Fwoosh!!
She surged forward toward the Ghoul in front of her, spewing a [Kagune] that billowed like flames.
The plan was proceeding exactly as intended.
The fleshy middle-aged man had just finished a phone call with someone who seemed to be an ally. Soon, enemies would be gathering at the front entrance.
While that happened, Hitokawa would slip in through the back door.
Once he got Koma out, he would call for CCG backup, and before long, this place would be crawling with Ghoul Investigators.
Eto only had to leave when Hitokawa sent the signal. To do that, she needed to conserve the stamina she would need for her escape.
They were definitely the bastards who had taken her father from her—the kind of people she wanted to smash the faces of on sight—but for the sake of the operation’s success, she had to swallow her anger and move with cold precision.
As long as she didn’t take damage beyond a certain threshold, she could simply fight enough to keep them occupied.
Just as she committed herself to the fight with that thought in mind, the Ghoul charging straight at her vanished from view.
“...!!”
Her danger sense screamed in her brain before surprise could even register.
She twisted her body vertically mid-leap, and a thick leg slammed down, piercing the very spot where Eto’s back had been a moment earlier.
KWAAAANG!!!
The middle-aged man was a Ghoul the others here called the Overdone One.
With a speed that was impossible to believe for such a fleshy frame, he had kicked off the ceiling and plummeted toward Eto.
“Not bad movement. Did you dodge by experience? Or instinct?”
As the Overdone One pulled his leg free from the cracked concrete floor, a red light burst from his shoulder like a cloud of gas.
No mistake. That was [Ukaku].
It was the same type of [Kagune] as Eto’s.
This might be a problem...
She had never fought against a [Kagune] of the same type before. In fact, her combat experience could be counted on one hand.
Hitokawa had judged that if Eto relied on the mobility of [Ukaku] and focused on defense, she could buy enough time.
But that was a misjudgment born from a failure to fully understand the nature of Ghoul combat.
Fights between [Ukaku] Ghouls differ significantly from fights against Investigators. If neither side can leverage their superior speed, it leads to fatal openings.
To prevent that, [Ukaku] battles must be maintained at maximum velocity.
It inevitably turns into a war of attrition. Eto understood this the moment she faced another [Ukaku].
For Eto, who needed to conserve stamina for the operation to succeed, this was an extremely unfavorable situation.
She was young, and she only consumed human flesh—the fuel for a [Kagune]—to the extent that it didn’t interfere with her daily life. Naturally, her stamina reserves were lacking.
Then...
Eto lowered her stance.
The [Kagune] that had been billowing like flames stretched further, solidifying into the shape of wings.
I’ll have to incapacitate him before I run out of stamina.
She couldn’t take his life. Not for the sake of Hitokawa’s promise, and not if she wanted to return to her normal life.
That meant her target had to be the [kakuhou].
She had to destroy the organ that generated the [Kagune] and strip him of his ability to fight.
She no longer had the luxury of conserving strength. She would keep a shred of mercy in her heart, but in combat, she would be as cold and precise as an owl snatching its prey.
Fwoosh!!
The Overdone One’s [Kagune] also burst out violently, forming wings.
His wings were roughly one and a half times larger than Eto’s, with the tips of the feathers sharpened into lethal blades.
As the Overdone One swung his wings, the blade-like feathers shot out like bolts from a crossbow.
Eto leaped to avoid them, and that served as the signal flare.
Kwagagagagak!!!
Two red lines tore chaotically through the 100-square-meter concrete space.
Floor, wall, ceiling—wherever the red lines passed, footprints, claw marks, and gouges were carved into the surface, the number of scars multiplying without end.
Kwagak!!!
They clashed in midair.
The two were pushed back by the recoil and landed on the floor, the results of their exchange written in blood and wounds.
“Khh... Have I been getting too little exercise lately?”
The Overdone One clicked his tongue, clutching a handful of flesh torn from his side.
It was a wound carved by Eto’s claw, swung like a hook. He was lucky he was so fleshy; if his subcutaneous fat had been any thinner, his organs would have spilled out.
“But it looks like you’re the one who needs more exercise.”
The Overdone One’s gaze shifted forward.
“Hah... hah... hah...”
Eto panted beneath a mask that had cracked on one side.
Knife-like [Ukaku] feathers were embedded in her shoulders, back, and left knee, leaving her bleeding.
“Your senses seem excellent, but you lack combat experience. Keeping your [Ukaku] in such an unstable form is a dead giveaway.”
Crunch.
The Overdone One crushed the wound in his side with brute force.
As the tangled cells clumped together through a Ghoul’s unique regenerative power, it didn't fully heal, but it was enough to seal the hole.
“A common mistake for beginners. [Ukaku] sprayed like gas allows for ultra-high-speed combat, but the stamina drain is extreme. You need to fix the [Ukaku]’s shape to conserve energy.”
He displayed his [Kagune], which now maintained a steady, defined outline, as if to say, just like me.
“Can’t you tell me who you are now? Depending on the answer, I might even spare your life.”
“Hah... hah... kh!”
Eto caught her breath, then clenched her teeth and charged. But she had already burned through a considerable amount of stamina, and her momentum was a shadow of what it had been at the start.
“I heard your answer. So you’ve chosen death.”
The Overdone One kicked off the ground and wall in quick succession to slip out of Eto’s line of sight.
Then, he launched himself from the ceiling, dropping toward Eto’s back where she no longer had the room to evade.
His foot descended toward the back of her neck to snap her cervical spine, and—
CRACK!!
—he witnessed the bizarre sight of half his field of vision being ripped away.
“...!?!”
He couldn’t even scream.
Starting from the jaw and tearing through the mouth and nose, then the left eye and forehead, his face collapsed horribly, as if it had been ground apart by a chainsaw.
As he lost balance and toppled onto the floor from the shock, he heard a voice.
“You’ve been lecturing me as if you’re so superior. I’m fully aware of my shortcomings without you pointing them out.”
A child’s voice...?!
The sound was distorted by the mask, but it was unmistakably a girl’s voice.
“Ever since I learned someone had kidnapped my father, I’ve been thinking about this. I knew I couldn’t avoid a fight. But I’m immature, I lack stamina, and I have almost no combat experience. So I thought. And thought. And thought some more. I searched for a way to cover my handicaps. I spent the entire trip here thinking of how to reduce the stamina waste of my [Kagune], just to prepare for a long-term battle.”
The Overdone One pressed a hand to the bleeding ruin of his face, staring at Eto with his remaining eye.
The [Ukaku] spread behind Eto’s back was no longer spraying out and scattering. It was maintaining a clear, solid form—just like the Overdone One’s own.
That was the weapon that had split his face open.
“I’m glad I got to see your [Kagune]. It felt like peeking at the answer sheet while solving a math problem where I had the process right, but couldn't find the final answer.”
“Y-you... learned how to fix [Ukaku]... in such a short time...?”
“Honestly, I could’ve copied it the moment I saw it, but I didn’t. Someone told me, ‘Deceiving the enemy is our way of fighting.’ I figured ambushing you like this would waste far less stamina than trying to wear down someone as guarded as you.”
“Our... way? Who is ‘our’?”
“Who knows. Why don’t you ask the half of my blood that flows through this body?”
With that, Eto sharpened the tips of her [Ukaku] wings into blades.
She still needed more practice to launch them as projectiles, so she intended to pierce the [kakuhou] directly.
“Damn it!”
The Overdone One tried to flee, but his body wouldn’t respond. The face is the center of the sensory organs and vital points; having half of it torn away was a shock that would leave any ordinary person catatonic.
Thud!!
“Ghk!!”
The solidified [Ukaku] pierced through the Overdone One’s calf.
His body was yanked into the air like a fish on a hook and slammed violently into the wall.
KWAANG!!
“Cough!!”
Half-buried in the concrete wall, the Overdone One gasped for air.
He was in danger. He had no time to reset his stance, nor the room to deploy his [Kagune]. In his blurred vision, he saw Eto charging toward him, wrapped in her [Ukaku].
Target: [kakuhou]. Position: the right shoulder where the [Kagune] originates!
Eto sharpened the tip of her [Ukaku] into a spear and thrust it forward.
Just as the blade was about to pierce his shoulder—
Kugugugugu...
A massive vibration shook the room. A roar of collapsing stone.
Eto felt the floor beneath her tilt. Cracks spread like a spiderweb, and two dark red tentacles burst through the concrete, shattering it like a suffocating egg.
KWA-GAANG!!
Tentacles covered in sharp, fish-like scales surged up on both sides of Eto, resembling the jaws of an antlion snapping shut on a drifting insect.
“...!!”
Sensing the peril, Eto abandoned her attack and leaped backward.
The two tentacles slammed together with vicious force, crushing the space where she had stood.
Having missed their target, the tentacles withdrew back into the floor. Then, a grotesque hand shot out from the gaping hole and braced itself on the ground.
“Kehahahahah!!”
A laugh as twisted as the hand followed. Peering out from the hole was the unpleasant, insect-masked face Hitokawa had warned her about.
“You’re awfully fast, Vice Chief,” the Overdone One said, pulling himself free from the wall.
He felt a wave of relief. Despite the strange appearance and behavior, this was a reliable ally appearing in a moment of crisis.
By contrast, Eto’s expression beneath her mask grew grim.
Tch. I wanted to take out at least one of them...
The situation had worsened, but having all the attention focused on her was exactly what she wanted.
Please take care of Dad, Mister Hitokawa.
***
Thud! KWAANG!
Loud noises echoed from a distance—proof that Eto was causing a commotion exactly as planned.
On the opposite side of the front entrance, Hitokawa hurled himself through a broken window and landed on the floor as silently as possible.
I don’t know how long Eto can hold out. I have to hurry.
After confirming the gloomy corridor was empty, Hitokawa crouched low and moved forward.
Before long, he reached a staircase leading to the upper floors and the basement. Beside it was a building layout from the time the facility operated as a pharmaceutical company.
Three floors above. Two floors below.
Time was running out. He had to decide quickly whether to search the upper levels or the basement.
Where would Koma be?
His hesitation was brief. Hitokawa threw himself toward the stairs.
Comments (0)
Please log in to leave a comment. Login or Register