"Are you perhaps a friend of my brother-in-law?"
When Amamiya Rin revealed what her sister had been doing and identified her brother-in-law by name, Kawabe Maya went instantly tense, her expression shifting to one of guarded suspicion.
"No. I simply know of him."
Amamiya Rin shook his head.
"You were right just now — my sister has been obsessed with recreating my brother-in-law's alchemy formula. But there seem to be some errors or omissions in the formula, and she's never managed to get it right."
Kawabe Maya looked at Amamiya Rin with a mixture of confusion and wariness as she added those careful words. Her eyes slid away from his as she spoke.
"Are there really errors in it? Or did you swap out the finished product yourself?"
Amamiya Rin smiled faintly and posed the question to her.
Before the words had even fully left his mouth, the color had already drained from Kawabe Maya's face.
"Why would I do something like that? Please don't joke around."
She forced a smile, but the shock in her eyes only deepened. She hadn't expected Amamiya Rin to know about this as well. Could it be — did this visitor already know that the so-called alchemy formula was actually a skin-stripping technique?
Ah — of course. He had come to the Kawabe household, which meant he must have seen her sister's exposed musculature. And given how much he seemed to know about her brother-in-law... could he have already pieced together the whole story from beginning to end?
"Because you didn't want to go along with what your sister is doing. She's lost her mind — but you're still sane."
Amamiya Rin held her gaze steadily, his eyes clear and direct.
His memories of the flesh-colored monster were hazy, but he still recalled the broad strokes: the protagonist was a little boy named Riki, whose mother had become utterly fixated on the allure of exposed musculature, determined to make Riki see his own flesh beneath the skin. But Riki and his aunt were both perfectly normal people with no interest in any of it — so the aunt had been playing along on the surface while quietly working against her sister all along.
The tragedy was that the aunt had already been deceived into applying that ointment, which caused her skin and flesh to split apart, leaving her wearing her own hide like a garment.
"My sister... she's already lost it. I genuinely don't know what to do anymore!"
Kawabe Maya's eyes grew hot, and tears spilled down her face.
She didn't have the courage to stand up to her sister, and she didn't want her sister to keep going down this path — but she hadn't dared tell anyone else either. The pressure had been building inside her for so long, growing heavier and heavier, and she didn't know when it would finally crush her completely.
"I live in fear every single day. Afraid of what my sister might do next. Afraid that Riki will actually have his skin peeled off. We're already like this — we can't let Riki turn into the same kind of monster! I've tried to talk her out of it. I've begged her. But she won't listen to a word I say. She calls it art. She calls it true beauty... I don't even dare tell anyone else. I don't know how people would treat us, things like us."
Kawabe Maya buried her face in both hands and poured out all her fear and helplessness to Amamiya Rin in a torrent, like she was finally letting something loose that had been dammed up for far too long.
(Ugh — "true beauty"? Does she think she's Kawakami Tomie? As if stripping away the skin and exposing raw muscle is somehow perfect?)
Kawakami Tomie, listening through Amamiya Rin's consciousness, had been following Kawabe Maya's outpouring the whole time. The moment she caught that claim about the beauty of exposed musculature, a sound of scornful laughter echoed through Amamiya Rin's mind.
Amamiya Rin kept his expression unchanged and listened in silence. He pulled a tissue from the box and held it out to Kawabe Maya.
She took it, dabbed at her tears, and gave him a small, embarrassed smile.
"You've done more than enough. What your sister is doing can't be allowed to continue. I'll contact the police division that handles supernatural incidents and have Mrs. Kawabe taken into custody."
Amamiya Rin waited until her emotions had settled slightly before speaking.
"Taken into custody? Does it really have to go that far? Is there no other way? If Riki's mother is a convicted criminal in prison..."
Kawabe Maya blinked, and a frown immediately creased her brow. Her expression closed off with a flash of resistance. She didn't finish the sentence, but what she left unspoken made Amamiya Rin understand at once.
Right — bullying in Japan was a serious problem. If Riki's mother ended up in prison and the story got out, the child would almost certainly become a target.
"That was thoughtless of me. I'm sorry."
Amamiya Rin said it plainly.
"No, please don't apologize — this is my family's problem. I'm the one who's caused you trouble."
Kawabe Maya was visibly surprised by his consideration and warmth, and she responded quickly, switching to more formal speech.
Amamiya Rin thought it over. If sending her to prison would bring harm to an innocent child, then forfeiting the reward money was a small price to pay. After all, the woman might be unhinged, but she hadn't actually killed anyone.
In terms of victims, Kawabe Maya was the only one — and Kawabe Maya clearly wasn't going to press charges against her own sister.
If prison was off the table... well, as it happened, he had a skill that might solve the problem more cleanly.
"I can try using [Hypnosis] to treat Mrs. Kawabe's condition. It may be possible to help with her mental illness."
Amamiya Rin's [Hypnosis] wasn't on the level of that singular eccentric whose effects persisted beyond death — but it was first-rate all the same. Treating a psychiatric disorder should be well within its reach.
"Really?"
At those words, Kawabe Maya shot to her feet in a surge of agitation, nearly launching herself at him. She pressed both hands flat on the coffee table and leaned her upper body toward him, like someone clutching at a lifeline.
"Real or not, there's only one way to find out. And it can't hurt you either way — worst case, your sister goes to prison."
The words had barely left his mouth when the rapid patter of small feet sounded from the hallway. Amamiya Rin turned his head, and Riki came sprinting in from the corridor.
"Mister, can you put Mom in prison right away?"
Riki ran up to the side of the sofa and fixed Amamiya Rin with an unwavering stare.
At that, the corner of Amamiya Rin's mouth twitched — just barely, just once.
Well. A model son if ever there was one.
"Riki! Don't say things like that!"
Kawabe Maya's expression changed at once. She hurried over and scooped the boy up into her arms.
"If Mom's in prison, she can't bother us anymore."
Riki tilted his head back to look up at Kawabe Maya and said it with a completely straight face.
Kawabe Maya's expression went bleak. She pulled Riki close and held him.
She didn't explain her concerns to him — Riki was still in kindergarten and wouldn't have understood any of it anyway.
"My sister leaves as soon as it gets dark and usually doesn't come home until after nine. Please wait a little while."
Cradling Riki, Kawabe Maya looked up at Amamiya Rin. Her expression was steeped in quiet bitterness.
Amamiya Rin glanced at the clock on the wall. It had only just passed eight.
He shifted his position, settled into a more comfortable angle against the sofa cushions, and looked over at Kawabe Maya.
"While we wait for your sister to come back, I have one request: would you let me look at the alchemy notes your brother-in-law left behind?"
At that, a visible flash of reluctance crossed Kawabe Maya's face.
"Those notes are the reason my sister ended up the way she is..."
"The problem isn't in the knowledge itself — otherwise, why are you perfectly fine?"
Amamiya Rin's tone was mild, but he didn't concede the point.
In many horror stories, knowledge was its own curse — but in the case of the flesh-colored monster, the one who had clearly gone wrong was only Riki's mother.
"Besides, the reason your skin and flesh have separated is the result of the alchemy working. I don't believe that having your skin stripped away constitutes eternal life. It's quite possible your brother-in-law made a mistake somewhere. I intend to hand those alchemy notes over to a specialist — there may be a chance to reverse what happened to you."
____
👻🔥Whant more?: Walnut-chan🔥👻
🔥 New history: Oshi No Ko: Co-starring with Kana Arima
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