We were called to the Tokyo Grand Hotel, and if it weren't for reason that we had been summoned here for, I might have actually enjoyed the beauty of this place. As the four of us approached the counter, First Class Investigator Uchida told the lady behind the counter our reason for being here, and then she quietly led us to the room. Only speaking to tell us that the maid who found the customer screamed bloody murder at the sight, and that she was glad we came so that this circus could draw to a close. After we would be done conducting our business then the rest of the guests on the third floor could resume their business.
Upon arriving at the door, the attendant bowed and then let us into the room. It was a single room, small yet comfortable. There was a small desk; it had an equally small TV, a cream lamp, a nice half round mirror, and across from that was the bed presently holding the reason for our stay. The white sheets were now stained with the vibrancy of red, accompanied with the stench of decomposing flesh. We filed into the room in a line, and I found my place in the room at the foot of the bed.
In the silence that soon enveloped the room, we all could tell who the culprit was. The Black Widow, this ghoul had been named. Aptly so, her methods of acquiring meals were a tad on the, -ahem- sensual side. I had heard mention of her sparsely when I had been delivering coffee to the higher ups; she was as hard to catch as she was dangerous. It wasn't until I had witnessed the scene of one of her meals a year ago that I finally understood how she got the name. Laying face down on the disheveled bed, and partially wrapped in a sheet, was the Black Widow's victim. It was like she paid careful attention to the sequence of actions that it took to reel her prey in, starting from seduction, and ending with having your throat ripped out. I shuddered reluctantly; no matter how many times I followed the trail of the Black Widow, seeing her dead victims was another story.
The man was in his late twenties, dark colored hair, and very noticeably naked. The clothes he had been wearing were strewn across the floor; tell tale sign of what had taken place. Except I was sure that the man wasn't planning on dying, he probably just wanted to pick up a pretty girl and have some fun, and therein lays the problem. One of the lower investigators was checking the man's pockets for identification, we would soon be phoning his family later to alert them to his death. Not the most fun part of the job, who the hell was I kidding? This job was far from fun.
Walking back around to the side of the bed, I knelt down to get a closer look. Along his neck there were multiple lacerations of varying sizes, predominately on the front. A good chunk was also taken right from where the area that his larynx was, and effectively ripping a good portion of his trachea. Compared to the other marks on his neck, the blow to his larynx appeared to be a newer wound. From his chest down to his mid section were countless scratch and bite marks, although relatively free of wounds to the degree of the one on his neck. His arms were virtually untouched. The Black Widow didn't particularly like feasting on the core of her prey; rather, she took to dealing a single deathblow, and then she moved onto an area where there was a good amount of meat, usually the thighs. I quietly lifted the sheet, and looked towards the victim's lower half. As I figured, he was missing a fair deal of flesh on his legs, practically going down to the bone on one of them.
It seemed inhuman, you know, to meet ones end in this fashion. Well, really, no one wants to die. Despite how we treated the ghouls, humans were capable of the same type of atrocities, with or without cannibalism. It was just that the ghouls received majority of the attention, and in order to find the ghouls responsible for these deaths, one needed a certain kind of scrutiny and a good deal of hostility on the side. Our victim seemed to be fairly rich, going by the clothes he had, nor was he the first rich person to be killed by the Black Widow. Maybe she had a thing for people with money.
Honestly speaking, if there were anything that would keep me going with this job, would be the promise that justice would be served against the monsters. Or at least, that's what I'd like to think. In comparison to the other investigators, I don't necessarily hate ghouls, per se, they're truly fascinating creatures… with unfortunate dietary needs. It is well known that the CCG often takes in individuals who loathe ghouls with a fiery passion, usually holding some grudge against them, and harvests their anger to train those few in the ways of ghoul elimination. A long and arduous journey, that was met most often with the death of investigators, especially if they didn't have their wits about them. Occasionally we would end up killing a ghoul or two, but they were generally stronger than the rookies and definitely more than just one could handle.
A sigh escaped my mouth as I scratched my head, the numbers of ghoul victims were on the rise now too. We of the CCG would put a stop to it, no, we had to stop it. This was unacceptable, I reasoned, surely ghouls could live without having to kill anyone, but deep in my heart I knew that was not the case. They ate humans because that was the only thing that they could eat, anything else would harm them, I knew this, I had done my research. It sounded sad; it probably felt akin to only being able to eat brussel sprouts. No, that was a wrong analogy to use, some people actually like eating them. Ok, it was like needing oxygen to breathe, it was a necessary component of life.
One thing didn't add up though, and this was what truly bothered me. She would normally kill someone every two weeks, give or take, but this was her third killing this week. Her behavior was highly unusual, and it made my stomach churn, was there something that made her want to kill more? Was her territory being threatened? Or was she just hungrier than normal? Because as they say, the best way to catch your target was to think like them, but I could only make small assumptions to theorize her thought processes. Ghouls were highly territorial, like most animal types. Protecting their territory often resulted in fighting, or in this case, more death. Most of the time I didn't know if I was right or not, either way, I was starting to read her movements better. I brought my wrist into my vision so that I could see what time it was, 4:20am. God, I needed sleep.
"Rank 2 Investigator, Daiki Hamasaki."
My head shot up, "Yes, sir?"
"What do you think is the cause of this, seeing as the Black Widow was assigned to your squad. Do you have any leads as to who it might be?"
I mentally rolled my eyes at his question, the ghouls often wore a mask for crying out loud, and they hunted like a damn tiger. They were as elusive as one too, so actually catching them was hard enough as it was. The higher ups expected nothing less than perfection when it came to ghouls, and as much as I understood that, I wasn't about to go question every possible prostitute on the street, it would feel weird.
"The Black Widow is an S rated ghoul, I don't she'd slip up. At least not yet." Giving myself the benefit of the doubt, "I believe that the Binge Eater might have a part in this." Not directly, mind you, but she killed wherever and whenever she felt like it. Her killing was so erratic, that it was near impossible to pinpoint where she would actually be. The one thing those two had in common was who their main targets were. Women ghouls are scary, sheesh.
The First Class Investigator regarded my words with little thought; he nodded slightly while contemplating the timing of all of this. We all knew that the Binge Eater was in Tokyo; it only stood to reason that another ghoul might feel threatened when facing a random ghoul who didn't care for territory boundaries. The Investigator didn't seem thrilled with my notion of the two ghouls having related incidents. But I was speaking my mind, and he knew it. If there was one thing that I could be counted on to do was make my thoughts known to the general public, ok so maybe not all of them but the Investigators knew his stance on ghouls, and while they were radical ideas compared to the ruthless Investigators, he was almost like the black sheep in the fold. Almost.
"Well," Investigator Uchida sighed, "I think we got all we can for now, let's head back to headquarters and figure out our next plan of action. This ghoul is getting more dangerous as the days go on, I would like to see her locked up, or in a body bag. Whichever one comes first."
I gulped, death never sat well with me, no matter who or what it was. I was an Investigator for some sappy, stupid reason, like some other Investigators I knew. Otherwise everyone else had a clear goal in mind, and that was where I faltered. After Investigator Uchida's declaration I wrote down what information I could as he soon took the lead and walked out of the room, the rest of us filed out behind him. Someone would come by to pick up the body later.
The Black Widow was hard ghoul to catch, she only eats men in this fashion every once and a while, but aside from that she's completely off radar. The most we could do right now was see if we could find any leads, if not we would continue searching for however long it would take. Honestly, there were more dangerous ghouls lurking about, but this particular one was unfortunately assigned to our measly squad, and we wouldn't stop until we found it. Apparently there was a big party here over the weekend, full of rich well off people, with nothing better to do than have fun. The room we were in was under the name of our victim, and with all of the other people roaming throughout the halls, it was hard to find out who exactly killed him. Ghouls were crafty, and experts at evasion, especially since they so often wore masks to conceal their identity.
I stole a glance back towards the direction we came from, wondering if that ghoul frequented this place, or if she just felt like eating a higher-class meal at a buffet. Like the Gourmet ghoul for instance. It was common knowledge that that ghoul had a habit of picking and choosing what he wanted to eat, from the sounds of it Gourmet was extremely picky about what he would eat, only choosing the absolute best for himself, while plenty of other ghouls would just eat what they could to survive. Like the upper and lower classes, there was discrepancy amongst them.
My thoughts were abruptly brought to a halt as I bumped into someone, "Oh, I am so sorry ma'am, that was completely my fault." I quickly bowed. Hoping that she wouldn't be too upset.
"I should be the one apologizing, it was my fault for not watching where I was going. Are you alright?" The voice asked.
Looking up, I saw a fair-skinned women, her hair was dark as ebony, and curled towards the bottom where it reached just beyond her shoulders. Eyes as green as jade, and she wore business attire, probably here for the conference. She gave off an apologetic smile and shifted to the side. Behind her gentle façade, there was something unnerving about her that I couldn't quite place, but I ignored that feeling.
"Hamasaki, get over here." Investigator Uchida growled.
"Right away, sir." I turned to face the woman again, "Please excuse me." I bowed once more before taking my leave.
Little did I know that this encounter would deal out my fate in spades.