Chapter 6
A rain that came without warning also left without warning.
Sunlight pierced through the clouds, turning the surface of the puddles into sparkling ripples.
Kanzaki Tomomu closed the oil-paper umbrella, gently shook off the water droplets, removed his mud-covered shoes, and slipped on a pair of clean sandals.
"Go dry your clothes quickly."
"Mhm."
Having experienced rainy days when bringing her mother for treatment before, Clarisse changed her shoes and walked familiarly into the bamboo house. She activated the special "drying machine" placed in its usual spot.
It was something Mr. Kanzaki had tinkered with in his spare time. He couldn't be bothered to give it a proper name, so he simply called it the drying machine.
Warm air flowed into her dress, circulating along her skin and carrying away the dampness the rain had left on both fabric and body, forming a faint, almost invisible mist.
Meanwhile, Kanzaki Tomomu went to his room, casually changed his clothes, and habitually put on his large white coat before entering the treatment room.
The session was nearing its end.
The girl's lively figure stopped beside Kanzaki Tomomu. She gazed at her relative inside the medical pod, fingers unconsciously twisting together in a prayer-like pose.
"Relax. Everything is normal."
When the treatment countdown reached zero, the medical pod door opened automatically. Mrs. Durand slowly opened her eyes.
Seeing the familiar yet somewhat unfamiliar faces, the confusion in her eyes lessened slightly.
"…Clarisse… and this gentleman…"
"Mother!"
Clarisse carefully helped Mrs. Durand up and hugged her tightly in excitement, but she quickly came back to her senses. Her small face filled with astonishment.
"Mother… you don't remember Mr. Kanzaki?"
"Mr. Kanzaki… Mr. Kanzaki…" Mrs. Durand thought hard, then said uncertainly, "…Is he the doctor treating me?"
Kanzaki Tomomu's eyes flashed with seriousness.
Meeting the girl's slightly panicked gaze, he gave her a subtle, reassuring look.
"Mrs. Durand, please allow me to examine your current brain condition."
"Alright."
He attached the relevant electrode sensors to Mrs. Durand's head and started the examination program.
Countless streams of data that Clarisse couldn't understand scrolled across the display screen. Kanzaki Tomomu didn't miss a single punctuation mark, taking it all in.
A few minutes later, he shut down the device and removed the electrodes.
"Mrs. Durand's current condition shows some minor issues, but they are still within a controllable range. Please don't worry. In two months, your amnesia will be completely cured."
"Ah, good. Thank you for all your hard work."
Though Mrs. Durand couldn't remember Kanzaki Tomomu, she could still feel the kindness he radiated.
"You may go home now. Please return for a follow-up treatment in 24 days."
Mrs. Durand showed no special reaction to the number 24.
Clarisse, however, did. Seeing her mother's response, worry flashed across her face.
This was the first time after a treatment that her mother had forgotten the interval between sessions.
And the time until the next treatment had shortened again by several days…
Sooner or later, the day would come when even daily treatments would be useless.
By then—
Even she might be forgotten by her mother.
When a person completely loses their memories, even if they are still alive, it is no different from having passed away.
[Life is a winding labyrinth. Aside from memory, we have nothing.]
Recalling the words her mother had once said to her, Clarisse finally felt she somewhat understood their meaning.
...
After the mother and daughter left, Kanzaki Tomomu imported the session data into the recording terminal and began further analysis.
Even in worlds with fairly advanced medical technology, memory-related illnesses remained a difficult problem.
For example, the people of the Xianzhou.
The exact cause of falling into the Mara-Struck state was deeply linked to memory.
Those who succumbed to Mara had their six senses inverted and all human relationships severed.
Teacher had once researched how to cure the Mara-Struck condition, but he didn't know whether that project had ever been completed.
The Xianzhou volunteer who willingly became the research subject and test specimen had been taken away by a starship one day.
Whether it succeeded or failed, whether the person lived or died—Kanzaki Tomomu, who had only been 22 at the time, had no way of knowing.
However, after that, Ruan Mei added one more memory-related research topic to his assignments.
Thanks to his long immersion in memory studies, he had gained the ability to treat Clarisse's mother's amnesia.
So far, all symptoms were still within expectations. That was good.
Kanzaki Tomomu was confident—and would definitely keep—the promise he had made to Clarisse.
At some point, Kanzaki Tomomu had begun to treat promises with extreme importance.
Sometimes even he didn't understand why he would pour so much effort into things that were clearly just casual words spoken lightly by the other party.
Many years ago, Yu Qingtu had said something to him—
"If you can make pastries that satisfy me, I will unconditionally do one thing for you and solve one difficult problem for your teacher."
"But since I admire Ruan so much, even if you can't do it, I'll still help her."
Kanzaki Tomomu had naturally made a solemn promise, determined not to disappoint.
He still remembered the look of thick astonishment in Yu Qingtu's eyes that day.
The meaning was obvious: the great Genius had only been joking casually and never expected the little guy in front of her to actually agree. Otherwise she wouldn't have added the second sentence as a way out.
After coming back to her senses, Yu Qingtu had curved her lips, a spark of interest and faint anticipation appearing in her eyes.
It had taken Kanzaki Tomomu a full seven years to successfully develop a miraculous flavor agent.
When added to pastries, it would automatically adapt to the taster and become their single most preferred taste.
In a sense it was a bit of a cheat, but it still earned Yu Qingtu's approval.
From then on, every time Yu Qingtu came to see Ruan Mei, Kanzaki Tomomu would prepare an extra portion of pastries.
At first he used that flavor agent, but as time passed he stopped using it.
"Mrs. Durand's amnesia is not caused by brain damage or any special disease…"
"It is not the same type as the long-conquered Alzheimer's disease… this can be confirmed with 100% certainty."
"Therefore, stem cell transplantation cannot be used."
"Using CRISPR-dCas9 technology to remove DNA methylation markers, reactivating memory-related genes, supplemented by a CCKBR receptor modulator…"
Kanzaki Tomomu opened the containment cabinet and took a dose of special medicine from the cold-storage rack.
This was the CCKBR receptor modulator.
Strictly speaking, it had no direct effect on Mrs. Durand's amnesia. It was only used as an auxiliary agent for prevention.
If the treatment process caused any neural damage to the patient's brain, the CCKBR receptor modulator could immediately take effect.
To truly cure Mrs. Durand's amnesia, the main reliance was still on the results of the research he had spent many years on.
—Memory decoding and refilling.
Using implanted devices to simulate hippocampal function and replicate memory-related neural signals.
Capture and amplify the residual electrical signals in the hippocampus, digitize the patient's memories, and retransmit them via BCI.
"…Hah. If it were a Memokeeper from the Garden of Recollection, there might be a much simpler method…"
Unfortunately, he had not walked the Path of Remembrance, so he could only rely on himself.
The research had now reached its final stage. Only one last step remained: clinical testing.
Kanzaki Tomomu swallowed the receptor modulator, preparing to personally verify its effectiveness.
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Bonus chapters
200 Stones - 1 chapter
400 Stones - 2 chapter
600 Stones - 3 chapters
And so on