Japanese Terrorist: What? I'll fight Hellstar!

The same voice, further reasoning, suggests it's the same person.

Such strange tales do exist.

Doppelgangers are a very famous paranormal phenomenon where a person who looks exactly like the original body appears out of thin air. When the original body sees its doppelganger, it will soon die.

It is said that Lincoln, Catherine the Great, Maupassant, and others claimed to have experienced doppelgangers during their lifetimes, and these accounts were regarded as omens of death.

In addition, doppelganger can be explained scientifically. In psychology, it is called voyeurism, a rare neuropsychological disorder in which patients see their own mirror image or clone. This symptom is often related to damage or dysfunction of the parietal or temporal lobes of the brain.

Doppelgangers have appeared in Junji Itō's manga series.

But that's not right!

Fujino Terumi's encounter was not with a doppelganger, as the doppelganger's methods of killing are different from Fujino Terumi's.

If it's not a doppelganger...

Amamiya Rin's expression slowly darkened.

He looked up at Fujino Terumi, and his focused gaze startled her.

"W-What's wrong, Lin-jun? Have you thought of something terrible?"

Fujino Terumi asked timidly.

"I considered the worst-case scenario."

Amamiya Rin scrutinized Fujino Terumi closely.

The other self lacks the physical ability to force its way into a room, as well as the spiritual ability to pass through walls. It can only bewitch through sound, but the sound does not possess any special charm—a value this low usually means that the mechanism is exceptionally powerful.

In addition, there's the characteristic of floating, and the fact that the victim is a big star.

If the supernatural phenomena that haunt Fujino Terumi originate from Junji Itō's worldview.

Therefore, Amamiya Rin couldn't help but think of the worst-case scenario.

A world-ending horror story—the human head balloon!

Amamiya Rin desperately hoped that she was overthinking things.

However, there are too many places where they match!

"Huimei, do you have a boyfriend? Do you have a best friend at school who has a younger brother?"

Amamiya Rin pressed Fujino Terumi for an answer.

"Boy friend?"

Fujino Terumi paused, then looked troubled.

"No, although I have a childhood friend who's naturally considered to be my future boyfriend, our views clash somewhat. As for my best friend... have you met Kazuko? Was she the one gossiping to you?"

As she spoke, Terumi Fujino became angry.

Knowing that Kazuko has a younger brother, this couldn't be just hearsay; Kazuko must have met Rin-kun and even mentioned Shiraishi's affairs.

"...Hehe, hehehehe..."

Amamiya Rin covered her forehead and couldn't help but laugh.

People can actually laugh when they're speechless.

Everything matches perfectly!

The idol star she saved from the vampire attack turned out to be the female protagonist's best friend who died at the beginning of "The Head Balloon".

The plot of "The Head Balloon" begins with an idol star being hanged by a steel cable outside his apartment, followed by a mass suicide of his fans.

Amamiya Rin had read a popular science article about this story, which seemed to have a real-life counterpart.

In the 80s, an idol star whose name he couldn't remember committed suicide by jumping off the roof of her company building. Hundreds of teenagers across Japan imitated her and committed suicide by jumping off buildings, creating a phenomenon known as a syndrome.

It is said that many of these suicide victims chose to jump from the same locations where their idols committed suicide, and explicitly stated in their suicide notes that they wanted to follow the deceased stars in death.

Junji Ito used this social phenomenon as a model to create "The Head Balloon".

As for the content of the comic... the deceased idol star is an important character who leads the plot. Of course, she is not the protagonist; the protagonist is her best friend.

After the death of his idol, the protagonist learns from the idol's male friend that a giant balloon with a head that looks exactly like the idol often wanders around at night.

When the protagonist went to investigate, he discovered that his male friend's head balloon had also appeared next to the idol star's head balloon, and that his male friend had hanged himself.

Afterwards, similar human-shaped balloons also appeared openly during the day.

These human-shaped balloons will hunt down the living person corresponding to them. The rope is a sturdy steel cable that will loop around the person's neck and hang them up to strangle them.

That's not the worst part. The worst part is that you can't attack the balloons. If a balloon is destroyed, the corresponding living person will also die.

Even more perplexing is that even if a person isn't hanged by the human head balloon, and the balloon isn't destroyed, the head of a living person will gradually turn into the same nylon material as the balloon.

In summary, the "human head balloon" game has three mechanisms.

First, the steel cable loop used to hang a target by the neck is normally non-constrictable, making escape easy. However, the steel cable of the human head balloon is active.

Second, the technique of "substituting one thing for another" involves linking one's own life with that of the target; if one's own life is destroyed, the target will also die.

Third, the technique of transformation of similar elements, subtly and gradually, transforms the head of the target into one's own material.

The first and second mechanisms have solutions, while the third mechanism is normally unsolvable.

(The first two mechanisms are ineffective against us, and the third mechanism... which is stronger, its transformative power or the apology demon's praise power?)

Tomie and the others were also startled by Amamiya Rin's idea, and one of Tomie immediately asked a question.

(A mechanism is a mechanism; there is no distinction between strong and weak.)

Amamiya Rin stated that he doesn't even know what the end of the universe is, so how could he know this?

Junji Ito is a horror manga artist, not a fantasy manga artist, yet he still designs power levels for the ghost stories he creates.

(Fool, what's there to be afraid of as Kawakami Tomie? Destroy the balloon, burn it clean, and let it be assimilated into hell.)

Tomie scoffed, saying that while it was a mechanism, it was only the last of the three. Before that mechanism was synchronized, all they had to do was find their own balloon and destroy it.

(Sigh, I wonder if there's only one balloon corresponding to Tomie Kawakami's head, or if there are imposters as well.)

The moment a certain thought crossed Tomie's mind, the atmosphere at [Tomie Network] immediately became tense.

If there is only one balloon with the head of Kawakami Tomie, wouldn't that mean that whoever that balloon finds is the real Kawakami Tomie, and all the others are imposters?

"Stop laughing, Lin Jun, your laughter is scaring me a little."

As Tomie and the others were discussing heatedly, Fujino Terumi noticed the strange curve of Amamiya Rin's lips and couldn't help but panic.

"Did Kazuko tell you something gossipy about me? She must have been the one to blabber, right?"

The more Fujino Terumi thought about it, the more she realized it made sense, and a feeling of embarrassment and annoyance welled up inside her.

"Don't listen to what others say. If you want to know about me, you can ask me directly. I won't hide anything from you! So, don't look at me like that, as if you know some big secret that even I don't know."