Tokyo bombing incident Nth time

I have to admit, the anchor isn't here.

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.

We have to get some information out of that afterimage no matter what.

The afterimage appeared to have no particular injuries, radiating a confident smile that seemed almost dazed, and remained motionless.

No matter how much Yuri shook him, he remained motionless.

The attempt to move the afterimage outside the ship failed.

This afterimage likely uses a ship as its anchor point, and its range of movement is extremely small.

If only there were a way to temporarily strengthen this guy's consciousness, but how? Should we inject some spiritual essence?

Mingmei told her not to ask her, as she had never considered the question. She believed that injecting spiritual essence was possible, but only because she had never heard of any cases, and naturally, she didn't know of any failed cases.

...The plan to inject spiritual essence failed.

Yuri provided the smallest portion of his remaining spiritual essence that he could divide, but the afterimage didn't even have the instinct to absorb spiritual essence; it just stood there. To prevent waste, Yuri quickly absorbed the released spiritual essence back.

Feeling as if he had missed something, Yuri stared at the afterimage, trying to think.

Judging from the remaining images here, Takemura is indeed dead. His deeds are remembered by some people, so he has become a ghost.

Although it's just a temporary buzz, this incident happened less than a week ago, so it shouldn't fade away so quickly.

So why is it a pure video?

One more thing, he just confirmed with Mingmei: people who dabbled in supernatural powers during their lifetime are more likely to become powerful ghosts if they leave behind a spirit. He didn't know exactly how easy, but the probability was definitely higher than that of ordinary people.

Takemura remains in people's memories. In his lifetime, he was quite fascinated by the supernatural and left behind a ghost with a deep-seated obsession. Moreover, it was not eaten—if the hunter had really eaten Takemura's ghost, it would have been completely devoured without any mercy.

Then the afterimage in front of me was so faint.

Looking closer, this afterimage is definitely not normal.

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.

Perhaps luck was on Yuri's side this time, for he discovered that the afterimage seemed to have some kind of metaphysical connection. The connection pointed towards the sea.

"What kind of connection are you talking about, the metaphysical connection?" But his explanation skills were so poor that even Akemi couldn't understand.

“It’s just…” Yuri had been gesturing for a while. “It’s just that I feel this afterimage is connected to something in the sea, and I can follow the clues to go and take a look over there.”

"Besides your feelings, do you have any other evidence?" Mingmei asked, sounding somewhat incredulous.

"Is there anything else we can find besides this?" Yuri agreed that it was unbelievable, but it was the only option at the moment. If they let go of this last straw, there really wouldn't be any better solutions.

Finally, it was decided that Akemi, whose clothes were unsuitable for swimming, would find a place on the shore to wait, avoiding the possibility of the boat manager and not appearing too suspicious. Meanwhile, Yuri, relying on his spirit form and ability to float, went into the sea to search… for a feeling.

The feeling of stepping on water is very different from that on land. On land, Yuri wouldn't sink into the ground unless he deliberately crashed into it. But in the sea, Yuri couldn't control his altitude as easily as before, and although flying along the surface was possible, he could easily slip into the water. In fact, because the water didn't pose a real obstacle to the ethereal Yuri, he didn't realize he had unknowingly moved as if walking on the seabed until it reached his waist.

Another problem is that it is difficult to determine one's position by looking at the water. Fortunately, this time I was not far from the shore, and I could roughly confirm whether I was going in the right direction by turning around.

After advancing about five hundred meters... or six hundred meters.

Yuri has found his target.

A ghostly repeater floating on the water, its appearance exactly the same as the previous afterimage.

As you get closer, all you can hear him repeating one sentence over and over again: "I succeeded, I succeeded, I succeeded."

Did Takemura consider himself successful? Even at the moment of his death?

The water here... is still very shallow, only a few meters deep. Yuri dived once but didn't see any trace of an anchor. Furthermore, the book states that hunters usually operate in "coastal waters" rather than "shallow waters."

Based on his previous experience, Yuri judged that this was not the last one.

Using the same method, Yuri determined the general direction of the connection and continued forward.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

After discovering several more repeaters, Yuri had entered the deep waters... or at least, Yuri felt that this was the deep waters.

The different repeaters reacted differently, so Yuri decided to wait until he found them all before connecting them to understand them.

Looking back, you can no longer see anything specific on the shore; you can only see a line.

Yuri felt that some supernatural phenomenon had occurred here, but it had dissipated over time.

There was no sign of the repeater; it must still be ahead. Keep going. A fish spirit swam on the surface. Do spirits really need to swim to move through water, or is it just an instinct? Yuri tried hard to identify it, but still couldn't tell what kind of fish it was.

The fish spirit circled Yuri twice, seemingly looking for an opportunity to attack, but ultimately submerged. Perhaps it was because it hadn't sunk into the water, and the fish spirit disliked being out of the water?

It's a good thing. Although we might not necessarily lose if a real fight breaks out, it's not a good sign to enter into a war without any prior grudge.

Yuri continued forward, but found no new repeaters, and a feeling of missing something enveloped him. He turned back and searched until he reached the previous marker, but found no new ones.

If it didn't turn back before reaching its destination, then it's on the seabed. — It's most likely on the seabed, sunk along with the anchor.

Yuri arrived at the sensing zone and began to walk down into the water. The water was already quite deep, and at a certain distance, one could still see the light shining through from above, but it was hard to say what would happen if it went any deeper. This was because the water quality here was indeed better than that at the beach, although not by much.

Something was watching him from the shadows. Yuri slowed his movements, scrutinizing his surroundings more intently.

"Intruder, how dare you trespass on my territory!" With a hissing sound, a streamlined body emerged from the shadows.

It looks like the fish spirit we encountered before, and the spirit language is universal.

“I had no intention of intruding here; I was just looking for something I left behind,” Yuri tried to respond amicably.

"Everything that falls into this place belongs to me... except for those stuck on the seabed, which belong to the seashells."

“Perhaps I can make a deal with you… with that seashell? I’m willing to exchange spirit marrow for it.” Yuri’s spirit marrow was almost depleted, but it was best to avoid a fight if possible. “I don’t have much spirit marrow to offer, but that thing probably won’t be of much use to you anyway.”

It's really not very useful, unless you guys go ashore and take it to hunt. In fact, it might even bring you trouble once the hunters return at their peak.

The fish spirit swam slowly, perhaps a little tempted.

"Why don't I just attack the intruder directly and devour all of its spiritual essence?"

The fact that it's still talking means it hasn't made up its mind to attack yet—but hunters might ambush, and the fish spirit in front of it might too.

“We are not the same kind of spirit. You are a spirit, while I am not—devouring my spiritual essence will not be easily digested, and besides, I will resist to the point that you cannot profit. You are not as strong as the hunter sea urchins that were around here before.” Yuri tried to persuade the other party, this time from the perspective that the other party might not be able to defeat him.

“The sea urchin is dead! It won’t be back for a long time! Now I rule this place... and the shells... and…” The fish spirit’s swimming speed increased.

Just because this fish spirit has to share its so-called dominion with so many other spirits, Yuri knew it was far inferior to the hunter...

“It may be dead, or it may not be. If it’s still here, I’ll have to make a deal with it, but right now you’re the one who can make a deal with me.”

After a brief silence, the fish spirit spoke again. "Alright, what are you looking for?"

“An anchor.” Yuri described in detail everything he knew about the anchor, then added the most prominent feature that came to mind. “There might also be a ghost tied to it.”

“I have indeed seen this before. Pay me the spirit essence first, and then I will take you to find it.”

“I think it’s better to…” Yuri and the Fish Spirit negotiated for a while and finally decided that the Fish Spirit would take Yuri to the anchor first, then Yuri would pay for the spirit essence, and finally Yuri would take the anchor away.

Then the fish spirit led Yuri stealthily and quietly towards the seabed.

"Let's confirm this again. If I lead you around the seashell, will you give me his share too?" The fish spirit confirmed their previous agreement as they approached the seabed.

Incidentally, "one portion" means one-fifth of Yuri's remaining spiritual essence.

"That's right, but if it's discovered, I won't admit that I made the suggestion."

“A treacherous human invader.” The fish spirit turned its head and continued leading the way.

You're not bad either! Yuri kept those words to himself.

The stealth went very smoothly, perhaps because the Shell Spirit didn't like to move? Yuri mentally prepared an excuse for the Shell Spirit's absence.

An anchor is stuck at an angle on the seabed, and it looks like it hasn't been there long and hasn't sunk into the sand yet.

At this depth where light was almost invisible, the spirits' vision was also pitch black. Yuri only discovered the ghost of Takemura when he got very close.

Although it's meant to be more vivid, it's still just a broken record.

After receiving the spirit essence, the fish spirit left. Yuri attempted to float upwards by pulling on the anchor—but failed. Yuri's hand passed right through the anchor.

Sure enough, just as the book says, for unrelated spirits, the source of the trouble is just ordinary objects.

Switching to a physical form was a bit of a struggle, as Yuri needed to work hard to displace the water. Fortunately, the physical form of Yuri didn't have water pressure issues.

Ascending was much easier. In fact, if Yuri hadn't struggled to grab the anchor first, he felt he would have been launched directly up by the buoyancy.

They floated to the surface and retraced their steps.

On a whim, Yuri brought the anchor close to the afterimage that had passed by, and it snapped shut as he had expected. Absolutely no surprise.

Even if you didn't know before, you should know now. — Clearly, Takemura suffered a fatal wound in or after a battle. For some peculiar reason, his echo was fragmented into multiple pieces. Eventually, he reached the shore, but by then he could no longer leave behind even an echo. He died gradually, in some peculiar way.

Following the sequence from anchor to shore, the afterimage repeated: "No more." — "More to do." — "Need rest." — "New power." — "It doesn't matter." — "I succeeded." — "..."

This doesn't seem like a good sign.

Further research is needed once all the fragments of Bamboo Village are collected, but fortunately, it won't take long.

Chapter Sixteen: Review and Consolidation

They avoided the ship managers who had already arrived nearby, collected the last echoes, and then... nothing happened.

The ghosts in the bamboo village appear even more solid... Although you probably wouldn't notice them without a comparison, you can notice them with a comparison.

But Takemura was still a broken record, at most a broken record that repeated all the remnants of the previous recordings in a random order.

Even though Akemi can see him clearly now, he's still just repeating himself.

This is abnormal, but the two of them have encountered far too many abnormal things lately.

In short, it must be related to his battle with the hunter.

Despite having the strength of an intelligent ghost, he lacks intelligence. It's quite unfortunate that he ended up like this, Mr. Takemura.

Although Yuri harbored deep resentment towards the person who started all this, the man was dead, which didn't stop him from sighing a few times—if he still had intelligence and self-awareness, Yuri would definitely be choking him and forcing him to find a way to solve this mess.

All they could do now was bring the anchor back. Exhausted, Yuri didn't want to move, so they hung the anchor on the motorcycle, Takemura on the anchor, and Yuri on the rope attached to the anchor, and that's how they returned to Akemi's place. Along the way, they encountered some early risers, but none of them seemed particularly interested in Akemi.

The building manager only comes once in a long while. He is very indifferent and not diligent in managing the place. As long as you pay regularly, he basically doesn't care about anything. This is good, because no one asks where Mingmei stole the anchor from.

From the afternoon of the first day to the morning of the second, even someone like Akemi Kakizaki felt somewhat exhausted. Back at her lodgings, she took a quick shower and went to bed, leaving Yuri alone, staring at the broken record with a headache.

Mingmei has already helped enough; this matter originally had nothing to do with her.

That's right, now it's Yuri's turn to solve the problem himself!

……

The decision has been made, but how exactly should it be carried out?

To avoid starving himself to death, Yuri extracted the last bit of spiritual essence from the shrine. It wasn't fully replenished, but he wasn't so hungry anymore.

The best way, of course, is to shake the broken record in front of him awake, but Yuri doesn't know how to raise the level of a spirit. If he did, he would have used it on himself long ago.

I'll try injecting a little spiritual essence into the repeater—if that doesn't work, I'll just absorb it back.

Having made up his mind, Yuri reached out and placed his hand on Takemura's shoulder, attempting to channel his spiritual essence into the other's body...

It had no effect; no one in the bamboo village received the spiritual essence.

Yuri observed for a moment, then realized his folly—the repeater basically didn't actively consume spirit essence, so Bamboo Village's spirit essence was likely still full. Yuri himself consumed spirit essence like water, but other spirits weren't like that.

Then let's take a little bit first, and then give it back to him, to see if this kind of stimulation can bring about any change in him.

Bullying defenseless opponents can be quite addictive, but Yuri stopped after extracting only a small amount of spirit essence. He remembered how he had gotten an upset stomach from the spirit essence converted from plant life force. Now, it seemed the spirit essence from ghosts was more effective—a small amount wouldn't cause any problems, but a large amount would still present some issues.

That's not the point.

Yuri banished the illusion from his mind of hunting ghosts across the city like a hunter, only to be disappointed to see the unresponsive machine in front of him.

The second step was to infuse the spiritual essence. Sure enough, this time the repeater instinctively began absorbing the energy released by Yuri.

Nothing had changed, but Yuri felt that he had established some kind of connection with the other party.

The hope is that this connection will awaken the other person's memories or retrieve their memories.

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 sound of ocean waves seemed to reach my ears.

A man slumped onto the boat, looking disheveled from the earlier whirlpools and waves, but this did not diminish his inner ecstasy.

“I succeeded. It had to submit to me, my will was superior to itss! It yielded! It merged into my body, became one with me, and took me as its master!” In his heart, he repeated his victory over and over again—indeed, he had underestimated his opponent’s resistance, but in the end, he still won.

He rose up, trying to retrieve the enemy's nemesis, the one that had played a crucial role in the operation. The chain that had secured it to the ship had broken in the recent battle, and the man had to hold on tightly to prevent it from falling to the sea. However, in the midst of celebrating his victory, he had placed the anchor on the deck for a rest. The instant he touched it again, he felt a burning pain, and the sudden agony caused him to loosen his grip, sending the anchor tumbling to the bottom of the sea.

“This may be the price of merging with and controlling a spirit, and now it’s my downfall.” The man found a reasonable explanation for the phenomenon. “Well, now that I’ve succeeded, I don’t need this anchor anymore. Let it sink to the bottom of the sea and disappear forever.”