Tokyo bombing incident Nth time

Yuri tried to speak a few words to the haunted house, but received even less of a response than he had from Mika Taniguchi. At least there was an angry expression and less sharp nails from Taniguchi, while Yuri received no response at all.

The "ghost" of matter and the "spiritual version" of matter are quite similar in appearance. Both are spiritual entities that overlap with the physical body. The principles by which they are generated are also very similar, only the processes are completely opposite.

The spiritual form of matter, which is what Yuri encounters in most cases, exists because of human impressions... because humans have such a strong impression that they "exist here" that they are projected into the spirit world.

Ghostly entities also exist because of human impressions, but they exist because of the strong impression humans have of their "destruction." A building that wasn't noticed by many people during its "life" might be remembered because of the overwhelming smoke and dust it emitted when it was destroyed.

Most people would think that such haunted houses serve no purpose other than to keep out ghostly rain.

In some extreme cases, some people were so shocked by the destruction that a part of their self was thrown out and poured into the things that were destroyed. In such cases, a ghost is created, and because it is attached to a part of the human self, it may develop a certain degree of self-awareness.

It's hard to say what this self-awareness really means, because Akemi has never heard of a ghost formed in this way with a strong enough self-awareness to communicate with humans. But these haunted houses are not inanimate objects; they may react in certain ways to certain behaviors, usually related to their usual use and the scene of their destruction.

For example, the piece of spirit wood that hit Yuri earlier must have fallen during the fire—and the bed that tried to trip Yuri was probably originally located in the attic.

As the owner of the house, Mika Taniguchi likely possessed certain means to make the haunted house react, or perhaps the haunted house inherently had a tendency to protect its owner.

Thinking about it this way, the haunted house might have played a part in her ability to "teleport."

The question is, how do we solve this problem?

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 did one last check of the small storage room. The cement walls were real, but the combustible items were spirit versions, and none of them moved.

Before leaving, he sensed the hat in the distance. The shield left on Lehwe had been half depleted over time—although it should still last a long time, Yuri restarted it once, just to be safe.

He turned around, pushed open the door of the small storage room, and was met with a fierce ghost that crashed into Yuri's shield again—this time he did not rush to retaliate, but first roughly sensed the opponent's condition.

Everything else was unremarkable, but there were signs of energy gathering in her hands. It seemed that Mika Taniguchi's attack wasn't entirely a claw strike or tearing motion; it had other effects—it might only be effective if her hands made contact with the opponent's body. This energy felt somewhat similar to the spiritual energy emanating from the reporter. Although this was only a judgment of the effect and direction of action, Yuri felt it basically proved that it was the cursed Lehwa.

So far, Yuri has blocked every single one of her attacks, leaving her no chance to showcase her talent—Yuri has once again blocked several of her attacks.

This guy lacks ranged attacks, so he's really helpless when he can't win in close combat, Yuri thought.

...Hey, this assessment sounds familiar. Who was it referring to again? Who was the guy who had no ranged attacks and just went all out when he couldn't win in close combat?

On the other hand, from a more realistic perspective, the ghost in front of us, Ms. Mika Taniguchi, appears to be wearing a rather casual red top and brown pants... According to Lehwa's records, she was playing at her residence when the fire broke out, and this outfit may have been what she was wearing at the time.

In this city where the average attractiveness of women is inexplicably high, Mika Taniguchi's appearance is quite ordinary (her deliberately mature attire may have had some negative impact). While she is far from unattractive, she is not the kind of person you would remember at first glance.

However, what caught Yuri's attention was her top... At first glance, the spots looked somewhat like decorations... but upon closer inspection, they looked more like blood. Red blood had splattered onto the same-colored fabric, leaving indistinct spots.

Yuri's thoughtful deflection of attacks seemed to provoke his opponent, causing Taniguchi Mika to take a step back and let out another silent howl.

“I’ve been wanting to ask this before. The information here says you died in a fire—then what about the wound on your neck?” Yuri’s attention was drawn back. “Anyone who sees this will have their own suspicions…for example, that it wasn’t a simple fire, but a murder followed by arson to cover up the evidence.”

There are almost no other options, otherwise how do you explain it? When it was on fire, a sharp piece of glass fell from the ceiling and just grazed his throat?

Mika Taniguchi was even more enraged; if looks could kill…

It seems she doesn't like others mentioning the cause of her death; Yuri just hopes that what he's about to say will make her listen.

“I have a friend who came here yesterday evening, and you even cursed her. Do you remember her? She’s a journalist, and she can help you get the truth out of the way.”

Yuri's hastily cobbled-together negotiation was ineffective; Mika Taniguchi showed no reaction whatsoever and pounced on him anyway.

"Even if you don't want to reveal the truth, she has no past grudges or recent hatred towards you, so why do you insist on cursing her and refusing to let go?" This sentence was useless, as Taniguchi Mika remained completely unfazed by this kind of negotiation.

After exchanging a few more blows, Yuri forced the ghost back a few steps and tried to take the initiative to grab it, but the reversal of the offensive and defensive momentum did not mean that he could easily defeat his opponent.

Mika Taniguchi was quite... hesitant about being grappled at close range. Whenever Yuri made a move to grab her, she would retreat without hesitation, further reducing her already low threat level—but doing nothing to negotiate or catch her opponent.

While Yuri was thinking, Mika Taniguchi used the same trick again, letting out a silent shriek as she ran toward the ladder not far from the bed.

This time, Yuri didn't hesitate and chased after her. As a result, Taniguchi Mika slid under the bed in a motion similar to a slide tackle—this bed actually had a bottom? Yuri followed without hesitation and crawled under the bed, just in time to see Taniguchi Mika gradually fading away.

Without thinking too much, Yuri reached out to grab her, only to find nothing. It wasn't that he completely missed, but by the time he touched her, it was too late. He hadn't had a firm grip to begin with, and with a final effort from Taniguchi Mika, he was out of the way.

Emerging from under the bed, where flames were suddenly emanating from who-knows-when, Yuri felt he had found the weakness in his opponent's move. Although he didn't know the principle or process, as long as he held on tightly to his opponent, there was a high chance he could prevent her from disappearing, thus forcing her to stay and wear him down. And based on his previous experience, he was certain to win against Taniguchi Mika in a war of attrition.

After taking one last look around at the furniture that was "burning," Yuri floated toward the stairs leading to the first floor.

The small storage room behind was still open, and it was clear that the vengeful ghost hadn't escaped there, so it must have gone to the first floor.

The wooden stairs didn't look very stable; they would probably wobble a bit if you actually stepped on them. However, for Yuri, who was floating down the stairs, it wasn't a problem at all.

—That's what he was thinking before he suddenly started falling from mid-air.

The wooden staircase was not preserved in the fire at all, and the remaining structure completely collapsed due to more than a decade of neglect. The spiritual version of the haunted house that Yuri had just floated up to was removed when Yuri was halfway there.

It was clearly malicious; Yuri included "demolishing the entire haunted house" in his backup plan.

As he floated down, he saw the figure of the vengeful ghost emerge from a doorway. Judging from its movements, it seemed to have started to hide upon seeing him.

Yuri held his breath and quickly floated over. The game of hide-and-seek had begun. "Ms. Taniguchi Mika, the faster we take care of you, the less likely something will go wrong over there."

Author's message

——The author has something to say——

As planned a week ago, I need to take a day off tomorrow, December 25th.

Also, wishing everyone a Merry Christmas Eve and a Merry Christmas in advance!

150 trespassers

Yuri ran around the house for hours, inside and out, until dawn was breaking.

He's now as familiar with the haunted house as he is with Akemi's house—he doesn't need to think at all; he knows exactly where spirit objects might suddenly appear and where the remaining physical objects are. He's even discovered some patterns in how the objects appear, like the refrigerator always appearing first, followed by the kettle next to it—he doesn't know what that means, but at least he shouldn't even think about hitting his opponent with the kettle before he sees the refrigerator.

However, the Ghost Lady was not entirely without learning. At first, she would try to fight back and try to ambush Yuri by relying on her familiarity with the terrain. But after being almost caught by Yuri several times, she lost all will to resist and only cared about running away.

What a lack of courage! So close!

Meanwhile, Yuri had tried shouting, "Then just stop cursing and I'll leave," but the report from the hat said that the curse showed no signs of abating.

Yuri couldn't think of any other explanation for this ghost's deliberate attempt to make things difficult for him.

The whack-a-mole game continues, and Yuri thinks he can keep going all day, but to really succeed... he might have to wait until the other guy is completely out of it and Yuri catches him red-handed.

Yuri gleaned a new piece of knowledge during the pursuit—although it was still a considerable range, the area where ghosts could teleport in this way was limited to the interior of the haunted house, and her anchor point was likely also within that range.

If that weren't the case, Yuri would have chased her out of the house long ago, and it's unlikely she would still be inside, refusing to be a local rat.

Or should we just start demolishing the haunted house? It will be a huge project, but at least we can see hope for an end.

Before Yuri could make his move, new noises broke in.

The sound came from outside.

Yuri walked outside without changing his expression, ignoring the spiritual plate that had fallen to the ground.

He had previously tried to entice the ghost to attack him from behind, even breaking through the spirit wall at the entrance of the house, but to no avail. The ghost was probably genuinely afraid of him, but unwilling to stop.

She'd better take advantage of this moment to launch an attack from behind. Yuri had even planned how to catch her in the act... Unfortunately, there was no sign of it coming to fruition.

He left the haunted house without any trouble. Standing at the door, he looked back inside and saw that all the furniture had disappeared.

The haunted house doesn't seem to display items from all areas at the same time, perhaps because of insufficient energy or low activity... Yuri made up a few reasons on the spot and then put them aside.

The important thing now is these few...elementary school students standing timidly at the door?

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, are there really ghosts here?"

"Isn't this where we came to find out if this place is real?"

"But if there really are ghosts, wouldn't we be doomed? Should we go back?"

"Hey, you're already at the door, how can you back down now? Don't forget what we said, we had to find out about the ghost stories before we went to school! That's why we got up so early, how can you back down at the last minute?"

"I don't care, but time doesn't stop. Either go in, or just go to school."

"That's right, if we don't go in now, wouldn't we have gotten up so early for nothing!"

These... elementary school kids! Yuri pressed his forehead, trying to ease the non-existent pain.

He understood that these elementary school students were simply overly curious and planned a haunted house adventure before going to school. Judging from the fact that Yuri was only three steps away and they still hadn't noticed a spirit floating nearby, these students didn't possess the ability to see spirits.

To prevent a misjudgment, Yuri also used his magical vision to scan their backpacks and clothing, but found nothing supernatural.

In other words, they were not some one-in-a-million cultivation prodigies, and they had no means to fight against malicious spirits. All they relied on was their own reckless courage—but the vengeful ghost inside was able to contact ordinary people in some way.

Do you all want to each take one of the curses? Yuri doesn't want to add any more to his roster of patients.

After a moment's thought, before they actually entered the haunted house, Yuri appeared on a nearby street. He deliberately chose a relatively far spot, so that he wouldn't be in the camera's range, and then quickly walked into the street—his hat wasn't with him, but his mask and trench coat collar shouldn't be able to give away Akemi's identity... Just in case, he also tucked his hair into his clothes.

In any case, he quickly "casually glanced" and "happened" to spot the elementary school students at the door.

"What are you guys doing standing there?" Yuri asked, "somewhat puzzled," and then turned to them and walked over slowly.

The elementary school students were clearly frightened. They all turned towards Yuri with wide eyes, trembling and at a loss for what to do.

The calmest one quickly asked, "Excuse me, is it true that this house is haunted?"

Good question, but aren't you asking this question just asking for trouble?

“There are indeed rumors that this house is haunted, but rumors are just rumors. Maybe they’ve mistaken rumors or burglars for ghosts. This house hasn’t been lived in for over ten years, so it’s normal for there to be such rumors—why are you interested in this?” Yuri answered, adopting the air of a complete bystander.

"Um, um, we're planning to explore a haunted house!" another elementary school student shouted, probably to bolster his courage. "Excuse me, how do we get in?"

You guys are really too friendly!

Yuri inwardly condemned their opportunistic behavior, then frowned noticeably. "Even though this house has been turned into this, it still has an owner. Are you trying to break in illegally?"

"This, this—" Yuri's intimidation seemed to have some effect, as one of the elementary school students hiding in the back could be seen trembling in the legs.

Let's give it our all.

Yuri continued forward, closing in until he was almost looking down at them. "Which school are you from? Do your teachers know you're here?"

"Eek!" Inspired by the first one who turned and ran, the elementary school students fled in panic.

They're so easy to deal with. I wish the guys in the house were this easy to handle too.

The behavior of the elementary school students served as a reminder to Yuri that as the weather improved, more people were passing by, and new people could enter the haunted house at any time. Moreover, these new people might not be as easy to deal with as they were this time.

It's best to finish this quickly.

Suppressing his anxiety, Yuri slowly left the camera area, quickly materialized into his spirit form, and re-entered the house to continue his whack-a-mole game.

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.

Both sides had reached a certain level of proficiency in hide-and-seek, making it difficult to improve further through familiarity with the situation—and this level was precisely what made it difficult for Yuri to catch his opponent easily.

From midnight until now, Yuri believes he has seen Mika Taniguchi disappear at least hundreds of times. At first, he had hoped that these disappearances and reappearances would cause some kind of depletion, but now it seems that these disappearances and reappearances are equivalent to Yuri's materialization and etherealization for her...

Yuri had hoped that leaving the haunted house would lull the other party into a false sense of security, but it didn't. At least, leaving for just a few minutes wasn't enough. The other party remained alert and would run away at the sight of him. Yuri actually suspected that the haunted house might share his location with the other party, but he had no proof.

As expected, the haunted house still needs to be demolished; otherwise, the problem cannot be solved.

Yuri stopped in the middle of the living room on the first floor and began to figure out which part to dismantle the fastest. He couldn't possibly eat it all, could he? If there was a way to set a fire that "only burns spirits," he might really become an arsonist.

Yuri also basically figured out Mika Taniguchi's weakness—when other things were thrown, the ghost would not dodge, but when a spiritual object that "looked like it was on fire" was thrown, she would dodge in terror.

But if they couldn't even catch him, let alone set him on fire—and setting the entire environment on fire... even if Yuri didn't consider the safety of the surrounding environment, as an abandoned building that had already been burned once, there was hardly any combustible material left, so it was impossible to ignite.

Just as Yuri was calming down and preparing to observe where it would be most convenient to dismantle the haunted house, a voice immediately made him agitated.

"We're coming in—" "Shut up! What if that person still hasn't left?"

I'm going to teach you all a lesson about how to be human! —Where did you crawl in from?

Yuri rushed toward the direction from which the sound came.

Although it was burned to almost nothing by the flames, Yuri believes this location was the kitchen based on the old scenes displayed in the haunted house.

The children squeezed in one by one from where the corner cabinet used to be.

Yuri could find several reasons for not seeing the small entrance. For example, the entrance was twisted and could not be squeezed through by Akemi's height; it was too dark outside at the time, so he could not see the light reflected from the passage; or the old scene displayed by the haunted house was covered by a layer, preventing Yuri from seeing what was behind it... But in the end, he gave up searching in this direction after realizing that Mika Taniguchi had left by teleportation rather than by crawling through a hole.

In any case, these kids are squeezing in one by one—and it doesn’t seem right for me to show up immediately and chase them out.

This passage looks quite narrow; even elementary school students could get stuck. If Yuri were to appear now, the two who have already entered wouldn't be able to get back the way they came—their "way back" is blocked by the ones behind them.

Once they all came in, Yuri was startled. The possibility of all the elementary school students choosing to go back the way they came was almost zero. If they were scared and ran all over the house, the situation would be much more troublesome.

These guys... are courting death...