Shinaoto Minami.
She was peering curiously at the staircase leading to the second floor.
At first, it had been Takaki Koma—the man she’d become drinking buddies with yesterday.
While they were talking about how he couldn’t remember anything from last night, he had suddenly gone pale and bolted up the stairs.
Then Eto, Koma’s daughter—she looked so young, it was impressive that she was already someone's daughter!—seemed to realize something, turned deathly pale, and ran after him.
In the end, Minami was left behind alone, completely shut out and none the wiser.
What was going on?
When they’d talked about last night, both of them had been calm.
Even after mentioning they’d been attacked by a Ghoul, they’d remained composed. It was as if being attacked by a Ghoul was already old news to them.
Was there something even more chilling than almost dying at a Ghoul’s hands?
That curiosity led Minami toward the stairs where the two had disappeared.
She took a step as if to sneak up, but Eto returned sooner than expected and blocked her path.
With her head bowed low, the girl radiated an atmosphere that was impossible to describe in words.
Minami tilted her head and asked Eto, who was descending the stairs, “What’s wrong?”
“...It’s a family matter. Please don’t interfere.”
Eto’s voice was drained of energy, yet edged with an invisible sharpness.
It was like watching a small animal bristle, sensing a threat to its survival.
And Minami, smiling like a mischievous cat enjoying the reaction of a tiny creature, followed Eto into the living room.
“So something is going on after all~?”
“I said it’s a family matter. And aren’t you going home?”
“I’m just so curious about what happened. Can’t you tell me just a little?”
At that, Eto seemed to reach her limit and shot Minami a glare like a spark of electricity.
Minami flinched a little at that gaze—something fundamentally different from what one would expect from a child—then raised both hands in surrender.
“Okay, okay~. Looks like you don’t want me here, so I’ll head out~. I should get to work soon anyway.”
At the mention of work, Minami let out a gloomy sigh—the very picture of a modern office worker—and gathered her things.
Then, just before leaving the entryway, she looked back at Eto and smiled faintly.
“But still, try to understand me~. I can’t help being curious~.”
Just before closing the front door, Minami poked out one side of her face like a child playing a prank.
In an instant, her eyes changed, as if they belonged to someone else entirely.
“Right now, your face... looks as serious as someone about to commit murder, you know?”
“...!!”
“Heh-heh-heh♪”
Like a witch enjoying the plight of a fairy-tale protagonist, Minami vanished, leaving behind only a cryptic laugh.
The front door closed with a quiet thud.
In the oppressive silence that settled over the room, Eto touched her own face.
Was that just Minami teasing her?
Or...
“...You expect me to believe that?”
“It’s all true.”
“...”
Hitokawa covered his face with both hands, as if he didn’t know what to say—or even what expression to make.
A silent, deep sigh.
That alone told me roughly how much confusion he was grappling with.
I told him everything.
My relationship with Yoshimura Kuzen. Everything from how he saved me to how Eto came to be entrusted to me, and everything that happened while I raised her up to this point.
He frowned a little when he heard that I’d sourced food from the bodies of suicides, but thankfully he didn’t dwell on it.
I left out any subjective opinions. Adding those would only make Hitokawa resist harder.
I presented the facts objectively, making it clear that Eto was different from other Ghouls.
He claimed he hadn't known she was a Ghoul, but if anyone had watched Eto all this time, he should understand.
Please, let this be enough to change his mind...
“...Yeah. I can see that Eto doesn’t have any reason she absolutely has to be killed.”
“Hitokawa...”
Good. Maybe this would work out after all.
Before I could even fully relax, Hitokawa’s next words came flying in like frost.
“Instead, Eto will be imprisoned in Cochlea.”
“...!!!”
Cochlea. The name of the Ghoul detention facility in the 24th Ward.
An impregnable fortress built from the most advanced technology, and a purgatory for Ghouls. Once a Ghoul was locked away there, they would never see the light of day again.
He was going to lock Eto in a place like that? Heat surged from my heart all the way to the top of my head.
“Hitokawa!!”
“Just because there’s no reason to kill her doesn’t mean she isn’t dangerous!!”
Hitokawa shouted back and grabbed my arm.
He shoved his right arm toward me, revealing a scar.
A scar that looked as if a child had bitten into it and torn the flesh away.
Seeing that, I lost my voice for a moment, and Hitokawa spoke calmly.
“Eto did that, didn’t she?”
“...It was a child’s mistake. She’s never done anything like that since.”
I had deliberately buried the memories of the times Eto had been pushed to the brink of losing her reason.
If he found out about that now, things would only get worse.
“A child’s mistake? The moment she lost control even once, that said enough. Whether that kid is good or evil, if she possesses the ‘Ghoul instinct,’ then she needs systematic surveillance. That’s the only way for Eto.”
“...The only way for Eto?”
Grip!
I grabbed the arm that was holding mine and tore it away.
“Don’t make me laugh. Did you forget I’m the child of a Ghoul Investigator? I know the ugly rumors about Cochlea too! You’re an active Ghoul Investigator—don’t tell me you’re ignorant of them!?”
Cochlea wasn’t just a facility for imprisoning Ghouls.
On the surface, they claimed to guarantee human rights, but behind the scenes, human experimentation was being carried out to research more effective ways to kill Ghouls.
And Ghouls who became useless—or whose bodies were reduced to corpses—were turned into minced meat by a press machine deep underground and buried in some forgotten place.
Hitokawa’s brows twitched, as if he’d heard the rumors too. But he quickly steeled himself and snapped, “Those are just rumors!!”
“Even if they’re only rumors, that doesn’t change the fact that it’s hell for Ghouls! Are you really going to send Eto there? You know how kind that kid is!! We’ve been together this whole time!! And you’d really lock Eto up in Cochlea just because she’s a Ghoul!?”
“Yes!! If we don’t do that, Ghouls and humans can never coexist!!”
Snap.
The moment I heard that, the thread of reason barely holding me together snapped.
When I came to my senses, I was already swinging my head hard, slamming a headbutt into Hitokawa’s face.
CRACK!!
“Ghk!!”
Blood burst from his nose as Hitokawa groaned, but he forcibly stopped his head from snapping back, yanking me forward instead.
He’d reached his limit too; with a face twisted in rage, he drove a fist into my stomach.
THUD!!
“Guhk!!”
The air burst out of me, and my waist folded instinctively.
But I didn’t collapse. I lunged forward, grabbed Hitokawa around the waist, and tackled him to the ground.
Hitokawa was definitely strong—he trained every day to fight Ghouls—but I wasn’t the same as I'd been. After fighting that police Ghoul, I’d realized my own weakness, and I hadn’t devoted myself solely to childcare since then.
CRASH! BANG!
We rolled across the floor, trading punches wildly.
Blood splattered everywhere, and the room fell into chaos.
SMACK!!
Only after we were separated by a kick—whoever threw it, I couldn’t tell—did the fight finally begin to settle.
Perhaps because our training levels differed, my body was a wreck, with nowhere that didn't ache. But Hitokawa had taken more damage than expected too; he grimaced and spat blood from his mouth.
Hahh...!! Hahh...!!
We both sat on the floor, glaring at each other.
In the end, Hitokawa was the first to get up.
“You and I both got too worked up... We can’t talk like this. I’ll come back tomorrow, so let’s talk then. Until then, this matter is on hold.”
Still not fully recovered, I remained on the floor as he walked to the door.
With his hand on the knob, he looked back at me. “Don’t even think about running. If I sense you trying to flee with Eto, I’ll report it to the CCG immediately and get people moving.”
“...”
I said nothing.
Hitokawa took that as his answer, opened the door, and—
“Ah...”
He met Eto’s frightened face standing right outside.
He’d told her to wait downstairs, but it seemed she’d come back up after hearing the sounds of the fight.
“...”
Hitokawa... passed Eto by without saying a word.
The sound of his footsteps as he calmly descended the stairs and left the house told me everything: no matter what expression this child made, it was meaningless now.
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