FEMME FATALE

The way she looks as she goes her own way, unshaken, is brilliant, and will never, ever leave me.

The Ghouls in the 11th Ward had some rules that must be strictly obeyed.

1. Don’t kill on another Ghoul’s hunting ground.

2. “Residence tax” was due at the end of each month.

3. One meal a month.

4. Never leave tracks.

5.

5 …

These strict rules had been made by Hagi, the leader of the Ghouls in the 11th Ward, because the Ghouls in that area were living under the oppression of regular observation. But thanks to them, rule of order was maintained in the 11th Ward and the Ghouls there could live without fear of the CCG. They had their issues, certainly, but they never had to worry about their own safety.

Banjo Kazuichi was one of those Ghouls, nursing his resentment toward Hagi while following the rules he’d made. Other, more positively inclined Ghouls thought that, although it would be great for all Ghouls to have an equal playing field and therefore trust each other, there was no chance of it happening anytime soon.

“What are you gonna do about it anyway?” said Banjo, when suddenly, right in front of him appeared Ms. “Binge Eater” herself, Rize.

II

“Four bodies with Ghoul traces left on them have been found this month already!”

It was a meeting of Ghouls in the 11th Ward. One of the Ghouls gathered around the table, Usu, wore a pained expression across his broad face as he spoke.

“Who could it have been but you, Rize?”

The girl this line of questioning was aimed at had her nose stuck in a paperback, despite sitting in the meeting.

She lifted her gaze from the page and gave an alluring smile. She looked very calm despite currently being under fire in front of a lot of people.

“Oh … are you talking about me?”

“Don’t play dumb! This kind of thing never happened until you got here!”

Finding four abandoned corpses in one month in the orderly 11th Ward was a big deal. As Usu had said, nobody sprang to mind except Rize. The other Ghouls around the table looked at her with hard expressions too.

“The one left at the beachfront park was especially easy for people to see. Almost asking for someone to find it!”

This is a threat to our lives. And Usu is trying, through his thorough condemnation, to make her reflect so as never to do something like that again.

But then Rize tilted her head strangely. “Beachfront park?”

“Yes! A girl’s body. Anything could’ve happened if I hadn’t gone down there first thing in the morning and taken care of it!”

The 11th Ward bordered the sea, and there was a big park by the beach. I guess Usu was the one who found the corpse. But Rize started shaking her head in disbelief.

“I don’t remember her. Maybe she was another Ghoul …”

“You don’t even know!”

Rize looked like she was about to confess something. She did not nod.

“Usu, maybe not all of them are Rize’s kills.”

The Ghoul defending Rize was Yuri Akanuma, who was sitting right next to her. Yuri was a newcomer who had lived in the 11th Ward less than a year, but unlike Rize, she lived by the rules. She was attractive and sweet, blended in well with human society, had a job, and was known as a sensible person among the Ghouls of the ward.

“Then who are you saying killed them, Yuri?”

“I don’t know … I just think pinning it all on somebody is not the right thing to do. Is it?”

Yuri looked around at the other Ghouls in the room, hoping to find someone in agreement.

“I agree. The matter should’ve been investigated thoroughly and confirmed before talking about it here.”

But only one person backed them up—Banjo. Rize’s the Ghoul with the street name “Binge Eater.” Who else would we really think did it? At this, Rize’s eyes looked sad.

“Now, we could just as easily be talking about Hana—”

“Thank you, Banjo. But there’s no help in being suspected. And they’ve just come here again …”

Banjo had tried his best to protect her, but then Hagi, who had been silent all this time, spoke up.

“She has only denied the body found on the beachfront. Rize, do you admit to the other three?”

Tension ran through the room at the sound of his voice. But Rize did not falter. “I don’t know,” she answered ambiguously. She’s not afraid of him. Because she knows her own strength. She looked brilliant to Banjo.

“We will continue the investigation. But Rize, don’t push your luck.”

The meeting ended with Hagi’s usual declaration.

“Don’t forget the rules.”

“It’s awful to act like everything’s your fault. And don’t you think we should be allowed to say something when it isn’t?” Yuri said to Rize, once the meeting was over and they’d left the room.

“Usu is really tough on newcomers. That was pretty rough. You All right?” Banjo said, taking the opportunity to jump in. Rize lowered her eyebrows.

“I’m not used to the system here in the 11th Ward, so there are always gonna be some misunderstandings. Thank you both for standing up for me,” she said, putting her hands together in thanks. Banjo wanted to continue the conversation, but Rize seemed to want to end it there.

“If something happens again, I know I can count on you,” she said, flipping her black hair, then left.

“Banjo, do you … like Rize?” Yuri asked him, watching Rize as she left.

“W-what? What are you talking about?”

“You’re always hanging around her.”

“That’s—I’m just …”

But it was true, what Yuri said. When she was around he watched her every move, and he followed after her like he was stuck to her side. Banjo hunched his shoulders, rubbing his hands together nervously.

“Anyway, someone’s leaving corpses on the beachfront. Whose work do you think it is?”

Unconcerned by seeing a big man such as Banjo fumbling like he was, Yuri continued.

“Could be another Ghoul using Rize as a scapegoat.”

“What do you mean by that?” Banjo straightened his back in surprise.

“The 11th Ward is relatively peaceful because we all play by the rules, but that doesn’t mean that we don’t still have our Ghoul instincts. Maybe someone’s been watching Rize, who still follows her instincts, and took a little inspiration …”

As Yuri said, Rize played by her own rules, and her instincts only seemed heightened under these oppressive conditions.

“Now anything can be pinned on Rize. Maybe somebody’s just using her to piggyback off of. Poor Rize,” Yuri said. Then, realizing she’d said too much, she left.

Someone’s using Ms. Binge Eater as a cover. If that’s true, that’s unforgivable. Banjo huffed to himself.

III

“Wow, did that really happen?”

The day after the meeting, Banjo was in a room in an abandoned building used as a hangout spot, giving the full rundown to Ichimi, Jiro, and Sante, who hadn’t been at the meeting. The three of them, in matching hoods and masks, were longtime friends of Banjo’s. They didn’t take him very seriously because he was always unwilling to act with them.

“Well, she is known as the girl with the big appetite. And Usu’s the one who always has to clean up. Of course he’s angry,” Jiro said, stating his objective opinion while flipping through a magazine.

“But there’s no evidence it was her.”

“Nor is there any evidence it wasn’t her, Banjo,” Ichimi said calmly. Banjo frowned.

“Well, Yuri has a point, you know. Right now, whatever anyone does can be pinned on Rize,” Sante said, providing a voice of moderation.

“Exactly!” shouted Banjo. “I can’t let someone get away with using her.” He balled his hand up into a fist and looked around for agreement. Ichimi’s lack of excitement was inversely proportional to Banjo’s passion by a factor of one million.

“So what are you going to do about it?”

“Catch him! And if doubts become clear, then I’m sure Rize will be happy …”

Seeing Banjo looking so passionate, the other three were taken aback.

“Well, yes, probably.”

“Might this not backfire?”

“You might get killed …”

“Can it, guys. Anyway, that’s what I’m doing!”

Banjo thrust his fist into the air.

“But wait, Banjo. How are you going to find the guy?”

Banjo’s fist dropped weakly.

“I’ll … I’ll do my best.”

“You haven’t thought about this at all.”

“That’s very Banjo.”

It was a snap decision. But I can’t stop feeling like I have to do something to help her. Banjo started grappling for a solution, and the rest of them looked exasperated.

“Banjo, it’s time to start gathering intelligence.”

Jiro held up the magazine he was looking at to show everyone. The page he held up had a detective from a new film on it.

“Intelligence …”

“Usu is the one who found the body, so you should ask him first.”

This genuine proposal brought Banjo back to life.

“You’re right! I’d better hurry. I’ll go now.”

Unable to control his passion, Banjo ran off alone.

“Wait, Banjo! Do you even know where Usu is right now?” Sante yelled. It was five o’clock, the time when Ghouls started getting active in anticipation of nightfall. Usu was usually still out on patrol, nervously walking the streets from morning until night. That’s why he was able to discover the bodies that Rize had left behind, but it also made him harder to find. Banjo didn’t seem to have heard Sante’s yell, and that worried Ichimi. He felt like he had to run after him now.

“What can we do? We gotta follow him for a while,” Ichimi said, giving the instructions. He knew Banjo well. Jiro and Sante looked used to it.

“Roger that!” they said.

Banjo ran for who knows how long. Even a Ghoul gets tired, he thought, just as he spotted Usu.

“Usu! About that last meeting. I really don’t think it was Rize’s work!”

Usu frowned. “What’s all this about?”

A blue vein, that symbol of frustration, popped out on Usu’s broad forehead. I guess he didn’t think anyone would keep pushing it.

“Well, the thing is …” Ichimi cut in. “Usu, you’re the one who found the woman’s body in the, uh, beachside park. What kind of state was it in? Must’ve been a lot of hard work, wasn’t it?” He took over from Banjo and pushed for more details.

“Oh, the one on the weekend. Her stomach was slashed and all her organs had spilled out. The culprit might’ve taken their favorite ones and left the rest behind. I worked so hard to clean up the scraps and leave no trace. I’m hungry, too, you know, but I only have one meal a month, like we’re supposed to, and then she comes along …”

Usu clicked his tongue. For those who followed the rules, Rize’s actions were intolerable.

“Wait a minute, now, we don’t know it was …”

“Hold it, Banjo. Now, Usu, are there any telltale signs that this body was one of Rize’s?”

“The body at the beachfront park was more intact than the others, but they were all eaten in a thoughtless way, without concern for what to do with them afterwards. She messes everything up and then just leaves without a care in the world.”

Rumors had been going around about the Ghoul with the big appetite for a while. Usu had been going out on patrol more than ever lately, hoping to protect his own safety more than that of the 11th Ward.

“Anyway, it’s a real pain in the ass. Breaking the rules … How can we get free of someone like that?” Usu said in conclusion, trying to end the conversation. But Banjo slapped an arm around his shoulders.

“What?”

“Are we really free right now?”

Usu furrowed his brows.

“What do you mean by that?”

“I’m so tied down by all these rules, it feels like I can’t even breathe when I want. Is this really freedom?”

That feeling had come to him the day he met Rize, and it had only grown since.

“Rize can’t handle that, but since everybody else sees eye to eye, who needs the rules—”

“Banjo, if you say anything else, I’ll report you to Hagi,” Usu said in a low voice. Banjo said nothing else.

“The way you think is selfish. There is freedom in the rules. Quit pushing your fantasies onto everyone else,” Usu said clearly, then left.

“Dammit.”

Once Usu was out of sight, Banjo started chewing his lip. Pathetic of me to get scared at just hearing the leader’s name. If I was stronger, I could’ve told him what I really think. I’m so frustrated with myself.

“Look, Banjo, why don’t we go to the beachfront park?” Jiro said, hoping to give him encouragement.

I’m so weak. I can’t do much. But it’s better to do something than to sit around here wasting away.

“Right! Let’s go!” Banjo yelled, changing his attitude and dashing off ahead again.

The beachside park was empty at night, and the sound of the waves was all they could hear.

“I guess it’s easy to attack at night.”

Sante sat down on a bench, looking around the park. Although they were tired from chasing after Usu, they’d all run after Banjo as fast as they could. Ichimi and Jiro took a seat too, and looked up at Banjo.

“Taking a break?”

Banjo, who was more exhausted than the three of them, sat down next to them.

“I need to know, Banjo. Do you really have this much respect for Rize?”

“Course I do. Rize has many of the things I don’t have that I want for myself.”

Far in the distance they could see a boat bobbing on the sea, and the lights of an industrial area farther along the coast.

“She’s strong, both mentally and physically. So she can just live exactly as she wants. If I were that strong, all kinds of paths would open up to me … All I am is big and dumb.”

As he spoke he started to feel sleepy. Ichimi saw him start nodding off and stifled a yawn of his own.

“If nothing else … I want to be useful to her.”

It was a nice thought. But it was also what had brought Banjo this far.

“But Rize doesn’t need anyone’s help.”

“You’re right.”

“I think the kindest thing to do would be to drop it.”

The three of them gently trampled on Banjo’s dream. “Shh,” Banjo whispered, and drifted off to sleep.

IV

“Banjo, hey, Banjo!”

Even in his pleasant slumber, Banjo could hear someone calling his name. He shuddered into consciousness.

“Mmph?”

“Banjo, it’s morning.”

“Whoa, wait, really?”

Apparently they had all slept there on the bench together. There were women out training for marathons and elderly men walking dogs in the park. Banjo gave a great big yawn and watched them all go by happily for a moment.

“We were in the middle of trying to catch the culprit! No time for falling asleep!” Banjo said, remembering why they were there. He stood up from the bench and started to leave.

“Stop, stop! Are you looking for something?”

“Nah! I’ll just investigate this park for the time being. Maybe there’s some evidence.”

Banjo stopped and sniffed. Usu had taken care of the body, but with blood splashed everywhere, he might still be able to pick up a scent. But no matter how hard he sniffed, all he could smell was the sea.

“No good down here. I can’t smell anything.”

Sante rubbed his nose.

“Dammit. I wish we’d asked where he found the body …”

“Definitely,” Ichimi nodded in agreement.

“Not much else to do but wander around the park and try to find a trace.”

“Really?”

“If I say I’m gonna do it, I’m gonna do it!”

Even if you guys don’t wanna help me, I’ll find the evidence all by myself. The others, seeing that there was no point in complaining, had little choice but to help him. The sun had just begun to rise.

“I don’t get it …”

In the end, all they found in the park was a baseball, a snake’s discarded skin, a lot of porno mags, and a woman’s barrette. It was the item most likely to have belonged to the victim, but it had no smell of blood to it at all. All of it was useless.

“Nice work, Usu.”

His cleanup skills had been on point as usual, but Banjo was still disappointed.

“Banjo, why don’t we go back to our hideout and come up with a strategy? The four of us hanging around in this park looks pretty suspicious.”

Ichimi was right, but it was difficult to accept that they hadn’t produced any results. Banjo looked around reluctantly at the park.

“Huh?”

Just then, he saw a young girl holding a bag, heading straight for him. She was taking fliers out of the bag and handing them out to people in the park.

“Your cooperation is greatly appreciated. We are grateful for any information. Thank you!”

Banjo stared at her intently as she came over.

“Anything you know … Oh.”

She seemed frightened by his muscular physique, but she handed over a flier with a photo on it. “Anything you might know would be helpful,” she said, nervously.

“Let’s see … ‘Mari Hirano—have you seen this girl?’”

Banjo was not great at reading, so Jiro came over and read it out for him. Sante looked at the opposite side of the flier, where the picture was. “She’s really pretty!” he said.

“She’s my sister,” said the girl. “She was picked by a magazine as their reader model and everything.”

Now that she mentions it, they do look kind of alike. She might also grow up to be a pretty girl in a few years.

“But she came to the 11th Ward last week to see a friend and nobody’s heard from her since.”

So she’s handing out fliers trying to get some information. Banjo saw her twisting the hem of her shirt in her hands and couldn’t stand to see her unhappiness, so he handed the barrette that he’d found to the girl.

“What’s this?”

“Find her. Do your best and don’t give up.”

I guess I feel close to her because I’m also out here trying to gather information. For Rize.

“I will. I’ll do my best!”

The girl clasped the barrette tightly in her hand and nodded.

“Oh, miss, what’s your name?” he asked as she was leaving. She looked up at him.

“I’m Mai Hirano!”

Banjo looked straight at her. “Do your best!” he said again.

Once they’d left the girl and were on their way back to their hangout, Sante looked back at the park. “Why did you give that away? And to a human?”

“Don’t worry about it. I just wanted to give her something!”

“That’s just like you, Banjo. She was a pretty girl.”

He looked at the photo on the flier. They all stopped to look at it again.

“Wait,” Jiro said, as if he’d noticed something.

“What is it?”

“I feel like I’ve seen her before somewhere …”

“Wait, what? Where?”

With that information, the girl’s troubles could all be over.

“Just a second,” Jiro said and began to search his memory. But then Ichimi’s face began to cloud over.

“Ichimi, what’s wrong?”

Ichimi thought for a while before speaking.

“Banjo, I believe that the girl on the flier … is the one who was attacked by a Ghoul in that park.”

“What?!”

“The girl said she disappeared last week. And Usu found that body last week.”

Yes, humans are food to Ghouls. Banjo felt awful when he remembered how desperate that girl had been, but it wasn’t an unlikely story.

“Before we get carried away, let’s show Usu the flier.”

He didn’t know if Usu would still remember what the girl looked like, but it was worth a try. If nothing else, he wanted to gather more information about Rize to clear up the suspicion that surrounded her.

As they set off in search of Usu once more, Jiro yelled out in surprise.

“What, what happened?”

“I remembered! She was in that magazine!”

“What magazine?”

“The one I was looking at last night … the one with the feature on that detective movie.” Now Banjo remembered the magazine that Jiro had been reading as he told them about the meeting.

“It’s an old magazine, but I wanted to read it because it has a feature on a musician from overseas. There was a model similar to this girl in it. I’m not sure if she was a ‘reader model’ or not. Sorry, it’s not much of a lead,” he said apologetically.

“No, wait,” Banjo said, folding his arms. “The more information, the better. We’d better bring that magazine with us.”

They hurried off to their hideout.

“Here it is.” They were at their hideout in the abandoned building. Jiro picked up the women’s magazine. “Which page was it … I remember her because her parka was a lot like mine.”

The four of them looked down at the magazine, searching for her face.

“Must be around here somewhere …”

“Yeah …”

“Who’s this?”

Before they could find the girl they were looking for, their eyes latched on to another model.

“This girl …”

She was striking a pose and trying to look charming. And she looked a lot like Yuri, the Ghoul who had spoken up at the meeting.

Eyes wide open in surprise, Jiro pointed to the caption under the photo.

“It says her name is Yuu.”

And a few pages after that, they found a picture of the girl’s sister: Mari Hirano.

“Can this just be a coincidence?”

To find the two of them in the same magazine … Jiro looked at Banjo uneasily.

“Let’s go!”

Banjo grabbed the flier and the magazine and started running toward Usu’s den.

“What’s wrong, has something happened?”

Usu looked up at Banjo, who was breathless from running, and gave him a disgusted look as if to say, Not you again. But he must’ve noticed something was up with them, because his voice dropped when he asked them.

“Usu, was this the girl you found in the beachside park?”

Banjo showed him the flier and magazine, and Usu’s eyes widened in surprise.

“That’s the one. I would remember a pretty girl like her.”

Banjo’s mind caught for a second, thinking about her, but the presence of Yuri on another page in the same magazine was actually more of a concern. It didn’t seem like a coincidence to him at all.

“Usu, do you know where Yuri’s house is? A woman like that must have her own house.”

Banjo wanted to go confront him directly, but what Usu said next was even more shocking.

“Yuri? What are you guys up to? She just asked me where Rize’s house was.”

The blood began to drain from Banjo’s face.

“Yuri asked you where Rize’s house is …”

“Yeah. She said she was moving to a different area suddenly, and she wanted to say goodbye to Rize, so she wanted to ask me where she lives … Hey, Banjo?”

Banjo had run off without listening to everything Usu had to say.

“Banjo! We’ve been useless everywhere we’ve gone!”

“That’s right! We’d better just leave it!”

Ichimi and Jiro tried to stop him, but he didn’t hear. I don’t have all the answers, but what I can see doesn’t look good. Banjo ran with all his might.

When Banjo got near Rize’s house, he saw someone and it stopped him in his tracks.

“Rize!”

She was walking alone along a bridge with few other passersby.

“Oh, hey, Banjo. How’s it going?” she said with her usual smile, seeing how sweaty he was.

“Hey, you haven’t seen Yuri, have you?”

“Yuri? Well, no …”

Banjo felt relieved. He tried to quickly explain everything to her.

Just then a shadow appeared behind Rize.

“Rize, watch out!”

He jumped out, arms spread to try to protect her—a moment too late. A Kagune as thick as a whip slashed into Banjo’s body. The rough, scaly Kagune scraped against his skin, then struck the concrete of the bridge.

Banjo screamed.

“Are you all right, Banjo?”

Ichimi ran up to check on his wounds, but Banjo shook him off, staring at his attacker.

“You can do whatever you want, but you came here?”

Just as Banjo expected, it was Yuri standing there, her Kagune throbbing. No doubt, she is the source of all this evil.

“Rize! The body Usu found in the beachside park … She tried to pin it on you!”

“Really?”

“Yuri, you knew that girl!”

Banjo held up the flier and the magazine. He guessed that she was using Rize as cover while pretending to defend her. There certainly was enough proof of that. But then tears began to fall from Yuri’s red eyes.

“She … Mari was my friend. We were both part-time models—that’s how we met. I was with her the day she disappeared. She looked so happy when we said goodbye. But—”

Something about this isn’t right. “Oh, I know what you’re talking about,” Rize chimed in. “Banjo, I think there’s been a misunder-standing, sorry. Yuri’s friend in the park?” She took a step toward him, smiling. “I’m the one who ate her. Me,” she chuckled. “But all I could taste was the sea, it was awful.”

“RIZEEEEE!”

Before he could say anything, Yuri launched her Kagune at Rize again. Rize blocked the attack, the Kagune bouncing off her.

Is she doing this for her dead friend? In the confusion of a situation that was nothing like they’d anticipated, Yuri screamed. “I was going to take her somewhere nice, clean her skin properly, gut her, crush her bones like sugar, then mix it up and eat her!!” Yuri’s blood-red eyes suddenly drained of all color.

“W-what are you talking about?”

“Banjo, I’m not sure our presence is required here anymore …”

Yuri screamed as she jumped at Rize. “I’ll have to eat you instead!”

Her urge to kill was like a burning flame. But Rize just smiled.

“Nice plan. Well, I offer my apologies,” she said, sounding innocent and childlike. A pleasant smile came over her face.

“I’m gonna turn you into pretty little marbles!”

She absolutely refused to be attacked by anyone. And Banjo saw that now.

At the end of the battle, it was Yuri who was turned into pretty little marble-like blobs of flesh, which now scattered themselves to the wind.

“Is this a ‘legitimate use of self-defense’?”

Rize turned and looked at him, smiling. All Banjo, Ichimi, Jiro and Sante could do was nod.

“I love to get messy but I just hate cleaning up. Probably fine if I just leave it, right?”

Without waiting for an answer, Rize started walking away. She only had one more thing to say.

“Man, I’m bored.”

Yuri collapsed, now rendered into a hunk of meat.

After Rize left, Banjo realized he’d been holding his breath and coughed, putting both hands to his chest. Ichimi and the others fiddled with their masks and wiped the sweat from their brows. They were trembling after that show of tremendous power. Only Banjo felt something other than total mortal terror.

“Must be amazing to be that strong …”

“I’d hate it if you were like that, Banjo,” said Ichimi, wryly.

“I wanna be strong …” Banjo said again.

Strength gives birth to violence, but there are some things that can only be won by strength. She can cut her own way with her own strength. Nothing is more beautiful than that.

His admiration did not change when news about Rize’s attack got out and criticism erupted, or even when the leader and other higher-ups decided to purge her.

He remembered the very last thing she’d said as she left.

Well, take care of yourself, Mr. Leader.

Everyone else just laughed and said it was another one of her whims. But Banjo had never thought it was possible for him to be a leader. She had just been deprived of everything, but she gave that word to him freely.

“Rize put her trust in me. So I’m gonna do what I can.”

Look out for the 11th Ward. Protect those who are important.

What waited for Banjo after he broke out of his shell and took a step forward was the fate of the weak, a new kind of robbery.