Tokyo Ghoul: Starting with Mangekyo Sharingan

"You... who are you?"

Minami immediately showed an expression of panic, retreating in fear, looking just like an ordinary human girl.

"Lantern, your feeding ground is now mine."

Byakuya deliberately lowered his voice, making it sound completely different from his usual tone.

The so-called feeding ground refers to the place where ghouls hunt humans, typically dark and remote alleys.

It's like territoriality, every ghoul tends to claim a space that is theirs alone, called a feeding ground. If another ghoul invades their feeding ground to hunt humans, it inevitably leads to a bloody battle between ghouls.

Byakuya openly declared he was taking Minami's feeding ground, which directly challenged her bottom line.

Having had her Lantern identity exposed by him, Minami stopped pretending.

Her once frightened and pitiful demeanor shifted into an icy cold expression. "I don't know where you came from, ghoul, but to challenge me the moment you step into the 13th Ward... you've got guts."

As soon as she finished speaking, her kagune burst from her lower spine—pink tails that were identical to the kagune of the pumpkin-head ghoul encountered the previous night.

Her eyes turned a crimson red, the signature kakugan of a ghoul. While ghoul eyes were generally terrifying, on a cute girl like Minami, they carried a strangely bewitching beauty.

At the same time, Byakuya's eyes also transformed.

With a mere thought, the Mangekyo Sharingan, Double Kamui emerged in his gaze.

Although his sharingan eyes were different from a ghoul's kakugan, Minami didn't suspect him.

After all, normal humans could never have blood-red eyes, let alone switch freely between black and red. These were traits exclusive to ghouls.

As for why his kakugan looked different from the norm, Minami wasn't in the mood to care about such a minor detail.

She focused intently on the mysterious masked man before her, trying to discern his kagune type.

Understanding the type of kagune would give her an advantage in the coming battle.

Each kagune type had its own strengths and weaknesses, and targeting its vulnerabilities was a sound strategy.

However, all she could see was a chain extending from his sleeve. Was that his kagune?

Though it didn't look like a kagune, there was nothing else on the opponent that resembled a kagune, except for this chain. But she had seen many strange kagune before, so it was possible that his kagune was very unique.

"What type of kagune is this…?" she wondered, confused

The chain emerged from his sleeve, making it impossible to pinpoint the location of his kakuhou — the organ that produced a kagune. The kakuhou's position often determined a kagune's type.

But this chain defied convention, offering none of the usual indicators.

"..."

Byakuya wasted no words and acted immediately.

His sharingan locked onto the base of Minami's tail-like kagune. With a swift application of Kamui's offensive ability — a spatial manipulation technique — he tore through space itself.

Although this ability traditionally resided in his left eye, his mastery of the dual Kamui allowed him to wield it with both, achieving far greater speed.

So fast, in fact, that Minami couldn't react at all.

By the time she felt a strange spatial distortion, her kagune had already been severed by a spiraling vortex.

"What?!"

Pain surged through her as she realized her kagune was gone.

Moments earlier, she had been analyzing her opponent's kagune, yet she hadn't even seen him make a move. How was this possible?

Seizing the moment before her kagune could regenerate, Byakuya dashed toward her at triple the speed of a normal human.

The chain shot from his sleeve, wrapping tightly around her neck.

As the chain constricted, Minami began to feel suffocated.

But ghouls were far more resilient than humans. Minami, being a tail-type ghoul adept at close combat, immediately countered with a kick.

Her right leg lashed out sharply, but Byakuya evaded effortlessly with a leap, flipping over her in mid-air. The chain around her neck tightened further during his aerial maneuver.

Pain twisted Minami's face. Despite her A+ rated strength, her endurance had limits. While she could withstand far more than a human, she couldn't escape the agony of strangulation.

Before long, she would lose consciousness — or worse, suffocate to death.

Thankfully, her kagune had already regenerated. She launched it toward the masked man at point-blank range.

Victory seemed certain at this distance.

But her hope turned to despair in the next moment.

Her kagune passed through his body as though it wasn't there.

This was the power of Byakuya's intangible form. By transferring his physical body into the Kamui's dimension, he became untouchable in the real world. While his consciousness remained in the physical plane, his body existed elsewhere, making him immune to attacks.

Minami's suffocation worsened, and her vision began to blur.

"Am I really going to die here...?"

Despair filled her heart. She had just started living a normal life in the 13th Ward, attending school like an ordinary human girl. That precious time had been shattered, and now it was all over.

Tears welled up in Minami's eyes.

[Ding! Host has defeated an A+ rated ghoul. Reward: 8 attribute points!]

Byakuya didn't release the chain but also refrained from tightening it further. He was waiting for someone.

He had no intention of killing Minami, his goal was something else entirely.

Finally, his target arrived.

A familiar white figure appeared: none other than Arima.

Arima, already prepared for battle, had drawn one of his quinques, 'Yukimura' from its cello case. He charged at Byakuya with a deadly precision.

"Clang! Clang—"

At first, he pretended to block a few of Arima's strikes with the chain.

Due to its origin as a system-provided tool, the chain was exceptionally durable, easily withstanding the attacks of a B rated quinque without damage.

Having put on enough of an act, Byakuya finally released the chain around Minami's neck.

"Cough! Cough, cough!"

Freed at last, Minami gasped desperately for air.

Looking at Arima standing protectively in front of her, she couldn't believe she had been saved by a ghoul investigator.