'October 23, 2019…'

'My name is Rize Kamishiro. I am ten years old, and I think I'm getting the hang of this writing thing that I never got to do much of, back at Sunlit Garden…'

'My last name used to be Washuu, but the buff guy who's calling me my adoptive father told me that my last name is going to be Kamishiro now… Just like him. He told me that it would be for my own good. I don't know why, he would not say why, other than that it would be best for me in the long run (whatever that means).'

'… Matasaka said that my old family were bad people, and that they got what they deserved. I do not know how to feel about that though. On one hand, I never really got to talk to them, other than the ones I met at Sunlit Gardens (Like Kichimura, Hairu, and Kishou). On the other hand… Isn't family supposed to stick close to each other?'

'Whatever… Matasuka treats me really nice, and the house we live in in the mountains is fancy. He said that this diary would be special to me one day. He said it would be helpful, but I don't know about that. All I know is that I'm excited that we are moving to the city! He said that living outside of Tokyo is not safe anymore, but I'm not worried. Matasuka and his friends are really strong, and I know that they'll protect me and the rest of us from Sunlit Gardens from all those scary eyeless monsters.'

'I wonder if that boy, Haise I think is his name, will let me hold his hand while we ride the train back to Tokyo? He's really cute, and he's super nice. I think that other boy, Juuzou or Rei, I can't remember his name… I think he likes Haise too. I don't want him near him.'

'October 24, 2019…'

'Matasuka, Mr. Yoshimura, and Noroi wouldn't let us look out the windows during the train ride. They made us wear our shirts as blindfolds and cover our ears during the train ride. I think they were trying to protect all of us, and stop us from hearing and seeing what was going on outside the train walls…'

'From what I heard from the adults, those monsters were able to hurt a lot of the doves who worked for the CCG. They even managed to take some of the ghouls who were working with the humans to protect us. It was scary, and I was holding onto Haise's arm the whole time. I cried the entire time, but I didn't want to say that I did. I think everyone was crying. Everyone looked scared and sad by the time…'

'I don't know where those scary monsters came from, and why most of my family went. I'm scared, and the city is beautiful. Being afraid makes it hard to enjoy it, and I don't want to say goodbye to all my friends and siblings, but Mr. Yoshimura said that it was best that we all grew up like how most normal children do. I'm sad, and angry, and have to say goodbye to Haise. I hate it all.'

'March 13, 2024…'

'Holy shit, I forgot about this thing! I can't believe my father made me start a diary the day CCG fell… Thanks dad, nothing like having a scared little girl crying in the pages of a journal, the day everything she knew and cared about was taken from her (lmao)…'

'Had it not been for that stupid-ass law, if you can even call it that, I wouldn't have stumbled upon this while angrily stomping around my room. You see, as today, anyone who's a ghoul has to wear an armband around, you guessed it, your arm. It's to identify yourself for the 'safety of others'. Ugh, what total bullshit, smh.'

'Damn! After reading through all those entries I made when I was a kid, I can't help but feel cathartic about it all. Knowing now about all the sick shit the Washuu-Clan did, and what they had planned for everyone at the Sunlit Gardens… Oh, I probably need to update the context of this journal, in case someone ends up reading this and wants to write an autobiography on my life, or something…'

'When I was fourteen, my father told me the truth about the Washuu-Clan (To hell with them, I don't consider those fuckers to be my family btw). Let's see, those assholes were in control of the CCG, back when it was still called that… To anyone reading this: Ever since December of 2009, CCG ended up ditching that name in favor of 'Tokyo Security Committee', or 'TSC' for short. I guess they did that because ever since those monsters, 'Dragons' or whatever the fuck variant is out nowadays, or by the time you're reading this, ended up being the thing that finally made humans and ghouls set apart their differences…'

'It's super fucked up that it took there being a common enemy to finally bridge the gap between humans and ghouls. But oh well, some good came out of it, like that artificial food that we eat now. Tastes kinda like burnt plastic, but it's fine I guess… I digress though…'

'Sunlit Gardens was designed for the sole purpose of creating the perfect warriors for the Washuu-Clan to utilize for either CCG, or for their shadowy-bullshit group that they used to prevent ghouls and humans of Tokyo from ever breaking the cycle of violence that they had managed to trap them into: the group was called 'V'. My dad and his friends used to work for them, but ended up forming their own group called 'Aogiri Tree' or some shit that had the goal of stopping them…'

'Not saying that I hold it against them though; along with subjecting us all to genetic splicing and other crazy-lab shit, it turns out that the older men of the Washuu-Clan, those who were considered 'apex warriors' or some stupid shit, had a tendency to breed the underaged girls at Sunlit Garden themselves, or force the boys to do it for them. I guess that's what was going to happen to me once I grew old enough to bear children that they were going to use for their experiments… Makes me sick just writing that…'

'Fuck them, I'm glad the Washuu name is dead. I hope they're all burning in Hell for what they did, and what they were going to do. But that's not why I'm writing in this journal. No. I'm writing with tears in my hands, and my hands trembling after I found out today that those things, the 'dragon-orphan variants' and the dragon themselves, were all once children from Sunlit Garden, just like myself.'

'My dad said that he doesn't think that I'll turn into one. He said that they were made that way, and that the only way to become a dragon was to be born that way. The dragon orphans, I think they're just meat puppets that are controlled by dragons, or some voodoo shit, idk. I don't know if he just told me that to comfort me without actually knowing the truth, or if he's just lying to me…'

'I think I'm just going to continue off where I left off, to help me get through school and life, and shit, once I calm down and wake up tomorrow morning. Today was hard, and I'm hoping tomorrow is better.'

'November 2, 2025…'

'My father told me that no one is allowed to leave Japan anymore. Those assholes from across the Pacific took it upon themselves to set up shop somewhere off the coast of Tokyo, and have an entire armada of ships set in place to prevent anyone from escaping off of the island.'

'According to the news, the United States Navy is claiming that they're here to help by preventing the dragons and their orphans, along with any diseases from escaping Japan. They said their mission is to research the dragons and the population of Tokyo, in order to develop a way to destroy the dragons and the mutations they give to us once and for all.'

'It sounds nobel on paper, but my father and teachers made a good point. If the Americans are here to actually help us, why aren't they sending us supplies? All they've done so far is helped us establish air and water purifiers for Tokyo, in order to keep us safe from that red shit that will kill you if you breathe in too much of it.'

'However, everyone I know made another good point as to why they've done that for us: it's for the benefit of their soldiers and scientists, the ones that are occupying the coasts that they've annexed from us. Those bastards get food, weapons, ammo, clothes, whatever they want and what we desperately need.'

'The soldiers, I'm guessing they're marines or something I don't know, Japan hasn't had its own army since World War II from what I've learned from school… I'm not familiar with how that works, outside of TSC. Anyway, they occasionally cross through the wall to do whatever the hell they do in the 'wasteland'. Unlike us, they usually always come back without any casualties.'

'The soldiers and scientists usually wear these high-tech hazmat suits that look like the hybrid mix of a forklift and a spacesuit, with the soldiers usually having more armored pieces on their uniforms than the scientists. However, some of the soldiers of whatever who lead their groups wear these heavy-looking sets of robot-armor.'

'My father says that the Americans call it, 'Power Armor', and that it was built to withstand the harsh conditions outside the walls. I don't know what they're capable of, but all I know is that they all come equipped with these jet packs that allow them to leap into the air like Superman or something. It sure would be nice if they could lend our peacekeepers a few sets of their power armor.'

'From what I've seen and heard, they don't use quinques the same way CCG did, and how TSC tries to do. Almost all of their primary weapons are modeled after firearms of some kind, and they see melee weapons as a backup option or as a way to deal with the flora; or at least that's what I've come to understand. My point is that they're extremely well armed for people who claim to be here for peaceful reasons.'

'February 20, 2026…'

'Met a girl named Elizabeth at school today, she was nice. Said that her father was drafted by the United States to be sent over to fight in what she let slip 'Operation Rising Sun'.'

'Ever since the Navy took up residence in Tokyo, I've been seeing a lot more foreigners than usual; all mostly originating from the United States, Western Europe's and Australia. I guess every major country that's predominantly cacaussian wanted to get in on the action.'

'They're almost always ghouls though, which makes me think that either this military campaign is the only way to earn some sort of reward or freedom in those other countries, or that their governments are forcing their ghoul population to be sent here to serve whatever purpose their overlords want them to accomplish.'

'Tokyo used to have a government too. Now what's left of our country is sort of just run by the Tsukiyama Corporation, which is our lifeline to the outside world. Or so I've been told. Again, it's all the speculation of a teenager here; not exactly credible at all.'

'I'm hoping to become better friends with Elizabeth, even if she doesn't speak Japanese.'

'August 30, 2026…'

'What a time to be alive. I just graduated not too long ago, and it already seems like the world is ending more so than it already seemed like not too long ago.'

'For whatever reason, the Americans and their butt-buddies decided to finally take off with their armada of ships and equipment. You'd think that would have been a blessing, an answer to our prayers; after all, those soldiers all had a tendency to take up space and our resources.'

'But according to Elizabeth, a lot of the ghouls who came from all over were left behind; told that they weren't permitted back to their homes due to there being a risk of them carrying a mutagen or some science crap. Sounds to me like it was an excuse for the humans to dump their problems onto us.'

'Whatever. I'm going to spend the night at Elizabeth's tonight. We're going to watch movies and try this new artificial popcorn that was made for us ghouls. I hope it tastes good.'

'October 1, 2026…'

'The Earth shook. Planes dropped bombs over the wall. I'm scared. Staying with Elizabeth. Her dad said that the bombs weren't for us. The sky is a blood red outside. I can't see the sun.'

'Her father called mine, and agreed to take care of me while all of this is going on. I'm thankful that her dad is still in the army and has a lot of supplies and weapons to keep us safe. Elizabeth told me that even though the United States left her father in Tokyo to fend for himself and her, she said that her father has connections with the other soldiers and scientists who were left behind.'

'They're in a group of some kind, sort of like how the Aogiri Tree used to be, but they're more organized and such… Better armed, that's for sure. I don't know how to feel about it, but Elizabeth's father, Mr. Maxwell, told me that they were the good guys, and were going to be the ones who were going to annihilate the, and I quote, 'the scourge of Japan, and to liberate it for humanity.'

'He didn't try to overwhelm me too much with the details, but basically went on about how technology is dangerous, how governments run by corruption were too common, and how the land should be ruled by benevolent rulers who know best for the greater good.'

'Like I said, don't know how to feel about this.'

'October 2, 2026…'

'The United Front: That's what those abandoned soldiers and scientists are calling themselves. The ones in hazmat suits and power armor are keeping order right now; being outside and keeping dragon orphans away from the walls with their arsenal. Elizabeth is proud of her father. Wish I could relate.'

'Elizabeth told me that the reason why it's always dark outside now is because of all the dust in the air. It's blocking out the sun, and it's starting to cool off more than it's supposed to be outside. She told me that according to what her father told her, it shouldn't be longer than a few months before things are relatively back to normal for those of us living in Tokyo. The sun, she said, should be visible sometime later this week. I hope she's right.'

'October 14' 2026…'

'Sun's back, and Elizabeth and I had our first kiss the moment she and I stepped outside to look up into the blue-ish sky, after her father told us that it was safe again.'

'Things are looking up for me, although, I'm not sure how my father is going to handle the news of me coming out of the closet as bisexual though. I wasn't even planning on kissing her, it was just with all the excitement along with having lived with her about two weeks, well…!'

'I'm going to ask her to be my girlfriend tonight, I hope she says yes. She makes me feel like the world makes sense and is safe.'

'October 14, 2026…'

'SHE SAID YES!'

'November 19, 2026…'

'Been doing online school along with Elizabeth since the days the Americans kicked up dust with their bombs. From what the school has said, in accordance with what they've been told by the United Front, the reason why all those countries pulled out of Tokyo was because there actually were sightings of dragons that actually looked like… Dragons. Which meant they could fly.'

'So every country, or what's left of them anyway, is now out for themselves, proving once again that isolationism isn't just for angsty teenagers with depression. Wonder how many of their offspring, 'Drakes' I guess you would call them, ended up finding they're way to Asia or even across the Pacific?'

'Just another day living the apocalypse, I suppose.'

'December 25, 2026…'

'She broke up with me, on fucking Christmas. Told me that she doesn't feel that way toward me anymore, or girls in general. Said she's straight. Fuck this, fuck Christmas, fuck my life, fuck everyone. And fuck this diary.'

'July 14, 2027…'

'Just flipped through four-hundred pages of my childhood, ranging from when I was a kid to all the way when I stopped writing in this thing when I graduated from high school. And my, my, I was quite a vulgar teenager, back in my day. This is Rize Kamishiro, and to you who's reading this, I am eighteen years old as I'm writing this. If you're reading this father, know that I love you, and that you did the best you could do to raise me.'

'And Elizabeth, if you're reading, know that I still love you, and I'm sorry for what you're about to read. Forgive me.'

'There's only a limited amount of pages left in this thing, so I'll try to make this short. I'm a student from Kami University, and last semester I ended up going on an expedition outside the walls of Tokyo with my class and a group of armed mercenaries to visit where Sunlit Gardens used to be. I, of course, kept silent about my past history with what was left of the facility; most of it was either reclaimed by nature, or had been damaged during the extraction operation that happened eight or so years ago.'

'I suppose my past was what made me become an archeologist rather than pressuring my love of literature, but that's not what I'm here to write about. The journey outside the fifty meter-tall walls on the outskirts of Tokyo went swimmingly, and thanks to the ghouls and armed mercenaries of our group, we didn't encounter any variant of dragon orphan that we couldn't make quick work of.'

'There were a lot of corpses we had to get through, and had they not been rotten, I might have given into temptation and had myself a taste of the forbidden fruit when no one was looking. The underground facility, Sunlit Gardens, was somewhat intact, with the residential areas and most of the laboratories either buried or having already been pillaged by prospectors who were looking to make themselves a quick fortune.'

'Rather than skimming through what was on the surface, I used my kagune to help me clear out the debris of the laboratory. Most ghouls like myself nowadays aren't as strong as they used to be, but I'm an exception it would seem; I suspect that my immense strength and my kagune's durability is thanks to the Washuu-Clan. It is perhaps the only thing I have to be grateful for from them.'

'We were there for about a week, and sorted through all the documents we had managed to collect from the cleared out areas of the laboratory that were once thought of as being lost to nature. Reading through our findings, I discovered a cellphone from the past that we found a charger to. It was filed with notes and audio recordings of who I'm assuming was the leading scientist of Sunlit Gardens: an older man named Dr. Akihiro Kanou.'

'Although in truth he was more of a mad scientist rather than a professional, Dr. Kanou had been working for V under the guise of a CCG employee, for around sixty plus years. Or at least, that's what he said in his last recording, when he confessed to being the one responsible for creating the first dragons, before firing a round into the side of his temple. How do I know this? Well, his skeletal remains were found with a pistol in one boney hand, and there was a large hole in the side of his cranium. Put two-and-two together.'

'According to the mad doctor's ravings, he betrayed V when he agreed to help my father and Mr. Yoshimura to destroy V, before planning on forcing CCG to agree to new laws that Norio had composed. However, as fate would have it, Dr. Kanou had his own agenda, and didn't mention anything about his abominations being released onto mainland Japan, while Aogiri Tree was busy raiding Sunlit Gardens to save us children. What an evil bastard.'

'I digress. The most important intel we had discovered was that Dr. Kanou, as far gone in the head as he might have been, had anticipated the cataclysm of events that took forth after he took his own life, shortly after unleashing his dragons. According to his plan, the dragons and their offspring would be the thing to unite humans and ghouls together, and the artificial food blueprints he had left behind would reinforce that peace between humans and ghouls. After humans and ghouls had been successful enough to regain enough land to secure the facility, they would be able to find out the reverse formula he had created, in order to develop a gas-toxin that would only have an effect on the dragons and their offspring: the dragon orphans.'

'From that point of discovery and then on, all of us agreed to search for as long as it took in the ruins for that formula, until we combed through every nook and cranny of Sunlit Gardens. We managed to collect a considerable amount of data from the three days we spent there, until the dragon orphan variants, 'Ouroboros' came crawling through from the surface and beneath the compromised foundation of the facility.'

'We suspected there to be a dragon on the surface, hence the reason behind why there were so many trying to get to us from the surface. We were forced to hold out, and those red-serpents, as tough as they may be, were something that we all could overcome when we were working together.'

'What was supposed to be a two day excursion resulted in a week long fight for our lives. As mentioned above, the ouroboros weren't a problem on their own. Far be it, they're just red beefy serpents with sharp teeth; only three meters in length. Numerous, but they don't have any limbs, and they weren't anything that we ghouls or the armaments of the mercenaries couldn't handle.'

'What ended up being our downfall was a number of factors that none of us so-called scholars ever took into account for. One: there were forty of us in total, and we all carried backpacks with supplies; supplies that were meant to last us four days, not seven. You'd be surprised to know just how quickly we went through our purified water; especially those damn humans who grew up with silver spoons in their mouths…'

'Two: When ghouls use their kagunes and end up receiving the most damage from dragon orphans, and when that happens we end up burning through calories and red-blood cells like no one's business. I think we all ran out of artificial food by day two, and were forced to indigest the meat from whatever could force down our gullets from the dragon orphans we killed.'

'To those who are reading this and are unaware of why eating dragon-meat is dangerous, allow me to explain why the last part of the previous paragraph is important. Dragons and their offspring, unlike humans and ghouls, have a different variant of red blood cells that are more akin to cancer than to red blood cells; which is what most people compared red-child cells to (RC cells).'

'Dragon-mutated cells, or DM cells for short, are fatal to humans, and minor exposure will cause sickness akin to radiation poisoning. Elongated exposure to DM cells for humans will always lead to 'RC Cell Oversecretion Disease', which essentially causes organ failure while the human body developed internal and external tumors that eat the host alive; not a pleasant way to die, and the treatment for it is expensive, and never guaranteed to result in survival. However, even if the human survives the treatment, their biology and DNA will always mutate them into becoming ghouls themselves. I'm certain that this was intentionally engineered by Dr. Kanou.'

'Although ghouls can endure larger traces of DM cells in their system, and can regulate themselves given enough time and with a moderate amount of sickness, we aren't spared from a cruel fate. DM cells will force the ghoul's anatomy to change if they suffer enough high doses of them into their bodies, and if the ghoul isn't able to get enough RC cells to help repair their damaged DNA, their bodies will go through a process that science has called 'Forced-Evolution'.'

'The process of 'Forced-Evolution' results in permanent damage to the cerebrum, and causes the ghoul to become feral while sporting a kakuja that won't go away. Oftentimes, feral ghouls are mistaken as dragon-orphans themselves, and are put down as such. It's probably for the best, treatment for feral ghouls is a nightmare to administer. It requires a significant amount of RC-cells, and to remove the feral ghoul from any heavy traces of airbourne DM-cells that has been dubbed 'Fallout' by scientists, due to the DM-cells' similarity to radiation.'

'It also doesn't help that the ACTUAL radiation for those bombs less than eight bombs probably made the mutations even worse within the already volatile DM-cells. Thanks America.'

'This leads me to the third reason why I ended up becoming the sole survivor of our expedition: 'Fallout' is created from dragon's themselves, and due to the particles being heavier than air itself, the airborne DM cells are always sinking down toward the ground; hence why I suspect that there was a dragon above the ruins of Sunlit Gardens, for what I suspected to be for a grand total of three days, before it probably moved on.'

'By day seven, after the ouroboros and their dragon were no longer an immediate threat to us, the facility had been drowned in a thick cloud of red fallout, and the filters for our masks were no longer able to protect us. Everything that happened after the seizures started to take hold of me was a blur, but the aftermath of those three days spent in that hell hole left no room to the imagination. The humans in our group, including the mercenaries who Kami University hired to protect us, had been eaten to the bone. Those of us who were struggling to not turn feral fought with one another over their bodies, and it's hard for me to write of the atrocities I committed.'

'I ate them. After struggling to find a way to word that more delicately, I couldn't sugar coat it. I ate them. I ate them, I ate them, I ate them. The RC-cells that I acquired from my grizzly action allowed me to regain my cognitive abilities enough to bring me back to my senses long enough for me to escape with my life.'

'When I returned, I had to be given treatment while being monitored by TSC's peacekeepers. I was questioned, given several tests and had my blood and bits of my kakuhou surgically removed from me for analyzing test data. I was quarantined for two weeks, before passing enough tests to be allowed back into Tokyo again.'

'I thought I could go back to the way my life used to be, or at least something that resembled it. However, my body's been going through mutations lately that I've never read about; changes that are making me afraid of what will happen to me if left unchecked.'

'I've developed bright-red veins that have grown symmetrically down my neck and across my face; I'm able to conceal them mostly with enough makeup and foundation. I've grown thin red horns that keep growing back after a day, even after I keep ripping them out of my head. There's a cross on my forehead, it looks like a crucifix; I can hide that with makeup too. My hair is as white as snow, but it's nothing hair dye can't help with.'

'All such side effects of whatever's happening to me is nothing, in comparison to the fact that my body's been rejecting artificial food as of recently. My more baser instincts, the ones I was introduced to when I was eating those who I onced considered my colleagues, began taking over. Everytime I see a human, I begin salivating. Everytime I see another ghoul, I get angry and become territorial. It's become apparent to me that this mutation in my DNA was a result of what happened to me down in Sunlit Gardens, but I do not understand why it's happened to me, or what it is exactly.'

'I'm hungry, and I can't vomit anymore. I need to do what ghouls were born to do, and I hate it. I hate myself for being so weak, and I hate myself for being too cowardly to off myself rather than carrying through with the plan that I've developed. I'm going to need to be in the right state of mind, for when I head back out of Tokyo. I'm going to need to eat a human, and carry their remains with me outside of the checkpoint.'

'I don't know how I'll get past the checkpoint's security, but I'll figure a way. Perhaps I'll be sane enough to bat my eyelashes at a low-ranking peacekeeper long for him to let me in. I've chosen a loner from Kami University to be the unwilling sacrifice to my only shot to cure myself from this disease.'

'His name is Ken Kaneki, he has no living relatives, I think he only has one best friend who lacks any living relatives himself. I could use his friend for meat as back up. He reminds me a lot of what I can remember of what Haise looked like, which only makes this whole situation more disgusting than it already is. I wonder when this is all over, if I can find him. He's too good for me, too pure, especially after what I will have to do in order to buy myself enough time to search for a way to reverse this mutation within Sunlit Gardens.'

'I'm not a fool. I know that even if I do end up bringing myself to fool that poor human into isolating him to do the sinister deed, that there's a high probability that I alone will not be able to piece together the formula that Dr. Kanou spoke of. I will likely die trying, but other than ending my own life, I have no other choice. At the very least, I can organize and collect enough data from Sunlit Gardens, so that whoever comes across my corpse will be able to carry off where I left off. My name is Rize Kamishiro, and if you're reading this, it probably means I've died.'

'Please use the address below to mail this to Matasuka Kamishiro, or take this to his bar, 'The Orca'. Forgive me father for what I've done. I love you, and I love you Elizabeth. Thank you for being my best friend, and for showing me what love is. Goodbye.'

I wanted to write a new fanfiction that wasn'tcompletely about smut, and more so storyoriented. Especially since I've been getting back to playing Fallout, as the title of this fic implies, I wanted to write something akin to that, without straight up writing a cross over.

I tried writing Rize with more character to her canon self, and provided her a look into her past that didn't just paint her as someone who was just born selfish.

This story is an AU that takes place after the War with V, where Aogiri Tree led by Eto's father, Kuzen Yoshimura, were the ones to liberate the children of Sunlit Gardens, but as usual, the asshole doctor, Akihiro Kanou, had to mess things up with his own bullshit philosophy.

Haise Sasaki and Ken Kaneki are two separateprotagonists in this story, an idea that I used for another fanfic that I wrote that I really enjoyed the idea of, but wanted to write something more engaging.

Anyways, that's all for now. Thank you, and hope you enjoy the next chapter.