The piercing white light of the bulb pass through Shinji's shut eyes. His ears were picking a faint humming sound that was by degrees becoming an uproar.
When he opened his eyes, lying on the floor against the cage; he found himself in a totally absurd situation. Hundreds of people were cheering. Infront of him was a beef up mascho with a blue wrestler pants and a red vest. His face hidden besides a Daruma mask.
"Welcome ghouls and humans. We will start the first fight of the night. On the right side you have our first participant, named FOX. He is a ghoul from the 3rd ward. He is brought by our humble patreon whose identity he asked to be kept a secret. And FOX will be fighting our next participant, SUMO, who is a well known fighter in the human world. And with the introduction over, let the match begin" the announcer's word fell on his ear.
Fight why must he and who was this man infront of him? And what happen to the two men he was fighting? There were many questions whose answers he wanted to know as quick. But all of them turn to vain, when the man infront of him with a loud bellow teared up his vest and was in no mood to talk.
"Wait, there must be a mistake, I'm not here to fig..." A tremendous punch fell on Shinji's face that knock him off balance.
"Show me what you are made up of you damn ghoul" the wrestler demanded.
Shinji stood holding to the cage bar and was again about to reason with him. A series of punches greeted his chest, face and abdomen.
The crowd was going bananas. There was roar of laughter and shouting. Aiko and Gabi silently watched. And the two investigator had mixed themselves in the crowd too.
At the end of those consecutive punches, Shinji felt on the floor. But even than the wrestler show no mercy. He held one of his leg, lifted him upside down and like a piece of rag trashed him. Again and again, his body kissed the floor with his blood. And sound of impact echoed in that hall. And in the silence of the crowd, those sounds were heard distinctly. Each could be separated from the other.
At one such trashing, when Shinji's body was in mid air, descending to the floor. Shinji with his free leg kicked his hand. Spinning in mid air, he landed on all fours. Like a rabid dog he glared his teeth. And a stare fixed on the wrestler. His kakugan had fully manifested.
The wrestler was also suprised at his sudden vitality. Yet he felt an excitement running through his body. Smashing both his first against each other, he declared the second round.
Shinji's kagune was also taking shape.
"FOX has shown his kagune. Spider like rinkaku kagune... What will be SUMO's next move" the announcer said in excitement.
With his kagune in it's offense stance, he dashed towards his tormentor. The wrestler quietly eyed him and when he was about to strike the tip down his throat, he held both kagune by the joint. Unable to bend, Shinji was locked in a power battle. Each use their force to push the other back. But none of them budge a step.
The wrestler bend backwards and swing his head forward striking Shinji's head. Again and again he striked. The right half of his mask broke off. His eyes and mouth came to view, and they held a sinister pleasure in them.
In those moments when he rose his head to look at Shinji, an intoxicating sense of pride creep up his heart that made him to strike much harder each time. He a mere human held in his head the life force of a ghoul his kagune, while he kept beating down him. That pride was materialising at his face, but quickly get obliterated by a painful distortion of his face.
A kagune had pierced through his right abdomen. Now Shinji looked up with a smile. A fourth kagune quickly materialized and struck the other side. The wrestler let out a deep cry which was drown by the crowd cheer. Shinji kept twisting his kagune to deepen the wound as much as he could.
"He is just like a newborn. As a baby learns to crawl, he can soon walk, then run, then jump. And so is Shinji. A week ago he didn't know that he was a ghoul and now he is growing. Not growing, he is rocketing. But how far is his limit" Aiko commented to Gabi who was engrossed in the fight below.
The wrestler seal his lips, closing his eyes; he arched his back downward as if it would have touch it. With a sudden release of pressure from the back, his forehead smashed Shinji head with such force that he let him free from his grasp.
What was left of the mask had now been blown to pieces. The wrestler held the wound at his right side. While from the left, blood spill as water from a tap. He was in pain, a deep excruciating pain that was now brewing with rage.
"I will not be defeated. I'll kill you and have the money" he declared his intentions to Shinji.
But Shinji pay no notice of those threats. He relish the blood from his two newly formed kagune. But unfortunately they were retreating. His body was running out of fuel. He was hungry and infront of him was a chunk of meat.
With a mad grin he dashed for his prize. The wrestler was on his last legs. He determined to end it with a final blow. Shinji's movement were now becoming more erratic. Even he may not know what he was doing, and the wrestler saw a chance in that.
When Shinji was just at his range, a few metres from him. The wrestler aimed a powerful punch at Shinji's head.
But of the two old kagune that still remained, he dexterously thrush it forward as a spear. The kagune pierced through the muscle, sliding over the muscle of the arm until it pass right over the joint.
The wrestler arm was now skewered. It happen so quickly that neither the crowd nor the wrestler could tell what exactly happen. Even the feeling of pain came much later on.
Like a knife slicing through a ripe mango, Shinji pulled his kagune out. Ripping all of the arm in a blast of blood and muscle. The crowd had gone crazy by now at such a turn of events.
Yet the fight was far from over. The wrestler lifted himself up. His obliterated arm hanging as a vine from a tree. And slowly he moved toward Shinji.
"What this! even when handicapped SUMO seems to keep on fighting. But wait his feet, they are shaking. He has been poisoned, the kagune injected venom into him.... And here he falls. And we have got our winner" the announcer declared. "The ring will be cleared of the debris at once" he added.
Two man entered the ring. Holding the wrestler by his leg, both of them drag him out of the ring and closed the gate.
"Let's go outside Gabi, we will catch them outside. They will bring Shinji back to the car, we will wait there" she said to Gabi and turned to the exit.
"And the second battle commence. To the left we have FOX, the winner of the first battle. And on the right we have JASON, an infamous ghoul from 13th ward" the announcer with that, declared Shinji's death sentence.