Tokyo bombing incident Nth time

The result was rather subtle. Yuri did find several faces he recognized as those who had been hit before, but he also discovered two others who hadn't been hit at all.

Yuri felt somewhat embarrassed after spending five minutes confirming his previous assumptions. Fortunately, Yuka Yamanaka didn't criticize him.

“I see. So, fighting these low-level ghosts is indeed almost pointless. Let’s keep going. I think that shadowy figure is heading this way.” The sin-eater girl nodded. “Did you see that shadowy figure clearly? I just felt something pass by.”

“I didn’t see it very clearly, but I’m sure it’s a floating mass in shape—” Yuri took a breath. “I have an idea, it looks like a mass we’ve seen before.”

“…A cluster of ghosts.” Yuka Yamanaka took a breath. “Usually, this phenomenon only occurs when ghosts died from similar causes—they aren’t actually connected, but they aggregate during their joint actions…”

And then what? Become the Rat King?

“This situation is quite rare, and it definitely doesn’t last long—once they start to develop self-awareness, they will automatically separate, and if you pull one out, they will all fall apart,” the sin-eating girl stated. “I asked Mr. Minagawa before, and this is what happened when he tried to pull one out.”

It seems that it is still inferior to the Rat King and can only be considered an inferior version... And, Minagawa, why didn't you say so sooner?

"Do you think your spirit-binding ability can do it? Pull the other person out." Yuri decided to focus on the present; right now, it seemed that he was definitely not the most suitable person to do this.

“If it’s like this, it will take a little effort; if it’s like that, I can almost take them down in one go,” Yuka Yamanaka replied softly. “But I don’t plan to work that hard until the mastermind really shows up.”

"That's good enough. We might be facing more than one group next—maybe a dozen or so, but definitely three or five. If we can't handle it, I don't think we should follow." He did some mental calculations. "I don't know exactly how many ghosts are missing, but considering that ten ghosts can be combined into one aggregate, three or five should be no problem, maybe six or seven at most."

It wasn't that he was certain the mastermind couldn't control more ghosts, but rather that he felt the decrease in the number of ghosts during this period hadn't actually reached that level.

If we count eight at a time, it's actually a bit dangerous... Fortunately, the hospital's structure isn't wide enough for all these aggregates to swarm in. In narrower areas, it's good if two can emerge at the same time, one in front and one behind. That way, Yuri and the Bound Spirit can each hold off one or two, and then wait for the Bound Spirit to take care of his side one by one before coming to support him... That should work.

We still need to be careful. The mastermind has been hiding for so long, it's unlikely they're just making things up; they must have other methods up their sleeves.

Yuri ran after Yamanaka Yuka while rambling on with his suggestions, not knowing how much of the Sin Eater girl had taken in—but he had already wasted five minutes of tracking time, and now seemed to have no grounds to suggest stopping for a meeting.

Yuka Yamanaka did not describe her tracking principle in detail, but judging from the appearance alone, the principle should be very simple and straightforward - just let the spirit find it, and then she runs after the spirit, while Yuri runs after her.

As a high-level ghost, the Bound Spirit might have special methods to track ghost aggregates, but unfortunately, it's unlikely they could get the information out of it.

If Yuri were to stop and slowly scan the area with his magical vision, it wouldn't be impossible to find any clues left behind, but the speed would obviously be reduced—how convenient, Spirit Binder.

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.

Within minutes, the spirit-binding stopped. The reason for stopping was not that it had lost track of the spirit, but that Yuri could also see that ahead, at a relatively wide intersection, there were three aggregates of ghosts floating there.

Their expressions (the exposed parts) didn't seem to be in particular pain, but if you got a few steps closer, they probably wouldn't be so easy to talk to.

And... behind us, in the corridor window, an aggregate was trying to squeeze in—it should have been outside the window before.

This was an ambush—Yuri wasn't surprised, though. He couldn't have deliberately lured people here just to hold a press conference and announce what his conspiracy was, could he?

“We can still run back now. These aggregates are slow-moving. If we start running now, we should be out of the way by the time they get in.” Yuri immediately offered the safest suggestion… He figured the other side definitely wouldn’t choose that. “This is a premeditated ambush. At least they think this operation is effective against us.”

"What are you thinking? We're finally about to make contact with the mastermind. Won't you regret retreating at this point?" As expected, Yuka Yamanaka rejected his suggestion. "Proceed according to plan. You hold off the ones behind, and Bound Spirits deal with the ones in front. Let's see what kind of tricks that guy has up his sleeve."

Yuri added a safeguard to his plan—that is, he would block the aggregate directly at the window.

From an offensive standpoint, the aggregate's body requires more space than a window, so it needs to "transform" to enter the corridor... If you attack while they're halfway through, you might be able to easily pull one of them out. From a defensive standpoint, this makes it convenient to escape if needed.

The girl who eats sins doesn't include immediately activating "that state" in her plan. She didn't say why, but Yuri guessed that she was simply preparing to use the part that strengthens the spirit binding and weakens herself as a trump card to be used in an emergency. For this reason, she chose a position close to Yuri's side, leaving the other side entirely to the spirit binding.

In reality, there was no significant advantage or disadvantage between this and using it immediately. Yuri didn't spend too much time making a specific comparison, after all, he had his own things to do.

As he rushed to the window and used his shield to block the aggregator's path, he also entered the aggregator's attack range.

After exchanging a few simple blows with the aggregates, Yuri had no energy left to think about the fait accompli—there wasn't just one aggregate outside the window, there were three! If they hadn't insisted on trying to squeeze in through the same window and getting stuck, Yuri would never have been able to solve the problem on his own.

164 Call for Help

There's not much to say about Yuri's fight with the Ghost Convergence Sphere at the window; it was easier than he initially imagined.

These aggregates "narrow" as they pass through the window, making it easier for Yuri to pull one out—their spiritual cohesion doesn't decrease, but the degree to which their limbs are intertwined is greatly reduced.

However, after expending a large amount of energy to extract one of them—in the process of which he not only had to deplete his shield due to close contact with the ghost aggregate, but also had to continuously inject spiritual essence into his body to strengthen his power—the disintegrated ghost did not immediately return to calm, but continued to pounce on him.

Yuka frantically waved her talismans at the ghosts. If they hadn't also been blocking the advance of the next ghost aggregation, Yuri and Yuka would have been caught off guard.

"Didn't things return to normal after the last disintegration? Can't you use the ritual that Minagawa used?" Yuri pushed aside the ghosts surging towards him and blocked the window again.

The sin-eating girl behind her was fighting and retreating. Her talismans were quite effective, but they were obviously consumables. Ghosts hit by the talismans would become sluggish, and after being hit multiple times, the ghosts would calm down. However, the ghosts had the advantage in numbers, with five or six ghosts chasing after her. For a while, there was no way to concentrate fire on a single one.

Therefore, Yuka Yamanaka's solution was to keep retreating, trading space for time, and while avoiding being surrounded by ghosts, she would continuously throw out talismans to control the ghosts' actions.

Compared to the last time at the funeral home, this time the performance was much more embarrassing.

“That ceremony requires a funeral setting. Does this place look like a suitable setting?” Yuka Yamanaka’s voice came from behind Yuri, who was entangled with the ghost clinging to him.

The voice wasn't loud, but it sounded quite strong, so she probably wasn't injured—Yuri would have preferred her to bravely blast all the ghosts away, but... it's okay for now, at least she wasn't killed by the ghosts.

Yuri was facing two people who had already squeezed in, three people who were still struggling with him at the window, and two large groups of people outside who were trying to squeeze in.

The situation is still manageable; there's room for maneuver, and there's no need to eliminate all these ghosts—the aggregates are still somewhat threatening, but individual ghosts can't even reach Yuri's shield... Even if Yuri doesn't activate his shield, they won't be able to harm him for the time being.

When Yuka Yamanaka dealt with the ghosts chasing her, Yuri used the same trick again, dismantling the second aggregate.

While things seemed to be going very well, Yuri began to scare himself.

As with previous experiences, these aggregates were all show and no substance, actually quite weak. After their plan to swarm was foiled... or rather, after being thwarted, defeating them became a repetitive task.

Given their level of intelligence, it's impossible for them to have initiated the luring and ambush; they must have received orders from the mastermind behind the scenes. However, if the mastermind had given even the slightest instruction, they wouldn't have been allowed to squeeze in through the same window.

At least that's how it should look after the first aggregate disintegrates. Yuri glanced at the last aggregate, still lined up outside the window, baring its fangs and claws, but unable to squeeze in because there was no space.

It wasn't exactly within reach, but there was another window a few meters away, and another a few meters away. If they had directed all the aggregates to disperse and crawl through different windows from the beginning, at least one of them could have gotten in—but now, they hadn't even tried.

Yuka Yamanaka was chased away by the ghosts splintered from the second aggregate, or rather, she lured away another group of ghosts using the old method, fighting and retreating to wear them down. Judging from her expression, she was pleased to be able to use the same method to deal with her current opponent.

Asking her why might be useless, Yuri recalled the expected answer from the sin-eater girl: "Let's deal with what's in front of us first, then we can think about it later."

The third group finally pushed aside the scattered soldiers blocking their way and began to squeeze into the window.

Yuri focused on dealing with his immediate opponent.

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 process of dismantling the third aggregate was filled with difficulties that Yuri himself created for himself.

Because, as he anticipated, the mastermind had definitely tampered with the last aggregate, perhaps making it exceptionally strong or capable of self-destruction. Yuri, who habitually performed this maneuver, would then be severely injured or even killed. Therefore, Yuri was always prepared to instantly raise his defenses, and his movements were cautious, fearing a sudden mishap.

As it turned out, the third aggregate was almost identical to the previous two. Yuri's caution was completely in vain, and he almost missed the best opportunity to dismantle it. Yamanaka Yuka, who rushed back in a hurry, was already a little anxious. He finally decided to use his strength, and then, just when he was almost expecting the ghost to self-destruct, the aggregate simply fell apart.

"..." After breaking free of the ghost that was trying to entangle him, Yuri looked at Yamanaka Yuka beside him. This time, instead of running away, she chose to fight at close range while Yuri distracted her.

"Keep running? Aren't you bad at close combat?" Yuri grabbed the ghost that was lunging at the Sin Eater girl from behind and slammed it to the ground. "I think you're in a bit of danger now."

"I thought you were tired and was going to help you out, but you don't appreciate my kindness!" The sin-eater girl glared back. "If you don't need it, I'll continue!"

“I think it’s unnecessary.” Yuri was entangled with the raging ghosts. “I’ve already got them all tied up. If you don’t deal with them soon, I’ll have to hurt them.”

Yuka Yamanaka clicked her tongue, said nothing more, and walked up to begin tapping the ghosts one by one with talismans.

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.

"What caused these ghosts to be controlled?" Yuri pressed down on the last ghost, waiting for the ghost expert beside him to respond. "I've seen similar scenes before, but those were cases with a clear hierarchical relationship—ghosts don't operate in this way, do they?"

Ghosts are similar to humans. Even if other ghosts are obviously stronger than themselves, they still don't have the instinct to obey unless threatened... Humans probably don't have this instinct, right?

The sin-eating girl stuffed the used talisman into her pocket, then pulled out a new one. "To be honest, I don't know the specific process, but I do have some unreliable deductions..."

"Unreliable?" Yuri tilted his head.

“No evidence, that’s what I mean, not what you think.” Yuka Yamanaka glared at Yuri. “It’s definitely not just guesswork.”

“Okay, then can you tell me what this conjecture is?” Yuri shifted his position, waiting for Yamanaka Yuka to end this tedious battle. “At first, I thought it was a remote control method, just like when you laid mines inside low-level ghosts to find me.”

This is the simplest idea: to remotely control people by setting up some kind of spiritual force within the ghost's body. Although if this were true, Yurid was shocked by the mastermind's abundant energy, and it also meant that the mastermind was incredibly powerful, at least the method was logically feasible.

Unfortunately, that shouldn't be the case. Although he barely had the chance to focus on observing individual ghosts when he first encountered them, he had been running around the hospital for so long that he hadn't been blindly wandering around like a headless fly. He had already made up for the lack of observation.

In short, he did not find any obvious external spiritual forces within the ghosts, nor could he observe any evidence that these ghosts were under external control. He could not rule out the possibility that the mastermind's control methods were much more secretive than he thought, but the probability had decreased.

"This is just a deduction, but do you remember how many times I've mentioned it, the underworld?" The sin-eating girl slapped the talisman on the last ghost's face.

“Of course I remember—according to you, it’s hell.” Yuri wasn’t quite sure what this had to do with the underworld. “Is it appropriate to explain now? Don’t we need to go help your bound spirit immediately?”

“There isn’t much difference between ghosts who have been to the underworld and those who haven’t, but their experiences are completely different—those who have been to the underworld have all gone hungry.” Yuka Yamanaka hesitated for a moment, then shook her head. “He can handle it. I don’t sense any danger that requires us to go there immediately.”

Since the Sin Eaters said there was no problem, Yuri put his worries aside. Yes, this was something he had mentioned before. Because they had experienced that unbearable hunger, they would stop at nothing to escape that state, making them more aggressive and more... inhuman.

"What if the mastermind behind this has a way to make these ghosts experience the hunger of the underworld ahead of time, or to amplify their perception of hunger?" Yuka Yamanaka looked at Yuri's face. "What would happen then?"

That would definitely drive them crazy prematurely... Ah...

“Then, as living sources of spiritual essence, it’s normal for them to rush towards us, because what they’re going to do is exactly what they wanted to do—devour us alive.” Yamanaka Yuka crossed her arms. “I’ve been to the underworld a few times, not too deep, but there are already hordes of hungry ghosts there… The irrational ones will rush up directly, while the rational ones will find a suitable opportunity to rush up.”

"...That sounds really bad." Yuri couldn't directly sense what Yamanaka Yuka was going through, but she did seem to be under a lot of pressure.

“Yes, that’s one of the reasons I try to let ghosts rest in peace. Once they fall into the underworld, regardless of merit or demerit, they all suffer that kind of torment, which is too cruel—” The sin-eating girl took a deep breath. “In short, if that feeling of hunger can be instantly instilled into the mind through long-distance mental transmission, it would be enough to drive ghosts with weak self-control insane. Although it can’t be considered evidence, it can explain why the bound spirits were not affected—the bound spirits are all of a relatively strong type.”

A spell cast only on weaker ghosts, almost imperceptible to those not targeted—this is Yuka Yamanaka's deduction about this situation.

There are still some questions, but overall, this inference doesn't seem to have any problems.

"So, why would the mastermind do this?" The question eventually came back to the original point.

"I don't know, we'll just have to catch him and ask him properly." Yamanaka Yuka spread her hands. "We should also teach him a lesson so he'll never dare to do it again."

That should be the end of this topic. Yuri suggested that the two of them continue forward and move closer to the spirit-binding direction. "After all, if the distance between us becomes too great, we might not be able to react in time when we really need to support each other."

He had just discovered another problem: if the opponent on "this side" was extremely weak, it might mean that the mastermind had focused their main force on the other side. After all, it was also possible that they would choose to eliminate the spirit-binding enemy first and then deal with the rest of the people slowly.

There are three friendly units on the field, and none of them can be lost. The mastermind only needs to choose one of them to launch an attack. This is what is called playing on the away field (not really).

Yuka Yamanaka agreed with him, and the two moved to the other end of the corridor.

Previously, there were three aggregates in that place, and the Bound Spirit went to meet them—Yuri hadn't paid special attention to the situation there during the subsequent battle, but now, looking again, all that remained at the end of the corridor were scattered ghosts; the Bound Spirit was gone.

“Two more aggregates emerged from the stairs next to us. The spirit binder went to deal with them. Including the ones we didn’t manage to eliminate at the beginning, there should be three more,” Yuka Yamanaka answered Yuri’s question. “Actually, it’s not far. It’s just that you have to go around a corner and get blocked by a wall.”

Since the spirit and body were almost perfectly aligned, Yuri didn't pay attention to the situation in the distance at the same time. However... three plus five, eight in total, that's quite a lot.

Then, an accident occurred.

Before they had taken two steps, a faint cry for help came from a nearby room—like someone being covered and screaming for help.

Yuri glanced at it quickly; the nameplate read... Ultrasound Room.

An ultrasound room? Yuri had heard of ultrasound, but what was an ultrasound room for? A place where ultrasound was used to treat illnesses?

Yuka Yamanaka heard this and prepared to enter the room without hesitation.

“Wait a minute, don’t we need to call your spirit back? If it’s just the two of us—” Yuri reached out to block her way, his intuition telling him to wait until everyone was gathered before taking action.

“That might be too late, the sound is already very weak—” Yamanaka Yuka ducked down and crawled under Yuri’s arm. “Besides, aren’t you enough?”

That's a problem too! How come the sound started so faintly? Why didn't we hear it before? Yuri has many questions to raise, but none of them are obvious enough to suggest a problem without even going in.

After sensing the room once again and finding no particularly strong supernatural effects, Yuri gave up trying to stop her and followed the sin-eater girl into the room.

The door was unlocked.

165. A sudden turn for the worse

Upon opening the door, one finds a strange instrument and a movable hospital bed inside. —Of course, the most conspicuous element is a person being held down on the bed by four ghosts.

He was wearing ordinary clothes instead of a hospital gown, and his physique clearly indicated that he was male. More details were not immediately visible, not because his struggling movements were too exaggerated to be seen—but because the ghosts covering him were too dense, obscuring most of his body.

There were two other ghosts in the corner of the room, but they didn't participate in the event. If they had rushed up, the cries for help probably wouldn't have been heard at all.

"Help—" Perhaps seeing the two enter, or perhaps hearing the door open, the man pinned to the bed increased his struggle, but it was still to no avail.

Although he wanted to find out exactly what was going on, the situation at hand didn't allow for much hesitation. Yuri followed Yamanaka and quickened his pace forward, beginning to remove the ghost from the man's body.

This is clearly not a ward; a normal patient shouldn't be here. Perhaps he had some kind of intuition, woke up early in the middle of the night, discovered the hospital was full of ghosts, and was eventually chased by the ghosts and hid here?

This reasoning is incorrect. Yuri decides to wait until he has completely dismantled the ghost before asking him directly what the situation is.

After two of the four ghosts surrounding him were pulled away, Yuka Yamanaka exclaimed in surprise, "Mr. Nakamichi, is that you?"

"First, take them—" Perhaps because one of the ghosts that was torn apart happened to be the one who had previously gagged him, Mr. Nakamichi's speech became much more fluent, "It hurts."

It must have hurt quite a bit. You couldn't see it under the clothes, but you could see red marks from being pressed on the exposed wrists and neck. The ghosts didn't seem to be holding back—if they had gone any longer, Mr. Nakamichi might have suffocated.

Yuri dealt with the remaining two ghosts and looked at Nakamichi, who was lying on the hospital bed, panting heavily. Although he had many questions he wanted to ask, judging from Nakamichi's current state, he probably didn't have the energy to answer them for the time being.

Yuka Yamanaka briefly examined the other person's physical condition and announced that it was because he had been drained of energy by the continuous attacks of the ghosts. It was not serious, but he should be unable to get up for the time being. Being drained of energy by ghosts may eventually lead to death, but these ghosts in front of him were more likely to smother him to death before they could drain enough energy to kill Mr. Nakado.

The conclusion was, "Fortunately, we arrived quickly enough to rescue the person in time."

"Thank you, I was almost killed by a ghost." A few minutes later, Zhongdao's breathing calmed down a bit. "That was really dangerous."

"Mr. Nakamichi, why are you here in the middle of the night?" Yuka Yamanaka immediately asked a question that Yuri was also curious about. Shouldn't he have returned to his residence with Minagawa Doto?

“Of course it’s because of you.” Nakamichi pointed at Yamanaka Yuka, his tone full of genuine emotion. “You sent me a message in the middle of the night saying that you knew part of the situation at the hospital. Everyone would know that you were still in the hospital—I was very worried, so I came here.”