Sparring with Renji Yomo

Today, Anteiku had a special guest on its second floor.

[Yoriko Kosaka, human, overall combat rating: H, specialty: cooking]

"Touka's friend?" Louis looked over the high school girl.

He had been in the upstairs kitchen, wondering what to eat today, when he suddenly caught the delicious aroma of food and rushed out like a ghoul pouncing on its prey.

As the only human in the entire café, he had to make do with the mild, easy-to-swallow human food they kept in stock. To get a decent meal, he either had to eat out or cook for himself.

Just as he was about to start cooking, he spotted Yoriko Kosaka, who had come to see Touka.

"Touka-san, your friend's here!" Louis called straight through the door.

Touka, Kaneki, and Hinami were all in the room. The sounds coming from inside abruptly stopped.

With a click, the doorknob turned, and Touka's surprised face appeared.

"Yoriko?"

"Sorry for dropping in without warning..." Yoriko sounded a little stiff when Touka came out. "You weren't at school all day, so I came to see..."

As she spoke, she suddenly spotted Ken Kaneki behind Touka and looked astonished.

"Touka, is he..." In that instant, Yoriko seemed to understand why Touka had skipped school today.

"He's Kaneki..." While Touka was still trying to figure out how to explain, Yoriko seemed to have already seen through everything. So excited that her breathing quickened, she immediately lifted the pot of food she was carrying.

"Touka, I made this. You two can eat it together!" Yoriko declared earnestly, then handed the pot to Touka.

"No... you've got it wrong..." Touka still wanted to explain, but Yoriko had no intention of disturbing the two of them. As she left, she even turned back to give her a thumbs-up.

"..." All three fell silent.

Kaneki asked, "What do we do with this?"

The food Yoriko had brought was delicious to humans, but it was anything but appetizing to ghouls.

Touka said, "Eat it. Yoriko made this for me herself!"

With that, she forced down a large mouthful. It was clearly painful, but she kept pounding her chest as she swallowed.

Standing outside the door, Louis listened quietly without saying a word. Finally, he sighed and prepared to return to the kitchen.

It looked like he wasn't getting any of that feast...

But just as he turned to leave, the door suddenly opened. A hand shot out and dragged him inside.

"Huh?"

Louis hadn't expected his first visit to Touka's room to happen like this. He also saw Hinami sitting at the table, waving at him.

"Hurry up, taste it, then give me a five-hundred-word review." Touka held up a bowl of food, gesturing for Louis to eat it.

"You freeloader ought to be useful for something."

As the café's only human at the moment...

"Oh..." Louis nodded, then looked at the food at the corner of Touka's mouth. "If she's your friend, you shouldn't have to do this... It's too painful..."

"Cut the crap. I don't need you worrying about me." Touka crouched down, looking ready to eat him alive. "Are you eating or not...?"

"Yes, yes!" Louis hurriedly picked up his chopsticks and polished off the bowl in no time.

But...

A tear rolled down Louis's cheek. It was simply too delicious...

"Hey! I told you to have a little, not eat it all, you bottomless pit!"

That afternoon, somewhere underground...

Yomo's punches were lightning-fast, almost every one grazing Louis's face.

Following Irimi Kyouko's advice, Louis was sparring with Renji Yomo.

"So fast..." Kaneki watched their fight, dumbfounded. Only now did he realize how much Yomo had held back when attacking him.

Hand-to-hand combat wasn't Louis's greatest strength, but he was far from weak at it. Training at this level did little for him.

What he needed was practice against attacks from a ghoul's kagune.

"In that case..." As though he had read Louis's mind, Yomo's eyes suddenly turned bloodred. A black ukaku instantly emerged behind him and covered his arms, while his hands became demonic black claws.

"Huh?!"

The sudden change startled both of the others, but Renji Yomo showed no intention of holding back. His assault had only now truly begun.

Renji Yomo brought his hands together, unleashing a thick bolt of purple lightning. It was so fast that dodging it was impossible without anticipating it.

Fortunately, Louis knew a little about Yomo's attacks. An instant before those claws collided, he leaped into the air, forming a high-density Ice Blade in one hand while aiming his other palm at Yomo below. He condensed sharp crystal fragments and compressed them, ready to unleash a counterattack at any moment.

Seeing that Louis had nothing to push off against in midair, Yomo accelerated sharply, adjusted his position, and unleashed another bolt of electricity.

Now...

Louis released the compressed crystals in his hand. A storm of razor-sharp ice shards erupted from his palm, shooting toward Renji Yomo on the ground like a shotgun blast.

He wasn't done yet. Using the recoil, he shifted his body in midair and narrowly avoided the lightning. At the same time, he tucked up his legs. When his palm touched the smooth, vertical wall, he formed crystals to anchor himself there temporarily, observing and calculating his next move.

The sharp crystal fragments struck Yomo like raindrops, slashing his white clothes and drawing thin trails of blood.

Wounds less than a centimeter deep could heal instantly for a ghoul of his caliber.

But suddenly, Louis sensed a flicker of killing intent. By the time he came to his senses, the man on the ground had already vanished.

What the hell is that speed?! Louis was horrified. Just as he prepared to move, a chill ran down his back.

Renji Yomo appeared behind Louis like a phantom and landed a heavy blow. This time, Louis couldn't react. The strike hit his back, shattering the crystals anchoring him to the wall, and he crashed hard onto the ground.

"Lou!" Ken Kaneki cried out in alarm. He hadn't expected their sparring match to get this intense.

Landing at the same time, Renji Yomo retracted his kagune and looked down at his own hand in some surprise. "I got a little carried away..."

"I'm fine..." Louis waved a hand. He could feel that Yomo had held back just before the final blow landed. Otherwise, he would definitely have been bleeding by now.

Yomo didn't know how tough his body was, either, so he hadn't dared use too much force, afraid he might kill him.

But that speed...

Louis recalled Yomo's phantom-like movements just now. He'd had no time to react at all.

So this was the speed of an SS-rated ukaku ghoul...

"Your combat skills are highly polished, and your control of the battlefield is precise. Like a veteran who's spent years at war." Yomo picked up his coat and draped it over his shoulders as he gave his assessment. "But your speed and strength aren't particularly impressive..."

It was a very fair assessment...

Against ghouls with little combat experience, such as Big Madam, Louis could even trade a few blows with opponents above his level. But against Touka or Yomo, whose combat experience matched his own, he felt woefully inadequate.

Louis looked at his hands. He had never fully exploited his greatest advantage: his ability to control blue ice crystals.

He had yet to push that ability to its limits. All this time, to keep his fights quiet and conserve his stamina, he had chosen to form crystals that were extremely dense but not particularly large.

In reality, if Louis wanted to, he could freeze an entire room in a second. He could also rapidly drain someone's body heat upon contact.