Hide sat at the edge of the bed while Ken drank, pretty tired after the walk over. The dark haired boy did not take to the bottle with the same vigor as he had the previous day, instead taking only small sips. It had been a fight even to convince him to drink it at all, to be frank. Hide had had to repeat again and again that it wasn't hurting anyone, that it didn't make him a monster, before Ken had finally agreed to drink. Hide had closed the door so that anyone passing would neither hear their argument, nor see the changes in Ken's eye as he drank.

"So," Hide asked eventually, not wanting to look at his friend in that moment. "How'd you do it?"

Kaneki didn't answer right away, taking another sip before he spoke. "Do what, Hide?"

"How'd you hide being a ghoul from me all this time?" Hide tried to hold the bitterness back from his voice, but didn't quite manage it.

Again, the answer was not immediately forthcoming. Ken gave a sad little laugh before he spoke. "I wasn't. I don't know what to tell you, Hide. This is new to me too."

"Bullshit," Hide answered, without venom. "You don't just become a ghoul, Kaneki. The world doesn't work that way."

Ken sighed, making a muffled little thumping sound as he let himself fall back against the pillows. "I… have a theory. It's probably gonna sound like a bad lie though."

Hide shook his head sadly. "Doesn't matter, just tell me."

"You know that girl I went out with, Rize?"

Hide chuckled humourlessly. "Now isn't the time to be gloating, man."

"She was a ghoul. She was halfway through eating me when the beams fell on us… You know they used her organs to keep me alive, right?"

"…So you think you're… what, some kind of half-ghoul now?" Hide asked, his voice wasn't skeptical, he was too tired.

"It's the only answer I can think of. I mean, it's not exactly something I could have kept hidden from you. I've stayed at your house. Eaten whole meals with you. How could a ghoul do that?"

Hide nodded glumly. "Yeah, you're right. That doesn't make sense." The two were quiet for a long time, neither one certain of what to say next. Eventually, after a very sad silence, Hide spoke again. "So, what do we do now?"

"I dunno," Ken admitted quietly. "I guess I'll have to start looking for some way to feed myself… Maybe I'll get a job in a mortuary or something."

"I can feed you," Hide offered. The prospect was not a cheerful one.

"No, you can't, Hide," Ken admonished sadly. "I can tell how tired you are just from looking at you. How much blood have you fed me over the last two days?"

Hide shrugged. "I dunno, about a liter and a half?"

"That's not a lot, Hide, and you're already looking pale. We both know you can't keep this up, it's not good for you."

Hide felt a hand touch his shoulder gently, and sighed. "I know, but I can manage. At least for a while."

"No, you can't, Hide!" Ken replied angrily, raising a hand to his forehead in frustration. "And I don't want you to kill yourself by trying! We need to find some other way."

The two sat in angry silence for a while, Ken glaring at Hide, Hide glowering at the midday sky through the window. "What about the CCG?" He asked eventually.

Ken raised an eyebrow at his friend. "The CCG? What could they do about this?"

Hide shrugged. "Well, they keep an internment facility for ghouls, don't they? They have to feed them something. Maybe if we went to them and explained everything…" He trailed off, glancing across at the dark haired boy.

Kaneki, for his part, considered the idea. It wasn't ridiculous. The CCG were supposedly ghoul experts, after all. It did make sense to go to them. "…But the fact is that what you said has another important factor too, Hide. They have an internment facility for ghouls. What's to stop them putting me in there?"

Hide took a moment to respond, choosing his words carefully. "And what are the odds that you'll be able to keep this secret from them without committing crimes of some kind? If they're gonna catch you, then surely it's better to go to them right away, when you haven't actually done anything wrong. Don't you think, Kaneki?"

The dark haired boy was silent for a very long time, considering his options. Go to the CCG, and risk imprisonment, or try to hide, and risk death at their hands. Considering how they were limiting his options, he was really beginning to dislike the CCG. The decision was too much, there were too many variables to consider. He let out a long, aggravated sigh. "Have you got a coin I can borrow, Hide? I need to flip something on this."

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Koutarou Amon was five minutes off the end of his shift when a call came through from the front desk. "Investigator Amon? We have a young man down here who says he's witnessed a ghoul attack. Are you free for questioning?"

Amon sighed, he had been looking forward to a warm meal and some alone time, but the job had to come first sometimes. "Yeah, sure. Put him in interview room B. I'll be down directly."

With that, Amon stood from his desk, stretching a little to loosen his stiff muscles, and headed for the elevator.

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To say Ken was nervous would have been an understatement. Ken was terrified. His whole body was shaking like a leaf from nerves and he was sweating through the fresh clothes that Hide had brought him. He clasped his hands together on the table, eyes darting from the door, to the reflective mirror in the wall, to the table, and back to the door.

It was after only a few minutes of this, that the inspector arrived.

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Amon stopped at a vending machine on the way to the interview room, buying a couple cans of black coffee. It was a trick he'd learned early on. Even if the witness didn't drink it, it helped them get comfortable. He opened the door and glanced down at the boy at the table. A fleeting surprise flashed through his mind. "You're Ken Kaneki, right? The kid from the news. I heard you got pretty badly hurt."

The boy nodded, staring intently at the table and seemingly trying his damnedest to avoid Amon's gaze. "Y-yes sir. I uhh… I discharged myself from the hospital about an hour ago."

Amon nodded, not letting the surprise reach his face. From what he'd heard, the boy shouldn't even be able to walk yet, but he seemed fine. "Well then, Kaneki, my name is Koutarou Amon, Investigator, second class. So, the desk clerk said you had a ghoul attack to report. Can you describe them please? Both the ghoul and the victim, if you can." He held out one of the coffees to the boy, but he shook his head.

"N-no thank you sir, I don't really drink coffee."

Amon shrugged, opening his own coffee with a slight hiss of compressed air, and taking a swig. He placed it on the desk between them and took a seat. "Fair enough, shall we just get to the report then?"

The boy wasn't listening, his attention was caught by the coffee can between them, staring. "W-wow, that smells great."

Amon smiled patiently. "Well, offer's still open if you want the other one." The boy, after some hesitation, nodded, and Amon passed him the second coffee can. The boy opened it tentatively, sniffing the contents experimentally before taking a small sip. For some reason, he grinned.

"Delicious," the kid said, sounding surprised.

Amon chuckled. "Yeah, I think so too. Now, can you describe the ghoul in question?"

Almost instantly, the boy looked terrified again, his shoulders hunching inwards and losing their relaxed posture. Just what could the kid have seen to scare him this much? "W-well… she was in her early twenties, it looked like, a-and around my height. Long hair, kinda purple color?"

Amon raised an eyebrow, confused. "You're describing Rize Kamishiro, are you not? The girl who was in the accident with you?" The boy gave a shaky nod. "I… I see," Amon responded uncertainly. "And the victim?"

The boy took a deep, long breath, before bringing his eyes up to look at Amon directly. "She… she was trying to eat me when the building supplies landed on us, sir."

Amon's eyes went wide and he gazed across at the boy, not sure how to respond. "…Well, Kaneki, if that's true, I can honestly say you're one of the luckiest kids I have ever met."

The boy hunched a little further in his seat. "T-that's n-not quite it sir… You may have seen on the news… The doctors who saved me used a few of her organs to do it… I-I think I'm-"

"You think you're turning into a ghoul," Amon finished for the boy. He sighed quietly. This wasn't too unusual. The mind could come up with all sorts of crazy things to help deal with trauma. He made an effort to ensure that his voice was sympathetic when he spoke. "Well, Kaneki, if it helps at all, I can assure you that if you were a ghoul, our sensors would have picked you up the moment you entered the building."

The boy stared at the table, a single tear sliding slowly down his cheek. "Th-then why am I walking around and healthy just two days after getting hit by a steel beam? I was in a coma, sir, and now I'm fine, there's something wrong with me, I know it."

Amon paused for a moment. He had to admit, the kid had a point there. "…Okay, Kaneki." He placed his arm on the desk, resting on his elbow. "Arm wrestle me."

The teen gave him a strange look. "Um… why, sir?"

Amon smiled wolfishly. "Because you're a scrawny teenager and the only way you could win an arm wrestle against a fit and conditioned CCG investigator is by having the strength of a ghoul."

The boy was still looking at him strangely, but, after some hesitation, placed his own arm on the desk, grasping Amon's hand in his own.

"Three," Amon began, smiling. "Two, one." He pushed down against the boy's hand, meeting resistance. He had to give the kid credit, he was stronger than he looked. He pushed harder. Still, the boy resisted. Amon glanced up at the boy. The kid's brow was furrowed slightly in concentration, pressing his hand against Amon's with a force most well exercised adults couldn't match. Amon pushed again, harder, no longer holding back. The boy's hand moved back a little, then held firm. The boy gritted his teeth slightly in effort. Amon continued for a few more seconds, before easing off. "Okay, yeah, that's definitely weird. You got me there. Give me a minute, I have to make some calls."

Amon rose from the desk and stood, making his way out into the hallway and retrieving his phone, making sure to lock the door behind him. He stared at the phone screen for several long minutes, trying to figure out who he should contact about this. He could call his partner, but he had a feeling Kureo would start trying to dissect the boy if this wasn't taken elsewhere first. He could take this to the branch chief, but it wasn't certain enough yet. Then a thought struck him. He dialed in the number, waiting while the tone sounded. After a few moments, a voice answered.

"Hello?"

"Mister Shinohara?" Amon spoke quietly, "This is Amon Koutarou, Mado's partner. You're the investigator currently assigned to the binge eater case, correct?"

"Yeah, I am," The voice replied. "You got something for me?"

"I might," Amon answered. "I was told the binge eater exclusively targeted young men. I might have a survivor in the interview room."

"A survivor?" Shinohara's voice sounded surprised. "That almost never happens."

"It's… complicated. Are you available, sir?"

There was a long pause, before the voice responded, sounding tired. "Well, I wasn't, but I guess I am now. I'll be there in twenty."

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Kaneki lay in bed that night, unable to sleep. He had told the two men from the CCG everything. About the attack, about the surgery, even about how Hide had fed him. The new investigator, a muscular man with a kind face, had initially been less than convinced, but had changed his mind on that when Kaneki had offered to show them how his eye could change. It hadn't been too hard to do, he just thought for a few minutes about the taste of Hide's blood. Amon had leaned back a little in his seat, Shinohara had barely even batted an eye. A medic had been dispatched to ensure his friend's safety and provide a red blood cell transfusion. After the whole ordeal was done, he had been allowed to return home safely, escorted under the personal guard of Shinohara himself, who had continued to question him about the identity of his attacker well into the night.

Investigator Shinohara now sat on a chair in the corner of his room, watching him anxiously trying to sleep. To be perfectly honest, the large man waiting to kill him at the slightest wrong move was the main reason why he was having so much trouble. After a few fruitless hours, Kaneki spoke into the silence, his voice quiet. "Mr Shinohara… did I do the right thing, coming to you?"

The figure replied with only a little hesitation. "I think you did, yes."

Kaneki let the answer hang in the air between the two of them for a moment, then asked his second major question. "Am… am I going to be okay?"

That made Shinohara hesitate a lot longer than the first question did. Eventually, the older man replied "… I'll do my best to help you, Kaneki. That's all I can promise."