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Hide knew what happened to Kaneki. He’d known all along.
There had been an inkling of suspicion when Kaneki was released from the hospital. They wouldn’t tell him exactly what happened, since he wasn’t family, but it should have taken longer for him to heal. He was walking around like he was totally fine.
Kaneki put distance between them, slowly but surely, until he felt like a stranger to Hide; not so much avoidance, but he had a feeling that’s what it was. He wasn’t stupid. He watched enough television; mostly news and the talk shows that would have some Ghoul expert talking about whatever. Avoiding food, human interaction—Kaneki used to go places with him!—and that eye patch; which wouldn’t he have told him if he was hurt? That was kind of a downer to think about. Kaneki not telling him things like this.
If asked why he decided to join the CCG, Hide might have said it was because of the people he wanted to help. But no, that wasn’t the exact reason.
He did it for Kaneki.
See, Kaneki went missing. Not the kind of missing where you’d probably see him around or where he would probably just pop up again. This was missing missing. He was nowhere to be found: the school, his apartment, not even the café that he worked at. He knew something was up when he went there to ask around about Kaneki. All anyone would say was that he “wasn’t there”. The look on the girl’s—Touka, how in the world could he forget her name?—face was grim. Something bad had happened, but he couldn’t bring himself to ask her about it.
The hints kept piling up until Hide couldn’t deny it. All arrows led to the same answer, and the CCG was the closest he could find to help.
He started off with small stuff: helping around the front offices, delivering papers from one group to another, bringing lunch for the teams. And all the while, Hide secretly hoped to hear something about his missing friend.
He was delivering some important papers to Amon, a respected CCG investigator, when he got his first real lead. Special Investigator Amon had dealt with a lot of ghouls in his time – apparently, Kaneki included.
Hide had walked into the meeting room Amon was in to meet with some other investigators. On the table were pictures of various people. Probably ghouls, he figured, then took a closer look.
Kaneki’s face, scattered along with a dozen other unknowns, stopped him in his tracks.
Hide looked at it for a long moment, then back up, hoping that his interest wasn’t too obvious. But it was. They were looking at him intently, especially Amon. Might as well talk now, he decided. Something told him he wasn’t exactly going to have a choice.
“I know him,” he said, finally handing the papers over to Amon. “He’s my friend, but before you ask, sir, I haven’t seen him since he went missing a few months ago.”
“Are you trying to leak information to him, kid?” Another investigator snorted, shaking his head.
“Like I said, I haven’t seen him since he went missing. Kinda hard to ‘leak information’ to someone I haven’t talked to for months…”
Amon seemed to take his side, and that was the end of that.
000
It wasn’t long after that when shit really started to hit the fan. There was talk around the agency of a ghoul attack. How long-standing ghoul resentment toward the doves had finally reached a boiling point. A war between the ghouls and the CCG could only end in a lot of death, and Hide wasn’t exactly sure who would be victorious. Hide figured he should be pretty firmly on the side of humanity, but he couldn’t find it in him. Either way, it wasn’t a fight he wanted to be involved in.
It wasn’t long before Hide caught wind of Anteiku being attacked. What he wanted to know was why? It was just a simple café, right? What could the CCG possibly have to warrant an attack on it? But for some reason he knew that if Kaneki liked that place as much as Hide thought, then he’d be there.
Shortly after, word came around that the One-Eyed Ghoul was present on the battlefield, injured, and was making his way to the sewer system to get somewhere. He also heard that Arima, perhaps one of the best Investigators, was down there.
That could only end badly.
Hide finally got the solid lead to finding Kaneki, and there was no way he was going to let him go. He didn’t care how good Kaneki was, if he went up against Arima, he wouldn’t make it out alive. That didn’t sit well with him. He was out of the agency like someone had lit a fire behind him. He ducked down into the first manhole he could find outside headquarters, hoping that the rumors about Kaneki and Armina’s whereabouts were right.
Was there any chance of finding Kaneki down here? If he didn’t try, he wouldn’t be fit to be called Kaneki’s best friend.
He found him eventually, making his way in the opposite direction of the agency. Well, he thought, he found what was left of his friend. Don’t get him wrong, it was still Kaneki, but he looked all wrong. There was a mask, and things winding around behind his back. His kagune, maybe? It was almost too much for him to handle. This is what he’d become, having to fight in a battle that he was never meant to be a part of. Kaneki was supposed to graduate university, maybe find a nice girl to settle down with and have a family with. Not be this... this empty shell.
But none of that mattered.
Hide needed Kaneki to know that he was still his friend, no matter what he was or what he’d done.
“Yo, Kaneki,” Hide said. “What’s with that getup? Is that what’s in style these days?”
The creature stopped in its tracks and turned around. Its head lifted as it looked up, all three eyes white.
“Hi...de?”
Hide couldn’t help but smile. “Woah, ain’t that something? Special make-up that’d shock even Hollywood.”
It hurt to watch Kaneki like that, bloody and disfigured, as if he’d crumble at the drop of a hat. “All this time, you’ve had to suffer like this,” he said softly, his smile dropping.
Then Kaneki started muttering and chanting, things like how he was “dreaming” and if Hide “really knew what he was then he’d...”
Hide took a step towards his friend, only for Kaneki to stumble backward on panicked reflex. But Kaneki was too wounded to move away quickly enough to escape, so Hide was able to kneel in front of him and place a hand on his shoulder.
“I already knew, man!” He closed his eyes and smiled big, hoping he’d able to get through him. “And who cares about that. Let’s just go home.”
Kaneki wailed after that, curling forward and gripping his head like a wounded animal.
Something gripped painfully in his chest at the sound coming from his friend. “I... I want to help you.” He watched Kaneki shudder. “By the looks of it, mostly everything is blocked off. There’s almost no chance of a ghoul making it out alive.” He looked Kaneki over again, his frown deepening. “And you’re in pretty bad shape...”
Hide tried to catch Kaneki’s attention, but just grabbing him would be too much. That’d be like trying to touch a wounded cat, and Kaneki has some sharp looking claws.
“Sorry... Can you fight with all you’ve got just one more time?”
000
If you think a gaping shoulder wound is anything to laugh about, then don’t try to feed a near-ravenous ghoul. He tried to slow the bleeding as best he could with the sleeve of his jacket, but it was relentless. Even applying pressure was only doing so much for him. It turned out better than he was expecting, all things considered, and only coming out with a shoulder wound after coming into contact with a ghoul, not too bad, huh? But in the end, he knew that Kaneki wouldn’t have left him with a too severe injury... or he had hoped.
Hide felt like he was all turned around in the sewers now. Damn, he should have placed markers or something. He’d have to hurry if he wanted to make it out to get his shoulder looked at.
Seconds turned to minutes, and minutes slowly turned into what felt like an hour that Hide was wandering the sewers, hoping to find a ladder leading up. He was starting to see spots now, and the pain in his shoulder was not letting up one bit. Sheer willpower was the only thing keeping him moving, because at this point his legs felt like jelly. He chanced a look at his shoulder to see if it looked better then it felt.
He was disappointed.
Hide scrunched his nose and breathed in sharply as he tugged on the now soaked jacket sleeve. That wasn’t good. He didn’t realize he was standing still before he went stumbling down to his knees, causing him to grunt.
He couldn’t stay too long like this, so he eased himself down and scooted to the side, to sit with his back against the sewer wall. It was better than just falling forward and getting a face full of sewer water. Talk about gross.
It looked like this was the end of the line for him, he thought. His eyesight was blurry, and he wondered how much blood he had lost. He also wished that they had done this in a more convenient location, but what’s done was done.
Honestly, he wouldn’t take it back. He was finally able to see Kaneki one last time, and if his death meant Kaneki’s survival, hell, he would have let his friend eat his whole body.
Hide took one more shuddered breath and closed his eyes.
Good luck, man. Hopefully we meet again. But not too soon, because you’re supposed to live. I’ll kill you again.
One last wish, one last thought.