The Closed Ward | Tokyo Ghoul

Chapter Seven | Paranoia

 "...a string of supposed ghoul sightings has followed the incident. We go now to our resident ghoul-expert, Kanemoto-san, for more details on the attack."

Rui doesn't like the man's face.

It's not a matter of vanity, though he isn't particularly appealing either way. No, it's the little things that make her skin crawl as she sits atop her bedspread, knees tucked under chin and hands linked at her ankles.

The shine in his eyes seems ghastly to her, far too bright to be natural (she supposes she could blame that on the news station's poor lighting, but her imagination's already running rampant, and she has no real desire to staunch its creative musings); his lips turn up at the corners whenever he talks, regardless of the subject matter, like he's perpetually smirking at the world. She also happens to be fixated on a stray strand of his thick black hair that curls upwards, tentacle-like with its tenacity to escape the man's head. She wishes she could reach through the TV and pluck it right out of his skull - mostly for the purpose of spite.

"Ghouls can be voracious with their appetites, as you well know," he's saying when she tunes back in, disengaging herself from the matter of his unkempt hair for the time being. Her toes curl with displeasure; seems she likes his voice as much as she likes his looks. "It's in their nature to hunt until they're full."

"So you're saying these possible-attacks - the ones recorded after the initial death - could be the work of a single ghoul?"

"Quite possibly. However, I don't believe it's attacking for the sake of satiating its hunger; aside from the first body, there have been no reports of actual victims. This ghoul may not even be attacking."

"Then what would it be doing?"

"Observing us? Honestly, Akihiko-san, this case is as strange to me as it is to you. Among those of us in the ghoul-investigation community" - Rui can't suppress a snort of laughter at that - "we've never encountered a ghoul that doesn't simply hunt for the sake of hunting. This one is an anomaly."

"An anomaly? Do you think the CCG in our ward have the capabilities to handle this new ghoul?"

"That, too, I can't answer. Our CCG are quite secretive, mind you; even I don't know the full extent of their abilities. As such, I can't make a fair assessment of how well they can handle such an unprecedented ghoul."

"You're heard it here first. Until this situation is resolved, we advise everyone to accompany at least one other person while out at night. Lock your doors. If you see anything suspicious, please either contact our hotline or call directly into the CCG. Now, onto sports..."

Rui mutes the TV. That's enough of that for the evening.

A ghoul in the eighteenth ward is nothing new. It'd be more surprising to hear that the CCG actually managed to flush out and apprehend a ghoul in this ward.

Still...

It's disconcerting to hear that even the esteemed ghoul-investigators are stumped by the new arrival. Rui's brow creases in thought. Surely if this is such an enigmatic ghoul, they'd be record of them in other wards? It's not terribly uncommon for ghouls to disappear from one ward and find a new for themselves in another; their monikers follow them wherever they go, keeping tabs on them when the CCG apparently can't. But she hasn't heard of an entirely new ghoul suddenly popping up like this - at least not one as strange as what they're saying on the news.

Ghouls, huh?

Rui buries her face in her knees, skimming her fingers up her legs until she can tangle them in her unbrushed hair. She can imagine the face Kaori'd make after hearing Kanemoto-san "uselessly flapping his gums," as she'd put it. She really has no respect for anyone in his profession. To Kaori, ghouls aren't the end-all, be-all of evil; she looks at them the same way some people look at wild tigers. Dangerous, yes, but perfectly natural. Kaori's of the mind that anything on this earth has a reason to be here, as much as humans do. She wouldn't ever subscribe to being called anything as outlandish as a ghoul activist, but she's unafraid to shout her opinion from the rooftops, if need be.