TouKen

"I’m always trying to think of a way to make you not go away. You’re the only one who thinks that it’s okay for you to disappear."

- Touka tells Kaneki her frustration with him always leaving her.

TouKen is the het ship between Ken Kaneki and Touka Kirishima from the Tokyo Ghoul fandom.

Canon
Touka and Kaneki are close friends and lovers. They met when Kaneki had been turned into a ghoul and was hired to work at the cafe that Touka also worked at, which was a covert safe space for ghouls to exist. Their friendship started off negatively but gradually they grew close and fell in-love. Despite the hardships they both had to go through they were eventually reunited and married.

The two had actually met briefly when Kaneki visited the cafe, Anteiku, and she served him some coffee, oblivious to the existence of ghouls. She was well aware that his date, Rize, was a ghoul but chose not to try and save him. This ultimately led to her shock to find that not only has he not been eaten, but he is now half a ghoul himself. Touka came to strongly dislike Kaneki, once he was transformed into a one eyed ghoul, and refused his request for help to deal with his new found reality. Cruelly telling him to go off and die if he refuses to survive off human meat. This attitude stems from her hatred of humans because of their merciless persecution of ghouls, and Kaneki, being a former human, meant nothing to her. Furthermore, Kaneki’s comments that he is not a monster like she is, as he was still struggling coming to terms with being a ghoul, irritated her greatly. When Yoshimura, the owner of the cafe, decided to aid Kaneki as he is a fellow ghoul, Touka was very much against this but relented. He was then hired to work at the cafe and Touka was made his boss. She was very brutal towards him and would often chastise him for any mistake he made. Overall, his presence could easily bother her. Meanwhile, Kaneki was very much submissive towards Touka, feeling guilty for his mistakes and wishing to do better.

Their relationship gradually improved as they became more involved with each other. In a conversation with Uta, he is told that despite her rough exterior, Touka is an exceptional hard worker. As a result, Kaneki found new admiration for her and started to see her as less frightening, coming to understand the struggles she has to deal with living a life as a ghoul. When Touka attacked a pair of ghoul investigators, after Ryouko was killed, he decided to treat her wounds despite Yoshimura telling him not to do so. He admitted to her that, although he thinks her actions were wrong, he would mourn for her if she were to die. Due to his guilt of not being able to save Ryouko, he wished to be trained in order to survive as a ghoul and learn to master his Kagune. This decision, and seeing his motivation, impressed Touka and she agreed to train him. Their relationship continued to improve as both of them started to care for Ryouko’s daughter, Hinami. By this point they had become very close with each other and saw one another as important people in their lives.

They both came to worry for each other greatly. Touka came to be concerned for him whenever he was outside on his own because of his inexperience living as a ghoul. The closeness of their relationship was highlighted when, in their fight against Shuu Tsukiyama, she took a bite out of Kaneki in order to become stronger. Whilst Kaneki was unaware, Touka knew that doing such a thing, as a ghoul, was only done between lovers. Kaneki came to worry for her greatly as her impulsive nature ran the possibility of her dying without him knowing. When he saw what Ayato, Touka’s brother, had done to her he became furious and broke half the bones in his body. He only chose not to kill him because it would upset her. When Kaneki was taken by Yakumo Oomori she was distressed by this situation and wished to get him back, becoming furious when it seemed everyone else was prepared to leave him behind.

However, their relationship would be effectively broken off after Kaneki was subjected to brutal torture by Oomori and came to see Aogiri Tree as a threat to Antaiku. As a result, he chose to join Aogiri Tree with the hopes of protecting Touka from the inside. Touka was greatly upset by this and tried to chase after him but he gradually became out of her reach, due to her injuries, and she cried over losing him. Kaneki made a positive impact on her, however, as she chose to improve her school grades enough so she could start to attend the same school as Kaneki had, simply because it reminded her of him. When she was finally reunited with Kaneki for a brief moment, her frustration became too much and ended up attacking and arguing with him. When she returned to her room she was furious with herself for her actions and regretted what she had done.

The two would not meet for years after this. She had initially spotted him carrying Hide’s body towards the CCG but was stopped by Renji Yomo before intervening. By the time she met him again, Kaneki had undergone significant brainwashing and was now known as Haise Sasaki and worked for the CCG. She met him again when he had walked into her own cafe and the two made eye contact. Whilst Touka was fully aware of who he was, Kaneki could not understand why he felt so enchanted by her. She served him a cup of coffee, opting not to tell him who he is and what she means to him, and instead just gave a painful smile. Kaneki started to cry for no apparent reason after he tasted the coffee she made and, as he looked at Touka, wondered how someone could be so beautiful. From then on, Kaneki would continue to visit her cafe and thought of Touka frequently. Eventually, he would regain his memories but decided not to act on his feelings with Touka and instead prepared himself to die in his fight with Arima. He met Touka when she invaded Cochlea and once more was brought to tears. Touka, fully aware he had regained his memories, gave him a happy smile and said to him “I’ll see you later.” Those words impacted Kaneki hard as he did not intend to carry on living but now felt he owed it to Touka to survive his fight with Arima.

Successfully winning against Arima, the two were reunited but Kaneki struggled to stay close to her. He remained distant towards her and the two eventually agreed to simply work together in their goal to unite humans and ghouls. He began to lead the organisation, Goat, but would constantly shun Touka from any meaningful involvement, especially combat related activities. Touka, herself, felt confused and frustrated by this situation. After a successful siege, however, Touka decided to bluntly ask if he is a virgin which caused him to become flustered. In their subsequent conversation they soon came to understand their shared fear of losing each other. Touka then pointed out how he would look at her when he visited her cafe as Haise Sasaki. This causes Kaneki to become embarrassed but she assures him that she liked it, subtly implying her romantic feelings for him. Feeling a renewed bond with Touka, he decided to invite her to a Goat meeting. The two almost hold hands but were ambushed.

After they were ambushed and took shelter in an abandoned building they finally accepted their love for each other and kissed before then having sex. Soon after, once it was revealed to him that she was pregnant with his child, they decided to get married. Later on, after they had married, Touka meant everything to Kaneki and when he became mentally overwhelmed at his impending defeat and decided to give up as his multiple personalties clashed with each other, he was reminded that he would never get to see Touka again if he were to die. The fear of such a thing caused him to lose complete control of his Kagune and transformed into the Dragon. Touka’s devotion to him was shown when she was able to find him whilst he was trapped inside the Dragon and saved him despite the great risk to her own life. She waited by his bedside until he woke up and the two embraced each other. Following their victory over Nimura Furuta, they lived a happy married life raising their daughter, Ichika, whilst a second child is on the way.

Quotes
"I don’t think that the existence of the investigators are a bad thing… I don’t think you are right… But the day I saw Ryouko-san’s last moments I did have a strong thought. Whether it’s a person’s death or a ghoul’s, if that person is someone I know then I can’t stand it… if you died, Touka-chan, I would probably be… sad."

- Kaneki admits he would be sad if she were to die.

Fanon
TouKen is a very popular ship in the Tokyo Ghoul community. This is primarily due to their relationship being one of the primary story narrative of the series. The progression that the two both had together early on endeared many fans to them.

Their rival ship is KanekixRize, as Rize had a monumental impact on Kaneki's state of mind and came to act as a mental figure to him after he absorbed her powers. The fact that they originally went on a date together at the start of the series gave more credence for fans to ship them instead of TouKen.

Fandom
FAN FICTION