"If we go any further, the coast ends. You haven't caught his scent?"
"...No."
Eto's response was barely a whisper, her hands clenched into tight fists. They had been driving along the coastline for over three hours, but Eto hadn't caught the scent of a ghoul, let alone Koma.
Hitokawa checked the clock. The hour hand was creeping toward 4:00 AM. In about an hour, the first light of dawn would break. With every passing minute, the probability of Koma being found alive grew slimmer. Feeling the weight of that reality, Eto gripped the fabric of her trousers until her knuckles turned white.
"Don't get impatient."
𝘚𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘦𝘦𝘤𝘩.
Hitokawa spoke as he deftly navigated a sharp curve.
"If you get anxious at the most critical moment, things only get worse. Stay calm. He wasn't on the coast, but he's definitely nearby. Let's head further inland and search there."
"...Understood."
She nodded, knowing he was right. But knowing something intellectually and feeling it emotionally are two very different things—a truth that applied to ghouls and humans alike. Hitokawa stole a glance at her; she reminded him of himself during his rookie days. The anxiety of whether he could do the job, the terror of what he might find at the end of a trail—if you let those feelings control you, you'll never perform when it counts.
'Tch...'
Hitokawa recalled the senior investigator who had trained him. That man used to ramble about things completely unrelated to the investigation. Only now, years later, did Hitokawa realize it was a tactic to bleed off the tension. Hitokawa didn't have that man's silver tongue, but he did have a story that might pique Eto's interest.
"You know, once upon a time..."
"?"
He felt a bit embarrassed to start, but seeing Eto actually turn her head toward him, he couldn't stop now. Ah, what the hell, he thought, and dove in.
"The truth is, I used to be a victim of bullying."
"I couldn't be less interested."
The steering wheel nearly slipped from his hands. He almost plowed into a streetlight.
'This brat...!!!'
He was baring his soul with a serious confession, and that was the response? Well, if a prickly attitude was her trademark, she was certainly staying on brand.
"Just shut up and listen."
"...."
Eto turned her gaze back out the window, searching for Koma's scent, but her ears were clearly tuned to Hitokawa. Seeing her listen, he continued.
"It was around the third grade. Back then, I was small for my age and incredibly timid. Unfortunately, there was this kid in my class with a nasty temper. He was huge—didn't even look like an elementary schooler—and he was strong. A kid like me was the perfect target for him."
"So you were the weakling protagonist from a cartoon, then?"
"Hey, I wasn't that pathetic."
Though a coward who just sat there and took it shouldn't really talk, he refused to be compared to a kid who tried to solve every problem with gadgets and almost destroyed the world in the process. Anyway, back to the story.
"He tormented me constantly. The other kids in class just looked the other way, but a few of them actually joined in. They'd put dead insects in my desk, throw spoiled milk at my back, trip me in the hallway and laugh... and I just took it. I was powerless."
"...."
"That was when Koma transferred to our school."
At the mention of Koma, Eto's ears practically perked up. She was like a rabbit that had ignored a human until the scent of a carrot caught its nose.
"At first, I didn't think much of it. As long as he didn't join the pack, I didn't care. But then, Koma saw it. He saw me being bullied."
"The rest is obvious. My dad stepped in and saved you, didn't he?"
Eto puffed out her chest, looking immensely proud. She had watched Koma for a long time; she was certain that was exactly what he would have done. Hitokawa let out a bitter laugh and shook his head.
"Actually, he called me up to the roof and beat the living hell out of me."
"...Excuse me?"
Eto blinked, looking as though she'd just heard something impossible. It was like the rabbit had bitten into the carrot only to find out it was a bitter pepper. Being a well-read child, she mentally parsed the subject and predicate and reached the same conclusion: the person who beat Hitokawa up on that roof was definitely Koma.
"Are you sure it wasn't someone with the same name? Or a different person with a similar surname?"
"It was the Takaki Koma we know," Hitokawa said with a dry chuckle, leaving Eto in a state of shock.
"My... my dad was a juvenile delinquent...!!"
"Well, not exactly. You see, the truth is..."
"I'm even more attracted to him now!"
"...Hey, wait a minute. You just love anything to do with Koma, don't you?"
He looked at the brat, her eyes sparkling as she imagined her father's "dangerous" past. He was starting to feel that the danger Eto posed wasn't just her ghoul nature—it was something else entirely.
"So, what happened to the Hitokawa-san who got beat up by the Dad who moved schools to distance himself from his secret martial arts mastery but was forced to use it to discipline a student who lacked pride?"
"You should write a novel in your spare time. How did you weave such an elaborate plot in ten seconds?"
He wondered if a novel might be the only way to understand the bizarre landscape of Eto's mind. Regardless of her imagination, Koma—who certainly didn't know any secret martial arts—had simply wailed on Hitokawa.
But it was different from the way the bullies hit him. Their punches were meant to crush; Koma's punches felt like they were meant to provoke—to spark a fire that had been suppressed deep inside Hitokawa's heart.
Koma had asked him: 'Don't you have any pride? Do you really think anything will change if you just keep taking this?' To Hitokawa, those words were more insulting than any slur the bullies had ever thrown. Consumed by a sudden, uncontrollable rage, Hitokawa swung and hit Koma in the face.
It was the first time in his life he had ever hit anyone. Once he gave in to the emotion, he couldn't stop. They rolled around the roof, a messy, frantic blur of fists and dirt. To anyone else, it was just a childish scrap, but for the two of them, it was a desperate battle to empty themselves out. Eventually, they both collapsed, their stamina completely spent.
Koma, lying on his back, asked him: 'So, how was it? Am I really that strong?'
Hitokawa, also flat on his back, screamed back with tears in his eyes: 'S-Shut up! You're not strong at all! I could beat someone like you any day!'
The truth was, he didn't think he could win. He didn't even want to fight anymore. It was just a reflexive burst of stubbornness because he didn't want to admit defeat. Hearing that, Koma looked satisfied and said: 'Remember that. Remember those words.'
Leaving Hitokawa confused, Koma left the roof. And the next day, Koma did something insane.
"...Something insane?"
"He single-handedly took down every single one of those bullies."
"...."
Hitokawa had gone to school that day feeling miserable, but he would never forget the sight. He saw Koma lift a chair high above his head and bring it crashing down onto the skull of the biggest bully—the one who had been the most relentless in his torment.
The big kid went down screaming. His pack, enraged, swarmed Koma. Koma fought back, knocking one or two of them down, but he was tackled and pinned to the floor by a third. The rest of the pack swarmed him like hyenas, stomping and kicking him while he was down.
Even as he was being pummeled, Koma managed to grab one of their ankles and drag them down. He bit the kid's leg with everything he had. The kid shrieked, and Koma scrambled on top of him, breaking his nose with a punch.
Only two were left. One of them, seeing red, pulled a cutter knife out of his pencil case and swung it at Koma as a threat. But Koma just picked up the chair again and hurled it at him. A small utility knife was no match for a flying chair. The kid went down, and Koma stomped on his face as payback for earlier.
The last member of the pack lost all will to fight and collapsed in tears. A teacher, hearing the commotion, rushed in and dragged Koma away. As he was being led to the office, Koma passed Hitokawa, who was standing there dazed.
As he went by, he gave Hitokawa a thumbs-up and said:
—See? Not a big deal, right?
Koma had fought Hitokawa. And Hitokawa had said he could beat Koma. Therefore, Koma had shown him that he could beat the bullies too.
"'Don't be afraid of these losers. If I can do it, you—the guy who can beat me—can do it too.'... That's how I heard Koma's words back then."
"...."
"After that, the bullying stopped, and Koma and I became friends. Or rather... I suppose I just started following him around. I admired him."
"...."
"Everyone knows bullying is wrong. Everyone knows they should stop it. But knowing and doing are two different things, right? Everyone talks about it in their heads, but no one acts. And no one—absolutely no one—is willing to climb down into the hell where the victim is and pull them out. That's why I admired him. He was willing to risk himself to help someone else."
That was when Hitokawa decided to become a Ghoul Investigator. To admire someone is to want to be like them. Hitokawa felt that the profession that most resembled the Koma of that day was a Ghoul Investigator—leaping into danger to protect citizens from monsters.
"...Thank you."
"...Eh?"
Hitokawa couldn't believe his ears. Unless he had misheard, Eto had just thanked him. How many years had it been since he'd heard that word from her?
"Thank you for telling me about Dad and you. It... helped me relax a bit."
Eto was smiling. A genuine, warm smile of gratitude.
"W-Well, it was nothing."
Hitokawa looked away, feeling his face flush. One thing was certain: when Eto grew up, she was going to be a beauty who made men weep. He found himself thinking that if any scumbags ever tried to bother her, he'd help Koma beat them into the ground... and then he snapped back to reality.
'What am I thinking?! Eto is a ghoul! Did I catch Koma's overprotective disease?!'
As he shook his head to clear his thoughts, Eto spoke.
"Since you shared that, I'll tell you a secret story too. This happened when Dad and our pet, Toto, were at home alone..."
Eto began to weave her tale like someone reading a storybook, but then...
𝘍𝘭𝘢𝘴𝘩...!!!
Her right eye ignited with the crimson glow of the Kakugan. She screamed:
"𝘚𝘛𝘖𝘗!!!"
"?!!"
Startled, Hitokawa slammed on the brakes. If it hadn't been the dead of night with no other cars on the road, it would have been a catastrophic accident. He brought the car to a screeching halt and turned to look at Eto; her aura had completely transformed. She was staring savagely in a single direction.
Looking at her, Hitokawa knew.
"...I found it."
The faint, metallic scent of Koma's blood in the air.
They had found the lair.