Imagine with me, dear reader, a scene where someone is washing blood from their hands in a bathroom. In the right corner, we find the corpse of a dead man; someone has stabbed him with a knife in the head, and blood is gushing from the wound. In the left corner lies another corpse stretched out under the water tap. From the bloodstains on his shirt, it appears he was likely stabbed in the chest first, before his companion. You wonder what happened here and who this person is, washing his hands of this heinous crime.
Let's go back six years into the past—not to solve the mystery of this crime, but to show you, reader, what Hiroki Takashi's life was like in middle school. What you see before you is a scene from a middle school in Shibuya, Japan. As usual, Hiroki was a student in his second year of middle school. He was a diligent person with ice around his heart—a metaphor to describe the coldness of his feelings. He spoke little and participated even less, but his exam grades were magnificent. His goal in all of this was to build an introverted persona for himself to succeed, reach his "dream university," and build a better future. Hiroki did not know the meaning of fun or pleasure; to him, these terms were mere nonsense and a waste of time.
Hiroki moves on to the third year of middle school, where his life turns upside down. He sits in his seat, and another person sits next to him. Hiroki notices that this person laughs a lot and cracks jokes as if he is handing out smiles; he is an extremely cheerful person who cares neither for his studies nor his grades, even though these things might lead to his failure. He simply doesn't care. During the break, Hiroki walks toward his locker, takes out his books for the next class, and heads straight to the classroom. However, he crashes into that same boy who sat next to him earlier. His phone falls, and the screen suffers a slight crack. Hiroki begins to apologize, hesitating in his words, trying to make amends. The boy reaches down, picks up his phone, glances at it, and smiles at Hiroki as if nothing happened, saying: "It's okay, no need to apologize. It's just a simple crack." He shows him the phone: "See? Look at it, it still works!!! By the way, I'm Togashi Hikaru. Nice bumping into you, haha. What's your name, friend?"
Hiroki answers him: "Oh, I'm called Hiroki Takashi. Nice to meet you too." Togashi then leaves, inviting him to go to class together. On his way with him, Hiroki realizes within himself that this boy's personality is the most suitable for him, as he suffers from a personality split—the first symptom of the acute psychological disorder he suffers from—which makes him attracted to Togashi's personality.
Now, my friend, imagine the scene I will describe to you as we enter Hiroki's subconscious together. A cartoon-style character will appear, its body entirely black, sitting on a throne. The place is dark until a light appears in front of the character. Suddenly, another cartoon character, light yellow in color, enters. The guards try to stop him, but he smiles in their faces and they faint. The black character is terrified and tries to flee, but falls to the ground. The chase turns from a run to a crawl toward the exit of the subconscious. The yellow character pulls out a knife, falls upon the black character's body, and begins stabbing, stabbing, and stabbing. A bloody scene, isn't it? This is an expression of the chaos occurring within Hiroki's subconscious. Through this scene, Hiroki transforms from an introverted person into what is known as "The Absurdist."
Happiness took control of him, and he became its subject. After years of friendship between Togashi and Hiroki, the latter turned into the happy, cheerful person you know now, dear reader.
Now, back to the present. Hiroki arrives at his class and enters the room, noticing that the students have become afraid of him because of what happened yesterday. The leader of the bullies enters with a bandage on his neck because of what Hiroki did to him previously. He approaches Hiroki and whispers in his ear: "You and me, outside. You will taste the bitterness of what you did to me." Hiroki is terrified; he has entangled himself with a dangerous gang just for the sake of self-defense. Now, what idea will come to him? To escape this predicament? Of course, he will continue on the path that fate draws for him. I mean, what could possibly happen?
After class, Hiroki leaves, and the gang members follow him from behind. Upon reaching the street, one of them attacks him with a baseball bat to the head, knocking him unconscious. Later, Hiroki finds himself inside a nightclub—a casino, a paradise of prostitution, alcohol, and gambling. It appears that the gang leader Hiroki clashed with earlier was impressed by Hiroki's personality, as he is a "Psychopath" in psychological terms.
Hiroki blends into the atmosphere after drinking excessively, convinced that the gang leader has forgiven him for what happened. He learns that the leader is named "Izana," and he and his group are members of the "Yakuza." He is the leader of the third division in the organization, and his mission within the high school is to sell drugs to the students. Hiroki thinks of a way to escape and get out of there; his head begins to ache with a slight headache and he feels nauseous, so he hurries to the bathroom because of the heavy drinking.
Here, Izana executes his second plan. He sends two of his gang members to kill Hiroki inside the bathroom, meaning his kind treatment of the latter was merely part of his scheme, in addition to making him drink too much. He had planned everything with extreme precision. Hiroki finishes his business and comes out, and as he is fastening his belt, they attack him. The first begins to choke him while the second pulls a knife from his pocket. Suddenly, Hiroki's consciousness senses danger; his adrenaline levels spike. Quickly, he slams the one choking him to the ground and advances toward him. While the man is on the floor, Hiroki has a look of pure hatred on his face; he grabs the person's head and smashes it multiple times against the water tap, knocking him out. The second attacks him with the knife, wounding him in the knee. Hiroki lunges, grabs him by the legs, and trips him, causing him to drop the knife.
Hiroki grabs the knife and drives it into the victim's head; he falls to the ground. Hiroki looks at the place—blood is everywhere. Then he looks at his hands; they are stained with blood, as are his clothes. His consciousness awakens, and he realizes what he has done. He has committed a heinous, aggressive crime. He notices one of them is still alive. He walks to the mirror and begins to laugh hysterically.
Hiroki: "I killed them... I killed them... Ahhh, it seems I'm happy about it, right, Akami?!!!"
(Suddenly, Akami enters the crime scene)
Akami: "Ooh yes, I'm happy with how things are going here. What, is it no longer under your control, Hiroki?!!! (He screams) What a beautiful sight! What creativity! You truly are good at painting artistic masterpieces!" (He approaches the victims' bodies and starts laughing).
In a moment of hysteria, while Hiroki sees his reflection in the mirror, he grips its edges and begins to scream, messing up his hair, pushing it back and forth. Suddenly, he tries licking the blood on his hand. Suddenly, a new character enters the discussion—this character represents the selfish side of Hiroki's consciousness. To avoid repetition, let's give this character a name: "Wagma."
Wagma: "I think you're right, Akami. Because let's assume we left things as they are, Hiroki. You'll be arrested for murder and spend your entire life behind bars. Then you can say goodbye to your dream of becoming a famous mangaka. These souls you have taken were merely an obstacle in the way of your dreams. I suggest you think of yourself, care for yourself, and fight for yourself—even if it means becoming a monster or a madman in the eyes of people!!!"
Hiroki intervenes, smiling, after madness took control and nested like crows within his consciousness.
Hiroki: "Hahaha... Silence... Silence, you bastards! I realize it now. There's nothing wrong with selfishness sometimes. If it means the loss of my dreams and ambitions, then it means I will become that beast struggling inside the forest, eating its prey, hahahahaha! Right, my friends?!!!"
The characters vanish from before him. Suddenly, he hears Akami's voice in his mind, telling him the steps to hide the crime. Hiroki begins following the steps: he removes his clothes, takes a lighter from the pocket of one of the victims, and burns his clothes until they become ash to hide anything related to his fingerprints. He puts on the clothes of one of the victims, who was wearing the outfit of a company employee. Hiroki ties the necktie well, removes the clothes of the next victim, and burns them to ash as well. He approaches the mirror, notices his hair slicks back easily, so he changes his hairstyle, pushing it back while leaving it slightly messy.
He leaves the bathroom calmly, enters the kitchen, steals a sharp sword, and quickly sneaks back to the bathroom amidst the sound of loud music—Japanese Rock. No one cared about what was happening inside the bathroom. Hiroki checks the victims and finds they have passed away. He begins the process of dismembering the bodies—not out of brutality, but to make it easier to hide them. He gathers the severed parts into plastic bags. He leaves the bathroom and steals three sports bags, enters the bathroom again, and places the bags inside. He takes the plastic gloves he used to commit the crime and burns them until they disappear, their ash mixing with the air inside the bathroom.
He takes the bags and exits coldly, entering the kitchen. It had been empty since he stole the sword earlier. Driven by curiosity and the madness within his consciousness, he licks the blood on the sword. He feels as though he has tasted a shot of red wine; dopamine floods his consciousness, and he feels an ecstasy—a sensation far removed from sex, a different feeling—as if Hiroki feels he is in paradise. This is the feeling of a serial killer; this is why they kill—to find relief. Psychopaths consider paradise to be the ecstasy and feeling that follows the shedding of blood and the torture of victims. He places the plastic bags in the refrigerator, returns the sword to its place, and completely smashes the surveillance cameras in the kitchen. The scene looks like a sequence of shifting events.
Hiroki exits coldly and finds that the gang members have left. He goes up to the roof. From the excessive drinking, madness, and chaos within his consciousness, he falls to the ground while gazing at the stars in the sky. The night is quiet. He closes his eyes to the sounds of the cold wind there and finally rests. The slight headache in his head fades. In the final moments of the night, his hands are stained with blood, and the edges of his clothes have bloodstains. On his face, he lifts his head to the sky, the wind playing with his hair, and he begins to laugh insanely. Looking at his condition as if he were a serial killer, he lets himself fall to the ground and loses consciousness from the sheer chaos playing with his mind and the heavy drinking that exhausted his strength.
To be continued...