Tokyo bombing incident Nth time

Yuri poured more spiritual essence into the attack, expending even more mental energy, and throwing in power that appeared from who-knows-where. He wasn't sure if it would be effective, but he instinctively used anything that might be useful, launching a near-desperate assault. His opponent, caught off guard, failed to react effectively; their instinctive resistance, though strong, was not absolute.

If this doesn't work, Yuri will—don't think about it! Yuri mentally punched his own reason, severing the instinct to calculate gains and losses.

The clash of wills lasted only a moment, and luck finally sided with Yuri, allowing him to barely break through the resistance of the fire spirit.

Time, which had slowed down, resumed its normal flow, and it seemed that nothing had changed.

Before Yuri could even begin to regret his loss of control, screams rang out. Akemi immediately looked at Yuri before turning to the real screamer, the Fire Spirit.

She may not have figured out exactly what happened, but she was encouraged by the reaction she saw when the fire spirit was suffering under the sudden impact of the water, and even started spraying water in circles towards the ceiling.

While it might be more effective to directly target the fire spirit at this moment, what if something went wrong? Yuri wasn't entirely clear about what he had done. But, logically speaking, since the system was already running and working effectively, it was best not to touch it for now.

"What have you done!" The spirit of the fire was rapidly weakening; it was still some distance from dissipating, but it had already lost the ability to move significantly. It was still struggling, but the sounds were growing fainter and fainter.

That's a good question. Yuri wasn't entirely sure what he had done, but he knew a general direction.

"You think that only torrential rain can stop fires, but that's not the case. So much time has passed since the era you're familiar with, and human methods of extinguishing fires have also improved. Not only can the power of nature extinguish fires, but also the water jets from firefighters."

Yuri had intended to deliver a more impassioned speech, a declaration of victory. But as soon as he opened his mouth, a wave of weakness washed over him, forcing him to continue in a flat, descriptive tone.

It was a bit awkward, but fortunately, the other onlookers probably couldn't figure out Yuri's true intentions.

"Your problem stems from torrential rain, which is why it's the way it is. In the past, torrential rain was a method used to extinguish fires. So why are you immune to human firefighting systems?"

Yuri still couldn't understand why he was unaffected. Yes, he understood that his opponent's weakness had shifted from the water's range to the direction of the downpour. But why this particular direction, and why other directions became irrelevant after moving in this direction? He didn't understand. However, working backward from the result, he roughly had a concept of what he had done before.

“You have many potential weaknesses, the strongest of which is torrential rain, but human firefighting methods are also your potential weaknesses. My push changed the balance of the situation, shifted it, and ultimately, it was changed… temporarily.”

This change should definitely not be permanent, Yuri watched as the spiritual energy he had attached to the other person quickly dissipated.

Fortunately, the spirits of the fire dissipated even faster.

It's absolutely impossible for Yuri to do it again; he can't grasp the energy, the concentration, or the feeling. This opportunity is an unrepeatable miracle, and therefore cannot be missed.

"You...you actually managed to do something like this." The fire spirit's voice calmed down. "It seems I underestimated my opponent again. This time, I lost."

Its words seemed sincere, and Yuri felt he should say a few kind words in return. But this time?

You can choose to say something nice, like, "You were just careless for a moment."

"I have one last piece of advice for you... Don't trust the human behind you. She will definitely think of ways to use you and try to squeeze every last drop of value out of you. If you become weak, you will be kicked aside; if you remain strong, she will continue to bleed you dry." Without waiting for Yuri's response, the fire spirit continued to give its "advice."

"she is my friend."

"Friends, hahahahahaha..."

The flame spirit left behind obviously sarcastic and sarcastic words and then disintegrated on its own.

It will return to the Shadowlands with its battered body, and only when someone opens the gates to the Shadowlands again or calls upon it directly will it have the opportunity to return to the material world.

Something behind him suddenly moved. Yuri turned around and saw the wooden stake, and immediately floated up into the air.

Yuri also wanted to float, but the matter wasn't finished yet, and he couldn't rest.

In short, the first step is to tell Mingmei to stop playing and stop dealing with the ceiling.

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.

It was already past midnight, and although there was still no one on the street, it was a time when someone could appear at any moment.

In other words, whatever needs to be done, it must be done quickly. Although there are many things that need to be communicated, the first thing to do is indeed to clean up the mess.

After briefly confirming that Mr. Wooden Stake, who had collapsed on the spot, would not have any problems for the time being.

In other words, after casually asking how I was feeling, I received a listless "not bad."

Yuri followed Akemi and ran in the direction of the water source.

The water is still gushing out; this problem must be solved first.

"...Don't you have a switch on this water pipe to turn it off? Do I have to run there on foot?" Yuri floated behind Akemi.

Simply moving doesn't take much effort, but Yuri found it a bit comical to watch Akemi run away while carrying the hose that was spurting water.

"Of course not—and look closely, this isn't the water pipe I brought, it's... the one that originally came with the fire hydrant," Akemi replied irritably.

"But I remember you ran over, aimed at that guy, and then started using it, right?" Yuri hadn't paid much attention to this at the time, but he could recall it after a little thought. Besides, the fact that the route wasn't covered in water was also evidence.

“Back then, I folded the end of the hose and flattened it so the water couldn’t flow through—but now the water is already inside, don’t you think folding it would be too much effort? It would be faster to just turn off the valve.” Mingmei took a breath. “And then you saw that I didn’t escape alone but came back to save you, shouldn’t you be extremely moved?”

"Uh... not at all, but definitely at least 100%." ​​Although Yuri had already convinced himself that Akemi would be back as a matter of course.

But when did Mingmei become so petty?

"Then shouldn't you do something?" Mingmei's words carried more and more implications.

“That makes sense. So what do you need?” Yuri replied casually.

"For example, instead of just standing behind and watching—I still have to go to the front to deal with the fire hydrant." The true intentions were revealed.

"So that's what they were waiting for," Yuri suddenly realized, materialized himself and took the water hose, and was then drenched in the face.

The impact of the high-speed water flow hitting my face felt like I was punching myself lightly. It didn't hurt, but the impact was still there.

The fire hydrant is not far from the semi-abandoned, flooded house; of course, if it were far away, the hose wouldn't be able to reach it.

After throwing the hose to Yuri, Akemi quickened her pace and arrived at the fire hydrant.

Yuri saw from afar that the hose that Akemi had prepared was lying next to the fire hydrant. After a moment's thought, he figured that Akemi had probably taken the hose and run to the fire hydrant, only to find that the fire hydrant already had a hose.

Then, under Yuri's watchful eye, Akemi began to twist the fire hydrant back by hand.

Normally, wouldn't this process require a wrench or something similar?

In any case, Mingmei, with a lot of creaking and groaning, managed to turn the fire hydrant valve back on with her bare hands.

Chapter Seventy Anchor Point Conversion

"What's wrong? Why that expression?" Akemi turned around and saw Yuri's disheveled appearance. "What happened? Did you find something?"

"I'm fine, the problem is on the other side. Do you really think there's nothing wrong with this fire hydrant?" Yuri hurriedly explained, "I think I just heard a very ominous sound. You didn't strip the threads on the fire hydrant valve, did you?"

"I don't think so, right? I think it's probably just rusted because no one has used it for so long... right?" Akemi didn't seem very sure about it. "I don't think it's possible that an individual could cause the problem by simply twisting it."

“I don’t think it should be opened by an individual with bare hands.” Swallowing his rebuttal, Yuri felt a wave of dizziness wash over him. He quickly turned away, trying to escape reality.

Anyway, the water flow has stopped now, so let's get out of here quickly. As long as no one notices, there won't be any problems, that's for sure. I don't know how much I'll have to pay for damaging the fire hydrant, but since the hydrant isn't broken, there's no issue.

Yes, there shouldn't be any problems.

Mingmei stuffed the fire hydrant hose back in and rolled up the flexible hose she had brought with her.

Next, we decided to go back to the abandoned house that had just been flooded.

As usual, Yuri returned to the house through the broken window and was immediately startled by the listless wooden stakes floating on the ground.

When it went out, it seemed to be only a little weak, but now it looks like it's about to die.

Could it be that as soon as the battle ended and the tension eased, the physical condition that had been held up before deteriorated?

"Is the injury too serious?" Yuri asked while observing the condition of the wooden stake.

There are wounds, quite a few, but none are fatal. They can be healed by consuming spiritual essence... but there's no sign of healing. I checked its injuries before leaving, and it's still injured the same way now.

“Unknown friends, I see, I am, I am dying, I—” the wooden stake began to deliver its final words.

"Don't give up on treatment! Quickly use your energy to heal yourself!" As soon as Yuri finished speaking, he saw the wooden stake staring at him with great resentment. Of course, it didn't have eyes, but Yuri could notice that the other party's attention was focused on him.

"Wh...what's wrong?" Seeing the wooden stake staring at him without saying a word, Yuri felt inexplicably guilty.

"The spiritual essence is almost completely depleted—just now, when you were frantically expending your energy, you not only received spiritual essence from me, but you also almost completely drained the spiritual essence that I wasn't prepared to transfer. And you still come to ask me?" The wooden stake's voice was filled with resentment.

"Did you suddenly become so fluent just now—never mind, I didn't ask." Yuri was a little worried about what to do if the other person answered, "It's because you made me angry." And, so that "power from who-knows-where" back then was provided by you.

“But we need to heal the wounds first!” Mingmei chimed in, trying to help Yuri out of the predicament. “The spiritual essence can always be replenished slowly, but the wounds could have all sorts of negative effects right now.”

The sound of the stake returned to its intermittent state, and according to Yuri's translation, the stake was now facing a very critical problem.

During their previous encounters, it was repeatedly struck by flames (mainly before the arrival of Yuri and his buddy), sustaining considerable damage. This damage was also reflected in its anchor point through its connection. As a result, a root carving in the corner had become charred.

This root carving was already quite dilapidated over the years, and it was the spirit of the tree stump that kept it from decaying. Now, after being exposed to fire and water, it looks like it's about to fall apart.

Once the anchor point is destroyed, the spirit will need to make a great effort to remain in the mortal world. There are several ways to do this, but they all require consuming spiritual essence. The current wooden stake spirit clearly does not have the ability to make such an effort.

Yuri reached out and, under the watchful eye of the wooden stake, gently touched the root carving.

Consume a small amount of spiritual essence—Yuri is almost depleted and cannot afford to pay too much—to temporarily strengthen its structure.

Very well, this thing is not immune to Yuri's influence just because it is an anchor point. As Yuri's power is poured into it, its structure tends to be temporarily stable—that is to say, it is temporarily free from the crisis of falling apart.

However, it will still be a problem in the long run. It won't be long, at most an hour, before the root carving is in its final state.

We can't just have Yuri stay here indefinitely to maintain this thing's stability, can we? We might be able to handle the resource consumption, but it's impossible during events.

"Anyway, we haven't officially introduced ourselves yet. I'm Akemi, and this is Yuri. What's your name?" Akemi took the opportunity to start getting closer to the other party.

According to the wooden stake, its name is Root Carving Spirit—that's right, as a low-level spirit, it was too lazy to give itself a special name and simply referred to itself by its origin.

Yuri was a little hesitant to call it a root carving, but it was still more polite than calling it a wooden stake, since it wasn't actually a wooden stake spirit.

"Don't bother saving them, it's a waste of energy, I—" Based on the root carving spirit's rambling, Yuri summarized—it held a benevolent attitude towards the Yuri duo, and although it couldn't save them, it at least vented its anger. However, since it was about to return to the Shadow Realm anyway, it didn't have much to say proactively. If the two of them had anything to say, they could ask quickly; if not, it should hurry up and leave so it could take back a little more spirit essence.

"So, what do you think about this—eh?"

For Yuri, this ending was already good enough, and he wanted to start questioning immediately, but Minmei pulled him back and stopped him from speaking.

Yuri turned to Akemi, waiting for an explanation.

"The reason you need to return to the Shadow Realm so quickly is because the anchor point was destroyed, and you have to leave before you die from the loss of your spiritual essence. It's not because you don't like the material world, right?" Mingmei asked the root carving for confirmation.

The root carving indicated that this was its meaning; it had intended to complain about the disadvantages of life in the film industry, but Mingmei hurriedly interrupted it.

From Yuri's observation, it was simply to save time.

“So, if we find you other anchor points, wouldn’t you have enough time to slowly tell us everything we want to know?” Mingmei offered a very tempting suggestion.

Yuri felt that if he were a root carving, he had no reason to refuse, but was changing the anchor point such an easy thing?

The root carving had the same doubts, but it didn't think too much about it and simply promised that if Mingmei really did it, it would answer whatever Mingmei asked.

"So the first thing I need your cooperation on is, what are the specific restrictions on your anchor point? Is it just any piece of wood? Or does it have to look like a wooden stake?"

The conclusion is that the limitations are roughly... wooden handicrafts, and the quality cannot be too poor, and they cannot be too insensitive to spirits—the original words were that it would be best to use materials with spirits, but such things are definitely hard to find now.

Mingmei took out a string of prayer beads and placed it in front of the root carving spirit. "Is this okay?"

"No, it won't work." The root carving spirit tried it and declared that the mark on this thing was too deep; it wasn't strong enough to attach itself to it.

It seems that the rosary beads that Akemi usually uses to enhance the effect of meditation are no longer effective.

However, this gave Yuri an idea, and he almost immediately connected it to his previous gains.

“Mingmei, the rosary, the single rosary—” Yuri indicated that they could use the one they had found at the scene earlier to make up the difference.

Made of wood, a handcrafted item of decent quality, it is definitely sensitive to spirits—it was previously possessed by another spirit—and that other spirit is already dead, so there won't be any deep imprints.

Yuri internally applauded his own quick reflexes.

Mingmei took out the rosary from her pocket and placed it in front of the root carving spirit.

"No, that won't work either." The root carving spirit also tried it.

The claim this time is that the rosary is not "complete" enough; it's incomplete. If the whole string were intact, there would be no problem, but just one bead is not acceptable, especially since this one has been burned.

Well, actually Yuri didn't really expect this to succeed.

What should I do now? Should I just start asking questions directly? I was worried that I wouldn't have enough time to finish asking questions because the other person spoke too slowly, but now it seems that I'm entering a situation where I have to ask as many questions as I can.

Mingmei hadn't given up yet. She kept pulling out all sorts of small items from her pocket—not many, but a normal person would never carry them all with them.

Just as Mingmei took out a comb to try it out, the root carving spirit pointed to something in front of her and indicated that this was acceptable.

Yuri looked closely and realized that the thing looked strangely familiar.

It looks like a wooden samurai doll carved by someone who claims to be a sculptor—and the face looks quite familiar.

He turned to look at Mingmei, his eyes filled with surprise and respect—surprised that he had no idea when Mingmei had put this thing on her person, and respectful that Mingmei could put this doll in her pocket without finding it uncomfortable.

The next step is to get the spirit of the root carving to transfer its anchor point to this puppet.

Yuri stared intently at the root carving spirit, anticipating the moment when the anchor point would be moved.

He doesn't even know where his own anchor point is yet. If he can see how other people move their anchor points and learn from it, he might be able to find a backup anchor point for himself... In case that anchor point, which is still unknown, explodes someday, he can still save himself.

Then nothing happened; the root carving spirit did nothing, but Mingmei took action instead.

"Do you still have that piece of spiritual energy you collected before? If so, hand it to me."