Hideyoshi Nagachika

Hideyoshi Nagachika (永近 英良, Nagachika Hideyoshi), also known as Hide (ヒデ), is a normal human and the best friend of Ken Kaneki.

He attended Kamii University as a freshman and, later, sophomore. While there, he was studying Foreign Language Studies - majoring in English - at the Department of International Studies.

At a certain point, he started working part-time at the CCG, and soon became an investigation assistant helping both Koutarou Amon and Akira Mado.

He disappeared during the Owl Suppression Operation, and his whereabouts are currently unknown.

Appearance
Hideyoshi is a young man of average height with short, messy, dirty blonde hair with dark roots and brown eyes. He tends to wear bright colored clothes that consist of a yellow varsity jacket and green shorts. Because of his love for music, he usually wears a pair of headphones around his neck.

After the Aogiri arc, he lets his hair grow out, and most of the time he wears a red and white cap, and he no longer wears headphones. He mostly wears a light-blue jacket over a white dress-shirt with a red collar that serves as his uniform. He also carries around a green bag, black pants and green shoes, aligned with yellow.

During Owl Suppression Operation he wears a military CCG uniform consisting of black long-sleeved shirt, gray vest and black trousers.

Personality
Most of the time, Hide has a carefree attitude, always joyful and friendly, which greatly annoyed Nishio. However, Hide is actually incredibly observant and can figure things out about people in an almost Sherlock-like manner. He also becomes interested in things and works hard on them until he finds something else that interests him. Hide claims to have a habit of pretending to be a detective by putting tracking devices on suspicious people and notifying the authorities if his intuitions turn out to be right (however, the "hobby" part of it is most likely a lie he made up to hide his true motive from the CCG, which was to find clues about Kaneki's whereabouts).

Hide also has a very "determined" behavior. When he's set goals or decisions, he'll stick to them to the very end.

He looks out for his friend Kaneki, encouraging him about many things and worrying when he doesn't return his calls. In some ways, Hide is also the opposite of Kaneki, as he is the out-going type for festivals while Kaneki, more the introverted type, doesn't like these kinds of events.

Though he is loud and outspoken, Hide is usually found keeping most of his concerns to himself in order to not trouble those surrounding him.

Just like his best friend, Hide has a habit of placing his hand on his face when he is nervous or is lying.

Prologue
Hide appeared first with Kaneki at Anteiku in the 20th Ward listening to news about ghouls. He asked Kaneki about the girl he had been talking about and asked if the waitress, Touka, was the one, but Kaneki denied it. Then Rize Kamishiro, the one Kaneki had a crush on, entered the cafè. Hide tried to convince Kaneki that Rize was out of his league, but was unable to deter him. Hide left only wanting to see who Kaneki was interested in and went to work.

After Kaneki's incident with Rize, Hide invited him to Big Girl Restaurant to celebrate his discharge. There, Hide commented how nice the waitress Oohashi was. Hide soon talked about Prof. Akihiro Kanou's decision to save Kaneki with Rize's organs but then apologized thinking how it was tough for Kaneki to lose the girl he started going out with. While they ate, Kaneki suddenly vomited, which took Hide by surprise.

After Kaneki had disappeared for a long time, he finally went back to Kamii University. Hide yelled at Kaneki for how long he had disappeared. He invited Kaneki to accompany him to visit Nishiki Nishio in another department of the university to get the DVD of last-year's college festival. Hide barged into the room unannounced and they interrupted Nishiki and his girlfriend making out. Nishiki's girlfriend ran off embarrassed and Nishiki scolded Hide. 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 stomping on Hide's face, but Kaneki was no match for Nishiki with kagune. Before Nishiki could contiue fighting Kaneki, Hide grabbed onto his pant leg, seemingly still unconscious. However, when Nishiki tried to kill Hide, Kaneki's kagune emerged. With his kagune, Kaneki heavily injured Nishiki. After that, Kaneki started to lose control over himself and was about to eat his own best friend, but Touka appeared and decided to help him. Later, Kaneki awoke inside Anteiku, where Yoshimura led him to his friend, seemingly unconscious. Kaneki noticed blood inside his mouth and realized that he ate human meat, so asked Yoshimura about what he had done and the manager replied that there was only one way to calm a hungry ghoul. Kaneki said he wanted to be with his friend but he could not. Kaneki cried out that he was neither a human nor a ghoul and there was no place for him, however Yoshimura replied that he was wrong and there were two worlds he belonged to. Yoshimura asked him to join working in Anteiku while he would teach him how to live as a ghoul. Hide opened his eyes as they left.

Doves' Emergence
Hide paid him a visit when he found out that Kaneki started working part-time in Anteiku. Hide spoke out that he also came to thank Touka for nursing Kaneki and him after a car accident, a story told to him by Anteiku's manager to cover up Kaneki and Nishio's fight. After they had left Hide, Touka told Kaneki to make sure that Hide did not find out about him being a ghoul because she would kill him if that were to happen, so that the ghouls' identities would not be found out.

Later, Kaneki and Hide sat together at the university. Kimi approached them to give Hide the materials of the previous year's festival. Hide asked Kimi where Nishiki was hospitalized, but she did not answer. Then, Hide remarked about Kaneki's scary face, who was wondering whether Kimi was a ghoul or not.

Some time later in a class, Hide started talking about the news of the death of two ghoul investigators. Kaneki asked Hide why he was interested in such things, then Hide showed him Hisashi Ogura's newest book and said it was super interesting. Hide talked about joining the investigation, but Kaneki told him not to do so because it was dangerous. After that, Hide drank a can of coffee alone and commented on its bitterness.

Aogiri Arc
Shortly after Kaneki was kidnapped, he sent many e-mails to him in worry while watching news about changing statuses in Tokyo and the 11th Ward.

Hide appeared once again watching news about the 11th Ward Special Countermeasures Unit attacking the Aogiri hideout while he was taking some notes.

Raid of Kanou's Lab
After the invasion on Aogiri Tree, Hide began working as a part-time Staff Assistant at the CCG. He became known as a cheerful hard-worker who got along with most people. He befriended, Seidou Takizawa in particular and Hide would try to coax information out of him over lunch. Although Seidou would not talk about the investigation, he was comfortable enough around Hide to talk about other personal things, especially since Hide could read him easily. While Hide worked at the CCG, Itsuki Marude and Katsuya Mabuchi discovered that he was the anonymous informant who tipped them off about the 11th Ward hideout. Afterwards, Marude questioned him about whether he was the one to notify them of Aogiri Tree's base location and how he knew about it. Hide admitted it was him and claimed he found the base by accident. He explained that his hobby was tracking suspicious people and turning them into the police, but had not known at the the time that Yamori was a ghoul when he placed a tracking device on him. He had already followed Yamori into the 11th Ward when he found out that there were many ghouls. To escape, he stole clothes off a dead ghoul to cover his scent then left and called in the CCG. However, while he told Marude his story he recalled seeing Yamori and Nico enter Anteiku and placed a device on him after he disguised himself. He had not mentioned it before in fear that it would look suspicious. Marude thought it was strange, but found him promising, so ordered Amon and Mado's daughter, Akira, to take him away as a new investigator assistant. Marude refused to explain his reasons, so they left confused, but Akira figured that must have had a plan. Akira suggested that they get lunch and Amon would be treating. Hide recommended a place as he knew a lot about the 20th Ward.

While Amon and Akira investigated Rabbit, Hide arrived to the office with lunch. Akira asked Hide his opinion and Amon was surprised that he already knew that kagune tracings could be analyzed. He gave his opinion regardless and thought that there were two Rabbits. He theorized that the Rabbit from the previous years killings was an "avenger" for the daughter ghoul and mother ghoul because of the timing and targets. The Rabbit that had been killing in the 7th Ward did not appear to have a motive. Akira stared at him and informed Hide that she had noticed for a while his interest in ghouls. Hide tried to brush it off as them being on the news a lot. Shinohara and Juuzou arrived with updates about the Binge Eater case. After he looked into the Steel Beam Incident, Shinohara became suspicious of Dr. Kanou. He found out that he used to be a coroner with the CCG and his whereabouts were unknown. His patient from the incident was also missing. Shinohara theorized that the girl in the incident might have been the Binge Eater, so wanted to find Kaneki. After the university Kaneki attended was mentioned, Hide admitted that he was Kaneki's best friend.

Hide and Akira researched Dr. Kanou and looked into his past. Sometime after graduating university he worked for the GFG and CCG for about four years before he suddenly quit. They were unaware of why he quit, but figured that he might have seen something that he did not like. Akira brought up that she would have been still carrying around a ransel at the time and they joked about it until Amon arrived. Annoyed, he ignored Akira and showed them the blueprints to another property. In their search, they discovered that Kanou owned many estates and most had already been checked out. The last one was purchased under someone else's name, so was more difficult to track. The property appeared suspicious, so Amon figured that Kanou might be there and they could find more information on Kaneki. Hide agreed, but appeared depressed.

Hide went to Sen Takatsuki's book signing to get a copy of The Hanged Man's MacGuffin autographed. When Hide told Takatsuki his name was Kaneki, she began asking him about Osamu Dazai. Confused, Hide told Takatsuki that he got into her books because of his friend. Hide really liked Unita, a character who had a craving for humans. Takatsuki also really liked that character and said that the character in her next book might be like that because she wanted to write a story about ghouls.

At Kamii, preparations were being made for the cultural festival and Hide hung posters. Against one of his peers wishes, he was about to tear down a missing persons poster of Kaneki to replace with a festival poster when he noticed Touka. They had coffee and Hide told her about Kaneki. When he was a child, he read a lot and was bullied because of it, but never fought back or acted troubled. He changed a bit after his mother died and seemed lonely. The most surprising thing was that he was the star of a school play and did really well. Hide felt that Kaneki was always playing a part or wearing a mask and took everything upon himself for reasons he did not understand. He figured that things were fine as long as Kaneki was safe, but wished he would talk to him more. To cheer him up, Touka insisted that Kaneki was fine and probably reading a book. Hide smiled and decided to tell her Kaneki's secret. He told Touka about his tell when he hid something and to use that knowledge to make him spill all his secrets when he returned.

Owl Suppression Operation
Marude asked Hide if he knew how to write a will and Hide advised him that it would not be good to kill himself. Marude insulted him and told Hide it was for him. Confused, Marude explained that he would participate in the next operation as part of Division II and it would be a learning experience. People in their position rarely died, but it was advised that he write a will anyway. Their target was Anteiku and they were after a certain ghoul. Hide agreed to write a will.

At the Owl Suppression Operation, Hide initially stayed near Marude and stood close by before it began. Sometime into the operation, personnel at the base received news that Amon had encountered Centipede. Marude observed monitors from a surveillance van and commented on the intense fight. Hide asked if ghouls could reach far enough to get to them, and Marude did not deny the possibility. Hide found the situation too scary.

Hide appeared in front of Kaneki who had fled into the sewers after he had been badly wounded in his fight against Amon. Hide revealed that he knew about Kaneki being a ghoul, and asked him to come home. As Kaneki began losing control, Hide told him that he wanted to help him. While Kaneki begged him to run away or else he might harm him, Hide asserted that there was almost no chance for a ghoul to escape from the way the blockade felt and the route had been blocked, and then apologized. Finally, as Kaneki was about to black out, Hide asked him to fight at full force once more as there would be no other way.

Later, Kaneki recalled the event as follows: After stating that he wanted to help him, Hide told Kaneki to eat him. However, Kaneki hesitated, disbelieving his ears. Hide explained that some dangerous guy was further ahead, and asserted that it would be impossible to escape and he would lose there, maybe even die. For this reason, Hide intended to show to Arima that there would be value in letting Kaneki live. Finally, he asked Kaneki to fight at full force once more.

When Kaneki regained his senses, Hide was gone and Kaneki tasted blood in his mouth.

Since his encounter with Kaneki in the sewers, Hide's fate is unknown.

Root A (Anime)
Hide biked to the perimeter of the 11th Ward Battle to observe the events with a pair of binoculars. Unable to do anything, he could only watch. Later, he worked as a part-timer at the CCG, and was noted as an outstanding worker. He claimed to be Takizawa's grunt.

By chance, Hide encountered Touka while she toured Kamii University. She was staring at a missing poster of Kaneki when he cheerfully took it down to replace it with a school related poster. They sat down for coffee and Touka asked about what kind of person Kaneki was in the past. Hide explained that he was a person who spent all his time reading and became distant after his mother died. However, he was in a school play once and was surprisingly good. Hide figured that Kaneki was the type to play a part in real life to hide his problems and that perhaps he left because it became too much. Hide appeared saddened and Touka noticed the collection of missing posters in his backpack. Touka attempted to cheer him up, saying that Kaneki was probably reading a book somewhere. Hide smiled and agreed. Before leaving, he told Touka about Kaneki's habit of touching his chin when hiding something. Despite appearing in a better mood, once he left he looked depressed once again.

At the CCG, Hide made a delivery to Takizawa and took an interest in his work. Hide asked about the Eyepatch ghoul, Cochlea, Aogiri, and other sensitive questions that Takizawa freely answered until Akira intervened. Akira noted his peculiar interest in ghouls and Hide tried to pass it off as them being a popular subject on the news before rushing off. When Hide was home alone he looked at one of Kaneki's missing posters. He smiled sadly at it and commented that he should not make a nice girl like Touka worry.

While Hide ran errands in the CCG, he bumped into Amon and caused him to drop all his documents. He helped Amon pick them up, and noticed one on Eyepatch. He stared at it in silence until Amon asked if he was okay. Hide said that he had been hearing about Eyepatch a lot lately and that it was scary. He gave Amon his documents back and hurried off to continue working.

While Shinohara and other investigators prepared for the attack on Anteiku, Hide watched curiously from afar. He stopped Takizawa who was on the way to the meeting to ask what was happening. Takizawa appeared nervous and said that he was not told anything despite being involved in the affair. Hide brushed Takizawa's behavior off, but looked determined after he left.

Hide snuck into the Owl Suppression Operation disguised as a regular soldier. He stayed hidden until there was news that the operation was over. Like everyone else in the operation, he was caught off guard by the arrival of a second Owl and Aogiri. He was caught in the ambush and witnessed Noro attack Takizawa. Noro caught sight of him, though Hide escaped from the battle alive. Later on, he found a wounded Kaneki outside of Anteiku and bought him inside the café. He attempted to make coffee for them both, and greets his old friend as though nothing has happened. Hide apologized for the unpleasant taste of the coffee and talked about the past and revealed that he knew Kaneki was a ghoul. He reassured him that it did not matter, and they began to relax. Hide was able to cheer Kaneki up, but soon after began to collapse. He had sustained a severe stomach wound from earlier which he attempted to joke about. Bleeding out, he clinged to Kaneki and asked that they go home. Anteiku began to burn around them, and after a brief time Kaneki carried his lifeless body to the CCG's base camp. The troops watched on in shock, and Kaneki laid Hide down in the snow before going to face Kishou Arima.

Third Cochlea Raid
Critically injured in his battle with Arima, Sasaki decides that he has done enough and experiences a surreal vision of a dark river. As he begins to wade into the water, a mental projection of Hide appears and wonders whether he is trying to mimic the suicide by drowning of a certain famous individual. He teases his friend to put on some clothing, and the two sit down together to discuss the current situation. Hide points out that Sasaki is lying to himself, and he knows something has gone wrong elsewhere in Cochlea. Calling the wish to die an excuse, Hide tells his friend that he will find his reason to go on living soon enough. He explains that his wish at that time, in the sewers, was to go on living together. As he begins to walk away, Hide promises that he will tell his friend to go on living as many times as necessary.

After Itsuke Marude found out that his longtime colleague and friend, Yoshitoki Washuu was a ghoul this whole time, he thought to himself that everything that he knew was a lie and that Hide was right all along.

Ken Kaneki
Kaneki calls Hideyoshi by the nickname "Hide," and they have been best friends since childhood. Hide seems to care greatly about Kaneki and had been watching him carefully after the incident with Rize. If Kaneki was in trouble or danger, he would do his best to support him. He cares for Kaneki immensely, and did not falter to help him even after finding out about Kaneki's transformation into a ghoul. It is speculated that Hide was eaten by Kaneki during the Owl Suppression Operation, however, this has not been confirmed.

Nishiki Nishio
He seems to have student-teacher relationship with Nishiki but stated himself that he most likely hates Nishiki, saying that he is poisonous to be around whilst Nishiki is equally cautious of him due to his very keen intuition and sees him as being dangerous to be around as he explained to Kaneki regarding his ghoul identity being a secret.

Touka Kirishima
Although they do not know each other well, Hide is on friendly terms with Touka, and believes she is cute. At Kamii, he spoke briefly about his and Kaneki's past, and gave her a tip on how to tell when Kaneki was hiding something.

Koutarou Amon
Hide worked under Amon and Akira when he joined the CCG. Amon sometimes chided Hide when he was not working or socializing, a small clash between Hide's carefree disposition and Amon's work-orientated mentality.

Akira Mado
Hide worked under Amon and Akira when he joined the CCG. Akira seemed to have been suspicious of Hide, as she noted that he was strangely perceptive when asked about the mother and daughter ghouls' relationship to the Rabbit ghoul.

Seidou Takizawa
Hide had a friendly relationship with Takizawa, occasionally eating lunch together in the CCG building.

Itsuki Marude
Hide was assigned as investigator assistant under Amon and Akira by Marude, who found out about him being the informant for the Aogiri Tree base location. He jokes around Marude sometimes, such as when he mentioned that committing suicide is bad when given an empty will before the Owl Suppression Operation. Despite his levity around him he apparently trusts him as he gives him information that causes Marude to discover the Washuu Clan's true species.

Powers and Abilities
Keen Intellect: Hide has proved to be very perceptive and observant, being able to distinguish the difference between the two Rabbit ghouls. While also being able to notice the changes and habits of people.

Trivia

 * Hide was ranked fourth in the latest character popularity poll.
 * In Chapter 83, the number "1" is on Hide's hat. This is a reference to the tarot card The Magician (I).
 * Hide likes western music, interesting things, cute girls, and steak.
 * Hide's voice actor Toshiyuki Toyonaga had auditioned for the role of Kaneki. Towards the end when there was three minutes left, he was surprised when the staff asked him to "act like you're suffering." He did not get the role, however the staff asked if he wanted to play Hide instead.
 * In Tokyo Ghoul Trump, he is featured as the "Ace of Spades."
 * Hide has a poster for Red Dragon in his room, the prequel in the Hannibal Lecter trilogy.

Quotes

 * To Kaneki: "I already knew man!... Who cares about that, let's just go home already."
 * To Kaneki: "Dude. You eating properly? You don't look so hot. You better eat right or you won't hold up."
 * To investigators: "I know that university student... I mean... Kaneki is... my close friend."
 * To Kaneki: "...Sorry. Can you fight for me at full power just one more time?"