The chamber was immense.
By a rough estimate, it was about twenty meters high. It was a height where a bad fall would be fatal, and even a clean one would leave at least one limb wrecked beyond repair.
As he fell, Hitokawa opened his metal case and drew out a twin-blade Quinque.
It had been crafted from the [Kagune] of the Artist he had captured six years ago. Its name was "Tarantula."
At first glance, it looked like an ordinary sword, but true to the nature of a [Rinkaku]-type Quinque, it possessed remarkable flexibility. The segmented blade, resembling the edge of a box cutter, split apart and transformed into a whip-like form as it lashed out.
The blade-whip wrapped around a pipe as he passed, and he used the momentum to brake his descent.
Snapped upward by the whip's elasticity, Hitokawa landed on the pipe and quickly took stock of his surroundings.
The first things he noticed were the Ghoul groups scattered throughout the chamber: Ghouls wearing monkey masks and dog masks.
They were the Ghoul organization [En] and the Black Doberman. So, that was where they had been hiding all along.
Wary of the Ghoul Investigators who had suddenly appeared, the Ghouls continued their assault on the Kakuja Ghoul that had dropped from the ceiling alongside them.
He didn't know what the history was between them and the Kakuja monster, but if their attention was divided, it was a blessing. With just over ten investigators present, there was no way to handle both groups at once.
Especially their leaders, Maen and Kuroinu, each of whom was an extremely dangerous SS-rated Ghoul.
Even if he fought just one of them, Hitokawa knew he could never win alone.
"So those are Maen and Kuroinu."
Two Ghouls fighting the Kakuja at the closest range stood out immediately.
Their subordinates were joining forces, but it looked more like support than a coordinated attack.
Maen and Kuroinu were landing powerful blows through the openings their underlings created, all while keeping a sharp eye on Hitokawa.
A jolt ran down his spine.
"Huh? Why do I feel like they're only glaring at me?"
He had fallen with the other investigators, yet for some reason, the two Ghouls' attention lingered on him alone. Had they figured out at a glance that he was the one commanding the group?
As expected of the Ghouls who ruled the underworld of the 20th Ward, Hitokawa silently admired their intuition.
"No doubt about it. It's that bastard from back then."
"Having Ghoul Investigators mixed in here and turning this into a mess isn't ideal... Still, if we get the chance, shouldn't we at least land one hit?"
Enji and Kaya had not forgotten the psychological humiliation Hitokawa had inflicted on them during their first encounter. If it were up to them, they would have abandoned the Kakuja monster and rushed over just to smash his face in.
Since the Ghouls showed no sign of attacking immediately, Hitokawa checked on the other investigators.
It had been a hastily assembled group sent to find Arima, but since they were heading deep into Ghoul territory, they had gathered investigators with solid skills. Each had landed safely using their own methods.
He had been worried about Hoshino, as her skills were relatively lacking, but by luck or skill, she too had managed to hook herself onto a pipe and survive.
"Arima..."
He couldn't see Arima among the landed investigators, so he scanned the area. It didn't take long to find him.
When he did, Hitokawa's eyes flew wide open and a shout burst from his lips.
"What the hell is that crazy bastard doing?!"
At the end of Hitokawa's gaze was Arima, who had somehow maneuvered himself into position and was now charging into the battlefield between the Kakuja and the two Ghoul groups with nothing but a single weapon in hand.
"Graaahhh!!!"
The enraged Kakuja monster forcibly tore off a section of a pipe as thick as its own body and hurled it away.
Enji slid across the floor to avoid it, then kicked off the ground with his Bikaku to accelerate forward.
In an instant, he closed the distance, his leg shooting up like lightning to stab at the monster's neck.
On the opposite side, Kaya twisted her body as she dropped, spinning her Ukaku like a gear.
The sharpened [Kagune] blade slammed into the back of the monster's neck, which had been driven upward by Enji's kick.
KRAKAKAK!!!
"Tch!"
Seeing the result of their attack, Kaya clicked her tongue. The monster's neck had been grotesquely twisted by the joint assault, but it was nowhere near enough to stop it.
They had gone too long without eating human flesh, and their [Kagune] output had dropped significantly.
For Enji, who used his [Kagune] for support and specialized in close combat, it was manageable. But for Kaya, whose Ukaku burned through energy rapidly, her condition was poor.
If only we had enough firepower...
As that thought crossed her mind, the monster twisted as if swelling up and bounced the two of them away. It was like a rubber ball springing back after being compressed.
Dodging the powerful follow-up strike, Kaya and Enji put some distance between themselves and the monster.
Their subordinates attacked from all sides to buy them time to reset their stances, but the monster swatted those attacks away as if they were mere annoyances.
No matter how powerful a Kakuja was, its strength wasn't infinite. Proof of that was the way the regeneration of its wounds had begun to slow noticeably.
If the Ghoul Investigators hadn't interfered, they could have finished it off with a few fatal blows. Yes, if only they hadn't interfered...
Chilling.
It was pure instinct.
An instinct only those who lived with death as a constant companion could feel.
The dreadful certainty that something silent had touched their throats—the scythe of death itself. Feeling this, Enji and Kaya swung their fist and foot backward without hesitation.
And then, they vanished.
As if someone had erased that part of the world with a stroke of an eraser, Enji's fist and Kaya's leg disappeared without a trace.
Then, in the corner of their vision, fragments of arm and leg scattered and fell like trash.
A shadow swept past, lightly brushing over their heads. A dark red blade.
It wasn't over yet.
Even after an arm and a leg had been severed, the scythe of death had not disappeared.
Time seemed to slow, as if they had sunk into mud, and Enji and Kaya looked at each other. Something was falling from above. The scythe of death. There was no way to resist it.
There was only one option left: get out of the scythe's range.
KRAK!
As if they had planned it, Enji and Kaya moved simultaneously. Enji with the sole of his foot; Kaya with the palm of her hand.
The strikes they hurled at each other met at a single point, shoving them both backward at once.
Their bodies lifted off the ground and slipped out of position, and the scythe of death passed by so close it only clipped a few strands of their hair.
Whoosh!
What emerged with that red arc was none other than a boy in a school uniform.
His expression was calm, his breathing undisturbed.
The boy's face showed no emotion, as if the murderous strike from a moment ago had been a lie. He was simply a machine that cut whatever stood before him.
"Who the hell is that?!"
"Big brother! Are you all right?!"
"Sis!"
The subordinates were stunned, not only by the sudden intruder but by the sight of blood spraying from their leaders' severed limbs.
With their leaders badly wounded, the underlings began to waver, and the balance that had been holding steady started to collapse.
"Graaahhh!!!"
BOOM!
"Cough...!!"
Driven by instinct rather than reason, the monster seized the opening the subordinates had exposed and drove a fist forward.
One Ghoul, ribs crushed, vomited blood and fragments of organs beneath his monkey mask before being sent flying dozens of meters to crash down among the Ghoul Investigators.
The investigators recoiled in alarm, then, seeing that the fallen Ghoul had suffered a fatal wound, tightened their grip on their Quinque. The oldest among them commanded,
"Restrain him... no, that's not feasible here. Finish him off! I don't know what's going on, but let's use this chance to cut down the numbers of [En] and the Black Doberman and secure our own safety!"
"Yes, sir!"
Two investigators, Quinque in hand, moved toward the Ghoul who was groaning, barely clinging to life.
"You bastards! Stop!"
A Ghoul wearing a dog mask charged in, refusing to stand by.
They had always been hostile factions, but they were allies for now, and even if the other guy was irritating, it was hard to watch him die at the hands of a Ghoul Investigator.
When a Ghoul from the Black Doberman stepped in to protect a Ghoul from [En], more investigators rushed over, and the Ghouls responded by increasing their own numbers.
As a result, the number of people keeping the monster in check inevitably dropped.
The monster rampaged all the more happily.
At a time like this, their leaders should have been controlling the chaos, but they were wounded and too busy fighting Arima.
In the end, Arima's intervention caused the invisible balance to collapse like dominoes, and a melee broke out everywhere.
"At this point, this isn't a melee anymore... it's a war of attrition."
Watching the situation unfold, Hitokawa realized this was no time to worry about whether or not to spare a Ghoul's life.
Ghoul, investigator, and Kakuja monster. The fighting would not stop until two of the three were dead and only one remained.
A battle that would not end until one side was wiped out completely. It was, quite literally, a war of destruction.
"...Huh?"
As he scanned the battlefield, Hitokawa spotted a silhouette that stood oddly apart from the fighting.
A Ghoul wearing a monkey mask was carrying an injured Ghoul in a dog mask, quietly backing away to avoid the battle.
If the goal was to help a wounded comrade, the scene made sense.
Hitokawa wasn't the type to doggedly chase fleeing Ghouls, so he had no intention of intervening. That would be a different matter if he judged the Ghoul to be a threat if left alone...
In any case, it was one of the more ordinary-looking Ghouls, yet for some reason, it drew his eye.
Maybe it was an uneasy feeling. Maybe the way it was slipping away reminded him of a friend. The Ghoul it was carrying also happened to have a build similar to Eto's.
"..."
No. No matter how much that guy has always been the type to go off the rails once he gets a feeling, there's no way. Jumping into the middle of a war between Ghouls and investigators...
If that turned out to be true, Hitokawa wouldn't be able to stop himself from grabbing his Quinque and going to his friend's house to make a complete mess of things. He'd encouraged him to live a normal life, away from the Ghoul world, and this was how he repaid that? Had he lost his mind?
He was just about to think of grabbing those Ghouls and ripping off their masks, but unfortunately, he didn't have the luxury.
The Kakuja monster, rampaging while tearing through the Ghouls, lunged straight at Hitokawa. To a creature that made no distinction between friend and foe, a Ghoul Investigator was just as good a meal.
BOOM!
He leaped off the pipe to dodge the monster's attack, then wrapped his Quinque around another pipe and shot upward into the air.
Just as he took a position above the monster's head and was about to swing the blade of the Quinque in his other hand, a bloodied Ghoul came flying in from the side.
"Ghk!"
It was the bloodied Maen.
While moving silently and dodging Arima's attacks—each one fatal—he had been forced into the space between the monster and Hitokawa.
With one arm severed, he was fighting one-handed now, and his body had already been carved up with countless slashes.
Kuroinu, who had also lost one leg and was fighting Arima, was in the same state.
He did this to two SS-rated Ghouls in an instant...?!
Hitokawa was still reeling from Arima's power, which far exceeded anything he had expected, but he had to deal with Maen and the monster first.
Cutting down Maen now would be easy.
Maen had only just realized Hitokawa's position because he'd been distracted by Arima, and his face showed surprise.
On top of that, his injuries left him full of openings—enough that Hitokawa could easily take his life.
But the problem was the brutal fist flying in from behind Maen. The monster wasn't stopping for anyone. If he cut Maen down now, that fist would crush him to death.
Maen seemed to have reached the same conclusion. If he attacked Hitokawa now, he'd be caught dead-on by the monster's strike.
Maen and Hitokawa shared a brief moment of eye contact.
Maen's [Kagune] and Hitokawa's Quinque shot out at the monster's fist at the same time.
BOOM!
With a huge recoil, Maen and Hitokawa were blown away. Thanks to their joint attack, they managed to deflect the monster's strike without too much trouble.
The moment they landed on the pipe, the two of them glared at each other, placing one another back on their list of threats.
The silent alliance had served its purpose by getting them out of that one strike. Now it was time to break the alliance and stand on the battlefield as enemies again.
Clang!
With a loud metallic crash, Kuroinu landed on the opposite side of Maen. The wounds between them had only increased.
Thud.
Arima landed skillfully at a point a short distance from the monster.
Aside from a slight tear in his sleeve from Kuroinu's Ukaku bullet, Arima had no notable injuries. Seeing that, Hitokawa had to seriously wonder, Is that bastard even human?
Monster, Maen, Kuroinu, Arima, Hitokawa.
It was annoying to admit, but on this pipe battlefield, Hitokawa was the weakest individual fighter of the bunch. Knowing that, he still gripped his Quinque and bared his fighting spirit.
Since when had he ever fought by sorting opponents into stronger and weaker ones?
He just had to drive his fangs into the opponent's throat and cut off their breath. That was enough.
"Graaahhh!!!"
The catalyst was the monster, which ignored the distinction between friend and foe, tearing through the space created by their mutual vigilance to charge in.
Here, too, the war of destruction began.
Damn it! Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!!
I kept cursing in my head. Every situation was spiraling downward in the worst possible way.
Was wanting to survive just one more day such an outrageous wish? Ever since those mysterious men appeared, everything had started going wrong.
Eto was still unconscious, badly injured.
Enji, Kaya, and Hitokawa had started a blood-soaked battle, now with the Kakuja monster and some school-uniformed boy thrown into the mix.
I had no idea how the fight would end, but it was definitely going to be something horrible.
I wanted to tell them to run. But there was nowhere to run.
The passages leading out of the chamber were all narrow.
Even if the Ghouls on Enji and Kaya's side tried to flee, the narrow entrances would bottleneck them, and there was no way the others would kindly let a bunch of exposed Ghouls go.
The fighting couldn't be stopped. They couldn't be made to run.
All I could do was watch. Watch Ghouls die. Watch investigators die.
Watch people I'd grown attached to die.
It was horrible.
Helplessness was a truly awful thing.
"Damn it!!!"
Thud!
Smashing my fist into the wall in frustration changed nothing. All it did was make one useless bastard bleed.
And then, just as I shut my eyes in despair, I noticed something once my vision was blocked.
Splash, splash...
"...Water?"
A faint sound of flowing water came from beyond the wall. It didn't stop; it just kept going.
Was it raining aboveground right now? All rain that fell on the city flowed underground and gathered in the sewers. As I followed that line of thought, a realization struck me like lightning.
"...!!!"
I hurriedly unfolded the map I'd been clutching in my other hand until it was crumpled.
Studying the maze-like sewer system in detail, I muttered,
"Found it."
I'd found another escape route.
========================
The website for reading paid chapters is available on my Patreon. The number of chapters on Patreon: 130
Link: patreon.com/UltraMagnus_T