by Shin Towada
TOKYO GHOUL-KUHAKU- © 2014 by Sui Ishida, Shin Towada
All rights reserved.
First published in Japan in 2014 by SHUEISHA Inc., Tokyo.
English translation rights arranged by SHUEISHA Inc.
Design:Shawn Carrico
Translation:Morgan Giles with Kevin Frane
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Towada, Shin, author. | Ishida, Sui, creator. | Giles, Morgan,
translator. | Frane, Kevin, translator.
Title: Tokyo ghoul: void / Sui Ishida, Shin Towada ; translated by Morgan
Giles and Kevin Frane.
Other titles: Tåokyåo gåuru kåuhaku. English | Void
Description: San Francisco, CA : VIZ Media LLC, [2017] | Series: Tokyo ghoul
; 2
Identifiers: LCCN 2016047322 | ISBN 9781421590585 (paperback)
Subjects: | BISAC: FICTION / Media Tie-In.
Classification: LCC PL876.O78 T6713 2017 | DDC 895.63/6--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016047322
No portion of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without written permission from the copyright holders.
Published by VIZ Media, LLC
P.O. Box 77010
San Francisco, CA 94107
Printed in the U.S.A.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
First printing, January 2017
Table of Contents
001: Heat Haze
002: Embroidery
003: Photography
004: The Ties That Wound
005: Misato
Acknowledgments
On the other side of the wall of my unshakable beliefs there is, perhaps, a whole world I don’t know.
“You want me as a reinforcement for the 8th Ward?” Amon said, echoing the other man’s words without realizing he was doing it. The afternoon sun pierced the thin lace curtains in the hospital room. Kotaro Amon sat on a stool with his back to the window, and his eyes were wide with surprise.
Lying in the hospital bed was Amon’s boss, Yukinori Shinohara. His nickname was the Indomitable Shinohara, but looking at him now, he was so covered in casts, bandages, and bruises that it was more difficult to find part of him that wasn’t injured in some way.
“Yeah,” grunted Shinohara. “At the moment we’ve got a serious shortage of talent, as I’m sure you know, but the 23rd Ward is the worst off of all. During the attack on Cochlea, investigators from the 23rd Ward were the ones on the front lines. But they didn’t stand a goddamn chance against a bunch of organized Ghouls.”
Ghouls—an absolute evil infesting this world. These repulsive creatures look just like humans, but prey upon them. Their bloodlust leads them to kill innocent people and feast on their flesh.
And we, the group of professionals sworn to destroy them, are known as the Commission of Counter Ghoul—or the CCG for short.
Amon was part of the CCG elite. He had graduated top of his class at the Academy, became skilled in the use of Quinques—a weapon developed to battle Ghouls—and now, as a Ghoul investigator, he battled Ghouls daily.
His efforts had been recognized just a few weeks earlier as a result of his involvement in the search-and-destroy operation at the 11th Ward headquarters of the Aogiri Tree, the Ghoul organization dedicated to terrorizing CCG investigators.
It was impossible to get a full picture of these Ghoul organizations. And that problem, combined with the sudden reappearance of the mysterious monster known as the Owl, who had done catastrophic damage to the CCG a decade prior, meant that the battle was fierce.
And then those of us who went in there and saw good men sacrificed in the name of defeating Aogiri barely got to soak in the afterglow of victory, because suddenly we were informed that there had been an attack on Cochlea, the Ghoul detention center in the 23rd Ward.
The Aogiri Tree’s aim from the beginning had been to free the Ghouls imprisoned in Cochlea. Ghouls who investigators had struggled to catch were suddenly unleashed onto the streets, and the CCG was still searching for some of them to this day. Who knew what kind of new atrocities would be committed if they didn’t quickly redress the issue?
“Now, headquarters is investing as many elite officers as it can get in the 23rd Ward … but there just aren’t enough men to defend the surrounding wards. So, as the 8th Ward is one of those surrounding wards, that’s why I want you to provide some assistance there.”
“I see … But sir, as you know, I am currently without a partner. Do you really think it’s safe for me to go into this alone?”
Since losing Kureo Mado, the first class Ghoul investigator who had taken him under his wing when Amon was a rookie, Amon had gone without a partner.
But now Shinohara, who had been looking after Amon as a protective measure until a new partner was found for him, had been injured in the battle against Aogiri, making this a painful time to be changing duties.
“Look, after this incident, everyone knows what a strong fighter you are, and in any case, they’re really shorthanded. I don’t have any control over this. Anyway, this is just an interim measure for a month or two until they appoint a successor for the 8th Ward.”
“Right … I see. I’ll still be worried about the 20th Ward, but I’ll work hard to be strong for the 8th Ward,” Amon said.
“They’re counting on you. You’ll be lightening the workload for the guys in the 8th Ward. The number of complaints I hear from them makes my head hurt.”
“Complaints?”
“Just about how tough everything is,” Shinohara said.
They exchanged one or two more comments, but feeling that hanging around Shinohara’s room would only slow his healing, Amon soon left.
The hallway outside was busy with nurses coming and going. Amon stood there in the hall for a moment, the sound of their footsteps in his ears, as he looked down over the city from a window. His eyes slid down to the people walking along the tree-lined street next to the hospital. Amon stared out at them.
That eye patch …
The sounds of the hospital fell away into the background. Suddenly his mind was plunged back into the events of the Aogiri offensive. During the battle, when he’d been looking through a broken window frame, he’d seen someone wearing an eye patch. And that enemy had escaped him.
When the memory of the eye patch came to him, it was like he was taken back to that day.
The feeling of hatred was so distinct, and yet the memory was like a heat haze.
Kotaro …
And the Ghoul who had raised Amon as if he were his own child still haunted his memory, too.
II
Early the next morning, attaché case in hand, Amon arrived at the train station nearest to the 8th Ward. The 8th Ward was in a coastal area, and often, depending on the direction of the wind, you could smell the sea.
Part of the swell of commuters and kids on their way to school, Amon had stopped to look at the map outside the station to find the 8th Ward branch when he heard a voice ask, “Are you trying to get somewhere?” He turned to find a sophisticated-looking woman standing next to him. She looked to be about the same age as Amon.
Beside her stood an elderly woman, probably her mother. She looked around nervously, as if she were afraid of something.
“Oh, uh, the local CCG branch office …”
“You want to go three streets down and turn onto the main road. Just go straight and you really can’t miss it. Look, it’s right there. When you see the bookstore on the cor
ner, that’s where you turn.”
“I see, so that’s where it is. Thank you for your help.”
Amon walked the way that she’d told him to, and soon he saw the 8th Ward branch office. He adjusted his tie and went through the automatic doors. At reception he gave his name and said that he was sent as reinforcement; he was shown to a conference room where he waited nearly five minutes before two men in suits appeared.
“Amon, sorry for dragging you all the way out to the Eighth.”
“Yanagi, are you running the show here now?”
Yanagi held out his hand first for a handshake. He had few stand-out achievements, but he was very flexible and his work was solid and dependable, so he was often sent to fill a gap in districts that needed help badly. Amon had met him several times in the past.
“After the Cochlea incident, we were sent here to take charge. I mean, I’ve worked here a few times in the past, so I don’t mind.”
So he’s just filling in this time too. But why is Yanagi here to welcome me instead of someone actually based in the 8th Ward? Are things really that dysfunctional here?
“Mr. Amon! We’ve heard a lot about your performance in the Aogiri battle! No surprise from the guy at the top of his class at the Academy,” said the other man, Tojo, who was Yanagi’s subordinate.
Tojo had more seniority than Amon, but the bright, chatty man was still a second class investigator. Because of this, he always addressed Amon politely. Amon wished he would just speak to him normally, without worrying about rank and all of that, but every time he told Tojo this, the man answered, “But what’s wrong with being polite?”
“No, man … When I saw how all the top-ranked investigators fought in the Aogiri operation, all I could think about were my own shortcomings. I still feel like that,” Amon said.
“Oh? But how amazing it must be just to be able to say you were there. I mean, that’s the real front line for the CCG. Tell me, were there guys using really rare Quinques? Oh, and what’s Juzo Suzuya like? A guy like that who’s only rank 3 but still gets to—”
“That’s enough,” said Yanagi, cutting off Tojo’s uncontrollable torrent of questions. Glaring at Tojo, who took a step back as if he were going to run away, Yanagi put the file he’d been carrying down on the table.
The first page was a map of the district.
“You might have guessed already, given that we’ve drafted you in as reinforcement when we were just brought in ourselves, but at the moment we are the only investigators on the beat in the 8th Ward.”
So my bad premonition was right. Damn. Yanagi’s expression was severe.
“Some of the escaped Ghouls from the 23rd Ward fed on people on their way through the 8th Ward, and when one tried to escape, it turned into a battle. Lots of casualties.”
Yanagi stabbed the map with his finger, pointing to the 8th Ward. “The fugitive was a rate A Ghoul. Not especially strong. But unluckily enough, there was not one investigator from the bureau in the ward. I know I shouldn’t be saying this, and I might be criticized for it, but most of the best investigators were taken from us in the Aogiri incident …”
When Amon himself had seen the selection list for the current 11th Ward Special Countermeasures Team, he had been concerned about how thin investigators were on the ground in the areas surrounding the 23rd Ward. The 20th Ward, where Amon had been based, was a designated danger zone, so officers like Hoji and Takizawa were on call, but the 8th Ward wasn’t so designated. It was a place that had always had fewer investigators.
“What happened to the Ghoul?”
“We got him and sent him back to Cochlea.”
“You guys did?”
Yanagi and Tojo nodded in unison.
“As I said, this is not the first time I’ve worked in the 8th Ward,” Yanagi said. “When I heard about the Cochlea attack, I immediately worried that the escaped Ghouls would flood into the 8th since it neighbors the 23rd Ward, so I came back.”
“Well, that and we were ordered to report here by the bureau.”
“They were sending the toughest guys here, so they sent us. In my opinion, anyway. So at any rate, I got a call from a guy I used to work with, a clerical investigator in the 8th Ward, saying that Ghouls were creating mayhem here. And then, when he rushed to the scene of the crime … he was eaten.”
Yanagi bit his lip as memories of the tragedy came back to him.
“So after that, we were put in charge of the 8th Ward here. The three wards adjacent to the 23rd Ward are the 22nd, the 7th, and this one. And after the Cochlea attack, another high-ranked investigator was killed in the 22nd Ward, where masses of escapees have apparently flooded in. The 7th Ward has always had a lot of investigators assigned to it since there’s a restaurant there that’s rumored to be a meeting place for Ghouls. And yet, here …”
Tojo shook his fist. “I told them from the beginning to send more high-level investigators to the 8th Ward, but after we captured and got rid of those Ghouls they just abandoned us because they said there had been no fugitive-related incidents! So that’s why, even though the 8th Ward borders the 23rd, it’s just me and Yanagi here. What a catastrophic mess—Agh!”
Tojo’s rant ended with a cry, due to the hard thump Yanagi gave him on his head.
“Ahem. To get back to what we were talking about, Amon, this time there was a big incident with some rate SS monsters that got away. Now there are frequent incidents centered on the 23rd Ward, and we think these escapees are the cause. But still, the 8th Ward is a lower priority than the others. Whatever we do, we gotta do it ourselves.”
That was the problem that had been imposed on Yanagi and Tojo: figuring out how to protect the residents of the 8th Ward with very few men. Now Amon more than understood the issues in the Eighth. “So what should we do?” he asked.
“Today, first, we’ll take you around the ward. After that, we want you to be vigilant about the 23rd Ward and strive to maintain security. We’ve had to put the search for suspected Ghouls on the back burner, and repairs to Cochlea after the attack are still incomplete. Anything could happen.”
“Got it. You can count on me.”
“Right, let’s head out,” Yanagi said.
The three of them finished getting ready, left the conference room, and got on the elevator. Suddenly, Yanagi’s face softened slightly.
“Amon, we really appreciate you coming here. As I said before, we lost a lot of investigators who had been working in the 8th Ward. Work has come to a standstill, and we’re getting a lot of grief from certain quarters.”
“Certain quarters? Do you mean the bureau?”
“No, no, not that.”
The elevator arrived at the ground floor, and as they headed out into the lobby, Yanagi shook his head. “Investigators like us need cooperation from people in a broad range of industries, and their businesses are being hit hard. The thing that’s worrying me most right now is …”
Yanagi sounded weary and Amon wondered, as he listened, what exactly had happened here. But before Yanagi could tell him, a voice cut in.
“That’s what I keep telling you! Why the hell do I have to meet with you at your convenience?!”
The man’s voice echoed through the lobby. Yanagi and Tojo stopped, almost robotically, but Amon headed toward the shouting, wondering what was going on.
“Sir, as I said the other day—”
“Because you guys can’t get it together to put out the results of your investigation, I can’t do shit! Give me a break here!”
Amon saw a man getting violently angry with the receptionist.
“What’s he doing …”
He was in his mid-thirties, wearing a worn suit and an untucked button-down shirt. He banged his fists on the desk as he cursed at the receptionist.
That’s enough of that. Amon’s strong sense of responsibility took over. He strode tow
ard reception.
“Hey, Amon, wait!”
Ignoring Yanagi, he stepped in between the man and the receptionist.
“Huh? Who the hell are you?” The man plunged his hands into his pockets and glared at Amon.
“What’s all this trouble you’re causing the receptionist?”
“I’m the one getting troubled here. Outta my way, I’m getting this settled today.” Many men might hesitate when faced with a tall, stocky man like Amon, but this man was unfazed.
“If you cannot have a rational conversation, I will call security.”
“What is this shit?”
“I will call security, I said. So, shall I?”
The man snorted. Seems like he doesn’t want to listen to what I have to say, Amon thought. If he thinks he can brush me aside like that I’ll give him something to really be angry about.
“Amon, cool it! He’s …”
Before Yanagi, who was rushing forward, could finish his sentence, the man took something out of the inner pocket of the jacket of his worn suit and held it in front of Amon’s face.
“… a police officer.”
The man held up his badge to show Amon. On it was a photo of the man clad in a uniform with his rank and name—Kyohei Morimine—printed beneath.
“Y-you’re a cop … ?”
“If anyone’s getting restrained around here I’m the one doing it, okay?”
He put his badge back where it came from and stared at Amon with a look of appraisal. “You look like a friend of Yanagi and Tojo’s. So you’re a Ghoul investigator too, huh? Hmm …”
Yanagi, who had tried to stop Amon, and Tojo, who could only look on not knowing what to do, both had looks on their faces that spelled out what a huge mistake Amon had made.
“Well, I might have been a little … rough with you earlier. I apologize. Sorry. And miss, I’m very sorry to you, too.”
The man somehow maintained his terribly pompous attitude even as he apologized. He looked at Yanagi and grinned.
“Hey, Yanagi, you know, I’m pretty sure you said, ‘If we just had one more guy we could start investigating again.’ ”
