When Amamiya Rin opened his eyes, the first thing he felt was the oppressive weight of the waking world.
Compared to the body he had tempered through a thousand trials in the Dream World, this flesh felt impossibly stiff — every muscle as though filled with lead.
The next sensation was sunlight, squeezing through the gap in the curtains. The morning light was sharp and bright, falling directly onto his face, and he instinctively shut his eyes again.
He let his mind go blank, thinking of nothing, slowly digesting the memories left behind by the dream.
He tried to stretch out his limbs and lie flat in a starfish position — and failed.
The person sleeping beside him was in the way.
Amamiya Rin turned his head. What met his eyes was a flawless profile resting against his shoulder, a cascade of dark hair fanned across his pillow, a few strands of it slipping through the collar of his sleepwear.
On the other side, the presence was more assertive — a firm, well-defined arm draped across his chest, its owner lying on her side facing him, bare shoulder and back gleaming with a healthy warmth in the morning light.
Amamiya Rin noticed something was pressing down on his legs as well.
He tilted his head up a fraction and looked past the arm across his chest toward the foot of the bed.
There, a third Tomie was curled up, her head resting squarely on his shins.
Her sleeping posture was comparatively modest — though she had commandeered the better part of the blanket, wrapping herself up like a silkworm cocoon with only half her face peeking out, brow slightly furrowed, as if dissatisfied with her sleeping conditions.
Too many people, too small a bed. Amamiya Rin gave up on any grand movements and simply lay there motionless, continuing to sort through the memories in his mind.
Gradually, the Tomie Network grew lively.
The Tomies woke one after another, and nearly a hundred threads of thought rippled along the neural lines, exchanging their experiences and gains from the Dream World.
(Have you finished the experiments? The true proportions of the alchemy formula?)
Amamiya Rin's own thought surfaced in the Tomie Network.
(Hmph. The true proportions have been determined. It is indeed a Paracelsus-lineage formula — but… it's nothing more than garbage.)
The disdain in Alchemist Tomie's reply was unmistakable. She clearly had little regard for the effects of that alchemical salve.
(What do you mean?)
Amamiya Rin was puzzled.
No matter how you looked at it, Paracelsus was a titan among alchemists — any anime that touched on alchemy could hardly avoid his name. So why was Alchemist Tomie's attitude so dismissive?
(Because it's useless to us. Paracelsus's goal was the Philosopher's Stone and immortality — and we have already attained immortality.)
(As for the notebook belonging to his apprentice — the alchemical formula recorded inside aims to mix humus with hematite and cultivate a specific mold to break down iron ions, producing what can be called a Myogenic Mud. When applied to burn wounds, the metabolic byproducts of the mold promote the growth of granulation tissue.)
(Simply put, it is microbial tissue repair. In even simpler terms: it causes new skin to grow over damaged muscle and flesh.)
Alchemist Tomie had spent a full thirty years attempting this in every conceivable way, producing countless useless byproducts and failed batches along the way.
The result with the best efficacy — the one most likely to match Paracelsus's original intent, and referenced in other accounts of his work — was this Myogenic Mud formula.
(Tch. There's no point wasting time on some fool who fantasized about immortality. Whatever form immortality takes, it only amounts to enhanced vitality and regenerative power — and anything of that kind is worthless scrap to us.)
Alchemist Tomie's contempt was thoroughly evident.
(It's remarkable by any normal standard. It's simply that we have no use for it.)
Of course, the disdain was the Tomies' alone. For Amamiya Rin, his eyes lit up immediately.
This Myogenic Mud formula was far superior to any skin-repair technology currently available. Something more advanced might emerge twenty-odd years down the line, but in this era, traditional skin-grafting techniques were still the only option.
The value of this formula was extraordinary.
Not only was it extraordinarily valuable — it could also solve Kawabe Mayo's problem, letting her grow an entirely new layer of skin.
And furthermore, it could also… also what, exactly?
Amamiya Rin eased his arm out from beneath the Tomie lying on him, rubbed his brow first, then braced himself against the wall and sat up, retrieving his notebook from the bedside table.
Too much time had passed — certain important inspirations could only be recovered by consulting his notes.
The movement was enough to stir the others awake.
Vampire Tomie let out a languid, catlike moan, stretched herself with a luxurious ease, and her arm naturally curved around to rest against Amamiya Rin's side.
She opened her eyes. Her pale-gold pupils carried an otherworldly, almost bewitching quality in the morning light, but her smile was absurdly sweet. 「Good morning, Rin~ Did you sleep well?」
Before Amamiya Rin could answer, Flesh-Mod Tomie had woken up as well.
She slid the arm away from his chest and sat up in one clean motion, her generous curves fully exposed to the morning light.
Flesh-Mod Tomie stretched, picked up the alarm clock from the bedside table, and checked the time — 9:25 AM.
「We slept this long? The morning training session has already started.」
Her brow furrowed immediately.
「Forget it. We'll catch the afternoon round.」
But she didn't dwell on it. Her brow smoothed just as quickly, and she swung herself off the bed.
「Eat first, then a ten-kilometer run, a hundred push-ups, a hundred sit-ups, a hundred squats — get the body moving. Come on.」
Flesh-Mod Tomie addressed Amamiya Rin in a completely matter-of-fact tone, simultaneously reaching out to grab his arm, fully intending to drag him along for the workout.
「Hold on a second!」
Amamiya Rin quickly shifted back, dodging that firm arm.
「You're planning to send a convalescent on a ten-kilometer run?」
True, after two sessions of Triple Compression training, his physical condition had recovered to a solid seventy or eighty percent. He could move normally even without the crutch, his physical fitness no worse than an amateur gym-goer.
But a ten-kilometer run? A hundred push-ups? A hundred sit-ups? A hundred squats? Was this Saitama's training regimen? Could he actually handle something like that?
「Guts! You can overcome anything with guts!」
Having failed to grab Amamiya Rin, Flesh-Mod Tomie planted her hands on her hips and declared this with complete conviction.
「…I'm not an esper Level 5 from Academy City.」
Amamiya Rin was speechless for a moment before sighing.
「Hmph. Have you already pumped your muscles straight into your brain?」
Armaments Tomie had also sat up from her spot at the foot of the bed, her voice carrying its customary cold sneer. The cocoon-like blanket slid away to reveal the simple spaghetti-strap slip she wore underneath.
She ran a hand through her hair, which had been somewhat tousled in sleep, then let her gaze travel over Flesh-Mod Tomie's sculpted physique. Her eyes were full of undisguised contempt.
It wasn't only the muscles she held in contempt — it was Flesh-Mod Tomie's entire mindset lately, which had become increasingly dominated by brute-force thinking.
So many pretenders had appeared lately, and not a single one was like this one — whose neural pathways seemed to have been literally replaced by muscle fiber. She was obviously the least Tomie-like of all the impostors.
Flesh-Mod Tomie turned around, arms crossed, the full curves of her chest shifting slightly with the movement.
「Are you looking for a beating?」
She raised an eyebrow at Armaments Tomie, the sheer physical presence radiating from her every muscle unmistakably menacing.
Armaments Tomie met her gaze without flinching. 「Has your brain already been packed solid with muscle fiber? Your solution to every problem is brute force — whenever trouble arises, your answer is to bulldoze through it with muscle; whenever someone disagrees, your first instinct is to crush them into submission with violence. What exactly is the difference between you and some beast with nothing in its head but primitive impulse, throwing its weight around because of its size?」
「Idiot. Violence is the fastest solution to any problem.」
Flesh-Mod Tomie reached out and closed her hand around Armaments Tomie's throat, lifting her off the bed, her gaze carrying the exact same contempt she was being shown.
「Yes — any problem. Raw, overwhelming power cuts through all the tortured logic inside your skulls and resolves things by striking directly at the core.」
Her voice dropped lower, her expression calm. Armaments Tomie had not, it seemed, provoked her so much as confirmed her in a perfectly complete logic of her own.
Vampire Tomie leaned against the headboard, watching the show with amusement. Amamiya Rin didn't bother getting involved either.
The Tomies were all immortal anyway — no one was going to die even if they actually started fighting. For beings like them, getting torn apart and splattered was little more than a form of entertainment.
Amamiya Rin flipped open his notebook and scanned today's schedule.
One: Triple Compression training, to continue strengthening the body.
Two: Ask Professor Matsuura to help look into the legendary hypnotist mentioned in The Giver.
Three: Have Fujino Terumi keep an eye on the Ikiryo duo.
Four: Ask Mamiya Yuka whether she knows anything about the Slit-Mouthed Woman.
...
Quite a few things to handle — and now one more to add: prepare the Myogenic Mud for Kawabe Mayo, and see whether the formula developed in the Dream World could produce a real effect.
Amamiya Rin scratched his hair and flipped back a few pages in the notebook.
「Found it! This is the one!」
The inspiration he had written down at the time — a possible effective method for dealing with The Hanging Balloons.
Well — that was what he told himself, but whether it would actually work remained uncertain. It could only be put into practice when he actually encountered The Hanging Balloons.
He set the notebook down and picked up his phone from the bedside table, skimmed past a few irrelevant notifications on the screen, found Professor Matsuura's number directly, and called.
His Hypnosis had long since hit a bottleneck. He had wanted to seek out that legendary hypnotist and ask for guidance toward the next stage — but the relentless stream of events had kept pushing it back.
Amamiya Rin had made up his mind: he couldn't keep delaying. Things were piling up, and if he didn't go and learn soon, the opportunities to do so would only grow rarer.
The phone rang several times before it was picked up, the background noise audible — somewhere like a school or a police station.
「Hello? Amamiya-kun?」
Professor Matsuura's voice was as warm as ever, though it carried a note of surprise.
「It's been a while since you've been in touch. How is your health?」
「I'm fine, thank you. I'm sorry — various things happened and I never found a chance to reach out.」
Amamiya Rin felt a trace of guilt. Since their last meeting, he and Professor Matsuura had gone quite some time without contact. And this call, too, was prompted by the desire to learn more about the hypnotist mentioned in The Giver.
「Ah, don't worry about that. I've heard what's been happening — you've been caught up in some dangerous business lately. I should be thanking you on behalf of the victims; you helped catch the real culprit behind the serial killings. So, calling me now — is there something I can help you with?」
Professor Matsuura had already heard about it from Kazumi Junya — the dissolution incident, the vampire incident, both involving Amamiya Rin.
To say nothing of the Long Dream phenomenon. Honestly, the fact that Amamiya Rin was still alive at all was something of a miracle.
「It's about Hypnosis. I'd like to ask your advice.」
「Oh? Have you hit a wall?」
Professor Matsuura's voice held a note of encouragement.
He was one of the few who knew about the Long Dream. Given how much the dream time had lengthened, it wouldn't be surprising if Amamiya Rin's command of Hypnosis had already surpassed his own.
「I've run into a certain threshold.」
Amamiya Rin chose his words carefully.
「My hypnotic technique has likely reached the limits of what conventional practice can achieve — yet lately I've had the growing sense that the depths of Hypnosis extend far beyond this point. I've heard there exists in Japan a practitioner who has truly reached the summit — someone who might be called the greatest hypnotist. I'd like to know whether there's any way to make contact with this person, or at least receive some guidance.」
「So even you've heard of them?」
Professor Matsuura sounded surprised, but his tone also became more measured.
「The greatest hypnotist…」
He repeated the phrase slowly, his voice quiet and deliberate.
「Amamiya-kun, the field of hypnotherapy has many exceptional specialists, each with their own strengths. But if you're asking about the greatest — there's really only one person that word could apply to.」
「That figure discussed in hushed tones within the inner circles, almost never acknowledged by any official academic body, yet someone whom those who truly know cannot help but hold in awed respect…」
He paused, as if reaching back through memory, or perhaps simply marveling at the thought.
「Yes. If we're speaking strictly of that title — 'the greatest' — setting aside prestige and credentials and looking only at the depth of exploration and mastery of Hypnosis, there is only one person it could be.」
「Could you tell me more about them?」
Amamiya Rin pressed immediately.
「A genuine genius — or perhaps… a monster. The depth and duration of their hypnotic effects surpasses any hypnotist on record. The techniques are utterly unlike anything known, breaking entirely with the traditional steps and theoretical frameworks of conventional hypnosis. Can you imagine, Rin-kun? All it takes is a single point of light — a spark, a flashlight, anything at all — just one beam of light to draw the subject's attention, and then they speak, and the subject enters a hypnotic state almost immediately.」
The warmth in Professor Matsuura's voice was displaced by something far deeper — a profound sense of awe, and even, unmistakably, a trace of reverence.
「As you know, hypnotic induction follows its classical paradigm — environment, building of trust, focusing attention… step by step, easing the subject into relaxation — but this person bypasses all of that entirely. Their voice alone seems to carry some inexplicable power. No specific setting, no specific tools needed — just something to capture the subject's attention for a moment. And even that isn't strictly necessary. If the subject hasn't been paying attention, a few casual words spoken in passing as this person walks by can still plant a suggestion.」
Professor Matsuura grew more animated as he spoke. In his view, this wasn't hypnosis at all — it was sorcery.
And certain fragments surfaced in Amamiya Rin's mind as well.
In that passage from The Giver — the hypnotist had used nothing more than a single candle to implant a suggestion into a sleeping man, one that persisted even after death.
____
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