"Wah~!" Tris exclaimed as she stepped forward. At this point, she didn’t care whether Ayaka and Kazuichi still had their Blood Arts activated or not. All she cared about was pulling them away from each other, nothing more nothing less.

Notwithstanding the risks, Tris grabbed Kazuichi by the shoulder and Ayaka by her waist. She then separated them by using as much force as she could, grunting as she did so. She sort of understood why Kazuichi had to go in for the kiss, but what she didn’t understand was Ayaka putting in some unnecessary tongue action when there was no point to it.

"Hah~ hah~ hah~" Kazuichi wiped off his lips but he could still taste the faint blood and the slight roughness on his tongue. He couldn’t believe that the tongue went in just like that, and he wanted to scream his lungs out.

"Thanks for bringing me back, Kazuichi." Ayaka winked before she turned around, completely ignoring Tris’s presence since she interrupted their time together.

"You should be careful next time. One bite on an uninfected and you’ll be mindless forever." Kazuichi heaved a sigh. "Also, don’t activate your Blood Art if you can’t control it. One mistake... and you know what would happen anyways, I don’t have to point it out too much."

"Right right. Do you want another?" Ayaka teased.

"Shut up," Kazuichi muttered as he wiped his lips with his hands a second time. He couldn’t erase the memory of the kiss from his mind, let alone forget about that tongue that invaded his tongue’s personal space.

"So that was Blood Arts... It’s the first time I’ve seen one. It’s pretty scary." Shig commented. "It was a good thing that you were on my side. I wouldn’t even think about making an enemy out of the two of you. You’ll just slice and dice me before I can do it hehe~"

"The first time I activated it, it scared the wits out of me as well," Kazuichi added just so there wouldn’t be an awkward silence on their way back inside the auction.

"Does everyone have that? Or just a handful of you guys?" Shig asked, referring to the Hybrids as a whole.

"Everyone could potentially awaken it, but only those with the talent could do it right now." Ayaka twirled her thumbs in the air. "I only awakened mine after coming across a huge meteorite ore, and then I fell into a coma. Fortunately, someone was rational enough to feed me some blood before I went out of control." 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

"Since then, I was afraid to activate my Blood Arts. The moment it accidentally activated, I felt like I could bite anyone on sight. Because of that, I didn’t activate it anymore, until now." Ayaka forced a smile on her face. Deep inside, she knew that she had troubled Kazuichi so much, but she hid that feeling under the facade of her teasing.

"You have to use it though so you can control your hunger," Kazuichi advised. "I thought you were used to the Blood Arts since you used it without sparing a second thought. As it turned out, you just went out of control after that incident with the rice. I can’t blame you though, I reacted the same."

"Yeah, how dare they step on rice. Don’t they know how precious rice is?! We’re on the apocalypse, you know." Ayaka clenched her fists as she was reminded of the time when that Hybrid indifferently stepped on the bowl of rice. There was only a spoonful or two left, but that was beside the point.

"Relax, Ayaka, you’re eyes are turning bloodshot again." Kazuichi heaved another sigh.

"Aghk~! Sorry," Ayaka apologetically let out as she scratched her head.

"You know what, you should join us before you head back to your stronghold. Arisu and I are going to teach you how to properly use your Blood Art. I say the two of us, but I’m still a beginner when it comes to the Blood Arts so Arisu’s probably going to do all the teaching."

"Arisu? Who’s this Arisu? A foreigner? Your woman?" Ayaka curiously asked. This was the first time she heard the name, and by the sound of it, she could tell that Kazuichi was intimate with her or something along those lines.

"Yeah, she’s his woman all right. They stay under the same roof." Tris casually lit the fuse on Ayaka. Then again, this was the only way she could get back at her for kissing Kazuichi. Although Tris didn’t show it in her expressions, she was severely jealous that Kazuichi kissed another woman in front of her.

"W-what?! What are you saying, Tris?" Kazuichi slightly panicked, but Tris just ’hmph’ed in response and turned away from him.

"Eh?! It’s y-y-y-our... I want to meet her! Right now! Bring me to her!" Ayaka cried, throwing a light fit of a tantrum.

"We still have the second part of the auction, right?" Tris said, still averting her eyes from Kazuichi.

While the group made their way back inside, a couple of Hybrids who were watching them tailed them as well. They’ve witnessed the whole thing, and they can’t wait to report to their masters since there were a couple of things they needed to inform them before they make their move.

Then again, Kazuichi was well aware of their presence, that’s why he wasn’t surprised when a crowd formed the moment they got to the entrance. Even though their presence was more than enough to cause a panic, Kazuichi didn’t feel that alarmed at all.

After all, they didn’t emit a shred of bloodthirst— which meant that they were just there for the show, and to witness the defeat of the other Hybrids that were mobilized by Hinokami.

"Please come right in." The entrance guards commented as they gulped their saliva nervously.

Despite being Hybrids themselves, they could tell just how powerful Ayaka and Kazuichi were. This was because they still had their bloodlust emanating from them. After all, they just deactivated their Blood Arts a couple of minutes ago.