by Shin Towada
Sure enough, when Yomo glared at her, Touka felt uncomfortable and turned her head.
But Yomo’s gaze was directed at something on the other side of her.
He walked past her without saying anything and opened the café’s door. He cast his severe gaze left and right, then he spoke.
“You’ve been followed, Touka.”
“What?”
She quickly gathered herself and looked around, only to see someone running off. From the way the figure carried itself, it appeared to be a Ghoul.
“We were just talking about you.”
Yoshimura’s face stiffened. He looked at Touka.
“Some friends of the Ghoul you and Ayato killed are aiming to retaliate against you.”
Now Touka remembered that the Ghoul they’d killed had said he was one of the leaders of Futamaru, which ran things in this part of town. Although Anteiku was in charge of the 20th Ward, there were more than a few Ghouls that operated independently, but in groups. I guess he was one of them.
“They’ve already got Ayato.”
“Got him?”
Ayato hadn’t told her this, and she hadn’t been able to tell from his behavior. But Yomo was not the kind of man to make jokes or tell lies. All kinds of things were happening without Touka realizing.
“You let your guard down too easily.”
Yomo’s warning made her blood start to rise.
“I haven’t done—”
“Enough excuses,” he cut her off. “You’re asking for it,” he said, then left the café. His words had been few, but Touka felt extremely chastised. Angry at not being able to respond, she started hitting the wall of the café.
“Touka.”
“Shut up!” she roared, venting her anger, then rushed out the door.
“Dammit!”
I don’t need to give some long speech, I can solve this myself. I can fight.
She looked around. The object of her bloodlust had disappeared into the distance, as if to say, Come and get it. Touka decided to take the invitation and headed in that direction.
But suddenly she felt anxious. Each battle set off a chain of events with unexpected consequences. She wondered how long this would go on.
No, this isn’t the time to think about that. Her senses were sharpened now, and her ears buzzed with a fierce cacophony of sounds.
It’s not them. Not the ones who are after me.
“No way.”
She stopped, frowning at the terrible voice she’d just heard.
“Daddy, daddy!”
It was that boy. He’d run away from school again, calling out for his dad as he fled. There was something urgent about his cries now, not like when he’d been crying for his mother.
But Touka turned away so as not to see him. Because he did have a father there to understand him and take care of him when he cried.
Unlike Touka. She had to fight to take care of herself, and she had no choice but to put her own life on the line to protect what was important. And right now, she had to take down the Ghouls who were trying to take Ayato’s life.
The boy’s voice eventually disappeared far into the distance.
At last the sun set, ushering in the time when Ghouls can operate freely. Touka stood at her own feeding ground. She could feel that something was wrong. Someone had invaded her feeding ground to provoke her.
Keeping vigilant as she moved, she walked into a back alley where there would be few passersby in hopes of luring her opponent in for the kill. But someone was already there.
“Kirishima, isn’t it?”
The voice, colored with a hint of surprise, came from behind her. She turned to find a well-built man blocking her way out. She could see some other men behind him, taking the signal to come out of hiding. Four of them in all. They stood ready to attack her from all sides.
“You’re the ones who’ve been following me?”
“That’s right. You killed our friend, we kill you … That’s the Futamaru code.” A victorious look came over his face as he said the name of his group, the same one that the Ghoul killed by Touka and Ayato had mentioned. The four of them against one tiny girl on her own—there was no way they could lose.
But Touka looked them over dispassionately, then smiled.
“Your inferiority is showing.”
“What?!” The veins on the man’s forehead started standing out.
“You think it’ll take four of you to take me. You know you’re weak.”
“What the hell do you know?”
“I know that you idiots came here to kill me.”
“Shut it, bitch!”
Enraged by her words, the men released their Kagune. The one who seemed to be their leader had a kokaku to match his strong frame. Not a good match for someone with an ukaku, which deals a light attack, but he attacked her directly so she was able to dodge him easily. The man who had been blocking her from behind disappeared, and just like that, their plan to surround her was over.
“What the hell …”
Her eyes still red, Touka put all her force into her back. Her throbbing ukaku instantly spread like wings, ripping through her clothes.
“With all of you in such a small space, it’s like shooting fish in a barrel, you idiots.”
It was so ridiculous she had to laugh.
Because the space was so narrow, Touka’s ukaku could swing through all the men who lined the walls of the alley. There was nowhere to escape with them sandwiched in between tall buildings on both sides. They were all fair game.
“Aaaaaaghh!”
The man nearest to Touka took the first hit and staggered.
“Ugh!”
With one slash of her Kagune, Touka sliced the man’s leg cleanly off. It spun in the air before falling to the ground with a thud.
He screamed in agony.
The giant man collapsed without the support of his leg, and his panic was palpable. His companions were also in shock.
Touka moved back to get some distance and immediately launched a long-range attack with her ukaku blade. The other three all had bikaku. Unlike their friend with the kokaku that could withstand her attack, these guys couldn’t easily attack Touka from a distance.
“T-that’s unfair!”
“Hm? What is?”
Don’t push your luck, she thought, and laughed. One of the men, beside himself now, jumped out in front of the rest.
“Too bad, so sad.”
Touka focused her attack on one place: the man’s body. But he rushed forward wielding his bikaku, so Touka kicked off the wall, jumping high into the air, then used the momentum from her fall to split the man in two.
“Right, who’s next?”
It was all going Touka’s way. Her superiority was overwhelming.
“C’mon, take me!”
One of the remaining men turned his back and started trying to escape. Nothing’s as weak as a man with a broken spirit. Touka simply struck him as he ran.
Blam!
He crashed into the wall face-first, breaking his nose. He collapsed in a slump, losing consciousness quickly.
That left one man standing.
“Let’s finish this.”
The last man left was cowering in fright. He looked like he’d already lost the will to fight. It wouldn’t take more than a minute to take him down.
But then he yelled, “We have a hostage!”
His words stopped Touka dead in her tracks. Hostage. The first thing that came to her mind was Ayato. Seeing that Touka had stopped and perhaps thinking that he could turn the tables, the man shouted, “I’ll show you,” before bringing out the hostage, who had been hidden at the far end of the alley.
Touka had another shock when she saw who it was.
It wasn’t Ayato. It was a middle-aged man in a suit—that boy’s father. He’d been bashed by these Ghouls, because his face was swollen, his clothes were bloodied, and he was drifting in and out of consciousness. It was clear that he needed to be taken to the ho
spital immediately.
“Why him?”
“You never talk to anyone but your family and the guys at Anteiku, but then suddenly here you are, being sweet to some humans. So I thought I’d keep an eye on him!”
They’d been keeping tabs on her all week. So they know about the boy too.
“We were gonna nab the kid too, but he ran away! Seems like it had an effect on you anyway …”
Touka was more than a little upset, as he said. I never thought this man and his son would get caught up in my business. There was one more thing. Her choices came to her now as sweat formed on her brow.
“When we asked him about you, he just said he didn’t know anything! Oh, humanity—I mean, don’t it just make you wanna cry? Right, don’t move! We’re gonna kill you, me and some other guys! Wait and see!”
He had the boy’s father in front of him like a shield as he tried to escape. Touka’s heart beat faster.
On one hand, there was the choice that Touka had to make in order to survive. That is, to kill this Ghoul and the boy’s father …
“What are you doing, sis?”
A familiar voice echoed. Touka’s head whipped around. There stood Ayato, head tilted to one side.
“Ayato …”
As she said his name, Ayato’s Kagune emerged. He rushed forward, slicing through the air, and approached the man. His Kagune made a crunching noise as it took its form.
“Ayato, wait …”
She knew what she had to do. Unconsciously she let out a scream. But Ayato didn’t hear her.
Bang!
At that signal, he brought down his Kagune, thick as an icicle and hard as rock. Ayato’s Kagune went through not only the man who had attacked Touka, but also the boy’s father. Touka gasped.
“Bunch of small fry. Boring.”
Ayato kicked the body of the Ghoul he’d just killed.
“What’s this human doing here?”
He looked like he was going to give the boy’s father a kick too. “Stop!” Touka said sharply.
“What?”
She hesitated. “You’ll get him too bruised to eat.”
“Oh yeah.”
Ayato put his foot back down, then looked around at the Ghouls that Touka had killed.
“I came ’cause I thought it’d be interesting. How boring.”
Having lost interest, he turned and started walking toward their apartment.
Touka stayed, staring at the boy’s father.
Suddenly a shudder went through his body. I thought he was dead.
“Y-you’re alive?”
The Ghoul who had tried to use him as a shield had, in actuality, taken the brunt of Ayato’s attack, lessening the impact on the human.
But now, because of that, Touka had a decision to make.
There was no way he didn’t know now that Touka was a Ghoul. He knows my secret, I can’t let him live. I have to kill him.
Touka bit her lip and reached out toward the man.
“Daddy, daddy …”
But just then, in her mind, she heard the boy yelling. Crying and running through the streets. Still searching for his kidnapped father.
This boy who had already lost his mother would now lose his father. Just like Touka.
Touka pulled her hand back and pressed it to her face. All the heartbreak and suffering of the day she’d lost her father came back instantly as she imagined the boy. It was horrible.
Touka took a step back.
Although Ayato hadn’t landed a fatal blow, the boy’s father was still in serious danger. And this alley would have few passersby wandering down it until the morning at least. If she left him alone without helping him, he would certainly die.
It was a cruel, heartless choice to make. But—
If he’s miraculously helped, then he might live.
If Touka took on that danger, then there might be repercussions.
She took a step forward, ready to make her escape.
Just then, she heard the crack of a stone hitting the ground and rolling away. She looked down at it and picked it up silently. Then, resolutely, she threw it down the alley, toward the main road. The stone ricocheted, and the sound echoed. This time, she left without turning back.
IV
Nothing changed in Touka’s life after that. She had to imagine that the man had not been saved. If he had, then he would have told the CCG what had happened to him, and then their investigators would’ve started popping up all around her.
She felt the suffering that she had inflicted on that boy, who had now lost both of his parents. He would bear a grudge against her to be sure. Just like Ayato, who had been betrayed by humans and now hated them.
She could not push away this feeling as she walked aimlessly through the streets. I want to forget, but the more I try, the more hold it has on me.
As she walked, she heard the happy voice of a child, and she looked around. She saw some kids, about four or five years old, playing in the park. She realized she was subconsciously looking for the boy. What are you doing, she thought, and started to leave, but suddenly she overheard some mothers talking.
“Poor Shota …”
She stopped in her tracks. Shota—that was the boy’s name. There must be tons of kids named Shota, but she kept listening, feeling strangely anxious.
“I know. But it’s amazing what happened.”
“It really is. I can’t believe they found his father lying in the road.”
Found his father lying in the road?
She jolted in surprise, clasping her hands to her chest to calm her thudding heart. Everything that had happened that night came back to Touka right away.
The boy’s father, lying in a dark back alley. And there—
“Shota says that somebody told him where his father was. By throwing a stone or something …”
“Who knows what the truth is. But anyway, his father seems to be getting better now, so I’m glad.”
She could almost see the boy noticing the pebble that she had thrown and running that way.
A vast range of emotions flooded through Touka. Before she could collect her thoughts, she muttered to herself, “Amazing.”
This small, helpless human child, much weaker than Touka, had rushed there, sobbing all the way, but he didn’t give up and he found his father. And saved his father?
I always stubbornly refused to believe that Ghouls and humans were similar. I could not admit it. But now I understand. Having love for your parents isn’t a Ghoul thing or a human thing. It’s something we share.
On the other hand, if he lived and was getting better, then why hasn’t he told the CCG about me? Is it because he doesn’t want the trouble, or is there another reason?
With all that she knew and all that she didn’t know, she could not find the answer, no matter how much she thought about it. She wondered if her father, Arata, who had lived alongside humans, had seen this in them. And if I get to know humans, like my dad, will I be able to see what he saw?
Her curiosity was rising, but there was no way of knowing—or there shouldn’t have been.
“Touka, do you want to try going to school?”
Yoshimura made the offer to her after a conflict with Shu Tsukiyama, an eccentric and well-known foodie. The proposal came abruptly for Touka, but it was clearly something that Yoshimura had been mulling over for a while. He said that he could help with the entrance fees and documentation, as well as giving her a hand with studying.
“No way, old man,” said Ayato, who preferred to keep his distance from humans. This was, perhaps, the right way to live for a Ghoul.
But however much you turn your back, humans are still there. And I live in the society that they built. So it might actually help me if sometimes I met people, got used to them, lived with them.
Besides that, she wanted to know. About humans. And about the world.
And someday I’ll understand my dad, too, she thought hopefully as she slipped into her school uniform.
/> She didn’t know that from now on, she would share joy that she could not find in the Ghoul world, as well as suffering that she might never have experienced otherwise.
“Ayato, listen to me. You won’t believe what happened at school today. Yoriko was like …”
When a person is kind, that’s enough to make them happy, my mother once said.
The loud buzz of his alarm clock hit his ears. He silenced it right away and got out of bed quickly. The morning light came in through the gap in the curtains, but the house was quiet. Nobody else seemed to be awake yet. He took a deep breath and went to the bathroom to wash his face and brush his teeth. When he got back to his room, he sighed with relief at the fact that he hadn’t run into anyone.
Ken Kaneki was a high school sophomore. And he’d been living in the Asaokas’ house—his aunt’s house—for a few years now. But something about the atmosphere of the house did not allow him to feel at ease. And maybe this’ll go on for the rest of my life.
He put on his school uniform, took his favorite book off the shelf and put it in his schoolbag. Suddenly he heard the house coming to life. It sounded like his aunt was awake. He heard her starting to make breakfast and yelling at the others to get up, and Kaneki left his room.
It was still a bit early to go to school, but the building would be open. As he crept quietly through the kitchen so as not to draw attention to himself, Kaneki saw his aunt. She’d arranged three place settings on the table. One for her, one for his uncle, and one for their son, Yuichi. Nothing for him. He didn’t belong there.
He made it through the kitchen and paused by the door to put on his shoes. He felt desperate to get out of the house.
“Just how long are you going to sleep, really?”
Unfortunately his aunt came out into the hallway to complain. She looked around and saw him there.
Unlike Kaneki, who froze up, his aunt turned away in a huff and disappeared back into the kitchen, still shouting for her son. Kaneki pursed his lips and left the house, his shoes not yet laced up.