"This is the latest counter-ghoul weapon."
The scene zoomed in on the Apache's pylons. The rocket launched off.
"Pphewwffffuuuu!"
Chibi looked up at the tv screen. The explosion cloud mirrored on her glittering eyes, which grew bigger and bigger with her opened mouth.
"The CRc rocket fires at three thousand feet per second, ten thousand yards away, instantly pulverises TSC most wanted—the Meat Grinder."
The same scene repeated on the Thirteen Ward's giant tv screens at several angles.
"It's Matsuoka's mission and vision to keep Japan safe," said a man sitting behind a long table.
"Mama!" She blurted. "Mama! Mama! Mama!"
Hikari laid down the pen on the dining table, rose from the chair, and went to the girl. "What are you babbling?" He pressed lightly on the blonde's skull, flattening the child's hair. As he turned to look at the tv, his eyes went still, at the same time when Amon slid the paper door open.
"Hikari, did Chibi just swallow another lollipop?" He frowned at both the children, his finger pinching a candy wrapper.
"Akira is on tv." Hikari blurted. He too was enthralled by the news.
"What?" Amon got behind the kids and watched the news.
Except Yuya, who was contained by the cot, the rest of the children swamped to them. The tv became their sole focus.
"Our country is overrun by ghouls. Law enforcers are spreading thin. With Avalon, our latest defense system, the renegade ghouls or orphans will think twice before they attack. Sorry to say, no one knows how to protect humanity better than us human."
"Mama! Mama!" Chibi sprang up from the floor. Her finger pointed at the screen.
Amon already noticed the woman standing far left, who remained quiet throughout the interview.
"No way!" "It's really Akira!" Emily, the twelve-year-old, and Shinji, who just celebrated his eighth birthday yesterday, said.
"Cool…" Even Hikari, the most collected among them, could not hide his excitement.
In the end, they were still children.
Hikari glanced behind him. The second time he did that to Amon when he realized the latter's face was rather bland.
"Chibi." Amon ducked and grabbed hold of his daughter. "Let me see your mouth." He gently pried her mouth open. His eyes were on Chibi's lower molars, but he saw only the pallid face that appeared on the tv.
Amon doubted that it was due to the angle of the camera.
"A… A…" The girl could not make proper words with Amon's thumb in her mouth.
"Sorry, Chibi." He withdrew his hand immediately. "Did Papa hurt you?"
The girl tackled Amon and bound his neck tightly in her arms.
"Alright." Amon pried the arms around his neck. He held the girl in place by laying his hands on her shoulders. "Don't eat anymore candy, okay? Or Mama will be very angry."
Chibi frowned and nodded her head.
"Good girl." Amon smiled at his daughter. He stood up. Hands on his waist. "Now, the rest of you," he scanned the little humans, "finish your homework."
They all cried foul, as expected. Eventually, the children dragged themselves back to the tables.
"I'll be going to the Academy in an hour. You'll be okay with the kids?"
"What will you do... if I'm not?"
Amon sighed. Teenagers…
Amon walked across the common area. His feet stopped midway. Eyes wandered to the corded phone sitting on top of the cabinet.
Don't lose sight of the person beside you.
He reached for the handset.
It was time to make the decision.
AH-64DJP: Matsuoka Corporation's latest counter-ghoul weapon. Unlike the American model, the AH-64D, the JP variant has higher payload capacity by a tonne, but at only two percent penalty on maximum speed loss, thanks to the more efficient Matsuoka proprietary rotor. Mounted with Avalon System—the artificial intelligence that controls the AH-64DJP—the helicopter can be dispatched anytime and anywhere to neutralize ghouls that threaten human lives
Akira's fingers stopped abruptly. Eyes stared at the cursor on the monitor before watching the muted tv above her monitors. It was replaying the CRc rocket launching off from the Apache.
Latest counter-ghoul weapon? Akira scoffed. That was a pretty name for some scrap metals which Matsuoka bought from the army. The company paid not even a tenth of what those Japan-assembled Apaches should have cost, yet the Defense Minister had not stopped hailing Matsuoka as Japan's savior ever since.
A bleep brought her eyes to her left monitor. Matsuoka's stock price just soared again.
No surprise.
Both hands thrust against the edge of her desk. The wheels beneath her chair rolled back. Akira stood up and turned to the wall glass behind her.
At level thirty-five, she was only one floor below the CEO of Matsuoka Corporation. The day view of Tokyo skyline was equally spectacular as it was at night.
So said the marketing material of Matsuoka Tower.
To someone who was trapped there for an average of twelve hours per day, however, that place was merely a glorified cage made of glass.
Akira folded her arms. For that cage, just how much of herself had she thrown away?
She stopped herself at that point and returned to her seat. There were nineteen hungry stomachs back in the rural town of Shizuoka. The one-off check, which would only come after she submitted the report, would be enough to support twenty one of them for five years.
Her eyes remained on the monitor, her index finger scrolling the wheel on the mouse.
Avalon System—while still at the early phase—had control of all the sensitive information and activities, including personal data, real-time surveillance, military defense, and you-name-it.
Welcome to the twenty-first century, where privacy statements were just a scam for capitalists to steal.
Yet, there was no picture of the Meat Grinder anywhere in the database.
An irony? More like an anomaly.
She had read TSC's investigation reports on that case. Dozens of children abducted across the nation, where the first case happened almost three years ago. There was no eyewitness. The missing children cases were nothing out of the ordinary and so they had been sitting cold in the police department's archive.
Until the body parts were found.
Akira toggled the pictures taken from the crime scenes. Marude would explode if he knew she had access to TSC's database.
Anyway…
There were even more questions raised by the crime scenes alone. Would a ghoul, which craved humans as food, make such a waste? Why children, of all the choices he could have had? Was it purely a carnal need, or some kind of declaration? If it was the latter, what was he trying to achieve? These questions were just the tip of an iceberg.
Had Yonebayashi not put herself as bait, the Meat Grinder might have never appeared.
Akira logged into Avalon. By now, the Meat Grinder should have arrived at the research facility in Hokkaido.
Access Denied
Dead end? Maybe not.
Ghouls were reclusive. But as long as they were living on planet Earth, they would be leaving traces and footprints—something big data would never miss.
She signed out of Avalon and connected to the grid computers. With an eye squinting, the other widened, she typed away.
That rush of adrenaline was just the drug she needed to stay awake. It was much more effective than the espressos she had been having.
But not enough.
First: she had to bypass Avalon to get access to the system. Himura should have placed a backdoor somewhere. Second: if she needed an answer fast, she had to narrow down the search. That was when her instinct came in handy.
The question remained: could she handle the truth?
Submit job? [Y/n: _
Her fingers were touching the 'Enter' key, yet she could not get the courage to push it.
It was almost four in the afternoon—her last day at Matsuoka. What was she trying to achieve?
Her hands quivered at that question. She snatched her wrist and breathed laboriously.
It was bad. It was very bad.
Himura could not be right about the caffeine, could he?
Her heart leapt, but this time it was not the caffeine.
Akira snatched the vibrating phone next to the keyboard. The caller ID was from Shizuoka. "Hello?"
"Akira?"
Her eyes widened. Back pricked. "Amon?"
"Am I interrupting you?"
She sighed and closed her eyes. "It's okay. I happen to need the break."
"You sound exhausted."
She opened her eyes again, could not refute what he just said, because it was true. After hearing him say it, it became even worse.
"Don't push yourself, okay?"
"Are the children all right?" The pep talk was great. She just could not afford to do that now. What good was there if she started crying to him over the phone?
"Yeah, they have never been better..." Whenever Amon talked about the children, he could go on and on.
She could feel. He really loved them a lot.
The conversation expectedly turned into a monolog. She did not stop him, because his voice was just what she needed.
"Are you still there?"
"Yeah. Still here." It was not like she could go anywhere.
"Shall we meet tomorrow?"
She blinked, wondering if she heard him right. There was just too much caffeine in her system. It might be messing with her brain. "Is it a date?"
He choked at her question, and could not stop coughing.
They probably had come to the realization years ago that they were such a dysfunctional couple. They were constantly at odds with each other. Nothing seemed to go well between the two of them.
"Mmm." At least it did not take him years to come to that conclusion. He seemed to have learnt.
"But tomorrow is a little—"
"It's okay. I know that you are busy."
"Koutarou Amon…"
He fell silent.
"I was going to say: I can meet you on Friday. Is three okay for you?" For a moment, she thought she lost him in those short few seconds.
"Three sounds great. Same place?"
"Same place. And, Amon?"
"Yes?"
"I love you." She hung up. Like him, she too had learnt a thing or two in that relationship. What she had been doing right was that she should never leave anything to chance.
Akira toggled the windows on her screen and stopped at the draft she had been working on. Her hands returned to the keyboard, mind imagining a nervous and blushing face, which was far more interesting than the Meat Grinder case.
Amon.
Children.
Just wait a little while.
I'm coming home.