Dogra Magra (3/47)

by Hisashi Yumeno

"...Psychological science...applied crime..."

"Yes... However, since it's such a new topic, you might not understand the content, but if I put it this way, you'll generally grasp it. ...In other words, the reason I started researching this topic is because I realized that the content of 'Psychological Science' itself, as proposed by Professor Masaki, is full of terrifying principles and rules. For example, 'Psychopathology,' a branch of psychological science, contains many terrifying theories and practical examples, such as being able to suddenly change a person's mental state into that of another person through a kind of suggestion... being able to instantly erase a person's current mental life and replace it with the personality of an ancestor from many generations ago, hidden deep within. Moreover, despite the scientifically precise and profound effects of its experiments, the explanation of its workings and methods of execution, unlike conventional science, are very simple, to the extent that even a child could find them interesting and understandable depending on the explanation. When you think about it, there is no research or experiment more dangerous than this. ...Of course, the details will unfold before your eyes soon, so I won't explain them in detail here..."

"...Huh... huh... such terrifying research content... before my eyes..."

Dr. Wakabayashi nodded gravely.

"That's right. You are someone who has personally proven the truth of that theory, so you have a kind of immunity to the fear and terror that such principles depict. And in the near future, when you regain your memories of your past, you will inevitably realize that you have the right and qualification to participate in the study of this new discipline. However, if the contents of this secret research were to leak to others, we have no idea what kind of situation would arise. ...For example, what if we could discover a terrifying genetic psychology hidden deep within a person's mind and, by giving them appropriate suggestions, drive them insane in an instant? What if an era came where we could even erase the reasons and memories of that person's madness? The harm would be far greater than the intensification of wars caused by Nobel's invention of gunpowder manufacturing methods.

Therefore, from a forensic standpoint, I believe it is extremely dangerous for such theories of psychical science to become common knowledge in general society in the future, just as modern materialistic scientific theories have. At that time, just as crimes applying materialistic science are rampant today, it will be inevitable that crimes applying psychical science will also become prevalent. However, if that happens, it will be irreversible. If these crimes applying psychical science are realized, unlike recent crimes applying materialistic science, it is clear that crimes that are almost absolutely impossible for prosecutors or investigators to detect will appear everywhere in the world. Therefore, Professor Masaki's new theory must be carefully guarded from public disclosure. ...At the same time, although it may seem like a very selfish request, I thought it necessary to thoroughly research methods for preventing and detecting this type of crime as much as possible, in anticipation of any eventuality. For this reason, I had been conducting investigations from all angles under Professor Masaki's guidance on the theme of "Crimes Applying Psychical Science and Their Traces," while strictly maintaining the utmost secrecy. In short, as a joint project between Professor Masaki and myself...

Was there some oversight between Professor Masaki and me? We should have been careful, yet somehow, somewhere, a mysterious criminal case suddenly occurred near the university, in which a theory with particularly potent and profound effects within psychical science was vividly applied in practice, having been stolen. How and when was it stolen?

The outward appearance of the incident centered on brutal and cold-blooded acts, where men and women belonging to a wealthy family killed each other or drove each other insane without any reason. Furthermore, it was confirmed that the means of these heinous acts were related to the psychical science we were researching, from an incident that befell a gentle and intelligent young man, the last descendant of that wealthy family.

The young man was to marry his beautiful cousin, who adored him, in order to perpetuate the lineage of his declining family. However, on the night before, he had, in an unexpected fit of passion, strangled the girl. And then, it was revealed that he had calmly spread out paper and sketched her body, which lay before him – a highly peculiar and inexplicable fact that caused a great sensation.

However, at the same time, the two fundamental questions of why the young man's family had fallen into such a tragic state and who the culprit was remain unknown to this day. The incident was extremely bizarre and serious, and the judicial authorities of Fukuoka Prefecture, which is the police headquarters of Kyushu, also chose to be incompetent regarding this case. Even I, who have been working diligently on the investigation with the assistance of Professor Masaki, have not been able to grasp any clues to the truth of the incident to this day, and I feel as if I am wandering in a dense fog.

In this situation, the only means I have is for you, the central figure in the incident, to recover your past memories through the virtuous legacy of Professor Masaki and directly judge the truth. There is no other way than for you to indicate the purpose of the crime and the identity of the culprit. This is because the perpetrator of the incident has hidden their tracks using supernatural means.

The reason I cannot explain this incident in detail is that I myself have not ascertained the truth. Furthermore, my venturing into work outside my specialty in psychiatry and offering to care for you is to guard against the leakage of a grave secret. Should your memory ever recover, I must be the first to rush to you and hear the truth. The identity of the monstrous fiend who is concealing the truth of that incident must be exposed.

If you were to regain your past memories and the truth of this incident were to be revealed, it would become a research presentation with profound, double and triple meanings, greatly impacting the modern scientific community and general society. The research that Professor Masaki superficially named "Liberation Therapy for the Insane" would, in reality, scientifically prove crucial facts that should be the conclusion of a grand experiment capable of transforming modern material culture into spiritual culture in one stroke. Furthermore, it would complete one of the most important examples in my own thesis, "Crimes Involving Applied Mental Science and Their Evidence." And, it would provide an opportunity for the mental science research that Professor Masaki and I have poured our hearts into for the past twenty years to be published simultaneously.

That is why whether you can recall your name, recover your past memories, and reveal the truth of that incident holds such significant meaning. Not only the university and the judicial authorities of Fukuoka Prefecture, but the eyes of the entire world are focused on you.

Having explained all this in one breath, Dr. Wakabayashi suddenly looked at me with strange, pale eyes. Then, he turned away again, pressed a handkerchief to his face, and began to cough strenuously.

As I watched his wrinkled, twitching profile, I felt bewildered, as if enveloped in smoke. Everything that had happened around me since this morning brought new anxieties and surprises, and Dr. Wakabayashi's explanation only grew more exaggerated and supernaturally expansive, making it seem unbelievable as fact. It sounded as if it concerned me, but in reality, it felt like a completely unrelated dream story.

Eventually, Dr. Wakabayashi, having suppressed his cough, gave another quick, pale glance. "Excuse me. I'm tired..." he said, turning to the delicate rattan chair behind him and slowly sitting down. Seeing him, I couldn't help but avert my eyes.

The first time I saw that wicker chair, placed behind Dr. Wakabayashi, I thought that if someone a little larger sat in it, it would immediately collapse. I wondered if some woman was coming. However, now seeing it before me, Dr. Wakabayashi's long body fit perfectly between the narrow armrests of the chair without any difficulty. He folded his chest and abdomen in two, revealing only his face from his handkerchief, and kept himself low as if resting on his knees. His figure, as if saying, "I am the suspicious person lurking behind this strange incident," was shrunken and contained within the chair.

Its overall size was, by all appearances, about half of what it had been. No matter how thin he was, or how thin the fur of his overcoat, it seemed like a feat no ordinary human could accomplish. Moreover, from within, only his voice resonated as before, or rather, even more calmly, perhaps because he had settled down. It was as if to say, "I know everything."

"...I apologize for the interruption. Now, as I observe you after my visit, even for a non-specialist like myself, it is clear that Dr. Masaki's prophecy has come true as if by divine intervention. You are currently struggling to recover your past memories but are unable to recall anything, which must be troubling you. This is merely a process of returning to the healthy mental state you had before participating in this experiment. According to Dr. Masaki's research, within the part of your brain that reflects and sympathizes with past memories, there was a genetic weakness—a very sensitive area—in one specific location that governs the oldest memories.

However, there must have been a mysterious person somewhere who had known about this for a long time. By using extremely potent psycho-scientific suggestive material that stimulated that most sensitive weakness to its core, and pushing that single point into extreme tension, the memories concerning your ancient ancestor, a thousand-year-old bizarre and profound romance, completely detached and floated to the surface of your consciousness, causing you to fall into a deep somnambulistic state. And as of today, all the somnambulistic psychology that emerged detached from your subconscious has been fully expressed and returned to an empty state, allowing you to escape from the somnambulistic state as you are now. However, the part of your subconscious that had been abnormally active and the part of your brain near it that reflects and sympathizes with past memories are now completely unable to function freely due to the severe fatigue remaining from prolonged tension. In other words, you are in a state where you cannot recall older memories. Therefore, only the part that reflects and sympathizes with very recent events, which are new and impressive and had not been so fatigued until now, has awakened since this morning, and although it is eager to recover older memories, it cannot recall anything at all. This is believed to be your current mental state. Dr. Masaki tentatively named such a state 'Ego Amnesia'..."

"...Ego... Amnesia..."

“That’s right… As a result of being influenced by the psychological methods of the culprit behind that strange incident, you continued in an abnormal somnambulistic state for several months, as a completely different person from who you are now. Of course, such deep somnambulism and extreme cases of dual personality are very rare, unlike the mild dual-personality-like somnambulism seen in ordinary people, which is to say, ‘sleep-talking’ or ‘sleepwalking.’ However, there are clearly recorded facts from ancient times. For example, ‘The Old Man Who Remembered His Hometown After Fifty Years,’ or ‘The Gentleman’s Account of Realizing He Was a Murderer Only After Being Confronted with Evidence,’ ‘The Confession of a Lonely Old Maid Who Met Her Biological Child Whom She Had No Memory of Giving Birth To,’ ‘The Memoir of a Poor Young Man Who Became a Bald Millionaire While Unconscious from a Train Collision,’ ‘The Story of a Young Lady Who, After Sleeping Together for Just One Night, Turned into a White-Haired Old Woman the Next Morning,’ ‘The Penitential Tale of a Holy Monk Who Committed a Great Sin Because He Confused Dreams and Reality,’ and various other strange examples are preserved in literature. These have led people to a state of half-belief, but when viewed in light of Professor Masaki’s unique academic theory, there is no longer any room for doubt. Not only has the existence of such phenomena been clearly proven to be scientifically possible, but it has also been established through both theory and practice that when such people return to their previous mental consciousness, they invariably undergo a certain ‘ego amnesia.’ In other words, strictly speaking, in our daily lives, our psychological state is stimulated by what we see and hear, and it constantly changes. And getting angry, sad, or laughing by oneself is actually a kind of somnambulism, and at the moment of such psychological change, this ‘somnambulism”Self-forgetfulness,” “self-loss,” and “self-awakening” are processes that repeat at extremely short intervals. Ordinary people are simply not aware of it… and this fact has also been proven by Dr. Masaki. Therefore, Dr. Masaki clearly foresaw that you, too, would undergo this process and recover to your current state before long. It was merely a matter of time.”

Dr. Wakabayashi paused here, licking his lips.

At that moment, I didn't know what expression I had on my face. I was simply overwhelmed by Dr. Wakabayashi's explanation, which, with academic authority, rapidly pressed upon me, leaving me utterly bewildered. My entire body was stiff, as if I had been subjected to high-voltage electricity. …Could it be that the strange incident he was talking about just now was about me? …And am I now in a position where I must recall that terrifying past incident, along with my own name? Cold sweat seeped from both my armpits due to an unspeakable fear, and I felt as though all my nerves were concentrated on the pale, long face before me.

At that moment, Dr. Wakabayashi lowered his pale blue eyes slightly and continued in an even lower voice.

“...I repeat, Dr. Masaki’s predictions have come true, one by one, without the slightest deviation, up to this very day. Since this morning, you have completely departed from a somnambulistic mental state, and you are on the verge of recovering your old memories. Therefore, I came to visit you like this to help you recall your own name, which you asked the nurse about earlier.”

“...To help me remember my name...”

I exclaimed, suddenly so surprised that I choked. ...Could it be... that I myself am the true culprit of that strange incident? ...Is Dr. Wakabayashi's particular attention to my name proof of that? I was struck by this momentary flash of insight. However, Dr. Wakabayashi calmly replied.

“...That’s right. If your name comes back to you, all other memories should surface to the conscious part of your mind along with it. The terrifying principles of psycho-science that consistently governed the period before and after that bizarre incident, the reasons and motives behind such a monstrous crime, and the true identity of the mysterious figure at the heart of the incident—all of these should be recalled simultaneously. Therefore, helping you remember it is my primary responsibility, having taken you on from Dr. Masaki.”

I shivered again with an indescribable terror. Involuntarily, I sat up straight and let out a surprised cry.

“...What is it called...? My name is...?”

The moment I asked this, Dr. Wakabayashi closed his mouth as if he were a machine. He stared intently into my eyes with a dull, gleaming gaze, as if searching for something within my mind, or perhaps hinting at something significant.

Looking back, I believe I was being manipulated by Dr. Wakabayashi’s unfathomable scheme at that moment. The scientific yet extremely stimulating narrative he had maintained until then was by no means meaningless. It was a psychological method of stimulation designed to heighten "my attention" to "my name" to the extreme, making it impossible for me not to recall it.

That’s why, while I was frantically asking for my name, he must have closed his mouth, trying to heighten my impatience in silence. He was trying to sharply stimulate the solidified past memories in my mind, making me do it myself.

However, at that time, I was completely unaware of such a delicate stratagem. I merely assumed that Dr. Wakabayashi would tell me my name immediately and stared intently at his pale lips.

Dr. Wakabayashi, who had been watching me, seemed somewhat disappointed and quietly closed his eyes. He slowly shook his head from side to side, let out a light sigh, and then quietly opened his eyes again, speaking in an even colder, more delicate voice than before.

"...It's no good... There's no point in me teaching you. If you say you don't remember that name, then that's that. You must remember it naturally, on your own..."

I suddenly felt both relieved and, at the same time, uneasy.

"...Will I be able to remember?"

Dr. Wakabayashi answered clearly.

"Yes, you can. I am sure you can. At that time, not only will you understand that what I have told you so far is by no means a fictional story, but at the same time, you will recover completely from this hospital and be discharged. And your legal and moral rights, that is, the preparation to receive a respectable family and all the happiness that belongs to that family, have been ready for a long time. In other words, it is my second responsibility, inherited from Dr. Masaki, to reliably hand over all of those to you..."

Having said that, Dr. Wakabayashi looked at me with eyes full of conviction. Overwhelmed by the power in his gaze, I unconsciously looked down. I felt as if I had been told a strangely complicated story that didn't concern me, and I was tired without understanding why.

However, Dr. Wakabayashi paid no mind to my feelings and, clearing his throat lightly, changed the tone of his voice.

"...Now, I would like to begin the experiment of helping you remember your name. We, and Dr. Masaki as well, believe that various things are most deeply related to your past history. We would like to show them to you one by one and experiment to see if your past memories are evoked by them. How would that be?"