http://chireans.tumb...y-2-translation
Chinese to English translation of the Tokyo Ghoul novel chapter featuring Kaneki, Hide, and Kaneki’s aunt set pre-series. Original Chinese translation here and here.
Lonely Reading
“Kind people only need to be kind to feel happy,” he recalled his mother saying.
The alarm clock rang in his ear. Wanting to get out of bed as quickly as possible, he immediately rose to turn off the alarm clock. Even though the early morning’s light had long made its way through the slip in the curtains, the house was filled with silence, like no one had gotten up yet. Thus, he breathed a relieved sigh and immediately went to the washroom to wash up. After washing, he met no one on his way back to his room and he couldn’t help letting out another sigh.
Kaneki Ken was in his second year of high school this year. He had already spent many years in this home – Kaneki’s aunt’s home, that is, the Asaokas’ home. Kaneki should be used to this home by now, but its atmosphere did not allow him. This situation probably wouldn’t change at all in the future either.
Putting on his school uniform and picking a book he wanted to read from the bookshelf, only as he was putting it into his bag did the house start showing signs of life. His aunt seemed to have gotten up. Kaneki walked out of his room, listening to the sounds of his aunt making breakfast and the urgent shouts of “wake up”.
It was a little early for school, but the school was nonetheless open. Holding his breath as he passed the kitchen, he glimpsed his aunt’s figure. On the table was breakfast for three people. For his aunt, his aunt’s husband, and his aunt’s son, Yuuichi. There was no place for Kaneki in this home.
After Kaneki passed the kitchen, he put on his shoes at the front entrance. Wanting to leave this house quickly, he picked up speed.
“Honestly, how long are you planning on sleeping…”
However, in a stroke of misfortune, his complaining aunt walked into the hallway. Kaneki looked back, finding himself in his aunt’s sights.
Unlike the frozen Kaneki, his aunt immediately turned away and continued to shout, “Yuuichi! Yuuichi!”, the sound gradually fading into the hallway’s depths.
Kaneki bit his lip and stomped out the door.
Kaneki was four when he lost his father and ten when he lost his mother. Ever since, he had been under the care and roof of his mother’s older sister.
Living in a home where he had no place.
His chest still ached faintly and only thinking that there was definitely some fault of his did he feel a little better. Arriving at school, not a soul was in the classroom and he felt a little lighter. Kaneki opened the window slightly, took large bites of his convenience store-bought bread, and started reading the book he brought from home. His father once read this book. He had been told that his father had loved to read, and so the bookshelf in Kaneki’s room was like a copy of his father’s, filled to the brim with books.
After he started reading, he lost track of time. A strong wind blew in from the windows, opened about 10cm, and turned the book’s page. As if following the wind, he raised his head to look into the classroom and found his classmates already chattering in their own circles. He didn’t know when everyone had already arrived at school. This kind of cheerful atmosphere inexplicably made Kaneki feel a sense of pressure. He raised his head again to look at the classroom clock. It was still some time before the morning’s class meeting. The uncomfortable feeling worsened.
“Kaneki! Heeeey! Kaneki!”
A lively voice called out Kaneki’s name. Lifting his head, he saw his loose-screwed and cheerful friend, Nagachika Hideyoshi. In contrast to Kaneki, who was always reading quietly on his own, Hide was cheerful and loved social interaction, the kind of person who couldn’t stay still for a second. Like this, Hide was carrying his bag and holding a magazine as he charged towards him.
“What’s up?”
“What do you mean ‘what’s up’? It’s that CD I like that I told you about last time! It’s finally being released in Japan this weekend!”
“Oh! The overseas singer?”
Put on the table with a 'bang’ was a women’s fashion magazine that boys would be a little embarrassed about. Curious as to why Hide would have something like this, he saw that it seemed to have a special feature on the singer that Hide liked. Hide shouted, “Look, look at this!” while pushing the opened page into his sight, almost to the point of flattening his nose.
“Wait, calm down a little will you?”
Kaneki pulled back, took the magazine from Hide’s hands, and gave another look at the page. The article on the singer was disappointingly smaller than one might expect. Hide seemed at first glance like a sloppy person, but he was very enthusiastic when it came to things he felt strongly about and would gather even this little sliver of information.
“Incidentally, the previous page’s sandwich party feature’s Yuu-chan is really cute!”
“So you’ll notice even something like that… that said, what in the world is a sandwich party?”
Kaneki couldn’t help but smile at Hide’s meticulousness, and Hide said “And then!” and continued.
“I was thinking of going to buy it on the release date. Probably at the 20th ward shopping district.”
“Is there no place around here that sells it?”
“There’s very little places with the special edition poster! If you’re buying you have to buy the special edition! So, since this is a rare opportunity, want to come too, Kaneki? Keep me company!”
Kaneki immediately replied, “Sure.” Days off at the Asaokas’ home were tiring and, along with this morning’s cold treatment, Kaneki was grateful for Hide’s invitation.
“Did something happen?”
To this kind of Kaneki, Hide suddenly asked.
“Huh?”
“Nothing, don’t know why I got that feeling.”
Hide lowered his head to study Kaneki and his gaze made Kaneki uncomfortable. Kaneki rubbed his chin and responded, “Nothing’s wrong.”
“Alright then. How about this weekend? Before then, you better do your homework!”
In addition to the magazine on the table, Hide pulled more magazines from his bag and pushed them onto Kaneki.
“Wait, that’s too much…!”
At this moment, the unfortunate teacher entered the room. Looking at the clock, it was long past time to start the class meeting, but he seemed not to have noticed while talking to Hide.
He suddenly recalled a saying. The saying was in Dazai’s work “I heard it in this way”.
– If one does not read books, that is proof that they are not lonely.
When he saw this saying, more than feeling curious as to why Dazai wrote these words, Kaneki had felt the reason he read had been exposed and shuddered. Thinking back on his conversation with Hide and the way time had flown by, Dazai’s words felt even more profound.
However, the knowledge and experiences books gave him were the food that Kaneki lived off of. Thus, they were also Kaneki’s irreplaceable friends.
That aside, he had to finish the magazines Hide gave him. Kaneki thought this while listening to the teacher talk.
After school, Hide said that he hadn’t told him enough about the singer and thus dragged Kaneki into a fast food restaurant. However, Hide only talked a little more about the singer and the topic moved on to various matters. The sun slowly went down as they chatted and Kaneki went to the Asaokas’ home even later than usual.
Talking with Hide had made him feel a lot more relaxed, but standing at the front door, his nervousness reawakened. He patted his chest to calm himself, opened the door, and heard the sound of the television coming from the living room. His aunt was probably watching TV. Kaneki, taking this time to head to his room, picked up his pace. However, the reflection of the refrigerator in the kitchen caught his eye, stopping Kaneki in place.
His aunt bought that refrigerator with his mother’s money.
The sight of his mother working day and night appeared in his mind. And the reason why his mother had no choice but to do so was also reflected in his aunt’s home. His aunt always had one reason or another to ask his mother for money.
Not only that. When his aunt’s husband went into debt and lost his job, his mother for some reason had to make up for that money and needed to work more than ever. The reason his mother died was from overwork.
As a child, he had thought his aunt had a similarly hard life, but the truth was?
His aunt’s house was a two-story house. The living room had a large TV and a soft comfortable sofa and a view of the gardens and so on. As well, the refrigerator was heaped with food. Compared to his mother’s two-person, plain, and poor life, the aunt who ran to his mother for money lived a life many times better.
When he thought of this, an inerasable fog spread in his heart.
“…Oh.”
Kaneki sucked in a breath, repressing the feeling.
His mother had always said, rather than hurting others, it was better to be the person who was hurt. She also taught him that kind people only needed to be kind to feel happy. Following these words, wasn’t his mother happily smiling even through hardship?
Kaneki respected his mother. Therefore, he wanted to treasure the words his mother left him. Eliminating the negative feelings was like pulling up sprouts. Changing his feelings, he lifted his head.
“…Ah!”
And saw his aunt standing there.
The surprise felt like his heart was being grabbed and he took an involuntary step back.
The sounds of the TV he had just heard had stopped. It seemed that his aunt had decided to take a bath and stepped out of the living room, just in time to see Kaneki. Even though Kaneki’s entire body wanted to run away, it seemed he couldn’t simply ignore his aunt after all, and he desperately searched for something to say. The weight of his bag filled with magazines suddenly sent Hide’s image to his mind.
“U-Um, this weekend, Nagachika-kun and I, we’re going to go—”
Kaneki gathered together the courage to speak but, before he could finish, his aunt had already turned away and left.
“Ah…”
Left standing there, Kaneki hesitated, his mouth half-open.
“Reporting even such a trivial thing. Just like my little sister.”
His aunt looked over her shoulder, looking at Kaneki like he was filth as she spoke, and left to undress. As he stood, dazed, his backpack slipped from his shoulder and landed with a thump on the floor. His chest felt as if it was being gripped with waves of pain.
He was worried that he was going to be late, but when he arrived, he found that he still had a while until when they agreed to meet. Kaneki pulled from his bag a book and began to read.
“Oh! You’re already here, Kaneki!”
“You’re pretty early too.”
“That’s because I’ve been waiting for this day! Kaneki, did you have a good look through the magazines?”
Facing Hide, who was full of enthusiasm, Kaneki nodded.
“Yeah, several times times actually. I was thinking of giving them back to you today…”
“Wait! Giving them back to me at a time like this would be heavy!”
“…I thought so too, so I left them at home.”
At this, Hide proudly said, “As expected of Kaneki!” Thankful that his decision was the correct one, Kaneki put away the book and stood.
Then, the two switched trains and went to Hide’s CD store.
“As always, it’s really complete.”
“Yeah!”
Kaneki and Hide would come to this store from time to time. Even though the shop front was narrow, it stocked a large variety of CDs and one could feel the love for the singers. It was truly a conscientious store.
Hide made a beeline for the CD he wanted.
“Yeahhhh! I finally got it!!”
Kaneki watched the enthusiasm in which Hide received the CD and special edition poster, secretly envious. Hide openly displayed his likes and dislikes. It looked like a happy way to live. If Kaneki had been born with the same nature as Hide, maybe he would have a much easier time.
“Hey, Kaneki, I want to open it right now…!”
“Eh? Can’t you wait until you get home?”
“I’ve been waiting for it for a long painful time! How can you tell me to wait even longer?”
Like a spoiled child, Hide was unable contain himself, and so the two of them entered a nearby coffee shop. Not even ordering anything, Hide immediately started to open his CD. Given no choice, Kaneki ordered for himself a cup of regular coffee and for Hide a cappuccino. Then, he looked to the shop’s TV. Hide pulled out the CD’s lyrics book and started to read.
“…Are the lyrics translated to Japanese?”
“No, it’s in the original English.”
Just as Hide was squinting to carefully read the lyrics, their ordered coffee arrived. Hide picked up the newly-arrived cappuccino, downed it in one breath, and continued looking at the lyrics book.
“Can you read it?”
“Yeah, more or less.”
Although Hide acted like this, he was actually very good at English. He said it was only because he liked songs in other languages but couldn’t understand the lyrics that he started learning English, but it was also because he was interested in it.
Kaneki took a sip of coffee and, so that he wouldn’t bother Hide, took out his book again.
“This beat brings a person to tears…”
After a while, Hide pressed at the corner of his eyes, holding back tears. He seemed to have finished reading the lyrics.
“Are the lyrics that good?”
“That too, but mostly I’m moved that I finally have it in my hands…”
“So it was only that, huh…”
After Hide truly finished experiencing this happiness, he looked around the shop and noticed the TV.
[…inside the area, another ghoul-suspected incident has been discovered…]
Watching the news, Hide sighed, “'Ghouls’ again, huh…”
In this world, there were creatures that fed on humans to live called 'ghouls’. But he had never seen one before, only heard about them on the news.
“Speaking of 'ghouls’, aren’t there specialists that take care of them? Why do these incidents still happen?”
“It’s because they’re super strong right? They’re also hard to find and stuff like that.”
Thinking about the victims of the incidents, a feeling of hatred woke within Kaneki. Dangerous creatures like those should just disappear.
“Maybe every night in a place of about 100m, ghouls are fighting against humans with giant robots! We just don’t know it!”
Kaneki put aside some of his resentment. As always, Hide did things in his own way.
“Hide, aren’t you too old to still be watching so many special effects movies?”
“I haven’t been watching them! It’s just that before… ah, no, I just want to see it is all! Don’t you think it’ll be cool!?”
Kaneki smiled, saying, “Yeah, yeah.” Hide pouted like he wanted to protest, but then said, “Speaking of 'that’, that’s right.”
“That?”
“The one called Takatsuki? That author you like.”
If Kaneki, who loved to read, had to pick his favourite modern author, it would definitely be Takatsuki Sen. Overwhelming writing talent coupled with detailed psychological descriptions, in the horror-suspense genre, she was considered a genius that lived up to her name.
“Aren’t there monsters in her novels too?”
“No. Takatsuki Sen is the kind of author who realistically portrays the ugly parts of human beings. Under her pen, even if humankind calls something a monster, true monsters are different—…”
“Alright, that’s enough, that’s enough!”
Hide cut him off just as he was getting started. Probably because he knew that Kaneki could continue on forever. Kaneki advised Hide, “Hide, you should read them too.” However, Hide said, “The stuff you like is too deep, I don’t understand them at all,” and refused.
“I prefer manga to novels.”
“So this is the declining reading abilities of youths these days. How sad…”
“What do you mean sad? Aren’t you one of us youths too? I have my own hobbies you know. One time, I accidentally threw out a manga that I liked to the recycling station. I had a huge cry over it!”
“Accidentally throwing away something you like to the recycling station is a little…”
“Ah— enough! So troublesome!”
The two friends bickered for a little longer before Kaneki turned again to the TV. The news announcer was saying that this incident was probably the doing of the “Binge Eater” ghoul. With victims appearing, ghouls really were a frightening existence, but Kaneki had a different thought.
“After reading Takatsuki Sen’s novels, I thought, perhaps humans too are very sinful.”
At this, Hide put his face in his hand and groaned in response.
After resting for a little longer at the coffee shop, just as the two arrived in their neighbourhood, Hide spoke up:
“Oh, right, Kaneki. Can I come over to pick up the magazines I lent you?”
“You’ll wait?”
“Yeah, I don’t have anything to do when I get back anyways. And I want to see Yuu-chan!”
“…So that’s what you wanted.”
Kaneki sighed, and walked with Hide to the Asaokas’ home.
“…Hey, Kaneki—”
Just as they were nearing the house, Hide suddenly spoke up.
“The magazines I lent you. You didn’t memorize them or something did you?”
“Eh… not really…”
“You somehow seem really exhausted this week.”
Kaneki’s chest tightened at Hide’s words. The reason for this wasn’t from reading the magazines all this time, but a result of his depressed mood from being ignored by his aunt.
In that moment, Kaneki didn’t know what expression to make and immediately lowered his head.
“You’re really too serious, Kaneki! It’s good to relax a little!”
Hide spoke openly like he was making a joke and Kaneki gave a small smile.
“…Yeah.”
Perhaps following the flow of conversation, he said quietly:
“I’m probably tired from carrying the magazines…”
“Tired.” As he said this word, for some reason, he suddenly felt a lot more relaxed. Perhaps because the things that he used to accumulate all on his own were now being shared with someone else.
“Wait here, I’ll go get the magazines.”
Inexplicably feeling a little bashful, he went to open the Asaokas’ door like he was changing the subject, only to find something completely unimaginable.
“Welcome back.”
As he headed to his room after taking off his shoes, he heard words that he never normally heard. Kaneki looked with a start, finding that his aunt had come from the living room of her own will. This attitude, completely different from in the past, shocked him, but Kaneki still responded: “I-I’m home…”
“I helped clean your room.”
“Eh?”
His aunt didn’t smile, merely left her words and returned to the living room. Kaneki tilted his head, not understanding, but responded, “Okay,” and walked.
Maybe his aunt wanted to change her past attitude towards him and start anew. Just like his mother used to say, if you treat others with sincerity and without blame, perhaps there will come a day where you’ll understand each other.
Still unable to believe how easy this was to realize, Kaneki was lost in thought as he opened the door and entered his room.
“…Huh?”
Then he momentarily froze. The bookshelf in Kaneki’s room, which should be filled with his books, was completely empty.
Everything was too sudden and, for a moment, he could only stand there in a daze, unable to say a word. Disbelieving, he looked at the bookshelf again but it was truly empty. Before he could understand the situation, his body started trembling uncontrollably and his forehead broke into cold sweat.
“Why?”
Kaneki’s body moved as if it were being pulled. He turned over every corner of his room, looked under the cracks of his table, hoping that everything had simply been moved somewhere, but he couldn’t find anything no matter how much he looked.
Kaneki recalled his aunt’s words.
“…Au-aunt!”
Flying out of his room, he ran to the living room where his aunt was and found her looking at him with impatience.
“My… books…”
“I gave them to the waste recycling station.”
The words were like a punch. He could hear the ba-dump ba-dump beating of his heart and felt an intense headache like his blood was flowing backwards.
“It’s your fault for leaving your magazines poking out of your room and the inside was a complete mess, so I cleaned it all up. I always thought you had too many books. It probably left marks on the floor.”
After saying this, his aunt returned to watching the TV.
“But those books were important…!”
“Oh, I see. Sorry then.”
Even if he desperately wanted to accuse her, his aunt wouldn’t even look his way. Words couldn’t reach her. Anything he did would be useless.
So far, living in this house was like having the air choked from his lungs, and the heartache pushed him to the verge of tears.
“…Kaneki?”
Seeing Kaneki leave the house, Hide frowned.
“Hey, what are you doing looking so pale?”
Kaneki wiped the sweat dripping from his forehead and stammered an explanation.
“S-sorry, Hide. My aunt… looks like she… she didn’t know the magazines were yours, so she gave them to the waste recycling station…”
“What?”
“What… what do I do now. Oh… I’ll buy another for you, is that okay? …Are they still being sold? It’s alright, right? I’m sorry, it’s my fault for not taking care of them properly. I didn’t think something like this would happen…”
“Hey, Kaneki!”
Seeing Kaneki’s upset appearance and erratic gaze, Hide suddenly grabbed Kaneki’s shoulder.
“Calm down a little! What exactly happened?”
Kaneki tightly bit his lip at the question. He himself still couldn’t process what had happened. But he had to say it.
“My… my aunt… she gave all my books to the waste recycling station.”
“What?! Your books? All of them?! Why?”
“I’m sorry… your magazines… I’ll pay you back… I’m really sorry…”
“Who cares about some magazine! What are we going to do? Your books!”
Even if he was asked that, he didn’t know what to do either. No matter how much he thought about it, the books were already gone. He couldn’t get them back.
“There’s already nothing that could be done.”
If he didn’t think this, if he didn’t say this, it would only cause Hide unnecessary worry.
Kaneki desperately tried to pull together a smile. At this, Hide scratched his head anxiously and shouted his name with more force, “Kaneki!” When Kaneki looked at him in a daze, Hide asked:
“Don’t tell me you’re just going to leave it like this?”
In response to Hide’s unnaturally serious expression, the feelings Kaneki tried to suppress poured out.
—No. How can I accept this. Those books are precious. The books I bought myself don’t matter. But I absolutely can’t lose my father’s books. Those books let me feel my father’s presence. Those books dispersed my loneliness. Why do I have to suffer like this. What did I ever do to my aunt to deserve this. This is just too much, too much, too much too much too much—!!
However, Kaneki lifted his hand to cover his mouth.
At times like this, his mother’s gentle voice would say, “Rather than hurting others, it is better to be the person who is hurt.”
“It’s alright. Let it go.”
Kaneki smiled.
“I’m okay.”
So long as he was living with the Asaokas, he had no choice but to give up on resisting and accept his aunt’s wordless control.
“It’s fine.”
Only, unsettled and indecisive, his hand rubbed at his chin. Hide followed this small movement.
“…I got it!”
And Hide resolutely nodded his head. If he was understanding and accepting Kaneki’s words, these words were a little inappropriate. The strength in these words seemed to break through Kaneki’s anxiety.
Before Kaneki could understand why Hide said “I got it”, Hide had left Kaneki’s side. Turning his head, he saw Hide hurrying into the Asaokas’ home.
“Hide, Hide?!”
Kaneki followed Hide into the house, only to hear Hide calling continuously, “Ma'am! Ma'am!” His aunt, not knowing what was happening, walked out the living room, at which point Hide exclaimed:
“Ma'am, is it true you gave all of Kaneki’s books to the waste recycling station? My books were in there too!”
His aunt had believed it had only been Kaneki’s books and wavered a little.
“Your books were in there too?”
“Yeah…! Very important books! Did you really throw them out? Ma'am?”
Hide kicked up a fuss that felt a little exaggerated, interrogating his aunt.
“It’s not too late, right…? My 'Yuu-chan’s sandwich party 'Let Me Feed You’ special feature'…!!”
Like he was praying, Hide clasped his two hands together and kept asking. His aunt probably didn’t want to deal with it any longer and, after a slight glance at Kaneki, replied, “Who knows.”
“Then I’ll go look! …Ah, I’m guessing you tossed out Kaneki’s books by mistake too, so I’ll get them back as well!”
“…Whatever you want.”
Saying this reluctantly, his aunt turned with a face of displeasure back to the living room. Having smoothly settled this, Hide unselfconsciously struck a victory pose.
“Alright! Kaneki, let’s go!”
And with this momentum, he hurried out the door.
“Hide, Hide! Where are you going!”
Unable to keep up with these events, Kaneki was bewildered. Hide looked over his shoulder and yelled:
“To find your books!”
“To… find my books…?”
“Yup!”
He gave him this option with an “isn’t it obvious” expression. This gave hope to Kaneki, who had previously thought only of giving up.
“But… But… Where are we going to find them….?”
“Didn’t I say? I once lost a manga I liked to the waste recycling station and even cried over it!”
They talked about it at the coffee shop. It wasn’t an incident that people would notice.
“I did some research then! So I know where the books in this area would’ve gone!”
Hide, full of confidence, smiled and said, “Hurry, let’s go!” and started running. Kaneki, too, clenched his fist and chased after him, while feeling his voice had reached Hide clearly.
“Ah, from that house. We did recover them. There was a lot so I remember it pretty well.”
At the recycling station, when they relayed the entire story and the residence, the staff member seemed to have some memory of the event and gave the above response. Kaneki and Hide shared a look.
“So they’re here, right?!”
“So to speak, but boys, since we recover books from many places, we have a lot of books here.”
Just like the staff member said, there was a mountain of books. To find Kaneki’s books in this pile would be like trying to find a needle in a haystack.
“Kaneki, you know where they are?”
“I’ll go look.”
Even if this were the case, knowing that the books were here gave him hope. Like he was undertaking a challenge, Kaneki extended his hand to the pile of books. Hide, too, said that he knew what the lent magazines looked like, and started searching with him.
After, the sun went down and the first twinkling stars appeared in the sky. Kaneki’s sleeves were rolled up and, without wiping away his sweat or speaking, he searched in silence. Moving aside books, he found in its depths a familiar-looking women’s fashion magazine.
“This is…”
Hastily pulling it out, he found a stack of magazines tied together with a plastic strip. A look revealed a cover with text about a special feature on an overseas singer.
“Hide, I found the magazines! It’s the magazines you lent me!”
“Really?”
Just as Kaneki was feeling a bit relieved to return the magazines to Hide, Hide did not spare them a glance, and began very vigorously searching the area of books where the magazines were found.
“Hide, the magazines…”
“Who cares about the magazines! If you found the magazines here, that means your books should be nearby!”
Kaneki suddenly came back to himself, looking at the books that Hide had pulled out and finding a familiar back cover. There was a bundle of books with Dazai Osamu printed on them in large letters. In addition, a closer look at the books Hide had dug out revealed not only Dazai’s books, but also other books belonging to Kaneki.
“I used to have a talent for treasure hunting after all!”
Hide said proudly, his face full of cheer. Kaneki’s entire body loosened in relief, slumping to the ground, and he thanked Hide: “Thank you, Hide.” Hide, as if to share in the achievement with Kaneki, crouched down with a smile.
“What are you being so formal for? We’re friends after all!”
Hide summed up everything with those words. Kaneki bit tightly on his lips, trying to hold back an aching feeling in his nose. “Yeah,” he said with a nod.
“It’s fortunate that you found them. It’s quite a lot. Let’s see, let me drive them back for you.”
Possibly out of sympathy for the way the two had looked for the books as if their lives had depended on it, in the end, it was the staff worker who gave the two a ride. The two of them and the books were loaded onto the back of a light truck and they lied down flat like they were hiding amongst them. His body suddenly ached everywhere from the physical exertion, but the vibrations of the unhurried truck seemed to soothe his exhaustion.
“…but… will the books end up being thrown out again?”
Hide told the uncertain Kaneki:
“Then tell your aunt that the staff member said that these books could rise in value in five or six years, or something along those lines. She’ll change her attitude if she thinks they’re valuable.”
“Is that so… also, why five or six years?”
Hide got up with his hands behind his head and said:
“By then, we’ll have already entered society, right? As adults, we’ll be free to do whatever we want to do. Speaking of, Kaneki, are you aiming to get into university?”
“Ah, yes.”
“Then you can start living alone!”
Hide always came up with some good ideas.
“Living alone?”
“Yup! Then you can do whatever! Maybe even take a girlfriend home!”
“I-I don’t have a girlfriend… Hide, you don’t have one either.”
“You’re such an idiot~! This is the university life everyone dreams about! Every university student can find a girlfriend!”
“I don’t think that can happen.”
Kaneki shot down Hide’s grand expectations, but no human being could stop Hide anymore.
“Who knows, Kaneki, maybe you’ll find yourself a beautiful girlfriend who loves to read!”
“Wh-wh-what…?”
Unable to match the optimistic Hide, who was merry the entire journey, Kaneki’s face was a little stiff. However, deep in his heart, there seemed to be a tiny light shining quietly in a place the darkness could never touch.
Having been imprisoned in the Asaokas’ house this entire time, he had thought that his life would continue to be without freedom. However, if he gave it a little more thought, so long as he continued to mature, there would come a day where he could stand in this world on his own two legs.
“It will definitely be fun!”
As if infected by Hide’s carefree smile, a smile appeared on Kaneki’s face as well.
When he could live with his own power, perhaps then he could create a place to call his own.
Hide was saying, “So where are you planning on living?” and other things that were still too early to say. Nonetheless, Kaneki listened attentively while looking at the night sky.
Not long after, they were at the Asaokas’ house and the staff worker called out Kaneki’s aunt.
“A child who holds books with such importance will definitely become someone remarkable. Take good care of him.”
To his aunt, this should be the most unpleasant of advice. As well, she wasn’t a woman who would listen obediently to others. But. Perhaps believing that anything she took up with regarding Kaneki wouldn’t result in anything good, his aunt wouldn’t interfere more with him. And then Kaneki could reconsider a little that her not caring for him made things easier for him.
Like this, perhaps human beings grow, little by little, and continue to change. And from now on, perhaps he had freedom waiting for him.
Even if he struggled now, he dreamed of the day he could break free of these bloodline shackles and escape from this cage.
And this sprout of hope was the driving force of it all.
“—…Rize-san’s blood-type is AB? So is mine!”
And so, from one cage to another—…
