Their home had been blasted into ruins. Not even a complete shard of debris remained.
Kaiko had slipped away without a trace. The anticipated night together had been utterly shattered.
Amano Hiro's mood at this moment could only be described as abysmal.
The surging rage in his chest desperately needed an outlet.
Dark-red wings beat. The two of them shot across the night sky like meteors tearing the darkness apart, racing toward the 20th Ward CCG branch at terrifying speed. The high-velocity passage carved the air with a shrill howl, like the herald of death.
He needed release. Immediately. Now.
At this point he wanted only one thing: smash the 20th Ward CCG branch to pieces and vent this foul rage first.
Unfortunately he still did not know the exact location of the Washuu Clan's nest. Otherwise he would have gone straight there to carry out a thorough reckoning.
Outside the 20th Ward CCG branch, two night-duty staff leaned against the wall, puffing smoke.
The night was quiet, stars scattered overhead. The two chatted idly.
"Hm? What's that?" one suddenly squinted, pointing at the sky.
His companion followed the direction. A crimson point of light was rapidly approaching. "A drone?"
"No... it's getting bigger! Looks like it's coming straight at us!"
In the span of those few words, the red point had become a streak ripping the night apart.
With a piercing sonic tear, the red light swept over their heads,
Boom!!!
The entire building shuddered violently. Chunks of concrete rained down.
When the dust cleared slightly, a grotesque hole had been smashed through the branch's outer wall.
"Enemy attack?!"
"Didn't even see what it was!"
They tossed their cigarettes and rushed inside. The shrill alarm was already screaming through the corridors.
The entire branch plunged instantly into chaos. The comms desk urgently called headquarters. Footsteps and the mechanical snap of quinque deployment echoed together. Panicked shouts rose and fell through the halls.
At the center of the smoke-filled wreckage, Amano Hiro slowly straightened. He placed Rize in a relatively intact corner and said in a low voice, "Wait for me."
Dark-red bloodlight flared. His body swelled abruptly. Spikes burst through flesh. Six tentacles writhed behind him like venomous serpents.
Where he passed, load-bearing walls collapsed like paper. Alloy doorframes were torn into fragments.
Two investigators rushed around a corner with quinques raised. The one in front forced himself to shout, "Who are you? Do you know where this is?!"
But his partner behind him suddenly began shaking violently. His quinque nearly slipped from his hand. "It... it's that 'Carnage'! SSS-class..."
Despair clamped their throats instantly. When the legendary calamity descended directly upon headquarters, rules and honor became jokes.
They turned and ran, shoes slipping, caring only to get as far from this demon as possible.
But two crimson tentacles were faster than their fear.
Sqush!
The tentacles pierced straight through their backs, hoisting them like dolls into the air and smashing them into opposite walls.
When the bodies slid down, two glaring blood smears were all that remained.
Amano Hiro moved through the branch like a descending reaper.
Alarm lights flashed red across his dark-red form, amplifying the horror. Everywhere he passed became shattered ruin.
"Stop him! Stop him now!" a squad leader screamed hoarsely, a greatsword-type quinque gleaming cold in his hands.
Seven or eight investigators followed behind him, faces ashen.
Amano Hiro did not slow. Three tentacles shot out like striking vipers, instantly lashing toward them.
The greatsword hacked into a tentacle and threw sparks, yet failed to leave even a trace.
The tentacle wrapped the squad leader and slammed him into the ceiling. He did not move again.
The rest were terrified out of their wits. One young investigator lost control on the spot. His quinque clattered down as he turned to flee.
Amano Hiro's eyes narrowed. Spikes suddenly erupted from the floor, skewering the fleeing few all at once.
He walked calmly into the central hall. More investigators had gathered here, roughly twenty to thirty, drawn up in formation.
At the front stood a First-Class Investigator wielding a drill-type quinque.
"Carnage! This place will not tolerate your rampage!" the First-Class forced steadiness, though his voice trembled.
Amano Hiro's scarlet gaze swept the crowd. A cold laugh mixed with static spilled out. "Rampage? I came today to flatten this place."
Before the words finished, he had already shot into the crowd like a loosed arrow. Wherever his claws passed, flesh and blood flew.
The six tentacles were scythes of death, lashing, stabbing, coiling, smashing without restraint.
Quinque armor before him was like thin paper, shattering at a touch.
Screams and the crack of bones rang nonstop. One investigator attempting a sneak attack had not even raised his quinque before a tentacle coiled his neck. Crack. He went limp.
The First-Class barely blocked the first claw strike with a shield-type quinque, only to be impaled through the abdomen by another tentacle and hurled away through a glass wall, fate unknown.
In mere moments, no one remained standing in the hall. Wreckage everywhere. Broken quinques mixed with mangled corpses. Blood pooled into streams.
"Boring." Amano Hiro snorted and moved on.
He went up the stairs. Doors were broken, walls torn apart.
Computers and file cabinets in the office area were smashed by sweeping tentacles. Training equipment was flung aside.
Several more groups of investigators were encountered along the way, yet none slowed him even briefly.
One hiding in ambush was skewered through both body and wall by a tentacle.
At last he reached the top-floor command center. Several senior officials blocked the blast door in a final stand.
"Y-you are making an enemy of all humanity!" a bald official shouted with bluster masking fear.
"Enemy?" Amano Hiro sneered. "You qualify?"
He did not even use tentacles. One punch.
The blast door, advertised as able to withstand rockets, shattered instantly.
The officials behind were riddled by flying metal fragments.
Entering the command center, Amano Hiro bared a savage grin at the camera. "Washuu. Ready to die?"
Then several tentacles plunged deep into the floor and load-bearing pillars and began to churn wildly.
Rumble!
The entire building shook violently. Huge slabs fell from the ceiling. Walls split with spiderweb cracks. He intended to destroy the structure completely from within.
"Time to go." He returned downstairs and took Rize's hand.
The two walked out calmly from the collapsing building. Behind them thundered the roar of structural failure. Dust plumes soared skyward.
The former 20th Ward CCG branch became a heap of smoking rubble in a short span.
Amano Hiro stood before the ruins, savoring the pleasure of destruction. The fury in his chest eased somewhat.
He wrapped an arm around Rize's waist. Wings beat. They rose into the sky and vanished into the night.
The 20th Ward CCG branch was annihilated. Erased from the map.