Phytoremediation

The limits of your mind

"I know a lady, good and evil. Told me that I was a gent-le-man. Wait for the girl to blossom into, colours that grow where you can."

<...○/|○|\○...>

Sunny flinched for a moment as the door seemingly slammed without even opening. The door then opened to an old, somewhat heavy-set woman.

"Come in." She said a bit enigmatically.

The boys looked at each other and followed the old lady inside. She may be acting weird, but so were they coming to her house to ask about a random book about Tibetan culture and historic customs.

She silently invited the two to sit on a familiar couch as she sat on a large armchair. "Master Moonlight, is this your chosen form?"

"What?" Sunny asked, confused due to... well, obvious reasons.

Who the fuck is Master Moonlight..?

"I see. I apologize for jumping to conclusions. You see, you look just like him. I am a part of a group that worships Master Moonlight. He is the being who granted humanity their sentience and has come to grant us a higher state of being. You look to be an ideal member of our group. Master Moonlight is soon gaining power." She "explained" if you could call it that.

"Uh... yeah, maybe." Sunny said, glancing at Basil, who couldn't hide his confusion. "We actually, uh, already know him. We uh, need-"

"The book? Yes, Master Moonlight revealed this to me in a dream." She said, nodding before pulling a book out from beneath her coffee table.

It was, in fact, not the right book. "We need a book on Tibetan history, actually... so uh..."

"Yes, that too was revealed in a dream. You need both." She handed the book over. "No Longer Human" by Osamu Dazai. She then stood up to get the book that they needed.

"I see where The Maverick gets it from..." Sunny whispered to Basil. Basil giggled quietly before she returned. "Here you go, young ones. May Master Moonlight guide your path." She said as she passed the book over.

"Uh, yeah... you too." Sunny replied, then speedwalked out the door, Basil in tow.

Sunny handed the unnecessary book to Basil, mumbling "hold this" while putting the larger book on Tibet in both of his hands to inspect.

"The History of Tibetan Buddhism, and the Fall of Dalai Lama" the front cover read, as expected. The writer was Tashi Tsering, new information to Sunny.

Sunny skipped around a bit. "A thousand years in slavery... an affront to Buddhism... a wolf in sheep's clothing... here we go, religious history of the serfdom." Sunny muttered, thinking aloud.

After clearing his thoat, Sunny began to read; "The concept of Tulpamancy was first invented by a man who created a tulpa which let him see through the eyes, and hear through the ears of his owner. He had great spiritual power and was one of the few serfs to ever become a monk himself."

"Does it tell you how to get rid of... them?" Basil said in an odd way.

"Lemme skip ahead a bit." Sunny said, doing just that. He found a part that said "weaponization" and decided to look over the page.

"Here!" Sunny said excitedly.

"The destruction of a tulpa has never been documented effectively, but it has become clear it is only possible through the person who created them. In Tibetan scripture, it was forbidden from being taught to serfs, but in 1959, when Tibet was liberated, the documents were able to read by the public." Sunny began, and then read out their methods of destruction.

"Ok, so, depending on religions, there are different ways... Tibetan Buddhism says the guy who made it has to kill someone who is possessed by it, so not that. Hinduism says hardcore sex, and uh..." Sunny glanced to Basil.

"...we already tried that." Basil mumbled into his shirt, blushing.

Sunny continued down the list, "Taoism says you gotta make the tulpa... sin..?"

"Well, that clearly won't work." Basil scoffed, "He already did, like 200 times by now."

"No, like, trick it into doing something it doesn't... like..? It's kind of weird how it's explained, but I think I know what to do. The only problem will be luring Omori into my brain again." Sunny said thoughtfully.

"Well, I think we can figure something out eventually, maybe at your house?" Basil hinted.

"Sure, one sec." Sunny began to call his mother on his emergency phone.

"Hey, mom."

"Where are you right now?" She asked a bit suddenly.

"Uh, walking with my boyfriend, why?" He asked with some confusion.

"Why? Do you purposely try to defy me?"

"What?" Sunny asked, more perplexed now.

"If you think you're so much smarter than me, go stay with him. You won't be coming back to this house until you stop being defiant and pretending to be in love with that boy." She huffed angrily.

"Okay." Sunny flattened his expression again and hung up.

"So um... what's going on?" Basil asked with a quizzical look. He seemed to look like Sunny felt just a few moments ago.

"Uh, mind if I sleep over for like... a month? Or maybe forever, since my mom is kinda kicking me out?"

"A- um- I- You're-" Basil seemed particularly flustered by this arrangement. "I mean, I- You can- I'll- Um... y-yeah, that'd be fine." Basil finally managed to utter, with a lot of blushing.

"What's wrong..?" Sunny asked cluelessly. Basil was thinking how Sunny used to think when he was around Basil in the past... well, he still did, but usually, it was only whenever he was near Basil's thighs.

Sunny followed Basil's eyeline and noticed where he was looking. "Pfft, you perv." Sunny teased.

"Sh-Shush, just come on." Basil responded with some of the red on his face being carried away by his voice.

"You're so cute." Sunny said as he followed along.