Piercing, high-pitched screams tore through the night from time to time, chilling to the bone. The nearby residents instinctively shut their doors and windows tight, huddling inside their homes in fear.
A ghoul lay twisted on the ground, writhing and groaning in pain.
A thin, jagged wound slashed across his abdomen, like a grotesque gash as dark red blood streamed from it in an unending torrent.
"Why?! Why won't it heal?!"
Confusion consumed him. It was just a minor wound, yet it stubbornly refused to close, the blood poured out like a breached dam, flooding the ground until it looked like a lake of crimson.
As time passed, weakness from blood loss gradually overwhelmed him, and his screams grew fainter, eventually he was too weak even to cry out.
On the side, Uesugi Ryu leaned casually against a wall, fiddling with his phone.
He wore a pair of beige, over-ear headphones, the soft melody of elegant, classical music isolating him from the screams outside.
He had no interest in listening to a ghoul's death throes. After all, he wasn't some twisted math student obsessed with solving 1000-7.
Having left Antique earlier that evening, he'd decided to find some poor sap to test out his new skill on.
"It hasn't even been a full minute, and look at all this blood. How excessive," he muttered.
"Though I guess it has to do with this guy being a weakling. Still, the effect's pretty solid. I'll keep testing later."
He watched the dying ghoul with detached sense of calm, as if the suffering before him was little more than a farce.
Technically, this was a sting operation, baiting a ghoul into attacking him.
And if a ghoul was bold enough to initiate violence, it likely wasn't the friendly sort anyway. Had it been a normal human, they'd have been devoured without mercy, so this wasn't exactly "cruelty" in his eyes.
From a second-floor balcony nearby, Kirishima Touka had hidden behind a wall, quietly observing the entire scene below.
She hadn't actually intended to tail this white-suit Investigator but the commotion had simply been too loud to ignore, and curiosity got the better of her.
Biting her lip, her gaze darkened as she muttered to herself:
"This guy really is a pervert."
He could've killed the ghoul cleanly. Instead, he chose to toy with it, to torture it for his amusement. It was revolting.
Uesugi Ryu suddenly felt the odd sensation of being watched. It didn't take much guessing to figure out who the culprit was.
"Probably Kirishima Touka," he thought.
He had no particular feelings toward flat-chested high school girls, he wasn't some degenerate lolicon.
If anything, he'd purposefully teased her just to get a rise out of her. As it turns out, she really had snapped.
The real problem however was that Kirishima Touka was only sixteen. That was way too... criminal.
As a Ghoul Investigator, it's not like he'd get arrested, but still, he had always preferred more mature types. And if he was going to find someone, they'd better be a real person, not some overly dangerous child soldier with emotional baggage.
"After all," he mused, "a certain unnamed general once said: one ghoul's worth of trouble per ghoul."
He didn't bother confronting her. Instead, he opened his contacts and dialed the CCG's 20th Ward branch.
"Moshi moshi? This is Second-Class Investigator Uesugi Ryu. I've just been attacked by a ghoul. The target has been neutralized. Send a cleanup crew."
The operator on the other end went silent for a moment, this was one of the most cocky Second-Class Investigators he'd ever heard.
But he was just logistics, so he said nothing more.
After hanging up, Uesugi Ryu strolled over to the once loud ghoul's corpse.
By now, the ghoul was stone-cold dead, his face frozen in a bizarrely "peaceful" expression.
[You have slain an A-rated ghoul.]
[Talent Activated: Soul Devour. Mana permanently increased by 6 points.]
[Absorb Kakuhou? Yes / No]
[Energy Gained: 6 Points]
Uesugi Ryu frowned as he glanced down at his shoes. The soles were caked in blood and the treads were flooded with sticky gore.
"What a mess. If someone sees me like this, they'll think I'm the real pervert."
"Still, ghouls in the 20th Ward are just too weak. If you're this useless, don't come out to hunt. Wouldn't it be easier to just nibble on some carrion?"
Before long, the CCG cleanup team arrived.
Quite literally a clean-up team, because if they didn't wash away this much blood quickly, it'd become a major issue.
"Second-Class Uesugi!"
A bespectacled young man with thick glasses greeted him, followed by several assistant investigators.
The metallic stench of blood hung heavy in the air.
Uesugi Ryu gave a brief nod and glanced at the bespectacled man, he looked familiar.
"Must be Kusaba Ippei, right?"
In the original timeline, he'd been killed by Kirishima Touka.
"I appreciate the work, everyone. I'll be off now."
He turned and left without further delay.
Kusaba looked at the ghoul corpse soaked in blood. Its face, twisted in agony, looked like it had suffered immense torment in its final moments.
It was as pale as a corpse, it resembled a vampire.
"What exactly did Second-Class Uesugi do to this guy? That amount of blood loss..."
Kusaba sighed and pulled on his gloves, ready to begin the cleanup.
...
24th Ward, underground labyrinth.
Massive, bizarre walls twisted through the earth like a dungeon straight out of a fantasy novel, except there were no gold coins or treasure chests, only ghouls in endless numbers.
After temporarily clearing the shallow-level ghouls, the team had stopped to rest.
Suzuya Juuzou was fiddling restlessly with his Quinque knife.
"Have you heard about the newcomer lately, Arima-san?"
"That kid Uesugi Ryu? He's making quite the buzz, he became a Second-Class Investigator at nineteen. Just like you."
Ui Koori spoke with mild curiosity, glancing toward Juuzou.
"He was Juuzou's classmate, right?"
He kept that thought to himself, not bothering to ask it out loud.
Though Ui didn't dislike Suzuya, it was hard to get along with someone so completely unorthodox and insubordinate. It made cooperation... difficult.
Arima Kishou adjusted his glasses without responding, his expression blank as ever.
"Do you know him, Juuzou?"
Juuzou, still toying with his knife, perked up at the mention of Uesugi Ryu.
"Yes~! He's a good friend of mine. Ryu-kun is super strong. I've gotta keep working hard too~!"
Juuzou had been having a great time lately.
The members of Squad 0 weren't giving him any strange looks, and he'd gotten to kill plenty of ghouls, it was fun!
Ui gave a faintly strange smile.
"If that Uesugi guy's friends with this pale-haired weirdo... he's probably not all that normal either."
He reached into his pocket and pulled out a cigarette labeled "HOPE", quietly lighting one up.