Japanese Terrorist: What? I'll fight Hellstar!

Tomie walked to the decorative mirror on the wall. The mirror reflected her face, which was covered in blood. Her hair was wet and stuck to her cheeks and neck. She had no fangs, her pupils were still the same color, and her skin had not become paler.

Are you kidding me?

Tomie frowned and grinned at herself in the mirror.

Frustration and anger welled up inside me.

She went to great lengths to complete the ceremony, and this is the result?

She crossed her arms over her chest, her face showing obvious displeasure, but her mind was racing.

The transformation failed? It shouldn't be, right? Elizabeth, dressed in such an odd way, left quite calmly, not like the ritual had failed.

Is it the physical body that is being transformed? And the power cannot manifest in dreams? No, that's not right either. The transformations all occur in dreams; the vampire power bestowed by Elizabeth seems to affect more than just the body.

Tomie paced back and forth in front of the mirror, feeling that something was amiss.

It's not external, it's internal.

A very subtle sense of unease, like a piece of furniture in a room has been moved a few centimeters. It's hard to notice unless you look closely, but you just know it's not in its original place anymore.

She closed her eyes, stood still, and tried to calm herself down to capture that fleeting feeling.

My thoughts are very clear.

The memory is coherent, from her decision to hold the ceremony, to setting up the scene, capturing the sacrifice, manipulating the Iron Maiden, chanting the incantation, to Elizabeth's appearance, touching her face, and disappearing... every detail is vivid and logically consistent.

Nothing was altered, no strange fragments were inserted. She was still herself, Tomie Kawakami, with her consistent thought patterns and emotional reactions.

However, there was always a strange feeling, like a thin, almost invisible ice spike, stuck in some soft corner of consciousness.

It doesn't hurt, it doesn't itch, and it's not even a nuisance, but its very existence is a constant disturbance, preventing you from completely relaxing and from taking everything for granted as before.

"Tsk."

Tomie opened her eyes in frustration, abandoning this futile introspection.

She hates these kinds of vague and intangible questions the most.

If I can't figure it out, I'll stop thinking about it.

Tomie immediately abandoned further thought and decided to seek advice from Amamiya Rin.

Although she didn't know where Amamiya Rin was, her strong enough will and need would guide her to find him.

As the sun set behind the western mountains, only a dark orange hue remained on the horizon, casting a weary afterglow over the city. The heat in the air was rapidly dissipating, and the evening breeze began to carry a chill.

"Coach Takamura, I'm going now. See you tomorrow."

Yu Gonglin wiped his sweaty hair with a towel and greeted the somewhat familiar coach at the boxing gym.

He pushed open the glass door and stepped out. The evening breeze immediately blew on his sweaty skin, sending a chill through him.

Sweat clung to his brow bone and temples, his gray sports vest was soaked through and clung tightly to his body, outlining his slightly lean and toned physique after a long period of training.

He looked up at the clouds on the horizon, took a deep breath of the cool air, and his tense body and nerves gradually relaxed. The fortitude on his face faded, and a peaceful weariness appeared between his brows and eyes.

"Whoa—!"

Letting out a long sigh, as if to expel the accumulated fatigue, Amamiya Rin walked down the steps in front of the door, intending to first go to a nearby all-you-can-eat barbecue restaurant for a hearty meal.

However, as soon as she turned around, she was greeted by an unusually familiar face.

"Hey! Tomie, long time no see! Want to go to an all-you-can-eat BBQ place?"

Amamiya Rin stopped in her tracks and slowly raised her hand in greeting.

"The fumes are too heavy, I'm not going."

Tomie resolutely refused. In her opinion, barbecue restaurants were too low-class, especially all-you-can-eat barbecue.

Amamiya Rin shrugged, not surprised at all.

He hadn't expected Tomie to agree anyway, so he prepared to step aside and walk past her.

He was exhausted and hungry at the moment, and didn't have much energy to deal with this troublesome young lady.

"Don't go!"

He had barely taken half a step when a hand grabbed his shoulder forcefully. The grip was strong, and the grip was clearly irritating.

Amamiya Rin stopped what he was doing, tilted his head, and looked at Tomie, who was gripping his shoulder, with a puzzled expression on his face.

Tomie quickly released her hand, as if she had touched something dirty. She immediately pulled a tissue from her pocket with her left hand, frowned, and disgustedly wiped the sweat from her palm.

Amamiya Rin pursed her lips and didn't say anything.

"Could you take a look at this for me first?"

Tomie's tone was sharp, filled with barely suppressed impatience.

"Something seems off about that ridiculous ceremony."

"ceremony?"

Amamiya Rin tilted her head and looked at Tomie with a puzzled expression.

"I performed that dark magic ritual that was associated with the portrait of Elizabeth a few days ago."

"Did it work?"

Amamiya Rin's gaze sharpened, and he immediately asked.

Although he had had an idea a long time ago, to see if he could perform a dark magic ritual in a dream—the one to summon the Apology Demon.

If it works, as everyone's willpower increases and the number of Tomie-like figures forming the dream increases, there might be a chance to trap the Apology Demon in the dream.

However, he has never put it into practice. The reason is quite simple: he can't beat them!

That's a world-destroying level demon. If it's successfully summoned, not only will we not be able to win, but we'll also expose the secret of Changmeng.

Who knew that Tomie would be so reckless, performing that dark magic ritual in the dream world without even informing him.

However, blaming her now will not help.

He had already experienced Tomie's thick skin and willfulness firsthand; no matter how much he said, she would only ignore him, and might even turn around and mock him for being a coward.

The most urgent task is to understand the situation and assess the risks.

"Did it succeed... or fail? I don't know. I followed all the steps in that lousy book, I bled, I chanted the incantation, and Elizabeth did come out—but that's all?"

Tomie's tone was irritated as she kicked a pebble on the side of the road.

"Just came out?"

Amamiya Rin didn't understand what this meant. Did it mean they succeeded or failed?

"Anyway, the person was summoned, although it's not the same person as in the portrait. The hair is white, the clothes are flashy like a theatrical costume, and the person is holding a scepter—oh right, it looks a bit like that dragon lady you remember."

Fu Jiang curled his lips.

Amamiya Rin paused for a moment, then realized what was happening, her expression becoming somewhat subtle.

Camilla? What is all this about? Could it be that his memories have distorted Elizabeth's image?

"Then she touched my face, said a few pretentious words, and disappeared, but I didn't change at all!"

Tomie crossed her arms and said impatiently.

"No fangs, no longer nails, no noticeable increase in strength or speed, and no bat-like face—so was the ritual a success or a failure?"

Amamiya Rin leaned against the brick wall outside the boxing gym and pondered for a few seconds.

"Tell me the whole process, every single detail, from beginning to end. Don't leave anything out."

Tomie clicked her tongue, but still started from the beginning.

From the layout of the castle hall, the use of the Iron Maiden, the collection of blood, to the application of ointments to the body, the chanting of spells, and Elizabeth stepping out of the painting in her strange armor. Including those unfamiliar fragments of images flashing through my mind, and that sluggish feeling as if something else had entered my brain.

"Oh right, she also said something like this—an alternate dimension formed by human thoughts? A dream? It seems she recognized this place as a dream."

Amamiya Rin listened quietly, her fingers unconsciously tapping her knees.

"If nothing unexpected happens, that Elizabeth is the real deal."

After Tomie finished speaking, he remained silent for a moment before speaking.

"Furthermore, your problem may not be physical. Based on your description, Elizabeth's embrace or conversion likely affects other levels of life."

"Other aspects?"

Tomie raised an eyebrow.

"What other level could it be? The soul? Memories?"

"It is the soul, and also memory, and even more so, consciousness, or spirit, belief; tracing back to its source, it is the mind!"

Amamiya Rin looked up at Tomie, her tone calm and her words resolute.

"soul?"

Tomie's brows furrowed; she hated this kind of mysterious stuff the most.

Her body is immortal; only her mind is affected.

Of course, not just any kind of mental interference can affect her mind. Even beings who have lived through countless years and can exchange souls with anyone will gradually become another version of her once they enter her body.

So far, only Amamiya Rin has reached a stalemate with her on a spiritual level for various reasons.

"You just said that when she touched your face, you felt a foreign object in your brain, along with noise and unfamiliar fragments of memory, right?"

Amamiya Rin asked Tomie.

"It felt like something like memory transfer, but I can't remember it clearly anymore. Besides, those memories were too ordinary and had no value. They were similar to what ordinary people know about vampires. Even if that guy didn't pass on those memories to me, I could still imagine those scenes."

Tomie nodded, then complained with a hint of disdain.

"That's cognition... how should I put it?"

Amamiya Rin rested her chin on her hand, organizing her thoughts, and spoke calmly and patiently.

"Mind, consciousness, mental pollution, brainwaves... Based on my current understanding of this world, demons or evil spirits, simply put, are beings that do not belong to the physical realm, and their interactions with humans are basically in these ways."

For example, the dissolution of the "Apology Demon" was achieved through evil brainwaves, and your charm is considered a form of mental pollution. Human mental strength and willpower can create urban legends like the Slit-Mouthed Woman… Perhaps demons like the Apology Demon and Elizabeth are also formed from the collective unconscious of humanity, or rather, cognition, combined with some unknown things we cannot yet understand.

After learning about the origin of the Slit-Mouthed Woman, Amamiya Rin had this idea.

The world of horror tales does not have a supernatural power system. If we exclude those real, unknown monsters, things like ghost stories that are closely related to humans may have been created because of humans.

Junji Ito's creative inspiration also comes from some social issues.

For example, the meaningless apologies from officials, and the "human head balloon" incident, which is said to be based on a real-life event—a mass suicide of fans after the death of a certain celebrity.

"Hey, hey, hey, you've gone off-topic."

Tomie impatiently interrupted Amamiya Rin. She had no interest in listening to his nonsensical ramblings, which even he himself couldn't confirm and were just guesses.

"Ah, right, I've gone a bit off-topic, no, not really. Mental state, brainwaves, cognition—if nothing unexpected happens, these are the changes Elizabeth has inflicted on you."

Amamiya Rin nodded, then shook her head.

"Do you remember Miyuki Kawahara? After she underwent the black magic ritual, she didn't realize the changes in herself until one day she saw another version of herself kill someone, and then she vaguely began to have doubts... It wasn't that she saw another version of herself kill someone, but rather that she sensed what her other personality had done after her main personality had fallen asleep."

"You mean... Elizabeth created a secondary personality in my brain?"

Tomie immediately realized what was happening, and her face turned extremely gloomy.

"That's right, the implantation of cognition, or rather, the grafting of personality. This is Elizabeth's way of embracing. It doesn't require a real body at all; all that's needed is for your consciousness to remain. Moreover, it's not a simple transfer of memories; it's putting a way of being into your consciousness structure, with its own set of behavioral logic."

As Amamiya Rin spoke, she couldn't help but sigh with emotion.

The implantation of cognition and the grafting of personality, in the end, only make Tomie have the cognition that she is a vampire.

In other words, Elizabeth believed that as long as Tomie recognized that she was a vampire, she would naturally become a vampire.

Although it may seem absurd, in a world where the power of belief can change reality, it is by no means impossible. Various extreme emotions can create different kinds of strange tales.

What kind of slit-mouthed woman, weeping woman, or any other kind of being? It's terrifying that anyone who thinks they can do something can do it.

What's most frightening is that negative, extreme emotions are often the easiest way to achieve the goal of letting the mind prevail over material things and change reality.

Positive emotions cannot be so extreme. Even someone like Inudou Ranko has to use pain to stimulate herself in order to unleash her powerful spiritual energy.

Oh right, I remember Higa Kotoko was like that too.

As mentioned in "Here Comes," Makoto Higa saw Kotoko Higa covered in injuries and learned to use self-harm to unleash her power.

Of course, there may be factors that Amamiya Rin didn't understand, such as changes in body structure, and it's possible that Tomie's brainwaves have been altered by Elizabeth's evil brainwaves.

After listening to Amamiya Rin's analysis, Tomie remained silent for a few seconds, her expression shifting between light and shadow.

She hates any form of change, especially this kind of internal, silent erosion.

"Of course, these are all just my guesses, but proving them is very simple—hypnosis! A deep hypnosis session allows you to delve into your own memories and cognition to determine whether the vampire personality I'm talking about exists."

Amamiya Rin proposed a verification method to Tomie, who naturally agreed without hesitation.

The two immediately moved to another location to conduct the verification.