Tokyo bombing incident Nth time

Both Mingmei and Liehui described the recent surge in haunted houses. Mingmei didn't investigate the authenticity of each of these haunted houses, while Liehui did conduct some research.

Yuri recalled Lehweh's blackboard, where reports and records were categorized in various ways—if one considers all categories grouped with this haunted house to be "real" haunted houses, then the number is actually quite considerable.

This phenomenon... is indeed quite unusual.

Just as he had expected, Yuri had seen ghosts from other places. When he was exploring around, he had indeed seen many ghosts stronger than himself at the time. However, these ghosts usually did not have the ability to attack unrelated passersby. It was one thing for Yuri to be beaten up as a spirit intruder, but it was another thing for unrelated passersby who entered and left to be attacked.

In other words, under normal circumstances, these haunted houses should not be easily identified by ordinary people. Ordinary people cannot see ghosts and are rarely interfered with by ghosts. These "real" haunted houses should not have a huge impact on the world of ordinary people, let alone be the subject of so much gossip.

Yuri attributed this situation to the fact that these haunted houses, which had existed for some time, had essentially become part of the city's traditions—just like the one he had just left had been in the same state for the previous decade or so.

It is indeed a haunted house, and there are indeed ghosts inside, but they do not affect ordinary people. People who know about their unusual behavior will not disturb them, and people who do not know about their unusual behavior are not harmed and do not care.

The current hype is abnormal. Either someone is promoting it excessively, or there are a lot of newly activated haunted houses, and the newly created/reawakened ghosts are not being integrated into the original environment, becoming like stones thrown into water.

If all of this is the work of that mysterious voice, its impact must be quite widespread...

Another rat king?

Yuri walked along the street, moving towards the hospital based on the connection between him and his hat—he should be at the hospital.

Maintain a sense of emptiness, and think as you walk.

The conclusion that it's "yet another Rat King" is probably incorrect. Although it manifests as using low-level spirits to cause trouble, the Rat King's goals are quite clear, and its action plan is quite direct.

The Rat King has strong control over its subordinates, and Yuri can clearly find signs that it benefits from the disasters it has created.

This time, however, it was quite different. Yuri did not see how the mysterious voice manipulated the ghosts—it activated the ghosts, but did not directly control their actions; neither the ghosts in the funeral home nor the ghosts in the haunted house remembered being directly manipulated.

This may be because Mr. You's skill level is too low to see this kind of remote control.

But what about the other aspect, the part that benefits? The Rat King increases his influence by expanding his spiritual power, and to do so, he layers his actions one by one—but what benefits does the Mysterious Voice actually gain when it enhances the ghosts? Initially, Yuri envisioned a commission system, whereby these controlled and influenced ghosts would pass on a portion of their spiritual essence to the Mysterious Voice as an offering.

However, during the recent exchange, he did not detect any signs of external energy transmission, and the ghost's own memories did not show any such content at all—based on the current information, it was even actively distributing energy to the ghosts, transmitting their spiritual essence to awaken them.

Is it really just voluntary labor? Even if you went to that foolish sin-eater Yuka Yamanaka, she wouldn't do something like this.

The purpose of the mysterious voice is currently questionable, but judging from its complete disregard for the harm caused to ordinary people (although the reporter and the elementary school student both had elements of recklessness), this guy is probably not a kind person.

Even if I didn't expect the haunted house incident to cause such a stir, I should have heard about it by now.

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 question returns to Yuri's side.

His initial objective for this operation should have been achieved (he still needs to go to the hospital to confirm), but it has subsequently led to a host of more problems.

So, should he continue following along?

Yuri, Yuri, have you forgotten how you almost got smashed to pieces last time you went to cause trouble for the Rat King?

Not only could he not go, but he also had to prevent Akemi from going, and he also had to keep Lehweh from getting agitated... Yuri ran through his list of acquaintances in his mind.

Ms. Qiusha? That should be fine, right? After all, she's very capable and experienced; I guess I don't need to worry about her.

Yuka Yamanaka? I'm not very familiar with her, and this is the profession of the Sin Eaters. If we don't entrust it to them, who else should we entrust it to? Ghost projects are their specialty.

Others... Oh, Yuri suddenly realized that he didn't have many friends either.

He was very close to his hat, probably no more than 500 meters away. It had taken Yuri three hours to drift here—partly because he had been distracted and not traveling at full speed, but also largely because the hospital was indeed quite far away.

There must be a reason why Mingmei specifically brought her here instead of finding a roadside clinic, Yuri thought as he approached.

The hospital occupies a considerable area, much larger than the roadside clinic, and it looks increasingly familiar as Yuri gets closer.

Baker Central Hospital.

Isn't this the place where I first "awakened"?

Yuri felt a strange sensation rising from the bottom of his heart. He never remembered any external factors causing his awakening; it was as if he had simply opened his eyes and found himself here.

But what if?

Having banished his suspicions, he moved along the hospital wall toward the direction of his hat.

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.

This is a very ordinary ward. There are no complicated instruments in sight. Although the environment is clean, the row of beds itself indicates that this is not a particularly important place.

The reporter had woken up and was placed in a corner, chatting with a high school girl. Yuri's hat lay on the reporter's blanket, in a spirit form.

Yuri slipped through the window. Akemi probably didn't see her, even though she was facing Yuri, she didn't make any move... Looking around, she didn't seem to see any cameras inside the hospital bed.

There weren't many people in the ward, almost no other patients, and the only nurse had her back to him. Yuri took advantage of the fact that no one was paying attention and quickly walked to the bedside.

"Have you worked hard?" Say hello first.

"Yes, that's right. I'm really sorry to have troubled you all this time." Liehui tilted her head. "It's really rude of you to see me like this."

"Did the doctor say what's wrong?" Yuri asked, pointing to the hospital bed.

It seems that the lost strength did not return immediately after the spiritual effect was dispelled, and the reporter still appeared quite weak.

“Let me tell you,” Mingmei took a breath. “The doctor believes that Liehui has no illness and that her coma was caused by long-term fatigue and malnutrition from not eating for a long time.”

Not eating for a long time? Yuri stared at Lehweh... She was indeed a size smaller than Akemi, but she wasn't sickly thin.

“Yes, in other words, he initially thought I was in the process of starving myself to death,” Leh said with a smile. “He also said that I was lucky that my condition did not put any adverse stress on my organs, and told me to pay attention to a regular lifestyle, eat properly, and stay up less at night… and so on.”

"Is it true?" Yuri decided to ask the person in question.

“Of course not. It might be true that my irregular lifestyle has led to fatigue, but not eating? My appetite is at least normal.” Leh Hui spread her hands. “But how else can he explain my weakness? That I’ve seen a ghost and had a lot of my energy drained?”

"So..." Yuri wanted to ask what the doctor did, but Akemi answered first.

"So the doctor had her lie here, gave her some glucose water, and then someone over there did something to undo the effects of the spiritual energy, anyway..." Akemi glanced at Yuri, "Lee-hui woke up, that's it."

Is this guy's tone of voice a little unfriendly?

“Hey, don’t pretend you weren’t worried. I saw you looking so anxious when I woke up,” Leh Hui said with a weak smile. “Didn’t we already guess who made some efforts over there?”

"No, I was worried about you, Liehui, not anyone else," Mingmei replied immediately. "Speaking of which, what exactly is this vengeful ghost?"

Indeed, this is the key point. Yuri honestly explained the situation he encountered, especially mentioning the mysterious voice, but did not elaborate on his further deductions.

"Wow, you can read ghosts' memories?" Leh's attention was drawn to something strange. "Did you read them completely?"

“Of course not entirely. Usually, it’s only the parts that have a particularly great significance to ghosts and a particularly strong obsession that can be understood,” Yuri quickly replied.

Unlike using magical vision to investigate the cause of a ghost's death, the memories gained from consuming spiritual essence are merely a bonus; what one can read is largely a matter of luck. The fact that Yuri had such clear information this time was only possible because he had almost completely drained the opponent, plus an immense amount of luck. If he were to do it again, there would be no way he could do it.

“This information is very useful to me, Maruden Tae…” the reporter lowered his voice, “You know… I interviewed many people in the neighborhood about the haunted house before, and one of them said she knew nothing about it… I felt that her attitude was strange, but at the time I thought that she probably just didn’t want to talk about such supernatural things—her name is Iwami Tae, and she lives with her husband, Iwami Keijiro.”

"..." Yuri and Akemi both fell silent, unsure of what to say.

From a moral standpoint, Yuri really wants to uphold justice, but isn't this a bit like catching mice?

“It’s alright, leave this to me. I won’t make any accusations without any evidence—what’s with that expression?” Li Hui stared at Mingmei’s face.

Yuri knew what she was going to say. "What, you're not a reporter?"... After all, they used to secretly badmouth reporters during casual conversations, saying things like reporters were the kind of people who made baseless accusations without any evidence. Back then, they hadn't thought about having a reporter friend. But this definitely couldn't be said to her face... right?

“Um… well, I was thinking that real-world scientific issues are easy to solve, but that might not be enough to solve the mystical cases we face,” Akemi tilted her head slightly, quickly finding an excuse. “After all, even Yuri can’t guarantee that he hasn’t missed anything.”

I'm sorry, it's not that there might be absolutely no missed readings, but rather that there are almost certainly missed readings. Yuri has never seriously developed this ability, and even actively suppressed it after realizing the possibility that he might be interfered with by other memories.

“I don’t think we need to get involved in this kind of thing, do we?” Yuri looked around for a chair, but couldn’t find a second one except the one that Akemi was sitting on, so he had to continue talking while standing.

It's not that he needs to sit down, but standing like that seems a bit strange, and the nurses over there have been glancing at him several times already.

"..." Akemi wanted to say something, but she stopped halfway through her sentence, probably thinking of the same thing as Yuri.

“Just like the Rat King incident and the vampire incident, rushing in recklessly could have adverse effects,” Yuri explained to Lehwe beside him. “In addition, this matter should actually be handled by someone else. Neither Minmei nor I are experts in this area, so it’s best not to interfere.”

"Who is the designated person?" Lehwa blinked.

"..." Do I need to explain this too? Yuri looked at Akemi and only received a look of disgust.

What she meant was probably, "You caused this yourself, so you have to solve it."

153 Little Horse Crossing the River

Yuri spent some time managing to get through to the matter of Yuka Yamanaka.

According to him, the Sin Eaters Society, to which Yamanaka Yuka belonged, was a group of occultists who specialized in exorcism—because of his vague description, Lehwa seemed to have imagined them as eminent monks and virtuous masters.

He wanted to correct the mistake, but the thought of the trouble it would cause made him dizzy, so he decided to let it slide for now.

It's not too late to explain later if we meet or need to use it.

The good news is that this topic overshadowed the first part of Yuri's statement, preventing Akemi from noticing anything amiss... perhaps.

At least the two of them started chatting about their physical condition and symptoms, instead of dragging Yuri into it.

In reality, Yuri believed that only Akemi wasn't an expert in this area—he could still use the mystery of "death," a mystery that could definitely influence ghosts. Although he hadn't studied the offense and defense against ghosts in detail (most of the time, a shield was enough, and in other situations, it was probably useless), he planned to start practicing with the repeater tomorrow. As for his promise to Yamanaka Yuka… that had to be put aside for now; he had to act according to the circumstances.

Unlike herself, Akemi possessed a vast knowledge base, an area where rapid advancement was difficult—she was already considered an expert. However, in practical application, she… she would certainly disagree if told otherwise, but ultimately, she was only human.

Yuri had repeated this to himself many times. When he thought of this, he meant that Akemi lacked the ability to mitigate damage after being attacked. Even though her physical abilities were considered superior among humans, she couldn't, like Yuri, gain victory at the cost of suffering harm.

The human body is too fragile, and the protection Yuri can provide is focused on dealing with spirits.

Furthermore, Yuri and Akemi have similar physical abilities, and he has repeatedly felt his physical limitations in combat. The ghost they've encountered this time, Taniguchi Mika, could inflict considerable damage on Yuri even without a shield. As for Akemi, her superior fighting skills compared to Yuri's won't be able to effectively affect the ghost; while still better than nothing, she can't fully utilize them… In other words, this will be a tough battle for her.

"Yuri? What are you thinking about?" Leh said, ending her conversation with Minmei.

“I was thinking…” Yuri offered the excuse he had prepared beforehand, “has your health really improved?”

"I'm not completely healed yet, but if I had to say, I can get out of bed and walk by myself now. I expect... at the very least, I should be able to go home by noon." The reporter turned to the high school girl, "I'll still have to ask you to give me a ride then."

Mingmei readily agreed.

Noon... Thursday noon...

"...Hey, do you have something to do today?" Yuri had learned her lesson and didn't directly say "I have to go to class." This reporter might be like a curious child, pressing for details about which school it was, and then Akemi would blame her again.

“Don’t worry, I took leave.” Mingmei breathed a sigh of relief. “Although the price is that I have a worse impression of being a patient, I’m not lying, I really am in the hospital.”

"Okay, I think I'm fine now. You two don't need to keep surrounding me like this... It feels like I'm about to collapse." The reporter shifted her position. "You must have something you plan to discuss privately, so I won't bother you any longer."

Although she said she wouldn't bother them, it was clear that Yuri and Akemi couldn't possibly tell the patient to stay away from them; they could only keep their distance themselves. Perhaps she was planning to rest for a while but didn't intend to say something like, "Let me have some peace and quiet."

The two exchanged a glance, and then went one after the other to the corridor outside the ward.

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.

“I still have to say thank you for your hard work, Yuri.” Akemi pressed her forehead. “You described yourself as if you were invincible when facing that ghost, and all the problems were about how to stop it… but that’s not really the case, is it?”

No, no, no, that's exactly how it is, really, believe me! Yuri cried out in his heart.

"Why do you think that?" Without a direct answer, Yuri figured that repeatedly insisting he wasn't lying would be useless until he figured out the problem.

"This ghost has been causing trouble for at least half a month... and she's extremely ruthless." Akemi gestured, controlling the amplitude to avoid attracting too much attention in the corridor... but it was still clear that she was making a chopping motion with her hand.

Yuri nodded in agreement. It was indeed quite ruthless. Judging from the symptoms exhibited by the reporter, this energy draining disregarded the lives of the victims, showing absolutely no awareness of sustainable development; once they caught someone, they would exploit them to the death.

“This kind of fierce attack can easily attract others, but at the same time it can quickly accumulate its own power. On the other hand, she can maintain the absorption distance for a long time—” Akemi made a gesture of spreading her arms, “This shows that she has considerable ability, so a powerful and greedy ghost, that is what I expect from her.”

Akemi's meaning was simple: Taniguchi Mika's performance was not weak, and with such a frantic accumulation of experience, she shouldn't have been at a loss and helpless when fighting Yuri... and Yuri did indeed describe the opponent's battle situation in this way.

Therefore, the conclusion is that Yuri downplayed the danger he encountered, which makes sense.

When she said that, Yuri also began to feel strange. Indeed, the female ghost was not very strong, but if she wasn't very strong, how could she absorb spiritual essence from such a distance?

"Based on my experience fighting her, I believe her raw strength is indeed weaker than mine, and she doesn't have any particular strengths in terms of psionic energy or spiritual power. Aside from her absorption techniques, which are completely ineffective against me, all she can do is run around the house..." Yuri counted on his fingers, "She's inferior to me in every aspect, so she should undoubtedly be a level two spirit. But should a level two spirit have such a far-reaching influence? In your knowledge, how wide a range of influence can a ghost of this level have?"

Mingmei frowned. "Without special channels, reaching a few hundred meters would be quite an achievement."

Special channels, such as cursed dolls, are tools that allow one to establish contact with evil spirits or victims. They act as a relay station in the process of transferring abilities and energy, and at the same time, they can connect the two parties in a certain metaphysical sense—reducing obstacles in a metaphysical sense.

Yuri thought for a while, confirming that he hadn't found any of the victim's belongings or anything like that inside the house. He couldn't tell if Hojo Reie had lost any hair there, but something larger than a finger shouldn't exist—and it was even less likely that a reporter would have brought out a suspicious item without being noticed.

In fact, the only thing she had that was related to supernatural power at the time was the amulet in her pocket, and that was definitely not the influence of the female ghost.

"It seems we can only attribute this to the mastermind behind it all. Somehow, it gave this ghost these extra abilities... But since we were so close when we fought, it didn't even get used to them." Akemi made her deductions, a mix of guesswork and speculation.

Yuri couldn't raise any objections, nor did he know why this was the case, but he did think of another problem.

"Is this why you specifically brought the reporter here? Because it's far?" He recalled his long journey to get here. In the past, when he left this place and arrived near Mingmei's location, he had wandered aimlessly for a whole night.

“That’s part of the reason, but more importantly, there’s a healing spirit in this hospital.” Mingmei nodded slightly. “Unless you find its true form, it won’t actually use its spiritual energy to heal patients directly. But just the fact that it’s here can increase the speed at which patients recover their health to some extent.”

"How powerful is it?" Yuri asked in a low voice. He didn't remember ever seeing a healing spirit, but it was also possible that the spirit simply didn't want to see him and deliberately avoided him.

“I’m not entirely sure, but it should be somewhere between level three and four—” Akemi replied in a low voice, “The records say it was level three decades ago, but it might have been upgraded by now.”

Yuri looked around. It was morning, and there were already quite a few nurses and patients in the corridor. "Do they know they are under the protection of the healing spirit? Does the hospital know?"

Although he was looking forward to a clear answer from Akemi, she spread her hands, indicating that she didn't know. "How would I know? But I guess you probably don't know either."