In a heartbeat

The chair

Hide's PoV:

I step into the room and look around. There were all the workers...? And some people I've never seen in my life. Yoshimura walked over to me, he looked like a nice old man now that I saw him smiling. "You must be Hideyoshi Nagachika? Yes. I've heard lots about you my boy. Kaneki was always talking about you." He said, resting a hand on my shoulder. Kaneki... has been talking about me? Hmm... I hope he hasn't exposed my secrets on my sandwich party skills. "You must be very worried about him. But don't you worry young man, we have come up with a plan. However it will be too dangerous for a human such as yourself."

I felt myself freeze up. Did he just... hint that they were all ghouls...? Of course I have nothing against it! But I've already been attacked by the crazy emo bitch! Now this nice old man wants to nibble on me too?! No- he's helping me. He's helping Kaneki. "Is there anything I can do? Anything at all?" I ask, looking at the man. He grunts "it's best you stay outside until we give commands."

Just great... If a group of ghouls are worried then that can't be good for me at all! We must be up against some sort of ghoul god...

Meanwhile...

Kaneki's PoV:

I slowly woke up "Hide...?" I ask, looking around as my blurry vision started to fade. I'm still here. Chained to the same chair, in the same room, with the same man. He told me to count backwards from one thousand out loud... I didn't understand why, but then I realised he was trying to keep me sane so I'd be aware of every single cut. I was holding onto every number. Every time my fingers and toes grew back it was a reminder I'm not human anymore. I'm a monster.

He took my fingers and toes. Over.

And over.

And over.

And over.

And over.

And over!

AndoverandoverandoverandoverandoverandoverandoverandoverandoverandoverandoverandoverandoverandoverandoverandoverANDOVERANDOVERANDOVERANDOVER!

"Kaneki... how far did you manage to count? "

Whats wrong with me... no. What's wrong is this messed up world.

I am... a ghoul.