Tokyo bombing incident Nth time

What method? Yuri's question was conveyed to the high school girl in front of him.

"Of course I'll go visit the sick tomorrow night and then fight this damned spirit."

That's what the foolish and bold person said.

Chapter Twenty-Seven: Passing the Drum

The next day, while a female high school student was on her way to school and gathering information, Yuri flipped through various books he had dug out of a wooden house, trying to find some more clues.

It's not that we gained nothing, but the results were minimal.

Firstly, these books argue that spirits can acquire essence through actions that "guide the world in the direction represented by their own nature," for example, forest spirits can acquire essence by supporting conservationism.

However, the definition of this "guidance" is very vague—if a forest spirit stands there, and the people around hear it and then take the initiative to worship and begin to protect the forest, does that count as it "guiding" the world?

The answer is uncertain, but most likely not.

Some scholars who claim to have established spiritual connections with spirits say that the spirits mentioned that this scope was much broader a long time ago, but gradually narrowed over time, for reasons that are unclear.

This is a bit off-topic.

In short, if modern spirits want to obtain spiritual essence by "guiding the world," they often need to "directly generate change." Simply throwing a stone and hoping for butterfly wings won't work.

Secondly, infectious diseases—such spirits also exist, and because humans have a very strong, almost universally strong, impression of infectious diseases (based on Yuri)—if they were to actually act, it's unlikely they would only affect one target at a time; they're more likely to disrupt an entire area. According to the examples cited in these books, even the mildest one could affect the entire population of an entire building at once.

Those that can affect a single person and lose their effects after switching targets are weak spirits—and these spirits are unlikely to have the ability to interfere with targets from a distance.

In other words, if it were a spirit, the duo should have seen a suspicious spirit at Chinami's house, most likely possessing the patient. In reality, that didn't happen.

The possibility of it being a spirit can be largely ruled out.

These books don't mention ghosts much, but according to Yuri's summary, while ghosts and spirits differ greatly in their manifestations, their power is not fundamentally different. That is, similarly, a powerful ghost has no reason to affect only one person, while a weak ghost is incapable of influencing from a distance.

Moreover, ghosts present another problem: they are particularly persistent in their targets—they are unlikely to commit crimes randomly, and once they have committed a crime, they have no reason to easily let go.

So, all that's left are creatures that interfere with dreams from a distance, and unclassifiable oddities.

So, let's not even mention the weird ones since they're already beyond categorization... What kinds of creatures can interfere with dreams from a distance?

Oh no, this is a new field.

Let's wait for news from Akemi 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.

Akemi, returning home, brought mixed news—physically, the third person was clearly in better condition than the second. This suggests that the spiritual energy wouldn't remain stationary simply because the new host has stronger resistance.

The good thing is that this establishes one of the patterns of spiritual shifts, and the chances of the manipulator being unintelligent or careless have greatly increased.

The worry is that this will lead some reckless fool to risk their life.

That evening, as planned, Yuri left early and lay in ambush outside Chinami's house, waiting for Akemi to appear.

After all, if someone gets infected, Yuri might have to send them back.

After a while, Mingmei came to the door and knocked.

There was no movement inside.

"What's going on?" Mingmei looked at the spirit that had been lying in ambush there all along.

“I arrived early and saw Mr. Kurin going home after get off work. He should be inside.” Yuri was very certain of this. “Perhaps he was in a hurry and didn’t hear us?”

Mingmei knocked on the door twice more, but there was still no response.

Before Akemi could speak, Yuri walked into the room.

I glanced around the living room and saw that the furniture looked to be of good quality and probably quite expensive. Most importantly, I didn't see anyone; Mr. Kurao was not in the living room.

Of course, Yuri soon found Mr. Kurauin in Chinami's room, holding her hand and whispering words of concern. The door was closed, so it was quite possible that he hadn't heard the knocking from outside, given the two doors and the living room separating them.

Taking this opportunity, Yuri also checked on Chinami's complexion. His knowledge of medicine was practically zero, but judging from her face alone, Chinami looked terrible, though not worse than yesterday. Furthermore, the dark purple mist surrounding her hadn't changed much from yesterday—at least it didn't seem to be getting worse.

After Yuri went out to inform Akemi about this, the two agreed that they could wait a little longer.

After a while, Mr. Kurao returned to the living room and started watching TV. After receiving a report from the spirit informant, Mr. Yu, Akemi knocked on the door, and the door opened quickly.

This was quite unexpected for Mr. Kurao. Judging from his words, it seemed rather unusual for Akemi to come and visit him the very next day after helping him back home on the first day. Of course, he was still very happy that his daughter had such a good friend, so after chatting for a few minutes, he asked Akemi to go to Chinami's room.

Akemi and the external spirit plugin arrived at the room, dealt with Mr. Kurauin for a while, and then entered a three-person private state with the semi-comatose Chinami.

"..." Akemi approached Chinami with a slightly nervous expression, but did not react.

"..." Yuri was the same.

"Strange, why is there no movement?" The foolish and bold man looked around.

You're asking me? I don't know either! Shouldn't people who come to visit be transferred to another facility?

"Have you noticed anything unusual?" the daring fool formally turned to ask the muddle-headed fellow.

"Hmm... Is it because you're in such a good state that your spiritual energy is surging and overflowing with power, so the spiritual force can't jump over?" That's the first possibility.

"Didn't we just rule out that possibility?"

...Who knows? Maybe you're exceptionally special? Or maybe your physical condition is so good that it exceeds a certain threshold, to the point where it won't be affected?

Seeing that Yuri couldn't answer, Akemi began to check on Chinami's condition again.

After a while, Yuri had a flash of inspiration.

"Akami, didn't you say you came to visit me in the hospital?" After saying it, Yuri began to feel that his words were a bit stupid, but he thought the idea was right—if he didn't know how to trigger it, he would just do what Chinami said when she visited Yamana Aomori yesterday.

"Well... Chinami, I've come to visit you while you're sick."

no response.

Akemi began to speak in the order she remembered, rather than in the order Chinami had spoken—which made her sound insincere. Fortunately, Chinami probably couldn't hear or remember her.

"We hope you get well soon." "Everyone is looking forward to your return." "We'll help you catch up on your studies." "As friends—!?"

After three unresponsive attempts, Akemi only managed to get halfway through her next sentence before both of them sensed a change.

The spiritual energy began to shift rapidly—Akami assumed a defensive stance, but to no avail. From Yuri's perspective, the dark purple mist had already entangled Akami.

Eyes facing each other.

"Are you alright? Did you feel anything?" Yuri asked anxiously about the daring fellow's condition.

"I didn't feel anything unusual. Maybe it will only become apparent when I get home?" The daring fool didn't seem to have any immediate reaction.

"Mmm..." The sound came from the patient in the bed. The patient opened his eyes, seemingly confused about the situation.

At least there was a response here, so Mingmei paused her research into her own condition and went over to ask her friend about her well-being.

At first, Chinami was confused about the situation, but she quickly grasped the key point. She was deeply moved and puzzled by Akemi's mysterious visit to see her.

By the way, whether it's the truth or her understanding, this was the act of some foolish bravery to rush up and take her place—what a true friend!

In that instant, in Chinami's heart, Akemi's status jumped from good friend to best friend. Yuri, who was watching, could make this assertion because she was about to cry.

Fortunately, before Chinami could truly cry from emotion, Akemi managed to extricate herself and went to fetch Mr. Kurauin.

When Mr. Kurauin entered and saw that although Chinami's complexion was still poor, she was still conscious, he thanked Akemi very solemnly and even said that he would never forget the sacrifice Akemi made for his daughter. The word "sacrifice" almost brought tears to Chinami's eyes again.

Before the atmosphere could become even more awkward, Akemi hurriedly took Yuri and fled.

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.

It was already dark when they got home. Akemi insisted on walking back and forth, which took extra time, but Yuri fully supported her decision. It would be a big problem if she got dizzy on the way while riding the motorcycle.

After entering the room, Yuri asked Akemi for the fifteenth time, "Are you feeling unwell anywhere, like you want to pass out, or anything like that?"

"No, this is the fourteenth time you've asked, isn't it?" Mingmei's answer went from a solemn one at the beginning to a casual one in the middle, and finally to an impatient one.

"This is the fifteenth time. It seems something is wrong somewhere—"

"Stop nagging... The only reason I miscounted is because you asked too many times and it's so annoying!" Akemi's voice rose, then fell back down.

My throat is sore—

"Please, be quiet. I'll repeat myself, I feel perfectly fine. At most, I'm just a little uncomfortable because of the spiritual energy around me; there's nothing wrong with me—at least not right now." Akemi waved Yuri away. "How did you turn into a nanny?"

So, this is what they usually mean by real-time monitoring? It's just that the subjects being observed don't complain. Yuri fell silent.

After a while, Mingmei began to make the most of her time to finish her homework for the day.

Yuri silently reviewed today's operations—frankly, they were quite inefficient.

Both theoretical analysis and practical application demonstrate that this spiritual shift is remarkably simple—visiting the sick as a friend triggers a spiritual transfer. Furthermore, it might not even be necessary to limit it to visiting the sick—perhaps simply stating that you are a friend will initiate the transfer.

But why? This makes absolutely no sense or meaning!

Secondly, the outcome of this spiritual force obviously varies from person to person—those with exceptionally good physical condition can simply ignore it and at least endure it for a long time.

However, how to eliminate it remains a mystery, and we may need to wait for Mingmei to write a dream report before we can explore further.

"By the way, we're friends, Akemi?" Yuri asked tentatively.

"Huh? Of course, why are you asking this?" Mingmei asked, somewhat puzzled.

"It's nothing, just asking. We're friends, okay?"

So, Yuri should have visited the sick person many times as a friend, in fact, to the point that the patient was getting impatient. And Yuri had just described himself as a friend—but the spirit didn't manifest on him.

It doesn't seem to work for spirit friends.

Trial and error is such a hassle, isn't there a better way?

Yuri stared intently at the black mist, trying to study its nature through longer observation.

Sickness, curses… Gradually, Yuri felt himself entering that ethereal state again. Good, that’s it! He immediately tried to grasp the feeling.

...and then I returned to reality.

It seems that he used too much force and lost that feeling. Yuri regretted it very much, but he couldn't find a way to make up for it.

He then tried repeatedly to recreate the sensation, but he was never able to successfully re-enter that state.

It seems that maintaining relaxation while remaining focused is not something Yuri can easily do right now. And time slips away as he keeps trying.

It was close to midnight when Mingmei finished her homework. To be honest, even considering the time spent running back and forth, it took almost half as long as usual.

Akemi looked up and spoke to Yuri, "So, what have you been thinking about during this time?"

“I didn’t think of anything special—except that the keywords were obviously ‘friends’ and the effects were illness and curses.” Yuri honestly admitted, “What about your side? If there really weren’t any problems, then it would naturally get better, but do you know why the spiritual energy didn’t work this time?”

"Maybe, just like you said before, this spiritual power isn't strong enough for people with particularly good physical health?" Akemi pondered for a moment. "Or perhaps it needs to be combined with the effect of nightmares? If that's the case, I'll tell you tomorrow morning."

"Okay, if you can't get up tomorrow morning, I'll help you contact the hospital?" Yuri still felt that they should prepare for the worst-case scenario.

"This is too exaggerated—just open my phone and call the person named Qiu Sha; she's my aunt."

“No problem.” Yuri made a note of the name the first time he heard it.

The next morning, Akemi got up as usual, looking as energetic as ever.

Yuri asked about the nightmare, but Akemi said she didn't have any nightmares—unless seeing a tower under the moonlight in a dream could also be considered a nightmare.

The problem arose in the evening when Akemi, looking grave, returned home and told Yuri some news.

I ran into Chinami at school today. Chinami greeted her, and then her legs went weak and she was rushed to the school clinic.

The friend was not mentioned again, but Akemi still felt the spiritual energy within her transfer back to her body.

Chapter Twenty-Eight: Nothing Gained?

Mingmei explained the situation at the time.

In short, Chinami was quite surprised to run into Akemi at school. After realizing what had happened, she assumed that Akemi had somehow managed to dispel the spiritual energy. So, as Akemi's friend, Chinami confidently stepped forward to thank her—and then the spiritual energy was sent back.

Before the first class even started, Chinami was sent to the infirmary.

This time, Chizuru didn't have the experience of scaring herself or putting pressure on herself, so her condition was much better. She didn't immediately fall into a semi-comatose state, but was relatively "normal." She was weak all over, sweating a little, and her face was pale. Although she couldn't get up after lying down, she didn't lose consciousness quickly.

Yuri raised a question.

"If the spiritual energy was transferred to the other party, why are you still covered in a dark purple mist?" Could it be that the spiritual energy has split? But shouldn't such an important matter be mentioned first?

"Oh, I went to the infirmary several times this morning, but it didn't work. Finally, when I went at noon, they successfully sucked it back in," Mingmei gestured.

The cooldown time for this thing to switch is quite short.

"So after you sucked it back in, she got better?"

"Her condition is still very bad. It's not just a feeling of weakness; she's actually lost her strength," Mingmei speculated. "But yes, she's getting better, so she's able to go home. If she were any worse, she would have had to be sent to the hospital. The problem lies ahead."

after that……