Touka:

"You sure this is the place?" Touka whispered to the boy as they crept along. "You sure we didn't go up one floor too many?"

"No," Hide murmured back, equally quiet. "This is definitely the place."

"Then can you please explain why the front door's exploded and the floor outside has blood on it?"

"Couldn't tell you," Hideyoshi replied, glancing at the girl with a shrug. "That's not even the weird part, though. Can you hear that?"

Touka craned her neck, her attention turned towards the faint sounds emanating from the open doorway.

"Is that... Is someone in there playing MarioKart?"

"Yup," Hide affirmed with a nod. "And that's the weird thing. Kaneki doesn't have a nintendo."

Touka stopped, turning her best scowl on the orange haired boy.

"Are you even gonna try taking this seriously?" She asked in a furious whisper. "Your friend could be in trouble and you're talking about Nintendo!"

"No, seriously," the boy replied, his tone completely level. "Kaneki doesn't have a Nintendo, he has no friends who come to his place besides me, and he hasn't had a chance to go shopping since I last saw him. So the question is, who's in there playing MarioKart? If they're the one who destroyed the door, then we could be like, ten meters away from someone very dangerous."

Touka considered this for a moment, before begrudgingly admitting to herself that he had a point.

"Stay here," she muttered, motioning the boy backwards. "I'm gonna go take a look."

Hide opened his mouth to object, but Touka ignored him, creeping up to the hallway wall and pressing herself against it, before beginning to slowly sidle her way down towards the ruined doorway. Hide scowled, then followed suit.

After a few moments, she was right beside the opening, the casual murmur of conversation echoed from inside, but Touka's heart was beating just a little too fast to hear it. Whoever was in here, it was someone connected with Kaneki, and that boy still didn't make a lick of sense. Touka reached into her pocket and pulled out her phone, opening the camera app before poking it around the edge of the shattered door to peek inside. Two boys sat together on a small couch. One perched on the other's lap. One of the boys, Touka recognized as Kaneki. The one sitting on his lap, an androgynous youth in baggy running gear, she did not. So Kaneki was safe, then? Confused, Touka began to withdraw her phone, before a small combat knife shot through the air like a dart, spearing the gadget out of her hand and pinning it to the opposite wall of the corridor, drawing a sharp line of pain across Touka's finger as it passed.

Touka let out a little yelp of surprise before covering her mouth with her hands to cut herself off.

"See that?" Came a voice from inside. "See how well I'm guarding you?"

"What... the fuck?" She whispered, her already healing finger pressed to her mouth. That knife had cut her. How had that knife cut her?

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

"H-hey! I never said you weren't guarding me well!" Kaneki's voice replied, aghast. "Did you just throw a knife at someone!?"

"Whoever's out there," came the first voice, apparently ignoring Kaneki completely. "Show yourself before I start throwing more things."

Touka stood still, rooted to the spot, utterly unsure of what to do next. The question was rendered moot when Hide took the initiative, stepping past her into the doorway.

"Hey, Kaneki," he called out, arms raised by his side. "New friend of yours?"

"Yup," The white haired stranger replied promptly. "We're besties now! Who're you?"

"Hideyoshi Nagachika," Hide responded, eyeing the newcomer apprehensively. "Why are you sitting on his lap?"

"He refused to sit anywhere else," came Kaneki's voice, sounding slightly pained.

"I was cold!" The pale boy protested. "And your body's really warm and snuggly!"

"Oh, you were cold, were you?" Kaneki replied, his tone heavy with sarcasm. "I wonder why that is."

"Shut up," said the stranger playfully. "You know you like it."

Cautiously, Touka stepped around the corner, waiting for her cut finger to heal and licking the wound clean first. Cautiously, she moved to the phone still pinned to the wall and grabbed the combat knife by the handle, yanking it free. She wiped the blade free of her blood before turning to face the others.

"Who the fuck stabbed my phone?" She asked, trying to inject a note of rage into her tone in contrast to the confused shock that currently filled her mind.

"You stabbed her phone?!" Kaneki asked, turning to his companion with an appalled look. "Suzuya, that's not how we greet people!"

"She was using it to peek on us," replied the one named Suzuya, his tone turning slightly sulky. "It was sneaky."

"She was sneaking around a public corridor, Juuzou!" Kaneki replied angrily. "Probably trying to figure out why the doorway was such a mess. That's no reason to stab her things! Apologize to her," he pointed at Touka. "Now."

"What?" The white haired boy objected, his voice taking on a surprisingly high pitch. "Why!? I didn't do anything bad!"

"You broke her stuff, Juuzou," Kaneki responded, folding his arms. "Apologize or I won't make you any food next time."

There were a few moments of tense silence, the newcomers gazing bemusedly at the two boys, locked in a silent battle of wills as they stared one another down. Eventually, Suzuya relented.

"... Sorry I broke your phone." He mumbled, lowering his head towards Touka and crossing his arms around his chest. "I promise I won't do it again."

Touka didn't answer. She was too perplexed by this strange duo.

"Uhh..." Hide asked quietly. "How long did you say you've known each other?"

"About two hours," Kaneki replied tiredly. "Why?"

"Uhh..." Hide tried, seeming to struggle slightly with his words. "No reason, I guess. Anyways... I uhhh... This is Touka," he gestured weakly towards Touka as he spoke. "You know, from Anteiku?"

"Yeah," Kaneki replied with a small smile. "I remember. The girl you keep trying to hit on, righ-"

"Yeah, anyway!" Hide cut him off, raising his voice slightly. "She heard about your accident and wanted to come make sure you're okay."

Kaneki and the Suzuya boy both turned their heads to look at Touka. She flushed, trying to think of something to say to break the silence, before eventually settling on:

"Uhh... hi. Good to see you're okay, Kaneki." She raised a hand in an awkward sort of half wave. Touka gave herself a mental shake. This was just too surreal. Operation observe Kaneki was off to a bad start.

"Soo..." The white haired boy broke the silence after a moment. "... You guys wanna play some games with us?"

Touka stared at him for a moment, then shrugged.

"Sure, I guess. Only if I get to play Bowser, though."

"Kay, that's cool," Suzuya replied amicably. "I'm always Peach, anyway."

"What?" Hide complained, ambling over to the couch and plomping himself down, "But I wanted to play Bowser."

"Yeah?" Kaneki shrugged. "Well, I wanted to be Peach, so suck it up."

"Are you still sour about that?" Suzuya laughed, letting out a giggly little yelp as Kaneki jabbed at his side with his fingers.

"I am not, and never was sour about that, Suzuy-"

Kaneki's response was cut short, as is often the case, when the wall behind the television exploded, showering the apartment with rubble and bits of detritus. Where once had been Kaneki's inexpensive, yet handily reliable old television, there now stood a tall, broad man in a cream suit, brushing dust from his white blond hair.

"Right then," he murmured, gazing at the four youths clustered on the couch. "Which one of you is Ken Kaneki?"