An unpleasant human.
There would never be another human in his life as irritating as this one.
He had only grabbed him to pin the blame for a mistake made during a hunt. But if he was going to draw a loser, he'd drawn a complete and utter loser.
This human simply refused to die quietly. He wouldn't even give up.
In the police car, in the villa, in the alley—he had already come close to dying three times. And every time, he had slipped out of his grasp and stubbornly lived on, making a fool of him.
Stubborn, stubborn, stubborn, stubborn, stubborn, stubborn!
Human, human, human, human, human!
Why wouldn't he just lie down and get eaten? Why did he keep struggling? Why did he keep standing up to him again and again? He was a Ghoul. A far superior existence that fed on humans.
So why wouldn't you give up? Why do you still believe you can beat me!
Disgusting!
You really are...! You really are...!
**
"You're really, truly, unbelievably disgusting, you bastard!!!!"
The enraged Ghoul wrapped his Koukaku around both arms, swelling its bulk as he charged.
Q Bullet. It could certainly stand against a Ghoul, but it wasn't an especially effective weapon.
Aside from a Quinque, it was one of the few weapons that could deal definite damage to a Ghoul's steel-hard body, but it lacked decisive power.
That was why Q Bullets were issued only for self-defense; the Quinque used by Ghoul Investigators was far more efficient.
As long as the brain or kakuhou wasn't hit, it wouldn't be an instant kill. Even if it struck the heart, it would hurt like hell, but regeneration was still possible.
What had to be protected was the upper body, centered on the head. The Ghoul covered his torso with the Koukaku wrapped around his arm and charged at Koma like a raging bull.
The distance was about twenty meters.
The moment the Ghoul's foot struck the floor, fire burst from Koma's pistol aimed at him.
Bang―――――!!!!
"Tch!!"
The one who let out the frustrated grunt was Koma. The bullet flew off into empty air instead of the Ghoul.
A gun was a far more recoil-heavy tool than most people imagined. It wasn't easy for someone handling one for the first time.
More than that, Koma currently had one arm broken, so he could only fire one-handed.
He used one shot!
As the original owner of the pistol, the Ghoul knew exactly how many rounds remained in it.
That pistol was a six-shot revolver. One blank round for intimidation, two live rounds for humans, and three Q Bullets for Ghouls. Of those, the blank and the live rounds had already been used by the Ghoul himself. The live rounds were useless against a Ghoul, so they could be ignored. The only thing to watch out for was the Q Bullets.
He had just wasted one with that miss, leaving two.
He only had to be careful twice.
The Ghoul's explosive speed closed the distance in a single breath. When the gap shrank to about ten meters, Koma fired a second round.
Bang―――――!!!!
"Ghk!!"
This time, the Ghoul was the one who groaned.
With the distance closed, even Koma, who had no shooting experience, found it easier to hit the target.
Q Bullets were effective against Ghouls, but Koukaku was the sturdiest wall among Kagune types. So what Koma had aimed for wasn't the vital point hidden by the Ghoul, but his mobility.
The flying Q Bullet punched a clean hole through the Ghoul's left knee. He lost his balance and, driven by his own momentum, began to topple forward.
But he didn't simply fall. The distance to Koma was about four or five meters. Too far for an ordinary human arm, but Ghouls had something far more useful than arms.
The Koukaku wrapped around the Ghoul's right arm unfurled and shot straight toward Koma.
KWA-AAAAANG!!!
Koma threw his upper body back and narrowly avoided the Koukaku tendril. Then he hurled himself sideways and swung the gun toward the Ghoul, who had fallen completely to the floor.
With one Koukaku used as a shield gone, the Ghoul's head was fully exposed.
It was the moment he pulled the trigger to fire the final bullet and finish him off.
KWA-GA-GA-GA-AAAAANG!!!
"...!?"
Another Koukaku burst up through the concrete floor.
It was the second Koukaku wrapped around the Ghoul's other arm.
As he fell and planted a hand on the floor, he had driven the Koukaku downward into the lower level, aiming beneath Koma's feet.
He had avoided a direct hit, but that was hardly a relief. Koma bit his lip and stared at the pistol in his hand.
White smoke was rising from the muzzle that had just fired. The bullet had gone off while his aim was broken.
As Koma stared at it, the Ghoul's mocking voice reached his ears.
"Heh... You used your last bullet."
Limping on his left leg, wounded by the Q Bullet, the Ghoul rose. The two strands of Koukaku sliding down his arms writhed as if to encircle Koma.
"Let's end this boring game of tag!!"
He swung the Koukaku from both sides, trying to crush Koma, and Koma shouted while looking past the Ghoul's back.
"Now, Eto!!"
"...?!!!"
Hearing that, a chill ran down his spine.
Right. He had been distracted by the Q Bullet and had briefly forgotten the more dangerous presence.
He had thought the fatal wound would keep her from moving for a while... but what if the human attacking with a Q Bullet had only been a diversion?
The real attack was the half-blood brat striking at his exposed back!
"GRAAAAH!!!"
He yanked back the Koukaku he had been about to swing at Koma and whipped the heavy tendril behind him.
Whoooosh!!!
But all he heard was the sound of wind slicing empty air. There was no impact.
"What...!"
He turned, but Eto's attack was nowhere to be seen.
Eto had exhausted all her strength in the previous fight and suffered a severe wound in her back; she had only just crawled out from the wall she had been half-embedded in.
There was no attack to speak of.
"You tricked me...!!"
"What kind of parent wants to stain their kid's hands with blood!!"
When he turned his head again, Koma had already slipped into the Ghoul's blind spot.
Koma's gaze, blazing like fire, pierced the Ghoul's eyes.
Like a boxer throwing an uppercut, he swung his arm from low to high—but at the end of it was not a fist, but a pistol.
The muzzle was pressed under the Ghoul's chin as he pulled the trigger.
"!!!"
In that instant, something clicked into place.
The "first bullet" Koma had missed... what if that hadn't been a mistake, but a deliberate miss?
If that had been a human round instead of a Q Bullet, then the round now in the muzzle touching the Ghoul's jaw was...!!
"W-wait...!!!"
"You're cornered, asshole."
Koma curled one corner of his mouth at the Ghoul and squeezed the trigger.
BANG―――――――――!!!!!!!
The bullet fired from the muzzle bored into the Ghoul's jaw, tore through his brain, and burst out through the crown of his head.
A jet of blood shot upward and splattered to the floor.
**
"Hah! Hah! Hah! Hah!"
Thud!
After catching my breath while staring at the Ghoul's corpse collapsed on the floor, I ended up dropping beside it myself, as if I'd fallen over.
I'd dismembered plenty of corpses before, but I'd never actually killed anyone.
The shock of that, plus the fatigue that had piled up through everything that happened today until it was ready to burst, left me barely able to stay conscious.
"I need to deal with this body... First the hospital... No, before that I need to contact Hitokawa..."
There was a disgusting amount of things to do, but my body was in this state, so all I could feel was despair.
If I had to handle the important things first, I needed to check on Eto's condition...
Throb!
"!?!!"
Suddenly, the scar on my right arm started throbbing. There was only one situation in which this scar ever hurt like that. That was why I couldn't understand it.
Why? That Ghoul was dead, so why did I still feel that "gaze of being seen as food"?
Was there still an enemy left?
My sense of danger kicked in, and I coaxed my body to move just one more time. Using my spasming arm to brace against the floor, I pushed my upper body up.
Then I looked around and found the source of that gaze.
"...Eto."
"Krrr...!"
It sounded like a beast groaning.
Eto had crawled out from the wall and was dragging herself forward. But she was no longer the Eto I had known until now.
There was no reason left in her bloodshot eyes.
Sharp teeth showed through her mouth, stretched wide as if hungering for prey, and sticky saliva dripped down her chin.
She dug her fingers into the concrete floor with vicious strength and crawled forward, leaving a trail of blood from the wound on her back.
The fight with the police-costume Ghoul had brought an unimaginable aftereffect.
Because she had overused her Kagune, Eto had fallen into a "starved state," and the huge wound on her back had awakened the "Ghoul instinct."
Right now, Eto was suffering from terrible hunger while also being consumed by the instinct to "heal the wound."
I knew very well how to solve both at once.
"Eat."
She was no longer the daughter who called me Dad.
She was a Ghoul looking at me as "prey."
"...Haah. Mister Kuzen. Raising a kid really is hard."
I let out a deep sigh and complained, thinking of Mister Kuzen, who was probably somewhere else right now fighting a bloody battle against those bastards called "the organization."
In the meantime, Eto had come right up to me.
If she lunged now, I'd be torn apart without mercy. I couldn't expect any kind of restraint from Eto in this state.
So I exhaled.
"Eto."
As if nothing were different from usual, I called her name and spread both arms.
"Come here."
If you want to bite, then bite.
If you want to eat, then eat.
Even if you tore out my guts and chewed them to pieces,
I'd still hold you and tell you I love you.
That was the bare minimum of "love" I could give you.
"Krrr... AAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!"
Was there still enough awareness left in her to understand my "permission"?
Eto, who had seemed to hesitate for a moment, bared her teeth and lunged.
SPLASHHHHH!!!
A spray of blood burst into the air.
And so, on the cold gray floor, a warm red flower began to bloom.