As expected, Hinami couldn't help but frown when she walked into the house Touka Kirishima had rented near the school.
Of course, it wasn't that Touka Kirishima's room was messy. In fact, her room was very 'simple,' with no extra decorations, making the room look nothing like a girl's room, but 'simple' did not mean clean. She was somewhat clumsy and rarely cleaned the room, but due to her personal habits, it wasn't too messy, and Hinami basically cleaned it every time she came.
"Sister Touka, you go take a bath first."
Touka Kirishima had once told Hinami not to clean, but she was eventually persuaded by the opponent. However, this time, she was somewhat unusual.
"Hinami, let's bathe together?"
Hinami, who was already preparing to clean on the other side, felt that Touka Kirishima was a little strange today, because Touka Kirishima usually wouldn't ask her to bathe together. Perhaps it was because she was shy? The opponent's situation was truly unusual today.
But precisely because the opponent was a little strange, she felt she should stay by the opponent's side.
With a rustling sound, the two shed their clothes and walked into the bathroom together.
"Wuwu~~"
Hinami, soaking in the warm water, couldn't help but let out a strange sound, but when she tried to stretch her body, she remembered that Touka Kirishima was sitting right behind her.
"Sister Touka~"
While Touka Kirishima was looking down and thinking about something, she found a small face in front of her. It was Hinami, tilting her head back.
"What's wrong?"
"Sister Touka probably has something she wants to say, right?"
"Am I that obvious today?"
"Sister Touka is never very good at hiding the emotions on her face..."
What could Touka do but give a wry smile about Hinami's comment? But then she still briefly told the opponent about what happened today.
Of course, the reason she spoke was not only because Touka Kirishima wanted someone to talk to, but more because of Hinami herself. The strength Lancer displayed today was incredible, and she was afraid that Hinami might do something rash one day and go looking for trouble with the opponent.
"Is that... Investigator Lancer already that powerful? Even the manager couldn't beat him..."
To Hinami Fueguchi, who lived under the protection of 'Anteiku,' the strongest person in the world was the 'Manager,' but she hadn't expected Lancer to be able to fight him to a draw. This was simply too unbelievable.
"But Sister Touka, even so, what do you have to be so conflicted about?"
"Because... I once had a chance to kill him..."
Speaking of this, Touka Kirishima couldn't help but recall the scene more than two years ago when Ken Kaneki was hit by the opponent and his fate was unknown, and the opponent jumped from several stories high, holding her.
After that explosion, Lancer also temporarily fell unconscious due to the shockwave.
Touka Kirishima, however, recovered the ability to move first due to her Ghoul regeneration ability and Lancer protection. At that time, she had the opportunity to kill the defenseless Lancer, but in the end, she gave up.
Later, when Lancer directly revealed her 'Ghoul' identity, she began to consider one thing—according to the opponent, he had known all along that she wasn't human, so why did the opponent save her at that time?
After the opponent 'went missing,' she began to notice one thing through the information found by Renji Yomo and the information provided by Koutarou Amon, who occasionally came to the shop for coffee.
Although Lancer had also killed Ghouls who did not actively attack humans during Ghoul suppression operations, this mostly happened during collective operations, while he himself only hunted down Ghouls who actively wandered and preyed on humans during his solo hunts. Of course, it was also possible that the opponent didn't discover those ordinary Ghouls, but linking this to her own situation, she came up with a bold conjecture.
Although he was one of the Investigators who suppressed the largest number of Ghouls back then, the opponent actually had his own 'requirements' when hunting Ghouls.
However, these thoughts didn't really mean much, or rather, they didn't mean much at the time, because when she came to this conclusion, Lancer had been missing for over a year, and she had also been accepted into the same university as her friend, so she just kept the matter hidden in her heart and didn't tell anyone else.
But now, Lancer suddenly 'resurrected' and even fought the manager to a draw, which made her feel somewhat at a loss, because she found that the opponent's existence already threatened her 'family.'
There was no doubt that she was alone after her father was captured and her younger brother ran away from home that year, and it was at that time that she was 'hired' by Yoshimura Kuzen to work in the shop. Later, with the opponent's help, she even went to school and met her best human friend.
Therefore, she regretted it, regretted why she hadn't taken action back then...
As if murmuring to herself, Touka Kirishima spoke out all the words she had kept hidden in her heart, and Hinami Fueguchi was just held in the opponent's embrace, leaning against her chest without a word, until Touka Kirishima stopped speaking. Only then did she raise her head and rub her face against the opponent's.
"Sister Touka, my mother once told me something—we are 'Ghouls,' not 'monsters.' Our diet comes from instinct and is not something we can choose. If you had really killed Investigator Lancer, who saved you at that time, then you wouldn't be my seemingly cold but actually incredibly gentle Sister Touka~"
As she finished speaking, Hinami Fueguchi couldn't help but smile, and Touka Kirishima was stunned for a moment, then smiled and hugged the opponent.
"Hinami, when have I ever been cold?"
"Then... Tsundere?"
"Hinami!!"
"Sister Touka! I'm sorry! Nooo~"
Because of the two of them fooling around in the bathtub, the water in the bathtub splashed all over the floor, and the two of them, whose shoulders were now exposed, felt a chill. Finally, they walked out of the bathtub laughing and fooling around.
And Touka Kirishima's somewhat conflicted expression finally eased a little, and Touka Kirishima, who was only focused on her own thoughts, didn't notice that Hinami Fueguchi also seemed to have figured out a problem that had been on her mind...
Lancer, who was being discussed by the two, was completely unaware of this, or rather, he had long been accustomed to being discussed, and he didn't have the spare mental capacity to think about these things at the moment.
Lancer appearance changed many things. The most crucial point was that he prematurely discovered the bomb during the major battle between the CCG and the Aogiri Tree, allowing the CCG to successfully evacuate all Investigators from the building, which prevented the CCG from experiencing a shortage of combat power. The Aogiri Tree naturally could not take the opportunity to occupy Ward 19, and also due to Lancer initiative, Ward 20 basically returned to peace, but the fighting outside Ward 20 was still very intense.
He was walking alone in an alley, wearing a trench coat and carrying a briefcase, which had already attracted the attention of certain 'predators,' but when they made their move, they would probably realize who the hunter was and who the prey was.
The hunt begins tonight.