For the next few hours, Hojo Yoru simply stayed with Touma Kazusa while she practiced piano.
Of course, calling it "staying with her" was generous—most of the time he only chatted during her short breaks, tossing out a few lines of small talk and casually teasing the iceberg-like, loyal-dog black-haired beauty.
Kazusa's practice routine was intense—borderline self-abusive.
The pieces she worked on were difficult. To avoid mistakes, she had to remain fully focused the whole time, her nerves stretched tight like a wire. And after finishing a run-through, she barely rested—she would play for at least half an hour straight before finally stopping to breathe.
This wasn't practice anymore.
It was punishment.
Starting from at least elementary school, she'd been doing high-intensity sessions of ten hours a day—and somehow her hands still weren't crippled. Touma Kazusa really was the full package: freak talent, freak effort, freak stamina. A genius stacked on genius stacked on genius.
…
Before leaving school, Hojo received a call from an unfamiliar number.
When he picked up, the voice on the other end belonged to Investigator Fukada—the Upper-First Class officer who'd approached him earlier.
"Mr. Hojo, sorry to bother you. Our superiors have reached a decision regarding your conditions. Are you free right now?"
"Oh, Upper-First Fukada. Go ahead."
"Ahem… right. Your conditions have all been approved. There will be no constraints and no compulsory orders. If there are ghouls within Tokyo that require elimination, we'll provide you the intel. As for information on other supernatural phenomena, you can request it at any time—we'll search the archives on demand. We'll also allocate a budget and provide ghoul-specific equipment, however…"
Fukada paused, clearly choosing his wording carefully, then continued cautiously.
"Upper management would like to conduct a basic assessment—physical function and combat capability. Just a spar with several pre-arranged investigators…"
"Oh. That's it? No problem."
Hojo agreed immediately, without giving Fukada any chance to persuade him.
He understood perfectly why the Ghoul Countermeasure Bureau's executives wanted this. The "combat assessment" wasn't the point.
The point was bloodwork and a full-body CT—to determine whether he was a human whose physical abilities had exceeded common sense, or a powerful ghoul disguised as human.
Registering as a devil hunter only required you to demonstrate an ability—sometimes not even that. External-contract devil hunters only got paid after killing devils anyway. As for whether a devil hunter could secretly be a ghoul?
Public Security's Anti-Devil Special Operations didn't care. As long as devils died, it didn't matter if the hunter's "true identity" was a ghoul.
But for the Ghoul Countermeasure Bureau, it was different.
If Hojo were a ghoul trying to obtain intel through cooperation, then every time they fed him a target, they'd be handing him an opportunity to warn his own kind.
The odds were low—but not zero.
Better to be cautious.
…
An hour later, inside a high-rise building in Tokyo's Chuo Ward.
In a spacious conference room, the Ghoul Countermeasure Bureau's top brass sat around a long table. A large screen displayed a live feed from a bare, empty room—where Hojo Yoru sat quietly, looking not the least bit tense.
"Report. The test results are in."
A man in a lab coat entered, wearing a complicated expression, and delivered his report carefully.
"The subject's RC cell concentration is… zero."
"What?"
One executive reflexively questioned him, thinking he'd misheard.
"You mean he's not a ghoul?"
"No…"
The lab-coated man shook his head, reorganizing his phrasing.
"This is the first blood sample like this we've ever encountered. There are no RC cells in his body at all."
RC cells were the substance that formed a ghoul's kakuhou and manifested as kagune in combat. But there was a crucial point:
RC cells weren't exclusive to ghouls. Humans had them too—just in far lower concentrations, nowhere near enough to condense into anything.
That Hojo wasn't a ghoul was a result most of the executives had already expected.
But RC cell concentration at zero?
The Bureau had never seen such a case.
"Then… what about his other physical metrics?"
"Everything is normal."
When he said that, the lab-coated man couldn't help sighing. Frustration even showed on his face.
"Based purely on test data, he falls into the top tier of human physical fitness—but only that. The numbers don't reflect anything that could explain the terrifying level of athletic performance he demonstrated."
The conference room fell into silence.
All eyes shifted to the screen, to Hojo Yoru.
No one spoke.
So this was what true supernatural power looked like.
Ghouls already exceeded human imagination, but after years of investigation, dissection, analysis, and experimentation, the Bureau had learned where their power came from—and even how to turn their bodies into weapons.
In that moment, the executives finally understood what it meant to face something genuinely incomprehensible.
Other than RC cells being at zero, Hojo's body metrics still sat within human range. His muscle density didn't surpass human limits. There were no special organs.
And yet he could perform a standing vertical jump of over six meters.
A power plainly visible—yet impossible to explain by any existing theory—left even the Bureau's hardened leadership speechless.
Hojo already knew they wouldn't find anything.
The physical enhancement granted by "Ouroboros" wasn't something modern science could account for. It was a purely metaphysical, supernatural passive effect.
As for why his RC cell concentration was zero?
Simple.
Ouroboros had eaten them.
A casual bite, nothing more.
"Isn't it about time?" Hojo said.
He looked toward the camera mounted in the corner of the ceiling. He couldn't see the conference room on the other end, but he could easily guess someone was watching.
Under the gaze of every executive present, he smiled—relaxed, almost amused.
"The boring physical examination is over. Next, you'll pick a few investigators to carry out the so-called combat assessment, right? I haven't fought investigators before. I'm actually looking forward to it."
He paused, then rose and walked closer, eyes fixed on the lens.
"Send some strong ones."
His voice sharpened, word by word.
"Let me have some fun properly."
Join here to read ahead.
In Star Rail, Ultra-Beast Armored — Have I Caught "Equilibrium"? l (Chapter 80)
Uma Musume, But I Only Have Five Years Left to Live (Chapter 120)
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 100)
Ben Tennyson Wants to Join the Justice League (Chapter 100)
TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter89)
Yu-Gi-Oh! — Transmigrated into the White Dragon Girl (Chapter86)
"Is this chat group even serious?" (Chapter63)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter75)
Can Playing Games Save the World? 53
Crossover Anime Multiverse: The Demon Hunter of an Unnatural World 57
From Junkman to Wasteland 35
My patreon : patreon.com/queen_sin