Cough... spit!
A fishy taste pooled in my mouth with the cough.
I turned my head and spat, sending a clump of sticky blood flying to the ground.
Hah... hah...
I pressed against the wall, catching my breath.
It was quiet around me. I didn't sense anyone chasing me—yet.
Stagger...
Ugh...
Even a tiny bit of relief was too much—my legs went weak, threatening to give out.
"You idiot, pull yourself together. If you relax now, there's no going back."
Clomp.
…!
That small noise sent every nerve in me taut.
Someone was approaching. Could it be that guy?
I bit my drying lips.
I searched for anything I could use as a weapon and picked up a shard of glass small enough to hold in one hand.
"I wonder if Eto made it home yet…"
I wished she'd stay out longer. If she saw the state of the place, she'd start worrying even more—just what I didn't need.
As I felt the steps drawing nearer, I recalled what had happened earlier that day.
"Eto!!!"
I rushed back home the moment I realized I'd seen through Eto's lie, but she was nowhere to be found.
I turned the house inside out and found nothing.
The picnic backpack I gave her as a gift and a pair of her shoes were gone, confirming she had snuck out.
"Damn it!!!"
I punched the wall in frustration.
I had been too careless, underestimating a ghoul's physical abilities. I never imagined she'd overhear that conversation.
No, regret can wait. First, I had to hurry and find Eto.
Where could she have gone? If she'd run away out of guilt over her nature, her destination might have been the place she had visited before. But…
"That kid tends to act so mature for no reason. If what drove her wasn't 'guilt' but 'responsibility' after hearing that conversation…"
I darted to my room and opened the drawer.
As expected, it wasn't there.
The map marking suicide hotspots—Eto must have taken it.
"You idiot!"
This wasn't a simple runaway. She was out to procure her own food.
As a ghoul, this was something she'd inevitably have to experience someday.
If something happened to me and I couldn't secure food, she'd have to fetch it herself. But this was too soon.
Until now, the chunks of meat she faced weren't actual bodies in the midst of being slaughtered. Could she have eaten a steak knowing how cruelly a cow was butchered? The shock between imagining death and confronting it was worlds apart.
Eto was too young to face death with her own eyes.
I didn't want her to see that until she had a firmer sense of values and mental fortitude!
'It might not be too late!'
I raced out of the house to catch up with Eto.
I didn't have the exact locations memorized, but I had a rough idea of the seven suicide spots. The problem was, I had no clue which one Eto was heading to.
All seven were too far away to reach on foot.
Knowing Eto's resourceful, she wouldn't just walk—she'd use public transport. So it could have been any of the seven.
Where would she go? Which one would she choose?
I needed to trace her steps. As soon as I left, I started stopping every passerby to ask if they'd seen Eto.
If it hadn't been long since she left, someone must have seen her.
Not long after, I found someone who said they'd seen a girl matching Eto's description.
"Maybe about twenty minutes ago? She was hanging around the bus stop, staring intently at everyone boarding the bus,"
the florist outside told me. Assuming Eto took a bus, I checked the bus schedule.
I discovered three routes all heading to suicide spots I'd visited by bike.
Bus 13 went to the iron bridge over the river.
Bus 20 went to an abandoned house in the slums.
Bus 22 went to the cliff on the mountain road at the city's outskirts.
Eto must have boarded one of these three. But there was no way to know which one.
I decided to check the nearest spot first and headed to the bridge.
"Eto!—"
I scoured the riverside from the bridge to where bodies drifted down, calling her name, but she was nowhere to be found. The body I'd seen last time was gone, likely removed by someone.
It didn't take long before I concluded this spot was a dead end.
Feeling dejected, I climbed up from the riverside to head to the next location.
I needed to hurry to the next spot. Since taxis were too expensive to use regularly, I'd never considered it—until now. I stood by the roadside and waited for one to pass.
So why is it that whenever you desperately need a taxi, not a single one shows up?
Frustrated by the lack of taxis on the road, I tapped my foot impatiently.
"Hey."
Thud
A big palm landed on my shoulder, and I froze, my expression tightening as I turned around.
…Oops, I forgot. I wasn't in a situation where I could be wandering around in broad daylight.
"Fancy seeing you again."
The palm belonged to a cop who looked two or three years older than me.
It was the same cop I'd sprayed paint-smelling tear gas on yesterday morning and run away from.
Because I fled the checkpoint, I was now the prime suspect in yesterday's murder… I knew this moment would come, but the timing couldn't be worse! Now of all times, when Eto has gone missing!
This wouldn't do. Even if it meant a nationwide manhunt, I had to run.
Paint gas, do your trick again!
I slipped my hand into my pocket to pull out a paint gas canister, when suddenly…
Click
"You can invoke your right to remain silent, but you won't be using that little toy anymore,"
the same middle-aged cop grinned as he snapped handcuffs onto my wrist.
…O fate. I just composed a six-thousand-character freestyle rap full of curses. Want to hear it?
"Why did I run away at that moment?"
"I have panic disorder, so I'm weak against terrifying things like murder cases."
"What was in that guitar case, anyway?"
"A guitar, obviously."
Riding in a police car—something I believed I'd never do in my life—felt like pure misery.
The two cops in the front seat were firing questions at me. The younger officer drove while the older one did most of the questioning.
Through the rearview mirror, I still saw suspicion in the middle-aged cop's eyes. He sensed I was hiding something important.
"Look, I had nothing to do with the murder. And I hear they found ghoul fluid at the crime scene? I'm human, I swear."
"There are cases where someone frames a murder as a ghoul's doing using ghoul fluid. Last year alone, there were three cases we thought were ghoul attacks that turned out to be human crimes."
"…"
This wasn't working.
They showed no sign of dropping their suspicion.
Meanwhile, Eto could be seeing a real corpse and suffering a severe shock, or getting lost…
"By the way, senior, shouldn't we hand him over to the CCG for a ghoul test?"
"Why bother with such a hassle?"
I heard the two officers in the front seat talking while I was worrying about Eto.
"He says he's not a ghoul, but what if he's a ghoul pretending to be human?"
"If that was the case, he would've bolted the moment we cuffed him. No need to worry."
"Is that so…"
"See? I told you."
'…Huh?'
Listening to them, I felt a surge of unease.
Their exchange was short—nothing extraordinary.
But something felt off.
Maybe it was just my imagination, but I couldn't shake the feeling.
What could I bring up to poke at this strange unease?
"…Do you realize there's no such thing as 'never' in this world?"
I hunched over and lowered my voice to a grim, eerie whisper.
Surprised by my sudden change, I caught the two officers' confusion in the rearview mirror.
"You say they found traces of a ghoul, right? If that's the case, why stick your nose in and rush the process instead of handing him over to the CCG quietly…"
Clang!
The handcuffs around my wrist rattled fiercely.
With bared fangs and a murderous glare, the beast I'd been hiding finally showed its true colors.
"I'll kill you all!!"
BANG!!
…And the beast's frenzy came to a futile end behind a transparent barrier.
It was the partition separating the front and back seats of the police car. Although there's a sliding door, it stays closed unless the officers up front open it.
…
…
I stuck to the partition and finally spoke up.
"I was just kidding."
"Obstruction of official duties and threats—additional charges."
"Damn..."
Thud!
I slumped down, cursing.
It wasn't because my grand joke had fizzled out.
It was because I'd discovered the source of my unease.
Even now, chills were crawling up my spine—so I couldn't stand.
"Why does something like this even exist?"
As I probed the root of that unease, I arrived at a hypothesis.
And that hypothesis hinted at the absolute worst possible outcome—especially at this moment.
I couldn't believe it.
These were police officers—officials. Could it really be possible?
But the 'no way' thought steadily turned into certainty.
I carefully pulled out my phone, making sure the officers in the front wouldn't notice. Luckily, I'd set it to silent when I was sourcing corpses.
Pretending to look out the window, I quickly tapped at the screen in the shadow of the seat.
I needed to send this fast—to the person who, in this situation, needed it most.
"Mr. Hashimoto, still haven't decided?"
"Well, I'm going to visit the son of my benefactor after a long time, so I can't show up empty-handed. Come over here and help me pick out a gift."
"I don't think Koma would be too fussed."
Hitokawa stared at his boss—who had forgotten the gift halfway to Koma's house and stopped by the department store—with half incredulous eyes.
Well, that thoroughness was one of his boss's strong points, I suppose.
Beep~
"Hm? A text from Koma?"
Hitokawa, who was just about to recommend a manju set, absentmindedly opened his phone.
"S.O.S."
"Huh...?"
The moment he read the message, Hitokawa's eyes went wide.
At first he thought Koma was joking, but as he read on, his face drained of color.
"Mr. Hashimoto!!"
Hitokawa hurriedly called out to his boss.
The text on his phone read:
"S.O.S. The police officer is a ghoul."