I woke up in the morning and made myself some simple toast. Checking my phone, I saw a text from Hitokawa saying he’d done well on the exam and had happily accepted the rice cakes.
Eto was still asleep, but she’d definitely be hungry when she woke up, so I decided to draw some fresh blood.
Lately, I’d been drawing too much, and I was starting to feel anemic. I really should buy some meat, but I’m so broke... *Sigh*.
I stuck the needle into my arm—something I could practically do with my eyes closed by now—and idly chewed on my toast while the blood collected in the bag.
Still half-asleep and staring blankly around the room, my gaze suddenly stopped on the diaper box.
“Ah, we’re out of diapers.”
For the first time since I stopped going to school, I decided to take Eto out with me.
I fastened the baby carrier, holding Eto securely against my chest, and put on sunglasses to hide my [Kakugan].
When I opened the front door, a gloomy sky that looked ready to pour at any moment greeted us.
“Is it going to rain?”
“Boo!”
Just in case, I grabbed an umbrella and left my villa.
The weather was dreary and the humidity was high, but the breeze was cool enough to feel pleasant.
As I whistled a tune, I noticed Eto moving her head left and right in time with the sound, and a small laugh slipped out of me.
After about fifteen minutes of walking, I visited the supermarket where I’d become quite familiar with the woman at the register. Since it was early, the store was quiet and sparsely populated.
As I passed the food section, I remembered my recent bouts of anemia.
No matter how broke I was, if I keeled over, everything would go to hell. I had to accept that, occasionally, I needed to spend the money and buy some meat.
After asking the clerk for a chunk of meat—the kind that was still dripping blood—I felt like collapsing for a moment, seeing how much lighter my wallet had become.
With diapers in one hand and a plastic bag of meat in the other, I headed home.
I took out my key, inserted it into the lock, and turned it.
*Click.*
I froze.
Seeing the key turn all the way without any resistance, I went rigid.
The door... wasn't locked.
Did I forget to lock it when I left? No way. I definitely checked the lock before I stepped out.
Then someone had unlocked it? The landlord? A thief?
I almost wished it were them.
Because the worst possible scenario had just flashed through my mind.
I always hid a spare key in case I ever lost mine. It was tucked away on top of the electrical box near the house.
It was higher than head level, so anyone passing through the hallway would never notice it. But when I reached up, there was no metallic touch.
There was no doubt. Someone had used that key to open the door.
The way I hid my keys was a habit I'd carried over from the house I lived in previously.
And the only people who knew that habit were the people who had lived there.
Me, my mother, and my father.
Now that my mother was gone, the only person left who knew...
“...Father.”
When I opened the door and saw my father inside, I suppressed my panic and spoke.
I was screwed. I’d prepared for this after his last surprise visit, but those plans only worked if I was actually home.
He had arrived while I was out. Which meant he’d seen every single baby supply I hadn’t managed to hide.
Sitting cross-legged in the middle of the floor, my father turned his head toward me.
“Come in.”
The air felt so heavy I thought I might be crushed by it.
It had been twenty minutes since I entered the room and sat across from my father. In all that time, not a single word had passed between us. If silence could wither a person to death, this was surely how it would happen.
The only sounds filling the space were the raindrops striking the window, the meaningless ticking of the clock, and...
“Uu~?”
The sound of Eto patting my father’s knee as if she’d found a fascinating new toy.
*Stop that, Eto. My heart is already trembling; it's about to go into full convulsions. Besides, you're playing with your natural enemy!*
Since the baby supplies had already been discovered, I knew that trying to lie my way out of this would only make things worse. I had decided to be honest and show Eto openly, but now I was starting to wonder if that had been a mistake.
While I was frantically racking my brain for a way to explain Eto, my father finally opened his mouth.
“...I’m sorry.”
“...Huh?”
*Wait, what did I just hear?*
This was the part where I should be prostrating myself and begging for mercy, yet I was hearing my father apologize?
Whether he realized his son was in a state of total panic or not, my father continued in a heavy voice.
“No matter how much I neglected you, I never imagined you’d end up having a baby and raising her all alone... This is all my fault. It is a parent's duty to guide a wandering child back to the right path. My failure to be by your side is a grave mistake.”
Uhh... If I follow the logic of what he just said...
*He thinks Eto is my child!?*
It was shocking, but in hindsight, the misunderstanding was natural. He would never have guessed I was simply raising the daughter of some acquaintance.
Regardless, this was a favorable turn of events.
The absolute worst-case scenario would be Eto’s identity as a Ghoul being exposed. I didn't even want to imagine the aftermath of that.
Compared to that, inventing a nonexistent fling and pretending to be a teen father was a far better alternative.
*I have to ride this wave!*
“C-cough! I’m sorry too. I... I couldn't be honest with you, Father...”
“It’s all right. But where is the mother?”
“Um... she died—no, I mean, she left!”
“She left? Leaving you and the baby behind?”
“Yeah. She went somewhere very far away, so I had no choice but to raise her myself.”
“You must have suffered greatly.”
My father stroked Eto’s head as she hovered around his knees. Eto didn’t seem to mind his rough, calloused hand and leaned into the touch.
My father seemed to find her adorable, as a faint smile touched his lips.
To any outsider, it would have looked like a peaceful scene between a grandfather and grandchild. But for someone who knew that one was a Ghoul Investigator and the other was a Ghoul, it was nerve-racking beyond belief.
My father gazed at Eto for a moment, then looked at me with a resolved expression.
“You don’t need to struggle anymore. I will raise this child.”
“ABSOLUTELY NOTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
I screamed reflexively. My father raising a Ghoul? That was like heating a nuclear bomb in a frying pan!
However, seeing my startled father and Eto beginning to cry, I immediately regretted my explosive reaction.
“Why are you reacting this way, Koma?”
Suspicion clouded my father’s face. *No! If I don't explain this properly right now, he'll realize something is wrong!*
While I picked up Eto to soothe her, I spoke to my father.
I didn't have the luxury of weighing whether my words were the "correct" answer, but I had no choice but to leave it to fate and just dive in.
“Of course it’s hard! I know people will judge me! But Eto is my child! I don't care if I'm insulted or if I'm drowning in poverty! I don't care if I have to wake up in the middle of the night to soothe her, change her diapers every few hours, and struggle to feed her! There were so many times I wanted to give up because it was too much! But still, right now, I am Eto’s father! I may be a pathetic man who can't even take responsibility for his own life, but I have a father's sense of responsibility!! So I can't give her to you!! I'm the one who will raise Eto!!”
*Huff... huff...*
I had just blurted out whatever came to mind, but now that I'd finished, it actually sounded surprisingly plausible.
It seemed to work on my father as well; he pondered for a moment and then nodded in acceptance.
“...If that is how you feel, then I cannot argue. Very well. You shall raise her.”
*Yes! It worked!* Turning my head away so my father couldn't see, I clenched my fist with a triumphant smile.
At the very least, it was a relief that my father wouldn't interfere with Eto's upbringing.
Now I could raise her with a bit more peace of mind...
*Drip...*
“Huh?”
A strange sensation touched the tip of my nose.
By the time I noticed it, it was already too late.
When did this start? Was it the accumulated fatigue from caring for Eto? Or had I gotten too worked up during my speech?
Of all the times to have a nosebleed... and I was already worried about my low blood count.
“Koma, your nose is...”
My father, who had started to stand up upon seeing the blood, stopped mid-motion.
*Misfortune always arrives suddenly.*
That line suddenly came to mind. It was one of my favorite quotes from a novel I enjoyed.
The misfortune that had befallen me wasn't my father's sudden visit.
Just as I had finally relaxed after surviving what I thought was the disaster, the real misfortune struck me like a blow to the back of the head.
“........................Koma, put ‘that’ down. Right now.”
My father’s voice was quiet, but it carried a suppressed intensity that sounded as cold as a stranger's.
In one hand, he was gripping his steel briefcase so hard it looked like it might crush. His half-risen posture no longer looked like a man interrupted while standing; it looked like a predator poised to lunge at its prey.
My father’s gaze wasn't on me.
That gaze, sharper than any blade, was carving through not me, but Eto in my arms.
Eto, who had happily lapped up the blood dripping from my nose, thinking it was her usual meal...
Eto, with the unmistakable proof of a Ghoul—the [Kakugan]—manifested in her right eye.
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