Tokyo bombing incident Nth time

The attack did not come, but the cult leader did shift his gaze and then took a step back.

Yuri climbed over the windowsill and moved to another window on the side, but this time, the cult leader's gaze did not follow him.

It seems that she, like everyone else, has a sensory ability, but not direct vision.

While Yuri was adventuring and repeatedly changing course, the chaos outside also yielded the results of the first phase.

The reporter, suspected to be from the cult, did not attempt to escape by scaling the wall again when the cult members were about to catch up. Of course, given her speed, even if she had tried again, it would have been too late.

Yuri's attention was focused on the cult leader, so he couldn't see very clearly. The man, presumably a reporter, slumped to the ground, his back to the cult members, and quickly did something to the camera—most likely taking something out of the camera and hiding it.

Then she was swarmed and pinned down by the cult members. She struggled a little, but to no avail.

The cultists were not professional fighters, as evidenced by the fact that after pinning down their opponent, they took some time to figure out which of their own should stop so that everyone could move. They had not anticipated or prepared for this to happen. However, their numerical advantage was simply too great, and the reporter's physical abilities appeared to be at a mortal level, making it impossible for him to handle so many people by himself.

Then, like almost everyone who encounters trouble unprepared, they sent someone back to ask their superiors what to do next.

Because dozens of cult members were blocking the road, the messenger had to slowly make his way through the crowd.

Yuri actually thought that just standing by the window and shouting would be the same thing; he figured maybe they were afraid to speak loudly to the cult leader.

Taking this opportunity, Yuri quickly scanned the crowd, eliminating those with less hair, men, young people, and those with six fingers on their right hand—the messenger himself had long hair, and the senior officer remaining in the room was a middle-aged man, so there was no need to look at either of them.

The result is yes, there really is one.

There are four more young men with less hair, but only one left when it comes to having six fingers.

If six fingers were particularly easy to detect, we should check for six fingers first, but given the current situation with so many people and complicated procedures, we'll leave it at that.

Yuri stared at the young, excited, and nervous face for a while, making sure he remembered it.

New believers should attend sermons by the cult leader, and the leader's speech confirmed this. Unexpectedly, it actually happened right here.

One thing was done, Yuri told himself, but another thing popped up.

What exactly do they intend to do with this suspected journalist?

The messenger reappeared at the side entrance. This time, he didn't bother squeezing through the crowd but spoke directly, "Everyone, the leader wants us to bring her in, and we need to keep it quiet."

A large group of people dragged the woman inside, or rather, almost lifted her up. Judging from the painful cries coming from the woman whose mouth was covered, their force was very uneven.

Fortunately, they didn't really intend to tear her apart. After a short journey, they brought the woman to the cult leader intact.

Senior officials stepped forward and began questioning.

"Who are you?" he asked sternly.

"woo woo woo woo"

"Don't try to play dumb, you—" The senior official seemed to realize something was wrong.

"woo woo woo woo"

"—Hey you, take your hand off her mouth first."

The followers obediently released her, and the woman began to breathe heavily.

Although it was definitely not a good experience for him, Yuri seemed to hear someone laughing.

The senior official angrily scanned the room, and the laughter ceased.

"Who are you?!" he demanded, his voice growing even more stern.

"Ahem, I'm a reporter, ahem, I'm currently searching for truly effective religious sects. I just saw your performance and was about to rush back to write a report to help spread your word." The woman spoke quite fluently, as if her words had been prepared.

"Then why did you run away?" This question was not enough to satisfy the senior officials.

"Of course it's because so many of you rushed up at once, I, a weak woman, was naturally afraid," the woman said as if it were perfectly reasonable.

"You—what were you taking pictures of with your camera?"

"Of course we didn't have time to take any pictures! You can see for yourself if you don't believe me! Surely so many people know how to use a camera!"

You're lying through your teeth! Now Yuri knows what that reporter was doing earlier; he was obviously taking photos out of the camera... well, in a digital camera, it should be something that stores photos, like a memory card, right?

The believers actually checked the digital camera and even tried taking two pictures, and from their whispers, they didn't find anything unusual.

"..." The senior official fell into a brief silence. "Since you have witnessed the miracle and are convinced of its power, why not join us directly?"

"That's right, by joining our sect, you can receive the blessing of rebirth after the apocalypse." The sect leader spoke up, and then a spiritual aura was projected from her body onto the reporter.

"..." The reporter began to hesitate.

Yuri told himself that it was time to do something. Since he had already used spiritual energy, it might have caused irreversible damage without him realizing it. He couldn't just stand by and watch.

Reach out to the switch on the wall and give it a gentle push in your mind.

The flow of energy was very obstructed, as if it had to overcome some kind of obstacle to succeed, but it succeeded in the end.

With the lights off, the room became dim.

The reporter struggled briefly amidst the chaos, but was unable to break free.

"There is another unseen demon among us!" the cult leader declared. "Lock this woman in the basement and tie her up! I'm going to perform an exorcism!"

Soon, the lights were turned back on, and several members of the cult dragged the reporter to the basement, threw him inside, tied him up haphazardly, closed the door, locked it from the outside, and then left.

They didn't even leave anyone to guard the gate.

Yuri, who had been following along, floated inside and saw the reporter struggling to break free of his ropes.

Although the binding is completely unskilled, it has the advantage of being wrapped around the body many times, making it seem like it won't be able to break free for a while.

Yuri appeared behind the reporter.

"Do you need help?" By Yuri's standards, she desperately needed help.

"Were you locked up here too?" The reporter twisted around on the ground, but apparently didn't see Yuri; it was too dark. Human eyesight temporarily malfunctions when suddenly transitioning from bright light to complete darkness, except for those who are not normally alert.

“I’m not with these cultists.” Yuri chose to tell part of the truth, even though he hadn’t been locked up but had walked in.

"Could you please help me out?"

"Okay, okay—" Yuri quickly found the knot that had been tied haphazardly and began to untie it.

The reporter quickly untied himself from the knot.

“Although we have many questions for you, we’d better get out of here first—how long have you been here, and do you have any plans to escape?” the reporter asked Yuri in a low voice.

"I've only been here for half a minute, right behind you—I was just about to ask if you had any escape plans, lest you get caught without one?"

The reporter wore an expression that was a mixture of surprise, wariness, and embarrassment. If Yuri could keep it up, he really wanted to memorize that face that was like a palette of expressions.

Seeing that the reporter remained silent for a moment, Yuri continued, "Also, you weren't really planning to join this sect, were you?"

"Of course not!"

Yuri noticed that the spiritual energy that had been attached to the reporter had been repelled, but the reporter seemed oblivious and continued to speak.

“I did some research beforehand, and this religious organization is very strange—anyone who answered that they would join in the Q&A session became a fanatical believer. I suspect it’s some kind of profound psychological suggestion technique. Although psychological suggestion usually doesn’t work on people who are already prepared, I’m not going to take that risk.” The reporter quickly finished stating his findings, then changed the subject, “But I didn’t see anyone follow me in before.”

"Hmm... I have a unique way of getting in, and of course I can leave anytime now—the question is, do you want to run away right now? What if you're planning to continue this kind of undercover work while being imprisoned..."

"Who would want to be imprisoned in a cult's dungeon as an undercover agent?" The reporter's eyes widened. This time she found Yuri's direction, but she still couldn't quite make out who he was.

"Let me say it once: once we leave, we'll run away immediately. Don't do anything else to avoid any complications, okay? And you have to answer my questions after we leave." Although Yuri was essentially doing this for free, he couldn't let it all go unrewarded. The reporter in front of him had done his research beforehand and was a suitable source of information.

"No problem, but how exactly are you going to get out? Judging from the noise, they locked the door from the outside."

"Just wait."

The reporter shuddered again as Yuri returned to his spirit form.

Upon exiting the basement, Yuri discovered there was no security guard at the entrance. Just in case, he walked up a bit and found that the entire staircase leading from the basement to the first floor was unguarded.

It's so quiet. There aren't any cult members on the street. I guess everyone went to see the cult leader's séance.

I'll go back and use the old method to unlock it. It's decided, this ability will be called "Knock Technique," no need to add "Yuri Style."

She casually opened the door, letting in dim light into the basement. The reporter was already waiting at the door—though not particularly agile, her reactions were quick. She even found the handbag that the cult members had also tossed aside, saving Yuri the trouble of reminding her.

"You..." The reporter saw Yuri's expression and wanted to say something, but immediately realized what he was doing and covered his mouth.

Yuri locked the door behind him, and the reporter followed. The two remained silent and quickly arrived at the junction between the basement and the first floor.

Yuri had previously observed that there were no cult members guarding the exit, but the exit was very close to where the cult members gathered. At this moment, they might be intently observing the leader's every move, but what if there were two who were not so devout? Besides, the leader's actions were largely theatrical, and she might not be as committed as she appeared to be.

Walking quietly and slowly was easy for Yuri, as he naturally needs to control himself to make a stable landing, but for the reporter…

Yes, it's easy. The reporter followed Yuri silently.

Quietly open the window, climb out into the yard, and crouch down to sneak under the windowsill to the other side—the back side opposite the main entrance.

The fence here is quite high, but the advantage is that it makes it easy to avoid the windows facing this side.

Yuri made a lifting gesture towards the reporter, who nodded.

With Yuri's help, the reporter climbed over the fence relatively easily, making a little noise when he landed, but no cultists chased after him.

It seems they successfully escaped, very smoothly, too smoothly. The cultists didn't even have a contingency plan to prevent them from getting away.

She stood on the other side of the railing, watching Yuri nimbly scale the wall—which was to be expected, as Yuri was essentially flying along the wall in zero gravity.

Yuri landed gracefully. The two started again, moving a distance away from the cult stronghold, before stopping to begin their conversation.

"May I ask you a few questions?" the reporter suddenly became polite, which immediately put Yuri on guard.

"I also have questions to ask. I'll answer you after I've asked them and see how I feel." Let's finish what we need to do first.

"Sure, no problem. What do you want to ask?"

The reporter gave a very polite reply.

"My first question is—what do you know about this cult? I'm curious, you seem to know a lot." That's right, that was the original purpose of our visit.

The reporter pulled out an empty notebook and pen from somewhere on her person and began to use them to organize her thoughts while telling Yuri what she had found out.

These cult members didn't even conduct a body search... Judging from their demeanor, they wouldn't have noticed if the reporter was carrying a recording pen, let alone the possibility of a bugging device or an open cell phone.

Seriously? Someone with this level of skill dares to become a cult member... Or is it because of this level of skill that they became a cult member?

Chapter Sixty: The Makeshift Investigator - Success

in conclusion.

This Tokyo Guardian Cult, established only about a month ago, was founded by Iwata Sonoko, an elderly female folklorist who had lived her entire life in the suburbs of Tokyo, and her nephew, Akao Hirono, who was unemployed in his middle age. —Her nephew is the high-ranking member, though most of the followers are unaware of this. Their doctrine is that the world is about to be destroyed, and only those who join the cult can survive into the new world and become superior beings.

As for why the "world" will be destroyed but only "Tokyo" will be protected, the reporter was also unsure. She suspected it was because the followers were all locals from Tokyo, and that Tokyo was more likely to sway people's hearts.

Among a multitude of cults, this sect should have remained obscure, requiring considerable effort to develop. But that wasn't the case. Its expansion was incredibly rapid, growing from two people to forty or fifty in just one month.

Yuri recalled the large living room that was almost too big to fit everyone, and realized there should indeed have been that many people there.

As a relatively freelance journalist (meaning someone who hasn't yet joined a fixed newspaper and is personally searching for news on the fringes), Hojo Arisu took notice of this organization, believing that its expansion was definitely suspicious and that it might be involved in some kind of major news story, such as drug control, human kidnapping, or dark brainwashing.

However, after investigating for a long time, she found no similar signs. The most credible news was that the cult leader was truly effective, and everyone who agreed to join the cult genuinely did so.

So she came to investigate herself and confirmed that the cult leader was indeed quite influential. — So influential that she was caught off guard and discovered, and was arrested.

Judging from the skill these cult members have in arresting people, it's possible that this is their first time doing this.

Finally, this cult's development strategy is clearly to first expand its membership and then start charging fees; at present, it has not yet openly amassed wealth.

After hearing the narration, Yuri simulated it in his mind.

"That sounds like there's no crime other than illegal imprisonment—they illegally imprisoned someone who broke into a house and then escaped."

Yes, it's terrifying to force people to join a group using superpowers, but there's absolutely no evidence to prove it.

"Another thing, in this situation, your camera still ended up in their hands. Is that alright?" Yuri vaguely remembered that the other party seemed to have taken a picture of the female reporter with the camera.

“No problem, the camera’s charging cable is missing, and it’s about to run out of power—once it’s turned off, it will require a password and verification to turn on again, which they won’t be able to open,” the reporter said confidently. “It’s just a pity about my camera. Although the lens and other parts aren’t high-end, they were still quite expensive.”

"I see. I've finished asking. Go ahead and ask—just so you know, there are some questions I won't answer."

"No problem! -- My first question is, do you superpowered individuals have an organization?"

"I don't belong to any organization, and even if I did, I couldn't tell you." "My name, of course, I can't tell you either." "My contact information, of course, I can't tell you either." "Why should I help you? Because I can help you without losing out. Aren't you just telling me about a cult?" "What's your name? What's your name? —Hojo Reie? Okay, my name is Yuri." "Are there many espers? —Yes, there are, but most are too weak to show it to ordinary people." "The type of my esper power, of course, I still can't tell you." "Can we do a special interview? I absolutely refuse to tell you!"

Yuri deflected most of the questions by refusing to answer. As for superpowered beings... do spirits count as superpowered beings?

But this curious little one just wouldn't let go!

"Hey, weren't you planning to do a cult news story? Why are you keep asking me these questions?" Yuri, who was nearing his breaking point, loudly questioned the other party.

While it's not impossible to simply transform into a spirit and run away, doing so would feel like losing—how could you lose when you haven't done anything?

“Actually, I do all kinds of news.” Lehwa blushed. “I’m a freelance contributor.”