Big Madam

[Name: Big Madam, S-Rank Ghoul]

Louis watched the woman leading the way ahead of him. As the system notification appeared, his gaze gradually turned cold.

He remembered a few things about this woman...

A pedophile and sadist with staggering wealth. She chaired the ghoul restaurants and performances within MADAM. She had clawed her way to the top of MADAM through sheer strength and was a dangerously powerful fighter.

After Kishou Arima's death, Juuzou Suzuya became the next Grim Reaper, and she was the one who had shaped him.

Apparently, she had become an SS-Rank Ghoul later on.

Louis had no idea what had attracted her to him, but from the look of things, there was no avoiding this ordeal.

Just moments ago, Koma had agreed to the woman's request...

Ten minutes earlier...

"Today? Isn't it a little too late for that?" Louis hurriedly interjected.

A ghoul was so eager to lure a homeless nobody back to her house. Who knew what she was planning?

"It's fine. I live all alone." The woman spoke again, pressing the issue and leaving almost no room for refusal.

"I still have work..." Louis could only turn to Koma with a pleading look.

To his surprise, Koma simply kept his head down, washing the cups, and casually agreed. "Lou, it'd be good for you to meet more people. Leave things here to me."

"..."

Before long, Louis arrived at a mansion. The house stood at the center of an estate, and despite its enormous grounds, there was no one watching over it. It was like a dead city.

Honestly, he couldn't understand why Koma had agreed to the woman's request.

Was it because Koma still didn't trust him and wanted to use this to test him?

That was quite possible. After all, there were still far too many suspicious things about Louis. The manager might have accepted him, but that didn't mean the others had.

While he was thinking, the woman led Louis into the first-floor living room, where a coffee table and several sofas stood.

The woman brought over some steaming coffee and motioned for Louis to sit.

"As you can see, there aren't many people here. Would you like to work for me?" As she spoke, she pushed a cup of coffee toward Louis.

"I really do like you."

Louis didn't answer. Instead, he discreetly glanced at the notification that had suddenly popped up.

[System: A high concentration of sedatives has been detected in the cup!]

"Ma'am, I appreciate the offer." Louis picked up the coffee and drained it in one gulp.

Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed the triumphant look on her face.

"But there are still things I like back there, so I won't be coming here."

With that, Louis stood and turned to leave, only for the woman's voice to sound behind him again.

"That isn't right, is it? Leaving just like that when you're a guest? Are you a bad boy?"

Louis looked back. The woman hadn't risen, but was watching him with a mocking expression.

"I don't know whether I'm a bad boy, but someone who drugs a guest's drink definitely isn't a good person."

The air instantly froze.

The woman sat silently on the sofa while Louis stared coldly at her.

"Honestly... how did you catch on so quickly?" The woman suddenly laughed. Unlike before, there was a cruel edge to her laughter this time. "But if you noticed, why did you drink it anyway?"

As she spoke, her eyes instantly turned into black-and-red kakugan.

To her, Louis was already in the bag.

"I came to your house as a guest, had a pleasant chat over a cup of coffee, then reluctantly took my leave?"

Not a bad little act.

As he spoke, an icy blue crystalline dagger quietly appeared in his hand.

"You pedophile sadist. You've lured plenty of humans home before, haven't you? I'm not interested. If you want to satisfy those sick urges of yours, go find someone else!"

With all pretenses abandoned, Louis had no intention of holding his tongue. He glared at her and spat out everything he had wanted to say.

Whoosh! A silver spoon sliced through the air, streaking past like a bullet.

"Bad boys need to be punished..." Louis's words had clearly enraged the obese woman. An enormous, serpentine kagune extended from behind her.

With a bang, the huge coffee table flipped over, and her bulky figure vanished from where she stood.

Overhead...

Louis looked up. Despite her obesity, the woman wasn't slow in the slightest. She crawled like a gecko before finally pouncing on him.

She can't push off anything to change direction in midair.

Acting on that thought, Louis stamped hard on the floor. An enormous Ice Spikes rose beneath his feet, thrusting straight toward the snake-tailed woman.

But to his surprise, the woman swung her kagune and twisted into a bizarre posture, dodging the ice spike despite having nothing to push off in midair. Then she kicked off the spike and shot toward him, her fat palm hurtling straight at his head.

There was no time to dodge at this distance, but fortunately, he had read the trajectory of her attack. The crystalline dagger he had already readied pierced her palm with a wet squelch.

She's so strong!

Her strength stunned Louis even more. Though the Ice Blade had pierced her palm, the force of that slap still sent him flying.

Before his feet could touch the ground, a second attack came at him: the woman's kagune, a ghoul's most common means of attack. The thick, serpentine kagune slammed toward him with unstoppable force. In desperation, Louis only had time to cross his arms in front of himself.

A dull thud rang out as it struck flesh. Louis shot away like a cannonball, smashing straight through a nearby wall.

"What is this?" Rather than press her advantage, the woman curiously pulled the Ice Blade out of her palm.

"Ice? No, it's so hard and sharp... could it be a Ghoul Investigator's Quinque?"

But Quinques were weapons made from ghoul kagune, and as a ghoul herself, the woman could clearly tell this wasn't a Quinque either.

"Oh well. As long as he stays here, I'll have plenty of time to study it..."

With a clatter, the woman tossed aside the thing in her hand and prepared to drag the human out of the rubble.

But suddenly, she froze. A figure slowly clambered to his feet amid the dust.

She was extremely confident in her attacks. That last blow had struck this defenseless human squarely. Even though she had held back somewhat, he shouldn't have been able to stand again.

Amid the dust, blood slowly seeped from Louis's arms, and his sleeves were in tatters...

At the last possible moment, Louis had adjusted his posture in midair, reducing the damage from crashing into the wall.

But he hadn't been able to lessen the damage from the kagune's direct hit. Now, waves of agonizing pain throbbed through both his arms.

Fortunately, he had already figured out the woman's attack pattern.

Trading injury for injury was probably a common tactic among ghouls with strong regenerative abilities. Then there was the kagune, the greatest threat of all: flexible, tough, and immensely powerful.

The woman's defining trait was that her obese body possessed not only strength, but also considerable speed and agility, allowing her to catch opponents off guard.

Analysis complete...

Louis smiled confidently and reached a conclusion.

[Chance of victory: zero]