Chapter Text
It was a day like any other.
Kaneki was about to walk through the doors of Anteiku. As he lifted a foot, it scuffed against the side of what seemed like a piece of trash on the sidewalk. Usually something that would be ignored, Kaneki happened to glance down to see the tattered cover of a black notebook. What read in stark white letters on the cover was “DEATH NOTE”.
He couldn’t help but bring the book into his hands. Something about it drew itself to him.
Quickly flitting through the pages, he found that it was just a notebook filled with regular blank pages… until he stopped on the book’s front pages, stained with jet-black ink with rules printed in white between.
The human whose name is written in this note shall die. This note will not take effect unless the writer has the person’s face in mind when writing his/her name… if the cause of death is not specified, the person will die of a heart attack…
What was this, some ridiculous prank? He was already having plenty of death in his new life as a ghoul… this seemed to be like fate spitting in his face. Well, he decided to hold on to it to maybe find its owner who dropped it. Whatever kind of childish person that would be, he thought, but he couldn’t just sweep someone’s missing book under the rug. Since it was found in front of Anteiku, then it might belong to someone who had visited… he would ask around.
Nobody seemed to know who would even have something like that after Kaneki asked around. Ghouls didn’t need some “Death Note” to do their killing. It probably belonged to some immature human trying to be all edgy!
After Kaneki presented it to Touka, she huffed, “That notebook belongs to some dumbass. Let it go. Carrying something that’s meant to write down death threats in is more than suspicious.”
Kaneki half-jokingly said, “But what if it’s actually afflicted by some real curse, I couldn’t have peace of mind without returning it to its owner.”
Touka wasn’t having any of his shit, “Stop messing around, Kaneki. There are a lot more important things to be doing right now, need I remind you?”
He shrunk under her disdainful gaze, “Um… ok…”
Well… he would hold on to it for a while. He felt obligated to find its owner. Because if he didn’t, wouldn’t that kind of make him a thief for taking their belongings, even if he had good intentions? Ah, sometimes he hated being such a moral stickler…
Day after day passed, and Kaneki just couldn’t adapt to his new life. It was all a blur of emotions and conflict. He had completely forgotten about the Death Note that he kept tucked in his bag that he carried slung across his back. He just felt so… powerless. Trapped in a futile existence between worlds, losing everything that he used to be, having a deceitful smile plastered over his face whenever he had to put up a guise to live in his beloved human world.
he couldn't take it for much longer. What could he do to retain the last shreds of humanity he had left in him?
One evening, when walking back to Anteiku, Kaneki heard the piercing cry of someone down the street.
A scream. A futile conflict ringing through the alleyways. Like the blood-curdling shriek of an animal backed into a corner. Someone whose voice he recognized.
Ryouko.
He had to help.
Running to the source, Kaneki peered around an alley corner to see Ryouko backed into the darkness by an investigator, brandishing his weapon, locking in for the kill as the ghoul could barely defend herself from the assault.
He felt like a coward watching the fight in-vain go down. Watching somebody get murdered when he could very well help save a life. A terrified child without the power to do anything against injustice…
Kaneki wanted to defend the innocent. He was paralyzed. Weak. Conflicted. Unable to summon the courage to make the decision on what to do.
But then, like a bolt of lightning, it came.
Something scratched at the back of his mind. Tender claws crawling in, grasping in desperation and terror.
His mind burned with the image of the Death Note.
It was a wish. A grasping nightmare. That everything can be made right with just a single word. What else could he do but hope?
Kaneki recognized the investigator.
A prominent investigator with a well-known name.
Hidden in the shadows, watching on, Kaneki whipped out the Death Note from his bag, turning to a random page with pen in hand, eyes wild in fervent desperation to save Ryouko from certain death.
Black ink stained the page.
That deranged face forever burned into his mind.
KUREO MADO.
Time stood still. The clock ticked on. Loose sands slipping between his fingers. Ryouko was exhausted, injured, red blood staining the concrete. The merciless dog maiming the white rabbit.
The sands ran out.
The hourglass shattered.
Suddenly frozen, the investigator’s voice gagged in his throat. Weapon clattering to the ground, he grasped at his asphyxiating chest, dropping to his knees and clawing for life, spluttering, desperately writhing-
The intrusive injustice before Kaneki’s eyes that threatened him and his kind-
Yes. I’m one of them now.
I am a ghoul.
-Was-
No more. No more. No more.