While Amano Hiro was watching with great interest from the edge of the main battlefield, Rize had already slipped silently into Apes' combat zone like a shadow.
At this moment, Koma Enji was covered in wounds. Heavy breathing passed through his monkey mask. Under Mougan Tanakamaru's relentless assault, his defeat seemed inevitable.
Bang.
Another heavy energy blast struck. Apes staggered back several steps, a trace of blood seeping from beneath his mask.
In the brief moment of stalemate between the two sides, a slender figure stepped lightly into the center of the battlefield, her movements graceful as a cat's.
Rize's violet eyes shimmered in the night with dangerous delight as she looked at the burly Mougan Tanakamaru. Her voice was sweet, yet laced with biting cold.
"Mister, why don't you play with me?"
Koma Enji trembled at the sound of her voice and immediately called out, "Rize-chan. He's dangerous. We should team up."
"It's fine, it's fine." Rize waved her hand casually, interrupting him. "Go help Black Dog."
She tilted her head, her smile deepening. "I want to... have some proper fun with him."
Seeing her confidence, Koma Enji said no more. "All right. Be careful."
He leapt back and dashed toward Black Dog's battlefield.
"Hmph." Mougan Tanakamaru glared in anger and laughed instead. "The little monkey ran off, and now a little girl shows up. I'm really being looked down on."
Before he could finish speaking, Rize's lips curved upward into an almost torn grin.
A low hum vibrated through the air.
Dark red patterns spread across her entire body like living things, alluring and eerie.
Four rinkaku burst forth. They were no longer simple kagune, but grotesque long spears gleaming with a cold metallic sheen, fused with symbiotic traits.
A pressure far more terrifying and primal than Apes' swept across the entire street like a tidal wave.
The contempt on Mougan Tanakamaru's face froze, replaced by unprecedented gravity. He forced out several words through clenched teeth.
"So this is... quite the monster."
Without hesitation, he raised the twin-barreled cannon. "Higher Mind."
A blazing pillar of light roared toward Rize.
Boom.
The explosion sent dust soaring into the sky. Rubble scattered. Mougan Tanakamaru gripped the cannon tightly, staring at the center of the smoke.
As the dust slowly cleared, a massive shield woven of dark red and pitch black, flowing with organic texture like a blooming flower of evil, stood quietly before him.
Behind it, Rize was completely unharmed. She even stroked the surface of the shield with interest, letting out a satisfied sigh.
"Hiro's kagune is really strong. Just fusing a small piece already gives this kind of result."
The moment her voice fell, she moved.
Her figure flashed like purple lightning. The four rinkaku spears tore through the air with lethal shrieks, thrusting straight at Mougan Tanakamaru.
Too fast.
His pupils shrank sharply. There was no time to dodge. He roared and raised the twin cannon horizontally in front of him.
Clang.
Amid a deafening blast, the specially made quinque cannon twisted and deformed instantly as if it were soft clay.
The irresistible force traveled through the weapon and struck his chest. Mougan Tanakamaru was flung like a projectile and smashed violently into the wall behind him.
He coughed up blood, embedded in the cracked surface, staring at the purple-haired figure walking toward him. For the first time, fear appeared in his eyes.
"This is... really troublesome."
Rize hummed an unknown cheerful tune as she stepped elegantly toward the collapsed Mougan Tanakamaru.
Tilting her head slightly, her violet eyes held a mix of innocence and cruelty.
"You're a Special-Class Investigator?"
Enduring the agony and numbness from his shattered vertebrae, Mougan Tanakamaru let out a muffled groan and used all his strength to pull out a backup quinque.
It was a long staff-like weapon similar to Koutarou Amon's. His gaze locked onto Rize as he prepared his final resistance.
Rize looked at his futile stance. Her red lips parted and she delivered a cold, contemptuous verdict.
"You're so weak."
The words ignited the last of Mougan Tanakamaru's dignity. Seizing the moment before she finished speaking, he roared and swung his quinque down fiercely.
A crisp metallic sound rang out.
The strike was effortlessly blocked by a rinkaku that appeared out of thin air.
Immediately after, another rinkaku lashed out like a coiled venomous serpent, striking his waist with a piercing crack.
A sickening sound of bone shattering echoed clearly.
Mougan Tanakamaru flew backward again like a kite with its string cut and crashed heavily onto the ground.
Cold sweat soaked his hair from the intense pain. Worse still, everything below his waist had lost sensation completely. His spine was broken.
Behind him came unhurried footsteps like a countdown to death. He could not even turn his neck to look. He could only wait helplessly for the end.
Rize's pleasant voice sounded above him like a death sentence.
"Goodbye, Special-Class."
A rinkaku pierced through his skull like the sharpest spear, leaving a gruesome hole.
Rize withdrew her kagune, a trace of boredom crossing her face. She had wanted to stretch her muscles properly, but he had been so fragile.
No. Perhaps it was not that he was weak, but that she had become too strong.
She casually tore off a still-warm piece of flesh from Mougan Tanakamaru's corpse and tasted it, then tossed it aside as if she had lost interest.
"The taste hasn't changed. It's still so delicious."
She murmured softly, though her gaze seemed distant.
"But after tasting all kinds of delicacies, this monotonous flavor doesn't make me crave it like before."
Besides, even ordinary human food was now enough to replenish her energy, though far less efficient than human flesh.
Rize turned lightly and looked toward the street where intense clashes echoed in the distance. A smile full of interest curved her lips.
"Forget it. I'll go check on Black Dog. Maybe... that side will be more interesting."
On Black Dog's battlefield, the situation had already reversed.
Just as Irimi Kaya, in the form of Black Dog, began to show fatigue under Associate Special-Class Investigator Hachikawa's fierce assault, her ukaku movements slowing.
A violent white figure crashed into the battle like a meteor.
Apes' roar shook the street. His massive fist, wrapped in compressed air, sent two investigators flying as they approached Black Dog.
His sudden intervention instantly relieved most of the pressure she had been bearing.
Associate Special-Class Investigator Hachikawa, who had been on the verge of securing victory, was forced to retreat. He could only watch as the black hound on the brink of suppression formed a pincer with the raging white ape.
In an instant, the balance of the battle shifted from CCG's advantage to the joint suppression of two SS-rated ghouls.