Who was it that said humans are animals that adapt?
By now, with nearly a month having passed since I took in Eto, childcare had completely settled into my daily routine.
I made up for the shortfall in living expenses by taking a part-time job making artificial flowers as a work-from-home side gig.
I’d always been good with my hands, so I thought it would be easier than it turned out to be. As it happened, it was far more difficult than I expected.
How do other mothers manage to raise children and still find the energy for side jobs? I suddenly felt a surge of genuine respect.
There was that one incident where Eto, apparently fascinated by the way I crafted flowers out of vinyl and other materials, dove straight into the finished pile. I nearly ended up paying damages instead of earning my pay, but let’s just move past that.
Still, it seemed I wasn’t the only one who had gotten used to raising Eto.
For example, at school...
“Waaah~!”
“Teacher! Eto is...”
“Does she need a diaper change? Go on ahead.”
...or things like that.
“Hwaaah~!”
“Teacher!”
“She’s hungry, isn’t she? Go on.”
...and that.
“Hiiing~!”
“Teach—”
“Go on.”
Somehow, even the teachers had developed an uncanny ability to diagnose Eto's needs just by the sound of her crying. Ah, come to think of it, most of them were married, weren’t they? I suppose this was the sheer competence of adulthood.
Anyway, I felt sorry for the people at school who had grown attached to Eto, but as of today, I had successfully completed all the attendance days required for graduation.
I was a little sad that Eto had made friends, but a Ghoul baby living among humans was hardly a wise arrangement. At least not until the day came when Eto could hide her nature on her own.
From today until graduation, I planned to take a break from school under various excuses and focus entirely on my part-time job and raising Eto.
Feeling a heaviness I couldn’t quite put into words—knowing this was the last time I'd be with my classmates—I stepped out through the school gate.
“Yo! Koma!”
As soon as I left the gate, Hitokawa Tomoru, who had been leaning against the wall waiting for me, waved. Then, upon seeing me, his expression shifted to one of utter bewilderment.
“...Why on earth are you wearing sunglasses?”
“It’s fashion.”
“Do you really need to put them on Eto too?”
“Because it’s fashion.”
Hitokawa was reacting to the fact that Eto and I were both wearing oversized sunglasses that didn’t suit us in the slightest.
Sunglasses over a school uniform was strange enough for me, but for a baby? It was absurd, especially since the sunlight wasn’t even that strong these days.
The truth was, Eto still couldn’t control her [Kakugan]. When she was hungry, they always appeared, and even when she wasn’t, there was no telling when they might surface.
So, I decided to keep her in sunglasses. That way, no matter when her [Kakugan] activated, they would remain hidden.
However, putting sunglasses on only the baby felt like I was trying to conceal something, which would only invite suspicion.
That was why I wore them too.
By doing this, it didn't look like I was hiding a secret; it just looked like I was a weirdo who forced his baby to wear sunglasses.
Thanks to that, I had to engage in fierce daily rap battles with the student disciplinarian over my dress code... but that, too, ended today.
“By the way, why are you in plain clothes? Did you skip school today?”
I had wondered why he hadn't been in class, and seeing Hitokawa in casual wear confirmed it. I was surprised; he was usually far more devoted to school life than I was.
“I just finished applying to the Ghoul Investigator academy. Turns out the deadline was today! My homeroom teacher only mentioned it yesterday, so I barely found out in time. I panicked, skipped school, and sprinted over there.”
Hitokawa had dreamed of becoming a Ghoul Investigator for as long as I’d known him.
While I wanted to support my friend in chasing that dream, I couldn’t help but feel a pang of sadness. I felt the distance growing between me, who had to raise Eto, and him, who was training to hunt Ghouls.
Hiding those feelings, I forced a bright tone into my voice. “Ohhh, so the exam is finally here? When is it?”
“The written test is in three days, and the practical is a week after that. I hear the practical exam’s difficulty has skyrocketed lately.”
That made sense. No matter how high your IQ was, when it came to fighting Ghouls, you had to be able to move your body.
“So I’m taking tomorrow off too to review everything I’ve learned with everything I've got. I’ll tell you the results when I come back to school the day after!”
...Ah, right.
I wouldn’t be seeing him at school anymore either.
Hitokawa lived quite far from my apartment, so school was the only place we ever really ran into each other.
I had told everyone at school that I was temporarily looking after a relative's child, but...
“...I’m not coming back to school starting tomorrow.”
“Huh?”
Maybe... just a little... it would be okay to tell him the truth?
At least enough to say a proper goodbye to a friend I’d been with since childhood.
“Actually, this kid isn’t a relative. She’s the daughter of an acquaintance. I can’t go into the details, but... I don’t know when that person will come to take her back. So for now, I’m going to focus on raising her.”
Hitokawa’s shock was evident. “Raising her...? You’re still just a student! You haven’t even graduated high school yet. At such a critical time, when you should be preparing for the real world, you’re going to raise a child? That’s completely...”
*You’re throwing your life away.*
He didn’t finish the sentence, but I didn’t need him to. I knew exactly what he was thinking.
“I’m not planning on throwing anything away. I’ll find what I want to do in life while balancing childcare. It just makes the difficulty level a bit higher than living alone.”
“A bit? That’s not just 'a bit'! Is this acquaintance of yours insane!? How could they hand over their own daughter so easily...!”
“It wasn’t an easy decision.”
Hitokawa was about to explode, but my cold tone cut him off.
I knew he was only angry because he cared about me, but I had to make this clear.
“That person didn’t decide to leave his daughter with me lightly. He was driven into a corner, pushed further and further, until he had nowhere left to turn. Only then did he ask me. I was the same. I understood his desperation, I agonized over it, and I hesitated before finally deciding to accept her. So...”
I paused, letting out a bitter smile.
“...don’t get so angry. You’re scaring Eto.”
Hitokawa flinched, finally noticing that Eto was on the verge of tears from his outburst.
After I soothed her, I continued, “Thanks for worrying about me. Anyway, since this is my situation, it’ll be hard for us to meet for a while. I hope you understand if I can’t see you off on the day of your exam.”
Just as I was about to turn away with a final “Well then,”
“Wait!”
His voice sounded determined. I turned back to him in confusion.
He suddenly whipped out his wallet. Flipping it upside down, he shook out every single bill and coin, then thrust the bundle of cash toward me.
“Take this. Use it for formula or something.”
“What? I don’t need this.”
“Just take it! My family just had a baby too, so I know how much of a money-pit raising a kid is!”
Hitokawa strode forward and forcibly stuffed the money into my pocket despite my protests.
“And don’t act like we’re never seeing each other again! You haven’t forgotten our promise, have you? We agreed that if I pass the Ghoul Investigator exam, we’re having a massive celebration party at your place!”
Ah, right. We had, hadn’t we?
I’d been so overwhelmed since taking in Eto that it had completely slipped my mind.
“I’m going to bring back that acceptance certificate with my head held high, so you just wait! Got it?!”
With a confident finger pointed in the air, Hitokawa declared his intent, then turned on his heel and marched away with long strides.
I stood there staring at his retreating figure for a long time, feeling as if I’d been struck by a bolt of lightning, and then...
“Pfft!”
I burst out laughing.
The idea that the distance between us had grown just because he was becoming a Ghoul Investigator seemed utterly ridiculous now.
“Puhuhuhu!! Ahahahahaha!!!”
No matter what I was raising, and no matter what he became, we were still friends.
Once I realized that, the heaviness in my chest vanished, replaced by a refreshing sense of relief.
“Da? Daa!”
Eto looked at me strangely as I laughed, but soon she joined in, giggling along with me.
Ah, and this is something I only found out later...
“Damn it, I gave him all my money, even the train fare... How the hell am I supposed to get home?”
My friend was a good person, but he was a complete idiot.
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