"Meow."
"Yeah, yeah. I'll play with you once I finish cleaning this up."
The room where Hitokawa and I had once burned through our useless youthful fighting spirit and traded blows.
While I was cleaning up the mess in that room, the cat I'd started raising a few years ago came over and kept pestering me to play.
This guy always put on little acts of affection he normally never showed whenever Eto wasn't around.
I moved the cat aside as it rolled around on top of the toppled bookshelf in a blatant protest for attention, then set the shelf back upright.
As expected, all the books had spilled out and scattered everywhere. A few of them were torn, too.
Ah, this was one I liked...
I hung my head in despair for about one or two seconds, then quickly recovered and started putting the books back in order.
After living through all sorts of things, my glass heart now felt like it had gone beyond steel and straight into orichalcum territory.
After clearing away all the books, I straightened up and worked the stiffness out of my lower back from crouching for so long. Then my gaze drifted to the window.
"How long are those guys planning to loiter out there?"
Sure enough, they were still there. In the alley not far from our house, a Ghoul Investigator was hiding and keeping watch over our place because of the "Insect-Masked Ghoul" incident.
They'd decided there might be some unseen connection between me and the Insect-Masked Ghoul that had attacked us yesterday, and that the culprit might show up again.
From my point of view, it was ridiculous.
First I got attacked while drunk and not knowing a thing, and now I had to be used as bait, too?
Damn it. If it weren't for Hitokawa's problem, I'd have gone straight to the CCG to complain.
Ding-dong!
"...?"
When the doorbell rang, I tore my glare away from the window. Who was it? I wasn't expecting a delivery or a visitor.
I decided to check who it was first.
Before that, I closed the window I'd left open while cleaning.
"...Huh?"
As I shut the window and looked toward the spot where the Investigator had been a moment ago, there was no sign of them.
Too fast to say they'd backed off after deciding I had nothing to do with the Insect-Masked Ghoul. Did they go to the bathroom or something?
Ding-dong! Ding-dong! Ding-dong!
As I stood there wondering, the doorbell rang again and again, urging me on.
No idea who it was, but they sure were impatient. How many times were they ringing it?
"Yeah! Yeah! I'm coming!"
I was already in a foul mood, so if this was some trivial matter I was ready to chew them out for it as I went down the stairs and approached the front door.
Before opening it, I checked the visitor through the peephole out of habit.
"...!"
This guy is...?
Hitokawa brought Eto around to the back of the CCG building.
They couldn't talk inside the CCG building. Sensitive conversations couldn't be overheard by other people.
To use a private consultation room, she'd have to pass the Ghoul identification screening called the [Rc Detection Gate].
Hitokawa had changed the location to outside because he expected chaos the moment Eto went through that place.
After confirming there was no one around, Hitokawa got straight to the point.
"So, what did you want to talk about?"
Eto glanced around casually, then hopped up onto the middle of a clean stair and sat down.
Maybe because of the height, she ended up at eye level with Hitokawa.
Looking him straight in the eye, Eto said, "I hate Mister Hitokawa."
"...Okay. So you're picking a fight?"
Hitokawa lifted the steel case he'd brought just in case.
Bringing that along made his distrust of Eto painfully obvious, but Eto didn't say a word.
His already hostile opponent had jabbed at his temper without warning, and a vein bulged on Hitokawa's forehead, but Eto ignored it and kept going.
"I hated you from the first time we met. You smelled bad. And your clothes were weird. Why do Ghoul Investigators always wear those white coats? My dad would've freaked out. He hates clothes that are too white because they show dirt too easily. I wanted to spend the weekend alone with Dad in peace, but then you showed up out of nowhere and asked us to go out. I thought you were a clueless person, too."
"Why do I have to keep listening to this Ghoul brat's merciless trashing? Don't tell me you came all the way here just to say that?"
Just as Hitokawa, on the verge of blowing his top, was touching the switch on the steel case and debating whether to open it or not, Eto let out a long sigh and continued.
"But Dad likes Mister Hitokawa."
"...!"
"He always said you were his world's best friend, someone he'd shared both hardship and joy with since childhood. Dad knew you well. He was always worried that if you ever found out who I was, things would end up like this. That's why he kept it a secret until now. He didn't want to destroy the everyday life the three of us had—me, Dad, and Mister Hitokawa."
"Don't make me laugh."
Hitokawa cut her off, grinding his teeth. He didn't want to hear any more.
"A monster that eats people isn't part of everyday life. It's a tower built on sand. If you live there, someday the whole thing collapses and buries you alive. Human and Ghoul trying to live together... you think you're the only ones who ever tried that?"
"...!"
Eto flinched slightly at hearing something she'd never heard before.
The history of humans and Ghouls was surprisingly long. In all that time, it wasn't as if there had never been miraculous relationships between them.
She wanted to hear it. But she also didn't want to hear it.
Just looking at the blazing hostility in Hitokawa's eyes made it obvious that all of it would end in tragedy.
"If you dig through the CCG archives right now, you can find them easily. There've been a few cases in the past, too. Humans and Ghouls trying to live together. You know how those ended?"
"...."
"Every single one of them was a tragedy. A Ghoul lover ate their human partner. A human took pity on a Ghoul's abandoned baby and raised it, only to be eaten by the Ghoul once it grew up. There was even a case where a Ghoul tried to raise an orphaned human child, but one day, after losing their reason to hunger, they ended up eating them. The relationship between humans and Ghouls is like the two ends of a balance scale. If the weight shifts to one side and the scale tips, everything falls straight into the abyss. That's your relationship!"
"That's different…!!"
"Different!? You want to say you're different?"
Then let me ask you this!
Hitokawa strode up to Eto and shoved his face close, glaring at her fiercely.
For a Ghoul like Eto, it was close enough to kill her if he wanted to, but Hitokawa didn't care.
He thrust his chin forward as if daring her to try something and opened his mouth.
"Have you never once looked at Koma as 'food'?"
"...!!"
Was her voice caught for a moment because of the weight of those words? Or because of the pressure from Hitokawa, hardened by years of Ghoul extermination?
"I saw the scar on Koma's right arm, too. No matter what you say, my decision won't change. You're going to Cochlea. That's the furthest I'm willing to compromise. Be grateful I'm not taking your life right this second."
Clench!
Hitokawa gripped the handle of the steel case so hard it creaked. It was a threat, as if he might pull out a weapon and swing it at any moment.
Maybe the pressure broke her. Eto lowered her head deeply. Hitokawa stepped back from her again and said, "I'll give you one day. Turn yourself in. Then you won't be treated too harshly in Cochlea. And Koma's crime for hiding and raising a Ghoul will be lighter...."
"...There's one more reason I hate you, Mister."
Then Eto cut him off and lifted her head again.
"You're good at lying, aren't you? That's why I hate you."
"...!?"
This time, it was Hitokawa's turn to flinch.
"Sending me to Cochlea isn't because you're compromising. It's because that's the only thing you can do, isn't it? Because deep down, you don't actually want to kill me with your own hands."
"What nonsense are you spouting! What do you know about me!!"
"I know. You and I think pretty much the same way, Mister Hitokawa."
With a heart free of lies and clear, transparent eyes, Eto continued, reflecting Hitokawa's flustered expression like a mirror.
"I hate Mister Hitokawa, but I like the Mister Hitokawa that Dad likes."
"...!?!?"
Hitokawa opened and closed his mouth, unable to get any words out.
"You're the same, aren't you? You hate me as a Ghoul, but you didn't hate the Takaki Eto you've seen until now—the 'daughter of Takaki Koma.' That's why you didn't immediately drag in the other Investigators and choose to kill me. Someone who truly hates Ghouls from the bottom of their heart doesn't think about context or circumstances. They just try to kill them on the spot."
For some reason, Eto felt like she had seen such a human a very long time ago. She couldn't quite remember.
Eto jumped down from the stairs. Then she turned her back on Hitokawa and walked away.
"I came to say this. I will never kill Mister Hitokawa. I want to go back to the way things were when Dad, Mister Hitokawa, and I... used to laugh and talk with the manager at the shop. I'll do everything I can for that."
She paused slightly, looked back at Hitokawa, and held up one finger.
"You're coming to our house tomorrow to settle things with Dad, right? I'll be joining in then, too. It'll be two against one, so be prepared. Worst case, I'm ready to run away with Dad to the ends of the earth."
"...."
Leaving the dazed Hitokawa behind, Eto walked off with a somewhat refreshed expression.
Her back as she left made it seem like the rest of the conversation could wait until tomorrow at their house.
Hitokawa stood there like a mute for a while, then finally scratched his head hard.
"Damn it... that brat's been annoying since way back."
Feeling like he'd been dealt a nasty blow, Hitokawa returned to the CCG building.
He collapsed into his chair like a soaked cotton wad. Then his eyes fell on the document envelope on his desk, torn open at the mouth and left there.
"My head's a mess and I don't want to deal with it... but I should probably check it."
In a listless motion, Hitokawa turned the envelope over and shook out the contents.
A CCTV photo and a single composite sketch fluttered down onto the desk. He slowly checked them.
"...?"
Confusion appeared on Hitokawa's face.
He straightened up and looked at the photo again.
Hitokawa's face stiffened.
He compared the CCTV photo and the composite sketch.
His stiff expression twisted into shock.
"Koma―――!!!!"
Knocking his chair over, Hitokawa shot to his feet and sprinted with all his might.
I opened the front door with a puzzled expression.
Standing there was a beautiful woman, smiling sweetly at me.
"What? You weren't gone already? 'Shinaoto.'"
Shinaoto Minami.
Long wavy brown hair and a lovely face. But I knew this woman had a pretty strange personality.
I'd heard from Eto that she'd gone back while Hitokawa and she were arguing, so why was she back?
Minami stuck out her tongue as if she'd made a mistake and tapped her head lightly.
"Sorry, sorry~ I forgot and left something important behind."
"What. You're really careless... What kind of thing?"
"Mm. My panties."
"...…Huh?"
"Just kidding~ Don't make such a serious face~ But it's true I left something behind, so can I come in?"
I was still feeling uneasy, but I let her in.
As I took off my slippers at the entrance, I asked Minami, "So what did you forget?"
"That would be..."
Bam―――!!!
At that moment, the world shook with a heavy impact.
My body wouldn't obey me. Even as I collapsed, I couldn't get myself back into a proper posture and just went sprawling.
Only after I hit the floor did the violent pain spread from the back of my head. And the smell of blood.
I tried to make my brain work to figure out what had happened, but a sudden wave of nausea rose up and churned everything into a blur.
I couldn't make sense of anything.
All I could do was barely turn my head and look behind me.
"What I forgot was... you, of course♥"
There, Minami was smiling with an innocent childlike face, a metal pipe in one hand.