Tokyo bombing incident Nth time

It sounds like hell.

“Furthermore, ghosts almost never retain their creative abilities from their previous life. In other words, only high-level ghosts can begin creating anew; low-level ghosts can only grasp their existing memories and skills at best.” Yuka Yamanaka continued, “Most ghosts will never have such an opportunity—the underworld is hell, with only a very few exceptions…”

Clearly, that ghost was nothing special, and there was no reason for it to be an exception.

142 The Ecology of Sin Eaters

“The meaning of the ritual is to allow the ghost to let go and be freed from suffering... It’s difficult, but it’s still something we should do whenever we have the chance.” The sin-eating girl stretched out a hand, as if trying to grab something. “Normally, we don’t try to perform this kind of ritual on ghosts who still yearn to stay in the world. Of course, even if we do, it’s very difficult to succeed.”

Of course it's difficult. Ghosts are created because of unresolved obsessions. Getting a ghost created from such obsessions to let go is inherently very difficult. It seems that the Sin Eaters mainly target ghosts struggling between peace and obsession, giving them a push.

Yuri knew that the Sin Eaters didn't actually know where the ghosts they had exorcised went. One faction believed that the ghosts had actually shed their obsessions and turned into nothingness, while the other faction believed that the ghosts had actually shed their obsessions but their spirits remained and were reincarnated. The main consensus between the two factions was that exorcism was good, at least better than leaving the ghosts to suffer in the same place.

He himself is a nihilist, but he has no evidence, only an intuition.

"Did you know? Although there were some unexpected battle procedures this time... the success rate was relatively high. Eleven out of the twelve ghosts were released from suffering. Usually, this number is much smaller, with only half of the ghosts being released."

"What about the remaining ghosts? Their anchor point was just burned." Yuri nodded and asked.

“Next, we will use a ritual to help them connect with their own ashes, and then we will send them to the cemetery,” Yuka Yamanaka answered without hesitation. “Although not all ghosts are like this, most of them lose trust after a failed ritual, and it is difficult to release them through a second ritual in a short period of time. In this case, we will not initiate a second ritual.”

"Just how short is this short period of time?"

“A year—not exactly a full year, but at least a year.” The two were already halfway to the funeral home. “Mr. Minagawa said that the most enduring ghost he had ever seen remembered the failed ritual a year and two months later and still lacked trust in him—most ghosts don’t even last that long.”

The persistence here certainly doesn't refer to holding a grudge... it should mean that most ghosts disappear from the material world and fall into the underworld in less than a year.

"There are so many ghosts in this city, can you really manage to control them all?"

“Of course not. — Let’s save as many as we can.” Yamanaka Yuka’s voice did not reveal any fatigue, but her words were quite different. “It is said that in some sparsely populated areas, sin eaters can manage the local ghosts… but not in Tokyo, there are too many ghosts here.”

"Because there are many murders?" Yuri responded instinctively.

“That’s one of the reasons. I don’t know why there are so many murders here… I guess it’s more because there are so many ‘ambitious’ people here—so there are more people who die unwillingly, no matter what the cause of death is.” He sighed for the umpteenth time. “I’m not in a position to judge them.”

Those who eat sins are also the type who are absolutely unwilling to die.

"You're so mature when you talk about this kind of thing, like you've been through a lot?" Yuri thought. "But you weren't so mature when you were hitting me."

"Don't treat me like a child!" Yuka Yamanaka instantly snapped.

"Alright, alright, our professional sin-eater, Lord Yamanaka Yuga—" Yuri continued to tease the other party in a relaxed manner, while also livening up the atmosphere.

"That's disgusting—just call me by my name." The sin-eater girl turned her head back.

Is she blushing a little?

“Well then, Yuka Yamanaka—” I shall obey your command.

“I think calling me Yuka is… no, you should just call me Yamanaka.” The other person hesitated for a moment.

"Alright, Yamanaka—I have a very important question that I need to ask you."

Yuka Yamanaka stopped and turned around. "What question is so important?"

Yuri also stopped floating and looked down at his opponent.

Moonlight streamed through the window and shone on the ground beside them. It was very quiet, and Yuri felt he could even hear the other's heartbeat.

Seeing that the other person looked uncomfortable with their head tilted back, Yuri quickly took two steps back to make their perspectives level before speaking.

"So, with so many ghosts in the city... there must be a lot of sin eaters too, right?"

The creation of ghosts will not lead to the creation of sin eaters, but if the number of sin eaters cannot keep up, they will be too sparse to gather together at all, right?

“…………” Yamanaka Yuka turned her perspective toward the ground.

Is this question wrong?

“I don’t know.” Then Yuka Yamanaka raised her head. “This kind of communication has always been handled by Mr. Minagawa. I have offered to help, but they said it’s not suitable for me.”

This might not be suitable for a "champion of justice" like you... Yuri realized that he still hadn't forgotten the other side's fierce attack.

“However, I can be sure that even if there are, there aren’t many.” The Sin Eater girl raised a hand. “If there were many, I shouldn’t see a large number of ghosts, and I should be able to hear about more of my companions—I guess in this city, which has at least a million people, there are probably no more than five hundred Sin Eaters.”

"It's tens of millions," Yuri added in his mind.

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.

After chatting for a few more minutes, the two arrived at the entrance—the funeral home had already closed its doors, but Yuka Yamanaka led Yuri around and found a rather hidden, unclosed small door, from which they left the building.

Yuri's original plan was to climb over the wall to get out, but now he doesn't need to.

"That's enough to take you here. I can go back by myself from here," Yuri said politely.

Judging from the moon's angle, it should be around 8 PM now. If all goes well, I should be home by 10 PM—Aminmei probably hasn't gone to sleep yet.

The environment was very quiet, Yuri had noticed this when he came during the day, and now he was even more certain of it... This place was relatively remote, with fewer and less important roads passing through it; it was like the suburbs of a city.

Even if it catches fire or explodes, it probably won't attract much attention.

As Yuri turned around on his own, the sin-eater girl behind him revealed a very conflicted expression.

Could it be that she hasn't said what she wanted to say yet? Yuri stopped and turned back.

"Eek." This startled the other person.

“I’ve seen a lot of new things this time. I wouldn’t say I owe you a favor, but if you have anything to say, feel free to say it, and I’ll listen,” Yuri encouraged him to speak.

“Then I’ll be blunt. Have you considered participating in events like this in the future? It’s definitely better than going around robbing ghosts.” Yamanaka Yuka took a deep breath and said, “After actually participating once, you should realize the superiority of this method, right?”

She had brought this up before… According to Yuri’s observation, it does have certain advantages, and at least it’s not entirely unacceptable. Yuri could point out the drawbacks of this method, such as the need for certain conditions, the lack of smoothness in the cycle, and potential dangers… However, he knew that these drawbacks did not make this method any worse in comparison.

As for why she was able to offer this suggestion before, but was unwilling to bring it up when the time came... it was obviously because of the "unexpected situation" that occurred during this event, which made her embarrassed to speak up.

“I’ll consider it, just consider it… After all, this isn’t something to be judged lightly—I’m not opposed to accepting it, but whether I really want to do it requires some thought.” Yuri gave a measured answer. “If I wanted to tell you my answer, how would I find you?”

"Just leave a message at the gate, or you can call me." Yuka Yamanaka recited a string of numbers. "Although I'm often not at home, I should be able to run into you if I call a few times."

It was a landline number, indicating that her place of residence was much more formal than Mingmei's.

Is it possible to find her address through this landline number? Yuri thought about it and gave up. The other party giving him the number meant they trusted him, and it would be very impolite to try to find someone's address without it being necessary.

Although... whether this guy actually has any sense of secrecy is also a question.

"Well, I'll let you know as soon as I have a conclusion—but I'm letting you know in advance." Yuri felt that since the other party trusted him so much... he should at least tell them the unimportant things directly.

"What is it? Tell me," Yamanaka Yuka asked almost without hesitation.

Yuri revised his wording.

“I think your companion, Mr. Hirosaki Katsuya, is quite resistant to me.”

In the previous incident, Mr. Hirosaki Katsuya adopted a "do not listen to" attitude towards Yuri's proposals and was inclined to exclude Yuri from the activity. While it cannot be said that he harbored obvious hostility, he was clearly not very friendly towards Yuri, as if something had influenced him beforehand.

Mr. Minagawa Dojin's explanation is that Hirosaki was quite sensitive to his position, and Yuri, as an outsider, made him instinctively feel antagonistic. This reason may be correct.

Although Yuri once suspected him of being the mastermind, despite not observing him closely, Yuri didn't sense any particularly strong supernatural power from him... He didn't seem to have the ability to be the mastermind.

On the other hand, he would respond with gratitude for Yuri's help and would not deliberately harm Yuri (his actions mostly backfired on himself), and he would cooperate quite well when Yuri actually offered help.

If one could read minds, they might know what his complex reaction meant—for now, Yuri could only say that Hirosaki Katsuya was quite resistant to his attitude.

“…” Yuka Yamanaka fell silent.

She was probably thinking about how to respond to Yuri's question, and at the same time, she might have been communicating with her bound spirit.

If she had no idea why, and hadn't made any guesses, she should have answered quickly... The way she's thinking and (potentially) communicating now means she thinks she knows the reason, but doesn't know whether she should say it.

Yuri awaits the final result; what surprising words will he utter?

About half a minute later, the sin-eating girl gently shook her head, breaking free from her previous state.

"Sorry to keep you waiting... I've just been thinking about how to describe this situation to you."

Does it also include whether or not I should be told? Yuri wondered.

He did not react and continued to listen to the other person's speech.

“I think Mr. Hirozaki might feel a little ashamed of you…” Yamanaka Yuka’s face turned slightly red, “It’s about when I mistakenly attacked you before.”

"Is he involved in that matter?" This is the first time I've heard of this.

"There's no direct connection, but when I started gathering information about you recently, it was he who insisted you were a Qingming ghost—" Yamanaka Yuka hurriedly began to salvage her statement, "No, I'm not saying he was the one who dictated my opinion, I just mean he might have pushed me into a wrong judgment because I didn't have enough information—"

The girl who ate sins began frantically trying to take the blame upon herself.

From her explanation, Yuri pieced together the general situation.

At the time, Yuka Yamanaka discovered the results produced by the Yuri repeater, but she did not know what it meant.

She did suspect from the beginning that the incident was caused by the Qingming ghost, but she had some doubts—so she told the Sin Eaters Society she belonged to about it, hoping that others could help analyze it.

Most people believe it might be a Qingming ghost, and Mr. Katsuya Hirosaki even consulted many books to prove this point and advocated that immediate action should be taken.

Although she didn't do it afterward because of other things, Yuka Yamanaka kept that in mind—and it eventually led to yesterday's confrontation.

Later, although she did not tell anyone how she and Yuri met, Hirosaki Katsu may have learned about it from the information she inadvertently revealed.

Then, since Yuka Yamanaka said she owed someone a favor, it's obvious she hit the wrong person.

"In the end, it turned out like this. He probably felt that he bore some responsibility for this, but he couldn't clearly express that he knew—my attitude was obviously that I didn't want to talk about it...which led to his attitude."

...Yuri felt that in this version of the story, Yuka Yamanaka's attempt to take responsibility for herself was unusually obvious.

"I see, in that case..."

In that case, it seems Yuri shouldn't have any special reaction.

Although being directly attacked was excessive, since peace terms were agreed upon afterward and the other party actually fulfilled them... Yuri's pride (?) prevented him from adding any further demands.

“Anyway, I think, if he—who?” Yuri heard footsteps.

He originally intended to say, "If the resentment in his heart cannot be easily eliminated, then in order to avoid further escalating the conflict, I will temporarily stay away from you and consider joining the activity again after some time."

However, we should first pay attention to the sudden footsteps coming from the direction of the funeral home.

143 Return Trip and Doubts

Although the other party did not appear immediately, judging from the footsteps, they were running—chasing something or being chased by something.

Yuri tensed up and looked towards the nearby mountains, asking, "Who else is inside at this hour?"

“I don’t remember there being anyone else, it should just be us.” Yuka Yamanaka frowned. “I can’t really distinguish their footsteps, I can’t tell who they are.”

She didn't seem as nervous as Yuri, completely oblivious to the possibility that the ghost had suddenly transformed into an incredibly powerful, top-tier vengeful spirit and chased after the two people inside... Well, that's not quite right.

Yuri admitted that the possibility was indeed not high, but if it were a well-ambushed Reaper... maybe they could just use Spirit Binding to fight the opponent directly.

Alright, this is the composure of a strong person—this little girl really hasn't encountered many high-risk events. There's no point in reminding her to be nervous now; Yuri just needs to be on guard himself.

Furthermore, if it really comes down to choosing between those two, Yuri would vote for Hirosaki Katsuya, since he's the type who's easy to catch and quick to run.

Before the second gust of wind could rise, Hirosaki Katsuya appeared in front of the two.

There were no vengeful ghosts chasing him, and Yuri breathed a sigh of relief, while scrutinizing the other party—since there was no danger, why was he still running?

"Great, you haven't left yet." Upon seeing the two, Hirosaki Katsuya walked up quickly with a tense expression.

Yuri moved half a step to the side, just in case the other person had come specifically to see Yuka Yamanaka next door... Although he said "you guys," what if it was just a polite remark?

Then I saw Hirosaki Katsuya turn slightly and lean towards his direction.

Then he bowed deeply and said, "I'm so sorry!"

I've heard that Japanese people don't take bowing seriously, but this at least shows that they intend to apologize... Why did he suddenly come out to apologize?

"What's going on? You've confused me." Yuri took another step to the side, avoiding the direction of the bow.

“There was a reason why I didn’t cooperate during the ceremony many times before—” Although he stopped bowing, Hirosaki Katsuya still looked down at the ground, “I caused quite a bad influence due to your misunderstandings before, and for that I—”

Given his height and looking down at the ground, Yuri couldn't see his expression at all.

He then rephrased Yamanaka Yuka's earlier speculation, adding at the end, "I'm very sorry—I hope you can understand."

Yuri glanced at Yuka Yamanaka and noticed that the Sin Eater girl also looked confused. It seemed that she had not expected this outcome either. Although she had indeed said that Hirosaki was not a bad person, she did not expect that Hirosaki would come to apologize so quickly.

Doesn't this contradict his previous public image?

We can't just leave him hanging like this, no matter what.

Yuri forced a smile, then realized the other person couldn't see his expression, so he withdrew it. "Alright, alright, there's no need to be so serious. The misunderstanding is cleared up, and I haven't really been harmed."

Although it was nerfed, it has now been repaired.

Hirosaki Katsuya raised his head, clearly embarrassed to say such a thing. "That's great. I've actually been wanting to apologize, but I was too embarrassed to do so... I just made up my mind and came to find you guys right away."

“I think an apology says a lot—after all, the main responsibility for this matter lies with me, not you—” Yamanaka Yuka’s reaction was quite normal.