Eyes wide open in surprise, Jiro pointed to the caption under the photo.
“It says her name is Yuu.”
And a few pages after that, they found a picture of the girl’s sister: Mari Hirano.
“Can this just be a coincidence?”
To find the two of them in the same magazine … Jiro looked at Banjo uneasily.
“Let’s go!”
Banjo grabbed the flier and the magazine and started running toward Usu’s den.
“What’s wrong, has something happened?”
Usu looked up at Banjo, who was breathless from running, and gave him a disgusted look as if to say, Not you again. But he must’ve noticed something was up with them, because his voice dropped when he asked them.
“Usu, was this the girl you found in the beachside park?”
Banjo showed him the flier and magazine, and Usu’s eyes widened in surprise.
“That’s the one. I would remember a pretty girl like her.”
Banjo’s mind caught for a second, thinking about her, but the presence of Yuri on another page in the same magazine was actually more of a concern. It didn’t seem like a coincidence to him at all.
“Usu, do you know where Yuri’s house is? A woman like that must have her own house.”
Banjo wanted to go confront him directly, but what Usu said next was even more shocking.
“Yuri? What are you guys up to? She just asked me where Rize’s house was.”
The blood began to drain from Banjo’s face.
“Yuri asked you where Rize’s house is …”
“Yeah. She said she was moving to a different area suddenly, and she wanted to say goodbye to Rize, so she wanted to ask me where she lives … Hey, Banjo?”
Banjo had run off without listening to everything Usu had to say.
“Banjo! We’ve been useless everywhere we’ve gone!”
“That’s right! We’d better just leave it!”
Ichimi and Jiro tried to stop him, but he didn’t hear. I don’t have all the answers, but what I can see doesn’t look good. Banjo ran with all his might.
When Banjo got near Rize’s house, he saw someone and it stopped him in his tracks.
“Rize!”
She was walking alone along a bridge with few other passersby.
“Oh, hey, Banjo. How’s it going?” she said with her usual smile, seeing how sweaty he was.
“Hey, you haven’t seen Yuri, have you?”
“Yuri? Well, no …”
Banjo felt relieved. He tried to quickly explain everything to her.
Just then a shadow appeared behind Rize.
“Rize, watch out!”
He jumped out, arms spread to try to protect her—a moment too late. A Kagune as thick as a whip slashed into Banjo’s body. The rough, scaly Kagune scraped against his skin, then struck the concrete of the bridge.
Banjo screamed.
“Are you all right, Banjo?”
Ichimi ran up to check on his wounds, but Banjo shook him off, staring at his attacker.
“You can do whatever you want, but you came here?”
Just as Banjo expected, it was Yuri standing there, her Kagune throbbing. No doubt, she is the source of all this evil.
“Rize! The body Usu found in the beachside park … She tried to pin it on you!”
“Really?”
“Yuri, you knew that girl!”
Banjo held up the flier and the magazine. He guessed that she was using Rize as cover while pretending to defend her. There certainly was enough proof of that. But then tears began to fall from Yuri’s red eyes.
“She … Mari was my friend. We were both part-time models—that’s how we met. I was with her the day she disappeared. She looked so happy when we said goodbye. But—”
Something about this isn’t right. “Oh, I know what you’re talking about,” Rize chimed in. “Banjo, I think there’s been a misunder-standing, sorry. Yuri’s friend in the park?” She took a step toward him, smiling. “I’m the one who ate her. Me,” she chuckled. “But all I could taste was the sea, it was awful.”
“RIZEEEEE!”
Before he could say anything, Yuri launched her Kagune at Rize again. Rize blocked the attack, the Kagune bouncing off her.
Is she doing this for her dead friend? In the confusion of a situation that was nothing like they’d anticipated, Yuri screamed. “I was going to take her somewhere nice, clean her skin properly, gut her, crush her bones like sugar, then mix it up and eat her!!” Yuri’s blood-red eyes suddenly drained of all color.
“W-what are you talking about?”
“Banjo, I’m not sure our presence is required here anymore …”
Yuri screamed as she jumped at Rize. “I’ll have to eat you instead!”
Her urge to kill was like a burning flame. But Rize just smiled.
“Nice plan. Well, I offer my apologies,” she said, sounding innocent and childlike. A pleasant smile came over her face.
“I’m gonna turn you into pretty little marbles!”
She absolutely refused to be attacked by anyone. And Banjo saw that now.
At the end of the battle, it was Yuri who was turned into pretty little marble-like blobs of flesh, which now scattered themselves to the wind.
“Is this a ‘legitimate use of self-defense’?”
Rize turned and looked at him, smiling. All Banjo, Ichimi, Jiro and Sante could do was nod.
“I love to get messy but I just hate cleaning up. Probably fine if I just leave it, right?”
Without waiting for an answer, Rize started walking away. She only had one more thing to say.
“Man, I’m bored.”
Yuri collapsed, now rendered into a hunk of meat.
After Rize left, Banjo realized he’d been holding his breath and coughed, putting both hands to his chest. Ichimi and the others fiddled with their masks and wiped the sweat from their brows. They were trembling after that show of tremendous power. Only Banjo felt something other than total mortal terror.
“Must be amazing to be that strong …”
“I’d hate it if you were like that, Banjo,” said Ichimi, wryly.
“I wanna be strong …” Banjo said again.
Strength gives birth to violence, but there are some things that can only be won by strength. She can cut her own way with her own strength. Nothing is more beautiful than that.
His admiration did not change when news about Rize’s attack got out and criticism erupted, or even when the leader and other higher-ups decided to purge her.
He remembered the very last thing she’d said as she left.
Well, take care of yourself, Mr. Leader.
Everyone else just laughed and said it was another one of her whims. But Banjo had never thought it was possible for him to be a leader. She had just been deprived of everything, but she gave that word to him freely.
“Rize put her trust in me. So I’m gonna do what I can.”
Look out for the 11th Ward. Protect those who are important.
What waited for Banjo after he broke out of his shell and took a step forward was the fate of the weak, a new kind of robbery.