With the Three Beasts killed ahead of schedule, events were progressing much faster than in the original story.
At present, Esdeath only had Uesugi Ryu under her command, and her new Teigu users had yet to be fully assembled.
Night Raid had suddenly acquired three Teigu.
Although Black Marlin was to be handed over to Uesugi Ryu, obtaining two Teigu was still a considerable gain.
Najenda needed to return to Revolutionary Army headquarters to hand over the Teigu.
With Esdeath back in the Imperial Capital and the Boss absent, Night Raid's operations were temporarily suspended as well.
While the battles of force had momentarily ceased, the imperial court had become quite lively.
Chouri had returned to the court.
As a former Prime Minister, his prestige was extremely high.
The moderate faction suddenly had a backbone once more.
However, after years of Honest's purges, the moderates were clearly no match for the Minister's faction.
Undercurrents swirled through the Imperial Capital's political scene, though open conflict had temporarily subsided.
Taking advantage of this lull, Uesugi Ryu naturally planned to return to the Tokyo Ghoul world.
He had already been in the world of Akame ga Kill! for nearly half a month.
Given the time ratio, only about two and a half days had passed in the Tokyo Ghoul world.
Little Uesugi Ryu could no longer hold back.
After all, Uesugi Ryu was in the pleasure district business.
Naturally, he would never proactively visit courtesans himself, but as the boss, it was only proper for him to occasionally inspect the establishment.
Those scenes of fragrant beauty were unavoidable.
"Sigh. My little brother has truly suffered."
Uesugi Ryu sighed, then put on his clothes and headed for the study.
He still had not examined the alchemy materials Night Raid had delivered.
Since he had nothing better to do, it was the perfect opportunity to study them a bit.
A large pile of ancient-looking, differently shaped papers lay scattered across the desk.
Just one glance at their tattered appearance made it obvious they were old relics.
Unfortunately, they were completely disorganized and lacked any coherent system.
Uesugi Ryu had asked Esdeath about alchemy before, but the results had been disappointing.
For some reason, the Empire's alchemical inheritance was also extremely scarce, with no complete system remaining.
Though that might simply be because Esdeath had no interest in the subject.
An Empire that had once forged forty-eight mighty Teigu could not possibly lack alchemical knowledge.
Uesugi Ryu suspected there was more to the story, though now was not the time to investigate.
The alchemical texts Night Raid had sent were yellowed with age.
Even dried bloodstains still clung to the edges of the beast-hide pages.
Uesugi Ryu picked up a wrinkled sheet, his fingers brushing across its rough surface.
This material was likely made from Danger Beast hide.
Staring at the dense, tiny writing, his head immediately began to ache.
The Akame ga Kill! world had a great variety of scripts.
These alchemical documents were clearly not written in Imperial Language.
The tadpole-like characters bore some resemblance to Imperial Language, but were largely different.
"Damn it. Learning alchemy requires learning foreign languages too?"
Uesugi Ryu slapped the materials onto the desk.
After a rough count, he discovered that the documents contained no fewer than four different languages.
The scattered papers fluttered, revealing a somewhat unusual black parchment.
Only half of the parchment remained.
Inscribed upon it was a bizarre design.
A double-ringed hexagram.
Between the two rings were thirteen runes.
At the center, two triangles overlapped with their points facing one another.
Beneath the design were three lines of strange golden script.
Aside from being drawn to the array itself, Uesugi Ryu felt that he had seen these peculiar characters somewhere before.
"Ritual Name: Scarlet Remains... Rite. Equivalent Exchange of Soul and Flesh. Flesh as catalyst, soul as contract..."
"Category: Human Transmutation."
Uesugi Ryu silently read the text.
As he continued, a spark suddenly flashed in his eyes.
"It looks like some kind of alchemy for fusing with Danger Beast abilities..."
The Tomb Guardians of Putra also possessed similar secret arts.
They could fuse parts of their bodies with Danger Beasts.
Replacing limbs with wings, claws, or other body parts.
Through physical mutation, they gained tremendous power.
Uesugi Ryu fell into thought.
"It seems to involve the soul as well. It should be more advanced than the Tomb Guardians' fusion techniques."
The contents of the parchment were incomplete.
There was only the array and the fundamental principles.
The actual ritual steps and all related precautions were missing.
Uesugi Ryu searched through the pile for quite a while before finding another similar fragment.
Unfortunately, the contents did not match at all.
"Looks like I have no choice but to return. I can study this while I'm back."
Uesugi Ryu stored all of the materials inside his system space before leaving the study.
Once he returned to the Tokyo Ghoul world, he could adjust the time flow and slowly research them.
Besides spending time with Akira, he really did not have much else to do there.
This time, Uesugi Ryu had arranged three days off with Esdeath.
That would be plenty of time.
"I should also find a few language experts familiar with this stuff. Otherwise, this will be a real pain."
As he walked, a trace of confusion appeared in his eyes.
"The system still hasn't reacted. Does adaptation really take this long?"
After dealing with the alchemy materials, Uesugi Ryu took out Black Marlin.
Nothing unexpected happened.
Black Marlin in exchange for Pumpkin.
A fair trade.
Night Raid had not tampered with it.
A dragon-shaped metal ring lay in Uesugi Ryu's palm, with a sapphire embedded in the dragon's head.
He gently slipped it onto the index finger of his left hand.
[Teigu: Black Marlin. Compatibility: 30%.]
Black Marlin was relatively gentle.
Even with poor compatibility, it did not immediately display hostility.
Uesugi Ryu released his aura with practiced ease.
The scale-like engravings inside the ring suddenly trembled.
[Recalculating compatibility. Compatibility: 70%!]
Previously, releasing his aura had increased Violet Lightning Frenzied Bone's compatibility by sixty percent.
Black Marlin, however, had only increased by forty percent.
Compared to the violent Violet Lightning Frenzied Bone, Black Marlin was much more composed.
It almost seemed unafraid of intimidation.
That was probably why the increase was smaller.
Black Marlin's ability was simple.
Liquid manipulation.
Uesugi Ryu looked toward the fountain in the rear garden.
The gem on the ring emitted a deep blue glow.
A small amount of mana flowed into it.
Instantly, the cascading curtain of water in the fountain froze in midair, as though paused by an invisible hand.
Hundreds of droplets hung suspended, each reflecting Uesugi Ryu's face.
He curled a finger.
The floating droplets, together with the water pooled below, suddenly erupted forward, tearing through the air.
A dragon's head, over two meters long, rose proudly.
As the dragon's body burst forth from the water, the splashing droplets struck the palm leaves with sharp smacks.
The sound of rushing water filled the garden.
Uesugi Ryu carefully savored the strange sensation.
The coiling dragon brushed against his shoulder, icy mist seeping into his collar.
He poured in more mana, attempting to compress the flowing water.
Closing his fingers into a fist, he caused the twisting dragon to emit a painfully grating compression sound.
Its scales developed the gleam of faceted sapphires.
Its claws sharpened into icicle-like points.
The enormous water dragon, which had seemed capable of blotting out the sky, shrank to roughly the size of a tiger.
Several droplets dripped from the ends of its whiskers.
After experimenting for a while, Uesugi Ryu dispersed the dragon.
The instant it exploded, countless water bullets blasted outward like shotgun pellets.
They carved inch-deep craters into the bluestone pavement.
The remaining flowers and plants were shredded into fragments.
The garden was left in complete ruin.
Uesugi Ryu did not care in the slightest.
After all, the last battle had already wrecked the place, and he had never bothered repairing it.
"Low consumption. It seems mana cost is heavily affected by compatibility."
After feeling the results, Uesugi Ryu nodded in satisfaction.
Looking at the ring, he fell into thought.
"Still, if I want to use this openly, I'll need a legitimate source."
Black Marlin had previously belonged to Liver.
Now that it was in Uesugi Ryu's hands, he needed an appropriate explanation.
Otherwise, Esdeath would undoubtedly grow suspicious.