Tokyo bombing incident Nth time

“That can’t be it. I don’t know how they did it, how they broke the contract between the spirit and the body—it’s almost impossible. The spirit and the body are already closely connected, almost as one…” The sin-eating girl shook her head. “In any case, they actually managed to break the contract between me and the spirit… Do you know how a spirit, as a ghost, manifests in reality?”

“As far as I know, ghosts manifest in reality through anchor points… Without an anchor point, forcibly manifesting is destined to be unsustainable,” Yuri replied instantly. “I guess in your case, the body-binding acts as the anchor point for the spirit-binding, allowing the spirit to manifest, but not allowing the spirit to stray too far.”

The evidence is that during their first encounter, the spirit did not charge in alone, but instead brought Yuka Yamanaka with her.

“You guessed right—although the anchor point of the spirit binding seems to be something else, it does manifest itself through its relationship with the bound body.” Yamanaka Yuka closed her eyes. “And now, this relationship has been interfered with—the middle way has replaced my contract to some extent, but not completely—neither of us has the ability to act as the node for the spirit binding to manifest in the world, so my spirit binding is like a springboard that has been removed, falling back and no longer able to interfere with the real world.”

"Can you contact him? Can Zhongdao find you through this connection?" Yuri asked repeatedly. "What is the current status of your contract?"

The girl who ate sins suddenly pulled the blanket up to cover her head. "I don't know about the latter, but I guess I can. As for the former, I can't establish clear communication with him, but I'm sure he's still alive and not under any restrictions—he's just been simply banished from this world."

"What would happen if you died right here... uh, right now?"

"I don't know. I might be resurrected, or I might die completely. Don't get any funny ideas, like making me die once to update my status or something. Even if you succeed, it's someone else's life!"

Yuri thought to himself, "I see the three of you are stuck in a limbo, unable to go up or down."

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 probably the reason for the current situation.

Whether it was because of Yuka Yamanaka's strong resistance or Yuri's intervention (the hat?), Nakamichi's ambush of Yuka Yamanaka was not completely successful. The original plan was that he should have been able to completely replace Yuka Yamanaka, but in reality, he did not achieve that.

Whatever the method for seizing the power of Yuka Yamanaka, it probably cannot be done remotely from a distance—both sides need to maintain a certain distance.

So Hirozaki wanted Yuri to leave, leaving the Sin Eater Girl to them—and then they would somehow make the ritual even more thorough.

"What would happen if the contract between the spirit and the body were severed, assuming both are still alive?" Yuri asked. It was mentioned earlier that this was a way to prevent the sin eaters from resurrecting others with their lives, but was it really just about preventing resurrection?

The result was that Yuka Yamanaka hadn't actually tested it in person, nor had she asked detailed questions, but she was certain the outcome wouldn't be good—even if it didn't cause the sin-eaters to die immediately, it would cause them to gradually weaken due to the lack of something. She even cited her own previous condition as an example; just the loss of a portion of her essence left her half-dead. If it were all transferred, even if they didn't die, they would most likely be no different from being in a vegetative state.

Even with a significant portion of her current state remaining, Yamanaka Yuka's regenerative abilities are limited—her physical limitations are minor, but her consciousness is quite hazy, and her supernatural powers are almost nonexistent. Essentially, she remains in a state of disuse. Fortunately, the talisman-making method taught to her by the spirit binder, while requiring a certain level of personal power to use, doesn't require power to activate pre-made talismans. —However, she can't yet use supernatural power to guide the talismans to track her opponent as she did during their first meeting; she must personally apply them for them to take effect.

On the other hand, the situation on Nakado's side should be the same—as the one who initiated the attack, he would suffer less impact, but he only seized a portion of the power, just like Yamanaka Yuka now, unable to use it. Hirosaki should have completed the ritual completely, able to use the power of the Sin Eater to resist Yuri's magic. He's not yet very skilled at it, but he's already managed to give Yuri a minor setback.

After realizing he hadn't acquired all the power, and that Yamanaka Yuka had also lost the ability to expose him, Nakamichi tried to hide a little longer. It's very likely that, according to his plan, he was going to feign innocence and take the opportunity to start taking over Yamanaka Yuka again—and then Yuri, who had just realized what was happening, knocked him unconscious. He deserved it.

It may be incorrect to say that the whole event was a scheme to seize the power of the Sin Eaters (there is no evidence), but these people clearly saw it as a golden opportunity to seize the power of the Sin Eaters, making it more important than any other issue.

In this incident, neither Hirosaki nor Nakamichi chose to launch a direct attack, because even if they won by relying on ambushes and weapons (it's hard to say how effective those weapons were against spirits), even if they won, they wouldn't have gained anything substantial.

The sin eaters are killed and then resurrected elsewhere. These "hunters" gain nothing from this; they simply vent their anger and add enemies who are filled with hatred towards them.

Conversely, if they gain the power of the Sin Eater by intervening between the spirit and the body—as Hirosaki previously stated, "They cannot be resurrected if they seize the Sin Eater's power unless the spirit agrees"—but according to Yamanaka Yuka's explanation, the spirit will resurrect the body according to the contract no matter what…

It's still impossible to determine which of the two is right, but Hirosaki certainly had the reason and ability to lie—Yaka Yamanaka's words didn't absolve her of responsibility, but they successfully tarnished Hirosaki's image.

Is she trying to enhance her persuasiveness by exposing her weaknesses...? Is her ability to conceal her flaws really that high?

"How do you think Zhongdao stole your power? Was it just a handshake?"

The handshake was clearly part of the process. Yuri suspected that any physical contact would have been acceptable, but the handshake was more reasonable and discreet—he might have accepted a handshake if someone else wanted to shake his hand, but a hug would have been a different story.

“Definitely not, but I’m not entirely sure what happened either. I never imagined they would be traitors.” Yuka Yamanaka said sternly. “I mean, I never imagined that our loosely organized Sin Eater Society would offend so many people… I don’t know much about the others’ pasts, but as far as I know, they are all good people. They may have some minor flaws, but there’s nothing that can’t be resolved in a single argument…”

Subsequently, at Yuri's request, Yuka Yamanaka briefly recounted the history of their society.

It's not very long.

It all started at the beginning of this year, that is, about a year ago, when the haunting incident occurred at the funeral home.

Hirosaki found Minagawa, who was working as a ghost scholar, and asked him to recruit other sin eaters.

Yuri believes the conspiracy undoubtedly began at this moment, and Hirozaki hopes to gather the sin eaters together to make it easier for them to deal with them.

Yuka Yamanaka was not clear about the order in which the others joined. She was the second to last to join, and the last one was Nakamichi. Nakamichi had come to her on his own initiative, claiming that he wanted to join the affairs related to ghosts... The Sin Eaters Society had no reason to refuse his joining.

It now seems highly likely that a certain balance will be maintained in terms of the number of people.

While the Sin Eaters Society acted together during times of trouble, they generally lived their own lives in peacetime. This was Minagawa's idea, and the others didn't object. In retrospect, this model may not have helped Hirosaki's conspiracy, but it certainly didn't hinder it either.

If all members of the association live and eat together, are under a kind of militarized management, have no independent activities, never separate, and live together in unity only to deal with incidents... Under such circumstances, it would be difficult for Hirosaki to find opportunities to make private connections and arrangements, but victims like Yuka Yamanaka might not be able to accept it—in fact, they certainly wouldn't be able to stand it.

Ultimately, the members of the society agreed to maintain a loose structure and only gather when an event occurred... They had minor conflicts among themselves, but none of the sin eaters realized that they had become the target of someone who seemed to be their comrade.

“To be honest, I didn’t sense any problems with them at all before.” Yuka Yamanaka still finds it hard to believe. “They had minor conflicts with each other, and everyone’s behavior seemed normal… Was it all just an act?”

It cannot be said that the sin-eating girl knew nothing about their situation, nor that she never had any suspicions, but it never reached that level.

“There was nothing we could do about it. In my opinion, at least Hirosaki’s performance was very effective. If you hadn’t collapsed at my feet, what he said would have been very believable—he had clearly practiced.” After calming the victim down a bit, Yuri raised another question, “Why now? The organization has been established for almost a year, and it’s been several months since everyone was gathered. Why are you only making your move now?”

"Maybe they started their attack because they had gathered all the members?" the Sin Eater girl speculated. "Before that, they might have planned to use this organization to find as many Sin Eaters as possible and wipe them all out in one fell swoop?"

This conjecture is reasonable.

Then, because the influx of new sin-eaters stopped, these "hunters" decided to close in.

The impetus for their decision to close in was this haunted house incident, which allowed them to easily gather people together and make contact without leaving a trace... creating an environment suitable for their operation.

Four sin eaters, and two hunters are used to deal with them... huh?

No, there was another person outside the door at the time, which should be Mr. Anzai who was the last one left. He did not show up, but that does not mean he did not exist.

Four sin eaters, and three hunters to deal with them... huh?

"Before this, before this incident, were you sure they were all completely mortal?" Yuri asked again.

Yuka Yamanaka responded that she hadn't exactly confirmed this before the incident—but everyone who joined was definitely a mortal, and Hirosaki was certainly a mortal before this incident. By "mortal," she meant someone without any supernatural energy, not someone without any supernatural abilities—in other words, it's not a problem to use an existing energy source to perform supernatural arts.

These "hunters" launched their ambush and seized the Sin Eater's power around midnight today—they had not yet carried out the ambush by the time they parted ways at the hospital.

So, before that, who opened the gates to the underworld in the hospital?

Yuka Yamanaka once said that it was other sin-eaters who opened the gates of the underworld.

One possibility is that a group/other group of sin eaters happened to be at the hospital at this time, and Yuri and his group just happened to be unable to find this person no matter what they did.

Possibility two: Yuri has seen this sin-eater several times, but he never realized it was this person before.

“Yama, tell me the truth—do you really not know who opened the gates of the underworld?” Yuri leaned against the patient lying on the bed from the side of the bed. “Or have you already figured out how the gates were opened, but you still have doubts?”

“I really don’t know exactly who it was. I know that method of opening the door too, and it was taught to me by the Bound Spirit. It’s a fairly common method among the Sin Eaters… Do you have any suspicions?” The patient looked at the heart-shaped chandelier on the ceiling. “Anyway, it wasn’t me who opened it. I really have no reason to do such a thing.”

“Of course it’s not you. What I mean is… I have a strong suspicion… I’m worried… that one of the other three Sin Eaters is an accomplice.” Although Yuri had long harbored such suspicions, it was actually quite difficult to voice them. “Although I have no evidence, if I did, things would all go much more smoothly.”

Three sin eaters, dealt with by three hunters plus one sin eater.

Aside from Yuka Yamanaka, each of the remaining three is a suspect. And since Yuri has no evidence, the only way to determine this is by questioning "whether it was even possible for them to do this..."

Disrupting funeral home ceremonies, the ability to monitor the entire process, and the opportunity to act independently.

Unfortunately, considering the abilities of the sin-eaters mentioned in the mountain, it seems that anyone could potentially do it.

Then... according to this reasoning, the justice that these "hunters" keep talking about can still be redeemed.

How despicable.

174 Temporary Outpost

This Sin Eater Society has more traitors than ordinary members... which is to be expected, given its formation process; it was designed from the outset to lure Sin Eaters in to kill.

A loosely organized structure created through deliberate manipulation, a lack of proper decision-making mechanisms, and unobserved actions by members within the organization—these might not pose a problem under normal circumstances, but they become fraught with vulnerabilities under targeted attacks. However, if the Sin Eaters had ever considered a more tightly organized structure, it would certainly have been dispelled by the mole within.

Among the candidates for the mole, Minagawa Dojin is the most suspicious, but the possibility of others cannot be completely ruled out. Trying to determine who the mole is directly is easy to lose the gamble, so there is a simple and easy alternative method: apart from Yamanaka Yuka, whoever is still standing now is the mole.

It's unclear whether there's a limit to the power an individual can withstand, or whether it's easier for an ordinary person to launch a sneak attack. The opponent likely used a one-on-one approach, with each hunter taking the power of one Sin Eater.

That's incredibly audacious. If they had failed, given their demonstrated strength, it would have been difficult for them to escape from the enraged spirit-binding creature—but that also shows that they didn't really fail in practice.

Their original plan was to make their move on the way back, most likely intending to backstab the intended victim when they were at their lowest point of alertness, just before they arrived home. Nakamichi was assigned to deal with Yamanaka Yuka.

If the one-on-one situation is what the initially arranged groups are like, then the mole is Minagawa-do. But it's also possible that something like Nakamichi's behavior might occur: when the others are halfway there, he stumbles over and reaches out for help... This could create a local two-on-one advantage.

But then an unexpected thing happened: Yuka Yamanaka found an excuse not to act with them, and they had no way to immediately object at the time.

Judging from the special power that appeared on Hirozaki, they have already carried out this plan, and other sin eaters have already been affected.

In order to eliminate the last remaining fugitive, Nakamichi ran to the hospital... This location was told to them by Yamanaka Yuka herself, who told them that she had made some discoveries at the hospital... But even if the Sin Eater Girl hadn't said anything, given her behavior at the time, everyone would have known that the hospital was the most likely place to find her.

Hirozaki and another person waited for him outside.

The other person is most likely Anzai... He must have succeeded as well, otherwise he wouldn't have had the resources to help others.

According to the team assignments at the time, the other three groups each had one sin-eater and one mole, and then Minagawa Tojin was assigned to be with Yuri...

"What are you thinking about, Yuri? Is there anything I can do?" Yuka Yamanaka's voice came through.

“I think there’s a mole among you. I don’t know who he is, but he might try to deceive you again by using your relationship with him in the upcoming activities. I think it’s almost certainly Minagawa-do, but there’s also a small chance it could be someone else. Anyway, if you see any other sin eaters, don’t be fooled. That’s the mole. Those who aren’t the mole are probably in the same or worse situation as you.”

“I see.” The sin-eater girl responded softly. “I’m reluctant to believe that Mr. Minagawa is the mole, but it would be abnormal if he could appear in front of us normally.”

Good, she can accept it, that's enough. If she were to rush to Minagawa the moment he showed up without any illness or injury, then Yuri would have no choice but to give up on treatment.

"How is your physical condition recovering? If those guys catch up, how far can you run on your own?" Another crucial question.

Yuka Yamanaka closed her eyes, seemingly sensing something, then opened them again and shook her head.

"Running only ten or twenty meters should be fine."

That won’t work.

"Will I feel better after a good night's sleep? It's already morning, and although I'm not entirely sure, it's unlikely they'll launch an attack during the day."

Akemi deduced that the other party would wait until night, while Yuri deduced that it was the same whether they came during the day or at night.

“It’s unlikely. A good night’s sleep will improve my mental state, but as for my physical problems… I can’t really describe them. Anyway…” Yuka Yamanaka gestured, but in the end, she couldn’t explain her exact condition.

If Yuri were to guess, it would be a symptom of "soul weakness"—if that thing is called a soul—where "one's spirit and body cannot effectively unite." The body itself is not weak, but the driving force propelling the body forward has ceased.

"Then how do you deal with this weakened spiritual body? Replenish your spiritual essence?"

“It might help a little, but probably not much. Actually, I feel it will get better over time.” Yuka Yamanaka began gesturing again. “Not that obviously, but I feel better now than when I was first infected, and I will recover slowly—if the other party doesn’t come for a week, I might be able to recover to the point where I can summon the bound spirit again.”

Well, that translates to: they're definitely going to search for you desperately, and they're probably coming to beat you up tonight.

"Oh, wait a minute..." Yuka Yamanaka started wriggling under the covers, "Okay, here you go—"

The sin-eating girl handed over three large handfuls of talismans.

"Huh?" Yuri took the items with a puzzled look.

"Look, in my current state, it's definitely not feasible for me to fight with these things. I might as well just give them to you." As if the previous actions had exhausted her, Yamanaka Yuka took a few breaths. "These are all the talismans I have left. Originally, there should have been twice as many, but unfortunately, I used up about half of them at the hospital."

“There are quite a few left. What are the effects of these talismans, and how do you use them?” Yuri examined the talismans.

The three sets have slightly different numbers of cards, but overall they are all around twenty.

"The stack with squares is for allowing ordinary objects to come into contact with spirits; you don't really need that. The stack with triangles is for guiding spiritual energy; it can be used to assist in setting up rituals... I don't know if you'll need it, but I've given it to you anyway. The stack with crosses is for suppressing spirit energy and can also restrict spirit movement; this is the most useful." The sin-eater girl paused, then took another deep breath. "--The effects of the three talismans aren't very strong, but they're still effective against ordinary ghosts. The activation method is simple: just tear off a corner of the talisman, and it will activate. If there's no consumption, it will last for one or two hours after being torn off."

"The one I picked up during the last fight didn't have a corner torn off."

Yuka Yamanaka rolled her eyes. "I made it myself, so of course it can be activated in the normal way. But it would be too crazy to teach you how to activate it on the spot, and there aren't enough test subjects. The way to tear off the horn was taught to me by the spirit, and it's used when... well, there's no time to activate it in the normal way."

Isn't this pause a bit strange? Yuri stared intently at the other person.

“Alright, the original words were actually… Soldiers are not wise enough to learn profound methods, so simplicity is key.” Yamanaka Yuka felt a pressure. “Of course you’re not stupid, but it’s too late to learn now, isn’t it?”

It seems to have been designed from the beginning as a type that "can be torn open and take effect as a last resort".

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 thanking him, Yuri left Yamanaka Yuka inside and departed the room.

Although she said she could hold on a little longer, given all the things that have suddenly happened, it's best to let her rest.

At night, those hunters might come rushing over—you need to familiarize yourself with the terrain beforehand, whether you're going to hold your ground or run away.

Then he ran into a very familiar guy... a spirit that looked like a humanoid robot with a camera in its head.

The other person glanced at Yuri, then tried to pretend they hadn't seen anything and walked right past him.

"Glass Eye, what are you doing here?" Yuri grabbed the other person.

Although he couldn't tell which glass eye it was, Yuri felt he had figured out why Minmei was so sure the surveillance here wouldn't be easily cut off.

…………

After some friendly exchanges and communication, and backed by his own strength and the reputation of the werewolves, Yuri figured out the status of the surveillance equipment here.

The hotel's surveillance system itself wasn't particularly special—it simply allowed you to see through a few corridors.

However, there were several additional hidden cameras in the room where Yuri was staying, all of which had been recently installed—the hotel owner knew about this and tacitly approved of it.

Because, in this very room, a few months ago, a murder occurred. A woman stabbed a man to death while he was asleep, then stuffed his body into a closet, slept on the blood-stained bed for the night, and committed suicide with the same knife the next morning.

Even without the other parts, this story is already quite chilling—it dealt a heavy blow to the hotel's already poor business.

Then, this month, almost no customers came at all—because it's haunted. Rumor has it that the woman who killed her boyfriend is still lingering here, trying to kill anyone who dares to enter the room… or something like that.