Chapter 15: Death God
Night, the bright moon hung high.
Zone 14, West District Central Area.
This place was notorious throughout all of Tokyo. Whenever night fell, it became a small gathering spot for ghouls.
The ghouls that gathered here were thugs among ghouls. Their goal was simple: kill each other and cannibalize, standing out among the many ordinary ghouls.
Status among ghouls was nothing more than a matter of strength.
The time was around eight-thirty in the evening. Dark figures occasionally flashed past on both sides of the street. Most ghouls were already eager to make their move.
A man and a woman walked down the street. Compared to those sneaky ghouls, the two of them made no attempt to hide at all.
"Second Class Bai Ye, is this really okay?"
Touka Kirishima carried a briefcase, wearing a black uniform, and nervously scanned her surroundings.
"Ha~." Su Xiao yawned.
"It's fine. Just follow the 'plan' later."
Unlike the nervous Touka Kirishima, Su Xiao looked completely relaxed.
"Second Class Bai Ye, I've always had a question."
"Oh?"
"Where is your koukaku? We might have to fight ghouls later..."
Su Xiao didn't have any koukaku at all. Compared to a koukaku, he preferred using his blade.
"I don't need a koukaku."
Hearing Su Xiao's words, Touka Kirishima suddenly stopped in her tracks, looking at Su Xiao in confusion.
"Don't need a koukaku?"
Touka Kirishima's voice noticeably rose, looking as if she doubted her own ears.
"We're here, Kirishima. You can stand right here."
Su Xiao patted Touka Kirishima on the shoulder, then took a few steps forward, leaped up, jumped onto the second-floor roof of a building by the street, and disappeared into the night.
"Bai Ye~, Second Class?"
The koukaku in Touka Kirishima's hand nearly fell to the ground. She vaguely guessed Su Xiao's plan.
She was now the bait.
As a Second Class Investigator, Touka Kirishima could at most drive off B to A-rank ghouls. If she encountered an A-rank ghoul, she might not even be able to hold her own.
Right now, Touka Kirishima felt as if Su Xiao had forcibly stripped her naked and thrown her into a frozen wasteland.
Just as Touka Kirishima was about to run, several pairs of blood-red eyes appeared in the surrounding darkness.
One, two, three... a total of seven ghouls.
She was dead for sure. If Su Xiao didn't save Touka Kirishima, she was absolutely done for.
Touka Kirishima pressed the button on the handle of her briefcase. Her koukaku appeared, a weapon somewhat like a whip, named Amazu.
"Ghoul Investigator!"
"Why is an investigator here?"
"Just kill her. It's not time for cannibalization yet. I've never eaten an investigator before."
For some reason, the ghouls around didn't start fighting among themselves. Their cannibalization actually had a set time.
It seemed the cannibalization in the West District was definitely not spontaneously organized by the ghouls.
There seemed to be some force maintaining order here. Otherwise, these ghouls would never wait until nine o'clock to start killing each other.
This was probably some kind of selection method. After standing out among the many ghouls, that ghoul could then join some organization.
"Go. This woman isn't strong. Doesn't feel too dangerous."
More and more ghouls gathered, from the original few to over a dozen.
Touka Kirishima's heart had already turned cold. Now she didn't even have a chance to escape.
"Looks like the effect is good."
Su Xiao's voice came from the rooftop beside the street.
Hearing Su Xiao's voice, Touka Kirishima let out a long sigh of relief, but she still felt uneasy. With so many ghouls, could this newly joined CCG investigator really handle it? Even though he was said to be very strong.
"Who are you?"
"Another Ghoul Investigator?"
The dozen or so ghouls surrounding Touka Kirishima warily looked at Su Xiao.
The feeling Su Xiao gave them was different from Touka Kirishima. It was completely the feeling of a natural enemy.
Holding his already drawn blade, Su Xiao jumped down from the several-meter-high rooftop and landed steadily.
"Fourteen. About five minutes should do."
Su Xiao slowly walked toward the crowd of ghouls, his pace getting faster and faster until he broke into a sprint.
Two smarter ghouls immediately sensed something wrong and turned to run. The remaining twelve ghouls charged straight at Su Xiao.
Ten ukaku and koukaku lashed out at Su Xiao.
In that instant, Su Xiao was almost wrapped in kagune.
Seeing this, Touka Kirishima was horrified. She gripped her koukaku and charged at an A-rank ghoul.
This was already Touka Kirishima's limit. Even against a single A-rank ghoul, she might not be able to handle it.
The dark red kagune enveloped Su Xiao. A flash of bright blade light cut through the night.
Su Xiao activated his ability, mana points consuming at a rate of 2 per minute.
The ten kagune were instantly severed. The broken kagune turned into red mist and dissipated into the air.
The ghouls whose kagune were severed all let out agonized screams, looking at Su Xiao with fear.
Su Xiao quickly rushed to an A-rank ghoul, leaving a faint blue-white line in the air.
A head shot up into the sky.
In just one exchange, that ghoul died miserably under Su Xiao's blade, a clean and decisive instant kill.
Su Xiao's rapid forward charge didn't stop. He shifted his footing and charged at a nearby ghoul.
Perhaps because his companion died too quickly, this ghoul was frozen in place.
After a second of hesitation, this ghoul turned and ran.
"Foolish."
Su Xiao's pitch-black eyes seemed to flash.
Running away in battle, turning your back to the enemy, was undoubtedly the stupidest act, no different from suicide.
"Pfft."
Piercing the ghoul's heart, Su Xiao gripped the hilt of his blade with both hands. His 13 points of strength attribute allowed him to easily lift the ghoul and then hurl it violently at another ghoul who was running away.
With a thud, that ghoul became a rolling gourd.
Just as that ghoul was about to get up, a flash of bright blade light appeared in his vision.
First, a buzzing sound came to his ears, then the ghoul felt the world spin.
The ghoul's last memory was a headless corpse spurting blood and a man standing under the moonlight, holding a sharp blade, like a Death God.
Twelve ghouls, except for the one Touka Kirishima was entangled with, eleven remained.
Less than 20 seconds into the battle, only eight of the eleven ghouls were left.
The remaining eight ghouls now had only one thought: to escape, to get far away from this man who was like a Death God.
"Impossible. How can such a strong human appear in the cannibalization zone? Is that organization just going to let this slide?"
One ghoul roared, then turned and ran.
Su Xiao's agility attribute was 13 points, equal to his strength attribute. In the ghoul world, where the power system wasn't very strong, this was already above average.
What made Su Xiao strong now wasn't his extraordinary attributes, but his blade technique and combat skills.
Of course, the role of the Law-Destroying Shadow couldn't be ignored either.
But the Law-Destroying Shadow only had one combat skill now. He had obtained this class too recently; its true power hadn't yet manifested.
The hunt began. Su Xiao ran quickly down the street, occasionally cutting down a ghoul.
Painful wails and pleas for mercy filled the air.
The ghouls weren't stupid. They all fled in different directions.
In the end, of the eight ghouls, Su Xiao killed six. Two lucky ones managed to escape.
At this moment, Touka Kirishima was still locked in a bitter struggle with that A-rank ghoul. That A-rank ghoul was almost in tears. He wasn't afraid of Touka Kirishima; he was afraid of that man who was like a Death God.
Touka Kirishima was very focused during the fight. The A-rank ghoul put a lot of pressure on her, so she had no time to check the surrounding situation.
She was still too inexperienced. In battle, you had to listen in all directions and see in all directions. Otherwise, you could easily be ambushed.
"Please~, please, let me go."
The ghoul's sudden plea for mercy caught Touka Kirishima off guard. He had clearly been on the winning side. Why was he begging for mercy now? The fight temporarily stopped.
It was then that Touka Kirishima finally saw the situation around her.
Su Xiao was sitting on the corpses of two ghouls, smoking a cigarette, the long blade in his hand still dripping blood.
Touka Kirishima's beautiful eyes widened. She hadn't even dealt with one ghoul, yet he had killed all the rest.
"That one over there. If you dare to run, I'll cut you into a human stick."
Su Xiao looked at the last remaining ghoul. A new bait had appeared. After all, using a subordinate as bait wasn't ideal.