This girl is an idiot.
That's what I think after Kana says the thing about us being meant to be. I stare at her for a moment then laugh to myself.
"It's fine, never mind."
Meiko looks at me and makes a face that says "this idiot is way too easy-going." Then she takes my sleeve between her fingers and holds it there. She almost always has this habit of grabbing my arm and doesn't even realize she's doing it.
Kana notices.
Her eyes went straight to Meiko's hand on my sleeve and stayed there for a second before coming back to my face.
"So..."
I ignore the tension between the two of them and speak.
"You're curious about me because of that frequency. What else?"
Kana takes a moment to answer, maybe because she's annoyed by Meiko's hand.
"The frequency I feel from you... hm, it's different from the others."
"Others?"
"There are several frequencies I can sense besides yours. But they all feel the same as each other. Yours feels different because it's heavy, like you could love with passion."
"..."
Love with passion.
"That's an interesting way to put it..."
I said those words, and at the same time Meiko tensed up beside me.
"That's what I feel from your frequency."
"Okay."
I change the subject because if I keep going down that road I'm going to end up somewhere strange.
"Those other frequencies you sense. Do you follow those too?"
"No. I only follow you."
She shakes her head, and her long straight black hair sways in the wind.
"Good. Keep it that way. Don't go after the others."
Kana tilts her head to one side and looks confused.
"Why?"
"Because the ones carrying that frequency are dangerous."
"How do you know they're dangerous? I don't even know what they are. And aren't you dangerous too?"
I close my eyes and shrug.
"They're parasytes. And..."
I open my eyes as a wide, toothy smile spreads across my face.
"...I'm dangerous too."
Kana's mouth falls open a little, and when she sees my smiling face she takes a few steps back. At the same time, Meiko beside me goes completely still.
"...Parasytes?"
Kana asks that question.
The news says they're rare, even as mangled bodies keep turning up in different parts of the world.
But Kana, who can sense those frequencies, has probably already known without knowing that there's at least one in her school. Or on the street when she walks. People don't notice because they can't feel them. She can, even if until now she didn't know what she was feeling.
Kana takes a moment to turn all of that over. Meiko, though, processes it faster.
"Wait. If only parasytes give off that frequency... and you give it off too..."
Meiko lifts her chin and looks at me.
"Are you a parasyte?"
I look back at her.
"What if I am?"
Meiko also takes a step back. I saw her face go pale, and I know it's because she's remembering her mother that night, finding out what the woman she'd been living with actually was.
In her emotional frequency and her aura I see panic, before it settles down quickly.
Then she shakes her head.
"I trust you."
"I could be playing you so I can eat you later, you know."
"Arata-san!"
Meiko shouts at me with her eyes shut, and with my sharpened senses, that cry full of emotion feels like it could punch straight through my eardrum.
Ah...
Knowing I messed up by being careless, I raise my hand and rub her head.
"Sorry. I'm not a parasyte, it's okay."
I'm something worse.
She looks at me with a blank expression, the kind that says "I don't find that funny, so don't do it again."
Meanwhile, Kana has been watching the two of us from the side. She clicks her tongue, and I can see irritation on her face. Looks like this time she's annoyed at my hand touching Meiko's head.
"So it's true then? The other frequencies are parasytes?"
"I'm not lying."
"..."
"That's why I'm telling you not to follow them. If you ever feel a frequency that isn't mine and decide to go after it, you probably won't come back."
Even though Kana doesn't answer, I can see her aura shifting in color, getting darker as the fear sets in.
I nod once and decide that's enough for today.
"Alright. Now I know why you were following me, and now you know what you need to know."
I turn to leave with Meiko at my side.
"Arata."
I stopped when I heard Kana's voice.
"What?"
She speaks in a longing voice.
"I sometimes dream that I'm dying. And that in that moment you come on a white horse like a knight in shining armor. While I'm in your arms, you bite my neck, and I become yours. I hope that day comes."
"..."
My lips twitch a couple of times. Seriously...
"Stop having dreams like that."
With a sigh, I leave those words behind and keep walking.
Meiko, a little stunned from hearing something that strange, takes a second to react when I move away. She shakes her head, runs after me, grabs my sleeve, and falls into step beside me.
We walk half a block in silence before she says something.
"I don't like that girl."
"You're pretty direct."
"It's just that she seems really..."
Meiko puts a finger on her cheek and looks up at the sky, searching for the right word.
"...obsessed with you. And I don't like it."
"Haha."
I laugh out loud, which makes Meiko pout.
"What? Arata-san... don't tell me you actually like that kind of thing... girls being obsessed with you."
"Of course."
"Arata-san!"
***
By the time I get to the Takagi mansion it's already late afternoon.
The light coming through the hallway windows is orange, announcing that the sun is about to go down. Nobody at the entrsnce, nobody in the hallway, nobody in the living room.
I like that silence.
I head up to the second floor and go straight to the office. The door is slightly open, which is mom's way of saying "I already know you're coming, come in."
Mrs. Yuriko is behind the desk with a cup of tea in one hand and several documents spread out in front of her.
Dressed in a black suit and white shirt, purple hair pinned up, a serious expression, she looks elegant and beautiful.
She watches me come in, and her full lips painted in a natural rose lift slightly.
"Is it ready?"
I ask that question as I reach the desk and lean forward against it.
"Yes."
She nods and slides the documents toward the edge of the desk.
I look, and realize they're district maps and various permits.
Though that's not what I was asking about, since those are useless to me. Still, I flip through them quickly. Getting some of these permits would have been complicated for any normal person, but not so much for Mrs. Yuriko.
I shake my head, and the All-Seeing Eyes near the people she went to see to get these permits start doing their job. That way I make sure those people forget the conversations, and that they ever issued these permits at all.
"Those papers are necessary. Even so, I can tell from your face that you don't care about them. Come."
She gets up and starts walking.
I follow her out, down the back stairs, and into the garden. There, covered with tarps, are piles of materials stacked up.
Mrs. Yuriko glances at me from the side.
"Are you sure you don't need any help?"
"Sure. Only I can do it."
"Why?"
"The fewer people who know about it, the better."
She doesn't say anything else and just nods once.
I have to say, she trusts me quite a bit, since she doesn't ask more than necessary or demand explanations even knowing that I'm a monster.
"I still don't fully understand what you're planning to build. But looking at all of this... I suppose it's going to be something big."
"Heh, you can't even imagine. Everything here won't be nearly enough."
She looks out toward Tokyo, which from the garden stretches as far as the eye can see. The Takagi mansion sits in a high area, well above the city below.
I did the same.
Tokyo right now is normal. People come and go, the CCG does its work, the parasytes do theirs, and the ghouls do theirs.
We still have time.
Three years should be enough.
"When are you planning to start?"
She asks that and looks back at me.
I put my hands in my pockets and look at the materials stacked under the tarps.
"Now."