Chapter 13

After freshening myself up I went out to carry out my plan of getting stronger as quickly as possible. From morning to early afternoon I Walked around the 20th ward in search of secluded places which ghouls might use to devour their targets.

I was able to jot down around 23 places where hungry ghouls would roam at night and decided to call it a day and return home. While returning I saw Touka chan returning from her school with her lively friend Yoriko, When our eyes met, I gave her a slight nod and so did she and then we crossed each other.

"Who was he?" Yoriko asked Touka.

"One of our regulars at the shop", Touka replied without much interest.

"Oh, he looks cute, especially with that gaze which looks almost emotionless. Why don't you try your luck with him?" Yoriko teased Touka while giving her a cheeky grin.

"Huhh? Don't wanna!" Touka replied while giving Yoriko a light smack on her head as she glanced back at the direction towards which I walked.

I soon reached home and suddenly remembered about the can of beer and the cigarettes I bought yesterday, I watched T.V while drinking and smoking a bit till late evening and apart from a few coughing, smoking doesn't amount to much for me, maybe because I've become a ghoul now so it's effects are minimal on me. It was soon going to be 8 PM, so I decided to warm up by doing some stretching and then changed into my hunting attire...hehe.

Soon I was ready, watching myself in front of the mirror, black trench coat covering my upper body while wearing black pants, which I already had along with the gloves and boots, I looked cool af. I took out my mask from the drawer and wore it. It felt great, though I had to get used to seeing from only one eye from now on, cause I'll be fighting with this mask on in future.

I exited my apartment by jumping out the window. It was too easy a move for me after becoming a ghoul. I wandered around the edges of the street and went towards one of the areas where I felt that I had a high chance of meeting ghouls. After reaching the area I found a tall building near it and sat on its roof while observing the whole area in search of my targets.

When it was reaching 11:30 pm in the dead of night I finally noticed some suspicious movements, A drunk man was walking on the street while singing some gibberish and suddenly I heard the sound of a bottle breaking and the man's singing disappeared, I quickly reached the place where the incident happened and used my sense of smell to find clues, I got the smell of blood few meters ahead in an alley and was also able to hear sounds of bone-cracking, but strangely, I was only able to get the scent of the drunk guy and not the ghoul who was eating him.

I entered the dark alley discreetly hiding my presence and soon found a girl breaking the arms of the drunk guy who was now dead, and eating it at a quick phase as if afraid of being caught, I waited there for few minutes as she was finishing her meal and when she was almost done eating, I rushed towards her while her back was facing me and without having any second thoughts kicked her sides with as much force as I can muster since this was my first time attacking a ghoul and she crashed heavily on the concrete walls of the buildings in that alley coughing up bits of flesh and blood, most probably they belonged to the dead guy and not her.

She looked like an easy opponent to me judging from how she wasn't able to dodge my attack, so I decided to test and hone my fighting skills while killing her. After what seemed like a minute she got up from the fetal position and glared at me with her red-black eyes. Her hair was short and untidy and her clothes were torn and stitched at many places, I guess she is an orphan and was forced to live by herself.

She soon rushed at me and aimed to punch my face which I was able to easily dodge and sent one clean kick to her abdomen making her vomit again. She was able to endure it a bit this time and got up again after around 30 seconds and rushed towards me while shouting, I put my guard up thinking that she would use her Kagune but instead of attacking me she dodged me and started running away.

Observing her running for a second I realized that I was a lot faster and started chasing her and caught up to her in less than 10 seconds, I used my hand to grab her neck from behind and slammed her head on the wall forcefully making the wall crack and then threw her towards the other wall.

*Cough Cough*

"What do you want? I've already eaten that corpse. I don't have any other stocked up food or like the rest, you also want my body?" the ghoul said weakly, glaring at me as she coughed up more blood, not having any strength left to continue fighting.

"I want your body, but unlike the rest, I'm gonna devour you instead," I said bending down to look at her eyes while smiling.

I could see her shuddering

"Is there any way I can change your mind?" She asked.

"Nope, Any last words?" I asked her to which she just shook her head and was maybe thinking of her past.

I reached my hand to grab her neck and slowly raised her above the ground as she started wiggling her legs due to being choked by the combined efforts of my hand and gravity.

At the 8 second mark when she was almost about to lose her consciousness, suddenly a truck passed by the road beside the alley and its headlights reflected from a store's glass frame and projected towards the ghoul's face leading me to notice a mole below her lower lip. Seeing that I quickly released my grip and took a few steps back while being dazed.

*Cough* *Cough* Cough*

As soon as I released my grip the ghoul started coughing as she fell down on the ground and due to being unable to control the momentum she hit her head on the ground and became unconscious thinking of only one word 'why' as her vision was filled with darkness.