Episode 19: Permeation

Hinami Fueguchi remains anxious about Ken Kaneki and the toll his choices take on others, above all Touka Kirishima. Watching Touka study hard to reach Kamii University, she turns to Nishiki Nishio with a question about love, and he struggles to explain it as wanting to spend time with someone and do things for them. To ease her worry, Shuu Tsukiyama promises her that Kaneki still lives and brings her to a cafe the two had visited before. While he steps away, Sen Takatsuki appears, hears Hinami's troubles, and offers the harsh but honest truth that in her current state she cannot help Kaneki at all, leaving a business card in case Hinami ever needs her.

Takatsuki then visits the CCG and requests an interview. Because interviews are normally closed, an exception is granted for her celebrity, and Yukinori Shinohara and Juuzou Suzuya speak with her. She says she plans to pen a ghoul-themed novel and wants to know whether artificial ghouls could be created by implanting ghoul organs into a human. Shinohara doubts it is possible and cannot fathom why anyone would want more such creatures. As she departs she leaves him with a rumor about a 20th Ward coffeehouse.

Kaneki keeps deteriorating mentally and is tormented by nightmares. After a sleepless night he returns to Anteiku to talk with Yoshimura, who has been worried about him and agrees to speak in private. Hinami learns from Roma Hoito that Kaneki is present and tells Touka, who catches him on a bridge after he leaves. Kaneki claims he joined Aogiri Tree to protect her and Anteiku, but Touka rejects this as selfishness. When he keeps lying, she attacks. He dodges easily until she orders him never to come back to Anteiku, which rattles him, and she beats him down while asking why he had to change, leaving him wondering the same.

Juuzou and Shinohara later dine at Anteiku and question Yoshimura, since it was Kaneki's former workplace. Yoshimura says they lost contact after Kaneki vanished two months earlier and offers only that Kaneki had recently received an organ transplant and was constantly ill. Sensing something familiar, Shinohara asks whether they have met before, and Yoshimura denies it. The pair compliment the service, and Shinohara intends to return.

Hinami confides in Nishiki and then in Takatsuki, who tells her she cannot yet help Kaneki. Takatsuki interviews Shinohara and Juuzou about the possibility of artificial ghouls and drops a hint about the 20th Ward cafe. Kaneki, plagued by nightmares, meets privately with Yoshimura. Touka confronts Kaneki on a bridge, rejects his justification for joining Aogiri, and beats him after forbidding his return to Anteiku. Shinohara and Juuzou question Yoshimura at Anteiku, and Shinohara senses a hidden familiarity.

The episode adapts manga chapters 93, 114, 115, 118, 120, and 136. In the manga the artificial-ghoul interview is conducted by Koutarou Amon and concerns the Sphinx Company, whereas the anime hands the scene to Shinohara instead.