Tokyo: Rabbit Police and Her Evil Partner

Chapter 464 Heart Point
Fushimi Shika is struggling with her homework, and Miyazaki Yuuko is troubled by the idea of ​​murder to cover it up. They both feel that they are under a lot of pressure, but compared to Minamoto Tamako's current situation, it seems very trivial.

Gen Tamako felt like she was in hell.

The first three times she died mysteriously: the first time she woke up, she was just passing through the living room when she was strangled to death by a woman sitting on the sofa; the second time she woke up, she heard the doorbell ring, went to greet a guest, and was stabbed to death by the guest; the third time she woke up, she learned from the lessons of the previous two deaths and simply stayed in the attic and never went out.

The entire world was shrouded in a dark, gloomy, and terrifying hue, with a pervasive smell of decay that made people feel extremely oppressed.

The little boy living in the attic tried to communicate with her, but unfortunately she didn't speak Chinese. The two chattered and gestured for a long time, barely managing to understand each other's general meaning. It was then that Minamoto Tamako realized that in this dream, she was playing the role of a wild cat that would turn into a girl at midnight.

What kind of strange setting is this?

Genji was completely clueless. The environment in the attic was very unfamiliar, and everyone was speaking Chinese. The little boy in front of her was wearing a T-shirt and jeans, and his face was full of gloom. He didn't look like Fushimi Shika at all, and she didn't even remember such a person.

Who am I? Where am I? Where did I come from and where am I going?
Yuan Yuzi's mind was filled with the three questions of life. Before she could figure out what was going on, she was killed by the woman who rushed into the attic... Even if she hid in the attic, she would still be killed.

When she woke up for the fourth time, Minamoto no Tamako discovered that she had lost about a year and a half of her memories. She then realized that something was very wrong—it was already terrible enough to repeatedly experience the taste of death in her dreams. If even her memories were slowly fading away in the process of death, wouldn't she be experiencing a slow death?

How to do?
How can I wake up?

Tamako was filled with anxiety. She remembered that before she lost consciousness, Touna Nishino claimed that "the woman standing behind you is the guest"—meaning that the gentle, kind, and maternal Dr. Miyazaki was very likely the real culprit who triggered the random killings!
Those who were hypnotized never woke up before they died.

Especially Nishino Ritsuta, who was biting a patrolman's face in the street, and the patrolman fired five shots before he finally died... What kind of nightmare was he having at that time? Was he like her, repeatedly experiencing the taste of death in his dreams until the memory completely disappeared?
Yuan Yuzi became increasingly frightened as she thought about it, and for a moment she was completely at a loss.

Even if she were the reincarnation of Sherlock Holmes, she couldn't unleash her full power in a dream, since dreams are illogical... No matter how smart she is, how could she possibly deduce that she is now a talking cat?

Calm down! Tamako, there must be a way!
Minamoto Tamako, biting her thumbnail and with one arm crossed over her chest, paced back and forth in the attic. The gloomy boy reminded her that if her footsteps were too loud, they would attract her mother's attention. Unfortunately, Minamoto Tamako didn't understand Chinese, so she could only give a perfunctory meow to indicate that she was a cat and couldn't understand human speech.

The gloomy boy sighed, looking helpless and as if he had been dragged into this mess. To prevent his mother from going upstairs, he could only grab Minamoto Tamako's hand and stand with her in front of the mirror.

"Uh? I'm not in the mood to look in the mirror right now..."

As she spoke, Yuan Yuzi's gaze fell on the mirror. Only then did she realize that there was no reflection in the mirror. It was still the attic, but it looked older and lacked any sense of life. The floor was covered with a thick layer of dust.

what happened?

Before Yuan Yuzi could react, the gloomy boy grabbed her hand and led her towards the mirror.

"Hey! Wait a minute—"

Yuan Yuzi gasped in surprise. Her eyes widened as she watched the gloomy boy step into the mirror, as if he had passed through a transparent membrane and entered another world.

She stumbled and stepped into the mirror.

Dust rushed in, choking Yuan Yuzi and causing her to cough repeatedly. She waved her hands, trying to fan away the dust, while her eyes watered from the mold.

"Cough cough—cough cough cough! Where...where am I?"

Genji thought to herself, "Could there be an even more terrifying place in this dream?" Just like in fantasy novels, it's divided into an outer world and an inner world, which you travel back and forth through a mirror. The outer world is peaceful, while the inner world is terrifying...

She swallowed hard, her body drenched in cold sweat from nervousness. The surroundings were eerily quiet; she couldn't hear a sound.

The gloomy boy bent down and lifted the floorboards, revealing a downward-facing wooden ladder, and climbed down the stairs first; Yuan Yuzi dared not linger and quickly followed.

The two slid down the stairs one after the other. The ground below was dimly lit, with only a dim yellow light coming through the corner of the corridor.

Gen Tamako looked around and found that the corridor environment was exactly the same as before, especially the semi-open living room, where she had died next to the wine rack when she passed by earlier.

Oh no, am I going to die again? Yuan Yuzi didn't want to die again, so she quickly waved to the gloomy boy, signaling him to hide in the toilet together, hoping they could sneak out through the toilet window.

But the gloomy boy ignored her again and walked straight into the semi-open living room. Yuan Yuzi vaguely heard laughter coming from the room and cautiously followed him. She stood at the corner and peeked out. She saw a cake on the coffee table in the living room, and three people were singing "Happy Birthday" around the cake.

A few candles were stuck on the cake, their warm yellow light swaying gently, making the scene cozy and dreamlike, like an unreal, colorful bubble.

Yuan Yuzi recognized the woman sitting on the sofa; she was the shrew who had inexplicably killed her before. Now, her face appeared exceptionally gentle in the warm light. Beside her sat a man with his arm around her shoulder; he was clearly her husband. His eyes were full of tenderness and affection, showing that they had a very good relationship.

As for the boy in the very middle, he looked oblivious to the happiness he was basking in, and he was making a wish with his hands clasped together and his eyes closed.

Gen Tamako turned around and looked at the gloomy boy beside her. Although the two had very different temperaments, they looked exactly alike.

So this is the real world of happiness and peace.

Just as Yuan Yuzi breathed a sigh of relief, she saw the gloomy boy walk up and roughly pull up the sunny boy. The two had an unfriendly conversation, but unfortunately, Yuan Yuzi couldn't understand what they were saying. She could only notice that the couple sitting on the sofa were like puppets, not surprised by the appearance of the other boy, and maintaining gentle smiles on their faces as they watched the two boys argue.

That's really weird.

Yuan Yuzi felt a little uneasy and decided to slip away first. Unexpectedly, the two boys had just finished arguing and seemed to have reached some kind of consensus. They both turned around and looked at Yuan Yuzi.

Yuan Yuzi was startled and felt a little uneasy being stared at. Putting aside the gloomy boy, the other sunny boy didn't seem so easy to get along with either. His eyes held a scrutinizing quality, and he clearly had a maturity beyond his years.

"W-what's wrong?"

She stammered out a sentence in Chinese. In Japan, being able to speak Chinese is considered a rather elegant thing. Daughters of prominent families can all write a few Chinese characters, so she naturally knew a few common phrases. She was responsible for writing a few words of calligraphy on letters or gifts to congratulate relatives during festivals, showing off her calligraphy and refinement.

The Bushido calligraphy that became popular in later generations was a type of brush calligraphy that came from Japan. Although it looks very cool, professional calligraphers scoff at it, thinking that this style of calligraphy is ugly and has no charm whatsoever.

Yuan Yuzi thought that what followed would be another difficult conversation, requiring her to understand the other person's intentions through a few words and various gestures. Unexpectedly, the sunny boy spoke fluent Japanese: "How did you get in?"

"Huh? I...I don't know how I got in." Gen Tamako scratched her head, turned and pointed down the corridor: "He led me through the mirror, and then I came in..."

The sunny boy sighed, seemingly disgusted by her stupidity. This expression was so familiar that she couldn't help but think of Fushimi Shika—that guy also liked to sigh when he was disgusted by others, casually looking away and curling his lip in disdain.

Could this guy be Fushimi's younger brother?
Gen Tamako thought it was very likely, after all, there was the precedent of Hira Sakurako, maybe Fushimi-kun had one or two younger brothers who died young, which is why he was so bothered by it, to the point that he dreamed about it... The only problem was, why did his brother look like a Chinese person?
That's strange, I can't figure it out at all.

The sunny boy didn't press further and took the initiative to explain his current situation: Minamoto no Tamako was in Fushimi Shika's mental world, and in the most crucial place, roughly equivalent to the location of his inner conflict, or, in layman's terms, his 'heart's acupoint'.

The so-called "heart's weak point" is probably a person's deepest vulnerability. The sunny boy didn't elaborate, but just casually mentioned it—only then did Minamoto no Tamako realize that Fushimi-kun, who seemed invincible, also had things he was afraid of.

The gloomy boy added a few words from the side, but unfortunately, Genji couldn't understand them, so the sunny boy had to help translate. This was mainly to let Genji understand how critical their current situation was:
Once a psychologist understands a patient's "Achilles' heel," they can exploit it, amplify it infinitely, and completely destroy the person's mind—it sounds like the fatal weakness in a martial arts novel.

Everyone has their weaknesses. For example, a hedonist is obsessed with hunting for women, a snob is obsessed with money, and a lazy person may seem unrestrained, but in reality, they are involved in all sorts of vices.

The more unrestrained a person appears on the surface, the more firmly they hold their heart hidden deep within.

Fushimi Shika was well aware of this weakness. At the time, he hadn't yet consulted a psychologist. He simply didn't want to be affected by his inner turmoil anymore and planned to start a completely new life. So, he used the special skill he had unexpectedly acquired.

— "Memory Overwriting"

That's right, he altered his memories, turning his childhood into a happy family story, and deleted the process of altering his memories.

But his mental acupoint did not disappear; instead, it hid deeper and took root more firmly, like tentacles hidden in the darkness, gradually eroding his mind without his knowledge.

(End of this chapter)