A few days after their mysterious return to campus, the trio compared notes.
Hide said that in his honest opinion it was probably all just a dream, like a crappy movie ending, but Kiyama kept going on about how it was a paranormal phenomenon.
“I guess anything’s possible if you live long enough …” Hide said, sounding serious. He and Kaneki were talking after the Asian History class they sat together in.
“What’s up with you all of a sudden?” Kaneki said, tilting his head.
“Never mind, man,” Hide said, then put his hand to his stomach. Almost lunchtime. He was hungry.
He still didn’t know what had happened, although he’d managed to convince himself it was a dream or something else. Hide was glad he was the kind of person who could do that. Maybe I should go to Big Girl for lunch. That place is totally the …
“Uh, the promised land …”
Definitely starts with a C.
Hide kept repeating, “Ca … Ca …” to himself in hopes of remembering the word. Kaneki just watched, with an expression that all but said, “Forgot it again, huh?”
“Ca … Ca … Ca …”
But the only word that came to mind had nothing to do with Big Girl.
“Cain …”
What he’d tried so hard to explain away as a dream was, after all, all too real. He’d seen a Ghoul—something that had felt so disconnected from his life—up close and personal.
But he was with Kaneki, who would probably just tell him off for being wrong again. And then he’d eagerly start explaining about “the promised land,” like always.
“What?”
But Kaneki just sat there next to him, speechless.
“Kaneki? You okay?”
“Hide, have you ever read the Bible?”
“What? Why?”
“Canaan is the Promised Land, and Cain is Abel’s brother. They’re both in the Bible.”
Now it was Hide’s turn to be slack-jawed. Kaneki sighed.
“Wait, are you saying Cain’s a character in the Bible?”
“It’s not a manga, Hide, he’s not a character. Cain is Adam and Eve’s son. He gets jealous of his brother, Abel, because everybody loves him, so Cain murders Abel. Then he winds up banished to the east of Eden,” Kaneki said, then fell silent.
“Hey, Kaneki?”
“Cain used to be seen as evil, you know. Well, I mean, he can be understood as being ‘evil’ now, too. But if you just think about Cain, you can kind of see that he had to do what he did to be able to carry on, I think. It would’ve been unbearable for him, you know?”
Kaneki seemed to be telling this story to himself more than anyone.
“But that logic has no meaning before the laws made by God.”
The Cain that Hide had known, who was steeped in the occult, must’ve known that story. And perhaps that’s why he’d chosen that name.
But Hide stopped this train of thought before he started brooding. No matter how much he thought about it, he’d still get no answers.
“What the hell, man, quit getting all dark. Here, have some of this!” Hide tried to change the mood, pulling a big bag of snacks out of his backpack.
“Oh, no, I’m good!”
“Dude, just say the word. Look, I’ll put them in your bag. So dig in whenever you want,” Hide said, not taking in what Kaneki said. He stuffed the food into Kaneki’s backpack.
“But it’s too full already!”
“Quit worrying, it’s fine. Forget about that—you told me about that British History prof before, but man! That baldhead is sprouting new hairs like crazy. You gotta see it! He should be in the library this time of day. It’s totally amazing, it’s like five poodles’ worth of hair at least.” Hide stood and started pulling Kaneki up.
“C’mon, give the poor guy a break. Professors are people too, you know.” As Kaneki stood there, bewildered, Hide pushed Kaneki’s backpack into his arms and ran off behind him.
“Hide, wait!” Kaneki shouted, turning to look, but Hide didn’t listen. Kaneki was already out of the classroom when he finally took his hands off his bag.
“Man, you—whoa!”
The backpack hadn’t been closed completely, and papers, pens, books, Kaneki’s favorite novel, and the food Hide had stuffed in there all spilled out for everyone to see.
“Sorry, my bad!” Hide picked up the backpack, apologizing to Kaneki.
“What’d you do that for?” Kaneki said, putting everything in his bag and making sure to zip it up properly himself this time.
“No, it’s just, those guys always go past here at this time of day.”
“Huh?”
“Talking to myself. Right, time to go take a look!”
“No, but I said—I don’t really care that much!”
After the two of them ran off, two others remained standing in the hallway.
“Guess it turns out Kaneki does eat after all,” murmured Kiyama, who’d seen the snacks fall out of Kaneki’s bag. Sankou, standing beside him, nodded.
And perhaps that was enough evidence to say that he eats normally.
“Well, I always thought Kaneki wasn’t a Ghoul, you know! I mean, how could such a scary creature blend in so well at our college?” Kiyama said, lifting his glasses as he spoke. Again, Sankou nodded.
Then she took out her notebook and crossed off the last name on the list—Kaneki’s.