Tokyo: Rabbit Police and Her Evil Partner

Chapter 453 Instant Hypnosis
In the minds of Minamoto Tamako and Abe Rokuro, Arima Toshio would pull a coin out of his pocket, hang it on a rope, and swing it back and forth in front of Akimoto Masahiko, just like in the movies... But in reality, Arima Toshio didn't take out any props and instead chatted very relaxedly.

Masahiko Akimoto was happy to stall for time, as the bet only allowed three minutes. The two exchanged some trash talk about the bet, with Akimoto dismissively stating, "Only an idiot would be hypnotized."

"Is that so?"

Arima Toshio looked around. Everyone was in the police station's conference room, some standing and some sitting. He looked them over for a few seconds and said with a smile, "So, if that's the case, then you're the most idiotic person in this room."

"What did you say?" Akimoto Masahiko shouted, clicking his tongue.

Arima Toshio gestured for him to calm down and continued, "Aside from the two professionals present, namely myself and my assistant, the most difficult person to subtly influence among the five people here is probably this officer with the crooked posture... I haven't asked your name yet?"

All eyes turned to Fushimi Shika, who had just sat down to watch the show. Hearing this, he jokingly said, "Just call me 'the poor customer who can't get a reservation'."

When he first went to Toshio Arima's private clinic, he gave his name to the clinic, but Arima clearly didn't take it seriously.

Arima Toshio shrugged and turned to introduce Fushimi to the crowd: "Look, just as I said, Mr. Fushimi is very aggressive and doesn't care about other people's feelings. He is rational and sharp-minded, and is a self-centered man... People like Mr. Fushimi don't open their hearts to others easily, and they are very wary of outsiders."

Clearly, Toshio Arima remembered Fushimi Shika's name, and he asked that question on purpose.

Upon hearing this, Abe Rokuro looked puzzled, while Minamoto no Tamako and Watanabe Shun nodded in agreement.

Time was ticking away, and Akimoto Masahiko didn't care what Yuma Toshio said. He kept looking down at his watch, waiting for three minutes to pass.

“Next, there’s Miss Tamako.” Toshio Arima pointed to the bewildered Tamako Minamoto.

Miyazaki Yuko had explained the situation to him beforehand, so he knew Minamoto Tamako's name.

Arima Toshio continued, "Miss Tamako has a very strong desire for control. Just now I noticed that Miss Tamako kept pleading with Mr. Akimoto to make an exception, which is essentially an outward manifestation of her strong desire for control—she felt that the prisoner should be interrogated, which is why she asked Mr. Akimoto for help."

"Similarly, what Miss Tamako wants to do, she hopes that everyone around her can do together; what Miss Tamako disapproves of, she hopes to completely eliminate."

"People with this type of personality are prone to extremes; they either have a firm and lofty goal or become completely addicted to the desire for power."

"Neither of them is easy to use to exert suggestion."

Upon hearing this, Fushimi Shika and Watanabe Shun nodded in agreement; Abe Rokuro's misunderstanding of Minamoto no Tamako deepened, as he believed that Minamoto no Tamako was the second case.

Before Toshio Arima could give any more examples, Shun Watanabe eagerly raised his hand and asked, "What about me? What about me? Where am I ranked?"

He didn't want to be ranked behind Abe Rokuro; as a senior, he naturally had the dignity of a senior.

“You’re fourth,” Toshio Arima said bluntly.

"Who's third?" Watanabe Shun scratched his head.

Fushimi Shika and Minamoto Tamako glanced at him sideways, not expecting Watanabe Shun to ask such a stupid question.

"It's Mr. Abe." When Toshio Arima came to the police station, it was Rokuro Abe who received him, so he naturally knew the man's name.

"What?" Watanabe Shun exclaimed, uttering the classic line from anime villains: "Impossible!"

Nearly half the time had passed, but Toshio Arima remained unperturbed. He patiently explained, "Whether one is easily influenced by suggestion has nothing to do with the strength of willpower. Even the strongest person can be attracted by a black dot on a blank sheet of paper... The strength of one's resistance to hypnosis depends on the strength of their 'superego.'"

"You should know that a person's personality is composed of three parts: the id, the ego, and the superego."

"The stronger a person's 'superego,' the weaker their 'id.'"

"Coincidentally, the 'suggestive instructions' in hypnosis primarily affect the 'id,' controlling a person's emotions and instinctive reactions by guiding their subconscious."

"For example, like this..."

As he spoke, Toshio Arima suddenly turned around, looked at Masahiko Akimoto, and asked, "How much time is left?"

Masahiko Akimoto had been checking his watch, his mind highly focused. When asked by Toshio Arima, he instinctively prepared to answer, "Thirty seconds left," but the other man suddenly reached out and interrupted him, asking, "Excuse me, may I look at my watch?"

Akimoto Masahiko raised his hand, but Arima Toshio immediately grabbed his wrist, covering the watch face so that he couldn't see the hands on the watch.

Akimoto Masahiko was stunned for a moment, and before he could react, Yuma Toshio pinched his wrist to check his pulse and said in a slightly familiar tone, "Take a deep breath, your heart is beating a little fast."

Akimoto Masahiko actually took a deep breath and slowly exhaled. Before he could catch his breath, Arima Toshio suddenly covered his eyes with his hands and commanded, "Close your eyes!"

Arima Toshio's hand covered his eyes, so the others couldn't see Akimoto Masahiko's reaction, but they could sense that Akimoto Masahiko's emotions were subtly changing.

The next second, Toshio Arima forcefully pulled Akimoto Masahiko's wrist with his left hand, supported Akimoto Masahiko's upper body with his right hand, and hissed:
"sleep!"

As soon as he finished speaking, Akimoto Masahiko seemed to have his bones removed; his body went limp, his eyes closed, and he fell into a deep sleep.

With Ma Minfu's help, he placed him on the sofa, clapped his hands, wiped the sweat from his forehead, and joked, "This guy is quite heavy."

Gen Tamako glanced at the sleeping Akimoto Masahiko, then turned to Arima Toshio, asking in astonishment, "How did you do that?"

She really wants to learn!
From the time the bet was made until now, less than three minutes have passed. For two and a half minutes in between, Ma Minfu was chatting with them, so the actual time for hypnosis was only thirty seconds.

In just thirty seconds, a hostile adult can be turned into a dead pig!
If Minamoto no Tamako can learn this skill, she won't need physical strength or a gun to catch criminals in the future! She'll just have to shout "Sleep!" and the criminals will obediently fall down, making them easy targets.

After her titles of famous detective and police inspector, she should also be called a master hypnotist.

Arima Toshio lowered his sleeves, put on his coat, and casually explained, "As I just said, the main method of hypnosis is to apply 'suggestion.'"

He snapped his fingers and asked, "For example, what does this snap remind you of?" He wasn't just asking Minamoto no Tamako, but also the others.

Gen Tamako was the first to answer: "Street thugs."

Watanabe Shun followed closely behind: "A flash of inspiration."

Fushimi Shika didn't bother to answer, and after waiting for a long time without him saying anything, Abe Rokuro had no choice but to reply, "Desktop music."

Toshio Arima nodded and said, "This is the simplest form of 'snap.' Street thugs snap their fingers to attract attention, young professionals snap their fingers to indicate they have a good idea... Your brains accept this 'snap,' and your subconscious associates 'snap' with other things."

He straightened his clothes and looked at the sleeping Akimoto Masahiko: "And I've been giving Akimoto-san hints all along... Did anyone notice how many 'hints' I gave?"

Genji Tamako had an excellent memory. She remembered that Toshio Aruma had said five sentences, so she replied, "Five... I guess?"

“No, it’s more than thirteen,” said Toshio Arima.

"So many?" Watanabe Shun was taken aback and turned to ask Abe Rokuro, "Did you notice?" Seeing Abe Rokuro shake his head, he was relieved.

"I don't understand...when did it start?" Minamoto Tamako pressed.

Seeing her determined attitude and insistence on getting to the bottom of things, Ma Minfu had no choice but to patiently explain it to her while fastening his watch:
"The first 'hint' was before the bet even started, when I said, 'See? Patek Philippe, your entire year's salary would only buy you a watch face.'"

"As you can see, Mr. Akimoto has a lot of disdain for my profession. When I ask him the provocative question, 'Did you see that?' his subconscious will instinctively respond—this is an instinct that every man has, and as a police officer, the competitive mentality is even more pronounced."

“I then continued, ‘Patek Philippe, your entire year’s salary would only buy a watch face.’ This statement thwarted his subconscious competitive spirit and made him instinctively feel that my social status was higher than his.”

"That was the first hint I gave him: I am stronger than him."

“His ego will feel very angry, but this anger stems from subconscious frustration and incompetence; then, he will feel in his heart that I am just a nouveau riche, or trying to regain some sense of superiority from the police position.”

"At that point, I proposed a bet, giving him hope of either 'beating me' or 'making me suffer.'"

"During this process, I gave him two hints: 'Arima Toshio is very confident' and 'Arima Toshio will most likely lose.'"

"Driven by anger, Mr. Akimoto accepted the bet, and I then asked him to place his bet. This is the fourth hint: 'This bet is important.'"

"For the next two and a half minutes, I may appear to be chatting with you, but in reality, I am constantly giving Mr. Akimoto hints and influencing him indirectly through your reactions. Every time I analyze someone's personality, your surprised expressions will put subtle pressure on Mr. Akimoto."

"During this process, I made about six suggestions, all of which affected Mr. Akimoto. I won't go into the specifics."

"In short, Mr. Akimoto was powerless to do anything about it. He could only wait passively, and the more frequently he checked his watch, the more anxious and uneasy he became."

"When faced with impending fear, ordinary people often have a 'hope it happens' mentality; this is your brain's protective mechanism at work."

"For example, someone who is afraid of injections subconsciously hopes the needle will pierce their skin as soon as possible; someone who is afraid of watching horror movies hopes the ghost will appear around the next corner... Mr. Akimoto is no exception. He doesn't consciously want this to happen, but his subconscious has already accepted the suggestion that 'Toshio Arima can hypnotize.'"

"In the last thirty seconds, his nerves were stretched to the limit. At that moment, he was like a fully drawn bow; if you let go even slightly, his emotions would rebound violently."

Arima Toshio fiddled with his sidearm for a moment and said, "What happened next was simple. His attention was completely focused on his watch; people get tired of staring at a mechanical thing. I asked him, 'How much time is left?' He resisted consciously, but instinctively wanted to answer, accepting another 'obedience' suggestion."

"I observed his state and immediately interrupted his answer. His mindset was disrupted, and he needed time to think, but I didn't give him time to react. I continued to ask, 'Excuse me, may I look at my watch?'..."

"At this point, he had stopped thinking and was left with only instinctive obedience."

"Of course, I can't ask him to do anything too outrageous, nor can I give him instructions that go against the previous hints, otherwise he'll immediately regain his senses."

"So I changed my stance, from a domineering conqueror to a caring doctor, saying to him, 'Take a deep breath, your heart is beating a little fast.' This is a phrase that ordinary people often hear in hospitals, and everyone will do as the doctor says. It's a natural 'suggestive instruction' that can be used at any time."

“I’ve described the whole process, but the key steps were actually completed in a matter of seconds. As you saw, he should have realized something was wrong, but he was too exhausted to think because he had completely consumed his attention and thinking ability in pointless anxiety and waiting.”

"This caused him to freeze, or as the saying goes, his brain went blank or his mind went blank, which made him subconsciously follow my instructions and take a deep breath."

"After exhaling a long breath, he will feel even more tired due to lack of oxygen, and his mind will go blank, just like the lapse in concentration between sets during exercise."

“I blindfolded him and, in a police-like tone, told him to ‘sleep.’ His subconscious complied, releasing large amounts of melatonin, which made his brain drowsy.”

"Logically, I should have added a few more hints to wrap things up and reinforce his 'sleep state'... but he probably stayed up late last night and was sleep-deprived, so he just fell asleep."

To prevent any misunderstanding, Toshio Arimawa added at the end: "Of course, specific tone and gestures require years of practice, and a combination of theoretical knowledge and skills is needed to achieve the effect of 'instant hypnosis.'"

With an expression of 'amazed', Minamoto no Tamako raised her little hand and clapped her hands. With her taking the lead, everyone except Fushimi Shika joined in the clapping, and the police outside the conference room thought that another meeting was taking place inside.

Fushimi Shika wasn't being disrespectful; he was just thinking about other things.

Arima Toshio's highest level skill is Lv6 "Psychological Knowledge", while Miyazaki Yuuko's highest level skill is Lv8 "Hypnosis". The difference between the two is not small.

With Ma Mino's hypnotic abilities already being this exaggerated...

What about Miyazaki Yuko?

Fushimi Shika glanced at Miyazaki Yuko out of the corner of his eye. The latter was clapping lightly with the others, not as if she were flattering them, but rather as if she genuinely admired her boss's business acumen.

This guy's quirk is "obsessive-compulsive disorder"...

I don't think I've ever seen her show it.

(End of this chapter)