Boom!!!
With a frying pan, I smashed the bastard's face as hard as I could, unleashing all the rage I'd been holding back.
His insides might have been blown open, but he was going to pay dearly for it.
"Ow...! Ow...!"
"Damn, your face is disgustingly hard."
I opened my hand and looked at it.
The skin had curled up like a rag, and blood was pouring down in streams.
I'd braced myself for the impact and gripped it tight, but in the end my hand tore apart and the frying pan flew off into the air.
Clatter!
The frying pan rolled across the floor in a pitifully warped state, so mangled it could never fry an egg again.
Still, it had done its job. Maybe not as cookware, but as a weapon.
Thud!
With that one strike, the Ghoul dropped to one knee.
Ghoul bodies really were tough.
Unless it was a [Quinque] made specifically for anti-Ghoul combat, or a truck barreling in at full speed, or steel beams dropped from a high-rise, it probably wouldn't even take damage.
But aside from a few organs, a Ghoul's body structure was the same as a human's.
That was why I'd aimed for a human's universal weak point.
"You bastard...!"
The Ghoul, one knee on the floor, glared at me with ferocious eyes and tried to get up, but failed again and again, his hand slipping onto the water that was carrying electricity.
He wanted to pull away from the current, but even that didn't seem to go his way, and the lines in his forehead deepened.
That was partly anger, but there was also pain he himself couldn't endure.
Don't underestimate household electricity.
Why else would someone survive a stun gun with over 100,000 volts and still die from electrocution at home?
Even if the voltage is weak, electricity with strong amperage can absolutely take a life. Long live household current.
I tapped his forehead mockingly.
"Even if your skin's as tough as special alloy, if your jaw gets shaken, your brain gets shaken too. That's just how the body works for both you and me."
The weak point I'd targeted, sacrificing both hands, was his jaw.
It wouldn't knock him out in one hit, but it was the perfect spot to immobilize him for a while.
A rattled brain and an electric prison underfoot. No matter how monstrous a Ghoul's physical abilities were, shaking this off wouldn't be easy.
I wanted to keep beating him senseless while I had the chance, but I couldn't get cocky.
This bastard was only temporarily disabled. If he recovered even a little and launched a surprise attack, I'd be dead for sure.
The smart move was to use this opening to run.
I opened the balcony window the Ghoul had broken through and threw the rope tied to the railing post over the edge.
The Ghoul looked stunned by the escape rope, as if it had been prepared in advance.
"About five years ago, a guy way scarier than you came charging in. I prepared this based on what I learned back then."
If you're curious what that guy looked like, look over at the Buddhist altar next to me. You'll probably see the face of my old man, smiling with murderous intent at you.
Once I confirmed the rope from the fifth floor reached the ground and stepped onto the railing, I said, "Ah, one more thing before I go."
I hurriedly kicked off, went back inside, and picked up the bent frying pan.
Standing behind the Ghoul, who had spotted the wire and was now crawling toward it on all fours, I saw that his ass was conveniently raised high in the air. I swung my arm from low to high and hurled the frying pan.
Thwack!!!
".....!!!!!"
Watching his face contort horribly as he screamed without a sound, I nodded.
"Yep. A man hit in the groin reacts the same whether he's a Ghoul or human."
That should buy me another three or four seconds, I figured, and I headed back out to the balcony, grabbing the rope.
"KRAAAAHHH!!"
The moment I threw my body over the balcony, I heard the monster howl.
Startled, I looked back and saw the metallic [Kagune] shooting out from his back as he flailed it wildly around him in rage and humiliation.
The wire I'd jammed deep into the outlet was struck and yanked free.
Freed from the electric prison, the bastard got back up.
His brain still hadn't fully recovered, but he didn't care; like a beast, he kicked off the floor on all fours and charged at me.
"...!!!"
KRAAAANG!!!
The instant I launched myself over the railing, the grotesque [Kagune] swept through and crushed the iron railing all at once.
Thank God the Ghoul still hadn't recovered his brain.
If he had, that would have killed me for sure.
The railing was bent, but the base where the rope was fixed was still intact.
When I saw him aiming at that base and swinging his [Kagune], I nearly lost my mind.
"I'm absolutely not doing another dive off a five-story building!!"
I almost died even when I fell into a tree last time!!
Swallowing the words I didn't say out loud, I turned my gaze forward.
My body, thrown into the air, followed the principle of a pendulum as the building's outer wall rushed closer.
For a split second, I loosened my grip on the rope and lowered my body slightly.
Then, instead of the concrete wall, what appeared before my eyes was the window of some unknown third-floor resident directly below my apartment.
'Whoever's inside, excuse me for a second!'
Crash!!!
I smashed through the window, rolled across the floor to absorb the impact, and quickly got back to my feet.
Even to my own eyes, it was a smooth move worthy of admiration. If I could just run out of the house like this, it would have been perfect.
But that naturally flowing motion was cut off in the next instant.
""..........""
Two stunned gazes flew toward me and stuck there. They looked like a couple, and apparently they'd been in the middle of something very busy.
A half-undressed man and woman clinging to each other. Flushed cheeks and ragged breaths.
Feeling the awkwardness intrude on my already tense mind from the fight with the Ghoul, I bowed my waist obediently.
"Sorry to interrupt while you're busy. I'll be out of here right away, so don't mind me and continue what you were doing."
"How the hell do you expect us to do thataaaaaaaaaa!!!!!"
"Kyaaaaaaaahhhhhhh!!!!!"
The man came charging at me with a golf club I had no idea where he'd pulled from, while the woman hurriedly gathered her clothes and screamed.
Too precious to waste time explaining, I yanked open the front door and fled outside.
The moment I reached the hallway, I vaulted over the railing.
Jumping from the fifth floor was a burden, and it had left trauma too, but from a third-floor height with grass below, it was worth taking the impact and jumping.
Thud!!
Even with a proper landing, there was no avoiding the force that sank deep into my bones.
The ribs I'd broken fighting the Ghoul let out a louder groan, and my brain generously dumped out adrenaline and endorphins to keep me moving.
For now it was fine, but thinking about the monstrous pain I'd have to pay back later made my vision go dark.
When I looked back, only the man from before was shouting at the top of his lungs. No sign of the Ghoul.
I didn't know when he'd recover and attack, so I ran at full speed and got the hell out of there.
The man in the third-floor apartment had been enjoying a heated moment with his lover while watching an adult film he'd rented from the DVD shop. Then the mood, which had been building nicely, was ruined by a stranger who suddenly smashed through the window and stormed into the room.
The strange man was covered in wounds from head to toe, but the third-floor resident didn't have the luxury of caring about that.
Whatever his circumstances, the guy had broken his window, trespassed illegally, and ruined his sweet time with his lover. Of course anger would boil up.
He decided to turn his favorite golf club into a makeshift weapon for just one day and chased after the intruder, but it was all for nothing.
Less than fifteen minutes later, the pursuit ended with the intruder disappearing without a trace.
By the time the sun had fully set and he returned home, his lover, who had just begun recovering from the shock that would likely leave trauma in more ways than one, greeted him.
"Honey, how did it go? Did you catch that pervert?"
"No. He ran out into the street, so I couldn't find him. Damn it, if I catch him, I'll teach him a lesson!!"
"My honey's so cool!"
As the man laughed heartily and offered his sturdy chest to the lover who clung to him, a little girl poked her head through the front door he'd left open when he came in.
She looked about five or six years old. Her shoulder-length bob swayed softly, and with that cute face, she was clearly going to grow into a beauty who would set many men's hearts on fire.
That little girl had suddenly run into his house and was calling for her father.
Her big eyes were brimming with tears ready to spill over at any moment, and she wore the pitiful expression of a baby bird that had lost its parents.
"Daddy!! Daddy, where are you...! My daddy...! Daddy...!!"
With a voice thick with tears, the child kept babbling the word "daddy."
Just as the man was flustered by the girl who had burst into his home and kept calling for her father,
"...Honey, who is this child?"
for some reason, the voice of the lover in his arms turned cold.
"W-What!? I-I don't know! I don't know this kid!!"
"What do you mean you don't know her!! Then why is she calling you Daddy!!"
"I'm telling you, I really don't know her!!!"
The misunderstanding that followed brought a storm to the couple's relationship.
But the little girl who had caused it all realized there was nothing in this house she was looking for, and, following the scent of blood dispersing into the air, she kicked off the ground and ran again.