Chapter 34: Slide

Itori teasingly calls Kaneki by the nickname Kanekichi, noting that Uta and Renji Yomo mention him constantly. She reads him as gentle and naive, and explains she has known Yomo and Uta since their days together in the 4th ward, where the two caused plenty of chaos as teenagers.

She hands Kaneki a glass of blood, and when he balks she flings it in his face, using the moment to snatch away his eyepatch and expose his single kakugan eye. Kaneki learns that other one-eyed ghouls exist and that such a ghoul far outranks an ordinary one in strength. Itori cautions him against getting near the One-Eye, said to practice cannibalism and to be extremely dangerous, then reveals the current rumors actually concern Kaneki himself and Rize Kamishiro's death. According to her, Rize was killed on purpose, and Kaneki, used as bait, was swept into becoming a one-eyed ghoul by pure chance.

Kaneki pleads with Itori to name whoever killed Rize, but she sets a condition: he must bring her information on the Gourmet and on what happens inside the Ghoul Restaurant.

Itori exposes Kaneki's kakugan and teaches him that one-eyed ghouls are rare and unusually powerful. She reveals that Rize's death was intentional and that Kaneki became a one-eyed ghoul by chance after being used as bait.

She strikes a bargain, promising to identify Rize's killer only if Kaneki gathers intelligence on the Gourmet and the Ghoul Restaurant.

The chapter reframes Kaneki's origin as the result of a deliberate plot rather than a random accident, driving his motivation forward. Itori's deal directly sets up his infiltration of Tsukiyama's world. As with nearby chapters, the English Volume 4 mistranslates a reference to the One-Eye as the One-Eyed King in Kaneki's thoughts, when it points to Eto Yoshimura.