"...Using the information you gave me, I found the place where the police car had been. When I got there, the car had been overturned, and when I saw the headless corpse, I thought my heart had stopped. I got information from witnesses saying you'd escaped in a taxi, so I went to your house, and the place was a complete mess. There was even blood everywhere. I spent two full days looking for you because I thought something had happened. Two whole days, without resting. And after all that, when I finally found you and came to see you..."
There was a murderous pressure in Hitokawa as he spoke with his arms folded.
Even if he was still a rookie, he was a Ghoul Investigator. I could feel him growing by the day. He wasn't going to die easily out there.
But maybe my satisfied nod only irritated him more, because Hitokawa grabbed me by the collar and shook me hard.
"You were sleeping your ass off in the hospital like you had all the time in the world, weren't you?! If you're fine, call me! Call me, damn it! Because of you, I've aged ten years mentally, you bastard!!!!"
"Hitokawa. Yelling in a hospital is rude. Besides, I'm seriously injured. Calm down."
"You look perfectly fine to me!! And how the hell did you beat a Ghoul?!"
"I didn't beat it. Another Ghoul jumped in to eat me, then the two of them ended up fighting each other and one got eaten. But Hitokawa. It really hurts, so could you let go?"
When Hitokawa shook me by the collar with that much force, pain flared all over my body. Mostly from my split forehead and my bruised arm.
It was almost comforting, in a way, because it reminded me I was still alive. But if he kept shaking me like this, it was going to get dangerous.
No, not for me. For Hitokawa.
Thud!
"...!!!"
Now, how should I describe Hitokawa's expression?
Probably as something twisted like an abstract painting by a famous artist trying to capture the pain and misery of life all at once.
He even foamed at the mouth from the pain rising from a very unfortunate place for a man.
Hitokawa let go of my collar, clutched his groin, and collapsed. Behind him, Eto appeared, snorting as she looked down at him.
"Don't bully my dad!"
"Hitokawa, you alive? There's a urology department in this hospital, so you should go check it out."
I poked my head out from the bed and said it, but he didn't seem to hear me through the pain. Meanwhile, Eto hopped over the fallen Hitokawa and came to my bedside.
"Dad! Are you okay?"
"Yeah. I'm a lot better now. You don't have to worry anymore."
To soothe the anxious Eto, I placed my hand on her head and patted her gently.
Maybe the warmth that passed softly through her hair reassured her, because Eto's tense expression loosened and she smiled.
Honestly, it still felt like I was dreaming. That I could face Eto like this again.
After the Ghoul was brought down, Eto had lost her reason. When I saw her crawling toward me with saliva dripping from her mouth, I clearly thought I was about to die... and then I took Eto into my arms.
I opened my arms to welcome Eto, and Eto came at me with her teeth bared.
Sshhhhk!
Blood sprayed everywhere.
Like red petals scattering across a gray sheet of paper, blood splashed out and spread in all directions.
Only, it wasn't my blood.
"Eto?!"
Eto passed right by me and bit into the corpse of the Ghoul beside me. Its belly was torn open, and entrails and blood burst out, staining everything around us.
Without even time to peel off the torn police uniform, Eto chewed on the Ghoul's flesh she had ripped away. But her face twisted in agony, as if she had swallowed poison.
Uweeeek!
In the end, she vomited.
But like a madwoman completely out of her mind, she bit into the corpse again, now slick with vomit, swallowed the flesh, and kept retching.
I didn't know exactly what it meant for a Ghoul to eat another Ghoul, but judging from Eto vomiting immediately after biting in, it was definitely not a good thing.
Even so, she still wouldn't stop eating the corpse, so I couldn't stand it anymore and grabbed her by the shoulder.
"Stop it, Eto!"
But Eto shook off my hand and bit into the corpse again.
I had no choice but to wrap one arm around her waist and try to pull her away, but she resisted with her teeth still sunk into the body.
And so the struggle went on for a while.
I was already running on empty, but Eto seemed to have even less strength left than I did. In the end, she tore herself free from the corpse and toppled onto my chest.
"Eto! Snap out of it! Do you recognize me? Eto!"
Eto's face in my arms was a mess of blood, flesh, vomit, sweat, and tears.
One of her unfocused eyes still glimmered with [Kakugan], the kind that could still stir up primal fear.
I laid the limp Eto on the floor, took off my shirt, and used it to wipe her face.
I didn't know what Ghoul flesh meant to Eto, but it clearly wasn't meaningless. Her back wounds had started to heal, and the signs of starvation were gone.
As I wiped her face, I felt her small lips moving, a sound slipping out.
She was trying to say something. I bent down and brought my ear close to her mouth.
"...won't."
"Huh...?"
I blinked and looked at Eto.
Her eyes were closed. A moment later, soft, even breathing came from her. Apparently, she had fallen asleep as if fainting, unable to endure the exhaustion.
Had that been a sleep talk? Or the last words she managed to force out before losing consciousness?
I didn't know which, and I didn't need to know.
Whatever it was, the warmth in those words had completely sealed the wound that had been gnawing at my mind.
"I won't... hurt Dad anymore..."
"Thank you, Eto..."
I kissed Eto's forehead, wishing her good sleep.
Snore...Snore...
Apparently the head-patting had soothed her, because Eto had fallen asleep leaning against my bed.
While I was gently stroking her hair, Hitokawa, somewhat recovered, staggered to his feet.
"Koma, did I ever do anything that would make Eto hate me?"
"No. She just hates you on a physiological level, so don't worry about it."
"That somehow hurts more?!!"
Well, a Ghoul Investigator was a Ghoul's natural enemy. If Hitokawa wanted to win Eto over, with that ominous smell of his, he'd have to work hard for it.
I kept stroking Eto's hair gently, hoping she would sleep more deeply. Then I turned my gaze to Hitokawa.
"Anyway... you looked into the Ghoul that attacked me, right? What was it in the end? He seemed like the kind of guy who'd lived a clean life under a police identity."
I didn't want to remember him, but I had to get the troubling part sorted out.
From the things he'd said, one by one, it was obvious he'd been living as a police officer for a long time.
A police officer was supposed to protect the public. Could I really assume that kind of irony existed only in that one bastard? That was why I wanted to confirm it with Hitokawa.
Hitokawa scratched his head as if it were a difficult topic, then seemed to decide he'd tell me after all and opened his mouth.
"Well, I looked into it. That guy was a Ghoul who had 'swapped identities.'"
"Swapped... identities?"
"There's a Ghoul commonly called a 'broker.' The CCG's been chasing him for a long time, but he's a slippery bastard who always gets away. In the Ghoul world, he makes a living doing 'identity laundering.' But his method is unusual. He doesn't forge fake IDs or anything like that. He takes over the 'real life of a living human being.'"
"What?"
The life of a living human being? What the hell was that supposed to mean?
"He was probably human when he first passed the police exam. The Ghoul test would have shown him as definitely human. But then he got swapped out. The 'broker' investigated that person's entire life, personality, speech patterns, and so on, and after confirming he had no close relatives, family, or friends, realized he was suitable for a swap. Then he made a deal with a Ghoul who looked fairly similar to the human and had plenty of money, and sold off that human's identity. He killed the human so naturally no one even noticed when it happened, and slipped a Ghoul into the place he'd occupied."
"..."
It was a chilling story. A Ghoul sneaking into human society like that.
"I never thought he'd go so far as to swap out a public servant like a police officer. Because of this case, the CCG will probably rate the 'broker' as highly dangerous and put more weight on tracking him down."
"And you think that'll be enough to catch him? You said they haven't caught him yet."
"We'll see when we try. All right, that's enough information. I told you because victims have a right to know, but from here on out it's a specialist's problem. Leave the Ghoul to the investigators and go back to being an ordinary civilian and rest quietly. You were indirectly harmed by that 'broker' too, so I'll settle your grudge for you."
"An ordinary civilian, huh..."
Hearing Hitokawa's words, I let out a bitter smile inside.
Could someone who was raising a Ghoul child, going out every night to procure corpses, and shoving bullets into a Ghoul's skull really be called an ordinary civilian?
I'd already sunk too far into the Ghoul world.
Hitokawa didn't explain any further, but I should remember that Ghoul called the "broker." You never knew when or how I might run into him.
Still, an ordinary civilian... that sounded nice too. The last few days had been far too brutal.
Once I was discharged from the hospital, I'd go back to Eto and my "everyday life." This time, not a precarious life where I walked the line alone, but a genuinely peaceful life that felt like family.
"Mm... Dad..."
At Eto's sleep talk, I took her hand. Her expression naturally softened.
Hitokawa waved goodbye, saying to enjoy ourselves, and left the room. I started happily planning what I'd do first when I went home with the sleeping Eto.
I was looking forward to tomorrow.
"..................Ah, right. The inside of the house is a complete disaster. That fucking Ghoul bastard."
Something useless came to mind and instantly ruined my mood.
"Oh, right. Come to think of it, there was something I wanted to ask Koma..."
After leaving the room, Hitokawa stopped walking.
When Koma had been suspected as the culprit in this incident, there had been a part of his explanation that didn't feel natural, and he'd wanted to ask about it... but...
"...Well, whatever. We found the Ghoul culprit anyway."
Since the real culprit had already been identified, he decided to let it go as a minor misunderstanding.
"Excuse me. Are you Mr. Takaki Koma's guardian?"
At that moment, a doctor who had seen Hitokawa leaving the room called out to him.
"Huh? No. I'm not his guardian, just a friend. Why?"
"While treating Mr. Takaki, I found an unusual scar. On his right arm, there's a scar that looks like it was made by someone biting him..."
"Biting? Ah, Koma got attacked by a Ghoul. Maybe that scar was made by that damn Ghoul."
"No. I know Mr. Takaki was brought here after being attacked by a Ghoul. What concerns me is that this scar was made 'before that.'"
"What?"
"Also, it doesn't look like it was treated here at the hospital. There are signs he did emergency first aid on his own. I asked Mr. Takaki, but he just brushed it off and wouldn't tell me much, so I'm asking you. Do you know anything about it?"
"...How big is the scar?"
"Quite small... it looks like it was made by a child around five or six years old."
A child?
For a moment, the image that came to mind was of a girl who wouldn't open her heart to anyone at all... no, a girl who seemed to be 'guarded against enemies' in some way.
Hitokawa turned toward Koma's room. Through the window in the door, he could see inside. Koma, who had been looking in that direction for a moment, let out a small laugh and shook his head.
"I really have no idea."
"I see. Understood. Thank you for your time."
The doctor bowed and moved off toward another ward. Hitokawa looked back into the room.
When he heard it was a scar like a child's bite mark, he had briefly thought of Eto, but that couldn't be right.
The girl sleeping like an angel on the hospital bed, and his friend watching her with a warm gaze. It was a space overflowing with such deep family affection that anyone looking in would feel their heart warm up.
Hitokawa couldn't imagine that scene being something a Ghoul and a human could create together.
Deciding Koma's right-arm scar must have some unknown backstory, Hitokawa left the hospital and returned to work.