In the end, Vela did not wreak havoc in Kouitsu Chigyou's Quinque workshop.
"See you the day after tomorrow, Doctor."
Adjusting the 'White Dove' brooch with one hand and smoothing her coat's hem with the other, Vela bid farewell to Dr. Chigyou.
"Why not tomorrow? You're already preparing to go back to work so soon… Farewell, farewell… Vela, I'll be waiting for that supreme Kakuhou you promised!"
Closing the vault storing Quinque steel ingots, Dr. Chigyou, who was entering related data into his personal computer, raised a thumbs-up and shouted.
Vela nodded, lifted the special [Arata-Ayato-α] black-gold Quinque case, picked up the stored [Black Abyss IV], then passed through the Rc detection gate of the workshop. With the salutes of the guards, she left the CCG headquarters research institute.
Akira Mado followed closely behind, carrying a case of Rc cell supply injectors.
From North America to Japan, after days of exhausting travel and a half-day of busywork, Vela didn't stir up any more trouble.
Back in the car, en route to the investigator community, she chatted with her former adjutant Akira about amusing events from the past half-year while also listening to her questions regarding the manufacture of [Chimera Quinque].
Her father, Kureo Mado, was a weapon-crafting fanatic, utterly obsessed with Quinques. Influenced by him from childhood, Akira had naturally become one of the more skilled Quinque makers among her peers from the very beginning of her academy years.
Compared to Vela, however, Akira suffered more from a lack of material and inexperience.
Within the CCG, there was an unwritten rule: the Kagune and Kakuhou of any ghoul exterminated belonged to the one who killed it. As for Akira—her sustained combat capability was clearly her weak point. Her extermination efficiency was at best that of an ordinary investigator.
Soon enough, after stopping by a night market with Akira to bond, enjoy some street food, and pick up drinks and snacks, Vela returned to her 'home' in Tokyo.
A detached villa provided by the Tokyo Commission of Counter Ghoul Headquarters.
After all, it was a profession where lives were staked—especially in Tokyo, the city worst plagued by ghoul disasters. Investigator salaries and benefits were among the best in all of Japan, and for a high-ranking investigator like her, even more so.
Waving goodbye to Akira, watching as the logistics driver of the Bureau's support division departed after helping unload her belongings, Vela let her smile fade. Raising her eyes, she gazed toward the brightly lit metropolis—not just at the city, but at specific directions.
That sense of being watched…
They had tailed her for half the way.
Vela narrowed her eyes.
Undeniable—someone was monitoring her.
"Let the storm come harder…"
With the corner of her lips curved upward, Vela carried the black-gold Quinque case inside the house.
First things first—she had to settle in. She needed to walk through every room, checking every corner to ensure no listening devices, hidden cameras, or other spy equipment had been installed. When it came to counterintelligence, she had some experience.
Creaaak. The main door shut.
The night was deep.
...
At the city's edge, heavy with the stench of rot and dried blood.
In a narrow, suffocating alley, the corpses of several CCG investigators lay strewn about, along with two mangled civilian bodies, half-devoured. A longsword-type Quinque had been utterly destroyed, its shattered blade fragments scattered across the ground.
"Eto, the tailing party reported that after leaving the Imperial Hotel Tokyo, Vela Adelheid Russell did not return directly to her CCG-assigned apartment. She stopped by Ward 1 CCG headquarters and only just returned home. Our people saw her carrying two black-gold Quinque cases. Beyond that, distance prevented identifying further details."
"Black-gold cases? Meaning our kin's precious remains—those S+ and SS-ranked comrades the CCG so cruelly labels—have once again been defiled by humans?"
"Afraid so."
"How regrettable… and terrifying. This diseased, ugly world forges our organs into weapons, then turns them against us in the hunt…"
A deep male voice intertwined with the childlike tones of a girl.
Sitting at the rooftop's edge, her small legs wrapped tightly in bandages dangling idly, the child-sized figure under a dark red hood—Eto—rested her chin on her hand and murmured: "Mm… Compared to us, forced to consume human flesh and blood as our only food, those investigators who treat us as raw materials for weapons, torturing and slaughtering us at will—which side is truly the more vile and despicable?"
"Killing and being killed, that's all. I have no interest in pondering human philosophy."
Tatara's muffled voice rumbled through his crimson mask.
"She is our mortal enemy. Since conflict is inevitable, if she insists on wading into Tokyo's waters, then we find a way to kill her."
His boiling killing intent made his crimson Kakugan glow.
"Even if striking her brings investigation and pursuit from North America—it doesn't matter."
Last time, because Vela's Tokyo assignment was nearing its end, and given her identity and troublesome strength, Aogiri Tree had endured. They gave her face, let her leave with glory, and only resurfaced after.
But she came again—this time, it would not end peacefully.
If word spread that Aogiri Tree, the faction of the One-Eyed King, had been cowed by a single investigator not once, but twice?
Laughable.
How then could Aogiri Tree still call themselves saviors of ghouls?
"Yah, yah, Tatara-san, your lesson is right. Pardon my French…"
Dropping the subject, Eto swung her arms and stood up. Leaping from the rooftop, the seven or eight meters of height was nothing to her—she landed, skipped lightly, and bounced toward a dying CCG investigator slumped in the corner, coughing blood, clinging to a single breath.
Swish!
Tatara also jumped down.
"You…"
The mortally wounded investigator, intestines spilling out, struggled to raise his head. A little girl with her body wrapped in bandages? He didn't recognize her. But that white-clad, white-haired, red-masked figure—"You're Associate Special Class Houji's partner from the 'Chi She Lian' extermina—gah!"
"Too noisy."
A flash of azure Bikaku, and Tatara decapitated him. The body spun, crashing to the side.
"Ne, ne, Tatara-san, how many of our comrades have already fallen to her hands?"
"Yamori Jason, Ayato, the Bin Brothers, Naki, Guge, Gagi…"
"Quite a few… Then for their sake, let's postpone striking 'Antique.' We'll focus on killing more humans. That American Special Class investigator wants to kill us? We'll kill her people instead."
With innocent, childlike tones, Eto uttered words dripping with cruelty as she kicked aside the dead investigator's staring head.
"Mm."
Tatara agreed.
As the tall and small figures vanished into the alley's shadows—
Shh, shh…
More figures cloaked in dark red robes emerged, reaching toward the corpses on the ground. Crunch, crunch—the sounds of gnawing, chewing, tearing of flesh echoed.
...
A dreamless night.
The next day.
Morning.
Ward 1, Commission of Counter Ghoul Headquarters.
Having just attended the formal welcoming ceremony, dressed in a proper dark uniform, Vela walked through the various department offices with a graceful curve at her lips. She nodded politely to staff who greeted her while heading toward her own office.
Pushing the door open, the moment she stepped inside, Vela saw a thick stack of documents placed neatly on her desk.
Compiled by First Class Investigator Kureo Mado—recent ghoul leads and tracking reports.
Sha, sha. "Ho, quite a backlog of unfinished investigations, I see…"