At this moment, Amaha Byakuya and his Wood Clone faced each other.
Since it was his clone, it was naturally under his complete control.
An individual almost identical to himself, yet absolutely obedient to him—that was essentially what it meant.
The Wood Clone attacked the moment they met, manipulating Susanoo to swing four massive swords at Byakuya.
Byakuya didn't try to block head-on. Instead, he retreated at extreme speed, successfully evading the killing zone before the four blades descended.
Even though the Third-Stage Susanoo Clone only possessed half his main body's power, 13's Jason in shield form definitely couldn't block this strike. He didn't want to waste his perfectly good Quinque for nothing.
BOOM—!!
The colossal swords struck the ground, producing an earth-shaking roar. Deep gashes appeared in the earth as countless chunks of debris and dust were sent flying.
"Watch out! Get back!"
Even the flying debris could cause serious harm. The nearby investigators immediately realized the danger and scattered.
Byakuya drew 13's Jason and transformed it into cannon form, firing at Susanoo's head.
The energy blast struck Susanoo's head dead-on with perfect accuracy, but the result was a perfect demonstration of "all smoke, no damage"—not even a scratch appeared on Susanoo's surface.
Kishou Arima also attempted to attack Susanoo with Narukami, but the lightning bolt was completely blocked by Susanoo's exterior shell, failing to cause any harm whatsoever.
He immediately realized that the being before him was completely beyond his ability to handle. If even Narukami had no effect, bringing out the SSS-rated Quinque "Owl" probably wouldn't accomplish much either—not that he had brought Owl to this operation anyway.
Arima couldn't help but glance at Byakuya again.
With power of this magnitude, why was he still at the CCG... playing "house" pretending to be a ghoul investigator?
Meanwhile, Byakuya was actually getting into it. Directly engaging his own Susanoo Clone was quite a novel experience.
He was treating this as an opportunity to build his combat achievements, so he needed to make it look authentic. That meant having his Susanoo Clone go all out from the start.
"Ui-san, could I borrow Chi She for a moment?"
Byakuya called out to Koori Ui nearby.
"Sure, but it belongs to Houji-san, not me."
Ui immediately tossed Chi She to Byakuya, not forgetting to make the correction.
"Thanks..."
Byakuya caught Chi She with one hand, ready to seriously engage his Susanoo Clone.
Unlike Houji Kousuke, Koori Ui, or Hirako Take who all needed two hands to wield it, he could easily swing Chi She with just one hand. After all, his physical strength was on an entirely different level from ordinary people.
Next, Byakuya charged up the side of a tilted building. The angle happened to be just enough for someone to barely climb.
A sword swept toward him, cleaving the already-tilted building in two, but Byakuya dodged without incident.
As the severed building began to collapse, Byakuya had already reached the top. He pushed off with both legs, his target being Susanoo's head.
The heavy, longsword-shaped Quinque Chi She became light and nimble in his hands. He even used his full strength, gripping Chi She with both hands as he slashed at Susanoo's head.
CLANG!
However... it was useless.
Susanoo's defense was simply too powerful—completely overpowered by the standards of the Tokyo Ghoul world.
Byakuya's physical strength combined with Chi She, one of the top-tier SS-rated Quinques, still couldn't inflict effective damage on the Susanoo Clone that possessed only half his power.
More accurately, Chi She was holding him back. Quinques simply lacked the firepower to matter against Susanoo.
After the ineffective attack, Byakuya landed smoothly.
The surrounding investigators were amazed by First Class Amaha's skills, but seeing that even this couldn't budge the colossal kakuja only deepened their despair.
"..."
Just then, Byakuya could sense that the Wood Clone's chakra was nearly depleted.
Susanoo consumed enormous amounts of both chakra and ocular power, especially at the Third Stage.
While he now possessed the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan, that only meant his Sharingan would no longer have side effects and would reduce the burden on his body—it didn't mean his chakra was infinite.
The Wood Clone wasn't his main body. The chakra he had allocated to it was limited, so naturally it couldn't maintain Third Stage for very long.
Byakuya's current overall strength definitely hadn't reached the level of "Fourth War Edo Tensei Madara." After all, he didn't have the Rinnegan yet.
That should be enough. You can head back now...
Byakuya mentally instructed his Wood Clone.
The Wood Clone immediately released Susanoo. But before departing, it used Susanoo's initial-form giant hand to grab the One-Eyed Owl lying nearby, taking it along.
This was, of course, also Byakuya's command.
"...It ran? That thing suddenly retreated, and it took the One-Eyed Owl with it..."
"Does this mean... it's over? I thought I was going to die here today."
"But the One-Eyed Owl was taken away, and the other Owl seems to have disappeared too. I guess we failed..."
"..."
The surrounding investigators all breathed sighs of relief.
Though this operation hadn't been very successful, at least they had survived.
They owed it all to Squad Leader Amaha arriving in time and holding off that colossal kakuja. It seemed he had worn it down until it ran out of stamina, forcing it to release its kakuja form and retreat with the One-Eyed Owl.
They had been in complete despair. Squad Leader Amaha's appearance had given them a glimmer of hope—at least that terrifying kakuja wasn't completely invincible. It had a weakness: insufficient stamina. Otherwise, humanity would have had no chance against ghouls in the future. Byakuya's staged performance had taken this into consideration; he didn't want to completely demoralize the human investigators all at once.
Little did they know... that was nowhere near Susanoo's true power...
...
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