Looking at the carnage surrounding me in disbelief, I felt a rage unlike anything I had ever felt taking me over.

  It felt like my blood was set on fire inside my veins. My vision flashed white for a moment and then zoomed in until all I could see was the arrogant creature in front of me that had dared to invade my home and take what was mine.

  Truth be told, despite the years we had spent together, I never thought of myself as being particularly close with any of the residents of Wakabe-en.

  I could not help but regret that fact now, as I looked at the ruins the ghoul in front of me had made of them.

  They are all dead. I will never see them again.

  I grew up feeling like there was a wall separating me from the people around me. A wall that I could not breach no matter how hard I tried. And how could I have? None of them really knew me. They did not know the real me.

  How could they have known that the cute and unruly little boy that had been a fixture in all of their lives for over a decade was really a reincarnator from another world?

  They would not have believed me even if I had felt inclined to tell them. Which I wasn't.

  The knowledge that I was deceiving the people around me, even unintentionally so, created a distance between us that I did not know how to bridge. Just like how my possessiveness had grown out of control since being reborn into this world, so had my disdain for those who employed deceit. To find myself doing that very thing the people close to….left me feeling uncomfortable whenever I looked at their adoring eyes.

  I wanted to avoid that feeling whenever I could and so, I avoided them as often as possible without coming across as dismissive.

  I thought that there would be more time.

  I thought that surely once I was more grown, they would begin to see me for the man I already felt like inside. Then that feeling would vanish, and we could finally converse on even footing.

  I already had it all mapped out. Once I made it big and fulfilled my great destiny, I would come back to this place and elevate the people I grew up with from their mundane lives into something extraordinary.

  I did not think that it would end like this.

  Despite all of my hang-ups, they were mine. The closest thing I had to a family in this world. I would never forgive anyone who dared take what was mine.

  I looked at the ghoul in front of me with murderous intent.

  I am going to kill him.

  "Oh…that’s a good look you have in your eyes there, boy. Very scary. Let's hope you manage to keep it up.“ He kicked at the limp upper torso in front of him with careless idleness.

  It was all that remained of one of my seniors in the orphanage. The body was so mangled, I did not recognize who he was in life.

  ?After all, these weakling humans did not make for a very exciting hunt. It would be a shame for the night to end on such a dull note. Don’t you agree?“ He took one last bite out of the limb he was holding in his hands and then addressed me again.

  ?I'm expecting a lot from you. So don't disappoint me, neh? I might get angry if you do.“

  At this point, my anger had grown well past anything that could reasonably be described as murderous.

  I was apocalyptic.

  My wrath was stoked into a burning volcano by the monster's patronizing words. So great was my rage that I felt something utterly unexpected happen.

  It was like my anger was made manifest as a physical force. The ghoul blinked in surprise as he felt the pressure that descended upon him, seeking to force him onto his knees.

  This had never happened before.

  The surprise at what I had done was enough to break through my anger and clear my head just long enough for me to regain control over my emotions and think clearly again.

  ?I see you have some bite. I knew nothing that smells this good could ever be just a simple human. What are you, boy? I don’t know what you just did, but it is not something a mere human could do.“ He considered me thoughtfully.

  ?You are obviously not a ghoul, but you also aren't one of those disgusting demons that crawled out of hell and insist on making a nuisance out of themselves wherever they go.“ He ended that last part with a quiet grumbling.

  Demons? What the hell is he talking about? There are no demons in the Tokyo Ghoul universe.

  I shook my head to rid myself of those useless thoughts. I could contemplate this later. For now, there was only one thing that mattered.

  I needed to kill the monster in front of me. That disgusting abomination who dared to take what was mine

  ?It does not matter what I am, Beast. You are a dead man walking. Take solace in the fact that your end will not be pretty.“ I snarled at him in a low tone.

  ?Oh my, such mighty words from such a small package. You are lucky it's not one of the more violent members of my people you have addressed with such a tone, boy. Were they in my place, such disrespect would have forced them to make you beg for death before delivering it to you. I, on the other hand, will simply discipline you.“ He chuckled to himself, like this entire situation was nothing but a joke to him.

  ?After all, that is no way to speak to your elders.“

  I was never a fighter in my previous life, and all of my fighting experience in this world came from beating up some delinquent teens on a semi-regular basis and shadow boxing alone in my room to burn off some excess energy.

  Sure, I knew how to throw a punch, but against what seemed to be an experienced ghoul… I was unsure of my chances in this fight.

  Without hesitating any longer, I went on the attack.

  I could not allow doubt to take root in my mind. So what if I had no real combat experience? So what if my chances were slim? There was only one way this could end.

  Me standing victorious and the ghoul dead at my feet. I would accept no world in which the outcome was anything else.

  I crouched down and exploded forward in a flurry of movement. The distance separating us vanished quickly as my fist slammed into his face.

  The arrogant ghoul didn’t even try to defend himself. He just watched on with mild amusement as I drew closer. He let the blow land. He did not think that I could hurt him.

  He was wrong.

  His head snapped violently to the side. The loud sound of bone creaking echoed across the room. Surprise flashed on his face as his body staggered back half a step. With a confused frown, he tried to speak.

  I did not let him.

  I drove my fists into his midsection. Seeing him take back another step, I repeated the strike another two times. Each impact thudding like a sledgehammer against meat and bone.

  The wooden floor groaned beneath our feet as I unloaded everything I had against him. Running out of breath, I jumped backward and locked my eyes upon him.

  Surely that was enough to, if not end the fight, at least stack the odds firmly in my favor.

  The ghoul straightened back up slowly. The bruise on his cheek was fading, skin knitting itself together in real time. He rolled his jaw once, testing it, and then smiled.

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  “You managed to hurt me, boy,” he drawled.

  His voice was calm as he talked unhurriedly. Like he did not just get punched with enough force to have turned any regular human into Swiss cheese.

  “Definitely not just a human then. No human could hope to make one such as I bleed without using those weapons. Still, if that is all you have…it is not enough. I am a ghoul. A superior being.“ His tone turned final. Arms spread out to his side like he was proclaiming some irrevocable truth.

  ?You cannot defeat me.”

  I met his gaze evenly and as I felt my very being rebel against his declaration. A fierce pride welled up inside me.

  Watch me.

  Contrary to my earlier hesitation, I was starting to grow excited now. The previous exchange, despite its briefness, had taught me that I could hurt him. And whatever I could hurt, I could kill. It was finally time to truly test the limits of this body.

  But first, I conceded , I need him out of this room.

  I refused to damage the corpses of my family littering the floor any more than they already were.

  I planted my foot and once again jumped towards him in one swift set of movements.

  Then I punched him through the back wall.

  Concrete exploded outward as his body rocketed into the second living room, leaving a jagged hole behind. Dust flooded into the air.

  I stepped through the wreckage after him. The earlier exchange was only just the beginning. The real fight would start now.

  The ghoul was on me the moment my feet touched the ground.

  A fist whistled past my head as I dodged, purely driven by instinct. I did not manage to get my guard up fast enough to block the following blow before it slammed into my ribs and sent me skidding to the side.

  He is strong.

  Another strike landed on my crossed arms as I managed to catch it this time, then another. He was as strong as I thought he would be. He was also fast.

  Faster than me.

  His movements were sharp and efficient. His attacks were all delivered with predatory grace that spoke of decades of experience. Experience I did not share. Not yet.

  I was driven back step by step, my heels scraping against the floor, until my back hit the wall on the left side of the room hard enough to dent it.

  I grit my teeth and countered with a wide right hook. He slipped it aside and clipped my jaw. Not a full hit, just a graze, but it was enough to snap my head sideways and remind me how close to death I really was.

  The next subjective minutes were chaos. The punches came too fast for me to block all of them. When I backed to the side, seeking to regain some space to get back the initiative, he followed me like a bloodthirsty hound on the prowl. It was almost too much.

  In that moment of uncertainty, right when I saw the ghoul beginning to grin with the surety of a predator that was playing with its prey, I felt something inside me snap into place.

  Between the exchanges of blows. Between the shockwaves rattling my bones. I felt it. Something long dormant inside me stretching itself awake.

  Slowly but surely, my movements started to gain a rhythmic quality. My breathing steadied and my body began to move almost by itself. My blood was singing in my veins.

  Holy shit. This is amazing.

  The sudden thrill shuddered through me. This is it. The feeling I had been longing for all my life. I felt alive like never before.

  This moment right here. This moment, where every second mattered and death was always just seconds away, held back by nothing but my own effort and will.

  This is what I was born for. I can feel it.

  Our punches collided midair. The impact boomed through the room. I still slid back, but less than the previous times. I adjusted and saw the ghoul's shoulder tense for a fraction of a second. His previous predatory grin fell into an expression of disbelief.

  He seemed to convince himself that it was luck and struck back, harder this time. But the flow of the fight had already shifted.

  I am reading him.

  He was still faster and stronger than me, but I was learning. I was adapting to his movements. My own technique was sharpening itself against his like a blade on a whetstone.

  His blows started glancing off my guard while mine landed more and more. Heavier and cleaner. I caught him once across the ribs. Then I hit him again in the chest when he flinched backwards.

  He grazed my cheek, drawing a thin line of blood, but I drove my elbow into his collarbone in return. I felt it crack beneath the impact.

  A hole opened in his guard, and I did not hesitate for even a second.

  He had made a mistake when he thought that he was the predator between us.

  My foot explodes forward.

  The kick landed square in his stomach. The shockwave rippled through the air as his body lifted off the ground and slammed into the far wall hard enough to leave a crater and topple the furniture in his path that our match hadn’t already destroyed. Concrete folded against his weight like wet clay.

  For just a heartbeat, everything was still.

  A short laugh escaped me. Half in disbelief and half in exhilaration. I knew that I was strong; I did not know that I could do this. I stared at my own foot and then at the damage I had caused with it.

  I did that.

  The ghoul pulled himself free from the wall with a heave of effort. I could literally see as his bones realigned and the torn flesh sealed shut over them. It looked disgusting, but at this point I had grown used to the spectacle.

  I wasn't worried.

  I made him bleed once. I would do it again. And again. I would do it for as long as it took for him to stay down.

  He straightened his shoulders and looked at me, not with patronizing amusement as he did before, but with raw, seething anger. His veneer of civility was torn away and I clearly saw the monster lurking beneath.

  “Enough of this,” he snarled. “I am he who stalks. I am the terror of Tokyo. There is nobody who can compare to me. Even the Binge Eater, even that one-eyed bitch, would tremble before my very name.”

  His eyes burned into mine.

  “I will not be humiliated by prey.”

  Flesh tore wetly from his back.

  His kagune erupted outward, a curved, muscular tail unfurling and whipping through the air before coiling around his right arm. It hardened, reshaping itself and the tip flattening into a cruel, bladed edge. It quickly began illuminating the dark room with its ominous crimson light.

  I exhaled slowly and settled into my now battle-tested stance.

  I almost forgot that ghouls have a phase two.

  Once the fighting continued, it felt like a repeat performance of the earlier exchange. I could barely keep up.

  The ghoul used his kagune like a living blade against my unarmed self. Dodging was all I could do as he made it carve through the air with lethal precision.

  Every strike was meant to dismember. To flay me open and make me pay for forcing him to go this far. Yet somehow, impossibly so, he did not manage to hit me even once as I weaved through his attacks.

  Just like I did before, I adapted. I did not know what changed inside me once I started moving according to these new instincts, but it looked like I was nowhere near having discovered everything they had to offer. If the ghoul wanted to get back the upper hand, a new weapon would not be enough.

  The chaos of battle and the accompanying noise dulled as I felt myself slip into a flow state unlike anything I had ever felt before. My feet moved on instinct alone, carrying me across the shattered room.

  The ghoul’s attacks grew sharper. Faster and more desperate. And yet, despite all his efforts, his Kagune missed me by ever-increasing margins with each failed strike.

  He isn’t even close anymore.

  A furious snarl ripped out from his throat.

  I began to laugh.

  I have figured him out. His timing. His reach. His tells. His whole battle style was laid out before me like a field ready for harvest. All I had to do now was take out the scythe.

  Despite all of his boasts, despite calling himself the terror of Tokyo, without his natural advantages, he was just…ordinary.

  I knew that I was an extremely prideful and sometimes vain person, but I was not arrogant. Despite all my talent, I know that one real fight did not make me into a master combatant. Which could only mean one thing for the man I was currently running circles around.

  He must be an amateur.

  He stumbled for just a moment. It was all that I needed.

  I decided to spend that moment having a little fun.

  I balled my fist and let out a boastful roar. I abandoned all proper form and threw the next punch like I was unleashing some ridiculous finishing move.

  Time seemed to freeze as my balled fist inched closer upward into his blood-smeared face. For the second time today, I felt something inside me break loose and answer the call I had unknowingly sent out.

  A green light erupted around my arm, and a crimson gauntlet manifested mid-swing, solidifying just before the impact.

  The punch landed like Thor beating his anvil.

  The ghoul was launched across the room with a force that dwarfed everything before it, his body disappearing into the far wall in an explosion of concrete and dust.

  I stared at my arm in astonishment.

  “What… the hell…?”

  And as if there weren’t already enough surprises for today, I felt one last piece break loose.

  Power flooded my veins. Violent and utterly intoxicating. A moment of painful pressure broke me from my jubilation.

  Then wings tore free from my back. Black, bat-like wings.

  I laughed. I could not help it. This was just unbelievable.

  “Holy shit,” I exclaimed. “I thought I knew what kind of world this was.”

  I looked at the gauntlet. At the wings.

  “This isn’t just Tokyo Ghoul.”

  My grin broadened.

  “I’m a fucking devil. This is DxD.”

  The ghoul, who watched me power up like a complete idiot, grit his previously cleanly torn-off jaw. His body had already finished regenerating.

  His eyes were wide and terrified.

  “What are you?” he stammered. “What is this? Those wings… I have never seen anything like them before. And that weapon! Only humans can wield those!”

  I did not dignify his rambling with an answer.

  “BOOST.”

  My power doubled instantly.

  I was on him before he could blink, slamming him into the floor. Despite my smaller frame, he was unable to move under the pressure I applied on his body.

  I am far beyond him now.

  I lowered my face to his, staring into his shaking eyes.

  “I told you,” I whispered quietly, “that I would kill you.“

  Scorching heat built at the back of my throat.

  “I also told you,” I continued, my voice lowering to a pitch that could almost be mistaken for tenderness, “that it wouldn’t be pretty.”

  I opened my mouth wide and followed the instincts that had not led me astray yet.

  Releasing my first Flame was an experience that could not be put into words.

  The ghoul's scream lasted less than a second. Flesh melted and bone blackened in an instant. His regeneration fought desperately, but it was a fight that it could never have won. I burned him faster than he could heal.

  When it ended, there was nothing left of his head and neck but ash.

  I stepped back, breathing hard, and ran a hand through my disheveled hair.

  The smell of blood was gone, overpowered by something smelling vaguely like roasted chicken.

  I wrinkled my nose.

  “Are my instincts seriously telling me to eat this ghoul? Why the hell does he smell this good?”

  I shook my head at that insane thought and looked down at the crimson gauntlet encasing my left arm.

  The jewel of the Boosted Gear shone innocently.

  “…Now what do I do with you?”