A/N: No, Eto is not that weak. Kaneki is just that much of a false-hope believer, hence why Touka was able to run away from him on their first encounter. If not for his ongoing arrogance and naivety, we wouldn't even reach half of chapter two. Spoiler, anyone?

Anyone?

Okay, here we go. Let sail the ship!

''

It's Not Always Sunshine

7

''

Ken's frown grows deeper and deeper as silence lingers there, clearly confused. He didn't even know any Kirishimas before he almost eaten one two months ago. No, he didn't kill Touka's parents, he is dead sure for that. "What do you mean I killed your parents?"

The girl doesn't answer for a moment, she looks internally conflicted, and that worries Ken to no end. He lifts his right hand to pat her head when a voice interrupts him, "Get your filthy hand off my sister."

Aw, man.

The ghoul grunts—dammit, kid, couldn't you wait a bit longer? He's always wanting to run his fingers across those shiny blue locks—turning around, and is shocked to see a complete doppelganger of his one and only human friend. They even have the same scent. The only imperfection is the gender. "A twin?"

"As if, you dumbhead," the 'twin' rolls his strikingly familiar eyes. Their reactions are similar, too! This guessing game is hard.

Touka's main concern is: Did the little bastard hear what they were talking? "Ayato, what are you—"

"Doing here?" Ayato finished like the damn twin he isn't. "What, I can't visit mom and dad?" His sister's face falls, and he snorts sarcastically. "Didn't know you're dating someone." He half-says half-snorts as he glares towards the black-haired male. If there was a trophy for Who Makes the Worst First Impression Ever, Kirishima Ayato would be the one winning every year.

"D-Dating?!" Sadly, it is Ken who is flustered and blushing, while Touka herself simply rolls her eyes at his pathetic excuse of a ghoul. "No, male-Touka-chan, as much as I'd wa—"

"You shut up, I'm talking to my stupid sister." Ayato dismisses the ghoul as if he was the ghoul himself. Ken nods like a kicked puppy. If he is going to marry Touka, might as well catch her family's heart along the way. The blue-haired boy, though, side-eyes the ghoul as if he was the ghoul himself again. Indeed, this is gonna be a long way.

"There's nothing to talk about," Touka does the same. Tch, siblings. "Let's go, Ken." She takes Ken's sleeve and drags him away. Her visit to her parents is done, no point in arguing over trivial things with Ayato. She doesn't want to start an embarrassing catfight in the middle of a cemetery. She glances at Ken, meekly following her with an apologetic smile to her brother and Hinami, who Touka didn't realize was there. Was she really there?

Meanwhile, Hinami doesn't say a word as she observes the older couple walking away, slowly tightening her grip of Ayato's tensed arm.

''

Touka kicks a coke can on the road. It's noon, but the heat makes no difference to her howling mind. Ken calmly walks beside her, not trying to make her talk or even cheer her up, he knows it'd be useless. The blue-haired girl knows that too, so she grumbles in a low, low voice. "Sorry for earlier."

Ken doesn't pretend not to hear it. Credits to his ghoul senses. "It's alright. That guy, Ayato, he's your sibling?"

She hums in response. "Stupid little brother. I swear sooner or later he'll kill me just by existing." Ken laughs at that. He doesn't have a biological brother, but he thinks of Hide as one. He knows more or less of how annoying a sibling can be on a daily basis. His laughter stops when he realizes Touka taking out a small can from her bag, and puts it right on his face. "You know what's this?"

His eyes quickly focus on the little words printed on its plastic cover. 'Fend off any bad doers with this magical spray! It's super effective!' it read. It's not hard to generalize from there. "A pepper spray?"

"Yes." Touka grins with unconceivable meaning, which spells something wicked to Ken. "Is it true that this thing doesn't work on ghouls?" She then presses the button on the small bottle straight to Ken's eyes, endangering the poor ghoul's sight to a few tears, and probably blindness.

"Ack!" he yelps in horror. "Stop doing that!" It's true that ghouls' RC cells are strong as hell, but that doesn't mean you can do whatever you want with him, or any ghouls for that matter! If humans are humans, then ghouls are ghouls too. We have etiquette. As much as that makes nonsense.

As he opens his newly healed eyes, he sees Touka's nose is almost touching his own. He backs down in shock. No, Touka-chan, he's not ready for this yet… "Five seconds, eh?" she mumbles. "Not enough to dial 911."

"Y-You did that just for that?!" Ken exclaims in disbelief.

"This kind of knowledge is important if I want to survive around you, you know." The girl throws back her spray into her bag. "Bookmark Cone gave me twelve seconds before your eye healed, it was enough for me to get out of the back alley and reach the big road, where I knew you wouldn't do something dumb in public."

Despite that, Ken can hear the bitterness in her voice, perhaps for the fact that now she knew that he let her run away. Little does he know, the fact that she still hasn't managed to get rid of her irrational hatred towards his deep, olive orbs is what's making her salty.

"By the way, your ghoul eye iris looks like a sliced tomato."

Huh? Ken glances at the glass window of Anteiku, that they are passing coincidentally. And true enough, his left eye shows its nature. Damn. "Ah…"

"Okay, apart we go. I'm going to work, bye," Touka says as she turns to the famous café, getting a groan of disapproval from Nishiki, who is already on duty at the counter. She doesn't even wait for Ken's reply, swiftly going to the staff room to get her uniform. No, he wouldn't admit that he forgot she had assigned herself to be ordered around at Anteiku few days prior.

Ken and Nishiki share an awkward silence before the younger ghoul decides to go away, realizing that passing Anteiku isn't a coincidence at all.

Eto and a silver-haired boy are there. She is waving her fingers creepily at him, making him shiver for the next two hours.

''

Ken's shivering eventually fades out when he gets so induced in reading the dusty layers of paper at the Tokyo National Library. If ghouls were able to have allergies, he would have chosen dust allergy just because it makes him sounds sophisticated. This time, the black-haired university student is reading the report of CCG's investigators from ten to twenty years ago. He saw Touka's parents' date of death, it was from twelve years ago.

Ah, here it is. The Manual Book has everything in it as he reads it, full focus on use.

[MISSION MARCH 3rd: THE EXECUTION OF CLAW]

Kaneki's heart twitches in long-forgotten ache at the mention of the last word.

[The CCG is not happy to announce the elimination of the SSS-rate ghoul Claw. Although the mission is a success, it took victim of two young, faithful Special Class Investigators. The upper ranks investigators have decided with stone-hard hearts that they shall make public Claw's real name in commemoration of the brave Kirishima Arata and Kirishima Hikari. They are yet another loss we must face to end ghouls' presence.]

Ah, Ken remembers when he rose his eyebrow at a housewife gossiping with another housewife. 'Tis dumb of them to talk about people that the person they're talking to doesn't even know, he had thought, until he had to raise an eyebrow at what they ended up talking about. A dangerous ghoul's death in the hands of those stupid doves. It was all in the television up to ten days.

Apparently, it was rare for CCG to announce the real name of the ghouls—to at least thank them for dying, they say—so that one incident really took Tokyo, even Japan, by surprise. The name of Claw, the SS-level ghoul was no longer secret. They also grieved the loss of two investigators at the progress.

Eto's warning rings clear as polished nails in his mind, "Don't repeat the tragedy."

And it's not like Touka's word disturbs him, not at all. He's gotten used to Touka's harsh words like the girl's bird pet Hetare has gotten used to insulting people. It comes naturally, for a lame reason.

Now that he has understood why Touka had accused him as her parents' killer, he really does feel hopeless for his species now. If this goes on, there'll be more kids with back stories like Touka-chan and her brother Ayato. How'd possibly he fix this?

This world is too fucked up.

It is then when he feels his phone vibrating, an incoming message from Touka HUMAN! Target. Finally! He screams inwardly, making himself dizzy. After his thoughtful spam of 'Goodie morningie!' every day, his favorite human friend is sending him a reply. This sure deserves a party. Maybe he'll give Hide a leg for dinner tonight.

''

This is not what Yoriko expects. She looks to her side, and sighs tiredly, "And why are you two here, too?"

Ken and Hide express two kinds of smile, one is of guilt, the other is of mischief respectively. The orange-haired male lifts a bottle of mango juice, initiating a toast, "Cheers for Yore's birthday!"

Neither Yoriko, Touka, or even Ken will understand where that nickname came from. The girl in question frowns for the nth time that hour. She didn't cook enough food for the four of them. "Are pizzas okay?" She decides in the end.

"Suuuure," Hide sings happily.

"You don't mind waiting for a while, right? I'm going to the store since I want it hot. It's close, anyways."

"Dude, there's the delivery service, you know?" The orange-haired male snorts at the equal colored haired girl, and raises an eyebrow at a framed picture on the wall. There are Mr. and Mrs. Kosaka, Yoriko, and a boy that looks very much like the father. A little brother?

Yoriko doesn't try to notice the weird look on Hide's face. "I want it hot. I'll buy for you guys too."

Hide doesn't know why but he wants to go. He feels something weird in his gut. He then concludes he just doesn't want his plaything to be broken in any way. "I'm going too."

"Huh? Who asked you?" Yoriko frowns at his attempt to—heavily self-assumed—hit on her.

"Nobody, so you better cherish the moment." Hide's smile almost crushes Ken and Touka's eyes for being too bright that they're sure the blue-haired human will sue him. Being that shiny should be illegal.

Nothing comes out of the girl's mouth as she simply leaves her house, Hide following close by. They don't share any voice to each other for quite some time, until the guy finally speaks up. "I haven't seen your brother. Is he enrolling in a boarding school or something?" He avoided a puddle on the road swiftly.

Don't think Hide doesn't notice the slight gulp, Yoriko. "He's not around anymore."

Yeah, he knows that much. "Where's he exactly?"

"…Heaven." She finally whispers, not averting her now stern eyes from the road.

Shit. Shit. "Sorry." He doesn't expect that outcome.

"It's okay, it's not your fault," the girl giggles, albeit in an experienced way. Like she had practiced it for a long time. "I didn't expect you to be someone who has the decency to feel sorry."

"Hmph, deal with my crass gentlemanliness." The ghoul rolls his eyes. Silence passes again, saying hello to their awkward faces, when once again, he breaks it off with something even more absurd than crass gentlemanliness. "Are you scared of ghouls?" What is he spurting about, dammit?! Hide inwardly slaps himself.

Weirdly, the previous giggle turns into a full laughter. Hide quickly stops his walk in the middle of the sidewalk, and waits for her to stop mocking his intelligence not to understand the joke in that question. Yoriko doesn't stop. "What the hell is so funny?"

"Ahahah..." she tries to stop, to no avail. "HAHAHA!"

Alright, that's it. "I'm neglecting you here, then." Hide scoffs before he pretends to go away. Yoriko still doesn't bother trying to stop. "Seriously, man, what is it?"

The girl still doesn't answer, until Hide backtracks and pulls her with him. Talking is nice and all, but we have a starving emo girl and a lovesick ghoul waiting at home. Yoriko wipes the tears from her eyes whilst saying, "But… they're humans with special diet."

Hide manages not to break the whole city's tranquility with his Hide-ous laughter. Forgive the ugly pun. He frowns at the road ahead, then at the giggling human being beside him, partially at her delicious pulsating veins. He doesn't hesitate to drop the bomb, though. "What if I tell you I'm a ghoul?"

She doesn't hesitate to eat it whole either. "I already know."

Oh, she already knows.

She. ALREADY. KNOWS?!

Without further ado, the orange-haired ghoul attacks Yoriko's nape with coldly calculated pressure and flies away, making a green-haired girl who has been watching them from afar don a manic grin on her pretty face. "Hello, Sphinx-in-hiding."

''

She knows?

Panicked—but not willing to admit so—Hide puts the half-conscious Yoriko down on a dirty, rotten bench behind a creepy tall building. When the girl manages to adjust her eyes fully to the situation, her hearts beats faster like the right it has to do so. She never thought that today could be her last day being in her own body. "How?"

His too sensitive senses make it hurt to watch Yoriko's reaction, which is a wary, yet calm shrug. "I saw you and Kaneki-san fighting behind an old building. Touka-chan was also there, she pressed the wrong number and said too much unneeded words. Also… you are fast."

Oh, so she isn't as dumb as she looks, Hide thought sadly, watching closely Yoriko's choice of words and composure, as though to make sure she's not lying or thinking something funny that might get her body soulless tomorrow morning.

The cook-wannabe keeps her eyes set as stone, continuing after a deep inhale, doing the same as the ghoul, observing each other. "You pointed out that my best friend was flying in the air. It made no sense that I had to threaten Touka-chan to tell me everything. If Kaneki-san is a ghoul, it's natural to think his circle might have a common ground."

It takes everything Hide has not to call her nature freak. Just because. Don't blame him for thinking randomly, he might need to do unnecessary violence soon.

"I'm a university student, too, you know." She admits with lifted chin, defying the serious situation she has created just now. Interesting, this one prey.

"Are you… not afraid of me?" Hide asks, not daring to directly see her eyes. He won't even think about it, but he's afraid of a single flag of rejection from her. Maybe because he will certainly have to delete Kosaka Yoriko—his first plaything—from history then, he's not all grinning to do that.

"I am."

Heh. Of course. It's like asking if one plus one is two. She'd be crazy if she has answered 'no'. He won't admit that he expected her to have even the littlest of hesitance in answering. His kagu-heart is hurt.

"Don't go," Yoriko grabs his jacket. Her pull is weak, laughable even, but it's enough to stop the A-rate ghoul Nagachika Hideyoshi. "Just because I'm afraid of you, doesn't mean I don't want to be near you."

A black cat suddenly rubs its face on the orange-haired girl's leg, as if insulting Hide's cowardice. He sneers at it, and it hisses back.

Little bitch.

"I can break your neck within a second, Kosaka. Are you sure you want to stay friends with me, a ghoul?" Funny, the word tickles. Friends…

"It's okay. If you had wanted to kill me, you would have done it anyway. I'm sure I want to stay friends with a nice person like you." Her smile perishes his building hate towards the ugly cat. It also makes his kagu-heart warm. It's so cheesy he wants to vomit. But…

Person, huh?

The ghoul ironically puffs after trying to act that he hasn't been silent for a while there. "Hmph, I remember how you said you don't like me the first time we met at Anteiku."

Yoriko blushes red. "W-We should go now. Touka-chan and Kaneki-san are waiting for us." She stutters, as though she didn't realize that it had been an hour or two after they left her house. Both leftover teenagers might as well cook rendang rather than waiting for them.

Hide doesn't speak any words, his face weirdly red, too. Instead, he crouches and caresses the cat, which the cat responds beautifully by scratching his hands as if it had gotten rabies. Silence. Both non-human creatures hiss at the same time, trying to tear each other's pride and life principle into pieces.

Yoriko acts like she doesn't realize there's a war going on in front of her. She probably doesn't realize that Hide is trying to tag the damn cat and send it to Heaven—actually, Hell sounds better for this shameful being that is a cat—later, until she finally looks down and see the ultimate secret of life.

"Oh, a cat!"

Hide is not impressed. "What, you gonna take it home or something?"

The girl turns her head towards him at breakneck speed. "Nice idea! I'm naming him…"

''

Eto has decided to follow the awkward couple down this abandoned place. Tokyo has too many abandoned buildings, that might be why ghouls roam happily like bacteria despite the fact that CCG's headquarters is here, though Eto doesn't really mind about it. The green-haired ghoul stays low behind a tree, with absolute stillness that can only be gained from experience. Seeing how the two orange-heads exchange words and shy side-glances, Eto assume that there will be no free limbs tonight. She pouts. Ah, those idiots are the true epitome of idiocy.

Don't get her wrong, man. It's not like she hates romance and its shit, it's just… Right now… Too many abnormalities happen. And it can lead to the fall of one opposing races. As an acknowledged holder of truth—a status that she had acclaimed herself to—she has to keep the equilibrium safe.

Eto sighs heavily. "Which fool should I delete first?"

''

In-Universe Current Stats:

Kaneki (Centipede) is A-rate

Hide (Sphinx) is A-rate

Nishiki (Serpent) is an A-rate

Eto (One-Eyed Owl) is S-rate

[Updated four months ago on CCG's official website]

''

A/N: A year absence from this fandom… I'm sorry. And as you've noticed, or not, whatever, my writing style is a bit different now. I'm sorry if you think it's a regress, as in I'm trying to get the groove.

Rendang: a traditional food from Sumatra, Indonesia. It takes hours to make.

Thank you for the very, very kind reviewers! Physeter, jy24, Lena-luvs-cats, Lone-lee (Guest), codename00guest, DreamedSilverWings, , Nightspirit152, Rachel L. Inoue, Guest, Vi-Violence, Kaze Tsubaki, lofoti. You made this chapter happen, I wouldn't go on without you guys.

Really.

So… any thought?

08/26/2017 ~NollyLvn