Kanazuki Genshiro, the 38-year-old homeroom teacher for Class 3-B at Seihara High School, was facing a truly predicament.
It was the morning of the daily assembly, and he had just stepped into the classroom. He could feel the awkward atmosphere hanging over the entire room like a physical weight.
Normally, the students would have noticed their teacher entering and fallen silent, but they were so engrossed in their whispering that they hadn't even realized he was there.
The students in the back row had their eyes locked onto a single seat by the middle window on the right, unable to look away. Even the students in the front were stealing frequent glances at the same spot, as if they couldn't help themselves.
Genshiro followed their gazes to the student sitting by the window.
It was Takaki Koma, who had been absent for the past two days with a cold. Seeing him back in his seat, it seemed he had recovered.
Takaki Koma was a quiet student who had never caused any particular trouble during his school life.
He enjoyed novels and games, but never to the extent that he'd get caught doing so during class.
Because he was so unremarkable, that was essentially the extent of Genshiro's memory of him.
And on Takaki's desk... there was something drawing everyone's attention with overwhelming force.
"Da~ bu~"
It was a baby.
Not a novel, not a handheld game console, but a living, breathing baby.
The infant was wrapped in a white cloth that covered its entire body and head. While the right side of its face was hidden, the left side revealed a lovely pair of eyes and cheeks that looked softer and squishier than fresh rice cakes.
The baby seemed fascinated by the sight of Takaki flashily spinning a pen with one hand, reaching out with tiny fingers in an attempt to grab it.
Takaki, looking down at the baby with a warm smile, noticed Genshiro standing frozen at the entrance instead of entering the room and spoke up.
"Teacher? Aren't you going to start the assembly?"
"How the hell am I supposed to!!!!"
If there was some ultra-high-tech teacher out there who could calmly conduct a morning assembly in a situation like this, he should step forward right now.
***
Naturally, Takaki had no choice but to be called to the staff room for a one-on-one meeting.
"Whose baby is this?"
"A relative's baby, sir."
"Why on earth did you bring it to school?"
"Unavoidable circumstances arose, so they left her in my care."
"Do your parents know about this?"
"As you know, my father is so busy that I can barely get in touch with him once a month."
"Even so, bringing a baby to school is—"
"Are you telling me to leave this little one all alone in an empty house!?"
"N-no, that's not what I meant... but why am I the one being grilled here!!"
The meeting dragged on for over two hours.
To summarize the result: I won. It was incredibly fortunate that Mr. Kanazuki was the type of person who easily got swept up in the flow of an argument.
After much deliberation, I decided that bringing Eto to school with me was the best option. It was simply more reassuring that way.
I was slightly worried that my homeroom teacher might try to contact my father because of today's incident, but the actual likelihood of him reaching him was slim.
My mother passed away long ago, and my father is so preoccupied with 'certain circumstances' that even I can barely reach him once a month.
Anyway, after that long war of words, I returned to the classroom holding Eto.
Since I had been granted permission to bring her as long as she didn't disrupt the lessons, the only remaining hurdle was the flood of curiosity from my classmates.
"It's a girl! She's so cute~"
"Her name is Eto?"
"How old is she?"
"Ah, she looked at me!"
"Kyaaa~! I just want to bite her!"
It was particularly overwhelming that the girls—who normally didn't even acknowledge my existence—were now crowding around my desk.
Damn, maybe I should have gained some experience with the opposite sex while I had the chance.
"Uuun~..."
Eto seemed frightened by the sudden crowd; she clutched my collar tightly, her face looking as if she were about to cry.
Stop it. Get back. You're making the baby cry. Can't you all just suppress those maternal instincts for a second?
"Can I hold her just once?"
One of the girls reached out toward Eto.
Seeing the fingers stretching toward her, Eto momentarily forgot her fear of the crowd. Her eyes sparkled as she opened her mouth.
Wait. That's exactly the look she gets right before she bites my finger to suck my blood...
"DON'T TOUCH HERAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!"
CLANG! CLANG!
As I leaped onto my desk and wrapped my arms around Eto to shield her, time froze in the classroom.
Not only the girls, but even the students who hadn't cared before stared at me with their mouths agape, wondering what the hell had just happened.
Under the weight of all those piercing stares, my overheated brain cooled down instantly, and I became acutely aware of my actions.
Desperate to escape this mortifying situation, I blurted out a pathetic excuse, slung my bag over my shoulder, and bolted from the room.
"M-my baby seems to have had an accident! I'll be right back after I change her diaper!!"
My classmates watched with bewildered expressions as I sprinted toward the restroom.
***
After that incident—which served as the catalyst for defamatory rumors among the girls that I might be a pedophile—I headed up to the rooftop during lunch break.
I grumbled to Eto, recalling the moment a few hours ago when things had nearly gone south.
"Honestly. You can't just try to eat people out of nowhere. That was almost a disaster."
"Buu~"
"What do you mean, 'buu'? What are you, Majin Buu? Do people look like cookies to you?"
Sighing, I tilted the baby bottle to a comfortable angle. Inside was my own blood, which I had brought in a transfusion pack.
The bottle, which should have contained a pure white liquid that heals the soul, was instead sloshing with blood, looking like a prop from a horror movie.
The contrast between the eerie blood-filled bottle and Eto happily sucking it down was jarring.
"Mm, I'm starting to think I don't even care anymore. This is dangerous. I'm actually going to become a doting father."
"What are you becoming?"
"Hm? Ah."
WHOOSH!
The moment I recognized the figure who had just burst through the rooftop door, I instinctively hurled the bottle Eto was sucking on with all my might.
As the blood-filled bottle arced over the railing and vanished, Eto, shocked to have her delicious meal snatched away, began to wail.
"Waaaaaaaah~!"
"Ack! Sorry! I was just so startled I did it without thinking!"
Panicking, I tried to soothe Eto while hurriedly wiping the bloodstains from the corners of her mouth.
Meanwhile, the newcomer watched me struggle to calm the crying baby and spoke in a surprised voice.
"Whoa! So the rumor that you suddenly started coming to school with a baby was true."
"H-Hitokawa... was that you?"
The sturdy, handsome young man who had entered the rooftop was Hitokawa Tomoru.
Though we were in different classes, he was undoubtedly my closest friend in school.
"Where'd you get a baby? Don't tell me it's yours?"
"As if."
"True. Since that dance at the elementary school recital, you haven't even held a girl's hand, have you?"
"I'm going to hit you."
"Haha."
Exchanging mindless jokes, Hitokawa leaned back against the railing.
Eto had stopped crying by then.
However, perhaps because she had just been feeding, her [Kakugan] had manifested in her right eye.
It would be dangerous if Hitokawa saw this.
I naturally used the cloth to cover the right side of Eto's face and scrambled for a topic to distract him.
That's when I noticed that Hitokawa's hands were wrapped in even more bandages than before.
"Your hand... you've got more injuries."
"Hm? Oh, this? This is just part of the daily grind."
"Is that still your dream?"
"Yeah. I know it's a high bar. That's why I have to put in this much effort to make it happen."
"I see..."
I turned my head away to hide my darkening expression.
Hitokawa, with whom I had shared a tenacious bond since elementary school, was my best friend.
If possible, I didn't want to hide anything from him.
If I could, I wanted to tell him about the struggles I was facing and share the burden with him.
But I couldn't.
At least, not with him...
"Don't worry too much. Sure, being a Ghoul Investigator is dangerous work where you never know when you might die... but it's a noble profession, protecting family and friends while defeating Ghouls! I'll definitely become one."
Thinking that my hidden expression was out of concern for the dangerous path he was choosing, Hitokawa forced a bright smile.
And to him, I couldn't bring myself to say the truth.
That if you walk that path, you and I will inevitably end up as enemies.
Swallowing those words, I hugged Eto a little tighter, as if to protect her.
Hitokawa was only the beginning.
As long as I hold this child, I will likely lose more and more.
*This really is too hardcore a quest for me, Mister Kuzen...*
I complained to the absent Mister Kuzen as I gazed up at the sky.
In the distance, a single owl, completely out of place in the heart of the city, could be seen flapping its wings and soaring into the air.
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