Tokyo bombing incident Nth time

"Didn't he suddenly collapse while Yuri was exchanging fire with him—no way—" a surprised voice came through the walkie-talkie, "Completely motionless?"

“Yes, that’s true—the bad thing is, their completely still state might be similar to when they first collapsed… You need to observe more closely.” Akemi reminded her again, “Yuri, what do you think is the most important part?”

“Of course, it’s the eyes and throat—I don’t need to explain the eyes. If they were still alive, they would definitely have tried to call for help, so there should have been movement in their throats.” Yuri looked down at the two bodies. “It would be better to confirm these two places.”

Although Yuri should be able to use magic to find the cause of death directly, it would be a bit tactless to say it now—he can just do it secretly.

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 soul leaves the body, the body grows cold, and consciousness dissipates.

This was the last thing Yuri saw, though of course, it wasn't everything he saw.

These two hunters must have died when the Reaper extracted their spirits.

The process should be that they seized the power of the Sin Eater, and at the same time, transferred the Bound Spirit into their own bodies—or perhaps not necessarily into their bodies—in any case, the Bound Spirit established a very deep connection with their souls, just like the Bound Spirit and the Bound Body.

Then the spirits were extracted by the Reaper, dragging their souls out with them. This process affected their bodies, instantly weakening them. Yes, being separated from one's body doesn't necessarily mean death, at least not immediately.

Then, Yuri cast a spell on them, paralyzing their entire bodies, which would kill them. It's unclear whether their hearts, lungs, or some part of their brains gave out first, but they would likely suffer greatly in the end, if they were still conscious at that point.

The same spell has different effects when cast on a healthy body versus a sick one. Moreover, Yuri was fighting for his life when he cast the spell, and in his anger and shock, he showed no mercy—even if he did, he couldn't possibly know exactly what spells would be lethal.

If the effect had occurred immediately, Yuri might have been able to react in time and withdraw his force, but this time, he wasn't the one who delivered the final blow.

Yuri defended himself internally, trying to disclaim his position as a murderer.

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.

“So they actually stopped moving while you were still in the house, confronting that monster.” Akemi continued the conclusion from the walkie-talkie. “And just now, Yamanaka Yuka said that that was around the time the monster was extracting their spirits from their bodies… The conclusion is obvious: the Reaper killed them, and you were too nervous to notice it on the spot.”

Yuri felt a little guilty, but he didn't immediately dismiss the conclusion.

"Then, those two hunters died, but that one didn't... Yuka suspects it's because he hadn't fully acquired his power, and it was taken back at the time, so the monster didn't target him... Yuri, what do you think?" The high school girl detective, a third-rate student, stood in the doorway, pointing and gesturing. "What did you figure out?"

The second murderer, feeling guilty, hesitated for a moment, then decided to cover it up while taking precautions. "I've discovered that the deaths of these two people may be related to me—the spell I used to bring them down may have had a chain reaction with what the Reaper did to them."

"..." Akemi paused for a moment, then immediately said, "This has nothing to do with you. When you did this, you certainly didn't intend to kill them, otherwise you would have had more opportunities... right?"

Yuka Yamanaka didn't react, and her bound spirit remained silent as well.

And this silence is a little frightening.

The girl who devoured sins took a dozen seconds to understand Yuri's meaning, and then quickly said, "It was unavoidable. They were too vicious at the time. If we had held back, we might have been the ones who died."

Yuri sensed something was off about those words.

Then he heard a voice coming from the direction of the spirit-binding, which was powerful and resounding: "To fight and kill the enemy is to have merit and no crime; to walk into a death trap is to have no regrets."

These three people should all support Yuri, but why does it seem like Yuri's actions are becoming increasingly proactive? Has it gone from unintentional killing to accidental killing to intentional killing?

In any case, it's best not to stay here any longer—and also to wipe away every trace of it.

Yuri floated in, put the drone and projector back together that had fallen on the bed, picked up the spirit orb that had fallen in the corner, and brought them out together, handing them to Akemi.

I didn't bring much with me, so I don't need to worry about losing anything...

The problem lies in the fingerprints. Yuka Yamanaka didn't touch many things, but the blankets and under the bed are definitely covered with her fingerprints.

"Akami, in your memory, are Japanese police able to locate Yamanaka based on fingerprints?"

Akemi thought for a moment, "If there's no criminal record, it shouldn't be found... but I'm not sure if this will become a criminal record itself."

What criminal record? Fingerprints were found at the murder scene, and they were distributed quite widely?

The girl who devoured sins had probably never considered this question before, and was now looking at Yuri and Akemi with eager anticipation.

Is she already acting like, "Anyway, there's no way I can bind her spirit"?

193 Extinction

Yuri carefully confirmed something with Yuka Yamanaka.

"The situation has now far exceeded our initial expectations. Do you think it's more reasonable for us to just leave it as it is, letting your fingerprints enter the records and hoping the police can solve the case, or is it more appropriate for us to distrust the Tokyo police, destroy the evidence ourselves, and let this case become a cold case?"

To put it bluntly, is it better to leave the scene as it is, or to let Yuri make a mess of it?

Akemi hasn't entered the room yet, so her traces won't be discovered no matter what. Yuri won't leave fingerprints, and neither will the spirit. Therefore, the only one who might expose information is Ms. Yamanaka Yuka.

"What exactly do you mean by destroying evidence?" The sin-eater girl seemed to realize the significance of this question. "Blow the entire building up?"

"..." Sometimes Yuri really wondered if he lacked common sense or if the people in this place lacked common sense. "No, of course not—basically, it's like peeling off a layer of skin from everything in the room that you may have touched."

As for the other three, they weren't doing nothing—Yuri's ability to sense matter still hadn't recovered, but he was quite certain that a kind-hearted Glass Eyes in the hotel would be willing to help him find all the recording devices on the three of them, and he certainly wouldn't ask for any payment.

However, this was something that had to be done anyway, and it wouldn't cause much of a stir—so Yuri didn't think it was worth asking.

“Let’s do it, Yuri.” Yuka Yamanaka made her decision. “Instead of hoping the Japanese police can solve the case, we should hope these damn guys will just turn themselves in. They can’t solve the problem anyway, so let’s protect ourselves first.”

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.

Yuri made everyone, including the spirits, leave the room and floated onto the bed.

Akemi went to find Glass Eye, while Yamanaka Yuka stayed at the door—Binding Spirit was even more straightforward, returning to the body of the Sin Eater Girl after confirming that she had nothing else to do, thus announcing that work was done.

To be honest, he quite liked this room; it was much more comfortable than the Mingmei living room where he usually stayed—but now he had no choice but to apologize to his boss.

Yuka Yamanaka's main activity area is from the doorway to her bed.

If Yuri could use magic to see fingerprints with his own eyes, he could then target them specifically, but Yuri really doesn't want to develop new spells on the spot right now.

So the only option was to destroy everything in the area—to lock down everything in the region and let them decay together.

Yuri used this spell several times, and the effect was very obvious—it directly caused the item to decay—appearing as if it had decayed in an instant, as if it had experienced a long period of time.

Bullets deform, gun barrels rust and become brittle—the damage that might otherwise be calculated in days or even months is realized in an instant.

Yuri has no way to lock fingerprints, but he can mess up the surface structure of anything with fingerprints, which should destroy the fingerprints as well... Will that work?

Don't doubt yourself at a time like this—Yuri focused his attention on the entire room.

The vision is to destroy these traces.

The time is immediately.

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.

Yuri floated out of the room, unsteady on his feet.

"How is it? I sensed a rather strong spell..." Yuka Yamanaka peered inside. "It doesn't seem to have changed much? Did the spell fail?"

“No, the spell itself was very successful. At first glance, the room doesn't seem abnormal, but if anyone touches it, a lot of dust will rise up. —In fact, if you touch that bed again, it should fall over.” Yuri's answer was weak. “But… um?”

Akemi was talking to Yuri while pulling on the glass eyepiece.

Glass Eyes nodded repeatedly, stepped forward, pointed out several targets to be destroyed, and before Yuri could thank it, it ran away as if a werewolf was chasing it.

"Sister Mingmei, were you threatening it just now?" Unlike Yuri, who was engrossed in casting spells, Yamanaka Yuka seemed to have heard everything.

“Threate it?” Yuri looked at the high school girl.

“No, I just told it, ‘Look, this friend’s power fluctuations are so obvious, are you going to help him or not?’” Mingmei said seriously. “So strictly speaking, it was Yuri who threatened it, not me.”

"Pfft." Yuka Yamanaka chuckled.

Yuri wanted to angrily denounce them, but seeing that the two of them were in the mood to joke, he realized the battle was over and laughed along with them.

In conclusion, after Yuri destroyed the target designated by Glass Eye, his spiritual essence was completely depleted.

The energy consumed by casting spells on the objects in the room far exceeded his expectations, most likely because he had chosen too many targets at once—but if he cast spells on each object individually, the energy consumption would be significantly less.

Perhaps this is a compromise: Yuri has the ability to cast spells on multiple targets simultaneously, but not as many as the items in the room—if the reason for this can be determined, Yuri will be more efficient when casting spells on multiple targets in the future.

Of course, as mentioned many times, this is not the best place to study magic. According to Mingmei, when she went to Glass Eye, she checked on the hotel employees—they had survived the entire incident in a coma and were unharmed. The final spiritual impact might have had some effect on them—for example, some of them might have nightmares for a month straight—but none of them were injured to the extent that Zhongdao was.

In other words, they could wake up at any time... Yuri must leave immediately.

As a final check before leaving the hotel, Yuri double-checked the words he had written on the check-in form—it was indeed the fake name Hirosaki Nakamichi.

There should be no trace left, and before any new accidents occur, Yuri and his group left the hotel.

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.

Then he was stopped by a reporter on the street near the hotel exit.

Hojo Reie appeared, looking like she had been up all night.

"...Although I probably already guessed it, do you want to explain? Look, you've scared people." Yuri gestured to the reporter towards Yamanaka Yuka, who was hiding behind Akemi. "And, the way you lunged at me with your red eyes is really creepy."

"Are you planning to disband before I even get here?" the reporter glared at Yuka Yamanaka. "This is a big deal; getting it reported is unlikely—but at least let me have a private interview—"

“Well, if you don’t reveal that it was you on the other end of the walkie-talkie, she might have a friend who’s 2.5 meters tall come and have a heart-to-heart talk with you.” Yuri turned to the Sin Eater girl. “Since she’s already shown up, I won’t bother to cover for her anymore—this is Hojo Reie, a reporter.”

Then, turning back to the reporter, he said, "I should have known better. You were the one devising this plan, using the release of confidential information to threaten others... Is this your method?"

"Ah, it's you. Thank you so much..." Yamanaka Yuka relaxed, then her face suddenly turned red as she popped out from behind Akemi. "I really didn't recognize you."

Unless you know beforehand, a normal person shouldn't be able to recognize it.

"No problem, no problem, just agree to my exclusive interview—you're the professional Yuri was talking about? The one who deals with ghosts—wait, huh?"

Yuri pulled her away before the reporter could take out his recording pen.

"There's no need to rush. I have some things to confirm."

Lehweh deliberately glanced at Yuri, "Didn't you already guess?"

Yuri wasn't quite sure what was going on with this guy, but he still continued, "Well, we need to confirm that first, did you install the camera in the room?"

"Of course, while you and your new friends were running around the world, I wasn't idle—those cameras were specially made so they could continue operating even if the power was cut off due to the haunting, and they could also record relatively obvious spirits. I made a lot of gaps in that room to place the cameras." The reporter raised his left hand, palm up, making a lifting motion. "Of course, my job was done after I told the boss that there really was a ghost there. The boss cried and begged me not to tell anyone."

Yuri thought the crying and shouting parts might be a bit exaggerated.

"Then Mingmei found you, hoping you could help her, and you actually came?"

“Wrong. While you and your new friends are running around the world, Ming—" Hojo Reie was covered in the mouth by a hand that reached out from behind, and she couldn’t finish her sentence.

"What's going on?" Yuri asked, looking at the high school girl who had just appeared.

“Recently, Leah has been asking me to help her with some potentially dangerous area exploration issues, and as a friend, I couldn’t refuse—isn’t that right, Miss Leah?” Akemi loosened her grip slightly.

“Oh right, right, it was my request—anyway, this is actually one of the areas we’ve been exploring; we just went there a couple of days ago.” Lie Hui caught her breath and continued, “That’s why Mingmei immediately recommended this place to you when you called.”

Yes, those social theories were probably also things that Lehweh instilled in Mingmei.

"So, where were you before? That remote-controlled drone can't fly very far, right?"

"Actually, we can still fly quite far—but we were really close—and you'll be shocked to learn that we were just two floors directly below the guy who shot you—or maybe four floors later, he must have moved to the roof."

What does that mean? Yuri recalled the scene when she got the drone. She could see the house across the street from the window. Nakamichi should be near the top floor of that house. According to Rei, she and Akemi were below Nakamichi at that time.

“That’s to be expected. We chose a relatively good spot to observe your room, and then we just happened to run into your enemy. Luckily, at least we didn’t choose the same room.” Lehwi spread her hands. “Mingmei considered the possibility of ambushing the gunmen above, but she’s not crazy—you don’t think that’s a good idea, do you?”

It was certainly not a good idea. Regardless of whether Akemi could dodge the bullets, that damned reaper Minagawa was also there at the time.

Yuri arrives at the hotel. → The hunter follows to scout the location. → The hunter chooses a suitable angle. → Hojo Reie and Kakizaki Akemi also choose the same angle. → While the hunter fires inside, the two hide in the room gathering information and deploying drones. → After negotiations fail, the two remain inactive until Minagawa Toru flies across the distance between the two buildings without hesitation and rushes into Yuri's room. → Akemi dashes out, charging at the speed of a 100-meter sprint, and enters the area before the spirit field's enhancement.

"I see... I understand now."

“That’s right, I’ve done a lot of hard work this time, so I should get something in return, right?” Hojo Reihe looked like he was about to leave.

"...The hard work is real, but as for the high achievements..." Yuri was quite skeptical. "Didn't your threats ultimately fail? That guy just completely broke off relations in the end."

The reporter's expression froze for a moment, and he raised his hand to smooth his hair. "That is indeed a problem..."

“You underestimated their fighting spirit. That guy was completely committed to a holy war against dissidents—even if you threatened to expose their plans, you couldn’t stop them, could you?” Yuri waved his hand. “It’s not that you should have been able to predict this, but you still failed in the end.”

“No…” the reporter shook his head. “I don’t think I saw it wrong. At the last minute, he really meant to leave—he must have answered the last question wrong.”

“One last question…” Yuri repeated the reporter’s question softly.

“Yes, the last question—I answered with the words ‘special task force’ as instructed by Akemi—I could tell that he only made up his mind to take action after that.” Hojo Reie sighed. “His behavior was as if he wasn’t part of that special task force at all. My answer revealed that I didn’t know them well enough.”

...Unfortunately, the person is already dead, and those who survived are mentally impaired. The answer to this mystery probably won't be easy to obtain.

"Anyway, if you have no more questions, hurry up and move aside, I still need to do an exclusive interview!" the reporter said matter-of-factly. "The gunfight can't be reported, at least let me find a reliable source of paranormal news!"

Although she was somewhat suspicious that she meant she wanted to hire Yuka Yamanaka to haunt the place, Yuri still made way for her.

“No, Liehui, not now.” This time it was Mingmei who stood in front of the reporter. “Everyone here is exhausted except for one guy who doesn’t need sleep at all. You’re just forcing yourself to stay awake because of your passion, right? We should rest first.”

"Alright, then get in my car—I'll take you home—to my house. We can talk about the rest after you've rested there!"

Yuri could already picture Lehwe blocking the door and refusing to let anyone leave until they answered his questions.

194 Hunters like this, hunters like that

That same afternoon, at the reporter's residence, a formal postwar debriefing began, with the speaker... unfortunately, being Akemi Kakizaki rather than Yuri.