"Wait."
As Eto was about to step through the front entrance of the building where Koma had been taken, she frowned at Hitokawa's sudden restraint.
As they drew closer, the smell of Koma's blood grew thicker.
There was no doubt about it: he had been injured badly enough to bleed. The moment she realized that, heat surged through her head so fiercely she could have believed it was magma flowing through her skull instead of cerebrospinal fluid.
She was already in no mood to appreciate Hitokawa cutting off her momentum when she should have been tearing around and venting that heat on the spot.
"What is it?"
"Look at the ground."
The abandoned building had been left untouched for so long that sand, dirt, and dust had piled up thick from the entrance onward.
Hitokawa took a small flashlight from his coat and shone it on the floor.
Faint, but visible, were the outlines of footprints. They were fresh.
After comparing the sizes one by one, Hitokawa's brow furrowed.
"One, two, three, four... Damn it, that's too many. There are at least four enemies, maybe more."
The number was higher than expected, and Hitokawa immediately sensed that things had gone wrong from the very start.
Eto acted as if it didn't matter and tried to head inside.
"No matter how many there are, I'll just wipe them all out."
"I know you're confident in your ability, but stop while I'm still saying this nicely."
At Hitokawa's sincere warning, Eto stopped and looked back at him. She could feel the unusual weight in his words.
"Why?"
"That insect-masked Ghoul... He's more dangerous than he looks."
Hitokawa ran a hand over the large, bird-wing-shaped Quinque in his grasp. In the middle of the weapon was an unnatural gap, as if a feather had been torn out.
It was the wound left from their clash with the insect-masked Ghoul the previous night.
"The moment I blocked one of his attacks then, I could tell there was a clear gap in our level. And those two Ghoul Investigators we found in the trash bin? Both of them had more experience than me and were definitely skilled. That bastard killed them silently in a residential alley and left them like that. Based on the estimated rating alone, he's A+."
"Rating?"
"It's the hunting difficulty Ghoul Investigators assign before going after a Ghoul. If it's an A-rated Ghoul, you need to hunt it with a team led by at least a first-class investigator."
Hitokawa scratched his hair irritably, as if everything had gone off the rails from the beginning.
"Originally, I was planning to take that insect-masked bastard on with just the two of us. But if another Ghoul joins in... we'll be the ones going down before we even see Koma's face. Damn it! We came all this way, and we're getting stuck here?"
Even Eto, who was on the verge of losing her mind, couldn't simply brush off the words of an expert in fighting Ghouls.
She suppressed the [Kagune] that felt like it might burst out of her shoulders at any moment and thought it through.
To summarize Hitokawa's words: the insect-masked Ghoul was extremely strong. Eto and Hitokawa were supposed to fight together, but an unexpected variable had put them at a numbers disadvantage. Worse, the strength of that variable was unknown.
"For reference, what rating am I?"
At that, Hitokawa recalled the time he had clashed with Eto.
"A Ghoul using [Ukaku] can vary a lot in rating depending on experience and technique, but in terms of output alone, you're close to A-rank... Wait. Thinking about it now, that's weird. How is a seven-year-old putting out A-rank power? That's way too strong."
Considering that an ordinary Ghoul couldn't even exceed B-rank before dying of old age, Eto's [Kagune] output at such a young age was clearly overpowered.
He had been too focused on what had happened to Koma to notice it earlier, but now that he thought about it, it was absurd.
Despite Hitokawa's suspicious look, Eto proudly puffed out her chest.
"Hmph! It's the crystallization of my love with Dad!"
"Don't say something that sounds like Koma could get arrested if someone overheard it. It really does sound dangerous."
It seemed unlikely he'd get the answer he wanted from Eto herself.
He'd have to investigate that later. For now, they needed to deal with the problem right in front of them.
"First..."
Just as Hitokawa was about to come up with a new plan, Eto raised a hand and stopped him first.
"Someone's coming out."
"...!"
Following Eto's gaze, Hitokawa turned his head and caught the faint sound of movement from inside the abandoned building.
"Hide for now."
Ssshhk.
Spraying odor-eliminating mist meant to counter Ghouls with keen senses, Hitokawa pulled Eto into the bushes and hid.
After a moment, two silhouettes appeared from the front entrance, leaving the abandoned building behind.
"Damn it, so this project is being handed to that human woman? What is the manager thinking?"
"Let's not complain too much, Chief. Minami is still one of us."
"Do you really want that lunatic to be one of us, Section Chief? A human who wants to become a Ghoul? Even I, a Ghoul, can tell she's not right in the head. I don't know where the boss found someone like that."
The two silhouettes looked like ordinary office workers in suits. But the conversation they exchanged was unmistakably from a Ghoul's perspective.
Calling each other Chief and Section Chief was strange, but Hitokawa had seen enough insane Ghouls—and sometimes humans were even stranger than Ghouls—so he decided to let it go.
The tall, horse-faced man was called Chief, and the short, slight man was called Section Chief.
He didn't know about the Chief, but the Section Chief looked like someone Hitokawa could handle alone.
This was an opportunity.
Hitokawa whispered into Eto's ear.
"Eto, you know how to act cute, right?"
"What are you talking about all of a sudden? Looking for a fight?"
"If those two stay together, we don't have a chance. We need to split them up and take them down one by one. To do that, we have to pull them away from the building first. If we fight right in front of it, their allies can rush over immediately. Pretend you're a naive Ghoul kid and lure them out somehow."
"...Hmm. I get the point, but do you really think they'll fall for it that easily?"
"What's so hard about it? Just talk in a babyish voice like you're acting cute for your dad and they'll melt ri..."
"I'd rather cut out my own tongue. Asking me to act cute for the bastards who kidnapped Dad is disgusting."
"You're refusing so flatly that I almost feel sorry for them... Then how about pretending you're a lost child?"
"...I think I can do that."
After planning their operation in the bushes, Hitokawa and Eto soon put it into motion.
"Where are you headed now, Chief?"
"I need to find new material. There's a train I ride often, and I found just the right subject there. She was an OL with very nice legs. If I cut off that part and dress it up properly, I think it'll make a decent piece."
"Oh? That sounds good. Then I'll..."
It was while the Section Chief and the Chief were chatting and turning back toward the station that they heard a childish cry out of place in the deep pre-dawn city.
"Waaah~! Waaahhh~!"
"Huh? What's that sound?"
The two Ghouls turned toward the direction of the crying.
A small girl, about seven years old, was walking toward them while crying loudly.
Then, as if she had spotted the two Ghouls, she thrust forward her tear-filled, oversized eyes and opened her mouth.
"Hic! Hic! M-mom... Where's my mom...?"
"Hah? Why are you asking us for your mom? Get lost already."
The Section Chief barked at the girl without bothering to hide his annoyance. But the Chief stopped him with a hand and stepped forward.
"Hold on. It's a little unusual, but this smell is... Are you a Ghoul?"
Gulp... nod!
The girl nodded with a face that looked like she was trying hard not to cry.
Then, in a voice that couldn't stop hiccuping, she said, "Hic! I-I came out with my mom to get something to eat... hic! But my mom disappeared! P-please find my mom!"
"Tsk... Can't exactly pretend I didn't see this."
"Just leave her, Chief. What good does helping another Ghoul do us?"
As the Section Chief said, a Ghoul's enemy after Ghoul Investigators was another Ghoul.
They fought over feeding grounds, competed with each other, and more often than not, someone ended up dead.
There were plenty of stories about Ghouls in trouble being helped, only to be handed over as bait to Ghoul Investigators or stabbed in the back later.
He had said there was no point in helping, but the Chief shook his head.
"If it were another adult Ghoul, I wouldn't care either. But she's a child. You can afford to be a little kind to a kid who hasn't been dirtied by the world yet."
"Ugh. Fine."
"Little one. Where was the last place you saw your mom?"
The girl wiped away her tears and pointed in one direction.
The tip of her cute little finger led into a dark alley.
An ordinary person would hesitate to go in, but for Ghouls, there was no space more familiar than a place like this.
The girl took the lead and guided the two Ghouls, and their figures in office-worker suits disappeared into the shadows of the alley.