Chapter 215: Utaha’s Fear
Chapter 215: Ghoul Rize Kamishiro vs. Parasite! Utaha’s Fear!
Kasumigaoka Utaha walked wearily down a dim, secluded street. Lately, she hadn’t been feeling well. Her mind was constantly occupied with thoughts of Ren, her kind and respected teacher.
She had recently discovered that he wasn’t the person she had imagined. He seemed to be someone who didn’t care much for popular fiction, claiming his works weren’t truly his own. He also appeared to be a two-timing scoundrel, having kissed his junior Benio and then being with two different women at a doujinshi event, whom he called his girlfriends.
Additionally, he seemed to be a perverted individual with a twisted sense of humor, which was evident in the outrageous doujinshi he’d created. Even Utaha herself was too embarrassed to speak of its contents. The immense and unsettling gap between Ren and her imagined Teacher Unheard Flower Name made her feel quite uneasy.
She had repeatedly reviewed their past chat logs, but she still couldn’t reconcile the vast difference between her perception and his reality. In addition to this turmoil, her editor, Machida Sonoko, was constantly rushing her to finish her manuscript. Today, she had just been scolded by Machida Sonoko, who had arranged to meet with her and pressure her for the manuscript.
Physically and mentally exhausted, her mind was a whirlwind of thoughts about Ren, the doujinshi, her manuscript, and Machida Sonoko. She was so distracted that she failed to notice a long-haired woman muttering to herself nearby, or the staggering bearded man walking towards her from the front.
The street grew eerily quiet, with only the distant chirping of insects and the sound of the wind filling the air. Suddenly, Utaha felt a shiver run down her spine. "Clang!" A solid thud of bodies colliding pulled her back to reality.
Raising her eyelids, she saw the purple-haired woman and the bearded man standing opposite each other. Under the streetlight, the man’s eyes were hollow and his expression was blank. The woman was slender and her face was pale.
They seemed to have just bumped into each other. Neither apologized; they simply stood there, heads lowered, without a word. Utaha raised her eyebrows, deciding it wasn’t appropriate to stand too close. She moved to the side, intending to walk past them.
As she passed, she heard a faint muttering and turned her head to look. The bearded man was muttering, "Eat... eat... eat..." while the purple-haired woman was muttering, "I... am... human..."
Utaha held her breath. The scene was too bizarre, and the dark, silent atmosphere sent a chill from the soles of her feet to the top of her head. Her heart pounded, and a sense of unease began to brew.
Her first thought was that she had encountered two mentally unstable people. Clutching her shoulder bag tightly, she prepared to quickly leave the area. At that moment, the bearded man looked up with a dazed expression and shouted, "I want to eat people!"
The words seemed to provoke the purple-haired woman. Her previously suppressed impulse erupted, and she shrieked with a distorted expression, "I am a Ghoul! I am not human!" Her last shred of sanity was drowned out, and her eyes instantly turned black and red with strange bloodlines. She hunched her back, her fingers tensed as if trying to grasp something.
Utaha was startled by their sudden declarations and unconsciously took a step back. She couldn’t understand what was happening, only thinking they were two mentally unstable individuals having an episode.
Just as she hesitated about whether to call the police, the scene changed. A low growl escaped the man’s lips. Utaha’s expression shifted from hesitant vigilance to wide-eyed terror. Her long legs, encased in black stockings, weren’t just trembling—they were shaking with fear.
She watched as the bearded man’s head inexplicably developed horizontal cracks without a trace of blood. The parts connected to his nose, eyes, and ears strangely wriggled and decomposed. In an instant, the upper part of his head had vanished, transforming into two whip-like, wriggling appendages made of flesh. The sides of these appendages were lined with sharp teeth, and their tips were blades that glinted coldly in the faint light.
At the location of his split-open skull, above his mouth, there was no brain. The man wasn’t human; he was a monster! Cold sweat drenched Utaha’s entire body. Her legs turned to jelly, and she stumbled backward, only managing to steady herself when her back hit the wall.
She thought the man who had transformed into a monster would kill or eat the woman in front of him, but she was wrong. Something even more bizarre happened. The clothes on the purple-haired woman’s lower back began to bulge strangely, as if something was about to burst out.
In that moment, her premonition came true. "Rip!" With a tearing sound, something burst through the fabric. Four blood-red, finely scaled, sharp, tail-like appendages surged out from her body. They danced as flexibly as the man’s fleshy whip-blades.
"I’ll eat you!" the brainless monster man shouted with a dazed expression, standing still as his fleshy whip-blades whistled and lashed out rapidly towards the monster woman. If she were hit by such fast-moving blades, she would surely be sliced in half.
In response, the woman’s finely scaled sharp tails behind her stretched and contracted. After contracting, the sharp tails gathered strength and thrust out like arrows. The male monster’s fleshy whip-blades were faster, but his body remained motionless. The female monster’s tails were stronger but slightly slower.
However, the woman was able to move flexibly and quickly by using her tails to push off the ground and walls. It appeared to be an evenly matched confrontation, but in reality, she was gradually approaching the male monster. When she entered the perfect attacking distance, she would launch a fatal blow.
Utaha was scared out of her wits by the two terrifying humanoid monsters and collapsed weakly to the ground. A powerful fear surged from the depths of her heart, almost completely overwhelming her. "Thump, thump, thump!" Her rapid heartbeat was uncontrollable, her breathing was so shallow that she was gasping for air, and cold sweat continuously dripped from her forehead.
Her trembling legs, hidden beneath her skirt and black stockings, completely lost control. A forceful, hot stream broke through the barrier, and warm liquid flowed down her legs, soaking her black stockings. The usual shame and humiliation she would feel were irrelevant at this moment.
She dared not make a sound, fearing that her movements would attract the monsters’ attention. The two monsters attacked in a dazzling flurry. Scales and blades collided, producing crisp clanging sounds like metal striking metal.
The surrounding streetlights were cut down, the ground was cracked, road signs were knocked over, and walls were shattered. What made Utaha even more despairing was that despite such a huge commotion, no one seemed to perceive it.