Hide pinched the bridge of his nose, apparently attempting to stem his growing impatience with me. Perhaps I should turn the snark down just a tad.

"It's obvious you've got a quick mouth, let's see you use it to keep these guys occupied while I take care of what I have to do. Follow my lead and keep them busy. Got it?"

"Sure thing."

We walked up towards the rear guard of the CCG's mobile control station. Hide flashed his ID to the guards, "Hey, I found this civilian while I was checking the perimeter. Seems to be okay but a little disoriented. I'm going to check in with Marude to give him an update. I'll take her out of here once I do so. Stay here just a moment, Miss. You'll be safe here."

"O-Oh, okay! I am so glad you found me, whatever would I have done without you?!" Okay, I really need to try to rein in my sarcasm now.

"Tone it down, will you?" Hide whispered as he nodded to me and walked away towards the mobile units.

I looked around at the scene, then at the guards that I was charged with distracting. "So, you guys get to do this often? The whole 'we don't understand these creatures so we should probably just kill 'em' scenario?"

Two blank stares. Perfect. They seemed more interested in what was going on towards the front lines than with me. Guess they were wishing they weren't being treated like that friend at the club who stays at the table to watch everyone's stuff. I can relate, being a former Guardian of the Purses myself.

"Ah, okay we're all set here. Thanks for keeping her company fellas, I'll get you home safely now, Miss," Hide said as he appeared suddenly.

"Sure, uh huh," was all one of them said in response, still transfixed by the battle in the distance.

Once we got a reasonable distance away from them, I started to laugh to myself. "I-I don't really know why you were so concerned about keeping those two occupied, they hardly cared whether you went to see Marude or not."

"To be honest, I was hoping you'd say something out of line and end up getting stuck there with them. You'd be safe and out of my hair that way. But something tells me that you've got an interesting story to tell, so I decided I'd follow through on my promise."

"Wow, that's considerably out of character for you, Hide."

He stopped and turned around to face me. "And just how exactly do you know my true character? I don't even know your name!"

"I said I'd let you know once we were somewhere safe. This looks like a strangely deserted street in Tokyo, not somewhere safe."

He turned around quickly, but not before I saw his face go red. "Fine, but no more crazy talk until we get there."

It's too bad he didn't have the bicycle that he used to get around at the end of the first season and beginning of the second. I just wasn't prepared for how damn far it was to get to Hide's apartment.

Once he opened the door and let me walk inside, I collapsed in a heap inside his doorway.

"No, that's a perfectly convenient place to pass out, stranger. Please feel free to continue inconveniencing me."

Okay, that kinda got to me. "Look, I didn't ask to be here, okay? I didn't wake up today expecting any of this! And I certainly didn't plan to run into you or Kaneki. I'm still trying to process what happened myself!"

As he looked down at me, Hide's expression softened, "What happened to your head? I didn't see it before when we were outside in the dark, but you've got a pretty nasty bruise coming up."

"I don't remember that part, just waking up not far from where you found me. I know I had been walking to my next class. I was outside heading to the…" Now I remember. "I was passing the sports fields, and the baseball team was practicing. I'm willing to bet that the bump on my forehead also includes the indentions of baseball stitches, right?"

He watched me for a few moments, then offered me his hand to help me stand up. "I guess you had a pretty rough day, sorry for snapping at you earlier. I'm pretty beat myself, I know I told you to tell me what's going on, but we can put it off until tomorrow and just get some rest tonight. Sound good?"

"Yeah, sounds fine to me." I took his hand and got back on my feet again. The exhaustion had really started to set in, so I started walking towards his living room.

"Hey, where are your manners?! Take your shoes off before walking into my place! Don't make me regret my decision to help you so quickly!"

I wasn't planning to update this so soon, but I've been getting more comments and reviews wanting to see more of this story. So I figured I'd put up the second chapter that I'd originally planned to use for the fanfiction contest. I know you're all really looking forward to seeing where this story goes, but I'm still working on several other stories. I can't make any promises on when I'll get back to this one, but just know that I do intend to continue it.

Please continue to let me know what you think of the story so far, and hopefully, we'll see what other trouble our snarky protagonist can get herself into while she's stuck in the Tokyo Ghoul anime world. I feel like a rewatch of season 2 is in order if I want to really do this story justice. Pray for me. Thanks again for reading and commenting/reviewing!