Through many rights and lefts, I seem to had got the right way to the mask maker's den. Thanks to many shady looking people that I met on the way, they pointed me the direction forward; but surely with a peculiar eye.
Now I was infront of a house. It was a small house with a door and a window. A few bottle of spray paint lie near the door. On the wall was an unfinished graffiti. It seems not to make any sense, presumably because it was half finish. I headed to the door only to find it was slightly open.
"Is Uta kun here?" I asked from outside the door. There was no reply.
I slightly pushed the door and slowly entered
"I have come to have a mask made" there was no reply and there was no one inside either. At the opposite side of that single spacious room was a long table. I stepped forward towards the middle of the room to get a better look over the table. There were paper with half drawn sketches, pencil leads, inks, tapes and scale. All of these were jumbled up in a hurry. Surely there was someone here, just a minute or so ago.
I still felt the presence of someone in that empty room. Only when I looked up, did I saw a body sticking to the roof. His hairs were blondish. His pupils swallowed the whole eye. Like a blackhole they drew the beholder.
He released his hand and was about to fall over me. Even before I could panic, he skillfully drew out his kagune. Like a rope his thin but elongated kagune bind round me so quickly that in just a second the end tip was facing my forehead. And he was standing right before me.
"Don't shout or else there will be a big hole where your forehead is" he warned me "well whose agent are you... Recently I haven't engaged with anyone to deserve their ill will. Perhaps you are someone seeking revenge" he continued.
"May I speak" I interrupted. He paused, gazed a while at me and nodded.
"Well I'm here to have my mask made. If you don't believe that there is a note inside my pocket from someone you may know" I told him.
He walked towards me, strengthing the coil further. His bleached hands reached my pocket and pulled out the note. He ran his eyes across the note. At a sudden wimp, he let his kagune uncoil and retracted it back.
With an annoyed face he crumbled the note into a ball and threw it.
"What he takes me for, a mask maker? Well come sit on that chair" he said, while he took out a fresh paper and the tapes and scales.
I sat there and watched him organizing his table. "I'm Shinji Kurosawa, nice to meet you" I said.
"Likewise myself Uta" he said without giving an eye at me. After that he measured my head, face and ear. All of this happen in pin drop silence. After which he sat on the table and started drawing something on his sketchbook.
"You are not the talkative type are you Shinji kun. I need to know about you to make a mask that better suits you" he asked in a friendly and soft tone, that defied his earlier roughness.
"Well I came from Ebigashima. I used to live with my gramp but he passed away recently. Than I shifted to Tokyo, where I found out that I'm a ghoul" Uta's hand slipped. He took the eraser end of the pencil to rub it up.
"Then I met another ghoul on the street. She wore an Oni mask. The meeting wasn't so as much as pleasant. Kirishima told me later that her name is Aiko." His hand again slipped and he did the same again.
"After which the next morning I met an investigator on a crime scence" Once again his hand slipped . But this time he tore the page and threw it away. He gently put the sketchbook on the table. Both of his palm, he clenched them tightly and began laugh loudly.
"Holy shit! What have you been blabbering. If there is even a speck of true, well you are living quite a high life. You didn't even know you were a ghoul! What are you an idiot? An your first meeting was with the Oni. Oh dear how many times have I offered her a proposal, yet she have declined always. And you even know her real name. Well I will call her by that when I meet her next time. Her face will be quite something to see. And what else you were telling. You met an investigator, oh dear, what has life stored for you. You are jumping like a frog on fire" he said all of this intoxicated in laughter.
"But I'm speaking the truth" I said trying my best to reassure him.
"Oh I trust you. But I don't understand one thing. Isn't your old man a ghoul too" he asked.
"Well I think he is a human" I told. He burst into a laughter but not like that of before but a sinister one.
"A human raising a ghoul. Dammit, it so hilarious. What he has been feeding you beef, pork. I cannot even think how many people your old man had killed to feed you. Human killing human to feed a ghoul. That's the greatest piece of shit I have ever heard. Your old man was quite a piece if he could chop down his fellow man"
He laughed terribly, his eyes were filled with tears of laughter. I was shivering all over hearing how he badmouthed gramp. I clenched my fists and held them tightly. My face was downcast and tears were filling my eyes.
"Don't say badly about my gramp" I said out in a rigid but angry voice.
Uta paused and looked at me. He saw I was at the brink of tearing out.
"I'm sorry, I just haven't heard anything like that before. It all seem to have happen out of some comic strip" he said in an apologetic tone.
Uta picked his sketchbook again and started drawing. "So you have met the Oni?" I nodded.
"Do you know her Uta kun?" I asked.
"Well I do know her as a ghoul, but not personally. She is one hell of a ghoul. You may not know but she is quite famous. Before she came to the 3rd ward. She wandered all over Tokyo, some say even Japan, fighting strong ghouls. I had my fair share of battles, but they often ends at a draw. [Don't believe Uta, he tires up and Aiko call the fight over]. Both she and Gabi started living permanently in the 3rd ward. And no one knows what they were doing before that. Gabi's life is far more of a mystery than hers. Only Arata is at good terms with them. How many times have I persuaded her to join me, but she always refused" he put his pencil down.
"What do you think of this fox mask? It will suit you. It has more of your vibe." he asked me showing the sketch.
"But a fox is cunning and clever, able to get out of any situation" I told him.
"You are a little fox. You are still at infancy. Just a week before you were born as a ghoul, you will soon catch up and become an incredible one. And troubles are something I think you are very good at dodging. You are alive; that itself is no less than a miracle" he said with a joyous laughter. I smiled at that remark.
"Well when it will be finished I will send it to Kirishima's place, you can pick it up from there." Uta told me when we were about to part our ways.
I thanked him and went back through the same way as I came. Now there were no shady looking guys then.