The next second.
Arata's bladed claws plunged directly into the framer's chest.
Blood flowed down the weapon and dripped onto the floor.
The framer collapsed to the ground, his face etched with sheer terror.
Even in death, he couldn't understand why Arata had suddenly killed him.
Because everything happened so fast, the people nearby were too stunned to react.
No one expected Arata to just kill him without the slightest warning.
"Arata, what are you doing?!!" Tsurugi questioned after freezing for a moment.
Tenten and Peter didn't say a word.
They were both waiting for Arata to provide a reasonable explanation.
"He's definitely trying to cover up for the murderer! Hurry up and arrest him!" The green-hatted man knew perfectly well that he was useless in a fight, so he could only try to goad the Division 3 members into taking action.
"I just said I was going to send the real killer on their way. Now, I've done exactly that." Compared to everyone else's shock, Arata was unusually calm.
"Are you kidding me?! The corpse is literally in the bathroom right now, proving that the blonde boy is highly suspected of the crime. By killing the witness now, you are undeniably trying to protect your accomplice!" The green-hatted man was absolutely furious.
Angry as he was, the green-hatted man was also secretly terrified of Arata.
After all, Arata stabbed a guy without hesitation or warning. If Arata decided to stab him next, the loss would far outweigh any gain. Thus, he stuck entirely to fighting with his mouth.
"Don't worry, I don't slaughter the innocent. What died just now was a Mirror Clone, not a normal human."
"A Mirror Clone?"
Everyone was completely lost. They had never heard this term before, let alone understood what a 'Mirror Clone' meant.
"Actually, the true culprit is the Mirror Devil."
Arata walked purposefully to the mirror above the bathroom sink.
He stared intently at his own reflection, his gaze looking as if it could pierce straight through the glass to uncover the truth on the other side.
"Arata, you just want to shield Denji, so you made all this up, right?"
"If I really wanted to shield Denji, I wouldn't need to waste my breath explaining anything to you. After all, not a single person in this room is capable of stopping me."
"Moreover, all you need to do is find the common denominator connecting the three crime scenes. Miss Kimura and Miss Kawahana both undoubtedly sat in front of their vanity mirrors to remove their makeup after returning home. And Kudo Ran was ambushed through the mirror after she finished her shower."
"Every single disappearance is connected to a mirror."
"You say it's the Mirror Devil, but what evidence do you have?"
"The evidence is right in front of you."
Arata turned around and walked over to the framer's corpse.
He raised his foot and stomped viciously on the framer's head.
Crash!!
The framer's head instantly shattered all over the floor.
And the fragments were entirely made of glass.
"Mirror Clones are toys crafted from glass by the Mirror Devil. By adding a living human's heart, they become puppets. As long as someone looks into a pre-prepared mirror, the Mirror Devil can create a Mirror Clone identical to the person looking into it. At the same time, the Mirror Devil itself possesses the ability to transform into anyone."
Looking at the shattered glass scattered across the floor, and listening to Arata's explanation, the group beside him found it incredibly hard to believe.
If not for Arata, they never would have known that Mirror Clones even existed.
"Impossible! You definitely used some kind of witchcraft!" The green-hatted man remained stubbornly convinced of Arata's bias.
With his narrow worldview, he simply couldn't accept that he had just been talking to a sentient being made of glass.
"Whether you believe it or not, once we enter the Mirror Dimension, everything will become clear."
Arata didn't waste any more words.
He raised both hands and grabbed Tsurugi and the green-hatted man by their arms.
Before either of them could react...
All three of them collapsed to the floor, instantly falling asleep.
Tenten hurriedly rushed over to catch Arata's body.
As for Tsurugi, who had also hit the floor, she didn't even spare him a single glance.
"Peter, what happened to them?"
"I'm not sure, but I feel like their presence is no longer here."
After entering the dream, the three of them arrived in the Mirror Dimension.
It was like a massive labyrinth constructed from countless mirrors.
The walls, the sky, the ground—everything was made of glaringly bright, reflective glass.
Countless reflections of themselves were cast in every direction.
It was enough to make someone instantly lose their sense of direction, making it impossible to even tell which version was the real physical body.
"Arata, where is this place??"
"The Mirror Devil's domain. To be able to create a Mirror Dimension this large, that devil must have eaten quite a few pieces of the Gun Devil's flesh."
"Let us out of here right now!" The green-hatted man was terrified of this alien environment.
Normally, he thought he was a total badass after beating up a few low-level mobs, but now that he was suddenly thrust into a high-tier lobby, he just wanted to retreat to base and AFK.
"Don't rush. Since you're already here, you might as well familiarize yourselves with the place before leaving. I'm going to go find the Mirror Devil first. As for you two, just take a stroll around."
With that, Arata slowly backed up against a mirrored wall.
His entire body passed right through the mirror and disappeared.
Seeing this, the other two hurriedly tried to follow him.
But when it was their turn, the mirrored wall felt harder than steel. No matter what they did, they couldn't pass through.
"Were we tricked by him?" the green-hatted man asked.
"It's highly likely we are trapped inside his dream."
"Trapped in his dream?"
"He contracted the Dream Devil."
"Then that proves it! He intentionally locked me, the smartest one here, in this place so that no one would suspect his apprentice anymore." The green-hatted man didn't forget to pat himself on the back.
"I was careless... I didn't dodge." Tsurugi clenched his fist and slammed it into the wall.
He never expected that he had practically invited the wolf into the house.
"What do we do now?"
"Since it's a dream, we'll wake up sooner or later. When that time comes, I'll definitely make Arata pay."
While Tsurugi was making fierce threats over there, Arata had already located the Mirror Devil.
In the center of a massive open space sat a towering, imposing glass chair.
The structure of the chair looked incredibly similar to the Iron Throne from Game of Thrones. Except, instead of iron swords, the back of the throne was made of blooming, jagged glass spikes pointing upward.
A completely transparent glass figure sat upon it.
He seemed quite surprised by Arata's sudden arrival.
"You have some skill to be able to cross into my Mirror Dimension."
The Mirror Devil swiped his finger upward.
The high-definition floating mirror screen in front of him instantly shot high into the air.
Initially, he had been sitting in his chair watching the events unfold outside the bathroom mirror.
When he saw the three of them fall asleep simultaneously, he didn't think much of it. It wasn't until Arata physically appeared before him that he finally understood.
"I won't waste words. Hand over all the missing women, and I can leave you with an intact corpse."
"Coming into my territory and daring to act this arrogant," the Mirror Devil chuckled. He rested his chin on one hand, extending two fingers of his other hand to swipe through the air.
Swish! Swish! Swish!!!
Suddenly, over a dozen glass spears shot out from behind him.
Each spear was dozens of meters long.
Arata dodged left and right, eventually catching the final incoming glass spear with his bare hands.
He backhanded it, hurling it straight back at the Mirror Devil.
Crash!!!
A massive mirror suddenly materialized in front of the Mirror Devil, acting as a shield.
The spear smashed into it, instantly shattering into dust upon impact.
By the time the mirror wall disappeared, the Mirror Devil was standing up.
It seemed he was no longer underestimating Arata's strength.
This time, he waved his hand once more.
In an instant, an immense amount of glass shards coalesced around the Mirror Devil.
Whoosh!!
With a wave of his hand, the massive swarm of glass shards launched forward.
The sheer density was comparable to ten Gatling guns spitting blue fire, shooting directly at him.
Swish!!!
BOOM!!
The glass shards flew at blinding speeds.
The suffocatingly dense barrage left absolutely nowhere to hide.
In moments, Arata's body was torn to shreds by countless shards of glass.