I was, for as long as I could remember, a normal dude. I lived, I enjoyed, I did, and I even died, all perfectly normal.
After death, though, that streak of normalcy absolutely shattered. I found myself on a hospital bed, stuck. I couldn't really move, and my body felt alien.
Once I could get going, an immense hunger hit me. I used this body's memories to get home and make a proper meal.
The food looked great, but taking a whiff, I found it totally revolting. I knew I hadn't cooked anything expired.
I grit my teeth, swallowed the smell, and took a bite anyway. The flavor was instantly nauseating, like a chemical assault on my tongue.
I couldn't bear it. I rushed to the bathroom to puke my guts out. And as I finished, I looked into the mirror.
The face was familiar... I'd seen it before. But my eyes had changed into an almost monstrous looking eye, it's black and red looked fitting with each other.
I could only grit my teeth. I finally realized the truth: I'd turned into Ken Kaneki, one of my favorite fictional characters.
With that knowledge, I knew my life was gonna be hell.
Obviously, human meat was off the menu. I endured. I kept enduring, and endured, and endured, and endured... And endured.
Until I cracked.
I took a human life. A young woman, tender in age and in—well, meat. I awoke to her bloodied corpse, and yet, I found myself... Satisfied, almost rejuvenated
That was the first time my Kagune truly woke up.
After that I went to Anteiku... There I seeked refuge, there I learned how to endure this hunger, there I made friends. And met Touka.
Fearing a change I wouldn't be able to control, I didn't want to stray far from the original plot.
Slow and steady I lived my life as Kaneki, what my previous self would have considered insane, was now... Normal. And yet I still didn't feel like myself, Reze often appeared in my dreams to torment me, or something of the like.
With each passing day, the memories of my past self were getting more muffled, as if I was slowly losing parts of my self. In a way to preserve said self, I turned to literature. A hobby both me and Kaneki liked, one of the only things I could share with Kaneki.
I was still captured by the Aogiri Tree, but I wasn't subjected to the Yamori torture.
I battled Yamori alone, and struggled a lot. I was losing, and badly. And through this battle, did something change within me.
Through this battle, I was able to piece myself together, It was when I truly was able to accept... That everything had already changed.
I was not the same William as I was before. I was Kaneki, and Kaneki was me.
I... Am a Ghoul.
It was my first awakening, my Kagune evolved, not into a centipede like Kaneki, but four protrusions resembling blades from my back.
I was calmer and more in tune to myself.
My hair turned white as snow with black streaks at the tip of each end. Yamori tried to struggle, but with a single swipe of my blades, his body was split into 4 different pieces.
I consumed him right after.
And then I continued following the Canon, I didn't create an organization as the previous Kaneki and instead deepened my bond with the members of Anteiku, my real family of this world.
And like push comes to shove, the inevitable happened, after massacring and consuming ghouls as well as destroying 2 sectors infested with Ghouls, Arima had caught wind of me.
The man was strong, absurdly so. Despite being stronger than Kaneki was even at this point, I still couldn't beat him. He pierced my eye, and that was my last memory I had as the Eyepatch.
He tried to break me, telling me my friends are dead, locking me up, and mentally torturing me. My mind was not that tempered, in fact I'd say I was pretty fragile.
So I couldn't really endure everything, so like Kaneki once did... I sealed everything of who I was. Entirely becoming a new person.
Kishou Arima gave me a new name, Haise Sasaki, and for two years, I became an Investigator under Arima's tutelage. He taught me everything I knew about being an Investigator, combat skills, wielding a weapon, and now to meticulately eliminate.
He was like a... Father to me, a term that felt foreign for someone who didn't have a family like me. If anyone were to be my father, then Arima would be the closest one. We had a strong bond, and despite being enemies he treated me like a person who wasn't.
At least that was when I was Haise.
As Fate would have it, after a mission 6 months later we had our final training session.
Underground, in a field of flowers, we fought to kill each other. Despite getting stronger everyday, I still had a hard time against him.
He truly was a monster.
I broke his weapons, disarmed him, and made him submit, I wanted him to surrender. I... Didn't want to kill Arima.
He was the father-figure I didn't have, he was the one who stepped up. And yet here I was being forced to kill him, so he had no choice no choice but to do it himself.
As we had our final, heart-felt conversation I shed my first tear in this world. Kishou Arima you are my teacher and... My father.
Two people died that day, and yet only one stopped breathing.
He forced me to be stronger, to be better. And I did, as Ken Kaneki, the One-Eyed King.
With the help of Eto, I spread the idea of unity. I was gonna be the one to unite these two warring kinds.
I struggled, as all Liberators before me had. But I knew I would prevail.
I fell into the Wasshu's plot, because it was important to the endgame. I turned into The Dragon, a massive construct resembling a centipede that wrapped itself unto CCG Headquarters.
Within was a deep turmoil. I was consumed by own own mental problems, and Rise visited me for one last time.
Thanks to her, and my comrades. I was able to truly accept everything.
I was myself. I am Ken Kaneki, I am Haise Sasaki, and I am... William.
Cogito Ergo Sum, I Think Therefore I am.
I am Human, and then I am Ghoul. I am.
My wings had unfurled, I was free of the torment of my mind, of my struggles of who I truly was.
And the final battle ensued.
I fought against Furata, he was once my second favorite character in Tokyo Ghoul, he was a tragic villain. In the end, as his light started fading. I watched, as his smile stayed.
I could really never hate him, even after all he had done.
As I entered the Chasm that Rize was in, fighting off all the Kagune that were rushing to kill me, I remembered a certain quote. One I was dearly fond of.
If I were to write a book with me as the main character... It would be a Tragedy.
Actually... That's true for everyone.
A novel with him as the protagonist, a movie with her as the lead... All of us.
We're all main characters in a Tragedy.
We all take things, and we all will have things taken from us. That's all we can do. That's who we are.
Take... And be taken, capture and be captured... Obey, and be obeyed. Do, and be done to. Reaffirmation and denial.
We keep fighting to lose something, and yet... The people and places we love... Will be inevitably be lost.
We... Will be forgotten, life is tragic, empty. And yet...
Even though we know we'll lose our lives, even though we know we won't exist...
We continue seeking, reprehensibly continue hoping to be beautiful.
So I ask myself... Which do I choose?
I choose this, I will keep choosing, and will keep being chosen. That's all it is.
That's all it is...
And as I face Rize, I smile.
"I'm sorry Rize..." I flew towards Rize, blade in hand and with a final swing...
"And thank you..."
———————————
And as he awoke... He find himself, in an entirely world, with a new Journey ahead of himself.
A world filled with Filth, a world he can truly say, is wrong.
———[Chapter End]———
A/N: Definitely one of the better chapters I've ever written.