Touka Kirishima

Touka Kirishima (霧嶋 董香, Kirishima Tōka) is a ghoul and waitress at Anteiku and one of the main characters of Tokyo Ghoul.

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.

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 and Traits
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.

Biography
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.

Beginnings
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.

Season 1
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 Fueguchi. 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 didn't 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.

Season 2
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.

Season 3
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.

Season 4
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.

Season 5
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.

Season 6
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.

She then notices Haise looking at books in the cafe and asks him to take them. Then she asks whether he is a teacher at a school because his team called him teacher. Haise then reveals that he's a ghoul investigator and is their mentor.