Tokyo bombing incident Nth time

In addition, there are traces of exploration left inside the house, such as footprints, etc. There aren't many, and although it's impossible to completely eliminate them, we still try to restore as much as possible before leaving.

After a flurry of activity, he closed the window and then floated out in ethereal form.

After meeting up with Akemi, they began to run towards the cabin.

The goal isn't too far, and I really don't want to be hanging on the back of a motorcycle anymore.

It was already late at night, close to two o'clock, but Akemi was still full of energy (Yuri was no longer surprised by this). She followed Yuri slowly on her motorcycle.

Turn at an intersection not far from the sea

Just as Takemura recorded, all that could be seen at the destination was a dense forest, with thick vines filling the gaps, making it impossible to see the hut from the outside.

—But, Mr. Takemura, I hope you will think about this carefully: Wouldn't a dense forest suddenly appear out of nowhere on the grass attract attention?

Chapter Fourteen: Squirrel Disease

The two of them worked hard to clear some of the vines, but there was still a long way to go before they could get Akemi through.

Takemura used magic to ensure that the plants here grew, allowing them to grow into what they are now in an obviously unsuitable environment—vibrant, extremely healthy, and too tough to be dealt with by fingernails.

Akemi pulled a fruit knife from her clothes and struggled with the vines for a while. Unexpectedly, while she was chopping, the vines were also visibly regenerating slowly, far exceeding the normal speed. This regeneration rate was still slower than Akemi's chopping speed. If she continued to persevere, she expected to be able to cut a path by dawn, or perhaps by noon?

It's probably unlikely. Although Yuri sometimes felt that Akemi's physical abilities were not human-like, chopping down the constantly regenerating vines was still a physically demanding activity.

Moreover, it would be daylight by then, and if people going to the beach saw Akemi doing something to the trees by the roadside... it could very well cause trouble.

On the other hand, Yuri's plan to enter directly in spirit form also failed. He passed through the vines almost without resistance and was then bounced out by something similar to the light membrane he had encountered before.

It's very likely that some kind of key is required to enter this place normally.

I've already tried the diary, but it didn't work.

Although Akemi had been slashing for several minutes, in Yuri's vision, the vines and the trees they entwined still gave him a very healthy feeling. Akemi's attacks had weakened the vines, but they were far from being completely weakened.

They had to accelerate things somehow, so Mingmei began adjusting her movements to prepare for a protracted battle.

We must... accelerate the loss of the vines' vitality.

Yuri reached out his hand towards the gap that Akemi had cut, feeling the energy emanating from it, and then forcefully extracted it from his mind.

Feelings of weakness and fullness occur simultaneously.

"What did you do? I feel like the luster of the vines has faded." Akemi's voice seemed to come from the horizon, ethereal and faint. "Yuri?"

Decay, decay, and darkness. Yuri was immersed in a strange feeling, as if the world was not real, as if decay would eventually devour everything, and Yuri was in the heart of this decay.

He then regained his senses and was astonished at his own illusion. The feeling he had just experienced was like a dream, vanishing before Yuri could grasp it. Spirits don't dream, but Yuri felt he had experienced it.

Let's try again. Yuri gripped the gap in the vine tightly.

The same ethereal feeling did not reappear. This time, things developed quite clearly. Yuri discovered the source of his fullness: the life force lost from the vines entered his body and was transformed into energy. The feeling was a bit strange, as if he were crawling on the plant like an insect, sucking its sap.

In any case, after two more times, accompanied by waves of dizziness, the vines stopped regenerating. Their abnormal vitality was weakened. Although they still appeared exceptionally resilient, they would not regenerate quickly.

Ignoring the deepening dizziness, Yuri repeated the process, and eventually, the vine's resilience returned to normal. Yuri had the illusion that if he did the same thing one or two more times, he would see the entire vine turn to ashes.

Shaking his head, he realized that Akemi had already opened the path, and a small wooden house that didn't look very big appeared inside.

"What just happened? Why did you suddenly stop talking?" Mingmei's voice carried an obvious concern.

"I... feel a little unwell." Yuri briefly explained what he had just done.

"...This might be because it's your first time taking the life force of another living being, and you got an upset stomach." The high school girl doctor's tone was uncertain. "Or perhaps, as a ghost, you're incompatible with the life force of plants. Or maybe this life force itself is particularly abnormal, so after you ate it, you—"

"Stop, stop, the more you talk, the more awkward I feel." Yuri, who was clearly full but felt particularly uncomfortable, waved his hand. "Let's... let's go inside and take a look. I think my condition will probably get better in a while."

Mingmei opened the door and went inside, followed closely by Yuri, and then her entire spirit body slammed onto the light membrane.

This light membrane looks like it's specifically designed to ward off spirits, Yuri thought. I thought you disappeared along with the vines, but it turns out you were waiting for me here.

If you place your hand on the light film and press it inwards, the film will not move at all; it is not the elastic type.

The office has the same things, but Yuri can just walk right through them.

The biggest difference between the two is that the light film in the office is much dimmer.

Yuri previously believed that the light shielding in the office was deliberately concealed because it wasn't intended to block light, but now Yuri has a new idea.

The problem likely lies in energy; if the light film retains too little energy, it will become dim and lose its blocking ability.

Then we need to find a way to consume its energy, just like consuming the energy of the vines outside.

Yuri tried to absorb energy from the light membrane, but the membrane was intact and lacked an opening for energy to flow out, which greatly hampered Yuri's efforts. He couldn't very well bang his head against it and create a crack.

Fortunately, he managed to reconnect in the end. Yuri couldn't extract energy from the light membrane, but he successfully began to consume it. When he realized that what he was consuming was the spiritual essence within his own body, he almost immediately disconnected. Fortunately, he then found that his condition was actually getting better as the spiritual essence was consumed.

As the newly absorbed spiritual essence was rapidly consumed, Yuri's pain gradually lessened. Finally, when more than half of the newly acquired spiritual essence had been used up, Yuri reached into the light membrane.

Although I was back to being hungry, since I was far from starving to death, getting an upset stomach was still more painful.

You might be able to fill your stomach this way, but it's definitely hard to digest.

"You look much better," commented the Mongolian doctor.

Yuri felt the same way.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

The two entered the small house and found a ladder leading down; it turned out to be a multi-story basement building.

There's a bunch of books on the first floor; I'll look at them later.

The second floor... also has a bunch of books, I'll look at them later.

The third floor is much larger, and inside there is... a huge pile of scrap metal.

There is no fourth layer.

Yuri went to read the books on the second floor, while Akemi went to read the books on the first floor. Although the basement had some ventilation pipes, the air circulation became increasingly poor as you went deeper into the basement.

On the second level, the books mostly contained esoteric content, which was very mysterious and profound—Yuri didn't have time to understand these contents, so he only read Takemura's annotations in the books.

Most of them don't have any immediate effect, but studying the philosophy of Takemura is useful.

The other part consisted of folk history books, various legends, and tales of monsters. Yuri had initially thought they were just for passing the time, but Takemura seemed very interested in the various items mentioned, marking them with circles and dots.

I finally found it. Although I haven't studied the contents in detail yet, the book is worn out. When I opened it, I could see that Takemura had written too many notes, filling every blank space in the book.

The book is titled "Hunter in the Ocean".

It records many legendary stories of the sea. Takemura believed that many of the stories came from the spirits of the sea. He recorded various credible and unbelievable habits and eventually left behind a sketch that looks like a rather unique anchor.

The notes refer to the anchor as the source of the spirit's calamity and firmly believe that this thing can harm and control his target, "the hunter."

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

Yuri thought of the pile of scrap metal and rummaged through it. There were indeed anchors, but none of them matched the sketches. The other items were completely unidentifiable; they all looked very ordinary, and although there were signs of categorization, the categorization lacked any immediately discernible pattern.

However, there are a few items that seem to have been mentioned in the books I just flipped through. Considering Yuri didn't look at them in detail, there might be more related items, even though I have absolutely no idea how to use them. Even if they are the root of all evil, we should at least know which one is the root of which.

Akemi is not moving—could she have fainted up there?

They floated up the ladder.

"Ah, you're up here. How did it go? I'm still reading his operation logs. It looks like this is where he planned his operations." Mingmei wasn't unconscious, but she seemed to be overwhelmed by the chaotic logs. "His operation logs are very incomplete. I have to use my imagination to barely understand what he did."

"The second floor is the archives room. He's gathering information from a pile of dubious occult books and legends, mainly about spirits," Yuri poked his head out. "What did he find?"

"Generally speaking, he's collecting something he calls the 'Root of Calamity.' I have some guesses. Have you seen it?"

“He divided the weaknesses of spirits into two types. The first type is what spirits must do or cannot do, which he called taboos, the same term you used,” Yuri recalled. “Then, he called the things spirits cannot touch, things that will cause them harm, ‘causes of evil.’”

"It's pretty much what I guessed. In short, the records here describe his attempt to build a repository of all the evil spirits in the world, collecting a vast amount of things."

In other words, all those things on the third floor are the source of various different spirits' misfortunes. That's truly remarkable—but Mr. Takemura, how do you know which is which?

"Then, he recently acquired his most precious collection, a nemesis that could work on the hunters, or at least that's what he thinks. He plans to use this nemesis to force the hunters into submission and seize their power. He said it was in a book called—the Ocean… what was it again?" Akemi started flipping through the records she had read.

"The book 'Hunter in the Ocean'? I saw this book below, it has a lot of annotations, and he also said that what he found was an anchor."

"Yes, that's the one. Did you find the anchor on the third floor?"

"No, he probably took that to find the hunter."

...After combining the information gathered by the two, things seemed quite clear.

Takemura, believing he had obtained the root of a powerful spirit (something that damages spirits upon contact and is extremely effective as a weapon), became very arrogant and prepared to cause a big disturbance.

He then borrowed the company's ship without asking and went to sea alone. There, he somehow summoned the hunter and then faced him with courage and wisdom, intending to subdue him.

Then it hung up.

His plan went wrong and didn't work as he expected. Now a spirit monster is roaming the city, hunting ghosts, which shouldn't be part of Takemura's original plan.

The two read through the information that Takemura had investigated and compiled, hoping to find some weaknesses in their target.

Takemura believes that the essence of the "hunter" is the spirit of a certain marine creature that, after devouring other spirits, eventually grows into a marine hunter spirit. If it were to upgrade further, it might become a hunter spirit.

Regarding the foundation of the Hunter's Spirit, Takemura believes it originated from the Sea Urchin Spirit, but he has no evidence.

...Sea urchin? So it was a sea urchin? Yuri was somewhat shocked.

As a ferocious spirit, the Hunter Spirit will leap out whenever it is provoked. Takemura plans to use a summoning ritual to prevent the Hunter Spirit from leaving, then use the Root of Calamity to keep it away, and finally subdue it with magic.

Takemura deduced that the hunter's taboos lay either "peace/forgiveness," that is, returning to friendship with an already hostile target, or "forbearance," that is, voluntarily letting go of an enemy who had provoked him. In either case, Takemura did not believe his plan would have a second chance; conversely, it meant he died after only one attempt.

If he hadn't acquired the source of the trouble, Takemura would never have become so arrogant as to provoke the hunter.

Unfortunately, neither of these possibilities applies to Yuri. Obviously, the hunter won't intentionally trigger his own taboos, and if Yuri had a way to force the hunter to negotiate/forgive/accept concessions—he wouldn't be running around like this.

According to Takemura's records, the items on the third floor were the sources of evil from other spirits that he had collected. There were general sources of evil that were useful to weak spirits, as well as special sources of evil that were effective against certain higher-level spirits. However, there was definitely nothing that was particularly effective against the hunter at the moment. If there really was something, Takemura would have taken it with him.

Yuri suspected he had reached a dead end. The information he had found only indicated that Takemura's demise was of no further help, but there was still one last way.

That anchor.

There is currently no direct evidence that the anchor was the hunter's fault, but there is at least one piece of indirect evidence.

The hunter is identified as a superior spirit. If Takemura actually went to fight the hunter and lost, then the hunter should still be in the sea, continuing to wreak havoc.

But things didn't turn out that way; the hunter ended up like this, weak (by the original standards) and badly injured.

If the anchor didn't play a crucial role in this process, how else could it be explained?

Since Takemura could use that anchor to deal with hunters stronger than him, Yuri should also be able to use that anchor to fight against hunters stronger than himself.

But it will still take some time to find the root of the problem.

In the best-case scenario, the anchor will remain on the stolen ship.

But in reality, it is very likely already deep in the ocean.

Yuri was cautiously pessimistic about his luck.

Chapter Fifteen: Carving a Man to Find an Anchor

At dawn, the two arrived at the small dock where the ship was supposed to be.

To help witnesses find the trail, the news did mention the appearance of the speedboat, but unfortunately it wasn't a special vessel that could be easily spotted from a distance; it required close observation.

The manager hasn't arrived yet, but they should be close; we need to hurry.

It didn't take long because the target ship was quite conspicuous.

First, it appears that some of the paint on the boat has been worn away, and there are no signs of repair. Second, it possesses a rather strong spiritual aura. Third, it is surrounded by a "keep away" cordon (although there is no one guarding it).

Upon closer inspection, the ship appeared even more wretched, as if it had been swirling in the whirlpool for a long time before being swept ashore by the tsunami.

It wasn't just the surface of the game that was worn down; the hull was also deformed. It was unclear whether the equipment on board was still usable, but judging from the salt crystals that had seeped out of the surface, the precision instruments must have been submerged in water.

A ghostly afterimage lingered on the ship, looking very much like the ghost of Takemura, but Yuri tried to touch it and found that the afterimage didn't move at all, even less than a broken record.

If the repeater is a normal ghost with impaired intelligence who doesn't know what to do, then this is a fragment of a ghost—the ghost itself is already a remnant of a human being, and this is a remnant of a remnant.

Akemi couldn't see the image, but after Yuri described it, she judged it to be an extremely rare phenomenon, so rare that she had never heard of it before.

Yuri had always complained that the messages from the parrot were unclear, but this one, which didn't respond at all, was even worse than the parrot.

Continuing her search, Akemi found the ship's anchor—not the one that caused the trouble.

Next to this ordinary anchor, there is another broken chain, which was obviously added later to secure something else.

After searching the boat thoroughly, the two found nothing else of note except for a fishing net that also possessed spiritual energy.

The results of exploring the fishing net were not very satisfactory. Yuri could not discern the source of the spiritual energy on it, but Akemi deduced from the fish scales hanging on it that the fishing net had been used recently.

Did that guy from Takemura perform a blood sacrifice by catching fish on the spot? It's not impossible; the purpose of casting the spell might be to catch more fish as quickly as possible.