The body of the one who had been alive just moments ago crumbled like a rotten tree, collapsing into ruin.
The thing that settled beside it was a fledgling owl that had only just learned to fly.
A fledgling... was it?
That question suddenly crossed his mind.
When does a fledgling owl become an adult?
When it finishes molting and grows? When it learns to beat its wings and leaves the nest?
No. No, that wasn't it....
Just because it grows larger, just because it learns how to fly, that doesn't mean it has become an adult.
There is only one time a fledgling owl becomes an adult.
When it learns how to hunt.
When it tears apart and kills the small animal its mother brought back, with its own beak and talons.
Eto needed to know how to kill.
She needed to know the sensation of killing.
Because she instinctively understood that if the day ever came when she had no choice but to kill someone, a single moment of hesitation could make her lose everything.
So she learned the feeling of killing with her own hands.
Because she had decided that she could no longer remain a fledgling.
So she killed, carrying the guilt of taking someone's life.
An owl becomes a proper hunter.
And when Hitokawa realized that, he felt a rage he could not contain rising up inside him.
**
His heart was pounding.
It throbbed as if it might burst at any moment.
Blood, still warm, soaked his hands. Heat climbed from his fingertips all the way to his brain.
By contrast, the corpse of the Ghoul with the pierced heart was cooling rapidly. It was like truly understanding the concept of taking a life.
Fwooo....
The cold dawn wind swept through the space they stood in.
It felt as if it were cooling her overheated head, and Eto let out a small breath.
Her head felt hazy.
This sensation, like being slightly drunk, was not unfamiliar. She felt as though she had experienced it somewhere before.
When had she felt this way?
...Right. That time.
"When I chewed and swallowed Dad's flesh."
The same intoxication lingered now. Of course, that time had been far more ecstatic.
"...Ah. Right, Dad. I have to find Dad."
Find Dad... and do what, exactly?
Her foggy head interfered even with that line of thought.
Even so, she did not forget what she had to do now. She moved only her [Kakugan] and looked at the Ghoul whose arm had been cut off.
"...?!"
The Ghoul, who had been calmly dealing with Eto until just a moment ago, had shifted into a guarded stance.
It was not because his comrade had died and the fight had become two against one.
Something changed inside Eto, and that was what was setting off his alarm.
"If it's now... I think I can do it."
Do what?
Even Eto herself did not know the answer.
She would only understand naturally if she kept killing the thing in front of her.
Curving her body like a beast, Eto tensed both legs, ready to spring like a bolt of lightning....
Thwack!
The next instant, a blow to the back of her head snapped it sideways.
"~~~!!!"
The searing pain that rang through her skull drove out every trace of intoxication. Rubbing the swelling lump on the back of her head, Eto turned around with tears gathering in her eyes.
There stood Hitokawa, his face twisted in obvious displeasure, glaring at her with the hilt of his greatsword still extended. So that was what had hit her. No wonder it hurt.
"W-What are you doing!"
"That's what I want to ask you, you damn brat. What the hell do you think you're doing?"
"We already agreed beforehand that if necessary, we'd have no choice but to take the enemy's life!"
"I said I would take it! You weren't supposed to do it!!"
Hitokawa raised his voice, truly angry now.
The force of his fury was even stronger than when Eto's Ghoul identity had been exposed, and for a moment Eto shrank back.
"You really don't understand what you did wrong?"
"I-I know that killing is a bad act. So I'm prepared to be punished for this...."
"This isn't something you can just settle by taking responsibility, you idiot!!"
Grabbing Eto by the collar, Hitokawa shoved his face close to hers.
"Listen carefully! To me, you're nothing more than a Ghoul, but there's one person who's different: Koma. Everything I've seen of Koma's feelings toward you until now was definitely real! That's why he fought me when I said you had to be sent to Cochlea, and protected you anyway! He was trying to protect the everyday life you two were living together!! And now you go and try to step outside of that life yourself—what the hell am I supposed to do about that!?"
"...?!"
At those words, Eto finally understood why Hitokawa was angry.
Koma had not only been trying to protect Eto.
He had been fighting, even if it meant getting hurt, to protect the peaceful everyday life they shared.
And Eto had tried to destroy that.
She had overlooked the fact that the moment she learned how to kill, she herself would begin drifting farther and farther away from the ordinary life Koma wanted.
"I'll let this one go. But if you ever take someone's life again—no matter how much of a worthless piece of trash that bastard is, even if he doesn't deserve to live—if you kill someone again...."
Clank.
Hitokawa's greatsword came to rest against Eto's slender neck.
"I'll cut your throat right there and then...!!"
There was no falsehood in Hitokawa's eyes as he bared his teeth and issued the warning.
If that situation ever came to pass, he really would kill Eto without the slightest hesitation.
Even if it meant an irreparable break with an old friend, that was still far better than watching a friend "break together" with a daughter who had "gone off the rails."
Thud!
When Hitokawa let go of her collar, Eto sank weakly to the ground.
She was confused by the realization that what she had done for Koma might instead become the crack that shattered the life they shared.
Leaving Eto there, Hitokawa strode forward.
"Just stay there and watch."
With a clank, he hoisted the greatsword onto his shoulder and glared at the Ghoul in front of him.
"Killing Ghouls is my job."
**
"Hmm... what is this. An internal conflict?"
The section chief watched Hitokawa shouting at Eto and briefly assessed the situation.
The look Eto had shown when she killed the chief was truly dangerous.
It was as if she were intoxicated by something, sharpening her claws to hunt prey. His survival instincts had been screaming warnings.
This was the first time the section chief had felt such danger since the day he had faced the [Owl].
He knew the time to attack was now, while the two of them were distracted, but after seeing that look on Eto's face, he couldn't bring himself to move rashly.
Just as he was thinking it might be better to flee all the way back to the company, something unexpected happened. Eto sank down and stopped moving, as if she had lost all will to fight.
And when he saw Hitokawa striding toward him with what looked like a Quinque slung over his shoulder, the section chief let out a dry laugh.
"Unbelievable. You're coming at me while deliberately cutting your own strength?"
"I brought that brat along as backup. From the start, I was the one planning to take you down."
Hitokawa stopped about ten meters away from the section chief.
It wasn't a short distance, but in a fight against a Ghoul, it was by no means a long one.
"That's a relief for me. Honestly, I was a little worried about having to fight that kid just now."
"You were scared of a brat who just got into elementary school? If you can't act your age, why not wear diapers while you're at it?"
Hitokawa sneered, one corner of his mouth lifting.
The section chief's brow twitched in irritation.
He had already been stung by the fact that he'd felt threatened by a child as young as Eto.
"I was thinking of backing off, but I guess that won't do. I'll leave the brat alone, but I'm going to rip your mouth apart before I retreat."
"Try it if you can."
Bang!
The moment the words left his mouth, the section chief kicked off the ground and charged.
Running low, almost as if sliding across the earth, a metallic Kagune burst from his back.
Hitokawa also gripped the greatsword with both hands and set his stance. His Quinque, [Iwawashi], was also [Koukaku].
[Koukaku] versus [Koukaku].
That meant....
"A battle of weight!"
For both Ghouls and trained Ghoul Investigators, [Koukaku] was heavy.
The key to the fight was how effectively that heavy weapon could be used.
In that sense, the section chief's decision to lower his stance and charge was suspicious to the extreme.
After all, swinging a heavy weapon from high to low was far more effective than swinging from low to high.
A feint? Or a frontal attack disguised as a feint?
Should he dodge? Or counterattack?
Hitokawa, a Ghoul Investigator whose battles were decided by split-second judgment, reached his conclusion in an instant.
The veins stood out in his arm as he raised the greatsword over his head.
Then he brought it down with all his strength toward the section chief, who had already closed to point-blank range.
Even for a Ghoul, it would be difficult to suddenly change direction while sprinting at full speed like this.
"Idiot!"
At that moment, the section chief's body shot straight upward. The greatsword swung through the air just a hair too late to connect.
Under both of the section chief's arms as he leapt into the air—more precisely, beneath his palms—his Kagune extended down his arms in the shape of springs.
When a Ghoul's explosive leg strength met the metallic elasticity unique to [Koukaku], it produced movement that defied ordinary common sense.
In an instant, he had seized the space above Hitokawa's head.
The greatsword, already in motion, had gained too much momentum to stop midway.
In the end, the [Kagune] came crashing down toward Hitokawa's exposed head.
Puh-buh-bwoosh!!!
However, the swinging [Kagune] lost its force partway through.
An attack had come from an angle no one had expected.
"What...?"
"My Quinque, [Iwawashi]...,"
The thing that flew up from beneath the section chief's chin and embedded itself all over his body looked like feathers made of stone.
They were the feathers of the wing-shaped greatsword.
"...is a very rare Quinque that can attack at long range even though it's [Koukaku]."
When a button was pressed, feathers were launched in a volley in the direction they were facing. Each one was itself a Quinque, bullets capable of inflicting serious damage on a Ghoul's body.
Right after the greatsword was swung, the feathers were aimed directly at the section chief. Hitokawa had simply fired bullets at the enemy who had entered his range.
The section chief's stance broke as he took the barrage of bullets across his body while completely defenseless, and he fell from the air. Even then, he forced out words with difficulty.
"You... despicable...."
"Since when have we Ghoul Investigators ever fought you head-on?"
Ghoul Investigators always fight Ghouls. That is why they understand better than anyone how desperate the struggle is. Their power is far weaker than that of Ghouls.
Because they know that, they always seek ways for the weak to defeat the strong.
Deceiving Ghouls is the Ghoul Investigator's way of fighting.
As if to demonstrate that, Hitokawa twisted his body with all his strength, and the greatsword, driven by fierce momentum, cleaved the falling Ghoul's body in two.