When it came to Hypnosis, never mind Amamiya Rin—even if you dragged Yuhi Kurenai over, she might not necessarily be stronger than Murata Yukichi.
But when it came to willpower.
The fact that he hadn't gone mad even now was enough to show just how strong his willpower was.
"If this was a test, have I passed?"
Amamiya Rin asked calmly.
"Do you know the allusion concerning Li Jing of China's Tang Dynasty?"
Murata didn't bring up the topic of Hypnosis; instead, he began telling a seemingly unrelated story.
"The name of this allusion is: seeing the small and knowing the great."
Li Jing observed matters keenly, skilled at seeing the minute and discerning the manifest.
Emperor Taizong of Tang, Li Shimin, ordered Li Jing to teach Hou Junji the art of war. Later, Hou Junji submitted a memorial to Li Shimin, saying that Li Jing intended to rebel, because whenever it came to the subtle and essential points, Li Jing would not teach them.
After hearing this, Li Shimin reproached Li Jing, but Li Jing replied: This is Hou Junji who wishes to plot rebellion. The Central Plains are now at peace, and the art of war I have taught him is sufficient to pacify and control the Four Barbarians. Now that Hou Junji seeks to exhaust his minister's art of war in his studies, it is a sign that he harbors treacherous ambitions.
"Later Hou Junji did indeed revolt. However, the point I want to make is not 'seeing the small and knowing the great,' but rather that line Li Jing spoke. Amamiya-kun, your Hypnosis is enough to resolve any psychological problem, and yet now you come to seek instruction from me?"
Murata shook his head slightly.
"I came to seek instruction—if you ask whether I've run into trouble I absolutely couldn't solve on my own, that's not quite the case. If I must give a reason... the mountain is simply there."
Amamiya Rin pondered for a moment, then lifted his eyes to meet Murata's scrutinizing gaze.
That's right—the mountain was simply there, a towering peak belonging to the domain of hypnosis.
No impassioned declarations, no carefully deliberated justifications, no winding, moving reasons.
It was like stating a fact as natural as the rising and setting of the sun.
The mountain stood there, and so he wished to climb it, to behold the scenery at its summit.
Nothing more than that.
No more reasons were needed, and no more words either.
"Hahahahaha! Not bad, you're quite something! This is what they call the vigor of youth, isn't it?"
Murata clapped his hands, his gaze toward Amamiya Rin brimming with approval.
"Unlike those fellows in the Hypnotists' Society—they're too old, and too foolish. They can't comprehend my Hypnosis, so they fear me, treating my Hypnosis as some heretical, deviant art, utterly devoid of any drive to better themselves. But you're different. If they are the setting sun at dusk, then you are the rising sun at dawn. You have talent, and you have keenness; you have nerve. You can understand me. You have the ability to tread different paths, to keep climbing in the domain of Hypnosis!"
Murata laughed heartily, his words carrying both contempt for the Hypnotists' Society that refused to acknowledge him and recognition for Amamiya Rin.
Younger than himself, yet already having raised his attainment in Hypnosis to the very limit of what common sense allowed—only a person like this could understand, and carry on, his Hypnosis, surely?
"Well then."
Murata once again clasped his hands together on the desk, smiling as he looked at Amamiya Rin.
"Amamiya-kun, there's no need to fuss over trivial side matters. We can begin discussing that mountain, and the path up it."
Amamiya Rin unconsciously straightened his back, his eyes blazing as he gazed at Murata Yukichi.
"The core of my Hypnosis lies in the voice."
Murata cut straight to the point, his tone steady and clear.
"Many feel that my voice contains a magic power, which I won't deny. My Hypnosis truly is unlike that of others; I even have absolute confidence that, applied to its deepest extent, its effect comes close to a potent form of mind control. And its secret lies in frequency."
He paused briefly, letting the word settle in Amamiya Rin's mind.
"That's right—not the content, but the sound itself. Pitch, rhythm, timbre, the length of pauses, the strength of one's breath, and even the changes in overtones brought about by minute adjustments of the oral and throat muscles during articulation... all of these are information channels independent of semantic meaning."
Amamiya Rin nodded slightly. In conventional Hypnosis, the things Murata Yukichi spoke of were likewise of paramount importance.
"Traditional hypnosis also makes use of the rhythm and tone of the voice, but more as a means of creating an atmosphere and aiding relaxation. My method is to turn these elements themselves into direct command encoding."
Murata leaned his body forward slightly and continued.
"You must understand: the human subconscious is far more sensitive to rhythm than it is quick to analyze logical semantics. When the rhythm and undulation of speech synchronize with the listener's own physiological rhythms, the brain produces perceptual coupling. In that state, the subconscious more readily categorizes such synchronized sound as an extension of its own state, or as a safe ambient sound, rather than an external disturbance to be guarded against. At this point, the semantics you express become a vessel carried along with the current; the true power of suggestion lies hidden within the rhythmic patterns of the voice."
"The usual approach is observation taken to the extreme."
Murata's index finger tapped lightly at the empty air.
"Marshal all of your powers of observation and intuition to capture the depth and rhythm of the target's breathing, the habitual fluctuations of their tone and intonation, the natural variations in the loudness of their voice, the unconscious repetitions or evasions in their word choice... all of these outward manifestations are traces of their inner consciousness frequency revealing itself. Your preliminary task is to analyze and extract the characteristics of this frequency, then adjust your own vocalization so that the undulations of your voice conform to it, creating in the other's subconscious the illusion of a like-kind signal, thereby quietly lowering their psychological defense threshold."
"The timing of the capture is crucial. It may be a momentary lapse of the other's attention, an unconscious brief intake of breath, or that millisecond of hesitation before a certain word blurts out—it is in that precise gap that you let your voice cut in. Let the undulations of your voice sound like the most natural continuation of his own stream of consciousness at that node. At this moment, any simple suggestion your voice carries is all too easily accepted, because it no longer seems like an external command, but more like the natural fruition of his own thoughts. This exploits the brain's perceptual constancy—its tendency to attribute coherent, well-fitting perceptual experiences to a single source."
Amamiya Rin listened with the utmost seriousness, rapidly digesting these principles in his mind.
This truly was a deeper, more exquisite application of Hypnosis, greatly simplifying and strengthening the process of implanting suggestions.
However, a trace of doubt gradually surfaced in his eyes.
Although Murata's method simplified the hypnotic process and enhanced its effect, it did not exceed common sense.
If that were all, it shouldn't be able to achieve the effect of Murata's own Hypnosis.
"You're thinking that just this much doesn't yet amount to mind-control-level Hypnosis, aren't you?"
The very moment this thought arose in Amamiya Rin, Murata Yukichi's voice rang out; he had seen through the thought in Amamiya Rin's mind at a single glance.
And Amamiya Rin's thought was precisely the doubt that any excellent hypnotist would inevitably develop after coming to understand his theory.
This technique was formidable, yet not formidable enough—at the very least, it was unworthy of Murata Yukichi's own hypnotic effect.
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