Japanese Terrorist: What? I'll fight Hellstar!

Amamiya Rin sheathed his sword and let out a long breath.

My heart was pounding in my chest, my arm muscles were trembling slightly from overexertion, and I was experiencing a ringing in my ears that sounded like auditory hallucinations.

It took him several minutes to recover.

Although Tomie's head had rolled to the ground, her face still retained a kind of bestial ferocity, with sharp teeth exposed, her eyes wide open, and her scarlet pupils locked on Amamiya Rin's direction, as if she wanted to tear him apart with her gaze.

Even after the body was severed from its head, the instinctive ferocity had not completely dissipated.

Amamiya Rin dropped his katana, stepped forward, and reached out to cup Tomie's head in his hands. His lips almost touched her earlobe, and he adjusted his tone slightly, pressing his voice slowly into hers.

"Now, listen to me."

The hot breath brushed against her earlobe.

"You should have heard it, heard my voice."

Tomie's breath caught in her throat for a moment, even though her lungs were no longer in place.

"Listen carefully to this voice, this is my voice, remember this voice, remember—Amamiya Rin..."

Amamiya Rin's voice was like a rope probing into a deep pool, trying to connect with Tomie's self, which was overwhelmed by violent instincts.

He guided her little by little, trying to find a gap in the familiarity of their earlier exchange—the sword paths she had witnessed and even experienced herself countless times, the almost instinctive understanding accumulated in the long entanglement of dreams.

He patiently lured his image out from the deepest part of her mind, from that area covered by bestiality.

Tomie's eyes were still wide open, but the aggressive focus deep within her pupils began to dilate and tremble slightly, like ripples spreading across a calm lake after a pebble has broken the surface.

"So, who are you? Who is the one who shares life and death with Amamiya Rin? Who is the person closest to Amamiya Rin? Who is the one destined to spend the rest of their life with Amamiya Rin? An unbreakable bond, an indelible curse—two people connected by this relationship, one is me, named Amamiya Rin, and who is the other?"

Tomie's breathing began to become heavy and irregular, with pauses as if she were struggling to think.

In her wide-open eyes, the murky, bestial quality was being stirred up by something more complex.

"Thinking, recalling, clearing away the hazy confusion, I remember who you really are, I remember your name—Tomie Kawakami!"

A few seconds of silence.

"...Stop making so much noise! ​​You idiot!"

Tomie's facial muscles began to twitch slightly, her distorted features gradually receded, her fangs slowly disappeared, and the bloodshot veins in her eyes faded.

"Take me back quickly! This looks terrible!"

She blinked, and when she opened her eyes again, they were filled with a familiar arrogance.

Amamiya Rin finally breathed a sigh of relief.

He placed Tomie's head back onto her headless neck, and the moment the two overlapped, the flesh and skin rapidly wriggled and connected.

Within seconds, the neck was completely healed, leaving only a barely visible red mark that quickly faded away.

Tomie raised her hand and touched her undamaged neck. Then she grabbed Amamiya Rin's arm and used the leverage to straighten up. She twisted her neck left and right, and moved her shoulders and arms to confirm that her body had fully returned to normal.

"How does it feel?"

Amamiya Rin let her pull him along, and only asked when she stopped.

"What else can we do?"

Tomie rolled her eyes at him, let go of his hand, and instead used her fingers to comb her somewhat messy and tangled long hair.

"Being beheaded is not a pleasant experience. You feel dizzy, your vision blurs, and you can't even utter a proper curse."

She straightened her hair, crossed her arms, and her expression became slightly more serious.

"However, your guess is correct; it is indeed a cognitive issue."

She paused for a moment, as if organizing her thoughts and recalling the experience of her consciousness floating up and down.

From being hypnotized, to falling asleep, to liberating oneself, and then gradually waking up.

During that process, Tomie sensed another personality within her brain.

It wasn't something particularly hidden; it was her understanding and impression of vampires. After she fell asleep, that impression and understanding became active again, giving rise to the idea that she herself was a vampire.

"Killing, drinking blood, bleeding, bathing in blood, and staying young forever—this image suddenly emerged in my consciousness, replacing my original consciousness and taking control of this body. Then, when you cut my neck and hypnotized me to awaken me, the small part of my consciousness, which was mostly composed of bloodthirsty and crazy instincts, slowly awakened, gradually remembering what kind of person I really was, giving the raging vampire a name—Tomie Kawakami."

Tomie's description and Amamiya Rin's analysis are basically consistent.

"Just as I analyzed, it turned out..."

Amamiya Rin muttered to herself.

There are many versions of vampires, but Tomie's transformation into a vampire undoubtedly conforms to the underlying logic of Junji Ito's worldview...

No! This is not just the underlying logic of Junji Ito's worldview, but also the underlying logic of Japanese horror.

Just like living beings, many of the various monsters in Japanese horror are transformed from humans. Even if a person is not dead, extreme emotions such as resentment can turn them into a monster.

As a Japanese horror manga artist, Junji Ito's works naturally reflect this perception.

"Extreme emotions... a distorted perception of self... perhaps also compounded by collective impressions projected from others..."

Amamiya Rin muttered to himself, his thoughts racing. He had figured out how the ghost stories were structured and was beginning to have some inspiration.

Perhaps...maybe...he can use this line of thought to create ghost stories, or rather, to create a kind ghost story about a beautiful young man in white, and in the form of a living person.

This idea is too bold and full of unknown risks, but it is indeed feasible to some extent.

However... it's a bit too hasty to consider these things now.

He temporarily suppressed his turbulent thoughts and brought his attention back to the present moment.

"Tomie, how are you feeling right now? What's the situation regarding that vampire's power?"

Amamiya Rin raised her head and pressed Tomie for an answer.

"Hmph hmph hmph!"

Tomie's lips curled up uncontrollably, forming a smile with a hint of madness. Her beautiful eyes shone brightly, as if flames were burning deep within her pupils. Her posture unconsciously became strange, and she announced in a high-pitched tone.

"Cows eat grass, Tomie eats steak, and I eat Tomie... Eating Tomie is the true essence of Kawakami Tomie!"

"Have you already mastered that power?"

Her declaration was somewhat disjointed, but Amamiya Rin could understand the unspoken meaning behind it.

She will become a vampire, feeding on other Tomies, devouring all the Tomies, and becoming the only Kawakami Tomie!

Could it be that... Tomie had this plan from the very beginning, but had been concealing it through hypnotic suggestion techniques, only revealing the surface thoughts to other Tomies?

"That's right! Once the vampire personality realized she was Kawakami Tomie, she was immediately assimilated by me. Now, Kawakami Tomie is a vampire, and a vampire is Kawakami Tomie. I can transform into a vampire with just a change of mind! And that's not all..."

Her skin lost its color at a visible rate, turning as cold and pale as fine porcelain.

The once neatly trimmed nails silently extended and sharpened, gleaming with a cold, metallic sheen in the dim light.

The jawline is slightly elongated, the cheekbones are more prominent, and the entire skull vaguely presents a fierce structure resembling that of a bat.

At the same time, the two canines in the upper jaw pierced the flesh of the lip, revealing their stark white tips.

He now looks exactly like a vampire, just as he did before.

But... things are still changing!

Tomie closed her eyes, her brows furrowing slightly as if she were concentrating, while the inhuman features on her face gradually disappeared.

The prominent cheekbones gradually receded, and the elongated jawline gradually narrowed, restoring its original delicate and beautiful curve. As a characteristic of vampires, only sharp fangs remained.

She opened her eyes, and the pale gold in the depths of her pupils mixed with blood, radiating an undisguised, eerie madness.

"That's more like it. A bat face? It's too ugly and doesn't fit my aesthetic. A vampire named Tomie Kawakami should look like this."

Amamiya Rin was silent for a few seconds, then said with some surprise, "So... you're using your own understanding to forcibly modify and fix the form of vampires? To make the form of vampires look the way you imagine them to be?"

Is this even possible?

No, I shouldn't think that way. I should say, "Indeed, it can be like this!"

Amamiya Rin became even more certain of her analysis and conclusions.

"That's right."

Tomie laughed, her strangely beautiful face filled with arrogance.

"Since the underlying logic of vampire transformation is cognition, then why can Elizabeth and my cognition turn me into a bat monster, but I can't turn that bat monster into the vampire I want? I believe my vampire form should be like this—powerful, beautiful, dangerous, and unique. So, it has to be like this!"

Domineering and arrogant, and genuinely so, even though the original Tomie Kawakami was just like that.

But today's Tomie Kawakami has developed a touch of madness, a madness born of power.

"Putting aside looks, what about ability?"

However, Amamiya Rin didn't care about such trivial matters at all.

Strength is fundamental; as for appearance?

He had long ago realized that form is emptiness, and emptiness is form, but unfortunately, Tomie and the others had not yet realized it, nor did they want to.

After all, if they truly understood, they would no longer be Kawakami Tomie, and I would no longer need to worry about being assimilated and influenced by them.

"You are really incredibly boring."

Tomie raised the corners of her eyes, looking at Amamiya Rin with displeasure.

Having spent so much time together, to put it bluntly, she could tell what Amamiya Rin was up to the moment he bent over, and naturally, she could also discern his thoughts.

"My strength is about five times that of normal, my hearing has also improved, and my skin can absorb blood as nutrients to enhance my vitality."

However, despite her displeasure, Tomie still explained her abilities.

"It doesn't feel like it's improved much."

Upon hearing this, Amamiya Rin showed a disappointed expression.

The increase in strength is not bad, but with the pressure gym, this level of improvement is not much. Although the strength of the modified Tomie is not yet five times that of the normal Tomie, it is about the same.

As for hearing, his strength lies in perception, so improving his hearing would only be icing on the cake.

Absorbing blood as nutrients to enhance vitality? Tomie already possessed this ability; she could even parasitize others, bite her target, and indirectly absorb their life force, turning them into a dried-up corpse.

Huh? If that's the case, then Tomie is a vampire?

"It's different!"

Tomie quickly retorted, she didn't want to appear in Amamiya Rin's eyes as a fool who had put in a lot of effort but achieved nothing.

"I can also control my blood! Yes! Absorption is a form of control, and I can further control the circulation of blood within my body, for example... like this!"

Before she finished speaking, Tomie stepped forward with her right leg!

"Bang!"

The floor beneath her feet made a dull thud, and her figure blurred for a moment before disappearing from her spot and reappearing behind Amamiya Rin.

Its speed was astonishing; although it was not as fast as the Slit-Mouthed Woman, it had already surpassed Amamiya Rin's reaction speed in his normal state.

"See that? I can accelerate local blood flow, temporarily boosting explosive power by directing blood flow to specific parts of the body. It's like injecting super-high-octane fuel into an engine, doubling the power, and even pushing the brain's neural reaction speed beyond the limits of the human body. This is just a preliminary attempt. With continued training and improved control precision, I can come up with many more tricks."

Tomie turned around, crossed her arms over her chest, and raised her chin.

Amamiya Rin nodded slightly.

Ultimately, it's just a simple increase in power, without any supernatural development.

In terms of pure strength, who can compare to Tomie with meat-based build?

However, although that's what she thought in her heart, on the surface Amamiya Rin didn't dampen Tomie's enthusiasm, but instead gave her positive affirmation.

In the dream world, time flows at a speed completely different from that of reality.

Day after day, year after year, Yu Gonglin's life was steeped in long periods of sweat and repetitive beating sounds.

Straight punch, hook punch, uppercut; probing, pressuring, counter-attacking.

Through thousands of repetitions and real combat, until every punch became instinctive, he honed his boxing skills to a professional level.

At the same time, he did not neglect his swordsmanship training.

Swordsmanship is the key; there's a huge gap between unarmed combat and wielding weapons. Fist techniques are only used when there are no weapons.

While Amamiya Rin was honing his craft, the different Tomie's were also delving into their respective research topics.

A group of Tomie are immersed in the vast ocean of biological science, although the profound knowledge is all in the laboratory, papers, and professors' oral accounts.

However, the knowledge systems in fields such as medicine, cell biology, molecular biology, developmental biology, neurobiology, and bioengineering are too vast and profound. Even the textbooks they can access contain enough knowledge for them to spend decades studying in depth.

Through years of research, they have gradually deepened their understanding of cells and enhanced their precise control over bodily division.

To deepen her control over her blood, Tomie, a vampire, joined a study group. The group's research topics included the alchemy of the Paracelsus system, and they achieved some success.

Another group of Tomie works with mechanical and chemical formulas. In Tomie's view of weaponry, the human body has its limits, and no matter how much it is polished, it can never compare to steel that has been forged through countless hammerings.

While Tomie's physical strength is formidable, the exoskeleton power armor is undoubtedly stronger, and the firepower of guns and cannons is certainly superior to martial arts.