The weight of my limbs felt strange, not just lighter but disturbingly weak. I tried to lift my arm but my muscles refused to respond with the force I remembered. What’s wrong with me? No actually…
I blinked once. Then again before narrowing my eyes.
I could see the ceiling… vividly. A popcorn ceiling with all its texture when I wasn’t wearing my glasses. I hadn’t seen anything this clearly more than a foot from my face without my glasses in more than a decade.
Years of writing webnovels with eyes glued to a screen does that.
“Ugh—huh?” I groaned through a dizzy head, lifting myself off… a pillow? Wasn’t I just slumped on the side of a road? I remember some blinding lights… no, before anything, this wasn’t my voice.
I jerked upward, gasping as I realized I could barely move my head and neck, let alone my arms. An analog beeping increased beside me—a heart rate monitor started beeping as my heart rate skyrocketed. My gaze shifted, and I spotted an IV line, pump, and stand. Deep red liquid flowed through the IV. Blood? The beeping sounded faster.
“Oh, fuck me this is bad,” I muttered through my raspy throat. “I drank too much, hadn’t I? What shit did I get myself into?”
Looking around, it was plain to see that it was a hospital room of sorts. However, I couldn’t be certain because of the dreadful state of the room. I had clinicals in a hospital before as a student, so I’m certain I know what the room should look like.
Shattered glass which I presumed were the remains of the windows now boarded up by crooked two-by-fours.
A flickering lightbulb, which is also broken.
Tattered curtains.
A grimy wash station and cabinets.
Hey, and where is the damn emergency call button? Code blue, I’m gonna have a heart attack!
I scanned the walls and behind the bed, but it wasn’t there. Any half-decent facility, even the dingiest rooms would have one within reach.
My mind raced to piece together how I’d ended up here, but all I had was… nothing. Did someone throw me here? Are my organs going to be harvested!? The beeping turned frantic. Rightfully so.
Moments later, the door creaked open revealing a… doctor?
“Hey, doc where am I?” I croaked out.
But no reply was given. A short grumble later, the doctor went to work. He took vital signs and some other things, oddly doing the work of a nurse or something else but I wasn’t complaining. It wasn’t until he pulled a syringe from a dirty cabinet atop the sink that my worries heightened. The beeping sped up.
He came bedside and roughly shook my arm for a second before nodding with a grunt.
Then he took the needle and jammed it into my eye.
“AHH FUCK!”
I tried to flail my arms, kick my legs, or do anything. But they were too weak—is that why he shook my arm? To ensure I was weak enough not to be fettered to the bed?
But that was the least of my worries.
The doc injected anesthesia.
Fuckin’ doc, always disliked those chaps.
—
I had learned a few things since I woke up again.
One. I wasn’t me. Or I was a me that wasn’t the real me. It got complicated so I stopped thinking about it. I’m a me that was either reincarnated, transmigrated, or in a dream. Actually, scratch the dreaming, that was just coping.
Second. This wasn’t my earth. My home. My people. After I woke for the second, I found the same silent doc but with a monstrous scaly tail emerging back his back and made me damn near pray for the first time and promise I wouldn’t drink again.
Third. The tail kind of explained the situation. It wasn’t a tail, it was a kagune. The year is unknown, but I’m 99% certain I was reincarnated into the fictional world of Tokyo Ghoul. Yep. This is bad. A friggin’ ghoul doctor was examining me alone!? I wasn’t in Canada anymore. No this was Tokyo’s 14th Ward otherwise known as Nakano. Something the ghoul doc had explained gruffly after he realized I had ‘amnesia’ from my stint in a two-month coma. Normally I’d be pretty stoked about a trip across the world to Tokyo… but in the world of Tokyo Ghoul though? Hell to the no! I knew all about Tokyo Ghoul.
That leads to the fourth thing I learned. I wasn’t in grave danger. Danger nonetheless, but not grave. Why?
Because I’m also a ghoul.
I should’ve put 2 and 2 together when the doc poked me in the eye — where ghouls are weak enough for mundane needles to penetrate. Ah, also the blood bag being fed into my body, that was also telling.
Sadly, my body was worse than atrophied. The ghoul doc refused to explain what had actually happened to me, simply telling me that my family would once they’d arrived. That it wasn’t their job. Damn ghoul doc, I had more questions!
Thankfully my ‘family’ arrived about four hours after I woke up for the second time. I spent most of the few hours laying in bed unable to raise myself into a sitting position trying to activate my kagune. Hey, if life gives you lemons, make lemonade.
I was struggling until the door creaked open and the ghoul doc came again.
The doctor stared at me for a while before he spoke behind the mask. “Rindo Shirogane, you’ve been cleared for dischar—”
“KYODAIIII!!!”
Bewildered, my eyes were pulled to the sudden figure who burst past the door, roughly pushing the doctor aside before cursing at him in Japanese that my mind instantly translated into English without a thought. Ah, right, forgot to mention I have the privilege of the reincarnation gods giving me the ability to know Japanese. Nice.
The wild man didn’t bat an eye to the stumbling doctor. Thinly built, tall, with a blonde buzzed head, piercings, and striking black tattoos across his exposed arms and neck. Mid-twenties or so. Even with the rambunctious attitude and flashy appearances, nothing more was more striking than his eyes.
Black irises contrasted the man’s blood-red pupils.
Another ghoul. Made sense if the doc said it was my family. Though, did I also look like that scruffy delinquent? I didn’t gain enough strength to pull myself to the shattered mirror by the wash station so I still didn’t know my appearance.
“Kyodai, Sano-sama said you’re awake!?” The bald man said as he trodded over to the bedside. My eyes were glued to the hanya mask around his neck. It jogged in my mind hard. Was there an organization, group, or gang that wore those? Argh! Although I love Tokyo Ghoul, it’s been years since I finished the manga!
“Uhm-Who’re you?” I asked before my stares turned awkward.
Now it was the delinquent’s turn to widen his eyes.
“Huh!? Dammit!” He cursed in Japanese as he sauntered over to my bed. “Sano-sama, you weren’t kidding! He doesn’t remember anything at all.”
The ghoul doc grumbled before stepping closer. “Obviously I wasn’t kidding, Iguchi-kun. If you’d fuckin’ listen for once in your life, you wouldn’t be surprised. Matter of fact, it’s a miracle for him to be alive at all.”
“Ah, Sano-sama sorry for doubting your genius! Ha!” The delinquent, Iguchi, laughed and roughly patted the ghoul doc’s back.
“I’m Iguchi. Iguchi Tatsuya!” Iguchi smirked before I saw an odd glint in his expression. “You can call me Aniki, my returned-to-life Kohai.”
I blinked, raising my hand up to point at my face. “Me?”
“Of course, Kohai—”
“Enough, Iguchi-kun. You’re gonna be the death of me someday.” Doctor Sano sighed. “Look, Rindo-kun. You had a bad accident on one of your hunts. You bit off more than you could chew and the doves got to ya’ boy. Idiot. That’s what brought you to me when Iguchi-kun came roaring through my doors when this underground place was closed.”
“Urm-sorry about that,” Iguchi said bashfully before his expression lifted. “Ah, but I paid good, didn’t I? I even took more jobs from the boss! I’m keepin’ ya’ in business Sano-sama!”
Doctor Sano frowned. “As I was saying… Rindo-kun, you seem to have short-term amnesia from the two-month coma after the accident. I didn’t detect any brain damage from our scans. So you’ll likely recover your memories soon. Ah, then again I don’t have the right tools to tell any better but you should be fine. You’re discharged.”
Doctor Sano turned around and headed out.
Iguchi bowed his head and roared in delinquent fashion, “Thank you Sano-sama!”
That left us alone.
“So Iguch—”
“Aniki.”
“Huh?
“Call me Aniki.”
“Oh. Okay, Aniki.”
“Pahahahhaha!!”
I frowned and groaned. What’s wrong with this guy? “As I was gonna ask… now what?”
Iguchi didn’t stop laughing before helping me onto his back. “Get on. I’ll take ya’ to the hideout.”
“Hideout?” I asked genuinely. It did make sense though, ghouls were hunted down by the CCG or ‘doves’ as much as they hunted humans for food.
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“Pahahah! You really did forget everything my wonderful Kohai!” Iguchi laughed again.
Damn. I’ve only met this dude for a few minutes and I’m already tired of him. It’s like he’s straight out of those yakuza games.
“We’re part of the Kurokumo Gang, one of the bigger gangs of the 14th Ward. We hold the west block of the 14th.” Iguchi said proudly, twiddling the fierce horns of his hannya mask. “Ah, shit. Ya’ lost your mask in the hunt. Dumass. I guess we’ll head over to Kashiwagi’s after the hideout. ”
I nodded. Although this guy is a little loud, he’s right in the head. I needed a mask if I was gonna survive. And a gang? It’s to be expected. Most organizations band together to survive. To hunt food. Ghouls were mostly an unruly bunch, but the weaker of the kind had to make ends meet somehow. Hiding amongst humans could only go so far. Besides, we weren’t in the 20th Ward where it was more peaceful like the manga—wait. Right, the time period. Maybe Anteiku didn’t exist?
Or the major events didn’t happen?
Oh, brother! This is gonna suck.
Not only am I stuck in a different world, but I know nothing. There was basically no information on the past! Much less in the 14th Ward!
“How big is big?” I asked, my feet dangling off Iguchi’s back.
Iguchi climbed the muddy staircase up from the literal underground ‘hospital.’
“Ya’ mean the gang? We’re one of the four pillars of Nakano! A hundred or so strong! The CCG ain’t got nothin’ on us. They are more worried about the other three pillars near the center of the ward so we’re a little recluse. Our Kurokumo Gang’s nothin’ to be trifled with though.” Iguchi boasted.
I sighed. Yep, this is gonna be a long day.
—
“Welcome back to Kurokumo’s main hideout, Rindo-kohai,” Iguchi smirked. He told me after a rough ride on the back of his loud customized bike with a long flagpole behind it. The white flag with a black cloud in the center.
Is this guy an idiot? Waving around our ghoul gang’s symbol on a loud bike? Does he want to alert the doves?!
I chose against to question him, maybe because I just didn’t know what the norm was or maybe it was on purpose. But I have a sneaky suspicion that Iguchi was just an idiot.
It felt super surreal as Iguchi drove past the sidewalks glaring at anyone who dared take a second look at us before he pulled into a dark alleyway and down into an underground parking lot of sorts.
There I found tens of similar bikes.
Oddly, my nose picked up a sweet smell in the air. It didn’t take another second before I realized it was human flesh or blood I smelled and frowned. I… I’m gonna have to struggle like Kaneki did. I have to eat human flesh sooner or later.
“This is home. You remember it?” Iguchi asked again. Pulling me from the moments of ghoul introspection I had been in.
“Nah. It looks like everything else —new and unfamiliar.” I told him. Looking over my shoulder I could tell he was frowning. “This has been our home for years bro. I forgot to say but we met each other in a commercial high school. We fought and got kicked out, then we were bouta’ kill each other on the streets before the gang took us in because we were dumbasses.” He told me and I nodded awkwardly.
Shoot. Was I really a delinquent as well?
He dismounted the bike. “You good to walk?”
I tried to move my legs across to the side but failed. I shook my head. “Nah. Need some time ‘fore my body gets back to normal.”
“I’ll take you to your room first. Samo-sama’s orders.” Iguchi said as he pulled a sticky note from his loose trouser’s pockets.
He nodded before helping me on his back again. We walked against the parking lot’s wall toward the entrance to the multi-floored building. He carried me down a dim hallway, past the noise and chaos that seemed to leak from every crevice of the building. The sound of muffled voices, laughter, and glass clinking faded as we stepped into a quieter, more isolated part of the building. We stopped in front of a nondescript door, far from the crowd. Iguchi opened it, and we stepped inside.
The room was gritty and grimy, furnished with just a small bed, a standing mirror, a cabinet, and clothes scattered everywhere. It didn’t look like I had any belongings other than dirty, oversized clothes, underwear, and socks. To my discomfort, the clothes were... well, "dirty" was an understatement. The pair of pants and shirts were oddly stained, with a lingering scent of sweetness clinging to them. Ah, some jewelry and a flip phone were left behind as well.
Nice.
One, I had piercings in this life as well! The original Rindo had some good taste. Cool golden hoops.
Two, the flip phone confirmed more information of the year than the car models we went by earlier. I could also check it out later to see.
Iguchi set me down carefully before he handed me the pink sticky note. “Tell me ya’ can still read.”
I took the note, squinting at the messy handwriting. The scrawl was a mix of hurried strokes and half-scribbled words, but I could make it out well enough with the help of my reincarnation translation. "Exercise orders, huh?" I muttered under my breath.
I nodded. “Yeah, I can still read.”
Iguchi smirked at that, stepping back toward the door. “Good. Sleep first or do them if you’re well enough. Yell if ya’ need something. I’ll be solo hunting to stock the gang’s stash soon and nab ya’ a share if you’re still hungry. Don’t wanna see you out of this room until I tell ya’ otherwise.”
“Cya later, Aniki,” I said weakly. It sounded right. I didn’t know Iguchi well enough, but the original Rindo did. Anywho, he treated me well, so I’d like to see him again. He’s a nice guy, I wouldn’t want the doves or rival gangs to put him under.
Iguchi roared with laughter, even after closing the door behind him. Was calling him Aniki really so funny? Iguchi looked strong pretty put together in the gang’s hierarchy.
The laughter behind the door waned and I was left alone with some time to think. My fingers ran over the sticky note again and everything so far replayed in my head again.
I was really reincarnated into Tokyo Ghoul. I let out a breath and collapsed back onto the bed, staring up at the ceiling.
“Might as well get my strength back,” I muttered before sitting upright again. “Leg extensions it is.”
Doctor Sano’s sticky note was just a set of exercises to try and build up enough muscle. Honestly, just some basic bodyweight stuff I could’ve figured out on my own, but I wasn’t complaining.
I started raising up my legs before grimacing at just how hard it was just to hold it out in front of me. Sheesh. My tiny stick-like leg might as well be nothing but bone and skin! After that, I let them down slowly and did it over and over. I continued until my quads were hot and exhausted.
I rested for a while before I did the next set.
1 rep.
2 reps.
3 reps.
Shoot, I really am weak. A ghoul should be stronger than a human yet I’m struggling with these?!
4 reps.
…10 reps.
[Ding!]
“Huh!?” I scanned the room. What was that? The phone?
[100 Body XP Obtained]
The line of text appeared before my eyes and sounded in my head. It was like it was typed out. Definitely not the work of a flip phone.
What the hell was that? I blinked. Ignore the weariness in my quads, what is this? Wait, I was reincarnated, right? It didn’t make sense since Tokyo Ghoul wasn’t the world for these types of things, but I had an inkling. I grinned.
“Open, system?”
Nothing.
“System?”
Nothing.
“Status?”
A digital whirr sounded.
STATUS SCREEN
Name: Rindo Shirogane
Level: 0
Faction: Rogue Ghoul
Kagune Class: Ukaku
RC Cells: 501/501
Hunger: Peckish
RC Matrix: 4.450838%
CORE ATTRIBUTES:
[Athlete: 0]
[Head Hunter: 0]
[Engineer: 0]
[Meanuver: 0]
[Scholar: 0]
[Available Attribute Point[s]: 0]
CORE SKILL LEVELS:
[Body: 0]
[Cool: 0]
[Technical Ability: 0]
[Reflexes: 0]
[Intelligence: 0]
Kakuhou Sac Count: 1
Type[s]: [Ukaku]
PERKS:
Body — N/A
Cool — N/A
Technical Ability — N/A
Reflexes — N/A
Intelligence — N/A
[Available Perk Point[s]: 0]
Kakuja: [???]
Affinity: [???]
“Woah!!!” I exclaimed and lay down.
A status screen right before my eyes! A ghoul system! This is crazy. Or maybe not, since I was reincarnated?
My eyes scoured everything. Name? Sounded right. Level? I‘ll figure it out. Factions? Sounded right.
“Ooooh.” I hummed as I looked at my kagune class. “So I’m a Ukaku type.”
Ukaku types had the organ that released my kagune — a kakuhou sac, located by my shoulder. These types specialize in high-speed attacks. Users typically have the highest explosiveness at the cost of lower stamina and durability.
My RC cell count kinda made sense. Everyone had them, even humans. Ghouls had many times more, but this was where I was a little worried. But the part that didn’t make sense was how my RC cell count is dangerously low. If I recall correctly, a human had anywhere from 0-500.
If mine is at a 501, I’m weak. Or perhaps even the weakest among ghouls. Plain as day.
I could increase it. It wasn’t a secret to how.
I just uh, needed to consume humans or worse… cannibalize ghouls.
“Ah, I’m gonna have to do it.” I ruminated under my breath. A shiver coursed through me.
I ignored the next stat — my hunger.
The following stat was even more mystifying. Was an RC matrix ever mentioned? And it was a progress type of thing? I had no idea.
Moving on!
Attributes, skills… and perks? Wasn’t this just the Cyberpunk-esque? I’m just gonna assume I can’t obtain perks unless I level up my attributes first. Ah, but since I have no attribute points, it’s like I’m a trash, perkless sub-ghoul.
Welp.
Skills, though. I can work on them. Maybe. There are five stats and it’s been a while in my last life since I loaded up the Cyberpunk, but I remember well enough to make do.
Body was self-explanatory. Cool and reflex were a little too and I’m sure I could figure these two out.
However, the grey zone was technical ability and intelligence.
Unless I misinterpreted the world so far, I was reincarnated into the world of Tokyo Ghoul before the main events. Hell, likely before some of the younger characters were born.
Straining myself, I stretched towards the cabinet top. I nabbed the flip phone and flicked it open to check the year in case it was 2077.
May 17, 2005. 6:33 PM.
I exhaled a sigh of relief. Thankfully not. No chrome. No corpos, no chooms, no gonks, no cyberpsychos.
A shiver ran down my back as I imagined a cyberpsycho cannibal ghoul.
Not fun to visualize.
Moving away from those three stat categories, there it was! A kakuhou sac. I frowned at the sight of just one sac. Typically the stronger ghouls had multiple, but oh well. My eyes descended down the status screen and I felt a deep frown pull at my lips.
A kakuja. Makes sense I didn’t have that stuff unlocked. I gotta… “Urk!” I swallowed a heavy pit in my throat.
Cannablize on ghouls. A lot of them.
Moving on!
An affinity? Now this confused me as much as the RC matrix, was this mentioned at all? I really don’t know. I clicked my tongue and sighed in thought.
“But regardless, I can use this. If it’s a system, I have an advantage here. I won’t be prey to the doves or ghouls trying to murder me at every step. Hell, I’m even in a gang.” I uttered to myself. Ignoring the horrid amount of 0’s on my status, this was good news.
Now, that experience I gained, body obviously means my body. Kinda like a strength stat in other isekais? But that begged the question — how much XP does it take to level up the stat? There wasn’t a progress bar or a percentage.
And how do I gain my XP to level up myself?
Well, one step at a time.
My leg’s recovered enough for another set. Grind time.