Chapter 4: Chapter 3
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I have to say, the trek back... quite boring. Everyone was silent, thinking about their own things. At least it lasted until breakfast. Where I had to explain to the humans that I was eating human food.
- Kaneki, tell us more about yourself! - Leone exclaimed.
We formed a circle around Akame, who was currently grilling a huge piece of meat on some strange appliance. And after her phrase, everyone took a sharp interest in me.
Lazily thinking of a plan of action, I said just two words:
- I am a Ghoul.
There was silence. I was beginning to worry a little, if the people here knew who they were.
- And who is it? - Leone encouraged me.
- Don't you know? I thought in the capital at least a couple of them are known! - I pretended to be surprised. - They are people who were born with the innate teigu. - I closed my eyes lazily again.
- WHAT! ???? - shouts erupted from all sides.
- Born with teigu!?!?? - Leone exclaimed repeatedly.
- Mm-hmm. Except they can't eat regular food, and are a little different from humans in a mental sense. - I continued. - They must eat human meat, coffee, or alcohol. Any other food will taste horribly disgusting, and will weaken the body if swallowed.
Meanwhile, the people had already gone into outright shock. However, as I thought, they didn't even think of killing me. After all, everyone is a killer... And even if you are a killer of only complete freaks, over time, the attitude towards wild and disgusting things slowly change.
- W-human meat? - stammering, as I'd learnt, was Myne.
- Mm-hmm. If I'm hungry, I can eat a small piece of meat for a week, but if I'm full, I can go three or four weeks without wanting to eat... I usually eat meat from the bandits who sometimes attack me.
There was silence. After a couple of minutes, however, my new partners did start to come round.
- I hope... you're not going to eat us? - Lubbock smiled nervously.
- Of course not! I have excellent hunger control, so I can take it. And the coffee's a bit of a weakening influence.
- Ah... Wait, you were born with the ability to control fire? - Akame suddenly asked.
- Nope," I smirked. - It's my village's teigu, which turned out to be compatible with me. And here's my innate teigu... Kagune. - I slowly released a kagune in the size of 4 tentacles, one of which I rounded and used as a pillow. My eyesight also improved, which spoke of the kakugane's activity.
- Your... eye..." Akame said amazed, pointing a finger at me.
- I called it a kakugan. When I activate it, my eyesight improves a lot, which helps a lot in combat. - I explained, pushing the tentacles back in.
- You're the strangest person I've ever seen," Shelly said absent-mindedly. It was the first time she had spoken in a while. However, the others paid no attention to it, not only that, they nodded!
- Correction, I'm not human. I'm a Ghoul. - I put my index finger up. - Only I prefer to keep it a secret, since I was a battered loner in the village for half my childhood, because of the eye and my kagune.
- 'Hmmm...' Leone raised her voice in amazement. - Tell me more about your life! - she continued cheerfully.
Still, as long as I've been travelling, I'm amazed by magical worlds. Everyone is so strange about these things... though it's understandable. A weirdo will understand a weirdo wonderfully!
- Hmmm... okay. My mother died in childbirth, struck by the poison of some monster. My father tried to raise me to be kind and merciful, but in the second week of my life, I managed to kill and almost eat a messenger who came to our house. Then my father realised what had happened to me, and began to feed me with the meat of those who were dying. He even became a gravedigger, who did all the work for us. He had to bring the body alone to the cemetery, dig the grave, and bury the deceased. However, he would carry the bodies to our basement, after which he would feed them to me. Further, he allowed me to go outside when I was 5 years old. All my life before that, he taught me to be kind and not to kill people in any way. However... everyone eventually found out about my peculiarities after a month. I started getting beaten up by boys, and girls hid when I approached. And ordinary people began to treat my father worse and worse.
I instantly decided to tell a slightly different story.
- And... when I was nine, I snapped. That evening, my father sent me to get water at the nearest lake... and when I returned... the house was on fire. There was a crowd with torches... One of the kids who was beating me up spotted me and shouted to the crowd, "Here comes the monster from hell!". And then he came at me with a rock. Seconds later his body was torn apart by my kagune, which progressed, and I instantly learnt to summon four tentacles already, changing their shape as I wanted. Then I said something like "you want a monster? Then you got it." I started a massacre in which I killed about two dozen people. There were about a hundred in the village at the time. And... then... I settled in the house of the very kid I killed first, and subsequently his entire family. The only thing that didn't burn down in my house was the artefact mask. It changed the colour of my hair to black when I put it on.
I reached into the inside pocket of my jacket with my hand, pulling out the mask, showing it to the others.
- And then... for seven years, every month, every night, I'd go out hunting with that mask on. I'd kill a man, then drag his body to my basement, where I'd feed on it for the rest of the month. When I was 16, I suddenly felt a fire in my chest. It was calling me. Calling me to the headman's building, where the teigu of the village was located, allowing me to control the power of fire. By then, my kagune had developed to an incredible level, becoming a near perfect weapon, and I had become a literal monster. I even had a couple of mercenaries from the village come to me... Which were also sent to the basement. The headman was torn apart, and the teigu was taken by me. It accepted me, and I began to... unfreeze. After killing the headman, and gaining the power of fire I began to realise the importance of human life, and left the village. Coming to another, I met a former army general who had retired. He took me in like a son, taught me sword skills... then another one of my peculiarities became apparent, I memorised the technique of a strike perfectly, literally after a couple of executions, which made me an excellent swordsman within a year. And my second father, even after he learnt the truth about me, continued to care. And he died six months ago. I left the village, and wandered the country, killing monsters for the bounty of various villages. And a week ago, I decided to finally visit the capital. - I finished.
- A terrible fate...'' Leone said sadly.
- Mm-hmm. - I nodded.
- The meat is ready! - Akame exclaimed with joy at just the right time.
***
In the evening, we reached the base. Which I wasn't very impressed with. It's under a cliff, which is a nice disadvantage. It is much easier to surround, and the retreat is only through underground passages, which in certain cases can collapse. All in all, I didn't really enjoy it.
Mostly, we were slowed down by Akame, who at the sight of each animal, with a hooting rushed after him to finish and then eat. So when we arrived, we all went to our cots. I was given one, and I also hurried to use it.
In the morning I was given a tour of the fortress by Leone. It began with her invasion of my room.
- Scared you? - she asked expectantly. However, seeing my rather ambiguous expression, far from frightened, she continued: - I was actually going to give you a tour of the base. I thought you hadn't got dressed yet, and just after breakfast we'll meet... And you already have. - she ended sadly.
- Let's go to breakfast. I won't say no to coffee. - I smiled.
- Yeah? Let's go, let's go!!! - Leone jumped happily.
Breakfast passed in silence from my side, and active bickering Main and Lubbock. The guys were arguing about the pros and cons of ranged combat and traps. They didn't seem to care that they were completely different things.
The coffee wasn't that bad. At least the taste of Anteiku's coffee, I more or less remember. However, and superstitious horror from the terrible taste did not cause. Which is good.
After breakfast, we went on the promised tour with Leone. Visiting each of the most important points in turn, almost every one had a member of the squad doing their favourite thing. Shelly was reading the book "100 Ways to get rid of frivolity" in the library, Main was wiping her Pumpkin in the armoury, Bulat was practicing with a spear on the training ground, and Akame... Akame was doing her favourite thing, that is, eating another animal roasted on a huge fire.
- Eat too, Leone! - Akame threw a piece of roasted meat to the metamorph. The metamorph instantly turned into a pussycat, and deftly caught the meat with her teeth.
Akame then tore off another piece of meat, clearly intending to give it to me, but I was quick to object:
- I don't eat such things, in case you forgot!
Akame's eyes instantly became understanding, and then she silently gnawed into the meat herself.
- You're surprisingly active today! - Leone exclaimed as she chewed the meat.
Active??? I mean... about 2 dozen words in a morning is active for her?
- The boss is back. - Akame said briefly, waving her hand towards the fire.
Such a gesture seemed extremely suspicious to me. Am I the only one eating human meat? Or did Akame decide to try something exotic after my story?
I held back a sigh of relief, however, when empathy alerted me to the presence of a woman behind the fire. Najenda had just risen from her seat, and began to circle the campfire, making sure to appear in our line of sight.
- Yo! - the woman waved at us.
She was an exact copy of the flyers, so she didn't really interest me. And her prosthesis was completely mechanical, which didn't interest me either.
- Boss! Welcome back! Did you bring any souvenirs? - Leone asked cheerfully, not even realising that she was about to be executed.
- About the job you were assigned three days ago..." Najenda began, kneading her metal hand meaningfully. Leone instantly recognised the situation, and slowly began to back off. - I guess the operation was delayed because of you?
The metamorph had already rushed to escape, but Najenda's metal palm, aptly released, instantly grabbed Leone's leg, pulling her towards her.
- You can't enjoy a battle with a strong opponent for too long... get rid of that habit of yours sometime. - the woman literally hissed.
- I GET IT, PLEASE FORGIVE ME! - screamed Leone. Something I think she missed the whole speech of the one-eyed woman. Najenda hummed, but still let go.
- By the way, who is this guy? - The woman finally turned her attention to me. Leone's enthusiasm rekindled.
- That's right, boss! That's Kaneki, I want to recommend him! He killed one of our targets after finding out about their dark deeds, and then defeated Akame without even using teigu!
Ahem... That's funny. Just like me, Leone missed the point of WHO I was. Najenda, on the other hand, also appeared completely dumbfounded, just like my team earlier. The woman shifted her questioning gaze to Akame in shock, but the girl only nodded as she continued to eat the animal's meat.
- Ahh...," Najenda stretched out. - Akame... gather everyone in the conference room. I want to hear a report on the previous operation... And details about your battle with this guy, as well as a story about him.
After saying that, Najenda hurriedly headed towards the main base building. Yeah... She shouldn't be a problem at all. If she was an army general, she should have seen things tougher than Ghouls.... And she's not likely to let go of a unicum with two teigu at once. And the fact that even without using them, I was able to defeat Akame... I think she'll think ten times before attacking me.
Leone, on the other hand, immediately dragged me along on a further tour of the base....
***
As soon as Leone and I entered the conference room, the eyes of everyone here turned to me. Najenda was looking very puffed up, and a couple of sheets of paper lying next to her hinted at the reason.
- Ghoul... Is that what you call yourself? - Najenda asked hoarsely.
- Mm-hmm. - I nodded.
- Would you mind... demonstrating your teigu? - Najenda continued, apparently already preparing for another shock.
I silently formed a whip of fire in my hand, releasing the kagune in parallel. My vision habitually improved, which was reflected on Najenda's face. After a dozen seconds, I dispelled the whip and also withdrew the kagune.
- You... accepted..." the woman squeezed out, pulling out 3 cigarettes, and lighting them all at once.
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