Tokyo bombing incident Nth time

It must be an illusion.

After a while, nothing unusual happened in the teaching building. Instead, Akemi's voice came over. "Yuri? There doesn't seem to be anything particularly strange here, at least not on the surface."

Yuri withdrew his attention and scanned the second floor, but there was nothing that particularly struck him.

It seems we may have come to the wrong place.

There's one more place we haven't looked for: the basement, which we don't know if it even exists—in fact, it probably doesn't exist at all.

The two returned to the floor they had already searched.

During the aimless search, although I didn't knock on every single brick, I did sweep the ground once and didn't see any steps or handles.

Yuri suspected that the warehouse didn't even have a basement—it was just an old warehouse, why would anyone bother to hide the entrance to a basement?

However, just to be on the safe side, he stood with Mingmei in a relatively clean spot in the middle of the warehouse, looking around and scanning the surroundings with his eyes.

could not find it.

Yuri floated out again and examined the ground once more, picking at some of the dents, but it didn't have any effect.

Yuri gave up after ten minutes.

It seemed that there really wasn't any. With that thought in mind, Yuri drifted back to where Akemi was.

Wait a minute, Yuri noticed the floor beneath Akemi's feet.

Why is this place relatively clean? It's not that there's no dust, but it's basically a thin layer, most likely from when the two of them were rummaging through things.

Reminded, Mingmei bent down to examine the ground and found the remnants of a handle—two weathered and blocked screw holes. She gestured to it; if the handle were still intact, the brick beneath her feet should be able to be lifted.

I knocked on it, and the sound indicated that there was a hole underneath.

We need to find another way now.

Bend a wire into a hook shape, insert it sideways into the gap, and rotate it...

Luckily, the wire squeezed into the gap between the brick and the hole below.

Next, gently pull it up a little, and hold it with your fingers before the wire gives way.

Yuri watched as Akemi attempted her maneuver, but unfortunately, Akemi failed at this step.

The wire cannot withstand strong force; it will straighten out immediately if pulled too hard.

However, the idea should be correct. All you need to do is find something that can reach into the gap and pry the brick up completely—for example, the long angle iron we just saw.

Yuri took a moment to glance back at the entrance, but the guards remained motionless. He then returned to the cover plate with the angle iron.

Insert the angle iron and pry it open; it's quite difficult at first due to the angle. However, as the cover is lifted little by little, the amount of force required gradually decreases.

Finally, as the gap widened, with Mingmei holding the angle iron, Yuri reached into the gap and tried to lift the cover.

Based on the remains of the lower half of the cover plate, there must have been a structure to support the cover plate—now only screw holes remain.

First, we'll wedge the angle iron in the middle to prevent it from closing on its own.

As the basement door opened, Akemi seemed to sense something.

“I think we may have found the right place. There is something related to this spiritual power down there—I feel a connection being established.”

Great, the next thing to do is go down and see what's in the basement.

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 air quality in the basement was extremely poor, so it was decided that only Yuri would go down first.

Spirits truly possess advantages in many ways, including but not limited to not eating, not drinking, not breathing, and not resting...

It's not that the air in the basement is toxic; in fact, even if it were, it's unlikely that two people could tell just by smell. But this basement is clearly a long-term enclosed environment, and if Mingmei were to go down there rashly, she would likely suffer from oxygen deprivation.

Speaking of which, does having good physical fitness mean being more prone to hypoxia or more tolerant of hypoxia?

There wasn't much dust below, and the little dust had no footprints, so it was probably a long time ago that someone last came here—the first triggerer probably didn't even enter here, but just got close to the entrance cover.

There are no lights installed in the basement. Considering the angle, the entrance to a basement with a steep slope in the middle of a poorly lit house is likely to receive very little light. In other words, a flashlight would be necessary to enter normally.

Following the steep concrete steps, Yuri floated down to the bottom of the basement. The walls were made entirely of concrete, without any special designs, indicating that the designers and builders had no intention of decorating the place.

There wasn't much here. Yuri looked around and found several open boxes filled with all sorts of odds and ends, without even a label.

Upon closer inspection, these items are not unlabeled, but rather simply not categorized in any way.

Yuri briefly examined the first box and spent a few minutes summarizing the patterns in the contents.

If there's any pattern to the contents of this box, it's that they're all things whose specific purpose is completely unclear.

To be precise, it's not that all of these things are trash, but Yuri had absolutely no idea what the point of collecting them all together was. For example, there were several notebooks that Yuri had already seen, appearing quite frequently—notebooks are certainly useful, but why would they be kept in the warehouse basement? And then placed next to a metal vase with suspicious red stains? And next to that was a kitchen knife whose main body had turned rusty; these three items seemed to have absolutely nothing in common.

Finding what you're looking for by sight alone requires considerable intelligence gathering skills—something Yuri currently lacks experience in. On the other hand, Yuri strongly suspects that it requires not only experience, but also intuition, instinct, and luck.

Fortunately, there is a very simple method. Although it may be a bit wasteful, it is better than aimlessly searching for something you don't know what it is among a bunch of incomprehensible things and eventually falling into despair.

Activating his special vision, Yuri began searching for something similar to the spiritual energy he felt in Akemi.

He received far more than he had expected. A purplish-black mist rose into his field of vision, enveloping Yuri completely. Upon closer inspection, he noticed that more than half of these things emitted a faint, dark spiritual aura, which made him feel immense pressure.

It's like being surrounded by cursed items... Could they really be cursed items? Although the specific effects are unclear, most of the spiritual energy is exhibiting a negative atmosphere.

Although most of the spiritual energy is very weak and may not even affect those who come into direct contact with it, its existence is its existence. Finding so many... supernatural items at once is definitely not something that happens every day.

Now we know why these things are gathered here—apparently, the classification method is that anything with supernatural effects is piled together.

Once Yuri calmed down, he began to search through the faint spiritual energy to find something similar to the spiritual energy on Akemi's body.

I thought that as long as I observed the spiritual energy, I could find the source of the special curse—but I couldn't identify it. The scope was only narrowed down by a little, and the remaining amount was still too much.

Wait a minute... Yuri thought, maybe the situation isn't so bad after all.

Upon closer reflection, the search wasn't as difficult as I had initially suspected when I first saw this pile of spiritual energy. This was because the spiritual energy on most of the items was far too weak, merely existing at a low level. While it wasn't impossible for these items to unleash a curse, a curse delivered with such a one-way, annihilating force should have gradually faded if one could withstand it, let alone jump to another level.

Therefore, the target we need to find is something that still maintains a strong spiritual aura, and there probably aren't many such things.

Soon, Yuri discovered two things that were special and still retained a considerable degree of spiritual energy—a crudely made doll and a notebook, whose spiritual energy Yuri perceived was relatively strong.

Moreover, the spirit aura of the doll was almost exactly the same as that of the one on Akemi's body.

Found it. It's really ugly. It's only slightly better than the one Yuri carved, and it doesn't even exceed the level of a cursed doll.

The doll is about 30 centimeters long and about 10 centimeters wide or in diameter. Its limbs are immobile and its face is not detailed, suggesting it is made of clay.

Yuri cautiously reached out to touch the doll—nothing happened; the doll didn't jump up to hit him, nor did it exert any effect on him.

Pick it up gently; the clay sculpture will become fragile after being left for a long time... Although Yuri thought that dropping it here might solve the problem, he decided to take it back to Akemi first.

After hesitating for a moment, Yuri picked up the suspicious notebook as well, turned around, and began to float upwards.

He left the rest of the large pile of things with extremely weak supernatural influences behind. They were irrelevant to the present situation, and it would take a lot of effort to bring them up.

It's unclear who collected these items from where, but judging from the condition of the basement, the collector probably hasn't returned for many years.

Over the years, these things have just lay here quietly.

The collector probably got into trouble like Takemura. Hanging out with this kind of thing all the time could lead to bad results.

Chapter Forty-Five: Escape, a stroke of luck

The walk back was smooth. Yuri was worried that Akemi might have been distracted and accidentally closed the lid. He wasn't sure if his spirit form could pass through the lid, but the clay doll and notebook obviously couldn't and would have to stay inside.

Yuri quickly left the dark, lightless place as he climbed the steps.

After Yuri left the basement, he decided to hand the clay doll to Akemi, who was guarding upstairs, for inspection. As the direct victim of the spiritual energy, Akemi should be able to sense the connection between this thing and her unfortunate situation. Once she confirmed it, the activity would be considered successfully completed.

Of course, this is on the premise that Akemi judges that touching this thing will not have any adverse effects, but since there are no other dangers nearby, even if Akemi faints, Yuri can take the clay doll away.

Mingmei cautiously accepted it, and it seemed that there was no problem; the power of this clay doll was insufficient to further deepen the curse.

After spinning the clay figure a few times, Akemi stared intently at its back, seemingly lost in thought. After a brief moment of contemplation, she removed her right glove and ran it over the figure. It appeared she was sensing something.

Yuri didn't interrupt her, but instead began to recall what was behind the doll, but to no avail.

When Yuri first received the clay figurine, he carefully examined it, but didn't find anything particularly noteworthy at the time. After being left for a long time, the surface of the figurine has become pitted and uneven. Isn't this phenomenon called weathering?

The air in the basement was almost non-circulating, so the weathering process must have been very slow. If it wasn't already like this when it was collected, then it must have taken many years.

What exactly did Akemi discover behind the doll?

A moment later, Akemi nodded into the air, as if she had confirmed something.

"Yuri, it seems we have indeed found the source of the curse." Mingmei's face was slightly distorted, but not in a painful way; it was more like... a mixture of laughter and tears?

Great! — Wait, doesn't this make me look a little stupid for running off to fight the shadowy figure halfway through? — I was only one step away from solving the problem, but I ended up going in the opposite direction.

No, no, no, Yuri tried to convince himself that it was all the shadow's fault for intruding, and that the shadow was entirely to blame.

"Anyway, it really is this clay doll, right... What's going on with it? What did you find behind it?" Yuri was quite puzzled by this, and Akemi's appearance deepened his curiosity.

“Let’s take this back and discuss the details later. Now I can say a very sad conclusion… This clay figure is indeed the source of spiritual power, but it wasn’t created to spread the curse.”

"Why wait to go back?" Won't things get complicated if we wait too long? And where did you learn this habit of only saying half of what you mean? Don't you know that stopping halfway through a sentence only makes people more anxious?

“While you were down there, I saw the light of a flashlight through the crack in the door—the guards have started patrolling, although from another direction. But they will turn back sooner or later. Wouldn't it be embarrassing to be blocked here? —If it’s really urgent, just break it and the spiritual energy will be released, but I still want to study it first.”

Well-reasoned and convincing, Yuri now desperately wanted to run away.

In short, hand the suspicious notebook to Akemi as well.

"What's going on here? Is it related to this matter?" Mingmei didn't take the notebook for the time being.

"Another noteworthy thing is that the spiritual energy on it is no less than that of the clay figurines now, but there is no sign of it overflowing."

Yuri takes this quite seriously. He can't just randomly try to find the root cause of the problem, only to end up creating new problems instead.

“Okay, I’ll take it too.” Mingmei put the notebook into her trench coat as well.

He slowly put the cover back in its original position, put the angle iron back on the second floor, and then carried the iron chain and padlock to the outside.

The flashlight beam was quite close, but the movement was slow, and it was coming from behind the house.

There should still be time. After glancing at the iron chain and padlock in his hand, Yuri hurriedly began to lock the iron gate.

...How was this chain originally wrapped around it?

Never mind, Yuri hastily began wrapping the chain around the doorknob according to his own whims.

The flashlight beam moved faster and was now on the side of the house. Had they discovered something?

“Mingmei, go to the other side of the room first, I’ll handle this myself.”

If they're discovered, there's no point in restoring the locks—so it's better to just let Akemi run away and have Yuri stay behind to gamble one last time.

Mingmei went around to the other side of the warehouse, opposite to the direction from which the light source was coming.

Yuri felt he might as well just leave the chains on and lock himself up, but that seemed no different from being exposed.

After Yuri's efforts, he finally... failed.

When he was halfway through wrapping the iron chain, the flashlight shone on him.

Oh no, it's too late. Yuri didn't stop. With a resigned determination, he fast-forwarded to the last step and started slamming the padlock against the doorknob.

Yes, two guards arrived, one old and one young; the older one was using a cane. So it's the same two as before.

Yuri exchanged a glance with the two guards, who seemed somewhat confused, but continued to approach him.

The fact that they shouted "Stop thief!" without even meeting them was probably because of their last encounter? After all, although they themselves looked very suspicious last time, they were at least very friendly in stopping the shadowy figure from attacking them.

Yuri insisted on locking the padlock anyway. Doing so in front of others might be a bit insulting to his intelligence, but at least the job was done.

Turning towards the guards, Yuri hesitated, wondering whether to run immediately or talk to them first.

Behind the guard, you can see Akemi moving towards the wall at a moderate pace. Perhaps running at full speed would make too much noise and make her easily spotted? Anyway, since Akemi hasn't left yet, let's talk first.

At this point, you can escape no matter what; the question is how to do it in a dignified way.

The elderly guard approached alone; Yuri remembered his surname was Grayroot. The younger guard stayed behind, nervously flashlighting his flashlight… Was he trembling a little?

"It's you again? Where's the other person? Haven't you finished your business yet?" The tone didn't seem particularly hostile.

“Not here—shouldn’t you be yelling slogans like ‘Catch the thief!’ and rushing in?” Yuri, in a fit of despair, said twice.

"That was the original plan, but how do we capture someone who survived a knife stab to the chest..." Gray Root's voice was quite troubled. "Besides, although we don't know the situation, you guys didn't come here specifically to cause trouble, did you?"

"..." Although it's not true, how did you know? Yuri felt a pang of guilt after his recent illegal activities, including breaking and entering and stealing property.

"When the police came earlier, they told us that a woman's body was found in the sewers near the school—actually, the sewers at the school gate. The death was gruesome, and we don't know who reported it. —But it should be you guys?" Gray Root probably took Yuri's silence as an admission and continued.

"Maybe, why would you think that?" Was it really that obvious?