Just as Washuu Furuta arrived in front of the room where Eto was being held.
Amano Hiro, who was strolling with Rize along the commercial street of the 23rd Ward, suddenly stopped in his tracks.
"Rize," his voice sank, "let's go. Eto sent a message."
Before the words had even finished leaving his mouth, Amano Hiro stopped pretending altogether.
Right in the middle of the crowded street, he directly spread open those dark red, ferocious wings.
Whoosh.
The airflow exploded outward, and the glass display windows of the shops on both sides vibrated with a buzzing sound.
"A ghoul."
"Run."
Screams erupted everywhere as the crowd instantly scattered like a disturbed ant nest.
Amano Hiro paid no attention at all. He reached out and wrapped an arm around Rize's waist, his wings suddenly beating downward.
Boom.
The two of them shot upward like a crimson meteor, tearing through the air and heading straight toward Cochlea.
Cochlea was located in the outskirts of the 23rd Ward to begin with. Under Amano Hiro's full speed, they arrived almost instantly.
High in the air, he adjusted his posture and plunged downward like a falling meteor toward the giant ventilation platform on the roof of the prison.
Bang.
The concrete platform shattered instantly, dust and debris blasting upward.
Amano Hiro gently placed Rize to the side. Both of his arms instantly transformed into two enormous claws and stabbed fiercely into the metal panel beneath his feet.
Creak. Crack.
The ear piercing sound of twisting metal rang out.
The alloy panel several inches thick was torn apart and bent open like fragile tin foil, revealing the bottomless ventilation shaft below.
He picked up Rize again and jumped into the darkness.
Whoosh.
Violent air currents roared past their ears. Only then did the alarm system belatedly begin to howl throughout the entire prison, red warning lights flashing wildly along every corridor.
"There's an intruder."
"Quick. Seal all mid level isolation gates."
Inside the monitoring room deep within the prison, the warden with a watermelon shaped haircut and a white lab coat showed no panic at all.
Instead, his eyes shone with excitement as he licked his lips.
"Quick. Lock onto the intruder's position."
He slammed his hand onto the control panel, his voice trembling with excitement.
"No one causes trouble in my prison."
Meanwhile, Amano Hiro and Rize had already reached the lowest level of Cochlea.
Following the sensed location, Amano Hiro sped through the maze like lower corridors.
Turning a corner, a heavy alloy gate blocked the end of a hidden passage.
He did not slow down at all.
Boom.
With a single impact, the entire gate dented inward. The fixed bolts around the edges snapped free and the shriek of tearing metal pierced the corridor.
Boom.
A second strike tore a massive hole directly through the center of the door panel.
The twisted metal curled outward as if a giant beast had bitten into it.
One gate. Two gates. Three gates.
Five equally solid blockade gates shattered one after another under his pure brute force.
Metal debris clattered behind him. At the end of the dust filled corridor, the area containing the special cell he was sensing finally appeared before his eyes.
At almost the same moment, inside the cell, Washuu Furuta, who had been pressing his forehead against the bulletproof glass while spitting twisted curses at Eto, also heard the thunderous noise behind him.
His expression instantly went blank. He stopped cursing and slowly turned his head.
Within the spreading dust, a huge figure covered in ferocious crimson armor stepped out from the violently torn corridor entrance.
Immediately afterward, a slender figure gracefully descended from the monster's arms, lightly brushing nonexistent dust from the hem of her skirt.
Rize lifted her gaze toward the stunned Washuu Furuta. A familiar yet dangerous smile curved on her lips, her voice light as if greeting an acquaintance at a tea party.
"Long time no see, Furuta."
Washuu Furuta stood motionless, his gaze locked tightly onto Rize.
Gradually, a dazed and sickly smile appeared on his face, the corners of his mouth stretching wider and wider.
"Ah, Rize chan. Long time no see."
His voice sounded strangely gentle, yet his gaze burned with frightening intensity.
"I knew it. You would definitely come to find me. Hahaha."
His perverted appearance directly disgusted Rize. How had he changed so much.
Her brows knitted tightly, the disgust in her eyes completely undisguised.
"Shut up. Don't call me that so intimately."
She stepped slightly closer to Amano Hiro, her voice cold.
"I'm afraid my darling will misunderstand."
"Dar-ling.?.."
Washuu Furuta's expression twisted instantly.
It was as if the muscles in his face had lost control. His features contorted wildly under extreme jealousy and madness. His brows pressed downward while the corners of his mouth stretched upward.
He looked exactly like a master of grotesque expressions crawling out of some hellish comedy.
He suddenly stepped forward two steps, but his gaze bypassed Amano Hiro and stared directly at Rize.
"Rize, wait for me for a moment."
He tilted his head, his voice soft like he was coaxing a child.
"Let me kill this troublesome Carnage first. Ah, no, I can't kill him."
As if suddenly thinking of something amusing, his eyes widened with excitement.
"I have to keep him alive. He needs to watch us get married."
His gaze focused on Rize's face again. What churned within it was no longer admiration but a chilling possessiveness.
"This time I won't let you run away again. I'll make you give birth to lots and lots of children for me. Just like One Hundred and One Dalmatians."
That twisted love almost condensed into tangible malice. Even the air seemed to become sticky and suffocating.
Rize took half a step back in disgust at his words, her face filled with instinctive revulsion and contempt.
"Hahaha."
Behind the bulletproof glass, Eto watched the scene and laughed so hard she nearly doubled over.
Although she could not see Amano Hiro's expression beneath his mask at that moment,
she could completely imagine that his face must be dark enough to drip ink right now.
"Die."
Amano Hiro's figure suddenly shot forward like a fired cannon shell.
His dark red claws tore through the air, bringing a terrifying sonic boom as they struck straight toward Washuu Furuta's face.
However, Washuu Furuta's body twisted at a bizarre angle impossible for a human.
His entire body bent backward like a snapped tree branch, the claw grazing past the tip of his nose.
Boom.
The attack that missed slammed heavily into the thick bulletproof glass behind him.
Crack. Crack.
The entire glass wall instantly erupted with dense spiderweb like fractures spreading wildly outward from the point of impact.
In the blink of an eye it turned into a cloudy milky white surface. One light touch would cause the entire wall to collapse into countless fragments.
"That was dangerous." Washuu Furuta straightened up again, tilting his head with the same unsettling grin on his face.
"You dare interrupt my reunion with Rize-chan. You're really an eyesore."
Before the words finished, the pupil of his right eye suddenly contracted. The white of the eye was dyed crimson.
A kakugan lit up brightly in the dim prison corridor.
At almost the same moment, several thick and ferocious dark red kagune burst out from behind his back, tearing through his clothes.
They slowly twisted in the air like giant serpents, radiating a dangerous and ominous aura.