Tokyo bombing incident Nth time

"Are you sure she doesn't have any external injuries? The way she looks, it's like she was hit on the head from behind with a stick or a vase while facing the window and bed." Akemi didn't deliberately control her voice, but she wasn't particularly loud either. "Or did you deliberately position her like this..."

Hey, isn't that just perverted? What kind of person would deliberately position an unconscious woman so that she's lying face down by the bed?

“No, no, no, what do you take me for?” Yuri immediately objected. “I only touched her neck and face a little, and slightly adjusted the angle of her head to make it easier for her to breathe—I didn’t even turn her face over.”

Seemingly sensing that the topic was too strange, Akemi did not expand on it further.

The high school detective walked up and checked the reporter's vital signs in almost the same way as Yuri... That's right, her actions were exactly the same as those of famous detectives who are interviewed on TV, so it must be from the same source.

“She’s very weak, Yuri, but there are no external injuries.” Akemi shook her head, her expression turning serious. “How did she get like this?”

Yuri shrugged, indicating that he didn't know either. The investigation hadn't even fully begun yet, and he couldn't very well use his magical vision to see half of it before going to open the door for Akemi.

“I suspect it’s an internal injury, possibly internal bleeding… that would be too dangerous.” The high school girl, a Mongolian doctor, started pacing around the room. “And the two of us definitely can’t save him; we don’t even know how to help.”

"Internal bleeding?" Yuri seemed to have heard the term somewhere before, but he didn't remember it clearly.

"That means, although there was no external damage, there was internal organ rupture or something... I heard this is extremely dangerous—and it's been almost an hour since she called us—"

Although Yuri didn't immediately recall what internal bleeding meant, it sounded extremely dangerous.

“Our medical skills are both so-so, how should we treat internal bleeding—let’s check on the computer on the spot?” Yuri pointed to the desktop computer next to him.

“You’re silly… Oh, I forgot you’ve never experienced anything like this before—” Mingmei took out her phone. “In this situation, of course we should contact the hospital immediately. Hopefully, it’s not too late. While I’m contacting the hospital, you should have her checked for supernatural factors. Don’t move her. But even if she’s just weakened because of supernatural factors, I still have to advise her to go to the hospital to rest.”

well.

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.

While Akemi was on the phone, Yuri began to observe Hojo Reie through concentrated magical vision.

The spiritual energy he had sensed earlier was undoubtedly a negative effect, carrying an aura of weakness and death—and his initial observation was wrong. The spiritual energy was indeed weak, but part of the reason was that it was hidden deep, not easily manifested, and deeply rooted.

Hojo Reie's fighting skills weren't as good as those of abnormal people like Akemi, but she had been traveling around all year round and should have had a good physique. If even she could be defeated, then she must have posed a considerable threat to ordinary people.

Furthermore, it was clear that there was another source of supernatural power emanating from her pocket. This source was not strong, and the small, unknown item had not yet established a connection with her. She could take it out later; for now, she should leave it alone.

Returning to the issue of spiritual energy, through observation, Yuri deciphered a sense of "decay, absorption, and destruction." Furthermore, he could sense something else entirely; the characteristic of this spiritual energy was... the ability to drain the recipient's physical strength, suppress their life signs—and, in some way, transmit what was taken to a distant location.

However, in our field of vision, this transmission volume is not large, at least very small compared to the strength of the spiritual energy itself. Perhaps it is because the distance is too far and the connection becomes unstable? Or perhaps the conversion efficiency is insufficient?

In any case, something was consuming the reporter's health from afar, causing her to fall into this state.

Yuri tried to follow the clues to find the target of the transmission, but unfortunately failed. He could only sense that the other party was a dark and cold creature... much like a ghost, but the possibility of it being a spirit could not be ruled out.

Besides, her weakness was systemic; no part of her body was more severely damaged than the rest, nor was any part healthier. This was something Yuri's magical vision could barely perceive, so it should also include the inside of her body... even though he hadn't actually physically seen inside.

To be honest, a long time ago when he passed through other people's bodies, he tried to see inside them, but all he could see was darkness—solid things of a certain thickness blocked his perception, and the human body was not thin enough for him to see through.

So, in a different scenario, Yuri would be overjoyed to have discovered this new perspective, but perhaps due to a lack of proficiency, he wouldn't be able to truly grasp the internal state of the other person's body.

Now that we've finished watching, it's time to get started.

Yuri reached out and touched Lehweh's back, then began to use his own strength to resist the spiritual force.

This time it felt a bit easier than dealing with Yuka Yamanaka's spirit binding last time, but it wasn't much easier. In Yuri's opinion, assuming the opponent's skill level was at a normal level (rather than just doing it casually), the opponent's strength should be slightly higher than his own, but still on the same level.

It is said that there are spells that can almost automatically break through supernatural effects by striking key points, much like a skilled butcher dissecting an ox—Yuri can't do that now. Unless he finds the key points beforehand with magical vision, he can only eliminate them one by one.

While this trick usually works, it didn't work this time.

Before Yuri could expend energy to cancel out the energy on the other side, he expected to spend a small portion of his spiritual essence to dispel the spiritual force, after which everything would be fine, but the current situation was not so good.

When he injected the spiritual essence and began to neutralize it, Yuri did not experience the "immediate improvement, rosy complexion, full recovery, and dictation of two 4,000-word manuscripts for her analysis" that she had envisioned. Instead, it seemed that because Yuri was fighting his opponent remotely inside her body, it produced a greater negative effect in a short period of time.

However, within ten seconds, Liehui's originally weak breathing had turned into weak and uneven panting... Yuri was almost so frightened that he was about to call Mingmei over to give her artificial respiration.

Fortunately, after Yuri stopped canceling the message, the reporter's condition stabilized again, with only a little sweat on his forehead... Yuri also wanted to sweat, but he didn't have that ability.

"What did you figure out?" Mingmei turned to us after finishing the call. "The hospital asked if we could bring the patient to the hospital ourselves. If not, we should tell them quickly, and they would be able to arrange an ambulance later—most likely tomorrow morning. It seems that some event has caused a shortage of ambulances. I said we would check on the patient's condition and then hung up for the time being."

“I don’t think it’s a result of physical injury, so we don’t need to worry about internal bleeding anymore—but I dare not deal with the negative spiritual energy on her.” Yuri spread his hands. “I detected a clearly abnormal spiritual energy on her. I can dispel it, but she’s too weak. I don’t know if this depletion will have a greater negative impact on her—”

"Can you stop this spiritual force from continuing to take effect?" Mingmei didn't think too much about it. "If it can't be dispelled in a short time, then suppress it for now."

“We can give it a try.” Yuri thought for a moment, took off his hat and put it on the reporter’s head, activating the shield.

As he suspected, the outward transmission of energy was blocked by the shield—which also meant the drain on the reporter had stopped…right? At least he looked a little better, though it might just be psychological.

“I’m almost certain that the supernatural effect represented by this spiritual energy caused her to fall into a coma, but firstly, I dare not dispel it rashly, for fear that the resulting struggle will cause more serious consequences—secondly, since this is a kind of deprivation, I feel that even if I really dispel it, the lost health cannot be directly returned.” Yuri felt very troubled. “I feel like I can’t rashly use brute force to break this spiritual energy in this situation.”

If the reporter were in perfect health, he would certainly dare to try, but she is already so weak...

On the other hand, this also means that it is highly unlikely that she has serious internal injuries. Given her current state, where even the indirect effects of spiritual energy on her body cause her obvious pain, it is unlikely that serious internal injuries would not show any signs on the outside... right?

"We might have to take a two-pronged approach: on the one hand, remove this spiritual force, and on the other hand, adjust her physical condition to a better state..." Mingmei was deep in thought.

"What should I do? Should I give her some brown sugar water?" At this moment, Yuri was eagerly hoping that he had mastered those spells that could heal quickly.

“…She still needs to be taken to the hospital. The hospital might not be able to remove this spiritual force, but it should at least be able to normalize her physical condition…I don’t know, maybe an IV drip or something?” Mingmei guessed. “Do you think this spiritual force will last indefinitely?”

“No, it shouldn’t be…” Yuri recalled what he had seen earlier. “It’s slow, but it’s still weakening. It might end in a few days, but if we don’t cover it with a shield and let her get back to health, something bad will happen in the next few days.”

Using a shield can solve the immediate problem, but if you want to use it as a last resort... it doesn't seem like a bad option either.

There are several solutions available that seem to address this problem, but none of them are perfect.

If Yuri (or a part of him) remains bound to Hojo Reie for several days until the spiritual energy completely dissipates, Yuri should be able to hold on. As for taking care of the patient... Yuri should be able to do that too, or if not, Akemi can do it.

Sending Hojo Reie to the hospital should solve the care problem... As long as we manage to keep the hat on her for a short time (instead of having it removed by the medical staff because it's in the way), or simply let Yuri remain in spirit form with her, she can recover.

If Yuri isn't afraid of serious consequences, he can confront and eliminate this spiritual force head-on right now... He'll have to bear the consequences.

The most fundamental solution, of course, is to eradicate the root cause of the spiritual energy.

There is no single method that is perfect, fast, good, and thorough enough.

However, when asked about the origins of spiritual energy, Yuri looked at the blackboard and computer, which he hadn't looked at in detail before.

Is there any useful information in this?

Before investigating the information, they moved Hojo Rei to the bed and covered her with a blanket... Sleeping in her coat probably wouldn't be very comfortable, but lying down was definitely better than her previous position. Yuri took the opportunity to touch Rei's pocket; there was a strange little pendant inside, probably a talisman. He glanced at it and put it back.

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 knew absolutely nothing about electronic devices, or rather, he had never actually used one—so he asked Akemi to look at the things on the computer while he turned towards the blackboard.

Below the blackboard lay a pile of scattered newspapers and notes; Hojo Reie appeared to be collecting these things as well… A reporter buying newspapers—it sounded a bit comical…

Some newspapers were magnetically attached to the blackboard; these were probably things she found somewhat meaningful.

Excluding reports of cult terrorist attacks and sudden outbreaks that Yuri was somewhat familiar with, and further excluding news from a long time ago... the remaining information is basically of the same category: a large number of haunted houses, amusement parks, strange alleys... all recent examples of ghost stories.

Are ghosts really that active? Although he stopped catching the repeater, Yuri still occasionally wandered the streets in search of missions... After a brief moment of thought, Yuri found an explanation.

It's probably because the ghosts wouldn't use their haunting methods on Yuri after he was shaken by the neck, and Yuri didn't go looking for those who were strong enough.

Hojo Reie might have encountered a ghost with a bad attitude.

In any case, some of the records had obvious crossed-out marks, probably indicating they had been excluded, while Yuri was unsure what the remaining circles and dots meant.

From this information, Yuri couldn't find the coordinates of a suspect. He didn't really know what the different colored markers meant, but even the fewest markers had three of them.

Lehwa herself must have known, but she had already fallen into a coma.

While this information was quite valuable to Yuri and would be helpful in the search for ghosts, finding the specific ghost that had cast the curse on Lehweh was far too difficult.

Perhaps Akemi has the answer? She seemed to see something on the computer; at least she wasn't stuck on the password.

147 Disagreements

Yuri gave the blackboard one last look at the clippings of news articles and the messy notes written next to them. He wasn't sure what the purpose of all this was, but he decided to write it all down, hoping it would help him compare it with what was on the computer.

Thanks to Reie Hojo for her categorization work, Yuri realized that the "long-ago news" that he previously thought was unrelated were actually connected to nearby ghost stories. Usually, the connection lies in location; for example, news of an amusement park accident and a ghost story about the amusement park are grouped together, or a murder case and a house rumored to have bloody handprints are grouped together. A smaller number of these connections are related to people and families.

About half of the ghost stories were uncovered by Hojo Reie, who traced back to past events. Unfortunately, Yuri couldn't tell which of them were genuine and which were just fabricated stories.

Bad news: Hojo Reie probably didn't know either.

Without going to the scene, just looking here will definitely not reveal the truth. The crossed-out part of the news was likely eliminated by the reporter herself... What Yuri doesn't know is whether the remaining part hasn't been eliminated yet, or whether it's confirmed to be true.

Next, it's up to Akemi. Looking from behind Akemi, a short document is displayed on the computer screen.

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.

On Wednesday, [Month] [Day], I will be exploring the next haunted house. This haunted house is located south of the previous one, in a relatively bustling area... It is a house that has been vacant for a long time.

While such houses are not numerous, they are not few either. This particular house should not have been anything special... The reason for its abandonment is that about fifteen years ago, a fire occurred, and the owner's daughter and two of her friends were unable to escape in time and all perished.

It was a tragedy, but from the city's perspective, it was nothing special—the fire was quickly extinguished by firefighters. According to the files I found, firefighters did find three bodies that were almost completely destroyed in the flames. Two of them were identified as the homeowner's daughter and one of her friends (reportedly determined by their teeth). The identity of the third body was not confirmed; police were attempting to identify it based on partially melted jewelry found on the body. Note: No reports were found regarding whether the identity was ultimately confirmed.

The homeowner was deeply affected by the tragedy and never returned, leaving the house abandoned. (It is said that the homeowner has since emigrated abroad.)

Over the course of about fifteen years, the neighbors gradually forgot about the tragedy and returned to their normal lives. Apart from the most superstitious old people, no one claimed to have ever encountered the ghost of the deceased there.

It wasn't until about a month ago that I started hearing about the ghost stories.

Initially, someone saw shadowy figures moving around in the abandoned house in the middle of the night and, thinking it was a thief, called the police. However, the police found no trace of anyone having entered the house.

Then, a few days later at the same time, someone saw a fiery red light emanating from the abandoned house, as if the fire from years ago had struck again. Of course, the police still found no trace of it this time.

Subsequently, the ghost stories became more and more frequent, gradually causing unrest among the surrounding residents, and the events of more than ten years ago were brought up again.

Although it's unclear why the spirits of the deceased, if they truly exist, would only reactivate after fifteen years, this is one of the recent ghost-related incidents.

After exploring the other, more accessible haunted houses, today I will explore this one—another reason for the delay is that the police had been observing this house for quite some time and only stopped two days ago, and I only found out last night that they had stopped!

It was actually a bit late, but not so late that you wouldn't find anything at all after you arrived.

The previous haunted houses had been searched by a large number of explorers (of all kinds, including fellow explorers), making it difficult to distinguish their traces from the traces of possible ghosts. This one, at least, is relatively new, right?

I hope this time I'll have a fruitful experience.

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.

Success!!! This time, we've made a breakthrough! I've successfully photographed the ghost in the haunted house! The image of her in the camera is similar to the photo of the homeowner's daughter that I found earlier, and she has burn marks on her body. I believe it's almost certain that it's Tomoko Imatake herself.

I tried to communicate with her, but she seemed to have lost her mind and completely ignored my questions. I had thought she was nearby to talk to me, but instead, without saying a word, she lunged at me fiercely. My newly modified glasses allowed me to see ghosts, though not clearly, but enough to make me aware of the danger.

The entire room was empty, with no obstacles to move around. Even so, she was more familiar with the place. She caught up with me from the side several times during my escape, which was a bit strange, because if she was faster than me, she should have been able to catch up with me directly from behind. Perhaps this is what makes her special as a ghost.

Fortunately, whether she instinctively held back or there was some other reason, I didn't feel that her palm that hit my abdomen was too strong. However, out of caution, I immediately fled the abandoned house, drove home, and began to record what I had learned.

Thinking about it now, it could also be the amulet's protection? I deliberately carried an amulet in my pocket that was supposedly from a high monk, and it did feel different from ordinary amulets.

That ghost was clearly very hostile towards me. I'm wondering if I should contact Yuri and Akemi; perhaps they have a way to communicate with ghosts? They probably don't want to be featured in the news, but helping as friends shouldn't be a problem. Anyway, many reports feature the character "the author's medium friend," so at least mine is real.

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.

So the amulet in her pocket was obtained from a high-ranking monk... It seems this monk really has some connections.

“It’s obvious that her records are divided into two parts—one before departure and one after departure.” Mingmei pointed to the computer. “This might be her diary… oh no, this is her document to be organized.”

“What is a document that needs to be organized?” Yuri found the word at the top of the screen.

“It means it’s just something she jotted down on the spot. She probably plans to organize it when she has more time and energy, and maybe she even intends to turn it into a report and publish it in the end.” Mingmei scanned it up and down. “The second paragraph is obviously less formal than the first one. At that time, she had already been affected by the ghost, and she may have already had problems with her energy, but she just didn’t realize it.”

"And then? She fell into a coma after writing all this?" Yuri thought it was probably too much of a coincidence.

If she suddenly fainted while writing, it's more likely she would break off mid-sentence. But if she gradually drifted towards unconsciousness while writing, shouldn't there be a section recording her feelings of weakness? Did she forget to write it?

“Maybe not. This document was saved three hours ago—we received the call about an hour ago, so there's a two-hour gap in between…” Mingmei stood up from her chair and looked around. “She probably felt a little tired after writing this, so she leaned back in her chair to rest…and then slept for two hours. She was still in pain and woke up, trying to get back to bed while on the phone, but she couldn't keep up and collapsed by the bed. She struggled to say a few words before completely losing consciousness. Is she looking a little better now?”

According to Yuri's observation, the reporter lying in bed covered with a blanket did not show any change in his complexion, and his breathing was indeed more stable... but that was probably due to the change in posture.

"To be honest, no." Yuri shook his head and changed the subject. "I think we still need to take her to the hospital. Even if she's not cured, the hospital should at least know how to provide her with nutrition—do we really want to force-feed her sugar water?"

Yuri then proposed his own plan to send the patient to the hospital.

First, he and Akemi helped (or rather, supported) Hojo Reie downstairs, then went to the safe spot they had found earlier to climb over the wall. Using his ability to float, he dragged Hojo Reie over the wall and placed her on Akemi's motorcycle. Akemi then took her to the hospital. They were accompanied by his hat, which he used to provide Reie with a shield whenever needed.

Meanwhile, he returned to Hojo Reie's house to continue searching for information, preparing to speak directly with the vengeful spirit once he had sufficient data. The fire and other incidents mentioned earlier, combined with the notes on the blackboard, had pinpointed the exact location; he just needed to find any other useful information.

After completing the plan, Yuri believed it was perfect in every aspect.

His companions, however, did not think so.

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.

Two minutes later.

"So, this is for insurance purposes—your idea of ​​simply sending her to the hospital and then coming back immediately cannot guarantee her safety—you understand occultism and can reliably access my hat to control its position, so it's best if you stay with her at the hospital for a while."

"And the idea of ​​waiting until she recovers before we act together is also not feasible. That would be a safer option, but it might mean missing the best opportunity. What if someone else is killed in the next couple of days? Or what if something else happens?"

Yuri and Akemi had a minor argument.

At least the volume was low, so Hojo Rei probably couldn't hear their argument, but it wasn't appropriate for Akemi to make a scene next to a patient... and after Akemi controlled the volume, Yuri also controlled the volume.