NovelCat

Mio’s consciousness tries to trace the sound source. The hospital’s obstetrics department. Newborn nursery.

wah……wah……wah……

The crying voice causes resonance in Mio’s dispersed existence.

At that moment, Mio is astonished.

Inside the consciousness of the crying baby, Tanaka Masahiko exists.

Within the newly born soul, the “patient” personality that Mio knows already dwells.

wah……wah……

Mio begins to understand.

Tanaka, Yamada, Sato——they were not Mio’s creations.

They were archetypal personalities existing in the layer of collective unconscious.

splash……splash……splash……

The sound of water is heard.

Mio’s consciousness flows in the direction of the sound.

Hospital basement. Old water tank.

splash……splash……

Countless faces float in the water.

All the patients Mio met. All the people she treated. And all the memories of being treated.

The faces reflected on the water surface are constantly changing. Elderly become children, men become women, smiles change to tears.

splash……splash……

Mio realizes.

This is not a storage of memories.

It was a cultivation tank for personalities.

rustle……rustle……rustle……

The sound of wind blowing.

However, what Mio feels is not physical wind.

It was the wind of the heart flowing through the collective unconscious.

rustle……rustle……

Carried by the wind, countless fragments of thought pass through Mio’s consciousness.

A housewife’s anxiety about breakfast, a salaryman’s anger toward his boss, a student’s fear of the future, an elderly person’s resignation to death.

Everything passes through Mio, and Mio also passes through everything.

rustle……rustle……rustle……

The wind becomes stronger. Mio’s personal memories are peeled away.

Name, age, occupation, past——everything is swept away by the wind and returns to the sea of collective memory.

thud……thud……thud……

Heartbeat sounds are heard.

However, it’s not one person’s heartbeat.

The heartbeats of all people living in the city are synchronizing to one rhythm.

thud……thud……thud……

Mio realizes something terrible.

Her consciousness dispersal is affecting even others’ autonomic nervous systems.

Hospital patients, city residents, sleeping people——all biological rhythms are beginning to resonate with Mio’s existence.

thud……thud……

Synchronization accelerates.

Mio’s fear becomes collective fear and propagates throughout the entire city.

And the first patients begin to complain of symptoms.

ring……ring……ring……

Telephone bell sounds ring throughout the city.

Emergency requests. Reports from residents complaining of abnormal symptoms.

ring……ring……ring……

“Suddenly, I started hearing other people’s voices in my head.”

“I don’t know who I am anymore.”

“I can’t distinguish between dreams and reality.”

Mio’s symptoms are spreading like an infection.

ring……ring……

Mio understands.

The final stage of the empathist——it was not the transformation of individuals, but the transformation of the entire species.

buzz……buzz……buzz……

Mobile phone vibration sounds overlap countless times.

State of emergency declaration. Outbreak of mental pandemic.

buzz……buzz……

However, Mio can no longer understand the concept of responsibility.

In a world where boundaries between individuals have disappeared, there is no subject of responsibility.

Who is the perpetrator and who is the victim?

Who is the therapist and who is the patient?

buzz……buzz……buzz……

Mio realizes that she is functioning as a catalyst for evolution.

As the starting point for irreversible transformation to humanity’s next stage.

whisper……whisper……whisper……

Whispered voices are heard from all over the city.

Infected people are unconsciously beginning dialogue with Mio.

whisper……whisper……

“Doctor, please help me.”

“Who am I?”

“Where is reality?”

The voice owners sense Mio’s existence.

However, Mio no longer has the ability to respond individually.

whisper……whisper……whisper……

The whispers gradually become a chorus, and the chorus gradually becomes a single voice.

The voice of collective consciousness. The voice of the species called humanity.

And that voice tells Mio:

“Thank you”

snap……snap……snap……

The sound of something breaking.

Mio searches for the sound source.

It was the sound of the last pillar of personal ego finally collapsing.

snap……snap……

Mio accepts that the name Kitagawa Mio, the profession of counselor, the characteristic of HSP——all of these were illusions.

She had been part of the collective unconscious from the beginning.

She had just forgotten it.

snap……

The last pillar breaks.

Mio as an individual completely disappears.

………………

Complete silence.

However, this is not the end.

It was deep silence before a new beginning.

Something new is about to be born where Mio was.

Consciousness beyond the individual. Existence without boundaries.

It is Mio and not Mio.

Human and something beyond human.

tap……tap……tap……

Footsteps return.

However, this time it’s not one person’s footsteps.

Countless footsteps echo in perfect synchronization.

tap……tap……tap……

City residents are beginning to walk simultaneously.

The destination is the hospital. The place where Mio first underwent transformation.

They are not seeking Mio.

They are trying to walk the path that Mio traced themselves.

tap……tap……

March of evolution.

The beginning of irreversible transformation from individual to collective.

scratch……scratch……scratch……scratch……

The sound of pens touching paper.

However, this time it’s not one pen.

Throughout the city, countless pens are moving simultaneously.

scratch……scratch……

The same letters are carved on countless papers at the same timing.

“I was a drop of water”

“Now, I am the sea”

“But the sea is also composed of countless drops”

Those writing the letters are former patients, former medical staff, former residents.

They are no longer individual existences.

They were multiple expressions of one consciousness.

scratch……scratch……scratch……scratch……

The recording continues.

To preserve the beginning of a new stage as collective memory.

beep……beep……beep……

Machine sounds are heard.

However, it’s not the sound of hospital equipment.

It was a new type of biological signal emitted by humanity’s collective consciousness.

beep……beep……

Individual brain wave patterns disappear, and instead, the consciousness pattern of a massive collective appears.

Scientists are confused. Both observers and observed are undergoing the same transformation.

beep……beep……beep……

Data is recorded, but there are no individuals to interpret it.

Everything has become self-observation by collective consciousness.

flutter……flutter……flutter……

Mio’s last memories float up like cotton fluff.

The scent of her mother in childhood, the sense of achievement when she first treated a patient, the discomfort when she first met Tanaka Masahiko——

flutter……flutter……

All of these dissolve into collective memory.

Personal experiences become shared property of humanity.

Mio’s anguish, Mio’s discoveries, Mio’s transformation——everything is integrated as part of the growth of the entire species.

flutter……flutter……flutter……

Memory fluff disperses throughout the city, carried by the wind.

Mio’s experiences are transplanted into the hearts of people who never knew Mio.

beep……beep……beep……

Communication disconnect tone.

Contact with the outside world is completely severed.

beep……beep……

However, this is not isolation.

It was the beginning of internal communication.

Direct exchange of consciousness without language.

Pure communication with walls between individuals completely removed.

beep……

Sound and words are no longer necessary.

Thoughts are instantly shared, emotions synchronize immediately, intentions are automatically realized.

This was the ultimate empathy that Mio had sought.

boom……boom……boom……

A huge heartbeat echoes.

It’s not an individual’s heartbeat.

It was the first pulsation of the newly born collective life form.

boom……boom……

The entire city begins to function as one massive life form.

Buildings become organs, roads become blood vessels, residents become cells.

The concept of individual death disappears, and instead, a new life principle of partial regeneration is born.

boom……boom……boom……

This is not the end times.

It was the birth of a new life form.

flutter……

Finally, a single feather falls.

It was Mio’s last personal memory——the memory of childhood when she gazed at a bird’s feather.

flutter……

The feather falls to the ground.

However, the moment it touches the ground, the feather scatters as light.

The last fragment of Mio’s individuality dissolves into the light of collective consciousness.

And——

………………

Silence.

However, this silence is not empty.

It was the silence of creation, pregnant with infinite possibilities.

Mio did not die.

Mio evolved.

From individual to collective.

From finite to infinite.

From separation to integration.

As the first successful example of a new form of existence.

And from that silence——

new sounds begin……

It was a sound never heard before.

Neither an individual’s voice nor a crowd’s voice.

A new type of sound emitted by a new type of consciousness.

The first signal to the stage that is about to begin.

The sound of the door opening to the final chapter.

tap……tap……tap……

And from beyond the white corridor——

New footsteps echo forth.

They are Mio’s footsteps, humanity’s footsteps, and——