark. "C'mon, let's go find your parents." He said as he offered out his hand to the girl. She grabbed Kaneki's hand as the two walked along the path. "So you got separated from your mom."

"Yeah." She replied.

"Don't worry, we'll find her." Kaneki reassured "Just point when you see her." As soon as those words left his mouth the little girl began frantically pointing at a woman in the crowd. She let go of Kaneki's hand and ran up to the woman who rush towards her with open arms.

The woman looked back at Kaneki "Thank you so much." She said as she held her daughter's hand.

"It's no problem." Kaneki replied. "If you don't mind I'd like to ask some questions."

"Of course." She replied.

"Do you know where I might be able to find a church?" Kaneki asked, he couldn't ask her where to find a graveyard or morgue without possibly raising suspicion. "Also I'm looking for someone, she's short, blond hair tied back and is pretty fast on her feet."

"Well you can find churches around the fourth layer of the capital." She replied "Though I'm not too sure about your other question; my husband may be able to help you though, I can lead you to him if you'd like."

"Thank you that would be nice." He followed the two through the market place for a couple of minutes until they came up to a familiar area, off to the distance Kaneki spotted both Subaru and Satella talking to that same vendor who called him a 'broke weirdo' and by the looks of it things we're getting a bit heated. The tension quickly evaporated when the mother and daughter arrived as the girl ran up to the vendor and hugged him.

"This young man found our daughter and helped her look for me." The mother stated.

"Hey, you're one of those weird travellers." The vendor said.

Your welcome, asshole

The little girl ran up to Kaneki once more and handed him a small flower with red petals and a yellow centre. "Thank you, mister." He rubbed the top of her head affectionately.

"You're welcome." He said.

"You have my thanks." The vendor finally said "I assume you're with those two."

Kaneki turned to Subaru and Satella who had been quietly standing by "Yes, I am. Your wife said you could help us identify someone."

"We're looking for a nimble, short blond girl." Subaru interjected.

"Huh, you might be looking for a girl named Felt." The vendor replied as he placed his hand on his chin "She well known around the slums so you should probably check there."

"Thank you" Satella replied, she turned to Kaneki and smiled at him "Thank you, Kaneki."

"Don't thank me; it was your idea after all." Kaneki responded, he quickly noticed Subaru giving him an almost betrayed look.

The three made their way from the third layer of the city and into the fourth layer, the sun had already begun to set as the sky was bathed in an orange glow, as they got to the middle of the fourth layer Kaneki stopped them. "I think we should split up for a while." He said.

"Why now?" Satella asked perplexed.

"If Subaru and I got thrown into this world then it's safe to say that there must be others like us wondering around." He explained, he then cupped the bottom of his chin "I want to look around and see if I can find anyone else, that way they won't get hurt or worse." Of course the real reason was to find the graveyards and a possible location for a steady food supply.

Subaru nodded his head "We'll meet you back here when we've gotten the insignia." The three parted ways as Kaneki began to walk along the path leading into a large neighbourhood. The houses here weren't as well kept or grand as those in the third layer; simple two floor houses made of stone and wood lined a rough street which had the scars of tens of giant lizards digging their claws into the ground. All around people went about their daily lives as they bartered for goods in stores, talked and laughed with each other and rushed off to do other things. He wondered around for a couple minutes before asking someone for direction.

"Hey, do you know where I might find a cemetery?" he asked for directly this time.

"There's one near the church just off the far end of the road." A man painting the wooden beams around the door replied.

"Thanks." Kaneki continued walking onwards, by now the sun had set and darkness had fallen on the city as he arrived at the graveyard surrounded by a large fence with a gate leading towards a small temple in the centre, he scanned the area All I need to do now is find the morgue he thought.

Suddenly everything went black.

He opened his eyes to a bright sun as he was greeted to the sound of a busy crowd, a flowing river nearby and the sight of people getting on with their business in the market place.

The same market place he found himself when he first got here.

Kaneki turned his head frantically, like a paranoid man searching for something off, as his eyes darted around. "What the… I was just here." He muttered in disbelief "What the hell just happened?" He began to walk around the path lined with wooden stalls; he quickly noticed some clear similarities to previous events; the lizard buying a leg of lamb and the woman buying a head of cabbage. These happened only just hours ago, he continued with the same path he believed to have taken.

This can't just be a coincidence or Déjà vu… he spotted the muscular vendor if he calls me a weird traveller than I'll know… he walked up to the stall, albeit with more caution, as he hoped to start an interaction with the guy; he pretended to read the signs.

"Hey!" said the man in stall, standing under the shade of his roof. "Are you another one of those weird travellers?" there it was, the exact same question and way of identifying him.

Alright, so I'm in another world I know very little about and to top it all off, time is repeating itself for some reason.

"Yeah, I am" Kaneki replied "Quick question, you've never seen me before, right?"

"Huh? No, of course not." The vendor replied, confused by Kaneki's question.

"Thanks!" Kaneki then sprinting off before the vendor could say anything else.

If time is looping then Subaru's going get his ass beat again by those thugs, hopefully I'll make it before that happens.

He came up to the alleyway as he turned the corner he discover that no one had arrived yet; not the thugs or Subaru "Guess I'm early." He then heard the sound of someone sprinting coming from the other end of the alleyway, as the person quickly came into view Kaneki stared wide eyed as Subaru stopped in front of him.

"Kaneki?" Subaru exclaimed, shocked to him.

"Wait, you remember me?" Kaneki questioned.

"Of course I do, we met just recently remember?"

"Then you experienced the-"

Suddenly the sound of footsteps behind Kaneki cut him off, he turned his head to see three figures enter the alleyway, Kaneki moved back, towards Subaru, as he turned his body to face them properly.

"It's those thugs." He said as the three came into view, the light from the entrance illuminating their face in the dark alley.

"Lookie what we got here." said the short guy.

"How about you two had over your stuff and we'll let you go." said the lanky guy.

"Are you guys here for revenge?" Subaru questioned.

"What are you talking about?" the lanky guy responded.

"Listen, just drop your stuff on the ground and leave." said the large guy.

"The amount of time we have to spend on you three is zero." Kaneki replied, his voice sounding frustrated as he glared at them with disdain. "Leave now before we beat you half to death." He dropped his duffle bag onto the ground; Subaru did the same with his white plastic bag, Kaneki then curled his index finger inwards as he pressed down on the upper joint.

Crack!

"You think you can threaten us, scum!" the short guy yelled angrily as he pointed his finger at them.

"I'll get the big one; you take out the guy in the middle before he takes out his knife." Kaneki advised. The two charged at the thugs; Subaru threw a hard uppercut at the lanky guy's chin before he could react which sent the guy crashing onto his back. Kaneki leapt into the air with his right leg and struck the large man in the temple with his left, sending the skull of the large thug into the wall. The thug collapsed onto the ground unconscious as blood trickled down the side of his face.

The two looked down on the small thug who had just watched his partners get easily beaten "Go on, run!" Subaru yelled angrily, without hesitating, the small thug ran off leaving them.

"Okay…" Kaneki said, trying to collect his thoughts "Same thugs and the same alleyway, same vendor calling me a 'weird traveller' and the same people doing the exact same thing." He turned to Subaru "Tell me I'm not the only one experiencing this."

"I was just checking out the loot house where Felt might be." Subaru then grabbed onto his stomach "I remember getting attacked and then next thing I know I'm at the stall selling fruits again."

"Attacked? What happened?" Kaneki asked.

"I… someone cut through my stomach…" Subaru said, shaken as he recalled which Kaneki could only assume to be a painful memory "I was dying… Satella was… then everything turned black and I somehow appeared in front of the stall."

Could Subaru dying have triggered it?

"Same thing happened to me; first I was looking around at night and then the next thing I know its broad daylight and I'm back where I started." Kaneki added.

"I thought it was all a dream… but hearing you experiencing the same thing…" Subaru said, he stared at the ground uncomfortable.

"Something happened which turned back time about… more than a few hours ago. For now let's stick together, that way if we experience anything strange then we'll know for sure." Kaneki stated.

"Yeah, that would be good." Subaru replied "We should head to the loot house in the last layer of the city if we're to find out what happened and maybe get that insignia. Plus I… want to be the one to ask for her name this time…" he said sheepishly

Guy just experienced a near death situation and his priority is still getting with Satella?

"Alright, do what you want, let's head straight there."

They raced towards the lowest layer of the city, the slums, the buildings here were in almost complete disrepair as hastily made huts of wooden sticks and tarp were positioned either along the road, within cramped alleyways or on rough muddy land which hadn't been tended to in decades, garbage was piled up along the road and vegetation had begun to reclaim some abandon buildings. They approached a large wooden house at the top of a hill; as they stood on the porch, Kaneki could tell something was bothering Subaru.

"You want me to do it?" Kaneki asked.

"No, I'll do it." Subaru pounded his fist on the door "Hello? Is anyone in there? Answer me!" the door swung open.

"Shut yer trap!" yelled the guy on the other side, he walked towards them, his footsteps rumbling the wooden beneath them "You think you can knock on the door when ya don't know the password?" the two stepped back as a giant man dressed in a tore oversized black vest with massive white eyebrows that curled downwards over his beady eyes and red paint marks across his head stood before them. Kaneki stared blank faced at the guy; this wasn't his first time seeing an unusually large human, but the reaction from Subaru it looked as though he had seen a ghost.

"We're here to do business." Kaneki stated.

"Come inside then." said the large man, waving them in.

"What's wrong?" Kaneki asked, whispering to him.

"That guy was dead when I first came here." Subaru replied. Kaneki looked back at the man; it was just further confirmation that the past few hours were now repeating themselves

Kaneki observed the room as he stepped inside; it looked like an old tavern which looked to have become a storage unit with all the junk and boxes stacked to the side of the main hall. Chandeliers hung from the ceiling holding crystals, the paint on the walls was chipping away as mould grew from the corners and the whole place was dark with only rays of light coming in from the windows at the top. "Sit down over there." He said pointing to some stools on the other side of a long table; Kaneki placed his bag on the floor as he sat down while Subaru placed his white bag on the table. "You here for Felt?" he asked.

"Yeah…" Subaru replied.

"She'll be down here in soon so just sit tight." The large man then picked up a large wooden mug and began taking large gulps of its contents.

"This might be a crazy question but… have you ever died?" Subaru asked hesitantly.

The old man looked at him for a second before bursting out into laughter "I may be an old man but I ain't at death's door yet." His laughter quickly died down "So what are you two looking to buy from Felt?"

"An Insignia, suppose to be important and it's got a jewel in the centre." Subaru explained.

"What price ya willing to pay?" he asked.

"We're pretty much broke" Subaru explained "But we've got stuff we can trade." He then pulled Kaneki into a huddle "Hey, what have you got again?"

"A jar of coffee beans, my gym clothes and a magazine." Kaneki lied.

"You think that plus my corn snack and noodle can win us a trade?" Subaru asked.

"I doubt it." Kaneki replied.

Subaru sighed "Okay, I'll think of something else then." They sat there waiting for what felt like an hour or more, Kaneki flicked through the pages of the stylist magazine reading it to ease his boredom as he pressed down on the bottom half of his middle finger.

Crack!

There was a knock on the door "That might be her." said the large man as he walked towards the double doors he stopped just in front of the door "For a rat?" he asked.

"Poison." said a person on the other side.

"For a white whale?" he asked.

"A harpoon"

"To the noble dragon lords we are…"

"Shitbags" the large man opened the door, the orange glow of the dusk flooded into the dark tavern as a small blond haired with red eyes girl dressed in tight trousers, a long red scarf, brown gloves, a black bow and ribbon, a small vest and was armed with a sword strapped to her back walked in. "Sorry to keep you waiting, old man Rom; my target was persistent so I had to shake them off." She quickly spotted Kaneki and Subaru sitting at the bar of the loot house "Who are they?"

"They say they're here to negotiate for an insignia." Rom said as he walked back to the other side of the long table, he poured out a small glass of milk and handed it to Felt who sat down next to Subaru. Felt raised the cup to her mouth and sipped it "Did you water down the milk? It tastes nasty."

"I give you something out of the goodness of my heart and you call it nasty." He said as he rubbed the top of her head roughly.

"You guys are pretty close." Subaru commented there was a sense of sadness in his voice.

"You know for a guy whose face is scarier than Rom you sure do sound wimpy." Felt joked. "And you there, you got a real creepy vibe to you too." Subaru looked genuinely hurt by her comment while a barely noticeable smirk appeared on Kaneki's face.

"Well aren't you a cute little thing." Kaneki remarked, it was almost as if he was taunting her and this time it was Felt who looked insulted.

"Are you three just about done?" Rom asked impatiently.

"Alright then, let's get down to business; what are you willing to pay for it?" Felt asked.

"Well first off, do you have the insignia?" Subaru replied. Felt placed her hand in her trouser pocket and pulled out a small triangle shaped badge; it was purple with gold lines around the edges and a red jewel at the centre. "If you can pay enough for my effort then I'll be happy to give it to you two."

"We don't have any money." Subaru admitted "But what we do have is something worth money." He dug his hand into his pocket and pulled out his phone. "This is a magic device its-" Kaneki pulled Subaru back.

"What the hell are you doing?" Kaneki questioned in an angered whispered tone.

"I don't have any signal anyway." Subaru answered.

"So? You're giving away your own connection to your family." Kaneki replied.

"You've got your phone; I could always try again from yours." Subaru suggested with a cheeky smile.

Kaneki sighed, he pulled out his own phone "Fine, give me your parent's contacts." He flicked through his contacts; Hinami, Banjo, Touka, Tsukiyama, Hide… Kaneki glanced back over to Subaru and noticed a look of envy on his face

You must have been alone too.

"I've added your mom." He said as he added the number into his contact "I hope you know what you're doing."

"Trust me, I got this." He turned back to Felt and Old man Rom "This right here is called a cell phone; it can stop time for everyone and everything." He claimed "Just look, nine continuous shots per second." He clicked onto the buttons of his phone as he selected his camera. Both Felt and Rom moved closer towards the phone and we're blindsided by a series of bright flashes.

"Ah! It's too bright! And what's that sound?" Felt exclaimed as both she and Rom shielded their eyes

"You tryin' to kill us?" Rom questioned.

"Hold on." Subaru told them as showed the photo.

"Is that…"

"Them's me and Felt's faces." they stared at the screen of the phone "What sort of magic is this?"

"Like I said, it's a magical item which can freeze any moment in time." Subaru claimed, he turned back to Kaneki and gave him the thumbs up. Kaneki rolled his eyes. "You can store those moments in here."

"That's amazing!" Felt replied, completely amazed by the device before them.

"I've never seen anything like this." Rom said. "Is this one of those 'metia' I've heard about?"

"What's a metia?" Subaru asked.

"It allows people who haven't opened their gate us magic." Rom explained.

"How much is a thing like that worth?" Felt questioned.

"My first time dealing with a metia but if I had to say then it'll fetch more than that insignia."

"That settles it, the phone for the insignia."Subaru smiled.

"Not just yet!" Felt declared "You're not the only one who's got their eye on this. I've got a client who's willing to spend ten holy coins on this insignia." She said sticking her hands out.

"How much is a holy coin worth?" Kaneki asked.

"It's the highest form of money in the country; one is worth two gold pieces." Rom replied. "I'd say that metia is worth twenty holy coins, there may be others willing to pay more."

"That means I can get away with overcharging!" Felt cheered.

"Who's the client and when are you meeting them?" Subaru asked.

"Right here." She replied "Old man Rom's here to make sure everything goes smoothly." There was a knock on the door, the four of them all turned towards the double door.

"Do they know the password?" Rom asked.

"I didn't mention it; that's probably for me though." She hopped off her seat and headed towards the door.

"You two must be close for you to be helping her out like this." Kaneki commented.

"You could say that; I've known her for a long time so I help her out." Rom replied, he walked over to the side and picked up a massive wooden club.

"You look like a real barbarian with that club." Subaru laughed nervously.

"People in this part of the capital do what they can to survive; some form groups, but Felt ain't like that so I got to look out for her."

"I understand what you mean." Kaneki said.

"The client's here." Felt announced "You can take a seat right here." A young woman with long purple hair, dress in a revealing black dress and long cloak walked through the door. Kaneki gasped slightly when he first caught a glimpse; the first thing he saw was her long purple hair.

"There seem to be several outsiders here." The woman commented.

"The big guy's for insurance." Felt replied.

"I know who the older man is but not these two younger men." She stated, the way she spoke was sly, confident and demanding… Kaneki began to shift uncomfortable in his seat.

"They happen to be your rivals in a bidding war." Felt stated. "Why don't you all sit down on the table here?" As the others began to take their seats, Kaneki grabbed Subaru by his shoulder.

"Nice to meet you two, I'm Elsa Granhiert" she said, smiling at them.

"I don't like her…" he said, whispering as quietly as possible.

"Why?" Subaru asked.

"Let's just say I had a run in with someone similar a while back and it didn't end too well…" Kaneki explained "Just stay on your guard and don't do anything stupid." The two of them took their place, sitting opposite of the woman as Rom handed her a glass of milk.

"So you two wish to purchase the insignia as well?" Elsa asked.

"The highest bidder gets it." Felt stated.

"And what exactly are they bringing to the table?" she asked.

"I'm trading this metia; apparently it's worth twenty holy coins." Subaru replied "It can capture moments and store them." He took a picture of the woman and showed her.

The Elsa giggled softly "A metia, well it's a good thing my client was prepared for a situation like this."

"You're representing someone by proxy?" Kaneki questioned.

"Why yes, my client wishes to acquire it." Elsa replied "Would you two happen to be here representing someone else?"

"No." Kaneki responded. "We're here for our own reasons."

"So far these two have a pretty strong start, what's your client going to offer?" Felt asked.

The young woman pulled out a small bag and emptied its contents onto the table; a jumble of small silver coins spilled onto the table in front of everyone. Both Felt and Subaru gasped. Rom began counting the silver coins, stacking them in piles of five.

"Twenty coins exactly." Rom stated

Stalemate… Kaneki thought.

"Stop looking so pathetic, don't you know how to bargain?" Rom questioned "The way I see it you two have the better deal." He turned back to the young woman "Sorry for the disappointment but you should probably bag up those coins and get on your way."

"Yeah!" Subaru cheered, jumping from his seat and raising his fist in the air. The room was awkwardly silent afterwards with everyone staring at him "What? Can't a guy celebrate a win?"

"I don't care so long as I'm getting paid." Felt commented.

"You have my sympathies." Kaneki said to Elsa.

"You're probably going to get in trouble for this." Subaru added, sympathizing with the possibility of disappointing someone.

"These things happen, though more of the blame could be placed on my client for not being better prepared for this." Elsa replied, she lifted up her cup and drank the remaining contents, licking her lips. "By the way what do you plan on doing with that insignia anyway?"

"I'm going to return it to the owner." Subaru replied earnestly, everyone snapped their heads towards Subaru in shock.

"You idiot!" Kaneki yelled.

"So… you two are with them then…" there was a look of horror on Subaru's face as he instantly realised his mistake; Felt quickly tackled Subaru to the ground. Kaneki quickly saw the large knife in Elsa's right hand as she went to strike at him; he swiftly dodged the attack, causing her to miss only by a hair's length.

"My… aren't you quick." She said, eyeing Kaneki. Rom rushed over to the counter, grabbed the massive club and swung it downwards towards Elsa. She easily dodged the attack as the club smashed thought the wooden chair and floor boards. She landed on the table as Rom swung his club again and missed once more.

"First time fighting a giant like yourself." Elsa remarked as she landed elegantly onto the counter.

"Keep quiet and hold still!" Rom swung the club onto the counter, missing her again, he swung it once more but this time Elsa deflected the attack with his knife. He made a wide swipe left with the club but she skilfully dodge the attack but ducking under it, he launched a downwards attack which once more failed to hit his target. As the three watched the battle commence, Kaneki waited for the right moment to intervene while he hoped that Rom would land a successful shot.

Kaneki watched carefully as Rom continued on the offensive she fast, similar to some ghouls… she biding her time for a wide swing.

"Take this!" Rom moved the club back as he prepared to go for a powerful swipe, Kaneki ran forward towards them.

"Kaneki, wait!" Subaru yelled. Elsa turned her head towards him; she made a quick swipe at Rom's chest which left a wide cut as she moved swiftly to block Kaneki's punch. Rom collapsed onto the ground clutching at his wound as he club hit the ground.

"Old man Rom!" Felt exclaimed.

"Well aren't you brave." Elsa complimented as she blocked Kaneki's punch with her elbow. "Something tells me you weren't even trying, shame really, that'll be the death of you." she pulled a second blade from her jacket and swiped it towards Kaneki's stomach. She expected to feel the impact of her blade hitting his guts but instead, to her surprise, she missed her target that had quickly dodged the attack by leaning back. Kaneki moved his left foot forward and threw a round kick with his right leg towards her face; Elsa block the attack, moving her left arm to protect her head, but the strength behind it pushed her back to the wall.

"You're right, I was holding back." Kaneki taunted with a sly smile on his face as he pushed down on the bottom bone of his ring finger with his thumb.

Crack!

"Confident are we?" she said with devilish smile on her face "I can tell, you don't seem afraid nor anxious…still you won't be the first over confident person I've had the pleasure of seeing their guts spilled."

"Rom, can you walk?" Kaneki asked, not moving his gaze away from Elsa. Rom let out a pained groan as he strenuously got up to his feet."

"Subaru, Felt, you two get Rom out of here." Kaneki demanded "I'll handle her." He wanted to use his kagune and quickly defeat her, but he also need to maintain his cover in front of them too.

"No way!" Subaru yelled as he got up to his feet "I'm… I'm not going to leave you to die!"

"Do as I say-"

He took his eyes off Elsa for one second and in almost a fraction of that time she had moved to his left side and went for a quick swipe for his neck. Kaneki ducked down, the blade just missing him, he made a sweeping kick with his left leg but Elsa jumped into the air avoiding it. As she landed onto her feet Kaneki leapt into the air, he spun his hips slightly and leaned back, as he went for a struck his leg out for a spinning kick. Elsa shield herself using her blades, forming them into an X shape, as she absorbed the blow from the attack. He landed back onto the ground and moved back.

"Your fighting skill must be terrible if you couldn't hit the blind spot of a guy wearing an eye-patch." Kaneki taunted, for the first time since they recent met, they saw the smug smile fade from Elsa's face. She moved her shoulders back, her long cloak falling to the ground. Subaru ran over to Kaneki's side and picked up the large club with both hands.

"Felt, get old man Rom and you out of here and go get help." Subaru then gave her a serious look followed by a reassuring smile "We'll hold her off and buy you guys enough time to do it." Felt began guiding Rom towards the door; she looked back at them one last time before leaving.

"How brave of you two to volunteer yourselves to die." Elsa complimented them, that confident smile reappearing on her face as she pointed her blade in their direction. "Let's make some fun, shall we?"

Subaru made a downwards swing as Kaneki forced her back during her offensive against him.

Inner strength, don't let me down!

Elsa quickly side stepped Subaru's attack as the club collided into the ground, smashing into the floor boards. "Opportunistic, are we?" she said as she moved in to slice Subaru's neck. Kaneki leapt forward and tried to strike his right foot down like an axe onto her. She moved back, avoiding the attack, but Kaneki quickly threw an uppercut to her chin, knocking her back.

"First blow goes to us!" Subaru proclaimed proudly.

I gotta have this guy teach me his moves!

Elsa rubbed the bottom of her chin "This is getting annoying."

"Yeah, it is." Kaneki replied. "Let's finish this then." Elsa rushed forwards towards Kaneki as she went on the attack; Kaneki dodged the swift swipes of her knives.

Damn they're fast Subaru thought; he readied the club as he waited for another opening to present itself. Elsa struck her blade forward towards Kaneki's face; but he leaned back, steadying himself on his left foot, he struck her in the gut with his right foot and sent her stumbling back.

Now's my chance! Subaru rushed in and made an upwards strike with the club towards Elsa, the hit connected and pushed her back further. She's got to be weak now! He rushed forward Lets finish this! He launched a wipe downwards strike from above. Elsa countered with her own attack. She slashed her blade at the club, slicing it in two.

Oh shit… Subaru braced himself for her attack.

Until Kaneki rushed over and pushed him to the side.

Subaru crashed to the ground and tumbled away slightly as Elsa's first blade struck Kaneki's stomach and her secondary blade hit him across the face with deadly precision. Kaneki fell to his knees as his medical eye patch dropped from his face and gently onto the ground as Kaneki clutched at both his gut and his face.

"Looks like I finally got you." Elsa remarked with a wide grin on her face.

"Kaneki!" Subaru exclaimed, he felt both immense fear and shame; his mistake was the death of Kaneki… he got him killed.

His grief quickly gave way to shock as two long blood red tentacles burst from Kaneki back; Elsa leapt back, narrowly avoiding it, as Kaneki lowered his hands to his knees to reveal a clean cut through the green-greyish hoodie but not a single mark, cut or drop of blood was visible from his stomach or his face. "I haven't been totally honest with you…" Kaneki said; the long fringes of his white hair shielded his eyes as he kept his head lowered. Kaneki raised his head to look at Subaru, Subaru gasped; he was both shocked and horrified.

"You're a…" Ghoul…

Two different eyes looked back at Subaru; the one on the right was white with a grey iris and the other on the left was jet black with a blood red iris and veins. Kaneki stood up from the ground, still looking away from Elsa.

"Now this is interesting." Elsa remarked "I've never fought anything like you before." Kaneki turned his head back at her with a frustrated expression on his face. "Why didn't you use such a thing in the first place?" she asked staring at the long red tendril sticking out of Kaneki's lower back.

"I could have easily beaten you without it." Kaneki stated.

Elsa softly giggled in response "What a pretty eye you have" she remarked as she stared into Kaneki's red iris "This has gotten a lot more entertaining; perhaps I should properly introduce myself, I'm Elsa Granhiert, the bowel hunter, tell me the name of whom I will have the pleasure of dancing with?" she asked, her politeness masking her killer nature.

Kaneki chuckled to himself "I should warn you," he placed his thumb on the bottom of his index finger and pressed down. "You're much better off not knowing anything about…"

Crack!

"Me…"

When I was hitting a brick wall with my main story I decided to see if writing another would help and it worked. If you're wondering whether I plan on continuing this story the answer is probably not; unlike Attack on Titan I don't that much about the world of Re:Zero or its long term plot to plan anything out.