Tokyo Ghoul: Crown 3 (Patreon)

A fan-fiction in the Tokyo Ghoul universe which contains in parts the following kinks, fetishes and themes. (WG, XWG, Stuffing, Feeding, BBW, SSBBW, USSBBW, Immobility, Sex)

These themes are tried to be integrated into the story in a meaningful way and the general events tell a (hopefully) serious and plausible as well as canonical plot.

Chapter 3: Lessons

13 years earlier in Hamburg

Vincent Krüger skilfully dodged all the blows and strikes from the ghoul in front of him. When a particularly brutal swing from his opponent's arm, which he had covered with the armour of his kagune, flew towards him, the young ghoul used his own hunting organ to get to safety. Vincent rammed one of his two tentacles, which originated from his coccyx, into the concrete floor of the fighting arena and pushed off. This threw the young ghoul back and put a few metres of distance between himself and his opponent, while the blow intended for his head came to nothing. Vincent's powerful tentacles, covered with overlapping, round armour plates in a bronze hue, twitched around him and pointed the ends threateningly at the ghoul in front of him.

Sweat poured down Vincent's naked torso and his wiry muscles gleamed in the light of the underground arena's floodlights. He breathed heavily and wiped the blood flowing from his broken nose from his mouth with the back of his gloved hand. Vincent could already feel the injury healing, but he was annoyed that he had been hit directly in the face at all. Rivulets of blood mingled with the sweat from the various cuts that his opponent had also inflicted on him so far. He watched his opponent attentively as the fight sent adrenaline coursing through his body. He then let his kagune whip through the air once, severing the last armour plate from each tentacle. Like large saw blades, these fragments of hardened RC cells hurtled towards Vincent's opponent. A pulsating, blood-red shape shot out of the ghoul's back and positioned itself between the projectiles and its owner's body. Large, triangular plates of dark grey armour formed from the amorphous red mass in the blink of an eye. The very next moment, the two jagged discs smashed into the defence. Heated, splintered RC cells flew up like sparks on impact, but the pieces of Vincent's kagune were otherwise ineffective in the thick armour. His opponent moved aside the shield he had formed from the mass of his koukaku kagune and showed Vincent his whole body again.

This was not the first time Vincent had fought against this ghoul called Karl Straubinger, although he no longer attached much importance to the name he was given. Straubinger was a male man-eater who had been acquired by the Crown due to his extremely potent and active RC cell composition. Kammler had not said whether the ghoul had been offered anything in return for serving the organisation or whether it had been more of a kidnapping. Incidentally, Vincent hadn't cared at all. After Straubinger, along with various other candidates, had undergone several tests to determine his particularly good cell activity, he had been held in the facility on the grounds of the Prior Hotel, where Vincent had met him for the first time. Just as Kammler had told him, Karl Straubinger had been subjected to a lengthy procedure of physical and mental torture, combined with the implantation of mental commands by means of deep suggestion and hypnosis. Kammler's subordinates had proceeded on the basis of information that the Crown had been able to obtain from the CCG and the German Ghoul Research Society. A ghoul's psyche seemed to have an extremely large influence on the shape, composition and strength of the ghoul's cagunas and RC cell concentration. With the help of information previously gathered by human scientists, Kammler and his people had succeeded in more or less completely decoupling a ghoul from all aspects of its personality and all of its memories. All that remained was an incredibly strong and freely programmable organism. A robust and indestructible yet completely empty vessel that simply functioned according to a predetermined pattern. Straubinger was taught precisely these patterns using various sounds and melodies. With hypnosis and endless torture, these rhythms had been irretrievably burnt into the ghoul's mind and it was no longer even possible for him to resist them in any way, even if he had wanted to. Straubinger's body functioned completely automatically, according to the sounds he was made to hear. His mind was only needed in a rudimentary way to carry out more complex instructions if necessary, but first and foremost the tall ghoul was a mere biological weapon that no longer felt any pain and could not be dissuaded from its task by absolutely nothing.

There had been several test subjects like Straubinger whose potential had been maximised by "expanding" their psyche. Unfortunately, even though this procedure could actually have the desired effect on ghouls, every other participant in Tobias Kammler's small, private project had died in the course of the applications. Instead of a whole troop of will-less and pain-insensitive fighting machines with mutated kaguns, only Straubinger was left as a prototype.

After the director of the Prior Hotel, Vincent, had shown Straubinger in his cell for the first time, they had switched to regular tests of his fighting ability. So far, they had only used melodies that caused low activity in Straubinger's kagune. Vincent had been surprised to realise during the first practice fight that this had already created a very serious opponent. Taken by surprise by Straubinger's strength and reaction speed, the young ghoul had had to make a real effort to avoid being massacred. Kammler, on the other hand, had been delighted with the performance of his "secret weapon".

After the first fight, he had offered Vincent that his men could take turns practising with Straubinger, but the young ghoul had insisted on dealing alone with the fighter, who was soon dubbed "Panzer" by the staff. The reason for this was that Vincent had actually been dismayed at the extent of Straubinger's powers and how easily he had almost finished him off, even at what the young ghoul had been told was a low level of potential destructive power. It just didn't seem fair to Vincent that a shell as emotionless and dispassionate as Straubinger could manifest such strength without any effort. The young ghoul had realised that he absolutely had to become much stronger and was downright shocked by the fact of what immeasurably strong monsters there must be among the ghouls of this world. Straubinger had made it clear to him what feats Kagune were capable of. Vincent could not and did not want to imagine what kind of power the ghouls at the head of the crown, for example, must possess. These people were as far removed from him as ghouls were from ordinary people; they could crush him without even noticing. A most unsettling thought, especially since the young ghoul had never seen himself on the same level as these people but had always been very proud of his powers. Even if Vincent didn't have the advantage of particularly good genes or an exceptional nature of his RC cells, after the first fight against Straubinger he had decided to become stronger in the only way he knew that had got him anywhere in his life so far: iron will and perseverance. Since then, he has steeled his strength, reaction and regenerative ability several times a week in battles with the almost completely mindless destruction machine called Karl Straubinger.

The ghoul nicknamed Panzer wore his mutated kagune as armour over his upper body. Straubinger's head, shoulders, chest and entire left arm were covered in strong, triangular armour plates. As is usual with kakujas, a kind of mask had formed in front of his face, the slits of which glowed red. A tentacle protruded from the ghoul's right shoulder, widening at the end like a fan to form large, triangular armour plates. The two parts of Vincent's tails were still stuck in this shield.

The two opponents scrutinised each other in the otherwise completely empty arena. None of the boxes were occupied and all the spectator stands were deserted. The exercises with Straubinger were not intended for the general public of the ghoul society. Only Tobias Kammler was watching the two ghouls from one of the galleries, but Vincent had completely forgotten about him at the moment. His attention was focussed exclusively on his opponent, even more so than in his previous fights.

By letting one of his tails shoot towards Straubinger, the young ghoul resumed the fight. With a slight twist, the armoured man let the attack bounce off the shield of his koukaku kagune. But that was not enough. He grabbed it with both hands and tore at Vincent's tail.

"Shit!" roared the young ghoul as he was pulled off his feet and flew towards his enemy. Straubinger's physical strength was truly immense. While he was still sailing through the air, Vincent lashed out with his other tail. The other ghoul fended off this attack with his armoured left arm. Again, heated splinters from RC cells sprayed through the area. The young ghoul dodged the blow from Straubinger's right arm, pushed himself off his opponent's shoulder with one foot and catapulted himself over him with the help of the momentum he gained from Straubinger pulling on his tail. While the young ghoul sailed through the air in his opponent's equally armoured back, he let his two kaguns whip towards his opponent.

Even before the two flexible and fast but robust limbs made of RC cells reached their target, the shell of triangular armour plates protecting Straubinger's back, shoulders, neck and the back of his head began to move. It pulsed red as the mass of the kagune shifted and expanded. Arm-thick, tapering protrusions shot out of Straubinger's back as the armour strengthened and spread further across his body. The tentacle over his right shoulder wrapped itself around the ghoul's still free arm and the grey-red mass deformed into a tight-fitting suit of armour like the one on his left arm.

The several long spikes that shot out of Straubinger's back armour pierced the two tails with ease. The bronze plates, whose hardness Vincent had always prided himself on and which had earned him the nickname Phalanx, were instantly pierced. Large fragments of his kagune flew through the air, giving the impression of two hapless snakes impaled on a bed of nails.

Vincent skilfully landed back on his feet and instantly disintegrated his kagune. Cursing, he got to his feet again and whirled round to get another look at his opponent. He hadn't hesitated for a second. The armoured monster was already standing directly in front of the young ghoul, who could just see the last fragments of his kagune falling off the appendages on Straubinger's back and dissolving into a red haze to the left and right of the massive body. Then a fist from the armour crashed into his stomach.

The pain was considerable and a shock ran through the young ghoul's entire body. He clearly felt something snap in the centre of his body as he was thrown backwards. A human would probably not have survived this blow without receiving medical help immediately afterwards. Vincent hit his back hard on the concrete floor of the arena while the blow had already squeezed all the breath out of his lungs, this second impact prevented him from breathing in again. He could already taste new blood in his mouth, which was definitely coming from inside his body. With a somewhat awkward roll, Vincent tried to get further away from his opponent and then stand up again. Before he was properly on his feet again, he received another blow to the side of his head.

For a moment, everything around Vincent went black. He briefly thought that the arena was full of people booing him, even though he knew for a fact that nobody was there, but immediately afterwards the noise was replaced by a roaring in his head and a ringing in his ears. Darkness mingled with bright flashes that flashed before his eyes. His senses returned the moment Vincent felt himself hit the concrete floor and skid across it. Everything spun around him and he felt that something was wrong with his jaw. In addition, Vincent's skull rang like a giant bell that had been struck. Swaying and holding his broken and crooked jaw with one hand, the young ghoul got to his feet again. Like an imbecile's saliva, a thin stream of blood ran from the open corner of his mouth. His insides felt hot and seemed to be pulsating. Vincent's ghoul organism had its hands full patching up his organs and abdominal wall. This damage had only been caused by a single blow with his bare fist and Straubinger hadn't even needed all his strength.

With a jerk and a grunt that made the blood gush inside him, Vincent moved his dislocated lower jaw back into position with further cracking and crunching. This injury also began to heal immediately, but Vincent could already feel that his regeneration was slowing down. He had already lost a considerable amount of his RC cells due to injuries and the disintegration or splitting of his cage. But he wasn't finished yet, not by a long shot.

With a face full of rage, Vincent spat a considerable amount of blood onto the ground with a few teeth, while keeping his eyes on Straubinger in front of him. With a furious scream, the young ghoul clenched his fists and created two new tails from the cellular memory of his coccyx. These were longer, wider and denser than his last ones, as he concentrated all his remaining strength on them. The two limbs whipped wildly through the air, inflicting deep cuts on the ground with the razor-sharp edges of the round armour plates.

"Come on, you bloody bastard!" Vincent roared as he saw Straubinger begin to advance on him. Steam was now rising from the tortured and trained ghoul's armour and the air around him could be seen shimmering from the heat he was generating. The spikes on the man's broad back continued to grow in length and girth as his caguns slowly covered more and more of his body. Behind the slits of the dark grey armoured helmet, it glowed ever more intensely.

Vincent ran and bridged the short distance between himself and his opponent. He let his two tails whip towards Straubinger from left and right with all the force he could muster. More amorphous, writhing masses of pulsating red RC cells shot out of the monstrous ghoul's back. They formed two heavily armoured arms, each with a triangular shield with razor-sharp edges at the end. Straubinger used these two new limbs to fend off the attacks from both sides. With a shower of sparks, Vincent's tails crashed against the two shields, which were the size and volume of tractor tyres. Shocked, the young ghoul realised how puny the effect of this attack on Straubinger seemed to be.

Vincent stopped just outside his opponent's range and wanted to swing his tails back for another attack.

However, this did not even happen. The massive shields on Straubinger's additional limbs deformed at lightning speed and the RC cells reorganised themselves. Claw-like outgrowths gripped the young ghoul's tails and held them fast. Before Vincent could unravel his kagune, his opponent took a surprisingly quick step towards him. The monstrous colossus of a ghoul now loomed directly in front of him as he felt Straubinger's extra limbs effortlessly surpass the strength of his own tentacles, rendering them completely immobile.

Vincent had been injured many times in his life. Mostly in fights with ghouls but also occasionally in other ways, though his superior physiology to humans naturally made him quite impervious to most violence. However, the brutal kick he received from Straubinger at that moment, which broke all of the young ghoul's ribs and both collarbones, gave him a whole new understanding of what it meant to be injured. Vincent's still fixed kaguns were torn off directly at their cell storage by the force with which he was now hurled back. He almost felt as if the sole of Straubinger's boot was compressing his entire torso and his insides were being squeezed out of him like a tube of toothpaste. Rolling over several times and spraying blood in all directions, the young ghoul flew backwards. The torn tails dissolved into nothing more than red vapour.

Convulsively, Vincent tried to suck in air, which produced a sickening, high-pitched whistle and caused blood to gush from his mouth with every exhalation. His entire chest was one burning, shattered mass. His limbs no longer seemed to want to obey him properly and he only managed to roll onto his side with the greatest of effort. Blood ran in copious streams from his mouth and nose as the young ghoul stretched his neck to look over at his opponent. Vincent's eyes were blazing with hatred and his teeth were bared and grinding against each other in rage as blood continued to gush from between the gaps with each whistling breath. Straubinger walked slowly towards him as the mutated mass of his kagune encased him in thicker and thicker layers of armour. With all the willpower he was capable of, Vincent once again created a tail on his tailbone. Nothing was over as long as he was still breathing. Twitching and thin, the kagune formed slowly and Vincent knew that he was basically at the end of his tether. By now he had forgotten everyone around him. He was neither aware of the empty arena around him nor that this was actually just a training match. All Vincent was aware of was the steaming monster that was now striding towards him and against which he would fight to his last drop of blood.

Then Straubinger suddenly stumbled and fell to his knees, staggering. All his kaguns dissolved into a red haze and dispersed into the air around him. The huge mass that had covered the ghoul's upper body and arms melted away and slowly crumbled off him before dissolving. The enormous spikes on Straubinger's back shattered with a bright clang and landed on the hard concrete floor, as did the two additional armoured limbs that had sprouted from his shoulder blades. All that remained was a large and burly man in stained, worn clothing kneeling on the arena floor, his arms hanging limply and staring blankly at the ceiling of the glass dome above him. The headphones were now visible in the big ghoul's ears, connected by a cable to the smartphone in the hard case on his belt.

A timer of a few minutes was set before each fight, after which the melody that Straubinger had been listening to until then stopped, de facto paralysing him.

Groaning, Vincent lowered his head to the pleasantly cool concrete floor. All tension left his body and all will to fight was blown away. Of course he would have been prepared to continue fighting Straubinger even in his current condition, but he accepted this outcome of the confrontation. The young ghoul had fully realised that it was almost over for him, because nobody could have stopped the monstrous ghoul in case of doubt, at least nobody who was present at that moment.

Still breathing heavily, Vincent lay in a pool of blood and sweat and didn't think he could muster the strength to get his aching body to its feet at the moment. For the time being, he was quite happy to just lie here, bleeding and waiting for his ribs to grow back together again.

"What a spectacle, my boy," he heard an appreciative voice from a side of the arena that he couldn't see from his current angle. Vincent's sense of honour forced him to at least turn his head in that direction.

Tobias Kammler strode towards him, clapping his hands with a grin. He was followed by an employee called Philip, with whom Vincent had had dealings at one time or another since he had started working for the Crown. In fact, it had been Philip who had put his money on the young, wiry ghoul in the fight against Black Bird. But what really caught Vincent's attention was the person walking behind the two men, looking at him with a mixture of pride and compassion. His Laura, dressed in forbiddingly tight leggings and a black T-shirt that was far too tight and had become more of a belly top due to her weight. With every step, the swollen masses of Laura's hips swayed back and forth and her whole, fat body jiggled like jelly. Her bloated upper arms, heavy with fat, almost threatened to tear the sleeves of her top. Rings on her fingers and bracelets on her fat wrists shimmered in the spotlights of the arena, while chic sunglasses were hooked into the neckline of her shirt at the end of her enormous cleavage. Her heavy, flabby stomach swayed back and forth in front of her disproportionately massive thighs and was only partially held in check by the leggings. On Laura's feet were chic beige sandals through which you could see her incredibly cute, chubby toes and black painted nails.

At this breathtakingly beautiful sight, Vincent remembered that he and Laura had actually planned to take a walk through the hotel park today and then maybe go for a swim. Despite being ghoules and also members of a criminal and terrorist organisation by human standards, and considering the particularly valuable bloodline to which Laura belonged and which brought with it all kinds of advantages and disadvantages, the two young people were also one thing: a couple in love.

Their date in this form would probably fall through today. Vincent felt anger welling up inside him at his own selfish endeavours to compete with Straubinger. In his current state, it would probably be a quiet, sedentary day in the two ghouls' suite. However, the sight of his lover also revitalised Vincent's body and, groaning and spitting up more blood, the battered ghoul struggled to his feet. Slowly he felt the pain in his chest subside and breathing became easier again. Despite his exhaustion, Vincent's bones and organs were regenerating again.

A strong hand with two expensive rings was held out to him and he saw Kammler's polished low shoes in front of him. Vincent took another deep breath, at least as far as his damaged lungs would allow, and then took the hand offered to him. With a jerk, which his maltreated body didn't really like at all, the young ghoul was pulled to his feet. Vincent swayed for a moment, then his footing stabilised and he looked first at Laura, who gave him a warm smile, and then at Kammler, who grinned broadly.

"I thought I'd lost them for a moment, honestly," the older ghoul announced and patted Vincent appreciatively on the shoulder, which hurt, but he didn't let on.

"That's not a criticism of you, my boy," Kammler quickly added. "As always, they put on an impressive show. It's more my pride in our creation."

Kammler pointed with one hand to Straubinger, who was still kneeling impassively on the floor.

"It's really impressive what he's capable of. I hope we can train more of these 'monsters' in the future."

His gaze turned back to Vincent and he scrutinised the young ghoul's battered and bloodied body.

"But honestly, maybe they should take it a little easier. Nobody benefits from letting Straubinger kill them." Kammler looked from Vincent to Laura and back again, then blinked.

"Get some rest first. I need you fit and lively tonight. I have something to discuss with you. We'll put Straubinger back in his cell and sedate him. For now, you'll soon have more important tasks than fighting with that thing."

Vincent nodded and said with audible exhaustion: "Understood, Mr Kammler." As he did so, his gaze rested on Laura, who now stepped close to him. She took his gloved hands in her chubby fingers and looked up at him. Then Vincent's own fingers slid down her sides, over the countless overlapping rolls of fat and down to her enormously wide hips. He leant down to the ghoula and the pair kissed intimately. Most of Vincent's exhaustion and pain was blown away. With a mischievous smile, Kammler turned away and left the visually mismatched couple alone with their love.

"Phillip, be so good as to take Straubinger's headphones off. Then please escort him back to his cell. The usual procedure. Give him a ration to eat and then sedate him. I don't think we'll need him for the next three days."

"All right," said Phillip and immediately approached the ghoul staring apathetically at the glass ceiling in the centre of the arena.

Meanwhile, Laura and Vincent stood pressed close together and gazed into each other's eyes. Despite his harsh injuries, the ghoul felt a hard boner growing in his trousers as he felt his partner's soft, swelling breasts against his own chest. Underneath, Laura's incredibly sluggish belly nestled gently against the young man. He was fascinated by how this butter-soft mass of fat, divided into two juicy rolls, which sank so loosely in front of the ghoula's fatty pubic area when empty, was pumped up to many times its size when the hungry female stuffed herself full again. This thought helped Vincent to ignore his pain and he was already looking forward to enjoying another feast with Laura in her room if her date in the fresh air was cancelled.

"Careful, sweetie. You'll get your clothes all dirty with my blood," Vincent said quietly and laughed briefly when he noticed how his maltreated body, covered in the red liquid, soaked Laura's clothes.

"Oh, as if I cared," the ghoula dismissed with a laugh. Then she leant forward, her black and red eyes continuing to gaze lasciviously up at Vincent, and stuck out her tongue. She licked across the ghoul's strong chest with relish. Then she withdrew her tongue again and savoured the sweet aroma of the blood with her eyes closed. Grinning, she opened her eyes again. "You're fucking delicious, you know that? Just make sure I don't eat you," she warned her lover playfully. So that Kammler couldn't see it directly, she reached down with one of her chubby hands and ran it over the large bulge in Vincent's crotch.

"That would be a damn shame, though," the ghoula breathed to the young man and rubbed her fingers against the hard cock.

Lust, desire and love had blown all pain and worries out of Vincent's mind. Now he was only aware of Laura, his radiant treasure, whom he had just fought for in this arena and who had fallen in love with him as much as he had with her. One of his hands wrapped around the ghoula's expansive hips and rested on his partner's protruding bum. He felt the dimples of the beautiful cellulite and the soft, yielding fat as his fingers sank deep into the tender flab. It was unbelievable how fast Laura was getting fatter and fatter. By now she weighed 145kg and she seemed to be putting on weight faster and faster, which seemed completely normal for the females of the crown.

"Come on, let's go upstairs and clean you up my darling and then we'll relax," the Ghoula offered and the couple kissed deeply once more. Just as Vincent was about to agree and saw himself buried in Laura's fat on their large shared bed, a loud scream shattered the silence in the arena.

When Philip had approached Straubinger, who was kneeling motionless on the floor, the employee had taken another look at Vincent and Laura. Every time he saw the two of them together, he felt the sting of envy deep inside him. However, it was more about Vincent than Laura. Although he himself had always dreamed of one day being allowed to look after the young female and share in the true power of the crown, he was in no way a lover of the fat, bloated form of the Ghoula. Philip in no way envied the young ghoul for such close contact with the flabby Laura. What's more, he couldn't imagine how anyone could possibly fancy such incredibly obese, sluggish women. Of course, he would never have voiced these thoughts, especially as he was aware that the females of the crown did not even choose to let themselves go without restraint, but were forced to feed without end due to their genetic differences. But what Philip envied about the wounded ghoul, who now pressed himself tightly against the overflowing fat of the ghoula, which was oozing out at every nook and cranny, was Vincent's incredibly rapid rise in the structures of the crown and above all in the favour of Tobias Kammler.

Philip himself had spent years of humble service in which he had had to swallow and endure many things, while this punk from the Hamburg gutter had simply bypassed this entire process with a few fights. Now "the Phalanx", as his ridiculous nickname went, was the favourite of pretty much everyone in the Prior Hotel and this gnawed at Philip, who had worked his way up to his current position in Kammler's circle over a long period of time.

The ghoul looked grimly over at the disgustingly pining couple as he fiddled with the mobile phone with headphones attached to the paralysed and drooling Straubinger. He pressed the display without paying any real attention to it, but he had already switched off the sound on the headphones, so he wasn't worried that the trained ghoul might become aggressive again with some unintentional tune.

Philip was a ghoul without a family who came from a very similar background to Vincent. For a long time he had not lived among humans, but only in their shadows, adopting many surnames and identities. Unlike Vincent Krüger, for example, or other members of the crown, Philip had never been a great fighter. His kaguns were weak, underdeveloped and he had poor control over them compared to other ghouls. Philip had had to prove his worth to the Crown in a difficult and lengthy process. Brutal daredevils like Vincent naturally risked a lot but were also showered with privileges and rewards when they demonstrated their strength. Ghoule society was ruled by the law of the strongest. Accepting this, however, did not prevent Philip from envying Tobias Kammler's latest favourite for how quickly he had moved from the street to the top floor of the Prior Hotel.

Just like his boss and Laura Wagner, Philip had watched the fight between Vincent and Straubinger. What a simple and quick solution it would have been if this hot-headed snot had let himself be killed by the tank in a renewed fit of jealousy. To be honest, Philip had hoped that the young ghoul would overdo it and the will-less fighting machine would have crushed the head of that disgustingly fat female's stabber like an overripe fruit.

With his thoughts and eyes still on Vincent, who in his opinion did not deserve the life he was now leading, Philip wanted to take the mobile phone that was playing the songs for Straubinger. He pulled it too clumsily and one of the headphones got caught in the bald ghoul's ear. When Philip pulled, the aux plug tore out of the mobile phone and the cable dangled loosely from Straubinger's head. At the same moment, a soft but still clearly audible melody played softly from the smartphone. With his eyes wide open in shock, Philip stared at the mobile phone in his hand, unable to move a muscle in horror. Then Straubinger turned his head in his direction and the bald ghoul's eyes took on their characteristic black and red colour. Before Philip could do anything to silence the mobile phone, a flood of spikes and protrusions erupted from Straubinger's shoulder blade. The pulsating, huge mass of RC cells merged into a thick, armoured tentacle with a massive, triangular shield at the end. The armour swept the ghoul next to it aside like a rag doll. The scream of horror and panic, knowing what the man had just done, was immediately silenced as the hard armour crashed against his body, breaking several of his ribs. The mobile phone, from which the melody was still playing softly, sailed away in a high arc, but unfortunately did not break when it landed on the concrete floor. Rolling over, Philip hit the ground again several metres away and struggled to get back on his feet.

Laura and Vincent broke away from each other as if the other's lips had suddenly become electric and stared at the Straubinger, who was standing up. Kammler immediately stepped forward and stretched out a hand to get Laura to back off. The two ghouls now protectively flanked their precious female, who was standing slightly behind them.

Twitching wildly and pulsating, Straubinger's kagune wrapped itself around his left arm and completely enveloped it. Large, long spikes formed from the writhing and constantly changing mass of RC cells. At the same time, hot vapour began to rise from the large ghoul. As his kagune slowly spread across his head and torso to form a cakuja armour around the ghoul, Straubinger raised his left arm towards the trio in front of him.

"Fuck! He'll shoot!" roared Kammler. Straubinger was not an ukaku user and was unable to fire crystallised projectiles from his kagune. However, the ghoul's training had shown that he had the rare ability to compress the bonds of his RC cells to such an extent that they developed extreme heat. This heat even went so far that Straubinger could not only generate fire, but also cause the entire cells to explode. As a result, he eventually developed the ability to shoot off pieces of his hardened armour, using the detonation as a propellant charge. What's more, the large ghoul was able to detach projectiles that were themselves equipped with an explosive density of RC cells.

This was exactly what happened, and in an explosion that enveloped Straubinger's overgrown left arm, wrapped in ever-growing armour, he fired one of his spikes there. He had aimed exactly in the centre between Vincent and Kammler and thus directly at Laura. Both men reacted immediately and without hesitation.

A tentacle of RC cells shot out of Vincent's cell storage on his coccyx. The bond was tenuous and the tail weak and thin; the previous battle and his injuries had taken their toll on the young ghoul. But he was only concentrating on the end of his tail anyway, where a large, bronze shield had formed like the armour that usually defined his kagune. He brought this shield into position next to him, right in front of Laura. At the same moment and in the fraction of a second in which Straubinger's glowing, one metre long projectile crossed the distance to them, Kammler also reacted. A snow-white mass pulsating with lines of RC cells shot out of his shoulder blade and wrapped around his outstretched left arm. His kaguns formed a shapeless shield over his hand, which he positioned in front of Vincent's defences. Then the projectile hit him. Like a red-hot sword, the spike effortlessly pierced Kammler's koukaku kagune and the hand behind it and then Vincent's shield as well. Then the projectile detonated with a deafening bang and enveloped all three ghoules standing there in fire and smoke. Vincent felt his kagune being shredded and the pressure of the explosion squeezed all the air out of his lungs. He was thrown to the side and flew to the ground as heat and splinters swept over him. But his thoughts were only of Laura and despite his injuries and exhaustion, Vincent jumped to his feet almost instantly with a sound of agony. He stared into the cloud of dust and RC cells in front of him, which was now slowly disappearing. The first person he recognised opposite him was Kammler, who was blowing away the haze with his right arm. His suit was completely torn and burnt in places. Splinters had scratched his face while the skin had been torn off some parts of his body. Blackened and frayed shreds of skin hung everywhere from exposed muscle tissue. His left arm had been the worst hit, however. Below his elbow there were only a few shreds of skin and pieces of bone. Blood flowed profusely from the stump on the floor. However, the older ghoul didn't seem to be bothered by his injury at all. He looked around frantically as the cloud slowly dissipated.

"Laura!" shouted Vincent, staggering towards the spot where his lover had been before the explosion, and that was exactly where she still was. What both ghouls now saw was a kind of cocoon. Snow-white like Kammler's kagune, which was a trademark of the Emperor's bloodline, and streaked with streams of RC cells. Laura was a Rinkaku user and her tentacles had protected her. Seven in number, as far as Vincent could tell, had wrapped themselves around the ghoula, enveloping her protectively. Only on the front of this sphere were some of the tentacles slightly damaged. While Vincent's and Kammler's hunting organs had been completely shredded, Laura's kagune had only suffered minimal damage. The white, scale-like surface of the tentacles was only slightly torn in some places. Underneath, the blood-red flesh of dense and highly reactive RC cells pulsated. The holes were already beginning to close again, even as the smoke cleared completely.

When they heard a crash, Kammler and Vincent's heads turned in the same direction at the same time. As before, they saw how Straubinger sank limply to the ground and his caguns dissolved into nothing more than a red haze. A little further away, Philip was lying on the arena floor and he had also activated his kagune. It was a jagged, red and purple tentacle which the ghoul had stretched as far as it could. The appearance of the kagune reminded Vincent of twisted barbed wire. A kind of rudimentary blade had formed at the end of the tentacle made of hardened RC cells, with which Philip had hacked the smartphone lying a few metres away from him in two. Now Philip's kagune was disintegrating, as was Straubinger's. The ghoul rose to his feet, groaning with difficulty.

Vincent looked back at Laura's cocoon, while Kammler's eyes remained fixed on Philip, full of anger. The white tentacles, each of which was longer than Vincent's upper body and all of which seemed to be at least 7 to 8 metres long, now began to move. The cocoon they had formed around their owner slowly opened like a blossoming flower and a radiant Laura emerged from behind it, completely unharmed. Vincent immediately rushed towards her and embraced her. The large tentacles snaked around the couple.

"Don't worry, I'm fine. You'd better worry about yourself," Laura said with a worried smile. "You're damn tasty, but I think you've had enough bloodshed for today." Her gaze fell past Vincent to Kammler's arm stump and her expression froze.

"Are you all right, Uncle?" she asked anxiously, her tentacles moving restlessly around her.

The hotel manager waved his remaining hand away and said, his gaze fixed on the hesitantly limping Philip: "Irrelevant, Miss Wagner. The important thing is that nothing has happened to you."

"It..." Philip started to apologise but was immediately cut off by Kammler's raised index finger. Slowly and completely ignoring his injury, the older ghoul in the tattered suit walked towards his subordinate, who was staring convulsively at the concrete floor. Kammler stopped and looked at the quivering man in front of him for a moment, then turned round without a word and looked at Laura. "I hope you're hungry, my dear."

Laura bared her teeth with an animalistic grin and her eyes widened. "Always!"

Within a heartbeat, her tentacles chased towards the screaming, retreating Philip, who stumbled and fell to the ground. At the same time, Laura's tentacles lengthened and increased in circumference, which impressed Vincent enormously. These extremities now looked more like moving pipes than anything else. No comparison to any hunting organ he had ever seen on another ghoul.

Large gaping mouths with long tongues and coarse, rudimentary teeth formed at the ends of the tentacles. The maws shot wide open towards Philip. In the next moment, there was no sign of the screaming ghoul. In a grotesque bloodbath, Philip's body was completely shredded by the impact of the tentacles. Organs, pieces of bone and shreds of flesh flew around. The mouths of the kaguns immediately devoured everything they could get their hands on. They gleefully crushed the ghoul's bones and licked up its blood and innards from the ground. Two mouths fought over the man's head and the tentacle that could claim the morsel crushed Philip's skull between its jaws with a terrible noise and splattering contents.

All the mouths devoured what they could of the ghoul and sent the nutrients back to their owner's body. The ghouls absorbed some of the contents themselves and Vincent watched in fascination as what had once been the ghoul Philip, who had sat on him in the arena, was transported to Laura with pumping movements of the tentacles.

The ghoul held her fat belly with her eyes closed and apparently with great pleasure. Slowly her paunch began to bulge forward and become fuller as the flow of compressed ghoul cells was channelled into her digestive system. Her midriff swelled more and more as the top she was wearing slid higher and higher. Vincent knew ghouls whose hunting organs had developed in such a way that they could absorb food with them. However, it was the case with these people that their caguns immediately dissolved the human flesh or ghoul flesh completely and converted it into RC cells. With Laura, however, it worked a little differently because her kagune used her body's regular digestive system.

"Mmmh that's so good. A nice appetiser," the ghoula said, looking down at her belly, which continued to fill up under her massive, flabby udders. The fat on her belly was slowly stretched and expanded by the rising contents of her intestines, while an increasingly bulging ball slowly began to hang downwards. If she had been walking through the streets like this without her cagune, she could have been mistaken for someone heavily pregnant with triplets. Her tentacles continued to pump the liquefied Philip into her and her belly continued to swell out, while Laura's skin dutifully stretched with it. The young, fat ghoula's cunt shortened and slowly began to dissolve back into a red haze.

"I think I'll have to lie down soon," Laura said with a grin to Vincent, who was watching on completely enamoured. After all, he had never seen his lover eat with her kagune before. She pressed her hands on her ever-expanding belly, which now stood a good metre in front of her and the cow udder-like tits above it pressed to the sides. The black leggings had rolled down and the woman's huge, bulging belly grew down her fat thighs and towards her knees.

"I think you're going to have to help me walk a bit. I didn't think I'd eat anything down here," Laura giggled innocently, moaning and rubbing her swelling belly.

"I think I need a massage from you later, too."

Two days later at the Prior Hotel...

Tobias Kammler sat relaxed with his legs crossed in an armchair in one of the suites in his hotel. With his right hand, he held a glass of blood wine, the liquid of which he kept swirling back and forth, lost in thought. His left arm was tucked into the neckline of his expensive, tailor-made suit jacket to hide the unsightly and slowly healing stump of his hand. It had been two days since the unpleasant incident in the fighting arena beneath his establishment. The first outgrowths of a new hand were slowly forming on Kammler's arm, but the regeneration of severed, complex limbs including skin, muscles and bones took time, even with very strong ghouls. Healing wounds was often easy and only a matter of minutes or even seconds. Growing back a hand and half a forearm, however, was a completely different matter.

Kammler took a sip of his wine and savoured the aroma on his tongue, then glanced at his smartphone, which lay on the polished oak table in front of him. Kammler usually favoured one of his many expensive brand-name watches, but his left wrist was not available at the moment for the reasons mentioned above.

"Are you late already?" asked the man sitting at the table with Kammler. He was the hotel manager's brother-in-law, a ghoul called Marco Wagner, Laura's father and the husband of one of Kammler's sisters.

The temporarily one-handed ghoul looked to one side and scrutinised the other man. Unlike himself, Marco held a direct position within the Crown and, unlike Kammler with his Prior Hotel, was not merely a subordinate organisation. Accordingly, the ghoul wore one of the customised uniforms reminiscent of military clothing from the German imperial era. A trademark of the members of the Crown when they attended official events of the ghoul society. In addition, Marco Wagner was an unassuming middle-aged man who would never have been recognised for the strength and power he concentrated in his person.

"They still have six minutes," said Kammler, shrugging his shoulders. Behind the two ghouls, at the high windows through which the bright sunshine of this glorious summer's day flooded in, four masked bodyguards of the Crown had positioned themselves in similar uniforms. They hadn't brought out the biggest guns for the visit the two men were expecting, but it was intended to demonstrate a certain power of the Crown.

"After all, they want something from us. Then they should be on time, shouldn't they?"

Kammler grinned and put his glass down on the table.

"You know the traffic on the motorway, Marco."

The member of the Crown snorted contemptuously and crossed his arms in front of his chest.

"The traffic?! Of course! This scum should come crawling to us on their knees with the head of their family. They should turn up here the second we snap our fingers, nothing else."

Kammler chuckled and raised his remaining hand placatingly. "Take it easy. These are our ghoul brothers and sisters who have humbly asked us for help to defend themselves against increasing threats from humans. We should show understanding for their difficult situation."

Marco turned his head to his brother-in-law and looked at him disapprovingly. "They're not our brothers and sisters. They are food for our females and nothing more! They have evaded our influence for decades and enjoyed their so-called freedom and only now, when they sense danger and realise their own weakness, do they ask us for help."

"It's against the common enemy of all ghouls. It's not just the authorities from Germany and Europe, you know that as well as I do. Interpol has brought in the CCG from Japan and that's why the Emperor is also considering assistance from the Crown," Kammler replied much more calmly than his brother-in-law.

"We have no enemies," Marco stated firmly. "An enemy would imply that they could be dangerous to us, which is not the case. Humans can't attack us, not really. In its entirety, the Crown is untouchable to them, even to the CCG investigators."

Kammler nodded thoughtfully and then said with an inclination of his head, "That may be, but the von Rosewalds don't have our strength and resources. They are very vulnerable, but it is also in our interest to protect them. Of course, they are just food for us, but the farmer would also defend his cattle against a pack of wolves."

Marco shook his head and his expression made his fundamentally different opinion clear. "Nice analogy, but we're the wolves, in any scenario, and we hunt everything and everyone as we see fit! We don't make a deal with anyone, we rule or we eat."

The index finger of Kammler's remaining hand raised in warning. "Careful!" the ghoul admonished his brother-in-law. "The emperor's instructions are clear. He seems to be of the opinion that it would be worthwhile for the crown to enter into an alliance with the von Rosewalds and we will act in accordance with his wishes. If they agree to our demands, we have instructions to assure them of our help."

Marco snorted contemptuously again and shook his head. "What kind of times are these? Since when does the crown negotiate with such ghouls. They turned us down years ago, and now they're getting the receipt for it."

Kammler didn't like the ghoul's one-dimensional thinking. Of course, the crown was the unreservedly dominant force of the ghouls throughout Europe, but even it could learn and benefit from allies. Apart from that, new sources of food were always an advantage, because the demand never ebbed away.

"We don't negotiate with them," Kammler stated correctly and took another sip of his wine. This irrational dislike bothered Kammler, even if he didn't let it show. Marco was far too emotional about the matter. He considered the von Rosewalds to be ghouls beneath his station, which in some ways was entirely true, but he was getting upset with them as if they were problems with equals.

"We will present them with our demands and they will accept them," Kammler concluded, putting his glass down again.

"And if they don't accept them?"

The one-handed ghoul gave the uniformed man a mildly bored look. "Is this question really necessary. Then that is exactly what will eventually happen to all who exist outside the crown: They will decay and die. The CCG is apparently determined to put a damper on the organised ghoul structures in Europe. If the humans strike out and no agreement is reached with the von Rosewalds by then, they will perish." Kammler made a dismissive gesture with his hand. "We'll take care of what's left of them afterwards."

Marco then fell silent and looked grimly at the fine wooden table in front of him with his arms folded. Finally, he took a deep breath and pulled his uniform taut with a sigh. Then he turned his head towards his brother-in-law. Just as he was about to speak again, a Prior Hotel employee entered the suite and announced: "Your guest has just arrived, gentlemen."

Kammler rose from his seat and Marco did the same, the latter still wearing the aristocratic mask on his face. With his remaining hand, the hotel manager made an inviting gesture towards his employee. "Bring him in, please."

With a brief nod, the ghoul moved away again and closed the door of the room behind him.

"You're pretty punctual, aren't you? At least a little," Kammler remarked, pursing his lips. The two ghouls and their silent bodyguards behind them were now awaiting the envoy of the time-honoured German ghoul family von Rosewald. In this day and age, digital meetings or agreements via telecommunication would of course have been possible, but the crown liked to insist on personal contact, especially when someone approached the powerful organisation with a far-reaching request.

"Let's see what awaits us," Marco remarked from behind his mask.