The footsteps gradually receded and finally vanished at the far end of the street.
Only when she was sure the outside had gone completely quiet did Touka's taut nerves snap slack. All strength drained from her as she slid down the cold wall to the ground, letting out an involuntary, pained gasp.
Cold sweat soaked her back. The wound in her abdomen had split open again from the frantic sprinting and tension. Waves of agony crashed over her, dimming her vision to black at the edges. Leaning against the wall, she gulped for air, trying to steady lungs that felt ready to burst—and to quell the bloodthirsty instinct howling from hunger and injury.
Her blurred gaze swept the alley's dark wall, graffitied with chaotic scrawls and grime—just like her mood: a complete wreck.
Her thoughts drifted, uncontrollably, back to the nightmare just moments ago—
The cozy Anteiku café, likely reduced to rubble by now.
An attack out of nowhere. CCG investigators in far greater numbers than expected surrounded the place.
They hadn't been without the power to fight back. The manager—"Owl," an SSS-rated ghoul. And that feral devourer called the "Binge Eater," Kamishiro Rize, her strength unfathomable. Plus her uncle and several other SS-rated comrades from Anteiku…
At first, against a squad led by only one Special Class, they even held the upper hand.
But CCG reinforcements came too fast. More than one Special Class entered the fray. Worst of all was the arrival of that man:
The CCG's grim reaper, the undefeated ghoul investigator—Arima Kishou.
His appearance flipped the battle on its head.
The manager was forced to reveal his massive kakuja form and became locked in combat with Arima. That was a fight none of them could join.
And that madwoman Rize, after grievously injuring several investigators, was ultimately restrained and taken away by quinques made specifically to counter her.
With their top-tier fighters gone, the remaining Anteiku members were driven back under the investigators' encirclement.
In the end, the manager's heavy, resolute order came, bellowed through his kakuja:
"Go! Touka! Renji! Take whoever can still move—split up and run! Live!"
She remembered her uncle's furious, unwilling roar as he obeyed, and the despair in her comrades' eyes as they each broke out.
She herself had taken a devastating blow to the abdomen from an investigator's sneak attack during the breakout, and only by exhausting every last ounce of strength had she managed to escape here.
"Manager…"
Touka shut her eyes in pain. Yoshimura Kuzen's ever-gentle, kindly face rose in her mind. Alone against Arima and that many Special Class investigators—could he… possibly survive?
A cold despair and a towering hatred spread through her chest.
All because of that woman—Rize Kamishiro!
If she hadn't suddenly shown up and drawn most of the CCG's attention, Anteiku might not have been targeted so completely!
If she hadn't rampaged around like a lunatic devouring people and provoked a purge on this scale, none of this might have happened!
"Cough, cough!"
The violent surge of emotion tugged at her wound again, wracking her with coughs as a coppery sweetness rose in her throat.
"No… I can't stay here."
Too much blood lost, RC cells over-spent—she was frighteningly weak. Hunger was surging in, the craving for flesh gnawing at her reason.
She had to do something.
She tore a relatively clean strip from the lining of her uniform and cinched it tight around the wound to slow the bleeding. The pain nearly made her black out, but she clenched her teeth and held on.
What now? Find Uncle Yomo and the others? Where were they? Were they safe? The CCG would be hunting every scattered Anteiku member; reaching out rashly might only expose them all.
Or… try to rescue the manager?
She crushed that thought the instant it rose. Against Arima Kishou and that CCG lineup, going now would be walking into a trap—she'd only be a burden.
A tide of helplessness and despair swelled to drown Kirishima Touka.
At that dead end, a thought flashed—unscientific, nearly forgotten:
"That… mysterious trading chat group!"
People there said all sorts of strange things, as if from different worlds. There was even a "group owner" who seemed omnipotent.
She'd always thought it might be some absurd dream, a mental hallucination—never fully believed it, and she'd barely said anything there.
But just earlier, while lurking, she'd seen a girl named Mitsuha Miyamizu ask the group for help— a newcomer who'd joined around the same time as Touka. She'd said her hometown was going to be destroyed by a meteor.
And that group owner, Rei Ao, had actually stepped in to help. It was a transaction, but if the deal was completed, didn't that mean he'd solved the meteor?
She couldn't fathom how—but… it seemed like her only slender, unreasonable hope.
Pressing her bloodless lips together, Touka's eyes flickered with hesitation, then hardened into resolve.
"Desperate times, desperate measures."
She focused, trying to "call" the way she had at the very beginning, following that faint sensation.
In the next instant, a semi-transparent panel, glowing faint blue and visible only to her, quietly unfurled in the air before her.
The chat history was still slowly scrolling. She flicked upward quickly.
Sure enough, she found the prior discussion about Mitsuha and the comet, and Rei Ao's final "Handled."
Her heart began to pound on its own.
"Maybe… it could really work?"
She took a deep breath, endured the stabbing pain, and forced her thoughts to congeal into words in the input box.
Kirishima Touka: "@everyone Could you please help me?"
Message sent.
She waited, nerves taut, for a reply.
Stella: "Hm? The other newcomer ran into trouble too?"
Bibi Dong: "If you have time, start by explaining what's happened to you; otherwise we won't know how to help."
Shinoa Hiiragi: "Exactly. Of course, you can also choose to trade directly with Rei Ao-kun—very convenient. I doubt he'd refuse."