"Then I'm off."
"Okay. Take care~!"
As I sat at the entrance tying my shoelaces and stood up, Eto raised a hand briskly and saw me off.
It was time to go to my part-time job, the most irritating time of the day.
Not because working itself was annoying, but because leaving Eto alone at home was.
Whether Eto was a Ghoul or not, she was still only a five-year-old little girl. Leaving a child like that alone at home made my steps feel heavy. But if I didn't work, we wouldn't have anything to live on, so it was a dilemma.
I wasn't completely broke. No, if I really wanted to, I wouldn't have to bother with this kind of work at all.
There was definitely enough money in my bank account to do more than just scrape by day to day, enough to try starting my own business if I felt like it.
But I wasn't going to spend that money. I didn't want to.
"It's the inheritance my father left me. I can't just use it carelessly."
I'd save that money for Eto's education when she eventually went to school. Until then, I had to keep it untouched.
So I had no choice but to stick to a poor lifestyle.
The job itself wasn't hard, but every time my wallet got thinner, it felt like my heart was thinning out with it. That was truly awful.
Anyway, that was why I'd started working part-time a few months ago.
Originally, I'd planned to focus more on side work at home, but Eto had grown into a far more sensible girl than I'd expected, so I could trust her with the house a little.
Fortunately, nothing major had happened while Eto was home alone so far... Still, thinking about her playing by herself in her room when she was at the age where she should be running around outside made my chest feel heavy.
But Eto seemed determined to blow away those worries of mine, smiling brightly as always.
A snort of laughter escaped me, and some of that discomfort faded. Then I spoke.
"Like I always tell you, if a stranger comes by?"
"I absolutely do not open the door!"
"And if they force the door open and come inside?"
"I scream or call the police! The number is 110!"
Mm. She had it down well.
I crouched so I could meet Eto at eye level and asked another question.
"And if that person comes in and tries to do something awful to our Eto?"
"I'll smash them in the groin!"
"How hard?"
"Hard enough to rupture it! Hard enough to tear it off! Hard enough that it can never be put back together! With all my strength!"
Okay, no problem.
A Ghoul's monstrous strength landing a blow to the groin was a terrifying image for any man, but anyone who tried to do something to Eto deserved it. No, honestly, I felt like I was the one who wanted to smash them myself.
"And if anything happens, don't forget to call me right away, okay?"
"Yes~!"
I looked at Eto one last time, still worried, then stepped out the front door.
As soon as I closed it and confirmed that Eto had locked it from the inside, I quickened my pace and got into the elevator.
I needed to finish work quickly and get back to Eto.
Once her dad left the house, Eto looked around the now-quiet home.
The silence when she was alone was on a completely different level from the silence when the two of them were together.
She could hear children playing at the nearby playground. For Eto, who could not yet go there and mix with them, this house was the only limited playground, the only nest... and also something close to a prison the world had made because it rejected Eto.
The silence that seemed like it could crush a child's fragile heart in an instant lingered only for a moment.
"All right! I have to stay quiet until Dad comes back!"
Eto was cheerful.
First, maybe she should read a book. She looked over the books she had borrowed from the library last time. She especially wanted to read the one about "how to be a mature woman" or whatever it was called, but Dad hadn't allowed it, which was disappointing.
As she moved her eyes around, deciding which book to pick, Eto spotted something interesting.
A fluffy duster tied to the end of a long stick. It was a cleaning tool, something people called a feather duster, but to Eto it didn't seem much different from a toy. Her eyes shone like a cat that had found catnip.
"Cleaning~♪ Cleaning~♪"
Remembering how her dad cleaned the house, Eto started dusting all over the place.
Tap-tap on the desk, tap-tap on the TV, tap-tap on the bookshelf too.
"I'll clean Grandpa up nicely too!"
Tap-tap on Takaki Harima's memorial tablet and photo in the old household altar.
But maybe because the incense ash had scattered, Harima's face in the photo looked twisted, as if it wanted to say, "I don't need that."
Eto thought her dad would praise her after coming home and seeing the house cleaned up, so she started swinging the duster even harder.
That was what caused the accident.
Crash!
The sound of something breaking.
It was the sound she had actually heard, and also the sound of her imagination of being praised by Dad shattering apart.
"..."
Even the harsh silence couldn't stop Eto from smiling, but for the first time, a crack appeared in her face.
Her complexion turning pale blue, she slowly turned her gaze and saw a plate that had just been struck by the duster, fallen from the shelf, and died a cruel death on the floor.
That plate had definitely been brought from the house where Grandpa had lived when he passed away. She remembered Dad's face as he had smiled bitterly and carefully wiped it over and over, saying, "You still had something your mother used to use..."
Eto panicked.
Setting aside getting scolded by Dad, she had broken one of Dad's precious things!
Eto darted her eyes around as if asking for help, but there was no one to look back at her. Was it just her imagination that the photo of Grandpa, the only one she met eyes with, seemed to turn away?
Even while flustered, Eto searched for a way out.
Maybe I should clean it up first? Where should I hide it? Could I put it in a flowerpot?
Just as Eto decided a flowerpot would do and went to fetch a broom, she suddenly remembered a line she had read in a novel, just as her dad from the past had once done that day.
"Misfortune always comes suddenly."
Click.
"Ah, Eto, sorry, but I forgot my bicycle key. Could you bring it to me for a sec..."
At a timing so perfect it made her want to resent the existence of fate itself, Dad had come back.
After unlocking the door and coming in, he immediately saw Eto frozen in place with a broom in her hands and the plate shattered across the floor. That alone was enough to roughly grasp the situation.
"Eto!"
Jolt!
Seeing Dad rush into the house without even taking off his shoes, Eto squeezed her eyes shut.
She had done it expecting to be scolded, but what came back was not an angry voice.
"Are you okay!? You're not hurt, are you!?"
Dad grabbed Eto's hands and checked her over. He looked even paler and more frantic than Eto had when she broke the plate.
That surprised her, and at the same time, something rose up beneath her eyes with guilt.
"S-sorry... I broke your precious plate..."
"It's okay. You're not hurt, right?"
Eto rubbed her eyes hard and nodded.
Relieved by that answer, Dad let out a breath and sat down. But maybe because he had lost the chance to look around for a moment while worrying about Eto?
He reached toward the place where a small shard had fallen and ended up cutting his palm on it.
He winced at the stinging sensation.
"Ugh..."
"D-Dad! Are you okay!?"
Eto was even more startled than when the plate broke, and she hurried to inspect his injury.
Dad pulled out the shard embedded in his palm as if it were nothing. A bead of blood welled up between the edges of the wound.
"This much is fine... Eto?"
Dad's expression suddenly stiffened as he turned to look at Eto.
What? Was he angry about the plate after all? Eto shrank back.
Dad looked at Eto and carefully opened his mouth.
"...Are you hungry right now, by any chance?"
Jolt!
Her heart dropped.
Eto steadied herself and shook her head.
"N-no! I'm not hungry! I ate a lot for breakfast too!"
"..."
Dad cast her a brief, unreadable look, then stood up.
And with his usual smile, he patted Eto on the head.
"I'll clean up the plate shards and make breakfast. Wait here."
"N-no! I'm really not hungry!"
She didn't want Dad to make food.
She didn't know exactly what that "it" meant, but she knew what happened every time Dad made her meals.
But Dad only gave a bitter smile, said nothing, cleaned up the plate shards, and headed for the kitchen.
Why? Eto muttered that to herself, then suddenly turned her gaze toward the mirror.
"...Ah, right. So that was it."
Looking at herself in the mirror, Eto understood.
Seeing her dad's blood flow, her right eye had changed.
A black sclera with a blood-red iris.
Eto glared at it with hatred.
In that instant, in a split second so brief she hadn't even consciously registered it, she had looked at her own father as "food"...
The eye of a Ghoul.