Outside the Laboratory, the members of Aogiri Tree had already plunged into a chaotic melee with the CCG's main force, led by Shinohara.
Although Aogiri Tree had the advantage in numbers, the CCG had not come unprepared. As large numbers of smoke grenades laced with RC Suppressant were deployed, Aogiri Tree actually began losing ground.
[RC Suppressant detected. It can drastically suppress ghouls' combat capabilities!]
"Eyepatch, this is RC Suppressant. Be careful not to breathe it in," Louis warned Ken Kaneki, who was exchanging blows with Kōki Shinohara on the other side, while calmly avoiding Juuzou Suzuya's slashes as best he could.
Juuzou Suzuya's slashes seemed to follow no pattern at all, yet every attack came at a vicious, tricky angle.
Sensing the destructive power packed into that enormous blade, Louis had no desire to take even a single hit head-on.
"Suzuya..." Pale blue light spilled from Louis's pupils. Finding a gap between his attacks, he gathered a force of extreme cold all around himself.
"Hmm..." Juuzou Suzuya seemed to be answering him, or perhaps sensing something. He pulled away with several long leaps, moving swiftly and decisively, before landing steadily twenty-five meters away.
Louis stared at the sight, momentarily stunned. Coincidence or not, that distance really did prevent him from subduing his opponent immediately, leaving the cold gathered around him useless.
"Did he learn his lesson after getting burned last time?" Louis murmured involuntarily.
His experience certainly fell far short of Shinohara's, so he relied more on his combat instincts and intuition.
A born killing machine.
Bang!
As though something had been fired, Louis sensed an object the size of a soda can breaking through the cold and hurtling toward him from the side.
No, still not fast enough...
Louis's eyes shifted slightly, instantly picking out the