Once the report on Koharu Utsumi was done, a replacement for Amon was assigned and his work in the 8th Ward was over.
“Amon! We heard you found and destroyed a Ghoul who wasn’t even suspected of being one!”
When he returned to the 20th Ward, Seido Takizawa came over to talk to him in a state of excitement. Where’d he hear that?
“No, it was all thanks to the cooperation of the police.”
“Don’t be so humble! You put an end to the deaths of young girls, targeted and eaten in such a despicable, ghoulish way. You’re amazing!” rambled Takizawa, his fist clenched.
He’s so happy you’d think he’d done it himself.
“Nice work, Kotaro.” It was Kosuke Hoji, a gentle man from the Combat Division, who next came to thank him.
“Yanagi’s been talking you up, you know. If you hadn’t been so attentive he could’ve been the one to save all those people.” That praise from Hoji, an associate special investigator, punched Amon in the gut.
“Thank you all,” he said, and bowed. But then he realized that one person was missing from the scene.
“Where’s Juzo?”
He didn’t see Juzo Suzuya, who had his own special way of getting at people.
“Oh, he’s at Shinohara’s.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. Since Shinohara is injured he can’t give hands-on education, so he’s drilling Suzuya from bed.”
Juzo was not an Academy graduate, and he had problems with his temperament, meaning he was woefully lacking in some of the knowledge an investigator needed.
Shinohara had been confined to bed since being injured in the Aogiri battle, but he was still finding things he could reasonably do and continuing to teach. He’s an example to us all.
“Next, about the Rabbit case …”
“Have you made progress?!”
Hoji shook his head apologetically. “No, actually, there’s been no news since the incident. It’s almost scary how quiet it’s been,” he said.
“Oh … I see.”
When Amon got to his desk, it was covered in reports and documents that had piled up while he’d been gone. He went through them all, catching up on what had happened while he’d been away.
The results of Koharu’s autopsy confirmed that the Ghoul-specific bodily fluids left on Mai’s barrette belonged to her. And the bones and hair they’d found had allowed them to identify her victims—without a doubt, she had killed all the girls who had gone missing.
But Koharu’s adoptive father, Yujiro Utsumi, was still in intensive care and his condition was deteriorating, meaning that he was in no state for an interview. Otokaze was still missing too. And the identity of the man who had been blackmailing Koharu was still unknown.
Beyond a doubt, Koharu had been kidnapping girls and eating them, but Amon still felt a dark cloud over him that he couldn’t quite dispel.
“I hope the future … that you want … comes to pass.”
Tears streamed down her cheeks, falling from her red eyes. Unexpected words from a Ghoul. They remind me of the tears I saw from the Ghoul with the eye patch crying that day.
“Please … don’t kill me.”
Amon set aside his work and went over to the window, looking down at the tree-lined street below.
Fiendish Ghouls wearing masks are perverting this world. That’s undeniable. But is there really only one version of the truth?
When I told him I was going back to the 20th Ward, Morimine said: “Koharu Utsumi might’ve been a Ghoul, but I don’t think she’s the only one to blame in those cases, if you see what I mean. So I’m gonna find out what happened.” Then he added, “Let me know if there’s anything else I can help you with,” and laughed.
It was hard for Amon to understand how a man who’d had someone so important to him taken away could think like that. But he didn’t think Morimine’s outlook on life was wrong either.
I’ve got to talk to the Ghoul with the eye patch. The thought now filled Amon’s mind. If I can talk to him, I might see something I haven’t been able to before.
“I will find him …”
Amon gave his face a little slap and returned to his duties. Because there’s no time for stalling.