The Martial Unity

“It’s been more than two weeks. Why have they not regained consciousness yet?”

In the depths of an extremely well-guarded and well-fortified medical unit were two cylindrical glass chambers filled with a strange glowing liquid.

Suspended in the liquid were two men.

Their black hair floated about in the glowing fluid while gas masks were attached to their heads. Several tubes attached to syringes emerged from every inch of their bodies. A medical team was present at all times monitoring their conditions carefully and ensuring that there were on anomalies.

As far as medical attention went, it simply couldn’t get better.

“I asked you a question.” Emperor Rael’s powerful golden eyes sharpened to slits. “Why have they not yet recovered?”

The Divine Doctor’s gaze, devoid of warmth, remained fixed on Rui.

“There’s pushing yourself to the absolute limits and then there’s whatever these two did.” His tone was clinical. “Rather fascinating to see what Martial Artists do to win a fight. One shaved years of his lifespan while the other butchered his mind. I wasn’t there to witness this foolhardy self-harm they call a ‘fight,’ but, from their medical condition, they may as well have abused forbidden techniques. The entire battle may as well have been regarded as forbidden.”

Emperor Rael’s expression grew grave. “What…?”

The Divine Doctor turned towards Ieyasu with a faint hint of clinical interest in his eyes. “He stimulated his body to generate energy using alternative forms of metabolism as well as external sources of energy. That has exhausted and strained his cells on a sub-metabolic level and reduced recovery speed, such that even the highest grade potions can barely make a dent in healing all the damage that he has taken.”

Emperor Rael furrowed his eyebrows.

He didn’t understand Tokugawa Ieyasu.

They had found a fruit from the Tree of Healings in his belt, presumably given to him to be used against Rui.

Just as Rui had insisted, he didn’t consume it.

Had he consumed it, he wouldn’t have been in this mess.

This allowed Emperor Rael to infer much about the man even before he woke up.

“For him, it’s just a matter of time before he is fully recovered,” the Divine Doctor remarked before his clinical gaze turned to Rui. “Your son, however, is a less certain and a more complicated case.”

The Emperor of Harmony grew more severe. “Just how badly damaged is his body?”

“It isn’t.” The Divine Doctor’s voice was composed. “Physically, he healed to peak health hours after his battle. With him, the issue isn’t physical but rather…”

The Divine Doctor tapped the side of his head. “His brain?” Emperor Rael grew alarmed.

“His mind,” the Divine Doctor corrected him. “It is outside of my field of expertise, so I cannot help you in this regard. If the Psycher were here, he’d know exactly what needs to be done in order to fix your son.”

“…What is wrong with his mind?” Emperor Rael’s  severity continued escalating.

“I can’t be entirely certain, but if I had to conjecture based on the nature, consistency, and brain activity in the hippocampus and temporal lobe, I would suspect that he is… dreaming. Dreaming a dream constructed from memories.”

Emperor Rael’s eyebrows furrowed. “Dreams do not last two weeks, doctor.”

“This is no normal dream.” The Divine Doctor studied the data with vague interest. “This brain activity is rather strange. It is the same process associated with recall or memory recollection.”

“…What does that mean for him? Why is it taking him so long to wake up if his body is physically fine?”

“I’m not entirely certain. However, following each spike in activity in the hippocampus and temporal lobe, we observe a spike in stress levels, a spike in heart rate and blood pressure, a spike in the activity in the cerebral cortex, and numerous other spikes in different parameters, that correspond with anguish, stress, and pain.” The Divine Doctor’s interest was cold and clinical. “If I’m interpreting this data correctly, then I would postulate that your son isn’t unconscious at all. However, his consciousness is perfectly isolated from sensory data in a phenomenon associated with sleep. He is conscious inside the confines of his own mind.”

In the chamber, Rui’s Body twitched and spasmed.

Under the gas mask attached to his face, his expression crumpled with hints of pain, horror, and grief.

Over and over.

Chills crawled across Emperor Rael’s skin. “What… what does that mean?”

“Given that his stress and anguish increase with each spike in parts of the brain associated with memory functions, my tentative hypothesis is that your son is in an endless loop of memory recollection and… memory rejection.”

“Memory… rejection?” A hint of horror appeared in the eyes of the Emperor of Harmony. “That tentatively appears to be the case, yes.” The Divine Doctor’s tone was devoid of warmth as he dissected the data in a clinical fashion. “The mind often subconsciously suppresses traumatic memories as a defensive mechanism to protect the person from themself. In this case, however, your son might be doing it subconsciously and consciously. Ordinarily, a memory recollection and rejection would only happen once. But for some reason, in your son’s case, these forgotten memories keep resurfacing over and over again, and he keeps rejecting them over and over again. An endless nightmare with no end. Not unless he accepts those memories and accepts that they’re a part of him.”

Emperor Rael’s expression only grew darker and darker with each passing moment. “Forgotten memories…”

He could not help but wonder if this was related to the trauma that Rui had suffered in the Beast Domain. A trauma that had been so horrific that Rui was unable to even speak about it to his own father.

“You know, don’t you…?” he growled at the Divine Doctor. “You are responsible for these traumatic memories.”

The air tingled with peril as Rael confronted the Divine Doctor not as the most powerful Emperor in human civilization, but as a concerned father. Yet, a mirthless smile appeared on the Divine Doctor’s gaze. “Doctors diagnose their patients. They do not cause illnesses. Your son was broken from the day he was born, long before I enlightened him to the truth.”

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