5-chome, 39-banchi, Beika Town. First floor, Mouri Detective Agency.
Ran Mouri, her hair slightly spiky and wearing a white face mask, coughed several times before thanking the deep-blue-haired girl with fringe bangs standing before her, who held a lunchbox:
"Cough~ Thank you, Touka. Without you, I'd have no lunch today."
"No trouble. I just made extra portions."
Touka Kirishima replied flatly before changing the subject:
"Though Ran, with such a bad cold, you should rest properly at home. Mouri-san won't starve missing one meal."
As she spoke, she handed the lunchbox to Ran.
"Well, that's true..." Ran laughed awkwardly, accepting the meal. "Anyway, thank you for making lunch, Touka."
"I'll prepare dinner too. Just cover the ingredient costs later."
Touka phrased it in a way Ran could accept without feeling indebted.
"But—"
Before Ran could politely refuse, Touka waved her off:
"Got work at the shop. I'll collect the lunchbox in an hour—wash it first."
"Understood."
Ran nodded quickly, watching as Touka entered the first-floor cafe. After coughing again, she carried the lunchbox upstairs via the side staircase.
Inside the cafe, Touka scanned the dining customers before striding to the counter, where the white-haired, kindly-faced proprietor, Yoshimura, polished glasses in his butler attire.
No first-time observer would guess that this slender, gentle old man was the SSS-rated Ghoul, codenamed One-Eyed Owl or Non-Killing Owl, from another world.
"Lunchbox delivered to Miss Mouri?" Yoshimura asked.
Of course, this identity was no secret to Touka Kirishima, a fellow Ghoul ranked S.
Sitting at the counter, Touka Kirishima picked up the prepared coffee, took a sip, then looked at Yoshimura with some surprise:
"I didn't expect you to know how to cook human food, Manager."
Clearly, the lunchbox for Ran Mouri earlier hadn't been prepared by Touka Kirishima, but by Yoshimura himself.
"When you've lived long enough, you naturally pick up small skills," Yoshimura explained with a smile before asking:
"Speaking of which, Touka, Miss Mouri took sick leave today due to a cold. Where did her father, Kogoro Mouri, go?"
"To buy cold medicine at the hospital. For someone who loves horse racing and pachinko, I thought he'd abandon his daughter, but he actually rushed to the pharmacy first..."
Thinking of that clumsy detective hastily taking a taxi, Touka's expression showed genuine surprise.
Yoshimura, however, seemed to understand this well, even chuckling:
"Well, she is his child after all~"
After shaking his head with amusement, his expression turned more serious as he asked Touka:
"Did you gather any information from Miss Mouri?"
"I heard her complaining for a while and learned a few things."
Touka's face grew slightly stern:
"Because of the famous detective Shinichi Kudo's recent activities, Kogoro Mouri hasn't had any work for two months. Their savings seem nearly depleted, and with his gambling habits on horse racing and pachinko, the Mouri family's finances are extremely tight."
"From what Ran accidentally revealed, their household funds seem to have dropped below 100,000 yen."
"If nothing changes, they can only last another fortnight at most."
Hearing this, Yoshimura polished a glass in his hand, narrowing his eyes:
"So the Mouri family's finances are about to collapse."
"The property they own - this three-storey building where our café is located - is over 30 years old. It's the Mouri family's ancestral home."
"Given Kogoro Mouri's gambling tendencies, when he can't hold on any longer, he'll likely consider selling the property... That's when we could pool our resources to purchase this building."
Touka looked somewhat puzzled:
"But, Manager, why must we buy the Mouri property? Wouldn't those crime scene houses be cheaper? And there are so many of them in Beika Town."
"Precisely because there are many, we shouldn't buy them."
Yoshimura replied calmly:
"Firstly, as Ghouls, we can't openly associate with places connected to corpses. Secondly, accident sites are usually residences - commercial properties like the Mouri building are extremely rare, practically nonexistent."
"Moreover, most shops are in busy areas unsuitable for hiding."
"So families like the Mouri's, who are about to face financial difficulties yet own properties suitable for us, are extremely rare. To put it bluntly, within Beika Town, this is essentially our only option."
"Touka, you understand why I chose to open Anteiku in Beika Town."
Hearing this, Touka Kirishima's expression turned slightly complicated as she said:
"Because Beika Town has an unusually high murder rate. With just a bit of care, given our Ghoul sensitivity to corpses, it's easy to locate freshly deceased bodies. Additionally, the forested areas past Beika Town have Tokyo's highest suicide frequency."
For Ghouls, Beika Town's frequent homicides made it exceptionally convenient to use their physical advantages to steal corpses and store them as food.
When no bodies were discovered, even if someone reported them missing, the police would simply classify them as disappearance cases, further enhancing concealment.
The numerous suicides in the suburban forests provided even more opportunities to find food.
It was precisely these multiple conveniences that led Yoshimura to establish Anteiku in Beika Town after thorough consideration.
"In two weeks, I'll sound out Mr. Mouri. If he's willing to sell the property, everything becomes much simpler."
Yoshimura set aside the polished glass he'd been working on.
At this, Touka Kirishima, resting her chin on one hand, said with visible displeasure:
"Handing the property sale money to that gambling addict would be a complete waste. Poor Ran Mouri would suffer for it."
Understanding Touka's concern, Yoshimura nevertheless replied:
"There's nothing to be done about that. After the deal succeeds, I'll find an opportunity to suggest Mr. Mouri entrust the proceeds to Miss Ran's care. That should make things somewhat safer."
"I suppose that's all we can do." Touka sighed and set down her coffee.
Just then, the shop door opened with a chime of bells as a black-haired woman entered. She exchanged a glance with Yoshimura and nodded in silent understanding.
Noticing the newcomer, Touka raised a hand in greeting:
"Miss Irimi, you're early today."
The arrival was Kaya Irimi, currently one of only three staff members at Anteiku - and herself a Ghoul.
"My morning work finished ahead of schedule."
With her long, straight black hair resembling any ordinary urban woman, Irimi entered the changing room after arriving and soon emerged wearing her work uniform. Standing by the counter, she lowered her voice:
"Manager, Yomo's investigation has yielded results."
"Yesterday, Beika Town's crematorium was indeed attacked. But they seemed prepared - many attacking Ghouls were killed on the spot, with reports of several survivors."
Hearing this, Yoshimura's normally narrowed eyes opened slightly, revealing a glimpse of crimson beneath.
He sighed deeply:
"So... the secret couldn't be kept after all..."
Neither Irimi nor Touka spoke, their expressions complex.
Among the three, the youngest, Touka Kirishima, was particularly indignant:
"After finally arriving in this unfamiliar world, if those guys had just behaved themselves, the Ghouls' situation wouldn't have..."
"Touka." Yoshimura shook his head at her. "This hurdle was unavoidable. After all, the vast majority of Ghouls won't follow our example of feeding only on suicides and accident victims."
"The only ones we can ever restrain are ourselves."
Touka Kirishima understood Yoshimura's words, but still felt somewhat dissatisfied in her heart.
A month ago, the Ghouls of their Anteiku had collectively arrived in this world, different yet similar to their past one. They'd originally thought they could live here incognito, in a world where no one knew about Ghouls.
But it turned out they weren't the only ones who'd crossed over - seemingly all Ghouls from Tokyo had come along.
Under these circumstances, surviving without being discovered had clearly become wishful thinking.
Touka Kirishima understood this perfectly well, but she'd always hoped the day of exposure would come much later.
Kaya Irimi, who had just returned from gathering information, asked with a grave expression:
"Manager, what should we do now?"
"Because of those Ghouls attacking the crematorium, our existence is bound to be exposed. Official investigations are inevitable now. Once things develop to the same point as in our original world..."
At this point, Irimi's expression became rather complicated.
In their original world, humans had established the CCG Investigation Bureau specifically to hunt Ghouls, suppressing incidents of Ghouls eating humans. Humans and Ghouls had become absolute enemies, constantly fighting in Tokyo's underworld.
Or rather, it should be said that Ghouls were hunted and captured like stray dogs in sewers by the more numerous humans.
That environment was something Irimi, who had enjoyed nearly a month of peace, found hard to accept now.
Back then, living in that situation had been bearable. But after experiencing this peaceful environment without being hunted, she naturally didn't want to return to those terrible days.
This made Irimi's emotions unstable upon discovering the Ghouls' rapidly deteriorating situation.
Behind the counter, faced with Irimi's question, Yoshimura - who wanted to try coexisting peacefully with humans - could only sigh:
"I'll try contacting various Ghoul organisations to buy time and prevent Ghouls from becoming enemies with humans again."
"Of course, this is just a stopgap measure. As for a real solution... I'm sorry, but I haven't thought of one yet."
Yoshimura's tone was deeply conflicted as he spoke.
Ghouls could only eat humans, and humans refused to be eaten. This fundamental difference in positions meant that even Yoshimura, an SSS-rated Ghoul and one of the strongest among them, couldn't think of any solution.
At this point, Touka Kirishima stood up, not wanting to see the manager troubled:
"Manager, let's leave that aside for now. We have many customers today - we should get to work."
As if to echo Touka's words,
The moment she finished speaking, the bell at the entrance chimed as customers pushed the door open.
Touka turned her head and immediately saw a handsome young man carrying a large white metal case, leading a cute pink-haired girl into the Anteiku.
This handsome man carrying the white case was none other than Luo Shu!