Before the steel frame incident in the 20th Ward, there were reports of Ghouls lurking among the masses in Tokyo, carefully stalking their prey. This novel covers the events that occurred before the opening act of Tokyo Ghoul—a time when Kaneki was still human, the Kirishimas still lived together, and Rize enjoyed her feasts.

Enjoy this excerpt from Tokyo Ghoul: Past!

# 0 0 1 DIFFERENT KIND

The road where I wished we’d always be together was the road where we parted ways.

The simple wish to live is a crime in this world.

We are overwhelmingly more powerful than humans, yet the only existence we’re allowed is one that must be hidden from their eyes.

We are Ghouls.

Each Ghoul experiences countless bitter interactions with people—some dramatic, some trifling—and Touka Kirishima was no exception.

When she was young, Touka’s family was betrayed by a human who had taken care of them, and the memory of being chased by an investigator from the Commission of Counter Ghoul, the agency that seeks to exterminate Ghouls, was still fresh in her mind. That is why she and her brother Ayato both lived with their backs turned to humanity.

“How stupid can these bastards be, fighting us when they’re so weak? Eh, sis?”

Dispassionately, Touka and Ayato looked down at the twitching body of a man on the pavement, splayed like a suicide who had jumped from the top floor of the building above.

“[Expletive] . . . [Expletive]. . . you little punks! I’m a Futamaru leader, meant to control this area! I . . . can’t get killed by some brats!”

Ayato raised an eyebrow at the man, who still had enough life in him to groan in anger.

“Cool it, Ayato,” Touka cautioned him. “He’ll die soon. All this action’s got me hungry. Let’s go eat.”

Touka started walking away. Ayato seemed unconvinced, but he followed after Touka in resignation.

But then the man mustered his last bit of strength to get up.

“This’ll . . .”

He released his Kagune again.

“You little brats! Ah!”

His thought seemed to be to get them while their backs were turned.

But at the same time the siblings’ Kagune emerged from their backs, Rc cells surging through them. They fixed their red eyes on the man.

“You moron.”

“At least die like a grown-up.”

Their Kagune punched through him and, with one last cry, his life was snuffed out.

The world of Ghouls is eat or be eaten. With strength on your side, there are very simple structures that allow you to live without being trampled on by others. It is a very different world from the one humans live in, with their boring, stifling rules.

But there are some downsides.

The color started to return to Touka’s bloodred eyes. She looked up at a nearby apartment building. Light was pouring out of the windows of one apartment, and she heard joyous laughter. All these people are nothing but Ghoul bait, and somehow they go on living with no sense of crisis. She felt disgust welling up in her at their lack of awareness, and a scene from long ago came to mind.

It was of the three of them—Touka, Ayato, and their father, Arata—around the time when they were living under the pretense of being humans. And within this memory was the same sense of peace as the happy family behind those brightly lit windows . . .

But Touka shook her head, flinging those memories far away. Ghouls and humans are not the same. There’s no overlap, she told herself, and turned away from the light.