You wake up once again on the ever-so-familiar couch. For the last week and a half, Eto has been growing gradually more distant, and it concerned you. Though you didn't at first mind her having the occasional day where she would be away, but the frequency of her being off running what she refers to as "errands" has become more frequent. Plus, she hasn't really paid much attention to you. During the earlier days she'd usually check up on you, and after confessing her more personal interest in you, she'd usually cuddle up with you or at least invite you to her bed on the busier days.
But not anymore. Nowadays she usually closes her door or comes back from her activities late at night, or then never leaves the room and types away to early morning hours, even if you'd suggest to her to call it a day with the writing. This apparent indifference felt suspicious and irritated you. And, on the few occasions that she'd forget to shut down her laptop, there would be news articles or some other texts on the "Eyepatch" ghoul. You had also picked up his real name; Ken Kaneki. Judging by his age, you guessed that Eto probably wasn't cheating on you, what with him being an 19-year-old pipsqueak she had read on the news.
But you did recall that at one point Eto had considered you little more than an experiment. Was Kaneki another one of her projects? This did make you wonder what happened to other "projects" Eto had worked on afer she had had her fun with them. Were you going to be abandoned by her, just like that? Were you still just a tool or an experiment to her?
You didn't like to think that way, but her seemingly growing disinterest towards your well-being did raise this question. She had even stopped leaving you notes, which, admittedly started being more and more simple as the days went on.
You stand up and head for the bathroom. Once in the room, you take a shower, and once done, you dry yourself up, swept your hair into your preferred style, dressed back up in your clothes and went back to the couch to think about the situation. After all, she was away again. You didn't have anything to do. All the books had been read, some several times, some only once. You didn't feel hungry. Or thirsty.
All you had on your mind was what was going on with Eto, the girl who had saved you from lifetime imprisonment and an early grave, trained you and made you so much more significant than before, and who had given you hope of a peaceful life with a woman you loved. Was all that a facade, a well-weaved web of illusions? Were those words she said back then empty, was she faking enjoying those nights with you? Was it all a lie?
No, you couldn't accept such a thing. You just had to reach out to her, and maybe then that bond between you two would be rebuilt. So, you wondered how you could get her attention in her current state? You pondered for a moment. Then you thought of something that could work. You extended your kagune, and started shaping its tip to something. Once you were done, you had shaped something that required a great deal of finesse to achieve, perhaps your greatest achievement in shaping your kagune yet.
It was a bright red rose, completely built from crystallized Rc cells. Yes, it might have been cheesy, but you at least put in a personal touch. You found some paper and a pen, sat down at the couch and began writing away on the table. Once you were done, you had written her a small letter where you expressed your concern for the gap that has formed between you two. You took the note and placed it on the kitchen table alongside the rose.
You waited patiently for the moment she would go to the kitchen, be it for coffee or something else. You knew that once she'd enter the kitchen, she'd see the note and you could mend the relationship between you two. But when she came back home, she headed straight for her room without even glancing towards the kitchen. You dropped your head for a moment, but kept waiting. You knew and trusted her that much as to let her find it on her own.
But hours went by, and she never left the room. You were growing impatient. You stood up and walked to the door, intent on getting her to go to the kitchen.
"Yo, Eto, I-" you were cut short by her walking right past you, shoving you to the side as she headed out once more. Your eye twitched. You started walking after her, but she had already left the building. You snarled slightly in frustration. You noticed how angry you were, and tried to calm down. You did manage to reason with yourself, but you still felt irritated.
Feeling curious, you decided to look at her laptop, which she had left open in her hurry. You squatted down to look at the monitor, and saw another file on Kaneki. You read through it, and you just felt irritated at how there were so many damn files on him. Kaneki this, Eyepatch that. What in him was so freakin' important, special and unique, you asked yourself. What made him more important than you?
Then you read something that broke you. In the file, there was a part that talked about you, and it read;
"(First) is a valuable asset, but I believe he has outlived his usefulness. Kaneki shows much more promise."
Outlived his usefulness.
Those three words.
She had been using you. Keeping you around due to your power. Those nigths of passion, those words of love she said. She said them all just to keep you around. She didn't care. Or at least, not anymore. Now she had this Kaneki brat, who was apparently so much better than you. She no longer needed you. In that moment, you snapped. And you could only think of three words;
THAT. WAS. IT.
You had had enough. You stood up against the wall and smashed your head against it, cracking the point of impact. You couldn't hold the tears. She never cared about you. You were alone.
Through your tears, you stormed to the kitchen and, crumpled up the note you wrote and threw it in the trash alongside the flower. You found your mask, and looked at it. It reminded you of this feeling of betrayal. You threw it against a wall, and it shattered into countless pieces. You no longer wanted anything to do with her, so you threw on your robes. You then stormed out of the apartment, violently slamming the door shut. You angrily walked away, heading to the 24th ward, the one place she wouldn't bother you with her lies.
Once you reached the underground complex of tunnels, you began looking for something or someone to vent your rage on. Eventually you found yourself confronting several resident ghouls. They all looked at you.
"So, what's your deal, bub?" the head of the gang spoke to you. In response, you activated your kagune and rushed at him, delivering a lethal blow in his torso. You then proceeded to demolish the rest of them. Once you were done with the last one, you proceeded to mutilate his body in a fit of bloodlust and rage. This was what the world wanted you to be. It didn't want you to be loved. It wanted you broken, consumed by despair. But you were NOT going to give it that pleasure. You'd show it your wrath.
So you decided to make it fear you. And what do people fear? A monster. And that's what you were gonna be. A monster. THE monster.
That night, the 24th ward would encounter a terror like no other.
Back at Eto's apartment, she entered the apartment, and noticed the cracks around the main entrance's door frames. She also noted the countless damages to the walls of the apartment. Then she noticed it. You were missing. She started looking around the apartment, and then saw that she had left her laptop on. She checked what it was showing. She saw the part she had written a while back before she found out about Kaneki, but hadn't quite yet understood the sort of value you held in her heart. In hindsight, it felt really bad that she had thought of you that lowly back then.
Then the realization hit her. She had been neglecting you for a good while now due to the Kaneki's recent actions. She then became all the more frantic about finding you. But no such luck. You weren't anywhere to be found. She decided to brew herself a coffee, but just as she was about to, she noticed the mask shards on the floor. She gathered them into her hands and was about to drop them in the trash until she saw the things you had thrown in there.
She cautiously placed the shards of your mask on the table, and picked up the flower and the note. She looked at the beauty of the crystalline flower, the attention to detail almost unnatural. She could tell it was your handiwork from its color, as it had the same tint of red as your kagune had. she sat down on to read the note, and as she did, she couldn't hold back the tears. The note read;
Hi again, Eto.
I don't know about you, but I think we're drifting apart. And I don't want that. That one night, when you told me to live for you, I fell in love with you as hard as you apparently had with me. I don't know what's going on with you at the moment, but I don't want to lose the one good thing I have left in this world.
And that's you. You're probably the one person that cares about me anymore. You're the one thing that's keeping me together. So please, don't leave me just because you're busy. Because I know, no matter what, I still love you, and I don't want to lose you. And that's why I made this flower.
I admit, it's a bit cheesy. But I hope you can see the emotional weight that I wish to put in it. I want it to stand as a sign that for the fact that I value our shared life. Please, don't leave me alone in this birdcage.
-(First) (Last)
Maybe it was just that she hadn't received what was basically a love letter before, or understanding that she had neglected you despite her promises, this crumpled-up letter and rose, combined with the signs of your rage that you had left in your wake made her heart twinge. She had ruined her plans with you just by forgetting about you. It was her fault you were probably never coming back.
The worst part about it for her was that she had already thought of what she would do with you after Kaneki would defeat CCG and V, the organization behind all of this. Before she fell for you, she had never really considered the possibility of a peaceful life. She always thought she'd die in a blaze of glory, as a martyr for all ghouls. But after she fell for you, she felt like she actually wanted to live.
She had imagined that, if everything worked out and you two would survive the conflict between ghouls and CCG and/or V, she could possibly do what his father couldn't do; raise a child to live in a world without the birdcage, where they could live as they wanted without fear. Perhaps it was just a dream or a fantasy that could not be fulfilled, but she had found a reason to live when she fell for you. And now that hope for a brighter future seemed to have died. Everything was dark again, just like back when she lived in the 24th ward.
She decided to do the only thing she could for the moment as she wiped the tears off her face and went back to her room to write. But as she stared at the monitor, she burst into tears again.
"Please forgive me." Eto manages to mutter from under her tears. She silently wept in her apartment as the city lights shone against the midnight sky.
But beneath the streets of Tokyo, in the 24th ward, two CCG agents were on a scouting mission, looking for two agents who had mysteriously ceased radio contact a while after entering the ward.
"Sheesh, this place reeks." the older male investigator said to the rookie. He rubbed his back, as it still ached from the extensive injury it had received from a ghoul smashing it against their knee. He still wanted to avenge his friends that died back in the bar.
"Yeah, more than usual." the investigator remarked. He knew that in the 24th ward, there usually was a slight scent of blood in the air, but now it was much more prominent.
They walked through the tunnels, and eventually found themselves looking at a gruesome scene. There were mutilated body parts everywhere, the victims' bodies cleaved in half by something. On top of being sliced into bits, their bodies had been eaten clean, with only clothing, heads and some limbs remaining uneaten.
The younger investigator visibly cringed at the sight.
"What killed these guys?" he asked.
"Don't know. Might be a cannibal ghoul or some weirdo who really hates ghouls." the older one replied. They decided to follow the path of blood and gore left by the unknown culprit. Along the way, they find countless mutilated corpses, most of them barely unidentifiable and their internal organs and large muscles missing. Eventually they started to hear a sickening sound of munching, crunching and inhuman growling.
Eventually, they find themselves in one of the more open areas of the 24th ward. This area had several dilapidated buildings, but also a few ones that were surprisingly intact. But that's not what they looked at. They were looking at a hunched form, wrapped in robes. The one making all that noise. But then the figure turned around. A white, bony mask alongside some armor covered his figure. Though, more horrifyingly, they saw the armor was taking on a monstrous shape. Soon enough, they were being towered over by a behemoth-sized kakuja. It looked at them with its two black eyes, the irises glowing a bright shade of red.
The two ran away from the beast, the younger one pulling out his walkie-talkie.
"HQ, we have a situation at the 24th ward! We have encountered a kakuja, I repeat we have encountered a kakuj-AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" The investigator couldn't manage to say more to the one behind the phone before being devoured by the monstrosity.
On the other end, the operator's face suddenly paled as she listened to the sickening sounds of flesh and bone being ground between teeth. Then her face twisted into one of pure terror as she heard the monster's roar.
The next morning, there was chatter in one of CCG's headquarters' meeting rooms.
"Everyone, we're here today because we have a very dangerous situation on our hands. Last night, two investigators entered the 24th ward on a routine scouting mission." said the man running the meeting.
"However, communications with them were cut off, and a second team was sent to find out what happened." he added, "The senior detective, who had survived the assault on a retiring investigator's retirement party, had managed to survive by feigning death while the late young detective made the call to HQ about a kakuja at the cost of his life. Apparently this kakuja is a completely new one from what we heard from the late investigator's partner, who couldn't join us today, as they requested to get a day off due to the trauma."
The other investigators seemed concerned, some of them even scared or agitated.
"The worst part is that judging by the description of it, it has been qualified as an SSS-rated ghoul." the man said, "Its presence makes incursions and scouting missions far riskier than before."
"Do we have any evidence or clues on the ghoul's identity?" asked one of the investigators there.
"Nope." the man said, "We don't have damn thing. No ID, voice sample, footage or pictures on this guy. All we have is the investigator's visual description and some audio files we managed to gather from the phone call."
The investigator then produced a remote control, and turned on the projector and sound systems in the room. On the screen was a media player with a sound file loaded.
"What you all are about to hear is what we believe are sounds made by this new, unidentified threat." he said as he pressed the play button. The room listened in total silence. After a short while of crunching and munching sounds, which made some of the people wince in disgust, a roar boomed out from the speakers. The sound clearly terrified, or at least agitated or unnerved the people in the room.
This is the roar they heard;
There was a monster in the 24th ward.