INSINCERITY

The place I stepped into, the reality I knew, the path I should’ve taken—my father’s back.

“Now then, I’m going to announce the results of the exam the other day.”

A bolt of tension ran through the Academy students as they looked at the instructor, holding the results in his hands. One student had both hands together in prayer; everyone had a sense of passion about it. The instructor looked around the auditorium slowly, then coughed.

“Top marks this time go to Mado. Of course.”

It was a matter of course, and everyone in the auditorium knew it. Akira Mado, the woman of the hour, bowed to the instructor but allowed no visible change to her expression.

There is a group of monsters in this world called Ghouls that remorselessly attack and eat people. And there is the CCG, which exists to eradicate them.

And in the 5th Ward, where many educational facilities such as Teihou University are based, there is an Academy with the purpose of training future Ghoul investigators who will be the future of the CCG. They all had their different reasons for wanting to be investigators, but shared one goal, and Akira was at the top of the class in every way.

“Number one again, huh? That’s just like you, Thoroughbred. Don’t let it get to your head.”

Seido Takizawa, one of her classmates, came sliding up next to her after the assembly to give her this warning. He was the one who always started praying when the instructor announced the results. He was the eternal runner-up, just after Akira. And his irritation showed.

Takizawa stepped into her way to block her path. Akira sighed and looked exasperated.

“That’s rather arrogant of you. Let me through.”

“Don’t push it, Mado. It’s nothing like the Academy out there on the streets.”

“By the way, I saw that on this practical exam you also received an observation for …”

To keep him from saying anything more hurtful, Akira started talking about the minute details of Takizawa’s exam results. It was clear from his expression that she was going into quite a bit more detail than the instructor had.

“What especially stood out to me is the time delay between the release of your Quinque and its initial movement. There’s a lot of time lost before you begin to attack. Your ability is still not good enough to compete with the speed of any Ghoul. You need more training,” she told him in conclusion and crossed her arms. “The reason we’re here, as future investigators, is to gain knowledge and experience to help us carry out our duties. Class rankings and all that is just a result of that.”

“Exactly. I’m going to do great stuff when I’m an investigator, you know.”

“Great. Then put the time you’re using to block my way to good use and practice using your Quinque instead. Bye.”

Akira unfolded her arms and walked around Takizawa. She heard him call her a bitch as she walked past, in a high-pitched, childlike whine. I guess I got the better of him.

But as Akira tried to make her way in a hurry, she got irritated too.

“You’re amazing, Mado. Number one again.”

Everybody was whispering about her as she walked down the hallway.

“Did you know her mom got associate rank when she was twenty-eight?”

“Amazing to make associate at that age as a woman. She must take after her mom.”

Akira’s mother—Kasuka Mado. The rumors were all true—promoted to associate rank at age twenty-eight, then became a professor. If things had stayed as they were, she might’ve made it all the way to the top.

But her mother’s life was cut short by a one-eyed Ghoul. This had all happened years ago now. Since then her father had raised her singlehandedly.

Her father, like her mother, was also an investigator: Kureo Mado.

“And her dad’s a high-ranking investigator, too.”

“Nowhere near as good as his wife or daughter, though.”

They kept on whispering with no sense of shame or guilt.

Akira made it back to the dorm. She went up to her room and opened up her study materials. She was unable to get actual battle experience at the moment, but she got a feel for things when she read over case materials.

Today’s was from the 20th Ward. It had few Ghoul incidents compared to other wards, and yet none of the investigators on staff there carried a Quinque. That didn’t mean there weren’t any Ghouls there. There were many unresolved incidents linked to a Ghoul with strange tastes they called “the Gourmet” and some unidentified Ghouls with ukaku Kagune that appeared to hunt in groups. These creatures can only live by killing people. And the CCG is there to punish them. My father is one of them.

Akira opened another file on her desk. This was a case that her father had been involved with. Her father’s accomplishments, like the Owl Suppression Operation, did not compare unfavorably to other investigators’. So the reason he didn’t get promoted was probably me. Being in a high-rank role takes up your time, making it hard to look after children. My father must’ve passed up on promotions in order to raise me, a motherless girl.

I want to figure out what happened and let everyone know my father’s true strength. The thought swirled around in Akira’s mind. But she didn’t know where to begin.

II

Early the next morning, Akira had arrived at the Academy’s training grounds early to prepare for practical training when she noticed that some others had gotten there first.

She saw Yukinori Shinohara, an Academy instructor whom she knew extremely well. Shinohara had been her father’s partner for a while, and he always looked out for her.

Alongside Shinohara there were two older men. Both held attaché cases in their right hands. Investigators. Something must’ve happened to make them show up at the Academy this early in the morning.

“Oh, you’re here early, Akira. Morning,” Shinohara said, noticing Akira and interrupting their conversation to greet her. The two men turned to face her.

“Is she a student?”

“Oh, this is Mado’s kid.”

It was a rather oblique comment, but the men seemed to understand instantly. One of them, a slim man who seemed to have a senior rank, narrowed his eyes as he looked at her, and she wondered what was going through his mind. But a moment later his eyes softened, searching her face.

“Wow … so you’re Mado’s daughter, the one they keep saying is top of the class this term. I’m Tada, associate rank. And this is Yanagi.”

They both bowed. They were both the same age as Shinohara. A veteran unit. But Akira noticed something curious about the way Tada looked at her. People who look at you that way are not usually your friends.

“She’s just like her mother. Thank God she’s not like her Quinque maniac father.”

Sure enough, now he has to go and praise my mother by saying something indelicate about my father.

“Watch it, Tada.”

“What? I thought the young lady would like to hear what an excellent mother she had,” he said and laughed.

Ignoring him, Akira asked Shinohara, “What happened?”

“Well, actually, last night a woman was attacked by a Ghoul in this ward. A child who lives nearby heard and yelled, so the Ghoul got away. He seems to have come in this direction.”

“It’s hard to imagine a Ghoul coming near the CCG Academy on purpose, but we had come to ask if anyone nearby had seen any suspicious persons, just to be certain. But it was a swing and a miss, as expected. Anyway, any Ghoul that runs at the sound of a child crying will turn up sooner or later.”

Tada’s prediction seemed aimed at Shinohara somehow, and Akira picked up on it.

“But if the Ghoul in question did come toward the Academy on purpose, then the Academy must hold some kind of merit to him. Can one really afford to throw away this line of investigation?”

Tada looked dazzled for a second before he began to laugh, holding his sides.

“Ha ha, what’s all this now? Not even an investigator yet and she’s already bossing us around! Boy, the elite sure are different after all.”

“I make my judgment based on what I’ve heard.”

“She certainly does talk a lot. Ah, youth. I was like that, too, once …”

After mocking her a little, Tada looked her right in the eyes.

“But if you’ve judged the situation incorrectly, it’s your life on the line.”

I probably shouldn’t snap back at him. After all, I’m just a student. But Akira responded instantly, her eyes never wavering for a second.

“There’s one thing I do know, though. Mr. Tada, you are too fat.”

Her words had nothing to do with the previous topic of conversation. Time stopped for a moment. Akira continued, unconcerned.

“Fat is our enemy, because as humans we are always behind Ghouls in terms of speed. A second’s the difference between life and death. Taking a look at you, I’d say you have about another twenty pounds to drop. And if you don’t, it’s your life on the line.”

Her criticism was scathing. Tada, having heard all he could take, turned bright red.

“What did you say to me?! Just because I disagreed with you, you got angry and went off like that? What, you think you can solve this case yourself?!”

In contrast to Tada’s fiery anger, Akira quietly folded her arms.

“I’m just an Academy student.”

“Oh, now you use that as a shield!”

“No. I’m just worried that if I solve the case, that means you’re worse than an Academy student. And that, of course, would make you worse than my father, too.”

“Akira, cut it out,” said Shinohara, intervening. Tada stared at her.

“If you think you can do it, do it! Stupid little girl,” he spat out, then left the training ground.

“Dammit, do you always have to take such a controversial stance?” Shinohara said, scratching his beard.

“What do we know about the Ghoul that ran away?”

“Hm? Oh, yeah. We have a sample of the Ghoul’s saliva, found on the victim. The kid who witnessed it said the Ghoul was wearing a black mask with red spots, like a ladybug.”

“A ladybug?” Comparing a Ghoul’s mask to a familiar insect seemed childish to her.

“So what are you going to do, Akira?” Shinohara asked, looking tired.

“I’ll need some extracurricular training,” she said, not beating around the bush.

Her intuition also worked opposite from what Tada thought.

The exchange between Tada and Akira was overheard by other Academy students who came to the training ground after Akira. The story spread in an instant.

“You moron! You got into a fight with an investigator, and an associate-ranked one at that! You’re supposed to listen to your elders, you know!” Takizawa said, fussing at her before their afternoon lecture.

He thinks he’s got the high ground for once.

“I simply offered an opinion that he could not agree with. And submitting blindly to what your superiors say is nothing but abdication of one’s duty to think freely.”

Takizawa muttered, “That’s what people always say in situations like this …” His eyes latched on to some copies lying on her desk. “What’s that? Copies from newspapers?”

“I made a copy of the article about yesterday’s Ghoul attack. And all the records of Ghoul attacks in this ward in the last five years.” She had spent the entire lunch break in the library.

“ ‘Attacked and injured, but no serious wounds.’ Don’t you think the Ghoul who attacked this woman is long gone by now?”

“No, I don’t,” she said immediately.

“So what do you think?”

“I think the culprit is still near the Academy somewhere.”

“But why here, with the CCG all over? It’s like a mouse taking a nap next to a cat.”

“That’s a remarkably easy-to-understand comparison coming from you. But it’s wrong.”

“Remarkably, huh? All right, do you have any proof or evidence?” he said, banging his fist down on the desk. Akira raised one finger.

“Intuition.”

“What?!”

Takizawa didn’t know what to say, but for Akira, this was one of the most logical things to base an investigation on.

“I have faith in my intuition.”

This is a battle not just against Tada, but against everyone who’s put my father down.

“What do you mean?” asked Takizawa, his head spinning.

That night, Akira took all the information she had found back to her room and spread out a map. First, she put a red X where the previous night’s incident took place. Then, using a color-coding system to denote cases which were thought to be linked, she put all the unresolved incidents on the map. There were lots of cases that didn’t appear to have any links.

Finally, Akira marked the locations of CCG branch offices and the Academy. Then she began to see a small trend of incidents clustered around these locations.

First, the 5th Ward branch office. There was not extensive predatory behavior in the area. Ghouls have their own common sense, and apart from a few Ghouls who liked to hunt investigators, most seemed to have decided that attacking anyone in that area was too dangerous.

On the other hand, many more incidents had taken place around the Academy in the past than near any of the 5th Ward branch offices.

It didn’t take a lot of deep thinking to see what that meant: it meant that the Academy was much less of a deterrent to Ghouls than any of the investigators in the 5th Ward. With fine instructors and experts at Ghoul extermination all over the 5th Ward, the Academy must look like a playground by comparison. It was natural. With that in mind, it was not too surprising that Ghouls would consider the Academy less risky to come near.

III

It was a few days after Akira and Tada’s fight. Akira’s classes were over for the day, so she decided to visit the staff room, where Shinohara was.

“The saliva sample found on the victim was analyzed by inspectors, but apparently it’s the first time that profile has been found,” he told her when she asked how the investigation was going.

“Does that mean this Ghoul has preyed before without leaving a trace?”

If there was a precedent, the CCG would have the documentation. That often offered some hints, but this time they were starting from scratch.

“This Ghoul has been very careful.”

Tada had talked loudly about how any Ghoul who was scared off by a child would be found sooner or later, but the investigation seemed to have hit an unexpected wall.

“Tada’s going to start investigating around the Academy today.”

Now that the information available was limited, he was taking even negative comments.

“His prospects aren’t bad as an associate.”

“Hm. Well, Tada hasn’t been very well lately.”

Shinohara furrowed his brows, looking worried.

“Although your technique improves with experience, as you get older your body slows down and your mind doesn’t work as fast as it did when you were younger. It’s a constant battle at our age.”

Shinohara also muttered something about this case being the particular battle that Tada had chosen to fight.

“He ought to lose some weight first.”

“Ha ha, well, I think so too. But Tada’s the kind of guy who’s always looked like that and has racked up successes in the organization anyway. He’s not like you; in fact, he may be your polar opposite. But he’s always respected your mother.”

That’s nice, but it doesn’t make me any less unhappy about the way he talked about my father. That’s why I want to solve the case first and find this Ghoul. The ladybug. Where can it be?

Suddenly something worried her.

“How old was the child who saw the Ladybug?”

“Oh, about five or six.”

“And a child that small screamed so loud that a Ghoul ran away?”

Shinohara laughed. “Oh, right. He didn’t just scream, he yelled, ‘Mr. Inspector, come right away!’ A very quick-witted child.”

Now she understood why the Ghoul had escaped. Akira thanked Shinohara and left the staff room. But as she walked down the hallway she suddenly stopped.

Could such a young child really think so quickly on their feet to scare off a Ghoul this good at covering their tracks?

It was a casual question. But once she’d asked it, the scope of the question expanded. Perhaps it was a clue. Akira quickly left the Academy as if she were being pulled somewhere.

Is that the kid?

Akira had headed straight for the scene of the crime, on the outskirts of the 5th Ward. A boy was kicking a pebble on his own in a little alley near a row of houses—the kind of boy you would see anywhere, but this kid seemed strangely gloomy.

“Are you Shota?” she called out, using the name she’d found out earlier. The boy looked up.

“Who’re you?”

“I’m Akira Mado. A future Ghoul investigator.”

“Future investigator?”

“You can call me Akira. I wanted to ask you some questions about what happened the other day.”

The boy looked down and kicked another stone.

“My grandma and granddad are already angry at me about what a dangerous thing I did. I don’t wanna talk about Ghouls anymore.”

His grandparents had every right to be angry, since if something had gone wrong the boy would be dead now.

But she decided to ignore their feelings and asked him, “So your grandparents would prefer it if that woman had died?”

“It’s not like that,” the boy began. “My mom and dad were both killed by Ghouls.”

He kicked a stone toward the wall. It bounced off and disappeared somewhere.

“What do you want to know?” She heard the darkness in his heart that would not go away, the pain of having his parents taken away. Akira herself knew that feeling.

“How did you realize there was a Ghoul?”

“It was night, I looked outside for some reason, and I saw a woman walking past the house. Then, behind her, a man.”

“How did you know he was a Ghoul?”

The boy looked up at her silently. Akira looked back at him, seeing him now as another human being, not just as a child.

“It was the guy who took my dad away.”

Akira didn’t know what to say. The boy clenched his fists.

“A little after my mom was killed by a Ghoul, my dad and I were attacked by some other Ghouls. He told me to run away, so they only got him. So I knew that Ghoul when I saw him. I’d know him anywhere.”

The tangled thread of the case was starting to unravel.

“When did that happen?”

“It was when I was in kindergarten. We lived in the 20th Ward. When they finally found my dad, there was another body there too. All torn up. It was a Ghoul. They said he was killed by another Ghoul after he killed my dad.”

If he’s in elementary school now, then this must’ve happened last year or the year before. Akira tried to remember the cases in the 20th Ward that she had looked at the other day. Among them, there had been a report about a mysterious group of Ghouls with ukaku Kagune that hunted together. A group of Ghouls from an organization called Futamaru had been killed by an ukaku in the 20th Ward.

“I thought the guys who killed my dad were all dead, but this one wasn’t. I thought he was going to kill the woman who walked by my house, so I chased after them.”

As she listened to his story, Akira realized there were so many new possibilities. If it was a Ghoul who belonged to Futamaru, he may have fled here from the 20th Ward after losing the battle against the Ukaku Ghouls. And still in fear of the Ghouls who killed his friends, he would’ve been looking for a safe place to hunker down. And this is a safe place.

Standing on the shoulders of giants. Most Ghouls wouldn’t come near the CCG at all. Everyone kept saying that after he was spotted by the boy the Ghoul had fled to the Academy, but couldn’t he have also fled back to the Academy? The idea stuck in Akira’s mind.

It was possible that he always stayed near the Academy and kept a watchful eye over it. That meant he would know that there were investigators after him. This cautious Ghoul had taken note of Tada and the others and run away.

Perhaps this is all I can do as an Academy student. From here, Shinohara and the 5th Ward branch office investigators would have no choice but to investigate the Academy and its surroundings. But it was also possible that they’d need clearer evidence to start investigating. Still, they had to act now.

“Thank you for your cooperation. See you,” Akira said, thanking the boy. She started to leave.

“Akira,” he said, calling her name. “Did you lose somebody to a Ghoul too?”

She turned around. The boy was looking straight at her. She had noticed something gloomy about him; had he noticed the same thing about her?

“My mom,” she answered frankly.

“Oh,” he said. “Is it still tough? Am I gonna be all right when I’m a grown-up?”

“I don’t know … it’s different for everybody.”

“But are you? Are you okay now?”

He can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel right now.

“I’m—” Suddenly an image of her mother crossed her mind, then her father. And when their images combined, she saw herself reflected back at her. “It’s a secret,” she whispered.

“Right,” laughed the boy. Suddenly there was a glint in his eyes.

“My dad told me before he died that I should forget all about Ghouls. And my grandma and grandpa tell me I shouldn’t take any risks. But …”

He lifted his right arm and pointed straight ahead, in the direction of the Academy.

“The day after, I went the way that the Ghoul ran. And I found them there.”

Akira’s eyes widened in surprise.

“They didn’t have their masks on, but I knew it was them. I followed them and found where they live. Akira …”

There was a fire in his eyes now.

“Akira, please … find the guys that killed my dad … and kill them!”

Anger, sadness, and resentment. And this young child has to bear them all. Another Ghoul tragedy.

The sun was setting, and a cool wind blew through. A man struggling under lots of bags appeared from the run-down apartment building, where many students lived. He was in his early to mid-twenties. He went down the rusty stairs, then looked around, setting his gaze far into the distance. Toward the Academy.

“I’ll come back when things have cooled down.”

He smiled to himself and started walking toward the Academy. To escape from the net of the investigation that was tightening around him.

“Unfortunately, that’s not gonna happen.”

A woman’s voice echoed behind him.

He turned around and saw her standing in the middle of the street. Akira’s glossy hair swirled around her in the evening breeze as she stared him down.

“Former Futamaru executive …” Her words visibly affected him. But he quickly smiled and dropped the bag he was carrying to the ground.

“You’re wearing an Academy uniform. You must be a student. I don’t know what you’re here for, are you sure you’ve got the right man?”

He rummaged in his bag, then pulled something out.

“It’s been an unlucky couple of days. You’ve seen my face, so now you have to die!”

He had pulled out his mask, a black one with red dots that the boy had described as being like a ladybug. The man—the Ghoul—closed the distance between them almost instantly.

Akira stumbled back in surprise, but he swung at her and his fist grazed her cheek.

“Aren’t you vain?!” he shouted, angry at the way she’d deftly dodged his attack. He created a little distance, crouching down on the ground, ready to pounce.

“But hey … ‘like a moth to the flame!’ ” As he spoke his flesh and clothes ripped and a reddish-black fog was released. It immediately coalesced and transformed into a thick, undulating Kagune—a bikaku Kagune.

“What are you gonna do, you poor baby? You don’t even have a Quinque!” he cackled.

“But I do,” she whispered. He didn’t hear her. His Kagune began to stretch. “Let me introduce it to you.”

There was darkness in Akira’s eyes.

“My Quinque is my father.”

The small, sharp-pointed bullet shone like a chestnut.

The Ghoul screeched.

Akira got down on the ground as the bullet pierced the Ghoul’s body.

“When you said she was like a moth to the flame … well, I think you’re more perceptive about yourself, really.”

Kureo Mado stepped out, holding Rai, an ukaku Quinque from his collection, in his hand.

“When it comes to insects, the best thing is to burn them out!”

Right after she saw the boy, Akira called her father. Fortunately, he had just finished work and said goodbye to his partner, so he came as Akira’s ‘Quinque.’ And his Quinque had shown its overwhelming power to Akira.

The Ghoul, pounded into the ground by Kureo’s attack, begged and pleaded for his life, but it was absolutely meaningless. And as proof of that, Kureo laughed.

“When we heard you guys lost to the Ukaku Ghouls, we got you a little something. A little present. Do you want it?” Kureo walked up to the Ghoul, his Quinque in front of him. “It’s a present of horror!”

He activated the Quinque at close range. Small bullets blasted through the Ghoul’s mask, eyes, nose, mouth, and brain. The destroyed mask fell to Akira’s feet with a clang.

It was more black than I realized, Akira thought, and then realized something else. The name Futamaru can also mean “twenty.” The mask was supposed to be a twenty-eight-spotted ladybug.

“What’s all this about?”

Tada, who had been investigating in the area, came running up. He had been hot on the Ghoul’s trail too.

“Good to see you, Tada. I hear you’ve been looking after my daughter recently.”

“Mado! What are you doing here?”

Tada was first surprised by Mado, then by seeing Akira at his side, and then finally by the Ghoul who lay writhing on the ground.

“Is this the guy?”

“Akira figured out his whereabouts.”

Tada looked at her in disbelief. She gave him a smile.

“We retrieved the Ghoul’s Kagune, too. I was thinking about turning it into a Quinque in your honor, Tada.”

Tada’s lips began to tremble. “Like father, like daughter!” he spat.

Is that supposed to be an insult? Akira smiled again.

“That is the highest praise,” she said.

IV

A few days later she went to tell the boy that the Ghoul had been destroyed. “Right,” he said, fiddling with a stone. Happiness was not the right emotion for the occasion. Killing these hated enemies wouldn’t bring back his dead parents.

“Without what you told me, that Ghoul would have gotten away again. And there would have been more victims. You didn’t just save one woman’s life. As long as Ghouls exist, they’ll keep killing.”

Akira finished filling him in, then turned around to leave. When she was a fair distance away, the boy called out her name. She turned around and saw him struggling to say something.

“Thank you,” he said finally.

She left and headed back to the Academy. When she got there, she saw someone near the entrance.

Is that my dad?

It was. Her father waved to her.

“Why are you here now?”

“I left work early. I have two things to tell you.”

“Go on.”

“First. Tada’s on a diet now.” Instead of losing all confidence after being trashed by a student at the Academy, he had actually found inspiration in it. That stubbornness is probably why he’s still here.

I learned a lot from this case. I beat Tada, but I didn’t do it alone. I feel bad about admitting that Tada is right, but he’s right—I am young, I don’t even have a Quinque. What I have to do now is work hard to become an investigator who can stand on her own. A bit of teething.

“Second. I found a curry place that’s perfect for eating on the go, but my partner’s not into spicy food. He has no clue how good curry is. Wanna go?”

Her father’s words cheered her right up. She looked at her watch and nodded.

“Perfect time for a meal.”

Someday I want to be the one who helps my father. I want to protect him, like he protected me, she thought as she walked by his side.

But Akira’s father would never get to see her grow up to be an investigator who could stand on her own two feet.

Her father’s life would be taken by a Ghoul called “the Rabbit.” Akira would never forget how his body had been torn to shreds. Still, she carried her father’s love with her wherever she went.

I want to protect the man my father respected so much, whatever happens.

She was on her way to meet him.

The man who overcame loneliness to walk his own path, the man who respected my father with all of his heart.

My father’s last partner, my first partner—Kotaro Amon.