I stared at the monster made of Kagune that filled my entire field of vision.
I’d seen monsters that ate people, and I’d seen other monsters that hunted them, so I’d prided myself on being used to all sorts of absurd sights. But this was grotesque enough to feel unreal even to me.
It was unbelievably fast for something with a body so massive it filled the passage. Even my reflexes, sharpened by everything I’d endured, couldn’t keep up.
The monster leaped the distance between the walls at a speed so dizzying that I could barely register its movements. By the time it swung its arm, it was already too late to dodge.
If I’d been here alone, I would have died right then and there.
Thoom!
“……!!”
I felt a violent surge of momentum, as if my upper and lower body were about to be ripped apart. The world flashed past in a blur.
Sensing the danger, Etō had scooped me up and bolted deeper into the passage.
The monster’s arm slammed down just a hair's breadth behind us.
KWA-BOOM!
The deafening impact shook the ground like an earthquake, the vibration rattling through Etō’s legs and into my own body.
The blow had clearly struck the floor, but the resulting cracks raced up the walls and tore through the ceiling.
A bad feeling flickered through my mind, and a moment later, it became reality.
RUMBLE RUMBLE RUMBLE!
“Damn it! The escape route!”
Dust rained down from above before the entire ceiling came crashing down in a heap of rubble.
It was a disastrous turn of events—not just for us, but for Enji, Kaya, and their group, who would eventually have to pass through here.
But we no longer had the luxury of worrying about the collapsed exit. Leaving the falling debris behind, the monster charged again.
Even though my vision was obscured by the blanket, Etō’s instincts picked up the Ghoul’s attack from behind.
A dark red arm, thick as a tree trunk, plummeted toward us. Etō kicked off the ground and lunged toward the wall, narrowly avoiding the strike.
The missed blow tore through the floor, and the monster immediately swung its other arm toward the wall, chasing us.
Etō kicked off again, launching herself toward the ceiling.
She raced across the floor, walls, and ceiling in a frantic, omnidirectional sprint, with the monster hot on her heels.
“Ugh……!!”
I barely managed to suppress the nausea rising in my throat.
The Ghoul’s movements—darting wildly without any regard for up or down—were more than a human body was meant to endure.
The scent of the chocolate I’d eaten earlier mixed with a sour tang as it rose up my throat, making me feel even worse.
Still, I couldn't exactly tell Etō to slow down.
If she eased her pace for even a second, that abnormal violence would tear us to shreds.
The dizzying chase, which made a roller coaster look like a children's toy, finally reached its end.
The passage opened up into a massive cavern.
“Dad, I’m sorry!”
“What!?”
The moment the words left her lips, the contact with Etō vanished, and a sudden sense of weightlessness enveloped me.
As soon as we cleared the passage, Etō had hurled me into the air.
Left adrift in midair, I turned my head with a dazed expression to look back at her.
Etō had kicked off a pipe and was launching herself in the opposite direction—straight toward the monster that had just emerged from the passage.
I shifted my gaze downward. The concrete floor was a considerable distance away. I probably wouldn't die, but it looked like it would hurt. ……A lot.
This was completely unlike Etō. She was the kind of girl who hated it when I suffered even the smallest scratch.
She’d cut her finger while cooking recently, and she’d immediately insisted on learning how to cook properly just so she could take over the kitchen herself. That told you everything you needed to know.
For Etō to throw me into the air, knowing I'd likely be injured, was proof that she was completely out of options.
She had judged that monster to be that dangerous.
“Damn it. I should’ve just gone home.”
Regret came too late. The concrete floor rushed up to meet me, expanding rapidly until it filled my vision.
THUD!
**
After throwing Koma into the air, Etō pivoted and shot toward the Kakuja monster.
It was an action she would never have taken if she were prioritizing Koma’s safety, but her instincts were screaming that the monster’s existence was dozens of times more dangerous to him than a fall from the air.
She had to land a fatal blow while the creature was still partially restricted by the passage.
While her mind calmly analyzed the situation, an unbearable emotion boiled over in her chest.
Deep hostility. Disgust. Revulsion.
The hostility was easy to understand; the monster was charging at her with a clear intent to kill.
But where did the disgust and revulsion come from?
She found the answer the moment she swung her Ukaku wings like blades.
KRAK!
The blade-like Kagune dug halfway into the monster’s arm and stopped. In that frozen instant, Etō and the monster locked eyes.
Eyes glittered from beneath the Kagune armor that encased its entire body.
There was no reason in those eyes—only the raw, shimmering instinct of a predator. Looking into them, Etō felt a chill crawl over her skin like a thousand ants.
This monster viewed her—a Ghoul—as nothing more than prey, no different from a human.
It was the first time she had ever been looked at that way. As food.
Simultaneously, a memory surfaced.
The memory of when she had been gravely wounded by a Ghoul dressed as a policeman, and she had looked at her father, Koma, while desperately craving flesh.
So this is how Ghouls look at humans?
This is how a predator looks at its prey?
—I was looking at Dad with those horrible eyes?!
The monster was a mirror to Etō.
A mirror reflecting her own repulsive nature. A mirror exposing the part of herself she had spent so long denying.
The moment she realized this, her disgust and revulsion twisted into an uncontrollable rage.
FWOOSH!
The blade-like Kagune warped, erupting with the intensity and heat of a wildfire.
Etō’s Ukaku, which spewed RC cells at high velocity, generated immense heat by its very nature.
Like a high-temperature thermal cutter, her Ukaku burned through cells, appearing as if it would sever the monster’s arm instantly.
But the monster did not simply stand there. Before its arm could be severed, it swung its other limb at Etō.
It wasn't acting out of fear of losing an arm; it simply wanted to tear the prey in front of it to pieces and eat her as quickly as possible. Regardless, the move worked—the arm remained intact.
KWA-BOOM!
The brutal hand slammed down, but Etō had already retracted her Kagune and slipped away. She clicked her tongue; she had intended to shatter the bone and disable the arm, but things hadn't gone as planned.
Still, it had certainly taken damage. The flesh had split to reveal the bone, and the heat of the Ukaku had charred the cells. Even without a full amputation, its movement should have been hindered.
At least, that was what Etō expected.
Her expression froze a moment later.
Ssssss…!
The monster’s wound began to close at a terrifying speed.
It wasn't instantaneous, but at this rate, it would be fully healed within a minute or two.
What kind of regeneration is this……!
No matter how exceptional a Ghoul's healing was, wounds inflicted by another Kagune were normally slow to recover. That had been the case for every Ghoul she’d fought, and for Etō herself.
But this monster was an anomaly, possessing strength, speed, and regeneration that defied the norms of their kind.
While Etō stood in shock, the monster fully cleared the passage and entered the cavern.
“GRAAAAH!!!”
With a bestial roar, the monster charged.
Etō leaped into the air, using a pipe as a springboard, and the monster followed, crushing the pipe beneath its weight as it sprang upward.
Etō used her Ukaku like a rudder to adjust her trajectory in midair, darting around the space while the monster smashed through everything in its path. Most astonishing was that despite its bulk, it barely lagged behind her speed.
Power, speed, stamina—it was perfect in every category. It was an overwhelming and infuriating opponent.
Etō wasn't a veteran of Ghoul combat, but she knew with absolute certainty that this was the most formidable enemy she had ever faced.
Fighting a thing like this head-on was suicide.
With that regeneration, most attacks will be useless. In that case……!
Feeling her stamina begin to wane, Etō made a sharp, right-angle turn. The monster hurled itself after her.
The monster’s outstretched arm nearly brushed Etō’s back. In that instant—
KRAK!
“Ghk!?”
A sound of confusion. The monster, chasing Etō blindly, suddenly felt a violent resistance clamp down on its body.
Etō had leaped into the gap between two thick, overlapping pipes.
The space was wide enough for an adult man to slip through easily, but the monster’s body had grown far too bloated for such a feat.
The gap Etō had passed through effortlessly became a vice for the monster. The pipes, buckling under the creature's own strength, transformed into a perfect trap that pinned it in place.
“You’ve got plenty of power, but no brains to read your surroundings, do you!”
Without hesitation, Etō leaped vertically and plummeted toward the monster’s rear.
Her target was the nape of the neck. If regeneration was the problem, she simply had to inflict a fatal wound before it could recover.
However, the monster's neck was also shielded by thick Kagune armor. Etō’s standard firepower wouldn't be enough to pierce it.
Etō reached for a hard candy and popped it into her mouth. It was a specialized confection made from a mixture of corpse bone powder and Koma’s blood.
She had brought it as a last resort, and she knew this was the moment.
CRUNCH!
She crushed the candy with her teeth and swallowed.
A dizzying wave of pleasure washed over her tongue, nearly shaking her resolve. That formless euphoria transformed into raw heat, surging down her esophagus, hitting her stomach, and radiating through her entire body.
Etō seized that heat and concentrated it entirely into her shoulders.
FWOOSH!
She suppressed the raging, flame-like Kagune, focusing every ounce of its momentum into a single point on the monster’s neck.
With this level of output, she could sever the neck and take its life.
……Take its life?
“……!!”
Etō’s motion stopped for a fraction of a second.
In that sliver of time, a storm of hesitation raged. She remembered the words Hitokawa had told her when she had killed for the first time.
—Listen carefully! To me, you’re just a Ghoul, but Koma is different. The affection he has for you is real! That’s why he fought me to keep you out of Cochlea! He wanted to protect the ordinary life you shared!! So why the hell are you trying to throw that life away!?
The more you take a life, the more numb you become to the act of killing.
Whether you want it or not, your nature changes, like clothes getting soaked in a drizzle. It means you can never truly return to a peaceful, ordinary existence.
It was a warning that only Hitokawa, a man whose profession was the extermination of Ghouls, could provide.
She recalled the heat she felt when she first killed. Back then, Hitokawa’s scolding had pulled her back from the brink.
But this time? Could she escape it?
After killing this monster, would she still be Takaki Etō, or would she become just another monster?
Her hesitation lasted only a moment—a true, fleeting instant.
But that was enough time for the monster to violently tear through the pipes and break free.
“……Huh!?”
“GRAAAAHHHHH!!!!”
The monster swung its arm amid a spray of metal fragments. Etō, snapping back into focus, detonated her Kagune at maximum output.
KWA-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM――――!!!!!!
**
“Ghk! Cough!”
Splayed out on the floor, I gasped for air, wiping saliva from my chin as I struggled to breathe.
Falling on my back from that height had knocked the wind out of me completely.
Moreover, the concrete floor had offered no mercy, and my entire body felt like it was creaking under the impact.
“Tch…… Etō……?”
As soon as I could move, I frantically searched for Etō. At that moment, a dark red light pierced the edge of my vision.
KWA-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM――――!!!!!!
A split second later, a thunderous blast rolled over me, vibrating in my very gut.
Covering my ears, I followed the light and sound. I saw a dark red blaze erupting in midair—though it looked like fire, it was actually a massive explosion of RC cells.
Having seen her Kagune many times, I knew it was the work of Etō and her scattering Ukaku.
Something was thrown from the center of the explosion.
Recognizing it was Etō, I rushed forward to catch her as she fell headfirst.
“Etō! Gah!! Hot!!”
I barely managed to catch her, but I screamed—not from the impact, but from the searing heat radiating into my arms.
The shoulder of Etō’s clothing had been completely incinerated, and the exposed skin looked as if it were melting from a severe burn.
I tried everything to cool her down—touching her, fanning the air—but the heat wouldn't subside, and my own hands suffered light burns in the process.
“Damn it! What did you do? Why do you look like this!?”
I shook her, calling her name, but she only let out a faint groan, remaining unconscious.
Holding Etō close, I scanned the area for the monster. Where was it? It should have been caught in the blast.
I found it sooner than I wanted.
KOOOM!
More accurately, it found me first.
A vibration echoed from behind. I stiffened and slowly turned my head.
The monster was standing right behind me, its breathing ragged from the hit it had taken. A severe burn, similar to Etō’s, marred the left side of its neck and shoulder.
The flesh had been burned away to the bone, yet the monster moved with ease, its gaze locked onto us.
“What the fuck…….”
“GRAAAAH!!!”
Before I could even finish my curse, the monster bared its hideous teeth and lunged. With Etō in my arms, I had no room to dodge.
I grabbed a piece of scrap metal from the floor in a desperate attempt to resist, but it was a pathetic gesture against such a ferocious charge.
Is this where I die?
The monster’s shadow swallowed my vision, and everything went black.
CRUNCH!
The sickening sound of flesh and bone being torn apart echoed in my ears.
But the sound didn't come from me or Etō.
“GRAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!”
The monster screamed, clutching its face with both hands.
Between its brutal fingers, I could see the damage: its lower jaw had been ripped clean off, and both eyes had been slashed by deep diagonal cuts, spraying blood everywhere.
“I thought we were almost at the exit, so I let my guard down. Who the hell is this guy?”
Standing before me was Enji, casually toying with the monster’s severed lower jaw in one hand……
“Mr. Takaki. Would you mind explaining what happened? Why is the escape route collapsed?”
……and Kaya, who was brushing an eyeball off her fingernail with a look of utter disgust.
Surrounding them were rows of Ghouls—some wearing red monkey masks, others wearing black dog masks.
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