Ding! Host has activated a Choice Mission!
Choice One: Go easy on the cute junior. Let Hairu Ihei narrowly outperform you. Reward: 20 Fusion Points!
Choice Two: In the face of Fusion Points and achievements, cute juniors are irrelevant. Going all out is the best form of respect. Reward: 20 Fusion Points!
The system arrived as expected. For Byakuya, this choice required no thought.
Unlike Houji and Takizawa's back-to-back defensive approach, the temporary partners Byakuya and Hairu fought extremely aggressively.
They plunged straight into the ghoul swarm.
Byakuya wanted more Fusion Points and achievements. Hairu wanted to surpass Byakuya.
If Byakuya fought with absolute confidence, Hairu fought with confidence plus recklessness.
But these were mostly B-rated ghouls with some A-rated mixed in. No pressure for Hairu, and even less for Byakuya.
Soon they were surrounded.
Byakuya moved through them like they weren't there, his extraordinary dynamic vision and reflexes letting him dodge attacks from all directions. He could even instantly counterattack with 13's Jason.
Their movements were simply too slow in his eyes. Even without activating his Mangekyo Sharingan, they seemed sluggish.
"Counter-attack" had become Byakuya's passive skill. Seconds later, his combat uniform remained pristine while numerous ghouls had already fallen.
Ding! Host defeated a "B-rated ghoul." Reward: 5 Fusion Points!
Ding! Host defeated an "A-rated ghoul." Reward: 10 Fusion Points!
...
Hairu's performance, while slightly inferior to Byakuya's, was similar in nature.
Her strengths were likewise dynamic vision and reflexes, plus the exceptional physical abilities innate to half-humans. Her S+-rated Quinque "Aus" was formidable too.
The notable difference was their styles.
Byakuya's style was dominant suppression—no flashy movements, his cold, stern expression like a combat machine.
Hairu was more elegant. Not exactly showy, but capable of remarkably flexible, powerful movements. She also enjoyed toying with her enemies.
The logistics team in the rear was stunned.
"Commander Amaha and First Class Ihei are terrifying! They're slaughtering those ghouls—the ghouls can't even fight back!"
"Truly Squad Zero elites. Especially the commander—he's on a completely different level from us..."
"Think about it—the threat posed by the One-Eyed Owl is far beyond what rabble like Grey Straw can compare to. We're completely superfluous here."
"..."
Many logistics members marveled. They didn't even have a chance to fire their guns.
Takizawa caught glimpses of Byakuya's situation from the corner of his eye, but he deliberately kept himself from getting distracted—a fatal mistake in combat.
Meanwhile, Byakuya and Hairu were drawing most of Grey Straw's firepower, leaving minimal pressure on Houji and Takizawa.
Still, Takizawa maintained proper discipline. His performance might not be stellar, but his attitude would be.
Under Byakuya and Hairu's brutal domination, the surviving ghouls finally lost their nerve. Some began slinking backward, looking for escape routes.
But before Byakuya could pursue them, a ghoul attempting to flee was suddenly impaled through the skull by a kagune from behind.
A figure emerged from behind the corpse, wearing a mask resembling a scarecrow's face and a grey coat. This was clearly "Scarecrow," Grey Straw's leader.
"Useless trash!"
His voice was ice-cold.
The other ghouls thinking of retreating froze in terror, not daring to take another step back.
"You two handle the Dove over there. I'll deal with the woman first."
Scarecrow addressed two figures behind him.
These two wore similar masks—probably Grey Straw executives.
Though there should be more executives than just these two. The others had likely gone to ambush CCG.
The executives nodded without a word and led the remaining members to target Byakuya specifically.
Leader Scarecrow decided to personally eliminate Hairu. No particular tactical reason—he simply found her looks and personality to his taste.
Humans and ghouls looked identical, after all. Similar aesthetics, too. Beyond hunger, having other desires wasn't strange.
The B-rated and A-rated ghouls had been decimated by Byakuya and Hairu. Now three S-rated ghouls had appeared at once.
Though Byakuya wasn't particularly worried about Hairu, her tendency toward recklessness meant he needed to keep an eye on her.
The two executives charged at him, constantly switching positions. Both were speed-focused Ukaku types, apparently proud of their agility, thinking their position-swapping would confuse him.
At close range, they suddenly fired volleys of kagune projectiles, hoping to catch Byakuya off guard.
But such tricks were useless against him. The moment their ukaku showed the wind-up motion for firing, he'd already anticipated what would happen next. He shifted 13's Jason to its koukaku shield form.
He easily blocked every projectile.
His reaction speed shocked the two executives, but they didn't slow down. One leaped above Byakuya to draw his attention while the other circled behind.
Byakuya raised his head slightly, as if actually distracted.
Just as the one behind him grinned, thinking he'd succeeded, he failed to notice Byakuya's eyes had already glanced sideways—using peripheral vision alone to instantly track the ghoul behind him.
"Die!"
The ghoul shouted with malicious glee.
He seemed certain his ambush would succeed, wanting to make sure Byakuya heard him.
But before his ukaku could reach Byakuya's neck, Byakuya spun and batted him away with the shield-form Jason.
Then he shifted forms again, using sword-form Jason to backhand-thrust at the executive attacking from above.
Still mid-air, that ghoul was impaled through the chest, his ukaku kakuhou between his shoulder blades destroyed along with it.
He grabbed the blade piercing his body, eyes filled with disbelief.
Realizing death was certain, despair flooded him. Only now did he understand what kind of terrifying Dove he faced.
Ding! Host defeated an "S-rated ghoul." Reward: 25 Fusion Points!
Byakuya flung the corpse from his blade, sending it flying toward the executive he'd just swatted away.
That one had barely risen before being knocked down again by his airborne companion.
Meanwhile, Hairu had engaged Leader Scarecrow.
Scarecrow's kagune was koukaku—slow, unable to match Hairu's speed.
But Hairu wasn't having an easy time either. Her Quinque struggled to pierce Scarecrow's koukaku defense.
Overall, she still had the upper hand. Scarecrow's attacks couldn't touch her, and she'd eventually wear him down.
But then Scarecrow noticed his two executives had been killed and crippled in a single exchange. He didn't dare underestimate the situation anymore.
Hairu, holding the advantage, had started getting reckless again—toying with her prey, making Scarecrow stumble repeatedly. But this left openings.
Suddenly, kagune erupted wildly from Scarecrow's body—clearly from more than one kakuhou. In an instant, his upper body was wrapped in masses of kagune, like Yamori's half-kakuja form.
Half-kakuja varied in strength, mainly depending on how much of the body the kagune covered. Only covering half the upper body was mid-tier. Full-body coverage meant a complete kakuja.
Even so, becoming a half-kakuja gave Scarecrow a qualitative power boost—though at the cost of his sanity. He was clearly becoming manic.
Hairu reacted, but she'd unfortunately left an opening.
Scarecrow's arm extended into massive kagune claws, slashing at Hairu. She hastily blocked with her Quinque and retreated, but the attack tore open her uniform at the waist, leaving a wound on her abdomen. Worse, her Quinque "Aus" was knocked to the ground.
The injury and pain were nothing to Hairu. The critical issue was defending against Scarecrow's frenzied assault—and picking up her Quinque now was impossible.
Hairu's composed, cold smile vanished. But she showed no panic—just eyes that lost their shine, expression becoming utterly calm. She clutched her wound and retreated at full speed.
But Scarecrow was now faster than her. In half-kakuja form, he had multiple kakuhou. Besides his koukaku, he also had a swift ukaku. He caught up instantly.
Thanks to her exceptional dynamic vision and the lack of accidents like slipping, Hairu narrowly dodged every attack that could have torn her apart.
Meanwhile, Byakuya had anticipated Hairu might get into trouble.
He watched her fight while delivering the killing blow to the remaining executive.
Ding! Host defeated an "S-rated ghoul." Reward: 25 Fusion Points!
Byakuya didn't rush to help Hairu because he could predict both her and Scarecrow's movements. Though Hairu was dancing on a knife's edge, nothing truly dangerous would happen.
Just then, Hairu found an opening and slipped past Scarecrow's flank—though the attack grazed her thigh, tearing her uniform and drawing blood.
She ignored it completely, not even blinking, her goal clear: she slid over and retrieved "Aus."
"Now then, it's my turn~"
Her voice was ice-cold.
Unlike her usual composed smile, her face was now cold and still—fully serious mode.
The maddened Scarecrow attacked again, his only thought now to tear Hairu to pieces. His expression was deranged.
"How scary."
Hairu said flatly.
With Aus back in hand, she no longer needed to just dodge—she could counterattack.
Though Scarecrow's assault was ferocious in his mindless state, it also exposed many openings.
His defense had also strengthened considerably. Hairu couldn't finish him quickly.
Byakuya decided to stop watching. Not wanting to waste time, he carved through the ghouls blocking him—Grey Straw members couldn't delay him even half a second.
Using the Body Flicker Technique, he appeared behind Scarecrow and slashed through the relatively weak, kagune-free section at his waist.
Scarecrow was instantly bisected!
Upper and lower body separated.
"Whew~"
Hairu exhaled lightly, thinking Amaha-senpai had finished him.
Normally, that would be the case. But facing her first half-kakuja, she'd underestimated them.
Almost identical to the scene of her death in the original story—Scarecrow's severed upper body still retained vitality. As it fell forward, his massive claws struck toward Hairu's neck.
But Hairu had already relaxed. She couldn't react in time. Her pupils contracted sharply. She thought this was the end—
...
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