Chapter 11: The Chase

(I apologize again for my late posting and a little rant.

Lately, I do feel like I reached a writer block. I rewrite this chapter like 4 times because each time the idea just keeps getting worse and I feel it's downright shit.

Initially, the plan is for Ray to go to Kuoh and stumble upon a plot there. But I scrap it because his group in Tokyo will be neglected and they barely have any progression to be ignored.

Next, I tried to make a crossover with GFL in the dungeon. Idk why I'm probably desperate to get something on the paper that I am resorting to a crazy idea.

Then I put this aside for two days to continue rewriting Rebellion of His Creation which is partially done and reach a road block before I return back here with one more rewrite before this chapter is complete.

Idk why I even want to share this but I felt better if I share the issue I have rather than keeping it for myself.

Anyway, here you go. The chapter.)

After a close call encounter with the CCG agents, Ray spent a day inside a dungeon before he fully recuperated from the drug that was injected into him.

He didn't waste his time either, killing countless enemies and amassing a ludicrous amount of EXP through the discovery of a monster house which is a room with every inch of the tiles filled with summoning traps that summon enemies. With clever use of Paralyzing and Liquid Flame potions, he cleared those enemies very efficiently and gained quite a lot of EXP.

The dungeon is filled with those rooms for some reason. Not that he is complaining after discovering it's advantage.

The dungeon oddly didn't have a boss like the Sewer dungeon. He bounced between three similar dungeons, waiting for night time before he went out to wander the street. He passed by an electronic shop and saw at the display window, a news report regarding a criminal on the loose.

"In xx August, a multimillionaire businessman was found dead in his mansion. The killer's identity was unfortunately not known and the only lead is this image captured by a road surveillance…"

Ray looks at the news and it's him, although his facial features were partially hidden due to the camera angle.

He quickly went to the train station but found it was surrounded by policemen keeping an eye on everyone that entered.

It seems the people from yesterday had caused this just to find him. But, not giving up. Ray took a taxi only to be halted by a police checkpoint when exiting the city.

"Sir, ID please." The police asked and the driver gave his ID.

Ray was hesitant but he is sure they cannot trace his face. Even the surveillance image didn't exactly show his face except for a blurry image of him at that time.

He gave his ID, it was checked without raising any alarm and returned. The taxi resumed its journey. Ray sighed in relief that his guess was true.

Meanwhile, back at the police checkpoint.

"Sir, we identified the suspect on a taxi going towards Nagoya." The police talk to the walkie-talkie.

"Good job. We will inform your superior and take over from here." The person on the other side of the walkie-talkie responded before the call ended.

The previous six agents are now on the move to pursue Ray after being tipped with information. One in particular is grinning very excitedly to get her revenge after being humiliated in front of her teammates and her captain.

———

Two hours later, the taxi Ray boarded almost reached Nagoya, with a few stops at a gas station along the way.

Ray paid the driver around 50k Yen after his arrival and noticed there was no police checkpoint this time.

It is still night time right now and nowhere to go as most shops are already closed by 10pm. He searched for a 24 hour internet cafe to spend the night and navigate the city using Maps.

Meanwhile, the six agents merely observed Ray from a distance as they arrived much earlier by train and were on standby to follow him as soon as he stepped out of the taxi.

After a previous encounter with Ray, they had reported his ability to disappear into thin air to the higher-ups and that changed their mission from normal purging of Ghouls that escaped the city to capturing him.

While Ghoul gained Kagune as the result of mutations from RC cells, some Ghoul would have extra mutations such as generating fire, electricity or ice. There are rarer forms of mutation of these esper-like powers such as telepathy being a widely known one to their organization. They suspect Ray's Invisibility fell under that category. Thus, their higher-ups ordered to grab his body and deliver it to their lab for testing.

To deal with this invisibility, which they assumed to be similar to optical camouflage. Their higher-ups had decided to reinforce them with almost hundred Hunters and tactical equipment such as heat sensors and myriad other devices which they had to wait while keeping tabs on Ray's location.

They followed him until he entered an internet cafe. They stopped and stood guard outside to make sure he would stay inside instead of escaping while they are preparing a raid.

———

After I sat down and rented a room, I took out my flip phone to contact Akira only to realize that it had run out of battery. I don't even know when it did.

I went back to the counter and asked if they had a charger cable which they did and thankfully I could charge my phone after borrowing it while I spend some time playing games to de-stress.

Almost an hour later, I turned on my phone and saw +99 missed calls and messages. Checking shows it was Akira calling and messaging me three days ago. Anyway, I wrote a message back and told him I am alright.

Instantly, I received a phone call and it's Akira.

With a sigh, I answered the call expecting a barrage of questions.

"Ray? Are you alright? I couldn't call you for almost four days already. What happened?"

"Nothing to worry about… I forgot to bring my phone charger with me. Hehehe…" I laughed sheepishly while Akira fell into silence with indescribable emotions.

After that, he scolded me and reminded me to always keep my phone charged because this is the only way for us to contact each other. Then we went to the real topic. I asked for his bank account information to transfer money in my hand to him.

"Onii-chan, is that you?"

I heard from the background of the phone call. Then after a few seconds of tussling noise, Hinami is the one talking on the phone right now. Asking about me and when I will return.

"Don't worry, Hinami. I will definitely return soon with more delicious foods and make sure to take care of yourself. Now, give the phone back to Akira."

"Okay!"

The phone switched hands back to Akira where we talked a little bit more about my situation. I revealed my encounter with the agents. I thought Akira would recognise them but turns out this is the first time he heard about this CCG agent thing.

"Anyway, I'm hanging the call soon. I will transfer more money to your account later."

"Okay. Take care of yourself Rei."

Akira sounded like he had something to say but he didn't say it in the end and ended the call for me.

Well, almost everything I wanted to do is done now. I wanted to relax but my mind couldn't help recalling what happened yesterday.

If not for my additional abilities and equipment from the dungeon. There is no way I would survive yesterday's encounter. That RC cells Inhibitor drug could fully shut down not just my Kagune but also my super strength, regeneration, etc. Basically all the advantages of a Ghoul.

The drug's effect thankfully dissipates after a long while. I manage to recover the syringe dart and disassemble it to hopefully find a countermeasure.

The syringe itself is quite standard syringe dart but the tip of the dart isn't made of common metal as those metals cannot pierce Ghoul's strong skin. Instead, it was made with hardened RC cells similar to Quinque. Unfortunately, this means wearing armor wouldn't fix the issue as I would hope.

While in the dungeon, I tested out a few armor against the dart but none of them could defend against the dart except the Orichalcum Armor in my inventory which isn't suitable because it's literally a full plate armor which made me stand out a lot. What I want is something that I can wear inconspicuously under my regular outfit.

While being deep in my thoughts and listening to the music I open on UTube. I noticed the atmosphere inside the internet cafe was strangely silent. Like normally there will be sound of games or whatever in the background that I could pick up with my superhuman hearing.

*Step* x4

I heard footsteps outside of my room and a mechanical sound ominously similar to firearms.

*Bang*

*Bang*

…

…

The assailants unloaded all their shots and put holes through the door of the room which at the end, had a large hole that they could see through to find the room was empty instead of having a dead body inside.

"Location is false. Target is missing, over." The spec ops looking soldier uses his radio to communicate back to his superior to alert them that their target is missing.

Meanwhile, Ray was hanging on the ceiling with his dear life while activating the Cloak of Shadows to evade their sight.

"*Static* Plant the explosive and leave the compound quick. Over. *Static*"

"Roger that, over."

The soldiers looked at his brothers in arms and nodded at each other as they quickly got to work. Ray heard this and obviously he quickly get the fuck out. Even if Ghoul is fairly durable, they aren't durable enough against weapons like plastic explosions which is what they are about to use.

Each charge of the Cloak of Shadows allowed him to be invisible for a minute and he used two with three remaining. He must leave quickly or his escape will be more difficult.

Thus he escapes, unaware that he was walking directly into an elaborate trap set up by the agents.

As soon as Ray walked out the building under a perfect camouflage, a laser sensor set around the building suddenly beeping and an automated response caused another machine to aim its barrel at Ray's position and shoot an extremely sticky and light reflective substance that revealed his position.

"The bait worked!" Eri cheered with a sinister smile while eyeing her prey.

She will get her revenge this time for the humiliation she suffered. She turns to her captain with a hopeful face that she can be granted the permission to solo this battle once again but her captain denies by shaking his head.

"But, captain. Last time he caught me off guard with his invisibility. This time he won't escape my grasp."

""No. We will proceed as a team. Regardless if he still has his invisibility or not. No lone personnel shall engage a Kakuja user alone. That is the protocol and you will follow it or else."

The captain gave her warning to Eri who shrunk back before signaling the other agents to engage.

Other agents nodded once they received their order and joined the Hunters on the street that had already started open fire at Ray using special Quinque bullets which are normal bullets but coated with hardened RC cells.

Ray was careless at first thinking those measly bullets cannot pierce his skin only to pay the price later after being filled with bullets all over his body. Only then he released his Kagune to shield himself from the bullets. The wounds unfortunately didn't heal immediately like it usually does when the thin layer of RC cells coating interrupted the healing process and made it slower.

Ray tried to escape when the situation was unfavorable. He leaped up to the nearby building but was greeted by an agent wielding a whip blade Quinque that instantly attacked Ray with his Quinque, almost stabbing his throat if not for his quick reaction to use his arm to block the whip blade.

The Ray use his Kagune to maul the agent that harmed him but another two agents, both wielding sword type Quinque, blocked his Kagune and the fourth agent behind him using a Ukaku type Quinque that shoot shards of hardened RC cells like a gun at Ray from a distance.

Just before he could jump off to the next building to escape the encirclement, Eri appeared and cut off his escape route.

"Where do you think you are going, huh?"

Eri brought forward her briefcase and released the Quinque inside which turned into a naginata.

The final agent, the captain, didn't act yet but he is nearby and observing the situation with expression of indifference. As if nothing ever happened in front of him.

They tried to gang up on Ray but he managed to fend himself but he was getting tired and soon ran out of RC cells to even regenerate his injury. Any attempt to escape was thwarted and like a cornered animal, the agents slowly dealt attacks to play safe instead of getting aggressive because victory is already in hand as long as they continue exhausting Ray.

Meanwhile, Ray was looking for a chance. An opening that he can take advantage of.

He is already being boxed in by these five agents and escape is near impossible without paying a big price and exposing himself to attack that the agents can make use of to deal a fatal injury. But, somehow his instinct tells him the real danger isn't the five agents but that white haired man with glasses which had only been observing instead of attacking. The moment he felt the need, the captain might join the fight too and Ray didn't want that to happen yet.

He defended a few more attacks before he initiated his plan by smashing a Paralyzing Gas potion which instantly turned into a yellow cloud of fume the instant the vial cracked and air were introduced to the concoction.

Ray already held his breath, prepared for this while the four nearby agents didn't and were affected by the potions. He used this opportunity and casted [Assassination] to flicker behind the two agents that wield sword type Quinque and used his Kagune to stab them while they are helplessly paralyzed.

"Ken! Tawamu… ra…"

The agents that used a ranged type Quinque shouted distressedly and quickly looked at his captain who still remained calm but had a faint surprised expression on his face.

"Interesting… this ability you used defied the rule of physics itself. Suddenly instantaneous movement while body posture shows no proof that it moved at all to result in such movement."

"Are you perhaps a magic user? I dismissed this notion before because you have no prior contact to mages… No. You did. Cyril Agustin Henrik, a low class magician from an undisclosed magic cabal that uses magic to live a lavish life in Japan."

The captain casually fishes out a stack of paper from under his coat and flips through the pages to read its content without any hint of urgency before returning it under his coat and fixed his glasses.

Ray was caught off guard by the captain's laxness despite he just literally delivered a fatal wound to two of his subordinates.

The captain then suddenly activated his suitcase which turned into a spear with magma-like finish on it until it suddenly spit out a jet of flame. He spun it around a few times before jumping forward to make a sweeping strike which carried immense momentum that instantly cleared away the gas.

Before Ray could barely process it, the spear was already heading toward him and almost stabbed his left eye which he responded by shifting his body enough to barely save his own eyes and the spear only grazed his head.

While all other agents so far had been within human limits. The captain far exceeds that limit that I start to wonder who is who is Ghoul and who is human right now.

Another few strikes which I blocked with my Kagune. But the fire is annoying because after I blocked his spear, the fire will act as follow up that pierce through my layer of defense made up of Kagune and force me to defend with my bare hand, letting my arm get burnt and regenerate back instead of my body that contain vital organs

Our battle becomes heated while the other agents thankfully prioritize saving their comrade instead of helping their captain.

"Really, can you afford to be distracted?"

The captain asked as his spear somehow evaded all my Kagune and pierced my defense entirely. I reacted quickly and punched the flat side of the spearhead to deflect it successfully. Then while borrowing the momentum, I kicked him in the chest and used it as a springboard to create distance.

The path of escape is clear and unobstructed. Until Eri suddenly appeared with a slightly ragged appearance but determined to stop me from escaping. She slashed her naginata.

Unexpected to her and almost everyone, Ray catched the pole section of the naginata before chewing through the blade like eating hard candy. Eating the Quinque, much to the surprise of its owner while giving her a spiteful ridiculing face as he made his escape.

The agents wanted to put up a chase but the captain stopped them and said the protocol changed because they are dealing with matters outside of their scope, Magic.

—————

For those who are wondering about the rewriting progress for [Rebellion of His Creation], I have almost complete modifying and the story will continue from CH 107. The progress is 3/4 done and hopefully it will be good.