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 life.
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. Apparently, it was harder than I expected.
How do other mothers manage to raise children and still take on side jobs? I suddenly felt a surge of respect.
There was that one incident where Eto, apparently fascinated by the way I made flowers out of vinyl and other materials, dove straight into the finished pile of artificial flowers and nearly got me sued for damages instead of earning me my pay, but let's move on.
Still, it seemed I wasn't the only one who had gotten used to raising Eto.
For example, at school...
"Waaah~!"
"Teacher! Eto is..."
"Do you need a diaper change? Go on."
...like that.
"Hwaaah~!"
"Teacher!"
"You're hungry, aren't you? Go on."
...or that.
"Hiiing~!"
"Teach—"
"Go on."
Somehow, even the teachers at school had developed the uncanny ability to tell what state Eto was in just from her crying. Ah, come to think of it, most of them were married, weren't they? Was this the dignity of adults?
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 seemed to have grown close to other people too, but a Ghoul baby being among humans was hardly a wise thing to do. At least not until the day came when Eto could hide the fact that she was a Ghoul on her own.
From today until graduation, I planned to take a break from school under one excuse or another and focus entirely on my part-time job and raising Eto.
Feeling a heaviness I couldn't quite put into words at the fact that today would be the last day I saw 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, after seeing me, he made a disgusted face and said, "...Why are you wearing sunglasses?"
"It's fashion."
"Do you really need to put them on Eto too?"
"Because it's fashion."
Hitokawa was saying that because Eto and I were both wearing oversized sunglasses that didn't really suit us at all.
Sunglasses over a school uniform was already strange enough in my case, so how much stranger must it have looked on a baby? Especially these days, when the sunlight wasn't even that strong.
Eto still couldn't control when her [Kakugan] would appear. When she was hungry, it always came out, and even when she wasn't, there was no telling when it might surface.
So I decided to put sunglasses on Eto. That way, even if her [Kakugan] appeared at any time, it would be hidden.
But putting sunglasses on only the baby felt like I was trying to hide something, which would probably make people even more suspicious.
That was why I wore sunglasses too.
That way, instead of looking like I was hiding something, it looked more like I was just some weird guy who even put sunglasses on a baby.
Thanks to that, I had to engage in fierce daily rap battles with the student disciplinarian over my outfit, but... that was over today too.
"By the way, why are you in plain clothes? Didn't you come to school today?"
I had wondered why he hadn't shown up at school, but seeing Hitokawa in casual clothes made it clear he hadn't attended today. What a surprise, for a guy even more devoted to school life than I was.
"I just finished applying to the Ghoul Investigator academy. Turns out the application deadline was today, of all days. My homeroom teacher only told me yesterday, so I barely found out in time. I panicked, skipped school, and ran over there."
Hitokawa had dreamed of becoming a Ghoul Investigator for as long as I'd known him.
I wanted to support my friend as he chased that dream, but at the same time, I couldn't help feeling a little sad at the growing distance between me, who had to take care of Eto, and him, who was trying to become a Ghoul Investigator.
Hiding those feelings, I forced brightness into my voice and said, "Ohhh, so the exam's finally coming up? When is it?"
"The written test is in three days, and the practical is a week after that. I hear the practical exam's gotten insanely hard lately."
Well, of course it had. No matter how smart you were, when it came time to fight Ghouls, you still had to move your own body.
"So I'm going to take tomorrow off too, review everything I've learned with full effort, and then take the exam. I'll tell you the result after I come to school the next day!"
...Ah, right.
So I wouldn't be seeing him at school anymore either.
Hitokawa lived quite far from my apartment, so the only place we really ran into each other was school.
I'd told everyone at school that I was temporarily taking care of a relative's child because of circumstances, but...
"...I'm not coming to school starting tomorrow."
"Huh?"
Maybe... just a little... it would be okay to tell him the truth?
At least enough to let me say goodbye properly to a friend I'd been with since childhood.
"Actually, this kid isn't a relative. She's the daughter of someone I know. 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."
At that, Hitokawa couldn't hide his shocked expression as he said, "Raising her...? You're still just a student, aren't you? You haven't even graduated high school yet. At such an important time, when you should be preparing to enter society, you're going to raise a child? That's completely..."
He didn't finish the rest of the sentence—"You're giving up your life"—but I didn't need to hear it to know what he was going to say next.
"I'm not planning to give up. I'm going to keep looking for what I want to do while balancing childcare. It just makes things a little harder than living alone."
"A little? That's not a little at all! Is your acquaintance out of their mind!? How could they hand over their own daughter so easily..."
"It wasn't an easy decision."
Hitokawa was about to flare up, but my cold voice cut him off.
I knew he was only getting angry for my sake, but I still had to say this much.
"That person didn't decide to leave his daughter with me lightly. He was driven into a corner, and then driven further, and further, until there was nowhere left to go. Only then did he decide to leave her with me. I'm the same. I understood how he felt, thought it over, hesitated, and only then decided to accept her. So..."
I paused for a moment, then gave a bitter smile.
"...don't get so angry. Eto's getting scared."
At that, Hitokawa seemed to realize Eto was on the verge of crying from his outburst, and he flinched.
After I soothed Eto, I said, "Thanks for getting angry on my behalf. Anyway, since things have turned out like this, it'll be hard for us to meet for a while. Sorry I won't be able to see you off when you go take your exam."
Just as I was about to turn away after saying, "Well then,"
"Wait!"
At that voice, which sounded like he'd made up his mind about something, I turned back to Hitokawa in confusion.
He suddenly pulled out his wallet. Flipping it upside down, he shook out every last bill and coin, then held the bundle of cash out to me.
"Take this and use it for formula or something."
"Huh? I don't need it."
"Just take it! We just had a baby at my house too, so I know how much money goes into raising a kid!"
Hitokawa strode over and forcibly stuffed the money into my pocket as I tried to refuse.
"And don't act like this is the last time we'll ever see each other! You haven't forgotten the promise we made back then, have you? We said we'd throw a celebration party at your place if I passed the Ghoul Investigator exam!"
Ah, right. We had, hadn't we?
Ever since I started taking care of Eto, I'd been so busy that I'd completely forgotten.
"I'm going to bring back my acceptance certificate with pride, so wait for me! Got it!"
Hitokawa raised a finger and declared it, then turned on his heel and walked off with long strides.
I stood there staring at his back for a while, feeling as if I'd been hit over the head, and then...
"Pfft!"
Suddenly, I burst out laughing.
My own thought that the distance between him and me had grown because he was trying to become a Ghoul Investigator was so ridiculous it was almost funny.
"Puhuhuhu!! Ahahahahaha!!!"
No matter what I was raising, no matter what he became, he and I were still friends.
Once I realized that, the heaviness I'd been carrying vanished, leaving behind a refreshing sense of relief.
"Da? Daa!"
Eto looked at me strangely as I suddenly started laughing, then soon followed along and began giggling too.
Ah, and this is something I only found out later...
"Damn it, I even gave him the fare money. ...How am I supposed to get home?"
My friend was a good person, but he was an idiot.