Tokyo: Rabbit Police and Her Evil Partner

Chapter 462 Nightmare
In the instant his vision went dark, Fushimi Shika reacted instinctively. He swung his right hand sharply, and the fruit knife shot like an arrow toward the spot where Miyazaki Yuuko had been standing, aimed directly at her throat. Half a second later, Fushimi Shika realized that Minamoto Tamako was still beside him, and that he was killing her right in front of her.

But it is not important.

Importantly, he didn't hear the sound of the fruit knife piercing his throat; instead, he heard the sound of the knife tip hitting the wooden board.

If Nishino Touna wasn't lying, then Miyazaki Yuuko came prepared—she must have known what it meant for the police to find out about the Nishino siblings' home, which is why she brought a sack and anesthetic gas.

Fushimi Shika did not intend to get entangled with her for too long. As long as there was a little light that allowed him to vaguely see the outline of Miyazaki Yuko, he was confident that he could incapacitate her within two seconds.

To avoid being held back by Minamoto no Tamako, Fushimi Shika bent down, extended his hand, and said, "Let's go first..."

Before he could finish speaking, he reached out and found nothing; Genji was no longer in the same place.

At the same time, a familiar white noise came from the depths of darkness, the sound of flowing water, the rustling of treetops in the wind, a rhythmic tapping sound, and that familiar murmur in his ear again.

For the past month or so, Fushimi Shika has been hearing a vague murmur in his sleep. He hasn't taken it seriously, confusing it with the whispers of angels and the Kawai demon.

Only now, as the familiar murmur grew clearer and louder, seemingly emanating from beside his ears, did he realize who the voice belonged to.

—That's the voice of Minamoto no Tamako.

The voice of Minamoto no Tamako kept echoing in his ears.

For a moment, Fushimi Shika seemed to lose consciousness, or as if he had just woken up from a dream, his body losing sensation while simultaneously regaining it.

"Wake up... wake up quickly..."

The voice became clearer, and he could hear what Yuan Yuzi was saying.

What do you mean, wake up... I've been awake the whole time, haven't I?
Fushimi Shika was surprised. He tried to blink, but then realized that he was lying face down on the table with his head on his arm and his eyes closed.

"Fushimi-sensei... wake up..."

As Fushimi Shika's consciousness gradually gathered, he noticed something amiss. Minamoto no Tamako's voice had become very strange, softer and sweeter than before, like the voice of a cute girl in a children's cartoon.

Immediately afterwards, he felt someone pushing his arm. The force wasn't great, but the frequency was high, and it was clear that the other person was very anxious.

Fushimi Shika opened his eyes and slowly raised his head. What came into his view was a little girl of about six or seven years old. She looked exquisitely beautiful, with big, bright eyes and an oval-shaped tuft of hair standing up on her head. She was wearing an elementary school uniform and looked very cute.

This looks so familiar...

Ignoring the girl's pleading gaze, Fushimi Shika looked around and found himself in a bedroom with pink beds and wallpaper, a desk piled high with stuffed animals, and a shelf to the right filled with various detective novels.

Fushimi Shika stroked his chin, pondered for a moment, and realized that he was now perfectly lucid and could guess with a grain of salt that he had been hypnotized.

When exactly were you hypnotized?
Is it after going into the basement?

Or was I already hypnotized in the yard?
It must have been after they entered the basement. If they were in the yard, Miyazaki Yuko wouldn't have let him look through the car window.

Fushimi Shika mentally estimated that from the moment he jumped into the basement to the moment the lights went out, the total time was no more than ten seconds... To hypnotize a vigilant adult in ten seconds is even more outrageous than Arima Toshio.

Is level 8 hypnosis really that exaggerated?
Fushimi Shika was suspicious, feeling that Miyazaki Yuuko had done something to his brain during the hypnotherapy session—he still harbored resentment about the last hypnotherapy session.

Perhaps it was at that moment that Miyazaki Yuko instilled some 'suggestive' instructions in him; when he jumped into the basement, Miyazaki Yuko directly triggered the suggestive instructions in his mind, which is why he fell into a deep sleep so quickly.

As Fushimi Shika was pondering, his gaze inadvertently fell upon a photo frame on the desk, inside which was a family portrait: the husband was pale and looked unwell, with a serene smile on his face; the wife was tall and elegant, but had a stern face, as if she had something on her mind; the daughter stood between the two, timidly making a peace sign for the camera.

He recognized her; the woman in the photo must be Kujo Yui… She looked very young, probably in her early twenties, with no signs of aging on her face, full of collagen, and her gaze was no longer as world-weary as it would later become; she had the charm of a young married woman.

So, this little kid in front of me is the young Minamoto no Tamako?

Fushimi Shika had a wicked idea. He looked Minamoto no Tamako up and down. It turned out that Minamoto no Tamako, who was in elementary school, had a watermelon-shaped haircut, and the beginnings of a cowlick were already forming on the top of her head... He just didn't know if this was her own imagination or if it was what Minamoto no Tamako really looked like when she was a child.

He coughed and asked, "What is it?"

Tamako stood to the side, head down, fidgeting with her fingers, her toes kicking nervously: "Mommy will be back soon... but I haven't finished my homework yet..."

The contrast between Tamako and Captain Tamako was too great, and Fushimi Shika's evil thoughts grew stronger. He coughed and put on a serious face, saying, "Let's not talk about those things for now, Tamako-chan, do you want to see a magic trick?"

"What kind of magic trick?" Genji Tamako was clearly very curious since she was a child. As soon as Fushimi Shika asked casually, she took the bait.

Fushimi Shika picked up a pencil from the table, gently placed it on his ear, and said with a smile, "Watch closely, this pencil will disappear in a moment!"

Xiaoyu pouted and said, "I've seen this kind of magic trick before. It uses visual illusion to pretend to put a pencil in your ear, but it's actually hidden behind your head..."

"No, no, no!"

Fushimi Shika interrupted, "My magic trick is different from any you've seen. No matter where you stand, I can make it disappear."

This made Tamako even more curious. She tiptoed around to Fushimi Shika's side, looked at the pencil resting in her ear, and asked, "How did it disappear?"

"Look carefully."

Fushimi Shika deliberately dragged out the tone.

Tamako leaned closer, staring intently at Fushimi Shika's hand, only to see him suddenly press down and shove the pencil into his head through his ear canal. Blood gushed from the gap in his ear, splattering all over her face.

She was stunned.

Fushimi Shika suddenly felt everything go black and lost consciousness.

After an unknown amount of time, he heard a familiar voice again. Fushimi Shika's consciousness gradually returned, and he heard Tamako calling, "Wake up... wake up quickly..." and then gently nudging him.

He quickly regained his senses, immediately raised his head, looked around, and found himself still slumped over his desk in his pink bedroom. Tamako was still standing beside him, saying, "Fushimi-sensei... don't sleep..."

Even if they die, they won't wake up?

Fushimi Shika frowned, a vague sense of unease creeping over him, though he couldn't pinpoint its source.

He didn't have time to investigate further. If he couldn't wake up in time, both he and Minamoto no Tamako would be in a very bad situation—they were both unconscious at the moment, and if Miyazaki no Tamako were to shoot a hole in his forehead with a crossbow, he wouldn't even know how he died.

Fushimi Shika stood up, ignoring Tamako, and planned to find a high place to do a leap of faith... If you fall in a dream, it will wake you up. For example, falling off a cliff, falling down stairs, or falling from a height will trigger the brain's instinctive protective mechanism.

"Eh? Fushimi-sensei, where are you going?"

Tamako followed behind, asking anxiously, "Um, Mommy-chan will be back soon... but I haven't finished my homework yet..." Fushimi Shika ignored him, walking through the living room towards the sliding door. This house didn't look like a high-end apartment; instead, it resembled a traditional Japanese house, with green tatami mats on the floor, brown wooden planks on the walls, and a vase of flowers in the corner.

It looks like this is on the first floor.

He reached out and grabbed the sliding door handle, pulling gently, but it wouldn't open. So he increased the force, his arm veins bulging, but the sliding door remained motionless.

Weird.

Fushimi Shika frowned. He closed his eyes, trying to change his dream with his willpower, just like the previous shared dream experience. As long as he repeatedly recited the words and gave himself suggestions, he could freely control his dream.

But this time, he failed.

When Fushimi Shika opened his eyes, he was still in the old Japanese house, with no change in his surroundings. Tamako followed behind him, looking at him with a puzzled expression.

He finally realized that he was trapped in a dream.

"Fushimi-sensei... what are you doing?" Tamako couldn't help but ask.

Fushimi Shika ignored her, bent down, and used his fingers to tear a hole in the paper on the sliding door, then peered out.

Outside was a dimly lit porch, and the view of the courtyard was completely obscured, as it was pitch black. Fushimi Shika then realized that the time in the dream was nighttime.

Since I can't get out, I might as well commit suicide inside the house.

Fushimi Shika casually pushed aside the vase, moved the shelf to the center of the tatami mat, climbed up, stood on the shelf, took off his suit jacket, threw it forcefully upwards, around the beam, tied a knot, and in a few quick moves, he had made an otherworld travel device.

When Tamako saw this, she trembled with fear and shrank back into her room, hiding behind the door and peeking out to see what Fushimi-sensei was up to.

Fushimi Shika tugged at his coat to make sure it was sturdy enough to support his weight, then stuck his head inside and put it around his neck.

That's right, he planned to kick off the shelf, create a sense of weightlessness and panic, and then hang himself to regain his senses.

However, before he could put his plan into action, a piercing telephone ring suddenly broke out in the living room.

The landline rang.

Fushimi Shika originally intended to ignore it, but he worried that if he didn't answer the phone, outsiders would come in and interfere with his suicide attempt. So he paused his suicide attempt, climbed down from the shelf, and hurriedly answered the landline phone.

"Moses Moses?"

He held the receiver to his ear, and a series of urgent shouts rang out, accompanied by a hissing electronic noise:
"Is that Fushimi-kun? It's me, Minamoto no Tamako! Don't commit suicide! Please don't commit suicide!!"

Fushimi Shika frowned, suspecting that this was a hypnotic technique used by Miyazaki Yuuko to wake him up. Perhaps the Minamoto Tamako on the phone was also fake, just part of a dream.

However, the next sentence from the receiver made him freeze: "Red indulgences! And a stamp! This is a secret only the two of us know! I'm not the one you're dreaming about! I'm dreaming too, dreaming with you!"

Fushimi Shika was silent for a moment, then said, "Hira Sakurako also knows about this, and Miyazaki Yuuko hypnotized us before... Tell me something else that she could never possibly know."

There was a moment or two of silence on the other end of the line, as if someone was a little embarrassed to say it: "Well, about that, the bedwetting thing! I just told you about it—she definitely doesn't know I told you!"

Fushimi Shika's suspicions lessened slightly. Knowing this wasn't the time for pleasantries, he cut to the chase, asking, "What do you mean by 'don't commit suicide'?"

“If you die once in a dream, you’ll forget one thing!” Gen Tamako said urgently, “I just died three times and realized that my memory is incomplete… Damn it! What did I forget?!”

After her reminder, Fushimi Shika realized where the strange feeling she had just experienced came from.

He set up a courtroom inside his head, quickly accessing his memory archives, and discovered that all his memories from April of this year had disappeared; he couldn't even recall what he had forgotten.

Without pausing, Minamoto no Tamako continued, "If you die too many times, you'll forget you're dreaming! So never commit suicide, and never be killed! This hypnotherapy session is different from the last one; dreams are extremely dangerous!"

Fushimi Shika understood the first half of the sentence: dying once will cause you to forget a part of your memories, so sooner or later you will forget who you are and where you are... If you're unlucky, you might forget about the Nishino siblings the next time you die.

To make matters worse, Fushimi Shika is not a local.

He has lived two lives, with the memories of "Zhou Hao" being dominant and the memories of "Fushimi Shika" serving as a backup—if the memories of "Zhou Hao" were gone, would he still be himself?

Even if he wakes up, the soul inside his body will probably not be him anymore!

Fushimi Shika realized the seriousness of the situation. He tucked the microphone under his shoulder, rushed into Tamako's room, found a ballpoint pen, and wrote a sentence on his arm:

"Without a system, it's just a dream."

When Fushimi Shika woke up, he noticed that there was no criminal entry above Tamako's head, so he immediately realized that he was dreaming.

Now, he intends to use this to distinguish between dreams and reality.

Fushimi Shika wasn't sure if this would work; perhaps the words on his arm would be gone when he woke up next time.

While he was writing, his mouth didn't stop; he kept asking, "What does 'very dangerous in the dream' mean? Will there be monster attacks?"

"No...it's not that kind of danger..."

The voices in the conversation became distorted, and a piercing electronic noise drowned out the spoken words.

Fushimi Shika said "Moshi Moshi" a few times into the microphone, and vaguely heard Minamoto Tamako shouting, but he could not make out what she was shouting.

He thought it might be because he was too far from the landline, which affected the call quality, so he took the microphone back to the living room, but the sound quality was still very poor.

"I'll hang up now and call you back!"

Fushimi Shika shouted, then looked down and found that there was no caller ID on the landline.

what happened?

Fushimi Shika was startled. Before he could react, the sound of a door opening came from outside the living room. Minamoto no Tamako's voice seemed to come from a great distance, mixed with the indistinct words 'death,' 'obedience,' 'rules'... At the same time, footsteps came from the entrance hall. He turned around and a pale face peeked out from around the corner.

—It is Kujo Yui.

The face looked like it had been cut from a photograph, devoid of any life. Empty eyes stared straight at Fushimi Shika, and a sinister, hoarse voice rang out:
"Tamago sauce..."

"Have you finished your homework?"

(End of this chapter)