Listen. Latch on to the sound. It takes human form in your mind and tells you where you belong.
In an abandoned building, one left vacant since going bankrupt a few years ago, Hinami’s hands were on the floor of the lobby, her arms outstretched. Kaneki and Kazuichi Banjo, along with Ichimi, Jiro, and Sante—a close band of guys who wanted to put their energies to use and carry out actions with Kaneki—stood holding their breath and watching.
“Hasn’t noticed us yet …”
“On the third floor, possibly in the little room close to the stairs … asleep.”
Kaneki looked toward the stairs, then pointed to Ichimi and Jiro. They nodded.
Then Kaneki pointed to the floor, indicating to Banjo and Sante to stay there. Sante nodded obediently, but Banjo, who had taken a vow to shield Kaneki and had been with him all this time, looked chagrined.
Banjo was as muscular as a professional wrestler, and he appeared strong at first glance, but he could not release a Kagune. And without a Kagune it was impossible to battle other Ghouls.
So for now, he would fight against Ghouls given to him by Chie Hori, the informer with some connection to Tsukiyama.
“I think he’s perfect for Kaneki to take on.”
He looked at the photos she’d sent and said, “This is Noyama.” After his parents were killed by the CCG, he palmed his beautiful younger sister off to a millionaire and turned her into a bit of a money-spinner. He told people his plan was to wait until the millionaire died, when the money would go to his sister, but his sister had recently been killed by the CCG.
Kaneki had gone one flight up the stairs. He snapped his fingers.
Then he dashed off all at once.
By the count of ten there was a roar from the floor above.
“Here we go!”
Then, the sound of something hitting the wall and a vibration.
“H-Hinami, what should we do?” Banjo asked worriedly, but Hinami answered, “It’s all right, that wasn’t Kaneki.” A rain of dust fell from the ceiling.
All this banging and thumping was hurting Hinami’s ears.
“Tsukiyama wanted to be here for this too,” Sante said. But today Tsukiyama was out lending support to Chie Hori because she was getting to the heart of the information gathering that Kaneki had asked her to do.
Her current goal was to find the list of fugitives from Cochlea. And the outcome of their war largely rested on whether or not she could get this information.
“Tsukiyama’s dangerous. And Kaneki doesn’t want to show his hand right now.”
Known as “Kaneki’s sword,” Tsukiyama held a completely different position among Kaneki’s followers than Banjo, but sometimes that “sword” took a few practice swings that may or may not have been aimed at Kaneki. Nor did Kaneki appear to completely trust Tsukiyama. But his ability could not be overstated. In fact, there were lots of things that couldn’t go ahead without Tsukiyama, which drove Banjo crazy.
“Whoa.”
Another roar, louder than any other roar had been. “Is it over?” Sante whispered.
But Hinami had reached a very different conclusion.
“It’s coming from the stairs! They’re getting away!”
The roar was the sound of a Ghoul being slammed back into the part of the stairs that connected two floors.
If Noyama had taken the blow, then he might try running away. And if that happened—
“We gotta go! He’s gonna come here!”
At the same time Banjo yelled, Sante picked up Hinami and started running.
Banjo ran toward the stairs with the intention of serving as backup.
“Gzzzzzooooooooooooooooonnnnn!”
Noyama came flying down the stairs, as Hinami had guessed, making a strange screeching sound as he did. His Kagune was an ukaku, perfect for high-speed attacks. Banjo, who had wanted to try to buy a little time until Hinami could escape from the abandoned building, was blown back instantly, making it impossible to buy even a second of time.
“Banjo!”
“Expected nothing less from you, Banjo!”
Sante ran at full speed with Hinami in his arms, unconcerned about Banjo, perhaps because he had never counted on him at all. Recognizing Hinami and Sante as Kaneki’s friends and, furthermore, seeing that they were not blessed with a lot of fighting power, Noyama vengefully reduced the distance between them in one burst. Noyama was catching up with Hinami and Sante much faster than they could make it to the door of the abandoned building.
“No!”
Noyama’s Kagune was close. But Hinami heard the unmistakable buzzing sound of Rc cells being released, followed by the sound of someone falling to the floor.
“Sante, leave him to Kaneki!”
He reacted immediately to Hinami’s words and kicked the ground.
Noyama’s body rose up with the force of the blow, nearly hitting the ceiling, and in that second Kaneki’s Kagune speared him. If Noyama had been running in front of us, we would’ve been speared too.
“Whoaaaaa, wow!” shouted Sante admiringly, rotating and landing skillfully.
Now Noyama can’t run away again. Now all he can do is wait to die. But Hinami, who was back on her own two feet again, still couldn’t run over to Kaneki’s side.
“You did some quite heartless things, didn’t you?”
Kaneki sounded cold as he spoke to Noyama, who was twitching like a bug with its wings plucked off.
“Kaneki, you got something on him?”
“Lots of photos of him dismantling girls. Where’s Banjo?”
“Laid out over there. When Banjo saw the pictures he freaked out.”
While Ichimi and the others talked casually, Hinami remembered the first time she had met Kaneki.
She remembered asking him whether he was a human or a Ghoul because of the mysterious smell he gave off.
And Kaneki had told her that his body was part Ghoul but his mind was human. And that if he could, he would go back to having a human body.
“Gotta separate the wheat from the chaff,” Kaneki said, snapping open the mouth restraint on his mask and biting down on Noyama’s ukaku.
“Aieeeeeoooooo!”
A pain like Noyama had never experienced made him jump and twitch.
Kaneki has fully crossed the line and jumped into the Ghoul world.
But now that he’s decided to accept that he’s a Ghoul and live as one, when will he realize?
Hinami could still smell it—the human scent that clung to his body. It’ll always be with him.
Now that he’s turned his sights away from being a human, he must be scared that a day will come when he’ll be punished as a human.
Hinami remembered something else—the day that Kaneki had told Touka that he wanted to go back to how he was.
I thought, if he’s dangerous, then maybe he should be stopped. I thought someone should warn him about what would happen if he carried on. And even if she gets angry at me and tells me not to be so stupid, that’s fine.
But instead, silence. Touka just sat there looking at Hinami. Hinami stared straight back at her.
“I see.”
At last, Touka smiled wryly.
“When you look at me like that, what can I even say?”
She turned away from Hinami’s gaze and was silent for a while, but eventually she looked straight back at Hinami.
“You can always come back.”
She didn’t say anything else. Touka reached out and hugged Hinami tightly, as if she was trying not to lose her, and Hinami hugged her back with all of her strength.
I really want to be here with Touka. I don’t want to leave. But right now I’m just weighing her down.
“You done?” Ichimi muttered, looking at Kaneki, who had stepped away from Noyama’s body.
There was something about Kaneki, who was now done fighting, that kept anyone from approaching him. I don’t know whether that’s his intention or just a figment of our imagination.
But Hinami rushed over to Kaneki anyway, calling for him.
“Big brother!”
His hair had turned white, his nails had turned dark red, and his heart was grief-stricken—everyone agreed he had changed.
But he was always kind to Hinami. He was one of the most important people to her because he had saved her, and that would never change.
Kaneki turned to look. He was bathed in someone else’s blood, but he smiled gently and said, “You didn’t get hurt, did you, Hinami?”
We are with you, Hinami whispered to him in her mind. Me, and Touka too. Even if I can’t get it across to you now, I want to prove to you that we’re with you.
“Yeah, I’m fine! Let’s go home, big brother.”
Kaneki smiled. “Yep, let’s go,” he said and started walking.
“We have to move to another Ward now.”
Tomorrow is another day on this rocky path we walk, never knowing stability. But I believe.
I believe that the sun shines after a downpour.