by Shin Towada
“Well, I’m originally a dressmaker by trade, so my masks have mostly been special orders from my regular clients.”
That limited the possibilities of who had owned this mask to a very small pool of people. “So hey, old lady. How come the police had a photo of one of your masks?” Asa asked, curious. “I could tell that Uta was worried about you too. Is that mask dangerous somehow?”
Tsumugi set her embroidery work on her knee and stared into the distance, her eyes narrowing. Asa, who before now had been short-tempered and snappish with her, found herself waiting calmly for a response.
“I made that mask on the request of a very wealthy individual,” Tsumugi muttered. “He had it made for a Ghoul.”
“If it’s a Ghoul mask, why are the police involved? Isn’t this usually Ghoul investigator business?”
Tsumugi let out a deep sigh of consternation. “That detective must have good instincts. I suppose Uta is worried that I’ll be in a risky predicament if it’s discovered I made a mask for a Ghoul.”
“Ah, I see. You’d be marked as a Ghoul collaborator, then?” Asa asked, at last getting a handle on the situation.
“Those masks are a Ghoul’s way of keeping hidden. If it was found out that I’d abetted one by making a mask, I’d be brought up on charges.”
“So the mask is dangerous, then. If this detective finds you he’s probably going to arrest you.”
“I’m just an old woman without much time left. What point would there be in arresting me?” Tsumugi replied, her tone unconcerned, her face showing some deep forethought.
“You’re ready, then? Is that it?”
“Hmm?”
“I just … sometimes I get the same sort of impression from Uta.” A willingness to take on anything and everything, come what may. Even an outsider was capable of seeing it. “Now that I think about it, if anything happened, someone might be able to track Uta’s creations back to him too. And he still makes what he does, despite all the risks?”
Things weren’t like that for Asa. As someone who lived from day to day thanks to her street stall, if something bad happened to her she could just run. Running a shop and selling merchandise meant walking a fine line. One that Uta, as well as Tsumugi, continued to walk.
“What’s got you so sentimental all of a sudden?” Tsumugi asked, looking at Asa and sounding rather perplexed.
“I wouldn’t say I’m being sentimental as much as …”
“You’re an easy one to read, girl. Here, use this to blow your nose,” Tsumugi said, tossing the embroidered scarf to Asa.
“Hey! My noise isn’t running! And even if it were, I couldn’t blow my nose with this!”
“Well, she’s got some spirit, after all. If you need to take a break from your work, you can sleep on the sofa. You can finish up the rest in the morning. Don’t cut any corners.” Tsumugi groaned as she stood up and then returned to her own room.
“Oh come on, where does she get off?” Asa grumbled as she took a look at Tsumugi’s embroidery work, letting out a gasp of astonishment.
“This is incredible …”
IV
After that, Asa began making her way over to Tsumugi’s house daily. She hoped to see Uta during her visits, of course, but even on days when he wasn’t there, she would stay and work quietly in the living room.
There were few passersby here on the edge of town, with the sound of birds chirping the only real thing to hear. Asa, who before had been forced to always work out in the elements, was now able to muster up some concentration. She might even be able to correct her shortcomings, fixing shoddy workmanship she had rushed to complete before.
No one came to visit, however, and Asa wondered whether the poor old woman had any friends or family.
“Hey, is it time to go shopping?”
“Yes. I’m in the mood for fish today.”
“Urgh.”
Around when the sun was going down, Tsumugi started getting ready to go out. Asa could have continued with her remaining work, but decided to accompany the old woman, figuring she could use a bit of a break. They were heading to the nearby market district again today. Tsumugi stopped by the fishmonger’s, poring about for things to make dinner with.
“You sure do eat fish a lot,” Asa called out as she hurried to catch up. She had been at the general store across the way, looking for materials she might use in mask making, but Tsumugi now seemed to have finished her purchase and was now heading to another shop.
“Oh, well if it isn’t Tsumugi! Long time no see!”
The sound of a woman’s high-pitched voice stopped Asa in her tracks. She looked to see an old woman around Tsumugi’s age, with her daughter and grandson in tow. “What’s up? You know this lady?”
It appeared that this was indeed one of Tsumugi’s human acquaintances. Asa was about to go back to the general store so as not to be a bother when she heard the other woman speak again. “How are you doing nowadays? Living on your own, I take it?” Asa felt an edge of malice in those words, and so she stayed put.
“Yes, I’m getting by on my own.”
“Oh my! Being alone at our age must be dreadful!” The woman spoke with exaggerated sympathy, her face awash with an air of superiority. “And you used to be so pretty, with so many admirers, too! But I suppose while having a wealthy lover can let you live in luxury, it doesn’t bless you with a family. I suppose it’s providence to be cast aside after one’s beauty fades!” The woman looked at her own grandson and daughter, then let out a haughty laugh. “It’s far better to simply be ordinary. I get to live out my days with my family, surrounded by their warmth. I just wanted you to understand that.”
Hearing that, Asa felt an indignation growing inside her. She was about to step in and knock the woman out with a single punch before thinking better of it. Humans had their own form of social etiquette, and if an outsider came in to unilaterally break those rules, it would not only bring harm onto her for being a Ghoul, but onto Tsumugi as well.
As she stood in frustrated silence, smoke nearly coming out of her ears as she thought about to do, she caught sight of herself reflected in the general store’s display window. “Ah.” And that’s when she got an idea.
“But anyway, I am in the middle of shopping here, so if you’ll pardon me,” said the woman, her voice laced with sarcasm.
She was about to leave with her family when Asa called out in a low voice. “Tsumugi!” she said, her tone nice and familiar. “There you are! I’ve been looking all over for you. How could you just leave me behind like that?”
Asa could feel herself getting goosebumps as she spoke, and Tsumugi was uncharacteristically caught off guard. The other woman’s eyes went wide in disbelief. “Oh, don’t try to carry all this by yourself. Let me give you a hand,” Asa said with a smile as she went to help Tsumugi with her bags.
“W-w-wait, Tsumugi, who is this young man?” the woman asked, mistaking Asa for a boy, just as Asa had anticipated.
The smile never left Asa’s face as she said, “You’d better not be badmouthing my Tsumugi, you old hag.”
The other woman was dumbstruck, her family in something of a panic alongside her, as Asa snugged one arm around Tsumugi’s shoulder and marched off.
“What was that all about? Oh, I’ve got goosebumps,” Tsumugi said after they’d left the market district and were out of earshot of any passersby.
Asa withdrew her hand from Tsumugi’s shoulder. “Do I gross you out that much?” she snapped. For a moment, there was an awkward silence, but then Asa mustered herself to broach the subject that had come up earlier. “So, you used to have a lover, huh? That’s pretty amazing for an old lady like you.”
“Every old lady was young once, you know.”
“Oh yeah?” Asa said. She had a hard time imagining Tsumugi ever being young. “So what was this person like? Some old guy?”
>
“No, he was younger than me. Well, I suppose he’s an old man by this point. I haven’t seen him in some time.”
“Wait, you two aren’t still together, are you?”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Tsumugi snorted in reply. “This was when we were younger. Nowadays we’re friends, of a sort. We see each other around once a year, maybe. It just seems that nearly everything that happens makes me think of him. Bah.”
Asa found herself at a loss for words at the sullen look on Tsumugi’s face. Her expression reverted back to normal soon enough, however. “Anyhow, give me back my bags. I know you hate the smell,” she said, extending a wrinkly hand.
“It’s no big deal. I can handle it,” Asa replied curtly.
“Yeah?” Tsumugi said. She then looked up, as if having just remembered something. “But anyway …”
“Hmm? What?”
“The look on that woman’s face when you came by and scared her out of her wits was spectacular,” Tsumugi snickered.
Asa looked back at her and laughed. “Wasn’t it just?”
That evening, after Tsumugi had finished eating dinner, there came a knock at the door. “Uta!” Asa called out, sensing his presence, and she hurried to the doorway. However, when she opened the door, she that Uta wasn’t alone.
“Y-Yomo …”
At Uta’s side was Renji Yomo, Yoshimura’s current right-hand man. He gave Asa a brief look, then turned his gaze farther inside.
“What, is Yoshimura trying to butt in on things?” Asa said.
Tsumugi showed up, almost as if in response to Asa’s puzzled tone. That’s right—Tsumugi was a regular customer at Anteiku, wasn’t she?
Yomo looked at Asa, and then spoke matter-of-factly. “Yujiro Utsumi has fallen ill and is in a hospital in the 8th Ward. He doesn’t have long.”
Yujiro Utsumi. It wasn’t a name Asa had heard before. Tsumugi, on the other hand, raised an eyebrow. “I expected as much,” she said. “Then Koharu is …”
Yomo said nothing.
Despite the lack of response, Tsumugi seemed to know all she needed to. “I see …”
“Uh, old lady?”
“Sorry, but my hands are hurting today, so I think I’ll take a break. You should hurry along home,” Tsumugi said brusquely before disappearing into her bedroom, her hunched frame looking more frail than usual.
“Now listen, Yomo, what the heck are—”
But Yomo was already gone, having apparently finished what he’d come to do, leaving Asa and Uta alone together.
“Uta …”
Uta offered a quiet smile. “Wanna head home?”
Asa was more dejected than she’d expected at not getting the answers she wanted, her shoulders slumping.
“Well,” Uta added instead, “maybe Tsumugi will want to talk with you.”
“With me?”
“Yeah.”
It certainly didn’t appear that way. Asa turned to look back at the bedroom to which Tsumugi had slunk away.
That night, still inside the house, Asa continued to work with sidelong glances at the embroidery Tsumugi had given her. Her stitching had been rough when she’d first come here, but now it was clean and straight.
However, despite the quiet of nighttime being ideal for making progress, Asa’s concentration would readily falter, and each time it did she stared off at Tsumugi’s bedroom.
V
Asa woke the next day just past noon, having fallen asleep at some point, to find Uta and Tsumugi next to her. She sat up with a start.
“Ah, you’re awake,” Tsumugi said, as if nothing were out of the ordinary.
“Urgh …” Asa nodded, feeling slightly off-kilter.
“We’re going out. Get yourself ready,” the old woman told her.
“Huh? Isn’t it kinda early to go shopping?”
“We’re going a bit farther today.”
“Farther?” Asa asked, tilting her head.
Tsumugi nodded. “Yes,” she replied. “We’re going to see an old friend of mine.”
They wound up taking the subway, eventually arriving at a hospital in the 8th Ward. Yomo’s words from the night before crept back into Asa’s mind. Yujiro Utsumi. He’d been hospitalized in an 8th Ward facility.
As the approached the automatic doors to the hospital, Uta stopped and said, “I’ll wait here. I kind of stand out.”
Asa was flustered. “Should I wait here with you, then?” She didn’t stand out as much as Uta did, but she still stood out.
“No, you come with me. Just remember to hide your face,” Tsumugi said.
Asa pulled her hood up and headed into the hospital.
Tsumugi led her to one of the patient rooms. “Here,” she said. A nameplate reading Yujiro Utsumi hung by the door. Inside, a man somewhere around his seventies was sleeping. There were intravenous tubes and various other pieces of medical equipment connected to his body. The sight brought a quietly pained expression to Tsumugi’s face, the likes of which Asa hadn’t seen before.
“Old lady, is this guy …?”
“Yes. He’s my former lover. And the man who commissioned the mask in that photo.”
“Huh? Wait, so is this guy a Ghoul?” But Asa had never heard of a Ghoul receiving human medical treatment.
“No, he’s human,” Tsumugi affirmed for her. “But you could perhaps consider him a Ghoul all the same.”
“Huh? What do you mean?”
Tsumugi silently reached out with a wrinkled hand to touch Yujiro’s face. When he showed no response, she closed her eyes tight. “He would eat people,” she said.
Asa’s breath caught in her throat. “A … a human who … ate other humans?”
“Yes. You could call him a connoisseur of human flesh, I suppose. And he raised Ghouls to help him indulge in his desires.”
At each and every turn, this story was getting harder to comprehend. Asa listened, perplexed, as Tsumugi went on. “He would have them kidnap young women and then butcher them. And if his cannibalistic ways were ever discovered, his plan was to pin all the blame on the Ghouls he’d raised, and flee.”
The tale was starting to make Asa’s head hurt as she attempted to follow along, but then she suddenly remembered the mask. “So then you made that mask for one of the Ghouls this guy was raising?”
Tsumugi nodded to affirm. “I fell in love with his unconventional, bold demeanor, and so I helped him without telling another soul. However, one of his Ghouls was killed by a Ghoul investigator, and so it seems that the existence of the mask got out.”
That’s why the detective had that photo, Asa now realized.
“I think he realized he couldn’t keep it up for long, that he’d be discovered one day, and now he wants to leave this world behind without ever being judged for his crimes.”
The form of Yujiro Utsumi lay unconscious. Even Asa could tell that he would very likely die before he ever woke up again.
Tsumugi took her hand away from Yujiro’s cheek and murmured, “But judgment is deserved.”
The sun had already set by the time they made it back to the 20th Ward, and the surroundings were dark. Uta had already parted ways with them, leaving Asa and Tsumugi to walk alone.
“About what we discussed today,” Tsumugi said as her house was just coming into view. “I’ll leave it to your judgment whether you tell anyone about it or not.”
She must have meant the stuff about Yujiro. “I’m not really the kinda person to spread rumors.”
“I’m not worried about that sort of thing.”
For some reason, those words made Asa stop as if she’d been rooted in place, and she gazed at Tsumugi from behind. The old woman was so small. Just what was it she wanted from Asa?
At that moment, however, Asa felt an unsettling breeze run through the air.
“
Huh?!” Asa sensed a sudden presence descending from above. On reflex, she looked up to see insectoid wings spread wide. Next she saw a man’s silhouette, followed by a mask.
The mask looked similar to the one Tsumugi had made at Yujiro’s request, but at the moment that didn’t matter. The man’s wings—his ukaku—stirred the air.
“Old lady, look out!”
A hail of projectiles rained down on them. Asa reached out for Tsumugi, who was walking ahead of her. However, the projectiles from the ukaku pierced through Asa’s outstretched hand, and then her body.
She cried out in pain, and as she was about to hit the concrete, she saw Tsumugi take an even more grievous injury and then collapse.
“Old lady!” Asa cried out, pushing off the ground with her injured right hand and hurrying over to Tsumugi. The masked Ghoul who’d attacked them blocked her way, however.
“Damn you!” Asa ground her molars together hard. She called on her power to release itself, splitting her skin as it rose to the surface in the scaled pattern of her rinkaku. “You son of a bitch!” She turned about and attempted to strike the masked Ghoul with all her might, but he leapt nimbly aside to dodge. It figured that he was capable. Now she had no choice but to focus her mind wholly on killing him.
“Ngh …”
Asa’s eyes darted over to Tsumugi’s silhouette. The pool of blood was growing ever larger. Asa’s mind raced, her thought process becoming muddled.
“Not paying attention?” There was no time to react. The man closed the distance all at once and attacked Asa from close range.
“Argh!” The kick caught Asa hard in the abdomen, sending her hurtling back into a telephone pole. The man then kicked her in the face where she huddled, and proceeded to stomp on her fallen form.
“Who the hell are you? Why are you wearing the old lady’s mask?” Asa asked, catching sight of the embroidered mask. Wasn’t the Ghoul who’d had Tsumugi’s mask supposed to be dead?
“You have no idea what’s going on with us, huh? Meh, whatever. Losing our breadwinner’s made us a bit cranky. So I guess I’ll just torture you to death, and—”
