"Fuh... my art is quite beautiful."
I stand up while laughing as I observe the bloodied body of Mr. Investigator lying on the ground. His white suit is now soaked in dark red.
"Are you satisfied with your gift yet?"
I ask in a playful voice while tilting my head.
"If you're not, I still have all the time in the world to grant you better rewards. I can be very creative when I set my mind to it."
The man's eyes are watery as he looks up. My distorted figure reflects in his dilated pupils.
"You're... you're a monster... A damned monster..."
I crouch down next to him again, bringing my masked face close to his.
"Oh, so you're still not satisfied then? How about I start creating beautiful art with your face? Though it'll surely be quite ugly when I'm done. You don't have a very pretty face to begin with, truth be told."
The man then desperately drags his body backward, trying to get away from me. With his frozen face, I can sense the emotional frequency he emits. He's traumatized and disturbed.
Well, makes sense.
My Knife Fingers have been meticulously cutting piece by piece of his flesh for the past few minutes. First the fingers, then the skin of his arms in long strips, reaching down to his exposed white bone, and then beginning the same torture on a different part of his body.
It's normal for him to be a bit traumatized, even if he's an experienced veteran who has seen many horrible things.
"Okay! Okay!"
Hm? Fufufu... it amuses me to hear the desperation escaping from his mouth.
"I'll tell you everything I know! Everything! Just stop!"
With that said, another part of me is disappointed to hear Mr. Investigator's words, giving in so quickly. I let out a sigh.
"What a shame. I really wanted to create more art with you. I had so many creative ideas... But it's fine. I'll let you be free from more pain this time. How generous I am, right?"
The old man sighs with relief. He falls back against the cracked pavement while looking with extremely tired eyes at the night sky. The stars aren't visible, and in the darkness, only white flakes of snow can be seen falling.
"Let's start with the first thing."
I say while sitting next to him. It feels as if I'm preparing to have a casual conversation between friends.
"What exactly did you come to this area for? You mentioned before something about coming to investigate a young woman. Who is that young woman specifically?"
Of course, there could be many young female ghouls in the area. But I'm still worried it might be Touka. If they discover it's her, these damned CCG investigators won't stop coming to look for her.
The man coughs and I see blood coming out between his lips.
"For a young female ghoul around twenty years old or more... She has a face that looks like a toad's. But when I arrived at the reported location, I only found her corpse already cold. Her kakuhou was also ripped out and eaten, which led us to think there's some cannibal ghoul in the area."
"Oh! So it's the toad ghoul I killed!"
As I say that, I feel relief.
"So it was you, little monster. Not that it matters much now. But thanks to your little hunt, there are many other Investigators who know there's a dangerous cannibal ghoul operating in this area. They'll come looking for you."
'Many Investigators...'
Well, if they come after me, I'll simply have to eliminate them one by one like annoying cockroaches.
That said, they would be excellent fertilizer for my evolution.
So without worrying too much about that threat, it's time to bring up the main topic that interests me.
"Tell me everything you know about that other race you mentioned before."
Mr. Investigator seems resigned to his fate. He sighs before beginning to speak.
"They're vampires. Or something very similar to what you see in the stories."
"Eh? Vampires?"
I didn't expect at all for vampires to exist in this world. But if I think about it carefully, it's not so far-fetched since human-eating ghouls and alien space parasites also exist.
Umm... So is it possible to find some yandere vampire girl?
Coming out of that thought, I begin to say.
"I haven't seen a single one so far. Are they few in number perhaps?"
The man shakes his head while coughing more blood.
"It's not that they're particularly few or many in the world. The problem is that those of us here in Japan don't know much about them. Vampires are mainly from abroad. Only very few confirmed cases have been found here in Japan."
He pauses to breathe laboriously.
"But those who deal with and study them abroad say that lately there has been a significantly greater amount of vampires attacking entire villages and turning their inhabitants into ghouls."
I narrow my eyes.
'Abroad, huh...'
That word activates a switch inside my mind.
When Rei mentioned that her mother has cold skin, and that it reminds her of me.
I've already recovered some memory fragments from my past life thanks to eating that parasitic ghoul's heart. And I remember that Rei's mother should be a police agent working here in Japan. It's strange that in this reality she's abroad, leaving her young daughter for entire months without even visiting her.
That doesn't make any sense unless...
I shake my head. It's just speculation without real evidence. That's why I have to meet her. Maybe I'll visit Rei's house on New Year's to see if she's a ghoul or a vampire, or I'm simply wrong, which I hope is the truth.
"Is that what you meant before about the other types of ghouls?"
I ask, returning my attention to the dying Investigator.
Mr. Investigator once again coughs and this time spits out a lot of fresh blood. It seems I went a bit overboard with the torture. But oh well, he's going to die soon anyway.
"The vampires... Cough! Turn normal humans into ghouls to serve them as slaves. We don't know exactly why it turns out that way. The military agency that controls and combats vampires abroad doesn't reveal much specific information to Japan's CCG."
"We only know they're different from the normal ghouls that we at the CCG hunt. The ghouls that vampires create are more like extremely strong and violent zombies that have no rationality or real capacity to think. Their instincts are to kill and devour."
"Zombies without rationality..."
Remembering that I myself was losing my memories day by day, although now I'm able to gradually recover them, and that my brain is half-dead, I wonder if I'm also one of those ghouls created by vampires.
But if I think about it carefully, it's unlikely I'm that type of ghoul. I can think and reason, although many times I lean toward doing stupid things. And as I evolve, I feel I'm actually becoming wilder.
"I see... is that all you know about the subject? What about that military organization that deals with vampires?"
The man shakes his head, making him groan in pain from the movement.
"They're a secret military force independent from the CCG. It's very possible that only the highest-ranking leaders of the CCG know them and have contact with them. That's all I know about it. I have no more information."
I sigh, disappointed since I wanted to know more about it.
"Then one last question."
I say while leaning closer.
"Do you know where I can find a vampire here in Japan?"
It would be good to devour one and taste their flavor.
"I have no idea. To begin with, there are very, very few confirmed vampires here in all of Tokyo. If you really want to look for them, you should start your search in the 24th Ward. That's where they might be hidden if there are any."
"24th Ward?"
"It's the place where the ghoul world is most chaotic and horrible. There are wild and dangerous ghouls there. Thinking about it, a place like that would suit a little monster child like you well."
His voice gradually becomes mocking.
"Though if you find ghouls classified as SS or SSS there, you'll die. And if you find a real vampire, you'll die even faster and more painfully, which will make me happy from the afterlife. Hahaha..."
—Cough! Cough!
The old man coughs as he laughs.
But I still think about what he said.
I don't know much about Tokyo's specific geography yet, but I still know I live in the 20th Ward. I could ask Saya more details about it later. She probably knows much more about Tokyo.
I look back at Mr. Investigator lying in his own blood. Smiling widely under my black mask.
"It's been pleasant talking with you, Mr. Investigator."
Saying those words in a cheerful voice, I decapitate him with my Knife Finger.
—Slash!
His head rolls several meters before stopping.
I look toward the rectangular briefcase containing his Quinque.
—Grumble! Grumble!
My stomach rumbles with hunger.
"Interesting."
I think as I slowly approach the briefcase.
"My stomach is telling me to eat it too."
To devour the Quinque.
×××
20 advanced chapters on Pa-treon.
pa-treon.com/OlwinMoriarty