The only way to truly kill Tomie and stop her from regenerating was to burn every part of her with fire.
On the premise that you could find all of her bodily tissues, leaving her no place from which to regrow, and you had to burn her completely into ash—without leaving behind a single intact cell.
If she wasn't reduced to pure ash, Tomie could still regenerate and heal even the burns. At least from what he'd seen so far, all the traits this woman had displayed matched Tomie perfectly.
As for how to kill her—Takumi actually had a lot of options.The simplest, of course, was the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception.
He didn't need to hunt down all of Tomie's scattered flesh and blood. He only needed to see the death lines of this phenomenon known as Tomie.
His Zanpakuto slashed down, severing the death lines in the shattered world.
"Ah!!!" Dozens of shrill screams rang out from within the ice all at once.
Every body around Tomie began to slowly disintegrate inside the ice. At the same time, vectors shifted bit by bit. The ice sublimated into vapor, and the man's dead body was suddenly engulfed in flame, quickly burning into ash.
The nearby security cameras, the satellites overhead—none of them could detect what was happening here.
They weren't even in the same space as Takumi and the others. Tomie vanished completely. Takumi even got a notification from the chat group.
[Ding! Detected that you've eliminated one of the future Apocalypse factors: Tomie Kawakami!]
[You've obtained 30,000 Apocalypse Points!]
So it really was Tomie Kawakami. It was just… that amount of points was kinda mosquito-leg level. Forget it. Better than having no leg at all.
With Tomie dealt with, the three of them turned their gazes toward the red-haired girl leaning against the wall, head buried, clearly trying to pretend she didn't exist.
You can't see me… you can't see me… I don't know anything! The girl kept her head down, both hands covering her eyes, like if she couldn't see others, they wouldn't be able to see her.
"You—" Takumi opened his mouth, just about to ask her something.
The girl slapped her hands over her ears, dropped into a squat, and shouted anxiously, "I didn't see anything! Please just let me go!"
She'd actually heard everything.
That woman had been some kind of monster called Tomie Kawakami. It was terrifying—people had even died.
The girl was panicking so hard inside she could barely think.
"…" Takumi had no words for a moment, but he understood.
Running into something like this, most people's first thought would probably be that they'd stumbled onto some kind of secret operation or mysterious organization.
Even Hayasaka had thought he was going to silence her back then.
"Don't get worked up. We never said we were going to do anything to you. We just wanted to know if you're hurt or not." Yukino spoke softly to soothe her.
"Eh?" The girl timidly lifted her head.
Even with Yukino talking like that, she was still scared. "You… you really aren't going to, like, handle me the way they do on TV?"
"Of course not. We're not some evil organization." Eriri flicked her twin-tails. "Are you okay anywhere?"
"I-I think I'm okay. It's just… I got scared by that monster…"
Only after hearing both of them say that did the girl relax a little, patting herself down and realizing she wasn't injured.
"If you're okay, then head home. Don't walk around alone at night," Takumi reminded her kindly. Recently, anomalies had been appearing more and more frequently.
Right now, it was still just ghouls, Parasytes, Tomie—things that weren't too outrageous, but if, down the line, some actively hostile and dangerous SCPs showed up, whether or not rescue would even make it in time would be a real question.
"Uu…" The girl suddenly let out a small wail.
"What's wrong?" Yukino asked.
The girl raised her head. Red bangs framed her face, with two golden star-shaped hairpins clipped in. Her face was also very cute.
It was just that right now, that cute face was scrunched into a puppy-like expression of grievance. "M-my legs are shaking so bad I can't stand up…"
Yep. The girl's legs had gone weak with fright.
Any normal person seeing that kind of horrifying scene for the first time would probably be too scared to walk properly.
"…"
Yukino fell silent for a moment, then looked at Takumi. "Takumi-kun, could I trouble you to see her home? If she's by herself, I won't feel at ease."
Yukino's mindset might've turned more decisive and less idealistic.
Takumi hadn't exactly gone easy on teaching her lessons while going in and out of her; that was the fundamental reason for her change, but that beautiful quality called kindness hadn't changed at all.
Takumi was genuinely pleased by that.
Not only did he not dislike Yukino's kindness—he really appreciated it.
That icy exterior. That soft, sticky interior. That gentle nature. That sincere love. All together, they made up his Yukino. Delicious, adorable Yukino.
"Since it's Yukino's request, I'll do it myself then." Takumi smiled and reached a hand out toward the girl. "Need a hand getting up?"
"…"
The girl snuck a weak glance at Takumi. After hesitating a few seconds, she timidly stretched out her hand.
"Wah!" The moment her fingers touched Takumi's palm, she let out a yelp.
Because without her using any strength at all, she was pulled straight up onto her feet. He's so strong!
After letting go, he asked the girl, "What's your name, and where do you live?"
The girl nervously twisted her fingers together, stammering as she spoke. "I-I'm Itsuki Nakano. I live in YY Apartments, Room 701…"
"Oh?"
Takumi exchanged a look with the other two.
YY Apartments—that was the building they'd just moved into.
So she was their neighbor on the seventh floor. Takumi narrowed his eyes slightly as he took a closer look at Itsuki Nakano. Itsuki Nakano… wasn't that from The Quintessential Quintuplets?
"Itsuki Nakano…" Yukino said in surprise, "You're the second-year student in Class 5 who transferred to XX High not long ago, right?"
"Eh! How do you know that?" Itsuki was stunned.
She'd only transferred in recently and hadn't really made any friends yet.
"I'm Yukino Yukinoshita from Class 1. As for how I know you… it's simply because I know the names of everyone in the school."
Yukino said it as lightly as if it were the simplest thing in the world.
"Wha—!" But that drew looks of pure shock from both Eriri and Itsuki.
"Yukino, you're not joking, right? XX's junior and senior high divisions together have thousands of students, and you've memorized them all?" Eriri couldn't believe it. How was that even possible?
"Is that hard?" Yukino replied calmly.
For her, it really wasn't. Not only had she memorized the names; for quite a lot of people, she could call their names as long as she saw their faces.
"…"
Not hard? Eriri and Itsuki were both mentally in pieces.
Takumi, on the other hand, felt that the way Yukino was being so serious right now was ridiculously cute. It made him want a bite, and when he wanted a bite, he used his mouth. He was a man of action.
Smooch!
"W-what are you suddenly doing?!"
Yukino slapped a hand over her burning face, completely flustered. Takumi had just kissed her right in front of Itsuki.
Not only that, he even pulled her into his arms. "The way you were just now was way too cute, Yukino. I couldn't help myself at all."
"C-cute and stuff…" Yukino murmured softly, but she just couldn't say the same kind of tsundere lines Eriri would.
All she could do was shyly duck her head and turn her face to the side.
"Idiot Takumi-kun!" Eriri shuffled closer to him on quick little steps, giving his calf a light kick with a huffy little noise.
Anyone who didn't know her would think she was actually mad, but Takumi knew her inside and out, on every deep level. One glance, and he could tell this was her tsundere mode warming up.
Smooch
He immediately planted a kiss on her cheek too, praising as he did. "Eriri is super cute as well."
Eriri's face flushed red, the corners of her mouth clearly quirked up in a smile, but she still turned her head away with a snort. "Like I'd be happy just because you called me cute."
....
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