This fic is written based on Touken Week which had its own prompts, and they were based on different version/personality of Kaneki. Each chapter will have different Kaneki based on this order: Kuroneki - Shironeki - No. 240 - Haise - Reaperneki - Kingneki.

If you have read this on Tumblr, thank you so much! *hugs* What I meant by revised version is that there will be some additional parts, some editing, and probably more angst lol. The plot still remains the same, but I might make the ending much happier since some of the readers couldn't take the original ending very well :3

Soulmates are tied by red strings. The string would only appear once your soulmate is nearby- within your town area. Once it appears, it will never disappear even if that person went far away. Only you could see it, no one else could- except for your soulmate, of course. However, even if you could see it, it tangles, and leads to an invisible path, you would only be able to see the end of the string once your soulmate is right there, in front of you.

Kirishima Touka had just returned to the counter after serving a cup of Americano to a customer when her first red string appeared, twirling around her pinky finger and tying itself into a cute ribbon before her eyes. It was thin, but strong yet stretchable. She was able to touch it, tug it, and even curl it, but she could not undo the knot that kept it tied to her finger. It stayed there securely like a dead knot.

To be honest, she didn't really care about it. She was only 17 years old- a high school student, she had no time at all to think about having a soulmate. Plus, with CCG doves roaming around and other ghouls constantly threatening Anteiku- soulmate matters should be the last thing on her mind. She used to think that she may have died first before even meeting her soulmate, due to the hard nature of ghouls' day-to-day survival.

Plus, what if her soulmate was a human? That would be troublesome. No human would ever date a ghoul- their predator. She wasn't planning to eat him, no, she wasn't that cruel. But what was the probability of having a ghoul as your soulmate? Close to none. There were only 10,000 ghouls in 127 million of Japan population. Yeah. Close to none.

She stared at her red string, hard.

This is troublesome…

Nishiki noticed her silence and the intense gaze that she held on her own pinky finger. He smirked.

"It finally appears huh? Took the cupid long enough."

"Shut up, shitty Nishiki. I'm not interested in it." She retorted, immediately went to wash the dirty cups in the sink. She was surprised to see the string didn't even get wet when in contact with water.

"Why? Look at Kimi and me, we're getting married next year." A grin of smugness displayed all over his face as he wiggled his fingers right in front of her face to show off his silver engagement ring and his red string, but of course she could not see the latter.

"Tch. I know you're excited but stop showing off you bastard!" She hit his arm causing him to yell in pain. "You're much older than me, it's normal for you to get married soon. I'm still in high school, you know?"

"Hey, chill out, it's not like you'll meet him soon anyways. It means that he's nearby, that's all."

"Which makes it even easier for us to encounter each other, now that we're nearby. Yours appeared when you entered Kamii, am I right?"

Nishiki's eyes lit up at her interest in his string.

"Yeah, on the first day, since that was the first time we were in the same area as each other."

She stopped washing the cups and turned around to properly interrogate him. She couldn't help but feel curious about how the red string worked.

"When did you finally meet her?"

"Well, Kamii is huge, but I met her in our second week of the semester. Not bad huh?" He grinned, remembering how he met her at the vending machine. He was planning to use her, then eventually eat her, but before he knew it- he fell hard, mainly because she accepted his ghoul side wholeheartedly.

"In two weeks..." She mumbled, but Nishiki caught it anyway.

"Yours might appear today, or tomorrow, or next year. No one knows." He shrugged his shoulders. "Maybe you can walk around 20th ward just to search for him."

She snorted.

"No thanks. If he asks me for a date, I'll just turn him down."

Hearing her blunt statement, his eyebrows furrowed in confusion and disbelief.

"Hey, don't just decide that on your own! What if it's his third string? He'll end up alone for the rest of his life."

She paused washing the cups, taking some time to process his words. It's true. Should I really sacrifice someone's love life because of my selfishness?

"But if he's a human… then I have to. Else, you know…" I'll kill him, then eat him afterwards.

He sighed heavily, his gaze landed on the ring and the red string around his fingers, a soft smile plastered on his face.

"I gave Kimi, a human, a chance. I think you should too."

Three weeks had passed, and Touka had somehow forgotten about the bright red string tied to her pinky finger.

Until one fine day, when she heard the chime of Anteiku's doorbell which made her greet 'Welcome~' as usual, she felt something tugged her lightly. Or, to be précised, something tugged her pinky finger.

Her string tensed and straightened out, forming a visible line towards the person who had just entered the café. In that moment, for the first time in three weeks, she could see the end of her string. It was no longer tangled or led to a transparent end. It was straight, and tied to another finger that belonged to someone whom she could see from her own two eyes.

Her heartbeat echoed loudly in her ears as she slowly looked up at the owner of the string on the other end, and once her eyes landed on his- she almost smacked her own forehead, disappointment painted across her face.

He wasn't what she expected.

He seemed weak, nerd, yet gentle and kind. Not that she liked bad boys, but she was expecting someone who looked at least a bit… stronger. Heck, he even had an eye patch on his left eye.

Is he trying to look cool? Well, too bad, he looks pretty stupid.

The guy, however, seemed surprised at the discovery of his string leading to her finger, but he bowed slightly and gave a polite smile to her anyway.

She waited for him to approach her, and probably- ask her out. She had always thought that she didn't have time for this trifling matter, but when she was finally able to see her soulmate, she couldn't help but feel a bit… thrilled.

Even though she was planning to turn him down afterwards.

Her arms crossed, her foot tapped restlessly against the floor as she was waiting for him to make the move. A deep scowl etched on her face as he did nothing of the sort. Instead, he headed to one of the empty tables, sat down on a chair, and skimmed through the catalog menu to decide which coffee he should pick.

The scowl on her face deepened.

Is he playing hard to get? Seriously?

"Oi." She approached him, as she got closer and closer, she realized that the string contracted- becoming shorter and shorter.

She waved her right hand in front of his face. His stupid face. He didn't look uneducated, in fact- he looked like a smart nerd, but the fact that he didn't even try to make a move on his own soulmate somehow pissed her off that she started to call his face stupid in her mind.

"You can see it, right? The string."

He stared at her hand for a moment, then at her scowling face.

"Ah, yes. I can see it."

He was a little too polite and it somewhat pissed her off even more.

"So?" She asked irritatingly as she crossed her arms.

"…So?"

"Aren't you going to… ask me out or something? My best friend's soulmate asked her out the moment they met each other." Her eyes landing everywhere but on him, too embarrassed at the fact that she had just asked him to ask her out.

"I see… That's what I did too." He murmured softly, but it caught her interest.

"Did? What do you mean?" She pulled out the chair in front of him and sat down, waiting for his explanation.

"This is my second string. My first one was with a… ghoul. She cut it herself though. Right before she was trying to eat me." Silence slipped between them- the atmosphere they had just now had changed significantly. His bangs covered his eyes so she could not see them, but judging by the way he told her, the incident was definitely something that he could not forget for the rest of his life.

"You survived?" She raised her eyebrow. "How? Are you making this up?" She had a hunch that he wasn't lying, but the question still came out of her mouth anyway.

He laughed nervously, rubbing the back of his neck. Her eyes narrowed as she studied his expression carefully, but she couldn't find any hint of lies. It doesn't seem like he's lying… but how did he survive? A dove helped him? He does have an interesting scent, but it's not a ghoul's.

Well, whatever. I will not date a human.

"Should we cut it?" She asked bluntly.

"Eh?"

"You're clearly traumatized by your first soulmate. And you're not even my type. I think we should cut it."

"No, don't." He grabbed her wrist out of panic. Her eyes followed his grip angrily, and he quickly let her wrist go. "I- I'm sorry. I just… I was scared."

"You should." Because I'm a ghoul too.

"Let's- let's give it a try. One date. If it's horrible, then we'll cut it. Okay?"

She thought for a while, staring hard at him, trying to imagine any future that they might have together.

"Nope. I don't think I will fall for you."

He was taken aback by her answer, and it showed evidently on his face.

"But, if- if it doesn't work out then I'm left with my last string…" He pleaded. They both knew what it meant. The final string would be the most risky because it may not be the same case for the soulmate. If the soulmate who still had two strings left cut the string off, then they would end up alone for the rest of their lives as their three strings were used up. There was no such thing as four strings.

Touka parted her lips to say something- but nothing seemed to come out. Despite feeling sorry for him, she couldn't afford to date a human. She needed to get rid of him from her life.

Fine, I'll treat you badly to make you cut the string yourself.

"Alright then, one date. But to be frank I prefer to stay single for the rest of my life rather than falling in love with you." Because we can't coexist.

She noticed the hurt in his grey eye as his gaze flickered to the red string that connected their fingers together.

"That's so mean… But thank you, for giving me a chance."

"Yeah, whatever. My shift is ending in half an hour. You wanna wait for me?"

"Sure." He gave her a warm smile, and she smiled back awkwardly, like a forced smile.

"I'm Kirishima Touka." She took out her right hand, the string contracted as she did so.

"Kaneki Ken."

The date was horrible.

At least- for Kaneki.

Touka was obviously not interested in him. So she kept on teasing him saying she's a ghoul and she'll eat him by the end of the date which scared the shit out of him. She wasn't intending to eat him- but he looked so cute when he was scared. She secretly had a lot of fun teasing him throughout the date, but it was intentional as she was hoping he would cut the string off by the end of the day.

Kaneki on the other hand was trying his best to get to know her, but she simply brushed him off, not feeling comfortable enough to share about her personal life with a stranger, albeit the stranger was none other than her own soulmate.

She stood outside a convenience store, waiting for him to buy some ice creams when suddenly two guys appeared out of nowhere and pulled her into an alleyway next to the building.

"What are you doing here all alone, little girl? Wanna play with us?" One of them was tall and fat, and the other one was slightly shorter yet well-built. They both seemed slightly tipsy.

"Shut up. Let me go." She weakly pulled her arm, couldn't risk using her ghoul strength when Kaneki might see her and worse, report her to the CCG. No, can't risk it.

Tracing her would be easy since they were connected by the red string, and to cut the string, both parties must present at the scene, a proof of agreement on both sides.

"Come on~ We just wanna play~" The slightly shorter guy pushed her against the wall, yanking her dark hair so that her face was facing him.

She was planning to spit on the guy's ugly face, but the voice of her soulmate stopped her from doing so.

"Let her go!" Kaneki appeared with a plastic bag in his hand containing their ice creams. He was glaring daggers at them, but they didn't seem fazed by it.

"Ohho~ your soulmate, eh? What a waste to have someone like him as a soulmate." He lowered his gaze while shaking his head, pretending to sympathize with her. "Why don't you just cut the string? You deserve someone way better than this nugget." They started to laugh loudly which sounded very much irritating to her ears.

"S-shut up!" Kaneki made a move to punch the rude guy who was holding Touka, but the taller guy started to hit him from behind.

He lay helplessly on the hard ground while they kicked him mercilessly.

Touka just stood there, she was in a dilemma- whether to reveal her strength, or just acted as a weak girl. Kaneki's body looked so frail, and those guys were beating him using their full strength.

However, before she could even decide, kagune emerged from his back- knocking down the two guys instantly.

He had a horrified look on his face as he stood up, perhaps he was expecting her to scream or cry for help, or maybe run then call the police to report him to the CCG.

But she just stood there, her violet eyes widened- surprised at what had just occurred right in front of her eyes.

"You're a ghoul too?"

Kaneki started to work at Anteiku, learning more about the world of ghouls with Touka and the rest of the café members.

They weren't dating. But she did not dislike him anymore.

They grew closer and closer each day, with her teaching him how to brew coffee, and him trying his best to meet her expectations. She gave him a lot of trouble on purpose sometimes, but he never held a grudge against her. Not even once.

When he said he would be sad if she died, after she was badly injured as a result of her own brashness, she couldn't stop the warm feelings building up inside her.

She stopped bullying him, and they got even closer after he asked her to teach him how to fight. Eventually, feelings developed between them.

One day, he gathered up his courage to ask her out on a date, for real. She said yes, and he seemed so excited, continuing his work while grinning stupidly all the time.

Four months ago, she stated that she wouldn't fall for him- that she'd prefer to stay single for the rest of her life rather than falling in love with him. Fate, on the other hand, proved her wrong; his delicate side made her wanted to protect him, his nerdiness helped her with her difficult school exams, his caring side made her happy, and his kindness melted her icy heart, allowing him into her life.

She had fallen for him, slowly but surely.

A smile blooming on her face as she stared at the red string on her pinky finger which led to her soulmate. Maybe this is a good beginning, she thought.

However, fate seemed to be cruel to her, mocking her own words back then, giving her a taste of karma.

Their relationship ended before it even started.

The date never happened.

He was kidnapped by Aogiri.