After subduing Minami with the steel bed, we used the discarded pressure bandages scattered across the floor to bind her hands and feet. This would ensure she wouldn't be chasing after us or interfering for the time being.
As I finished securing her legs and caught my breath, Hitokawa, who was tying her hands behind her back, let out a low, grim sound.
"What is it?" I asked.
"Take a look at this."
Following Hitokawa's lead, I moved behind Minami and looked where he was pointing. His finger was aimed at her back, visible where her clothes had shifted during the struggle.
The moment I saw it, I couldn't suppress a sharp intake of breath. At the same time, it felt as though the scar on my right arm gave a sympathetic throb.
On Minami's back was a landscape of scars.
They were jagged, as if someone had bitten down and torn away the flesh. They were similar to the wound Eto had left on my arm, but the scale was entirely different. These were unmistakably the teeth marks of an adult. And there wasn't just one or two.
I could count five or six just in the area exposed by her torn clothes. Likely, these wounds covered the entirety of her back.
"What the hell is this?!"
"I don't know. My guess is…"
"...I was eaten by a ghoul."
A lethargic voice cut through our conversation. Startled, we looked at her face. Though her head was bowed, it was clear that Minami had regained consciousness. This was the second time she'd been knocked out, and she was already awake? Was she simply used to this level of physical trauma?
"Eaten by a ghoul? What are you talking about?" Hitokawa demanded.
Minami answered in a hazy, distant tone.
"You already know about my past, don't you? The cult that worshipped ghouls. Well, if you're going to worship them, you need a ghoul to be the centerpiece, don't you? It's not like they had an actual idol to pray to."
I was the sacrifice, she said, her voice as flat as if she were talking about someone else's life.
"My parents worshipped a certain ghoul like a god. They claimed he would protect us from the attacks of other ghouls, or something like that. But I was the one offered up as the tithe. They called it a sacrifice, but I was really just a snack."
"...."
"At first, that ghoul bit into the area near my shoulder blade. It hurt so much. I suffered from a high fever for days. But as soon as the wound healed, he ate another part. Over and over. Again and again. Looking back, I think he chose me because a child's wounds heal faster."
Her voice had grown sharp and clear, the fog of unconsciousness fully lifted. She didn't stop talking. It didn't feel like she wanted us to listen out of a need for sympathy; it felt more like she was talking just to pass the time while we tied her up.
"My parents said it was a 'noble' thing for me to be eaten; they repeated it like machines. The followers would clasp their hands and rejoice every time I was bitten. I couldn't understand why they were so happy. My mother just told me that if I shouldered the misfortune, others would become happy. ...Then, one day, another ghoul attacked the site of our congregation."
Was that when the great massacre occurred? As I was thinking that, she suddenly let out a sharp laugh. 𝘗𝘧𝘧𝘵! As if the scene she remembered was a truly hilarious comedy. However, the butt of the joke wasn't the slaughtered followers—it was their stupidity.
"The ghoul we worshipped turned tail and ran like a coward. Can you believe it? The 'god' they had trusted to protect them, the one they had served their own flesh and blood to, was actually just a bottom-feeding weakling in the ghoul world. Isn't that just precious?"
Minami looked at us as if seeking agreement, but neither Hitokawa nor I could find anything to laugh at. We could only stare at her in silence.
"Watching the misfortune of those idiots… I felt a sense of ecstasy. Only then did I understand what my mother meant. I realized that misfortune really 𝘤𝘢𝘯 make others happy! And I thought: 'I want everyone else to know the happiness I'm feeling.' That's why I followed the President the moment I learned of his existence. I thought that through the 'artworks' he spoke of, I could propagate the happiness and beauty I felt to the rest of the world."
Minami tilted her head back to look at me.
"It's a shame~. I really believed it would be possible with a masterpiece made out of you. I wanted to see those eyes, the ones that never lose their light even in a desperate situation, beautifully reborn."
"...Hoo."
I let out a long sigh. The things she had done were unforgivable, but tracking them back to their roots made it impossible not to feel a shred of pity. I saw Hitokawa finish tightening the final knot. We had to get to Eto immediately, yet leaving Minami like this felt like leaving something unfinished. If no one spoke up, she would spend the rest of her life chasing a phantom.
"I'm sorry, but your dream will never come true. It's impossible."
"...? Why?"
"Humans have something called empathy. If someone falls, we worry if they're hurt. If someone is sad, we feel sad with them. The only people who laugh at others' misfortune are those with twisted personalities, or when they're watching slapstick comedy."
"That can't be true. I felt truly happy seeing their misfortune."
"Do you ever consider that your personality might just be twisted?" Hitokawa interjected, unable to hold back.
Despite this, Minami didn't back down. It was like arguing with a stubborn child.
"Happiness is relative. If you have nothing to compare it to, you don't even realize it's there. You need a point of comparison for happiness to truly resonate."
"Haa.... By your logic, I should feel happy looking at your misfortune, right? Thinking that I'm happier than you are. But I don't feel anything like that."
I looked down at her with a bitter expression.
"I just feel sad and sorry for you."
"...."
She stared up at me blankly, her face a mask of confusion. It was as if she truly couldn't fathom why I would say I was sad.
"Why? I tried to kill you."
"That's exactly why it's so frustrating. Why I feel so bad for a piece of work like you.... And yet, that's how I feel."
"That's what we call compassion," Hitokawa summarized. He likely felt the same way I did.
Hearing that, Minami stared blankly into the air, as if facing the wall of an unsolvable math problem.
Yes. Think about it.
Think and think until you understand the human heart.
She was a monster born from an environment where compassion had been discarded, but I hoped that, in the end, she could return to being a human. I pulled my gaze away from Minami and looked at Hitokawa.
"Let's go."
"Yeah. We've wasted too much time."
Without hesitation, we burst out of the room and ran, praying for Eto's safety.
In the room Koma and Hitokawa had left, Minami remained lost in thought.
The common sense she had lived by had been denied. Whether she would tear it down and rebuild or cling to it until the end was now up to her.
They said humans possessed the ability to empathize. To feel the pain and sorrow of others. If that were the case, what was she? Why did she feel that ecstasy in slaughter? Was it because she was fundamentally different from humans? Was that her true nature?
Amidst the piling questions, she remembered a scene. The words a ghoul had murmured as it left her alone after the massacre of the followers.
—...What a pitiful child.
Her wandering thoughts finally reached a conclusion. Minami looked toward the door where Koma and Hitokawa had disappeared and whispered.
"Liar."
She called Koma a liar. He had, in fact, lied to her.
"You can give it to me. A reason to change."
"The Artist?! That bastard was actually here?!"
"What, you came here without knowing?"
"I never dreamed The Artist would have started a 'Company'! No, wait—is this place even a real company to begin with?"
"If this place is a company, then every office worker in the world is a saint from tomorrow on."
Hitokawa and I exchanged information as we sprinted up the stairs toward the first floor. Upon hearing about The Artist's presence from me, Hitokawa's face twisted into a grimace of pure dread.
"The Artist is a ghoul categorized as Rate S! It takes an investigator of at least First Class or higher to even stand a chance against him! No matter how much Eto focuses on defense, if he's involved, she's in serious danger!"
"What?!"
This was bad. That President, or Artist, or... forget it, I'll just call him The Artist. Anyway, quite a bit of time had passed since that bastard left the room after getting a phone call. If combat had started, it had started long ago.
We cleared the stairs and sprinted toward the main entrance. Hitokawa said that the area Eto was supposed to be engaging the ghouls was near the front gate. Even though we were inside, the rising dawn light allowed us to navigate the hallways without issue. As we ran, Hitokawa threw something at me.
"Koma, catch!"
"Whoa..."
I caught it reflexively; it was heavy and had the cold touch of steel. The weight was familiar. I looked down and saw a handgun in my hand.
"Where did you get a pistol?"
"I got it from a girl on my way in. Keep it for self-defense. We don't know what's going to happen next."
"...Got it!"
I didn't know the circumstances, but I decided to ask later. I checked the gun as we ran. By some stroke of coincidence, it was a six-shot revolver, just like the one I had used years ago. However, unlike the old one—which had one blank, two live rounds, and three Q-bullets—this one was loaded with six Q-bullets.
It was a weapon designed specifically for killing ghouls. One round had already been fired.
I wondered if the remaining five rounds would be enough to put a hole in that bastard's face as we reached the hall where the main entrance was located.
"...!!"
I sucked in a breath. The concrete from the ceiling to the floor was covered in scars, as if a monster with dozens of claws had gone on a rampage. There were massive holes in both the floor and the ceiling. While the area below the floor hole was clean, the space above the ceiling hole was filled with the same scars as the first floor.
"They moved the fight to the upper floors!"
Just as I turned to head back to the stairs, Hitokawa grabbed me.
"Wait, Koma!"
"What! We have to save Eto—!"
"Calm down and listen! Can't you hear that?"
I fell silent and strained my ears.
𝘛𝘩𝘶𝘥…!! 𝘉𝘖𝘖𝘔…!! 𝘛𝘩𝘶𝘥! 𝘛𝘩𝘶𝘥!! 𝘊𝘙𝘈𝘚𝘏!!!
A savage, roaring sound, like things being pulverized. Was that Eto fighting? The sound grew louder with every passing second, and even the vibrations became distinct.
"They're coming this way."
No sooner had Hitokawa spoken than the ceiling exploded.
𝘉𝘖𝘖𝘖𝘖𝘖𝘔!!!!
Fragments of stone fell like hail, and thick dust obscured our vision. I coughed, spitting out the grit that had filled my lungs, and stared ahead. Something had fallen with the collapsing ceiling. My ears were ringing from the explosion.
I couldn't rely on sound. I had to focus my eyes.
Faint silhouettes began to emerge. Someone was there. Two figures were slumped on the ground, while one stood alone.
Who was it? Eto? The Artist? Another ghoul?
Hitokawa and I gripped our weapons, bracing for an enemy. As the seconds ticked by in agonizing tension, the dust slowly began to clear.
And what was revealed within…!