"Mm, let's watch first. Maybe we will gain something..."
Ihei Byakuya nodded.
After that, the two groups of street punks began their group fight.
There were residents living nearby, yet they did not consider at all that doing this would disturb people. Otherwise, they would not be street punks in the first place...
However, just as they were fighting with full enthusiasm, an eerie figure suddenly appeared out of nowhere.
About a height of around 1.6 meters, wearing a white coat and black pants, with a pair of white gloves, and a gray-black scarf wrapped around the neck.
The most bizarre part was the Halloween-style "pumpkin lantern headgear" on the head...
Both sides of the street punks were immediately interrupted by this intruding weirdo.
"What the hell is that? Where did this guy come from?"
"Hurry up and get lost! Do not come and bother us."
"Did you not hear us? If you do not get lost now, we will beat you up too!"
"..."
Those street punks still had not realized the seriousness of the situation and were all shouting at the strange man to get lost.
"..."
The pumpkin-headed figure did not say a word, but instead walked toward the street punks in an eerie posture.
Ihei Byakuya immediately recognized that this was the ghoul codenamed [Pumpkin Head], and the person beneath the headgear was Uruka Minami...
In order to hide her appearance and gender, she deliberately wrapped herself tightly from head to toe, and deliberately made strange movements that a high school girl would never normally make.
"Fuck!"
One of the street punks directly grabbed the club in his hand and swung it over.
Taking the initiative to attack [Pumpkin Head] was undoubtedly an extremely suicidal action...
The club that swung out was immediately blocked effortlessly by the pumpkin-headed figure raising a hand.
"?"
That street punk froze for a moment. When he came back to his senses and tried to pull the club back, he discovered that no matter what he did, he could not pull it free.
The pumpkin-headed figure's hand was like an iron clamp, making it impossible for him to pull the club away no matter how hard he tried.
"What is going on? You...?!"
Realizing that something was wrong, the street punk's expression quickly changed from arrogance to terror and panic.
At this moment, Ihei Byakuya burst out from the shadows.
Because he noticed that [Pumpkin Head] had already released her Bikaku, and尾赫, and if he stood by and did nothing, the Bikaku kagune would pierce straight through that street punk's heart in the next moment...
He was a ghoul investigator. Encountering a murder in progress, he definitely could not ignore it.
As for Yoshimura Eto, he left her where she was. He absolutely could not bring a "normal little girl" into such a dangerous fight.
Even though he knew Eto was not ordinary at all, he could not show it...
"...!"
Seeing Ihei Byakuya suddenly rush out, Uruka Minami beneath the pumpkin headgear was startled.
Clearly, she did not expect Byakuya to appear here.
And...
At this moment, Uruka Minami noticed something in Byakuya's hand. That white suitcase was not the ghoul investigator's Quinque?
Ihei-san... was actually a ghoul investigator?!
While Uruka Minami was shocked, Ihei Byakuya had already rushed to the front at a speed far beyond that of an ordinary person.
His [Speed] attribute was three times that of a normal person, and this was still the base value without any point allocation.
At the same time, Ihei Byakuya's fingerprints instantly passed the biological recognition of the Quinque, and the suitcase immediately transformed into a tachi shape.
Byakuya gripped the hilt with one hand, braced the end with the other, and thrust fiercely toward [Pumpkin Head].
[Pumpkin Head] executed a light backward somersault to evade the attack, and with a gentle flip reached a height of three to five meters, directly landing on a small platform nearby.
"Who the hell are you too?!"
The street punks screamed again.
Ihei Byakuya immediately found them noisy, but still patiently explained one sentence, "Have you not realized that what you are facing is a ghoul?"
"Gh... ghoul?!"
The street punks all stood there dumbfounded.
Clearly, they did not have much understanding of ghouls.
Ihei Byakuya could not be bothered to pay attention to the street punks anymore and focused his attention on [Pumpkin Head].
Uruka Minami naturally did not plan to give up tonight's predation so easily. Taking advantage of the moment when Ihei Byakuya was distracted explaining, she immediately released her Bikaku to strike at Byakuya.
Her Bikaku kagune was a slightly deeper shade of pink. It actually looked unexpectedly beautiful, but beneath that beauty was endless killing intent...
[Pumpkin Head]'s kagune was several meters long, allowing her to maintain a certain distance from Byakuya while launching her attack.
The Bikaku kagune was as flexible as a giant snake, stabbing toward Byakuya from a tricky angle.
Ihei Byakuya immediately sidestepped to evade, and at the same time swung his tachi Quinque in a reverse slash toward the kagune that swept past him.
"Clang!"
A sound like metal colliding rang out.
[Pumpkin Head]'s Bikaku kagune was as hard as metal, and in fact far exceeded ordinary metal.
Because what Ihei Byakuya was holding was only a B-rank Quinque, its strength naturally could not compare to the kagune of [Pumpkin Head], who was an A-plus ghoul.
He only managed to injure her kagune and was unable to sever it.
This was somewhat different from Arima Kishou's performance in the original work.
Arima Kishou also used a B-rank Quinque, but that long blade pierced straight through [Pumpkin Head]'s Bikaku kagune like a javelin, skewering it into a tangled mass.
The penetration looked extremely effortless, not at all like the level of power a B-rank Quinque should have...
It was probably because Arima Kishou's physical stats were simply too strong, achieving miracles through sheer force, especially since his physical capabilities at the time were at a near-peak state.
Because half-humans generally only live into their thirties, their bodies also develop faster.
The underage Arima Kishou's physical capabilities were equivalent to those of an ordinary human in their twenties. Around the age of twenty, he reached his true peak, equivalent to the prime of a human's life.
After that, his physical functions began to decline rapidly, and before reaching thirty he developed glaucoma...
"..."
Although her kagune was injured, [Pumpkin Head]'s regenerative ability was powerful, and the wound on her kagune would heal quickly.
She directly controlled the Bikaku kagune to change direction and strike back at Byakuya.
If an ordinary rookie investigator did not understand the characteristics of the Bikaku well enough, this move could easily kill them off guard.
But even with sufficient theoretical knowledge, a lack of combat experience could still easily result in being unable to react in time.
Fortunately, Ihei Byakuya was not an ordinary rookie investigator, and he dodged again with astonishing reaction speed.
And feeling that his strength was still insufficient, he tried to allocate points to himself while dodging.
There was no complicated process. With just a movement of Byakuya's thoughts, the system immediately completed the point allocation.
[Ding! The host has allocated 10 system points to the [Strength] attribute. [Strength] attribute +10!]
[Current Strength: 33]
[Current Points: 0]
......
Author's Note: I suddenly want to clarify something here. I guess many people developed a misconception after watching Arima Kishou chop off both of the shop manager's arms in the anime, thinking that Arima could suppress the shop manager using just two B-rank Quinques.
This is actually because the anime did not handle the details well. In the manga, Arima borrowed the Quinque of an Associate Special-Class investigator.
You should know that Associate Special-Class Quinques are either S-rank or SS-rank. Compared to B-rank Quinques, the difference is worlds apart. Also, at the time, the shop manager's goal in tearing through the CCG was to divert the attention of the Washuu Clan.
He recognized that the abnormally powerful Arima was a half-human of the Washuu family and understood that his objective had already been achieved, so he directly retreated.