Chie Hori

"Who are you?" Louis asked irritably, holding her up. Shouldn't a normal person scream in terror when a ghoul lifted them toward his mouth?

"My name is Chie Hori. Look at the photo I took of you." The little red-haired girl showed him her camera's screen, seemingly unconcerned that he had grabbed her.

Chie Hori...

Louis thought he had heard that name somewhere before. As for the photo, it looked good, but a brute like him couldn't really appreciate it. Still, he checked the little girl's camera just in case.

He wouldn't have known without checking. Scrolling back, he found all kinds of photos of Shuu Tsukiyama feeding. In some, he wasn't even wearing a mask.

He finally remembered. This little girl seemed to be Shuu Tsukiyama's human sidekick-the one who later asked the Quinx Squad for Kaneki's underwear.

She was supposedly some kind of young photography prodigy, whose pictures earned repeated praise even from master photographers.

"It's dangerous to be out this late. Go home and get some sleep." Louis set the little girl down and turned to look for the badly injured Nishiki Nishio. Sure enough, he found him unconscious where the girl had just emerged.

Chie Hori seemed interested only in taking authentic photographs. Even with Nishiki Nishio lying badly injured and helpless in front of her, she hadn't pulled off his mask to look.

Despite his serious injuries, he woke when Louis called to him and remained reasonably lucid.

"You all right...?" Louis helped him stand.

"Like hell I am... I got called out in the middle of the night just to get beaten to a pulp." Nishiki Nishio touched his wounds, which had yet to heal, grimacing in pain. Soon, though, he noticed the little girl with the camera.

"Who's this?" While Nishiki Nishio was still wondering, a flash lit up his face. The little girl had actually seized the chance to take another picture of him.

"Hey! How about showing some manners?! Do you want me to eat you?!"

"Ignore her..." After confirming that Nishiki Nishio was all right, Louis had him sit down and prepared to help the others.

Anteiku didn't permit indiscriminate killing. Judging by Nishiki Nishio's current condition, he was stable enough that he wouldn't attack the girl.

Louis raised his head and looked toward the other side. The Ice Wall blocked his view of some of them, but judging by the sounds, the battle wasn't over.

Just then, the Ice Wall suddenly shattered. A blood-red kagune smashed through it and clashed with a ghoul who had a single-winged ukaku.

Kaneki?

Louis froze. The one fighting Touka was indeed Kaneki, who had gone berserk and lost control. Perhaps because Touka had exhausted too much of her strength, she was even starting to be pushed back.

Farther away, Amon and Kureo Mado were both already down... Ryouko Fueguchi, who had arrived later, was protecting Hinami.

"Don't just stand there..." Touka had spotted Louis too.

"Come help!"

About three minutes earlier, Ryouko Fueguchi had arrived and used her kagune to restrain Kureo Mado's Quinque, giving Touka the chance to knock him unconscious.

Strong as Mado was, he was still human. Without protective gear, one solid hit was enough to take him out of the fight.

Then they saw Kaneki go berserk, unable to control the power of his kagune.

"This guy's ridiculously strong when he goes wild..." Louis dropped onto the ground. Even working with Touka, it had taken tremendous effort to knock Kaneki unconscious.

Subduing an opponent was harder than killing them outright.

About an hour later, they found an empty patch of land in the suburbs, buried Hinami's father, and erected a simple gravestone.

"Lou, write it like this." Kaneki traced a line of words in the dirt with his finger.

Louis looked, nodded, and used the Ice Blade to carve the words into the stone bit by bit before wiping away the stone dust.

The atmosphere grew heavy as everyone removed their masks and observed a moment of silence.

Suddenly, a camera flash startled Kaneki, who was standing at the back. He turned around to find Chie Hori photographing them from a distant mountain path.

They hadn't managed to shake her off the entire way...

"Give me a moment. I'm going to smash her camera." Louis noticed her too. He formed the Ice Mask again and went after the little girl.

"Don't... don't smash my camera!"

The little girl, who had seemed afraid of nothing, panicked when Louis took her camera. She jumped up to snatch it back, but she was too short to reach it.

"That's what you get for taking pictures without any regard for the occasion."

Deleted photos might still be recoverable... Taking it back with me would be safer after all.

Louis rubbed his chin. But Chie Hori had also seen their faces. What if she got angry and reported them to the CCG...?

Killing her would be the safest option after all...

"Mr. Lou, please wait."

A man in a butler's uniform suddenly stepped out of the shadows nearby, his movements elegant. "I'm a servant of the Tsukiyama Family. Could you hand the camera over to me? I guarantee that your identities won't be exposed."

"The Tsukiyama Family..." Louis paused, suddenly understanding why the little girl could roam around at night unharmed and even keep up with them.

Still, someone from the Tsukiyama Family would most likely keep his word. Besides, reporting Anteiku wouldn't benefit them in any way.

After all, in ghoul circles, reporting one another couldn't be easier.

"What's your name?"

"Me? I'm merely a servant..."

"If you won't tell me, I'll smash the camera."

"Yuma! Yuma Ishibashi..."

"Hmm..." Louis studied him carefully, then gave up trying to remember.

The Tsukiyama Family had so many servants. Who knew who he was?

"Then, Yuma... I'll leave this to you. You wouldn't want the Tsukiyama Family's reputation tarnished, would you?" Louis tossed the camera to the somewhat uncertain-looking servant.

"Yes... understood!"

Long after Louis had left, ambulances, police cars, and CCG personnel finally arrived at the devastated battlefield.

"Achoo!"

Shizuri huddled inside an ambulance, clutching her arm and trembling. Cold sweat covered her face, and she sniffled from time to time. "That Ice Mask's ability is too strange..."

Yu Fura was in a similar state, except he sat there without saying a word.

The operation had ended in a crushing defeat. All four of them had been beaten in succession and suffered serious injuries. Even Amon's weapon had been destroyed.

"The fact that there were no major casualties this time is a blessing amid the misfortune. Please don't lose heart," said a Ghoul Investigator who had arrived with the reinforcements, trying to comfort them.

"At least we've established the general area they operate in. Once the Ward 11 Operation is over, we can conduct a search here."

Kureo Mado, on the other hand, seemed entirely undiscouraged by their defeat. Instead, he intently studied the map an investigator's assistant had handed him.

"This area... is actually quite peaceful most of the time. There have been almost no incidents of ghouls attacking people..."

"A rabbit doesn't eat the grass around its own burrow, does it...?"

Like Yu Fura, Amon sat silently off to the side. This was the fifth time in his life that his view of the world had changed.

The first time was shortly after he became a Ghoul Investigator. He helped an old woman cross the street who, by all appearances, couldn't possibly have been a ghoul, only to fall into her trap. If Mado hadn't appeared, he would have died there. That was his first taste of how sinister ghouls could be.

The second time was during a joint operation with other Ghoul Investigators to wipe out a ghoul gang. The ghouls brutally killed his comrades, convincing him that all ghouls were man-eating monsters.

The third time was during the operation to capture Ice Mask, when Ice Mask hadn't killed a single Ghoul Investigator despite being severely wounded.

The fourth time, he witnessed the murder scene Rabbit and Ice Mask had created and felt that Ice Mask had deceived him.

But this fifth time-this time-that seemingly out-of-control ghoul had shattered his Quinque and told him to run.

"Don't make me a murderer..."

Amon clenched his fists. Those were the ghoul's last words to him.

His hatred of ghouls hadn't diminished, but it was also a fact that, on these occasions, the ghouls hadn't dealt them a killing blow.

Were there really ghouls who wanted to live peacefully with humans?

Amon held his head, his thoughts in turmoil.