"One rash impulse nearly cost me my life..." Waves of weakness washed through Louis as he slowly made his way down the alley, one hand braced against the wall and the other pressed over the wound in his stomach.
It had suddenly occurred to him that the Quinque might contain a Ghoul Investigator's tracking device, so he had thrown Kureo Mado's Quinque into the river halfway back.
Perhaps that would prevent a future clash.
[Doing this will only cause more ghouls to die, host. Changing the plot will also make it impossible to predict what happens next.]
"What do the lives of other ghouls have to do with me? I only care about the people I know and value." Louis curled his lip, striking up a rare casual conversation with the system. "Say, system, does this world really exist?"
The world that had given him a new life...
[To the host, it can be treated as a dream. When the dream ends, you will naturally wake up. But to the system, this world does indeed exist. How you choose to view it is entirely up to you.]
"Listening to you talk is just like listening to you talk."
The vague answer was, put simply, no different from hot air. Louis stopped trying to pry information out of the system and focused on the path ahead.
In his current condition, running into another powerful Ghoul Investigator or a ghoul out hunting would pretty much spell his death.
That was what Louis thought, but as luck would have it, the very thing he feared came to pass. Movement up ahead made him stop in his tracks.
Trouble...
That was Louis's first thought, but once he saw who was approaching, all his irritation vanished. Instead, he already felt as though he had escaped certain death.
"You really caused a stir... S-Rank." Beneath her Black Dog mask, Irimi Kyouko's kakugan studied the sorry state of Ice Mask.
"Please don't tease me... What about Mrs. Fueguchi? Is she safe?" Louis gave a helpless smile. Irimi Kyouko's arrival meant everyone at Anteiku was already in position.
Whatever else happened, Irimi's SS-Rank strength alone was enough to beat everyone he had encountered today into the ground.
"Devil Ape went to help her. There are only two newly arrived Ghoul Investigators on their side. They don't look particularly strong, so it should be fine," Irimi Kyouko briefly explained as she supported Louis and led him out.
"Two new Ghoul Investigators? What ranks? Where did they come from?" Louis froze. It wasn't that he thought Koma couldn't beat them; he was simply baffled by these two Associate Special-Class investigators who had appeared out of nowhere.
No more Ghoul Investigators should have arrived before Mado died.
"One Associate Special-Class and one First-Class. Reinforcements from the CCG, apparently because a certain S-Rank ran wild in the urban district." Irimi Kyouko looked at Louis and couldn't help smiling.
"Did I mess up...?" Louis felt a little embarrassed, as though his clever plan had backfired.
"No, you did nothing wrong. You protected Mrs. Fueguchi, and that's something to be proud of at Anteiku. You may have drawn in new Ghoul Investigators, but anyone else would have done the same."
"By the way, how did you know Hinami and her mother were in danger?" Irimi Kyouko looked at Louis in puzzlement. They themselves had only realized after seeing the news.
"Not long after I went out, I saw quite a few people questioning passersby on the street. They seemed to be investigating something. I saw the photos they were holding, and they looked very similar to Hinami's drawings."
Louis recounted what had happened at noon. He hadn't been completely certain it was this part of the plot at the time, so he had stolen a few glances as he passed those plainclothes Ghoul Investigators.
The two chatted on and off, soon emerging at a deserted intersection. Yomo was waiting there in a small car, having rushed back as soon as he saw the news.
"I'm fine... None of the wounds are that serious..." Louis endured the searing pain as he climbed into the car and dispersed the Ice Mask. Only then did he realize that his hair and shirt were already soaked with cold sweat from the pain.
"This... isn't serious?" Irimi Kyouko looked at the bloody hole in Louis's stomach and the gash in his left shoulder, momentarily speechless. Perhaps that would be true for a ghoul, but he was clearly human.
"Don't worry. I'll tell you if I can't hold on." Louis took slow, rhythmic breaths to suppress the pain. "Don't forget, I'm not an ordinary person either..."
Louis closed his eyes and carefully regulated his breathing to soothe his internal injuries.
An ability user with A-Rank physical enhancement not only possessed tremendous vitality, but, as long as they survived, could also recover from injuries dozens to hundreds of times faster than a normal human. Though still far inferior to a ghoul, that was already remarkably powerful.
Wounds of this severity would probably heal in a few days.
The car started up, took a roundabout route through the city, and finally returned to Anteiku. Once his wounds were dressed, Louis sat bare-chested with bandages wrapped around his waist and shoulder.
"Can you still move? Mr. Yoshimura wants us to attend a meeting," Irimi Kyouko said after tying off the bandage on Louis's shoulder.
"Yes." Louis nodded, found a jacket, and draped it over himself.
Hinami's mother had already returned to Anteiku ahead of them under Koma's escort. At the manager's request, she and Hinami had gone back to their room to rest. Everyone gathered for the meeting on the second floor was an Anteiku employee.
Besides Irimi Kyouko and Yomo, who had come in with Louis, the manager, Nishiki Nishio, Koma, and Kaneki were also there. Touka was the only employee absent.
They had all learned that Hinami's father had been killed, and a heavy atmosphere hung over the room.
For ghouls, being killed by the CCG was an all-too-common occurrence. But when it happened to someone close to them, especially family or friends, it was usually difficult to come to terms with.
"Everyone, I'll speak with Touka again later. Since the rest of you are here, I'll begin." The manager spoke once Irimi Kyouko and Louis had taken their seats.
"Given what happened, it's a blessing amid the misfortune that none of you lost your lives. But the Ghoul Investigators won't let this go. The Fueguchi mother and daughter's faces have both been seen, so they can't evade the search. I've decided to send them to Ward 24 for refuge when the time is right." The manager looked around at everyone.
"Does anyone have any thoughts?"
Silence filled the room.
[Ward 24]: Ward 24 cannot be matched to any official ward designation. This is because it consists of countless vast labyrinths dug by ghouls beneath Tokyo.
Rumor had it that large numbers of ghouls lurked in the deepest reaches of Ward 24. The CCG had always worked to explore this mysterious region, even forming the "Ward 24 Search Squad" to train newcomers. Within the CCG, operations of this kind were commonly called "Whack-a-Mole."
Ward 24's walls were "flesh walls" made from kagune. The principles behind their construction were similar to those of Quinques, but the manufacturing process had been developed by the ghouls of Ward 24. These flesh walls made exploration of Ward 24 exceptionally difficult.
For that reason, many ghouls whose faces had been seen had no choice but to seek refuge in the chaotic territory of Ward 24. Though it was dangerous too, the threat from Ghoul Investigators was much smaller there than in other areas.
From what the manager said, he probably knew people there who could look after Hinami and her mother.
Going to Ward 24 undoubtedly meant giving up most of their lives as they knew them in exchange for survival. Even ghouls were deeply reluctant to do so. But there was no other choice, and nobody objected.
"Then..."
The manager was about to continue when the door was pushed open. It was Touka. She had just seen the news and rushed over in a panic.
"What happened...?" As soon as Touka entered, she saw Louis covered in bandages and the grim expressions around him.
"Where are Hinami and her mother?" Unable to see Hinami anywhere, Touka looked incredulous.
"Hinami's father was killed, and Miss Ryoko's and Hinami's faces were both seen. We're planning to send them to Ward 24 when the time is right." Seeing Touka arrive, the manager repeated what he had just said.
No one would ever come to pick up Hinami and her mother again...
As that realization struck her, Touka's expression darkened. In barely a second, she clenched her fists so tightly her knuckles cracked. "How could this happen...?"
"How are they supposed to survive in a hellhole like Ward 24...?" Touka could barely contain her anger. "We just have to kill all the White Doves... Leave none alive, and everything will be fine!"
"Mr. Yomo is here too. If we all work together..."
"No." Renji Yomo, who had remained silent until now, cut Touka off. "If we kill the Ghoul Investigators in Ward 20, they'll keep sending more until they've wiped us all out."
"Touka, as Yomo said, we cannot attack the CCG. For everyone's safety, this is our best option." Touka wanted to argue, but the manager spoke again.
The number and strength of the Ghoul Investigators were still within their ability to handle, but if more were sent, that would no longer be certain.
Anteiku had been established to let ghouls live as peacefully as possible. Taking such action would run counter to their original purpose.
But nobody could be happy about simply taking every blow and insult without fighting back.
Louis understood Touka. After all, he had been pursued by the CCG for only a few hours before losing control of his emotions and lashing out. Yet the result was plain to see: although he had badly wounded the earlier Ghoul Investigator, he had also drawn in two Associate Special-Class investigators.
"Hinami's father, Mrs. Ryoko's husband..." Touka suppressed the fury inside her and glanced at the bandages on Louis's body. "And they hurt him this badly too. Isn't it just too pitiful to swallow all of that in silence, unable to take revenge...?"
Louis had wanted to say that he had cut off the other man's arm too, but this hardly seemed like the right occasion to mention it.
"Touka, being unable to take revenge isn't what's pitiful. What's truly pitiful is letting hatred cloud your judgment and destroy your life." The manager looked at Touka as he spoke, his words laden with meaning.
"Are you talking about me?" Touka failed to understand what he meant. She gritted her teeth, turned, and ran out.
"..." Louis understood the manager's words. They were both a warning to Touka and a lesson he had learned from his own past.
Irimi and Koma both looked moved. They clearly knew about the manager's past too, and understood the weight of those words.
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