"...Haa."
Hikokawa let out a sigh and closed his phone. At the same time, the other phone lying by his feet cut off its ringing too.
He picked it up and checked the screen.
As expected, it was nothing but a list of missed calls from Hikokawa's number.
One of the teams assigned to watch Koma's house had definitely been here. Now they were gone....
"I'm looking for the standby team, but there's no one here and only a phone left behind.... Where did they disappear to? There's no sign of a fight...."
"...Ugh."
"Eto?"
Hikokawa, who had been checking the phone, turned at Eto's short groan.
Eto, who had followed behind him wearing sunglasses because she had suppressed her [Kagune] but couldn't control the surge of emotion enough to keep her [Kakugan] from showing, was staring into the depths of the alley.
"What is it? Did you find something?"
"...."
Eto said nothing and walked deeper into the alley. Sensing something ominous in her behavior, Hikokawa slung the metal case over his shoulder and followed.
There were a few bends, but overall the alley was a dead end.
Eto walked calmly along it, then suddenly stopped.
What she was looking at was an old trash can.
A cylindrical metal trash can that seemed to have lost its function of collecting garbage ages ago sat abandoned among the litter scattered through the alley.
After giving the silently staring Eto a strange look, Hikokawa walked toward the can.
"What's with this trash can?"
"Don't open it."
Hikokawa, who had reached for the lid, froze at Eto's tense voice.
That one line made Hikokawa imagine something terrible.
"If you open it... you'll regret it."
"...!!"
Eto's grave expression. The expression of a human Eto rejecting the "fragrance" wafting from the trash can. The meaning was simple and clear.
Hikokawa bit his lip and opened the lid.
Regret didn't matter.
He wanted to deny the ominous possibility that had just flashed through his head, so he checked inside the trash can.
And then....
"Which crazy bastard did thisssssssssssssssssssss――――――――――!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
The curse burst out before he could even gag.
The missing Ghoul Investigators.... The shock was that they were all crammed into this tiny trash can.
**
"Kehhehehe!!"
"...."
"Kehhehehehehe!!"
"...."
"Kehhehehehehehehehehehehehehehehe!!!!"
"...Hey, do something about your vice chief. I feel like I'm going to puke."
I felt a creeping unease that my old panic attacks might be coming back.
Because that vice-chief or whatever Ghoul was staring at my face from point-blank range.
Forget the grotesque insect-shaped mask.
The dark red [Kakugan] glistening behind it swayed dangerously like someone high on drugs, and he was drooling thick saliva from his mouth.
With him staring at me from that close and laughing like a lunatic, how was I supposed to stay sane?
The saliva flying everywhere along with the laughter and splattering all over my face was just a bonus.
"Ahh~ That? You mean that thing? That thing~. Yeah, that one."
Minami, who was busily moving her pen even though I had no idea what she was writing, answered me halfheartedly.
I frowned at the vice-chief's laughter ringing in my ear and asked, "What thing? What are you talking about?"
"Mm-hm~ Just last night you blew out our vice-chief's eye, didn't you? That grudge?"
"...."
"Kehhehehehehehehehe!!!!"
As if to say yes, the vice-chief's laughter grew even brighter.
Ah, that. The thing about how, while drunk, I had driven a Quinque fragment into the right eye of the guy who attacked me....
But I don't remember it. Saying you don't remember because you were drunk is a classic excuse from the guilty, but I really don't remember.
And if you think about it, they were the ones who attacked first, so they're the aggressors.
"Don't be so tense~. I told you our vice-chief is kind~. He may look like this, but he's such a warm-hearted man. Don't worry. You'll get along in no time~. Right, vice-chief?"
"Kehhehehehehehehehe!!!!"
No good. We were speaking completely different languages.
No matter what anyone said, the bastard just kept looking me over while laughing weirdly. The stress was making me feel like I was losing my mind too.
Anyway, I understood that the vice-chief had a grudge against me, but then why wasn't he killing me right away?
Did that mean his goal wasn't to kill me? Come to think of it, he had already been targeting me before I blew out his eye.
"What's the purpose of kidnapping me? Is it related to your company or something?"
"Mm? Should I say yes? Hey, Koma~ What do you think about this society?"
Why did this suddenly smell like a long-winded speech?
"Modern society is so cold~. Rapid advances in civilization have drained people's hearts of any room to breathe, and conflict just keeps increasing~. At times like this, what do we need? Across all ages and nations, what soothes the hearts of the weary is the existence of beauty. Art~!"
Whoosh!
Minami set down the pen she had been using and spread both arms wide toward me as she lectured.
"Art is a spiritual feast for the people living in this world! The body can survive by eating leaves by the roadside or dogs or whatever else comes its way, but when it comes to nourishing the mind, nothing beats art. That's our company's motto! 'Let's bring happiness and abundance to this society through art'~! How is it? Cool, right?"
"...."
Less cool than creepy.
What was this? It wasn't anything special just listening to it... but there was a definite sense of revulsion.
Minami kept talking about happiness and abundance, but the look in her eyes as she said it was twisted.
This wasn't something within the bounds of normal. If I had to compare it to anything, it was closer to a fanatic.
"Kehhehehehehehe!!!!"
The vice-chief's behavior, constantly inspecting me from every angle, was also unsettling.
He looked like a child wondering where to tear open the wrapping paper on a present first.
Feeling cold sweat trickle down my forehead, I asked, "For the record, what exactly is that art?"
"This~."
Minami held out the paper she had been scribbling on a moment ago in front of my eyes.
The instant I saw it, my breath caught.
"Human Disassembly Diagram"
This wasn't some anatomy chart from science class.
This was a process for dismantling and using the human body.
It detailed everything: the process of gouging out eyeballs, the process of evenly pulling out and repurposing individual muscle fibers, the process of leaving the ribs intact while removing the heart and lungs inside them, and all sorts of other steps. It even described, up to a point before cutting off, the process of creating a work using the "materials" extracted that way.
Beside the densely packed writing was a drawing of a human body disassembled in various places.
And beneath it, the name "Takaki Koma" was written clearly.
Minami smiled sweetly.
"From now on, you're going to be reborn as a work of art that will make the world happy~. This is the proposal~. I'm going to submit it to the manager, but I wonder if he'll approve it~? Last time, only the section chief's proposal, 'Tree,' got through~. What a shame~."
"Tr,ee...?"
My mouth wouldn't open properly from the shock, but the moment I heard that, something came to mind.
A photo Hikokawa had once accidentally shown me.
A Christmas tree that desecrated both holiness and corpses at the same time. Hikokawa had said it was the work of a Ghoul known as the "Artist."
"Don't tell me that corpse tree was...."
"Ah! You saw that? Wow~ this is embarrassing~. The work's title was 'Blood Christmas'~! It was the section chief's plan~. I helped a little too~."
"...."
I couldn't speak.
The fact that the people who made that insane thing were right in front of me made my soul feel like it was trying to leave my body.
So the "Artist" wasn't a single individual... it was a group?
This whole company was the Artist?
"Kehhehehehehehe!!!!"
"Ah~! No, Vice-Chief~! Don't crush the eyes! Koma's eyes are the most beautiful part~! They absolutely have to be used in this piece~!"
Still reeling from the shock, I caught sight of the vice-chief and Minami bickering.
It was so calm it didn't even look like they were discussing how to brutally ruin a person.
For them, this was normal.
It had already become part of their everyday life. They had not only taken countless lives, but also desecrated and humiliated corpses.
Ordinary Ghouls kill because they have no choice if they want to survive, but these people were different.
Their goal wasn't to eat.
They were just....
"Crazy bastards...."
Before I knew it, I had muttered it aloud. Minami, hearing that, turned to me and smiled brightly.
"Oh my, you've already figured us out? See? I told you we'd get along in no time~♪."