𝘊𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩... 𝘱𝘵𝘶𝘪!
With a heavy cough, the metallic tang of blood flooded my mouth. I turned my head and spat; a glob of viscous, dark crimson splattered onto the ground.
𝘏𝘶𝘧𝘧. 𝘏𝘶𝘧𝘧.
I leaned against the wall, struggling to regulate my breathing. The surroundings were... silent. For now, there was no sign of anyone pursuing me.
𝘚𝘸𝘢𝘺.
"𝘎𝘩...."
The moment I allowed myself a shred of relief, the strength drained from my legs, and they threatened to buckle. Get it together, you idiot. If you let your guard down here, it's all over.
𝘚𝘵𝘦𝘱.
"...!"
A tiny sound sent a jolt of tension through my frame. Someone was coming. Was it 𝘩𝘪𝘮? I bit my parched lip. Scanning the area for anything that could serve as a weapon, I snatched up a shard of glass large enough to fit in my palm.
I wonder if Eto... made it home safe...
I hoped, if possible, that she'd stay out a little longer. If she saw the state of the apartment—a complete disaster zone—she'd worry herself to death. Sensing the presence drawing closer, I recalled the events that had unfolded earlier this afternoon.
"ETO!!!"
The moment I realized Eto had lied to me, I had sprinted back to the apartment, but she was nowhere to be seen. I tore the place apart searching for her, but the result was the same. The fact that her picnic backpack and her shoes were missing confirmed my suspicion: she had left the house.
"Dammit!!!"
I slammed my fist against the wall in frustration. I had been too careless. I had underestimated a ghoul's physical capabilities. To think she had overheard that entire conversation.
No, the self-reflection could wait. I had to find Eto first. Where could she have gone? If she'd run away out of guilt, I might never find her. But....
"That girl has a tendency to act needlessly mature.... If it wasn't 'guilt' that moved her after hearing that conversation, but a sense of 'responsibility'..."
I rushed to my room and yanked open the drawer. As I feared, it was gone. The map marking the suicide hotspots. Eto had taken it.
"That little fool!"
This wasn't just running away. She had gone out to procure her own food.
True, as long as she was a ghoul, this was something she would eventually have to experience. A day might come when something happened to me and I could no longer provide for her. But this was far too soon.
A corpse is not the same as the neatly packaged cuts of meat Eto usually saw on the dinner table. Can one comfortably swallow a steak while watching a cow be brutally slaughtered? The psychological impact of an abstract concept of death is worlds apart from the reality of facing it. Eto was too young to look death in the eye. I didn't want her to face that until she had a firmer sense of self and a stronger spirit!
Maybe I'm not too late!
I bolted out of the house to catch her. I had the general locations of the seven suicide hotspots memorized, but the problem was which one she had chosen. All seven were far too distant to reach on foot.
Being the clever girl she was, she wouldn't have just started walking; she would have used public transport. If so, any of the seven locations was a possibility. Where? Where would she go?
I had to find a trail. The moment I left the building, I started grabbing passersby, asking frantically if they had seen Eto. If she had only just left, someone must have spotted her. Before long, I found someone who had seen a girl matching Eto's description.
"About twenty minutes ago? She was lingering near the bus stop. She was staring intently at everyone boarding the buses."
Based on the account of a florist who had seen her while watering plants, I looked at the bus schedules under the assumption that Eto had taken a bus. I discovered that three specific buses led toward the suicide spots I usually frequented by bicycle.
Bus 13 led to the steel bridge over the river.
Bus 20 led to the abandoned house in the slums.
Bus 22 led to the mountain cliffs on the outskirts of the city.
Eto was definitely on one of those three. But I had no way of knowing which one. Deciding to check the closest location first, I headed for the steel bridge.
"ETO—!!"
I scoured the area, starting from the bridge down to the riverbank where the bodies washed up, calling her name, but I found nothing. Someone had already cleared away the woman's body I'd seen last time. It didn't take long to conclude she wasn't here.
Feeling the weight of the failure, I climbed back up from the riverbank to head to the next location. I needed to move fast. I stood on the side of the road, waiting for a taxi—a luxury I usually couldn't afford—hoping one would pass.
But why is it that taxis are nowhere to be found when you're in a life-or-death hurry? I kicked the ground in frustration, scanning the stream of cars, when—
"Hey, you."
𝘎𝘳𝘢𝘣.
A large palm landed on my shoulder. I froze, my expression hardening as I turned my head.
...Ah, damn it. I'd forgotten. I wasn't exactly in a position to be wandering around in broad daylight.
"I see we meet again."
The man with his hand on my shoulder was a police officer, perhaps two or three years older than me. And he was... one of the officers I'd sprayed with the foul-smelling paint bomb before fleeing yesterday at dawn.
Because I'd run from the checkpoint, I was now a prime suspect in yesterday's murder case. I knew this was coming eventually, but the timing was horrific! In the middle of an emergency with Eto missing!
I couldn't stay. Even if it meant a nationwide manhunt, I had to get away now. Paint bomb, work your magic once more!
I started to reach into my pocket for the bomb. Then—.
𝘊𝘭𝘪𝘤𝘬.
"You have the right to remain silent, but you won't be using any more of those toys."
The middle-aged officer, who had also been covered in paint yesterday, smirked as he slapped handcuffs on the wrist I'd used to reach for the bomb.
...Fate, you bastard. I just composed a 6,000-word freestyle rap made entirely of curses. Do you want to hear it?
"Why did you run back then?"
"I have panic disorder. I don't handle scary things like murder cases very well."
"What was in that guitar case?"
"A guitar?"
The experience of sitting in a police car—something I'd firmly believed I'd never have to do—was one of pure 'misery.' Two officers sat in the front, firing questions at me. The younger one was driving, while the older one did most of the interrogation. In the rearview mirror, I could see the older man's eyes; his suspicion wasn't going anywhere. He knew I was hiding something vital.
"Look, I really don't have anything to do with that murder. And I heard they found ghoul fluids at the scene, right? I'm human."
"It wouldn't be the first time a human obtained ghoul fluids to stage a murder. Last year alone, there were three cases that looked like ghoul attacks but turned out to be the work of humans."
"...."
This was bad. These men weren't going to let me go. And while this was happening, Eto might be experiencing the trauma of seeing a fresh(?) corpse or getting lost....
"By the way, Senior, shouldn't we hand this guy over to the CCG for a ghoul screening?"
"Why bother with the paperwork?"
While I was agonizing over Eto, I heard the two officers talking in the front.
"He says he's not a ghoul, but he could be a ghoul pretending to be human."
"If he were a ghoul, he would have snapped those cuffs and bolted by now. Don't worry about it."
"I guess you're right...."
"Trust me on this."
'...𝘙𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺?'
As I listened to that exchange, a sense of 𝘥𝘪𝘴𝘴𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦 struck me. Their conversation was short and unremarkable. But why? Why did it feel so wrong? It might have just been my nerves, but it stuck in my mind like a splinter.
I needed to test them. I needed a topic to poke at this strange dissonance.
"...You know, there's no such thing as a certainty in this world."
I hunched my shoulders, adopting the lowest, most sinister tone I could muster. I saw their eyes shift toward me in the rearview mirror, sensing my sudden transformation.
"You said they found traces of a ghoul, didn't you~? You should have just left it to the CCG and stayed out of it. Why go sticking your noses in and shortening your own lives...?"
𝘊𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘨!
I yanked on the handcuffs as if trying to snap them. I bared my teeth like a predator, my eyes filled with a murderous light. A beast, once hiding in a human skin, finally revealing its true nature.
"I'll kill you all!!"
𝘉𝘈𝘔!!
...And the beast's frenzy ended pathetically against a transparent barrier. It was the partition separating the front and back seats of the patrol car. There was a sliding door, but it remained locked from the front.
"...."
"...."
Under the cold, unimpressed stares of the two officers, I pressed my face against the barrier and spoke.
"...I was just making a joke."
"Adding obstruction of justice and intimidation to the list."
"Dammit...."
𝘊𝘰𝘭𝘭𝘢𝘱𝘴𝘦!
I slumped back into the seat, swearing under my breath. It wasn't because my desperate gambit had failed. It was because I had discovered the source of the dissonance. The sheer terror crawling up my spine made it impossible to stay upright.
Why is this thing here?
As I dug into the source of the wrongness, I reached a single hypothesis. And that hypothesis suggested a conclusion that was the absolute worst of the worst for our current situation. It seemed impossible. They're police officers. They're civil servants. Could that really be possible?
But the doubt rapidly transformed into a terrifying certainty. I carefully pulled out my phone, making sure the officers in the front didn't see. Thank god I'd set it to silent when I was harvesting the meat.
Pretending to look out the window, I moved my fingers rapidly in the shadow of the seat. I had to deliver this message—to the person whose help I needed most in this situation.
"Mr. Hashimoto, aren't we going yet?"
"Well, it's been a while since I visited my benefactor's son. I can't go empty-handed. Come here and help me pick out a gift."
"I don't think Koma is the type to care about that."
Hitokawa watched with half-amused, half-exasperated eyes as his superior browsed the department store, claiming he'd forgotten to buy a gift on the way to Koma's apartment. Well, this earnestness was one of his mentor's strengths, he supposed.
[𝘉𝘦𝘦𝘱-𝘣𝘦𝘦𝘱!]
"Hm? I got a text from Koma."
Hitokawa, who had been about to suggest a manju set to Hashimoto, opened his phone without a second thought.
『𝘚.𝘖.𝘚.』
"Wait...?"
Hitokawa's eyes widened the moment he saw the message. At first, he thought Koma was joking, but as he read the following text, his face turned pale.
"Mr. Hashimoto!!"
Hitokawa shouted for his superior. On the screen of the phone in his hand, the following message was displayed:
『𝘚.𝘖.𝘚.
𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘰𝘭𝘪𝘤𝘦 𝘰𝘧𝘧𝘪𝘤𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘨𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘴.』