Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-173.32.47.67-20150326171158/@comment-65.78.23.113-20160729064323

I don't think Hide is dead. I think it was cleverly made to seem like he is, but he isn't. When Hide first collapses and passes out, Kaneki thinks he's dead, and is ready to sit there and die in the fire with his best friend. Then the tear hits Hide's cheek, he smiles, and Kaneki smiles and says lets go home.

Now my conjecture. He sees that Hide is alive, so he gets up and heads to CCG. The cloth isn't to cover a body, it's to protect Hide from the fire and smoke inhalation. Then when he's carrying him to through the street, we can't see Hide's face. Kaneki looks not once, not twice, but three times at said face. He smiles the third time. I think Hide is barely alive, and Kaneki went to CCG not to surrender or suicide by Arima, but to see if they could save Hide.

So the walk could either be just an extremely sad... walk, or it could be Kaneki trying to save Hide. Considering the many plot twists and "things aren't what they seem like" moments in season 2, I think it was the latter. And of course in the manga, it's more ambiguous, but Hide probably sent the birthday book.