Countless shards of glass burst outward in all directions. Several sizable fragments even fell with a clink into Hiro's coffee cup.
A red glint flashed in Hiro's eyes. Before the figure could even steady himself, one hand had already clamped around his throat like an iron vise.
With a thunderous crash, Hiro slammed him hard into the ground. Two crimson tentacles shot out from behind him like lightning, aiming straight for the man's vitals.
"Mr. Amano! Please wait!" Touka's startled cry rang out just in time.
Hiro's motion paused. Only then did he see clearly the defiant-faced youth beneath his foot. Ayato Kirishima, Touka's younger brother.
Ayato's face was full of shock. He had never expected that with his own strength, he would be completely subdued without even a chance to react.
Though displeased, Hiro still gave Touka this bit of face. He lifted Ayato like throwing away trash and tossed him to Touka's feet.
Banjo and his underlings were already dumbstruck. They had never imagined that the man who had looked so gentle sitting beside Rize-sama possessed such terrifying strength.
Banjo felt a wave of lingering fear. Luckily Ayato had arrived first. Otherwise the one lying on the ground would have been him.
Looking at this chaotic scene thick with déjà vu, Hiro also recalled the related plot.
In the original story, this was exactly where the Yamori had captured Ken Kaneki and taught him profound mathematical knowledge.
"Ding-ling-"
The doorbell rang again.
In the increasingly eerie atmosphere, the burly Yamori strode in boldly with Niko beside him. "Yo. Pretty lively in here," he said in a rough voice.
The next moment, Yamori's gaze swept the room and abruptly locked onto the purple-haired figure leisurely watching the spectacle. Rize.
His expression twisted instantly into pathological frenzy. His own fingers cracked audibly as he bent them.
"Rize!!"
He let out a beastlike roar. His massive body charged toward her like a battering ram.
Rize remained seated calmly, even wearing a faint smile of amusement, as if everything before her had nothing to do with her.
Already annoyed at being interrupted, Hiro now saw Yamori deliver himself to his door. His eyes turned completely cold. Perfect. He needed a punching bag.
A crimson tentacle tore through the air with a shriek, lashing straight down at Yamori's head.
Yamori's pupils shrank violently. He tried in haste to summon his kagune to defend, but that terrifying speed far exceeded his reaction limit.
Boom.
The immense force smashed into his chest, flinging him away like a torn sack. He crashed heavily into the wall, then slid down slowly.
His chest had visibly caved in a large section. He spat out a massive mouthful of blood, even mixed with fragments of internal organs.
"Gah! Bastard... I'll kill you!!" Yamori howled madly in agony.
What answered him were four crimson tentacles shooting out like spears.
Puchi.
They pierced clean through his limbs, nailing him to the ground, unable to move.
Hiro walked slowly up to him. Expressionless, he raised his foot and stepped on Yamori's face, twisted with pain and rage, grinding down gradually.
"Hm? What did you just say, trash?" Hiro's tone was calm to the point of chilling. "I didn't hear you. Say it again."
"Ah! I'll... kill... you!!" Yamori struggled, roaring even more crazily.
Hiro's foot did not stop. With the tips of his tentacles, he crushed Yamori's limb bones bit by bit, extremely slowly.
"Aaah-!!"
The unimaginable agony forced from Yamori a scream so shrill it hardly sounded human.
"Hm? What did you just say?" A savage curve finally formed at Hiro's lips. He bent down, like a demon whispering, "I asked you. What did you just say?"
"I was wrong! I was wrong! Spare me! I won't dare again!!" Overwhelming terror finally crushed the madness. Yamori sobbed and begged, the pain he had once inflicted on others now becoming his deepest despair.
"Wrong?" Hiro sneered. "Too late."
Before the words even fell, his fingers formed a blade. Crimson fluid wrapped his arm and in an instant pierced through Yamori's waist.
With a dull tearing sound of muscle, Hiro forcibly ripped out Yamori's kakuhou.
Immediately after, his foot slammed down.
Puchi.
Yamori's head burst on the spot like an overripe watermelon.
This scene, bloody and cruel to the extreme, plunged the café into deathly silence. Everyone froze in place, unable to believe it.
Yamori. An executive of Aogiri Tree. A fearsome powerhouse with a notorious reputation. Before this handsome youth, he had not even lasted a single exchange before being tortured to death in the most brutal way.
The next moment, something even more bizarre happened.
Dark crimson fluid surfaced across Hiro's body and swept over the floor like a living tide.
Where it passed, all remains and bloodstains dissolved instantly, devoured completely.
Aside from the shattered window and furniture, not a trace of gore remained. As if the horrifying slaughter just now had been nothing but a collective hallucination.
The shop fell into deathly stillness. The air still seemed to carry the intangible oppressive weight of that brief yet extremely cruel killing.
Banjo and his men were pale as paper, not even daring to breathe loudly. Their eyes toward Hiro were full of terror.
Ayato Kirishima lay collapsed at Touka's feet, equally ashen. Compared with the instant defeat he had just suffered, the scene before him was on an entirely different level.
Unlike the others' utter horror, what surged deep in Rize's heart was an indescribable excitement, even trembling joy.
Her violet eyes stared unblinkingly at Hiro's calm profile, as if trying to glimpse the true boundary of his power beneath that indifferent expression.
Too strong...
She marveled silently again. She knew Yamori's strength well. Even within Aogiri Tree he ranked among the upper tier.
Yet before Hiro-kun, he had been crushed like a child, unable to mount even a trace of effective resistance.
This was no mere victory or defeat. It was absolute annihilation.
An insane thought began to grow uncontrollably in her mind. The White Reaper, Kishou Arima. That existence like a nightmare hanging over every ghoul. Perhaps... he was no more than this.
That realization made her heart pound violently.
For so long, fear of the Washuu clan had been an invisible shackle, binding her actions and ambitions.
She was accustomed to maneuvering in shadows, using schemes and charm to preserve herself, never imagining she could confront that colossal entity head-on.
But now, watching Hiro casually erase the traces of battle as if it were nothing, Rize felt something firm deep in her heart quietly loosen.
If it were him...
Once that thought appeared, it could no longer be dispelled.
If it were Hiro-kun, perhaps... he truly could shake the unfathomable foundations of the Washuu.
A subtle yet genuine change occurred quietly within her.
It was not merely attachment to great power. It was a stirring that mixed hope and ambition, as if in endless darkness she had finally glimpsed a thread of possibility.
She curved her lips slightly. The light in her eyes when she looked at Hiro was brighter than ever before.