"...."
...First, stay calm. Count the primes. Slowly.
'2, 3, 5, 7, 11....'
With every digit, Eto took a measured step forward. By the time she reached nineteen, she had arrived at the center of the room.
There, at her feet, was a dark, crimson stain. It had been there long enough for the surface to dry into a brittle crust.
'34... 37....'
She dropped to her knees, reaching out to touch the patch of red. As her finger pressed down, the dried surface gave way, revealing the damp, viscous blood beneath.
An intoxicating scent of iron bloomed, stinging the tip of her nose.
'57.... 59....'
She stared at the blood clinging to her trembling fingertip. Her mind clung desperately to the sequence of numbers; it was the only thing keeping her tethered to reality. Slowly, agonizingly slowly, she brought her finger to her lips.
'71.... 73.... 79....'
Saliva pooled in her mouth, taking on a strange, shimmering hue. Her shy tongue peeked out, cautiously greeting the fingertip. The blood seared onto her taste buds like a brand.
'89.... 97โฆ 9... 77โฆ 054762119420820782...!!!!!!'
She had never touched drugs in her life, but she imagined this was what a high felt like. A dizzying, euphoric rush that threatened to melt her brain. Pleasure surged through her, a thorny vine growing from the root of her tongue to seize every nerve in her body. The prime numbers she had been using as an anchor shattered into a chaotic, unrecognizable mess of digits.
She could feel her right eye beginning to smolder, then ignite.
Eto's head was hung low, her face veiled in shadows, but through the darkness of her hair, the deep crimson of her ๐๐ข๐ฌ๐ถ๐จ๐ข๐ฏ pulsed with a violent, living light.
He was gone.
Nowhere was there any sign of her father. Nowhere was there even a trace of his presence. Only a terrified kitten, having witnessed something beyond its comprehension, peeked at her from the shadows and let out a pitiful cry.
The front door was wide open. The trail of her father's blood was unmistakableโit led across the floor, through the threshold, and out into the street before vanishing.
...It wasn't difficult to deduce what had happened.
"๐๐ฉ๐ช๐ค๐ฉ ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ฆ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐ฅ๐ช๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ด... ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐โโโโโโโโโโ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
The last remnants of Eto's composure snapped.
Her clothes tore as a wing-shaped ๐๐ข๐จ๐ถ๐ฏ๐ฆ erupted from her right shoulder. It stretched out like a jagged streak of light, and in a heartbeat, Eto's silhouette vanished from the house.
"Damn it! Why can't I reach the standby team?!"
As he sprinted through the streets, Hitokawa was seized by a violent urge to hurl his phone against the pavement. He couldn't get a response from any of the three teams assigned to monitor Koma's house. For all three to go silent at once meant only one thing: something had gone horribly wrong.
As he took the fastest route to Koma's home, Hitokawa glanced at the two papers gripped in his hand.
One was a CCTV still from the police station where the Q-bullets had been stolen. The thief was a woman with her face masked, someone who had somehow managed to bypass the security of the National Police Agency's armory. The safe containing the bullets had been forced open, and the culprit was seen holding a stolen pistol in one hand, flashing a 'V' sign at the cameraโa bizarre, eccentric display.
The other paper was a composite sketch based on witness accounts of a woman disguised as a janitor. While individual features differed slightly, the overall characteristics and the erratic behavior matched perfectly with a person Hitokawa knew.
'Minami Sinaoto! I knew something was off about her from the moment we met!!'
The stolen pistol and Q-bullets had been delivered to Koma under his father's name. While her ultimate motive remained a mystery, it was now clear that her approach to Koma had been no accident.
Hitokawa finally rounded the corner, Koma's house coming into view. It was midday, and the residential area was eerily quiet, the neighbors likely away at work. His eyes locked onto the roof of the house.
In that moment, a small shadow took flight from the rooftop.
"...Huh?"
At first, he thought it was a bird. But what bird had only a single wing? What bird bled a sinister, dark-red light as it flew?
...And did birds typically dive-bomb humans at the speed of sound?
"What the hell is that?!!"
Hitokawa frantically threw open his briefcase. As his ๐๐ถ๐ช๐ฏ๐ฒ๐ถ๐ฆ deployed and snapped into shape, the shadow of the flying object expanded rapidly, eclipsing his vision.
๐๐ฃ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฎโโโ!!!!!!
He barely managed to block the impact with Iwawashi, his wing-shaped greatsword, but the force was too much for his legs to bear. He was blown off his feet.
๐๐ฉ๐ถ๐ฅ!!
"๐๐ข๐ฉ!"
Hitokawa slammed into a nearby wall, a groan escaping his lips as agonizing pain flared in his back. He struggled to draw breath, but he couldn't afford to loosen his grip. If he faltered for even a second, the monstrous strength of the brat pressing down on his blade would crush him flat.
Hitokawa grimaced, looking up at the ghoul that had attacked him: Eto.
The sharp, composed girl who had visited him barely an hour agoโpromising not to kill him but warning him to prepare for a fightโwas gone. In her place was a ghoul, baring its fangs and growling like a wild beast.
He didn't know why her Kakugan had only manifested in one eye. All he knew was that both her eyes, the ghoul and the human, were bloodshot with pure, unadulterated rage. The ๐๐ฌ๐ข๐ฌ๐ถ burning like hellfire behind her back was a direct reflection of her state of mind.
"Did you finally show your true colors, you brat? Or did you just lose your damn mind? Which is it?!"
"Shut up, shut up, ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐!!! My dad!! Where did you take my dad?!?!?!?"
๐๐ณ๐ช๐ช๐ช๐ช๐ฏ๐ฅ...!!
Hitokawa's arms, using the greatsword as a shield, were beginning to buckle under the pressure of the Ukaku firing like a jet booster. If this continued, he really would be crushed.
'What is this strength?! This isn't the output of a ten-year-old ghoul!'
In terms of raw power, she was well beyond B-rate, pushing close to an A-rate. As Hitokawa struggled against the weight, the anomaly in Eto's words finally registered.
"W-wait! What do you mean 'where did I take Koma'?! Why the hell are you asking me? Did something happen to him?!"
"Don't play dumb!! Dad is gone!! There was blood on the floor!! And the investigators who were lurking around are gone, too!! Anyone can see you took him by force just to get him away from me!!!"
"Don't be ridiculous!!! I haven't told a soul about you yet!! I never gave the investigators any such orders!! If something happened to Koma, the culprit is someone else!!"
"...!!"
The relentless pressure of her rage suddenly wavered. Hitokawa could have swung his blade to knock her back right then, but he held his ground. If he attacked now, she would take it as a threat, and all hope for dialogue would vanish.
"Then who?! Who took my dad?!"
"Minami Sinaoto."
"!"
The last image of Minami flashed through Eto's mindโthe woman's mocking parting words and the unsettling aura she had left behind.
"And she's the one who sent the pistol and the Q-bullets to Koma. I have proof. That woman was targeting Koma from the very beginning for some twisted reason!"
"...."
๐๐ต๐ฆ๐ฑ!
Eto leaped off Hitokawa's blade. She landed a short distance away, her eyes regaining a sliver of rationality.
"...Where is she?"
"I have to find her. Now."
"And why should I trust you, Uncle?"
Hitokawa's brow twitched. The nerve of this brat.
"And what if you don't? Are you going to go charging around the city looking like that?"
"If I have to, I will."
Her tone had returned to normal, but her Kakugan and Kagune were still blazing with uncontrollable emotion. Hitokawa let out a dry, incredulous laugh.
"Why don't you just make yourself a target for every investigator in the city? I'll bet my own arm that you'll be dead before you find Koma."
"...."
"I know how absurd it sounds for you to trust someone who doesn't even trust you. But it's not like you have any other options, do you?"
๐๐ญ๐ช๐ค๐ฌ-๐ค๐ญ๐ข๐ค๐ฌ!!
Hitokawa folded the greatsword back into its briefcase. To put away his weapon in front of a ghoul was a massive gesture; even in her state of agitation, Eto understood its significance.
"This is an emergency. While we look for Koma, I'm not here as a Ghoul Investigator. I'm here as your father's friend. So for now, do things my way."
"...."
Eto glared at Hitokawa for a long moment before finally nodding and retracting her Kagune.
"...."
My stomach is turning. My head is throbbing. I tried to move my hand to touch the back of my skull.
๐๐ข๐ต๐ต๐ญ๐ฆ.
Before my hand could reach its target, the grating sound of metal stopped my arm cold. I grimaced and turned my head. My wrists were bound. Rusted, heavy shackles were chained to the wall.
"Oh? You're awake already? You could have slept a bit longer, you know."
"...Sinaoto."
"I told you to call me Minami~."
I was in a dark, damp room without a single window. There, the woman who had put me in this state sat by candlelight, leafing through a book. The flame reflected in her eyes as she looked at me.
Black sclera, red iris. The eyes of a ghoul.
I looked at herโexpectant, as if she were waiting for me to be shockedโand spoke calmly.
"What's with the pathetic ghoul cosplay?"
".......Oh? How did you know?"
Minami blinked, clearly caught off guard by my lack of doubt.
"I can tell by the gaze. My body has a physiological reaction to being looked at as 'prey.'"
I glanced down at the bite-shaped scar on my right arm. Then, I nodded toward the lead pipe leaning in the corner of the roomโthe very pipe she had used to bash my head in.
"Besides, ghouls don't use lead pipes. It's much easier and more efficient for a ghoul to just crush a human skull with their bare hands."
"๐๐ถ๐ถ๐ถ๐ฏ๐จ~ I see. You're quite well-informed, aren't you?"
Minami sounded genuinely disappointed that her ruse had failed. she reached up to her eyes. A pair of colored contact lenses came out.
"What the hell are you? I'm guessing that whole 'office worker' thing was a lie."
"Hmm? No, that's not a lie~. I really am the lowest-ranking employee in my company. It's just... not exactly a normal company."
๐๐ณ๐ช๐ฑ. ๐๐ณ๐ช๐ฑ-๐ฅ๐ณ๐ช๐ฑ.
As she beamed at me, a wet liquid dripped onto my head from above. I looked up, and immediately regretted it.
"๐๐ฆ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ฉ๐ฆ!!!"
There, clinging to the ceiling and walls like a spider with elongated limbs, was a ghoul. Its face was concealed by an insect-shaped mask.
Is this the one? The ghoul that attacked Hitokawa and me? It was my first time seeing it while conscious. It looked down at me with a grotesque laugh, salivaโor something elseโdripping from its jaws. Even with my hardened nerves, it was a revolting sight.
"This is our Section Chief~. I ran into him by chance on my way back to the office. I think he was right in the middle of a meal. Since we met, he was kind enough to help me kidnap you~."
"...Section Chief?"
"Yep. Section Chief. Don't worry. He looks and acts like that, but he's actually the kindest person in the company. We also have a Team Leader, a Senior Manager, and a General Manager. Though, I haven't seen the President's face in quite a while."
I was momentarily dazed. What did that make this 'company' she worked for...?
"A company run by ghouls?"
"Ding-dong! Correct~! And I'm the only girl and the lowliest grunt among them. 'The human who wants to be a ghoul,' Minami Sinaoto, at your service! Yay~ Applause~!"
"๐๐ฆ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ฉ๐ฆ!"
๐๐ญ๐ข๐ฑ, ๐ค๐ญ๐ข๐ฑ, ๐ค๐ญ๐ข๐ฑ.
As Minami clapped, the thing on the ceilingโthe Section Chiefโfollowed suit, clapping along. What the hell is wrong with these people...
If I felt like I was losing my mind, it definitely wasn't just because of the head injury.