Screech! The blade of the Quinque greatsword cut through the belt binding my body. After that, Hitokawa propped me up and loosened the rest of the compression bandages.
"...So Eto is buying time by acting as bait all by herself right now?"
"That's the gist of it."
As he said that, Hitokawa flinched and stopped cutting at the knot.
"...You planning to beat me up?"
"What, you think I wouldn't?"
I was just waiting for him to finish unwrapping the bandages around my arms so I could land one good hit.
Hitokawa panicked. "H-Hold on, hold on, hold on! I told you, didn't I? We had no choice! It would've taken too long to call in the CCG, and if I'd gone out as bait, those guys would've gotten suspicious instead!"
"Hey. How old is Eto?"
"...Seven."
"Then what would you do if some bastard left a seven-year-old kid alone on a battlefield, saying she could shoot a gun and carry out the operation?"
"I'd beat the hell out of him... ... ..."
Exactly. No matter how capable she was in a fight, no matter how grown-up she acted, Eto was still a seven-year-old kid. And on top of that, I really did treat Eto like my own daughter and cherish her.
How was I supposed to keep my stomach from twisting when I knew that child was out there fighting those vicious bastards alone?
Even if, rationally, it was the best decision, emotionally it was another matter entirely.
"Later! I'll let you hit me later after everything's over, so just think about getting out of here right now!"
"Tch."
Sure enough, this wasn't the time for a leisurely fistfight.
Instead, I'd just increase the number of times I'd get to beat Hitokawa up for every wound on Eto's body.
"You definitely just thought something ominous, didn't you?"
"If you don't want to make that ominous thought a reality, hurry up and finish untying me so we can go help Eto."
"Ghk..."
Even while groaning, Hitokawa kept working at the bandages with renewed speed. But they'd been tied so tightly that they wouldn't come loose easily, so he ended up using the greatsword blade to cut them away.
While he did that, my eyes drifted to Minami, collapsed against the wall.
Maybe because she'd taken a direct hit from the metal case, one of her arms was visibly swollen. It looked like it would take a while before she regained consciousness, too.
"So what exactly was that woman, anyway..."
"What? You mean Shinaoto Minami?"
"Yeah. She's the one who kidnapped me. She kept spouting all kinds of weird stuff, like how she was a regular employee at this Ghoul company and how she wanted to become a Ghoul."
At that, Hitokawa let out a disbelieving laugh.
"Ha! She wants to become a Ghoul? That's even worse than I heard."
"What? You know her?"
"Of course. As soon as I found out she was the one who'd extracted the [Q Bullet] delivered to you, I looked into her from a few angles. There was a pretty famous incident about seven or eight years ago. The 21st Ward new cult massacre."
"...!"
I'd heard of it before.
It was the incident where the executives of a cult holding a gathering in the 21st Ward were attacked by Ghouls and slaughtered in large numbers. It had been covered pretty heavily on TV and in the newspapers.
What made the incident unusual wasn't the attacking Ghoul, but the religious group itself.
They were a group that worshipped Ghouls.
They called Ghouls proof of a new evolution beyond humanity, transcendent beings, and revered them. They were trying to replace fear of Ghouls with awe and assimilate it that way.
To the world, it was obviously insane, but wherever you went, there were always one or two lunatics willing to follow insanity.
That small group, existing in the shadows of society, suddenly collapsed in a horrific way and was exposed to the world.
The irony of a group that worshipped Ghouls in order to forget their fear and secure their own safety being annihilated by Ghouls was exactly the kind of gossip the world loved to chew on.
Various media outlets started talking about it like they were experts, and then, as time passed, it was forgotten.
Incidents like that were like chewing gum. At first they tasted sweet when people kept talking about them, but after a while the flavor went out and they got spat out.
There were too many tragedies in the world to keep chewing the same gum forever.
I was one of the people who had glanced at that unusual incident and then forgotten it before long.
It wasn't that I'd lost interest. I just hadn't had the luxury to think about it.
How was I supposed to care about world affairs when some old man I knew had shown up asking me to take care of his child?
I never expected I'd run into that fading incident again like this.
"I know about it. But what about it?"
"The names of the cult leaders were Shinaoto Yakashi and Shinaoto Yozuka."
"...Shinaoto?"
For a moment, I thought I'd misheard him. The cult leader's surname sounded far too familiar.
As if to confirm my suspicion, Hitokawa jerked his chin toward Shinaoto Minami.
"That woman's the cult leader's daughter."
"..."
My gaze naturally shifted to Minami, still lying there unconscious.
From her behavior to her beliefs, I'd already guessed her past wasn't normal, but actually learning the truth hit differently.
A group that worshipped Ghouls.
I didn't know when it had started, but if it had existed for more than twenty years, then she must have grown up in an environment warped from childhood.
'So that's why she reacted to the keyword "parent"?'
As I kept looking at Minami, Hitokawa continued.
"And at the same time, she was the only survivor of that massacre."
"...She was there?"
"I don't know whether the Ghoul took pity on her because she was a child or whether she was hiding. But when the investigators arrived at the scene, they said she was just staring blankly at a field of bodies torn to pieces. What's even more ridiculous is what she said for the first time after the investigators took her in."
-It was beautiful.
What had she found beautiful back then?
The Ghoul that killed people? Or the death that filled the place?
Either way, it was enough to make your skin crawl.
"After that, the CCG took her in at an orphanage they operated, but she left as soon as she became an adult. After that, her whereabouts went unknown. Who would've guessed she'd be participating in this kind of disgusting hobby in a place like this?"
Snap. Hitokawa cut through the last bandage.
Only then did my body finally regain its freedom. My skull and shoulders still hurt, but it wasn't enough to stop me from moving.
"Good. We can find out later what kind of hell she went through to become the psychopath she is now. For now, let's go help Eto."
"Wait. First we need to request backup from the CCG. Once they get here, we can retreat safely."
"You didn't contact them before coming in here?"
"I had no choice. If the timing was off, Eto would've ended up as a target for the reinforcements too."
Surprised by the unexpected answer, I stared at Hitokawa with wide eyes. I was shocked that he was actually taking Eto's side.
"Well, after everything that's happened, I figured splitting you two up would just make things more of a pain."
Uncomfortable under my gaze, Hitokawa turned his head away a little.
His words were blunt, but there was no trace of the suspicion or hostility from before. That made me smile without thinking.
"So you do understand Eto. Thanks."
"Anyway! Let's call for backup first. Since I've already rescued you, there's no problem with revealing myself now. From here on, Eto can pull back, and I'll hold off the Ghouls and buy time."
Unable to hide his embarrassment, Hitokawa pulled out his phone.
Just as he was pressing the buttons to contact the CCG, I caught a shadow rippling behind him.
"Hitokawa, behind you!!"
"...?!"
Hitokawa spun around reflexively.
Somehow regaining consciousness, Minami had crept up behind him and was swinging her axe wide.
Hitokawa's movement, which had been about to swing the greatsword in response, froze for an instant.
This greatsword was a Quinque. A weapon made to fight Ghouls.
He couldn't swing it at a human, and if he did, its power—too close to a Ghoul's—would surely split Minami's body in two along with the axe.
'Damn it!'
He abandoned the counterattack and switched to evasion. Fortunately, with his trained body and reflexes, he managed to slip out of the axe's path.
However, Hitokawa's phone wasn't so lucky.
The axe blade clipped part of the phone, and the impact knocked it out of Hitokawa's hand.
The screen shattered and part of the casing was sliced away. A few exposed components spilled out and hit the floor.
Clack.
Watching the broken phone roll across the floor, Hitokawa and I both hardened our expressions.
We'd lost our means of contacting the outside world. Our means of contacting the CCG.
In the midst of that shock, only a thin, lilting laugh rang out irritatingly in our ears.
"Hehehehe... I can't let this end with a happy ending... Someone's happiness is a very bad thing if it makes someone else unhappy."
Her hair was a mess. One arm was broken and wouldn't move.
With an axe slung in one hand while she muttered to herself, she looked insane to anyone who saw her.
"Be unhappy, Koma-kun. Be unhappy and make everyone happy!"
"I'm already plenty unhappy, you bitch!!"
"Likewise!!"
As she charged again, swinging the axe, the madwoman and I faced off against each other.