「BANG——CRASH!!」
No windup. No telegraphing. A pure, textbook rear straight punch, stripped down to its absolute essence.
Hip rotation! Shoulder drive! Wrist snap! One fluid, unbroken sequence!
Flesh-Mod Tomie's fist connected like a battering ram fired from a cannon — travelling in a perfectly straight line, it slammed dead center into Armaments Tomie's solar plexus.
A terrifying force detonated in an instant.
First came the muffled crack of a shattering sternum. Then the wet, heavy thud of muscle tissue being blown apart from the inside.
Armaments Tomie's eyes bulged from their sockets. Her body folded backward as though she'd been hit head-on by a high-speed train.
The fabric across her back split open first. Then the pale skin of her chest caved inward — and a hole the size of a rice bowl punched clean through her body.
Flesh-Mod Tomie's fist drove straight through, emerging slicked with thick, dark blood and shredded tissue.
Shards of broken bone and chunks of heart muscle, mixed with bright crimson blood, sprayed from both massive wounds — forward and backward — spattering the waterproof tarpaulin, the weapons laid out on it, and Flesh-Mod Tomie herself.
「Hey! What do you think you're doing?!」
An irritated voice rang out from the side. The living room wasn't occupied only by the three of them and Amamiya Rin.
A Tomie — only her upper body, her waist not yet regrown — had been propped up at the far end of the sofa, arranged there like a department store mannequin.
Unable to move... not that being able to move would have helped. The blood spraying from Armaments Tomie had splattered her as well, and some of it had even seeped into her still-regenerating wounds.
「Baka! You fake — you got your blood mixed into me! If I can't flush it out, another one of you imposters is going to start growing out of my body!」
Half-Body Tomie glared furiously at the two who had suddenly started fighting, screaming at them with undisguised rage.
「So let her grow. It's not like it's anything new.」
Armaments Tomie — the one who had just had her heart driven clean through — glanced sideways at the furious half-body and replied without the slightest concern.
「If you need someone to blame, blame the muscle woman.」
「Shut your mouth! Want me to smash you to pieces?」
Flesh-Mod Tomie wrenched her arm free from Armaments Tomie's chest, a savage grin spreading across her face.
There's a saying: a weapon in hand kindles the urge to use it.
Flesh-Mod Tomie had no weapon — but the principle applied just the same.
Those muscles hadn't grown for nothing. The sheer physicality of her body had subtly reshaped her temperament, making her a notch more volatile than any other Tomie.
Sensing the thick air of barely-contained violence, Amamiya Rin let out a sigh. He braced himself on his crutch and walked straight between them toward the bathroom.
「I'm going to wash my face.」
He tossed the words behind him, pulled the bathroom door shut, and cut off the noise from outside. He turned on the tap, cupped cold water in his hands, and splashed it across his face.
The icy shock against his skin went a long way toward clearing the fog from his sluggish brain.
Amamiya Rin braced himself against the edge of the sink and studied the face looking back at him from the mirror — pale and hollowed out, dark shadows pooled beneath both eyes, the shirt he wore wrinkled and stiff where sweat had soaked through and dried.
His muscles were still aching dully, radiating the familiar soreness and burning heat of complete overuse.
He was on the verge of collapse.
He'd originally told himself he could hold out for two days and two nights. Looking at himself now... he'd clearly overestimated his own limits.
Too much had happened. Too much pressure and exhaustion had piled up. Amamiya Rin had a sinking feeling that he wouldn't make it to nightfall before he passed out — and if he pushed past that, the alternative was simply dropping dead on the spot.
(Understood? Whatever you're in the middle of, set it aside. Find somewhere you can sleep.)
With that thought, Amamiya Rin sent a signal through the[Tomie Network].
He shook the water from his hair, dried his face with a towel, and walked back out of the bathroom.
The arguing in the living room had subsided into a tense, wordless silence — the kind where everyone glares at everyone else and nobody speaks.
The various Tomies had each staked out their own corner of the room, pointedly ignoring one another.
There was nothing else for it. None of them could actually eliminate another. Even punching a hole straight through a Tomie's chest wasn't enough to render her unconscious.
「You should go wash your hands too.」
Amamiya Rin paid no attention to the strange atmosphere. He walked to the sofa, addressed Flesh-Mod Tomie with a brief instruction, and sat down — deliberately choosing a spot that avoided where Half-Body Tomie was positioned.
He pulled the notebook from his jacket's inner pocket and flipped it open.
On today's schedule, scrawled in hasty, uneven handwriting, were several lines:
Alchemical salve — testing.
Standard training.
Weapons inspection.
Black magic ritual.
Consult Fujino Terumi regarding the Ikiryo sisters in the entertainment industry.
Consult the Professor regarding information on the Hypnosis master.
Investigate the Slit-Mouthed Woman.
...
Amamiya Rin's gaze lingered on the two consultation items and the investigation entry. A wry, tired smile tugged at the corner of his mouth.
Things were getting away from him. Too many moving parts, and today's reserves were nearly gone. The plan was clearly not going to reach that stage.
「The weapons — aren't you going to brief me on them?」
Still turning it over in his mind, Amamiya Rin looked up at Armaments Tomie.
He'd asked this particular Tomie to begin manufacturing weapons yesterday. Her efficiency was remarkable — by today, several items had already reached a high level of completion.
It was precisely because he'd sensed through the[Tomie Network]that Armaments Tomie had finished fabricating several firearms that he had put investigating the Slit-Mouthed Woman on the schedule at all.
That was also why, yesterday, he hadn't objected when Indou Ranko warned him off — and hadn't insisted on tagging along.
After all, he could hardly pull out a homemade weapon in front of the police, could he?
Even setting aside the whole assassin chronicle affair he'd eventually need to prove his worth with, homemade firearms were sensitive enough on their own in a country with strict gun control.
「Electromagnetic coil drive. It needs a car battery for power, which is inconvenient — but the coil generates a strong magnetic field and can launch a steel ball at three hundred meters per second in an instant. That's three times the output of a pneumatic gun. There's also a shotgun, five nitroglycerin compound rounds, five grenades, and one hexanitrostilbene micro armor-piercing shell. They're not exactly stable, but they'll do the job.」
Armaments Tomie set the electromagnetic rifle down on the coffee table, nudged the weapons spread across the floor with her foot, and rattled off the description in a casual, indifferent tone.
「Not exactly stable...」
Amamiya Rin repeated those four words quietly and picked up the electromagnetic rifle with care.
It was heavy in his hands. Rough weld points and bare, multicolored wiring were visible everywhere. The coils wrapping the barrel were wound with no particular precision, and at the junction between the barrel and the power circuit, he could clearly make out the residue left by electrical tape.
The reliability and safety of this thing looked about as questionable as its firepower.
He found himself genuinely wondering: if he fired the electromagnetic rifle, which party would end up injured first — the enemy, or himself?
「If you're scared, you don't have to use it. Of course, you could always beg me to come along and stick my nose in your business with you.」
Armaments Tomie looked up at Amamiya Rin and smiled — cool, dismissive.
「Hmph! What use is junk like that? Rin, you don't need any of this external hardware. Muscle is the most powerful weapon the human body possesses. If you're worried about losing to that Slit-Mouthed Woman, I'll come with you.」
Flesh-Mod Tomie's voice drifted out from the bathroom, carrying that signature arrogance and an absolute, unshakeable confidence in herself.
____
👻🔥Walnut-chan🔥👻
🔥 New history: Uchiha Reborn in Jujutsu Kaisen: The System Thinks I'm in Konoha, but I'm Not
🎯 100 Powerstones = +1 Bonus Chapter for everyone