A black haired man was running as fast as he could towards the smell. A delicious and sweet aroma that reminded him of his mother's cooking. His crazed face was oblivious to the hidden teenagers, a boy and a girl, hiding behind a broken stack of wooden crates.
"It's so close." The black haired guy said with heavy breaths and saliva rolling down his face.
"His e-eye is red." Kiyota said in a whisper.
"Only one of them." Rika said with a tinge of fascination.
The black haired guy's face was in a deep smile as he finally turned the corner and stepped forward hastily. His face suddenly dropped. The smile turned into disgust, and he dropped to the floor. He started to cry uncontrollably.
The older, ashy haired ghoul immediately stopped eating and turned to face the scene. Blood rolling down his chin as he looked on guard. For a few seconds he stared at the boy sobbing on the floor and his expression softened.
"You're a ghoul, aren't you?" The man said.
The black haired boy replied with more sobbing. Rika stood up.
"We should watch for the right opportunity to run." Rika said as she helped the shivering Kiyota up.
Yeah… yeah, okay." Kiyota gripped her arm for support as he stood up, still shaky but nodding.
Rika peeked over the crates again. "They're distracted. If we're gonna move, it has to be now."
"Right." Kiyota muttered, taking a slow, steadying breath.
"Stay behind me. And if anything happens, just run. Don't try to be a hero." Rika glanced at him with a serious face.
"No way. I wouldn't leave you." Kiyota said with his voice low.
"What's wrong? Are you alright?" The ashy haired ghoul said to the boy. "Don't cry. It's okay, I'm Kazuo."
"I haven't eaten in a while, so I'm afraid I can't share too much with you. But here, you can have this." The ghoul said as he ripped the hand off the deceased body he was on top of.
Kiyota flinched as he stood, still holding onto Rika's arm. "Did he just… rip off a hand like it was nothing?"
"Yeah. But it's not you, so hey, it's not bad." Rika said quietly as she was glancing at him with a half-smirk.
"Don't joke right now." He whispered, trying not to panic again.
"I'm serious. Some people would've pissed themselves by now." She gave him assurance and a wink before checking the corner.
"Thanks for the weird encouragement." Kiyota muttered.
A loud squelch of flesh being ripped came from the corner. Kiyota and Rika looked over, frozen.
"Good riddance." A younger guy said as he kicked the head off Kazuo.
"Did he just…? Rika's eyes widened.
"The ghoul... he didn't even have time to fight back." Kiyota peeked around the crates with a pale face.
The black-haired boy stood there with chest heaving and his red eye glowing faint in the dark. He was still crying.
"You should know better than to trespass on my feeding grounds." The new ghoul said as he lifted his glasses. He had messy hazelnut hair in a bowl cut style. Blood dripped from his foot where it had crushed the older ghoul's skull.
The blood splattered over the black haired boy's face as he looked up in shock and horror, his one red eye shining.
"I've never seen you before." The new ghoul said. as he walked over. "How come only one of your eyes is red? It looks pretty nasty."
Suddenly he grabbed the black haired boys throat and slammed him against the wall.
"Did you think you could hunt for food on my feeding grounds and get away with it?" He said as he choked him, tightening his grip with a slow, deliberate force.
"N-no...I-I...didn't do it...look I swear...I just happened to be passing by." The black haired boy said in between choked breaths, struggling against the wall.
"You think I believe that?" The hazelnut-haired ghoul hissed, eyes narrowing. "Imagine this, your girlfriend is naked and lying on the ground. A guy standing over her, with his pants around his ankles says, 'I didn't do it. I swear. I was just passing by.' That's basically the same as what you're telling me right now."
"If someone did that to my girl, I'd kill him. So that's what I'm gonna do to you. If you trespass on my territory, you die." He said as he further tightened his grip around the guys neck.
"This isn't your territory." A new voice came from behind the two. A feminine voice, she sounded confident and dangerous.
"Which means he wasn't trespassing, Nishiki." A girl said as she jumped down from the top of the building. "So let him go."
"Shit, how didn't she see us if she was up there?" Kiyota mumbled to Rika. "H-hey wait, she's the girl... the waitress at the cafe. What the hell is going on? There are 3 ghouls now."
Rika stayed silent as she watched.
Nishiki turned around to face the girl. "Touka." He said as he dropped the boy. "I don't see what the problem is. I know that binge eating bitch is dead."
"How does that make this your feeding ground? You don't have any say in how the territory Rize stole in the 20th ward gets distributed among the weaker ghouls. Just leave it up to those of us at Anteiku." She said, her ghoul eyes turning red.
"Huh! I still don't understand why we gotta run every little thing by a bunch of fence-sitters like Anteiku." He said with an annoyed expression. "I'm just reclaiming what's mine." He said with a voice so heavily laced with killing intent as he walked forward towards Touka. He released his kagune.
"Hold on, before we fight... There are two eavesdroppers we need to take care of." Touka said as she looked directly in the direction of where Kiyota and Rika were.
Kiyota's heart skipped a beat. He instinctively ducked lower behind the crates, pulling Rika down with him.
"Shit, she did see us." He whispered, panic rising in his throat again.
"Well, guess the sneak-around part of the plan's out the window." Rika, however, just chuckled quietly under her breath.
"You think this is funny!? We are so dead. There's three of them." He hissed, wide-eyed by the fact she was unbothered.