KWA-GWA-AAAAAANG!!!KUKWAANG!!
Roars that made it impossible for any human to even imagine what kind of fight was happening rang out one after another.
I didn't know what was going on on the floor above, but one thing was certain: it was a brutal, bloody mess.
"When did I start thinking that...."
I had thought she was someone I had to protect. I had only ever thought that I was the one who had to shield her.
I had overlooked the child's "growth."
"No, Mister Kuzen. More than Mister Kuzen, more than me, and more than Ms. Ukina...."
"...Eto is strong."
It was easy to guess where Eto had gone after leaving the house. Her brief adventure must have left a clear wound in her heart.
But Eto was different from me.
Unlike me, who only got hurt and festered, she didn't sink into that wound. She turned it into strength.
"Damn it, I look pathetic...."
That little kid was growing like that, and what the hell was I doing? Wasn't this too embarrassing?
I took the pill bottle out of my pocket.
It was small enough to fit in the palm of my hand. I couldn't help thinking I'd been relying on something so tiny and miserable.
My hand tightened around the bottle... and then a rotten, decayed hand grabbed mine.
"...!"
The hateful hallucinations were at it again.
One was a rotten old man clinging to my arm, his bones practically exposed. Another was an old woman with patchy hair and eyeballs hanging loose from their sockets. Another was a young man whose face had turned a strange color from being strangled. And then there was that woman from before, with nothing but death in her eyes. On top of that, they kept crawling out of the floor, the ceiling, and the windows, tangling themselves around my body.
Even in number and intensity, this was pretty bad. But....
"...I'm not running anymore."
I pushed myself up, using the pillar for support.
All the corpses came dragging along with me, making my body feel heavy. ...No, in truth, my body just wasn't moving well because of exhaustion. It was only my nerves making me feel that way.
I had to hurry. But this was too damn heavy.
Unable to take it anymore, I glared at the corpses, veins standing out on my forehead.
"Get lost, you bastards. My daughter is fighting right now. I have to go."
-『...!! ...!!』
The hallucinations let out silent shrieks, bunching together all at once before surging toward me like a tidal wave.
These things didn't disappear that easily. If I wanted them gone, I had to take the medicine. I tightened my grip on the pill bottle in my hand.
"I said get lost!!!!"
And then, instead of bringing it to my mouth, I hurled it with all my strength at them. That was enough.
-『......…!!!』
Starting from where the bottle struck, the corpse hallucinations let out pained screams and crumbled away. No, my own "weakness" was crumbling away.
Only after all the corpses vanished did I feel my body lighten. It was as if the part that had been gnawing at my chest had been blown open, and I could finally breathe properly again.
"Good. Then...."
After stretching once, I glared at the ceiling still shaking with the sounds of battle and muttered, "Shall we go smash the bastard who's been tormenting my family?"
KWAANG!!
"Tch!"
After another attack ended in a miss, the Ghoul clicked his tongue.
He had chased Koma and Eto into the abandoned building, then heard sounds from the floor below and smashed through the floor—only for something bizarre to burst out.
It was that insolent half-blood brat who had been biting into his calf.
There was one change, though: a crimson single wing had sprouted from the brat's back.
One of a Ghoul's Kagune. It was an [Ukaku], specialized in lightning-fast combat and long-range attacks.
A Ghoul's combat ability depended heavily on whether they had a Kagune. The strength of the Kagune was the Ghoul's strength.
However, it was extremely rare for a Ghoul to manifest a Kagune at such a young age.
"Besides... even in terms of both combat experience and matchup, I should clearly have the advantage as a [Koukaku]!"
An [Ukaku] could attack at high speed, but its strikes were light. It had trouble breaking through the wall of a heavy [Koukaku].
And on top of that, the brat was barely even half his age. There was no way she had much combat experience.
And yet, why?
Even with an [Ukaku] that seemed freshly manifested, her movements were so natural that he couldn't keep up as she darted all over the place.
Sometimes she attacked from the front, and before he knew it she was behind him. When he tried to guard his back, a blow slammed into his side. And that impact was no joke.
Wherever the brat's [Ukaku] cut through, a handful of flesh was torn away.
"Something's wrong! The strength of this half-blood bitch's Kagune is way too high! Is this really a freshly manifested Kagune? Me, getting pushed around by some Ghoul-human half-breed... half-breed?"
At that moment, a word surfaced in his mind.
"Hybrid superiority."
It was a term used alongside the so-called "One-Eyed Ghoul" of urban legend, when people spoke of that Ghoul's strength.
The phenomenon where hybrids born from distant bloodlines possessed abilities far superior to ordinary purebloods.
From a Ghoul's perspective, it was nothing but nonsense, but there was no other way to explain this brat's strength.
"No! Forget hybrid superiority, this brat's fighting style is weird! I can't read the pattern!"
No matter how outstanding her Kagune was, enough to make him forget the matchup, he was an experienced Ghoul and his opponent was a spoiled brat raised by humans. His combat skill should have been superior, but it wasn't working on her.
She instantly saw through feints meant to expose openings and refused to take the bait.
Sometimes she charged in recklessly, and sometimes she exploited openings he never expected, stacking up hit after hit.
That wasn't the movement of a Ghoul with real combat experience. If anything, it looked like a child charging in as emotions dragged her along.
But if that child had an unnervingly sharp instinct and the control to follow it, the story changed.
KWAANG!!
The heavy [Koukaku] aimed at Eto again, only to smash another useless wall.
In that opening, Eto's [Ukaku] shot toward his exposed right chest.
PUU-UK!!!
"GRAAAAH!!!"
The shout that burst out was more fury than pain. It was rage at himself for not being able to kill a brat like this easily.
But even that moment of anger did not escape Eto's notice. She bared her nails and went for the Ghoul's eyes. A beat late, the Ghoul raised his [Koukaku] like a shield and blocked the attack.
KANG!
"...!"
He had thought he'd missed the timing and wouldn't be able to block it fully, but he managed to stop it at the last second. Only then did he realize Eto's momentum had weakened.
"I see. So even hybrid superiority is still just a child. Her stamina can't keep up."
"Haa! Haa! Haa!"
It hadn't even been that long since the fight began, yet Eto was gasping for breath in pain, her whole body soaked in sweat as if she'd been caught in the rain.
That was the unavoidable weakness of an [Ukaku].
It allowed high-speed combat, but it consumed stamina in huge amounts. She couldn't keep fighting for long.
Eto's movements, which he had been unable to catch, were now visibly slowing. She had reached her limit.
Perhaps panicking as her stamina dropped, her number of attacks increased, but she still couldn't break through the solidity of the [Koukaku].
Even the attacks that slipped past the [Koukaku] and grazed his skin were not dangerous.
The tide had already turned. Eto had failed because she hadn't finished it in the opening.
Just as the Ghoul was smiling in triumph at Eto's gradually slowing movements—
"Eto!!"
"!"
There was a human who had charged into the space where the Ghoul and Eto were fighting. It was Koma.
The Ghoul frowned at the sight of Koma, who he had thought was crushed under the concrete, but he didn't pay it much mind.
After all, he was only a human barely able to move. If he wasted attention on him, he might leave an opening for Eto to land a fatal blow.
That was a fatal mistake on the Ghoul's part.
Eto alone was staring straight at Koma.
While the Ghoul's gaze was elsewhere, Koma's hand-made "signal" came into view.
Nod!
Reading Koma's intent, Eto charged the Ghoul again with renewed ferocity.
As if she meant to finish this with the next attack, she flew like a storm and struck from every direction.
"Hah! Your last gasp?"
Realizing Eto had staked everything on this attack, the Ghoul shouted confidently, certain of victory.
Then a small impact was felt in a direction completely unrelated to Eto's attack. It wasn't very painful, but it was irritating.
When he glanced over, he saw Koma holding up a chunk of concrete about the size of a fist and hurling it this way.
When the Ghoul glared at him fiercely, Koma gave him the middle finger with a face that seemed to say, "What are you gonna do about it?"
Just as the Ghoul was deciding he'd kill Eto first and then chew that bastard to pieces, Eto seized the opening he'd exposed for a moment.
PAAT!!
Eto's kick skimmed past his waist. But despite how deeply she had driven in, it ended in a miss.
That miss became a perfect opening for the Ghoul, who had still been unable to catch Eto until now.
PUUUUUK!!!
"Kyaaaah!!"
The heavy [Koukaku] smashed into Eto's back and tore away flesh. Eto screamed and flew, slamming into the gray wall as if being buried in it.
Just as the Ghoul raised his [Koukaku] like a spear and rushed in to finish her—
He stopped.
A faint unease brushed past him like a gust of wind.
What was that unease just now? In the Ghoul world, where the strong prey on the weak, the instinct for sensing danger honed through battle was nothing to ignore. Something felt wrong.
The half-blood brat? No. She had been hit just now and couldn't move immediately.
Then the human? A human threatening him?
Half in disbelief, the Ghoul turned toward where Koma had been. Koma was nowhere to be seen. Instead, he heard the sound of someone running quickly behind him.
When the Ghoul turned around, he saw Koma sliding low across the ground. What he was reaching out to grab was....
"...?!!"
The Ghoul reflexively groped at his waist.
It was gone.
That kick from Eto just now. It hadn't missed. It had hit its target exactly.
Reading the "signal" Koma had sent—understanding perfectly the hand-made shape of a gun—
she had knocked the "holster" Koma was aiming for right off the Ghoul!
"You bastard!!!"
By the time the Ghoul turned and charged at Koma, Koma had already picked up the holster and drawn the gun.
"If you were really doing police work, then this gun would have 'that' in it too, right?"
Koma knew a few things ordinary people didn't, because his father had been a Ghoul Investigator.
One of them was this.
Police officers, who faced all kinds of crime, were the profession most likely to encounter Ghouls after Ghoul Investigators. That was why every officer who carried a gun for "self-defense" was issued special "rounds" as standard.
Anti-Ghoul bullets made with the same principle as a Quinque. Their name was....
"[Q Bullet]."
The pistol, which had never once functioned properly in the hands of a Ghoul pretending to be human while devouring humans,
Koma loaded the rounds into it and aimed at the most fitting target this gun should have been pointed at from the start.
He pulled the trigger.
TAAAANG—————!!!!