It was probably because the battle on Ihei Byakuya's side had shocked those ghouls that they still hadn't made a move against Yoshimura Eto.
However, Ihei Byakuya wasn't watching them. What he cared about was Yoshimura Eto, who was surrounded by them.
The Yoshimura Eto before him looked fragile and helpless, but he must not be fooled by her small, adorable appearance. When it came to cruelty, there were few in the entire Tokyo Ghoul world who could surpass her.
But Ihei Byakuya wasn't sure which point in the timeline this was. Judging by her appearance alone, this version of Yoshimura Eto seemed to be in her childhood.
But then again, this was hard to judge accurately, since even after reaching adulthood, Yoshimura Eto still retained that same youthful and petite appearance.
So Ihei Byakuya couldn't determine this extremely important issue.
It was known that Yoshimura Eto had already reached SSS rating by the age of fourteen at the latest. If the one before him was already past fourteen, then those ghouls on the other side could already be considered corpses.
If Yoshimura Eto simply felt annoyed, even he would be in serious danger...
According to the CCG's danger rating for ghouls, those ghouls over there were at most B-rated. Between B-class and SSS-class was an immeasurable gulf.
"Boss... Boss got knocked down?!"
"How is that possible? Boss was taken out by that human..."
"Who cares! Let's go together! I refuse to believe we still can't handle one human!"
"..."
Ihei Byakuya originally wanted to use those ghouls to test out Yoshimura Eto's rough combat strength, but things didn't go as planned. All of their attention had already been drawn to him. They were all completely shaken by what just happened.
Because aside from the Doves, the humans carrying briefcases, almost no human had any ability to fight back against ghouls.
"Doves" were the CCG's ghoul investigators. The full name of the CCG was the Commission of Counter Ghoul, a governmental and human organization founded by the Washuu Clan to fight ghouls.
Ghoul investigators were essentially government officials, but their duty was to investigate and exterminate ghouls, it was extremely dangerous work.
Because ghoul investigators wore pigeon-shaped badges as identification, the ghoul community referred to them collectively as Doves.
The briefcases they carried contained a special weapon known as the quinque, created from the kakuhou of ghouls. Human investigators relied on these weapons to fight against ghouls.
Even the strongest investigator, Arima Kishou, once killed a B-rated ghoul using only an umbrella when he had forgotten to bring his quinque, and that incident was considered a miracle.
Aside from this special case, ordinary humans, even investigators, were basically doomed if they fought ghouls without quinques...
This was why those ghouls reacted with such shock when they saw their leader blasted away.
But they had numbers on their side, and they weren't completely intimidated.
They hadn't clearly seen what technique the human had used earlier, so they thought if they attacked together, they could bring down this troublesome human first.
"Tch..."
Ihei Byakuya clicked his tongue.
What gave him a headache wasn't the ghouls charging at him, but that now he couldn't use this situation to test Yoshimura Eto's strength or determine her current stage.
"Hey, aren't you coming to help a little?"
Ihei Byakuya intentionally called out to Yoshimura Eto.
If she made a move right now to help him, he should be able to get some idea...
"I... I'm so scared..."
At this moment, Yoshimura Eto showed a panicked, frightened expression.
I don't believe a single word of that!
Ihei Byakuya almost blurted it out loud.
He had clearly noticed earlier that even when surrounded, Yoshimura Eto hadn't shown the slightest trace of panic. Only indifference.
He couldn't test out anything this way, but based on the information he had now, Byakuya could only conclude that Yoshimura Eto's strength likely wasn't weak. Otherwise, she wouldn't have remained so calm while being surrounded.
As for being scared, that was obviously an act!
Those few ghouls were already closing in on Ihei Byakuya from all sides, while Yoshimura Eto simply stood there quietly watching.
No helping it now...
When the four ghouls charged up to him, Ihei Byakuya withdrew his gaze. For the moment, he could only deal with these guys first.
Originally, all four ghouls released their kagune and attacked together. But as Ihei Byakuya retreated, one of the ghouls grew impatient and rushed ahead of the others, chasing after Byakuya.
Ihei Byakuya seized that moment, suddenly stopped his movement, and launched a counterpunch.
The ghoul was caught completely off guard and had no time to react.
Crack-like lines spread out from the faint white glow on Byakuya's fist. The instant the air shattered, the ghoul also suffered damage from the collapsing space.
"Gah-!"
His expression twisted in pain as he coughed up blood.
Ihei Byakuya understood well that his mastery of the Gura Gura no Mi was not developed enough to fight multiple foes at once. That was why from the start he had planned a strategy of defeating them one by one.
"What was that just now?!"
"No idea! Is he a Dove? Did he hide some weapon on himself?!"
"Don't get careless! We need to stick together!"
The other three ghouls had witnessed the ability Ihei Byakuya displayed earlier, but they had no idea what it was. After all, the Gura Gura no Mi didn't exist in this world.
Even though they realized they shouldn't give Ihei Byakuya opportunities to pick them off individually, they were still bound to leave openings sooner or later.
Of course, it wasn't easy for Byakuya either. The characteristic of the Gura Gura no Mi was extreme destructive power, but it lacked defensive means.
The ghouls' kagune had long reach. To fend off three ghouls' kagune attacks at once, he had no choice but to rely on speed and reflexes to continuously dodge.
He still inevitably received several grazing wounds during this, but they were only surface injuries, none pierced through his body.
At this moment, Ihei Byakuya finally caught another opening. With a high roundhouse kick infused with the power of "airquake," he struck one ghoul squarely in the head, sending him flying instantly, blood streaming down his face.
Only two ghouls remained with combat ability, and Byakuya's situation immediately improved significantly.
"Ah... aaahhhh-"
One of the two remaining ghouls seemed to have completely lost his nerve. He abandoned his companion and ran without hesitation.
Ihei Byakuya ignored the fleeing one and instead fixed his cold gaze on the last ghoul.
"W-why are you running?! I..."
That final ghoul had also lost his courage and didn't dare attack Byakuya anymore.
"I... I don't want to die either-!"
After a few steps backward, he finally turned tail and fled as well.
Ihei Byakuya didn't pursue.
Because killing a ghoul completely was not easy.
Byakuya first walked toward the first ghoul he had knocked down. In just this short time, most of the ghoul's injuries had already healed. That was the regenerative ability of ghouls.
If left alone for a bit longer, he would likely recover enough to fight again. Naturally, Byakuya could not allow that.
His right hand clamped down on the ghoul's neck, pinning him firmly to the ground.
A faint white glow suddenly wrapped around his entire hand. Within that glow surged a violent power, the power of "earthquake"!