“We’re Naki and Neki,” announces Naki. “It’s practically the same.”
“I suppose,” Kaneki says slowly.
“We’re a team!” Naki slings his arm around Kaneki’s shoulders. He follows Kaneki out of the room and down the hall to the GOAT executive meeting.
When Kaneki leaves, Naki follows him to read stories to the children. He shows off his koukaku and enjoys the kids climbing all over him.
When Kaneki goes to the bathroom, he exits to find Naki standing there. “Naki, is something wrong?”
“I have something I need to tell you.” Naki’s face is pink.
Kaneki waits.
Naki looks at the concrete floor. “You know, if I’d been there, I would have stopped Big Bro for you.”
Kaneki softens. “That’s it?”
Naki nods. “I’m sorry he hurt you. You didn’t deserve it. I would have been tortured instead.”
“No!” Kaneki gasps. He clutches Naki’s hands. “Listen to me, Naki. No one deserves pain, any pain, especially not what happened to me.”
He chokes on his words; there’s still a voice inside him insisting he’s the exception, that he did deserve it.
“You know you didn’t, either.” Naki frowns.
“I’m learning.”
“Like me.” Naki smiles. “You learn emotions, I learn words, and we all become better. That’s how it works, right?”
Kaneki’s heart swells with this ghoul’s inherent goodness. Beneath the bloodshed and bodies, beneath the devour corpses and worship of a sadist, there is an innocent child preserved in Naki.
Not even he, the king, can boast the same.
“Yeah, Naki. That’s how it works.”
Mercy and Magic 