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Chapter 92 - 91: Demon King
The two women cautiously peeked into the room. Upon seeing the shattered mirror on the floor, they both exhaled in relief.
Originally, Kasumigaoka Utaha had tried various ways to remove or destroy the mirror. She even attempted to move it out of the apartment.
But no matter what she did, the mirror remained unscathed—and every time she moved it, it inexplicably reappeared in her room by the afternoon. It had left her utterly helpless.
Now that the cursed object had finally been reduced to shards, it felt like a heavy stone had been lifted from her heart.
"I didn't expect you to be a mage, Teacher Sakamaki," Machida Sonoko said, blinking in disbelief. "All the supernatural stuff in your novels... was it actually based on your real experiences?"
"More or less," Shiro Sakamaki replied with a shrug. "Though the details are a little different from what's in the stories."
Sonoko's expression tensed. The methods and abilities described in his novels had always seemed exaggerated—but if the ghosts there were even more terrifying than what Utaha just dealt with, then Shiro wasn't just a protagonist—he was a monster-slaying anomaly in human skin.
"If we used that as a selling point, I think your novels could—"
"Stop right there," Shiro cut in flatly. "That kind of marketing will only get my books banned faster than you can say 'spiritual disaster.'"
Turning to Utaha, his voice shifted back to calm indifference. "Now then, Kasumigaoka-san... I've resolved the issue. Isn't it time to keep your end of the bargain?"
"Of course."
Without hesitation, Utaha bowed deeply. "Teacher Sakamaki, I sincerely apologize for what I said the other day. I was rude and thoughtless. Please accept my apology."
"Mm." Shiro gave a slight nod, accepting the apology without fanfare.
Inwardly, he was a bit surprised. He had expected her to twist words or avoid the topic. But Utaha, known for her icy, sharp tongue, had apologized so cleanly and seriously.
The dramatic inner theater he'd prepared—where he imagined her trying to sidestep the promise—was rendered useless. It was a little disappointing, honestly.
"Well then, since that's all settled, I'll be on my way."
"Wait—!"
Before they could stop him, Shiro's body sank into the shadows on the floor and vanished.
The two women stared in stunned silence.
"...Did that really just happen?" Sonoko muttered.
A moment later, Shiro's upper half emerged from the corner's shadow, grinning.
"Oh, by the way—tonight's events are top secret. Not a word to anyone~"
Then he disappeared again, this time for real.
After leaving Utaha's apartment, Shiro didn't head straight home. He still had information to gather.
Tracking the faint presence of Enji Koma, he traveled through the shadows until he arrived at the store Bai worked in.
At that moment, Yoshimura had brought Kaneki to the store to customize a mask. The three were deep in discussion about the design when Kaneki suddenly pointed to the ground, alarmed.
"Manager... your shadow!"
Everyone turned to look.
Enji Koma's expression changed instantly. He recognized the phenomenon—it was the same entrance Shiro had used before.
Just as Enji Koma opened his mouth to say something, that familiar voice came from the ground:
"Well, now. Looks like I walked in on something fun. Care to fill me in?"
Yoshimura tensed up, and Kaneki instinctively stepped back, heart racing. Shiro's arrival style wasn't something you ever got used to.
"We're just designing a mask for an interesting little guy," Enji Koma said calmly, trying to keep the atmosphere light.
The tension came more from memory than danger. That night's encounter had left a lasting scar—if Shiro's blade had deviated even a little, Enji Koma wouldn't be alive.
Yoshimura narrowed his eyes. "Human," he said cautiously, but made no move to attack. His instincts screamed at him—don't provoke this one.
Kaneki, still adjusting to life as a ghoul, could only hide behind Lianshi, overwhelmed.
"I didn't come to chat," Shiro said, his voice dropping. "You know the kind of information I want. Don't make me repeat myself."
Enji Koma gave a helpless smile. "You only gave us a few days. There's not much more I can tell you. I already shared everything I knew last time."
"What kind of news?" Shiro asked sharply.
A memory surfaced—he had asked about the timing of the ghoul outbreak, and it vaguely matched the timeline of the Demon King's rise.
The Demon King—now that was a name.
Feared in online lore, infamous for massacring entire groups without blinking. A creature that could only be sustained by consuming human flesh, and one that wouldn't die no matter how many times it was struck down.
The more he thought about it, the more similarities he saw: the regenerative vitality, the feeding habits... the only key difference seemed to be the techniques—Blood Demon Arts versus Kagune. Perhaps ghouls were a derivative species of the Demon King?
Still, there were gaps. Ghouls didn't possess the same near-immortal regeneration. A severed head meant death for a ghoul—except for a few rare exceptions.
"Tch. Useless. You don't know anything," Shiro muttered.
Without waiting for a reply, he slipped back into the shadows and moved toward Itori's bar.
Itori, who had just reopened her bar, had a similar reaction upon sensing Shiro's arrival—though hers was far more intense. She backed up instinctively, knocking over a stool.
But Shiro wasn't there to cause trouble.
After some back-and-forth, it was clear that even Itori didn't have anything worthwhile to share. Disappointed, he let her go.
He made one last stop—Akihiro Kanou.
Shiro hadn't expected much from Kanou, but what he learned here shocked him.
"I've confirmed the source of the ghouls," Kanou said, pushing up his glasses with eerie calm. "It's a meatball. A pulsating, regenerating mass of flesh inside V Organization."
"They say no matter how many times you cut it apart, it always regenerates. That's where they extracted the DNA to create the first ghouls. Biological weapons."
Shiro's eyes lit up.
He hadn't expected this one to crack the code. Yet the one he had the least faith in had brought him the most important lead so far.
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