Touka Kirishima

Touka Kirishima (霧嶋 董香, Kirishima Tōka) is a ghoul and waitress at Anteiku. While hunting, she wears a rabbit mask and her alias is Rabbit (ラビット). In Tokyo Ghoul, she was a second-year student at Kiyomi High School in the beginning and a third-year student after the post-Aogiri timeskip.

After the timeskip, she returns as a waitress of the coffee shop re.

Appearance
A distinct feature are her long bangs that cover her right eye. After the Aogiri arc, her hair grows longer and now reaches to the back of her neck. On the outside, she is considered a cute, normal girl that one wouldn't suspect to be a ghoul. Normally in either waitress or high school uniform, she prefers to wear tomboyish clothes in her free time. In her ghoul alter-ego, she wears a long coat jacket, rabbit mask and blonde, or sometimes a pink wig to conceal her identity.

After the timeskip, Touka has reverted back to her short hairstyle and has presumably dyed it, in an attempt to divert any CCG attention and keep up appearances as Yomo's "sister".

Personality
Her rash attitude comes from having to live a "hard-working" double-life of a human and ghoul identity. As a human, she is seen as a normal girl attending school with normal friends and being a café waitress. As a ghoul, she reveals a more reckless and ruthless personality full of hatred for CCG's investigators. This stems from the fact that her family was torn apart by CCG and she had to live a fugitive life until leading a more docile life by attending school. After being separated from her brother Ayato, she grows to appreciate her human life and starts to desperately hold onto it. As Shuu Tsukiyama notes, she had previously looked more dangerous and cold but has somewhat softened up because of her friends and possibly Ken Kaneki's influence. When Touka was fourteen years old, she expressed a much colder demeanor, and displayed a harsh glare, but these traits subsided over the years.

Touka suffers from ornithophobia. This may have stemmed from caring for a bird when she was a child only to be pecked near her right eye that she then covers with a hair bang.

Background
Touka resided in the 20th ward with her younger brother Ayato, and her father, Arata; where her father lived his life by blending in with the human society, by taking them to the library and even convincing them to eat human food. Touka always seemed to have more faith and confidence in her father than Ayato did. Touka and Ayato began caring for a bird, where she was shown to have a fondness for birds and collecting earthworms. On the night before Arata was captured by Ghoul Investigators, Touka promised her father that she would teach Ayato many things as an elder sister. When Arata never came back, Touka believed that he was still alive, and berated Ayato for thinking that he was killed. The siblings visited Satou, where they were forced to eat human food; eventually being sold out as Ghoul Investigators approached them. In order to protect herself and Ayato, Touka unleashed her kagune for the first time, killing the investigators.

Touka and Ayato ran away from home immediately. After some time they found Anteiku, and were taken care of by Yoshimura. As they grew up, the siblings acquired power, occasionally fighting against Shuu Tsukiyama as well. Touka was offered a school life, and to repay Anteiku, she was asked to work as a waitress at the coffee shop. She met Yoriko at school, but Ayato was against the idea of interacting with humans, telling her that she’d die if she continued to befriend humans. After Ayato left Anteiku, Touka heard of his malevolent actions on the 14th ward and other districts of Tokyo.

Prologue
Touka appeared first as a waitress serving both Ken Kaneki and his best friend, Hideyoshi Nagachika in Anteiku. She also passed beside Kaneki and Rize Kamishiro after their date, and stopped to glance at the two. Her friend Yoriko Kosaka asked her what was wrong, and so she answered her it was nothing. She later revealed herself being a ghoul to Kaneki, thinking he was a ghoul, after killing a drunk old man who insulted her. She was confused with Kaneki having only one Kakugan and being the human whom Rize targeted. When she asked him about it, he ran away. Soon after, Kaneki came to her begging for help. Touka refused to help a former human and told him to go off and die on his own. However, the manager of Anteiku, Yoshimura, rebuked her and gave Kaneki a portion of human meat.

One day, she passed through a place that was Rize's feeding ground and saw Nishiki attacking Kaneki saying that it is his ground. At that moment, Touka went and declared that this place wasn't Nishiki's feeding ground, but Rize Kamishiro's. Nishiki retorted that this was originally his feeding ground until Rize came, but Touka, unfazed, responded that the feeding grounds would be re-alloted among the weaker ghouls and that it was his own fault for being too weak. Angered, Nishiki attacked Touka, but was immediately defeated.

In the incident between Nishiki, Kaneki and Hide, she appeared again after Nishiki got defeated by Kaneki. She decided to stop the hungry Kaneki from rampaging and eating Hide. She later brought Kaneki to Anteiku, and at the time Yoshimura suggested that Kaneki work at Anteiku. She appeared to be treating wounds she received when she stopped Kaneki's rampage.

Doves' Emergence
When Kaneki just started working part-time at Anteiku, his friend Hide came to give him a visit. Kaneki told Hide not to sit there only chatting and asked him to order and Hide spoke out that he also came to thank Touka for nursing Kaneki and him after the "car accident." Kaneki remembered that the manager had told him that he had fabricated a car accident to explain the injuries that he and Hide received from Nishio. While Kaneki was making Hide's order, Touka warned him to make sure that Hide doesn't find out about him being a ghoul. If Hide found out, she swore she would kill him, to protect their identities as ghouls. While Kaneki was washing the dishes, Yoshimura asked him to come to the second floor. In one of the rooms, the manager showed Kaneki how to eat a sandwich in a way that doesn't give him the urge to vomit, while Touka also watched. Later, two visitors came to Anteiku, Ryouko Fueguchi and her daughter Hinami. The mother saw Kaneki, the new worker, and told Hinami to greet him, and so Hinami did so shyly. Touka greeted Ryouko and Hinami and told them that the manager was waiting them in the second floor of Anteiku. Then Kaneki found out that both of them are ghouls who can't hunt humans by themselves.

At some time, Touka came to Anteiku to find that Kaneki and the others were in a meeting after Hinami's mother's death. Touka then got shocked of the news and suggested to revenge Hinami's parents, but the manager refused. Touka ended up alone and went to kill the ghoul investigators who killed Hinami's parents by herself. She succeed killing Ippei Kusaba but got wounded by Kureo Mado. When Touka came back to Anteiku, Kaneki noticed her injuried and then went into a conversation about it with Yoshimura. After that he went to Touka suggesting her to let him treat her. Kaneki told Touka that he doesn't think that the ghoul investigators existence is bad and that he thinks she is in the wrong, however he would be sad if she died and said he also wants to do something with her. Kaneki asked her to help him get stronger. So the two went practicing in the 24th Ward underground. Kaneki asked Touka about the place and she replied that it was the place where ghouls used to live. Later they went to the CCG branch office in the 20th Ward to give them false information and get more about the situation. There they started talking about the RC Scan Gate. Before they went back, Kureo Mado saw them and thought there was something off about them, so he took Kaneki to the RC Scan Gate. However, the gate didn't react to Kaneki.Kaneki thinks that it didint react to him because he still has human body parts. When Hinami was locking herself in a room in Anteiku, Touka visited her and gave her a newspaper contains the ghoul investigator Ippei's death. Soon after that Hinami disappeared, causing Touka and Kaneki to immediately go out to look for her. Touka found Hinami, alone, holding her mother's detached hand, on the edge of the 20th Ward near Kasahara elementary. Touka then called Kaneki to inform him that she had found Hinami. Mado appeared and fought the combined team of Hinami and Touka, and finally he got killed by Touka's finishing attack. Soon later, Renji Yomo and Kaneki rushed to Hinami and Touka's whereabouts and, finding that everyone was safe, they prepared to go back to Anteiku. Touka said to hurry up and get the body but Renji replied that, because someone might come anytime, they should leave immediately. While they were walking back, Hinami asked if it was right for her to live and Kaneki answered that he believed Hinami's mother told her to live in her final words.

At school, Yoriko asked Touka why she was spacing out during class. Touka hastily told her that she's suffering stomach pains, hiding that she was actually disturbed by Mado's death. Hinami started living in Touka's apartment and later Kaneki visited them worring about Hinami. Kaneki was then surprised by Hinami's new and bad haircut. Yoriko visited Touka's house, thinking to cheer Touka up with homemade food. She mistook Kaneki for Touka's boyfriend and hurriedly left them alone. Even though she knew it would make her sick, Touka ate all of the food Yoriko made.

Gourmet Arc
After Kaneki finished telling about his experience in the Ghoul Restaurant, Touka appeared at the doorway, hesitating to enter because of the injured cockatiel that Hinami adopted, Loser. Touka then told Kaneki there was a girl down looking for him.

Because Touka saw Kaneki and Nishiki walking together while she was on her way home, she became curious as to what they were doing and followed them. Upon seeing their battle with Tsukiyama, she entered with a surprise attack. Tsukiyama quickly heals the wound and tells Touka that she's become weaker than her past self. Even though the fight continues with her and Kaneki double-teaming Tsukiyama, Tsukiyama manages to overwhelm them with his exceptional battle prowess and what he calls superior 'fuel'. In this case the fuel is human meat. Both Touka and Kaneki are severely injured, but due to Kaneki's idea for Touka to eat some of his flesh, she is able to regain her strength and manifest her Kagune. With her Kagune, she able to defeat Tsukiyama. After this, she said that she had to kill Kimi Nishino, Nishiki's human girlfriend, to protect their identities as ghouls. Kaneki tried to persuade her not to, likening Kimi to Hide for him and Yoriko for her. Uncertain about what she should do, she decided not to kill her when Kimi called her incomplete Kagune beautiful.

Aogiri Arc
Banjou and his followers came to Anteiku to search for Rize by orders of Aogiri's leaders. Touka and Kaneki decided to hear his story, and Banjou began to talk about his time with Rize in the 11th ward. However, Banjou soon realized that Kaneki smelt like Rize. Because he suspected Kaneki to be her boyfriend, he attacked him, but Banjou was easily knocked out by Kaneki.When Banjou woke up again, Kaneki tried to clear up the misunderstanding. He told Banjou that Rize had moved somewhere else, hiding from him that she had died. Soon after, Ayato broke in a had a short confrontation with Touka before Yamori and Nico interrupted. They announced that they were ordered to capture Rize herself or "the person who smells like her". Touka and Kaneki put up a fight but Touka was knocked to the ground when she was punched by Ayato. He proceeded to mock her about being as weak as their father. Touka retaliated, saying that he was wrong, that their father was trying to protect them. However, her kagune was soon overpowered by Ayato's and she was knocked out. Kaneki was knocked out by Yamori as well and they kidnapped him. Ayato convinced Yamori and Nico not to take Touka, saying that she would only be a burden.

Soon after Kaneki was kidnapped, Yoshimura and Yomo returned to find Touka sitting on the floor, badly injured. Yoshimura, after hearing that Kaneki was kidnapped, announced that Anteiku would be shutting down for a while. After everyone is gathered at Anteiku, Nishio asked Touka, who was overwhelmed with worry for Kaneki, to calm down and reassured her that Kaneki isn't as weak as he looks. Soon enough, Yoshimura announced that he had one thing he would like to note about Kaneki. He said that he didn't think that they would have anymore contact with Kaneki. Touka's hands begin to tremble in shock at these words. While Touka remains completely silent, everyone begins to protest. Touka gives a small somewhat creepy smile, and proceeds to look up at the manager and declares that if he isn't going, then she'll go alone. In the end, all Anteiku members are going to the 11th ward, Aogiri battlefield (except Koma san).

During her search for Kaneki, Touka encountered her brother Ayato on the rooftops. She was hesitant and practically overwhelmed by the more experienced Ayato. Her battle with Ayato ends with her losing after a one-sided duel, and Ayato commences to rip off the entirety of her kagune. As she begins to lose consciousness, Kaneki arrives at the scene after defeating Yamori. Stating that he'd kill Ayato if not for him being Touka's precious little brother, he makes a compromise in "half-killing" Ayato: breaking half of his total bones. After getting out of the Aogiri hideout with the Anteiku and Banjo group, Touka is shown to be shy in confronting Kaneki, and offers to fix and dye his hair after getting back to ward 20. Kaneki however tells her that he's not returning, and stops her from asking to travel with him by mentioning Touka's college entrance exam being near.

Raid of Kanou's Lab Arc
After the Raid on Kanou's Lab, Kaneki returned to the 20th ward for the second time since the Aogiri arc. Unlike last time, Touka finds Kaneki this time but despite her wanting him to return, got mad at him for taking all the burden by himself, beats him, and leaves whilst telling him to not go back to Anteiku ever again.

Anteiku Raid
After the Anteiku raid operation, Kaneki Ken went missing and is rumored to have died in the midst of battle by many ghouls. Touka however, is shown to believe him still being alive, holding back tears in her eyes after supposedly hearing the news about his death.

Nutcracker Investigation
Touka appears as a waitress working in a new cafe called ":re" along with Yomo. When Renji doesn't greet the customers, she lectures him, and with a clipboard in her hand she prepares to take the order. However, Touka is immediately dumbfounded upon spotting Haise unexpectedly. After they give their order, Touka goes back and delivers their coffee. After looking at Haise and noticing his tears, Touka gives a sad smile and hands Haise a handkerchief to wipe his eyes.

Ken Kaneki
Before discovering that she is a ghoul, Kaneki would see her as a cute girl. She was confused to see a half-ghoul and refused to show any compassion to him, as he is a former human. Ever since Kaneki joined Anteiku, the two of them became close, even though she would boss him around. Touka helps him many times because she really cares about him, even though she pretends it is only because he is a co-worker and it would increase her workload if something were to happen to him. Kaneki also started to care about her as much as he cares about Hide. They also developed a similar taste in clothing and after training together their battle skills are synchronised. Touka has shown feelings for Kaneki during and after his rescue from 11th ward.

When Kaneki is captured by Aogiri, she becomes very worried and disregards her own safety in order to save him without hestitation, even if Kaneki could already be dead. Furthermore, her seemingly growing 'attachment' to Kaneki was later shown when he told her that he will be leaving Anteiku as she was shocked and is willing to go as far as to leave her job at Anteiku as well as her studies in order to join him on his quest only to be turned down much to her dismay.

After parting with Kaneki, she was motivated to get into Kamii University (where Kaneki attended). There were times when Kaneki came to Anteiku but Kaneki always avoided her. Only once she could meet and talk with him. Surprisingly at that time, she let out her temper side and beat up Kaneki to express her sadness. " Why did you have to change?", she said while regretting Kaneki's drastic change. Despite their confrontation, she still has faith in Kaneki and that he will return to Anteiku.

Ayato Kirishima
As the last surviving member of her family, Touka is responsible for her younger sibling's well being. After Arata went missing she took the burden of raising him in order to follow her father's footsteps. However, Ayato is devastated and bitter towards humans for how their prejudice against ghouls had torn his family. In turn, he has taken a different stance from his father and sister's view on them. He left Touka when she further pursued a pacifist life with humans by going to school. While he disagrees with her ideas on humanity, he still cares for her safety even despite joining Aogiri. Proved by when he refused to let Yamori and Nico to take her as well as Kaneki. As noted by Kaneki, Touka was emotionally hurt when he turned against his only family.

Yoshimura
During her early teen years, Yoshimura offered her a job and a chance to live in human society. Since then,Touka has been working part-time at his shop as a waitress and would take missions from him, she is affiliated with Yoshimura's organization Anteiku. The manager also suggested her to go to school and was willing to pay for expenses, a school life that she enjoy and cherish.

Renji Yomo
The two of them seem to be in good relationship as they work together in Anteiku. It seems that Touka had times with him practicing and that she got trained by him once. She seems to respect him as a strong superior. After the timeskip, Touka and Yomo open a coffee shop called :re and are acting as brother and sister.

Hinami Fueguchi
Hinami sees her like an elder sister and loves her, so the two of them have a close relationship. Seeing that Hinami has also lost her parents to doves, Touka is protective of Hinami.

Hideyoshi Nagachika
Being a regular customer at Anteiku, Hideyoshi is on good terms with her. He always tries to hit on her which usually leads to comical situations.

Powers and Abilities
As part of Anteiku's stability team, Touka has trained almost all her life to fight against doves and insane ghouls who threaten the 20th ward's peace. Much like her rash and hot blooded attitude, her kagune centers around finishing fast and striking hard.


 * Ukaku Kagune: Her Kagune coming from her shoulder into a single black wing. As a typical Ukaku-type ghoul, her strength comes mainly from her agility and firing projectiles. Her tendency to rush in for the killing blow catches her opponents by surprise. She can cause serious damage by either focusing her Kagune in a single focused attack or firing a flurry of bullets. From a distance, she can rapidly fire a volley of rounds to overwhelm enemies. When striking a single attack, her kagune can pour down a linear strike that grinds surfaces and can even wear down a Koukaku kagune. But as a typical ukaku user, she has a short RC supply and her strength diminishes as the fight drags on.

Trivia

 * Touka was ranked second in the character popularity poll.
 * Touka likes school life and rabbits.
 * Touka hates the ghoul investigators, blockheads and classical literature.
 * In some other appearances her right eye can be seen although her eye mostly appears when she activates her Kakugan.

Quotes

 * To Kaneki: “Everything is ‘terrible?’ Don’t make me laugh. So what about me…for me, it’s been terrible since I was born.”
 * To Mado: “I think it’s because we want to live. Is there something wrong about that? We were all given life and raised. If the only thing we can do is eat people…how can we ever live correctly with a body like this? Even ghouls…even I want to live just like you guys!”
 * To Yomo (about Kaneki's disappearance): "I have faith in him. I know that he will return to Anteiku."