Genshiro Kanazuki, the 38-year-old homeroom teacher for Class 3-B at Seihara High School, found himself confronted with an incredibly baffling predicament.
It happened the moment he walked into the classroom for morning homeroom. He could immediately feel an awkward, palpable tension hanging thick in the air.
Usually, the students would snap their mouths shut the second they realized their teacher had entered. Today, however, they were entirely oblivious to his presence, whispering furiously among themselves. The students in the back were completely transfixed, their stares glued to a middle desk by the right-hand window. Even those sitting in the front kept casting nervous, irresistible glances back toward that exact same spot.
Following their collective gaze, Genshiro looked at the student occupying the window seat.
It was Takaki Koma, who had been absent for the past two days nursing a cold. Seeing him back at his desk, Genshiro assumed the boy had fully recovered. Takaki was a quiet student who had never caused a single ounce of trouble during his time at the school. He liked reading novels and playing video games, but he wasn't so careless as to get caught doing either during a lecture. Because he was so unremarkable, this was the absolute extent of what Genshiro remembered about him.
And yet, sitting squarely on Takaki's desk... was something drawing a monumental amount of attention.
"Daa~ boo~"
It was a baby.
Not a paperback novel, not a portable gaming console—but a living, breathing human infant. Wrapped entirely in a white cloth that draped over its head to obscure the right side of its face, the visible left side revealed an incredibly adorable child. It had lovely, bright eyes and cheeks that looked softer and squishier than mochi.
Fascinated by the sight of Takaki expertly spinning a ballpoint pen with one hand, the baby was currently reaching out, desperately trying to grab it.
Staring down at the child with a warm smile, Takaki finally noticed Genshiro standing dumbfounded at the front of the class. He blinked and spoke up.
"Mr. Kanazuki? Aren't you going to start homeroom?"
"How the hell am I supposed to start with that here?!?!"
If there was a teacher out there with the saintly composure required to casually conduct homeroom under these circumstances, Genshiro wanted to meet them.
Naturally, I was immediately summoned to the faculty office for a one-on-one "chat" with my homeroom teacher.
"Whose baby is this?"
"A relative's."
"Why did you bring it to school?"
"Unavoidable circumstances came up, and they had to leave her with me."
"Do your parents know about this?"
"As you know, my father is so busy I'm lucky if I can get ahold of him once a month."
"Even so, bringing a baby to school is..."
"Are you seriously suggesting I leave a helpless infant completely alone in an empty apartment!?"
"N-No, that's not what I'm saying... Wait, why am I the one getting scolded here?!"
The interview dragged on for over two hours.
To skip straight to the conclusion: Victory. It was an absolute blessing that Mr. Kanazuki was the type of person to easily get swept up in the flow of an argument.
After agonizing over it from every angle, I had decided that bringing Eto to school with me was the most logical course of action. It was the only way I could keep a close eye on her and ensure my own peace of mind. There was a slight concern that my homeroom teacher might try to contact my father over today's spectacle, but the chances of him actually getting through were practically zero. My mother passed away a long time ago, and due to "certain circumstances," even I could barely manage a phone call with my dad once a month.
Anyway, having brought that exhausting debate to a close, I returned to the classroom with Eto cradled in my arms.
I had secured official permission to bring her to school—under the strict condition that she didn't disrupt class. Now, the final hurdle waiting for me was the torrential downpour of my classmates' curiosity.
"Oh, it's a girl! So cute~"
"Her name is Eto?"
"How old is she?"
"Ah, she looked this way!"
"Kyaa~! I just want to bite those cheeks!"
Being swarmed by girls who ordinarily wouldn't have given my existence a second thought was an incredibly overwhelming experience. Dammit. Maybe I should have built up some experience talking to the opposite sex before this happened.
"Nnnn~..."
Frightened by the sudden, suffocating crowd, Eto gripped my collar tightly, her face scrunching up as if she were about to burst into tears.
Ah, stop. Don't come any closer. She's going to cry. Suppress your maternal instincts this instant!
"Can I hold her just for a second?"
One of the girls asked, reaching a hand out to pat Eto. Catching sight of the finger extending toward her face, Eto temporarily forgot her fear of the crowd. Her eyes sparkled, and she opened her mouth.
Wait. That's the exact same movement she makes right before she chomps down on my finger to suck my blood...
"DO NOT TOUCH HER!!!!!!!!!!!!"
The echo of my shout rang through the classroom. Then, dead silence.
Time froze. I was standing on top of my desk, shielding Eto with my body, having just screamed at the top of my lungs. The girls surrounding me, and even the students who previously had zero interest, all stared at me with their jaws dropped, utterly bewildered by the sudden outburst.
Bathing in their piercing stares, my boiling panic quickly cooled, replaced by a crushing awareness of what I had just done. Desperately searching for a way out of this humiliating situation, I blurted out a pathetic excuse, grabbed my bag, and bolted from the room.
"I-I think she just soiled herself! I'm going to go change her diaper!!"
My classmates watched in bewildered silence as I sprinted down the hallway toward the restroom.
After surviving an incident that was undoubtedly going to spark defamatory rumors among the female student body about me being some sort of pedophile, I took advantage of the lunch break to escape to the roof.
Recalling the near-disaster from a few hours ago, I grumbled at Eto.
"Seriously. You can't just try to eat people out of nowhere. That was almost a massive disaster."
"Boo~"
"What do you mean, 'Boo'? Are you Majin Buu? Do people just look like cookies to you?"
Sighing, I tilted the baby bottle to an angle that made it easier for her to drink. What filled the bottle, however, was the blood I had siphoned from the IV bag.
Normally, a baby bottle would hold a pure, soothing white liquid that warmed the heart. Instead, thick crimson blood sloshed inside this one, transforming an innocent object into a morbid prop straight out of a horror film. The sheer cognitive dissonance between the macabre, blood-filled bottle and the incredibly adorable sight of Eto happily nursing from it was severe.
"Well, I'm starting to feel like none of it really matters anymore. This is dangerous. I'm legitimately turning into a completely helpless doting father."
"Turning into what?"
"Hm? Ah."
Swish!!!
The moment I recognized the figure pushing open the door to the roof, I panicked and hurled the baby bottle Eto was sucking on as hard as I could. The blood-filled bottle traced a desperate parabola in the air before vanishing over the railing. Startled by having her meal violently snatched away from her, Eto immediately began to wail.
"Waaaaahhh~!"
"Gah! I'm sorry! I panicked and threw it without thinking!"
Flustered, I desperately tried to soothe Eto while hurriedly wiping away the lingering traces of blood from the corners of her mouth. Meanwhile, the figure who had stepped onto the roof watched me wrestle with the crying infant and spoke up in astonishment.
"Whoa! So the rumor about you showing up to school with a baby was actually true!"
"H-Hitokawa. It's just you..."
The solidly built, handsome guy standing on the roof was Hitokawa Tomoru. We were in different classes, but if I had to name my absolute best friend in this entire school, it was undeniably him.
"Where did you get a baby? Don't tell me she's yours?"
"Like hell she is."
"Makes sense. It's not like you've even held a girl's hand since our elementary school talent show."
"Keep it up and I'll punch you."
"Haha."
Exchanging idle banter, Hitokawa walked over and leaned against the nearby railing.
At some point, Eto had stopped crying. However, likely because she had been interrupted right in the middle of a meal, the Kakugan had flared to life in her right eye. If Hitokawa saw that, it was over.
I casually shifted the cloth to cover the right side of Eto's face, scrambling to find a conversation topic that would divert his attention. That was when I noticed the bandages wrapped around his hands—there were more of them than before.
"You've got more injuries on your hands."
"Hm? Oh, these? This much is just par for the course."
"Are you still chasing that dream?"
"Yeah. I know it's a lofty goal. But if I want to achieve it, I have to push myself at least this hard."
"Right..."
I turned my head away so he wouldn't see the shadow that fell over my expression.
Hitokawa and I had an inseparable bond stretching all the way back to elementary school. He was my best friend. If possible, I never wanted to hide anything from him. If I could, I wanted to tell him everything I was struggling with right now, to shoulder the burden together.
But I couldn't.
Especially not to him...
"Don't worry so much. I know being a Ghoul Investigator is a dangerous job where you never know when you might die... But it's an honorable profession! Protecting your friends and family, exterminating Ghouls! I'm definitely going to become a Ghoul Investigator."
Perhaps mistaking my dark expression for concern over the perilous path he had chosen, Hitokawa forced a bright, reassuring smile as he spoke.
Looking at him, I didn't dare say the words out loud.
If you walk down that path, the day will inevitably come when you and I have to destroy each other.
Swallowing those words, I pulled Eto just a little bit tighter against my chest, as if to shield her from the world. Hitokawa was only the beginning. As long as I continued to hold this child, I was destined to lose so much more.
Like I said, Mr. Kuzen... this is way too hardcore of a quest for me...
Silently venting my grievances to a man who wasn't there, I looked up at the sky. Far above, utterly out of place in the middle of the city skyline, an owl was flapping its wings, soaring into the heavens.