Tokyo bombing incident Nth time

The hunter seemed to have gone far away.

"What just happened?" Kuroshi asked, looking like he really wanted Yuri to expose his hallucination.

“The Hunter—that octopus monster—just appeared at the door again,” Kuroshi’s face gradually turned pale as Yuri spoke. “It knows the scroll’s power can last for three days, and it looks like it plans to patrol here intensively, ready to break in and kill you at any time.”

And I was an unexpected surprise; it certainly wouldn't forget to kill me as well.

"You mean it's already blocking the entrance?"

"It shouldn't be. It wasn't here when I came in. It's obviously on regular patrol."

Anyway, there will definitely be an opportunity in three days, so there's no need to stay here all this time. That's probably what the hunter was thinking. Of course, with Yuri around, things might be different—the patrol frequency might increase.

"Then what should we do? You've been chasing the octopus monster for so long, you must have a way, right?"

The problem is, every time I catch up, I get chased away, Yuri thought to himself.

“I’m no match for it right now—I’ll have to run if it attacks.” Let’s be honest. “How far can you move?”

"No more than half a block away." A sense of despair permeated the air.

“…I have an idea. Given this octopus monster’s attitude, it definitely won’t wait a moment longer before coming to hunt you down.” Seeing no one respond, not even a sympathetic reply, Yuri continued on his own. “In other words, we can be certain that the octopus monster will be located here by then, and we can ambush it.”

"How should we ambush them? Should we all attack together?" Hei Shi managed to muster a bit of energy.

“I know something that might be effective against the octopus monster. I’ll bring it to the vicinity, and you guys prepare for defense inside the shop. I’ll observe from a slightly further distance. As soon as the octopus monster charges in, I’ll block it at the door with the item. Then we’ll fight the octopus monster to the death.”

The plan was very rough, and...

"...What if you run away? Or what if we don't buy you enough time, and by the time you get there we're already finished?" Hei Shi pointed out the flaw in the plan.

“If they run away, I’ll lose my chance to eliminate the octopus monster,” Yuri paused. “What if you get wiped out instantly—shouldn’t you be asking yourselves that? If you’re that weak, no plan will work.”

...And there's this problem that only someone "driven to the brink of despair" would accept.

Chapter 18 Details

Having barely managed to persuade Heise and the others to accept this crude plan, and having ascertained that the scroll would be activated after 11 a.m. today, Yuri once again poked his head out of the slot machine shop.

The hunter wasn't there this time, or at least didn't pounce immediately.

Yuri moved stealthily, carefully avoiding the hunter's route. He followed the principle of "if there's a ghost, go; if there isn't, hide," and proceeded without encountering any new trouble.

“The hunter looks down on me, and it doesn’t even feel the need to conceal its tracks—that’s true. I haven’t done anything to make the hunter feel that I’m actually a threat yet, which is a good thing, as it makes it easier for me to give the hunter a surprise.” Yuri was thinking about how to deal with the hunter.

Judging from the distribution of the empty areas, the hunter is likely circling around this slot machine shop. It doesn't intend to stray too far before wiping out this small, clearly localized group of ghosts that caused its attack; after all, what does it have to fear?

Akemi had woken up and was sitting on the sofa, wearing the trench coat that had been repaired at some point. Her face was clouded with gloom, and she looked like she wanted to kill someone.

...Oh no, I forgot to leave a message before I left. Yuri felt a pang of guilt, but he knew he had to face it; there was no escaping it.

"Um, I'm back?" He greeted her honestly first, then quickly apologized. "I forgot to leave you a message, sorry—"

“That’s one thing, but it’s not important. I have some bad news for you,” Akemi turned her head. “You see, didn’t we read Takemura Nobuyuki’s records before? We learned that our target is a spirit, or at least it used to be.”

“Yes? That’s right, and actually—you should go first.” Yuri began to think about what this meant.

"So since it's different from the ghosts I initially guessed, I thought I could contact some people I know who specialize in dealing with spirits."

Why didn't I think of that? At first I thought it was a ghost, but now it's been proven to be a spirit.

"And then a problem arose?" Since it was bad news, it certainly wasn't a good outcome, so Yuri prepared himself mentally.

"Then they told me they were very interested in this—but! They're working hard on something else, which started last week and could last for a month."

"So they can't spare any manpower?" That's certainly disappointing, but losing something you never expected won't hurt too much.

“Then I said that since the opponent can overpower a level two spirit, they are likely level three or four. If we don’t seize the opportunity now, it will become even more troublesome in the future.” Akemi hadn’t finished speaking.

"Hmm, is that right? That's indeed the information we received." So these people really did give up a good opportunity. Was the other matter really that important? ...Maybe it really was that important.

"Then you tell me, 'If that's the case, why don't you just handle it yourself? Don't act like a child who cries for their mother every time something happens!'" Mingmei's face flushed red with anger.

That's quite a blunt statement.

“Alright!” Mingmei stood up and paced around the room. “Then I’ll show them! He’s just a former high-level spirit, he’s weakened now, who’s afraid of who!”

"...Please calm down?" Akemi was clearly getting angrier the more she thought about it; conceding would only make her feel like she was losing out. "I think—"

Akemi interrupted him, "And just at this crucial moment, someone ran off without even leaving a message! We're in this together, aren't we! You—"

I knew you hadn't forgotten. Didn't you say at the beginning that it wasn't important?

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 being scolded by Akemi for more than ten minutes, Yuri finally managed to calm her down.

This time, they were clearly being targeted by the enemy, but it can't be considered an undeserved disaster.

"By the way, didn't you say something like 'actually—' before?" Having calmed down, Akemi sat back down on the sofa. "Actually what? Did you discover something new?"

“Where should I begin? Let’s go in chronological order.” Yuri recalled. “First, I managed to read Takemura’s memories, from the afterimage attached to this anchor.”

"You can read the memories of other ghosts? I have indeed heard that some ghosts can absorb the knowledge of other ghosts and impersonate them—or go on, what did you see?"

“I saw Takemura’s gradual death. His first remnant soul, which was also the largest piece, fell out after he merged with the hunter. At that time, Takemura thought he had won, successfully merged with the hunter and controlled him, but in reality, he was heading towards death because of it.”

"Go on," Akemi said, listening intently to the story.

"Perhaps he won the battles outside by relying on the Root of Calamity, but... I don't know if this was part of the Hunter's plan, but once the fusion is complete, the Root of Calamity will also harm Takemura himself, and he will no longer be able to use it to gain an advantage. In the internal struggle, Takemura is at a disadvantage, and he is completely unaware of this."

"Completely unaware?" Akemi demanded that Yuri describe Takemura's attitude in that memory in more detail. "...It felt like he still vaguely sensed something was wrong, but the Hunter 'made' him believe there was no problem. He always managed to find reasons for his weakness other than the Hunter before realizing something was amiss, and he never even suspected that the Hunter was still resisting, which is abnormal."

"Isn't this normal?" Yuri was somewhat skeptical. "We already know that Takemura is an overconfident and paranoid person. It's possible that he would believe his plan would be a complete success and therefore never doubt it, right?"

“Well… most spirits aren’t people who always keep their word. They tend to interpret agreements in a way that benefits them—humans are the same. It’s a matter of wits and strategy among them, nothing more to say.” Akemi began to explain why.

Yuri nodded.

“And forced spirits, just like forced humans, will never be truly convinced. They will struggle desperately no matter what. Some succeed, some fail, but the struggle is the same.” The mystic took a breath. “Takemura, after all, deals with spirits frequently; he couldn’t possibly be unaware of this.”

"And then you said that you never saw Takemura suspect the hunter was struggling, so you thought he was influenced by the hunter?" Yuri understood what the other person meant.

"That's right. This further illustrates how weak the hunter was at the time—it didn't want Takemura to realize it was resisting, and it was afraid of being suppressed by Takemura. —And now, only a week has passed, and it may not even have been able to transform the combination of its soul and Takemura's into the form it was used to."

This is really good news.

"Do you think we can wake up Takemura? If he can turn things around, wouldn't the problem be solved?"

"...That's unlikely. Takemura is already dead, and his ghost is shattered into several pieces. Even if it were poured back into his body, there's no way I know of to turn him back into the person he was—that's assuming his body isn't altered to the point of collapsing upon losing his hunter." Yuri's opinion was rejected by the mystic.

“So, the second piece of information—” Yuri was about to continue talking about the root of the problem.

"You... continue," Akemi said, hesitating.

This person is really strange.

"In short, while I was out wandering around, I encountered the Hunter again—the Hunter is going to attack a ghost gang in a slot machine shop around 11 a.m. two days and 15 hours from now, which is the day after tomorrow. My plan is to take the anchor with me and give the Hunter a surprise, and then fight him to the death."

“Count me in,” Akemi said decisively. “Tell me more details.”

Yuri recounted what he had seen at the slot machine shop, especially emphasizing the existence of the "Tayu" and the scroll.

“Taifu… I’ve never heard of him. He sounds like a very influential local ghost leader.” The out-of-town occultist said he didn’t know anything about him. “Being able to infuse one’s power into other things for emergencies is one of the things that higher-level spirits can do, but to be rich enough to send it out must mean he has a lot of influence.”

"Then, let's get down to business." Yuri, feeling he'd covered all the groundwork, began to rub his hands together eagerly. "First, let's start—"

His words were interrupted.

“I have some questions to ask before that,” Mingmei interrupted him, standing up to look Yuri straight in the eye. It was easy; Yuri looked exactly like her now.

"What's the problem?" You're not going to nag me again about leaving without leaving a note, are you?

"Can you recall the store's normal opening hours?"

"The human version is from 8 pm to 4 am, while the ghost version is the opposite, from 6 am to 6 pm."

"Can you recall what the tattoos on the underlings of the Black World you just mentioned looked like?"

"Sure, one person had an eagle tattooed on their arm, two others had wolves tattooed on their backs, and the last person had some plants and flowers tattooed on them. I don't know exactly what kind of plants they were, but the flowers had five petals."

“You didn’t mention these details to me before.” Akemi sighed deliberately, then shook her head vigorously. “Why?”

"Why?" What's the point of asking why? Yuri didn't understand. "Because they're unimportant, they don't help, they're just there and don't affect anything. They're not major events and don't deserve any extra attention."

"Do you remember how you initially got involved in this?"

"...Because I was so bored, I went out to train my abilities, and that's when I encountered a ghost asking for help. I went to help it, and on my way back, I was ambushed by hunters." Yuri suppressed his doubts about whether Akemi was acting strangely or had gone mad with anger, waiting for an explanation.

“Yuri, you need to pay more attention to these details. Think carefully about your actions—you set a main objective and then head straight for it, and then you can’t see anything else—your vision continues to send out, your mind continues to receive, but as long as you don’t think about it, you won’t take it into consideration.”

"What's the problem?"

"That's why you get bored—you can't see anything without a goal, you don't feel like you've experienced anything meaningful, and then you start to get bored. You crave a more intense, primary response, rather than some details."

...This...this seems to make some sense.

"So what? What's wrong with that?" But so what?

"If you can always find the right target, it can improve efficiency. But take this investigation as an example. You should realize that this investigation just happened to be based on clues left by Takemura that formed a straight line. So you went straight along that line without encountering any problems."

Akemi is right.

“But what if there are misleading terms and branches?” Akemi pointed out another possibility.

"So you'll just turn around and find the next one as soon as you hit a wall?" Yuri wasn't sure; this was probably not the answer Minmi wanted to hear.

"You never considered that the people I mentioned might be helpful after discovering that the other party was a spirit, right?" Mingmei's speech quickened.

That's true, but I didn't expect Akemi to see through it.

"Because after we determined that the hunter was a ghost and that looking for these people was useless, you had already put these people into the irrelevant crowd—you didn't even think about them." Faster and faster.

……you're right.

"And then, you never thought to consult with me, only responding when I brought it up, always wanting to solve problems alone—"

"I don't want to drag you into danger!"

Only Yuri must resolutely oppose this.

“…” Akemi turned her head away. “I misunderstood that, I’m sorry.”

"..." The atmosphere was a little awkward.

“But you don’t need to worry about that, Yuri. Just say what you need to say, and I’ll directly refuse if I think it’s not right.” Akemi’s tone softened. “This time, my intention wasn’t to attack you, but I still made you take your anger out on me, and I should apologize.”

Is that really the case? Yuri wondered—Mimi seemed like a very easy person to talk to, and Yuri doubted he could persuade her to go to hell with him, as long as the reason was something like liberating the innocent victims in hell.

"Do you think I'm particularly easy to persuade and can't say no to others, so you proactively screen requests and proposals for me?"

You can read my mind!

“It was your expression that was too obvious. You were clearly distracted and didn’t even listen to the second half of my apology,” Mingmei concluded. “Anyway, I still have to make that suggestion, Yuri. If you want to live more comfortably, you need to pay more attention to details. It’s probably too late to train that now. Once we solve the hunter problem, I suggest you work on that aspect more.”

"I'll give it a try." Since things have come to this point, I'll give it a shot after dealing with the hunter.

That's right, the priority is still to deal with the hunter in front of us first.

Chapter Nineteen: Discussion and Preparation

First, because hunters patrol the area intensively near slot machine shops, it's not advisable to approach that area during this time. In fact, if the hunters' patrol radius were even larger, they might even include residences. The same applies from the perspective of avoiding provoking the hunters.

The person most likely to avoid the hunter right now is Akemi—even if they were to encounter each other face-to-face, the hunter wouldn't attack her. Directly attacking living humans isn't currently part of the hunter's operational plan; if it were, it would likely make the news. In this situation, Akemi is just like any other passerby.

Akemi had considered immediately taking leave from school to prepare, but that was pointless. Considering it would be safer not to go with Yuri, she figured she could simply scout out the slot machine area alone after school.

Yuri's task was to stay home and focus on recovering. The wound from the hunter's attack had stopped bleeding, but regeneration would still take time. Neither of them was sure if facing the hunter with this scar would have adverse consequences, so it was best to complete the regeneration before then.

In addition, we must guard the anchor, which is the core weapon in this battle against the hunters and cannot be lost.

It's unlikely that a thief would actually steal from this run-down place... but Yuri is just sitting at home with nothing to do anyway.

"In short, I understand. It means I need to rest well, not stay up late, quit smoking and drinking, get more sun, eat regularly, and drink more hot water—right?" Yuri confirmed with Akemi.

"Yes, that's roughly how it is," Mingmei replied seriously. "Of course, it would be great if you could really recover your spiritual essence through eating, but can you do that?"

"I mean it!" If you can't do it, you can't do it. If Yuri could recover by eating and drinking too much, he would have done it long ago.

The second thing is the actual confrontation plan—

Yuri devised a very simple plan.

First, Mingmei arrived at the slot machine shop ahead of time and, relying on the fact that she had no hatred towards the hunter, steadily observed him.

Next, when the hunters were ready to rush in, Mingmei gave the signal, and Yuri immediately rushed over with the anchor.

During this time, Mingmei continued to observe the battle situation. As long as the slot machine gang was being beaten down in the store instead of being instantly killed, it would be considered a success.