The Bookmark

How can I reach out to the world I’m aiming for?

“Who were those ‘suspicious characters’ after all?” Kaneki said to Touka, who was cleaning up in the café as Kaneki dried the freshly washed coffee cups.

She picked up another piece of trash. “Probably investigators,” she said blankly.

It was a few weeks after Yoshimoto had told them to be careful because suspicious characters had been spotted in the area.

Kaneki had told his friend Hide not to come around the café, and the staff themselves had felt on edge and tense on a daily basis since then, but that day their manager had reported to them that nobody had been spotted for a while.

As Touka said, it hadn’t been that long since a Ghoul was killed by investigators close to the café. He wasn’t a Ghoul from the 20th Ward, but he had come in for a coffee once.

On one hand, he’d also heard about a Ghoul named Ikuma who had moved to Tokyo from the countryside and had passed by the café a few times. Ikuma apparently wanted nothing to do with other Ghouls, and he acted in secret, so it wasn’t impossible that Yoshimura had picked up on him and decided he was suspicious.

And it wasn’t just that. He’d also heard rumors about a gawky college-age boy with glasses hanging around the area. Kaneki didn’t know which was the true story.

What was for certain, though, was that there definitely had been suspicious people around, that something had happened, and that Yoshimura had made a judgment call.

“Maybe things will be a little quieter now …”

“There’s no such thing as quiet in the Ghoul world.”

He’d mainly been talking to himself, but Touka shot him down anyway. She’s probably right. There’s no rest for Ghouls.

“But always being on alert wears you out.”

Being able to breathe was important for more than just staying alive. But Touka just dismissed him as a “wuss.” She wasn’t going to throw him a life preserver.

But he was kind of used to her now. She treated everyone else who worked at Anteiku the same way, as well as some of the regulars. And Kaneki thought that he’d grown a lot since the days when he rejected everything about being a Ghoul.

Despite all that, there was someone who weighed heavily on Kaneki’s mind lately. He was worried about Hinami Fueguchi, the girl who had lost both of her parents and was currently living with Touka. She was sometimes shy, but she was a kind, sweet girl. He worried that she was sad.

She was living with Touka, but Touka had to go to school, and she often got home late after her shifts at Anteiku. Sometimes Hinami came to the café, and Kaneki talked to her or taught her kanji, but it wasn’t enough.

Hinami spent the majority of her time alone in Touka’s house. Kaneki wondered if she spent her time alone dwelling on things: her beloved parents, the terrifying investigators, all the conflicts in her own life as a Ghoul.

Especially seeing her mother killed in front of her own eyes. She had always been there for Hinami, protecting her. It was like she was missing an important part of herself. There was no way she could not be in some kind of pain. When Kaneki thought about it, it made his own chest ache.

“Hey, Touka. How’s Hinami doing these days?”

“Oh, fine as usual.”

But his only source of information only gave him a halfhearted answer. He wanted to hear more about her, but Touka just stared at him and said, “Give me a hand so we can get this over with.” The conversation seemed like it was over; she was in an even worse mood now. He could see an aura of anger over her. She’ll kill me if I say one more word. He started putting the clean dishes away as a way to avoid her. She was still glaring at him.

The author Saneatsu Mushanokouji put it like this in On Life: “To feel the fear of death, one must still have work to do while they are alive.”

I want to be a bridge, telling Ghouls how people feel and letting people know what Ghouls think and feel. Because there’s nothing but hatred between the two groups now, but if each had an understanding of the other, I think that could change. Even if my presence is unwanted, I still want to be involved with both humans and Ghouls.

And he felt the same about Hinami. While Touka’s attitude seemed to say, “Don’t get involved,” Kaneki himself had the right to worry about her, and if he had his way he’d like to help her move forward in a better direction.

“Hm, what should I do?”

Sitting in the auditorium at the end of a class at his college, Kaneki wondered to himself what he could do to make Hinami happier.

“She needs a hobby …”

Maybe he was being too simplistic, but he got the feeling that she wouldn’t be so sad about being alone all the time if she had something she could devote herself to. But Kaneki himself had a very small repertoire of things he did at home alone, and the only thing that came to mind was reading.

He headed off to Anteiku for his shift, backpack on his shoulders, with his arms folded.

“But she does like books by Takatsugi, so maybe reading’s not such a bad idea.”

Hinami loved to read books by Sen Takatsugi, who was also Kaneki’s favorite author. Books were, on one level, a means of absorbing knowledge, so why wouldn’t it be good for Hinami to read other books, not just ones by Takatsugi?

He was thinking about buying kids’ books for her from used bookstores or the Internet when he suddenly thought about what it must be like to have Touka as a landlord.

“Books take up a lot of space. Touka would hate that …”

The thing about books was, the more you read and liked them, the more you wanted to have on hand to read. Before you knew it you needed more bookshelves, and then all of a sudden they filled your house.

But Touka’s house was a reflection of her own personality: simple, with not much in it. If books started taking up too much room, she might get angry. And not just at Hinami, but at Kaneki too.

So he went back to square one. Kaneki looked around him, hoping he’d hit on a good idea.

“Aha!”

He had it. And the timing couldn’t have been better.

Right in front of him Kaneki saw the library.

“Hey, Touka, the next time you’ve got a minute, why not take Hinami to the library?”

As soon as he got to Anteiku he ran up to Touka and made his suggestion, but she gave him a confused and doubtful look. Not about to let her negative reaction get him down, Kaneki continued.

“I know Hinami spends nearly all her time in the house. She must get bored when she’s alone. So she could check out books she likes from the library …”

“The investigators know about her. And they got a guy not long ago near the café. So, no,” Touka said.

There was no way she could go outside without taking extreme precautions. Touka’s opinion was also out of concern for Hinami.

“If you just pay close attention, then … Look, if she’s in the house all the time it’s not good for more than just her mental health.”

“Anyone can pay close attention. Like, you could,” she said.

“I, uh …”

“But if something happened, it’d be your responsibility. The suspicious characters hanging around the café might be gone, but this area’s still full of danger, you know.”

He had thought it might go like this, but Touka made her disapproval very apparent. He could see that what she said was right in parts, but he couldn’t come up with a rebuttal.

“But she must have all kinds of things running through her mind, sitting at home alone.”

So Kaneki tried a purely emotional argument.

“Thoughts about her mother, or about her father … Even if she wants to move on, it must be hard when she remembers what happened, and she must be sad. Those kind of feelings can eat away at you.”

Even Touka had nothing to say to that.

“But she’s trying hard not to show it to us. I think she’s just keeping it all to herself so she doesn’t make anybody worried,” Kaneki said, adding that it was because she was a sweet kid.

“Fiction books give the reader a chance to step away from their own reality and into the shoes of the characters, and they show you a world that isn’t the one you already know. And sometimes the story’s not so different from your own, and it lets you get closer to your own feelings,” he said.

Sometimes you’re confronted with the ugly parts of yourself that you don’t want to see, but books can also tell you a lot about the things you don’t notice when you’re just trying to get through somehow.

“So when you close a book you’ve just finished reading and return to reality, all the pain and sadness you couldn’t put into words before are still there on those pages. And that can be comforting. So I think reading could do a lot to help Hinami.”

I’ve said all I wanted to say. All I can do now is wait for Touka’s answer.

“What are you saying, you weirdo?”

“What?”

Touka was slightly weirded out. It seemed like Kaneki’s argument did not resonate with her at all.

“But, but—seriously! Hinami loves to read, so I think it would be a nice change of pace for her.”

Kaneki was getting discouraged. Touka folded her arms and sighed in resignation.

“Sunday, 2:00 p.m. In front of the library.”

“What?”

Kaneki had heard her but didn’t understand. Touka put her hands on her hips.

“What you were just talking about! The library!” she yelled. “Anyway, I don’t know anything about books,” she grumbled and turned away. I guess she agrees.

“Thanks,” he stuttered.

“This is all about Hinami. No need to thank me.”

“But …”

“Shut up!”

II

On Sunday, Kaneki got there five minutes before they were supposed to meet. He was standing in front of the library reading a paperback while he waited for Touka, who he thought would probably be late, when she appeared.

“Wait, why are you here so early?” he asked, putting his book back in his bag.

“Hinami,” she said, turning around.

“Thank you, Mr. Kaneki!”

Although her face was hidden underneath a hat that was pulled down, Hinami’s smile reached her entire face.

“She’s been worried since yesterday, because she thought if we were late she might not be allowed to get books,” Touka said, giving Kaneki a mean look.

Kaneki laughed drily. “Well, shall we?” he said to Hinami, before darting into the library like he was running away from something.

“Wow …”

She was amazed by the rows and rows of bookshelves holding countless books. With her hat off because it actually made her stand out more inside the library, Hinami’s eyes danced with excitement at the crowded shelves of books.

“Mr. Kaneki, can I look at everything?”

“Of course you can. As long as you’ve got a library card, you can check out whatever you like. Pick a book,” he told her. She timidly reached out to the shelves. She took one book out and flipped through the pages before taking out the one next to it and checking it, too.

“Wow, they’ve all got so many words,” she said.

It took very little to impress her. Seeing her that happy was enough to prove it was worth taking her. But there were far too many books and she didn’t seem to know how to choose one.

“They have some books by Takatsugi, but how about a children’s book instead?”

Kaneki picked out a few books that he had read as a child and gave them to Hinami.

“Mr. Kaneki, is it okay if I read for a little while?”

“How about it, Touka?”

She hesitated. “Just for a minute or two.”

Hinami sat down in one of the chairs in the reading room and started reading one of the books Kaneki had picked for her. He and Touka sat down beside her.

“Look, Mr. Kaneki. This book tells you how to say the words.”

Unlike the books by Sen Takatsugi she was always reading, the children’s books gave pronunciations for kanji. The content must have been much clearer and easier for her to read too. Since all of Hinami’s learning came from books, this was perhaps a better way to build basic academic skills.

And of course, if her reading comprehension improved, she’d enjoy Sen Takatsugi’s books even more.

But since Takatsugi’s novels were Hinami’s standard for books, her vocabulary was a little warped.

“This word isn’t used like this in the books I always read,” she said.

“Oh, that’s because Takatsugi uses words in unique ways. In general it’s used like this,” he told her.

“Do words mean the same thing when they’re written in hiragana as they mean in kanji?”

“It just makes it easier to read if a word is written in hiragana, that’s all. The meaning is the same.”

“Wait, is this Tsukumogami’s island?” she asked.

“Oh. That says Kuju-ku islands. It’s written with the same characters as Tsukumogami, the old lady with the white hair that shows up sometimes in Takatsugi’s books.”

Hinami was struggling more than he’d expected. Kaneki dealt with each of her questions patiently and thoroughly.

“Okey-dokey.”

Just then, an eight- or nine-year-old boy with a book under his arm came and sat down near Hinami.

He started reading the book he’d brought with him, but something drew his attention to Hinami, who was asking about the most minute details about words. He glanced over at the book she was reading, then tilted his head.

“What’s wrong with you, can’t you read?” he asked.

He was confused at the sight of a girl older than himself who couldn’t even read a kids’ book.

Hinami looked at him in surprise. The color drained from Kaneki’s and Touka’s faces. They hadn’t imagined that someone she’d never seen or met before would say that kind of thing to her.

The boy seemed to realize that he’d said something he shouldn’t have and clapped his hand over his mouth.

“You little bastard,” Touka muttered.

“Touka!”

Filled with anger, Touka stood up and started to make a move toward the boy.

“I, I’m sorry, kid, but get out of here, right now!” Kaneki yelled, pushing Touka away from him. She still looked ready to hit the boy. He was so scared by Touka’s hostility that he couldn’t speak, and he ran away with his book.

“Yeah, you better run!”

“Calm down, Touka.”

She thinks if someone attacks you, you’ve gotta hit back. Touka watched the boy run off.

“Is it really that weird that I can’t read?” Hinami had been frozen since the boy had talked to her.

“Hinami, it’s …”

It wasn’t that uncommon for Ghouls not to be able to read or write. But it was a different story for humans. A human child Hinami’s age should have been able to read a book at that level easily.

Ghoul or human? Kaneki didn’t know which side of the divide he should stand on in order to comfort her.

“Not at all, so don’t worry too much about what kids like that say to you,” Touka said, jumping in. Kaneki nodded in agreement with everything she said.

But Hinami closed the book she had been reading, and her shoulders slumped.

In the end, with Hinami feeling so down, Kaneki chose a few books for her before they left.

“This is all your fault.”

Touka kicked Kaneki’s foot out of frustration as they walked. Since the idea of going to the library in the first place had been his, Kaneki could not argue with her.

“I’m sorry, Hinami,” he said. She shook her head. This also hit Kaneki hard.

She probably won’t get to go to the library anymore.

But things went the opposite direction.

“Really? She wants to go back?”

When Touka told him that Hinami wanted to go to the library, it was not long before the due date for the books she’d checked out.

“She says if I’m out of the house, the time goes by just like that when she reads the books she got from the library,” Touka said, drumming her fingers in frustration on the counter at Anteiku. “Even though the more she’s around humans the more chance she has of something bad happening again. You know what, Kaneki? You really are a pro at making trouble.”

If it had been up to Touka, going to the library would have been a one-time-only thing, regardless of how Hinami felt.

But I think she feels that she owes it to Hinami. Even Touka can see the contradiction of her heading off to school while Hinami sits at home, hungry for knowledge.

“So what are we gonna do?”

“She wants to go back no matter what, so I guess we’re going to take her.”

Touka’s entire body exuded disgust, but the plan was made: the three of them would go back to the library.

“Hurry up and choose so we can get back home, Hinami,” Touka said as soon as they’d arrived at the library, to hurry her along.

This time they went on a Saturday instead, in hopes of avoiding contact with humans as much as possible.

Hinami nodded obediently and ran off. Evidently she was looking for the sequel to a book she had borrowed the other day.

But despite the nasty memory of the last visit, as long as she had a stack of books in front of her she was a bubbling fountain of curiosity.

“Mr. Kaneki, what kind of book is this one?”

“Oh, this is a British fantasy novel. It’s so popular they made it into a movie.”

“And this one? Is it funny?”

“Hmm, just a second, let me have a look inside.”

As this trivial back-and-forth repeated itself over and over again, the time passed.

“Hey, Hinami, have you decided yet?”

“Yeah.”

By the time she finally decided which books she wanted to check out, it had been over an hour. Kaneki could feel Touka’s irritation as they headed to the counter.

“Hey, you!”

Just then they heard someone call out from the other side of the bookshelves. Kaneki, Touka, and Hinami all turned to look.

“Oh, it’s you.”

Standing there was the boy who had said those heartless words to Hinami when they first came to the library.

Hinami’s body stiffened immediately.

“Kid, you’ve got a lot of nerve …”

The boy was frightened of Touka for a second, but then he turned to Hinami and said, “I’m sorry about before.” He bowed his head. “I didn’t mean to bully you, I just asked because I didn’t understand. I told my dad later and he told me off. He told me that some kids can’t go to school because they’re sick … So I’m sorry. Please accept my apology.”

The boy ran over to Hinami and held something out to her. “Here,” he said.

Kaneki looked over from where he stood to see what was in the boy’s hand. “A bookmark?”

The bookmark was silver and shaped like a spatula, with a four-leaf clover engraved at the end.

The boy looked puzzled by Hinami, who stood there stiffly not taking his gift, but she eventually stuck it in one of the books she was carrying.

“Okay, bye,” the boy said, running off. All Hinami could do was watch him walk away in a daze.

As they walked home Hinami took the lead. “This is really bad,” Touka said, quietly enough that Hinami couldn’t hear.

The boy remembered her. This was a real problem for them, because a child that age would talk about anything that happened to him without a care. And apparently he’d talked to his parents about Hinami. So now there was a possibility of the story getting around where it shouldn’t.

Kaneki also had complicated feelings about it. As much as he wished for Ghouls and humans to get along, there was—practically speaking—a big, steep wall standing between them.

“Mr. Kaneki! Hey, Mr. Kaneki, look how pretty it is …” Hinami said, holding the bookmark up in the light.

“You’re right,” Kaneki said. A complicated expression crossed Touka’s face.

After that, Hinami seemed to treat the bookmark the boy had given her with the utmost care.

When the due date for her books got close she would start begging to go back to the library, and they frequently ran into the boy who had given it to her. He seemed to come to the library a lot, perhaps because he loved books.

He was younger than Hinami, but he treated her like a big brother would and sometimes taught her words instead of Kaneki.

It made for a delightful scene, but Touka’s expression was cloudy, and Kaneki looked on in confusion too. What is the correct thing to do here?

The boy sat down beside Hinami, and they began to read a book together. Relieved from his post, Kaneki sat a short distance away and watched the two of them.

He decided to look at a newspaper to pass the time. Page after page was devoted to extensive coverage of another incident involving a Ghoul.

“ … was a female nurse working at the university hospital in the 20th Ward, who was apparently just married …”

She had gone missing just before her honeymoon, but when they found her they made a horrible discovery.

“I wonder what they mean—‘suffered extensive damage to the skin.’ Was her skin torn off, or … ?”

“Strange way of eating. I don’t care what they say, it’s gotta be that guy again,” Touka said. She was sitting next to Kaneki, looking at Hinami with obvious boredom.

“Someone you know?”

“I don’t know.”

It certainly seemed like she did know, but he didn’t feel like responding to her. Kaneki folded the paper up and returned it to where it had been.

“Hold up.”

Just then, Touka grabbed his arm to stop him.

“What is it?”

“Just shut up.”

Touka half rose to her feet. She was staring as if she were looking for something. Could we really be in imminent danger? Kaneki gulped hard and looked in the direction she was looking.

When he did, he saw a woman approaching them. She looked like she was probably a college student too. She had long, black hair, and when she reached point-blank range, she said to Touka, “Oh, you come to the library too, huh.”

At first glance she looked like an average woman, but Kaneki knew from Touka’s defensive demeanor that she must be a Ghoul, too.

“She’s the girlfriend of the guy who got killed near Anteiku the other day.”

“What?!” Touka’s explanation provoked an outburst from Kaneki without thinking.

“I wasn’t,” she said, rejecting it, but her expression never changed. “He just told everyone I was. He knew where I go to college, and he tried to blackmail me into giving him ‘food’ by threatening to expose me there. I’m glad he’s dead.”

She sat down next to Touka, who also quit being on guard and sat back down.

“Kizayaro is so violent, though.”

Is that the name of the guy who did the crime we were reading about in the paper? Kizayaro?

“Yeah, sounds like it. We were in the same class in middle and high school but we don’t really hang out now so I don’t really know him. Anyway, forget about that—this is Kaneki, right? The kid I’ve heard so much about. This is the first time we’ve spoken, isn’t it?”

“Nice to meet you …”

After the battle with the Ghoul investigators, there had been widespread rumors that Kaneki had defeated a dove. It seemed like she’d heard them too.

But when Kaneki bowed his head to her, she remained expressionless.

“Nagachika’s a smart kid, isn’t he,” she said.

How does she know Hide’s name?

It was Kaneki’s turn to be tense.

“We were active together a while back,” she said.

“‘Active?’ What do you mean by that?”

“It’s better not to get into it. Anyway, it wasn’t a big deal. And it’s got nothing to do with what I want to do to you now,” she said without any inflection as she ran her fingers through her long black hair. Her eyes turned to Hinami.

“I thought you didn’t seem like the type to go to the library, Touka, but I see you came for the girl’s sake. You shouldn’t have.”

“Why not?”

Touka knit her eyebrows at the girl’s frank way of speaking.

The girl stood up. “Clever people shouldn’t get too near Ghouls. And Ghouls who can’t lie shouldn’t get too near humans,” she said, looking down at Kaneki and Touka. “Otherwise all you’re doing is spreading misery.”

What does that mean? Kaneki wondered. He looked to Touka, who was grimacing as if she’d just realized something.

“And you too, Kaneki.”

“Me?”

She turned her attack on Kaneki. But I’m definitely no good at lying either.

However, she had more on her mind than just Ghouls who can’t lie.

“I don’t have a lot of friends, so maybe I’m not a good point of comparison, but … you should take a more objective look at Nagachika’s abilities. His sensitivity winds up giving him insights into things you couldn’t see to begin with.”

What she said was similar to what Nishiki Nishio had said, before he’d caused harm to Kaneki and Hide.

Hide’s words and actions were idiotic, but he could see the world around him clearly. Keeping close to a human with that kind of ability was dangerous for a Ghoul like Kaneki, she said.

“Sankou, what the hell’s gotten into you? Why would you say that?” Touka cut in. Sankou tilted her head to one side.

“Just out of the goodness of my heart. I mean, it’s thanks to Kaneki here that things have gone back to normal. It’s been fun talking like a friend to people who might be mistaken for being my own age,” she said, then quietly added, “I’m very grateful to Nagachika too.”

Then, saying, “Well, I’ve done all I could,” she left Kaneki and Touka, who were still confused.

“W-what was she talking about?”

Kaneki couldn’t make heads or tails of it. He looked at Touka.

“I dunno. Sankou isn’t the fighting kind, and I think she’s fine as long as she’s left alone. She might look tough, but she rarely talks in front of humans and goes to great lengths not to be seen, and she’s the kind who hides her bad side too.”

But Touka stood up and walked toward Hinami anyway, as if something in the girl’s words was pulling her there.

“‘Spreading misery?’”

Left on his own, Kaneki turned the phrase over in his head.

III

“Okay, today we’re going home right away!”

It was the millionth time the three of them had gone to the library together. Touka said her catchphrase, and Hinami ran off into the shelves. The boy didn’t seem to be there that day. Touka was relieved at that.

And Kaneki, for his part, stood next to Touka, watching Hinami picking out books. Every time he watched her happily selecting a book, he was glad they’d brought her, but he still had Sankou’s words in his mind.

Some lies had to be told in order for a Ghoul to blend in with the human world.

First, that you were not a Ghoul. And to tell that lie, the biggest one, there were hundreds of little lies that had to be told.

Hinami was innocent, obedient, and a good kid. She was not used to the game of telling lies, pretending she was something else, and taking people for a ride. To her, such an act was bad in and of itself.

The boy had not tried to find out why Hinami couldn’t read very well, but the day would eventually come when Hinami had to lie. Thinking about it gave Kaneki some very complicated feelings.

Lost in his thoughts, Kaneki suddenly heard a hysterical voice behind him.

“Wait, what—what are you …”

Touka, who was standing next to him, started to shake in response.

“Yoriko?!” she stuttered.

Kaneki turned around to see Touka’s friend Yoriko.

She was panicking like she’d seen something she wasn’t supposed to see.

“I-I’m sorry, Touka, I didn’t mean to butt in! I was just surprised …” Yoriko started defending herself in a fluster.

“No, no!” Touka looked drawn.

“It’s okay, see you at school!”

“Yoriko, wait! Yoriko!”

Yoriko rushed off, and Touka chased after her.

“You idiot! This is all your fault! And it’s your problem to solve!” Touka yelled at Kaneki, who was standing there, flabbergasted. Without any idea what was going on, he followed the two of them.

“Hello? Touka? Mr. Kaneki?”

Hinami came back, her arms full of books, to find the two of them gone. She looked around but they were nowhere to be seen.

“Where’d you go?”

She put her books down on a chair and ran off looking for them.

Five minutes later, Kaneki and Touka came back, done with playing the chasing game with Yoriko.

“She was too quick. And all that running around …”

“I don’t think the problem got solved, either.”

They had caught up with Yoriko, but whatever Touka tried to say, Yoriko just kept repeating, “It’s fine, I didn’t see anything.” It looked like there was no way to solve the “misunderstanding” after all. Touka frowned.

“Oh, looks like she’s found some books.”

Kaneki gestured to the stack of children’s books near where he was sitting. Touka picked the books up and looked toward the bookshelves.

“I guess she’s still looking …”

They sat there next to each other, waiting unquestioningly for Hinami.

“Touka? Mr. Kaneki?”

Unaware that the two of them had gone back to where they were before, Hinami left the library and wandered the streets in search of them.

“Where are they?”

Tears of fear welled up in her eyes, and she wiped them away. This was the kind of worry she had always caused her mom and dad. She knew she had to be strong on her own.

“Hey!” someone yelled at Hinami, who had stopped in the middle of the road trying to stop crying. She took her hands away from her eyes and looked up to see some rough-looking high school kids standing there.

“Get your head outta the clouds, brat!” they shouted at her. Hinami was frozen with fear.

“S-sorry,” she stuttered.

They laughed and jeered at her.

“Think you got it bad now? You should come with us …”

The teens surrounded Hinami, staring at her as if they were sizing her up. Overcome by fear, she tried to run away, but they grabbed her arm.

“Oh, where do you think you’re going?”

“S-stop … please,” she said.

“She sounds cute too,” one said, cackling.

“No way, man, she’s just a kid. You a pedophile or something?”

“Look, my big brother and sister are …”

“Hey, what’d you call me? Shut up, man. You’re coming with us.”

They didn’t listen to a word Hinami said. Instead, they started dragging her off somewhere.

What do I do? What do I do?

Hinami was panicking but people kept walking past her quickly.

“Wait …”

Among all those people, only one stopped. It was the boy who had given Hinami the bookmark. He had seen Hinami surrounded by the group of teens. And he could see that they were trying to take Hinami somewhere she didn’t want to go.

“Where’s your big brother and sister?!” he said, looking around, but there was no sign of the two people he’d always seen with her.

“P-please help, I think they’re bullying that girl!” He started begging nearby adults for help. But they were all in a hurry and wouldn’t pay any attention.

“What do I do?”

They were trying to drag Hinami across the street by the arm. The boy took a step toward them.

But there were five of the boys, and they were much bigger and taller than him.

He took a step back. Then he turned around and started running.

“I’m sorry!” the boy yelled, running away from the scene.

“She’s taking a while, don’t you think?”

Around that time, Touka had started getting suspicious that Hinami was taking so long. She stood up and started looking for her. Kaneki checked in Hinami’s favorite corner, but she was nowhere to be seen.

“Find her?”

“No, she’s not there.”

Touka’s face darkened before Kaneki’s eyes. Hinami had been at risk due to her own carelessness before, and she was upset that the same thing might have happened again.

“Let’s have another look,” Kaneki said, masking his worry. “I’m sure she’ll turn up.” Touka nodded and went off to search the library again.

“Sir, Miss!”

Just then, they heard a cry too loud for the quiet library. Everyone turned to look out of curiosity, as did Kaneki and Touka. There they saw the boy. He ran up to them, tears streaming down his cheeks and panting. His obvious distress told them it was an emergency.

“What’s wrong? What happened?”

“She’s—she’s on the other street, and some scary people have got her …”

The words “scary people” suggested to them either Ghoul investigators or Ghouls.

“Hinami!” Touka started running immediately.

“I’ll take you!”

She grabbed the boy’s hand as she passed him. Kaneki also started running at full speed. There were lots of people on the street so Touka couldn’t make use of her full capabilities. But the fact that there were lots of people around also meant something else.

If the investigators have got her, they’ll evacuate the area before they attack … But everything seems normal. So maybe it’s not the investigators.

But Touka had the boy with her. Kaneki couldn’t use the word “investigators” so carelessly around him.

“Hey, Touka, I don’t think it’s those guys, you know!” he shouted.

But Touka shouted back, “What guys?” She was completely lacking in calm.

When they got to the road, the boy pointed a little farther down.

“There she is—there!”

“Hinami!”

As they ran down the road they saw Hinami ahead of them, surrounded by a group of boys from a nearby school. Not investigators, not Ghouls, just a group of humans. Nonetheless, Touka’s anger bubbled up at the sight of Hinami sobbing in fear.

Her eyes turned bright red.

She’s gonna kill them.

The moment he realized that, he yelled, “All we need to do is save her! That’s enough!”

We’re not here to kill anyone, we’re here to rescue her.

“What’re you doing?”

The teens turned around. Touka’s red eyes went away just in the nick of time. She dropped the boy’s hand and stormed over.

“Wha—”

Touka pushed her way into the group like a galloping beast. The boys’ eyes grew wide with surprise as she grabbed Hinami and got back out before they could even reach for her.

“H-hey! What’re you doing?!” the boys finally yelled, dumbfounded, as they started to move in on them. Kaneki put himself between the teens and Touka.

“Touka, take Hinami and the boy and get away from here.”

“I’m gonna kill them.”

“Touka, no!”

She let Hinami down from her arms and started going for the group of boys, but Kaneki’s voice stopped her. He spoke to her harshly.

“For Hinami’s sake, get her and the boy out of here.”

If her true form was revealed, she would kill people to keep her secret. If she killed the teens then and there, that might include the boy. And who knew what that would do to Hinami.

“I’m begging you,” he said, pleading with her. Finally regaining her composure, Touka clicked her tongue, grabbed Hinami and the boy by the hand, and ran off.

“Hey, wait!”

“Just stop!”

Kaneki spread his arms out to stop the boys, who were trying to run after them.

“Who the hell are you, man?”

“I’m a friend of theirs. There’s no need to be violent, so stop. Let’s talk it over.”

The boys turned and looked at each other.

“You making fun of us?!” they yelled as they started to hit him. Kaneki took their punches. He rolled to the ground from the momentum and wound up flat on his stomach. His teeth bit into his cheeks hard, where the boys couldn’t see. His teeth cut into his flesh and pain ran through the cuts, but he bore it. Then, keeping his mouth shut, he stood up.

“Hey, give it up!”

Another boy punched Kaneki in the stomach.

Perfect.

Kaneki grabbed his stomach and bent over as he opened his mouth. When he did, all the spit and blood he’d been holding in his mouth came out at once. It looked like a cheap horror movie effect, but the blood made the teens recoil.

“H-hey …”

Kaneki coughed exaggeratedly, spitting out blood, as he fell to the ground.

“Whoaaaaa!”

The boys started yelling in panic. One of them, seeing Kaneki thrashing on the ground, said, “Guys, this is bad.” As if that was their signal, they started yelling, “Never seen him before!” “Leave me alone!” Then they ran away.

“Well, that went better than I thought.”

Kaneki stood up, swallowing the blood he hadn’t already spit out. All the blood looked impressive, but thanks to the training he’d received from Touka and Yomo, he wasn’t in too much pain.

“So doing it your way worked out …”

When things had calmed down, Touka came back, amazed.

“Mr. Kaneki, I’m sorry …” Hinami’s eyes were full of tears, however.

“I’m fine,” Kaneki said, smiling.

“The kid told us what happened,” Touka said, looking at the boy. He was trembling unnaturally. “We wouldn’t have found her if it wasn’t for you.”

“But I didn’t do anything!” the boy said, hesitating. “I … I …”

Kaneki tilted his head. Hinami looked at the boy, tears still in her eyes. He looked back at them, before yelling, as if he’d made up his mind, “My dad told me to stand up to bad people, and I wanted to help, but I was so scared I couldn’t do anything! I … I … just ran away!”

“No, you didn’t,” Kaneki interrupted. “You helped Hinami in the best way possible. Didn’t he?” he said, turning to look at Touka. Her face said Don’t bring me into this, but then she smiled.

“We found her thanks to you,” she said. Kaneki smiled.

“So, thank you.”

Kaneki’s words cut through the boy’s worries, and tears started to overflow from his eyes. He tried to hold the tears back, perhaps out of embarrassment over crying, but he couldn’t stop them. Kaneki smiled again at the sight of him trying not to sob.

Hinami started to cry again, brought on by the boy’s tears.

All’s well that ends well, Kaneki thought to himself, glad from the bottom of his heart.

Just then, Hinami clutched her hands to her stomach and fell to the ground.

“Hinami?”

Touka looked at her hurriedly, but Hinami looked like she had no idea what was happening to her.

“Are you okay?” the boy asked gently, looking down at her and wiping his tears away with his sleeve. Hinami got up, still clutching her stomach. She shook her head slightly and ran away.

“Hinami!”

“Hinami, wait!”

What just happened? Touka chased after her immediately. Kaneki was left speechless for a moment before saying thank you to the boy and running after the two of them.

Hinami ran for a while before stopping suddenly. Both her hands still clutched her stomach.

“Hinami?”

For some reason Touka stopped Kaneki when he tried to call out to the girl out of concern. Then, she stood next to her and called her Hina, her nickname. Hinami did not turn around.

“My stomach … started,” she said, her voice trembling.

They went cold at once, as if someone had poured a bucket of ice water over them. Basically, what had happened was, to put it simply … what?

“I don’t know why, but my stomach is … why? Why am I … ?”

Hinami was in a state of confusion, not understanding what was happening in her own body.

“It’s okay, Hinami. It’s okay now,” Touka said, gathering the girl in her arms. Hinami said nothing else. Neither did the two of them.

There was a large borderline between humans and Ghouls. And the more one knew the starker it stood between them and humans, like a complete mockery.

After that, Hinami didn’t want to go to the library anymore. She hid away the bookmark the boy had given her.

This world is wrong.

That’s what the young Ghoul investigator Kankei had faced off against had said.

Kaneki thought about those words. Does he envision a world that has nothing wrong with it?

But I still …

I can’t imagine that kind of world.

IV

Kaneki was lost in thought, Touka was worried about Hinami, and Hinami was downbeat. They could all see right through each other.

“It’s just like they say, when you’re exhausted little problems add up,” Yoshimura said with a sigh. He had just gotten word from Yomo.

They never would have left Hinami alone back when he’d warned them about suspicious people hanging around the area. The suspicious characters hadn’t been spotted for a while, so they’d let their guard down.

But strange people in the neighborhood or not, this was unacceptable. If they got complacent and let their attention drift even once, it would all have been for nothing.

The suspicious characters Yoshimura had warned them of had never existed. They had appeared when Yoshimura wanted them to, and Yomo had fleshed them out a little—these shadows, so to speak, that walked on their own.

It was because he worried about them that these shadows appeared, sometimes to protect them and sometimes to hold them back.

“Is it kind, or is it cruel? Sometimes I don’t know anymore,” Yomo whispered. “Just talking to myself,” he added.

Yoshimura gave a graceful smile and said, “If everything was easily understood, this wouldn’t really be living.” Then, like Yomo, he added, “Just talking to myself.”

“There’s still things I want to see, you know.”

V

“I’m back.”

“Hey, honey. You’re home early.”

Mother walked over to father, just home from work. Father handed her his suit jacket and headed down the hall.

“They’ve still got me jumping all over the place for a while.”

“But you were just going to get a post in the 20th Ward! Well, what a shame.”

“That’s not all. Toujou’s really happy about it. He says if I were posted in the 20th Ward I’d go straight home and never go out drinking with him.”

“Oh my,” she chuckled.

When he walked into the living room, their son was there reading a book.

“Hey, Yuuki, what are you reading today?” he asked his son, who loved reading. He held up the cover.

“The New Book of Ghoul Dissection?”

“Oh, that’s nice, honey. Taking an interest in your dad’s work?”

“Come on, give me a break. It’s a dangerous job fighting these inhuman beasts who prey on people. Just the other day there was a Ghoul spotted in the 20th Ward and we had to—” He began to explain, with a somber look.

“Yes, dear,” the mother said, stretching.

“Just joking. Hey, is it dinnertime?”

The two of them went into the kitchen.

Yuuki sighed with relief and stuck a bookmark in his book. It was a silver bookmark with a four-leaf clover engraved at one end.

But those red eyes came back to his mind—the red eyes of the girl’s “big sister” when they’d found her. They were like the kakugan that dad was always telling him about, the mark of a Ghoul.

Now that he thought about it, there was a lot about those three that matched up with what his dad had told him about Ghouls.

“Inhuman beasts.” That was what his dad always called them.

“Are they really all bad guys, all of them?” he wondered.

The girl had a kindly sister, a brother who kept really cool in a crisis, and the girl herself was so timid but cute when she smiled.

“Or are some of them … actually good?”

Yuuki slammed his book shut.

Forget about it.

There’s nothing I can do about it now anyway. No matter how bad it looks, until I find the best way, it’s …

“Yuuki, I was just wondering, whatever happened to the girl you met at the library?” his dad asked, coming back into the living room.

“Huh?” Yuuki said. “Oh, um … I think she moved away.”