A fierce fight erupted in the cramped room and ended in an instant. Louis severed Hirochi Yamashita's kagune and pinned him beneath him, leaving him unable to move.
"Mr. Louis?!" Ryouko Fueguchi, who had been eating, gasped. Her red eyes stared in disbelief at the two men who had suddenly started fighting.
"I at least thought you wouldn't call in the CCG!" Louis pressed the Ice Blade against Hirochi Yamashita's neck, unable to contain the anger welling up inside him.
How could someone living out in the suburbs know that something had happened to Hinami's father when even the people at Anteiku didn't know yet? And why had he carefully hidden a mobile phone in a drawer?
Louis had already sensed something was wrong earlier, but since the man was a ghoul, he had assumed he wouldn't go so far as to bring the CCG here himself. At worst, he would be after Louis's flesh.
But that call record, barely forty seconds long, sent Louis's heart plummeting.
"I'll give you a chance to explain... thirty seconds..." Louis stared into the ghoul's terrified eyes as the blade in his hand slowly sank into his neck.
Faced with Louis's fierce stare and demands, Hiroshi Yamashita finally lost control of his emotions and began struggling and screaming.
"What else could I do?! They caught me! I wanted to live, too! They told me they'd spare my life if I helped them catch a big fish!"
"Then the people around here..." Ryouko Fueguchi recalled how the little ghoul settlement had become this desolate place. She froze, staring at him in disbelief.
"Why... weren't you Asaki's friend?"
"I was Asaki's friend, not yours! Why did you have to come here, you damned woman?!" Hatred, disgust, and despair poured out of Hirochi Yamashita as he screamed hysterically.
About half a month earlier, ghoul investigators had discovered him. But the white-haired man had told him he could live as long as he obeyed. After that, every ghoul here had been exposed, including his own wife and children, and the ghoul investigators had hunted them down and killed them one by one.
Watching his companions fall before him because of his betrayal had driven Hirochi Yamashita to despair. His mind had gradually become twisted. He traded information to the ghoul investigators for his life and survived by eating his companions' bodies.
He remembered what that white-haired ghoul investigator had said: he had only spared him because his expressions were so entertaining.
"This broken world... shouldn't exist..." Hirochi Yamashita closed his eyes in despair.
Death was a release for him... The Ice Blade fell, and blood spilled.
The room suddenly became quiet, so quiet that even the faintest sound could be heard. With his exceptional hearing, Louis knew those people had arrived.
Rip-!
Louis tore off one of the man's arms, stood up, and held it out to Ryouko Fueguchi, who had long since been rendered speechless.
"Eat him, then run." By then, Louis was already covered in blood, and his voice suddenly turned cold.
"Other than those two ghoul investigators with Quinques, no one can stop you..."
"But..." Ryouko Fueguchi wanted to say more, only to catch sight of Louis's icy expression.
"I'm in a very bad mood right now." As Louis spoke, ice crystals rapidly spread across his face, forming a brand-new crystalline mask.
The only difference was that beneath this mask, his face was already covered in blood.
"Understood... you're no match for him. Keep your distance. We'll be there in a minute." Koutarou Amon listened to the voice on the phone and nodded, then addressed the man beside him. "They've spotted Ice Mask on the east side."
"Only Ice Mask?" Kureo Mado considered that for a moment, then turned to ask. They were guarding the western side of the village, which, judging by the terrain, offered the best chance of escape.
"This same scenario again. Twice in one day is enough to get tiresome..." Kureo Mado kept tapping his index finger against the case in his hand, apparently deep in thought.
If they continued holding this position, the Rank 3 investigators and assistant investigators clearly wouldn't be able to stop Ice Mask. But if they went east to fight him, that woman might seize the chance to escape.
Leave Amon here? No... Mado laughed. He had a better idea.
"We've wasted enough time today... Come on, Amon. Let's end this game."
The car started up and headed straight for the other side of the cordon.
By then, several Rank 3 Ghoul Investigators and assistant investigators had already fallen on the eastern side of the cordon. Shattered ice crystals lay scattered all around, and the man wearing the Ice Mask stood among them.
"Not planning to run?" Kureo Mado asked as he stepped out of the car and saw Louis still standing there after taking out every Ghoul Investigator.
Amon checked an assistant investigator lying nearby. Just as he had expected, the man's breathing was steady. He had merely been knocked unconscious.
"I'm in a bad mood..." Louis rasped from beneath his mask. Holding a Level Four Ice Blade, with two level-three Ice Blades tucked at his waist, he watched the two men from a distance.
"Mr. Mado... I have a request." Amon stood up and took out his long-handled Quinque. "If possible, could we capture this ghoul alive? I'd like to claim ownership of him."
A ghoul investigator granted ownership of a particular ghoul had priority in interrogating them and could also receive the Quinque made from them after their execution.
"Amon, confidence in victory is a good thing, of course, but you must never pity ghouls... There are no ghouls who don't eat humans..." Kureo Mado gave Amon a somewhat surprised look. "Oh, well. If you insist, we'll do it your way."
Kureo Mado deployed his Quinque and looked at Louis. "How disgusting..."
"..." Louis said nothing more. He suddenly lowered his body and charged at them.
An excited expression appeared on Kureo Mado's face again. He swung his Quinque at Ice Mask. "Here we go, Amon!"
Ghoul investigators' techniques were designed to fight ghouls, while the techniques Louis had learned were meant to deal with other humans and ability users. That would be his advantage.
As Louis ran, irregular blue ice crystals kept rising beside him, obstructing the bone blade's attacks and blocking the two men's view.
"Is this really a ghoul's ability...?" Amon watched the dazzling scene before him, gripping his Quinque tightly with his brows knitted.
Louis wove deftly back and forth between the crystals, rapidly closing in on them.
The jointed kagune looked highly flexible and had tremendous reach, but it didn't seem suited to close combat. Once he got in close, the two men's combined fighting power would become a case of one plus one being less than two.
But that depended on him being able to beat either one of them in close combat. Otherwise, charging in like this was practically suicide.
Louis had plenty of confidence in his fighting skills. Although his attacks lacked power, these men, despite being ghoul investigators far stronger than ordinary people, still had bodies within ordinary human limits. They would still be injured if he landed a hit.
So...
Louis formed smooth crystals across the ground, bent backward to evade another sweeping strike from Kureo Mado, and slid forward. Even as he dodged the attack, his advance barely slowed. He was now very close to the two men.
"Beautiful moves!" Kureo Mado suddenly flashed an eerie smile. Rather than stepping back, he raised his Quinque. Its joints rapidly contracted, and in less than a second, the long, chain-like Quinque became a bone sword over a meter long.
Holy shit... it could transform, too?
Before you continue