Tokyo bombing incident Nth time

“The day before I reported the case, I happened to see someone chasing a dark figure with flames coming from its body into the sewer. It looked a lot like you guys—I was thinking, you must have found the body and then reported it, right?”

"Why us, and not other good Samaritans?" You're right, but we only discovered the body and reported it a day later. The timing is clearly off; how can they still identify us?

"Who in their right mind would go to the sewers for no reason?"

Justified and convincing.

"So, it seems we were the ones who filed the report," Yuri said, carefully choosing his words. "But isn't this a bit...unprofessional?"

In the distance behind the guards, Akemi was about to run to the wall.

“That’s true, but things we can’t control might come at a greater cost—so, what exactly are you here for? Can we offer some help to get things sorted out quickly?” the old guard added. “You know, Matsushita and I have been under a lot of pressure lately because of the recent series of intrusions.”

Is this what they call "if you can't beat them, join them"?

Yuri felt that the two people in front of him were neglecting their duties... Was this really reliable?

Perhaps Yuri's attitude was too obvious, so Haine began to explain, "If you were here to cause trouble at the school, then Matsushita and I might have tried our best out of duty. But you don't seem to be here to cause trouble on purpose. It's more like you just happen to be here to do something... In this case, we wouldn't be paid enough to fight to the death... Besides, we can't beat you."

He was talking to himself at least half the time, so Yuri sensed the old guard's feelings and decided not to put any more pressure on him, so he changed the subject.

“Well…actually, I’ve basically finished what I was looking for here. Today, after searching around this school, I found what I was looking for—don’t be nervous, it’s something that has been forgotten in some corner of the world. Even if it’s lost, no one would notice,” unless the collector who hasn’t been around for many years suddenly reappears to take inventory… Yuri decided to add that possibility, “basically, it’s unlikely that anyone will find it. No one would normally see that thing.”

“Oh, so that means—” Grayroot’s expression improved.

"Yes, after today, the continuous intrusions here will come to an end." Yuri told the other party the best news directly.

It seems that not only Haine, but even the one named Matsushita breathed a sigh of relief; their claim that they were under a lot of pressure was probably true.

"As for today, I've restored everything else. Only this warehouse—you arrived too quickly, so I just did a quick tidy-up—if you restored this place properly, no one should be able to see it."

Actually, we didn't go anywhere else, Yuri thought.

During the conversation, Akemi had already climbed over the wall and left. Yuri breathed a sigh of relief, but at the same time, another question popped into his mind.

"Also, how did you suddenly speed up? You shouldn't have been able to see me trying to lock the warehouse from behind... I should have been careful not to make a sound, right?" Yuri wasn't entirely sure if he really hadn't made a sound.

“It’s a window—you can see it from the back. The ventilation windows are all open, and the reflection of the flashlight is different,” Gray Root explained.

"Oh, so that's what it is!" Yuri suddenly realized. Indeed, he had forgotten to restore the window when he destroyed the traces.

“There’s another question,” Yuri pondered for a moment, but couldn’t help asking, “How many years has this school’s warehouse been here?”

The guard looked quite old; he might know a lot about the school's history, or even be someone involved in it.

"I don't know, but it should have existed before Kisaragi Academy was established, right? When the school was founded, it didn't rebuild all the buildings on an empty lot; it made extensive use of the existing structures. Also, I wasn't hired by the school from the beginning; it had already been operating for a while when I arrived." Haine pondered for a moment, "This warehouse must be at least thirty years old?"

I see. While it's not the best scenario to obtain all the information directly, it's still a worthwhile discovery. Since these buildings are indeed historically significant, the chances of finding the individuals involved have further diminished.

Judging from the aging of the basement slabs, it wouldn't be surprising to Yuri if you said they were from thirty years ago.

With nothing more to ask, Yuri said goodbye and walked away from the two guards.

Upon closer inspection, it became clear that the one called Matsushita was sweating profusely... It was the middle of the night in autumn, and the fact that he was sweating so much under these circumstances clearly indicated that he was nervous.

Am I that scary?

Yuri continued toward the gate. Although the guards wouldn't stop him this time, so he didn't need to be extra careful, there was no need to slow down just because he could.

A very soft voice came from behind, "It's floating, it's really floating—" "Shh, it's not completely gone yet!"

"You two, I heard you!" Yuri increased his floating speed and quickly left the awkward situation.

They quickly met up with Mingmei outside the school. Mingmei was standing under a street lamp, seemingly conducting a quick check of the notebook they had found.

"What did you find? Let me see." Yuri leaned closer and saw Akemi hurriedly close her notebook and then quickly put it inside her trench coat. Anyone could tell something was wrong from those actions.

Before Yuri could even ask a question, she explained, “I think it’s best if you don’t look right now—the things here don’t suit you—they’re very similar to the patterns carved on that wooden stake from last time—and there are a lot of them.”

...So I was just a hair's breadth away from dying on the spot? Yuri thought to himself, feeling incredibly lucky.

Chapter Forty-Six: Souls and Twisted Blessings

On the way back, the two didn't talk much. Mingmei seemed to think that something was finally over and she wanted to go home and rest as soon as possible. Yuri, on the other hand, kept cursing the inconsiderate bastard in his heart. Who was it that was so inconsiderate, writing down other people's troubles in an entire notebook?

The anxious time finally passed, and we returned to our lodgings, carefully putting away today's finds. There were actually only two things: the clay figurine was placed on the coffee table, and the notebook was placed under the stone lantern at the shrine—Yuri insisted on placing it in a spot where the wind wouldn't blow it away.

Let's first study the clay figurine part, which is the most urgent task.

Akemi checked it one last time, then placed the clay figurine on the table.

Yuri then picked it up and deliberately examined the back of the clay figure. Having a clear expectation of what was on the back, he could see that there were originally words engraved there, though they were quite blurry. Yuri recognized a few characters, such as "friend" and "generation."

Although it wasn't entirely without association, Yuri decided to listen to the expert's opinion and put the clay figure back in its original position, waiting for Akemi to provide an explanation.

Mingmei did not disappoint him. "There were originally a few lines of small writing on the back of the clay figurine, but unfortunately they have been worn away over time. However, I was able to make out a few of them even though I had anticipated this."

"What kind of expectations?" Yuri had no expectations for the doll.

“Dolls have all sorts of uses, but when used in rituals and spells, they are most often used to replace the functions of a human being. Of course, there is a difference between ‘the real target is far away, but I will use this doll in front of me to cast a spell on him’ and ‘the real target is right next to me, and I will use the doll to complete this ritual in his place.’” The high school mystic paused for a moment, “This is the latter.”

Is this clay figure meant to replace a human? That's quite normal.

“I recognized a few of the words on the back; they were mostly for praying for blessings,” Mingmei sighed.

You hinted at it before, but I still don't know how this thing works for blessing, Yuri thought. Wait a bit longer; she should continue.

"Have you ever heard of a story where someone gets sick, and another person makes a wish to get sick in their place so that the other person can get better?"

Never heard of it! Yuri didn't have a deep understanding of these folk customs, but it sounded quite reasonable.

“This is an example. The text on the back reads, ‘My friend is seriously ill, I would gladly take his place’—plus some common prayers.” The high school student mystic nodded. “Most of the time, this is just a sentiment, but this time it really worked.”

Akemi stopped, seemingly trying to determine if Yuri had understood.

“I understand what you mean—but shouldn’t it be the people who pray who get sick? How did it happen to you innocent people?” Yuri understood half of what he meant.

“That’s the purpose of a doll. If it’s just a simple prayer to take someone’s place, you don’t need a doll—the doll’s purpose is to replace yourself—to transfer the disease from the other person to the doll that represents you.” Akemi’s words were tinged with admiration. “To be able to do something like that, you’re not just an ordinary occult enthusiast; you must have had considerable experience and good fortune. —For example, I wouldn’t be able to do that.”

"Is it possible that he was just a beginner who stumbled upon this by chance and moved the heavens with his sincerity... something like that. He made up for his lack of technical skills with his faith?" Yuri pondered for a moment.

“Oh, that’s not impossible, but it’s still worthy of awe—the belief required to compensate for the shortcomings of such behavior is really high. For example, I still can’t do it; I can’t think of anything worth making such a big sacrifice.”

Sacrifice? Yuri heard a suspicious keyword.

Seeing that Akemi was about to skip the detailed explanation and move on to the next point, Yuri hurriedly interrupted her, demanding that she explain... what sacrifice?

“It’s not like you can just use a puppet to replace something you want—why? Why should your spells transfer to the puppet instead of yourself?” The high school mystic gave Yuri a few seconds to process her words. “If you use technology, you have to connect yourself to the puppet for a short time, and then sever the connection before the disease affects you, trapping what you’ve attracted inside the puppet. In reality, some of it will inevitably come to you anyway; the puppet can only help distribute the burden—but something is better than nothing. That’s how people who rely on technology do it. What about people who rely on passion and faith?”

...They clearly couldn't sever the connection between the doll and themselves?

“At times like this, it means they have split themselves apart, entrusting a part of themselves to the puppet—and then letting that part bear all the disaster,” Akemi’s voice gradually softened, “and that is the price.”

Yuri felt a chill run down his spine—was he splitting himself apart?

"Which part of yourself are you referring to when you say 'yourself'?"

“It’s generally believed to be the soul, but it could be something else.” Mingmei shook her head. “It’s hard to say. This process is difficult to observe, and there are even fewer people who happen to be there to observe it. But my grandfather said it was the soul.”

"Then what's the point? Even though the disease hasn't spread to you, your soul is damaged, and..."

What would happen? Yuri was stunned; he had no idea what the consequences of the splitting of his soul would be.

Regardless, Yuri continued, "—There's bound to be some problems, right?"

“For ordinary people, it’s not a big problem,” Akemi changed the subject. “A small piece missing from the soul won’t have a big impact on ordinary people… There are too many troublesome problems in this world that can lead to similar situations, and too many other things that can cause damage. A minor injury to the soul is not a big deal—it’s certainly not good, but the impact is not significant.”

In other words, damage to the soul is definitely not a good thing, but there are too many problems. It won't do anything to a person quickly, so it generally won't have any adverse effects.

Mingmei nodded in confirmation of Yuri's assessment, then added, "But for cultivators—from all the schools I know—an incomplete soul is extremely disadvantageous. At best, it prevents them from reaching the highest level; at worst, it creates a flaw in their abilities. Although I'm not exactly a highly accomplished cultivator, I at least aspire to a higher level, and I wouldn't intentionally destroy myself."

Yuri completely understands. For example, Yuri is currently a newbie, but if someone tells him that it is absolutely impossible to improve to the fifth level of spirit body, he would be furious.

“Besides, I can’t do it either—once I know it will cause interference and I worry about it—I can’t do it,” Akemi added another point. “It requires a very strong determination, not through skill but through belief, without self-doubt or utilitarian calculations—this is usually a feeling between close relatives. According to the description on this clay figurine, it’s between friends… If this comes from belief rather than skill, it’s usually something only children can do. As adults, friendships are often not so pure.”

Yuri nodded in understanding. In short, Yuri understood that this was originally intended as a blessing, to transfer the patient's illness to oneself (as a substitute).

"Then, something went wrong with the transfer process?" It started transferring to other people?

“That’s true. It’s highly likely that after being abandoned for a long time, its special effects themselves eventually changed.” The high school mystic began to explain the latter part.

"While it's almost impossible to deduce the principle from the signs, it's understandable to work backward from the result. The doll that was initially used to take the burden of the disease stopped taking the burden of the disease and projected the disease outward—but still retained the characteristic of being taken on by a friend."

"Is this why it works when you talk about friends?" Yuri felt something was off.

"It's not that I heard the voice of 'friend,' but rather that my recognition of 'friend' met the criteria when I said 'friend.' Theoretically, if it were an enemy, even if I said 'friend,' it wouldn't trigger the jump—but the environment in our class hasn't deteriorated to that point yet." The mystic further explained, "I personally suspect it's some kind of mental fluctuation. When 'friend' is mentioned, people pay special attention to the friendship between the two people—and then the jump occurs."

What you said makes a lot of sense, but you, who only have one friend at school, really dare to say that. It's now confirmed that Chinami is truly your only friend.

"Do you know how the clay figure turned out this way?" Yuri sensed that Akemi might read his expression, so he quickly moved on to the next topic.

"I don't know. Maybe it gradually wore down and aged over a long period of time, or maybe it was subjected to some kind of stimulation?" Mingmei wasn't sure either.

"Forget it, that's not the most urgent thing. Since we can't figure it out right now, let's not look at it anymore—now, how do we deal with this spiritual force?" That's right, that's the key point.

“All we need to do is exorcise the spirit from this doll.” Mingmei said confidently. “It’s actually a similar procedure to meditation and infusing spiritual essence, just reversed. In a broader sense… it should only take a day and a night at most.”

"Hmm... what if the disease suddenly flies back?" If it's something from decades ago, the beneficiary should be old by now. What if a disease suddenly flies back? Will something go wrong?

"Probably not. It's more likely that it will all jump to the person currently suffering from the illness, and then we just need to wait for them to recover. After losing the foundation of spiritual power, it's like a tree without roots. As long as nothing happens on the spot, it should recover quickly. -- Actually, if it had just fallen, the impact might have been smaller, but I want to keep it as a souvenir."

In other words, you yourself might suddenly become seriously ill, but since you feel there's no problem, then there's no problem. You're less worried about Mingmei's health than Yuri is worried about suddenly seeing the words "source of trouble" in the newspaper one day and being killed on the spot.

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.

Mingmei seems to be getting ready to have breakfast before starting the exorcism ritual. Come to think of it, she's been skipping meals these past few days, getting so busy that she forgets to eat. Does such a thing really exist?

Yuri, alone in his room, begins to rest, but his rest is always interrupted by regret.

The more I try to think of nothing, the more I recall this blind investigation that led me astray... A mistake is a failure.

Mingmei didn't seem to have any objection to the mistake. It seemed that in her view, it was normal to spend too much time going astray during the investigation, since no one could predict in advance which path was the right one.

But Yuri didn't feel that way... He felt that he could do better if he tried a little harder, but he couldn't figure out how to improve.

It's painful to be unable to give up when you want to, and it's also painful to be forced to give up when you don't want to.

Before leaving, Akemi left the notebook at home, but Yuri didn't dare to look at it. Last time it was a hand, what is it this time? If he wanted to see it, he had to wait until he was fully recovered.

After all, that was something that could disrupt Yuri's mental world just by looking at it, and could gradually destroy his body once he came into contact with it. If Yuri wanted to read it, he'd better recover his condition and then choose an auspicious day.

Even if it were said that the clay figure's effect was distorted, causing its barrier against the disease to break and leak out, it wouldn't be impossible. It's just that nothing happened for so many years, and then it happened only about two weeks ago, which is highly unlikely.

Unless something happened two weeks ago that triggered a reaction—and it had to be related to the laptop in some way.

Yuri shuddered.

It might really be true!?

While the exact time cannot be determined, it is not impossible that it was two weeks ago.

In the nearby sewers, a female vampire was found murdered—a wooden stake was driven into her chest.

A wooden stake engraved with that pattern.

The wooden stakes then became the cause of the shadowy figures, which moved around at the end of the teaching building... and the warehouse was not far from the end of the teaching building.

If we must say that the wooden stake triggered the resonance of the nearby notebook, which in turn disrupted the balance of the clay figurines near the notebook, then it wouldn't be entirely unreasonable.

Yuri shifted his position and began to consider the shortcomings of this inference.

Of course, there are many shortcomings. Basically, each of these inferences skips three or four steps under normal circumstances and is extremely lacking in evidence to prove the intermediate process.

But Yuri decided to be cautious this time, preparing his notes for the possibility that they might be triggered again and again at any moment...

"Perhaps we should just send it back," Yuri's conservative mind suggested.

Yuri struggled to suppress the thought; he wanted to slowly deplete the power of the patterns to see if he could gain anything new.

Chapter 47 Study and Research

While Yuri was bored and doing his own eye exercises, Akemi returned.

Incidentally, eye exercises, which involve closing your eyes in place and using your spiritual body to look around at the surrounding environment in a 360-degree circle, are not primarily for protecting eyesight. Rather, they are an effort to make yourself dizzy to stop the random thoughts in your thinking center and conserve energy.

Judging from her appearance and, most importantly, what she was carrying, Yuri knew she had gone to Okumura-ya again. Given Akemi's stinginess, she wouldn't have bought so much stuff if it weren't for Okumura-ya.

"What, he allows takeout?" Yuri looked at the several plastic lunchboxes that Mingmei was carrying. "We can't heat them up if we bring them back; we don't even have a pot at home."

There was an old, worn-out kettle, though Yuri suspected that the bottom of the kettle was no longer iron but limescale, but it was still usable. But could it even be used to cook a boxed lunch?

Thinking back to Okumura-ya's main products... stir-fried meat, grilled meat, can these things taste good if they're soaked in water?

"Well, after I briefly recounted my adventures over the past few days, and when I told Uncle Okumura that I was planning to go home and rest, he specially gave me braised pork and rice, which are things that can be eaten even when they're cold."

Oh, I see. I forgot about the braised pork.

"Then the second question, you know there's no refrigerator at home, right?" These will spoil if we don't finish them. Although Akemi is obviously a big eater, can she really eat that much when she's sick?