by Shin Towada
“But wait, Banjo. How are you going to find the guy?”
Banjo’s fist dropped weakly.
“I’ll … I’ll do my best.”
“You haven’t thought about this at all.”
“That’s very Banjo.”
It was a snap decision. But I can’t stop feeling like I have to do something to help her. Banjo started grappling for a solution, and the rest of them looked exasperated.
“Banjo, it’s time to start gathering intelligence.”
Jiro held up the magazine he was looking at to show everyone. The page he held up had a detective from a new film on it.
“Intelligence …”
“Usu is the one who found the body, so you should ask him first.”
This genuine proposal brought Banjo back to life.
“You’re right! I’d better hurry. I’ll go now.”
Unable to control his passion, Banjo ran off alone.
“Wait, Banjo! Do you even know where Usu is right now?” Sante yelled. It was five o’clock, the time when Ghouls started getting active in anticipation of nightfall. Usu was usually still out on patrol, nervously walking the streets from morning until night. That’s why he was able to discover the bodies that Rize had left behind, but it also made him harder to find. Banjo didn’t seem to have heard Sante’s yell, and that worried Ichimi. He felt like he had to run after him now.
“What can we do? We gotta follow him for a while,” Ichimi said, giving the instructions. He knew Banjo well. Jiro and Sante looked used to it.
“Roger that!” they said.
Banjo ran for who knows how long. Even a Ghoul gets tired, he thought, just as he spotted Usu.
“Usu! About that last meeting. I really don’t think it was Rize’s work!”
Usu frowned. “What’s all this about?”
A blue vein, that symbol of frustration, popped out on Usu’s broad forehead. I guess he didn’t think anyone would keep pushing it.
“Well, the thing is …” Ichimi cut in. “Usu, you’re the one who found the woman’s body in the, uh, beachside park. What kind of state was it in? Must’ve been a lot of hard work, wasn’t it?” He took over from Banjo and pushed for more details.
“Oh, the one on the weekend. Her stomach was slashed and all her organs had spilled out. The culprit might’ve taken their favorite ones and left the rest behind. I worked so hard to clean up the scraps and leave no trace. I’m hungry, too, you know, but I only have one meal a month, like we’re supposed to, and then she comes along …”
Usu clicked his tongue. For those who followed the rules, Rize’s actions were intolerable.
“Wait a minute, now, we don’t know it was …”
“Hold it, Banjo. Now, Usu, are there any telltale signs that this body was one of Rize’s?”
“The body at the beachfront park was more intact than the others, but they were all eaten in a thoughtless way, without concern for what to do with them afterwards. She messes everything up and then just leaves without a care in the world.”
Rumors had been going around about the Ghoul with the big appetite for a while. Usu had been going out on patrol more than ever lately, hoping to protect his own safety more than that of the 11th Ward.
“Anyway, it’s a real pain in the ass. Breaking the rules … How can we get free of someone like that?” Usu said in conclusion, trying to end the conversation. But Banjo slapped an arm around his shoulders.
“What?”
“Are we really free right now?”
Usu furrowed his brows.
“What do you mean by that?”
“I’m so tied down by all these rules, it feels like I can’t even breathe when I want. Is this really freedom?”
That feeling had come to him the day he met Rize, and it had only grown since.
“Rize can’t handle that, but since everybody else sees eye to eye, who needs the rules—”
“Banjo, if you say anything else, I’ll report you to Hagi,” Usu said in a low voice. Banjo said nothing else.
“The way you think is selfish. There is freedom in the rules. Quit pushing your fantasies onto everyone else,” Usu said clearly, then left.
“Dammit.”
Once Usu was out of sight, Banjo started chewing his lip. Pathetic of me to get scared at just hearing the leader’s name. If I was stronger, I could’ve told him what I really think. I’m so frustrated with myself.
“Look, Banjo, why don’t we go to the beachfront park?” Jiro said, hoping to give him encouragement.
I’m so weak. I can’t do much. But it’s better to do something than to sit around here wasting away.
“Right! Let’s go!” Banjo yelled, changing his attitude and dashing off ahead again.
The beachside park was empty at night, and the sound of the waves was all they could hear.
“I guess it’s easy to attack at night.”
Sante sat down on a bench, looking around the park. Although they were tired from chasing after Usu, they’d all run after Banjo as fast as they could. Ichimi and Jiro took a seat too, and looked up at Banjo.
“Taking a break?”
Banjo, who was more exhausted than the three of them, sat down next to them.
“I need to know, Banjo. Do you really have this much respect for Rize?”
“Course I do. Rize has many of the things I don’t have that I want for myself.”
Far in the distance they could see a boat bobbing on the sea, and the lights of an industrial area farther along the coast.
“She’s strong, both mentally and physically. So she can just live exactly as she wants. If I were that strong, all kinds of paths would open up to me … All I am is big and dumb.”
As he spoke he started to feel sleepy. Ichimi saw him start nodding off and stifled a yawn of his own.
“If nothing else … I want to be useful to her.”
It was a nice thought. But it was also what had brought Banjo this far.
“But Rize doesn’t need anyone’s help.”
“You’re right.”
“I think the kindest thing to do would be to drop it.”
The three of them gently trampled on Banjo’s dream. “Shh,” Banjo whispered, and drifted off to sleep.
IV
“Banjo, hey, Banjo!”
Even in his pleasant slumber, Banjo could hear someone calling his name. He shuddered into consciousness.
“Mmph?”
“Banjo, it’s morning.”
“Whoa, wait, really?”
Apparently they had all slept there on the bench together. There were women out training for marathons and elderly men walking dogs in the park. Banjo gave a great big yawn and watched them all go by happily for a moment.
“We were in the middle of trying to catch the culprit! No time for falling asleep!” Banjo said, remembering why they were there. He stood up from the bench and started to leave.
“Stop, stop! Are you looking for something?”
“Nah! I’ll just investigate this park for the time being. Maybe there’s some evidence.”
Banjo stopped and sniffed. Usu had taken care of the body, but with blood splashed everywhere, he might still be able to pick up a scent. But no matter how hard he sniffed, all he could smell was the sea.
“No good down here. I can’t smell anything.”
Sante rubbed his nose.
“Dammit. I wish we’d asked where he found the body …”
“Definitely,” Ichimi nodded in agreement.
“Not much else to do but wander around the park and try to find a trace.”
“Really?”
“If I say I’m gonna do it, I’m gonna do it!”
Even if you guys don’t wanna help me, I’ll find the evidence all by myself. The others, seeing that there was no point in complaining, had little choice but to help him. The sun had just begun to rise.
“I don’t get it …”
In the end, all they found in the park was a baseball, a snake’s d
iscarded skin, a lot of porno mags, and a woman’s barrette. It was the item most likely to have belonged to the victim, but it had no smell of blood to it at all. All of it was useless.
“Nice work, Usu.”
His cleanup skills had been on point as usual, but Banjo was still disappointed.
“Banjo, why don’t we go back to our hideout and come up with a strategy? The four of us hanging around in this park looks pretty suspicious.”
Ichimi was right, but it was difficult to accept that they hadn’t produced any results. Banjo looked around reluctantly at the park.
“Huh?”
Just then, he saw a young girl holding a bag, heading straight for him. She was taking fliers out of the bag and handing them out to people in the park.
“Your cooperation is greatly appreciated. We are grateful for any information. Thank you!”
Banjo stared at her intently as she came over.
“Anything you know … Oh.”
She seemed frightened by his muscular physique, but she handed over a flier with a photo on it. “Anything you might know would be helpful,” she said, nervously.
“Let’s see … ‘Mari Hirano—have you seen this girl?’”
Banjo was not great at reading, so Jiro came over and read it out for him. Sante looked at the opposite side of the flier, where the picture was. “She’s really pretty!” he said.
“She’s my sister,” said the girl. “She was picked by a magazine as their reader model and everything.”
Now that she mentions it, they do look kind of alike. She might also grow up to be a pretty girl in a few years.
“But she came to the 11th Ward last week to see a friend and nobody’s heard from her since.”
So she’s handing out fliers trying to get some information. Banjo saw her twisting the hem of her shirt in her hands and couldn’t stand to see her unhappiness, so he handed the barrette that he’d found to the girl.
“What’s this?”
“Find her. Do your best and don’t give up.”
I guess I feel close to her because I’m also out here trying to gather information. For Rize.
“I will. I’ll do my best!”
The girl clasped the barrette tightly in her hand and nodded.
“Oh, miss, what’s your name?” he asked as she was leaving. She looked up at him.
“I’m Mai Hirano!”
Banjo looked straight at her. “Do your best!” he said again.
Once they’d left the girl and were on their way back to their hangout, Sante looked back at the park. “Why did you give that away? And to a human?”
“Don’t worry about it. I just wanted to give her something!”
“That’s just like you, Banjo. She was a pretty girl.”
He looked at the photo on the flier. They all stopped to look at it again.
“Wait,” Jiro said, as if he’d noticed something.
“What is it?”
“I feel like I’ve seen her before somewhere …”
“Wait, what? Where?”
With that information, the girl’s troubles could all be over.
“Just a second,” Jiro said and began to search his memory. But then Ichimi’s face began to cloud over.
“Ichimi, what’s wrong?”
Ichimi thought for a while before speaking.
“Banjo, I believe that the girl on the flier … is the one who was attacked by a Ghoul in that park.”
“What?!”
“The girl said she disappeared last week. And Usu found that body last week.”
Yes, humans are food to Ghouls. Banjo felt awful when he remembered how desperate that girl had been, but it wasn’t an unlikely story.
“Before we get carried away, let’s show Usu the flier.”
He didn’t know if Usu would still remember what the girl looked like, but it was worth a try. If nothing else, he wanted to gather more information about Rize to clear up the suspicion that surrounded her.
As they set off in search of Usu once more, Jiro yelled out in surprise.
“What, what happened?”
“I remembered! She was in that magazine!”
“What magazine?”
“The one I was looking at last night … the one with the feature on that detective movie.” Now Banjo remembered the magazine that Jiro had been reading as he told them about the meeting.
“It’s an old magazine, but I wanted to read it because it has a feature on a musician from overseas. There was a model similar to this girl in it. I’m not sure if she was a ‘reader model’ or not. Sorry, it’s not much of a lead,” he said apologetically.
“No, wait,” Banjo said, folding his arms. “The more information, the better. We’d better bring that magazine with us.”
They hurried off to their hideout.
“Here it is.” They were at their hideout in the abandoned building. Jiro picked up the women’s magazine. “Which page was it … I remember her because her parka was a lot like mine.”
The four of them looked down at the magazine, searching for her face.
“Must be around here somewhere …”
“Yeah …”
“Who’s this?”
Before they could find the girl they were looking for, their eyes latched on to another model.
“This girl …”
She was striking a pose and trying to look charming. And she looked a lot like Yuri, the Ghoul who had spoken up at the meeting.
Eyes wide open in surprise, Jiro pointed to the caption under the photo.
“It says her name is Yuu.”
And a few pages after that, they found a picture of the girl’s sister: Mari Hirano.
“Can this just be a coincidence?”
To find the two of them in the same magazine … Jiro looked at Banjo uneasily.
“Let’s go!”
Banjo grabbed the flier and the magazine and started running toward Usu’s den.
“What’s wrong, has something happened?”
Usu looked up at Banjo, who was breathless from running, and gave him a disgusted look as if to say, Not you again. But he must’ve noticed something was up with them, because his voice dropped when he asked them.
“Usu, was this the girl you found in the beachside park?”
Banjo showed him the flier and magazine, and Usu’s eyes widened in surprise.
“That’s the one. I would remember a pretty girl like her.”
Banjo’s mind caught for a second, thinking about her, but the presence of Yuri on another page in the same magazine was actually more of a concern. It didn’t seem like a coincidence to him at all.
“Usu, do you know where Yuri’s house is? A woman like that must have her own house.”
Banjo wanted to go confront him directly, but what Usu said next was even more shocking.
“Yuri? What are you guys up to? She just asked me where Rize’s house was.”
The blood began to drain from Banjo’s face.
“Yuri asked you where Rize’s house is …”
“Yeah. She said she was moving to a different area suddenly, and she wanted to say goodbye to Rize, so she wanted to ask me where she lives … Hey, Banjo?”
Banjo had run off without listening to everything Usu had to say.
“Banjo! We’ve been useless everywhere we’ve gone!”
“That’s right! We’d better just leave it!”
Ichimi and Jiro tried to stop him, but he didn’t hear. I don’t have all the answers, but what I can see doesn’t look good. Banjo ran with all his might.
When Banjo got near Rize’s house, he saw someone and it stopped him in his tracks.
“Rize!”
She was walking alone along a bridge with few other passersby.
“Oh, hey, Banjo. How’s it going?” she said with her usual smile, seeing how sweaty he was.
“Hey, you haven’t seen Yuri, have you?”
“Yuri? Well, no …”
Banjo felt relieved. He
tried to quickly explain everything to her.
Just then a shadow appeared behind Rize.
“Rize, watch out!”
He jumped out, arms spread to try to protect her—a moment too late. A Kagune as thick as a whip slashed into Banjo’s body. The rough, scaly Kagune scraped against his skin, then struck the concrete of the bridge.
Banjo screamed.
“Are you all right, Banjo?”
Ichimi ran up to check on his wounds, but Banjo shook him off, staring at his attacker.
“You can do whatever you want, but you came here?”
Just as Banjo expected, it was Yuri standing there, her Kagune throbbing. No doubt, she is the source of all this evil.
“Rize! The body Usu found in the beachside park … She tried to pin it on you!”
“Really?”
“Yuri, you knew that girl!”
Banjo held up the flier and the magazine. He guessed that she was using Rize as cover while pretending to defend her. There certainly was enough proof of that. But then tears began to fall from Yuri’s red eyes.
“She … Mari was my friend. We were both part-time models—that’s how we met. I was with her the day she disappeared. She looked so happy when we said goodbye. But—”
Something about this isn’t right. “Oh, I know what you’re talking about,” Rize chimed in. “Banjo, I think there’s been a misunder-standing, sorry. Yuri’s friend in the park?” She took a step toward him, smiling. “I’m the one who ate her. Me,” she chuckled. “But all I could taste was the sea, it was awful.”
“RIZEEEEE!”
Before he could say anything, Yuri launched her Kagune at Rize again. Rize blocked the attack, the Kagune bouncing off her.
Is she doing this for her dead friend? In the confusion of a situation that was nothing like they’d anticipated, Yuri screamed. “I was going to take her somewhere nice, clean her skin properly, gut her, crush her bones like sugar, then mix it up and eat her!!” Yuri’s blood-red eyes suddenly drained of all color.
“W-what are you talking about?”
“Banjo, I’m not sure our presence is required here anymore …”
Yuri screamed as she jumped at Rize. “I’ll have to eat you instead!”
Her urge to kill was like a burning flame. But Rize just smiled.
“Nice plan. Well, I offer my apologies,” she said, sounding innocent and childlike. A pleasant smile came over her face.