There are limits to living alone.
That is why living things form groups, striving to overcome those limits.
It was the same for Enji. The difference was that he possessed more than enough skill to survive on his own. The people around him, however, did not.
Taking in and caring for those who couldn’t survive alone was the beginning of Enji’s group, [En]. As they built their strength and expanded their reach, his organization eventually grew into a force that wielded considerable influence even in Ward 20.
But they were not the only power. There was another group that split Ward 20 with them.
The Ghoul group, Black Doberman. And the woman who led them, known primarily as Kuroinu.
When the territories of two predators overlap, conflict is inevitable. The Ghouls of [En] and Black Doberman clashed constantly over the smallest provocations.
They were thorns in each other’s sides, each wishing the other gone, but neither could move decisively. [En] and Black Doberman were nearly equal in strength.
If two equally matched forces collided, even the victor would not escape with their wounds unscathed.
In such a state, they would be sitting ducks for other Ghouls or the CCG to swoop in and profit from the chaos.
So, while they avoided direct total war, the resentment between the two groups only festered as time passed.
Eventually, Enji decided enough was enough and began preparing for an all-out clash. He had detected movements suggesting the other side was aiming for the same thing.
Ghouls with keen intelligence began scheming to reap benefits from Ward 20, which was poised to become a battlefield, while the CCG plotted to wipe out both groups in one sweep while they were distracted by each other.
But the all-out war never happened.
It was because of a wandering Ghoul caught between the two: Kuzen.
The leaders of both groups, each having received help from him for their own reasons, seemed to respect his wish to avoid the spilling of kindred blood. They put away the blades they had been about to draw.
That prevented a massacre, but the bitterness between the two groups remained. They had merely postponed the moment the bomb would go off.
While the leaders respected Kuzen, they also hoped he would side with them. That was the only way to secure an advantageous position in any future conflict.
For that reason, both groups were prepared to do anything to win Kuzen’s favor.
And the one request Kuzen made of them was simple.
Help his friend and that friend’s family.
After several days of searching with nothing but the name Takaki Koma to go on, the two of them finally located his house.
And then, like enemies meeting on a narrow bridge, they happened to visit on the same day and ended up face-to-face.
***
Click.
Coffee was set down in front of them.
The rich aroma of freshly brewed beans should have been enough to calm the mind and body, but for some reason, a thick tension hung over the square table.
Slurp.
I took a sip to moisten my mouth, all the while glancing sideways at the two people seated on either side of the table.
On the right was a man named Koma Enji.
He claimed he had been sent by Mister Kuzen. His expression was grimly set, but he didn’t seem all that dangerous.
On the left was a woman who introduced herself as Irimi Kaya.
She was a beauty with delicate features, but she exuded a somewhat gloomy, oppressive aura. Still, like Enji, she didn’t feel particularly threatening.
The problem was the space between them.
As their eyes met across the table, the air crackled as if some volatile chemical reaction had taken place. Because of that, ever since I served the coffee, the atmosphere had remained in a state of strange, high-voltage tension.
They clearly knew each other, but certainly not in any friendly way.
This mix of hostility and awkwardness was a bit much to handle.
Come to think of it, even when Hitokawa had nagged me about how long I planned to stay a bachelor and that half-forced blind date got interrupted by Eto barging in out of nowhere, it hadn’t been this tense.
“Meow~”
The house cat must have sensed the awkwardness, because it let out a cry that seemed to say, “What weirdos,” and wandered off. For some reason, today made me really want to be a cat.
I turned my head and looked at Eto.
If she had been in her usual mood-maker role, she would have eased the atmosphere with a few words, but today she was unusually quiet. Was she wary of strangers?
Eto took a sip of coffee and shifted her gaze to me. She was leaving everything in my hands.
Left with no choice, I cleared my throat to break the silence and spoke to the two of them.
“Um... could I ask your names one more time?”
“Koma Enji.”
“Irimi Kaya.”
Both answered curtly, yet neither broke eye contact with the other.
“Right. Enji, Kaya. So you both came at Mister Kuzen’s request?”
“I don’t know why he assigned me to work with a monkey like this.”
“That’s rich coming from you. Even if I don’t know the inner workings of your organization, why would he pair me with such a prickly woman...?”
“......”
No good. These two had absolutely no intention of dropping their hostility.
They would have started a brawl long ago if this weren’t my house.
“S-so then, what exactly did you come here to help with? We’re not exactly struggling for food these days. After nearly dying a few times from Ghoul attacks, the compensation I got from the CCG has piled up quite a bit.”
It wasn’t something to brag about, but I wanted to change the subject somehow.
“There’s nothing specifically designated. He just told us to help if you ever ran into trouble.”
“If you need money for living expenses, I’ll provide it. If you want to travel, I’ll assign capable people to escort you. And if there are any annoying pests around you, I’ll make them disappear without a trace. For example, a monkey who comes into someone else’s house and sits around taking up space for no reason.”
“A monkey? You must mean a dog, you idiot. I know a great place that serves dog meat soup. Want a recommendation?”
Why did things get even more ominous when I tried to mediate? Why did they talk about disposing of people as if it were a daily chore?
Mister Kuzen, what kind of people did you send over here?
I’d had no news from him for so long that I didn’t even know if he was alive or dead, and the first sign of him is these two strange visitors.
Just as I was about to take another sip of coffee to steady my shaking hands, Kaya seemed to decide this was a waste of time and turned her gaze to me.
Finally, some attention my way.
“There’s one thing I’d like to ask. Are you human?”
“Unless some mad scientist transplanted Ghoul organs into me while I was asleep, I’d say yes, I’m human.”
“But the child beside you seems to be a Ghoul.”
“Yeah. She’s a Ghoul.”
Strictly speaking, only half... but it was better to keep that to myself for now.
They were Mister Kuzen’s guests, but I wasn’t sure how much I should reveal. For now, it was probably best to keep the fact that Eto was his daughter hidden as well.
“Why is a human raising a Ghoul child?”
At Kaya’s question, Enji also shifted his gaze to me, as if he had been wondering the same thing.
“Well, there are all kinds of circumstances.”
Slurp.
I drank my coffee and avoided a direct answer. Perhaps sensing my reluctance, Kaya didn’t press further.
“Still, from our perspective, it’s a strange thing. A Ghoul and a human living together so casually.”
Enji was right.
If Ghouls were wolves, then humans were sheep. Occasionally, a sheep that had made up its mind would try to stomp a wolf to death with its hooves—those were the Ghoul Investigators. That was the nature of their relationship.
Did it make any sense for beings with such a volatile relationship to live under one roof? Anyone would dismiss it as nonsense. And yet, here was a living contradiction right in front of them.
“I had a rough time at first too. But humans are ultimately creatures that adapt. Now I can even dismember corpses without batting an eye.”
“That’s a lie. Dad still has nightmares sometimes when he’s seen a corpse that day.”
“Eto, shh.”
I pressed down on Eto’s head to tell her to stop leaking secrets. Eto clamped her mouth shut, and her head sank below the table.
Then Kaya asked again.
“Where do you get food?”
“At dawn, I check suicide spots and secretly take any corpses I find.”
“Isn’t that dangerous? You could run into Ghouls who are scavenging the same bodies.”
“That’s why I go with a bodyguard.”
The bodyguard peeked her head back up over the table.
Even Hitokawa, who knows our situation, doesn’t help with food procurement.
He says there’s a risk of being recognized by other Ghouls, and that as a Ghoul Investigator, it’s the final line he cannot cross.
“From now on, you won’t need to go through that trouble. We’ll handle the supply on our side.”
“Huh? No, there’s no need to go that far.”
“No need to refuse. This is the least we should do, since Mister Yoshimura asked us to. That’s probably why he sent me here in the first pla—”
“Wait a second.”
Kaya’s words were cut off by Enji’s low, dangerous voice. He glared at her, not bothering to hide his irritation.
“What are you deciding on your own? I’m the one who received his request. If anyone’s going to handle the supply, it’ll be me.”
“You’re still here, you wild monkey? I thought you’d gone home already. I’m in the middle of an important conversation, so get lost.”
Ignoring Enji entirely, Kaya spoke with a voice cold enough to freeze blood. Enji, meeting her chill head-on, only seemed to boil over with anger.
“There’s a hierarchy to everything, but it looks like your brain and your bladder got switched. Your head must be full of piss. I got here first. What gives you the right to butt into my business? Isn’t that a little rude?”
“Hey, hold on a sec...!”
Just as the murderous mood began to peak again, I tried to intervene. But by then, their attention had completely shifted away from me.
“Manners are for civilized people. It’s laughable for a barbarian who only knows how to throw a tantrum to talk about manners.”
“Listen! I don’t know what your history is, but just calm down for a moment...!”
“Ha! I’m surprised you can even smile with that stiff face of yours—you look like a corpse! Your subordinates would be horrified if they saw you now!”
“They’d be horrified if I brought back your head.”
“......”
“My head? You think you’re leaving here alive today?”
“Wouldn’t be impossible.”
A moment of absolute silence.
In the next instant, both Enji’s and Kaya’s eyes bled into a vivid red [Kakugan].
A second later, [Kagune] burst from their backs. They were just about to lunge at each other when—
CRASH!!
The table shot up between them, acting as a barrier.
As a result, the two empty coffee cups and the two full ones flew through the air. Startled by the sudden eruption, Enji and Kaya halted their attacks and looked to the side.
Still leaning over the overturned table, I glared at them with a thoroughly pissed-off expression.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing, coming into someone else’s house and acting like this?”
Clatter! Smash!
The table finally hit the floor and the cups shattered, filling the room with a racket.
I’d tried to treat them as Mister Kuzen’s guests, but my patience had reached its absolute limit at the sight of these two running wild as if this were their own living room.
“Have you two completely lost your minds?! You barge into a peaceful home and try to turn it into a war zone! If you’re that desperate to tear each other apart, go outside and fight!! Go beat the hell out of each other in an empty lot, and don’t even think about coming back into this house until you’ve watched the sunset together, acknowledged each other, and become best friends!!!”
***
Bang!!
The door slammed shut with a sharp, irritated crack.
Enji and Kaya stared at the closed door with blank eyes.
Their aliases, Maen and Kuroinu, were practically synonymous with terror in Ward 20.
Ghoul Investigators broke into a cold sweat at the mere mention of those names, and Ghouls from other wards fled for their lives the moment they heard the two had appeared.
So who the hell was this human, Takaki Koma?
He had yelled at them, lectured them, and now he had thrown them out like trash.
Perhaps ignorance really was courage. Maybe he simply didn’t know their reputation.
But explaining their status as Ghouls to a human just to intimidate him felt beneath them.
Normally, they would have solved this with force, but they were wary of the consequences of mistreating Kuzen’s friend.
Kuzen had been able to handle their entire organization on his own while strictly adhering to pacifism. If he were to abandon that pacifism in a fit of rage, the resulting bloodbath would be unimaginable.
Enji scratched his head and stared at the tightly shut door. Koma’s heart was currently just as closed as that door.
To fulfill Kuzen’s request, they would first have to find a way to open it.
“Damn it, what a mess...”
“......”
“Should we go to an empty lot and have it out first, then come back?”
“Are you an idiot?”
Kaya suddenly felt a profound sense of doubt that this fool was her sworn enemy.
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