Touka (Oneshot)

Touka is a slight girl in her teens whose dark hair falls in a chin-length bob. Her fringe sweeps to one side and fully hides her right eye. Depending on the moment, she turns up in either her school uniform or the outfit she wears waiting tables.

She keeps up the act of a harmless girl, one who flinches at spooky tales and strange happenings. That performance masks the truth, for she is in fact a merciless hunter behind a string of savage killings across the neighborhood.

Touka took notice of two regulars at the cafe and wondered whether they might be police. Kaneki told her they were ghoul investigators on the job and then claimed to be a ghoul himself just to rattle her, before admitting it was a joke. She confided how a suspicious pair had recently tried to lure her friend away, and how news reports of ghouls preying on young women had frightened the friend into staying indoors for days. When the manager brought sandwiches, she brushed off the food, claiming a diet, and agreed only to a token bite.

Days later, as Kaneki shadowed Shinohara with intent to kill, he crossed paths with Touka at the subway station. Recognizing him, she trailed the two men into a parking garage and witnessed their fight, moving to shield her coworker. Kaneki seized her as a hostage, but Shinohara struck at them both and branded her a necessary sacrifice. She caught his hand, tore open his face, and taunted him, revealing herself as the binge eater terrorizing the district and naming him as her ninth kill that month. With her aid, Kaneki finished Shinohara. Afterward the two watched the news cover the veteran investigator's death, and she fretted over her runaway appetite until Kaneki assured her it would ease with age, the pair later practicing at eating ordinary sandwiches together.