"Long range — firearms. Mid range — explosives. Mid-to-close range — spears. Close range — blades. And bare-handed combat for when everything else fails. On top of all that, different environments and different enemies demand entirely different countermeasures..." Amamiya Rin exhaled slowly. "A world without a unified cultivation system is a genuine pain in the neck."
His hands didn't stop moving as he said it.
He was in the middle of a precise modification — swapping out the mechanical firing pin of the shotgun for a lithium battery and a miniature electromagnetic coil.
"What does that even mean?"
Kawakami Tomie leaned against the door frame with her arms folded, slender fingers idly twisting a lock of jet-black hair.
"All this tinkering you're doing — can any of it actually kill that Apology Demon?"
"You're aiming too high. That thing is a demon."
Aamamiya Rin didn't look up. With practiced efficiency, he finished assembling the modified shotgun.
He raised the weapon, aimed it at the blackboard at the far end of the room, and squeezed the trigger.
The electromagnetic coil discharged in an instant. Steel shot screamed through the air with a sharp crack, blasting a dense constellation of craters across the blackboard's surface — shards of chalk and wood erupting outward in all directions.
"Good. Incorporating the electromagnetic system has improved firing speed considerably." He turned the weapon over in his hands, murmuring to himself. "A curious world, this. Physical laws that can't be perceived or touched subjectively — and yet they operate exactly the same as in the real world."
If he could successfully replicate this weapon in reality, assassinating a prime minister wouldn't require a second shot.
"I don't want to hear any of this," Tomie snapped, stomping her heel against the floor with clear impatience. "You claim to know so much — so start thinking of something useful! Give me a plan!"
"No matter how much pressure you put on me, the fact remains: this world contains no benevolent, controllable, sufficiently powerful supernatural force." Amamiya Rin shrugged.
There was, technically, one option — the divine artifact from Siren, a relic capable of releasing supernatural flame by consuming the wielder's life force. It would suit Kawakami Tomie's constitution perfectly.
But Hanuda Village was far too dangerous. Datatsushi, as a higher-dimensional being, occupied a tier that likely matched — or exceeded — the Apology Demon's. Anyone who went in had almost no chance of coming back out.
"Rather than pressuring me, wouldn't you be better off developing yourself? Your advantages far outstrip mine — a complete immortal body, every skill and technique you've borrowed from me at no cost, physical health that most people can only dream of. Becoming stronger should be considerably easier for you than it is for me."
"Why on earth would I do something so inelegant?"
Kawakami Tomie rolled her eyes with theatrical perfection.
"Stop posturing. I know you better than that."
Aamamiya Rin shook his head, a quiet laugh escaping him.
"You pursue your goals by whatever means necessary. Your willpower is no less than mine — in fact, it's more frightening, because you have no floor. If killing the Apology Demon required it, you'd do absolutely anything. Torturing yourself. Torturing others. It makes no difference to you."
Far from angering her, Amamiya Rin's dissection of her character made the corners of Tomie's red lips curl into a slow, dangerous arc.
"Oh my~ Well, well. Seeing right through me, are you, Rin-kun~~?"
She crossed the room toward him with that languid, bewitching gait, tilting her head slightly. Those uncanny eyes fixed on him with the bright, mischievous interest of someone planning something wicked.
"In front of you, I feel like I'm not wearing any clothes. There's nothing I can hide."
"It's more than clothes," Amamiya Rin said plainly. "To my eyes, you're like a skeleton — no skin, no flesh. Just bone."
The words landed like a blunt instrument. Kawakami Tomie faltered for just a fraction of a second.
(White Skeleton Visualization... what kind of insufferable technique is this?)
The irritation flared inside her. Her expression, however, didn't change.
"But," she continued, her voice resuming its smooth cadence, "you can't deny it, can you? We understand each other better than anyone in this world. What we share is more intimate than any married couple alive. We are bound by fate — partners destined to spend our lives entwined. There is no version of this where we part ways."
She extended her right hand. Fingertips, ice-cold, traced a light line across Amamiya Rin's cheek — leaving behind a trail of subtle, unsettling sensation.
"So we could simply get... a little closer, couldn't we, Rin~~? I'm perfectly willing, you know. My body and soul, entirely yours. In exchange — give me your heart in return?"
"You can only say something that foolish here in the Dream World, where the Tomie Network is temporarily offline, can't you?"
Aamamiya Rin gave her a long, flat look.
He used the barrel of the shotgun to push her arm aside, then turned and walked back toward the workbench. His back was to her when he spoke, his tone perfectly offhand.
"Your body and soul? You want to trade something that hollow for my mind?" A short pause. "Not even a fool would agree to a deal that bad."
He didn't spare her the rest of it.
"Your inner world is nothing but a bottomless pit of vanity. Your body is the cheapest commodity in existence. To speak plainly: your body and soul are no different from the garbage you claim to despise."
"You have some nerve, saying that to my face..."
Tomie's smile cracked. A vein stood out at her temple. The sweetness of her voice spiked into something sharp, and her chest rose and fell with visible, suppressed fury.
"Amamiya Rin!"
Before the tirade could fully erupt, Amamiya Rin raised a hand and pressed it lightly over her mouth.
"Alright, alright. We know each other inside and out. Let's not waste time on this. It only squanders something precious."
Tomie wrenched her head away sharply, throwing off his touch, and let out a contemptuous snort through her nose.
"Hmph!"
But then, as if a thought had come to her, the corners of her mouth curved upward again — slightly.
"We're already inseparable, Amamiya Rin. Whether you find me repulsive or hateful, your life is tied to mine. That's simply the truth of it."
"I've never denied that," Amamiya Rin said. He lowered his hand, his voice unhurried. Unlike Kawakami Tomie, his expression had not shifted once throughout the entire exchange. "You're the one who keeps making an issue of it."
The words had barely left him before the faint, tentative opening that had appeared in Tomie's expression closed completely. That beautiful face returned to its usual portrait of displeasure and wounded pride.
But she held it in. She didn't lash out.
Instead, she actively drew on the Dhyana state she had learned from Amamiya Rin — applying even a rudimentary level of meditation to dispel the negative emotion that had risen to the surface. Her arms folded across her chest, lifting slightly, as she straightened with imperious self-possession and made her demand:
"Give me something actionable. I need your brain right now. Tell me how to kill the Apology Demon, and how to undo whatever curse has been put on my face. If that's beyond you, at the very least give me a path — a method for getting strong enough, fast enough, to destroy that thing."
"Quite a list. Killing the Apology Demon is off the table for now. As for the curse on your face..." Amamiya Rin paused. "Carve your face open and let it regenerate? Or try that alchemy formula — strip the skin entirely and grow a fresh layer over everything?"
Abruptly, his hands stilled. A contemplative expression settled over his features.
"Change a face... replace a layer of skin..."
Something had come to him. A genuinely bizarre inspiration — grotesque, even.
But strange as it was — it might just be the thing that saved humanity. At least once.
"Keep going. What else?"
Seeing him drift off into thought, Tomie clicked her tongue with impatience.
"What else? Right. The path forward that actually suits your kind." Amamiya Rin snapped back to the present and turned to face her. "Do you remember Teacher Takagi's research?"
____
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