Nishiki Nishio

Nishiki Nishio (西尾 錦, Nishio Nishiki) is a ghoul whose original feeding ground was taken by Rize. He is a sophomore in the Pharmaceutical Department of Kamii University and Kimi Nishino's boyfriend. He was heavily wounded in a fight with Ken Kaneki. As of late, he has started working as a waiter at Anteiku.

Appearance
An average young man whose distinctive traits are his glasses and messy hazel hair. Like other disguised ghouls, Nishiki dresses in normal casual clothes to blend in. He also wears two bangles that Kimi brought for them to match together.

Personality
Nishiki is a diligent student and prodigy. He has a rude, insensitive attitude with a knack for insults. He also demands that persons younger than him show respect for their elders. Above his sharp tongue, he is a cautious individual who isn't keen on trusting others.

After his sister was betrayed by a human, Nishiki has become unable to trust people, especially humans but also ghouls, and hardly socializes with others. He acts like a lone wolf and attacks ghouls that seem to be vandalizing in his feeding ground. He originally approaches his girlfriend Kimi to use her for his own ends.

After encountering Kaneki, Nishiki was weakened to the point where he resorted to eating Kimi in order to recover. However, after she has accepted him as a ghoul he cherishes Kimi more than anything else and has regained some trust in others. He joins Anteiku so that he is provided with food and doesn't have to kill for his food supply.

Past
Nishiki and his sister grew up without their parents and lived in a shabby hut. When he was young, he was opposed to eating human meat. His sister obtained their food, and she started working to improve their living conditions.



Nishiki's sister admired the owner of one of the shops she worked at, but the shop owner betrayed her. Nishiki's sister was killed, and in revenge, Nishiki killed the shop owner.

His sister left her savings to him. Nishiki started studying at Kamii University. There, he approached Kimi Nishino. Originally with the intention to use her, he started going out with Kimi.

Prologue
Nishiki first appeared when he advised Kaneki to buy the instant coffee Blondy. Shortly afterwards, he killed Kazuo Yoshida because he was eating a corpse in his feeding ground. For the same reason, Nishiki also attacked Ken Kaneki. At that moment, Touka Kirishima appeared 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.



When Kaneki and Hideyoshi Nagachika visited Nishiki to get the DVD of last-year's college festival, they disturbed Nishiki and Kimi Nishino when they were making out. Kaneki discovered that the Nishiki was the ghoul that attacked him shortly before. Nishiki told them to help him look for the material, but then claimed that he took the disk home.



He proposed that they should go to his home. In reality, he deceived Kaneki and Hide, took Hide out and started fighting Kaneki. He provoked Kaneki by standing on Hide's face with his foot, but Kaneki was no match for Nishiki with kagune. However, when Nishiki tried to kill Hide, Kaneki made his kagune emerge. With his kagune, Kaneki heavily injured Nishiki.



Because Nishiki wasn't able to get his hands on human meat and only had coffee, his wounds didn't heal. Kimi found him in this state and discovered that Nishiki was a ghoul. Nishiki thought about eating her, but he had to realize that he was weaker than her due to his wounds. However, Kimi allowed him to bite her shoulder. Kimi was ready to let herself be eaten, but Nishiki stopped after her declaration of love.



Gourmet Arc
Due to the wounds that Kaneki inflicted on him, Nishiki lost most of his strengths. When he went out to hunt, he was attacked by ghouls of the 14th ward who decided to eat him. Kaneki saved him from the ghouls and brought him to his apartment, while Nishiki was cursing Kaneki. When Kaneki wanted to leave, Kimi attacked Kaneki to protect Nishiki, thinking that Kaneki was the "narcissistic man"; however, Nishiki asked her to stop.

Later, he came to Anteiku looking for Kimi. Kaneki told him that Tsukiyama had kidnapped her. They decided to face Tsukiyama together to save Kimi. Kaneki and Nishiki were no match for Tsukiyama, and even after Touka joined them, they were losing because Tsukiyama was the only one who could use his kagune. However, Nishiki's tenacity and Kaneki's idea to allow himself to be eaten by Touka led to victory against Tsukiyama.

After the fight, Nishiki has started working at Anteiku.

Aogiri Arc
Nishiki still had suspicions about Yoshimura and questions his motives but intends to take advantage of his offer to live without hunting humans. When Kaneki is captured, he patiently awaits Yoshimura's answer to the situation. When the manager explains that Kaneki is possibly dead, he is outraged by Yoshimura's cold response and volunteers to rescue him from Aogiri. During the raid in the 11th ward, Nishiki and Anteiku fights their way into the Aogiri base and learns of a new prisoner who is undergoing torture by one of Aogiri's superiors in a outer building. As Nishiki and Touka makes their way to investigate, Ayato ambushes Nishiki, injuring him and leaving him incapacitated with Ayato's subordinates.

Powers and Abilities
Nishiki is able to use a bikaku kagune. He is strong enough that most ghouls avoid fighting him, but isn't a match for Touka or Rize.


 * Bikaku Kagune: While adept at combat, Nishiki uses his wits than brawl when in battle. He leads his opponents to a false sense of security and initiates an ambush. His fighting style is leg-oriented as his proud kicks does a impressive damage that he claims even "Touka or Yomo wouldn't be able to beat me (Nishiki)." His kagune is a Bikaku that is shaped like a C-shaped tentacle that pushes his foot to increase the power of his kicks even further. However, his kagune seems to only enhance his leg strength and isn't viable for any other task. As a typical Bikaku user, Nishki makes certain care that his trump card kagune isn't exposed.

Trivia

 * Nishiki was ranked 9th in the character popularity poll.
 * Nishiki likes pretending to be human, chemistry lectures, experiments and Kimi.
 * Nishiki enjoys drinking the coffee Blondy.
 * In the manga (Chapter 8) Nishiki claims that "If I really went all out with it even Touka or Yomo wouldn't be able to beat me."