by Shin Towada
“And a child that small screamed so loud that a Ghoul ran away?”
Shinohara laughed. “Oh, right. He didn’t just scream, he yelled, ‘Mr. Inspector, come right away!’ A very quick-witted child.”
Now she understood why the Ghoul had escaped. Akira thanked Shinohara and left the staff room. But as she walked down the hallway she suddenly stopped.
Could such a young child really think so quickly on their feet to scare off a Ghoul this good at covering their tracks?
It was a casual question. But once she’d asked it, the scope of the question expanded. Perhaps it was a clue. Akira quickly left the Academy as if she were being pulled somewhere.
Is that the kid?
Akira had headed straight for the scene of the crime, on the outskirts of the 5th Ward. A boy was kicking a pebble on his own in a little alley near a row of houses—the kind of boy you would see anywhere, but this kid seemed strangely gloomy.
“Are you Shota?” she called out, using the name she’d found out earlier. The boy looked up.
“Who’re you?”
“I’m Akira Mado. A future Ghoul investigator.”
“Future investigator?”
“You can call me Akira. I wanted to ask you some questions about what happened the other day.”
The boy looked down and kicked another stone.
“My grandma and granddad are already angry at me about what a dangerous thing I did. I don’t wanna talk about Ghouls anymore.”
His grandparents had every right to be angry, since if something had gone wrong the boy would be dead now.
But she decided to ignore their feelings and asked him, “So your grandparents would prefer it if that woman had died?”
“It’s not like that,” the boy began. “My mom and dad were both killed by Ghouls.”
He kicked a stone toward the wall. It bounced off and disappeared somewhere.
“What do you want to know?” She heard the darkness in his heart that would not go away, the pain of having his parents taken away. Akira herself knew that feeling.
“How did you realize there was a Ghoul?”
“It was night, I looked outside for some reason, and I saw a woman walking past the house. Then, behind her, a man.”
“How did you know he was a Ghoul?”
The boy looked up at her silently. Akira looked back at him, seeing him now as another human being, not just as a child.
“It was the guy who took my dad away.”
Akira didn’t know what to say. The boy clenched his fists.
“A little after my mom was killed by a Ghoul, my dad and I were attacked by some other Ghouls. He told me to run away, so they only got him. So I knew that Ghoul when I saw him. I’d know him anywhere.”
The tangled thread of the case was starting to unravel.
“When did that happen?”
“It was when I was in kindergarten. We lived in the 20th Ward. When they finally found my dad, there was another body there too. All torn up. It was a Ghoul. They said he was killed by another Ghoul after he killed my dad.”
If he’s in elementary school now, then this must’ve happened last year or the year before. Akira tried to remember the cases in the 20th Ward that she had looked at the other day. Among them, there had been a report about a mysterious group of Ghouls with ukaku Kagune that hunted together. A group of Ghouls from an organization called Futamaru had been killed by an ukaku in the 20th Ward.
“I thought the guys who killed my dad were all dead, but this one wasn’t. I thought he was going to kill the woman who walked by my house, so I chased after them.”
As she listened to his story, Akira realized there were so many new possibilities. If it was a Ghoul who belonged to Futamaru, he may have fled here from the 20th Ward after losing the battle against the Ukaku Ghouls. And still in fear of the Ghouls who killed his friends, he would’ve been looking for a safe place to hunker down. And this is a safe place.
Standing on the shoulders of giants. Most Ghouls wouldn’t come near the CCG at all. Everyone kept saying that after he was spotted by the boy the Ghoul had fled to the Academy, but couldn’t he have also fled back to the Academy? The idea stuck in Akira’s mind.
It was possible that he always stayed near the Academy and kept a watchful eye over it. That meant he would know that there were investigators after him. This cautious Ghoul had taken note of Tada and the others and run away.
Perhaps this is all I can do as an Academy student. From here, Shinohara and the 5th Ward branch office investigators would have no choice but to investigate the Academy and its surroundings. But it was also possible that they’d need clearer evidence to start investigating. Still, they had to act now.
“Thank you for your cooperation. See you,” Akira said, thanking the boy. She started to leave.
“Akira,” he said, calling her name. “Did you lose somebody to a Ghoul too?”
She turned around. The boy was looking straight at her. She had noticed something gloomy about him; had he noticed the same thing about her?
“My mom,” she answered frankly.
“Oh,” he said. “Is it still tough? Am I gonna be all right when I’m a grown-up?”
“I don’t know … it’s different for everybody.”
“But are you? Are you okay now?”
He can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel right now.
“I’m—” Suddenly an image of her mother crossed her mind, then her father. And when their images combined, she saw herself reflected back at her. “It’s a secret,” she whispered.
“Right,” laughed the boy. Suddenly there was a glint in his eyes.
“My dad told me before he died that I should forget all about Ghouls. And my grandma and grandpa tell me I shouldn’t take any risks. But …”
He lifted his right arm and pointed straight ahead, in the direction of the Academy.
“The day after, I went the way that the Ghoul ran. And I found them there.”
Akira’s eyes widened in surprise.
“They didn’t have their masks on, but I knew it was them. I followed them and found where they live. Akira …”
There was a fire in his eyes now.
“Akira, please … find the guys that killed my dad … and kill them!”
Anger, sadness, and resentment. And this young child has to bear them all. Another Ghoul tragedy.
The sun was setting, and a cool wind blew through. A man struggling under lots of bags appeared from the run-down apartment building, where many students lived. He was in his early to mid-twenties. He went down the rusty stairs, then looked around, setting his gaze far into the distance. Toward the Academy.
“I’ll come back when things have cooled down.”
He smiled to himself and started walking toward the Academy. To escape from the net of the investigation that was tightening around him.
“Unfortunately, that’s not gonna happen.”
A woman’s voice echoed behind him.
He turned around and saw her standing in the middle of the street. Akira’s glossy hair swirled around her in the evening breeze as she stared him down.
“Former Futamaru executive …” Her words visibly affected him. But he quickly smiled and dropped the bag he was carrying to the ground.
“You’re wearing an Academy uniform. You must be a student. I don’t know what you’re here for, are you sure you’ve got the right man?”
He rummaged in his bag, then pulled something out.
“It’s been an unlucky couple of days. You’ve seen my face, so now you have to die!”
He had pulled out his mask, a black one with red dots that the boy had described as being like a ladybug. The man—the Ghoul—closed the distance between them almost instantly.
Akira stumbled back in surprise, but he swung at her and his fist grazed her cheek.
“Aren’t you vain?!” he shouted, angry at the way she’d deftly dodged his attack. He created a little distance, crouching down
on the ground, ready to pounce.
“But hey … ‘like a moth to the flame!’ ” As he spoke his flesh and clothes ripped and a reddish-black fog was released. It immediately coalesced and transformed into a thick, undulating Kagune—a bikaku Kagune.
“What are you gonna do, you poor baby? You don’t even have a Quinque!” he cackled.
“But I do,” she whispered. He didn’t hear her. His Kagune began to stretch. “Let me introduce it to you.”
There was darkness in Akira’s eyes.
“My Quinque is my father.”
The small, sharp-pointed bullet shone like a chestnut.
The Ghoul screeched.
Akira got down on the ground as the bullet pierced the Ghoul’s body.
“When you said she was like a moth to the flame … well, I think you’re more perceptive about yourself, really.”
Kureo Mado stepped out, holding Rai, an ukaku Quinque from his collection, in his hand.
“When it comes to insects, the best thing is to burn them out!”
Right after she saw the boy, Akira called her father. Fortunately, he had just finished work and said goodbye to his partner, so he came as Akira’s ‘Quinque.’ And his Quinque had shown its overwhelming power to Akira.
The Ghoul, pounded into the ground by Kureo’s attack, begged and pleaded for his life, but it was absolutely meaningless. And as proof of that, Kureo laughed.
“When we heard you guys lost to the Ukaku Ghouls, we got you a little something. A little present. Do you want it?” Kureo walked up to the Ghoul, his Quinque in front of him. “It’s a present of horror!”
He activated the Quinque at close range. Small bullets blasted through the Ghoul’s mask, eyes, nose, mouth, and brain. The destroyed mask fell to Akira’s feet with a clang.
It was more black than I realized, Akira thought, and then realized something else. The name Futamaru can also mean “twenty.” The mask was supposed to be a twenty-eight-spotted ladybug.
“What’s all this about?”
Tada, who had been investigating in the area, came running up. He had been hot on the Ghoul’s trail too.
“Good to see you, Tada. I hear you’ve been looking after my daughter recently.”
“Mado! What are you doing here?”
Tada was first surprised by Mado, then by seeing Akira at his side, and then finally by the Ghoul who lay writhing on the ground.
“Is this the guy?”
“Akira figured out his whereabouts.”
Tada looked at her in disbelief. She gave him a smile.
“We retrieved the Ghoul’s Kagune, too. I was thinking about turning it into a Quinque in your honor, Tada.”
Tada’s lips began to tremble. “Like father, like daughter!” he spat.
Is that supposed to be an insult? Akira smiled again.
“That is the highest praise,” she said.
IV
A few days later she went to tell the boy that the Ghoul had been destroyed. “Right,” he said, fiddling with a stone. Happiness was not the right emotion for the occasion. Killing these hated enemies wouldn’t bring back his dead parents.
“Without what you told me, that Ghoul would have gotten away again. And there would have been more victims. You didn’t just save one woman’s life. As long as Ghouls exist, they’ll keep killing.”
Akira finished filling him in, then turned around to leave. When she was a fair distance away, the boy called out her name. She turned around and saw him struggling to say something.
“Thank you,” he said finally.
She left and headed back to the Academy. When she got there, she saw someone near the entrance.
Is that my dad?
It was. Her father waved to her.
“Why are you here now?”
“I left work early. I have two things to tell you.”
“Go on.”
“First. Tada’s on a diet now.” Instead of losing all confidence after being trashed by a student at the Academy, he had actually found inspiration in it. That stubbornness is probably why he’s still here.
I learned a lot from this case. I beat Tada, but I didn’t do it alone. I feel bad about admitting that Tada is right, but he’s right—I am young, I don’t even have a Quinque. What I have to do now is work hard to become an investigator who can stand on her own. A bit of teething.
“Second. I found a curry place that’s perfect for eating on the go, but my partner’s not into spicy food. He has no clue how good curry is. Wanna go?”
Her father’s words cheered her right up. She looked at her watch and nodded.
“Perfect time for a meal.”
Someday I want to be the one who helps my father. I want to protect him, like he protected me, she thought as she walked by his side.
But Akira’s father would never get to see her grow up to be an investigator who could stand on her own two feet.
Her father’s life would be taken by a Ghoul called “the Rabbit.” Akira would never forget how his body had been torn to shreds. Still, she carried her father’s love with her wherever she went.
I want to protect the man my father respected so much, whatever happens.
She was on her way to meet him.
The man who overcame loneliness to walk his own path, the man who respected my father with all of his heart.
My father’s last partner, my first partner—Kotaro Amon.
It doesn’t matter what you are.
“Hey, we’re talking about going somewhere for the three-day weekend, you wanna come?”
I had just gotten used to living alone in Tokyo when my mother called to ask me this.
“On a trip?”
“Yes. Now, I know it might be difficult what with school and all, but I thought it couldn’t hurt to ask.”
Kimi Nishino. My parents put a lot of thought into my name, but it’s just plain. But with my diligence and commitment to my studies, now I’m a medical student at Kamii University in Tokyo.
“This upcoming three-day weekend … it might be tough, I have a paper to write,” Kimi said, looking at the schedule book in her hand. She was still in her first year, which meant that she hadn’t finished the classes she needed to take the national admissions test, because they lasted all year, but she had been accepted to the college. And since she’d signed up for enough classes to make your eyes water, she had a lot of papers to write. Even in her spare time she studied—her desire to be a doctor was that strong.
“Just as I suspected. I understand. We’ll bring you back something—you just keep at your studies.”
“I will. Sorry, mom. Tell everyone hi for me.”
I wonder if she really did anticipate that I’d say that. Both said, “Bye now,” at the same time and hung up.
“A trip …”
Kimi set her phone down on her desk and stretched. Now that she thought about it, her younger brother wasn’t planning to take college entrance exams next year. Everyone’s going traveling while they still can. Maybe I should go.
But I’ll have another chance someday.
Kimi returned to her paper.
“Morning, Kimi. Did you finish that paper?”
“She’s not like you, you know. Of course she did.”
The next day, when she went to the campus, some of the girls in her department called out to her. First was Shiraishi, a smiley girl who was always in full makeup. Next to her was Itose, a doctor’s daughter.
“Yeah, I finished it,” Kimi said, sitting down next to them.
“All you do is study, Kimi. Don’t you ever wanna hang out with us?” Shiraishi said, her eyes twinkling.
“Don’t listen to her, Kimi. She’s just trying to find someone to go on a blind group date with us.”
“Hey! Everybody’s really excited about it, and we don’t have enough people!”
Shiraishi looked like she’d been caught. Every time I see her she does this.
“But you don’t have a boyfriend, do you, Kimi? Nobody t
o hang out with, no smart and sexy college man … What are you doing for the three-day weekend? A boyfriend is a must-have for any college girl!”
I don’t have a boyfriend and I turned down a trip with my family. And I can’t imagine I’ll find someone on a group date, as plain a woman as I am.
“I’m sorry, I’m busy that day.”
“What? What are you doing?”
“Quit hounding her. God, you’re annoying,” said Itose.
“What about you, Itose? You wanna come?” Shiraishi said, changing tack. Her hands were clasped together.
“My sister’s bringing her fiancé, so I’m going to hang out with them.”
Itose’s sister was a nurse working in a university hospital, and her fiancé was apparently a doctor from work.
“Wow, is that what it’s like in a doctor’s family? I wanna man like that …”
“Then you should work on developing some character …”
“Don’t talk to me like that! I have tons of character! I’m full of it!”
“Just look up ‘character’ in the dictionary.”
Itose was seriously amused by Shiraishi as she scrambled to respond. Their exchange sounded like a comedy routine, and Kimi couldn’t help but laugh.
“Enough,” Shiraishi said, puffing out her cheeks exaggeratedly, and Itose started laughing too.
When their morning lecture was over, the three parted ways. Kimi bought her favorite pastry at the campus bakery and sat down on a bench outside. Kamii was a giant college with a big campus and lots of greenery. The soft light falling through the leaves of the trees was soothing to the eye.
College life is good. The only thing I don’t have is a boyfriend, like Shiraishi said.
Kimi had only had one boyfriend ever. When she was a freshman in high school, an older boy had told her how he felt and they had gone out. But the first date didn’t go so well, and things naturally fizzled out. And then nothing after that.
But she was satisfied with how things were now. She was getting closer to her classmates, and day by day she was getting used to living in the 20th Ward. It was full of excitement she couldn’t have found back home.
She took a big bite of her pastry and muttered, “So good,” to herself, her cheeks puffed out like a hamster. Couldn’t have found this back home either.