She quickly stepped forward and said to Yuko, "Yuko, it's me, do you remember?"
"Kekou, why are you here!"
"I have to come, Yuko, please don't be like this, okay? I don't want to see you like this. Think about how we were in school. Do you remember your ideals? You once told me you wanted to become a world-renowned forensic investigator. What about you now, do you know what you're doing? You're pushing yourself into an endless abyss. If you continue like this, you'll never recover. Do you understand? Yuko, stop!"
"Kekou, Kekou..."
Perhaps it was the flood of unforgettable memories that awakened another part of her consciousness. In that instant, the Nightmare Saint seemed to vanish. However, in the very next second, Yuko's expression turned strange again: "No! My path ahead is infinitely bright. This is not an abyss, I am back at Anxi Town Mental Hospital. Ah! This is my paradise! My paradise! You mortals cannot understand my world. The director is waiting for me. This is our last group photo!"
He Qing and I exchanged glances, momentarily unable to comprehend Yuko's words. I was curious why Yuko would know about Anxi Town Mental Hospital. Had she been there before...
Zhang Kekou, however, showed no surprise. Instead, as if she saw through everything, she said, "I know, but the mental hospital is gone. Everyone has left. They have new lives. You can't stay trapped in past memories forever; you have to move forward. All right! Now, release the hostage and give me your hand!"
As Zhang Kekou spoke, she stepped onto the gangway. I wanted to stop her, but she was too fast and had already ascended the stairs before I could react. She walked on the gangway calmly, her movements light, as if devoid of any emotional fluctuation. When she extended her hand, Yuko, like a child, obediently reached out. At that moment, Kekou said, "Yuko, you never intended to harm everyone, did you? You did this just to get your father's attention?"
"Kekou, what are you saying?"
"Actually, I realized it long ago. Look at your father now!"
At this moment, Takeda Yutaka, who had been silent, called out, "Yuko!"
Takeda Yuko's gaze shifted. Kekou continued, "Yuko, ever since I met you, I felt you were very lonely. You often told me how busy your father was and how he had no time for you. You didn't have many friends around, only a good friend like me. Sometimes I was busy too and couldn't accompany you, and you would text me saying your father was too busy with work to come to school to see you, or to celebrate your birthday. You probably didn't even see each other a few times a year."
"From then on, I had suspicions. When you left home today and texted me, 'Kekou, I'm returning to the country,' I could tell from the tone of your message that you were suppressing and lonely inside, but you held no hatred. That's why the Nightmare Saint couldn't do anything to you. If I'm not mistaken, your father was once in a mental hospital, wasn't he? This is a medical report. You used to visit him there often. After he was discharged, your father seemed much better, but sometimes his personality was still a bit strange. You didn't want to see your father like that, so you tried hard to make him better, but he was still indifferent to you. You were at your wit's end, and that's why you did what you did today! You know, the human heart is terrifying. Once it becomes distorted, the consequences can be unimaginable. However, the misfortune has been removed. It's time for you to take responsibility for what you've done! Yuko!"
As she spoke, Zhang Kekou handcuffed Takeda Yuko.
Yuko no longer resisted. The hostage quickly came down. Then, Zhang Kekou escorted Yuko to my side. I patted her shoulder and said, "Well done. I thought..."
"Don't worry, I understand Yuko's personality. It's all right now, Yuko! I believe you'll be very happy after this!"
"Mm, thank you, Kekou-senpai."
Hearing Yuko address Kekou as such, I looked over in surprise...
After some time, we later learned about the legends of the Nightmare Saint. It turned out to be a form of belief created by the director at the time to treat mental patients, similar to a form of psychodrama therapy.
Psychodrama: Proposed by psychotherapist Jacob L. Moreno in 1921, psychodrama helps participants warm up through activities like music, painting, and games, and then experience or re-experience their thoughts, emotions, dreams, and interpersonal relationships in a performance. As the plot develops, in a safe atmosphere, it explores, releases, perceives, and shares the inner self. It is a drama that can allow patients' emotions to be vented, thereby achieving therapeutic effects.
However, the director did not utilize this treatment method effectively. After watching a movie called "Deep Freeze," they developed hallucinations, believing the mental hospital had transformed into a giant cruise ship encountering a shipwreck. They all drowned in the mental hospital, falling victim to a psychological illusion of drowning.
Perhaps you find the notion that mere psychological effects can cause drowning far-fetched. It is said that years ago, someone conducted an experiment. In the experiment, researchers attached a piece of wet paper to the subjects' skin and told them that this paper had special properties that would cause localized warmth on the skin, asking the subjects to feel the temperature change in that area.
After twenty minutes, when the researchers removed the wet paper, they found that the skin where the paper had been attached had turned red and felt warm to the touch. However, the truth was that the wet paper was ordinary paper and had none of the functions the researchers claimed. The subjects' skin reactions were entirely due to psychological suggestion.
Other experiments, such as smell discrimination experiments, also yielded similar conclusions. The experimental process involved first having everyone smell the scents of alcohol, mint, and wintergreen. Then, ten bottles of unscented distilled water were presented. The researchers told the subjects that three of the ten bottles contained the previously smelled scents and asked the subjects to identify them.
As a result, forty-eight women and thirty-seven men claimed they could smell the three scents, while a small portion of people stated they were unsure which scent it was. Only six subjects reported smelling no odor at all.
These experiments, and others like them, can prove that such a situation is highly likely to occur.