"Hah... Everything we built has collapsed without us being able to do a thing about it."
In the middle of the darkness, where dripping water sends echoes bouncing from one side to the other, a man's tired voice rings out.
The man pulls back his hood, revealing an aged face with a well-groomed mustache. By his appearance he must be somewhere between forty-eight and fifty. Though maybe the fact that he's lost everything, as he just said, makes him look older than he really is.
Beside him, another person pulls back his hood. This one has a refined face and elegant bluish hair, and with his fairly tall build, he gives a slight bow.
"Father... I'm sorry."
"You don't have to apologize to papa, Shuu."
"Even so, I..."
"Listen to me."
The man raises a hand to stop him.
"If anyone should be apologizing here, it's me. To everyone who came before me, especially your grandfather. I'm the one from the generation that ruined our family's legacy, and that doesn't change no matter how much you want to carry the blame."
"That isn't fair, father."
"Fairness has nothing to do with this."
Shuu presses his lips together and doesn't answer.
The two of them are currently inside a wide and dark tunnel, with channels of thick, filthy water running down the center. On both sides there are walkways broad enough to accommodate everyone traveling with them.
And those people number in the hundreds. The silhouettes walking with them have their faces and heads covered. Even so, it's easy to notice their nerves from the way they move, constantly turning to look ahead and behind, stopping every time a sound comes from a side tunnel. Some have even had their kagunes out for hours, ready in case they need them.
After a long silence, the young man speaks again.
"No. No matter how you look at it... this is my fault. If I hadn't actively gone hunting for that monster, none of this would have happened. Everyone..."
This young man is Shuu Tsukiyama. And the man he's speaking with, besides being his father, is also the head of the great Tsukiyama family conglomerate.
His name is Mirumo Tsukiyama, and at this moment he looks at his son with mixed feelings.
Being the protective father that he is, Mirumo certainly knows everything his son has been doing over these years.
It all started quite some time ago. His son's obsession with that ghoul from the 20th ward.
From the moment they met, Shuu wouldn't stop talking about him. About how delicious he smells, how exquisite his fragrance is, and how wonderful it would be if one day he could eat his flesh.
Whether at dinner or at breakfast, he was never satisfied with the "gourmet" that was prepared for him.
And even though that ghoul, known as the Chimera, started drawing very clear lines so that Shuu wouldn't come near him or anyone close to him, at some point his son had the bold idea of kidnapping a girl close to him.
Shuu didn't succeed, of course.
However, it seems that was exactly the moment Chimera stopped tolerating him. And in reality, that was when he began planning the complete downfall of the Tsukiyama conglomerate, taking the Tsukiyama name for himself and passing himself off as one of them.
Over these past two years, even abroad it's believed that the dangerous ghoul Chimera belongs to the Tsukiyama family.
Mirumo knows Chimera could have simply eliminated Shuu and ended the matter in a single night. It would have been faster, and nobody would have found out.
Instead, he went after the entire family.
"Hah..."
It's probably the hundredth time this week he's let out a heavy sigh.
Even if it's partly his son's fault, it's also his own fault for not putting a stop to that obsession in time, despite knowing who the other party was.
A monster so unpredictable and powerful that many organizations want to capture him.
You could say that same greed crossed his own mind in the past. So he has no right to point fingers at anyone either.
"Forget about it for now, Shuu. We'll have time for regrets once we have a roof over our heads."
"...Yes, father."
Mirumo looks around at all the ghouls who managed to escape a few weeks ago, and frowns.
That night, he was prepared to turn himself in to the CCG if it meant saving his people.
However, even though he expected massacres and sacrifice, the escape turned out to be far too easy.
The routes were clear, while the CCG patrols moved in the wrong direction.
At some of the Tsukiyama family's branch locations there were many casualties, but at the main one...
For that reason, he can't get it out of his head that something about this situation is wrong.
Even so, he doesn't know exactly what is wrong. All he can do is set it aside and keep walking.
Then he begins to speak, and he does so loudly so that everyone can hear him.
"Listen, everyone."
The silhouettes stop and the murmuring in the tunnel dies down.
"We've made it all the way to the 24th ward without a single loss. I want you to know that, considering our situation, that is already more than many would have managed."
While some nod others lower their heads.
"However, I'm not going to lie to you. For now we have no home where we can sleep peacefully, no place where we can take shelter. And we can't keep walking through the sewers indefinitely."
The ghouls turn their heads toward him and pay attention.
The man speaks again with a serious expression.
"The 24th ward is a dangerous area. And above all, it's the home of Aogiri Tree."
It seems some of them understand his intentions immediately, because they start murmuring among themselves in surprise.
"Father."
Shuu turns toward him with wide eyes.
"You can't mean that..."
"That's right."
With a solemn expression on his face, Mirumo continues.
"I'm going to speak with them. I'm going to secure us a place inside Aogiri Tree."
"What?! The Aogiri won't negotiate with us, father! They have a completely different ideology from ours. They'll absorb us and they'll use us as meat for their terrorist operations!"
"I know."
"Then why...?"
A smile appears on the old, mustached face.
"Papa would rather our people be used than have our people starve to death in a tunnel."
Shuu can't find anything to say to that.
At that very moment, the ghouls begin to stir.
However, it isn't because of the man's announcement.
The dirty, murky water running through the channel begins to turn red. At first it's barely a thread, and then all at once the entire flow becomes thick blood moving against the current.
And along the tunnel walls, eyes and mouths begin to open. One after another. Dozens of eyes and mouths, and shortly after, hundreds. Until there isn't a single surface of concrete left that isn't covered in pulsing flesh.
The ghouls back toward the center, pressing against each other. While some scream at something so terrifying, the ones used to fighting deploy their kagunes of various types.
Then every mouth speaks at the same time, delivering a single message in a distorted tone.
"Allow me to reject that idea."