HEALING PARADOX

After countless days of overtime, Naoto Kuroiwa—an advertisement salesman reduced to little more than a corporate workhorse—stumbles into Kishibe Chiropractic Lab on a colleague's recommendation. The clinic enjoys an excellent reputation, and its practitioner, Kazuma Kishibe, proves to be a strikingly handsome man of the same age. Initially, Kuroiwa finds himself overwhelmed by Kishibe's excessive friendliness and overbearing initiative. Yet the chiropractic technique itself is nothing short of miraculous, delivering such sublime relief that it feels almost otherworldly. "I'll make you feel so good you'll positively melt," Kishibe promises—and true to his word, his deft manipulations and precise finger pressure lull Kuroiwa into a deep slumber until the following morning. Kuroiwa becomes a regular at the lab, but with each visit, the treatments grow increasingly charged with sexual undertones. At the same time, he finds his own will to resist eroding, as though something fundamental within him is being irrevocably altered. It is only when he notices that Kishibe deliberately avoids touching his right shoulder—the site of an old injury from his high school baseball days—that the doctor's true nature begins to surface.