Chapter 14: Devoured Alive, Flayed Alive
I couldn’t avert my gaze, not even able to blink!
It wasn’t that I didn’t want to move, but that I couldn’t!
My body was stiff, as if all my muscles had cramped.
She must have used some kind of trick on me, rendering my body immobile.
As expected, she, Kaoru Tsukiyose, had no intention of coming towards me. It was as if she already knew I wouldn’t be able to escape. She squatted down again, picked up the corpse’s forearm, and tore off a piece of flesh, chewing it like a chicken drumstick as she spoke.
“Staring at a lady while she dines is very rude, you know~ Heehee, your gaze is so intense. Are you looking at me, or at the food? Or perhaps both?”
“…!”
Move! Move! Hurry and move! My legs!
This was my last chance. If I didn’t run now, I probably wouldn’t be able to escape!
That was the ‘real deal.’ Someone who ate human flesh, drank human blood, and gnawed on human bones. A true monster!
Stories from when I was young often featured villains like wolves, monsters, and demons that ate people. But the scenes of them eating people were always glossed over; they never went into detail about how they ate people…
Now that I had witnessed the entire process of someone eating a human firsthand, I realized how insane such an act was.
When the content of that ‘title’ unfolded before me exactly as it was, I understood that the instinctive fear I felt the first time I saw these creatures was not an illusion.
This guy was indeed a spine-chilling monster.
An existence that ordinary people could not understand or accept.
When faced with such an existence, people could only run… Confronting it was a completely foolish act. One could only choose to run!
“Want to escape? It’s useless~ Haven’t you heard that saying? ‘Those who are targeted by a ghost become unable to move.’ You’re being watched by me right now, so you can’t escape even if you wanted to~”
No, I wasn’t completely immobile… My nostrils could still dilate and contract.
Don’t be fooled by her words. Calm down first, concentrate, and then look for an opening.
Being able to calm down immediately in any terrible situation was my greatest strength. If I couldn’t maintain this calmness, I might truly die an ignoble death.
My limbs were indeed immobile, so I should focus on more detailed parts…
I tried, part by part, hoping to find a movable spot, but there was no progress.
As I watched the remaining flesh scraps dwindle, my heart sank deeper and deeper.
When she finished eating that corpse… would it be my turn?
Damn it!
To end up as a monster’s meal, to be devoured alive and flayed alive!
What kind of a joke is this!
This bizarre scene of watching a ghoul eat a corpse continued for a while. She finally finished eating the corpse, not very cleanly.
There were some bits of flesh and scrap floating in the blood, and the long intestines and stomach were also submerged in it. But Kaoru Tsukiyose seemed to have lost interest in the remains. She stood up, moved away from the leftovers, and disdainfully spat a mouthful of bloody saliva into the pool of blood.
“Pfft! It was so disgusting… Hmph, as expected, those who get targeted are all rotten to the core.”
It was as if she was dissatisfied with this ‘midnight snack.’
Did she not eat the intestines and stomach because she thought they contained excrement and digestive matter, and were therefore too dirty?
But eating a person alive was already filthy in itself… I didn’t understand her criteria for cleanliness and filth…
Kaoru Tsukiyose shook her hands, trying to flick off the bloodstains, but couldn’t get rid of them all. She then walked to a vending machine, inserted coins, and bought two bottles of water. She unscrewed one and began washing her hands, mouth, and the ends of her hair.
Her movements were practiced and natural, like a construction worker cleaning his hands covered in cement after finishing work on a site.
Although it didn’t wash off completely, she managed to remove the bloodstains from her skin.
Then… she took off her raincoat!
Right there in front of me, she took off her large raincoat, stained with blood!
If she had just taken off her raincoat, I wouldn’t have been so surprised. What surprised me was… she wasn’t wearing anything underneath. She was completely naked!
Her breasts were slightly developed, not quite flat, and not average either, seeming somewhere in between, a small bust.
She had smooth, waist-long hair that even reached her backside, looking like it could be used as a scarf. Her figure was delicate like Xue’s, with a pair of large, round crimson eyes. Her face was sweet and cute, with distinctive little fangs that made her look a bit mischievous when she smiled…
No! Why was she naked!
“Heehee~ Are you peeking at me? How embarrassing~ I don’t have a tendência to expose myself, it’s just that blood would seep through the seams and stain my clothes even with the raincoat on, so I decided not to wear any clothes.”
Why was she explaining this to me…
“Ah, I forgot to take off my shoes too… Heave, ho~ These boots are too cumbersome, they’re really uncomfortable to wear.”
After taking off her rain boots, Kaoru Tsukiyose returned to an infant-like state, completely naked.
She walked towards me unhurriedly. Our gazes met in mid-air, and her red pupils emitted an even deeper crimson glow.
At that moment, I suddenly felt that the joint of my middle finger’s root could move! Having found this movable spot, a chilling sensation suddenly surged between my brows. Immediately, the force that restricted my movements vanishe d, and I regained my freedom!
I didn’t even think and turned to run!
Run!
Quickly escape from this man-eating monster!
Kaoru Tsukiyose’s surprised voice came from behind.
“Eh?! You actually broke free from my pupil technique… Wait! Don’t run! I still want to chat with you!”
Instantly, my running stopped!
But this time, it wasn’t because my body was stiff and immobile. It was because I was grabbed!
She had actually appeared behind me in an instant and hugged my waist!
“You! What do you want! Don’t eat me! I’m not tasty at all!”
I struggled with all my might but couldn’t break free from her arms. I didn’t know how such immense strength could come from her small body. It was like being gripped by giant pliers!
“… Pfft! Hahahaha~”
Suddenly, there was a burst of laughter.
Kaoru Tsukiyose laughed so hard that her slender body leaned against my back, her breasts trembling against my back.
What was so funny about this…
“Hahahaha~ Cough cough… Ugh, I didn’t expect anyone nowadays would say ‘I’m not tasty at all!’ That phrase is a ‘tear of the times’ in our ghoul circles, you know? You’re quite retro!”
She turned me around to face her and looked up at my face, speaking to me.
“Don’t worry, I won’t eat you. I’m a ‘ghoul,’ I only eat corpses, I don’t eat people~”
“… That’s not much of a guarantee, is it? You could easily turn me into a corpse right now…”
Are you playing with me?
For a monster like you, killing me would just be a matter of a flick of your finger?
“Oh my, you’re right. I could indeed turn you into a corpse right now… Hmm, are you inviting me to eat you? Is saying ‘I’m not tasty at all’ a way to hide the fact that you’re delicious?”
Kaoru Tsukiyose looked at me innocently, her big eyes blinking rapidly, waiting for my answer.
“No, no, no! I’m really not tasty! I absolutely don’t mean to invite you to eat me!”
“Heehee, you’re really interesting~ If it were someone else, they would have been scared silly or peed themselves by now. You’re the first person who can actually talk to me like this.”
After she said this, Kaoru Tsukiyose’s title suddenly turned green!
Did she become friendly?
What the heck is going on…
“…”
However, it seemed like I was safe for now, as long as her title hadn’t turned red yet.
Now… I’ll try to communicate.
She didn’t seem like an irrational, crazed monster. She was different from the zombies I had seen before; she was a monster that could communicate through language.
I took three deep breaths, steadied my heartbeat, and asked her.
“Are you… Kaoru Tsukiyose…?”
Kaoru Tsukiyose—the name was not unfamiliar.
She was also a member of our Second Year Class Two, often discussing food with Li Nai. She was the smallest of the Foodie Trio.
She always carried various candies and her mouth was constantly moving, either chewing gum, gummy bears, or lollipops.
That was all I knew. Although she had the title of [Ghoul], in my impression, Kaoru Tsukiyose was just a girl who loved sweets, a bit childish, but pretended to be an adult.
“Yes~ I am Kaoru Tsukiyose. I didn’t expect you to know me~ I know you too, Mr. Invisible~ Li Nai was talking about you today during the daytime.”
Hmm? Why would Li Nai be talking about me? Was there something noteworthy about me?
No, now is not the time to think about that. Put those things aside for now and deal with this ghoul first.
I had no idea how to deal with this overly familiar ghoul. After some thought, I asked a rather foolish question.
“Why… do you eat people?”
“Pfft… Hahahaha! You people are really interesting! Didn’t I say I’m a ghoul? Why would a ghoul need a reason to eat people!”
“But… eating corpses is just too…”
I didn’t know how to describe it. It just felt wrong, but I couldn’t pinpoint why.
“If you say that, aren’t you humans often eating corpses too? The corpses of cows, sheep, pigs, fish…”
“That’s different!”
“It’s the same, just a difference in perspective.”
A meaningful smile appeared on Kaoru Tsukiyose’s seemingly young face, the kind of expression that only those who had experienced much of life could wear.
“Because you’re human, you might feel it’s different. ‘Consuming’ one’s own kind is one of the three great taboos. Even we ghouls don’t eat our companions. But I’m not human~ so for me, ‘eating people’ isn’t a taboo.”
“…”
I couldn’t refute her. She never considered herself to be on the human side from the beginning, nor did she need to.
To her, humans were just another kind of food. She didn’t need to consider the feelings of ‘food.’
But… why…
Was it because she looked too similar to humans?
If she were an extremely ugly monster, I might not be so conflicted… But the reality was that a man-eating ghoul was a beautiful girl, and a very cute one at that…
“Pfft! That’s hilarious… What’s with that expression? Your eyebrows are all twisted. Is it necessary to be so conflicted about something like this? Anyway, all you have to do is pray you don’t get eaten, right?”
“That’s true…”
Indeed, I was in the hands of a genuine ghoul right now… I could barely save myself, so how could I have the energy to worry about other things?
But I couldn’t escape either… so I could only pray that she would let me go?
“Then, classmate Kaoru Tsukiyose, may I ask you to let me go?”
Upon hearing this, Kaoru Tsukiyose looked up at my face, revealed her fangs, put on a brilliant smile, and said in a cheerful tone.
“I~ Won’t~”
… Turns out, praying was useless!
