A friend
The moment he shifts on his bed made of concrete, he knows somethings different.
He has flesh, hands! He looks down at them in a stupor, feeling the rough texture of the backside, then flipping them of to see the paler skin, black veins running down his palm and under his sleeve- and he has flesh on his arms-
In fact, he realises that the bones he once had for a body where completely covered in this weird skin, which he takes his time prodding at, taking pleasure in seeing how his body has become less stiff and ancient.
That means he must have a face! The same hands frantically reach up to assault his face, resulting in him accidently poking himself in the eye, which really freaking hurts-
He has an eye- two eyes! A mouth with teeth, and a nose, in his attempts to look at his new features he ends up cross-eyed, which only gives him an ache in his eyes and leaves him dazed for a few seconds.
His eyes start watering a little and it makes him blink- he’s never had to blink before in his life.
“I-I’m,” a short, nervous laugh burst from his lips, then he covers his mouth in disbelief. Even his voice sounds different, less crackly and unintelligible, more-
Human…
A rustling sound behind him makes him put his fascination with his new body to the side, and take a look at his surroundings.
He’s sitting in alleyway between two buildings, right next to a foul-smelling dumpster (looks like it hasn’t been emptied in years) and it seems like it leads off onto a main street.
But he’s alone, so where did that sound-
There. A few metres away, near the end of the alley, he sees a faint shimmer in the wall and a pulse of energy. He stares at it in tense silence, waiting to see if occurs again, or if he’s just going mad after receiving his human form.
It happens again, the same ripple on the stonewall that should be solid and not moving.
He knows of only a few things that could be the cause of it.
“You know, your quite bad at hiding.” He began.
There’s a loud squeak, then the sound of several things clattering to the ground. He scrambles to his feet in alarm, guarded and ready to attack if necessary. However, he falters when a shopping bag appears on the ground with some of its items scattered on the floor.
He steps cautiously towards the bag, when he catches the ripple again, next to the items on the floor.
“I know you’re here.” He says calmly, yet he still doesn’t get a response. “I won’t hurt you or anything.” He tries again.
“How do I know you won’t hurt me?”
He jumps when he hears the voice, the sound of a girl, but it confirms his suspicions.
“Well,” he starts, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly, “right now I’m about as powerful as the average human.” Saying this gives him a dreadful feeling in his stomach, only now has the reality of what happened has settled in.
He’s a reaper without the capability to reap, he can’t feel his connection to his scythe anymore and his only way of returning to how it once was is to-
Kill Kaneki Ken
He doesn’t know whether his new body is a blessing or just a reminder of his curse.
A girl materialises on the ground in front of him, sparkling dust dispelling around her white frilly skirt and puffy coat, interrupting his inner melancholic thoughts. Her sudden appearance happens so fast that he almost shouts out in surprise.
The girl, looking no older than twenty, wonders him through her golden bangs.
“Are- aren’t you a reaper?”
“Uh- technically yes, but-” A loud and very excited squeal interrupts him, and then suddenly he’s being assaulted by a small pair of hands, which are eager to investigate his form.
“I knew it!” She cries, marvelling at his cloak. “You’re wearing this. It must be decades old! Gah! So~ cool.”
“Actually, it’s thousands-”
“And, you smell like ash and… death!” She exclaims, while he tries to escape her probing hands, putting his arms out defensively and slowly moving back towards the alley exit.
“S-sorry, but could you-” He doesn’t know whether he should be genuinely terrified by this girl, especially since she’s gazing at him as if he’s a new toy. Just when he thinks her interest had been sated, a hand comes up in front of his face and pushes his hood off. “Wait, ah-!”
“AH!” She screams, and it looks like she’s about to faint. “Oh, my god, you’re cute as well!”
Then a barge of hands head towards his face, pulling his cheeks and pinching his nose.
She’s unstoppable.
Oh dear.
Only once he ends up tripping on a bin bag, bringing both him and the wild girl to the ground, does she end the attack.
He moves out from under her, and makes a little sigh of relief.
“Sorry,” She breathes, getting into a sitting position opposite him, sounding out of breath, “I’ve just never met a reaper before.”
“I can tell.” He says dryly, brushing down his cloak, “People don’t normally get so... touchy-feely with death.” He flinches away from her when he sees her hands move towards him again, but weirdly the hand stops open in the air between them.
“I’m Yoriko,” her head nicks to the side as she smiles almost bashfully. “I’m also a fairy, if you didn’t realise.”
He nods, because he did realise (fairy dust was a dead giveaway) but when her hand stays up he eyes her curiously.
“Um, this is supposed to be the part where you shake my hand and say who you are…?” She explains after an awkward second, waving her hand around to hurry him.
He hesitates, looking back and forth between his own hand and hers.
“Is this a human custom?” he asks with uncertainty, not knowing whether she was about to mislead him into signing a contract or something.
“Eh!?” Yoriko makes another squealing sound in the back of her throat, clutching her chest with her other hand, “Don’t tell that you aren’t cultured about the human world.” When he shakes his head, her eyes begin to water, making his eyes widen in alarm.
“Are you okay?”
“YES!” she wails, and even though her eyes are wet, she laughs, “You’re too much, too cute, this means I must educate you!”
“Huh?” he says, and his only response is her grabbing his arm and forcefully bringing their hands together.
“There!” she announces, exaggerating the shaking motion of their hands. “Now say your name.” He pauses as her eyelashes flutter hopefully up at him.
“Oh, er- well…”
Your name is “Hide”
“You can call me Hide.”
“Sooo~ basically, you’re telling me that an evil witch captured you, stole your powers and told you to find a guy called Kaneki Ken.”
“Yes.”
“Hmph, at least she gave you a body as compensation! Right?”
Hide stares down at her, unimpressed. Yoriko had been leading through a quiet suburban area for a few minutes, insisting that he tell her, in great detail, what had caused him to be sitting in a shabby alleyway. He trusted her enough to explain everything, but he had left out the bit about him having to kill someone. He didn't think that would go down well with a fairy like her.
“Okay, sorry.” She sighs, abruptly turning a corner and pulling him along with her. Hide follows her wordlessly, until he realises he doesn’t exactly know where they’re going.
He begins to slow in his steps, about to ask the question.
“Here we are!” She bounces on her feet suddenly, pointing at a small apartment complex. He’s pulled (quite roughly) towards it, and any thoughts of stopping are erased as they rush through the gate.
“Where is ‘here’?” He pants while they’re running up the steps to the second floor. He can’t find a reason to why there running, but then again, he already can’t explain a lot of Yoriko’s actions.
“Here is my home.” She grins back at him, and they finally stop outside a brown painted door numbered 41.
“And why am I here?”
“Because~” She sings, while grabbing a chain of brightly coloured keys out of her coat pocket, “You need a place to stay while we conjure up a master plan to get your powers back.” She winks at him for good measure, jingling the keys in her hand.
She’s enjoying this way too much, is the only thing Hide thinks as he helplessly looks on.
Yoriko moves to unlock the door.
“Oh! Also, I forgot to tell you but-”
The door flies open before she can get the key in the hole, startling both of them. A somewhat peeved looking girl stands in the door way, violet hair covering her eye ominously.
“Yoriko, how long does it take to-”
The girl’s eye zeros in on Hide’s wary form. She scrutinises him for a second, subtly sniffing the air, before widening her eyes and baring a nice pair of fangs at him.
“What the-!? When you said that you were going to get groceries,” She goes on, and he can tell she’s a millisecond away from slamming the door in his face.
“I thought a reaper wasn’t going to be on the list!?”
“Yeah, I forgot to tell you.” Yoriko whispers in the tense silence, giving Hide an apologetic look. “I live with a vampire.”