Zen aimed at the target with his handgun, let out a small breath and fired.
When he opened his eyes, he saw the bullet had made a hole in the second ring, a few inches away from the centre.
He sighed. One of these days, he was going to hit a bullseye. He cleared the chamber and popped out the magazine, walking outside. He took off his ear mufflers and put them on the desk in front of him.
"Thanks, Shin," he said, handing over the gun.
"What's the matter, kid?" the old man asked. "No more? I only heard five shots."
"I think I've had enough for today," Zen said. "Mark my words, when I come back next week, I'm going to get that bullseye."
"Good luck with that."
"Yeah. Well, I'll see you next week, Shin," Zen said and walked out. He took the short path through the woods, pulling the jacket tighter around him as his breath frosted.
His name was Shigemura Zen, age fifteen, only child, resident of Japan. He was told he was a bright student, but he didn't believe that. His parents were very busy and he hardly saw them, as they left quite early in the morning and evening.
However, when he was younger, Zen's father had taken him to this same shooting range to have a good time. And while he held no expectations of his father to take him again anytime soon, Zen still came to the range at least once a week. He really didn't know why.
He lived in the country, a mile or two away from the city of Tokyo. He had a fair amount of friends, his best friend Ouji also being an avid gun lover.
Zen wondered why he didn't live in the city. He knew his parents were wealthy, and they would probably do a lot better in a place like Tokyo. Zen lived in a remote but large house on the edge of the woods. Ouji's parents were divorced, his mother living in the city. Ouji himself stayed with his father a short walk away from Zen.
Zen walked down the small hill to the back door of his house. He fumbled with the key and let himself in.
"Zen!" his mother yelled.
Zen grunted. It was as if his mother had superhuman hearing. It was impossible to be discreet with her around.
"Hi, mom," Zen said. His mother came downstairs and pinched his cheek.
"How did the shooting go?" she asked.
"Okay. I almost got the bullseye, but I just couldn't get it."
"Oh, don't worry, I'm sure you'll get it right next week."
Zen nodded and began his way up to his room, when his mother called after him.
"Zen, did you take your pills?"
Zen stopped. "Ah. No, no I didn't. I'll do that now."
"Zen," his mother said, suddenly very furious, "how many times have I told you, you must not forget your pills!"
"I'm sorry, mom. I'll take them now." He walked back down.
"Make sure you do," his mother said and walked upstairs.
Zen muttered to himself and opened a bottle of his pills. He took out two, popped them in his mouth at the same time and gulped them down with some water. He shook his head and blinked. He had been taking these pills twice every day, without fail, since he was four years old. And they tasted terrible.
He was told he had a rare disease, and that these pills were keeping him from falling into a fatal state. He had no idea what exactly would happen if he stopped dosing, but he had been told the symptoms- extreme cranial and abdominal pain, starvation, and powerful, strange desires.
Zen sighed and walked up to his room, shutting the door behind him and avoiding his mother. It was cold. He sank into his bed, looked out his window to the slate grey sky, pulled the sheets over himself and fell into black sleep.
XXX
Zen awoke a few hours later, the sky black. He was sweating madly, and pain wracked his torso like a hot knife. He fell out of his bed, clawing at the floor. He gritted his teeth and grabbed his doorknob, stumbling and falling out of his room. He got to his feet and made his slow way out of his room and through the corridor to his parents room.
He slammed a hand on his mother's door.
"Mom," he cried weakly. "Mom! I really need you right- AGGGH!" He clutched his abdomen and fell back, down the stairs. He made his way to the kitchen, crawling on the floor, and reached up to the drawer. He pulled it all the way out, and it came crashing to the floor.
The bottle of red pills fell to the ground and smashed, and Zen desperately grabbed two and stuffed them into his mouth. When nothing happened, he grabbed more and pulled them into his mouth.
It didn't work.
XXX
Kaname Shigemura put his hands over his face and sighed. He got off his chair, picked up his briefcase and walked out of his office. He walked down the spotless hallway and checked his watch. 3 o'clock in the morning. The bags under his eyes proved he went home at this time very often the past few months.
He stopped suddenly when he heard a man walk up behind him.
He sucked on a cigarette, the tip glowing orange and illuminating the skull mask on his face momentarily.
"Good evening, Kaname," he said.
Kaname threw his briefcase down and ran for the man, his eyes gleaming red, the whites darkening to black. Three tentacles of flesh protruded from his back, becoming thicker and growing thorns. The tentacles dove for the man, who calmly stood there as an even larger spiral of flesh grew from under his shoulder blades, piercing his clothing and intercepting the three other tentacles with ease.
"Hm," he said, blowing smoke, "attacking me. That is an automatic death penalty. Luckily for you, I just want to talk."
Kaname let the tentacles pull back. "You're with the Warehouse. What are you doing here? We had a deal! You were supposed to leave us alone!"
"The matter here is your son, Kaname. The ghoul repressants you created. You and I both know that they're flawed. Your son has almost reached maturity, am I correct? The medicine soon won't be able to suppress his ghoul nature anymore. And what a cruel thing to do. Letting him believe he's human, while secretly feeding him human flesh-"
"What do you want?"
"Very soon, Kaname, your son's ghoul nature will surface. And when that happens, you need to stop him from going on a rampage. His kakuhou is a mutated monstrosity, and his kagune is beyond any ordinary ghoul. But you know this. Keep him on a leash when he starts getting hungry. If we get news of more deaths than usual, we'll know who's causing them. That's all I've come to say."
He stubbed the cigarette and began walking away, then stopped suddenly and turned.
"Don't forget why you gave him those repressants in the first place, Kaname. If the doves even get near Zen, we will kill him before they make a quinque out of him. If anyone gets that Kagune of your son's, mark my words, you die, slowly and painfully."
Kaname said nothing as the man in the skull mask walked down the hallway, opened the window and jumped out.
XXX
Kaname parked into his driveway. He sighed in frustration and fumbled with the lock to his house. Tomorrow morning, he would have to start making stronger pills to suppress his son's ghoul side.
The door finally opened. Kaname stepped in, and his foot crunched on broken glass. He frowned and put down his briefcase. He stepped into the kitchen and saw Zen lying there on the floor, his mouth foaming, his eyes bloodshot and rolled up into the back of his head.
"Zen!" Kaname yelled, dropping down. "Zen! What happened!? Oh, kami- Suzuya! Suzuya, get down here now!"
A few minutes later, Kaname's wife came running down the stairs, her hair in a mess.
"What?" she said. "What happ- oh my god." She knelt down next to her son and shook him frantically.
"Go get some water!" Kaname shouted.
Suzuya nodded and grabbed a cup, filled it with cold water. She brought it down to Zen and Kaname took it, lifted up his head. He opened up his son's mouth to make sure he wasn't choking on anything, and spilled the cold water down his throat.
Zen coughed and croaked something inaudible.
"What is it, son?" Kaname said, leaning his head down to hear.
"Need... need..."
"What do you need, Zen?" Kaname's ear was right above his son's mouth.
"...Flesh."
Kaname widened his eyes and lifted his head slowly. He looked at his son's half opened eyes, and saw the red where the light brown used to be, and black where the whites used to be.
"Oh my god," Suzuya whispered. "Kaname... his eyes..."
Kaname looked at her with a horrified look in his eyes. "He... he said he needs flesh."
"Need... need flesh... now..." Zen kept croaking.
Kaname sat there, teeth gritted. He finally got up, and stormed to the back of the house.
"Kaname," Suzuya shouted at him. "Kaname, where are you going?"
"He's hungry. And there's only one way to satisfy a ghoul's hunger." He wrenched the false wall open with incredible strength, revealing the white metal door. He typed in the thirteen digit passcode and spoke very clearly: "Shigemura Shin-Ne Tousen Kaname."
The machine beeped green once, the words 'WELCOME DR. SHIGEMURA.' appearing momentarily. The thick metal door unlocked.
"Wait, Kaname. You can't feed him flesh! You don't know what that will do if he eats it in this state! He's never-"
"OUR SON IS STARVING TO DEATH! I WON'T LET HIM DIE!"
Kaname reached into the freezer and pulled out a large slab of frozen mincemeat. He went to the sink, rinsed it under the tap.
He yelled as it hardly defrosted. In desperation, he grew a thick tentcle of muscle from his back and wrapped it around the slab of mince. The tentacle pulsed and stayed like that for a while.
When the tentacle unwrapped, the slab of meat was now thick, warm, slop that stuck to the mans fingers.
Kaname scooped up the meat in his hands and swallowed his spit nervously.
He opened his son's mouth and force fed him the warm meat.
Zen's eyes flew open and pulsed red light. He swallowed more and more of the meat hungrily, as if he had been deprived.
"More," he said.
Kaname scooped more up and shoveled the red slop into his son's mouth, who swallowed like there was no tomorrow. Kaname's eyes teared as he looked on.
Once he had had a few more mouthfuls, Zen passed out, slumped motionlessly in his father's arms.
Kaname set his son on the floor and slumped back, sighing with relief. He stayed like that for a while before his wife touched his hand. His eyes fluttered open.
"What do we do now?" Suzuya asked, her voice trembling.
The man leant his head back. "I was planning on starting the development of a stronger strain of pills for Zen. I guess we'll have to start sooner than expected."
"How are we going to explain this to Zen?"
"We tell him that this was a mistake, that we got the wrong batch of pills, and the symptoms caught up with him. In the meantime, you and I need to go and start making stronger strains of the medicine." Kaname stood up shakily.
"Wait," Suzuya said. "We can't take him with us when we go to make the pills."
"We can leave him here."
"Alone? But what about his health? What if he gets another attack while we're gone!?"
Kaname strode over to the open freezer, grabbing another slab of frozen human flesh and wrapping part of his kagune around it. "Then I'll just have to feed him enough to last a day." Kaname turned to his wife, the meat melting. "Go to bed, dear. You don't want to see this."
XXX
Zen cracked his eyes open and looked up at a grey ceiling. He was not in his room. He attempted to get up, grabbed the wooden bedside, and felt it crack underneath his fingers. He looked at it, confused. Then his thoughts caught up with him and he felt surprised. It must have been really weak to just break like that.
He swung his legs off the- couch?- and planted his feet on the ground. As soon as he tried to get up, he was hit by a powerful wave of nausea and dizziness.
He fell back and shook his head. It was if he had eaten way too much food. Foreign food.
He breathed into his hand and sniffed. It smelled very, very strongly of toothpaste. Had his parents brushed his teeth last night?
He suddenly clutched his bedsheets and widened his eyes. Last night. He had been getting every single symptom his parents told him he'd get if he didn't take his pills. He was in a lot of pain last night. But he had taken them, right?
He looked at his watch, and yelled in shock. It was late. He was supposed to have taken his pills 3 hours ago. He clutched at his stomach, expecting it to burst in pain.
He licked his dry lips and tasted something sweet and tangy.
He did it again. It tasted... good. Better than anything he'd ever tasted. It was very similar to the curry his mother made frequently.
Freaked out of his mind, Zen got up, fighting against the dizziness, but the surprise of the nausea was gone. He walked through the door and found his dad putting on his white coat and his mother making a mug of coffee. As soon as he walked in, before he even made a sound, as if they could smell him, they snapped up their hands to look at him.
"Zen," his father stepped forward and hugged him. "Are you okay, kiddo?"
"Uh, yeah dad, just a bit... dizzy," Zen replied, caught off guard.
His father let go and looked at Zen's face weirdly closely. Once he seemed satisfied, he stood straight again.
"Zen," his mother said. She laid the mug of coffee on the table. "Drink up. The whole thing. Come on."
"Uh, okay, mom." Zen did so. It tasted much better than usual. "Wow, mom. This is pretty good."
His parents did nothing but smile nervously and look at him uncomfortably closely. Zen pretended not to notice and finished the mug. He placed it on the counter. "So, uh-,"
"We're leaving, Zen," his mother said abruptly.
"What?" Zen asked, confused.
Kaname put a hand on his wife's shoulder. "What your mother is trying to say, is that she and I are going out. We need to go and take care of your pills."
"What happened last night, Dad? I had an attack, I thi- Wait, what's wrong with my pills!?"
His father hesitated. "Zen, exactly how much do you remember from last night?"
"Uh, I woke up, feeling really bad in my stomach, and I... fell to the kitchen?" Zen looked at the kitchen strangely. He remembered the drawer falling to the floor, but everything seemed normal. Clean. "Then I, uh... tried eating my pills... but they didn't... work... oh. Wow."
Kaname leant down and held his son's shoulders. "Alright, Zen. Listen very carefully. Yes, you had a very bad attack last night. I'm sure your memories are fuzzy. But your mother and I need to go and makke you more pills. The old ones won't work anymore."
"Then... then how am I going to stop another attack!? If the pills don't work anymore, then I'm going to-"
"Relax, son. Your mother and I... gave you a very strong injection last night. It should stop any attacks from happening to you throughout the day. But right now, we need to leave."
"I can't come with you?"
"I'm sorry, Zen. Its very delicate work. You can't wait outside, either. Its not a very popular place."
Kaname grabbed his keys and Suzuya pulled on her jacket. She hugged her son tightly and let go, smiled at him. "Don't do anything crazy when we're gone."
"Alright, Zen," Kaname said. "Some rules. First, under the case any attacks happen, you need to grab the container in the fridge, and eat what's inside. Secondly, no leaving the house at all, under any circumstances. You can't. Sit in one place, don't touch anything, be careful not to eat."
"These are some pretty weird rules," Zen said.
"Don't argue."
"Sorry."
Kaname sighed and smiled at his son. "How about, when this is all over, you and me go to the shooting range again?"
"Seriously?"
"Mm hmm."
"That sounds.. great, dad."
Kaname nodded. "Take care of yourself. Remember the rules I told you. I'll see you soon."
Zen nodded and watched his parents as they walked out the door. It slammed shut, and Zen was alone again.
XXX
Zen sat on the couch for two hours, watching anime. He checked his watch. It was past twelve o'clock. He sighed, bored. He grabbed his phone and called Ouji. It rang a few times, then that familiar voice answered.
"Shigemura Zen. What makes you call me now? You in the bathroom facing womanly decisions?"
"Shut up," Zen said. "Where the hell do you come up with this stuff?"
Ouji laughed. "What's up, man?"
"I'm stuck at home and really bored. Can you come over?"
"It's Sunday. If you're bored, just go to the shooting range like you normally do."
"Can't. My parents put me on house arrest."
"Seriously? Wow. Shigemura Shin-Ne Tousen Zen, the golden, loyal boy without a defiant bone in his body... is grounded? Nice. Don't get me wrong, I'm actually impressed. You're acting like a real teenager."
"Shut up. Like you're any different. No normal teenager sleeps with a handgun under his pillow."
Ouji laughed loudly. "Fair enough."
"So? Can you come over?"
"I guess so. Want me to bring a couple handguns over for target practice?"
"I told you, I can't go outside."
"Not even to your backyard? Shit, man. What did you do, get caught having sexy time with a girl?"
Zen laughed. "Come over, and I'll tell you."
"Alright, man. I'll see you in fifteen minutes."
Zen hung up and put the phone in his pocket. He got up and boiled some water. The nausea and dizziness was getting less prominent. He was just finished making the coffee when he heard a knock on the door..
"Give me all your belongings and women!"
Zen sighed and opened the door. "Are you retarded?" He asked. "What if my mother was here and answered the door?"
Karyuudo Ouji shrugged. "Life ain't worth anything without some risk."
"Come in, crazy."
Ouji grinned and hopped into the house. He was wearing a dark turtleneck, black jacket and blue jeans. He flipped up his hair and grinned that homosexual grin.
"Don't do that! You gaybo!" Zen yelled.
"What's wrong, Zen? For all you know, I could be wanting you."
"Hime Bano's face after you two spent twenty minutes in the bathroom together tells me otherwise."
Zen grinned. "She was so hot. I'm gonna marry that girl one day, mark my words, Zen."
"Sure, man. You want some coffee?"
"Gross. No way, man."
"Your loss, Karyuudo. It's really good today."
"Ugh. Coffee is freaking disgusting. Dunno how you can drink the stuff."
Zen shrugged and poured some in a mug for himself. He frowned and sniffed. He took an even deeper sniff. "You smell that?" He finally asked.
"Smell what?"
"Something... good. Smells like hot curry. Or roast chicken."
"Uh... no. Hey, so tell me, what happened to get you grounded for the first time in your life?"
"I'm not grounded. In fact, I didn't even do anything wrong."
"Then what happened?"
Zen hesitated. "My disease caught up with me."
Ouji widened his eyes. "Seriously? So you went all..."
"Spazzy, yeah. Anyway, my parents went out to get me more medicine before this one wears off. Its really strong or something, so I can't take it instead of the pills, or something like that. Do you honestly not smell that?"
"No! What the hell are you even going on about?"
"Are you wearing a new cologne or something?"
"Am I- No! Why would I wear something smelling like roast food? Wait, uh, Zen."
"What?"
"You're... you know... you're drooling."
Zen touched his face and felt something wet there. He hurriedly wiped it away with a towel. "Sorry, Ouji. Must be some side effect of the meds. That stuff just smells really good."
"Whatever, man. Oh, I got something for you." He threw him a chocolate energy bar, biting into one of his own.
"Thanks," Zen said. He unwrapped his and bit into it. His eyes widened and he rushed to the sink and retched, spitting it up.
"Whoa, Zen, you okay!?"
"Ugh," Zen said. "What the hell? That tastes worse than my pills. Is it expired?"
"No. I bought both of them today, and mine tastes fine."
"That injection did something..."
"You shouldn't worry so much. Those pills will fix you up easy. You wanna watch some T.V?"
Zen nodded gratefully.
They watched anime until it began getting dark.
"Nah, man, Enju would be way better for Rentaro to marry," Ouji said.
"I can't believe we are actually having this conversation," Zen said.
Ouji's phone began ringing. "Just a sec, man," he said quietly after looking at the contact. Zen knew from experience it was Ouji's father. Ouji got up and walked into the back of the room and answered the call.
"What is it?" He asked in an intensely quiet voice, all traces of humor gone. Even from the couch, Zen could hear the shouting on the other end of the line.
"I'm at Zen's place. No, I didn't tell mom. I had spare time, so I came here. Wait, what? Where? Are you serious? That close? I- Alright. Fine. I'm coming." He hung up the phone and slapped it off angrily.
"What was all that about?" Zen asked.
"Just family stuff. Listen, man, I gotta go home. Sorry."
"No, man, it's fine. Thanks for coming over."
"Yeah," Ouji said quietly and pulled on his jacket, closing the front door behind him.
XXX
"And... done." Kaname said, filling the last vial with dark red liquid.
"You're sure this will keep his ghoul side down?" Suzuya asked.
"This is at least 10 times stronger than the last batch. We can come back tomorrow and start converting them to pill form. For now, though, we need to get these back to Zen and give him some straight away."
Suzuya nodded, eyes down. Kaname stepped up to her and hugged her.
"Don't worry," he whispered. "Soon, we can put this entire ghoul emergence behind us. I'll make sure our son becomes human again... and stays that way. Alright?"
"Alright," Suzuya whispered back, hugging her husband.
XXX
Outside the research facility, three men in dark clothes and skull masks stood on a rooftop, listening to every word Kaname Shigemura and his wife had said.
"Well," said the man in the ivory mask, "it looks like you were right, Wattari."
The man in the polished wood mask nodded. "What do we do now, Boss?"
The man in the silver mask and the yellowish white suit stubbed his cigar. "Wait for them to leave. We were right. Their son has lost it. We let them go home, and kill all three of them there."
Without another word, he turned and walked across the rooftop, stepping off it. His two subordinates looked at each other, and followed.
XXX
Ouji breathed slowly, his breath frosting and his jacket flapping in the cold night wind. He held his modified assault rifle in his hands and walked up to the group of men standing on the hill above the road.
"Where the hell have you been!?" Karo Karyuudo spat.
"I told you," Ouji said through gritted teeth. "I was at a friend's place. Now, do you want to tell me what's going on here?"
Ouji's father glared at him. He pointed at the road. "Two hours ago, a man in a suit was walking through this road. Straight along, like he owned it. Then a truck came, crashed into him. The trucker came out, checked to see what he'd done. Then the man in the suit got up, beat him to death and ate half his corpse."
"Only half? Why?"
"Do I look like a mind reader!?"
"Let's just find this ghoul and bring him down. I don't need to talk to you while we do this." Ouji turned and Karo grabbed his collar.
"No," he said. "As punishment for being late, you carry all our guns."
Ouji pulled away furiously and gritted his teeth. "I'm not a little student anymore. You can't give me shit orders like that," he spat and trudged down the hill.
Karo's brother put his hand on his sibling's shoulder. "You should go easy on him."
Karo shoved him. "Shut it!"
They followed up with Ouji and looked for the ghoul in the yellow and white suit.
XXX
Zen got up when he heard a knock on the door. He opened it and saw his parents standing out there. They walked in, checking on him.
"Are you alright, Zen?" His mother asked.
"Yeah. I'm fine."
"Zen," his father said, walking into the kitchen and picking up the half eaten energy bar. "Were you eating this!?"
"Uh... yeah. I spit it out, though. It tasted really bad. Ouji brought it over."
Kaname slammed his hands on the counter suddenly. "What did I say about eating!? And what was Ouji doing here!?"
"We just... watched anime. There was this really weird smell, too..."
"Smell?" Suzuya asked.
"Yeah, mom. It was really good, like your curry. Ouji smelt like it. I actually started drooling when I smelt it."
Kaname pushed away the box full of vials and shouted. "ZEN! I SPECIFICALLY TOLD YOU NOT TO EAT! AND WHY DID YOU INVITE OUJI!? I TOLD YOU NOT TO!"
Zen fell back. "B-but I-"
"Now, Kaname," said a voice from the back of the room. "Don't shout at the boy like that. He's fifteen, for goodness sake."
Kaname turned slowly. The man in the yellowish white suit and silver mask walked up to them, cigar in hand. Even from this distance, Zen could see the red eyes beneath the mask's eyes sockets.
"Gh-ghoul!" Zen shouted, stepping back and pointing. "Mom, dad! Call the CCG!"
When Zen's parents did nothing, the man in the suit threw back his head and laughed. "This is rich!" He shouted.
"Mom? Dad!? Come on!"
"Ah, this is just cruel, Kaname. He probably has a disgust for ghouls lodged deep in him, not knowing his entire family is made up of them!"
"Shut up, Chromeskull," Kaname snarled. "He's lying, Zen."
"Oh, yes! If I'm lying, why would your father bother clarifying this fact instead of simply running!? How would he know my name!?"
Kaname stiffened.
Chromeskull laughed and bowed slightly. "Yes, Zen. My name is Chromeskull, but you may call me Chrome. It's so good to be finally meeting you after so much hearing."
"GET OUT!" Kaname yelled and charged the man. Chrome laughed madly beneath the mask and grabbed Kaname's head, smashing it into the T.V. He pulled him out, shards of glass lodged in his face.
"What is this, Kaname? You're not going to come after me with your Kagune? Are you honestly trying to still keep up this secret for your son?"
"KANAME!" Suzuya screamed and before anyone could do anything, she grew two purple tentacles of flesh from her back that lunged for Chrome.
Chrome grinned under the mask and held Kaname in front of him, so the tentacles pierced through his body instead. Kaname roared in pain and coughed blood. Suzuya screamed and the tentacles pulled themselves out of Kaname's torso.
Zen fell to the floor and stared at her mother in horror and at the flesh protruding from her back. She looked at him, and he saw the blood red eyes where the dark green used to be.
Zen screamed and scrambled back, terrified. What was going on? Why was his mother growing tentacles!?
Suzuya had a pained look on her face, then snarled at Chrome. "You bastard... you've ruined everything!" She ran for him, Kagune swirling, when another man fell from the ceiling and plunged his hand through her chest. Suzuya widened her eyes and gasped, her blood pooling to the floor.
"NO!" Zen yelled. "MOM!"
"Su...zu...ya..." Kaname gurgled, looking at her bleeding wound. "Zen... run..."
Chrome chucked Kaname behind him. "Wattari!" He yelled. "Kuusou! Hold our friends down."
The men in the ivory and wooden masks propped up the shakily breathing parents of Shigemura Zen. Chrome strode over to Zen, who scrambled away frantically. Chrome came up and grabbed Zen's head, smashed it into the wall over and over again. When he stopped, Zen was gasping in pain and bleeding in a dozen places on his face.
Chrome plunged his hand into Zen's belly.
Zen screamed in pain.
"That should catch your attention," Chrome said. He lifted Zen's head and forced his eyes open. "I want you see, before I bring an end to your little life, the way your parents are tortured before they die."
Wattari pushed his kagune out his shoulder blades and lined it with his fingertips. Kuusou, however, grabbed a steel mallet from his pouch.
"No," Zen murmured desperately. "No, please don't."
Chrome laughed. "Don't stop," he told the men.
Wattari brought his hand up and down, stabbing Kaname over and over again in different places. Kuusou brought the mallet up, and smashed it into the head of Suzuya Shigemura, again and again.
Zen strained uselessly against the hold of Chromeskull, who laughed at the dying screams of his parents that ended abruptly with splatters of blood.
The two men eventually stopped, panting, eyes blood red.
"Do you get it?" Chromeskull asked. "I've studied this. I know what happened. You had an attack last night because you grew out of your medication and became a ghoul again. You were struck by starvation, and it was torture. The reason your friend smelt so good, was because your ghoul instincts were telling you to eat him. When you're dead, I think I'll eat him. He looked juicy enough. I'll do it while he's alive. Those screams just get my blood pumping, you know!?"
Zen couldn't hear anything. The speech Chromeskull gave about the ways he would eat Ouji were the only audible things in his mind.
He looked down. Were his parents... dead?
His half closed eyes darted toward Chromeskull. That man... that man had killed them. He had ended their lives... quickly. One second they were alive, the next they weren't. Huh. Zen could feel nothing but cold, emotionless thoughts as this man drilled his torturous words into him.
Then something in Zen's mind snapped. Wake up... the voice in his head said faintly. Come on... He killed your parents, Zen... don't you want to make him pay for that? Come on, Shigemura...WAKE UP.
Zen's eyes flew open, and everything cleared. His blood roared in his head like a landslide.
Zen murmured something.
"What was that?" Chrome asked him, leaning closer.
"I'll kill you," Zen murmured. He snapped his head up and clamped his teeth over Chrome's exposed, thick neck. He bit a chunk of flesh from it, and Chrome stumbled back, surprised.
Zen lifted his head, his eyes a mixture of red and black. He let loose a guttural scream and in his veins, all his RC cells suddenly began travelling to the kakuhou in his back. Yes... he had the means to tear them apart... to scramble up their insides... so why shouldn't he? His parents were dead.
WHY SHOULD WE HOLD BACK!? He thought.
The RC cells mixed together, became solid, and burst out of Zen's back, for the first time, as a thick, wet, purple and red spiked tentacle.
So we were right about his kagune, Chrome thought, backing away.
Zen screamed and the tentacle writhed, whipping across the room wildly and gashing anything unfortunate enough to be in its path.
Zen looked at Chromeskull, his eyes glowing red, his kagune aimed directly at his face. "I'm going to kill you," he said gutturally. "I'm going to tear you apart, piece by piece, and eat you, alive, fill my stomach with your rotten meat, MONSTER-!"
Zen was interrupted by a bullet thumping through the wall, through his kagune and landing in his face.
The purple and red kagune slumped, useless, and Zen fell back, blood pooling to the floor.
Chromeskull got up, dusting off his suit. He glared at the fallen boy.
"Boss..." said Wattari. "That kagune was just like-"
"I know," Chrome said as more bullets blasted through the house. "Come on, let's leave. We don't want to play around here."
"But what about the kid?"
"The hunters will finish him off."
"And his kakuhou?"Kuusou asked, who was holding his arm that had been struck by Zen's kagune.
"We don't have to worry about that. The hunters despise ghouls, and everything about them. They won't take his kakuhou. They'll burn his body and we'll be in the clear." He turned and looked at their now cracked masks. He shook his head and picked up the box of vials.
"Let's go."
XXX
"Come on!" Yelled Karo. "I spotted one going into the Shigemura house!"
Damn, thought Ouji, huffing as he ran down the hill. Zen, be careful, you idiot.
Karo stopped at the edge of the house, listened through the wall and nodded. He loaded his assault rifle and fired through the wood, into the house and hopefully killing the ghoul.
The other men of the Karyuudo family burst in through the front door, guns pointed out.
"Oh, my god," Karo's brother said.
Ouji pushed past them and widened his eyes at the sight.
Blood was all over the floor, and in the back lay the corpse of Kaname Shigemura, dozens of stab wounds over his body. Next to him lay the corpse of- oh dear god, was that Suzuya? Her head was almost completely gone, lying in bits on the floor.
Ouji's younger cousin retched at the sight. Even Karo seemed shocked.
Ouji's father walked over, inspecting the corpses. He saw the shriveled kagune sticking from the woman's back. "She was a ghoul. We were neighboring a ghoul all this time."
"What do you think happened here?" Ouji's uncle asked.
Karo shook his head. "Those ghouls we saw come in earlier must have done this."
"H-hey," Ouji's cousin said. "There's one more..."
Zen rushed to where his cousin was standing and widened his eyes at the sight he was subjected to.
He saw Zen lying there, a gaping wound in his stomach and his half opened eyes glowing a dull red. A single, thick purple tentacle filled with fleshy thorns lay shriveling and limp next to him, protruding from his back. The redness within the tentacle flickered red like it was supporting his life.
Ouji stood there, his eyes wide and his mouth open.
"Ouji?" His cousin asked. "What's wrong?"
"Leave him," Karo spat. "The delusional boy just can't believe his 'friend', is a ghoul." He looked at Ouji. "Get over it. I told you, ghouls live in our society secretly. It's our job to smoke them out and kill them."
Ouji didn't move a muscle, but his mouth closed when he started to piece things together at light speed.
"Karo," Ouji's uncle murmured. "He's still alive."
"What?"
"It's faint, but he has a pulse."
Karo held up his assault rifle and loaded it. "Scum," he whispered.
Ouji blinked, saw what his father was doing and grabbed his shoulder, pulled him back. "STOP!" He yelled.
Karo snarled and pushed his son back. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"
Ouji held his rifle in one hand and held the other one up. "Listen to me," he said. "Zen isn't a ghoul."
"What!?"
"I mean, he is, but I don't think he even knew until tonight."
"What are you saying!?"
"Listen. This all fits. All the questions I've been asking myself about Zen make sense now. So, both his parents are ghouls, right? Well, ever since I've known him, Zen has eaten human food, and he has never spit it up after. Ghouls need to do that, don't they?"
"Ouji-" his uncle said, a look of pity in his eyes.
"But," Ouji interrupted, "he started saying things had been tasting weird from today. He said he has this condition since birth, and needs to take pills to keep himself healthy. But I think those are just improved RC suppressants, designed to keep him human! It explains so much. He had no idea he was a ghoul."
Karo snarled. "Are you done? Good." He pulled Ouji's collar and snarled into his face. "Now, I don't know what the hell you're on about, but if you're suggesting that we don't kill this ghoul, you can shove that idea right up your ass."
"If you'd just listen, you old man-" Ouji said with gritted teeth.
"WE ARE THE KARYUUDO!" Karo yelled. "The hunters! Born to kill ghouls! If you're saying that we shouldn't, you are not fit to be a hunter! You can just stay at home with the women and cook!"
"Have you ever wondered WHY we hunt ghouls!?" Ouji spat. "It's because they hurt people! They eat and kill! And I don't know about you, but I have never killed a ghoul who hasn't hurt because they needed to! And Zen isn't one of them!"
Karo yelled and punched his son in the face, sending him to the floor. "We hunt and kill ghouls," Karo said, rubbing his knuckles, "regardless of crime, age or race. They are vermin, that need extermination. Something you fail to understand. Brother, finish this one off."
Ouji's uncle nodded and pointed his rifle at Zen. The gears in Ouji's head clicked, and faster than anyone could follow, he rolled in front of Zen's limp body, sat up in a crouch and aimed his rifle at his uncle.
"Don't," he warned.
Ouji's cousin whipped out his rifle and pointed it at Ouji. "Stop pointing that fucking gun at my dad, Ouji," he quivered.
Ouji's eyes were narrowed like steel. He didn't even flinch.
"Are you completely out of your mind!?" Karo yelled, also pointing his rifle at his son. "I could ban you permanently from hunting for this!"
Ouji's eyes darted to his father. "I won't hurt my friend."
The moment his eyes moved, Ouji's loaded his gun, prepared to fire at Zen.
"NO!" Ouji yelled, and before he could even think, he shot his uncle twice in the shoulder.
Karo's brother went down, clutching his shoulder as his blood and shards of bone pooled onto the floor.
"DAD!" Ouji's cousin yelled, and dropped the rifle. He ran to his father, who was still screaming.
Karo fell to his knees and held his brother in his arms, yelling his name again and again, telling him they were going to get him out of there.
Ouji's eyes were widened in horror. He reached a hand out to his uncle, but was stopped.
"DONT YOU DARE TOUCH HIM!" Karo screamed. "IF YOU DO, I WILL KILL YOU!"
Ouji closed his hand in a fist and pulled back sharply.
Karo lifted his still screaming brother up and looked at his son. "Ouji," he said, "you just saved the vermin we kill. You proved where your allegiance lies. You are no longer a Karyuudo. No longer a hunter. You would rather choose such filth over your own blood."
Ouji gritted his teeth and pointed the rifle at them, tears streaming down his face.
"If this is what you want to do," Karo continued, "then do it. I won't stop your sins anymore. But don't bother coming home. Leave here, with your ghoul pet. When he kills anyone, it will be on your conscience. And if you ever come back here, I will shoot you death myself."
Without even another word, or even a gesture, Karo turned and ran as fast as he could out of the house with his brother in his arms.
Ouji's cousin glanced at him once, too fast to make out how- with pity, hate, or shame- Ouji would never know.
Then he turned and sprinted after Karo, and left Ouji alone with an unconscious ghoul.
Ouji screamed, louder than he ever had, sending birds flying. He snarled and pointed his rifle at Zen. He felt the anger bubble beneath him, his finger on the trigger. He looked at the bloodstained, unconscious body of his friend and shook, pressing the barrel to his head.
Then he slumped forward, panting. He looked at his hands.
He couldn't do it. He could not shoot his friend.
XXX
In nature, there is no such thing as sympathy.