Late at night.
The soft thuds of a woman's footsteps with an elegant, curvaceous figure echoed down the quiet trotoar. Her left hand remained clutched tightly against her stomach, desperately trying to suppress a burning, violent urge inside.
Her striking, seductive appearance in the dead of night instantly drew malicious stares from the shadows.
"Hey there, gorgeous~ Want to hang out with us?" Two blonde men suddenly stepped out from a pitch-black alleyway, cutting off her path completely.
One of them let his hungry gaze sweep across her body before finally locking onto her ample chest. The breath of both thugs instantly grew heavy and ragged.
A few office workers who had just finished overtime passed by nearby. Their lips twitched as if they wanted to call out. Within a split second, however, their eyes dimmed, and they quickly averted their gaze, picking up their pace to pretend they hadn't seen a single thing.
"Sure, handsome... I haven't had dinner yet, and I'm practically starving~" The woman didn't show a hint of fear. Instead, her left hand moved nimbly to stroke the first thug's cheek, while her right hand began to slide down his waist. "But eating too much for dinner might make me gain weight. Why don't we look for something warmer?"
Her warm breath brushed against the man's face, sending a sudden surge of heat straight to the blonde thug's head.
"Wow, perfect! The two of us are incredibly hot in bed, you'll definitely get hooked! Just try not to choke later~" The man instantly gripped her right wrist, which was still sliding down the lower half of his body.
"Hmm~ Really? I can't wait... Make sure to be gentle with me later~" The woman leaned forward, blowing into her victim's ear before pulling her hand free. She turned on her heel, stepping gracefully into the dimly lit alley.
The two blonde thugs exchanged a lecherous smirk and immediately tailed right behind her.
They walked deeper and deeper into the dark until they reached the dead end of a blind alley. This area was completely dead—no passersby, and not a single security camera in sight. It was the perfect spot. Even if someone died here, it would take ages for anyone to discover the corpses.
The woman halted her steps, then spun around to face her two victims. The dim light from the streetlamp only illuminated half of her face.
"Well, here we are. We can start now..."
"Haha! I'm first! Don't worry, I'm super gentle!" Driven entirely by lust, the blonde thug failed to notice the sudden shift in the atmosphere. He rushed forward, eager to show off his prowess.
However—
"Ah... W-WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?!"
The woman's eyes instantly bled into pitch-black with glowing, crimson pupils that radiated a terrifying aura. Along with the transformation, several pairs of giant, tentacle-like organs erupted from her back, slicing through the night air.
The blonde thug's pupils shrank in absolute shock. He reflexively lunged backward before turning on his heel to make a run for it. His partner, who had been waiting near the mouth of the alley, didn't waste a second either and bolted in sheer terror.
"Oh, what a pity. I haven't eaten a single thing since I arrived in this bizarre place, so I can't just let you leave~"
*SWOOSH!*
The night air tore violently under a sharp, deafening whip.
*THUD! THUD!*
Two solid impacts resonated in quick succession as human flesh was pierced. The *Kagune* on her back shot out like lightning, skewer-like, piercing through both of their stomachs simultaneously and pinning them down like meat skewers.
"Ugh... Ah..." The two could only groan in agony. Fresh blood spurted fiercely from their midsections, pooling onto the asphalt and quickly forming two thick, crimson puddles.
With a single jerk of her *Kagune*, the woman slammed both victims to the ground. The hunger burning in her gut had reached its limit. She lunged, grabbing one of the blonde men's arms, and began tearing into the flesh with feral ferocity.
"Hey. This territory is my hunting ground."
A tall youth clad in a long, hooded black cloak suddenly materialized from the shadows. The youth—Kitahara Akira—stood tall, gripping a katana blade that gleamed with a cold, sharp light, interrupting her midnight feast.
The woman flinched, instantly spinning her body into a defensive stance. But what she saw was a bald man standing a few meters away, staring at her with a calm, emotionless gaze.
"Are you... one of us too? But I've never seen your kind before. Do you happen to know why I suddenly got stranded here?"
The bald man tilted his head slightly. "What kind of Ghoul are you? I don't understand a single word coming out of your mouth. Just die already!"
After confirming the creature before him wasn't a fellow Ghoul, the bald man instantly launched his body forward to attack.
*CLANG!*
The scenario the woman had envisioned—where the man's body would be shredded by her *Kagune*—never happened.
The bald man's head suddenly split open into several sections, revealing a cluster of rigid, octopus-like tentacles that instantly parried the heavy impact of her *Kagune*, sparking a loud, metallic ring.
Seeing her defense completely deflected, the woman immediately leapt backward to maintain her distance. Her face was now masked in tight vigilance.
"You're not human! What kind of monster are you, seriously?!"
"A monster? By human standards, aren't you a monster too?"
"Tch, whatever! As long as I kill you, all my problems are solved!" The woman dropped into a combat stance, the entire cluster of *Kagune* on her back vibrating violently, eager to rip her foe apart.
"Kill me? To be honest, I didn't want to fight you, but letting you hunt in my territory is incredibly annoying. Besides, I want to taste the difference between the flesh of your kind and regular humans."
The tentacles sprouting from the bald man's head fully extended.
***
A few minutes later.
*CLANG! CLANG!*
*BOOM!*
The deafening clash of metal and the heavy thuds of massive impacts kept echoing through the dead end of the alley, shattering the silence of the night.
"Cough... Cough!" The woman was sent flying by an overwhelming surge of force. Her body slammed heavily against the concrete wall before sliding down onto the dirt.
Deep lacerations covered her entire body, letting blood flow without restraint. Her empty stomach caused both her offensive power and her body's regeneration speed to plummet drastically. She hadn't even had the chance to feed on the two blonde men she killed before being interrupted. If her body had been in peak condition, she was absolutely certain she could win. But unfortunately, there was no "if" in life.
The bald man walked toward her with casual steps. Fresh blood squirted from several wound punctures on his body, yet he didn't seem to care in the slightest.
"It's all over..."
A single, razor-sharp tentacle shot out like lightning, aiming straight for her heart.
'After consuming so many humans, am I really going to end up being eaten too? How ironic...' The woman closed her eyes in resignation, bracing herself for the end.
*SLASH!*
"ARRGHI!"
Instead of a piercing agony tearing through her body, a sharp screech of pain erupted from her enemy instead.
The woman snapped her eyes open. Kitahara Akira was already standing tall right in front of her, protecting her. On the asphalt, a severed chunk of the octopus tentacle squirmed on the ground, cut clean in a single strike.
"Lucky I made it just in time. I can't afford to miss out on the double experience points tonight."
Akira's eyes remained locked onto the transparent system panel floating right in front of him, uttering bizarre terms the woman couldn't comprehend.
"You came to save this woman? Then die together!" The bald man's head shook violently with rage, launching all of his tentacles simultaneously to impale Akira's body from every direction.
Akira lunged forward without a shred of fear, swinging his katana with high precision to deflect every single incoming strike.
Feeling the overwhelming pressure of his opponent's strength, Akira gritted his teeth. He forcefully shoved the enemy's tentacles aside, breaking straight into the monster's blind spot.
The bald man went completely berserk, the movement of his octopus-like tentacles accelerating into a frenzy, caging Akira from every conceivable angle.
"Let’s give this a test run, *Igris*," Akira muttered under his breath, drawing a sharp breath between his dodging maneuvers.
*HELLFIRE!*
*BURNNN!*
A sudden eruption of dark, deep blue flames exploded from the circular panel strapped around his wrist. The fire surged forward, quickly wrapping the entire length of his katana blade in dense, suffocating heat.
"Haaah!" After deflecting another incoming strike, Akira locked both hands around the hilt of his sword. Exploiting a split-second delay in the monster's movements, he lunged forward with everything he had, swinging his flaming katana straight at the bald man's neck.
The bald man's eyes widened as the blazing blade flashed toward him. The bizarre energy radiating from the sword made the hair on his arms stand up, and his survival instinct screamed in pure panic.
'I'm going to die!'
Trusting his gut, the bald man yanked back all the tentacles that had been reaching for Akira, focusing his entire defense on blocking the youth's lethal strike.
*CHIIIK!*
The grueling sound of metal shearing into dense flesh echoed as Akira’s katana bit hard into the monster's neck, digging a few inches deep. However, the rigid tentacles clamped down just in time, stopping the blade before his head could be split in two.
"Tch!" Akira furrowed his brows, tugging hard to pull his katana free.
But the bald man wasn't about to waste this golden opportunity. He locked the blade tight within the crushing grip of his coiled tentacles.
"My turn!" The monster whipped another razor-sharp tentacle forward, launching it like a spear straight at Akira's heart.
Their brief clash had already proven to the parasite that Akira's physical conditioning was only slightly above that of an average human. There was no way the boy could survive a direct impalement. As long as this strike hit home, the youth before him was dead meat.
Akira clearly saw the lethal thrust coming, yet his face didn't register a single shred of panic.
"Give me a hand, *Igris*."
*CLANG!*
The satisfying sound of tearing flesh the bald man expected never came. Instead, the impact of his tentacle resonated as if it had slammed into a solid steel wall.
A massive, shadowy black arm abruptly materialized from the darkness right in front of Akira's chest, effortlessly catching the tip of the lunging tentacle. With a single, effortless squeeze, the mysterious hand crushed the rigid appendage to splinters.
"What?!" Panic finally shattered the bald man's composure as he stared in horror at Akira's chest.
At that exact moment, a pair of glowing blue eyes flickered to life within the darkness enveloping Akira's front, staring down cold at the monster.
The massive black arm began to reveal more of its true form. It was the forearm of a humanoid figure, but its proportions far exceeded those of a normal human. The entire limb was encased in heavy, ornate plate armor reminiscent of a Western European knight. Through the gaps in the steel plating, blue hellfire danced with an intimidating, ghostly aura.
*Igris* placed his armored palm directly over Akira's hands on the sword hilt, causing the blazing heat enveloping the katana to condense and harden into pure energy.
*SLASH!*
Akira unleashed his full strength once more. This time, the flaming katana sliced through the remainder of the bald man's neck with absolute fluid precision, like a hot knife through butter.
"Monster..." the man gasped, his body collapsing limply onto the dirt. The tentacles sprouting from his head twitched a few times before his life force drained away completely.
Akira drove the tip of his katana down into the parasite's corpse to ensure it was truly dead, then turned on his heel to approach the heavily injured female Ghoul.
Having witnessed the entire brutal execution from afar, the woman had quickly buried her head as low as possible, freezing her body in a desperate attempt to play dead and avoid drawing attention.
Akira stood right over her rigid, unmoving form. His gaze briefly flickered toward the flashing status panel in front of him before snapping back down. "Hey. Stop pretending to be a corpse."
The woman slowly raised her head, her eyes trembling with sheer terror as she looked up at him. "Um... thank you so much..."
*SLASH!*
Before the sentence could even leave her lips, Akira’s katana flashed through the cold air, slitting her throat and painting the asphalt in fresh crimson.
"Scared me for a second. I thought she was trying to pull a fast one and rob my experience points. What a drama queen!" Akira cleared the remaining blood from his blade with a sharp flick of his wrist.
He then pulled a smartphone out from his system inventory—a brand that didn't exist anywhere in this world. His thumb quickly tapped the emergency digits on the screen.
"Hello? Police? I'd like to report a homicide on *** Street. Casualty count... let's just go with four." Akira cast a sideways glance at the two blonde thugs lying in the distance. "Get over here fast! Huh? Who am I? I'm Batman!"
He cut the line without giving them a chance to reply. Taking a step backward, Akira melted into the shadows of the night, vanishing without leaving a single trace behind.