Chapter 885: Night Parade of One Hundred Demons (26)
"Why?" Hayafune Chizuru stood there, without turning around, and just raised her doubts: "Why did you do this? Haven't we only met a few times?"
After the previous battle and a sleepless night, Inuyama Heita was already a little weak and tired, but he still forced himself to answer Chizuru Hayafune's question: "There is no why. I said that I am no longer the weak kid I was back then. During these days, I met a very important person who taught me many things, and I also experienced a lot.
This made me understand that sometimes you don't need too many reasons, you just need to follow your heart and do it. You saved me, so I want to save you too, there is no other reason, just like you can't stand the despair of others, so you will help them. "
Chizuru Hayafune sighed quietly: "Just like me? Even if you saw the real me?"
She turned around, and the black mess on her face had disappeared, but the horrifying thing was that there was nothing on her face, no eyes, no nose or mouth, it was clean, like a piece of white paper.
Inuyama Heita was not frightened by this scene, but said solemnly: "Nobibo, the monster in the Night Parade of One Hundred Demons, has a human body but no face. Ichi, you really are..."
Because the enemy is known as the "Hundred Demons", Inuyama Heita will of course get some relevant information. The image of the so-called Nobibo often appears in various Japanese ghost stories. Most of them are about passers-by who meet a woman crying with her back to them on the road, so they go up to ask. Then the woman turns her head, and the passers-by realize that this is a faceless monster, and they flee in fear.
This legend of the faceless woman has existed from ancient times to the present day, and there have been various versions and adaptations, which can be said to be enduring.
Chizuru Hayafune, who had no face, looked at Heita Inuyama quietly: "You don't seem surprised at all?"
Inuyama Heita clenched his fists: "No, on the contrary, your current appearance confirms the speculation of Brother Otoko and the others... I said before that I know you are a test subject imitating the [Cursed Witch] Miss Terao Keiko, but that witch is not an ordinary person. Her experience and talent are unique, so..."
Therefore, Qian Xiaoyi and his colleagues speculated that in order to imitate the witch, they would have to experiment again and again to verify the effect. However, this is a modern society, and at that time the Hundred Ghosts were still in their early stages of establishment. It was absolutely impossible for them to kidnap children as test subjects in a big way as they did later.
Then, a sample that can be repeated in the experiment is necessary. So Amahara Mari, who cooperated with the Hundred Demons, contributed her own daughter at this time.
Although Qian Xiaoyi and the others did not discuss it in detail at the time, Inuyama Heita could imagine the cruelty of this experiment. To completely imitate Keiko Terao's ability, one must have the same personality as her. The personality of the experimental sample would be completely destroyed and erased over and over again. Only in this way could the ideal effect be achieved in the end.
This was also one of the inferences that Qian Xiaoyi and his team had come up with after discussing it. Now, Inuyama Heita had witnessed with his own eyes that this inference was correct, and there was an inexplicable burning of anger in his heart.
"Since you know all this," Chizuru Hayafune asked, "then you should also know that all my actions are not my own choice, right? I didn't want to save you, and my nature is not that kind. I don't sympathize with others. Those are just disguises. Only in this way can I withstand the huge power like that lady. As you can see, without the shackles of those things, the real me is nothingness. I am not the Chizuru Hayafune you see, nor am I a saint. I am just [One]."
Inuyama Heita stretched out his hand: "What does it matter? I want to save you. It's my own choice. It has nothing to do with you!"
"What a rude person you are." The faceless Hayafune Chizuru stretched out her hand: "I hope you don't regret your choice."
The two held hands together.
From this moment on, the entire ghostland has undergone earth-shaking changes. Inuyama Heita tasted the despair of many people when he was attacked. There was social discrimination, unfair treatment, crazy jealousy, and powerlessness oppressed by family and rules...
Although the sources of despair are different, they all come from the outside world. They are the various colorful emotions that one has about the outside world, and then mixed together to become a thick, dark color that is so heavy that it makes people breathless. This weight is greater than the happiness brought by life, so they feel pain and want to seek relief.
If life is good, who would want to die? But Chizuru Hayafune's despair is just the opposite. If we use colors to describe it as before, her despair is white, pure white, without a trace of pollution.
——She had no desire to live at all. No, she didn’t even have a self. After the huge power of despair faded away, her world was left with only this blank space.
"Is this your despair? One." Inuyama Heita murmured. He could not even feel his own existence.
"Yes, this is my despair." The disembodied voice of Chizuru Hayafune came: "If you can do it, please take me out."
This space has no size, no up, down, left, or right, and no sense of direction. Most importantly, this means that Inuyama Heita doesn't know what to do. He doesn't know how to go, where to go, or how to move...
Time seemed to cease to exist here. Inuyama Heita only felt that his consciousness was stretched to an extremely long length. Perhaps only a few seconds had passed, or perhaps days or months had passed... This place was driving him crazy!
But he must find the direction and go out! This is the final battle. He can't let down Jian, can't let down others, and can't let down Chizuru Hayafune who believed in him. He must return to the real world successfully with this blank despair!
"I must... move forward..." Thinking this, Inuyama Heita had only this one thought in his mind, and he began to walk aimlessly, even though he couldn't even feel himself.
But this was doomed to be futile, as this place was too vast. Or perhaps he had not taken even a single step forward, as even the concept of space no longer existed.
After "walking" like this for an unknown amount of time, Inuyama Heita began to be assimilated by this piece of pure white nothingness, and he began to forget his own existence.
"No! I can't fall here." Inuyama Heita was a little terrified: "I can't forget my identity. I am Inuyama Heita, a high school student and a psychic. I was persecuted by the Hope Cult and became [Ninety-Nine]. I am a real person and I can't forget, I can't forget..."
He kept recalling his identity, but the more he emphasized his identity, the more he felt that those things were meaningless. Once he abandoned these things, who would he be?
"Yes, you're right. Once I abandon these names, what will I be?" Finally, he stopped in confusion, and nothingness slowly enveloped him, wanting him to become a part of this place.
He squatted down and began to think, is this really meaningful? Is his behavior just a forced self-touching? Is it really worth it to save this woman whom he has only met a few times? She herself doesn't want to live anymore, and in the end, even Mr. Jian...
He slowly began to feel that it didn't matter, nothing mattered, because he had lost his coordinates in reality, and everything was judged from the perspective of a more [objective] spectator. From the perspective of the universe, these things were too small and humble, so humble that they made people feel bored.
"So annoying..." He lay on the ground somewhat listlessly, looking at the pale sky, muttering: "I understand how she feels, so that's how it is, so that's how it is... Then there is really no need to continue, whether it's Inuyama Heita or Jiujiu, they only bring me pain, so I might as well just give up."
Yes, he didn't want to find himself again, because those selves did not bring him happiness and hope, but only annoying troubles.
The moment he had this thought, he seemed to have really forgotten his name.
He muttered to himself in confusion: "Who...who am I?"
"——Heitaro, you are Heitaro!" a voice responded to him.
Suzuki finally squeezed out of the crowd, knelt in front of Inuyama Heita, and answered him.
(End of this chapter)
"Why?" Hayafune Chizuru stood there, without turning around, and just raised her doubts: "Why did you do this? Haven't we only met a few times?"
After the previous battle and a sleepless night, Inuyama Heita was already a little weak and tired, but he still forced himself to answer Chizuru Hayafune's question: "There is no why. I said that I am no longer the weak kid I was back then. During these days, I met a very important person who taught me many things, and I also experienced a lot.
This made me understand that sometimes you don't need too many reasons, you just need to follow your heart and do it. You saved me, so I want to save you too, there is no other reason, just like you can't stand the despair of others, so you will help them. "
Chizuru Hayafune sighed quietly: "Just like me? Even if you saw the real me?"
She turned around, and the black mess on her face had disappeared, but the horrifying thing was that there was nothing on her face, no eyes, no nose or mouth, it was clean, like a piece of white paper.
Inuyama Heita was not frightened by this scene, but said solemnly: "Nobibo, the monster in the Night Parade of One Hundred Demons, has a human body but no face. Ichi, you really are..."
Because the enemy is known as the "Hundred Demons", Inuyama Heita will of course get some relevant information. The image of the so-called Nobibo often appears in various Japanese ghost stories. Most of them are about passers-by who meet a woman crying with her back to them on the road, so they go up to ask. Then the woman turns her head, and the passers-by realize that this is a faceless monster, and they flee in fear.
This legend of the faceless woman has existed from ancient times to the present day, and there have been various versions and adaptations, which can be said to be enduring.
Chizuru Hayafune, who had no face, looked at Heita Inuyama quietly: "You don't seem surprised at all?"
Inuyama Heita clenched his fists: "No, on the contrary, your current appearance confirms the speculation of Brother Otoko and the others... I said before that I know you are a test subject imitating the [Cursed Witch] Miss Terao Keiko, but that witch is not an ordinary person. Her experience and talent are unique, so..."
Therefore, Qian Xiaoyi and his colleagues speculated that in order to imitate the witch, they would have to experiment again and again to verify the effect. However, this is a modern society, and at that time the Hundred Ghosts were still in their early stages of establishment. It was absolutely impossible for them to kidnap children as test subjects in a big way as they did later.
Then, a sample that can be repeated in the experiment is necessary. So Amahara Mari, who cooperated with the Hundred Demons, contributed her own daughter at this time.
Although Qian Xiaoyi and the others did not discuss it in detail at the time, Inuyama Heita could imagine the cruelty of this experiment. To completely imitate Keiko Terao's ability, one must have the same personality as her. The personality of the experimental sample would be completely destroyed and erased over and over again. Only in this way could the ideal effect be achieved in the end.
This was also one of the inferences that Qian Xiaoyi and his team had come up with after discussing it. Now, Inuyama Heita had witnessed with his own eyes that this inference was correct, and there was an inexplicable burning of anger in his heart.
"Since you know all this," Chizuru Hayafune asked, "then you should also know that all my actions are not my own choice, right? I didn't want to save you, and my nature is not that kind. I don't sympathize with others. Those are just disguises. Only in this way can I withstand the huge power like that lady. As you can see, without the shackles of those things, the real me is nothingness. I am not the Chizuru Hayafune you see, nor am I a saint. I am just [One]."
Inuyama Heita stretched out his hand: "What does it matter? I want to save you. It's my own choice. It has nothing to do with you!"
"What a rude person you are." The faceless Hayafune Chizuru stretched out her hand: "I hope you don't regret your choice."
The two held hands together.
From this moment on, the entire ghostland has undergone earth-shaking changes. Inuyama Heita tasted the despair of many people when he was attacked. There was social discrimination, unfair treatment, crazy jealousy, and powerlessness oppressed by family and rules...
Although the sources of despair are different, they all come from the outside world. They are the various colorful emotions that one has about the outside world, and then mixed together to become a thick, dark color that is so heavy that it makes people breathless. This weight is greater than the happiness brought by life, so they feel pain and want to seek relief.
If life is good, who would want to die? But Chizuru Hayafune's despair is just the opposite. If we use colors to describe it as before, her despair is white, pure white, without a trace of pollution.
——She had no desire to live at all. No, she didn’t even have a self. After the huge power of despair faded away, her world was left with only this blank space.
"Is this your despair? One." Inuyama Heita murmured. He could not even feel his own existence.
"Yes, this is my despair." The disembodied voice of Chizuru Hayafune came: "If you can do it, please take me out."
This space has no size, no up, down, left, or right, and no sense of direction. Most importantly, this means that Inuyama Heita doesn't know what to do. He doesn't know how to go, where to go, or how to move...
Time seemed to cease to exist here. Inuyama Heita only felt that his consciousness was stretched to an extremely long length. Perhaps only a few seconds had passed, or perhaps days or months had passed... This place was driving him crazy!
But he must find the direction and go out! This is the final battle. He can't let down Jian, can't let down others, and can't let down Chizuru Hayafune who believed in him. He must return to the real world successfully with this blank despair!
"I must... move forward..." Thinking this, Inuyama Heita had only this one thought in his mind, and he began to walk aimlessly, even though he couldn't even feel himself.
But this was doomed to be futile, as this place was too vast. Or perhaps he had not taken even a single step forward, as even the concept of space no longer existed.
After "walking" like this for an unknown amount of time, Inuyama Heita began to be assimilated by this piece of pure white nothingness, and he began to forget his own existence.
"No! I can't fall here." Inuyama Heita was a little terrified: "I can't forget my identity. I am Inuyama Heita, a high school student and a psychic. I was persecuted by the Hope Cult and became [Ninety-Nine]. I am a real person and I can't forget, I can't forget..."
He kept recalling his identity, but the more he emphasized his identity, the more he felt that those things were meaningless. Once he abandoned these things, who would he be?
"Yes, you're right. Once I abandon these names, what will I be?" Finally, he stopped in confusion, and nothingness slowly enveloped him, wanting him to become a part of this place.
He squatted down and began to think, is this really meaningful? Is his behavior just a forced self-touching? Is it really worth it to save this woman whom he has only met a few times? She herself doesn't want to live anymore, and in the end, even Mr. Jian...
He slowly began to feel that it didn't matter, nothing mattered, because he had lost his coordinates in reality, and everything was judged from the perspective of a more [objective] spectator. From the perspective of the universe, these things were too small and humble, so humble that they made people feel bored.
"So annoying..." He lay on the ground somewhat listlessly, looking at the pale sky, muttering: "I understand how she feels, so that's how it is, so that's how it is... Then there is really no need to continue, whether it's Inuyama Heita or Jiujiu, they only bring me pain, so I might as well just give up."
Yes, he didn't want to find himself again, because those selves did not bring him happiness and hope, but only annoying troubles.
The moment he had this thought, he seemed to have really forgotten his name.
He muttered to himself in confusion: "Who...who am I?"
"——Heitaro, you are Heitaro!" a voice responded to him.
Suzuki finally squeezed out of the crowd, knelt in front of Inuyama Heita, and answered him.
(End of this chapter)
