3rd Person's P.O.V. 

Kaneki was working behind the counter at Starbucks, the rush hour had just finished but there were still a lot of customers. He was starting to get a little bored, there was still 20 minutes before his shift ends. Kaneki glanced at Hinami who was sitting at one of the tables drawing by herself. He promised that he'd take her to the bookstore where there was a sale.

The bell rang indicating that another customer had entered but Kaneki ignored it, figuring that one of the other workers would deal with them.

"Eyepatch," a familiar voice called out. Kaneki froze, his eyes widened considerably. Impossible. Kaneki falteringly turned right round and there he stood in all his glory.

Kishou Arima.

"A-A-Arima..." Kaneki stuttered. What was he doing here?! The Reaper gave so reply but simply activated his quinque before taking a strike at Kaneki who manages to dodge in time. People were screaming and coughing as they struggled to get away.

A large cloud of dust exploded in the café which blinded Arima temporarily and allowed Kaneki the opportunity to escape. Kaneki grabbed Hinami by the waist and lugged her the hell out of there.

"Onii-chan! Watch out!" Hinami yelled and just as Kaneki was about to turn around, pain exploded at the back of his head.

"AAaAAAaaaAaaAGgggggGggGGGhHHHh!!!!!!!" Kaneki unintentionally let go of Hinami as he dropped to his knees, holding his face. A large quinue was pierced through the back of his head and punctured his left eye.

"ONII-CHAN!!!" Hinami screamed, coming to her brother's aid.

"Ahauhaaah... the paaaain... huuurrtss...!" Kaneki screeched but he still had enough coherent thought to summon his rinkaku to heave the quinque out his head. Arima strolled to Kaneki's and Hinami's location. His face void of any emotion as he spared a glance to Hinami.

"Daughter ghoul," Arima states and Hinami flinches, the last time she was called that she was being hunted by her parent's murderer. Hinami's whole body trembled violently and she sweated profusely as Death itself stared her right in the eye.

"H-Hinami... run..." Kaneki demanded as he struggled to get up from the ground. "Get... help," Kaneki hands Hinami his S.H.I.E.L.D. phone which she clutches to her chest.

"What? No!" Hinami didn't want to leave her big brother.

"N... now... please," Kaneki practically begged. Hinami looked at her brother then at Arima. How was she to escape when the White Reaper was just there?

"You can go," Arima answers, unperturbed. "My only mission is to deal with Eyepatch. I'll deal with you later."

"Hi-Hinami go.., now!" Kaneki ordered and Hinami seeing no choice, sprinted on out of there.

With Hinami out of harms way this gave Kaneki the opportunity to fight Arima with his full power without any distractions. 

Kaneki elongated multiple of his tendrils and flailed them about in a highly coordinated attack on Arima but no hit was made as he evaded them all swiftly and calmly.

"... need to... keep Hinami... safe..." Kaneki mumbled, unintelligently. It hurts. Everything hurts. But he has to fight. He has to protect Hinami.

Kaneki kept on attacking but nothing worked to which he grew wilder and the attacks became more fervent. Kaneki's mind began to melt away with the blood that oozed out the puncture hole.

After dodging multiple kagunes, Arima countered with his IXA quinque. Using its offensive mode which resembled a lance that was attached to a gun-sword handle with a spiked pommel.

He slashed at Kaneki who eluded all attacks with precision, seeing that he could not defeat Eyepatch he had no other alternative but to change its form to defence which managed to Pierce through Kaneki's abdomen at the same time, Kaneki managed to break through IXA barrier.

Kaneki let out a silent scream and he regurgitated a gallon of blood. His limp body fell to the ground like a rag doll, shattering the concrete beneath him. Kaneki laid there, unmoving, his remaining eye completely white attesting to the fact that he was out cold.

"Wow. I never expected you to damage IXA's Defensive Barrier," Arima praises before noting, "... that's right. I'll need a new quinque," Arima then stabs Kaneki through his other eye though the latter doesn't react.

"NOOOO!!!"

With Hinami 

Hinami sprinted through the crowd, it was like that day when her mother was killed. She blindly tapped a number on Kaneki's contact list and waited for it to go through.

"Hey Kaneki-" Natasha started to greet but Hinami cut her off.

"Miss Nat! Onii-chan! He-" Hinami tried to explain but she could let out sobs.

"Hinami, what's wrong?" Natasha demands.

"Onii-chan is going to be killed! The Reaper, he came! You have to help my brother!" Hinami begs. She wasn't watching where she was going and ended up crashing into a middle-aged business man. She dropped the phone which fell through a sewer grate, Hinami fell to her knees in despair as she watched the water current drag the phone away. How was she going to help her brother now?

"You damn brat! Watch where you're going!" The man yelled before realising Hinami's state. "Kid, are you covered in blood?" Hinami shot back to her feet and carried on running. She needed to find someone. Anyone.

Then she saw him, it was Captain America!

With all her might, Hinami screamed at the top of her lungs, "CAPTAIN AMERICA!!"

Steve whipped his head to whoever called his name and saw a young girl who was sprinting to him. She looked like she had gone through hell. Her clothes were stained with blood, her face streaked with tears and her eyes were bloodshot.

She ended tripping and landed face first onto the pavement, she scraped herself which stung a little but she paid it no attention, her brother is most likely going through worse.

Steve ran up to Hinami and knelt down to help her, Hinami immediately grabs Steve's arms and begged him for help, "Please, you have help my brother. He... he's going to kill Kaneki."

"Who's going to kill Kaneki?" Steve questions, completely serious.

"The Reaper! Just save him, please! I'll take you," Steve pulled Hinami up and she led him to where Kaneki and Arima were fighting. She came to find her brother lying on the ground with a quinque through his other eye.

"NOOOO!!!" Hinami shrieked in despair, hands at the side of her face before falling to her knees.

Steve, seeing his teammate wounded on the ground, immediately leapt into action by engaging into a fight with Arima though the latter had no trouble against the Super Soldier. Steve didn't have his shield on him which made it difficult to block attacks from the lance, he knew that it was very strong as it was used to maim Kaneki.

Steve eludes to the left to avoid the lunge of the lance but instead of Arima counter-attacking he flashes past Steve and sprints on ahead. Straight towards Hinami.

Steve eyes widened in horrified shock as he realises his opponent is now after the little girl. He curses and races after Arima but it was futile, Arima was too far ahead of him.

Hinami could barely comprehend the battle that was ahead, she just kept staring at his body. Her brother's dead. He died because she was weak, she was forced to rely on him for protection since she can't do it herself. It was her fault.

Hinami saw a flash of black in the corner of her eye and when she turned her gaze it was introduced to a quinque that was only a feet away from her face. Her parents faces flit through her mind.

'Okaa-san, Otou-san,' Hinami remembered all the good times she spent with everyone. Her parents, her Onii-chan and Onee-chan, her friends from Anteiku, Banjou and his friends.

Someone flew past grabbing Hinami just before the quinque could impale itself in her head. A large cloud of dust flew up as the lance is embedded deep in the concrete.

"To attack a defenceless child is beyond despicable," Thor glowers at Arima, he was kneeling a few feet away with Hinami in his arms.

"Stand down Kishou Arima," Natasha orders, firmly with a gun pointed right at his head.

"You are interfering with matters of the CCG, Black Widow. This should not involve S.H.I.E.L.D." Arima notifies calmly, despite the fact that a bullet could be pumped into his head at any given moment.

"Kaneki is a member of the Avengers and is allied with S.H.I.E.L.D." Natasha throws back, "that is more than substantial reasoning why I have intervened. For attacking him, I'm placing you under arrest."

Arima's lip twitched upwards slightly, amused at the thought, "Sorry but I have orders to return," Arima yanked IXA from the concrete which sprayed little bits of rubble, blinding everyone before he disappeared into thin air.

Steve was about to go after him but Natasha intervened, "Don't. He's long gone, we need to check Kaneki."

Once Natasha mentioned Kaneki, Hinami snapped out of her daze and dashed to his body and begged him to wake up, "Onii-chan! Onii-chan, please wake up! Don't leave me as well!" The trio come closer but could do nothing but watch in pity as Hinami wailed for Kaneki to wake up.

Natasha kneeled down and was about to break the news to Hinami when she noticed Kaneki was still breathing.

"Hinami, he's still breathing," Natasha examined Kaneki's body and found the hole in his abdomen large and still bleeding out. Kaneki is alive but he won't be for long. "But he's bleeding too heavily, I don't know if he'll survive."

Hinami's heart dropped, just as a sliver of light appeared it was instantly vanquished by the darkness of reality. Is there really nothing that they could do? It's not like she could heal him!

Or could she?

"Otou-san, how did you heal that man? You made his whole arm grow back!" Hinami exclaimed, eyes shining with curiosity.

Asaki laughed and ruffled Hinami's hair, "It's a trick I learned, any ghoul can learn how to heal their comrades serious and large injuries."

"Wow, could I learn it?" Hinami inquired.

"Of course you can, but it is very difficult and will take time. Are you ready for such a big responsibility?" Asaki asked his daughter.

"Yeah! I want to be a great doctor like Otou-san!" Hinami cheered.

"That's my girl," Asaki praised before teaching Hinami how to use her kagune to heal.

"I can heal him," Hinami states full of determination and before the trio could question this, Hinami summoned out both her kagunes which she placed over Kaneki's wound and pumped his body full of Rc cells to speeded his regeneration.

Instantly, Hinami became exhausted, she's only used this technique a few times for small injuries like cuts. This is the first time she's used it to heal such a severe wound and it was really taking a toll on her but she couldn't give up. She was able to do something.

It wasn't long till a S.H.I.E.L.D. ambulance came along and took Kaneki into a stretcher. Steve carried an exhausted Hinami to the car and Natasha drove to the Triskelion.

At the Triskelion 

 The team was sitting outside an operating room where Kaneki was being treated. The hallway was silent except for the muffled beeping of machinery, the team just stood in silence waiting for the doctors. Hinami was sleeping on the bench, breathing softly.

"Natasha, who was that guy?" Steve asked after a moment of hesitation.

"Kishou Arima, a Special Class Ghoul Investigator, he's a figurehead of the Japanese Counter Commission of Ghouls," Natasha answers.

"Ghoul? That is what Kaneki is?" Thor questions.

"Yeah, and Hinami," Natasha adds and the two men turn to look at the sleeping girl.

"Why was that man after her then? Kaneki is understandable but she does not seem like a threat," Thor points out.

"To the CCG, Hinami did the biggest sin of all."

"What did she do?" Steve inquired, wondering what this innocent little girl did to be hunted down like that. She looked like she couldn't hurt a fly.

"She was born," Natasha states, a grim smile on her face, she walked closer to Hinami and started to pet her hair, Hinami stirred but did not awake. "Ghouls are humanity's natural predator and they are persecuted for that reason. All ghouls are considered to be monsters that have no feelings or humanity even children which makes it easy to kill them."

"Hinami's parent's were killed last year by a First Class Investigator known as Kureo Mado. He slaughtered them in cold blood and used their kagunes to make quinque's, the weapon you guys saw earlier, which he used to go after Hinami. He was killed though by her surrogate sister who is also Kaneki's close friend."

"Did she see her parents murder?" Steve asked, softly.

"Not her father's but she was there for her mother's as well as Kaneki. He covered her eyes so she wouldn't see... but she knew her mother was beheaded," Natasha responds.

"How do you know so much?" Thor inquired.

"Kaneki and CCG reports," Natasha reveals, "he told me a little. It seems like that incident affected him too, he showed so much grief recalling that event."

"She's just a kid," Steve notes dismally, peering down at the sleeping girl. The doctor came out of the surgery room, looking tired.

"He's stable," the doctor informed, taking off his gloves as he explains Kaneki's state. "The stabs to his eyes were brutal but are healing at a slow pace, it'll be about a week before he'll be able to see. The hole in his abdomen was way more serious, he lost a lot of blood but luckily, the wound was healed just in time. All in all, he'll be as fit as a fiddle soon."

"Thank goodness," the group breathed a huge sigh of relief.

"He's awake so you can see him if you want," the doctor informs before warning, "I ask you be slow with him, he is still a bit disorientated."

Natasha shook Hinami awake, "Hmm?" Hinami mumbled, rubbing the sleepiness out of her eye.

"Hey Hinami, your brother's awake," Hinami shot up hearing the statement.

"Really?" Hinami didn't wait for a reply and ran into the room, the trio of adult walking in behind her.

"Onii-chan!" Hinami yelled and she teared up when he turned his bandaged face to her, smiling.

"Ah, not too loud Hinami. I got a headache," Kaneki responds the holds his arms open, inviting her for a hug which she jumps into, sobbing into his chest. "There, there," Kaneki consoles, petting her head as he whispers more comforting words into her ear. He perks his head when he hears 3 pairs of footsteps.

"How are you doing, Kaneki?" Steve asks.

"Been better," Kaneki shrugs, jokingly.

"You must have. No one could have survived such injuries," Thor retorts.

"Well I am one of a kind," Kaneki grins before turning serious, "what happened to Arima?"

"He escaped," Natasha answered, "apparently, he was under the orders of the CCG to come and capture you."

"So my cover's blown?" Kaneki acknowledged.

"Do we have to move again?" Hinami inquires, quietly. They were forced to leave Japan and all their friends behind last year, she didn't want to move again but she knows how dangerous it would be to stay where the enemy knows they are.

"Not this time, Hinami," Natasha reassures, "Kaneki is a member of the Avengers and is associated with S.H.I.E.L.D. which is a high class organisation. It won't be easy for the CCG to touch you without any serious repurcussions."

Hinami breathed a small sigh of relief and Kaneki, once again, petted her head, "I'm sorry that we couldn't go to the bookstore today."

"It's fine, we can go another day," Hinami replies.

"It's not like you can read them anyway," Thor points out.

"Wait, what?" Kaneki questions.

"Kaneki, you're blind now," Steve reminds and was about to say something else when he noticed Kaneki was frozen. "Kaneki?"

'I can't read books? Then what's life worth living for beside Hinami? My life is truly over, I can't believe this is happening to me,' Kaneki lamented in his mind.

Hinami studied her brother's face and instantly knew what he was thinking about, "I could read to you until your eyes get better," Hinami offers.

"You really are a gift from God, Hinami," Kaneki cried holding Hinami's hands in his own.

"You know, she was the one who mended the wound in your abdomen," Steve adds.

"Really? I didn't know you could do that," Kaneki replies.

"My father taught me a couple of times but it was the first time I did on such a big injury," Hinami tells them, bashful.

"You saved my life Hinami, I knew you'd be able to do great things," Kaneki disclosed, "I can always count on you for anything."

A nurse came in and told the group that they could back tomorrow so Hinami left with Natasha with a promise that she'd come back with a new book to read to Kaneki.