Touka understood at once. A transaction was the necessary bridge.
She didn't hesitate. Compared to her comrades' lives and Anteiku's future, any price was payable. She'd already seen what Mitsuha Miyamizu paidand it hadn't been beyond bearing.
Touka glanced down at her ruined body and gave a bitter smile. "Who could ever love a monster?"
Kirishima Touka: "So we have to trade? I understand!"
Moments later
[Ding! Trade initiated!]
[Trade Target]: Kirishima Touka
[Tradd Content]: Let her comrades survive.
[Trade Terms]: "Unlimited body-usage rights."
The moment she sent the request, Touka felt a strange connection take shape in the void.
~~~
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Chapter 916: Rei Ao is Here!
Reality.
A dark alley.
After sending the transaction request, Touka leaned against the cold, damp wall, struggling for breath and conserving every bit of strength she could. Anxiety gnawed at her as she waited.
How will the group owner come? When will he come? How will he help me?
Questions and anticipation churned
Fwoosh!
A blinding shaft of white light speared in from the mouth of the alley. The glare, like a blade of judgment, struck her squarely, leaving her pallid face and blood-stained body nowhere to hide.
"Found her! She's here!"
A cold male voice, tight with suppressed excitement, rang out.
Damn itdiscovered!
Touka's face went even whiter; her heart seemed to skip a beat. She forced herself through the stab of pain in her abdomen to get up and run, but the weakness of blood loss slowed her for an instant.
In that instant, hurried, jumbled footsteps pounded at the alley's exit.
More Doves were coming!
She turned to bolt the other wayonly to see several figures appear at the opposite end as well, black trench coats looking especially grim in the dim light.
!!!
Only now did Kirishima Touka realize she'd been made long ago. They'd even let her bandage herself so she'd think she'd slipped the netwhen in fact they'd been tightening it to perfection.
"Hah hah"
Panting like a cornered animal, a hard glint flashed in her crimson kakugan. She tore off the makeshift bandage. Fresh blood surged from the wound with the violent motion, but she no longer cared.
A deep-red ukakulike shards of crystalflared open from behind her shoulder blades, casting a dangerous, uncanny glow in the dark.
This was her last stand.
But when she tried to take wing and break out above, she found investigators with quinques on the walls and fire escape overheadshe had no idea when they'd slipped into position. Cold muzzles leveled at her.
No way out.
"What a beautiful ukaku"
A hoarse, snakelike voice, tinged with a sickly obsession, drifted from ahead. The line of men at the front of the encirclement parted, and out stepped a lanky man with a shock of messy white hair. A twisted, ill-fitting smile warped his face. Hook-sharp eyes locked onto the kagune unfurled behind Touka, as if he were admiring a peerless work of art.
Kureo MadoFirst Class Investigator, CCG. A madman notorious for cruelty and rabid hatred of ghouls. Obsessed with crafting quinques, and the powerful, rare kagune he coveted as materials most of all.
"Give up the pointless struggle, little rabbit."
Step by step, Kureo Mado advanced, hefting a huge, boxy weapon wrapped in white clothhis quinque.
"Be a good girl and become part of my new collection. It'll hurt less that way."
"Or would you like to feel what it's like to be taken apart?"
His laugh made the skin crawl. If you didn't know better, you'd think he was the ghoul.
"Damn it!"
Touka clenched her teeth. Her ukaku trembled, primed to fight to the death. Even if she died, she would never let her kagune be turned into a weapon to slaughter her own kind.
At that hair-trigger moment
"Apologies for spoiling the fun."
A calm, gentle voice, carrying a strange penetrating quality, suddenly rang through the dead-still alley, reaching every ear clearly.
"But this young lady is an important transaction target of mine. So, I can't hand her over to you."
All the investigatorseven Kureo Madowere stunned. They turned toward the voice.
The dingy, filthy, blood-reeking alley rippled and warped like the surface of a pond struck by a stone. The light at the mouth of the alley blurred. The surrounding walls began to flow like melting wax.
!!!
Eyes widened all around at the incomprehensible sight.
Then, at the center of those warped lights and shadows, a tall, straight figure emerged as if walking out of an ink paintingblur resolving into clarity.
Black, tousled hair.
Deep-set eyes.
A face too handsome to seem mortal.
And that detached, sovereign airoutside it all, yet in control of everything.
Rei Ao.
He stepped through the filthy puddles with unhurried ease, as if striding a palace red carpet, his gaze landing unerringly on the blood-smeared, speechless Kirishima Touka. His brow creased slightly.
"You're pretty badly hurt."
His voice was even, unreadableyet, in her desperate straits, it made Touka's nose prickle.
He really came!
Someone now stood at Touka's sidewithout warning, without anyone seeing how. No footsteps, no breath, not even a blip on any detection device.
What was he?
A new kind of ghoul?
A special kagune ability? Spatial transfer?
Kureo Mado narrowed his snake-like eyes, raking up and down this bizarre man who had appeared from nowhere. Hoarsely, he asked, "Young man are you a ghoul as well?"
His hand tightened imperceptibly on the handle of the quinque case. If it was a ghoul, he would cut it down.
Rei Ao smiled faintly and shook his head. "Sorry to disappoint you. I'm not a ghoulat least biologically, I qualify as human."
He paused, his gaze sliding over Mado, tone turning lightly amused. "And a perfectly normal male in every respect. For example, I happen to think your daughter, Akira Mado, and I might get along quite well."
"???"
Mado's twisted smile froze; his pupils shrank to pinpoints.
Akira How does he know Akira?! And that she's my daughter?!
Family information on investigators is strictly confidential within the CCG!
A chill shot up Mado's spine to the back of his head.
This man was too uncanny.
"You threatening me?"
Mado's voice dropped to a deadly register, his killing intent barely veiled.
Chapter 917: Kneel
"Threatening me?"
Rei Ao acted as if he'd heard a joke. He let out a dismissive chuckle. "To deal with you, I don't need something as low-grade as 'threats.'"
He paused. His tone snapped cold, like a gale across an icefield.
"I only need to say one simple thing"
"Kneel."
The two light words drifted out of his mouth.
And the instant they fell
"Uh?!" "Ah!!" "What's happening?!"
Thud! Thud! Thud!
Every CCG investigator surrounding the alleyled by Kureo Madowas crushed as if an invisible mountain had dropped onto their shoulders. Their legs buckled beyond their control, knees slamming into the cold, filthy concrete.
"Hss!"
Pain shot up from their kneecaps. But what terrified them more was this:
No matter how they struggled, no matter how they tried to muster their strength, they could not stand. That unseen pressure nailed them in place, forced to kneel. Even lifting their heads became brutally difficult.
"What?! W-what kind of power is this?!"
Veins stood out on Kureo Mado's forehead. He threw everything he had against that overwhelming forceand found it utterly futile.
Horrified, he stared at the man who still looked utterly unruffled, shock waves roaring through his mind.
This wasn't a kagune's power. It wasn't any known power at all.
A psychic attack? Some unknown technology?
Just what kind of monster was this man?!
Rei Ao's indifferent gaze swept over the sea of kneeling investigators without a ripple. In his eyes, aside from a handful of zealots and whatever shadowy hands might be behind them, most CCG members were merely ordinary peoplemisled, performing their duty.
Killing them would be meaningless.
He turned to the girl behind himKirishima Toukastunned stiff, her ukaku still unfurled and forgotten.
"Can you walk?"
Only then did Touka snap out of her shock. Looking at the man who had, with a single word, forced powerful investigators to their knees, she felt a staggering aweand a hint of reverence.
She instinctively tried to nod, but the moment she took a step, agony and weakness surged from her wound. Darkness swam at the edges of her vision and she pitched sideways.
The expected impact never came. A strong arm caught her around the waist and held her steady.
"Right looks like you can't."
Rei Ao's voice carried a wry, helpless smile. His arm tightened slightly, and he lifted the slender girl with effortless easecradling her in a textbook princess carry.
"Mm!"
Touka gasped. Color rushed to her pallid cheeks in a sudden, unnatural flush. She reflexively tried to struggle pain lanced from her wound and stole her breath, so she froze stiff in his arms.
A clean, refreshing scentlike it didn't belong to this dirty worldlingered at the tip of her nose.
Holding her, Rei Ao didn't even glance at the investigators still straining on their knees. He started walking, calm and unhurried, right through the field of crumpled "Doves."
His steps were steady. For the Doves, it was the ultimate humiliation. All they could do was watch, shame and fear in their eyes, as this terrifyingly mysterious man carried their target ghoul away, strolling into the darkness at the far end of the alley.
Only long after Rei Ao's figure vanished
"Urgh!"
Kureo Mado suddenly felt the weight lift from his shoulders; the invisible pressure vanished in a snap. He had braced so hard he nearly pitched forward. He staggered upright, face a frightening slate-blue, his body trembling from fury and the residue of fear.
The other investigators dragged themselves up one by one, every face stamped with shock and disbelief.
"M-Mado-san w-what was that just now"
"Shut up!"
Mado cut his subordinate off harshly. He glared toward the direction Rei Ao had gone, teeth grinding audibly.
That power that absolute, incomprehensible, irresistible, godlike crushing force
He had never faced anything like it in his career.
That man and the ghoul codenamed "Rabbit"
This would not end here.
The dark alley fell silent again, leaving only wreckageand a squad of badly shaken CCG investigators.
By then, Rei Ao had already disappeared into the tangled streets of Tokyo's 20th Ward, carrying the gravely injured Kirishima Touka.
Up on the rooftops, the night wind turned razor-cold, tugging at Rei Ao's coat and Touka's deep-blue hair.
They stood at the edge of a skyscraper, gazing down at Tokyo's glittering, icy sea of lightsas if poised above the Milky Way.
Cold moonlight poured down like quicksilver, stretching their shadows long, lending the steel jungle's crown a touch of solitude and mystery.
Rei Ao still held her in a princess carry. He looked down at the girl in his armsblood loss and shock had left her face deathly pale, her body trembling.
He didn't set her down. Instead, he freed one hand to support her, palm hovering over the wound at her abdomen where blood still seeped.
A soft, pure white glow welled up from his hand. It wasn't harsh; it carried a warm, life-giving aura, like early spring sunlight melting snow, settling gently over Touka's ragged wound.
"Mm"
Touka couldn't suppress a tiny whimper. The instant that light sank into her body, a nameless warmth spread rapidly, driving out the chill and weakness of blood loss.
The stabbing pain in her belly ebbed as if washed away by warm water, replaced by a prickling itchthe odd sensation of new flesh knitting.
She glanced down on reflex.
The gash, deep enough to show bone, was closing at a speed visible to the naked eye. Torn flesh writhed and rejoined; the bleeding stopped; skin smoothed over. Even the scrapes and bruises from earlier fights faded quickly.
In just a few breaths, the grievous injury was healed, leaving only the dark red stains on her uniform as proof of what had happened.
Color returned to Touka's cheeks, and, from the sheer comfort of itand their overly intimate posturea faint blush spread, one even the moonlight couldn't hide.
~~~
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Chapter 918: Aogiri Tree!
"I-I'm okay now"
Touka's voice was barely a whisper, her eyes evasive. She didn't dare look at Rei Ao's face so close to hers.
"Th-thank you. You can put me down now"
"Mm."
Rei Ao obliged, gently setting her on her feet. Feeling the ground under her shoes calmed her a little. But the surplus of strength now flooding her body, and the lingering warmth at her wound, still made her heartbeat stumble.
She quickly took a small step back to put a bit of space between them, then bowed to him, solemnly.
"Thank you very much for saving me, Group Owner!"
When she straightened, the shyness on her face was quickly replaced by urgency and worry. Her amber eyes fixed on him, pleading: "Rei Ao-sama, please save my comradesespecially the Manager. He's in great danger right now! I'm begging you"
"Relax."
Rei Ao cut gently across her anxious appeal, wearing a faint, reassuring smile.
"Since I accepted your transaction, I'll see it through. 'Make your comrades live'that's the deal."
He paused, then held out his hand to her, palm up.
"Your hand."
"Eh?"
Touka blinked, staring at those long, well-shaped fingers. The blush that had just faded crept back.
Give him her hand? What did that mean?
"The battlefield's a bit far, and the situation looks interesting," he explained, still light in tone. "I'll take you there. After all, the trouble your Manager is facing seems to be the biggest one."
Go save the Manager? Go straight to the fight?
Touka's heart leapt into her throat. Without hesitation she placed her slightly trembling hand into his warm palm.
"Hold tight."
Rei Ao smiled, squeezed her hand
and the world around her smeared and twisted.
Skyscrapers, moonlight, neon everything spun and stretched like dyes tossed into a washing machine!
A wave of weightlessness and vertigo crashed over her.
When her vision cleared again, she found herself in a completely unfamiliar place.
It looked like a vast abandoned construction site: shattered walls, exposed rebar and concrete, mountains of rubble.
