"A ghoul fighting a Parasyte, huh. That's pretty rare."
No one else could hear the noise? That was only because Tatsuki had casually created a new, isolated space.
He appeared silently, then lowered his gaze to Utaha, who was slumped on the ground. Even he was a little surprised. "Utaha-chan, your luck's not bad. You got to see quite the show."
Show? What show?!I clearly just ran into two terrifying humanoid monsters! Utaha howled in her heart.
Suddenly, she froze, eyes going wide as she pointed a trembling finger at him. "Tatsuki? No—no way! There was definitely no one here just now! You… you, are you human or a ghost?!"
There definitely hadn't been anyone standing there. She wouldn't be wrong about that. And then it hit her—if monsters were real, didn't it make sense that ghosts might be as well? Or maybe the Tatsuki in front of her was also some kind of monster?!
Tatsuki glanced sideways at her, then reached out and grabbed her right hand.
"Wah!" Before she could react, he yanked her up with brute force.
Utaha, convinced the ghost was about to show its true form, had just opened her mouth to scream when Tatsuki let go and clapped a hand over her lips.
"Don't scream. Can't you feel it? My hand's warm. How could I be a ghost?"
With that hint, she focused—and, sure enough, his palm was warm. Slightly hot, even. And… damp.
…Damp?
Utaha suddenly remembered that very hand had just been holding her own—and that her hand had been braced on the ground… the same ground she'd lost control on.
So the dampness she was feeling now was… Yeah. That.
Tatsuki's mouth twitched.
He removed his hand from her lips, gave his palm a faintly disgusted look, then casually wiped it dry along Utaha's stocking-clad thigh.
Clicking his tongue, he said, "Tch. You got my hand dirty. You'd better compensate me for that."
Utaha had no time to worry about his hand. Her shame was exploding so violently she could barely breathe. She frantically scrubbed at her mouth and cheeks with her sleeve, trying to erase every last trace of moisture.
As for the rest—her hands, her skirt, the drops sliding down her legs inside the black stockings all the way to her heels… She honestly had no idea what to do.
Coupled with Tatsuki's slightly put-out tone, Utaha was on the verge of tears.
In all her life, aside from hazy memories from when she'd been very little, this was the first time anything like this had ever happened.
And it had to happen right in front of Tatsuki. On Tatsuki's hand, even…
She wanted to die. Her mind went completely blank.
Having finished drying his hand, Tatsuki saw the vacant look in her eyes and just clicked his tongue again, shaking his head.
He'd long since stopped being surprised by this sort of thing. Utaha was simply the fourth, after Yukino, Yumiko, and Mrs. Yukinoshita. With so many precedents, Tatsuki could now face this kind of scene without his heart so much as stirring.
If anything, seeing Utaha in such a disheveled, on-the-verge-of-collapse state—so different from her usual keep-your-distance aura—stirred a strong interest in him instead.
If he could just deal with the faint smell coming off the damp patch in front of him, he'd be in the mood for a lot more.
Back to business. Tatsuki still needed to deal with the Parasyte-vs-ghoul situation.
He truly was surprised. The man's posture alone had been enough for Tatsuki to recognize a Parasyte's combat form at a glance. That made it a brand-new type of anomaly.
What surprised him even more was the woman fighting the Parasyte—a ghoul.
Her white dress, purple hair, glasses, and those four rinkaku kagune flaring behind her—the moment Tatsuki saw her, one name popped into his head: Rize Kamishiro.
And once he seized hold of her memories and inner voice, he found, to his shock—her name really was Rize Kamishiro.
Until very recently, she'd been an ordinary human. Just three days ago, she'd mutated into a ghoul and inherited the memories of that Rize Kamishiro the ghoul. (T/N: Two different girls with the same name).
At first, Rize had been completely lost. Once normal food had become impossible to swallow, her life had been shoved up against the darkest choice imaginable.
On one side: continue living as a human.
On the other: live as a ghoul and eat people.
The abrupt change of identity had left her flailing, unable to accept any of it.
She hadn't eaten anything for three days.
Being provoked by the Parasyte just now had finally snapped the thin thread of her rationality, and she'd fully transformed into a ghoul.
Now Tatsuki understood just how terrifying this anomaly really was.
The extra, man-eating-monster memories crammed into someone's head, plus the mutation of their body, would slowly drive a normal person mad—turn them into a nervous wreck, then a true, deranged man-eater.
The real horror lay in the psychological transition.
If you couldn't adapt, you'd eventually end up like Rize Kamishiro—completely becoming that Rize the Glutton.
Setting everything else aside… Rize's combat power was impressive.
From the start of the fight to now, not even two minutes had passed, and the Parasyte was already crippled.
And that was with Rize clearly unfamiliar with her kagune, fighting in a clumsy, crude manner.
Give her time to get used to it, and she'd end things even faster.
Both his legs sliced off, the Parasyte-possessed body dropped to its knees. One of its flesh-whip blades had already been shattered by Rize's kagune.
The remaining whip lashed out, but Rize didn't dodge—all four kagune struck out at once.
Schlk!
The Parasyte's host body had its heart, abdomen, remaining whip, and the little bit of head it still had all pierced through without mercy.
"…"
The Parasyte's body spasmed once.
Rize drew back her kagune, and the Parasyte crumpled, shriveled, and fell.
Dead. Rize didn't immediately dig into her prey. Instead, she turned slowly to face Tatsuki and Utaha.
Feeling the killing intent of a predator fall squarely on her, Utaha tore herself free from the suffocating haze of social-death-level embarrassment.
In its place came a chill that seemed to freeze right through her bones.
Drawing on the last remnants of her courage, she tugged at Tatsuki's sleeve, her entire body trembling.
"W-we… we should call the police!"
Tatsuki shot her a sidelong look. "Is your brain shorted out? If she really wanted to attack, you think you'd still have time to call the police? Wouldn't it be more practical to turn and run?"
"That's… true!"
Utaha really had shorted out. She'd gone slow on the uptake. Tatsuki sighed.
Girls these days were hard to look after. With a walking cheat-code of a guy right next to her, what was she still afraid of?
"I'll kill you both!"
Having taken her first life, Rize had gone completely mad. Her terrifying kagune swung around and came barreling straight toward Tatsuki and Utaha.
"It's over! I'm gonna die!"
The air-splitting shriek of the kagune was like a death knell in Utaha's ears.
She'd seen their destructive power perfectly clearly earlier—those things punched through concrete walls. Her fragile human body wouldn't stand a chance.
Out of the corner of her eye, she caught a glimpse of Tatsuki.
Her last thoughts before death were surprisingly complicated.
In the end, she was going to die alongside the man who'd been on her mind so often lately.
No, not just lately.
For the past two years, he'd been the benefactor-teacher from "We Still Don't Know the Name of the Flower We Saw That Day" she'd thought about day and night—
someone she'd once had genuine feelings for.
With a bitter little smile, she thought: maybe this was fate.
She still couldn't help wondering, though—did Tatsuki-kun have any last wishes before he died?
"Kneel."
"Eh?"
His last wish before death… was for her to kneel? Was he an S? Or was he thinking of something like in… that doujin, where she'd have to use her mouth?
Also, surely Tatsuki-kun wasn't as absurdly well-endowed as the guy in that doujin, right?
If he was, this little cherry mouth of hers might have some trouble managing. If they had the time, she didn't particularly mind helping to fulfill a dying regret.
Unfortunately, the female monster didn't seem like she intended to give them the chance.
Obviously, Utaha's shorted-out brain was overthinking it.
Tatsuki's word hit like an unavoidable divine decree—Rize dropped to her knees on the spot, sliding into a perfect crouch.
....
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