"Sis!"
The violently intruding stranger immediately frightened young Ayato.
Little Touka at once stood up and blocked Ayato behind her. "Don't be afraid, Sis will protect you!"
Even though she herself was afraid at this moment, her younger brother Ayato was right behind her, and no matter what, she could not retreat.
"Hmph."
The man in gray let out a disdainful snort.
He was Ice Devourer, who had been heavily wounded by Ihei Byakuya not long ago. During this period, in order to avoid the ghoul investigators' search, he had been hiding everywhere.
After arriving in Ward 20, he had also sought help from the Safe District. Although he received a bag of rotten meat, the fatal injury to his kakuhou was not something that could be resolved with just a bag of rotten meat.
As for the previous time with Minami Uruka, that injury had not been fatal.
Therefore, in order to recover his strength as soon as possible, Ice Devourer had secretly come out to "hunt."
He deliberately chose this kind of remote place and specifically targeted ghouls.
Compared to humans, the death of ghouls was naturally less likely to attract the attention of ghoul investigators.
So he set his sights on this family...
"Just obediently go die!"
Ice Devourer attacked directly.
Because his kakuhou still carried a fatal wound and he temporarily could not use his kagune, he planned to kill the two children with his bare hands.
At this critical moment, a voice suddenly came from behind.
"You really made me search for quite a while..."
This somewhat familiar voice made Ice Devourer turn around abruptly.
What greeted him was the blade of a long sword.
Ihei Byakuya lunged forward. The long blade not only pierced through his abdomen but also struck his kakuhou once again.
With his kakuhou already suffering a fatal wound, Ice Devourer had no possibility of recovery this time.
"They! They are..."
Before dying, he seemed to want to drag little Touka and Ayato down with him,
but Ihei Byakuya did not give him that chance at all.
"You talk too much."
"Ugh!"
With a scream, he died under Ihei Byakuya's blade.
On the other side, little Touka and Ayato had not even reacted to what had happened before Ice Devourer had already fallen to the ground, unmoving.
However, at that exact moment, Kirishima Arata and Kirishima Hikari happened to return home.
Seeing the damaged front door, both Kirishima Arata and Kirishima Hikari's expressions changed immediately.
"Touka! Ayato!"
They were instantly worried about Touka and Ayato's safety.
Kirishima Hikari rushed in directly, her kakugan fully revealed.
The moment she entered, she saw a young man holding a long blade. Having dealt with ghoul investigators many times, Kirishima Hikari recognized at a glance that he was an investigator, and that the weapon in his hand was a quinque.
Her first reaction was that this ghoul investigator was trying to harm Touka and Ayato. Without hesitation, she attacked Ihei Byakuya.
Arcs of electricity flickered across her ukaku, and then a bolt of current shot fiercely toward Byakuya.
"Oh...?"
Ihei Byakuya reacted extremely quickly and sidestepped to avoid Kirishima Hikari's attack.
"Mom!"
At this time, little Touka shouted loudly, interrupting Kirishima Hikari, who was about to fight desperately against the ghoul investigator.
"Touka! Quickly take your brother and hide!"
At this moment, Kirishima Hikari, desperate to protect her children, had not yet realized what was wrong.
"N-no! It was this big brother who saved us."
Little Touka hurriedly explained.
But Kirishima Hikari's attack had been too fast.
"What?..."
By the time she clearly heard what Touka said, a current at full output and even greater power had already shot toward Byakuya.
Not only was its killing range wide, its speed was also extremely fast. It was almost impossible to dodge it cleanly.
Therefore, Ihei Byakuya no longer held back.
Standing in place, he clenched his right fist and directly threw a punch toward the crackling current.
Crack.
With the sound of space shattering, that punch split the current apart.
Seeing this, Kirishima Hikari's expression froze.
Had she seen that correctly?
That young investigator had blocked her attack with his bare fist...?
"..."
Ihei Byakuya said nothing more. He only silently glanced at Kirishima Hikari and Kirishima Arata, then dragged Ice Devourer's corpse away and left directly.
His target this time had only been Ice Devourer. He just had not expected to trace him to the Kirishima family.
From the brief exchange just now, it could only be said that Kirishima Hikari truly lived up to being an SS-rated ghoul who made the Washuu Clan wary. One of the reasons the Washuu Clan feared her was likely because her kagune carried lightning attributes.
Such special ghouls were extremely rare. At present, the only known ones were Kirishima Hikari, Yomo Renji, and Tatara, whose kagune carried fire attributes...
Unfortunately, neither Kirishima Touka nor Kirishima Ayato had inherited their mother's lightning-attribute kagune.
Originally, kagune were inheritable, or rather, they were largely influenced by heredity.
But perhaps due to the influence of their father Kirishima Arata, Touka and Ayato had not inherited the lightning attribute that both their mother Kirishima Hikari and their uncle Yomo Renji possessed.
"Wait..."
Seeing the other party turn and leave, Kirishima Hikari suddenly spoke.
Because she had already noticed something was wrong. There was actually a strange ghoul's corpse lying in the house...
And Touka had just said that it was that big brother who had saved them.
But when she thought about how she had attacked him without hesitation just now, her voice stopped again.
After Ihei Byakuya left,
Kirishima Hikari came back to her senses and immediately pulled little Touka and Ayato into her arms.
"Touka, Ayato, are you both alright?"
Kirishima Arata asked worriedly.
"We're fine... but now our identities have already been discovered by a ghoul investigator, and he even saw our faces..."
Kirishima Hikari looked troubled.
She had hesitated just now, because that young investigator had saved Touka and Ayato. Otherwise, for the sake of her family's safety, she would never have let go of an investigator who had seen their true faces.
"Then what should we do? Should we quickly leave Ward 20?"
Kirishima Arata asked anxiously.
"It seems we can only do that..."
Kirishima Hikari sighed.
"Dad, Mom, why do we have to run? That big brother isn't a bad person."
Still very young, little Touka could not understand this.
Kirishima Hikari explained gently, "Touka, that big brother may not be a bad person, but he is still our enemy, because he is a ghoul investigator..."
"Ghoul investigator...?"
Little Touka nodded slightly.
She still remembered that her father and mother had both said to always be careful of ghoul investigators.
Although little Touka took her parents' words to heart, she still had some confusion in her heart.
That big brother was clearly not a bad person, so why did he have to be an enemy...?