After seeing Hitokawa off, we went back down to the living room.
I wanted to clear my head, but after the mess from all that fighting, I didn't even feel like it in my own room.
Minami was nowhere to be seen in the spot where we'd been talking a little while ago. Had she gone home?
Before I could even ask, I saw Eto bringing over the first-aid kit.
Once I sat down, Eto wordlessly opened the box and tore off some gauze.
The gauze soaked in disinfectant touched the cut on my cheek. The bacteria around the wound were annihilated the instant they met the alcohol, and my nerves were stabbed raw as if they refused to die alone. It burned, but I didn't show it.
"..."
"..."
There was no conversation. Only an uncomfortable silence hung in the air.
Eto, tending to my wounds, tried not to show it, but she was obviously far more drained than usual.
She must be scared. Just the fact that she'd been exposed as a Ghoul meant the life she'd been living, the world she knew, was now on the verge of collapse.
Maybe she wasn't voicing that fear because she knew I was feeling plenty of my own.
"...Mm. No, this won't do."
So she really hated it. No matter what, seeing Eto this dark and withdrawn was unbearable.
"Let's eat! We'll eat first, then think!"
"...Eh?"
Eto looked up at me, startled.
As the tension in her heart wavered, a sliver of the anxiety she'd been hiding showed on her face. Get out here, you bastard. Who gave you permission to hide our cute Eto's beauty?
"And you've got school too! Didn't you say there was a recorder test today? To cheer you on, I'll even sprinkle some of my blood over breakfast with a special sauce. I already drew a decent amount the other day for the transfusion!"
Forcing brightness into my voice, I threw an uppercut straight at the heavy emotion Eto called "anxiety." That thing muttered, "You're weak. Weak," and kept hanging on. What, you little punk?
Eto lowered her head as if she knew I was putting on a bright front on purpose, then opened her mouth.
"But, Dad..."
"It's fine."
I cut her off before she could say what I already knew was coming, and ruffled her hair hard.
Then I told her in a confident voice, "You might not remember, but we've already been through worse than this. Back then, they didn't even try to talk first—they came at us trying to kill us outright. That was a real pain."
As if to say, Isn't that right? I looked toward the household altar where my father's memorial tablet was kept.
Maybe it was just my imagination, but the photo of my father placed beside the tablet seemed to be standing in the direction away from my gaze.
"Hitokawa said he'd come again tomorrow. That means he's willing to talk. If we can talk, then there's a chance."
"But..."
"'Human civilization began the moment people started throwing "words" instead of "stones" when they fought.' That's something some famous psychologist said. If you're going to call yourself civilized, you should know how to fight with words too. ...Well, I did lose my temper a little ago and swung my fist first. Let's call that an exception. For now, I'll clear my head, and tomorrow I'll settle things properly with words. I'm weak in a brawl, but I'm confident in a war of words."
I bent down to meet Eto at eye level, then pinched both of her soft cheeks and lifted the corners of my mouth into a grin.
"So smile. Your dad's about to head into an important battle, so you need to cheer me on with your best support, okay?"
When I let go, Eto rubbed her slightly stinging cheeks. Then she let out a small laugh and smiled softly.
"Yes. Dad's silver tongue is invincible!"
"That expression isn't usually used as praise, but whatever. Anyway! We're going to win! Yay!"
"Yay!"
As I raised my fist and declared it, Eto copied me and lifted her own.
Smiling broadly as I brushed away Eto's anxiety, I looked cheerful on the outside—but inside, I wasn't smiling at all.
If every problem in this world could be solved with conversation, there wouldn't be a single war. But what was reality?
Differences in interests, differences in ideology, differences in religion—people easily abandon conversation and start fighting over them.
And in this case, it was a difference of species that came down to survival.
"Worst case... I'll have to be prepared to cut ties with Hitokawa completely."
Could I do that?
I asked myself, but instead of an answer, the thing that surfaced in my face was the same one that had been lingering in Eto's expression a moment ago: anxiety.
**
Shinaoto Minami looked up at the sky not long after leaving Koma's house.
White cottony clouds drifted by.
The bright sunlight stroked her skin without being too hot or too mild, and a cool breeze came with it, brushing through her hair as if in answer.
It was lovely weather. If she were going on a picnic, it would be the perfect day for it.
"Mmm~ The sky is clear and lovely♡. The sunlight is sparkling☆. My commute is what the fuck...!!!!"
Minami had been walking elegantly, savoring the season like a heroine from a shoujo manga, when she remembered she had to go to work on a day like this and let out a shout.
If a person from the music industry heard that voice, they'd probably ask if she wanted to try death metal.
"Aah~ I don't want to go to work~. I finally found some interesting people after so long~. I wanted to play with Koma-kun a little longer~."
That intense look in Takaki Koma's eyes from last night.
Remembering it, Minami pressed her hands to her flushed cheeks like a girl in love.
Two shadows were watching her as she bounced along like a rabbit.
"...Senpai. Doesn't that woman seem a little off in the head?"
"W-well... It's work, so it can't be helped."
They were two Ghoul Investigators. Some of the people keeping watch on Koma's house had followed Minami.
The reason was obvious: the Ghoul wearing an insect mask.
Until they knew for sure what had caused last night's attack, they were going to keep an eye on anyone connected to the incident.
And not long after leaving Koma's house, Minami noticed their movements.
"Tch~ How annoying."
It didn't take long for Minami to reach the same conclusion as Koma. Being used as bait to lure out a Ghoul was not exactly pleasant.
So she decided to mess with them a little.
Minami muttered loudly to herself that she'd forgotten something, then turned back the way she'd come.
The two investigators tailing her turned away as if they were unrelated passersby and busied themselves with other things.
As Minami passed by them, her eyes gleamed wickedly.
Thud!
"Kyahhh~!! A pervert~!!"
""!?!?!!""
Minami threw herself to the ground where there was nothing at all and screamed.
The startled investigators turned around, then were even more shocked when they saw her finger pointed at them. By the time they realized the people passing by were glaring at them with hostile eyes, they were already in disbelief.
"What? A molester in broad daylight?"
"And at a beauty like that!"
"Look at those worthless bastards!"
Whether it was a sense of justice or a dirty desire to look good in front of a fallen woman, people swarmed in from every direction.
Judging by how many of them were men, the latter seemed more likely.
"N-no! There's been a misunderstanding!"
The investigator tried desperately to explain, but they were swallowed by the wall of people in an instant.
In the meantime, Minami stuck out her tongue and fled into an alley.
"Hehe~ Serves them right."
Listening to the investigators' cries from outside the alley, Minami stretched as if refreshed and headed deeper inside.
And then....
Boom!
A heavy vibration shook the ground.
At first it didn't seem like the shadow of a huge person dropping from atop a building, because the face of that shadow was grotesque.
A mask modeled after an insect. Saliva dripped from its gaping mouth and scraped across the ground.
Minami had seen this monster before.
It was the Ghoul from last night's attack.
"Kehehehe...!!"
With a sneering, unpleasant laugh, the Ghoul turned to look at Minami.
"...Eh?"
Recognizing it, Minami's face went rigid.
**
"Gyaaah!! What do we do, Senpai!? We lost the target because they thought we were perverts!"
"Just chase after her! She couldn't have gone far!"
The two investigators, finally freed from the crowd, rushed into the alley after Minami.
Rather than having shaken them off, it was more accurate to say the men had lost their momentum and backed off on their own once Minami vanished.
They hadn't lost her for long.
Since the junior investigator had caught a glimpse of her entering the alley before she disappeared, they were able to track her this far.
Fortunately, this alley was a single path with nothing but turns.
If they ran hard enough, they could catch up. Thinking that, the two of them rounded the corner they believed Minami had passed.
And they were met with a scene that looked like it had crawled out of a nightmare.
Crunch! Krrrk!*
It was the Ghoul wearing the insect mask.
Through the insect's eyes, the Ghoul's [Kakugan] could be glimpsed.
And in that Ghoul's mouth was the fresh, still-warm arm of a woman, as if she had just died.
Crunch! Crunch!*
The sound of bone and flesh being chewed together.
Not satisfied with that, it lifted its head and extended the fingers of its long arm, pressing down hard on the woman's arm.
Like something sinking into a swamp, the woman's arm slowly disappeared into the Ghoul's mouth, and the Ghoul closed its jaws.
"Kehehehehe!!"
Then it laughed mockingly.
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