Marude Itsuki sat in a comfortable command vehicle,
looking at the screen where the signals representing CCG investigators kept advancing, and laughed heartily.
"Good! Just like that! Shrink the battle line in one go! Even if Jesus came down from the sky, he wouldn't be able to stop us! I'm telling you!"
"Have the Twelfth Squad and Thirteenth Squad tighten up coordination, and cooperate with the Tenth Squad to carry out the sweep!"
He leaned on the chair and, watching the rapidly advancing Third Squad, praised, "That gloomy bastard Hachikawa, how is his advance this fast in this operation?"
"I remember his Kagune is a long-range attacking Ukaku. In close combat, he can only switch forms for defense. This guy's always been a crafty bastard, always hiding behind teammates pulling sneak attacks."
Hachikawa completely changed his previous sneaky tactics and launched into aggressive attacks, making Marude very confused.
"Hm?" He widened his eyes, the signal representing Hachikawa actually disappeared.
When a signal disappears, that means…
Before he had time to think more, the signals in the area where the Third Squad was located all went out, the whole region turned pitch black.
"What's going on!" Marude stood up instantly, asking in shock.
"Emergency situation! From the Third Squad to the Sixteenth Squad, all Investigators… no, all Investigators have lost contact!"
The CCG's communication unit team member frantically pressed buttons, smoke almost rising from them, but no response came through the headset.
"What!?" Marude Itsuki slammed the table when he heard the news, his brain spinning rapidly.
Forget the rear teams, the front teams were the backbone of this operation.
Though they didn't have Special-Class Investigators,
First-Class and Associate-Special-Class investigators were assigned without reservation.
Even if they encountered an SSS-rated Ghoul, such a team could at least buy time. Even if everyone died in battle, they'd at least have time before death to send back enemy info.
But now, from the Third Squad to the Sixteenth, no message had come back. It was as if everyone disappeared in an instant.
Marude, after all, was experienced, having commanded many operations big and small, he quickly calmed down and shouted, "What are you panicking for! Hurry and check if it's a device malfunction!"
The communications team member quickly responded and pounded the keyboard furiously.
"Commander, the equipment debugging is completely normal! Which means…"
Marude's heart sank to the bottom of the ocean, he sucked in a cold breath.
'Impossible!' He had commanded so many operations, but never had he encountered fourteen squads being wiped out at once.
"Not good! Commander!" Another communicator shouted in alarm, "Just now! The Seventeenth to Twentieth Squads also lost contact!"
"Report!" Another one added, "Twenty-First and Twenty-Second Squads, total loss of contact!"
Marude's face turned dark as iron, staring at the screen as the light points disappeared in a blink, his lips almost bleeding from biting.
He collapsed into the chair.
'Aside from the few squads currently entangled with the Owl, was it total annihilation for all CCG units in this extermination operation!?'
Such casualties were unprecedented.
And he, as the commander of the extermination operation, couldn't escape responsibility.
He held his head, nearly going mad.
"Who is the enemy!" He sprang up from the chair and shouted angrily.
The communication members all had grief-stricken faces, looking at each other, they didn't know either.
No team member managed to send back details of the enemy.
Everyone seemed to have died in the same instant.
"There's news!" One communicator suddenly cheered as radio waves came through the headset,
"There's a survivor! There's a survivor!"
Marude rushed over, snatched the headset, put it on, and shouted loudly, "If you hear me, respond! If you hear me, respond!"
From the headset came Jotaro's cold voice, "This is Kujo."
"Kujo from Third Squad? You're still alive?"
This was obviously a pointless question, but in this kind of situation, Marude couldn't organize his words properly.
He quickly asked, "Why are you the only one? Where are the others? Don't tell me all…"
"Mm." Jotaro's voice had no fluctuation, just a light grunt, followed by a question, "Where is Director Washuu and your side?"
Marude only wanted to quickly understand the situation on-site, so he replied instinctively, "Director Washuu is personally overseeing the operation to exterminate the Owl. Why would he be here?"
"Anyway! Kujo! What exactly happened at the scene..."
From the headset came the cold sound of a disconnection.
Marude shouted in anger, "What's with this bastard!"
He refused to give up, calling, "Kujo! Kujo! First-Class Kujo! If you hear me, respond!"
But what responded was still the cold "beep—beep—" sound.
Marude smashed the headset to the ground and roared, "Bring me my Quinque! I'll go there and see for myself!"
The communications team members' eyes widened.
'The chief commander… is warming up!?'
———
Crushing the communication device to dust,
Jotaro stood atop the highest building in the combat zone, gazing into the distance.
Star Platinum stood behind him, easily identifying the most intense battlefield.
The Owl was currently on the rooftop of a high-rise, locked in a fierce battle with several Special-Class Investigators.
As long as this battle ended, this meaningless war could be completely concluded.
Casualties on both sides would be minimized. According to Jotaro's calculations, up to now, the total number of deaths hadn't exceeded three digits.
The death count of Investigators and Ghouls combined was only twenty-seven.
After all, he moved fast enough.
Standing on the edge of the high-rise, Jotaro looked down, the ground below was covered with countless bodies.
They looked like corpses, but in fact still had breathing.
He stepped into the air without support, just as he was about to fall, Star Platinum punched the wall of the building.
Jotaro glided rapidly in midair, flying straight toward the rooftop where the Owl was.
"You see that?"
Not far away, on the rooftop of another building,
Irimi Kaya was supporting the wounded Koma and said with a wry smile, "Even the manager is going to suffer now."
Koma panted heavily, struggling to lift his head to look at the Jotaro who seemed to be flying through the air, and said in shock, "Is that really a human!?"
"Who knows?"
Irimi Kaya was also staring at Jotaro's rapidly dashing figure, thinking back to when she saw him unleash Haki and knock out several squads.
That kind of pressure, even now, still made her hair stand on end!
"He looks more like a Human Emperor!" Koma glanced at Irimi and gave a bitter smile.
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