-36: Tip-off-

As it turned out, Amon had the right idea of finding his partner via the lobby, albeit not in the way he thought.

Instead of needing to ask anybody about his whereabouts, we found Kureo by the civilian entrance, pulling a student through the Rc gate while a second student stood near the entryway. The gate remained cold and quiet as the pair passed through, despite the kid looking inches from outright panic. Even from the distance we were at, I could see the disappointment flicker across his face. Noticing us, our team sadist released his victim and made his way over to us. With the boy scampering back through the gate, both students departed in a hurry, presumably to do...whatever teenagers in Japan did in their free time.

"What are you doing down here?" Amon queried, and followed up with the question on my lips; "And what was that all about?"

"Those two," He jerked his thumb toward the entryway, "they said they had information to offer up on the Daughter case. Was hoping I could get both of them through the gate for a scan, but I only got the nervous one, and he didn't didn't set it off."

"Did we at least get some of their info?" If the answer I got was a yes, we'd have something approaching a lead.

"We have a written statement, but I was hoping to get something a little more substantial. Of course, I doubt they were merely students trying to do the right thing." Kureo led the way over to the front desk as he spoke, collecting a sheet from the receptionist.

"You think they were ghouls." Amon made it less of a question and more of a statement of fact. That was a sketchy assumption on Kureo's part, to put it lightly.

"What gave you that impression?"

"Sometimes," Kureo shrugged, moving to the elevator, "all it takes is the slightest contact with the enemy to know what they are."

Sounded more like 'ye olde uneducated guess' to me, but I kept my mouth shut. Kureo had been eerily right about more than one thing before. The only read I had on the students was them being nervous; hardly surprising, given that the old man had been giving me a steadily growing sense of ill will since the day we had met. Maybe Kureo had a bit of ghoul in him, and caught a whiff of something or someone.

Outside of Kureo's guesswork, I personally couldn't see two ghouls coming in to share intelligence with the CCG. Even back home, where the BGA was decidedly less homicidal, ghoul informants were a rarity and crackpot conspiracy theorists on the tip line were much more the norm. Here, where it was probable that there were hundreds of Kureos working the streets, finding a ghoul willing to share a coffee shop with a member of the CCG would probably be a challenge.

"Seems unlikely they'd take that risk," I mused, watching Kureo look over the map in the office, "not much to gain for the chance of death or capture."

"Allen." Amon deadpanned from his spot next to the door, "You're overthinking it again."

Tracing an outline on the map, Kureo emitted a quiet chuckle. "Aha. Here we are!"

Now all three of us were crowded around the desk.

"So, the information our suspicious students gave us was that they saw the daughter ghoul at the riverside by Kasahara elementary school. Given that they claimed to be students of Shuuyuu high school, the distance between the two places isn't too out-of-place. The area itself is rather close to the edge of the ward though."

It was also within the probably boundary I had mentally denoted. Between that and the border, it would've been a toss-up as to whether she was trying to escape the ward or was simply spotted because she went out instead of staying in hiding. After three days, she could've been on the other side of the city by now, so long as her mother had taught her any survival skills. Or…she was just waiting to die.

"—head out and see what we can find."

Apparently, I hadn't been paying attention. Again. Granted, it wasn't like I was missing some master plan; head out to the area, scour for clues, find new leads, rinse and repeat. No surprises, just the probable chance of more depravity.

Amon let Kureo lead the way, dropping back to walk next to me.

"What do you think of all this?" He asked, quietly enough to be out of his partner's hearing range.

"Honestly," I tussled with how much to share, "I can't see ghouls risking an in-person tip to lead us on a wild goose hunt. That leaves us with two—make that three—options. Bad intel, good intel, prank."

"Prank."

"People fuck with law enforcement here too, right?"

"It's sickening, but...yes."

"The location is interesting though." I shrugged. "This close to the edge of the ward might suggest she's trying to get out of dodge."

Amon only gave me a blank look.

"Leave." I had tried to do an idiom in literal Japanese. "Trying to leave the ward."

"It's been three days though."

"Exactly. Either she's been moving painfully slow—"

"—or she's given up." Amon finished my thought.

If she had given up, the question was on what. Running? Unless she was the one who had been protecting the family—unlikely but possible—that would be suicide by investigator. Suicide by Kureo, who would probably do so gleefully. Messily.