It was possible that he always stayed near the Academy and kept a watchful eye over it. That meant he would know that there were investigators after him. This cautious Ghoul had taken note of Tada and the others and run away.
Perhaps this is all I can do as an Academy student. From here, Shinohara and the 5th Ward branch office investigators would have no choice but to investigate the Academy and its surroundings. But it was also possible that they’d need clearer evidence to start investigating. Still, they had to act now.
“Thank you for your cooperation. See you,” Akira said, thanking the boy. She started to leave.
“Akira,” he said, calling her name. “Did you lose somebody to a Ghoul too?”
She turned around. The boy was looking straight at her. She had noticed something gloomy about him; had he noticed the same thing about her?
“My mom,” she answered frankly.
“Oh,” he said. “Is it still tough? Am I gonna be all right when I’m a grown-up?”
“I don’t know … it’s different for everybody.”
“But are you? Are you okay now?”
He can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel right now.
“I’m—” Suddenly an image of her mother crossed her mind, then her father. And when their images combined, she saw herself reflected back at her. “It’s a secret,” she whispered.
“Right,” laughed the boy. Suddenly there was a glint in his eyes.
“My dad told me before he died that I should forget all about Ghouls. And my grandma and grandpa tell me I shouldn’t take any risks. But …”
He lifted his right arm and pointed straight ahead, in the direction of the Academy.
“The day after, I went the way that the Ghoul ran. And I found them there.”
Akira’s eyes widened in surprise.
“They didn’t have their masks on, but I knew it was them. I followed them and found where they live. Akira …”
There was a fire in his eyes now.
“Akira, please … find the guys that killed my dad … and kill them!”
Anger, sadness, and resentment. And this young child has to bear them all. Another Ghoul tragedy.
The sun was setting, and a cool wind blew through. A man struggling under lots of bags appeared from the run-down apartment building, where many students lived. He was in his early to mid-twenties. He went down the rusty stairs, then looked around, setting his gaze far into the distance. Toward the Academy.
“I’ll come back when things have cooled down.”
He smiled to himself and started walking toward the Academy. To escape from the net of the investigation that was tightening around him.
“Unfortunately, that’s not gonna happen.”
A woman’s voice echoed behind him.
He turned around and saw her standing in the middle of the street. Akira’s glossy hair swirled around her in the evening breeze as she stared him down.
“Former Futamaru executive …” Her words visibly affected him. But he quickly smiled and dropped the bag he was carrying to the ground.
“You’re wearing an Academy uniform. You must be a student. I don’t know what you’re here for, are you sure you’ve got the right man?”
He rummaged in his bag, then pulled something out.
“It’s been an unlucky couple of days. You’ve seen my face, so now you have to die!”
He had pulled out his mask, a black one with red dots that the boy had described as being like a ladybug. The man—the Ghoul—closed the distance between them almost instantly.
Akira stumbled back in surprise, but he swung at her and his fist grazed her cheek.
“Aren’t you vain?!” he shouted, angry at the way she’d deftly dodged his attack. He created a little distance, crouching down on the ground, ready to pounce.
“But hey … ‘like a moth to the flame!’ ” As he spoke his flesh and clothes ripped and a reddish-black fog was released. It immediately coalesced and transformed into a thick, undulating Kagune—a bikaku Kagune.
“What are you gonna do, you poor baby? You don’t even have a Quinque!” he cackled.
“But I do,” she whispered. He didn’t hear her. His Kagune began to stretch. “Let me introduce it to you.”
There was darkness in Akira’s eyes.
“My Quinque is my father.”
The small, sharp-pointed bullet shone like a chestnut.
The Ghoul screeched.
Akira got down on the ground as the bullet pierced the Ghoul’s body.
“When you said she was like a moth to the flame … well, I think you’re more perceptive about yourself, really.”
Kureo Mado stepped out, holding Rai, an ukaku Quinque from his collection, in his hand.
“When it comes to insects, the best thing is to burn them out!”
Right after she saw the boy, Akira called her father. Fortunately, he had just finished work and said goodbye to his partner, so he came as Akira’s ‘Quinque.’ And his Quinque had shown its overwhelming power to Akira.
The Ghoul, pounded into the ground by Kureo’s attack, begged and pleaded for his life, but it was absolutely meaningless. And as proof of that, Kureo laughed.
“When we heard you guys lost to the Ukaku Ghouls, we got you a little something. A little present. Do you want it?” Kureo walked up to the Ghoul, his Quinque in front of him. “It’s a present of horror!”
He activated the Quinque at close range. Small bullets blasted through the Ghoul’s mask, eyes, nose, mouth, and brain. The destroyed mask fell to Akira’s feet with a clang.
It was more black than I realized, Akira thought, and then realized something else. The name Futamaru can also mean “twenty.” The mask was supposed to be a twenty-eight-spotted ladybug.
“What’s all this about?”
Tada, who had been investigating in the area, came running up. He had been hot on the Ghoul’s trail too.
“Good to see you, Tada. I hear you’ve been looking after my daughter recently.”
“Mado! What are you doing here?”
Tada was first surprised by Mado, then by seeing Akira at his side, and then finally by the Ghoul who lay writhing on the ground.
“Is this the guy?”
“Akira figured out his whereabouts.”
Tada looked at her in disbelief. She gave him a smile.
“We retrieved the Ghoul’s Kagune, too. I was thinking about turning it into a Quinque in your honor, Tada.”
Tada’s lips began to tremble. “Like father, like daughter!” he spat.
Is that supposed to be an insult? Akira smiled again.
“That is the highest praise,” she said.
✦ ✦ ✦
A few days later she went to tell the boy that the Ghoul had been destroyed. “Right,” he said, fiddling with a stone. Happiness was not the right emotion for the occasion. Killing these hated enemies wouldn’t bring back his dead parents.
“Without what you told me, that Ghoul would have gotten away again. And there would have been more victims. You didn’t just save one woman’s life. As long as Ghouls exist, they’ll keep killing.”
Akira finished filling him in, then turned around to leave. When she was a fair distance away, the boy called out her name. She turned around and saw him struggling to say something.
“Thank you,” he said finally.
She left and headed back to the Academy. When she got there, she saw someone near the entrance.
Is that my dad?
It was. Her father waved to her.
“Why are you here now?”
“I left work early. I have two things to tell you.”
“Go on.”
“First. Tada’s on a diet now.” Instead of losing all confidence after being trashed by a student at the Academy, he had actually found inspiration in it. That stubbornness is probably why he’s still here.
I learned a lot from this case. I beat Tada, but I didn’t do it alone. I feel bad about admitting that Tada is right, but he’s right—I am young, I don’t even have a Quinque. What I have to do now is work hard to become an investigator who can stand on her own. A bit of teething.
“Second. I found a curry place that’s perfect for eating on the go, but my partner’s not into spicy food. He has no clue how good curry is. Wanna go?”
Her father’s words cheered her right up. She looked at her watch and nodded.
“Perfect time for a meal.”
Someday I want to be the one who helps my father. I want to protect him, like he protected me, she thought as she walked by his side.
But Akira’s father would never get to see her grow up to be an investigator who could stand on her own two feet.
Her father’s life would be taken by a Ghoul called “the Rabbit.” Akira would never forget how his body had been torn to shreds. Still, she carried her father’s love with her wherever she went.
I want to protect the man my father respected so much, whatever happens.
She was on her way to meet him.
The man who overcame loneliness to walk his own path, the man who respected my father with all of his heart.
My father’s last partner, my first partner—Kotaro Amon.