I was born incomplete.
I exist in an unstable state.
My wings are broken, and half of my world is growing dim.
That was why I was curious.
What does a bird with broken wings think when it sees another bird soaring freely?
When it sees that sight, does it feel admiration, or envy?
I keep walking, as if turning the page of a book I have not yet read.
There is no killing intent, no fighting spirit. My only motive is the desire to know what comes on the next page.
I follow the faint traces left on the floor.
The target is close.
**
"...Dad."
"Yeah?"
Compared to Eto, my body was in better shape, but I was still exhausted. We moved through the sewer in silence for a while. With my clothes soaked through and Eto on my back, my legs felt as heavy as lead.
We had just passed through a narrow stretch and were entering a slightly wider area when Eto's low voice stopped me in my tracks.
"Someone's coming from ahead. I hear multiple footsteps."
"Multiple?"
I narrowed my eyes and looked straight ahead. I couldn't see anything, and I couldn't hear a thing.
But if Eto said so, then someone really was coming. Hearing that there were several of them, I thought of Enji and Kaya's group.
"Could it be them?"
"No. It's a strange smell. I think it's another Ghoul living around here."
"Another Ghoul..."
Even though this was Ward 7, not every Ghoul would have gathered in the sewers to drive out the Ward 20 Ghouls who had invaded from outside.
Some could easily have had a different range and, by luck, ended up outside the investigators' encirclement.
That was a problem. I would have a hard time surviving even if I ran into a weak Ghoul, and while Eto had recovered enough stamina to walk on her own, she still wasn't in any condition to fight.
In the end, the best option was to avoid them and keep our distance.
I looked back at the narrow path we had come through.
"For now, it'd be better to find another route and go back."
"Yes. That sounds like a good idea..."
Grab.
Just as I turned to head back, Eto, who had been agreeing with me, suddenly cut herself off and grabbed my shoulder.
When I looked at her, wondering what was wrong, I saw her eyebrows twist in suspicion.
"...A Ghoul Investigator?"
"What?"
"No doubt about it. That ominous smell... A Ghoul Investigator carrying a Quinque is approaching."
Eto spoke with absolute certainty.
I looked down the narrow passage. As expected, I still couldn't see or hear anything. But if Eto said so, then someone really was coming.
Still, the route we had taken so far had countless forks. How could someone come straight here without taking another path?
The answer came when I lowered my gaze.
"Damn it. Footprints?"
Our clothes were soaked through. Water, pulled down by gravity and dripping from our shoes, had been leaving a trail on the floor the whole time.
And because this place was already damp, the wet footprints hadn't faded easily.
"Could the investigators from that chamber have followed us? But the current shouldn't have calmed down yet, right? No way they rode that torrent all the way here?"
"You realize yourself that would be ridiculous."
"...Yeah, well, sorry about that."
Feeling guilty, I avoided Eto's gaze for a moment and fell into thought.
Who was it? It was unlikely to be Hitokawa. If it were him, he would have been moving with his whole team, and it would have been hard to get this far with that many people.
I pointed in the direction Eto had sensed the Ghoul Investigator and asked, "How many are coming from over there?"
"...One."
"Just one?"
I wondered if it might be a Ghoul Investigator who had happened to be searching the sewers, but Eto's answer made that seem unlikely. Investigators usually moved in pairs.
Then who the hell was it? Someone following our trail alone?
Still, if it was only one person, it seemed manageable.
Even if he was a Ghoul Investigator, he was still human. If we attacked him alone and by surprise, he'd have a hard time responding.
Besides, Eto hadn't recovered even half her stamina. At this point, it seemed she could only manifest her kakuhou for a few seconds.
In that state, facing an unknown pack of Ghouls seemed far worse than dealing with a single Ghoul Investigator.
I let Eto know what I was thinking, but her expression remained stiff.
"Let's not go this way."
"What? Why?"
"I'm not sure either... I can't really explain it, but I feel like we shouldn't go there."
"Hmm..."
Hearing Eto, I scratched my head and thought it over.
Intuition is not something to dismiss lightly.
If human consciousness is the tip of an iceberg sticking out of the sea, then the unconscious is the rest of the glacier submerged beneath the water. There are times when the unconscious senses something the conscious mind has not noticed and sends it up as a feeling that can't be explained precisely.
Eto was closer to the world of Ghouls than I was. It wouldn't be strange for her to sense something I couldn't.
"Maybe the reason he's alone is because he's strong enough not to need anyone else's help."
"Uuugh...!"
After hearing that, I didn't feel like going that way either.
The passage that had seemed easy to deal with suddenly looked like a monster with its mouth wide open, waiting for prey to walk in.
"Then what do we do? We can't go toward the Ghouls, and while this place is a little wider, it doesn't look like there's much room to hide..."
We were in a space about the size of an elementary school playground.
There were two passages leading elsewhere, but one had a Ghoul group approaching and the other had a Ghoul Investigator coming in.
There were rectangular pillars standing at regular intervals to support the ceiling, but the area was too narrow to hide in comfortably. And it wasn't as if we could just trust the darkness and crouch in some corner.
Against the senses of a Ghoul, and against the sharpened instincts of an investigator who had spent his life hunting them, darkness would not help much.
Just as I was thinking we might have to brace for a collision and choose one of the two passages anyway...
"...Ah."
Something came into view, and a good idea struck me.
**
"..."
Arima's steps stopped as he followed the damp footprints left on the floor.
The footprints had vanished. Around the place where they had disappeared unnaturally, faint traces of Ukaku remained.
"Did they dry the moisture with the heat of an Ukaku?"
It seemed the other side had noticed Arima's approach and erased the footprints. They had probably dried the moisture from their shoes and clothes as well.
An Ukaku is a Kagune that carries intense heat. Drying off moisture isn't impossible, but avoiding burns requires very precise control.
If they had tried that, it meant either they were skilled enough to control an Ukaku at will, or their output had weakened so much they could no longer generate that level of heat.
Which was it?
After studying the floor for a while, Arima straightened up. He could feel multiple presences approaching from the opposite passage.
A moment later, three silhouettes wriggled out of the darkness.
"Grrr..."
"Human...?"
"An investigator... A Ghoul investigator..."
They were strange Ghouls.
Dressed in ragged clothes like vagrants, they all had vacant, drugged-out eyes.
Arima turned his gaze to the object they were dragging along like luggage.
It was a corpse. At first glance it looked human, but the corpse, still with its eyes open, had [Kakugan] exposed in both eyes. A Ghoul corpse.
And one with bite marks all over its body.
"...Cannibalism, then."
It was not rare, but it was something that could happen at any time.
Ghouls who could not step into the human world, or Ghouls who wanted to become even stronger, began to eat one another—without realizing that the act itself was devouring them from within.
Those who committed cannibalism usually fell into madness. These were among them.
Heh-heh-heh...
Kekekeke...
Unpleasant laughter bounced off the cold walls and echoed from all directions. It made the whole area feel as though it were surrounded by Ghouls, suffocating and vile.
But Arima, hearing that sound, showed no change in expression and spoke calmly.
"Have you seen any Ghouls pass through this path?"
At the very least, none of the Ghouls now before him were the ones he was chasing. The corpse they dragged along was not one of them either.
The trail of the ones he had been following ended here, and there were no other side passages. Then the odds were high that they had crossed paths with these ones.
"Ghouls...?"
The Ghoul at the front shook his head drunkenly at Arima's question. Then, all at once, he stretched his mouth into a grin so wide it seemed to reach his cheeks.
"Ghoul...! Tear it apart, stomp it, break it, split it, rip it, chew it, chew it, chew it, chewing is deeeeelicious!!!"
"Kikikikik!! Puh-puh-puh!!"
"Aaaagh!! Mom!! My head! My head is gone!!"
"..."
The Ghouls had begun to go mad.
Ghoul eating Ghoul drives Ghouls insane.
These were living corpses who had become so fixated on strength, or survival, that they had lost everything else.
"You've already gone beyond the point of no return. Talking is impossible."
Arima gripped his long Quinque and took a light step forward.
The Ghouls, Kagune bared, rushed at him.
**
"That's that white-uniform kid from before...! So the one who followed us was him...!?"
I muttered in disbelief, holding my breath as much as I could.
I clearly remembered that boy's face.
Not only because he stood out in a school uniform among the investigators, but because the image of him driving Enji and Kaya back, and the moment he had charged at me, had burned itself into my memory.
Eto and I were watching the boy appear and come face-to-face with the unknown Ghoul group.
The place we were hiding was inside a pipe tucked close to the corner where the wall met the floor.
The pipe was heavily rusted and riddled with holes, as if it had not been maintained for a long time. When I first found it, I had wondered if it would work, and sure enough, Eto's strength was enough to punch a hole in it easily.
It had already lost its function as a pipe, so no water flowed through it anymore. If we crouched down as much as possible, there was enough room to hide inside.
So we had hidden in the pipe and waited for either the Ghouls or the investigator to pass by.
But contrary to our hopes, the Ghouls and the investigator ended up meeting in the very space where we were hiding.
The Ghouls' behavior looked completely insane, and the boy, gripping his Quinque, closed the distance to them.
"No matter how strong he is, isn't it dangerous to take on that many alone?"
"It would be dangerous, yes. For those Ghouls."
Grip.
Eto clutched my sleeve tightly as she spoke.
Was there something only she could sense? As she watched the boy through the pipe hole, the tension in her face never once eased.
Those few seconds I spent watching Eto passed in an instant.
In just those few seconds...
Shraaak!!!
"...?!"
The situation was already over by the time I looked away.
I hadn't even seen the process. When I turned back to the boy, blood was spraying in the wake of his sword strikes.
He had not split the Ghouls in half with overwhelming force in one blow.
Arms, legs, torsos, necks—he had cut them apart, and the Ghouls rolled across the floor in pieces. In the blink of an eye, he had swung his sword dozens of times to make that happen.
What the hell kind of monster is this?
What was even more absurd was the boy himself.
Despite displaying such overwhelming power, he wasn't even sweating, much less breathing hard. He remained steady and calm, as if he had simply gone out for a walk.
He didn't even radiate the dangerous presence of that Kakuja monster from before.
That boy was, quite literally, a silent death.
Only now, seeing him up close, did I finally begin to understand just how dangerous he really was.
"..."
After slaughtering the Ghouls, the boy looked around. Apparently deciding there was nothing else of note, he started walking in the direction the Ghouls had come from.
I cheered inwardly. Yes! Hurry up and disappear that way!
Pressing myself against the pipe wall, I silently saw off the boy's retreating back.
Then—
Creak...
A small noise.
Just a tiny sound made when I pressed myself against the wall.
He froze.
At that one sound, the boy stopped and turned toward us. At the same time, my heart dropped.
What the hell! He reacted to that tiny sound?!
I prayed he would think we were just rats.
But betraying that hope, the boy strode toward us.
The silent death, the reaper in a white uniform, was coming closer!
My face went pale, and Eto began to reveal her [Kakugan] little by little, preparing for battle. At the same time, as if to set up a surprise attack, she began suppressing her presence as much as possible, just as she had before.
I wanted to stop Eto. She was not in any condition to fight right now.
But the boy kept coming, and he wasn't going to stop. At this rate, a clash was inevitable.
Then...
Rustle! Rustle!
"...!? Dad, what are you doing...!?"
Startled by my sudden move, Eto whispered with wide eyes.
That made sense, since I had abruptly thrown off my outer shirt and shoes. The noise that caused made the boy seem to gain certainty, and he quickened his pace.
Before the boy could split the pipe in two, I sprang out of the pipe hole with both arms spread wide. At the same time, the boy moved his long Quinque.
"W-wait!! Hold on!! I'm not a Ghoul!!"
Clang!!
The tip of the long blade, flying at a speed too fast to see, stopped a hair's breadth from my throat.
I could see the boy's suspicious gaze right in front of me. This was the moment he had stopped attacking, so I shouted.
"I'm serious! My house burned down, so I'm a homeless guy living in the sewers! If you don't believe me, check me!"
"..."
The boy, who had been motionless as if thinking it over, reached into his pocket and pulled something out.
It was a capsule-shaped device about the size of a finger. Having seen that device before through Hitokawa, I smiled inwardly with confidence.
Click.
When the boy pressed the end of the capsule with his thumb, the lid came off and a needle shot out from inside. Without hesitation, he threw it at me.
Thud!
"Ghk...!"
When the flying needle sank into my knee, I let out a small groan.
A moment later, color began to appear on the side of the capsule as it drew blood from the pierced knee.
The color was blue.
Only after confirming that did the boy put away his Quinque and pull the capsule out of my knee to retrieve it.
"You are human. My apologies."
"...Glad you believed me."
The capsule the boy had thrown was a portable Ghoul detector that every Ghoul Investigator supposedly carried.
It had been created because investigators often had to flee and hide in crowded places among people.
When they couldn't tell whether the person in front of them was a Ghoul or a human, they used the capsule to measure that person's RC cell count and determine which one it was.
Thanks to that, I had managed to avoid being sliced to death by that Quinque. Just as I was feeling relieved, the boy said,
"There is one more thing I need to confirm."
"What?"
Before I could even ask what it was, the boy's Quinque moved first.
Kang!
One strike, two halves.
The flash-like swing of the Quinque split the pipe I had come out of in two. The pipe where Eto had definitely been.
The instant I realized that, I barely managed to suppress the curse that rose to my lips and the fist that almost flew out.
It was too early to jump to conclusions. The pipe had been cut in half, yes, but no blood had sprayed from it.
"Hmm..."
The boy let out a small sound, as if the result was different from what he had expected.
Eto was nowhere to be seen in the split pipe.
She must have sensed something right before the boy swung his Quinque and hidden herself, suppressing her presence. Thanks to Eto's quick reaction, the worst-case scenario had been avoided.
"W-what is it?"
I forced myself to speak as calmly as possible. Cold sweat had soaked my back, and it felt disgusting.
After seeming to think for a moment, the boy looked back at me.
"It's nothing. I have business inspecting this area, so I'll be taking my leave."
With a small bow, the boy turned and started walking away.
We had escaped immediate danger, but if that boy kept searching the area and ran into me again while I was with Eto, then there would be no mercy. I had to get that dangerous bastard as far away as possible.
I glanced into the pipe. In the darkness inside, I caught a fleeting glimpse of what looked like Eto's eye.
I gestured for her to move first since I was fine here, then hurried after the boy.
"Wait a second!"
"...?"
"Actually, I got lost while running from those Ghouls you killed earlier. Could you take me to the exit?"
"I have duties to attend to."
"You're a Ghoul Investigator! Can you really just leave a civilian behind in a place where another Ghoul could show up at any time?"
"..."
At that, the boy placed a hand on his chin as if considering it. A moment later, as if he had made up his mind, he lifted his head and looked at me.
"Understood. Then I will guide you only as far as the exit."
Yes!
I clenched my fist inwardly.
If I took this guy away with me like this, Eto could move on her own and meet up with Enji and Kaya's group. She was smart enough to understand what I was trying to do.
Now all that remained was figuring out how to coax this guy into heading toward an exit in the opposite direction from Enji and Kaya's group...
As I was thinking that and following the boy, he suddenly stopped walking.
"..."
"W-what is it?"
When the boy stopped, I mentally replayed everything I had just said to see if anything sounded suspicious. But that didn't seem to be the reason.
The boy narrowed his eyes slightly, turned back to me, and spoke.
"However, I do not know where the exit is either."
"..."
...Is this guy actually kind of a dummy?