linkspooky:

Yep!

There’s basically two theories of what could make Touka crack at this point that are floating in my head. 

1) Rediscovering Juuzou, and finding him in the Arata armor. The last time we see Juuzou, he was being carted away while still wearing it. 

It’s highly unlikely that he made it to the surface before Kaneki, Kaneki’d the whole joint up. If he did make it to the surface, the ambulance probably did not have time to take him back so he’s likely just sitting there in an area easy to find.

There’s buildup for some kind of confrontation between the two that mostly goes unresolved. 

2) Reuniting/Confronting Yoriko

The easiest way to make characters sad in this manga however, is not confrontation by people they hate, but rather people they love. I mean, Touka and Kaneki’s shared fear is not only one of separation but also of intimacy as shown when they both could not really bring themselves to face at all the human most important to them out of fear of rejection or loss.

I mean, Kaneki’s words in this scene so profoundly saddened her that Touka immediately needed physical comfort. Having to pretend she didn’t care about Yoriko softened her up to that extent.

Imagine then, Touka seeing Yoriko again after making the decision to physically turn her back on her, and knowing that it didn’t help in the long run of things. I’m not even seapking of the morality of the decision itself, that’s irrelevant, it’s still something Touka is going to be carrying the guilt of in her heart when her friend sees her again, and then doesn’t blame her for being a ghoul. Honestly, I’m expecting a parallel to this scene in full considering how much Yoriko parallels Kaneki and Hide’s bond already. 

I mean as heartwarming as this scene is, it’s also always been a tragic one too, borne out of both Kaneki and Hide’s decisions not to confront each other until the literal last moment possible, and we see Touka make a similiar decision not to warn Yoriko ahead of time when she knew that Mutsuki would likely target her.

Part of it may have been security reasons, but just like how Amon avoided Akira for three years, or Kaneki avoided Hide, or what Yoshimura did to Eto, how much of it was rooted in logistics and wanting to protect them, and how much was rooted in a fear of not wanting to confront and be rejected by the person who they could probably bear the least being rejected by. 

Anyway, none of this is to elaborate on Touka’s flaws so much as to explain why her emotions would be so tied up, that a positive reunion could actually cause her to break down. As usual, characters in Tokyo Ghoul are complicated and getting closer sometimes results in them hurting each other more. Though I fully expect that once that emotional hurdle is cleared, it will lead to positive growth finally rather than regression and stagnation as we’ve seen so far with all of these characters repressing their emotions.