We pinned Minami down against the iron bed and used the compression bandages rolling around on the floor to bind her hands and feet. That should keep her from chasing after us and getting in our way for a while.
After I finished tying off her legs and let out a breath, Hitokawa, who was tying her hands behind her back, gave a low groan.
"What is it?"
"Look at this."
Following Hitokawa's lead, I moved around behind Minami and looked where his finger was pointing.
The tip of his finger was aimed at her clothes, which had slipped down a little during the fight. Beyond that was Minami's back.
The moment I saw it, I couldn't help drawing in a sharp breath. At the same time, the scar on my right arm throbbed.
What was on Minami's back was a scar, all right.
A scar like flesh had been bitten out and torn away. It was similar to the wound Eto had left on my right arm when she bit me, but the size was different.
Clearly adult bite marks. And not just one or two.
There were five or six visible even through the clothes that had slipped down. There were probably more of the same spread across her entire back.
"What the hell is this?"
"Who knows. My guess is this is..."
"...She was eaten by a Ghoul."
A languid voice cut into the middle of our conversation.
Startled, we looked straight ahead.
Her head was still bowed, but it was obvious Minami had already regained consciousness.
This was the second time we'd knocked her out, and she was already awake again? Was she used to this kind of pain?
"Eaten by a Ghoul? What are you talking about?"
Hitokawa asked.
Minami answered in a slightly hazy voice.
"You already know about my past, don't you? A group that worships Ghouls. Then there has to be a Ghoul they worship, right? It's not like there was some object worthy of idol worship."
"I was the sacrifice," she said, as calmly as if she were talking about someone else.
"My parents treated one Ghoul like a god. They kept saying things like this person would protect us from attacks by other Ghouls. So I was the sacrifice offered up to a Ghoul. Sacrifice sounds nice, but I was really just a snack."
"..."
"The first time, that Ghoul bit into the part near my shoulder blade and ate it. It hurt like hell. I had a fever for days afterward. But once the wound healed, they'd have another part torn off and eaten. Over and over and over. Thinking about it now, I guess they chose me because I was a child and healed quickly."
Her voice, which had been foggy a moment ago, had already cleared.
But she kept talking without stopping.
Rather than sounding like she wanted us to listen to her story, it felt more like she was just killing time while we finished restraining her with the bandages.
"My parents kept repeating like machines that being eaten by me was a noble thing. The believers would clasp their hands together and rejoice every time I was torn apart. I couldn't understand why they were so happy. My mother only told me that if I carried misfortune, other people would become happy. ...And then one day, a Ghoul attacked the site where our cult was holding a gathering."
So that was when the massacre happened.
As I was thinking that, she suddenly burst out laughing. As if what she'd seen then had been a genuinely hilarious comedy.
Only, the target of that comedy was a little different.
It wasn't the believers being slaughtered. Their stupidity was the comedy.
"The Ghoul we worshipped ran off with its tail between its legs. Can you believe it? The Ghoul we'd been feeding and pampering, believing it would protect us, was actually just a nobody in the Ghoul world. Isn't that hilarious?"
Minami looked for agreement, but neither Hitokawa nor I could laugh at all. We could only stare at her in silence.
She went on.
"Watching those stupid people's misfortune, I felt exhilaration. Only then did I understand what my mother meant. So this is how misfortune can make other people happy! I thought. And then I figured, I wish other people could know the happiness I feel too~ So when I later learned about the boss's existence, I immediately followed him. I thought if it was an artwork he spoke of, maybe I could spread the happiness and beauty I felt to the world."
As she said that, Minami tipped her head back and looked at me.
"What a shame~. I really believed a work made from you would work. I wanted to beautifully recreate those eyes that never lost their light even in a desperate situation."
"...Haa."
I sighed.
What she'd done was unforgivable, but when I traced it back to the root, I couldn't deny that I felt some pity.
I could see Hitokawa finishing the knot on the bandages. We needed to get to Eto quickly, but leaving Minami here like this felt unfinished.
If no one said anything, she'd keep chasing after illusions for the rest of her life.
"Sorry, but your dream will never come true. It's impossible."
"...? Why?"
"Humans have something called empathy. If they see someone fall, they worry they might be hurt. If they see someone sad, they feel sad too. The only times people can laugh at someone else's misfortune are when they're twisted themselves, or when they're watching slapstick comedy."
"No way. I really was happy when I saw their misfortune."
"Have you considered that your personality might just be twisted?"
Hitokawa, unable to stand it any longer, added a word.
Even so, Minami refused to back down. It was like dealing with a stubborn child.
"Happiness is relative. If you have nothing to compare it to, you won't even realize it's there. You need something to compare against for happiness to feel bigger."
"Haa... By your logic, I should be feeling happy when I look at your misfortune, right? Thinking I'm happier than you are. But I don't feel anything like that."
I looked at her bitterly.
"I just feel sorry for you. And sad."
"..."
She stared blankly, a whole cluster of question marks practically floating around her head.
As if she couldn't understand why I was saying I was sad.
"Why? I was trying to kill you."
"Exactly. That's what's so frustrating. Why the hell am I feeling sorry for some bastard like you...? And yet I still do."
"That's what human feeling is."
Hitokawa summed it up in one line. He probably felt the same way I did.
At that, Minami stared into space, blankly. Like she'd run into the wall of an unsolved math problem.
Yeah. Keep thinking about it.
Think and think until you understand it. The human heart.
She was a monster born in a world where human feeling had been lost, but I still hoped she could return to being human in the end.
Taking my eyes off Minami, I turned to Hitokawa.
"Let's go."
"Yeah. We've wasted too much time already."
Without hesitation, I ran out of the room with him.
Hoping Eto would be safe.
**
The place where Koma and Hitokawa had left Minami behind.
Minami sank into thought alone.
The common sense she had known was being denied. Whether she would tear it down and rebuild it, or cling to it to the end, was up to her.
They said humans had the ability to empathize. To hurt with another's pain, to grieve with another's sorrow.
Then what was she?
Why had she felt that exhilaration at slaughter?
Was it because she was out of step with humans? If so, was that her nature?
Amid the piling questions, she recalled one scene.
The Ghoul who had slaughtered the believers, leaving only her behind, and muttered as he walked away.
-...What a pitiful child.
Her wandering thoughts finally reached a conclusion.
Minami stared at the door where Koma and the others had disappeared and muttered,
"Liar."
She called Koma a liar.
He had lied to Minami after all.
"You can give it to someone, can't you? A reason to change."
**
"The Artist!? That bastard was really here?"
"What, you came without knowing?"
"How was I supposed to know the Artist had started a company? No, wait, was this even really a company to begin with?"
"If this is a company, then starting tomorrow every office worker in the world will be a saint."
While running up the stairs to the first floor with Hitokawa, we exchanged information.
Hitokawa, hearing about the Artist from me, grimaced in frustration.
"The Artist is a Ghoul classified as S-rank! At the very least, you'd need a first-class Investigator to even stand a chance against him! No matter how much Eto focuses on defense, if that guy's involved, it's seriously dangerous!"
"What!?"
This was bad. That boss, or the Artist, or whatever... damn it, it was confusing, so I'm just calling him the Artist.
Anyway, after that bastard took the call and disappeared, a fair amount of time had already passed. If a clash had started, it would have been long underway by now.
We finished climbing the stairs and ran toward the front entrance.
According to Hitokawa, the place where Eto was fighting was near the front door.
Even though we were inside the building, the dawn was gradually brightening, so we passed through a hallway where running wasn't a problem. Then Hitokawa threw something at me.
"Koma, catch."
"Huh...!"
I caught it reflexively. It was heavy, with the feel of metal. A familiar weight.
When I looked down at my hand, I was holding a pistol.
"Why a pistol?"
"I got it from a little girl on the way here. Keep it for self-defense. We don't know what's going to happen from here on out."
"...Got it!"
I didn't know what the circumstances were, but I'd ask later.
As I ran, I checked the pistol. By some coincidence, it was the same six-shot revolver I'd used years ago.
Only, unlike the old one that had held one blank, two live rounds, and three Q Bullets, this one had six Q Bullets loaded.
It was clearly a gun meant solely for fighting Ghouls.
And one of the rounds had already been used.
Thinking that five remaining shots might not be enough to put that bastard's face in the dirt, we reached the hall where the front entrance was located.
"...!!"
The moment I got there, I swallowed hard.
The concrete from ceiling to floor was covered in gouges. It looked like the traces of a monster with dozens of claws had raked through here in a frenzy.
There were huge holes in both the floor and the ceiling, and while the space beyond the hole in the floor was clean, the space beyond the hole in the ceiling was filled with the same kind of damage as the first floor.
"They fought their way up to the upper floor!"
The instant I turned to head back for the stairs, Hitokawa grabbed me.
"Wait a second, Koma!"
"What is it? If we don't go save Eto...!"
"Calm down and listen to your ears! Can't you hear that?"
At that, I shut my mouth and listened.
BOOM...!! BANG...!! BOOM! THUD!! KRAAANG!!!
A savage series of crashes, as if something was being smashed apart. Was that Eto fighting?
But the sound grew louder with each passing second, and the vibrations became clearer too.
"It's coming this way."
No sooner had Hitokawa said that than the ceiling exploded.
KRAAANG!!!!
Chunks of stone rained down like hail, and thick dust blocked my view.
Coughing, I spat out the dust that had gotten into my lungs and looked ahead. Something had fallen as the ceiling collapsed. My ears were still ringing from the blast.
I couldn't judge by sound. I had no choice but to focus on sight.
A faint silhouette began to emerge.
Someone was there.
Two figures were sprawled on the floor, and one person stood alone.
Who was it? Eto? The Artist? Or another Ghoul?
To prepare for the possibility of an enemy, Hitokawa and I tightened our grips on our weapons.
As the tense seconds dragged on, the dust slowly cleared.
What emerged from within it was...!