Shizuri

"Ms. Ryoko, where's Hinami?" Louis asked when he found Ryouko Fueguchi sitting in the living room.

"She's shut herself in her room. She's still feeling very low." Ryouko Fueguchi shook her head. Having lost the man she loved, she was grieving too, but now she showed a mother's strength, pulling herself together sooner than Hinami.

"What... are you planning to do from now on?" Louis asked tentatively. Both of them were wanted, and photographs of Hinami and her mother were everywhere outside. It seemed their pursuers would not stop until they caught them.

"Mr. Yoshimura said he would send us to live in the 24th Ward." Ryouko Fueguchi looked downcast, but she understood. Staying here would only drag more people into their troubles.

"Right..." Louis nodded, wrote his phone number on a slip of paper, and handed it to her. "The 24th Ward isn't too far away. This is my number. Call me if you need any help."

Louis scratched his head sheepishly. "I might not be as good at fighting as Mr. Yomo and the others, but I'm sure there are other things I can help with."

Ryouko Fueguchi looked at the slip of paper in her hand. Her dejected expression barely changed. Instead, she fell silent for a long while.

Just as Louis began to wonder whether he had done something wrong, she spoke again.

"Mr. Louis... you're human, yet you fought for us. That truly makes me happy, and I'm deeply grateful. I don't even know how to repay your kindness."

"But you've already done more than enough. We can't keep being a burden to you."

"You told me that I'm all Hinami has left, so no matter how hard life gets, I'll do my best to keep going. But the same goes for you. You have people you care about, and people who care about you... please don't neglect yourself because you're always thinking of others."

Ryouko Fueguchi looked at the bandages still wrapped around Louis's body.

"Your life matters too. If you had been mistaken for a ghoul and killed that day, Hinami and I would never have been able to forgive ourselves."

"Please, take care of yourself."

"..." Louis did not quite know how to respond. He had never expected her to say something like that. "Okay..."

[Touka Kirishima (affinity: 36), Fueguchi Hinami (affinity: 53), Ryouko Fueguchi (affinity: 66), Ken Kaneki (affinity: 54), Yoshimura (affinity: 47), Renji Yomo (affinity: 21), Irimi Kyouko (affinity: 50), Enji Koma (affinity: 39), Shuu Tsukiyama (affinity: fanatical), Hideyoshi Nagachika (affinity: 15), Nishiki Nishio (affinity: 28)...]

A long list of names Louis had never seen followed, their affinity scores mostly ranging from -10 to 10.

Lately, Louis had vaguely sensed that he was developing some affection for everyone at Anteiku, but only a little.

Forming bonds, winning trust, gaining protection-his goals had largely centered on relationships built around mutual benefit.

Yet Ryouko Fueguchi's unexpected words just now had shaken him a little.

They genuinely considered him a friend, while he was judging their sincere feelings through cold numbers like the system's affinity scores. It left Louis feeling a little guilty.

Come to think of it, why had Ryouko Fueguchi told him to care more about himself?

"Kyouko, what do you think? Have I been meddling too much and annoying people?"

Louis told Irimi Kyouko about it while she was helping out in the café.

"I didn't think you'd worry about something like this. You're usually so thoughtful, noticing what's troubling other people." After hearing him out, Irimi Kyouko seemed to have figured something out.

Her words left Louis puzzled. His usual perceptiveness came entirely from already knowing the personalities of everyone at Anteiku. But when it came to actual emotional intelligence...

As a hardened soldier of the Special Ability Army, his was not particularly high...

"Ms. Ryoko isn't annoyed with you. If anything, I think she said that precisely because she's grateful to you." Seeing that Louis truly did not understand, Irimi Kyouko could only explain.

"It's something I've wanted to say too. You really ought to care about yourself a little." Irimi Kyouko pointed at Louis's chest and abdomen in exasperation.

"You fight like you don't care whether you live. What if you die? Wouldn't you have any regrets? People you care about, or people who care about you?"

"Uh..." Louis thought for a moment. There was no one he truly cared about. As for anyone who truly cared about him... probably no one either.

The Special Ability Army was not really a righteous organization. Like ghouls, its members were a minority of outsiders in their world, fighting only for their ideals. But years of battle and slaughter had long since shaken his faith, and his comrades had left one after another, until only he remained.

No... strictly speaking, even he had not remained.

Remembering the past left Louis feeling low.

Even if I make it back alive, what can I do? Get eaten by a monster? Go on the run again, then join another Special Ability Army unit? Or submit to humanity, be put in chains, and spend the rest of my life in prison?

While Louis was lost in thought, he suddenly felt something cool against his face. A pair of cold, slender hands squeezed his cheeks, squashing away the dejection showing on them. Irimi Kyouko leaned closer, her expression serious.

"If you think there's no one... then remember this: I'm someone who cares about you."

"Huh?"

"I'm pretty fond of you too, kid," Koma said from beside them, looking at Louis. "So don't go throwing your life away."

"What..." Louis hurriedly pulled free of Irimi Kyouko's hands and shook his head wildly. "What's going on? How did this suddenly turn into a conversation about me?"

[Ding! An imminent main storyline battle has been located! Due to changes in the plot, the participants have changed. Host, please take note!]

Participants?

Louis hurriedly checked the location marked by the system, along with the combatants.

[S-Rank Ghoul: Touka Kirishima VS First-Class Ghoul Investigator: Koutarou Amon, First-Class Ghoul Investigator: Shizuri, Associate Special-Class Ghoul Investigator: Yu Fura, Ghoul Investigator Assistant: Shou Nakajima, Ghoul Investigator Assistant: Taira Kusaba]

"This is bad..."

Meanwhile, Amon had arrived at a ramen shop with two colleagues. After a day's work, they planned to take a break.

"Mr. Amon, you graduated from the Ghoul Investigator Training Academy, right? What do you study there?" Taira Kusaba chatted with Amon as he ate his ramen. The training for investigator assistants was completely different from that of full-fledged Ghoul Investigators, as were their status and the dangers they faced.

"Yes. We study ghoul-related knowledge and the law, then undergo various kinds of physical training." Amon nodded. Having finished his ramen, he drank a glass of water. "Regulations prevent me from going into the details."

"There are women there too, right?" The bespectacled Kusaba seemed very interested and could not resist asking.

Because of innate physical differences and the dangers of the job, female Ghoul Investigators were far fewer than their male counterparts. Even so, some determined women still applied to become investigators.

"Hey... Kusaba..." The older Shou Nakajima, sitting on the other side, clearly knew something. Hearing the question, he hurried to interrupt Taira Kusaba.

But Amon turned his gaze to the side without any change in his expression. "There were two women in my class. Both were very intelligent and strong-willed."

"Then what about romance?"

Amon had ranked first in his class. After hearing such high praise from him, Taira Kusaba could no longer contain his curiosity.

"You idiot, stop..." Shou Nakajima wished he could sew Taira Kusaba's mouth shut on the spot, but Amon sat between them, making it difficult to intervene.

Amon briefly recalled the past.

"Both of them died in the line of duty."