Amon Koutarou showed a hint of helplessness on his face and let out a soft sigh. "That's just how Mado-san is..." he murmured.
At the same time, a wave of emotion surged in his heart. After all, what was happening now had once played out in exactly the same way for him. Time flew fast and before he knew it, he had become the "senpai" in someone else's eyes.
Just then, Uesugi Ryu pressed the button without hesitation. With a quiet mechanical whirring, the long blade of his newly acquired Quinque slowly extended from its housing.
The moment Mado Kureo saw it, a gleam of excitement flashed in his eyes. He eagerly reached out, accepting the weapon with childlike enthusiasm as he began inspecting and fiddling with it with great interest.
"Wow... beautiful. Truly beautiful!" Mado exclaimed in admiration.
"But I'll say this, it requires considerable strength and technique to use properly."
"Hmm... judging by its characteristics, I'd say it's forged from a Rinkaku-type Kagune? It's actually quite suitable for new Investigators to use!"
After his assessment, he nodded in satisfaction.
Uesugi Ryu offered a polite smile and nodded in agreement. For someone like Mado, an obsessive enthusiast of Quinques, being able to identify its traits in an instant was hardly surprising.
In truth, Mado Kureo's strength was not to be underestimated. Even among First-Class Investigators, he stood out as an elite.
However, unlike those who relied purely on brute force, Mado belonged to a more technical school of thought. His battles relied heavily on strategy and the cunning use of his Quinque.
That he would later die at the hands of Kirishima Touka was a mere accident. He had completely suppressed her in that fight.
No one could have predicted that a child like Hinami would possess such overwhelming power.
"Let's get started, Mado-san. I'm curious to see what this Quinque can do!" Uesugi Ryu said eagerly as he took the weapon back from Mado's hands.
"You've got spirit, Ryu. In that case, let's move." Mado's smile grew even brighter, as if he had suddenly remembered something particularly amusing.
...
Mado Kureo and Amon Koutarou weren't actually stationed in the 20th Ward as they hadn't been transferred there yet.
Their recent appearance was only due to suspicions of possible cannibalistic Ghouls in the area, and Mado's own curiosity in helping the local investigation.
Now that the matter had been resolved, there was no reason for them to remain in the 20th Ward. Naturally, Uesugi Ryu followed them back to their original jurisdiction to continue his internship.
...
Ward 15, CCG Branch Office.
"Codename: Hannya. Known for wearing a Hannya mask while hunting prey, hence the name."
"Preliminary estimation: minimum A-rated Ghoul. Gender: male. Based on field evidence, Kagune type appears to be Ukaku."
A Third-Class Investigator stood at the front, briefing the room on the Ghoul's profile. On the screen behind him, various leads and information flickered into view.
"This Ghoul specifically targets young, attractive women. Attacks occur once every two months, nowhere near enough to sustain a Ghoul's hunger. Meaning he's most likely feeding off others in secret."
"Victims go missing, and their corpses are dumped elsewhere after a delay. This pattern implies premeditation."
"In other words..." the Investigator trailed off.
"It's for pleasure," Mado cut in coldly. "What a filthy piece of trash. Disgusting, and cunning."
His voice was gravelly, and his expression grew increasingly grim. Ghouls like this were the hardest to deal with.
First, Ukaku-types possessed extremely high mobility. Secondly, this particular Ghoul was cautious and methodical, making him exceedingly difficult to track down.
All the victims shared one glaring similarity: they were all young, beautiful women.
That meant the Ghoul was fully aware that the CCG would try to use this as bait, and so, when choosing new prey, he would be incredibly careful.
As the screen flipped through one gruesome photo after another, images of women's torsos, severed and mutilated, Uesugi Ryu sat quietly on the couch, staring expressionlessly at the screen.
He seemed distracted.
What no one else could see was that, at that very moment, Uesugi Ryu was processing three different visual perspectives.
One of them was particularly distorted and low to the ground, clearly not a human perspective.
On a street somewhere in Ward 15, a short-tailed white cat wandered drunkenly along the pavement.
Phantom Clone wasn't restricted to human forms. People naturally defaulted to themselves when creating the projection, which was why most clones mirrored the user.
But the clone didn't have consciousness. It was remote-controlled by Uesugi Ryu himself. Splitting one's mind across multiple perspectives, one-split mind, was no easy feat.
Even now, Uesugi Ryu was constantly using this skill. Only recently had he reached the point of managing three simultaneous streams of input. That was largely thanks to his high intelligence stat.
But piloting both a humanoid projection and an animal at the same time involved completely different control logic.
Walking like a human and crawling like a cat, it felt like his mental "CPU" was about to melt.
Meanwhile, Amon sat beside him. His brows, usually relaxed, were now tightly furrowed.
"Damn it!" he muttered.
Third-Class Investigators and their assistants mostly played support roles, gathering intel and assisting higher-level agents. Very few wanted to take on missions as difficult as this one.
The reason was obvious. Success rates in these kinds of cases were abysmally low. The killer had an extremely long hunting cycle and no clear pattern. For Investigators seeking achievements and promotions, this was a dead end.
That's why such cases were usually shelved. Left alone and unaddressed.
His feeding wasn't frequent enough to stir public panic. And though it was cruel to admit, it had become an unspoken rule within the CCG: Ghouls like this weren't worth the manpower to hunt.
But Mado Kureo didn't care about promotions.
He slowly placed both hands on the desk before him, and a sinister smile curled across his face.
"He's slippery," Mado said, voice quiet and measured.
"But there's no rush. Let's go ask a few chatty little Ghouls for some information, shall we? After all, this is work."