When you turned on the TV, the news about Ghouls was incessant.
And people, panicked by this threat they could not see, kept repeating the word “Ghoul,” too.
And they were right to panic. In the 20th Ward, where Hide and Kaneki lived, they’d killed two investigators from the Commission of Counter Ghoul.
The CCG was a special government agency created to maintain security and exterminate Ghouls.
One of those killed had been a veteran Ghoul investigator sent from CCG’s head office.
The culprit hadn’t been found yet, and the brunt of the anger had been turned on CCG for not producing results.
That said, the streets were still full of people. Objectively speaking, daily life went on. However bad an incident is, people always believe, in some part of their hearts, that tragedy will never visit them.
“Sorry, excuse me. Thank you, sorry.” And Hide, cutting through a crowd of that sort of person, was also just pushing through his daily life.
“Man, that smells good.” He had arrived at a café with ivy clinging to the façade. Next to the sign on the front, which said “Anteiku,” there was a menu.
“Let’s do this,” he said to himself.
Hide grabbed the doorknob and pushed it open. The scent of coffee, much stronger now, tickled his nose.
The interior, full of green plants, had the calm atmosphere of a place of relaxation.
“Hide!” Kaneki said, his eyes drawn to the door by the sound of the bell when Hide entered. Hide sat down at the counter in front of Kaneki.
“Hard at work, I see,” said Hide, raising a hand in greeting.
“What are you doing here? I wasn’t expecting …”
“I came for a coffee, man. Hey, by the way, where’s Touka?”
“Hard to tell which one is the real reason you’re here,” Kaneki laughed, as he started making coffee for a customer.
Ever since his organ transplant, Kaneki hasn’t looked well, and even now he seems like he might collapse at any moment, but working part time at the café seems to have brought some order to his life.
And similarly, a little while ago, I was in a car with Kaneki and Nishio Nishiki, an upperclassman, when we were hit by a drowsy driver. We were saved by the people at Anteiku. I don’t remember much about the accident, but I feel a debt of gratitude toward them for helping me.
He had been especially grateful to Touka, who had apparently nursed him back to health herself. Plus, she was cute.
“Hide, you’ve got to stop coming here all the time,” Kaneki muttered quickly to his friend, who was looking around the café incessantly, searching for Touka.
“Hey, what do you mean by that?”
“Look, it’s just, the coffee is a lot more expensive here than whatever you get out of a vending machine, and I’m worried about your wallet.”
“That’s true, obviously, but you shouldn’t even be pretending to drive away a customer! Anyway, one cappuccino!” Hide banged on the counter impatiently. Kaneki sighed as if to show how annoyed he was, and got out a coffee cup.
“That reminds me—I think my British History professor has been getting hair implants.”
“Stop, man, you’re making me twitch.”
Hide’s ramblings made Kaneki burst out laughing. With his head resting in his hands, starting to feel relaxed, Hide was just about to launch into a long story when Touka came out from the back of the café.
“Touka!”
Hide’s excessive surprise startled Touka, and her smile slipped.
“Why didn’t you tell me? If I’d known she was here I would have asked Touka to make my coffee instead.”
“Hide, I just finished making this cappuccino. Don’t knock it.”
Something happened a few days later.
Because Kaneki and Hide’s classes didn’t line up that day and they couldn’t hang out, Hide thought he’d go to Anteiku. Just to see him if nothing else, he thought.
As soon as Kaneki, who was taking coffee to a customer, noticed Hide was there, his expression darkened. I wonder what happened.
“Hey,” Hide said brightly as he approached the counter, pretending for the moment not to notice his friend’s mood. Kaneki came over to him, looking around as he did.
“Hide, maybe you should hold off on coming here for a little while.”
“ ‘Hold off’?”
“The manager told us that there’ve been suspicious characters hanging around here lately,” explained Kaneki, looking solemn.
“Did something happen?”
“Not necessarily …”
“Then that’s all right,” Hide laughed. But Kaneki’s face did not change.
He ordered a coffee. As he sat drinking it, Hide’s thoughts began to wander. What is it he can’t tell me?
A couple days later, while sitting in class, Hide remembered what Kaneki had told him. They had been friends for a long time. He knew that what Kaneki had said was for Hide’s own benefit. But what did he mean by “suspicious characters”?
“Mr. Nagachika.”
“Wha—?”
He suddenly became aware of someone speaking down at him. The professor saw I was zoning out and came to give me a warning, he thought, but when he looked up he saw a lanky boy in glasses and a girl with the vibe of a strangely cheerful superhero.
“Oh, where’s the professor?” said Hide, blinking uncomprehendingly.
“Class is over,” the boy said.
Don’t be stupid, Hide thought, but when he looked around the lecture hall few students were left. It was empty.
“Whoa, no way, can I copy your notes?!” Hide grabbed the boy’s arm and pleaded. “Please, bro?”
“Sorry, but I’m not in this class,” the boy said, tilting his head to the side. Hide asked the girl, too, and received the same response.
“No way … If I can’t get the notes from anybody then … Wait, who are you guys?”
“Finally, you got to the right question!” The boy raised his glasses with a practiced gesture and seemed to puff his chest out as he spoke.
“We’re members of the Occult Research Club!”
“Occult Research Club?” It was not a name Hide had heard before.
“ORC, for short. We’re an active club, seeking to uncover secrets in this world that cannot be verified using scientific methods. I’m Kiyama, the president. And this is one of our new members, Sankou.”
Sankou bowed her head quickly before taking a notebook out of her tote bag. She flipped through the pages, then asked Hide, “Would you, um, not say that your friend Mr. Kaneki is Ghoul-like?”
Hide jolted with surprise.
“Huh?”
“I told you so!”
Next, Kiyama spoke as if taking over the conversation.
“We suspect that Mr. Kaneki may be a Ghoul.”
They relocated from the lecture hall to the on-campus outdoor café, where Hide sat facing the other two.
“The majority of ORC is online; we work through social media. Basically, we announce a theme, compile the research topics we get from that in a report, and then present it at a real-life meet-up. So the theme this time was obviously Ghouls.”
“So what the hell makes you think Kaneki’s a Ghoul? I’ve been friends with him since grade school, man!”
Without regard for Hide’s fed-up expression, Sankou opened her notebook and turned it toward him. It was jam-packed with a list of names, written in small script.
“What is this?”
“It’s a list of people under suspicion of being Ghouls.”
Hide leaned forward, staring at the notebook. With such a quantity, it was difficult to find Kaneki’s name on the list.
“Perhaps you already know this, Mr. Nagachika, but it’s said that Ghouls cannot eat human food.”
“Mmm, right, Ogura mentioned that in How to Spot a Ghoul, didn’t he?” Hide said.
Hisashi Ogura was a well-known authority on Ghoul research. If anything to do with Ghouls happened it was as good as certain that he’d be on television talking about it.
“Oh, you’re interested in Ghouls, too! That’ll make this conversation quicker. Have you seen Mr. Kaneki have a meal lately?”
“A meal?”
“Yeah. This month, we’ve been investigating whether there is a possibility that some people who have never been seen eating on campus are Ghouls.”
“What?! Just because of that?!”
Even recklessness had to have its limits. There must be tons of people who didn’t eat on campus.
“We’re going person by person collecting evidence at the moment. So, Mr. Nagachika. Have you seen Mr. Kaneki have a meal in the past month?”
“We’ve had a coffee together.”
He couldn’t understand what was going on, but Hide answered honestly.
“Can’t really say he’s in the clear, then.”
“Wait, hang on now! I mean, we’ve gotten food together hundreds of times before, just not in the past month!”
“Our investigation is focused solely on the past month. So in that case, we’ve got others to check out now. See you around.”
They did not listen to a word Hide had to say. Now that their task was done, they turned to leave. Their suspicions about Kaneki had not been lifted.
“Wait, wait, wait! Hey, I know!”
Hide slammed his hands against his knees and stood up.
“Let me help your investigation!”
Kiyama and Sankou turned to look at Hide, his fists raised in the air.