It's a checkmate.
You are cornered, trapped in a stalemate.
"Shut up! Just shut the hell up!"
A chessboard on the verge of defeat. A shogi match seconds away from a final cry of "check." No matter how much I struggle, there is no road to recovery. You are cornered.
"I told you to shut up!!"
𝘛𝘩𝘶𝘥!!
I slammed my fist against a cold, unfeeling wall, trying to beat back the ominous thoughts clawing at my mind. I felt the weight of the stares from the people walking the night streets—eyes filled with judgment and confusion.
I fled from those gazes, ducking into an even narrower, more desolate alley. The number of people thinned, but my situation refused to change. The Ghoul hunting me... he had changed his tactics. He wasn't trying to end my life with brute force anymore; he was determined to bleed me dry from the inside out.
Nearly an hour had passed since I fled my home, yet he hadn't shown his face. Had he given up? No. Far from it.
Every so often, I felt his gaze piercing through the spaces between the crowds. That chilling, predatory stare unique to a Ghoul. I wasn't naturally gifted with sharp instincts, but I could tell because every time that gaze fixed on me, the wound on my right arm throbbed with a searing pain. Perhaps my subconscious recognized the threat even if my mind tried to deny it.
He was still stalking me. He simply wasn't attacking.
It wasn't because of the civilians. He possessed the authority of a police officer, a shield he could use to ignore them at will. No, he was keeping his distance because he had become wary of me. Even when cornered, I had proven tenaciously elusive, and that had sparked a sense of caution in him.
If he lost me now, the CCG might be mobilized. Driven by that fear, he refused to let me out of his sight. Every time I tried to head toward a CCG branch, his presence would loom, blocking my path and forcing me to redirect. I couldn't help but imagine him lurking in the shadows, waiting for the perfect moment to tear my throat out.
But the Ghoul had made one critical mistake. If he had known the truth, he wouldn't have hesitated; he would have moved to kill me without a second thought.
I cannot ask the CCG for help.
To be precise, I no longer can. Before he broke into my house, it was an option. Now, it is a death sentence.
Because he knows about Eto.
I cannot allow him to encounter a Ghoul Investigator. The moment he realizes it's the end for him, he'll spit out the truth about me and Eto to take us down with him. My threat would instantly shift from a single Ghoul to the entire CCG. It would be a repeat of five years ago—fleeing from my own father. Back then, I managed to persuade him. But you cannot persuade a collective entity, a machine built for slaughter.
The ideology of Ghoul exclusion is rooted deep in the marrow of society, and especially within the CCG. I'd be lucky if they didn't throw me into a psychiatric ward without a word of explanation for the "crime" of protecting a Ghoul. I couldn't afford the naive hope that he would back off just because the CCG was involved. We both held secrets the other couldn't afford to have revealed.
He wants to maintain his convenient identity as a cop. I want to protect Eto.
As long as he is alive, I am in danger. As long as I am alive, he is in danger. The threat will never vanish until one of us is dead.
No one can sleep soundly with a landmine beneath their pillow.
He will never stop trying to kill me. And I cannot afford to die like this. That was why I was sprinting through the streets, desperately searching for my final lifeline.
"Mr. Kuzen...!!"
Kuzen—Eto's biological father. A man possessing power that was exceptional even among Ghouls. He was my last hope. But I had no way to contact him. He had likely kept his distance to separate Eto and me from his "enemies," but now, that lack of communication was a fatal blow. Every time we met, it was because he had approached me or we had crossed paths by pure chance.
I was running, clinging to the infinitesimal probability of running into him in this sprawling, overpopulated megalopolis. But my time was running out.
The Ghoul would realize soon. He would realize I wasn't running toward the CCG for help. And the moment he moved to end my life, it would be over. Truly, a checkmate. In this state, any strategy I devised was just another step toward the end. There was no hope.
"Damn it!!!"
My stamina was at its limit. I decided to make one last stand and lunged into an alleyway—a place devoid of people, swallowed by darkness. For him, it was the perfect hunting ground.
I gave up on the hope of Mr. Kuzen appearing. I had to force the Ghoul to show himself and settle this. My body was spent, my lungs screaming for oxygen as I collapsed against a wall, sliding down its cold surface.
"𝘊𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩… ptui!"
A metallic, bitter taste filled my mouth. I spat, watching a glob of thick, dark blood splatter onto the pavement.
"𝘏𝘢𝘩… 𝘩𝘢𝘩…"
I leaned against the wall, catching my breath. The surroundings were... silent. There was no sign of pursuit yet. If only he would never come.
I faltered.
"𝘒𝘩𝘩…"
The moment I felt even a sliver of relief, the strength left my legs. Get a grip, you idiot. If you let your guard down now, there's no turning back.
𝘚𝘵𝘦𝘱.
"...!"
A faint sound sent a jolt of electricity through my body. Someone was coming. Was it him?
I bit my parched lip. Searching for anything that could serve as a weapon, I snatched up a shard of glass small enough to fit in my palm. I knew it was useless. I knew it would only worsen the wounds on my hands. But I had to grip it. If I didn't, I felt I would go mad from the terror that even the medication couldn't suppress.
I would try to negotiate as a final act of desperation, though the odds of success were zero. A lion does not listen to the pleas of a mouse with nowhere left to run. If it failed... I would shove this glass into his eye. I would use my entire body to express my pure, unadulterated spite. Whether I even had the strength left for that was another question entirely.
"Eto..."
Even on the verge of death, my only thought was of her. I realized it when I was nearly killed by my father, but I really have become a hopeless, doting parent. She'll cry when I die. I hated my own powerlessness—the fact that I wouldn't be there to wipe away her tears.
𝘚𝘵𝘦𝘱! 𝘚𝘵𝘦𝘱! 𝘛𝘢𝘱!
The footsteps grew closer, gaining speed as if the pursuer was certain they had caught their prey. No dialogue? Fine. Then all that's left is the struggle of the weak.
Come and get me. They say an urban legend exists in the Ghoul world—that a One-Eyed Ghoul will one day appear to save them all. Even if I die here, I'll gouge out your eye myself and make you look just like the legend...!
With that thought, I lunged at the figure rushing into the alley. In the dim space where the city lights couldn't reach, a single, crimson Kakugan glowed. I thrust the glass shard toward that lone eye... and stopped.
...A single Kakugan?
"Daddy!!"
"E-Eto!?"
The Ghoul who had sprinted into the alley was none other than my precious daughter, Eto, with a Kakugan active only in her right eye. She was covered in dirt, as if she had fallen multiple times while running, and the moment she saw me, the tears she had been holding back flooded her cheeks.
"Daddy! 𝘋𝘢𝘥𝘥𝘺!!!"
𝘊𝘳𝘢𝘴𝘩!!
Eto didn't slow down; she slammed into my chest with the terrifying physical force of a Ghoul. If it had been a normal child, I would have caught her easily. But this was the physical prowess of her kind, and I was already a mass of agonizing injuries. For a moment, I saw the banks of the Styx.
Oh? Father? Your face looks a lot fuller since I last saw you... Wait, get a grip! I'm not dead yet!!
I shook my head to dispel the hallucinations born of pain and focused on soothing the wailing Eto in my arms.
"E-Eto. Don't cry! I told you good girls shouldn't cry, right? There, there. It's okay."
My disappearance after the state of our home must have terrified her. Seeing her now—knowing she had wandered the city in fear, searching for me—made my heart ache. I wanted to let her cry in my arms until she was calm. But I couldn't! Because right now...!
"...!!"
The wound beneath my bandages throbbed with a final, desperate warning.
That gaze. The look of a predator. It wasn't Eto—she had never looked at me that way since the incident. That meant there was only one person it could be.
I grabbed Eto and threw my body to the side.
A split second later, a dark red meteor crashed into the spot where we had been standing, carving a violent crater into the earth.
𝘒𝘢-𝘣𝘰𝘰𝘰𝘰𝘰𝘰𝘰𝘮!!!!
"𝘒𝘩𝘩𝘩!!!"
"Daddy?!"
Because I had moved so abruptly, my back and arms were scraped raw against the glass and metallic debris littering the ground. I rolled, shielding Eto with my body, and glared at the source of the explosion.
"'Daddy,' is it? I thought it was pathetic enough when I found out you were raising a Ghoul, but seeing it in person is even more revolting."
"Say one more word about Eto," I hissed, my voice dripping with a cold, lethal fury as I stared at the "police officer" through the rising dust. "And I will kill you."