A/N: Yah, I removed a few names whom I think aren't active readers anymore in the SYOC list. Not that it'll affect the storyline anyway, just lessen the amount of characters I have to scrutinize with (can't sleep at night figuring out how to portray your characters, no lie, but fun). Anyhow, there's two more new OCs that'll appear in the next arc.

and

FORGIVE ME FOR SHAMELESSLY ADVERTISING MY NEW TG FIC. It's called "Ideal White", which is in my profile (yeah i like titles with ideal + color in it), if you love Kaneki fics and feels with little bit of fluff, I suggest you check it out and tell me what you think :)

Enjoy!

- Con Artist Arc -

Chapter 4: The Invisible Monsters (Part 2)

Ugh. Too bright.

The sun gently towered along the softly dispersed white clouds on the horizon of tangerine and cerulean skies.

It was a beginning of a new day.

Then the smell of summer grass and wet earth, I inhaled its soothing scent as I walked by the empty park with the sleepy teenagers with me. Their eyes were barely open and they walked funny but as for me, I got used to late-night strolls.

We were given routes and instructions to pass down the sewers as the safest shortcut back to Anteiku beforehand, of course, given and drawn by the gallant Rikio of Shibuya and his geisha friend, Natsuno Moe. They were very kind to their guests whom they wished to recruit to their group, but Touka's only and last words to their offer was: "We belong in Anteiku."

I was hopeful that she'd be careful whenever she termed the word 'we' as she'd refer to me with Anteiku.

Maybe Touka was just too soft.

Kaneki, on the other hand, made sure the manager would know of their fallen group. It somehow lifted their spirits knowing Yoshimura-san could be of help with their unfortunate situations because for all we know, either one of them could have their head on spikes any day. Rikio swore his revenge on that, I had never since malice as great as his, yet he stood strong and caring for his comrades.

"We still going to school?" Kirihara asked Touka.

"Obviously," Touka said, her eyes hooded and her mood cranky already.

I yawned and stretched out my arms high in the air, I wondered if the manager would lecture us for coming home at this time of hour. He'd surely be worried and understand but I hope we didn't cause him so much trouble for our disappearance last night.

One more street to go and our adventure would be over. The city was already buzzing from traffic and rushed workers on an early morning. That was how hectic Tokyo was during the day.

"Touka-chan! Watch out!" Kaneki yelled to her, him and Kirihara held both of her arms in place before she could cross the swarm of hasty vehicles at a blue light of the road.

She was bewildered in her own thoughts but the loud honks of cars snapped her back to reality.

What bothered her was something I could guess. Last night's ugly event must had been the cause. No matter how firm and cold she built her walls of indifference were, she couldn't mask away the pity and anguish soaring within her.

But she was strong, she had to be.

Sweat ran down my exposed limbs. The weather was dry enough to had anyone suffer from heat exhaustion. And some things just often didn't seem fit to my expectations. Like today, I was hoping for another ordinary boring day, but instead, I received text messages from both Takeshi and old man Mado at the same time, it looked like something was up in and outside the 20th ward.

According to Takeshi, I had told me to meet him at some park, alone and I did went to see him out of curiosity.

On the other hand, Mado-san demanded my arrival at the CCG HQ by in two days.

At this time, I never thought that a boring day meant 'peaceful', and now those days had ended.

The park was filled with noisy kids and some angry parents being worry-warts, and there sitting on a swing was Takeshi, his eyes that spotted me right off the bat never left mine as soon as I sat with him. I rocked my seat on the swing to and fro as I waited for him to reveal his thoughts. It was exhausting to guess.

Then moments after, his lips finally began to move some words and his free hand kept my ride steady.

His dull gray orbs eyed me firmly, "Yoshimura knows."

My brows scrunched up together and my grip on the swing chains grew tight and glistened of cold sweat suddenly, "Knows what?"

"Who you actually work for."

Kids laughed and played in front of us, their smiles beamed as they ran on each other. They played hide and seek or just a simple games of tag, these little ones were far too carefree, which was normal considering they were children.

They see the good and feel happy about it but when shown of the bad, they cry and agonize over it.

Children could only focus on one piece at a time, they couldn't look at both glass shards of white and black then feel or think one thing, instead they'd get confused rather than bundling it together to see what color it produced. They were lucky to be ignorant of how grey was reality.

... Grey. A color that lit up my way for years and years whenever I embarked on the paths of ambiguity.

No one could really know or predict what our decisions lead, a theory or doubt may create a difference but not the revelation of truth behind the mystical red curtains. Life mysteries at its best, I'd say.

And I tried to solve these life mysteries once or twice but delving deeper into its tangled webs made everything out of reach much more, just like this mysterious man next to me. He probably thought that no one would be interested enough to tail our conversation at a children's park, but now his statement rendered me confused. It made me think from the very start of my day at the 20th ward because I shouldn't be allowed to live idly by with both ghouls and humans. I had to pick, didn't I?

I swallowed down my fears and answered, "And you knew from the start."

"Whoever you are wasn't my concern, but you're becoming a bigger threat than you used to, well that old man and weird kid you work with to be exact."

... I'm sorry.

It was a chain of events, the old goat probably made a move inside the ward then Takeshi pointed his finger at me the obvious suspect. So in clear conclusion, I'd move as well.

My instincts screamed to twist and stretch the truth into lies, "I just was scared. Scared of what they will do to me." I lowered my eyes. This was a habit, a bad habit of mine that saved and endangered me at the same time. Faking and lying was all I did 24/7.

His gaze hardened as did his words, "How long do you plan to keep up with the damsel in distress act?"

I sighed after he didn't bite the bullet instantly. I shot back at him, "And how long did you plan to keep the good connections with a traitor? I recall, you always made casual small talk with me whenever you get the chance, you shared good movies with me when I was injured, though when you got drunk, you almost vomited on me–"

"Hey –"

"All right. You got me. I'm a cutthroat. What are you? You who knew all along and yet you let it all happen. What you did is no different from not testifying against the criminal who killed your friends, right?

He rose from he sat and pulled me to my feet, his hands clutching on my collar, I heard the material slightly ripping, then I was under his feral glare.
"Saika, you don't have to manipulate everything in this conversation. It's decided," he said, but decided by whom?
"You got three days to leave this ward. Touka and the others don't know of it yet but you could always lie your way out. That's all your good at, right?"

Some kids stopped their games and watched as with fright in their eyes and some parents grabbed their children away from our growing commotion, "Takeshi, you're not as safe as you think you are."

He shot me a grin before letting me go, "I'll take my chances, Dog."

I cleared my throat and fixed the collar of my shirt. I reacted at the nickname with a sour frown but I dropped the expression with a sad smile, "Come on, we shouldn't be like this. It might be our last time seeing each other."

It was a shame that the bonds that I formed with the ghouls in this ward had to be severed this way. Part of me wanted to stay and live normally with them but circumstances made it all unlikely.

He corrected, "The last as friends."

"We were friends?" I asked, my dark locks of hair danced with the harsh breeze. The clouds began to dim and rumble for an incoming rainfall, the kids stepped out of the park and ran all the way home with their parents catching up to them. It wasn't very long that small then heavy droplets of water had weep from the skies and smothered us with its cold tears, but the two of us remained. Our eyes locked intensely in an unbreakable gaze for a moment, searching for more answers behind the words we threw at each other.

Takeshi held out his hand. He insisted I should take it, "Ever since the day I decided to not kill you."

Watching him say that with an offer of a regular handshake made my heart all fuzzy and warm, but the pleasant feeling didn't last very long as my hand made contact with his. I shook his hand slowly, careful enough to not squeeze his palm too hard out of self-hatred and regret. I knew this was a hard decision but I was never given a choice the moment humans tormented me into submitting myself to them.

But I never knew what really pushed me into loving Anteiku and how I even tried to protect it knowing that me leaving and betraying everyone there was bound to happen. Whatever that was, it was no doubt the source of my wavering feelings.

I softly chuckled under the raging skies, our bodies getting drenched by the downpours, "Not your best decision. Really."

The next time we'd meet would probably be an unpleasant encounter.

Night came without me realizing it. I was busy packing my belongings in boxes and bags because the sooner I leave, the sooner I might lose the strange hunch that someone's watching me everywhere I went. I wasn't sure if I had gone paranoid all the way but it wasn't normal either if I glared at every movement done by inanimate objects in my room.

I drew myself towards the glass paned window to my room, the azure moonlight kissed my skin and illuminated my form. I reluctantly swung the window open in hopes that the bright full moon I gazed at weren't illusions, and the breeze blew in haste, these gusts freely roamed lands of the earth.

The wind had more freedom than I ever did.

It was so quiet that I could hear my heartbeat, my breathing, and even the slightest movements of my hair as it swayed along with the cold gales.

"Are you missing your usual prison food? And by 'prison food' I meant actual prisoners."

Then the ground began to shake as a mysterious yet mischievous voice made its way into my line of thoughts.

My vision rattled and I fell on my knees instantly at the sudden force.

A horrible sense of dread was sitting at the pit of my stomach, refusing to leave as my eyes stared into the darkness. It stared right back at me, pulling me towards it. Red eyes. Yellow eyes. Green eyes. It all watched me in amusement.

I heard objects fall on the ground and some shattered into pieces. My chest heaved and dropped at an astounding rate. I screamed in hopes that the terrors would go away.

A sinister laughter echoed in my mind like that was where it originated, it pierced every portion of my brain.

"Stop it..." I mumbled, covering my ears.

"Saika-chan?!" I recoiled when I heard a familiar voice getting near to me.

The lights went on and it burned my eyes for a few seconds then I blinked it away to see everything in its place. No fallen objects nor shattered glass. Everything looked perfectly as it was; normal. Except I wasn't the normal one. I was gradually falling into my vortex of insanity.

Okay, calm down. Your mind's just playing tricks like it used to.

The light revealed who was in front of me was. It was Kaneki, he helped me up to my bed and then sprinted to get a glass of water to calm myself. How nice of him.

As soon as my breathing calmed I asked him that what on earth was he doing up at this hour but he threw the question back at me and laughed awkwardly. Then he finally told me that he couldn't sleep for he 'is starving but doesn't have the appetite to eat anything'.

What was more unusual than what he had said was to see him on this floor. This room I was in was at the third floor of the cafe, I was the only occupant here since the whole floor was supposedly for the use of storage supplies and tools.

I had told him to sit next to me and had him elaborate his words, "Anteiku isn't lacking food supplies," I said softly.

"I guess so, but what about you? Why were you screaming? And..." he looked around my room with a frown, "Why's there boxes here?"

I couldn't answer him about the screaming but I simply explained the boxes, "I'm moving for college. To Kyoto in two days. It's far but I'll manage," I lied as usual, adding more details to it tend to make it more realistic. Trust me, I'm a source.

And what more could I tell him anyway. That I was suddenly going insane again? That there was an earthquake but I think I was the only who felt it?

Everything was too intangible for me to comprehend.

But then he pressed his question even more, "Really? What about the screaming? Are you sure you'll be fine?"

"Let's just leave it as that. It's not a big problem and it's getting late, you should head back to your room or grab a snack before you do," I said, averting away from the subject but he seemed to have grown uneasy at what I had said, "You still can't decide to eat humans."

Though I was successful in my diversion, I felt the need to help the guy. He needed a pat on the back to better himself.

"I am human, but my body... is betraying me..."

"... You're a ghoul now. Eat if you want to live. There's no antidote or drug that can revert you back, you just have to live like a ghoul, okay?" He didn't respond, from the guilt that drowned in his eyes, he was also confused on which side he was on and that was understandable. The only way for him to understand the importance of eating human flesh was indeed to starve himself, "If you're human then I'll devour you right now," I jested.

Kaneki twitched from his seat and I couldn't help but laugh at his reaction, "That wasn't funny," he said, trying to sound angry but failed.

He then just stood up and bid a goodnight. He deserved a good night sleep and a nice chunk of meat.

From there, I hopped out the window and down the dark alley of the cafe. The night was deep and I didn't want anyone knowing I took a night stroll around the city once more.

I kicked a small rock at each step, I could see the city lights in different bright hues from afar and I walked towards it, but then... a strong and heavy weight pounded me to the ground from behind. I forced to twist my neck to see the assailant was a man, I only caught a glimpse of his flashing and fierce red eyes.
He had worn a white hoodie and an ivory theater mask that had a prominent frown carved frown on its features.

This must be one of the consequences waiting on a silver platter. I hope. I can smell my blood on it. Literally.

I kept this one shorter than most chapters, I'm training myself not to create long-ass chapters. Well then, see you in the last chapter of this arc~

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