Tokyo bombing incident Nth time

"I've already said I don't care. Let's just let this go and not take it to heart." If you two keep making a fuss like this, it'll never end.

"Thank you so much—" Hirosaki was visibly relieved and extended a hand to Yuri to shake hands. "I was wondering what I would do if you refused to forgive me—it's great that you're willing to accept my apology."

Yuri shook his hand. "Although it might seem petty of me to say this after accepting the apology, I still think I should mention it to you—there are all sorts of strange things in the world, and you can't just apply one to everything."

Hirozaki echoed in agreement.

The conversation then turned to the aftermath.

According to Hirozaki, Minagawa is still inside trying to persuade the ghost, and after some effort, he has made some progress—although the ghost's trust in their sin-eating society may never return to what it used to be, at least it won't be so quick to want to fight the liars.

“I feel that Mr. Minagawa put in a lot of effort in this event—does your association still have four people? Wouldn’t the outcome have been better if they had all come?” Yuri gestured.

Yuka Yamanaka remained silent on the question, while Hirosaki responded, "I think this... will probably help, but it probably won't bring about any fundamental change."

Yuri looked him straight in the eye, silently asking, "Why?"

“Mr. Minagawa is the most experienced member of the society, while Ms. Yamanaka, though young, possesses the strongest spirit-binding ability and the most agile supernatural magic. The help they receive from others is probably—”

Yuka Yamanaka interrupted him, "Mr. Hirosaki, no one is superfluous, and there is no distinction of rank among us."

Hirosaki Katsuya agreed, and the conversation ended there.

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 then hurriedly left the scene before the atmosphere became completely awkward.

It will take about two hours to drift back to Mingmei's place from here, and it's in a different direction than I usually go... I guess there's no way to take a shortcut.

Fortunately, this period of time can be used to reflect on today's situation.

There's not much to say about the activities of the Sin Eaters. Yuri has firsthand information today, which is more accurate than the descriptions in other books... although it's possible that only these few Sin Eaters operate in this way.

The problem lies with the "incorrect" part.

First of all, this "accident" was not a trap set by the Sin Eaters Society specifically to target Yuri, nor was it a performance to convey any wrong ideas to him—if it were, Yuri's freedom of action would be too great, and besides, he probably wouldn't be of any value.

The idea of ​​ghosts gathering together is already highly improbable, and considering the previous ambush... the possibility that it was a mistake by the Sin Eaters Society can also be ruled out.

Therefore, the conclusion can be locked in that someone was trying to do something to the Sin Eaters Society, and Yuri just happened to be there.

In that case, this action would be too weak. It doesn't seem like they're determined to get things done—the reason Hirosaki is in danger is because the Sin Eaters Society refuses to give up and is determined to get things done. If the Sin Eaters scatter and flee when things get bad, this attack will at most cause some damage to the funeral guests—and if they run fast enough, it will be even less effective.

Did they know in advance that the Sin Eaters Society would never run away? That means they had some understanding of these people... In that case, we're back to the point of not contributing enough.

Or is the goal not actually to cause real harm to the sin-eating association, but rather to make them suspicious? What benefit would that bring?

There's no clear direction for this line of reasoning; there are many things Yuri doesn't know, so it seems like anything is possible.

From another angle, the suspect.

It was doomed from the start—who knows what the Reaper looks like?

Yuri then changed directions several more times, but did not gain any new ideas for solving the puzzle.

It seems this matter is unclear for the time being—should we actively get involved in their activities to conduct an investigation?

...Never mind. The previous Rat King incident had already served as a warning to him. Although the final outcome was good, if he were to actively jump into trouble whenever he encountered a problem, he might end up in an environment he couldn't handle.

The spirits that bind the sin-eaters are very strong, stronger than themselves. They have one, two, three, four, or even four sin-eaters, which should be enough to solve the problem—problems that they can't solve, Yuri probably can't solve either.

Hurry up and get home.

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 returned home around 10 p.m.

His prior estimation of the journey was correct; the reason he sped up and arrived home on time was simply because he got lost once along the way.

To his surprise, Mingmei returned home later than him, around 10:30 p.m.

"So, did you have fun?" Yuri asked knowingly.

Judging from Akemi's expression, she wasn't exactly happy.

"Of course! I had so much fun—" Akemi suddenly sat down on the sofa, not even bothering to change her clothes, her voice filled with "happiness," "Although I couldn't keep up with the makeup conversation, and I wasn't very good at singing, and even more—"

The high school girl, who seemed to be more mentally exhausted than physically exhausted, glanced at Yuri and continued, "I don't know much about entertainers, but at least I scared them all in the ghost story contest—they all said that my descriptions made it seem like I was really living with ghosts."

"Don't look at me like that," Yuri thought. "I was just identified by the ghost expert, the Sin Eater, as not a ghost. Besides... what are you talking about, idols? What could I possibly have to do with idols? What were you trying to say?"

"How about you? You don't seem to be having an easy time either?" Akemi leaned back on the sofa.

“You’re right, it wasn’t easy at all—I almost fought a ghost, though I wasn’t the main force.”

Yuri briefly described what had happened, without adding his myriad speculations. He simply glossed over the speculations with the statement, "The situation is currently unclear, and I have no intention of investigating."

“Ghosts, actually I’m not very familiar with them. They’re both spirits, but the situation of spirits is much easier to understand than that of ghosts.” Akemi didn’t sit up from the sofa. “Every ghost has its own thoughts and ways of doing things, just as complicated as humans. Who could possibly understand them all? I haven’t even fully understood humans yet.”

Is it a new discovery that Akemi Tomoyuki doesn't like to make judgments about humanity as a whole?

"What's wrong?" Akemi noticed Yuri's condition.

"Nothing, I was just thinking... how many supernatural creatures are hiding in Tokyo? Werewolves, mages, vampires, sin eaters... how many of them are there?" Yuri changed the subject.

Akemi nodded knowingly, seemingly having been led astray by Yuri.

"I don't know, but I guess vampires are the most numerous, since they increase their numbers by converting humans, without needing to wait for the reproduction process—and the number of humans is obviously enormous."

Yuri suspected that there were also a considerable number of Sin Eaters, after all, they seemed to be transformed from the dead—and in this hellish place, there were as many dead as there were to begin with. The real limit to the number of Sin Eaters was undoubtedly the number of Bound Spirits.

“Alright, none of this concerns us, Yuri—I think we can have some peace and quiet for a while—I hope this peace and quiet lasts until at least Christmas.” Akemi yawned.

"Go to sleep if you're tired. I believe you've finished your homework—huh?"

Yuri stared in disbelief as Akemi suddenly jumped up from the sofa and ran towards her schoolbag.

"Fighting yesterday, party today, I forgot about homework. I was wondering why this weekend seemed so relaxed—come help me out!"

In the end... the two of them did their homework until 1 a.m.

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.

Akemi had already gone to sleep, while Yuri floated by the window, continuing to think.

He has now gained considerable information about what the various supernatural beings did during the last Rat King incident. It's not the complete picture, but it's much clearer now.

The mages/volunteers...we didn't see any, but if we take Yuri as a representative, he was at the forefront...just kidding, let's just ignore them...they're probably all dead.

The werewolves were indeed at the forefront, but they also missed the best opportunity to solve the problem, which put them in a very passive position.

There were no signs of the vampires directly intervening, but they did exercise intelligence control... It can be inferred that the final attempt to cover up the whole thing was the work of the vampires.

The Sin Eaters are on the edge of the problem; they are dealing with the ghosts that humans have created because of this incident—primarily, according to Yuka Yamanaka, spirits that appear without the need for human death—but they are also prepared for the possibility of a large-scale death.

Once you exclude the Yuri duo, the rest can basically be described as "having an impact in places that ordinary people can't see."

He also knew of several other types of supernatural creatures... creatures that swap lives with unpredictable fairies, golems that act on their own without a trace of origin, demons about which little information is available, and other possible supernatural creatures.

It's like a loose net; different points of stress will have different effects, but there will always be some reaction. Are other supernatural beings also reacting? Or have they simply gone extinct like the sorcerers?

Yuri sighed inwardly, realizing he was still not strong enough, and began deciphering the new page number of the mage's notes.

Surely this time there should be some usable spells, Yuri thought, refusing to believe that his luck could be that bad repeatedly.

Author's message

——The author has something to say——

Just wanted to let you know that a week from now, specifically on December 25th, the author has some personal matters to attend to and will be taking a break from updating that day, which is very regrettable.

144 Self-Limitations

Nothing much changed in the next two weeks. It's already December, which means the Lunar New Year is coming soon according to the local calendar. I'm sure no one wants anything to happen during the Lunar New Year period.

Mingmei has completely immersed herself in preparing for the exams… According to the mysterious three-semester system, the end of the semester is just around the corner. In fact, after Yuri saw Mingmei's year plan, his biggest thought was… why divide the winter break into two semesters when it's so short? But that's the school's rule, and it has nothing to do with him.

Recently, he changed his attitude towards the repeating ghost and began trying to communicate with intelligent ghosts and complete their requests in order to obtain a way to obtain spiritual essence...

Objectively speaking, efficiency has plummeted.

First, the repeating machines still occupy most of the area—meaning that finding energy sources has become more difficult after using the new method. Second, not every intelligent ghost is willing to communicate with him; you can't just grab each one by the neck and force them to reveal their wishes, can you? Finally, the ghosts' wishes aren't so easily granted.

Some ghosts simply want to move their anchor point closer to their family members—which is already problematic enough; the question of whether their presence will affect their family members must be considered.

Some ghosts demanded that Yuri avenge them, and it couldn't be as simple as reporting them to the police and getting them arrested (that's relatively easy); they had to die as gruesomely as they had—which was clearly too difficult. Yuri was willing to report them to the police, but killing someone himself for that purpose was still too extreme.

Some ghosts asked Yuri to help them return to life—or, to seize a usable physical body. Frankly, this is out of the question. Yuri simply cannot do the former, and while the latter isn't entirely impossible, the consequences would be far too great. In any case, Yuri himself doesn't even have a physical body yet (although his ability to freely switch between spirit and physical form is very convenient), so it's impossible for him to help them with this.

As a result, Yuri's income from spirit essences plummeted to one-tenth of what it used to be—and it may decline further as consumption continues—ghosts who have been helped once are unlikely to make a second request soon, and even if they do, it may not be the kind of ghost Yuri is willing to help.

These spiritual essences might be enough for Yuri's daily life, but his progress in deciphering the notes was greatly slowed down. In two weeks, without any external interference, he only managed to decipher two pages.

"In conclusion, I think I still need to consider looting roadside repeaters in an emergency—are you listening, Akemi?" Yuri rambled on, finding a bunch of reasons for himself.

“Oh, I’m not a sin-eater, so I don’t care that much, Yuri.” Akemi buried herself in her books, not looking up. “Are you really asking for my opinion? I thought you knew my answer.”

Yuri did know, but he felt guilty and needed others' approval to support his opinion.

“Actually, you could consider attending their ceremony. I think two weeks have passed, so there must be a new requiem ceremony now—” Mingmei wrote furiously. “I don’t mind if you go. I’m fine here.”

"I think it's better not to go. They're having trouble there, and my going might make things even more complicated..."

It's not that we haven't considered this approach, but given what happened last time and the different attitudes of several people, Yuri suspects that the society is facing some kind of conflict... In short, it's best not to get involved if possible. Once you know more, you might not be able to stop yourself.

"So I still have to thank you, Akemi. Even though you're incredibly busy, you still manage to perform the rituals for this shrine every day."

Now the shrine has become an integral part of Yuri's energy source.

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.

“That’s not important. I’ll just treat it as part of my training. — More importantly, Yuri, is your spell that helps people clear their minds still not working?” Mingmei looked up from the pile of books. “I feel like rote memorization is taking a toll on my brain lately.”

Technically speaking, Yuri did see it in his notes a while ago, but...

“I know it exists, but I can’t use it myself—and it doesn’t feel the same as before.”

Specifically, a new situation has arisen when Yuri casts his spell.

In the past, spellcasting was divided into "spells that can be cast" and "spells that cannot be cast". Now, there is a new category: "spells that you feel you can cast but always fail at the last moment".

And this spell that "clears one's mind" falls into this category.

He tried many different conditions, including but not limited to injecting more spiritual essence, pausing for a day to conserve energy by not casting spells, and trying to keep himself busy to enter a trance-like state (not very successful)...

But it was all useless; they always gave up at the last minute.

The spells deciphered in the same batch were characterized by low levels (Yuri was not sure what these levels meant, but "disciple level" seemed much lower than "master level," and "expert level" was mostly somewhere in between), and were distributed across multiple arcane domains.

Mingmei knew this too. "I see. It seems you haven't made a breakthrough yet... Never mind, no need to rush. You still have to rely on yourself to learn."

"Speaking of which, how about you consider my suggestion? I'll just manifest as my spirit and tell you the answers to the exam—I can't guarantee the parts you can answer, but the parts you can memorize will definitely be fine." Yuri had a workaround.

It's just a change from closed-book to open-book, which might be a bit unfair to other students... but it can definitely help Mingmei overcome the hurdle of the exam.

“My headache isn’t about the exam, Yuri…” Akemi took a deep breath, “at least not this exam. I can pass this exam no matter what—my headache is about not having enough time.”

time……

Akemi continued, “I’m finding it hard to balance my studies and mystical activities at the same time. There’s not enough time. I wish I had two versions of myself to handle different problems, but reality isn’t so kind… Maybe I’m about to reach the point where I have to give up one of them.”

"..." Yuri didn't know what to say. He had indeed realized this, but he had no way to solve the problem.

Magic that could influence the flow of time was beyond his capabilities, at least for the time being. Spells that could squeeze time out of other places did exist... but he couldn't use them.

Perhaps the best solution would be to hire a learning spirit—but Akemi herself could tell there must be a reason why she didn't do so.

"Okay, don't worry, I've already planned it out—as long as I don't take the initiative and reduce my energy on subjects I don't want to take, I'll definitely be able to manage my time." Mingmei laughed. "You're more concerned about my studies than my aunt is, don't you think that's a joke?"

More than that guy who just gave up...excuse me, more than that werewolf who was busy as hell, is there anything to brag about?

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 chatted for a while, and then Akemi suddenly made a new suggestion.

"And then, Yuri, how about you consider investigating this city? I heard there's been a surge of interest in ghost stories lately." Akemi inserted a tag into the book and then closed it. "Is this what you've been researching lately?"

“I am indeed researching this, but at the same time I’m also researching whether there’s a way to set up a spirit mousetrap or something to catch a bunch of little spirits and eat them to fill my stomach—” Yuri turned around, “I’m researching how to obtain new spirit essences, not getting myself involved in the incident—but you, how did you know that your enthusiasm for the ghost incident has increased recently… are you that well-informed?”

Yuri wanted to say, "How could someone like you, who has no friends, know so much..."

After thinking about it, I decided to hold back.