High School Girl

"Hey, hey, we're all colleagues here—let's get along. Shishou, you can't greet a coworker like that."

Shinohara Yukinori stepped between them and started drilling basic common sense into Suzuya Juuzou.

Su Xiao wasn't about to lose his temper over someone who lacked even basic common sense.

Still, if the chance ever came, he'd make sure to teach that brat a lesson.

"Oh~, is that so? Sorry~."

Suzuya Juuzou laughed and actually apologized to Su Xiao with sincerity—such a contradictory personality.

"Mr. Shinohara, is the test over?"

Shinohara Yukinori flexed his still-numb arms and nodded.

"It's over. You're now officially a Ghoul Investigator with the CCG."

Shinohara Yukinori's expression turned serious.

"Becoming a Ghoul Investigator comes with responsibility. Protecting ordinary people and driving out those man-eating ghouls is our primary duty. We may face sacrifices for it, but we won't hesitate..."

The impassioned speech began. Su Xiao found it boring but didn't show any impatience.

"That's the gist. If you're mentally prepared, you can start carrying out missions now. However, a Third-Class Investigator can't operate alone—you'll need to be under the protection of a Senior Investigator..."

Su Xiao gave a light cough.

"Mr. Shinohara, who do you think could protect me?"

Shinohara Yukinori let out a wry laugh and shook his head.

"Well~, rules are rules."

"I can handle it alone. It's just about driving out ghouls. As long as the goal is achieved, the process doesn't matter."

After hesitating for a long while, Shinohara Yukinori nodded. Su Xiao really didn't need a Senior Investigator's protection—if anything, Su Xiao would be the one protecting the Senior Investigator.

"In that case, I'll give you a lead on a ghoul right now."

Shinohara Yukinori walked to his desk and handed Su Xiao a file.

Su Xiao skimmed the contents. It was a mess—strange noises from the sewers, missing female students, things like that.

"This is our daily work. Ghouls are incredibly cunning, especially in Ward 14—a zone that's neither stable nor chaotic."

Driving out ghouls wasn't simple.

Most ghouls in Ward 14 hid among ordinary people. They only revealed themselves when hunting, staying concealed the rest of the time.

Ghouls only needed to feed once or twice a month to sustain themselves. To drive them out, the first step was finding them.

For Su Xiao, the hardest part of driving out ghouls was the search. Once found, things became straightforward.

"The materials you have now should all trace back to one ghoul. Find him, drive him out."

Shinohara Yukinori's expression was solemn, a glint of killing intent flashing in his eyes.

"No problem."

Su Xiao turned to leave the office. Time was plentiful, but there was no point wasting it.

"Byakuya, remember to get your tools from the Logistics Department. Those tools are very useful."

Su Xiao paused mid-step, nodded, and left.

"Another cold colleague. Sigh, what a headache."

Shinohara Yukinori sat behind his desk, lightly pressing his temple. When he looked up and saw Suzuya Juuzou grinning foolishly, his headache only got worse.

Su Xiao first went to the Logistics Department. After showing his credentials, he collected a variety of tools.

An hour later, Su Xiao arrived alone at a park and crouched on a bench by the roadside.

The park was shaded by trees, leaves rustling in the breeze. The midday sun scorched the earth, and summer cicadas shrieked from the tree trunks.

Because of the heat, there were few people in the park. Luckily, Su Xiao sat in the shade, where it was relatively cool.

The intel Shinohara Yukinori had given wasn't detailed, but it provided a general target: over a dozen disappearances in the past six months, all occurring in this park.

The CCG had a clear division of labor. Ordinary investigators handled clue-finding—their combat strength was weak.

When clues became clearer and a ghoul encounter was likely, Senior Investigators would lead their subordinates to investigate in person, avoiding unnecessary casualties among ordinary investigators.

Even so, five ordinary investigators had already vanished in this park.

Earlier, Shinohara Yukinori had been about to head out to patrol this very park.

Su Xiao kept an eye on passersby, but after a long while, he found nothing. He wasn't in a hurry, though.

According to Shinohara Yukinori's intel, no disappearances had occurred in this park for two weeks.

That ghoul would show up soon—this park was its hunting ground.

Ghouls behaved somewhat like wild animals, marking territory (hunting grounds). Two ghouls might even fight over territory.

Within three days, this ghoul would appear. And it was likely no low-level weakling—definitely not below A-rank.

Most ghouls died because they couldn't control their appetite and were eventually discovered by investigators.

Success and patience are inseparable. Su Xiao sat on a park bench, silently waiting.

Time slipped by in an instant, reaching just past three in the afternoon.

A soothing melody drifted from a distance.

"A school?"

Su Xiao gazed at a building in the distance. Half an hour later, the park's foot traffic gradually increased—mostly high school students just out of class.

Most ghouls hunted at night, so Su Xiao planned to spend the night here.

"Big brother, why are you sitting here all alone? Must be lonely."

A female high school student in a uniform sat down beside Su Xiao. She wore a light top and a black skirt.

Su Xiao narrowed his eyes.

"..."

Silence.

"Tch~, what a boring guy."

Realizing Su Xiao wasn't responding, the girl got up and walked away.

Night fell, and the park's streetlights flickered on.

Su Xiao had been lying in wait all afternoon and was inevitably feeling hungry. Just as he was about to get up and grab dinner, he suddenly heard a short, sharp scream.

The scream was very brief—just a moment—but his keen senses caught it.

Su Xiao immediately stood and hurried toward the source of the sound. It came from a corner of the park, not far from him.

When he reached the spot, Su Xiao scanned his surroundings but found nothing. There wasn't even a shadow of a person, let alone anyone around.

He couldn't have misheard that scream, so something must have happened here.

After a careful search, Su Xiao spotted a few drops of blood and half a broken fingernail at the edge of a flower bed.

He touched the blood with his finger. It had gone cold but hadn't clotted yet, meaning it was fresh.

"Crunch, crunch~."

The sound of tearing flesh came from the woods not far away. Su Xiao quietly slipped into the forest, and a brutal scene met his eyes.

An unrecognizable victim lay face down on the ground, with a ghoul gnawing on top of them.

Finding a ghoul should have been good news, but Su Xiao frowned.

The ghoul before him wasn't strong—probably only B-rank—and its crude hunting method made it unlikely to evade an ordinary investigator's notice.

From the way this ghoul was wolfing down its meal, Su Xiao guessed the gist of things.

This probably wasn't the ghoul's usual hunting ground, but it was too hungry to do anything but take the risk.

"Stray dog, who allowed you to hunt in my territory? Looking to die?"

A crisp female voice rang out from the woods. At the same time, a thin Kagune lashed toward the feeding ghoul.

"Thud."

The head flew off. Before the feeding ghoul could even speak, it was decapitated, its face frozen in terror.

The owner of the Kagune stepped out from between the trees. When Su Xiao saw their appearance, he was somewhat surprised—it was the female high school student from earlier that day.

She was a ghoul.

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"Jiao" isn't a typo—it's just that the character couldn't be typed out.