Upon entrance, Kazuichi immediately felt like he was punched in the nose due to how intense the smell was. For normal people, this smell was indistinct, almost nonexistent. But to Hybrids like Kazuichi, it was too strong for his liking. If it was a normal Tuesday, he’d have dashed out of there.

It practically reeked of Hybrids, and no Hybrid would ever want to linger in a place like this.

"Geh~!" Kazuichi let out, exhaling everything from his lungs out his nose. He tried to breathe from his mouth, but the sensation he received was much worse. Because the place was crawling to the brim with Hybrids, he could disgustingly taste the air with their scent.

A fit of cough came out of his mouth, followed by a gagging sound that implied which implied that he was about to throw up. Even then, he managed to catch himself before something attention-seeking transpired.

"What’s wrong? Are you all right, Kazuichi? You feeling under the weather?" Tris couldn’t help but ask since he basically depicted someone who was obviously sick to the stomach.

"It’s the smell. You can’t smell it since you’re human, but this place reeks like death and shit, and those two don’t go well together." Ayaka explained, rummaging through her bag and giving Kazuichi a mask. "I made that myself." She said as she put one on her nose and lips as well.

"Thanks," Kazuichi let out as he gagged a second time. If he were a lady, one would mistake him as pregnant since he kept on gagging.

In a second, Kazuichi wore the mask and to his bewilderment, he instantly felt better. Although the mask didn’t wholly ’mask’ the smell of the Hybrids, it was good enough to make the smell bearable. There was a hint of lemon in the mask, and Kazuichi was surprised it worked well.

"As it turns out, lemon is the next best thing when it came to partially getting rid of a Hybrid scent." Ayaka twirled her thumbs in the air, as she handed Arisu a mask as well, just so she wouldn’t feel left out.

"And what’s the best thing?" Arisu asked, her curiosity piqued.

"Fire." Ayaka and Kazuichi responded with a single word. It surprised them that they had the same thing in mind and they let out a chuckle. 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

Of course, burning a Hybrid to ashes is the most effective way of getting rid of the scent... then again, the scent would just be replaced by the smell of smoke— a give-and-take if one were to describe it. Adding to that, burning a Hybrid is only effective when it’s already dead. After all, things could get messy if you burn a Hybrid alive.

"Whoa~" Kazuichi let out in a soft tone as he leaned towards Ayaka. Somehow, he was the one gesturing for security even though Ayaka was less powerful than him.

"I know. See that guy! He’s the stronghold leader of North Yamanashi Stronghold. Look at how many Hybrids he has." Ayaka whispered so low that Kazuichi could barely hear it. She had to do that so the other Hybrids wouldn’t know what they were talking about.

For a brief moment, Kazuichi looked up and caught sight of the leader of the North Yamanashi Stronghold. This time, he became even more confused since the guy was actually a Hybrid. And yet he had seven Hybrids with him as well.

Judging from his scent, Kazuichi deduced him as a Hound. ’Oh, so that’s why,’ Kazuichi inwardly said in his mind since saying it out loud was pretty insulting.

Nevertheless, even though Kazuichi didn’t voice his opinion, one of the Hybrids noticed him staring at their stronghold leader, and he approached Kazuichi with a purposeful gait. "Got something to look at, huh?" He asked, snorting.

"Excuse you?" Kazuichi asked. "I didn’t even look at your direction. What are you on about?" Kazuichi asked.

The Hybrid who approached him was a Bulwark, and even though Kazuichi was a little concerned about whether he’d win a fight against one or not, he didn’t back down from his provocation.

"Excuse you?! EXCUSE YOU?!" Quite frankly, the Hybrid had no idea what Kazuichi meant. Even then, he felt a little insulted that he wasn’t looking at him. Initially, he was supposed to be offended since Kazuichi stole a quick glance at their stronghold leader, but now his anger was directed at something else altogether.

Taking two huge exhales out of his nose, the Hybrid then reached out his burly hands in an attempt to squeeze Kazuichi by the neck.

However, Kazuichi was much faster than him, and before he could even touch his skin, he had already activated his Blood Art. Since Kazuichi was one step faster, he managed to grab the Hybrid by the neck and lift him up before he could even snort out his nose a third time.

Somehow, even though the Bulwark was double his size, Kazuichi was able to lift him up from the ground, and the two of them stayed like that while everyone was too shocked to move.

A couple of seconds later, their stronghold leader finally got back to his senses along with his security Hybrids. And hurriedly, he approached Kazuichi, all the while maintaining his calmness so as not to provoke him even further.

"I’m sorry, sir, you’re... wait, Mizunochi Ayaka?!" In an instant, the stronghold leader immediately realized who Ayaka was despite the mask he wore.

At first, he didn’t think too much about the matter, and as he approached Kazuichi, he thought about apologizing to him and asking him to let go of his subordinate.’

But now that he realized that the man his Hybrid had offended was Ayaka’s companion, he had to swallow his words and act quickly. If he didn’t, he might face the full wrath of the Scarlet Blood Stronghold, which wouldn’t end well even though his sizeable stronghold was pretty influential.

Swish~!

Before Kazuichi could react, the man activated his Blood Art (Project) and sliced off the head of his subordinate.

"I take that back. I’m really sorry if I offended you in any way." The man apologetically said before clicking his tongue at one of his subordinates, gesturing for him to drag the headless corpse out of there.