"Thank you for your assistance, Young Miss Miwo."
Nanami closed his notebook, concluding the questioning.
After Nanami left, a young boy named Sato quietly entered Yukiko Mio's hospital room.
Yukiko Mio smiled and got up from her hospital bed.
The small movements the two thought had gone unnoticed were all seen by Nanami.
A sense of unease.
"Hello, I'm Nanami from the Metropolitan Police Department's Special Investigation Division."
Nanami walked up to the head nurse and showed his forged identification.
"Hello, how may I help you?"
"Regarding the disappearance of Reiko Mizutani's body..."
Soon, Nanami finished his conversation with the head nurse, stood up, and left.
A sense of unease.
Nanami, wearing a serious expression, sought out the doctor and hospital director who usually cared for Yukiko Mio.
A sense of unease.
As night fell, Nanami and Haibara arrived at a quiet izakaya.
While eating, Nanami also sorted through the information he had gathered that day.
"Ah-woo, I just feel like everyone in that hospital is so strange, goo."
Even the somewhat dense Haibara now sensed that something was wrong.
Although Haibara was a bit reckless, he was the type who could be surprisingly meticulous.
"Swallow your food before you speak."
"Yes, Senpai!"
Knock, knock.
"Please come in."
Whoosh.
"Mr. Nanami, here are the documents you requested."
The Assistant Supervisor took off his shoes and entered the room.
The observant Nanami noticed the Assistant Supervisor's somewhat hurried breathing.
'Has he been running around all day?'
"Sit down first. You haven't had dinner yet, have you?"
Nanami patted the spot beside him.
There were only two people in the room, so there was plenty of space.
"Um, I'm fine. The mission is more important..."
The sudden concern made the Assistant Supervisor feel a little overwhelmed.
"A senpai I deeply respect once said that hunger is a great enemy.
If you can't even ensure your own condition, how can you complete a mission?"
Nanami's voice seemed to carry a reassuring magic.
"Yes, Senpai."
The Assistant Supervisor immediately sat down at the table after hearing that.
"Try this."
Nanami picked up a small bowl and placed it in front of the Assistant Supervisor.
Only after finishing a proper dinner did Nanami begin reviewing the intelligence the Assistant Supervisor had just delivered.
The intelligence could be summarized in a single sentence.
"Upon investigation, there were indeed traces of jujutsu influence on the police officers involved in this incident.
The preliminary assessment is that a certain desire in the officers' hearts was amplified, causing them to lose their original judgment..."
"I see."
Nanami closed the intelligence report.
This explained the strange behavior of the people in the hospital.
The nurse's darting eyes, the occasional panic in the doctor's gaze.
The director's official rhetoric, which seemed to say something while saying nothing at all.
If they had all been affected by jujutsu, then it was no longer strange.
After all, ordinary people had no resistance to jujutsu.
"Let's go, Haibara."
"Osu!"
Haibara responded energetically as soon as he heard Nanami's words.
"Please take us to the hospital."
"Yes, Senpai."
The Assistant Supervisor immediately went out and started the car.
At this moment, in the hospital basement.
The regenerated Tomie extended her fair, lotus-root-like arms, braced her hands on both sides of the water tank, and rose gracefully.
In the empty basement, it looked like a beautiful woman emerging from her bath.
Click.
Just then, the basement door opened.
Tomie turned her head to look.
Takagi-sensei was walking toward her, carrying gasoline and a lighter.
Tomie revealed a satisfied smile.
That demonic smile seemed to steal Takagi's very soul.
Tomie had been in her Awakening state for some time now.
She had also figured out what her Technique was.
And she had learned about her current situation from some people.
Tomie possessed the ability to infinitely amplify the desires in other people's hearts.
As long as a person stood beside Tomie, saw her appearance, and heard her voice,
the desires deep in that person's heart would continue to swell.
Eventually, those desires would transform into immense Cursed Energy, which Tomie would absorb.
Finally, those drained by desire would provide their last bit of value.
They would dismember Tomie, allowing her to complete a new cycle of proliferation.
It was like a cult ritual.
Left undisturbed, these dismembered Tomies would regenerate into new Tomies.
Just like humanity's endlessly expanding desires,
Tomie would also proliferate without end.
However, there were also things that displeased Tomie.
One was the speed of proliferation.
If Tomie separated from her own body and redirected her Technique to her true form, the Over-Cursed Spirit Tomie, her recovery and proliferation speed would become terrifying.
However, Tomie could not bear that ugly appearance.
Therefore, Tomie set the target of her Technique as her own body, which had once been divided into forty-two parts.
Because those forty-two body parts had absorbed a large amount of curses and Cursed Energy from her classmates, they gave birth to forty-two Tomies.
Together with the Tomies still proliferating now, like the one before her, it probably would not be long before Tomie spread throughout Japan.
The second was her own desires.
Indeed, Tomie, who caused desires to swell without limit, also had desires of her own.
And at this moment, what this Tomie, who had just regenerated from a severed head, wanted to do was kill another version of herself.
"Burn her."
Tomie looked coldly at another Tomie still growing in a different water tank.
That was the Tomie that had regenerated from Tomie's kidney, which had been transplanted into Yukiko Mio.
When the director removed "Tomie" from Yukiko Mio's body, he cut off the head that had grown on the kidney, so now there were two Tomies proliferating in the basement.
However, compared to the monster with limbs growing from the kidney but an incomplete head, this Tomie, whose head was already complete and who could communicate, was treated as more important by the doctors and the director.
It was also because of this that she absorbed more Cursed Energy and completed her proliferation first.
"No problem."
Takagi nodded, then reached into the water tank and dragged out this still incomplete, monstrous Tomie.
He then poured gasoline over her and lit it with a lighter.
"Ah ah ah ah ah!"
Tomie squatted on the ground, watching her other self struggle in the flames with an amused expression.
Click.
The sound of a door opening reached their ears.
Nanami, who had infiltrated the hospital, took in everything in the basement.
"Haibara, restrain Takagi."
Nanami drew the short machete tied at his waist with a spotted talisman, his gaze fixed on the naked Tomie.
"Alright."
Haibara said nothing more and charged straight at Takagi.
What surprised Haibara was that Takagi behaved like a completely ordinary person. He took only one punch before dropping to his knees and dry heaving repeatedly.
As Haibara began his attack,
Nanami also charged toward Tomie.
Under Tomie's wary gaze,
the short machete went straight for Tomie's neck.
Tomie cursed inwardly.
Trouble.
Among the first forty-two proliferating Tomies, some had already encountered Curse Users and weaker Jujutsu Sorcerers.
Because of that, Tomie knew that Nanami was a Jujutsu Sorcerer from Jujutsu Headquarters.
She just did not know how strong he was.
Tomie kept retreating, dodging Nanami's blade.
However, what Tomie, who lacked combat experience, had not anticipated was that this had not been Nanami's full strength.
(To be continued.)
Check out my new books:
■ One Piece: The Celestial Dragon with the Sharingan (This isn't too bad)
■ Naruto: Multiverse Character Templates (Pretty decent too)
■ Red Rebels: New Manchester United