Chapter 26 - 17
Ryoma Kanzaki let out a slow breath, rubbing his earlobe with a napkin to wipe away the lingering sensation of Rize Kamishiro's bite.
"As I said earlier, just two weeks," he repeated firmly. "Not a single human. If you break the deal, everything's off."
Rize pouted slightly, but her amused smirk never faded.
"You're really strict, you know that?" she sighed.
But deep down, she understood why he was so adamant.
Unlike most ghouls, she didn't need to hunt so frequently to survive—she just enjoyed it.
In Ward 20, under the guidance of Yoshimura, the ghouls of Anteiku lived differently. They sustained themselves using the bodies of the dead—suicides, accident victims, the ones nobody would come looking for.
Japan, after all, had one of the highest suicide rates in the world.
Many chose isolated places to end their lives, not wanting to trouble anyone. Their bodies often went undiscovered for days, even weeks.
The ghouls of Ward 20 quietly collected these bodies, storing them for survival. It was how they avoided CCG's scrutiny, how they maintained the illusion of peace.
But Rize?