"𝘒𝘩𝘩𝘩...!"
The Ghoul's face contorted in agony as he clutched the wound on his calf. His finger sank nearly an inch deep into the torn flesh.
While Ghoul biology is renowned for its density and extraordinary regenerative capabilities, there are always exceptions. One is receiving a lethal blow that overwhelms the healing factor; the other is being attacked by one's own kind.
The saliva and the mucous membrane within a Ghoul's Kagune act as a mild "toxin" to other Ghouls. It allows them to wound each other more easily and severely hampers the victim's ability to regenerate.
The wound had been inflicted by a mere brat—a "pet" raised by a human.
The Ghoul transformed his pain into white-hot fury, glaring viciously at the child standing in his way. But in that instant, he saw something impossible. He blinked, certain his eyes were deceiving him, but the image remained.
The child staring him down like a small, savage beast had only one eye transformed into the crimson Kakugan. The other remained perfectly normal, indistinguishable from a human's.
A Ghoul's eye and a human's eye existing in a single gaze.
"A One-Eyed... Sekugan...!?"
The Kakugan manifests when a Ghoul's emotions surge or when their RC cells are activated beyond a certain threshold. While a Ghoul can learn to suppress the transformation through emotional control, there is no Ghoul in existence who can choose to manifest it in only one eye. There is no biological need for such a thing.
If such a thing existed, it was a mutation. A being that could only occur by transcending the very laws of Ghoul nature.
He muttered, his voice thick with disbelief.
"A child born of Ghoul and human... the world truly has gone mad."
The shock lasted only a moment. The realization that a "mongrel" with human blood was snarling at a predator like himself caused a thick, suffocating killing intent to radiate from him.
"E...to..."
My breath had only just returned to my lungs, making every word an agonizing struggle. Yet, I had to call her name.
The relief of being saved was instantly drowned out by a surge of fury. Why are you standing there? Why have you turned your back on me to glare at that monster?
She was protecting me, radiating hostility toward a Ghoul.
No. Stop it. You shouldn't be there.
Even if a Ghoul can wound another Ghoul, Eto was still just a child. There was no way she could defeat an adult of her kind.
Eto didn't respond; she looked as though she were about to lunge at the officer at any second. I raised my voice, forcing the words out.
"Eto!"
𝘛𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘤𝚑.
Perhaps she heard the raw desperation in my voice. She cast a fleeting, anxious glance back at me.
"Ru—"
I wanted to tell her to "Run," but the word died in my throat. Her lips were pressed into a thin, stubborn line, her brow furrowed with a fierce light in her eyes. I knew that expression; it was how Eto looked when she was at her most furious.
Usually, Eto followed my lead without question, but in this state, she became an immovable wall of stubbornness. If I told her to run, she would ignore me and charge the Ghoul. She would never leave me here to die alone.
I had to choose my words with surgical precision. In this desperate situation where every second was a luxury, I racked my brain and changed my command.
"Take me and run!"
𝘚𝘵𝘦𝘱!
Eto didn't hesitate. She lunged—not toward the Ghoul, but toward me.
"Do you think I'll let you escape!?"
The Ghoul's reaction was a beat slow; he hadn't expected the child who looked ready for a fight to suddenly turn and flee. By the time he swung his Kagune, Eto had already wrapped her small arms around my torso and was leaping up the alley wall.
It was a feat that should have been physically impossible for a child of her size, but the raw, unbridled power of a Ghoul—unfettered by her usual restraints—made it look effortless.
The sound of his Kagune shattering the brick where my back had been only a second ago echoed just as Eto cleared the wall. Her speed was breathtaking, far beyond anything I had anticipated.
She landed past the crumbling masonry, adjusted her grip on me, and leaped again. I clung to her as she kicked off ancient walls and sprinted across rusted iron railings, flying between the buildings like a shadow. I looked back.
The officer had vanished from sight, but I knew we hadn't lost him. We couldn't lose him. He was a Ghoul with a superior sense of smell. No matter where Eto took me, he would follow the scent of my blood until he found us.
"𝘉𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘨𝘩! 𝘏𝘢𝘩... 𝘩𝘢𝘩!"
I could hear Eto's breathing growing heavy in my ear. She had never moved with this much intensity before, and now she was burdened with my entire weight. A child's stamina has its limits.
I knew she couldn't outrun him forever. I had only told her to take me away because I needed time.
"Eto, over there."
"...?"
Eto looked at the building I pointed to with confusion, but she changed direction immediately. She trusted that I had a plan.
The place I chose was a derelict, three-story building that looked as though it had been abandoned decades ago. Perhaps it had once been a small clinic. It radiated a somber, haunted energy—the kind of place urban explorers might frequent on a dare.
It looks like a fine place for a grave, I thought morbidly.
We slipped into a large, open space that likely served as a lobby. I leaned my back against a concrete pillar for support. My encounter with the Ghoul had nearly ended my life; my body was now demanding payment for every ounce of exertion I had forced upon it.
"Daddy, are you okay?"
Eto peered at me, her face clouded with a grief that made her fierce expression from moments ago seem like a dream.
"Whew..."
I closed my eyes and flexed my fingers, testing my motor skills. My legs were useless, but I could still move my arms. I touched the blood seeping from my various wounds, then reached out and smeared it onto Eto's face.
"W-Wait?! What are you doing!"
Eto squirmed in confusion, but I ignored her, meticulously staining her face and clothes with my blood. Then, I grabbed her by the shoulders and looked her in the eye with absolute gravity.
"Eto. Listen to me very carefully. You need to leave right now. Run through the alleys, and don't stop. Don't stop for anyone, do you understand?"
"What?"
Eto blinked, unable to comprehend.
I was in a checkmate. In chess or shogi, a cornered king must die. However, even if the king is doomed, it is still possible to change the flow of the game so that a single, precious piece—family—survives.
"There is a Ghoul named Kuzen. He is someone you can trust. If he catches the scent of my blood on you, he will find you. You must go with him. He will protect you. Do you understand?"
The "Organization" Kuzen dealt with was dangerous, but she would be infinitely safer with him than with me, a man currently being hunted by a predator. There was no problem here. It was simply a child who wasn't mine returning to her biological father.
I was just opening the door to the cage. That was all.
Even if the bird inside wore a look of agonizing heartbreak.
"Why... why are you saying this? What about you, Daddy?"
"Just say you understand!"
"No!! I don't want to! You're just telling me to run away alone!"
Damn it. I had run here to gain the time to break her resolve, but she wasn't budging. Please. Just run. Don't make me use my final resort.
Eto ignored my pleas and grabbed my arm, trying to haul me up.
"We're running together! We'll find this Kuzen person together!"
"I can't run anymore! You were already gasping for breath just carrying me this far! How are we supposed to escape!?"
"I can do it! I know I can!"
Please... don't make me say it.
"I won't leave you! I'm staying with Daddy!"
Please...
"That bad man is after you! If I leave you here, you'll—"
"𝐈'𝐌 𝐍𝐎𝐓 𝐘𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐅𝐀𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐑!!!"
I did it. Damn it all to hell.
The words I never wanted to say felt like an invisible blade twisting in my own heart. It was the same for Eto. Her eyes widened in shock, and her voice died in her throat.
I wanted to stop. Those words negated every second we had spent together. But I couldn't stop. Before the pain could paralyze me into silence, I had to force her to leave.
"I'm not your father! Your real father is that Ghoul I told you about, Kuzen! I only raised you because he forced you on me! I just took you in because I had to! I've never been your father, not for a single moment!!"
"..."
"When that man looked down on me and called me a 'cage,' I couldn't argue! Because he was right! A human raising a Ghoul—it's abnormal! We live in completely different worlds! It was never going to work! I'm raising you wrong! I'm ruining you! Making you weak! I was a cage! If you don't want to die trapped inside it, then get out! Go back to where you belong!!"
"𝘏𝘢𝘩! 𝘏𝘢𝘩!"
For a long moment, the only sound in the room was my own ragged breathing. Eto said nothing. Her head was bowed, her face hidden in shadow. But she still wouldn't leave. Why? Even after all that?
I opened my mouth to shout at her again.
𝘊𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘬…!
The sound reached my ears, and I realized.
Time was up.
The ceiling splintered into dozens of cracks, and chunks of concrete began to rain down upon us.
𝘒𝘢-𝘣𝘰𝘰𝘰𝘰𝘰𝘰𝘰𝘰𝘰𝘮――――!!!
Even the smallest fragments were the size of a child's head. A single hit would be fatal.
Yet, even after the roar of the collapse faded, my consciousness remained. If I were dead and in the afterlife, surely my body wouldn't still feel this exhausted. I opened my eyes slowly. And...
"𝘒𝘩𝘩𝘩𝘩..."
I saw Eto's face directly in front of mine, twisted in pain. She had pushed me down and was shielding me, taking the full weight of the concrete debris on her back.
"Eto!?"
I screamed her name. Her back was a mangled mess, crushed by the weight and shredded by jagged shards of stone. In all the time we'd been together, I had never seen her suffer such a horrific injury. I felt the blood drain from my face.
"What are you doing?! Get off me, now!!"
I grabbed her shoulders to push her away, but her arms were braced against the floor beside my head, unyielding. As blood began to pool from her back, she spoke.
"I... sometimes have a scary dream."
"...?"
A dream? Why was she talking about dreams now?
"It was a rainy day. Something scary was trying to hurt me... and Daddy held me and ran. You were bleeding, and you were falling over, but you kept trying to stand up to protect me. And at the end... you got so angry at that scary thing, just for me."
"...?!"
Her story triggered a memory. But... that was impossible. Back then, Eto was only three months old. There was no way she could remember.
"Daddy... you called yourself a cage, didn't you? But you're wrong. If something gets rusted by the wind and rain, and gets dented and broken just to keep the baby bird inside safe... that's not a cage. It's a 'nest'."
"E-Eto..."
"And a 'nest' isn't closed like a cage. It doesn't bind you; it stays open. A nest gives the baby bird a chance to fly, cheers for them, and stays by their side. That's not a cage anymore."
𝘓𝘶𝘮𝘱.
Something warm and wet dropped onto my cheek. It wasn't Eto's blood. It was a tear from her sorrowful eyes.
"We're 『𝘧𝘢𝘮𝘪𝘭𝘺』, aren't we? Daddy..."
"Ah..."
Right. Why had I forgotten?
Even if we didn't share blood. Even if we weren't the same species.
We were family.
Even if the world refused to acknowledge it, I should never have doubted that bond.
𝘚𝘱𝘭𝘶𝘳𝘵!
"...!?!"
A shard of debris embedded in Eto's shoulder was forcibly ejected as a spray of blood erupted. No... it wasn't just blood.
The substance spraying out was beginning to take form.
"...A wing?"
"Daddy. You didn't raise me wrong. You didn't ruin me. You didn't make me weak."
A single wing—vividly red, grotesque, and hauntingly beautiful—bloomed from Eto's shoulder like a flower spreading its petals.
Eto stepped off me. She spun around once, as if showing off a new dress, and fluttered her wing with a bright, innocent smile.
"The 'love' you've given me all this time... is what's making me this strong, even now."
𝘉𝐎𝐎𝐌!!
With a violent impact, Eto vanished from my sight. Her leap was so powerful she became a streak of red light, soaring toward the hole in the ceiling.
She slammed a kick into the torso of the "enemy" who had dared to hurt her family, sending him reeling back into the night.