Special Cla.s.ses Shinohara and Kuroiwa were having very hard times in dealing with the Owl. Nothing worked even after they activated "Eat Up" of the Arata Proto, which greatly boosted their physical capabilities in the general. The price they were paying was great, but the results weren"t.They have exchanged several moves with the Owl, but they weren"t able to injure him or anything. Even though their coordination was one of the best in the entire CCG because they were partners in the past and also friends who trained together. But everything was useless in front of the supreme power.
They were using the Arata to its maximum until the effect of the armor-type unique was becoming totally unbearable. Yoshimura was looking at the two Special Cla.s.s Investigators, which were using Arata even with the cost of their own life with pity.
"What a horrifying weapon."
Said Yoshimura with sorrowful voice. Both of them were shocked because they heard something unheard. Owl was actually communicating with them.
"The world continues to breed anger and sadness. Pilfering, killing. We justify those acts to convince ourselves that we are only doing what we are supposed to. Your weapon is a symbol of that. There exists no reason to take another"s life. Any act of taking a life is equally evil."
Both of them were deeply shocked after Yoshimura said those deep words. What an old man Yoshimura said was the actual truth. This was the vicious circle of endless hatred and killing. Nothing more and nothing less. Humans hunted ghouls out of hatred and ghouls would do the same in revenge. Hatred would lead only to another hatred. Yoshimura didn"t like killing others, especially after he defected from the Vasuki. Because of this, he was also nicknamed as Non-Killing Owl.
"If there is such a thing as a soul, it seems Arata does not intend to lend you a hand. It"s time..."
Said Yoshimura and after that, he immediately rushed away from this place. He escaped.
"Shinohara! I"m pulling it off of you! Radio Commander Marude and request a med team."
Ordered Kuroiwa as he held heavily injured Shinohara. He was in much better condition than his friend. Zelilios watched everything in the dark and he already chose a target. He would be able to kill one of them and he chose to kill already severely injured Shinohara.
"Shinohara. The Owl is an SSS-rated ghoul who has produced countless victims. He"s one of our most wanted targets. We lost countless special investigators to him. Ten years ago during the Anti-Owl operation that took place while I was recuperating, there were wounded, but none were killed. Just like tonight."
Who could have thought that there were actually two Owls. One was Yoshimura and another was Eto. He was protecting his daughter by attracting the CCG to him. He was doing it for a very long time, always in the dark.
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Command Center of the 11th Ward Countermeasures Units
"Commander Marude Towers 1 through 8 have been cleared! Sadly we didn"t manage to find many ghouls, not even thirty. The squad of the a.s.sociate Special Cla.s.s Investigator Chino Mutsumi was already found and we have confirmed their death by an ambush."
Reported one of the soldiers of the CCG.
"Hmm... this is getting only worse. Hopefully, nothing bad would happen from now. Prepare a press conference to announce our victory. ETo the public that takes peace for granted. Even though we have some losses we have still managed to destroy lair of the Aoigiri Tree in the 11th Ward."
Said Marude with a frown, as they already lost too much in today"s battle. It was the truth, they had suffered heavy losses but they still managed to complete at least the primary objective of this mission. Destruction of the lair of the Aogiri Tree in the 11th Ward. In reality, CCG had a high tolerance for loss of those ordinary cannon fodders. They could be replaced in a year or so, it wasn"t a problem to lose even half of them, even though it would create some problems.
"Sir, it"s the main office..."
Reported one person behind the communication panel.
"Who is it?"
"Special Cla.s.s Investigator Arima."
"Arima? I get it, he must have gotten word of my great victory."
Marude took the phone from the hands of the a.s.sistant at a great speed.
"h.e.l.lo! This is 11th Ward Special Task Force Commander Marude. Hey Arima! While you were out mole hunting, I already took care of business here! Even though we have suffered some loses, we could still go."
Said Marude to Arima.
"That"s great. Then would you mind sending any available units my way? The Ghoul Detention Center, Cochlea in the 23rd Ward had been attacked. Possibly by the 11th Ward ghouls main unit. We have identified SS-rate Tatara, SS-rate Hollow and S-rate Eto there. Probably entire Cochlea person is already annihilated. I am heading there, right now myself. I"ll see you soon."
Finished Arima as he closed the call.
"....... Main unit?"
Muttered Marude as he weakly sat down at the chair and looked blankly at monitors. No wonder they couldn"t even find some strong ghouls and even number of ghouls here was so little. This was just a trap. Simple diversion of forces. The target of Aogiri Tree was never a defense of this base but rather Cochlea. That was their real target.
Entire base in the 11th Ward only served as distraction and trap to weaken their forces and kill some of their people. They would gain enough time to raid Cochlea Prison. Now this entire situation wasn"t even fiasco. It was a pure catastrophe. They fallen into the enemy"s trap and even lost many of their people for nothing.
Now only thing which mattered was to aid Cochlea if ghouls there managed to escape that would be terrible. Marude was totally horrified form fact, that SS-rate Hollow has joined them in this attack. He heard about that ghoul, as he was personally identified by the chairman of the CCG, Washuu Tsuneyoshi as extremely dangerous, but till now he wasn"t showing any affiliations to the Aogiri Tree.