"A body on the level of a Showa Rider, the soul of a Giant of Light, the spirit of a Ten-Ground Bodhisattva, endless martial refinement… all I'm missing now is a set of gear."
Feeling the power moving through him, Amamiya Rin let out a long breath.
The pressure Azathoth had left behind receded a little, pushed back by this very real increase in strength.
Setting aside those world-ending gods and demons, the ordinary run of monsters and ghosts could hardly threaten him anymore.
Crack, crack, crack—
Flesh-Mod Tomie, slumped against the wall, opened her eyes as well.
She curled her fingers, worked her joints loose, and the sound of bones resettling into place came thick and fast, like a string of firecrackers.
When she stood, she was a little taller than Amamiya Rin. Her frame had visibly thickened, her shoulders a size broader, the muscle lines of her arms and thighs swollen full. Her loose clothing had gone tight against her, and even the shape of her abdominals showed through.
"So we're back? My body really did change."
Tomie glanced around. They were still in Hirano Yuji's apartment.
The ceiling was an old, faded grey-white, stained here and there with yellow blooms of water damage. The air hung thick with the must of long-sealed rooms and the scorched residue of burnt-out candles.
The floor still bore the traces of the ritual: candle wax congealed into pale, filthy puddles, the salt lines scattered here and there by the draft, the mirror lying face-down.
The spiderweb in the corner remained, but not a trace of the spider god's presence lingered on it.
The only thing that had changed was the body.
Amamiya Rin's body was already formidable, and Flesh-Mod Tomie's had been built on top of his — through medical research and the power of flesh proliferation, from a twin-pump heart and expanded lungs to reinforced bones and muscle, to optimized senses, nervous system, and metabolism. Every system in her body had been rebuilt from the ground up.
Her muscle tissue was near identical to Amamiya Rin's, yet the force she could bring to bear was more than ten times his.
More than that, the life force she had studied for the better part of a century had at last yielded her own Hamon Qigong. Guided by the Breathing Method, life force stimulated the muscles, raising her strength while the vitality of her cells swelled the total volume of that life force in turn.
Born from within, her Hamon Qigong lacked the grand sweep of Swordmaster Tomie's, but its inexhaustible flow was not bound to the Soul Reviver's Sword.
"Power on this scale — as long as I don't run into one of those Great Old Ones, that's about as close to invincible as it gets, isn't it?"
Tomie looked over at Amamiya Rin, her tone hard to place. She seemed thoroughly pleased with her new body, and yet… confident, delighted? Not quite that.
"Invincible on earth? The trouble comes from the sky," Amamiya Rin answered, teasing.
The trouble from the sky used to mean only the Apology Demon and the various other devils, plus Hellstar Remina. Now the Cthulhu Mythos had been added to the list, and against that hundred-plus roster of Great Old Ones, even earth-invincible strength clearly didn't measure up.
Still, Amamiya Rin had no intention of losing sleep over those existences.
That was aiming far past his reach, and a waste of spirit besides. What he needed now was to focus on what lay in front of him, keep his feet on the ground, and walk forward one step at a time.
That was enough.
"So laid-back about it. That's you, all right."
Tomie shot him a sidelong look and clicked her tongue in amazement.
Ever since learning that the Cthulhu Mythos existed, not just her but every Tomie had felt fear and unease.
Tomie Kawakami's utter recklessness rested on their immortal body and their mental contamination. No one could kill them for good — especially not with the nerve lines of the Tomie Network, which had raised their immortal body up into Sub-space. Even burned to ash in the material world, they could revive through Sub-space.
The problem was this: no one could kill them, but the Great Old Ones were not people.
Once, the only thing they truly feared was the Apology Demon. After their strength grew, even that stopped being their greatest enemy — the other counterfeits took that place instead.
And then, just as they were arming themselves in earnest to wipe out those counterfeits for good, along came something far more dangerous: the Cthulhu Mythos.
"It isn't that I'm laid-back. It's that I've let go of discrimination."
Amamiya Rin could feel the anxiety running through the Tomies, but he only smiled — an easy, settled smile.
When he first realized that the crises awaiting him included the Cthulhu Mythos, the pressure had left him restless and on edge. But after several decades of tempering body and mind, he no longer clung to it.
After all, what difference was there, to him as he stood now, between Hellstar Remina and the Cthulhu Mythos? Both were opponents he could not yet defeat.
And if the man he used to be could set conquering Hellstar Remina as a goal, then why should he fear Azathoth now?
Tomie had nothing to say to an attitude like that.
She practiced no Zen. Even if she could sense the state of mind Amamiya Rin held, she had no way to look at the problem through the same eyes.
"Let's go. I need to return the key, and then I want a proper meal," Amamiya Rin said with a small shake of his head, heading for the door.
It was already ten in the morning. The sky was clear to the horizon, and the bright sunlight poured straight down, sharp enough to make the eyes ache faintly. The sun had some weight to it now, warm and unmistakable on the skin.
Amamiya Rin went down to the ground floor and handed the key to the caretaker, whose face carried a faint, vacant confusion. Then he pushed through the glass door and stepped out of the apartment building.
The street was busy. Office workers hurried past with briefcases tucked under their arms, housewives pushed carts out of the supermarket, a few middle schoolers in uniform swung their bicycles around the corner. The automatic door of a convenience store slid open and shut, letting out the electronic chime of its entry jingle.
Everything was perfectly normal.
A normal Tokyo, a normal morning, a normal life.
Standing on the steps, Amamiya Rin stretched, unhurried, and a normal smile touched the corner of his mouth.
"Got anything planned today? Because if you don't…" Tomie asked from beside him, careless about it.
"Today's plans? Let me check the notebook first."
At that, Amamiya Rin turned his head to glance at her, then drew the notebook from an inner pocket.
He turned a few pages, ran his eyes down them, and gave Tomie an apologetic smile.
As it happened, he did have plans today.
The Toshiyuki family's wedding banquet. Toshiyuki Eide's invitation, extended a hundred years ago, and the date was today: the wedding of Tsuneki Hisayuki and Hinako Shimizu, to be held at Tsunekiyoshi Jingu.
Tomie folded her arms across her chest and rolled her eyes at him.
"Get lost, then. Go do what you want to do. It's not like I need you keeping me company."
"There's still time. The ceremony starts at sunset — apparently that's the custom with nobility like them. Until then, is there anything you'd like me to come along for?" Amamiya Rin closed the notebook, unruffled.
"Yes!" Tomie's eyes lit up and the cheer slipped out before she could stop it.
Then she caught herself, dropped her voice, planted both hands on her hips, and set her face into a scowl.
"Hmph. There's nothing I need you to come along for… You make it sound like I'm forcing you. Like I'm begging."
"Sorry, sorry. I meant I've got nothing to do — would you keep me company?" Amamiya Rin amended smoothly.
"Well, I'm free anyway, so I suppose keeping you company won't kill me. Food, shopping, a movie — what do you want to do, Rin?" A smile surfaced on Tomie's face, and her voice turned light.
"Mm. Food first. I'm hungry too."
The choice had landed in his hands, but Amamiya Rin had no experience with dates. He thought it over and settled decisively on a meal; whatever came after could wait until they'd eaten.
"You pick the place. Though — try not to make it one of those low-rent dives, all right?"
Tomie nodded, breezy about it.
____
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