"This world is a cage."
"Even now, this cage keeps us locked inside, ensuring that nothing within can escape."
"The currents surging through this cage have become a tragedy, gnawing away at us."
Eto closed her notebook.
The pages contained nothing but raw information, but if she were to translate that data into the prose of a novel, this was the result.
"Haa..."
Eto's sigh drifted across the rooftop.
A girl in a school uniform sat perched precariously on the railing of a ten-story building.
Below her, people moved about, immersed in the mundane rhythms of their daily lives.
Looking slightly further, the streets stretched out as if they would continue forever.
But when she raised her gaze fully, she saw only a forest of bleak, towering buildings.
They were like the iron bars of a cage—pillars that blocked her vision, as if telling her there was nowhere left to go.
Among them, the largest structure was visible even from this distance.
She knew exactly what it was.
The CCG headquarters in the 1st Ward.
To a Ghoul, it was a monument to death, and now it felt even more repulsive than before.
The way it pierced the sky, dwarfing every surrounding building, made it look like the central pillar supporting the cage.
"Are you kidding me?"
Eto hurled the rebuke toward the distant building.
There was no one to hear her, and she wasn't addressing anyone in particular, but she couldn't keep the words inside.
"The peace the people of this city believed in and relied on... was nothing more than this?"
Eto had not shown the contents of the notebook to Koma. She couldn't.
It was enough that she alone had to witness the grotesque truth that made her want to retch.
This was forbidden knowledge.
The surface of the world hadn't changed since she opened that notebook, but the interior had shifted irrevocably.
Eto realized she was standing on a sheet of thin ice that could shatter at any moment.
"What am I supposed to do..."
She lowered her head, clutching it in her hands.
She had no idea how to act now that she was aware of an enemy she hadn't known existed.
Maybe talking to someone would help.
Kuzen, the man who had given her the notebook. He would be the ideal person to consult.
Their relationship was still awkward, so she had intended to take things slowly, but it seemed she would have to move up her timeline.
Just as Eto was organizing her thoughts,
"...!"
A figure caught her eye as she looked down toward the street.
The distance was so great that the pedestrians looked like mere dots, but her vision was sharp enough to identify him without trouble.
"That guy is..."
Eto immediately leaped from the rooftop.
She believed she had found someone even more useful than Kuzen.
***
Hirako Take.
Graduate of the 66th Junior Class from the Third Academy of the Ghoul Investigator training facility.
Having become a Rank 3 Ghoul Investigator immediately upon reaching adulthood, he was out on duty today with his first-ever partner.
If asked to introduce himself, the only word Hirako could use was "ordinary." He didn't mean it sarcastically; it was the simple truth.
His academy grades: ordinary. Practical tests: ordinary. Performance reviews: ordinary. Even his own self-assessment was ordinary.
Hirako Take had no desire to stand out. He lacked even a shred of curiosity.
He lived with the impression that people like him were common everywhere. He expected to live and die without ever differing significantly from the crowd.
At least, that was what he believed until today.
"Got it, Rank 3 Hirako? Position 41 means you move laterally to the left from your current spot and slash above the head. Position 42 is also a left lateral move, but instead of the head, you slash below the legs. It's perfect if you leave a scratch on the floor. And position 43 is..."
"Um, Mr. Arima. I appreciate the explanation, but it's hard to process all of this verbally at once. Is there a chart or a manual I can look at?"
"...?"
The man walking ahead of Hirako stopped and turned around.
Arima Kishou.
Only two years older than Hirako, he was already a Rank 1 Ghoul Investigator—a rare, once-in-a-generation genius.
It was shocking enough that such a man had chosen him as a partner during the new employee welcome event, but the sheer volume of tactical positions he was expected to memorize was equally staggering.
Hirako's brain simply couldn't keep up. He had asked for a chart so he could study it at his own pace.
In response, Arima merely tilted his head in confusion.
"Did you fail to memorize what I just said?"
"...I am not exceptional enough to memorize forty-three different positions after hearing them once. Exactly how many more are there?"
"Since this is our first time coordinating, and I'm not sure which will be most effective for cooperative play, I've mapped out 209 variations."
"I absolutely cannot memorize that. If I tried, my head would just scramble and I'd end up ruining the teamwork."
Arima continued to look puzzled as he adjusted his glasses.
"I chose you as my partner because you described yourself as 'ordinary' at the welcome event. I assumed that meant you could at least do what the average person does."
"Please set the standard for 'ordinary' at 'average.' If you set it to 'genius,' we have a problem."
Hirako began to feel that he had been paired with the wrong man.
He was seriously considering filing a request for a partner change the moment they returned to base.
"It can't be helped. For today, just observe me fighting. You should be able to get a feel for it."
"...Understood."
Still, Arima wasn't wrong about the definition of ordinary. Hirako figured that as long as he didn't become a complete liability, he could at least follow in Arima's wake.
However, after watching Arima slice the fourteenth Ghoul they encountered into exactly fourteen pieces, Hirako had to admit that he was completely out of his league.
"Now, can you do it?"
"...I can't."
"You can't? A human has two arms. You just need to move the right and left arms independently. Is that really so difficult?"
"...I'm sorry."
Arima wasn't asking him to look in two directions at once; he was asking him to butcher one Ghoul with one arm while simultaneously butchering another with the other.
"I'm just... very ordinary."
Hirako could only offer that as an excuse.
He spent the entire day following Arima, yet he couldn't even grasp the surface of the man's capabilities, let alone his depths.
How can a human like this exist?
Hirako, who had always fit in perfectly with the masses, felt as though he had encountered a transcendent being and been reduced to the lowest possible rung of existence.
He assumed Arima would replace him soon. A genius could find a competent subordinate anywhere.
But Arima didn't. Day after day, he remained patient, teaching Hirako over and over until the lesson finally sank in.
And Hirako silently followed. He didn't know why he did it; following a genius's footsteps was a living hell.
If he had to name a reason... it was probably stubbornness.
"Why did you become a Ghoul Investigator?"
Arima asked the question abruptly while they were cleaning up the remains of a slaughtered Ghoul.
It was a personal question, which was rare. Arima was so focused on work that even Hirako—who was often called tactless—found Arima's social skills to be hopelessly lacking.
Perhaps that was why Hirako took the question so seriously, whereas anyone else would have brushed it off.
After reflecting on his life, he gave a brief answer.
"I've spent my whole life being told I'm ordinary."
"..."
"So, I wanted to try doing something that wasn't."
"I see."
That was the end of it.
Arima asked nothing more. He returned to professional directives, demanding that Hirako execute movements that felt physically impossible.
Hirako obeyed in silence.
That was their only personal exchange, but it was enough for Hirako to understand the kind of man Arima Kishou was.
Time passed.
One day, while walking the streets for a combination of duty and training, someone appeared before them.
It was a cute girl.
She wore a school uniform and had a bob cut that reached her shoulders. Though the uniform wasn't from any school in the immediate area, she looked to be around middle school age. She seemed like an ordinary girl you'd see anywhere.
However, her gaze was far from ordinary.
Her eyes were narrowed, devoid of any friendliness. She was looking at Arima with intense wariness.
A normal civilian would never look at a man in a Ghoul Investigator's white coat with such suspicion.
...A Ghoul?
There was no immediate killing intent, but Hirako decided that caution was better than regret. Just as he reached for the switch on his Quinque case,
"Stand by."
Arima raised a hand to stop him, having read his movement without even looking back.
Keeping his eyes fixed on the girl, Arima spoke.
"She is an acquaintance."
An acquaintance?
They didn't look like they had the kind of relationship that warranted that word. Neither the girl's aura nor Arima's suggested warmth.
It wasn't the tension of enemies, but it certainly wasn't the rapport of allies.
"This is the first time you've come to find me on your own," Arima noted.
"..."
"What is your business?"
At Arima's question, the girl finally spoke.
"I have something to ask you about the 'cage.'"
Hirako was baffled. A cage? Was that some kind of code?
"...I see."
Arima accepted the statement without a hint of surprise.
He then turned to Hirako.
"Wait here. I'll be back shortly."
"Understood."
Hirako nodded obediently, and Arima led the girl into a secluded alleyway, away from the public eye.
Hirako felt a strong urge to follow. He suspected he might overhear something vital about Arima's secret life.
But he remained in place. Following them would be a clear breach of professional boundaries. He decided to wait.
[Ring ring ring]
That was when Hirako's phone rang. The caller ID showed it was the CCG branch.
Click.
"Yes, Rank 3 Hirako speaking."
— "Ah, hello? This is Associate Special Class Hitokawa Tomoru, Arima's former partner. Is Arima with you?"
Hitokawa Tomoru. Hirako had heard the name. He was a highly capable investigator who had once mentored Arima Kishou during his early days.
But why was a man of his standing calling Hirako instead of Arima directly?
— "Tell that bastard Arima to please, for the love of god, charge his phone! I've told him a thousand times, and he still forgets!!"
So that was it.
Now that he thought about it, he rarely ever saw Arima use his phone.
— "Anyway, is he there? I need to discuss the 'corpse collector' lead we just found."
"Mr. Arima is..."
Hirako glanced toward the alley where Arima had vanished.
"...currently in a secret rendezvous with a middle school girl, so he is unavailable for calls."
— "..................Huh?"
Secret rendezvous.
Technically, it was the correct term for a private meeting hidden from others. The way they had slipped away to discuss something important certainly fit the definition.
The problem was that the term was almost exclusively used for romantic trysts.
— "WHAT THE HELL IS THAT BASTARD DOING ON THE CLOCK?! AND WITH A MIDDLE SCHOOLER?!?! THAT FILTHY LITTLE... TELL HIM HE BETTER BE READY TO WRITE A FORMAL APOLOGY WHEN HE GETS BACK!!!!!"
[KWA-BOOM!!!]
Hitokawa's roar exploded through the receiver like a thunderclap before the line was violently cut.
"...Did I say something wrong?"
Listening to the monotonous beeping of the disconnected line, Hirako realized he had chosen his words poorly.
It seemed he was only slightly more tactful than Arima—he was, after all, an extremely tactless man himself.
========================
The website for reading paid chapters is available on my Patreon. The number of chapters on Patreon: 156
Link: patreon.com/UltraMagnus_T