"...You drove off a Ghoul? Me?"
"Yep! It was super cool~."
Minami was saying it with sparkling eyes, but I couldn't believe it for a second.
How was I supposed to have chased off a Ghoul?
I had killed a Ghoul before, sure, but according to Hitokawa, that one had only been a B-rank—just another small fry among Ghouls.
Even then, I had nearly died, and only won thanks to Eto's help.
And now I was supposed to have been lying there drunk, then suddenly jumped up and driven a Ghoul away?
There had to be some misunderstanding, or Minami had been drunk too and seen things.
It was more plausible that Hitokawa had somehow chased it off and she'd mistaken that for my doing.
As I was coming to that conclusion, Eto was nodding along for the first time as if she agreed with Minami.
"Of course! My dad is the coolest person in the world!"
"..."
The pure declaration of a child. It was the kind of statement that carried so much faith in its own truth that my face started heating up. In fact, it was turning red with embarrassment.
I turned my head away so she wouldn't notice and asked Minami, "What happened after that?"
"Then the CCG people who noticed the disturbance came running, just like Tomoru-kun planned~. I answered everything properly while they investigated all sorts of things~. They must've thought I was just an ordinary civilian caught up in some Ghoul's weird behavior, because they let me go pretty quickly? Koma-kun, who still wouldn't get up because he was drunk, must've been thought the same way, since they didn't bother waking him up to question him. But Tomoru-kun had a lot to deal with—he'd faced the Ghoul directly, and there was also the car he smashed, so his questioning took a long time. He was finally released at dawn, and then he came over to Koma-kun's place~."
"Huh?"
Something about that sounded off.
If that was true, then it hadn't just been me and Minami who came home....
"Hitokawa came too?"
"Of course~! How could a weak woman like me carry a man all by herself~? He came along to show me the way home too. I was fine because I'd dozed off while waiting, but Tomoru-kun didn't sleep a wink and still looked perfectly fine after being questioned? As expected of a Ghoul Investigator~."
"..."
"...Dad?"
Only after Eto looked up at me did I realize I'd gone silent.
What was this? Something felt a little off....
"Did Hitokawa leave right away?"
"Hm~? I don't know? I saw a bed that looked comfortable, so I dove in and fell asleep right away, so I'm not sure~."
You've got some nerve, taking someone else's bed before the owner does.... Anyway, I'd deal with that later.
"..."
An unnatural silence lingered in my mouth.
It felt like the growing unease had clogged my throat.
Let's sort this out. Last night, I, Hitokawa, and Minami had definitely been attacked by a Ghoul. Right near the CCG branch, no less.
"...That Ghoul wearing the insect mask. You said it was a Ghoul discovered for the first time this time, right?"
"Yep~! I heard the CCG people talking, and that seems to be the case."
"..."
"Dad? What's wrong?"
Eto tugged at my collar when she noticed my expression gradually hardening. I almost reached out to soothe her, but stopped halfway.
Can't you feel it? The tiny ripple spreading through our peaceful everyday life.
Throw a stone into a still lake, and ripples spread across the whole surface.
The ripple had already begun.
The stone had already been thrown, and it had already sunk.
Without my knowing. Before I could respond.
The lake was my everyday life.
So what was the stone?
"...When the investigators questioned you, what did they ask?"
"Hm? Just the usual boring formal stuff~. What my name was, where I lived, whether I had any grudge against Ghouls, whether anything strange had happened around me lately, what my three sizes were, and so on~."
"I see...."
"...Huh? You're just ignoring the joke I casually tossed in there?"
Minami seemed to be saying something pointless, but I ignored it.
They really had only asked formal questions.
Minami said I'd driven it off, but for some reason I'd ended up falling asleep, so they hadn't even bothered waking me.
On the other hand, Hitokawa had been questioned for a long time. And then he'd brought me and Minami back home.
This part was what bothered me first.
Too easy.
Even if we'd just been caught up in it, this had been an attack that happened right near the CCG. Normally, it wouldn't end this lightly.
It was hard to imagine that a Ghoul would risk danger and attack for no reason. They would have investigated closely for some connection between the attacker and the target.
But if they hadn't....
I brought my mouth close to Eto's ear and asked in a low voice so Minami wouldn't hear, "Eto, do you smell anything strange nearby?"
"A smell? Hmm...."
Eto whispered back like me, then sniffed the air.
A moment later, she furrowed her delicate brows slightly and looked out the window.
"...Now that you mention it, there's a weird smell coming from all over outside the house. It's a little like the smell coming from that Hitokawa uncle...? Anyway, something like that."
"..."
That settled it.
It was a bait operation.
Since the Ghoul had risked danger to attack us, they must have judged that there was a worthwhile 'objective' behind it. And they'd concluded that they might target us again to achieve it.
'Rather than trying to figure out an uncertain chain of cause and effect, they probably thought it would be more efficient to lure out the hidden Ghoul again and catch it.'
It annoyed me that they were using us as bait without even asking, but for now I decided to keep my mouth shut.
The stone that caused the ripple wasn't that.
It had started from something smaller, something that disturbed the stillness of everyday life.
Not when the Q Bullet was delivered. Not when the Ghoul attacked.
Something more fundamental.
The core of my daily life, the vital point that absolutely could not be absent.
The stone had fallen there, in the place I had to protect with my life.
"...?"
Eto looked up at me worriedly.
And then... I realized it.
The stone that caused the ripple was 'that thing.'
"Eto!! Inside the house! Is there anywhere inside the house that smells like that!?"
I shot to my feet and asked without even thinking about Minami.
Eto looked a little startled by my sudden excitement, but I was too frantic to care.
Even though I knew it was already too late the moment Eto answered yes.
"Eh? No, there isn't any smell like that inside the house.... Huh?"
As Eto turned her head as if scanning the house, her gaze stopped at the ceiling.
"...Why does Hitokawa uncle's smell come from a place like this?"
Bang!
I sprinted straight up the stairs to the second floor.
The place was my room, where this morning's commotion had taken place.
The very place where 'that thing' had been revealed for a single instant.
Crash!
I yanked the door open hard enough to feel like I'd broken it and looked around the room.
The bookshelf with books and magazines neatly lined up, the desk with the household ledger and electric lamp on top, the carpet that had been laid down just a week ago, and the bed that was still a mess and not properly made.
It was exactly how my room had looked when the small disturbance happened that morning.
"Haa.... Haa...."
Breathing hard, I turned my head.
There was a large wardrobe there.
The darkness visible through the slightly open gap in the wardrobe door felt eerie, like standing on the edge of a cliff and staring down into the dark.
Thump. Thump.
Suppressing the heart that refused to calm down under the strain, I took one step, then another toward the wardrobe.
With every step, the pounding in my chest grew harsher.
Please, please, please.... I repeated it dozens, hundreds of times in my head as I reached for the door handle.
The moment my fingers were about to wrap around it....
"...When we played tag as kids, I always lost to you. You always said I hid in the most obvious places."
"...!!!"
I couldn't say anything. I couldn't move a single finger.
It felt like even my breathing had stopped.
"I guess my hiding skills are still about the same. The moment you realized I was hiding somewhere in this house, you came running right away, didn't you?"
Creeeak....
Even though I hadn't touched the handle, the wardrobe door opened by itself.
I staggered back a step and stared at the figure emerging from inside.
"Hitokawa...."
"When the CCG started talking about using you two as bait to catch that insect Ghoul, I strongly opposed it. But rank really is everything. In the end, I had to do what I was told, and I figured I'd apologize properly later.... That's what I thought."
Hitokawa gave a bitter smile and stepped down onto the floor.
I needed to say something, but my mouth wouldn't move. Thoughts swarmed through my head, scattering everything as I tried to find an answer among them.
But in the end, none came. It had been a long time since I'd been this confused—since the last time I'd had a full-blown fight with my father.
"Since we know each other, I was assigned to guard you and that young lady nearby. I saw the two of you fall asleep in bed, and thought this wardrobe would do, so I hid there. I dozed off a little, but I stayed on watch properly, okay? And then morning came, and... I saw something strange."
"Hitokawa...."
"At first I thought I'd seen things. I rubbed my eyes over and over, thinking something had gotten in them, but 'that' was definitely there. Well, it disappeared after a little while, but it was so clearly burned into my mind that I couldn't forget it.... 'Those eyes.'"
"Hitokawa."
"Hey, Koma.... We've known each other for over ten years now, right? I think of you as a friend, and I'm sure you think of me as a friend too. So answer me honestly from here on out."
"Hitokawa!!"
I called out to him with all the emotion I could muster, but Hitokawa didn't stop speaking. His gaze was fixed behind me.
The gaze he now gave Eto, who had followed me up because she was worried and was peeking timidly out from behind the bedroom door, was different from before.
The Hitokawa who had always treated Eto with kindness and familiarity, no matter how coldly she responded, was gone.
His eyes and voice were cold enough that even I found them unfamiliar.
"Eto.... Is that girl a Ghoul?"
Thud.
The stone thrown into the lake shattered the stillness of everyday life.