Ghoul investigator

Employed by the Commission of Counter Ghoul, a ghoul investigator is a specialist charged with hunting down the ghouls that endanger the people of Japan. Most are posted to the CCG Main Office in the 1st ward, though many receive authority to work cases across Tokyo's other wards. Their duties cover investigation, subjugation, and elimination: they comb crime scenes for a culprit's traces, drag hidden identities into the open, and then neutralize the target. Among ghouls, these agents are known by the nickname Doves.

Because a human body cannot match a ghoul in raw strength or stamina, investigators lean on purpose-built weaponry. They alone are cleared to carry quinques, arms forged from a ghoul's kakuhou and the most effective tools against their quarry, and they sometimes supplement these with firearms loaded with Q bullets. Out in the field they behave much like conventional detectives, gathering everything from footprints and clothing fibers to body fluids, hair, and kagune residue, then filing each target under a number or alias inside a numbered case record that logs the ghoul's habits, hunting grounds, and suspected relatives.

How a case is staffed depends on the danger involved: weaker targets may go to a partnership or a lower-ranked squad, while the most lethal ghouls are reserved for skilled senior agents. After surveillance confirms a suspect truly is a ghoul, the target is graded under the rating system and either killed on the spot or captured and sent to a detention center such as Corniculum or Cochlea. When investigators want a new quinque, they stall in combat until the ghoul reveals its kagune, exposing its Rc type. For large operations, the Chairman names a commander who appoints squad leaders, and every agent works in concert under that command until the mission ends.

The usual route into the job runs through the CCG's Ghoul Investigator Training Academy, whose graduates enter service at Rank 2. On rare occasions the Chairman, Tsuneyoshi Washuu, admits someone who never attended, and those recruits begin at Rank 3; documented examples include Kishou Arima, remembered as the undefeated investigator, along with Juuzou Suzuya, Haise Sasaki, Tooru Mutsuki, Saiko Yonebayashi, Ginshi Shirazu, and Touma Higemaru. The ranks split into two tiers. Senior grades climb from First Class up through Associate Special Class to Special Class, the rare pinnacle reserved for the strongest agents who direct operations and oversee wards. Junior grades run from Rank 3 through Rank 2 up to Rank 1, the last being the height of a still-developing career, and inside a squad the highest-ranked agent takes the lead while the second-highest serves as vice leader.