Amamiya Rin's pupils contracted.
There was no time to reload!
Without an instant's hesitation, his left hand released its grip, and the heavy modified rifle clanged to the floor.
Almost in the same motion, his right hand plunged into the inner pocket of his jacket. His fingertips brushed against an ice-cold cylinder, and that familiar texture steadied his heart.
A grenade fabricated by Armaments Tomie — purpose-built for the kind of monster bullets couldn't kill. There was no helping it: the rounds from his modified rifle barely cleared a hundred metres per second. Even a proper handgun, on a bad day, couldn't be counted on to kill a human outright with a single headshot — to say nothing of this jury-rigged piece.
Amamiya Rin immediately produced a grenade, yanked the safety ring loose, didn't bother aiming, and hurled it straight down toward the Slit-Mouthed Woman at the foot of the staircase!
"Get down!"
Amamiya Rin barked, one hand snatching the still-dazed Yusuke by the back of his collar, the other slamming hard against the staircase railing. Using the railing as leverage he flung himself up and back, all but dragging Yusuke as the two of them tumbled onto the staircase landing.
"What is that…"
Yusuke barely managed to get a few words out.
The next instant——
"BOOM——!!!"
An ear-splitting blast tore through the darkness of the corridor. The fireball swelled with a surge, and a scorching shockwave came roaring outward — laden with shattered chunks of concrete, fragments of metal, and roiling dust — sweeping in every direction like an invisible sledgehammer!
The shockwave, mingled with searing shrapnel and smoke, blasted upward and slammed into Amamiya Rin and Yusuke as they huddled together — as though somebody had clobbered them across the back with an iron hammer.
The Slit-Mouthed Woman, who bore the brunt of it, only had time to throw her scissors crosswise in front of her before her entire body was hammered by the savage shockwave.
Like a kite with its string snapped, she was flung backwards through the air and smashed with a heavy "thud" into the solid wall behind her.
"Khh-ack!"
The Slit-Mouthed Woman coughed up a mouthful of foul blood. Her body was covered in wounds gouged open by flying shrapnel, and her tattered overcoat was now scorched black. She slid down the wall and slumped to the floor, the scissors slipping from her grip and clattering to one side.
Tomie had it even worse — because she couldn't move at all, she took the full brunt of the grenade blast. Her body, already grievously wounded, was viciously flung about and then slammed hard back against the wall. Fresh blood spurted from a multitude of newly opened wounds, staining the surroundings into a ghastly mess.
She let out a muffled grunt; her head drooped limply, and she went entirely still — only her torso still twitching faintly, on the instinctive prompting of her Tomie cells, knitting back together those unspeakably horrific injuries.
Smoke and dust hung thick in the air; the acrid stench of gunpowder smoke filled his nostrils.
Up at the top of the staircase, Amamiya Rin gave his somewhat ringing head a shake, dusted the grime out of his hair, and quickly poked his head over to look down.
The mouth of the stairwell was a complete wreck.
A great slab of wall plaster had been blown away, exposing the brickwork and twisted electrical wiring beneath, the floor scorched black.
The Slit-Mouthed Woman lay sprawled on the ground, her clothing reduced to rags, every patch of exposed skin marked with burn scars and tiny lacerations. A portion of her long hair had been singed away as well. She was a sorry sight indeed.
And yet — she still wasn't dead!
"Hkk… hkk…"
Sounds like a broken bellows wheezed up from the Slit-Mouthed Woman's throat. One hand clutched fiercely at her bloody, mangled chest while the other braced trembling against the floor as she tried to stand up.
Each time she forced herself upright, more dark-red blood welled from the wounds across her body.
She lifted her head — that already horrifying face now smoked even blacker by the explosion, smeared with blood and grime. Only the hatred and madness in her eyes blazed hotter than even the firelight just past, glaring through the disheveled, blood-matted strands of hair to lock dead-fixed onto Amamiya Rin.
"You… must… die… Only you! Only you! Must die!"
The Slit-Mouthed Woman's voice was rasped so hoarse it scarcely sounded human — like a curse spat at a sworn enemy by some evil spirit risen from the depths of hell.
She forced her broken body forward, charging at him. Her speed was a great deal slower than before, yet that all-consuming, reckless madness was more terrifying than ever.
"This durable?"
Amamiya Rin's expression shifted slightly, though he had long since braced himself for this.
The Slit-Mouthed Woman was, after all, a long-established urban legend — and a physical-class horror at that. It was no great surprise that a single homemade grenade hadn't done her in.
Still — no matter.
If one didn't kill her, then he'd just hit her with another.
Amamiya Rin spat out a glob of blood-tinged saliva, and his hand reached back into the concealed pocket of his jacket. He drew out the second grenade and pulled the safety ring free.
The Slit-Mouthed Woman charged a few steps, then raised her head — and saw, right there in Amamiya Rin's hand, that familiar little cylindrical object, along with his fingers pinching the safety lever.
In that instant, the deranged, savage grin on the Slit-Mouthed Woman's face froze solid.
Who could ever have imagined it? An exorcist whose business was eliminating ghost-tales — and instead of talismans he came packing grenades and firearms, and more than one at that!
The exorcist who had subjugated her last time most certainly hadn't been like this!
"Goodbye!"
The crisp "click" of the safety ring flying loose rang out unnaturally clear amid the dead-silent swirling smoke.
Accompanied by Amamiya Rin's amicable farewell, the second grenade in his hand flew out and arced down with perfect precision toward the Slit-Mouthed Woman.
"You——!"
The Slit-Mouthed Woman's snarl jammed in her throat.
There was no time at all to think; the instinct to survive overwhelmed everything else. Even if she could revive, that would be a very long time from now — and besides...
The Slit-Mouthed Woman abandoned her charge. Without the slightest hesitation, she flung her body backwards and leapt straight off the staircase.
She crashed down hard onto the floor of the corridor below, rolling at once to dissipate the force, then scrambled to her feet. Her legs pistoned against the ground, unleashing every last shred of strength left in her body, and she went lurching, staggering away down the other end of the corridor.
At the same moment, the grenade detonated.
"KA-BOOM——!"
The fireball swelled with a violent surge below the stairwell, and the shockwave came spewing up, freighted with crushed stone and chunks of concrete, slamming into Amamiya Rin's hunched back like a heavy cudgel.
The smell of cordite mixed with dust assaulted his nose, and he coughed several times.
Pinned beneath him, Yusuke let out a startled cry, immediately drowned into silence by the deafening blast.
Meanwhile, at the far end of the corridor, Teacher Ando was peering out fearfully from the doorway of the storage room.
When he saw the Slit-Mouthed Woman get blown through the air, he jumped — and when he saw that she wasn't dead at all, that she was charging this way, his very soul nearly fled his body.
"In — inside! Everybody, get inside! Shut the door!"
Teacher Ando's voice cracked. In a flailing panic, he shoved back the children crowded at the doorway who were trying to get a look at Ultraman Leo, ducked back inside himself, and without a moment's thought locked the door from within. Then he shoved the table beside him over to brace against the door of the storage room.
The Slit-Mouthed Woman had taken two gunshots and two explosions, and her speed was greatly diminished. By the time she stormed up to the storage-room door, it had already been shut tight.
She instinctively gave it a shove, sensed the resistance pushing back from the other side, and decisively gave up.
Her gaze sweeping the surroundings, the Slit-Mouthed Woman looked toward Teacher Sekiguchi not far away.
On the other side, the moment the grenade went off, Amamiya Rin had turned away to shield himself. The instant the blast was over, he sprang into action without a moment's hesitation — a glance at the floor told him that the modified rifle needed its battery pack and would be a hassle to lug along; forget it! For a Slit-Mouthed Woman blown into critical condition, even his cane would be enough!
Grabbing his cane, Amamiya Rin caught up to the corridor in two or three quick strides.
The moment he charged out into the corridor, Amamiya Rin saw a sight he could scarcely believe.
The Slit-Mouthed Woman was propped up against the wall of the storage room, half her body charred black, the wounds on her scalp and cheek still seeping blood. She looked utterly wretched — but the madness and venom in her eyes had not abated in the slightest.
She had, of all things, taken Teacher Sekiguchi as a shield, hauling him in front of her own body, her palm clamped on Teacher Sekiguchi's neck, her fingernails already sunk into his flesh.
"Is this some kind of joke?"
Amamiya Rin's eyes went wide, an expression of pure shock on his face.
A hostage? She was taking a hostage? A ghost-tale like the Slit-Mouthed Woman would actually do something like this? Did she really possess that kind of behavioural logic?
Amamiya Rin suddenly realized that his understanding of urban legends had perhaps been far too shallow.
Urban legends, it seemed, were not as simple a thing as he had once analysed them to be.
____
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