The New Disguise
The next day, the weather clears. Due to the school massacre, the school is temporarily closed. Zhao Xuan eats breakfast and prepares for action.
Looking in the mirror, he attempts to equip the C-grade component onto his head for the first time. He feels a strange sensation. With a thought, his face splits open into several tentacles and a chrysanthemum-like mouth.
"Disgusting!" he mutters.
He retracts the tentacles, and his head reforms into a human face, but it is now the face of the C-grade Parasyte he killed—an ordinary, unremarkable face. This is one of the Parasyte's abilities: the capacity to change appearance (though most use the original host's face for convenience). Satisfied with the change, he puts on a hat for extra caution and leaves.
Zhao Xuan, now wearing the stranger's face, easily bypasses the surveillance police outside his apartment, who ignore him. He buys a set of cheap clothes at a mall, completely changing his appearance and clothing. He adds a mask and sunglasses.
He begins wandering the city, using the Parasyte's psychic sense to track prey.
The First Solo Fight
After a while, Zhao Xuan detects a Parasyte's presence and tracks it to the deepest part of an underground parking garage. He finds a Parasyte actively devouring a human victim.
The Parasyte senses Zhao Xuan's arrival. "Who are you? Are you hungry? Want to join me? I don't mind sharing the food!" The Parasyte's ugly eyes on small tentacles swivel to look at him.
Zhao Xuan, slightly hardened by his first kill, suppresses his revulsion. He splits his own head open, revealing the tentacles and mouth, and replies, "Then I won't stand on ceremony!" With a thought, his head tentacles shoot out toward the enemy.
The enemy Parasyte is startled by the sudden attack but reacts quickly, using its own tentacles to block Zhao Xuan's blades. "Damn it! What are you doing? Why are you attacking a fellow Parasyte?"
"Fellow Parasyte? How ridiculous!" Zhao Xuan sneers, launching two more tentacles at the opponent from different angles.
"Hmph! You want a fight? Then I'll give you one!" The opponent fights back.
The two Parasytes, about seven or eight meters apart, clash fiercely. Their tentacles, extended to their maximum range, collide violently, sending sparks flying.
Zhao Xuan is manipulating the tentacles with his own conscious will for the first time, and he is clumsy. His opponent quickly notices his inexperience.
"Did you just eat your host's brain? Or is this body's compatibility low? You dare challenge me with this skill level? How foolish!"
The enemy mocks him and increases the speed and strength of its attack, forcing Zhao Xuan onto the defensive. Zhao Xuan's tentacles quickly accumulate several cuts, but the Parasyte's resilience allows him to keep fighting.
The opponent continues to press the attack: "At your level, it's only a matter of time before I kill you. Pay the price for your mistake!"
Zhao Xuan struggles, trying to familiarize himself with Parasyte combat. He is intentionally using his will to control the C-grade component and not switching to the A-grade auto-mode, as he wants to use this real combat to temper his skills.
Izumi's Approach and Instant Vengeance
Meanwhile, Shinichi Izumi is also out searching for his mother (Mr. A).
"Shinichi, I've got a reading! Two hundred meters ahead, underground, there are two Parasitic organisms! Their killing intent is strong!" Migi alerts him.
"Two?" Izumi pauses briefly but immediately runs toward the indicated direction.
"Wait! Shinichi! It's two against one! We can't win!" Migi cautions.
Izumi ignores him, speeding up toward the target.
In the underground garage, Zhao Xuan and his opponent both sense the rapid approach of a third Parasyte.
Another enemy? No... this aura is... Zhao Xuan's heart tightens, but he instantly recognizes the unique aura of Izumi's Migi.
"Huh? Another one of our kind? No! This one is coming with killing intent! Is he your partner?" Zhao Xuan's opponent senses Izumi's approach and intensifies his attack: "I need to deal with you quickly! Before I get surrounded!"
"That's what I was thinking!" Zhao Xuan snarls.
In the next second, Zhao Xuan's left hand, equipped with the A-grade component and kept hidden until now, transforms into a thick, powerful tentacle. It shoots out with lightning speed, its tip transforming into a sharp spike that effortlessly pierces the opponent's chest through the host body.
"Th-This... how... is this possible? I... I was careless... There are... two of them? Why... why didn't I sense the other one earlier?"
As the Parasyte's host bleeds out, its own life force ebbs away. "No... I don't want to die... Can I... transfer... to your body? ...Even as a slave..."
"You don't get that chance!" Zhao Xuan quickly pulls his left hand out. A flash of light, and the opponent's head flies off.
The Escape
Having instantly killed the Parasyte, Zhao Xuan quickly unequips the A-grade component from his left hand and sprints toward a different exit in the underground parking garage. He doesn't want to run into Shinichi Izumi.
"Shinichi... wait!" Migi yells.
"What is it?" Izumi continues running.
"Strange... why... why did Shimada's aura suddenly appear again? It flashed and disappeared! And one of those two Parasites is severely damaged and about to die! The other one is rapidly escaping in the opposite direction."
"What? Shimada? It's him again?"
Izumi frantically reaches the deepest part of the garage, only to find a headless corpse and the shriveled Parasyte head. Nearby lies a half-eaten human body.
"Strange... these wounds... and the surrounding marks... Shinichi, it seems he was killed by a fellow Parasyte!"
Izumi is shocked: "Could it be... that someone else, like me, is hunting Parasytes?"
"And Shimada? Is he really not dead?" Migi wonders aloud.
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