"..."
Yoshimura Kuzen stood atop a building, looking down over the city.
The rain that had been pouring across the city had finally stopped, but the air still hung heavy, as if it might start pouring again at any moment.
"I never expected things to turn out like this."
Kuzen's eyes were on the city, but his thoughts were fixed on a place deeper than the streets below—deep underground.
After more than ten years of relentless pursuit, Kuzen had finally managed to shake off the organization. But before he vanished completely, he had made contact with them to help the 20th Ward Ghoul group, En and Kuroinu.
Because of that, Kuzen worried the organization's reach might extend to them as well.
That was why he had asked Koma and Eto to help them.
It was partly a favor to people he had not seen in a long time, but it also carried the intention that they should help while keeping a low profile.
Honestly, if only En and Kaya had moved, the organization would never have found them.
The problem was that their loyal subordinates had moved as a group and left a trail.
Suspicious of a connection between the two Ghoul groups and Kuzen, the organization had prepared a trap called a suppression squad. Their lives were bait to draw Kuzen in.
But two people who should never have been involved had gotten caught in that bait.
Koma and Eto.
By the time Kuzen realized what was happening, it was already too late.
Somewhere underground right now, Ghoul Investigators, the 20th Ward Ghouls, the organization's hidden blade, and two people who should have had nothing to do with any of it were likely tangled together in a chaotic melee.
"Should I go save them...?"
That was the part Kuzen hesitated over.
By now, the organization would probably be looking at his continued absence and concluding that there was no major connection between him and the 20th Ward Ghouls.
They would have set a few contingency measures, but by their nature they had likely already begun to pull back.
And if Kuzen rushed in now to save the others, he would only end up drawing the organization's surveillance back onto them and bringing in outside forces.
Knowing that, Kuzen could not move. Trying to save them would only invite greater danger.
That did not make the feeling of having to stand by and watch any easier.
"...Hm?"
He sensed something small, and Kuzen turned his gaze.
It was not human. It was the presence of a tiny creature, small enough to fit in a fist.
A little bird, trembling all over, was crawling beneath the rooftop railing. Still not fully grown into its down, the bird was one Kuzen knew well.
An owl.
It was a bird ill-suited to the city, but for some time now, owls weaving between the buildings had often caught the eye. Was this one its chick?
Where were its parents, leaving it alone in a place like this?
Whether it had been abandoned or left behind for unavoidable reasons, he could not tell.
One thing was certain: that young owl was facing the most important moment of its life.
Kree-kree.
The owl standing at the edge of the roof flapped its wings. But it lacked the strength to fly.
Even so, it kept beating its wings as if trying to take off somehow.
As though it knew that if it did not fly now, it would die.
Kuzen watched in silence.
There was nothing he could do. This was something it had to do on its own.
Whoosh.
The owl, flapping its wings in a frantic struggle, finally hurled itself beyond the rooftop.
Beyond that edge lay a height so vast a person would look like a dot. The owl fell into the darkness where even the city's light barely reached.
If it struck the ground at the end of that fall, it would die.
If it could spread its wings and rise, it would live.
Perhaps he had seen the young owl plunging into the dark and imagined it as someone else.
Kuzen murmured in a voice as earnest as prayer.
"Fly."
Eto was falling.
Into the darkness.
Toward the Investigators.
Her face was hidden beneath the blanket.
In the space that looked like a gaping mouth, only killing intent overflowed.
BOOOOM!!!
It was a reckless charge too violent to preserve the formation from moments ago.
The three Investigators counterattacked, but they gained little from it.
Only the spear Kureo thrust out managed to pierce Eto's body, but Eto ignored the blade digging into her abdomen and swept her two massive Kagune wings and a third, still-unformed Kagune in every direction.
"Ghk…!!"
Kasuka backed away, parrying the Kagune that came skimming across the floor with her rapier. The other two Investigators did the same.
Because Eto had forced herself between the Investigators and knocked them apart, further coordination had become impossible. On the other hand, Eto now had room to pick them off one by one.
So who would be targeted first?
Marude, whose individual combat ability was the weakest? Or the injured Kasuka?
To avoid losing track of Eto's movements, Kasuka narrowed her eyes, and then Eto's figure vanished into a line.
That line connected to none other than Kureo.
"Looks like getting stabbed in the stomach hurt more than I thought!"
Kureo had expected her to target Marude or Kasuka, but Eto's sudden frontal assault caught him off guard. Still, as a veteran, he reacted immediately and thrust his spear forward.
As Eto's charging speed met the spear's thrust, a strange distortion rippled between them, as if the space between the two had vanished.
At that instant—
Whoosh!!
Eto disappeared, and the spear pierced only empty space. Kureo's eyes widened in shock.
Kasuka's shout rang out.
"Down, honey!"
Eto was out of sight, but he obeyed his wife's voice on reflex and ducked low.
A razor-edged storm brushed across Kureo's back.
Eto's leg, wrapped in Kagune, swept past him and smashed into a pile of debris nearby.
BOOOOM!!!
The large chunks of rubble burst outward like toy blocks kicked apart in every direction.
Sensing Eto behind him, Kureo spun his spear and thrust backward, but the spear tip met nothing but a torn scrap of blanket.
Eto vanished again.
For a moment, Kureo wondered if he was fighting an illusion, but he was wrong.
Right after Eto disappeared, a series of explosions sounded in the air. Something like sparks burst, and lines that seemed to be Eto's form streaked chaotically in every direction.
"Fast!"
Watching her, Kasuka realized Eto was using the explosive force of [Ukaku] to change direction freely in midair.
Not only was the movement free, as if she were ignoring gravity, but the speed itself was overwhelming.
It was nowhere near what it had been at the start.
It was getting faster even now. Her attacks were growing sharper too.
At first, Kasuka had thought it was because Eto had recovered her energy by consuming a Ghoul corpse, but now she revised that thought.
She was growing.
Even at this very moment.
That was what Kasuka thought as she watched the third wing of Kagune gradually take shape.
"That growth rate is insane."
It felt like watching a fire spread beyond control.
The fear Kasuka felt looking at Eto now was of that kind.
She did not know what kind of environment Eto had grown up in, but her body was already prepared to fan the flames born within her in an instant.
And the trigger that lit that fire had, of all people, been Kasuka.
This was her responsibility. She had to stop this rampaging madness with her own hands.
Even if it meant killing a child who had not yet fully grown!
Clang! Clang!
As she barely managed to deflect Eto's frenzied attacks, Kasuka spoke.
"Honey! You still have the RC suppressant, right?"
"Yeah! Ngh!"
BOOOOM!!!
Kureo said it as he planted the spear shaft and deflected Eto's attack.
Eto, who had slipped past Kureo, shot toward Marude like a fired shell, and he barely dodged behind debris, protecting himself from her.
Watching Eto leap again after passing Marude, Kasuka pulled a capsule filled with blue liquid from her coat pocket.
"Take out the suppressant! Now!"
"Are you crazy!? The suppressant only works if it's injected! There's no way that rampaging Ghoul is going to sit still and let us do it!"
"We have no choice!"
Swearing, Kureo pulled a suppressant capsule from his pocket.
"This is our only chance!"
Whoosh!
Kasuka tossed the capsule overhead, and Kureo, understanding her intent, threw his as well.
The two capsules spun through the air and met in midair, and at the same moment, Eto changed direction and shot toward them.
As Eto's body became a line and flew in, Kasuka shouted,
"Marude, now!!"
"Don't blame me if I miss!"
Marude burst out from the shadow of the debris and fired his rifle.
He was not aiming at Eto. She was too fast for the muzzle to track.
Then what was he aiming at?
The RC suppressant Kasuka and Kureo had thrown into the air.
Crash!!
The glass around the capsule shattered, and blue liquid sprayed everywhere.
The scattered liquid fell over Kasuka and Kureo's heads, and at the same time, it struck Eto's body as she charged toward them.
The RC suppressant was a drug that kept Ghouls from using their Kagune. But it was useless unless injected directly into a Ghoul's body. Kasuka knew that well.
So she was not hoping to stop Eto from using her Kagune.
Only for a moment.
It was enough if the suppressant touched Eto's cornea, skin, or the Kagune itself and took effect for just a split second.
"...!"
Flinch!
For the first time, Eto's nonstop flight stuttered.
For a fleeting instant, her body, which had been spewing Kagune at her will, produced a tiny discord.
It was an absurdly short span of time, barely a fraction of a second.
But it was enough.
Thud!!!
Enough for the blows of veteran Investigators to pierce her body.
"...Cough!!!"
Eto, who had been eating the red fruit, suddenly felt a violent pain and spat it out.
What had happened? Pain had abruptly surged through the body that had felt so calm and hazy just moments ago. It was around her throat and chest.
It was a horrific agony, as if she had been pierced by some monstrous weapon, but thanks to it the dreamlike blur vanished all at once, and her composure went with it.
Only then could Eto finally see the red fruit she had been eating.
It was a piece of entrails.
She had been chewing on a chunk of viscera that looked as if it had just been torn from someone who had been alive moments ago.
"...!!"
Horrified, Eto sat up.
The blue sky was gone. The wide flower field was gone too.
All that remained were corpses.
There were masses of corpses strewn about, all of them strangely familiar.
There was a Ghoul corpse dressed like a police officer. Eto had eaten it.
There was a Ghoul corpse dressed like a salaryman. She had not eaten the body, but she had torn into its Kagune.
There was a Ghoul in ragged clothes. That was the one she had just eaten.
And beyond those were human corpses whose faces she could not clearly make out. The bodies of nameless suicides Koma had brought and prepared for Eto's survival.
Eto had eaten it. Eto had eaten it. Eto had eaten it. Eto had eaten it. She had eaten. Eaten. Eaten. Eaten again.
She stood atop the nourishment of the past.
"What's wrong?"
A voice spoke.
It was Koma, sitting beside Eto.
He picked up the piece of entrails Eto had dropped and held it out to her.
"You should keep eating, right?"
"...Who are you?"
Eto asked in a wary voice.
This man was not her dad. He could not be her dad.
Receiving that look, the someone pretending to be Koma let out a sigh.
"I really don't get it..."
As he muttered that, he suddenly reached out with a rough hand.
Grab!
"...!?!"
His hand seized Eto's chin and forced her down. Then he pried her mouth open and tried to shove the entrails in his hand into it.
"What are you hesitating for? What's there to hesitate about when it makes you stronger? Think about it. Why did you come here? To save the companions of those two Ghouls? No. That's not it."
Eto shook her head and resisted, but it was not easy. No matter how hard she struggled, she could not shake off the presence in front of her.
His words continued.
"You never cared what happened to them. My purpose was the same from beginning to end."
He forced the entrails into Eto's mouth and pointed to his own face. That face wearing Koma's appearance.
"It was to protect 'this man,' wasn't it? Everything else could go to hell. You just wanted to protect this man and stay with him. That was all."
"Mmmph…! Mmph…!!"
"And what about now? The man you tried to protect threw himself in as bait to shield you from a monster you can't even touch with your own power. And now you're about to die at the hands of these humans. Why? Because you're weak. Because you're weak, you put the one precious to you in danger, and you yourself are trapped in danger and can't escape. If that's how it is, then leave it to me instead."
Drip....
The face wearing Koma's appearance began to melt, like mud.
As the face slid away and the true face beneath it was revealed, Eto's eyes widened.
What stood there was none other than Eto herself.
Another Eto, with red [Kakugan] in both eyes instead of just one, looked at her and smiled slyly.
"Oh, my poor little lacker. Your parents failed to raise you."
Eto's movements stopped as the [Quinque] pierced her.
Kureo's spear had gone through Eto's heart, and Kasuka's rapier had struck her neck.
Kureo felt that they had succeeded when he saw Eto standing motionless, but when he looked at Kasuka beside him, his expression hardened.
Kasuka's face was twisted in shock. Something had clearly not gone as planned.
Come to think of it, Kasuka had swung the rapier rather than thrusting it. She had been trying to cut.
And yet her rapier had stopped partway through Eto's neck. It had not been stopped by bone. A Ghoul Investigator's weapon could cleave even Ghoul bone.
Then what was it?
At that moment, the blanket that had been pushed up by Eto's violent movements slid down, revealing her face.
"...!?!"
Kureo could only stare in shock, just like Kasuka.
Eto's face was, as Kasuka had said, that of a young girl, but honestly, that was not what drew the eye.
What Kureo and Kasuka saw was the other half of her face.
There was no human eye there, nothing of the sort.
It was a mass of Kagune, spread over her face like a mask.
Kasuka's rapier had been blocked by that mass of Kagune and could go no farther.
Seeing it, Kasuka murmured through dry lips,
"A Kakuja...?"
Perhaps she had heard that voice.
The half of Eto's face not covered in Kagune curled into a grin and answered their fear.