beginning
When Kaneki is first introduced in the series, he’s visiting the coffee shop Anteiku with his best friend, Hide. They initially talk about ghouls as the TV in the shop is broadcasting the news about a recent ghoul attack, until Hide changes the topic and asks Kaneki about his crush.
Hide guesses that the waitress is the girl he’s in love with. Kaneki denies it, because his crush is supposed to be a customer there, not a waitress, but also thinks to himself,
“Although she is definitely cute…”
Hide then boldly asks the waitress’s name—Kirishima Touka—and her relationship status. Touka runs away in embarrassment, and Hide tells Kaneki that he’s doing it for him. Then, a young woman (whose name is later revealed to be Rize) enters the shop, and Kaneki tells Hide that she’s the one. Hide tells him to give up. I bet she’ll transform if you take off her glasses,
he says, before leaving for work.
The woman then walks towards Kaneki’s direction, and accidentally drops the book he’s been reading—which happens to be the same book she’s reading. Kaneki collects the courage to talk to her. Touka silently watches them from afar. Unbeknownst to Kaneki, Rize is actually a ghoul who’s been watching him like a predator. She tricks Kaneki into going on a ‘bookstore date’ with her. Touka also passes by them while they were going out—she stops for a second and notices them, aware of Rize’s intention but then walks on.
When Rize finally reveals her true self, Kaneki tries to escape, but she manages to catch her and impales him in the gut with her kagune, knocking him out. But then steel beams fell right on top of her, presumably killing her on site. Kaneki, on the other hand, is brought to Kanou General Hospital. Dr. Akihiro Kanou initiates to transplant Rize’s organs into him to save his life.
The moment he regains consciousness, Kaneki feels the whole incident is so surreal, and keeps quiet about it. He loses his appetite, and finds the food served by the hospital disgusting. After sometime, Kaneki starts to feel hungry, and has an indescribable feeling when he sees people. He begins to wonder if the transplantation has affected him in some ways.
Kaneki then coincidentally meets Touka being harassed by an old man. He then takes a glance at her body and imagines how good she’ll taste. It is then when his eye uncontrollably changes—activating his kakugan, which convinces Touka that he’s a ghoul, and kills the old man in disgust. She then notices that Kaneki is probably starving (he’s already drooling at this point), and offers him the man’s hand with no remorse.
But then she realizes that the boy standing before him only has one kakugan, and she’s even more confused to learn that he’s the one Rize’s been preying. You… Why weren’t you eaten?!
Kaneki is unable to answer her questions and runs off, but then he also realized that he’s been drooling at the sight of human meat. He tries to rip the transplanted liver out of his body because he believes that it’s the source of his ‘transformation’, but fails to do so. As his hunger gets more and more unbearable, Kaneki goes to Anteiku, begging Touka to help him, considering how she’s the only ghoul he knows of.
Kaneki: “There is no other person besides you who can help me… Ever since I’ve had his body, everything is terrible… Please… help me.”
Touka: “No. […]Teach me, former human. […] How was your life not being hunted by anyone? Your days spent not having to live in fear of the ghoul investigators, or other ghouls gone insane? So, tell me! ‘Everything is terrible?’ Don’t make me laugh. What about me? For me, it’s been terrible ever since I was born…”
Touka expresses her resentment of being born as a ghoul. She’s upset by the fact that this human-turned-ghoul, who seems like he’s tasted a peaceful life, now complains about how miserable his new life is. She then tells him to go die off on his own—it’s rude, I know, and she does it out of pure hatred—but thankfully, The Manager comes out and tells Touka that they should help the poor guy.
Touka: “Manager, why? This guy… he used to be human…!”
Yoshimura: “He looks like a ghoul to me. Giving aid to fellow ghouls is our policy, isn’t it, Touka-chan?”
Touka doesn’t like his decision, but she only glares at Kaneki and says nothing. Yoshimura gives Kaneki a package of meat and tell him to come back should he need more.
After Kaneki leaves, Touka expresses her disagreement to Yoshimura. The manager tells Touka about Rize, who is killed in the steel beam incident, and that Kaneki has her organ transplanted into his body, inflicting his transformation him into a ghoul. He also notes that this is the first time he’s seen it happening. This new piece of information probably prompts her to give Kaneki another chance by offering him help the next time they meet.