Basement is the second chapter of Tomie Part 2. It is a direct sequel to Tomie Part 2 and followed by Photograph.
Publication[]
Basement was originally published in the June 1989 issue of Monthly Halloween.
Basement is included in the collections The Junji Ito Horror Comic Collection Volume 2, Tomie Zen (Japanese only), Museum of Horror Volume 1, and Tomie: Complete Deluxe Edition (English only).
Plot[]
Following on from the events of chapter 1, rumors of Yukiko's operation and the "kidney monster" have spread all over Morita Hospital, including the report that the monster is now being kept in the basement. A teenage boy named Fumihito Sato asks his nurse if the stories are true and she says no; but he then sees her sneaking down to the basement. He follows and overhears the doctors talking about everything, including the fact that they are keeping Tomie's head for observation. One of the doctors, Tamura, compares Tomie's regeneration to flatworms - each dismembered piece of her will grow into a new one entirely. Fumihito also hears Yukiko's name brought up.
A curious Fumihito goes to find Yukiko even though she is not allowed visitors. Yukiko at first thinks he is Tadashi, because they sound alike. They have a brief chat before the hospital director storms into the room and berates Yukiko for not resting in bed. Fumihoto gingerly sneaks out of the room before he gets spotted.
The director and Dr Tamura later discuss her condition and that she has already completely recovered, just two days after major surgery. They consider the implications of having the kidney inside her, as it was over a month until it was removed and suspect that Tomie's cells still in Yukiko's body could be a form of cancer.
Fumihito continues to visit Yukiko, and develops feelings for her. Meanwhile, the doctors experiment with radiation on the removed Tomie head to see if it will kill the cells; but it instead accelerates Tomie's regeneration. She calls out to Dr. Tamura and tries to seduce him, even mentioning that a man has been hiding in a basement cabinet to watch them. Tamura is horrified and orders the basement to be locked.
Fumihito, curious about the basement and desperate to help Yukiko, sneaks in, narrowly avoiding a silhouetted figure in the dark. He finds a naked Tomie, now fully regenerated from the head, inside the tank where she was kept. Instead of falling in love, Fumihoto instead apologises for intruding into her privacy and quickly leaves. Tomie then goes up to Yukiko's room and threatens her, but Tamura catches her and realizes that she has regenerated in one day. He falls in love with her at first sight and helps her escape the hospital to his condo.
Dr Tamura soon discovers that Tomie's cells have caused Yukiko to become taller, more attractive, and her hair has started to grow smooth and black. He suggests to the director that Tomie could instead have a positive regenerative effect for medical treatment.
Yukiko finds Fumihoto and flirts heavily with him. Seemingly unaffected by her beauty, he rejects her due to a dislike of her newfound vanity. She becomes angry at him and storms off. When he tries to run after her, he doubles over in pain from his appendectomy. Yukiko laughs at him and insults him, greatly confusing him with her change in attitude. Back in her room, Yukiko wonders what came over her, and notices that she now has a mole under her eye just like Tomie.
The fully grown Tomie sneaks into the basement and burns the regenerating kidney the doctors were experimenting on. Tamura, apparently consumed by the same 'kill urge' like Tadashi last chapter, kills her and begins to dismember her to continue his research. The fire begins raging out of control. Satoru Takagi emerges from the aforementioned cabinet and realizes his plan failed - he simply wanted the doctors to experiment on Tomie for more info. He decides the hospital must be destroyed and pours petrol all over, causing the fire to spread rapidly. The director and Tamura are both killed in the blaze.
Fumihito notices the fire and risks his life by running up to Yukiko's room to get her to safety. To his horror, she has now fully transformed into Tomie both physically and mentally. Correcting him on her proper name, Tomie thanks Fumihoto for the kindness he showed her and leaves the burning hospital without trying to harm him. She runs into Takagi on the outside and stares ominously at him.
The bodies of the chief doctor, Tamura, and "an unidentified woman" (the Tomie removed from Yukiko during the operation) are found in the hospital's basement. It closes its doors forever, and all the nurses involved in Yukiko's operation eventually meet untimely deaths. Fumihito, standing outside the scorched hospital, can only wonder what became of Yukiko.
Trivia[]
- Despite this story and Tomie Part 2 being published and taking place directly after the first Tomie story, they are ordered after the three stories involving Tsukiko in the Horror World of Junji Ito collection.
- Fumihoto Sato is the first male character in the Tomie stories to be unaffected by the compulsion to love or kill Tomie.
- While the reasons for this are debatable, it seems to be linked to him not judging women by conventional beauty standards, even telling the altered Yukiko that he preferred how she looked previously.
- Comparatively, Tamura saw Yukiko's appearance change as entirely positive and was immediately taken by Tomie at first sight.