𝘚𝘤𝘩𝘭𝘪𝘤𝘬!
The blade of the quinque sliced through the leather belts restraining me. Hitokawa pulled me into a sitting position and began unraveling the remaining pressure bandages.
"...So, you're telling me Eto is out there right now, acting as a decoy to buy us time?"
"To sum it up, yes."
As he spoke, Hitokawa flinched, his hands pausing mid-knot. "...Are you going to hit me?"
"Did you think I wouldn't?"
I was waiting for him to finish unwinding the bandages around my arms. I wanted my limbs free so I could land one good punch.
Hitokawa panicked. "W-Wait, wait, wait! I told you! I had no choice! It would have taken too long for the CCG to mobilize, and if I had shown myself as the bait, they would have been on high alert!"
"Hey. How old is Eto?"
"...She's seven."
"Right. And what would you do if you saw a man leaving a seven-year-old child alone on a battlefield just because she knows how to shoot a gun and follow a plan?"
"I'd beat him to death.... ...…."
Exactly. No matter how capable she was or how maturely she acted, Eto was still a seven-year-old girl. Moreover, I cared for her as if she were my own flesh and blood. Knowing that child was currently fighting vicious monsters alone—how could I not be livid?
Even if, logically, it was the best tactical decision, the human heart cannot be so easily reconciled with such cold reasoning.
"Later! I'll let you hit me as much as you want later! For now, just focus on escaping!"
"Tch."
He was right; now wasn't the time for a brawl. Instead, I decided I would add one extra punch for every scratch I found on Eto's body.
"Did you just have a very ominous thought?"
"If you don't want that omen to become a reality, hurry up and finish so we can go help Eto."
"𝘒𝘨𝘩..."
Hitokawa groaned but accelerated his pace. When the bandages proved too tight to unravel quickly, he used the edge of his greatsword to slice through the rest.
In the meantime, I turned my gaze toward Minami, who was slumped against the wall. Having taken a direct hit from the steel case, her arm was visibly swollen. It looked like it would take more time for her to regain consciousness.
"What exactly was her deal, anyway...?"
"Who? Minami Sinaoto?"
"Yeah. She's the one who kidnapped me. She was spouting all this nonsense about being a regular employee of a ghoul company and wanting to become a ghoul herself."
Hitokawa let out a hollow, incredulous laugh. "Ha! Wanting to become a ghoul? That's even more unhinged than I heard."
"What? You know about her?"
"Of course I do. As soon as I realized she was the one who swiped the Q-bullets delivered to you, I dug into her history. There was a pretty famous incident about seven or eight years ago. The 21st Ward Emerging Cult Massacre."
"...!"
I had heard of it. A mass murder incident where the leaders of a cult holding a gathering in the 21st Ward were slaughtered by ghouls. The TV and newspapers had covered it extensively at the time.
What made that case unique wasn't the ghouls who attacked, but the cult itself. They were a 'Ghoul-Worshipping Sect.'
They worshipped ghouls, calling them 'transcendent beings' and 'evidence of a new evolution' that surpassed humanity. They had tried to integrate with them by turning their primal fear of ghouls into a twisted form of reverence. Naturally, the world viewed it as insanity, but there are always a few lunatics willing to follow such madness.
That group, which had existed in the shadows of society, was suddenly thrust into the spotlight when it was annihilated in a gruesome fashion. The irony of a group that worshipped ghouls to ensure their own safety being wiped out by those very ghouls was perfect fodder for the gossip-hungry public. The media analyzed it like experts, and as time passed, it was forgotten.
Such incidents are like chewing gum; they have a sweet, intense flavor at first, but once the taste is gone, you spit them out. There were too many tragedies in the world to keep chewing on the same one forever.
I was one of those people who had found the case peculiar but eventually pushed it to the back of my mind. It wasn't that I lost interest; I simply didn't have the luxury to care. When an old acquaintance shows up at your door asking you to take in his child, you don't exactly have the mental bandwidth for current events.
I never expected to encounter the fallout of that incident like this.
"I remember it. But what does that have to do with her?"
"The cult leaders, a married couple—their names were Yakashi Sinaoto and Yozuka Sinaoto."
"...Sinaoto?"
I doubted my ears for a second. The surname was far too familiar. As if to confirm my suspicion, Hitokawa jerked his chin toward Minami Sinaoto.
"She's the daughter of those cult leaders."
"..."
Naturally, my gaze drifted back to the collapsed woman. I had expected her past to be abnormal based on her actions and ideology, but knowing the truth was a different kind of shock.
A ghoul-worshipping cult. If that group had existed for over twenty years, it meant she had been raised from childhood in an environment saturated with those warped beliefs.
'Is that why she reacted to the word "parents"?'
As I stared at Minami, Hitokawa continued.
"She was also the sole survivor of that massacre."
"...She was at the scene?"
"Whether the ghouls spared her because she was a child, or if she just hid well, I don't know. But they say when the investigators arrived, she was just staring blankly at the field of shredded corpses. What's even more appalling is the first thing she said to the investigators after she was taken into custody."
—It was beautiful.
What had she found beautiful back then? The ghouls who murdered everyone? Or the sheer volume of death that filled the room? Whichever it was, it was bone-chilling.
"The CCG took her into an orphanage they run, but she left the moment she reached adulthood. Her whereabouts were unknown after that. Who would have guessed she'd be participating in this kind of sick hobby in a place like this?"
𝘚𝘯𝘢𝘱.
Hitokawa cut the last of the bandages. Finally, my body was free. My head and shoulders still throbbed, but I was functional.
"Good. Let's figure out what made her into this psychopath some other time. Right now, we go help Eto."
"Wait. We need to call for CCG backup first. We need them here if we want to withdraw safely."
"You didn't contact them before coming in?"
"I couldn't. If I timed it wrong, Eto would have become a target for the reinforcements."
I stared at Hitokawa, my eyes wide with surprise. I hadn't expected him to say something that prioritized Eto's safety.
"Look, after everything that's happened, I just decided it would be more of a pain to separate you two."
Hitokawa looked away, seemingly uncomfortable with my gaze. His words were gruff, but the suspicion and hostility that had once defined his attitude toward us were gone. A smile naturally found its way to my face.
"You've come to understand Eto. Thank you."
"Anyway! Let's call the reinforcements. Now that you're rescued, it doesn't matter if I reveal my presence. Eto can pull back, and I'll buy time by holding off the ghouls."
Unable to handle the sentimentality, Hitokawa pulled out his phone. Just as he was about to press the buttons to contact the CCG, I caught a flickering shadow behind him.
"Hitokawa, behind you!!"
"...?!"
Hitokawa spun around reflexively.
Minami, having regained consciousness at some point, had closed the distance and was swinging an axe with a wide, lethal arc. Hitokawa's movement to counter with his greatsword stalled for a split second.
The greatsword was a quinque. A weapon designed for fighting ghouls. He couldn't bring himself to swing it at a human; if he did, the sheer power of the weapon would undoubtedly cleave through both the axe and Minami's body.
'Damn it!'
He abandoned the counter and shifted into an evasive maneuver. Fortunately, his trained reflexes allowed him to dodge the trajectory of the axe. However, his phone—still in his hand—wasn't so lucky.
The blade of the axe caught the edge of the phone, and the impact sent it flying from Hitokawa's grip. The screen shattered, and the device was partially sheared apart. Components spilled out and clattered onto the floor.
𝘛𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳.
We both stared at the mangled phone on the floor, our faces pale. We had lost our means of communication. We had lost our link to the CCG.
Amidst the silence, a high-pitched, melodic laughter echoed, grating on our ears.
"𝘍𝘶𝘧𝘶𝘧𝘶𝘧𝘶.... I can't let this have a happy ending.... Someone else's happiness is a very bad thing because it makes someone else miserable."
Her hair was a disheveled mess. One arm hung uselessly at her side, clearly broken. Standing there, muttering to herself while clutching an axe in one hand, she looked like the literal definition of insanity.
"Please be miserable, Koma-kun. You have to be miserable to make everyone else happy!"
"I'm already miserable enough, you bitch!!"
"Seconded!!"
Hitokawa and I braced ourselves to face the lunatic as she charged toward us, brandishing her axe once more.