Tokyo bombing incident Nth time

"In short, I personally feel okay, and I would never risk my life. Please at least believe that."

"And the hunter died from self-destruction twice in a row?" Mingmei confirmed again.

"That...is not necessarily true." Yuri carefully recalled the hunter's condition at the time. Indeed, the hunter was severely injured, and it wouldn't be surprising if he died at any time. However, after the hunter confidently declared that he would "return," Yuri didn't have time to do anything to him. In other words, the hunter made his statement after fully understanding his own condition.

“At least the hunter believes he can return. I’m not sure where his confidence comes from.” Yuri couldn’t fathom how he could possibly return. “Is he waiting to be resurrected before coming back?”

Mingmei nodded seriously, "Very likely! It's very likely that it self-destructed before you had a chance to cause it greater damage, in order to preserve its chance of resurrection."

In other words, it retained some of its spiritual essence when it died, which is why it could be reborn in its own location...

"This is never going to end!?" Yuri blurted out his inner thoughts in a moment of excitement.

"This is basically the result of exorcism most of the time. After all, we're not seasoned experts, and we can't seal them. Most of the time, we can only kill them, and then the spirits always come back to life." Mingmei said as if she were stating that one plus one equals two.

"So what's next? Go down into the sea, fish it out, and kill it again?" In contrast, Yuri's expression could only be described as horrific.

"Hmm... if you... have the ability... you can also—" Akemi spoke slowly.

"If you don't have the ability, just tell me the result quickly!" Even Yuri could see that Akemi was deliberately messing with him.

“Alright, it was just a joke—no need to worry about it.” Akemi shrugged. “Aside from the possibility that a higher-level spirit might become weak after being resurrected, the location of the spirit’s resurrection might be far from here, other spirits that had a grudge against it might take the opportunity to take revenge and kill it again and again, or it might forget about it after being resurrected—and so on.”

"Besides?" Yuri waited for Akemi's next words.

“Souls that are killed but retain their spiritual essence can indeed be resurrected. However, firstly, their resurrection does not occur in the material world, but in the spirit world. Secondly, the time it takes to resurrect is basically positively correlated with their level. Level 1 souls take about a day to a week, Level 2 souls take about a week to two weeks, which is basically proportional to their resilience. Then, for some unknown reason, Level 3 souls take several months to several years, and Level 4 souls take several years or even decades.” Mingmei’s words ended there.

"If that's the case, wouldn't a level five spirit need hundreds of years to be resurrected after death?" Yuri waited a while but didn't hear any explanation of the next level. "Or is level four the highest?"

"I'm not entirely sure about that. After all, spirits of this level are really rare. It's hard to even hear about them, let alone know how to classify them precisely. But those superhuman demons in mythology don't seem to regenerate often. Look, neither Tamamo-no-Mae nor Yamata no Orochi have been heard of for many years, right?"

"Are those two level five spirits?" Yuri asked a crucial question.

“…I don’t know, I don’t even know if these two are spirits.” Akemi spread her hands. “It’s just that difficult to confirm this.”

"So what level is the hunter?" Yuri asked the second crucial question.

"Judging from the preparations made in Takemura and the descriptions in that storybook, I think it is Level Four in every sense."

—In that case, the hunter's resurrection would take years or even decades. There's no need to worry about it now; they might have already moved by then.

"Well, what I mean is, don't worry about it coming back for revenge. By then, the situation will be unpredictable. — Oh, and I haven't congratulated you yet."

What's there to congratulate me on? Didn't we just say we're out of danger?

Mingmei nodded formally to Yuri. "Although you used various methods and your opponent was weakened layer by layer, you successfully won across two levels, which is a remarkable victory for a spirit."

"Yes, thank you very much for your help." Under her influence, Yuri also became more formal.

"—So hurry up and help me take the motorcycles away and lock them up. I think if those two bikes lie down there for another ten minutes, they'll both be stolen—one of them is one I temporarily borrowed from those spirit hunters, and I'll have to go back and get a new lock made for them afterwards. Besides, if someone reports that someone was racing at the scene, I'll be in big trouble!"

"You're welcome," Yuri thought to himself as he followed Akemi's footsteps.

Chapter Twenty-Four Epilogue

For a while after that, Yuri simply stayed at home, copying Takemura's notes when he had spiritual essence, and flipping through the books that had been brought back some time ago when he didn't.

It took the two of them some time to move the books stored in the wooden house in the bamboo village back in batches, like rats moving house. As for the pile of strange items they collected, there was really nowhere to put them, so Mingmei donated them to the spirit hunters, who might be able to use them.

The motorcycle incident has been resolved. Since no real accident occurred, it happened on a relatively quiet street, and no one was caught in the act—it seems the police officers who died from overwork aren't going to pursue the matter aggressively. This falls under the jurisdiction of the traffic police, right? Traffic police in big cities also tend to die from overwork.

After Akemi managed to glue the anchor back on (Akemi's words: It won't break as long as I don't use it to hit people again, and I don't know how to repair it further), once Yuri finishes copying the Takemura Notebook and secretly returns the original, this incident will be over.

After returning to their lodgings that day, the two noticed that the Takemura repeater attached to the anchor was dissipating. Even gluing the anchor back on didn't help. Yuri suspected that the damage to the anchor had permanently weakened the ghost's foundation, causing it to lose its anchor, or that the hunter's explosion had taken away the remaining part of the ghost, which then disappeared as well. Akemi, on the other hand, suspected that after avenging its great grudge, the ghost—even if it was just a repeater—had no desire to remain in the world.

Regardless of the method, Akemi had already performed the ritual wishing him a swift attainment of Buddhahood. Yuri couldn't understand it, and could only comment that, apart from the highly suspicious clothing, it was still quite presentable. —At least Takemura's broken record didn't get so angry that it refused to leave on the spot.

While bewildered by the cryptic books, Yuri managed to find time to meet with the witness to the Hunter's voracious appetite—the ghostly gang lurking in the slot machine shop. Completely clueless, they only knew that the Hunter hadn't attacked them again. Before Yuri appeared, they concluded that perhaps the Hunter, having devoured Yuri, was in a good mood and decided to spare their lives.

These idiots are so lucky.

Their leader, Black World, was the first among them to stop his shock and panic and come up to find out the news after Yuri reappeared. He offered a lot of vague praise for Yuri's reversal victory—Yuri didn't tell them much detail, only that the hunter was killed and should go back to where he was going to wait for resurrection, so he really couldn't give any real praise.

After offering Yuri a small amount of spiritual essence, which Yuri refused, Kuroshi promised that future visits to the shop would be free. Although Yuri had no intention of engaging in such entertainment, having multiple sources of information was always beneficial.

It's clear that the gang leader breathed a sigh of relief after Yuri refused to accept the Spirit Essence. They also seem to be struggling financially.

After carefully reading the diary several times and comparing it with Takemura's notes in those occult books, Yuri partially overturned his previous understanding. The delusions in Takemura's notes might have some truth to them. This doesn't mean that Takemura's understanding hits the nail on the head regarding the truth of the universe (that would make the universe too pathetic), but at least some of it is "truth" in Takemura's eyes, not something he made up.

For example, in his notes, he mentions something called the "Machi Eye." Takemura claims it's the ability to discover profound truths hidden deep within things through focused attention—a unique power bestowed upon awakened beings like himself by the supernatural. Through this ability, he can perceive the inner health of life and the trajectory of the spirit's existence.

Ignoring the unverifiable claims about the super-boundary, Yuri can still "see" the characteristics of some things.

From a scientific perspective, this should be impossible; simply seeing something shouldn't allow one to form a concept of its related characteristics in their mind. However, Takemura claims that he can recognize a spirit's weaknesses simply by observing it for a period of time. Yuri can't do that, but to be able to vaguely form a concept in his mind about what that thing has experienced in the preceding short period of time just by looking at it is clearly not normal.

Of course, compared to Yuri, Takemura is even more abnormal. What Yuri can do, perhaps someone with more experience could also do to a great extent, but to see a spirit and know its characteristics without communication is something that experience cannot explain.

After discovering his uniqueness, Takemura once believed that by honing his willpower, he could change the world with his mind. The original quote was "to create and destroy the multiverse countless times in a single thought with one's own will," but Yuri felt it was better to remove the rhetoric.

A classic example of idealism. While his abilities do indeed align with Takemura's, he also leaves behind the problem of "not knowing how to improve himself."

He collected many occult books and performed numerous magical rituals, the effectiveness of which he himself was unsure, but all to no avail. The worst part was that he didn't even know what the problem was.

So, after several years of fruitless effort, he revised the part about "relying on tempering one's will" and started plotting to merge with spirits and seize their power. His understanding of spirits told him that they could accumulate power by devouring each other; although he didn't know how much he would need to devour, he believed that continuous devouring would eventually solve the problem. This part is true; Yuri confirmed it with Minmei.

However, as a human, he couldn't devour spirits and ghosts; he had tried, but only ended up vomiting, having diarrhea, and becoming extremely weak. So he decided to first become a spirit—to merge himself with a spirit, and then ascend to a higher realm by devouring spirits.

Of course, he looked down on lower-level spirits; if he was going to do something, he wanted to do it the best, so he picked the most powerful one. Later, while searching for the corresponding root of evil, the first one he obtained was the Hunter's root of evil, and so he began to execute his plan.

By consulting several ancient texts and relying on his profound understanding, he devised a ritual to merge with the spirit—there are many examples of merging with the spirit, but most involve the spirit taking the lead, which is the so-called possession or possession, and this is clearly not what Zhucun needs. What he wants is to control the power of the spirit with his own will, not the other way around.

To Yuri's surprise, the ritual actually worked.

The descriptions in the ancient books were already quite confusing, and then there was the part I was thinking about. Zhucun hadn't had a chance to test it yet (of course he could just grab a random spirit from the roadside to try, but if it succeeded, it would be like digging his own grave) – and just like that, the ritual actually succeeded in part, and it did bind the hunter to his body.

In response, Yuri speculated that if he and Takemura had the same ability, which was to grant wishes... perhaps one of the key parts of the ritual's success was his own belief—that Takemura might have used his own power to fill in the unreliable parts of the ritual.

In other words, having Yuri perform the same ritual would most likely be completely ineffective, because Yuri himself doesn't believe it.

However, what happened next was clearly something Takemura hadn't anticipated; he paid the price for his blind confidence. The ritual was designed to suppress the target's will with Takemura's, thereby achieving a fusion where he was the dominant force. In the end, the opposite was true: the hunter's will suppressed Takemura's, even expelling his life force from his body.

As Takemura gradually died in this unique way, the hunter possessed his body, but then the problem shifted to the hunter—the hunter didn't know how to use the human body, yet couldn't escape. Indeed, many spirits mold themselves into human-like forms, but it is still their own body—spirits entering human bodies need time to master the manipulation of that body.

The Hunter was at a greater disadvantage in this regard, as it was forcibly bound to this body without any preparation. From Yuri's observation, the Hunter had also suffered immense damage during the ritual and was unable to break free from this bond. Therefore, it resorted to a brutal method, attempting to assimilate this body into its own form and erase any trace left by Takemura.

It didn't succeed quickly, not just because of Yuri's repeated interruptions. While Yuri did play the role of the hunter, the hunter's efforts needed to overcome another problem. Its connection with Takemura had, in effect, formed a spirit/ghost hybrid occupying a body, with the ghostly part being the one most closely connected to the physical body.

What it wants to eliminate is precisely what it relies on for existence, so it requires greater effort and more time.

Yuri wasn't sure if the hunter had considered severing the connection, which was likely its first choice, but even so, it had clearly failed. Perhaps it was too weak.

In any case, what it needs to do includes healing itself, restoring its power, transforming its body, and breaking free from the ritual, and each of these requires spiritual essence. Waiting for the relevant imagery to imbue it with spiritual essence is too slow, so it does not hesitate to target ghosts.

Whether the hunter is "able to absorb the essence of ghosts" or "the essence of ghosts is particularly useful" is a question that cannot be answered definitively.

In any case, as a superior spirit, even a disabled one, the hunter could easily target the repeater and quickly discovered that targeting a lone, weak ghost was just as easy.

When it encountered Yuri, it had probably only been working for a few days when it ran into Yuri. A severely wounded soldier and an amnesiac mentally challenged soldier fought to the death, with the amnesiac soldier ultimately winning. If Yuri were the hunter, he would probably have been furious.

Yuri was probably the first weak spirit it had encountered that put up a real fight, which enraged the hunter. Even in this predicament, it would not bow down to an opponent of such a vastly inferior level.

Yuri, through a great deal of luck, excellent friends, and a few correct judgments when necessary, achieved victory in the battle.

This absolutely does not mean that the hunter is weaker than Yuri. Yuri's current abilities are still not strong enough.

After removing the advantages common to all spirits (such as being able to pass through doors and windows, climb walls, and have no vital organs), Yuri's physical abilities are not much different from Minmei's, which means that he is not much different from the kind of human with excellent physical qualities.

In terms of special abilities, the protective barrier that made such a great contribution this time did play a significant role in the battle against the ghost. However, any opponent who is significantly stronger than Yuri, like a hunter, can always break through Yuri's defenses.

The Eye of the Buddy (tentative name) can only see surface information, requires temporary concentration, and makes it impossible to predict what will be seen in advance.

While deformation can increase flexibility, it doesn't significantly increase absolute strength.

Devouring Strike is Yuri's strongest ability to date. Theoretically, all spirits are born with this ability, but most can only prey on their own kind. Yuri and the Hunter's versions, however, can devour other spirits—Yuri's version can even prey on living creatures like some well-known vengeful ghosts.

However, this wasn't without its drawbacks. First, it was difficult to affect the target if they were in good condition. Second, they would resist if they were conscious. Third, even if successful, the ingested alien spirit essence would make Yuri feel extremely uncomfortable. —The most tragic part was that Yuri seemed to be particularly picky about its intake; even when ingesting spirit essence from ghosts, it would feel unwell after a certain amount! Whenever Yuri thought of this, it envied the hunter's good appetite. How come it didn't suffer such a negative impact? Was being a high-level spirit so great?

In fact, Yuri could already rely on this to live independently, detached from Minmei. The reason he doesn't is firstly out of habit, secondly because it's inconvenient, and thirdly because it would be incredibly ungrateful—Minmei just helped Yuri out of a life-or-death crisis, and now she wants to break up with him without even a proper reason, just because she can? Yuri isn't crazy yet.

In short, all of the above abilities share the common characteristics of lacking long-range effectiveness and lacking offensive capabilities. After all, opponents with serious flaws like the Hunter are ultimately few and far between, and even if it were the Hunter, Yuri would not be able to defeat him without the Calamity.

Lacking combat prowess, Yuri decided to consider mastering "strengthening physical attributes with spiritual essence." In terms of actual consumption, it should be feasible—if it's not feasible, it should just mean that the spiritual essence circulates within the body and shouldn't consume anything.

However, the consumption didn't bring any of the expected results; it was either extremely inefficient or the energy was added to areas that weren't immediately apparent. The only solution was continuous, repeated attempts, which required more time. Takemura's book described how spirits could strengthen themselves by consuming energy—this was true. But the description was like describing "one plus one equals two," which, for Yuri trying to learn this ability, meant the textbook only provided the cover.

Furthermore, Takemura's book contains many self-contradictory statements, which Yuri cannot convince himself of, so he probably cannot quickly become stronger using these things. After all, the one who actually tried to become stronger quickly using these things is already dead.

Fortunately, there's still time; the hunter is gone, so there's no need to rush.

Chapter Twenty-Five: Friends

A few days later, Yuri's efforts had yielded some success. Now he was certainly better prepared should anything happen—even if he encountered a hunter... he still couldn't defeat a hunter, but at least he would have no chance of retaliating.

After this period of effort, Yuri had mastered the method of injecting spiritual essence into his limbs to enhance his "strength." After some research, he determined that the spiritual essence didn't strengthen his spiritual muscles—spirits don't have muscles, nor are they any other organs for generating power—because fundamentally, spirits don't use any specific organ to generate power. The spiritual essence's role was to provide an external boost, directly affecting the result of swinging his limbs. That is, Yuri swung his arms using his own abilities, and the spiritual essence directly enhanced the effect of those swings, increasing the speed of his arms. Originating internally and manifesting externally, it's no wonder that Yuri's attempts to strengthen his limbs hadn't produced any visible results—following this line of thought, strengthening his limbs must have resulted in increased resilience of his spiritual essence when being attacked. He even had Akemi test this, and it was indeed effective. However, in actual combat, it was obviously impossible to control when the opponent attacked, making it less convenient than controlling his own attacks.

Furthermore, there was an unexpected surprise—based on Yuri's experience with the only ghost he'd ever seen use this technique, the unknown vengeful spirit in the school building, enhancing oneself was essentially limited to one action—a single burst of power, after which it would vanish. But for Yuri, this enhancement could last for a short period, just like the protective barrier. Although he didn't know exactly how the difference occurred, since it was a good thing, Yuri accepted it without hesitation. (It can only be speculated that Yuri uses some method to wield superpowers, unlike ordinary ghosts, but this doesn't explain why.)

Along the way, Yuri also learned a hundred cleaning tips. Akemi's place wasn't exactly messy, but the house itself was quite old, and it was often dusty and drafty. Yuri, who was always at home, simply helped tidy up—except for the bedroom. Although Akemi didn't say anything, it didn't seem like a good idea to go into the bedroom without permission.

And her studies in science and technology are also progressing steadily—simply put, she's studying Akemi's textbooks. Thanks to Akemi for bringing her junior high textbooks with her when she transferred schools, saving them some money. Yuri hopes to get a computer at home for research, but… well, although Akemi doesn't seem to be short of money, judging from her living situation, she doesn't seem particularly concerned about her quality of life.

Initially, Yuri's learning of these scientific technologies was very utilitarian—his motivation stemmed from the motorcycle accident. However, Yuri later discovered that acquiring knowledge itself was quite interesting, and his motivation shifted. Akemi questioned this motivation, suspecting that Yuri was suffering from some kind of psychosis unique to spirits.

There's something that really bothers Yuri—why is it that science and technology have certain rules that can be learned freely, but not the abilities of spirits? Isn't there a spirit support association or a superpower support association? All the people related to supernatural powers that he's met along the way, including but not limited to, the clueless Yuri, the mediocre Akemi, the instinct monster hunter, and the chuunibyou Takemura—even Yuri himself—are not exactly experts—Akemi is the most reliable of them all.

In order to expand his range of abilities, Yuri has recently been trying to explore various abilities by relying on my thoughts. He can now extend the protective barrier beyond a certain range of himself—approximately the range of nine Akemis standing in the most concentrated area (at least one Akemi will overlap with Yuri, so in reality it is likely only eight or less).

The next step is to infuse the ability into something and then make it usable by others. Yes, the inspiration is completely copied from that scroll with the three days written on it that I saw last time.

The plan has now completed its first step—Yuri's craftsmanship has improved, and the wood carvings he makes no longer break in two after a hole is drilled in them. As for how to inject the power to maintain it normally and activate it from a distance in critical moments, that's still a long way off.

Yuri had considered seeking out this "Taisho" and begging him to teach him. But what if the Taisho was displeased with Yuri's approach? What if the Taisho wanted to test Yuri's resolve and presented him with a ton of difficult problems? What if Yuri couldn't even find the Taisho? After much deliberation, he gave up.

Besides, Akemi isn't in a hurry.

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.

In his spare time, Yuri did reflect on his relationships, but there was basically only one person on the list.

Akemi Uyizaki, female, 16 years old, freshman in high school.

She is very tall, slightly over 1.7 meters, and extremely athletic. When she wears her suspicious clothes, she is often mistaken for a man.

As for appearance... well, as expected of a big city, there are many people with excellent looks, and Mingmei is not particularly outstanding in this aspect.

He is Yuri's best and only friend. In other words, he is also Yuri's owner.

He had previously risked his life to accompany Yuri, and it was all voluntary; he hadn't asked for any compensation.

Yes, without a doubt, she was Yuri's friend—meaning that if Akemi were in grave danger and Yuri had to permanently lose an arm to help her, he would hesitate for a long time, but would ultimately carry out the plan. As for sacrificing his own life… he refused to consider that question.

After all, they owed too much. Although Akemi didn't seem to think it was a problem, Yuri felt that he had received irreplaceable support on many occasions.

However, although it was agreed that Yuri would provide various forms of assistance in return, Akemi had been busy with her studies lately and had not been involved in supernatural matters much, not even to the extent of providing astrological and palmistry advice to her classmates.

For someone with basic knowledge of mysticism, extremely high physical fitness (by human standards), exceptional mobility, and an IQ no lower than Yuri's, doing these things requires absolutely no additional help.

Akemi didn't say anything about it, but Yuri always felt uneasy when he had free time. He hadn't been conscious for very long, and he could never get used to owing favors to others. If he were to actually ask Akemi, he could foresee her answer—it would definitely be to tell him not to overthink it.

Now, the footsteps of Yuri's most valuable ally came from outside the door—the rhythm was the same as usual, but the sound was heavier than usual. And the timing was wrong; according to the usual schedule, Akemi should be out having a big meal by now—twice a week, Akemi would come back a little late to treat herself to an extra meal, and today was no exception.

He had a vague premonition that something was about to happen.

Akemi walked in with heavy steps as she opened the door. Overall, she didn't seem to have changed much, but her energy and spirit were clearly not as good as before, which was unusual. She walked to her usual spot on the sofa, and without saying a word, silently opened her bag and began to tidy up the coffee table.

"What happened?" Yuri felt obligated to ask.

"Don't even mention it. I just comforted Chinami all the way to her house, but the more I talked, the more panicked she became. She even had to take a detour back. Now I don't feel like eating anything." Akemi started doing her homework listlessly.

"Chinami?" Yuri remembered the name. It seemed to be a friend of Akemi that he had mentioned some time ago—the one who bravely participated in the haunted building adventure and was thrown down the stairs after encountering a vengeful ghost.

"What happened to her? Was she so frightened?" After a while, seeing that Akemi didn't seem inclined to continue, Yuri pressed her for details.

“Recently, someone in the class got sick, saying it was a cold. According to some tradition, someone from the neighborhood is supposed to visit them.” Mingmei sighed and started from the beginning. “Then, after the second person visited, the first person recovered and came to school the next day—the second person said they had a cold and stayed home.”

"Isn't this a coincidence?" It sounds too much of a coincidence, but it's still possible. Who knows how diseases can spread?

"Then the second person infected the third person in the same way—now Chinami is the fifth. She was asked by her classmates, who didn't believe in superstitions, to visit her. After she agreed, she became more and more scared, and I couldn't calm her down no matter what I did."

That's very strange. Once is a coincidence, but two or three times is very suspicious.

"So, what did those who recovered from their colds—those first, second, and third people—say?" Yuri changed his perspective. These people were also eyewitnesses, especially the second and third.

"They basically all said they felt cold all over and had nightmares, but suddenly felt better after being visited."

Akemi explained in detail the types of nightmares she had inquired about, but the results showed no relevance whatsoever. Of course, since they were called nightmares, they must be things the person was afraid of, but apart from that, there really wasn't anything similar.

She thought for a moment and added, "From what I understand, these three people are not very similar except that they live in the same area and have good family conditions—they are all in poor condition now, but none of them are in better condition than the aftereffects of a serious illness."