The vibrant city lights streaked past the window in a blur of neon. In the reflection of the glass, Eto was visible, her eyes fixed on the documents she was flipping through.
"...Is this for real?"
Eto couldn't hide the look of sheer revulsion on her face after reading through the dossier Hitokawa had handed her.
"The world is a big place, and it's full of lunatics," Hitokawa remarked, his hands steady on the steering wheel, sensing her disgust.
The file she was currently reading contained the information Hitokawa had managed to scrape together regarding 'Minami Sinaoto.' Initially, he had expected the search to be difficult, but remarkably, the data had been easy to find. This woman, Minami, had been brazen enough to use her real name rather than an alias.
As Eto processed the files, she was experiencing, in real-time, the same mounting horror Hitokawa had felt while gathering them. She let out a heavy sigh and looked out the window.
The skyline gradually dipped lower, and before long, the towering buildings vanished, replaced by a vast, sprawling darkness. Even with the windows rolled up, the sound of the tide was audible. They had reached the coastline of the 12th Ward.
Hitokawa eased off the accelerator. Since few vehicles frequented the coast in the dead of night, moving at a snail's pace wasn't an issue.
"We've reached the 12th Ward coast... but what now? This shoreline is far too vast to search blindly."
"It's not a problem. Just maintain this speed."
Eto rolled down the window as she spoke. A salty tang drifted in on the chilled sea breeze. She leaned halfway out of the window and closed her eyes. Hitokawa was initially confused, but he soon realized she was searching for a scent.
"Can you actually find someone like that?"
"Don't underestimate a ghoul's sense of smell. A shark can detect a minute amount of blood from kilometers away. And if it's my dad's blood, I won't miss it."
While it was a reassuring statement given the circumstances, Hitokawa felt a chill run down his spine. Perhaps it was the stark reminder of how fundamentally different she was from a human.
It was a surreal situationโa human and a ghoul racing through the night in the same vehicle. This wasn't something you'd see even in a movie, and if the CCG ever found out, a simple letter of apology wouldn't be enough to save his career.
Above all, Hitokawa and Eto had nearly come to blows just hours ago. Now, they were temporary allies, united by the crisis surrounding Koma. But what would happen after they successfully rescued him?
'What should I do then...?'
He agonized over the question, only to reach the conclusion that even having such doubts made him a failure as a Ghoul Investigator. What was there to think about? Instances of ghouls and humans coexisting had never ended well.
Eto and Koma were a ticking time bomb simply by being together. If they weren't isolated, tragedy was inevitable. Eto must go to the detention center. He couldn't back down from that stance. It would be a tragedy for both of them, but it was better than the greater sorrow that would surely follow.
'But...'
He stole a glance at Eto's profile. Her face was set in a grim mask of concentration as she meticulously parsed the air outside the window. She was genuinely worried about Koma, desperately trying to find him.
'Damn it! Stop looking like that! You're making my head spin! If you're a ghoul, can't you at least act like one?'
The ghouls he knew were cruel and cunning. They were the type of creatures who would use their own family as bait if it meant their own survival. Hitokawa had arrested or killed dozens of them over the years.
But with Eto, that classification was becoming increasingly difficult to maintain. When he first learned the truth, as he had told Koma, Hitokawa had no reservations about imprisoning her. He had believed that every moment he'd spent with Eto had been a calculated performance designed to deceive him.
But even after knowing she was a ghoul, Eto was still Eto. She adored her father, she was prickly toward Hitokawa, and she was an uncanny mix of precocious maturity and childish vulnerability. Aside from the fact that she was a ghoul, she was virtually identical to the girl he had known for years.
He realized, with a sinking feeling, that the sorrow of her imprisonment might actually extend to him as well.
"๐๐ณ๐ณ๐ณ๐ณ๐ณ๐ณ๐ฉ...!!"
Hitokawa, forced to admit he was wavering, pressed his forehead against the steering wheel to steady himself.
"It's dangerous to drive like that."
"I know."
While Eto was tracking Koma's scent, she was also reading Hitokawa's reactions. She didn't know what he was struggling with, but her voice had a sharp edge to it, as if telling him to focus on the task at hand.
"Can I ask you something?"
"Is it important?"
"Maybe not, so ignore it if you want, but... why are you going to such lengths to save Koma?"
Eto turned to glare at Hitokawa, her expression suggesting she thought he was asking something incredibly stupid.
"He's my dad. It's obvious."
"I know you know he's not your biological father. You're going to save him even though there's no blood relation?"
"๐๐ข๐ข๐ข๐ข..."
Eto sighed. To her, the question wasn't even worth discussing. She had found the answer to that a long time agoโon the day she and Koma had fought the police ghoul together.
"Blood relation doesn't matter. I believe he is my father, and he treats me as his daughter. What more do we need? No matter what anyone says, he is my precious family."
...This kid. She has to have lived twice as long as she looks. How could those words come from a girl who had just started elementary school? Hitokawa didn't know whether to be impressed or exhausted. If every overprotective father in the world heard a daughter say that, they'd cry a river of tears.
"...And," Eto continued.
"And?"
Hitokawa stole another glance at her. Eto, still scanning the darkness outside, spoke with an expression he had never seen before.
"Even if Dad didn't treat me as his daughter... even if we were strangers instead of family... as long as it is the human named 'Takaki Koma,' I will save him. Always."
"...."
Hitokawa's body went rigid. They say crisis accelerates growth, but wasn't this a bit too much? For a fleeting second, the aura radiating from Eto was nothing like a daughter's. And it certainly wasn't a ghoul's.
It was more like... a woman making a sacred vow for the sake of the person she loved.
Hitokawa forced himself to stop thinking. This was dangerous. This was a Pandora's Box. He didn't know what the future held, but he began to worry for Koma's well-being after the rescue. Specifically his chastity... or perhaps his legal status....
'Maybe isolation really is the answer...'
While Eto desperately searched for Koma's scent, Hitokawa found himself descending into a very different kind of serious concern.
"๐๐ฏ๐บ๐ข~ ๐๐ฏ๐บ๐ข~. ๐ป๐ป๐ป..."
Minami, who was supposed to be guarding me, had somehow fallen into a doze while sitting in her chair. I couldn't sleep because of the tension, but I felt the weight of exhaustion. The night was growing deep.
Watching Minami closely, I wrapped the chain around my hand. I pulled at the stake in the wall, careful not to let it make a sound.
๐๐ญ๐ข๐ฏ๐จโฆ! ๐๐ญ๐ข๐ฏ๐จโฆ!
Because I had loosened it earlier, the stake moved significantly. Just a little more and it would come outโ
"N-No! Koma-kuuuuun~~!!"
"!!?!"
I thought my heart was going to stop. Minami had suddenly bolted upright without any warning. Had I been caught? But Minami did nothing; she just sat there. Her eyes were half-open, blinking into the void. It was clear she was barely conscious. Was that... sleep-talking?
'That was one hell of a sleep-talk session...'
Regardless, I quickly reset the stake and the chain. A moment later, as she fully regained consciousness, Minami wiped the drool from her mouth and hurriedly looked toward me.
"Koma-kun!! Oh, thank goodness~. You weren't taken away~!"
"I'm already a prisoner. Where would I be 'taken away' to?"
I wasn't particularly curious about her dream, but the stake was slightly out of its original position. To distract her, I asked what she had dreamed about.
"Well~ I had a dream where Koma-kun was arrested by the police for violating the Protection of Juveniles and Youth Act~."
"๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐!?!?!!"
I would have been better off not asking.