"What a mess… This scene is almost on par with that ghoul restaurant in the 7th Ward."
Shinohara Yukinori let out a sigh as he surveyed the carnage.
After a long period of investigation, the CCG had already confirmed the true purpose of that restaurant.
However, the Tsukiyama family had been extremely cunning.
The registered beneficiary of the restaurant was not a member of the Tsukiyama family at all but an ordinary human.
What was even more troublesome was that after opening the ghoul restaurant, that human had completely vanished.
As a result, the CCG had failed to uncover concrete evidence linking the Tsukiyama family to the restaurant as its mastermind.
"Special Class Investigator Shinohara,"
Houji reported after inspecting the bodies, his expression grave.
"All of these ghouls had their kakuhou removed. Judging by the results, the culprit is very likely the same individual or organization responsible for the incident in the 7th Ward."
"Special Class Investigator Shinohara,"
Amon Koutarou said as he crouched beside Matsumae's corpse, his movements precise and professional.
"There's a female body here with her face deliberately destroyed. I've already extracted her blood. Hopefully, her DNA will be in the ghoul database."
Aside from them, another woman was crouched beside the body.
She wore a blue-gray suit jacket, a short skirt, black stockings, and high heels.
A notebook rested in her hand as she continuously jotted things down, occasionally lifting the camera hanging from her neck to photograph the corpse from various angles.
Her light-blonde hair was particularly eye-catching.
Her name was Mado Akira, a Second Class Investigator.
She was the daughter of former Senior Investigator Mado Kureo of the CCG headquarters.
Her father had been killed during an investigation after encountering Yamori.
Her mother, Mado Mikage, had died several years earlier while holding back the One-Eyed Owl Takatsuki Sen to cover others' retreat. She had been defeated and killed, her body brutally mutilated.
Because of her calm personality, meticulous nature, and strong analytical and deductive abilities, headquarters had dispatched her to the 20th Ward to assist Shinohara and the others in tracking down the identity of the "Ghoul Hunter."
"Yo, Investigator Mado,"
Shinohara said cheerfully as he walked over.
"Find anything?"
"Yes."
Mado Akira stood up and replied crisply.
"Hey, Mado, don't exaggerate,"
a voice scoffed from nearby.
"Even Special Class Shinohara, Associate Special Class Houji, and First Class Amon haven't found anything conclusive. What could you possibly have found?"
"Don't tell me you're relying on that 'intuition' of yours again?"
The speaker was Takizawa Seidou.
He and Mado Akira had graduated in the same year.
However, Mado had ranked first in their class, while he had come in second.
That gap had always left him resentful, and whenever he had the chance, he would take a jab at her.
"'Intuition'?"
Mado Akira replied coolly.
"If you don't mind, please listen carefully to what I'm about to say."
"Investigator Takizawa."
"Tch."
With just that one sentence, Takizawa was left speechless.
"I conducted a brief review of the cases involving ghouls hunted by the 'Ghoul Hunter,'"
Mado Akira continued.
"Starting from the very first ghoul discovered by Senior Investigator Mado and First Class Investigator Amon, all the way up to tonight's massacre."
"I found that all these cases share one common feature."
"All of the victims were killed by a blade."
"And judging by the progression over time from the first ghoul to the dozen or so killed tonight the wounds have become increasingly clean and precise."
"This clearly indicates that the Ghoul Hunter's strength has been continuously increasing."
"Huh?"
Takizawa interjected.
"That's your conclusion? That his strength is increasing?"
"Isn't that obvious?"
Mado Akira ignored him and continued.
"The key point is the wounds."
"Although the Ghoul Hunter's strength has grown and the wounds have become cleaner, there is one thing that has remained the same."
"The style of the wounds is nearly identical."
"As qualified investigators, we all know this much "
"When using a blade, attacking the same enemy from different angles and with different techniques will inevitably produce different wound patterns."
"But these ghouls… they all bear almost identical wounds."
"What does that tell us?"
"It means that from beginning to end, there has only ever been one Ghoul Hunter."
"And that this person is extremely skilled with a blade, habitually relying on a fixed set of killing techniques."
"That perfectly explains why so many ghouls died, yet their wounds all look nearly the same."
"Investigator Mado,"
Takizawa frowned.
"Isn't that still insufficient evidence to draw such a conclusion?"
In truth, even he felt that her reasoning made a great deal of sense.
"On its own, it would be insufficient,"
Mado Akira replied calmly.
"But don't forget Amon Koutarou personally encountered the Ghoul Hunter."
"At that time, he defeated Yamori alone."
"First Class Investigator Amon am I correct?"
She cast a glance toward Amon Koutarou in the distance.
Toward the man responsible for her father's death, she clearly still harbored lingering resentment.
"Huh? Y-Yes,"
Amon replied, startled.
"Yamori really was taken down by a single man… and he felt quite young."
He hadn't expected Mado Akira to suddenly address him, and for a moment, he seemed flustered.
Mostly, it was because whenever he faced her, he felt an indescribable sense of guilt.
"Even if the Ghoul Hunter is only one person,"
Takizawa said, this time without mocking,
"his identity is still a complete mystery."
"We don't have a single useful clue about who this man actually is."
"It's not that we have no clues,"
Mado Akira said quietly.
She dropped the words like a bomb.
The moment she spoke, Shinohara Yukinori's eyes lit up.
Even Houji and Amon, standing not far away, instinctively leaned in and pricked up their ears.
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PS: Sorry about the short chapters
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