When Yoshimura Eto opened the door, two figures appeared before her.
"Eto-chan, happy birthday!"
Minami Uruka immediately tossed the petals in her hand into the air.
There was no need to mention Minami Uruka, whom she already knew. The other figure standing beside her instantly made Eto lose focus.
It was a tall middle-aged man. Although his face did not look particularly old, his hair had already turned white.
This middle-aged man was the manager of the Safe District, Yoshimura Kuzen.
Perhaps because he had not eaten fresh human flesh for too many years, his strength and body had aged too quickly.
Not only Yoshimura Eto, even Ihei Byakuya was surprised at Yoshimura Kuzen's arrival.
He had thought the manager would not come and did not expect this.
"You are..."
Although the middle-aged man before her looked unfamiliar, his scent and that face she had never seen somehow gave Yoshimura Eto a strange sense of closeness.
"Eto..."
Yoshimura Kuzen did not beat around the bush.
"..."
The moment she heard him say her name, Yoshimura Eto immediately understood something.
His image was also similar to what her mother had described in the diary...
"Come with me for a moment."
Eto did not say anything to Kuzen. Instead, she directly grabbed Byakuya's hand, pulled him into the room, and locked the door.
"Eto-chan...?"
Seeing Eto-chan's unusual reaction, Minami Uruka was the most confused person present.
Because she did not know that the manager was actually Eto's father, she naturally could not understand why Eto reacted like that.
"So, what exactly did you do?"
At this moment, Yoshimura Eto revealed a gaze she had never shown in front of Byakuya before.
It was a fierce and vigilant look.
Like a beast about to bare its fangs.
Clearly, Eto knew that Ihei Byakuya must have done something, and even her identity had already...
"Don't be so nervous. I would not harm you. I only invited the person you have been thinking about so much."
Ihei Byakuya said with a relaxed smile.
Now that he dared to be this relaxed in front of Eto, his strength was naturally no longer what it used to be.
"When did you see through me?"
At this moment, Yoshimura Eto only wanted to know this.
"Gradually. Perhaps I am smarter than you imagined, and you know my identity as well, do you not?"
Ihei Byakuya said calmly.
"So... you deliberately used this method to humiliate me?"
Eto's tone was cold and carried a hint of self-mockery.
Subconsciously, she believed that Ihei Byakuya belonged to the Washuu side. From an identity standpoint, that was indeed the case. Byakuya was originally a half-human of the Washuu Clan.
And this guy had clearly already known her identity, yet had acted as if nothing was wrong until now, and even invited Kuzen here...
In her eyes, this was naked humiliation, the so-called killing the person and then attacking the heart.
Although Yoshimura Eto had intended to use Byakuya from the very beginning, after experiencing this, she unexpectedly felt a sense of betrayal...
"No. Why would I humiliate you? I'm clearly celebrating your birthday out of good intentions."
Byakuya only felt wronged.
While Byakuya was explaining the misunderstanding, Yoshimura Eto suddenly erupted.
She feinted as if to attack him, making Byakuya think she was about to strike, but instead turned around and flew straight out of the window.
Having inherited her father's ukaku, and with her strength having reached a certain level, Eto already possessed a degree of flight capability.
"..."
Ihei Byakuya walked to the window and looked outside, but Eto's figure was already nowhere to be seen.
It should have been a festive day, yet something unexpected happened.
The occurrence of this kind of situation had actually been within his expectations.
It was probably because everything had happened too suddenly, making it hard for Eto to accept for the moment.
At this point, Ihei Byakuya could only go after Eto. Before leaving, he informed Yoshimura Kuzen and Minami Uruka.
"Sorry, there was a small accident. I need to leave for a while."
Ihei Byakuya shrugged somewhat helplessly and hurried off to find Eto.
Seeing this, Yoshimura Kuzen could already imagine what had happened.
Only Minami Uruka was still completely confused. "What exactly happened...?"
...
Ihei Byakuya chased out to find Yoshimura Eto, but it was like running around blindly. Eto had left no trace at all.
At this moment, Byakuya suddenly thought of a place where Eto was most likely to go, and that was Ward 24...
And just as Ihei Byakuya had guessed, Yoshimura Eto was indeed in Ward 24.
Eto wore a gray cloak, concealing her face, moving through the underground labyrinth of Ward 24.
She did not seem to have any clear destination and simply kept moving forward.
If nothing unexpected happened, something unexpected was about to happen.
While Yoshimura Eto was walking absentmindedly, a black-purple rinkaku suddenly struck from the side.
Distracted, she failed to dodge in time and was pierced through the side of her abdomen.
Immediately afterward, a figure emerged from the shadows at the side, and a sinister voice sounded.
"Hehe. Finally caught an opportunity."
With her body pierced, Eto hung in midair. Motionless, she seemed to have lost consciousness.
"Come. Let me taste it. You, who they call the strongest, what do you taste like?"
The man was about to devour Yoshimura Eto.
The seemingly unconscious Eto suddenly sprouted several strangely shaped kagune from her back. From their forms, it was difficult to tell whether they were rinkaku, bikaku, koukaku, or ukaku.
Not only that, the kagune were multicolored and looked extremely bizarre.
Because the form of kagune is influenced by imagination, and Yoshimura Eto, who would later become a famous author, naturally had a rich imagination, her kagune form could almost be said to be unique.
Not only were they strange and brilliantly colored, later they would even possess a simple independent consciousness and be able to speak.
Although Yoshimura Eto at this period had not yet reached that later level, her kagune form was already very special.
Several of her colorful kagune extended instantly, growing to full length in a flash and instead piercing through the man's entire body.
"Ughhhh!"
The man screamed miserably.
But immediately his scream turned into a roar.
Two more kagune grew from his back, and half of his body began to mutate.
He actually had three kakuhou, and the mutation of half his body indicated that he was entering a half-kakuja state.
In Ward 24, cannibalism was very common, so the appearance of half-kakuja level ghouls was normal.
A so-called half-kakuja was when a ghoul's Rc cell count surged drastically through cannibalism, even growing additional kakuhou.
With more kakuhou, there would naturally be more kagune, and the greatly increased kagune would cover the ghoul's body like armor.
However, because the number of kakuhou and kagune was still insufficient, they could only cover half or part of the body, hence the name half-kakuja.
Half-kakuja also had a characteristic of easily losing rationality. When fighting in half-kakuja form, they would basically go berserk.
This man was no exception. After a large amount of kagune wrapped around half of his upper body, he instantly fell into a frenzied state.
With a ferocious expression, he roared and charged at Eto.
However, in the next second.
The man was suddenly decapitated, and his head fell to the ground with a thud.
For a brief moment, consciousness remained in the severed head. Before completely losing awareness, he saw an exceptionally tall figure.
How is it possible... you have already reached...
This was the man's final thought before death.
Because what he saw was a complete kakuja. Even the mask was armor formed from kagune, and there was only one kakugan on the right side.
The biggest difference between a complete kakuja and a half-kakuja was that the armor-like kagune not only covered the entire body but also did not cause loss of rationality.
Moreover, a complete kakuja usually possessed all four types of kagune: rinkaku, koukaku, ukaku, and bikaku.
In the next moment, Yoshimura Eto's petite true body detached from the massive four-to-five-meter kakuja form. Without hesitation, she devoured the kakuhou from the corpse...