Three months had passed since I acquired the Book of Katsu. In that time, the church had fallen silent and the association no longer trusted me or perhaps they simply didn't want me anymore but either way, I stopped caring.
The only person who still treated me like I belonged in that association was the Chairman. He even kept me informed about that ongoing investigation about the talismans that had cursed the other members, turns out they weren't working with the church after all. And lately they've doing public stunts, so the exorcists have their hands full.
The quiet left me with ample time to dive into the book but it was actually Suzume who had taken on the hefty task of deciphering its contents.
The book was essentially Katsu's diary and she was adamant about not skipping any of his daily notes, insisting that every detail could be important. We were still nowhere near the end of it but so far we had learned alot of things and that Katsu Yamada was the first person in history to ever use spiritual energy. Though, apparently this wasn't even the important part.
As for Gabriel, his body still haven't been found and because he was considered dangerous, his case was classified as an escape rather than a missing person.
—
I woke up on the couch, the familiar pain on my neck reminding me that I had fallen asleep during yet another late-night study session.
Suzume was already awake but actually… I wasn't sure she ever slept. She was perched on the cluttered table, deeply engrossed in the book until she turned to me. "I see you're awake." she said without looking at me. Her voice sounded calm until she turned around, pointing a finger straight at me and yelled– "Last night, you dozed off while I was explaining the Fourth Cycle!"
I sat up, rubbing the sleep from my face while an awkward chuckle escaped me. "I'm so sorry for that."
Over the last weeks, we learnt that Katsu had broken down the evolution of the Recreation technique into what he called Cycles.
The First Cycle was when he discovered his technique, recreating an object into something of the same value. Suzume pointed out that I had unintentionally skipped this one back when I awakened my technique at the hospital – I was recreating objects of different value and kept reforming the blade of the katana.
The second Cycle involved discovering he could turn solid matter into liquid and liquid into solid. This was another hurdle I haven't quite mastered yet, even now.
The Third Cycle was the one I had used at the hospital, recreating something of a different value entirely but it puts a staggering strain on the human body. That was the reason my spiritual core had been leaking into my neural pathways.
"Can you explain the Fourth Cycle again?" I asked, trying to sound attentive.
Suzume sighed, flipping through the pages. "Katsu wrote that all living things have two energies and the first one is called All Matter. This energy is said to be the very essence of physical forms, what tells your heart to be a heart but it's somehow unstable and that's why all living beings developed a second system. The spiritual core acts as a containment vessel, holding the All Matter in check and only releasing the tiny, regulated amount the body needs to maintain its shape."
"I'm guessing that the second energy is the spiritual energy." I replied.
"Yes and spiritual energy exists to protect the body from that tiny amount the core releases to maintain our shapes. And also so that we hunans can safely use the power of All Matter without destroying themselves. But I know you've already seen that when it's overused our bodies react adversely."
Everything started making sense now because back when Suzuki had used her reality distortion, she ended up with a massive nosebleed. I also had my own episode fighting that church bastard, my body ceased to move after I rapidly used the Recreation technique to reform the blade of the katana.
"Now about the Fourth Cycle." Suzume continued, her voice steadying. "Katsu discovered a way to recreate his spiritual energy. He learnt to use the smaller amount of his energy to reform it into a larger quantity, similar to the second Cycle. But he was recreating energy itself, so he didn't experience burnouts like you did when you reformed the katana. In fact, he says that he even reached the peak of infinite energy because he kept on recreating."
I couldn't quite wrap my mind over what I just heard. "That is too much. How does one even get to that level of power?"
"I know this sounds insane but trust me, it's just the least of it. After reaching that peak, he attempted another experiment which was a gamble but he pulled it off." she said, her eyes sparkling with excitement.
"Come on, just tell me what it is already." I urged, my impatience bubbling over.
"Katsu was able to reform his spiritual energy into All Matter." she said, pausing for effect. "It feels impossible but he actually did it. However, because the energy is unstable it took time for him to manipulate it. He was actually scared of this power."
All this was whole other level of insanity and it made my mind race on what I would become if I tried all of this. "Uh... I know we said I should try everything he wrote in there but this one feels impossible. How am I supposed to recreate another energy? So far, I can only recreate things I've seen with my own two eyes."
"Except, you've already tapped into your All Matter. When you told me the healer said you almost died but your body was repairing itself, that was it. Although Katsu never described how you can use this energy, he did mention that it was also regenerating his body." Suzume replied, her gaze unwavering.
I sighed deeply, scratching the back of my neck. "Earlier, you said that it was unstable. How does something unstable regenerate my body?"
"I also said it's the essence of physical form. I don't know how to explain this but it's the foundation structure of the body and when a part of your body gets injured or broken, it creates a crack in the structure and disrupts the flow. The smaller amount of All Matter takes time to connect, which is why our bodies heal slow and leaves scars because that part of the body wasn't received the energy for some time. When you were injured, your technique somehow reacted on it's own and reformed the flow of All Matter, which caused the regeneration." she explained.
I unintentionally made a loud groan, feeling more bewildered than ever. "I personally feel like the more we talk about this, the less it makes sense to me."
"Well, I'm all out of ways to simplify this." she conceded. "But you know, reading this book actually made me realize how special you are. Even when you had zero knowledge about this technique, your body was already using it."
"I don't think it's that big of a deal but... all of this things are the reason my mother suffered and I can't live without looking over my shoulder." I replied, everything creeping back in.
Just then, my phone buzzed on the table in front of the couch. I picked it up and saw a text message from the Captain: Check-in now.
I looked over at Suzume. "I gotta go... the Captain is calling for me."
"Right, and I'll start reading the last part of the book. It seems longer than the others but I'll be done in no time." she said, her focus already shifting back to the pages.
Suzume took the task of reading the book more seriously than anything and with all that's happening I found myself drifting back into my old detective job, I needed money. The Captain hasn't changed also, he still assigns me to cases that involve exorcist duties.
I trudged to her bathroom, splashed some water on my face and quickly freshened up. After a final glance in the mirror, I walked out to my car and drove straight to the station.