Joining the Operation

"All I can do is put my faith in Mr. Kaneki..." Nishiki Nishio's girlfriend, Kimi Nishino, walked along the road, weighed down by worry as she carried her supermarket shopping.

She was a young woman in her early twenties, in the prime of her life. After her father and younger brother, her only remaining family, died one after the other, she had nearly lost the will to live. Nishiki Nishio had saved her.

She had long known that Nishiki was a ghoul, and that he was badly injured and needed nourishment. But there was nothing she could do. All she could do was pin her hopes on Mr. Kaneki, who had only just appeared.

"If even Mr. Kaneki can't help..." Kimi Nishino tightened her grip on the plastic bags, as though she had made some sort of decision.

But suddenly, a masked figure slipped up behind her without a sound.

"Mmph-!"

"Shh..."

A handkerchief soaked in a sedative clamped over her nose and mouth. The grip was so strong that no amount of struggling did any good. Before long, as she inhaled the drug, she gradually lost consciousness...

"The finest gourmet meal... should involve three people: the main course, the side dish, and the diner..." The masked man had purple hair. A depraved gentleman, he had already worked out how to devour the food that drove him wild...

At eleven that night, the coffee shop's lights had long since gone out, and everyone at Anteiku had gone to bed early.

Yet someone quietly entered Anteiku's kitchen and tried to open the food storage cabinet. What it held was bloody human flesh.

Clearly, he failed to open it. Troubled and unsure what to do, he silently returned to the first floor.

He was Ken Kaneki. When he had taken Nishiki Nishio home that day, he had learned that Nishiki's injuries could no longer heal on their own. He needed food-in other words, human flesh.

After talking with Nishio's girlfriend, Kimi, Kaneki had learned what was going on. But ghouls could only eat human flesh, so he had no choice but to return to Anteiku for help.

Once Kaneki had left, Louis pushed open the kitchen door and stepped inside without turning on the lights. He looked at the cabinet Kaneki had just tried to open. The faint smell of blood told him what was inside.

This was Anteiku's real food supply, kept under lock and key.

"Hey, do you know something?" Touka suddenly appeared behind him, staring at Louis as he stood lost in thought in the kitchen.

Clearly, she had noticed Ken Kaneki's strange behavior too.

"We ran into Nishiki Nishio this afternoon. He was nearly eaten by another ghoul," Louis replied evenly. "His injuries looked pretty bad."

With that, Touka clearly understood. If a ghoul's injuries wouldn't heal, the only solution was to eat.

"Kaneki just ran off in a panic. Want to follow him and take a look?" Louis looked at Touka.

The others either lived elsewhere or were out and hadn't returned. Only the two of them remained among the staff.

"What a pain... wait here a minute." Touka pressed a hand to her forehead, then went back to her room to change.

"I wasn't planning to go..." Louis caught her meaning and hurried to decline, only to find Touka looking at him like he was garbage.

"See you downstairs..."

"Smell that?" Louis sniffed. "There's a really unpleasant scent."

He meant the scent of Shuu Tsukiyama, that flamboyantly purple gay guy. If even he could smell it, there was no way Touka couldn't.

Just moments earlier, while Kaneki was still hesitating over whether to disturb the others at Anteiku to ask for help, he had spotted a letter slipped through the door, along with a rose.

Kaneki immediately guessed who had sent it. After all, there weren't many people who could make even a letter look so elegant.

But its contents shocked him. According to the letter, the girl he had just met had already fallen into Tsukiyama's hands. It told him to meet at the Church at midnight. The threat of what would happen if he didn't come was unmistakable.

That was why they had seen Kaneki hurry away in a panic.

The involvement of Ward 20's troublemaker gave Touka a headache. She was somewhat glad she had brought someone along to help.

Even if that helper looked a little reluctant...