Tokyo bombing incident Nth time

After confirming the time for the ninth time, Yuri finally discovered what he had been searching for: only five minutes remained before Akemi's planned departure time to the preparation site. More vehicles were now passing through the street, allowing for a quick evacuation should anything happen.

This is it, we'll see if we live or die.

Yuri waited quietly for the hunter to pounce into the store, his hand already on the lighter and firecrackers in his pocket.

Then, the hunter moved—pouncing towards Yuri's direction.

Was it a feint? Yuri quickly dodged, avoiding the sparse tentacles attacking him, and passed by the hunter.

Did it lose its power by ensuring the surprise of the attack? Yuri rushed towards the shop door, preparing to deal with the hunter's counterattack from behind.

The attack did not occur.

Yuri saw the hunter's back as he sped towards the other end of the street.

For some reason, Yuri suddenly realized—that was the direction Akemi should be in.

Yuri instantly materialized into spirit form, and the firecrackers and lighter fell to the ground, but there was no time to care about that now.

"The Hunter knows our plan? How did it find out?" Yuri seemed to have vaguely grasped something, but now was not the time to ponder this question. As Yuri started to catch up from behind, the Hunter immediately began to surge forward again, further widening the gap.

After chasing for a couple of steps and confirming that the hunter wasn't using a diversionary tactic but was genuinely moving in that direction, Yuri began looking for a suitable vehicle to hitch a ride with.

A speeding car is inappropriate. The cleaning trucks parked on the roadside are all stopped. The parked taxis are also parked; the next one—a taxi?

The passenger crosses the road in a virtual form, materializes next to a taxi, gets in, and asks the driver to drive and specify the route. The driver is somewhat puzzled by the passenger's request for a route instead of a destination, but agrees anyway.

The hunter was already quite far away, and now they had to race against time, Yuri urged the taxi driver to drive.

Chapter Twenty-One: Thoughts

Yuri left the poor driver, who was searching for his passengers who had disappeared at some unknown time, with a silent apology in his heart. He then floated off the bus in spirit form.

The car was much faster than the hunter's own speed, but due to a series of unexpected events such as starting, turning, and waiting, Yuri arrived only a little earlier than the hunter.

If you factor in the time it takes to find Mingmei, the advantage becomes even smaller.

As Akemi prepared to start her motorcycle, she simultaneously saw the hunter rushing towards her from a distance and Yuri rushing across the street.

"Enemy, run!" Yuri warned Akemi to retreat temporarily in the loudest possible voice, but in reality, Akemi had already begun preparing to retreat even without his words.

With hunters rushing towards her from the front and traffic coming from behind, turning left would mean crashing into the flow of traffic. Mingmei chose to turn right onto a narrower side road.

Just as Akemi completed the turn, Yuri arrived and hung himself on the back of the motorcycle. Before they could talk much, Akemi started to accelerate.

As she turned onto the less congested side street, the hunters had almost caught up with them. However, the motorcycle's acceleration had now surpassed the hunters' speed, and Yuri's heart, which had been pounding, eased. He prepared to begin communicating with Akemi about what had happened earlier.

"The hunter suddenly—" Yuri only managed to utter a few words before the motorcycle suddenly slowed down and became unstable. Akemi tried to regain control, but without success. At the same time, the hunter behind them was getting closer and closer.

Moreover, as the hunters drew closer, the motorcycle's vibrations continued to increase, making Mingmei's control increasingly futile.

"Rear wheel! The rear wheel is lifting off the ground!" Yuri, in a good position, realized the problem. At first it wasn't very obvious, but now, the motorcycle's rear wheel had begun to bounce against gravity on the flat ground. It was as if some force was lifting the rear half of the motorcycle off the ground, but not enough to completely keep the rear wheel suspended in the air.

As long as this impact continues, the risks of riding a motorcycle will only increase. Even on a side street with less traffic, there are still other vehicles, not to mention that the cause of all this is the narrowness of the road itself.

The storefronts on both sides can negatively impact high-speed driving, and for people in out-of-control vehicles, it's practically a death trap.

"What?" Akemi turned around to confirm, just as the wheel bounced up twenty centimeters. She acted immediately, first trying to brake, and then, after failing, jumping off with the anchor still attached. She rolled over on the ground and landed, barely managing a smooth landing. Yuri simply let go and landed beside her.

The motorcycle continued forward for a few more meters before collapsing to the ground. On the bright side, the slowdown caused by this impact at least shortened the motorcycle's sliding distance, preventing it from hitting anything. However, some people heard the commotion and came out to see what had happened.

The hunter was clearly responsible for all of this, but the question was how it did it? Yuri couldn't figure it out. Right now, the wheels were affected, but what would happen next? Not understanding this could have a significant impact on the engagement.

But the hunter before him was the biggest problem. Yuri only had time to ask what was going on before he began to evade the hunter's attacks.

Moreover, the hunter, who was excitedly shrieking, seemed to have no intention of using his self-destruct ability.

“Is it telekinesis or using a wrench on the left—” Akemi, who hadn’t yet been drawn into the battle, hurriedly explained. “One is moving physical objects with your mind, and the other is causing machines to temporarily malfunction—you didn’t mention it had this ability!”

"Why—how could you possibly think you—understand me?" The hunter's words were laced with sarcasm and glee. "I thank you—thank you for bringing the rest of that thing with you!"

"So you'll shake hands with me and make peace?" Yuri pushed away the tentacles and continued to retreat.

"So I'll give you a quick death!" The hunter unleashed a burst of energy, forcing Yuri back a few more steps, then suddenly charged forward, heading towards... Takemura, the repeater next to Akemi.

Oh no. Yuri sensed something was wrong. In a one-on-one fight, retreating to buy time was the right choice, but now retreating was actually giving up the path to Akemi.

"Grab it—Ouch!" Yuri, who was about to turn around and rush forward to block it, saw the hunter retreat in a sorry state. Its outstretched tentacles were hit by the anchor that Akemi was swinging, and for the first time, a large number of the tentacles, which were indestructible by Yuri's standards, broke off.

"I've been fighting for so long, and the damage I've done from my occasional counterattacks combined probably doesn't even equal what I've just done. Is this the power of the scourge?" Not only Yuri, but even Akemi was shocked by the enormous results of this attack. She paused for a moment before approaching the hunter, anchor in hand.

"Is this what gave you courage?" This was clearly unexpected by the hunter, and its tone changed. This time, Yuri couldn't discern the emotions it contained, only that it felt very complex.

“That’s right, so what? So what’s your plan?” Since there was no way to reveal anything more, Yuri stopped his steps between the two and went around to the side, trying to flank the hunter with Akemi.

"So, you're finished." The hunter said succinctly.

Is it over? What happened? Was it just a bluff?

The hunter proved with his actions that he was not bluffing—this time, Yuri, who had been watching the hunter closely, sensed the flow of energy and saw Akemi fly up—no, the anchor flew up, and Akemi, who was tightly gripping the anchor, was lifted up.

"Damn it, Akemi, let go!" Yuri saw the hunter trying to fling the anchor against the security bars of a building to the side. —Damn it, why are these humans just watching? Shouldn't they be helping?

Mingmei held on until the very last moment, but she still had to let go of the anchor and grab onto the less sharp parts of the railing to avoid injury. The anchor, meanwhile, was thrown into the air by the hunter and landed somewhere unknown.

“So, you’re finished.” The hunter slowly approached Yuri again. “It did surprise me, but that’s all the seaweed can do… Weak, only knowing how to rely on external things, your struggles are meaningless.”

“You just threw away the echo of Takemura, Sea Urchin.” Yuri slowly backed away. “Weren’t you very excited at first?”

“I’ve changed my mind. I’ve decided to kill you all first.” The hunter continued to slowly approach. “Or you can run now? It depends on my mood; maybe you’ll survive?”

"Then, after you find the root of the problem and devour the bamboo village above, will you come back to kill me?" Yuri knew that he absolutely could not back down at this moment. —But what if he didn't back down?

Akemi fell behind Yuri.

"Draw the hunter's attention for five minutes," Mingmei said urgently. "Can you do that?"

"If it's just about stalling for time, fifty minutes is no problem." Yuri estimated his own dodging ability and the hunter's attack ability after being injured.

"Full attention." Akemi raised the difficulty of the requirement by several orders of magnitude.

"Are you trying to kill me?" The only way to consistently draw the hunter's full attention is through close combat. If you try to dodge from a distance, the hunter's attention can be diverted at any time.

As for close-quarters combat... even though the hunter's tentacles had just been weakened, Yuri felt that he would never return.

"Hold on for five minutes, and then we'll win, we'll win completely. If not, we'll run away and pray the hunters never find us."

The hunters are watching closely, ready to attack at any moment. How could Yuri make such a life-or-death decision under these circumstances? He didn't even have time to complain.

"Go ahead. Five minutes. If you don't succeed, I'll never forget this, even in my ghosthood." Although Yuri should already be a ghost.

Mingmei rushed over, pushing her way through the crowd that had been watching her solo performance.

"The friendship between seaweeds is so fragile..." The hunter maintained its speed and continued approaching, slightly faster than Yuri, who had slowed down slightly. "A rather foolish seaweed stayed behind; it didn't know that its companion, who claimed to have gone to seek help, would never return..."

Feeling a pang of guilt and wavering, Yuri raised a protective barrier, blocking the seductive voice from entering. Every single time, it was the same; whenever the hunter spoke with even a hint of persuasion, they would invariably include this mental manipulation—it was all too blatant.

“Maybe yes, maybe no. Sea urchin, do you want me to leave right now? Do you want me to go?” Of course not, Yuri thought, but talking to the hunter a little longer would help buy some time.

“My creed is never to negotiate peace, but it seems my understanding of you was correct.” The hunter had closed in to a very dangerous distance, and even if Yuri immediately began to retreat, he could not escape danger quickly.

"What do you know about me? What do you know about me?" Yuri was genuinely curious about this question, but he asked it now only to buy himself some time.

“Even plankton cling to life, but seaweed is ultimately a plant—your self-destructive tendencies are too severe, constantly seeking my death—so I’ll squeeze out a little mercy to help you.”

The hunter pounced, and Yuri activated the protective barrier to its maximum, doing everything in his power to stop the tentacle's attack.

To everyone's surprise, Mingmei's fierce attack had caught the hunter off guard and caused great damage. Many of the tentacles were half-dead and showed no signs of regeneration.

“Just like my hat,” Yuri said, trying to move closer to the harmless tentacles. “As part of the body, after being damaged too severely to the point of breaking, regeneration requires not only spiritual essence, but also time.”

"You're putting up a fierce fight, so you'll taste even better when I eat you." The hunter's shriek carried its psionic energy, weakening the protective barrier Yuri had erected.

"I haven't even put it in my mouth yet, sea urchin, aren't you saying that a bit too soon!" Yuri felt he had already adapted to the tentacles' attacks. Although he was still mostly on the defensive, the hunter didn't seem to have the ability to cause massive damage instantly with just its tentacles. As long as he avoided being swallowed by the hunter's main body, he would have succeeded. At this rate, it wasn't impossible for him to last for five minutes.

It's still pretty tough. Maintaining the protective barrier and treating the injuries simultaneously will deplete Yuri's spiritual essence before that happens.

“All that talk about sea urchins, sea urchins, I’m not the same person anymore—for example…” A tentacle wrapped around Yuri’s arm, and before Yuri had a chance to pull it away, he felt his spiritual essence draining away.

He managed to escape by changing the shape of his arms, but was then attacked several more times.

"I didn't really want to use this trick on you, after all, you have so little spiritual essence in your body, and the amount I absorb each time is less than what I consume," the hunter remarked leisurely. "However, I'm also tired of arguing with you, so just take it as me admitting that you're a fiercely resistant fellow..."

...Is the amount of spiritual essence too small? Yuri had reservations about this; he didn't think his amount of spiritual essence was small.

Another tentacle wrapped around him, and before Yuri could break free, he tried his best to draw spiritual essence from the tentacle. Although the amount of energy was small, it did flow towards Yuri.

The effect was not good, but the increase was still greater than the consumption.

The Hunter is certainly stronger than Yuri, but as it stands, its old wounds that have never healed and the new wounds inflicted by Minmei have severely hampered its overall strength.

"You guy!"

The moment the hunter released its tentacles in shock and anger, Yuri quickly took two steps back, creating some distance between them.

It was still far from a safe distance, but at least enough for Yuri to observe his surroundings.

They had moved about 20 meters away from where they initially jumped out of the car, because they were caught by the hunters not far from entering the street, and were still more than 100 meters away from leaving the street.

"Trying to escape?" The hunter pounced again.

“I’ve surprised you many times already, and you’ll be surprised even more.” Yuri planned to experiment with a new idea: to extract nutrients from the severely damaged tentacles.

“Besides, I can’t escape anyway.” He dodged the area with the densest tentacles. — “Even if I use the old methods,” he tried to grab an injured tentacle, but missed, and was whipped back a step. — “You’re prepared too.” He assumed a stance to absorb the tentacles from the hunter, forcing the hunter to release the tentacles that had wrapped around him. — “I’m just curious.” He reinforced the already crumbling protective barrier. — “Why didn’t you use that before?” He was now entangled by two tentacles, but Yuri had also seized his target.

Sure enough, it was much easier to extract spiritual essence from an injured part than from a healthy one. Unfortunately, before Yuri could even feel the specific speed at which he was obtaining spiritual essence, he was completely left behind, and the hunter even released the tentacles that had been binding Yuri.

"Looks like I've given you another surprise." The spiritual essence absorbed is still not enough to replenish the losses incurred in battle, but it will help maintain the fight for longer and increase the hunter's wear and tear.

And to attract attention.

"..." The hunter remained silent, and in Yuri's vision, its entire body seemed to be flowing with energy.

"Hello? Aren't you going to answer my question?"

Yuri responded with a barrage of attacks as fierce as a storm.

Chapter Twenty-Two: Things Don't Never Happen More Than Three Times

After the hunter decided to fight Yuri head-on, the situation took a sharp turn for the worse for Yuri.

The hunter's resources were far greater than Yuri's—Yuri suspected that the hunter's daily maintenance was even higher than his own capacity limit.

In previous battles, Yuri's major advantage was that the hunter was overconfident and unwilling to pay a heavy price to win. But now, the hunter was acting as if he truly considered Yuri an opponent rather than prey, willing to suffer a loss in the end just to kill Yuri here. Should he be pleased that he had finally become a worthy opponent, or should he be alarmed by the rapid increase in threat level? Yuri decided to put that question aside for the time being.

Currently, after the hunter's relentless and fierce bursts of attacks, Yuri's spiritual essence consumption has also increased. In order to avoid running out of spiritual essence in an instant, he has begun to stop using spiritual essence to heal his wounds and is only maintaining the protective barrier on his own.

Fortunately, spirits are not limited by physical strength. As long as they have spiritual essence, they can move indefinitely. However, this applies to both enemies and allies. As for attention... if it's only for five minutes, it's not enough to cause them to lose focus.

While the accumulation of spirit wounds doesn't affect movement, it does increase the effectiveness of the hunter's indiscriminate spirit essence absorption during attacks. There's nothing that can be done about it; Yuri can't worry about that now.

In fact, if the hunter's fierce attacks hadn't occasionally used his injured tentacles, allowing Yuri to take the opportunity to absorb some of his spiritual essence, Yuri estimated that he would have been finished very soon.

...Even now, it's pretty much finished. Multiple injuries, insufficient spiritual essence, and Yuri's haphazard punching techniques are no match for the tentacle monster.

Yuri felt the locations of his injuries, and could even sense that in some places the wounds had accumulated too much and were beginning to leak his spiritual essence. This was bad, very bad. But there was nothing he could do at the moment.

Even if a spirit is solid and almost immune to impact-type attacks, this isn't some kind of conceptual immunity. Tentacle attacks are ineffective, causing only minor injuries—but what's happening now is the cumulative effect of these small wounds.

On the other hand, Yuri did almost no effective damage to the hunters, and the tentacles that had been injured by Minmei's attack earlier had stopped bleeding.

“I was going to ask you again how you managed to improve your abilities so rapidly…” the hunter, confident of victory, spoke again, but his hands didn’t stop. “However, if you continue to improve yourself in battle, it will only make things more difficult for me.”

"What rapid improvement—you're the one who's improving faster, aren't you!?" Every time they meet, the hunter gains a new ability, and Yuri feels incredibly unlucky.

“I am indeed unable to exert my full strength due to my injury, but recovery is much easier than—” The hunter suddenly extended a tentacle, which Yuri, who was already on guard, dodged. “—than improving myself. So you are really peculiar… Despite being so weak and so stupid, you still go around courting death… and you can improve so rapidly? I almost thought you were one too.”

What else? You were also severely injured, lost a level, and had to start over? I'm truly flattered by your kindness.

"I have no idea how to improve myself so rapidly." Yuri focused his mind, preparing to fight to the very last moment. "Even if I knew, telling you would just mean certain death, wouldn't it? Why would I help the enemy who killed me before I die?"

Just now, the hunter changed its attack method, from a large-scale burst to a few precise strikes. This shouldn't mean the hunter's spiritual essence is depleted, but rather that the hunter has other ideas. Yuri didn't know what the hunter was thinking, but he wanted to use this to buy some more time.

“If you speak now, you might buy yourself a little more time… However,” the hunter continued, launching fewer but more precise attacks, “it’s actually the same whether you speak or not.”

Yuri clung tightly to the hunter's injured tentacle, trying to extract its essence. This time, the hunter didn't let go, but instead used its tentacles to pull him towards its main body. It was a trap! Yuri sensed something was wrong, but the hunter's other tentacles had already encircled him, leaving him no room to retreat.

"Anyway, I'll find out after I swallow you." The hunter seemed to take it all in stride. "Normally, I don't absorb the memories from the spirit marrow after absorbing it, since seaweed's memories aren't worth paying attention to... but I've decided to make an exception for you."

Yuri did absorb some spiritual essence, which healed the cracks in his body, but he was also unable to break free from contact. He could only watch helplessly as the hunter's long, gelatinous body, which was no longer recognizable as human and covered by carapace, approached him.

The entity seemed to be wriggling, semi-transparent, murky, and its interior was unclear... Yuri didn't want to see inside either, but he was getting closer and closer.

The last time I observed the hunter up close, its body was already a gelatinous mass that was no longer human-shaped, but now it's directly oval-shaped. Takemura's tattered clothes haven't fallen off yet, probably because they're part of its main body; otherwise, according to the laws of physics, it shouldn't be possible to wear them.

"I have good news for you. At least you're now a piece of seaweed. Be grateful for becoming a part of me." The hunter didn't wait for a response and simply pressed Yuri against himself.

Yuri then felt himself pressed close to the hunter's body, but not completely connected, nor did he feel any further damage; it was as if he had only been touched.