Shortly after leaving his son's house, Harima spotted the colleague who had been dispatched here along with him.
The man, with a laid-back demeanor, noticed Harima and raised his hand in greeting.
"Lieutenant Takaki. Did you get a good look at your son's face? Even so, please refrain from abandoning your post while on duty."
"That's only because you've been hogging the news interviews for far too long, Lieutenant Fujiwara."
Fujwara Kimura, sporting a bristly beard he prized, ran his hand through it and showed Harima the documents he held.
"While you were away, I investigated various leads and found a suspicious location. Recently, a dispute broke out between ghoul factions in District 8, and it seems one of the ghouls, acting like the enforcer of his group, was severely wounded and fled into District 7. And curiously, the timing matches perfectly with the murder of that bakery owner."
Harima carefully scanned the papers and said, "At first I thought he was just a dumb ghoul, given how blatantly he left traces of cannibalism behind, but if he hurriedly ate to treat a wound, that makes sense."
"Exactly. And there's witness testimony that after the incident, someone bleeding was seen entering a sewer near Hamei Middle School."
"So we've got our search area. Let's move right away."
Harima and Fujwara flared their white coats and headed toward the familiar sewer entrance.
To an outsider, they looked like ordinary workers heading out early for their day, but from the ghouls' perspective, their steps must have felt as heavy and ominous as those of death itself.
...
"Hmm? What are you brooding about so intently?"
Searching for ghouls is dangerous work—the ambush could come at any moment. Noting Harima seemed lost in thought when he should've been tense, Fujwara admonished him.
"...It's nothing. It's just that when I visited my son's place earlier, something caught my attention…"
"If the ghouls calling you the 'Slaughter Demon' knew you're really just a doting, worried father, the ghouls you've butchered so far would flip over in their graves."
"Don't tease me. It's only natural to worry."
A dark shadow crossed Harima's face as he retorted to Fujwara.
"Those are poor kids who've lost their mothers in 'that way.' Even if I can't be their father, I want them to grow up safe and sound."
"I can't argue with that. But what was it that caught your attention?"
"…A baby."
"…What?"
Fujwara frowned at Harima's mumbling.
"It was faint, but… in my son's place, there was the smell of a baby."
Harima remembered a distant memory from when his own son had been a baby. Back then, his house had carried a similar scent.
If there had been formula, he'd have recognized it more easily, but instead a faint trace of baby powder and diapers lingered in the apartment.
"A baby? Isn't your son a high school student? What kind of baby would show up in his apartment? Maybe you just smelled something coming from the neighbor."
"Could be…"
Though Harima noticed his son's behavior seemed off today… the thought flickered and was dismissed as soon as they reached their destination.
They had arrived at the sewer entrance they'd targeted.
From the tunnel yawning like a mouth, a stench like the breath of a beast wafted out.
"…Here it is, bloodstains."
As soon as they stepped into the gloom, Fujwara crouched, caught sight of the stains, and ran his hand lightly over them.
Though dry, they hadn't crumbled, indicating they'd been left recently.
"Sure enough, the ghoul we're after has hidden here…"
"Fujwara! Up!!"
At Harima's sudden shout, Fujwara looked up reflexively.
One of the shadows on the stained ceiling suddenly grew larger and fell down on Fujwara's head.
A man in his early thirties, clutching his wounded abdomen with one hand.
His eyes glowed red and black, proof enough that he was a ghoul.
And sprouting from his back like a tail, red tendrils dropped down like a guillotine—the ghoul's predatory organ, the [Kagune]!
KAAAAAANG!!!
The [Kagune] that fell toward Fujwara emitted a metallic shriek as it rebounded off him.
Turning his gaze, Fujwara saw the steel briefcase he'd jumped between himself and the ghoul flying away, dented.
Though broken, the open briefcase held no contents—meaning they'd already been removed.
CLACK-CLACK-CLACK!!
Before the sound of something snapping together could even finish, Harima lunged at the hovering ghoul.
In Harima's hand was a massive blade, big enough to cover his whole body—like the cleaver used to butcher bulls.
It was the weapon created over countless brutal battles to combat ghouls: the [Quinque]!
KUQUAAANG!!!
Harima's [Quinque] clashed with the ghoul's [Kagune], driving them more than ten meters apart.
But as soon as their feet hit the ground, both charged back at each other without hesitation.
KUKWAGAQUAQUA-AAAANG!!!
A flurry of bloody combat erupted in an instant.
The ghoul enlarged its [Kagune] like a mythic serpent, smashing through the sewer's support columns as it charged, while Harima swung his [Quinque] in a mighty arc to meet the blow.
None of the concern for his son that had shown moments ago remained on Harima's face as he fought.
Only a savage desire filled his eyes—a wish to dismantle the ghoul before him, bone and flesh and organs alike.
"KRRRRAAAAHHHH!!!!"
Driven past his limit by the relentless pressure of the ghoul investigator, the wounded ghoul unleashed an enraged roar and swung its [Kagune] in a wide, horizontal slash.
Fully expanded, the [Kagune] was thicker than the sewer pillars. Its powerful, murderous sweep leveled pillars and walls alike.
Fujwara dropped low to the ground and just barely evaded the strike.
Once the attack had passed, he searched for Harima but found no sign of him. Could he have been caught in that slash?
Convinced Harima was dead, the ghoul turned toward Fujwara as if to say, Now it's your turn.
That was the ghoul's mistake.
SWOOSH!!
"ARGH!!"
Filthy sewer water erupted as the massive butcher's blade pierced the ghoul's back.
The ghoul bellowed a blood-choked scream.
"No matter how keen your sense of smell, you can't trace us hidden under all that filth, can you?"
Harima hadn't been hit by the [Kagune]—he'd plunged into the muck himself and waited for the ghoul.
His dedication, leaping into the filthy water without hesitation to secure victory, was enough to give even his companion Fujwara the chills.
SWOOSH!! CRACK!!
Harima twisted his waist fully, pulling the [Quinque] free from the ghoul's back and then delivering a savage swing, transferring every ounce of torque to the blade's tip.
With the crunch of bone, the ghoul's head flew through the air.
But it didn't end there.
SWOOSH!! CRACK!! CRUNCH!! THUD!! SNAP!! SWOOSH!!
Harima, as if possessed, tore into the ghoul's corpse without pause.
He ripped flesh, shattered bones, and stomped on organs, yet still he didn't stop his relentless destruction.
Only when Fujwara placed a hand on his shoulder did the darkness leave Harima's pupils.
"That's enough. Even ghouls are sentient beings with life. There's no need to desecrate the corpse further."
"Nonsense. When they kill us, do they show that much courtesy? There's no value in pitying them."
Although Harima's voice was icy, he sheathed his [Quinque] without further slaughter.
Truly, seeing Harima transform into someone else whenever he faced ghouls never ceased to unnerve Fujwara.
"You truly grant ghouls no quarter. Isn't retirement approaching? How can you leave your uniform under these circumstances?"
"I have no intention of shedding this uniform until I die."
Clenching his blood-stained coat with a hand slick with gore, Harima looked down at the nothingness left of the ghoul's body, growling.
"I will kill every ghoul and ghoul sympathizer in this world with my own hands. Whether man or woman, old or infant… all of them…!"
"Huh?!"
Startled awake from a nap meant to shake off the fatigue from his father's surprise visit, I jolted up from a nightmarish dream.
"Ugh… I dreamed my father raised a knife against Eto…."
I prayed this wouldn't turn out to be a premonition as I searched for Eto.
"Eto? Where are you…?"
"Dah?"
I froze. Eto had just punched a clean hole through my laptop with her ghoul-strength.
"Etooooooooooooooo!!!"
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