Life

After raiding the kitchen, Louis returned to the little room the manager had given him.

"I'll discuss working here with the manager once he's finished. For now..."

After a moment's thought, Louis's expression grew a little more serious.

"System, display my personal stats panel."

"Understood."

Ding! The host's current status is as follows.

Name: Louis

Combat rating: A-

Strength: A

Speed: B+

Agility: B+

Physical durability: A

Recovery: D

Crystal hardness level: 3

Louis looked at the stats panel and smiled faintly.

Louis hadn't been idle in the months since Kaneki's surgery. He had raised his combat rating to A, even if things had gone a little sideways against the A-rated Nishiki Nishio...

So ratings were only a measure. Actual combat still decided who won and who lost.

There seemed to be no way to improve his recovery in the short term, which was frustrating. As for his crystal hardness, although its level hadn't changed, his control over ice and his precision had improved considerably.

Louis would never have dared imagine improving this quickly in his previous life.

His control over crystals had recovered the fastest, almost matching what it had been at his peak.

One thing worth noting was that many crystals he created instantaneously couldn't reach the highest hardness level. But as his mastery improved, the crystals he could form in the same amount of time grew harder and harder.

An ice pillar meant to knock someone away, for instance, didn't need to be too hard, so he could quickly create one large enough. A dagger meant for close combat, however, had to be sturdy enough.

His strength was improving steadily, but there was another way to survive...

At that thought, Louis called up the system.

"System, display the affinity panel."

Understood.

Affinity panel for relevant characters:

Touka Kirishima: 12

Yoshimura: 10

Ken Kaneki: 20

Hideyoshi Nagachika: 0

Rize Kamishiro: -10

He ignored Rize, who was already dead, and felt particularly pleased with the top three.

"Did Touka and the manager talk about something last night? Their affinity wasn't this high before I went to sleep."

Of course, Louis had no way of knowing the answer, but he was fairly satisfied with these affinity scores.

At least... he hadn't made enemies of the main cast.

It would be even better if I could get Takatsuki Sen on my side. I could pretty much do whatever I wanted in the early stages.

Wishful thinking was one thing, but it wouldn't be easy to accomplish. Sen wasn't as kindly as the manager. He could always give it a try if he had a death wish.

The next part of the story... seemed to be... Kaneki's fight with Nishiki Nishio, then... Tsukiyama... and Hinami.

Louis suddenly remembered the tragic story that awaited Hinami Fueguchi's family.

Her father was a doctor who had saved countless lives, yet the child hadn't even attended school, and both her parents died.

Louis called up the system.

"System, can I save the Fueguchi Family?"

"Ding! Of course, but the host's mission is to survive. There's no need to do something so dangerous."

Louis thought of Touka heading to school with her bag.

"I'll give it a try..."

Louis stretched his limbs, a slight smile on his face. It felt as though he were back in his military days, ready to throw himself into action.

"Then it's settled!"

Since a fierce battle lay ahead, Louis decided not to interfere in the fight between Kaneki and Nishiki Nishio.

His recovery was nowhere near a ghoul's. He needed to prepare thoroughly before the incident happened.

Not wanting to live off their generosity, Louis asked the manager to let him work there.

The manager readily agreed.

But Louis's human identity would unsettle many of the ghoul customers, so the manager wouldn't let him work out front until he had smoothed things over. Bored and idle, Louis ended up cleaning every corner of the second-floor hallway.

Whenever he had nothing to do, Louis returned to his little room and formed crystals to hone his control.

Suddenly, Louis heard a commotion downstairs...

"What happened?"

Louis opened the door and craned his head out to look, spotting Hideyoshi Nagachika and Ken Kaneki covered in blood.

He remembered now. This was the aftermath of the fight with Nishiki Nishio.

"I'll help!"

Since Kaneki was still ravenously hungry, the manager didn't let Louis support him. Instead, he had Louis and Touka take Hide to a room to clean his wounds, while he led Kaneki into another room himself.

"What happened to them?"

Although he already knew the whole story, Louis asked anyway for appearances' sake.

"You don't need to know..."

Without so much as glancing at Louis, Touka picked up a towel and began wiping Hide's wounds.

Touka's touch was gentle. Perhaps because human bodies were so fragile, she was careful with every wipe.

"Let me do it. I'm human too," Louis volunteered.

With that, he began cleaning Hide's wounds, completely failing to notice Touka's darkening expression beside him.

Ding! Touka Kirishima's affinity -1.

"!"

Louis tilted his head to glance at Touka, only then noticing that she looked upset.

Was it because I said... I'm human?

Perhaps what Touka longed for most was a human life. Otherwise, she wouldn't have insisted on risking herself to attend school. His words were like a jab, telling her that she was only deluding herself...

And his tone could easily have made it sound as though humans were some sacred, superior beings.

"Sorry..."

Realizing he had said the wrong thing, Louis could only offer a meek apology.

He stopped talking and focused on wiping down Hide's body, cleaning his wounds, and applying bandages with practiced hands.

As a special forces soldier, he was thoroughly familiar with these basics.

Touka watched Louis's hands, a little lost in thought. She hadn't expected Louis, a human, to be perceptive enough to notice the change in her mood so quickly.

"It's okay..."

"Huh?"

Louis hadn't expected Touka to say that. In his memory, she had always been fiercely proud.

Thump!

Another rap on the head made Louis yelp in pain. Touka seemed to smile as she stood and said irritably,

"If you're that good at bandaging, then get to work. Don't just freeload here."

With that, she left the room without waiting for Louis to react.

Ding! Touka Kirishima's affinity +2. Current affinity: 13.

That worked too?

Louis clutched his aching head, but inside he was delighted. He didn't know whether it was because her affinity had risen or because of something else.

I'm clearly older, but she keeps hitting me like this...

Could it be... that earth-shattering kneel yesterday completely wrecked my cool image...?