Tokyo bombing incident Nth time

“I didn’t actually ask for the specific method,” the sin-eating girl said with a slightly unfocused look after hearing Yuri’s question, “but I guess it’s something like knocking on the homeroom teacher’s window in the middle of the night.”

"Is your method reliable?" Yuri paused before asking. Since Yuka Yamanaka wasn't expelled for skipping classes every day, it should be reliable... I just don't know about the homeroom teacher's mental health.

He changed the subject, "Is it appropriate for you to so... cleverly bypass the school part?"

“It’s suitable, what could be unsuitable?” Yamanaka Yuka looked back at him with the eyes of someone looking at an alien. “Explain?”

"If you don't attend classes, how will you acquire knowledge?" Yuri had received help from knowledge many times during his struggles, but this guy in front of him... had been skipping classes for a long time since the second year of junior high. Even if he passed the exam through the power of the spirit binding, he hadn't really learned it into his own mind. He would definitely suffer in the future.

“…It’s alright to tell you.” The girl, who had become somewhat familiar with Yuri, replied, “I don’t want to do this kind of… ‘normal’ job in the future.”

Yuri didn't react for a moment and could only listen to the girl continue speaking.

“Studying, working… that’s what my elders always told me before I became a Sin Eater. I didn’t understand it, but I knew it was probably right.” Yuka Yamanaka shrugged. “Then I became a Sin Eater, and I didn’t like the process.”

The process of becoming a sin-eater: die once, and then rely on luck to become one in a million, someone whose spirit is bound to them after death.

"Do you think I should give up my power as a sin-eater? — I mean, even if I possess it, I'll never use it or improve it." Yuka Yamanaka posed a question with a very obvious answer.

“Of course not, this power is very useful, how can we give it up?” Yuri replied, “However, the knowledge I learned at school is also very important.”

"Come on, I'm not saying I won't learn even if the knowledge is particularly useful, as long as it usually comes from school—but most of that knowledge I'll never use in the future." Yuka Yamanaka spread her hands. "Human energy is limited, and I plan to build my career entirely on the foundation of the Sin Eaters... Anyway, I would never give up this power. Besides, some of my fellow members in the society also have real jobs—they've put in a lot of effort to find a balance between their ordinary lives and their supernatural lives, and I can see how exhausted they are every time I talk about it... It's terrifying, isn't it?"

She had her reasons, and further lecturing would damage the relationship between the two.

Stopping their casual conversation, Yuri continued his work with Yuka Yamanaka.

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.

To be honest, Yuri didn't play any unique role during this period of running around. In terms of combat, Yuka-san's spirit binding basically handled everything. In terms of knowledge, which is limited to ghosts, Yuka-san's performance was not much inferior to his... Moreover, when she was really stumped, she could directly ask the spirit binding.

Her spirit didn't like answering her questions, and although their communication was more like a mental link mixed with gestures (so much so that Yuri didn't know what they were saying), Yuri could clearly feel the spirit's impatience.

Nevertheless, Yuka Yamanaka still manages to get answers to her questions every time, and the spirits will give their replies after a while of procrastination.

What exactly is the nature of their relationship?

Yuri tried to subtly probe the spirit, but the spirit never responded with words.

The spirit is aware of its own existence. When it floats, it will avoid Yuri. When fighting, it will also be careful not to attack Yuri. It will even cooperate with Yuri to a certain extent. But these are all tacit understandings. When Yuri tries to talk, it will remain silent.

Sometimes Yuri would wonder if this self-proclaimed "strategist of the inside and outside" was like Mika Taniguchi, completely unable to speak... But when Yuri brought up this question, Yuka Yamanaka responded that this spirit could speak, and spoke fluently, but this spirit simply did not like to talk.

Yuka Yamanaka believes the spirit is male because the voice she heard back then was male, but she didn't describe the more detailed parts to Yuri, and Yuri didn't ask.

Asking would make it seem like you're trying to find out the other person's weaknesses and do something in the first place.

However, it was not a problem to observe teammates closely when coordinating operations. Yuri carefully observed the Bound Spirit's every move without activating his magical vision.

When he encountered a certain "vengeful ghost," he tried to activate his magical vision and "accidentally" glanced at the bound spirit, but the bound spirit clearly turned its head away, causing him to immediately turn his gaze back.

If he could be discovered with just a glance, then staring intently and concentrating would be even more impossible—you see, when he glanced over, he was actually observing the spirit from the side and behind—meaning that the spirit didn't make a judgment based on Yuri's actions, but actually sensed what Yuri was doing.

Although the spirit-binding creature didn't comment on the matter, Yuri felt it best to exercise restraint. He observed it using only ordinary vision, without magical vision—the spirit-binding creature didn't seem to resist this observation; while it didn't cooperate, it at least didn't dodge or attack.

The observed results are quite limited, but not zero.

Beneath that black cloth, Yuri had glimpsed a scale-like structure, which, after repeated mental comparisons, he concluded was the pattern of an armor.

Compared to the history textbooks of Mingmei, one can only say that this type of armor was popular in Japan for a long time—not because it was particularly strong or effective, but because it was widespread.

It was worn for a very long time, from the Heian period to the end of the Sengoku period.

Yuri wasn't sure if other countries besides Japan had similar armor, but considering that Akemi's history textbook said that this type of armor was "developed in light of the circumstances at the time," there probably wouldn't be many, even if there were.

Then, the samurai sword used by this spirit, although much larger, is closer in shape to the version from the Warring States period... The difference is not significant, and Yuri dared not make any guarantees about it.

Then, when Yuri asked the question, "Is it possible for a bound spirit of such a tall stature to hide its identity?" Yamanaka Yuka told him with sympathy, "As a high-ranking ghost, it is very normal for a bound spirit to have a very different appearance than when it was alive. My bound spirit once explicitly said that it was not this tall when it was alive."

Finally, Yuri, please combine the following conditions: "the era is from the mid-Heian period to the end of the Sengoku period," "more likely in a later period," "a professional samurai," "less than 2.5 meters tall," and "claims the code name 'Inside and Outside Strategist,' but may actually be lying," to determine the true identity of the bound spirit!

Yuri chose to give up treatment. He's not some famous detective; how could he possibly guess the other person's identity based on that?

156. An Abnormal Hospital

Several nights later, Yuri appeared in front of the building.

The building was shrouded in an eerie atmosphere, and because it was close to midnight, most of the lights had gone out, making it look like a place possessed by ghosts.

He did not come alone; a whole Sin Eaters Society appeared with him in front of the building. There were two women and five men, the oldest being about forty years old, and the youngest being Yamanaka Yuka, who was fourteen years old.

If we include the bound spirits, we should add four more... making a total of twelve people.

It really was a large and imposing "army." Yuri scanned the group of supernatural-related people in front of him, who were both tired and excited. They seemed to be filled with an atmosphere of "the final battle is here."

It's understandable to have this thought. After all, Mr. Minagawa Dojin (whom I met at the funeral home) came to say that, based on his and Hirosaki Katsuya's (whom I also met) investigation, they believed they had found the key to this ghostly activity, and the mastermind was likely in the same place... Upon hearing this news, Yuri's first reaction was the same as Yamanaka Yuka's.

—Great! At least we don't have to put out fires everywhere anymore! The more they dealt with the haunted house incidents, the more they wanted to stop, and these people couldn't take it anymore.

After cooling down, Yuri asked a question: "If we rush in, actually encounter the mastermind, and then beat them up, will the haunted house incident really be over?" After all, a large proportion of the ghost story that spread and became a craze was fabricated based on hearsay.

Yuka Yamanaka said she didn't know and had never thought about the question, but she felt that as long as there was no real incident involved, if it was just made up, these people would eventually lose their enthusiasm—as long as no one specifically reminded them, they should probably forget about it after the New Year.

In other words, she didn't believe this would end immediately, but she finally saw a glimmer of hope—just like Yuri's initial reaction.

"Do you know all these people?" Yuri asked Yamanaka Yuka in a low voice.

“How could we not know each other? They’re all members of our society—I’ve already told them that a spirit friend would be coming to help.” Yuka Yamanaka answered softly without turning her head. “Why don’t you go and give them a more formal greeting? You just exchanged names with them briefly before, right?”

“That should be enough. After all, we’re not really familiar with each other, and awkward small talk won’t help… Compared to this…” Yuri hesitated, looking at the sign. “I have a bad feeling about this.”

Yes, especially the "Baker Central Hospital" sign in front of him, which made him feel terrible.

“That’s right. They actually used a hospital meant for saving lives as the center of their conspiracy. Once we find the mastermind, we’ll definitely teach them a lesson.” Yuka Yamanaka nodded in agreement. “I was here a few months ago, but I haven’t been back since. I didn’t expect that during this time, the mastermind had already made this place their base.”

She misunderstood Yuri's meaning. Yuri wasn't bothered by "Ah, this is a hospital." What bothered him was that he had been to this hospital a few days earlier—after the haunted house incident.

Although it was already morning when he arrived, Akemi had taken the person to the hospital late at night, and neither Yuri nor Akemi noticed the eerie atmosphere or saw anything unusual. —Yes, Yuri did see the ghost at the hospital, but they didn't find anything amiss.

The core of the conspiracy only showed symptoms at the very end? If it's true that a rabbit doesn't eat the grass near its burrow, why is it suddenly exposed now? Has the plan reached its final stage, and the true intentions have been revealed?

A whole host of possibilities floated through Yuri's mind, but he couldn't pinpoint a single specific situation; he could only say that something felt off.

I still have to tell Yuka Yamanaka, at least to say that this place is suspicious.

Yuka Yamanaka told the others that the Sin Eaters (and their ordinary human companions) had a brief discussion and concluded that "they're probably about to reveal their true intentions, so let's go for it."

Is this reliable? Yuri still had doubts.

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.

Before entering the hospital lobby, a female sin-eater, whom Yamanaka Yuka called "Imatake-neechan," drew a circle, and everyone passed through in turn. When it was Yuri's turn last, she hesitated for a moment, "I heard, Yuri, that you can freely switch between spirit and physical form?"

That's true. "Yes, what's the problem?" Yuri thought to himself, surely they wouldn't start worrying about "you're not one of us, so we can't share this spell with you" at the last minute?

“No problem, but in that case, you don’t need to go through this spell… Its purpose is to cover the surface of the person passing through with a special spiritual substance, so that they enter a semi-spiritual state, making them difficult for people who cannot see spirits and cameras to notice, and also providing a negligible amount of resistance to remote perception.” Jin Zhu began to explain, “Since you can freely switch between spirit and physical form, there’s no need to add this extra step. —Of course, if you really want to do it, there shouldn’t be any negative effects.”

"That's amazing," Yuri said, stepping into the circle. "It might add a bit of burden for you, but I really want to experience it myself."

He had watched from the sidelines before, but just watching wasn't enough to understand anything in such a short time, and he didn't want to activate his magical vision and enter a daze right from the start.

“No problem, seven or eight people make no difference to me.” Jin Zhu said, repeating the previous actions. “Although it won’t work on you, I still have to remind you that this layer of spiritual energy cannot make your physical form completely invisible. It will make you inconspicuous in the eyes of mortals and blurry under cameras, but it will not make you disappear or become transparent—if you insist on getting close to their face, you will still be detected. Anything that is not present on your body when the spell is cast is not protected by this spell. At the same time, physical contact with ghosts can easily destroy this layer of spiritual energy.”

"Understood." Yuri felt the layer of spiritual energy added to his body; it was indeed very thin and could not provide any protection.

Subsequently, as previously agreed, the eight people split into three teams and headed toward the hospital in turn.

Yuri, Yuka Yamanaka, and Mr. Nakamichi (an ordinary person) form one team; Mr. Minagawa and Ms. Imatake form another team; and the remaining sin-eater, Mr. Hirota, and two ordinary people, Mr. Hirosaki and Mr. Anzai, form yet another team.

Thus, including the spirit bindings, each team has exactly four people—Minagawa and Imatake's team has the fewest members, but is actually the strongest. Yuri's team and Mr. Hirota's team at the end both have three people, but Yuri's team should still be a bit stronger.

According to the plan, these people will split into three groups to conduct the search, and will contact each other by phone if necessary.

Yuri objected, arguing that everyone should stick together to ensure safety—what he really meant was "we shouldn't have brought ordinary people," but he knew that would be a thankless and difficult statement, so he kept quiet.

But these sin-eaters gave very convincing reasons, including "the hospital is not spacious, and it is easy to be unable to operate if they are all piled up together" and "the hospital has a large overall area and is divided into many floors. If they are not divided into multiple groups, the mastermind can easily move to another location. If they drag it out until daytime, it will be very inconvenient to carry out their actions."

Their minds were made up, though not unwavering, but Yuri seemed to have no evidence that security had to be guaranteed here... and what they said did make a lot of sense, so Yuri didn't insist.

In any case, they eventually entered the hospital one after another. Yuri, who had transformed into a spirit, floated into the lobby on the first floor and conducted a reconnaissance. He did not see any suspicious spirits, and the guards on night duty did not sense any supernatural effects. Therefore, the Sin Eaters, who were deemed to be without problems, filed in according to their pre-assigned groups.

As expected, they did not attract anyone's attention, and then they quickly separated.

Yuri's small team was searching the area to the right of the hospital, which also included the area where he had been chased. Compared to before, there seemed to be more ghosts in the corridors, but these ghosts didn't react in any particular way; they were just repeating the same things over and over.

The repeaters shouldn't be underestimated, after all, the mastermind behind them has proven their ability to "activate" them and launch an attack. But there's no need to take them too seriously either... even an activated repeater wouldn't be a match for the spirit bound to Yamanaka Yuka.

Yuri glanced at the two people and the spirit that were searching nervously beside him. As an ordinary person, the taciturn Mr. Nakamichi did not have a strong supernatural sense, but he could keep up with Yamanaka Yuka's pace when he moved, which showed that they were cooperating to some extent.

While it's far less seamless than the bondage between a spirit and a body, it's at least not explicitly a hindrance. He said he was an office worker who had experienced a supernatural event and was nearly killed by a vengeful ghost. Although everyone afterwards said it was an ordinary person who committed the crime, he firmly believed in his memory, gradually searched for information, and eventually joined this society.

This matches what a reporter had said to him in a casual conversation.

At the time, Leah had told Yuri that there was a time when Tokyo wasn't like this. She meant that things were different in terms of paranormal influences—back when she was first assigned to cover paranormal events, there were far fewer paranormal influences than there are now, and she and her colleagues even had to fabricate them to make up enough news stories.

Yuri had read her records, and indeed, the information the reporter collected was concentrated in recent times and decades ago, with a clear gap in between. Given Hojo Reie's age, she should have entered the industry during that gap.

According to her example, in Tokyo, a bustling, international, and most important city in Japan… a large number of murders occur every day. The reporter's tone was distinctly sarcastic when she used those adjectives. She said, "The police are desperately searching everywhere, but they can't suppress them. They've even brought in detectives, but that hasn't stopped them either."

Yuri's first thought was, does this mean that Tokyo is... cursed? For example, is the feng shui bad, making it prone to murders?

The reporter claimed that this was a common joke made at drinking parties... whether it was true or not, she couldn't possibly know. What she wanted to emphasize was that these recent murders were becoming increasingly supernatural.

Past murders often required elaborate planning and meticulous arrangements. This isn't to say the reporter is praising the killers, but the reporter believes these killers accomplished things that ordinary people could do, just hadn't thought of. From this perspective, they made some effort and achieved results in their crimes… unfortunately, they were a bunch of scoundrels who refused to use their abilities for good. Modern criminals are different; they're becoming increasingly outrageous, using abilities like scaling walls, telepathy, and precognition.

The police never include such unscientific things in the case details they release; these are deductions made by people on the website, the United People's Party website.

Mr. Nakamichi appears to be a survivor of such a case.

Yuri questioned the reporter about the authenticity of the information. Things like scaling walls and leaping across rooftops... it sounded like something a high school girl with superhuman physical abilities could do.

It's not that he denies the possibility of supernatural crimes, after all, he himself has committed them many times, but has the proportion really increased?

Hojo Reie shook his head and told him a case—how could a thin, seventy-year-old man lift up a strong adult man, stab him through the throat with a sword, and pin him to the wall without the intervention of supernatural forces? How much strength would that take?

Yuri had never heard of the case, but Hojo Ree shouldn't be lying about it. In fact, she initially didn't believe it at all, and even went to the art museum where the incident occurred to inquire with the security guards. The reporter, who thought she would win big in this online debate, was instead proven wrong when the security guards confirmed the authenticity of the information.

The reporter said that many people were unaware of the supernatural elements in these events. She had several psychological theories, but none of them could accurately describe the reasons—in short, most people did not actually feel anything unusual.

Those who sense something is amiss and persist in their investigation may very well become like Mr. Nakamichi, relentlessly pursuing supernatural events and eventually becoming involved in them.

Is this really a good thing for him? Maybe he really trained for this moment, but not everyone can train themselves to the point where they can deal with supernatural beings... and some supernatural beings don't seem like they can be dealt with through training at all.

Mr. Nakamichi noticed Yuri's gaze and gave him a stiff smile.

It seemed that further contemplation would be somewhat inappropriate—Yuri continued with what he was doing, working with the spirit binder to move away some particularly cumbersome repeaters, so that the other two with physical bodies wouldn't lose their invisibility by coming into contact with ghosts when entering or leaving rooms and passageways.

Author's message

————Author's Note————

Happy New Year!

And, uh, asking for votes at the beginning of the year?

157 Suspicious ghost

As the group moved forward, the search deepened, and the anomalies became increasingly apparent.

To put it bluntly, there are far too many ghosts like the repeating machine here.

Not only were there a row of people standing in the corridor, but each ward was crammed with several people—there weren't this many when Yuri ran away a few months ago, and we didn't see this many when we visited Mingmei and the reporter a few days ago.

If there had been that many at the time, it would have been problematic not only to have it not been discovered, but even to have avoided contact with it.

Watching the tape recorder muttering to itself by the patient's bedside, Yuri felt extremely uncomfortable—wouldn't this really have some adverse effects on the patient's health?

From a technical standpoint, it's unlikely that the repeaters would actively do anything to the patients, but with such a huge number—more ghosts in the room than patients—it's hard to guarantee that some kind of effect they create when they gather together won't cause problems.

Yuri didn't know the answer to this question, and even if he did, there was nothing he could do. He could only pray that the healing spirit that Minmei had mentioned earlier would be effective enough.

Previously, Mr. Minagawa said that this place was an important node in the mastermind's plan... Now, although it is uncertain whether it is the same mastermind, there is no doubt that we should pay special attention to it.

Both Yuri and Yuka Yamanaka were on high alert—Yuri activated his permanent shield, bracing himself for being bitten every time he pushed a ghost away, while Yuka carefully avoided ghosts that approached her, keeping as far away from them as possible. Mr. Nakamichi also had a tense expression; at least he was worried. Only the bound spirits showed no emotional change, acting as usual.

"How large an area did we search in the pre-defined zone?" Yuka Yamanaka muttered to herself, not expecting an answer, but in the quiet night, Yuri could hear her perfectly clearly.

Referring to the map in his mind, Yuri responded, "About a quarter to a third."

The area that followed wasn't fundamentally different from this one; the terrain remained almost unchanged. The biggest difference was that it was further and further from the exit. Yuri didn't say it aloud, but after seeing hundreds of repeating machines along the way, he had already started planning how to escape when the time came. Going back the way he came was definitely out of the question; he would most likely have to resort to the old method of jumping out of the window to escape.