Tokyo bombing incident Nth time

Filled with unease and anxiety, the two returned to the neighborhood where Mingmei lived. The environment there was even worse than outside, with more areas lacking light.

Actually, I really wanted to just stand under the streetlights until dawn.

Yuri banished his inner weakness and continued to follow Akemi toward their lodgings.

The shadowy figure I had been worried about did not appear until I entered the building.

Chapter Thirty-One: The Dagger

The hallway was pitch black. Yuri walked past Akemi and turned on the hallway lights.

The hallway remained completely dark.

Yuri sensed something was wrong, suspecting the light fixture was broken. He shifted his attention to the sky above and saw a dark figure leap towards Akemi, who was standing at the entrance of the stairwell.

As the shadowy figure moved away from the light fixture, light shone out, and it was this light that likely provoked the shadowy figure, prompting it to launch a surprise attack.

While thinking, Yuri instinctively followed the shadowy figure. The timing of the shadowy figure's attack was not particularly good this time. If possible, it should have launched a surprise attack from directly above. Although it was dangerous now, as long as Mingmei held on to the attack, she could trap it in this small space. With the corridor lights turned on, it had no room to escape.

Just as Yuri arrived, Akemi had just used her sleeve to deflect the shadowy figure's dagger again. However, the shadowy figure may have realized its precarious situation, and it produced a dagger in its other hand and launched a series of attacks.

When the new dagger appeared, Yuri felt that the shadowy figure had shrunk in size. The shadowy figure's seemingly flowing body made this observation very difficult, but compared to the one he first saw at school, the shadowy figure was now clearly two heads shorter.

The environment was extremely cramped, leaving little room for the shadowy figure to escape while also hindering Mingmei's ability to dodge. Yuri acted decisively, rushing forward to try and seize the shadowy figure's dagger. Attacking the shadowy figure directly was not easy, but without a dagger, the figure would either have to forge a new one (Yuri suspected this would consume something, likely its own body based on their recent discovery), or resort to blunt force with their fists, significantly reducing their threat level.

The shadowy figure clearly didn't want to get entangled with Yuri, but this wasn't something it could decide on its own. Its offensive was largely influenced by Yuri; its shapeshifting ability seemed very limited, and it never quite broke free of its human form.

Akemi guarded the doorway, focusing her attention on Yuri and the shadowy figure as they fought in the first-floor corridor, and intercepting the shadowy figure when it attempted to escape. Clearly, she believed that preventing the shadowy figure's escape was more important than a swift victory, a sentiment shared by Yuri.

However, with the shadowy figure not letting go, it was still quite difficult to snatch the dagger. After a while of struggle, Yuri managed to retrieve another shadow dagger with his right arm (not voluntarily), sustaining another injury, no less severe than the last.

He chose to step back, pull the dagger from his body, heal himself, and put the dagger away. After all, if it were pulled out again while he was fighting the shadowy figure, it would be as if he had taken the hit for nothing.

Seizing its last chance, the shadowy figure lunged at Akemi. Unlike before, this time it threw its last dagger at Akemi's head as it got close. Akemi managed to dodge by turning her head to the side and avoid being hit directly, but the distance was too close, and she was still grazed on the side of her chin.

Yuri's heart jumped, but then he relaxed when he realized there was no immediate massive bleeding—then Akemi suddenly swayed, and Yuri's heart jumped again.

Without getting entangled with Yuri, whose mind was in turmoil, the dark figure quickly rushed past Akemi, and Akemi's attempt to intercept him seemed weak and ineffective.

Yuri followed the shadowy figure past Akemi, who was inexplicably slow to react. After taking two steps, he saw the shadowy figure not even bother to pick up the dagger it had thrown, and simply disappear into the darkness.

Yuri picked up the third dagger, deciding he couldn't chase after them any longer and needed to go back and find out what was going on with Akemi.

"...Gone?" Mingmei looked pale and spoke weakly.

"He escaped, and he probably won't be back for a while... Are you alright?" Yuri asked, puzzled. "You don't look well. Is there some special effect on the dagger that only works on humans?"

Upon closer inspection, not only was her face pale and her forehead sweating, but the wound on her chin was not bleeding heavily either, but it had not stopped quickly either. Yuri even felt that Akemi was unsteady on her feet at this moment.

"It's okay, but I feel cold all over, dizzy, and weak in my limbs." Mingmei took a step with difficulty and then held onto the wall for support. "It's very different from before, like I've suddenly gotten a serious illness. I'm not used to it."

This was the first time Yuri had seen Akemi, who was usually so healthy, in such a state. He reached out to support her. "Okay, lean on me. Let's go upstairs and get home—is your condition still getting worse?"

"No, phew, it hasn't gotten any worse." Mingmei refused Yuri's help and struggled to start walking upstairs on her own. "I'm still very uncomfortable and need to rest, but I'm not completely unable to move."

Yes, it seems quite obvious that the lurking spiritual energy, taking advantage of Akemi's injury, has activated. The rapid deterioration of her condition and its subsequent cessation after reaching a certain point are both manifestations of that spiritual energy.

The reason the shadowy figure kept attacking Akemi might be this: if it could injure Akemi, it could use that effect to force Akemi out of the battle.

What a despicable opponent.

After accompanying Akemi to the door, watching her tremblingly take out the key to open it, Yuri had an urge to snatch the key and do it for her.

Upon entering the room, Yuri immediately turned on all the lights. Although he didn't see any lurking shadows, he didn't turn the lights off.

Bright light should obviously prevent the shadow from moving around, so let's just keep all the lights on until we solve the problem. As for the electricity bill... we'll deal with that later.

Meanwhile, Mingmei left behind the words "Wait a minute" and sauntered into the bedroom.

After a while, when he heard the voice saying "Come in," Yuri opened the door and entered Akemi's bedroom.

Unlike Chinami's bedroom, which had a rather girlish feel, Akemi's bedroom looked a bit... well, that might be a bit rude, but it did resemble a prison. There weren't any special decorations, and the color scheme was very muted; it wasn't very well organized.

Stopping his assessment of the bedroom, Yuri came to the bedside. "Looking down at you, so weak, is quite a novel experience."

Akemi, who had covered herself completely under the blanket and had a band-aid on her chin, seemed to have regained some energy—her face had turned from pale to rosy. Yuri didn't know anything about medicine, but he figured it couldn't be a bad thing.

“This time… we really suffered a great loss,” Mingmei’s voice was filled with exhaustion and anger. “I wonder if that dark figure has been weakened.”

“That’s definitely true. I think the dagger is generated by consuming its own body,” Yuri told Minmei about his discovery. “Compared to that, how do you feel now?”

"I feel better." The patient's voice was soft but firm. "After hearing what you said about the Shadow also suffering a loss, I feel even better."

Are you sure it's not just your imagination? The Mongolian doctor, Yuri, was quite skeptical. This was clearly influenced by too much subjective bias and personal opinion; how could things improve just because the opponent was being attacked?

On the other hand, it's a good thing that the patient feels well.

Yuri hesitated for a moment about whether to sit on the edge of the bed or the bedside table, but finally decided to stand and continue talking.

Are you feeling good enough to conduct an analysis, or are you planning to rest first?

"I think I need to rest a bit—I'll leave the night watch to you."

"Should we turn off the lights?"

"No, no, it's better to keep it open. It's safer to keep it open." She was refused.

After a moment of silence, Yuri quietly approached again to observe Akemi's condition. Although the redness on her face hadn't faded, she didn't appear to be in pain, and her breathing was relatively steady.

That's amazing, being able to fall asleep with light shining on your eyelids.

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.

I found a cardboard box to sit on, or rather, I floated on top of the cardboard box.

It's not that spirits need to rest in this way, but Yuri felt that sitting down was less strange for what he was about to do.

He took the three confiscated black daggers out of his pocket, placed them on the ground, and began to examine them carefully.

Standing next to a sleeping person's bed and examining a dagger looks very dangerous, but sitting on a cardboard box near the bed and examining a dagger feels much safer.

After placing the three daggers together, it becomes clear that they are different. It's not that the shapes of the daggers are different, but rather that the earliest dagger is already somewhat translucent. Yuri labeled them number one, number two, and number three in chronological order.

Pick up the dagger and rotate it to observe. The blade of dagger number one is thinner than the other two, and the handle is also thinner.

It's not like what I remember. Yuri did a quick check when I first got it, and it wasn't like this.

I tried to pierce the cardboard box, and it went in, but there was some resistance.

The other two were not.

Yuri tried flicking the number one dagger from the side with his finger, and to his surprise, the blade broke off silently.

You weren't this vulnerable when you stabbed me before!

Its structure and durability have probably deteriorated to their limits—Yuri's lack of use of these daggers during this period suggests that they have become weaker over time.

Picking up the blade from the ground, you can clearly see that the shadow that forms the blade is flowing away from the break, and the other section with the handle is doing the same, but at a much slower pace.

This is bad. In a panic, Yuri tried to put the two pieces back together, attempting to glue them back to their original state.

The first attempt failed. Maybe I need some glue or something? It might be a lack of adhesive. But what can I use as adhesive for Shadow? While my hands didn't stop moving, all sorts of thoughts raced through my mind.

The hope is that after alignment, the dagger will fuse together on its own—in terms of craftsmanship, other metals should be added as a binder in this case, or some of the planned bonding points should be melted down to connect them—but in modern times, neither is as good as melting it all down and recasting it.

The shadows at the joint seemed to flow, completing the connection and solidifying once more.

Yuri breathed a sigh of relief and pulled his hand away from the dagger.

Then he discovered that a hole, similar to the indentation left by his finger, had appeared on the blade where he had been gripping it tightly, and it was starting to widen. Yuri hurriedly began to repair the hole.

After a few minutes of frantic attempts to salvage the situation, Yuri looked at the small dagger in his hand and couldn't help but laugh and cry.

Indeed, after much effort, the loss of the constituent matter stopped. However, the remaining size is now so small that it's difficult to even hold it by hand, let alone use it as a weapon.

This won't do, so Yuri turned to examine daggers number two and three.

Are these two starting to lose their luster too? Although they're in significantly better condition than number one, they've still shown signs of shrinking.

Yuri then spent about ten minutes performing emergency rescue, successfully averting the crisis of all three weapons exploding: he removed the number one dagger, which he had managed to salvage, to fill the gaps in the other two weapons.

It was foreseeable that the stability of these two weapons was only temporary, and Yuri took the time to observe the daggers.

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 dagger was not particularly special in shape, nor was it engraved with any suspicious names or patterns.

The dagger lacks any special features like blood grooves or barbs, relying solely on its sharpness to injure. Indeed, the blade is extremely thin, which is a secondary reason why it could be easily broken by applying force from one side. While this does enhance sharpness, its thickness remains within a normal range and cannot significantly increase its sharpness.

In terms of strength, it can easily pierce a cardboard box. After testing it with Yuri's clumsy carving prototype, it could also pierce wood, and after penetrating the wood, it offered relatively little resistance when moving around. Based on Mingmei's experience with the trench coat, it's completely impenetrable to steel.

In other words, its durability, or hardness, is a grade of metal.

However, Yuri's recent carving experience told him that ordinary iron blades, even those made of metal, would inevitably encounter resistance when cutting wood. While these two shadow-formed daggers weren't entirely without resistance, the resistance was clearly minimal.

It is not harder than metal, but it performs better when cutting wood, which even metal cannot easily cut.

Perhaps it's because of its simple structure and extremely smooth finish? Yuri gestured and thought it might be an advantage of the Shadow itself, making it unnecessary to polish.

Theoretically, it was just an ordinary iron dagger, stronger in some places and weaker in others, but the overall difference was not significant. So, why was it able to stab Yuri to the point where only the handle remained?

Indeed, the body of a spirit has no internal structure—that is, there are no protective structures such as bones inside, but it is definitely not soft cotton or jelly, and has an overall toughness.

If Yuri were to evaluate it himself, his body would be about the same level of strength as a piece of wood by the roadside.

While polishing helps reduce friction and makes insertion easier, the resistance at the tip can never be less.

Perhaps the problem isn't just the dagger, but also the shadow itself.

Of course, it's also strange that Yuri can control the dagger.

Chapter Thirty-Two: Misdiagnosis

Aside from the dagger and the astonishing damage it inflicted on Yuri, there are still some questions.

Although the two did not travel at full speed on their way back, the fact that the shadowy figure managed to reach the stairwell and ambush them before they did is still incredibly difficult, because it's impossible for the shadowy figure to know where the two lived in advance.

Therefore, the shadowy figure must have been following along the way, and when the last two were about to enter the stairwell, it seized the advantageous position by using its unique shadow leaping ability.

In other words, the two were being followed by a shadowy figure the whole way, and they never noticed each other?

It's not impossible, but if it's true, the shadowy figure's ability to hide is too good. Does that mean they'll never go out at night again?

Akemi's condition is also worrying. Although she insists that she is improving, can a patient's own feelings be taken seriously? We were careless because we previously thought the spiritual energy around her wouldn't have any effect. Now it seems she's not immune to the effect, but simply ignoring it. The reason the effect is being triggered again could be injury, or perhaps weakening.

Will she be able to ignore the effects again because of her recovery? That's unknown. Logically, that should be the case, but it's also possible that the triggering of the spiritual energy made her weak enough to meet the conditions for triggering the spiritual energy, thus forming a self-fulfilling cycle.

Yuri began observing the spiritual energy again. Last time, he had automatically stopped midway because he was too forceful. This time, Yuri tried his best to empty his mind, stop thinking, and simply feel it.

……

Illness... curse... transfer... blessing...

Blessing!? Yuri was shocked by what he felt from this spiritual power, and as he realized he had to control his emotions, he once again broke free from that state.

Subsequent attempts were unsuccessful.

A blessing? Why would a disease that causes such a dramatic shift become a blessing?

The observations yielded no results and instead began to make Yuri doubt his own observational abilities.

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 woke up around noon and turned her head to see Yuri floating in a slumped position.

"What's wrong with you?" The voice wasn't very loud, but the slurred tone had disappeared.

“I’m trying to study these daggers, after all, these daggers are the things we have that are most closely related to the Shadow.” Yuri weakly showed the small dagger in his hand.

"Then... but I remember the dagger wasn't this small before?" Akemi seemed to want to ask something else, but she changed the subject.

“Small?” Yuri glanced at the pencil sharpener in his hand. “Don’t let its current appearance fool you. Just two hours ago, it was a long dagger made up of two daggers joined together.”

Akemi didn't speak, but it was clear she wanted Yuri to continue.

“Then it started to evaporate uncontrollably, and I tried to stop it, but I failed,” Yuri said, still slumped over. “Then I thought, could I use other shadows to fill the gap in this dagger?”

"And then? It failed?" Akemi looked at the knife, which was clearly almost completely evaporated, and guessed the conclusion.

“Then I tried… for about three seconds. Then I realized that my spiritual essence had been completely depleted in this constant experimentation.” Yuri shifted his position. “I realized that after being stabbed twice and having my spiritual essence depleted for healing, I hadn’t replenished it at all, and I was still conducting all sorts of supernatural experiments. Now I feel so hungry that I could eat a few ghosts.”

"Then why don't you—oh, I see, I'm hungry too." It's unclear what Akemi was thinking, but she made a sudden realization.

Judging from Mingmei's normal conversation, she seems to be really better.

"By the way, did you have a nightmare?" Yuri remembered something and wanted to confirm.

"It's similar to the last one, the tower under the moonlight—except there are some monsters and ghosts that I don't know what they are, but I didn't actually come into contact with them, so just looking at them doesn't scare me."