I crouch down next to her as she lies on the floor shaking violently. Her breathing is irregular and her red eyes stare at me in terror. I can even see my smiling reflection with white teeth in those eyes.
"D-Don't kill me... please... I'll do anything you ask... anything... so..."
Tears mix with the blood on her ugly face, making her look even worse. Snot runs from her nose. It's a truly disgusting sight.
I tilt my head as I watch her beg for her life. It's funny how monsters can also feel fear when they're about to die.
"Did you give that guy the same chance?"
I ask as I nod my head toward the guy's corpse she killed a few minutes ago. His body is still lying in a pool of blood with a hole in his chest. Ah, there are even flies around his now.
She opens her mouth to respond, but no words come out.
"I thought so."
—Plusssh!
I drive my hand with the blades directly into her back without giving her any more time to beg. My fingers pierce through flesh and bone. I search for the specific organ that I saw glowing purple with my Ghoul Vision. It has to be here somewhere.
The thing I realized earlier is this.
The ghoul I killed when I was six years old. At that time, I didn't have Ghoul Vision yet, so I didn't know imhe had a hidden organ where his wing comes out.
'I regret that now.'
At that time, even though the vertebra came out along with the ghoul's wing when I ripped it out, the organ that produces it was still hidden inside his body.
"Ah, here it is!"
Finally, my fingers touch something hard and pulsating. I grab the thing firmly with my hand, feeling it beat and reminding me of the human heart I ripped out.
I pull it out with all my strength.
—Riiissshhrp!
I rip the ghoul's special organ out of her body.
She shakes violently as her entire body convulses as if it had been given an electric shock. Then she becomes completely motionless at the same time as her red eyes turn dull.
"Eh, she's dead."
I say without much emotion as I stand up, holding the newly extracted organ in my hand. It is covered in red blood and drips constantly onto the floor.
It is about the size of my fist, maybe a little bigger, and is purple with pulsating red veins running through it.
—Grummmm! Grummnn!
The smell of blood and the organ in my hand makes my mouth water and my stomach growl.
"Well... here we go again."
I've come this far and there's no point in hesitating now, so I put it in my mouth.
—Crussshh!
The texture is chewy but also crunchy in certain parts. Its taste explodes in my mouth and I almost vomit immediately.
It's disgusting.
Really disgusting.
It's nothing like the human heart I ate. If I had to compare, then I would say that the human heart is a gourmet dish served by a professional chef, and the ghoul's organ is cheap fast food. No, it's worse, as it's like biting into a rotten hamburger that you would find in a trash can full of worms.
But my hunger is stronger than my revulsion.
—Gulp!
I swallow the first piece, forcing myself not to vomit it up. I immediately feel heat spreading from my stomach to the rest of my body.
"Fuuuh..."
It's painful. My insides twist and my muscles tense, but at the same time it's pleasurable because it somehow feels like scratching an itch that I haven't been able to reach for years.
I continue to devour the organ greedily, ignoring the disgusting taste.
—Crusshh! Gulp! Crussh! Gulp!
In less than a minute, I have consumed the entire organ.
Then something unexpected happens.
My body begins to change.
—Crak! Crack!
I hear and feel my bones adjusting. My muscles tense and expand slightly under my skin. The heat intensifies even more, concentrating especially on my back.
"What's happening...?"
I bring a hand to my back, trying to touch whatever is changing there, but I don't feel anything externally. My skin feels normal as there are no lumps or bumps.
Is it internal then?
'Is it possible...?'
I activate my Ghoul Vision for a second. The world turns black and white again, and I look down at my own body. My silhouette isn't red like the humans or ghouls I've seen so far. It's gray.
Inside that gray silhouette, I can see my back. Just below my spine, where there was nothing before, I can now see a purple object shining.
It's much smaller than the one I just consumed.
'I got my own ghoul organ.'
Although I still don't know exactly what this organ is called. I could ask Touka about these things later when I see her. Maybe tomorrow I'll stop by her house to visit her. She probably knows more about this than I do.
And now I understand why I didn't get it at age six. It was because back then I only ate the wing that comes out of that special organ and not the organ itself.
It makes sense when I think about it. It's like trying to plant a tree using only a leaf instead of the seed.
I deactivate Ghoul Vision and the world returns to normal colors. I blink a couple of times, adjusting to regular vision again.
The hunger pangs in my stomach have completely disappeared as I feel satisfied. I can also feel that I've become a little stronger at the same time as my muscles feel denser.
I look at my blood-covered hands and flex my fingers. I transform them into blades and retract them several times in a row.
My control is much smoother now.
And then I realize something else.
Even though the immediate effect of the special organ I ate has passed and I no longer feel intense heat emanating from my stomach, I can now feel something I couldn't feel before.
This...
I can feel the breeze coming in through the open window on my skin!
"Huh?"
I raise my arm and move it slowly, feeling the air brush against my skin. It's a strange sensation after so long without feeling anything. As a zombie, I couldn't feel anything tactile because my nerves were completely dead. I could see, hear, smell, even taste in a way, but I couldn't feel the touch of things.
Although surely a normal human is able to feel this much better than I can.
I don't know exactly how my body works, but at least this means that my body is evolving and slowly coming back to life again.
"Heheh..."
I can't help but laugh excitedly at this discovery.
Then I focus on the new organ I now have on my back. I close my eyes and try to concentrate on it. I want to use it and see what kind of thing will come out of my back.
Unfortunately, nothing happens.
'It seems I need to consume more ghoul organs. Once it grows enough, then I'll be able to use it.'
Although I'm a little disappointed by that discovery, as it would have been great to be able to use another type of organic weapon right now, at least I achieved several important things today.
I regained some of my sense of touch. In addition, my body has become about a centimeter taller as far as I can tell, and I definitely gained some flesh and muscle.
I look around the room. There is a lot of blood on the walls and floor, and there are two corpses lying there.
The man who was deceived and killed for love, and the ugly toad ghoul who killed him.
"I must leave before someone comes."
I say aloud as I walk toward the window.
Especially CCG. If they find this scene and manage to track me down somehow, I'll be in big trouble. And now I have Saya and Mrs. Yuriko as people close to me. If they discover me, I could get them into trouble too. I can't allow that.
So if they see me, I'll have no choice but to kill them. Not that I care much about the lives of strangers anyway.
I head for the open window I came in through. The cool night air hits my face, and for the first time, I can really feel it on my skin. It's a pleasant sensation.
I leap into the night.
As I return to the Takagi mansion, nimbly jumping from rooftop to rooftop under the moonlight, I feel quite satisfied.
Today was a good night.
×××
20 advanced chapters on Pa-treon.
pa-treon.com/OlwinMoriarty