Chương 7: Chapter 10: A relaxing night and a dark promise
It was a bright, sunny morning when Kuro found her brother sleeping in again. She sighed. Granted it was great that he could finally sleep soundly. But the fact he always overslept now was quickly becoming a problem of its own. Kuro tried to nudge him awake. "Come on big bro, we're gonna be late." Ken grimaced and rolled away from her. Kuro, giving up on being nice, decided to use force. She jumped up and body slammed her sleeping brother. Her elbow causing something in her brother's chest to go crunch. Ken shot up in pain; coughing up a bit of blood. He shot a glare at his sister who just calmly stated, "Morning." Ken immediately tackled her and started to noogie her. "What the hell do you think you're doing? That hurt." Kuro struggled as she replied, "Shut up. It's your fault for not waking up." They wrestled for a few minutes till they heard someone clear their throat. Shiro was now in the doorway to Ken's room. Her brother still holding her sister in a headlock as she froze in the middle of biting his arm. "Don't be too hard on her big brother," Shiro explained. "Kuro's just excited that you took the whole day off and can't wait to spend the whole day with you." Kuro lowered her head in embarrassment. "You don't have to say it like that," she whispered. Ken let her go and lovingly rubbed her head. "Alright, I get it. Let's get dressed and we can figure out what to do while getting a cup of coffee at Anteiku. Okay?"
Both of the twins agreed and within an hour they were seated at a table in the café. Ken was wearing a pair of comfortable slacks and a polo with a light windbreaker jacket on for warmth. Kuro had decided to wear a tomboyish outfit while Shiro went for a more feminine but still practical outfit. Ken took a sip of his coffee. The warm drink waking him up for the day of simple relaxation with his sisters. "So what do you want to do Shiro?" he asked. Kuro puffed out her cheeks. "Hey how come she gets to choose?" Shiro smirked before answering, "Because today is also a get well gift for me too. I did get hurt pretty badly during that fight with Nishio and when Big brother went nuts." "No far I got hurt too. My hand got cut when some honestly creepy guy broke a cup." Not wanting this to turn into some sort of fight Ken relented to Kuro. "Fine Kuro, we have the whole day so we can also go somewhere you want to go." He smiled at the squee of delight from the younger girl. "Well I just want to go to the bookstore," Shiro proclaimed. "I'm still feeling a bit emotionally tired from everything so a nice relaxing trip to the bookstore would be nice. And besides some of the series I read have come out with new books recently." While not as avid of a reader as her older brother Shiro came pretty close. Though she preferred happier series compared to her brother. She especially loved epic fantasies and romantic series. Kuro, on the other hand, didn't read anything more complicated than a light novel or manga. Ken nodded. "Okay then. And you Kuro?"
Before the second girl could answer though another voice called out from the entrance. "Kaneki-san? Oh thank goodness we found you here. I was afraid we had missed you when you weren't at your apartment this morning," Yoriko came over to their table with Touka behind her. Ken did not like that smile that Touka had behind Yoriko. Or the fact that the human girl was holding something in her arms. He tried to put on a disarming smile. "Sorry, I promised my sisters that I'd take them out for a family day. Was there something you need?" Yoriko smiled as she placed the box on the table and opened up to a rather well made cake. All three siblings tried their hardest not to show the horror they felt on their face at this toxin being placed in front of them. "It's a cinnamon bunt cake. I made it for you. Touka told me how you've been unwell for the past month or so and well I thought eating some nice might help in getting better. I'd also really like it if you could give me your thoughts on it." The last line she said as she blushed a little. Ken nodded, "Ah, thank you Yoriko, but you really didn't have to. I've gotten over what was bugging me recently. But still the thought is appreciated." "Oh come on Bakaneki. Don't trample on a young girl's feelings. Just eat it all right here." Ok now Ken was certain that Touka wanted him dead for something. Thankfully, Kuro came to the rescue. "Uh, Yoriko we already had breakfast and were still full from that. Would you mind if big bro saves it for later. I promise we'll give you all sorts of praises for your great cooking at school tomorrow. But for now, how about you come with us. I wanted to go to the arcades nearby. It'll be fun as you get to watch my brother totally fail at video games." Ken snorted. "I'm not that bad at them." Shiro smirked and accused, "Says the guy who almost set our old apartment on fire playing a gamecube." "I still hold to the argument of faulty wiring with that." The lone human started to giggle. "Un," she answered, "We'd love to go. I don't really get to hang out with you two outside of school and your big brother does seem like a fun guy." Shortly afterwards, as the Kaneki's were finishing their coffees and Yoshimura had kindly put the cake in the back for Ken to take home later, Yoriko excused herself to go to the restroom. After she had left Ken asked, "Oh Touka, did I do something to upset you?" She turned back to him with that same frightening smile, "Well Ken, let's just say this is a thank you for being so kind as to give your excitable blonde haired friend my phone number. He's already sent me enough texts to make me seriously contemplate killing him. But it'll just be easier to get a new phone or number if push comes to shove. But just so you know," She slammed her hands on the table, causing those present to jump, "if you don't finish that whole cake by tomorrow, I will personal come to your house and shove it all down your snarky little throat. Understand?" Ken and his sisters quietly nodded. "Good," Touka said. And they all left when Yoriko returned.
They arrived at one of the nearby arcades. It wasn't too big. It only was only two floors big. On the first floor were many different claw machines filled with different prizes as well a few games like one that used children's cards and another that had was a rhythm game that one played like a drum. There were escalators that lead up to the second floor that had fighting games, music games, dance games, gun games, and other such games. It even had some games that seemed sort of like gambling machines. The girls immediately moved to the claw machines first. They played them for a few turns each but didn't win much. Yoriko won a small plush toy. Touka also won a bunny rabbit toy. They also somehow ended up winning a bucket full of instant ramen which was immediately given to Yoriko. After that they played a game where one played by beating on a drum in time with the music. The group decided to play this in a tournament which surprisingly Ken one. Though his smug attitude at his win got him kicked in the shin by Touka.
After that they went up to the second floor. There Ken would face one of his greatest defeats in his entire life. One that would always be remembered with embarrassment by the male half-ghoul. It was Ken vs. Yoriko in the arcade version of a BlazeBlue game. Ken lost in 30 seconds. Touka could barely contain her laughter as the game congratulated Yoriko on her perfect KO. "Wow big bro you suck," Kuro stated. Ken pouted, "I do not suck. I'm just out of practice." Shiro raised an eyebrow before asking, "Hey Yoriko, have you ever played this game before?" "No," was the reply. At this point all three of the other girls could no longer help it and began to openly laugh at Ken. And the attempts by Yoriko to cheer up the loser only made Ken feel even more depressed.
After that, they tried some other games. Ken enjoyed a game where one had to touch the screen at the right point and time during a song to earn points while the twins proved to be quite adapt at a DDR game; even growing a small crowd of spectators around them. The other two girls went to one of the shooter games that had the player shooting zombies and other monsters. And while Yoriko was defeated pretty quickly, Touka made was able to score onto the top ten score board before, as she claimed, a "Cheap ass boss character" defeated her. The last game they played was a wake a mole game that ended after Kuro had somehow lodged the hammer in one of the holes without breaking anything and the group decided to silently sneak out rather than try to explain what happened to the manager of the arcade.
Next was Shiro's request. The group eventually headed to a large bookstore close by. Once there, Ken promised Shiro that he'd buy her a couple books. Soon each member of the group was in their element. Yoriko, with a dragged along Touka, was looking at some cooking magazines and recipe books. Ken was searching to see if any new Sen Takatsuki novels had come out while picking out a few good mystery novels as well. Shiro had already grabbed five books she had been planning on getting. While Kuro, slightly bored, had found the manga section was already flipping through this and that; including one dark shounen that she found slightly hilarious that was based around some samurai fighting ghouls in the Meiji Era.
Apparently there was more than just books going on here as in the coffee shop annex of the shop a panel of sorts was started. A group of book experts, though none of the group knew what that really meant, sat at a table in the back of the annex and begin to discuss several new books and even recommend some good titles. As this winded down Ken received a text from Hide asking where he was at. He sent one back to inform him of their location before going off to buy his and Shiro's books. He wasn't too surprised when the human was already waiting outside for them when they left the store. In fact he was pretty certain that Hide had already known and was just using the text as an excuse as to why he met them there.
"Ken! It's great to see you looking better. Seriously you can't believe how worried I was. I was afraid you might stab someone," Hide chided his friend. Ken laughed nervously. 'Technically I really did stab someone' He thought. "Come on Hide do you really think I'm capable of that?" "You know what they say about bewaring the quiet ones and you're the quietest guy I know." Ken sighed. "You know that just not talking all the time is not the same as being quiet." Hide cleared his throat and said, "As much as I'd like to continue our witty banter, I have come here for something important. I wanted to thank you and Touka. You guys found us after we got in that accident right? And even patched us up at Anteiku afterwards. Though Nishio did end up having to be hospitalized. But still I feel like I owe you. Therefore, let me buy you dinner. Come on I know of this great place I know you'll like."
While cursing fate in his mind, Ken forced his mouth into a thin smile. "Don't worry Hide, we did it because it was the right thing to do. There's really no need to pay us back." Touka nodded just a bit too enthusiastically behind him. "No, I really feel like I owe you. Who knows what would have happened to me, Shiro, and Nishio if you guys hadn't been there. Please. I promise you'll enjoy it. You guys could come too." The last sentence directed at the three other girls. Yoriko was thankful and sadly willing to go, locking Touka in having to go. Ken gave in too, realizing that Hide would eventually wear him down so best to just get it over with.
The two twins gave each other worried glances before trying to walk off with Shiro complaining, "Unfortunately we have some homework we forgot to finish for tomorrow so we'll just head on home." But they barely got a step away before two powerful hands grabbed, painfully onto their shoulders. "Oh come on guys, homework can wait. Why don't you let yourselves get treated? Just this once," Ken said. Touka with a similar tone to her voice added, "Besides it's not like our homework is that hard. I'm sure you could finish it later. So come on, let's all go out to eat." The subtext was not missed by the twins. We won't let you escape. If we have to suffer through this then so do you.' So two happy humans and four dread filled ghouls marched towards the restaurant that Hide had chosen.
Ken's first reaction to seeing the name of the restaurant was simply, 'What kind of stupid name is Big Girl anyway?' His second thought was that smell was already making him slightly nauseous. Looking to the other three victims, showed him that he was not alone in that aspect; even if they all hid it well. "Great isn't it. This is one of my favorite places to eat around here. The American burgers here are great." Touka snarkly added, "You sure it's just the burgers that you enjoy?" when she saw one of the waitresses walk by. "That's just part of the ambience," Hide replied only to get a kick to the shin by Kuro. Ken grinned and added, "Way ago Hide. You just successfully ticked off at least three girls with one stupid line. What are going to do now?" "I'm gonna go to Disney Land." Hides stupid come back cleared the air as they sat down at their table. They all ordered, with the Kanekis and Touka getting as small and simple meal as possible. Meanwhile Yoriko got hers with a few condiments on it that made Shiro and Kuro squirm as she listed them off to their server and Hide, to Ken's amazement, got a fried egg put on top of his. The food soon arrived. The two humans immediately began to eat.
The ghouls all looked at each other giving unstated good lucks to each other and agreeing that they only needed to eat a few bites to look like they had eaten some. As Ken cut off his first piece and slowly brought it to his mouth, the TV put up in the corner of the room was changed to a channel with just so happened to be running a special on ghouls. "We have receive breaking news from the CCG today. According to their official release, they have now received evidence that the ghoul known as eyepatch, currently in the twentieth ward, is what they have designated as a kakuja. As such a meeting will be held within a month to discuss increasing the threat level of Eyepatch. They encourage all within the area to take caution as this ghoul is extremely dangerous."
At once all four ghouls' heads shot back up and they amazingly had a conversation with just stares.
Touka: 'KEN!'
Ken: 'Hey it's not my fault. I was just trying to save Shiro'
Shiro: 'Don't try to put all the blame on me. Cute and little Shiro is completely innocent'
Kuro: 'Kuro wasn't even there so don't look at me.'
Touka: 'Fuck it. I say let's just blame Nishio. Everyone good with that?'
'Sure' x 3
Still the damage was done. With the talk show now cutting to that blowhard Dr. Ogura, the whole restaurant had suddenly become interested in the topic. The four decided that they had to finish everything on their plate, no matter how disgusting, or face the chance of getting found out.
"So Dr. Ogura could you tell us. Are these, kakujas as the CCG called them, really that dangerous?" Ken rolled his eyes at the smug face the doctor made. "Kakujas are quite the interesting subspecies of ghoul. You see while most ghouls will be fine with just eating humans, kakujas are ghouls who have decided to feed off their own kind." Some girl on the show gasped. "You mean they really cannibalize other ghouls?" she asked. "Yes, you see when some ghouls engage in cannibalism, they can actually become stronger; sometimes many times over. But this doesn't come without a price. Usually such ghouls begin to become warped in the head. Or should I say more warped in the head?" Ken had to put a hand on Kuro's leg to calm her down after that last joke made her growl a bit in irritation.
Ken noticed that Hide was actually watching the show pretty intently. He forced down another piece of beef before asking his friend, "You interested in ghouls Hide? You've been glued to the TV since they put it on this," 'drivel,' he mentally added the last friend looked back at him and grinned. "Yeah I am. Ghouls are interesting you know. Another sentient species yet due to their very biology, they find it impossible to live peacefully with humans. I've been reading about them recently and the more I learn the more I want to know. Sometimes I wonder what it'd be like to talk to one. About how it feels to need to kill to live. Or what it's like having to hide yourself just to survive. Hehe, you may laugh but sometimes I wonder, if I ever met one, could I get him to let me just touch his kagune; just to see how it feels. Are they like a muscle or scaly or slimy. You understand?" Before the other two could notice how uncomfortable the ghouls at the table were now feeling, Ken forced out a laugh. Being a ghoul though, his well-honed acting skills caused it to sound realistic. He placed a hand on Hide shoulder and told him, "Give up. Even a small weak ghoul would probably eat you in one bite." This led to the two crossing barbs back and forth again for a few minutes. Even leading to Ken and Hide drawing what they thought a ghoul would look like. Ken was not amused when Hide's looked like him. However the table was shocked next by the lone human female of the group. "I always felt sorry for them. It just seems sad to me; not being able to enjoy all the delicious foods out there like cake or nikujaga or coffee. Only able to eat other people. I don't know if I could live like that." Thankfully Touka was able to bring the conversation away from ghouls by mentioning the upcoming Japanese literature exam for the four girls. Ken was able to even score several burns on Touka in a small act of revenge for her involvement in the cake that Ken now found himself the owner of. The group broke apart after this. The twins and the humans going home, while Ken helped Touka to Anteiku; including holding her hair back during the three times she had to throw up in the bushes on the way there.
Ken now found himself and Touka alone sitting at the counter in Anteiku. He had decided to wait till Touka got over the earlier gastric adventure before leaving her alone. Granted he too had had to throw up twice on the way over but his half human side was helping him hold up better than the full ghoul he was with. He made them a couple cups of coffee and got some stomach medication to try to help end their suffering faster. "So interesting day. Wasn't it?" Ken started. Touka took another sip before replying, "It was. Though I could have done without that last part." Ken smiled. "He didn't mean it that way." "I know. That and the fact that he's your friend are the only things keeping me from ripping his head off though."
She looked off into the distance of the café wall for a minute before continuing. "Ken, what do you think about what they said?" "About what they thought about ghouls?" he clarified. Touka nodded. The half-ghoul took a deep breath before answering. "Honestly I don't know. I mean what they said was hopeful but I've known humans who would say one thing but do the opposite when the time came. I mean they only said all that because they still see ghouls as this abstract thing over there. Not as their best friend trying their best not to choke on the disgusting food they are eating to look normal."
The silence came again till this time Ken asked, "And what if they did find out. What would you do?" Touka's grip on her cup tightened. "I… I don't …. Know. I mean I know the right answer if Yoriko found out would be to kill her. But I don't know if I could do it. Anyone else, in a heartbeat. But not her." Ken nodded. "It's the same with me and Hide. I think I'd rather run away again then kill him. But then I'd just be making my sisters suffer for my selfish reasons. They've already suffered too much due to me already. I can't let them suffer more due to me but still." Ken chugged his cup. He then held his hand out. "How about a deal?" Touka quirked an eyebrow. "What kind of deal?" she asked. Ken gave her a disarming smile. "An agreement that we will watch each other's backs. If one of our human friends finds out the truth and we or the other feel that they will report us, then we won't hold it against the other to do what is necessary." Touka, after a moment of hesitation, shook Ken's hand. "But only when necessary," she warned. Ken smiled sadly, "But of course."
Omake
A letter to Santa, from young Ken Sasaki
Dear Santa,
How have you been? I have been doing well. I've done all my chores and haven't broken any rules. So as a good boy I only have three wishes for Christmas.
First, I would like some new books. Daddy's library is nice but I've already read the half of it that I can read and I would also love to have some more books of my own. Anything is fine as long as they are good.
Second a nice dinner for mommy. She does so much and deserves to eat what she likes. Even if what she likes is gross.
And last, and most importantly, I want better video game skills. I really really need them to make that jerk, Shirou pay. PAY!
Thank you for all that you've do,
Ken.
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