Japanese Terrorist: What? I'll fight Hellstar!

Kayako stared intently at Amamiya Rin with bloodshot eyes.

She understood.

She understood what was in Yu Gonglin's eyes—that all-encompassing compassion, the natural expression of Bodhicitta, the universal compassion that covers all beings.

Therefore, Kayako became angry.

The flames of anger burned Kayako's heart like the saliva of a venomous dragon.

What is compassion then?

Feigned sympathy? Hypocritical pity? Apathetic sorrow that doesn't concern oneself? A condescending regret?

Why? Why do you pity me? Why do you feel sorry for me? Why do you look at me with those eyes, pitying my body, which is soaked with pain and resentment?

"Giggle...giggle..."

The guttural sound became sharp, no longer a monotonous sound, but a question mixed with endless resentment, directly intruding into Amamiya Rin's brain.

What do you know?

Do you know what it feels like to be ignored, swept into a corner like dust?

Do you know what it feels like when even breathing feels superfluous?

You...someone who is needed and loved...why do you pity me?!

Resentment, like tangible sewage, overwhelmed Amamiya Rin's consciousness.

As Amamiya Rin's consciousness continued to sink, the surrounding scenery began to shatter, and the environment was replaced by another place.

Suddenly, a sharp pain shot through my lower back, then my back, and the back of my head slammed hard against the hard floor. Everything went black, and I heard a man's rough roar as my hair was violently pulled and my scalp felt like it was being torn apart.

He opened his eyes.

Before me stood a man with thinning hair and a ferocious face—Takeo Saeki.

Amamiya Rin had seen this person in the files of the Police History Compilation Office; he was the perpetrator and victim of the murder case at the Saeki family's residence.

Amamiya Rin tried to move, but found that her hands were tied behind her back, the rough ropes digging into her wrists, the other end of which was tied to the heavy bed leg, and her mouth was full of rusty-tasting blood.

His gaze swept downwards and he saw a white dress stained with blood. Blood flowed from her chest to her abdomen, the hem of her skirt rolled up to her thighs, her right knee was scraped and bleeding, and her left leg was twisted at an unnatural angle. Warm blood flowed into her eyes, making him want to blink.

However, Amamiya Rin was unable to move.

At that moment, he became aware of the current situation.

This is Kayako's memory, or rather, Kayako's past; she poured her consciousness into the moment of her death.

"Alright, Kayako, tell me?"

Saeki Takeo crouched down, his bloodshot eyes fixed on Kayako.

"Whose child is Toshio?"

Before he could finish speaking, Takeo Saeki's right hand slammed down hard.

His face was turned to one side by the blow, and the blood that hadn't dried on his forehead splattered out. His left eye was then hit by a heavy punch, the soft cracking of bones clearly audible inside his skull, and his vision was instantly filled with excruciating pain.

Amamiya Rin remained silent, enduring the malice and pain imposed upon her.

"It's always like this! Do you think you can get away with it by pretending you don't know?!"

Saeki Takeo roared and rained down punches and kicks.

He was hit hard in the abdomen, and stomach acid mixed with blood and foam rushed to his throat. His back slammed against the hard bed leg, and his hair was pulled up violently, causing a tearing pain to his scalp.

Amamiya Rin clearly felt every bit of pain.

The burning pain in the flesh, the sound of bones cracking, the coldness of blood flowing away.

Feel the fear, helplessness, and deep-seated resentment that Kayako felt at that time.

He did not resist this feeling; under the bright light of his true nature, the pain became even clearer.

At the same time, he heard a woman's voice in his head saying, "Got it?"

That was Kayako's voice.

"I am in so much pain, so sad, so miserable... You should understand now, right?"

That was a cathartic outpouring of questions and resentment.

"I've lived in pain since I was born. I've been ignored, forgotten, and unwanted... like a tiny insect living under a roadside stone... Let me show you! Let you taste the suffering I've endured!"

The fist struck his jaw squarely, his teeth bit his tongue, and his mouth was filled with a metallic taste. Saeki Takeo grabbed the long hair, forcing Amamiya Rin to tilt her head back, and the cold glint of a folding knife flashed before his eyes.

"Do you understand now the pain of being ignored, forgotten, and constantly told that you don't need me?"

As the folding knife swung down, a scalding pain arose with the cold touch, and blood splattered out.

"The pain of being ignored, forgotten, and forever told you're unnecessary... Do you understand even a little bit now?"

Life slipped away with the flow of blood, and Amamiya Rin's breathing became weak.

"No! How could you possibly understand? A man like you... intelligent, handsome, healthy, strong-willed, confident, and proud, radiating kindness and compassion like the sun, how could you possibly understand my feelings? Absolutely not!"

Kayako's voice was filled with obsessive resentment.

Of all human emotions, hatred is the only one that can fundamentally and persistently have a strong impact on human beings.

What can be proven is that two thousand years of blood feuds have been repeatedly burning on the sandy land of the Middle East, and the curse passed down through generations has taken root in the whispers of mothers to their infants.

In the shadow of the Balkans in the fourteenth century, the descendants of those forced to convert turned the wounds of their faith into an unhealed stab between ethnic groups, tearing them open again in the memories of each generation.

During the Edo period, the Eta and the Inhumans were deliberately molded by the system into vessels that gathered all hatred, providing sinners to whom the anger and resentment of ordinary people could be vented.

Deep in the forests of Uganda, people of the same blood turn against each other with knives, fueled by fabricated boundaries and distorted memories…

Human history is, in fact, a history of hatred.

Love is so fragile and fleeting, only hate can remain sharp and fresh across centuries.

It can unite scattered sand, give cowards the strength to wield their swords, and unleash the heat to burn everything from the humblest soul. It is the true power, the ever-flowing crimson pulse of this land.

So, hate! Now is the time to hate. You must hate a certain person or thing because of that.

The scent of death was overwhelming; the body's despair and fear drowned out every sense, yet it could not reverse the arrival of that moment.

A deeper sense of detachment is taking place.

Consciousness seemed to float away, detaching from the dying body; the five senses were like faulty circuits, with signals coming and going intermittently.

The world is fading, sounds are fading, and physical pain is gradually becoming detached, as if separated by thick frosted glass.

Amamiya Rin felt an extreme chill, not from the cold wind blowing in from the outside, but from a chill that seeped into his very bones.

The warmth of life is rapidly draining away, like sand in an hourglass, flowing away irreversibly. The body becomes heavy, stiff, and no longer belongs to itself.

Thoughts are like sinking into quagmire, slowly solidifying, dull and lingering, with only resentment remaining around.

Admit it... You should hate too! Hate this world, hate those who hurt, ignore, and take away what you cherish... Like me, like millions of others! Hate it all, despise it all. When one person suffers misfortune, another must have found happiness, and their happiness is built on your misfortune.

The swirling mire of resentment boiled and surged, attempting to drag Amamiya Rin's spirit into an abyss of pain and despair.

But all this resentment, flowing through his mind, did not arouse any fear, resistance, or hatred in Amamiya Rin personally.

They are clearly reflected and fully accepted, like rivers flowing into the sea, merging into that understanding and compassion for suffering itself that transcends personal joy and sorrow.

The light of one's true nature illuminates a lamp in the heart.

All beings suffer, and Amamiya Rin saw all this suffering. He also fully accepted all the hardships that Kayako experienced and felt her despair every single moment.

His compassion never wavered. His mind remained clear and lucid.

Without hatred, without resentment, without anger, without fear.

Because he saw the cause of this suffering: Takeo Saeki's obsession and violence, Kayako's twisted obsession and the severing of communication, Shunsuke Kobayashi's unintentional mistake, and—even earlier, in a deeper depth, the intertwining of the attachments and karma of all beings in this impermanent world.

(I understand, Kayako. I understand your pain, your resentment, your loneliness. It is precisely because I understand that I find it all the more tragic, and it is precisely because I understand that I am unwilling to hate.)

Amamiya Rin's lips twitched slightly, but it wasn't a smile; rather, it was an understanding and acceptance, a natural expression of compassion after breaking through all obstacles and purifying all karmic defilements.

(Resentment serves no purpose other than prolonging suffering, forging a more desperate prison, and turning oneself into an eternal jailer and prisoner. Fighting hatred with hatred is a never-ending cycle. Rather than allowing oneself to sink into a chain of resentment, why not take action?)

In Yu Gonglin's heart, the light of his true nature became warm and vast, like the rising sun quietly emerging in the dark night. It was not dazzling, but carried a gentle power that could melt the hardest ice, spreading out silently.

(Whether you accept resentment or break the chain of resentment, as long as you move forward with that belief, you will one day say goodbye to suffering, even if that day is far away, perhaps never to be reached, or perhaps it is an unknown detour. After all, we are not omniscient and omnipotent gods or Buddhas, and we cannot see the distant future. But as long as we are moving forward with every step, as long as we can see the present, as long as we know that we are on the path we are practicing, that is enough.)

Saeki Takeo's hideous and twisted face, his arm wielding a weapon, and even the entire tyrannical illusion, were like a thin mist exposed to the midday sun, melting away inch by inch in the light and turning into nothingness.

Amamiya Rin opened her eyes.

The illusion fades, and reality returns.

He remained standing at the top of the stairs on the first floor of the Saeki house, his posture unchanged. The katana was in his hand, his breathing steady. There were no wounds, no bloodstains; the white dress and the excruciating pain seemed like a vivid dream.

His vision refocused, and the first thing that caught his eye was a face so close it was almost touching his nose.

Coconut.

She stood halfway down the stairs in a position with her joints twisted in the opposite direction, her bloodshot eyes staring straight at him, so close that he could see the murky blood vessels in her pupils and the bluish-black veins under her skin.

Through the gaps in her black hair, her swollen, bloodshot eyes no longer held pure resentment, but rather a mixture of intense bewilderment and incomprehension.

She seemed to still be immersed in the painful memories she had created, not having completely broken free, and even less able to understand Amamiya Rin's reaction.

Why didn't he hate? Why didn't he succumb to hatred and die as she wished?

She made him experience her deepest pain and resentment.

She tried to use this pain as a seed to plant the same malice in his heart, to incite his hatred for the living, for injustice, for the happy, and for the whole world.

Just like she had done to another victim.

But... no.

There was nothing there.

Deep within that man's consciousness, after being washed away by all her painful memories, not only did no seeds of resentment sprout, but that space of compassion and clarity became even clearer.

That compassion is not ignorant sympathy, nor is it the pity of a foolish, saintly mother. Rather, it is the understanding and tolerance that one chooses even after knowing all the cruelty.

And this was more unbearable for her than any resistance!

She doesn't understand! Nor does she want to understand; she genuinely rejects such a person and such a mindset.

Just then—

"Hey! I'm telling you! You two... you really are in cahoots, aren't you!"

Ah Gei's sharp voice came from downstairs, breaking the strange stalemate.

She had just witnessed the strange light emanating from Amamiya Rin and then saw Kayako crawl out to confront him, so she naturally categorized them as accomplices.

Anger and a sense of shame at being fooled made her lose her last bit of patience.

She held back, the air around her distorted violently, and more living beings surged out from her body.

However, this time, she didn't let them rush up in a scattered manner.

White phantoms converged, compressed, and merged in the air.

Dozens, hundreds, and countless beings were forcibly molded together as if by an invisible mold. A large number of beings were forcibly compressed into one, and its color changed from translucent pale to solid, like a mass of over-compressed fluorescent matter, emitting a heart-palpitating spiritual pressure fluctuation.

Age rarely does this. Although his immense soul power is comparable to that of a country, when he releases it, it is always a large number of individual beings, not a whole formed by all the power.

If asked why, she didn't understand either; it was probably due to a lack of willpower and focus, resulting in insufficient control. She couldn't unleash her full power at once, causing the released beings to be too scattered.

She had never encountered an enemy that even thousands of living beings couldn't defeat, and those enemies usually wouldn't attack her with the intention of killing her, since she would be more dangerous if she were dead.

However, although she did not encounter any particularly terrifying threats, it does not mean that she did not try to concentrate her power more.

Because she had never received proper spiritual training, her result was the forced fusion of the released beings.

At this moment, the even more solidified being, dragging a tail formed by countless other beings, rushed up the stairs like a giant, its gigantic fists simultaneously covering both Amamiya Rin and Kayako.

Kayako's empty, bewildered gaze was instantly replaced by rage.

Whether she understood Amamiya Rin or not, the attack from outside was a blatant provocation that triggered her instinctive malice as a cursed being.