Supernatural psychological manga from artist Ranjou Miyake.
There exists people with terrifying psychic powers, able to infiltrate minds and crush those who their overseers order them to or to alter memories to better suit their whims.
The criminal underworld is the primary employer of these individuals, such as Hiroki and Tsukasa. Hiroki is Tsukasa's Pet, a very powerful infiltrator he's assigned to manage.
But these powers come at a price. Both physical and mental. Can these two survive the brutal strain of their work? Or will their bond be shattered?
Ran in Big Comic Spirits from 2002 to 2003. Received an anime adaptation by Geno Studio during the Winter 2020 season.
Tropes:
- Animorphism: Hiroki transforms himself into a goldfish when using his psychic powers.
- The Atoner: Hayashi previously worked for the criminal world, but after seeing all of their atrocities, he decided to break free from the criminal world of The Company and made it his goal to save his students and plans to expose the criminal world.
- Battle in the Center of the Mind: When Tsukasa is preventing Hayashi from escaping and finding Satoru, Hayashi decides to enter into Tsukasa's mind to try and save him by viewing into his memories. However, when reaching Tsukasa's peak, Tsukasa decides that both of them should go down together and heavily damages his own peak, causing Hayashi and Tsukasa to suffer a coma.
- Big Good: Hayashi is this. He wishes to save Satoru and Tsukasa from the criminal world and plans to expose the The Company's wrongdoings.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Tsukasa is presented as a level-headed, rationale guy at first. But as the story unfolds, he's revealed more and more to be a self-obsessed, remorseless sociopath.
- Blow You Away: Hayashi generates wind when he uses his psychic powers.
- Blue-and-Orange Morality: Oh boy, Tsukasa is just filled with this trope. He thinks that it's okay to manipulate Hiroki as a tool for his own benefit and his unhealthy obsession for Hayashi is so grand, that he gleefully prepares himself to destroy Satoru out of jealousy.
- Decoy Protagonist: Kenji is the main focus character of the first two chapters, but then it becomes clear that his two employees are the real protagonists as they got themselves hired by him to make sure he didn't learn too much about their organization, like his best friend did (who the organization killed). The first arc then becomes about finding a way to mentally make him cut ties with said friend so that they won't have to kill him (since otherwise he'd definitely go snooping around to find why his friend died).
- Harmless Villain: Katsuragi works for the antagonists, but no one really takes him seriously. And he always ends up getting his mind manipulated by the main characters every time. Except he wasn't actually a villain to begin with. His memories were hidden away and was a descent man and also the father of Jin.
- Hidden Heart of Gold: Inside of his seemingly antisocial exterior, Hiroki's a very emotional person and he really does have a good heart. He did feel sorry for manipulating a female customer to break up with her boyfriend (who was an asshole) and he felt great sympathy for a comatose Hayashi after discovering the truth between his and Tsukasa's relationship.
- Making a Splash: Tsukasa liquefies himself into water when using his psychic powers.
- Mind Screw: The mental journeys get extremely screwy.
- Mental World: People with the psychic powers can enter into the minds of others, which is like entering into another world. This can lead to changes such as memory alteration and such because the person's mind is exposed for the psychic user to manipulate. If the person has stronger mental protections inside, then the psychic user cannot manipulate their mind.
- Nice Guy: Hayashi and Satoru are both generally good people in terms of morality. Hayashi wishes to set things right and Satoru also believes in Hayashi's ideals as well, working to be like him.
- No Social Skills: Hiroki has a hard time interacting with people when Tsukasa's not around. He's shown to frown more often and tends to give Brutal Honesty to people who try to get along with him, like Satoru or the female customer at his and Tsukasa's shop. But, he's not completely antisocial since he's very emotional and capable of feeling guilt and sympathy for others.
- Psychic Powers: The main characters and some of the antagonists are able to use psychic powers to manipulate the minds of others. It was revealed that the origins of the psychic powers came from the training of Qigong Masters.
- "Ray of Hope" Ending: Hiroki and Satoru managed to escape The Company, but Jin and Tsukasa have lost their minds and are still being watched by The Company. However, Satoru and Hiroki have made their resolve to save Tsukasa, Jin, Meiling, and Hayashi from The Company and to carry Hayashi's work to stop The Company once and for all.
- Sanity Slippage: Tsukasa's mental state slowly starts to crumble as the series continues on. So much that he asked Hiroki to wipe his memory clean so that he wouldn't have to suffer anymore, who reluctantly did so. As of now, Tsukasa has ended up a vegetable.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Hiroki never wants to work with Katsuragi and always badmouths him when they have to work on a mission together.
- Yandere: Tsukasa has an unhealthy obsession for Hayashi because he was Tsukasa's role model and mentor. He greatly looked up to him, but soon became jealous when Hayashi said that he was going to save Satoru.
