Kaneki shot up on the couch, covered in sweat. He tasted blood in his mouth.
He ran a finger along his gumline and when he took it out, it was covered in red.
"Touka-chan brought you here."
Kaneki jumped and turned to the Manager who stood in the doorway holding the door open, letting in a stream of light.
"Where's Hide?," Kaneki asked, alarmed at the memory of his hunger.
He was terrified of himself and the possibility that he had carried on with eating him.
"Come with me," the Manager told Kaneki.
Kaneki obeyed and the Manager led him to a room. He opened the door revealing Hide, asleep with bandages covering several parts of his body.
Relief filled Kaneki. Hide was okay! He started into the room but a damp object touched Kaneki's stomach.
He looked down and realized that there was a huge bloodstain on his white buttoned shirt.
It could have been wine except Kaneki did not drink alcohol. Kaneki found himself wishing that the events he had witnessed before he blacked out was just a dream. But it wasn't.
He still tasted blood in his mouth and he dabbed the inside of his cheek with his two fingers.
But he did not taste his blood.
It made him wonder what if? What if he wasn't able to save Hide? What if Touka hadn't been there to stop him?
Hide would have been dead and it would have been all his fault.
"I've been consumed by hunger this entire time," said Kaneki. "At that moment especially, I was so hungry I thought I might die."
"I wasn't even aware of what I was doing," Kaneki whispered. "And then I went after Hide… But right now that's completely gone. That blood that was in my mouth…"
He turned back to the Manager. "Onegai, give me an honest answer. What did you do while I was sleeping?"
The expression on the Manager's face might as well have been made of stone.
"There is only one way to satisfy a ghoul's hunger," the Manager replied. "You know what that is, right? If you had starved yourself for any longer you would have pounced on your friend there."
The thought of it shook up Kaneki as a new ache pulsed within his body.
The ache of guiltiness.
Kaneki was emotionally weak. He did not have to be told to know it himself. However, holding in Kaneki's emotions was not his strong suit.
Tears stung Kaneki's eyes as his vision blurred. He almost ate his friend and he would never get over it. He wasn't a human. He wasn't a ghoul.
He was a half-breed, no-good freak.
Kaneki felt like a failure. He felt that he did not deserve a good friend like Hide.
He felt the Manager's hand on his shoulder. "You have to accept what you are," the Manager's soft voice said.
Not who, Kaneki thought. What.
He wished that he could just escape all of his problems. Forget about the storm and run with the wind.
He leaned his head against the doorway. "I don't want to hurt my friend," Kaneki sobbed. "That's why I can't be around Hide anymore."
All of those memories Kaneki had of spending time with Hide…
School. Playing tag as children. The café. The joking. Laughing. Teasing…
Loving…
But now he had to leave Hide's life for his own good. He had to protect Hide from the monster within him just as he had saved Kaneki from the reality of his lonely, tragic life that caused him so much despair.
"But I can't enter the world of ghoul's either," Kaneki said. "As someone who's neither human nor ghoul, I…"
Kaneki struggled to finish his sentence. He felt his heart break into a trillion pieces and he knew he wouldn't be able to pick up all of the pieces.
"I am all alone. There's nowhere I can call home now!"
Light suddenly exploded in front of Kaneki. He looked to see that the Manager had opened the blind in Hide's room, letting in a peaceful golden light.
"You are wrong," the Manager said. "You are both ghoul and human. You are the one and only person who holds a place in both of these worlds. Come over to Anteiku. I'm certain that it will lead you to a path where you can hold your own. I also want you to understand us better. To see whether or not we are just ravenous monsters. How about it? Why don't we start by learning how to brew a delicious cup of coffee?"
"Well, e to....," Kaneki started, wiping his eyes. "Do you have faith in someone like me?"
The door shut behind them and Hide's eyes finally opened as he smiled.
Meanwhile, a pale, skinny man with long white hair stood on the balcony of the very top floor of a tall building in the 20th Ward, letting the small wind tug lightly at his clothes. He was a puzzle of a man; taken apart and put back together again.
He had lost interest in gazing over the city. Apparently, the man that stood a couple of feet away from him hadn't.
"Great weather, huh?," the man with white hair said. The rain dulls their senses. These working conditions are just right."
The man observing the city was built like a tank— you could even see it through the paper-white trench coat he wore. His hair was short and black. Youthful.
He finally spoke.
"According to the 20th Ward's report, there was an incident three months ago concerning a binge-eater in this very building, as well as eyewitness accounts of Jason."
"A binge eater and Jason, huh?," the white-haired man replayed, his voice tinged with a hint of amusement. His mouth was curled into a grimace which could hardly be passed for the smile that it really was, matching his voice.
"Interaction between two S-rated subjects?," black hair said.
There was a constant whooshing as rain began to rapidly patter against the ground.
"Who knows? I doubt they were cordially sharing a meal though."
White hair made a noise that sounded like a mix between a squawk and a growl.
"Mado-san?"
The man with white hair—Mado— did not respond. He continued to look repeatedly from left to right. He gasped as if he had come to a realization.
Without explanation Mado launched himself over the railing of the stairs leading to the balcony.
"Mado-san!," black hair shouted with alarm. Mado was far from stupid, he knew, but he was highly unpredictable. Some people may have said he was insane, which actually was one way to put it. But he was still a good partner and a powerful asset.
There was a clank as Mado landed on his feet on the metal platform next to the balcony.
"Amon-kun!," Mado laughed, showing him the artifact he had picked up. Pliers. Powerful asset indeed. "You see? I knew it!" If I had to come up with a drawback for this weather, it's be that I can't hear those chiisa na kuso dying screams over the howling rain."
Amon raised his head to look back up at the beautiful view as Mado laughed at his discovery.
The clouds continued to cry as though the were overwhelmed with concern for the outcome of the binge-eater investigation that wasn't going to end well.