Nothing changed in Touka’s life after that. She had to imagine that the man had not been saved. If he had, then he would have told the CCG what had happened to him, and then their investigators would’ve started popping up all around her.
She felt the suffering that she had inflicted on that boy, who had now lost both of his parents. He would bear a grudge against her to be sure. Just like Ayato, who had been betrayed by humans and now hated them.
She could not push away this feeling as she walked aimlessly through the streets. I want to forget, but the more I try, the more hold it has on me.
As she walked, she heard the happy voice of a child, and she looked around. She saw some kids, about four or five years old, playing in the park. She realized she was subconsciously looking for the boy. What are you doing, she thought, and started to leave, but suddenly she overheard some mothers talking.
“Poor Shota …”
She stopped in her tracks. Shota—that was the boy’s name. There must be tons of kids named Shota, but she kept listening, feeling strangely anxious.
“I know. But it’s amazing what happened.”
“It really is. I can’t believe they found his father lying in the road.”
Found his father lying in the road?
She jolted in surprise, clasping her hands to her chest to calm her thudding heart. Everything that had happened that night came back to Touka right away.
The boy’s father, lying in a dark back alley. And there—
“Shota says that somebody told him where his father was. By throwing a stone or something …”
“Who knows what the truth is. But anyway, his father seems to be getting better now, so I’m glad.”
She could almost see the boy noticing the pebble that she had thrown and running that way.
A vast range of emotions flooded through Touka. Before she could collect her thoughts, she muttered to herself, “Amazing.”
This small, helpless human child, much weaker than Touka, had rushed there, sobbing all the way, but he didn’t give up and he found his father. And saved his father?
I always stubbornly refused to believe that Ghouls and humans were similar. I could not admit it. But now I understand. Having love for your parents isn’t a Ghoul thing or a human thing. It’s something we share.
On the other hand, if he lived and was getting better, then why hasn’t he told the CCG about me? Is it because he doesn’t want the trouble, or is there another reason?
With all that she knew and all that she didn’t know, she could not find the answer, no matter how much she thought about it. She wondered if her father, Arata, who had lived alongside humans, had seen this in them. And if I get to know humans, like my dad, will I be able to see what he saw?
Her curiosity was rising, but there was no way of knowing—or there shouldn’t have been.
“Touka, do you want to try going to school?”
Yoshimura made the offer to her after a conflict with Shu Tsukiyama, an eccentric and well-known foodie. The proposal came abruptly for Touka, but it was clearly something that Yoshimura had been mulling over for a while. He said that he could help with the entrance fees and documentation, as well as giving her a hand with studying.
“No way, old man,” said Ayato, who preferred to keep his distance from humans. This was, perhaps, the right way to live for a Ghoul.
But however much you turn your back, humans are still there. And I live in the society that they built. So it might actually help me if sometimes I met people, got used to them, lived with them.
Besides that, she wanted to know. About humans. And about the world.
And someday I’ll understand my dad, too, she thought hopefully as she slipped into her school uniform.
She didn’t know that from now on, she would share joy that she could not find in the Ghoul world, as well as suffering that she might never have experienced otherwise.
“Ayato, listen to me. You won’t believe what happened at school today. Yoriko was like …”