"...Is that… so?"
Tomie blinked, a flicker of uncertain bewilderment crossing her face.
She had been born from the flesh of another Tomie. Strictly speaking, she wasn't even a year old yet — she had no family, no friends, and no memories of her own from which to understand that kind of feeling.
"Of course it is. Who do you think I am? I'm a practitioner on the path to Buddhahood. The five Buddhist precepts include not speaking falsehoods — why would I lie to you?"
Amamiya Rin crouched down, meeting Tomie's eyes with a steady, unwavering gaze, his expression completely composed.
(When it comes to Rin… he wouldn't do anything underhanded.)
(He does have a point, doesn't he.)
(Maybe because they're so close, they don't feel the need to hold back around each other?)
(I have something like that in my memories — among those memories I'd already written off, there really were times when Mitsuo Yukiko and her friends crossed lines with each other that strangers never would.)
...
The other Tomies in the Tomie Network felt Amamiya Rin's inner thoughts aligning perfectly with his words, and one by one they turned it over in their minds — and found they couldn't really argue with what he'd said.
This was a good thing, wasn't it? The weaker Amamiya Rin's wariness and resistance toward them became, the easier it would be to draw him in.
At this rate, someday — inevitably — Amamiya Rin would become a willing captive to their charm, content to spend the rest of his life at their side.
The Tomies, never particularly skilled at concealing their own thoughts, entertained this sunny little fantasy with great enthusiasm.
Back in the parking lot, settled into his second-hand little jeep, Amamiya Rin pulled out his phone and checked the time.
Almost midnight. He rubbed his brow, restarted the engine, and as he drove back toward Shimokitazawa, put a call through to Kazumi Junya.
The phone rang several times before it was picked up. Kazumi's voice came through carrying a distinct note of weary resignation.
"Amamiya? What is it now?"
Amamiya Rin could hear the suppressed sigh underneath Kazumi Junya's words.
"Paranormal incident combined with a homicide. The perpetrator is the urban legend Slit-Mouthed Woman. The victim is Mrs. Kawabe of the Kawabe household. Address is XX-chō X, Shimokitazawa."
Amamiya Rin relayed everything Kazumi Junya needed to know in the most economical terms possible.
Two seconds of silence on the other end of the line — followed by one long, heavy sigh.
"Do you know what time it is right now? It's 11:40 at night. Twenty minutes until tomorrow."
That sigh was a cocktail of exhaustion and something that sounded very much like making peace with one's fate.
"Hm? Right, so?"
Amamiya Rin kept his eyes on the road, not entirely following Kazumi Junya's point.
"A vampire this afternoon, the Slit-Mouthed Woman tonight — I mean it, your talent for getting mixed up in trouble and stumbling into the supernatural is practically a calling. You were practically born to join the Compilation Office."
Kazumi Junya's voice carried something close to reluctant admiration.
"Don't say it like I enjoy it. I'd be perfectly happy if none of these things existed in the world."
Amamiya Rin shot back.
"That's my wish too. Give me a moment — Kogure and I will head over shortly."
He hung up. By the time Amamiya Rin arrived at the Kawabe residence, Kawabe Mayo had already dressed Mrs. Kawabe's body back in its skin.
It was Amamiya Rin's first proper look at Mrs. Kawabe's face. She was nowhere near Kawakami Tomie's level — and, for that matter, not quite up to Kawabe Mayo's either.
"Speaking of which… after the alchemy salve dissolves the skin off, what happens to the chest?"
Amamiya Rin asked, genuinely curious.
Mrs. Kawabe's chest was remarkably flat — barely any contour at all. Even his own chest had more going on than hers.
He didn't buy that she'd always been like this. If she had, Riki would have starved.
"The fat dissolves into the muscle."
Kawabe Mayo ran a hand over her own chest, her expression grieving.
Amamiya Rin noticed that the grief she showed now — over this particular matter — ran considerably deeper than the grief she'd shown looking at Mrs. Kawabe's corpse.
He glanced at Kawabe Mayo's chest. A fist-sized rise. Was there something padding it out?
Amamiya Rin settled onto the sofa, letting his mind wander aimlessly while he waited for Kazumi Junya and the others — killing time with idle speculation.
He didn't have to wait long. From outside came the muffled sound of a car engine cutting out, followed by the dull thud of doors, and then the approaching footsteps of more than one person.
He pushed himself up with his cane and made his way to the entrance hall, arriving just as the knock landed on the door.
He pulled it open. Outside stood Kazumi Junya and Kogure Soichiro.
Kazumi looked even more haggard than he had that afternoon — the dark circles under his eyes were particularly stark in the porch light.
Kogure had his shoulders slumped, still carrying that deflated air that came from having your idol thoroughly shattered — an atmosphere that hadn't fully dispersed yet.
What did catch Amamiya Rin slightly off guard, though, was the tall, solidly built woman standing behind the two of them.
"Officer Indou?"
Hadn't he heard she never did any real work — just horse racing, slacking off, and pachinko, giving Sakata Gintoki a run for his money?
Showing up for a call-out in the middle of the night — that really didn't look like someone who avoided work.
Amamiya Rin's gaze slid toward Kazumi Junya.
"This one involves a fatality. Kogure and I don't have the rank or authority to just walk a corpse out of here — and if the homicide division starts asking questions and we tell them the killer was the Slit-Mouthed Woman, we'll get our heads taken off. So I brought Inspector Indou along."
Kazumi Junya had apparently read Amamiya Rin's expression well enough, and obliged with an explanation.
"It's not that simple. I'm here because of the Slit-Mouthed Woman."
Indou Ranko spoke in her broad Osaka accent, scratching her hair, looking thoroughly put out.
"Wasn't that thing finished off fifteen years ago? What's it doing crawling back out now?"
"Inspector Indou."
Something stirred in Amamiya Rin's mind. He stepped aside.
"The situation seems a bit complicated. Please, come inside."
The three of them entered.
Kawabe Mayo stood stiffly at the edge of the living room. Mrs. Kawabe's body lay on the floor, and the sight of the head separated from the body turned Kogure's face a shade paler.
For all his solid build, Kogure was genuinely not the brave sort — especially when it came to anything paranormal.
Indou Ranko, by contrast, was nothing if not direct. She walked straight up to the body, examined the wound carefully, and didn't so much as twitch an eyebrow — just clicked her tongue.
"Kogure, bring in the body bag."
Indou Ranko threw the instruction over her shoulder.
Kogure hurried out.
Indou Ranko turned back to look at Amamiya Rin.
"Amamiya. Run me through it."
Amamiya Rin had already sorted through what he was going to say — what to disclose, what to leave out.
What to leave out? His own capabilities.
A patient barely out of hospital, body not yet recovered, routing the Slit-Mouthed Woman — that was far too abnormal to wave through without scrutiny.
He could hardly explain the nature of his relationship with Tomie, or let slip that the Long Dream existed.
Either of those would probably draw attention from the upper echelons of the country.
Amamiya Rin kept it simple: he said he'd driven the Slit-Mouthed Woman off with a spoken incantation.
Once he'd finished going through his account, another thing came back to him — his encounter and conversation with those elementary school girls earlier that evening.
"One more thing: I don't think the Slit-Mouthed Woman only just appeared. When I was passing through Shimokitazawa today, I ran into a few primary school kids. They mentioned a strange woman who sounded like the Slit-Mouthed Woman — and they said her weakness was hair milk. I don't know whether hair milk and hair wax are the same thing or if they had it mixed up, but I'm fairly confident there's a strong chance that strange woman they described was the Slit-Mouthed Woman."
____
👻🔥+40 ch: Walnut-chan🔥👻
🔥 New history: Danmachi: Summoning Ruri Gokou, And other Chuunibyou Brats
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