Chapter Text
Prologue
"Innocence"
Soft rain fluttered over the quiet street as clouds obscured the crescent moon, its luminescent rays dotting the pavement in an almost gracious disposition.
This would be an alluring sight if it weren't for the blood that intertwined with the glowing water; innocence and sin mixing together as opposites do.
Hasty footsteps invaded this intimacy, the ragged and desperate breaths searching for relief but to no avail. The silhouette, a young boy no older than twelve based on his frail demeanor, clung to his worn body almost possessively, as if to coax it to continue moving despite the obvious signs of relent and fatigue. He wouldn’t give up, though; this boy wouldn’t allow such a petty obstacle take down his morale.
Nor would he let his pursuer consume him whole for the sake of absorbing his kagune.
Of course, this child was a ghoul; a ghoul that mundane people would deem ferocious and inhuman, who live for nothing but to sink their canines into human flesh.
Humanity could have never been more wrong.
This wasn’t a sport; this was a flee for survival. It has always been a flee for survival, for that was how the ghoul society operated. Only the strongest survived to live in almost secluded peace, at least when CCG operatives – appropriately labeled “doves” by the victims – weren’t scouting the area through every nook and cranny.
It’s because of these “Doves” that he was in this situation; he could have been laughing and cheering with his fellow subhuman peers of the underground ghoul training institution of Kitagawa Daiichi. However, that was gone now, its bases dismantled to the core by the Doves themselves and, more malevolently, him.
The young boy grit his teeth to the point of cracking. His body burned not only with exhaustion, but indomitable humiliation and, the worst of all, actual and nearly tangible fear. He was downright afraid of the shadowy, russet-haired monster that was burned into his memory.
He’ll never forget the last words uttered from the Grand King’s mouth, each vowel slicking off his tongue as if it was snake venom.
‘Oh, Tobio-chan, such potential gone to waste.’
And that’s when Kageyama Tobio passes out in a puddle of his own blood, tears, and the almost comforting rain, undoubtedly the only thing he has left in this world of obsidian and pungent scarlet.