"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 alley—led by Kureo Mado—was 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 force—and 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 people—misled, performing their duty.
Killing them would be meaningless.
He turned to the girl behind him—Kirishima Touka—stunned 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 awe—and 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 ease—cradling 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 scent—like it didn't belong to this dirty world—lingered 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 wreckage—and 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 lights—as 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 arms—blood 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 itch—the 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 it—and their overly intimate posture—a faint blush spread, one even the moonlight couldn't hide.
~~~
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