I tried not to scream in shock.

There certainly was plenty under the platform. Knives, shots, two notebooks, and two masks. One mask resembled a sun. The other, I had no idea what it was. I picked it up to inspect it when my phone startled me.

Ring~

I scrambled to pick it up and held it to my ear, inspecting the mask. It had a zipper to open the fake mouth, and the other part seemed to be a black eyepatch. I think it was one whole mask since they fit together, but I couldn't be certain.

"Kei?" I called, putting the mask carefully back down. I opened one of the notebooks, flipping through it. It had all sorts of mixtures and such written down. It listed the ingredients used, the effects, and other things.

"Kai. Uh.. er.."

I stared at my phone through the corner of my eye. "Kei. I saw the news. I'm sorry. But we need to make sure you don't end up like your parents or sister."

"..."

"Let's meet in the forest. Okay?" I started stuffing the things back in. Kei's breathing was heavy. "Kei. You can trust me. I would never turn you in or anything like that. I have some useful stuff that is exactly for this kind of situation. Remember the box I told you about? The one that's been passed down in my family?" I switched my phone to the other shoulder/ear.

"... The one you're only supposed to open if you come into contact with a 'ghoul'.. right?"

"Yea. But I think my family's gotten this all wrong. The reasoning of the ancestor who arranged this box. It wasn't because he despised ghouls. This box isn't to kill ghouls. It's to save them."

"..."

I knew Kei didn't know the difference between a human and a ghoul. I'd realized that the first time I mentioned the two species. He had no idea what they were. So he'd never understood this box, either.

"..Kai.. why..why are they after us..? Why did they kill my parents..?"

But that ignorance can't be kept anymore.

"Kei. I'll explain in the forest. I think it's best if I explain it in person. Especially since you're obviously in the middle of running."

I grabbed the box, finally finished putting everything back, even the platform, and started out the door, making sure no one saw me.

"We'll meet in the forest. Where are you?"

"... um.. the.. the tree that we caught that one really big bug.."

"Okay. Stay there, and I'll be right there. I'm coming."

I hung up and concentrated solely on running.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

I fumbled with my phone nervously. I told Kai where I was.. If I.. If I couldn't trust him..

Something seems awfully wrong about this situation.. why they're after us..

I have a really bad feeling..

Suddenly, I started smelling Kai. He was rushing over, but he wasn't sprinting..

When he came into my view, I realized why.

He'd been bringing the box. He slid onto his knees, setting the box beside us. He opened it up and took out all of these papers. He then took out a platform and then two masks.

"This is proof. That my ancestor wasn't an enemy of ghouls. Why would he keep a ghoul's mask?" Kai stated, "Also, he has some notebooks in here." Kai pulled out a notebook, "This one has a bunch of experiments written into it," he explained, flipping the pages.

"! Wait!" I stopped him, flipping back to a certain page.

Kai's P.O.V. {I know it's random, but I accidentally switched the P.O.V. to Kai's after the entry.}

One day, I think, a desperate but smart and intuitive person will find the bottom of my Ghoul Box. I know a descendant of mine will go through the same thing I did-- watching a friend enter the ghoul world. Perhaps it's a descendant of my best friend. That would be cool.

The point is, I want that person to continue what I was trying to find. The stuff on the top is merely information I researched - things that probably won't be of use to people in the future - and things to keep people - even if they're not an investigator - alive in the case of a ghoul attack - tactics, weaknesses, strengths, etc. I would hope none of my ancestors become killers of innocent ghouls, but.. Anyway.

The stuff on the bottom are more personal. In this notebook you're reading, there are experiments. There are three different sections. Two different options. They are ways to make a ghoul live peacefully - without eating human flesh. I didn't succeed; I didn't complete a way. But maybe you can. There are two types, as I stated. A pill to make ghouls eat human food. A substitution for human flesh. And the final section - not a way for a ghoul to live peacefully but just research for a desperate instance. This final section states tranquilizers and the such. You'll notice that there are names on the knives in this box. They have different effects.

As you may have guessed, these knives are quinques in a way. These were not made by killing ghouls though - or even taking their kakuhou. I have been attacked by ukaku ghouls or come across crime scenes left by ukaku ghouls. I used the crystals they shot for these quinques. I wouldn't give such a burden as wielding a quinque created from pain. The shots are for tranquilizers. Using the notes I leave in here, you'll have to make your own. These shots are also made from ukaku crystals.

The other notebook in here is a diary, in a sort. I recorded things I noticed and such.

Finally, there are two masks in here. If you've read any of the information from the top of my Ghoul Box, you'll realize I am obsessed with the Eyepatch Ghoul. That is because the Eyepatch is my best friend, who was turned into a half-ghoul. The black mask that is in here, that is his. The sun mask, I often used to wander and sniff around the ghoul world.

I hope you stay safe, descendant. And I hope you're able to save your friend, unlike I was.

I stared at the notebook.

".. S..So.. his.. his best friend.. died?" I croaked, looking up in horror at Kei. He stared back at me.

"I'm sure it explains that much in the Diary, if you're curious," he responded. I hurriedly got out the Diary and flipped to the last page.

Epilogue

Thinking back, I've been pretty crazy in my search for Kaneki.

And for what?

Why didn't I go to him? I knew where he was, but I never reached out to him..

I knew he'd be devastated if he knew I knew. I was sure he'd tell me eventually. Eventually..

He wasn't able to. I finally gave in. I'm glad I did. Otherwise, we'd be left unconnected, distant..

This is my last Entry. I know because I was caught. I'm on death row. How ironic, right?

Oh, but, by death row, I just mean that I'm being kept alive only for information. I refuse to give it, of course, but they still try. I'm dying because of my wound from the ghoul Noro.

They told me my best friend was killed by Arima-san. Sure, I don't really have any reason to live, really, but I still won't give up the names of the ghouls I know.

It's been a tedious road.. Chasing after Kaneki has been draining. Depressing.

If I had to really give a reason for his death.. I'd say it was his insanity. From Rize to Yamori. Those two.. They broke him. I was never.. able to patch him back up.. I didn't get that chance.. I wasn't able to save him from himself.

I wonder if he has left any mark.. I doubt he left a mark that'll stay, like a descendant. I haven't really either, have I..?

Well then, I guess this is the end of our pain.. Me and Kaneki's.. This is the end of the journey of the best friend of the amazing person named Kaneki Ken.

"Huh..? But.. But.."

I'm a descendant of his though.. Why did he say-

"Kai." I looked up at Kei and looked at what he was pointing to.

A page.. A lone piece of paper at the bottom of the box..

I know I said that was my last entry, but it turns out, I'm making another. I found out the truth-- Kaneki Ken isn't yet dead. Supposedly, he got amnesia. He doesn't remember anything. He's an investigator now.

I pleaded a lot, and I got my wish. Probably because I was annoying the heck out of Mado-san.

I don't know if it'll work, but at twenty-five, I have donated sperm to a good cause.

Hahaha. I know it won't work, but whatever. Heehee. I've even made a Ghoul Box for a descendent that'll never be.

Maybe I've gone a little more insane from blood loss, who knows. But I can't stop laughing. I'm pretty sure I'll die laughing.

I'm glad I'm going this way.

I'd rather die laughing with Kaneki, but this is fine. I saw him and made him smile when my days were numbered. That's enough for me.

Haha, Kaneki pregnant. What a good laugh..

Ah, I love Kaneki so mu~

The ink trailed off, and I stared at it for a few seconds before realizing.

He'd died writing that sentence..

"... Kei?" I looked up at him warily. He was staring back at me. "Do you understand this..?"

"I guess your ancestor's sperm was injected in his best friend. Of course, he does seem to be disoriented. Some of this may not be true. Some of it doesn't match up, like him stating that the descendent that finds this box might be friends with a descendent of his best friend. Plus, it said his best friend was a ghoul, but you aren't a ghoul, are you?"

".. No.. not that I know of.."

"The way I look at it, there's only one sentence that's definitely true, and that's this," he pointed to the sentence that said my ancestor might've been going insane.

"... Oh.. So.. so what really happened..?"

"Who knows. But should we really trust the notes he wrote, if he was so disoriented?" Kei asked, and I frowned. I opened the notes, skimming through them.

"But, what if he made these notes BEFORE he went insane, Kei?"

"That's a possibility, I guess.. But we should check out all of the notes before we try them on us or anything."

"... And, the quinques and information and everything else?"

"Same thing goes for them. Those could be normal knives and shots. That information could be faulty."

"..."

I trust the ancestor that wrote this, but.. Kei's right-- he's obviously so disoriented..

I don't know what to trust on those last two entries..

Alright, I'm not sure if this is an Ending Play, or just a Middle Note, but whatever. I changed a bunch. Okay.. I know I said I wouldn't have m-preg unless it was current characters, but uh.. it just didn't.. fit. I can't imagine Hide having sex with anyone else, so.. Yea.. I honestly don't know what happened, really..? I will try to explain.

So, the whole poopie thing with Anteiku and everything happened a few years later. Also, Hide was being kept alive (barely) by the CCG. (Obviously, they found out he was Eyepatch's friend by Eyepatch holding Hide like he was Kaneki's dead bride.) So Hide was on the verge of death for a few days(?). He wrote an entry. Later, he begs Akira nonstop to let him arrange a box for his ancestors and to let him donate cum to Kaneki to see if he'll get pregnant. Eventually, because Hide is persistent, Akira finally gives in, and soooo Hide's cum is given to Ken. Hide writes another entry and dies in peace and insane(?) laughter. At least.. that's what Hide THINKS happened..

But what REALLY happened??

I think Hide's sperm must've been donated to someone who wanted to be pregnant or something, I don't really know, I'm sorry..

.

.

.

Okay, yea, so, the CCG donated Hide's cum to someone who wanted to get pregnant.

THEN!!

The deal with Ken.

How the fart did he end up with a descendent?

Okay, here is where it ends up being manga-based. The stuff up there ^ was anime-based.

So, Haise is born, and Haise lives his life, and I guess he probably marries a Q, because I already gave a different person the title of Akira's descendent.

Okay. So. Yea. There. Great.

Now that we've got all THAT crud settled, let's continue, shall we?

"So, can you please explain what a ghoul is to me now? I'm sick of having no idea what you're talking about, Kai." I looked up from the entry and blinked.

"A-Ah, right, sorry. Um, so.. basically, ghouls are.. well, they're humans only.. they can only eat human - or ghoul - flesh. They can't eat normal human food, like plants or animals. They also have a predatory organ called the kagune. Uh, you're a rinkaku, right? Oh! Wait," I pulled out one of the papers from the top of the box before Kei could respond. "Um, here," I handed him the page about kagune types.

He grabbed it, and his eyes scanned the page. "Ah, I know about this. Kagune types and their weaknesses and strengths. It's why Eriko got caught. As an ukaku, she doesn't have a lot of endurance. My father was the same way since he was also an ukaku. To make up for that, they're very quick. Although Eriko is sick, so.. that so-called strength of her type isn't shown in her. It'd be better if she were a rinkaku, like me and my mother, who have a very good endurance and healing rate. It'd be better for her. But, I already knew all of this. Are you saying most human beings don't have kagune, Kai?"

"No, they don't. I don't have a kagune. I don't have kakugan either."

"...Oh. ...Why did my parents keep this fact from me?"

"To protect you, Kei. See, the outside world.. is dangerous. Humans and ghouls are in the middle of some kind of war thing, Kei. A mild war. It only intensifies, the hatred of the other species. People like you and me, Kei, people who don't care whether someone is a ghoul or human, are rare these days.

"There's this organization outside called the CCG. That's who killed your parents, Kei, and captured your sister. They hunt ghouls with quinques." Kei twitched at the mention.

"Isn't that the thing your ancestor mentioned? Those knives and shots."

"Auh. They pierce ghoul skin. Metals and other types of materials can't pierce ghouls. But he put that in the bottom part of the box.. I think the knives and shots he gave us are for helping ghouls. Although I don't quite understand how it would help yet.. Maybe if we come across other ghouls that are dangerous? In the meantime though, I guess I should probably get familiar with using knives and shots.."

"So we're going to be wielding the very things that we're being killed with?"

"...Yes. I know it sounds kind of silly, Kei, but while you have your kagune, me and my ancestor had nothing to fend ourselves from ghouls. If a ghoul set their sights on us - for whatever reason - or if we came into contact with an investigator of the CCG, we'd inevitably die or be caught."

"... So, this CCG, why do they hate ghouls, Kai?"

"Because ghouls eat humans." Kei opened his mouth, but I spoke before he could say anything, "And before you say that ghouls eating humans are just like humans eating cattle, I know. And you're correct. But most of the humans don't view it that way. They don't care that human flesh is the only thing ghouls can eat to survive. I know it's senseless, but that's.. how everything is..

"And so, once the CCG was created, and once it started killing ghouls, ghouls then started to hate humans back. And here we are, centuries later, with the tension between humans and ghouls only rising. Even though it's already so tense.. Your parents kept you in that cabin for a reason, Kei."

"... So then, you knew? All this time, you knew?"

I nodded, "Of course I did. You often took out your kagune anyway. I agreed with your parents. I thought it was better if you didn't know. You'd be happier that way."

"...I don't like being kept from, Kai."

"I know, but I thought it was for the best, and so did your parents. Besides, you know now."

"After my parents died and my sister was captured! If I'd known before, maybe-maybe I could've done something!!" Kei continued to babble, but I grabbed his wrists.

"Kei. Calm down. There wasn't anything you could've done."

He gritted his teeth but succumbed quietly.

"Alright. Now we need to figure out what to do about our situation.. You're an outlaw - a ghoul - and I'm apparently a descendant of an outlaw myself. I guess it runs in the genes. So, um.." I leaned back, "Got any bright ideas, Kei?" I inquired. "Maybe we could go live somewhere you aren't well known? Like a small town. Or somewhere ghouls aren't hated. I think the 24th Ward is still livable," I continued to rummage through my ancestor's things for something to do.

"...We should probably get allies," he replied.

"Allies.." I stopped flipping through my ancestor's notebook, "That sounds goo-ah?" a paper slipped out of the notebook. "What's this?" I picked it up.

Plan to Go Home

"? Go home? Hey, Kei, what do you think of this?" I showed him.

"? How would I know if you keep waving it around like that?" he took it from me.

"I wasn't waving it arou-?" I blinked when Kei's eyes widened, "What is it?"

"It mentions an elaborate plan to survive in a place without anyone else.. It mentions the 24th Ward or some Suicide Forest as some examples. Do you know what the suicide forest is, Kai?"

"Hmm.. No, I've never really heard of it.. Must be something that used to be."

"Well, cr*p-this plan is pretty much reliant on it. Judging from how your ancestor talks about it.. I think it's a place where lots of people commit suicide - a place where plenty of corpses lie around. Is there a place like that now, Kai?"

"? Why would a bunch of corpses be lying around? Wouldn't- ah. You mean like Suicide Mountain?"

"Suicide Mountain?"

"Yeah. It's a huuuuge mountain where there a bunch of bodies. They don't go to commit suicide per say, but the people who go there are awfully daring. It's practically impossible to reach the top and come back alive- no one's ever done it. Unfortunately, because of the hardship, no one's able to recover most of the bodies."

"Then, we'll replace the suicide forest with the suicide mountain," Kei proceeded to scratch out my ancestor's writing.

"Ah! What are you doing?!"

"?" he looked up at me, "Writing in suicide mountain for suicide forest- what else?"

"Can't we just translate it in our minds?!! This is very important to me!"

"...Well, alright.." Kei put the writing utensil out. {Where the f did that come from?}

"Thank you. Um, so, should we follow this plan..?"

Kei looked over it, "Well, it looks pretty elaborate to me- I say yes."

"Great! Then we'll do that?!"

"Sure," Kei nodded. "Anything else before we start our new lives in the 24th Ward?"

"Yes, one," I nodded seriously.

"?"

"There are.. some people already down there.."

"? ?"

"... Well.. you'll see them when we get there." Kei furrowed his eyebrows in suspicion.

I hope Kei will get along with them.. My cousin can be awfully stupid as Kei would say..

They're the reason the 24th Ward is okay, not broken down or anything. It would appear that someone had lived there for a while before, but about twenty years ago, one of my aunts married a male ghoul and was shunned from the family. They moved to the 24th Ward and soon had a child - out of much agony, I imagine. So I got a half-ghoul cousin: Kou Nakano was born.

I visit them from time to time. They think I don't know what they are, why they were shunned, I think. But I know. I know very well.

They're ghouls, just like Kei and his family. Except for my aunt.

This world is so cruel.. shunning people just for being ghouls or falling in love with ghouls..

I hate this world. I want to change it.

This world is wrong.

But I feel like maybe, just maybe, especially with my ancestor backing us up, Kei and I could fix it. We could fix this broken world. And I only anticipate the day.

Ancestor, please give me the strength, intelligence, and anything else I need.. to back Kei up and make this a place where he and Eriko-chan can live peacefully and happily.. Please, ancestor.

HFRHJKEDRKJCBFHJ KAI'S SO CUTE RUEJUERHFREW