Just as they were excitedly rushing over to help,
the Owl let out a painful roar. "Not necessary."
Jotaro Jotaro had both hands in his trouser pockets. He turned around, cold eyes staring directly at them, his coat flapping in the cold wind.
"I've already dealt with him."
As soon as he finished speaking, cracks began to appear in the kagune armor covering the Owl's body.
Blood sprayed into the air under the stunned gazes of Shinohara and the others, shooting out from the rapidly spreading cracks.
The Owl's huge body began to tremble violently, then slowly knelt on the ground, and gradually collapsed.
The gushing blood also slowly stopped at this moment.
Shinohara swallowed a mouthful of saliva and asked with suspicion, "You did this?"
The Owl, who had caused their CCG to launch several major operations, had actually collapsed so easily in front of this man.
They hadn't even seen clearly how Jotaro had attacked.
Looking at the Owl lying motionless on the ground, Shinohara forcefully suppressed the shock in his heart and declared, "SSS-class extermination target, Owl has been eliminated!"
"OHHHHHHHHHH!!!" The surviving Investigators let out loud cheers.
Jotaro glanced back at the Owl lying on the ground, considering that he still needed to go and arrest Washuu Yoshitoki, the one overseeing the battlefield,
so he didn't plan to bother with the Owl anymore.
In the CCG's records, the One-Eyed Owl was an extremely brutal, bloodthirsty ghoul.
But the Owl that Jotaro had met was just an old man who usually wore a gentle smile and could make coffee.
So he didn't kill him outright, instead, he spared his life. But whether he lived or died, Jotaro couldn't be bothered anymore.
Just as his sharp gaze was about to move away from the Owl's body, Jotaro suddenly halted.
"Something's wrong!"
At that moment, a graceful figure passed by his side.
Mado Akira, holding her Quinque, with a face full of frost, stopped beside the Owl.
Looking at the Owl on the ground, who had lost the ability to resist, she was breathing heavily.
She knew the Owl wasn't dead.
Because the Owl was also breathing. Though his breathing wasn't as intense as hers, her extremely keen observational skills had still noticed the slow rise and fall of his back.
She raised the Quinque in her hand, intending to deliver a fatal strike.
Pa!
Jotaro suddenly grabbed her fair wrist.
Her movement halted. Mado suddenly turned around and shouted, "What are you doing! You've interfered with me again and again!"
Her voice was muffled, Jotaro's gaze moved away from the swollen half of her face, not caring what exactly she said.
"Wait a moment." He spoke calmly and tossed Mado's hand aside, walking to the Owl's side. His pale green eyes swept over the Owl's body carefully.
"The Owl isn't dead! I have the right to kill him! Why are you stopping me!" Mado Akira's voice was somewhat shrill.
"Yare yare…" Jotaro closed his eyes slightly. "I understand how you feel, but this one is not the Owl who killed your mother."
Mado Akira's eyes instantly widened. "What did you say?"
"Twenty-seven places." Jotaro lifted the fallen Owl with his left hand, pulling up the other's head with one hand. "Though they look similar, they're not the same as the appearance recorded in the data."
"There are a total of twenty-seven different places across his whole body."
Mado Akira froze. She truly couldn't understand how Jotaro could so confidently say that this Owl was not the one who killed her mother.
'Could there really be two Owls?'
'If that were true, why hadn't Special Class Shinohara, who had fought the Owl before, discovered it?'
"What nonsense are you saying! This Owl is the one who killed my mother!"
She truly wished it were so. Because only then could she resolve her grudge with him right here.
But Jotaro wouldn't let her do that.
"If this Owl was the one who killed your mother, then you absolutely wouldn't be alive right now."
Jotaro said it casually, but only he knew how dangerous the situation had been.
When he arrived, the Owl's kagune had already swung toward Mado's legs.
If he hadn't used the very limit of his time stop ability, he wouldn't have made it in time to save her.
And the only reason he could save her was because the Owl had held back.
If, at that moment, the Owl's target wasn't her legs, but her head…
Jotaro's eyes, which were rarely anything but calm,
began to tremble slightly. If he had been a second slower...
Mado Akira opened her mouth to refute, but when she saw Jotaro's terrifying expression, the words in her mouth were forcibly swallowed back down.
'What… why are you looking at me like that…'
She lowered her head guiltily, fully aware of what that expression meant.
That was fear, the fear of loss.
'Could it be… he's that afraid of losing me?'
Mado Akira's heart thumped wildly. She didn't dare look him in the eyes and muttered, "I'll trust you for now… But later, you have to show concrete proof."
"No need." Jotaro looked around. "These Investigators who didn't die are the best proof."
Mado lifted her head and looked around, only to hear Jotaro say, "If he really was the One-Eyed Owl, these Investigators wouldn't just be missing a few limbs."
"Ghouls can restore themselves by eating humans in battle, I've seen it. If he had eaten these people, this battle would've ended long ago."
After saying that, Jotaro didn't stay any longer. He took slow steps and walked away.
Mado Akira hurriedly asked, "The battle is over, where are you going now?"
Jotaro didn't answer. He was going to find Washuu Yoshitoki, only he could resolve the doubt in Jotaro's heart.
———
"Communications! Communications! Purge complete!"
Shinohara frowned. "Strange, why is no one responding? Where are the other squads?"
After a while, someone finally heard his transmission.
"Shinohara! How's the situation on your side!"
"Ah? Marude! What's going on, I tried calling the other squads, but no one responded." Shinohara showed a smile.
"But it doesn't matter anymore."
"We've defeated the Owl!"
"Really?" Marude's voice also sounded a bit emotional.
"Yeah!" Shinohara confirmed and asked, "How's the situation on your side?"
Marude scratched his head. "How to put it? There weren't many casualties, but everyone just fainted out of nowhere."
He was currently sitting on the ground, with the members of a whole squad lying in disarray behind him.
"I don't know exactly what happened, but judging from the result, it seems like we achieved a huge victory!"
"I plan to wake up the team members and ask them."
"Special Class Marude, I've tried, no matter what, they won't wake up." A member of the communication team came over and said.
Marude shouted angrily, "If they won't wake up, use cold water! If cold water doesn't work, use piss! Do I have to teach you this kind of thing!?"
That team member hurried away.
Marude shook his head and cursed, "Useless trash!"
Though he said that, his face still showed a joyful expression.
"Special Class Marude!" Another communication officer ran over in a panic.
"What now!" Marude was a bit impatient. "Didn't I already say! Use piss! Piss!"
That officer's face was full of fear.
"No, Special Class! Director Washuu was killed by First-Class Jotaro!"
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