This was probably the most chaotic day Ward 20 had seen in recent weeks. Police sirens sounded everywhere, converging on an encirclement, while plainclothes CCG personnel continued evacuating civilians.
"S-Rank Ghoul, codename Ice Mask. Is that all right, Associate Special-Class Mado?" A CCG clerk sat in a car with Kureo Mado, writing something down.
Any powerful ghoul whose rank was unknown would normally be classified as SS-rank, but Mado had said this one wasn't that strong. So the newly registered ghoul had been assigned S-rank.
"That'll do..." Kureo Mado looked out the car window at the black-clad figure scrambling across the distant rooftops, a vicious grin curling his lips.
"S-rank... not bad, though it won't be as satisfying as catching Jason."
Boom!
An explosion rang out, blasting two figures out amid a shower of ice fragments.
"Don't move!" A Rank 3 Ghoul Investigator and several assistant investigators immediately advanced with their guns raised, trying to restrain the people before them. Their ranks were too low to be issued Quinques yet.
They had clearly received intelligence on him. They hung back over thirty meters away, afraid to charge in recklessly, but a few Ghoul Investigators without Quinques obviously couldn't stop Louis from that distance.
Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang!
An ice shield appeared in his hand, blocking the bullets. Louis grabbed Ryouko Fueguchi and turned into a nearby alley.
These people stuck to him like glue. He couldn't shake them off, whether he plunged into a crowd or wove through narrow alleys.
"Mr. Louis... you've already done enough for us. Please, get away!" Ryouko Fueguchi looked at his shoulder, which had begun bleeding again, unable to bear it.
Mr. Louis is injured... he can't possibly run fast while carrying me...
At that thought, Ryouko Fueguchi placed her hand on Louis's shoulder, intending to pull free.
But suddenly, the man searching for an escape route ahead of her spoke. "You're all Hinami has left."
His expression was hidden beneath the Ice Mask...
Hearing Hinami's name, Ryouko Fueguchi's eyes wavered again.
"Even if it's only for Hinami, you need to stay strong. I can't look after that kid."
"If you understand, then pull yourself together..."
Before he could finish, something whistled through the air from the side. A bone blade shot toward them.
"What a pain!" Louis gritted his teeth and was about to take the hit when the sound of a kagune bursting out of flesh suddenly came from behind him!
The enormous moth-wing-shaped koukaku appeared again, its hard surface deflecting the attack with a bang.
Ryouko Fueguchi's eyes turned blood-red again, and her gaze no longer looked so hopeless.
Louis could feel the broken bones in her lower leg rapidly shifting back into place and healing.
"That's more like it!"
Just then, Koutarou Amon charged at them head-on, swinging his blunt kagune diagonally downward.
With a loud crash, the concrete ground cracked under the blow, but Louis was nowhere to be seen.
Overhead!
The moment Amon noticed, a tremendous force struck his shoulder. Ice Mask used it as a springboard, leaping toward a second-floor window overlooking the alley and crashing through it.
"Ah!" A woman's scream made Louis jump. He hadn't expected the room he had randomly broken into to have a woman inside.
"Sorry, sorry! I'm leaving right away!" Louis hurriedly apologized, got his bearings, then smashed through another window and leaped outside.
[Actions that alter the plot will vary in difficulty according to the importance of the plot the host changes!]
"I know, I know. Just bring up the map..." Louis wasn't here to listen to the system ramble. He quickly told it to display the map.
This was an outlying neighborhood of low, single-story houses. It was sparsely populated, with barely any residents in sight. Since there had been no witnesses to spot the two of them, their pursuers hadn't found them immediately.
Louis huddled in a corner, taking a brief rest while checking the map for an escape route.
"This place... I remember it wasn't so deserted before..." Ryouko Fueguchi seemed to have been here before and couldn't help commenting as she looked around.
"Mr. Louis..." Ryouko Fueguchi looked at him worriedly. Using her kagune again had left her very weak, but her eyes were much more resolute than before.
"I'm fine..." Louis used cold air to freeze the reopened wound on his shoulder again. "We can't go straight back to Anteiku right now. We'd lead the enemy there..."
"With all the commotion we've caused, the manager and the others must have noticed. I haven't been with Anteiku long, but I can tell they're people we can trust. So they'll definitely... come save us."
If they could hold out for a while, rescuing them would be easy enough for the people at Anteiku.
He had thought that through long ago. That was why he had dared to risk his life running all over the place with Ryouko Fueguchi.
At the mention of Anteiku, Ryouko Fueguchi's eyes gradually grew downcast again. "I don't even know whether Hinami is safe now..."
"Don't worry. I saw Kaneki meet up with her on my way over." Louis smiled, though she couldn't see it through the Ice Mask. "Kaneki might look timid and soft, but he's no slouch in a fight. If we really went at it, I might not even beat him."
Just then, a sudden noise nearby made Louis's heart lurch. An Ice Blade immediately appeared in his hand.
But whoever was approaching didn't seem hostile...
"Are you Mrs. Fueguchi?" With a faint, tentative voice, a thin man emerged from around the corner of a nearby house. Judging by his clothes, he seemed to live in the neighborhood. From his scent, he was probably a ghoul.
"I'm Asaki's friend. He used to help me out a lot. I saw the news. Come hide at my place for now!" The ghoul looked a little panicked himself, glancing outside every so often as though afraid someone would spot him.
But... who's Asaki?
Louis looked at Ryouko Fueguchi. The ghoul had apparently called her by name.
"He's a friend of my husband..." Ryouko Fueguchi clearly recognized him too, and looked deeply relieved. "Thank goodness..."
"Can we trust him?" Louis remained on guard and asked coldly. Only after she answered yes did he relax a little and help Ryouko Fueguchi walk over.
Fortunately... the man really meant no harm. Aside from getting so startled upon discovering that Louis wasn't a ghoul that they nearly came to blows, nothing else happened.
[Hirochi Yamashita, C-rank ghoul, koukaku, overall combat ability: D.]
He seemed to be a ghoul who wasn't good at fighting.
"Mrs. Fueguchi, please have some..."
Just as Louis finished treating his wound and was still wrapping it in bandages, Hirochi Yamashita suddenly took a piece of meat from the refrigerator and carefully offered it to her.
But Ryouko Fueguchi didn't eat it. Instead, she stared at the food in shock. It was flesh from a ghoul's corpse...
Ghouls eating other ghouls wasn't uncommon.
"This is all I have..." Hirochi Yamashita looked embarrassed, as though there was something in his past he didn't want to remember.
This was no time to be picky. Ryouko Fueguchi nodded and hesitated for a moment, then her eyes turned red and she bit into the meat.
Louis promptly turned his head away.
"Mr. Asaki helped me so many times before... I'm very grateful... When I heard what happened to him, I was devastated..." Watching Ryouko Fueguchi eat, Hirochi Yamashita recounted the past with a dejected expression.
"..." Louis looked out the window. After confirming that there were no pursuers, he turned back to Hirochi Yamashita. "Do you have a phone? I'll call my friends and have them pick me up."
Ryouko Fueguchi's phone was no longer usable. Now that her identity had been exposed, her number would be monitored. Besides, she had already lost it during their escape.
"Yes, yes!" Hirochi Yamashita nodded vigorously. He seemed very afraid of Louis and fumbled as he took a phone out of a drawer.
"..." Louis took the phone, recalled the number the manager had told everyone to memorize, and prepared to enter it.
But suddenly, he froze. In the call history below, there was an outgoing call from twenty minutes ago...
That time matched exactly when he had fled into this area...
Before you continue