Tokyo bombing incident Nth time

"Actually, the two guards in the guardhouse aren't that far from the classroom, right?" He took the opportunity to confirm with Mingmei to organize his thoughts.

"Really?" Akemi cooperated readily. "So?"

"So why did the shadowy figure attack us instead of them?"

"Is it because the environment we're in is dark? No, shadows do dislike light, but it shouldn't be that they can't get close to light." Akemi fell into thought.

"If the shadowy figure was launching an indiscriminate attack, those two guards would have been in danger long ago. But they weren't attacked; instead, we were the ones who were attacked. I think the difference lies in the location."

"Location?" This time, Akemi seemed genuinely puzzled.

"Yes, when do you think the shadowy figure started appearing there?" Yuri paced excitedly around the room. "It must have been before this spiritual energy appeared, about a week or so ago."

Akemi, who was sitting on the sofa, changed to a more formal posture, leaning forward slightly.

“We were dealing with the hunter at that time, and we didn’t see it appear when we went out to hunt ghosts at night earlier,” Yuri said, becoming more and more confident in his deduction. “So it must be around this time.”

“Hmm, that seems to make sense, so what?” Akemi gestured for Yuri to continue.

“During this time, you haven’t heard of anyone being attacked at school, nor have you heard of any guards on patrol being attacked, but we were attacked—we were searching for the source of the curse, and when we got to that classroom, we discovered a dark shadow that was watching us, so it simply attacked us!”

"You mean we were attacked because we were looking for the source of the curse—how did it know we were looking for the source of the curse?"

"—" Yuri quickly filled in the gap in his mind, "That is, we were actually close to the source of the curse, and it had to attack us—during the escape, it ran straight towards the door instead of trying to move left and right to avoid your flashlight beam—it was very likely to lure us out. As for the other guards that appeared in front of us, that was really an accident, for both it and for us."

Akemi touched the healed wound on her chin. "So, you think that if we just go back to that classroom, or search around the classroom, we can force the shadowy figure to reappear to protect the source of the curse?"

“Yes, it certainly didn’t expect its actions to expose itself,” Yuri felt a sense of intellectual superiority, a wonderful illusion that was hard to shake off. “But then again, after all, we have the advantage in strength and—Mingmei?”

Akemi had already gone inside and started tidying up her things.

Yuri deflated again, clearly uncooperative.

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, another huge problem arose in terms of preparation.

Suitable flammable materials are not easy to find. Of course, Yuri suggested that there was flammable material in Mingmei's motorcycle, but Mingmei strongly rejected the idea—it was to mark the shadow with fire, not to burn down the entire school. Oil was too unpredictable, and even mixing it with sugar wouldn't work.

Similarly, strong liquor is also not suitable.

Yuri considered using fluorescent powder as a second choice, which should be easier to find, but the fluorescence was probably not strong enough to suppress the shadow's movements.

The two flipped through a bunch of chemistry books and decided that phosphorus was the most suitable—but where could they buy it?

"Our school does have a chemistry lab, and it should have some storage, but..."

"But what? Hard to find?"

"What I mean is, isn't this theft?" Mingmei was quite concerned about this.

Finally, the two decided to spend the rest of the afternoon looking for a store to see if they could buy it. If they couldn't, they would have to borrow it from the school to resolve the matter as quickly as possible.

…………

That's why the two of them arrived at the vicinity of the school empty-handed at night, intending to find the chemistry lab.

"In short, once you go in, take what you need and leave. Don't do anything else," Mingmei instructed Yuri several times.

“Okay, no problem. We’re not thieves, we’re doing a good deed,” Yuri confirmed.

"Actually, he was still a thief, but he was doing a good deed."

It's good that you take this kind of place so seriously and have a strong sense of morality.

Yuri entered the school using the old method. During this process, he checked the situation in the guardhouse. Only the old guard was inside; the young guard was not there.

After the meeting, Yuri told Akemi about it, saying that the young guards might be patrolling the school and that they should be careful.

The two thieves then sneaked into the teaching building and went to the chemistry classroom. Yuri, in his spirit form, entered through the door and opened it. The chemistry lab was very well organized, clearly regularly tidied up; it was extremely neat and clean.

This greatly helped in finding what he was looking for. Yuri found it almost immediately, in a glass cabinet, among other dangerous powders.

However—someone who organizes things so well obviously wouldn't forget to lock the cabinets.

Yuri turned around and opened the lab door. Mistaking the problem for a solution, Akemi handed him two glass bottles—two very clean beer bottles that she had brought in by climbing over the wall.

"Mingmei, do you know how to pick locks?" Yuri took the glass bottle.

“…” Akemi spread her hands.

Judging from her expression, she probably won't.

"I'll think of another way. You stay outside and keep watch." Yuri turned and went back into the lab, placed the glass bottle on the table, and approached the locked cabinet again.

This lock itself has a very simple structure; it's just a common padlock and isn't very big.

After walking around the lab, regardless of who had the key, it was clear that this person did not have the bad habit of leaving the key near the lock.

Then there's only one last resort.

Yuri gripped the lock, found the right angle, and pulled sharply outwards. There was no change, but he could feel that the force was enough to cause internal stress.

He channeled spiritual essence into his arm to enhance his strength, and pulled again! With a bang, Yuri managed to pull open the small lock.

Fortunately, no one would use a particularly large padlock on the glass cabinet. Yuri removed the padlock from the glass cabinet and slowly opened it.

The cabinet contained not only the phosphorus powder they were looking for, but also other things. Yuri hesitated for a moment, then decided to take out a glass bottle to store the other items.

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————————————Author's Note——————————————

Dangerous operation, violation of regulations.

Chapter Thirty-Four: Quantity

Yuri quickly filled each of the two glass bottles with some of the contents of the glass cabinet.

In theory, gloves should be worn when handling these powders and particles, but it's not really necessary for spirits to wear gloves, just be careful not to let any spill out.

Upon arriving, Yuri realized he had chosen bottles that were too large. He didn't fill them all, not because there wasn't enough in the cabinet (though there really wasn't much), but because filling them too much would increase the danger. He sealed the bottles with plastic, quickly—Yuri could almost see the phosphorus powder ignite.

It's time to go find the shadowy figure.

Yuri informed Minmei that the two bottles contained different things—Minmei was somewhat dissatisfied with Yuri's last-minute change of plans, but of course, after Yuri assured her that there would be no harm in doing so, she agreed.

The two then arrived at the classroom where they had encountered the shadowy figure. The shattered glass had been cleaned up, but new glass hadn't been installed yet. The cold midnight wind blew in through the hole, but fortunately, neither of them was particularly sensitive to the cold.

Although they were actually wrapped up quite tightly, it was definitely not because they were afraid of the cold.

Yuri went to the window and tried to look outside, but he didn't see any trace of the dark figure, and Akemi didn't notice anything else either. If there were ghosts here, they could ask them about their observations, but unfortunately, there weren't any.

It's a bit of a shame, but there's nothing we can do about it. There are plans in place to deal with this situation. If the shadowy figure refuses to come out, we'll continue searching until it comes out on its own.

The next classroom—nothing unusual.

The next classroom—nothing unusual either.

This is the last classroom on this floor, but it's not over yet. Further ahead are the restrooms, and a few steps further on are the teachers' offices.

Yuri went into the men's restroom, while Akemi stood guard outside. It wasn't that she had any psychological problems going into the men's restroom even when no one was around; it was mainly because the passageway was too narrow.

There seemed to be no problem; the urinal, the stall, the sink, the mirror—it was exactly the kind of toilet Yuri usually imagined. Yuri turned and left.

There's no difference between the women's and men's restrooms, except that there's a ghost in the women's restroom that repeats itself like a broken record.

The next place was the teachers' office, which, like the others, was locked.

As agreed beforehand, these dangerous glass bottles would be used by Yuri, who is not very afraid of fire (spirits are generally non-flammable). Unless it is an emergency and he can throw the bottles at the other person's head from a distance, Akemi should not break the bottles on his own. After that, Yuri handed the bottles to Akemi for safekeeping and then entered the office after becoming a spirit.

Mingmei had some doubts about this, but she agreed anyway.

This office was probably intended for eight to ten teachers. It was actually quite spacious, but with ten desks, along with matching cabinets and partitions separating the desks, it felt rather cramped.

One window was not closed, and the wind could blow in from inside, causing the ornamental plants nearby to sway slightly in the breeze.

Near the window, the moonlight was fairly bright, but due to the angle, it was much dimmer on the side of the door where Yuri was standing, as the moonlight couldn't shine directly on that side.

There seemed to be no problem. Yuri glanced around quickly and prepared to turn back and open the door.

Just as he was about to open the door, he realized something was wrong.

The shadows are wrong. The shadow of the ornamental plant next to the windowsill is darker than the shadows of the others, but the light source here should only be the moon, so there shouldn't be such a difference.

Yuri tried to open the door discreetly, but this clearly failed. As he materialized and reached for the door, a dark figure quickly emerged from the ground and rushed towards Yuri. It's highly likely the figure had originally planned to ambush whoever opened the door, and since Yuri had entered directly, it decided to ambush whoever opened the door to leave as well.

While it wouldn't be impossible to just force the door open, Yuri didn't miss the two daggers in the shadowy figure's hand—of course, the shadowy figure's height hadn't returned to normal at this point, and could even be said to be shorter, which he also didn't miss.

Taking two stabs to open the door is something you can do anytime, but if you could just snatch the dagger away, wouldn't you avoid getting stabbed? Yuri's spiritual marrow reserves are still dangerous right now, so we can't waste them carelessly.

Yuri casually switched on the light and swiftly moved away from the doorway, dodging the shadowy figure's stab attack. The figure seemed to primarily prefer stabbing to slashing, a suitable method for using a dagger, but its attack range was less than impressive.

It's clear that the shadowy figure wasn't more uncomfortable with the change in its height, at least not to the point of deliberately making a mistake. Yuri admired this quite a bit—if Yuri himself had suddenly lost some of his limbs, he would definitely have made a mistake in his sense of distance due to the discomfort.

Of course, that's all. His skills hadn't improved significantly, and his agility couldn't have increased simply because of his smaller size. The negative effects of shorter limbs were real, though. As a result, Yuri found it much easier to dodge the daggers this time than the first time.

After a brief struggle, Yuri still hadn't found a perfect opportunity to steal the dagger. He had a few chances, but none were quite right.

Suddenly there was a knock on the door, followed by Akemi's voice calling, "Yuri? What's going on?"

We can't delay any longer. If we keep Akemi waiting, she might take a detour and come in through the window.

Seizing the opportunity, Yuri took a risk and successfully grabbed one of the shadowy figures' hands with his right hand, beginning the struggle for the dagger—the problem lay with the other one; he had to avoid being hit before he could take it—and at this distance, it seemed quite difficult.

A few seconds after Yuri failed to grab the shadow's other limb with his free left hand, the shadow deliberately dropped another dagger.

Yuri didn't know what it wanted to do, but he knew it was definitely not a good thing. However, with his right hand holding onto one of the shadowy figures' limbs, the shadowy figures couldn't escape, and he couldn't distance himself from them either.

Before Yuri's left hand could catch the falling dagger, the shadowy figure's lower limbs touched it and kicked it forcefully toward Yuri.

The dagger was kicked directly into Yuri's abdomen. It wasn't very deep, but it was enough to cause effective damage.

Yuri had been careless. He gripped the hilt of the dagger with his left hand, trying to avoid the other kicks from the shadowy figure that were aimed at the dagger to further amplify the damage, and pulled it out forcefully.

The Void Essence had basically healed the wound, and Yuri made a move he had always wanted to make: he stabbed the shadowy figure with the dagger in his left hand. Unfortunately, no matter how effective the dagger was for Yuri, it had no effect on the shadowy figure. Fortunately, the shadowy figure couldn't retract its weapon instantly upon contact.

Although Yuri thought that if possible, he could simply take it back when Yuri tried to steal it, but that was impossible, he was still a little apprehensive during the actual test.

The knocking started again. I can't afford to be reckless any longer—I've already partially achieved my initial goal, and the two stabs have become one. If I keep messing around, things might backfire.

It was inconvenient to holster the dagger with one hand, so he threw the dagger in his left hand to the doorway, stepped on it, and then grabbed the shadowy figure to open the door.

As Yuri unlocked the door with one hand, the shadowy figure decisively severed his own wrist—literally cutting it off where it had been grabbed—and jumped down, rushing towards the other end of the office.

"How come you—you've already started fighting?" Akemi opened the door, trying to understand the situation inside as quickly as possible.

"Give me the bottle. It's safer for me to use something that can catch fire." Yuri put away the newly stolen dagger, asked Akemi for the glass bottle, and held the neck of bottle number one.

They slowly walked towards the shadowy figure. A gust of wind blew through the area, having no effect whatsoever.

The shadowy figure made threatening gestures, trying to stop Yuri, and even produced another dagger for this purpose.

This backfired—the shrinking shadow was no longer able to stop Yuri from smashing the bottle on it. The biggest obstacle was that the bottle didn't break after the first blow—the impact wasn't strong enough.

Fortunately, there was something that looked quite sturdy right in front of us.

Yuri brandished the bottle repeatedly, assuming a stance to attack the shadowy figure. Then, as the shadowy figure held the dagger horizontally, he suddenly exerted force, smashing the dagger repeatedly.

It was still harder than glass after all, and the glass bottle couldn't withstand the impact and shattered—thanks to the cooperation of the shadowy figure who held the dagger so firmly.

The white phosphorus powder was sprinkled on the shadowy figure, and almost immediately it emitted a yellow light, much to Yuri's eager anticipation. Because the powder itself was spread out, the burning did not appear fierce, and it did not seem to pose much of a threat unless the shadowy figure reacted extremely violently.

Yuri felt that his previous actions were quite reliable (this was an illusion) – it was great that it didn't burn directly during bottling.

The dark figure sprang up as if it had been doused with sulfuric acid, rushed out of the window, and fled for its life.

The results were even better than expected, and Yuri and Akemi gave chase.

The dark figure, emitting specks of yellow light, continued its escape straight toward the gate, following a route not much different from last time.

Mingmei was a beat late in taking out the flashlight, but it didn't take the opportunity to escape—it seems that you really can't hide in the dark when your body is glowing.

Unfortunately, Yuri wasn't an expert and didn't know how long the flames could burn with such light; otherwise, he would have had even more leeway.

The shadowy figure was moving slower than before, which, from Yuri's perspective, was simply because its legs were shorter.

At this rate, we can intercept it before it reaches the gate.

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 two caught up with the shadowy figure near the gate, just past where they had last encountered the guards. This time, the figure seemed to try to change direction, but it was too late. Now, if they wanted to stop it, they were certain they could.