Japanese Terrorist: What? I'll fight Hellstar!

"Sound... If it's sound... There are no ifs! Whatever power is at work, the way it's expressed and the medium it's mediated is sound... There is indeed a story in Junji Itō's manga series that focuses on sound and mentions how to deal with sound."

Amamiya Rin's pen paused on the paper as he carefully recalled the content of the comics he had read in his previous life.

"It's... 'The Last Song of Music'!"

In "The Last Song," after a female singer breaks up with her boyfriend, he commits suicide by slitting his throat. However, his spirit refuses to let her go and keeps singing love songs about reconciliation in her mind.

The female singer, unable to bear the torment any longer, releases the voice from her brain through singing. Those who hear the song can never escape it—given enough time to develop, it could become a global curse, just like the Dissolve series. All it needs is a large enough stage for all of humanity to hear her voice.

The female singer sought help from a research institute that studies noise. The scientists at the institute were researching technologies to combat various types of noise, and one of them had independently developed a technology that uses sound to eliminate sound.

Simply put, it's active noise cancellation, but it's more futuristic and magical than active noise cancellation.

However, the scientist did manage to neutralize the ghostly voice in the female singer's brain, but the ghost's voice frequency changed too quickly and eventually materialized into tangible energy, creating a hole in the female singer's forehead.

In other words, it wasn't that the technology was ineffective, but rather that the ghost actively altered its sound waves, thus defeating the scientists' technology.

"If we can obtain this technology and optimize it, as long as the demon doesn't personally intervene, the success rate in fighting Azawa Yuuma won't be too low."

Amamiya Rin muttered to herself, quickly writing down keywords in her notebook.

Not only the Dissolving series, but also the Demon Sound Village, where the demon controls humans using sound waves. Are all these demons using the same tactics?

Oh, and there's also Siren! Junji Ito even drew a manga about Siren!

What else involves sound? Vintage records? Theories of the Devil?

If this technology can be mastered, the strangeness of the sound wave type and the danger will decrease by 50%.

It's not 100% effective because being able to cancel out sound waves doesn't mean it can deal with the ghosts and demons that create them.

"However, at least there is a solution..."

Amamiya Rin picked up a black coffee and gulped down two large mouthfuls. His eyes were dark-rimmed, but his emotions became unusually excited.

Tossing the empty can aside, Amamiya Rin subconsciously picked up her phone, wanting to use her connections with Kazemi Junya to investigate whether there were any research institutes in the Tokyo metropolitan area that studied noise.

However, when Amamiya Rin picked up his phone, he suddenly realized what was happening.

It's around 3 a.m. now. How could I possibly get a response if I call Kazemi Junya?

"I was so anxious that I lost my mind."

Amamiya Rin put down his phone, rubbed his forehead, and looked exhausted.

Having not rested for too long, coupled with the experiences of these days, he found it difficult to maintain his usual rationality and calmness outside of meditation.

He absolutely must get some sleep tonight, otherwise his body definitely won't be able to hold on.

Amamiya Rin lay down, slowly adjusting her breathing to reduce mental fatigue and maintain her clarity, while also reflecting on her experiences over the past few days.

Those past fragments unfolded in my mind like falling petals, rippling across the lake of my heart before gradually calming down.

"All conditioned things are impermanent, and all phenomena are without self; thus should you contemplate them."

Seeing the truth of suffering amidst bloodshed, and observing the illusion amidst love and hate, the previous practice of contemplation mostly involved observing the rise and fall of one's own thoughts and cutting off the disturbances of distracting thoughts.

Now, having personally witnessed the impermanence of birth and death, my wisdom has finally deepened.

Time passed second by second, and the sky outside the window gradually changed from inky black to grayish white, and was finally completely soaked by the dawn.

Sunlight streamed through the gaps in the blinds, casting bright bands of light on the ward floor, while dust particles in the air floated slowly within the beams of light.

Amamiya Rin opened his eyes, which were bloodshot. He rubbed his throbbing temples and propped himself up on his arms to sit up.

I picked up my phone and glanced at it; it was already past seven in the morning.

After having breakfast, undergoing rehabilitation training through the functional electrical stimulation system, and resting for a while, Amamiya Rin dialed Kazemi Junya's phone number.

The Public Security Bureau is located on the fifth basement level.

In the spacious office, Feng Haichun sat at his workstation, writing a report on the previous case.

Ranko Inudo, the head of the editorial department, is also watching the horse racing live broadcast intently today. Does she really have any thoughts about work?

Looking up at her superior not far away, Feng Haichun sighed.

Just then, the phone rang, and the name displayed on the screen made Feng Haichun pause slightly—Yu Gonglin.

Why is it him again? Has some supernatural event happened to Amamiya Rin yet?

"Senior Feng Hai?"

Kogure, sitting opposite, looked over curiously.

"It's Amamiya."

While explaining the situation to Kogure, Kazemi Junya picked up his phone and answered a call.

"Amamiya-kun, what's going on today?"

"Officer Feng Hai, any progress on the dissolution incident?"

Amamiya Rin's voice came through the phone.

"Uh... Inspector Inudo has already reported the information you provided, and it's still in the verification stage."

"So slow."

"There's no other way. According to the file, the risk of taking direct action is too great. For now, we can only conduct an investigation and gather intelligence from various sources to confirm whether Yuuma Azawa has a penchant for apologizing and whether the victims who died from brain dissolution received an apology from Yuuma Azawa before we can make contact with him."

Feng Haijun also looked helpless.

He also wanted to immediately formulate a useful countermeasure and issue a policy to deal with it, but the development of the situation and the operation of government agencies would not change because of his personal will.

"...Regarding dissolution, I've found a solution, and I hope you can work on it together."

After a few seconds of silence, Amamiya Rin got straight to the point.

"Any new intelligence?"

Feng Haichun asked with surprise and uncertainty.

According to his investigation, Amamiya Rin came to Tokyo from out of town to study a month ago, and was hit by a car and became a vegetable shortly after arriving in Tokyo. He only recently woke up. Why would he have more information than these official organizations?

"Not exactly intelligence, just a thought process: since Azawa Yuuma's curse travels through sound, could we use noise reduction techniques to cancel out his voice?"

"That's impossible, isn't it? You can't expect people to wear noise-canceling headphones every day."

"There is a place that can do it. I've heard of a research institute that specializes in noise research, and they're working on a technology to create sound waves that can cancel out specific sound waves. It might be useful. But I've only heard of it; I don't know the specific name."

Although the name was mentioned in the manga, so much time had passed that Amamiya Rin had long forgotten it, and he was also unsure which city the research institute was located in.