The Bible

Any guy who has a hamburger steak in front of him and doesn’t feel hungry probably has something wrong with his sense of taste.

Big Girl, the American restaurant chain. It’s a famous steak place, but my favorite is, without a doubt, the deluxe hamburger steak. It’s a proud testament to that land where the quantity of food exceeds dietary requirements. And it’s definitely not bland either.

The burger sizzled on the hot iron plate, and the scent of its seasoning hit me right in the gut. When I cut into the burger, so much juice came gushing out. And when those juices heated up on the iron plate, they sent a rich aroma straight to my nose.

But the amazing hamburger steaks weren’t Big Girl’s only selling point. All around me I could see the waitresses taking customers’ orders with a smile, bustling around, carrying food.

Looks must’ve been part of the recruitment criteria. There were so many cute girls working there it was fascinating. And the tight-fitting uniforms made it all the more apparent. Hygienic, yet hot.

“… Oh.”

I leaned forward in my seat to get a better look at the back of the waitress who kept passing my table. The short skirt of her uniform fluttered, and I got a good view of her nice, thick thighs. The way her black over-the-knee socks cut into her thighs was irresistible. What a delicious sight.

That’s the kind of girlfriend I want, I thought, resting my chin in one hand and stuffing my mouth full of hamburger with the other. With each bite, the flavor took my thoughts that much farther away from the girl I watched in a daze. Yum. Without thinking I let out a sigh of admiration.

Could this restaurant be our promised land, our … our … what do you call it?

“Aaaaah, I can’t remember!”

My train of thought came to a stop, and I pressed my hands to my head unconsciously and leaned back. My sudden eccentricity caught the attention of the diners around me, as well as the waitress I had just been eyeing. But that was out of the question for me now. Whenever I’d come here I’d heard that name, and I liked the sound of it. Why couldn’t I remember it now?

“A-are you all right, Hide?” the young man sitting across from him called out, sounding worried. And with that, Hideyoshi Nagachika, a.k.a. Hide, returned to Earth from the personal planet he’d been on.

“Kaneki, whaddya call it? That thing?!” Hide said, his index finger flailing violently. His friend, Ken Kaneki, set his chopsticks down. A look of embarrassment and confusion spread over his face.

“Man, it’s that thing you’re always talking about. This restaurant is our promised land, our Kofi Annan, or Cunaan or something. A Sham Gorilla, where the flowers are always in full bloom.”

Kaneki, looking astonished, folded his arms exaggeratedly just like a stage actor and shot Hide a scowl.

“The Promised Land,” he said, “is Canaan, and the flowers are always in full bloom in Shangri-La.”

“That’s it!” Hide said, sticking his index finger right in front of Kaneki’s eyes. Reflexively, Kaneki pulled away and unfolded his arms. He kept his look of astonishment as he started in on Hide.

“Like I keep telling you, you should crack open a book sometimes. All right, Hide? Canaan is the land God promised to Abraham and his descendants with his blessing. And Shangri-La is the paradise where immortal hermits live. To mix that up with Kofi Annan or a ‘sham gorilla’ is just …”

“Enough, enough. You’re putting me to sleep over here. I’ve got it now—‘Canaan’ and ‘Shangri-La.’ I promise, I’m gonna remember this time.”

Looking at Hide as he repeated those words, Kaneki grumbled, “But you’ll forget again anyway,” and picked his chopsticks back up.

This man, sitting with him at the front of the restaurant, had been a friend of Kaneki’s since elementary school. And although they had different majors, they both now went to the same college, Kamii University.

Kaneki was ordinary-looking, of medium height and build. Reading was his hobby, and he was the type of guy who never had friends in his classes. He was the complete opposite of lively, sociable Hide.

“Well, does it really matter that much?”

This consideration was outside his area of expertise. Hide was busy sending looks of love at the waitress with the short hair who had just walked past.

“If I ever get a girlfriend, man, I’m bringing her to this Big Girl.”

“Wouldn’t it be weird to bring a girl here?” Kaneki said, gulping down some rice as Hide’s eyes were drawn to the waitress, deepening his delusions. The customers here were mostly male. One could say Kaneki’s remarks were reasonable.

“Like hell would I ever want to go to one of those grown-up restaurants or trendy cafes you can’t go to without a girl! Taking a girl to a place that I feel a connection to and grabbing a bite to eat would be the chillest thing I could think of.”

“You’ve got a point.” On this, Kaneki was in agreement. And then, as if he had realized something, he grabbed the menu from where it stood on the table, opened it, and showed me a page.

“What about pasta, Hide?”

“Huh?”

“She could get one of these pastas or something. Like with a salad on the side.”

You could say that our inclinations were different. Kaneki’s powers of delusion, forged through his reading, were strong. Often he was a far bigger dreamer than me.

“I like it! She’d be eating spaghetti with meat sauce and I could be like, ‘Give me some!’ And she’d get all mad but she’d be like, ‘Well, what else can I do?’ and she’d let me split it,” Hide said, tapping his finger against the picture of spaghetti on the menu. Kaneki had imagined it even more vividly than he had. “Not bad,” Hide murmured a beat later.

“Totally!”

Hide leaned forward and hit Kaneki on the shoulder. Kaneki said, “Ow, man,” with a pained smile, then put the menu back where it was before, his eyes creasing with the pleasure of continuing his delusion. I was also still imagining what this girlfriend I hadn’t seen before would look like, wondering what kind of cute girl I’d have by my side.

“Looks like Ghouls are attacking again.”

“Don’t the cops do anything these days?”

These unsettling words suddenly invaded the dreamland we were in. We turned our gazes toward the people who were speaking. They were boys not too far from our age, digging into hamburger steaks while talking about Ghouls.

“Ghouls, man …” Kaneki muttered, looking absentminded.

Hide poked at his hamburger steak, gone slightly cold on its plate.

“If I met a cute girl who was a Ghoul, I’d still go out with her,” he said with a straight face. Kaneki burst out laughing.

“Hide, how desperate are you? Don’t give up yet.”

“No, man, it’s just like … how long is it gonna be like this? I need a girlfriend!”

With that their flights of fancy began again. As they ate, they talked about their ideal girlfriend.

Ghoul.

Hide had heard of them, but never seen them in reality—creatures that eat people.

The idea of Ghouls was enough to give anyone a vague sense of unease, but with their random attacks, people felt a sense of distance from them, like they were unpredictable accidents, as though the danger did not actually reach them.

“But isn’t spaghetti with meat sauce kind of messy to eat?”

“I think it’s all right. Just the once, anyway.”

And Rize and I can recommend books to each other!

Kaneki still remembered everything that had happened on that disastrous day very well.

He’d had his head in the clouds, telling Hide all about it. That he’d asked this girl he liked, Rize Kamishiro, to go on a date to a bookstore.

They had met at a café called Anteiku. Kaneki had dragged Hide there before to check her out.

She had glossy black hair that spilled over her shoulders, with glasses that made her look like an intellectual. And yet she had these full lips that gave her a very feminine charm. She was not the kind of girl you’d think was plain but could be pretty if she got dolled up. She was a beauty.

Hide took one look at her and told Kaneki to give up. And Kaneki also seemed to see that she was way above his level. But then he wound up getting a date with her.

Hide told him to have a good time and sent him on his way. That was the dividing line.

Instead of the breakdown about the date he was supposed to get, Hide got the news that Kaneki had been in an accident involving some falling steel beams at a construction site and had suffered life-threatening injuries.

With severe damage to his internal organs, Kaneki had needed a transplant—from Rize, who had apparently died instantly.

Miraculously, Kaneki survived. But since that day he’d changed in a few ways.

And this was one of them.

Hide had brought Kaneki to Big Girl to celebrate his recovery when he was finally released from the hospital.

Now, when faced with a hamburger steak, a thing he’d always loved, Kaneki spat it out as if it were foreign substance.

II

When you turned on the TV, the news about Ghouls was incessant.

And people, panicked by this threat they could not see, kept repeating the word “Ghoul,” too.

And they were right to panic. In the 20th Ward, where Hide and Kaneki lived, they’d killed two investigators from the Commission of Counter Ghoul.

The CCG was a special government agency created to maintain security and exterminate Ghouls.

One of those killed had been a veteran Ghoul investigator sent from CCG’s head office.

The culprit hadn’t been found yet, and the brunt of the anger had been turned on CCG for not producing results.

That said, the streets were still full of people. Objectively speaking, daily life went on. However bad an incident is, people always believe, in some part of their hearts, that tragedy will never visit them.

“Sorry, excuse me. Thank you, sorry.” And Hide, cutting through a crowd of that sort of person, was also just pushing through his daily life.

“Man, that smells good.” He had arrived at a café with ivy clinging to the façade. Next to the sign on the front, which said “Anteiku,” there was a menu.

“Let’s do this,” he said to himself.

Hide grabbed the doorknob and pushed it open. The scent of coffee, much stronger now, tickled his nose.

The interior, full of green plants, had the calm atmosphere of a place of relaxation.

“Hide!” Kaneki said, his eyes drawn to the door by the sound of the bell when Hide entered. Hide sat down at the counter in front of Kaneki.

“Hard at work, I see,” said Hide, raising a hand in greeting.

“What are you doing here? I wasn’t expecting …”

“I came for a coffee, man. Hey, by the way, where’s Touka?”

“Hard to tell which one is the real reason you’re here,” Kaneki laughed, as he started making coffee for a customer.

Ever since his organ transplant, Kaneki hasn’t looked well, and even now he seems like he might collapse at any moment, but working part time at the café seems to have brought some order to his life.

And similarly, a little while ago, I was in a car with Kaneki and Nishio Nishiki, an upperclassman, when we were hit by a drowsy driver. We were saved by the people at Anteiku. I don’t remember much about the accident, but I feel a debt of gratitude toward them for helping me.

He had been especially grateful to Touka, who had apparently nursed him back to health herself. Plus, she was cute.

“Hide, you’ve got to stop coming here all the time,” Kaneki muttered quickly to his friend, who was looking around the café incessantly, searching for Touka.

“Hey, what do you mean by that?”

“Look, it’s just, the coffee is a lot more expensive here than whatever you get out of a vending machine, and I’m worried about your wallet.”

“That’s true, obviously, but you shouldn’t even be pretending to drive away a customer! Anyway, one cappuccino!” Hide banged on the counter impatiently. Kaneki sighed as if to show how annoyed he was, and got out a coffee cup.

“That reminds me—I think my British History professor has been getting hair implants.”

“Stop, man, you’re making me twitch.”

Hide’s ramblings made Kaneki burst out laughing. With his head resting in his hands, starting to feel relaxed, Hide was just about to launch into a long story when Touka came out from the back of the café.

“Touka!”

Hide’s excessive surprise startled Touka, and her smile slipped.

“Why didn’t you tell me? If I’d known she was here I would have asked Touka to make my coffee instead.”

“Hide, I just finished making this cappuccino. Don’t knock it.”

Something happened a few days later.

Because Kaneki and Hide’s classes didn’t line up that day and they couldn’t hang out, Hide thought he’d go to Anteiku. Just to see him if nothing else, he thought.

As soon as Kaneki, who was taking coffee to a customer, noticed Hide was there, his expression darkened. I wonder what happened.

“Hey,” Hide said brightly as he approached the counter, pretending for the moment not to notice his friend’s mood. Kaneki came over to him, looking around as he did.

“Hide, maybe you should hold off on coming here for a little while.”

“ ‘Hold off’?”

“The manager told us that there’ve been suspicious characters hanging around here lately,” explained Kaneki, looking solemn.

“Did something happen?”

“Not necessarily …”

“Then that’s all right,” Hide laughed. But Kaneki’s face did not change.

He ordered a coffee. As he sat drinking it, Hide’s thoughts began to wander. What is it he can’t tell me?

A couple days later, while sitting in class, Hide remembered what Kaneki had told him. They had been friends for a long time. He knew that what Kaneki had said was for Hide’s own benefit. But what did he mean by “suspicious characters”?

“Mr. Nagachika.”

“Wha—?”

He suddenly became aware of someone speaking down at him. The professor saw I was zoning out and came to give me a warning, he thought, but when he looked up he saw a lanky boy in glasses and a girl with the vibe of a strangely cheerful superhero.

“Oh, where’s the professor?” said Hide, blinking uncomprehendingly.

“Class is over,” the boy said.

Don’t be stupid, Hide thought, but when he looked around the lecture hall few students were left. It was empty.

“Whoa, no way, can I copy your notes?!” Hide grabbed the boy’s arm and pleaded. “Please, bro?”

“Sorry, but I’m not in this class,” the boy said, tilting his head to the side. Hide asked the girl, too, and received the same response.

“No way … If I can’t get the notes from anybody then … Wait, who are you guys?”

“Finally, you got to the right question!” The boy raised his glasses with a practiced gesture and seemed to puff his chest out as he spoke.

“We’re members of the Occult Research Club!”

“Occult Research Club?” It was not a name Hide had heard before.

“ORC, for short. We’re an active club, seeking to uncover secrets in this world that cannot be verified using scientific methods. I’m Kiyama, the president. And this is one of our new members, Sankou.”

Sankou bowed her head quickly before taking a notebook out of her tote bag. She flipped through the pages, then asked Hide, “Would you, um, not say that your friend Mr. Kaneki is Ghoul-like?”

Hide jolted with surprise.

“Huh?”

“I told you so!”

Next, Kiyama spoke as if taking over the conversation.

“We suspect that Mr. Kaneki may be a Ghoul.”

They relocated from the lecture hall to the on-campus outdoor café, where Hide sat facing the other two.

“The majority of ORC is online; we work through social media. Basically, we announce a theme, compile the research topics we get from that in a report, and then present it at a real-life meet-up. So the theme this time was obviously Ghouls.”

“So what the hell makes you think Kaneki’s a Ghoul? I’ve been friends with him since grade school, man!”

Without regard for Hide’s fed-up expression, Sankou opened her notebook and turned it toward him. It was jam-packed with a list of names, written in small script.

“What is this?”

“It’s a list of people under suspicion of being Ghouls.”

Hide leaned forward, staring at the notebook. With such a quantity, it was difficult to find Kaneki’s name on the list.

“Perhaps you already know this, Mr. Nagachika, but it’s said that Ghouls cannot eat human food.”

“Mmm, right, Ogura mentioned that in How to Spot a Ghoul, didn’t he?” Hide said.

Hisashi Ogura was a well-known authority on Ghoul research. If anything to do with Ghouls happened it was as good as certain that he’d be on television talking about it.

“Oh, you’re interested in Ghouls, too! That’ll make this conversation quicker. Have you seen Mr. Kaneki have a meal lately?”

“A meal?”

“Yeah. This month, we’ve been investigating whether there is a possibility that some people who have never been seen eating on campus are Ghouls.”

“What?! Just because of that?!”

Even recklessness had to have its limits. There must be tons of people who didn’t eat on campus.

“We’re going person by person collecting evidence at the moment. So, Mr. Nagachika. Have you seen Mr. Kaneki have a meal in the past month?”

“We’ve had a coffee together.”

He couldn’t understand what was going on, but Hide answered honestly.

“Can’t really say he’s in the clear, then.”

“Wait, hang on now! I mean, we’ve gotten food together hundreds of times before, just not in the past month!”

“Our investigation is focused solely on the past month. So in that case, we’ve got others to check out now. See you around.”

They did not listen to a word Hide had to say. Now that their task was done, they turned to leave. Their suspicions about Kaneki had not been lifted.

“Wait, wait, wait! Hey, I know!”

Hide slammed his hands against his knees and stood up.

“Let me help your investigation!”

Kiyama and Sankou turned to look at Hide, his fists raised in the air.

III

The members of the ORC were indeed active.

In the same manner as they’d approached Hide, they were conducting a survey of people around campus to confirm whether or not someone was eating.

Their activities were not limited to that. They also checked the patrol routes of the CCG’s 20th Ward branch’s investigators.

“Because an investigator was killed recently in the 20th Ward, they’ve stepped up patrols,” Kiyama explained as they crept along behind two solemnly patrolling investigators.

“I always thought people who were into the occult just sat in their rooms reading books,” Hide said earnestly, trailing behind Kiyama and Sankou.

“We do that kind of research too, of course. But there are some things like this that you’ve just got to see for yourself.”

Sankou, who did not speak much, nodded in agreement. Hide took a glimpse at her notebook. Nearly half the names crammed onto the page had been crossed out. If someone had witnessed the person eating, they were determined not to be a Ghoul and removed from the list.

“Hey, Sankou, come on, take Kaneki off too.”

“If Mr. Kaneki is seen eating I’ll remove him, but I’d like to maintain the status quo as there’s an ORC reporting meeting soon. If we have too few research subjects it’s no good.”

It doesn’t seem like these guys really think the kids on their list are all Ghouls. It sounds bad, but they’re concocting these “Ghouls” in order to write a report to submit at the meeting. Too bad for those who get caught up in it, Hide thought.

“Will you be coming to the meeting, Mr. Nagachika?”

“Would that be all right?” Hide asked, tilting his head.

“Everyone’s welcome! Come see the culmination of our Ghoul research!” Kiyama enthused.

“Okay, I’ll come see it with my own eyes!” Hide said, returning the excitement. But as soon as the other two turned their backs, he sighed.

Sankou’s notebook came into Hide’s line of sight again. In the end, he couldn’t get Kaneki’s name removed from the list until the day of the meeting.

Friday, 6:00 p.m. The ORC meet-up and reporting session was being held at a bar and restaurant downtown.

“It’s not just students, huh …”

The room they had reserved was crowded with men and women of all ages. But although there were many people there, only five groups had managed to put together a presentation on their investigations. And Kiyama’s group was the last of the five to present. When their turn came, they distributed handouts to the attendees and began to present the results of their investigation.

Although Kiyama’s group’s presentation did not get at the heart of what a Ghoul was, they reported that there was an unexpected number of people who did not eat in front of other people, meaning that Ghouls could easily mix with humans without being noticed. This, they concluded, raised the question of how one could uncover the evil lurking within everyday life, putting one’s real value as a person into question. Judging by applause, their report was well-received.

After the presentations, the meeting turned into a social event. Suddenly drinks began to flow. If anything, this revelry may have been the main point of the meeting.

“That’s it for now!”

The next research theme had been announced, and with that the talk of Ghouls was over. With that load off his shoulders, Hide felt relieved and reached for some bar snacks. His mind turned to more common lines of inquiry, like whether Kiyama and Sankou were dating.

“Hey, guys—thanks. Your research was pretty interesting.”

A man in his early twenties, with a beer in his hand, appeared and sat down beside them.

“Hm?”

“Call me Cain. It’s what I go by online,” the man said in reply to Hide’s nonverbal question mark.

“Oh, you’re that Cain!” Kiyama stood in surprise.

“What? Is he famous?”

“This man is a rising star among occult researchers! There was that investigation of the mysterious crying sounds coming from the bomb shelter used during the war, and the on-the-ground report from Aokigahara … When it comes to Ghouls, he’ll go to the big hospitals and visit the victims’ rooms. Any haunted spot, any ruin with a story behind it, he’ll go in without any fear to verify the rumors. He’s amazing!” Kiyama said passionately. Sankou, sitting next to him, nodded vigorously.

“But let’s not talk about me, when you guys are the stars of the evening. Your presentation was very interesting.”

Cain turned the group’s handout toward himself with a smile.

“I was particularly intrigued by the young man who has eaten with friends before but hasn’t been seen eating at all in the past month.”

“Eh?”

Hide’s eyes widened. The case Cain had taken note of was Kaneki.

“No, no, that guy’s totally normal,” Hide laughed, waving his hands to dispel the idea.

“How can you say so?” Cain replied.

“Well, man, he’s my friend. We’ve been hanging out since elementary school.”

“Oh, so this friend cited as a witness must be you, then. What’s your friend called?”

“Ken Kaneki …”

“Hmm. Pretty normal-sounding name,” Cain said. “But, you know …” He paused. “It really hasn’t crossed your mind? That he could actually be an acquired-type Ghoul?”

The phrase made Hide’s heart pound.

“Acquired-type Ghoul? That’s a new one on me!” Kiyama said gleefully, jumping into the conversation.

“No, never,” said Hide, still pulling himself together. At this, Cain sighed wistfully.

“You’ve got no sense of romance. Building on the powers of the imagination to make all kinds of hypotheses is one of the best parts of the occult. I mean, I understand—I wouldn’t be very happy if a friend of mine were suspected of being a Ghoul. But then wouldn’t you do a thorough investigation in order to dispel the suspicion that your friend’s a Ghoul? If you were part of the ORC?” Cain’s defiant stare was fixed on Hide.

“A thorough investigation?”

“Yes. With everyone thoroughly observing him.”

The conversation had turned in an unexpected direction. But perhaps because Kiyama and the others were so thrilled to be working with Cain, Hide unthinkingly said, “Of course!”

What good is it to be a bystander at times like this?

“All right, then! Let’s shed some light on those suspicions about Kaneki being a Ghoul!”

The next morning at seven, Hide, Kiyama, Sankou, and Cain met up near Kaneki’s house.

“Cain, I’m really sleepy, man …”

It was Saturday, what should have been a day off, but they’d all had to get up early anyway. Hide yawned as he grumbled.

“If you don’t investigate seriously, you miss out on things. You’re doing this for your friend. You’ve got to push yourself,” Cain said.

“Why are you so passionate about this?”

Hearing Hide’s question, Cain folded his arms.

“That’s a fair question. Partly because it’s interesting, but also, I just love the feeling of getting a few results through trying to solve a mystery. It’s not just about the occult, either. I love the sense of achievement I get when I complete a jigsaw puzzle too,” he said.

“How interesting!”

Kiyama said he was the same and launched happily into a conversation about the occult with Cain. Perhaps it was lucky to have found an interest they could fall in love with.

“Oh … Just a second,” Cain said, his voice hushed. Hide wondered what was the matter, and then it became clear that Kaneki had left his house. Sankou quickly opened her notebook.

“I suspect he is heading for his part-time job at Anteiku,” said Sankou.

“Wow, Sankou, you’ve even got details on where he works?!”

“Obviously.”

“Mr. Nagachika, do not insult our abilities!” Kiyama said proudly, lifting his glasses.

In that case I wonder if the suspicious characters that have been appearing around Anteiku are actually these guys? It’s possible, Hide thought.

“Okay, guys, let’s follow him to this café. There’s something kind of suspicious about him …”

Paying no attention to the conversation, Cain began walking in the lead.

Following Kaneki like this sure feels weird.

If Kaneki spotted Hide he would know immediately that he was being followed, so Hide trailed behind Cain and the others like a shadow, desperately scratching his head.

After that, Cain began his thorough investigation of Kaneki. He worked weekends, of course, and snuck into classes during the week. It made Hide’s face twitch to see Cain, seemingly innocent, sitting in the same classes as Kaneki. Kiyama and Sankou, on the other hand, seemed impressed by his passion.

“He really does show no sign of eating. What if we’ve hit a home run?” Cain reported proudly. He was sitting at the outdoor café on campus, showing no hint that he was actually an outsider.

It would be a huge coup for the ORC if they uncovered a Ghoul. And what’s more, plenty of reward money would follow, too.

“No way, man.”

Hide was the only one with objections.

“Because you’ve known him since you were in elementary school? And because you guys have always gone to Big Girl for hamburger steaks since you started college?

“But not remarkably recently, right?”

Cain’s face looked composed.

“He was in the hospital not too long ago, and Kaneki still isn’t back to his old self,” Hide pleaded strongly.

“Okay, okay, calm down, now. I can’t be on the lookout twenty-four hours a day either, so there may be something I’ve overlooked. The late shift of this investigation is especially lacking, and that’s when Ghouls are said to be most active.”

Just as Cain had said, the majority of Ghoul incidents happened at night.

“Apparently Mr. Kaneki is going to be working late tomorrow, so I think I’ll lie in wait for him. Perhaps I’ll be able to observe something decisive.”

At this, Sankou, who was usually silent, tentatively raised her hand. “I’d like to join you,” she said.

“Me too! Of course!” And naturally, Kiyama followed.

“But guys, this could be dangerous. Maybe we should just give it a rest,” Cain said, lowering his eyebrows as if he were worried about the two of them.

“We’ll be fine,” they said, nodding resolutely.

“And what about you, Mr. Nagachika?” Cain asked, sounding troubled, as if he did not want to force him. Hide clinched his
fists.

“I’ll come along. Because there’s no way Kaneki’s a Ghoul. Nothing dangerous about it at all,” he said.

Hide’s words had hit Cain somewhere, because he nodded and said, “Yeah.”

“Well, in that case, shall we all meet tomorrow around eight in front of Anteiku?”

Oh no.

Hide’s insides felt all torn up.

As the saying goes, he had a bad feeling about it.

And Hide had enough confidence in this intuition to feel sad.

IV

It was the next day, the day they planned to tail Kaneki at night. After his classes were finished, Hide went home for a bit. He kept lying down to rest and then getting right back up again. The chaos in his mind got louder as the time to meet the others approached, and being alone was getting painful.

“Gotta get out of here,” he said to himself.

He left the house a little early. The cold wind, somehow smelling of night, slipped next to his skin before rushing back toward the sky.

Looking blankly at the sky, which still showed traces of burnt red toward the west, Hide thought about the old days.

He thought about the school play that had been a success in its own way, that summer night when they’d set off bottle rockets and that old lady from the neighborhood had yelled at them to keep it down, and about the Big Girl hamburger steaks they’d stuffed themselves with to their hearts’ content to celebrate getting into college.

Kaneki was part of all of those memories. And it would be the same vice versa.

The wind began to blow again. With his arms wrapped around his trembling body, Hide spotted a vending machine.

He stood in front of the machine, staring at the selection of hot drinks. The machine had the type of canned coffee Kaneki preferred. Black, no sugar. Hide knew it was far too bitter for his taste.

He bought it anyway. He clutched it in his hands to warm his cold skin before stuffing it in his coat pocket.

“Huh?”

He’d decided to head where there were lots of people and had just happened to pass by the station. All of a sudden, the sound of someone singing happily stopped Hide in his tracks.

He looked around and saw a street musician singing in the plaza. The song was good but nobody was listening.

Hide checked his watch. Still two hours until they were supposed to meet. He sat down directly in front of the busker. He’s not much older than me, he thought. The guy noticed him and, giving Hide a carefree smile, he started to sing louder.

“God is there, yeah, don’t lose sight …” he sang, during the most exciting part of the hook.

“God?” Hide muttered to himself.

“Is something troubling you?”

“What?”

Lost in his own world, Hide was surprised to hear a voice suddenly directed toward him. The musician had stopped playing. How did he hear me talking to myself? Hide raised his head in reaction to the musician’s question.

“Oh, sorry, man. No … I was just thinking what a great song that was.”

Hide applauded hurriedly, but he knew that it was pointless to try to keep up appearances with someone who could tell something was going on from one casual remark. All at once, the worries that he’d been keeping locked up inside began to spill out.

“It’s just … my friend’s in trouble and I want to help him but I can’t in any big way. Like, it’s not going well at all. If there is a God, I need their help.”

What’s the point in even trying, he thought. This whole thing with the ORC has become so drawn out because I couldn’t stand up to them properly.

“I see,” said the musician, nodding. He was silent for a moment before he spoke again. “But you know, it’s okay, isn’t it? You don’t have to do anything big to help.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean that your friendship isn’t based on helping each other, but on being together. To put it simply, you’re friends because you enjoy being together.”

The musician had a slight accent when he spoke. Hide wondered where he’d moved to Tokyo from.

“Sometimes it helps just to be someone’s friend. I think there’s nothing better than that,” he said.

He hadn’t expected to get encouragement from a total stranger. But his words had, oddly, filtered into Hide’s mind. Hide nodded as if to say, “You’re right.”

“Looks like you’re feeling a little better already! Or maybe I’ve gotten a little naive!” the musician said.

Hide got to his feet.

“Oh, I should give you something to say thank you,” he said, getting out his wallet.

“Keep your money,” the musician said. But Hide still felt he had to give him something. He was panicking, wondering what he could give the guy, when he remembered the canned coffee in his coat pocket.

“Sorry, man, this is all I’ve got,” he said.

The can was pretty lukewarm. But the musician’s eyes lit up.

“Wow, no way! I know I said keep your money, but I haven’t eaten too well these past few days. This helps a lot!” Taking the can, he smiled and said, “God’s work.”

“Like I said, man, it’s all I had,” Hide said, smiling back. He bowed his head deeply in thanks before rushing off.

“Uh, where can I get them …”

After he left the musician, Hide went into a discount store. In his mind were the memories of setting off fireworks with Kaneki. Hide bought some rockets and a lighter, then headed for a convenience store.

“Hey, Nagachika!”

By some chance, Kiyama was there by the periodicals rack, flipping through a magazine.

“Oh, hey. Killing time?”

“You know me, always gotta be doing something! You?”

“Well, you know.”

Hide went on by. First he grabbed a rice ball, then headed to another section.

“Huh? What are you getting that for?” Kiyama asked, his head tilted to one side. Seeing Hide at the register, Kiyama had stopped reading and come over. Hide took the product in his hand as if he were going to crush it.

“Because I wanted it,” he said.

By the time they got to the meeting point in front of Anteiku, Cain and Sankou were already there. Cain saw them coming and gave them a small wave, then squinted to try and see inside the café.

“Kaneki’s not done working yet. Let’s have a look around this area for the time being. We might lose sight of him if we’re not familiar with the lay of the land,” he said.

Most of the streets around Anteiku were deserted. Once night fell they would be all the more eerie, like a haunted house.

Everyone followed behind Cain as he started down the darkening streets.

“Cain? I keep feeling like something’s gonna jump out.”

Kiyama kept looking around; he was all keyed up and unable to calm himself. Sankou’s gaze, too, was restless.

“I know what you mean. I can walk around abandoned buildings or whatever with no problem, but something’s got me nervous today,” Cain said. Maybe we shouldn’t go too far.

As Cain spoke, there was a rustling. And the sound was getting louder.

“W-what is it?!”

Trembling with fear, Kiyama turned around—to see Hide taking the crinkly wrapping off his rice ball.

“Oh, sorry. Got hungry.”

“Not a care in the world, eh, Nagachika?”

Hide chomped into the rice ball.

“You’ve got nerves of steel!” Cain laughed.

“You know what they say: you can’t go into battle on an empty stomach. But maybe we shouldn’t wander too far. A real-life Ghoul might come out at us …”

“Hide, are you freaking out too?”

“Yes, I am! Even people who live in this area get lost around here.”

“Oh, right. Well, then, maybe we should head back.”

Having only just gotten there, Cain started back toward the café. Kiyama and Sankou’s relieved faces seemed to say, Finally.

But the group had gone down a rather deep alley. And sure enough, they had gotten lost.

“Another dead end, Cain.”

Stuck in a narrow blind alley, everyone stopped and looked up at the sky.

“Oh no, lost again … Sorry, everyone, just a second while I figure out where we need to go,” Cain said, tapping at his smartphone.

It was dark there, far from the streetlamps. There were no lights on any of the buildings surrounding them, nor were there signs of other people nearby.

Kiyama pushed his glasses up, mumbling to himself, “Really does feel like a Ghoul might jump out.”

Perhaps his words triggered what happened next.

Suddenly the hairs on Hide’s arms were standing on end; he had an oppressive feeling, like he was being suffocated. What’s happening? But before he’d even had that thought, events were already in motion.

“You’re right, this is a great hunting ground!”

The voice echoed in the tiny dead end. Hide looked around to find Kiyama no longer beside him.

He screamed.

Kiyama had not disappeared. He had been thrown back against the wall behind them, slammed against it by the momentum. When Hide looked back, Kiyama had fallen onto the concrete, as if he’d slid down.

“Kiyama!”

Sankou ran up to Kiyama’s body and started shaking him. From the corner of his eye, Hide saw it.

The blood-red eyes.

They weren’t dealing with a human being anymore.

“Had to get all the puzzle pieces in place first, but now … my dinner is ready!” And there, with a smile of ecstasy on his face and something taillike waving around him, was Cain.

“Hide, I’m one too, I always have been. I’m a Ghoul too! Look, see, it’s burned into my eyes! The world you will see at the end!”

With a sound like the wind whipping past, Cain’s tail, which had been quivering behind him, grew swiftly. It lightly caressed Hide’s cheek before slamming itself into the wall. The wall could not withstand the force: shards flew and dust rained from the hole left behind.

“Pretty scary stuff, huh?! Shake, cry, cower all you want, but look! Look at this!”

His tail, swaying just like a T. rex’s, hit the concrete. The sound of the impact went straight through Hide. At the sight, Sankou fell on top of Kiyama as if to protect him.

“Don’t worry, I’m not going to kill you yet. I want to enjoy the moment before I take the puzzle apart. What a waste it’d be if I didn’t take my time and savor you …”

The end of Cain’s tail rose up, aiming toward Hide.

“Hey, isn’t it funny, Hide?”

Hide turned on his heel and began to run at high speed, leaving Kiyama and Sankou behind.

“I don’t think so, Hide. You don’t seem like the type to run off and leave your friends!” Cain said, raising his voice as if Hide had disappointed him. He began to head toward Hide.

Hide looked back just for a second. He saw Cain and those gleaming red eyes steadily approaching.

“Dammit, dammit, dammit!”

After turning again to face forward, Hide took full advantage of his knowledge of the area and dashed off, frantically turning left, then right.

“Think you can run from me, Nagachika?”

But Hide’s opponent was a Ghoul. Cain stomped the ground and bounded off it, closing the distance between them in one leap. And then one of Cain’s tails—his bikaku kagune, a special Ghoul power—struck Hide.

He let out a wordless scream.

The impact was like he’d been beaten with a blunt object. Hide was slammed to the ground. He screamed in pain.

By the time Hide fought through the pain and opened his eyes, Cain was standing over him.

Before his expression had been playful, but now that was gone. His kagune swished through the air as he asked:

“How long did it take you to … realize I’m a Ghoul?”

“I didn’t, until just now,” Hide stammered immediately.

“I know that’s not true. Most humans freak out and nearly faint as soon as they see a Ghoul. Some start running, but I’ve never seen a college student like you run straight off. You must have been expecting this,” Cain said.

Well, there had been a few things.

For one, when Sankou had noted Kaneki’s job at Anteiku, how had Cain known it was a café?

Why had this man, who could handle going into abandoned buildings and places with strange psychic energy, performed absolutely no nighttime observations when that was the most active time for Ghouls?

Once Hide had started thinking about it, there was no end to the clues. And that small sense of unease had built up inside him. But Hide didn’t say any of this. Because at this stage in the game, the best-case scenario was that this was a nightmare.

“You’re giving me too much credit,” Hide said. “All I did was freak out and start running. Just believe me!”

“I’m running late now because of you. All I wanted was to play a little and then kill and eat you, but I’m not from the 20th Ward. If I’m seen invading a local Ghoul’s territory it’d be a bad scene,” Cain said. He clicked his tongue.

“If I took you back … No, you’re getting eaten here. It’s dinnertime!”

Hide turned his face away from Cain. He hesitated before speaking.

“Please be gentle with me.”

What an idiotic thing to say. I bet he never thought he’d hear someone beg like that, Hide thought. Cain snorted in laughter, and then licked his lips.

“What the hell, man. You were funny, you know that? Been nice knowing you,” he said, opening his mouth wider as he slowly approached Hide. Hide stuffed his hands into his coat pockets.

Soon I’ll be consumed and then it’s all over. Lots of people get eaten like this by Ghouls, I guess.

Cain’s breath hung in the air over Hide’s face. Then it happened.

Hide pulled his hand out of his jacket pocket and crammed what he’d been secretly gripping into Cain’s mouth.

“Wh—?”

As Cain started backing away from this sudden counterattack, he became aware of a foreign substance in his mouth and started vomiting.

“Blech! What have you—!”

Cain was tearing at his mouth with his fingers to remove the substance—the rice ball Hide had bought at the convenience store.

“Ghouls can’t eat human food … seems like that’s all I’ve heard lately!”

Hide rolled away, putting about five feet between them, before pulling the lighter and bottle rockets out of his bag.

“And look what’s next!”

Suddenly he lit one of the rockets.

“Dammit!”

The bottle rockets Hide aimed straight at Cain made a tremendous sound as they flew and exploded around him. Distracted by the bursts all around him, Cain froze for a moment.

Hide seized the opportunity and ran toward him.

He pulled his other hand out of his jacket pocket, and with it, the other item he’d bought at the convenience store. Hide broke the seal on it.

He pushed it into Cain’s mouth, squeezing the tube quickly to get all the contents out.

“Hits the spot, doesn’t it?”

Hide held one hand over Cain’s mouth, and with the other he pushed his chin back. Cain’s throat was heaving up and down.

He swallowed.

And then he began to retch. “What the hell is—! It’s glued to my throat … Can’t get it out … Can’t throw it up!”

Hide showed the empty packaging to Cain, who was thrashing around.

“Meat sauce! Minced meat, tomato, it’s all mixed together, like a paste …”

Unlike the rice ball, which was solid, Cain couldn’t easily spit out the sauce.

Cain screamed and grasped at his throat. His kagune, which had swollen to show off his power, had disappeared, and only his red eyes remained visible.

“I’ll kill you, you asshole … I’m gonna kill youuuuu!”

Overcome with anger, Cain glared at Hide, his hands balled up into fists.

But before he could attack Hide, he heard the voice of someone coming down the alley.

“Just what’s all this about!”

At the other end of the narrow alley were two men coming their way. Cain’s face lost its color at the sight. Each of the men carried an attaché case.

“Looks like this alley’s on the investigators’ patrol route,” said Hide.

Hide, along with Kiyama and Sankou, had followed the 20th Ward’s Ghoul investigators. Perhaps it had looked to Cain like they had been running around thoughtlessly, but actually they had been following the patrol route. And in order to draw attention to what was happening, Hide had set off the bottle rockets. It had been a high-stakes bet, but it had paid off.

As soon as the men saw Cain, their faces hardened and they began to shout.

“Red eyes … He’s got kakugan!”

“Confirmed Ghoul, exterminate!”

Cain began to quake with fear, unlike when he’d been facing off with Hide.

“No, please, don’t, don’t!”

As he pleaded, something shot through Cain’s body, fired from the attaché cases.

“Aaaahhhh!”

A disappointingly quick finale.

Cain’s screams in his death throes echoed, but he soon ceased to move.

The Ghoul investigators regarded Cain carefully as they considered when to approach him.

“He’s dead.”

“Pretty weak for a Ghoul, but who would’ve thought when we were temporarily dispatched to this area that we’d see a Ghoul right off the bat? Hey, Tojo, give the CCG branch office a call. Oh, right, the kid who got attacked. You okay there, kid?”

The investigators looked around.

But there was nobody else there.

“Spaghetti with meat sauce …”

As soon as the investigators had rushed to the scene, Hide had slipped away.

All he could think about was Kaneki.

When he’d taken Kaneki to Big Girl to celebrate his discharge from the hospital, he’d thrown up when he tried to eat hamburger steak, which had always been his favorite. Just like Cain had thrown up a little while ago.

But as if to disrupt his thoughts, he sensed a shadow falling in the darkness. Hide stopped and looked up at the sky.

He let out a wordless sound of surprise.

Fluttering down toward him was a human form.

He had no time to see what the shape was. Shock ran through his mind.

“Thanks.”

Hide faintly heard this voice full of gratitude. And that’s where his memory cut off.

“Nagachika? Nagachika?”

His consciousness was wrested from the darkness. Someone was speaking, trying to wake him. He tried to open his eyes, but his temples ached piercingly.

“Are you okay, Nagachika?”

He heard the voice again. Somehow he opened his eyes to see who was speaking.

“Oh, good! Do you remember me? I’m Kiyama!”

“Ki … yama?”

Still in a hazy state, Hide raised up and shook his head. He tried again to focus on who was talking to him. Behind Kiyama stood Sankou.

“Hey, wait … What happened?” Hide asked, not grasping the situation.

“We don’t exactly know either.”

“Huh?”

“The next thing we knew, we were here.”

Not knowing where “here” was, Hide let his eyes wander. He saw that he was sitting on a grassy lawn, not far from a building he recognized.

“We’re at the college?”

“Yeah. When we came to we were on campus.”

Hide pressed on his forehead, trying to bring back any memories. But he just couldn’t.

“And where is Cain? I just don’t understand.”

Hide jumped involuntarily at hearing that name. Kiyama didn’t seem to grasp that something had happened.

Hide glanced at Sankou, but she kept her head down, saying nothing. Was it possible that she didn’t want to tell Kiyama that Cain, who he’d admired so much, was actually a Ghoul? Or perhaps she’d lost her memory due to shock?

“I’m not too sure either, man …”

Hide rubbed his nose with the back of his hand. He caught a whiff of meat sauce. He sat like that for a little while before eventually returning his hand to the grass and saying:

“Isn’t this occult as hell?!”

V

A few days after their mysterious return to campus, the trio compared notes.

Hide said that in his honest opinion it was probably all just a dream, like a crappy movie ending, but Kiyama kept going on about how it was a paranormal phenomenon.

“I guess anything’s possible if you live long enough …” Hide said, sounding serious. He and Kaneki were talking after the Asian History class they sat together in.

“What’s up with you all of a sudden?” Kaneki said, tilting his head.

“Never mind, man,” Hide said, then put his hand to his stomach. Almost lunchtime. He was hungry.

He still didn’t know what had happened, although he’d managed to convince himself it was a dream or something else. Hide was glad he was the kind of person who could do that. Maybe I should go to Big Girl for lunch. That place is totally the …

“Uh, the promised land …”

Definitely starts with a C.

Hide kept repeating, “Ca … Ca …” to himself in hopes of remembering the word. Kaneki just watched, with an expression that all but said, “Forgot it again, huh?”

“Ca … Ca … Ca …”

But the only word that came to mind had nothing to do with Big Girl.

“Cain …”

What he’d tried so hard to explain away as a dream was, after all, all too real. He’d seen a Ghoul—something that had felt so disconnected from his life—up close and personal.

But he was with Kaneki, who would probably just tell him off for being wrong again. And then he’d eagerly start explaining about “the promised land,” like always.

“What?”

But Kaneki just sat there next to him, speechless.

“Kaneki? You okay?”

“Hide, have you ever read the Bible?”

“What? Why?”

“Canaan is the Promised Land, and Cain is Abel’s brother. They’re both in the Bible.”

Now it was Hide’s turn to be slack-jawed. Kaneki sighed.

“Wait, are you saying Cain’s a character in the Bible?”

“It’s not a manga, Hide, he’s not a character. Cain is Adam and Eve’s son. He gets jealous of his brother, Abel, because everybody loves him, so Cain murders Abel. Then he winds up banished to the east of Eden,” Kaneki said, then fell silent.

“Hey, Kaneki?”

“Cain used to be seen as evil, you know. Well, I mean, he can be understood as being ‘evil’ now, too. But if you just think about Cain, you can kind of see that he had to do what he did to be able to carry on, I think. It would’ve been unbearable for him, you know?”

Kaneki seemed to be telling this story to himself more than anyone.

“But that logic has no meaning before the laws made by God.”

The Cain that Hide had known, who was steeped in the occult, must’ve known that story. And perhaps that’s why he’d chosen that name.

But Hide stopped this train of thought before he started brooding. No matter how much he thought about it, he’d still get no answers.

“What the hell, man, quit getting all dark. Here, have some of this!” Hide tried to change the mood, pulling a big bag of snacks out of his backpack.

“Oh, no, I’m good!”

“Dude, just say the word. Look, I’ll put them in your bag. So dig in whenever you want,” Hide said, not taking in what Kaneki said. He stuffed the food into Kaneki’s backpack.

“But it’s too full already!”

“Quit worrying, it’s fine. Forget about that—you told me about that British History prof before, but man! That baldhead is sprouting new hairs like crazy. You gotta see it! He should be in the library this time of day. It’s totally amazing, it’s like five poodles’ worth of hair at least.” Hide stood and started pulling Kaneki up.

“C’mon, give the poor guy a break. Professors are people too, you know.” As Kaneki stood there, bewildered, Hide pushed Kaneki’s backpack into his arms and ran off behind him.

“Hide, wait!” Kaneki shouted, turning to look, but Hide didn’t listen. Kaneki was already out of the classroom when he finally took his hands off his bag.

“Man, you—whoa!”

The backpack hadn’t been closed completely, and papers, pens, books, Kaneki’s favorite novel, and the food Hide had stuffed in there all spilled out for everyone to see.

“Sorry, my bad!” Hide picked up the backpack, apologizing to Kaneki.

“What’d you do that for?” Kaneki said, putting everything in his bag and making sure to zip it up properly himself this time.

“No, it’s just, those guys always go past here at this time of day.”

“Huh?”

“Talking to myself. Right, time to go take a look!”

“No, but I said—I don’t really care that much!”

After the two of them ran off, two others remained standing in the hallway.

“Guess it turns out Kaneki does eat after all,” murmured Kiyama, who’d seen the snacks fall out of Kaneki’s bag. Sankou, standing beside him, nodded.

And perhaps that was enough evidence to say that he eats normally.

“Well, I always thought Kaneki wasn’t a Ghoul, you know! I mean, how could such a scary creature blend in so well at our college?” Kiyama said, lifting his glasses as he spoke. Again, Sankou nodded.

Then she took out her notebook and crossed off the last name on the list—Kaneki’s.