After the topic that Ihei Byakuya did not want to touch ended, he accompanied Yoshimura Eto in reading.
Now Eto could already recognize most characters, and reading by herself was actually no longer much of a problem.
But every time she still wanted Byakuya to accompany her. Wherever she pointed, Byakuya would read.
"By the way, Eto, you should already be able to understand most of the content in a book just by picking one up at random now, right?"
During a break in the middle, Ihei Byakuya spoke up to ask.
"Yes, but I just want you to read it to me. Is that not okay?"
Yoshimura Eto started acting willful again.
"It's not that it's not okay..."
Ihei Byakuya originally wanted to tell Eto that she could just read by herself in the future, but now he could not bring himself to say it.
Mainly because whenever Eto acted willful, he would also subconsciously want to spoil her.
As long as it was not something too excessive, he basically would not feel like refusing.
So he really had no way to deal with Eto.
"Alright, we've rested enough. Let's continue."
After only resting for a few minutes, Yoshimura Eto urged Byakuya again.
...
After dinner, Ihei Byakuya rested for a bit and prepared to head out.
"Don't forget what I said before."
Before Byakuya left, Yoshimura Eto reminded him again. It also sounded like a warning.
"I won't forget. Then I'm heading out."
Ihei Byakuya smiled a little awkwardly.
In the next moment, Ihei Byakuya arrived at the gate of Seishin High-school.
Uruka Minami arrived earlier than Byakuya and was already leaning against the wall.
"Minami, sorry, it seems I made you wait for a long time."
Seeing this, Ihei Byakuya immediately said.
"No, I just arrived too."
Uruka Minami said with a smile.
"Mm, then let's start the operation. First is getting into the school..."
Looking at the already tightly closed school gate, Ihei Byakuya said slowly.
"Okay..."
When they were about to act, Uruka Minami could not help but look at Byakuya's hand.
This time, Ihei Byakuya came purely with the intention of lying in wait for a ghoul, but Uruka Minami was different. Lying in wait for that ghoul was very simple for her. She mainly treated this operation as a rare date.
"Ihei, I'm better at running along walls and rooftops, so do you want me to take you with me?"
At this moment, Uruka Minami took the initiative to speak.
"That works."
Ihei Byakuya nodded without thinking.
He did not think much about it, only feeling that it was feasible.
Uruka Minami's cheeks flushed slightly red as she mustered her courage and took the initiative to hold Byakuya's hand.
Being held by Uruka Minami's soft and boneless little hand, Ihei Byakuya was immediately a bit surprised.
But on second thought, it also made sense. Taking him over the wall like this was indeed the most convenient.
After that, Uruka Minami lightly leaped up with Byakuya, easily crossing the school wall within a blind spot of the surveillance cameras and landing steadily.
Entering from the front gate would definitely be easier than climbing over the wall, but there were cameras at the front gate.
In order to avoid alerting the enemy, their actions absolutely could not be discovered by anyone.
"The biggest advantage of being a ghoul is this powerful body..."
Uruka Minami smiled bitterly.
But if she were given a choice, she would definitely rather be a weak ordinary human girl.
Actually, Uruka Minami was simply unlucky, because based on Ihei Byakuya's understanding of the original work, ghouls could essentially be considered mutated humans.
If humans and ghouls were regarded as the same species, then ghoul infants were simply unlucky to have been born into the womb of a ghoul mother.
To put it more plainly, they were humans infected into becoming "zombies".
It was just that compared to zombies, ghouls retained complete intelligence and thinking ability, and even possessed reproductive ability, and moreover there was no reproductive isolation between them and humans.
This made it even more cruel. Zombies were walking corpses. Humans and zombies on both sides could engage in mindless slaughter without holding back. But ghouls all possessed the appearance and thinking of living humans.
"As long as you find a way to overcome the defects of being a ghoul, then wouldn't there only be advantages left?"
Ihei Byakuya said.
The defects of ghouls were nothing more than being unable to eat normal food. And rules like those of the Safe Zone, which only picked up corpses, just happened to restrain this drawback.
The only price was that one's own strength would stagnate. For someone like Uruka Minami this was fine, but for a strong person like Yoshimura Kuzen, over time it would lead to a severe decline in strength.
But actually, there was also a solution to this, and that was "cannibalism".
Eating the Kakuhou of one's own kind could also make one stronger, even more rapidly than eating human flesh.
For example, Kirishima Touka's father Kirishima Arata, after his wife Kirishima Hikari was killed by Arima Kishou, was stimulated to the point that in order to protect the young Touka and Ayato, he began to frantically engage in "cannibalism".
But he only killed ghouls and did not kill humans. Other than "cannibalism", he would also go pick up human corpses. Therefore, he was later called the [Corpse Picker] by the CCG.
Under such an unusual method, Kirishima Arata evolved into a complete "Kakuja". Possessing powerful strength, he was also classified by the CCG as an SS-rated ghoul.
Even after being captured alive by Mado Kureo and Shinohara Yukinori, Kirishima Arata's Kakuhou was still showing its value, being made into the CCG's main Quinque series: multiple models of SS-rated Quinque [New proto (Arata) ].
It could be said that without the Quinque provided by Kirishima Arata, in the original work's "Anteiku Suppression Operation", it would have been very difficult for those Special-Class and Associate Special-Class investigators to defeat the severely aged, death-seeking, and deliberately holding back [The Non-Killing Owl].
However, although the method of "cannibalism" could solve the problem of strength regression from feeding on corpses, Yoshimura Kuzen had long been unwilling to kill, whether the other party was human or ghoul.
Therefore, he was destined to only continue aging and regressing.
"Mm, I'll work hard."
Uruka Minami smiled brightly.
At this moment, she seemed not to notice that she was still holding Ihei Byakuya's hand.
In reality, she was doing it on purpose, wanting to hold Ihei's hand for a bit longer like this.
Although this was not the first time Uruka Minami had held hands with Byakuya, the first time was when Byakuya was surrounded by Fura Taishi and those three delinquents.
But compared to that time, this time's meaning was extraordinary.
Uruka Minami wanted to take advantage of the little time she had left to fulfill some regrets she had never realized.
For example, experiencing the feeling of being in love like an ordinary human girl, even if it was only an unrequited love.