Hehehe, which of the Upper Three wasn't targeted? I also won't say.
When everyone else is targeted, the one who isn't should probably reflect on himself.
Douma: You guys can not say, but why do you keep looking at me~
Holy crap, divine medicine! Tamayo! You are! My! God!
Tamayo always manages to concoct these incredible medicines whose principles are unknown but are incredibly potent...
If Tamayo had brought out this medicine, would the 1910 Nobel Prize in Medicine still have gone to a German?
I say Tamayo is the MVP of the entire story, who agrees and who disagrees!
Haruto shifted his gaze from the bullet comments to Tamayo.
"Want to try it?" Tamayo chuckled softly. "But before that, you need to set an anchor point for yourself."
"An anchor point?"
"Do you know what a ship's anchor is? When a ship is docked, to prevent it from drifting away, fishermen throw a heavy iron anchor into the water, allowing it to firmly grip the seabed, thus securing the ship.
To prevent the user's consciousness from drifting in memory fragments, you need to create a mental anchor point to remind yourself that you are in a memory, not reality."
Tamayo explained concisely, "Choose a common image, then deeply remember it, and that's all."
Haruto nodded, uncorked the bottle, and drank the entire vial of medicine.
He quickly slumped silently onto the table, falling asleep. Yushiro and Genya, under Tamayo's instruction, tucked him into a thin blanket to make him more comfortable.
"Come, Genya, now it's time for us to talk."
Genya looked back worriedly; his teacher's breathing was light, but his brows were furrowed tightly, as if he was having a nightmare... China, 2019, at the turn of spring and summer, university students were about to welcome their long-awaited holiday.
He woke up from his dorm bed, looking at the blue mosquito net above him, feeling a bit dazed.
The old fan above creaked as it turned, intermittently bringing a cool breeze that wasn't enough to dispel the summer heat. He sat up in bed, "peeling" his sticky upper body from the bamboo mat, leaving a large red imprint from the mat's weave.
The dorm room wasn't quiet in the afternoon; the smell of sweat, sour feet, and faint cigarette smoke all wafted into his nose... So real.
Real...?
He scratched his chin. It was all because of last night; they just had to watch Inception, and it left him completely obsessed.
"Oh, damn it..." A roommate downstairs cursed, "I really want to go to Japan and stab this Gotouge Koyoharu. Does her family sell swords or something?"
"demon slayer is finished, isn't it? Why are you still cursing her?" Another roommate stood behind, looking at the screen with him. "The manga?"
"The 'Rengoku Arc' is finished, but there's still a lot that hasn't been animated yet. I was so itching for more after finishing the anime yesterday that I read the entire manga today in one go."
"Tsk, no wonder you didn't hear them call your name for roll call in class..."
He stepped down from the bed using the railing, ruffled his bird's nest hair, and reached into his undershirt to feel his ribs. "demon slayer?"
That roommate looked back at him. "The anime... Don't you not watch anime?"
"Yeah, I don't." His gaze swept over his roommate's computer screen. The black and white image showed a somewhat familiar Japanese building, with three children with "bob cuts" and two men sitting cross-legged, facing each other, with cherry blossoms scattering across the scene.
Sanemi... Giyuu... His heart jolted. He could call out names of things he clearly hadn't seen. What... was going on?
He heard his roommate gritting his teeth and complaining, "After the Infinity Castle battle, only two of the Nine Pillars were left. The rest were all gone. This damn Crocodile, give me back Shinobu!"
Shinobu... Kochou Shinobu... There it was again, that strange feeling.
His mind wandered, but his body still remembered to pull out the textbooks for his afternoon class. He walked to the balcony to collect the T-shirt he would wear that afternoon.
Under the clear blue sky, there was not a single cloud. Even as the sun set and the land was enveloped by night, people wouldn't have to worry... worry about what?
He clearly had something in his mind, but he couldn't recall it.
He used the drying pole to hook down the hanger, and in the warm breeze of the afternoon, he suddenly saw a butterfly fluttering gracefully.
He bent his index finger, and the butterfly miraculously landed on his knuckle.
It was a Great Mormon butterfly, with a very beautiful appearance.
Kanae's and Shinobu's haori both had this pattern.
In an instant, his dazed mind, which had been sluggish since his nap, immediately cleared.
Just like Cobb seeing the spinning top in Inception, Haruto immediately realized he was in a memory.
This was... the effect of Tamayo's medicine?
He hadn't realized anything was wrong until he saw the butterfly!
Haruto's thoughts were active, his body moving forward with the footsteps of history.
In the memory, everything he saw had already happened. He couldn't change it, couldn't stop it, and in the end, his vision just went black, and he plunged into boundless darkness once more.
The room was quiet, a sliver of light peeking from the sliding door.
Haruto felt the thin blanket covering him and shook his throbbing head.
What's going on? Why didn't the Star Pillar's memory fragment get drawn?
Did Crocodile-sensei get lazy?
Maybe it's a foreshadowing. Perhaps it'll be shown in a flashback at some point. Crocodile often does that kind of thing, doesn't she...?
I'm coming back after watching the ending to tell you all, this part just isn't there. It feels like the author originally wanted to draw a foreshadowing, but then forgot about it later...
The bullet comments continued to scroll. Haruto sighed in relief; the 21st-century dream was indeed erased.
There was movement at the door. The sliding door was pulled open, and Genya's spiky hair poked in first. "Teacher?"
Tamayo was outside studying Genya's blood. Seeing him walk out, she raised an eyebrow in surprise. "An hour and a half, very quick."
"An hour and a half? But it only felt like ten minutes to me."
"How do you feel?"
"It was a bit too real. If it weren't for... the anchor point, I might never have realized I was in a dream."
Tamayo curved her lips. "It's the efficacy of your blood. What profound images did you see? Sadness? Joy?"
Haruto didn't speak. He was lost in thought.
None of them.
He saw a manga panel.
In the headquarters building, neither Kagaya nor Amane were present.
Sitting in the chief's seat was a slightly older Kiriya, with two smaller Hinaki and Nichika behind him.
Giyuu and Sanemi sat opposite them, their attitudes very respectful.
After the Infinity Castle battle... only two of the Nine Pillars were left, the rest were all gone... Shinobu also died... His roommate's words echoed in his ears, lingering persistently.
Only two of the Nine Pillars were left, the rest all died.
The fate of Kagaya, Amane, Hinaki, and Nichika, who didn't appear, was naturally also imaginable.
Haruto closed his eyes, feeling a chill throughout his body, as if he had fallen into an ice cave.