It feels like I'm going to eventually stop having dreams of my sister.
When I was at the hospital, I thought that I'd never be able to leave my body again.
And after I left, everything went back to normal.
But now, I'm not able to see that scary dream anymore.
Yo!
Two months have passed since I began counseling Komori Tarou.
His symptoms of PTSD appear to be receding.
A boy who once experienced something as strange as a kidnapping in his childhood...
What kinds of changes are occurring in his brain?
The answer still indeterminable.
A CT and an MRI have revealed nothing of importance.
I think I'll also take data through an MEG.
Editor's note: MEG, or Magnetoencephalography, is an imaging system that measures the electrical fields produced by brain activity.
The subject has reported that he often experiences OBEs.
I am still unable to determine if this is caused by his unusual childhood experience.
There are cases in which an OBE reconstructs a traumatic situation,
but for some reason, the subject seems to enjoy it.
The subject has lost most of his memories of the incident.
This is caused by the intense fear the amygdala received, leading to LTP, which blocks the memories, just as is speculated in theory.
Editor's note: LTP plays a major role in behavioral memory. In this case, LTP is protecting the brain from the psychological trauma of certain memories.
The amygdala generates not only fear, but hatred as well.
The reason why the hippocampus, which is responsible for long-term memory, is directly linked to the amygdala is simple.
Editor's note: The hippocampus is a part of the brain responsible for spatial memory, retention of memories, and the formation of new memories.
It is because animals cannot survive without carefully memorizing what is dangerous to them.
This was shown in an experiment in which removing the amygdala made a monkey stop fearing snakes.
Editor's note: This experiment was performed by Heinrich Klüver and Paul Bucy, who found that when the temporal lobe is removed, behavioral memory is destroyed.
Sorry!
Go on!
Wasn't that Hoshino from your class?
Were those seniors bullying him?
Humans, through rationality, have the ability to suppress tentativeness, fear, or hatred to a certain degree.
However, these emotions can't always be controlled.
Fear and hatred, in particular, still distort culture and society.
If you remove the amygdala itself, it could possibly cause Capgras' Syndrome.
If it were possible to change the entire limbic system, would people be able to create a better society and culture?
Editor's note: As the limbic system controls almost all memory-related brain structures, Hirata is suggesting that the entire memory system be changed.
My thoughts on this matter are neverending.
What's wrong?
Perhaps my acrophobia is cured.
Really? That's great!
But... it doesn't mean that the things I've done have gone away.
The current subject will prove my theory.
You know, I...
Yeah?
...Just forget it.
You're Ogami?
Tomorrow will be the inaugural day. You should help tidy up.
Yeah. I mean, yes.
Finally, we can make sake this year! With only two years of experience, I still have much to learn,
but I'm looking forward to working with everyone!
Tidying up will be hard. You'll have to get rid of half a year's worth of dust.
I'll make it spick and span!
Do you want see your sister?
I want to see her! There are things I want to ask her!
Who? Sister?
I think I'm getting used to this.
Makoto!
As a matter of fact, I did get along well with your father in college.
But I went to Tokyo University, and after I returned, we never saw each other.
I don't know anything about his death.
You're hiding something, aren't you?
You know, you should be more polite when you speak to your elders.
I know there were strange rumors about it in the city.
But in a small society, it's not hard at all to spread rumors.
Why would your father be involved in the kidnapping of the Komori siblings?
Makoto! Your father wasn't involved!
It's no use...
Well, you don't seem to know much about your father, so it's only natural that it's difficult for you to believe me.
Did my mother and father...
...go out together after they left college?
Nope. Well, I guess...
I heard your mother is in Kumada.
I don't know about her, and it doesn't interest me!
Can you hear me?
I can't see you clearly, but...
S-So you can see me after all! I'm glad!
So you can see me! I tried to speak to Makoto, but he didn't notice me at all.
Normal people probably can't see you.
You're Miyako, right? Um, when I had that accident here...
Thanks for coming with me to the hospital.
Since you were hurt here, it was only natural.
Why can you see me?
If something appears in my mind, I can see it as light.
So it's something like an aura?
Editor's note: An aura is a field of various-colored light that surrounds a subject. In New Age belief it is caused by chakras, or life force energies.
It's not just around living things, and I can see things in various colors if I sense them.
That's pretty unique.
And also...
Also?
Sometimes, someone enters our house...
Miyako?
What's wrong? Is it the usual?
No, that's not it. Let's prepare lunch.
Weapon select. Load.
I wonder if that old man's still around...
It's coming after me!
Why am I running? I should just fly!
It doesn't hurt, but still, let go!
I'm not your food!
Huh? That means that he's a ghost too...
It looks kind of weird. Was there ever an animal like this?
If you look closely, it's cute...
...or maybe not.
What is it?
Wow...!
Some of these...
I've never seen them before.
Can ghosts... really be that big?
Isn't that the inside of my brain?
Is there another world beyond it?
Tarou, dinner!
Tarou! Come down here!
I found it.
There it is!
This is what I saw yesterday in Kakuriyo.
I see... So these ghosts are the remains of extinct races?
Something like that, I guess...
Well, there might be some of this variety, but what was with that other one?
Has something like that ever existed?
Well, if there are ghosts of humans, there might also be ghosts of animals.
Are you sure about that?
If that were the case, Kakuriyo would be full of ghosts!
So, being reborn is impossible?
Argh! If someone would just explain everything about Kakuriyo and all of this other stuff to us!
Someone who isn't one of those weird, specially trained people.
I see. So your OBEs are evolving.
Dr. Hirata! Does this mean you believe me?
Sadly, I have never had an OBE, nor have I been in a state of modified consciousness.
Due to my physiology I can't drink alcohol, so I've never been drunk either.
I see...
But humans do sometimes enter such a state.
And I don't have any objections to the idea that one can see unusual things while in a state of modified consciousness.
I'm very interested in what you have to tell me.
Yeah... But as I leave my body more often, I'm having fewer dreams of my sister and that incident...
That means that your fear is being diminished, am I right?
But! But...
I don't want to forget...
...what my sister said to me then.
That's understandable. I do not think you need to rush it.
Memories are sometimes recalled because of something completely unrelated to the memory itself.
We don't know if and how LTP will start working again.
Yesterday, I spoke with your mother.
EMDR! She told me about it.
No, I suppose she's better now because she is occupied once again, not because of that.
Please take care of my mother before you worry about me.
Suiten Taxi
Out of range.
I forgot...
I'll have to replace my cell phone soon.
Hello?
Yes, I need a taxi.
Suiten.
Yes, that's right. I'll be waiting at the edge of town.
Everything in this case is explainable as an occurrence inside the mind.
The ghosts the subject claims to have seen while he was out of his body were all things he saw in books, which he simply recalled.
However, the possibility of a supernatural phenomena being responsible is not completely eliminated.
He still has many worries, about his mother, for example.
I will help him cope with this, and in addition, I shall examine him as a subject.
The amygdala, which is responsible for fear, and the hippocampus, the interface for information in the brain.
These, when linked, form the mechanism responsible for memories, and are referred to as the limbic system.
"Limbic," in the original Greek meaning, refers to "limbo," the frontier between Utsushiyo and Kakuriyo.
Editor's note: Limbo, in Catholicism, is where souls wait before entering heaven. In general, limbo is a locked place of unresolved status.