Chapter 350

"Hah... hah..."

Panting heavily, Fujiwara Chika now felt her lungs burning fiercely.

Yet her eyes remained red, and her hands gripped Ren Amamiya's clothes with unusual force.

"Don't say it!"

The immense shame was about to make her explode.

But Ren Amamiya, who was being grabbed, couldn't help but laugh.

"You, you've been dominated by fear too much."

"Now feel it—did you really wet yourself?"

Fujiwara Chika's taut nerves paused for a moment; she focused her attention there once more, and this time she felt not the slightest dampness or warmth.

"W-what's going on?"

Her brain completely crashed.

"Your senses are sending you false signals."

"And these false signals are what I transmitted to you through a special ability."

"When your capacity for independent thought declines, it becomes easy to control your emotions."

"And these false sensations merely cause you to misjudge certain matters, thereby triggering your emotions."

Ren Amamiya was using the Fraudster's extraordinary abilities: eloquence and mental interference.

By fabricating false sensory input, he made Fujiwara Chika falsely feel that intense shame, allowing her to temporarily suppress her fear of the deep sea with that sense of shame.

There, Fujiwara Chika trembled as she raised her small fist and tapped Ren Amamiya's chest.

"Y-you scared me to death..."

She almost truly thought she had wet herself from fright.

Fortunately, she hadn't actually wet herself from fright; otherwise, she felt her life could have ended right there.

Ren Amamiya, knowing Fujiwara Chika's state of mind at that moment, pointed downward.

"Now, are you still as afraid as before?"

Looking down once more, beneath her feet lay the dark sea, unchanged.

Standing atop such a sea, Fujiwara Chika could still feel that emotion of fearing something emerging from the darkness.

However, this emotion no longer controlled her as it had at the very beginning; instead, she could now control that emotion.

"Much better..."

Fujiwara Chika calmed her heartbeat; she truly felt her own growth and progress.

It was just that this growth had been achieved through rather strange means.

"Fujiwara, what you fear is something emerging from the darkness that you cannot understand or accept."

"A trench is a special terrain where light cannot reach the bottom."

"The more imaginative a person is, the more unable they are to restrain their fear of the darkness."

"But what if you possessed sufficient power?"

"For example, the kind of power Kaguya Sigong possesses."

Ren Amamiya pointed to Kaguya Sigong standing upon the sea surface.

Fujiwara Chika looked in Kaguya's direction.

At that moment, Kaguya Sigong's expression was icy cold, and the seawater beneath her feet had frozen on a massive scale.

Had she not controlled the direction of the ice's spread, the cruise ship would likely have been the first to suffer disaster.

She could already feel that terrifying chill.

"Hiss~"

A wave of cold made her shiver.

Looking again at the seawater beneath Kaguya's feet, now completely frozen solid, she deeply understood the importance of power.

"Then I probably won't be afraid anymore."

Fujiwara Chika was certain that if she possessed power similar to Kaguya's, she would feel no fear.

"So, this is why there are so many chuunibyou in this world."

"The desire for power often stems from recognizing one's own weakness and understanding that one's abilities are insufficient."

"Power is part of one's courage."

"Just as men need money as their courage; only with sufficient money can a man act and speak with courage outside."

"Power is the same."

"Power is one of the sources of courage when facing difficulties."

Ren Amamiya explained using his own understanding and perspective.

"So, Fujiwara, I hope you remember the feeling of this moment."

"Power is the limiter that releases the constraints within your own heart."

"Furthermore, do not envy; simply desire it."

"Kaguya Sigong's power is not suitable for you; carrying this desire, you should be able to obtain the power you hope for."

Fujiwara Chika felt her breathing stabilize considerably.