“……Haa.”
[Ring... Ring... Click.]
Hitokawa let out a heavy sigh and closed his phone. Simultaneously, another phone lying at his feet stopped ringing.
He picked it up and checked the screen.
As expected, it was nothing but a list of missed calls from Hitokawa’s own number.
One of the teams assigned to monitor Koma’s house had definitely been here. But now, they were gone…….
“I’m looking for the standby team, but there’s no one here—just a phone left behind……. Where did they disappear to? There are no signs of a struggle…….”
“……Ugh.”
“Eto?”
Hitokawa, still examining the phone, turned his head at Eto’s short groan.
Eto had been following behind him, wearing sunglasses because while she had suppressed her Kagune, she couldn't control the surge of emotion enough to keep her [Kakugan] from manifesting. She was staring intently into the depths of the alley.
“What is it? Did you find something?”
“…….”
Eto said nothing and walked deeper into the alley. Sensing a strange omen in her behavior, Hitokawa slung the metal case over his shoulder and followed.
The path twisted a few times, but overall, the alley was a narrow, single track.
Eto walked calmly until she suddenly came to a halt.
She was staring at an old trash can.
It was a cylindrical metal bin that seemed to have lost its purpose as a waste receptacle ages ago, sitting abandoned and blending in with the litter scattered across the alley.
After giving the silently staring Eto a puzzled look, Hitokawa walked toward the bin.
“What’s so special about this trash can?”
“Don’t open it.”
Hikokawa, who had been reaching for the lid, froze at the tension in Eto’s voice.
That single warning sparked a terrible image in his mind.
“If you open it…… you’ll regret it.”
“……!!”
Eto’s expression was grave. It was the look of a human—or someone pretending to be one—rejecting the “fragrance” wafting from the bin. The message was simple and clear.
Hitokawa bit his lip and forced the lid open.
Regret didn't matter.
He needed to deny the horrific possibility flashing through his mind, so he looked inside.
And then…….
“Which crazy bastard did thisssssssssssssssssssss!!!!!!!!!!”
The curse burst out before the nausea could.
The missing Ghoul Investigators……. The shock came from the fact that they had *all* been crammed into this tiny trash can.
***
“Kehhehehe!!”
“…….”
“Kehhehehehehe!!”
“…….”
“Kehhehehehehehehehehehehehehehehe!!!!”
“……Hey, do something about your vice chief. I feel like I’m going to puke.”
I felt a creeping anxiety that my old panic attacks might resurface.
This was because that vice-chief—or whatever he was—was staring at my face from point-blank range.
Setting aside the grotesque insect-shaped mask, the dark red [Kakugan] glistening behind it swayed dangerously, like someone high on drugs, while thick saliva dripped from his mouth.
With him looming over me and laughing like a complete lunatic, how was I supposed to stay sane?
The fact that his spit was splattering all over my face along with the laughter was just a bonus.
“Ahh~ That? You mean that thing? That thing~. Yeah, that one.”
Minami answered me halfheartedly, her pen dancing across a piece of paper, though I had no idea what she was writing.
I frowned, the vice-chief’s laughter ringing in my ears, and asked, “What thing? What are you talking about?”
“Mm-hm~ Just last night, you blew out our vice-chief’s eye, didn’t you? He's holding a grudge~.”
“…….”
“Kehhehehehehehehehe!!!!”
As if confirming her words, the vice-chief’s laughter grew even more manic.
Ah, that. The incident where, while drunk, I apparently drove a Quinque fragment into the right eye of the guy who attacked me…….
But I have no memory of it. I know “I was drunk” is the classic excuse of a perpetrator, but I really don’t remember.
And if we're being honest, they were the ones who attacked first, so they're the real aggressors here.
“Don’t be so tense~. I told you our vice-chief is kind~. He may look like this, but he’s such a warm-hearted man. Don’t worry. You’ll get along in no time~. Right, vice-chief?”
“Kehhehehehehehehehe!!!!”
It was useless. We were speaking completely different languages.
No matter what was said, the bastard just kept inspecting me while laughing weirdly. The stress was making me feel like I was losing my mind too.
Anyway, I understood that the vice-chief had a grudge, but then why wasn’t he killing me right away?
Did that mean his goal wasn’t simply to kill me? Come to think of it, he had already been targeting me before I blew out his eye.
“What’s the purpose of kidnapping me? Is it related to this ‘company’ of yours?”
“Mm? Should I say yes? Hey, Koma~ What do you think about this society?”
Why did this suddenly smell like a long-winded lecture?
“Modern society is so cold~. Rapid advances in civilization have drained people’s hearts of any room to breathe, and conflict just keeps increasing~. At times like this, what do we need? Across all ages and nations, what soothes the hearts of the weary is the existence of beauty. Art~!”
*Snap!*
Minami set down her pen and spread both arms wide toward me, as if preaching a sermon.
“Art is a spiritual feast for the people living in this world! The body can survive by eating leaves by the roadside or dogs or whatever else comes its way, but when it comes to nourishing the mind, nothing beats art. That’s our company’s motto! ‘Let’s bring happiness and abundance to this society through art’~! How is it? Cool, right?”
“…….”
Less cool than creepy.
What was this? On the surface, it sounded like a generic platitude, but I felt a visceral sense of revulsion.
Minami spoke of happiness and abundance, but the look in her eyes was twisted.
This wasn't normal. If I had to compare her to anything, she was closer to a religious fanatic.
“Kehhehehehehehe!!!!”
The vice-chief’s behavior, constantly inspecting me from every angle, was also unsettling.
He looked like a child wondering where to tear open the wrapping paper on a present first.
Feeling cold sweat trickle down my forehead, I asked, “For the record, what exactly is this ‘art’?”
“This~.”
Minami held out the paper she had been scribbling on.
The instant I saw it, my breath caught.
『Human Disassembly Diagram』
This wasn’t some anatomy chart from a science textbook.
This was a manual for dismantling and utilizing the human body.
It detailed everything: the process of gouging out eyeballs, the method for pulling out and repurposing individual muscle fibers, and the technique for leaving the ribs intact while extracting the heart and lungs. It even described the process of creating a "work" using the extracted “materials,” though the notes cut off halfway.
Beside the dense text was a drawing of a human body disassembled in various places.
And beneath it, the name “Takaki Koma” was written clearly.
Minami smiled sweetly.
“From now on, you’re going to be reborn as a work of art that will make the world happy~. This is the proposal~. I’m going to submit it to the manager, but I wonder if he’ll approve it~? Last time, only the section chief’s proposal, ‘Tree,’ got through~. What a shame~.”
“Tr,ee……?”
My mouth wouldn’t open properly from the shock, but the word triggered a memory.
A photo Hitokawa had once accidentally shown me.
A Christmas tree that desecrated both holiness and corpses simultaneously. Hitokawa had said it was the work of a Ghoul known as the [Artist].
“Don’t tell me that corpse tree was…….”
“Ah! You saw that? Wow~ this is embarrassing~. The work’s title was ‘Blood Christmas’~! It was the section chief’s plan~. I helped a little too~.”
“…….”
I was speechless.
The fact that the creators of that insane monstrosity were right in front of me made my soul feel like it was leaving my body.
*So the [Artist] wasn’t a single individual…… it was a group?*
Was this entire company the [Artist]?
“Kehhehehehehehe!!!!”
“Ah~! No, Vice-Chief~! Don’t crush the eyes! Koma’s eyes are the most beautiful part~! They absolutely have to be used in this piece~!”
Still reeling from the shock, I watched the vice-chief and Minami bicker.
They looked so peaceful that it didn't even seem like they were discussing how to brutally dismantle a human being.
For them, this was normal.
It had become their everyday routine. They had not only taken countless lives but had spent their time desecrating and humiliating the corpses.
Ordinary Ghouls kill because they have no choice if they want to survive, but these people were different.
Their goal wasn’t to eat.
They were just…….
“Crazy bastards…….”
I muttered it aloud before I realized it. Minami turned to me and smiled brightly.
“Oh my, you’ve already figured us out? See? I told you we’d get along in no time~♪.”
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